Annotations [Satanstorm Two: Cold Britannia]


The title of the issue is a bastardisation of "Cool Brittania" - a major political slogan of Tony Blair's Labour Party which was part of the attempts to 'rebrand' Britain. The idea was to move away from the international perception of the UK as stuffy, obsessed with tradition and backwards looking and to concentrate instead on the forward thinking aspects of the UK. To some extent this has worked. [TEC]

The cover is a pisstake of the most popular kids TV programme(this one's quite a phenomenon) in the UK called 'teletubbies' . The hills, the rabbits and the cartoon sun are the setting that these 4 characters (actors in full bodysuits) called 'teletubbies' run around in. They also have TV's in their bellies that the kids watch. [JB] There is an eerie connection to rabbits in the WICKER MAN movie (see http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/8049/index.html) and the title GOOD-BYE BABY RABBITS from vol.1, issue 24. [Mr Whisper]

o [page 1] All of these photographs were taken by George Harper and Mister Six last issue [TEC]

o [page 2] [panel 2] For more on the Princess Diana/sacrifice on the Pont D'Alma conspiracy theory, check out this fantastical site http://www.mcn.org/b/poisonfrog/diana/page2.htm. [Mr Whisper] [panel 3] There is indeed going to be a total eclipse of the sun viewable from the UK in August which is causing quite a lot of excitement. It will be best viewed from Cornwall. [TEC]

o [page 4] [panel 4] Initiation ceremonies in The Invisibles generally appear to be good things bringing the person into the Invisibles Army. You only have to look at Jack, Boy and Fanny to see that. Jack Flint could be being brought into the conspiracy. [TEC]

o [page 5] [panel 1] This statue is of Ganesh, one of King Mob's favourite deities. Known as the god that knocks down walls, Ganesh has appeared several times in the Invisibles before. [TEC]

o [page 6] [panel 2] "TEST CARD F: Television, Mythinformation and Social Control" was written anonymously and published by the Institute for Social Disengineering at 21 Cave St. Oxford in the UK. The book itself is an interesting treatise on the commodification of culture via the narcotic/hypnotic quality of the boob tube. [Mr Whisper] [panel 5] The 'rich friend' is Mason Lang. [TEC]

o [page 8] [panel 4] The person in the dinner jacket is Beryl Wyndham, also known as Queen Mab. Her companion is Lady Edith Manning. It is known that they had a short-lived lesbian affair. [TEC]

o [page 9] [panel 1] The Ordo Templi Orientis is a sort of Masonic like organization. More can be found at http://oto.org. [Mr Whisper] [panel 2] The only reference to "Brother Raoul" I can find is a confession regarding the rumored idol worshipping of the Knights Templar.

INQUISITOR: Now tell us about the head.
BROTHER RAOUL: Well, the head. I've seen it at seven chapters held by Brother Hugh de Peraud and others.
INQUISITOR: What did one do to worship it?
BROTHER RAOUL: Well, it was like this. It was presented, and everyone threw himself on the ground, pushed back his cowl, and worshipped it.
INQUISITOR: What was its face like?
BROTHER RAOUL: Terrible. It seemed to me that it was the face of a demon, of a maufé [evil spirit]. Every time I saw it I was filled with such terror I could scarcely look at it, trembling in all my members."
- from M. Michelet, Procés des Templiers [Mr Whisper]

[panel 5] That's Beryl Wyndham dying. Said to have had her lungs give out, as they were burying Winston Churchill on the TV. [Mr Whisper]

o [page 12] [panel 2] For the benefit of the Americans among us, Jack is referring to French Fries. [TEC]

o [page 14] [panel 4] Of special interest is the powerful society in Afghanistan in ancient times called the Roshaniya--illuminated ones. There are actually references to this mystical cult going back through history to the House of Wisdom at Cairo. The major tenets of this cult were: the abolition of private property; the elimination of religion; the elimination of nation states; the belief that illumination emanated from the Supreme Being who desired a class of perfect men and women to carry out the organization and direction of the world; belief in a plan to reshape the social system of the world by first taking control of individual countries one by one, and the belief that after reaching the fourth degree one could communicate directly with the unknown supervisors who had imparted knowledge to initiates throughout the ages. [Mr Whisper]

o [page 15] [panel 5] The red object behind the moon is Barbelith. [TEC]

o [page 22] [panel 4] Originally the wicker man ritual was described by Julius Caesar in Book Six of The Gallic War, in which he describes the customs of the Celts of Gaul. He writes: "The whole Gallic race is addicted to religious ritual; consequently those suffering from serious maladies or subject to the perils of battle sacrifice human victims.... Some weave huge figures of wicker and fill their limbs with humans, who are then burned to death when the figures are set afire. They suppose that the gods prefer this execution to be applied to thieves, robbers, and other malefactors taken in the act, but in default of such they resort to the execution of the innocent." A disturbing retelling of this story was the cult-classic horror film THE WICKER MAN which starred Edward Woodward (TV's The Equalizer) as a cop who travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl and finds she is to be sacrificed. More recently the Wicker Man has been recently incarnated in the Burning Man festival (www.burningman.com), a Mardi-Gras like event held the week before Labor Day in the Nevada Desert. [Mr Whisper]