Merry Christmas!

This entry is part 11 of 12 in the series Meanwhile..

Happy whatever-seasonal-celebrations you celebrate from 2dgoggles Amalgamated Comics Industries! I drew up this gag and then went looking for a nice Primary Document to wrap up as a present for the readers, when what should I find but this about Scottish Yuletide traditions:

Is there not one of my gags those danged Victorians won’t steal! Good lord. That’s the best Babbage/Christmas thing I could find, unless you count that time Babbage got naked on Christmas but that’s not quite the tone I’m looking to set (a ‘screw loose’ you say Babbage..).

So I’ll leave you with a a festive Difference Engine reference from 1867:

Happy holidays all and hope to have the next episode up soonish!

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15 Comments

  1. Zap those steampunk carolers! | Hedonix on December 14, 2014 at 5:01 am

    […] From Sydney Padua HERE […]



  2. Ceridwen on December 25, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    I think his father was serious. Going by received knowledge, the bridge would need a support in the middle; going by current fashion, he suggested a pagoda design. I wonder what Papa Brunel would have thought about the Triads.



  3. John on December 24, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    One imagines the comic above bridging the gap between the comment about the singing and the unclothed incident.

    Happies and merries!



  4. Bella Green on December 24, 2010 at 3:56 pm

    Thank you sooo much for this – you could, in future, draw Christmas cards for which I, at least, would be willing to pay Real Money :)! I have friends who would totally get the references, which would add joy to their lives, which is the whole meaning of these various ‘holidays,’ yes? Thanks also for the chibis – I must confuse to a weird obsession with chibis, thanks to my teenagers, and Chibi Babbage is superb!

    Also, thank you Marion: “Alarms and alarums (and lots of
    feathers everywhere)…” I can just *see* it, hee hee!



  5. ConFigures on December 24, 2010 at 2:01 pm

    I wonder if Brunel’s father was pulling his leg.



  6. Judy on December 23, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    Not related to this, but I’m in the Uk at the moment and
    came across this fab Brunel story in the news this week
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8206625/Clifton-suspension-bridge-with-added-pagoda.html
    I totally want to see Brunel’s father in on the action now
    suggesting pagodas all over the place! Merry Christmas



  7. Adrian on December 23, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    A somewhat-related article appeared online in New Scientist
    today – i’m sure a lot of you would like to contribute to the
    cause?
    http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827915.500-lets-build-babbages-ultimate-mechanical-computer.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news



  8. Ray Girvan on December 23, 2010 at 11:57 am

    And I do really like finding out about how Babbage’s engine was commonly-known enough

    Not necessarily. The St Gnat’s piece is by Mark Lemon, founder and editor of Punch, and he knew Babbage (Babbage and Lemon were part of same social circuit that also include Dickens and Thackeray). If you Google [“Mark Lemon” Babbage] you find Lemon made frequent reference to Babbage in Punch and other writings – a lot of them comment (sympathetically to Babbage) on Babbage’s altercations with street musicians.



  9. Marion on December 23, 2010 at 10:26 am

    Ohhh…. That remark about the number of turkey, geese and
    chickens being too much even for the Difference Engine to count
    should surely be rewarded with a little cartoon of its own, where
    Babbage has created a Pocket Difference Engine (complete, of
    course, with a humongous amount of cables and gears trailing from
    his pocket) and showing his new creation off to Lovelace whilst
    walking through a Christmas Market. Alarms and alarums (and lots of
    feathers everywhere) are of course the result. *lolz*



  10. Gillian on December 23, 2010 at 1:23 am

    I’ve tried very hard, honest I have, but I still can’t see
    anything wrong with a picture of a naked Babbage at
    Christmas…



  11. mark v thomas on December 22, 2010 at 11:09 pm

    And how long before someone publishes a copy of “A Christmas Carol…With Zombies”, for the Christmas Market …?
    Tagline – “You were wondering why Zombie Jacob Marley has so many chains & restraints on him, when he visits Scrooge…?… Answer: It’s to stop him from going for Scrooge’s brains…!!!.
    ( If someone can publish a pastiche of Jane Austen’s works with Zombies within, then how long before someone does exactly the same with Charles Dickens’s works…Unless someone’s already done/doing (Delete as Applicable) it….).



    • Joel on April 9, 2011 at 6:32 pm

      BBC has already been there, sort of. There’s a Doctor Who episode where the Doctor teams up with Dickens to battle a hoard of the undead, complete with exploding gas-lamps.



  12. Redshift on December 22, 2010 at 11:09 pm

    Excellent cartoon. And I do really like finding out about how Babbage’s engine was commonly-known enough to be referred to in an offhand manner in pieces from the period describing something completely unrelated.



  13. Ceridwen on December 22, 2010 at 10:20 pm

    And a merry Bah! Humbug to you, too! Enjoy the holidays.



  14. Nicole, of the Forgotten Island on December 22, 2010 at 9:49 pm

    oh, cripes, Babbage and carol-singers.

    That might even be /worse/ than usual…

    (OH. Slightly relevant thing… due in part to this comic, I’m reading “The Difference Engine” by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Ada’s in it. And there are Engines EVERYWHERE, and it’s all very cool.)