Bad Machinery: The Big Hiatus
As Bad Machinery went on, and I was working on it in tandem with writing Giant Days, I started to struggle to write two "cases" a year, so I began to alternate them with lighter, easier to put together material. In 2016, between cases 9 and 10 I did a story called the Big Hiatus, where I tried to work exclusively in the Japanese yonkoma format. It's a format built for formulaic gag strips but I pushed it as hard as I could to be more visually sophisticated, as I thought there was something in the vertical format - I had experimented with it in Robert Cop and Bobbins.horse first. The results were mixed - this is an improvised story with no pre-plotting, and I can really smell the difference at this point, but like a lot of experiments that I didn't feel worked, looking back after six years, it has some exciting energy - a bridge to things I did later, and some roads I never went down again. I pulled the "camera" back a lot to cram as much into each panel as possible.
It's not collected with the other Bad Machinery stories on GoComics, so I've stuck it as a PDF at the bottom of this post. I should have a couple more PDFs from my lost "back pages" over the next few weeks.
Comments (24)
This was among my favorites. Mostly for Sonny's terrible day and the Shelley/Charlotte framing scenes.
You’ve mentioned that the Bad Machinery archive will be restored once the GoComics run concludes. Would this story be included with said archive? (Also I assume Space is the Place will also be included)
I love this. The dialogue is wonderful, the art is beautiful and fun, and while it brings the delightful peak weird there is also the sadness of growing up and apart.
That was fun. Poor Sonny. Love the bit about the wasps nest.
I'm sure I've read this story some years ago. But I'd totally forgotten mostly of it and I can't understand why. It's a good story with important developments. Memory is just weird.
First appearance of Brian!
This is just great., except it makes me want to go back and reread the whole thing again.
The talking horse bit, was that a Lottie add-on or could it actually happen?
Thank you so much.
Aw, I think this was the last time we saw Shauna, my favourite character. I know you gotta write what you gotta write, and I accept we'll probably not see her again, but I still miss her. Thanks for the memories!
You'll see Shauna Wickle again, sooner than you think.
Also this one has a very distinct and unique flavor of whimsy that I think is really great :)
Ohhh, I'd forgotten all about this one; I've been trying and failing to remember why Lottie and Shauna drifted apart. It's so sad, I always really loved their dynamic. I hope Shaxna shows up at some point in Solver...
Me too!
Thank you John. I'm happy you can look at old "unsuccessful" pieces and see their value.
Hoorah! I've been looking forward to re-visiting this one.
“Murder in panel six, murder in panel six.”
Neat. mostly read those in collected editions so missed out. Looking forward to the new Steeple volume!
Yesssssss!
This one was so good! Thank you for putting it up. Such gems in it. "WORD FOR YES THAT IS MORE THAN YES. VERY YES" "She's on the fence" "minor misjudgement by the C-Machine" "Lampshades can wait!" "Tell that to the man who spent the night staring at a bare 60W bulb. Retinas like two tostadas" "Because, my fine fren, you don't often see idiots hewn in marble."
Hmm, page 7, there's Lottie surrounded by brightly colored rectangles again. Does that happen to her a lot?
I loved this one. Poor Sonny had a rough time
(Hushed whisper) ...Space is the Place...?
Space Is The Place is on GoComics! I can put it up here too if anyone else wants it in a higher-res form.