Bad Machinery by John Allison for October 19, 2022

That’s Sarah with the pigtails, of course. This is pretty much what she looked like when she first appeared in Scary-Go-Round, though this is a couple years before that. Lottie’s 13 at this point in Bad Machinery, so she’d be 4 here. Lottie was 7 when she was first introduced in SGR, but Sarah had been around for a while already at that point.

The other girl is Sarah’s friend Esther de Groot, aka “Dark Esther”, who was, along with Erin Winters and Eustace “The Boy” Boyce, one of the younger set of main characters in SGR’s fairly large ensemble cast. After Scary-Go-Round ended with Esther and Sarah graduating from Griswalds, Esther went on to uni in Sheffield in the print series Giant Days.

Erin, of course, plays a large part in the current case. The Boy only has a couple of tiny background cameos this side of the Bad Machinery/Bobbins fence, though I believe at this point he’s actually working with Mildred’s dad, and Mildred goes by to harass him sometimes. This is about all we see of Esther.

Incidentally, despite (or because of) having known Erin well in school, Sarah can no longer remember that she existed. When I say “Incidentally”, I mean, “There was an Incident.”

When dolls marry cars, their children are Transformers.

Sarah, before she was a redhead.

Every time the comic cycles around, this strip sneaks up on me.

Oof. That last panel got really heavy really quick.

On the upside, it’s somewhat comforting to see that Lottie has remained fairly consistent in attitude all throughout her life…despite the ups and downs she faced along the way.

The half dialogue in the last panel… Such a powerful sign of a tragedy.

Now I understand why JA says his comic universe is only slightly interconnected, but it is obvious that it truly is in many subtle ways. I like that. Freedom to do different things, yet sneak in a few strings to the past and future here and there.

I know that last panel has some serious feels, but I’ve always wondered what happened to Lottie’s dad when reading more current writings.

Even 9 years earlier Lottie’s character was fully formed. Her vocabulary grew.

Wonderful. Well done.

This page and the next one are such a punch in the emotional gut. So well done.