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Grandville Force Majeure
annotations - batch 5
This is similar in concept to the Directors Cut of Heart of Empire that Bryan and myself created: it is an attempt to answer the eternal "where do you get your ideas from?" question, and a way to showcase the influences and images that went into the creation of Grandville.
We are publishing updates to this page every Sunday and we will cover the entire Grandville series: we have already completed the annotations for Grandville, Grandville Mon Amour, Grandville Bête Noire and Grandville Noël - and in case you missed them, check out the first batch of Grandville Force Majeure annotations.
Start reading the Grandville Force Majeure annotations below, or jump straight to page 62, page 63, page 64, page 67, page 70, page 75, page 78 and page 79.
Page 62
Panel 3
The Paris Aerodrome, as seen way back in Grandville.
Panel 6
Les Hirondelles: See Grandville Mon Amour, Page 77 annotations.
The poster in the background was adapted from an old French one by Angus McKie, who was one of the people who helped me to meet the deadline by doing some partial colouring. The others were Jordan Smith and my son, Alwyn Talbot.
Partially visible on this and the next panel, is a poster by Alphonse Mucha for Job cigarette papers.
Page 63
Panel 1
Tiger Tim: Created by Julius Stafford Baker in the 1890s, as the leader of The Bruin Boys, Tiger Tim became the first on-going British newspaper comic strip in 1904 in the Daily Mirror. He was an extremely popular character and later got his own comic, Tiger Tim’s Weekly, as well as appearing in others, such as Comic Cuts and Rainbow, and his own hardback annuals. The longest-running U.K. comic character, his last appearance was in the weekly Jack and Jill in 1985.
“You crossed the Rubicon”: Koenig being a historian, would obviously know all about Julius Caesar’s passing the point of no return, especially as he and his brothers all bear Roman first names. See:
Panel 2
Tim’s terrified expression is a reference to Tiger in a Tropical Storm (1891) by Henri Rousseau.
Panel 3
Gnossieme Number One by Eric Satie (1886 – 1925) is one of my favourite pieces of music.
Page 64
In this scene, we see how Quintillus Koenig lost an eye and Gaius a hand.
Page 67
LeBrock playing through classic chess tournaments to study the moves comes directly from the habit of Raymond Chandler’s famous private eye, Philip Marlowe.
Panel 6
The detective accompanying Stoatson is based on one of Rupert the Bear’s friends, Algy. See Grandville, Page 11 annotations.
Page 70
While not referencing any specific places, this scene is based on typical Montmartre streets.
Page 75
Panel 8
Centre panel sees the return of the “rather amusing stuffed cobra” from Flook. See Grandville Mon Amour, page 53, panel 4 annotations. This must be the same Montmartre junk dealer’s market table.
Above it, next to a plaster bust of Napoleon (also seen in Mon Amour), is the Chinese vase from the cover of Hergé’s The Blue Lotus (1936).
Barely visible, just beneath the clock to the right of it, hangs the poncho of Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name character from For a Few Dollars More (1965).
Page 78
At last, I got to do an “incident room” scene in Grandville. Being a big fan of the Helen Mirren Prime Suspect series, this was inevitable.
Panel 1
To the left is Algy (see page 67 panel 6 annotations), a character based on Korky the Cat and another based on Basil Brush.
Korky the Cat first appeared in the U.K. children’s weekly comic, The Dandy, in 1937, drawn by James Crighton, and was the front cover strip for nearly 50 years and continued to appear inside for most of its history. It ran for 75 years and still appears in an annual edition.
Basil Brush is a British children’s TV character: a glove puppet designed by Peter Firmin (see page 28, panel 6 & 7 annotations) and originally voiced by Ivan Owen, created in 1963. In 1968 he was given his own TV show and has also appeared as an animated version and in comic strip form. Having a posh voice made Basil eminently suitable for inclusion as one of the upper-class detective elite.
Bottom left panel is the shady detective named as “Ian” on page 80 and revealed as “Detective-Sergeant Herring” on page 162. He first appeared on page 17, and is usually seen scribbling notes suspiciously, making him an obvious candidate for one of the bent coppers on Quintillus Koenig’s payroll. I wonder whether this is the first time in detective fiction that a character meant to misdirect is literally a red herring?
He’s named Ian as a tribute to the late Ian Hering, who ran comics courses in Liverpool for many years.
Centre panel sees the return of Commander Carew and the police constable Bert, previously introduced in Bête Noire.
Detective-Inspector “Pongo” Dearly is taken from the book 101 Dalmations (1956) by Dodie Smith, in which his master (in the book, his “pet”) is Mr Dearly, re-named Radcliffe in the Disney animated film version (1961).
Panel 4
“Some time before six, he broke in through the English windows, using a sheet of greaseproof paper coated on one side with treacle to silence the shattering glass.”
Of course, in our world, they’re called French windows.
This ingenious method of silencing breaking glass was employed by P.G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster in a story that involved Bertie having to perform a burglary. Can’t remember which one.
Page 79
Panel 2
“Badgerwatch”: I’m certain that this was once the title of a U.K. TV show that showed live footage of a badger set each night – or did I dream it? There is certainly a badgerwatch website, though it has no connection with this supposed show.
“The Alpha”: Holmes reference. See Page 15, panel 1 annotations.
Now see the annotations for Grandville Force Majeure pages 81 to 100.