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Adventures of Jack Burton
Big Trouble in Merrie Olde England
Novel
Written by Matthew J. Elliott
With illustrations by Jonas Scharf
Cover illustration by Robert Sammelin
December 2017 |
Jack and friends are embroiled in Arthurian
legend when they arrive in England.
Notes from the Jack Burton chronology
This novel takes place not long after the events of
Big Trouble in Mother Russia.
At the end of that novel, Jack and friends are rescued from the
wastes of Antarctica by a British nuclear submarine whose
captain wants their help in fighting a werewolf. As our current
novel opens, the sub is dropping our heroes off in England,
having defeated the werewolf in the interim in an untold story.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue
Jack Burton
David Lo Pan (mentioned only, deceased)
Wang Chi
Miao Yin (mentioned only)
Wing Kong
Gracie Law
Chang Sing
(mentioned only)
Egg Shen
Three Storms
(mentioned only, deceased, except for Lightning)
Thunder
(mentioned only, deceased)
Lightning
Rip Taylor
(mentioned only)
Henry Swanson
(mentioned only)
Valentina
(mentioned only)
Klokoe
(mentioned only)
Captain Gevaudan
Petty Officer Talbot
(mentioned only)
Lord Malcolm Morgause
Morgana Morgause
Felix Kingfisher (MI5 director, codename Wart)
Pete (mentioned only)
Min Lo Chan
J. Hardin
(mentioned only)
Selina (ITN reporter)
Pellinor
Margo Litzenberger
Eddie Lee
Purry Mason
(mentioned only)
Gerald
Mulberry
Roddy (Sir Roderick)
Uncle Chu
(mentioned only)
Derek (mentioned only, editor-in-chief and/or publisher of the
Berkley People's Herald)
Bobby (Derek's cousin)
Glatisant
Colonel Hesketh-Fletcher
Sergeant Dugdale
Spectral Sisterhood
(mentioned only)
Genevieve Bulstrode
(mentioned only)
Sir Godfrey Bulstrode
(mentioned only, father of Genevieve Bulstrode)
Countess Isabella Scarletina
(mentioned only)
Henrietta Crumb
(mentioned only)
Samantha
(mentioned only)
Irma Burton
(mentioned only, deceased)
Clyde
Grammy Evangeline (mentioned only, presumably deceased)
Didja Know?
The full title of this novel is Big Trouble in Little China
Illustrated Novel:
Big Trouble in Merrie Olde England. It
was published by BOOM! Studios, the same company that published
the 25-issue
Big Trouble in Little China comic book series from
2014-2016.
The title of each chapter in the book is from a line of dialog
or other text in
Big Trouble in Little
China.
Didja Notice?
On the cover, the image of Jack has him wearing a tank
top that looks like the one he wore in
Big Trouble in Little
China. But notice that the image printed on the shirt
has been reversed. The interior illustrations are
correct, however. |
 |
 |
Jack's tank top in
Big Trouble in Little
China |
Jack's tank top with reversed image |
The book is disrespectfully dedicated
to
Douglas Q. Weinberger of Hell, Michigan with "He knows what he
did." In
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia, we learned that Weinberger was on Jack's shit
list for unspecified reasons. Weinberger is also mentioned by
Jack on page 41 of this novel.
Chapter I: That's How it Always Begins
The illustration on page 10 is a montage of people and things
from
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia, the previous novel in the series. The man near
the bottom-left corner appears to be comedian Rip Taylor, about
whom Jack boasted of having beaten in an arm-wrestling contest.
Jack thinks back on that moment with Taylor in the lunchroom of
a Sears again on
page 14 and that the man had revealed the pseudonym he used when
writing to Penthouse Forum, a companion periodical to
the pornographic magazine Penthouse.
On page 11, Jack speaks of the
Buddhist religion and Nirvana. "Nirvana" is the state of perfect
freedom and the release from the cycle of birth, life, and death
in Buddhism.
Also on page 11, Jack disputes the aphorism "Don't judge a book
by its cover", feeling it's a smack in the chops to literature's
greatest illustrators such as Paget, Shepherd, Casagrande, and
Scharf. He is referring to Sidney Paget (1860-1908), E. H.
Shepard (1879-1976), Elena Casagrande, and Jonas Scharf. Paget
and Shepard are famed British book illustrators.
Elena Casagrande provided the interior illustrations (though not
the cover) of
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia, while Jonas Scharf provides the interior
illustrations of our current novel (though, again, not the
cover).
On page 11 again, Jack states,
"Talking figuratively is for pussies and Democrats." "Democrats"
is a reference to the left-leaning Democrat political party of
the United States. Jack is a confirmed Republican, as previously
seen in
Big Trouble in Little
China.
Jack makes a derogatory reference to
Detroit,
Michigan on page 11. In
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia, he is said to have vowed to never visit two
places in the world: Detroit and the USSR.
On pages 11-14, Jack describes
portions of his adventure in
Big Trouble in Little
China.
On page 12, Jack mentions an ex-wife
in
Vegas who had extra-long fingernails on each pinky. Long
pinky nails have been associated with being used to snort
cocaine from, especially in the 1980s when this story takes
place.
Jack eats a sandwich made from cheese and
Marmite
and drinks a can of
Tizer.
On page 12, Jack reveals that two of his ex-wives put a gun to
his head.
On page 13, Jack criticizes Lo Pan's riding down a fancy escalator
as an entrance to his own wedding (in
Big Trouble in Little
China) and remarks, "Can you imagine something as
piss-poor as riding an escalator on your way to a massively
important function? That's how you know the guy was a
world-class loser." This is likely a reference to current
U.S. president Donald Trump's ride on a golden escalator to
announce his candidacy for office in 2015, about 30 years after
Jack's remarks.
Also on page 13, Jack refers to a clinch he had with Gracie in
Antarctica. This took place at the end of
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
On page 14, Jack finishes his Tizer, wishing it was a fifth of
Bushmill.
Jack tries to name the Three Storms (from
Big Trouble in Little
China) on page 14, getting Thunder and
Lightning correct, but calling the third Pestilence. The actual
third storm was Rain. It seems he is confusing the Three Storms
with the Biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Pestilence,
War, Famine, and Death).
On pages 14-15 , Jack describes his adventure in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
On page 15, Jack proclaims himself a
trend-setter in hair couture. This is likely a reference to his
mullet haircut.
Jack, Wang, and Gracie arrive in England on the Resolution-class
nuclear submarine HMS Sue Lawley. The
Resolution-class submarines were real world nuclear
subs in the UK's Royal Navy from 1968-1996, though there was
never one called the HMS Sue Lawley. Sue Lawley (1946-)
is a British news broadcaster.
Page 16 mentions
Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace is the official
residence of the British king/queen.
On page 16, Jack remarks of himself and his friends, "We're like
McNuggets, not at our best when we're cold." "McNuggets"
refers to Chicken McNuggets, a battered and deep-fried processed
chicken food served at the
McDonald's fast food chain.
Jack sophomorically remarks to Captain Gevaudan on page 16, "...I
know Gracie enjoyed being surrounded by seamen," and that the
motto of the Royal Naval Submarines is "We Come Unseen." He is
equating "seamen" with "semen" and the RNS motto with the slang
term "come" or "cum", again, meaning semen.
"We Come Unseen" is the actual motto of the UK's
Royal Navy Submarine Service.
Captain Gevaudan drops Jack and friends off in
Portsmouth, England.
On page 17, Jack reflects on an injury he sustained while
restraining the "vulpine Petty Officer Talbot". This refers to
the untold adventure he and his friends experienced aboard the
submarine between
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia and now. Considering the submarine adventure
involved confronting a werewolf and the fact that "vulpine" means
"fox-like", does this mean that Jack was bitten by the werewolf?
If so, this traditionally means he will transform into a
werewolf during the next full moon! So far, this has not been
explored in any subsequent Jack Burton stories.
When Jack and his friends arrive in Portsmouth, an
ITN camera
crew is there to film them.
Jack boasts to the ITN crew that this is his second time on
television. His first was an appearance in a non-speaking role
on the 1979-1980 TV series
Kate Loves a Mystery, as revealed in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
On pages 181-182, Jack recalls the role, a rapist. Our current novel reveals that it
was episode 9 of the series in which he appeared; this would
make it the episode titled "The Valley Strangler", no rapist
involved as far as I can tell.
The character of Lord
Malcolm Morgause of the British Houses of Parliament is a
fictitious member.
On page 18, Lord Malcolm chastises his mother for dragging him
out of chamber in the middle of his rousing speech about the
Falklands. This is a reference to the Falkland Islands War
between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982. It's a bit
perplexing why he would have been giving a speech about that
particular war since it occurred about 4 years before the events
of this novel (from what is presumed of the Jack Burton timeline,
that
Big Trouble in Little
China takes place around 1985-86).
Lord Malcolm has a low opinion of television except for nature
documentaries on
BBC2.
Page 19 introduces Felix Kingfisher. The name is a play on the
Fisher King of Arthurian legend.
On page 19, the name of the lawyer Egg Shen made statements to
at the beginning of
Big Trouble in Little
China is revealed to be J. Hardin. The
actor who portrayed the lawyer in that film was Jerry Hardin!
The lawyer was referred to only as
Pinstripe Lawyer in the film's closing credits.
Page 19 reveals that Jack's middle name is Cornelius.
Gracie expresses her gratitude to the
Royal Navy Submarine Service and refers to the "Special
Relationship" in action. The U.S. and U.K. are often said to
have a
Special Relationship of cooperation in international matters.
The term came into use after U.K. Prime Minister Winston
Churchill used it in a speech in 1946.
In Portsmouth, Jack and the rest are put on a train bound for
London.
Page 20 introduces Pellinor, another reference to Arthurian
legend. King Pellinor was said to be on an endless hunt for the
Questing Beast. The Questing Beast itself appears later in this
novel.
On page 20, Kingfisher's screen is switched off and covered by
the sliding portrait of MI5's founder.
MI5 is a
counter-intelligence agency in the United Kingdom, founded in 1909 by
Major-General Sir Vernon Kell.
Page 20 reveals that Margo's as-yet unpublished book Big
Trouble in Little China is to be published by
Simon & Schuster. On page 23, she is already thinking of
a sequel to the book, tentatively titled
Big Trouble in Merrie Olde England,
the very name of this novel! She later publishes several other "Big
Trouble in..." books as well, as revealed in
"Encino Man".
Chapter II: We May Be Trapped
Page 21 mentions Gracie's cat, Purry Mason, first mentioned in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
On page 23, Margo reflects on Eddie getting them both lost in
Soho, an entertainment district in the city of Westminster.
Also on page 23, Eddie and Margo watch The Benny Hill Show
on TV.
The Benny Hill Show is a comedy sketch show
known for its slapstick, often sexist, humor that ran from
1955-1991 in the UK and syndicated throughout the world.
After watching
Benny Hill, Margo and Eddie visit London's own
Chinatown.
On page 24, Margo spots a
McDonald's in Chinatown.
Gracie tells Wang she would have liked to visit
Trafalgar Square while in London. She does, in fact, race
through there a bit later in the book.
On page 26, Jack remarks on his desire for a bottle of Wild
Turkey.
Wild
Turkey is a brand of Kentucky bourbon.
On the train, Wang observes a man seemingly covering his face
from Wang and his friends with a copy of the
Financial Times,
a London-based international business and economics newspaper.
On page 27, Jack complains about the British food, wishing for
even a mulligan stew. Mulligan stew is traditionally a stew made
by American hobos (vagrants), who will all contribute whatever
food items they have (meat, vegetables, spices, etc.) to a pot
of water and boiled over a fire until the ingredients are cooked
enough to eat.
On page 30, Gracie tells the Wing Kong members that have
captured her and her friends that she understands they've just
been Shanghaied, then corrects herself and says "kidnapped". The
term "Shanghai", meaning forced
conscription by intimidation or violence, came into use in the
1800s due to the abduction of sailors to criminal boats, often
destined for the port city of Shanghai, China. The term is
considered somewhat racist or derogatory towards the Chinese in
modern times, hence Gracie's apology.
Chapter III: The Most Dangerous Cut-Throat Den of Madmen in
Chinatown
In Chapter III, Jack and friends face off against
strange Venus flytrap-like plants that crawl like snakes
and try to eat them. The illustration of the plants at
the beginning of the chapter has them looking an awful
lot like the Audrey II man-eating plant from the 1986 film
version of Little Shop of Horrors. |
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Wing Kong flytraps |
Audrey II |
On page 35, the train arrives at
Waterloo Station. Gracie considers the cage-like structure
and busy foot-traffic the second most inhospitable place she'd
ever visited after the
New Jersey
Transit Authority.
On page 37, Pellinor insists on Margo and her friends
accompanying him to
Camden
Market, a collection of thousands of stalls and larger
markets in Camden Town.
Also on page 37, Jack reflects on a recurring dream he'd had
about writing a municipal tax code on the back of a
cease-and-desist letter from the
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleading Squad.
Jack recalls his recent experiences in a dungeon beneath the
Kremlin on page 37. These occurred in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia. The Kremlin is the official home of the Russian
President.
Page 38 reveals that Jack was briefly married to a botanist/car
show modelist who was allergic to
Turtle Wax.
Jack apparently likes
Sour Patch Kids.
On page 39, Gracie wishes there was an Asian version of the
Anti-Italian-American Defamation League. This is likely a joking
reference to the American Italian Anti-Defamation League, a
political advocacy group in 1967. It may also refer to the
parody group called
the Anti-Italian-American Defamation League mentioned in an
episode of The Simpsons (I can't find which episode
that was).
Also on page 39, Jack says, "As one shepherd said to the other
shepherd, let's get the fucking flock out of here." He seems to
be misquoting a joke told by the character of Martin Riggs
(actor Mel Gibson) in
the 1987 film Lethal Weapon, "What did one shepherd
say to the other shepherd? Let's get the flock out of here!",
though that film opened a couple years after the events of this
novel.
On page 40, Gracie reveals that the spell of tongues has worn
off of her. Egg had cast the spell on her
to enable her to speak numerous languages in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
On page 40, Jack remarks on sending Lo Pan to one of the Chinese
85,000 Hells, but Wang corrects him, "84,000." The 84,000 Hells
of Chinese mythology were mentioned in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
Chapter IV: Haulin' Ass
The
"Haulin' Ass" of this chapter's title comes from the words
(accompanied by the iconic trucker's "mud flap girl") on the
front grill of the Pork-Chop Express.
On page 44, Wang remarks that Jack once chugged an entire bottle
of Mrs. Butterworth's on a dare.
Mrs.
Butterworth's is a brand of pancake syrup.
On page 45, Jack again has trouble remembering the correct name
of the brothel he infiltrated in
Big Trouble in Little
China, as he did in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia. For those keeping score, it was the White
Tiger.
Also on page 45, Jack muses on opening a sixer of Pabst.
Pabst Blue
Ribbon is an American brand of beer.
On page 46, Jack reflects on the only
childhood pet he ever had not named Pete, a parakeet called Mr.
Whiskers; an ironic name considering birds do not have whiskers.
In
"The Hell of the
Midnight Road", we learned that Jack once had a dog named
Pete as kid.
In
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia, Jack states that all of his pets
have been named Pete; apparently that is not quite true since we
now have him thinking of childhood parakeet Mr. Whiskers.
Jack also names the
hell-beast he adopts in
"The Hell of the
Midnight Road" Pete.
On page 48, Jack
considers emitting a Tarzan yell as he attempts to swing on a
line of Chinese lanterns from the top of a building to an alley
below.
Tarzan, of course, is the world-renowned character created by
Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912, a British boy who was lost in the
African jungle and raised by apes; in movies, Tarzan is known
for sounding a distinctive yell when rushing into danger,
particularly when swinging on a vine.
Jack falls to the alley
floor, hoping he did not wind up looking like a cartoon coyote.
This refers to the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote,
a Warner Bros. character appearing in
Looney Toons
and
Merrie Melodies
cartoons, known for failed attempts to use ingenious gadgets or
traps that wind up with him falling hundreds of feet from a
cliff to the dusty ground below.
On page 49, one of Jack's rescuers is
said to wield an automatic weapon of the type Jack had wielded
back in the States. In
Big Trouble in Little
China, Jack wielded an
Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic pistol. He is seen clutching such
a gun on the cover of this book.
Page 49 states that Jack is not
actually that acquainted with firearms, preferring a steering
wheel or bottle of Fireball between his fingers. "Fireball" is
likely meant to refer to
Fireball
Cinnamon Whiskey. This brand of whiskey was introduced in
Canada in 1984.
On page 50, Jack says he had an ex-wife who collected the entire
run of
David's Bridal catalogs. Maybe this is meant to suggest that
Jack's then-wife wished she could have had a nicer wedding than
the one she had with him.
Also on page 50, Jack sees that he
and his friends were being held in the Fragrant Lotus Casino in
London. This appears to be a fictitious establishment.
Wang asks their mysterious driver on page 50 if he knows who
killed Kennedy and Gracie makes a retort about who killed
Spencer Perceval. "Kennedy" is a reference to the assassination
of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Spencer Perceval was Prime Minister of the UK 1809-1812, just as
Gracie states here; Perceval was assassinated by John
Bellingham, as stated on page 52.
On page 50, Gracie reveals that she is a history buff and Jack
remarks that he loves it when she says "buff". He is referring
to the slang term "buff" which means "naked".
On page 51, Jack quotes, "My life, my love, and my lady is the
sea!" This is a line from the 1972 song "Brandy (You're a Fine
Girl)" by Looking Glass.
Also on page 51, Gracie recognizes the
National Gallery as they drive past it.
Chapter V: Some Radical Alice in Wonderland
Felix Kingfisher is the Comeregulus, or director, of MI5. The title
of
Comeregulus is fictitious as far as I can tell.
On page 55, Kingfisher learns that the car chase through London
resulted in damage to the statue of Admiral Nelson, it having
been broken in half. The statue is part of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar
Square. Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) was a British naval
hero who died in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Also on page 55, Kingfisher refers to a figure known as the
Trismegistus. Trismegistus is Greek for
"thrice-greatest" and is often applied to Hermes Trismegistus,
author of the Hermetic Corpus that are the basis of
Hermeticism.
On page 56, Kingfisher mentions to Mulberry the Loch Ness Monster
swimming past Parliament 15 years ago, implying that the
incident actually took place but was covered up so effectively
that no one heard of it or, if they did, does not recall it. The
Loch Ness Monster is an aquatic creature of Scottish folklore
and alleged cryptid animal similar to a prehistoric plesiosaurus
that is said to live in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands.
Even if the creature were real, British Parliament is along the
River Thames, not Loch Ness; the creature would have to have
been transported there somehow. Given the magical events that
occur in the Jack Burton stories, however, all of this becomes
plausible!
Margo is said to have been aware of Liverpool because of its
association with the Beatles. The
Beatles were a hugely popular and extremely influential British
rock band from the city of
Liverpool,
active 1960-1970.
Pellinor drives a Bentley.
Bentley
is a manufacturer of British luxury cars.
Pellinor likes to talk about a soap opera called The Archers,
with Margo wondering how she missed it in the British TV
listings. She missed it because
The Archers is a radio soap opera, a format no
longer broadcasting new shows in the United States.
The Archers has been running on a regular
schedule in the UK since 1951.
On page 58, Pellinor points through the horse stalls with his
brolly. "Brolly" is a British term for "umbrella". Eddie thinks
the British term for "umbrella" is "bumbershoot", a somewhat
common misconception. "Bumbershoot" is a humorous term invented
in the U.S. as a likely slang term the British would use; the
term is largely unknown in the UK.
On page 58, Pellinor leads Margo and Eddie into Roddy's Rare
Records (which has a secret entrance to an underground MI5
base). This appears to be a fictitious business in Camden,
possibly a reference to the eponymous store in the 2014 British
comedy TV movie Rudy's Rare Records.
Eddie asks Roddy if he has any Mandopop and Roddy responds,
"Only Na Ying, Jaycee Chan, and Baby Zhang...expecting some
Della Ding Dang on Tuesday."
Mandopop is Mandarin pop music and the performers mentioned by
Roddy are all real people.
On page 59, Margo reflects on the British propensity to refer to
the subway as the tube. The London Underground rapid transit
system is colloquially referred as the Tube.
On page 60, Pellinor leads Margo and Eddie through a
hallway lined with painted portraits, explaining that
they are his illustrious predecessors. One of the
portraits is described as a that of a man so unhappy his
lips were curved almost into a snarl and who wore a
black jacket with white piping and a large badge of a
penny-farthing bicycle. The man's description seems to
be that of Number 6 from the 1967-1968 British
television series
The Prisoner! Number 6 was a British government
agent who had angrily resigned his position and is
subsequently abducted and forced to live within the
boundaries of a bizarre, unnamed village. |
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On page 61, Margo is reminded of Sebastian Cabot when she first
sees the black-bearded Kingfisher. Cabot (1918-1977) was a
British actor, best known in the U.S. for his role as valet
Giles French on the 1966-1971 American sitcom Family Affair.
On page 63, Eddie and Kingfisher discuss the formation of MI5 in
1909 prior to WWI by Major-General Sir Vernon Kell. This is correct, though Kingfisher here
proclaims that it is much older and was originally known as the
Knights of the Round Table in King Arthur's Camelot. In
Arthurian legend, the
Knights of the Round Table were responsible for the protection
of the kingdom. Camelot was the name of King Arthur's castle and
the name is often extended to describe his entire kingdom
(Britain).
Chapter VI: Keep the Home Fires Burning
Discussing Admiral Horatio Nelson on page 65, Jack asks,
"...who names their kid Horatio anyway? Isn't that some kind of
sex thing?" He is mistaking "Horatio" for the fellatio,
the act of oral sex performed on a man's penis.
On page 66, Jack thinks, All incarceration and no play made
Jack a dull boy. The proverb "All work and no play makes
Jack a dull boy," has been known in the English-speaking world
since at least 1659.
On page 67, Wang explains to Jack that he's watching football on
TV, but Jack refuses to acknowledge it as football. The game on
the television is what is referred to in the U.S. as soccer
(called football most everywhere else in the world).
Also on page 67, Wang thinks of himself as possibly a nosey
S.O.B. (son of a bitch).
On page 68, Gracie remarks on her and Jack's recent past, "Boy
meets girl, boy abandons girl, boy and girl are reunited in
Russia before being taken against their will to Antarctica and
transported via werewolf-infested submarine to England," and
Jack responds, "Yeah, that does sound like something they
already did on Dynasty."
Dynasty was a 1981-1989 prime-time television
soap opera.
On page 69, Eddie tells Gracie that Margo went to see Cats.
Cats is a 1981 musical stage play by Andrew
Lloyd Webber.
Kingfisher says that John Dee had been his organization's expert
on all things wizardly until he died in 1607. John Dee is an
actual historical figure who was an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I
and a scholar of science and magic. He is mostly commonly stated
to have died in 1608 or '09, not '07.
On page 71, Jack and friends discuss the legendary sword in the
stone, Excalibur or Caliburn. Excalibur is the sword won and
wielded by King Arthur in legend.
Chapter VII: Stirring the Pot
Page 75 reveals that Jack once ate an entire box of
Fiddle Faddle.
Also on page 75, Gracie likens Jack's current expression to that
of a Golden Retriever who has just listened to a reading of the
works of Virginia Woolf. Woolf (1882-1941) was a British writer.
The reference here to a Golden Retriever is probably meant to
evoke Woolf's 1933 book Flush: A Biography, told from the point
of view of a cocker spaniel.
Jack describes his hair style as "party in the front, party in
the back." The quote that is usually heard to describe the
mullet is "business in the front, party in the back", due to it
being
cut short to the front and sides and long in the back.
When Kingfisher tells his guests about the search for Excalibur
on page 76, Eddie remarks that he saw
the movie with Helen Mirren. Mirren is a renowned British
actress. She appeared in the 1981 film Excalibur.
Kingfisher states that there are many forgeries of Excalibur in
the world, just as there are of the One True Cross, the Holy
Grail, and the Spear of Destiny. The One
True Cross, the Holy Grail, and the Spear of Destiny are all
alleged holy relics relating to the crucifixion of Christ.
Kingfisher states that the Wing Kong had possession of Excalibur
and the stone for almost 100 years. The criminal organization
used their possession of them to blackmail the British
authorities
to leave them alone and go after their rivals like the Si-Fan
and Red Dragon tongs. Si-Fan is the name of a fictitious tong in
the Fu Manchu novels by Sax Rohmer. Red Dragon is another
fictitious tong from the 1961 British film The Terror of the
Tongs.
On page 77, Kingfisher tells Eddie and Margo that Excalibur was
forged by Myrddin (Merlin) on the islet of Avalon. In Arthurian
legend, Excalibur is not normally said to have been forged by
Merlin, but by an elfin sword smith. The Isle of Avalon is where
the sword is often said to have been forged, though the island
is fictitious or its location lost.
Just as Kingfisher states on page 77, Merlin is considered to
have been imprisoned somewhere by Queen Nimue or else dead.
Queen Nimue is also known as the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian
legend.
On page 78, Kingfisher mentions Thomas Malory. Malory
(1415-1471) was the British author of Le Morte d'Arthur,
the most well-known version of the Arthurian legend in modern
times.
Chapter VIII: Many Mysteries, Many Unanswerable Questions
On page 83, Margo reflects on her intention
to someday scatter her mother's ashes on the stage of the
Broadway Theater during the performance of Memories
in Cats. Presumably,
Memories is meant to be "Memory", a song in the
musical.
Margo once tried to do a dry-run of the act with a shoebox
of Gold Bond
Medicated Powder.
Margo is said to have formerly worked at the Berkley
People's Herald. This appears to be a fictitious newspaper,
probably meant to be local to the city of
Berkeley, known to be one of the most socially liberal
cities in the U.S., on San Francisco Bay.
On page 84, Margo is considering seeing the Singaporean version
of Starlight Express.
Starlight Express is a 1984 rock musical by
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe.
On page 86, Margo sees a moment of Coronation Street on
the television and sees a view of a city "even more depressing
than Gary, Indiana."
Coronation Street is a British television soap
opera. The city of
Gary, Indiana
does have a reputation as being on the decline, with high poverty,
high crime, and high political corruption.
Lord Malcolm Morgause wears an
Armani
jacket. He is a member of Parliament for Wyvern South. He also
holds a seat on the
National Security Council.
Wyvern South appears to be a fictitious district in the UK, the
name "Wyvern" probably borrowed from that of a legendary
dragon-like creature in British myth (which later appears in the
novel). Lord Malcolm is
presumably a descendant of
Morgause, the mother of Gawain and Mordred in some versions of
Arthurian legend.
Page 88 mentions the British pop band
Duran Duran
and a couple of its members, for which Margo gains backstage
passes for a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon (officially the
Eventim
Apollo). Andy Taylor, who has a similar hairstyle to Lord
Malcolm, is a former guitarist for the band. Simon Le Bon is the
band's lead singer.
On page 88, Margo recalls that Eddie once talked about Duran
Duran before wandering onto the subject of Barbarella
and why he'd never made it past the title sequence.
Barbarella is a 1968 science-fiction satire film
about a sexy young female agent of the United Earth government;
the title sequence features the eponymous character slowly
stripping off her spacesuit in weightlessness until she is nude.
The band Duran Duran got its name from a character in the film,
Dr. Durand Durand.
On page 89, the song "Rio" is one of Duran Duran's most
successful singles. The songs "Girls on Film" and "Notorious" on
page 90 are also actual songs by the band.
Also on page 89, Margo reflects on her high school's production
of Cabaret.
Cabaret is a 1966 musical play.
Margo notices that Lord Malcolm has uneven teeth. The British
are often considered to have bad teeth, especially in the U.S.
Whether this is really any more true for Brits than it is for
other western nationalities has been a point of cultural debate.
On page 90, Lord Malcolm says the English have only heard of
The New York
Times and
Washington Post as far as American newspapers.
Lord Malcolm tells his chauffer to take him and Margo back to
Kensington on page 90.
Kensington is a district of West London.
The chauffer's name of Glatisant is from that of a monster in
Arthurian legend, also known as a Questing Beast. Glatisant
later transforms into the beast, with the head of a snake and
body of a leopard, later in the novel.
Glatisant is said to suffer from ichthyosis. Ichthyosis
is a genetic skin disorder causing dry, scaly skin.
Chapter IX: From Here On, It
Gets Pretty Normal
Wang begins to develop an appreciation for Tottenham Hotspur.
This is a professional football (soccer) team in the London
district of Tottenham.
On page 94, Wang finally realizes their
quarters are bugged and thinks, "the penny, or whatever the
English equivalent might be, dropped." The phrase "the penny dropped"
is an idiom used in some British-related countries to mean "a
sudden realization."
The English equivalent of a penny is a penny,
the smallest denomination of currency. The American penny is
actually the American cent; "penny" is borrowed from the British
term!
Jack and Min Lo Chan both think the movie Breaker, Breaker,
starring Chuck Norris is the best trucker movie ever made.
Breaker! Breaker! is a 1977 action film starring
Norris as a truck driver.
Jack asks for the Pork-Chop Express to be
shipped from the U.S. to England before beginning the adventure
of searching for Margo, saying, "Batman's not anything without
his trademark vehicle, and damn it, I'm the same."
Batman is a super-hero character appearing in DC comic
books (and other media). He drives a tricked-out vehicle called
the Batmobile.
Chapter X: These Guys Are
Animals
On page 101, Margo wonders if Harrods is in Kensington.
Harrods
is the largest department store in Europe, located in the upper-class
residential and retail Knightsbridge district of London, which
extends partly into the Kensington district.
On page 102, Margo thinks that Lord Malcolm's townhouse looks
like the kind of English country manor that would be seen on
PBS. PBS is the
Public Broadcasting Service of the United States; it is
known for showing many shows imported from England.
On page 103, Margo thinks that if the amorous Lord Malcolm were
wearing a fez with a tassel, it might be sexy in an ironic New Romantic
way.
New Romantic was a pop culture movement of the late 1970s in
England, emphasizing eccentric fashion.
Page 105 mentions a story broken by Margo some time back,
involving teens huffing behind the local
Cracker
Barrel. Currently, there is no Cracker Barrel franchise in
Berkeley or the San Francisco area. I'm not sure if there might
have been one in the 1980s when this story takes place. The
closest location at this time is over 60 miles away in
Sacramento.
In Lord Malcolm's townhouse, Margo finds the bust of a woman
that is also a hidden switch for a hidden door into a small
room. She is reminded of an old TV show where the main character
had a bust of Shakespeare that opened a hidden door leading
to...somewhere she couldn't remember.
Shakespeare refers to William Shakespeare (1564-1616), widely
considered the greatest writer in the English language.
The show Margo is thinking of is the 1966-1968 Batman
series; the Shakespeare bust opened a door revealing two
fireman's poles (the bat poles) leading down to the Batcave.
On page 106, Margo reflects that her family could only be traced
as far back as the founder of
Pittsburgh's first industrial pig farm in the early 1900s.
Chapter XI: I Lost a Whole
Girl!
On page 109, Lord Malcolm's mother tells Margo the family is
descended from the great Morgan Le Fay.
Morgan Le Fay is a witch in Arthurian legend, some versions also
calling her Arthur's half-sister.
On page 111, Lord Malcolm's mother reminds him that the Beltane
ceremony is coming up soon and will require a sacrifice, for
which Margo would be perfect. Beltane is a word for the Gaelic
May Day festival, typically held on May 1 to honor the midway
point between spring equinox and summer solstice. Ancient
traditions may have involved a mock human sacrifice, but actual
human sacrifice is unknown in the history of the ritual in
current scholastics.
On page 112, Jack mentions
Bud Light.
On page 114, Gracie reflects on a time she got drunk and sang a
rendition of John Cougar Mellencamp's "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A."
This is an actual 1985 hit single by Mellencamp.
Chapter XII: She's a Wildcat
On page 120, Kingfisher claims that MI5 is also the Knights of
the Round Table.
Chapter XIII: If We're Not
Back by Dawn
On page 127, Gracie listens to Margo's description of the
Questing Beast and thinks it might be a chimera. But she is
incorrect, as a chimera is generally said in mythology to have
the body of a lion, the head of a goat rising from its back, and
a tail ending in a snake's head.
When she first sees the Questing Beast on page 128, Gracie
exclaims, "Oh, Sugar Honey Iced Tea." This is a polite way of
saying "shit".
On page 129, Gracie is said to have sworn off ever again drinking
Egg's energy juice in addition to home-brewed kombucha. Kombucha
is a fermented green tea mixed with cultures of bacteria and
yeast.
Chapter XIV: Are You Crazy, Is
That Your Problem?
On page 133, Lord Malcolm's mother tells him to come inside to have
his breakfast
Weetabix.
When he sees Lord Malcolm and his mother hugging, their neighbor
Colonel Hesketh-Fletcher sees them and grumbles, "So that's
how it is in that family." This may be a reference by the author
to a scene in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off in which
the principal of Ferris' high school sees student Sloane
Peterson (Ferris' girlfriend) kissed on the lips by a man who is
supposedly her father (actually Ferris in disguise) and says the
same thing.
On page 134,
Morgana uses the phrase "lose a stone" in reference to weight. A
"stone" is an English unit of mass, equal to 14 pounds.
Chapter XV: Does That Sound
Like a Great Idea, or What?
After the Questing Beast is burned to death in the fire,
Kingfisher arranges for one of his knights to remove the body
from the house and store it away from the meddlesome eyes of
cryptozoologists. A
cryptozoologist is one who studies the evidence of cryptid
animals, i.e. animals of folklore who are not believed to exist
in reality by mainstream science.
On page 138, Jack and his crew watch a Hercules C-123 land at
the private airfield. It seems the author (or maybe just Jack?)
has confused the
Fairchild C-123 Provider for a Hercules C-130 (slightly similar
in design).
Seeking snacks, Jack is disappointed that no British shopkeeper
seemed to have heard of
Hostess
Fruit Pies or
Abba-Zaba. In
Big Trouble in Little
China,
Jack is seen eating an apple fruit pie packaged dessert/snack
from a wrapper that looks to be a generic version of Hostess
Fruit Pie.
Jack states he has a library of
Cat Fancy back issues under the driver seat of the
Pork-Chop Express.
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia revealed that this is his second favorite
magazine.
The Pork-Chop Express is returned to
Jack on page 138, last seen by him parked outside the
Izraya Shipping Company in
San Francisco; this was in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
On page 139, Jack and Egg are said to have been tighter than
Heather Locklear's jeans during the Chinatown adventure.
Locklear is a popular American actress, known for numerous
television roles.
Egg and Min discuss The Water Margin and Monkey
on pages 139-140. These are both Japanese TV shows from the
1970s based on Chinese novels.
On page 140, Jack says he has been working on getting an Aspen
condo. He is probably referring to the ski resort town of
Aspen,
Colorado.
On page 142, Min says that
Genevieve Bulstrode worked at the V. & A. as curator of the
Pagan Beliefs Exhibit. V. & A. refers to the
Victoria and
Albert Museum in London.
On page 143, Min explains that Dr. Bulstrode had Myrddin's
laboratory moved from Carmarthen to London.
Carmarthen (Welsh for "Merlin's fort") is a town in
Carmarthenshire county, Wales.
When asked by Egg if he knows the legend of King Arthur, Jack
responds that he has seen the Disney movie (well, most of it).
He must be referring to the 1963 animated film The Sword in
the Stone.
In Merlin's laboratory cave on page 144, a cup emblazoned with
the image of a red devil and the slogan "Manchester United
4Ever" and autographed by George Best is found.
Manchester
United is a professional football (soccer) team in Old
Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, nicknamed the Red Devils.
George Best (1946-2005) played with the team at the beginning of
his career.
Chapter XVI: Guide My Hand
On page 147, Jack claims that he was born behind the wheel,
literally. He also claims that his father wanted him to go to
refrigeration school, rather than follow in his footsteps as
Professor of Comparative Anthropology at
Princeton University (his father's vocation was first
revealed in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia).
Jack tells briefly of a time he was hired to haul a container
filled with E.T. video games out to the desert and just
leave them there. This is a reference to the
1982
E.T. video game cartridge for the Atari 2600 game
system that was so poorly reviewed and sold so badly, that tens
or hundreds of thousands of copies were buried at a landfill
(along with other unsold Atari product) in Alamogordo, New
Mexico.
On page 148, Jack says that the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
was so schmaltzy, he has had a very low opinion of anybody named
Elliott ever since.
Elliott is the name of the boy who befriends E.T. in the film;
it is also the last name of the author of his novel.
Jack asks for a Triple-A map of England on page 148. Min responds,
"We just call it AA in England." AAA is the
American
Automobile Association. The similar organization in England
is just the
Automobile Association. Jack's confusion when Min says it's
just AA in England is towards the international fellowship
called Alcoholics
Anonymous, commonly referred to as AA.
When Min tells Jack that there are quite a few U.S. Army bases
in England, Jack gets a little choked up and says, "May the
wings of liberty never lose a feather." He made this same
statement in
Big Trouble in Little
China.
On page 149, Jack reflects that Lord Malcolm's house is not as
big as the
Taj Mahal.
On page 150, Jack muses that, if it weren't for his American
accent, he'd just march into Lord Malcolm's house pretending to
be with the phone company. He pretended to be with the phone
company to gain access to the Wing Kong Exchange in
Big Trouble in Little
China.
Gracie recalls a day when she received a Gorillagram intended
for someone else, congratulating her on a successful
hysterectomy. A gorillagram is similar to
a singing telegram, but performed by an actor in a gorilla suit;
there was formerly a company called Gorilla Gram Inc. in the
early 1980s.
Chapter XVII: The Naked Blade
On page 153, Egg reminds Jack of something he once told him:
"Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own." But
Jack doesn't recall him saying this before at all, remarking, “I
have literally no recollection of that, it's like I deleted that
scene from my memory somehow.” The scene where Egg first told
Jack this was cut from the film
Big Trouble in Little
China, but can be found in the deleted
scenes bonus material on the Special Edition DVD release of the
film. Here in the novel, Egg explains away Jack's memory loss as due to a
concussion he may have received from the falling ceiling tiles
that knocked him out earlier in that film.
On page 154, Jack tells Egg he once lied to impress a woman that
he held the world record for beer pong only to find that
Guinness does record such achievements.
On page 155, Jack thinks the interior of Lord Malcolm's house
(and probably every house in England) is like a
Double Tree
Inn, but somehow even fancier.
Jack spies a suit of all black armor in a case in Lord Malcolm's
house. The Black Knight is a villainous character in Arthurian
legend.
On page 157, Lord Malcolm comes face-to-face with Jack and
declares, "You're that idiot who was on the news! Dick Barton!"
Obviously, he got Jack's name wrong; it's possible he mixed it
up with that of the eponymous British radio show character on
Dick Barton--Special Agent which ran from 1946-1951.
Page 158 mentions
Dixie Beer.
Chapter XVIII: Like the Wind
Wielding Excalibur, Jack fights against the Black Knight,
cutting off the knights limbs one-by-one. This is an homage to
the battle between Arthur and the Black Knight in the 1975
comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which the Black
Knight loses his limbs one-by-one, refusing to acknowledge any
serious injury until he is limbless, then only conceding,
"All right. We'll call it a draw."
On page 163, Jack muses that Maslow's hierarchy of needs did not
place enough emphasis on the need to get the hell out of Dodge.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a psychological theory of what
motivates human behavior.
Also on page 163, Jack reflects on the time he forgot his wallet
after consuming the Sabana de Invierno at the
Señor
Frog's in
Puerto Rico.
Sábana de Invierno is a Mexican flattened steak served with
traditional Mexican toppings.
On page 164, Jack says his mom was champion of the female
and male wrestling circuit in Franklin, PA six years
running...and she could play the accordion.
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia revealed that Jack's mom
was named Irma Burton. Franklin is a real city in PA.
On page 167, Morgana tells her son she is summoning the
razor-winged Alerion. The Alerion is a mythological bird
somewhat similar to the phoenix or firebird myths.
Chapter XIX: The Wings of
Liberty
Page 169 records that Jack paused his search for Excalibur long
enough to find a place in London that served chicharones.
Chicharrón is an Hispanic dish of fried pork belly.
Page 169 also records that Jack likes to stock up on
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
On page 170 the side of the Pork-Chop Express' cab is sheared
away by the Alerion's wings. The damage is not seen in later
stories.
On page 171, Jack refers to the Alerion as Polly. This is a
reference to the popular use of "Polly" as a generic name for pet
parrots. He later thinks of the Alerion as Big Bird.
Big Bird is a towering, yellow bird character on the children's
television series
Sesame Street.
At Wyvern U.S. Army Base on page 172, Egg almost crashes the
Pork-Chop Express into a concrete bunker bearing a sign reading
"Project Rendlesham".
Project Rendlesham itself appears to be fictitious, but is
probably a reference to the Rendlesham Forest incident of
December 1980, in which a number of U.S. and British military
personnel claimed to have seen a landed UFO outside of RAF
Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge in the Rendlesham Forest of
England.
On page 173, Jack sees that the Alerion has metal feathers and
wonders if it's some kind of robot chicken. Possibly, this is a
reference to the stop-motion animated sketch comedy TV series
called Robot Chicken.
One of the towns the Pork-Chop is pursued through is called
Cricklewood.
On page 174, Jack wonders if England has squirrels. England
does, in fact, have wild squirrels, as does much of the rest of
the world.
Also on page 174, Jack wonders how many servings the Alerion
would make at a Thanksgiving meal.
Thanksgiving is a holiday for giving thanks for one's blessings
in various countries. Jack is thinking specifically of the U.S.
holiday, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each
year.
On page 175, Jack has unintentionally sliced in half a statue of
Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi (1869-1948) was an Indian activist who led a passive
resistance movement in India against the British overlords of
the country during the first half of the 20th century. The
statue mentioned here is the famous one at Tavistock Square in
the Bloomsbury district of London.
Chapter XX: What the Hell is
Gracie Law Doing Here?
Page 177 reveals that among Gracie's earliest role models were
Mahatma Gandhi and Emily Post. Emily Post (1872-1960) was an
American writer, known particularly for her books and columns
about etiquette.
Page 178 reveals that Miao Yin is fond of Duran Duran.
Gracie recalls that Jack admitted he cries over the song "Mr.
Bojangles". This was revealed by Jack in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
Page 179 mentions a store called
C&A, a
department store chain mostly known in Europe.
On page 180, Gracie recalls that Jack had told her that the most
accommodating waitresses in America were at the Friendly's in
Billings, Montana.
Friendly's
is a restaurant chain, but they exist only on the east coast
states.
On page 183, Morgana comments that the Alerion had an impeccable
C.V. before its death. C.V. stands for curriculum vitae,
Latin for "the course of my life". It is an overview, usually
written, of one's accomplishments, experiences, or
qualifications.
Also on page 183, Morgana remarks to her son that there are
plenty of myrmidons to call upon to serve them. Myrmidons were a
people of Greek mythology evolved from ants by the king of the
gods, Zeus.
At the end of the chapter, Morgana tells her son they will get
some assistance from the Lambton Worm. The
Lambton Worm is an English legend of a giant white worm that
lives in the vicinity of the River Wear,
County
Durham which devours livestock.
Chapter XXI: Feels Like Down
On page 185, Jack's thoughts are disparaging in regards to the
safety of the New
York City subway system. The city's subway system has a
(somewhat) exaggerated reputation for crime within its environs.
Also on page 185, the Lambton Worm wakes up deep below Penshaw
Hill. Penshaw Hill is a hill in County Durham that is part of
the worm legend.
On page 186, Jack travels to the
Russell Square tube station.
Page 187 mentions Walgreen's.
Walgreens is
an American drug store chain.
On page 187, Jack sees a poster for an
upcoming film called Overboard, starring the chick from
Laugh-In and a male lead he doesn't recognize.
Overboard is a 1987 romantic comedy film
starring Goldie Hawn and (Jack Burton himself) Kurt Russell!
Goldie Hawn was featured in the sketch comedy TV series
Laugh-In from 1968-1970.
It's a bit odd that Jack doesn't recognize Kurt Russell
on the poster considering he later recognizes the actor as the
guy who played Snake Plissken when Russell appears on the movie
poster for
Big Trouble in Little
China in "Encino Man".
Chapter XXII: Just Thrilled to
be Alive
On page 191, Jack is excited to think his name will likely make
it into the papers, though he'd been in local papers before,
usually in regards to an "incident" on the beach at
Wildwood,
New Jersey.
On page 192, Eddie makes a remark that the beer he and Margo
could get at the nearby pub may not be cold, but at least it
will be beer. English pubs do not traditionally serve beer
chilled as it is usually served in the U.S.
On page 193, Gracie learns that Jack has been taken to Albion
Hospital. This appears to be a fictitious hospital, but may be
in reference to the London hospital of that name in several
episodes of Doctor Who.
On page 196, Egg explains that Diyu is the Chinese realm of the
dead. This was previously shared in the study of
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
Reading the papers that Gracie photocopied at the House of
Commons, Egg states the keystone was stolen thousands of years
ago by the Druids of Thule. The Druids of
Thule may be a reference to beings in the Primeval Thule
book for the Savage Worlds role-playing game.
Chapter XXIII: At Least We
Know Where We Stand
When Egg squeezes some of his herbal concoction into the drip
bag on Jack's wrist, Jack retorts, "I can hear the Popeye
theme." This refers to Popeye, a comic strip and cartoon
character known to eat spinach to dramatically increase his
strength at opportune moments.
On page 200, Jack refers to Min as the Karate Kid. This refers
to the eponymous character in the 1984 film The
Karate Kid.
Page 204 compares Gracie's disapproving looks at Jack to
collectible
Precious Moments figurines.
Chapter XXIV: China is Here,
Mr. Burton
Page 208 mentions Golden Corral meatloaf.
Golden Corral
is a family steakhouse chain in the U.S.
Min says the location of King Arthur's burial is an islet in the
Channel Islands called Garth, not appearing on most maps. The
Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel,
though there is no islet of Garth as far as I can tell. Garth
was also the brother of Gawain of the Knights of the Round Table
in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.
On page 212, Gerald tells Clyde to get an
ordinance survey map of the Channel Islands at
Foyle's.
Gerald also instructs Clyde to ask if Ruth
Buzzi's autobiography is back in print yet; Jack pipes up that
he has a copy of Buzzi's book in his truck that Gerald can
borrow. Jack also refers to the book in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
Jack tells Gerald that his copy of Buzzi's autobiography is
signed by Alan Sues. Sues appeared with Buzzi on Laugh-In.
Page 213 makes reference to Florence Nightingale.
Nightingale (1820-1910) was a British social reformer and the
founder of modern nursing.
Jack and friends arrive at
Canary Wharf
on page 213.
Chapter XXV: Gimme Your Best
Shot, Pal
On page 217, Jack reflects on not being able to find volcano
burritos in England. This would seem to be a reference to the
volcano burrito sold by the Taco Bell fast food chain from 2009
to 2013. Of course, this story takes place long before then, so
the author may be using the term in a generic sense, i.e. a
burrito with spicier-than-the-normal hot sauce.
Also on page 217, Jack hears sounds that sound like "that Jane
Fonda workout crap" or maybe "that Jamie Lee Curtis workout
crap." Jane Fonda is an actress, activist, and fitness guru who
released 22 best-selling workout videos in the 1980s and '90s.
Jamie Lee Curtis is an actress and writer, but has never
produced a workout video as far as I know; she has also worked
with director John Carpenter a number of times.
On page 218, Jack fuzzily recalls a horror movie about fog, but
can't remember the name of it. He must be thinking of The
Fog, a 1980 John Carpenter film starring
Jamie Lee Curtis.
On page 219, Jack recalls a time he dined on
Buffalo
Wild Wings and
Apple Jacks
while watching a gladiator movie.
Page 220 reveals that Jack once tasted a urinal cake when he was
14.
Jack and friends find the Isle of Avalon to be extremely thick
with undergrowth, Gracie commenting, "It's like the Garden of
Eden."
The Garden of Eden, of course, is the land of paradise created
by God for Adam and Eve at the beginning of mankind as described
in the holy texts of the Abrahamic religions.
On page 223, through the gunshots
coming at them from the Wing Kong
and fireballs going back from Egg, Jack reflects that
Avalon is starting to look like the set of Apocalypse Now.
Apocalypse Now
is a classic 1979 film set in the Vietnam War; it features a
well-known scene in which fighter jets drop loads of napalm on
the jungle.
On page 224, Lord Malcolm's hair is
described as Brylcreemed.
Brylcreem
is a brand of men's hairstyling products.
On page 225, Jack reflects on a Grand Slam Breakfast he got for
free at Denny's recently.
Denny's,
of course, is a diner chain with locations all around the world.
One of the chain's most popular and well-known dishes is the
Grand Slam Breakfast, made up of two buttermilk pancakes, two
eggs, two bacon strips, and two sausage links.
Chapter XXVI: Myths and
Legends
On page 229, Jack thinks that Kingfisher in a white linen suit
looks like a villain in a Bogart flick, especially with the
cane. This would seem to be a reference to the character of
Signor Ferrari (played by Sydney Greenstreet) in the 1942 Humphrey Bogart film Casablanca,
an underworld figure dressed in a white suit and carrying a
cane.
Page 232 mentions General Gleb. He is a Russian General that
Jack and friends ran into in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
Also on page 232, Jack says the best of all the
Tim Horton's
outlets is the one in
Glendale,
Arizona. However, there was not Tim Hortons in Arizona at
all until the Glendale kiosk was opened at Gila River Arena in
2014, long after this story takes place.
Chapter XXVII: I Was Born
Ready
As Kingfisher futilely attempts to lift Excalibur, growing more
and more frenetic and aggravated at his failure, Jack is
reminded of Yosemite Sam.
Yosemite Sam is a cartoon character known for his hair-trigger
temper in numerous animated shorts produced by Warner Brothers.
On page 237, Jack briefly reflects on
his trouble with the
Internal Revenue
Service.
On page 239, Lord Malcolm remarks on the time he tried to speak
to Simon Le Bon, but the man was engrossed in reading Melody
Maker at the time.
Melody Maker was a British weekly music magazine
from 1926-1999.
Chapter XXVIII: The Pillars of
Heaven Shake
The illustration on page 240 looks like something of an
homage to a classic Star Wars movie poster. |
 |
 |
On page 241, Jack reflects on a time he swiped a pack of his
mother's Old Gold cigarettes and she chastised him for not
taking his father's Newports instead. Old Gold and Newport are
real world brands of cigarettes.
On page 243, Jack thinks of his old teacher Miss Hannigan.
Presumably, this is the same fourth-grade geography teacher
referred to as "Mrs. Hannigan" in
Big Trouble in Mother
Russia.
Page 243 mentions Space Invaders.
Space Invaders is a video game originally
released in 1978.
On page 244, Jack tells Gracie he's not going to let the world
end before he's picked up the money he bet on the Dolphins. The
Miami
Dolphins are an American professional football team.
On page 245 Jack says to his friends, "Remember what I always
say: It's all in the reflexes." He also said, "It's
all in the reflexes" in
Big Trouble in Little
China.
Chapter XXIX: Remember What
Ol' Jack Burton Always Says at a Time Like This?
On page 249, Min assures Jack that the government-confiscated
Excalibur is being examined by "top...men." This is a
callback to the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, at
the end of which Indiana Jones is assured by G-Men that the
recovered Ark of the Covenant is being worked on by "top men."
On page 250, Jack recalls the legend that one who can pull the
sword from the stone becomes the King of England. This is
roughly true according to many versions of the legend of the
sword in the stone. So, possibly, Jack is the true King of
England.
Egg espouses that the reason Jack was able to lift the sword is
because he'd been to the realm of death and back again...even if
that visit has not happened yet. Jack will later die in
"The Legendary San Francisco Mystic
Kung Fu Showdown and Knife Fight" and returns to Earth in
"The Luck of the
Righteous Fool".
On page 251, Jack laments that there
doesn't seem to be a single
Jimmy
Buffett's Margaritaville in England. It is true that there
are no British locations of the restaurant chain.
On page 254, Jack refers to Watergate. The
Watergate scandal led to the resignation of U.S. President
Richard Nixon in 1974.
Jack's crack about good
dentistry here is another jab at British teeth.
On the last page of the book, it is implied that Jack and
friends are heading back to the U.S., not to San Francisco, but to the city of
Seattle,
where Lightning has reportedly been sighted.
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Adventures of Jack Burton Episode Studies