Annotations

Preamble

The notes for SDOAR will be broken into several different layers owing to the complexity of the information which has accumulated over the past years (and continues to grow), due in no small part to the internet, with its multi-lane information super-highways; for every fact (or "fact"), anecdote, interpretation, or musing found, conflicting or contradictory information is never far away, especially around a narrative like this.

The result is that these annotations will (eventually) consist of several levels where necessary; the first citing the reference for the factual information and basic notes; the second will be a deeper dive into the material (probably TMI for the average reader), providing further background information and thinking around it, and the third will be the most dense (also known as WAY TMI) about any additional research and thoughts which resulted from various links and connections (or, as the SDOAR team likes to call it, ''going down rabbit holes").

As Dave wrote in the front of glamourpuss #22 in January 2012:

"Will Eisner drew a distinction between graphic narratives and graphic novels. As he saw it, a graphic novel was fiction while a graphic-narrative could be either fiction or non-fiction.

I tend to agree with Will's distinction and think of it often. In all honesty I have to say that I think I'm producing more of a graphic novel than a graphic narrative in documenting the events of September 6, 1956. As a stickler for accuracy, I'd say what I've come up with is "Based On A True Story" (at best).

I've done -- and continue to do -- as much research as I can on the subject of Alex Raymond's fatal car crash. And I have certainly spent a disproportionate percentage of my life this last year or so examining and reexamining the facts surrounding it. But, at the end of the day, it IS fifty-five years later, the available evidence was thin on the ground even back then and so the odds of coming to any definitive conclusions seem remote at best and, as tends to happen, finding an irrefutable answer to even a single question (what was Alex Raymond's exact time of death? According to his death certificate, as it turns out: 5:50 pm) more often leads to a half-dozen more questions that are unanswerable."

And of course, now it's "only later and much more so" as the saying goes.

A benefit of posting these notes on the internet is that they don't have to remain "static"; any corrections or additional or updated information which becomes available can be added, along with the circumstances and source.

-Eddie

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3