The War of the Worlds
Notes by Eamonn Clarke
This is a set of annotations for the graphic novel The War of the Worlds by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli. Links to the other books in this series can be found on the front page.
This an adaptation of the original book. I haven’t done extensive notes, suffice it to say that best annotations are probably in Wells’ original novel.
However the adaptation does feature some of the characters from the two sequels notably:
Page 10, panel 1. Robert Autumn and Archibald Currie can be seen in the newspaper article which recounts their successful prevention of an assassination attempt against Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia. Menelik was a real historical figure. In 1898, the year Wells’ novel was published, he overcame a rebellion attempt in Ethiopia, or Abyssinia as it was then known. It would appear that the attempt on his life that Autumn and Currie prevent happens during this rebellion.
The newspaper headline refers to Autumn and Currie as tourists. As we shall see in Scarlet Traces this is probably a convenient distortion of the truth.
Page 25, panel 3. Bernard Paxton has sent me some extra notes for TWOTW. In this panel he notes that the Sergeant giving a tongue lashing to a soldier appears to appears to be wearing a spiked Pickelhaube helmet which would have been worn by Imperial Germany army troops and not the British army at the time.His helmet impressive moustache set does remind me of Lionel Jeffries' portrayal of the Grandfather in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Page 31, panel 5. Ned Penny can be seen here on the deck of HMS Thunder Child.
Page 45, panel 3. The book shop on the right is called McLean's. See the Fishpaste page for an explanation of who Mr McLean is. A Cordwainer is a shoe-maker. There are two science fiction authors who have used the name Cordwainer, one of them being Harlan Elllison. The cart with the name Tomas Lobb on it is a direct reference from chapter seven of Wells' novel.
Page 52, panel 7. St Paul's cathedral can be seen in the distance.
Page 53, panel 5. This is the first view of the Marble Arch in London which appears in all three volumes.
Page 54, panel 4. Another shop called McLean's, this time a wine merchant.
Page 55, panel 5. First appearance of a Jack Russell dog.
Page 62, panel 8. Another view of St Paul's.
Page 64, panel 2. Our first glimpse of three of the villains from the sequels: Spry, Coughly and Dravott.