From: sherman@oak.math.ucla.edu (The Ahkond of Swat)
Subject: Re: DC: Doom Patrol Annotations (long)
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 92 03:49:01 GMT

Some annotations to Doom Patrol 39 - 53
By Bill Sherman (sherman@math.ucla.edu)
Comments, suggestions and corrections are more than welcome.

See the previous file for a "Ground Rules" outline.


#39, "Bell, Book and Candle"

p. 3. "Waiting For Godot" by Samuel Beckett, an important minimalist
play.

#40, "Battlefield of Dreams"

The title could refer to the recent film "Field of Dreams".

#41, "Fallen Angel"

p. 3: The USS Eldridge is the ship from the famous "Philadelphia 
Experiment" rumor.  Supposedly, the Navy was trying out a method
for making ships invisible (or for teleportation) and used a whole
ship full of sailors as guinea pigs.  Something strange happened
and the ship materialized with people stuck in the walls.  It is 
claimed that some of its survivors still wander Philadelphia, 
psychotic and sometimes invisible.  

As I mentioned in the summaries, the construction of a tower high
enough to reach the heavens is a reference to the Biblical Tower
of Babel, from Genesis.

#42, "Musclebound: the Secret Origin of Flex Mentallo"

p. 5-6: this refers to the real bodybuilder ads to be found in comic
books a few years ago.  Charles Atlas, I think.

p. 11: "Revolution 9" by the Beatles, from _The Beatles_ (the "white
album").

p. 12: Is "the Fact" a reference to the real character "the Question"?

p. 17: That's Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo" falling out of bed.  Richard
Nixon is shown twice.  Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is shown in 
negative; what's the other painting?  My literary bias is showing...

#43, "Anyhow Stories"

p. 1: The storybook of the title could be a reference to Rudyard Kipling's
_Just So Stories_.

p. 4: Ka-Bala is a reference to the Kabbala, an ancient tradition of Jewish
mysticism founded in Spain in the middle ages.  You can look it up if you
want details about the beliefs, but I should point out that Kabbalism has
become associated in Western culture with secret societies and arcane 
knowledge.  In this role it has appeared in several works referred to 
elsewhere in these annotations, such as the _Illuminatus_ trilogy, 
_Finnegans Wake_ and Pavic's _Dictionary of the Khazars_.

p. 6: Laika was the dog shot into space by the Soviets in the early days of
their space program.  There was no re-entry in the flight plan.  Laika was
an important symbol in the recent art-house hit film "My Life As A Dog",
in the same way that Washington thinks of her here.  An object of pity,
a sacrifice to Big Science and the new frontier.

#44, "Voices"

p. 6: Honey says that 5 is the number of his conspiracy.  This is strange,
considering how, in the _Illuminatus_ trilogy by Shea and Wilson, 5 is
the number of the Discordians, not the Illuminati.  I would identify Honey's
side with the Illuminati.  Just the Pentagon, I guess...

p. 9: The "napalm in the morning" line is from "Apocalypse Now", where
it is spoken by Robert Duvall.

p. 10: Leonard Nimoy, of course, played Mr. Spock on "Star Trek".  His
poetry defies description; I prefer his rendition of "Proud Mary".

p. 13: As I mentioned in a summary file, "My Greenest Adventure" is a pun on
"My Greatest Adventure", which is the comic book which turned into the
original "Doom Patrol" series.

p. 21: Flex's attempts (this time, successful) to turn the Pentagon round
may refer to the Yippies and their attempt to lift the Pentagon into the
air.  The Yippies were a radical political youth organization in the 
sixties, and once held a demonstration in which they gathered at the 
Pentagon and attempted to levitate it through a force of will.

#45, "The Beard Hunter"

The title is a pun on "The Deer Hunter".

p. 1: "Clockwork Orangejuice" refers to Anthony Burgess' _A Clockwork
Orange_ (and, of course, the Kubrick film adaptation).

p. 1: Is "The Handman" a nod to Gaiman's "Sandman"?  Probably.

p. 7: Mom means Meryl Streep, the actress, known for her skill at weepy, 
melodramatic scenes.

p. 9: Between Santa Claus and Abe Lincoln is a picture of Alan Moore.
"Cerebus" readers will recognize him as "the little fellow with the hair".

p. 19: Jean-Claude Van Damme is a popular action-flick actor with lots
of martial arts moves.

p. 24: "Snap, crackle, pop" is the advertising motto for Kellogg's Rice
Krispies.

#46, "Aftermath"

p. 1: It is a popular misconception that Joyce and Burroughs wrote 
nonsense.  Bah, humbug!

p. 2: This is the theme from the movie "Goldfinger", which was a huge
popular hit (as performed by Shirley Bassey).

p. 2: "The Zen Men" is from the comics shop in the previous issue.

p. 4: "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was a hippie motto in the sixties.  I
believe that it was coined by Timothy Leary.

p. 9: Jane's logo is also a capital phi.  What this means, I don't know.
It has no particular mathematical significance, in case you're wondering.

p. 17: Cray is a real computer company (anybody on this newsgroup probably
knows that, though) which produces some of the fastest processors around.

#47, "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil"

Shadowy Mr. Evans bears a striking resemblance to Cole Porter.  Again, does 
Morrison bear Porter a grudge, or what?  

p. 1: the name Samael has been extensively discussed in the Sandman annotation
debates.  JHVH is Yahweh, Jehovah.  Hebrew has no vowels, and so "JHVH" is 
an accurate transcription.

p. 21: "Why Don't We Do It In the Road" is another song from the Beatles'
"white album".

p. 21: Some bystander is wearing a Jane's Addiction t-shirt.

#48, "Entertaining Mr. Evans"

p. 2: "Kiss, cuddle and torture" is a line from the song "The Best Man's Fall" 
by the Trash Can Sinatras, from their album _Cake_.

p. 5: "Sturm und Drang" is German for "storm and drive".  It's a common
description for the works of people like Wagner and Goethe (especially
Wagner).

p. 6: The fetus is singing "I am, from head to foot, composed(?) of love".

p. 9: There's Jane's logo on the plane.

#49, "Death in Venice"

The title is that of a novel by Thomas Mann.

p. 2: Bobby has various British music paraphernalia.  I recognize Lush,
Curve, Morrissey, the Smiths, Inspiral Carpets, NME.  "Joe's Bar" is
a graphic novel, by ?

p. 9: a strange version of the story of Narcissus.

p. 9: "Pepperpot" is the name used by the members of Monty Python for 
their "little old lady" characters.  A reference to aging is likely, 
considering the superpowers of Alias the Blur.

p. 20: "the rest is silence" are Hamlet's last words, from the Shakespeare
play; V.ii.310.

#50, "Tales of Hofmann"

p. 8: "Workers of the world, unite!  You have nothing to lose but your
chains!".  Is this from Marx and Engels' "Communist Manifesto"?  It's
definitely a famous Communist-revolutionary slogan.

p. 17: Mr. Nobody seems unfamiliar with psychedelic guitarist Jimi Hendrix 
... or maybe it's the letterer's fault.  "Are You Experienced" is one of 
Hendrix' classics.  For the curious, Hendrix' real name was James Marshall
Hendrix.

p. 26 - 27: Mr. Nobody is referring to the atomic-bomb tests.  The story 
about Ferdinand Cheval is true.

#51, "Magic Bus"

p. 2: the psychedelic bus is an icon of the 60's and LSD; in particular
it refers to the Merry Pranksters.  See Ken Kesey's _The Electric 
Kool-Aid Acid Test_.

p. 24: John Dandy has a Scrabble tile for a nose.

#52, "After the Cabaret"

p. 1: Dandy now has Scrabble eyes.

p. 21: Why has Morden turned back into Mr. Nobody?  A continuity error?

p. 23: "I die, Horatio" is from Hamlet's dying speech: V.ii.304.  

#53, "And Men Shall Call Him -- Hero!"

The general Marvel references are described in the summary files.  If
the net desires, I can include (and expand upon) them here.

p. 24: in the first panel, we see a famous Escher print, "Relativity".


-------------------
--
 Bill Sherman     S^1 `--> S^(2n+1) -->> CP^n      sherman@math.ucla.edu
            Righteous, mighteous and out-of-sighteous!
                    - Easy Reader, "The Electric Company"
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