Crossed Plus One Hundred 05

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.5 cover by Gabriel Andrade

Below are annotations for Crossed Plus One Hundred, No. 5 “Tyger, Tyger” (24 pages, cover date May 2015, released 10 June, 2015)
Writer: Alan Moore (AM), Artist: Gabriel Andrade (GA)
>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, but you never know who’s reading this and what their exposure is to any given reference. If there’s stuff I missed or got wrong, let me know in comments, or email linton.joe [at] gmail.com

General: Taylor, Keller, and Kriswyczki discover the Crossed settlement in the Appalachian Mountains. Taylor reads the diaries of Beau Salt, serial killer and Crossed mastermind.

WARNING: SPOILERS

Cover

• The cover image shows a Crossed-built altar with candles, a pile of salt, and a framed image of the phonebook killer, whose name is revealed (P12,p4) to be Beauregard Leander Salt.
• The altar on the cover does not appear to be an exact representation of any of the altars featured so far in CPOH. Future Taylor first encountered a similar altar, with a framed picture of Salt, in Jackson, TN, in CPOH1 P15,p3-5. Taylor and crew found a related altar in CPOH2, P17,p3, though it had the word “salt” written across a framed image of Jesus. In CPOH4, P10, Mustaqba identifies the image as “the phonebook killer” – an unsolved serial killer case from just before 2008. The phonebook killer chose his victims from the telephone directory, the top right name, every seven pages.

Page 1

panels 1-6

• This is a dream sequence being dreamed by Future Taylor. There’s no special panel treatment to indicate it, but it follows the last two pages of CPOH4 where Taylor writes “we always get woked. And it always turns out to be a dream.”
• These mechanical horses appear somewhat retro-futuristic, perhaps steampunk, reflecting Future Taylor’s interest in historic science fiction literature.

panels 2-4

• The woman is Future Taylor (see cast of characters page.)
• The library is the Maury County Public Library in Columbia, TN, which appears on Pages 6-10 of CPOH1. In the dream, the building is not surrounded by Columbia.
• The book Taylor holds is The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute and Peter Nicholls. Taylor found a copy of this book at the library in Columbia on P6 of CPOH1.

Page 2

panel 2

• “Audied like more of you” is Taylor hearing the horses of the Crossed riding to attack Chooga, as explained on P23,p4.

panel 3

• “Jeorge R.R. Tolkien” is Taylor’s conflation of George R.R. Martin (author of the books that became Game of Thrones) and J.R.R. Tolkien (author of The Lord of the Rings.) She wrote this conflation earlier on P1,p3 of CPOH2. A theme of CPOH2 was Tolkein’s The Return of the King.

panel 5

• All of the names are modified versions of the science fiction writers referenced for each issue of CPOH:
  – “Hugo Bareback” – Hugo Gernsback is the author of Ralph 124C41+, a theme of CPOH1.
  – “Alfred the Best” – Alfred Bester is the author of Tiger, Tiger (or The Stars My Destination), a theme of this issue, mentioned on P4 and P5 below.
  – “Walt the Miller” – Walter M. Miller Jr. is the author of A Canticle For Leibowitz, a theme of CPOH4.
  – “Fineline” – Robert Heinlein is the author of Glory Road, a theme of CPOH3.
  – “Azimuth” – Isaac Asimov is the author of Foundation and Empire, mentioned very briefly in CPOH4 and a theme in the upcoming CPOH6.
  Each issue’s classic sci-fi novel referenced is in each issue’s title. Issue titles are shown on the index page. All of the sci-fi authors and works referenced are together on the Future Tense variant covers page.

panels 5-6

• “Yeah, lady” says Gernsback, the earliest of these writers. “Yeah” is CPOH-speak used as somewhat formal hello. “Lady” seems archaic, borderline sexist; the word does not appear elsewhere in CPOH1-5. Taylor may perceive this sexism, as she responds tentatively “Uh… Yeah, everybody.”

Page 3

panels 2-5

• These panels form a zoom sequence. Moore uses these sequences now and then, including on P1 of Watchmen.

panel 3

• A “double-cross” maybe wordplay on Crossed; it foreshadows the Salt’s Crossed band attacking Chooga.

panel 5

• “Horh horh horh. Yoor fice es wrawng” is Crossed-speak for “Ha ha ha. Your face is wrong.” It’s what the Crossed said in the library in Columbia, see CPOH1 P7,p5 and P8,p1.

panel 6

• Taylor awakens from her dream.

Page 4

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.5 Future Tense variant cover, art by Gabriel Andrade (left) and its source Alfred Bester 1956 sci-fi novel Tiger! Tiger!

panel 1

• From left to right are Future Taylor, Archie Keller, and Cautious Optimism Kriswyczki. They’re camped out in the Appalachian Mountains east of Chattanooga, TN.
• The issue’s title “Tyger, Tyger” is basically Tiger! Tiger! the British title for Alfred Bester‘s 1956 sci-fi novel, released in the U.S. with the title The Stars My Destination. “Tyger Tyger” is the beginning of the first and last stanzas of the 1794 poem “The Tyger” by William Blake (full text here), which appears as an epigraph on the first page of Bester’s novel (in which the protagonist receives tiger mask tattoos.)
  It’s not entirely clear why Moore, or even Blake, chose “tyger” — an archaic spelling of tiger. It’s probably another example of Taylor and her crew misidentifying things, similar to her mistaking Tolkien’s first name (P2,p3 above) and other misidentifications, especially throughout CPOH2. Compared to today’s readers, the CPOH humans are less schooled, use less standardized spelling, and are less familiar with today’s zoo animals.
  Though not directly connected to CPOH, Moore has referenced Bester’s novel previously. From 1980-83 Moore wrote and drew a comic strip titled The Stars My Degradation. (Thanks commenter Rémy Christin.) Perhaps also marginally related, “Tygers” is the title of a 1986 Green Lantern Corps story Moore wrote.

Page 5

panel 1

• The mixed-case captions are Future Taylor writing in her journal.
• “July 25, 2108” is one full day after these three departed Chooga on July 23, shown on the closing pages of CPOH4.
• “AFAWK” is an initialization of “as far as we know” – see also CPOH glossary page.

panel 2

• “Tyger, Tyger” refers to the Alfred Bester novel Tiger! Tiger!, see P4,p1 above.

panel 3

• “It’s about this people gets left isolated, and but he’s so hated up he actuals powers for escaping and revenge” is Taylor’s description of the plot of Tiger! Tiger! but it also more-or-less describes Beauregard Leander Salt’s life.

Page 6

panel 1

• Kriswyczki refers to Future Taylor respectfully as “Runboss Taylor” where on earlier runs she was “Archivist Taylor.” Keller, who’s older, consistently just calls her “Taylor” (later on P6,p5 and P7,p4.)

panel 3

• “The raft, the tape Ho-ho found, the framed pictures” refer to items from earlier issues. See raft: CPOH3 P21, videotape: CPOH3 P7, and pictures: CPOH1 P15 and CPOH2 P17.
• The two birds appear to be Eastern Bluebirds.

panel 4

• “Everything ‘s incidenting at once” is foreshadowing the Salt’s Crossed band coordinated attack on Chooga.

Page 7

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.1 Crossed Culture Variant Cover, art by Gabriel Andrade

panel 4

• The Crossed’s weapons appear similar to CPOH1 Crossed Culture variant cover.
• The crossbows (perhaps another wordplay on Crossed) will come in handy.

panel 5

• This panel sets up a minor page-turn reveal.

Page 8

panels 2-3

• These form a fixed-camera sequence, which Moore uses frequently.

panel 5

• “He was fuck unusual, how he talked.” references that most of the Crossed speak in a nearly-indecipherable babble; this one spoke in coherent words and sentences, hence it’s unusual.
• This panel sets up what I call a half-reveal (similar to CPOH1 P16,p5.)

Page 9 (no annotations this page)

Page 10

panel 2

• “Dogpeeler” is a Crossed’s name.
• “Cunt-cattle” is apparently their term for uninfected humans, probably meaning humans as animals to eat and to rape.

panel 5-6

• “How it audied… I don’t skull” is Taylor thinking over what the Crossed said in p2 above “they’re attacking us“, and not quite realizing what will dawn on her fully on P23,p5 – that this band of Crossed are out attacking Chooga. It’s slightly confusing to Taylor because Kriswyczki misplaced the emphasis when she repeated the Crossed’s words as “they’re attacking us.”

Page 11

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.5 Page 11, panel 5, art by Gabriel Andrade. image via My Little Underground

panels 4-5

• The portrait of Beauregard Leander Salt, the phonebook killer is painted in blood. Salt, whose name we learn on P12, appears on the cover. Taylor first encountered a framed image of Salt at an altar in Jackson, TN, in CPOH1 P15,p5. (It’s unclear where the tooth-mosaic is.)
• From his photo adorning this “believe-center” (CPOH-speak equivalent to church), altars (CPOH1 P15,p3-5), even “salt” written over Jesus (CPOH2 P17,p3), to later talk of twelve disciples (P19,p1 below), Moore and Andrade are equating Beau Salt with Jesus Christ, albeit a horrific evil version of Jesus.

Page 12

panel 3

• “My Diversions” sounds like it might be derived from Hitler’s Mein Kampf (German for “My Struggle.”) This would make Salt so much more depraved and despicable than Hitler, because Salt lived through such horror, and yet calls it his “diversions” – his fun.
• 2008 is the year of The Surprise, the first huge outbreak of the Crossed epidemic.
• A “fair copy” is a term for a corrected version of a (often handwritten) manuscript.
• “Being a fair copy of the journals of Beauregard Leander Salt, compiled” sounds like a version of an inscription of books (mainly the bible) that monks copied by hand, prior to the printing press – though I didn’t find a specific reference for this yet. This is one of a number of references equating Salt with Jesus, see P11,panels 4-5 above.
• Moore uses characters’ journals to background various comics, including Rorschach’s journal in Watchmen, Taylor’s and Salt’s in CPOH, and Robert Black’s Commonplace Book in Providence. Commenter Col1234 points out some similarities between Rorschach’s and Salt’s.

panel 4

• Taylor is realizing the significance of salt found at Crossed altars earlier.
• Panels 4-5 are a fixed-camera sequence.

panel 5

• “July 27th, 2008” is apparently the first time the Crossed mythos have established an exact date for the first day of the Crossed epidemic outbreak (called “The Surprise.”) CPOH5 is taking place two days short of exactly one hundred years.

Page 13

panel 1

• Black and white panels take place in the past. Per CPOH1 P23, this is likely Dallas, TX.
• Salt changed his modus operandi to killing families based on obituary notices, once the police figured out that he had been picking his victims from the phone book.
• Salt isn’t just a serial killer, but apparently also eats his victims. Note the arm on the table.
• On the TV and outside, the Surprise Crossed outbreak is happening.
• Any one recognize references here: Crossed outbreak in Delaware? The people on the bridge(?) on the TV? (It’s a stretch but there’s a halfway similar bridge central to the plot of Ennis and Burrows Crossed No.4, and the streetlight looks a bit like one on the cover of the Crossed Volume 1 trade paperback.)

panel 3

• This appears to be a Starbucks, likely in Dallas, TX. The chairs and table are somewhat similar to the Jackson, TN, Starbucks ruins that appear on P1 of CPOH1, but then again there are tens of thousands of coffee shops that appear similar.
• “How this business with the banks is looking serious” probably refers to follow-on articles on the July 2008 governmental intervention to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac.
• Enron is an energy company that went bankrupt after a scandal in 2001.

Page 14

panel 1

• There’s a poster for the rock band AC/DC in the background.
• The horned logo on the right probably refers to something – suggest? xxx

panel 2

• The man’s T-shirt looks like it has a logo ending in NY?

panel 3

• “Didn’t feel like acting any different” references how the Crossed infection makes everyone as depraved as this serial killer already is.

Page 15

panel 2

• “Lit candles” perhaps inspired the Crossed’s altars.

panel 3

• “And so to bed” is a famous quote from Samuel Pepys diary. (Thanks commenter Col1234)

Page 16

Details from Crossed-speak CPOH1 P9,p5 and CPOH2 P19,p3. Art by Gabriel Andrade

panel 1

• This is the reveal of the mystery of why the Crossed in both Columbia, TN in CPOH1 (P10,p1) and Memphis, TN in CPOH2 (P19,p3) were all saying “bosol.” Bosol is Crossed-speak for “Beau Salt” — Beauregard Leander Salt, the phone book serial killer.

panel 2

• “Study-group” is apparently Beau Salt’s group of captive Crossed whom he studies to see how they behave.

panel 4

• Beau Salt seated in the middle makes this image somewhat resemble da Vinci’s The Last Supper, again Salt as an evil Jesus. (See also P11,p4-5 above.)

Page 17

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.4 Crossed Culture Variant Cover, art by Gabriel Andrade

panel 4

• The containment-suit rearing looks similar to CPOH4 Crossed Culture variant cover.
• The CPOH crew wore similar containment suits during CPOH3.
• The “buck-toothed blonde girl” looks like the tallest Crossed in P18,p1 above.

Page 18

panel 1

• “Twelve disciples” is, of course, like Jesus Christ.  (See also P11,p4-5 above.)

panel 3-4

• Dopey, Grumpy, and Doc (later Happy, Sleepy, Bashful – but Sneezy is not mentioned) are all dwarf names from the 1937 Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
• On stage in panel 4, it looks like: (left to right) Doc (19 years old), Grumpy, Happy?, Salt, Sneezy?, Sleepy?, Bashful? (“three-year old.”) Dopey is apparently the woman in the foreground.

Page 19

panel 2

• According to CPOH4, Pages 2-3, “the population-shift between us [Crossed] and plainfaces [humans]” took place between 2050 and 2070. See CPOH timeline page.

panel 4

• “Jokemercy” is the name of the Crossed child. In CPOH6, Jokemercy is revealed to be Robbie Greer.
• This is a similar videotape to the one that Taylor was watching in CPOH3 and CPOH4.
• The scene is very similar to the one depicted on the American History X cover, dated 2025, see CPOH timeline page. Though that cover’s date, 2025, takes place prior to the videotaping, which started in 2029.

CPOH5 American History X cover, art by Gabriel Andrade

Page 20

panels 1-4

• In the video, it looks like Bashful, who was most likely 3 years old (and certainly in the younger half of the group depicted on P19,p4 – so maybe 15 at the oldest) in 2029, is now a grown full-bearded man (say perhaps 25-45 years old?), so the video takes place, at the earliest, roughly around the year 2051 (2029 + 25 – 3). Jokemercy’s breakthrough likely occurred between 2050 and 2070.

panel 6

• Looks like Taylor has read and watched enough to realize that Salt’s Crossed ship lesser infecteds downriver, on boats similar to the one the crew discovered in CPOH3.

Page 21

panel 1

• “This is an infected settle, and I skull it’s older than ours” is Taylor comparing: Salt’s settle started in 2009, while Chooga settle didn’t start until 2073.

panels 5-6

• Boats with manacles similar to those the crew encountered at Browns Ferry in CPOH3.

Page 22

panels 2-3

• The ostrich has a ring on its leg, which identifies it as belonging to Chooga.

Page 23

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.6 American History X variant cover. Art by Gabriel Andrade

panel 1

• It’s dawning on the crew that the Crossed have cleverly split human forces, in order to attack Chooga. The siege of Chooga is depicted on the American History X cover, dated 2108, see CPOH timeline page.

panel 3

• Clearly a lot of horse tracks.

panel 4

• “I dreamed about six men on horses. I-I remember I said it audied like more” Taylor is talking about her dream (see P1-3 above) where she did mention (P2,p2 above) that it audied [sounded] “like more than six horses.”

panel 5

• “He said ‘they’re attacking us‘” refers to P10,p2 above.

Page 24

panel 1

• Captions are Taylor’s journal.
• The date is the next day after the one depicted where the crew is departing from Salt’s Crossed settle, one day short of exactly 100 years after the Surprise.

panels 1-3

• These form a zoom sequence; they depict the same scene as the “camera” moves back away from the subject. AM uses these sequences now and then, including on P1 of Watchmen.

panel 2

• “Until they actualed powers for escaping and revenge” refers verbatim back to P5,p3 above and Taylor’s summary of the plot of Tiger! Tiger!

panel 3

• “We’re riding to tight the future” echoes Taylor’s dream where Tolkien says “We ride to make the future tight.” (P2,p3 above)

THE END

>Go to Crossed Plus One Hundred No. 6 annotations
>Go to Crossed Plus One Hundred Annotation Index