Crossed Plus One Hundred 08

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.8 regular cover, art by Gabriel Andrade

Below are annotations for Crossed Plus One Hundred, No. 8 “Gateway”   (22 pages, Cover date August 2015, released 9 September 2015)
Writer: Simon Spurrier, Artist: Fernando Heinz, 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, but you never know who’s reading this and what their exposure is to any given reference. If there’s anything I missed or got wrong, let me know in comments, or email linton.joe [at] gmail.com

General: Taylor travels by balloon, visiting human settlements at Fayetteville and Kingstenn. Kingstenn settle is the victim of nefarious Crossed plot to extort humans and resources.

WARNING: SPOILERS

Cover 

• The woman in the center is Future Taylor. (See cast of characters on introduction page)
• The balloon and crew appear to be the same ones that brought talksheets from the Gapple (contraction from “Big Apple” – see CPOH glossary) Islands, which appeared on Page 5 of CPOH3.
• The cover scene depicted doesn’t quite take place in the issue – probably due to the necessity of having cover art completed earlier than internal art.

Page 1

panel 1

• July 29 2109 is the day after the end of CPOH7. Pages 1-2 take place the following day (note the comics gutter color and repeated image on P2 – below) during the time frame of Page 20 below.
• The hands belong to Future Taylor. The captions are her writing in her journal.
• On the video screen, the man pointing in Robbie Greer/Jokemercy.
• The face on Greer’s shirt is not entirely clear, but it appears to be that of Archie Keller, whom Greer killed in CPOH6. It appears that Greer made the shirt from Keller’s actual skin.

Page 2

panel 1

• “Udaffug…?” is Mister McBlarney speaking in a Brooklyn accent: “What the fuck?”
• Image repeats P20, p4 below.
• Panelwise, similar to Moore’s comics gutter convention in CPOH1 (see annotations P3,p1), CPOH7 takes place on multiple days, with different gutter colors corresponding to each day. P2 has brown gutters. P3-10 have green gutters. Then brown gutters return for P11-22.

panel 3

• Left is Mr McBlarney, of Gapple (from “Big Apple”) aka New York City.

panel 4

• Image repeats P20, p5 below. What they’re looking at is not revealed until P20 below.

Page 3

panel 1

• The location is the Rutherford County Courthouse, an actual historic building in Murfreesboro, TN, seen in CPOH4 and CPOH7.
• Left to right are Oneway McBlarney, Mr McBlarney, Taylor, and Cautious Optimism Kriswyczki.

Cover of Gateway sci-fi novel by Frederik Pohl. Image via Wikipedia

panel 2

• “Published… by Freddy Pol” – see P4,p1 below. The book is visible in Taylor’s hand.
• The central woman, with a purple headscarf, is Ima’am Fajr last seen inCPOH4.
• On the right, in brown vest, is Taylor’s love interest Mustaqba.

Page 4

panel 1

• Each issue of CPOH includes a title reflecting a theme from science fiction literature. Taylor describes the 1977 novel Gateway by Frederik Pohl.
• The decrepit Mobil station and smashed TV are perhaps symbolic of the end of petroleum and television economies.
• Feral lions were featured on earlier covers, including CPOH Taste Test and CPOH2 American History X variant. Ostriches are raised by humans for food; these ones are apparently escaped.

Page 5

panels 2-3

• These form a fixed-camera sequence, depicting the rise of the balloon.

panel 3

• “His mudda got et. Monster pigeon outta Joyzie. Fucken yooge” is “His mother got ate [was eaten]. Monster pigeon out of [New] Jersey.” I’m not sure what the pigeon refers to if anything.
• “Gapple mensch don’t siddaboud all sel’piddy, yaknow? Gudda get back on.” is “Gapple [Big Apple – NYC] people don’t sit about all self-pity you know? Got to get back on.” Get back on [the horse] is slang for keeping going after adversity.

panel 4

• “‘S an important bidniss– spreadina nooz” is “it’s important business spreading the news.” Note that “spreading the news” is part of the opening line of the lyrics of the song New York, New York.
• There are a handful of Fayettevilles, but this likely refers to the city in southern Tennessee, about 50 miles south of Murfreesboro, TN. Fayetteville is the first human settlement depicted, outside of Chooga and Murfreesboro.

Page 6

panel 1

• “Extraextra! Reeeeedalabadit! I got ya e-side nooz right here!” is “Extra! Extra! Read all about it! I got your east-side news right here!” and “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” is a cliche catch-phrase used in lots of movies and TV shows.

panel 2

• “Chryslerblock mayor caught threetimin’ widda bigfoot! Pygmy gangtribe onna march…” is “Chryslerblock mayor caught three-timing with a bigfoot! Pygmy gangtribe on the march…” These are sensational headlines similar to today’s tabloids, including the New York Post.
• “Chryslerblock” is apparently a geographic area based at Manhattan’s famous Chrysler Building.
• “Three-timing” is a sensational version of “two-timing” – cheating on one’s spouse.
• “Bigfoot” is, of course, a folkloric man-ape creature.

Page 7

panel 1

• It seems like in 2108-2109 there’s no money, so it’s not clear how the man on the right is paying for his paper.

panel 3

• The tattoo could cover up a Crossed face rash.
• “Lubbock” is likely a family last name, but it might refer to the city in Texas.

Page 8

panel 2

• The human settlement “Kingstenn” (mentioned in CPOH7 P8,p2) is the present day city of Kingston, TN.. Taylor visits there later this issue – see P11-22 below.

Page 9

panel 1

• “The oh-fishal voyshun? Always you goin’ uptown or downtown– you scopin’ winds gonna rightways. Pizzacake. Rulatum: you truck up turnin’ right, you truck down, you turnin’ left. Calleda curry-oh-lis effect.” is “The official version? Always you [are] going uptown or downtown — you [are] scoping winds going the right way. Piece of cake. Rule of thumb: you track up[wards to] turn right, you track down[wards to turn] left. Called a Coriolis effect.”
• “Uptown” (northbound) and “Downtown” (southbound) are directional indicators used on the New York City subways, especially in Manhattan.
• The Coriolis affect is a physics principle that explains momentum and trajectory, employed today by hot air balloonists for navigation.

panel 2

• “Eyy– you wanna unoh-fishal voyshun? The chroo chruth aboudit?” is “Eh – you want the unofficial version? The true truth about it?” (Thanks commenter nemuihp for refining.)

panel 3

• “Fulla bees” is “full of bees.” McBlarney is telling a joke: that the bees can’t see where they’re going. (Thanks commenter nemuihp)
• “S’whycomes” is “it’s why comes.” Why comes is a version of today’s slang “howcome” meaning “why.”

Page 10

panel 1

• “Chooga” is the human settlement where Taylor grew up, seen (and sieged) in CPOH3-6.
• “Baddabing” (spelled badda bing)  is a catchphrase from the movie The Godfather also featured in the TV series The Sopranos. It means more-or-less “there it is” or “taken care of.”

Page 11

Kingston Fossil Plan, photo by Brian Stansberry via Wikipedia

panel 1

• The presence of the Kingston Fossil Plant confirms that Kingstenn human settlement is at today’s city of Kingston, TN. Kingston is about 150 miles northeast of Fayetteville.
• “Joggerphy” is geography.
• “Bigwhup chimmanies an’ pile-ons all ova” is “big whoop chimneys and pylons all over.”
• “Can gaddabout downtownin’ anyplace near flat patcha urt inna north– tha’s the pad” is “Can forget about downtowning [presumably going down, landing] any place near [the] flat patch of earth in the north.” Downtown (vs. Uptown) describes directions for NYC subways. (Again thanks commenter nemuihp.)
• Panelwise, the green comics gutter turns brown – see P2,p1 above. The balloon has arrived after midnight, so it is the next day: July 30, 2109.

panel 2

• “Genheim” is unclear to me – perhaps it refers to the Guggenheim Museum? It might be Mr. McBlarney’s first name.

panel 3

• “Ehnyways, can’t leave the ole’ boid alone– who’s gunna feeda bees? Four unblocks dataway. Pizzacake.” is “Anyways, can’t leave the old bird [the balloon] alone – who’s going to feed the bees? Four unblocks thataway. Piece of cake.” Manhattanites give directions in terms of blocks frequently, but in the destroyed Kingston, there aren’t blocks, per se, hence “unblocks.” Bees refers back to McBlarney’s joke on P9,p3.

panel 4

• “Tellem” is “tell them.”
• “Cuppajo” is “cup of Joe” meaning coffee.
• “Baddabing!” see P10,p1 above.

Page 12

panel 1

• “They said not ’til tomorrow” refers to the Crossed taking people annually – see P20-21 below.

panel 2

• “I come in peace” is a science fiction trope.

Page 13

panel 1

• CPOH names take the form of hopeful thoughts: Opportunity, Enthusiasm, and Carpe-Dee (alludes to carpe diem – meaning “sieze the day”.)

Page 14

panels 4-5

• These form a fixed-camera sequence.

Page 15

panel 4

• Looks like Doc Lemon (old man with glasses) knows that Archivist Reed made the video.

Page 16

panel 1

• The small Crossed riding on the backs of big ones appeared in CPOH7 P16.

Page 17

panel 3

• The Crossed are watching road, river, bus, foot, but not by balloon.

Page 18 – no specific annotations

Page 19

panels 1-2

• These form a fixed-camera sequence.

Page 20

panel 3

• Repeats image from P2,p1. Page 1-2 take place at the same time as P20.

panel 5

• Repeats image from P2,p4.

Page 21 – no specific annotations

Page 22

panel 1

• The baby shown here returns as a young child in CPOH13 P12. The Crossed call the baby a “martyr” (CPOH12 P15,p3) and humans call them “barter-born” and “barter-babies” (CPOH13 P13, panels 2 and 3).
  Commenter Jack came up with the best explanation for the baby: the Crossed are bringing infected babies into human settlements for humans to raise them like one of their own, thus growing new infiltrators that will be almost impossible to detect. The gloves are for the settlers to hold and handle the baby without getting infected.

THE END

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