Patriarchy bullshit be damned! I’m a man and here’s what I think. I hate that all guys are like crap. 🙁
Monica is happy with her new doo and she feels good about it. She probably feels real good about herself too. Anyone that wants to insult her hair style doesn’t care about her or her feelings at all. Kevin would be a complete dumb ass to steal her joy away by telling her that he didn’t like her hairstyle. The best thing to say is “I love it!” and let that happiness just multiply. He doesn’t just love her for her hair anyways. That’s just shallow. Hair is just hair. If you have a chance to make someone you love happy and be supportive of that person, that’s the easiest way I can see. He wouldn’t be lying. He loves her hairstyle because he loves her. That’s all that would ever need to be said about it.
I LOVE YOU JAMES THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE MEN OUT THERE THAT IS AS IN TUNE WITH WOMEN AS YOU ARE!! GOOD FOR YOU AND GREAT FOR YOUR WIFE MAY YOU HAVE A HAPPY LIFE!
Ba-hahahaha!!! Oh jeebs…I started my day almost choking.
The unfortunate part is that no one around me would understand why that’s so funny to me, so it’s probably a good thing that I get in to the office long before most everyone else. I just wish a few of my high school friends were around/easier to get in touch with…
I hate to add to the previous few pages’ comments raggin’-on-of-Monica’s-style but…
I can get used to the haircut, I think, but the polka dots are another story. Dyyyying to see that short pixie hair put in a tank-top or.. or… some boy-clothes or something! Please? ;3
is it Run or Ran in that one bubble? i can’t tell it may be the font but it looks like “you spent 80$ to make it look like you run yourself over with a lawnmwer” which may make more sense in pat tense?
Hey that would be an Interesting inner Demon! The one that makes you stick your foot in mouth by saying something then “err is…was…still is…will always be…” and then you have Completely lost the moment!!! HA!
Heeheehee! I would LOVE to see that demon at work. Then again, I think we do to some extent. That’s the little bugger that makes some of us post corrective comments. 🙂
Actually, they’re not acting as demons here — they’re just being collectively honest. And Monica is acting extremely manic — basically doing a “I can’t hear you! LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA…..” Yes Monica, just keep yammering, that’s the only way to make sure that you’re right — oh yeah, Kevin – yes him – forgot all about him didn’t you? You couldn’t just get half of it cut off could you? Had to make a “statement”, had to make yourself the center of attention.
And Monica *still* looks like a fish head without the rest of the fish.
I’d say that her behavior was getting worrisome if she was bouncing or poiting around going on and on about her haircut for several days. Remember, this is still the same day she got it cut. It could very well have been less than one hour even.
Heck, I flounce my hair and show off with picture texts to my friends when I get my hair cut and styled really well/differently than normal, and I probably go on about it for several hours…and for at least 10 minutes each time I look in the mirror for a few days after the initial cut.
Oh, so Monica is just acting like you. That is worrisome! 😀
It was just my inner demons that made me do that. 😉
I think the in-universe explanation is what Nudge said about inner demons being weakened by change. Also, it is a comic strip, so things are going to be a bit exaggerated, after all. I’m more convinced than I was yesterday that the white chocolate mocha was more important than it seemed at first.
Because without it we are destined to become what society has termed “old maids,” “spinsters,” and “that crazy lady with all of the cats.” 🙂
You know, I think it would be genuinely interesting if someone could pinpoint the cause of physical insecurity. I mean, I know that for women people frequently point accusing fingers at Hollywood and the fashion industry for presenting women with specific body types as the “ideal beauty,” but why are some people bothered by not matching the standard when others are perfectly fine?
(The easy answer is self-esteem. I’m more interested in what triggers that problem…maybe I should take some psych classes 🙂 )
As someone who tried very hard to starve herself to death for most of her life (5′ 7″ and 97 pounds) and finally killed herself (i know she finally did, but i’ve been out of touch for a fw years and i don’t know how) to meet society’s ideas of “beauty” … SoWhy Me is full of beans (or something) on this one.
How am I full of beans? Who do you think “other men/women” (as I put it) are? They ARE society. So you don’t know how she killed herself, yet you use her death as an example? Besides, using deaths from anorexia, tragic though they are, to “prove” something about society is silly. The very few who do die from that hardly prove anything.
All this talk about it’s her hair and she can do what she wants just negates the talk about how it’s society’s fault. It all comes down to personal responsibility. Always finding a scape goat by blaming everyone else just perpetuates the problem as it absolves the individual of her blame for her bad choices. Of course, there are people who are truly mentally disturbed and need help, but that’s not society’s fault either.
Heh, I was going to comment, wondering if Redbeard and SoWhyMe are aware that this strip looks like a slap in the face from Paul in response to their negative commentary. Then I saw other people already mentioned it, and it was pooh-poohed by the dudes in question. Naturally.
I mean, ok, if they were saying “I am personally attracted to women with long hair” that would be one thing. However, asserting that Monica and short-haired women in general are *objectively* unattractive IS misogynistic, as it implies that there is an empirical, and unrealistic, way of judging female beauty that is determined strictly by the sexual reactions of hetero men. I doubt, however, that either commenter will agree with this.
All of which kind of makes me wonder… what are these dudes doing reading WS in the first place? I’m actually curious. I mean, the strip is so outspoken about female empowerment and the absolute subjectivity of female beauty… these guys don’t really strike me as the “target demographic”.
I see, so saying anything negative about females or how some look is “misoginistic.” That term is as overused these days as is “racist” or “homophobic.”
I read it because it’s funny and interesting and, sometimes downright cute. And it’s just as outspoken about female foibles as about female empowerment. Though Paul does seem to have a tendency to make all the “bad guys” male and all the “good guys” female so he is very slanted in that regard. The demons are neither bad or good, they simply “are,” like electricity. And he makes pretty much all the females in the strip slim and lovely. Also an unrealistic standard in itself. That doesn’t seem to bother anyone either, however.
What is unrealistic to you, is standard to others. Beauty, like dust and contact lenses, is strictly in the eye of the beholder. And that individual expressing that preference in no uncertain terms hardly makes them misogynistic. Opinionated, sure.
I don’t think that Wapsi Square shows men in a bad light. Obviously, the main characters are women and they are the good guys so the readers can root for them. The priests were evil, but the GGG’s wiped out an entire civilization. Phix had been evil, but reformed. The smugglers were bad guys, but it was left for other men (the police and news crews) to take care of them. Kevin and Alan seem to be good people. The demons have been female (matching their hosts) and although they have done some good, their portrayal is usually negative.
None of the women are depicted as being overweight, but how many times do you see an overweight main character of either sex in any comic? I don’t think that they are supposed to be all that lovely. It’s not as if guys are constantly acting them out. A lot of the stress on the way they look is coming from the readers, not Paul.
Good points. I didn’t mean to suggest Paul shows the male characters now as bad or evil, just that all the evil ones talked about are males. Even Maya supposedly did evil things for good ends. Well, except for Phix I had forgotten about her. I still would not trust her not to revert either. And, she’s not human in any event so I’m not sure she even counts.
As I see it, the demons are just a force of nature, neither evil nor good as such. So I don’t count them. And, again, not human.
I think Paul draws the females the way he does because he likes to, with their impossibly thin waists and all. I just see all this babble about unrealistic views of female beauty a bit ironic considering how they are drawn here. Not that I’m saying anything negative about Paul’s style, I think it’s great, especially the faces. I had to say that since he has a tendency to take what I post totally wrong.
You’re right, SoWhyMe, misogyny doesn’t actually exist. Neither do racism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, or transphobia. In no way is it possible that these problems are so ingrained, so endemic in North American society that many people can’t even acknowledge their prevalence. And these people never therefore assume that the terms are overused, because they don’t take the time to understand why people are using them.
Did I say they didn’t exist? No. I said the terms were overused. Heck, I’ve known female misogynists. It just seems like, at the slightest provacation, people bandy about those terms, relevent or not. So much so that, in some cases, the words have lost their original impact and meaning. Often people use them without even understanding what they really mean. They are hot-button accusations used more to stifle open and honest disagreements.
@SoWhyMe:
I’m not going to let you off the hook with the demons quite that easy. On one level, Monica’s demons are separate non-human creatures, but on another level they are a part of Monica’s psychological makeup. In that sense, they are very human.
Oh wait, it’s the weekend. I guess we can. Anyway, I don’t see the demons as much different than mindless cells in the body. They are programmed/allowed to do certain things, and only certain things. They don’t have the free will of humans to deviate from the script to any significant degree. They can nag, but only in certain areas and only within certain extents. They may be able to affect someone psychologicaly, but are not really part of their psychological makeup as such. This is especially true with Monica as she is aware of their presence, even meeting some personally.
Again, I don’t see them as any different from electricity. Electricity is neither good nor evil. Electricity doesn’t want to hurt you, but will not care if it does either.
@Julie:
I think you might be disappointed in what you would learn in the psych classes. I think that people are so complicated and subjected to so much randomness that it’s impossible to identify a cause for things like that. My own guess is that it’s probably partially a matter of the person’s genetic makeup and partially a matter of what the person happened to observe and how they happened to interpret it, which can be rather random. It’s enough of a problem that if it had a known understandable cause, you probably wouldn’t need to take phych classes to learn about it.
The good news is that they have a pretty good understanding of how people tend to reinforce their beliefs by interpreting things according to their preexisting opinions. They can use cognitive behavioral therapy to analyze a person’s inner dialog and try to work with the person to help them get in the habit of saying better things to themselves. Still, the person needs to be open to working on changing the ways they think about things. Also, the person doesn’t know where the flaws in their thinking are, so they might not bring up what the therapist would need to know, so it’s far from perfect.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, when I was younger, I used to interpret compliments as meaning that the person felt sorry for me and was trying to cheer me up. Therefore, compliments were not likely to help my self-esteem and often made me feel worse. Fortunately, something happened once that showed very clearly that people meant what they had said about me and that cause me to reexamine how I interpreted compliments. That didn’t have anything to do with my physical appearance, but I think the same sorts of things apply to any self-esteem problem.
@SoWhyMe:
Traditionally, inner demons are considered to be those parts of a person’s personality that causes them to do harmful or self-destructive things, such as drinking excessively or procrastinating. I think that Paul is using them the same way a person’s conscience and temptation are often used in cartooning. I think that he is making them tangible and having them behave in ways that sometimes go well beyond what they fundamentally are, but on some level they still represent the traditional idea of an inner demon.
Having said that, if Monica’s inner demons are a part of Monica’s personality, then they don’t really count as separate characters. Since Monica hasn’t shown any tendency to harm anyone else, it doesn’t contradict your point that the main characters are the good guys.
That’s probably true. Plus, psych classes will spend a chunk of time on those annoying phases (i.e. oral fixation, anal retentive etc) that some guy created to explain behavior, but really make him sound like a sexually obsessed individual. 🙂
I still think it would be interesting to try and work something like that out, even if it could only be applied to an individual since we all are so very different in our reactions to and interpretations of the world.
Who in the world would date a guy that sensitive about hair? And what guy in the world wouldn’t be supportive of his girlfriend’s image-changing decision? It’s her hair, after all, not his.
Well, since they can’t see the bowling ball or the pins, I figure they’ll just think she’s doing some new form of Tai chi. Loud, vocal, and aggresive Tai chi.
We commented about this ad nauseum over Amanda’s little “poit” into Calhoun Lake.* The concept, which was expounded on fabulously by Douglas Adams, is that of “SEP” – it’s Somebody Else’s Problem. Something strange happens, people look – which is human nature. If it doesn’t last more than a second or two, most people shrug and make some sort of excuse – “Gotta stop having the triple espresso”, for example. And then they walk away, because it’s somebody else’s problem at that point.
* – I’m from Wisconsin. We call our inland bodies of water by their given name first.
Well that’s interesting to know. Here in Texas we do both…depending on how the body of water was named. We’ve got a White Rock Lake, Caddo Lake, and others…along with Lake Livingston, Lake Palestine, and Lake Ray Hubbard…Anything goes! 🙂
*phft* Either way still has “Lake” on one end or the other. 🙄
I’m originally from Ohio, which has Grand Lake St. Marys. The Federal Government officially calls it “Grand Lake” and it’s near a town called St. Marys, but everyone, including the state government, calls it Grand Lake St. Marys. Ohio also has more boring names, like Lake Erie and Indian Lake, of course. BTW, Oklahoma has Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees, I see. There are probably a bunch of similar names around.
I think that most of the time, if a lake has a traditional name, especially one that describes it or something close to it, it will be called Clear Lake (yeah, right!) or something like that. If it was named more artificially by politicians in honor of someone or something, it probably has a name like Lake Pooba. That form sounds more grand. That’s not just a Texas thing.
I don’t usually comment but I feel kinda annoyed by all the bashing going on for the short hair. What’s wrong with short hair?? It’s her hair, for goodness sake, she’s doing a good thing with it, and its mentally healthy to change now and then and not get stuck in a certain style, stereotype, or habit forever!
For the record, I love Monica’s new hair cut… I have a style fairly similar to it. I had long hair for years, always thought it was more feminine myself, but my husband always wanted me to cut it short. He was thrilled when I finally cut it.
Not all guys are locked onto one stereotypical style for girls. Just as some guys can look pretty darn sexy with longer hair, there’s definitely girls who can pull off the short hair style and look just as sexy. Monica’s brave for steppin’ out in a new style and not styling herself to fit the world’s stereotype. Go, girl! 🙂
All the negative comments tend to make me like M’s hair more and more. “What about Kevin?” “What will Kevin think?”… You know what, in the grand scheme of things, who cares? It’s M’s body, and M’s hair. Kevin may be disappointed, but if he’s so petty as to let something as minor as a hair-do affect his relationship with her, then it really wasn’t sincere, was it?
In addition to that, we haven’t even seen if Kevin IS upset. However, M is confident, M is happy with it, and I’m sure she can make anything she does with herself look sexy. I suspect he’s gonna dig it.
And as for what Kevin thinks… If he really is the type to respond ONLY to physical appearance (tho I don’t think he is), does anyone here really think the pixie-cut is really going to trump two other attributes M has in abundance? Seriously? Anyone?
You know, Kevin was OK with finding out that his “normal” girlfriend is someone who can “poit” and has 3 friends who are immortal constructs. I think he can handle a haircut.
Thank you! This is exactly what I thought. We are discrediting the character that Kevin is written to be if we think that a haircut is going to affect his feelings for Monica. Monica will think that, because we know how her inner demons are, but here she is overcoming it. People need to deal.
Hopefully not, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t ever a little voice in your head making you worry about it on some level. Besides, even if he doesn’t leave her, the concern could be that he’s less attracted to her. Just look at all the guys who have stuck around reading this comic but have stated they no longer find Monica attractive.
Yes, it should be different in a relationship, but “should be” and “are” are not the same thing.
Believe it or not, people in long-term relationships happen to usually like each other enough that they want to please the other with their decisions. I’ve actually been toying with the idea of cutting off my hair for years but haven’t because my boyfriend (of 4 1/2 years) likes long hair. I’m not worried about him “leaving,” I’m worried that he won’t like it.
Anyway, I’m planning on getting it cut off either way. Just later in the year. I have a friend who is quite persuasive about making me do the crazy things I want to do.
@Neveko: As someone who has been married for over a decade, I can tell you it is a wonderful gesture when my wife consults me on her choices, but no matter how much I hate them, It’s not her hair, shoes, coat or whatever that I’m in love with.
..She asks, I offer my opinion, she does what she wants anyway. That’s the way it works here at least. 🙂
People do a lot of things for less reason. Take John Wesley Hardin. By the time the Texas Rangers caught up with him, he had shot 42 men, one for just snoring too loud.
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Hi, been lurking in the shadows for some time now, but I just had to share… I think this has something to do with Nudge’s advice. This is some how tied into helping Jin. How? Not sure, but I’ll be more than happy to see:) BTW… love the new do:D
Monica’s demons never went away. Only Jin’s doubt got sucked back into the demon realm and locked there. If you’ll recall, Monica’s doubt was hiding behind Shelly and explaning to her what was happening in the temple.
I think that they are all Monica’s Doubt, attacking her from multiple angles to try to make herself stronger. Those of us who’ve been around should have guessed before we even scrolled down that Doubt was losing the battle, because reh sdrow erew ton sdrawkcab.
I thought that Paul just stopped having her write backwards. I didn’t read anything into the fact that she talked forwards, instead of backwards. ˙ɹǝʇʇɐɯ ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ǝq pןnoʍ ʇɐɥʇ ‘uʍop ǝpısdn pǝʞןɐʇ ǝɥs ɟI
I can read it if the letters are still forward, but I had so much trouble with Doubt talking backwards that I downloaded the strips and used a graphics program to flip them. Then I had to go to the original to figure out what Monica was saying.
I hate to say it, but I’m with the demons on this one. Monica needs her head examined (even more so than usual) if she thinks her new haircut is better than the old one.
Yes. This. Or +1 (or however the kids say it nowadays).
I’m not a fan of the haircut. Doesn’t matter. Not my strip, not my character. If Paul came to me and asked, I’d tell him I didn’t like it, but short of that, who cares about my opinion?
More, I’ve been reading since it was a three-panel strip. He hasn’t led me astray so far….
But is it really? As much as we don’t like it, people are often ridiculous and judge you based on first impressions. If someone doesn’t like your hair or doesn’t like short hair on girls, they can in fact treat you differently than they would. This goes for both men and women, of course. I know that I work right next to a hair salon, so I can hear people coming in all the time talking about haircuts people have come in with or gotten, and some of it is surprisingly negative. “She looks like a boy with short hair, why would she do that?” etc. They aren’t judging her on the haircut itself, but on her judgement faculty for choosing to get a haircut they think does not make her look good. It sucks, but some peope would doubt Monica’s judgement and ability to make choices based on her haircut, if they didn’t like it.
As a note, I’m not cracked on the haircut AT ALL, but I think she can do as she likes, and I’m proud of her for having grown enough as a person to be able to overcome the fear of those people I was just talking about and get the cut she wanted.
I doubt this is a response to use. These comics are usually completed weeks in advance (that’s how he can keep the update schedule so regularly). Our discussion about Monica’s hair is simply a natural human response that Paul’s tapped into long before we started.
Actually, a number of webcomics that are usually pretty good about updating regularly (Pibgorn, Menage a 3, El Goonish Shive, etc., work no more than a day or so ahead.
I’ve noticed that this year Paul seems to be planning things to fit a weekly schedule. Of course, I don’t know how detailed the plans are and he can always make last-minute changes.
I suspect that Paul could have pretty well predicted the comments in advance. Also, I think that the haircut and, in particular, today’s strip, ties in with a theme that began in April, so the comments that say that this is just a response to other comments miss the importance of what is going on in the story, IMO. They also miss the fact that there wasn’t any need to adjust the inner demon’s behavior to match the behavior of those whining about the haircut. Wouldn’t that be even more significant?
At least one syndicated cartoonist managed to get the syndicate to pull the regularly scheduled strip (done, of course, weeks in advance) to put in something topical immediately after 9/11 (Can’t recall who.)
And, since Paul is self-syndicating (essentially), if he really wanted to, i’m sure he could alter his schedule a tad to include a more or less direct response to reader kvetching.
That being said, i have to agree with the lead sentence of your second paragraph.
Sometimes, it doesn’t make a difference what everyone else thinks. Whether they like it or not doesn’t matter– it’s what i think about my own hair that does! As I mentioned, I did the locks of love thing, I went from waist-length hair to a pixie cut, shorter than Monica did. I went through the “omg everyone thinks I look like a boy!!” phase (because, quite frankly, I DO Look like a boy since i’m a bit of a tomboy), but it was the way to go. Now, it’s still short and I love it. People can either accept it, or not, tis up to them. The short hair sure ain’t going anywhere though!
I made a deal with my dad when I was 9 that involved cutting all of my hair off. He wasn’t going to let me get my ears pierced until I was 16, but agreed to let me do it sooner if I got a short hair cut (I ended up with a chili-bowl).
Unfortunately, it was one of the worst ideas ever. Being the “new boy in school” wasn’t great, but when I got older and the taunts turned to calling me “penis head,” I cracked and grew my hair back out. It’s not been shorter than collar bone-length since.
But you really need to go back and read the comics themselves to know just how bizarre the execution of the whole concept was – as were most things in the Al Capp universe.
Whoa, multiple Doubts! We haven’t seen her for a while. But none of the other demons want a piece of this? Maybe they’re smarter than to mess with M when she’s on a high, while that’s Doubt’s job…
As Monica has said before, her demons only have the power she gives them.
Um, did you know that “The Bowler” was a superhero in the Mystery Men movie? Apparently, her weapon is a bowling ball that contains her father’s skull. I don’t know if she appeared in the comic book series that the movie is loosely based upon.
BTW, I never heard of that movie before. I just threw “The Bowler” into Google just in case you didn’t just make that name up. Now I’m not sure.
For all its sillyness, Mystery Men was surprisingly deep. One thing I really liked was how they didn’t just make it a slapstick story about idiots who thought they could be superheroes. They made it a slapstick story about people who wanted to be superheroes so bad that they kept trying, even though they knew they were lousy at it.
I think this comic has two levels. Monica is lashing out against her demons and Paul is striking out at negative comments about her new hair do. A very good strip, gives me a laugh for the weekend.
When i was bowling some in my teens, with my hands (and only using house balls because i wasn’t interested enough to buy a ball) i was pretty well stuck with top-weight balls because (aside from ones drilled for fingertip grips, which i didn’t like) they were the only ones with holes big enough.
I’ll admit I’ve owned a ball , that I got free from my cousin , and bought myself a pair of shoes . I no longer have the ball . I just use whatever the lane has , and seem to do well enough . Average around 175-200 . It’s been years since I’ve played , though . . .
Well, I know that if you buy bowling shoes, the left-hand and right-handed pairs are different. (The shoe for the strong side has a non-slip toe so you can push off, while the other one has a smooth sole so you can slide.) I thought they didn’t bother making rental shoes like that, but I wasn’t sure because it’s been several years since I bowled. It seemed plausible to me.
BTW, I still don’t understand. You were joking, right, despite telling Jim you weren’t?
You should have been fine in rental shoes because they let you slide on either foot. If you weren’t going to buy a ball, you probably wouldn’t buy shoes either, but even if you did, you should have been able to get left-handed shoes from any sporting good store. Of course, if the bowling lane rented out specifically right-handed shoes, that would have been a problem, but I don’t think that’s normal, and otherwise I don’t see why you would have had a problem like you said you did.
For the record, I like Monica’s new hair style, I like both short AND long hair on a woman. It really depends on the woman as to whether she can pull it off or not. Monica, in her amazingly well drawn form, can pull it off.
As a side not I think I should mention that Monica has probably my favorite body type: very very petite in regards to height and weight with awesome curves. So I may be a little more forgiving of a radical new hair style.
I can also agree with the reason to cut it off; having donated several feet of hair, about a good foot and a half at a time, myself. Ok my head didn’t snap forward quite so much as Monica’s but you can definitely tell the difference once it’s cut off.
Thanks for the great comic keep of the sexy funny insanity Paul.
And I should point out that I am responding not to the opinions of the actual haricut, but to the suggestion that there is something wrong with Monica and (by extension) all others who do like it…now those who like the ‘do feel the necessity to defend themselves, and they should not have to…
I am a fortunate woman, my husband would prefer that my hair be worn long, but he realizes that I’m an adult & have the right to wear my hair however I desire. I personally love long, clean, curly hair on men (all of which HE has) but I know his look just doesn’t feel “right” for him unless it’s VERY short. My solution personally, run my fingers thru’ it just before he gets it cut & then enjoy the tickly-bristlies when it’s short. ^_^ As for myself, my hair is curly, heavy and hot when it’s long. I have to braid it ALL the time or it ends up like a rat’s nest. I keep it so short that it stands straight up but it’s soft and feels like fur so I feel very sexy with it that way. Believe me, those same daemons have whispered or shouted in my ears for years. I’d like to think that Monica’s solutions have rubbed off on me… when They get too loud, I just imagine picking Them up by Their scruffs & punting Them outta sight… accompanied, of course, by Goofy’s, “Wah-hoo-hoo-hoo!” So satisfying!
I have been known, when Kate gets her hair cut (a lot shorter than mine), to enquire whether her stylist had her certificate from the Apache School of Tonsorial Arts and Cosmetology on display…
I’m very much reminded of when Mon got some confidence from a new brassiere, and proceeded to embarrass her boss: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/bikinipower/
Attitude boost for the win!
And while we are at it, what means Boo Yaa? eh? I don’t think I have heard that one before … but then, I don’t watch the babble box, which seems to be the center of American culture nowadays …
You must not be a gang banger or into rap, either. If you remember the time before the babble box was the center of American culture, I suppose that’s not surprising.
I’m with you there. I took up the violin just to be able to play some of it. Later I found more and more arrangements for the violin, extending what could be played far beyond my original desires. Mom made me learn the piano too, but I only really liked the violin. It was a lot more portable too.
MOM?!?! uh sorry I just had a little flashback induced by the bowling frame. Mom told my once about the first time she went bowling. Softball was actually her favorite and back then the bowling ball were about the same size as a softball. When her friends told her to just “throw” the ball at the pins well she did! According to her, the Pinboy cursed like a drunken sailor. She got a strike as I recall.
It looks like Monica threw the ball overhand! At least your mother didn’t do that.
It’s kind of funny how the “young adult comic” (at least I think that’s what YA means) has attracted a lot of older people. If your mother was bowling before they had mechanical pin setters, you can’t be that young. (Neither am I.)
I agree that by skipping learning how to draw, people are probably going to learn less about how to lay things out, which really isn’t a fault of Poser, per se. However, most things created by Poser are going to suffer from the uncanny valley effect, which is an inherent problem with the tool. Also, whatever constraints are imposed by the software are going to tend to limit things. Furthermore, I think tools such as Poser are going to limit a person’s imagination. OTOH, someone who is a good writer, but just can’t do art might be able to create something using Poser, but they could accomplish the same thing by finding an artist willing to work with them.
In Paul’s case, I think using Poser would have been a very bad idea. His work in photography has apparently given him a good sense of how to lay things out (better than many artists, IMO), but I don’t think that working in Poser would have allowed him to come up with today’s strip, for example. His style is not literal enough to be compatible with a tool like that.
I’m not following your analogy with respect to accordions. I don’t know about pedal steel guitars, but I thought that accordions were surprisingly difficult to play. I am also not following the part about making people look better than they are. If something made someone look good, that would be a good thing, wouldn’t it? The problem with Poser is that the result never looks very good.
I don’t follow SoWhyMe’s contention that Poser or limited animation are bad for art or cartooning, in general, either. Yes, some people might decide to work in Poser, rather than learning how to draw, but I can’t believe that creating something in Poser would have the same appeal as drawing for that many people. Also, some people might experiment with cartooning using Poser, and if they are successful at it, they might decide to take it further later.
To me, an artistically untalented person using Poser is as bad as one drawing in an artistically untalented (amaturish) manner (if not worse). As soon as I see that, I no longer care about the story. The “art” is too much of a turn off. Let them write novels if their story is that great. If it’s not, production line “art” will not help it. Most who use it have no concept of “weight” in art, for example. The characters, besides looking unnaturally stiff, don’t properly act on the environment. For instance, a character shown laying down looks like a baloon resting on a surface. There is no look of weight, one surface to another. And then there is the face being much the same, one character to the next. All with those unmistakable crappy Poser facial features. It just nauseates me to look at it. As limited animation allowed the studios to churn out decades of cheap crap posing as “animated” cartoons, so Poser does for the world of still-image cartooning or graphic novels.
Of course both limited animation and Poser work appeals to many, but that is largely due to a shifting baseline. People become used to awful product, forgetting what it could be, and was in the distant past. In the past few years some cartoon studios recognized this and turned out much better animation (including TV). I’m not against all tech driven cartooning. Work from Pixar and the like is great. But that’s because talented artists were at the helm in the first place. Likewise in the hands of an already talented artist Poser can be made to do a great job. I could give an example, but it would probably be too unPC an image to post the link here.
I’m not following your analogy with respect to accordions. I don’t know about pedal steel guitars, but I thought that accordions were surprisingly difficult to play.
Sorry – the accordion slipped in there from a different thought, related troits use as a WMD in Pibgorn
I am also not following the part about making people look better than they are. If something made someone look good, that would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?
I was speaking in the sense of allowing lesser talents to fake it and impress people who don’t really understand what they’re seeing/hearing.
The pedal steel is often used to allow someone who hasn’t the ability (or the patience to actually learn how) to sort of emulate the sound of the traditional steel, which is a lot harder to play, or to engage in flashy but irrelevant ego displays.
Gresham’s Law applies to music or comics just as much as it applies to money.
Well, at least it was underhanded. I’ll have to agree with what Fatuncle said, though: It’s more like Monica fired the ball at them, rather than threw it.
Paul, I appreciate you making this comic as a sort of response to people. I can’t believe people are so dim as to think she is anything but beautiful without her long hair. Also, can no one remember how ALL the characters looked different before. I mean, Shelley cut her hair off too! People want to change themselves after they’ve gone through something life altering. Hair is the easiest thing, especially because it grows back. I thought that the readers were people who were all woo! girl power! but the comments have been leaving me bewildered. God, it upsets me that the people who are complaining are bitching because she wants to do whatever she wants with her *own* body. Ugh.
Seriously, how does one go about asking those around you if they consent to you choosing to do drugs or taking your own life? “Dearly beloved, I’m going to go put a bullet through my brain. Would that be all right with you or should I pencil that in for when hell freezes over?” Honestly. In the end, NO ONE has control over what a person chooses to do to themselves no matter what they may think to the contrary.
Of course, no one asks others their opinion before doing something bad to themselves, but many do ask themselves how it will affect others. Especially in suicide. Therefore others have an affect on the decision. Again, in the case of suicide (and drug use), they may even be the cause for it. To say no one has control over a person’s choices is just not so. Those involved may not be aware of their part in the whole drama, but they are exercizing control. Naturally we can say the person should not let others have that much influence, but that is wishful thinking. Human nature, being what it is, allows for such manipulation all the time. Remember, we are not talking about self assured, strong willed people here in the first place.
Suicide (and i say this knowing that a long-time friend finally managed to kill herself) is the ultimate act of selfishness.
SF writer H Beam Piper acknowledged this in his suicide note, which read “I don’t like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn’t be going away. H. Beam Piper”
Or perhaps a series of body mods and subcutaneous implants. Maybe people would start to worry about what she does with her own body when her limbs are ribbed, scalp bald with scalp spikes?
If Monica was a “normal girl” with a “normal life” I would agree and say right on girl! But she is not normal, nor has a normal life. So I am a bit worried. I think to Kevin who knows a little bit about what she does, tackling on evil spirits and demons, but does not know the full extent of what they can and can not do. Then add in Monica who has now almost completely altered her appearance and attitude in an almost manic way, and in Kevin’s position, I would worry that maybe she was possessed. Yes hair grows back, but that much hair would take a considerable length of time depending on how fast it grows.
It was a rash decision, and I admit it worries me.
ehhh we’ll get over it.
We are all “wooo! girl power” but being Femenist does not nessessarily mean that we have to admire everything that is done to a character. I am Femenist but have Hair the same length as Monica’s was and it annoys me when people equate femenism with trying to be a boy. I consider that as a form of Male Chauvinism and you figure that we are not all for girl power because we aren’t for short hair (on M,there were no complaints for Shelley) then…
I understand the wish to change after an event and that it is M’s body and Paul’s character but for all of us it is just a bit of a shock and our Fight or flight reflex engaged. We’ll get over it and come to like her hair eventually
I meant chauvanism implying that males are better, as opposed to sexism implying females are better.
I agree that Girls are catty for example:
It is hard to find anyone less like a Suffragette than a 7 year old girl (pink, tea parties, princesses… don’t deny it) but there is no reason why that is not a form of feminism, I suppose that is what I meant. That short hair does not equate to “Girl Power”
That’s how I felt about my self esteem when I got accepted into the second level of my teacher’s prep program.
Patriarchy bullshit be damned! I’m a man and here’s what I think. I hate that all guys are like crap. 🙁
Monica is happy with her new doo and she feels good about it. She probably feels real good about herself too. Anyone that wants to insult her hair style doesn’t care about her or her feelings at all. Kevin would be a complete dumb ass to steal her joy away by telling her that he didn’t like her hairstyle. The best thing to say is “I love it!” and let that happiness just multiply. He doesn’t just love her for her hair anyways. That’s just shallow. Hair is just hair. If you have a chance to make someone you love happy and be supportive of that person, that’s the easiest way I can see. He wouldn’t be lying. He loves her hairstyle because he loves her. That’s all that would ever need to be said about it.
I LOVE YOU JAMES THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE MEN OUT THERE THAT IS AS IN TUNE WITH WOMEN AS YOU ARE!! GOOD FOR YOU AND GREAT FOR YOUR WIFE MAY YOU HAVE A HAPPY LIFE!
“I hate that all guys are like crap.”
@James – I agree with everything else that you said, but I don’t know what you mean by that…
I do prefer longer hair on a lady, but as I told my girlfriend, I’d love her if her hair all fell out – and I meant (and mean) it.
Hopefully, that doesn’t make me “like crap,” but if so, *shrug*
Exactly!
Good to know I’m not the only man in the world who thinks this way.
Happiness is beautiful. Confidence is sexy.
Just being yourself is both.
That’s tellin’ them!!!
So there!
I believe the appropriate term is, “Na-na-na-na boo boooooo!”
“Neener neener neener!”
Na-na-na-na, Na-Na-Na-Na,
HEY HEY HEY, GOOD-BYYYYYE!!!
FEAR MY BRUNSWICK 12-POUNDER OF DOOM
Ba-hahahaha!!! Oh jeebs…I started my day almost choking.
The unfortunate part is that no one around me would understand why that’s so funny to me, so it’s probably a good thing that I get in to the office long before most everyone else. I just wish a few of my high school friends were around/easier to get in touch with…
I hate to add to the previous few pages’ comments raggin’-on-of-Monica’s-style but…
I can get used to the haircut, I think, but the polka dots are another story. Dyyyying to see that short pixie hair put in a tank-top or.. or… some boy-clothes or something! Please? ;3
Me, I like the cut and the dots. But your idea sounds good too!
And we have officially crossed over into Looney Tunes territory.
That ship sailed a long time ago.
sorry, you’ve already been boo-yaa’d, your argument is invalid.
Rats! So we’re under the “Boo-Yaa makes right” rules today. Aluminum foiled again!
You tell ’em, Monica!
“Set ’em up in the other alley, Joe!”
“STRIKE early and SPARE no one!” – Milk and Cheese Bowling shirt.
I think they are envious because she no longer looks Exactly like them… Vanity might be able to make headway on her now though.
is it Run or Ran in that one bubble? i can’t tell it may be the font but it looks like “you spent 80$ to make it look like you run yourself over with a lawnmwer” which may make more sense in pat tense?
It’s an inner demon, not a Grammar Nazi! 😉
Hey that would be an Interesting inner Demon! The one that makes you stick your foot in mouth by saying something then “err is…was…still is…will always be…” and then you have Completely lost the moment!!! HA!
Heeheehee! I would LOVE to see that demon at work. Then again, I think we do to some extent. That’s the little bugger that makes some of us post corrective comments. 🙂
I agree. Past tense “ran” makes more sense in this sentence.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!
That’s flippin’ awesome. And totally goes to show NOTHING beats a good hair day.
Actually, they’re not acting as demons here — they’re just being collectively honest. And Monica is acting extremely manic — basically doing a “I can’t hear you! LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA…..” Yes Monica, just keep yammering, that’s the only way to make sure that you’re right — oh yeah, Kevin – yes him – forgot all about him didn’t you? You couldn’t just get half of it cut off could you? Had to make a “statement”, had to make yourself the center of attention.
And Monica *still* looks like a fish head without the rest of the fish.
So… what? Her opinions on her looks aren’t valid, only what her boyfriend thinks of her hair? Huzzah for the patriarchy, I guess.
More like the reverse version of the “wound up tight with worry” problem… not that I agree with redbeard’s opinion in particular.
Her behavior IS starting to become worrisome, though.
I’d say that her behavior was getting worrisome if she was bouncing or poiting around going on and on about her haircut for several days. Remember, this is still the same day she got it cut. It could very well have been less than one hour even.
Heck, I flounce my hair and show off with picture texts to my friends when I get my hair cut and styled really well/differently than normal, and I probably go on about it for several hours…and for at least 10 minutes each time I look in the mirror for a few days after the initial cut.
Oh, so Monica is just acting like you. That is worrisome! 😀
It was just my inner demons that made me do that. 😉
I think the in-universe explanation is what Nudge said about inner demons being weakened by change. Also, it is a comic strip, so things are going to be a bit exaggerated, after all. I’m more convinced than I was yesterday that the white chocolate mocha was more important than it seemed at first.
😛
Oh yeah, that’s right. It’s all about the “patriarchy” [eyeroll].
…or maybe just Monica’s insecurity, then.
Now, let’s see, why would women think that they need men’s approval to validate their appearance?
Hmmm.
They would if they dress and look a certain way so as to attract or please men/other women (or a given man/woman).
Because without it we are destined to become what society has termed “old maids,” “spinsters,” and “that crazy lady with all of the cats.” 🙂
You know, I think it would be genuinely interesting if someone could pinpoint the cause of physical insecurity. I mean, I know that for women people frequently point accusing fingers at Hollywood and the fashion industry for presenting women with specific body types as the “ideal beauty,” but why are some people bothered by not matching the standard when others are perfectly fine?
(The easy answer is self-esteem. I’m more interested in what triggers that problem…maybe I should take some psych classes 🙂 )
As someone who tried very hard to starve herself to death for most of her life (5′ 7″ and 97 pounds) and finally killed herself (i know she finally did, but i’ve been out of touch for a fw years and i don’t know how) to meet society’s ideas of “beauty” … SoWhy Me is full of beans (or something) on this one.
“…as a friend of someone…”
ARRRGGGGGHHHH!
How am I full of beans? Who do you think “other men/women” (as I put it) are? They ARE society. So you don’t know how she killed herself, yet you use her death as an example? Besides, using deaths from anorexia, tragic though they are, to “prove” something about society is silly. The very few who do die from that hardly prove anything.
All this talk about it’s her hair and she can do what she wants just negates the talk about how it’s society’s fault. It all comes down to personal responsibility. Always finding a scape goat by blaming everyone else just perpetuates the problem as it absolves the individual of her blame for her bad choices. Of course, there are people who are truly mentally disturbed and need help, but that’s not society’s fault either.
Heh, I was going to comment, wondering if Redbeard and SoWhyMe are aware that this strip looks like a slap in the face from Paul in response to their negative commentary. Then I saw other people already mentioned it, and it was pooh-poohed by the dudes in question. Naturally.
I mean, ok, if they were saying “I am personally attracted to women with long hair” that would be one thing. However, asserting that Monica and short-haired women in general are *objectively* unattractive IS misogynistic, as it implies that there is an empirical, and unrealistic, way of judging female beauty that is determined strictly by the sexual reactions of hetero men. I doubt, however, that either commenter will agree with this.
All of which kind of makes me wonder… what are these dudes doing reading WS in the first place? I’m actually curious. I mean, the strip is so outspoken about female empowerment and the absolute subjectivity of female beauty… these guys don’t really strike me as the “target demographic”.
(not actually trying to be a shit-disturber, by the way)
I see, so saying anything negative about females or how some look is “misoginistic.” That term is as overused these days as is “racist” or “homophobic.”
I read it because it’s funny and interesting and, sometimes downright cute. And it’s just as outspoken about female foibles as about female empowerment. Though Paul does seem to have a tendency to make all the “bad guys” male and all the “good guys” female so he is very slanted in that regard. The demons are neither bad or good, they simply “are,” like electricity. And he makes pretty much all the females in the strip slim and lovely. Also an unrealistic standard in itself. That doesn’t seem to bother anyone either, however.
What is unrealistic to you, is standard to others. Beauty, like dust and contact lenses, is strictly in the eye of the beholder. And that individual expressing that preference in no uncertain terms hardly makes them misogynistic. Opinionated, sure.
I don’t think that Wapsi Square shows men in a bad light. Obviously, the main characters are women and they are the good guys so the readers can root for them. The priests were evil, but the GGG’s wiped out an entire civilization. Phix had been evil, but reformed. The smugglers were bad guys, but it was left for other men (the police and news crews) to take care of them. Kevin and Alan seem to be good people. The demons have been female (matching their hosts) and although they have done some good, their portrayal is usually negative.
None of the women are depicted as being overweight, but how many times do you see an overweight main character of either sex in any comic? I don’t think that they are supposed to be all that lovely. It’s not as if guys are constantly acting them out. A lot of the stress on the way they look is coming from the readers, not Paul.
Good points. I didn’t mean to suggest Paul shows the male characters now as bad or evil, just that all the evil ones talked about are males. Even Maya supposedly did evil things for good ends. Well, except for Phix I had forgotten about her. I still would not trust her not to revert either. And, she’s not human in any event so I’m not sure she even counts.
As I see it, the demons are just a force of nature, neither evil nor good as such. So I don’t count them. And, again, not human.
I think Paul draws the females the way he does because he likes to, with their impossibly thin waists and all. I just see all this babble about unrealistic views of female beauty a bit ironic considering how they are drawn here. Not that I’m saying anything negative about Paul’s style, I think it’s great, especially the faces. I had to say that since he has a tendency to take what I post totally wrong.
You’re right, SoWhyMe, misogyny doesn’t actually exist. Neither do racism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, or transphobia. In no way is it possible that these problems are so ingrained, so endemic in North American society that many people can’t even acknowledge their prevalence. And these people never therefore assume that the terms are overused, because they don’t take the time to understand why people are using them.
Obviously.
Did I say they didn’t exist? No. I said the terms were overused. Heck, I’ve known female misogynists. It just seems like, at the slightest provacation, people bandy about those terms, relevent or not. So much so that, in some cases, the words have lost their original impact and meaning. Often people use them without even understanding what they really mean. They are hot-button accusations used more to stifle open and honest disagreements.
@SoWhyMe:
I’m not going to let you off the hook with the demons quite that easy. On one level, Monica’s demons are separate non-human creatures, but on another level they are a part of Monica’s psychological makeup. In that sense, they are very human.
Can’t agree, eschemenk, but I see by the clock on the computer we are out of time to discuss this further.
Oh wait, it’s the weekend. I guess we can. Anyway, I don’t see the demons as much different than mindless cells in the body. They are programmed/allowed to do certain things, and only certain things. They don’t have the free will of humans to deviate from the script to any significant degree. They can nag, but only in certain areas and only within certain extents. They may be able to affect someone psychologicaly, but are not really part of their psychological makeup as such. This is especially true with Monica as she is aware of their presence, even meeting some personally.
Again, I don’t see them as any different from electricity. Electricity is neither good nor evil. Electricity doesn’t want to hurt you, but will not care if it does either.
@Julie:
I think you might be disappointed in what you would learn in the psych classes. I think that people are so complicated and subjected to so much randomness that it’s impossible to identify a cause for things like that. My own guess is that it’s probably partially a matter of the person’s genetic makeup and partially a matter of what the person happened to observe and how they happened to interpret it, which can be rather random. It’s enough of a problem that if it had a known understandable cause, you probably wouldn’t need to take phych classes to learn about it.
The good news is that they have a pretty good understanding of how people tend to reinforce their beliefs by interpreting things according to their preexisting opinions. They can use cognitive behavioral therapy to analyze a person’s inner dialog and try to work with the person to help them get in the habit of saying better things to themselves. Still, the person needs to be open to working on changing the ways they think about things. Also, the person doesn’t know where the flaws in their thinking are, so they might not bring up what the therapist would need to know, so it’s far from perfect.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, when I was younger, I used to interpret compliments as meaning that the person felt sorry for me and was trying to cheer me up. Therefore, compliments were not likely to help my self-esteem and often made me feel worse. Fortunately, something happened once that showed very clearly that people meant what they had said about me and that cause me to reexamine how I interpreted compliments. That didn’t have anything to do with my physical appearance, but I think the same sorts of things apply to any self-esteem problem.
@SoWhyMe:
Traditionally, inner demons are considered to be those parts of a person’s personality that causes them to do harmful or self-destructive things, such as drinking excessively or procrastinating. I think that Paul is using them the same way a person’s conscience and temptation are often used in cartooning. I think that he is making them tangible and having them behave in ways that sometimes go well beyond what they fundamentally are, but on some level they still represent the traditional idea of an inner demon.
Having said that, if Monica’s inner demons are a part of Monica’s personality, then they don’t really count as separate characters. Since Monica hasn’t shown any tendency to harm anyone else, it doesn’t contradict your point that the main characters are the good guys.
@eschmenk:
That’s probably true. Plus, psych classes will spend a chunk of time on those annoying phases (i.e. oral fixation, anal retentive etc) that some guy created to explain behavior, but really make him sound like a sexually obsessed individual. 🙂
I still think it would be interesting to try and work something like that out, even if it could only be applied to an individual since we all are so very different in our reactions to and interpretations of the world.
and when kevin approves you will whine it’s only cause he wants the body
My wife did this to me once.
Yeah, I still rag on her about it.
She struck you with a bowling ball and yelled Boo-yaa?
Whatta gal!
Really? That’s pretty funny. 😀
Who in the world would date a guy that sensitive about hair? And what guy in the world wouldn’t be supportive of his girlfriend’s image-changing decision? It’s her hair, after all, not his.
Hair grows back.
By the time Kevin shows up again, it could be grown back actually.
And now, we pull back to see the reaction of the other pedestrians to a sudden, random BOO-yah.
My first thought, exactly.
Well, since they can’t see the bowling ball or the pins, I figure they’ll just think she’s doing some new form of Tai chi. Loud, vocal, and aggresive Tai chi.
Simply put… “Other People” are odd. She might get a look or two for a moment before they continue on their way, and it’d be quickly forgotten.
We commented about this ad nauseum over Amanda’s little “poit” into Calhoun Lake.* The concept, which was expounded on fabulously by Douglas Adams, is that of “SEP” – it’s Somebody Else’s Problem. Something strange happens, people look – which is human nature. If it doesn’t last more than a second or two, most people shrug and make some sort of excuse – “Gotta stop having the triple espresso”, for example. And then they walk away, because it’s somebody else’s problem at that point.
* – I’m from Wisconsin. We call our inland bodies of water by their given name first.
It’s cool that you’re on a first name basis with geography.
Well that’s interesting to know. Here in Texas we do both…depending on how the body of water was named. We’ve got a White Rock Lake, Caddo Lake, and others…along with Lake Livingston, Lake Palestine, and Lake Ray Hubbard…Anything goes! 🙂
*phft* Either way still has “Lake” on one end or the other. 🙄
I’m originally from Ohio, which has Grand Lake St. Marys. The Federal Government officially calls it “Grand Lake” and it’s near a town called St. Marys, but everyone, including the state government, calls it Grand Lake St. Marys. Ohio also has more boring names, like Lake Erie and Indian Lake, of course. BTW, Oklahoma has Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees, I see. There are probably a bunch of similar names around.
I think that most of the time, if a lake has a traditional name, especially one that describes it or something close to it, it will be called Clear Lake (yeah, right!) or something like that. If it was named more artificially by politicians in honor of someone or something, it probably has a name like Lake Pooba. That form sounds more grand. That’s not just a Texas thing.
I don’t usually comment but I feel kinda annoyed by all the bashing going on for the short hair. What’s wrong with short hair?? It’s her hair, for goodness sake, she’s doing a good thing with it, and its mentally healthy to change now and then and not get stuck in a certain style, stereotype, or habit forever!
For the record, I love Monica’s new hair cut… I have a style fairly similar to it. I had long hair for years, always thought it was more feminine myself, but my husband always wanted me to cut it short. He was thrilled when I finally cut it.
Not all guys are locked onto one stereotypical style for girls. Just as some guys can look pretty darn sexy with longer hair, there’s definitely girls who can pull off the short hair style and look just as sexy. Monica’s brave for steppin’ out in a new style and not styling herself to fit the world’s stereotype. Go, girl! 🙂
All the negative comments tend to make me like M’s hair more and more. “What about Kevin?” “What will Kevin think?”… You know what, in the grand scheme of things, who cares? It’s M’s body, and M’s hair. Kevin may be disappointed, but if he’s so petty as to let something as minor as a hair-do affect his relationship with her, then it really wasn’t sincere, was it?
In addition to that, we haven’t even seen if Kevin IS upset. However, M is confident, M is happy with it, and I’m sure she can make anything she does with herself look sexy. I suspect he’s gonna dig it.
And as for what Kevin thinks… If he really is the type to respond ONLY to physical appearance (tho I don’t think he is), does anyone here really think the pixie-cut is really going to trump two other attributes M has in abundance? Seriously? Anyone?
Her bubbly personality and her superb intelligence? 😉
Big breasts can get old fast, actually.
not really, if you are a guy, and they are *that* big!!! 😀 😀
It helps though, if she understands how *weak* we are, is not paranoid about them, and has a sexy voice and face though… (yes, I know that girl… 🙂 🙂 )
You know, Kevin was OK with finding out that his “normal” girlfriend is someone who can “poit” and has 3 friends who are immortal constructs. I think he can handle a haircut.
Thank you! This is exactly what I thought. We are discrediting the character that Kevin is written to be if we think that a haircut is going to affect his feelings for Monica. Monica will think that, because we know how her inner demons are, but here she is overcoming it. People need to deal.
Oh, please!
“What will Kevin think?” ???
So, what? Do people actually leave each other because they don’t like the haircut?
Hopefully not, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t ever a little voice in your head making you worry about it on some level. Besides, even if he doesn’t leave her, the concern could be that he’s less attracted to her. Just look at all the guys who have stuck around reading this comic but have stated they no longer find Monica attractive.
Yes, it should be different in a relationship, but “should be” and “are” are not the same thing.
Believe it or not, people in long-term relationships happen to usually like each other enough that they want to please the other with their decisions. I’ve actually been toying with the idea of cutting off my hair for years but haven’t because my boyfriend (of 4 1/2 years) likes long hair. I’m not worried about him “leaving,” I’m worried that he won’t like it.
Anyway, I’m planning on getting it cut off either way. Just later in the year. I have a friend who is quite persuasive about making me do the crazy things I want to do.
@Neveko: As someone who has been married for over a decade, I can tell you it is a wonderful gesture when my wife consults me on her choices, but no matter how much I hate them, It’s not her hair, shoes, coat or whatever that I’m in love with.
..She asks, I offer my opinion, she does what she wants anyway. That’s the way it works here at least. 🙂
People leave other people for a lot less than that – crunching celery too loudly, maybe.
People do a lot of things for less reason. Take John Wesley Hardin. By the time the Texas Rangers caught up with him, he had shot 42 men, one for just snoring too loud.
The preceding message brought to you by the Time-Life Library: The Old West.
Like posting over 100 comments to a board when there is hardly anything on which to comment.
And the weekend is just starting! We are a bored and sad lot.
I almost mentioned Wes Hardin’s little exploit in aid of undisturbed sleep…
Which was in my mind from the same ads, at that.
Gotta love the boost to morale from a bitchin’ hairstyle.
RELATED LINK IS RELATED!!
Even if you grew up in the 80’s you might have never heard this one but some of you do i bet. The video is stupid just so you know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ22M_mnWMg
No way! The demons would have been right if she got a mullet cut!
For about the first third of the video, I couldn’t figure out how else it was relevant.
Hi, been lurking in the shadows for some time now, but I just had to share… I think this has something to do with Nudge’s advice. This is some how tied into helping Jin. How? Not sure, but I’ll be more than happy to see:) BTW… love the new do:D
I thought the demons were locked away?
Monica’s demons never went away. Only Jin’s doubt got sucked back into the demon realm and locked there. If you’ll recall, Monica’s doubt was hiding behind Shelly and explaning to her what was happening in the temple.
I think that they are all Monica’s Doubt, attacking her from multiple angles to try to make herself stronger. Those of us who’ve been around should have guessed before we even scrolled down that Doubt was losing the battle, because reh sdrow erew ton sdrawkcab.
I agree.
I thought that Paul just stopped having her write backwards. I didn’t read anything into the fact that she talked forwards, instead of backwards. ˙ɹǝʇʇɐɯ ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ǝq pןnoʍ ʇɐɥʇ ‘uʍop ǝpısdn pǝʞןɐʇ ǝɥs ɟI
It would be easier to read than backwards, however.
.edirts ni sdrawkcab ekat yllausu nac I .uoy syaS
I can read it if the letters are still forward, but I had so much trouble with Doubt talking backwards that I downloaded the strips and used a graphics program to flip them. Then I had to go to the original to figure out what Monica was saying.
Actually they’re mirror image, but I couldn’t do that using HTML.
I literally held a mirror up to the monitor, but then, I’m old school …
What can you do, but sigh?
I hate to say it, but I’m with the demons on this one. Monica needs her head examined (even more so than usual) if she thinks her new haircut is better than the old one.
It’s all a matter of opinion. 🙂 Hers is just as valid as anyone else’s (moreso since it’s her hair).
Yes. This. Or +1 (or however the kids say it nowadays).
I’m not a fan of the haircut. Doesn’t matter. Not my strip, not my character. If Paul came to me and asked, I’d tell him I didn’t like it, but short of that, who cares about my opinion?
More, I’ve been reading since it was a three-panel strip. He hasn’t led me astray so far….
She likes it. That is all that matters.
But is it really? As much as we don’t like it, people are often ridiculous and judge you based on first impressions. If someone doesn’t like your hair or doesn’t like short hair on girls, they can in fact treat you differently than they would. This goes for both men and women, of course. I know that I work right next to a hair salon, so I can hear people coming in all the time talking about haircuts people have come in with or gotten, and some of it is surprisingly negative. “She looks like a boy with short hair, why would she do that?” etc. They aren’t judging her on the haircut itself, but on her judgement faculty for choosing to get a haircut they think does not make her look good. It sucks, but some peope would doubt Monica’s judgement and ability to make choices based on her haircut, if they didn’t like it.
As a note, I’m not cracked on the haircut AT ALL, but I think she can do as she likes, and I’m proud of her for having grown enough as a person to be able to overcome the fear of those people I was just talking about and get the cut she wanted.
And this strip shows that Paul listens to us.
And sometimes responds via the comic…
Well, unless he comes right out and says that, I don’t think we can really know.
I doubt this is a response to use. These comics are usually completed weeks in advance (that’s how he can keep the update schedule so regularly). Our discussion about Monica’s hair is simply a natural human response that Paul’s tapped into long before we started.
Actually, a number of webcomics that are usually pretty good about updating regularly (Pibgorn, Menage a 3, El Goonish Shive, etc., work no more than a day or so ahead.
I’ve noticed that this year Paul seems to be planning things to fit a weekly schedule. Of course, I don’t know how detailed the plans are and he can always make last-minute changes.
I suspect that Paul could have pretty well predicted the comments in advance. Also, I think that the haircut and, in particular, today’s strip, ties in with a theme that began in April, so the comments that say that this is just a response to other comments miss the importance of what is going on in the story, IMO. They also miss the fact that there wasn’t any need to adjust the inner demon’s behavior to match the behavior of those whining about the haircut. Wouldn’t that be even more significant?
At least one syndicated cartoonist managed to get the syndicate to pull the regularly scheduled strip (done, of course, weeks in advance) to put in something topical immediately after 9/11 (Can’t recall who.)
And, since Paul is self-syndicating (essentially), if he really wanted to, i’m sure he could alter his schedule a tad to include a more or less direct response to reader kvetching.
That being said, i have to agree with the lead sentence of your second paragraph.
You GO, girl! “Boo-yaa” indeed.
Boo-yaa indeed…
M’s demons are reduced to ragging on her hairstyle?
Childish taunts deserve a childish response, I guess.
Sometimes, it doesn’t make a difference what everyone else thinks. Whether they like it or not doesn’t matter– it’s what i think about my own hair that does! As I mentioned, I did the locks of love thing, I went from waist-length hair to a pixie cut, shorter than Monica did. I went through the “omg everyone thinks I look like a boy!!” phase (because, quite frankly, I DO Look like a boy since i’m a bit of a tomboy), but it was the way to go. Now, it’s still short and I love it. People can either accept it, or not, tis up to them. The short hair sure ain’t going anywhere though!
I made a deal with my dad when I was 9 that involved cutting all of my hair off. He wasn’t going to let me get my ears pierced until I was 16, but agreed to let me do it sooner if I got a short hair cut (I ended up with a chili-bowl).
Unfortunately, it was one of the worst ideas ever. Being the “new boy in school” wasn’t great, but when I got older and the taunts turned to calling me “penis head,” I cracked and grew my hair back out. It’s not been shorter than collar bone-length since.
Kudos to making a change that you loved though!
All of which continues to makes me glad I never had to go to school.
I so understand! I cut my locks years ago and the freedom was (still is!) magnificent! Woohoo!
today’s lesson is throw blowing balls at people/demons that give you shit.
blowing balls?LOL
Ah! Another great one for my collection of interesting typos.
Shmoos! Maybe this means we’ll get to see L’il Abner next week.
I noticed that.
No – maybe we’ll see Monica’s taller third cousin twice removed Daisy Mae…
They do have certain qualities in common…
Funny! I wonder how many people know what you’re talking about, though.
Thanks to Google, I now know.
But you really need to go back and read the comics themselves to know just how bizarre the execution of the whole concept was – as were most things in the Al Capp universe.
I don’t know. From what I have read, I don’t like Capp’s stuff much. Perhaps it’s a generational thing.
It probably also depends on what part of Capp’s career your readings were from – he started out fairly liberal and evolved into a reactionary.
I didn’t need Google.
Well, some of us haven’t been around long enough to have gotten the information first hand.
I think the first appearance of the shmoon was about the year that i was born … lemme see …
Yep – the story began just about two months before i was born…
(The shmoo arc is an example of what i’ve said elsewhere about Capp’s transition over the years – it’s fairly bolshy.)
i couldn’t do it….i just couldn’t cut my hair…………
Back to braids, huh?
Whoa, multiple Doubts! We haven’t seen her for a while. But none of the other demons want a piece of this? Maybe they’re smarter than to mess with M when she’s on a high, while that’s Doubt’s job…
As Monica has said before, her demons only have the power she gives them.
As I pointed out earlier, I think Doubt tried the old “divide and conquer” trick to try to gain power over M.
It didn’t work very well.
You go, Monica. Accept your greatness!
If I was a super hero, I would want to be able to turn my enemies into bowling bins and knock them out with a well thrown ball. 🙂
Way to channel The Bowler, Monica!
The Dudette Abides.
“bowling bins” … another good one! Fertile typo collection ground today.
Nice catch! 🙂 I didn’t even see it after re-reading it.
Please understand, I’m not ragging on anyone’s typos in general, just ones I see as being “creative” in their other possible meanings.
If I’d thought you were ragging on me, I wouldn’t have responded. 🙂
Um, did you know that “The Bowler” was a superhero in the Mystery Men movie? Apparently, her weapon is a bowling ball that contains her father’s skull. I don’t know if she appeared in the comic book series that the movie is loosely based upon.
BTW, I never heard of that movie before. I just threw “The Bowler” into Google just in case you didn’t just make that name up. Now I’m not sure.
It’s worth watching.
It’s based on a comic by an Atlanta-based artist, who spun it off his main series, “Flaming Carrot”.
And if you wanna see weird, Google “Flaming Carrot”.
@ eschmenk:
I was indeed referencing Mystery Men. I happened to really enjoy that movie for all of its silliness. 🙂
For all its sillyness, Mystery Men was surprisingly deep. One thing I really liked was how they didn’t just make it a slapstick story about idiots who thought they could be superheroes. They made it a slapstick story about people who wanted to be superheroes so bad that they kept trying, even though they knew they were lousy at it.
I think this comic has two levels. Monica is lashing out against her demons and Paul is striking out at negative comments about her new hair do. A very good strip, gives me a laugh for the weekend.
Hahahaha ! Monica FTW !
BTW , I like to use a 13 pounder .
When i was bowling some in my teens, with my hands (and only using house balls because i wasn’t interested enough to buy a ball) i was pretty well stuck with top-weight balls because (aside from ones drilled for fingertip grips, which i didn’t like) they were the only ones with holes big enough.
This did not enhance my enjoyment of the game.
I’ll admit I’ve owned a ball , that I got free from my cousin , and bought myself a pair of shoes . I no longer have the ball . I just use whatever the lane has , and seem to do well enough . Average around 175-200 . It’s been years since I’ve played , though . . .
Actually, the biggest problem (since i could handle a top-weight ball, even if i didnj’t like it) was finding left-handed shoes.
Ssssss .
You think i’m joking. I’m not.
Check it out.
Granted, i was sort of fishing for reactions…
Well, I know that if you buy bowling shoes, the left-hand and right-handed pairs are different. (The shoe for the strong side has a non-slip toe so you can push off, while the other one has a smooth sole so you can slide.) I thought they didn’t bother making rental shoes like that, but I wasn’t sure because it’s been several years since I bowled. It seemed plausible to me.
BTW, I still don’t understand. You were joking, right, despite telling Jim you weren’t?
You should have been fine in rental shoes because they let you slide on either foot. If you weren’t going to buy a ball, you probably wouldn’t buy shoes either, but even if you did, you should have been able to get left-handed shoes from any sporting good store. Of course, if the bowling lane rented out specifically right-handed shoes, that would have been a problem, but I don’t think that’s normal, and otherwise I don’t see why you would have had a problem like you said you did.
As i recall the shoes – this was almost fifty years ago, remember – they were not, in fact, ambidextrous.
Or would that be ambipedal…
For the record, I like Monica’s new hair style, I like both short AND long hair on a woman. It really depends on the woman as to whether she can pull it off or not. Monica, in her amazingly well drawn form, can pull it off.
As a side not I think I should mention that Monica has probably my favorite body type: very very petite in regards to height and weight with awesome curves. So I may be a little more forgiving of a radical new hair style.
I can also agree with the reason to cut it off; having donated several feet of hair, about a good foot and a half at a time, myself. Ok my head didn’t snap forward quite so much as Monica’s but you can definitely tell the difference once it’s cut off.
Thanks for the great comic keep of the sexy funny insanity Paul.
Mr.Coffee~
I am appalled by these harsh judgements. You are all completely wrong and should get help!
We need “help” for our opinions of her haircut? Gee, that’s tolerant. Or was that a joke. I can be bad at recognizing them.
‘Tis indeed deliberate irony.
And I should point out that I am responding not to the opinions of the actual haricut, but to the suggestion that there is something wrong with Monica and (by extension) all others who do like it…now those who like the ‘do feel the necessity to defend themselves, and they should not have to…
Had one of her doubts said it looked nice, how would Monica have intrepreted that?
I am a fortunate woman, my husband would prefer that my hair be worn long, but he realizes that I’m an adult & have the right to wear my hair however I desire. I personally love long, clean, curly hair on men (all of which HE has) but I know his look just doesn’t feel “right” for him unless it’s VERY short. My solution personally, run my fingers thru’ it just before he gets it cut & then enjoy the tickly-bristlies when it’s short. ^_^ As for myself, my hair is curly, heavy and hot when it’s long. I have to braid it ALL the time or it ends up like a rat’s nest. I keep it so short that it stands straight up but it’s soft and feels like fur so I feel very sexy with it that way. Believe me, those same daemons have whispered or shouted in my ears for years. I’d like to think that Monica’s solutions have rubbed off on me… when They get too loud, I just imagine picking Them up by Their scruffs & punting Them outta sight… accompanied, of course, by Goofy’s, “Wah-hoo-hoo-hoo!” So satisfying!
I have been known, when Kate gets her hair cut (a lot shorter than mine), to enquire whether her stylist had her certificate from the Apache School of Tonsorial Arts and Cosmetology on display…
I love the new cut AND Monica’s boo-yah!
STEEEEEE-RRRIIIIIIIKE!!!!!
*doing little victory dance*
Boom-shocka-boom-shocka-boom-shocka-locka-locka!
And none may gainsay or stand against the power of the Pixie-doo!!
Boo-yaa bitches, and with fretty plowers no less!
Way to go!!!!!
So has anyone else gone through the past few days of comments and put Names to the demons?
I didn’t see this coming, but I do see where it came from. 😀
Monica, what is best in life?
Crush your enemies (with a bigass bowling ball),
See them driven before you,
And hear the lamentations of the haters…
That is good .
But this is better ! ;^)
I’m very much reminded of when Mon got some confidence from a new brassiere, and proceeded to embarrass her boss:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/bikinipower/
Attitude boost for the win!
And while we are at it, what means Boo Yaa? eh? I don’t think I have heard that one before … but then, I don’t watch the babble box, which seems to be the center of American culture nowadays …
You must not be a gang banger or into rap, either. If you remember the time before the babble box was the center of American culture, I suppose that’s not surprising.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boo-yaa
I am into classical music. Instrumental classical music.
I’m with you there. I took up the violin just to be able to play some of it. Later I found more and more arrangements for the violin, extending what could be played far beyond my original desires. Mom made me learn the piano too, but I only really liked the violin. It was a lot more portable too.
…. and did anyone notice her HAIR in that link from MerchManDan?????
I may be missing the point, but you know that her hair was tied back, right? If not, it’s more obvious here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/attitudeboost/
MOM?!?! uh sorry I just had a little flashback induced by the bowling frame. Mom told my once about the first time she went bowling. Softball was actually her favorite and back then the bowling ball were about the same size as a softball. When her friends told her to just “throw” the ball at the pins well she did! According to her, the Pinboy cursed like a drunken sailor. She got a strike as I recall.
It looks like Monica threw the ball overhand! At least your mother didn’t do that.
It’s kind of funny how the “young adult comic” (at least I think that’s what YA means) has attracted a lot of older people. If your mother was bowling before they had mechanical pin setters, you can’t be that young. (Neither am I.)
It looks more as if she did a <a href = "http://www.soulgeek.com/comics/zona/2009/05/26/page-276/"< Mentl instead of a throw.
What the –? one of my keys isn’t responding …
Let’s try that again:
Mentl
God, I hate Poser!
I refrained from a snarky response.
You may, if you wish, imagine one here.
Snarky is fine. I just see Poser as the worst thing to happen to art and cartooning since limited animation.
Actually, neither Poser nor limited animation are bad in and of themselves.
Sort of like the pedal steel guitar or the accordion.
Any of which can be used by lazy people with no talent or skills to make themselves look better than they are.
I agree that by skipping learning how to draw, people are probably going to learn less about how to lay things out, which really isn’t a fault of Poser, per se. However, most things created by Poser are going to suffer from the uncanny valley effect, which is an inherent problem with the tool. Also, whatever constraints are imposed by the software are going to tend to limit things. Furthermore, I think tools such as Poser are going to limit a person’s imagination. OTOH, someone who is a good writer, but just can’t do art might be able to create something using Poser, but they could accomplish the same thing by finding an artist willing to work with them.
In Paul’s case, I think using Poser would have been a very bad idea. His work in photography has apparently given him a good sense of how to lay things out (better than many artists, IMO), but I don’t think that working in Poser would have allowed him to come up with today’s strip, for example. His style is not literal enough to be compatible with a tool like that.
I’m not following your analogy with respect to accordions. I don’t know about pedal steel guitars, but I thought that accordions were surprisingly difficult to play. I am also not following the part about making people look better than they are. If something made someone look good, that would be a good thing, wouldn’t it? The problem with Poser is that the result never looks very good.
I don’t follow SoWhyMe’s contention that Poser or limited animation are bad for art or cartooning, in general, either. Yes, some people might decide to work in Poser, rather than learning how to draw, but I can’t believe that creating something in Poser would have the same appeal as drawing for that many people. Also, some people might experiment with cartooning using Poser, and if they are successful at it, they might decide to take it further later.
To me, an artistically untalented person using Poser is as bad as one drawing in an artistically untalented (amaturish) manner (if not worse). As soon as I see that, I no longer care about the story. The “art” is too much of a turn off. Let them write novels if their story is that great. If it’s not, production line “art” will not help it. Most who use it have no concept of “weight” in art, for example. The characters, besides looking unnaturally stiff, don’t properly act on the environment. For instance, a character shown laying down looks like a baloon resting on a surface. There is no look of weight, one surface to another. And then there is the face being much the same, one character to the next. All with those unmistakable crappy Poser facial features. It just nauseates me to look at it. As limited animation allowed the studios to churn out decades of cheap crap posing as “animated” cartoons, so Poser does for the world of still-image cartooning or graphic novels.
Of course both limited animation and Poser work appeals to many, but that is largely due to a shifting baseline. People become used to awful product, forgetting what it could be, and was in the distant past. In the past few years some cartoon studios recognized this and turned out much better animation (including TV). I’m not against all tech driven cartooning. Work from Pixar and the like is great. But that’s because talented artists were at the helm in the first place. Likewise in the hands of an already talented artist Poser can be made to do a great job. I could give an example, but it would probably be too unPC an image to post the link here.
Sorry – the accordion slipped in there from a different thought, related troits use as a WMD in Pibgorn
I was speaking in the sense of allowing lesser talents to fake it and impress people who don’t really understand what they’re seeing/hearing.
The pedal steel is often used to allow someone who hasn’t the ability (or the patience to actually learn how) to sort of emulate the sound of the traditional steel, which is a lot harder to play, or to engage in flashy but irrelevant ego displays.
Gresham’s Law applies to music or comics just as much as it applies to money.
Someone else in this strip threw the ball that way, too…
I miss her. Wonder how she’s doing…..
Well, at least it was underhanded. I’ll have to agree with what Fatuncle said, though: It’s more like Monica fired the ball at them, rather than threw it.
Sounds like duckpins, rather than ten pins.
I think you are right. I think I’ve heard the term before, but never knew what it meant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duckpin_bowling
There are also candlepins…
Paul, I appreciate you making this comic as a sort of response to people. I can’t believe people are so dim as to think she is anything but beautiful without her long hair. Also, can no one remember how ALL the characters looked different before. I mean, Shelley cut her hair off too! People want to change themselves after they’ve gone through something life altering. Hair is the easiest thing, especially because it grows back. I thought that the readers were people who were all woo! girl power! but the comments have been leaving me bewildered. God, it upsets me that the people who are complaining are bitching because she wants to do whatever she wants with her *own* body. Ugh.
Anyway, rock on Paul, and rock on Monica!
Except kill it or put illegal drugs in it. So not anything. Though it is tough to prosecute suicide.
Far as i’m concerned, she ought to be able to do those things if she wants to.
Those choices affect those around them without their consent. For me personally, it crosses a line.
Yet it still is her choice, in the end.
Seriously, how does one go about asking those around you if they consent to you choosing to do drugs or taking your own life? “Dearly beloved, I’m going to go put a bullet through my brain. Would that be all right with you or should I pencil that in for when hell freezes over?” Honestly. In the end, NO ONE has control over what a person chooses to do to themselves no matter what they may think to the contrary.
Of course, no one asks others their opinion before doing something bad to themselves, but many do ask themselves how it will affect others. Especially in suicide. Therefore others have an affect on the decision. Again, in the case of suicide (and drug use), they may even be the cause for it. To say no one has control over a person’s choices is just not so. Those involved may not be aware of their part in the whole drama, but they are exercizing control. Naturally we can say the person should not let others have that much influence, but that is wishful thinking. Human nature, being what it is, allows for such manipulation all the time. Remember, we are not talking about self assured, strong willed people here in the first place.
Suicide (and i say this knowing that a long-time friend finally managed to kill herself) is the ultimate act of selfishness.
SF writer H Beam Piper acknowledged this in his suicide note, which read “I don’t like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn’t be going away. H. Beam Piper”
Or perhaps a series of body mods and subcutaneous implants. Maybe people would start to worry about what she does with her own body when her limbs are ribbed, scalp bald with scalp spikes?
If Monica was a “normal girl” with a “normal life” I would agree and say right on girl! But she is not normal, nor has a normal life. So I am a bit worried. I think to Kevin who knows a little bit about what she does, tackling on evil spirits and demons, but does not know the full extent of what they can and can not do. Then add in Monica who has now almost completely altered her appearance and attitude in an almost manic way, and in Kevin’s position, I would worry that maybe she was possessed. Yes hair grows back, but that much hair would take a considerable length of time depending on how fast it grows.
It was a rash decision, and I admit it worries me.
ehhh we’ll get over it.
We are all “wooo! girl power” but being Femenist does not nessessarily mean that we have to admire everything that is done to a character. I am Femenist but have Hair the same length as Monica’s was and it annoys me when people equate femenism with trying to be a boy. I consider that as a form of Male Chauvinism and you figure that we are not all for girl power because we aren’t for short hair (on M,there were no complaints for Shelley) then…
I understand the wish to change after an event and that it is M’s body and Paul’s character but for all of us it is just a bit of a shock and our Fight or flight reflex engaged. We’ll get over it and come to like her hair eventually
Male Chauvinism? Just as many females, if not more, will say that about other females. Like it or not, girls are a catty lot.
I meant chauvanism implying that males are better, as opposed to sexism implying females are better.
I agree that Girls are catty for example:
It is hard to find anyone less like a Suffragette than a 7 year old girl (pink, tea parties, princesses… don’t deny it) but there is no reason why that is not a form of feminism, I suppose that is what I meant. That short hair does not equate to “Girl Power”
Ka-me-ha-me-bowlingball!