What was this a call back to? And also who else likes John Allison's work? I'm partial to Bad Machinery...

What was this a call back to? And also who else likes John Allison's work? I'm partial to Bad Machinery, so glad to hear its being continued into 2018

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I really enjoy Allison's stuff, but we need to get back to the mystery kids.

Think it's a callback either to an earlier bad machinery comic or to the start of this case wherein a boy gets thrown into the sky (I think it was via explosion or a sports game).

found the callback - lottie did it, so that's basically an explosion I guess

I agree hugely, like i get that Giant Days is doing well for him but, after Esther cheated on The Boy i just don't care for her anymore, she dodges consequences way too often.

On the other hand if Allison did mystery kids into the future college years ala Giant Days I'd pay for that every goddamn month see if I wouldn't. I especially wanna see how Jack and Mildred get along

Also Sonny is bi right? Seeing as how he's occasionally interested in girls but held hands with that boy at a wedding

I love the teachers hanging out

Almost feels like something Allison did himself at some point

Aged up mystery kids + shipping would be absolutely sublime but didn't he say he'd be dropping Tackleford altogether sometime in the near future?

And fuck Esther. She cheats with the first douchebag she meets in school and Eustace doesn't even get the dignity of telling her off on-panel.

Also I hate the artist they got for giant days

It was implied they'd been snogging in the men's room. I'm thinking he's gay and the seal-girl was just puberty-induced sexual confusion

She gets confronted in issue #13, do you care about spoilers? I'm also sore about that because Esther and The Boy were a cute rock solid couple, then first week she acts out of character to torpedo the ship so he can write no strings attached. Like he essentially cut Esther out of continuity.

The Tackleford stuff was getting dropped (big mistake imo but I get it if the excessive continuity puts people off) but he later said he was gonna keep it going through 2018, I think it was implied that its because Giant Days is making more sensible money that he wants to focus there.

Also who do you like better with Jack? Shauna, Mimi or Mildred? I do a little cheer every time Jack is in panel with a girl, like his sisters friends because it's always either sweet or comedy gold

Oh he does confront her? What does he say? I don't care about spoilers much, I have no motivation to read a comic about Esther whoring around with art I dislike, but the break-up is still this weird black hole in the boy's arc

Shauna is best girl and Jack is best boy but I don't really like them together, they're both too cautious and sensible to have any real chemistry. I liked his Mimi episode a lot despite knowing this was another chapter of the french girl lost love compendium (there has to be one walking around out there that Allison never got over) but Mildred interests me. I think a dangerous nutter may be what Jack needs which is why that strip surprised me.

Yeah it's a shame we don't get Jessica's girl gang bullying him anymore how has it already been eight years

I've liked Alison's opus since Bobbins, but did feel Bad Machinery was a step down from Scarygoround. The mystery kids did grow on me but only as they got older.
Esther cheating never bothered me, it's what happens often when kids move away from their usual social circles.
>better with Jack?
The French girl Mimi.
Meanwhile pic related is spoiler for those not following the current Hard Yards story, updated today. Wasn't Shelley terrified by judges. preventing her from practicing?

Jessica's girl gang graduated so they're out loose in the world. Shame, they coulda been cool.

And you're right, Shauna and Jack would have been cute but they were both too safe for each other, but Mildred and Jack could absolutely be a barrel full of firecrackers level of fun

Is there an active or even semi-active SGR community or fandom for these types of discussions?

On another note, I think it's pretty cool how the Mystery Gang have aged up, like they used to be tiny looking kids but they're like actually physically maturing.

Also gimme a moment to dig up the issue #13 callouts

here

...

skipping a few pages

...

if you ask me her comeuppance wasn't enough, but the primary target for Giant Days is girls so idk maybe they don't want Esther to get her just desserts

this panel broke my heart again a little.
At least Eustace like Jack is a bit of a babe magnet, Esther, Sarah, Mildred (was into him) then finally Erin

Like look how badly she fucked him up and she just gets to gallivant about in Giant Days

Giant Days is actually very good. The Esther thing didn't bother me, Allison has done worse to his characters.

She definitely gets her comeuppance in a few Giant Days storylines, but I agree after the rock solid for life Harry Potter-style relationships in SGR up until this point suddenly going for a more realistic treatment of relationships is a bit jarring.

I'm giving Giant Days a chance but I really liked Esther and The Boy together, and it was seriously out of character (yes i know its canon so its not really out of character but Sarah in that panel calls it out so)

is there a forum or some sort of online community to talk about SGR and other John Allison works?

Thanks for posting these.

I agree, she deserved a much sounder emotional pummeling, but I guess since it's her comic that isn't allowed. At least he got off with Sarah who has certainly turned out well. Remember when she looked like this?

Yes, Shelley was apparently scared pissless by judges. I guess she got over it for the sake of the paterfamilias.

Allison used to host one on his site but he deleted it some years back. I don't know of any other place besides the occasional thread here

Also I want to add I really resent how they bring in Susan to be too cool and act like they're all being petty and childish over nothing, leave Esther alone she's gonna slay kween.

It wasn't fucking nothing.

True, although Susan later gets caught cheating herself in Giant Days.

He may well be Full Gay, and the Selkie magic just overpowered that.

Or maybe his sealfu is just the only girl he'll ever love.

I'll keep trying, making threads etc. the SGR reddit is like, dead. It's a real shame theres not more fan content, Tackleford is a good mix of a lot of stuff thats hot right now eg. It, Gravity Falls, Stranger Things

whats with all his awful female protagonists cheating/involved in cheating? is it a pattern or is it just writing?

Also you're entirely right, they're entirely vindicated in putting Esther on blast and while they can still care for their friend NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO UNDERMINE YOUR LECTURE ON HOW THEY SCREWED UP A VERY HAPPY RECIPROCAL EQUALLY LOVING RELATIONSHIP ON A FUCKING WHIM FOR NO REASON.

she fucking abandoned her best friend and boyfriend week 1 of university and i dont think Sarah or Eustace show up at any later point.

Esther is NOT a good friend

Cheap drama and an easy way to separate characters.

which is a shame because he's so good at writing fun friendships and awkward teeny romances

So do we think Erin and Boyce will survive? Also I hope Boyce reunites with his mates now he’s out of that dead zone. I wonder how Mildred would feel about it

Most of Allison's writing tends to make his female characters vibrant, energetic, whimsical and full of agency. Conversely his male characters end up weak and ineffectual for the most part. He clearly finds women much more interesting to write because they inevitably seem to take leading roles in most of his works and (I think) are generally where he does his best writing.
This works completely fine fine in something like scary go round where the dynamic from the get-go is like that and the tone is generally extremely lighthearted.
It sort of falls apart in some of his later stuff because the relationship between Esther and Eustace is treated like less of a joke than most of the other ones he had written about before then (so people had become invested in it over a number of years) and because his post scary go round stuff has been (marginally) less silly, so when people do horrible things it isn't always as easy to laugh it off.

Also he's always been fine with completely fucking over a character if he looses interest in writing them or a relationship they're involved in. I recall him writing about how much he enjoyed getting rid of Erin back in the scary go round days. So maybe that's the real problem. We've gotten really invested in these characters and their relationships over the years but he hasn't. Maybe the extent to which Esther might be a bad friend was never somthing he cared about or found interesting to write about.

He's still an excellent writer but I have found it more jarring over time.

I’d agree he probably enjoys writing women more, he gives them a lot of great lines and I think he subsequently makes the men a bit more boofheaded so they can act as foils.

That’s not to say he doesn’t have some positive males, Ryan is very nurturing and a good teacher, Eustace is often quite capable, the Mystery Boys are equals to their female counterparts (though Linton and Sonny especially could use more fleshing out)

Being around Tim is bad for Eustace, I think.

Yeah, that was kind of my issue, I was excited to see him try a new direction but the Mystery Boys sort of fell to the wayside.

Less Tim more Mildred’s dad and mostly Mildred. I wonder what having her crush come back to life, and be in a solid relationship with a hot redhead would... Prompt in her re: Jack

I’m honestly enjoying Jack’s love escapades, a top 3 element of Bad Machinery for me is the casts and especially his romantic entanglements.
I like the running gag that he’s actually found to be quite attractive

The Mystery Boys definitely get their chances to shine, Jack is definitely as good of an investigator as Lottie or Shauna. Sonny is a cheery presence of hard work and innocence and Linton... I don’t really have the strongest grasp on his character other than the pessimist

Do y’all think Allison, having experienced how awkward and shitty it is to be a guy kinda, genuinely think women are somehow more competent?

Like, when the boys are bullied they typically can’t hold their own in a fight whereas the girls get to either fight someone their physical equal or talk them into submission, where as the boys don’t get those options

Like he’s writing from his Experience of masculinity but also his Perception of femininity which is obviously biased so he kinda gives them the easy breaks

>whats with all his awful female protagonists cheating/involved in cheating?
It's a bit different. It's sort of like Susan had her own The Boy (who I will refer to as The Man for reasons that will become clear if you read Giant Days) and then they broke up and get back together by breaking up The Man's current relationship.

I think it's foolishness to connect Giant Days and SGR too strongly though. They're different, Giant Days is more down to earth and the reason for the split is probably just to keep the settings separate.

twitter.com/badmachinery/status/929760313666400256

No one will survive. Also, it looks like Esther and Shelley will meet in the GD holiday special.

I would not describe the characterization of women in Allison's work as them being overly competent. Shelley spent years bouncing aroubd jobs before getting rich off kids books, Amy the same until she figured out she had an inmate Antiques Sense and even then her store struggled. Fallon was dangerously incompetent.

Oh no. Do you think he’s serious about it being dark or was that a goof bc of the Raven??? I hope everyone happily makes it to college together, no way is he gonna torpedo those kids with an unhappy ending

I think he was mostly joking, but it's also John Allison and he has legit given characters really unhappy endings just because he was bored of them multiple times.

Shelley writes a best selling kids book on a lark
Amy’s antiques finding was just a magic luck power
Erin was handed Queen of Hell
I talk a lot of shit a knot Esther but as the principle character she faces some setbacks like getting cut off from her parents money.

Like the girls do struggle for a bit but disproportionately I think they also get stuff handed to them

Watching Jack is so frustrating because he is a good kid but he is a big idiot when it come to romance. Forgetting his date with Shauna and running from Mildred.

I think one of the things Allison really knocks home is like, these characters are exaggerated and the story is fantastical but I totally fucking knew a Jack when I was at school. And a Linton.

Well, at least he got to be as hung as a horse for a while.

But yeah, I found them to be a cute couple back in the SGR days. Didn't much care for Esther deciding to cheat pretty much out of nowhere.

I’ve never read this comic outside of threads about it here, why is it every time I read it I don’t feel like I’m reading English?

because it's in the Queen's English and you're an illiterate moop

>background character goes to space and becomes a badass
Doesn't happen often enoigh

Lottie just wants what's best for us all.

Is the next comic going to be that kid's space adventures?

I truly fear the next stage of John Allison's waifucrafting. With each story he has refined his powers, producing characters of purer and more and more concentrated waifuonium. What dread bride will he next bestow upon the world?

None shall ever top Shauna. None. Do you hear me? The crown is hers eternal.

Both Lottie and Mildred are better than Shauna m8.

Right Lottie is good, not completely intolerable in every way

Are you me? I really don't care about anything else of Allison's save for the mystery kids, and I just discovered GD recently, and I'm really enjoying that.
I really had to turn my brain off, and just enjoy these recent comics, with Bobbin's characters, and characters from the other comics, or whatever.

I hope Energy Crow gets his own webcomic.

You’re right, Mildred best girl.
>you’ll never be pursued by a witty, slightly intimidating girl with damn nice legs who knows what she wants and what she wants is a nerd

Seems to be a common sentiment, GD Esther kinda sucks and Bad Machinery kids should be the future

I mean that's not Lottie but I understand your stance

Lottie is apparently a stunner in canon it’s just she’s very chatty, loud and the most whimsy is the three. She’d definitely just leave mid date if she was bored, Shauna might also, now that she broke Bad a little. Mildred would probably just text her complaints to her mates but would at least stay and give you a chance

Honestly if you don't have a juicy mystery to present I can't see Lottie staying through a whole date.
There's no way you could get her to sit through a whole date night movie and dinner, you'd be better off leading with a stakeout + picnic or something.

Lottie has too much Shelley in her to be true Best Girl.

You wouldn’t be dating her you’d be her minder.

The other two girls though are solid, Shauna is a bit pricklier after Blossom but she may mellow out for the right boy and from hanging with Lottie again.

I gotta say again their evolution from tiny 12 year olds to what, 17 now? Has been fantasticly illustrated.

>SGR reddit
I didn't know this existed, it'll probably take a while for readership to increase.
I was in the forum when Allison nuked it from orbit: one day a large busy forum, next day scorched earth.

Gosh, I think I heard about that. I guess the community never really recovered because the Reddit was mostly just a bit that reposted links to the comic.

Also here’s some of jacks greatest hits

Jack has a very approachable soft gentleman aura that makes girls not wild but at least very interested and likely to run their fingers through his hair

Also this was an illuminating strip, vis a vis the boys and Mildred

Also Mildred is WELL into it her dance with Jack

I think Giant Days probably did a lot to raise JA's profile. I thought it was funny that got an Eisner nom when it's basically the same shit he's been writing for years, just not in webcomic format.

That SHF is a neat touch.

For sure, he like, rescued an editor from tripping, talked with her and they figured female centric college tales was a market that they could use and not were they wrong.

>Lottie wears a suit instead of a dress
Subtle hint IMO. Also holy shit Mildred would have fucking melted me as a teen.

She was very much into it boyos. Jack’s probably packing down there hey

Shauna occasionally wears pants with her uniform, and Lottie is by far the least interested in boys, “Mystery is my Boyfriend” and such, but she had a moment with Tuan at space camp but she didn’t wanna handle the potential heartbreak down the line. That and the commute

>tfw two pretty schoolgirls will never inquire coyly about your penis

Mildred stuffs her bra and I don’t know what to do with this information except love her more

let's be honest here, suits >>> dresses any day of the week on cute girls like Lottie

Agreed. Anyway this thread doesn’t seem to be still bumping so what should we do? Are we gonna inhabit the scary go round Reddit? Where will this community spring up again.

Fellow SGR readers, what other comics do you read?

Webcomics or regular comics bc I haven’t had much time for many others, used to read homestuck, Gunnerkrig and sun sounded though.
Any recommendations for something similar to bad machinery?

>Webcomics or regular comics
Both.

of course it's still bumping, idiot

Webcomics and some other stuff: my RSS feed
my pull list is pretty long right now but the highlights:
Gwenpool
Nightwing (until Seeley is off)
Young Animal (All of it, especially Bug and Shade the Changing Girl)
Mister Miracle

The state of /u/.

what do lesbians have to do with this

Oh paranatural! That’s a good one, I gotta catch up on that.

Also Little Claire turned out well fit eh.

Aye

He’s been in the fairly land 2 minutes and they already wanna pash him. Is Jack a chad?

It's just recently gotten good again! I've gone from not caring what's going on to being genuinely surprised by what's going on. Current arc still dragged like hell but at least it's picking up now.
He's not a Chad, he's just a sexy fuck

Tackleford is a bit of a mess for newer readers bc the characters appear all over bc of hiatus and such. I’d love it if he spun off the Bad Machinery cast into college but I doubt he would as Giant Days 2.0.

But Esther needs to graduate sometime and if she does I could see the mystery crew taking over? That’d probably be living in the best timeline

Jack is Prime husbando material like Eustace was. Jack is essentially The Boy again but with more female experience

>Oh paranatural! That’s a good one, I gotta catch up on that.

Was a good one. Now... he clearly lost the plot years ago, the current chapter is like 50% of the total runtime of the entire series, backgrounds stopped existing etc, etc, etc.

No, fairies are just sluts, and Linton is a hideous unlovable manbeast.

Oh. Well I’ll check it out regardless to see how it’s fallen.

Also Mildred still has a phone full of Statue Jack selfies. Not sure what to do with that information

A bunch of them. Unsounded, Widdershins, Girl Genius, SMBC, S*P, Gunnerkrigg, and like 40 others.

I think I may be addicted.

I think he’s too horny, tries too hard and tries to emulate what other boys do instead of being himself

I had a massive list like that once, brought me no joy trying to follow so many and I realized I just read them back when I had time to open 50+ links and just read 1 page and then move on. I’ve cut down significantly to manga which updates on a more regular weekly schedule and I’m gonna let the webcomics pile up so I can binge it in one go then move onto the next

I miss Jack's sister's friends and their cruel /ss/ plans for Jack.

Also Colm. Colm was alright.