Topic: WCT July 6-July 10 2009 (Read 113929 times)

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #50 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 00:22 »

Whoa, bad news. This is bigger than the Metaphysics Conflict and the Bear Conflict. And it confirms my worries that Pennelope rushed in without knowing Wil well enough.

akronnick · « **Reply #51 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 00:28 »

That sound Penelope's hearing is the sound of the other shoe hitting the floor.

ysth · « **Reply #52 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 00:31 »

Wow, lighten up on him. He's a poet, and deserves patrons, be they parents, girlfriends, or whomsoever.

Jimor · « **Reply #53 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 00:34 »

Adapting an old joke. Q: what do you call a poet without a girlfriend?

A: Homeless.

Llewellian · « **Reply #54 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 00:37 »

Holy Geezus in the cornfield... how i can feel for Penn. I know exactly how she must feel now.

Its hard when you put down the pink glasses and find out that your partner is lazy, unemployed and freshly evicted from "from Hotel Mama"... at 28.... and now wants to live with you...

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #55 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 00:41 »

I wonder if Pennelope's previous boy problems also came from jumping in without looking. She's so level-headed about other things, though.

0kamisama · « **Reply #56 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 00:48 »

Ah, looks like the Penelope/Wil 'shipping boat has sailed...

I think Pen's best move would be to let him go and give him some incentive to get a job, place of his own and wise up.

BarGamer · « **Reply #57 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 00:50 »

Penelope should've checked FreeCreditReport.com...

Shok Xone Studios · « **Reply #58 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 01:10 »

Pen-Pen might just have the best underwear shot since Odette Yustman.

Ten imaginary bucks says somebody's making an animated gif of her series of expressions from "content lover" to "HOLY JEBUS YOU MUST BE JOKING".

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #59 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 01:19 »

Wil said before he left that he realized he wasn't the man she deserved (can't find the comic (edit: it's 1310), so that isn't the exact wording)

What if that insight sinks in and he figures out that a real relationship will require him to run a real life?

That would be a big change, but Jeph does let his characters grow and develop.

Mr_Rose · « **Reply #60 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 01:50 »

Penne-lope needs to take her glasses off again. She's much less uptight without them.

westrim · « **Reply #61 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 02:01 »

Sweet Jesus, Penelope needs to lighten up. First the blow up over philosophical differences and now this. He's a poet; what, did she think he lived in a Manhattan apartment (presumably with a portal into a nearby alley)? As a dude in his situation (hey, you get out of high school straight into the economy blowing up last year and find a job that covers rent in SoCal and college expenses), her reaction really pisses me off. Jeph, wrap this up quickly and cleanly please. Shit.

Spoom · « **Reply #62 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 02:06 »

I can understand the blowup. What happens next is the interesting thing. I don't think she should just drop him but instead should push him to get a life, and see how far he's willing to go with that.

I think this is it for them though.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #63 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 02:16 »

He's honest. That's a start. A people-user would have fed her some line about his apartment getting trashed by a tenant, or some other tale of woe to push her into taking him under her wing. He gave her the straight story even though it was humiliating.

akronnick · « **Reply #64 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 02:42 »

Motherfucker needs to get a damn job, and sojourning across the country for six months (give or take) was probably not a good idea.

Wil and Penelope need each other though, she needs his whimsy and he needs her grounding in reality.

Oooh, I got it, maybe Faye will sell a sculpture for big bucks and she can quit CoD and he can have her job, or Marten will take Deathmole full time and he can work at the Library!!!

Manix · « **Reply #65 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 02:56 »

I can understand that Penelope is upset, but really girl!! This comic pretty much puts both characters involved in a very negative light. Yes, Wil is a poet, and, thus, a job-less loser, but Penelope, as she did during the philosophical debate, goes to the very extreme is denouncing this.

Penelope is, sadly, my least favorite character in this comic. Yes. she's "grounded in reality" but she's also a hysterically judgemental shrew whose ego, in large parts, demands she always be right, ALWAYS! I admit I haven't always liked how Jeph would sometimes "put a character on a bus" but if he did it to Penelope, I wouldn't mind. Sadly, from what Penelope has said about her parents, she's pretty much identical to them in temperament, and personality, just different outlooks. She's probably going to drive whatever children she has to the church someday (rebellion, you know?)

wargrafix · « **Reply #66 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 04:02 »

lol, damnnnnnn and the is the START of the week. Funny situations on the horizon.

So when will the Harigold shippers start coming out of the woodwork? you know they out there

Border Reiver · « **Reply #67 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 04:31 »

Where have you been? Those sad and twisted folks have been out for a couple of weeks now.

Hopefully, Wil's got an idea for a job that he can do so that he can support himself. If not he's likely out on the street looking up to the guy with the yellophone.

And if he's looking for a job, I understand he could get a signing bonus for enlisting.

Siibillam-Law · « **Reply #68 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 04:38 »

I never got how people can stay at home for that long. I got out the second uni started

Granted, as I'm typing this, I'm actually at home, for summer...

pwhodges · « **Reply #69 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 04:50 »

Quote from: Siibillam-Law on 07 Jul 2009, 04:38

I never got how people can stay at home for that long.

I have a friend just a couple of years younger than me, with a pretty top position in another university, who has never left home. He also has his own house - a weekend cottage, but he takes his mum when he goes there.

OK, he's a bit weird, but not totally...

Border Reiver · « **Reply #70 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 06:02 »

don't know myself - finished high school at 18, left for the summer to work with the Reserves, went to university in September, and then alternated between school and the Reserves for the next 4 years. Then I graduated and stayed in Ottawa to work. I lived at my Aunt's house for two months while I looked for an apartment after my UN tour, but that was the longest period since high school that I lived under a roof that I wasn't paying for....

satsugaikaze · « **Reply #71 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 06:25 »

Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 07 Jul 2009, 02:16

He's honest. That's a start. A people-user would have fed her some line about his apartment getting trashed by a tenant, or some other tale of woe to push her into taking him under her wing. He gave her the straight story even though it was humiliating.

Also maybe because Wil sucks at lying to people?

It's a possibility that someone who likes being that honest also sucks at being dishonest.

innermoppet · « **Reply #72 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 06:38 »

It's my understanding that Will is a college student. I recall him eating lunch in a cafeteria with Sven... wait is Sven a college student too? Huh... Anyway, I'm assuming he's a college student who lived at home and perhaps went to school full time. I don't see that as being a big loser. Money wise, many students are staying home even into their late twenties because it's just too damn expensive to leave. We don't know what his family financial situation is or anything. Maybe they are dirt poor.

Wow Pen Pen's a judgmental beyotch isn't she? She jumped into bed with someone she knows absolutely NOTHING about and then she's mean to him when she discovers who he is. How is it possible that she went on at least one date with this guy and knew nothing at all about his work or his home life? Those are the kind of questions someone with SENSE would ask on a first date. One cannot live on books alone. Some street smarts wouldn't hurt Pen-Pen.

Ghanima Atreides · « **Reply #73 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 07:05 »

Sven is definitely no college student, he is Dora's older brother which puts him in his late 20s, plus it was mentioned in several comics that he has been in college. I daresay Wil is somewhere there too, age-wise. In fact, he looks older than most of the cast, and college students don't just leave for 6 months or so to go traipsing across country.

Superkid11 · « **Reply #74 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 07:10 »

Ok I admit at first I thought Penny was being elitist again(What? In this economy it kind of makes sense to live with your parents for longer than usual if everything's cool...) ... but then Wil looks like he's near his 30s. Maybe Penny is a little more justified in having a shocked reaction. :p

Bobthemagiccow · « **Reply #75 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 07:13 »

I'm feeling pretty sympathetic to Penelope here. I wouldn't take in a homeless lover either, I'd tell them to get their shit together and withhold nookie until they do. Come on, Pen-Pen, light a fire under that guy's ass. Poets don't support themselves with poetry - Wil needs a day job. Although it would be pretty hilarious to see him try to join the avant-garday buskers: http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1064

Ghanima Atreides · « **Reply #76 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 07:16 »

Frankly, I think they're both wrong here. First, Penny got herself blinded by the idea of romance with a soulful, artistic guy who wrote her naughty poems and went on self-discovering journeys and didn't stop to think (or ask) about his real life, outside books and ideals, and get to know the real guy. Secondly, Wil, with no job and place of his own, just evicted from his parents' house, didn't exactly do the smartest thing by going off into the wild and spending all his reserves, then coming back to a girlfriend he doesn't even know and asking if he can move in.

Those two moving in together, at this time and under these circumstances would most likely be a disaster. Granted, Penny doesn't know the details regarding Wil's situation and she could have asked first before calling him a complete loser, but yeah, they need to come down from the clouds, both of them.

maddness · « **Reply #77 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 07:16 »

Wow. Penelope is a bitch. I mean, seriously? One minute she loves the guy and the next she's calling him a "total fucking loser" because he's currently jobless and living with his parents. I fully agree that Wil needs to get his shit together, but her attitude about it is just unnecessarily nasty and harsh. She didn't even find out any details before she went straight to thinking he was a shiftless, lazy bastard. For all she knows he's just currently between jobs and had to move back in with his parents. Granted, the odds are he's just never had to work and he's been living off his parents until now. Honestly, though, when someone is approaching 30 and has always lived at home without working it's as much the parents fault as it is the "kids".

Man, I lived with my mom til I was 21 ... probably would have lived there a few years longer if I hadn't picked up and moved in with The Man. I was working, making $8/hour, and there was no way I could afford to live on my own where the cheapest rent you could find was $700/month in questionable areas. Shoot, before that I was working labor temp making about $23/day! With my sadly lacking social skills the odds of hooking up with a rent share situation were minimal. I was talking to this one co-worker about possibly going in on a place together, she also lived with her parents, but she quit when someone was promoted over her and that was that.

Sometimes getting/keeping your own place isn't easy. If Penelope were me, she'd give him a couple of months to find a job and kick in for rent or find another place to live.

LunchBagArt · « **Reply #78 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 08:15 »

She can do better.

Alus · « **Reply #79 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 08:23 »

Quote from: LunchBagArt on 07 Jul 2009, 08:15

She can do better.

totally

Juniper Jade · « **Reply #80 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 09:01 »

I hate to say it but the first thing I said after reading he comic... "What a bitch." I can understand still living with your parent's is a little weird for someone Wil's age and could even be a relationship break but she can lighten up a bit and not act like such a well... bitch.

Natasha · « **Reply #81 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 10:25 »

Yeah, seriously. Total bitch.

Delirium · « **Reply #82 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 11:11 »

If the situation were reversed, would you be saying Wil can do better than Penny?

LTK · « **Reply #83 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 12:12 »

Looks like Penny finally fell off her pink cloud. We could have seen this coming, Wil and Penny were just too perfect of a couple like that. I'm guessing Jeph also thought that Wil was getting too likeable and made this to drag him down.

littlefox · « **Reply #84 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 12:13 »

It's one thing to live with your parents. It's another thing to be unemployed. It's another thing still to be unemployed and going off on cross-country trips, spending what little savings you have on frivolity. (I'm sorry, there just isn't a justification for doing that. "Finding yourself" is all well and good. But "finding yourself AND a job" = better.)

Penny is well within her rights to freak out. If it were me, I'd tell this guy he's got a couple months to shape up his life, and THEN maybe he can move in. He should be begging his dad for forgiveness and a room until he manages to get a job, and then start paying either his Dad rent, or, if he's lucky, he will have proven to Penny by then that he means business and he can start paying part of HER rent and living there with her.

It's ... actually pretty inappropriate to ask a brand new girlfriend to allow you to crash there completely for free. I really don't see how Penny is a bitch, just because she's suddenly been put in a situation where she's expected to take full responsibility for Wil in a financial sense. Since she doesn't know him very well (and we, as readers, don't know him very well), she doesn't know how motivated he is as a person to get a job and save money responsibly. Based on his recent behavior, he certainly does not look like the motivated type.

Apparently Penny is very careful with her money since she appears to live in a nice apartment entirely by herself, and all she does is work at a coffee shop. That would take some very fastidious financial management to pull off, unless Coffee of Doom pays ... unusually well for a coffee shop. If Wil doesn't approach his finances similarly, then that's going to cause problems later. I do think they can work it out, I just think Wil needs to shape up first and prove to Penny that he is worth it and NOT a lazy freeloader. If he works hard, he'll be able to show her this and earn her trust, and this fight can be left well behind them and laughed about later on. "Remember when you were a beatnik poet with no savings to speak of?" "Ha, yeah, but now I work at Whatever Library and I'm published in the New Yorker. Ohhh, those terrible days of my unpublished, impoverished whimsy! Thank goodness they are far behind."

snubnose · « **Reply #85 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 12:15 »

Hehe.

It should be outlawed

that your girlfriend starts complaining about your faults and shortcomings while running around in underpants.

Come on, she is just totally unfair !

How is one supposed to think straight when she's that sexy ?

themacnut · « **Reply #86 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 12:34 »

Sorry people, but women generally like their boyfriends gainfully employed. Even the ones who don't care at first generally get sick of it if their man remains unemployed. Wil better find himself a steady source of income quick.

MrMonk · « **Reply #87 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 12:37 »

Quote from: Juniper Jade on 07 Jul 2009, 09:01

... she can lighten up a bit ...

No, she can't. One of the earliest things that we learned about Penny is that she's very judgmental and, in her mind, unquestionably right.

Juniper Jade · « **Reply #88 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 13:00 »

Quote from: MrMonk on 07 Jul 2009, 12:37

Quote from: Juniper Jade on 07 Jul 2009, 09:01
... she can lighten up a bit ...

No, she can't. One of the earliest things that we learned about Penny is that she's very judgmental and, in her mind, unquestionably right.

Exactly, it's a fault of her that she needs to overcome, hence me saying she needs to lighten up.

JackFaerie · « **Reply #89 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 13:22 »

Quote from: westrim on 07 Jul 2009, 02:01

As a dude in his situation (hey, you get out of high school straight into the economy blowing up last year and find a job that covers rent in SoCal and college expenses), her reaction really pisses me off. Jeph, wrap this up quickly and cleanly please. Shit.

Uh, dude, you're just out of HIGH SCHOOL and trying to find a job that covers college. Wil is a COLLEGE GRAD in his LATE 20s without a job, living with his parents, and blowing all his money on cross country trips. Bit of a difference here. If you're still jobless and living at home 8 years down the road, THEN you'll be in his situation.

That said, it was pretty obvious that this was Wil's situation earlier anyway... Penny wasn't paying attention.

Sebastian · « **Reply #90 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 14:03 »

My guess is that Sven is going to have a roommate soon.

LeeC · « **Reply #91 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 14:46 »

Quote from: snubnose on 07 Jul 2009, 12:15

Hehe.

It should be outlawed that your girlfriend starts complaining about your faults and shortcomings while running around in underpants.

Come on, she is just totally unfair ! How is one supposed to think straight when she's that sexy ?

I think it should actually be required for your girl to be in her underpants if she is going to yell at you.

yeah sure you get a good tongue lashing but hey shes nearly naked.

I lived with my parents till I was 22, then I found a place to live. I went to community college paying out of pocket working at best buy, paying rent, car insurance, classes, gas, books with my own money as a geek squad tech (fyi we get paid shit! $10/hour at best! again at best!) After graduating from community college with an associate degree at 21 I got a job in DC paying 40k a year, met some cool people and moved in with them. Now I am quitting my job, moving to the university of MD were I plan to go full time. Life is crazy.

As for Will's situation we really dont know how he ended up there but I agree him going on a journey with his last bit of money while unemployed and homeless has got to be one of the dumbest things a dude can do. PenPen has issues of her own too with elites tendencies and very judgmental. I think in the next couple of strips either we will find out more about how Wil got to where he is now or PenPen going to Dora and chatting with her.

I must admit thought I thought exactly what PenPen said before I read her chat bubble after Wil revealed he was homeless and broke. But I feel sorry for Will as he has open and honest with her and she explodes at him. She is starting to fit the crazy girlfriend bill.

Jeff7 · « **Reply #92 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 15:01 »

And social status rears its ugly head once again........mmmm, panel 1.

What?

Aegir · « **Reply #93 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 15:35 »

Kerouac (or at least in character in On the Road) was a writer who didn't have any money and lived with his aunt. Of course, he also tried making money during his journey across the country.

SleeperCylon · « **Reply #94 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 16:07 »

Now Penelope is going to act as if she didn't know very well Wil was a loser and play along with his fantasy, isn't she?

Oh Pen.

Pseudowolf · « **Reply #95 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 16:33 »

Well, gee, Penelope. If you're going to be like that, perhaps you should get to know something about a guy before you jump into bed with him.

I'm not saying she shouldn't have standards. I'm just saying that she lost all right to go from lovey-dovey to "total fucking loser" in 3 seconds flat when she's the one who dragged him off for hot sexings the moment he returned.

Men aren't the only ones who sometimes let their little head do the thinking.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #96 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 18:03 »

Jeph said once that CoD pays enough to live on, but just barely. So there's good support for the idea that Pen-Pen is a careful financial manager.

Another thing that Jeph said is that every time he's written an argument, there's been fault on both sides. Which raises the question of why I and the rest of us are so eager to take sides in an argument that's none of our business between non-existent people. My wife suggests that the butting-in impulse is related to curiosity.

My wife's entry into the list of reasons there is fault on Penny's side is that she considers it a character flaw to fall for guys like Wil in the first place.

Anyone notice that Jeph pulled off a subtlety? I don't think we've seen Pennelope use any language stronger than "jackass" on camera, and as for her off-camera behavior we've heard Faye say "you barely cuss"(#771). So Jeph was telling us something important, very economically, when she called Wil a "total fucking loser".

maddness · « **Reply #97 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 18:04 »

Quote from: littlefox on 07 Jul 2009, 12:13

I really don't see how Penny is a bitch, just because she's suddenly been put in a situation where she's expected to take full responsibility for Wil in a financial sense.

She's not expected to do anything. Not wanting her new guy to live off her isn't what makes her the bitch in this situation. What makes her a bitch is calling him a "total fucking loser" especially with that expression on her face.

bicostp · « **Reply #98 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 18:10 »

The question is, is he "still" living with his parents, or is he living with them "again"? Who knows, maybe he lost his job and didn't have enough savings to last until he got another.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #99 on:** 07 Jul 2009, 18:28 »

Quote from: maddness on 07 Jul 2009, 07:16

... her attitude about it is just unnecessarily nasty and harsh.

This behavior is a hint about her background. She's acting like someone from a family where prosperity couldn't be depended on and there was constant danger of being sucked into the poverty trap.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: WCT July 6-July 10 2009 (Read 113929 times)

westrim