These kids are gonna inherit mad Intimidation modifier
February 15, 2016
2:52 am
It’s Valentines Day and somehow the subject of the day became Women’s Wrestling so in honour of all that here’s a comic about getting along civilly with the ex and a callback to the Pillowfight league strip.
Somehow i suspect this wasn’t intended part of her character originally. Her body size doubled kinda kinda.
I agree, it could just be the sketches, but I feel like Maddy looks quite a bit different here than in previous panels.
Her being a Pillow-fighter has been mentioned before. Commander was talking to Jones about how it was deceptively Hardcore.
And, I just realized that there was a link to the strip I was talking about in the description, which means you probably meant something else. What did you mean?
They meant that Maddy’s character looks different than the last times she was drawn, she definitely has a more stocky/sporty frame here than before.
I’ll chalk it up to Coelasquid becoming a better artist and refining her idea of Maddy’s design.
This is probably the first time Maddy’s been drawn with a ponytail, so that’s what looks “different” to me (and different does not mean bad, I have to note that because this is the internet).
Well, “mother life” has probably caused her to gain some weight, and in addition I’d guess she’d do like everyone who compete in wrestling and similar “show sports” that she spent quite a few weeks getting ready for her big “defending the title” gig. Not enough time to lose all the extra weight, but enough to bulk up some. It’s not actually an unrealistic look with that in consideration.
And she always seemed like the slightly rounder type to me, which is part of the attraction factor.
Besides, I am fairly certain the pillow fight scene from the earlier strip is supposed to be a look back, and that it was before two kids and being a mother for a bit :P
Unfortunately, motherhood will give you that butt ;)
Carina.
What’s this “Unfortunately”? Maddie is smokin’ hot!
Seconded.
Actually, Carina is right on unfortunately. Because she is too sexy on those panels, that makes me feel uncomfortable!
Also unfortunately for her opponent cause now there’s more mass behind her pillow punches…also clearly she would be crowd favourite from looks alone
If she were a real woman, and I met her in person, I have a feeling I would revert back to my rather shy and awkward teenage self. She is damn hot! O.O
I actually agree.
Personally I prefer that bodyshape to several other types, why I wrote adds to the attraction factor, lol.
In any case, my point was simply that I think she has a very realistic body as it is drawn here, considering she’s the mother of two and not a stranger to building a bit of muscle before competitions. I like the realistic look.
That’s another good point, actually. She seemed to have put on a little weight when she was a Mom.
Thing is, she was already pretty muscular before the kids. Muscle doesn’t go away quickly. So she was still strong underneath the Mom-weight.
Looks like she got back in shape and was working out. Which meant she put on MORE muscle as she burned the fat off.
Part of it too is honestly, female body diversity is kinda discouraged among young artists an unfortunate amount when they’re still learning so it’s an uphill battle to 1)figure out how and 2)get the confidence to commit to it. It’s a pretty common thing to see female characters who are supposed to be full figured and voluptuous change shape as the artist figures out what they’re doing and learns to draw better, and gets more confident broadening their spectrum of female bodytypes. I know Bea has talked about a similar learning process when she was figuring out the character Victoria in her comic Ghost Story, and it’s a common conversation I hear a lot of other artists discuss in the process of deprogramming that ingrained idea that thin = sexy main character, thick = ugly comic relief.
“No (drawing) Fat Chicks” ~ Many art schools (and audiences?) apparently …
I was a (male) nude model for art students. A fat one. I laughed as they suffered while drawing and painting me.
I’m just going to assume your thought process included “you can’t even handle half of me”
Ha, I did that too. I ‘ve got a commemorative ‘Happy Buddha’ with my face on it. She was one hell of a sculptor.
A personalized Hotei/Budai statuette? Jealous!!
Kelly,
Thank you for drawing Maddie as you did. Thick can mean super hot as in this case. I didn’t remember seeing Maddie with her hair pulled back, so I was like, “Who?….Oh wait. She’s the ex. Daaayuuum!”
Seconded – there’s something exquisite about how she’s drawn here, especially in the third panel.
Sophie Campbell drew the first six volumes of Wet Moon over about ten years and the appearance of all of the characters, including the protagonist, have changed radically. (Well, maybe not Fern, but just about everyone else.)
Frankly, I prefer Maddie’s new proportions. I’m a little tired of how male characters in a given work usually have a few different build types but the only difference between females is their busts. Someone did a really good breakdown of this where they put DC’s characters up against each other and showed that guys have “Tall and Lean”, “Toned”, “Bodybuilder”, “Top-heavy”, “Olympian”, and “Mxyzptlk”. Women had “Teenager” and “Muscular Supermodel”. The one exception they found was Zatanna, who was built about like Maddie up there but a lot more chesty. At least in her control art and her own series; in the various Justice League series she’s basically Power Girl with a different costume.
Squirrel Girl has been doing a great job on that front.
Squirrel girl is a Marvel property so that basis for comparison is skewed unless Marvel had a similar baseline issue.
The overwhelming majority of mainstream media does.
Some geneticists have guessed that if the current rate of global ethnic mixing continues, gingers of north west European origin will become increasingly rare, unless they start to maintain themselves eugeniclly at some point. Mixing with Asians seems to particularly neutralize the ginger gene. It takes six generations of back breeding with other pure Europeans with ginger genes to counter just one Asian ancestor to start producing some ginger descendants. (There is an alternative red hair gene among certain Indian Ocean tribes, but I have no idea how recessive it is.) There may be a eugenic motivation as the Commander’s timeline develops to get rid of the ginger trait, because being unable to tan can be a liability, if, say, a ginger warrior found himself out of sunblock on a tropical mission. There was an episode of “Naked and Afraid” where a professional soldier and survivalist realized he could not cope in a tropical setting without a large supply of sunblock. He was so badly burned in just the first two hours that he was immobilized for days while his female companion, a marine biologist, took care of him, this big bruiser warrior.
The commander may very well find his Ex extraordinarily exotic by virtue of being an extinct type in the future. I wonder if he has inoculated her against skin cancer.
My personal experience as an artist was that any female form outside of the super voluptuous physique was significantly harder to draw and actually look like a woman. As I have improved, the diversity of body types I can draw that actually look like their intended body type has greatly improved. Part of that I would attribute to the fact that a lot of my ability to draw a person comes from observing my own body and how it moves, and then comparing to other bodies to figure out how that morphs. Being male, that was significantly less effective at understanding how to draw a woman, and for a while I could only effectively distinguish to two by exaggerating any traits associated with females. Still incredibly hit and miss with faces though.
I dunno. They first met and she said the proper way to win a pillowfight was to punch people through it. So she’s always be portrayed as a scrapper.
As for bulking up since they were together, it’s been years. People move on, especially when they have a goal. One of the people in the group I grew up with was named Missy. She’s 5’5 and was maybe 100 pounds sopping wet. She decided she wanted to join the navy. Put on about 20 pounds of muscle BEFORE enlisting.
Definitely looked different, that’s for sure.
Yeah, joining the military can crazy-change your shape. I was the skinny goth-type build in high school (never did the look, natural blondes look wrong in that style) at 5’7 and a scrawny 130lbs. Now, almost 20 years later and 12 of it in the Army I am a Viking breaking the scale at 200lbs of mostly muscle. Got a bit of winter pudge on my stomach to burn but that’s not hard to lose. In those years I have put at least two or three inches on my shoulders, and close to four or five around on my torso. (No, not like THAT, you pervs.) The most annoying part is that I have to replace my wardrobe almost from the ground up every two or three years because I out-bulk my previous garments and end up donating it all to charity. (On the upside, it means people have a good selection of nice clothes in good condition.) Once I learned to shop in the men’s section around ten years ago clothes shopping got MUCH easier and cheaper. :P
If you click on the link in the description it’s been a part of her character since 2011. Her look from the start was partially inspired by a friend of mine who used to compete in a league like this. She’s was drawn on the small side in the first strip she showed up in but she’s always supposed to have been very full-figured and curvaceous. Unless you just mean the upshot in the first panel making her a little more squished.
And I mean, of course she’s changed since the first time I dew her, it’s been six years, I’m better at drawing things the way I want them to look. Just look at Commander in the first strip VS what he looks like now.
Are you telling me that comic artists weren’t just born gifted with a pen in hand and had to gradually improve over time and build confidence in drawing different things?
Gasp.
Well, she’s a lot more muscular than any of those and you’re the ‘How to draw beef’ person so it’s hard to see that as just art evolution.
Though I figured she’s just been training, people do that, especially people who have legit championship fights even in a minor league.
Her physique from the start was largely supposed to be based on some combination of Toccara Jones and Christina Hendricks thrown in and that’s what I’m still more or less going for like so I really dunno what you want me to tell you beyond “I got better at drawing her the way I wanted her to look”.
I mean, when you’re heavier set you can legitimately vary your weight quite a bit week to week just by how clean you eat and how much water you drink, could just be she’s just been on the ball with all that lately.
I dont understand why people think you are lying about your characters and evolving style.
This is a weird thread.
You can dress ways that make you appear several sizes smaller. We haven’t seen her wearing shorty shorts and a sports bra before, so that changes things. And I for one am grateful. I like a woman with a little meat on her bones. It looks more appealing to me in both attraction and overly skinny women always seem unhappy anyway. Plus let’s face it, the Commander went back in time to bring Jonesy her own mammoth, imagine what he brought food wise to Maddie.
When you put it like that, I can only imagine the difficulty Rock had in getting Maddie stuff for her cravings during pregnancy. With the whole time-travel thingy and other planets, who knows what she might want.
I thought so at first too, but I went back to her last appearance and it’s pretty clear she only looks smaller in comparison to the Commander.
Love how your strip handles the holiday with originality
Also, it would be cool if the next Pokemon game included an IV for intimidation, or general badassery
What if she’d lost?
They would have been there to cheer her up.
But they knew she wasn’t gonna.
Confidence? Fight analysis? Or did Rock check before bringing them out?
It’s their mom. Mom doesn’t lose
I dunno – that doesn’t seem like a terribly healthy mindset to instill in children.
My father was a doctor, but I was taught from a very early age that not everything can be fixed by a doctor – they can only do their best, but sometimes that isn’t good enough. Even though he was my dad, and even though he seemed like he could fix any problem, he went to pains to teach me that everyone has limits, and that overconfidence is foolhardy. That’s not to say you shouldn’t be confident at all, nor that you shouldn’t take pride in accomplishments, but that wisdom is being aware of the limits and respecting them, even when we’d prefer they didn’t exist.
He also volunteered as a ring doctor for a local boxing league, in particular helping a close family friend who boxed professionally. Despite this friend being an honorary uncle and a great boxer, I was taught that you can and should cheer someone on while still recognizing their limits, and that there is no shame in losing. Saw him get absolutely clobbered a few times, but he never resented losing – he would laugh it off and sing the praises of his opponents, applauding their technique or physicality.
I feel that reinforcing a child’s notion that their parents can do no wrong is only setting them up for pain down the road, while also being an unhealthy dose of ego-inflation for the parents themselves. But then again, I’m against pretty much any “little white lie” that parents typically tell their children.
I like how you criticized Rock’s parenting without attacking anyone’s character. That is so much better than some of the comments two strips ago.
I don’t know if Rock and Maddie hide all their flaws from their kids. I suspect they try to fix all the flaws they can. Human beings are fallible and unless one is of the abusive “don’t contradict me in front of my kids” sort human fallibility shines through. I never heard that kind of crap from them, so I assume their kids will figure out their parents have flaws about as fast as they figure out people in general. Those flaws just don’t involve losing fisticuffs.
The intent of this comic is more to show that Commander’s tired of being the one everyone thinks of as the intimidating scary parent and is spreading the word that the mom’s more of a bulldog than he is. Bringing them to watch her fight someone isn’t a “little white lie” in any sense of the word, all he said was he wants them to see how tough she is.
Very nice. I can’t wait to see what you come up for Mother’s Day this year, Coelasquid
Man..with parents this size I can’t believe how skinny the kids seem in the spacefuture. (Well at least in the commanders imaginary flash forward to the spacefuture, which being imaginary may very well not be what they actually will look like).
God damn I need to start lifting weights, she looks how I wanna look.
She looks different without freckles.
I like her freckles.
She’ll have them when it gets coloured but I’ve been trying to quadruple time MGDMT, Platinum Black, day job work, and pitch for a potential future project this weekend.
Dang. Isn’t part of the schedule for this one “Or whenever I feel like it”? You got a job- no need to kill yourself doing comics if you don’t want.
If it’s how you relax, though, that’s fine.
Sorry, it wasn’t a criticism at all! I get that freckles aren’t really a line art thing. I was just looking forward to the colour a bit more than usual this week. I didn’t really get that across :p it’s always great, and it’s always amazing how consistent you are, timing and quality
Good lord, those are some badass parent genes. I’m willing to bet by the time those kids grow up, they’ll have gone from riding Mr. Fish to bench-pressing him.
It really strikes me as they get along pretty darn good like 99% of the time and kinda think about getting back together every so often, but then they remember the last 1% and mutually decide not to blow what they have going.
That’s not uncommon for some couples to think like that. Some couples work best in spurts together, not the long haul. They both have their goals, thankfully both make time to ensure part of their goals are the kids as well. Personally I knew of a couple that reminds me of these two. Great together as off and on friends, but very horrible in the traditional couple sense.
I like how Coelasquid has written them as “exes who are still good friends, just no longer lovers”. Rock’s old ship still has Maddie painted on it, the kids love both of them, they have clear respect for each other – it’s far healthier than a messy divorce where they tried to ruin each other on a personal level.
Is that you beaten and on the floor? :D
I totally wondered if that was a Coela cameo too…
I’m pretty sure that Coela has a cameo in the game Shattered Planet.
…I take it Sam and June are not allowed to have pillow fights because of the strategies they observe from their mother?
Up till now I’ve wanted to see arc where we get to see Jared and Jonsey get along. I’d assume siblingish, equally encouraging and antagonizing each other. But after this comic I want to see the Rocks kids from the future. I’d imagine they grow up to be the embodiment of chill and badass.
Huh. We haven’t seen Maddy smiling often. (Then again, we haven’t seen her often, period…)
Maybe it’s because the strip isn’t colored yet, but did you kick your own ass in today’s comic?
Man, I really like seeing two exes not just fighting constantly. Thanks for not falling into the trap of creating cheap drama for no reason.
Exactly. They had their problems (which is hinted that it wasn’t just the Commander) and they separated. They still have their occasional problems. But they also fell in love for a reason (as seen before), and they still can appreciate that they’re people. Just people who unfortunately don’t work well together.
I have quite a few friends who still get along with their exes once they get over the whole separation rage thing. It’s nice to see it in the comic. I love seeing that they can be civil, that they can still be supportive of each other, and that they’re willing to share parenting responsibilities. (And some jealousy when one hogs them.)
For a comic that’s a gag a strip, I love the depth and complexity here. Whatever project Coelasquid is pitching soon, I hope it goes well. Even if it means she has less free time than she’d like.
Bruises and a KO?! What is in those pillowcases, padded rocks?
The only rule for these things is “all contact has to happen through the pillow”, so girls I knew who competed would hold the pillow over the opponent’s face and punch them through it.
Wait! This an actual sport, with rules, and not something you invented as comic relief!?
yup.
Well that was… Strangely entertaining.
Holy crap
…Y’know, in light of this, it’s really easy to see why they hooked up to begin with. So why did they break up?
When someone shows they can train fire with a stern but fair voice, you feel just that much less than them. And that kills relationships.
Oh, yanno…http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/he-just-doesnt-like-talking-about-himself
I like it =)
Good grace of God, anybody else flustered over the smokin’ hot mom…
Kelly, did you…
did… did you draw yourself as the loser?
Like… why?
These sorts of comics where the cast are shown as level-headed decent folk are why I love MGDMT so much. Very rare to have healthy characters. Thanks Coleasquid.
Also, Maddie has never looked hotter than she has now – amicable, powerful mama.
Boooobbbbieeessss
That guy has a large scratch on his cheek, how do you get scratched that badly by boxing gloves?
It’s a woman with a bruise on her cheek; just crosshatching for effect, I’m sure. :)
Awkaye.
It’s great to see they are still friends, and not just ‘for the sake of the kids’
Heh, I was tired when I first read this page, thought the PTA/play-mob enforcer bit was more a “oh no, the PTA (or whoever) will think they’re the scary parent”
Upon reading it again (in color) I get the full effect (I was wondering about the play-mob though, thought it was just the chaos of too many kids & no control). Intimidate FOR the PTA. Play mob-enforcer (I inserted my own hyphens, which didn’t help my earlier understanding)
But yeah, these kids have some tough (and supportive/caring) folks, and they’re pretty much set as far as awesome childhoods go (plus they rode Mr. Fish, that’s pretty sweet)
Awesome dad, awesome mom, awesome exes.
I just think it’s nice that they’re both getting along and moving towards friends. It’s good for the kids and for both of them.
And she is pretty damn good looking.
Moving towards friends? They always were, just discovered that they are better ‘friends’ than ‘spouses’
Before it was coloured, I thought the referee might have been a cameo by the author (based on her twitter picture).
Consensus seems to be that Coela looks more like Maddy’s defeated opponent.
Did everyone miss that those kids don’t play ‘House’ or ‘Dress Up’ or ‘Tag’, they play ‘(Italian) Mobsters’!
Not going to lie. When I first read this new webpage I honestly thought it said “and the winner is mad daddy” lol
Damn, as if she couldn’t get any hotter~!
While it’s valentines, whatever happened to Jared’s internet girlfriend?
You know what my favorite part of this comic is?
They’re divorced, and they are still friends.
I’m sick of reading in newspaper of people getting at each others throat after divorce, so this comic makes me happy.
(And no, I’ve never been married, just don’t like it how people think if relationship is over they have to hate each other)
I think you’ve got it backwards. For a lot of the bitter exes you see, they grew to hate each other BEFORE they broke up, so it lingers afterwards. Breaking up is not always the cause of bitterness, but rather the result.
So in the previous strip talking about the pillow fight league, Commander says that Maddy USED TO BE in a pillow fight league.
Now I realise time travel and such would maintain his access to that, but is it really responsible for him to time travel with his kids? I mean, we all saw what happened when Jonesy thought about time travel while doing so…
Eh, I figure she gets back into it every now and then. She takes the kids while he plays baseball or boxes or whatever, they’ve probably got some equivalent-trade thing set up where he takes them for a couple hours out of her week with them so she can have some time with one of her hobbies. Maybe she got in a snit with some yoga mom and decided she’d rather go punch something.
Sightly off-topic– This was one of the weirdest places ever to see an ad for Sanctity of Life Customizable Sunday Inserts.
“Oh, look, a comic involving a mother! Must rub our agenda aaaaaall over it!” :: shoehorn, shoehorn ::
Ads for stuffed sharks and other webcomics are to be expected here. That one, though? Not so much.
(Please note that I am not trying to start a debate about the ad’s topic, only mentioning how weird it is to see it here.)
The ads you see on the site are based on the cookies in your browser. Like, personally, I just usually see ads for art supplies and motorcycle accessories.
Cooking supply stores, nerd toys, and video games here.
I will have to have a talk with my browser history, then, because nothing I can remember visiting should be showing me that ad.
Ads just showed up for German razors and Skinny Mints– again, no reason those should be connected with my regular activity. Maybe this is what comes of spending too much time visiting The Worst Things For Sale.
Probably. I’m still trying to figure out why Google Ads keeps throwing clothing sales at me.
Er, I see a lot of porn ads.
Sunchips. It’s always Sunchips. I don’t even eat Sunchips. I’m being stalked by a sub par snack food…
Sunchips. It’s always Sunchips. I don’t even eat Sunchips. I’m being stalked by a sub par snack food…
“My Mom can beat up your Mom! My Dad Can beat up your Dad! My Uncle’s Pet Sea Monster can Eat your Uncle!”
Hey, just wanted to let Coelasquid know: I chaperoned a field trip to the Science Center today. When we got to the dinosaurs, I called up on my iPod one of those pictures of cats drawn like we draw dinosaurs, then asked my group of third graders what dinosaur it was. After they all guessed ‘raptor’ I told them what the picture actually was, then told them about how raptors might have actually looked like chickens with teeth. They were impressed.
Even more impressed then when I told them about tapeworms. Hey, there was an exhibit.
Holy crap, when did she get so buff?
When she went to the gun store.