Original Script
MOM
Closing her speaking tube.
That lass can be so sluggish sometimes.
GHOST (voice only)
As Jane runs, putting on her necklace.
Have you considered my proposition?
JANE
Jane bolts up the stairs like an athlete in a dress.
Harriet the bird follows.
Devote hours reading academic blowhards in a stuffy museum?
No thank you, Sir Ghost.
GHOST
Even I don’t know the origins of Anubis’ Key.
Surely you want to…
The rest of the Webb family is already aboard a large
flying vehicle docked to the tower above their house.
JANE
Perhaps later.
Rather than take the ramp Jane leaps from the
balcony railing onto the ship’s deck.
“Dear Sir or Madam:
I wish to complain about the the excessive display of shapely, smooth, alabaster, white-sock encased feminine ankle on display in the January 1st installment of your otherwise wholesome serial.
Hitherto my wife Derek and I have always considered “I, Mummy” to be suitable entertainment and instruction for our 12 children, containing what we consider to be a healthy amount of gore and violence mingled with its usual amounts of good humoured hijinks and monkeyshines.
We deplore your obviously desperate attempt to increase readership with this tasteless display of feminine pulchritude. If you persist in aiming “I, Mummy” at the coarsest and most base of human impulses, I, and my family shall be forced to seek entertainment elsewhere.
Sincerely, Lord Bumtickler-Knucklesniffer
Rogers-on-Hammerstein, HawleySmoot”
Dear Lord Bumtickler-Knucklesniffer,
Valued patron of the arts. It is with our sincerest regrets and a weighty heart that we must address a most disturbing circumstance. As you are well aware, the executive staff here at Wernham Hogg & Sons Publishers spend the holiday month with our families, as Yomagn’tho intended. Every year the honor of keeping the bookworks running is randomly given to one lucky worker. Unfortunately, this year the long hours locked alone in the basement seem to have given poor Robert Cratchit some unhealthy ideas.
A pornographic display of ankles, kneecaps and buckteeth went to press, bypassing our strict no-hanky-panky review process. All of us here would like to apologize for any strange feelings you may or may not have experienced upon viewing this shocking display. May it please you to know that “Bob” has been soundly punished with thumb screws, docked eight month’s pay without leave, and his children were given extra homework.
Sincerely, Sir Ann Drew of Purvine & Nance.
PS: Please enjoy your next installment of this fine periodical on the house, as it were.
I personally really like her outfit. It feels like a mix of Victorian English and Indian clothing, with the cut of the clothes being so loose and layer-oriented while the fabric style is distinctly European. It looked even more Indian in the first panel, when I thought she was wearing very loose-legged trousers, but it seems, judging by the other panels, that it’s actually just a very flowy dress. Either way, I love it.
Having characters that wear clean clothes every day has forced an appreciation of fashion I never really had before this project. Jane’s current dress is a Lady Duff-Gordon design from WWI era. As I understand it, the huge dresses from the late 1800s where going out of style as everyone sacrificed for the war effort, so this design was aimed at aristocratic women who weren’t ready to give up their extravagant fashions. Also, Lucy Duff-Gordon was on the Titanic when it sank and survived.
More Duff-Gordon designs. Gah! What have I become?!
I realize how dreadfully tired of it she must have become, but she might have been better served if she’d brought the wig. Her short, unkempt hair looks a bit boyish, and her parents might well expostulate with her over it.
Funny you should mention her wild hair. Monday’s page has Mom attempting to brush it into something a bit more presentable.
What a lovely style! You’ve really captured the old dot style of classics such as Sir Gallant. I love it!
Thank you! I’ve been enjoying Parmeshen, too.
You’re going to be able to open your own dress museum! Which would be pretty cool . . .
With all the mannequins wrapped as mummies.
😀