951: Pure white

[maarvarq]

There's a lot of story behind Nicole and John's situation that I've only hinted at throughout Leftover Soup's run. That's the nature of stories - the writer chooses to focus on some things and not on others. Theoretically, in some alternate universe, I'm writing a comic strip purely about the development of their relationship, with Ellen and Jamie as side characters.

I can't imagine that I would have lasted long with the strip if it had been primarily about these two.

[Killjoy]

Did I entirely miss some hint of this in a past comic?

[Deepbluediver]

So, just asking ENTIRELY THEORETICALLY here, how much would it cost to commission a comic of John and Nicole's backstory? Or at least a text-based version of it?
I hate dangling plot-threads.

[mustang6172]

In an alternate-LS-verse John and Nicole are vampires feeding off Jamie, Ellen, Max, et al. I find the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics to be very interesting.

How much backstory do you need? John is covered in scars and has Max's crazy eyes!

[ExPostNinja]

How much backstory do you need? John is covered in scars and has Max's crazy eyes!

I would go with "any," at this point, because out of all of the "dangling threads" in the comic (and there are several - how does Max afford her apartment, how did Carol lose her finger, how is Jamie such an oddly half-functional human mess), this is the one where there's nothing actually pointing in any directions that lead to clear solutions.

At this point, we know that Nicole and John got married, she handcuffed him to a couch, at one point he was detoxing and propositioned Ellen for a threesome, he has a non-monogamous clause in his marriage vows that Nicole is fine with (although he hasn't exercised it), he's scarred, and he's on disability. And the thing is that those things do not, in fact, line up in a clean and coherent way without a few more key pieces of information. Not necessarily another two dozen strips' worth of information, but enough to trace a line and let us do the heavy lifting from there.

That's probably why it's the one thing that bothers me, because at least from my perspective, it's all vague enough that it could point in a few dozen directions with equal plausibility. If a character looks at someone and says, quietly, "I know all about losing people, I was raised in the Gaza Strip," we don't need more details from there. We can put the pieces together from there, and we can assume that important family members and/or friends were killed, even if that topic is never talked about again. By contrast, if that same character says "I watched my parents die" and then never brings it up again... well, they could have been shot. Or they could have been sick. Or there could have been a car crash. Or a murder-suicide pact. Or a camping trip gone very, very wrong. Or a cult. Barring additional information, a clear picture is not presented.

At this point, all we know is that John has some trauma, mental issues, and a complex past. There's a whole lot of stuff that can fit in there, and nothing that points in any real direction.

[dbmag9]

How much backstory do you need? John is covered in scars and has Max's crazy eyes!

I would go with "any," at this point, because out of all of the "dangling threads" in the comic (and there are several - how does Max afford her apartment, how did Carol lose her finger, how is Jamie such an oddly half-functional human mess), this is the one where there's nothing actually pointing in any directions that lead to clear solutions.

At this point, we know that Nicole and John got married, she handcuffed him to a couch, at one point he was detoxing and propositioned Ellen for a threesome, he has a non-monogamous clause in his marriage vows that Nicole is fine with (although he hasn't exercised it), he's scarred, and he's on disability. And the thing is that those things do not, in fact, line up in a clean and coherent way without a few more key pieces of information. Not necessarily another two dozen strips' worth of information, but enough to trace a line and let us do the heavy lifting from there.

That's probably why it's the one thing that bothers me, because at least from my perspective, it's all vague enough that it could point in a few dozen directions with equal plausibility. If a character looks at someone and says, quietly, "I know all about losing people, I was raised in the Gaza Strip," we don't need more details from there. We can put the pieces together from there, and we can assume that important family members and/or friends were killed, even if that topic is never talked about again. By contrast, if that same character says "I watched my parents die" and then never brings it up again... well, they could have been shot. Or they could have been sick. Or there could have been a car crash. Or a murder-suicide pact. Or a camping trip gone very, very wrong. Or a cult. Barring additional information, a clear picture is not presented.

At this point, all we know is that John has some trauma, mental issues, and a complex past. There's a whole lot of stuff that can fit in there, and nothing that points in any real direction.

He's also sufficiently unfond of his family that they've specifically picked out baby names to avoid possibly matching any of his relatives.

[Callmebrotherg]

>.>

These two are more incompetent than Jamie. At least he's able to pick up on Biblical weirdness and ask questions.

He's also sufficiently unfond of his family that they've specifically picked out baby names to avoid possibly matching any of his relatives.

There could be other reasons, like there being two or more family members who would possibly be offended by not getting picked, or being overly worried about the possibility of offending family members.

(Though your scenario is at least as likely, if not more, I'll admit).

[Merle]

John is actually a fallen angel. Have we ever seen his back? Two of those scars are where his wings used to be, I bet...

Nicole is just a garden-variety psychic.

[Killjoy]

Well, if the comic took a sudden turn into that territory, it would explain some of the stranger things we've seen.

[Merle]

Honestly, after looking at the last two panels of the most recent comic...is John looking at the previous panel, there?