AMC Gremlin

Aliases: none Status: Major Origin: Supplied by Mr. Dealer; no manufacturer detail beyond the AMC name Wielder: Chino and Homeboy

The rusting AMC Gremlin is Volume 02’s unofficial workhorse: a delivery car, a getaway car, and an emergency ambulance, usually in that order and almost never in working order. It is worth getting the name right up front — “the Gremlin” is the text’s shorthand for the car model, not a bespoke nickname the crew gave it. Nobody christens this car. Nobody would admit to christening this car.

Description

Cramped interior, manual windows, rust as a structural feature, and a temperament the text treats as an established antagonist: the Gremlin’s difficult starts repeatedly change the action, stranding people, delaying rescues, and generally behaving like a machine that knows exactly what it is doing. Mr. Dealer supplies it for deliveries, which is how it enters the crew’s life. What the text does not establish, and will not be supplied here: a model year, an engine specification, or any transfer of legal ownership. The Gremlin is used. Whether it is owned — and by whom — is nobody’s business but the repo man’s.

Role in Volume 02

• Uncle Rob and the Edibles Factory: Enters service as the delivery vehicle — Dealer puts Chino and Homeboy behind its wheel for delivery runs, and the first difficult starts make their introductions.
• The Emporium arc: The car keeps getting called up through the middle of the volume, including Sarah’s evacuation, where a vehicle that cannot be relied on to start is exactly what the plot orders.
• The long middle: Emergency transport duty, repeated. Every time the crew needs to move fast, they get the Gremlin, and every time they get the Gremlin, they learn why nobody else wanted it.
• The Emperor of the Universe: The finale’s rescue. The Gremlin makes it to the end of the volume, which is more than can be said for some characters.

Notes

• “The Gremlin” is source shorthand for the AMC Gremlin model, not an established bespoke nickname for this particular car.
• No model year, engine specification, or legal ownership transfer is established by the text.
• The earliest evidence lines place the Gremlin’s introduction between the edibles-factory evidence and the Emporium arc, so the first-appearance story is recorded as Uncle Rob and the Edibles Factory with mild uncertainty — it may equally be the head of the Emporium story.