The redhead from the bookshop window
I have been waiting for this team-up for what seems like years, two characters who just look right when drawn next to each other. This might be the nicest page of Steeple there has ever been. The next page… could be even nicer. The page after that… maybe not so nice.
With this outfit, Lottie has become the teenage Dr. Who the BBC is apparently about to foist upon us all.
It’s already been done. Look up Dark Season, from the BBC in the 90’s. Written by Russell T Davies, who you may be aware of…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Season
There’s something I like about the visible soles in panel 4.
The grey of Penrose’s practical action-vicar boots vs. the bright red of Lottie’s knock-off Louboutins.
(Also panel 2 is yet another perfect Lottie face. This has to be one of John’s best stories for facial expressions I M H O)
This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Just after meeting Penrose Lottie seems already to feel p0stronger and more confident. Penrose is a great man, he can become a great friend and also a fatherly figure for Lottie♡.
So. The Bobbinsverse Avengers have begun to form. Who else could fight by the side of these two crusaders?
Hugo!
Super Crisis Quests III
Desmond, obviously.
Desmond can be their Aquaman. That is, he’ll be to this new team what Aquaman is to the Avengers.
Nae more.
Well, obviously Desmond is of the sea, as Aquaman is. But personality-wise, his slot in the Justice League is probably Plastic Man, because of his wacky, random brain.
Maybe they’ll be the Bobbinsverse version of the Super-Friends! Superman is Reverend Penrose, Batman is Lottie, Robin is Little Claire, Wonder Woman is Shelley, and Aquaman is Des (sorry, Aquaman).
Sonny, the most solid of the Mystery boys.
Desmond with his incredible Poisonous Soup Power (PSP for short).
The color schemes from the last few pages seem like they’re supposed to mean something, but I can’t figure it out!
Billie returning the missing suitcase, apologizing for Tom, and telling Lottie to put her faith in Penrose – all of our tension from the preceding pages resolved in a single panel!
Yep, you can always count on Billie to do right by people.
That’s her non-judgmental humanist community outreach thing, in action.
So, looking at the upcoming schedule, what exactly is CLOTTED CRIME? Or do we just have to wait and see?
It’s a title designed to tantalise, for sure.
Cream then jam is a clotted crime.
You’ll never be welcome in Devon with that attitude!
A West-country speciality.
Suitcase is still smiling.
What sort of welcome will the Rev get in the Vic? I mean, he’s the enemy but at least he’s not an apostate.
I’m starting to wonder if that suitcase is related to Nemulon.
My impression is that Charlie doesn’t really care about all that unless it impacts his business directly. He wouldn’t let Maggie work there, but only because he didn’t want his customers to feel judged. He’s happy enough to have her there as a customer. I suspect the main thing that has kept Rev. Penrose out of the Victoria is Rev. Penrose.
Pentagrams everywhere in Tredregyn! Do they have pentagrams in every classroom? Mandatory satanism courses? Sacrifices every Friday? I am certainly a proponent of secular education!
Interesting that Lottie seems to have forgotten the one actual clue she’s found- and it’s one Reverend Penrose would find very interesting, I think. https://steeple.church/comic/we-read-books/
Yes, Lottie, surely the serial killer of hapless lovecraftian abominations will lead you to victory. Didn’t Lottie spend some of her formative years befriending hapless lovecraftian abominations? It depends on one’s parameters, I suppose. 😐
Wait, how did Rev Penrose know her name was Charlotte? Lottie is not an automatic for Charlotte. Maybe Maggie sent him?
Maggie might have sent him. Or Billie might have properly introduced them between pages. Or Lottie and Reverend Penrose might have introduced themselves to each other. It’s clear that some stuff was skipped between the last page and this one.
Well, when I looked up Lottie, the only thing it seems to be short for is Charlotte. I suppose one might simply be named Lottie, not short for anything else…
Carlotta? Any name that “Lotta” is short for is a name that “Lottie” can also be short for.
It is also a nick for Lisa, Lieselotte, Elsie and Elisabeth. The first two I ran into a lot in Sweden.
Seems pretty obvious Maggie sent him looking for her. He also knew she was looking for Shelley.
If a satanic temple priest, who you don’t trust, tells you to trust the local anti-satan priest to tell you the time a train leaves the station solve for reality.
Lottie is so vampy!
…in a chibi kind of way.