Okay, you know how I like to put film/TV and niche pop culture references in my comics, well there’s also self-referential consistency MADNESS in every comic, too. Here are the top 10 silly ones from Lithium #10 … how many did you spot?!
^ circled in red is Skylar’s goddamn TOAST which she dropped in the jacuzzi right before the anal sex in comic #9. Perhaps it’s worth mentioning this toast really belongs to the angry toast trooper – many people’s favourite character. Well, here’s your toast mate, gettin’ fucked up in a jacuzzi orgy.
^ that panel uses the coloured periodic table which first appears on Jack’s bedroom wall as a poster in comic
#1! I know! Completely pointless, except for the fact that LITHIUM is an element on that table and this whole comic series is about control and freedom! (Why Lithium? It’s explained by Mike near the end of OHB
#7) Hooray!
^ one of a thousand Putin/authoritarian references in my comics. And the genius of those Bob Dylan lyrics written so many decades ago but still so valid today. There are philosophical issues with warmongers and despots that are always the same. Hiding, secrecy, big fucking desks, devaluing human lives, identity issues … all completely predictable symptoms of not dealing with your own shit … until thousands die and you end up in a bunker. Every time.
^ minor point, but I had to be careful at the end of the Grace comic to get these guns into the stasis pod – as our heroes were going to be in a sticky situation, and at the beginning of comic
#10 all the other available guns are locked down.
^ this prom is mentioned by the first troopers we ever see, in comic
#2.
^ notice Skylar laughs before the punchline. This is because she is connected to all things and knows what’s going to happen, so she doesn’t even need to sort Karen out. Good times. Karen also says “I’m the hawk!” – that’s another Putin reference, another dead-end philosophical bullshit line parroted by arseholes who do not understand their own humanity and are literally living in Hell. You see this in Futurama where the 80s guy who has Bone-itis keeps saying “You’re either a Shark or you’re a Sheep!” – same dead-end philosophy, and the same points being made by the writers of Futurama.
^ Farsight XR-20 gun from N64 game Perfect Dark. Wielded by a strange plasticcy sniper called … Joanna. Yay! I’d been slowly building up to that stupid gag since Telepathic Hentai Tentacle Spacey Rapey Sex Trek 9000.
^ that guy’s one of the aliens from the showdown at the end of OHB
#8! He’s a bit of a dick in that comic, if memory serves …
^ First time we see Bender. I was going to leave it at that but I figured nobody NOBODY would actually spot him there, so I gave him a mini scene.
Notice when Bender’s humping the droid from Star Wars, he says “Hey sexy mama you wanna kill all humans?” (Futurama quote), and when the droid replies, he says “Ahh, where’s your motivation?” – the droid lacks motivation because it’s R5D4 from Star Wars IV – the droid Luke rejects because it ‘has a bad motivator‘ – GET IT?!?!?!!!? Hell yeah. There are levels of geek here not encountered since …
^ Every moment is special. I read a book by a Carthusian Monk recently, and this calling back to the present (as opposed to dwelling on the past or wishing for the future) seems to be a seriously consistent point made by lots of badass people like this – monks and nuns always mention the importance of the present. And that turtle guy from Kung Fu Panda
#1 – ‘… it’s a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.’ Wise words, which we so often choose to ignore.
Circled is the little sunken briefcase that Sam Javelin has just flung into the docks. He has just learnt to appreciate where he is, and he throws away his miserable work report and begins his journey of looking with wonder. Everything is tied together, because this happens in real life too ~ we are all together in this 👍
