That’s too abrupt!
This page reiterates key scenes from WICKED THINGS so you don’t have to go and look them up. But you can if you want to. Claire’s Fleabag jumpsuit was a real feature of that first issue.
I did a variant cover for the first issue of Wicked Things but I lost my way a bit on it (a lot). My roughs were better. [In common with a lot of direct market series, you often have to draw a cover for the first few issues before there is a logo, with no idea how big it will be, hence the By Night indicia.]
ADDENDUM: reader “Grant” was kind enough to summarise the whole of Wicked Things in the style of self-styled “Piano Man” Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire.
Charlotte Grote, Detective teen
Award show, peers are mean
Idol stabbed! Grote framed!
TINY HEROINE DETAINED
Pen found, offer made
Ward of state, trial delayed
Police station! Making tea!
THERE GOES RICKāS SANITY
Curfew sucks, tiny room
Mind map, no space to fume
Ankle tag! Doors slam!
CRUMBS IN BULLDOGāS JAM
Grote predicts phone ring theft
Back to tea, Grote bereft
Vindicated! Inside job!
WORTH A CHOCOLATE HOBNOB
Back in curfew, Bulldog chess
Casino raid, Grote obsess
Badger Face! Claire snoops!
I AM THE SMARTEST POOP POOP
Casino sting, staff police
Bulldog with a hidden piece
Trapped by a Grote plan!
BUT WHO STABBED MIYAMOTO-SAN?
Happy Birthday indeed!
There are two of them, eh?
Hinted back in Wicked Things volume 1. I had no idea though Miyamoto meant it literally!
And we’ve already seen Lottie2 (Duplottie?) on the cover of the current episode and in the nightclub…. Hmm.
Also, that is one dorky looking trophy. ^_^
Yeah, the kind of maniacal-looking skelottie on the part 1 cover combined with the Amstragram message by lottiegrotte412 on the “You can always get a table here” page and that “two of them” revelation implies some long-running nefarious scheme by a Doppelgangrotte.
Glenn’s reaction is total surprise. Lottie, the unstoppable super genius, has been framed and hasn’t been able to find the killer, plus Miyamoto’s last words are kinda a disturbing mystery. I wonder if Lottie is more angry or scared. She lives under constant threat.
Two of them. It’s Rachel & Tessa, fresh from Hell and trying to take back the comic that was once theirs twenty-odd years ago!
The comic that was theirs for, what, two and a half stories?
It still counts!
I started reading SGR from the start via a link from another webcomic (pretty sure it was Diesel Sweeties) in like 2003/2004, and I was wondering where this Shelley character came from, taking over these comics like she did! That jerk, Rachel and Tessa were the rightful main characters!
I think it’s a plausible hypothesis.
Brilliant all around flashback strip. My favorite detail though has to be Lottieās halfway house torments manifested as tea cups dancing around her head.
I must be mis-remembering things. Wasn’t Miyamoto poisoned by his assistant, or was she just being evil by mis-translating Charlotte to him?
She claimed she mistranslated Lottie because she genuinely thought Lottie was dangerous (I don’t think we know why) and wanted to protect Miyamoto from her. John obviously set things up at the beginning to make her seem like the most likely suspect, which makes her a red herring (unless it turns out it actually WAS her, since we don’t actually know who did it yet- John has been known to subvert tropes at times). At the end of the story, she sure wasn’t acting as if she was the guilty party.
Dun Dun DUNNN!
Impressive work by Grant!
Thanks, I wish I’d thought of a chorus.
I was singing to myself something along the lines of:
Grote didn’t work for hire
Solving wicked mysteries
for the coppers for free
Grote didn’t work for hire
’cause she was kept in lockdown,
the duvets were not down
Lottie had a mentor? I thought it was just all raw talent. Huh.
Lottie has had many mentors – Shelley, Esther, and of course Kendo Miyamoto
Mentile mentors
I feel like you’re eliding the critical lessons given to a young Charlotte by a certain scaly veridian polymath
When did Charlotte meet Danny Plum?
Also a strong peer group to strive with/against, she was the best of the teens but Shauna and Jack in particular were no slouches. Otherwise how could she run with the wolves come night if she spent all day sporting with the pups?
I didn’t know about this Miyamoto either. Must be a paid online story? (I have only ever bought physical books of John’s)
“Wicked Things” was a 6-issue comic book series put out by BOOM! Box.
Wow, and it is actually available in Denmark! I have not been keeping up.
Lottie’s relationship with Nero was very good for her self-image, I think. I don’t know that Lottie of Solver would have had the chutzpah to go out in public with that Rita Hayworth va-va-voom.
I wonder how D-Slide is doing, I hope they’ve made it to the top of at least some random streaming chart. They’re huge on Spotify in Uruguay!
The Waterman has probably already offered the D-Slide as a sacrifice to some bloodthirsty Hittite deity.
Glenn, be sure to think about Lottie’s place on the Hot / Crazy Scale, before going too far :}
“That’s too abrupt!” so good XD
Great work, Grant!
Speaking of wicked things: Lottie’s grin in that last panel.
..now I have “We Didn’t Start the Fire” stuck in my head here at bedtime..
“Why, Miss Grote, I think you’re trying to seduce me.”
Not a good idea to poach Claire’s man. She has a history of committing Revenge!
Normally I’m a Shauna fan, but Lottie is a hottie in that dress!