That makes a refreshing change
Four comics this week as part 1 winds up, Mon-Thu, please do tune in. — Tom really isn’t very nice. He’s the unacceptable face of devil worship, as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps Reverend Penrose will bring the wind of change to Lottie’s fortunes, because she’s making a terrible hash of this investigation so far. I’ve not managed to find a reliable manufacturer of alien-head codpieces yet for the shop, but I’m sure we’ll be able to satisfy demand soon enough.
No, Lottie – he’s the actual weird local vicar, himself!
Just realized I’m not sure if Reverend Penrose is a vicar or rector, not that there’s any real difference these days.
Yes, it’s a bit odd. He is always described as the vicar, but lives in the Old Rectory.
I don’t think Tredregyn parish has had a rector for a while.
It’s a largely historical difference, depending on whether the parish priest received all of the local church tithe – rector – or merely the lesser tithes, with the greater tithe going to a clerical superior or, I believe, the secular landlord – vicar. Since no-one tithes anymore, you are what the parish has always had.
If you wanted to spackle it, it’s entirely possible that a past rector of Tredregyn was deprived of the greater tithes as a result of, say, a failure to deal with the village’s rampant Satanism and/or merfolk problem. The office was downgraded to that of vicar, but people had always known the house as the Old Rectory, and that’s the kind of inertia that no official censure is going to shift in a rural British setting.
I mean, “The *Old* Rectory” is an ambiguous name; it could mean The Ancient Rectory or The Former Rectory. Maybe when there was a rector, he lived in The Rectory?
Though I must say, I expected Lottie’s sangfroid to hold up better against Tom’s arseness. She is really off her game, here.
She’s out of her element.
Well, she would really have to high kick to do him in the jimmies, as would be appropriate.
I may have to make a poster out of Tom in panel 5. The sheer effrontery of it. Legendary.
The jiggle of his whole.. area should NOT be immortalized in a poster. Some things are better left dead.
Now I feel it ought to be one of those 3d posters. You know, the ones where as you move, his bits just sashay from side to side.
She’s Naruto running! They’ll never catch her!
Oh no! It’s true. She’s Naruto running! That’s so bad!
She is a Japanese cartoon girl
I blame the digital perm
The digital perm may cost $250, but it gives you immediate access to the Naruto Run skill tree.
(Mr. Allison, if you ever want to develop a videogame based on your universe, hit me up.)
I thought she looked the most “manga” in panel 3.
Absolutely
As of this page, Lottie has now met all six of the major Steeple characters. You have no idea how happy and excited this makes me. Worlds have collided.
Finally Lottie can talk to another adult.
I think she left her suitcase behind in there.
Right now, Lottie has more important concerns that the suitcase.
Billie will look after it
Agreed. In fact, Billie will probably seek her out to return it.
BURN! Tom was great! He completely annihilated the poor Lottie with minimum effort and maximum enjoyment! He’s so evil and mean♡. A true vicar of the Church of Satan. I wonder if Billie will try to run after Lottie. But the big question here is: Why is Penrose there? Does he enjoy spending the afternoon around the rival church?
I concur, Tom is so wonderfully awful here. I think Tom is just doing his rounds. If something weird happens in Tredregyn, chances are pretty good that the CoS might have something to do with it.
Correction: I meant to say I think Rev. Penrose is just doing his rounds.
My guess is that he came to find Lottie specifically, although without actually going IN the Church of Satan, of course
This mean Billie told him about Mrs. Clovis special example of Caritas Christi asking him to find her. I like this!
I think you mean, Maggie, rather than Billie, right?
Oooops… yes. Maggie.
Just magnificent. Peak awfulness. The hint of a gut in panel 1 just adds to the effect.
Agree completely: panel 1 so offensive! Peak Tom.
I honestly expected Lottie to punch Tom in the snout. Or at least crack his alien codpiece with a well-deserved kick. The once ultra-confident Lottie who would arrogantly write down the solution to a mystery and then present it at the big reveal seems to be gone, replaced by someone rather easily spooked. Is this the result of not having the other Mystery Kids to show off to?
While Mildew got her out of the worst of it, she’s still rattled by her Wicked Things experience. Tom also came at her from a direction she wasn’t expecting and doesn’t have adequate defenses for. Also Tom is awful.
With no back-up, and after the difficult times of Wicked Things, Lottie is far from her full strength. She’s still learning how to move through the adult world.
There’s also been the (not-so-)recent running theme of Lottie’s lack of romantic experience/success, towards which her attitude seems to have shifted from the spirited and uproarious rejection you note in her earlier adventures to something a little more self-conscious… so perhaps the reason she reacts this way here rather than with a ferocious verbal or physical retort is that there are little cogs spinning in the back of her mind now. Perhaps related to Billie’s backless revelation moments before.
The “Calvin is Grumpaw” panel is one of my top 5 BM moments.
YES!
Don’t worry about Lottie too much, she’s merely recalibrating and there are many j’accuses to come.
YAY♡!
Is that…is that *Rich* in the last two panels?!
Of course not, Rich is still smeared in a thin layer across spacetime. That’s Reverend Penrose, the actual vicar.
Ah… .I’m new to Steeple… I’m still hopeful Rich can get unsmeared. Maybe if someone has a cosmic bagel….
Does anyone else hear Tom as Bryant Haliday from 1964’s “Devil Doll”?
“Ham! I love it!”
😉
Eavesdropping Eggsy
Just searched “alien head codpieces” on Etsy. The results were disappointing. 3D printing may be the only option.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/284304328536
Gets you maybe halfway there… If uncomfortably
Well, if no one else is going to make a comment on the “revelation” that Lottie’s still a virgin, I’m certainly not going to.
😉
It’s not much of a revelation that she’s “behind the curve on love” and lovers have remained unsatisfied. The revelation is that Charlotte “Mystery Is My Boyfriend” Grote has become somewhat sensitive about the issue.
When you think about it, if you’re well-aware that evil supernatural forces exist in the world, the wisest course would be to render oneself of no interest to people who conduct virgin sacrifices by losing one’s virginity as soon as possible. One less reason for people to want to murder you. Seriously, it’s just good sense. So don’t think about it. 😉
If the answer was “Yes, we just did in fact sacrifice your friend just yesterday” things may not have gone well for our heroine. We know this bunch is mostly harmless (Though Tom did somehow predict and or summon the Kaiju in Secret Sentai so there’s more to him than squeezing egg cartons, it seems)
Magus Tom Pendennis seems to have been bulking up from his usual scrawny self. Steroids or actual weight lifting?
My money is on the ‘roids.
I noticed that, too.
Perhaps he’s beefing up to counter the tower of strength that is Reverend Penrose, but also, Billie is an expert cake-maker (see current story, Silvery Moon) and Tom is a born sybarite who lives for pleasure alone. So it’s possible that the extra timber is coming from the new trainee.
So he bulked up on cake?
😉
I think the implication is that it may not be all muscle. Although, cake does contain milk and eggs, which contain protein.
I was holding out for the revelation that Tom was secretly a caring person.
Consider
– He tried to warn Billie and Maggie about the sesh gremlin.
– The opportunity to punch out of a sea monster is in fact the perfect birthday gift for rev Penrose. How thoughtful!
– errrr…he tried to matchmake Brian with Billie in the unfortunate werewolf incident. OK, that one’s a stretch. Maybe not, then.
Tom is having a good day. He had his doubts about Billie: but there’s just something about her disapproval that *energizes* him.
“Get in line.” That’s what she should have told Tom, too.
She may be shaken now, but I trust she won’t miss the chance to get back at him when the opportunity presents itself.
I ♡ GULP panel
Wait, speaking of cake (as we were, somewhere, at some point), why is Billie cooking for the church? Shouldn’t they have some weird proxy of Mrs. Clovis?
Hey, “Clovis,” “Cloven.” I just got that.