Monthly Archives: April 2006

(From Stupidity in Magic. Click on image to see it full-sized. Warning: the comic contains material that religious people without a sense of humor may find offensive. Then again, if you don’t have a sense of humor, why are you reading webcomics?)

I don’t remember when I started Stupidity in Magic. It’s been for a bit now, and I’ve felt it deserves a tangent. Unfortunately, SiM isn’t a story comic, per say. Instead, Taylor tends to draw whatever amuses her at the moment, poking fun at various little things she’s heard and whatever else comes to mind. Sometimes SiM goes into short story arcs (and sometimes longer ones). Occasionally she’ll descend into the hazy world of movie parody. But if you’re looking for an ongoing epic storyline, you’re not going to find it here.

Despite the fact SiM isn’t technically a story comic; there are story elements that keep creeping in. Taylor can’t help that; she’s created a cast of intelligent and vibrant characters, living characters with lives of their own. Thus little details like Olivia and Larry starting to date or the fact Olivia has two children from an ended marriage that she rarely sees (thanks to her ex being a domineering manipulative swine who used Olivia’s religion against her in court) have crept into being.

Likewise, the cast has grown. We’ve the humans: Willow (who has a rather interesting view of the world and who is only slightly based on the artist), Olivia (who is rather strong-willed and whose opinions often help get the cartoonist’s point across), Larry (who is not Harry Potter, damn it!), Tir and Loo (who are almost interchangeable and almost have an entire brain between them), and so forth. We’ve the deities: Chibi Cthulhu (I kid you not), Jesus Christ (who’s actually rather cool, if a bit of an agitator at times), Anubis (though he only possesses Willow’s hand), Athena (never summon a prudish goddess in the nude), and so forth. And we’ve got cats. Lots of cats. (The Kitten Collective told me to offer them an honorary membership to their Collective. From the looks of it they have their own collective goingÖ)

As a writer, I’ve done research into the various religions. One thing I’ve noticed is that many pagans retain some of the fundamental roots of their original religion. Thus even though the pagan paths are often a matter of choice, people can become rather fundamental in their behaviors and beliefs about this path. I’ve witnessed pagan discussion groups turn on people when they learn that person is Christian, even if they were otherwise reasonable and intelligent. (Unfortunately, there are a lot of agitators out there on both sides; these trolls exist primarily to cause trouble. The side effect is that any Christian becomes suspect when joining a pagan discussion group.) Taylor has done a good job of creating characters who act like some people I’ve witnessed on-line. Despite the stereotypes, these minor characters also grow and become something greater than they started out being.

Amidst the silliness, one-shots, and general weirdness are occasional serious storyline. Sometimes it’s about when people do stupid thing with magic or abuse their abilities. Or it can be more mundane moments about people trying to take what’s not offered. SiM is about the moment, really. Each story builds from those coming before it. It’s an ongoing storyline, just not a continuous one.

SiM does have some flaws. The text in the story A Witch in King Arthur’s Court is sometimes covered up by the graphic images, and some of the text bubbles in earlier comics can be difficult to read in places. There are occasional typos in the comic as well. Other than one or two small instances, it doesn’t detract from the comic as a whole. And if I wish the comic focused on more stories about the Institute (which exists partly to deal with the mistakes barely-trained pagans inflict with their fumblings) among other things, well, Taylor has found something that works well for her.

There are plenty of things that can be brought up for one-shots. Indeed, Taylor could probably focus the entire comic on little non sequiturs without running out of material for years (if ever). But SiM truly starts to shine when focusing on an actual story.

I must admit that I’ve rather enjoyed the segments with Jesus in the comic. There’s something special and magical when I watch Willow comforting Jesus over the commercial nature of Christmas, or shielding Jesus from a rabid evangelist. While Jesus doesn’t appear in the comic all the time (none of the deities do), when he does, it works, even if he’s telling a bad joke about the crucifixion.

SiM works best when Taylor remembers the fundamental premise of the comic: that people make stupid mistakes sometimes, even if they’re pagan. While her movie parodies can be fun and the jokes are amusing, the best parts of the comic are the storyline comics about Olivia, Willow, and Larry, and the comics about spirituality and magic. Keeping it all a part of continuity helps bring the strip to life.

The best part of SiM, however, is that the characters (even most of the deities) are human. They have their foibles, their faults, their gifts. Perhaps that’s why there is stupidity in magic; people are stupid at times, no matter how hard they try. What’s important isn’t your mistakes, but what you learn from them.

Robert A. Howard

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(From Unearthly. Click on image to see it full-sized. Warning: Comic is done in the traditional manga style and needs to be read from the right to the left. There are also chibis and unnatural pigtails, though the comic doesn’t overdo the former.)

While the vast majority of webcomics are amateur works, intended more to allow the creator to hone skills and tell a story, there has long been a core of people who try to use the internet to make a living while doing what they enjoy most: telling a story through comics. One of the biggest success stories has to be Sluggy Freelance, which until recently had a large line of merchandise available for fans, from print compilations to t-shirts to other items. Other sites, such as Questionable Content, use t-shirt sales and the like to make a profit. And a few sites, such as Marvel, use the web as a launching board to entice people into purchasing their comics.

Gomanga.com is one of those sites. It’s got a nice selection of webcomics (which I’ll be going through in the future) and also puts out print compilations of other series. It’s one of these series, Unearthly, which caught my eye. The big thing about Unearthly is that the four chapters posted on-line were a preview to encourage sales of the on-going graphic novels.

That’s right. I got roped in, enjoying a comic and wanting to see more, only to find that the rest of the series is only available if I want to spend $11 for each 192 page compilation. And while that’s better than what it costs to buy comic books from Marvel or DC these days (it’s what, $3 for a 32-page comic now?), I’m in the same boat as many fans, unable to afford print compilations when so many other bills are due. That’s a real shame, because what I read was rather interesting.

Unearthly is a combination romance/science fiction. The art style is manga and the comic itself needs to be read from the right side of the page to the left; it can be disconcerting at first when you encounter this. I swear, they should just call it “American Manga” and draw in the manga style but have the pages read from left-to-right. Like other manga, it has the traditional unreal hair and obligatory chibi moments (where the characters are drawn with oversized heads and minute bodies to make a moment “cute”), but for the most part the art avoids devolving into the deformed art that often seems to detract from the moment. The story is set in the modern world, focusing on a school-age girl and the strangeness that happens when an unexpected visitor arrives.

We start with our young heroine, Ann, finding the first blush of “love” when she listens to fellow student doing an oral presentation on an Arthur C. Clark story about aliens. Jem talks about how ice skating is a good metaphor on humanity: when you’re new to the ice, you’re awkward and unsure. But in time, people learn grace and skill. He paints humanity itself in terms of that image. Currently we’re at our awkward stage when we keep falling on our butts. In time, humanity will learn to move gracefully. It is at that moment Ann notices Jem for the first time, and she’s not alone.

The most popular girl in the school also takes interest in him (which is part of the science fiction bent; popular athletic girls who are interested in bookworms are a rare breed indeed. Even if girls think he’s good-looking, often the “geek” factor is enough to keep the popular girls away). However, it ends up that Jem likes Ann too. From there things take a bit of a twist. Jem transforms overnight from a fairly nice guy (who unfortunately sometimes lets his mouth get the better of him) and becomes a bit of a jerk and “bad boy“.

Of course, the audience has a fairly good idea of what’s going on, and I’m glossing over it. There is no need to spoil the entire story, after all. Still, Unearthly has an interesting story and characters who I don’t think are two-dimensional. Rae (the popular athletic girl) isn’t portrayed as being an actual jerk. She’s vivacious and outgoing, and Ann’s comments about her being pushy and conceited may be true, but they’re colored by Ann’s own frame of reference. Ann is quiet, studious, and a bit shy, so to her Rae (whom Ann might be a little jealous of, to be honest) would be pushy and the like.

Ann’s not alone in this view. Her best friend Nikki (who is rather cynical and opinionated) calls Rae “The Pitbull” because of Rae’s tenaciousness. Maybe I’ve not seen enough of the characters to tell, but Ann and Nikki’s opinion of Rae are off-base. Interestingly, Rae shows remarkable restraint when it comes to Ann. Outside of yelling at her, she doesn’t do anything physical to Ann.

Rae’s friends, on the other hand, start harassing Ann. I’m not sure if Rae sicced her friends on Ann or not. I don’t think she’s the type to have other people fight her battles. Also, it’s perfectly natural to talk to your friends about something like this, especially when the situation leaves you in tears.

Unfortunately for Rae, Ann’s words are only the first verbal slap in the face she’ll encounter. Jem leaves her in tears by blowing her off. Sure, sometimes guys do things like that, and again we’re limited on how well we know Jem up until now. It still seems out of character for Jem. When someone goes from studious, quiet, and polite to an outgoing jerk who doesn’t even try in school, you have to be pretty stupid not to suspect something is wrong.

In the real world you’d think drugs or something. It’s logical and reasonable. But it’s more than that. The new Jem doesn’t remember that he’s never met his father and can’t even open a can of soda. He says little things that clue Ann in on that something is wrong. So she follows him and finds out the truth.

That’s where it ends. If you want to find out more, you have to spend money, buy the graphic novel. I’m sure Volume 1 contains the existing pages found on-line (though some of those are likely double-page spreads) and an additional 80+ pages of story. Volume two isn’t available yet and has no current release date.

It’s an effective hook and bait. I must admit I’m tempted to purchase the first volume. It’s only $11. And it’s also a far more interesting story than much of what’s put out by Marvel or DC these days. (When you think of it, $11 for 192 pages is much better than spending $18 or so for six comic books from the mainstream comics for the same amount of content, even if Marvel’s comics are in color. There is a certain purity that comes with greyscale and black and white comics, and detail that is more often than not lost with full color.)

The problem, of course, is that the web content is limited. I prefer Studio Foglio’s method of putting up the comic on-line and then printing graphic novels of each storyline segment. Additional content rounds out the package to encourage people to buy the graphic novels. In addition, reading each new strip as it updates gives fans a sense of progress. I have no idea when Unearthly: Volume Two is coming out. But I do know what’s happening over at Girl Genius.

Compilations work best when used for fans who want a print copy to read at a later time. I understand artists want to get paid, and they might feel that fans should pay to continue reading their story. Baiting the hook with part of the story to get people interestedÖ it just reminds me too much of what Marvel is currently doing with their on-line content. Gomanga.com has done a far better job with their presentation, but I’m not sure if I’ll spend the money to finish the story. Or at least I’ll wait until Volume Two comes out and I can buy both at once, saving on shipping.

Robert A. Howard

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(From Girly. Click on image to see it full-sized.)

If I were to try and sum up Girly in one word, that word would be surrealistic. I mean, we’ve buildings that smile, omelets that sing in German, indestructible marshmallow kitties, and a superhero running around with a fist for a head. Elephants roam the streets. Cops can stop speeding cars with their bare hands. The unreal is ordinary for this comic.

Yet it’s never been confusing. At least, I’ve not found it confusing, not at its most fundamental level. Yet I cannot fathom what’s going on right now between Otra and Winter. I mean it; I’m with Marshmallow kitty and going what the heck? I am not sure why Otra is angry with Winter, and why this ire not only left Winter outdoors overnight, but has continued even now.

There have been hints that Otra is worried about her feelings for Winter. The blush of first love is fading. Indeed, part of the reason Otra went on the Knight’s Quest so she’d be able to wake up Winter on her own (seeing that Winter drank cursed tea) was because she was afraid the spark was lacking from their adventures and life.

Obviously it failed.

I look at Otra’s anger and I wonder how much of it is misplaced. Is Otra angry because her solo adventure failed in restoring the magic of those first few weeks? Is she blaming Winter for being unable to see her partner’s fears and concerns? Or is it something more? Is Otra angry because Winter wants to go off on yet another adventure, rather than resting a bit and letting some peace and tranquility come back into her life.

Think of it for a moment. When Otra first met Winter, her life was fairly bland and uninteresting. She wasn’t suicidal, but she was nihilistic. Nothing mattered any longer. Life had no purpose.

Winter changed all of that. For once, Otra had something, someone other than herself to think about. She loved Winter. It was a scary and heady feeling for her.

If it wasn’t for Winter, Otra’s life would have continued. It would be the same-old same-old. And if she didn’t care about anyone, at least she didn’t really know what she was missing. (The old axiom “it is far better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” is quite false. If you’ve never loved, you never feel the anguish of having lost; in a sense, ignorance can be bliss.)

Of course, the humor of the situation is that Winter is now playing the traditionally male role here. She, like so many males before her, is left wondering “what did I do wrong?” with an angry spouse refusing to explain. After all, Otra’s anger should be easily understood. Her reason for being angry should be easily understood. Otra knows why she’s angry (or thinks she does). So if Winter doesn’t, she’s just not thinking hard enough. She’s not taking time to think about it.

Trust me, ladies. If a guy tells you he doesn’t understand why you’re angry, he doesn’t understand. Getting even angrier because he’s clueless isn’t going to fix things any. Sometimes you have to bend a little, relax your pride, and explain things simply and succinctly. Likewise, Winter doesn’t know why Otra’s upset, and Otra is being foolish by insisting Winter work it out on her own.

(Unfortunately, sometimes even after having the reasons explained clearly, guys (and girls) can still not understand. I suspect that once Winter does figure out what’s up, she’s going to be in this category, and it’s going to upset Otra further.)

The truth is, Otra’s malady is a sign of something greater. Girly itself has suffered a similar malady. Something has been lacking from Girly since Chapter 8. I don’t know if it’s just skipping ahead two months left us without a chance to watch Winter and Otra’s relationship mature more or what, but I’ve been feeling blasÈ about the comic and specifically about Winter and Otra.

This may be something Lesnick has planned for some time. He’s shown multiple times to be talented in planning things ahead. Relationships have a tendency to cool down after a bit, and more than one couple has broken up because “the feeling is gone.” (Indeed, I was in a relationship where I was the “flavor of the month” and when she fell out of love with me we broke up. I don’t exaggerate; the relationship lasted one month, and then she moved on to someone else. And someone after that. And so on.)

Still, some time apart might be just what the doctor ordered. Winter clearly still loves Otra dearly. I don’t think it’s a matter of because Otra pays all the bills. But Winter herself didn’t understand what love was until a year after her parents vanished and she first saw Otra. Part of this was having witnessed the love of her parents, and having it taken away.

Perhaps if Winter herself disappears, if she leaves Otra’s life for a bit, Otra will also come to realize just what it is she’s lost. She’ll realize that you don’t find magic. You create magic. What was so special, so magical between Winter and Otra was something they created together. And if it’s changed, it’s changed. That doesn’t make it any lesser. It just makes things different.

The same thing all the time gets boring. It’s variety that is the spice of life.

Addendum: Miss Mab and Quiller (on the Tangents forum discussion about this review) pointed out something that I’m rather kicking myself over right now. They stated that Winter showed remarkably little (or rather no) gratitude for what Otra did and went through for her. This shifts the entire venue of the comic, and might also put some focus on why Otra feels the spark is fading from their relationship.

Part of the problem of course is with Winter herself. She doesn’t show gratitude. Or at least she doesn’t express it verbally. Maybe cooking her lover breakfast and snuggling up to her, letting Otra know she’s loved is her means of showing her gratitude. Still, it’s remarkable what a simple “thank you” can do. With more recent comics we still don’t have a verbalization from Otra about why she’s upset, but I’m willing to bet that Mab and Quiller are right on the mark. And perhaps a day apart, with Winter going on her own adventure with the kitty will help her realize just why Otra is upset.

Besides. Making up is often a good way of strengthening and revitalizing any relationship. Maybe Winter will learn something from this. Maybe Otra will as well.

Robert A. Howard

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(From Temuran My Love. Click on image to see it full-sized.)

First impressions are important, both in life and in webcomics. Many people think of art as being the most important venue for catching and keeping the audience happy. More important than this is story, and character. If you look at early comics with CRFH, Questionable Content, or even Sluggy Freelance, the artwork is often rough and lacking. Itís the story and the characters that kept people reading and made them into the popular works they are today.

Temuran My Love starts (after a couple of title pages) on the top of a building, with a young woman about to jump to her death. And instead of someone talking her down or her thinking twice, she leaps from the building to her certain doom. Except Jen doesnít die, or even suffer serious injury. Instead, she comes to and finds sheís lying on top of a young man (Temuran), who caught her and saved her life.

Itís a powerful beginning to a story. The artwork, while sketchy in places, is still elegant in its own way. Unfortunately, the story then lurches as the suicide attempt takes back burner and becomes a mere plot device to bring Jen and Temuran together. He offers to be her friend if she stops crying, and she misinterprets it (deliberately) to be a proposal for a date, and she declares him to be her boyfriend. He just blithely accepts it. And my impression of the comic took a nosedive.

Iím not quite sure why I kept reading. Some little voice insisted that I needed to read the comic. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Temuran has a tail (but is otherwise human). So I continued, discovering that part of the reason for Jenís despair was because of bullies from her school. (I must admit, learning that little fact kept me reading a bit longer; I was bullied for nine years in school, starting in 3rd grade. I was never suicidal from being bullied. But I can understand how long-term abusive behavior and a lack of friends can lead someone to such thoughts.)

To be honest, I think TML could be better written. Itís remarkably clichÈd in places. Fortunately, Temuran isnít Galahad, a perfect knight in shining armor. He has doubts about himself and isnít sure if Jen is happy with him or not. (Itís kind of funny, as heís considered a girl-magnet by his unlucky-at-love twin brother.) He also is a mediocre student at best in his major, Business. It’s his doubts and inadequacies that help balance this comic, and helps show Jen to be more than just a helpless victim.

There is more information if you follow the links. (Unfortunately, and another minus in my eyes, I suspect TMLís website was created using HTML frames. This makes linking individual pages problematic. (I was able to get around the frames and do direct links for the review; you might find it easier to link these pages until you finish with the archives.)) One thing of interest is that Temuran is a djinn, a shape shifting daemon out of Arabic myths. While Temuran can shape shift into his clan-animal (a cat), he doesnít yet have any other abilities, according to the notes. Itís an interesting concept, and explains the tails (and Temuranís ability to shape shift into a cat).

Another interesting concept is the fact that Temuran and Alex (his twin brother) are opposites. What one is good at, the other isnít. Alex canít cook, while Temuran excels at cooking. Alex canít get a date to save his life, while Temuran has girls falling out of the sky and onto him. And Alex is ratherÖ mischievous while Temuran is calmer and more responsible.

Despite the souring of my first impression due to how the suicide attempt was handled, and the fact weíve not seen any real consequences outside of Jen silently berating herself for almost having killed herself (because if sheíd succeeded, sheíd not have met Temuran. Of course, if sheíd not tried, sheíd not have met him either), I actually enjoyed the comic, for the most part. There were parts that left me cringing (which isn’t difficult – I tend to cringe at any overtly embarrassing situation), but nothing beyond the initial suicide attempt to push me away from the strip either.

The artwork is decidedly manga (and there are pseudo-chibi moments in the comic), and the storyline itself has strong manga overtones. Still, there is some promise in the story, and despite first impressions, TML shows promise.

Robert A. Howard

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(From Oops, Nevermind. Click on image to see it full-sized.)

There’s an old saying that basically states that fools speak when wise men hold their tongues. Basically it means that by remaining silent when you don’t know something, you appear wise. The fool reveals his ignorance for everyone to see.

Unfortunately as a reviewer, I have to often take the path of the fool. There’ve been a number of comics where I’ve made varied predictions, only to be proven wrong. (Often this seems to happen with Penny and Aggie, which only goes to show how talented a storyteller T Campbell is that he doesn’t go with the predictable and expected.)

Fans have a tradition of speculating on where a story is going. Cartoonists often take it as a challenge to write stories that will have unexpected twists that no one saw coming. In fact, some cartoonists actually take it as a point of pride, and when someone successfully predicts a storyline they will actually change things deliberately so the speculations were wrong (often to the detriment of the story as a whole).

Well, this didn’t happen with Oops, Nevermind. I was so off-base on what was up with Leven that it probably brought a smile to Sincerely’s face and made her think “hey, I’m doing something right here!” It was an honest mistake, however. You see, Leven is human.

I know, that’s impossible. She’s 197 years old. She was in her 70s when she hit puberty. She explains it in that she’s from a thousand years in the future. And she is an alien, in so far that she was born in a solar system almost 60 light years from Earth.

How much of this is true and how much is made up remains to be seen. Leven has a history of lying, to make things sound more interesting. I’m unsure if she has always been like this or if she picked up this habit by observing her housemate Roth, but there have been subtle clues as to her being from the future early on in the comic.

Still, as Sincerely stated after my first review of her comic, things have been heating up. Leven and MD started dating, and then broke up amiably. Leven saw a rather bizarre murder that makes no sense even to her (in that she can’t figure out what happened). And just recently she was arrested by Immigration and had to fight her way free (though no one was killed).

The last reveals something interesting. One of her favorite curse-words is “Zech”. It appears that Zech is possibly some prison or other undesirable place. She uses Zech like we’d use “hell”. What’s more, we catch a glimpse of the universe she’s from, with another species she called “Angels” which are big into bio-engineering.

We still don’t know why Leven came to Earth, or more specifically why she came to the past. She’s obviously hiding from something. And she fears that her pursuers have followed her a thousand years into the past. She herself is afraid of altering things too much, and creating some form of paradox. The problem is, just by being in the past she’s changed things (unless of course she’s supposed to be in the past and the alterations are things that are supposed to happen; this kind of throws out the whole concept of “free will” but I’m not sure how many fictional characters have much in the way of free will in any event).

She’s also been outed now. Leven is wanted by the authorities. She’s had a picture (however blurry) broadcast on a news network; if her pursuers are reasonably advanced they could learn of her presence through a simple television signal. (While space is huge, satellites and similar devices could easily capture the signal and keep them in storage for retrieval at a later time.)

The picture has grown significantly, with several viable plot points to work from. We have Leven’s first brush with the authorities, which ended up fairly significant. The local cops (and the Feds) all know her and will be on the lookout for her. So she can’t exactly just pick up where she left off when she fled from the authorities. We also have the dark-haired smoker girl who can kill with a glance. We have Leven’s other-worldly pursuers. And we still have the interpersonal relationships between Leven, Roth, and his friends.

Still, I’m sure Roth will stick by Leven however bumpy the ride gets, no matter the consequences

Robert A. Howard

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(From No Pink Ponies. Click on image to see it full-sized.

I’ve gained a moniker since starting I started writing reviews, that of the Grim Reviewer. If you’ve read my reviews, you’d realize it’s not because the content is particularly negative, or the comics are always dark epic stories of loss and decay. Instead, it’s because a number of comics I’ve reviewed have gone on hiatus.

One reader joked about it, claiming that a review from Tangents is a death-knell for most comics, with the cartoonist inevitably shutting down the comic for a month or more. Indeed, the vast majority of the participants of The Lazy Grind ended up on hiatus, often permanently, and looking back I wonder if the Curse of the Lazy Grind was in fact the Curse of Tangents (even though I only reported on dropouts for the most part, with only a few comics of the Grind getting reviewed).

So then, when I learned that No Pink Ponies had managed to update again after its post-Tangent hiatus, I needed to promptly review it again and force it back into hiatus. After all, I need to keep up that reputation of being a comic’s death-knell.

More seriously, I’ve been enjoying the fleshing out (no pun intended) of Maureen and of Jess’s crush, T. But mostly of Maureen.

When Maureen first appeared in the comic, it was played for laughs, and to introduce the spectre of competition in Jess’s interest in T. It would be almost four months before we caught a glimpse of the truth: Maureen has a big crush on Jess. And by crush, we’re talking feelings as massive as the Greenland Ice Sheet.

It’s also around this point that we learn another little truth: T is interested in Jess. And Maureen knows… the only thing we don’t know is if Maureen told T that Jess has a big crush on him. (You’d think he’d know. I mean, the girl drove to Alabama to visit him, with Maureen riding shotgun. But guys tend to be oblivious about these sorts of things. I mean, a guy was piloting the Titanic when it slammed into an iceberg, so this should tell you how oblivious we are when it comes to things.) But when you hear Maureen describing T as her “best friend” I honestly can’t see her concealing Jess’s feelings from him.

Of course, she didn’t tell him she liked Jess that way, so I honestly can’t say that T knows Jess likes him that much. And for that matter, Maureen herself might not know. She knew Jess had a crush on him. But how much does she know? I mean, after she saw T with another girl (Melissa, who’s now Jess’s roommate while going to college) she told Maureen that her heart felt like it got ripped out and thrown into a wood chipper… but that doesn’t mean Jess is in love. Regular unrequited crushes feel like that. Rejection sucks.

For that matter, we honestly don’t know how much Jess cares for T. I mean, what is love? Is it sexual attraction? Is it a deep abiding caring for someone? Is it a need to be with that person, a hunger that is only filled when with that person? At what point does a crush become that ethereal thing we call love? And what happens when the passion fades… for crushes end.

The thing is… Maureen has equally potent feelings for Jess, and we’ve finally seen their inception. Maureen first met Jess in college, when she was probably fifty or so pounds heavier, and feeling very much alone. And this young gawky kitten came along and helped her out. Just out of the blue. When you’re feeling alone and full of hate for yourself, a friendly gesture can mean the world. And what’s more, she did this while visiting her big brother… taking time off from family to help a stranger, and one who felt very unattractive to boot.

People have fallen in love over smaller deeds than that.

It’s not the love-triangle of T and Maureen both after Jess that interests me, however. What interests me is this glimpse into Maureen’s past. Here we have a beautiful vibrant young lady who was overweight while in college. She considered herself an outsider, ugly, undesirable. And in turn, she was shunned. Look at Maureen’s reaction when Jess first turns to her. She tries to push Jess away. Fortunately, Jess insisted on helping, and it opened Maureen’s eyes a bit, but I do have to wonder if Maureen had opened up to others before, only to be taken advantage of or picked on.

She didn’t expect a friendly gesture. She expected an open hand to turn to a slap. And in this day and age of political correctness, it’s still “in” to treat overweight people like they’re worthless. They’re considered “weak” without enough willpower to resist eating. They “just” need to exercise more and eat less. Someone with even a little bit of a belly can usually have someone point it out to them. (Of course, when you have a very skinny person, they’re also ridiculed and accused of having eating disorders. Obviously they starve themselves or are bulimic. It is like people look for reasons to harass others, and weight is the one “safe” topic left that you can discriminate against.)

Indeed, overweight protagonists are not exactly common in webcomics, and those that exist often have other personality quirks that enhance their isolation. The weight becomes an added shield to encourage people to avoid the person, but is seldom shown in a positive light. Perhaps part of this is due to society’s prejudice against overweight individuals; we seldom hear good things about people who are heavier (with the exception of gymnastics, where in recent years there’s been a push away from the skinny gazelles that dominated the sport for decades and toward somewhat-fleshier people who have sufficient padding not to break bones if they fall).

It’s interesting how Maureen described herself then. She was pudgy, and not that smart. In fact, she still refers to herself as “not that smart” showing that this beautiful vibrant young lady still has tremendous self-confidence issues. But she draws. And she dreams. And her words… “No one has ever helped me like that… ever… I was touched….” It says a lot about Maureen’s situation back then.

Think of it. We know she instinctively lashes out at people, taught by her dad at an early age to keep guys at bay. No doubt this left her isolated even before she realized she was lesbian. Any guy who offered her affection or interest would end up fending off a physical assault that undoubtedly got her in trouble more than once. And her father, who is a professional wrestler, probably didn’t think that highly of academics. He didn’t need them, why does his kids?

Alone, isolated, perhaps she turned to food. Food may have filled the void in her, giving her some relief. It may also have stopped her own violent tendencies; as she gained weight she had fewer guys express interest in her. The food became shield, companion, and solace.

Jess broke through that shield, and with a gesture of kindness and simple decency ended up changing Maureen’s life. I doubt we’ll see more of Maureen’s life at this moment. This glimpse of the past was in relation to Jess herself, not to Maureen’s self-redemption.

Did a simple act of kindness lead to Maureen reevaluating her life and working to lose the weight and remake herself? That’s hard to say. It’s clear that Maureen idolizes Jess. Part of this no doubt is due to her first encounter with Jess, but after Jess hired Maureen and backed her even after Maureen made several mistakes; it proved that Jess was exactly what she looked to be: a sweet and loving person.

In some ways, No Pink Ponies has been a cute comic that seemed destined to succumb to the so-called Moonlighting Syndrome. Once Jess got her guy, all the tension would drain from the comic and it would founder and end. The only characters who were truly developed were Jess and T (and T only by back story). But now… now we’re starting to show a foundation here that shows tremendous promise. We may very well see more of Maureen’s fight with food as she struggles with unrequited love.

When Jess learns of how Maureen feels for her… well, that will also make things more interesting (and possibly awkward at times). We have no idea about Jess’s preferences (she joked about becoming lesbian because of some of the nice things her new roommate has done for her), but whether Jess actually has any bisexual tendencies or if she is straight remains to be seen. If she is straight, then her initial reaction to learning of Maureen’s attraction will be telling… but no doubt this eternal “nice girl” will prove more than human.

Besides. It’s not like she hasn’t had hints of Maureen’s interest before….

Robert A. Howard

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