Freak leap
Miss Maki also appeared in Wicked Things. Her intentions were occasionally obscure. But her outfits clearly signalled a woman of precision.
Bad Machinery
New comics by John Allison
Miss Maki also appeared in Wicked Things. Her intentions were occasionally obscure. But her outfits clearly signalled a woman of precision.
Lottie knows what she’s about.
It’s what every mad inventor or any other creative person knows, but it’s a secret to all but the initiated.
Yes! If there’s anything I have learned, it’s that persistence can be an amazingly effective substitute for genius. People will definitely notice when you finally solve the problem that everyone else had given up on, but most will not notice that it took you weeks of painful slogging.
If you multi-task it can take years, but it also means that several problems can sometimes share in the solution.
Absolutely. You don’t need to win, you don’t need to manage it, you don’t even need to cope, you just need to still be there once it’s all done.
Don’t forget this is a conscious effort, like some tiny bloke with a hammer pounding away until that concept appears.
Crazy how this all started because of a drawing of Desmond doing police work
I’m not sure that “Brough his killer to justice” was what happened. Even if they now know who Bea is, she and Skelottie are probably still alive and dangerous. Maki should remain and team up with Lottie in case of an attack.
WE know that she’s likely to be back, but only because we know this is a work of fiction that features the “never found the body” trope. Alas, no one in-universe seems to be aware of this.
While maybe not literally bringing Miyamoto’s murderer to justice, it’s still a formal exoneration of Lottie and vindication for him, plus the murderer now had an identity. Even if Beate is still alive, she is permanently marked. More than anything it does bring about a sense of closure for Lottie’s darkest moment.
When you’re a brilliant detective, having your archnemesis disappear in a nearby body of water following a fall that ‘no one could have possibly survived’ is often as close to justice as you’re going to get.
I was hoping we’d see Maki again, eventually.
It certainly looks like that could happen as they all team up to face a common threat.
Sad music plays in the background, a slow final tribute and eulogy.
Des is playing a kazoo in the back row.
Desmond is playing Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Now that I’ve imagined it, I can’t un-hear it.
Bloody-minded sounds ominous but one should be sanguine.
It’s more like Sang-Froid.
I didn’t know the words so I just hummed along with the tune.
Looks like the plaque reads “Miyamoto Kendo, murdered in the UK”. Probably not the best epitaph one could receive, to be honest, although it’s probably better than “most likely eaten by eels”, I guess.
Or “Titted about on a ladder.”
It is in the Japanese embassy so it could be more of a warning to other Japanese visitors rather than a commemoration
This is going to be even more confusing before there’s clarity.
Miyamoto Kendo: Beacma A Mystery That Had To Be Solved. The UK Can Bestow No Greater Honour. Go Forth In His Memory And Find Out Who Dunnit.
“Not killed by football hooligans or terrible food, surprisingly”
The music I hear in my head for this strip is the “Merry Christmas, Mister Lawrence” suite by the late, great, Ryuichi Sakamoto.
I am sorry to say this, but either a missed some vital information or this is, where the whole story comes apart at the seams.
In “Wicked Things” Maki deliberately mistranslated Lottie´s utterances to put her in a bad light with Miyamoto (Which promptly worked which shines a very dim light on Miyamoto´s intelligence.).
She later gave Lotti a gift allegedly from Miyamoto and made her go to his room under the pretense that he sought her help in a difficult case. – Where Lottie found the fatally wounded Miyamoto and was promptly “discovered” by Maki screaming murder.
So sorry, but Maki has to be in it.
My thoughts exactly. And I was kind of hoping Lottie would expose her in the speech. (Well, that one can still happen, I guess)
I sense a deeper game.
I’m pretty sure Maki was a red herring, someone we were SUPPOSED to think was involved in the murder, but wasn’t. There’s no reason she would have accurately translated Miyamoto’s last words if she had been in on it, and she was the only one present who spoke Japanese. She was acting suspicious because she didn’t trust Lottie, which was probably due to something Beate did before the story began.
What if that was all a smokescreen to draw the attention away from Miyamoto? What better way than to convince everyone he was dead?
I think Maki had actually encountered Skelottie not long before Charlotte arrived. Her reaction reminds me of how Lottie’s employers reacted after encountering the bad Charlotte.
Indeed, next page might be about Maki apologising for her HOSTILE behaviour (though it will probably be about something else entirely).
I’ve been thinking the same thing.
How did he stack up against Young Guy, Motor Detective ?
“Decision making factor absent from brain!”
Never read the comments. You shouldn’t be reading this now.
Fortunately I’m not. I have no idea what I am typing at the moment or where on this page it will occur
I have heard of these idea things but never actually had one of my own. I’m still waiting for the copy of the plot I was promised to turn up.
There is a book I’m rereading called City of Broken Magic. One of the protagonists Clae Sinclair-is an inspector of sorts in the locating and disposal of gooey black monsters. One of his bromides is “better to be a pain than a comfort.” I think Charlotte would respect that.
I like the subtle tearing up on Claire in panel 4
The “Beate killed Miyamoto” thing is still just a (logical) assumption on Lottie’s part, right? There is no proof that she was in any way involved?
Though Beate hasn’t denied that she killed Miyamoto either.
Pretty sure Beate confessed to it. And Miyamoto himself said “there are two of them.” So unless there’s a second doppelganger, the case is pretty straightforward.
A second doppelganger of Lottie or a second pair of person from this world and doppelganger of that person? Like a meta-doppelganger?
I had thought that Lottie had extracted a confession, but on reviewing the pertinent strip I see she didn’t get there.
She at least sort of confessed to Claire, even if she didn’t explicitly mention the murder. https://badmachinery.com/comic/fort-william-in-scotland/
Thank you! I figured I missed something and that was it
If Beate attacked Kendo Miyamoto, how did she get her hands on Lottie’s pen? I was sure the killer was that snooty teen sleuth who claimed she thought Lottie was an autograph seeker. Oh, wait. If Beate with Lottie’s face demanded her pen back…
Never mind.
I am reading old comics and cannot believe we first met Dean when he was at uni with Ed Gemmell.