You may ask why Miss Maki is dressed as a cheerleader in panel 4. I couldn’t decide whether it was for a case, or whether her being a part-time cheerleader, totally at odds with her character, was a good character note for the imaginary manga she and Miyamoto star in. But had Wicked Things run on past issue 6, you would eventually have seen a whole issue of this.
If you want to ask a question or point out a typo on a page, please don’t put in the comic comments, send me an email, or chances are I won’t see it. The comments are increasingly popular, which is great, but there’s a point where the scrutiny and feedback gets to be a bit too much for me and we blew through that point around Christmas.
I could turn them off, but I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun, so I’m going to stop reading them. As I am currently the sole moderator, this will be an “experiment” but I think it’s probably safe.
The second issue of new Shauna Wickle adventure GREAT BRITISH BUMP OFF: KILL OR BE QUILT is out (in comic shops and where digital comics are sold) today. There’s a free-to-all five-page preview up on my Patreon.
This Saturday (May 3rd) I am doing a Free Comic Book Day signing at Gosh Comics in London, between 1 and 2pm. The details are below. Perhaps I will see you there!
As promised, the archive is back up. It’s a no-frills presentation but I’ve included all the extra material from the books that was on GoComics, dozens of additional pages. Enjoy!
The Bad Machinery archive (2009-2017) has lived on GoComics for several years now, and I know a lot of you have enjoyed re-reading it there. Recently, a few readers have been in touch about the archive being placed behind a paywall. This is something GoComics has done across their platform as they (like many others) navigate the decline in web advertising.
My long-term plan is to bring the archive back to my own site where it can be read for free again. But it’s going to take some time – I’ll need to re-output every page from the original high-res files. GoComics used the updated versions from the Oni Press books, which include lots of edits and bonus pages. Those are the versions I’d like to restore, but I’m currently missing the first half of the series in a suitable web format. Unfortunately, the copies on GoComics are heavily compressed, and not really usable as-is. With over a thousand pages to prepare, it’s a fiddly task, and time is always tight.
If you’re keen to revisit the series sooner rather than later, the collections are still available. A few people have also asked if I could release Bad Machinery digitally on Gumroad, like I did with Scary Go Round, but unfortunately Oni Press holds the digital rights, so that’s not an option right now.
Thank you for taking an interest in these old comics. Rest assured, they’re on my to-do list.
