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Comic

#145 - Was My Life

Monday, April 21st, 2008

59 Responses to “#145 - Was My Life”

  1. sable Says:

    oh the tangled webs we weave.

  2. Alex F. Says:

    every1 is liek a spidur

  3. Alex F. Says:

    d00d

  4. evilbugz Says:

    Poor Anders. But at the same time, he did royally fuck up. Bjorn seems to be atleast civil though. See, Bjorn is a good guy.

  5. cyn derblock Says:

    this is the first time i’ve felt bad for anders since this whole tina mess started.

  6. Love Says:

    I cant bring myself to feel too sorry for Anders just yet.

    I want to know what happened with Tina.

  7. veronicactus Says:

    Anders is finally starting to realize what he’s lost. Good for him! That’s what being a dick gets you.
    This may be the best comic I read now, and I read a LOT! Hurra for Rene, hilsen Norge ;)

  8. Chuck Says:

    But… it’s HIS house!!! (that’s what Rene said… me remembers…)

    hahaha, Bjorn nor Maria are “civil”… they kept living there knowing that it was Ander’s house.

    AT LEAST GET YOUR OWN PLACE!!! (or cover your wang while playing Rock Band…)

    The look in Bjorn face is awesome.

  9. Opus the Poet Says:

    Ahh I know what Anders is going through now. I don’t know Swedish laws, but i was under the impression that your pregnant ex(?)-girlfriend didn’t get the house when you split up, only the ex-wife gat the house…

  10. Duke-Thane Says:

    it’s maria’s house too…and ever hear of common law?

  11. Mirnavela Says:

    Ooookay…Am I the only one who thought, at first glance, that Bjorn was borking Anders??

  12. Kira Says:

    I love how nonchalant Bjorn is about being naked.
    In (Anders’ and) Maria’s house.
    With Anders there.
    Maybe it’s a Swedish thing I’m not accustomed to.
    XD
    Anders’ expressions in those two panels are like… “You’re in my house… And your dick is hanging out…. And I don’t know what to say.”

  13. Caroline Says:

    Mirnavela I had a totally different thing freaking me out in that panel- it was the Freudian Guitar Placement…

    :D

    I just love how little he can say about any of the situation - is he comparing winkies in panel 5?? :D

  14. neal Says:

    so human.. it hurts that i can relate to this, but its beautiful, at the same time.

  15. Hec Says:

    …They are going to talk and cry?! Don’t you have Jerry Springer over in your country?!
    it will be a very interesting sight when Maria comes home to find Anders there. I wonder if they will get along.

  16. M Says:

    “…YOU’RE the schmuck banging my common-law wife?” Couldn’t resist.

  17. Hec Says:

    Mirnavela I swear to GOD that is what I thought too!!!
    I put the image on hold and read the rest before allowing my brain to register it.

  18. Katherine Says:

    Rene! Your work always breaks my heart. I love the way you’re presenting/drawing/etc. these comics recently. I’m going to have a good cry now…

  19. Sashi Says:

    Mirnavela, i thought the same thing at first. But i rubbed my eyes and had to look again. lol!

  20. Lisa Says:

    “That was my guitar. But I think you can have it now. No no, I don’t want it back. You keep it.”

  21. zee Says:

    i feel a bit bad for anders, but at the same time, my first reaction to this page was “THAT’S WHAT YOU GET”. i hope that from this point anders shapes up… i would love for things to work with him and maria.

  22. MoBurkhardt Says:

    so sad i almoust cried

  23. Marissa Says:

    I was under the impression that it was Anders and Maria’s apartment, that they both shared. Maria seemed to the the one with the steady job to pay for the rent. Of course Anders still probably gets an allowance or lives off a bank account.

  24. Annabeth Says:

    You know, I’ve been there for the whole “ex meets the new boy” show. It usually went like this, and it usually made me happy because that relationship had ended for very good reasons.
    This comic hits it dead-on, and I love it so much. Kudos, Rene :)

  25. mags Says:

    about time Anders got hit with a 2 x 4 of reality.

  26. Joy Says:

    ouch!

  27. katie Says:

    sucks doesn’t it anders?

  28. Dain Says:

    Poor Anders!

  29. Hec Says:

    You guys forgett, mommy is ritch.

  30. Donovan Says:

    This is not my beautiful house!
    This is not my beautiful wife!

  31. Angelique Says:

    Marissa: actually Anders is a professional photographer, so he does work and bring in a good amount of money.

  32. Joanna Says:

    I love this page!

    If my boyfriend ever cheated on me, I’d be really pleased to have him come home to a house full of naked guitarist!

  33. Vic Says:

    Am I the only one who thinks its funny that the “this… life” Anders appears to miss is being naked in the mid-day, playing guitar hero (or whatever), and waiting for his girlfriend to get home?

    Not that that’s not a missable life. Just that it underscores how desperately immature he still is (or wishes he could be), even after becoming a dad-to-be, waiting to see if he’ll be charged with murder, etc.

    I love how normal everyone in this comic is. “We judge ourselves by our intentions, but we judge others by their behavior.” The strip lets us see (or at least evokes) the insides and the outsides of everybody - their subjective and objective realities. I don’t understand how anyone can hate any particular character - everyone has a suggestion of an interior life, even when the strip isn’t actively exploring how they perceive their situation. And I LOVE that it does all this with hardly any first person/POV stuff - or when it’s done, it’s done pretty subtly.

  34. Christine Says:

    I almost cried too. I laughed at first, at Anders’ “…” (and at the guitar placement…), but the last two panels made me want to cry. Your comics are so life-like, its amazing!

  35. Tabi Says:

    I agree; I’m proud of Bjorn for being so civil! I want to feel sorry for Anders, but I’m also cheering a little inside because of this meeting. He’s just now feeling the shock of what he lost and, also, he’s met his competition (in more than one way, too, looking at panel five). xD

  36. Sheep Throe Says:

    At least Anders should accept that cup of coffee, just to drop everything where it hurts (a lot)! Do something about it, you moron!

    And if Maria do not want to have anything else with Anders, then she should leave his place too. Instead, she put a 30+ man with delusions of youth (or nobody noticed that all he does is play a stupid guittar all day) on their bed.

    It would be better if those two had a sincere conversation and solved their problems.

  37. Eric Says:

    Rene gave you all nipples AND a navel and you don’t seem to be so grateful.

  38. Laura Says:

    A question: what is the grey square in panel 1, under Anders’ hand?

    I’m with Vic. I don’t hate any of the characters. They are all flawed; they’re all good people in some ways, too. They get hurt and they hurt others, and they grow. Convincingly. That’s part of what makes ALM so good.

  39. Sheep Throe Says:

    It was my first commen on this webcomic, and I think that I should have said that this comic have a very strong characters and story that it really touch the way I think and act. This is one of those comics that makes you care about what is going on. It is like American Elf, that looks like you are seeing a blog about a cool friend that you have. You may not like what the friend is doing, but you surely like them still.

    The art is very amazing now. It gives to the comic a wonderful and unique feature that helps to amplify all the potential on the story.

    Indeed a very good comic, that makes you think and, more important, feel.

    ps: but I am still very angry about that Bjork guy! Any chances that a truck run over his head? ;)

  40. bgrunge Says:

    I’m not understanding the not kicking bjorn’s ass part. The moping about maria stuff yes, but AFTER expelling said naked man from your property.

  41. christina Says:

    I assumed the grey square was a drawer of some kind that Anders was looking through.

    Anders: The operative word here is WAS. It was your life. Too bad it took you so long to realize what it was you lost. I guess it took a naked Bjorn to jog his memory.

  42. Laura Says:

    Oh, I see it as a drawer now. Thanks Christina!

  43. Kai Says:

    I find it ironic that no one in this entire strip can truly be given even a semblance of innocence. They all do horrible things when angry, like cheating, tagging someone’s HOUSE with insults, or playing guitar hero nude in another person’s home.

    And yet everyone weighs the people as though at least one party was innocent. Every time. It’s “poor Tina! I hate you Anders!” or “Poor Maria! I hate you Anders!” With, as you can tell, most people hating Anders.

    Well now he shows a little humanity beyond the thoughtlessness and it’s gone to “Poor Anders, but I still hate you!” Either this is the hallmark of an awesome strip or a neurotic audience. I claim both.

  44. Kai Says:

    Ninja’d in a third the words by Laura.

  45. Snowpea Says:

    But I’m not even sure Maria IS with Bjorn. Seems like he’s just hanging out, as a friend. A friend who does not seem to mind being naked in another friend’s apartment.

  46. Duke-Thane Says:

    Hawt!

  47. Taeshi Says:

    .. I feel really bad to have laughed at this comic as opposed to felt bad like everyone else. I don’t hate Anders or anything, but his expressions throughout it all were just.. priceless.

    It’s just like “what.. what.. whaaaaat?!?!?!”

  48. Indigno Says:

    The look on his face said to me “I don’t really want coffee, but it would be nice if you were clothed.”

  49. Chester Says:

    Rene, this comic is awesome. Just read all the archive, and although its qualities have already been praised on previous comments, I would like to congratulate you on such a masterpiece.

    Now a public service announcement: :-)

    *** ANDERS LOVE MARIA FAITHFUL READERS, PLEASE READ THIS ***

    I was about to blog about the comic (for a Brazilian audience), when I noticed there is no Wikipedia article regarding the comic *or* the author. So I created a “stub” (a minimalistic article just to get things going). It is located at:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Loves_Maria

    If you like the comic, please expand/correct the article (notice that it links to a still-not-existent article about the author, which can be created/expanded as well). Wikipedia is a must-have reference for good comics (hey, even the bad ones are there), and it would be a real shame not to have info on Anders Love Maria there.

    Thank you for your attention.

  50. Chester Says:

    (and consider “love” = “loves” in the post above. Late night is tough for non-native speakers :-P )

  51. Shannon D. Says:

    I’m so sad.

  52. Farvana Says:

    Wikipedia has a real hate-boner for webcomics.

    If you do put up a page, it will be taken down within a couple months, if not a couple weeks.

  53. Eric Says:

    It’s making me really sad that people see a guitar and think “Guitar Hero.” Once upon a time, people played instruments. Played them!

  54. xahoivanminh Says:

    ^I noticed that too, Eric. Sign-o-the-times? =/

    *hangs on edge of seaT OH DEAR what happens next!?

  55. Rick Says:

    Am I the only one who thinks that Bjorn’s taking the expression “rock out with your cock out” a mite far? Or is Anders thinking that during his ellipses moments…?

  56. Chuck Says:

    Hehe… its fun to see that some of you are following me with the “Rock Band / Guitar Hero” stuff for the guitar not having any strings…

    :3

    Hope Rene is not angry ’bout that :(

  57. Vic Says:

    I thought of it (guitar hero) because there have been a few strips showing anders and maria enjoying video games together, if I recall correctly.

  58. joejoe Says:

    I’ve never…laughed…so…hard.

    Anders reaction is priceless.

  59. David Says:

    Thanks to the bottom half of it, this is my favorite ALM comic. What’s great is that he’s actually pronouncing ellipses…

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