Hi QC readers, I've been reading the strip for a couple years now and saw a reference to one of my favorite fantasy series'(unless there is something else that I don't know about in which that reference was made), and felt the need to comment as nobody seems to have mentioned it as one of the 'callbacks' Jeph talked about on his tweety thing. The lead-lined box at the bottom of the ocean refers to something that happened in the final book of a series written by David Eddings called the Elenium in which the 'jewel of power' of which the story revolves around gets locked in this box and tossed in the ocean at a remote location to prevent the protagonists from gaining it's power. the lead lining of the box was supposed to stifle the jewels magic powers . The box ends up getting recovered in the next series the Tamuli. Talking about it now makes me want to try and find those books because it was a really good couple of series' and deserves rereading.