From: solovay@netcom.com (Andrew M. Solovay)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Annotated Stanley & His Monster #1
Date: 18 Dec 92 21:48:45 GMT
Organization: People's Front of Judea


                The Annotated Stanley And His Monster
                                   
                          by Andrew Solovay
                                   
                  Issue 1:  How to Build a Tree Fort
      Phil Foglio, Chuck Fiala, John Costanza, Robbie Busch, and
                           Paul Kupperberg

Disclaimer: _Stanley_&_His_Monster_ and all related characters are
copyrights and trademarks of DC Comics, Inc. They have no idea I'm
doing this.

Notice: Commentaries and additional information should go to
solovay@netcom.com (Internet). This material is posted by the author
directly to rec.arts.comics. He really doubts that anyone would want
to steal it.

Title: "How to Build a Tree Fort" refers to the main activity of this
issue, in which Stanley and the Monster build a tree fort.

Cover: This should satisfy all the fanboys who've been clamoring for a
"grittier, meaner, more realistic" Stanley & His Monster.

Page 1: In the _Sandman_ story "Season of Mists," Lucifer abdicated
his position as Ruler of Hell, and God placed Hell under the command
of two of His Angels: Remiel, "set over those who rise [from the
dead]," and Duma, "angel of silence". We now see them reorganizing
Hell.
        Panel 1: "Now guaranteed to be even worse": See Sandman, issue
#28, p.  23, p.2. At the beginning of "Season of Mists", it is
mentioned that everyone in Hell is sure that Hell is as bad as it
could be; at the end, a damned soul complains that Remiel's compassion
has made things worse.
        Panel 2: "Back in Hell": When Lucifer abdicated, he exiled all
the demons. Most of them returned to Hell at the end of "Season of
Mists".
        Panel 3: "A nameless one": Stanley's Monster, who is always
referred to as "the monster" or "Spot". This is a retcon. The Monster
was originally a good-tempered monster; Foglio has made him a demon
exiled from Hell.
        Panel 6: "Two of them": Remiel has forgotten about Azazel, who
is (presumably) still imprisoned in the Dreaming. But then, Azazel
isn't "running around loose".
        Panel 7: Demons don't like angels.
        Panel 8: You 'n' me both, buddy.

Page 2, panel 1: Los Angeles really sucks. 
        Stanley is wearing a "Fox and Crow" sweatshirt. "Stanley and
His Monster" first appeared in the comic book "Fox and Crow"; see the
historical pages at the back.
        The attic is filled with items of '70s memorabilia. The
Monster is dressed in a replica of John Travolta's disco outfit from
"Saturday Night Fever", a popular movie of the '70s. "May the Force be
With You" is a slogan from the movie _Star_Wars_ (aka "Star Wars part
IV: A New Hope"), released in 1977. "National Lampoon" used to be
funny (PJ O'Rourke wrote for it in the '70s); now it isn't. A lava
lamp is sitting on one of the boxes; lava lamps are supposed to be
really interesting when you're stoned. Apparently Stanley has already
plugged the lamp in, and the Monster has not yet eaten it. There is a
beanbag-chair behind the monster. I don't recognize the toys in the
lower right corner or the coke-can-thing next to the lava lamp.
        Panel 2: "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" was a popular 70s book.
I have no idea what it was about. Polyester tastes a lot better than
it looks or feels.
        Panel 3: As we'll see, "The Heterodyne Boys" are a spoof of
Franklin W. Dixon's "Hardy Boys", an obnoxiously clean-cut pair of
teenage detectives. 
        Panel 4: The monster is eating a Rubik's Cube, an evil puzzle
from Hungary (and probably a Communist plot). "Beta Tapes": Sony
manufactured a video-cassette recorder called the Betamax; it used
tapes in a format known as "Beta". This format became obsolete, as all
competing VCRs used the now-ubiquitous VHS format.

Page 3: Panel 4: "Gotham City a Swamp": Presumably refers to the
incident in Swamp Thing (what issue?) when Swampy turned Gotham into a
swamp to force it to release his lover, Abby Cable (who had been
charged with "Crimes Against Nature"). "Mu Milk": Presumably a
reference to "Go"del, Escher Bach", which popularized the word "Mu" as
a Zen way to "unask" a question by rejecting the premise on which it
is based.

Page 4: Panel 1-2: 8-track tapes were the audio equivalent of Beta
tapes.
        Panel 4: "...by Charles Ott": The Hardy Boys books were (and
still are) written by a number of different authors under the
pseudonym "Franklin W. Dixon". Presumably "Charles Ott" is equally
fictitious.
        Very few families actually keep fish in blenders.
        Panel 6: "Mystery of the Cast-Iron Glacier": This is a joke
title. Glaciers are actually made of ice.

Page 5: Panel 5: If this were a different Foglio book, we'd see
Stanley's parents rip each others's clothes off and have improbable
kinds of sex. No such luck.
        Panels 6-7: The TV is showing "Star Trek: The Next
Generation". They don't surrender as much anymore.
        Panel 7: Note that the page opposite "How to Build a Tree
Fort" says "How to Find Gold". This will change.

Page 7: Panel 7: Note that the facing page now says "How to Magnetize
Aluminum".

Page 9: Panel 1: "Osh Kosh Mishagosh": Osh Kosh B'Gosh is a
manufacturer of overalls and similar clothes. "Mishagosh" is yiddish
for "craziness" or "silliness".
        Panel 3: "Camp Wack-a-Boy": Many east-coast camps have
Indian names. "Wack-a-boy" is a spoof on that.

Page 10: Panel 2: Clearly this takes place before Superman died, or
after he undied.
        Panel 5: The entering heroes are (from left to right) The Blue
Beetle, L-Ron the robot, Metamorpho, Plastic Man, The Martian
Manhunter, Dr. Fate, and Power Girl. All of these are current or past
members of the Justice League, except for Plastic Man; Stanley is
presumably confusing him with Elongated Man, a member of Justice
League Europe.
        Dr. Fate is a mystical superheroine, which is why she can see
the dreaming Stanley at the bottom of the page.

Page 11: Panel 1: "Ninja Frog Guys": A spoof of Eastman & Laird's
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", which got very commercial a couple of
years ago.

Page 15: Panel 1: "The Invasion of the Space Dinosaurs vs. the
Armageddon War of the Gods Crisis Crossover (TM)": A 17-part
maxi-series, starting this summer in "'Mazing Man: A New Beginning"
#1.
        Panels 2-3: The text balloons indicate that this is Dream,
master of the Dreaming, the central character of Neil Gaiman's
"Sandman".  However, Dream is dressed like the Golden Age Sandman.
This is a joke.

Page 17: Superman, Dr. Light, The Blimp, Adam Strange, and Captain
Marvel are all DC heroes or villains. Captain Alarm Clock is not.

Page 18: Panel 5: This is not what really goes on in the "Ever-Burning
Pit of Fire", but the Monster doesn't want to scare Stanley too much.
        Panel 7: Hell is arguably worse than Los Angeles.

Page 19: Panel 5: The Storm is probably Nyx making her entrance.
Demons often affect the weather.

Page 20: Panel 1: If this were a different Foglio book, we'd see
Stanley's mom and the Monster rip each others's clothes off and have
improbable kinds of sex. No such luck.

Page 21: Panel 7: The rhymers are an elite group of demons. The most
well-known is Etrigan, but this isn't he.

Page 22: We've never seen Nyx before, but I (for one) wouldn't mind
seeing her again. (Preferably in that other Foglio book.)

-- 
Andrew Solovay    
                "I know that, in America and under capitalism,
                 I am the freest woman in history."
                                --- Camille Paglia
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc