Evil Mastermind posted:

Cul De Sac is also responsible for one of my favorite comic strips of all time:

amigolupus posted:

Modesty Blaise is really unique in how Modesty has multiple casual boyfriends across the globe and it's never portrayed as a bad thing. Her boyfriends understand that Modesty can choose to spend months with one of them and none of them get jealous about it or think bad of the others.

Evil Mastermind posted:

For ages I can't hear the word "manatee" without thinking of this page.

John Allison posted:

If you're a chronology fan, this story takes place a couple of months after Wicked Things, and two-and-a-half years after the end of Bad Machinery. If you prefer to read it in webcomic form, or just comment as the pages go up, it is running at badmachinery.com (because the old Scary Go Round site is collapsing around my ears).

amigolupus posted:

Oh wow, Pepper the dog is still alive? I don't remember him ever appearing in the later Bad Machinery stories so I assumed he went to that great big dog park in the sky. Glad to know I was wrong.

howe_sam posted:

I dislike the new Mildred, her head is more ovally than I remember.

Winklebottom posted:

I think the lipstick is throwing me off more, she looks more recognizable in the cover image

Some Guy TT posted:

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

amigolupus posted:

The set-up for this Modesty Blaise feels a bit haphazard to me. It's been mentioned that Joanna was used as a sex slave in the Blackwings's cult, since her friend's dad blames her for surviving. That should have been plenty enough reason for Modesty to go after the cult leader, so it feels pretty off for her to hesitate and have Giles talk her into taking action.

Tiggum posted:

Pretty sure my local library (in Austrlia) has signs up saying to put books on the reshelving cart rather than back on the shelves. I assume they've just found it saves some hassle over all.

Maybe she just assumed he'd either be killed by the gangsters he's trying to kill, or by whoever was left in charge of their operations after their deaths were discovered.

My Lovely Horse posted:

Sometimes the reality of the situation is simply that the library doesn't have the book and can't offer any options that satisfy the patron's specific needs re: availability timeframe. Although we usually try to tell them more tactfully.

EBB posted:

What's his last laugh? I thought that after Shauna, MIldred ended up asking him and he literally ran away.. I'm probably recalling it wrong.

Pigsfeet on Rye posted:

Linton had some short term interest in Blossom, right? Like an hour or so?

Yvonmukluk posted:

I guess Lottie's still peeved over the whole Wen-Tack road debacle.

Kazinsal posted:

They all take place in the same shared universe, just at different points of time. IIRC it goes Bobbins (original) -> Scary Go Round -> Bad Machinery -> some side stories -> Circus Windows (new one). Also New Bobbins and Bobbins.Horse are scattered around there, I can't 100% remember where in the timeline they take place.

e: Giant Days is after SGR but before Bad Machinery I think? It's hard to check since OG Bobbins and SGR aren't online anymore and Giant Days and a few of the side stories are actual physical comic books.

Haifisch posted:

Discendo Vox posted:

What's Daisy from?

Daduzi posted:

We haven't seen that story with the bear, right? Is it from a previous comic series or novel or is it just an aside?

John Allison posted:

Nighthawks at the diner. For Tackleford historians, Efe’s Kebab Shop (which previously appeared in Giant Days #49) was once Dorado’s restaurant (see Bobbins Dot Horse, early 2020), above which Ryan Beckwith lived until well into Scary Go Round. It has now been bisected into a shawarma spot and a minicab office. I know because I put the dividing wall in there myself in Sketchup.

readingatwork posted:

I don't know what a Sootis is and I'm too proud to ask.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Cul De Sac is just a legend...OR IS IT?

Pigsfeet on Rye posted:

Yeah, there are probably diabetic-friendly milkshakes and such, but they're generally not easily found. Also, some of the sugar free (using sugar substitutes) stuff doesn't get digested well and can give you the shits or farts. Ask me how I know. Sugar is a big problem, but easily available starches (potatoes, bread, grains like rice and wheat, pasta, etc) are a big problem too, they get converted over to complex sugars in your body during digestion, and that really throws your blood sugar out of whack.

Parahexavoctal posted:

In this installment of The Timid Soul (February 20, 1933), it's interesting to realize that typewriters were once seen as decadent and modern.

John Allison posted:

I hope you enjoy the period-accurate flashback in today’s comic, roughly contemporary to The Case of The Good Boy, in which Mildred takes on the fairground-industrial complex. If you read it on GoComics it has a lot of bonus pages.

John Allison posted:

When I started Bad Machinery, my idea was that there would be 21 cases, one for every term of the seven years of British secondary education. In the end there were ten, but I think that was enough. I covered such a lot of ground. As time went on I began to feel melancholy at watching the carefree 11-year-olds of the first story vanish, swallowed up by the weird angst, confusion, and adventure of the tween and teen years. Things started so happy-go-lucky, but the more aware one becomes of the world, the more perilous that world becomes. I had to balance the ups and the downs. These were always meant to be fun, silly stories, but there was always a wolf at the door that I never imaged being there until I started writing them.

Throughout its run, Bad Machinery has been blessed with readers of all ages. I have had delightful notes over the years from people aged seven, and 70. The younger readers were part of the reason that I felt the series had to end. As the mystery kids end this book – aged sixteen or thereabouts – I couldn't tell their stories and be as truthful as I wanted to be, without excluding smaller fans. It was one of the hardest decision I've had to make, and I could tell I was going to have to make it around the time of the 8th book. I blame the teen hormones (and you should too). Maybe books 9 and 10 went a little further than they should into the world of Teen Feelings, but if you don't tell anyone, neither will I.

The most important question, now that the casebook is closed, is what will happen to the mystery kids? Is this really their last case? I think for most of them, it is. But then, they're pretty weird kids. Jack is going to spend a lot of time trying to play his guitar and worrying about his hair. Maybe he'll record some terrible raps and never play them to anyone. Sonny goes with the flow. He deserves a rest from danger. Shauna has a lot of interests and a huge brain, and it's time she got a chance to explore more than what local ne'er do wells are up to. Mildred is a barely-corked bottle of trouble and I think the next few years are going to be quite naughty for her. Let's hope she stays out of jail (she probably will – just). Linton's future is foggy to me. He believes in justice. He believes in truth. I feel like he will be interested in mystery . But he is a handsome lad and and I have the sense that he may soon be distracted by some beautiful eyes.

Hopefully the eyes will be in a face and not just floating around.

It seems to me, Lottie Grote will always have mystery in her heart. Nothing is going to stop her looking for it. And in Little Claire she has a friend who is not only loyal, but also somewhat of a mystery too. Does Lottie know Claire is a firestarter? My guess is she always has. She likes her anyway. And who wouldn't? Claire is a total sweetheart. That twosome is a friendship with legs.

Anyway here were are. The end of the series. Thank you for sharing these adventures with me. I hope to see you back in Tackleford one day.

davidspackage posted:

I'm amused that there seemed to be no reason for Axa to lose her top again. It just seemed to be gone when she was thrown into the arena, like the artist got bored of not dotting nipples.

Rob van der Nol posted:

A lot of readers will have been overjoyed with the third frame of panel 2596, but it also created a little stir. Modesty standing there, naked breasts, hands on her hips, proud and feminine as ever. Nowdays on can't understand why, but in 1971, not everybody was a liberal as O'Donnell had hoped for. A semi-naked woman in a 'respectable' newspaper just wouldn't do. Several people complained, and the Sunday Times even ran a short article on the affair. O'Donnell got a small reprimand from the Evening Standard, but thankfully nothing too serious.

From then on, Modesty kept her bra on in the comics, but a few years later Romero got his fair share of drawing nudes when he started drawing his own comic strip, the sci-fi saga Axa. One of the ingredients for this Donne Avenell-scripted series, which often recalled the playful sexuality of the 1940's Jane series, was how to get Axa out of her upper clothing, and in just about every story they found a way.

StrixNebulosa posted:

Cathy - Feb 27+28 1977

quote:

Ever since 1975's killing frost in Brazil devastated world coffee supplies, the price of a caffeine fix has climbed steadily. It's become so bad that a consumers' group in New York City has organized a boycott against the bean. On CBC-TV's Take 30, Barbara Shand of the Consumers' Association of Canada says a coffee boycott isn't necessary in Canada. Coffee, as Shand points out, is not a nutritious part of any diet. And she doesn't believe anyone is deliberately ripping off Canadians. If Canadians decide that $3.75 a pound - the projected price in three months - is too much to pay, they should just stop buying coffee. That's why the consumers' association will not organize or support a mass boycott to try to drive down the price. Still, there's talk that a 30-cent cup in a restaurant could soon cost 50 cents.

Raskolnikov38 posted:

who is Gomez talking to? it doesn’t look like uncle fester

quote:

During the fifties and sixties Addams was devoted to the original odd couple he called the "wall-eyed couple," referring to the husband; the wife was childlike, with a flat head and chopped hair. In 1964 Addams went so far as to give them a two-headed toddler, regarding whom Granny Frump naturally observed, "I think he looks a little like both of you."

His Divine Shadow posted:

I never got if Lottie was messing him with him or just being really into it.