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Although I wrote Death To The Extremist for almost seven years, I’ve never thought of comics as my field. I was always more into music, and that kind of seeped into DTE in the form of many references to various bands. I was afraid to do this too much (more on that in a future post), but I was curious who I’d ended up referencing and how much, so the other day I sat down and made a list. It took about two hours, which is time I could’ve been using to do something else. I’ve included the list below, if that’s the sort of thing you’d be interested in.

What I learned: I’m a big nerd who references They Might Be Giants and Devo a lot. This may be tempered by the fact that I reference Dr. Dre just as much, or it may just underscore why people associate me with Michael Bolton from Office Space. Also, I should point out that the number of references is not necessarily a reflection of how much I like the band, otherwise Shonen Knife and Veruca Salt would be on there like 16 times.

Legend: Direct references (i.e. name-checking a band) are in bold. References in the subtitle (hold your mouse cursor over the comic) are in italics. Some of these references are kind of obscure. If you’re curious what the hell I was thinking, leave a comment and I’ll see if I can explain.

2pac - 397
50 Cent - 294, 316
A-Ha - 348
A-Plus - 421
Arcade Fire - 356
Ashlee Simpson - 460
Backstreet Boys - 1
Beastie Boys - 350, 364, 394, 477
Ben Folds - 306
Blur - 353
Bow Wow Wow - 124
Breeders - 175
Bruce Springsteen - 207
Busta Rhymes - 336
Butthole Surfers - 459
Cake - 80, 168
Cargo May Shift - 135
Cibo Matto - 153
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - 373
Clash - 333
Creedence Clearwater Revival - 369
David Bowie - 25
Del the Funky Homosapien - 476
Devo - 145, 423, 437
Digital Underground - 512
Dr. Dre - 305, 362, 477, 481
E-Rotic - 221
Elvis Costello - 59
Elvis Presley - 59, 479
Eminem - 425, 522
Eric B & Rakim - 458
Eurythmics - 134
Franz Ferdinand - 402
George Harrison - 472
Geto Boys - 434
Go-Gos - 472
Green Day - 43
Guided By Voices - 148
Gwen Stefani - 268
Huey Lewis and the News - 342
Hum - 304
Jack Johnson - 423
Jadakiss - 237
Jennifer Lopez - 196
Jimi Hendrix - 306
Joanna Newsom - 529
John Coltrane - 59
John Lennon - 41
Juliana Hatfield - 420
KRS-One - 361
Kelly Clarkson - 320
Killers - 493
L.L. Cool J - 499
Led Zeppelin - 69, 482
Li’l Jon - 313
Liz Phair - 152
Los Del Rio - 472
MC Hammer - 462
MC Paul Barman - 271
Madonna - 239
Mars Volta - 319
Men At Work - 264
Metallica - 124
Missy Elliot - 442
Motley Crue - 59
My Little Pony - 7
N.W.A. - 288
Naughty By Nature - 187
Neutral Milk Hotel - 402
Nirvana - 138, 472
Notorious B.I.G. - 434
Oasis - 472, 476
P. Diddy - 258, 353
Perry Como - 319
Pixies - 402
Poe - 317
Postal Service - 281
Public Enemy - 136, 218, 328
Queen Latifah - 442
Radiohead - 498
Ramones - 466
Red House Painters - 59
Reel 2 Real - 441
Right Said Fred - 472
Rockapella - 116
Run-DMC - 55, 146, 266
Sage Francis - 358
Salt-N-Pepa - 246
Shonen Knife - 137, 427
Sigur Ros - 227
Sir Mix-a-Lot - 32
Smiths - 267
Snoop Dogg - 347, 477
Snow - 472
Sonic Youth - 463
Soul Asylum - 459
Spin Doctors - 459
Spinal Tap - 137
Starship - 209
Sugar - 140
Tag Team - 183
Temple of the Dog - 38
The Game - 294
They Might Be Giants - 61, 357, 486, 500
Tori Amos - 346, 361
Usher - 373
Veruca Salt - 186
We Are Scientists - 505
Wrens - 306
Wu-Tang Clan - 456, 462
Traditional - 334
Ska bands in general - 416