Notes on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 2 #3 by Jess Nevins Editor's note: Jess Nevins has been writing and compiling annotations of some of the most hailed comics in recent years, from Kingdom Come to Kurt Busiek's Astro City. This is a followup to his detailed and entertaining notes on the first League Extraordinary Gentlemen limited series. For more information about these annotations and Jess Nevins, see the bottom of this page. (Images are © copyright 2002 Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill. The text here, except where otherwise credited, is © copyright 2002 Jess Nevins, and may not be duplicated, in part or in whole, without permission.) Cover. This scene is set in the British Museum, the headquarters for the League; we got a glimpse of this in issue #2 of the first series. Moving widdershins, beginning with Mina: The book Mina is holding has the words "Apergy" and "1880" on them. This is a reference to Percy Greg's Across the Zodiac (1880), in which apergy, a "repellant force" that works very much like anti-gravity, is discovered and used to transport the protagonist to Mars. Apergy later appeared in John Jacob Astor's A Journey in Other Worlds (1894) and in Jack London's "A Thousand Deaths" (1899). For more information on apergy and Across the Zodiac see the Apergy entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. The map of Mars behind Mina is dated 1880. Presumably it was compiled by the hero of Across the Zodiac. The top picture on the left bears the caption "timore Gunclub 1865." This is a reference to the Baltimore Gun Club, of Jules Verne's De la Terre a la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon, 1865) and its sequel, Round the Moon (1870); the Gun Club use a giant artillery piece to fire a manned projectile to the moon. The bottom picture on the left bears the caption "Augustus Bedloe." This is a reference to the protagonist of Edgar Allan Poe's "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" (1844). In that story Bedloe walked into the Ragged Mountains outside of Charlottesville, encountered a strange city, and had an out-of-body experience. The submarine-like model below the portrait of Augustus Bedloe bears the placard with the words "Astronef," "proposed by," "ofessor Hart," and "eaton York." This is a reference to George Griffith's "A Visit to the Moon" (1900). In that story Rollo Lenox Smeaton Aubrey (the Earl of Redgrave) and Lilla Rennick take the Astronef, a spaceship designed by Lilla's father, Professor Hartley Rennick, into space and visit Mars. For more information, see the Rollo Lenox Smeaton Aubrey entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. I am unaware of a specific provenance for the statue of the Egyptian cat on the pedestal. I'm sure the initials "K.O." are significant but I don't know what they refer to. "eroomnala" insists that the cat statue might be a reference to the black cat statue in the 1945 film version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The black cat on the pedestal has a placard reading, "C. Cave, Naturalist and Dealer." This is a reference to H.G. Wells' "The Crystal Egg" (1897) in which Mr. Cave, a dealer in antiquities, sees Mars through a crystal egg. The upside down scabbard has the word "Phra" inscribed on it. This is a reference to Edwin L. Arnold's The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician (1891). Phra is a Phoenician trader from 1st century B.C.E. who is reincarnated through the ages. For more information, see the Phra the Phoenician entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. The rabbit inside the glass jar, wearing a jacket and holding a watch, is the White Rabbit from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), which surely needs no explanation. The skull with the Roman centurion helmet has a tag reading "Lepidu". This is a reference to Edwin L. Arnold's Lepidus the Centurion (1901), a novel in which an Englishman in the modern day finds the living body of a Roman centurion, Lepidus, trapped in a tomb which has recently been uncovered by an uprooted tree. What looks like a wooden mallet is actually the body of Pinocchio, from Carlo Lorenzini's The Adventures of Pinocchio (1881). As mslbdll says, "pinocchio appears to be experiencing some karma.  Remember, in the original book version of the story (not the disney one) pinocchio kills his cricket conscience with a mallet.  This end result simply appears to be justice at work." The toad, the rat, and the badger (?) inside the glass case are Mr. Toad, Mr. Rat, and Mr. Badger (?), from Kenneth Grahame's charming The Wind in the Willows (1908), a novel about the adventures of various anthropomorphic talking animals in a pastoral England. PJ Ayres notes that the character I've identified as "Mr. Toad" is probably the Frog Footman from the Tenniel illustrations to Through the Looking Glass. The axe and the cape and bonnet are not a reference to Lizzie Borden, as I originally thought, but rather to Little Red Riding Hood, as Steve Higgins, SP Smith, and Shawn Garre point out. The hookah/water pipe, is, I think, the water pipe of the caterpillar, from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. So is the playing card figure and the Cheshire Cat, both in glass jars of their own. The bat-winged figure in the case to the left of the Cheshire Cat is the suit of Spring-Heeled Jack. Spring-Heeled Jack was a persistent urban myth in 19th century Britain as well as being the villain and later hero of various penny dreadfuls, most notably Charlton Lea's Spring-Heeled Jack, the Terror of London (1890). In his heroic phase he was a nobleman who wore a chamois cloth suit with steel rods concealed in the boots so that the wearer could make the prodigious leaps which Jack was known for. For more information, see the Spring-Heeled Jack entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. The picture with the label "1889" is, I think, a reference to Jules Verne's Sans Dessus Dessous (The Purchase of the North Pole, 1889), in which the Baltimore Gun Club attempt to move the Earth off its axis. The picture below that, with what looks like a Roman centurion holding a badminton racket, is (I think) a picture of the main characters from Lepidus the Centurion. The black globe with the placard "The Steel Globe" is a reference to Robert Cromie's A Plunge into Space (1890), about a scientist who builds a fifty-foot sphere of black metal and travels to Mars with a group of friends. Page 1. Panel 1. This is the first instance of a slight discrepancy between the chronologies of League and the War of the Worlds. In War of the Worlds the shelling of the first Martian craft begins, in Chapter Nine, Saturday night, "about six in the evening." Panel 3. In War of the Worlds the second Martian craft lands at the Byfleet Golf Links in Chapter Nine. Page 2. "And the Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder" is a passage from Rudyard Kipling's "Mandalay," from his Barrack-Room Ballads (1892). The line is from the poem's refrain; the first stanza is this: By the old Moulmein Pagoda lookin' eastward to the sea, There's a Burma girl a-settin' and I know she thinks of me. For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple bells they say, "Come you back, you British soldier, come you back to Mandalay." Come you back to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay. Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay? On the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin' fishes play, And the dawn comes up like thunder out of China 'crost the bay. Page 4. Panel 4. The identity of the coachman is revealed on Page 7, Panel 5. Page 5. Panel 2. In WotW the narrator's home is in Maybury. The scene in this panel is of the narrator and his wife evacuating their home; the narrator's wife is the woman in the hat on the righthand side of the panel. I think. Panels 3-5. The man trying to crawl from the pit is from WotW, Chapter Four: And then, with a renewed horror, I saw a round, black object bobbing up and down on the edge of the pit.  It was the head of the shopman who had fallen in, but showing as a little black object against the hot western sun. Now he got his shoulder and knee up, and again he seemed to slip back until only his head was visible.  Suddenly he vanished, and I could have fancied a faint shriek had reached me. Page 6. Panel 1. I do not know what the giant animal's skeleton is a reference to; perhaps the skeleton of some beast Professor Challenger brought back from Maple White Land? Steve Higgins cleared up the puzzle of the giant humanoid skeleton by pointing out the Edward Lear limerick, "An Old Man of Coblenz," which runs There was an Old Man of Coblenz The length of whose legs was immense He went with one prance From Turkey to France That surprising Old Man of Coblenz. The An Old Man of Coblenz page has a Lear image which has a marked similarity to the skeleton here. Jose da Silvestra is the Spaniard who in 1590 discovers the mines of King Solomon in H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (1885), the novel which introduced Allan Quatermain. Win Eckert and Steve Higgins identified the source of the the straight razor with the plaque "Kettlewell, Yorkshire, Mr. W. C. Cording." It is a reference to C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne's "The Lizard" (1898). The bust below the head of the skeleton of the beat is that of Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Baron von Münchhausen (1720-1797). Baron Munchhausen is best known for his extraordinarily tall tales. A collection of his tales first appeared in 1781-3, under the title Vademecum fur Lustige Leute  (Manual for Merry People), but Münchhausen was made into the epitome of the European tall tale teller with the 1785 Baron Munchhausen's Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia. The painting on the right might be the final version of portrait of Dorian Gray, from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), in which the painting of Dorian Gray reflected Gray's sins. Or the painting might be a portrait of Joseph Merrick (1862-1890), who is better known as the Elephant Man. To the right of the giant skeleton can be seen part of a statue. I believe this is the statue of the Reverend Dr. Syn, seen from the back, in the crossed-guns pose shown in his picture in Panel 2 of Page 23 of issue #2 of the first series of the League. The Reverend Dr. Syn is from Russell Thorndike's Doctor Syn (1915) and its six prequels, and was shown in League v1 #2 to have been a member of the 18th century League. Panel 2. The corpulent gentleman the League is speaking with is Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes's older and smarter brother and, following the events of the first League series, the new M. Page 7. Panel 4. Hanging from Mycroft Holmes's watch chain are various Masonic symbols, including the eye in the pyramid and the compass and square. Panel 5. "Mr. William Samson Senior" is not a pre-existing character, but is rather an example of what Moore calls "back-engineering." Starting in 1922 the character "the Wolf of Kabul" appeared in the British comics Wizard and Hotspur. The Wolf of Kabul, whose real name was Bill Sampson (often shown as "Samson"), was an agent for the British Intelligence Corps operating on the Northwest frontier of India. William Samson, Sr. is the father of the Wolf of Kabul. For more information on the Wolf of Kabul, see the Wolf of Kabul entry on my Pulp Heroes site. Moore said that the timing was right for the Wolf's father to have fought against the forces of the Mad Mahdi. The "Mad Mahdi" was Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad (1844-1885), the Muslim religious leader of a movement against the Egyptians ruling the Mahdi's native Sudan. This goal brought the Mahdi into conflict with British forces, which led to the Battle of El Obeid, on 5 November 1883, in which the Mahdi's forces completely wiped out an Egyptian force led by General William Hicks. This defeat was shocking to the British public, as was the defeat six weeks later of another Egyptian force led by the British rogue Valentine Baker, but neither horrified Britain so badly as the taking of Khartoum on 26 January 1885, in which General "Chinese" Gordon and the entire British garrison of Khartoum were massacred. (Naturally, the British retaliated, sending Major General Sir Horatio Kitchener and 26,000 men to hunt down the Mahdi's successor and wipe the Mahdist dervishes out at the Battle of Omdurman.) Page 8. Panel 3. The bust on the right is of Sir Percy Blakeney, aka the Scarlet Pimpernel, from Baroness Emmuska Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) and its ten sequels. The Scarlet Pimpernel was shown in League v1 #2 to have been a member of the 18th century League. Page 9. Panel 3. Samson Sr., as a British veteran, undoubtedly fought the Pathans and Kurds in the British campaigns in the North-West Frontier of India from 1855-1863. Page 10. Panel 1. "Anti-Stiff" was an actual product sold in the 19th century; athletes used it to strengthen the body. Chips was an actual comic; an Alfred Harmsworth publication, the Illustrated Chips was published from 1890 to 1952. Pages 12-13. Panel 1. The Martian Tripod is described in Chapter Ten of War of the Worlds in this way: And this Thing I saw!  How can I describe it?  A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground?  That was the impression those instant flashes gave.  But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand. Page 14. Panel 1. The bust is, I think, of Sherlock Holmes. The giant beetle in the vacuum tube is the Beetle, from Richard Marsh's The Beetle (1897). In that novel, a shapechanging Egyptian princess, who can take the form of a giant, malign beetle, a beautiful androgyne, and an old woman or man, pursues a vendetta against a British M.P. For more information on The Beetle, see the Beetle entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. The top picture on the right could be of a number of characters named "Thomas" from Victorian literature. The bottom picture is of Dr. Nikola, from Guy Boothby's five Dr. Nikola novels, the first of which was A Bid For Fortune (1895). Dr. Nikola is one of the greatest of the fictional archvillains. For more information on him, see the Dr. Nikola entry my Fantastic Victoriana site. Panel 2. The books are a reference to Arnould Galopin's Le Docteur Omega - Aventures Fantastiques de Trois Français dans la Planète Mars (Dr. Omega - Fantastic Adventures Of Three Frenchmen On Planet Mars, 1905). Le Docteur Oméga was about Doctor Omega, an inventor-adventurer, who goes to Mars and fights various Martians, some of whom are quite like the one seen here. I have slightly more information on Dr. Omega on the French Heroes section of my Pulp Heroes site. Panel 7. I have no idea what the mask on the glass case and the hat in the case might be a reference to. The "Eyes Only - Docteur Omega" sheet, with "J.M. Lofficier" on the bottom, is another reference to Le Docteur Oméga. "J.M. Lofficier" is a reference to Jean-Marc Lofficier, one of the world's leading experts on French science fiction, fantasy, and pulp fiction and the author of an outstanding work on the subject, French Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp Fiction. Un Habitant de la Planète Mars is a reference (I think) to the 1865 novel of the same name by the Frenchman François-Henri Peudefer de Parville. In that novel the calcified body of an ancient Martian is discovered in America. Page 15. Panel 5. The skeleton of the centaur is a reference to the centaurs of the Marvellous Islands; see Page 26 below. Page 19. Panel 2. The giant skull, previously seen in League v1 #2 Page 20 Panel 4, is the skull of one of the giant Brobdingnags, from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). Page 20. Panel 1. I do not know who the picture of the shotgun-wielding man might be of. Page 22. Panel 1. The man with the tattoo on his back, working on the side of the Nautilus, is Broad-Arrow Jack, previously seen in League v1 #4, Page 1, panel 1. Jack is the hero of an eponymous 1866 penny dreadful written by E. Harcourt Burrage. For more information on Jack, see the Broad-Arrow Jack entry on my my Fantastic Victoriana site. Panel 4. The scientist on the South Downs will be seen in issue #5 of League v2; for more information on him, see Page 26 below. Page 23. Panel 1. The meaning of "H-142" will be revealed in issue #5 of League v2. "The New Traveller's Alamanac: Chapter Three" Page 25. “...beneath the waters of Drake Passage...” Drake's Passage is a real place. "The science-pirate Captain Nemo, who kept a base at nearby Lincoln Island in the South Pacific..." Lincoln Island appears in Jules Verne's L'Ile Mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island, 1874). L'Ile Mystérieuse was the sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the novel in which Verne retconned Captain Nemo's origin. In the novel Lincoln Island was Nemo's volcano base. "...first mate Ishmael..." Ishmael, seen in League v1 #4, is the narrator of Herman Melville's Moby Dick (1851). "...what we have come to call the ghost submersible, an vehicle much like The Nautilus, which I had thought to be unique. Broad Arrow Jack has recently returned from Tierra del Fuego, where he'd been put ashore to learn whatever might be known of this elusive craft, and served us up an interesting account of his discoveries; The locals tell tales of an English naval sergeant, one James Winston Pepper, lost at sea in 1870, suposedly dragged down by undertows through emerald waters and eventually washed up upon the shores of a subsurface paradise where harmony reigned everywhere. The realm, named Pepper's Land after the sergeant, is reputedly the source of the garishly-coloured phantom submarine we've sighted. It may also be the home of a malignant species of blue dwarf or troll (perhaps related to the Nordic kobolds) that turns up occasionally in Argentina..." All of these are references to the very charming Beatles film Yellow Submarine (1968), written by Al Brodax, Roger McGough, Jack Mendelsohn, Lee Minoff and Erich Segal. The "ghost submersible" is the Yellow Submarine. "James Winston Pepper" is the discoverer of Pepperland. The "emerald waters" is the Sea of Green. The "malignant species of blue dwarf" is the Blue Meanies. And their location, and the presence of the Blue Meanies in Argentina, is based on an exchange between the Chief Blue Meanie and his Second, Max: "It's no longer a blue world, Max. Where shall we go?" "Argentina?" Mike Norris adds that "James Winston Pepper" is derived from Paul McCartney's first name, "James," and John Lennon's middle name, "Winston." "...until the occasion of his death in May, 1909..." So we know that Nemo will survive the events of League v2 and we know when he will die. We don't know, yet, the circumstances of his death, however. "...a Miss Diver, whose connection to the Captain is unclear but who made entries in the logbook of the Nautilus commencing in the later months of 1910." I have no idea who "Miss Diver" might be. "...a great cluster of small islands called the Riallaro Archipelago..." The Riallaro Archipelago appears in John Macmillan Brown's Riallaro, the Archipelago of Exiles (1901) and Limanora, the Island of Progress (1903). "Aleofane, or 'Gem of Truth'...Fanattia...Figlefia...Spectralia and neighboring Astralia...Haciocram...Kloriole, Broolyi, Swoonarie, Limanoria...Coxuria..." All of these islands appear in Riallaro and Limanora. "Southeast of Riallaro we find Manouham, famed for its fascinating open-sided tombs, and nearby Letalispons..." Manouham and Letalispons are from the Abbé Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines' Le Nouveau Gulliver, ou Voyage De Jean Gulliver, Fils Du Capitaine Gulliver (The New Gulliver, or the Voyage of Jean Gulliver, Son of Captain Gulliver, 1730). Le Nouveau Gulliver was an unauthorized sequel to Swift's Gulliver's Travels, written by Swift's French translator and detailing the adventures of Gulliver's son Jean. "Both these islands are near Juan Fernandez, not far off the coast of Chile, as is neighboring Frivola, the Frivolous Island." The islands of Juan Fernandez and Frivola were created by the Abbé Gabriel François Coyer and appeared in his A Discovery of the Island Frivola: Or, the Frivolous Island, Translated from the French, Now privately handed about Paris, and said to be agreeable to the English Manuscripts concering that Island, and its Inhabitants (1750). "...the delightful children-governed isle of Meipe..." Meipe appeared in André Maurois' Meïpe ou La Délivrance (1929). Meïpe, founded by Michelle Maurois, the four-year-old daughter of André Maurois, is that wonderful land where teachers never teach and children do not need to be polite when speaking to grown-ups. "...The Land of Parrots..." The Land of Parrots appears in Pierre Charles Fabiot Aunillon, Abbé Du Guay de Launay's Azor, our Le prince enchanté (Azor, or the Enchanted Prince, 1750). "...and the obscure immensity known as Mount Analogue." Mount Analogue is from René Daumal's Le Mont Analogue (1952). "Paradise Island..." Paradise Island was created by "Ambrose Evans" and appeared in The Adventures, and Surprizing Deliverances, of James Dubourdieu, And His Wife (1719). "...nearby Coral Island..." Coral Island was created by R. M. Ballantyne and appeared in The Coral Island (1858). "...the pink island known as Rose..." The completely pink island of Rose appears in Mervyn Peake's Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (1939). "...one Captain Clegg (affiliated in some way to the adventurers assembled by ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver)..." Captain Clegg is the alternate identity of the Reverend Dr. Syn. "The Pirates' Conference, Rose Island." See Page 26 below. Page 26. "...on The Black Tiger, owned by Slaughterboard, who is a good man and an enemy to none of us, though I like his yellow bunkmate not a bit." The Black Tiger and Captain Slaughterboard are from Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor. Slaughterboard's "yellow bunkmate" is an elf, the "Yellow Creature," who Slaughterboard captured on his first trip to Rose Island. In the novel the two were simply master and servant, but Moore has revealed that they were bunkmates, just as many real pirates took male lovers. "Blood was there, strutting and twirling his moustache..." Blood is a reference to Captain Blood, from Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood (1922). "...and also John Silver, hopping around and cackling..." "Long" John Silver appears in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883). "Pugwash I cannot make up my mind about. He seems a rather soft and inoffensive little chap, not at all cut out for life on the high seas." Captain Pugwash, a rather amiable sort for a pirate, appeared in the first issue of the British comic Eagle, in 1950, and then on Captain Pugwash, a BBC cartoon, beginning in 1957. "Hook, on the other hand, while very capable, is an enigma..." Captain Hook is from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1904). "Blood got in a foppish slapping-match with Pysse-Gummes..." Pysse-Gummes is a reference to "Captain Pissgums," the S. Clay Wilson pirate who character who appeared in such immortal adventures in Zap Comics as "Captain Pissgums and his Perverted Pirates Meet Ruby the Motorcycle Dyke." "The Pirates' Conference, Rose Island." In this Page 25 image I think the line-up is Captain Blood, Long John Silver, Captain Pissgums, Captain Pugwash, Captain Clegg, Tom the Cabin Boy, Captain Hook, the Yellow Creature, Captain Slaughterboard. "...we pass Orofena..." Orofena appears in H. Rider Haggard's When the World Shook (1918). "Slightly further north (although apparently maintaining strong diplomatic connections with Meipe, above) is Maïna..." Maïna is from André Maurois' Voyage au Pays de Articoles (1927). "...we sight the changing-coloured sands that bound Cook's Island..." Cook's Island was created by E. Nesbit and appeared in her The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904). "...we encounter the vast Mardi Archipelago, containing fascinating realms such as the island of maimed and one-legged gladiatorial enthusiasts, Diranda and witch-isle Minda or Valapee, Isle of Yams..." The Mardi Archipelago, Diranda, Minda, and Valapee are from Herman Melville's Mardi and a Voyage Thither (1849). "...we pass by Hunchback Island..." Hunchback Island appears in Abbé Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines' Le Nouveau Gulliver. "...one of he peculiar areas of the South Pacific that local islanders believe inspires men to communicate in song, such as the beauteous Bali Hai near Japan..." Bali Hai is from Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific (1949), which as Gabriel Neeb points out was based on James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific (1947). "Zara's Kingdom, ruled by British-educated Princess Zara and a sextet of exemplary Englishmen, including Captain Corcoran who'd previously served aboard Her Majesty's Ship Pinafore." Zara's Kingdom, Princess Zara, and Captain Corcoran are from Gilbert & Sullivan's Utopia Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress (1893). The H.M.S. Pinafore is a reference to Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore (1878). "One puzzling incident recorded by this Captain in his memoires concerns Marsh's Island, close to Zara's Kingdom and named after Captain Obed Marsh of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, who dropped anchor there in 1830." Captain Obed Marsh and Innsmouth, Massachusetts are from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936). "Islanders from Zara's land believe that Marsh's Island is the haunt of hideous fish-like humanoids called 'Deep Ones'..." In "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" Obed Marsh, travelling through the South Seas, discovered an island on which lived a "woman" he took as his bride and who returned with him to Innsmouth. The "woman" was actually a "Deep One," a member of the aquatic fish-humanoids who worship the evil alien god Cthulhu. "When I was a boy an eldritch book informed me I'd inherited the Innsmouth Look. I'd gills and wide-spaced eyes, you see, and I frolicked at the bottom of the deep blue sea      (He frolicked at the bottom of the deep blue sea). I went to the ocean depths most willingly, and now I am a tentacled monstrosity      (He went into the ocean depths most willingly, and now he is a tentacled monstrosity)." The "Innsmouth Look" is from "The Shadow over Innsmouth." The "Innsmouth Look" is a facial deformity that descendants of Obed Marsh and his Deep One bride develop as they grow older, a deformity which presages their change into a Deep One. The joke behind these lyrics is that they describe what happens to the narrator of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" in the style of Gilbert & Sullivan. "This is Noble's island, close to Ecuador, where an English biologist (apparentlly employed by British Military Intelligence) performed experiments of a most confidential nature that we nonetheless believe to have involved hybridisation, during the late 19th century. This belief, we should add, is supported only by the testimony of the clearly half-demented hermit Edward Prendick, who Miss Wilhelmina Murray and her colleague Allan Quatermain encountered on their trip to the South Downs during the terrible Martian incursion in the latter half of 1898." Nobles' Island and Edward Prendick is the protagonist of H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896). In The Island of Dr. Moreau Dr. Moreau retreated to Noble's Isle in disgrace; there was no stated link between Moreau and British Military Intelligence. This passage gives away something of the next issue of League. "...such as Hoste, an island republic..." Hoste appears in Jules Verne's Les Naufragés du "Jonathan" (1909). "...or Geometer's island..." Geometer's Island appears in Abbé Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines' Le Nouveau Gulliver. "Not far away are Greedy Island...adjacent Doctor's Island...Foolyk...Philosopher's Island..." These are all from Abbé Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines' Le Nouveau Gulliver. "...we next come to Rampole Island..." Rampole Island was created by H.G. Wells and appears in Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1935). "...just south of Villings, an attractive island purchased recently..." Villiangs appears in Adolfo Bioy Casares' La invención de Morel (1941). "A little west of Villings we find Brisevent, in an archipelago known as the Marvellous Islands..." Brisevent and the Marvellous Islands are from Charles Sorel's La Maison des jeux (1657). "Bordering this group of curiously-populated to the east is Houyhnhnms Land..." Houyhnhnms Land appears in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). "...we pass the fair, enlightened pagan island of Eugea..." Eugea was created by Népoumucène Lemercier and appeared in L'Atlantiade, our La Théogonie Newtonienne (1812). "...inhospitable Nimatan with its exquisite lunatic asylums..." Nimatan, or Nimpatan, appears in John Holmesby's The Voyages, Travels, and Wonderful Discoveries of Captain John Holmesby (1757). "...the former Roman colony of Oceana..." Oceana is from James Harrington's The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656). "...the idealistic republic known as Spensonia..." Spensonia appears in Thomas Spence's A Description of Spensonia (1795) and The Constitution of Spensonia (1798). "...the acclaimed 'perfect society' known as Utopia..." Utopia is from Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516). "During the early sixteenth century, Utopia was ruled by the extraordinary giant Gargantua, and was indeed the birthplace of his son, the similarly-sized Pantagruel." Gargantua and Pantagruel's stint on Utopia appears in François Rabelais' Pantagruel roi des Dipsodes (1532). Page 27. “Travelling on past Spidermonkey Island...” Spidermonkey Island is from Hugh Lofting's The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1923). "Here we find Vendchurch's Island..." Vendchurch's Island was created by "Ambrose Evans" and appeared in The Adventures, and Surprizing Deliverances, of James Dubourdieu, And His Wife. "...and Fonesca..." Fonesca, or Fonseca, is from the anonymously-written A Voyage to the New Island, Fonseca, Near Barbados (1708). "Here too is Oroonoko Island..." Oroonoko Island is from Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave (1678). "...and the quarrel-free Ferdinand's Island..." Ferdinand's Island is from Johann Michael Fleischer's Der Nordische Robinson (1741). "One is the island of Speranza, sometimes called the Island of Despair, where one Rob Crusoe, late of York, spent many years of loneliness and hardship following his shipwreck there during the last days of September, 1659." Speranza, aka the Island of Despair, aka Crusoe's Island, and Rob Crusoe are from Daniel Defoe's The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1719). "Ironically, well within swimming distance of Speranza is an island known as Herland..." Herland appears in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1916). "...such as Tacarigua..." Tacarigua is from Ronald Firbank's Prancing Nigger (1924). "Cannibal Island, nearby..." Cannibal Island is from Francois Guillaume Ducray-Duminil's Lolotte et Fanfan (1788). "...while Chita is an island famous for its trees like giant lettuce... Chita is from Pierre-Mac Orlan's Le Chant de l'équipage (1949). "The Isle of Birds, much more hospitable..." The Isle of Birds is from Elézar de Mauvillon's Le Soldat Parvenu (1753). "We also have the pirate island San Verrado..." San Verrado appears in Francois Guillaume Ducray-Duminil's Lolotte et Fanfan. "...and the feared Zaroff's Island, owned by an expatriate Russian Count whose pass-times include hunting human beings." Zaroff's Island, and the expat Russian Count Zaroff, are from Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" (1927). "Cacklogallinia is ruled by chickens..." Cacklogallinia appears in Samuel Brunt's A Voyage to Cacklogallinia (1727). "...the isle belonging to the Milanese Duke and occultist Prospero..." Prospero is from Shakespeare's The Tempest (1623), which puts Prospero's Island in the Mediterranean, but Robert Browning's "Caliban Upon Setebos" places the island in the Caribbean. "Within the Patagonian region of south Argentina we find Leonard's Land..." Leonard's Land appears in Jean-Gaspard Dubois-Fontanelle's Aventures Philosophiques (1766). "Further north, not far from Buenos Aires, we find Babel..." Babel is from Jorge Luis Borges' "La Biblioteca de Babel" (1941). "...the first being the Palace of Justice..." The Palace of Justice is from Marco Denevi's "¿El primer cuento de Kafka?" (1966). "The other major edifice of note in Babel is the city's spectacular library..." The library of Babel is from Jorge Luis Borges' "La Biblioteca de Babel." "...we find Madragal, with its history of skirmishes with Parapagel..." Madragal, or Maradagal, and Parapagel, appear in Carlo Emilio Gadda's "La cognizione del dolore" (1941). "Meanwhile, on the eastern border between Argentina and its neighbor Chile exists Cesares Republic..." Cesares (or Cessares) Republic appears in James Burgh's An Account of the First Settlement, Laws, Form  of Government and Police of the Cessares (1764). "...within the upper reaches of Chile itself, is Agzceaziguls..." Agzceaziguls is from Charles Derennes' Les Conquérants d'idoles (1919). "...stands a solitary Pink Palace..." The Pink Palace is from Marco Denevi's "La niña rosa" (1966). "Bolivia, as we continue north, is home to the immense lake (or small inland sea) known as Lost Time..." Lost Time appears in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "El Mar del tiempo perdido" (1972). "...between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina is Roncador..." Roncador was created by Herbert Read and appeared in The Green Child (1935). Page 28. “...the fabled Incan kingdom known as El Dorado...” The legend of El Dorado first appeared in print in Sir Walter Raleigh's The Discoverie of the lovlie, rich and beautiful Empyre of Guiana (1596). "...by a young Swiss-German millionaire named Aurie Goldfinger..." Aurie (or Auric) Goldfinger appears in Ian Fleming's Goldfinger (1959), in which Goldfinger bedevils James Bond. "In the Andean hills of Ecuador, as an example, there exists a valley in the shadow of Mount Parascotopetl where all of the populace are blind from birth..." This is a reference to H.G. Wells' The Country of the Blind (1911). "...while high in the Colombian Andes we find Golden Lake..." Golden Lake appears in Daniel Defoe's A New Voyage Round the World (1724). "...the delightful almond-scented village of Macondo..." Macondo appears in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Cien años de soledad (1967). "Passing on into Venezuela we find (or, in fact, don't find) Ewaipanoma..." Ewaipanoma appeared in Sir Walter Raleigh's The Discoverie of the lovlie, rich and beautiful Empyre of Guiana. "...just past ill-starred Nolandia we reach Happiland..." Nolandia and Happiland appeared in Sir Thomas More's Utopia. "Aglaura, north of Happiland..." Aglaura is from Italo Calvino's Le città invisibili (The Invisible Town, 1972). "Further north, upon the coast, we come to Watkinsland..." Watkinsland appears in Doris Lessing's Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971). "Not far from Watkinsland to the northwest is Quivera..." Quivera was created by Vaughan Wilkins and appeared in The City of Frozen Fire (1950). "Deep within the forests of the Amazon, for instance, is reputed to exist the ancient jungle kingdom known as Mu..." I'm a bit puzzled by this reference. One of the classics of crackpot crypto-archaeology is James Churchward's The Lost Continent of Mu (1926) which posited a pre-historic and now sunken continent in the Pacific Ocean called "Mu." I know of not jungle kingdom by that name in literature or film. (Well, except for the city of Mu in the 1935 serial The Call of the Savage, but I believe that Mu was in the East Indies.) "...quite possible the same kingdom described by the great 19th century traveller Candide and his instructor Dr. Pangloss as 'the Fabulous Land'..." Candide and Dr. Pangloss are from Voltaire's Candide (1759). I assume that the "Fabulous Land" mentioned here is the same as the El Dorado which the pair encountered. "In other sources Mu is sometimes known as 'Yu,' or 'Yu Atlanchi'..." Yu Atlanchi is from A. E. Merritt's The Face in the Abyss (1931). Yu Attlanchi is an Incan Lost City. "...it is near here that the world-famous 'bird girl' Riolama or Rima was discovered..." Riolama/Rima appears in W.H. Hudson's Green Mansions (1904). Rima is a notable predecessor to Tarzan; for more information on her see the Rima entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. "...next to the same artist's rendering of Edward Hyde in London's former Serpentine Park, renamed Hyde Park after the events of 1898..." This is another hint as to the events of the next to issues. Both Serpentine Park and Hyde Park are real places in London, although Serpentine Park is still called that and Hyde Park was named after the manor of Hyde, the owner of the park before King Henry VIII acquired the park in 1536. "The most astonishing of Brazil's mystery sites, which we have saved for last, is Maple White Land..." Maple White Land appears in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1912). Page 29. “Some few miles down the Amazon from the volcanic plateau, for example, is a secluded lake known as the Black Lagoon by local Indian tribes...” The Black Lagoon is from The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and Revenge of the Creature (1955). "These may be some hitherto unkown Silurian throwbacks..." As Greg Gick points out, this is a reference to the Silurians, from the Dr. Who episode "The Silurians" (1976). The Silurians are intelligent reptilian humanoids who ruled Earth during the Dinosaur Age. "...there is the miserable Island of Birds..." The sad Island of Birds appears in Michel Tremblay's Contes pour buveurs attardés (1966). "...not to be confused with the Isle of Birds found in the Caribbean..." The Isle of Birds in the Caribbean appears in Elézar de Mauvillon's Le Soldat Parvenu. "...we have Waferdanos..." Waferdanos appears in the anonymously written Voyage Curieux d'un Philadelphe dans des Pays nouvellement Découverts (1755). "...the submarine country Capillaria..." Capillaria is from Frigyes Karinthy's Capillaria (1921). "The ruins of another previously mentioned underwater passage, namely the Atlantic Tunnel..." The Atlantic Tunnel appears in Luigi Motta's Il tunnel sottomarino (The Undersea Tunnel, 1927). "...a number of the islands (once known as 'The Wicked Archipelago')..." The Wicked Archipelago appears in Lucian of Samosata's True History (2nd century C.E.). "These include the notoriously rain-swept Buyan Island..." Buyan Island appears in Karl Ralston's "Buyanka" (1932). "...cheese-like Caseosa and the startling island Cabbalussa...neighboring Dream Island..." Caseosa, Cabbalussa, and Dream Island appear in Lucian of Samosata's True History. "Yspaddaden Penkawr castle in Wales..." Yspaddaden Penkawr is from The Mabinogion, the 14th century C.E. collection of Welsh legends and myths. Yspaddaden Penkawr is as described, a castle which seems to recede the closer one draws to it. "Idol Island and Winkfield's Island..." Idol Island and Winkfield's Island are from "Unca Eliza Winkfield"'s The Female American (1767). "Further south, however, on the island of Militia, we find mention of a man-mimicking variety of shrub known as a Simlax..." I don't know what these refer to. "...the mobile vegetation on the nearby Island of Moving Trees..." The Island of Moving Trees are from Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617). "Prospero's occasional companion Captain Robert Owe-much...Ursina...Vulpina..." Captain Owe-much, Ursina, and Vulpina are from "Frank Careless"' The Floating Island (1673). "...the Island of Fortune...the Island of Chance...Philosophy Isle..." The Island of Fortune, the Island of Chance, and Philosophy Isle appear in Abbé Balthazard's L'Isle Des Philosophes Et Plusieurs Autres (1790). "The Island of the Palace of Joy..." The Island of the Palace of Joy appears in Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato (1487). "...a very pretty gentleman that I once met, by name Orlando..." Orlando is from Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1516), and Virginia Woolf's Orlando (1928). "...but illusions of the sorcerer Malagigi." The sorcerer Malagigi is from Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. "This mention of a person named Orlando is far from unique in the League's annals, though as we shall see the gender of this person seems to vary..." In Virginia Woolf's Orlando the titular character changes sex, literally overnight. "...Rossum's Island..." Rossum's Island appears in Karel Capek's R.U.R. (1923). "...commencing with Quarll Island..." Quarll Island appears in Peter Longueville's The Hermit (1727). Page 30. “...nearby Treasure Island, where the pirate captain Flint...” Treasure Island and Captain Flint are from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. "...Glubbdubdrib, Balnibari and Laputa..." Glubbdubdrib, Balnibari and Laputa are from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). "...Captain Sparrow's Island..." Captain Sparrow's Island appears in S. Fowler Wright's The Island of Captain Sparrow (1928). "...Brobdingnag..." Brobdignag is from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). "...Great Mother's Island..." Great Mother's Island is from Gerhart Hauptmann's Die Insel der grossen Mutter (1924). "...and Orphan Island." Orphan Island is from Rose Macauley's Orphan Island (1924). "Up in the great northwest expanses of the Klondike region, for example, stands Thieves City..." Thieves City was created by Maurice Level and appears in La Cité des Voleurs (1930). "...a tropical oasis known as Dead Man's Valley..." Dead Man's Valley, aka Tropical Valley, appears in Pierre Berton's The Mysterious North (1956). "...the Valley of the Beasts..." The Valley of the Beasts appears in Algernon Blackwood's "The Valley of the Beasts" (1927). "...Haunted Island..." Haunted Island appears in Algernon Blackwood's "A Haunted Island" (1906). "...nearby Canadian Floating Isles..." Canadian Floating Isles appear in Charles M. Skinner's Myths and Legends of Our Own Land (1896). "...the frankly absurd area called Rootabaga Country..." Rootabaga Country was creaed by Carl Sandburg and appeared in Rootabaga Stories (1922). "Elsewhere in Washington State we discover Chisholm Prison, thought to be escape-proof until the ingenious professor Van Dusen did just that during the first years of the twentieth century..." This is a reference to "The Problem of Cell 13" (1905), perhaps the most famous of Jacques Futrelle's "Thinking Machine" stories. Professor Van Dusen is the (admittedly very clever) "Thinking Machine." "...the logging town of Twin Peaks..." This is a reference to David Lynch's Twin Peaks (1990). "...we find areas of dense forest sometimes called 'The Deep, Deep Woods' by locals. Doll-like creatures have been seen here..." This is a reference to Johnny Gruelle's Raggedy Ann in the Deep Woods (1930). (Not my Raggedy Ann! Nooooo! Moore, you bastard!) "...a supposedly-haunted dell within the Deep, Deep Woods called Glastonbury Grove..." Glastonbury Grove appears in David Lynch's Twin Peaks. As Andrew McLean points out, Glastonbury Grove is the doorway to the Black Lodge, the home of the evil plaguing the woods and Twin Peaks. "Moving through Oregon we pass by Cricket Creek (one of the places where there have been various reports of living dinosaurs..." Cricket Creek is from Evelyn Sibley Lampman's The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek (1955). "...upon the nearby coast the city of Mahagonny..." Mahagonny was created by Bertolt Brecht and appears in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1929). "...near Mendocino, we find France-Ville..." France-Ville is from Jules Verne's Les 500 Millions de la Begum (1879). "Some distance further down, now Monterey, at a number 5 Thallo Street in Pacific Grove, lives the intriguing although somewhat musty-smelling scientist Tyco M. Bass..." Tyco M. Bass appears in Eleanor Cameron's The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954). "...while San Francisco is home to the Western American Explorer's Club, whose Professor William Waterman Sherman was involved in the mysterious '21 Balloons' incident of 1883." The Western American Explorer's Club, Professor William Waterman Sherman, and the 21 Balloons Incident of 1883 are from William Paene Du Bois' The Twenty-One Balloons (1947). "Out in rural California, not far from Merced, is the long-established settlement called iDEATH, famed for its watermelons. Hardened sugar from there is used to make trout-hatcheries, cabins, sculptures or indeed almost anything one might require. Continuing south, past a vast spread of rusted, obsolete machinery from the 19th century known locally as The Forgotten Works..." iDEATH and the Forgotten Works are from Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar (1964). "...just past Mexico's border, to the charming villa of Don Diego de la Vega where the masked adventurer known as "The Fox" was sighted during the nineteenth and even early twentieth centuries." Don Diego de la Vega was the Zorro, the Fox, in Johnston McCulley's Zorro stories, beginning with "The Curse of Capistrano" (1919). The first Zorro stories took place in the early part of the 19th century, but as McCulley cranked out successive stories, and as other authors turned out sequels, heirs to the mantle of Zorro appeared across the century and into the start of the 20th century. "...thought to be the birthplace of the fabled lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his celebrated blue ox, Babe..." Paul Bunyan and Babe are American legends; any number of myths were told about them starting in the 1840s. "The crewman, a fellow named Lebowsky, had been formerly a member of the Naiad race of Scoti Moria, but it is not known if he continued the traditional Naiad habits of smoking and nine-pins once established in America, or indeed if he produced any subsequent offspring of any note." This is another piece of Moorean back-engineering, referring to an ancestor of The Dude and Mr. Lebowski from The Big Lebowski (1998, by Ethan & Joel Coen). "...the ruined city of Tcha, a supposedly Atlantean colony on the Yucatan peninsula." Tcha was created by L. Frank Baum and appeared in The Boy Fortune Hunters in Yucatan (1910), one in the "Boy Fortune Hunter" series about a group of youthful treasure hunters who traveled around the world, finding profit and glory wherever they went. "While giving mention to Louisiana's marvelously atmospheric Yoknapatawpha County..." Yoknapatawpha County is from William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha stories and novels, including The Sound and the Fury (1929) and Absalom, Absalom (1936). However, in the Faulkner novels Yoknapatawpha County is in Mississippi, not Louisiana. "...the New Mexico ranch home of the early 20th century gunfighter and balladeer Gene Autry. While the famous singing cowboy's home is not itself remarkable, beneath it sprawls the subterranean empire of Murania..." Gene Autry (1907-1998), of course, was a real person, but what this passage refers to is the fictional Gene Autry, who appeared, along with the underground kingdom of Murania, in The Phantom Empire (1935). "...the massive underground land Atvatabar..." Atvatabar was created by William R. Bradshaw and appeared in The Goddess of Atvatabar (1892). "...the similarly subterranean Etidorhpa's Country..." Etidorhpa's Country appears in John Uri Lloyd's Etidorhpa or the End of the Earth (1895). "...the Inca Tunnel running from the same Kentucky caves towards Peru..." The Inca Tunnel is from Emilio Salgari's Duemila leghe sotto l'America (1888). Page 31. "...to the east beyond the wildernesses of Drexara..." Drexara was created by Abbé Antoine Francois Prevost, Le Philosophe anglois (1731). "...are the Appalachin hills where Silver John (a balladeer and possibly a colleague of Gene Autry)..." Silver John was the memorable creation of Manly Wade Wellman and appeared in a number of short stories and collections, beginning with Who Fears the Devil? (1963). "...the hillbilly settlement called Dogpatch, with its famously attractive females, and the nearby Valley of the Shmoon, where little edible food is grown, but where nobody goes hungry." Dogpatch and the Valley of the Shmoon both appeared in Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner (1934-1977). The Shmoon (plural of Shmoo) were the most edible beast in creation. "Westwards, meanwhile, lies Oklahoma, another location that seems to inspire men to song and dance, at least to judge by the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma..." This is a reference Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and to the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, which appears in Franz Kafka's Amerika (1927). "Northwards, over Kansas, there would seem to be some massive flaw in space, as mentioned earlier, permitting access to extensive extra-worldly territories..." This is a reference to the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, the first of which was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). "Further north still, in Wyoming, we discover Lake La Metrie and its legendary talking monster..." This is a reference to Wardon Curtis' "The Monster of Lake La Metrie" (1899). The "talking monster" was an "elasmosaurus" into which Edward Framingham had his brain transplanted. For more information, see the Monster entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. "...eastwards in Montana is Red Gap, where displaced English butler Marmaduke Ruggles..." Red Gap and Marmaduke Ruggles are from Harry Leon Wilson's Ruggles of Red Gap (1915). "...the famous former Texas Ranger and masked vigilante John Reid..." John Reid is better known as the Lone Ranger. "Iowa has Rampart Junction..." Rampart Junction is from Ray Bradbury's "The Town Where No One Got Off" (1959). "...in the forgotten county of Apodidraskiana is the haunt of fugitives called Dotandcarryone Town..." Apodidraskiana and Dotandcarryone Town are from Thomas Love Peacock's Crotchet Castle (1831). "Great Cypress Swamp is of more interest to us as the site of certain grim events, at a neighbouring graveyard, which involved a Mr. Randolph Carter of Massachusetts." This is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's "The Statement of Randolph Carter" (1919). "Great Cypress Swamp also runs into Okeefenokee Swamp, upon the Georgia/Florida border, where yet more talking animals have been reported..." The talking animals of Okeefenokee Swamp appear in Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo (1941-1973). "Higher up the coast, in Carolina, it appears that youthful ingenuity is prized with both South Carolina's Readestown..." This is a reference to the dime novel Edisonade Frank Reade and his son, Frank Reade, Jr., and his grandson, Frank Reade III. Frank Reade was created by Harold Cohen and first appeared in Boys of New York #28 (1876). Frank Reade and his kin were brilliant boy inventors who used their steam- and later electric-powered inventions and vehicles to enrich themselves and kill vast members of non-WASPs. For more information on the Edisonades and Frank Reade, see the Frank Reade entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. "...and North Carolina's Wrightstown named for rival boy inventors..." Wrightstown is a reference to dime novel Edisonade Jack Wright, who was created by Luis Senarens and first appeared in Boys' Star Library #216 (1891). Like Frank Reade, Jr., who Wright was friendly rivals with, Jack Wright was an ingenious boy inventor who used his electricity-powered vehicles to enrich himself, adventure around the world, and kill people who didn't look like him. In the original stories Wrightstown was only an hour's train ride north of New York City. For more information on Jack Wright, see the Jack Wright entry on my Fantastic Victoriana site. "...while neighbouring Bayport has found fame within the last few years as home to many mysteries requiring intervention by teen-aged youths for their solution." Bayport is the home of teen-aged sleuths Frank and Joe Hardy, aka the Hardy Boys, created by Edward Stratemeyer and Leslie McFarlane and debuting in The Tower Treasure (1926). "In Virginia, various local authors (such as Musgrave, Kennaston and Townsend, all of Fairview, close to Lichfield)..." These individuals appear in James Branch Cabell's The Cream of the Jest (1917). "...have referred to local legends that concern a hunting party of three men that set out from the Jamestown colony during January, 1610, of whom no trace was ever found, save for a journal which tells how the hunters stumbled on 'a terrible Place' and concludes with the disturbing entry  'Staires! We have found staires!'" This frightening event appears in Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves (2000). "A little north, in Maryland, stands the spectacular estate of Arnheim..." Arnheim was created by Edgar Allan Poe and appears in The Domain of Arnheim (1847). "...the dismal ruins of the Usher property..." This is a reference to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839). "...near Philadelphia...are the remains of Mettingen..." Mettingen appears in Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland or the Transformation (1798). "...the eerily dilapidated summer-houses in the swamp called Gone-Away Lake, close to Creston..." Gone-Away Lake is from Elizabeth Enright's Gone-Away Lake (1957). "...the reported talking pigs and other animals of upstate Centerboro..." This is a reference to Walter R. Brooks' "Freddy the Pig" books, the first of which was To and Again (1927). "...to the river Island of the Fay..." The Island of the Fay was created by Edgar Allan Poe and appeared in "The Island of the Fay" (1845). "...the allegedly-haunted town of Sleepy Hollow..." Sleepy Hollow is from Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820). Page 32. “...the small Dutch settlement famed for its well-known case of genuine suspended animation, one Van Winkle...” This is a reference to Rip Van Winkle, who was created by Washington Irving and appeared in "Rip Van Winkle" (1820). "...the nearby town of Hadleyburg, formerly famous for its decency, has only known shame since its much-deserved humiliation by a passing stranger during 1899." This is a reference to Mark Twain's The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg (1899). "Close to New York City is Roadtown..." Roadtown is from Edgar Chambless' Roadtown (1910). "...while in New York itself a basement of unknown location is believed to be the resting place of Flatland, an entirely flat environment in which live two-dimensional beings..." Flatland was created by Edwin A. Abbott and appeared in Flatland (1884). "Neighbouring Connecticut is unremarkable save for the proverbially pretty and agreeable womenfolk to be found in the small town of Stepford..." Stepford and the very pretty women, who actually robots, appear in Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives (1972). "...the matriarchal settlement of Coradine in Scotland..." Coradine is from W.H. Hudson's A Crystal Age (1887). "...the old colonial city of Arkham..." Arkham is from the various "Cthulhu Mythos" stories of H.P. Lovecraft. "...the feared property in nearby Maine owned by a terrible munitions dealer named (I think) Belasco..." Belasco and the feared property in Maine are from Richard Matheson's Hell House (1971). "...the area surrounding the town of Jerusalem's Lot that has developed an evil reputation..." Jerusalem's Lot is from Stephen King's Salem's Lot (1975). "...and even made a pretty-sounding village called Eastwick sound alarming..." This is a reference to John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick (1984). "...a Massachusetts lunatic, Whateley by name..." This is a reference to Wilbur Whateley, from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" (1929). "...Lucifer himself would one day 'set his cleft hoof' on the town." This is a reference to the events of John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick. "...magical tokens to be found at a Victorian house on Walden Street in Concord..." I'm not sure what this is referring to. "...'sartin talking toad-things, like,' that might be found at Whiton House on the South Shore." This is a reference to Edward Eager's The Time Garden (1958). The "talking toad-thing" is a reference to the Natterjack, the friend of the novel's protagonists. "As we passed a lofty and forbidding residence in rural Massachusetts that our driver called Hill House..." This is a reference to Shirley Jackson's wonderful The Haunting of Hill House (1959), which has one of the best opening paragraphs in all of horror fiction. "...he told us of an awful-sounding lottery held in a nearby town, invariably resulting in the winner's murder..." This is a reference to the events of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" (1949). "...when we passed Beaulieu, a walled town on the Miskatonic River leading into Arkham..." The walled town of Beaulieu appears in Ralph Adams Cram's Walled Towns (1919). "...a peculiar dream-territory accessible from certain (or perhaps I should say 'sartin') places in or around Arkham..." This is a reference to the Dreamlands of H.P. Lovecraft, from (among other places) "The Silver Key" (1929). "...the architecturally peculiar 'Witch House'..." The Witch House is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch-House" (1933). "...Arkham's Miskatonic University..." Miskatonic University appears in or is referred to in many of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories. "...a scholar, a young man said to have some knowledge of this world of dreams, named Randolph Carter." Randolph Carter appears in four H.P. Lovecraft stories, "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath," "The Silver Key," "The Statement of Randolph Carter," and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key." In three of these stories Randolph Carter visits the Dreamlands. "Allan seemed perplexed, saying he recognized the name from somewhere..." Allan recognizes Randolph Carter because of the events of "Allan and the Sundered Veil" from the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. "...citing a talking cat that had been seen on Mulberry Street in nearby Springfield..." The talking cat, and a great many other things besides, are seen on Mulberry Street in Dr. Seuss' And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937). "...the dream-world town of Ulthar." Ulthar appears in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" (1948). Carter thinks that the talking cat is from Ulthar because the citizens of Ulthar are cats. "...I stood almost naked in a derelict and filthy room..." This event is shown in "Allan and the Sundered Veil" in League v1 #5. Jess Nevins would like to thank Steve Higgins for hooking him up with the preview issue. To contact Jess Nevins, either with additional insight, annotations or general correspondance, email him at jjnevins@ix.netcom.com. To see these annotations with links to even more resource material, click HERE. And for more comics annotations and future updates of these ones, Jess Nevins maintains an archive of those documents on his personal website, which you can reach by clicking HERE. Feel free to discuss this feature on the Fourth Rail message board.