Thirty-nine
THE BOBBINS (2013-2022) ARCHIVE IS BACK UP!
One of the most mysterious things about Bobbins was, what was actually in the “city listings magazine” they produced. No one ever seemed to do any writing, except when Holly went to an agricultural show, but why would an agricultural show be in a city listings magazine? I must have been thinking of Time Out, or something like that, but I never took the time to actually get an issue and work out what was in it, then use that to come up with story ideas that might have fed back into the central premise. For a very, very long time, research was not my strong suit. I didn’t seem to notice that the times when I accidentally did a bit of research, the material was a lot better. Instead, I would simply tap out my limited life experience, then delve into the bottomless barrel of whimsy I was born with. Oh John. You lazy boob.
Anyway, this comic is from 2016 and I had just rewatched the entirety of Sex & The City, up to and including the grisly “Lawrence Of My Labia” second movie. And arrived at Shelley’s hopeless “relationships column”. It’s a very slight story but this strip has some good writing in it. “Five alarm fire at the fuck factory” remains a high point, some true Samantha Jones. I also think the juxtaposition of erectile dysfunction and Quickbooks 97 is the kind of bon mot that keeps readers coming back.
ART NOTE: This comic is from the period where I was making Japanese-style yonkoma comics despite the fact that the format favours vertical text balloons and is needlessly truncated by horizontal text. If you rotate the yonkoma panels 90 degrees, they’re effectively the same proportions as a US newspaper strip. I have redistributed the panels so you don’t have to scroll.
I’m sure Quickbooks 97 keeps many readers coming back 😆 I hadn’t thought about how much research went into your comics until you mentioned it, and then I started appreciating all the little details. Also things like you considering each character’s wardrobe and what they might re-wear. You must have learnt lots of useful information for pub quizzes!
Is a “lazy boob” anything like a “lazy eye”?
Question; When Shelley had to do some sexy profile pics, was that for “the city listings magazine” or was that for another publication?
The storyline in question starts here, and answers these questions and more!
What is a city listings magazine, anyway?
A big city “what’s on” magazine? I think Time Out is the most famous, London also had Shortlist for a long time, they were killed by the internet. But I used to rely on listings to find out what comedy and music shows to go to. There would be interviews and such too, occasionally a bit of journalism.
Bristol had Venue and it was a great local institution, but long gone now.
Nottingham has Left Lion, which is seemingly thriving and has interesting actual writing in it.
The basic premise of the storyline actually seems to be that they don’t know either, and they need to figure it out in a hurry before they all lose their jobs. Maybe it’s knitting patterns! Maybe it’s ten things you definitely shouldn’t do with a laser pointer! Maybe it’s Shelley Winters writing a sex column! Let’s give it a spin and find out!
There was a while there that everybody seemed to be doing the vertical strips. I think it was pretty well suited to the web of the time, where you never knew if someone was going to be using IE4 on a 640×480 screen, and scrolling vertically was a lot easier than scrolling horizontally.
It’s made a comeback, places like webtoon have comics that are 99% vertical scrolling by volume.
Great Peas+Beans lore in here
I re-read the Bobbins run up to #250 and it ends with Shelley overhearing Holly on the phone. But there was more, loads more! Ryan and Amy, Holly heading off … somewhere, Tim storylines. Did I dream it all? Or did Bobbins morph into another strip with a different name? I have such a bad memory for comics and their incarnations. But really enjoyed remembering these stories.
Maybe you’re thinking of Scary Go Round, which was the next series after Bobbins, but before Bad Machinery?
Maybe you’re remembering the original Bobbins?
You might be thinking of the original Keenspot Bobbins (1998-2002) – I wrote the new ones (vaguely) around the original stories and probably only got to autumn of 1999 in terms of the material I tapped.
I’ve not put the classic Bobbins material back up on the Scary Go Round website but it’s still on Keenspot: http://bobbins.keenspot.com/
I should have read John’s earlier posts more carefully, I think he explained it there.
I think I was confused by the story coming to an end. That was the material you said never got published. I was thinking of Amy and Ryan, probably in Bad Machinery? Or somewhere else? Seriously, I could never hang with comics people because I can’t keep track of that kind of detail. Anyway, it’s a great storyline and dialogue, John. Loved going through it again.
Don’t discount the benefits of whimsy to the constitution of individuals and the nation.