Christmas cans
For those not familiar, Space Raiders are an inexpensive corn snack with a truly violent pickled onion (or “beef”) flavour. They were a staple of the school vending machine throughout my education. The price rose from 10p to 15p during that time, reflecting really good value for money in exchange for violent temporary halitosis. They occupied the same impulse purchase zone as the Freddo Frog chocolate bar*. Though I saw a Freddo Frog for 85p in Jordan’s Mill café at the weekend, which represents a serious gouge among otherwise reasonably priced “fare”. * Freddo Frog note: if Cadbury’s (never “Cadbury”) wish to hire Desmond Fishman as the new face of the Freddo, I believe a deal can be struck though it is a deal which sees the chocolatier walk back the recent loss of the the possessive suffix from their name. [Mandela effect note, 2/8/2021: Alan’s name was amended to Les because at a future date I forgot what his name was and it was easier to go back and change this comic]
The “vote leave” mug really nails this shop as truly a horrid place to spend xmas morning …
Also that it’s a VO-LE mug from this angle.
Were you not persuaded by Hitler being on the tv, that this might not be a paradise of christmas joy?
To be fair, the Nazis were quite sure they were assiduously Christian – the Jews were committing usury, Hitler was sure they’d framed General Ludendorff, they were all about “family values” and lebensraum (“living space”) for the poor German children that they didn’t want to grow up Weimarized and liberal and gay, and so forth.
It’s one reason I have trouble faulting Tom Pendennis for his belief system. Yes, he worships the devil, sea monsters, and a demon lord of self-loathing, but he’s so *open* about it all.
What kind of “Christmas presents” can be found in a place like that? A baseball bat with nails in it? A sweater with a 66 or 88 on it? And the stalker seems so, happy? Desmond can become the new face of anything and be perfect everytime ♡.
To be fair, when I was living in the hood in Los Angeles, there were years I would have *loved* a baseball bat with nails in it.
Is this where the “vaguely octopus-shaped object that is maybe a head scratcher or maybe not” that Maggie is holding on the cover of this issue comes into the story?
Probably… this will explain the lack of taste of having something like that.
Crunchy Frog?
Spring Surprise!
Oh, that’s our speciality!
Trapped behind the indecisive shopper, panel 5 Sesh Gremlin is all of us.
Except he wants to be there.
Why is till guy interested in why it’s all (or not) for Billie and Maggie? I’m not understanding.
“Is that all for yourselves” is a slightly bizarre phrasing that has crept into service industries in the last ten years – I never heard it before I moved south. It’s the sort of construction that speaks to the apologetic nature of English interactions – one party insincerely obsequious, the other now uncomfortable and guilty. This replaces the prior relationship (say, in the 1980s), where the service provider was haughty and dismissive and the consumer was cowed into submission.
I’m sure this clears things up.
“Is that everything?” has been a common synonym in the north for as long as I can remember. It’s code for “are you such a feebleminded fool as to waste my time and everyone else’s by suddenly remembering that you have to go and spend ten minutes to find the last *spearmint* Trebors Extra-Strong pack which I happen to know has fallen down the back of the display counter and is now in with the chocolate raisins, leaving the rest of your shopping here by the till where it is in the bloody way?”
Ah. The light goes on.
I thought it was a oblique drug law reference. I.e. “Are you going to be eating ALL that yourselves?” As if you’d be allowed to carry 4 packets of Space Raiders for your own personal use, but 8 would raise eyebrows amongst the constabulary.
I know I paw at the hem of your robe far too often and obsequiously myself, but I just want to give thanks again for your wit and insight into both English culture and human nature. Oscar Wilde has nothing on comments like this.
He’s asking whether they have anything else to ring up, or if that’s it, I think. I don’t think he’s asking about who the items are eventually for.
I’m out of the sesh if the goblin’s drinking Skol. The only beer worse is McEwans
YES!
Mrs. Clovis might fancy a tin or two of “Cream Corn.”
[Here in the USA we call it “Creamed Corn” but I’m well aware of the possibility that this is another linguistic difference, a la “trolley” vs. “shopping cart.” Or maybe we just can’t see the whole label.]
It is creamed corn (something I’ve never seen in the UK but may exist), it’s one of two little Twin Peaks references (one could consider the use of a gas station as a den of evil a third)
I am now killing myself trying to find the second reference.
‘Gotta light?’
It was “cream corn” in the US years ago. Then the canners, always looking for a way to adulterate the product in order to increase profit, substituted water for cream. Now they must call it “creamed corn” for legal reasons.
The reference to “Cadbury” reminds me of something that I’ve occasionally wondered: Does anyone happen to know whether or not butlers actually address young people as “Mistress” and “Master” (or “Mawster”)?
😉
I really hope someone knows the answer to this one.
The obscenely wealthy usually have “housekeepers” in America as of 2020, not “butlers”, unless possibly you’re in a *very* rarefied and wealthy suburb of New England somewhere – so I cannot answer this.
I will throw up a fun fact to hide my shame, however:
The word “butler” actually originally derives from “bottler”, as the original position of the butler was as keeper the home’s wine cellar. Apparently, somewhere between the Middle Ages and today, the job description expanded into that of the genial maitre’d of a household that it has now become.
Huh!
I congratulate you on your perfect rendering of the Space Raiders 8-pack. Our corner shop still does them and they are still a very guilty pleasure. At age 49.
Dear God, I thought he made that product up.
Hah, in America we don’t have Skol Lager, but we do have Skol Vodka! It’s absolute bottom shelf and also seems very appropriate for this shady character.
I love the loaf of “berd” on the shelf. And I’m thinking I might rather have a bag of Corn Lumps than the pickled onion Space Raiders.
Don’t forget to buy a jar of “mus” to spread on your berd.
And I’m wondering about the “Top Up’s” sign. I’m presuming there’s more to that, but it looks like another surplus apostrophe for our grammar-challenged shopkeeper.
Mobile phone PAYG credit!
Pickled onion space raiders. I have loved them since they were triangle shaped with a green haired snake lady on the bag. May KP snacks never forsake them again.
I’d forgotten about that rebrand, which somehow made them look cheaper and worse. Here’s the original trade dressing in all it’s glory:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ce/da/cf/cedacf81b50de616642453282e55f2d6.jpg
I do like the original 2000AD-inspired packaging, but in recreating the new package artwork, I have seldom encountered a drawing where each element was so carefully weighted. Everything is doing a job and if you didn’t put it exactly where it was meant to be, the illustration broke.
I don’t think that’s quite all the glory, that’s relatively late in the day when they weren’t trying as hard. Not that it was ever A Contract With God or anything, but I’m sure in 1989 or so the comics at least had backgrounds.
When I lived in England as a kid in the late 70s/early 80s, we had Outer Spacers – presumably the precursor to Space Raiders? They came in all kinds of very British flavors like Chutney and Beefburger. I never liked them, but not due to a refined palate: I was instead keen on Kung Fueys, which came in just one flavor (Kung Fuey I guess?) that kids loved and adults found appalling.
I only now realized that Billie is Naruto running in that last panel.
https://tenor.com/view/naruto-running-coming-almost-there-on-my-way-gif-13590208
I don’t think I’m imagining the Twin Peaks reference. Will there be woodsmen?
What I wouldn’t give for a packet of Corn Lumps.