Crossed Plus One Hundred 09

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.9 regular cover – art by Gabriel Andrade

Below are annotations for Crossed Plus One Hundred, No. 9 “Last First” (24 pages, cover date September 2015, released September 30 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 stuff I missed or got wrong, let me know in comments, or email linton.joe [at] gmail.com

General: With a Murfreesboro crew, Future Taylor goes to investigate the Beau Salt Crossed settlement in the Appalachian Mountains. The settlement is gone, but the crew encounters destitute humans and their Crossed “dogs.”

Cover 

• The cover depicts the bicycling Crosseds attack shown on P1-3.

Page 1

panel 1

• The mixed-case handwritten captions are Future Taylor writing in her journal.
• The August 5th date is 6 days since the end of CPOH8 (see CPOH timeline.)
• The setting is Murfreesboro, TN. The building in the background appears to be the new mosque, shown under construction in CPOH4 P4.
• The woman standing in the center is Ima’am Fajr. Seated on the ground in front of her, left to right, are Mustaqba and Future Taylor.
• “Chooga” is the human settlement at Chattanooga, TN, featured in CPOH1-6.

panel 2

• First mention of “Jasper-bama” apparently a human settlement in what is today the city of Jasper, Alabama, about 180 miles south of Murfreesboro.

panel 3

• First mention of three additional human settlements:
  – “Grenada” is apparently Grenada, Mississippi.
  – “Atlanta-Skirts” is apparently the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia.
  – “Yazoo” is apparently Yazoo City, Mississippi.

Page 2-3

panel 1

• The moon and star are the flag for Murfreesboro.

Page 4

panel 1

• Kingstenn (settle in today’s city of Kingston, TN) was shown in CPOH8.

panel 2-3

• Panel 2 and 3 form a polyptych. Though Alan Moore used this comics technique extensively in Promethea, Watchmen, and other series, this is the first polyptych in CPOH (and appears to have been missed by the colorist.)

Page 4

panel 4

• Sepia panels take place in the past.
• Left to right are Fajr, Oneway McBlarney, Cautious Optimism Kriswyczki, and Taylor.

Page 5 – no specific annotations

Page 6

panel 1

• “Bediant” is obediant.
• “Chest” is chess.

panel 2

• “Olaf Staple the Don” is science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon, who wrote the 1930 novel Last and First Men, from which the title of this issue (‘Last First’) and the CPOH10 (‘And Men’) are derived.
• “Hard sighfi” refers to hard science fiction, a category of sci-fi that is more technologically and scientifically accurate. It is not clear that Stapledon would fall into this category; the term came about after his death.

Page 7

panel 1

• The “churchface urb [in] the mountains” is the Beau Salt Crossed settlement seen in CPOH5.

Pages 8-10 – no specific annotations

Page 11

panel 1

• The mixed-case handwritten captions are Future Taylor writing in her journal.
• First appearance this issue of Bukrah, who first appeared in CPOH7 P5,p2.

Page 12

panel 4

• Oneway McBlarney (left) speaks with a Brooklyn accent.
• “I never seena mountains ‘sall. ‘Swhy comes I came. So soomi.” is “I never seen a mountains is all. That is why I came. So sue me.”

Page 13

panels 1-2

• These are the first use of 2/3rds page vertical panels in CPOH.

panel 4

• This panel sets up a page-turn reveal, a comics technique used frequently by Alan Moore in earlier issues.

Page 14 – no specific annotations

Page 15

panel 1

• The ghost structures are the buildings from the the Beau Salt Crossed settlement seen in CPOH5.  The buildings on the left and center appear in CPOH5 P10,p6. The tent on the right appears in CPOH5 P10,p5.
• This panel is the first use of a half-page vertical panel in CPOH.

Page 16

panel 2

• “Olaf Staple the Don” – see P6,p2 above.

panel 3

• “Ay, yoozall? Dat’s tracks” is Brooklyn-accented “Hey yous-all? That is tracks.”

Page 17

panels 2-3

• “Summadere” is Brooklyn-accented “Something there” or “Some are there.”
• “Buddabing!” (also spelled “Baddabing” [see CPOH8 P10,p1] or 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 18

• These are not Crossed, but uninfected humans. Though they have a cross marking on their faces (perhaps like a cattle branding?), it’s not the full-on Crossed rash (compare to P21,p2 below.)

Page 19

panels 1-2

• “Future?” and “It’s the Taylor” is the second instance of strangers recognizing Taylor. See also CPOH7 P19.
• “Red-top” is not entirely clear, Commenter Fabio Gamberini suggests it refers to the color of Taylor’s scarf.

Page 20

panel 1

• “Bosul” is Crossed-speak for “Beau Salt” the phone book serial killer mastermind villain whose backstory is detailed in CPOH5.

panel 2

• “Baful” and “Neezy” are Bashful and Sneezy, two of Salt’s intelligent Crossed leaders, introduced in CPOH5.

panel 3

• “Samadda wid ’em ehnyways? Dafug are they?” is Brooklyn-accented “What’s the matter with them anyways? [What] the fuck are they?” (Thanks commenter dvn61 for correcting.)

Page 21

panel 2

• This person has a full-on Crossed face-rash.

panel 3

• “Junkies” is not entirely clear. Perhaps the Brooklyn equivalent of Crossed would be a junky drug addict.
• “Junctionhead” sounds like the Gapple term for Crossed.

panel 5

• This panel sets up a page-turn reveal, a comics technique used frequently by Alan Moore in earlier issues.

Page 22

panel 1

• Kriswyczki’s parents appeared in CPOH3.
• The issue is titled “Last First” – see explanation P6,p2 above.
• Page 22 of CPOH9 and Page 1 of CPOH10 form a 2-page spread, including forming a full 2-issue title “Last First and Men.” This is most easy to see in the collected trade by holding the chapter page perpendicular to the other two.

THE END

>Go to Crossed Plus One Hundred No. 10 annotations
>Go to Crossed Plus One Hundred Annotation Index