DEAD
BEAT IN KHUSRA
Dillon,
spending a few days in Khusra after his latest adventure, reluctantly
teams up with Sly Gantlet when his old flame and Sly’s current
lover, Princess Sathyra of Tosegio, is kidnapped. Appearing or
mentioned are: a member of the Khusran royal family who achieved some
notoriety adventuring around the world back in the 1930s and ’40s;
a Forrester tux; U.N.C.L.E.; F.L.A.G.; Globex; Thema Sidibe (aka
Tracy); the “Long Noodle” plague; Jekyll Island beer; Madeline
Scocco; the Otwani tribe; Cry,
Cry Again;
See
You Next Wednesday;
Comanapracil; Al-Julhara; and the Willis-Brennan JJ/59 aircraft, aka
the Skyspear.
Novella
by Joel Jenkins and Derrick Ferguson in The
Specialists,
PulpWork Press, 2015. Dillon is the protagonist of a series of novels
and short stories by Ferguson, while Sly Gantlet and his brothers,
rock stars who double as mercenaries, appear in books by Jenkins.
This story takes place immediately after Ferguson’s novel Dillon
and the Last Rail to Khusra.
Dillon and Sly first met in Jenkins and Ferguson’s story “Dead
Beat in La Esca.” The member of the Khusran royal family who
achieved some notoriety adventuring around the world back in the
1930s and ’40s is Fortune McCall, the hero of another series of
stories by Ferguson. Thema Sidibe, Fortune’s cousin, used the name
Tracy Scott in that era during her adventures alongside him. The
“Long Noodle” plague and the Otwani tribe are also from the
Fortune McCall tales. Madeline Scocco is the granddaughter of Ronald
Scocco, one of Fortune’s aides. The Forrester tux is a reference to
the Forrester family that owns the fashion house Forrester Creations
on the soap opera The
Bold and the Beautiful.
U.N.C.L.E. is from the television series The
Man from U.N.C.L.E.,
of course. F.L.A.G. is from the TV series Knight
Rider.
Globex is from “You Only Move Twice,” an episode of the
long-running animated sitcom The
Simpsons.
Since that show is too overtly absurd in its events to be
incorporated into CU continuity, Globex must exist in both the CU and
the Simpsons’ native universe. Jekyll Island beer has appeared in
several TV series, including Burn
Notice,
Dexter,
and Lost.
Cry,
Cry Again is
a fictional movie from the Seinfeld
episode
“The Little Kicks.” See
You Next Wednesday is
a film that appears or is mentioned in several of John Landis’
films, including An
American Werewolf in London,
The
Blues Brothers,
and Trading
Places.
Comanapracil is a drug seen in “Believe in the Stars,” an episode
of the sitcom 30
Rock.
Al-Julhara is from the movie The
Jewel of the Nile,
a sequel to Romancing
the Stone.
The Willis-Brennan JJ/59 aircraft is a reference to Willis Aircraft
Company owner Leland Willis and his employee Lt. Col. Matt Brennan
from the film Chain
Lightning.
Matt must have become a partner in the company after the movie’s
events.
"You Only Move Twice" was one of my favorite episodes of the Simpsons. In it Homer goes to work for a super-villain. There's a scene where Homer's boss, Hank Scorpio, is trying to kill a spy called James Bunt in a death trap. Bunt escapes, but Homer tackles him.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Only_Move_Twice
Loved the scene where Hank Scorpio asks Homer: "Can you do me a favor and kill a couple of guys on your way out? It would really be a big help." Hank Scorpio is one of my all time favorite supervillains
DeleteYeah, it was a great episode.
DeleteThe Bold and the Beautiful is in the CU? Are there any other soap operas (other than Dark Shadows) in the CU?
ReplyDeletePassions is in through a crossover with Las Vegas. The TV crossovers addendum in the new volumes will list the chain of soap crossovers that are brought in by the inclusion of The Bold and the Beautiful, which includes most of the major ones.
DeleteSpeaking of tv, is Once Upon a Time in the CU? It included a brief reference to the sarlacc from Star Wars. And if so, does it bring in Disney's Frozen?
DeleteBesides the Sarlacc, Once Upon a Time has a number of shout-outs to Lost, so it is in the CU: http://onceuponatime.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Lost_References
DeleteI suppose that would bring in Frozen.
A variation of the tale, to be exact. Sorta like how there exists (from the CU perspective) a different version of Dr. Frankenstein from a colorless world in the show.
DeleteAh, Once Upon a Time, the TV series that had a similar premise to the comic book Fables shown on a network that tried to adapt Fables. They were probably dissimilar enough that it would be wrong to call TV series a rip-off of the comic, but I imagine it was an influence. (Fables the comic would have to be an AU.)
DeleteFrozen was very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Queen#Characters
It's worth noting that in the Nightside novel Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth, John Taylor sees faeries who are described as refugees from another dimension, hiding from the Hordes of the Adversary, confirming that Fables takes place in an alternate reality.
DeleteYeah, I remember that now. I sometimes wonder if the CU is the Pulp version of the Homelands from the comic.
DeleteI believe Sharper also had a reference to the Bazaar of the Bizarre from the Fritz Leiber story of the same name featuring Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. I imagine that would confirm Nehwon as an AU. That's interesting since two characters in Fables where Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser in all but name.
The one story in Leiber's series set on Earth had Cthulhu Mythos references though they were later changed to a simple mention of Elder Gods on publication.