This kindly meeting of friends (END OF PART 1)
Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.
I’m still playing catch-up on the time I lost writing in August/September, so Steeple will return next Friday. Issue 19 will be available in full as a PDF on my Patreon on Monday November 6th.
Proof, if any were needed, that nothing good comes of a warm willy.
I bet they’re not even any good when cold.
I think it was Shelley Winters who said “The only thing a girl should let a boy put into her was a warm meal”.
And how many times has she violated that maxim by now?
Wait, is this for real?
Or does Maggie know something about what happened to Billi?
Ludmilla’s eyes have a weird shape, probably she’s using her magic for do this. They want to see what Billie will do after discovering that her conversion is, partially, based on a fake vision.
I’m glad someone knows which one is which!
“Which witch is which” was right there. Fortunately you avoided it. Not I.
I don’t think the witches have made that connection. They are just thrilled that something outrageous is starting to happen
Oh wait, they have. I remembered wrong
Those Lud eyes are goaty.
This looks like a real possession to me. But by who? The Sesh Gremlin? The ghost of Mr Clovis? Desmond Fishman?
What if Desmond Fisherman is Mr. Clovis reincarnation?
Can we assume that by GOAT the entity currently possessing Maggie means Baphomet?
Who knew Baphomet was the G.O.A.T.?
The Great Old Antagonist Tom?
It doesn’t seem as if Ludmilla and Clothilde are followers of Tom or his brand of Satanism, though. Allies, perhaps. https://steeple.church/comic/hows-satan-doing-babes/
Now I fully expect to hear David singing “Goat to get you into my life” to Maggie.
Given the nature of its warning, I humbly suggest this is angelic possession. I’m calling it now.
Well, then it would appear that heaven has a shortage of ectoloos and/or that angel got summoned at quite an inconvenient time.
OTOH, it might just be Maggie’s way of tipping off her friend without catching flak for it… but that’s a lot of green hughie to summon willingly.
Perhaps Debra Blight decided she could not stand (float?) idly by anymore. If so she might have chosen a better way of admonishing the two scandalous witches for their cowboy hex. But what would be the fun in that
It’s hard to tell if Maggie is having a divine possession or if Ludmilla and Clotilde are doing this to see what Billie will do after learning what really happened. The only certainty thing is that Clotilde is really holding on to Penrose… Interesting.
To keep him under the spell, maybe?
To keep him under, in general?
Another possibility might be that Maggie might be faking the possession the way Shelley did to fool the servants of the Deep One. However Maggie’s eyes and the very real ectoplasmic looking vomit soiling Mrs. Clovis’s table and carpet cast doubt on this theory.
Look at panel 3. I can’t imagine Maggie deliberately hurting Billie like that for the sake of a fake seance.
Could be one of her seance tricks. Would be a pretty good one, though.
Intentionally soiling Clovis’s carpet is surely a bridge too far for Maggie.
In a world that seems so often unfair to livestock, it’s good to know that goats can have servants too.
“Carruthers, kindly eat these tin cans, there’s a good chap.”
Well, if a Fishman can have a manservant…
Good point!
“Look at the carpet!! Maggie, what possessed you?!”
Wow this is a transformative page.
Maggie had a lot to bring up this evening.
Ectoplasm > Scotchgard™
And that dress was so nice…
I see bell, book and candle and…. snow globe?
“Book” may also be a bit suspect, since it appears to be Maggie’s notebook.
The Archbisop of Canterbury pronouncing judgment on the Domesday Book, this is not.
I assumed that the sphere was a crystal ball.
Those two use their magic carelessly and without regrets, dare I say willy-nilly. I hope they will get their just deserts, including no dessert!
It’s like they heard about Hanlon’s razor and said “Yes, but what if we did both!?”
Warm willy nilly?
Well done on the desert-dessert usage!
I love the smash cut from yesterday (the Rev. almost leaving) to today when he’s immediately in seance.
If you look carefully at the second to last panel on yesterday’s page, it makes perfect sense.
Letting the Reverend join in summoning spirits maybe was not the smartest move: his haunts are troublesome.
If it could get Jason out of Tom’s clutches, that would be welcome.
Love Servants of the Goat. Their John Peel sessions were fantastic.
Brian’s probably got some of their tracks on his boom/tool box.
I didn’t think Penfold would stay.
I believe he’s been hexed into a soporific compliance with things he’d otherwise never tolerate.
Given that Ludmilla cast a spell on him in the previous strip, he’s not got much choice in the matter.
Yeah, he does look a little glazed.
Of course you meant Penrose, but now I’m imagining a crossover between Steeple and Dangermouse.
I initially interpreted it as presenting Penfold as a guide to proper behaviour. “WWPD?”
“Penfold…, shush.”
I was struggling not to pick up on that typo. Thank you for saving me from myself.
I was going to say something about how Penrose and the Goat Girls have transposed their positions from Panel 1 to Panel 4, and how Maggie was grasping Billie’s left hand in Panel one but her right hand in Panel 5, but it occurs to me this might be deliberate, a way to convey the unreality of the situation.
Or maybe it’s my autism.
I think Maggie just let go of Billie’s left hand and grabbed her right hand in Panel 5- doesn’t seem weird or mysterious to me. Panel 4 does look wrong, though, whether deliberately or not.
I didn’t notice this when I read the full pdf (via Patreon), but it struck me on this page – panel 4 should be flipped horizontally.
Not trying to nitpick, but I assume it’s better to make easy fixes now before it goes to TPB later on!
Nope, left hand grasped by right gloved hand in both p1 & p3
hth
Not in panel 5, though.
John’s fallen afoul of the 180° Rule and mixed up the orders (p4). But I’m less observant than you, and it took me a careful check after reading this comment to notice.
This was a horrible page to draw. I had to redo parts of it over and over again. A page usually takes 3-4 hours and this one took me 8 – miserable. I realised when I’d finished it to my satisfaction that I’d got the order of characters wrong in the bottom right panel (they had been in a different order around the table in the roughs) and I just did not have the energy to care any more, I am sorry to say. It was the one drawing I actually liked all the way through and I was not going to throw it away.
Obviously if these comics are collected I will have to fix it. But that is unlikely to happen.
I didn’t notice and doubt most of your readers would. Also, all three of the characters in question are wearing mostly symmetrical outfits. Would be easy enough to just flip the panel art and redo the balloons if it really bothers anyone.
Sadly one of the characters has an asymmetrical hairstyle. A flip means going back to the pencils – you’d be surprised how many errors in the inks it reveals.
For what it’s worth, the whole page looks wonderful. That one panel may be technically wrong, but to me, at least (and obviously I can’t speak for anyone else), it doesn’t in any way ruin the page- just presents a bit of a mystery. From a story-telling perspective, it’s easy to see what’s going on all through the page, and the characters, their expressions, and their body language are all wonderful, all the way through.
I can confirm that a page with all the characters in fixed positions, especially holding hands, can be a wooly booger to lay out. You would’ve gotten away with it if not for my autism. Sorry about that.
It’s gonna need more than detol.
So Lud gestured hexily at the Rev, seemingly, on the previous page, but he seems to be reacting normally whereas Maggie…. if she’s really possessed, could it have nothing to do with Lud’s spell?
I don’t think taking part in a seance is normal behavior for the Reverend.
No, but Maggie told him in the last page that the seance was just a stage-magic conjuring show and so harmless to play along (which the Rev may have agreed to to avoid another run-in with Brian) and his reaction on this page – “this is all very convincing” – apparently indicates that he believes Maggie’s episode is still all part of the act. It looks like Clo was hexing Maggie, not Penrose, in the last page.
If Billie finds out she was tricked, and converts back, doesn’t that ruin the conceit of the comic?
Billie didn’t convert to Satanism until issue #5, so I don’t think it’s the sole, central conceit of the series. Also, who says she’d necessarily convert back if she found out about what actually happened? There were other factors involved with her conversion, and she might just feel she’s still needed in the Church of Satan. Perhaps to keep an eye on Tom, or to thwart Bob’s plans or something.
John mentioned at the end of his last newsletter that he expects to wrap up Steeple with issue 20 … and this is the last page of issue 18, so it’s quite possible that we’re nearing a conclusion of Billie’s arc.
He actually said that the current Steeple arc will end with issue 20. He will then take a break and come back with more
Let’s hope not. Billie seems much happier in the Church of Satan. She has frees herself from having to do only good actions and has assert herself and her way to do things a lot fighting/discussing with Tom. Then, thinks what a disappointment it would be for the young witches she met a few pages ago.
I doubt that Billie will stop being a Satanist even despite learning the truth of what initially prompted her to switch. She said it herself, both in Clotted Crime and Hell on Wheels – the sex is a lot better in the Church of Satan.
I just lurve
The curve
Of Clo around the Rev.
Ta Mr Allison,
You spoil us.
More power to yer elbow.
And Lud’s Midwich eyes.
Och!
Agreed! These two witches are amazing and bad, very bad.
Given her expression in the final panel of the previous comic, is Billie’s smile in panel 1 of this comic a rictus of anxiety?
A smile of intense panic and desperation.
Really enjoying the patterned outfits on the Rev, Ludmilla and Billie.
Please tell me Part 2 isn’t just four pages long!
THANK YOU!
Happy Halloween!
Happy Skellington Day!
That carpet really tied the room together, man!
Dude!
Uh-oh. It’s going down.