Yes, but for childhood friends, it’s odd this should come as a surprise to Monica. You would think they covered that ground in some alcohol driven 3 AM conversation long ago.
Besides, wait until Amanda figures out the supernatural world is populated largely by self-serving idiots as well. The cynicism will return.
That’s true. But you know, somethings you just don’t tell your friends.
I know they’re are plenty of things about my personal life that I wouldn’t tell my friends. And Amanda doesn’t seem the the open-book type.
It’s also quite possible that Amanda has let personal information like this slip before, but Monica wasn’t really listening. She does have a tendency to self-focus.
In the very first comic, Amanda behaved as if she were Monica’s older sister, even though they were the same age. She was aware of the emotional problems that Monica was having, so she probably tried to keep from adding anything more to it.
Given her mother’s alcoholism, Amanda may have been a very light drinker. If Amanda got drunk enough to be gabby, Monica might have always already been too smashed to talk to.
Or too smashed to remember anything valid that Amanda said to her.
I think you’re likely right though, eschmenk. I specifically recall the Wine Ad photo shoot where Monica and Shelly were ridiculously drunk, and Amanda seemed to be much more sober.
Good point. It took a while to find but the entire sequence started here. Amanda was a least sober enough to do the shoot, and Monica and Shelly were the ones shown with the hangovers.
BTW, the one with Dietzel and the pickax was on 09/10/2004, then he gave Monica a tardy slip when she got home in the next one.
Not necessarily. I had a bad childhood but none of my friends knew. Depends on the lengths she went to disguise herself, make it seem like she had a normal, happy childhood.
Ahhh…but that’s not something that I feel needs to be kept secret. I like to make light of my goofiness.
Oh…and while my friends are all pretty kooky, they would probably say I’m the “loud” one. I’m very expressive and silly so that everyone will pay attention to me (a true Leo in many senses); however, it’s partly so I can fade into complete invisibility when I chose to. I’d wager that not many of my friends have realized just how often I’ve gone quiet and just listened to everything everyone was saying.
Perhaps you could go to a Harry Potter chat room and enlighten the kids there. Oh, wait, that would probably be full of adult, beer gutted comic book fans in reality. Sesame Street chat?
Oh, but comic fans are such easy and fun targets and I don’t really care what people think of my view on women.
Of course, my comics were Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge and the like. I never liked the superhero stuff. So I guess I have a certain bias. Other than as nostalgia, I don’t care that much about the ones I did like anymore. Still, from what I have observed, the parodies of comic fans tend to be true to life. I will admit, however, my observations have been limited.
True, I was just pointing out that not all women are “biased” in favor of their gender. The truely misogynistic ones are, of course, extreme examples. Still, there are many who are not biased yet are also not misognystic as such.
I generally like to think I’m not biased in favor of my gender (I think women are insane), but as a woman it’s generally assumed that I am biased…so I operate on everyone’s assumptions and let someone else do the fighting.
Amanda just became infinitely more relatable for me on a very personal level. I have very mixed feelings about this.
It makes everything fit, though. For so long, Amanda always felt “off”, in a way I couldn’t place. Which is ironic, in a way. You’d think this possibility would have leapt out at me – it sure does in retrospect.
…strange, remembering that these memories were and are things I wish only to forget. And then being bemused at having forgotten them, now that they are so fresh and unforgettable…
Apparantly putting things in brackets makes them go invisible. Ruined the effect of my prior post opening.
Expletive again, I say!
P.S. – Despite how the previous post may sound, I do approve heartily of this character development. Wapsi is one of the best stories around for exactly this sort of reason.
It amazes me that, just to write a comment, we sometimes have to use a “language” other than English. I usually assume comments accept HTML and use that, but if they don’t it makes for a weird looking comment sometimes. Or in D. Walker‘s case a hole where a comment should be.
Think about it if you spoke Chinese, or something like that. One thing that’s funny is that most English speakers don’t realize how much computers and computer languages favor English speakers.
@eschmenk,
I am aware. It seems entirely natural to me, as the vast majority of computer innovation was done by English-speaking people in English-speaking cultures.
Ah! The eternal question. Are people the way they are because of nature or nurture. I do try to keep this in mind when I deal with people; I never know what ‘demons’ they are carrying around with them. I bet Amanda’s are pretty wicked looking. I do wish adults wouldn’t pass their pain along to their children.
It’s the nature of the beast. However, given the landscape we all play on, it becomes fairly obvious that the power of intention trumps both nature and nurture.
I know people who have come from backgrounds orders of magnitude worse than Amanda has experienced – raped for decades, abandoned, in comas for years, brain tumors, bike gangsters, felons, you name it – and yet have managed to turn their lives around, discover their own greatness, be at peace, and become a huge influence for the betterment of humanity. People who can lift their hands to heaven and declare, “Thank God for Hurricane Katrina,” because they found ways to move themselves and their loved ones ahead in the midst of catastrophe. It’s all about choice, and responsibility.
In the end, analysis, none of us have an excuse for going victim to circumstances.
Very thoughtful reply Old Wolf. One question; from whence comes intention? Is it bred in the marrow? Or is it like Thulsa Doom told Conan. He made him because of the pain of the wheel and the tribulations he went through. Contemplate this on the “tree of woe.”
As a Christian, I believe in free will: intention is what you choose in a given situation. And, since we almost always have mixed motives, our choices tend to come around again for us to make the choice again, only this time we choose among the former motives that were mixed up together. Thus we create a coherent narrative for ourselves over time.
I certainly don’t speak as an authority, but for me, intention is our most passionate desire. Putting that into action springs forth from either being taught – or coming to the conclusion on our own – that we are powerful, worthy, capable beings who can accomplish anything we desire to, or die in the attempt. Greatness consists of having a dream and letting nothing stand in the way of it. Too many people in the world – even those who have not had horrors to overcome in their lives – wake up and tell themselves, “I’m not big enough to accomplish anything of worth.” Living in normal society is enough to have the tapes played over and over in our ears before we’re adults, “who do you think you are,” “you don’t know anything,” “no, you can’t,” “how dare you,” “don’t fart higher than your ass,” etc. Finding a dream, a passion, and the courage to pursue it can be learned. And if I have anything to say about it, more people will be learning.
What about those who develope a true mental illness owing to their prior circumstances? It’s all easy to say “get over it” but not so easy to do. Sometimes impossible.
A very valid comment. Each of us on earth has a different landscape to play on. I love Temple Grandin’s assertion that she was “different, but not less” – and look what she went on to accomplish.
eschmenk: I don’t think “Superheroes” is quite right…… With Monicas’ POITing abilities as they are, I’m thinking more “Aunt Clara” (from Bewitched) You know ,what with poiting and landing wearing someone elses clothes and underwear .
……But. Yeah Amanda is suddenly ‘Wendy’ and Monica is her ‘Peter Pan’ .
You can’t say Amanda is ‘Sarah Jane to Monicas’ ‘DOCTOR’ because Monica doesn’t go forward or backwards thru time….OR CAN SHE?????? HMmmmm.
Annnnd… bomb has been dropped, we are a go for psychological damage. Thank you, and goodnight… we now return to your regularly scheduled bitching about the snow.
On a semi-related note: We just got pummeled by a snow-hail blizzard today >.> I’m on the West Coast. Heard that the Mid-West is getting next to nothing so far…. Bastards.
We had some over the weekend, a bit more today–and the real storm is due Tues night thru Wed eve. Which will make pre-Thanksgiving travel just ducky. Don’t get too mad at us just yet…
Way to open up!
Ah, Mondays.
Heh, sorry.
But wow, that’s a whole new side of Amanda we get to see. We really don’t know much about her.
Yes, but for childhood friends, it’s odd this should come as a surprise to Monica. You would think they covered that ground in some alcohol driven 3 AM conversation long ago.
Besides, wait until Amanda figures out the supernatural world is populated largely by self-serving idiots as well. The cynicism will return.
That’s true. But you know, somethings you just don’t tell your friends.
I know they’re are plenty of things about my personal life that I wouldn’t tell my friends. And Amanda doesn’t seem the the open-book type.
Probably, but still … booze is the original truth serum and I’m pretty sure they’re drinking buddies.
Perhaps it’ll be explained during this week.
It’s also quite possible that Amanda has let personal information like this slip before, but Monica wasn’t really listening. She does have a tendency to self-focus.
In the very first comic, Amanda behaved as if she were Monica’s older sister, even though they were the same age. She was aware of the emotional problems that Monica was having, so she probably tried to keep from adding anything more to it.
Given her mother’s alcoholism, Amanda may have been a very light drinker. If Amanda got drunk enough to be gabby, Monica might have always already been too smashed to talk to.
Or too smashed to remember anything valid that Amanda said to her.
I think you’re likely right though, eschmenk. I specifically recall the Wine Ad photo shoot where Monica and Shelly were ridiculously drunk, and Amanda seemed to be much more sober.
Good point. It took a while to find but the entire sequence started here. Amanda was a least sober enough to do the shoot, and Monica and Shelly were the ones shown with the hangovers.
BTW, the one with Dietzel and the pickax was on 09/10/2004, then he gave Monica a tardy slip when she got home in the next one.
The father of some of my best friends for most of my childhood was a binge alcoholic, and i never knew it until after i joined the Navy.
Not necessarily. I had a bad childhood but none of my friends knew. Depends on the lengths she went to disguise herself, make it seem like she had a normal, happy childhood.
Okay, I’ll take your collective word for it. I’m just going by theory anyway since I never had childhood friends.
The Wapsi update is one of the few things in life that can actually make one look forward to Monday.
Heh, I was actually being sarcastic because I find the subject matter of this strip a tad depressing. It’s more like a Garfield Monday. XD
But yes, I agree that Wapsi strip is awesome. And for me it actually makes me want to stay up till midnight every single weekday just to read it.
HeyNow! Easy with the G-word in this forum…
What?
The Comic That Shall Not Be Named.
The best thing to happen to Garfield was the removal of Garfield. It’s awesome. You should check it out.
Reliving misspent youth ?
Girls just love to talk.
And talk, and talk and …
*smacks you with a digital 2×4*
Silence!!
Only when there’s enough alcohol in play…I generally prefer to let everyone else spill the beans and keep my secrets to myself, thanks.
Smart!
Yes, Chief?
LOL!! Loved that show as a kid…
Does this mean we can get Smart? Fun!
If the person who tells everyone about wearing bras on her head is the quiet one, I’d like to meet the others.
Ahhh…but that’s not something that I feel needs to be kept secret. I like to make light of my goofiness.
Oh…and while my friends are all pretty kooky, they would probably say I’m the “loud” one. I’m very expressive and silly so that everyone will pay attention to me (a true Leo in many senses); however, it’s partly so I can fade into complete invisibility when I chose to. I’d wager that not many of my friends have realized just how often I’ve gone quiet and just listened to everything everyone was saying.
In addition to insect based superhero costumes, bra’s can be used for makeshift earmuffs in these cold times of the year. (teeth chattering)
Double barrel slingshot.
Blackmail material…
I think I’ll crack open a fifth and tell my kid how terrible all women are.
…except I have no kids.
…or booze. Man… Way to make my week start bad, Paul.
Perhaps you could go to a Harry Potter chat room and enlighten the kids there. Oh, wait, that would probably be full of adult, beer gutted comic book fans in reality. Sesame Street chat?
Tell you what – you don’t talk about comic fans and i won’t talk about misogynists.
Heeheehee…
Oh, but comic fans are such easy and fun targets and I don’t really care what people think of my view on women.
Of course, my comics were Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge and the like. I never liked the superhero stuff. So I guess I have a certain bias. Other than as nostalgia, I don’t care that much about the ones I did like anymore. Still, from what I have observed, the parodies of comic fans tend to be true to life. I will admit, however, my observations have been limited.
Except that women are awesome…
Yay txmystic!
Someone has to champion women who isn’t a woman (since we’re rather biased). 
Not necessarily. I need to introduce you to some female misogynists. A couple of them are kinda scary though.
But they obviously wouldn’t champion women, so they don’t count for these purposes.
True, I was just pointing out that not all women are “biased” in favor of their gender. The truely misogynistic ones are, of course, extreme examples. Still, there are many who are not biased yet are also not misognystic as such.
I may be overthinking this. I usually do.
I generally like to think I’m not biased in favor of my gender (I think women are insane), but as a woman it’s generally assumed that I am biased…so I operate on everyone’s assumptions and let someone else do the fighting.
Sexist.
:p
OOHHHHHH.
You meant THAT dream. Well in that case…
yes it is.
Well… that’s a depressing youth.
I’m liking Amanda’s facial expression in panel 2. It has a look of mischievousness about it.
Well, .
Amanda just became infinitely more relatable for me on a very personal level. I have very mixed feelings about this.
It makes everything fit, though. For so long, Amanda always felt “off”, in a way I couldn’t place. Which is ironic, in a way. You’d think this possibility would have leapt out at me – it sure does in retrospect.
…strange, remembering that these memories were and are things I wish only to forget. And then being bemused at having forgotten them, now that they are so fresh and unforgettable…
~D.
Well, expletive.
Apparantly putting things in brackets makes them go invisible. Ruined the effect of my prior post opening.
Expletive again, I say!
P.S. – Despite how the previous post may sound, I do approve heartily of this character development. Wapsi is one of the best stories around for exactly this sort of reason.
~D.
Hmmm. Brackets shouldn’t. This is a [test].
Perhaps you mean these little bad boys: < and >?
If you put those around something, the parser assumes it’s HTML code, and executes it if it’s valid HTML or completely ignores it if it isn’t.
It amazes me that, just to write a comment, we sometimes have to use a “language” other than English. I usually assume comments accept HTML and use that, but if they don’t it makes for a weird looking comment sometimes. Or in D. Walker‘s case a hole where a comment should be.
Think about it if you spoke Chinese, or something like that. One thing that’s funny is that most English speakers don’t realize how much computers and computer languages favor English speakers.
@eschmenk,
I am aware. It seems entirely natural to me, as the vast majority of computer innovation was done by English-speaking people in English-speaking cultures.
Just goes to show, that what some people may think of as a nightmare; could be a wonderland.
Now allow me to teleport all the annoying parts of it into the sun and then I’ll be off to the beach.
What Amanda has experienced with M is much more appealing than a crappy home. No surprises that she’s open to exploring this new world…
My, I do believe I sense a bit of backstory. And the reason why Amanda’s not going home for Thanksgiving, too, I bet.
She’s probably not too good a cook either, and what she does cook are likely all wine-based recipies.
Ah! The eternal question. Are people the way they are because of nature or nurture. I do try to keep this in mind when I deal with people; I never know what ‘demons’ they are carrying around with them. I bet Amanda’s are pretty wicked looking. I do wish adults wouldn’t pass their pain along to their children.
It’s the nature of the beast. However, given the landscape we all play on, it becomes fairly obvious that the power of intention trumps both nature and nurture.
I know people who have come from backgrounds orders of magnitude worse than Amanda has experienced – raped for decades, abandoned, in comas for years, brain tumors, bike gangsters, felons, you name it – and yet have managed to turn their lives around, discover their own greatness, be at peace, and become a huge influence for the betterment of humanity. People who can lift their hands to heaven and declare, “Thank God for Hurricane Katrina,” because they found ways to move themselves and their loved ones ahead in the midst of catastrophe. It’s all about choice, and responsibility.
In the end, analysis, none of us have an excuse for going victim to circumstances.
Very thoughtful reply Old Wolf. One question; from whence comes intention? Is it bred in the marrow? Or is it like Thulsa Doom told Conan. He made him because of the pain of the wheel and the tribulations he went through. Contemplate this on the “tree of woe.”
As a Christian, I believe in free will: intention is what you choose in a given situation. And, since we almost always have mixed motives, our choices tend to come around again for us to make the choice again, only this time we choose among the former motives that were mixed up together. Thus we create a coherent narrative for ourselves over time.
I certainly don’t speak as an authority, but for me, intention is our most passionate desire. Putting that into action springs forth from either being taught – or coming to the conclusion on our own – that we are powerful, worthy, capable beings who can accomplish anything we desire to, or die in the attempt. Greatness consists of having a dream and letting nothing stand in the way of it. Too many people in the world – even those who have not had horrors to overcome in their lives – wake up and tell themselves, “I’m not big enough to accomplish anything of worth.” Living in normal society is enough to have the tapes played over and over in our ears before we’re adults, “who do you think you are,” “you don’t know anything,” “no, you can’t,” “how dare you,” “don’t fart higher than your ass,” etc. Finding a dream, a passion, and the courage to pursue it can be learned. And if I have anything to say about it, more people will be learning.
What about those who develope a true mental illness owing to their prior circumstances? It’s all easy to say “get over it” but not so easy to do. Sometimes impossible.
A very valid comment. Each of us on earth has a different landscape to play on. I love Temple Grandin’s assertion that she was “different, but not less” – and look what she went on to accomplish.
So, Amanda is thinking that Monica is going to provide her missed childhood with superheros to believe in. That’s creepy.
It’s also strangely sweet!
I would yes love to hang with M and her very creepy buddies if such things existed in my world, and I had the opportunity.
eschmenk: I don’t think “Superheroes” is quite right…… With Monicas’ POITing abilities as they are, I’m thinking more “Aunt Clara” (from Bewitched) You know ,what with poiting and landing wearing someone elses clothes and underwear .
……But. Yeah Amanda is suddenly ‘Wendy’ and Monica is her ‘Peter Pan’ .
You can’t say Amanda is ‘Sarah Jane to Monicas’ ‘DOCTOR’ because Monica doesn’t go forward or backwards thru time….OR CAN SHE?????? HMmmmm.
Dun Dun DUNNNNNNNN!!
Are you looking for this?
That’s it!
FWIW, this strip is why I said “superheros”. But, yeah, Wendy and Peter Pan works, too.
A nice glimpse of why she is how she is.
JEEZ! no wonder Amand hates the world…:-S
Wow. Speaking of things that kids should never deal with…
Yeah, this explains a LOT about Amanda. Sounds like she had to grow up fast, in that household.
Annnnd… bomb has been dropped, we are a go for psychological damage. Thank you, and goodnight… we now return to your regularly scheduled bitching about the snow.
On a semi-related note: We just got pummeled by a snow-hail blizzard today >.> I’m on the West Coast. Heard that the Mid-West is getting next to nothing so far…. Bastards.
We had some over the weekend, a bit more today–and the real storm is due Tues night thru Wed eve. Which will make pre-Thanksgiving travel just ducky. Don’t get too mad at us just yet…