Hmmm... Was reading on page 28 or so in the book about Hainan island. One of the characters commenting was named Lo Fu Chee. It took me a second before it dawned on me who it was referencing to since the character is from the Canton Confederation.

Lo Fu Chee roughly means 'old lion', well it does in my limited skills in cantonese. A very popular comic character from Hong Kong, they still sell his books and it was created at least since the 70's. It has spawned off movies and cartoons. The best one I remember was an adventure comedy where he and his friends go back in time to Imperial China and the crazy adventures they had with it, in the end they came home with a huge chunk of gold.

Most of the strips in the comics are short 4-6 panels and a lot are hilarious without the need of dialogue. So it's actually great for folks who can't even read chinese!

And that... is today's lesson.

You want an in-joke? I was re-reading the Top Ten Most Wanted Criminals, and when I read the comment on p. 150, "He changed into something that was more like a man-sized bat creature than a bird," my first thought was:

Was he a purple bat?

Wow. I never thought someone else here knew about Old Master Q.

Well, at least not the gwai lo, anyway.

hahah. nice, crimson.

Er, but people do call themselves Elvis...

It depends on how much they dress the part... Nobody bats an eye over Evlis Costello, but can the same be said of King Shaman?

So you're ethnically Asian? I've been called banana too. Usually that's when I start quoting Li Bai (the Chinese equivalent of Yeats) with a Beijing accent.

another little inside joke I noticed was on page 8 , one of the posters is named Fhqwhgads , and then the next poster starts off his message with "come on , Fhqwhgads ." ... now most of you might not get this if you don't read strongbads e-mail , but for those that do its taken directly from the Everybody to the Limit song
and for those who would like to know , I give you , for your viewing pleasure :
The E-mail! and if you need to find the song I was talking about , check here and then go to the little music note symbol , it should be called Everybody to the Limit
and check out the site , its darn funny

huh. i knew that name sounded familiar.

unknown. i'd be surprised if it really were a reference to the Zombies! game, though; i don't think anybody who was in that is freelancing for SR.

It's not like you had to be in the game to get the joke, you just had to be around at the time. Or be drunk and on the same wavelength as Tang.

I mean, I'm not saying it's probable, just that it'd be freakin' hilarious.

No one I recognize. Not even Pistons worked on that chapter.

Although if a Butt... Rust bread truck shows up, I will not be surprised.

Wasn't most of '64's Culture Shock written by JongWK?

Not sure, but there's no consistent voice that would suggest to me thast anyone wrote a majority of it.

maybe. seems like i remember talking to him about it, when the book first came out.