Dratted flashback posterization. We can’t see if he’s wearing a red shirt.
Annonymouse
Kind of funny historically speaking since back in the day only elite military units wore red supposedly due to always getting their uniforms stained with the oppositions blood or conversely not letting the opposition know you were wounded.
DSL
Which units wore the brown pants?
The Inquisitor
Francis wore the brown pants. Francis.
Jack
How far “back in the day” are we talking about, here? Because there were a few centuries when the entirety of the British army was in red, and a few decades at least when the entirety of the French army was in red trousers. “Les pantalons rouges, c’est la France” and all that.
papayapunkpixie
He’s totes gonna be the one who teaches Sal to rob the convenience store
– Sal, Marcie’s known you since you were five. She knows where this is going – straight off a cliff.
– It’s sweet Marcie doesn’t seem to blame Sal for what happened, although she seems to have more realistic expectations for her situation (and as such may not appreciate those comments – or, at least, not believe them).
– Sal’s face in that last panel. She’s BREAKING ME guys.
– Sal’s still clinging to that hope of this being temporary. Thanks a LOT, Charles.
– Shit. Sal’s smoking already? Oww. That can seriously mess you up. It can take up to 15 years to reverse damage done by cigarettes. I found that out googling health benefits for quitting for a story (and kinda felt pretty good about making my parents quit 18 years ago).
– I’m not quite sure what Marcie would mean. That Sal doesn’t smoke and Marcie wouldn’t approve? If so, why did Marcie take up smoking? Does it mean she already smokes? Did she meant Sal doesn’t chill?
– This Asher kid worries me. Sal’s said before she and Marcie have bad taste in people, other than each other, so I’m worrying we’re going to see this.
I mean, she wouldn’t be wrong. Sal feels things very intensely, but because of SOME PEOPLE (*cough*Walkertonparents*cough*) she’s very bad at understanding, processing or articulating them and its like pulling teeth to get her to share them.
She was, but that was after this. I was kinda hoping against hope that was her first time in an attempt to make herself look badass (before she ended up taking it up for real).
Alanari
Yes, but assuming that the surgery has to be done soon after the injury, we aren’t that far away from that day. We are probably going to see her descent into a bad social circle pretty fast. And I think Asher might be one of the persons involved in her first robbery.
BBCC
Marcie lost her voice when Sal was 12 and the robbery happened when she was 13,so the longest is about a year. And that’s assuming a helpful surgery even exists in the first place. Other than Charles’ wishful thinking,we’ve heard nothing about a surgery to help Marcie, just that her medical bills from going to the hospital are sky high.
Alanari
I’m assuming there is one. Marcie probably got an overview of her options at the hospital and if there wasn’t a way, she’d probably have told Sal by now.
AJ
Whether Sal would listen to what a doctor has to say is debatable, though. She seems like the type to stubbornly refuse to accept the worst case scenario.
BBCC
Except Marcie doesn’t seem to believe any of what Sal says about her situation and we know Sal is stubborn – especially since she feels guilty about this and her dad did not help. And the doctors at the hospital were already talking about how it may be permanent after stabilizing her, so I’m guessing even if there IS a surgery, it’s probably a long shot.
I mean, he’s smoking and shoplifting and doesn’t seem much older. He could probably use a bare minimum ‘Everything okay at home, bud?’
Regalli
Yeah, guessing he’s in their age range, so until we hear otherwise I include him in the ‘somebody help these children!’ part. But if he is somehow the point of contact for Sal’s involvement in the robberies then him helping will not work out very well long-term, so I don’t want him to be doing that part. (Also I don’t really expect 12-14-year-olds to really be able to provide the kind of help any of them need now because, y’know, kids. Huge chunks of their brains are still developing.)
Huh. . I’ve never seen Ashur spelled with an E before. Weird. And this strip continues down the downward spiral of what led Sal to try and rob the convenience store. It is still heartbreaking.
Aaaaaaand I know it doesn’t really matter, but I was meaning to link to the earliest mention of Asher in the Bible, and… I screwed up. I should have presented this verse instead, from the fuckfest that is Genesis 30:
Here’s where I wish I knew how to do IPA character entities…
“Ashur” in its many latin-alphabet transliterations is a name that probably goes back at least far as the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (“the Assyrian king with the soul of a librarian,” as Susan Wise Bauer calls him). If you really want to be a pedant about spelling that name, cuneiform or GTFO.
Durandal_1707
“Asher”, though, as in the tribe of Israel and the likely namesake of the character in this strip, is Hebrew, not cuneiform. Apparently it means “happiness” in Hebrew.
According to Wikipedia, “some scholars” think that it may be linked to either Asherah or Ashur, but it seems there’s not enough evidence for them to make a stronger statement than that:
Eeeenteresting… I wonder if there’s a connection there. I know there was a significant overlap between Mesopotamian mythology and pre-Jewish Canaanite mythology, but then again, there’s absolutely no connection between Daniel and Danel.
Durandal_1707
I’m no Hebrew scholar, so I can’t really tell you, although it would be interesting to know whether “Ashur” means anything like “happy” in Sumerian or the language of any other culture that worshipped that deity. That would seem to increase the odds of a connection.
What I *can* tell you, as someone who came from a fundie upbringing similar to Willis’, is that the Israelite tribe is almost certainly the inspiration for the name of this character that W created.
thejeff
It’s also apparently a not too rare Jewish name. I remember it from a Chaim Potok book.
Not a joke setup. Those are all first names one might encounter in one’s travels around the world. I’ve worked with an Ashour and I’ve known someone who married an Ascher.
I know this is gonna be an unpopular opinion, and Willis is probably gonna make me hate him later, but kind-hearted thief is one of my favorite character types, so until he does something truly terrible, I can’t hate him.
I also can’t like him, because he definitely at least low-key inspired a traumatic event in three good characters’ lives, and I’m expecting Willis to show him doing worse in two, maybe three strips.
Yeah, there’s potential for him to be a pretty decent guy, we don’t know yet… Buuuuuut this is a Sal flashback, so at best he’ll probably bow out when Sal gets in trouble.
I don’t think we’re meant to hate him. Not every traumatic event can be traced back to some uber-evil villain like Amber’s dad or gashface; sometimes bad things happen as a result of shitty circumstances. I doubt Asher’s home life is all that great, but let’s stop nailing the guy to a cross for stealing a candy bar and smoking in what, seventh grade? Eighth? I knew kids who did that shit that are teachers and lawyers now, it’s not that big a deal. I think the real villain here isn’t supposed to be a specific character, the villain is society and the general apathy to the plight of people like Sal and Marcie, which is a really douchey way of saying it, so I hope Willis finds a better way.
Oh yeah. He’s unlikely to be particularly good for anyone in this storyline, but given how young he is I doubt it’s true maliciousness so much as thinking society’s fucked in general. (Which, fair.)
I mean, we don’t have a great age gauge so if he turns out to be, like, 16 then that’s a slightly different story (don’t get preteens involved in your shit,) but I’m doubting that. But at the same time, the cues we have (He’s never been mentioned before, Sal has said she and Marcie have historically bad taste in friends, that clarification that Sal wasn’t alone for the first robbery very recently and we have no idea who would have arranged things) all suggest he’s not gonna be particularly good news for them. Probably not incapable of improving! But unless we see him after this flashback set, we probably won’t know if he does. (See also Dana. I do still want to see more Dana to get that situation clarified. Wait, I’m a Patreon/Drip sponsor. NEXT MONTH VOTE DANA!)
Inahc
Speaking of drip… Is there any reason to sign up for that when I already have Patreon?
Inahc
also on the subject of sponsorship… TIL that https://contributor.google.com lets you buy ad removal passes for some websites. I used it for AccuWeather because they were very polite in pointing out my use of adblock (and didn’t actually block me, so I had the chance to see that their site didn’t suck).
The list of participating sites is pretty darn short right now, but this seems like something that might be handy for webcomics?
Inahc
then again, it was a penny per pageview for the weather site… if I was only coming here for the comic and not the comments, that would be like 30c/month (as opposed to $1/month in patreon, which I’m thinking of increasing once we have income again). with all the refreshing for comments, I… really have no idea how much that would be here. definitely more than $1/month.
Regalli
Not really, but I decided last minute that hey, if founding donors mean anything later might as well have the bragging rights and it sure doesn’t seem like Patreon will get its shit together any time soon.
Inahc
ah darn, I just got back and it’s probably too late for that founding member thing, eh?
118 thoughts on “Asher”
Ana Chronistic
smokes from Asher, seems a bit on the nose
ShinyNeen
Assuming the candy bar is chocolate, his name works on two levels at once!
Doctor_Who
“You don’t smoke, or you don’t relax?”
“Yes.”
Kamino Neko
Since she says this while accepting the ciggy, so the answer to that is kind of clear.
BBCC
And won’t her parents be happy when they smell cigarette smoke on her clothes and/or hair?
Keulen
I don’t remember seeing a character named Asher in the Walkyverse. Is he new?
BBCC
I think so.
Deanatay
He seems nice.
He’s either hiding something, or he’s doomed.
Ryek Hvek
Dratted flashback posterization. We can’t see if he’s wearing a red shirt.
Annonymouse
Kind of funny historically speaking since back in the day only elite military units wore red supposedly due to always getting their uniforms stained with the oppositions blood or conversely not letting the opposition know you were wounded.
DSL
Which units wore the brown pants?
The Inquisitor
Francis wore the brown pants. Francis.
Jack
How far “back in the day” are we talking about, here? Because there were a few centuries when the entirety of the British army was in red, and a few decades at least when the entirety of the French army was in red trousers. “Les pantalons rouges, c’est la France” and all that.
papayapunkpixie
He’s totes gonna be the one who teaches Sal to rob the convenience store
Unusually Angry Hippie
Why couldn’t it be one of the squaddies. Hooper maybe?
Kyrik Michalowski
Uhhh, who is this and why do I have a diatinctly uncomfortable feeling about him?
Doctor_Who
This comment works extremely well with your Sarah avatar. I can imagine her thinking that every time she meets someone new.
Hell, I can imagine her thinking that when she meets someone she’s known for years.
Inahc
bet this guy is involved in the robbery.
Dean
Because he clearly stole that candy bar, and is now encouraging a minor to smoke?
BBCC
Not that he seems much older, which makes me kinda feel sorry for him.
Kabo
It’s because of his weird, smug, joyless smile.
BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
And his strangely shadowed upper lip
Madock345
A distant cousin of Kim Possible
Stephen Bierce
*plays Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax” on the hacked Muzak*
Tenzhi
And I was just gonna comment “Asher Says Relax? Is he related to Frankie?”
Steve
Smokeful of Asher on the 45
Smokeful of Asher on the 45
fire_daws
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow
Tacos
Well this guy seems like a tool.
Durandal_1707
A real Ash hole, even.
not someone else
Oh god. Cue someone deciding Sal stole the candy bar.
Deadjolras
I immediately distrust him.
BBCC
So many notes!
– Sal, Marcie’s known you since you were five. She knows where this is going – straight off a cliff.
– It’s sweet Marcie doesn’t seem to blame Sal for what happened, although she seems to have more realistic expectations for her situation (and as such may not appreciate those comments – or, at least, not believe them).
– Sal’s face in that last panel. She’s BREAKING ME guys.
– Sal’s still clinging to that hope of this being temporary. Thanks a LOT, Charles.
– Shit. Sal’s smoking already? Oww. That can seriously mess you up. It can take up to 15 years to reverse damage done by cigarettes. I found that out googling health benefits for quitting for a story (and kinda felt pretty good about making my parents quit 18 years ago).
– I’m not quite sure what Marcie would mean. That Sal doesn’t smoke and Marcie wouldn’t approve? If so, why did Marcie take up smoking? Does it mean she already smokes? Did she meant Sal doesn’t chill?
– This Asher kid worries me. Sal’s said before she and Marcie have bad taste in people, other than each other, so I’m worrying we’re going to see this.
*clapping meme* Let. Sal. Have. Friends.
Just. Not. This. One.
Cyrus
Pretty sure Sal meant that she has no chill.
BBCC
I mean, she wouldn’t be wrong. Sal feels things very intensely, but because of SOME PEOPLE (*cough*Walkertonparents*cough*) she’s very bad at understanding, processing or articulating them and its like pulling teeth to get her to share them.
Kamino Neko
Sal couldn’t relax if you sedated her.
BBCC
She’s capable, but its easy to get her invested again.
Alanari
Wasn’t she smoking when she robbed the store in the flashback? I’m not sure..
BBCC
She was, but that was after this. I was kinda hoping against hope that was her first time in an attempt to make herself look badass (before she ended up taking it up for real).
Alanari
Yes, but assuming that the surgery has to be done soon after the injury, we aren’t that far away from that day. We are probably going to see her descent into a bad social circle pretty fast. And I think Asher might be one of the persons involved in her first robbery.
BBCC
Marcie lost her voice when Sal was 12 and the robbery happened when she was 13,so the longest is about a year. And that’s assuming a helpful surgery even exists in the first place. Other than Charles’ wishful thinking,we’ve heard nothing about a surgery to help Marcie, just that her medical bills from going to the hospital are sky high.
Alanari
I’m assuming there is one. Marcie probably got an overview of her options at the hospital and if there wasn’t a way, she’d probably have told Sal by now.
AJ
Whether Sal would listen to what a doctor has to say is debatable, though. She seems like the type to stubbornly refuse to accept the worst case scenario.
BBCC
Except Marcie doesn’t seem to believe any of what Sal says about her situation and we know Sal is stubborn – especially since she feels guilty about this and her dad did not help. And the doctors at the hospital were already talking about how it may be permanent after stabilizing her, so I’m guessing even if there IS a surgery, it’s probably a long shot.
Regalli
Seriously. Someone help these children! But probably not Asher.
BBCC
I mean, he’s smoking and shoplifting and doesn’t seem much older. He could probably use a bare minimum ‘Everything okay at home, bud?’
Regalli
Yeah, guessing he’s in their age range, so until we hear otherwise I include him in the ‘somebody help these children!’ part. But if he is somehow the point of contact for Sal’s involvement in the robberies then him helping will not work out very well long-term, so I don’t want him to be doing that part. (Also I don’t really expect 12-14-year-olds to really be able to provide the kind of help any of them need now because, y’know, kids. Huge chunks of their brains are still developing.)
William Leonard Reese Jr.
Huh. . I’ve never seen Ashur spelled with an E before. Weird. And this strip continues down the downward spiral of what led Sal to try and rob the convenience store. It is still heartbreaking.
King Daniel
I’ve never seen it spelled with a U before.
not someone else
I don’t think those are exactly the same name, though I’ve never heard “Ashur” before. Apparently he’s an Assyrian god. Huh.
Durandal_1707
Asher is one of the twelve tribes of Israel, and it looks like it’s spelled “Asher” in every English translation other than the Douay-Rheims.
https://biblehub.com/genesis/35-26.htm
Durandal_1707
Aaaaaaand I know it doesn’t really matter, but I was meaning to link to the earliest mention of Asher in the Bible, and… I screwed up. I should have presented this verse instead, from the fuckfest that is Genesis 30:
https://biblehub.com/genesis/30-13.htm
Marsh Maryrose
Here’s where I wish I knew how to do IPA character entities…
“Ashur” in its many latin-alphabet transliterations is a name that probably goes back at least far as the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (“the Assyrian king with the soul of a librarian,” as Susan Wise Bauer calls him). If you really want to be a pedant about spelling that name, cuneiform or GTFO.
Durandal_1707
“Asher”, though, as in the tribe of Israel and the likely namesake of the character in this strip, is Hebrew, not cuneiform. Apparently it means “happiness” in Hebrew.
According to Wikipedia, “some scholars” think that it may be linked to either Asherah or Ashur, but it seems there’s not enough evidence for them to make a stronger statement than that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asher
BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
Eeeenteresting… I wonder if there’s a connection there. I know there was a significant overlap between Mesopotamian mythology and pre-Jewish Canaanite mythology, but then again, there’s absolutely no connection between Daniel and Danel.
Durandal_1707
I’m no Hebrew scholar, so I can’t really tell you, although it would be interesting to know whether “Ashur” means anything like “happy” in Sumerian or the language of any other culture that worshipped that deity. That would seem to increase the odds of a connection.
What I *can* tell you, as someone who came from a fundie upbringing similar to Willis’, is that the Israelite tribe is almost certainly the inspiration for the name of this character that W created.
thejeff
It’s also apparently a not too rare Jewish name. I remember it from a Chaim Potok book.
Marsh Maryrose
Asher, Ashur, Ashour, and Assur walk into a bar…
Not a joke setup. Those are all first names one might encounter in one’s travels around the world. I’ve worked with an Ashour and I’ve known someone who married an Ascher.
Roborat
Four of them and not one of them thought to duck?
Needfuldoer
The other half of the ‘n’ and the ‘s’ fell off the end. Why are you encouraging bad habits, Stuart?!
toby
this is a weird strip to read when you know someone named Asher
DailyBrad
Stuart Asher. He paid for it with tat.
SgtWadeyWilson
I know this is gonna be an unpopular opinion, and Willis is probably gonna make me hate him later, but kind-hearted thief is one of my favorite character types, so until he does something truly terrible, I can’t hate him.
I also can’t like him, because he definitely at least low-key inspired a traumatic event in three good characters’ lives, and I’m expecting Willis to show him doing worse in two, maybe three strips.
Regalli
Yeah, there’s potential for him to be a pretty decent guy, we don’t know yet… Buuuuuut this is a Sal flashback, so at best he’ll probably bow out when Sal gets in trouble.
AJ
I don’t think we’re meant to hate him. Not every traumatic event can be traced back to some uber-evil villain like Amber’s dad or gashface; sometimes bad things happen as a result of shitty circumstances. I doubt Asher’s home life is all that great, but let’s stop nailing the guy to a cross for stealing a candy bar and smoking in what, seventh grade? Eighth? I knew kids who did that shit that are teachers and lawyers now, it’s not that big a deal. I think the real villain here isn’t supposed to be a specific character, the villain is society and the general apathy to the plight of people like Sal and Marcie, which is a really douchey way of saying it, so I hope Willis finds a better way.
BBCC
I’m more worried about him than mad at him.
Regalli
Oh yeah. He’s unlikely to be particularly good for anyone in this storyline, but given how young he is I doubt it’s true maliciousness so much as thinking society’s fucked in general. (Which, fair.)
I mean, we don’t have a great age gauge so if he turns out to be, like, 16 then that’s a slightly different story (don’t get preteens involved in your shit,) but I’m doubting that. But at the same time, the cues we have (He’s never been mentioned before, Sal has said she and Marcie have historically bad taste in friends, that clarification that Sal wasn’t alone for the first robbery very recently and we have no idea who would have arranged things) all suggest he’s not gonna be particularly good news for them. Probably not incapable of improving! But unless we see him after this flashback set, we probably won’t know if he does. (See also Dana. I do still want to see more Dana to get that situation clarified. Wait, I’m a Patreon/Drip sponsor. NEXT MONTH VOTE DANA!)
Inahc
Speaking of drip… Is there any reason to sign up for that when I already have Patreon?
Inahc
also on the subject of sponsorship… TIL that https://contributor.google.com lets you buy ad removal passes for some websites. I used it for AccuWeather because they were very polite in pointing out my use of adblock (and didn’t actually block me, so I had the chance to see that their site didn’t suck).
The list of participating sites is pretty darn short right now, but this seems like something that might be handy for webcomics?
Inahc
then again, it was a penny per pageview for the weather site… if I was only coming here for the comic and not the comments, that would be like 30c/month (as opposed to $1/month in patreon, which I’m thinking of increasing once we have income again). with all the refreshing for comments, I… really have no idea how much that would be here. definitely more than $1/month.
Regalli
Not really, but I decided last minute that hey, if founding donors mean anything later might as well have the bragging rights and it sure doesn’t seem like Patreon will get its shit together any time soon.
Inahc
ah darn, I just got back and it’s probably too late for that founding member thing, eh?