Friday, January 11, 2008

Stickleback England's Glory Part 3 References


I was particularly pleased with this panel so I thought I'd show it off without the lettering.
Stickleback © 2007 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Created by Ian Edginton & Me



Page One: Shop Names
Sadly, many of the shop signs from panel 4 were covered by lettering, but those are the breaks:

Chetwynd-Hayes, notary public
Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes (1919-2001) was a prolific writer of short horror stories. His works were adapted for the screen in two anthology horror movies: From Beyond The Grave (1973) and The Monster Club (1980). The the latter, veteran actor John Carradine played a character based on the author.

Subotsky Undertakers
Milton Subotsky (1921-1991) was a producer of 'classic' low-budget horror and sci-fi films in the 1960's and 70's, including Dr.Terror's House Of Horrors, The House That Dripped Blood, From Beyond The Grave, The Beast Must Die, The Land That Time Forgot, At The Earth's Core, and, bless him, Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD.

Cushings
Skull-faced but utterly lovely British actor Peter Cushing (1913-1994) was a star of British horror films from the 1950's to the 1980's. He appeared in most of the classic Hammer Horror films, most notably as Van Helsing to Christopher Lee's Dracula. His other roles are almost to numerous to count, but include famous characters such as Baron Frankensein, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who. Star Wars fans will probably remember him best as the Grand Moff Tarkin in Episode IV:A New Hope.

Ezra Winston
The antiquarian whose shop was the springboard for so many adventures in the 1962 comic strip Mort Cinder by Hector Oesterheld and Alberto Breccia. Since Breccia's later work had a huge influence on my work on Stickleback, and the appearance of the character Ezra Winston was based upon Breccia, it was nice to be able drop the name in.

The Costume Shop and Shopkeeper from Mister Ben
On the left is the costume shop from David McKee's classic 1970's children's TV series Mister Ben (you can just see the famous suit of armour in the window) and The Shopkeeper is dashing down the middle of the road, shielding himself with a newspaper.

Thanks to Proudhuff for pointing this one out - I'd forgotten putting it in!

Page One: Des Kinvig
The Eponymous main character from Nigel Kneale's 1981 science fiction sitcom Kinvig. Commissioned by ITV following the BBC's success with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's about the owner of an unsuccessful backstreet electrical repair shop who believes that he is being contacted by aliens.
Kneale wanted an ordinary-sounding name for his main character, and picked Kinvig, which is commonplace on his native Isle of Man, as an alternative to Smith or Jones. He didn't realize the name was practically unknown on the mainland, and before the series began there was much speculation over what sort of exotic alien creature a "Kinvig" might be.







Page Two (onwards): Contents Of Kinvig's Shop
So many references here I can hardly keep count, but in this and following pages, look out for nods in the direction of:

Alien:
Alien egg and face-hugger in a jar.

Doctor Who:
Jon Pertwee era: Green Death maggot & Metebelis spider from Planet of the Spiders.
Tom baker era: Martian Mummy & mask of Sutek from Pyramids of Mars.

Quatermass and the Pit:
Martian arthropod in a jar and humanoid skeleton with enlarged skull.

Hindu mythology/Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels:
Giant turtle carrying four elephants on its back.

Thunderbirds:
The ashtray from Geoff Tracey's desk.

Red Seas (2000AD):
One of the little lizard-men from The Hollow Land.

Leviathan (2000AD):
A painting of Hastur the demon appears on the back wall of the shop (behind Annie Oakley).


Page Two: Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Anne Mosey, 1860-1926) was a famous American sharpshooter, actress and philanthropist who toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. With a .22 rifle, she could reputedly split a playing card edge-on at 90 feet.
Our version owes rather more to Betty Hutton's fictional portrayal of Annie in the 1950 MGM film Annie Get Your Gun than to the real person.









Zombies from Resurrection Bullets
Annie Oakley 'sowing' bullets and zombies emerging from the ground echoes the Children of the Hydra's Teeth sequence from Ray Harryhausen's classic 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts, in which teeth are sown in the earth and skeleton warriors emerge from the ground.

(Thanks to PJ Holden for reminding me of this one)









Page Five: Zombies
The zombie on the right (in the white hat) is based on 1940's cowboy matinee idol Roy Rogers. The zombie with the black hat and moustache is based on the "Butch Cavendish" action figure from the 1970's Louis Marx range of Lone Ranger toys. Not shown in this image (but on the far left of original panel) is an Indian with a white bandanna who is loosely based on another of the Lone ranger figures.

8 comments:

PJ Holden said...

Was the raising of the zombies using bullets a nod to one of the Voyages of Sinbad where the skeletons were raised using dragons teeth? (IIRC)

(Also: loving this series...)

shane oakley said...

MATT!!The new serial is fekkin stunning - makes me cry tears of pure puppyjoy. Are you and Ian attempting to 'out-referance' Alan Moore, or wha? Can't beleive you haven't signposted 'Roy Ward Bakeries'...

shane oakley said...

..yeah, i spelt BELIEVE wrong, but you called a penis a NOB.

Unknown said...

PJ - thanks for reminding me of that one, I've updated the post and credited you. It's always the blindingly obvious ones I miss...

Cheers, Oak! "Roy Ward Bakeries" is excellent, I might nick that one day :-)
"Nob" - not down to me mate: I didn't write or letter that one. Anyway, "Nob" (as opposed to "knob") is a recognized slang term for the John Thomas, I beleive :-)

shane oakley said...

Where i come from, lad, it's cissy to drop your 'k'...

spleenal said...

wow! a lot of thought has gone into this!

Anonymous said...

D, what a joy this strip is, I thought the person running down the road in that street scene was the Shopkeeper from Mr Benn?

As if by majic...

Hope to see you at the Hi Ex,

Proudhuff

Unknown said...

Spleenal - yeah, most of it Ian's, of course... I sometimes wonder how he finds the time :-)

Proudhuff - well bugger me, you're right! I'd forgotten I'd put him in. I'll correct the post and give you a credit.