alphabet Murders
Halloween Card
Halloween Card Clues
Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allen Poe penned a short story titled The Masque of the Red Death in 1842. The gothic tale tells of a masque ball held by Prince Prospero while the Red Death, a particularly virulent disease, ravaged his kingdom.
Eventually, the Red Death finds its way into Prospero’s palace, and all the revellers die hideously.
The Tempest
Prospero is also the name of the main character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Prospero was once the Duke of Milan, but his brother Antonio took over his Duchy with the help of the King of Naples.
Prospero and his daughter Miranda were set adrift in a boat and eventually landed on an island.
When a ship carrying the King of Naples and his court passes the island, Prospero uses magic to conjure a storm, which wrecks the boat.
Ferdinand, the King’s son, falls in love with Miranda, and they marry.
Prospero reveals his identity to Ferdinand and Miranda and forgives his enemies, including Antonio.
Prospero leaves the island after granting his servant Ariel, a spirit who can fly, change shape and cause storms, his freedom.
The references are a reminder that Master Geryon is both a prince and a magician.
Tim Holt Comic # 22 - Cave of the Three Skeletons
Red Mask and the Cave of the Three Skeletons
The Halloween Card shows a skeleton wearing a red mask. Tim Holt Comic Book # 22’s principal story is about the Red Mask and the cave of the three skeletons. The Zodiac uses each skeleton to represent one of his three incarnations.
Allegory of the Cave
Plato describes a discussion between Socrates and his brother, Glaucon. Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a cave where people have been imprisoned since childhood. The prisoners gaze at the wall in front of them. They are chained and cannot look around. A fire is behind them, and a raised walkway with a low wall is between the fire and the prisoners. People walk along the walkway carrying objects or puppets ‘of men and other living things.’
The prisoners can see the shadows on the cave wall before them but not what is happening behind them. Because of the walkway wall, the people do not cast shadows for the prisoners to see—only the shadows of the objects they carry appear on the wall. The prisoners believe the shadows produce the sounds the people make as they talk.
The shadows are the prisoners’ reality. Because they have never seen anything else, the prisoners do not realise they see shadows, not objects. Moreover, the cave’s inhabitants do not appreciate the objects whose shadows they see are copies of real things outside the cave.
The Zodiac’s cave is a cinema, and his shadows are the flickering images he sees on the screen. He believes the movies are factual and cannot imagine they are make-believe. After all, in Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, Dr. Zodiac suffers from Pseudologia Fantastica (PF). PF is a mental disorder involving chronic lying, and people with it often create elaborate, exaggerated stories that they believe are true.
Like Plato’s denizens of the cave, the Zodiac rejects anything that doubts the veracity of the movies he sees.
Brands of the Red Ryder Ranch
Red Ryder
William Blake's Geryon
Red Ryder Comic # 22 - Mystery Mesa Monster
Symbols
Text
Hermes slaying Argus (Argos)
All-Seeing Argus
The eyes on the Halloween Card evoke the myth of Io and Argus.
Argus Panoptes—the all-seeing Argus—is a one-hundred-eyed giant in Greek mythology. The epithet Panoptes originally applied to Helios, the Sun god, but was later adopted by Zeus. Thus, the Zodiac uses another myth associated with Helios.
In the myth, Zeus is consorting with the Argive Nymphe Io when his jealous wife, Hera, appears. Zeus transforms Io into a white heifer, but Hera is not deceived and demands the animal as a gift.
After taking possession of Io, Hera appoints Argus to guard her. She chooses Argus because some of his hundred eyes are always open, even when he sleeps. Moreover, he can see in all directions simultaneously with his many eyes.
Zeus sends Hermes to slay Argus and rescue his lover. Hermes lulls the giant to sleep with his music and slays him with his sword. For this act, he earns the title Argeiphontes – Slayer of Argos. Hera rewards Argus for his service by placing his hundred eyes on the tail of her sacred bird, the peacock
With Argus dead, Io is free to wander the earth. To stop Zeus from coupling with Io, Hera sends a gadfly to torment her and prevent her from settling. Io walks across Europe until she reaches the Ionian Sea. From there, she swims to Egypt and, according to some versions of the myth, gives birth to Zeus’s love child.
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