I find the idea of a rampaging toilet oddly terrifying. A steady stream of people vanishing from the office, their bodies turning up in the local sewer system…sounds like a crappy x files plot.
EARLY short between movies on HBO had movie reels that unrolled themselves and ate people, then spooled themselves back up I recall this from my grandparents house late 70’s or early 80’s.
Given that in Narbonic I discovered that the exact building I used to work in was later infested by deranged hamsters bent on global domination (the Sylvan Learning Center) I’m betting it’s real.
If Chapel Hill Mall – she’s walking towards the food court – given the perspective on Auntie Anne’s Pretzel shop.
Can’t put a fix on the first panel – map of the mall doesn’t seem to fit that view. Could be an artistic license/hybrid – or a different mall after all.
The mall is based on the now-abandoned-and-super-creepy Rolling Acres (Google it), my childhood mallma mater. I was very pleased that Jeff’s scripts gave me an opportunity to draw it.
Her “Wire Mom’ which was essentially a form w/ a bottle.
Her creator (Doctor Bram I believe) was dead before she ran off and eventually joined SH. One of the KS short stories had her being rescued from the pound by Artie, and he introduced her to SH.
Michael, while one of the KS stories is of Sweetheart and Captain Bram interacting, the specific story that Robert is referencing is the “secret” filename story, which unspools a couple words a day in the names of the images as uploaded by Shaenon. Alert reader J. Campbell has been doing a great job compiling it as it comes down the pipe: Check it out!
Ya – I’m definitely getting my stories commingled. I don’t think I have the KS story of Bram/Sweetheart, but there were some flashbacks if I recall during the Alaska arc. Time to check my files.
I tend to think of the filename story as more of a Tip ‘origin’ story than a Sweetheart origin.
Re villains from the office john: I remember from the Narbonic filename story what Helen cooked up in the bathroom of an Italian restaurant, so, yeah, Nick is right.
I hadn’t thought of it that way (converting the bathroom for parts) – I mentally envisioned her pulling an Agatha (at full rant) and building a monstrosity/device as she stormed back toward the table.
I wonder if the Lawyer survived? One of the comically indestructible like Othar perhaps?
I’m pretty sure that story ended with him dying and his last thoughts being that he was proud to be killed by a Narbon. Not that death is necessarily permanent mind you.
Sometimes I imagine that 20 odd years from now people (probably us or our grandkids) will be discussing which stories are part of the core Narboniverse – much like the way Asimov tied together his robots trilogy, the galactic empire trilogy (three stand-alones such as “the stars like dust”) and the Foundation series.
oneuniverse2 – I think that the Foglio’s universe deviated far enough back in any potential time calculations that it would be considered separately. I WOULD however, give the Foglio’s short story contribution to the Narbonic volumes, give that each influenced the other,
On a very much related note – I recently (finally) read the novelizations of the Girl Genius graphic novels. They DEFINATELY add background in some areas (character motives and such) and include scenes that are NOT in the online or graphic tomes. Highly recommended. I even passed the first off to my mother (she liked the Potter and Twilight books) to read. I’m already looking forward to volume 4….. alas – probably a couple years away.
(TUNE: “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”, The Proclaimers)
Now I’m ready … yes, I’m ready now to rant
Outside this old abandoned Akron shopping mall!
Try to threaten … try to threaten, but I can’t,
See the decline of this once fine old shopping mall!
As I’m reading … well, I stammer and I halt,
I am distracted by this poor old shopping mall!
And I’m saying … yes, I’m saying it’s the fault
Of foreign trade, that has unmade this shopping mall!
And I would wreck five hundred malls
And I will wreck five hundred more,
Just so I could then restore them to
Their heydey, as they were before!
J.C. Penney! Sears & Roebuck!
Barnes & Noble, with a Starbucks!
Who the heck is Sam Goody? Wonder where could he be?
O the sadness! O the sorrow!
JoAnn Fabrics, and Sbarro!
Abercrombie & Fitch, yeah, life is a bitch! (Like me!)
Well played!
…Of course, the Proclaimers’ other fine song “Letter from America” has a similar theme (the need to emigrate following the decline of industry in Scotland)… though I dunno if it’s obvious if you’re not Scottish and don’t know the relevance of all the placenames. Not that I would have any idea where Akron is or what kind of place it is if I hadn’t been told, either…
Physically, the American mall has been downsized into various strip malls where stores have more control over the size and look of their shoppes. In reality, Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy has made the whole physical store concept (including much of the Walmarts, Barnes & Nobles, Costcos, etc.) obsolete.
And in fifty years, Generation Beta will be laughing that we used to go to websites to buy things when everything is now 3D printed, Star Trekked Replicated, or is crafted from a hologram room. The whole concept of games is obsolete except for the sad guy who is somehow able to create a world where Zelda saves Link with the help of some genie named Shantae.
Actually, I think there’s a place for Costcos because not everyone needs more than 50 rolls of toilet paper per order, at least for the foreseeable future.
Now we could start a discussion of how the general economy is organized with Replicators everywhere.
Reading, aloud from: a! script- in Character? is a bit of a skill, and harder than you might think. I went along to various readings at a convention recently, and most of the first-time novelists speaking really struggled with it.
As a former employee of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, I can attest that even reading dry text is a challenge if you are also trying to enunciate clearly and keep the proper pacing.
Granted, I wasn’t paid for my work, but I cannot say I was proud of it either.
And it would seem that the either I messed up the html code, or it didn’t post properly. At any rate, that was supposed to include a link to the T-shirt that points out the crucial difference between the phrases “Let’s eat, Grandma.” and “Let’s eat Grandma.”
I assume that’s supposed to be Rolling Acres Mall. In a weird twist, the City of Akron recently foreclosed on another mall for hundreds of thousand of dollars in unpaid utility bills.
It is! Those two malls were my local malls growing up (along with the Monroeville Mall, setting of Dawn of the Dead, when we were visiting the family in Pittsburgh).
With the odd pacing, I can see her delivering this while sounding like a feminine Christopher Walken.
I hear Pearl Forrester from MST3K when she was nervous about her mad science presentation.
Or a girly William Shatner.
Funny, that’s exactly what I was about to say.
I actually hear Joel Robinson from MST3K.
I’m waiting for her to leave the slightly aggrieved note alluded to in her first Rampage.
….Given how many of their office supplies are Machine Union, I have to wonder whether the office john might BE a better villain.
And here we see the typical right-wing demonization of Unions… 🙂
I think they were referring to the fact that the machines are intelligent, not that unions make you evil. I could be wrong though.
I think that reply was a joke. At least, I hope so. 😉
How many smile-ies am I required to add to prevent confusion?
How strange. In my own experience, it’s normally leftists that try to et rid of unions.
There’s a limit to how much getting crapped on a ‘bot can take before there’s no option but RAMPAGE.
I find the idea of a rampaging toilet oddly terrifying. A steady stream of people vanishing from the office, their bodies turning up in the local sewer system…sounds like a crappy x files plot.
Y’know, there’s already a movie about a bed which devours those who sleep on it…
EARLY short between movies on HBO had movie reels that unrolled themselves and ate people, then spooled themselves back up I recall this from my grandparents house late 70’s or early 80’s.
Awesome – found it online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Qeee8D2Ro
Ooh! I remember seeing that back then.
I’m waiting for a stray pus to pass underped.
Gotta have a filk from those spud boys from Akron…
(Tune: “Beautiful World” by DEVO)
They are glorious, my creations
But laughed at for too long
Suffering fools everywhere
The way they point and stare
Makes me want to say
Suffer under my lash
Suffer under my lash
Suffer under my lash
You fools!
You fools!
You fools!
The American mall is dying
There’s nothing quite so sad
Manufacturing has declined
So they likely won’t mind
When I make them pay
Suffer under my lash
Suffer under my lash
Suffer under my lash
You fools!
You fools!
You fools!
This rant’s from me (Aha ha ha ha ha!)
And not Mom (Aha ha ha ha ha!)
And not John (Aha ha ha ha ha!)
You fools! (Aha ha ha ha ha!)
*Applause*
Devo’s near-deadpan vocals fit so well with today’s strip, too.
I grew up near Akron. I wonder if I’ve been to that mall?
Given that in Narbonic I discovered that the exact building I used to work in was later infested by deranged hamsters bent on global domination (the Sylvan Learning Center) I’m betting it’s real.
…Chapel Hill Mall?
Was meant to be a reply to Adama…
If Chapel Hill Mall – she’s walking towards the food court – given the perspective on Auntie Anne’s Pretzel shop.
Can’t put a fix on the first panel – map of the mall doesn’t seem to fit that view. Could be an artistic license/hybrid – or a different mall after all.
I think Randall Park mall closed down a while back, but that’s closer to Cleveland than Akron.
The mall is based on the now-abandoned-and-super-creepy Rolling Acres (Google it), my childhood mallma mater. I was very pleased that Jeff’s scripts gave me an opportunity to draw it.
I want credit for inventing “mallma mater.”
Do we need to put a little (R) next to mallma mater when we use it?
Next time Sweetheart should go to the rehersals…
Wooden dialogue, robotic actress, engineered dog running it.
Sounds like it ran according to plan after all.
Wait, we’ve met Sweetheart’s mom, right?
and “You have laughted at my!” is my new favorite sentence
Her “Wire Mom’ which was essentially a form w/ a bottle.
Her creator (Doctor Bram I believe) was dead before she ran off and eventually joined SH. One of the KS short stories had her being rescued from the pound by Artie, and he introduced her to SH.
Ok, there really needs to be a way to get the KS stories after the KS is over. Because that sounds awesome and I want to read it.
Michael, while one of the KS stories is of Sweetheart and Captain Bram interacting, the specific story that Robert is referencing is the “secret” filename story, which unspools a couple words a day in the names of the images as uploaded by Shaenon. Alert reader J. Campbell has been doing a great job compiling it as it comes down the pipe: Check it out!
Ya – I’m definitely getting my stories commingled. I don’t think I have the KS story of Bram/Sweetheart, but there were some flashbacks if I recall during the Alaska arc. Time to check my files.
I tend to think of the filename story as more of a Tip ‘origin’ story than a Sweetheart origin.
Re villains from the office john: I remember from the Narbonic filename story what Helen cooked up in the bathroom of an Italian restaurant, so, yeah, Nick is right.
I hadn’t thought of it that way (converting the bathroom for parts) – I mentally envisioned her pulling an Agatha (at full rant) and building a monstrosity/device as she stormed back toward the table.
I wonder if the Lawyer survived? One of the comically indestructible like Othar perhaps?
I’m pretty sure that story ended with him dying and his last thoughts being that he was proud to be killed by a Narbon. Not that death is necessarily permanent mind you.
Sometimes I imagine that 20 odd years from now people (probably us or our grandkids) will be discussing which stories are part of the core Narboniverse – much like the way Asimov tied together his robots trilogy, the galactic empire trilogy (three stand-alones such as “the stars like dust”) and the Foundation series.
Or like people discuss religion.
Are we going to pull in the Foglio’s work, too?
oneuniverse2 – I think that the Foglio’s universe deviated far enough back in any potential time calculations that it would be considered separately. I WOULD however, give the Foglio’s short story contribution to the Narbonic volumes, give that each influenced the other,
On a very much related note – I recently (finally) read the novelizations of the Girl Genius graphic novels. They DEFINATELY add background in some areas (character motives and such) and include scenes that are NOT in the online or graphic tomes. Highly recommended. I even passed the first off to my mother (she liked the Potter and Twilight books) to read. I’m already looking forward to volume 4….. alas – probably a couple years away.
Maybe they could set it to the tune of a song, if they want her to say it properly?
(TUNE: “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”, The Proclaimers)
Now I’m ready … yes, I’m ready now to rant
Outside this old abandoned Akron shopping mall!
Try to threaten … try to threaten, but I can’t,
See the decline of this once fine old shopping mall!
As I’m reading … well, I stammer and I halt,
I am distracted by this poor old shopping mall!
And I’m saying … yes, I’m saying it’s the fault
Of foreign trade, that has unmade this shopping mall!
And I would wreck five hundred malls
And I will wreck five hundred more,
Just so I could then restore them to
Their heydey, as they were before!
J.C. Penney! Sears & Roebuck!
Barnes & Noble, with a Starbucks!
Who the heck is Sam Goody? Wonder where could he be?
O the sadness! O the sorrow!
JoAnn Fabrics, and Sbarro!
Abercrombie & Fitch, yeah, life is a bitch! (Like me!)
Excellent. Now I’m trying to imagine what Benny of “Benny & Joon” would do in this comic.
Well played!
…Of course, the Proclaimers’ other fine song “Letter from America” has a similar theme (the need to emigrate following the decline of industry in Scotland)… though I dunno if it’s obvious if you’re not Scottish and don’t know the relevance of all the placenames. Not that I would have any idea where Akron is or what kind of place it is if I hadn’t been told, either…
Like the earmuffs / headphones. Nice touch.
You know, I think the slightly iritated fiscal rants might actually make her seem like more of a mad scientist…
Physically, the American mall has been downsized into various strip malls where stores have more control over the size and look of their shoppes. In reality, Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy has made the whole physical store concept (including much of the Walmarts, Barnes & Nobles, Costcos, etc.) obsolete.
And in fifty years, Generation Beta will be laughing that we used to go to websites to buy things when everything is now 3D printed, Star Trekked Replicated, or is crafted from a hologram room. The whole concept of games is obsolete except for the sad guy who is somehow able to create a world where Zelda saves Link with the help of some genie named Shantae.
Actually, I think there’s a place for Costcos because not everyone needs more than 50 rolls of toilet paper per order, at least for the foreseeable future.
Now we could start a discussion of how the general economy is organized with Replicators everywhere.
Reading, aloud from: a! script- in Character? is a bit of a skill, and harder than you might think. I went along to various readings at a convention recently, and most of the first-time novelists speaking really struggled with it.
As a former employee of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, I can attest that even reading dry text is a challenge if you are also trying to enunciate clearly and keep the proper pacing.
Granted, I wasn’t paid for my work, but I cannot say I was proud of it either.
I’m reminded of a quote I found in the newspaper (and sometimes online) comic Stone Soup (which has a strong cast of female characters).
The mother was emphasizing punctuation to the eldest daughter and used the sentence “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”
She then promptly turned it around into “Woman. Without her, Man is nothing.”
That is the power of pacing and punctuation. Completely changes the text.
Punctuation isn’t just powerful, it saves lives.
And it would seem that the either I messed up the html code, or it didn’t post properly. At any rate, that was supposed to include a link to the T-shirt that points out the crucial difference between the phrases “Let’s eat, Grandma.” and “Let’s eat Grandma.”
Andrew, Beckwith pities; her . ..!
–Dave, obligatory obscure Usenet reference
I assume that’s supposed to be Rolling Acres Mall. In a weird twist, the City of Akron recently foreclosed on another mall for hundreds of thousand of dollars in unpaid utility bills.
It is! Those two malls were my local malls growing up (along with the Monroeville Mall, setting of Dawn of the Dead, when we were visiting the family in Pittsburgh).
To be fair to Sweetheart, having a weirdly specific theme and motivation seems pretty common for MADs.