Maths!
Hey, so I have revamped the Widdershins store to be completely independent, all self-hosted and everything! It's got all of the downloadable and print versions of the first nine volumes in there, and a couple of neat pins and stickers and stuff besides. Go take a look! It's kind of a big move to shuft things off of a standard storefront so I hope it works out good!
Cast: Lei Feng, Pemberton Pryce, Tim Chiang, Verity Cunningham
Comments (107)
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
The equation is quite simple: This benefits me, therefore it is ok.
And some other guy...somewhere...
but enough of quoting Trump directly
pretty sure you mean Putin, at present
There’s one small flaw in the plan. Are you sure you want to be on small ship when there’s a tidal wave coming?
What's a tidal wave when you can just teleport away?
That's if they can. People tends to generate fear rather certainty when scared, plus we don't know what the Anchor will do to the ship's machinery
Certain doom is awfully certain
AFAIK tidal waves are OK if you are in deep sea, and its only troublesome if you get close to a coast. So they might be OK?
At sea tsunamis are fine. But rogue waves are dangerous.
The tidal wave itself seems to be harmless at see, yes.
The event which causes the tidal wave on the other hand might be more disruptive at point blank rage, i.e. an erupting volcano.
In this case, there might be a huge vortex, sucking the ship down, or the sea might rise, tumbling the ship around in the process.
Don't think of a tsunami as a wave (or a "tidal wave"), but as a wall of water, like the whole ocean suddenly got X feet/meters higher.
In the following GIF, consider that a boat floating in the pool wouldn't feel any effect until it hits something, even though it's on the "tsunami".
See? This is why the British should own the Anchor. Rather than all this complicated and disruptive malarky bringing the anchor to us, we’d have simply extended the Empire so the Anchor was in our territory.
When world conquest is the lesser evil...
So moving the Anchor will cause a tsunami... isn't it a bad idea then to be at the epicenter of where said tsunami will happen? O.o
My understanding is that tsunamis are mostly safe out at sea. Nearer to coastal areas they get more dangerous.
Tell that to the Poseidon
Did some research and you're right, tsunami is less dangerous in deep waters.
I thought the sea would buckle & thrash like mad when the Anchor was moved, like when an underwater volcano erupts. Good thing they didn't plan to teleport the anchor on to the ship, or the water rushing in to fill the sudden void left by it wouldn't have been good for the ship
for simplified narrative purposes please go ahead and assume it would be Bad if there was a tsunami. thank you
All this talk of tsunamis is distracting us from the true potential disaster - ‘displacement of global magical distribution’. The British Anchor could end up in France!
And now I can't help but see the other three Anchors physically moving in time with the fourth one's transportation
Now we have reached the horror of this story
I'm not trying to say a tsunami wouldn't be bad.
That is my understanding as well. If memory serves it has something to do with the difference in altitude between the sea floor and sea level, which is generally in the neighborhood of zero where people live.
Isn't the point that the anchor will only move when the ship does, so they're not going to be there after vorping away?
Here's the two problems:
a) Teleport the Anchor off the seafloor and close to the ship to reel in: Vacuum appears that results in underwater explosion + underwater earthquake from Anchor's dissappearance
b) Ship teleports with Anchor after pulling it loose: The boat's arrival is going to be very unpleasant as the sea reacts to the Anchor displacing several liters / gallons of water with its sudden appearance. Could also cause a tsunami as the large movement of water surges outwards
Yeah, I was only thinking about the anchor leaving, not when it arrived...
It would be an explosion fairly close to the ship as the water in the space the anchor suddenly occupies is forcibly displaced, coupled by an implosion down below from the anchor's sudden absence.
So what's the effect on the ship and the sea immediately around it? Inversion? Maelstrom? Giant toilet bowl plunger?
Somehow, i have the exact same equation but it leads to a vastle different conclusioin
I had not expected a comic about a wire-powered ship looking for an underwater font of magic would be too real.
This only leaves the question of how daughterino is going to blow it all sky-high, I suppose.
An american planning to enrich himself even though it causes serious damage to a south american country? such a classic! :(
...But they were foreign people, and so it didn't matter.
Jesus christ almighty. Poor Tim.
Well, I'm not sure of the exact year Widdershins is set in, but if this is the 1880s or around that time, most American legislators would have been more than happy to watch the devastation of a country they had been making a bunch of empty threats at. So, win-win?
Peak Monroe Doctrine!
Well, actually, deep-water Monroe Doctrine. Peak Monroe Doctrine would have been moving the Mountain Anchor.
<iseewhatyoudidthere.gif>
Deep-Water Monroe would be a great pirate name
It’s set in the early-to-mid 1830s.
The Monroe Doctrine was promulgated in 1823 (while James Monroe was President,) effectively claiming that the US was the sole colonial power in the Americas. Regrettably, American domestic and foreign policy would have been in support of Pryce's scheme.
Well that is what it turned into but it started from a place of more solidarity with other recently independent states, like much of South America. Though there was a more paternalistic stance to it as well. Within 50 years, once the US could project power that far then it really devolved to what we see in the latter 19th century before it was replaced by other more soft colonial policies.
I was taught that in school, just as you probably were. Unfortunately, it's kind of undermined by the US's on-going colonial adventures in the rest of the continent.
Remember, the Doctrine was promulgated immediately after the War of 1812, a part of the goal of which was the incorporation of Canada into the US. Nobody was under any illusions about what the US thought about the British suzerainty in Canada. The Monroe Doctrine also made that claim explicit.
Actually I was not taught that in school or not the way you eould think. I got that from the late Dr Arlene Lazarowitz in ber graduate history of US foreign policy. The Monroe Doctrine is sincere because the revolutions by Bolivar et al were seen as inspired by the ine that created the US. And that made them worthy to support in this no impact way. Why?
Because in the 1820's the US couldn't meaningfully do anything one way or another. They didn't have a large navy, they couldn't do sealift, and the army was mostly state levies.
So the Monroe doctrine is sincere in the contexts of the time it was drafted in. Canada was an exception because those were the British colonies that did not join the revolution and getting them to join was seen as unfinished business.
After the US Civil War contexts fully change.
Well, there you go. Just explain to Pryce that, per the Monroe Doctrine, Chileans are Americans too!
Get me a time machine and dimension hopper to where this fictitious place is real and I will. And then I'll probably shoot him through the heart.
I know parallel realities and all that but still... Chile only reached a million population in 1832. And would not reach 2 million until 1871. So no millions to die in Chile barely a million at best, (Somehow I don't find that reassuring though,)
Tim probably didn't count.
Well, we've always known that Pryce wasn't afraid to shake things up a bit.
Capitalism and disregard for human life and other cultures. Name a more classic duo
Imperialism and disregard for the other. That is more classic but not the classic.
Imperialism has a role in capitalism, be it from marxist-leninist (and following) POV, or more liberal / luxemburgist / left council / social libertarian POV... in brief all anticapitalist POV. So no it's not "more classic" with the analyse of territorial expansion as a mean to gain more added value, having the same bithdate...
In short: YMMV but it doesn't necessarily contradicts oneother...
Then there are the empires of antiquity like Rome, the Han, and many others which do not fit modern modeling. In those cases the state cotrols most of the key production and desires expansion to draw more resource flows to itself. But how this is done varies case by case.
In these cases commercial trade can also exist but are not a prinary driver of commerce.
And yes few systems of governance are static but most of these systems are not capitalistic without alot of limited focuses and otherwise shimmying of data.
Well, on one side there are books fitting them in, on the other side there are some saying imperialism didn't exist then (it was something else, whatever that'd be). Some other try not to shoehorn that much by analyzing the process and mostly end up being being a bit of both (I can cite another series of books about that too, called the prehistory of capitalism, but it's not in english, it analyses for example the birth of the Cham empire); Not saying any of these is the truth, especially when they meet definitional internal limits like "does state capitalism exists?", but the actual problem equating imperialism as predating capitalism is that you'd have to use either precapitalist economics (if imperialism is a capitalist process, you can't apply the word), using economics as being created by ideologies (if it's ever on the same boat about what value is, see Marx vs Smith), what is contradictory with capitalism as a system, or use explicitly another definition of imperialism.
It's a bit like deciding to know what was the first written word by opposing definitions with or without limiting it with blank space, or with or without polysemic possibility to get a sentence out of it, or being iconic...
Something tells me he would still be his plan if this was off the coast of California.
I’m sure it would. California was part of Mexico in 1834. At least, it was in our time line.
FWIW, it's likely the tsunami would also affect Central America, Mexico...and California.
California was still a part of Mexico in 1834. It wasn't formally annexed until 1850, two years after the Mexican-American War.
Pryce wouldn't have cared at all.
Ah! You're absolutely right! I had forgotten the date. So yeah, he wouldn't care at all.
As a South American, I see no flaw in his logic. (Just to be clear, I'm not serious)
Bolivia would be like: yeah you can keep the coast. No problem Chile, good luck!
There isn't any flaw in [that part of] his logic.
His deficiency is in caring about people who are not-him, not in reasoning. Although the fact that he has very little information and is going for something he doesn't understand that will cause entirely unknown effects--if it works at all--is also a deficiency in foresight.
And right as that, we're back to reality. An uncount number of people suffer because the rain forests have been changed into palm oil plantations or cattle pastures. Who cares, as long as there is profit?
And here I thought I couldn't hate this guy any more than I already did, but he just had to go over the top.
With all the sea stuff going down, I wonder if we'll visit the Bermuda Triangle.
That would be one hell of a tsunami.
This entire magic ship runs on certainty. All the protagonists have to do is undermine enough of that certainty to lose power. Shipwide intercom to wake up the other passengers, perhaps? Or heck, an emergency klaxon would do.
Except they've been storing it, so maybe they already have enough?
Oh right, hadn't thought of that!
I thought the certainty powered the teleportation?
You could be right on that, not sure!
That's right. Wake the sheeple.
[https://xkcd.com/1013/](https://xkcd.com/1013/ "https://xkcd.com/1013/")
You know, up until this point, I've been sort of on is side. I felt that while he was not the greatest person, but there wasn't anything too problematic about his plan. With this new revelation, however, yeah, I'm fully against him now.
subtlety is for hacks
Hm.. if the movement is big enough could it disturb the plates? Which might set off the ring of fire? Which by the way the West Coast US is part of...
Well I am told we're set in the 1830s. There is no West Coast United States at this time, not until 1846.
more or less. oregon and washington had a bunch of americans in it but wasn't an official territory yet (nor for about two more decades), and California was still under mexican ownership. (again until another decade or so own the line) lot of americans in california though. the entire west coast was popular for americans to settle in on trips west, even before they became officially american territory. still, they were a minority in the local populations.
This is a bit of a meta-comment, but this is a pretty good example of the difficulty of, as Kate herself put it (see comments in [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-3rd-2012 "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-3rd-2012") and [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-3rd-2015 "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-3rd-2015") ), "having one's cake and eating it too" with regards to making a fantasy Victorian-era story that keeps much of the geopolitical history but somehow edits out the racism. Pryce's math is par for the course when you factor in racism, but it makes him seem extra deranged in a world where Sid, Lei, and Tim get by just fine with white passersby. I mean, even Pryce's existence as an American with significant wealth and influence (and our acceptance of him as a stereotypical American) is hard to explain in an alternate history where racism wasn't a thing.
IMO, it's easy enough to explain with nationalism (especially nationalism-laced capitalism, as seen here). Race would have nothing to do with it then, just where a person is from.
For example, with nationalistic capitalism in play, Pryce is fine with Sid, Lei, and Tim because they're from the UK (and thus from a country that's of ongoing use to him), but he wouldn't hesitate to screw them - or any Brit - over if it benefitted him. If Pryce had to deal with Americans, he'd likely work with them as long as the goal was to benefit America (up to, of course, his sudden but inevitable betrayal at the end to claim all the glory and profit). Since Chile and its inhabitants are useless for him, he has no qualms about literally murdering them.
well, y'see, it's not like this situation did not exist in real world (with less geological impact)... remember herrero and hottentot genocide ? It's one of the only genocides that get recognition as such by the heir state of the state that caused it (Prussian empire) - ofc the word was coined later, but still a good proof that erasing people out of of country isn't beyond human people... and it has more to do with benefits than race - race being the excuse and not the ground for not caring...
It doesn't even need to be nationalism. It could just be him and not-him.
Oh, sure, which is why I included the "sudden but inevitable betrayal" bit in my previous comment, haha. The thing that it comes down to is his motivations, and so far his motivation seems to be what's best for America and Americans (with him, of course, being the preeminent, most deserving American in his POV). He'd be cut-throat with his fellow citizens, but he appears to see his actions as part of a bigger, grander struggle that can elevate nations (or destroy them, as with Chile).
Industrialism would do it. Then you get classism, which isn't necessarily tied to race. Racism is a convenient sorting mechanism -- "Hey, let's get the X to do the menial stuff for little or no money!" -- but if you amass enough of a labor force regardless of race it becomes your new sorting factor.
Just to mention, this... kinda happened? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1868_Arica_earthquake "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1868_Arica_earthquake")
Wow and yikes! O.O
...Tsunami as a word didn't see wide usage in English until the 1890s. "[Tidal disruption](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_disruption_event "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_disruption_event")" is also an alarming thing to have happen on Earth, or anywhere near Earth, or anywhere in our solar system really - not that we'd have time to notice it.
"Tidal wave" would probably have worked just fine in both cases. (Though granted, with how the Anchors work, it might very well just involve tidal disruption events anyway...)
Oh. The moment when it went from "Watch out he doesn't know the risks" to "Watch out he knows exactly what the risks are and HE DOESN'T CARE"
Considering the way the American economy worked at the time it's only going to improve millions of American lives if dollars are citizens.
greedy crazy bonehead starts a world war years before we had the 1st one. assuming he doesn't just destroy the whole world outright.
Oh dear, hold it together Tim or you're not going to get a chance to do anything about this mess. :(
At that moment, Bernardo O’Higgins awoke from a sound sleep as though from a nightmare, but not in fear but in a burning Celtic rage the cause of which he could scarcely understand. He just KNEW, deep in his bones, that somewhere in the world there is a man he REALLY needs to cleave in Twain.
Careful. That'll just feed the certainty engine.
off topic but in my dream last night Wolfe was riding a horse around tracking O'Malley, but it was apparently WWII because he kept having to go off and rescuing people who were on the run from Nazis including but not limited to a tiny old lady and a family of farmers
Getting big Acedia vibes from panel 4.
no update this week as i am slowly grinding to a halt, which means it's time to take a week off. if you need me i will be eating a 1kg bag of pick n' mix and napping on the sofa
so long as you explain what pick n' mix is, we're good
It's basically a salad bar for sweets.
"[https://www.reddit.com/r/no...](https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/gqmlyj/brachs_pickamix_stands_when_i_was_growing_up/ "https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/gqmlyj/brachs_pickamix_stands_when_i_was_growing_up/")">
That picture is kind of fuzzy, but you get the idea. You selected as much or as little of what you liked, and then paid by the pound. I really miss the Royals caramels; they came in vanilla, orange, fudge, raspberry etc.
Save me some fizzy cola bottles and we're square.
bonus- they're fizzy cherry cola bottles
Score!
Here, have a cat image.
I've been watching for a minute and I can't find the cut
I think if you watch the cat's head you can just barely see it.
gonna shift updates to friday for the foreseeable to see how that sits for me, so next update will be then. thanks for your patience all!
In Duch we have a saying "Je draai vinden" It basically means "Find your way" but translated literally it is "Find your turn/twist" and it probably stems from finding your optimal way to use crank based tools. So, I hope you can find your twist! <3
You could just... push him overboard?
rereading this page, I can't help but feeling Tim's flex in saying Chile is over there. Classic Europeans showing off their superior knowledge of world geography.
So, fair to say that our American friend here probably has "Greed" for a hat, according to O'Malley.
Not 'a spirit of greed', but "Greed his own-friggin'-self". Because this, right here? That's the kind of American 'exceptionalism' that has smeared the country's reputation for the last couple of centuries...