Freddie Femur's a Loser! #39 *SPOILERS*

[Darth Fett]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="comic sans ms, jester, Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pokey Girl:
maybe I'm being a grump, but why do I have a subscription if SIP hits the stands before it hits my mailbox?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Because the Subscription copies are not drop shipped by the printer. They are copies sold directly by Absract Studios, and they get theirs about the saame time the distributors do(Friday or Saturday before the newsstand date, which is always a Wednesday). Then, Terry, Robin, and/or any one else they have help them, get them ready to go, by hand I presume, and then mail them. I imagine they mail them bulk or book rate, certainly not 1st class, so they usually show up a week to week and a half after it hits the stands(from what I read here from others who subscribe...) A subscription is really just a convienience for those who don't like to trawl the comic shop(if that's the only book they buy) or the local shop for some reason won't order the book(yes, there are places in the US where carrying a book with alternative lifestyle characters could get you shut down... )

Darth

[Pokey Girl]

*sigh* thanks for the info. Unfortunately, this is what I get for living in NYC. it's a trade-off, I suppose. I can hold my gf's hand in public, but I gotta wait for SIP. I think I'll go misdirect a tourist to work out my disappointment. !!!

[Jaxom 27]

Oz...Oz...Oz...you missed the boat, man. This was one of Terry's most BRILLIANT issues to date.

I'm a huge fan of everything Terry's done so far. I've defended the so-called "mob stories" because I see the point of them and because Terry still does them oh so well.

But now, Terry goes and turns another corner so quickly with a story that shows us that he's not going anywhere for quite some time. That he has a great deal more to do with his charcters.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all of the charcters that Terry paid homage to were charcaters who weren't just popular, but who's exploits were just as much about their flights of fancy? Dreamers who's imagination always tried (and usually did) make themselves into the good guys? Calvin and Hobbes. Snoopy. Pogo. And naming Freddie's imaginary rabbit friend in the Calvin and Hobbes scene, Harvey? BEYOND hilarious and brilliant.

And you know what?
I STILL didn't feel anything for Freddie. In point of fact, Terry made me feel LESS sympathetic for Freddie with his actions and his apparent lack of closure with a situation of his own doing...

Now THAT is just MY two cents.

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Ponte facto, Caesar transit.

[Ersby]

I'm just wondering if Terry's cameo wasn't some comment on how he feels after his strips have been rejected x number of times.

[Jadian]

I'm with Jax on this one. I loved the issue, but I still think it serves Freddie right. Yeah, we're all broken and struggling and misunderstood, that STILL doesn't mean we can treat each other like s**t.

What I really appreciated about the issue was the way Terry showed how emotions can take over the entire body, so that one is completely unaware of one's surroundings until brought to earth by a "Are you gonna pay for that?"
I'm assuming the reason why his place was devoid of furniture is because Casey took it all. And he just hasn't bothered to replace any of it.

And I'm STILL rooting for a scene where David and Freddie share a beer. I want to know what the two of them would say to each other, when they were half drunk and defences were down. Except I don't think David drinks. But I could see him dropping by to pick up some of Casey's things, as a favour to Casey, and finding Freddie sloshed and pathetic ("Uh, did I catch you at a bad time?") Cue to conversation of great depth and enteretainment.

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"Be excellent to each other." -Bill & Ted
"Do we need to have the "fantasy/reality" discussion again?" - eris
"Boy if this works,we are going to have a unemployed Pope.... "-hb2

This is the opressor's language yet I need it to talk to you. - A. Rich

[Yazimariel]

now, Pokey, what part of NYC?! I can tell you of at least three different stores in the City that Carry SiP, get it on time, and are always there... Brooklyn, well, I don't usually hang down there, but there's bunch of stores in Brooklyn as well..

I used to get subscription, back when I lived in Mass, and I would usually get them the Friday after the stores got them, so I didn't mind subscription so much. Once I got back to NY, I couldn't wait till Friday's to get them...

Pokey, if you're interested on addresses, e-mail me... but if you're already subscribed for a while, I'll understand..

Now.. when in April is the next issue coming, and WHAT pray tell, will this one be about?I've been re-reading my SiP's, and I know that this is not the 'breakup' that Francie and Kat talk about 10 years down the line cuz, according to F&K, the breakup happened during the summer, not Christmastime..

[John Clark]

Look at Freddie objectively for a second. He dated Francine for a year without sex, so you can't say that he only wanted to bed her and it appeared early on that he really loved her. He just didn't know what the hell to do with the emotions. (Of cource Francine did walk in on him boneing another woman, and as a result he redirected his anger and fired his secretary).
He becaue so obsesed about Francine that he left his bride at the water fall alter to chase her down to beg her to take him back. (That is why I have never felt sorry for Casey, she knew what she was getting into from the start.)
Now we see him today, depresed, a maybe alcholic, who had a tramatic childhood. Maybe he is the way he is because he has never been around anything diffrent. He knows that his life is just one big pile of shit and that it is his falut. Maybe we should pitty and understand him. At least that is what I thought at first, then the SOB actually beat up Terry! Ok, he beat up a street bum who looked the way that Terry sees himself, but still that was just damn cold and mean. Just because we understand why a person is evil and mean does not excuse the fact that they do horrible things. I understand Freddie more, but I like him less after seeing his violent side.

One more thing, I wonder if he recieved visitation rights after the divorce to see his stuff on the weekends at Casey's place. *Heheheehhehe!*

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"Beware the fury of a patient man"-John Dryden


"What does it profit God to take the young, rending the cloth of his blessing undone?"-Griffin Silver
"Nothing is certain but the unforeseen."-fortune cookie.

[Anne860]

Okey dokey folks, I don't know if you're interested, but I'm going to give you my two dollars anyway. (I know it's usually two cents, but I had to adjust for inflation.)

You know what I liked best about this issue? It's how Freddie's fantasies so neatly dovetailed with his state of mind. First we have Freddie as Charlie Brown, the optimistic, but hapless fall guy.

Then we move on to the classroom scene where his dream girl Francine instructs him in the different ways that he is a loser and why he'll never have a chance with her again. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm depressed, I'll often run down a list of reasons why I'm such a screw-up. All though, my personal inventory usually involves an imaginary checklist and neither Britney Spears or Fred Durst have ever shown up, thank god.

Then finally we get to Freddie's Calvin and Hobbes dream. Personally, I thought the whole scene with Casey playing with her dolls was hysterical. It also demonstrates that Freddie Femur might understand women, or at least Casey, better than even he knows.

Not that he let's that get in the way of blaming them for his problems. As usual, Freddie plays the spoiled brat and refuses to take responsbility for any of his actions. Which is also very much like Calvin in the cartoon. It's also very much like Calvin to get overexcited about something, which is just what Freddie does whenever it comes to Francine.

Overall, I thought the whole issue was a cool tribute to some great cartoonists that encapsulated not only their unique styles, but also their unique humor. All this and we get to find out that Freddie is a human being underneath the self important exterior. Cheers Terry. You really did your homework on this one.

About the filler issue, issue: I'm not sure it's a filler issue, really. I think it's more like the High School issues. Showing this side of Freddie serves as background for the action that will take place in the larger storyline, I think.

Even if it is just filler, it's still ten times better than the year-long ongoing plotlines of most comics out there. Good filler is still good comics storytelling. Anyway, I can hardly blame Terry if he wants to do a stand alone issue, considering how much work he's got on his plate.



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Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know Man as he really is. After all, Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Aushwitz. However, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer, or the Shama Yisrael on his lips. -- Viktor E. Frankl, psychologist, founder of Logotherapy, and concentration camp survivor.

"I'm all right the way I am! I don't have to improve! How could I improve? How, I ask you?! How?" -- Lucy Van Pelt, Peanuts Character

[Jaxom 27]

Strangers in Paradise #39 was IN NO WAY a filler issue. To call it that is...well...just plain off. It is, quite obviously, the start of a new story arc and the pick up of plot threads left hanging before the plane crash...

Kudos to Terry for not forgetting them!

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Ponte facto, Caesar transit.

[Christine the bumblebean]

i liked issue #39. it seemed to show some of the conflicts going within freddy's mind while on the edge of a possible nervous breakdown. after this, when he persues francine, i have to admit that i'm still gonna be laughing my booty off, but still... good work, terry!

~christine


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those who hear not the music think the dancers mad
she is like a symphony to me

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