Very herbal
When Skelottie turned up with her bag of provisions, the comments were so preoccupied with Dean’s vertical monitors that they hardly questioned what might be in the bag.
Bad Machinery
New comics by John Allison
When Skelottie turned up with her bag of provisions, the comments were so preoccupied with Dean’s vertical monitors that they hardly questioned what might be in the bag.
But think about it
How can Dean read Bad Machinery (except Case 7) with such vertical aspect ratios?
Beate even wore her skelottie outfit underneath… dedication!
She didn’t seem fazed by the zip ties either so I guess she’s still 3 steps ahead
Is it wrong that I worry the Scrabble board might get bent at the edges from Dean collapsing on it?
Judging from what we saw in the last chapter, I’m not sure Beate thinks of it as a costume, at this point.
Well then Realottie got a tattoo for nothing!
Better to overestimate your opponent than to underestimate.
Tattoos are always good in the Tackleverse 😉
Maybe the “suit” IS a tattoo, covering everything except the hands and face.
Nope. The suit is a piece of clothing.
welp, guess that confirms it is Beate. Was still hoping for a surprise Sonny reveal.
Glenn must be faking it. No Kiwi would go down that easily.
They ain’t immune to a mickey!
No kiwi would go down.
It might be Australian poison. AFAIK they have the best poisons anyway.
Even if it was a New Zealand poison, Australia would still claim it as their own.
That was their second dose.
Just realised the scattered Scrabble tiles at the end of part 2 spelled Beate.
Leaving clues for Charlotte?
Going back through the comments, it appears I am rather late spotting this!
Earlier than me!
So, the squiggly speech bubbles are an indication of what she has to do to her voice to sound anything like Lottie? And in the final panel she’s just talking with her normal voice (and language), so there’s no squiggly-ness?
I took that to mean she’s speaking in the classic “gloating supervillain” voice.
Oh, I assumed the squiggled represented damage from smoking, and possibly also faceplanting on a mountain.
Her speech balloons were squiggly because of all the shouting she’s been doing at clubs, and her voice finally recovered in the final panel here. Apparently it takes a while for Lockets to be effective, but once they start, the effect is immediate.
That’s what she claimed when Dean noticed her voice didn’t sound right. How much do you trust the veracity of her claims?
Yep, that was my assumption when we were first introduced to Evilottie. I didn’t suspect a foreign language though until we were introduced to Beate.
That’s my understanding. Dean even mentioned that her voice sounded strange when she brought the provisions.
I have to admit that I’m losing faith. Real Lottie still hopes that everything is fine. If she went to the police first and went to Dean’s flat accompanied by the police (before Evilottie/Beate calls the police, to have them arrive very shortly after real Lottie would arrive), there might be a chance for survival and catching Beate. But as things went on up to now, at least as much as we know it…
I hope she doesn’t forget to arrange the Scrabble tiles!
All Lottie would need to do to win at that point is play a word with an N in it at the end of BEATE. Then BEATE would be BEATEN.
I suspect at the end of this story, Beate will indeed be beaten.
Great plan, flawless execution.
I am glad that Glup didn’t zip tie his own thumb to the coffee table.
“How convenient. They even provided me with restraints!”
I think a lot of the upper reaches of the commentary on that page was suspicious, but I think there was a presumption of fatality in the speculation. I think the team is stacking Zs, fortunately.
Well, *relatively* fortunately…
I absolutely adore how louche Skelottie is in panel 7.
And her evil eyes in P2 & P4 are such a delight!
Despite my patronage, I’m not reading ahead. Nothing can beat the rhythm with which Mr. A tells a story. We’ve known it since Whitby, and even before.
Couldn’t agree more!
Skelottie, so happy and calm, she really is crazy! Let’s hope she didn’t poisoned them with a lethal drug. Maybe she wants to use them as hostages for forcing Lottie to come out? Glenn and Claire’s terror is so vivid. Expecially Claire’s sadness in seeing Glenn go asleep. Powerful page!
It serves them right for messing with a former great (although unrecognized) Super-Sleuth turned evil Super-Villain, when the best recognition is your defeated enemies at your mercy.
(Insert Evil Lottie laugh here!!)
Looks like Beate did, indeed, sign her work. I suppose Claire could struggle to just enough consciousness to arrange the tiles, but given that Dean probably weighs at least 50% more, enough to take him down should knock her flat. Also, there was no indication that, despite Claire’s attempt at being nice, she ever learned Beate’s name.
Do we know how much Dean has drunk of the spiked gin relative to the quantity consumed by Glarg and Claire?
Also, who messaged Dean in the previous page? Was it Lottie, urging abstinence? Dean may well be role-playing.
^ THIS!!! I never even noticed he was reading something on his phone. Dean may save the day yet!
No one messaged Dean, he’s looking at his phone for another reason. I always indicate an “alert” visually.
Another reason is good as well. I’ll take any reason as long as there is indeed a reason.
Lottie wouldn’t know about the gin, specifically, but she could still have sent some sort of warning.
Oh no, oh no!!
I think we were all just assuming that the anti-Lottie had brought anti-refreshments. That she seems to have just used knockout drugs of some sort is a relief, honestly. Evidently she wants our heroes, and Dean, alive for now, perhaps for some sort of supervillain hostage confrontation with Original Flavor Lottie.
Supervillains NEVER kill people right away. They have to gloat and explain their evil plot and/or motivation first.
I admire how John drew the nominally straight lines all wobbly* once our heroes began to feel the effects of the knockout drugs.
*As in “head.”
I’m confused about how they didn’t notice any effect at all from their first drink, nor the “herbal kick”. I’m also disappointed no one noticed the seal had been tampered with or that Evilottie wasn’t partaking.
I think the only one who was in a position to notice the seal would have been Dean, who seems to have opened the bottle before the others arrived. I also think there’s going to be a global hamper shortage by the time this story is finished.
Not sure where to post this, but it seems that the Bad Machinery backlog at GoComix got put behind some sort of paywall recently, even though the link to it at scarygoround says it’s free. Worse, it’s some kind of awful screen-covering paywall that doesn’t work properly, continually vibrating up and down in a way that prevents you from reading it or clicking on anything.
I had finally just convinced my wife to give it a read, but she only got a couple chapters in before this happened.