Benjamin (“Pilot” concludes)
Ah yes, Benjamin. I wrote another eight pages of this pilot, but they felt like part of a second story, rather than a continuation of this one. So we wind things up here. Will It’s the Nineties Get Used To It return? Not sure. It was a pilot. I’ll give it some thought… it could be a while. Thanks for reading, and all your enthusiastic comments. Solver is back on Monday.
The triple mirror hour – undo the works of darkness, Jack!
Well this is odd. I woke up not half an hour ago with the dream-based certainty that I KNEW who the giant face was, and here I find Jack having a similar experience.
In the manner of most dreams the face’s identity has fled my waking mind – however I am highly confident that it was NOT a toad named Benjamin.
Aha, that stretchy-leg effect looks familiar. Perhaps Jack was part of an assignment for a certain ministry – an assignment that went wrong, somehow.
It’s the nineties, and as we can see, it’s all about the Benjamin.
Toads not technology? Suggests Mordawwa is behind this, not Nemulon. Waking up at 3:33 seemed familiar so I googled it and it brings up a ton of eh… wild theories about angels controlling your alarm clock, but eventually remembered The Devil’s Hour, with Peter Capaldi, where this happens repeatedly.
Thus the true meaning is revealed: Benjamin has a Scottish accent. Or something like that.
I had a thing for awhile where I always checked the clock at the same time. 4:18PM. Eventually, while debunking my budding ESP, I realized I just noticed when it was 4:18 over when it was 4:20 or 4:32 and so on. Plus, if I really was onto something, why would I need to check the clock? I would just know it was 4:18.
It could have been an internal clock doing the work there; I can usually wake myself up more or less when I want by just thinking about it before I go to sleep, so there must be some kind of internal timekeeper running as a background task.
(n.b.: I can do this, but it’s not like I trust it for important wake-up times; I set an actual external alarm for those. Maybe it would work anyway, but I’m not taking any chances)
This story has been wonderful, so far. If us readers have any influence at all on this, PLEASE continue it sooner, rather than later.
Thoroughly seconded!
This has been bloody excellent so far, I really hope it comes back!
John, simply put, your story-telling’s gone up another level. Excellent work! I await more with bated breath, which probably means I’ll be dead of asphyxiation by the time it happens, but hey, I’m sure I can get someone with a Ouija board to fill me in.
Of all the useful information and advice that Benjamin could have passed on, “Keep busy” ranks pretty poorly…
Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Now we have TWO huge unresolved storylines! Steeple and now this! Don’t be a Claremont! Give us some continuation and/or closure, for Skippy’s sake!
What about the murder in Wicked Things?
And NEMS!
I finished NEMS, I just couldn’t draw what I had written properly. Patreon subscribers saw it all!
Wait one day, Veronica, and I’ll get to that
I think I ended Steeple very satisfactorily, Mark.
Sorry, not quite. It was great, yes, but I’m certain the vast majority of your readers were left hungry for more.
Well… Satisfying in that ‘Twin Peaks cliffhanger that may or not ever get resolved’ and also ‘WTF did I just see’ kind of a way. Thanks, however, for not having 17 pages of Jack & Shelly driving on a dark road with hardly any dialog.
Aw, man! This was so good! Vintage Shelley, but also—new Shelley. And Jack’s okay, too.
“Jack’s alright, I,” as they say in Britain
(Hard hittin’) New Britain, Connecticut?
This story is very fun so far, I would like to see more of it in the future.
Man, this has been a Treat! I’m sure now it’s Destroy History Shelley to the rescue! Thanks as always John! These Catch up with the Tackleford Mystery Teens always exceed expectations!
Nth-ing the calls for this story to be continued. What’s going to happen to Jack in the 1990s? Will he adapt to parklife?!
I was secretly hoping Jack would grow up to be cool. Now all hopes rest on Sonny.
“Who’s Benjamin?” is a good question. But also, who’s “She”? Shelley herself is a plausible candidate as, though she’s long since left the Ministry of History from the point of view of where (or rather when) Jack belongs, she did keep hold of Nemulon. But I think that’s far from certain. I really hope this continues someday, and maybe we’ll find out.
Could be, that could explain why she is sticking with helping Jack out despite him not being able to prove he’s from the future or has anything in particular wrong with him, and it seems very Shelley to know more than she’s letting on via a time-travelling visit from her older self.
It seems even more Shelley for her to be helping him without having any evidence at all that he’s anything but mentally unbalanced. I mean, this is the woman who will later look after Desmond Fishman for a while. The more lost the cause is, the more hapless the person, the more Shelley tries to help.
Well, Babs does have form when it comes to shoving people unprepared into the past.
i like jack! and i like him and shelleys false-pretenses-but-otherwise-genuine friendship! and im super down for weird time mysteries!! this page especially, chef kiss. no rush, i desire to see more of the solver team, but i would not complain if you came back to this
Jack’s subconscious is clearly sticking with the 90s motif by serving up a reference to the Black Lodge in ‘Twin Peaks’!
A year? Poor Jack
I liked this a lot, John; that penultimate page especially made me feel like I did when I first read Expecting To Fly (and that’s meant as the highest praise). Would love to see it continue, if the creative juices dictate it
I’ve absolutely loved this pilot. Thank you John.
Benny the toad.
Thank you John, please count me as another vote to eventually continue on after the pilot! I’d love to find out what has happened/is happening/will happen to Jack
This has been, as always, an absolute treat for the eyes and brains.
More, please! I will await the continuation with bated breath, which will be very unpleasant if it doesn’t ever continue. For one thing, I’ll have to figure out what “bated” actually means – an abbreviation of “abated”, maybe, as in not breathing? That can’t be good for me.
I wish I could remember the origin of the 3:33 thing… For some reason, though I’ve seen it before, the one that leaps to mind is the game Eternal Darkness, but that’s full of references to other things.
More please! I loved the way you captured Jack’s teenage awkwardness back in the day, and then how he grew in all the ways. I also enjoy the 90s nostalgia, so I’d love to see more of this.
Since you’re not JJ Abrams, I assume you actually know where you’re going with this, and if that is the case it doesn’t seem fair to engender our curiosity on the subject and then wander off.
If there’s more, you’ll get more, if I find that there isn’t, I’m not going to whip myself up and down the street any more. There’s not much of me left.
It might appear to you in some idle sketches, while you’re just having a bit of fun.
But… those eight pages you mentioned…
We wouldn’t want those to go to waste.
Wouldn’t they just be the beginning of the second part?
I think the point is to encourage John to DO a second part, so those pages don’t go to waste.
I enjoyed this, and would love to see more if your muse, energy and creative priorites allow 🙂
Join John’s Patreon, if you haven’t already. He sometimes gives us a peek into just those things.
This pilot was Twin-peak-esque! I for one would be happy if there was a continuation! (But I’m not paying much of anyone elses bills…)
Augh what a cliffhanger.
Really intrigued by Benjamin, he’s like a late stage Seaman from the Sega Dreamcast game.
Thanks Mr. A, I’ve really enjoyed all your comics and this one did not disappoint. I hope you are inspired to continue it one day!
I hope the network picks up this pilot! I want to see more!
Well, we’re all in it for the long run. Just please always let us go back to refresh our memories when you do continue it. Onward with Claire, Glen, and that other girl!
I won’t be taking it down, I see a further chapter coming next spring (unless I write it and it’s terrible).
Please not “A DREAM, it was all a DREAM !!!”
I wan’t going to make it all a dream but now you say that I’m going to have it all be a dream.
You haven’t been watching Grotesquerie, have you?
John, I loved this. I said before that the Bad Machinery kids are very nostalgic for me as that is when I started reading your work, but I think even without that extra connection this is a wonderful story. The tension here, especially the twist of Shelley still having no proof that Jack knows Erin’s name, is so intriguing. Would love to see more!
I’m calling it right now- the person (accidentally) responsible for this is a new character named Fen-Fen Bartleby.
Aha! It would seem that you too are a time traveler forced to cover hidden knowledge with gibberish. I hope that you didn’t get too much blood on your keyboard typing that out.
As others have said, this is great stuff and I would love to see it continue.
excellent little glimpse into a strange story. I would be easily enticed to read more of it.
also, I imagine benjamin talking backwards
When all is considered, I think it is safe to say that a consensus has been reached:
This “pilot” definitely did NOT “stink up the place”.
Jack needs to listen to Moxy Fruvous’ “Stuck in the 90s”. I hope it was on one of those mix tapes. https://open.spotify.com/track/0a4MMsTHkYDa1CBRLFzgwc?si=8727e85157a74a04
Well, you can’t stop there, after the big build-up. So many people will never forgive you! We have so many questions that need answering!
Please, continue this. The story is amazing and has so many questions. Expecially I want to know if Mildred is involved with Jack’s time adventures!