Extremely resilient
Shelley’s agent Barry first appeared in Murder She Writes (get it on Gumroad here), and has popped up on various occasions since. I think Shelley has prepared her own emergency protocol, by the looks of things. It’s high class, it even has an “obi”.
An obi (帯) is a belt of varying size and shape worn with both traditional Japanese clothing and uniforms for Japanese martial arts styles.
It’s also the paper band around many Japanese book and record releases.
Neat! Makes sense.
I wasn’t trying to be a pedant, by the way, I was unfamiliar with the term and wanted to spare someone else the Google.
No pedantry assumed!!
I thought obi was British newsroom slang for an obituary, and Shelley had written hers in advance to stymie the haters. A thorough one, that Shel.
That password is ???? *chef’s kiss*
Too few characters.
Who’s the mysterious lady in the window there?
She looks…oddly familiar…I know I’ve seen that hair before.
I suspect she’s just a random person, shown so we don’t think Barry has the entire building to himself. Unless… Maybe she’s… Chekhov’s Mysterious Lady in the Window?
Virginia Woolf, perhaps.
Calling it now: Pieni Lepakko is either an alias for Fallon Young, or highly amused by these shenanigans, or both. (Man, I haven’t thought about Fallon in a long time.)
According to a web search, “Pieni Lepakko” seems to be Finnish for “Little Bat”. I’m guessing it’s Lottie.
Obviously the return of Ryan Beckwith’s Pet Bats
I wonder if Max Sarin helped John with that.
And, as mentioned below, Shelley’s alias “La Pipistrelle” (which goes way back to SGR days) is also a small bat, so I suspect “Pieni Lepakko” is Lottie in her role as Shelley’s protégée. It’s a signal to her that the call is about Shelley.
La Pipistrelle!
First seen in the meddling rankings during the off-brand goblin Santa storyline with Shelby Winner, as I recall?
Shel was only fourth in the domestic meddling rankings, but word had it that she’d recently been called up to represent England in international level meddling.
It is in the “troublemakers index”, but not in “Christmas Island”. It’s in “O Tortuous Underworld” in Great Aches (SGR book 5) when she and Amy are intruding at Eisegesis in search of Ryan, who is on a day trip to the afterlife.
small bat = chibi vampirella lol
Oh, that’s good.
It’s the Bat Signal!!!!!
So it’s a bat signal? ????
Fallon came to mind, but she’s perhaps overkill for most situations. Literally.
Also I think the story has kind of left her behind
I love everything about this. Who would have thought that an entire page without any of my favorite characters would bring me such joy?
Does the yellow text at the top of the screen say “NEMS”?
Maybe Nemulon?
I believe that it is a shout-out to the Destroy History stories.
Obviously Shelley is not above taking a few things home from the office.
Enemies or Nemesis?
Is “zam-x9” a special port just for connecting to Zambian phones?
Of course, a proprietary port.
Does the “X9” mean the port only works with the Zambian X9 series phones? So if you want to connect your Zambian X10 Elite, you need to buy a laptop that has an X10 port?
Yup. Dongle City. :C
Que one of the MCU post credit themes. I love that Shelley has an emergency protocol file.
Shelley is really always prepared for everything ♡! Love how all this is serious and absurd at the same time.
Pipistrelle: a small insectivorous Old World bat with jerky, erratic flight.
I haven’t laughed so much at a single page of comics in a very long time!
Shelly and Lottie’s friendship is one of my favorite long-form bits of these stories. It’s important to know exactly who people should call if you go missing to ensure that you swiftly aren’t.
The phone number is one digit too short to be a real UK mobile number, presumably so that no poor innocent is bombarded by calls from hordes of Grote fans wanting to talk to “Pieni Lepakko”. But did you know that the UK’s telecoms regulator Ofcom has put aside ranges of numbers that are never allocated so that they can be used in drama? https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/numbering/numbers-for-drama (open the “Notes”.)
Similar to the way phone companies in the USA never allocate the 555 phone exchange in any area code
Speaking of, Barry’s phone seemingly has no 5, as there is a 4 next to a 6 on the keypad.
Looks to me like the 4 and the 5 are reversed. There’s a 3 above the 6, where it should be, and obviously SOMETHING to the left of the 4.
Hope he dialed the right number!
Maybe it’s a special secret code phone, supplied as part of the emergency protocol?
This page is everything. I’d like to say “that is all” but I want to know what the trpohy that looks like a flying narwhal is.
When I drew it, I was thinking of the Jules Rimet trophy, then I sort of let my imagination take wing, ie I drew a horn on it.
If “Pieni Lepakko” is who I think it is then Shelley is in good hands. Also I’m truly wondering what the name means, if it’s like an obscure reference, or Finnish or something.
I looked it up. It’s Finnish for “little bat”.
Wow I threw out Finnish as a shot in the dark because it seemed weirdly Scandinavian, but also not. Wasn’t expecting that to actually be it LOL.
Greetings from a new reader in Helsinki. I just have to ask – what ARE all these Finnish references doing here? Does the author have a family connection or something? I”m pretty comfortable with half the British popular culture references going right over my head – and Googling them when I can be bothered – but this *I just need to know*.
Thanks in advance and happy May Day Eve! (I believe this needs no explanation for Mr Allison.)
The artist for most of my Giant Days series, Max Sarin, is from Finland. I knew the codename had to be “Little Bat” so I translated it into Finnish to make Max laugh.
Max then told me that the Finnish for “bat” has a double meaning, which was a fact I enjoyed.
Thank you for the information! My knowledge of the Finnish comics scene is so haphazard nowadays that I had no idea that Max Sarin was a fellow Finn.
And yes, “lepakko” does indeed have that secondary meaning. Based on alliteration, of course.
Best guess is his friendship with Max Sarin, Finnish artist for much of Giant Days & Wicked Things
Looks like I had the page up without refreshing for so long that he beat me to it ooooops
But you were right on the money, so it’s all good. 🙂
Reading the words ‘La Pipistrelle’ unlocked the baboon part of my brain that hoots and hollers at internal references, this must be how it feels to like Marvel films
You are not the only one. Sometimes I feel like Shelley’s old fan club, the one with the weird fanboy who wanted to play Magic : The Gathering with her until she ran away and hid.
I wonder if Lottie will be bringing Claire along on this case. Although, knowing the sort of thing Shelley tends to get involved in, maybe she’ll think it’s too dangerous for Claire. Though I’m not sure how much Lottie actually DOES know about Shelley’s various adventures. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Billie and Maggie end up filling the role of “sidekick” for Lottie this time.
Shelley having prepared her own emergency protocol doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Heck, Shelley HAVING an own emergency protocol doesn’t surprise me in the least!
Barry is the Night Owl?
“None of you seem to understand. I’m not locked in here with you… you’re locked in here with me!”
I wasn’t worried for a moment.
Shelley once came back from the dead. Now that’s what I call extremely resilient.
At least twice, I think.
There was Zombie Shelley who was revived with a lightning bolt. What else?
The Zombie Shelley story contains one of my favorite strips ever, where she shows up at Ryan’s (or Tim’s?) place, not needing brains, but just a hug.
I don’t remember the details, but at some later point in Scary Go Round I recall Shelley spending some time in the afterlife (not the same time when Ryan spent some time there), and, I think, having to face the zombie version of herself 9from the earlier story) in order to get out.
She gets shot up in “Count My Toes” (in in SGR book 3, Skellington) but doesn’t actually die. Then she gets hit by a missile in “The Child” (also in Skellington) but is thrown into the air and miraculously survives. Gibbous Moon accuses her of “claiming on her life insurance three times” at one point but I *think* she only actually dies and comes back to life once.
(fighting her zombie self in the afterlife is in “Count My Toes” but she is in a coma, not dead, at that point.
Still pretty damn reslient.
Can anyone make out what year Barry was named agent of the year?
20ve
Huh. I thought it was 20IR.
So your devotion to Homicide: Life on the Street is shown by the password B3LZ3R* and cipher MELDRICK?
Whew, I scrolled all the way down here to make sure someone had this covered. (I’d’ve posted it myself, but I’m shy.)
I laughed really hard at Shelley having an emergency protocol
Very Shelley to have her emergency protocol be neat and decorated