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[Camp Comic] Monday, October 23, 2017 - Like Father Like Son
Wait, isn't that like, a super common name in, like, Turkey or something? Yeah, lets go with that. Or he had one of those fancy artist names, like Prince, or Edge! Poor kid.
This was one of my guesses for Malachi’s father. His mom just seemed so controlling and desperate for perfection that I thought she went with a donor program.
Only a few updates ago we were all talking about whether or not Neiman can be 'redeemed' when it's the parents that are really hard to figure out. But we knew that from the beginning. Still, I don't want to believe that Malachi was left out here just because he 'didn't live up to expectations'.
The parents in this comic are in dire need of redemption arcs.
Weird. This is, at the same time, lighter and darker than what I thought it would be.
Like, on one hand, there isn't a whole lot of darkness to Malachi's dad. He's just a random donor.
But on the other, all the stories he apparently heard of his dad? They must have given him an impression to strife for something very unrealistic, ultimately causing him lots of rejection and pain.
Also, the implications for why he might have ended up here aren't great either...
What kind of monster wants a kid to ruin so bad they go to a sperm bank to get pregnant, then after having the kid dump them at the camp? Now if it was a PSYCHIC summer camp, I'd be all for it.
Now that I think about it, Malachi does look a bit like Raz...
Hi, I've always just been a reader and never posted anything, though I do follow the discussion. But after reading this one I thought of a really odd (and kinda sad) possibility for why Malachi got left.
In earlier references to his backstory we see Mal's mom complaining that he's not as good as his father was, and never will be. Malachi is also consumed initially by the desire to be better at something- anything- than everyone else. From the perfectionist attitude he absorbed from his mother, combined with the revelation that Malachi's father is a donor described as a "superior human" with so many great attributes, do y'all think it may be that Mom was possibly involved in eugenics or at least obsessed with having the perfect child? But then when Malachi turned out to be just an average kid, she decided to abandon him and start over? But Malachi still feels a bit empty because all his life he was told he should be perfect and meet his mother's impossible expectations.
It's a bit far-fetched, and probably not at all what Katie and Adam are going for, but I thought it was interesting.
Hi, I've always just been a reader and never posted anything, though I do follow the discussion. But after reading this one I thought of a really odd (and kinda sad) possibility for why Malachi got left.
In earlier references to his backstory we see Mal's mom complaining that he's not as good as his father was, and never will be. Malachi is also consumed initially by the desire to be better at something- anything- than everyone else. From the perfectionist attitude he absorbed from his mother, combined with the revelation that Malachi's father is a donor described as a "superior human" with so many great attributes, do y'all think it may be that Mom was possibly involved in eugenics or at least obsessed with having the perfect child? But then when Malachi turned out to be just an average kid, she decided to abandon him and start over? But Malachi still feels a bit empty because all his life he was told he should be perfect and meet his mother's impossible expectations.
It's a bit far-fetched, and probably not at all what Katie and Adam are going for, but I thought it was interesting.
I definitely think the mom considered herself to be a superior human and only wanted to breed with another superior human. Unfortunately for her, sperm donor biographies are notoriously unreliable and often read like how something a Bachelor contestant says about their self. It's like how people fudge their resumes to sound better, only taken to even more ridiculous extremes.
Kinda saw that coming, what with his father's many jobs, but man, that's rough.
As to DK613, Malachi's mom may have just wanted a child. I knew a woman years ago who insisted, with feet planted firmly on the floor, that her life would not be complete until she had a child. When Malachi turned out to be, let's say, more high maintenance than she expected/wanted, his mom threw him away.
Sooo..... I have a current theory. Maybe none of the kids were dropped off by parents. This gets a little dark here. One very common thread in all of the kid's lives seems to be a single parent at some point in their past. What if they are all wards of the state? All of their parents seemed to be struggling with depression, maybe they had to go to a mental hospital and this is where the state takes the kids until Mommy or Daddy feels better? They are supposed to have a Camp Councilor. However the day he arrived by rainbow parachute didn't go well...
DK613
Yeah, I think that's exactly what happened, Malachi's mother wanted a prodigy she could show off to all her friends like an expensive pedigree lapdog, and when it turned out Malachi was a completely unremarkable kid she just decided he was no longer worth the effort and got rid of him, potentially wanting to try again with a different kid.
Of course these impossibly high expectations to live up to an imaginary person Malachi had thrown at him his entire life messed him up bad as we saw with the talent show arc.
How Malachi. Strive for the best, presuming until the inevitable crushing disappointment that things will get better -- that just forget about it utterly. The acme of self-abnegation, brought to you by overweening expectations of greatness.
When you're all you've got, and you're not enough... what then?
My wife and I had trouble conceiving, and in the end we needed an egg donor. You actually get to know a good bit about them (depending on local laws). In our case, we got pictures, and a short bio. I know the donor plays guitar and has a BA in Veterinary Medicine. Often they'll even write little essays about who they are and why they're donating.
It might be that Malachi's mother really does know something about the father this way. Maybe she picked a donor with an impressive resume, hoping her kid would follow in his footsteps, and Malachi turned out to be a disappointment.
I'm reminded of the scene in Catch Me If You Can where Frank escapes to see his mother and comes across her idyllic, bordering on cliche Christmas evening with her new family, so utterly removed from her former life that, when Carl shows up with half the home office, Frank meekly begs to be taken to a federal penitentiary.
It makes me hope that should Malachi ever get out of here, he'll have grown enough to never want to visit his mother again.
I see several people have concluded (with different details in the arguments) that Malachi's mom must be a terrible person. Now, in this comic, that is a real possibility, but only one of many. There's a phenomenon I've seen in quite a few comics where the comment section explodes with conclusions anywhere from "this can't end well" up to "they're all gonna die". It never really happens (except in the Walkieverse, where people actually do die (but note that the current version "Dumbing of Age" is an alternate reality and in this version we have been promised that no one will die)). So.... I have another plausible explanation for Malachi's situation: Malachi's dad had prostate cancer, though he didn't know that when he made the donation. Malachi's mom got the donor's sperm and some cancer cells as a free bonus. Mom and dad were a close match on the antigen level (good candidates for an organ transplant) and mom's body didn't recognize the cancer as 'foreign' - she became the only woman ever to die of prostate cancer. Malachi was raised by mom's single sister with help from many other family members, who made up stories about his father to entertain him, hence the many 'super-this' and 'super-that' stories about his dad. At 12 he was sent to a camp for 'super-smart' kids (which was a complete scam). It was shut down, all the staff arrested, and Malachi, not knowing what was going on, ran into the woods and got lost. He was rescued by a local sasquatch and, after living with the sasquatchim for a while, was taken to the only human habitation the sasquatchim felt they could safely approach: Camp Weedonwantcha. His willingness to lead Linus into the deep woods shows that he was not greatly affected by his earlier traumas. Eventually Malachi will lead the rest of the campers (even the rehabilitated Neiman and Proto-kid) back to civilization and regular 9-5 jobs. (Not really. The rest of the planet is a pile of radioactive waste.)
Maybe his parents were just lesbian assholes. Or what if his mom's girlfriend was the one who wanted kids, but then she left and Malachi was just a bitter souvenir?
All kids deserve better parents. Even Neiman, Neiman just needs very good parents to be able to deal with his Neimaness.
I understand that, but i am self aware enough to know my limitations and I could be a good father to Mal and an Ok father to Neiman. I would become flustered with Neiman’s obsessions, but I feel I could relate to Mal appropriate enough to help guide him.
Katie and Adam, I am amazed by your writing. I came for Katie’s drawing. I watched strip search and she was my ‘fan favorite’ very early, but the writing has me coming back every Tuesday and Friday. Both of you write child trauma so well it’s scary. Your character archetypes are prefect and the story arch aside from abandoned children in the woods without any public knowledge is so believable. I said it before, but thank you so much for hitting me in the feels every week.
So she went out of her want to get a baby. Then went out of he way to get rid of the same child
That went from "ugh what a shit person I hope they get hit by a bus" to a very human person who made a mistake and made another mistake to get out of the other one and it's all bad. Please don't make me feel these feelings.
I definitely think the mom considered herself to be a superior human and only wanted to breed with another superior human. Unfortunately for her, sperm donor biographies are notoriously unreliable and often read like how something a Bachelor contestant says about their self. It's like how people fudge their resumes to sound better, only taken to even more ridiculous extremes.
Well, that and the fact that genetic inheritance is a bit of a crapshoot (hence Punnett squares) and we don't come anywhere close to fully understanding exactly how genes effect attributes like intelligence, which is one of the reasons why eugenics is such a horrible thing.
Posts
I'm still waiting to hear from Linus.
The parents in this comic are in dire need of redemption arcs.
Like, on one hand, there isn't a whole lot of darkness to Malachi's dad. He's just a random donor.
But on the other, all the stories he apparently heard of his dad? They must have given him an impression to strife for something very unrealistic, ultimately causing him lots of rejection and pain.
Also, the implications for why he might have ended up here aren't great either...
Now that I think about it, Malachi does look a bit like Raz...
In earlier references to his backstory we see Mal's mom complaining that he's not as good as his father was, and never will be. Malachi is also consumed initially by the desire to be better at something- anything- than everyone else. From the perfectionist attitude he absorbed from his mother, combined with the revelation that Malachi's father is a donor described as a "superior human" with so many great attributes, do y'all think it may be that Mom was possibly involved in eugenics or at least obsessed with having the perfect child? But then when Malachi turned out to be just an average kid, she decided to abandon him and start over? But Malachi still feels a bit empty because all his life he was told he should be perfect and meet his mother's impossible expectations.
It's a bit far-fetched, and probably not at all what Katie and Adam are going for, but I thought it was interesting.
I definitely think the mom considered herself to be a superior human and only wanted to breed with another superior human. Unfortunately for her, sperm donor biographies are notoriously unreliable and often read like how something a Bachelor contestant says about their self. It's like how people fudge their resumes to sound better, only taken to even more ridiculous extremes.
As to DK613, Malachi's mom may have just wanted a child. I knew a woman years ago who insisted, with feet planted firmly on the floor, that her life would not be complete until she had a child. When Malachi turned out to be, let's say, more high maintenance than she expected/wanted, his mom threw him away.
Yeah, I think that's exactly what happened, Malachi's mother wanted a prodigy she could show off to all her friends like an expensive pedigree lapdog, and when it turned out Malachi was a completely unremarkable kid she just decided he was no longer worth the effort and got rid of him, potentially wanting to try again with a different kid.
Of course these impossibly high expectations to live up to an imaginary person Malachi had thrown at him his entire life messed him up bad as we saw with the talent show arc.
When you're all you've got, and you're not enough... what then?
It might be that Malachi's mother really does know something about the father this way. Maybe she picked a donor with an impressive resume, hoping her kid would follow in his footsteps, and Malachi turned out to be a disappointment.
All kids deserve better parents. Even Neiman, Neiman just needs very good parents to be able to deal with his Neimaness.
What a terrible human being she must be.
It makes me hope that should Malachi ever get out of here, he'll have grown enough to never want to visit his mother again.
-Tycho Brahe
I understand that, but i am self aware enough to know my limitations and I could be a good father to Mal and an Ok father to Neiman. I would become flustered with Neiman’s obsessions, but I feel I could relate to Mal appropriate enough to help guide him.
That went from "ugh what a shit person I hope they get hit by a bus" to a very human person who made a mistake and made another mistake to get out of the other one and it's all bad. Please don't make me feel these feelings.
good job in story telling. I did not see this coming. As commented. this is less bad, or it is worse. Depending how you crumble the cookie.
step 1: be 2d :c
Well, that and the fact that genetic inheritance is a bit of a crapshoot (hence Punnett squares) and we don't come anywhere close to fully understanding exactly how genes effect attributes like intelligence, which is one of the reasons why eugenics is such a horrible thing.