#127 - Since When
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008I just saw that Karl Kerschl who does the amazing Abominable Charles Christopher has added me to his Friend’s links. There is no way I can express what a compliment that is, you have to go check out his work. Pronto!
March 4th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa????
March 4th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
oooooOOh! does that close up of a photo of Maria and Tina as little kids mean you are gearing up for a flashback??!!
^_^
also, armpit licking? GROSS
March 4th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
yes please: let’s have a flashback that explores the relationship between tina & johan. there must be something. but then again, i’ve been mistaken so many times i wouldn’t be surprised if i had fallen into one of your traps once again. which makes me like your comic even more because i don’t fall into those traps easily. (but i enjoy it if i do, i must be a strange person…)
March 4th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
maybe i missed a huge part but I was unaware that maria and tina were close friends when they were young
March 4th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
nah, we don’t know if they were friends - sometimes adults force children to play with each other etc, haven’t we all been through that? anyway, if you’re living in a small village like that, any person roughly your age sort of becomes your friend, whether you like them or not
i’m not saying you’re wrong, though. they might have been friends…
March 4th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
oh wow….
March 4th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Rene, can you define which year it is in the current comic? The actual world year?
On an unrelated note:
Get some webshop online already. Filled with corny, overpriced anderslovesmaria paraphernalia.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one here who would like to support what you’re doing in a more substantial way than writing comments and adding to your pageviews.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I dunno Fnord. I’m rolling in the dough ever since I added advertising! Check out my balance!
You have $13.97 active in your account.
I am working on a tshirt design actually. It’s pretty fantastic if I do say so myself, but I don’t have much time/energy for it now that my boyfriend is in the hospital. But I hope to have it done within the week. Then I am not sure how long it takes until they will be available for orders. That is all to be done through TopatoCo. More info once I’m closer to that.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Fnord: Sorry. The story takes place in the present. 2008.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
A t-shirt with just Anders’ face and the word “BORK” would be fine with me.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Koosh. I’m a little torn on the idea of a Bork shirt. I realise that it would probably be stupid of me to not do a bork shirt, considering how popular those particular strips were. But at the same time it feels a little cheapening to Anders. I really do care about these characters! Call me crazy. Please!
March 4th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
oh. my. are they/were they family? i feel scandalized. (in a good way!)
March 4th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I don’t think it’d really be cheapening to Anders, persay. For one thing, can t-shirts be considered “canonical”? It’s all in good fun - and besides, I don’t think Anders has to be “interacting” with the BORK (ie… saying it or looking embarrassed about it).
I dunno though. I guess I don’t pose a very convincing arguement, other than I probably would purchase one if given the chance.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
oh, I have a theory on why they are in the same pic =)
maybe they came to live there as fosterchildren for a while, when the parents were drinking heavily
March 4th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Something that’d represent Swedish culture woule be great for a t-shirt. Like “Anders älskar Maria” written in Kalles Kaviar across the chest. That’d be pretty hot.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Nicolas. That’s a pretty cool idea actually! Although I have heard that having your title of the comic on a shirt is not always a best seller. My current design is rather Swedish though. Hopefully I have something to show you by next Monday.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Rachel, I think maybe (I hope) that she was going for his nipples?
I would would hope she wouldn’t want to lick a sweaty Bjorn’s armpits……….i would hope…
March 4th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Familie!!!?
March 4th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I shat a brick.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Doesn’t look like armpit licking, looks like nipple licking.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Rene Engström Says:
March 4th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
…Call me crazy. Please!
You’re crazy.
I’m getting the impression that Anders didn’t really know Maria at all. Either because he never asked the questions or she’s been hiding her past or both.
And I can understand why he’s using Tina. He can’t go home, has been told basically to stay there by his mom’s girlfriend (who’s name escapes me). The only other people he knows there are Maria’s family, and it’s understandable he doesn’t want to be around Johan. Doesn’t excuse him using Tina for a sex toy.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
See, this is is a pretty good example of why I majorly sympathize with Anders, and kind of why I have a much harder time feeling sorry for Maria as much as everyone else.
Throughout this whole story, he’s shown genuine feelings and concern for Maria, which has been mostly absent on her part unless she’s been in trouble for something. Even now, he seems upset that he didn’t know her as well as he thought — and Maria apparently never shared much of her life with him.
It seems like in their relationship, Anders’s feelings have been almost constantly disregarded by Maria. I don’t think it fully justifies cheating, but after your feelings/desires being disregarded, being openly made fun-of and having your goals undermined and sabotaged by someone who is supposed to be closest to you … I really wasn’t as shocked as everyone else was by the HORRIFIC cheating scene that’s scarred so many commenters/fans. In fact, I smirked a little — What, Maria expects to be a big brat with no regard for the feelings of others and not face any consequences?
Not that I hate Maria! I think she’s an awesome character and I love it when she’s being her usual sarcastic self, and I really love exploring her past — it just bothers me that she gets so much sympathy in all of this and Anders is always cast aside as the jerk who fucked everything up. (Also, not that this commentary is not critical of the comic itself — stay the course! It’s mostly me being riled by comments — more so than a person should be, admittedly, but I have no life — and YELLING AT THE INTERNET)
Also, in light of recent events, is this comic canonical, and in what time frame?
While I’m eager to see the Tina-Maria history, I’m also eager to know how and when Maria and Anders came to be a couple in the first place.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Link fixed: http://anderslovesmaria.reneengstrom.com/2007/07/11/2007-07-11/
March 4th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
THIS IS DELICIOUS ARMPIT, I MUST EAT IT
OM NOM NOM
March 4th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Hey,
I just wanted to say that this one is the best and most personally touching for me in awhile. Maybe I’ve been waiting for him to finally crack or something. I’m not sure.
I read these as feverishly as everyone, but usually don’t bother to comment. This is the first time I’ve felt compelled since expressing myself via email to tell you - damn, damn job well done. I am constantly in awe of this whole thing. Your ability to tell the story of human emotions in a way that makes sense to most people these days, in a beautiful and honest way just floors me.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
family perhaps cousins, or somewhat sadder the shape and size of the adults in behind them are either maria’s folks or tina’s ( white shirt says tina), and i wonder if at some point maria and johan were looked after by them as a result of their parents not being there.. they look younger there too, so it could be all the hostility comes from when quite young… could be foster care, or maybe…?
my two cents
as irrational as maria can be i think the reason for the hating on tina will probably be quite sad
March 4th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Also… the fact that Tina keeps a photo with Maria in it in her office makes it seem that the Tina-Maria hate/rivalry may be completely one-sided. Which is just downright sad. :
March 4th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
IT ATE MY COMMENT AGAIN ARGH
(cont) Poor Tina… in all of this, I’ve never seen her do anything mean or malicious … the worst she’s done is have sex with Anders while drunk and under the impression it was over with him and Maria … and most readers will never let her live it down.
She’s just been an all-around nice person who’s a bit of a pushover and fell for a guy who’s unfortunately (but rightly so) still carrying baggage.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I don’t have super-strong feelings on the characters at this point, actually… I mean, I do care, obviously, but I don’t hate or love anybody in particular. Without knowing the characters’ backgrounds I can’t really judge them, except that I wish Tina had more self-esteem. It makes me sad to see her so easily manipulated, because I have friends/relatives like that. Which isn’t to say that she isn’t deserving of whatever she gets, or that she is, you know? I HAVE NO IDEA! Although I do think Anders needs to stop sexing his problems away; he should eat them away instead!! (FATTY ANDERS HEARTS TASTYCAKES)
What is up with the other characters, though?? How is Anders’s mom and her girlfriend? And Maria’s friend with the crush on her roomate? And, the awesome guy in the wheelchair?? (I am bad with names.) THE PEOPLE MUST KNOW.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
A Bork shirt need not have anders on it. Or anyone from the comic.
it just needs to have ‘bork’ and the website.
Maybe a picture of flowers. Chrysanthemums can be symbolic of anuses, after all.
just so your characters don’t feel cheapened.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Rene- a t-shirt would be fabulous!
I think one of the band Maria was in would be fun
(But anything with your style is gonna be bought!)
March 4th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
My first thought was family.
A T-shirt would be coo, but I want a book!
Gosh I’m so in love, I didn’t realize how much so until I looked at my Bookmarks, A
March 4th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I thought about the foster kid thing as well… maybe she felt rejected by tina’s family? Who knows. Can’t wait to see! i kind of wish I could stop reading for a week so I can have 5 comics all at once. or a month even! Oh man! Except i can’t do that so i don’t know why I’m talking about it.
Ooo.. i will buy a t shirt for sure!
March 4th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
@ Mandiiv: ALL your comments, I agree with!!!
it’s true and I couldn’t say it any better!!
@ Rene: SWEET!! I was so touched when I saw anders reaction … this shows anders is … confused in WHAT is going on … as I am at the moment too… (in my personal life!) I always liked anders… most to be honest!! (and it shows me that if I don’t get my life on the line … I might end up just as him… crying in someone’s office looking at pictures of someone’s past!)
well done rene .. you touched my heart, soul and my mind! well done! =)
March 4th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Mandiiv: Yes that strip is canonical, if by canonical you mean true to the story? I don’t know that word but I’m taking a stab at the meaning.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Shannon D. I will give out a book once the story is done.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Man, I would pay for a bork tshirt in BLOOD.
Bork, noun: the sounds Swedes make when they have anal.
anderslovesmaria.reneengstrom.com
Blood. Or possibly my first-born child. Although if you accepted first-borns through PayPal, I would have to ask to call you Rumplestiltskin. Also social services.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Rene,
You have an incredible strip going here. I love the look and I love the writing.
Congratulations, Ma’am.
With great respect,
-John
March 4th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I guess having been in a metal band as a teenager seems like a major life achievement that you would tell your boyfriend, but it kind of seems like Maria didn’t talk much about her life in Kuktrask before she had to suddenly be there again. And maybe Anders never asked her if she liked metal! He seems more the mellow indie-pop type, anyway.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
eeish. anders, ouch!
this is extremely exciting.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
also, maria and johan look so sad and angry in that photo. it makes me feel bad.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:07 am
i cannot understand how you can (as Anders) have felt comfortable enough with your relationship with someone to want to have a BABY, yet know SO LITTLE about their past.
unless Maria lied to him? I have the impression he told her about his past, or else he wouldn’t have been so upset to learn about hers. i doubt it has too much to do with the fact that she was in a metal band. More to do with the fact that she was in a metal band with a guy she dated for 5 years and never mentioned to Anders at all!
idk who to root for, its all very confusing. i DO like Tina a lot, i don’t feel like she’s in the wrong, other than looking for love in the wrong place.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:39 am
quick question- its a popular debate between me and my friends.
does maria have armpit hair? from today’s strip, and another earlier comic (http://anderslovesmaria.reneengstrom.com/2007/04/16/2007-04-16/) it certainly appears so.
not like it matters; just curious!
March 5th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Rachel- I dunno in past relationships I’ve always had the complaint that ‘they don’t know me’- you know what? They could have asked
Pure laziness lol… on both sides
But then if they were happy in the moment, does the past matter? In this case it looks like he is only looking at her truely/in a different light since the trauma of the break-up.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:52 am
I can imagine it’s kind of weird to see a picture of your ex with whom you’re having a baby but never actually had a breakup convo licking another man’s sweaty nipple onstage.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:53 am
p.s. it makes me so happy to see pictures of little-Tina bring a smile to Ander’s face.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:28 am
just because anders didn’t know about the band doesn’t mean maria lied about it. if anything it seems like anders never asked or cared to know until it was too late. from reading the comic and seeing a flashback of anders out at a party while maria was at home painting, she simply seems like the self-sufficient type, and given her family history (which we do not know completely yet) i just don’t see her as the type to just spill out her life story without being prompted to do so. it might have been a part of her past she left behind, as well. remember her reuniting with bjorn and the band happened after anders fucked tina and she saw it, she could have been acting defensively and going back to a time she had fun. i can’t help but empathize for her, i guess i’m on team maria all the way.
i still don’t think tina is as innocent as she acts. i mean regardless if anders said he was single or not, i mean doesn’t it say something that she has a picture of maria up in her house? if your friend’s boyfriend breaks up with her does that make it okay to just sleep with him the same night? i feel like they definitely have a history and just like the metal band, it was just not something she shared with anders, who dismissed it as childish. i wonder if he ever bothered to ask her why she hated tina so much? it’s obviously a big deal to maria, wouldn’t it have piqued his curiosity?
i think out of all the pages of this comic though, this one evokes the most emotion for me, and there’s only one line of dialog. brilliant, rene. you keep wowing me with your talent.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:29 am
and i agree with caroline, he seems to be a bit preoccupied with her past.i wonder if it’s only because bjorn was in it.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:35 am
…is maria licking huge sweaty man nipples?
March 5th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Yup… I think it’s his nipples, not his armpit… makes a lot more sense that way too.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Rene: Yep, that’s basically what canonical means in this instance. I could go into a long spiel about the history of the word because I’m a terrible, terrible nerd… but I won’t.
(interesting anecdote — when I was little and we were discussing in history class the canonization of saints [different word meaning here, hur], I kept daydreaming about the church shooting dead saint corpses out of cannons)
March 5th, 2008 at 4:47 am
I am relieved. Sweaty nipples are salty. Sweaty armpits are…horrifying…
(I love salt =)
March 5th, 2008 at 4:57 am
At least those nipples aren’t sad or angry… kinda -_-
*remembers Ander’s nipples and runs to the hills…
March 5th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Step siblings? Maybe thats why Maria was wondering what about her and Johan on xmas? Hmmmm… Anders is so in the fog on everything. How does that happen?! I mean.. I don’t know much about my boyfriends past and exes, but I know enough! How long had Anders and Maria been together previous to the pregnancy inquiry?
March 5th, 2008 at 6:18 am
The second-to-last panel reminds me of Gabe from Penny Arcade’s drawing style for some reason.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Does anyone remember the Swedish Chef from the Muppet show?
(For those of you who don’t, the “Swedish” Chef isn’t meant to speak real Swedish at all–he just talks gibberish.) See here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CAsYwW7pt7o
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j1KSaUEu_T4&feature=related
His catchphrase, “bork, bork, bork!” becomes quite disturbing in light of what we have learned recently from Rene . . .
March 5th, 2008 at 8:19 am
toffofee addict: bork means nothing in swedish. I was just being funny.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:37 am
toffifee you are a bit behind, people brought light to that as soon as the borking commenced.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Great comic!
March 5th, 2008 at 10:24 am
OOOOOHHHH!! this is a great comic! I’m sensing some revelations in the next few strips! Love it!
Rene, I think that a shop would be really cool! what about publishing the archived strips as a book? haha, a bork shirt would be funny, but I think some of those psychodelic mushroom shirts would be pretty rocking!
I think it’s kind of sad if A & M were together for any decent amount of time that he wouldn’t know about her relationship with Bjorn
But hey! everyone deserves a few secrets, and maybe A just never bothered to ask.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Anders’ disinclination to ask about how Tina bullied Maria when they were young seems to me to have at least partially led to the current situation. I’m not surprised that he didn’t know much about her past…!
March 5th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
My glowing praise of ALM aside, I would like to compliment the readers of this fine strip. I pop open all my webcomics before work each day, and end up spending ten times as long reading this one, both to go over the art several times, and to read the engaging dialogue to follow. Thank you one and all! We’re all making this a wonderful thing!
And thanks again, Rene! I’m looking forward to the t-shirt!
March 6th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Hi all.
To everyone who is a fan of “bork” I had this thought, mostly will benefit US readers.
I apologize in advance.
Remember how the Swedish Chef in the Muppets was always saying “Bork, bork, bork!” Usually while chasing around a chicken…..
Knowing now what I didn’t know then, gives an entirely new and somewhat disturbing meaning to those scenes.
Rene, I will require myself to make a fan-art sometime in the next few weeks that follows this theme. I apologize in advance, again.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Rene Engström Says:
March 5th, 2008 at 8:19 am
toffofee addict: bork means nothing in swedish. I was just being funny.
———————————————–
According to Swedish Wikipedia, “bork” is a horse colour; “buckskin” in English. And then there´s Leif Boork, the hockey manager…
March 6th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Ha ha thanks spiring. You learn something new everyday. Not exactly your everyday knowledge!
Apparently it’s not in use anymore (according to wikipedia).
March 28th, 2008 at 11:44 am
I’m starting to rethink about believing Maria’s “stories” about Tina being a horrible person. If anything she is too sweet, too self sacrificing and too willing to take things up the butt. These traits do not paint a necessarily nasty character. Am I being too hasty here? I guess I’ll have to see.