Attempts at space penetration
Oh no. Amstrad again. If ever a company had its hooks into a nation’s economy, it’s Amstrad. They do it all. Everything.
Goonhilly is a real place, you used to be able to visit Goonhilly Earth Station but sadly, that’s no longer possible as I think a UAP/UFO was downed there and they’re busy repurposing it into a replacement for Freddie Laker’s Skytrain.
Would Lord Sugar have long, flowing hair and a beard, and is fond of wearing open shirts?
I bet his good friend Robo could help out.
I believe it’s this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sugar
Ah, I keep forgetting that Amstrad is a real company. I was thinking that John was parodying Sir Richard.
Damn! What an incredible splash page/four way panels intersection!!
No, Lord Sugar was once described as looking like a sticky testicle that has been rolled across a barber’s floor.
Also “Britain’s angriest badger”
And hey, if this venue doesn’t work out, there’s always Ben Bishop.
Well, space IS the place, after all… though I think Gareth would have to wear a onesie to sneak into Bishop’s venue.
Or an alien skinsuit that can cry black tears.
You sure you don’t mean space prenetration?
Back in the day, Acme owned the American Southwest.
I understand their rough frontier judgments in the region were regularly imposed by a coalition between coyotes and mafiosi, but defied by a lone, heroic roadrunner.
Gareth’s getting fatalistic.
Wait, how do they know that rocket is headed for the moon? Or can Gareth somehow hijack it or hack into it and make it go wherever he wants it to?
They can plan that part later.
Look man, we’re talking sick space rockets here, is there any other kind?
Uh, aren’t the weight counts on rockets supposed to be super specific?
Gareth will just rip out and jettison some part of the rocket that’s equal to his mass. Should be some unnecessary material in there, right?
You right
Like the nose cone
Only if you want them to actually go where they are supposed to
Perhaps the existing payload just happens to be a car, with roughly the weight and dimensions of Gareth in car form. Of course, nobody in the REAL world would pointlessly launch a car into space just as a publicity stunt, but this is a work of fiction, so why not?
like a red tesla?
Gareth is teal. Completely different.
Almost as riduculous as some rich guy buying a social media site because he keeps getting dunked on there.
Or, I dunno, challenging another billionaire to settle their differences in a public cage match. Now that would DEFINITELY be taking suspension of disbelief too far.
Reverend Penrose should contact Shelley. She has experience sneaking into space facilities. Although, if memory serves, it didn’t work out too well for her.
Forgot to add- the entire design of this page is amazing.
Wow! What a gorgeous page! Thank you so much Mr. A.
“Space penetration” is the crème de la crème.
Will the blast-off be accompanied by Joan Amstrad-trading singing “Down to Zero”?
The highly esteemed spaceport at Goonhilly is just past the Bridge on the River Wye
I hate to ask, but… Wye?
Wye not?
Wye Bwead?
Gareth sounds rather depressed. I’m afraid he just wants to disappear and Penrose understood that, probably Billie too.
wouldn’t an extra ton & 1/2 mess up the rockets lifting capacity?
The Hyundai is just Gareth’s present form. He can remake himself as another mechanical entity, presumably even as the rocket itself?
“prenetration”, though?..
Space-Prenetration followed shortly by Space-Prejaculation
Nice to know that the Bobbinsverse is also the home of manchild billionaires who use space travel as a d*ck-measuring contest. Actually, it’s not nice at all!
Many years ago I went on a family summer holiday down Cornwall way and spent a couple of weeks in a lovely house in the shadow of the Big Goonhilly Dishes, which was a thrilling sight to wake up to every morning for a 12 year old nerd.
My other big memory of that trip was buying a copy of Games Workshop’s epic Space Marine for cheap in a random seaside tat shop, but that’s not relevant to today’s strip. OR IS IT? (No)
I feel you can make a case that the Space Marines are at least giant-robot adjacent. The kind of lads who might appreciate Gareth, you know?
Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: “…it went unnoticed at Goonhilly, passed over Cape Canaveral without a blip, Woomera and Jodhill Bank looked strayer through them, which is a pity because it was exactly the sort of thing they’d been looking for all these years.”
I miss Douglas Adams.
How he was never nominated, in his life or posthumously, for a knighthood, is incomprehensible to me.
It’s possible he was offered one and turned it down (some people do) – unless he revealed the fact, we would never know (the Government/Palace would never do so). There is of course no such thing as a _posthumous_ knighthood.
Eggsactly where my mind went.
Bloody right about the traffic on the A39 : (
I suppose it’d be too much to hope for that this story ends with Tom somehow being launched into space.
Well, if Tom went up, then we’d have to get a new villain. And, well, I figure, better the Devil(worshipper) you know…
some way nastier sorcerors, who are less funny
It would be fun to see the town with Brian in charge at the other church.
I think Billie would end up in charge. Or Bob Warren would take over. I don’t think Brian’s capable of being in charge of anything, and I think he’d agree. You need at least a little order in your system to be in charge, and Brian’s close to pure chaos.
That’s why it would be fun…
My favourite review of all time from an old computer mag:
“The CPC is Amstrad’s answer to Nintendo. Clearly, Amstrad didn’t understand the question.”
They make me think of what would happen if 3M did things like try to launch rockets or make video game consoles. “Yes we made great adhesive tape! Wait till you see our take on the Role Playing Game genre”.
Or perhaps Booz-Allen-Hamilton which I’m sure in 10 years will be Northrup-Grumman-Booz-Allen-Hamilton.