As may be obvious from my character designs, I don't buy that insane (with special did daddy kill mommy and bury her in the backyard? flavouring) stepmom backstory...
UPDATE: much dialogue for these bits is ready, haven't had much time to draw. Maybe a weekend update. Drat.
17 comments:
My theory - the parents are divorced in a reasonably amicable manner at least where their son is concerned, but Anthony realized from an early age that being a "victim of a broken home" gave him tons of attention, and he's been milking that complex for all it's worth.
Well, we saw so little of Anthony's family that we actually know more (in-strip, which is the only thing that counts) about an uncle than about his parents or siblings(?).
Heck, original mom + dad could still be married, for all I know.
And regardless of who these people are (dad and mom, dad and step-mom, dad and dad's GF...) the point of today's FOOB is that the Expornstache is his usual "I have no Hooooommmme!!!" self; making an emotional mountain out of his version of the Liz "relationship".
Nicely done, as usual.
I like it how whoever these people are, they're completely baffled by his trying to turn the non-relationship that he and Liz had into a grand romance; they see their son daydreaming his life away over a woman who wants nothing to do with him and it puzzles and saddens them.
As may be obvious from my character designs, I don't buy that insane (with special did daddy kill mommy and bury her in the backyard? flavouring) stepmom backstory...
I never bought that backstory either--in my mind, it would have made more sense to give Anthony a bland, white-bread backstory where nothing out of the ordinary happened. That's what I went with in my alternate bio. :)
Also, it's nice to see Anthony's parents asking the same questions so many readers have had.
I like Anthony's parents already!
And I can tell from the expression on his face that he's still carrying the torch for Elizabeth, despite Liz and April's biting commentary over Christmas that was meant to extiguish said torch. None so blind as those who will not see.
Is Anthony still in counseling with James (poor James)?
All RIGHT! Finally, someone's taking the Bland one to task!
Of course, my guess about the back story was that before Liz tossed him out of the Xmas party he was acting sane, hope in his heart that things would return. He's probably gone downhill with the added psychological effort of selling himself that she didn't just boot him out of her life.
And I think that's Mom and Dad. They probably met over this, after him bouncing between the two with nothing better to do than pine after some imaginary image of a woman.
Did you come up with the character designs? Because just...damn, that's a fantastic job making them look like they could plausibly have spawned him. The only problem is that they actually seem sort of sane and likeable, which raises the question of exactly where Anthony got his personality from. My money's on Satan.
And yeah, that backstory was howlingly bad, even by FOOB standards. Out of all the blatant attempts to make Anthony somehow sympathetic in any way, that was by far the worst.
john,
I know; the more pathetic she tried to made him, the less sympathetic he became. The most aggravating part of it was when he pouted because his father expected him to pay room and board when he first started bringing home a pay check. Reading about him howling and screaming because he was expected to actually help with bills made me lose not only my lunch but what little respect I had for him. Just because Lynn is a sucker and expects people to live off of her gratis doesn't make it right.
john, yup, those are my designs. I deliberately went for "make mom look like Anthony - only perhaps more lanky" (so she's not the stepmom), and round out the dad so Anthony would be "between" them - but more taking after his mom.
I only heard about the stepmom through excerpts of the biography in snark-context, and they *still* were gag-inducing. I figured I'd be risking brain damage if I went and read the whole thing :-)
I figured I'd be risking brain damage if I went and read the whole thing :-)
It's best avoided. There isn't enough brain bleach in the world to remove my memory of having read through it for what seemed like days (it went on for screen after screen).
Love the parents you've done! Right down to the freckles on mom.
The comments on this (have been following for a long time but not commented before) inspired me to find out Anthony's "official" backstory.
I...I couldn't get through it. It was sooooooo bad in thought, in execution...I mean even the writing sounded like a bad romance except the heroine was male.
And still an annoying pansy-ass whining "Oh whoa is me!" character.
In fact he became scary by the obsessiveness she gave him about Liz...even having him compare a girlfriend in before Therese to Liz and that being why the relationships failed.
The only thing that separates !EVIL! Howard from Anthony is that Anthony preferred to manipulate Liz into a relationship by being passive aggressive rather then flat out trying to rape her.
I find that very scary.
Is Anthony's bio technically really a "backstory" considering it was actually happening during the real-time run of the strip?
I couldn't get through the bio; it was just too ridiculous. It was too over-the-top; Anthony's father can't just be a businessman--no, he has to be the most powerful businessman in all of Milborough, with a shrewd, heartless demeanor and a legacy to protect. Anthony's mother can't just be a beautiful, but selfish woman--no, she has to be a cruel, arrogant former super-model. And it isn't even accurate to the strips--suddenly, Liz is the strong, caring one in their relationship, when it's clear when the strips that she was needy and immature and depended heavily on Anthony (and Dawn, too). She's also, of course, soooo magical and soooo special, when at that age in the strip, she was unquestionably written as an awkward teenager struggling for an identity--she wasn't interesting or smart, really.
And it isn't even accurate to the strips--suddenly, Liz is the strong, caring one in their relationship, when it's clear when the strips that she was needy and immature and depended heavily on Anthony (and Dawn, too). She's also, of course, soooo magical and soooo special, when at that age in the strip, she was unquestionably written as an awkward teenager struggling for an identity--she wasn't interesting or smart, really.
This was amongst the many things the bugged the heck out of me about the bio. Liz was an ordinary girl, not a Mary Sue.
"This was amongst the many things the bugged the heck out of me about the bio. Liz was an ordinary girl, not a Mary Sue."
Except to Anthony she was?
Or at least she was made into one in his screwed up head? Since it's all from his perspective it at least explains why he would take a girl who had just been attacked and complain about his marriage to her before asking her to wait for him...you know before he takes her to the police or anything....
"Is Anthony's bio technically really a "backstory" considering it was actually happening during the real-time run of the strip? "
Technically maybe not, but it was written nearish? the end of the strips run and covers things not in the strips so I suppose it is a back story. It was obviously meant to fill out the character anyway.
Except to Anthony she was?
Well, that's the thing--even to Anthony, in the strip itself, she wasn't a magical glittery girl. He crushed on her in middle school, but once they got together, they took each other for granted, drifted apart... She wasn't the savior the liography presents her as having been.
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