It’s Shortpacked!‘s seventh anniversary! It’s my longest-running webcomic. And we’re apparently celebrating this anniversary with three characters who didn’t exist when the strip began, in a location far outside the toy store. I take a small amount of pride in that.
Shortpacked! by David Willis
Toys are serious business.
Convention appearances:
Calgary Expo Calgary, AB: April 26-28
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Multiplex
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
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Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
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Oh man I love Leslie’s mom.
So did Mike – for a nickel.
With his penis…in her FAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCEEEEEE
Jesus Christ. -_-
For a nickel.
Yeah this woman is pretty amazing. Though I’m kind of starting to see a theme in the mothers in the Walkyverse.
Please find some way to make her work at shortpacked.
She could probably just buy it from Galasso. Anybody who has a private helicopter operational, is likely to have the funds for a takeover, hostile or otherwise. Besides, I think Mme. Bean would relish the idea of joining Galasso’s campaign of global usurpation and domination.
Maybe Jacob could have sex with her mom too.
Interesting.
I predict drunk helicopter shenanigans.
I…really…oh…wow. Congrats!
Ah, mothers.
Were I in Malaya’s position, I’d want more to drink as well.
She’s definitely gonna need something stronger….
Like a large Jack & Jolt!
that like with that gravatar is beyond scary
Concider it a bonus!
The idea that my attempted date’s mother is pouring me whiskey would be a good reason to have more, if not something stronger.
So Leslie likes brown girls best huh?
Very Interesting…
She apparently normally likes them ‘less brown’
No it seems that she was worried that her mother wouldn’t like her girlfriend to be too brown.
I don’t know that’s even what it seems like. Leslie’s not really getting a word in edgewise. Mrs. Bean could be being overly judgmental and jumping to conclusions, and Leslie’s coming across as defensive because she’s probably always in “defensive mode” around her parents.
Well, at least, that’s one possibility her mom thought of, anyways.
I highly doubt it actually had anything to do with it. Seems to me her mum is saying something more along the lines of “You’re going to hell for sleeping with another girl; who the hell cares what race they are?”
I bet she’d be into green girls too. She likes sci-fi, so I’m sure those Star Trek babes have made at least a couple of appearances in her imagination.
Yeah. Robin, Malaya…don’t see any white girls in there.
You people are overthinking this. White female cast members her age: Amber, Conquest. Non-white female cast members her age: Robin, Roz, Malaya. And Sidney Yus. Even putting aside that she was busy being in a relationship for virtually the entire time to date and wasn’t even shopping the market, you don’t need a racial preference when the entire dating pool has a tint to it.
You are most likely correct but overthinking stuff is half the reason we post comment.
The true song of the internet.
See what brown can do for you.
Stick a “you weren’t here!” sticker on my door rather than bother to ring the doorbell?
Malaya and Leslie’s Mom have the same approach to annoying conversations and topics that I do. Alcohol might not solve problems, but passing out drunk does make the conversation stop.
And this would be a problem because…..?
I love Leslie’s mom.
At it’s heart, this scene is still just a parent embarrassing their child in front of their significant other.
What she’s saying is “I’m only concerned for your soul”, but what I’m reading is “I have a book of naked baby pictures!”
Everything a parent says to your date is secretly this.
Secretly?
Until you get married. Then there’s really no point to it.
Leslie’s mom kinda looks like a much older Dorothy.
This is really good news, because a year ago, that would have read, “Leslie’s mom kinda looks like a much older blonde-Amber.”
Progress!
I was thinking “much older female David Willis.”
That’s pretty uncanny actually.
They all have that round hairstyle with the little spike in the middle coming down between their eyes, after all.
It’s a bang style that is simple to draw consistently, matches his style, and looks good in profile. It’s not surprising he’s fond of it.
Cannot unsee it now.
Me neither!
God dammit.
you sir, win the chance to find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of all the internets you just won.
mouthwash and/or breath mints are optional. burning off all of your tastebuds beforehand is recommended.
Considering what most of the internet is composed of, I wouldn’t eat it.
I’d flush it.
Okay, Leslie’s Mom is officially my favorite character in the strip. Even more than Galasso. No — wait — I have to choose? Gahhhh.
Going with what someone else suggested above: Mrs. Bean buys out Shortpacked from Galasso, but keeps him on board, lending her resources to his attempt to take over the world.
Also somewhere along the line Mrs. Bean/Galasso would happen.
YES PLEASE!
GALASSO/MRS. BEAN FOREVER.
Wow. So this is how a ship starts.
Seeing a nervous, slightly scared Malaya is priceless
“Browner” hahaha XD
Hell if I was Malaya I’d just ask her to leave the JD
Congrats on the anniversary! Looking forward to the many more comics to come.
Isn’t Malaya underage? Mrs. Bean is breakin the law, breakin the law!
I don’t think so…. pretty sure she isn’t *THAT* much younger than the others.
Malaya is of drinking age.
Which answers the first question that popped into my head when I saw Malaya’s reaction to being offered Jack Daniel’s.
See, this is what throws me. Wacky hijinks and unexpected chaos, sure, but Leslie thought an arrangement likely to lead to awkwardness with her mother was the right way to start the “best night ever”.
Robin could come up with a screw-up of equal magnitude, but that would at least be based on entirely misreading people or letting an impulse run free from any reigns, but would even her poor judgment lead her toward a path like this one?
Something isn’t making sense even by the most nonsensical standards of the series we’ve seen. I suspect it’s all going to click soon, but for now, I am very confused.
Maybe the goal is to create a situation in which people actually start to feel sorry for Malaya? Nah. For some reason, the whole situation makes me think she’s wound up as the protagonist in a slasher film with a downer ending… assuming you are at least ambivalent toward her character.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying this is poorly done. I may decide I don’t care for it at all by the end, or I might finally get it sometime ’round about 2015, but I’m sure the scene will accomplish what Mr. Willis wants of it.
It’s entirely possible that on some levels, Leslie is less self-aware of her personal problems and failings than Robin is. This would be why she’s still unable to see some of Malaya’s own failings, too, because Leslie (that I’ve noted) prefers to try to see the good in people. Until the evidence piles up so high it’s hard for her to ignore, that is.
Now, this next part is just a bit of personal speculation, but so far I’ve seen it played out with Robin. I’m not sure if it still holds true with others – need more data. Hypothetically, we now have Leslie at the “epiphany” stage of things – she also sees the downsides to a person, yah? If the downsides to that person has caused her enough personal harm, it’s entirely possible that she suddenly starts to focus on *just* those traits, and kind of forgets all about those positives she was so glowing and bubbly and happy about before.
I may be completely off with this, I don’t know yet. I do know though, that I’ve had a couple of friends (male and female both) that have done some of what Leslie has. Be so positive about someone who is almost but not *quite* treating them badly yet who still has enough good traits that, okay, maybe it’s not such a bad thing, personal growth can still happen, right? And then when things did blow up, suddenly that person was oh just the *worst* person ever who they didn’t want to see again.
Basically, Leslie is probably still smack in the middle of a vicious cycle of repeated bad decisions until she decides to stop being willing to put up with so much negative behavior. So perhaps her pulling something so weird in the middle of the night like this isn’t too far-fetched…
(please read with a bad Germanic accent for best effect)Nien, Nien, you see, Ms. Bean is still on a deep level in love with this Robin DeSanto, and is subconsciously making decisions that will result in situations similar to those Robin would most likely cause. In this manner she fulfills the need for chaos that she misses since the end of her relationship with robin. – Dr. I.M. Fraude Psycobabblist.
Actually, that
kind ofmakes sense. Robin did wacky things, but Leslie loved her anyway — or did she love Robin because of the wackiness? If the latter is true, it’s entirely possible that Leslie is trying to recreate some of what she had with Robin by getting into some hi-jinks of her own.Unfortunately for her, this situation doesn’t look like it will be as much fun (for her) as any of the stunts Robin pulled.
The accent actually helps.
Fail, delete above.
“ I am only concerned about your soulI only hate gays and bi’s, [I'm] not racist. FTFY. She still gets my vote for best character… is there something wrong with me?bit of a leap, there.
why did I read that as “I hate gays and bJs?”
Sounds like someone’s a missionary man.
And Mrs. Bean is now awesome. But that last line confuses me since it should be something like “I’m only concerned about your soul, not our gene pool.” (though racial purity and whatnot won’t apply to gay people)
She is “only concerned about [her] soul” vs “racist.
Not concerned about her “soul” vs her “racist”.
I demand we see Robin meeting Mrs. Bean!
Happy Anniversary!
And more “soul-saving’! W00t-ness!
(I detect a theme, here!)
Somewhere between the 3rd and 7th panel, this became Malaya’s most awkward date ever.
Is anyone else imagining Malaya as Oliver Twist, asking “Please sir, I would like some more” at the end?
Oh, thank goodness I wasn’t the only one…
Me three.
Please make this strip go on forever. Oh please!!!!
Willis’s new comic – Beans And Life!
Are Leslie’s parents English? I noticed the “fancied” in there.
It seems like Leslie’s mom is kind of okay with Leslie being a lesbian. She’s more okay than my mom is, which should tell you my mom’s pretty bad–she doesn’t even want to hear about it.
She’s being nice to Malaya, too.
Pretty awkward for Malaya, though. I’m brown, but I already know I am, I don’t need people telling me it. lol.
So… Mrs Bean’s version of God has eased up on the homosexuality thing, and is now just worried about interracial relationships?
… Is that a step forward, or a step back? Or a step to the side and then a step backwards, but with an annoying tendency to take a while to put the other foot a bit further back than the first one which is due to an unfortunate banana accident OH GOD MY ANALOGY IS EXPLODING!
Other way around, her version of God cares about gay-ness, but not interracial relationships.
I know Mike will do anyone’s moms….. but Leslie’s mom would be a challenge even for Mike
Jesus! D:>
WHY did you feel the need to bring that up? Now that image is permanently etched in my brain for all eternity!
Not at all. Mike’s male. It would be perfectly acceptable for him to do her.
For a nickel.
Hell, I’d hit it.
Leslie’s mother is hilarious.
I think Malaya just realized there are situations she can’t just attempt to solve through bitchcraft.
Malaya, a bitch? Since when?
Sure, she was rather hostile and grumpy to her stalkerish roommate. Shocking.
And she’s not thrilled about working retail. Unbelievable.
And she was relatively polite but uninformed and uninterested in the geek world and hobbies. Unforgivable.
And she wasn’t thrilled by an acquaintance’s pregnancy. Horrors.
Oh, and she’s also nice and pleasant to Leslie, driving a wedge into the side of the already-sinking Robin/Leslie ship. Which, more and more, I suspect is her real crime.
Malaya has been an asshole pretty much since Day One, bro. I like the character too, she’s hilarious like a snarkier pug-nosed Mike with boobs, but she started her arc pissin’ in Post Toasties and never has gotten any less cereal-defilin’.
She’s a cereal killer!
Follow your nose.. It always knows…
We’ve seen her in less than perfectly optimal personal circumstances from day one, too. She’s certainly no Ms. Pollyanna Mary Sunshine, but she seemed passably polite to mostly everyone that hasn’t been Robin or her roommates (wonder how she fell in with them), and I note that scenes of her interacting with customers have been almost completely absent, because she’s likely less of a bitch to them than, say, Ethan; that fact would dampen her “bitch cred”.
Admittedly my position is somewhat a reaction to the ludicrous hatred the people around have for her, but I think there’s an argument to be made that she’s been painted in the worst possible light so far, for dramatic/comedy purposes.
And of course she mocked the entire IDEA of reproduction, was an asshole to the roommate who just wanted the goddamned rent, and pretty consistently is a huge twat to every character that ISN’T Leslie.
Calling her a bitch and hating her are entirely separate things. I like Malaya as a character but anybody can see that her personality is solidly bitchy. For some people that’s probably why they like her (like this guy). If you call Mike a bastard, no one gets on your case for it; he is what he is. Malaya has no qualms about letting someone have it if she thinks they deserve it or getting up to no good just because she feels like it. Love it or hate it, they have a word for that.
I find myself hoping that the next strip is going to open with Leslie saying “Mom, if you’d let me get a word in, I wasn’t sneaking past you, I was trying to be quiet because I thought you’d be asleep because of that thing you have to do tomorrow morning” or something.
Or maybe I’m misreading the pacing and Leslie has had time to reply to her mom but has not found the words to do so.
Why was Leslie’s mom drinking coffee in the kitchen in the dark anyway?
Drink enough coffee and you see colors that don’t exist in nature, man.
I’ve wondered about this and it occurs to me that if you are going to take a ride in a helicopter you have to have some things done ahead of time or a large part of your date is pre-flight preparations. So Mrs. Bean probably had clues Leslie was coming.
I think the next strip will open with Leslie asking why her mom is up, anyway.
Then Mike exits the bedroom, hands her a nickel, and leaves wordlessly.
It will really add a lot to the whole “concerned for your soul” conversation.
Am I the only one who doesn’t like Leslie’s mom? I’m glad that she says she’s not racist, but I’d like to point out that she brought up the race of Leslie’s girlfriends completely out of nowhere twice (why would she feel it necessary to specify “that *hispanic* congresswoman you dated”? How many congresswomen has Leslie dated, exactly?). Nothing she has said thus far has been racist, but frankly she keeps bringing it up.
And there’s the homophobia thing. She may not be frothing at the mouth, but she also can’t resist the urge to harp on the whole “I’m only concerned about your soul” and “I may not agree with your life choices” bit. And while she’s evidently annoyed that Leslie hasn’t been keeping her up to date on those disagreeable life choices, she also seems to have found it annoying that Leslie actually wanted her to meet Robin (whose name she evidently never bothered to learn).
I’m not saying Mrs. Bean’s necessarily a terrible person, I’m just saying that she’s not coming off very well as far as I’m concerned.
Given that previous information about her suggested a raving anti-gay fundy, she could be a LOT worse. She’s being civil, to start with, and funny. So while she might be a horrible person underneath it all, she’s still defied expectations and comes off pretty good in comparison.
But yes, I do sense an undercurrent of hostility there. We’ll see what happens.
really? I’m not getting any hostility at all. Well, irritation at finding her daughter sneaking into the house after she’s moved out without calling ahead and hoping not to get caught (wow that got away from me).
And she’s hurt that this is how her daughter happened to introduce Malaya…..but I see this as more one of those facepalmy “I can’t believe you said that mom” moments that occasionally happen. She doesn’t mean any harm.
I see two possible reasons to include the word “hispanic”:
1. Willis needed to establish to casual readers that Robin isn’t white, or else the “brown” stuff wouldn’t make sense. A casual reader that doesn’t know Robin’s last name might think she’s just tanned.
2. Maybe most congresspeople (and especially congresswomen) are white, so being hispanic is something noteworthy? (I’m not American so I don’t know for sure. I know at least American presidents tend to be white. Although the current one is browner than usual.)
I do think there’s something to be said for “I don’t approve of what you do, but I love and respect you” (at least that’s the tone I’m hearing) as a huge, huge step up from the more (stereo)typical “I don’t approve of what you do and my love is conditional on you changing to fit my image of what you should be”
It may not be ideal, but sometimes it’s the best you can get from an older generation that’s set in their ways and beliefs.
I think it’s been said earlier that originally neither parent would speak to Leslie, but eventually her mother decided that seeing her daughter occasionally was important — but that it’s still pretty awkward, she still holds the same values as before, etc. Really, this is about the level of awkwardness/attempted-to-hide hostility you should expect from such a situation.
The situation may be extremely awkward and rising… but one cannot say Mrs Bean is a bad host XD
Too true. At least she’s courteous enough to offer Malaya a buzz while dealing with awkward family issues.
Nice. Happy anniversary
And actually I find this comic cute, a sign of how things always change / especially in a Willis comic.
I don’t quite get the “concern about your soul” comment. Why does being “brownier” have to do with her soul?
And although this is a very awkward situation, the mom does bring up good points. It does seem that Leslie has some kind of shameful feelings about Malaya, particularly if she was very quick to introduce Robin to her mother.
So does Leslie’s family have something against ethnicity as well as sexuality? That was something I didn’t quite expect.
If I recall correctly, Leslie once mentioned that her parents were super-orthodox Catholics who also frowned on anything sexual unless it was for reproduction.
Mrsa. Bean probabily doesn’t like the rebound so much and (quite humorously) guessed that she was hiding Malaya because she thought they were racist.
Finally caught up on Shortpacked, and just in time for the anniversary too. More pregnancy antics Amber please.
Yeeaa, since I love shortpacked, I’m gonna let this strip slide.
Most romantic date EVER!
I’ve found the people who say “I’m not *insert choice of bigotry here*” usually are.
No no, it goes if they say “I’m not a [flavor of bigot], but….” they then say the most [flavor of bigoted] thing ever.
Leslie’s Mom looks like an older version of Amber … wait a minute … is Amber a time traveller? Is Leslie actually Amber and Mike’s daughter?
Is Leslie the Walky-verse version of Cable?
That would be awesome, but isn’t she a bit normal to be Mike’s spawn?
Not judging by the comments. Amber’s not a religious anti-gay type.
As an aside, I have a feeling Leslie was trying to convince Malaya that they were sneaking into some random rich person’s house for random make-outs, under the assumption that the danger/thrill of it might be romantic to someone like Malaya?
“I’m only concerned about your soul”
*shudder*
Sorry, religion PTSD
ah yes, that delightful undercurrent of “i don’t like this thing about you so obviously you’re doing it on purpose. probably to spite me, your mother, because it couldn’t possibly be a natural inclination or inherent to your personality or anything like that.”
Pleasebethewhitecoke pleasebetehwhitecoke pleasebethewhitecoke
I don’t like anybody in that room. What’s that robot car doin’ ?
Is Malaya a Muslim Apostate or what?
Filipinos are far, far more likely to be Catholic than Muslim, and Fil-Ams even moreso.
Whup, just noticed she said “life choices.” Awesome. I now only like 1 of the three people in that room!
I gotta admit, a girlfriend that asks my Mom for alcohol would be an interesting “meet the parents” event.
Not sure she’d give her straight Jack, but I guess anything is possible…
Wow, your site really is busted. Good luck getting it up and running again!
Oh wow. Leslie’s mom is completely different than what I’d expected!
There’s something I don’t quite get here. From earlier stories, I figured that Mrs. Bean had only contacted her daughter after Leslie’s breakup with Robin. Pre-Malaya, whenever she discussed her parents, she always ended the story with “and then they kicked me out.”
It’s no big deal, but I’d love to know a little more about the day Mrs. Bean met Robin, and how all three parties involved handled that one.
Or wait, did they actually MEET? Or was Leslie simply calling Mrs. Bean and saying “I can’t wait for you to meet her,” and was Mrs. Bean putting it off until it became a non-issue?
Confused.
Leslie had been talking to her mother again as of this strip, at the latest: http://www.shortpacked.com/2008/comic/book-7/10-palin-comparison/wolves/
Hmm. I’d sort of figured that even though the helicopter was technically in her dad’s name, she’d had the use of it since before her marriage, and they hadn’t reclaimed it when they kicked her out. But I guess by Occam’s razor, her getting the occasional loan of it would make more sense.
Wow, apparently I’ve read seven years of archives in a week. I’m waaay to addicted to your comics, David!