Crossed Plus One Hundred 16

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.16 regular cover – art by Gabriel Andrade

Below are annotations for Crossed Plus One Hundred, No. 16 “Cat’s Cradle” (20 pages, cover date April 2016, released 18 May 2016)

Writer: Simon Spurrier, Artist: Martín Túnica, Series Outline: Alan Moore

>Go to CPOH annotations index
>Go to CPOH timeline
>Go to CPOH language/glossary
>Go to CPOH background, cast of characters

Note: some of this stuff is obvious. If there’s stuff I missed or got wrong, let me know in comments, or email linton.joe [at] gmail.com

WARNING: SPOILERS

General: This issue came out 18 May 2016 (just one week after issue 15). I am hoping to have basic annotations up this weekend. Covers are shown in Bleeding Cool‘s article announcing Avatar Press April 2016 solicits. From that article, this arc apparently takes place five years further into the CPOH future – likely circa 2114.

Cover 

• The figure whose back is to the reader is Future Taylor.
• The maps contour on the right appears to be the east coast from North Carolina to Long Island, NY. Lining up with an existing map (below) the two Xs are:
  – Tennessee (Chattanooga and Murfreesboro, are of course prominent in CPOH to date), and
  – Bethlehem, PA

Overlay of CPOH16 map onto Google map

Page 1

panel 1

• The seated man is Slaketime (that name is not mentioned until CPOH18 P4-5,p3.)
• Though Slaketime’s Crossed face-rash is obscured, it is clear that he is Crossed from his voice (word balloons in red with uneven border and lettering.)
• Each issue of CPOH is titled after a famous science fiction novel. Cat’s Cradle is a 1963 novel by Kurt Vonnegut.

Page 2

panel 1

• Left to right are: Cautious Optimism Kriswyczki, archivist Ufoq, Future Taylor, and Oneway MacBlarney.

panel 4

• Mixed-case captions are Taylor’s journal.

Page 3

panel 1

• “Eye-dear” is “idea” (as Taylor mentions in panel 4 below – pronounced with a NYC “Gapple” accent.)
• “Greer… actualled the surprise on Chooga” refers to the events of CPOH6.

panels 2-5

• These form a fixed-camera sequence.

Page 4 – no specific annotations

Page 5

panels 2-3

• First mention of Beau Salt’s “school” (“… where the a-possles [apostles] grew”) though this is apparently the mountain Crossed settlement that appeared in CPOH5.
• Sleepy and Bashful are Salt’s Crossed leaders, first mentioned in CPOH5. Bashful appears in CPOH6, and is killed in CPOH12.
• The strike “on chooga” occurred in CPOH6.
• First mention of a strike on “Bethlehem” which is apparently Bethlehem, PA.

panel 4

• “Sneezy” is another of Salt’s Crossed leaders, first mentioned in CPOH5.

Page 6

panel 2

• The “tribaladies” are women (including Insa) who appeared at the start of CPOH15.

panels 4-5

• “The book… My Legacy” refers to Beau Salt journal transcripts found in CPOH13 P11.

Page 7

panel 1

• “The time and place of my holy sign” – xxxx.

Page 8

panel 1

• To calculate “Thirteen days before the thirteenth year of Salt’s century… 14th July 2121” one takes July 27, 2109 (100 years after the surprise, the date of the destruction of Chooga in CPOH6) and add 12, then subtract 13 days. See CPOH timeline.

panel 2

• “That ain’t fer sen years…” is “that isn’t for seven years.” This issue takes place in 2114.

Page 9

panel 6

• This panel sets up a page-turn reveal.

Page 10

panel 2

• The crossed “self-mops” means “commits suicide.”

panel 3

• “He could’ve kicked juice-spray… rash us up, instant” means that the Crossed could have flung his blood onto the humans infecting them into Crossed.

Page 11

panel 1

• “The day we met the tyger” was xxxx.
• Beau “Salt coming back” was what Taylor read xxx.

Page 12

panel 1

• Taylor is scalping the Crossed, similar to what the “tribaladies” did – see CPOH15 Pxxxx.

Page 13

panel 1

• “Jayin’ uptown” may refer to the J line on the NYC subway, or to jaywalking (which derives from a “jay” as a naive country bumpkin.)

panel 2-3

• “Bethlehem… a senthirdy old settle… aidy, maybe niney miles outta the Gapple” is “Bethlehem, PA… a crazy old human settlement… 80, maybe 90 miles out of New York City.” Senthirdy is “730” slang for crazy.

“Lollipop lord” panel from Crossed: Wish You Were Here, Volume 3, page 124 – art by Fernando Melek

panel 4

• The Gapple balloon is visible in the distance.
• “Christ-believers… set up there on accounta their lollypop god was borned same place” refers to Christians having settled in Bethlehem because it was the namesake for Jesus’ birthplace, Bethlehem in present-day Israel. “Lollypop god” is Jesus Christ on the cross. Spurrier used a similar euphemism for Christianity in Crossed Wish You Were Here (Volume 3, P124,p2 or online as Volume 3, Chapter 21, page 8) where his protagonist Shaky mentions “your bloody lollypop lord” in conversation to a Christian nun.

Page 14

panel 2

• “Six years ago” would put the date around the same time as the destruction of Chooga on July 27, 2109 – see CPOH6. Taylor confirms this in the next panel “same day they mopped Chooga.”

Page 15

panels 2-3

• “Terror-trees” is “territories.”
• The “hotel… Greenbrier Country Club” is the present day The Greenbrier America’s Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV.
• “Project Greek Island” was a secret disaster recovery bunker project of the U.S. government.

Page 16

panel 1

• This is a flashback to P7,p1 of CPOH10. “Grinbuyer. Grikaye land” is “Greenbrier [Country Club]. Greek Island.”

panel 2

• “The bonetown” is the Crossed settlement shown in CPOH5, later the site was clear in CPOH xxx.

panel 3

• “Skull this troo” is “think this through.”

Page 17 

• Seated on the donkey is Holy Mo, a minor recurring character.

Page 18

The Greebrier Country club photo by Bobak Ha’Eri via Wikipedia

 

panel 1

• The building pictured is the main building at The Greenbrier America’s Resort.

panel 2

• “Insa” is the nickname of the tribalady introduced in CPOH15.

Page 19

panel 3

•  This confirms The Greenbrier America’s Resort and Project Greek Island.

Page 20

panels 1-4

• These form a fixed-camera sequence.

Page 21-23 – no specific annotations

Page 24

panel 1

• First appearance this issue of Bailey.

THE END

>Go to Crossed Plus One Hundred No. 17 annotations
>Go to Crossed Plus One Hundred Annotation Index