LoEG The Tempest 2 annotations

Below are annotations for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Tempest #2 – 32 pages plus covers, cover date August 2018

Writer: Alan Moore, Artist: Kevin O’Neill, Letterer: Todd Klein, and Colorist: Ben Dimagmaliw

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Note: some of this stuff is obvious. If there’s stuff we missed or got wrong, let us know in comments, or email linton.joe [at] gmail.com

General: Some of the material in these notes was copied from Jess Nevins’ annotations for the first ten pages issue 2.

Front Cover

• As usual with this last volume of the LoEG, the covers are homages to / pastiches of old British comics. TV Tempest 2010 is a reference to weekly UK comic TV Century 21, first published by City Magazines on 23 January 1965 as No. 1 Universe Edition. Like most UK weekly comics, it was involved in a number of mergers and takeovers over the years, before finally disappearing altogether. It was renamed as TV21 from issue 155 (6 January 1968), then as TV21 and Tornado/TV21 and TV Tornado from issue 192 (21 September 1968)—TV Tornado was a TV-related anthology title edited by Mick Anglo, creator of, amongst other things, Marvelman and Captain Universe—then TV21 and Joe 90, effectively from issue 243 (27 September 1969), although this was actually renumbered as New Series No. 1, then TV21 again from issue 278/New Series No.37 (6 June 1970), until finally becoming TV21 and Valiant . Issue 347/New Series No. 105, 25 September 1971, was the last issue of TV21, after which point pretty much all the TV21 material had been diluted to almost homeopathic levels, although TV21 and Valiant would continue for 131 issues, until 20 April 1974.

• The TV Tempest 2010 masthead calls back to several aspects of the TV Century 21 masthead: The red rocket flying across the bottom of the TV part of the logo becomes the signature red scarf of Mina Murray; ADVENTURE IN THE 21st CENTURY becomes ADVENTURES IN THE PRESENT CENTURY; EVERY WEDNESDAY becomes EVERY ORBIT; the numbering of each issue as No. x UNIVERSE EDITION becomes No. 2 UNIVERSAL EDITION; and the dating protocol of DATELINE plus the date (shifted forward by a century) is mostly followed also, except that a) the date of August 22, 2018 isn’t the date of issue, although it is the date that it was originally scheduled to appear, whereas this issue actually hit the shelves on  12 September 2018, and b) the date on TV Century 21 No. 1 is given as January 23, 2065, set a century ahead, to coincide with the strapline ADVENTURE IN THE 21st CENTURY, whereas, although TV Tempest 2010 is also set in the 21^st century, by now that’s the century we’re in… Other aspects of this issue also closely mirror the cover of TV Century 21 No. 1: Stingray Lost! becomes Dugong Missing!; and Steve Zodiac Dead? becomes Mina Murray Not Dead! The STOP PRESS box actually appears on the back cover of TV Century 21 No. 1, and the NEWS IN BRIEF section, although not on the first issue, would appear on the front cover of later issues of TV Century 21.
• “cosh-boys” – A “cosh” is a bludgeon; “cosh-boy” is presumably slang for a type of juvenile delinquent who would use one. It may also be a reference to the 1953 film Cosh Boy, notable for being the first British film to receive an X rating.
• Dugong Missing! refers to incidents from Tempest #1, page 8 and onwards.
• Mina Murray Not Dead! Refers not so much to the fact that Mina isn’t dead, but to the fact that the British authorities in general, and Jimmy Bond/M in particular, now know this, as seen in issue #1. Although there are no credits given for either the photographer or the model here, it is reasonable to assume that they are the same as in the photo-strip in a later issue, i.e. Catherine Nesbitt as Mina Murray, Tamsyn Payne costume and make-up, photographed by Joe Brown.
• Bandits Best Bellamy! refers to the piece about real-life UK comics creator Frank Bellamy, whose story is on the Inside Front Cover.
• News in Brief section:
  • ‘Giant humanoid seen on ocean floor may be aqua-yeti.’ is a reference to Hugo Coghlan, aka Hugo Hercules, seen at the end of Tempest #1, and in this issue.
  • ‘New MI5 chief is ‘old head on young shoulders,’ says Russian embassy source.’ is a reference to Jimmy Bond, now the new M, having found the magic pool of immortality in Kor in Uganda, and being rejuvenated.
  • ‘SPECTRUM to deploy nuclear sub in Arctic circle?’ is a reference to events that take place in this issue. Spectrum is the worldwide security organization from the Gerry & Sylvia Anderson TV show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, which originally aired on ATV from 29 September 1967 until 14 May 1968.
• The “2009 standoff over Kashmir” was detailed in Century: 2009, albeit only in background news broadcasts.

• 

  Seaview submarine – via SpyVibe

  The submarine on the left is the Seaview, from the Irwin Allen movie and TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. (Thanks Tony Quinlan)

Inside Front Cover

• Frank Bellamy is a real artist, and the bio given here seems accurate.
• “later comic creators dealing with that celebrated warrior race” may be (at least partially) a dig at Frank Miller, who wrote about the Spartans in 300.
• The “Winged Avenger” episode of The Avengers featured drawings of the titular superhero by Bellamy.

  

  Thunderbirds International Rescue

• Art being stolen or sold by publishers was, sadly, all too real a phenomenon.
• “Stone the crows!” is an expression of annoyance of uncertain origin.

  

  Heros the Spartan

• The cartoon of Alan Moore has him dressed as a member of International Rescue from Thunderbirds, only with the “IR” on the hat replaced with “AM”. The cartoon of Kev O’Neill has him dressed as Heros the Spartan from Eagle comic, albeit with a more disheveled helmet, and unshaven. Both strips were drawn by Frank Bellamy.

Page 1

panel 1

Alembic House, Albert Embankment

• Alembic House, Vauxhall – an office block at 93 Albert Embankment, completed in 1964, now renamed as Peninsula Heights on its conversion into apartments. At some stage the top two floors were converted into a penthouse, which became home to John Barry, who composed the theme tune to 1962’s Dr No, and a number of other James Bond films. More recently the penthouse has become home to Jeffrey Archer, disgraced British MP and hack thriller writer. Further along the embankment towards Vauxhall Bridge is the Special Intelligence Services MI6 building at 85 Albert Embankment, M’s place of work. (John Barry rented his home out as a film location, featuring in films like The Italian Job (1969) and Theatre of Blood (1973).)

An Alembic

• The name Alembic, although it would suggest that it’s from the name ALbert EMBankment, is apparently a reference to a distillery that once stood on the same spot. An alembic is also  a type of alchemical still, originally dating from the first century AD, if not considerably earlier. All the above information about Alembic House is shamelessly stolen from this excellent blog page.
• The action here immediately follows the events in Tempest #1. Jimmy, the new M, has been rejuvenated. As he is climbing back into the Spectrum jet on page 22 of #1, he says to the assembled J-Agents, ‘Listen, when we get back to Vauxhall, remind me to ride those two bits of stuff in reception, the old one and the young one. Preferably both together.’ Presumably this referred to the two Miss Moneypennys, as seen in Century: 2009 P13,p5, when Orlando goes to see Emma Knight at MI6 in Vauxhall. This scene in therefore set shortly after Jimmy’s return, and his consummation of his ungallant wish.
• The small white cat is presumably a reference to Ernst Stavro Blofeld‘s white Persian cat, although that one has blue eyes, and this one has yellow eyes (as seen in panel 2). Perhaps it is a descendent of Blofeld’s cat? Blofeld appears in three of the Bond novels of Ian Fleming, and in seven of the films thus far.
• Dum diddlum dum, dum-dum-dum – this would seem to be the theme music from Dr No, and several subsequent James Bond films, composed by John Barry, previous resident of the penthouse at Alembic House.

panel 2

• M is seen here sitting in a Ball Chair, which was designed by Finnish furniture designer Eero Aarnio in 1963. This ties in with other elements from the early 1960s, like the Dr No theme tune, the version of James Bond we’re seeing here, and Alembic House itself. Perhaps significantly, this type of chair was also iconically used in the 60s television show The Prisoner, where the villainous “Number 2” had one in his office.
• We can see two ashtrays in this frame, and a third was visible on the bed in panel 1. James Bond is a very heavy smoker, which would explain why, despite it being only 7.35am, there are already numerous cigarette butts in these ashtrays. Indeed, his heavy smoking is mentioned in the first chapter (The Secret Agent) of the very first James Bond novel, Casino Royale:
  

  Satisfied that his room had not been searched while he was at the Casino, Bond undressed and took a cold shower. Then he lit his seventieth cigarette of the day and sat down at the writing-table with the thick wad of his stake money and winnings beside him and entered some figures in a small notebook.

• Besides the cigarettes, the table contains what looks like a whisky and soda, and several lines of white powder, presumably cocaine. There is also his grandfather Campion Bond’s  cigarette case with the distinctive harlequin on the cover, and a book entitled Prospero’s Men 1610-1696, a reference to the first incarnation of the League, which shall be dealt with more fully in the notes to page 10.
• Victory Vanguard: These were first briefly mentioned in Tempest #1, on page 29. They are seen more fully before the end of this issue, where they’ll be dealt with properly.
• In the book we can see photographs of an invisible person, wrapped in bandages, and a robot, named as The Iron Giant. More on both of these in the next panel.

panel 3

• Warralson’s Squadron was the 1946 League, as seen (briefly) in Black Dossier. It was comprised of:
  • Joan ‘Worrals‘ Warralson, from Worrals of the W.A.A.F. (WE Johns, Lutterworth Press, 1941), and ten subsequent titles.
  • Peter Brady (although named here as Peter Bradey, which is either an error, or an attempt to insert a little distance, copyright-wise), aka The Invisible Man, from British TV programme The Invisible Man (later known as H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man, although it is fair to say that it was only loosely based on Wells’s original novel), originally broadcast on ITV in 26 episodes, from 14 September 1958 until 5 July 1959 – this is the person seen in the photograph in panel 2, above.

    

    The Iron Warrior

  • The Iron Warrior (which is the character seen in the photograph in panel 2, also renamed, as The Iron Giant) who is a robot controlled by Rodney Dearth, first appeared in Thrill Comics #1 – published by Gerald G Swan in the UK in 1940, and written and drawn by, and presumably therefore created by, William A Ward – and not to be confused with the American Thrill Comics #1, which was an ashcan comic published by Fawcett Comics, also in 1940, to secure copyright on Captain Marvel.
  • The Wolf of Kabul (see next panel).
  • The Iron Fish, who isn’t pictured or mentioned here. For more on him, see the notes to Black Dossier.

Panel 5

• Gulliver is the protagonist of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Details of his incarnation of the League are to be found in Black Dossier.
• William Sampson Jr. AKA the Wolf of Kabul, who first appeared in prose stories in the British boys’ story paper The Wizard in 1922, before appearing in comic strip form in The New Hotspur #102 on 30 September 1961.
• ‘Crash’ Brittanus was a 1947 British superhero from Crasho Comics. The variant spellings listed here may reflect an inconsistency in spelling his name in the original comics. The name “Britunus” shows up in a history of Ireland, where he is claimed to be a grandson of the king of Fairy, Nuad of the Silver Hand, and the ancestor of all Britons. In a story where Hugo Hercules is also Cúchulainn, we cannot rule out the connection. Crash appears in person in Tempest #3, P31,p3.

Pages 2-3

panel 1

• Utopia comes from the book Utopia by Thomas More, and is the source of the more general term. This country was discussed in The New Traveller’s Almanac, chapter three. Moore places it in the water off Brazil, and says that it was largely destroyed by wars in the late fifteen-hundreds, hence the ruins.
• Mr. Danner is Hugo Danner, protagonist of Philip Wylie’s 1930 novel Gladiator. He is best known as one of the inspirations for Superman.

panel 3

• The man in the suit is Hugo Hercules AKA Hugo Coghlan (see notes to Tempest #1 P23,p4).
• Mr. Savage would be Clark Savage, Senior, who indeed raised his son to be superhuman. Clark Savage Junior is better known as the pulp hero Doc Savage. Doc Savage was also a major influence on Superman.
  • Commenter Jonathan Carter adds:
    

    I’m sure this refers to Doc Savage but it’s interesting to note that right after writing Gladiator, Philip Wylie wrote a book called The Savage Gentleman, which is about a man named Savage who trains his son to be a supreme physical specimen. It was published in 1932, a year before the first Doc Savage story.

panel 5

• Brobdingnag is a country of giants which features in Gulliver’s Travels. The New Traveller’s Almanac states: “During the early sixteenth century, Utopia was ruled by the extraordinary giant Gargantua” (for more on Gargantua, see following panel); here Moore clarifies that this wasn’t just a random occurrence, but the result of a (presumably violent) colonizing effort by Brobdingnag, itself followed by a war (of independence?) between the giants who lived in Utopia and Brobdingnag. As mentioned in the notes to panel one, above, Moore has earlier established that Utopia was ruined by “wars with neighboring kingdoms”. In the Almanac, Moore places Brobdingnag “far off the coast of California”, which rather stretches the concept of “neighbor”.
  • Commenter Sean Levin informs us “Gargantua’s rulership of Utopia is shown in Rabelais’ first novel, Pantagruel.”

panel 6

• Gargantua is from the book Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Rabelais. As mentioned in the note to the previous panel, Moore had previously established that Gargantua once ruled Utopia. Clearly, he was dead by 1919.
• For Danner to describe himself as part of an age of “lightning men” is partially true, as he was a major influence on Superman, and thus the entire superhero genre. It is also tragically ironic, as (at least in the novel) Danner is killed by a bolt of lightning.

panel 7

• The sound effects WHAM! and POW! are shown as carvings on stone obelisks.

panel 8

• Danner’s comment here reflects Moore’s own current attitude towards superheroes.

panel 11

• In Nemo: River of Ghosts, Hugo Hercules is identified as “Hugo Coghlan, or possibly Cuchulainn”. Cuchulainn is an Irish semi-devine mythological figure. The various accounts of Cuchulainn’s birth all seem to have Cuchulainn ‘s father as the god Lugh, making him half-god, so perhaps Hugo is Cuchulainn’s son.

Page 4

panel 1

• Mina Murray is wearing the white bikini, along with her usual red scarf; Orlando is in a green crop top and shorts; and Emma Knight is in the black bikini. That’s Hugo “Hercules” Coghlan, greyer than in 1919 but no less fit, shaking them out of the Dugong they stole in Tempest #1.

Page 5

panel 3

• “Watery Arsehole Security Patrol” – this is a reference to the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, aka WASP, from the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson created Stingray, broadcast on ATV in Britain from 4 October 1964 to 27 June 1965.
• That’s King Arthur’s sword Excalibur that Orlando is holding.

panel 8

• The image of kicking sand on a beach as an expression of scorn may be meant to allude to the comic strip in the widely-printed ad for Charles Atlas, “The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac”. That ad was the inspiration for one of Grant Morrison’s better-known characters, Flex Mentallo.

Page 6

Hugo Hercules, Oct 26, 1902

The layout and format of this page is a reference to the Hugo Hercules’ early 20th century comic strip: large panels of artwork (often in fixed-panel shots) with text printed below the art, and fairly sparse use of word balloons. Even Kevin O’Neill’s signature in the last panel is modeled on that of the Hercules artist. The strip shown at right may be the specific model for this page, as it not only appeared in the same newspaper, but has very nearly the identical subtitle (which changed with each strip).

panels 3-6

• Why the repeated use of the phrase “through the cerulean South Pacific heavens”? The original Hugo Hercules strips do not seem to exhibit such verbal clumsiness. Suggest??

panel 5

• “Haciocram, isle of prophets,” is one of the islands in the Riallaro archipelago, from John Macmillan Brown‘s Riallaro, the Archipelago of Exiles (1901) and Limanora, the Island of Progress (1903).

panel 6

• ‘Just as easy‘ is Hugo Hercules’s catch phrase, after he has performed some feat of strength.

Page 7

panel 4

• ‘institutionalised for forty years’ – as seen in Century: 1969 & Century: 2009.

panel 5

• Entering at bottom left, the Pink Child and Tacarigua Ishmael, who refers to herself as Mr. Ishmael, and who is the granddaughter of the original Mr Ishmael.
• First appearance of the Pink Child. She is from Marco Denevi’s short story “La niña rosa”, in his anthology Falsificaciones (1966), though as that book doesn’t seem to have been translated into English, it seems likely that Moore got her story from the “Pink Palace” entry in The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (which seems to be largely a verbatim translation of Denevi’s story). The Dictionary was a major source for The New Traveller’s Almanac, where the Pink Child was first mentioned by Moore, in what seems like a good summary of her story:
  

  …within the south-most reaches of Peru, stands a solitary Pink Palace […] Herein lives the Pink Child, an ageless and perfectly beautiful girl (possessing neither knees nor elbows, since these body parts are less than beautiful), who spends her days amidst exquisite loveliness and whose sole utterance is said to be “I pray thee, do not rise.” Although she has once travelled widely, witnessing the filth and squalor of the world, this has not ruffled her deportment or serene refinement, and she still draws swans with one pink fingertip upon the scented air of the Pink Palace, murmuring, “I pray thee, do not rise.”

  (Note that, as described, she is drawn without elbows or knees.) The Almanac does not elaborate on when the data on the Pink Palace was collected, but as Mina and Orlando recognize the Pink Child here, it seems likely that it was during their early 20th century travels, suggesting that the Pink Child is unaging. The Pink Child also had a brief cameo in the Blazing World section at the end of  Black Dossier (P187,p1-2). In Nemo: River of Ghosts, it was established that Hugo Coghlan has (at least mostly) been working for the Pink Child since fighting Danner (seen on pages 2-3 of this issue, set in 1919). Theis would seem to imply that since N:RoG (set in 1975), Coghlan has been employed by both the Nemo family and the Pink Child, and that the Pink Child has moved to Lincoln Island, possibly to help facilitate this arrangement.

  • In “La niña rosa”, while her only directly-reported speech is two instances of “I pray thee, do not rise,” the story does say that one of the things she habitually does is to “recite in French La cigale et la fourmi” (the fable of the grasshopper and the ant). Hence, Moore’s claim of her having a “sole utterance” is a change from the source material.

panel 7

• In Moore’s version of the character, this appears to be the only phrase she says (see notes to panel 5). It does seem to be meant literally here, however.

Page 8

panel 1

• The two figures flying are Satin Astro and Marsman, aka Garath Ganzz, both members of The Seven Stars, as seen in Tempest #1. In the sky we see what may be the Justice League of America headquarters, an orbiting satellite 22,300 miles above the Earth, first seen in Justice League of America #78 (February, 1970). (Commenter Justin Blochwitz elsewhere identifies this as the Galasphere from Space Patrol.) Note that the New York City skyline is far more “futuristic” than in our world.

panel 2

• We see Jim Logan, aka Captain Universe, Satin Astro, and Marsman. Logan is also a member of The Seven Stars, and also featured in Tempest #1.

  

  Billy Batson and alter ego

• The old man saying ‘zam’ is Billy Batson (wearing his traditional outfit, having black dots for eyes), trying to remember the magic word SHAZAM! which will change him into Captain Marvel – the original Fawcett Comics one, that is, created by Bill Parker and CC Beck, who first appeared in Whiz Comics #2, cover-dated Feb. 1940.
  • The idea of a superhero forgetting the magic word that gives him his powers first occurred to Moore around the age of 11, and was the starting point for what was arguably his first major work, a revamping of Marvelman.
• Commenter David Malet points out “This entire segment seems like a call back to how Kevin O’Neill skewered famous Marvel and DC characters in Marshal Law“.

panel 3

• The superhero named Uncle Sam, created by Will Eisner, first appeared in National Comics #1 (July, 1940).
• In the background we can see a doctor chasing a character with a wing on their heel, possibly the Sub-Mariner. The doctor has a resemblance to the Surgeon General from Frank Miller’s Martha Washington graphic novels, but this is not likely to be a source Moore would choose to use. Possibly it’s just a generic doctor in green scrubs?

panel 4

Miss America

• Miss Joyce is Madeline Joyce, aka Otto Binder and Al Gabriele’s Miss America, first seen in Marvel Mystery Comics #49 (Nov. 1943). She appears to be subconsciously using her power of levitation. At the extreme right, that looks like Doctor Thaddeus Sivana, a frequent enemy of Captain Marvel, who also first appeared in Whiz Comics #2.

panel 5

• Here we see, besides our three protagonists, from left to right:

  

  Plastic Man and Woozy Winks

  • Plastic Man, being wheeled by his sidekick Woozy Winks, both of whom were created by Jack Cole in 1941. Plastic Man used to really enjoy his silly superhero life; now he is trying (and failing) to kill himself. Woozy used to be quite portly, but has grown emaciated.
  • The Clock (masked, looking at watch), a 1936 masked crimefighter (often considered the first masked comic book character) created by George Brenner.
  • Green Hornet (masked, with hat) was first a radio character, but has appeared in many other media since, including comic books. The Daily Sentinel is the newspaper that he published in his civilian identity.

    

    Adam Strange

  • Adam Strange is a DC Comics SF superhero created by Julius Schwarz and Murphy Anderson, first appearing in Showcase #17, 1958. They’ve obviously taken away his functional jetpack, and he has built a ‘replacement’ out of cardboard.
  • Captain America (as a Nazi skinhead) was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1941. Portraying him as a Nazi may be in reaction to the controversial 2016 story in which it was posited that Captain America was (and had all along been) actually a sleeper agent for Hydra, a terrorist organization associated with the Nazis.
    • Commenter Kate H points out: “Does Captain America’s swastika tattoo make any kind of sense given that it’s equivalent in the world of LOEG is Adenoid Hynkel’s double XX symbol?”
  • Green Arrow is a masked crimefighter created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp in 1941. Like Adam Strange, they have taken away his working bow and arrows, and he is reduced to using toys.

    

    Fly-Girl

• Kim Brand, aka Fly-Girl, first appeared in Archie Comics’ The Adventures of the Fly #13 in July 1961. Kim Brand was an actress who was rescued by The Fly when she fell from a hotel window, in The Adventures of the Fly #13. In TAotF #14, Turan, one of the Fly People, who had previously granted Tommy Troy the power to become The Fly , appeared to Kim, and gave her a ring with a fly-shaped emblem – which we see her trying to activate here. By rubbing the ring and saying ‘I wish I were Flygirl,’ she exchanged bodies with the Fly People’s dimension and became a costumed superheroine. All she had to do was say her own name, and she returned to her own body.
  • Fly-Girl was a member of Archie Comics’ 1960s superhero team the Mighty Crusaders – along with Black Hood, The Comet, The Fly, and the Shield – who were the original basis for Alan Moore’s idea for the superhero group in Watchmen, with the proposed story starting when the dead body of the the Shield was pulled out of a river.

    

    Black Cat

• Linda Turner, aka Black Cat, was an adventure heroine created in 1941, illustrated by Al Gabriele.
• “not really allowed to die” refers to the ways that corporate-owned comic book characters often make token appearances long after their popularity has waned, so that the trademarks can be maintained. (A practice likely to continue, since it has paid off considerably. Who would have predicted, thirty years ago, that Guardians of he Galaxy would become a major film franchise?)
• Johnny Gentle, the American lounge singer and television personality, is a fictional US President from David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel Infinite Jest, and is apparently a League analog for America’s current president, Donald Trump.
  • For the benefit of those in the future when, hopefully, this will largely be forgotten: starting in 2011, Donald Trump began encouraging the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory, alleging that Barack Obama had been born in Kenya and was therefore not eligible for the office of US President, an office only open to native-born Americans.
• David Palmer is a fictional African-American US Senator and later President in the American television series 24. He is the League’s analog for former US President Barack Obama.

Page 9

panel 1

• “Hollywood sexpots” – Linda and Kim were both actresses before they became heroes.
• ‘melanistic Treen born on Venus’ – Treens are a green-skinned race of humanoids from the planet Venus in British comic strip Dan Dare, from Eagle. Their most notable member is the villainous Mekon. Melanistic means ‘dark skinned’.
• The extremely large blue boots belong to the Marvel comics hero Giant Man, created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby in 1962.

panel 2

• ‘annexing Canada and Mexico’ – In the real world, President Trump was noted for his nationalism, and his antagonism towards other countries, especially stirring up racial hatred against Mexico. Johnny Gentle appears to be expanding this to Canada, possibly inspired by the South Park song “Blame Canada” (see note to next panel). Commenter greenberger points out “In Infinite Jest, Canada and Mexico AND the U.S. are all one country, though Canadian separatist groups have sprouted and are terrorizing this new country.”

panel 3

• “Terrance and Philip” is a Canadian comedy show watched by the characters of South Park.
• At far right is Namor the Sub-Mariner, created by Bill Everett in 1939. Once the king of the sea, now he’s reduced to sitting in his own urine.

panel 4

• Dan Hitchcock correctly identifies the shirtless man with finned helmet as “Blue Bolt, a character created by Joe Simon and featuring Jack Kirby art after his first appearance (the first time the two worked together).”
• Chase Garland says: ‘The little dude riding the dog is Doll Man. Premiering in Quality Comic’s Feature Comics #27 (December 1939), he was comics first shrinking character, predating the shrinking Atom by a full two decades and change. Unlike most shrinking heroes, he could only shrink to 6” but did maintain his density.’ Doll Man was created by Will Eisner.

panel 5

• Jim Logan’s dialogue in this and the next panel seem to reflect Moore’s own view of superheroes at the time of writing.
• -quaman III – Dark Topo Rising is a reference to Vincent Chase, the actor played on the TV series Entourage by Adrian Grenier. On Entourage Chase becomes famous for the title role in a movie adaptation of Aquaman. There is a reference to ‘–nce Chase 3-D -quaman 2 Revenge of Quisp‘ in Century: 2009, where we also see this on a poster.
  • Topo is a sentient octopus who first appeared in DC’s Adventure Comics #229 (October 1956), and is an occasional sidekick of Aquaman’s.
  • “Dark Topo Rising” is a riff on the frequent comic trope of a hero becoming an evil, “Dark” version of themselves. This first became prominent with the X-Men character Phoenix, who became “Dark Phoenix“, and was also associated with the phrase “Phoenix rising”.
  • “H² Oh!” is, of course a pun on H₂O, the chemical formula for water.
• “Sparky Watts v Radioactive Man: Dawn of a Utilities Company” is a parody of the name of the film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice“. The “Justice” in question concerned the founding of a movie version of the Justice League. SWvRM, featuring an electrical hero and a radiation-based hero, founds something far more corporate than anything to do with justice.
  • Sparky Watts was a parody superhero created by Boody Rogers in 1940.
  • Radioactive Man is, similarly, a parody, and is the favorite superhero of Bart Simpson.

panel 6

• The phrase “secret origins” was often associated with superheroes. DC Comics has at various times even published comic books titled Secret Origins, focusing primarily on retelling superhero origin stories.
• ‘Straight to Video’ – The image is of Captain Video, a television space hero who debuted in 1949. Of course, now, the phrase “straight to video” denotes cheap, shoddy, disposable entertainment. This chimes with Jim Logan’s dialog about wonder being devalued.
• At bottom right, Clark Kent is trying to find a phone booth to change in.

Page 10

Two page Prospero’s Men story, presented in a red and black duo-tone, a colouring combination that was common in UK comics. We see Prospero himself in the masthead at the top of page 10.

panel 1

• Sitting at the desk, doing his accounts, is Captain Owemuch, aka Robert Owe-Much from Irish-born Richard Head’s 1673 novel The Floating Island, who is always in debt. His strongbox here is reminiscent on one on the cover of Tempest #3. There is also a strongbox on the cover of Tempest #1.
• We also see a young Orlando, who related this part of his adventures in ‘The Life of Orlando’ in Black Dossier, where he gives the date as being 1696.

panel 2

• Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, along with his two servants, the sprite Ariel and Caliban, son of the witch Sycorax, all three being from William Shakespeare’s last solo play The Tempest, written about 1610–1611.
  • Caliban and Ariel being specifically elemental sprites of opposed elements is not in The Tempest, though they are often taken as opposed in various ways.

panel 3

• The Blazing World is from Margaret Cavendish’s 1666 work The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World, aka The Blazing World.
• Christian is from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come. A former member of Prospero’s men, he entered the Blazing World in 1643 (53 years earlier), as detailed in The New Traveller’s Almanac.

panel 4

• Don Quixote, from Miguel de Cervantes’s 1605 novel The Ingenious Nobleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.
• Amber St. Clare, from Forever Amber (Kathleen Winsor, Macmillan, 1944).

panel 5

• ‘Quixote swears he’ll lance the ocean deep‘ – The first line of Don Quixote is ‘En un lugar de La Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.’ — ‘Somewhere in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.’ And about the most famous scene in the book is where the Don threatens to tilt his lance at windmills, which he mistakes for giants.

Page 11

panel 1

• This scene, of Prospero, Ariel, and Caliban walking across the sea to the Blazing World is referenced several times throughout the story of the League, including in ‘The Life of Orlando’ in Black Dossier. It is worth noting that at this point – in 1696 – that the inhabitants of the Blazing World appear to be entirely composed of animal-headed men. This would change.

panel 2

• This Annotator has a feeling that Prospero telling the rest to ‘Follow me’ is an important pivotal point in the story of the League, and especially in the fate of the Blazing World.

panel 3

• “Bill Most Foul” may be an allusion to “foul papers“, a term for early drafts of Elizabethan plays (such as The Tempest).

panel 4

• ‘Fornicate my life‘ is presumably a (relatively) polite seventeenth-century way of saying ‘Fuck my life!‘

panel 5

• We can only imagine what Captain Owemuch may have said, in the missing parts of the text under this panel. Nothing complimentary, anyway.
• “See how magicians treat the working class…” – Moore is, of course, notable for his connection to magicians who are working class, first having created a fictional one in John Constantine, then in becoming one himself.

panel 6

• Jimmy Bond realises that the Blazing World is a refuge for the League. It is possible that this is the start of the pay-off to a 400-year-old plot, begun in the faux Shakespeare play from 1620, Faerie’s Fortunes Founded, seen in in Black Dossier.

Pages 12-13

panel 1

• Lincoln Island is from Jules Verne’s L’Ile Mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island, 1874), which was the sequel to Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: Tour du monde sous-marin (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: A Tour of the Underwater World, 1870). It was the first Captain Nemo’s island base, as he used its hollowed-out volcanic mountain as a base for the Nautilus, his submarine.

  

  Batcave Map

• This spread is in homage to many classic comic books showing the details of a superhero’s headquarters with cutaway diagrams, most notably the Batcave, Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, and the Headquarters of the Legion of Super-Heroes. These cutaways (as commenter Befuddled Mike points out) were also common in publications on the Gerry Anderson puppetry worlds, including Stingray.
• Cutaways commonly included a key like the one used here:
  • 1 – Nemo Point: A promontory shaped like the head of Prince Dakkar, aka Captain Nemo, the founder of the Nemo dynasty, and the first captain of the Nautilus.
  • 2 – Janni Nemo Memorial, dedicated 1987: Janni Nemo, aka Janni Dakkar, was the daughter and only child of Prince Dakkar. We saw this memorial unveiled at the end of Nemo:River of Ghosts.
  • 3 – Conning Tower Hill, ICBM launch site, plus standard issue ‘rogue state’ nuclear payload: It has previously been established [Century: 2009] that Jack Nemo has nuclear capabilities. ICBM stands for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.
  • 4 – Mors-Robur aircraft research and development: Presumably named after Armand Robur and Manfred Mors, both second-generation air pirates who have worked with the Nemo family.
  • 5 – Nemo submarine pens: We know that the Nemo dynasty have the Nautilus, but the use of the plural here suggest they have several more also. (Or several different versions of the Nautilus.)
  • 6 – Prince Dakkar Memorial Tower, dedicated 1910: The original Prince Dakkar died in 1910, as seen early in Century: 1910. Note that both this and the following building are actually constructed as giant statues.
  • 7 – Janni Nemo ‘Warriors’ Hospital, founded 1941: Broad Arrow Jack, Janni Nemo’s husband, died in 1941, as seen in Nemo: Roses of Berlin, which may have inspired the building of this hospital.
  • 8 – Mors-Nemo ‘Carnage’ Cannon: For Mors, see entry 4 above. Note that this is built in the shape of a shark. It would seem that our heroes were wise to have worried about being shelled from a distance in Tempest #1 (P23,p3).
  • 9 – Robur Nuclear Facility: See entry 4 for Robur.
  • 10 – ‘Nemo’s Keep’ leader’s private residence and science atrium: Note the stylized “N” over the doorway.
  • 11 – Kraken Bridge: A bridge in the shape of a giant kraken tentacle. Presumably it can retract if needed. The League version of the Nautilus seen in volumes 1 and 2 had a kraken section, which could separate from the mothercraft.
  • 12 – Pugwash Old Town: Named after Captain Pugwash, a bumbling pirate from the comic strips and books of John Ryan, and later a BBC animated series of the same name (1974-1975). Pugwash was last seen in chapter 3 of the New Traveller’s Almanac. Note the naked women at the windows of what is presumably a brothel.
  • 13 – Broad Arrow Jack Memorial, dedicated 1941: Broad Arrow Jack, as mentioned in entry 7 above, died in 1941. The plinth of the statue is marked with his “broad arrow” tattoo.
  • The upper portion of the mountain is not shown, perhaps in order to no give away the rocket reveal at the end of Tempest 5.
• ‘M.I.5 has no information on Lincoln Island since the late 1890s.’ – Mina Murray went to Lincoln Island on MI5’s behalf, as part of their preparations for setting up the 1898 version of the League.
• Orlando was here seeing Janni modernize the island “fifty years ago”, so circa 1960. We see Orlando, Mina, and Allan Quatermain being brought back to England by the Nautilus at the beginning of Century: 1969, so either Orlando stayed there for about a decade, visited more than once, or is overstating how long ago his visit was..

panel 5

• Jack Nemo, the current Prince Dakkar, and Captain of the Nautilus.
• “Shiv” is short for Shiva, a Hindu deity of destruction that the Nemo family apparently worships. (The original Nemo had a statue of Shiva in the Nautilus.)
• ‘Perhaps something of grandmother’s…’ He is referring here to Janni Dakkar, his maternal grandmother.

Page 14

panel 1

• ‘This Johnny Gentle character, people call him ‘The Johnny’ as if that’s his secret identity.’ — In the same way that people refer to Donald Trump as The Donald, then…
• ‘I blame all those dismal, borderline fascist novels by Atlanta Hope, like Telemachus Sneezed.’ – Atlanta Hope is a character in Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! trilogy. she is the leader of God’s Lightning, a domestic terrorist group whose philosophy is a fusion of Objectivism, the Religious Right, and the Ku Klux Klan — even though it started as a splinter group from Women’s Liberation. She is a parody of Ayn Rand, and her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged.
• Ishmael and Isaac’s Restaurant — Commenter Sean Levin informs us “Ishmael & Isaac’s Restaurant is from Tom Robbins’ novel Skinny Legs and All. In the book it’s located across the street from the U.N., hence its appearance here.”
• rossswrites says: The seemingly destitute man putting the package into the W.A.S.T.E. bin is a reference to the network of underground messaging from Thomas Pynchon’s 1966 novella, The Crying of Lot 49.
• Storm poster — Possibly this is meant to be a grim-and-gritty take on Johnny Storm, AKA, The Human Torch? Commenter Owen suggests it might be “a parody of Gran Torino type movies”.

panel 2

• Griffith’s Birth of a Nation is a reference to D.W. Griffith’s 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation, which was based on the first two novels of Thomas Dixon Jr’s Ku Klux Klan trilogy, The Leopard’s Spots (1902) and The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905). The film was originally called The Clansman; it has been as widely condemned for its racism as it has been praised for its groundbreaking use of the medium of film. Alan Moore has opined before now that the film is the precursor of American masked vigilante culture, and therefore of American superhero comics.
• The snow globe depicts Stardust the Super-Wizard, an American superhero who, in the world of the League, was a rival of Captain Universe’s. (Given Captain Universe’s access to super-science, it might actually be Stardust. However, the pose here is different to the one shown in Century: 1910.)
• In the black and white photograph we see Jim Logan in his Captain Universe uniform, along with his brother, Jet-Ace Logan (see note to Back Cover of Tempest #1), from a British comic strip of the same name that appeared in the JB Allen published The Comet from 1956 to 1959 and Fleetway’s Tiger  from 1959 to 1968.

panel 3

• The intent in this group of eight black and white panels is to suggest that the story of Superman was faked by Hollywood. Commenter Cormansinferno suggests that it is also “a play on the popular internet conspiracy that Stanley Kubrick and the special effects crew of 2001: A Space Odyssey faked the footage of Apollo 11’s 1969 moon landing”
• The man talking is Nevada Smith, previously seen in Nemo: Heart of Ice. Smith is a Howard Hughes analog in the League, being borrowed from a character in Harold Robbins’s book The Carpetbaggers, and also from the 1966 film Nevada Smith, starring Steve McQueen, which is a prequel to The Carpetbaggers. The actual Howard Hughes analog in The Carpetbaggers was Jonas Cord, though. A commenter (whose name, sadly, has been lost) explains in greater detail:
  

  The short version: Nevada Smith in Tempest #2 is a Howard Hughes stand-in. He resembles a young Howard Hughes and is a filmmaker with an interest in airplanes (note his desire to fly the flare plane, and his annoyance that the rocket prop ignores ‘basic aeronautics’).
  The long version: Nevada Smith is from Harold Robbins’ novel The Carpetbaggers. In that book, Nevada Smith is a cowboy who becomes a movie star…which seems somewhat relevant to the moviemaker shown here, but in fact I think Moore has confused the character of Nevada Smith with another character from The Carpetbaggers, Jonas Cord, a wealthy aviation pioneer and filmmaker who is basically a Howard Hughes stand-in (although Robbins denied this). ‘Nevada Smith’ in Tempest #2 has several similarities to Hughes (the above-mentioned physical resemblance and the interest in filmmaking/planes) but in contrast doesn’t show any traits one would associate with a former cowboy like Nevada Smith from the novel. In fact, this isn’t the first time Moore seems to have gotten Jonas Cord mixed up with Nevada Smith: back in Nemo: Heart of Ice page 7 panel 2, Kane’s house includes a Daily Chronicle newspaper with the headline ‘Nevada Smith furious as congress blocks national urine storage scheme,’ which seems like a reference to Howard Hughes’ later eccentricities. OK, so out of the million or so references in LoEG, Moore got one of them a tad wrong. Big deal, right? The odd thing though is that the front matter for Nemo: River of Ghosts contains a reference to a book titled Jonas Cord: Centurion, with Centurion being the name of Jonas Cord’s Spruce Goose-like giant plane that he personally pilots. In other words, it seems that when writing River of Ghosts Moore was clear that Jonas Cord was the Howard Hughes-like character in The Carpetbaggers, which makes it weird that he would go back to using Nevada Smith as the Hughes stand-in for Tempest #2.

  • It is also worth noting that Nevada Smith as a name is similarly constructed to Indiana Jones…
• Commenter Justin Blochwitz adds:
  

  The eight-panel grid in black and white was extensively used in Al and Kev’s “Cinema Purgatorio.” The dimensions of the panels resemble a cinema screen. {I think they may have got the idea to mimic the dimensions of the wide screen film from how Jack Davis used the 6-panel grid for the “Captain TVideo” parody in the early MAD to imitate old tv set dimensions}Curiously it seems to be a synchronized sound picture 7 years before the Jazz Singer. Well that’s the League world’s advanced technology for you.

panel 5

Superman’s rocket

• This is the rocket which brought Superman to Earth as a baby. The design of the rocket has changed many times over the years, but the elements seen here are fairly typical.

panel 6

• See notes to P15,p1 for more on Max.

Page 15

panel 1

• Chase Garland says, ‘Max Von Kastell is from the 1991 novel Flicker by Theodore Roszak. He is a b-movie director also known as Max Castle, who is involved with a sect called the Orphans of the Storm [named after a film by D.W. Griffith] who seek to create Armageddon through the use of subliminal messages in their films.’ (Orphans of the Storm was also the name of a film production company Alan Moore was involved with, now dissolved.)

  

  Superbaby lifting

• While we have been unable to track down an image of Superbaby lifting his own rocket, the more general idea of the infant Superman lifting something heavy shortly after being discovered has frequently been seen, notably in the 1978 movie Superman.

panel 2

• The actress playing Ma Kent in the propaganda film is a young Norma Desmond, the faded silent film star played by Gloria Swanson, who loses her mind in Billy Wilder’s classic film noir Sunset Boulevard. She also had a director named Max in that film. His name was Max Von Meyerling, and he was played by actual silent film director Erich Von Stroheim.
  • Coincidentally, Moore and O’Neill did a story about Swanson in Issue 15 of Cinema Purgatorio. On O’Neill’s cover for that issue, we can see Swanson in character as Norma Desmond.
• ‘Why look, Eben, it’s a little baby!’ The actual reference to his adoptive father being named Eben is from the The Adventures of Superman, a 1942 novel by George Lowther, and the first Superman work not to be written by Jerry Siegel. In the book Superman’s Earth parents are called Eben and Sarah Kent.
  • There is a backstory to how Moore came across this particular piece of information, in the Irish comics fanzine Heroes Unlimited, edited by Tony Roche, which he subscribed to after reading about it in the printed material produced around the first UK comics convention in 1968. In an interview with Tony Roche in Heroes Unlimited #8, published in 2018, after a 49-year gap, Moore said,

I remember when that first copy of Heroes Unlimited #5 turned up in its manila envelope how I immediately plunged into it and remained immersed for the next couple of days. I remember there was a Superman article by Peter C Phillips, which was where I recently recalled a salient fact from to include in the final volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

• Tony Roche added, in Journey Planet Presents – Heroes Unlimited #8 (a re-publication of HU #8, with some extra material),

The detail Alan Moore told me about is from an article entitled ‘The Superman Family’ in HU #5. For some reason, the article is uncredited, whereas we always ran a writer’s credit on articles. But Alan (correctly) intuited that it was by Peter C Phillips, since it was a piece of research on a Golden Age DC-National series of titles. Across the span of fifty years, and drawing on his encyclopedic memory, Alan recalled that for a brief period the names of Superboy’s foster parents underwent a temporary change. At first they were John and Mary Kent. Eventually and permanently, they were Jonathan and Martha. But for a brief period they were the more exotic Eben and Sarah. (Pete underlined the names for emphasis). In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 4 Number 2 (dateline August 22 2018), a film featuring Superbaby and his parents is being made in which the actress referred to as Miss Desmond says to her husband when she discovers the supertot: ‘Why, look, Eben! It’s a little baby!’ I even suspect that Alan showed Ken Simpson’s wonderful accompanying illo featuring Superbaby and the rest of the ‘family’ (Superboy, Supergirl and Superman) to League artist Kevin O’Neill.

panel 4

• The baby here displays Superman’s typical cowlick.
• The lettering breaking up is presumably meant to indicate the sound degrading on the original film clip. Commenter Justin Blochwitz thinks it says “just as cute as a button and twice as –”.

panel 5

• Hugo Danner – we see the reason for Danner’s disappearance on pages 2 and 3 of this issue.
• Tom Swyfte is the League’s version of Tom Swift, boy inventor, of which there were a lot of, in those days. Swyfte appears in Nemo: Heart of Ice. His name may also be an allusion to the humorous phrase type “Tom Swifty“.
• Commenter Justin Blochwitz reminds us that the “Director’s Summary” section of the Black Dossier theorizes:
  

  the current MI5 position on these U.S. ‘supermen’ is that they are, in every likelihood, a showy and elaborate propaganda exercise of the familiar American variety, most probably intended to scare off and put the wind up the Chinese and Soviets, with their reputed supernatural powers supplied by film effect technicians drafted in from Hollywood.

  This sequence seems to confirm that analysis.

panel 6

• For picture and snowglobe, see notes to P14,p2.

Page 16

M appears at the left of each panel, from a slightly different angle, so that there is a full-length portrait of him running through the four panels.

panel 1

• ‘If only you’d had sexier names, like ‘Titty Bonanza’ or ‘Pudenda Diangelo.’ Or Pussy Galore from Goldfinger, presumably.

panel 2

• ‘Colonel Magnolia, or whatever his paint chip is.’ This is a reference to Colonel White, commander of the international security organisation Spectrum from the 1960s Gerry and Sylvia Anderson TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, which originally aired on ATV from 29 September 1967 until 14 May 1968.
• M is speaking to Jason King, see notes to Tempest #1, P3,p4. Bond’s use of ‘Queen’ may be a simple slip or it may be a homophobic dig at Jason King, whose actor Peter Wyngarde was publicly charged with gross indecency in 1975, for a liaison with a crane driver in a public lavatory, an incident with severely damaged his career for some years.
• As noted above, Spectrum is the worldwide security organization from the Gerry & Sylvia Anderson TV show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
• The man in the photograph labelled ‘Born?’ is Jason Bourne as played by Matt Damon in the five films of the Bourne film series, starting with The Bourne Identity in 2002.
• The corkboard has a notice about Dr. Evil, antagonist in the Austin Powers films, and a parody of James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
• Photo of man with exposed brain and yellow eyes – Commenter Sean Levin informs us that this is “Dr. Evil (not to be confused with Austin Powers’ archenemy), the villain from the Ideal Toy Company’s Captain Action series.”
• That’s Mike Myers’s Austin Powers winking in that photograph above the filing cabinet.
• Filing cabinet:
  • Mark Caine — the chief character in novels written by Jason King, which had titles like  Index Finger Left Hand and To China Yours Sincerely.
  • John Steed — Emma Peel’s companion from UK TV’s The Avengers.

panel 3

• Neptune-class vessel doesn’t seem to correspond to any obvious real-world or fictional submarine class. The “Pitchfork” they are loading onto it is obviously the equivalent of a Trident nuclear missile, though.

  

  Spectrum logo

  • Commenter Robson Waterkemper notes “There were a Poseidon (the greek version of Neptune) class of submarine, although they were Russian”.
• The stylized “S” is a non-trademark-infringing re-imagining of the Spectrum logo.

panel 4

• Four J-Series agents:
  • J-4 (Timothy Dalton)
  • J-3 (Roger Moore)
  • J-1 (Sean Connery)
  • J-6 (Daniel Craig)

    

    Spectrum uniforms

• The uniforms, while by no means exact copies, are somewhat inspired by those from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, with bright solid colors, and zippers on the right.

Page 17

panel 1

• M is presumably boasting about his previous night’s activities with the two Moneypennys. Even Roger Moore’s J-2, himself no slouch when it comes to womanizing, seems to find this in poor taste.

panel 2

• Mycroft Holmes’ obsession may be inferred from The New Traveller’s Almanac, as he was head of MI-5 when Mina and Allan traveled the world under their auspices.

panel 4

• ‘This is nothing worth getting all dressed up for.’ – Says the man wearing tuxedo and bow tie, hardly less of a uniform in its way.
• The pink creatures appear to have grown out of the bed at left of panel.

Ken Hunter’s Jellymen – image via Peter Gray / Phil Rushton

• Initially the pink creatures were thought to be “sea-monkeys” from comics ads. Their five lower tentacles could suggest Lovecraft’s Elder Things.
  Commenter Befuddled Mike identified them as the Jellymen drawn by Ken Hunter in 1960 in British comics magazine The Beezer.
• The Jellymen appear to be capturing things inside artificially created bubbles – which was a weapon/tactic of theirs. The proximity of the penny-farthing badge (see below) suggest Moore and O’Neill have conflated the Jellymen balloons with the balloon-like ‘Rover‘ capture and retrieval device from The Prisoner.
• Is the octopus in the bubble meant to be a specific reference? – Suggest?

  

  Badge from The Prisoner

• On the ocean floor is a badge with the penny-farthing bicycle logo from the UK TV series The Prisoner.

Pages 18-19

panel 1

• These cut-out costumes were particularly seen in UK girls comic Bunty, which had them on the back page for many years. Lots of them here. Similar paper dolls were seen in American comic books aimed at girls. Original paper dolls for girls would of course never be shown with bare breasts, though Moore and O’Neill are hardly the first to do more adult riffs on the concept.
• Mina’s costumes are based on Janni Nemo’s clothes
• Orlando’s costumes are based on Broad Arrow Jack
• Emma’s have an underwater theme, not yet identified. Commenter Befuddled Mike points out that the red/blue costume does evoke Peel’s  full-body catsuit work on The Avengers.

panel 3

• Mr. Van Dusen – See page 20.
• Atmospheric phenomena – See Century: 2009.

panel 5

• ‘I was seven. You made quite an impression.’ – As seen in Century: 1969.

panel 5

• “He died in 1925” – As seen in Nemo: Heart of Ice.

panel 7

• In the real world, of course, mind uploading technology remains fiction. But it was certainly a popular fiction in the 1990s, with the increasing prevalence of cyberpunk. Commenter David Malet points out “Van Dusen’s survival as an AI using antiquated computer technology particularly resembles Arnim Zola in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”

Page 20

• Professor August S.F.X. Van Dusen, The Thinking Machine is a character from fifty-one detective short stories and two novels by Jacques Futrelle, who used logic to solve crimes. He previously appeared in Nemo: Heart of Ice as one of Janni Nemo’s crew. He has now become an actual machine.

  

  The Thinking Machine

• The composition may be intended as an homage to a classic book cover featuring The Thinking Machine, reproduced right.
• Commenter Justin Blochwitz points out that “the “S.F.X.” in Van Dusen could now reasonably be for Special Effects seeing his present appearance.”

Page 21

panel 1

• Mithras – a god worshipped in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to the 4th century CE. Very similar to Jesus Christ, who stole some of his best bits.
• Nuclear detonation in Kor, as seen at the end of Tempest #1.

panel 2

• Glogauer – The protagonist of Michael Moorcock’s novels Behold the Man and Breakfast in the Ruins. Karl Glogauer is a time traveler who (in Behold the Man) seeks to observe the life of Jesus Christ, but ends up becoming Christ himself. Presumably, this is part of the League’s chronology. We know from Black Dossier that Orlando was hanging around the Roman Empire during the life of Christ. Christ is not actually mentioned in that narrative, but there’s plenty of room between panels to allow Orlando to have met Christ/Glogauer.
• Both the previous panel’s “Mithras” and this panel’s “Glogauer” could be seen as ways of avoiding saying “Christ!” as an expletive. Certainly British children’s comics would never allow taking the Lord’s name in vain. Of course, this delicacy has a certain irony appearing in the same panel as “fucker”.

panel 3

• Again, we see the Pink Child removed from a situation that could be potentially upsetting to her.

panel 4

• ‘It wasn’t Ayesha’s pool, it was my fucking pool! In 1240 BC I…’ references Ayesha from H Rider Haggard’s novel She: A History of Adventure, and subsequent works. She appears in Nemo: Heart of Ice and Nemo: The Roses of Berlin. We know from ‘The Life of Orlando’ in Black Dossier that Orlando visited the pool in Kor at a young age.
• From here through P22,p9, pay close attention to Emma Night’s expressions for a master class in comic book ‘acting’ from Kevin O’Neill.

panel 5

• Three allegedly coincidental suicides of elderly females – see page 22.

Page 22

panel 1

• Patsy, Tarsy, and Cathy are Patsy Stone, Tara King, and Cathy Gale. Tara King and Cathy Gale were agents from UK TV’s The Avengers, and Patsy Stone from TV comedy series Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2012) is a version of Purdey from The New Avengers – both characters, although very different, were played by Joanna Lumley. The three of them help Mina, Orlando, and Emma escape from England at the end of Century 2009, as referenced here.

panel 2 – panel 9

• Emma realises who is behind the nuking of the pool in Kor, and indeed the forthcoming bombing of the Blazing World. Her father was John Night (a slight change from The Avengers, where he is named John Knight), the industrialist, and her godfather was Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond, as seen in Black Dossier.
• In panel 9, Peel states “I’ll avenge them” alluding to the title of her TV show The Avengers. (Thanks commenter Befuddled Mike)

Page 23

panel 1

• The Blazing World is, of course, accessed from the Arctic. With all the distracting detail in this panel, one might easily miss the periscope emerging from the sea at bottom center.
• Note that different patches of sky show different times of day.
• One pole appears to be surmounted by a question mark, a symbol frequently associated with the League (though its precise significance has never been explained).
• In the background is a large pyramid surmounted by an eye, possibly a reference to any number of instances of eye-in-the-pyramid imagery.

panel 2

• Fata Morgana – ‘A complex form of superior mirage that is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon. It is an Italian term named after the Arthurian sorceress Morgan le Fay, from a belief that these mirages, often seen in the Strait of Messina, were fairy castles in the air or false land created by her witchcraft to lure sailors to their deaths.’ (From Wikipedia)
• Note that the tiny figures visible in the Blazing World are not obeying normal laws of gravity.

panel 4

• Is “lit by a thousand suns” actually from The Blazing World? – Suggest??
• Again, a structure in the background seems surmounted by a stylized question mark.

panel 5

• Brighter Than a Thousand Suns is the name of an influential book about the making of the atomic bomb, first published in 1958 (the same year as Black Dossier!). The phrase is derived from the Bhagavad-Gita, which Robert Oppenheimer allegedly quoted upon seeing the first nuclear explosion.

panel 7

• “one hundred elephants” (etc) is a traditional way of counting out seconds, often used to calculate the time between seeing a flash of lightning and hearing the thunder. This might perhaps be meant to evoke the thunder and lightning imagery that pervade the initial episodes of Moore’s work on Marvelman (aka Miracleman).

Page 24

panel 1

• Tumbling through the air with his back to us is Captain Marvel (just above and to the left of the alligator with the robe).

  

  Thunderbolt Jaxon

• Upside down but facing us is Thunderbolt Jaxon, whose first appearance in the UK was in JB Allen’s Comet #76 13 August 1949, having first appeared in Amalgamated Press’s Thunderbolt Jaxon Comics in Australia earlier the same year. None of his appearances were particularly long-lived, however.

Page 25

panel 1

The Victory Vanguard

• Besides the members of the Seven Stars, seen in the previous installment of the story, the reader can also see, on the other dish of death’s weighing scales, members of the Victory Vanguard: (top to bottom, left to right)
  – In the air is Ace Hart
  – Tommy Walls, making his W sign
  – The Purple Hood
  – Crash Brittanus
  – Mark Tyme
  – Mr Apollo
  – Swift Morgan bringing up the rear
  – Morgan’s companion Silver sitting down
  – one other person (woman?) sitting behind Silver who has not yet been identified.

  

  Scales trope on the cover of Justice League of America #111 (1974)

  For more details on these people, see the notes to Tempest #1, page 29.

• The ‘scales held by death’ composition may be a specific homage – Suggest?? It could be just another instance of a recurring trope common on covers and splash pages from the Golden Age through today.

Page 26

panel 1

• For notes on Jet-Ace Logan, see Tempest #1, back cover.
• The jet in the background may be based on the one used in this Jet-Ace Logan strip.

panel 3

• Captain Universe’s origin is strongly based on that of the Fawcett character Captain Marvel.

panel 5

• For notes on Stardust, see Tempest #1, back cover.

Page 27

panel 1

• ‘Marmalize’ is 20^th Century British slang for giving a sound beating or thrashing. Made popular in the 1960s by comedian Ken Dodd.

panel 3

• The Mr. Nippy ice cream van is a play on the ubiquitous Mr. Whippy vans known throughout the UK.

panel 4

• Marvelman (and his associated “family”) were even more of a copy of Captain Marvel than Captain Universe was. Their “vanishing” in 1963 is a two-level reference. Firstly, in our world, Marvelman’s publisher went bankrupt in 1963. Secondly, when Alan Moore revived the character in 1982, there was a plot point involving an apparently (but not actually) successful attempt to kill the Marvelman Family in 1963.

panel 6

• “What are you going to do, calculus me to death?” is arguably foreshadowing for chapter 4.
• Note Satin Astro sticking her tongue out at Tommy Walls.

panel 7

• Harry Lime and George Smiley. See notes to Tempest #1 P32,p2.

Page 28

panel 1

• The man in the striped tie is Jeremy ‘Mr Apollo‘ Gunn. In his original appearances in Dynamic Thrills, Mr Apollo’s alter ego is Jerry Gunn, not Jeremy Gunn.

panel 2

• A “tuck-hamper” is a box of food, often candy, traditionally taken by students to boarding school.

panel 3

• For details on Brittanus and Morgan, see Tempest #1 P29,p4.

panel 4

• “say the word” suggests that Mr. Apollo is another of the heroes who uses a magic word to transform into his heroic identity. This appears not to be the case, though in many other respects (especially costume, see below) the character is a copy of Captain Marvel.
• Winking at the reader through the fourth wall (usually as a way of acknowledging shared knowledge between hero and reader that others in the story did not know) was common in superhero books of the 1950s. Moore notably made use of this device at the end of the Superman story Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?.
• The blond man with the “T. T.” briefcase is lawyer Thomas Troy, aka The Fly, originally published by Archie Comics between 1959 and 1967. His partner was Kim (Fly-Girl) Brand, seen on P8,p5.

panel 6

• “Bash Street Secondary Modern” is a reference to The Beano’s “The Bash Street Kids” created by Leo Baxendale. (Thanks Tony Quinlan)

panel 7

• That is an accurate representation, and the costume pretty clearly is nearly identical to that of Captain Marvel.

  

  Captain Marvel

  

  Mr. Apollo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 29:

panel 1

• “Someone licensed to my client” references how, in 1941, DC Comics sued Fawcett for copyright infringement, claiming that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman. (Ironically, while there were some elements which Captain Marvel copied from Superman, Captain Marvel himself would be far more frequently and directly copied than Superman ever was.) Litigation dragged on for over a decade until a settlement was reached, in which Fawcett agreed to stop publishing Captain Marvel. Ironically, in 1972, DC Comics licensed Captain Marvel from Fawcett, and began publishing his adventures themselves. Hence, the “client” mentioned here is presumably the same DC Comics that drove Captain Marvel off the stands in the first place, and whose acrimonious history with Alan Moore is well documented elsewhere.

panel 3

• “…most British Supermen “adapt” American models” – This was certainly true for many decades. Indeed, a large proportion of them were strongly based on Captain Marvel.

panel 4

• Harry H Corbett (1925-1982) was a popular British actor, most well known for playing the luckless rag and bone man Harold Steptoe in Steptoe and Son (1962-1974). It is unclear why M should swear by him, unless this is another coy avoidance of the more “adult” swear “Jesus H. Christ”.

panel 5

• The fleeing people look like specific caricatures – Suggest??
  • Man with quiff
  • Man carrying woman on back
  • Plumber
  • Woman with wavy hair – Justin Blochwitz suggests she “looks to be based off of the kind of girls that would showed up in British romance comics like Valentine which frequently had art by Spanish artists like Esteban Maroto, if memory serves.
• Commenter Justin Blochwitz points out what may be Andy Capp‘s hat near bottom center. Commenter Martin C thinks that cap belongs to Buster. As the caps are essentially identical, it’s hard to be sure.

panel 7

• “Gorgo’s mother” refers to Gorgo, a 1961 British-American film which featured a huge Godzilla-like monster. The twist was that it was discovered to be a juvenile specimen, and its mother was significantly larger.

Page 30

Mr Apollo and Toby, Cute Fun Album (1953)

panel 1

• Toby the Giant Schoolboy is from the Mr Apollo story in Cute Fun Album (1953), drawing on popular British comic archetypes such as Billy Bunter. In the world of the League, Toby’s appearance is inspired by the art of Ken Reid and Leo Baxendale, especially the ‘Vulgar Rumble’ effect.
• “Tuck Monitor” – See note to P32,p1.
• The fishing boat being tossed by Toby is the hapless Buoyant Queen, from Ken Reid’s strip Queen of the Seas from Smash! comic (1966-1971).

  

• Tony Quinlan points out that Toby’s belt is the ubiquitous s-clasp elastic snake belt worn by boys in the 70s.

Page 31

panel 2

• Zoom and Skyray were popular British ice lollies, both shaped like rocketships.

panel 3

• “Great guns of Navarone!” is a fanciful oath inspired by The Guns of Navarone (novel 1957, film 1961).

panel 5

• Wagon Wheels are a type of British biscuit.

panel 6

• “Crisps” is the British term for what America calls potato chips.

Page 32

panel 1

• As Toby shrinks and gets healthier, so too does the badge on his lapel change from ‘Tuck Monitor’ to ‘Gym Monitor’. Tuck is school slang for sweets and snacks, sometimes sold in the school at a tuck shop, or overseen by a trusted ‘tuck monitor’ pupil.
• The “normal” Toby seems to resemble Reth Bojeffries, the younger son character from The Bojeffries Saga by Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse.

panel 6

• Photographs on the wall are more minor British comics heroes:
  • Man with Z – Captain Zenith (see notes to Tempest #3, P31,p4)
  • Man with M – Mask Man (see notes for Tempest #4, P32,p2)
  • Man with star on helmet – Solo Star (see notes for Tempest #3, P28,p1)
  • Man in spacesuit with ringed planet – Jet Black (see notes for Tempest #3, P28,p1)
  • Heavily muscled man – Steve Samson (see notes for Tempest #3, P28,p1)
  • Man with upward arrow – Captain Miracle (see notes for Tempest #3, P31,p4)
  • Man in spacesuit with fin on helmet – Suggest??
  • Man with A on forehead – Commenter Sean Levin identifies him as “surprisingly, an Australian character rather than a British one – Captain Atom (no relation to the American character who served as the basis for Doctor Manhattan), who appeared in his own series from 1948-1954.”
  • Man with T – Tornado (see notes for Tempest #3, P28,P1)
  • Pair with round ears – Speed Gale and Garry (see notes to Tempest #3, P31,p4)
  • (miscellaneous indistinct figures)

    

    The Bat in Dynamic Thrills #1

  • Bat-winged figure – The Bat from Dynamic Thrills #1, 1951.

Inside Back Cover

paragraph 1

• “playing with our privates” is a not-very-subtle reference to masturbation.
• “butcher’s” is cockney rhyming slang for “look” (derived from “butcher’s hook”).

paragraph 2

• Mars Bars are a type of candy bar that were introduced in England in 1932.
• “Mars – the War Bringer” is the most well-known section of Holst’s The Planets orchestral suite.
• My Favorite Martian was an American comedy-SF show that ran from 1963 to 1966, and was, as stated, adapted into a TV21 comic strip.
• Space Patrol was a UK SF series that ran between 1963 and 1968. One of the main cast, per Wikipedia, was “the stocky, ravenously sausage-mad Husky from the Red Planet, Mars”.

paragraph 3

• “dear old Dutch” appears to be slang for “wife”, possibly cockney rhyming slang deriving from “Duchess of Fife”.

paragraph 4

• The complaint about missing pictorial elements in chapter one recalls Moore’s statements in an interview about From Hell:
  

  On the matter of what has been viewed in some quarters as an untoward wordiness in my panel descriptions, might I draw your attention to the final volume of From Hell, specifically to page two, panel five of our epilogue, The Old Men On The Shore. In the script description for this panel I unfortunately allowed myself a moment of laxity and omitted the words “INSPECTOR ABBERLINE’S HEAD IS STILL ON HIS SHOULDERS DURING THIS PANEL. IT HAS NOT RETREATED TORTOISE-LIKE INTO HIS NECK, NOR HAS IT IN SOME FASHION MANAGED TO REFRACT LIGHT AROUND IT LIKE A KLINGON SPACESHIP SO THAT THE INSPECTOR RESEMBLES SOMETHING OUT OF MAGRITTE WITH HIS BOWLER FLOATING THERE SUSPENDED ABOVE THE EMPTY COLLAR OF HIS COAT.” Last time I’ll make that mistake, obviously.

• The reference to Matron, plus the address, makes it clearly implied that the writer is a resident in a mental hospital.
• The writer’s name may be a reference to insane painter Richard Dadd, whose work appears in Tempest #4 (P16-17,p1), and who appears as a character in Tempest #5. There may also be a reference to Zaphod Beeblebrox.

paragraph 5

• The BBC Home Service was a British radio station between 1939 and 1967.

paragraph 6

• The name “Consumpta” is a play on “consumption” (a historical name for tuberculosis), a disease whose symptoms include a lot of coughing.
• Woodbine has been an English brand of cigarettes since 1888. In Moore’s Jerusalem, they are smoked by a young Charlie Chaplin in the chapter “Modern Times”.
• “former four-minute man” probably refers to having been able (before taking up smoking) to run a mile in under four minutes.
  • Commenter Martin C adds that this “relates to Roger Bannister the UK athlete who was 1st to run a mile in under 4 mins in 1954. The LoeG equivalent seems to be called Roger Balustrade in the letter, a pun on Bannister of course.”

paragraph 7

• Capstan is a brand of unfiltered British cigarettes.

paragraph 8

• For those of our readers too hopelessly young to know, a jukebox is an automated music-playing device, usually installed in a public place such as a diner, and coin-operated. Their heyday was in the 1950s, but they began to fall out of favor by the 1970s.
• “Little Lord Fauntleroy” is named after the 19th century children’s novel. Why they are so named is unclear.

Back Cover

• The information about Electro Girl‘s origin and creator are accurate. The 1964 and later information is Moore’s invention.
• Cricklewood is an area of north-west London.

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