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popculturebuffet · 1 month ago

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Into the Bobbins Verse: Your Guide to the Works of John Allison

So this is a little side project that's been bubbling in my brain. So Next Month, grod willing, I begin a retrospective i've wanted to do since I started this blog that i've put off for various reasons: Wanting to do the comic it's a spinoff of first, loosing most of my copies of said comic, my terrible scheduling skills, etc. I will be covering the comic book Giant Days. All 57 issues across two volumes, all the specials all of it.

But while gearing up for this i've not only fallen in love with giant days all over again but John Allisons other myraid of works he's slowly been putting back up online. And it's great stuff: i've mad it a concious goal to both get the rest of giant days AND bad machinery in print and whatever else I can grabble before inevitably the number of books avaliable becomes too small and the prices shoot up.

So I want to share that love with all you fine people paticuarlly my friends and patreons, as well as have a nice catalogue handy of John's MANY works for personal refrence and for anyone to use.

So for this guide i'll be going in a rough chronological order rather than release order, but 9/10 you can read most of these without having picked up another work. Before we can dive in though

WHO THE FLIP IS JOHN ALLISON

John Allison is a british author and very loveably weird man. He has a penchant for snappy dialouge, being unapologetically british in his settings and nicely bouncing back between slice of life, mystery and supernatual shenanigans, sometimes in the same comic. He's been at this since 1998 working primarily on the web with various web comics, cycling them out when he gets a new idea or when something has run it's course, breaking into print with his ongoing series Giant Days and since doing a few series there on and off. He's got a quirky sensebility and the bulk of his earlier work is set in the quirky english town of Tackleford before branching out to the small hamlet of Tregdin and the bustling real life town of Shefield. He is by all accounts a very nice guy, interacts with his fans regularly and is again a very deeply weird man in the best way possible, once saying he'd prefer any crossovers he does to be unexpected ones like Giant Days meeting Rom Space Knight.. and proving it by releasing his planned but shelved Batman Giant Days one shot to promote that books library editions on kickstarter.

So with that i'll be going in rough chronological order and telling you where you can read them.

DAS COMICS

Bobbins Classic:

Avaliable on Keenspot

I'm only mentoning this one for historical reasons as it was Allison's first.. and it shows. Bobbins dosen't look great for the bulk of i'ts life, only getting better when John switched to using Adobe Illustrator which while mildly dated, helped the art considerably.

Bobbins is an unfocused comic about a bunch of 20 somethigns working at a listings magazine in Tackleford. I'll talk more about it's cast in the next entry as their mostly just undefined blobs doing random shit: it's an early webcomic and thus has that throw shit at the wall and see what sticks sensiblity a lot had, with reality being loose, plot twists being thrown in and a lot of characters that go nowhere, with John having not quite figured out what he wanted. By the end he decided to abandon it leading to his breakout work. But more on that in a minute as for the strips anniversary.. he did a remake

Bobbins.Horse Avaliable At: scarygoround.com

Bobbins.Horse was intitally just a fun experiment: John went back to the original and wanted to fill in a major gap important to Bobbins sequel Scary Go Round: How goofy well meaning weird ray of sunshine Shelley Winters became best friends with the younger, wild and tatooed sass mouth Amy Chilton. In doing so he realized there was a lot of raw potetial in his old concept, and decided to do a bunch of comic strips. It's a soft reboot: parts of the original are still canon as John eventually found the format too limiting for how much his art had evolved, but it expands on loose concepts from a bitter young man into the detailed characte orinted stuff Allison would go on to make.

Bobbins.Horse is a good time and a solid entry point that follows Shelly and Amy. Amy at the time is a just turned 18 teen with a history of acting out caught in a divorce between her uncaring mom and doting but strict fater who dosen't know the real her. In the middle of writing a sex and the city style collumn, throwing a halloween party, dealing with Shelly's high school boyfriend she's outgrown and other shenanigans, are their friends and co workers: Tim, a sideburned decked soon to be inventor and gentlemen whose not intrested in Amy's obvious antics, Holly, SHelly's friend and local asshole, Rich, Tim's horny best friend and Ryan, Shelly and Tim's muttual close friend from high school, a wistful weirdo and layabout slowly getting out of the hole he's trapped in.

Bobbins.Horse is fantastic stuff, nicely segues into Allison's big work on which he formed the core of this unvierse and is one of my faviorites. Check it out. Also check out expecting to fly, a two issue comic allison did that's on his gumroad page (I'll link it in the next entry) that gives the origins of Shelley, Ryan and Tim.

Scary Go Round Found At: John's Gumroad Store

Scary Go Round was John Allison's big breakout work. The work that would help define his career. It defined his cast and who it didn't define it created. Scary Go Round is the swirling primordial core from which all of Allison's later works sprung.

It was originally intended as a full spinoff, with John not bringing his original cast back. This lasted all of one story before they quickly came back and his killing off Bobbins lead Shelley outraged fans enough to lead to a long and fantastic arc where Ryan, in his grief and with advice from a creepy old man, brings Shelley back from the dead. With this arc Scary Go Round had it's clear direction: A mix of slice of life and supernatual elements with Shelley, Ryan and soon Amy at it's core. Tim was at it's core at first but eventualy left.

Over the comic a massive amount of new characters came in to join the crew: Hugo, a track suited sandwich owner and wannabe mogul, The Boy, Tim's hormonal shy assitant, Erin, Shelley's resentful sister, and Esther, a perky goth who would get her own series soon enough. We also got Desmond fishman, a literal fishman who despite the verse leaning more towards the grounded these days, sticks around and has gone on quite the journey.

The comic did well.. but started to slip as Allison started to loose intrest, in part because he was stuck with a large cast, some of whom he cared about more than others. Introducing teens to the cast was a good idea, but he admitted regret to not giving them their own comic and instead trying to mash the two groups together. He eventually ended things and came up with a few spinoffs. The first would be his first mainstream hit, the second his biggest mainstream hit and the third.. well it sure did happen.

Avalible: Three Web Issues are at scarygoround.com, print issues are avaliable wherever books are sold probably and in digtial on amazon and are part of comixology unlimited if your intrested in binging this one.

Giant Days is John's most succesful work. That's not hyperbole, he says so on his own website. It's also the one that brought me to the dance, having gotten the first volume digitally for only a dollar and quickly devouring every inch of his work that was around at the time.

Giant Days follows Esther to college, quickly picking up two new friends; Daisy, a naive and optimistc but wise puffy haired girl from a small town and Susan, a cynical detective/med student who never lacks a sharp quip. Joining them as they grapple with college are Ed, a sunny naive programmer with a hopeless crush on Esther, McGraw, ed's best friend and susan's former friend who it's complicated with and workman extrodinare and Dean Thomas, an obnoxious entitled ass who sorta oozed his way into the boys lives. Our cast deal with the ups and downs of University life.

The comic started with three more experimental issues that got the format down: tight one in done stories that made up a larger narrative and were more grounded slice of life shenanigans without the supernatural stuff of Scary Go Round or Bad Machinery. There were still some growing pains: the first issue took on a more scott pilgrim bent than any of john's other work and the third included Erin before John decided to not use her after all due to developments in other comics. Still it was set and he wanted to do the project: while it was originally set up as a failsafe in case his next flagship bad machinery failed, it was something he wanted to do, he just didn't have the bandwith to draw it himself, having moved on from illustrator mid scary go round. Thankfully he found Boom, found great creative partners in Lissa Tremain (for the first 6 issues ) and Max Sarin (everything else), and the rest is history. Giant Days is a wonderful comic with loads of character, gorgeous art, and a nice combo of one in done single issues that merge into one long epic.

Destory History:

Avaliable: ScaryGoRound.com

Destory history like Giant Days takes place in the gap between Scary Go Round and it's more direct sequel Bad Machinery. Like Giant Days it was made in case the big shifts with Bad Machinery didn't quite pan out. Unlike Giant Days Though while Allison returned to it once or twice it didn't take off. Following Shelley in London as she journeys thorugh time it only got one story that has yet to be fully concluded as Allison just hasn't felt it.

Avaliable At: gocomics.com or in print

Bad Machinery was John's first mainstream success and helped him get to giant days which in turn boosted Bad Machinery's profile despite BM's publisher, Oni Press, turning it down, a decision they no doubt regretted.

Bad Machinery takes place 5 years after Scary Go Round. Ryan and Amy are now playing support as a teacher and local antiques dealer (And to my delight a married couple), as is Erin as a local reporter. The bulk of it's main cast are precicious kids who debuted towards the end of Bad Machinery: Charlotte Grote, a spacey ragamuffin with a mind for mystery, her tough but kind bestie Shauna, the shy ,nervous and Imaginative Jack and Jack's best mate nad pain in the ass Linton. Joining them in the series proper are Mildred, a wild child with a scientfic mind, and Sonny, a shy boy of few words, and eventually claire, a girl with a lisp, some pyromania and a kind soul.

The kids would solve mysteries as they slowly grew, often with a supernatual bent while dealing witht he perils of growing up: rivalries, bullying, family drama, relationships, growing apart.. all the pain of adolsecnse that got increasingly grounded. There was still magical mysteries, but as the kids grew their problems did and eventaully they outgrew the format, with John ending the series. He's since returend to the former mystery kids giving three of them their own spotlights we'll get to. It's a great run and well worth your time if you like kids getting into shenanigans and danger, which I know is most of my audience.

That and Murder She Writes:

Avaliable at: John's Gumroad

Two one off stories john did that follow Lottie and Shelley. Shelley was largely absent from Bad Machinery apart from mentions of her, to help let the new main characters settle in, but was given a few one offs to show she'd become both a succesful author and Charlotte's mentor.

New Bobbins: Avaliable: Via Gumroad or John's Patreon

New Bobbins was an experiment that didn't quite work out, updating us on the old guard at the same time as Bad Machinery. Due to both pushing the timeline forward more than he wanted to for BM and getting all dramatic, John Quitely canceled this revival, but did bring it back to wrap up loose ends. In fact he intended to end his comics as a whole, only keeping giant days, but realized he coudln't part. This era also includes Mordawaa which is also on gumroad and I won't go into due to spoilers.

Epheimera

Avaliable: John's Patreon and for Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers, Archive.Org

Various bibs and bobs I thoguht lost but... nope . YOuc an find most on john's patreon if you fancy and the graphic novel heavy metal hearts and flowers, which It hought lost, is on the internet archive.

Avaliable: In print or digital

Not super necessary to the lore but a fun side story about two friends documenting strange stuff. Need to read this one in full sometime.

Avaliable: First arc: in Print via Darkhorse or digital via amazon. Other Arcs: in print and online via scarygoround.com.

Steeple was like By Night a break from the usual group of Allison Regulars, with an all new cast following prelate Billie and her new friend Maggie.. who happened to be working for the chruch of satan. It started as a mini series at dark horse that john continued on his web site that dark horse printed, ending earlier this year when Dark HOrse decided they were done, though with hints john would pick up the characters again.

It follows the small town of tregdyn, where monsters rise from the sea, a preist hunts them, the local santatic minister thinks he's a super villian and his helper brian is a kind of werewolf. It's a return to the more supernatual stuff tha'ts fun, engaging and good stuff. It eventually firmly became bobbins canon, with Lottie doing a guest spot to find a missing shelley and shelley eventaully dating the local preist what hutns monsters.

Avaliable: Print and Digital

Wicked Things is the comics equilvent of a failed Pilot. It's still canon, but due to the independent publishing scene drying up slightly, it failed to get the sales to go to full series. As such it follows Lottie a few years after bad machinery, on the cusp of university.. only to loose it when she's framed for murder, this 6 part mini covering her working with the london police as the quirky kind of consultant you see again these days with Elsbeth or High Potetial. Had the series come just a few years later it probably would've been a big hit. Probably. Lottie gets aquitted but who framed her is left dangling.. and that becomes the catlyst for Lottie's next adventure

Avaliable at: badmachinery.com. Yes I know it's confusing bad machinery isn't on there.

After a pilot and the crossover, John went full hog into Charlotte's next phase of her life: at a crossroads and working as a barista, a meeting with new zeland immigrant Glenn, a careers advisor working the grind of the job to have a place to sleep, finally lights a fire under a restless Lottie. Quickly solving her bestie Clarie's school issues, teh duo head to sheffield, and Lottie quickly decides rather than be a detective to become a problem solver, fixing people's issues while trying to avoid finding a longterm solution for her life and dragging Glenn in as he's good at presnting stuff. IT's one of my faviorite thigns John's done, nicely evolving Lottie and CLarie, adding in glenn for flavor and even bringing back Dena. No one asked him too but it works out. The series is currently running through a direct sequel to wicked things, Wobbly Head and Solver as a whole stands on it's own well enough to jump righ tinto. Please do

Avaliable At: badmachinery.com

John Allison's latest pilot and what seems to be a bold new ongoing that's both a prequel and a sequel as Jack from bad machinery, who god already wasn't all that fond of, gets the short end of the stick again: he's sent back to the 90's, can't say anything about the future and is left stuck not remembering WHY he was sent there and with only a college age Shelley as an ally. It's a eerie yet still deeply funny work and I can't wait to see more of it at some point next year after Wobbly Head concludes.

Avaliable: in print and digital

Taking place around the same time as solver, GBBO reunites Allison and Sarin for a quick and breezy four part murder mystery at UK Bakery Tent. Shauna is invited to participate but soon witnesses an attempted murder with her new friends and fellow bakers Sunil and Jil. Now Shauna has to both try and solve a mystery before anyone else is poisoned, and not get eliminated while almost everyone around her is a suspect.

So there you go. A bunch of good poitns to start with, a bunch of great comics all outlined. Get out ther eand start reading and thanks for reading this

#scary go round #john allison #giant days #bad machinery #solver #charlotte grote #shelley winters #bobbins #webcomics #boom studios #dark horse comics #oni press

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