Didja Notice?

 

The story opens in Marrakesh, the city in the African nation of Morocco that Indy had speculated to Marcus was the only place Belloq would be able to sell the Chachapoyan fertility idol he'd stolen from Indy in Peru at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

On page 1, Sallah claims to have sired 14 sons. The novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark puts the number of his children at 9, which includes some daughters. Does Sallah have a few sons with other women than his current wife?? It may also be that Sallah is simply exaggerating for humorous effect.

 

Breaking into Saad Hassim's antiquities shop with Sallah in an effort to steal back the Chachapoyan idol, Indy finds someone's been there before them, "And with apologies to Goldilocks, they're still here!" "Goldilocks" is a character in the children's fairy tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Most modern retellings of the story depict Goldilocks as a little girl (though the original fable featured an old woman) who trespasses into the home of the three bears while they are out walking in the woods. Despite Indy's implication here, it is the baby bear who says "she (Goldilocks) is still there" when he finds her sleeping in his bed.

 

When Indy recovers the idol on page 3, he reflects that it is 2,000 years old. The novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark also uses this time range for the Chachapoyan civilization, though the real world Chachapoyan culture existed only from c. 800-1470 AD.

 

After Indy recovers the idol, Sallah starts to sing "A British Tar" from the 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan opera H.M.S. Pinafore. He also sung this after receiving a kiss from Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

In his thoughts, Indy thinks of the two "Arabs" who are also trying to steal the idol from Hassim's shop as "turbaned Dillingers". This is a reference to John Dillinger, an infamous Chicago gangster and bank robber during the Great Depression.

 

On page 10, panel 3, what is obviously meant to be Indy's dialog balloon ("Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?") is mistakenly given to Sallah.

 

When the pair jump from a building's roof to the bed of their parked truck, Indy and Sallah each, respectively, shout "Geeeronimooo!" and "Aallaahh!" "Geronimo!" is an American exclamation made by a person about to make a big jump. "Allah" is the Arabic word for "God".

 

I've been unable to identify the song Sallah starts to sing on page 11. The lyrics are, "Sing away ye winds of Heaven, wafting high o'er Charon's brow..." The Charon mentioned in the song is the Greek mythological ferryman who takes people across the river Styx to the underworld.

 

On page 13, the benefit party for the National Museum takes place at the Diamond Eye nightclub in Manhattan. This appears to be a fictitious nightclub.

 

For the gold idol, the National Museum has built a display that duplicates the Chachapoyan temple in Peru it was found in.

 

When Marcus enters the display room, he finds the guard, Carver, crumpled on the floor, the victim of Xomec and his two Hovitos warriors. It's not clear here whether Carver is dead or merely knocked unconscious, especially since Xomec threatens Marcus with the Hovitos' poison darts (seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark) to be deadly. Part 2 of this story, "Amazon Death-Ride", suggests that Carver is merely unconscious, as Marion refers to him as "the guard those Indians conked", implying a less-than-lethal clout to the head.

 

On page 17, Marion sarcastically refers to Indy as "Romeo". This is, of course, a reference to the character of Romeo in Shakespeare's romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet.

 

When Marion prevents Indy's fall from the building ledge on page 19, Indy says, incredulously, "What the heck are you doing up here?" and she responds, "What do you think I'm doing? The Lindy hop?" The Lindy hop is a swing dance popular in the 1930s and '40s, named for famed American aviator of the time, Charles "Lucky Lindy" Lindbergh.

 

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