I’ve got so much potential
Romance is a thorny issue for Lottie. She’s never quite put the pieces together. All in time. Whatever will be will be.
Romance is a thorny issue for Lottie. She’s never quite put the pieces together. All in time. Whatever will be will be.
I wonder if Claire becoming this important of a character was always the plan or just sort of happened.
When she is first mentioned (the start of Bad Machinery 4?), Lottie is quite opposed just to the idea of Little Claire. It was always my intention that they would be good friends. They get along well within a few pages.
Claire had a small (heh) but plot-critical part in “Simple Soul”.
But yeah, reading the rerun of “Lonely One” in parallel to their more recent adventures here, it’s been very amusing seeing how their relationship has developed, from “I can’t take six years sitting next to Little Claire!” to dropping everything to rush half the length of Britane to her side at the slightest hint of distress.
Grem Darmok is the hottest new character of the year!
Can’t wait for the Grem The Conqueror/Zebus The Warrior Child crossover limited series!
Well, Glenn seems sad and miserable enough to really be in love. But I think hes
I think Glenn has some terrible secrets that worries him constantly.
Oh, indubitably. You hit the nail on head there, friend.
Like most men, Glym is much too fragile to cope with being in love with Lottie.
Not sure how I feel about Claire’s jumper with the little cut-outs in the arms. I believe this is fashionable, but is it practical? Does just that little trapezoid of skin get dirty if there’s a dust storm or something? Does it have a practical function?
Lottie, full of un-directed potential, remains a painfully relatable depiction of everyone I knew in my 20s (myself included).
Fashion is independent of practical. I don’t think that’s a garment she would choose when the forecast is “dust storm with a chance of meatballs.”
I’m assuming it’s to show off her guns.
She’s going to get some weird tan lines, though.
It’s Britain, that’s not an issue.
It’s Britain, the holes are so small because they have strict gun control laws.
I was just thinking she could do just about anything. Those are about the three most useful transferable skills one could possibly have. Go and work in property sales, or be an entrepreneur, or hell, manage other people.
The last one of those skills is the most valuable of all.
I grew up in a sunny clime. Cutouts make terrible tan lines that you are stuck with all summer. A lesson learned…once.
Frequently the first time I get sun in the spring, I’m in armor. I get really weird tan lines.
My face and hands get burned, because I don’t usually put the helm and gauntlets on unless I’m actively fighting, but also the insides of my elbows up to a stripe across my biceps between my elbow armor and the sleeve of my gambeson, a crescent around the back of my neck between the collar of my gambeson and my gorget, and an oval on the point of one shoulder, because there’s a hole in my gambeson. But my forearms and the outside of my elbows, most of my neck, and all the rest of me stay pasty white, because armor-grade leather and plate steel have pretty hefty SPF ratings.
Are you a medieval knight????
I’ve been, for many years, an SCA heavy fighter.
I think Glenn is somehow supernaturally bound to Charlotte until his mission is fulfilled, but he knows it’s futile and he’s terrified of her and it’s making him miserable.
You could be right. Unfortunately. Poor Glenn.
It’s not futile, though! Lottie’s on the right track…I think she’s on to something. But yes he is clearly terrified of her. What a curse!
In panel 4, Glum Burger’s Lottie-sense is tingling.
I kinda think he just always has that expression.
Or, he just found something in his burger that shouldn’t be there.
The futures not ours to see
Que Ygln, Ygln!
Ygln has managed to make himself a constantly recurring character! Despite all appearances, he seems to have hidden resources that compel us to compel you to keep bringing him back!
But a sudden thought has come to me – what if these appearances are a kind of resonance or vibration? That leads us to the Ygln Event Horizon? Which is where Ygln’s Frequency Of Appearance gets higher and higher, until the comic is nothing but the constant Image of Ygln?!
We may need to research counter-measures.
The Ygln-t Horizon is a fascinating region, but potentially perilous. Enter at your own risk.
Tbh I always thought Lottie would eventually come out as Ace, or otherwise declaring her true love to be mysteries. And I’m still not ruling that out but Lottie dipping her toe into the sea of romance sure sounds fun (for me the reader).
I don’t get an Ace vibe from her. To some degree, she seems to be female Linton in the love department. She’s less desperate and less awkward (than he was in school) but she’s frustrated and lonely.
It makes me feel weird to speculate about Lottie like this, because I’ve known her since she was just a little sprog back in Scary-Go-Round, but… I suspected through most of Bad Machinery that she was ace. She shot that notion down in “The Big Hiatus”, though, when she confessed to Shelley that she had “a rich fantasy world of lust”, though she wasn’t specific about who or what she fantasized about.
I think some of the reason she’s been “behind the curve on love” is that, because of her late birthday, she’s most of a year younger than the other mystery girls, at an age where those months can make a big difference. But also, since her adventures in Tredregyn in “Author Unknown”, I’ve had a suspicion that part of Lottie’s problem is that the girls she’s been into have been inconveniently straight. Reading back through Bad Machinery and New Bobbins with that idea in mind has only reinforced that suspicion.
Ace people do often have a phase where they’re like “I must date someone or be permanently An Weird.” Once they get that out of their system (accepting that it’s just not that good) that’s when they accept their ace-ness.
This is a truth. Sometimes it’s a very long phase and can involve marriages.
many Ace people, myself included, tend to have periods of “fluidity” particularly when Romantic Ace – I’ve had a couple of relationships and was engaged for some years and even enjoyed the sex part but as soon as i became single again it was like a switch flicked back and “oh yeh i’m more than just OK with this singleness” and been very happy in the decades of voluntary celibacy between those relationships
Aro vs. ace. different spectrums. Spectra?
Not to speak for John A, but I do remember similar speculation coming up somewhere a while ago and him saying she’s not ace, which does make me wonder if there is a plan for her in that department.
I’ve always kind of got the impression she’s one of those people for whom – whichever way her pendulum swings – it just isn’t quite happening, and while she might like it to she might also not be that bothered if it continues to not
People are desperate to glue a label onto themselves and everyone else these days; I will not be reaching for the UHU stick. I increasingly think that the truth is that people are uncategorisable islands, unique to themselves, who just have to learn to get along by looking each other dead in the eye, or else.
Labels can help us find each other in a world that says we all need to be one way. It’s kind of the lesser evil box to be put in, IMO. But yeah, if no one cared who I was attracted to, that would be simply excellent and I would not need a label. One day!
honestly, it’s better storytelling to leave these things up to the readers to guess at. I think there are plenty of places to find all sorts of romances if you want them, it’s nice to find something to read that doesn’t feel the necessity to take romance seriously (with young people, much to their eternal protest, it’s not that serious, even when it results in mutual suicides– Romeo and Juliet are gonna have to hold that L)
It’s best, though, if John lets the story and the characters take him where they want to go. If that ends up with romance for Lottie, with whoever or whatever, that’s fine, and if it doesn’t, that’s fine, too.
What about the UWU stick?
I’ve had the same suspicions as John C (John A, John L, John C… there’s a lot of Johns!), and it has also made me re-read things in a new light
I always think (sorry, third reply here, but I have thoughts) the danger of these sorts of speculations, not that it stops me from engaging in them myself, is that when people get too attached to their interpretation (though it seems like none of us here are) they set themselves up for disappointment if things turn out another way.
My impression of Lottie was that she always just had better things to do.
I had to look up what this “ace” thing is you all are speaking of. Didn’t know it was a thing. Always just lumped folks like that into the bucket of “odd ducks” and didn’t give it much more thought. Lottie isn’t ace, she has too much passion. She just hasn’t found that particular person who can match it yet.
Umm, no offense to Glenn, but I wouldn’t want to be romantically pursued by someone who’s first words to me were “are your mummy and daddy home?”
I mean, there was Colm that one time, but Lottie shot him down so hard that he decided it would be safer to go for the arsonist.
Men falling in love with Lottie has been an issue, as well as Colm there was that guy in Space Is The Place. Lottie is not yet 20, she’s probably still figuring out what her deal with romance is.
Oh, yeah, I forgot about Jordan. I think Lottie tried to forget about him, too.
Glem is her back office robot with a computer for a brain; it’s just that the computer-brain is located in the Turks and Caicos
Good place for a computer-brain on the whole. Sunny. Tax haven. Cheap electricity (solar). Can flee there if ever pursued by the authorities.
And if you need to get someone off your track, you can always try to get them to confuse Turks and Caicos and Tristan da Cunha (it always happens to me).
I think it was a comment on a page of Circus Windows where someone coined the phrase “kicky little boots” and now every time such footwear appears a little voice in my head repeats it in the excited tone of a kid in the back seat spotting cows next to the motorway
Glenn perpetually looks like he’s just received devastating news that morning.
It’s not easy being comics’ hottest new character!
I think the news is that it is his job to recruit her.
Look, the computer gave Glenn a recruitment order for Lottie whom it considers perfect for its mission. Glenn is now destined to put Lottie in succession after which Glenn will get dismantled for parts.
That’s not really a reason to rejoice.
Lottie got a new pair of boots. <3
Wasn’t the mad scientist’s secret lab from very early Scary Go Round around the Turks and Caicos? Also, how do I reread Scary Go Round? Can’t find it anywhere.
You’ll have to buy the PDF collections from my Gumroad – scarygoround.gumroad.com – the website died a terrible death a few years ago.
I’m sure Jonesy could invent something to reanimate the old SGR website, but I can only vaguely imagine the collateral damage that would cause (cf: his unlimited energy source from New Bobbins era) and I don’t think this world will ever be ready for that.
Mayor Jones in the Multiverse of Madness?
There’s a map in “Super Crisis Quests” that puts Armageddon Island just off the coast of Portugal.
Ironically that is not far from where The Village was allegedly located in “Many Happy Returns”
It’s probably just around the other side of the jam volcano.
am i the only one thinking Glom isn’t even technically human… like one of Des Fishman’s depressed kin squeezed in to a human suit
I consider it a huge possibility.
I don’t image Glenn is in love with Lottie just that they are still doing the career counselor thing and subtly trying to get Lottie on a solid track and is always flustered about it.
Or maybe he is trying to knock off the competition, for career counselor, in an incredibly convoluted way.
I think Glenn is just a natural introvert and is nervous around other people. The male equivalent of the girl who has a sunny disposition so guys think she likes them; “the man of eternal approach anxiety”
I had no idea I was “the male equivalent of the girl who has a sunny disposition so guys think she likes them”.