Let’s not forget that back in the ’90s in the DC universe time travel was not allowed to be the same thing twice. Methods could only be used once so you needed at least two if you wanted to get home.
While, in the earlier pre-Crisis DC universe of the ’60s, any superhero with super speed capability (Superman, The Flash) could just vibrate really fast in just the right way to travel in time, but very conveniently would only remember they could do it at the times when the plot line demanded it.
Post-hypnotic suggestion or time paradox prevention, there’s still an easy way to get around that, that being the Bizarro Defense. As in ‘I’m NOT stuck here from 25 years in the future’ or ‘You WON’T become a single mother who’s chasing after a shy reverend’.
This is my thought too. Whatever method Jack was sent back through time by clearly involved the implant of a mental block designed to prevent him from stating under any circumstances that he is a time traveller.
Is time blocking his words because Shelley isn’t supposed to meet Jack until 1) he’s got around to being born, and 2) she’s graduated, passed the bar, worked several years at City Limits, become an assistant mayor, broken up with the boyfriend she mentioned on page 1, and died at least once, maybe twice, or is this just an evolution of Jack’s intrinsic reaction to Winters women?
I had a radio like that one. All round with a CD player on the top, a cassette player on front, the loudspeakers on the side, and the folding and retractable antenna.
I wonder what happened to it. I don’t remember getting rid of it, but it’s just not around anymore.
So did I. I suppose I still do. I brought it with me into the office at one point because we needed to test something on a CD player that wasn’t a part of a computer at some point about 15 years ago and never got around to bringing it back but it’s sitting on a shelf in my office. The CD player has stopped working (maybe whatever experiment we did broke it) but I think it’s possible that the rest of it might still work if I could find a power cable.
I never had one of these squat boomboxes, but I had a Panasonic twin tape player that was so robust and beefy that I still feel immense guilt about throwing it away when I moved house in 2014. It had been in a cupboard for a decade. But still.
It’s a shame that Jack can’t tell Shelly what’s up, because being Shelly, I bet she’d believe him.
On the surface, anyway, Shelly reminds me a bit of the whimsical Jilly Coppercorn from urban fantasy author Charles de Lint’s Newford tales. Jilly is always ready to believe the most outlandish explanations for anything, and tends to be correct in doing so. (I highly recommend said stories, for the record.)
Clearly you can’t Destroy History if you’re not a duly appointed agent with a Nemulon to monitor you. So when Jack attempts to blab, the regulations kick in.
Historically, the ting-pow player would actually ring the triangle with a ball from a flintlock pistol, but in these fallen modern times, they simply use blanks and a lead hammer. The difference in sound texture is readily audible to the true ballistic percussion connoisseur. On the bright side, orchestral-performance-related firearms deaths are down 58%. (The bulk of the remainder are linked to the 1812 Overture.)
What many people do not know* is that the 1812 Overture, in its earliest version, featured a real, full-sized military cannon loaded with a live cannonball aimed at an enormous brass gong. However, this version was only performed once.
The RSS situation continues to be weird. This page is the first one I’ve been notified of since Shelly & her law student groper were running up the stairs.
Forgive (or more likely, ignore), my slightly out of date comments on the pages between then and now.
Me too. I (or rather, the feed) missed the first few pages. This was the first that popped through, so I thought we were still doing “random pages from BM history”!
To review, the original Mystery Kids:
Charlotte – Freelance problem-solver slash barista (K-pop band manager emeritus)
Shauna – Architecture student, amateur baker
Mildred – “Travelling” with quotes from Lottie, recently uncovered clown prodigy
Jack – Gibbering in a ’90s dorm
Linton & Sonny – Location unknown
That right? Did I miss any Sonny or Linton updates?
Absolutely top shelf gibberish
Not authentic frontier gibberish, but still quite good.
CONSARN IT!
I’m suspicious that temporal mechanics are not involved here.
Jack’s inability to convey his predicament has the whiff of the sooper-natural!
Could be that revealing the time travel would disturb the timeline too much, creating a paradox which gets automatically averted.
He could have been hypnotized to keep him from revealing things about the future. That sounds like something the Ministry of History might do.
They look to be the same age, and she’s younger than she was when she met kid Jack. Intriguing!
So just by showing up, he’s messed up the timeline.
Which actually feels quintessentially Jack.
The first rule of Time-Travel Club, is that Ting Pow Barney Blue Bubbles Stopcock!
Time travel in Bobbins-verse is like dying in Achewood-verse, it’s never the same thing twice.
Very good
Let’s not forget that back in the ’90s in the DC universe time travel was not allowed to be the same thing twice. Methods could only be used once so you needed at least two if you wanted to get home.
While, in the earlier pre-Crisis DC universe of the ’60s, any superhero with super speed capability (Superman, The Flash) could just vibrate really fast in just the right way to travel in time, but very conveniently would only remember they could do it at the times when the plot line demanded it.
I’m always saying this
Ting Pow
Barney Blue
Bubbles
Stopcock
Fen-Fen
Abernathy
Windle
Humbucker
This is the lineup of an obscure alternative music festival.
Or someone from Harpenden South East about to lose their election deposit.
Or the roll call of team of rural firemen…
…Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb?
Sing it to the tune of:
Hot Dog,
Jumping Frog,
Al-bu-quer-que
Congleton Bastards!
The dark ooze of time travel blocks his speech!
I’m more worried about the black blobs
George Melly’s invading Jack’s mind.
Ratatatay!
Post-hypnotic suggestion or time paradox prevention, there’s still an easy way to get around that, that being the Bizarro Defense. As in ‘I’m NOT stuck here from 25 years in the future’ or ‘You WON’T become a single mother who’s chasing after a shy reverend’.
This is my thought too. Whatever method Jack was sent back through time by clearly involved the implant of a mental block designed to prevent him from stating under any circumstances that he is a time traveller.
Pretty sure that if he tried that, young Shelly would take those statements at face value.
Bing! Bang! Walla-walla bing-bang!
I know a witch doctor who can sort that right out for you.
He’s my friend. And Dave Seville’s. And Ross Bagdasarian’s, too.
The finger snaps give it away, Jack has travelled through time in order to impress Shelley with his Beat poetry!
Not too much of a stretch given the Mod phase he went through.
Wrong decade for it, I think.
He’s trying to warn her about the tunnel between Tackleford and Wendlefield, obviously
He should be warning Mildred. She’s the one who set that terrible chain of events in motion.
“Didn’t even break the lightbulb.” Ah, Jack. Still a gentle soul underneath all of those efforts to be tough and cool.
And this one, for some reason, is back on the RSS!
Looks like RSS feeds are playing up on Feedly again (this has been addressed in the comments of other pages.)
On the plus side, I’ve been able to binge new John Allison today. 🙂
Is time blocking his words because Shelley isn’t supposed to meet Jack until 1) he’s got around to being born, and 2) she’s graduated, passed the bar, worked several years at City Limits, become an assistant mayor, broken up with the boyfriend she mentioned on page 1, and died at least once, maybe twice, or is this just an evolution of Jack’s intrinsic reaction to Winters women?
What mysterious force makes Jack unable to tell he’s from the future? Looks like a curse.
I had a radio like that one. All round with a CD player on the top, a cassette player on front, the loudspeakers on the side, and the folding and retractable antenna.
I wonder what happened to it. I don’t remember getting rid of it, but it’s just not around anymore.
Sounds like it’s in the loft
And that digital alarm clock. Plus the walkman and those bendy lamps.
Pretty sure I had all of those.
So very 90s.
I had one, too!
So did I. I suppose I still do. I brought it with me into the office at one point because we needed to test something on a CD player that wasn’t a part of a computer at some point about 15 years ago and never got around to bringing it back but it’s sitting on a shelf in my office. The CD player has stopped working (maybe whatever experiment we did broke it) but I think it’s possible that the rest of it might still work if I could find a power cable.
I never had one of these squat boomboxes, but I had a Panasonic twin tape player that was so robust and beefy that I still feel immense guilt about throwing it away when I moved house in 2014. It had been in a cupboard for a decade. But still.
Top shelf work all around on this one. The Rick & Morty lunatic eyes in panel 3 are an underrated detail.
I remember those shoes Shelly is wearing! *late 90s-early 00s nostalgia sigh*
My son has Tourette’s Syndrome, and this is much how it looks like. But likely John has something else in Jack’s mind, as it were.
It’s a shame that Jack can’t tell Shelly what’s up, because being Shelly, I bet she’d believe him.
On the surface, anyway, Shelly reminds me a bit of the whimsical Jilly Coppercorn from urban fantasy author Charles de Lint’s Newford tales. Jilly is always ready to believe the most outlandish explanations for anything, and tends to be correct in doing so. (I highly recommend said stories, for the record.)
FWIW, Widdershins was (is?) on sale in the USA Kindle store just now
Mairzy doats
And dozy doats
And liddle lamzy divey
Leland Palmer? “I’M BACK! BACK AND READY!”
Clearly you can’t Destroy History if you’re not a duly appointed agent with a Nemulon to monitor you. So when Jack attempts to blab, the regulations kick in.
“We go together, like Ting Pow Barney Blue Bubbles Stopcock”
I’m thinking I might order some Ting Pow pork from the Chinese place for dinner.
No, no, the Ting Pow player is the highly specialized percussionist in the orchestra whose only instruments are a triangle and a blank-firing pistol.
Historically, the ting-pow player would actually ring the triangle with a ball from a flintlock pistol, but in these fallen modern times, they simply use blanks and a lead hammer. The difference in sound texture is readily audible to the true ballistic percussion connoisseur. On the bright side, orchestral-performance-related firearms deaths are down 58%. (The bulk of the remainder are linked to the 1812 Overture.)
What many people do not know* is that the 1812 Overture, in its earliest version, featured a real, full-sized military cannon loaded with a live cannonball aimed at an enormous brass gong. However, this version was only performed once.
* because I made it up
That needs to be done. I’d watch that I would.
Alas, no modern insurance company seems to be willing to cover this. Crazy times.
The RSS situation continues to be weird. This page is the first one I’ve been notified of since Shelly & her law student groper were running up the stairs.
Forgive (or more likely, ignore), my slightly out of date comments on the pages between then and now.
Me too. I (or rather, the feed) missed the first few pages. This was the first that popped through, so I thought we were still doing “random pages from BM history”!
Although some might be interested in my Ukranian Avon anecdote.
To review, the original Mystery Kids:
Charlotte – Freelance problem-solver slash barista (K-pop band manager emeritus)
Shauna – Architecture student, amateur baker
Mildred – “Travelling” with quotes from Lottie, recently uncovered clown prodigy
Jack – Gibbering in a ’90s dorm
Linton & Sonny – Location unknown
That right? Did I miss any Sonny or Linton updates?