Adventures of Jack Burton "It's All Trouble From Here" Big Trouble in Little China #11 (BOOM! Studios) Story by John Carpenter and Eric Powell Writer: Eric Powell Artist: Brian Churilla Colorist: Gonzalo Duarte Letterer: Ed Dukeshire Cover A: Brian Churilla May 2015

Jack and Slinky set out to stop Lo Pan from escaping Hell and returning to life in the mortal world; Egg and Wang look up P'an Ku.

Story Summary

Slinky returns to break Jack out of his dishwashing labors at the Last Bar in Hell, resulting in the bar's destruction and freeing Lo Pan from his labors there as well. Lo Pan immediately sets out to recover a sword called the Black Serpent's Tongue, frozen with its owner in the Hell of Ice and Sorrow, that will allow him to rule over all the courts of Hell and hold dominion over life and death. To retrieve the sword, Lo Pan is granted the Breath of the Green Flame by the dark gods of the east in return for his promise of the souls of 10,000 humans when he returns to the mortal plane.

Meanwhile, Egg and Wang meet with P'an Ku at a mahjong game.

CONTINTUED IN BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #12

Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue

Jack Burton

Lo Pan

unnamed owner of the Last Bar in Hell

Slinky

Yama (mentioned only)

dark gods of the east

Wang Chi

Egg Shen

P'an Ku

Tai Sui (mentioned only)

Homer Sanchez (alias given to Jack by Slinky) 

Didja Know?

The issues of this series did not have individual titles. I chose the title "It's All Trouble From Here" based on a line of dialog at the end of this issue.

Didja Notice?

On page 1, Jack refers to Lo Pan as Too Tall Jones. Too Tall Jones is former NFL player Ed Jones, who played for the Dallas Cowboys from 1974–1978 and 1980–1989.

Slinky tells Jack the mythology of how Yama defeated the Black Dragon of Chaos and ripped out the beast's tongue, forging it into a great sword called the Black Serpent's Tongue and using it to carve out the land of Purgatory and the 84,000 courts of Hell. There are bits of this story that may be from actual Hindu or Buddhist mythology. Chinese mythologies of Hell usually describe multiple levels (up to 10 or so), but not the 84,000 stated here. In Hindu myth, Yama and his twin sister, Yami, were the first born humans, with Yama later becoming the god of death; Yama was not depicted as a humanoid boar as seen here.

Slinky tells Jack that Yama is currently frozen in the Hell of Ice and Sorrow.

On page 14, panel 3, "breath" is misspelled "breathe".

The dark gods of the east grant Lo Pan the Breath of the Green Flame. This appears to be another bit of Chinese mythology made up for the story.

Egg reveals to Wang that the Spirits from the Four Winds gather for a weekly game of mahjong. Mahjong is a Chinese table game that originated in the Qing dynasty in the 17th Century. The game involves playing tiles decorated with numerous Chinese symbols.

Apparently, this issue takes place on a Tuesday, as P'an Ku is found at the Tuesday night mahjong game.