Pleasantly esoteric humour
HUGE PLOT REVEAL THAT AFTER THIS WEEK WILL NEVER BE DISCUSSED AGAIN! But again, this would have eventually have been part of the continuation of Wicked Things.
Bad Machinery
New comics by John Allison
HUGE PLOT REVEAL THAT AFTER THIS WEEK WILL NEVER BE DISCUSSED AGAIN! But again, this would have eventually have been part of the continuation of Wicked Things.
Glasses reflection in panel 4 – beautifully done
(Mwah – chef’s kiss)
Never believe any death connected (no matter how indirectly) to a waterfall.
You sound like my insurers who wouldn’t pay out when in a freak accident, my guitar dropped off a waterfall in Switzerland.
“Not another Rickenbacker?” they said. Or something like that.
Ah, you see, it falls…
But no-one said anything about it LANDING.
Did it fall while grappling with its arch-nemesis Gibson?
If you can believe it, Arthur Conan Doyle genuinely meant for Reichenbach Falls to be the death of Sherlock Holmes – but the baying wails of his fans and the obscene financial rewards for pumping out another book or two convinced him to change his mind.
That’s the Official Version. But what if an author wanted to increase the profits from his hard-earned writing? Exactly! Kill the Esteemed Hero and have them BEGGING for more. (Insert Wicked, RICH laugh here!)
I know this is a thing that happens quite often with serialized fictional characters, but in this particular case, I’m inclined to believe it was a genuine effort to end the character. Sherlock Holmes was already insanely popular when he was killed off. There was no real need for any sort of stunt to make him more popular. Doyle has said that he wanted to explore other avenues in his writing. He was frustrated that Sherlock Holmes had become his entire identity as a writer. But the backlash was huge. Strand Magazine almost went bankrupt.
Miss Maki pulls off her mask to reveal Beate.
I would also accept (and actually prefer) Des.
Beate pulls off her mask to reveal Des.
Des pulls off his mask to reveal three smaller Deses in a trench coat.
I long suspected Miyamoto might still be alive. What a double whammy of closure for Lottie!! Her name cleared, her doppelganger defeated, her friends saved and she finally meets her mentor alive and on good terms.
I didn’t know one way or the other, but I hoped he’d turn out to still be alive.
Wait.. WHAT??? How is this possible? Did he never die or is he now a clone or a cyborg? Or maybe Miyamoto was a clone or a cyborg since the beginning?! Also, this probably means that Skelottie didn’t kill anyone!
Perhaps she tried, and this is why he went undercover, incognito and wearing sunglasses.
This is my thinking too. Beate only managed to inflict a flesh wound, but Miyamoto thought it best to fake his death then and there to thwart the doppelganger. Maki was almost certainly in on it and she informed the British and Japanese governments that he was still alive and to keep a lid on thing until the case was solved.
Makes sense. Also shows that he had great trust in Lottie & friends who had then fight the doppelgänger on their own. Which came to the brink of going seriously south, just think of the shingles.
“then fight” -> “then to fight”
What do they do about the plaque Lottie just unveiled? (OOPS!)
Reportedly the plaque reads (in Japanese) “Miyamoto Kendo, murdered in the UK”. All they need to do is squeeze a “not” in there.
Or, in the modern style, just put “not!” on the end!
If my limited understanding of Japanese is to be trusted (major caveat), the end would be the natural place to put a “not” – so something like
宮本剣道
英国で殺害ない
where the “-nai” (ない) at the end there gives a negation… or maybe “-masen” (ません) instead to take a more formal tone, albeit at a tighter squeeze.
Ha. “Just kidding folks!”
Leave it up. It’s part of Miyamoto’s cover. Malefactors rendered ineffective. How can you evade an investigator who doesn’t exist yet solves crimes all the same? Such genius. And John’s no slouch either.
How does such a non-existent investigator drum up business? Is this some sort of Dead Boy Detective Agency situation?
As others have pointed out, Ms. Maki is probably acting as a front for Miyamoto’s detectiving.
Miss Maki is the one everyone contacts. Her driver is just her driver.
Wasn’t this the premise of Remington Steele (not that he’s dead, but one person acting as the face of the franchise while the other does the actual investigating)?
In true Japanese style it is actually a very high resolution screen so they can change the characters displayed at any time, and soft fade into memorial images of Miyamoto or blossom trees or whatever
If Beate/Skelottie didn’t actually kill anyone, man, is that ever going to rub it in here (presumably) posthumous face.
Nobody dies from falling off a waterfall if you don’t see the body. She will be fine, and will probably join the party down the line
I just wonder if not killing anyone and having a split personality/possession might help Bea to get a lighter sentence when she’ll gets caught.
She couldn’t even KILL SOMEONE PROPERLY!!
So unprofessional!
Perhaps he too sold his likeness to a plastic surgery catalog and this is Beate’s third visage, post-reservoir accident.
He’s not dead!
I guess he got better.
Just walked it off…
…after rubbing some dirt on it…
And he’s not a newt.
Well, anymore.
Twas only a flesh wound!
This would explain all the misinformation to cover his tracks, and why not blame that crazy girl since she obviously wanted to become infamous?
She did attempt to murder him, the only reason she didn’t is because of the effectiveness of the murderin’, not a lack of intent.
We don’t actually know that she intended to murder him. We never actually saw it happen. All we know is that she intended to frame Lottie.
So…
Everyone thought Kendo Miyamoto wouldn’t return – he does!
Everyone thought Beate would return – she doesn’t!
Not sure what to believe any more…
John’s got you right where you’re supposed to be.
Everyone thought the Giant Hypnotizing Eyeball from Bobbins wouldn’t return…
…it hasn’t but a man can dream
It’d be nice if I remembered that but I don’t. 😐
Quelle surprise!
Three days after that regeneration scene, this may be more than I can take.
I hear tell that three days is the traditional length of time for a death regeneration
Oh my gosh! THIS would explain about everything I found weird, if not everything.
…
But is it real? Is the real Miyamoto-san really alive?
No. Miss Maki is pulling a Weekend at Bernie’s-style con.
I dunno, I’m pretty sure dead men can’t drive cars… 😉
Cars can drive themselves though, at least when they are simply sitting there.
Cars are really good at that part.
They do with when there’s sufficient fishing wire involved
I was hoping John would find a way to pull this off.
Minor detail but I like how this page highlights the truth that Claire is actually an inch or two taller than Lottie
They’re both in heels, so adjust accordingly, but the heels don’t look that different.
There have been quite a few panels where the girls have been the same height, but Lottie is in heels and Claire is in flats. But here Claire is in heels, too…
I actually suspect this is at least part of the reason that Lottie’s taken to wearing heels so much. It’s hard to tease Claire about how tiny and cute she is when she’s looking down at you!
I guess Little Claire has become grown-up Claire, emphasised by the stylish new hairdo and sophisticated outfit
She is now simply Claire Little.
And just like Little John, the Little is kinda ironic
She’s still shorter than average, I think. It’s just that Lottie is, too.
I think they’re close to the same size, but I agree that Claire’s probably slightly taller.
The rich and famous can do anything, even fake their own death. How I envy them. Envy and resentment…
Oh wait. Nevermind.
So surely at this point Lottie’s mojo is 100% back and she’s in prime Solving form.
“prime Solving”? She didn’t even know that the guy wasn’t really dead. That’s the first step in any murder investigation: Make Sure the Guy’s Really Dead.
😉
She was arrested for his murder without the opportunity to verify a lack of pulse, so it’s fair that she believed the authorities at the time – although she could now sue for wrongful arrest
Actually, he was still alive when she was arrested. He was in a coma. He exonerated her with his dying breath (or so it seemed).
“Prime Solving form” makes it sound like public key encryption is in serious jeopardy of being cracked.
I can’t believe after all this that these astute women are so credulous to believe that this driver did not find Miyamoto’s face for sale in a plastic surgery catalog.
The way he speaks Japanese with a strong, yet somehow womanly, German accent should have been a tipoff
Further plot twist: Des is actually M Night Shyamalan.
I have a bottle of Miyamoto Discretion Sake set aside for a special occasion. Perhaps today’s the day!
LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO! What a great end lmaoo
I wonder if Mr Miyamoto and Miss Maki are acquainted with Bitsy and Sandra. There could be hidden connections none of us have dreamt of at work here.
Bitsumoto and Makandra! UNSTOPPABLE!
SOMETIMES even when there IS a body there’s no death.
If he ever crowdfunds the completion of Wicked Things, I’m throwing money at it.
What we’ve been reading IS essentially the continuation of Wicked Things, though.
I was almost expecting a “please scream inside your hearts” for the last panel there, the phrase famously used by a Japanese theme park when they reopened after covid, and wanted to discourage virus-spreading yelling on the rollercoasters.
Oh so now we are the ones left dangling forever over he waterfall.
Miss Maki’s coat. though..
It’s Early Moomin Style. The Moomins are big in Japan.
Looks a bit Herge to me.
Yes, that too!
They didn’t even call him Sensei! He’s got a girl in each eye!
Miyamoto, you dog! No room for Ms. Maki. (Maybe they’ve had a falling-out.)
He’s her DRIVER now?
Baby, you can drive my car …
Hiring a dead man as a driver seems like quite an eccentric flair. Maki’s corpse-collecting-and-employing racket is the real reason why they never found Beate’s body.
Since I get the sense that some people may have missed this- Miss Maki was previously Miyamoto’s assistant and translator. She was NOT a detective- she assisted in other ways. According to the first panel, she’s suddenly making a name for herself as a detective. And her driver looks suspiciously like a famous but presumed-deceased detective. It seems that Miyamoto is still secretly working as a detective, with Miss Maki operating as his legman and cover.
W. Wang: “I don’t get something, Pop. WAS there a murder?”
S. Wang: “Yes, killed good weekend. Drive, please.”
— from the politically incorrect 1976 film “Murder by Death”
On behalf of those who cannot: “WAHH!!!”
I quite like her polite “laugh” in panels 1 and 3. A purely social ritual, acknowledging that the other party has said something “funny” (intentionally or not).
Were I Lottie (the exact parameters of this mental exercise rather beyond the scale of what I intended to type here), I’m not altogether certain that I’d exactly be THAT ecstatic, given the seemingly at least longish (several month?) period of time she was left in the doldrums by this ploy, having been framed for his murder!
She was framed for his assault and ATTEMPTED murder, not for his murder. At worst, his POTENTIAL murder. She was cleared at the very moment he “died”.
Which in itself is a mystery: Sipping just enough essence of Puffer-Fish to do the job (but being hustled-away quickly for the antidote?)