Comic 381 - Timothy E. Timmy I
21st Dec 2018, 12:00 AM
in A ToyCo Christmas Carol
Average Rating: 5 (5 votes) Rate this comic
Author Notes:
And this is gonna be a rather looong annotation...
- We have met this Seamus O'Donnel before (and thus know how he got rich so quickly)...
The timeframe in which he and Timmy I met ought to be from the late 1920 to the early 1930s.
One may wonder though how and why exactly these two became such great pals. Did they go through an adventure together? There is definitely some story potential...
- Oh, and astute readers should already know which "other city" it is that Timmy I moved to after Seamus gave him the money. ;-)
- I struggled a bit with choosing the craftsmanship that Timmy I learned before becoming a fully-fletched toymaker.
While he definitely also had good mechanical skills, I eventually opted for something from the woodworking corner.
One reason is that this works as a reference to Ole Kirk Christiansen, the founder of LEGO, who also started out as a carpenter.
The other reason is that I already have a clockwork tinkerer who is the ancestor of a present day character in my catalogue of as of yet unused characters! (I would really love to weave some kind connection between him and the Timmy's too. But given that they were living on different continents, that's a bit difficult...)
- Speaking of references to Ole Kirk Christiansen: The wooden duck that Timmy III gets from his Grandpa is another one - A wooden duck was one of the very first toys produced by LEGO!
- Speaking of toy references in general: The toy soldier that Timmy I made in the first panel (already in ToyCo colors) is supposed to evoke the titular nutcracker from The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
In fact, the start of said story is even quite similar to what we see here: An old toymaker named Drosselmeier visits a family with stuffy parents, bringing Christmas presents for their kids.
In the present, the third Timmy generation seems to have an affinity to motives from this tale... Perhaps Bettina is even aware of the parallels and thus chose the name of the "Drosselmeyer Protocol" in part to honor her Grandpa...?
- Also, I am aware that it may come off as a bit hypocritical of Bettina to call a doll from her brother that looks like herself "weird and creepy", while in fact her grandfather apparently the same idea many years before.
Still, there is a difference between crafting such a doll specifically for the person it depicts, and mass-producing them for selling them to the whole world.... (Also, Grandpa Timmy's doll wasn't made for spying!)
User comments:
And goos to see old Seamus again. Contextual desnity increases! :D
About the "creepy" comment: there really is a HUGE difference between a one-off, lovingly crafted wooden gift and a mass-produced plastic spying device. You are 100% right there.
I have to hand it to you. Reading CE and this at the same time really brings out the emotional impact. It's a bit sad, really...
I am a bit of a sucker for generational sagas, actually.
I quite enjoyed reading Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, and on my Christmas wish list this year is G.R.R. Martin's new book about House Targaryen.
And I also like increasing contextual density obviously! (This potentially leading to the "small world syndrome" may be the other side of the medal, but personally that doesn't bother me that much.)
Oh, and concerning the sad emotional impact? That was nothing yet. Wait for next page... ;-)
Re: "Creepy"
You know what else is hand-crafted one-by-one?
Voodoo Dolls.
It would be rather irresponsible to give a kid a voodoo doll of herself...
(But then again, those are the Timmys. "Irresponsible" seems to be part of their company philosophy...)
Also, denying his kids to get toys for Christmas? Not only is Timmy II rather coldhearted, he also should consider for a moment where his family's wealth comes from in the first place!