Read SOLVER: AUTUMN SPECIAL in full now
Your PDF is linked under the cover image - please let me know what you think in the comments. And thank you for supporting the making of the
Your PDF is linked under the cover image - please let me know what you think in the comments. And thank you for supporting the making of these comics.
For new $3+ Patrons, your Solver stories so far (links are to the PDF download posts)
Issues 1 & 2 - Circus Windows part 1 & part 2
Issues 3 & 4 - Author Unknown (Steeple crossover) part 1 & part 2
Issue 5 - Spring Special
Issue 6 - Autumn Special (this story)
Issue 7 - Green Door - should be with you in a couple of months. I've just started drawing it.
Comments (32)
I really want Lottie's toiletry bag with Des on it. I will pay whatever you ask.
I'm loving the direction Solver is going in. Only meant to download this evening but ended up reading the entire thing and my life is all the better for it.
Finally had the opportunity to read this and it was wonderful. And it leaves me excited for the future of Solver. Thanks John!
The bit about British "nightlife" struck me as especially funny given a recent conversation. A friend of mine relocated from the US to the UK for his dream job (at frequent Allison mockery subject Games Workshop, no less) and his main complaint after a few months was "There's nothing to do here after 6PM!" (I sent him that page and his response was "This is what I keep telling everyone!")
I swear you could just piss on a keyboard and I'd still end up loving your writing.
Not sure I'd trust anything from a bag labeled "Will this do?" but there's also something to be said for being adventurous.
Well done Colin, you win the most important prize of all: respect.
That was quite a journey! Can't wait to see what shenanigans Ms. Grote gets up to. Very happy to see a cameo by Danger Nebula; I hope it won't be the last.
I'm sure that Charlotte, a fan of such manga series as Oops! Haunted Dustbin, Army Of Wasps, Pretty Cobblers, Mega High School Parameter Team and Dusty Envelope Blossoms, will be taking the opportunity to return to Danger Nebula once she has got her finances back on track.
I love it so much. the continued growth as characters of Charlotte and Claire is a joy to behold. I applaud the plan of a new ongoing crime and nonsense series, I was absolutely gutted when Wicked Things came to an early end (damn you COVID!). So, my usual question that I post on Patreon - when can I read this on lovely paper? Who is going to publish this as an ongoing monthly, or collected edition??!!
Print versions are under discussion, Jon. If the worst comes to the worst I could put it out myself but that is a big job.
This comic was great. It captures the feel of being young and struggling to figure out what's next. Also there's a BWS Machine Man homage panel.
I had to go right into the heart of the machine to draw that. And by the heart of the machine, I mean my box of old comics. Well spotted!
I wouldn't say this if you didn't explicitly ask for thoughts, as the anxious burden of even the most constructive critical internet comments is not lost on me. Furthermore, you know very well how much I admire your work, and it would take despicable revelations external to it for me to ever stop reading. On that note, while the Autumn Special is enjoyable from the standpoint of loving your writer's voice and artistic style, your recent (non-Steeple) output has the tendency to feel like exposition without much substantial story. Whereas any Scary Go Round, Bad Machinery, or Giant Days story can be called to memory with a quick "the one with the Easter bell", "the one with the selkie", or "the one with the amateur film festival", I'd struggle to condense the Spring and Autumn specials with similar packaging. I believe you mentioned having only decided recently that Solver would be a full-fledged series, so I hope it finds footing on which to stand, but it has already been an entire six issues. [This part is largely speculative: My impression is, Wicked things' meticulous advance planning and the unexpected cancelation/pandemic which followed struck an awful nerve, which has led to a lot of mind-changing and pivoting away from things (for one reason or another, varying by project) when they hardly get the chance to start at all.] Circus Windows was great fun, but it gave the notion of a pilot episode that never properly picked up. NEMS teased follow-up, which apparently was entirely conceived, researched, written, and roughed out, then scrapped after completing only one page. I recognize how immense the pressure must be to catch lightning in a bottle again with something that resonates on the same level as previous efforts, but in my eyes, the thread connecting all your most popular series is simply that you kept writing them. You were underwhelmed when initial response was lukewarm going from SGR to Bad Machinery, then saw it through for a near-decade of now-beloved stories. Those settings and characters had time to develop and grow with their audience. Now, we have Lottie and a revolving door of folks who only get screen time to MacGuffin her along from point A to point B. That's disheartening more than anything else, because even in stories you've published that had almost no "plot" whatsoever, great characters did more than enough to compensate. You've got so many of them, and even keep introducing plenty of new ones--why aren't any being fleshed out? At any rate, I represent one voice in a crowd of thousands, and there are almost certainly factors behind the scenes (and/or out of your control) contributing to what I'm describing. My perspective is, you should pick an idea and stick with it for a while; regardless of whether or not you end up taking my two cents, when the day's done, you'll still have my three dollars.
I take your point, Jen, but you've repeated, almost verbatim, criticisms I received of the first hundred or so pages of every supposedly beloved series you list. If I'd listened to those criticisms instead of exploring what I was trying to say and joining those points up over a thousand plus pages, they would never have been made. Perhaps it is a mistake to candidly talk here about projects I've scrapped. I only do so in order that other creative people reading don't feel downhearted when things they labour over don't work out. "NEMS part two" is the thin end of a vast, 25 year-old wedge. I have singled it out solely because examining what I did wrong may ultimately make for an interesting piece of writing. You are more than entitled to your opinion, you feel ownership over these stories and characters and perceive something awry. But thinking about, writing, and drawing the Solver stories I've done so far has given me a great deal of pleasure, and ultimately that is the only valid reason I have found to make anything. But I'm sorry you haven't enjoyed them.
"No assassinations? What kinda Mickey Mouse outfit is this?" "Ah. Sir will be wanting our Liquidations Department. First Floor." "There is no first floor. This place is all on one level." "Yes. They're _that_ good."
Love love love ❤️❤️❤️
The ‘Work gives us purpose. He can plug all the holes in my portfolio of professional difficulty’ panel has a wonderful Ditko-esque radiance
Also x2: Bean There seems hauntingly familiar. I’m sure I’ve been into a place off West Street that had that vibe.
Those six panels of paternoster-related joy have made my 2022. Also, is Glemm’s MILK CUP shirt a reference to a popular beat combo, or to Northern Ireland’s premier international youth football tournament?
My mind often turns to the 1985 Milk Cup final with the huge inflatable bottle of milk in the centre of the pitch. I'm now not sure if I imagined that. You will note that Gerg's sweatshirt is in the colours of the eventual winners, Norwich City.
Thank you, that was unexpected fun for a Monday morning! Do I get to call it a "romp" or is that word off-limits except to fully-training professionals in marketing and adult entertainment of various sorts?
"Romp" is one of those words that was obliterated by the red top tabloids in the UK with "three in a bed romps" but I am all for reclaiming it as this is a definite romp.
Contractual shenanigans!
I'm glad you enjoyed the QR code
(Also, this was a ton of fun. I wolfed it down in minutes; I'm going to go back later and savour it.)
The "too narrow for a laptop" trend feels like a market niche waiting for some clever dickens to kickstarter a Coffee Shop Drinking Shelf Extender. "Made of a revolutionary sustainably-sourced lightweight artificial wood, recycled from discarded coffee cup sleeves, this shelf extender — cleverly designed to collapse into a svelte panel that can slip into your backpack — can support 32 kg of weight, and represents an insurmountable escalation in the war between coffee shops and laptop campers."
The new coffee place décor, just what this world needs. I think in Italy they have places where you buy a small cup of coffee, drink it, and leave all without sitting.
Delightful!
I love this. Can't wait to see it continued even further.
I heard Chuffy Central only survived Beeching due to its terrible local bus service.
Thank you Johnny!!