Just a quiet visit; no trouble here.
Run-down apartment complexes like these are all over Los Angeles; they’re kinda seedy without actually being slums. They have thugs, sure, but they’re not hellholes. If you’re a local, you usually know how to stay out of trouble.
If you’re not a local, or you are a former Ranger seeking information regarding your ghost girlfriend, all bets are off.
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And more below!
Bobservations
The Gritty City
I was waiting in line at some event or other a while back and ended up talking to a couple of German tourists who were visiting Hollywood on vacation. They professed to have had a pretty good time overall, but one thing puzzled them. Why, they wondered, were all the cars in Los Angeles so dirty? Even the new, expensive cars. Los Angeles was supposed to be a car-culture city – didn’t anyone ever wash them? No one in Germany would permit even an old car to get so grimy.
Well, I’ve been to Germany and yes, it’s a fastidious place – in fact, my wife and I have, in our photo albums, actual photos of German bus-station rest rooms, photos which we took simply because they were bus station bathrooms and they were gleaming. So to start with, the Germans are already starting from a different point of reference.
But in LA’s defense – people do wash their cars. I mean, not me, because my car is often bouncing across dirt roads in the desert, but many Los Angeles drivers wash their cars. Often, even. It doesn’t matter. Unless the cars are kept in enclosed parking garages and barely ever driven, they still look grimy after a few days. And the Santa Anas are the reason why.
The red winds pick up the desert dust and carry it over the city, and it coats everything with a fine red grit. Rain would wash it away, but we haven’t had much rain lately. Even when the winds are not blowing the dust has settled on things, and it gets wafted around by traffic and breezes. So most of Los Angeles has this slight pinkish-beige color by nature. It’s helped along by the landlords of run-down apartment complexes, who – trying to conceal the grime – have actually created a cheap pinkish-beige paint that they use for all their buildings because it doesn’t show the Santa Ana dust.
Probably the best bet would be to paint all the cars pinkish-beige as well.
Ew.
At least the “Road Reaper” there (which, despite all my protestation to the contrary, keeps being referred to as the “Maxmobile” in our page-planning sessions) has a built-in electrostatic dust repellant feature. And indoor parking. So it gets to be all shiny and gleaming.
German tourists would approve.
— Bob out
This is going to be a VERY interesting talk…………..
Wonder if Sophie’s drifting around anywhere, ready to render a little ghostly aid to her corporeal bf?
Nice upwards shot in the last panel. Very ass-kicky, complete with heavy metal power chord.
How does the joke go? Punks walk up to the quiet guy, demand his money or they’ll rough him up. Quiet guy looks over punks, and advises them to go get some more friends, so it’ll be a fair fight.
And I know what you mean about the dust, Bob. We have the same thing out here from the fields, especially when the crops are being harvested.
Reminds me of a TMI page starring Professor William Jackson (AKA Grampy)
Punk: “Gimme your wallet!”
Grampy: “Young man, is that knife all you have?”
Punk: “It’s all I need. What you got?”
*Next panel, punk is stuffed headfirst into a rubbish bin, Grampy is walking away*
Grampy: “Two black belts and a green beret.”
Note that currently only one of the three is voting in favour of trying their luck.
Yeah, even without superpowers, my money would be on the special forces veteran.
Also, don’t forget the ash from the wildfires!
I wish my car had a built-in electrostatic dust repellent feature. That would be so handy.
Isolating the electronics from the dust repeller would be a real pain, I think. Not to mention getting out of your charged car. Maybe as an occasional pulse? Interesting problem….
A demonstration of Possible AI sentience in car forthcoming.
Bob, I can assure you from first-hand experiences that there are dirty public bathrooms in Germany, too. Or at least stinky ones. On the other hand, the ones you find at an Autobahnraststätte (maybe “highway rest stop”? Is it even translatable?) where you need to pay to enter are usually rather clean.
Surely hard boyz from the hooood should be able to recognize that messing with the the guy stepping out of that car = A world of Hurt!
Not really. A lot of the time they assume that nice car/gear etc and the person with it being young tends to incline towards being naïve, stupid, soft, pampered and so on. I have seen it happen in real life and even directed towards myself on one occasion along with the snide derogatory remarks which they think you a) are just going to ignore and piss your pants and b) think you are dumb and cant hear them. They soon learn the error of their ways when schooled in the art of “I happen to work hard for a living and if you get your lazy backsides off the street and applied yourself, then maybe you ALSO will be proud to say you earned the right to drive what you want and deserve with your OWN money”.
Guys, it’s more than a month now. Being swamped with work is fully understandable, even declaring a defined hiatus of a month or two would be fine by me, but please tell us that you’re OK. It’s the lack of info that’s worrying to me. ó_ò
Well it is Con Season as the Americans say and a lot of web comic artists are doing the rounds with sporadic updates so have no fear they shall return soon I imagine.
No, the currently the only distraction from our work has been- other work 😉 things seem to be thinning out a bit this week so hopefully we can get an update soon. Thanks for being patient everyone.
Well, then, it’s obviously time for those dread words “Honey, could you…”
Many Thanks for the Note!
Greatly appreciated!!