In your childhood dreams
The dowager! Lottie has been keen to connect with dowagers in her area for a very, very long time. Below is my first sketch of this beloved and important figure. The lad with the ‘tache received a radical reworking, but Bitsy was born perfect, right on the page.
The dowager, I do wager.
I’m getting old. I almost missed this.
The quantities of pink are increasing panel by panel!
Peekums and Willie are just perfect for this geriatric aristocrat
DOWAGERS IN YOUR AREA ARE EAGER TO MEET YOU
“I gave them my card number, and the next thing I know, I have a mortgage in Vilnius!”
The solver meets the supersolvent.
Lottie’s getup is 100%! Claire cannot compare!
My Goodness, Lottie’s shoes! I can’t take my eyes off those shoes!
She’s had those for a while
They aren’t always red.
https://badmachinery.com/comic/2021-04-06/
A mistake, or red wasn’t in the palette for this page?
I don’t think the red soles entered Lottie’s character design until Author Unknown.
That’s the best “The Next Day” ever!
Wow, that’s an outfit you’ve got there, Lottie.
Lottie dresses well when needed.
She might live in a city where vintage stores still sell for cheaper than the new stuff.
I do hope Bitsy is a regular. Lottie needs a long runway to take off again.
What IS the dowager’s gripe?
Her nephew was funnelling cash into the furry wrestlers, as I recall.
Do we know that yet? the nephew part
We know about the nephew, I don’t think it’s technically been confirmed in-story that the wrestlers involved were the “furry wrestlers” we encountered in that story. From 100% Cuddles: https://badmachinery.com/comic/2024-06-28/
I mean, it’s THEORETICALLY possible the underground wresting organization from that story was completely coincidental and not in any way related to the wresting operation that her nephew is allegedly involved in, but that’s not how fiction usually works, so I’m going with “yes”.
I agree, which is why I put in the word “technically”. But we still haven’t had it actually confirmed in-story yet.
We have- Claire has admitted that the ‘camping holiday’ was actually an investigation of the wrestling-related embezzlement. They are here today to collect their fee.
https://badmachinery.com/comic/2024-10-21/
I stand corrected! I thought I had vaguely remembered something like that, but I couldn’t find it.
An affliction suffered by Afghans or similar Hounds, in which the length of the head creates an irregularity of the spine, comparable to the “dowager’s hump” in humans. My great grandmother had it, and so did her borzoi.
I’m getting an Audrey Hepburn vibe from Lottie here. Tres apropos!
Lottie’s getting her Havisham fix.
Right after her Haversham fix.
D’oh! Mea culpa.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the good dowager become Charlie to Lottie, Claire and Glenn’s Angels.
Or the Alfred Hitchcock to their Three Investigators. (I loved those books as a kid, but I’m not sure how obscure of a reference it’s become these days.)
Not obscure at all!
I read those books, so I get it!
When I was a kid, my brother had the “Stuttering Parrot” one. It’s the only one I’ve read.
I must have read every one of those a dozen times in Grade 5. (Then a year later I came across the James Blish Star Trek adaptations, The Chrysalids and the Tripods trilogy, and AHAT3I, Encyclopedia Brown and Danny Dunn were forever in my rear-view mirror.)
Okay, I’ll bite. What is AHAT3I?
I’m assuming Alfred Hitchcock and the 3 Investigators — those are all my childhood reads, too. Loved the secret headquarters and the free limo.
The dowager is a lovely older lady, Lottie is really sweet in her enthusiasm. Let’s hope she and Claire have come up with some good ideas for Glenn’s birthday.
The Louboutins Lottie!
‘tache-lad has some similarities with a certain JC – we are still at least nominally Python-worshiping culture, aren’t we?
I’m afraid I lapsed about 30 years ago.
I still appreciate the ground MP broke in comedy, and there are sketches and bits that stick in my mind as utterly iconic. Some of it has aged very, very badly; it’s been fascinating to see my son watch it and laugh out loud, recite entire sketches from memory AND call out the worst of the show’s misogyny and racism.
And then a few years ago I caught a live show by Cleese that remains my personal proof point for never meeting your heroes.
The Lady SWALEDALE! Is this in reference to the Sheffield Carols? Or am I just using this as an excuse to trot out one of my fave choruses of all time?
“In that beautiful dale, home of the Swale,
How well do I love thee, how well do I love thee.
Beautiful dale, home of the Swale,
Beautiful, beautiful dale”