(JUNE 1994)(collected as part of the BINDINGS trade paperback)
* John Ney Rieber: writer * Gary Amaro: pencils * Peter Gross: inks *
* Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh: colors * John Costanza: letters *
* Charles Vess: cover * Neil Gaiman: consultant *
* Julie Rottenberg: assistant editor * Stuart Moore: editor *
* Charles Vess: cover art *
(please note: this issue has two sets of annotations at the moment, as will several of the issues in any trade paperback. since i hate the tpb page
numbers and Shannon has the issue numbers, i am at present unable to match them up perfectly.)
page 1, panels 4-5: Tim is referring to the Sheldon system of physical type classification. Mesomorphs are predominantly muscular, endomorphs
tend toward bulkiness and roundness; ectomorphs are tall, thin and not very muscular. Tim is, as his dialo gue indicates, an ectomorph. (submitted
by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page 3, panel 5: A birthdate is established for Tim: June 1981. Of course, given the way aging works in comics (in particular, the fact that Tim has
aged less than two years since THE BOOKS OF MAGIC(m) came out in 1991), the year is almost certainly mutable. (submitted by Shannon
Patrick Sullivan)
page 5, panel 7: This is the stone Tamlin gave Tim in ARCANA: THE BOOKS OF MAGIC ANNUAL #1. (submitted by Shannon Patrick
Sullivan)
page 9 panel 3: Titania restores Faerie's glory through the use of a glamour, a magical charm which alters others' perceptions. (submitted by
Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page ?, panel 12: Note that not all the bones on the ground are human. One has what appears to be an elongated beak, like a pterodactyl. (submitted
by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page 13, panel 1: The writing on the bell spells "MANTICORVM", Latin for manticore, the creature depicted above it. The manticore comes from
Asian folklore, where he is a forest-dwelling monster with the body of a lion, the head of a man (albeit wit h many rows of razor-sharp teeth), and a
scaled tail ending in a ball with poisonous darts. The manticore shoots these darts at his victim, causing instant death, and then completely devours
him, down to his clothes, leaving not a trace. (submitted by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page ?, panel 2: And the speaking figure is the Manticore himself, in his human form. Note that, even in this form, the Manticore still has three
rows of teeth, in addition to the "tattooed" (or whatever they are) ones across his cheeks and mouth. (s ubmitted by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page ?, panel 5: The person the Manticore had been "speaking" to is revealed to be just a foot or so in height; presumably she was in life one of the
Fair Folk. (submitted by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page 14, panel 2: The exhibition marker for the faerie seems to contain a misprint -- it presumably should read "SPECIMEN 12,365" instead of
"SPECIMEN 1,2365". (submitted by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page ?, panel 5: The costume on the left seems to be from Medieval Japan. The animal figure atop the bookcase may be a representation of Anubis,
the Egyptian god of the dead. (submitted by Shannon Patrick S ullivan)
page 23, panel 2: The figure to Tim's left is a satyr. Satyrs (also called sileni) come from Greek mythology; they are uncouth half-man, half-horse
(or half-goat) creatures associated with Dionysus, god of revelry. They are associated with fauns in Roman mythology. In front of the Manticore is
what may be a phoenix. The Phoenix is derived from the sun worship in Egyptian mythology. A beautiful and extremely long-lived bird, upon its
death it is said to have fashioned itself a nest (as seen here) and set it aflame; a new phoenix then arose from the nest's ashes. (submitted by
Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page ?, panel 3: Enter the unicorn. Unicorns are amongst the most ancient creatures of legend, having originated in Mesopotamian mythology and
reappeared in numerous world mythologies since, including the Bible. Enigmatic and shy beasts, a unicorn 's a horn is said to possess miraculous
healing and curative powers. (submitted by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
(please note: i hate all the latin, i just need to fill in the blanks. it'll be up very very soon, promise.)
page 51, panel 2: "exitus acta probat":
5: "eheu fulgaces labuntur anni, by thunder":
page 53, panel 1: "non sum qualis cram":
page 54, panel 4: Zeno was an ancient Greek philosopher. His paradox is explained well by the Manticore. Zeno thought that since any distance is
made up of an infite number of points, it should logically follow that no one should ever get anywhere in that it is impossible to cross an infinite
number of points. You prove Zeno wrong every time you go to work, every time one of your feet reaches the floor, etc. (laura)
Zeno was a disiciple of Parmenides, who had posited that motion does not exist; Zeno's paradoxes were designed to render absurd any statement to
the contrary. (submitted by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)
page 60, panel 3: "fronti nulla fides":
page 62, panel 3: "et pleno jure":
4: "sic itur ad astra":