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My brush is failing me lately. I think I'm going to get a new one this weekend. Possibly even a bigger one than I'm used to. This has been a window into my thrilling stream of consciousness.
Oh, and I've been working on a new website design, so don't be alarmed if things change soon. They won't change that much. Really.
56 thoughts on “#295 – a rebel”
Wood
It's not "Fist Bump" guy, is it ?
MerchManDan
Who is this "Fist bump guy" and how does everybody else know him? I can't immediately recall him in a previous comic.
Crustimoney Proseedc
He's the guy who interviews Park for a job and when Park goes for a handshake says something like, "Hey, hey. Fist-bumps only in this office."
MerchManDan
Ooooh, THAT guy. I didn't recognize him, for some reason.
Tomfox
Oh Will, you’re such a rebel! Great Comic!!
Elle
Is that the story from "resevoir dogs"?
Nitemare
Sure sounds like it doesn't it? lol I love that movie. It would be an appropriate story methinks.
Randall Drew
Cha-ching!
Allison
Did he throw the business card of the cash away?
gormster
i'd say business card by the look of it. then again, you and your crazy american money, who knows what it looks like?
i feel i should point out that as we have polymer banknotes here in australia, this would do nothing other than make sure someone else has their hand in that fishtank later.
guy
what makes american money crazy? And by the way our money is made of a special paper that doesn't deteriorate in water, so if he did throw in the money then someone would in fact fish it out later, even though it's not "polymer."
Nick
I think the main wierd thing about american money is at a glance you can't tell how much a note is worth. They're all the same size and colour.
Elle
You get to recognize the faces real fast, but if someone gives you a roll of twenties, you can have a safe bet there are a few ones in there, so it's a problem if your business operates in cash.
oh and U.S. currency doesn't disintegrate in water-or else I'd have lost a lot of money in the laundry.
Sarah
Actually, American money is now different colors and all of them are labeled in the top corners the amount they are worth. How is that difficult? And we don't have to worry about anything bigger than $100 bill… I couldn't stand the 5000 yen I had to carry around in Japan. Just stupid to have such high amounts.
Tyberius
Not compared to the Australian commenter, though. Ours is usually just green or mostly green with lots of other colors, whereas Australian money is brightly and differently colored and designed for each dollar denomination.
Camui
Actually 5000 yen is about $50-$60 right now.
Carvin
It's not all that 'special'. It's just cotton based, not wood pulp. It actually quite similar to those really cheap napkins that are getting popular these days. A lot of paper has at least some cotton content in them.
Allison
*or, not of
Daryl
Gotta love a guy who has to act like someone he's not to do his job. And hope going to a bigger brush works out for you… I know I couldn't do it, so good luck!
Javer
. . . Well, that was kind of a dick move. On the other hand, maybe it just seems that way because he's so good at sounding genuine. Which is even less comforting.
Ron
I'm in the wrong business…
Ertwin
looks like the buisness card Allison.
Also I don't think Will is adverse to recieveing large amounts of money, I get the impresion he just doesn't like the guy
Anon_The_Third
I really, really want to hear the story Will is telling in the first panel.
MerchManDan
Seconded.
Farley
Methinks this is exploring Will's past and potential future.
Also, it is fist bump guy! What a douche.
whatwith
Haha, panel four. I dunno, everyone, I kind of like fist bump guy. I feel sorry for him.
Scott
This is just filled with so much badass. I'm not sure if I can handle it
Crustimoney Proseedc
It's kind of inconsiderate of Will to be nice to someone and take his card and then throw it away somewhere he knows the man will find it. All he had to do was take it outside the building and then throw it in a public trash can, It's like a real full-on insult to the guy.
Tom
Actually that is a paper-eating fish; the office bought it as apart of a "going green" initiative, figuring they would also save money on shredders. Will is helping the environment!
Mike Leung
Will holds the guy's rebellion hostage. And Will didn't ask for that leverage.
This is yet more of the theme of the inherent banality of progress rearing its head into the storyline, if not the strip itself. In this case, the guy abandoned his youthful resolve to be authentic, because he figured he could instead devote his life to making money, then buy back authenticity. (This plays out in real life with the outrageous prices wealthy businessmen paid for conceptual art starting 20 or 30 years ago.) With the Grey Gardens episode, the dysfunctions of the Edies' lifestyles was enabled (like any addiction, but in this case) by their upperclass privilege (implicit from the documentary reference).
Jeff
"…the guy abandoned his youthful resolve to be authentic, because he figured he could instead devote his life to making money…"
How is that any different from what Will is doing?
Mike Leung
From the account of the guy himself, and probably Will. Will played no rebel-card.
To what hypocrisy do you refer?
Mike Leung
"…the guy abandoned his youthful resolve to be authentic, because he figured he could instead devote his life to making money, then buy back authenticity.”
"How is that any different from what Will is doing?"
The difference lies in the end of my sentence you felt free to leave out when you quoted me.
Jeff
Apologies – I did not realize that your thoughts were crafted with such Hemingwayesque conciseness. I will endeavor to quote you in your entirety from this point on.
However, in my defense, I was merely trying to point out that at least in regards to their willingness to adopt convenient personas for purposes of monetary gain, there does not seem to be much daylight between "fist-bump" dude and Will.
And to be fair to the character – Will does seem to be at least peripherially aware of the venal nature of his worklife. He warns Marigold that what he does isn't romantic or altruistic. Hell, he even apparently has a couple moments of significant internal debate before deciding *not* to offer to try pot to a very young kid. He's clearly not the Robin Hood that some seem to be making him out to be – just another businessman looking to make a living.
Mike Leung
"Apologies – I did not realize that your thoughts were crafted with such Hemingwayesque conciseness. I will endeavor to quote you in your entirety from this point on."
So it's -my- fault you changed the meaning of my sentence by refusing to quote it to the period.
You should stop projecting your damage onto other people. That isn't my imposition on you, but your imposition on me.
Mike Leung
"However, in my defense, I was merely trying to point out that at least in regards to their willingness to adopt convenient personas for purposes of monetary gain, there does not seem to be much daylight between “fist-bump” dude and Will."
And to be fair to the character – Will does seem to be at least peripherially aware of the venal nature of his worklife."
To paraphrase 20-year-old lessons from TV's ThirtySomething, no one is in the business of authenticity. But from how we do business authenticity may emerge.
From fist-bump-dude's own account, the difference in authenticity between him and Will is there. And the major clue why this discrepancy is is because fist-bump-dude thinks he can buy authenticity. He and you seem to have missed out on the major lesson of the 20th century, which is that you cannot have your cake and eat it, too. The contrast to experience is "keeping score," and the contrast to "keeping score" is experience.
Crustimoney Proseedc
The bottom line for me is this: the last three panels very neatly show that Will is prepared to accept a gift of money from the man, but not the man's friendship; he shams being his friend until he has received a very large wad of cash. If such duplicity were not bad enough, he then abandons the business card where its owner is bound to find it — setting him up for a crushing humiliation later.
Mike Leung
The gift was offered after Will was already pretending to be the man's friend. Why does the gift morally oblige Will to be honest with him any more than before? Where is your outrage for anyone who stands-by to witness anyone else's denial?
In fact, I'm challenging what seems to be the denial exhibited in the responses to my observations. That makes me the anti-Will for purposes of this discussion. How's my contrast to Will treating you so far?
Hypocrisy takes place when there's an arbitrary selective-application of principle. I don't see that going on with Will.
Jess Fink
It is going to look like an Italian Disco when I come back in here isn't it?
David Ma
An Italian Disco?
ps, Chester 5000 is wonderful =0
[
The nature of Will's career is starting to disturb me. It makes me wonder how he can live with himself, putting on so many false personas just to sell pot.
ladymercury
He may be Weed Man but he has principles. You rock, Will!
David Waltergart
Anyone who says "I was just like you" is being an upper class a**hole. He's got his money, why would he want more from this twerp?
It's like a bartender – does a bartender want to hangout with all the customers? NOOOOOOOoooo.
My cat has just remembered the pigeons on the window ledge. Good times for kitten. Thankfully, there's glass!
C. Augusto Vald&eacu
The timing makes it feel as if he flicked the extracash, That gave me the impression Will doesn't want to take his girlout for something "unpronounceable", but to close examination (and reading the comments) it seems he flicked the card.
Is that the best distribution of the last three panels? Switching the penultimate and the one before it might do the trick but then again it mightn't…
Keep up the good work!
seann
the sad thing is, Will really is into rock climbing isnt he? (rocks anyway) What this episode really has me examining is how Eve would handle seeing will at work. I think she would be suprised, then enraged, and then depressed, wheras Hannah is just charmed.
seann
ugh. excuse me. Not Hanna, Marigold.
Almost Literally
I love the “That’s one of the many illusions we provide” bit.
Omega
I look forward to the website redesign!
Mike Dutton
Go bigger. Series 7 size 3 is awesome…. though the downside is it gets even more expensive to replace. Mine's about to go. :/
Garrett
i love this comic… it is so exciting and smooth… im putting one up my self, entitled Little black cloud Questionaier… if its even interesting to anyone…
its not up yet so dont look for it…
maybe next week…
love this comic… keep going… please…
What
what are you going on about?
"People make him out to be a hero"–as someone who neither uses nor buys nor sells drugs (does aspirin count?) I'm going to be straight with you. I don't think Meredith is trying to make Will into a hero. He's just a guy who has a job–selling pot.
Why do you have to "expose" him? He sells pots. One of his customers was all, "DUDE WE ARE SO ALIKE BECAUSE I WAS YOU WHEN I WAS YOUNG LET'S GO ROCK CLIMBING"
Will HAS to be polite. This is his customer. It's not like he has a choice. He's not a high-end fashion salon. These people aren't coming to him because he's "the best". No. He sells pot & he delivers. Good enough. So yes, you are always polite to the people paying you. Will didn't say, "OMG WE ARE SO ALIKE I <3 ROCK CLIMBING LET'S BE BROS". He just was polite & allowed a self-absorbed, self-interested, person the chance to talk about themselves. The dude gave him $$$ because he wanted to show off his wealth/position & Will took it because he's poor, but he doesn't need to worry about the guy's feelings later.
The business card in the fish tank is artistically interesting & a clear narrative: He's not interested. You aren't supposed to interpret it & nitpick it & the character apart. That's why John Allison closed his message board before 😉 nut cases who take things incredibly serious & got into long, drawn-out debates over if his character is a "good person" or not.
manjy-mayhem
Finally, someone whose argument I both understand and agree with. No offense to the artist, "What" just happened to put your words in a simpler state, I believe.
laurie
Yeah, this is the right way to interpret this comic. This guy is clearly a douchebag and Will doesn't want to hang out with him, he doesn't want to have anything in common with him. He probably doesn't even want to sell him weed anymore. If you really want to analyze this, his throwing the business card in the fish tank means just means he never wants to come back there.
seriously, that guy sucks. just reading "you wanna hit this on the rooftop?" kind of made me feel like shit, because with the right person that's a really nice thing to do, but I would definitely make up an excuse and gtfo. and it also made me wonder if meredith was making fun of people who like to sit on rooftops and go rock climbing and smoke weed. point is, I can really empathize with Will here. he's having some existential trouble at this point. and he probably feels like a douchebag.
danineteen
Was it the business card or the wad of cash that he flicked?!
panos
just wanted to add to everyone else's comments here… the giant wad of cash the guy gave him was actually an insult. he didn't see him as a friend, he was just reinforcing that he was 'better' than him and further along the line in 'success'
panos
…or he was just paying for the pot 🙂 heh