Heretofore unconnected plot elements
There are some very odd dynamics playing out around this table. After a series of very complicated pages involving some quite difficult mental gymnastics for a merely middling artist, this one was a simpler proposition. I do have to do a little diagram when people are round a table, to keep them in the correct positions. It’s easy to get yourself in trouble, fast. There’s nothing special about panel 2 but I think it might be a personal favourite. One more page to go!
Brian’s eyes are awesome. Puppy dog love.
He’s just so cute ♡.
He really is!
Well, but the mer-people were wrong to kidnap Shelley, but I can’t say I approve of her jerking around her readers like that.
I take solace in the knowledge that no author I read has ever been so scurrilous as to haphazardly assemble a backstory from unconnected plot elements!
Never!
This joke gets even funnier if you imagine that Len Pickering, Fallon Young, Shelby Winner and Krakkagar are assembled just off panel, having a pint as they toast the successful conclusion to the story.
Shelley is just the Best! She saved herself, probably started a religious reform deep in the ocean and now is just at the tavern happy with her friends ♡. Love the way Billie is sitting on panel one, open, sure of herself, so different from how she used to be♡. And Lottie with the cat at the end is so cute. But Penrose looks so serious, worried!
I think Penrose is worried about what exactly the mermen interpreted in Shelley’s scribbled nonsense. There’s a good chance that an army of mermen will surface believing that their god commanded them to kill all the land-dwellers in its name (or is that maybe a little too Rick and Morty?).
Or maybe he’s just sulking because he didn’t get to hit a merman over the head with an ornamental stone bridge.
I just admire the speed with which Shelley composed and transcribed that mythology. By my reading, she had a minute or two at most. The lady is a professional.
Penrose clearly is disappointed that of the exactly same-colored and same-structured items, Lottie chose to stroke the cat’s behind over his beard.
Sesh gremlin in the background? Christ, you just can’t get rid of the guy!
Well, a given individual can get rid of him, but he eventually will show up looking for another mark.
That’s who that was! You have the eagle eye.
cat’s calling him over to taken the spare stool?
A bar would be the Sesh gremlin’s natural habitat.
It looks like Rev. Penrose is sad because he didn’t get to hit anything with his axe.
Technically he hit a fishtank with his axe. He just wasn’t wielding it at the time, but was being wielded himself.
Perhaps, but I think the Reverend could be forgiven for not being satisfied by that.
Lottie and the cat seem to be enjoying each other! I guess she is not just a dog person.
Incidentally, Grote dog Pepper appears in today’s GoComics Bad Machinery page: https://www.gocomics.com/bad-machinery/2021/07/14
This has been one of my favorite post-scary-go-round tales. And… well, that’s sayin’ somethin’.
And continues to be some of the best dialogue in modern comics. Which is *also* sayin’ somethin’.
Billie in Panel 1 seems to be enjoying her conversation with Lottie. I wonder if Lottie still considers her a “streak of sexy whitewash”?
Well, the seating arrangement kind of implies they are each others date for the evening.
So, you’re saying that Shelley and Mrs Clovis are dating? That… could be interesting.
My impression was that Mrs. Clovis is seated where she is seated because A) She was the last person to choose a seat (as is consistent with her character) and B) of the two seats remaining at that time, she chose the one that is NOT next to Brian (also consistent with her character).
This is one of the things I love about this comic (and all of the comics by Mr. Alison). There are these subtle little implied stories everywhere.
I don’t want to be That Guy, but Billie’s pose and expression kind of suggest to me that she’s playing footsie with Lottie under the table.
One could be perhaps forgiven for reading panels 2 and 3 as having a whiff of the challenges faced by all storytellers who have created large and complex worlds beloved by their fans. Hypothetically.
On which note, this is one of my favourite epilogue pages of the whole Scarichinereepleverse.
Don’t you mean the whole Giant Scarichinereepleverse?
Giant Scarichinereeplebinsverse?
Based on how the Tackleverse works, there’s a very good chance that “utter nonsense” is at least 80, 90% accurate.
Somehow.
Unconscious inspiration, or just sheer narrative perversity.
Or just pure luck- good or bad, I’m not sure which.
Panel 3 couldn’t possibly be the author pulling the curtain back to reveal the deep roots of the Tackleford universe. That’d just be too disturbing.
That was my first thought.
Yeah, I fully expect this “utter nonsense” to come back as a plot, motivation, story whatsis at some point.
Brian looks forlorn, Penrose is brooding, Billie seems concerned in panel 4, Lottie is lovin’ the kitty and Shelley is… Shelley.
Embracing the madness comes naturally to Shelley.
A happy ending, in which even Mrs C can tolerate a visit to the Satan-affiliated public house to celebrate. Stout seems to be the Rev’s usual, as it’s also what he was drinking in the penultimate page of part 1, while Billie has sensibly opted for a nice, soothing cup of tea.
Surprised I don’t see a pint in front of Brian in panel 1.
Maybe it’s hidden behind Mrs. Clovis.
I was surprised to see Mrs. Clovis there. She puts up with Billie and Maggie when she has to, sure, but she doesn’t strike me as the type to be voluntarily sociable with them outside the rectory, let alone in a group that includes Brian.
But then, she didn’t strike me as the type to trust her household vacuum cleaner to a pop-up shop advertising glamours, spells, charms, and hexes, either, so perhaps that just means there’s more to Mrs. Clovis than I, with my admittedly rudimentary interpersonal skills, have hitherto figured out.
She had Billie and Maggie over for Christmas in the Christmas With Clovis story.
Fair point. I had forgotten that one.
Regarding the Hoover, I think Mrs. C. was desperate when she asked the witches for help with her broken appliance.
I love the increasing distance between the reflecting members of the two churches: Billie and Maggie, proveably interchangeable; Penrose and Pendennis, the classic brawn and brain dyad; and Brian and Mrs Clovis, unquestioning acceptance vs. unquestioning disapproval.
And Shelley, on all fours in Panel 3 pairs off with the Vic’s ginger cat, yeah?
Wrap-up exposition occurs so frequently at that table that the landlord carved ‘The Victoria, Later’ on the floor just for atmosphere.
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought for sure the text was going to read “The Victory Lap”
Looks to me like the cat may have scratched that into the floor.
Connecting “heretofore unconnected plot elements” Hey, we know someone who able to do that!
I like how the whole cast is there with Shelley and Lottie!
(I mean, not Tom – but Brian left an empty stool for him, so he’s there in [malevolent] spirit!)
Green eyes on one side, black and red on the other. Hearts at the end.
My two guesses for Thursday’s comic:
– The Merfolk cult of Flovorr is shown to have grown exponentially thanks to Shelley’s “New Gospel of Flovorr”.
– The Merfolk publish the “New Gospel of Flovorr” in England, Shelley sues for a cut of the profits. Heh, the prophet’s profits.
Panel 2 might be your favorite because it is, as I understand it, basically your mission statement for the past 20+ years.
Panel 2 is great indeed. If I were still on LiveJournal, I would be tempted to make it one of my user icons.
Shelley looks like a mom in panel 2. I like it a lot.
I feel like Panel 4 (with Maggie looking devious and Billie looking concerned) is just a perfect microcosm of the whole comic.
…and when the sea is still and the tide very low, you may just hear the carillon of the Undersea Cathedral of Saint Tibkins the Great calling the faithful to Flovorr. Or maybe it is an ice-cream van, I dunno.
Having just reread this story in print form, I have come to the conclusion that it is utterly implausible and must be regarded as a figment of a deranged imagination. Nobody has EVER successfully managed to pick up and hold a pub cat.