Welcome to the Wellington Comic Lover’s Guide, where we take you through the Wellington City Libraries’ collection of a comic book character or series. This post is all about the sprawling webcomic-turned-print comic universe, the Bobbinsverse!
What is the Bobbinsverse?
The Bobbinsverse encompasses several comics that all take place in the same universe, centered around a fictional Yorkshire town called Tackleford. Written and drawn by John Allison, the ‘verse’ began with the webcomic Bobbins and continued into two sequel series, Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery. These comics are either slice-of-life stories or supernatural mysteries, all told with a trademark light-hearted tone.
The Bobbinsverse has since expanded into monthly print comics courtesy of BOOM! Studios, as Allison took his webcomic characters and spun them off into new adventures, such as…
Giant Days
Giant Days is about the university life of eccentric goth girl Esther de Groot (who first appeared in Scary Go Round) and her friends, naive archaeology major Daisy and prickly med student Susan. Together, the trio navigates the ups-and-downs of student life, like halls, flatting, study, romance, work-life balance, and what the future holds for them after graduation.
Giant Days reading order
Giant days : early registration / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume one / Allison, John (also on Libby)
Giant days. Volume two / Allison, John (also on Libby)
Giant days. Volume three / Allison, John (also on Libby)
Giant days. Volume four / Allison, John (also on Libby)
Giant days. Volume five / Allison, John (also on Libby)
Giant days. Volume six / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume seven / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume eight / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume nine / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume ten / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume eleven / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume twelve / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume thirteen / Allison, John
Giant days. Volume fourteen / Allison, John
Giant Days was also turned into a YA novel, which adapts the early volumes of the comic when the trio first start university.
Bad Machinery
Bad Machinery follows a group of six preteen detectives (also from Scary Go Round) as they investigate the weird mysteries in their sleepy Yorkshire town of Tackleford, like the wormhole in the science cupboard or the new girl at school who crawled out of the ocean. Notably, two of the cast, the excitable Lottie Grote and down-to-earth Shauna Wickle, got their own spinoffs after Bad Machinery ended.
Bad machinery [1] : the case of the team spirit / Allison, John
Bad machinery [2] : the case of the good boy / Allison, John
Bad machinery [3] : the case of the simple soul / Allison, John
Bad machinery [4] : the case of the lonely one / Allison, John
Bad machinery [5] : the case of the fire inside / Allison, John
Bad machinery [6] : the case of the unwelcome visitor / Allison, John
Bad machinery. [7] The case of the forked road / Allison, John
Bad machinery [8] : the case of the modern man / Allison, John
Bad machinery. Volume nine, The case of the missing piece / Allison, John
Bad machinery [10] : the case of the severed alliance / Allison, John
Bad Machinery spin-offs
In Wicked Things, Lottie is framed for a murder and must find the real culprit, while The Great British Bump-Off sees Shauna investigate a spot of foul play during a season of the popular British reality show, UK Bakery Tent.
The great British bump-off [1] / Allison, John
Steeple
In Steeple, two women of opposing faiths must stop the Rapture from happening in the coastal parish town of Tredregyn, Cornwall. The series still takes place in the same extended Bobbinsverse, but with an entirely new cast of characters.
Steeple. Volume 2, The silvery moon / Allison, John
Steeple, Volume 3, That’s the spirit / Allison, John
By Night
In this supernatural mystery series, By Night follows two highschoolers in the former boomtown of Spectrum, South Dakota who make a documentary about a monster-filled alternate dimension.
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