October 2nd, 2020
2 Oct 2020 · page 1024 of 1306
Cast: Benjamin Thackerey, Heinrich Wolfe, Jack O'Malley, Nyree
Comments (120)
Events
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
AH. My heart. It is warm.
This. Echoed. So sweet it's made my blood sugar spike. :3 I love these boys.
My exact reaction! O-oh..! My heart!
I literally went "eeeeeee".
I went "Awwwwwwwwwwwww". Which prompted my kidlet to ask why.
Awww!
I wonder if Mal is going to learn how to read?
Well now Ben has a whole library to teach him with :3
doub there's a lot of kids books tho (or simple to read books at all)
Have you ever seen what passed for kid books back then? Simplicity wasn't in it. One primer featured such "simple" to learn words as "A is for Abomination."
Unto Nuggan?
I forget.
Edward Gorey had such an interesting writing style.
I want this primer. it sounds amazing
"The Gashlycrumb Tinies: A Very Gorey Alphabet Book" by Edward Gorey. Highly recommend!
Well, he got a bit of writing lessons...
I love this so much. We've all known for a long time that the three of them are essentially a family, but it's lovely to have it put into words - and by Mal, of all people.
I thought all I wanted was a page with Sid and Harry. but no. This is maybe better😭
Omgosh I love this so much <3
I literally gasped aloud at that last panel. Family.
Agreed. This is beautiful
And Mal's nonchalent, matter-of-fact way of stating the obvious.
From him.
I love how Nyree is pulling down the anti-witch posters! Plus everything else!
But those posters are a piece of living history!
Well, now they're just history.
But they make her unhappy!
Agreed, they should at least be stored as ephemera. Carefully preserved and protected from exposure to damaging light/dust/etc.
Historians a few centuries from now would certainly agree. Especially the ones doing time travel, who'll need every scrap of information they can find to successfully infiltrate the era. :)
"God is in the details." - Lady Schrapnell
Some of them, perhaps -- depending on their condition, provenance, and uniqueness. I'm not sure that all of them have sufficient historical value to be worth preserving.
Actually, that was my immediate response. Absolutely, take them down; they're awful. But don't destroy them until they've been shown to not be unique.
Can't help thinking that all people of rank should have at least one poster of that kind displayed where they will see it everyday, to remind them not to take their position of privilege for granted.
As Jack can't read, the effect would be doubtful.
Good point. We'll have to select one with pictures. Preferably of a mob of angry villagers with pitchforks and burning torches.
Ye-es, but unfortunately, pictures are seldom explicit. Might have been the raise against the treasury, couldn't it?
They belong in a museum (which this building isn't anymore)!
Everyone: bonding moment
Nyree: Well don't mind me I'm just going to take some trash out.
I think she's moving a curtain to look through a window.
Ben's reaction in particular hits me where it hurts. Wolfe of course already knew, but Ben!!!! All kinds of startled and happy at the concept of family. Adorable.
Considering he not-that-long-ago announced to Pride "I have no friends! Just people who are obligated to be around me!"--I think it will take him a while to truly comprehend that obligation has turned into choice, truly and gladly and that he is wanted <3
ben's so smol he has to stand on a ledge, and he's still so much shorter than wolfe
Aww, I got something in my eyes. I'm not crying, I swear.
sniff
Ben, don't be so shocked that people actually love you for who you are! Good job, Mal, you are handling all this beautifully.
Awwwww <3
Family <3 I'm not crying, you're crying. Okay. I'm crying.
"Yer family, aren't ye?"
Mal, you big ol' sweet softie.
Mr O’Malley has never had a family, let alone two elder siblings who were better than him at everything, so the word may have different connotations for him compared to what it has for Mr Thackerey.
No family? Not so sure about that. Recall where he got his "family name", huh? [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/november-28th-2017 "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/november-28th-2017")
I was thinking more of an extended family, specifically Mr Thackerey's twin siblings.
SOMEONE's peeking through the window as she tears down those posters, sheningans are up~
(Ben really gives me Komiyan feelings here)
"Yer family, aren't ye?" -- D'awww.
Can I just say, O'Malley looks sharp in just a vest and top. Seriously that heavy jacket he wears makes him look all turtled up and curled in on himself.
DANG. Good catch! Have we seen him take off the coat before? The traveling coat? And get all comfy?
We've seen him in his shirtsleeves before: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/june-11th-2014 "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/june-11th-2014") I thought the grey shirt he's wearing here was the one he usually hangs around the house in ( [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-20th-2012 "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-20th-2012") ), but that one's a darker grey. (Come to think of it, he'd gotten dressed before Wrath attacked, so that shirt probably got burned up along with everything else...)
Also he is without his scarf (the scar is seen) before Wolfe now!
He DOES look turtled up, I love that phrasing. And I think he generally curls further on top of that - the hunch-shouldered posture of the wary slinker casting a suspicious eye over his shoulder by habit. Panel 3 tho. Yow.
I think he's looking physically more put together and comfortable. More relaxed, more himself. I love that he's coming into his own self. Of course that's been this whole arc, but I just... mmm gives me warm fuzzies to see it reflected in the very art.
FAMILY. I AM MELTING.
I also love that he's just like "three floors? Sweet ass, we all get one."
Maybe a weird question to Kate, but when you draw these kinds of scenes inside a (somewhat complex) building, do you have some ground plan you use even if just in your head?
...
...
If so, can we see it for this one?
...
...
I swear it's not just for possible use in a D&D adventure.
hah, i have sketchup models made of the witch house, harry's office, and swift's apothecary
it's a pretty poor quality model because i barely know what i'm doing in sketchup but it gets me though
I remember the chase through the castle in Darken; as i recall, when i mentioned it in a comment here you had unkind things to say about the spiral staircase...
Thank you for the reply!
wow that is effort, it looks like, but effective! You're a skilled artist!
I wonder if any of the library's books belonged to Grandma Barber.
Rather to her witch ancestor.
Pretty good, for a man we first met hitching a ride in a boxcar. ...
"Yer family, aren't ye?"
dawwwwwwwwwwwww XD that family hit in the feels
Mal manages to jerk the ol' heartstrings in his completely unsentimental kind of way.
No Ben you are not getting a room, you're getting the entire second floor.
I mean, what is family by O'Malley standards if not a complete stranger who appears in a time of need and chooses you?
This is so lovely, and I love the casual whateverness of the delivery.
You're right! That's how he met Enid, the first real family he ever had, and he and Wolfe basically did that for each other when they met (first Wolfe helping Mal after he got shot, then Mal getting Wolfe out of prison). It took him and Ben a little longer to choose each other, but I think the key point was when Mal went in to drag Ben out of the burning Lamplight factory.
Knew it. :)
Mal's offhand and unembarrassed affirmation of what Ben and Wolfe are to him is just so beautiful. He's come a long way.
Next Panel: Ben bursts into tears
Next panel: Ben drops the books.
Next panel: Ben grabs his toe and hops around painfully on one foot.
O'Malley laughs.
Wolfe very ostentatiously doesn't laugh.
Would love to see if a thrown feather at Ben would knock him off his feet after those 2 shocks to his system .Really enjoy how Mal delivers those shocks in such an off hand manner too.
"...the O'Malley's heart grew three sizes that day..."
the weight of Mal dropping the word Family after all this time really hits hard, in the best way
I wonder how much of Ben's old library can be replaced by this 'new' library. I also wonder how much of the new library goes back to Izzy's great-great-...-great grandmother's time.
I got from Ben's words that there are old books mostly. So I think Ben has to replace new volumes on magic (and fiction books?)
EMOTIONS
The best kind of family: the kind that actually love each other for who they are.
Definitely an example of "the family you pick". Wouldn't you rather have Mal as a brother than either of the twins?
Well, there certainly were moments (in Mal's attitude to Ben) where the difference seemed not so large to me. (As far as we can judge not having seen the twins at all.)
That is completely an "OOf, my heart." moment.
Not pictured, but felt: A very excited hippo
AWWWWWWW! My heart!
Awwww! All the feels! And no, Ben, he's not offering you a room, he's offering you a whole floor.
💖💖💖
Can l have the attic?
Hi, Eales!
🥰 waves
Ben: "Can I borrow these books?"
O'Malley: "No. They stay."
Ben: "But... you can't even read them!"
O'Malley: "And that's why you stay too."
Mal just made me CRY. HECK. But man, found family is just really the best kind of family. People you find and surround yourself with that just are the Best. (And now I'm so curious to know how Mal saw everyone's reactions to him coming back. That shift from worry to relief and joy? HECK. HECKING HECK.)
I came back to reread this today for the happy cry feels.
It's so good.
Awwwww! One great big happy family!
Since Meeting O'Malley, Ben has upped his Wizard game, is currently courting a very nice young lady and got adopted. What a Time to be alive! :D
And said young lady has a steady income -- in fact, two of them, I guess. She's going to be a great breadwinner.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...
mal is like three floors three people nuff said
Now that's a statement.
Jack, in few words, you've captured something many fail to express, and then lose. It's a very important sentiment, that I'm glad you deigned to share.
Oh no it's wholesome
The joy of real estate is honestly such a millenial mood >.>
Stupid dust speck in my eye...
I'M DEAD. SLAIN. TOSS BY BODY IN THE THE THAMES, I'VE BEEN KILLED BE HARD-FOUGHT AND HARD-WON FOUND FAMILY
Very smart O'Malley. I'd bet the first floor is Wolf, the charming man he is, then the 2nd floor is Ben, and just try getting by him! And naturally the 3rd is for him, to avoid as many people as possible. After all, who wants to go up 3 flights? It might also give him time to hide.
Well, this is the best strip in the arc <3
I can't help but feel Ben's invite was partially to keep from having to clean everything himself.
Hey boss? I love this page and its' simple beauty. But, there is a typo in panel 2. It should read, "....this been sitting?!" rather than "sat".
"how long has this been sat here" works fine imo! might be a dialect thing.
I keep hearing this in the accents from "Last Tango in Halifax"!
perfect, as that's the area this is set in!
I love how content Mal looks in panel 2. He's got his boys, he's got his smokes, he's got a roof over his head - what more could a witch need?
Ben being so surprised! <3
So, apropos of nothing, this has been running through my head today:
Toss a coin to your Thacker(ey) O'Malley of plenty O'Malley of plenty Ohoooh
D'AWWWWWW