Annotations [Karmageddon Part 3: Six Minus Six]


o [page 1] When did Key 17, used in interrogating King Mob, become Key 23? is there a difference? Numerologists, anyone? [Todd] Note how the two syringes resemble an eleven, while one is marked 23. This motif fills this issue. [TEC] [panel 4] The computer is a Macintosh G3. It's close to being the best mass market computer available at the moment. [Rakehell] [panel 7] Helga becomes a "logonaut," from Logos, The Word, and "naut" explorer. [Todd] The 'Logos' is often used in postmodern philosophy and deconstruction to refer to a restrictive and patriarchal sterile and modernist way of thought. [TEC]

o [page 4] [panel 2] The creatures seem to be mining out the letters M, A, S, and T which are the first 4 letters of the word MASTER. [Enamon] They appear to be attempting to free the mind from the spell of the alphabet. [TEC] I think that this may be an Invisible mythos incorporation of T McKenna's "machine elves" which are experinced during the repeatable DMT trip. These beings are round and mechanized yet organic. They "speak" in a sort of glossolalic visual language which is "alien" but somehow comprehensible to the tripper. It's a visual thing (like a squid's skin changing to communicate emotion), and lends a concrete meaning to the phrase "I see what you mean". These "machine elves" always have a message but, if memory serves, it's sometimes "misunderstood". So maybe Grant is offering us his spin on these DMT elves; in this case, they would seem to be somewhat sinister, suggesting that they may have been "corrupted" by The Outer Church. Mckenna discusses the "machine elf" experience in various books and also speaks of them on two excellent tape/CDs called GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES AND PSYCHEDELIC POETICS and SURFING FINNEGAN'S WAKE/RIDING THE RANGE WITH MARSHALL MCLUHEN, the second offering being TM's esalen discussion of the Joycean bizzarro language in the Wake and also an illuminating chat about McLuhan. [MP] [panel 5] This appears to be how you "spell" Barbelith in the alien language. [Todd]

o [page 5] [panel 4] The statue appears to be Bast. [CG] [panel 5] RVM stands for Remote Viewing Module and is probably Edith. [Andrew/Alex]

o [page 6] I'd guess that Barbelith is what's checking out and recording KM and Mason [CG] [panel 1] The movie is really called "The Three Lives of Thomasina". [CG] [panel 2] Mason is talking - his plans to trick the government are further explained in 2#22. [Andrew/Alex]

o [page 8] [panel 4] The creature that lunges out of the darkness to attack Pennington is Orlando, last seen in the She-Man arc in volume one. He flays people and wears the skin. [TEC]

o [page 10] [panel 5] For more info on Baader-Meinhoff, go to http://www.baader-meinhof.com/. [CG]

o [page 11] [panel 2] This is evidence that Helga is the 4-d armor wearing Invisible from "The Girl Most Likely to...", or else that she knows enough to make herself look that way. Maybe until Helga had her extended language incident in this issue she had no capacity to form the armor (if indeed she is forming it, and this isn't a key 23 trick). [October Ghost]

o [page 19] Edith mentions that Freddie will "be at the door with a tumbler". He once listened in on her and a lover in this way. [Andrew/Alex]

o [page 20] For anyone that missed it, the red circle is Barbelith. [Enamon] [panel 2] This is Edith in the 1920s, and she appears to be playing with Freddie, aka Tom O'Bedlam. The church in the background appears to be the one from Edith's experience with the Harlequinade in Sensitive Criminals. The playground equipment references Tom and Jack Frost on the swings in one of the earliest issues of volume one. [TEC]

o [page 21] The crack appearing on the wall is actually Edith's pulse. It appears on panel 3, continues normally on panel 5, speeds up on panel 7 and flatlines on panel 9. [Enamon] It ends up pointing at a statue of a goddess. Does anyone know which one? [TEC] The statue probably Shiva. He's there at the beginning and end. [Rakehell] "You're the only one of my old friends who could make it...oh. There they are...Of course, its time". "It's time" was written on a note she received at the end of reminiscing the Sensitive Criminals Arc in 2.10. It has been speculated often Edith is part of the Harlequinade with Freddie, does she go to meet him now? 11:23 is when Helga exposed herself to the alien alphabet at the beginning of the issue, whats the connection? [Andrew/Alex]

o [page 22] This is Edith's funeral pyre and is the same one we see in Volume 2 Issue 8, page 11. [Rakehell]