TITLE:
There's no such thing as a pseunami but a tsunami is
a very large ocean wave caused by an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption.
Definition source
Pseudo means false, deceptive or sham. So I suppose a Pseunami is a fake tsunami.
SYNOPSIS
On New Years Eve 1999/2000 all the elastagel joins
together to form one giant slime that threatens to drown the city until
Promethea manages to make communication with it. Her two snakes from her
caduceus introduce themselves as Mack (Macrocosm) and Mike (Microcosm) and decide
to take her on a tour of the magic circus of the mind.
NOTE: This whole episode bears more than a little resemblance to Tom Strong Issue #3 Aztec Nights
QUOTES
“I’ve got some uneasy feelings about tonight, but it’s nothing I could pin down…” – Kenneth
“Huh. Well, there’s a surprise” – Roger, pg 3
“I knew it! You hump one hippy, right away you’re this little technophobe hobbit-hugger!” - Stacia, pg . 4
“Sonny Baskerville today boosted City Finances with his radical ’tax the churches’ scheme. ‘Hail Satan’, quipped the increasingly popular N.Y. Mayor” – TEXTure, pg 4
“Soph, you’re an unfortunate ghetto kid whose mom spent all the Christmas money on pina-colada-flavor condoms. I was tactless even mentioning my jacket” – Stacia, pg 5
“God, look at her! I mean, that is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen” – Sanchez, pg 10
“Is this the end of the world? Is this revelations?” – Riley
“Oh, I wish. Look, don’t get me started, okay?” – Promethea(6), pg 12
“Bob, I’ve never told you this, but your entrance lines really get on my nerves” – Roger, pg 14
“Kenneth, you may not be as inept as you seem” – Promethea, pg 18
“He’s Mike. I’m Mack. We only look alike.” – Mack
“He says ‘yes,’ I say ‘no’
He’s above, and I’m below” – Mike
“So Macro’s him, and Micro’s me…” – Mack
“Pray, how may we enlighten thee?” – Mike, pg 22
“I need to understand magic, and I think I’ve reaches a point where just studying it in books isn’t enough. I need to understand it from inside” – Promethea, pg 23
“External things dissolve like mist.
Inside are thrills none may resist” – Mike
“Draw matter’s tent-flaps back and find
The magic circus of the mind” – Mack, pgs 23-24
NOTES & ANNOTATIONS
So far as I know this is the only entire episode of a title scripted by Alan Moore where the panels are all sideways. Swamp Thing #34 Rite of Spring had a few pages printed sideways but not the whole issue. Please correct me anyone if I am wrong about this.
Page 1 Panel 1: On earth we can see Somalia and Yemen in Arabia. Here's a closer map
Here a nice satellite photo of the area
I wonder why the earth is obviously from a satellite photo while the rest of the panel is drawn?
I asked JHW3 about his source for the Hi-5 space station and his reply was
the design of the HI 5 space station is made up but I did want it to look like something that was low tech enough to be kind of believable
It sort of vaguely reminds me of some 2001 spaceships.
Page 2 Panel 1: Marvin still recovering from being shot by the Painted Doll is working seated in a GelTM Chair. Note the pink slippers he is wearing which will become more obvious on the next page.
Panel 3:
As far as the various trophies on Hi Five are concerned even JHW3 who drew the panel isn't sure of their meaning or if the dates are significant. Maybe if someone has access to Alan Moore and sees this page they could ask him what they mean. Meanwhile here are some guesses
Aetherean Meta
Mirror (Sep. 1989)
Sandroid Bio-Silicate Sentry of the Dust Emperors (July 1995)
Femtoverse engineered by the Jeweler (March 1993)
JDC says that like me
I haven't heard of a definition for "femtoverse," but:
A femtosecond is one millionth of a nanosecond or 10-15 of a second and is a measurement sometimes used in laser technology.
See this link for more details.
Evil Lord of Eye Spiders Captured 1991
Page 3 Panel 1:
Marvin wears Fluffy Pink Bunny slippers a la Hot Shots! Part Deux.
Pages 4-5:
Nice use of the texture screen on the right hand side to connect 5 of the 6 panels. Sophie and Stacia make their way downward in a zig-zag fashion.
Page 5 Panel 1:
Nepilim Music
That strange creature behind the weeping gorilla looks familiar. Can anyone name it?
Page 6 Panel 2:
Showing at the cinema are the following movies:
Eraserhead
Millenium…
2001 A Space Odyssey
Page 7 Panel 1: the girl on the left babbling about the end of the world is prequoting a Weeping Gorilla Quote that will appear on page 17 of this issue.
Panel 2: Can anyone recognize the black shirt the man is wearing saying something like Mek...tough ?
Page 8: We can finally read what the sign says properly. It is
Martin’s Soup.
Page 9: Panoramic Polychromatic Productions
reminds all us Moore fans of the alliterative letters in 1963.
Page 10: I'm not sure why the police should have red apples on their uniforms. Maybe they represent the Big Apple.
Page 11 Panel 1:
"You have the voice of little girl and look like an angel" – translation from Spanish Police Officer.
"My valiant man I was young when Rome fell and you should go and attend to your injury" – translation from Spanish Promethea.
Page 17 Panel 3: Doug Scott notes that
there's the top half of a Weeping Gorilla poster in which the Gorilla
wears
a toque and thinks, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."
This is a reference to the famous 1999 horror cinema-verite movie The
Blair Witch Project Part way through the film, the character of
Heather
Donahue holds her camcorder up to her own face and apologizes to any
viewers
for all the horrible things that have happened to her friends. She
doesn't
use the exact words quoted here but they're close enough.
Page 19 Panel 3:
According to Todd Klein these goobledegook numbers are a small part of the computer code for Promethea in Adobe Illustrator
Page 18 Panel 3/Page 19 Panel 2:
Christine Hoff Kraemer suggests
when Promethea says to the
elastagel blob,
"come, then, synthetic one... let us reason
together."
this appears to be an allusion to Isaiah 1:18:
"Come now, let us reason
together," says the LORD . "Though your sins are like scarlet, they
shall
be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like
wool."
Pages 22-23:
Finally we get bright yellow color taking over from the mostly green and blue and black that has dominated this issue.
Page 23 Panels 2-3: are almost identical except for the extra smoke and the fact that we are moving in closer.
Page 24:
We begin to step outside of normal everyday reality which is seen in the spheres just behind Promethea. On the sphere with white writing I can make out the following:
PHANTASMAGORIC PSYCHEDELIC DRIFTING CONTINUUM SURPRISE AND WONDERMENT WEIGHTLESS AND FANTASTIC INNER DIME...ART N'OUVEAU PETER MAX ERNST HIPPY SIXTIES ACID HEAD VERSION OF INTER..SLIGHTLY UNDERWATER FEEL TO TH..DIANT COLORFUL SPHERE GHOST REFLECTION
Peter Max is a contemporary painter.
Max Ernst (1891-1976) was a German painter poet and member of the Dada and Surrealist art movements.
The chess board pattern in blue and black will be a recurring motif in the next issue and the bright green
sperm invading the ova will occur on the first and last page of the next issue although there they will be the more traditional white color.
The 3 men visible in the bubbles are Jack Faust, Neil Gaiman and young Austin Osman Spare with his hair shaved short.
The next issue is promised to be
Perhaps the strangest comics-reading experience of the DECADE!
Will it live up to expectations?
