Hey, fan art is real art. As a person whose never generated fans or fan art, I feel very confident speaking about this in strong opinions on the internet.
maybe a little bit more responsibility unless he some how falls backwards into riches
other wise he’d be another one of those stereotypical “my husband is helpless without me/doesn’t help out with the kids/basically treats me as a mom/maid”
I’ve never considered how that dynamic might manifest in a same sex relationship. /me ponders
not someone else
From persinal experience, mostly shit just doesn’t get done. Sometimes this is a blessing (the house does not actually need to look impressive to guests you don’t have) and sometimes it’s a curse (oh oops literally neither of us realized X needs to be done).
Our issues are in part caused by disability, like, I’m not treating my boyfriend like a maid because I just expect that of him, I’m doing it because each hospitalization is taking more and more time to recover from… Which is also something that never gets brought up re: the het dynamic… but they’re definitely also in part caused by us both having other priorities and that can be an issue.
Nova
Well it generally isn’t brought up in the het dynamic (as much) because women are as likely to be disabled as men are, and there is also the possibility of pregnancy which is a temporary but still difficult disability to work around. Yet women in het relationships are often expected to do the majority of the emotional and mental labour for the household, the housework, the child rearing, as well as taking care of their partner. Shile men in a het relationship often believe that working 40hrs entitles them to untouchable free time after even if it comes at their partner’s expense and often times don’t even notice the amount of pressure they’re putting on their partners (though there is the rare jerk who notices but doesn’t care).
The discussion of the het dynamic is about deeply internalised social pressures and sexism. While disability certainly impacts that (for one thing, women who become disabled or seriously ill are more likely to be left by their partners than men who become disabled or seriously ill), it does feel like a symptom of the issue at the moment. Or, at least, a separate issue to be discussed in its own light.
Intersectionality is so important, so I’m not suggesting that the issues aren’t related or don’t compound one another, but sometimes things do need to be discussed in isolation to begin working on the issue.
Nova
Shile = While
oops!
Axel
hey, no one warned me that you were me
TheCatCameBack
From my personal experience with wlw relationships, it’s about who has the most internalized sexism/mommy issues or who has the most spoons. The person who likes doing chores, or feels compelled to do chores, or feels guilty if they don’t do chores, or has more ability/time to do chores, does more chores.
His mom has pull at the school and they could afford to send Sal to boarding school and then both to university.
Sirksome
This is actually a bit of a mystery to me cause I have no idea how the Walkertons make money. We don’t really know how many of the parents actually earn a living but neither Charles or Linda really seem like they work to me. Yet somehow the Walkertons seem very comfortably in the middle class, maybe even upper middle considering Sal’s boarding school tuition you mentioned. I’m curious.
King Daniel
Maybe Linda runs an MLM
thejeff
It’s never really come up, but why would you think they don’t work? We haven’t seen enough of them to know, but also not even for it to be surprising that we haven’t seen it mentioned.
Don’t be fooled by his good looks and love of cartoons. Guy probably doesn’t know how to pay a bill, cook anything requiring more skill than boiling water, or pushing a button, pump gas, or have the capacity to command a child’s respect. He’s a project is what I’m saying. A hot project, who probably won’t cheat on you, but a project nonetheless.
Hm, when I was Walky’s age, I managed to burn ramen in the microwave. So don’t count him out just yet. If he ever learns that you can make larger quantities of certain tasties at home for less money and arguably less work (don’t have to go out and get them; they basically just cook themselves in the oven!), he’ll pick up at least some cooking quick-like.
Savail
Gah, not the oven, the stove. Yummy chicken nuggets from scratch work better on the stove. And then I guess a little oven time after if you want.
Lyle has made more progress in 2 sentences than Lucy has in however long she’s been hopelessly pining for Walky before Dorothy laid him up for her. I ship it!
i had a mental image of Walky in an open relationship with both Lucy and Lyle before i could stop myself, and now i can’t decide if i find that irresistible or revolting
Illusive as in illusion, elusive as in elude. Not trying to cause ruckus over a trivial spelling thing, just wanted to share a cute mnemonic that one of my grade school English teachers showed me.
Clif
on the other hand cartoons,, drawings that move, are pretty Illusive.
I wonder if there are inter-warring cartoon preferences in the Glenn household. Does Lyle like the DC/Dexter stuff like Lucy? Is he more of a Steven Universe/Avatar person? Does he consider Archer a cartoon?
They seem close in age. Dexter (whether the one with the lab or the one that murders people) is before their time. They’d have to look it up which requires special interest. Kinda the same with Avatar (the bending kind and the big blue cat people kind) both came out like 15 years ago. It’s probably more of a She-Ra remake/ Voltron remake versus Craig of the Creek/Teen Titans Go.
I’m around the same age as these guys and… Yeah, no, us kids at that age watched all those shows. There were tons of reruns back then.
Sirksome
I’m not saying the shows didn’t air, just that if Lucy’s 18 than she would be a year old when Avatar the Last Airbender first debuted. Dexter’s Lab ended before she was born. Both Avatar’s are popular enough to remain in cartoon relevancy plus Avatar later had Legend of Korra but knowing about Dexter would mean they had an active interest in old cartoons. It’s close to 30 years old.
But Nono wasn’t even talking about that Dexter and I have no idea what the televised history of fictional cartoon Dexter and Monkey Master is.
thejeff
The nice thing about it being a fictional series is that it can be tied to the comic timeline. It aired during their childhoods.
Lucy’s eyes in the last panel are concerning, I get the feeling Walky’s statement has something to do with it. That, or she is upset that her brother is about steal her boyfriend.
lol it would be a bit more awkward tho if more guys were openly bi , i can imagine there would be siblings stealing each others partners but i imagine that’s kinda an unspoken rule/awkward tho i have heard of ppl marrying their sibling’s ex or so
but idk if it’d be worth the drama considering you have to live with your sibling if it’s during your high school years lol other than enjoying being petty
Entirely possible, and I don’t blame her. His behavior is getting old real fast, and it wasn’t all that funny to start with. Sorry, but I’m just not on the Lyle train.
spriteless aunty
Only child, or did you and your siblings have bigger threats to put that energy to use than teasing each other?
Or younger child who got teased. 😛
Daibhid C
Here’s my position: Yes, Lyle seems incredibly annoying. However, he is incredibly annoying in pretty much exactly the same way Walky is, and he’s aiming this at Walky. And much as I like Walky, it’s kind of fun to see him on the receiving end of this stuff.
huesatlight
Walky might end up being friends with him because of it. It will annoy him sometimes, embarrass him sometimes, but it will free him. I think Walky thinks (consciously or subconsciously) there has to be someone in everyone’s orbit that’s “the funny one”. Lyle in Walky’s orbit could relieve that pressure.
101 thoughts on “Normal”
Ana Chronistic
Everybody Loves Walky
Ana Chronistic
I once received two joke drawings of a less-known character of mine, and I told the artist, “now there are as many fan arts of him as real arts”
True Survivor
Hey, fan art is real art. As a person whose never generated fans or fan art, I feel very confident speaking about this in strong opinions on the internet.
Ana Chronistic
immediately regretted saying real instead of “official” but apparently I have COVID now so I’m even more tired than usual! =/
AbacusWizard
I love the phrasing of “real arts”
Carla's #2 Fan
You have a webcomic?
Doctor_Who
Easy come, easy go, Lucy. In fairness, I didn’t see the word “dibs” on any of those texts you sent Lyle, so Walky’s up for grabs. Them’s the rules.
Maybe you could seduce Sal away from Danny as a replacement? How are your Mario Kart skills?
bootshivers
Lyle my beloved
Clif
Lucy’s getting the brother all right.
BBCC
I adore Lyle. I hope we get more than in Shortpacked.
Regalli
He officially has as of now per the alt text, but yes!
The Wellerman
Yeah! I sure hope he stays around longer than Liz ?
Purblebirb
Feels like we already are, even
Thag Simmons
That bar has already been cleared
RassilonTDavros
I love Lyle already
Yotomoe
Yeah I’d marry Walky. He seems exactly my speed for a husband.
anon
maybe a little bit more responsibility unless he some how falls backwards into riches
other wise he’d be another one of those stereotypical “my husband is helpless without me/doesn’t help out with the kids/basically treats me as a mom/maid”
Dana
I’ve never considered how that dynamic might manifest in a same sex relationship. /me ponders
not someone else
From persinal experience, mostly shit just doesn’t get done. Sometimes this is a blessing (the house does not actually need to look impressive to guests you don’t have) and sometimes it’s a curse (oh oops literally neither of us realized X needs to be done).
Our issues are in part caused by disability, like, I’m not treating my boyfriend like a maid because I just expect that of him, I’m doing it because each hospitalization is taking more and more time to recover from… Which is also something that never gets brought up re: the het dynamic… but they’re definitely also in part caused by us both having other priorities and that can be an issue.
Nova
Well it generally isn’t brought up in the het dynamic (as much) because women are as likely to be disabled as men are, and there is also the possibility of pregnancy which is a temporary but still difficult disability to work around. Yet women in het relationships are often expected to do the majority of the emotional and mental labour for the household, the housework, the child rearing, as well as taking care of their partner. Shile men in a het relationship often believe that working 40hrs entitles them to untouchable free time after even if it comes at their partner’s expense and often times don’t even notice the amount of pressure they’re putting on their partners (though there is the rare jerk who notices but doesn’t care).
The discussion of the het dynamic is about deeply internalised social pressures and sexism. While disability certainly impacts that (for one thing, women who become disabled or seriously ill are more likely to be left by their partners than men who become disabled or seriously ill), it does feel like a symptom of the issue at the moment. Or, at least, a separate issue to be discussed in its own light.
Intersectionality is so important, so I’m not suggesting that the issues aren’t related or don’t compound one another, but sometimes things do need to be discussed in isolation to begin working on the issue.
Nova
Shile = While
oops!
Axel
hey, no one warned me that you were me
TheCatCameBack
From my personal experience with wlw relationships, it’s about who has the most internalized sexism/mommy issues or who has the most spoons. The person who likes doing chores, or feels compelled to do chores, or feels guilty if they don’t do chores, or has more ability/time to do chores, does more chores.
Johan
Ain’t now way he’s not a trust fund kid.
His mom has pull at the school and they could afford to send Sal to boarding school and then both to university.
Sirksome
This is actually a bit of a mystery to me cause I have no idea how the Walkertons make money. We don’t really know how many of the parents actually earn a living but neither Charles or Linda really seem like they work to me. Yet somehow the Walkertons seem very comfortably in the middle class, maybe even upper middle considering Sal’s boarding school tuition you mentioned. I’m curious.
King Daniel
Maybe Linda runs an MLM
thejeff
It’s never really come up, but why would you think they don’t work? We haven’t seen enough of them to know, but also not even for it to be surprising that we haven’t seen it mentioned.
Sirksome
Don’t be fooled by his good looks and love of cartoons. Guy probably doesn’t know how to pay a bill, cook anything requiring more skill than boiling water, or pushing a button, pump gas, or have the capacity to command a child’s respect. He’s a project is what I’m saying. A hot project, who probably won’t cheat on you, but a project nonetheless.
Savail
Hm, when I was Walky’s age, I managed to burn ramen in the microwave. So don’t count him out just yet. If he ever learns that you can make larger quantities of certain tasties at home for less money and arguably less work (don’t have to go out and get them; they basically just cook themselves in the oven!), he’ll pick up at least some cooking quick-like.
Savail
Gah, not the oven, the stove. Yummy chicken nuggets from scratch work better on the stove. And then I guess a little oven time after if you want.
Sirksome
Lyle has made more progress in 2 sentences than Lucy has in however long she’s been hopelessly pining for Walky before Dorothy laid him up for her. I ship it!
Nono
We haven’t had a M/M ship since the timeskip. Give us something!
milu
i had a mental image of Walky in an open relationship with both Lucy and Lyle before i could stop myself, and now i can’t decide if i find that irresistible or revolting
(i mean)
(it can be both)
Rose by Any Other Name
I love Lucy’s eyes throughout.
justin8448
Lucy, the great connoisseur, continues to have great faces!
https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/faces
justin8448
*great connoisseur of faces!
Not sure how I messed that up.
Amaya/Polaris
Maybe she just has great taste!
Then again, she’s dating Walky for a serious boyfriend.RassilonTDavros
Dumbing of Age Book 13: My Intentions Are To Not Watch Cartoons Alone
True Survivor
Its not all I want out of life, but it is a surprising large (and yet illusive) part of it.
Xujhan
Illusive as in illusion, elusive as in elude. Not trying to cause ruckus over a trivial spelling thing, just wanted to share a cute mnemonic that one of my grade school English teachers showed me.
Clif
on the other hand cartoons,, drawings that move, are pretty Illusive.
True Survivor
That is useful. Thank you.
Needfuldoer
Amazing what a difference a comma makes.
“My Intentions are to Not Watch Cartoons, Alone.”
Nono
I wonder if there are inter-warring cartoon preferences in the Glenn household. Does Lyle like the DC/Dexter stuff like Lucy? Is he more of a Steven Universe/Avatar person? Does he consider Archer a cartoon?
Sirksome
They seem close in age. Dexter (whether the one with the lab or the one that murders people) is before their time. They’d have to look it up which requires special interest. Kinda the same with Avatar (the bending kind and the big blue cat people kind) both came out like 15 years ago. It’s probably more of a She-Ra remake/ Voltron remake versus Craig of the Creek/Teen Titans Go.
Nono
I was gonna say Dexter the Head Alien… though that doesn’t exclude him having a lab OR murdering people.
Blume
I’m around the same age as these guys and… Yeah, no, us kids at that age watched all those shows. There were tons of reruns back then.
Sirksome
I’m not saying the shows didn’t air, just that if Lucy’s 18 than she would be a year old when Avatar the Last Airbender first debuted. Dexter’s Lab ended before she was born. Both Avatar’s are popular enough to remain in cartoon relevancy plus Avatar later had Legend of Korra but knowing about Dexter would mean they had an active interest in old cartoons. It’s close to 30 years old.
But Nono wasn’t even talking about that Dexter and I have no idea what the televised history of fictional cartoon Dexter and Monkey Master is.
thejeff
The nice thing about it being a fictional series is that it can be tied to the comic timeline. It aired during their childhoods.
Both back in 2010 when the comic started and now.
Suet
Someone better turn off Walky’s Demo mode before dejection begins
Kyrik Michalowski
Lucy’s eyes in the last panel are concerning, I get the feeling Walky’s statement has something to do with it. That, or she is upset that her brother is about steal her boyfriend.
anon
lol it would be a bit more awkward tho if more guys were openly bi , i can imagine there would be siblings stealing each others partners but i imagine that’s kinda an unspoken rule/awkward tho i have heard of ppl marrying their sibling’s ex or so
but idk if it’d be worth the drama considering you have to live with your sibling if it’s during your high school years lol other than enjoying being petty
True Survivor
Quite possibly. However, I think she might just be pissed he went right back to needling Walky after she asked him to behave.
Wizard
Entirely possible, and I don’t blame her. His behavior is getting old real fast, and it wasn’t all that funny to start with. Sorry, but I’m just not on the Lyle train.
spriteless aunty
Only child, or did you and your siblings have bigger threats to put that energy to use than teasing each other?
Or younger child who got teased. 😛
Daibhid C
Here’s my position: Yes, Lyle seems incredibly annoying. However, he is incredibly annoying in pretty much exactly the same way Walky is, and he’s aiming this at Walky. And much as I like Walky, it’s kind of fun to see him on the receiving end of this stuff.
huesatlight
Walky might end up being friends with him because of it. It will annoy him sometimes, embarrass him sometimes, but it will free him. I think Walky thinks (consciously or subconsciously) there has to be someone in everyone’s orbit that’s “the funny one”. Lyle in Walky’s orbit could relieve that pressure.
JD
if lyle stealing his sisters man is what it would take to get bi walky confirmed well i’ll take it, sorry lucy
milu
i’ll sign that petition
bagge
He’s totally nailing this whole ‘normal’ thing
milu
being normal is easy, you just say out loud whatever is going through your brain, right? …right???
The Wellerman
Eh, you humans and your shockingly unstable concept of “””normal”””. When will you learn?
milu
wait, you think it’s a problem that the concept of “normal” is unstable? i think that’s its saving grace.
Stephen Bierce
*plays Luke Ski’s “Snoopy The Dogg” on the hacked Muzak*
huesatlight
I can see them becoming friends, and Walky being significantly less of a goofball around him.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Is this a reference to Leah and Rachel?
Chronos
So we’re going to learn a lot more about Lyle this time around, I take it.
Needfuldoer
IIRC he appeared twice in Shortpacked!, so he’s already tied himself.
Airyu
Poor Lucy but I am *living* for her expressions
Kravis