Annotations to the "Books of Magic" four part series, published by DC Comics.
[theory.lcs.mit.edu::pub/wald/books-of-magic]
Annotations to the "Books of Magic" four part series, published
by DC Comics. Compiled by David Goldfarb (goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu).
[This file contains all 4 files concatenated]
Files are identified below by the title of the issue they annote. All
suggestions on the annotations themselves should be sent to the
editor, David Goldfarb (goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu).
books-of-magic.1 "Book I: The Invisible Labyrinth"
books-of-magic.2 "Book II: The Shadow World"
books-of-magic.3 "Book III: The Land of Summer's Twilight"
books-of-magic.4 "Book IV: The Road to Nowhere"
The Books of Magic
Book I: The Invisible Labyrinth
By Neil Gaiman and John Bolton
Not yet reprinted in any other form
Annotations by David Goldfarb
p.1 panel 2: John Constantine was created by Alan Moore,
Steve Bissette, John Totleben, Jamie Delano, and John Ridgeway (whew!).
His first appearance was in _Swamp Thing_ #37 (1985). He
currently stars in the series _John Constantine: Hellblazer_.
panel 3: Dr. Occult first appeared in _More Fun Comics_ #6 (1935).
He was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
panel 4: Mr. E first appeared in _Secrets of the Haunted House_
#31 (1980). He was created by Bob Rozakis and Dan Spiegle.
panel 5: This character is trademarked as "The Phantom Stranger".
Alan Moore (and Gaiman after him) treats "phantom stranger" as a
description rather than a name or title, however. Note that Dr. Occult
consistently calls him "my friend" rather than "stranger". He first
appeared in _Phantom Stranger_ (first series) #1 (195?).
panel 6: This is the first appearance of Timothy Hunter.
p.2 panel 1: Are there any earlier references to the "Cold Flame"
or did Gaiman invent them?
p.4 panel 3: This is a reference to the famous poem "The Charge
of the Light Brigade", by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
p.9 panel 1: In _Hellblazer_ #8, Constantine received a blood
transfusion from the demon Nergal.
p.10 panel 3: "The fields we know" as a synonym for "the mundane
world" was a favorite phrase of Lord Dunsany, one of the best fantasy
writers of the early twentieth century.
panel 5: Name-magic is a popular device in modern fantasy novels.
It seems odd that everyone in the series knows Tim's name. It's possible
that "Timothy Hunter" is not Tim's "true name" that has power over
him, but is just a tag from his childhood.
p.17 panel 1: The Silver City is an abode of angels, separate
from the realms of Heaven where blessed souls reside. It seems to be
Gaiman's invention. It first appeared either here or in _The Season
of Mists_, chapter 3 (_Sandman_ #24). Further information on the city
can be found there and in the short story "Murder Mysteries", by Gaiman,
which appears in the anthology _Midnight Graffitti_.
panel 2: The Phantom Stranger has no definitely established
origin. _Secret Origins_ #10 has four conflicting stories; the one
by Alan Moore, which Gaiman seems to be treating as correct, posited
that the stranger was an angel who didn't choose a side in the
Revolt of the Angels. Thus he was banished from Heaven but not damned
to Hell, and was permitted to walk the earth. (The stranger's comment
here at least seems most consistent with this story.)
p.18 panel 1: This is of course the Revolt of the Angels, and the
fall of Lucifer. The best-known account of this may be Milton's
_Paradise Lost_.
p.19 panel 1: Francis Uy (fau@po.cwru.edu), quoting
Gustav Davidson's _A Dictionary of Angels_ has this to say
about the various angels mentioned here:
"Lucifer -- erroneously equated with the fallen angel (Satan) due
to a misreading of Isaiah 14:12: "How art thou fallen from
Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning," an apostrophe which
applied to Nebuchadnezzar...
The name Lucifer was applied to Satan by St. Jerome...
Uriel -- regent of the sun, flame of God, angel of the presence,
presider over Tartarus, archangel of salvation, etc... [not
specifically titled as 'ruler of the worlds']
Raphael -- [numerous titles, many of which taken together would
comprise an 'overseer of humanity']
Michael -- [numerous titles, including angel set over chaos]
Saraquel -- prince of ministering angels, set over the children
of men whose spirits have sinned...
Gabriel -- [numerous titles, including lord of the cherubim and
the seraphim]
Raguel -- "takes vengeance on the world of luminaries [other
angels]"...
I found it very strange that Gaiman showed only six angels. It
is clear that groups of angels are almost exclusively seven or
four in number. One is led to wonder who the missing angel is.
[Presumably it was Lucifer? DG]
Michael, Gabriel, Raphael + Uriel are often listed as the chief
four-team of angels. Raguel is often in the top 7. Saraquel,
however, is a decidedly lesser entity."
In book II, Tim comments that the Spectre looks like these
angels. We may speculate that the Spectre is some kind of avatar
of Raguel, and that therefore Raguel is the one in the green hood.
pp.23-24 The idea that demons are not all fallen angels seems to
be original to Gaiman. The idea that some people's gods are actually
demonic, however, dates back at least to the ancient Hebrews.
p.25 panel 1: We are never told for certain, but presumably this
mage-lord is Arion, who starred in the now-defunct series _Arion,
Lord of Atlantis_, and the mini-series _Arion the Immortal_.
p.26 panel 2: Avalon is an island in the western sea where King Arthur
lies. Lyonesse was a land near Cornwall in the Arthurian cycles, that
sank. Hy-Brasail (or -Brasil or Brazil) is also from Celtic legends, an
island in the Atlantic. Its inhabitants (according to some sources)
became so morally pure that that the island severed its gross earthly
connections, and could be seen only by those free of worldly desires.
p.29 panel 1: The dog-faced god is Anubis, lord of the dead. Any
references on "tall shadow women"? This may refer to the Sphinx.
panel 2: According to the inside back cover of book 4, this
story is taken from Chinese poems translated by Arthur Waley. I checked
a Japanese and a Chinese character dictionary for the characters here
and could find only the third. (The second could mean "thought" if the
diagonal stroke at the very top were absent.) Many possible meanings
were given for it; the ones that seem relevant are "technique", "art",
or "rite". The letters in the box at the bottom right look like
Chinese or Japanese at first glance but actually they say "Bolton".
p.30 The "twice-born boy" is the god Dionysus (also known, among
many other names, as Bacchus). His mother, Semele, asked his father,
Zeus, to reveal his true form to her. The sight of that form killed
her. So Zeus took Dionysus from her womb (the first birth) and sewed
him into his thigh, where he finished gestation. Just after his second
birth, Hera ordered the Titans to sieze him and tear him to pieces.
They boiled the pieces in a cauldron, while a pomegranate tree sprouted
from the soil where his blood had fallen. The goddess Rhea rescued and
reconstituted him.
Dionysus was the god of wine, and thus of grapes. Greek drama
originated from Dionysian religious ceremonies in which playwrights
competed to win a sacred goat. Thus, "Drama, vines, and goat feet
follow him into the world."
The "witch-queen" is the goddess Hecate, who had three faces
and was associated with the moon. The "triple Goddess" is a favorite
theme of Gaiman's and shows up many times in _The Sandman_.
p.31 The statue at the top of the page is obviously Greek, and the
one just below it is Assyrian. Can anyone identify the one just to
Tim's left in panel 1?
p.32 panel 4: "Devoir" is French for "duty" and can be used to mean
"homework".
p.33 panel 3: Many sources have Merlin as the son of a devil. In
the DC universe, it is specifically the demon Belial.
panel 4: The inscription on the sword probably ends "sword from
this stone and anvil is rightwise King of all Britain".
p. 34 panel 3: "Myrddin" is a Welsh version of "Merlin". "Myrddyn",
"Myrddin" or "Merlyn" was one of the three great Bards of Wales. He
came into the British tradition as a seer/prophet, notably in the
work of Geoffrey of Monmouth; though Geoffrey is primarily noted for
his "History of the Kings of Britain", which was the work that first
linked Merlyn with Arthur, he also wrote a longish "Prophecies of Merlyn".
It was after Geoffrey's time that Merlyn became known as a wizard, and
acquired his odd parentage, but by that time nobody would have referred
to him as "Myrddin".
Though we can't tell it from this artwork, it's revealed in
book II that this is Jason Blood, whom Merlin used as a living prison
for his half-brother, the demon Etrigan. (Jason Blood and Etrigan were
created by Jack Kirby, and first appeared in _The Demon_ (first series)
#1 (1972).)
p. 35 panel 2: The Star of David probably comes from some Kabalistic
text. (The Kabala is a form of Jewish mysticism.) The picture with the
seven steps is from alchemy; the words are, as near as I can tell,
"calcination", "sublimation", "solution", "putrefaction", "distillation",
"coagulation", and "tincture". These are various operations used in
alchemy; it's possible that those particular ones in that order are
the so-called Great Work which could turn lead into gold.
p.36 panel 1: Any references on the big red figure? The green diagram
looks like astrology, but it would be nice to know for sure.
pp.37-38 These are various images associated with witchcraft and the
hunting of witchcraft: A woman consorts with a goat-headed demon;
a woman keeps a black cat, perhaps as a familiar; a woman accused
of witchcraft is poked with a sharp pin to test for the numb "witch's
teat" and gets up bleeding from numerous small wounds; a woman is led
to the stake and burned at it; a woman is hung above a river -- whether
as a test for witchcraft or as a means of execution is not clear; a witch
flies on a broomstick; a woman goes into the woods alone to meet with
her coven and worship a horned god.
The images are in the style of medieval prints, but they are
most probably not actual prints but the modern work of John Bolton.
p.40 panel 4: Dr. Fate was created by Howard Sherman and first
appeared in _More Fun Comics_ #52 (1940). Nabu was one of the
"Lords of Order", who were opposed by "Lords of Chaos". At the time
that this story was written, Kent Nelson was dead, and his body inhabited
by Nabu. A later writer brought Kent and his wife Inza back.
p.41 panel 1: When this book came out, the _Dr. Fate_ series was
still ongoing (it has now been cancelled).
panel 2: Zatara first appeared in _Action Comics_ #1 (1938).
Zatanna first appeared in _Hawkman_ #4 and was created by Gardner Fox
and Murphy Anderson.
p.43 panel 2: Sargon the Sorcerer appeared first in _All American
Comics_ #26 (1941).
p.44 panel 1: The deaths of Zatara and Sargon took place in
_Swamp Thing_ #50, the conclusion of the "American Gothic" storyline.
Credits:
Greg "elmo" Morrow (morrow@physics.rice.edu) did and does the _Sandman_
annotations, whose format and style I have imitated. He also sent the
letter on angels which I have excerpted.
Lance Smith (lsmith@cs.umn.edu) suggested someone annotate _The Books of
Magic_, corrected the culture of the statue on page 31, and provided
the issue number for John Constantine's demon blood.
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes (djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com) corrected the inscription
and commented on Merlin's history.
Abhijit Khale (akhale@pollux.usc.edu) provided first appearances for
Doctor Occult, Dr. Fate, Mr. E, the Phantom Stranger, Sargon the Sorcerer,
Zatanna, and Zatara, as well as creator credits for Mr. E and Zatanna.
Michael Bowman (bvmi@odin.cc.pdx.edu) provided creator credits and first
appearance for John Constantine, Mr. E, the Phantom Stranger, Dr. Fate,
and the Demon, as well as the story of how Dionysus rose from the dead.
Chris Jarocha-Ernst (cje@gandalf.rutgers.edu) provided creator credits
for Doctor Occult.
Andrew S. Troth (ast2r@faraday.clas.virginia.edu) provided creator credit
on Dr. Fate.
Shannon Appel (appel@xcf.berkeley.edu) commented on Lyonesse.
Thanatos (tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) quoted from "The Encyclopedia of
Things that Never Were" on Hy-Brasail.
The Books of Magic
Book II: The Shadow World
By Neil Gaiman and Scott Hampton
Not yet reprinted in any other form
Annotations by David Goldfarb
p.2 panel 1: Boston Brand starred in some recent miniseries under the
superhero name "Deadman". He was a circus aerialist, murdered during his
act. The goddess Rama Kushna kept him from the afterlife so that he could
find his murderer. Although normally invisible and intangible, he can
influence the normal world by possessing people and acting through their
bodies. This is what he's doing here. He first appeared in _Strange
Adventures_ #205. He was created by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino.
panel 4: The Cold Flame was mentioned in book I. The Cult of the
Blood Red Moon has been mentioned in _The Spectre_ and the "I...Vampire"
backup series in _House of Mystery_. _Legion of Super-Heroes_ has
featured an interstellar cult called the Dark Circle. The Legion's
"Dark Circle" has been shown as existing in the twentieth century, but
it is not clear whether the group Deadman refers to is related to it.
panel 6: It would seem that Constantine was not successful in
chatting up that stewardess.
p.3 panel 3: _Supercar_ was a sci-fi television series made in
Great Britain in the 60's or so. Puppets were used rather than actors
or animation; the puppetry was done by the relatively famous pair of
Sylvia and Gerry Anderson, who went on to do the _Thunderbirds_ television
show, also with puppets. Supercar was a car that could fly and travel
underwater as well as do about 300 MPH on a straightaway.
p.4 panel 2: Mu and Lemuria are lost continents supposedly located
in the Pacific. Cheap knockoffs of Atlantis, if you ask me.
panel 5: Madame Xanadu first appeared in a _Madame Xanadu Special_.
Then she appeared regularly as the main character in a horror anthology
series called _Doorway to Nightmare_. She was created by Steve Englehart
and Marshall Rogers. She was later recycled in _The Spectre_, which at
the time book II came out was an ongoing series.
"Cartomancer", of course, means "one who foretells the future
using cards".
p.5 panel 1: The diagram on the right appears Kabalistic. Compare the
diagram from book I, p.35. I can't make anything out of the one on the left.
panel 3: Any reference on the Wind's Egg? I suspect Gaiman just
made it up.
p.7 The four cards, of course, apply to the four books of the miniseries,
and to the four members of the Trenchcoat Brigade as they guide Timothy.
It is uncertain whether the images on them come from some pre-existing deck
or whether they were created by Scott Hampton.
panel 4: The card is inverted, which tends to reverse the meaning.
_A Complete Guide to the Tarot_, by Eden Gray, includes in the meanings for
"Justice" reversed, "a plea against undue severity in judging others."
Note that the card is numbered XI; in Aleister Crowley's Thoth tarot deck,
"Justice" is Key VIII -- Key XI is "Lust". (However, in other decks "Justice"
is in fact Key XI.)
p.10 panel 2: Jim Corrigan and the Spectre were created by Jerry Siegel
and first appeared in _More Fun Comics_ #52 (1940).
p.12 panel 4: In the early '70s, _Adventure Comics_ had a run of stories
in which the Spectre was constantly turning murderers into wooden statues
and the like. This sequence may be a reference to those stories, since
the Spectre didn't do much of that in his series in the '80s.
p.13 panel 3: In _Swamp Thing_ Annual #2(?) the Spectre was portrayed
as the guardian of the borderlands between Heaven and Hell, and referred
to as "one who cannot be fought".
p.14 panel 1: Note the newspaper headline. Presumably the various
cults are killing teenagers who simply look a bit like Tim, in the hope
of getting him through sheer volume.
p.15 panel 2: At this writing, Dr. Fate was the union of two people,
Eric and Linda Strauss. They controlled themselves, rather than being
possessed by Nabu. The comment about Kent Nelson being part of them is
mysterious, since in the _Dr. Fate_ series at the time Kent Nelson was
dead, his body inhabited by Nabu's spirit. (Kent and his wife Inza were
brought back later.)
p.16 panel 3: The concept of "Lords of Order" and "Lords of Chaos" was
extensively used by fantasy writer Michael Moorcock.
p.18 panel 3: The "synchronicity freeway" concept hasn't really been
explored, either before or since. Perhaps Constantine is exploiting Tim's
latent powers somehow.
pp.20-21 John and Tim are now in Georgetown. As netters have pointed
out, the derelict acts as he does because of Deadman's influence.
p.22 panel 3: Baron Winter was created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan,
and first appeared in _Night Force_ #1.
panel 6: The leopard is named Merlin.
p.23 panel 2: It's interesting that Tim could enter the mansion.
Supposedly no one could enter without Baron Winter's permission. Constantine
waits for Baron Winter to gesture him in.
panel 6: As revealed in the _Hellblazer_ series, there has been
a long lineage of Constantines through the ages. Jason Blood, as Etrigan's
host, is immortal but suffers from lapses of memory and identity.
p.24 panel 1: This may be a reference to a Batman story which featured
a werewolf called Anthony Lupus. That story had a sequel set in Alaska;
in _Sandman_ #3 Constantine refers to "being called to Alaska for six
months over the Lupus affair."
p.30 panel 4: Dr. Terry Thirteen first appeared in _Star-Spangled Comics_
#122.
p.32 panel 3: Constantine was one of the prime movers in the "American
Gothic" storyline in _Swamp Thing_.
p.33 panel 5: Report is that Gaiman originally wanted Constantine simply
to say, "Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.", but Karen Berger vetoed the dialogue.
So he included "felching heck" just to see if it would get past her.
"Felching" is the act of sucking semen out of the rectum after anal sex.
p.36 panel 1: The building is the Palace of Fine Arts, in northwest
San Francisco. Perhaps Zatanna took Tim to the Exploratorium (a science
museum located there).
panel 8: Deadman refers to Rama Kushna when he calls God "she".
p.39 panel 1: Halloween in San Francisco gets *very* wild.
panel 5: Tala first appeared in _Phantom Stranger_ #4.
p.40 panel 1: Tannarak's first appearance was _Phantom Stranger_ #10.
p.41 panel 1: Felix Faust battled the Justice League of America several
times. His first appearance was _Justice League of America_ #10 (1962), and
he was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. The Wizard battled the
Justice Society, and he was a leader in the '70s of "The Secret Society of
Super-Villains". His first appearance was _All-Star Comics_ #34.
It seems somehow typical of Gaiman that the two most "super-
villain"ish of the characters that appear are also the ones that are
the hardest to take seriously.
panel 7: I don't recognize this character.
p.43 panels 2,3,4: Any previous reference on these characters?
p.45 panel 8: Judging by the previous course of the running gag,
Constantine probably got his face slapped on the flight back to
San Francisco.
Chris Jarocha-Ernst (cje@gandalf.rutgers.edu), quoting Mark Balbes, gave
Dr. Thirteen's first appearance.
Edward Liu (el24+@andrew.cmu.edu) provided information on Supercar and
commented on the Tarot reading.
Lance Smith (lsmith@cs.umn.edu) gave more details on Baron Winter, and
creator credit for the Spectre, as well as first appearances of Tannarak,
Tala, Felix Faust, and Deadman.
Ahbijit Khale (akhale@pollux.usc.edu) gave creator credit for the Spectre,
and supplied details on Madame Xanadu's career.
Garrie Burr (X82217GB@wuvmd.wustl.edu) gave creator credit for Deadman,
Madame Xanadu, and Felix Faust.
Bill Morrell (bmorrell@mik.uky.edu) gave information on the Blood Red Moon.
Michael Bowman (bvmi@odin.cc.pdx.edu) provided a first appearance for the
Wizard.
The Books of Magic
Book III: The Land of Summer's Twilight
By Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess
Not yet reprinted in any other form
Annotations by David Goldfarb
cover: It is not clear who this is supposed to represent. Perhaps another
of Titania's many guises?
p.2 panels 5-6: The first two speculations correspond to two of the
stories in _Secret Origins_ #10. A _Phantom Stranger_ miniseries from the
mid-eighties portrayed him as an agent of the Lords of Order.
p.3 panel 2: Cold iron is traditionally harmful to those of Faerie;
it can bar them from an entrance, or even slay them, depending on your
source.
panel 4: To some extent, this book follows the format of a fairy
tale. Tim will break all (or almost all) of these rules, and be saved
by items he picks up along the way.
p.4 panel 1: A bit of foreshadowing of book IV's ending.
p.6 panel 1: That Rose Spiritus and Dr. Occult interchange is an
invention of Gaiman's. In Dr. Occult's original series Rose was simply
a secretary/sidekick.
p.7 The stall on the lower left, with all the books, contains several
items of note. The man in dark glasses resembles Neil Gaiman, and the shorter
man next to him resembles (so I'm told) Charles Vess. Reaching up towards
Vess is Rupert Bear, star of a series of children's books. Hanging from
the ceiling are two references to animated movies directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
The two "owl-bears" on the left are nature spirits from "Tonari no Totoro"
("My Neighbor Totoro"). (There is a third "owl-bear" at the right-hand
edge of the stall, acting as a bookend. There were three nature spirits
in the film.) To their right is the logo of "Majoo no Takyuubin" (literally
"Witch Delivery Service" but usually translated "Kiki's Delivery Service").
p.8 The armor reflected in the mirror at lower right bears a strong
resemblance to the armor worn by King Auberon in _Sandman_ #19 (which was
also illustrated by Charles Vess).
p.9 panel 1: Are the roots bound to the pole mandrake roots? Or just,
say, ginseng?
p.10 panel 4: Glory bears a distinct resemblance to Isaac Asimov. What
significance this has, I cannot imagine.
p.14 panel 1: There is at least one ballad ("True Thomas" perhaps?)
in which a visitor to Faerie has to wade through a sea of blood for
forty days and forty nights.
p.19 panel 1: In the ballad "True Thomas", a bard named Thomas became
the lover of the Queen of Faerie. When he wished to return to mortal lands,
she ensorceled his tongue so that he could not lie. In some versions of
the tale, this was simply a curse, but in others it included the gift
of prophecy.
I don't know of any reference to the incident described; presumably
it's another of Gaiman's inventions.
panel 5: In Arthurian legend, Joyous Gard was the name of the
castle where Lancelot lived with Elaine, the mother of Galahad. Why it's
mentioned in this connection is not clear.
p.23 panel 5: "Chik" is a diminutive suffix in Russian. Baba Yaga is
a character from Russian tales.
p.25 panel 3: Baba Yaga traditionally flies sitting in a mortar and
holding a pestle. Here she seems to be holding a pestle and sitting on
another pestle.
p.27 panel 6: We see what is purported to be the Drum Unescapable in
_Sandman_ #38. What a Heliotrope Gamahaean Union may be I have no idea.
Any other reference on Empusa?
p.35 panel 3: In _Sandman_ #19, we see Titania talk to Hamnet Shakespeare,
the son of William Shakespeare. At the end of that tale, we are told that
Hamnet died aged eleven. Evidently the corpse was a changeling, and the
real boy succumbed to Queen Titania's temptation and came to Faerie.
p.36 Skartaris was the setting of _The Warlord_, a series written and
for most of its run drawn by Mike Grell.
p.37 Nightmaster first appeared in _Showcase_ #82. He was created by
Jerry Grandenetti and Dick Giordano.
p.38 The Gemworld first appeared in _Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld_ #1.
Amethyst was created by Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn. There was a later
miniseries, written by Keith Giffen, that introduced the Archmage. This
miniseries revealed that the Sorcerer's World from _Legion of Super-Heroes_
was the Gemworld, and that a minor character from _Amethyst_ became the LSH
villain Mordru the Merciless.
p.39 The blue-caped demon is Etrigan, who has been referenced earlier.
Dr. Occult's narration is consistent with the themes of the _Sandman_
storyline _The Season of Mists_, which was still going on at the time
this story was published.
p.40 panel 1: Cain and Abel were the hosts of two horror anthology series;
_House of Mystery_ and _House of Secrets_, respectively. Alan Moore revived
them in a dream sequence in _Swamp Thing_ #33; when Gaiman created the
Dreaming he incorporated them into it.
p.41 panel 1: This is of course Dream, aka Morpheus, aka the Sandman.
His first appearance was _Sandman_ #1, and he was created by Neil Gaiman
and Sam Kieth.
p.46 panels 4-8 all seem to be faces appearing inside the egg. Panel
4 is obviously Titania in her current guise. Panel 5 bears some resemblance
to the stallkeeper on page 9 (who tried to swap Tim various things for
his heart's desire), but the stallkeeper's hair was different. It also
looks a bit like Snout, but Snout's nose was long and pointed while this
face has a blunt nose. Panel 6 is Baba Yaga. Panel 7 is Titania as she
appeared in _Sandman_ #19. Panel 8 is not immediately clear.
It seems probable that all of the faces are forms that Titania
has taken -- panels 4 and 7 definitely are, and panel 8 has the same
mouth, as well as similar jewelry to panel 7. The story thus becomes
a bit more paranoid; all of the people who have tried to catch Tim in
Faerie are in fact one person.
panel 9: It would seem that Tim, like Merlin, is only half-human.
If the Queen of Faerie is really his mother, then perhaps the face from
panel 8 was the form she took to bear him.
Carl Henderson (chenders@arrisun3.uta.edu) provided creator credits for
Amethyst and the Gemworld.
Tom Galloway (tyg@hq.ileaf.com) gave the creator credits for Nightmaster
and Amethyst.
The Books of Magic
Book IV: The Road to Nowhere
By Neil Gaiman and Paul Johnson
Not yet reprinted in any other form
Annotations by David Goldfarb
Cover: The title may be an allusion to the comedy movies starring
Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. They usually had titles starting with "The
Road to...", e.g. "The Road to Rome" and "The Road to Utopia".
There is also a song by the Talking Heads called "Road to Nowhere".
p.4 panel 1: Anyone recognize anyone here?
panel 2: From the top down: The guy standing on the hill, as we
learn, is Tim himself. I don't recognize the man with the red cape.
The horned woman immediately to the right is called Jinx; she was a
sorcerous villain from the pages of _Tales of the Teen Titans_. Her
first appearance is TotTT #57, and she was created by Marv Wolfman. Next
to her, of course, is some incarnation of Doctor Fate. The white furry
creature at the very bottom is the demon Kamara, a villain from Jack Kirby's
_Demon_ series. The bearded guy to the right looks like Abel, from the
Dreamworld, but this seems unlikely. The being with pointed ears and a
mohawk-like fin on its head is the demon Ghast, which first appeared in
_Justice League of America_ #10. Can anyone identify the other characters
here? (Particularly the purple giant and the being with circles in its eyes.)
p.5 panel 1: The woman in green may be the Enchantress of Skartaris,
mentioned in book III. (I never read _Warlord_, so can't say for sure.)
The man just below her appears to be the Wizard, in costume. Immediately
to the right of them is Captain Marvel, who first appeared in _Whiz Comics_
#2 and was created by C. C. Beck and Otto Binder. The man blasting
the Spectre is a grown-up Klarion the Witch Boy, from _Demon_, with his
familiar Teekl.
panel 2: The horned man is Black Bison, a Firestorm villain. He
first appeared in _The Fury of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man_ #1 and
was created by Gerry Conway, Pat Broderick, and Alfredo Alcala. Any
references on M'nagaleh?
panel 4: Eclipso was created by Bob Haney and first appeared in
_House of Secrets_ #61 (1963). Of course, this story predates the retcons to
Eclipso's history in the crossover storyline "The Darkness Within".
panel 5: Tefe first appeared as an elemental spirit in _Swamp
Thing_ #65; she was born into a human body in _Swamp Thing_ #90. #65
was written by Rick Veitch; however, I think creator credit here belongs
to Doug Wheeler, Pat Broderick, and Alfredo Alcala, who did #90.
p.9 panel 6: This is the immortal villain Vandal Savage. According
to the miniseries _Time Masters_, Savage was the mastermind behind a
secret society called the Illuminati. (Note that there are those who
believe that such a society exists in the real world.) Before the war,
the Illuminati schemed to control the world. After it, they preserved
knowledge and culture. Vandal Savage first appeared in _Green Lantern_ #10
(1943).
p.10 panel 1: This is Jonah Hex. He first appeared in _All-Star Western
Tales_ #10. He was originally a Western character; in the mid-'80s his
title was renamed _Hex_ and he was brought forward in time to a post-holocaust
twenty-first century.
panel 3: The man with the gun is Tommy Tomorrow. First appearance:
_Real Fact Comics_ #6 (1946). The man with the bow tie is from an obscure
old feature called _Space Cabbie_. First appearance: _Mystery in Space_ #26.
panel 5: The man in the Mohawk is OMAC. (One Man Army Corps.) He
first appeared in _OMAC_ #1 and was created by Jack Kirby. The flying
man with the gun is Space Ranger, who first appeared in _Showcase_ #15
and may have been created by Jack Schiff.
p.12 When this book first came out, several netters speculated that
this scene, with its domes and zeppelins, was intended as a tribute to
_Watchmen_.
p.13 "Atomic Knights" is a reference to another post-holocaust series,
but one that was retconned out of existence. (The main character, who had
been given false memories, did don a battlesuit and take the name of "The
Atomic Knight".) The reference to "miscegenation" is odd, since little or
none of that has been shown in _Legion of Super-Heroes_. About the only
thing that might qualify would be the marriage of Colossal Boy and Yera,
a woman of the planet Durla. The Sorcerer's World, also known as Zerox,
is what the Gemworld became when it returned to our universe. The group
of five beings in the middle of the page are the Teachers; they first
appeared in _The Legion of Super-Heroes_ #293 and were created
by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen.
p.14 The people shown here are an odd mix. The top two are Night Girl
and Tellus; the next row down is Element Lad, the White Witch, Dream Girl,
and Tharok; then Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Mano, and the Persuader;
then Saturn Girl, the Emerald Empress and her Emerald Eye; at the bottom
is Validus firing off his mental lightning. Tharok, Mano, the Persuader,
the Emerald Empress, and Validus were the original lineup of the villain
group called the Fatal Five. Night Girl was a member of the Legion of
Substitute Heroes rather than the Legion of Super-Heroes proper. Night
Girl, the White Witch, Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl appear
as they did in the sixties, but Element Lad is in the costume he wore
from the mid-seventies to mid-eighties, and Tellus dates from the late
eighties. When the White Witch joined the Legion in the early eighties,
her appearance had changed greatly; she was an albino with antennae growing
out of the corners of her eyelids -- this is suggested here by the two
white antennae. Out of all the people pictured here, only two are even
vaguely magic-related -- the White Witch and her sister Dream Girl.
There was one other Legionnaire with magical powers, known at different
times as Princess Projectra and as Sensor Girl; however she is not shown.
Each of the symbols at the bottom refers to a member of the Legion;
they were used for that purpose in the early eighties run of the book.
The exception is the "L" in a circle, which, of course, stands for "Legion".
p.15 The head with the circle on it is a member of an alien race
called the Dominators. (Like the Fatal Five, not particularly magic-related.)
Just below the Dominator is the "god" Darkseid. Darkseid battled the Legion
in the early eighties; in that storyline he drained magic from various
artifacts and beings to increase his own strength. He employed "servants
of Darkness". The heads to Darkseid's right may be meant to represent
these servants, or they may simply be more Dominators -- it's hard to tell.
Darkseid was created by Jack Kirby and first appeared in _Jimmy Olsen_ #134
(1970). The large bearded face is Mordru the Merciless, who first appeared
in _Adventure Comics_ #369 (1968) and was created by Jim Shooter.
p.16 Mr. E is summarizing the Legion storyline called "The Magic Wars".
It appeared in _Legion of Super-Heroes_ #59-63 and ended Paul Levitz's
run on that title.
The girl that E refers to is of course Amethyst. There is some
evidence in the current Legion title that the "stolen flesh" is that of
the White Witch.
E's final line is a reference to the short story "The Masque of
the Red Death", by Edgar Allan Poe. The last line of that story is,
"And the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."
In the current Legion title, both the earth and the moon have
blown up in the thirtieth century. It would seem odd that such
magically significant events escape mention here. (Of course, at the
time this story was written they hadn't happened yet.) But we can simply
say that E and Tim traveled down a timeline where things happened differently.
p.20 panel 4: A recurring Flash villain was a man from the sixty-fourth
century who called himself Abra Kadabra and used highly advanced science
to mimic the effects of magic. On the other hand, both the Barry Allen
Flash and the Wally West Flash have traveled into Abra Kadabra's home time
and it was *nothing* like this.
p.21 It seems odd that the powerful culture from the previous page could
descend to this. Perhaps something like Vernor Vinge's concept of a
"Singularity" came to pass; most of Earth's people went on to some "higher
plane" and these are the descendants of those who would not or could not
do so.
p.22 panel 4: As we will learn, this "great man" is Mr. E himself.
This is of course a classic time paradox.
p.23 panel 4: After _The Books of Magic_, there was a _Mr. E_ miniseries
following on directly after. It wasn't written by Gaiman and IMHO was not
very good. It had more complete details on just what did happen to Mr. E's
sister. (However, I don't remember just what the details were.)
p.29 With one exception, all the characters we meet or who are mentioned
in the next few pages are named after the Major Arcana of the Tarot.
I don't believe that Gaiman is using the divinitory meanings of the cards,
however, but rather is using the Tarot as a collection of archetypes.
p.31 panel 3: Here's our exception. "The Sphinx" is not a Greater Trump
in any deck I'm familiar with. It's true that sphinxes do appear in the
Trumps; in some decks the Chariot is pulled by sphinxes instead of horses,
and many decks show a sphinx atop the Wheel of Fortune.
p.33 panel 6: The usual answer is that the speaker of the rhyme sat
down with a pint of wine, drank the wine, and then used the empty bottle
as a candleholder.
p.34 panel 4: This is a reference to a famous couplet by Alexander Pope:
"A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."
p.36 panel 3: This is a reference to a lyric from the movie _Mary Poppins_.
"Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down
In a most delightful way."
panel 6: This is Destiny. He was briefly the host of a horror
anthology comic. When Neil Gaiman started _The Sandman_ he recycled the
character into being one of the Endless.
panel 8: It's odd that we can see star-like eyes under Destiny's
hood; in _Sandman_ #21 we are told that Destiny has no eyes.
p.37 panel 1: The woman is Death, of the Endless. She first appeared
in _The Sandman_ #8 and was created by Neil Gaiman.
p.38 panel 3: This may be a reference to a well-known story (whose source
I don't know offhand). According to the story, a rich man of Damascus in
Biblical times one day saw Death, and Death saw him. Death seemed very
surprised. The man was frightened, for he knew that only those who were
about to die could see Death. He tried to flee to the faraway city of Samara.
He rode his horse to death, then ran. After only one day, he reached Samara,
normally a journey of several days. But once there he collapsed from over-
exertion. When Death came for him there, Death seemed satisfied. The man
asked why Death was satisfied that day when he had seemed so surprised the
day before. "I was surprised to see you in Damascus yesterday," said Death,
"because I knew we had an appointment in Samara today."
p.39 panel 8: There is a movie called _From Here to Eternity_. It's hard
to say whether the reference is deliberate.
p.45 panel 5: The picture on the wall is presumably of Tim's mother. Given
the different art styles, it's hard to say for sure whether this is the same
woman as in book III, p.46, panel 8. However, there is nothing that makes
them obviously different.
Credits:
Scott Emery (emery@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov) mentioned the Talking Heads song,
as did Andrew Solovay (solovay@netcom.com) and Michael Montoure (number6@
u.washington.edu).
Abhijit Khale (khale@camilla.eng.sun.com) corrected the issue numbers of
the Magic Wars storyline.
Michael Bowman (bvmi@odin.cc.pdx.edu) gave first appearances and/or creator
credits for Jinx, Black Bison, Eclipso, Tefe Holland, Vandal Savage,
Jonah Hex, Tommy Tomorrow, Space Cabbie, Space Ranger, and Darkseid.
Andrew Symons Troth (ast2r@faraday.clas.virginia.edu) gave the creator credits
for Black Bison and Eclipso.
David Wald (wald@theory.lcs.mit.edu) commented on the status of the Sphinx
in the Tarot.
END
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