It can’t be anything complicated
Post-its are a theme through a lot of my comics, my feeling is that Lottie caught the lifelong love of Post-Its from Daisy in Giant Days during her first appearance (issue 35). This is like when JK Rowling says that Hagrid was actually a cheetah man, nowhere in Harry Potter does it say that Hagrid ISN’T a cheetah man etc. You can’t argue with me. I’ve gone mad with power.
I am waiting to see Lottie’s reaction when Penrose hefts an axe.
She’s gonna positively melt!
We knew you were mad John, thanks for confirming it’s with power.
A smorgasbord of brilliant Lottie faces, and rightly so a proper War Room is very exciting indeed!
As an aside, I’ve been binge-rereading all of Bad Machinery over the past few days and I’m really enjoying watching Charlotte grow from the kid she was then into the young woman we see here.
Lottie’s enthusiasm is so strong she has to duplicate herself to manifest it all. I love it!!!! Penrose is awesome. He has a war room for emergencies and is happy to share it with Lottie, knowing she will be able to appreciate it. Seeing Lottie so joyful makes me feel happy ♡. It’s as if she has found an adult she can totally trust and that’s able to understand her. A magnificent, strong father figure ♡
Lottie is clearly beside herself.
Multiples times.
He truly is magnificent.
Pretty sure this is what Rev. Penrose needed Maggie’s help with last night after she put Lottie to sleep. Not so much of “A war room for emergencies” as much as, “In case of emergency, create war room!”
…Now I kinda want to see a Reverend Penrose/Little Claire team-up…
YOU’RE OUTTA CONTROL, JOHN!
Turn in your badge, and your gun.
But for God’s sake, never stop making comics!
I love Claire. I would read her solo adventures.
I love her for many reasons, but one is that I have a small and indomitable Claire of my own in my real life, and I like being reminded of my friend.
I also need more Claire! Lottie’s faces all across this page though, *chef’s kiss*
It’s really hard to be sure, but it kind of looks like the post-it on the clock says “time until…” followed by a word I can’t read. If so, this means the clock is counting DOWN, not up. What sinister event happens in ~33 hours?
Monday afternoon tea?
I think that if Shelley hasn’t been rescued by that time, she will forever remain part of the fabric of Tredregyn!
I think it says “Time since…”
Yes, I’m seeing “Time since disappearance” there, although I’m taking my brain’s word for it on the last line.
I’m not sure how to define the multiple Lotties in one scene technique, but JA uses it a lot with a very high degree of success and ability to convey multiple zingers without additional panels. Way cool.
In photography, it’s called “strobing” (see: Eadweard Muybridge) but not sure if there’s a comics term for it. It’s more just an exploitation of the fact that time moves from left to right as we read a panel.
Agreed that this is a fantastic panel.
The futurists sort of ‘invented’ this visual technique, or at least they made a big deal of it (religious icons use it sometimes, and it’s probably very ancient) calling it ‘the multiplied man’. Their idea was that in order to really show man in the *velocity* and *speed* of modern life, one freeze frame was not enough – you needed multiple images of the man to show his movement all about, and to show the absolute SPEED and FURY of his activity!
I think also the Family Circle did it too, though I don’t believe that comic was futurist. They also liked to use a little dotted line moving about to show where the child had gone.
Family Circus.
Wasn’t Family Circle a housekeeping magazine oft spotted next to the supermarket counters of yore? And also a biscuit tin selection – both potential favourites of Mrs Clovis.
Worst argument I ever had with my maternal grandmother was over “Family Circle” vs “Family Circus.” I think because of the circular panel employed. I could point out the title “Family Circus” printed right on the damn page and she’d insist “it’s still a circle.” Gaah.
Fortunately, it’s not Christmas Day. If it were, there might be a sesh gremlin hanging about.
As far as Charlotte’s concerned, it IS Christmas.
To quote a song from the album Tommie, by The Whom, “Did you ever see the faces of the chibi? She get’s so excited, waking up on Christmas morning hours before the Tredregyn sun’s ignited!”
“She believes in crimes and all they mean including solving vexing mysteries — prying into circuses and bringing smartphone thieves a dose of misery”
Lottie’s going to want to design her own War Room, after this, isn’t she…
She’s going to have to take that croupier’s push stick thing
But has Rowling played Cheetahmen? These are the questions which behoove us look deeper.
It’s great to see some enthusiasm on Lottie’s face again! I love how all over the place she is when she sees that war room.
Also with all the talk of team-ups going about, I’d love to see a reunion between Lottie and Mimi Broussard.
The New Adventures of Mimi, Sasha the Selkie, Elliot and Friend Bat WHEN, John?!
Wow, prime selection. It’s like…the Bobbinsverse Defenders.
What a fabulous page.
That’s all. That’s the comment.
Mad with power, eh? Then YOU MUST BE STOPPED!
Or maybe just given a snack.
Does the UK have those stupid Snickers ads?
:C yes
Complete with some foreshadowing in the last panel. I presume.
A mini croupier’s rake to move counters, the sign of a true pro. No wonder Lottie is giddy!
Ugh I should’ve read farther in the comments before posting. Agree: pro-level rake!
When Lottie first sees the war room, do I see the rug being pulled as she curls her toes with delight?
Until you pointed this out and I went back to look, I also hadn’t noticed the spent printer ink cartridge on the floor.
That’s the best Not Christmas Day present Lottie ever had! 😀
Considering her half-orphan backstory, it seems she finally found someone who can be an adequate father figure for her.
Whose potential hideout??? Mystery upon mystery! Also: I have always believed a well-timed Post-It could potentially save the world! J’adore this page????
My brain requires clarification of what I’m seeing in panel 5. Is there a ladybird beetle with a single huge eye perched on the top of the church model? Can anyone clarify?
That’s what it looks like to me.
My first thought was a curled up tentacle
It’s definitely a ladybug. You can see the legs, if you look carefully
That’s what I thought. Though… placed or random landing? Hmmm…
It’s funny that Lottie describes Mildred as “mercurial,” as if she herself is not.
It’s so much easier to see projection from the outside. 😀
Gawd I love Charlotte SO MUCH.
And all your comix, John.
Post Its. Dunno if anyone else here is a Jack Vance fan, but in one of the Demon Princes novels one planetary defense system apparently consisted of covering attacking space ships in something very much like Post Its.
Vance didn’t use too much science in his science fiction.
I don’t remember that. I read them just before Covid arrived. Mind you, there’s so much in there it’s easy to forget something small. Not like The Face. I won’t forget that any day soon.
It IS Christmas Day!
Is the map the printer project reverend David got Maggie’s help on?
Looks like it’s made of taped-together sheets, so – probably!
That’s what I’m assuming.
I’m surprised we only see one spent ink cartridge! Those pages should be curling with all the ink used
I like how in Panel 3 Penrose is stock-still while Lottie flits about the room at super-speed so it looks like she’s in five places at once. That must be some great coffee.
upcoming episode “Munus hic iuvat insanire”
https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=la-en&text=Munus%20hic%20iuvat%20insanire
the task of this helps madness?
Crazy, man! Crazy
maybe. All of those words are a little vague. At least “iuvat” doesn’t introduce an indirect statement, but I’d read it ‘this duty delights madness’.
It’s my best attempt at a concise translation of “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps”
That (model of a) giant ladybird is worrying me.
I prefer your power madness to Rowling’s.
Have you actually gone mad with power, or have you gone powerful with madness?
‘Oh my giddy aunt.’ Lovely.