Go on Bernice!
These are very accurate drawings of Sheffield station, so you can reënact this scene any time you like. All you’ll need is a friend who has no idea what someone from Louisiana looks or sounds like.
Bad Machinery
New comics by John Allison
I love this
I don’t know what the Being Ter[…] poster is in reference to. Unless it’s a biopic about the life of Mad Terry called Being Terry.
Almost lived there; LSU was my second choice college in the end.
Whoops attached this reply to the wrong post
I’m assuming it’s not a biopic, but rather a strange film about people who find a magical tunnel to the inside of Mad Terry’s head which allows them to take over his body and control his actions for a time, until they’re ejected onto the shoulder of a motorway near Milton Keynes.
It’s a reference to posters for autobiographies I see in railway stations about people I have never heard of.
I have lived in Baton Rouge. Very nice people but serious, unlike NOLA. It’s the state capitol, and a place of power. (POWuh.)
Is it also a place of red sticks?
“French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville led an exploration party up the Mississippi River in 1698. The explorers saw a red pole marking the boundary between the Houma and Bayagoula tribal hunting grounds.”
So, one red stick, yes…
Please tell me she is headed to the safe hands of our fave red head?
I’m thinking (hoping) Shauna.
I’ll accept either.
Same, I’m for either Shauna or Shelley. However I’m not sure if Shelley’s the safest to be with if Rev. Penrose is still living with her. Then again she is keeping him distracted from any supernatural doings down in Tredregyn.
Another possibility might be with Mimi Broussard over in France.
She’s going slightly further… it’s a reunion for the ages!
She’s going to Japan, I bet.
Possibly to find out what Miyamoto might have found out about her doppelgänger?
Or to talk to his assistant.
It’d be pretty cool if this is a cross over with the ongoing Jack story.
But I thought under threat of legal retaliation you had sworn off further use of that IP?
Too soon!
Des?
SOLVED
I’d assumed that this obvious departure was a fake-out, in order to lure Flottie (Fake Lottie) into a false sense of security. I guess that’s why I was never a successful teen detective.
Wait, so… is this a new character or not? I’m so confused.
NOT. It’s someone we know (but her identity is Sekret!)
She’s a Mystery, that’s for sure. This Charming lady has Grown on me a Lot in just two pages. Clear example of how well John A. does characters!
BRIAN
I thought Brian was taller and hairier. Is he a werebelle now?
This is a Bit, right?
Are we supposed to understand by now the meaning of the title “Wobbly Head”? Someone whisper the explanation in my ear.
I’m not worrying about that.
No, we’re not supposed to. The height of craftsmanship would be for that not to become clear until the very end, and for us only then to be able to understand the foreshadowings scattered throughout.
Maybe “wobbly” is like “googly” meaning sort of a curve-ball?
People from Louisiana may carry packets of shrimp or crabs, or both.
(And HOT sauce, which may be why they talk the way they do.)
Swag
Is this where we learn that Glenn’s mum is Gibbous Moon? Or Tessa, of Rachel and Tessa?
I love the shadow under the “JUMP”.
I *think* that is Claire’s shadow.
I think it is, too, but I love the way it looks like it COULD be the shadow of the word.
Shameless plug for Yarg on Claire’s top!
(No, I have no idea if it’s a thing or not)
And very importantly – how do we get to Platform 1 ???
Platform 1 is directly accessed from the concourse. Bottom of the stairs in the last panel, turn left, then under the stairs and, ‘lo, the Promised Land of Platform 1 and northbound trains to Leeds shall be discovered.
And I always thought the promised land was the mystical Mali Bridge
There was a time (last century) when “the Promised Land” was Southern California.
Not so much anymore.
I had no idea Claire was such a fan of Cornish cheese!
Perhaps Platform 1 was the friends we made along the way.
This is good enough for a ‘Deep Suthuhn’ accent. The only way you could get into trouble is attempting to portray a ‘Cajun’ accent, which is saturated with mutant French, and totally unlike anything else in America. A lot more difficult than it would be worth.
Try looking up ‘Justin Wilson’ or Cajun Chef on youtube and you’ll get an idea of how deep that rabbit hole goes.
My kids used to call Justin Wilson “the old hoot owl” because of that “Hooo!” sound he often made.
You’ll hear it at 5:35 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK4umRMJlrs
I hear that John was going to have Lottie do a Cajun accent at first, but then he decide that he ain’t gonna did it.
The smiling purple luggage does kind of give away the disguise, but I’m still happy to see it.
After that jump, Claire achieves unbearable degrees of delightfulness.
Where might she be headed? My guess is THE PAST
“Suspect was later apprehended driving a stolen DMC DeLorean around the new West Bar roundabout at 88mph”
Mack Clairey wanna Jump! Jump!
https://youtu.be/010KyIQjkTk?si=mOG9AjBsaU_jF0qK
Meeting the parents? That’s a big step, Little Claire!
“Gawdspeed, mah sweet dahlins!”
Winston Churchill at the Battle of Waterloo, 1066.
I’m pretty sure that was Oscar Wilde.
Didn’t Alexander The Great write something about that in his biography of Mark Twain?
As Marilyn Monroe once quipped, “Don’t trust internet memes of Oscar Wilde”
Lott,,, um… Is Bernice really leaving or is she just pretending to confuse Evilottie? I hope Glenn’s mother is immediately won over by Claire.
Skype calls to mum when she or you are in the antipodes are no laughing matter, it requires scheduling! You can be on entirely different days!
I’m very concerned for the state of Lottie’s luggage, somehow being dragged at a very unnatural angle by Bernice!
The classic snarky comment on a visual incongruity; do I not draw enough things right that the odd things I get wrong can go unmentioned? I drew a whole city train station (relatively) accurately and you pick me up on the perspective on the corner of a suitcase!
I hereby retire from comics, you were lucky to have me. I will not return with new pages until I have received a Fortnum and Mason Christmas hamper – the £6000 one. Well done Rich N! This is YOUR FAULT!
https://www.fortnumandmason.com/the-imperial-hamper
I wanted to make a comment about viz vs vis-a-vis but now I’m glad I didn’t.
I can rationalize this as Lottie’s mistake, not John’s. Kids & their slang these days.
You’re nitpicking me to death now. “Viz” is the correct usage. Thank goodness I’ve retired.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/viz
I hate to pick a fight with my most favorite webcomic author, but it’s not correct. Viz is used to offer further examples, what you meant in that line is to explain further the nature of their instructions. Viz, vis-a-vis.
That’ll be two hampers for Mr. Allison, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m sure the posties will be thrilled.
Friend, if I can’t get it right, Lottie doesn’t have a chance.
Haha, I mis-read this twice as “imperial hammer” and followed the link wondering what the sweet baby j fortnum&mason had got up to now.
I think an “imperial hammer” would be a royal mace. The price would probably be quite a bit more than £6000 for a really good one, though (e.g. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_ceremonial_mace.png).
It is only because of you accuracy that all we are left with are these tiny details.
Stop filling your comics with tiny fun treasure hunts and accuracy and we’ll be overwhelmed that you can draw suitcases as blobs.
I was going to say something similar. It’s because of the stunningly accurate backdrops (So that is what Sheffield station looks like!) that minor anomalies stand out.
And to think that JA prefers drawing forest foliage to buildings. (Or so he said.)
And dogs as blobs! Don’t forget the recent fiasco with Peekums and Willie
https://badmachinery.com/comic/smiffys/
Lying on its side?! – I should cocoa.
Lucky I didn’t say anything about the dirty knife!
Please accept my very sincere apologies! It was definitely not an attempt to be snarky (I have no drawing skills and I really love all your art) – I was merely assuming Lottie was in such a hurry she was dragging the thing with no regard to its safety!
Rich you are forgiven and I will withdraw the demand for a £6000 hamper.
It’s not unnatural, it’s exactly what those damn suitcases do whenever you try to make them turn on one wheel!
I was thinking the same thing. They’re always wobbling back and forth from one wheel to the other when I’m careening down a concourse.
The suitcase is WOBBLING as “Bernice” pulls it aHEAD! We’ve solved the title!
Damn. Malin Bridge. Accessed through the heavenly portal marked by a Tram sign, too-bright sunlight reflecting off the rails…
I’ve never been to Malin Bridge which feels like an oversight as the streets are paved with gold and houses have a third tap that dispenses ambrosia.
So let me understand this plan. #1) Charlotte leaves town in disguise so nobody knows she has left. #2) When the imposter mimics her doing scandalous things the real Charlotte 2a) has no alibi, 2b) is not around to set the record straight. #3) Success!(?)
No.
This story is 88 pages long and you’re on page 21. That’s the answer.
But it doesn’t really matter because I’ve retired from comics until I get my £6000 hamper (see thread above).
It’s out of stock. We are doomed.
Is there a lesser hamper that would bring you back in a lesser capacity? Maybe some pencil sketches in exchange for The Sovereign? I shudder to think what The Camilla would get us.
I think the Camilla would end up with the contents of the Diana scattered about a Parisian traffic tunnel…
The way I see it, Lottie doesn’t want her imitator to know that she’s left town, so she doesn’t want “Charlotte Grote” to be seen boarding a train. Once she gets wherever it is that she’s going, if she hears about reputation-ruining antics, it’ll be easy enough to prove that she’s wherever it is she’s going, and couldn’t have gone it (I’m sure there’s more to her plan than that, but that’s likely part of it).
Couldn’t have DONE it, of course. (I hate typing on the phone, and my new phone’s even worse than my old one …)
Yes correct!
Been reading since 2020 and am breaking my silence to say : wow that’s a really accurate of that bit in Sheffield Station where you’re in the air and go down to the platforms. Weird to see a real place in a comic, unlike fictional places like “Gotham” and “New York”.
So, is Lottie’s double’s mentor Shelby Winner?
The guy in the background of the 1st panel looks like the weight of the world is on his shoulders.
Sheffield Station has surely changed a lot since I was at university there in the early 1990s