From: morrow@physics.rice.edu (Elmohoma!)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info
Subject: SANDMAN:  Annotation 34 revised
Date: 11 Nov 92 21:20:41 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway


	Not much in this one, except dissing George Pratt....

                         The Annotated Sandman
    
               Edited and largely written by Greg Morrow
      
                     Issue 34:  "Bad Moon Rising"
       Neil Gaiman, Colleen Doran, George Pratt and Dick Giordano

                Third part of storyline _A Game of You_
                  Not yet reprinted in any other form

Disclaimer:  Sandman and all related characters are copyrights and trademarks
of DC Comics Inc.  Sandman and this annotation are intended for mature
audiences only.

Notice:  Commentaries and additional information should go to
morrow@physics.rice.edu (Internet) or morrow@fnal.BITNET.  This material is
posted by the editor directly to rec.arts.comics and COMICS-L, and is licensed
to appear on Compu$erve and GEnie.  It is also available via anonymous ftp
from theory.lcs.mit.edu in pub/wald/sandman.  Please contact the editor if you 
see this material on any other forum.  Reproduction in any form without 
permission of the editor (as agent for the contributors) is forbidden.

Title:  _A Game of You_ clearly refers to the question of identity.  Who and
what the characters in this story are is a question either to the readers or to
the character him, her, or itself, and that is the most important theme the
reader should keep in mind when reading this story.
	"Bad Moon Rising" is a song by Credence Clearwater Revival; the
relevant line in the song is "I see a bad moon rising".  The stylized `3' in
the title is the chapter number.

Credits:  Yes, the art looks really bad.  It's George Pratt's fault.  According
to hearsay, Pratt inked Doran's pencils in two days.  According to Neil Gaiman,
Pratt left for vacation leaving the last four pages undone.  Dick Giordano 
inked those, deliberating using a style similar to Pratt's.  Doran has 
threatened to "break Pratt's fingers" if he ever comes near her art again, and 
now has an "inker approval" clause in her contracts with DC.

Page 1 panel 2:  The birds, which were causing or feeding off of the bad dreams
of the house's occupants, disappear, quite probably at the exact same time that
George was killed (last issue, last scene).

Page 2 panel 5:  Note the poster of the angelic figure.

Page 4, panel 6:  Thessaly has no sense of humor; this will be elaborated on
later.  Note that Wanda lives in apartment 2, which is probably a numerological
reference to her dual nature (explained later).

Page 5 panel 5:  This is one of the few places that Doran's style survived the
inking; Wanda's hair in particular, as well as her stance, screams "Doran".
Note that Barbie lives in apartment 1; fitting, since she is the primary
character and the center around whom this arc revolves.

Page 6 panel 2:  The Porpentine has changed shape again.

Page 7 panel 6:  Shortcomings: a pun.

Page 10 panel 4, 6-8:  Another obviously Doran sequence.  Keep in mind that
Gaiman usually writes in full script; this is a good example of Gaiman's
technical skill and flexibility, to write to a particular artist's style.

Page 11 panel 3:  This is probably the same utility knife George used earlier.

Page 12-13:  Thessaly's flaying of George's face is taken directly from the 
practices of Greek witches, as reported by the third century AD Latin writer
Apuleius, in "The Golden Ass".  It is extremely significant that Mount
Thessaly in Greece was a center of activity of these witches.
	The practice may have its roots in Sumeria and Babylonia, whose
inhabitants wore the faces of their dead enemies, in accordance with the
traditions of sympathetic magic.
	In medieval times, demons were believed to flay their victims and wear
their skins to fool mortals; in certain varieties of Satanism, the skin of a
sacrificial victim is the gateway to Hell (which may be seen in certain issues
of the comic book _Grimjack_).  George's skin is not exactly the gateway to the
Dreaming, but there is some parallelism there.

Page 14 panel 3:  High Shore of the Silent River:  No refs.  In Greek
mythology, the River Styx was one of the boundaries between the land of the
living and the land of the dead.  Other mythological rivers include Acheron,
Cocytus, Phlegethon (the River of Fire) and Lethe (the River of Forgetfulness).

Page 15 panel 1:  Gwas-y-gog:  Welsh, meaning literally "Servant of the
cuckoo"; it is also the name of a little brown bird, which may be the one known
as "hedge-sparrow" in English.
	Why Welsh?  Probably because of the rich influence Welsh culture has
had on English folktales, and probably because of the existence of that little
brown bird, as a real-life antecedent.
	Panel 2:  George's statement here is unclear.  The cuckoo sent him
here, but came to him here and seduced him with promises.  Is he a creature of
the Dreaming, or a man taken over by the Cuckoo's will?
	Panel 5:  It is a cliche that you pinch yourself to shock yourself out
of a dream.

Page 16 panel 9:  Is Thessaly referring to Dream's ruby, or to another,
similar, stone brought forth from dreams?  Most likely the former.

Page 17 panel 6:  Even assuming that all four women are capable of
menstruation, and assuming that Hazel and Foxglove aren't in sync, it's only
about 50% probable that any one of them would be menstruating at any given
time (based on a period lasting five days in 30, which is a simplification).
Given that Hazel and Fox are in sync, and Thessaly and Wanda are incapable,
it's really only about a 1 in 6 chance that menstrual blood would be available.
This is perhaps the first time that Gaiman has had a story point depend purely
on chance, however elegantly it may have been foreshadowed.
	Thessaly, it is hinted, is very old.  Since ovulation is a lynchpin in
the menstrual cycle, and since the supply of eggs in the human female is finite
and in the hundreds or thousands, it is no surprise that Thessaly has stopped
menstruating, even though she retains apparent youth.  She's simply run out of
eggs.
	Panel 9:  We have seen no other evidence that Dream bears some sort of
prejudice against lesbians or witches.  Dream generally spares little time for
any mortals.

Page 18 panel 3:  Thessaly, Hazel, and Foxglove together make up a maiden,
mother, crone triune; this summons the power of the Triple Goddess.
	Panel 4:  Gorgo:  the Greek root /gorgos/ means "grim, fierce,
terrible".  This may refer simply to the Gorgon Medusa, one of three
horrifyingly grotesque daughters of the sea-god Phorkys in Greek myth, 
slain by Perseus; variant spellings occasionally left off the 'n'. 
Also, a common variant for Gorgas "sea-nymphs" is Gorgides, with an implied 
singular Gorgo.
	Mormo:  A Greek bogeyman/bugbear, used to frighten children.  Lamachus
(who?) had the Mormo on his helmet.  She is definitely feminine, possibly akin
to the Lamia.
	Ereschigal:  Ereshkigal, variously known as Allatu/Allatum ("Alatu" is 
Akkadian for "goddess"), or Gula (Sumerian for "Queen"), is a deity native to 
the Fertile Crescent, and therefore worshipped in some form by the Sumerians, 
Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Hurians, and so on.  She is generally spoken 
of as the chief Babylonian goddess of the underworld, sister of Ishtar/Inanna, 
and shares the throne of the underworld Irkalla with Nergal (familiar as a 
demon to readers of the comic book _Hellblazer_).
	Gorgo, if taken as "sea nymph", Mormo, and Ereshkigal form a Maiden-
Mother-Crone triplet.
	Note that Foxglove, Hazel, and Thessaly also form a Maiden-Mother-Crone
triplet.

Page 19 panel 1:  Note the three faces.

Page 21 panel 1:  The bag lady says "Moon's gone weirdzo/Look at the son of a
bitch."  Weirdzo is a reference to the Bizarros, mentioned earlier.

Page 22 panel 4:  Lunatic, meaning madman, originally arose from the belief
that the full moon influenced madness.  Its use here is overtly ironic.

Page 23 panel 1-3:  The baglady, possibly mad, recognizes what happened to the
moon.  Is it a consequence of her madness, or is it simply as she says in panel
3, that no one bothers to look at the sky any more?
	Panel 6:  Rabbit hole:  a reference to Lewis Carroll's _Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland_, where the heroine falls down a rabbit hole into a
strange other world.  Stephen King:  An extremely popular American writer of
horror stories.
	Panel 7:  Wanda is playing "the game of you".

Page 24 panel 2:  Goody Two-Shoes:  A cliche meaning a do-gooder; often used
derisively.  It arises from an anonymous allegory published in English in 1766
under the somewhat unwieldy title:

        "The history of little Goody Two-Shoes:  
         Otherwise called, Mrs. Margery Two-Shoes.  
         With the means by which she acquired her learning and wisdom, 
         And in consequence thereof her estate; 
         Set forth at large for the benefit of those, 
         Who from a state of rags and care, 
         And having shoes but half a pair; 
         Their fortunes and their fame would fix, 
         And gallop in a coach and six."

	It is by reputation simplistic and moralistic; the heroine exemplifies
the type of person her name came to represent.  "Goody" itself is short for
"Goodwife", and was used in a sense roughly equivalent to "Mrs."
	Margaret Hamilton:  Played the Wicked Witch of the West in the 
movie version of _The Wizard of Oz_.
       	Panel 5-6:  George should be enjoined from speaking except with
Thessaly's permission; see page 16 panel 1.  This is handwaved away in the next
issue.

Revision history:
Version 1.0 released 1 Aug 92
Version 1.1 released 27 Sept 92
Version 2.0 released/archived 11 Nov 92

Contributors include:
	Jim W Lai <jwtlai@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca> pointed out the correlation
between George's death and the disappearance of the birds; Thessaly's sense of
humor and the significance of apartment numbers; mythical rivers; Dream's
attitude toward mortals; Mormo's meaning; and the connection between the mad
and the moon.
	Jim also passed along some GEnie discussion, including Laura Osgood's 
(L.OSGOOD) remarks about Thessalian witches.
	Lance Smith <lsmith@cs.umn.edu> speculated about the Welsh origins of
George's name.
	Andrew Moran <andrew@cs.chalmers.se> passed along a note from Geraint
Jones, a Welsh speaker, fully explaining George's name.
	Glenn Alan Carnagey Jr <lf7z@midway.uchicago.edu> referenced the
flaying of faces, Gorgo, Mormo, and Ereshkigal.  Glenn provided extraordinary
detail on the cross-cultural correspondences of deities related to Ereshkigal,
which I have unfortunately had to remove.
	Mike "Killans" Collins (mcollins@nyx.cs.du.edu) noted the previous
establishment of Foxglove's menstruation.
	Tanaqui Weaver (tweaver@nyx.cs.du.edu) passed along a note from Neil
Gaiman about the inking.
	Jerry Stratton (jerry@teetot.acusd.edu) quoted Manfred Lurker's
_Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons_.
	William Sherman <sherman@math.ucla.edu> referenced Goody Two-Shoes.
--
"Sometimes you just gotta say what the fuck."                                  
--Risky Business                                                               
  
elmo (morrow@physics.rice.edu,morrow@fnal.fnal.gov)



--
-Hades (Brian V. Hughes) 
	"Hey, we're on the Cutting Edge!"
	"Too bad it's not the side you keep." - Mr. Boffo
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