A Holiday Harlequinade part 2
Two visitations in quick succession. Both, obviously, extremely welcome, as these two characters are very dear to my heart, even when they are tormenting me. Part 3 on Monday!
Bad Machinery
New comics by John Allison
Two visitations in quick succession. Both, obviously, extremely welcome, as these two characters are very dear to my heart, even when they are tormenting me. Part 3 on Monday!
No doubt Past John (Tiny John?) is working on the annual picks of Dr. Ladysounds.
Des has left off the strips on Patreon, surely they are worth a shackle or two.
“Why must life always be torment?” – Imma steal that panel for my avatar.
Unfortunately he can’t heart the precious advice! I wonder who will be the next spirit.
The last panel reminds me of the ending scene in Deadpool II where Deadpool goes back in time to shoot Ryan Reynolds before he can audition to play Green Lantern.
This brings a smile to my face. That you, John. I needed that.
That was supposed to say “thank you”, not “that you”.
Loving this! Claire’s such a perfect stand-in for The Ghost Of Christmas Past and such a great light self-roasting of John’s comics career. Woe! Des knows Peter Gabriel?! I guess his music career is proving more lucrative than anticipated.
It’s little-known, but Des sang backup for Peter and Kate Bush during Kate’s 1979 Christmas Special.
They met back in 1975, when Des was the original model for the Slippermen on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
If there be strife, you must strive!
The phrase “deposited by Des Fishman’s murky torrent” brings me joy.
As does “Thodden Roly-Polies”
I’ve always wondered what sound a manifestation made, but now I’m just wondering why the greeks called it onomatapoeia when that doesn’t sound like anything. They should have stuck with βρεκεκεκέξ.
Also you can tell it’s draft art because in the final draft Desmond would be channeling Frankie Howerd, wearing a surgical gown flapping open at the back. I think we all dodged a bullet.
This isn’t “draft art”, it’s just a different way of drawing. This is my draft art:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDfKo59A10j/?img_index=1
You’re right about the hospital gown though. Missed a trick.
I don’t read Greek, but I’m gonna take a wild guess and ask if this is a reference to “The Frogs”? brek-ek-ek-ek, cro-ax cro-ax?
I thought you said you didn’t read Greek.
Where’s the Robert Cop chain?
Bobbins (dot horse and original flavour, both) is more clearly connected to the same continuity as Scary Go Round, Giant Days, Bad Machinery, and Steeple. Is there a Robert Cop connection aside from Robert Cop being an in-universe comic? If not, maybe its time is coming for an ill-advised crossover a la Mordawwa.
Also, I think Des had to stay clear of putting on the chains of some of those works in the interest of not being too weighted down to be able to manifest.
Des hasn’t read Robert Cop. “I don’t like Roberts, or robots, or crops! I hate corn!!” he says.
I thought nothing could lower my stratospheric esteem for Peter Gabriel, but learning he’s great friends with Des just might do it.
Des really rates “Passion” and likes to make his own words up for the songs.
Oh, this is so great!
Should we be campaigning to have John added to the list of notable people associated with Chadderton on its Wikipedia page? If Lenny the Lion can make it then surely John must be a shoe-in.
Also, I was delighted to find that Chadderton is located on the River Irk. There’s a lesson there I am sure, but it escapes me.
Perhaps a blue plaque on his childhood home?
I was not born and nor did I spend my childhood anywhere near Chadderton. I’m no Lennie the Lion, Karen Elson or (thinks hard) the last executioner in Britain.
Having read all about woodlice and jam roly polys and suet puddings in general, I finally discovered that it’s also the name for doing a forward roll. Thank you again, English language.
The first time an American used the term “roly poly” for a woodlouse to me, I was genuinely transported.
When I used the term “roly poly” for isopods in Nebraska, I was informed by my students that the correct term was “slater”.
That’s interesting, “slater” is the Scottish term. Or at least, the West of Scotland, where I grew up.
My mother used to call them “sow (as in a female pig) bugs”. I’m not sure where she got that from.
I had always been told that “roly polies”, aka “pill bugs” were the ones that could roll up into a perfect little ball, and “sow bugs” were the ones that could not.
“Sow bug” was the common name in Ontario, where I grew up.
My mother called them “trilobites”. This was a consequence of having to read palaeontology books to her child.
Fun fact: Woodlice are not lice, nor even technically insects. They are CRUSTACEANS.
An even funner fact is that, despite being land-dwelling, they breath with gills.
I reckon this is all building up to “Crisis in Infinite Tacklefords”, where John sheds his multi-decade continuity, and relaunches from a fresh slate.
I think the crisis would be that I wouldn’t have anything to write about any more
The Bobbinsverse isn’t nearly dark enough to be a DC property. I see it more as Tackleford-616.
This is reminding me that I’m not gonna get to read the ending of the Conan comic NOOOO this is my ghost of Christmas past/future
I still can’t beleive that Batman and the X-Men were ok to make comics about but flippin’ Conan was a step to far.
(There might also have been Transformers? I never read the priest comic so I haven’t read any of the following up web serieses…but I will one day!)
Gareth was very definitely not in any way a Transformer®. He was a completely unrelated and legally distinct morphing car robot.
MIGHTY MORPHIN’ AUTO RANGERS
Incidentally, this got me to go re-read “Hell on Wheels”. I’ve also been watching a certain toy-line-based big-budget movie series before they fall off Netflix. And I’ve got to say, I really appreciate Gareth having an actual physically-conceivable morphulation sequence, and not just dissolving into a hurricane of spinning polygons that eventually re-coalesce into a robot with random car-like bits sticking out of it.
Is this A Christmas Carol? Where’s Bob Cratchet?
It’s A Holiday Harlequinade. I don’t have a Bob Cratchet to help me while i berate him for having a family etc. I don’t even have a Nurse Ratched.
John is both Scrooge AND Cratchet!
Wow, I am loving this series. The ideal of Dickensining your creative career is just brilliant — it’d be a great exercise for any creative person to do., to revisit their creations and creativity and imagine where it may end up. I am *here* for this!
You mean you love it like the dickens?
The perfect Alastair Simulation.
Watch out, that Conan O’Brien is really litigious. You don’t want to mock him in a format that mixes text and images!
Cracked up at that last panel! Loving this so far.
How many of today’s characters are ‘weighed down’ with ‘chains of comics continuity’? In olden times, they got around that pesky ol’ pylon with ‘imaginary stories’ [as opposed to ‘UNimaginative stories’?] – but in today’s modern-a-go-go market, one can stretch out one simple tale to an ongoing series, several related mini-series, special one-shots, and a Who’s Who guide lasting YEARS by slapping an ‘Absolute’, ‘Ultimate’ or ‘Butt-whackin’ tag to the title. All a roundabout way of saying that your dream of doing an alt-Conan can still be realized by going through the proper channels with a wheelbarrow-sized ‘bible’ in tow. Just think of future scholars pouring over Giant-Size Butt-whackin’ Red Sonja volume 2 #5 for foreshadowed clues as to why Conan abruptly went from wearing a furry loincloth to baggy yoga pants.
Nothing witty to say here like my clever comixloving siblings, but I love this Harlequinade SO MUCH ALREADY
I wonder, what version of Cintiq or other drawing monitor/tabler are you using in the early panels of last comic, what small tablet/drawing tool are you using when you fall asleep and what are you using in your past version (is that just a tabletop easel or is it some early version of a drawing tablet? I’m always curious about the tools being used by artists
Haha! It’s just a tabletop easel, I still have the one I drew Bobbins and Scary Go Round on.