Down the meat toilet
on February 3, 2021
at 12:01 am
Nighthawks at the diner. For Tackleford historians, Efe’s Kebab Shop (which previously appeared in Giant Days #49) was once Dorado’s restaurant (see Bobbins Dot Horse, early 2020), above which Ryan Beckwith lived until well into Scary Go Round. It has now been bisected into a shawarma spot and a minicab office. I know because I put the dividing wall in there myself in Sketchup.
It looks like none of of the original decor from Dorado’s has survived, but I bet if you breath deeply, you can still smell the fear and tension that soaked into the walls over the years.
Let’s all just hope the tape of sad songs has survived, and survived better than the people Dorado usually plays it for.
A couple of patrons in the back of panel 1 appear to have… clownish hair.
Ominous indeed.
I noticed that, too.
Hate to burst your bubble, but I think they might be decorative plants.
Decorative plants, eating at a kabab place? That’s even more sinister!
Here’s another theory. It may actually be Carrot dining with his soon to be introduced twin brother.
How do you so consistently guess this stuff?
My Bobbinsverse headcanon appreciates the contribution that any vaguely triangle-shaped object in the world may actually be a Scruggs in disguise.
Speaking of Dorado’s, I wonder what Ljubjana is up to these days?
If John should at some point decide to create a whole new series in which Ljubjana is the protagonist, there would certainly be no complaint from me.
It took 21 years for Ljubjana to get from being a one-panel character to getting an actual story. I think that based on that, it will take a further 21 years for the spin-off series, which will also have to be set in about 1998. But I’ll get thinking about it. Make sure you look after your health in the meantime.
I shall mark my calendar!
Oh man, in 21 years I’ll be almost 85.
Well, I guess that’s one motivation for me to stick around. And hope for eyesight-restoration tech.
Feb 6th, 2042 has been marked in my calendar as well!
I would love if Esther bumped into her at the Whitby Goth Symposium.
This installment really makes you think. How many times have each of us unknowingly eaten at some eating establishment, completely unaware of the fact that we were directly under the place where a teacher from our old school used to live, before he was a teacher? How would we ever know?
Mildred’s relationship with being vegan is like an endless source of remorse and sadness for her. Poor thing♡. Lottie prepares for war and is ready to use her weapons!
Moving away from veganism seems to have sharpened Mildred a bit. Perhaps she should just go whole hog and do carnivory? Neither will give her natural resistance to alcohol, though.
But bacon, eggs and sausages are *really* good for hangovers, though.
It’s true! But nearly every form of alcohol breaks your diet…
Love this scene. It’s a little bit of Edward Hopper’s Night Hawks transplanted to Tackleford.
Down the meat toilet?
Man if I had a sixpence for each cruise down that river of despair.
EFE’S Kebab Shop (+Shwarma) is a suitable place for ominously spouting LIES, it has to be said
I did initially read the name of the establishment as “LIES + Shwarma”. I think this would be accurate for many kebab shops.
It took me a minute to place where I thought I recognised Mildred’s expression in the last panel from, and then it clicked… it’s Mr Poopybutthole! Oo-wee indeed with that breath. John – no offence intended.
I am strangely saddened by Dorado’s fate.
I am wondering if Dorado’s never recovered from the loss from Ryan and Ljubjana’s epic blowout.
I hope she found her egg person.
Well, he’d probably have retired by now. You can’t keep doling out mercurial menace at the same rate in your 70s.
We all have to put out a bit of effort to say “it’s been 30 years since the 90’s”
The bard certainly had some word about this
aw, miss haversham!
allow yourself some cheese! vegan is too far… a bit of dairy will protect you from the evil demons of sinew
To the man behind the counter – when I’m at work I sometimes stare out into the world of the living like that too.
Or is it that you’ve just seen your ex with his new bf?
Your comment made me start feeling sorry for the lonely soul in panel 1 eating by himself late at night.
Agree: these panel 1 extras deserve our sympathy
I’m impressed by Charlotte’s multitasking abilities here, managing to address her relative dating inexperience and her need to get back into top mystery-solving form in one fell swoop. I’d be triumphantly drumming my hands on the kebab-shop table too.
What exactly were “impressionable maids” up to during matchstick selling times that prompts Lottie to consider them kindred spirits to Mildred and herself? Were there Dickensian Mystery Girls?
John has created a Victorian Bat Lady. Close enough.
https://topatoco.com/products/sgr-victorianbatlady-print
Lottie’s reflection in the window, panel 4! Haunting! Like when it’s late at night after a few too many of whatever one has a few too many of and one regards one’s companions or the mirror and sees ?whom? The same person but somehow not.
Is that Ribana on the table?
Probably Ribena. The finest of blackcurrant squashes.
Wait…. do you have the entirety of Tackleford built out in SketchUp??
Do you not?
Who are you trying to fool, Mildew? You were never a good vegan, and Lottie knows it as well as we do.
The grease in the hair of a Speedway operator is all a tremulous heart requires.
I’m sure that like so many other doors, Mildred, the door to veganism is always open. Enjoy your Rumspringa, I’d say.