Much more you (SOLVER SPRING SPECIAL CONCLUDES)
The Spring Special has concluded. I hope you enjoyed it! A further instalment is planned, possibly featuring the return of red hot new character GLEMM.
At the time of writing (mid-March), my professional duties over the next few months have not fully crystallised, so I’m not sure what’s coming next. Hopefully by May 19th, I’ll know, and this sentence will have been rewritten. But there’s always the chance that I will have forgotten to do it. Or drifted into an almighty unknowingness so nebulous that answers remain forever out of reach.
UPDATE (May 19th): Three weeks of Steeple strips (running Monday to Friday) follow on the Steeple website from this Monday (the 23rd). Steel yourself. Then Solver returns for another seven weeks from June 13th. After that… we enter the nebulous unknowingness once more.
Another Des doll! Has he signed a merchandising deal? Has he become the Mr Blobby of the Tackleford universe?
And does Amstrad have the exclusive manufacturing license?
Or perhaps you’ve been pressed into service by a shadowy government agency facing a particularly thorny problem to which you, and you alone, are uniquely suited, but about which you may never speak.
The Ministry of Mystery?
Ministry of Mystory A.K.A MiniMyst
Ooops. Mystery
Definitely not the Ministry of History. What’s the Ministry of History? That’s not a thing that you’re allowed to know about? Who are you even talking to? What’s a Beatle? I was never here.
No, no, “Mystory” is perfect! Is it Mystery? A Mystery Story? A combination of Mystery and History? Only the Minister knows, and she isn’t talking.
VFD?
Excellent story (as always)!
The left-handed shake! Only people of the rarest refinement indulge in it!
It’s the Scout handshake!
It has this whole mystique about letting yourself get stabbed in the stomach.
They will build their own crystal kingdom – of friendship!
…in some mystery university town TBD
Perhaps Bath? Or Hull?
Twist: she’s going back to LSE, it’s a top-10 school for sociology in the UK, she has already gained admission, and most of her credits will be recognized.
Oo, I thought we were going to be without new comics until the Autumn Special started, but it looks like there’ll be new Steeple comics to fill the gap.
Giant Days 2: Giant Weeks
Glemm is really an undead henchman that works for an AI (Careers+) @karekareglenn. He is maintained by nanobots and tea…
Yes!!! Tackleford’s Mystery Duo reunited!!! Could this also possibly hint at a future Go-Cart Conspiracy reunion tour?!
Awwww. Claire looks so happy ♡. She and Lottie will become the Mystery Solving duo of the University. No one will be able to stop them!
Is this all a setup for GIant Days: The Next Generation?
The setting could return, but let me tell you, with an open and honest heart: I have no more “Giant Days” stories to tell.
The GD juicing machine has reached the end of it’s travel, and all that is left of John is dry meal.
Woody, desiccated pulp
Not even “Giant Days Meets the Spider-like Man”…? (Eh, nah, best not to run afoul of the Mouse-like Corporation…)
Did that comic achieve anything? I remain unsure.
Okay… since you ask, and speaking only for myself, it’s left me feeling better about Bruce Wayne. He’s so often portrayed in a way where even his faults are kinda virtues, as though he’s a job applicant who was just asked about his greatest shortcoming. (“I can be a little obsessive because I just care about solving crime *so much*!”) Seeing his self-absorbed oblivious side come to the fore humanized him a bit for me.
It certainly entertained a lot of us. Entertainment is a worthwhile achievement.
I learned a lot about the Sheffield snooker scene, most of which is probably almost all untrue, but it counts as an achievement nonetheless I would say
Maybe it’s time to return to University for a Masters or Doctorate for fresh ideas. What could possibly go wrong?
Claire’s lisp comes back when she’s stressed, but also when she’s excited it seems!
“That’th my thecret, Cap. I’m alwayth thtrethed.”
Does her arson ways return too?
Sheesh! Burn down a few barns, and you’re forever labeled as “The Arsonist!”
Is that a riff on the “You **** ONE GOAT…” joke? If so, bravo.
The lisp’s return seemed to much distress her when it returned in the earlier strip but not on this occasion. Maybe the former juncture’s “on top of everything else” vibe made the difference.
I’m a little puzzled that she can apparently control the lisp with a little effort, but perhaps some people can. It’s just that I’ve never been able to, and I’ve had long enough to try.
Excellent! John always leaves us wanting more. We all want to know “What happens Next”
Always a delight. Huzzah!
I loved this little story (heh). Can’t wait to read what comes next for these two!
I miss Shauna being Lottie’s partner and probably always will. With Claire it always feels like Lottie and minor supporting character to me.
Little Claire’s long, hard fight to become a main character continues.
It’s the “minor” here that really cuts like a knife. Poor Claire never gets a run at things.
Claire is great in her own right, and I think this development is good because it’s a realistic depiction of how friendships change and evolve over time. That said, I think we all just miss Shauna and want to know how she’s getting on. It still makes me smile to picture her intense frustration at how that weird onion boy’s parents fawned over her knowledge of brutalist architecture.
When Bad Machinery first started, it was Shauna who pulled me into the stories. I admired her fierce sense of right and wrong, and I felt pain every time the world dumped a bucket of fish on her (e.g., the bullies at the council flats who tore her coat).
@Tom, that incident makes me smile, too, though it was not Lem’s parents (the space aliens) who fawned over Shauna, but the human parents of Mosstyn (AKA Corky).
Bad Machinery really has a special place in the JA pantheon. The fact that the mystery kids have grown up and drifted apart just adds to the poignancy of the series.
Fair play, you’re quite right, a better memory than mine!
I miss Shauna period. Will there be any future Shaunx comix?
Shauna is not a character who comes knocking on my mental door. If she ever does, I’m sure we’ll see her again.
Shauna and Blossom
It somehow seems in character for Shauna to just go off and do her thing without bothering to hassle you to document it.
Shauna works best as the “straight” character in a double act (most famously with Charlotte). So the question is, who would you pair her with? Blossom just had the one story in her as a main I think. Amy seems obvious but she isn’t her wild, old self with Shauna. One of the mystery boys? (They) Don’t make me laugh.
Steeple! Yay!
Thanks for another great story, John, and thanks everybody for the comments. See you over on https://steeple.church/ for the “BRIAN’S INSIDES STARTS MONDAY” page tomorrow!
I’ve loved this story but I have to admit, Steeple has become my favourite of all your work, John, and I can’t wait for the new story to start.