Adventures of Jack Burton "Old Man Jack" Part 6 Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack #6 BOOM! Studios Written by John Carpenter & Anthony Burch Illustrated by Jorge Corona Colored by Gabriel Cassata Lettered by Ed Dukeshire Cover by Jorge Corona February 2018

Jack, Lo Pan, and Wang face their demons in Chinatown.

Story Summary

Now in Chinatown, location of Ching Dai's Throne of Skulls, Jack, Lo Pan, and Wang face their demons.

Jack is held prisoner by Centaur-With-Knives until Thunder arrives to take over the torture. Thunder sets Jack free into Chinatown for the thrill of the chase and Jack finds himself slowed by his own aging body, unable to read street signs clearly without glasses and having terrible back pains. But when Centaur-With-Knives returns, Jack successfully goads the centaur into fighting with Thunder, allowing him to make an escape.

Lo Pan also escapes his demonic-pig tormenter by using Burton-like fighting tactics like "redneck sucker punch" and "punt to the privates". As Lo Pan then flees, he literally bumps into Jack and they agree to find Wang and free him. They find Pete pining for his master outside a building and they figure Wang must be held inside. They are correct, but Wang is not particularly happy to see them, as his torment has reminded him that Jack's actions with Ching Dai are what brought the Hellpocalypse to Earth and caused the deaths of Miao Yin and Winona. Wang seems inclined to kill Jack and Lo Pan, until Jack realizes that the same mystical book of Egg Shen's that brought Ching Dai to Earth could probably also send him back to the underworld, if only they could find the book.

Centaur-With-Knives tells them the book is now kept by Ching Dai inside the Throne of Skulls, but Wang points out the throne is the size of a skyscraper. Centaur-With-Knives says Ching Dai wanted to dangle the book just out of Egg Shen's reach for all eternity.

Which means Egg is still alive, imprisoned in the Throne of Skulls.

Continued in "Old Man Jack" Part 7.

Notes from the Jack Burton chronology

This story takes place in the year 2020.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue

Jack Burton

Centaur-With-Knives

Thunder

Wang Chi

Miao Yin (mentioned only, deceased)

Winona Chi (mentioned only, deceased)

Rain (mentioned only, deceased)

Lightning (mentioned only, deceased)

David Lo Pan

Gracie Law (mentioned only, deceased)

Ching Dai (mentioned only)

Pete (Yaoguai)

Egg Shen 

Didja Know?

Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack is a 12-issue limited series published by IDW in 2017-2018.

Didja Notice?

On page 1, Jack's narration includes the phrase, "Hell is other people." This quote originally comes from the 1943 play No Exit by French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980).

On page 6, Jack tries to read the street signs in Chinatown but has difficulty making out the words, his eyes not being what they used to be. The sign he's looking at reads as the corner of California and Grant, but he thinks they may be Pine or Quincy. California Street and Grant Avenue is an actual intersection in Chinatown, but it does not look particularly as presented here. Pine Street and Quincy Street are also actual roads there, in fact, their intersection is very close to California and Grant, so Jack may be as knowledgeable about the layout of Chinatown as he boasts (like the back of his first girlfriend's hand).

On page 7, Jack remarks that his cousin George once got into a fight over sunglasses that went on for a while. This is likely a reference to John Carpenter's 1988 cult classic film They Live (the cover of "Old Man Jack" Part 5 also included a reference to that film). In the film, a drifter fights a brawl with his new buddy Frank to put on a pair of special sunglasses that allow people to see the subliminal alien manipulation going on all around them; the brawl goes on for about 6 minutes! The drifter (played by wrestler-turned-actor Roddy Piper) is not named in the film except in the end credits is referred to as Nada (Spanish for "nothing"), so it could be that the drifter, for our purposes, is named George. Piper also looks a bit like Jack Burton in the film, even down to the mullet, hence, they could be cousins!

On page 11, while talking to Thunder about Lo Pan, Jack asks, "Who amongst us hasn't been killed once?" Jack himself did die in "The Legendary San Francisco Mystic Kung Fu Showdown and Knife Fight" (he got better).

On page 15, Lo Pan calls Jack a "jerky-sucking buffoon" and Jack retorts, "Watch your mouth, unless you wanna swallow the FDA recommended serving of my fist!" The FDA is the Food and Drug Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

On page 17, Lo Pan says he is literally hundreds of years old. But, he is seemingly at least a couple thousand -plus years old since he claimed in "Old Man Jack" Part 5 to have met the legendary Chinese general Sun Tzu, who lived 544-496 BC.