This comic seemed longer in my head before rereading it, winding and flowing like some infinite scroll equivalent of a forest canopy, but it's only 3 pages and 17 panels and some white space. The idea is just big to me.
I was given a Hudson Bay blanket as a wedding present, and it instantly felt like the most valuable object in my home (they retail for a few hundred bucks and can easily be resold, so it might've been true). It was a product of the colossal task of a wedding, and the sizable relief of being done with it all and married. Aside from the price - which is certainly relevant to Mar's life - it is an object of comfort, security and longevity, things unfamiliar but desirable to Jane.
Is it strange and foreboding, is it Crazy Person Shit, to tell someone you love them so soon? The comments from readers were mixed; some were skeptical of Mar's intentions. It's risky for sure, and goes against what we've learned about dating. Why would you admit something like that, knowing how urgently it demands a reaction, from someone who was so recently a stranger? Why would you impose on this poor, unsuspecting almost-stranger to catch you, with no warning you're about to jump? My reasoning is that a much longer story is being told than the one contained in these few days, and given what we know about Mar, this is her moment of truth. For her, there's no other way it could've gone. That Jane accepts and reciprocates is the outcome of her own story, where she drops her most fearful notions and surrenders to the madness. It's the kind of alignment that must be written in the stars, it's just too unlikely to believe. Yet it happens every day, bitch!
20 thoughts on “#844+ – what was I saying”
Cuyler
My boyfriend told me he loved me a week into dating. It was pretty alarming thing to hear with such intensity and certitude so soon. How could he be sure already? But I could already feel that same love growing in me and I decided to go where that instinctual conviction would lead us. It felt both tenuous and like the truest thing in the world. Our six year anniversary is this week!
David
This strip came out the day after a breakup that felt so visceral it somehow pushed me out of body, and I found myself imagining a comic to illustrate the feeling that night. The next day I saw this, and the first fifteen panels were exactly what I'd imagined in reverse; our bodies bonding away where theirs bent towards, love colors where ours were desolation colors, etc. Still one of the most deeply affecting pieces of art I've experienced.
Bleh
oh im so fucking psyched for pro-janexmar fairy eve to finally make her debut next page
joe
Me tooooo! I am giddy in anticipation. I almost feel bad because these last few pages are also increiblé and i dont want to dismiss them. That, and knowing that we're nearing the end all over again. Wahhh, my feelings.
Katherine
My husband and I were talking about getting married 2 weeks into dating. We'd known each other only a couple months. We've been married for 6 years now and together for 8. Sometimes things just click.
Cat
The blanket is so beautifully done I remembered it from the first time these comics were posted. Looking at it now I'm struck by what a great job these pages do of conveying that early-relationship feeling where that bed feels like it's the whole world.
rikushix
Canadian here: Hudson Bay Company blankets really do feel that amazingly comforting.
Ryan
"It happens every day, bitch!" is a slogan t-shirt waiting to happen, if slogan t-shirts were still a thing.
They'll come back around.
Probably.
joe
Or at least one of those sassy embroidered tea cozies.
kev
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-88l-M0KgkI
cwbuecheler
I feel like Mar gave Jane a potential exit at the bar, when she explained that she was going to get intense and didn't want to fight that part of herself like she had with previous relationships. Jane accepted it because she's finally ready for "intense." This is the next step. It's a big, scary leap but they were both ready for it – doesn't really matter how long they wait (or don't) to say the words.
Also I think it's important to note that big chunks of time pass in Octopus Pie between chapters (and sometimes during them). Yes, it's only been a day or two since Jane and Mar first kissed, but it's been months since the Princess party at which Jane made the decision to get closer to Mar. Jane didn't transition from "she's hot and I might take a shot at getting some" to "Wait, I care about this person … like, a lot." in a matter of hours or days.
Jaybird
Agreed. We got to see some of this in the spa day arc. I really like the way their relationship grows, it's such a natural progression.
Madeleine
Guhhhh I'm such a sucker for romantic commitment like thiissss
(and I used to be such a skeptic, too!)
Also I looove the humor in the last two panels. For some reason, you managed to increase the length of the awkward silence using only two panels – I think the multiple dollars coming out of the ATM coupled with the amount of white space around the last panel gives that sense of time spent. SO FREAKING GENIUS!
Wingéd Elf Girl
I love the last two panels too!! Just hilarious expressions, Mar so calm, nobody noticing the money falling out of the ATM. XD
TRA
Heh, heh, heh!
😀
I love Marek's (sp?) reaction, as in how he [really] forgets what he's doing, in the last panel. 🙂
Lela
Not long after reading this strip, I found a HBC blanket in a thrift store and even though it was barely discounted I had to buy it. The ethereal warmth and romance in this strip already saturated the blanket for me.
robhutton89
Eve: Hey, check it out, boobies!
no_stunts
in the immortal words of spencer hastings, timing is for figure skaters and comedians- you either love someone or you don't
Nic
I think it's bold and risky but I don't think it's necessarily crazy or anything. To me saying "I love you" means that you have decided to commit to and actively love this person, not just that you're experiencing a specific emotion. And you can know you're ready to do that pretty quickly I think.
Tommie
Somewhere… under the rainbow… way up high…