Just a quick squib of a comic in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diaries, online!
ALL TRUE! There could not possibly be a more typical Victorian document search result, I am in a position to tell you, than a Lovelace-shaped blank, and a nugget of Babbage comedy gold.
On the User Experience comic front, we are advancing slowly forward under heavy fire and strained coffee supply lines. Hang in there!
Comments
20 responses to “Interlude: Queen Victoria’s VERY SECRET DIARY!”
Branagh as Brunel swaggers well.
Did you see the Olympics’ opening ceremonies?
KB = IKB
*applauds*
Branagh as Brunel: http://memegenerator.net/instance/24098540
Ah, but remember that not all of the diaries are currently searchable. Per the website: ” . . . searchable transcriptions have been created for entries in the ‘Esher’ version of the journals, which date up to 1840.” There are still 3 other versions to go. There may yet be another mention of one of our intrepid heros.
Sydney, there’s no 2 ways about it: you are a great cartoonist. Everyone above in the comments has been noticing all the wonderful details, so I’ll just say that your flow and your mastery of expression and your timing are suPURRRB. Not to mention your writing. “..a disturbance in the Force”, indeed!
Truths, all truths!
It’s a nice sequence from Babbage vertical to Babbage slightly leaning through Babbage leaning more to finally Babbage horizontal.
Great to see them back again even if tantalisingly briefly. As always very well done indeed.
Panel one is brilliant! And so the rest— The hearts on the back of the diary, the race to the difference engine, Babbage dancing madly to view the results, the punch line, THE PUNCH LINE! It’s a stand-alone firework of genius, not just a squib!
And everyone in the train car with me agrees— or at least is nodding soothingly to the crazy lady who just shouted with laughter while staring at her phone.
I’m putting off my purchase for the release of QV’s *real* “Very Secret Diary” — this one’s a ruse: it simply does not contain enough observations on the legs of Scotsmen…
He’s sadly not a Scotsman, but there are plenty of musings on the “very fine figure” of Albert – and more besides. I can only imagine how her daughter Beatrice, under instructions to transcribe her mother’s diaries, must have felt – she made a few considered deletions where Victoria wrote (at length!) about Albert’s fine figure and moustachios and how nice he looked whilst galloping a horse.
I find it fascinating that Ada seemed to have been under consideration for Lady in Waiting for Queen Victoria, wow, would that be an interesting relationship….
Lady in Waiting aka Bodyguard?
Hahhahahaa! She blinded (the assassins) with science!
So thrilled to find this deliciousness when I actually just came to re-read the Book post again & console myself for lack of recent RSS feed updates! I’m not on Twitter., but I’ve been reading without posting for ages now & just want to say thanks you for the gift of it ALL — the comics themselves & the glimpses behind the scenes, which help me understand the difference between herding monsters for a film & havng Pantheon publish a Real Book.
I was just fooling around today, I certainly wasn’t expecting a brand-new comic! Also it was, I believe, technically longer than a “squib.” Nice surprise. Back to work with me now!
xxx,
J.
J: Sir! I hope you’re not using the first difference engine to look up
yuor name!
E: I wouldn’t be too hopeful; that’s what all the other ones will be
used for.
with apologies to Balckadder the third
Brilliant stuff, I have just forwarded your link to the Diaries of Queen Victoria online and thus about to loose any conversation with my partner for the next few days as she reads through them.
is there anyway we can help ensure a regular supply of coffee so that the great work continues
Ha! I love Babbage’s Totoro-smile.
Ah, poor wee Babbage!
It seems that Lovelace was so awesome that some power has winnowed through the records and all but redacted her from the documents of history….
Not much of use to say, except that I love the activity in the second-to-last panel. Showing movement and stress in the actual body frames is far too infrequent and makes all the difference when I’m reading.
Love. Love. Love! The facial expressions are priceless!! Babbage is adorable! (As usual!)
Ah, this will definitely tide me over until User Experience emerges victorious from your talented brain and fingers!! :-)
(BTW, I have to blame YOU for making me late to my book club meeting last month. I was dining alone, prior to the meeting, so was, naturally, reading. I was re-reading the iPad ‘book’ you released last year. Read. Eat. Read. Eat. Look at watch. Eeek! 10 minutes past the meeting time!! So, it’s all YOUR fault! ;-)