#092 - 2008-01-17
Thursday, January 17th, 2008OK, this one goes up a little earlier today. I am heading to the mountains to think of 2 things only.
1) Snowboarding
2) Sexy Tajms
EDIT: Just to let you guys know in advance. Friday’s comic will be up late (but a perfectly normal Friday time for people in the Americas) because I am up the mountains. They promised me wireless internet but that ain’t happenin for Mac users apparently. I have no way of uploading the strip till I get home.
ps. The snowboarding was very RAD if you would like to know. I mean, despite the fact that my board was probably older than half of the runts on the hill. I be old skool yo! Or just old.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:02 am
It is more and more apparant that Maria never gave much of a shit about the relationship to start with.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Man, I make an edgy first comment and mispell “apparent” while doing it. Aren’t I just the biggest goober?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:08 am
Well I’m the wrong person to give a crap about other people’s spelling!
January 17th, 2008 at 5:12 am
@Koosh I don’t agree, I wouldn’t say this is her being dismissive or not caring, merely being wrapped up in her painting.
I guess the person to actually shed some light however would be Rene
January 17th, 2008 at 5:16 am
My intention was not to show that Maria doesn’t care. It was to show that Maria is very “ok” with Anders going out drinking and playing strip poker with his friends (who happen to be girls). To tie in with yesterday’s “She trusts me” line. Did I really have to spell that out to you people?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Ah, but a good writer never reveals the secrets that may yet be revealed later on in the story. It is for us to guess for now.
Right, Rene?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Hahaha, owned by mere seconds. I should just turn my computer off.
But yeah, thanks for clarifying, I guess.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:20 am
<3 @ Koosh
January 17th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Howdy! (traditional Texas greeting, no I don’t own a horse!
@ Koosh: Spelling doesn’t matter, as long as you are understood. I think it was Mark Twain who pooh-pooh-ed a person who can only spell a word one way.
As for the comic, and the story: Rene, you are a fine artist and story-teller. Thank you for sharing your talents with us all.
I’ll leave the relationship analysis to others, but that’s my $0.02.
Cheers!
January 17th, 2008 at 6:14 am
I love this comic with all my heart.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:32 am
oh damn, i want a girl who has a grey painting shirt. thanks for giving me goals in life, fröken tigermjölk!
January 17th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Who doesn’t want a girl in a grey painting shirt??
January 17th, 2008 at 9:20 am
What are (or is) Tajms?
I’m sorry, I tried looking it up on google but couldn’t find a clear answer.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Tajms is “swenglish” for times. sorry!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Cool, thanks!
January 17th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I was a little thrown off by tajms too, cool beans. So… start makin some stuff for me to buy soon, kay?
January 17th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Here are some other commonly used loanwords from English with a Swedified spelling:
fake -> fejk (-a)
nerd -> nörd
tight -> tajt
date -> dejt (-a)
site -> sajt
fight -> fajt (-a)
The a:s are added to make verbs.
Btw, which city is in the new head banner?
I might drop in to the “Serievecka i Göteborg”. But I will keep my distance. I’m terrified of meeting people from the Inter-net.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
it seems you would spell those words identically in polish. wow.
and yeah, i think maria is a lousy girlfriend. too impulsive, when she shouldn`t be and stone cold when she should react.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
and about the spelling, i dunno if i am understood correctly (probably not): when we want to write down english words as we hear them, we trite them like swedes spell tem.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I think the purpose of the flashback was obvious, and also well carried out. Argh, this is angst!
Great work, Rene! Which days will you be in Gothenburg for the comic week? I’ll be there for monday and tuesday at the very least (but hopefully I get to stay longer…).
January 17th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Anders is stupid, the girls ALWAYS cheat at strip poker.
Oh and what does tajms mean? I have a guess but I’ll just ask in lieu of looking stupid if I’m wrong.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Nevermind. It seems I managed to look stupid after all. Hah!
January 17th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
FUCK YOU ÅRE! Vi rockar DUVED!
January 17th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Lisa: Jag vet inte. Jag ska försöka fixa så att sven och jag åker ned tillsammans. Jag pushar för mån-tis!
January 17th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I’m going to explain a little swedish mentality here. Maria is not cold and heartless. She is actually very loving, but she is a northerner. She will not say “I love you” 100 times a day. For her it is enough that Anders and her feel loved rather than saying it. She would be perfectly content to sit in silence in Anders company, communicating without saying a word.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Rene you don’t have to explain! I know what you mean because the comic explains it.
Have fun!
January 17th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Thanks Dain. I never know how much of this isn’t really understandable to people outside of Sweden.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Coming from America, it’s a little odd to see some of this stuff, but hey, here we give men a hard time for saying “I love you,” and women a hard time for NOT saying “I love you.” It’s crazy! lol. I love your comic, though, and it’s kept me entertained.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Man känner sig lite sjuk i huvudet när man kollat Anders Loves Maria redan men går in igen, samma dag, bara för att liksom kanske, kanske! ^^;
Kommer troligen också förbi serieveckan, hoppas vi ses!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I think that their dynamic is lovely and comfortable. Very well played, Rene: you just keep on breaking my heart further!
January 18th, 2008 at 12:28 am
I needed the explanation of Swedish norms, so thank you for bringing that up. However, I didn’t see her as cold. I saw her more so plucky with a little bit of occasional reticence.
However, it’s not the grey shirt for me. It’s painting/art major chicks in bandannas for me.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Well I am not from Sweden but I don’t say it back every time my boyfriend tells me he loves me. That feels so cheap and it can get annoying like its just a filler when nothing else can be said.. as if maybe nothing needs to be said!
January 18th, 2008 at 2:05 am
John skrev: “Btw, which city is in the new head banner?”
It should be Stockholm, since that’s were Anders and Maria live. Compare for pictures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm
The church is called Riddarholmskyrkan and one of Stockholm’s oldest buildings.
Rene Engström skrev: “I’m going to explain a little swedish mentality here. Maria is not cold and heartless. She is actually very loving, but she is a northerner.”
I guess this sheds some light on Johans apparent indifference as well. Still, it works approximately the same for dislike: “[Johan] would be perfectly content to sit in silence in Anders’ company, communicating [his dislike] without saying a word.”
January 18th, 2008 at 2:23 am
For some reason when I read this, it felt like Maria was TRYING not to care.. like she didn’t wanna come off as the whiny jealous girlfriend left back at home.. but I guess we all interpret different things XD Funny how this comic alone got so many different reactions!
This “revelation” about Maria being so accepting suddenly made me sympathise with her tenfold (Well.. I was sympathising with her for a while now, but this pushes things). I mean.. Anders decides to get a job with the one girl Maria DOESN’T like.. and considering how Maria is not really a jealous type, wouldn’t it be good to respect her wishes? You know.. the one time Maria actually feels upset over a girl? I mean.. it’s all been said and done, and I’m not excusing her for what she did, but Anders sort of provoked it knowing full-well that Maria totally hated Tina.. but I’m speaking obvious things now XD Was the gas station the only place he could have applied to?
Nyahh, I love how this is going so far! And yes, Maria looks positively adorable with a grey shirt.
(Man, my boyfriend finds Maria so cute, but you saying that she doesn’t say “I love you” that much and it’s sort of implied amuses me. I remember when we first started our relationship, I was pretty much copypasta Maria who didn’t have to snuggle him constantly to let him know I loved him. And he thought my actions meant I didn’t love him enough so he threw a depressive fit. Hahaha.)
January 18th, 2008 at 3:10 am
I have a painting shirt! but mine’s powder blue. or it was, once.
I don’t think maria comes across as cold; she merely has a different personality from anders and therefore expresses her love for him differently. there doesn’t need to be a constant verbal reaffirmation of emotion for it to be there.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Has anyone noticed she doesn’t have a baby bump?
January 18th, 2008 at 8:14 am
just finished reading the archives! and man, anders has totally lost any sympathy points i may have had for him in the beginning.
he feels inadequate, so he gets a job at a gas station with what appears to be the only girl maria has ever flipped out about. she then makes it clear, AGAIN, that this is a woman she loathes and doesn’t want him anywhere near, AND HE GOES ANYWAY, showing that he obviously doesn’t care about her opinion.
maria’s stupid stunts gave him the right to be angry, though, even if he did somewhat bring it on himself by purposely working with that girl (when he doesn’t need to, i might add - their finances seem fine). he would be perfectly right to go stay in a motel or somewhere, or to hash it out with her; hell, he’d even look much better had he asked her for a break in their relationship (and time to think) right there. her jealous, hormonal dick move, however, doesn’t excuse him randomly sleeping with the girl that all this mess was started over, without breaking up with his girlfriend or anything.
add to that that his girlfriend is VERY pregnant with the baby he wanted and she didn’t, and that he’s now planning on lying about it, and i just want to rip his face off and feed it to some lions.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:37 am
pom, I’m 99% sure this is meant to be a flashback from before she got preggo.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Welcome to the club rl!