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Indiana Jones
"The Search for Abner, Chapter 1:
The Grecian Earn"
The Further Adventures of
Indiana Jones
#17
Marvel Comics
Plot/Script: David Michelinie
Pencils: Herb Trimpe
Inks: Vince Colletta
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Robbie C.
Cover: Herb Trimpe
May 1984
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Indy chases down Marion on the island of
Crete, where she is following clues to the whereabouts of her
missing father.
Notes from the Indiana Jones chronology
This takes place immediately after the events of
"Death on Dark Waters", in 1936.
Didja Know?
The "The Search for Abner" storyline of
issues 17 and 18 of The Further Adventures of
Indiana Jones
also served as the source for the "Nepal Nightmare Adventure
Pack" of the Adventures of Indiana Jones role-playing
game in 1984.
Notes from
The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones is a 2008 publication
that
purports to be Indy's journal as seen throughout The
Young Indiana Chronicles
TV series
and the big screen Indiana
Jones movies. The publication is also annotated with notes
from a functionary of the
Federal Security
Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation, the successor
agency of the Soviet Union's KGB security agency. The KGB relieved Indy of his
journal in 1957 during the events of Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The notations imply the journal was released to other
governments by the FSB in the early 21st Century. However, some
bookend segments of The
Young Indiana Chronicles
depict Old Indy still in
possession of the journal in 1992. The discrepancy has never
been resolved.
The journal as published does not mention the events of this
issue, going from the end of
Raiders of the Lost Ark
in 1936 to
Indy's recovery of the Cross of Coronado in 1938 in The Last
Crusade.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue
Indiana Jones
Marion Ravenwood
minotaur
Abner Ravenwood (mentioned only,
presumed deceased)
Marcus Brody (in flashback only)
Emerelda Vasquez
(in flashback only, presumed deceased)
New Dorians
Bill Kershaw
Andre Lafonte
Mongols
Ian McIver
Nazis (mentioned only)
Kaleel
Yeti (in silhouette only, identified in "The City of Yesterday's
Forever")
Didja Notice?
The story opens in a labyrinth beneath the city of Knossos
on the Greek island of Crete.
Knossos
is a Bronze Age archeological site from the Minoan
civilization. It is known in Greek mythology as the
site of an underground labyrinth hosting the minotaur, a
being with the body of a very large man and the head of a
bull.
On page 3, Indy recalls Marion receiving a telegram she
wouldn't let anyone else see, one that made her turn pale.
This occurred in "Demons".
Indy's adventure in the North Pacific referenced on page 3
was seen in "Island of Peril"
and "Death on Dark
Waters".
On page 4, the flashback scene of Marcus telling Indy that
Marion's telegram had indicated that her father might still
be alive must have occurred shortly after
"Death on Dark Waters".
Panel 3 of page 4 shows Indy's flight from the U.S. to
Greece in a plane with wing markings G-AAGX. This identifies
it as the Hannibal, the prototype Handley Page
H.P.42 biplane airliner that was in service from 1931-1940.
Over the course of page 4, Indy makes his way from
Athens,
Greece to
Heraklion, Crete, where he catches up with Marion in her
quest for information about her missing (and presumed dead)
father.
Indy's musing on page 5 that the Dorians
had brought three centuries of darkness and savagery to
Greece after the Trojan War is an extremely slanted (and
largely outdated in modern research) account. The original
Dorians were one of the four major ethnic groups into which
the Classical Greeks were divided. The
Trojan War is a story in Ancient Greek mythology about a war
between the walled city of Troy in modern day Turkey and the
Achaeans (Ancient Greece) around the 12th or 13th Century
BC. The Dorians are believed to have immigrated to Crete in
the 9th Century BC.
Here, Indy says that the
minotaur was the son of King Minos, but that is not normally
part of the Greek mythology.
The New Dorians cult Indy and Marion face off against is a
fictitious one.
Kershaw tells Marion and Indy that Abner had been searching
for the hidden city of Ra-Lundi in Tibet when he
disappeared. Ra-Lundi is fictitious. It was surely inspired
by the hidden city of Shangri-La in James Hilton's 1933
novel Lost Horizon.
Kershaw claims he needs Marion's $500 payment to get himself
out of Heraklion and back to
Pittsburgh.
On page 10, Indy and Marion take the Simplon Orient Express
from Athens to Constantinople (though the city was renamed
Istanbul
in 1930, so should have been referred to as such here). The
Simplon Orient Express was a luxury train that ran from 1919
to 1939 and again from 1945 to 1962, connecting Paris to
Istanbul via Milan, Venice, and the Simplon Tunnel in
Switzerland.
On page 11, Indy and Marion make there way north of the
Indian border to a "desolate, grassy wasteland known as the
Kara Kavan." The Kara Kavan is a real world small oasis and
archeological site.
On page 12, Lafonte uses the words mam'selle,
monsieur, and je regret. These are French for
"lady", "sir", and "I regret".
Ian McIver makes a return appearance as a nemesis of Indy's,
last seen in "Crystal Death".
On page 13, Lafonte uses the words ma petite and
vite. These are French for "my little one" and
"quickly".
On page 14, Lafonte says non. This is French for
"no".
Page 14 reveals that Marion knows how to pick pockets.
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