Read STEEPLE 20: Extreme Freaks in full now
The final issue. As you will see, it ties up every single loose end perfectly. I believe it would take a very powerful imagination to extrapolate a single plotline beyond the final page of Steeple #20. Your PDF is linked under the cover.
I'll be back with something new in mid-February.
Comments (38)
By this point, how long has Billie been living in Tredregyn?
I think just over a year.
Is this going to be collected in Steeple – Volume 4? I'd like to complete the book set.
Dark Horse didn't want a book 4, so I don't know.
Loved this issue. Also, more Tedburn St Mary?
John, I've loved your work since I had a full head of hair and functional joints, and I think "WHY AM I SUCH A HUMIDITY PRINCESS?!?" might be my favorite line to date.
This left me the same way the last old episode of Twin Peaks did thirtyish years ago. Ahhhhhh! Ooooooo! Huuuuuuuh?
unlike a series that ends with a character saying "Things are going to change" this really feels like whatever happens next in Steeple will just be an intensified version of how we've always known it. Shelley + the Rev are extremely cute together btw
The Billie/Maggie conversation on the drive after leaving Devon makes me feel like there's a Shauna/Charlotte crossover coming. And by feel like I mean "very much hope for" because I want to spend more time with these characters.
so many of us, with fingers crossed
Suitably bittersweet ending to read at the end of the year. I'm sure we will revisit them again in the future, one day.
DESMOND IS.
Billie's literal soapbox is a delightful little Easter egg.
Dare I surmise you're giving readers a peek behind the curtain at the Steeple creative process by the repeated use of the phrase "It's an awful lot of effort?"
No, Steeple is quite easy to write! This was just one of many dangling plot threads, the Elaine Stevens self-help book. Who gave it to Bob?
"Narrower than a maiden aunt's arse." I laughed so hard I snorted in a most undignified way.
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Blackadder Goes Forth, Cowboy Bebop, Snow Crash, and… Steeple.
My god, what a story. Happy new year!
And to you.
Sad to see it end, but at least we got some resolution. Still, that unresolved plot thread is going to bother me: will the A30 get cleared up? Such a shame we may never find out. :(
In my experience: never.
Happy New year from Cornwall. Yep, that's how it is.
Thanks for creating such a fun book. With a real do it yourself ending. If you ever want to create a collected edition of the steeple series and/or Your other work such as solver, then you will have a customer here.
As the kids say, squeeeeeeeeeeeeee. (And Happy New Year, all!)
And having read issue 20, I can safely say all of my outstanding plot and character questions have been resolved.
Downloaded, but there's no way I'm reading this whole thing now. I want to follow along page by page, as each page is posted, make this last as long as possible. (Of course, that's what I always do, anyway, but I'm even more motivated this time.)
What an incredibly tidy resolution! I'm almost sad to see Steeple come to such a definitive conclusion but it really seems nothing was left unsaid.
Dang, John. I boarded the train with early Giant Days, then backtracked and caught up on Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery. Steeple was the first title of yours I got in on the ground floor/first issue of, and Maggie remains my favorite Allison creation. Steeple also convinced me over and over again that you're the best cartoonist to illustrate your own stories. Extreme Freaks is such an explosion of ideas and plot lines. I'm left boggled and sad: all the characters done justice to and advanced, so much that could still be done only hinted at. A rich issue, both satisfying and un- at once. I'm on the train till the end, yours or mine, and I'm looking forward to what comes next, but I'll always come back to Tredregyn (and hope you will too).
There's always hope, Charles! An open ended ending felt right. Thank you for all the kind words.
It feels ironic to wish for more of this when it feels like every single protagonist is struggling to preserve something that really just kind of needs to end, at least in its current form. (Except maybe Brian, who I don't think is really responsible for his actions.)
Happy new year. That was absolutely brutal.
But in a nice way!!
What the actual hell. 2024 starts with some massive literary blue balls.
I have very mixed feelings about this post/release and will miss these characters greatly, but wish *you* all the best for the new year
Happy New Year John! Will miss Steeple, but can't wait to see what comes next (maybe some self-publishing?). Here's to 2024 👍
Oh my! This one has some bite
Sad to see the end of Steeple as I've enjoyed it all immensely. Febrile imagination will have to fill in the blanks. Happy New Year and can't wait to see what's next!
Happy New Year, John!