...
Welcome to my quasi-full-disclosure-slash-history lesson.
This weeks topic: Alma, Jumbo the Elephant Chapter One. I'm going to go through
the comic on a page-by-page basis, breaking it down as if it were annotated.
Consider these footnotes, if you will. I'll not fully explain all the
intricacies of everything, but I'll try to provide a spicy bit of insight as
well as direct you towards some interesting places to go. Oh, and before you start... this is pretty long.
The Cover:
This was always, from the outset, meant to emulate a
classical Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey show poster, with its unique
style and vibe, if you will. Santiago went full-on into it though, creating a
wonderful bit of art in its own right. I was going to keep the original image
secret, but I think seeing it will make you appreciate what he did do all the
more:
For the record, I fully intend to do this for each and
every issue, create a different, unique poster-style cover. That would truly
rock the socks.
Page One
Henry: This would be Henry Sidgwick, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge
University, and co-founder of The Society for Psychical Research in 18825.
The Séance: The girls will be more fully and properly
introduced in Chapter Two, but in the interests of the curious they are,
clockwise from Mallory are: Elizabeth Marsh1, Angela2, Hannah
& Emma, Student X3, and Theress.
1] Elizabeth Marsh, daughter of Captain Obed Marsh of
Innsmouth, Massachusetts. For further
information, see The Shadow over Innsmouth, by H. P. Lovecraft [available
online].
She's an extrapolation, not an actual character present in
Lovecraft's story. But she is inextricably linked to it, and this link may play
a very large roll in the future.
2] Adelgunda "Angela" von Pahlen, born in Germany
in 1869. She was recently relocated to Alma College after the unfortunate
deaths of her immediate family.
She is a character originally created [one must assume] by
E. T. A. Hoffmann, the original author of "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," which, obviously enough, The Nutcracker
was based on. She appears in the first half of a fairly obtuse little story
called "Automata," [available online]. I'd come across a collection of
Hoffmann stories quite accidentally some time before getting down to writing Alma
properly. Obviously, being set in a girl's school would require female
students, and I knew some of them would have supernatural abilities in some
form or another. I also knew one of them [the main one] would be named Angela4.
Reading about a girl who would be exactly the right age who had a unique power
that would be perfectly fitting, AND who had a name that I could see being
debatably Anglicized into being Angela, well, it was all too perfect to pass
up. Her backstory will be more full outlined in future stories, but for the
extremely curious, if you want to track down "Automata" you can see
how it'll look in advance.
3] Student X: I really have no idea who this girl is. When
looking at the pencils Miguel submitted, I realized that, quite magically,
there was an extra girl at the table that's not present in the script anywhere.
Rather than get him to change or redo the page, I'm just gonna hafta write her
in somewhere later!
4] Alma College, according to many student reports, was
haunted by at least one ghost. The most famous was known as Angela, and she
inhabited the southern tower, although according to records there's no student
or teacher that would have been there at appropriate times [stories varied
about her being younger or older]. Still, Angela the ghost was a character around
the campus from even the earliest days.
Page Two
Ectoplasm, check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0HncGNBCqY
Page Four
September 15th, 1885 was, indeed, the day of
Jumbo's death in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, a town I'm going to be visiting
tomorrow.
Page Nine
5] The Society for Psychical Research is quite real, and
still fully operational. Visit their website here: http://www.spr.ac.uk/expcms/
Chief James Fewings was a real and respected officer in St. Thomas,
and Chief of Police since 1872.
Page Ten
Jumbo the Elephant. What can I say that isn't just as easily
[and more believably] covered on his Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbo
Well, this might: http://www.scrapalbum.com/jumbo.htm
Mathew Scott, Jumbo's devoted keeper, who was there with him
when he died.
Page Eleven
James L. Hutchinson, the other man in business with Barnum
[and Bailey] at the time. He was running the business operation in St. Thomas
at the time of Jumbo's death, and I'm sure that's why he may have seemed abrasive
to Mr. Mallory.
Page Thirteen
Again, I knew Mallory needed to talk to someone from the
circus to get info. And I knew I wanted to pop more subtle Lovecraft references
in there. And I also happened to be rereading one of my collections of
lesser-known Lovecraft stories, and here I read the tale of a man and the
bizarre history of his family [that may or may not involve ape interbreeding]. There,
in the middle of "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family"
[available online] is a reference to Arthur's father, who, according to the
timeline, would have indeed been working in a circus as exactly the same time
as my story [give or take.] This, too, was too serendipitous to ignore. Read
the story if you want to, although it does give away the fate of Mr. Jermyn.
Regarding Jermyn's assurance of Barnum's presence, it is on
record that Barnum was nowhere near St. Thomas at the time. Or... was he?
Page Fourteen
Sir Wade is a fortunate side effect of including Jermyn. In
the Lovecraft story, he is the trainer of an ape "of lighter colour than
the average," so I got an excuse to include a cool albino ape. His name is
derived from Jermyn's grandfather or great grandfather [I forget which],
mentioned elsewhere in the tale.
Page Eighteen
Quite unrelated to the story "Automata" is the
inclusion of an automaton here. I mean, yes that story does include one
[eventually], but this one's here
because I was reading a separate book about 2 or so years ago outlining the
history of these things. It's really quite fascinating. And creepy. Mostly the
robot duck. Look it up.
Page Nineteen
Referred to in the script as the Giantess and the Tiny Man,
Barnum's thugs here are pretty clearly based on General Tom Thumb and Anna Swan,
although, to be fair, General Thumb was dead by this point, and by all accounts
Ms. Swan was a lovely woman. Oh, and my man here is German, somewhat
inexplicably.
Page Twenty
Regarding "Half-past eight tomorrow evening,"
those who have read "Automata" will understand. Or those who read
Alma: Last Stop on the Line, where Angela's story will be outlined properly.
Page Twenty One
The church Mallory is visiting is the Old English Church,
located on Walnut Street in St. Thomas. It really is a fascinating place, and
old! It's so old it was CLOSED for a few years before my comic even takes
place, and it's still there today.
Page Twenty Two
Which, unfortunately, can't be said for the showcase of this
page. Alma College was a truly awesome building, which, sadly, burned down a
few months ago. I would have loved to direct people on a pilgrimage there, but
sadly, it is no more. The Amphitheatre, however, is still present, so there's
that, at least. I attended Jr. Kindergarten there, so I can claim to have been
a student, even though it was an all-girls school. It was located at 96 Moore
Street, St. Thomas, Ontario.
