#257 – He did it out of love
Monday, July 13th, 2009I will not be contactable again until Thursday evening. Have a nice mid-week! 
by Rene Engström
Guys! ALM is finished but I have a new comic calledSo Far Apart.
I will not be contactable again until Thursday evening. Have a nice mid-week!
Sex and the Suburbs PDF Donate any amount to read a 6 page mini taking place when Anders and Maria went to Uni together and first started dating. (NSFW) You will be automatically redirected after donating. If not email me and I will hook you up. |
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AppearancesMarch 20-22Webcomics Weekend March 28 UK Webcomix Thing April 23-26 SPX 09 Stockholm |
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July 15th, 2009 at 2:10 am
I’m of the opinion that ALL vagina-mouthed Mario painting are done out of love.
Sick, sick love.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:16 am
wow. there isn’t a single loose end in this entire story is there?
looks like that work truly is a symbol of his generation
July 15th, 2009 at 2:23 am
awwwwwwwwww. Is that the end of the interview? or will there be more?
July 15th, 2009 at 2:39 am
It’s-a me, vagina! If that ain’t love I don’t know what is
July 15th, 2009 at 2:56 am
God, I see what you mean when you say that Lena would be Simon in American Idol. BRUTAL.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:59 am
That looks a lot more like Mario than the Mona Lisa.
July 15th, 2009 at 5:09 am
Not that I’m nitpicking or anything but, Maria looks like she’s suffering from “Big Eighties Hair” Syndrome! :O It’s just so massive in panel 3 it makes her look even smaller. Still love the art though!
That painting still freaks me out, even more so that Bjorn did it just to f@$k with them and they took it as some kind of relevant artistic expression.
July 15th, 2009 at 5:19 am
I’m sad we actually got to see the Mario-Vagina painting. Leaving it to the reader’s imagination would’ve been much funnier.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Maria has some serious, serious mental issues.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Dan: You are so right! I’m going to fix that panel when I get back from my little 2 day holiday. I was in such a rush when I did this. I have a much nicer layout for the first panel coming up! Cheers!
July 15th, 2009 at 8:58 am
am i being stupid here, or wasn’t it supposed to be mona lisa with a vagina? did i miss something?
also: totally agree with Dan
July 15th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I’m also curious why its Mario and not the Mona Lisa as previously stated.
July 15th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I really like what you’ve done with Maria’s expression in the second panel. The big eyes and the floating eyebrows, it just looks great.
July 15th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Maria looks adorable in the second panel.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
at least she has her integrity intact, that counts for something.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
@Z – I am sure there is more to it, since Anders and Maria do meet at Konstfack, according to the cast page. So she gets there somehow…but how? Hmmm….*strokes beard thoughtfully*
July 16th, 2009 at 12:48 am
D:
LIE MARIA, LIE.
July 16th, 2009 at 6:43 am
But… she *did* do the painting itself, Bjorn just painted the vagina on. It’s not like he did the whole thing.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:44 am
It’s a vulva, not a vagina (vulva is outside, vagina is inside)
July 16th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Wow. I just discovered your comic, and read through the entire thing in one sitting. (Well, I got up to eat pizza.) It’s amazing. There isn’t a single thing I don’t like about it. The characters are perfectly believable, and I love all the sordid things they get up to. Thank you for doing this comic.
July 17th, 2009 at 2:34 am
it’s mario as the mona lisa. of course she wouldn’t just copy the mona lisa, she does original pieces. she also had something like princess peach as the virgin of the rocks, and i think other renditions of very famous painting in which she replaced the central figure with a nintendo character. it seems to be her thing, which makes a cool connection to the moment in which maria is replaced by tina as “playmate” to johan.
July 18th, 2009 at 1:08 am
So … one update this week, which was actually a makeup comic from last week. After you hold a fundraising drive to be able to do this as your “full-time job” and brag about how happy you are to be able to update three times a week?
After the sh*tfest last time someone had the audacity to criticize your unreliability versus your promises, I want to be clear that I don’t have any personal animosity toward you. I love this comic—it’s one of my favorites—and your art style, and donated to support it.
But you’re misleading us when you say “updated three days a week, mostly m-w-f.” It’s more like “updated once or twice a week, with a comic on Tuesday and a promise on Thursday, and a second comic—maybe, if I can find the time—on Saturday.”
If your full-time job is doing one comic a week, that’s great. But say so. There isn’t a single other comic that I read that’s updated so erratically. I realize this is an unpopular view—at least, as concerns the fangirls and fanboys who generally comment here—but please stop misleading your readers with claims you can’t seem to fulfill.
July 18th, 2009 at 1:56 am
@Anon: If you look closely I have updated both Friday’s and Monday’s. I owe two more comics this week. In case it bothers people that it said “mostly m-w-f” at the header, I have now deleted that.
July 18th, 2009 at 2:13 am
I’ll admit sometimes I’ll come and see the comic is updated… but I only get down about it because I’m do addicted to this comic, Rene!
Is it so bad that I get withdrawals?
So… first time commenter, long time reader… I just had to say something this time.
July 18th, 2009 at 3:54 am
” it seems to be her thing, which makes a cool connection to the moment in which maria is replaced by tina as “playmate” to johan.”
Ooh, Sophie, very clever!
July 18th, 2009 at 7:44 am
Uhhh guys missed updates give me the sads too but I don’t think that sniping at Rene is going to accomplish much of anything. If you end up stressing her out and forcing another hiatus I am going to come to your house and cut down all the internets.
July 18th, 2009 at 8:20 am
I think it’s important to remember that Rene has a life outside of this comic. She does her best to update three times a week, but sometimes real life complicates things. She has a family to take care of and, as she stated previously, her children are on a break from school at the moment which gives her less time to update.
I’m just amazed by how entitled some of the readers seem to be acting. Rene doesn’t work for you. While I’m sure she appreciates all the support and donations that she receives, she isn’t a machine, she’s a human being. Maybe some people need to remember that.
July 18th, 2009 at 8:25 am
lol @ ren!
July 18th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Apparently Anon. doesn’t read Wasted Talent. It’s updated about as erratically as this one (if not more) and yet Rene gets more grief than Angela. I guess the vague ‘mostly m-w-f’ isn’t vague enough for some people.
Me, I fail to keep to a schedule almost 24/7 so I’m not one to complain about either one. I know how life can get in the way and something unexpected can throw off a plan with ease. You plan to get something done in a certain block of time, and then one of your kids gets hair stuck in the toaster or something, and there goes that certain block of time, and then you have to find another one, but that one doesn’t work out either because you have the aftermath of the toaster incident to deal with…
That being said, I hope none of your children get their hair stuck in the toaster, Rene.
July 18th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Apparently Anon doesn’t read Dresden Codak either.
Can anyone say “11-12 comics a year”?
I love ALM, and I really couldn’t care less that the update schedule is sometimes irregular. As long as I get to find out what happens to them someday, I’ll stick with it until the end.
July 18th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
ooor “no rest for the wicked” i swear that comic gets updated like once every 2 months!!!! and you only get like 2 strips…. it ridiculous! with that said YOU CANT RUSH ART!!!!
love your comic for its originality and absolute openness! keep at it!!
July 18th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
First I just wanted to say that this is a great comic. I read up to that break she took in one sitting when I first saw it. I certainly don’t feel entitled to an update, I’m not entirely excited when there isn’t one, but I can understand some peoples’ frustration when she doesn’t live up to her schedule. I know m-w-f is a “relative” schedule, it is more like 3 comics a week and she claims to have been doing that. This week so far I count 1 and at the rate she works probably, maybe get 2 this week (unless your weeks are longer than mine). If you don’t feel that you can update 3 comics a week it would probably satisfy many of the “schedule ****” to maybe state that you will update when you do and not say you’ll do x many comics this week. I understand you have a life and you are a machine, but many people (at least in America) work 40 hours a week, some do a lot more with 2 or 3 jobs just to support them and their family (which they have to take care of too)….now how many hours a week you wish to work are up to you, but it’ll probably be a good idea not to give the excuse because you need to take care of your family and not solicit donations that will help keep the comic active….just saying in case you ever want to help quite those critics….
July 18th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
@ Rene
I think that statement is a little misleading and unfair. Yes, there was a comic last Friday and a comic on Monday, but there were only two comics last week, so Monday’s comic was technically a make-up from last week.
I don’t expect my “sniping” to make any difference, nor do I expect it to be appreciated. I’m certainly not trying to be rude, so I hope it doesn’t go over that way.
I understand the challenges of being a single mother, and I would never expect anyone to be the single mother who is working full time, going to law school, and raising her kids while attempting a paddle ball world record in one hand.
Perhaps while your kids are out of school change your update schedule to twice a week? You’ve said it takes 8-10 hours to make one page. I don’t think a work schedule of 16-20 hours is unreasonable or unmanageable as a single mother (though at times I think it is certainly difficult – sometimes 20 hours a week is hard when you’re dedicated to anything, such as full time school).
Nobody reasonable would be upset by this – many comics that have artwork as beautiful as yours only update twice a week. This comic is so special, I think you could set your update schedule to be whatever you wanted as long as you were consistent. At this point, to be true with the “three times a week” statement above, you would need to post three comics by Sunday, which obviously is a very unreasonable constraint on your time. This way, if you have the time to do an extra comic (perhaps the kids go on a play date), you can post it and everyone will cheer and drown you in the praise that you deserve rather than grumbling.
I apologize for butting in like everyone else does. Best of luck, Rene. You are a wonderful artist, a wonderful storyteller, and you appear (from this end) to be a wonderful mother.
As an aside, I love your diary comics about your family life. Us ‘adults’ like webcomics we can relate to.
July 18th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Addendum: with three pages, I imagine that’s 24-30 hours of work. Goodness! With little ones running around out of school, I salute that accomplishment! (Just don’t commit yourself to that if it makes you crazy and generates hate mail – you deserve better!)
July 18th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
@dahl Look closely at the archives. I haven’t missed a day last week, or the week before that or the week before that. I make sure to use the m-w-f dates (even if I update on a Thursday or Saturday), just so I can see that I have done 3 for that week. I have 2 more to do this week. One which will be finished tonight probably and one for Sunday. I was travelling this week on a mini-holiday to Norway so I am behind. But I have been working on them little by little. I should have them done before Monday.
July 18th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
For everyone who keeps saying she should be able to work on the comic despite having kids to take care of, I agree that it is possible to double-task and sneak in work time when they’re playing with each other and not begging for mommy’s attention. But, and I’m just throwing this out there, Rene mentioned at one point that she couldn’t work on the comic when her kids were awake, and if you think about it, it can’t just be that way because they keep her busy. ALM is a very adult comic and I don’t think anyone would want to expose their kids to that kind of content, and working it when the kids are awake would be risking letting them see that kind of thing. If you worked at a porn shop would you want to take your kid with you to work and let him run around the store? I would hope not.
And on a different note, I’m confused about Lena’s last line. Is she saying ‘we’ll let you know if he did it out of love’ or just ‘we’ll let you know if we accept you’? Or will you let us know next comic? :V
July 18th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
She is ending the interview. “We’ll let you know if we accept you” would be the correct interpretation.
Yeah, people shouldn’t be expecting her to be working x hours each week (even though she is doing what is considered to be half a normal work week). Again she can fix it by not promising 3 comics a week while the kids are out of school. Just curious how many kids do you have?
July 18th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Allen: I have 2 toddlers of my own, and at the moment even 2 step kids that are 10 and 14.
July 18th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I don’t know about you guys, but if I knew Rene was taking away from her kids’ mommy time just to meet our precise demands regarding her update schedule, I’d kinda feel like crap. I don’t think I’d enjoy the comic as much if I knew Rene’s arm was being twisted to finish it while her kids cried for her attention. NO BLOOD FOR WEBCOMICS! etc.