Annotations to

This is Information,

9-11, Artists Respond, Volume one

Annotations written b= y Ng Kiat Han (e-mail: = giant.ankh@gmail.com)

Updates= in BLUE.

Page 185 (Page 1)

Panel 2= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; A left hand is depicted holding the card. This image is repeated on Page 2 P= anel 7, Page 5 Panel 6 and Page 6 Panel 4.

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Card tower pictures.=

The Twin Towers were (and still are, more than before, actually) hallowed monuments of Americana for a g= ood many years, and its aesthetic appeal is indeed very apparent. A card castle, similarly, is really cute to look at, but any innocuous projectile, like a ball, or a mis-swung arm could make it crumble.= So too, could the WTC castle be toppled by missiles disguised as planes.<= /o:p>

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Panel 7, 8, 9 &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = The left hand is shown sticking out.

Page 186 (Page 2)

Panel 2= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; The left hand is holding the TV remote. This image is repeated in Page 3 Panel 2.

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Panel 4 &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Real newsphoto of people falling. Reports noted several instances of jumpers, and one of a man and a woman holding hands as they fell..

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Panel 5= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Image of hands clasped. This will be repeated. Note the (slightly) different skin tone of the two.

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Panel 6= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; I honestly could not find the Tarot card Alan Moore used in his story. I found several others, but none featured two falling people holding hands like the one in Panel 4. It was a surreal touch Alan Moore = put in, if it was made up.

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Page 187 (Page 3)

Panel 1 and 2&= nbsp; &nbs= p; The Rev. Jerry Falwell is famous for being the voic= e that branded Tinky-Winky (of the Teletubbies) gay, casting doubt and question marks on the BBC children’s show in 1= 998, among other things. He also c= alled (celebrity lesbian) Ellen DeGeneres “Elle= n DeGenerate”.&n= bsp; Go figure.

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&n= bsp; = ; &n= bsp; = ; Fallwell announced that God was angry with the nation= for abortion, homosexuality, et al, and therefore allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen.

Falwe= ll said, "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because = God will not be mocked."

He also famously said, &qu= ot;I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternati= ve lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have trie= d to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped t= his happen.". He later apologised.

Panel 7= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; That scene could very well be (I’m really just guessing, but I checked Sna= kes and Ladders, and it does seem possible) Westminster Hall, Northampton and the statue that of Oliv= er Cromwell.

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&= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; Fifth Avenue, in NYC, is infamously a traffic jam-worthy site. And policemen would do some hand w= aving motion, ie a meaningless ‘semaphore’= ;, to control traffic.

Page 188 (Page 4)

Panel 7= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; The “Bars and Mullets” was the Coat of Arms of the Washington family. In the 19th century= there was a belief that these design elements of G. Washington's arms were the di= rect antecedent of the U.= S. flag. One of the members of t= he family was Lawrence of Washington, who was Mayor of No= rthhampton. His progeny, evidently, brought co= hesion to the (then) new nation of America and reportly brought the family coat of arms in= to its flag.

Page 189 (Page 5)

Panel 4= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; The Mahdi uprising against the Turks (and their Bri= tish allies) in Sudan happe= ned in 1881, where a religious leader, Mohamed Ahmed El Mahdi= , led a revolt against the Turkish government as it was them who occupied Sudan.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> El Mahdi led a successful movement for religious and political reform, and it triumphed wi= th the capture of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. The British sent a General there, a General Charles “Chinese” Gordon, and he was killed by the Mahdist forces. He was dearly missed,= and we know that even Queen Victo= ria mourned. 1885 then, was the year Khartoum fell to the Sudanese.

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“Conan” is Coc= kney slang (from Conan Doyle) for “Boil” and “Khyber” (f= rom Khyber Pass) is slang, too, for “Arse”. Read “Boil up the ass” in this panel. The Khyber Pass is= in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where it connect= s the northern frontier of Pakistan with Afghanistan. The reference is in the Cockney, n= ot the geography, I’m sure.

Panel 6 &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; Card castle again.

Panel 7= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Black chess pieces are the Turbanned, scimitar-wielding , robed folk, evidently the Freedom Fighters = of the Great Jihad.

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Panel 8= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Lady Liberty is clearly the one tied up, but I’m unable to ID the villain. IT seems as though i= t is a common stereotypical conventional persona.

Panel 9 &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; “Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond. It may be your last.”

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- Auric Goldfinger

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was the original quote from the Bond franchise, and it was rewritten to fit the story. Cu= te.

Ernst Blofeld was the villain in “From Russia with Love”, and the Moonraker was a Bond film where the space shuttle Bon= d was in was named “Moonraker”. The annoying abundance of allitera= tion in popular culture probably led Alan Moore to label Bin Laden a “Beig= e Blofeld” (after Bin Laden&= #8217;s monotonous monochrome sash) and “Mujahedin Moonraker”, since Afghanistan is where, after a= ll, the Mujahedin freedom fighters came from. Note the characteristic TV multi-s= creen behind the villain and the white cat he is stroking. Blofield appears with a white cat in “From Russia with Love”, and that w= as obviously an obvious inspiration for Austin Powers’ Dr Evil.

Page 190 (Page 6)

Panel 1 &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; From left, the characters are

Crusader,

Muslim,

“Great White Explorer”,

US soldier brandishing M16= with the Star and Stripes (Bars and Mullets ???) emblazon= ed on his right sleeve.

All these are _stereotypic= al_ pictoral depictions of these characters. All of these folk, however, are _staunch_ adherents of what they believe in.

“We are all puppets,= Laurie.”

- Dr Manhattan, Watchmen &= #8211; Alan Moore, 1986

Panel 3 &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; Clasped hands image again.

Panel 4 &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; Card castle image again.

Panel 5 &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; Tarot card image again.

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Tarot references.

The Tarot deck has many magickal<= /span> connotations, and chief among them is that "The Tower" is a very strong symbol for destruction. Leaving out the occult interpretation of the card, it shows 2 people falling towards the ground from a great height and = the building behind them is in flames.

Tarot decks don't normally show the 2 holding hands, so Kiat Han was right in his suppositi= on, but Moore was true to the rest of the card. The story behind that scene in the card is th= at the 2 were sent tumbling from the tower by forces too swift and sudden for = them (or us) to know or understand. The full name of the card is "The Lightning-struck Tower". There is a strong element of 'shock' in that scene in the card, and it _is_ very shocking when we see the numerous paral= lels the card has with the actual event.

The Magician Moore very likely intended this further extrapolation, that in the midst of death, = America was also in life. The "Tower" card is a symbol, as stated above, for Destruction, but it also represents the Death-Birth-Death-Birth Cycle, which is the whole conce= pt of re-creation, and the passage of events and emotions would make room for = new ones. There is, after all, a strong abundance of light (life, and the promi= se of life) in the picture. Moore= knew, too, that a glorious new spirit would be formed from the embers of th= e dead.

Panel 6 &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; Black-white chess pieces image again.

Panel 7= &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Left hand image again. Is Alan Moore lefthanded??? Perhaps, and p= erhaps not. I might be very w= rong, but leftys do feature in several instances of <= st1:City w:st=3D"on">Moore’s wor= k. I found that = Hira Manish, Moloch (from Watchmen) were lefthanded, and that the real Jack the Ripper was sus= pected to be a lefty. I don’t suppose Moore intended any real significance, but the image presented here was, I figure,= a prominent news picture at that time.

I’m unable to ID Jim Osbour= ne.

The story annotated above is without question, one of = the most beautiful and heartwrenching I’ve re= ad about the tragedy. While it i= s very natural for people (or nations) to fight in response to provocation, Moore = and Gebbie’s story was not about retaliation at all= , as with all the other stories in the memorial editions. Their approach was simple, and very heartfelt and enormously emphatic. <= /span>

This work was saluted = in ‘Alan Moore, Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman’, a fitting tribute to a truly extraordinary person.&n= bsp; Dylan Horrocks heaps appropriate praise = on it, and justly so.

Moore shows, very deftly, that he can be "with you " and "against you" at the same time. His heart clear= ly goes out to the victims of the disaster, but he doesn't at all subscribe, or even like, the "either-with-us-or-against-us" slant. Excellent work.

Updates (in blue) by Kay A. Chi= ng (e-mail: kay_a_ching.nospam@yahoo.nospam.com. – eliminate “nospams” to e-mail)

Ng Ki= at Han