Reposting this AGAIN from the old gallery. Last I read was the shower scene between Elizabeth and Dakota
I'm hating Seth more and more as this comic goes on.
>He makes his sole active "talent" transport themselves in their own transportation to locations while he just jets off to do other shit. While that may be excusable if he had other active clients, pretty much all the other acts he's signed are retired (Redd because she got Killing Joke'd and Melody because she got bored.) or unknown what's happened to them (Poison Jam). Seth apparently has all the time in the world to manage Steg and Suria. This is a guy who apparently runs a record label AND owns a few nightclubs, both of which are fairly time-consuming endeavours.
> His "talent" seem to get nothing from him apart from his connections. You'd think that before he sent them to Melody's...whatever it was, he'd have had Stegs van checked over to make sure that it could travel the distances Seth requires of it. Nope. The Rock Cocks had to find another way to Melodies "resort". When Seth meets Dakota he seems annoyed that Steg and Suria hired him. Um Seth, If you have the time to follow two musichoboes around, you have the time to get your cute assistant to regularly call said musichoboes to get some manner of progress report and when they fail to answer a call, find out what the hell has happened to them. Instead of getting them into a studio, he requires them to record their debut at the house of one of his retired "talent" . Wouldn't a RECORD COMPANY have their own RECORDING STUDIOS?
> He fails the most important test of a leader. "Never order a subordinate to do something you would not be willing to do yourself" After the debacle in New Orleans, Seth pretty much dumps that cute assistant on the duo and proceeds to fuck off on a plane in first class. Seth, if you were that worried about how his "talent" was faring, he either should have been following them in a car or, oh, I don't know, PUTTING HIMSELF ON THAT BUS! Suria has a fairly forceful personality and Elizabeth seems to get flustered fairly easily. Hells, putting Georgie on the bus would have been a better solution, as that boy has no shame whatsoever. He's willing to criticise Seth to his face if he feels Seth needs to hear it.
> He pressured the duo into signing the contract there and then. I'm fairly sure that would count as "signing under duress", which would invalidate the contract. If he was honest about his concerns about Roxanne signing the duo, chances are that they would have listened. He could have stressed that signing with Roxanne would mean that their content would be "toned down" to be more "palatable", meaning no songs that motivate a crowd into an orgy.
I'm hoping that after they finish sampling the naturist lifestyle, the residents of the Cockpit meet up with Poison Jam who do not have the fondest memories of their time signed to Sterling Records. That and Elizabeth/Dakota persists.
@PlutoniumBoss, @SilverCut - that does appear to be Dakota's landing strip, which is odd, because as far as we know they're both straight. I know the cast is kinda becoming a perpetual free for all, but I wouldn't expect any Stekoda without at least some token discussion and consent negotiation, or I would feel like it really cheapens both of them as characters.
@SilverCut - I get why you have that suspicion, with how cagey Seth can be and the regular comments about saving money on things. But it doesn't align with his personal extravagances, or his tendency to try to solve problems by throwing money at them.
I think it's more likely that (tying into something @NightLillith said) Seth is struggling with *social* capital. He's got his club and he's the sole owner of his production company, which presumably has a library of artists that are at least passively earning residuals even if they're not active in the biz any more (like Melody). But whatever happened between him and Roxanne before the start of the story gave him a reputation as a has-been, and his "connections" are mostly just the people he knows will still take his money. Nobody's breaking down the door to work with him any more. And if he were content to live out the end of his career in mediocrity, he could probably do so comfortably. But what he really wants is credit for being part of the next music revolution, like he was with Redd, and the only reason he cares about budgets is that the revolution has to be a critical, financial, and historical success on its own merits, not just a billionaire's pet project.
The other possibility, if he really is hiding his struggling finances this way, is that he's afraid of losing Georgie (who is how much younger than him, would you say?) if he has to cut back on his lavish lifestyle.