Alternate Universe References

[One Skunk Todd]

I was thinking about the strip last night when it occurred to me that the literary references made so far all have a common thread of "Normal Earth and Alternate Fantasy/Sci-fi dimension". And of course Erfworld as a whole follows that theme. So I started wondering if Rob's studied other works with similar motifs for inspiration and what other references we might see in the future.

Works already referenced:
Tron
The Princess Bride
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (possibly)

Other possible references:
Alice in Wonderland
Spirited Away
Wizard of Oz (Already referenced? I can't remember)
Dante's Inferno
Winnie the Pooh (kind of weak correlation)

So what do people think? Stupid idea? Any ideas for other references?

[SteveMB]

Wizard of Oz (Already referenced? I can't remember)

Yes, already referenced.

[Erk]

I'm not all that clear on the relations to Dante's Inferno and Winnie the Pooh. Wizard of Oz is a lot more concrete than Thomas Covenant though. The latter only has the correlation of being a work in the same genre, while the former has been directly referenced.

[Scientivore]

Don't forget Ender's Game.

[Revlid]

I'm not all that clear on the relations to Dante's Inferno and Winnie the Pooh. Wizard of Oz is a lot more concrete than Thomas Covenant though. The latter only has the correlation of being a work in the same genre, while the former has been directly referenced.

Wasn't the premise of Winnie the Pooh (I'll admit that I was exposed to more of it in Kingdom Hearts than throughout my childhood) that Christopher Robin entered a fantasy world (The Hundred Acre Wood) through the pages of a story book? Hence the use of aforesaid book with the characters as illustrations in the animation.

If the book was the game-board, and Parson was Christopher Robin, and Winnie the Pooh was an ass with the power to control dragons, then Erfworld would be The Hundred Acre Wood.

[Scientivore]

Ooh! Also the Chronicles of Narnia.

[K2]

enders, as good as it was, was not an alternate universe. it took place with in its own self contained universe...unless you consider the computer program a different universe, in which case just forget i said anything.

though, i do think todd is onto something here and will look over the comic more closely from now on.

[Scientivore]

I was counting the virtual world that contained the Giant's Drink minigame. Which reminds me: Otherland by Tad Williams. Shadowrun (visually referenced by the iconic troll skull in Wanda's bedroom) is slightly different; it's more of a modernity-meets-magic reference.

I just realized that Star Trek is one of these. They went back in time to present-day Earth several times. They also had people from our time end up on the Enterprise thanks to near-future cryogenic suspension or whatever. It was visually referenced by the transporter pads when Wanda and Sizemore returned from the Magic Kingdom and by the uncroaked Redshirt Warlord in the lineup.

Oh! <headpalm> Sliders, Matrix, Army of Darkness, Jumanji and Zathura, of course. Even Mortal Kombat (the movie) fits.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Wasn't the premise of Winnie the Pooh (I'll admit that I was exposed to more of it in Kingdom Hearts than throughout my childhood) that Christopher Robin entered a fantasy world (The Hundred Acre Wood) through the pages of a story book? Hence the use of aforesaid book with the characters as illustrations in the animation.

Not at all. Kingdom Hertz is spinning you round into confusion.

[Scientivore]

I hadn't really been thinking of video games. The Ultima series fits the criteria.

Oh! Peter Pan, of course.

There are some other webcomics that follow that general theme too. The Dreamland Chronicles (Peter Pan-ish) and The Dreamwalker Chronicles (Southwest Native American motif) are two of my faves. Another is *NSFW* The Challenges of Zona *NSFW* (which is why I didn't get the link to the first strip for you -- I'm at work). Talismen: Return of the Exile has had a spotty update schedule but what's there is pretty compelling. I'm not sure if Beyond Reality counts since one of the main characters kicks it off with magic use in what is supposedly our own reality, but one of the other main characters is definitely a fish out of water. Corner Alley 13 flips it around and has the fantasy creatures immigrating into our world. Fallen Angels Used Books has a strange fantasy world hidden in plain sight. I'm sure that there are others but all of the ones that I can think of right now have protagonists who are never really that alienated so I think that they don't count for this.