New story! NEW STORY!! Pardon the silence. I’m finally moved into my new place, and back to drawing! Sweet relief. You know I’ll be at Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD this weekend, yeah? Table C9B! Come by and say hi, and grab my Ignatz-nominated DEAD FOREVER book, if you’re into that. See you all there! |
Oh Hannah 🙁
Don't go down the road of the hate-read. That leads only to darkness.
this misdirected anger is way too real for me to handle
The bitterness is strong in this one
Holy shit Hannah. *tsks and shakes head*
Oh come on Hanna don't be like that
Wow, hate-stalking an old friend, Hanna may have officially hit rock bottom
Hannah, I know your world has just been torn apart, but seriously you are being inexcusably awful right now. Grow up.
And Eve is all being the ultra-tolerant non-judgmental Social Support Hero. Who knew?
Hanna is turning into me.
oh god don't do that to yourself Hanna please
…do you need a hug?
I do, but I can't hug. Most of my hugs end up like this: http://www.octopuspie.com/2008-05-07/141-awkward-…
Gives hug. And a fat doobie just in case.
Wow, Hanna is kind of becoming terrible.
I'm confused.
Oh Hannah, for f***s sake. Just stop it.
WHAT? The Computer is telling me to comment, yes yes I shall
Ooh, angry facebooking, SO RELATABLE!
I thought exactly the same thing.
Hanna’s irritation with marigold is borderline obsessive now. I’ve seen people who hate the fake passionately, but this seems excessive even for a grieving Hanna. Maybe there’s some troubling history as-yet unknown?
I went back through and re-read the Marigold's breakup chapter. What struck me (esp in comparison to Hanna's) is that Marigold states that she doesn't like herself and she wants to change. I think that's a vast contrast to Hanna, who had everything she ever wanted and now it's all crumbled into pieces. She looks at Mar as someone who has gone through and become happy with who she now is, and Hanna looks at herself and sees that she already was happy with herself. And now, everything's gone.
You've brought another level of understanding to this. Thanks.
Are you talking about this one?
http://www.octopuspie.com/2010-11-22/416-cut-it/
Because I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be the conversation between Will and Eve in this comic.
http://www.octopuspie.com/2010-09-29/401-karaoke/
Nah, that's pretty clearly a conversation Marigold had with Will, probably online (classy move, Will).
oh HANNA
She should just delete her account already.
This is what I imagine people who whine about Facebook on Facebook do; "It's awful" etc etc etc, I suspect most of them are doing this & assume that everyone else is too.
Hanna…i really hope she's going to get somebody to have a good talk with, Will maybe?
Also, is Eve going on another date with him? I'm curious how they've been doing…
WOW, someone is projecting just a little
Calling it now, Marek and Marigold are going to get together.
Noooooooo.
I've thought about that too, because they both really want kids.
ohhhh that sounds possible
Oooooh, I just got shivers thinking of that.
OH WHAT. CANNOT UNSEE
hannah's reaction would be terrifying, please don't
I don't know if Marek would.. at least, I wouldn't want him to D:
I can see it now: Marikold.
The #1 factor in a successful relationship is a good compound first name.
I had to come back a day later, on a real computer as opposed to my phone, where I can see the score and the buttons, SPECIFICALLY so I could thumbs this up
NOOOOOOO
I bet Hanna would love to watch a movie; too bad she's too busy PROJECTING.
That's not healthy. Not one bit healthy.
Still clicks Like.
Hannah! </3
Mar bear is owning it.
Eve is becoming a Jedi Master
It's crazy how Hanna has become so bitter while Eve has become so… happy?
Kind of worried about Hanna's relationship with her friends though. This bitterness is not going to keep them around
Oh no. Hanna has become Eve from the beginning of the comic!
I think Eve's getting to be in a healthy-enough place where she'll stick with Hanna for a while. I think she knows that this is just a rough patch, and isn't so bad of a friend that she'd just bail. Other then that though, you're right, I can't see any of the others (…ARE there others at this point?) sticking around.
Can't you see I'm trying to have angrytimes?
hanna always seems to meddle in everyone's life to make them happier, whether they want her to or not. interesting now that marigold seems to possibly be happier that hanna cannot stand her. i wonder if it's because mar found her own path to happiness and didn't need hanna to pick up all her pieces this time (although she and even tried when she and will split, but that was a while ago)? or maybe hanna is upset that mar doesn't seem to put forth the same amount of effort to help her out then she does her. it will be interesting to see this unfold.
Wait, what? You moved? Will you… will you draw this new place?? Squeeee!
It's official. Hannah is the fucking worst.
I wonder if Hanna is just upset that Mar is doing something with her life, post-breakup, unlike Hanna. Marigold's whole problem when she broke up with Will was that she didn't like who she was anymore, and set out to change it. She went through the bad times, and came out of it. If I was Hanna, I'd be bitter, too; Mar and Will didn't date for that long, and despite being a crappy breakup, Mar's turned herself into someone that Hanna barely recognizes. Hanna, who has been in a beautiful, loving relationship that's now gone, can't stand the people who have persevered through the shitty parts because, in her mind, it WON'T get better, and she likes how everything was before. I've said it before and I'll say it again, poor Hanna. I feel so much for her.
That wasn't Marigold who wanted to change, it was Will, talking to Eve, but overlaid over panels of Marigold. At least, that's the general consensus about the somewhat confusing dialogue in this strip: http://www.octopuspie.com/2010-11-22/416-cut-it/
Even so, it was Marigold who cut her hair, and Marigold who has changed her life. It's Marigold who is happy where she is now. Literally nothing in Will's life has changed.
He and Eve are making the beast with two backs and he is thinking of quitting the whole Jimmy Johns of drug gig.
Now that's super interesting. Will wanted to change, but was looking for some kind of outside motivator. Without it, he's barely changed anything since. Marigold crashed for a few days, then got her hair cut and began a long steady process of doing new things and moving on. A study in the differences between those who talk about what they want and those who act on it. I wonder if that was an intentional thing Meredith had planned all the way back then, or if it just grew organically.
Bad self-portaits of a lonely woman.
Wow, I hate to say it but I've totally been Hanna in certain situations before. Where I was so irritated with someone that EVERYTHING they do is the WORST (all caps of course) and I felt like they deserve eternal bitterness and hatred especially since everyone else didn't SEE HOW AWFUL THEY ARE.
The angry will burn off eventually. The sad is more worrisome.
Oh man, I feel you.
Haha oh no Hanna, I'm sorry, she will take all these artsy and hip and cool photos, and in them Meredith will look happy. How dare she Hanna, how dare she get a camera and bask in taking pictures of making her life look fun and happy, oh no. Your facebook feed will be filled with photos of her smiling face and all her other friends with artsy into-the-sun shots. ILU Hanna. Listen to Eve. Cuddles and love.
I can kind of relate to how Hannah feels – when you know somebody that used to be a complete mess, who always turned to you for help and who couldn't seem to get their act together without you, or even somebody who used to act differently before a major change in their life, i can totally relate to the whole "this isn't the real you, you're just faking" schtick… not proud of it but hey.
Hannah has become Eve and Eve has become Hannah!! o.o Am I the only one who has noticed this!
No, it's worse then that. Eve at her worst was never this obsessively spiteful. Her's was more the bile that explodes on everything nearby. Hanna has focused.
Except grumpy Eve was never like this, even at her worst 🙁
Sad, bitter Hannah is breaking my heart 🙁
Man, Hanna. Get your shit together.
It's sad, really. I relate to Hanna too, but also know how toxic the situation is. She's not angry at Marigold, she's angry that Marigold is /happy/ while she's not.
During her breakup with Marek, Hanna made itclear that she pitied Mar and thought she needed Hanna. I think her bitterness is partially jealously, and partiality sadness that what she liked about her past (being the happy one in a great relationship and getting to help other less fortunate friends) is gone. This takes Hanna to a very dark place, because it implies that she uses her friends (or at least Mar) to help herself feel like the strong rescuer, and when she’s not needed, she falls apart. I see a big opportunity for growth for Hanna if she can recognize and change her relational dynamics.
This. Totally, yes. I can't wait 'til Hanna comes out of this, stronger… eventually.
Also, I just realized that the very thing that made marigold pitiable and pathetic (her neediness) was the very thing that Hanna enjoyed about their friendship, and now that Mar has become more independent, Hanna can’t stand it. It’s like the very quality that causes Hanna to criticize Mar also causes her to want to be her friend. Mar you’reddammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.
Hannah's problems at this point are obvious, but to read the comments here, you'd think Marigold hadn't lost lost anything important in her transition from questing hippie to happy yuppie (not saying she's all the way there or can't go back, but that's the direction in which she's gone), and that Hannah doesn't have any legitimate reason at all to be angry with her. I don't think that's the strip's position.
(Maybe some of the commenters too close to Marigold-as-she-is-now.)
WOw does anyone else think that Eve and Hanna have kind of switched places since the beginning of the comic? Eve was sitting around all grumpy and Hanna was telling her to get a life and being all excited. hmmmmmm.
Aww, Eve is such a good friend. And I can totally get Hanna in this; she's so depressed and confused about life, which is basically the entirety of my twenties in a nutshell…Is it weird that I'm glad that a fictional character is there for another fictional character? I need more coffee.
In the apartment confrontation at the beginning of the last chapter. The people Will said were living a fake, safe life looked a lot like the people his girlfriend was hanging around with when they were on the phone.
Like he sees that fate in his life in both his work and relationship and he is rejecting it. Quitting his job, looking for a new relationship.
I wish I didn't, but I can weirdly relate to Hanna here. When a friend constantly turns to you for guidance and then "finds" him/herself, no longer needing your guidance, it's kind of a shock that can lead to bitterness. Losing that false "power-trip" is a shock for many reasons: that your dynamic isn't the same, that you realize you even HAD power in the first place and now you don't have it any more.
[One friend "found" herself via boyfriend, and I don't see her nearly as often. I don't want to sound bitter and tell her that you can't "find" yourself via other people – so I'm letting it be]. Hanna girl, as someone who's been there, try to be happy for Mar! It's hard but she's improving herself [and not via boyfriend!]. It's a good thing. Ride out the change.
[Okay, now I'm advising a fictional character.. sigh.. Meredith makes them so real!]
"She thinks her constant cycle of misery is an upward slope"
Eve (thinking): please don't be talking about me :'(