Today’s Zippy takes us again to a hard-boiled noir-tinged land of allusion:
(#1)
Very much, as the title says, the wrong goodbye; none of the Raymond Chandler allusions are to The Long Goodbye — mostly from “Red Wind” and The Big Sleep.
An earlier Zippy in this vein, in my 1/2/18 posting “Between Parody and Pastiche”:
Today’s Zippy takes us to the rolling green hills between Parody and Pastiche:
(#2)
Chandleresqueness. The text … mimics the hard-boiled writing style of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and others, with allusions both direct and glancing. From Chandler’s works: [quotes from: The Big Sleep; The Long Goodbye; Farewell, My Lovely; “Red Wind”; “Nevada Gas”]
Some contributions to #1 above:
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge. ― Chandler, “Red Wind” (also in the 1/2/18 posting)
The air was thick, wet, steamy and larded with the cloying smell of tropical orchids in bloom. The glass walls and roof were heavily misted and big drops of moisture splashed down on the plants. The light had an unreal greenish color, like light filtered through an aquarium tank. ― Chandler, The Big Sleep (also in the 1/2/18 posting)
What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on the top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. ― Chandler, The Big Sleep
I turned my back on him and walked through the door into the other office. ― Chandler, The Little Sister
I turned my back on him and went to the door and out. ― Chandler, The High Window
Cultural references in #1, many to pop culture or food: Drake’s Cakes; Dingburger polka-dotted muu-muus; the Seinfeld tv show; accountants; Duluth MN (probably just to savor the name); 7-11 convenience stores; potato salad; cough syrup; clam juice (a frequent element in Zippy strips); cheeseburgers; Big Boy fast-food restaurants (note fiberglass Big Boy figure in the last panel).
The first of these appears to be new to this blog. From Wikipedia:
(#3) Note the Drake’s logo, featuring a drake, a male duck
Drake’s Cakes is a brand of American baked goods. The company was founded by Newman E. Drake in 1896 in Harlem, New York as The N.E. Drake Baking Company, but it is now owned by McKee Foods. The company makes snack cake products such as Devil Dogs, Funny Bones, Coffee Cakes, Ring Dings, and Yodels. Drake’s has traditionally been marketed primarily in the Northeastern U.S., but it expanded to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. regions in 2016.
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