A lot of dads
There are so many Tibkins books that I have irresponsibly thrown into panels without a second’s thought. Here we see “Tibkins On The Road” which may or may not have anything to do with the interminable “beat” novel of a similar name. I’ve been trying to collate them all but some are hard to find. There’s even a Tibkins movie at one point.
You know, she’s still hot as she was, when all these adults were kids, or no even born. I’m calling more time-travel shenanigans.
How old should Shelley be at this point, anyway?
Late thirties, maybe just 40, I think? She was basically in her twenties throughout Scary Go Round, and at bit over ten years have passed since then, moving Lottie on from 7-going-on-8 in “Goodbye” (three years before the start of Bad Machinery, and she’s a “poor July baby”, remember) to at least 18 here.
Don’t go trying to match up ages too carefully. Whatever happened to Shelley at the Ministry of History will keep her spry and youthful for as long as we’re all alive.
Nemulon’s beauty salon.
Nemusalon: The new Barbizon.
That’s wonderful to know. 🙂
Last year I came across a panel somewhere — in Scary Go Round, I think — with an image of Shelley’s driving license showing a date of birth in 1980.
So, is Lottie going to come in to investigate Shelley’s disappearance, maybe? I’ve been trying to figure out how she’s getting involved in this story.
If that’s the case(apparent pun accidental), I wonder if “Dad” & Co will try and throw Lottie off track and get her to suspect the Church of Satan.
Grandparents too seems pretty happy to see her♡. Now I’m really afraid. What will happen to Shelley? She will be kidnapped by some mysterious abyssal creature that want to make her his new queen or who knows what? Billie will save her? Brian will faint for the emotion?
Sounds about right! (the creature/new queen part anyway.)
From the back cover of the Tibkins displayed on Shelley’s table, I’m guessing that’s Tibkins and the Dancing Black Socks?
Look like birds to me.
A more sober assessment, certainly.
Very worried for Shelley. “Dad” looks very reminiscent of Cousin “It” from The Adams Family.
FYI, the guy who played Cousin Itt on the original Addams Family TV show just died a week or so ago.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/17/us/felix-silla-cousin-itt-addams-family-dies/index.html
Wow, I had no idea. RIP
He was also the actor inside the robot “Twiki” on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century back in the day. He and Gil Gerard (Buck) could often be found hanging out together at cons.
Of course the voice of Twiki (first season) was the immortal Mel Blanc.
Fake news, Twiki was a real robot, I won’t have this and neither will Dr Huer who is a close personal friend of mine.
Or maybe he was a robot in the shape of a human actor, portraying a different robot? Wheels within wheels!
Not sure exactly what Tibkins is, but he/she/it seems to have chicken legs and feet….
The first Tibkins book begins:
“Tibkins’ egg got a bit too hot before it hatched. And WHEN it hatched, Tibkins was ALL WRONG.”*
Despite hatching from an egg, however, Tibkins’ is described as a hedgehog with chicken legs, rather than vice versa.
* from Murder She Writes
Of COURSE it’s not the other way around. Tibkins looks NOTHING like a chicken with hedgehog feet. 😉
So Tibkins is a basilisK?
After 20+ years of reading John’s work online, I did not know/remember that Tibkins tidbit. Was Murder She Writes an online story or a print exclusive?
It first appeared online, it was a print book and now you can get it from my Gumroad – https://gumroad.com/scarygoround?query=murder%20she%20writes&sort=page_layout
Hurrah, SGR book 2 is finally* back in print! It was the only one I didn’t have.
* I’ve just noticed
Given that Tredregyn is subject to a lot of aquatic invaders, I theorize that Dad is none other than Shelley’s old nemesis, the PORTUGUESE MAN-O-WAR! He’s let his mohawk grow out, which is why he looks so hairy in the last panel.
I already made this same guess a couple of pages ago.
It’s as good a guess now as it was then!
Better, I’d say, since SDSkuld went into slightly more detail than I did. That probably makes it a better guess in some sense, even if it’s not actually more accurate.
This is all setting the stage for triumphant return of Gibbous Moon
Shelley once was No. 4 on the Tackleford Troublemakers Index – thus she getting dragged into SOME kind of shenanigans upon coming to Tredregyn was basically inevitable…
Look like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings about to waylay Shelley.
It’s their way, or the Highway, man
That is a bad punne or a play upon words and you should sit there and think about your life choices.
/theroadgoesonforeverthepartyneverends
Maybe Willie Nelson just wants to read Tibkins on the Road, again.
So in this analogy, that’d make her Tammy Wynette?
Tibkins’ On the Road
Praying for at least one offhanded reference to Energy Crow before the story ends
In Bad Machinery, Linton said if he could have any name, he would be Energy Panther.
Apropos of nothing, John, I really like the composition on that last panel.
Only today did I notice the MOISTNESS of Shelley’s abductors.
Plus, their blue, scaly hands and faces.
The merfolk of Tredregyn are back!