The triumph of hope over experience

Today's comics page brings something of a coincidence, but the topic sure comes from two different angles.

In "Heart of the City," it's established that Heart and her mother have been two girls, living all together, but they are all alone (ear worms inserted free!). There was an arc years ago in which Heart met her musician father and it wasn't a very satisfying reunion, as I recall. Nice guy, but not much there.

And part of the dynamic of HOTC is that Heart and her mom have that "best friend" thing going on, which is sweet but not always entirely healthy, and one perfectly predictable result of that relationship is that Heart feels free to criticize and meddle in her mother's (pretty quiet) love life. 

No such hazard over at "Gil," where, first of all, he's pretty oblivious to his mother except as his mother and, second of all, she's got things a little more compartmentalized herself. Gil is her kid, not her buddy, and today he's a kid with a new factor to deal with in his life.

Small kudos to Norm Feuti for saying "PBS Cartoon Knowledge," which may be a little vague but gets the point across. The sloppier but more standard reference would be "Afterschool Special," which would make Gil at least, what, 35? 40?

But big, big kudos for making Troy consistent with the established socioeconomic world in which Gil and his folks live and also for not making him the "nice guy" interchangeable dweeb who usually gets to play this role.

Both strips have some good emotional weight, but Gil is much grittier and more realistic, and the two strips raise different expectations at this stage.

Heart could get over-invested in what really is a casual friend-date, or her mom could end up having a better time than she's admitting could be out there. But Mark Tatulli saves the grim stuff for his other strip, Lio, and it's quite reasonable to assume a Mary Tyler Moore-level ending here -- maybe a little Kleenex, but basically a let-down and reset.

With Gil, this guy could stick around for awhile, and we've also got not only the potential for Gil's ne'er-do-well dad to come into the scene but the inevitability of comparisons between Mom's New Friend and Mom's Ex. 

Heart's mom is years out of her marriage, but Gil's mom is not. Now, if she were in "Whiplash!" mode, her new pal would be the polar-opposite of Gil's dad, which usually calls for the aforementioned nice guy dweeb Mr. Businessman type, though maybe Troy is a commercially successful metal sculptor or something similar.

But she could also be in the "Wait! I Can Make This Work!" mode, in which she repeats all her past mistakes, and everyone who has been down this road has run into the situation where you meet your new love's ex and he turns out to be remarkably like you.  

(I once saw a situation where New Girlfriend even looked like Old Girlfriend, down to style of dress, hair and make-up, but that involved a trial of Old Boyfriend for stalking, which is a pretty extreme example of "Wait, I can make this work!")

We shall see. Meanwhile, I like that Gil's mom has apparently been working on this new relationship for awhile before bringing Gil into it. 

My first couple of shots out of the gate were not so sensibly set up. On any level.

The first woman I went out with post-divorce had three kids, one of whom I had thrown out of my class when I was substituting at the school where her recently-exed-father was headmaster. That one was going nowhere.

Neither was the one where I was chatting with the youngest of her little blonde angel-faced daughters while not-quite-divorced Mom got ready, and, when I pulled a quarter from her ear, littlest sweetie asked if I could do another magic trick: "Make yourself disappear."

I did. Just about that quickly.

Good luck, guys.

(It can also actually work, and has, but those stories aren't as funny.)

 

 

Comments

[hildigunnur]

If Norm doesn't change Troy a lot from the first round of Gil he's a pretty cool guy :)

[Mary in Ohio]

Even more awkward - wife # 2 looks so much like wife # 1 (whom the guy had dumped) that, seeing them across the street, I thought he was back with # 1. Luckily I just waved,m didn't holler any greetings.

[Mike Peterson]

I will admit I bailed on Gil when Norm was still working on it, so Troy is new to me, but I balance that by really liking what he did with the strip in development -- what came out at launch was well above where it started. I'm ready to meet Troy for the first time.

And, Mary, you've cracked me up. The only thing worse than dating on the rebound is marrying on the rebound.

I actually got to the point where I wasn't interested in dating anyone who wasn't at least a year out. In fact, I told a woman that once and then ran into her about a year later and she thanked me, because she was back with her husband.

From the outside, you learn to just keep your mouth shut until they're out at least a year -- because anything you say can and will be used against you. I'd sooner ask a woman if she were pregnant than offer a comment on a recently-crashed marriage.

As to the specific situation ... heh ... well, at least the man knows what he wants in life.

[Sherwood Harrington]

... and what he wants, apparently, is trouble.