You’re why the lights are on.
on December 24, 2016 at 12:01 amMan, I remember folks being so angry at Dina when this storyline first published. Like I said, Happening On Walky’s Birthday was kind of an accident out-of-universe, and so everyone was super mad at her for dumping him in-universe. Outside of that chronological framing… I dunno, Walky was kind of being a dorkus. I’d want to dump him, too. And so Dina’s tearful apology at having dumped him on his birthday was put here to underline that, no, Dina’s not a monster, she has remorse, because apparently that needs saying sometimes for folks.
And here’s Mike’s first sober smile. I thiiiiiiiiiiiiink there was only a second Mike sober smile? The one in Shortpacked!, with Amber? But I use them incredibly sparingly, for obvious reasons.
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Hooooooo boy. Here we go.
… I say that, but I think the stuff I’m thinking of probably won’t happen for another like 5 or 6 arcs. Whatever. You get me.
It’s okay. This was the best you could do.
Well, this was April 7, 2002 and what you’re probably thinking of wouldn’t going to get going until late September. So… around mid to late April when we’ll be seeing it kick off again. Plenty of time to get the libations ready.
Mike’s sober smiles are downright terrifying.
Then the Mike got an idea. An awful idea.
The Mike got a wonderfully awful idea.
It’s a good thing I was in middle school when I first read this; had I been much younger, Mike’s face might have given me a nightmare.
Eeeeeee. Mike’s face is terrifying.
Wait, why is Mike just casually hanging out in Dina’s apartment?
Because he’s Mike.
He knows exactly where to place himself.
He always goes to places where there’s misery and sorrow. It’s like a sixth sense for him.
Mike. What the hell.
…are your eyebrows doing, seriously CHRIST ON A CRACKER i knew you didn’t know how to smile but your eyebrows should seriously consider a circus career, they’ve got one heck of a contortionist act.
Oh you motherf….
Hm, dumping him on his birthday is harsh but the direction of how this dynamic right here goes from now on utterly baffles me. You dumped Walky Because he’s immature, ok that’s I get that but then you end up leaving guy who at least appreciates you for a guy who hates you completely and has the mentality of school yard bully…and is proud of it.
The It’swalky version of Mike was the hardest one to grow to like to be honest, it’s good to know he gets better later.
Mike’s been practicing his Grinch Smile™, I see.
Dina isn’t a bad person for dumping Walky on his birthday. She’s a self defeating person for dating an immature guy and disliking him for that. Maybe if she’d met him when he was intentionally being more mature, that would make sense, but no. She hates the way he lives his life, but somehow thought she could “fix” him which almost never works.
Mike does not hug. He captures.
Everytime Mike Smiles a puppy dies.
Mike really seems conflicted in that last panel. It’s like he’s cringing because he hates affection, grinning because he’s accomplishing something evil, smiling because he genuinely likes Dina, furrowing his brow because he hates that he genuinely likes Dina … that’s what I think the breakdown is, anyway.
I partially empathize with Mike there only in that I feel like I also tend to react to hugs with an uncomfortable inner struggle between happiness and panic.
What I don’t get here is why Mike is smiling. Sure Dina’s in pain but Mike didn’t do anything to cause it. Maybe because he’s planning something mean but he’s always planning something mean.
You know…
If you cover Mike’s actual mouth, he looks like a smiling kitty.
Maybe it’s because of knowledge I don’t have, but I interpreted this strip differently than everyone else in this thread seems to be. The way she starts off with “I told him too soon” combined with the earlier strip in which she told Mike “I don’t know what to do” led me to believe that Mike has been her behind-the-scenes confidant, deliberately driving her to this point. And I took that smile as satisfaction that his plan had come off.
A view that he was ingratiating himself with her while leading her to an emotional collapse also makes some of the future spoilers I’ve already been spoiled about more palatable, if it makes Mike getting caught in a trap of his own making causes it to be as much his fault as hers. He wanted to see what she would do if he broke her, and he found out.
If there’s a reason this interpretation can’t be right, I almost don’t want to know it, because the alternative would make me very sad.
Actually, that makes a lot of sense, and is now my head canon.
No, I read it that way, too.
…So am I the only one who finds the last panel goofy as hell?
That is not an evil smile, that is someone trying to pull of a Grinch smile and failing.
If you look really closely, you can see that Mike is actually being controlled by miniature donald trump.
Son of a-
There’s actually a chibi trump in the last panel!
Wait. Wait wait wait wait. Look at Mike’s crotch. Because of the shadowing it looks like he, uh. Pissed himself.
That smile is terrifying
Originally posted:
April 7, 2002
I am entirely convinced by this and the thing with Amber’s cyberboyfriend that Mike actually likes when his “competition” drops of the race, even when he is not planning on running at the moment.
So Mike is the Grinch?