Page 10, panel 1. Crystal Palace has survived the fire of 1936 and expanded considerably.
Page 10, panel 2. Hemming’s narration places the events of TWOTW firmly in 1898. This may ease or worsen the dates confusion discussed in volume two, page 43.
The aircraft is called the Leviathan which is the title of another book by Edginton and D'Israeli published the year before The Great Game.
In our universe BEA stood for British European Airways.
Page 10, panel 4. The staff uniforms and insignia resemble those worn by International Rescue in Thunderbirds.
Page 11, panel 1. This interview with Ian Edginton reveals that the cast of Casablanca can be seen here. On the left must be Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Humphrey Bogart can be seen in Rick's iconic trenchcoat and hat. And on the right may be Claude Rains and Paul Heinreid.
Page 11, panel 4. Adam Bezecny notes that the title of the newspaper The Interceptor is also the name of one of Ian Edginton's stories published in 2000AD issues 1337-1345.
Page 11, panel 5. A Marker’s Universal van can be seen. Marker’s Universal was a cover for the SHADO organisation in the TV show UFO. The large vans carried the SHADO mobiles around.
Page 12, panel 5. The posters here are real wartime posters including “Keep Mum” and “Dig for Victory”. Other examples can be seen throughout the book.
Alvar Liddell read the BBC news during World War II and always began the bulletins by saying “Here is the News, and this is Alvar Liddell reading it”.
Page 12, panel 6. Haile Selassie was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930-1974. Presumably in the Scarlet Traces universe Italy did not invade Ethiopia in 1936 and Selassie was not forced into exile for five years. Instead his famous speech at the League of Nations in 1936 has led him to become Secretary General of the League, a comparable position to the current United Nations Secretary General.
Selassie refers to the four decades since the Martian attack on Britain, which seems to put us in 1938. Adam Bezecny quite rightly points out that was the year of Orson Welles' infamous broadcast of the War of the Worlds.
Page 13, panel 1. A packed panel begins with a clear indication of how different Britain has become in Scarlet Traces - while a figure of peace and democracy has become important in the rest of the world, a more controversial figure has risen to power in Britain. Oswald Mosley was member of the British parliament from 1918-1930 representing different parties. His early intentions to avoid war at any cost evolved into his formation of the British Union of Fascists nicknamed the Blackshirts. In real life he never attained the role of Home Secretary (fortunately).
Mosley also refers to the forty years since the invasion.
Marble Arch is seen again.
The Butcher’s van probably refers to Corporal Jones’ van from the movie version of Dad’s Army although there it says J. (for Jack) Jones rather than A. Jones.
The registration of Hemming’s cab is GEN-11, it would seem that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been turned into a taxi.
Page 13, panel 2. It is ironic that Mosley who was a proponent of appeasement here borrows from Churchill to say that the “Martian can not be appeased” and from Madeline Albright “We have a long memory… and a long arm.”
This is the British Museum. The British police have become much scarier figures with their uniforms starting to develop into the armour of Judge Dredd and other fascist police forces. The intimidating security checks that the public have to submit to in order to get into national buildings have become uncomfortably familiar to us and very similar to that depicted here.
The grafiti on the wall stands for People's Caledonian Militia which is mentioned in panel 4. The design below the letters is the Scottish Saltire flag.
Rowin Buist adds that two of the schoolboys in this panel may reappear at the end of the book.
Adam Bezecny adds that these might be the schoolboys from Frank Richards' Greyfriars school stories. The boy with the glasses may be Billy Bunter, which would make the other boys the Famous Five: Harry Wharton, Bob Cherry, Hurree Singh, Frank Nugent and Johnny Bull with their teacher Henry Quelch.
Page 13, panel 3. The big wheel looks like the London Eye.
Pleasure Island is the name of several amusement parks as well as the island that Pinocchio visits in the Disney movie.
Page 13, panel 4. This is BBC Broadcasting House with its motto “Nation shall speak peace unto Nation”. The statue seems slightly different to our version.
The real Siege of Sidney Street took place in 1911 when three burglars were involved in a shoot-out with police killing three officers and taking refuge in a house in London’s east end. Winston Churchill, who was Home Secretary at the time, sent in the Scots Guard. Somehow the building caught fire killing two of the men, the third escaped. Here the situation seems reversed with the police hunting down Scottish people.
Page 14, panel 1. George Sewell played Detective Inspector Craven in the long running TV show Special Branch.
As revealed in his blog D'Israeli based the appearance of the bomber on his friend Mike McLean, the owner of Asylum Books And Games in Aberdeen.
Tommy Handley was a comedian best know for his radio show “It’s that man again” or ITMA as it was known.
The Crazy Gang was a group of music hall entertainers led by Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen.
Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn were extremely popular singers of the period.
The London Palladium is a famous theatre which was the home of the Crazy Gang.
Page 14, panel 5. More genuine wartime posters for War Weapon bonds and the Road to Victory.
Page 15, panel 2. The computers in the Interceptor office look like those used in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
In Britain the BBC is often referred to as the ‘Beeb’ or ‘Auntie’.
Page 15, panel 3. I can’t read a scene where a newspaper editor is desperate to find a photographer without thinking of J. Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker.
Page 15, panel 4. Famous photographers:
Robert Capa, perhaps best known for his photographs of the Spanish Civil War here referred to as an ‘uprising’.
Capa, along with some of the other photographers here, formed a photographic cooperative called Magnum Photos which may be the club that Bernie Goldman refers to.
Bill Brandt was a British photographer best known for his striking nude photography.
Page 15, panel 5. Henri Cartier Bresson was a famous French photojournalist.
Page 16, panel 1. Eric Blair was of course the real name of author George Orwell. In 1938 Orwell should be in Morocco recovering from the bullet wound he received in the Spanish Civil War.
Scarlet Traces puts him in an internment camp ten years before he writes 1984. He will, as Bernie Goldman says, really have something to moan about.
There is a prison at Dartmoor which was used to hold conscientious objectors as well as prisoners of war.
Page 16, panel 2. Another photographer: George Rodger was a member of Capa’s group. Considering the disturbing photographs that Rodgers took of Belsen concentration camp in 1945 it is perhaps not surprising that the authorities in Scarlet Traces have arrested him.
Page 17, panel 1. The BBC’s motto can be seen in the ruins along with more war posters including "Keep Mum" again.
The vans with the Spartan helmet logo belong to the Special Patrol Group, a branch of the London police force that was responsible for dealing with serious violent crime. The SPG had a very controversial reputation because of the tactics it employed. It was disbanded in 1986.
The SPG was formed in 1965 but again it seems appropriate in the accelerated world of Scarlet Traces that Oswald Mosley and the Spartan organisation use its name and tactics.
Page 17, panel 2. Mosley’s Specials wear blackshirts and their riding trousers resemble those of the Gestapo. One of the Specials even sports a black toothbrush moustache.
Page 18, panel 1. Payphones with buttons A and B were introduced in 1925. Button A initiated the phone call and deposited the coins, button B returned the coins if the call could not be connected. They were all replaced sometime in the 1960s.
Page 18, panel 6. Goldman’s name is displayed as B Golden on his office door, although everyone including the Prime Minister refers to him as Goldman. Presumably he has changed his professional name to appear less Jewish in a country where Oswald Mosley is Home Secretary. This was a necessary evil for many Jewish people in the first half of the 20th century.
Page 19, panel 2. Mr Benn’s shopkeeper can be seen wearing his fez and possibly standing next to Mr Benn?
The man with “The end is nigh” sandwich board reminds me of Rorschach.
Eirik Hunt reminds me that the real "End is Nigh" man used to walk up and down London's Oxford street. There is also a comics fanzine called The End is Nigh.
I don’t know the significance of the three running men unless they are journalists heading to the BBC bomb site?
Another Marker’s Universal van can be seen.
Again Scarlet Traces anticipates our world with security cameras on street corners.
Most importantly for Bernie Goldman - Robert Autumn can be seen with Archie the dog at his feet.
Page 20, panel 1. In Greek mythology Cassandra had the gift of prophecy and foretold the fall of Troy. If Spry formed the Spartan organisation then his use of a Greek reference is very apt.
Page 20, panel 2. And he’s still got the helmet on his desk, and a painting of the Thunder Child taking on the Tripods on his wall.
James Dravott is the son of Daniel Dravott from Scarlet Traces.
Bernard Paxton notes that the wallpaper on Spry's wall is the same pattern as appeared on the walls of the drawing room of the narrator (possibly Wells himself) on page 10 of The War of the Worlds book. Good catch,
Page 20, panel 3. The sound and the fury quote is from Macbeth:
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
Page 21, panel 2. Dravott refers to Field Marshal Montgomery.
Page 21, panel 6. A first reference to Dr Cavor from H.G.Wells’ First Men in the Moon. In the book Cavor invented the anti-gravity material Cavorite.
Page 22, panel 1. See page 45 for details of Rendlesham.
Page 22, panel 4. The other paper on Spry’s desk is TitBits which we also saw in book 2.
Page 23, panel 1. The owner of this journalists’ bar is Jeffrey Bernard who was a journalist and legendary drinker. His appearance here resembles Peter O’Toole who played him in the play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell.
There may be other notable writers in this scene but I don’t recognise them.
Page 23, panel 2. Bernard Paxton suggest that might be Groucho Marx with the pipe.
Page 24, panel 4. Hollywood actor Tyrone Power.
Page 25, panel 4. The man in the hat is Carl Kolchak, the journalist from the Night Stalker TV series who investigated paranormal stories. He’s discussing the Dulwich Red story with his editor Tony Vincenzo.
Page 26, panel 3. The two thugs are based on Grant and Phil Mitchell from the British TV soap Eastenders.
Page 26. panel 7. Rugby school.
Page 28, panel 2. Archie the dog:
A Jack Russell dog with a brown patch over his right eye appears on page 55 of book one.
In book two Ned Penny has a Jack Russell called Pike with a black patch over his right eye. This dog is adopted by Robert Autumn at the end of Scarlet Traces.
In The Great Game Autumn has acquired another Jack Russell, possibly a descendent of Pike. This dog has a black patch over his left eye and Autumn has named him after Archibald Currie from Scarlet Traces.
Issue two cover. As the wikipedia page points out the look of the spaceships may have been inspired by Wernher von Braun’s designs in a issue of Colliers magazine.These ships are designated FB which must stand for Fireball because one of them is Fireball-XL5.
Page 31, panel 1. Adam Bezecny points out that the helicopters resemble the Helijets from the Dan Dare comics.
Page 31, panel 2. The Hobb’s end station in Hobb’s lane is the setting for the alien discoveries in Quatermass and the Pit, the third Quatermass story on the BBC. I think that the lower of the two street signs should read 'Hob's Lane' with just one b.
Page 31, panel 6. The cat looks like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
Page 32, panels 1-3. More war posters and an advertising poster for Grace Bros the department store in the TV comedy series Are you being served? which featured the catchphrase “I’m free!”
Page 32, panel 6. Autumn seems to have been able to rescue all the ephemera from his house in Scarlet Traces including the painting of his wife.
But I also note Rowin Buist's comment that the painting may be the missing love interest in book two. A character who was then developed into that of Charlotte. See Scarlet Traces, page 11, panel 5.
He has acquired a kettle which looks like the top of a Dalek from Doctor Who, and also some Brazil computer screens.
The heads on the shelf above the fire reminded Adam Bezecny of the true form of the Martians in DC comics such as J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter.
Page 33, panel 2. Dr Richard Beeching was chairman of the British rail network.His efficiency reforms of the 1960s led to the closure of large sections of the network which distressed many people. The Martian invasion is again shown to have accelerated the events of the 20th century.
Page 33, panel 4. Dalek helmet/kettle.
Page 33, panel 5. Eirik Hunt notes that hot Bovril and Sherry was the drink of choice of the ship's crew in the 1941 film In Which we Serve. They even serve it to an officer of Autumn's regiment the Coldstream Guards after Dunkirk.
Page 34, panel 2. Autumn has managed to get hold of some of Spry’s designs.
Page 34, panel 5. Adam Bezecny notes that in the back room behind Charlotte is some machinery with symbols that may be from the game Half-Life, the Lambsa sign and possible the Black Mesa base insignia.
Page 35, panel 4. The Perils of Andrea by C.S.Lewis refers to Lewis’ book Perelandra, the second in his space trilogy in which a scientist is sent to Venus to discover a new garden of Eden.
This version of the title seems to recall the weekly film serials such as The Perils of Pauline which may fit with what Autumn is about to ask Hemming to do.
Page 36, panel 2. Autumn and Currie were in Sevastopol during the Martian invasion possibly recovering from their heroics in Abyssinia? Sevastopol is on the Crimean peninsula in what is now known as the Ukraine. Was this where Davenport Spry’s treachery cost the lives of the men Autumn referred to on page 58 of Scarlet Traces?
Are Autumn and Currie standing in the ruins of Autumn’s house where his wife died?
Page 38, panel 5. An aside: Autumn’s description of Spry’s plan reminds me of the Report from Iron Mountain hoax which may have influenced some of Alan Moore’s ideas for Watchmen.
Mikal Dyas points out that the design of the rocket here resembles the ship in the Georges Méliès 1902 science-fiction film A Trip to the Moon.
