Stickleback: London's Burning Part 5 References

Colour and black & white versions of my 9th cover for 2000AD, complete with a little tribute to my late friend Steve Whitaker (click on image to see larger version). Can’t believe I missed putting in a "fishpaste" reference, though.
Stickleback © 2010 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Stickleback created by Ian Edginton & Me.

I did a trial version of this cover in colour, exploiting the colour masking technique I use for setting up the texture effects, but Tharg-in-Residence Matt Smith decided that a migraine-inducing cover might be a bit much for the Squaxx dek Thargo. Lucky for you, but a pity for me: colour covers pay better :-)


Page One: Carfax Abbey

A key location in Bram Stoker's seminal vampire novel Dracula, Carfax Abbey is one of the London properties purchased by the Count from Jonathan Harker. Ian and I have "borrowed" Carfax abbey a couple of times now - the first being for our steampunk graphic novel Scarlet Traces - and this version is based on the abbey at Whitby, the seaside town which also features in Dracula.




Page One: Effigy of Steve Whitaker

This effigy is a little tribute to my late friend and teacher Steve Whitaker, who was, among many things, an extremely gifted comic artist and colourist. He's probably best remembered for his colouring on Alan Moore and David Lloyd's dystopian tour-de-force V for Vendetta, though Steve also played a minor role in 2000AD history; he contributed colouring to a number of Brendan McCarthy's Judge Dredd stories, including The Judda from the Oz storyline.

The effigy shows Steve with his trademark long coat and umbrella. Thanks to Ian Edginton for suggesting the tribute.

Page Two: The Picnic

Supplied by two of the great London department stores; Fortnum & Mason was founded in 1707 and built its reputation on supplying high quality foods, and is world-famous for its luxury picnic hampers and branded loose-leaf tea. One of the founders, Hugh Mason, was a servant of King George III and helped to nurse him during his famous period of madness (as described in the play by Alan Bennett). When George recovered, Mason was paid off, and he used the money to go into trade.

Harrods started in a small way in 1834, as a wholesale grocery store in London's East End. In 1851, the owner, Charles Henry Harrod, moved the store to Knightsbridge, to take advantage of trade from the Great Exhibition. His son Charles Digby Harrod took the one-room shop and by 1898 had built it into a business employing more than one hundred people and sporting the UK's first escalator. Harrods Food Hall is world-famous. The store is currently owned by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al Fayed, whose fifth son Dodi died alongside Diana, Princess of Wales in a car crash in Paris in 1997. The Harrods brand now extends to a bank, an estate agents and an aviation company.


Page Three: The Countess's Mask

Greek theatre dates back as early as 550 BCE, evolving, it's believed, out of fertility rites for the god Dionysis. Masks were used in Greek plays to define the different characters; as few as 2-3 actors might be involved in a play, but more characters could be introduced by having the actors change masks.

The masks had exaggerated features and facial expressions, and this led, by Roman times, to the idea of the "Tragic" and the "Comic" mask (a pairing which symbolizes theatre in the West to this day). The Countess's mask is a "Tragic" type.


Page Four: Philo Thynne's House

Revisiting the setting of the fake seance from the first-ever episode of Stickleback: Mother London, drawn back in September 2006 and published in December that year.







Page Five: Discarded Robots, Three Years in the Making

In the script for the first part of Stickleback: Mother London, Ian Edginton asked for various classic robots from old British comics to appear in Thynne's lair. At the time, the demands of layout prevented me from showing this, but three years later, the discerning reader might just possibly be able to recognize Robot Archie and Togo from The House of Dollmann in this pile of old robot parts.




Page Five: The Futurists

If this seems a little League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it's worth remembering, dear reader, that all of us who play this kind of tune are riffing off Philip José Farmer.

From left to right:

Phylo Thynne
Our own invention, the creator of malign automata from Stickleback: Mother London.

Rotwang
Mad scientist C.A. Rotwang will be best remembered as the creator of the Art Deco "Maria robot" in Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou's silent movie SF-classic Metropolis. The character was played by actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, upon whom my version of Rotwang is loosely based. Despite the apparent "oo-err vicar" double-entendre for English speakers, the name Rotwang is actually pronounced "roat-vang" and probably means "red cheek." ("oo-err vicar")

Captain Mors
Also known as the "Air Pirate," Captain Mors was the hero of the snappily-titled Der Luftpirat und sein Lenkbares Luftschiff (The Air Pirate and His Steerable Airship), a German dime novel that ran for 165 issues from 1908-1911. Captain Mors' adventures took him out into the Solar System, so that in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), Frank Rottensteiner wrote that "There is a case for calling this the first sf magazine." The author(s) of the series are unknown, though writer Oskar Hoffmann is cited as a likely possibility both by ESF and Heinz J Galle in his 2005 POD reprint of selected Mors stories.

Robur
Aeronaut and anti-hero of the Jules Verne novels Robur the Conqueror and Master of the World (Published 1886 and 1904 respectively).
For more information, see the entry Page Ten: The Mistral from Part One References.

The Countess
Since revelations about the Countess are an integral part of the plot, I'll avoid giving any spoilers. Suffice to say, if she spent her youth hanging around experts in robotics and aviation, it's no surprise we find her now living on a dirigible manned by automata!

Stickleback: London's Burning Part 4 References

Stickleback and the gang in action
Stickleback © 2010 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Stickleback created by Ian Edginton & me

Not much in the way of references this week, so I thought I'd throw in an unlettered copy of this panel; of all the shots I've done of Stickleback and the gang to date, this one's probably my favourite.

The Centurion

Unfolding from a single block of metal, the Centurion has a certain amount in common with 80's toys-cum-90's film stars the Transformers. Side panels that fold out and back like wings reinforce that Japanese mecha feel. The twin Gatling-gun "arms" borrow from Robocop's ED-209, and the rotating magnifier for the eye lenses adds a certain Dalek-y vibe.

Since this is meant to be Victorian technology, I wanted to follow the look of early trains, tanks and traction engines, where everything is functional but not really styled - there's no attempt to round off hard lines or make shapes more aerodynamic.

To avoid confusion with The Traction Men from England's Glory, I used a tilted cube for the Centurion's torso and added animal-style back-slung knee joints to give the legs a different shape.

Oh, and by the way, the folding-out is all a complete cheat; the gaps in the cube body don't remotely match to the folded-out panels on the limbs. I just tried to make it complicated enough that no one would notice.

Stickleback: London's Burning Part Three References

Page One: The Alley Containing The Silver Ring Club

Hardcore fans of Gerry Anderson's 1967 puppet series Captain Scarlet might just recognize this as the alley that features in the show's title sequence. It's the first shot in each show, where the camera tracks down the alley to Ed Bishop's honeyed tones ("The Mysterons - swworrn enemies of Earth!") just before someone steps on a cat and the camera whip-pans round to show the good captain himself getting machine-gunned to no ill effect.

The sign for the Silver Ring Club is based on the painting Portrait présumé de Gabrielle d'Estrées et de sa soeur la duchesse de Villars ("Portrait presumed to be of Gabrielle d'Estrées and her sister the Duchess of Villars"), dated about 1594, artist unknown, which hangs in The Louvre.


Page One: The Silver Ring Club

The interior of the club contains various tips of the hat to Andrew Davies' violently-throbbing 2002 television series Tipping the Velvet*, in particular, the names of the performers Kitty and King.

*Tipping the Velvet is an adaptation of the novel by Sarah Waters, but I've only seen the TV series.






Page One: Kitty and King

Ian's script describes this panel as follows: "Kitty is swooning in King’s arm and he’s using the cane he’s holding in his other hand to lift Kitty’s skirts to get a glimpse on her front bottom."
Although Simon B. Davies had successfully slipped a huge purple willy (ooh, missus) into the last episode of Stone Island back in 2008, I thought it best to check with Tharg-in-Residence Matt Smith as to whether Furry Front Bottoms would be acceptable (see pencil image, right) - word came back that 2000AD really wasn't That Kind of Comic so I fitted Kitty out with a pair of bloomers with a picture of a pussy on them (oo-err vicar).


"Rache"

Stickleback's use of the German word "Rache" ("revenge") is a reference to the Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet (which Ian has been busy adapting as a graphic novel with our good mate Ian Culbard.)
I believe the reference to Holmes may hint at a possible origin for Stickleback... perhaps more will be revealed in time.

Incidentally, Stickleback must mis-pronounce the word, since the door(wo)man hears it with a long "a" and an English "ch"as in "Rachael," but in fact it has a short "a" and the guttural "ch" of "loch" - to an untutored ear it would sound more like "racker."

The Crais

Named (in a fashion) after Ronnie and Reggie, the infamous Kray twins who ruled London's underworld during the 1960's. Ronnie Kray was rumoured to have had sexual relationships with both Labour MP Tom Driberg and Conservative Lord Boothby, which may have led to a lack of political will in stamping out their criminal activities.

Our Ronnie is based on the famous image of a young Marlene Dietrich in a tuxedo.



Gene Colan Tribute

The composition and lighting in the panel are a bit of a tip of the hat to veteran comic artist Gene Colan (whom I remember fondly for his runs on Marvel Comics' Daredevil, Iron Man, Captain Marvel and Howard The Duck).







The Centurion

When I was drawing this panel, I couldn't help but think of the puzzled ape-men regarding the alien monolith in Stanley Kubrick's trippy 1968 tour-de-force 2001: A Space Odyssey (even if the proportions of the block are wrong).







The Centurion Unfolds

Naturally enough, a reference to 80's-toys-become-2000's-movie-stars Transformers. What it folds out into, you'll see next episode.

Stickleback: London's Burning Part Two References

Page One: Mister Peepers and Mister Lug Suddenly Appear

In my previous post I described how I'd forgotten to include Peepers and Lug with the rest of the gang - this episode they suddenly appear in the pit with everyone else. But what Tharg doesn't notice won't hurt him.






Page Two: Hardenbrook The Notary

Is named after the character played by veteran British actor Michael Gough in Tim Burton's 1999 film Sleepy Hollow. Ian asked me to make the character look like Michael Gough, but I'm not very good at likenesses, and luckily the demands of page layout meant the panel he appeared in was so small you couldn't make out his face anyway.






Page Three: "Hargreave"

Mr. Tickle's Christian name is a nod to Roger Hargreaves, creator of the Mister Men and Little Miss books.








Stickleback's Revolver

This unlikely-looking weapon is a LeMat revolver, an American Civil War side-arm that features a standard .42 or .36 revolver mechanism with a secondary 16 gauge barrel capable of firing buckshot (in other words, it's a big pistol with a small shotgun built into it).






The Countess's Boudoir

Since we wanted it to look futuristic (for the 19th century) the Countess's boudoir borrows from the design aesthetic of German Expressionist movies such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

The skull-shaped stand for her masks was inspired by the work of early 2000AD stalwart and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen artist Kev O'Neill.




The Countess's Mask

Surprisingly (since it appears more beautiful than monstrous) the Countess's mask here is based on the Medusa Rondanini, a famous marble sculpture of the Medusa's head. It is probably a Roman copy of a Greek work dating from the 5th Century BCE .

Xronia Pola!

The Greeks use a ship as their symbol for Christmas; this one is on Aristotelou, Thessaloniki's main drag

(Belated) Merry Christmas and a happy new year! I'm just back from a trip to Xanthi in the far north of Greece. My belovèd, the polyglot Dr.F, taught English there in the 1990's, so we went up to spend Christmas with friends and to visit some of her old pupils. I have to say, I've rarely experienced such wonderful hospitality, and thanks are due to everyone who looked after us during our stay, particularly Sirmo and Niko, who put us up, ferried us around, and were incredibly patient with my minimal, stumbling Greek.

The picturesque old town of Xanthi

Situated up near the Bulgarian border, Xanthi normally suffers freezing winters, but this year it was unseasonably warm; this gave us the opportunity to alternate visiting friends and eating way too many kourambiedes with sitting outside cafés and eating way too many kourambiedes.

The shrine at Porto Lagos, just outside Xanthi

It's been so mild that we could comfortably sit out after dark; here I'm marking up the script for Stickleback part 11 at a café in the town square

The day before we left, it was so clear that you could see down to the Aegean from the mountains