Yes. Yes you are.
You may remember Jack Finch from such comics as Bad Machinery. He has a long track record with Shelley’s sister Erin (and her antagonistic relationship with the mystery kids), but his run-ins with Shelley have probably been limited. I think his fellow child mysterion Lottie would no doubt have filled him (and everyone else) in on her mentor Shelley, doubtless at length. I thought maybe they had appeared on panel together but Linton was the recipient of the patronising hair ruffle back in this comic from a long time ago.
Jack Finch! Yes! Hurrah! I was just wondering the other day how those three lads were doing these days. We’ve heard from the girls from time to time, but it’s been mostly a deafening hush about the boys. I am so excited!
Linton is the one I wonder about. I’ll admit, he was always my least-favorite mystery kid, but he’s the one who I can’t picture his life arc beyond Bad Machinery. I’m not sure what Sonny’s up to, exactly, but I’m confident that he’s okay.
And, honestly, other than the “hugging a young Shelley Winters in the ’90s” part, this is pretty much exactly where I pictured Jack.
I can imagine Lunton’s future/present quite easily. The poor guy was cursed from the start to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the police.
Well not exactly *these* days, but yeah
Jack looks to me like he’s probably about the same age Lottie’s been in her recent appearances, so he’s probably FROM “these days”, at least, even if that’s not when he is right now. If that makes any sense.
I’ve been wondering what happened to those FOUR kids — Grendel and the three whose names I’m not recalling at the moment, the new mystery kids on the block — but I doubt they’d fit into this arc. I suppose it’s not impossible that we’ll see the Wendlefield mystery kids, the peers of Jack and company, though.
Two guys, two girls — aren’t the Tackleford mystery kids in desperate need of a semi-incoherent talking dog? 😉
This story takes place before ANY of them were born, I think. Of course, it’s possible that Jack wasn’t the only one who was transported through time.
The Wen-Tack Action Group! Tom Grendel, Sunita Sengupta, Georgia Cheeseman, and Zebus, Warrior Child. (I’m not sure if “Zebus” is his first name, his last name, or his only name.) I liked them, and I’m sad we haven’t seen them again.
But we’re 25 years or more in the past here. Jack shouldn’t even be born yet, and the Action Group was four years younger.
Yeah they were fun, Georgia a proto-Susan in some ways maybe?
Jack’s Nineties disguise is FLAWLESS. Flannie, floppy haircut, it’s all there!
He’s born for the nineties (what a dark fate)
Oh hush. It was wonderful if you grew up in it.
Jack was at Peggy’s baby shower, and he and Shelley were both in the big group shot at the end of “Hard Yards”. I’m not sure how he scored an invitation, because the only time previously they were in the same panel appears to be a holiday group shot at the end-of-year break in “Into the Woods”, which I’m assuming is out-of-continuity. I figure Shelley just told Lottie “bring all your friends!”
Given that I’m fairly sure Jack hadn’t been born yet in the ’90s, let alone being college-aged, it seems that some sort of time-travel shenanigans are afoot. Did Jack find Tim’s time-travel teapot? Did he somehow accidentally get involved with the Ministry of History? Did adult Scout from the future strand him in the past? Is it a fairy curse of some sort? Random time portal? There are so many possibilities.
There’s been some chrono-slippage due to webcomics time and the timeskip between SGR and Bad Machinery, but even at their oldest (right after that timeskip) the mystery kids wouldn’t have been born before late ’97… Lottie not ’til July ’98. I was figuring it was about 1994 here, from Shelley’s age, but there was a poster for Be Here Now, which didn’t come out until 1997.
That reminds me, I need to add this one to the timeline. And the new partial bobbins.horse one, if I can figure out where it goes.
And by the most current chronology, Lottie’s around 19 (I think) in the early-to-mid 2020s, so she and the rest of the Mystery Kids would have to have been born in the 21st century.
Oh hey, I just realized: Happy birthday, Mildred! (Still an hour left in my TZ.)
Woah, there’s a timeline? Is it publicly available?
This google doc is a few years out of date, but it’s a noble attempt at one (by u/DOMAN127)
I had no idea this whole document existed. Thank you so much.
My name is a link!
Hmm, I’m reminded that “Expecting to Fly” was set explicitly in 1996, so Shelley’s more younger than me than I thought. I was thinking that “76” on her shirt was a birth year, but I guess she was born around 1980, which would make this like ’97–’98. Which jibes with the Oasis poster.
The story years necessarily have to slide as discussed many times before
Perhaps Jack went off to college, and ended up with a dorm room that is also a time rift.
You mean it’s not just secondary schools that develop time portals?
Jack Finton at last! And apparently lost Space/Time! I’m not sure if 90s Shelley will be much help in this situation (she probably isn’t even aware of The Ministry of History’s existence yet).
Oh my God, it is Jack. Temporally displaced Jack. The mystery factor of this story just went through the roof.
THIS IS BEST DEVELOPMENT
Oh my STARS
THE MOST SURPRISING
Ditto! Now I wonder if Shelley always knew she would meet 18 Jack and avoided him on purpose or if something will erase her memory in the end. It could also be the real reason why they took her to the Ministry of History so easily.
Now they have to figure out how to get Jack to the Future!
From this point forward, I consider this the true title of this story arc.
John said this is essentially a pilot for a new series, so I’m not so sure Jack will, in fact, get to the future in this story.
Great Scott!
“Do you know what this means? It means THIS THING DOESN’T WORK!!”
I’m really happy to see Jack, but what is he doing in an era where he shouldn’t even have been born? The story is very interesting.
A minor disagreement with reality I should think. I have them all the time meself, holidays are usually a big one – I suggest something like taking the flying car for a couple of weeks on Mars, reality just won’t have any of it and we end up at Walton on the Naze again. All very disappointing.
Perhaps Jack Finch was newborn (or even conceived!) just this morning, so this is the furthest back within his own timeline that an older Jack Finch could be thrown?
Hey, the Tackleford multiverse is full of everything from time teapots to dimensional wormholes, and even a whole government department devoted to repairing history, none of which seem to be limited to the lifetime of the time traveler.
Inb4 Nemulon, Future Shelley, and Oliver Spain all pop out of thin air (which, as Douglas Adams so eloquently explained, is always full of multidimensional complexities)
What a scary hypothesis. I like it!
Apparently, Jack’s minor disagreement with reality seems to involve time travel into the past. Something he once regarded as… impossible?
Who is close to Jack and might have prompted this sort of mischief?
*everyone turns immediately to Mildred*
HMMMMMMMM!!!!!!
GASP! IT’S TRUE!
The dangerous nutter!
Looks like he tried to put together some IKEA
anyway: so glad that Jack´s back !
But… but this is comics! All Jack has to do to get back is to find a panel from a recent story and step into it. UNLESS OASIS HAS SOMEHOW ELIMINATED COMICS ALTOGETHER IN THIS TIMELINE! Bastards. I wouldn’t put it ‘past’ them!
They were otherwise engaged;
https://achewood.com/2003/07/14/title.html
(there was a lot of ivy and weeds to take care of)
Nope, doesn’t ring a bell. This is the 90s and I’ve never heard of Jack Finch, Bad Machinery, John Allison, or non-dialup intranet.
Has the first Bobbins strip come out yet?
*high pitched whistle*
*spring sprong spring sprong*
*electronic bitmunching of the damned*
You’d get 8K/second if you were lucky, and you relished every precious byte of it.
Waluigi Plum Factory for the DS! My god, it’s a world of wonders!
I had thought that Jack wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with time travel, but I went back to read and found that he and Sonny were being ‘gaseous idiots’ when the mystery girls were fixing time (LAAA!)
I’m not sure anybody actually remembers that “Forked Road” happened. After the wormhole collapsed and the timeline stabilized, I think everyone’s memories of the old one faded away and so it had always been like that for them.
I think Lottie took some notes before her memory vanished, but then in a later storyline she burned all her notebooks and other memorabilia in a fit of pique, so they probably don’t survive now.
I’m SO excited to see Jack!! He was one of my first faves in comics as a kid :’)
The comments on this story really are designed specifically to make me feel old, aren’t they…
“She gives me a lot of advice. I think one day I will understand it.” is a perfect line for Lottie referring to Dr. Lady Sounds.
Proud to say I still have my copy of Recklessly Yours
Jack has just discovered that the Large Hard-On Collider hasn’t been built yet.
I missed you, Jack! Bad Machinery was my intro to the Allison-verse when I was just a few years older than the Mystery Kids, and I have such a soft spot for all of them. Excited to see this lad again, and hopeful that a warm reception might encourage Mr. Allison to revisit some more of the kids down the road.
Jack! I’m ridiculously happy to see him!