Jeanie Bottle 446
Uh oh… yet another distraction from what Rodge is trying to tell Natalie. And it’s shaping up to be a pretty big distraction.
Uh oh… yet another distraction from what Rodge is trying to tell Natalie. And it’s shaping up to be a pretty big distraction.
It looks like the shit has hit the fan.
Yes, we knew it was going to come sooner or later, we just didn’t know when it was going to happen.
Now we have Belle thinking that either Jeanie or Natalie is interested in Jean. They also had Jeanie listed as Jean fiance on the website that Belle read a few weeks back. They also had Natalie listed as a possible girl friend of Jean too.
Now Belle hasn’t met either Natalie or Rodge either and she going to be looking for answers now and there no Jeanie to save the day either.
Heads up! As to what going to happen now!
You forget, she has seen Natalie before and commented on how she looks like Neil.
Got a reference for that, Jaqui? I don’t recall those two ever meeting.
@Jaqui: I believe you are thinking of Belle meeting Jeannie. I don’t think Belle has ever seen Natalie before in person.
I have just reread the entire series to look for that. Nope. Belle has never met either Rodge or Natalie.
She has seen an image of her on that obsessive ex’s site. From episode 430.
https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-430
That is how Belle recognizes her.
Yep I just reread the entire series again. The things I do for the sake of the historical accuracy of this strip!
What did Neil ever do to deserve this?
He was created in a CD RUDD webcomic.
Why ME, Lord?
>Because I like to have my little jokes. Besides, I’m on deadline!<
Collateral damage. Consequences of being a friend of a jerk like Jean. It was Jean(ie) who invented Natalie to punish Neil by making him into a stripper in a club. How many times can Neil be *POOF*ed before there start to be more than superficial effects beyond physical appearance?
Basically gonna parrot X’s comment. He’s a male main character in a CD Rudd comic. It’s his lot in life to be TG’d for our amusement. And I, for one, find it quite amusing. 🙂
Speaking of which, Rodge is due for a TGing sooner or later . . .
That’s what I’ve been saying! Been trying to convince CD to do that for months.
I have a feeling that Rodge is never going to get TG’ed or turned into anything really.
If it follows the TV series, he’s supposed to get turned into a poodle
It could be a female poodle.
Nah. Every narrative needs the one person who is on the periphery of the chaos but never consumed by it, just as a counterpoint to the hilarity. Once the chaos consumes everyone it loses its power to torment and just becomes the new normal. And that is a little bit boring.
Yeah… the one guy who walks through a barfight unscathed, just to make the fight look more chaotic. Personally, I hope the TG’ing everyone in sight has run its course, so the *real* chaos can start!
Random22 That was my thought as well. I just couldnt figure out how to word it.
@Pygar: Like Tony Curtis in The Great Race. (Except that Natalie Wood nailed him in the end, by accident.)
I was thinking Cyrano Jones on Star Trek…
Perhaps the TG effect only works on 97% of the population. Perhaps he’s tried to use a TG device on you and you’re immune. Then again I could be completely wrong about this.
@Pygar: According to the author of that episode (The Trouble With Tribbles) the Star Trek scene was actually modeled after the movie scene with Tony Curtis, so; yes!
@Katgirl @Pygar
Would that movie be The Great Race?? Tribbles first aired only two years after that particular Tony Curtis movie came out. I’ve seen a lot of Tony Curtis movies, including:
* The Prince Who Was a Thief
* The Black Shield of Falworth (“Yondah lies the castle of my faddah.”)
* Houdini
* The Vikings
* The Sweet Smell of Success
* The Defiant Ones
* Trapeze (Great circus movie with acrobat Burt Lancaster)
* The Perfect Furlough
* Some Like It Hot
* Operation Petticoat
* Spartacus
* Taras Bulba
* The List of Adrian Messenger
* Captain Newman, M.D. (Saw it again last night)
* Goodbye Charlie
* Sex and the Single Girl
* Boeing, Boeing
* Arrivederci, Baby!
* On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who…
* The Boston Strangler
* Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies
* You Can’t Win ‘Em All (With Charles Bronson)
* Lepke (Bernie Schwartz finally plays a Jew)
* The Mirror Crack’d
But I haven’t seen them all yet.
@Tom: Yes, I was referring to The Great Race; see my earlier comment to Pygar. Although really, Rodge doesn’t fit the part of the hero who can slide through untouched; he’s more of the hapless sidekick that gets dragged into things.
Although I am happy to see that Rodge does seem to be developing a little more intelligence; he’s not nearly as brainless as he was when first introduced.
Kattgirl (4:08 am): Rodge is not currently trying to pretend to be an engineer. He only needs normal intelligence (both in type and strength) to manage daily life.
Well, Neil did have sex with Belle.
And it just keeps getting “better”… 😛
Yay, Belle’s back!
Well, now all we need is for Agent Anderson to join the party.
Another thing: Did Rodge drop Jean’s bottle between the third and the fourth panel? It doesn’t take that long to open a door; Natalie was already opening it in the third panel.
I wonder if Rodge even recognizes Belle. This is the first time they’ve been shown together. Perhaps Neil told Rodge about sleeping with Jean’s girlfriend while he was subbing for Neil, but perhaps not, and even if he did, I doubt Neil had a picture of Belle to show Rodge.
Well considering that from Belle’s perspective, neither of these two know her, she’s going to have to introduce herself in some manner. How that’ll go down, though, is anyone’s guess…
Though I bet it’ll be the most funny if Agent Anderson shows up while Belle is ranting. 🙂
I agree! For Agent Anderson to show up now would be impeccable timing!
No, Rodge and Belle have not met before.
I can not wait to see how this conversation turns out!
@LeadFootRT:
Yeah, that was the scene i was thinking of.
OH MY GOD, JESUS. SHIT. AHHHHH!!!
Where the cavalry when you need it?
You know, this is really asking too much of coincidence. Neil mysteriously gets Natified without Jeannie around, and Belle, now in the know, just HAPPENS to turn up at that exact moment?
I’m inclined to think that someone (possibly with the initials B.D.) is out to cause Jeannie trouble by engineering this little meeting.
And by the way, does it occur to anyone else that the “Jeannie” that appeared over the sleeping Neil might have in fact been the Jeannie-double – who is still unexplained?
The timing makes me wonder whether, when Jeanie first transformed Neil, in her anger she put enough magical force behind it to make Natalie his natural form, and only used enough magic changing him back to restore his male appearance, requiring a tiny trickle of magic to keep him that way. So when Jeanie got dragged off to the ‘genie convention’, that trickle got cut off, and Neil reverted to his ‘real’ form — Natalie.
No, we can forget about the Jeannie-double changing Neil to Natalie, because the bottom of the Genie outfit not right, because hers is straight across and doesn’t show the belle button. Now it might be somebody else masquerading as Jeanie, but, it not the double changer that doing it.
Can we all agree that we need to start tying all these loose ends finally. Seriously, what is going on between Jean and Neil. We got strange duplicates and a wedding with Jean and physically and mentally girlified Neil with Bella showing up angry now… I’m just lost now.
I doubt that CD Rudd going to clean up the loose ends, because, the main part of the story of “Jeanie in a Bottle” revolve around those loose ends as you say. But, for those t those of you that are having trouble keeping up, I can clear things up a little bit.
1. Jeanie still identify herself as a guy and see Neil as his guy friend, even after six months or so of being a girl Genie, she is starting to develop female emotions and female image of herself, even it it not wanted or desired even.
2. In Jeanie image of herself former self as a guy, she still see Belle as her steady girl friend and may the girl that she even want to marry if she were a guy, which she would like to go back to being.
3. Jeanie relationship to Neil after she got genified into Genie. Technically Neil is now Jeanie Master, which Jeanie doesn’t accept and nor does Neil push the issue either and tries to deal her the best he can like she is still his guy friend, which doesn’t work out very well. Right now both Jeanie and Neil are in limbo land until they come to term with there new relationship to each other. Meaning they neither have there old relationship of when they were both guys and neither have they fully embraced her being a female Genie. There still bouncing around those two points of not fully giving up on there former relationship and embracing there new relationship.
4. Is kind of like a female Dr. Below of the old TV series. She always the odd person out all the time. Like she doesn’t know about Genie’s and so she doesn’t know what going on and so she is always confused as to what going. But, when Jeanie use to be Jean a guy, Belle became his full time girl friend and she may even be interested in marrying the jerk too. But, when he became a female “Genie, his cover story for disappearing was that he went to the Mideast to work. Now all Belle has to go on to learn about Jean where about, is letter and what she see on the internet. Which bring us up to today. She goes to Jean old apartment where she use to seeing Neil and sometimes Jeanie who was suppose to be her cosine. She see Natalie who she probably saw on the internet as one of the girl around Jean/Rodge and now she see Rodge who she doesn’t know either and now she mad too.
I hope that clears everything up for you. It a regular Payton Place as you can see.
Good points. Especially the last one. I am pretty sure seeing Natalie, the girl seen “flirting” with her boyfriend on that website, in her boyfriend’s apartment is not going to make her very happy!
I am sure there will be a fiery new post on that website tonight!
Perhaps Belle can help Natalie with her woman-hood issues. (A rephrasing of what Neil said early on in the series.) Although Natalie seems to be embracing some aspects quite well.
Poor Natalie. Next she’ll find she enjoys working at the strip club…
When someone shouts “You!” at you, no possible good can come after.
I am surprised that no one has spotted the hint in the previous page where it was explained the natural genie magic is far more powerful than former mortal genie magic.
This might explain why Jeannie can only give Neil a female body so he looks and sounds like Natalie but is still a male in personality and mind whereas whomever turned Neil into Natalie this time actually turned him into a complete woman as though she was born that way.
So the question here is while “Natalified” Neil always seemed to feel wrong and wanted to be changed back as soon as possible, will this Natalie want to stay a woman and should Jeanie change her back then feel wrong as a man?
And further: CAN Jeannie change Natalie back? It seems that, in general, genies cannot contravene each other’s magic. So either Neil gets changed back by who ever Nat-ified him, or else he’s stuck for a while with a pair of D-cups.
Speaking of which: I wonder if he has any appropriate clothing on hand? He’s certainly been turned into Natalie enough times that he should have a few dresses hanging in the closet, but you never know…
Maybe whoever Nat-ified him was kind enough to upgrade his wardrobe as well?
Or if Jeanie can change him back will he then be a woman in a man’s body?
can we get a cut out of Natalie looking at his butt?
I could make one and put it up on the Patreon.
You need to be a $3 patron to see high-res character shots from the comics, though.Actually, strike that. We haven’t posted a public High Res pic in a while, so I’ll make this visible to everyone.
Robert, is there any chance we could get to find out exactly what Rodge said in Panel 1? (Yes, I know it’s probably not relevant, but curiosity overwhelms, sometimes.)
You’d have to ask CD. By the time I get the Photoshop files to edit, the text layers are already rasterized, so I don’t know what’s behind Natalie’s thought bubble.
I got the jest of what Rodge said, but even I didn’t get all of what he said. Here what I got.
Neil, Normally, I’m all for you being Natalie. But, when there is a Federal agent looking for Natalie (blank) best not to (blank).
That the best that I can come up with. Rodge is telling Natalie that a Federal agent is looking for her and we all are assuming that it agent Anderson and then Belle show up. I still assuming that agent Anderson is still wondering around and looking for Natalie and he may still show up too. But, he or she know where Rodge live, but, he doesn’t know where Neil or Natalie or Jeanie live and depending on how close Rodge live to them, agent Anderson may never find this apartment.
ROFL, I seriously cant wait to see how this plays out xD
I have confidence in Natalie’s ability to talk her way out of this situation. Both Rodge and Jennie both look up Neil as quick witted, and intelligent. Someone who can get them out of a tight situation. If only she can keep her mind off of Rodge’s magnificent male attributes !
Although with Jennie not there, the truth might be the way to go.
Also, why put Neil in this predicament? Neil has no magic, though, he is Jennie’s master. By keeping him distracted are they preventing him from screwing up some master plan? I did say ” they”, the Blue Djinn had many devoted followers.
The Blue Djinn=Lord Voldemort
Lord Bluedemort. The Djinn Who Must Not Be Named.
Brava, I like
Sorry, bravo, “Brava” has a slightly different meaning.
It seems Belle and Rodger have a history together. I am guessing cousins, rivals or even ex-boyfriend. Either way, she is really upset to see him there.
Pretty sure she’s upset to see the woman who was seen hanging off of “Jean” at that party in the last storyline.
My guess is that either Rodge or Natalie will “explain” to Belle that Natalie is Rodge’s girlfriend, and that Natalie wasn’t fooling around with Jean. But that may happen “off-screen. I wouldn’t be surprised if the action moves back to Haji’s palace in the next comic, or maybe to the Blue Djinn. Maybe both?
I am starting to wonder at this point if Jeanie wants Natalie and Rodge to be a couple, and judging from Nat’s reactions it seems she wouldn’t mind if that was the case.
Well if Belle’s sudden arrival doesn’t lead to a cat-fight or serious argument that takes up several pages, then we can all see what will actually happen between Rodge and Natalie….
Jeanie doesn’t think that way and nor does she have any reason to have done the transformation this time and nor is it in her best interest either to have done it. It more likely that another Genie did the act of transformation of Neil to Natalie. One who has ulterior motives and such.
Like Big Bad Blue.
Maybe the worst thing Neil and Rodge could do is tell Belle the truth. Have we forgotten that Belle Lowes is a psychology student? (A nod to psychiatrist Dr. Alfred Bellows from the Sixties show if any of you missed that connection.) With Jeanie gone, Neil and Rodge don’t have any way to prove the truth, and Belle could conclude that they are crazy enough dangerous to themselves an others.
Oh. Wait. Agent Anderson. Perhaps Belle would believe a genuine Federal agent is a victim of genie magic?
That was the original reason why Jeanie didn’t want to tell Belle that she a Female Genie now. She didn’t want to become one of Belle projects and she told Neil not to tell her either.
Should Agent Anderson show up claiming to once been a man and magically transformed into a girl. Belle with go nuts over it. I have no doubt that both Rodge and Natalie will distance themselves knowing anything about this matter too.
What I’d like to know: given that Belle knows about the ‘Jean is a jerk’-website and has been dating other men while she thought he was out of the country, having only a brief hookup with Neil disguised as Jean….. why is she this upset?
Exclusiveness seems unreasonable to expect at this point.
Since when is “being unreasonable” NOT an expected part of a relationship with Jean? 😉
True, but usually the unreasonableness is to be expected on Jean’s part.
No, everybody has right to be unreasonable sometimes. It solely the domain or right for only Jeanie to be unreasonable. Everybody got to have there shot too at being unreasonable also.
@Rock: Given the behavior of many of the women at the literary convention, there’s a case to be made for the theory that Jean’s unreasonableness rubs off on anyone he sleeps with. 😉
@Kattgirl: Yeah. Jean is rather like Suzi Nielsen of Ménage à trois in that regard. She drives her one-night stands and lovers loopy, too. It’s just a different form of madness.
Natalie. I suspect that Belle just saved your virginity, damn it!
That depends on the type of transformation it is.
If Neil is transformed to Natalie on a 1-to-1 basis, then she won’t be a virgin because he isn’t.
If, on the other hand, Natalie is a wholly new form with Neil’s personality installed, she might be a virgin.
I’m pretty sure that’s not how female virginity works…
@Robert: I don’t know, Robert – ever heard of a “technical virgin”? (And no, that’s not someone who has yet to learn how to deal with technology!) 😉