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dreadedcandiru2As I said yesterday, I firmly believe that yesterday's strip is quite probably the single most depressing strip of the Early Years of the strip. While we would later have Anthony decide that he finally had something to fight for or Elly grump that it will always suck to be her, the strip in which Elly is delighted to be reunited with the young woman whose possibilities seemed limitless before she found a nerdy jerk sleeping in the library has got to be one of the most heart-rending exercises in accidental despair that Lynn has ever created. This is because we know one thing that the more casual reader does not: despite her getting a break from it all, It All expects to go right on back to acting as if her sole purpose in life is to chase after him and do all his chores because that's what Moms are for. Even unto the end of days, Mike never did twig to the fact that most of the reason Elly never felt as if she'd contributed is that he has a rampaging case of what my late mother called 'nub-itis.' (The symptom of that ailment is that the hands that grab food shrink to tiny nubs when the kid they're attached to is asked to pick up after himself.)
What this means is that we're the witnesses to a hope spot in which it looks as if Elly might escape the diminuitive despot in the dungarees only to have him yell MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! again and again because he refuses to allow himself to think of her as a person with hopes, dreams and needs. Eventually, she avenges herself by convincing him to write crap novels.
What this means is that we're the witnesses to a hope spot in which it looks as if Elly might escape the diminuitive despot in the dungarees only to have him yell MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! again and again because he refuses to allow himself to think of her as a person with hopes, dreams and needs. Eventually, she avenges herself by convincing him to write crap novels.
