I thought I’d highlight a few references from the recent comic, because it’s always fun and there may be things in there you’d missed. In fact there will definitely be things in there people missed because, much like Joan of Arc, MY MIND IS INFECTED and I tend not to explain where things come from, so this post explores a little.
On another topic, well … three other topics: (1) BobC I replied to your kind comment on the previous post, (2) I wanted to publicly thank the host of this darling website (who actually featured briefly as a name-drop in Lithium as a private joke) – they are absolute legends at solving things and getting me back up and running, FREE OF CHARGE. Also, (3) could someone put Reunited onto e-hentai please? I’m worried if my website goes down the comic won’t get out there onto the interwebs at all. And (3.5) I’ve just noticed ALL OF LITHIUM has fallen off e-hentai too – it’s in Hungarian and French but not English, probably because it was uploaded so long ago. So if you’ve got an account and fancy uploading Lithium in original English again, that’d be grand. Thank you!
Now, Easter Eggs …
^ when they first sit down, they remove their shoes … Daisy leaves her sandals spread far apart (let’s go …), and John puts his shoes in between, missionary-style. It’s a premonition.
^ that’s the very first time John sees Daisy, and the red boner-covering towel is ready and waiting for him! Not an Easter Egg as such, but kinda funny.
… I just enjoyed this, lol …
^ this is one of the many bits that come from real-life; my friend K said this some years back, when we were talking about all of the objects in her home that she had ‘tested’ in her vagina since she was about 13, and it was so so funny, we were laughing so hard the list was getting absurdly long as she thought about it … so she actually turned it into a poem and performed it at an open mic one night, hahahaha! True story 😂🥒🍆🔭🌭 She’s another example of a confident, vivid woman IRL. I do love my friends.
… again, this conversation literally happened. With a parent literally saying “Come on?!!” in their pained way, as if they shouldn’t have to put up with it hahahaha! I’m beginning to think this is why my comics maybe hit different; they’re just true awkward stories hahaha 😬
… I made sure that very tonguey frog slide was subtly (or not so subtly) in the background whenever possible if there was a ‘drooling’ or snogging reference. Just for lols.
So … now some comic universe references … first of all there’s obviously the posters on John’s wall: Forbidden Planet (it’s on Charlie’s bedroom wall in Lithium as well, because Forbidden Planet refers to hidden/ashamed thoughts being materialised into reality … watch the film), and of course pop-art Leonard Nimoy, as is tradition for any comic referring to the STFW cluster of comics which is vaguely Star Trek universe.
There’s a few more Lithium tie-ins as well, some of them weaker than others …
… 384 years puts us at the kick-off of Lithium (despite my catastrophic typo in Lithium #14, Lithium takes place in the 24th century). No real reason for this reference, other than to point to the generation-spanning messed-up-family-tree of the STFW universe.
… was a reference to Skylar’s happy time in the jacuzzi in Lithium #8. Here she is, orgasming in Hungarian:
So this is where we talk about the parallels with The Rather Magnificent Family Bubble. Obviously with John being Kal’s dad, there needed to be some decent references going on to tie those series together; first of all, there’s the location. Here are YOUNG ANNA SMIT (not Daisy) and EVEN YOUNGER KAL SMIT (not John), at the beginning of RMFB comic #1, standing in the Reunited comic’s Annexe (John’s temporary room), but in around 2010, so 27 years after Reunited:
… so that’s Anna and Kal standing in the Reunited scenery! I was pretty pleased about that carefully setup reference, even if no-one noticed it. So in 2010(ish) John’s son Kal is a teenager, and Anna (the younger sister of John’s wife) is 25 – pictured above in an orange dress (itself a Dutch reference … because Anna later … anyway …). And 10 years after that, here they are in RMFB comic #2, 2020/2021, discussing the bum-groping whilst in Covid lockdown together:
… did anyone realise that? Ah well, I do try to be consistent, good fun if you ask me. [ahem Autism ahem]
Anyway back to 1983’s Reunited; this is Kal’s dad, John narrating:
… is a reference to RMFB, in which Kal also literally complains about his inability to form decent metaphors (“Like a toothpick in a mouse’s rucksack” etc), and it’s one of my favourite bits in RMFB, haha!
Here’s another parallel:
^Kal’s dad John falls while trying to get undressed. Decades later, Kal falls while trying to get undressed:
… with the exact same resounding THUNK! 😂
And here they are enjoying that squeaky camp bed. John in 1983:
… John stores the metal-framed camp bed which decades later gets used by Anna Smit (John’s wife’s little sister) during her house move, the bed that subsequently gets broken by John’s son Kal …
(You can see the top-right of the camp bed frame is broken; it’s twisted by Kal’s head/shoulders). Haha! Again, no reason for any of this really, it’s just me being autistic and finding it funny to connect everything in the most elaborate nested series of comics known to our species. No biggie 😬🤷
🥂 Final thing I had to do was get some champagne in there, because my all-time, absolute favourite thing about RMFB is the … well, just the joy of the whole thing. The champagne. The celebration of life.
… I mean do I even need to point out the champagne reference?? Probably not. This is from Bubble:
… I’m pretty sure that image is why Daisy is called Daisy, btw. And when I wrote Daisy’s character to fit with the reference in RMFB #6/7, more than anything I just wanted Daisy to embody the effervescence, the unquenchable joy of the RMFB series.
… I suppose I depicted her like this because it’s easy; my closest friends have always been like this, confident and vivid. And horny and silly. And jealous and tragic and wonderful and creative and tired and incredible.
And when I think of all the mysogynistic bollocks on youtube or in porn generally, I just feel sad for all those angry boys who don’t know women, and are missing out, wholesale, on life.
Anyway that’s it, I hope you enjoyed my little debrief on the recent comic! Now go and share it all round the interweb so others can enjoy its silliness too x🥂
