Comments on: Don't Cry for Me, I'm Already Dead

Don't Cry for Me, I'm Already Dead

clockworkjoe — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:40:04 -0800

Don't Cry for Me, I'm Already Dead. A comic about brotherly love, loss and quoting the Simpsons. A brilliant short comic by Rebecca Sugar, creator of the excellent Pug Davis. Stupid sexy Flanders.

By: indeed

indeed — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:44:41 -0800

Touching. Faced with the same situation, I'm pretty sure the same thing would happen for my brother and I.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:46:06 -0800

It's like they hid a camera in our apartment! Very sweet, and really interestingly drawn, thanks!

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:47:02 -0800

Aw hell, diddily-ding-dong-crap, that was poignant.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:50:01 -0800

There's no emoticon for what I'm feeling!

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:52:05 -0800

That comic made me happysad. Thanks.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:53:39 -0800

Oh that was good.

By: jabberjaw

jabberjaw — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:53:47 -0800

Excellent. Touching. This, coupled with Dee_Extrovert's post, I am satisfied and can log off of the internet for the day. See you all tomorrow!

By: allen.spaulding

allen.spaulding — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:54:30 -0800

Great find, thanks.

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:57:34 -0800

You may remember me from such reactions as Thinking That Was Wonderful and Feeling Like I Should Call My Brother Now. Very nice find.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:58:08 -0800

Very, very cool. Thanks for posting this.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:03:43 -0800

Concept and recontextualizing of quotes: 9 thumbs up Art: My lowest review ever. 7 thumbs up.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:09:51 -0800

That was so great! That was so great! Everybody loved that, that was so great!

By: Guy_Inamonkeysuit

Guy_Inamonkeysuit — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:11:46 -0800

Great post. Thank you. Made me tear up.

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:14:02 -0800

Wow, I haven't come that close to bawling in a while. Thanks.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:15:33 -0800

When I was younger I had three friends whose knowledge of The Simpsons was encyclopedic. I would often go to coffeehouses with them and they'd drop Simpsons-quotes with ease I could only envy. On one particularly memorable occasion they talked exclusively in Simpsons-quotes for three quarters of an hour. It was wondrous to behold. I sent them this comic. For my generation The Simpsons is the central text. Like with Shakespeare there's a quote for every occasion.

By: adamms222

adamms222 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:15:34 -0800

Are you people sure you aren't confusing feelings of poignancy with some feeling of connect simply because you know all those quotes by heart too? The characters were so ugly, I was actually hoping they would both die in the end. So for me, ugly + Simpsons = quirky and fun, not poignant and sad.

By: chudmonkey

chudmonkey — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:19:57 -0800

Wow, this was very powerful. It's hard for dudes to show love sometimes, particularly for other dudes. How terrific that The Simpsons provided a framework for meaningful communication between these guys. Not to veer too far off course, but this made me think about copyright and IP issues. In an era where the artifacts of commerce, like TV shows, become significant cultural touchstones, the idea of "fair use" is a critical one. (Not that "fair use" applies to verbal conversations, of course, but it's a short hop from things like we see depicted in the comic to photoshopping a Simpsons-themed get-well card or making a "favourite episodes" DVD to watch at the hospital.)

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:20:53 -0800

Are you people sure you aren't confusing feelings of poignancy with some feeling of connect simply because you know all those quotes by heart too? Yeah, uh, I'm pretty darned sure.

By: TrinaSelwyn

TrinaSelwyn — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:21:03 -0800

Whew. I didn't want to be the first one to leave a negative comment. All clear, now. I believe the use of the word "brilliant" here is terribly misleading. I've seen, and even appreciate, many, many episodes of The Simpsons. The art here is rather hideous, and the storyline unimaginative. I suppose it was mildly entertaining. Better than staring at a blank screen for two minutes. Maybe I'm just not thinking about it hard enough.

By: chudmonkey

chudmonkey — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:23:30 -0800

adamms222: I didn't really dig the style of art in this comic either, but I don't appreciate you questioning the validity of my emotional response based on your lack of appreciation for the aesthetic. The poignancy was definitely increased by my familiarity with the quoted lines. That was the mechanism by which the author enabled my empathy as a reader. Perhaps you were paying too much attention to the artwork.

By: krilli

krilli — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:24:01 -0800

adamms222: Yes, I agree, but being ugly and thinking Simpson quotes are great is poignant and sad. It's there, squint your eyes and you'll see it. Especially poignant when reality hits nerd via car accident.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:25:36 -0800

/clutches chest My heart hurts.

By: krilli

krilli — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:25:37 -0800

Also, re. your comment adamms222: I was a nerd, and used to identify through quoting. Now that I have switched over to expressing my own emotions in my own words, I identify with the awkward nerdy way of doing it. ... so it always ends up poignant, funny enough. Sad, too!

By: krilli

krilli — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:27:26 -0800

AND THE ART IS AWESOME, you guys who think it's an ugly comic are simply [i]not getting it[/i] which is [i]your loss[/i]. Notice how the art is weak and awkward? What are the two nerds like? Weak and awkward perhaps? Could it be possible that it's drawn like that on purpose ... ?

By: crickets

crickets — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:29:02 -0800

To rebut TrinaSelwyn: Just to prove that everything is subjective, I thought the art was beautiful. Yes, they were drawn in a less than idealized manner, but the expressiveness and the depth this lent each character made the emotional impact all the richer to me.

By: fiercecupcake

fiercecupcake — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:29:06 -0800

Wow. I really, really liked the art. The artist obviously has TONS of talent, as shown by the car-wreck drawing. On the whole, this was touching and gave me a lot of hope for the genre.

By: SilverTail

SilverTail — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:30:19 -0800

Simpsons did it.

By: krilli

krilli — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:30:28 -0800

Hah, I just finished reading. Rebecca Sugar is a clever little fucker, she made me cry. Which is news.

By: picea

picea — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:32:38 -0800

I was pleasantly surprised by this. I think the art's pretty terrific. Tear your eyes off the crazy, wrinkly lines if they're too out there for your and just look at those beautiful colours.

By: Paid In Full

Paid In Full — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:33:41 -0800

The art was great, the story was poor. Now, if she'd only illustrate that shitty tale of the beaten kitten, we could all get along.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:34:19 -0800

I haven't teared up like that since that episode where Krusty the Clown reunites with his father.

By: adamms222

adamms222 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:34:25 -0800

chudmonkey: It just reminded me of every dude who constantly quotes Simpsons (or Anchorman or the Office) as if regurgitating these lines is akin to expressing his own original humor. So a comic about two people whose entire bond seems to hinge on their love of a TV show (no matter how awesome that show is, or was, to all of us) seems, well, pathetic (and not in a poignant , woe is them kind of way). The fact that they're also ugly was simply the clincher for me.

By: konolia

konolia — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:38:10 -0800

Call me when someone does this with O Brother Where Art Thou quotes.

By: lunit

lunit — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:39:45 -0800

Everytime people on the internet mention tear-ing up after reading something like this, I wonder just a little bit more if I'm actually an emotionless robot.

By: inthe80s

inthe80s — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:40:22 -0800

I liked it, and I don't see what's wrong with the artwork. I guess the haters want everything to look like really realistic looking like xkcd.

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:40:31 -0800

That's it, adamms222. I'm taking your caricature down from Mount Lushmore, and I'm pulling your favorite song out of the jukebox.

By: Slothrop

Slothrop — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:51:22 -0800

Thanks for posting this - I crawled all over the site and am quite impressed with Mrs. Sugar's talent (Mr. Sugar's comic is pretty good, too). The animated pieces are fun, and even the music experiments are great. I liked the Pug Davis comic more than the main linked comic, but I definitely agree with the folks who like the art. I thought the drawing was terrific - dynamic, unique and expressive.

By: Zambrano

Zambrano — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:53:33 -0800

For my generation The Simpsons is the central text. Like with Shakespeare there's a quote for every occasion. Just in case anyone missed that.

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:53:58 -0800

I'm curious: did most of you read this as fiction or non-fiction? I assumed it was the latter, but looking back over it I don't think it is. That certainly weakens the response I have to the work. If it's more-or-less true, it's a greatly moving story of friendship and a perfectly realized piece of reportage. If it's not, though, I find it to be an interesting but overly maudlin short story that feels a little undercooked. (Regardless, that suction-cup Homer on the pavement is such a nice touch.)

By: grippycat

grippycat — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:03:00 -0800

I actually know a scarey number of people with whom I really only communicate with via grunts, punctuated by Simpsons, Futurama, and Monty Python quotes. "You know what I blame this on the breakdown of? Society."

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:03:16 -0800

I wanted to review this with a snarky quote from Comic Book Guy, but I guess I'm not the right nerd for the job.

By: ninjew

ninjew — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:06:42 -0800

/clutches chest My heart hurts. Bacon up that sausage, boy!

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:10:25 -0800

Hell of an original premise there, bub.

By: Avenger50

Avenger50 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:14:16 -0800

Yeah didn't like it. Clever, but too much bathos.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:33:23 -0800

This is a highly accomplished work of intense formal control over the comic medium. I'm sure it's fiction, but that doesn't undermine it at all. The premise - "I wonder if I could tell a story in comics by restrictiong the dialog to Simpsons quotes" is in-and-of-itself brilliant, and the execution is astonishing. The decision to attempt to tackle a tragic story within the context of the determining approach is brave, well-taken, and well executed. The last page - the clouds - is a beautiful re-imagining of the Simpsons endtitles. I think it may also be a direct homage also to the inner-cover-final black page of Jamie Hernandez' Death of Speedy, one of the landmark stories of '80s indie comics.

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:39:45 -0800

Bart: Nothing you say can upset us. We're the MTV generation. Lisa: We feel neither highs or lows. Homer: Really? What's it like? Lisa: Ehh. [shrugs]

By: Flashman

Flashman — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:40:05 -0800

yeah.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:42:11 -0800

Today's "Don't Cry For Me, I'm Already Dead" post was, without a doubt, the most overrated comic post ever. Rest assured, I was on the internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:48:30 -0800

You know what? I totally missed the things that mwhybark pointed out--the fact that almost all the dialogue was Simpsons-based, and the meaning of the clouds--and I see now that I missed the level of control that Sugar was demonstrating here. I stand by the fact that it's a lot stronger as non-fiction that fiction, but I'd like to take back about 75% of my earlier complaints.

By: voltairemodern

voltairemodern — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:48:45 -0800

I wish the expressions on the characters' faces had been more...expressive. I don't mind ugliness by design, but here it seemed to restrict the characters' emotional range.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:15:28 -0800

Those aren't stink lines, they show motion!

By: everichon

everichon — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:28:05 -0800

That was good.

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:29:29 -0800

The last page - the clouds - is a beautiful re-imagining of the Simpsons endtitles. It's a scene from Barney Gumble's movie -- the source of the original quote. This bit: "The camera shows a time lapse view of clouds moving during the day, which turns to night, then back to day again."

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:37:57 -0800

I keep waiting for stupidsexyFlanders to weigh in.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:46:03 -0800

That's it, adamms222. I'm taking your caricature down from Mount Lushmore, and I'm pulling your favorite song out of the jukebox. "It's Raining Men"?!?

By: starman

starman — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:46:11 -0800

Nice read. I'm glad the last line didn't have anything to do with being a Viking anywhere.

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:46:24 -0800

Worst. Reading the thread. Ever.

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:54:23 -0800

evilcolonel: Not no more it ain't.

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:06:53 -0800

Teen 1: Oh, wonderful post. Way to go. Teen 2: Are you being sarcastic, dude? Teen 1: I don't even know anymore.

By: hellbient

hellbient — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:20:16 -0800

I regret nothing.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:22:07 -0800

I actually know a scarey number of people with whom I really only communicate with via grunts, punctuated by Simpsons, Futurama, and Monty Python quotes. Substitute The Big Lebowski for Futurama and that's pretty much my communication with the outside world at large. I once had an ex declare an ultimatum that unless I stopped quoting TBL, our relationship would end. The relationship ending certainly had other contributing factors, but really. This aggression will not stand, man. In other news: this comic was amazing.

By: avocet

avocet — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:37:16 -0800

What was the context of "don't cry for me, I'm already dead" again? I can hear the voice in my head...

By: avocet

avocet — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:39:31 -0800

It was easy enough to look that up, never mind.

By: cereselle

cereselle — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:48:04 -0800

My heart hurts. I bet your left arm's tingling, too!

By: duvatney

duvatney — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:54:04 -0800

This comic was all right. At least you could tell that the kids spoke in quotes because it was otherwise difficult for them to communicate with each other. I'm sure I would have liked it a lot more had I not (unwillingly) spent more combined time listening to people quote the Simpsons, South Park, etc. than I've spent watching the actual shows.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:02:09 -0800

Pretty cool. I think the art style is very interesting and it seems well suited to the subject. What was the context of "don't cry for me, I'm already dead" again? I can hear the voice in my head... It was the end of Barney's movie that he made for the Springfield Film Festival.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:26:26 -0800

No "So You're Going to Die" pamphlet. D'oh!

By: Ghidorah

Ghidorah — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:30:08 -0800

My long standing tradition of waking up, checking mefi, finding a post about comics, reading the comics, then feeling slightly to intensely crushed by them remains intact. I think the art was a choice, and whether or not you agree with it, it worked for some people (me included). Some people will decry the quoting, but it's just a substitute for shared experience. You've seen the same show I saw, we have something in common. It's a bond that can be difficult to come by in a world where we don't interact that much anymore.

By: nudar

nudar — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:37:39 -0800

I'm kinda with Adamms222 on this; didn't entirely like it. Felt as if the cartoon was not much more than a poorly built vehicle, an excuse if you will, to just spout non-stop Simpsons quotes in a narrative - think Terrance and Phillip and their farting. Don't get me wrong, I spent much of yesteryear speaking very fluent Simpsons with some of my friends, so yes there was a mild admiration for both the quantity and quality of classic lines crammed into the cartoon, but there was no real story to balance it all. You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:18:42 -0800

I've lost several old friends these past few years. Over time we had all spread apart to different cities and different lives. I miss getting the surprise phone call that always began "I'd like a pizza to go and no anchovies."

By: liquorice

liquorice — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:37:50 -0800

I shivered.

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:05:56 -0800

"I'd like a pizza to go and no anchovies." No anchovies? You've got the wrong man. I spell my name ... Danger!

By: Flashman

Flashman — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:10:03 -0800

"You're going down right now. We've got everything we need on you."

By: TheGoldenOne

TheGoldenOne — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:33:15 -0800

Back in high school I knew twin brothers with an encyclopedic knowledge of Simpsons trivia. One of the brothers died in a car accident not too long ago and while reading this, I substituted their faces. So yeah, this made me tear up a bit and damned if it wasn't too far off from someone's reality.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:38:42 -0800

I'm sort of surprised to see criticisms of the art, but I think part of it comes down to the rendering. It's very "fleshy" in the same way Paul Pope's work is, and stirs something up in my gut that isn't exactly uncanny valley, but isn't far off. It's really good and incredibly expressive. As for the contentious faces, they strongly remind me of Roberto Parada's portrait of Homer Simpson as a real person. Only in this story the idea's inverted, with the human characters becoming grotesquely cartoonish, as opposed to the cartoon character becoming grotesquely human. The characters were so ugly, I was actually hoping they would both die in the end... The fact that they're also ugly was simply the clincher for me. For your sake I hope you don't use public transit, or you'd lose your shit everytime you rode the bus*. *It's the chariot of the poor and very poor alike! But you can have the seat next to me only if you can answer me these questions three! Question the first...

By: Bonzai

Bonzai — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:44:05 -0800

I can't believe how cynical some of you are. That comic would embiggen even the coldest heart.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:05:01 -0800

Y'know, I started a new job once, and the young fellow who was training me must have mentioned something about "dental plan", and my reply was "Lisa needs braces!" He got very excited and called another co-worker over, telling him, "He's one of us!" Bonzai: That's a perfectly cromulent word.

By: nudar

nudar — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:14:37 -0800

I can't believe how cynical some of you are. posted by Bonzai at 12:44 PM Dear Mr Matthowie, There are too many cynics nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am NOT a crackpot.

By: DaDaDaDave

DaDaDaDave — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:23:18 -0800

(Regardless, that suction-cup Homer on the pavement is such a nice touch.) I think you mean that suction-cup Dancin' Homer. Oh, I've wasted my life.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:44:47 -0800

I did enjoy the "THE BART THE" T-shirt.

By: Hugonaut

Hugonaut — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:00:10 -0800

Simpsons quotes are a perfectly acceptable form of communication. I just used a quote in a play by post role playing game. Oh, I've said too much.

By: davejay

davejay — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:05:14 -0800

My father has been slowly sliding into the abyss of Lewy-Body Dementia, with a side dish of Parkinson's, for several years now. A few years ago, he broke his hip in the hospital, and nobody knew it for some period of time (at least weeks if not a few months, hard to tell) because he couldn't communicate the pain, until I visited and happened to ask him to rate his pain if he was feeling any on a scale of one to ten, and he started chanting "10...10...10..." The last time I visited, with my family (he's never been able to really acknowledge or speak to his grandkids, who are almost three now) he had no words and no reactions, other than to smile when he saw my kids. Since then, he's pretty much stopped eating and we're told that if the progression of the dementia is typical, he's probably got around two or three months before he'll choose to stop eating altogether, and so he's got hospice care in the meantime. And in all this time, the years of his gradual but inevitable decline, I've never cried, not even once. Then, while reading this comic, I realized that he and I were never close enough to have any shared experience like the one described in the comic that might have triggered some hidden, latent ability for him to speak or express himself on our last visit. And I've been crying like a baby for about ten minutes now, and am writing this comment more or less for the sole purpose of distracting myself into stopping so I don't wake up the kids. But I needed to cry about this, it's been long overdue, so thanks for this FPP.

By: sloe

sloe — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:36:42 -0800

have had a significant number of significant conversations entirely in simpsons quotes, have been brought close to tears by a couple episodes but (and respect to all those who have felt a kinship with these characters - or, the indescribably difficult position portrayed within) 1 frame in, someone had to die you know it, i know it, zorak know it alas poor alan, we barely knew ye no really we barely knew ye - and although this tiny glimpse of your kaleidoscope existence resonates with many, I merely congratulate you on a job well done

By: sixswitch

sixswitch — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:50:41 -0800

I liked the part where one of the incessant Simpsons quoters died. Art was good though.

By: adamms222

adamms222 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:54:52 -0800

Alvy Ampersand: I do ride public transit every day and, indeed, there are all types. However these characters looked more like Robocop's Emil post-toxic waste splash than any real-life folks.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:35:05 -0800

It's a scene from Barney Gumble's movie -- the source of the original quote. Good call, PMcD, and thanks!

By: cereselle

cereselle — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:26:36 -0800

But you can have the seat next to me only if you can answer me these questions three! No she can't. That seat's for my coin purse.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:14:44 -0800

Tastes like Grandma. [licks post] You're right! It does taste like Grandma!