February 8th, 2022
8 Feb 2022 · page 1099 of 1306
One of a few pages that will read better when read in sequence rather than week by week, sorry
Cast: Lei Feng, Verity Cunningham
Comments (66)
Events
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
Our villains may be using an optimistic definition of anchor here! One thing that money doesn't change, but it can get the manpower to try it anyways...
Those fools.
Those damned, ignorant fools.
They have no idea how the Anchors work.
I suspect it's even worse than that: I think they have a vague idea how the Anchors work. I have no idea how the Anchors work, which is why I wouldn't go within twenty feet of one unless my hands were firmly in my pockets. :)
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!
If it’s in international waters and no-one claims ownership - or even knows it exists - is it possible to steal it?
That's a nice legal question, actually. First, there's a jurisdictional question: under which country's legal system would this be adjudicated? And, second, under what theory would it be possible to consider this a theft, if any?
The answer to the first one would almost certainly be international maritime law. The second? That depends on whether there's a notion of the enclosure of the commons under maritime law, and, if so, when is it legal or illegal.
Does anybody know of a lawyer, say, back in Widdershins, who might be willing to do that legal research?
And it wouldn't be modern maritime law but the law of the time so about 1840 or so. And from my limited information it basically went: If it doesn't clearly belong to someone and is found out side of sovereign waters/on the high seas feel free to grab it.
Which would not make this theft in a legal sense but it could be considered theft in a moral sense.
I'm not sure that 'theft' is a strong enough term for 'taking a major geological feature and privatizing it'.
Luckily, we actually have a host of terms from this very period which are far more appropriate than "theft": "discover", "explore", "colonize", and "conquest", to name a few!
Ah yes, the principal of Acquiris Quodcumquae Rapis.
Possession is nine tenths of the law.
The 1840 colonial British/American manifest destiny standard was: It's ours if we want it and we'll kill anyone who tries to stop us.
Carmen Sandiego: "Yes."
Legally? No. Physically? Hold my beer.
which ever country has the most people die because of his nutjob plan
He is salvaging the anchor
I get the distinct impression that arguing over property rights in this particular context might have similar consequences to arguing over control of the land-bridge that once closed off the Straits of Gibraltar; the party that decided "Well, maybe I'll just destroy it so neither of us will have it!" produced the Mediterranean Sea, and all that that implies.
Now I'm picturing all the anchors as boat anchors, including the mountain anchor.
That explains the diving suit Patience had in the cupboard! [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/november-9th-2021 "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/november-9th-2021")
Hey - going by the famous gun-and-globe theory -- if they move THIS one, will the Widdershins anchor start to move correspondingly as well?
Only one way to find out.
I think the island anchor is opposite Widdershins, given the bullet exited near Australia. The Mountain Anchor on the other hand is presumably in the right place.
Ah yes, you're right. So the Mountain anchor is the one potentially moving when they do their little experiment
Arpana won't be too happy about that!
Would be both horrifyingly destructive yet hilarious if the mountain moved with its anchor.
New stupid thought, perhaps the anchor was moved in the past and that is why one is on a mountain while the other is deep in the ocean. If they find the lost city of Atlanta at the anchor site, I am going to laugh.
Looks about right! Shame Eliza couldn't just google "earth sandwich tool" instead of relying on shooting a globe.
Nah -- they'd just have to move the peak of Everest, not the whole mountain.
What could possibly go wrong?
I wonder if the reason advanced technology doesn't work in 2013 Widdershins is because there was a history of jackasses like Pryce using it to try and steal anchors, so they maintain a city-wide Faraday cage or something like it to deter this kind of meddling.
I thought it was just because magic interferes with technology, but maybe you are on to something.
I'm having trouble loading the older comics atm, but I remember there were summoning circles drawn around internet cables in the cafe where Ethan is meeting his husband at the end of Chapter 4. It's possible there's a natural interference and eventually they just find a way around it, but I always wondered if it was a deliberate thing.
Alexa's cellphone worked when Jack used it in the Witch Control Room as well, but maybe it's one of those things that works differently in that room, or when the witch does it.
Edit: Here's the one I was thinking of. It might just be for the lamps.
[https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-7th-2014 "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-7th-2014")
Yeah, but remember that Alexa's cell phone also worked when she used it to set off the flour bomb at the climax of that volume.
I think her cell phone working was just One Of Those Things. A couple of comics after the one you linked has the conductor of the train (IIRC?) that Alexa was heading home on letting passengers know that it was safe for them to use electronics again ( [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-19th-2014 "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-19th-2014") ); I assume there's an announcement like that at the beginning of the chapter when she was heading into Widdershins, too, but I'm time-crunched right now and can't find it, haha.
wait hold on let them do this. i think itll be really funny
Cons: This is a TERRIBLE idea and will almost certainly have disastrous consequences for everyone involved.
Pros: This a terrible idea and will almost certainly have disastrous hilarious consequences for everyone involved.
Well they seem pretty certain they can do that.
T hi is feels like trying to move the North Pole by stealing enough snow and dirt from around it
An action that, I'm sure, can have no far reaching consequences whatsoever.
This is the first time we've seen Vee without the jacket part of this outfit (not to mention the jabot). I really like the little detail of the shirt having a drawstring under the bust to create the pigeon-breasted effect we see when she has her jacket on.
Which makes perfect sense because a structured shirt would probably have been an 1840s women's best/only alternative to a corset and a drawstring would have been necessary before the invention of elastics. It's a brilliant deduction if it's not based on actual historical examples
I research pre-1700 garb, so I'm not that up on Victorian. However, the way they got the 'look' before elastic was Pleating. Lots and Lots of small pleats that would accordian out to allow for curvature.
Also, for ladies at that time, everything was tailor-made. Either you made it yourself, or you paid a seamstress to make it for you. So I could see Vee snarling about little tiny pin-tucked pleats, saying "Bugger off!", and just putting in a drawstring. She would also be wearing "Rational Wear", which did not use a corset, and was a "freer fit" very popular with the BlueStockings
Wait wait wait. Is this whole arc an excuse for a "ship" and it's "anchor" joke? Because that's genious.
No, no. Different pun. Pemberton Pryce wants the Anchor. It's a shipping story.
Weigh anchor!
I swear, she's going to turn that piece of paper around to reveal a 2011-era troll science comic. "I will simply attach a large electromagnet to the Bermuda Triangle and tow it away"
It's the sort of plan only a man like Pryce could come up with. Zero actual understanding of magic or science, unshakeable confidence in himself, enough money to implement it without oversight, and a complete absence of anyone willing to tell him "this is stark raving mad." The scariest thing is that it actually might work, or at least work well enough to get to the "everything explodes" stage.
With the unshakeable confidence, plus the certainty engine, he could literally succeed! 😱
So what we need to do is destroy Pryce's self-confidence.
We don't have to destroy HIS confidence. We just have to destroy everyone else's confidence IN him.
That would be surprisingly easy to do.
And here it is:
This sounds like it'd have apocalyptic consequences if it actually works and doesn't just... pull a nonmagical chunk of the seafloor onto the ship.
The cover-art to this chapter did have a sinking ship.
wow, a mobile anchor uh. A nifty idea
A chicken in every pot and an anchor in every home.
For far too long have American ships had to lug around heavy, dangerous, anchors about while struggling to stay afloat! Order now, and get a limited-edition prototype of Pemberton's Anchor 2.0, which is far easier & safer to transport on lightweight seagoing craft!
I love Vee rolling her eyes in panel 2. You can just hear the sigh in her voice.
Yes... lets remove something called an Anchor from its place, never mind what it is anchoring! Though what even would they do with it? Probably just the prestige of having one... damned people with too much money.
Well, Pryce might be certain the engine will hoist up the Anchor, but is this going to be a case of an immovable object meeting an irresistible force?
Also who is to say the raised Anchor might not be a bit heavier, or not so easy to contain, which I have a sinking feeling will lead to this titanic endeavor tipping over and going down
Ha, the next few pages are going to be mighty interesting ^_^
Looking at the other Anchors -- you can't move a mountain, a pit in the earth, nor an island, this is going to be something you can't physically move.
I may be stretching here, but the Mountain and the Pit seem to correlate, one Up and one Down. The Island is UP above the sea, so if my theory is right, this Anchor is going to be Down a Blue Hole in the ocean floor, and there are several in the Gulf of Mexico, particularly near the Yucatan coast and the Bahamas.
No, you're right, the Anchors do correlate. Like you said one is on top of the tallest point on Earth, the other at the lowest deep under water.
Then you have the Widdershin one in a large city surrounded by people, and the Island one, without any people on it save its Witch which stays there in one small house
There was a point when I was trying to read Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street when it became really, really obvious it was published a page of two at a time, because every little section had to establish scene and do some major plot and it got choppy, monotonous... and couldn't possibly devote enough time to major events.
In a high-art-labour comic like Widdershins, better to have some pages that feel incomplete on weekly reading than damage the end product. One of these is temporary.
Is Pryce's plan to er... appropriate the Anchor a Bad Thing? Magic is generally reckoned to be beneficial to humanity, but only Widdershins Anchor is in play. Mountain Anchor is accessible but remote, Island Anchor is Ms Nyree's personal property and there's no-one at all at Sea Anchor (except the inevitable giant octopus). By moving Sea Anchor to a populated area such as the East coast of America and bringing magic to all the people there, isn't Pryce benefitting everyone?
Boston is confusing enough to navigate without adding literal magic to it.
This was actually my second thought upon reading the page! My first thought was, "There's no way this will actually move the anchor, and even if does, it will almost certainly explode." My third thought was, "Another Anchor close to civilization might be nice in the long run, but Pryce would probably rather die than let it benefit EVERYONE - just himself, thank you, and possibly his immediate family members."
Hoist the anchors!