I’ll try the Telex
You may ask, what has happened in panel 1? Well, I will tell you but once.
Lottie, hurled by the strongman, has travelled a few hundred yards through the air, landed on a back-yard trampoline, then bounced over a fence onto a pile of rubbish bags and cardboard recycling. Ideally I would have spent a page realising this beautiful parabolic arc but sadly, I had 1/9th of a page available so I “did my best”. I think it is, if not crystal clear, at least a plausible line of action.
You want some Telex facts? At last: the truth about Telex.
And here I thought the strongman had hurled her right through the Bat Signal, or, as it will henceforth be known, the Lottie Signal. (Seriously, thanks for the explanation.)
I sort of half-expected the latest Zambian phone to have built-in telex emulation. Their unstated motto seems to be “Leave no feature unimplemented!”
The classic 9-panel grid and colouring today seem especially ‘Watchmen-esque’, which makes the Telex joke funnier the more I think about it.
Panel 5 manages to make me simultaneously think of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zRe_wvJw8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdIHBaQ9eJs
I honestly figured out the first panel! I feel competent!
Same here! So proud.
Interesting statuette next to the telex. Big Bad John has an excellent taste ♡. Lottie is always full of surprises. She can understand the ancient Telex’s language without going crazy and taking good advices.
The statue shows that Mr. Cloake is a bit bawdy. Unlike the Telex, which is baud-y.
Well done, sir!
Ah! I’ve been wondering about the first panel since the Patreon preview, thought maybe it was supposed to be John still laying in the snow.
Lottie’s assumption that this is how you use a telex is hilarious. I can’t wait to see how she interacts with mimeographs.
I got it right away. Well done, sir.
My dad always called a Tellex message a ‘Twix’. Texas Instruments used them to send messages between their plants (factories) overseas.
I think the best part of the first panel is the fact that she apparently planted face first into the trampoline. Granted, my cartoon physics might be off.
No, that is correct, I thought this was the funniest result, also it meant she didn’t go face first into the rubbish bags.
Lottie’s stylish coat remains undamaged, which is the important thing.
I thought the trampoline was one of those paper-covered giant rings that performers (athletes, trained tigers) burst through to make an impressive appearance. I could not quite understand why it was in someone’s back yard, though. Or perhaps it was a hot tub that had frozen over because the owner forgot to turn on the heat? “Trampoline” is marginally more logical.
The Atari User mag from 1988 is priceless, thanks for posting this. The BASIC looks familiar but my favorite part is the game ad for “THE ULTIMATE SHOOT THEM UP”.
If you flip to the final page of the magazine, you can see an ad for two games called “Night Mares” and “Little Devil” that were “‘banned’ by certain software distributors because of their alleged horror/occult content” even though “Red Rat Software feel that this action is totally unjustified.” Great stuff.
At last, the tattooed lady and her ‘glamma + alternative cred’ make their appearance.
Ah, our youth (in pieces of 8).
I can only hope Lottie is planning to go mime-Lottie in order to save Mildew.
I mean, she’s probably not. Only a madwoman would risk her own sanity that way. But this IS Lottie…
… for whom “sanity” is on a scale that slides rather liberally.
Note the hat in the window is the one from the intro to Part 2 of this story. She’s already got most of the outfit. Add a flower, a tie, some whiteface and a couple of cream pies, and we’re headed for a clown confrontation.
The term is “clownfrontation”
I stand corrected. Or corrupted. One of those.
Wherein she gets to display her “clown fu”?
Lottie: “Time for some -” *dons sunglasses* “Cool-rophobia.”
A chance to add an action-filled page to the graphic novel.
Of course, that could throw off the turns.
I love John Allison’s work, but these comments make it even better! Thank you, everyone, for pointing out details that I’d missed, and also for your silly jokes ????
This makes me wonder how Lottie and Mildred landed the *first* time they were hurled.
Last time they landed in a field on the grass (thought Lottie was upside down against a tree).
Which reminds me, I assumed the circus tents were set up a bit away from the town, but apparently they’re close enough for Lottie to land in someone’s back yard (or perhaps an alley).
Lottie’s provocations were calculated to so enrage the strongman that he would hurl her extra far this time. Or something.
I’ve tried to show different things on different sides of the circus. If you look through the story, you can see parkland to one side, houses to the other, the street where Mildred spewed in an alleyway is on the edge of the parkland (look at the fences and trees when “the circus comes to town”) – quite close to the circus. There’s a logic to it but without a map you’ll have to trust me on that.
I was 100 percent certain you’d have the whole thing mapped out.
If there’s one thing we know about the great John Allison, it’s that the man does his homework!
I can’t say that John Cloake’s knowing-what-to-do skills have impressed me so far…
This has nothing to do with John Cloake knowing what to do, though, and everything to do with what Lottie imagines John Cloake would suggest. I’m sure Lottie’s imaginary version of Mr Cloake is quite good at knowing what to do.
Telex seems to be on the ball, at least.
I really want this telex to play an important role here, but it just doesn’t seem very likely
CLOTTIE ACTIVATE
Did telexes (telexi?) screetch when called? I think they might have been well silent while the screeching was a fax thing.