Scarlet Traces - References To/in Scarlet Traces

References To/in Scarlet Traces

The War of the Worlds adaptation by Dark Horse Comics contains several references to Scarlet Traces. Autumn and Currie can be seen in a newspaper as having saved Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia from an assassin. Ned Penny can be seen on the Thunder Child. An Archie the dog look-alike appears in the ruins of London. An official figure supervising the removal of Martian tripods after the end of the war resembles a young Dr. Spry, while the two army sergeants awaiting his orders reappear as Coughly and Dravott in Scarlet Traces. The adaptation ends with the narrator reflecting that it may be possible for humans to spread throughout the solar system also,.

The design of the British war vehicles and spacecraft appear to be based on those designed by Wernher von Braun for his Das Marsprojekt and illustrated by Chesley Bonestell for the Man Will Conquer Space Soon! segment for Collier's.

In Scarlet Traces, when the main characters disembark at the London airport, Captain Haddock, Tintin and Snowy can also be seen arriving, along with two figures who appear to be Phileas Fogg and Passepartout, and the shopkeeper from Mr. Benn. The Prime Minister, Sir John Cabal, shares his name with the main character in H.G. Wells's movie Things to Come. The character of "Sergeant Dravott" is perhaps intended to be Sergeant Daniel Dravot from Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King.

Dr. Spry's office from the back of Scarlet Traces contains a photograph of the Face on Mars (although it is too small to be seen from any Earthly telescope).

In Kingdom of the Wicked, also by Edginton and D'Israeli, the main character's wife is seen reading Scarlet Traces.

Among a number of figures from popular British culture in the 1950s and 1960s that make brief and whimsical appearances in The Great Game are Sergeant Major Snudge (from the TV series The Army Game); Dan Dare and Digby (from the Eagle comic), Professor Branestawm, and Shari Lewis with her sock puppet Lamb Chop. Autumn's teapot is the head of a Dalek from Doctor Who. Haile Selassie and Oswald Mosley are also mentioned as being the Secretary-General of the League of Nations and British Home Secretary, respectively. Cavorite, developed by Cavor from H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon, is used as the winning weapon at the end of the war; after Cavor is said to have killed himself, the substance was re-discovered by Barnes Wallis. There is also a reference to the fictional town of Walmington-on-Sea and its local militia, a nod at British sitcom Dad's Army. At the end of The Great Game, Lady Charlotte is visited by two civil servants, which she refers to as "Men From The Ministry", a reference to the popular British radio comedy of the same name. The pair also bear a strong resemblance to the comedy double act Morecambe and Wise.

Also appearing in The Great Game are two characters who bear a strong resemblance to the Mitchell brothers from the British soap opera EastEnders. They appear and are killed in the first chapter, after threatening Charlotte. Their identities are confirmed in chapter two, when they are referred to as "Grant" and "Phillips".

Similarly two space suited figures appear with their name "Collier" and "Ferris" written on their helmets. This is probably a reference to the BBC TV Series The Likely Lads, Bob Ferris and Terry Collier being the two principal characters.

The elderly Robert Autumn's home in The Great Game is the abandoned "Hobb's Lane" Underground station from the 1960s British science fiction movie Quatermass and the Pit which features the discovery of a crashed Martian space ship underneath the station.

In The Great Game, when Charlotte reaches the cavern with the glyphs, the original inhabitants of the Solar System are revealed to be:

• Mercury: Mercurians from Dan Dare
• Venus: Treen and Theron from Dan Dare
• Earth: Silurians and Sea Devils from Doctor Who
• The Moon: The Watcher from Marvel Comics and a Selenite from The First Men in the Moon
• Mars: Green Martian from Barsoom and hrossa, séroni, and pfifltriggi from Out of the Silent Planet
• Asteroid belt: The "Martians" from The War of the Worlds

In The Great Game issue 1, Carl Kolchak makes a cameo appearance. In issue 2, Autumn's bookshelf includes a work entitled The Perils of Andrea, a reference to Perelandra. Both references were made by D'Israeli.