Well I never did
If the rooms at the Victoria are themed around the three items on top of that cabinet, I’d avoid room 2. And I hesitate to imagine what pressing that red button does. UPDATE: Lottie’s age has been rectified following a thorough review by the committee.
“Fishman’s Friends”, indeed. I bet the club members all have a healthy respect for Des at this point.
A Groote on a mission might need an ID that’s “a bit more useful”?
Agh man I don’t wanna be the Itchy & Scratchy xylophone guy from The Simpsons, but you did say 18 right?
I can’t remember if Wicked Things says 19 throughout. It doesn’t matter.
But isn’t this taking place after Wicked Things?
Only a few months after, though – perhaps 5? In some comic perhaps 13 years ago I wrote that Lottie was born in July. I forgot it in the meantime. I could fix it in this story in two minutes but I don’t remember if her age comes up as 19 in Wicked Things, which is in print and can only be changed by me burning every copy. I can do that but it’s going to take time.
Tricky, changing 19 to 18 with a pen would be relatively easy but the other way round is probably going to need tippex
It’s going to need FIRE
Yes. Never solve with Tipp-Ex that which can be solved with fire.
FIRE to destroy all you’ve done o/
We could also settle on the barman being bad at date math. Or maybe he just considered the years and didn’t bother with the months.
Since I just reread Wicked Things last week… yes, she is referred to as an 18 year old by one of the detectives in issue… 3 or 4, I think. When they’re working on the Zambian phone case.
She’s a “poor July baby” and already 19 the winter after she leaves school? Tackleford, and Tredregyn, are full of impossible things. I’ve decided not to worry about this one.
The Grote is in Tredregyn. I repeat: The Grote is in Tredregyn.
Well, I had assumed the red button was a fire alarm, but now that you said something… Hmmmmm…
I had assumed it was for Brian-related emergencies, installed right after the events in The Silvery Moon. Brian is too good a customer to ban him from the pub, but it would be foolish not to take any precautions.
So are the themes for the other two rooms Pikachu and Mr. Peanut? Do I get free Planters nuts in Room 3?
Looks like Puritan Mr. Peanut. I think he roasts the peanuts at the stake.
Or perhaps I should say Goodman Peanut.
I can’t tell what the second one’s supposed to be.
That’s MACK, a powerful character invented by my friend Joe List. He works at CERN!
MACK works at CERN? Or Joe List? Or both!
http://freakleap.co.uk/comics/
I wonder if Amy and Shelley’s influence is what gave Lottie this impressive ability to drink or is it a natural ability of her. Even the good old tavern keeper seems really impressed.
Hard drinking is a natural detective skill, Lottie is merely showing respect for her hard-boiled forebears.
Now I see that.
I eagerly await the day when we get a full black & white noir-edition Lottie.
Lottie’s different approaches towards wine and beer are interesting. For wine, e.g., see https://badmachinery.com/comic/rocker-the-jib/
Lottie is on the case and moving fast.
Getting even more spaghetti Western vibes from Lottie’s POV. Is that Mexican or Spanish cervesa she’s developed a palate for?
I’m a fan of Mexican beer (love me some Tecate with a lime) and I’d never heard of Aguila. So I looked it up — it’s Colombian.
The beer everyone drank in Giant Days was called “Eagle” or “American Eagle” (Max’s detail), I just made a Spanish version for this spaghetti western special!
Lottie do looks like Sartana (without the hat) in this page.
She has better taste than many folks, who are content to drink Amstrad Lite.
Note that “Aguila” is also a popular budget brand of ammunition for small arms that is made in Mexico. I shoot it all the time.
Now I’m imagining a prequel comic going back to Kendo Miyamoto’s younger days sipping “Washi” Beer in a bar deep in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.
I think it’s a nice detail that since she orders cerveza she gets something with cerveza on the label. And gets it with a slice of lime.
One wonders if real Colombian Aguila is brewed with coca leaves
So I guess she is going to pick her own room’s lock to get in?
Is she actually gone, though. I admit I read it that way the first time, but looking at that last panel again, if she’s still there, we wouldn’t see her from that angle. He could simply be reacting to how quickly she drained the bottle. I suppose we’ll find out.
Alaric, you are a chronic overcomplicater, always looking for the road not travelled or the unexpected explanation. I imagine you are probably a genius. I’m not a genius. It’s always the first explanation. She’s left the room.
Sorry. I can’t help it.
You aren’t helped by the fact that this is a story designed to be read in one go (well, 22-page chapters), eked out at a snail’s pace.
I recently (finally) joined the ranks of your Patreon users (I had been resisting for a while, because I follow a lot of webcomics and I knew I couldn’t Patreon them all, but it occurred to me recently that if I only Patreoned one webcomic creator, it would be you, so I did), so, if I wanted to, I suppose I could read part 1, at least, in one go. However, I actually enjoy reading at the more webcomic-y pace, for some reason, so I’m still planning to read it that way. When it’s done, I’ll probably reread the whole thing in one sitting.
Allison’s Razor!
She probably nipped to the loo, given how quickly she drained etc etc
I haven’t seen a chug & dash this profound since the second episode of Dr. McNinja.
Hopefully they’ll never challenge each other to a drinking contest.
I realize the chances of a Scary Go Round / Dr. McNinja crossover comic are indistinguishable from zero, but I would read the heck out of that if it existed.
Me, too.
I do believe Chris Hastings (and Anthony Clark) kinda quit the scene after Dream Team petered out, but I will admit there’s not a month that goes by that I don’t usually pull up the archives and dream.
I’m 5njoying Lottie’s scowl at being IDed
“5njoying” *sigh* you know what I mean
That’s at least THREE more than 2njoying, if I have my math correct
The button clearly converts the main public room into a ritual summoning area. The floor flips, revealing the blood-splattered pentagram and candelabras.
I was thinking she’d been kidnapped, like Shelley, until I saw she’d finished her beer.
No discussion yet on “your mum booked you a room” yet?
I assumed that it just meant that Lottie left at a rush to catch her train, and asked her mum to handle the necessary admin as she was heading out the door. Rather blowing her hard-boiled ‘tec image, to be sure.
(Is there any classic great detective or gumshoe over the age of 18 who still lives with their parents?)
Nancy Drew?
Yeah, I was wondering. IIRC Lottie’s parents have been near-non-entities in the strip(s) for years and suddenly this. Go figure.
Lottie’s mum has appeared as recently as Giant Days vol 13 (issue 49) and Wicked Things #2.
I like the way that even a Church of Satan pub has proper respect for drinking age laws. And, yes, I like Lottie’s proper respect for the hard-drinking conventions of her chosen profession.
I get the sense that, in Tredregyn, most members of the Church of Satan are fairly normal, essentially law-abiding citizens, who just happen to consider Satanism, at least nominally, their religion. Most of them aren’t evil- with the obvious exception of Tom, who’s probably only evil because he’s a jerk- and, while they generally pay lip-service to the whole Crowley-ish spiritual anarchy thing, I’ll bet very few of them really make much effort to practice it (with some exceptions, of course).
It’s just occurred to me that today is Cinco de Mayo. Coincidence? I think not.
¡Dos cervezas por favor!
Drink and dash! He knows where you live, Grote! You live there now!!
He can just add it to her room bill.
The Japanese Digital Perm is giving La Grote quite the silhouette. Like a dangerous cloud.
A dangerous cloud indeed, a bit of a contrast to her old nemesis Blossom, who I recall being compared to an “angry cloud”…