Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for March 09, 2010

it’s a family strip, we’ll probably never get to see it if it IS there somewhere. (and that’s fine with me.)

To which Joe says a mental “uh yea right”.

Wedding nights tell all.

She’s good.

Victoria is not bluffing with either of them? Now I really respect her. I wonder what her tat is of.

could it be…..a tramp stamp?

I like Victoria.

Man they drink a lot of coffee…

Good morning WILEY, thanks for all your great work.

My hidden tat says, ” I’m goning to regret this.”

How did tattoos ever get to be mainstream? I’ve never seen a tattoo that improved anyone’s appearance, and more than I want to think of that did the opposite. Same times ten for piercings.

(Man, I am so not ready for this century….)

“TRAMPSTAMP”, love it!! I have seen her kind before, RUN JOE!!!

Most tats aren’t very tasteful, but I’ve seen a few I could actually admire as artistic, as long as they don’t sprawl all over the place (especially the face).

Victoria rocks!

Uh oh. Mr Wiley has picked a fight with the …………………!

My father went to his grave with the name “Leola” in a heart tattooed on his arm.

She had dumped him about 40 years earlier after he came back from a drunk night at the shore and showed her his new tat.

Darn! Wiley beat me to the punch!

What’s wrong, Mr. Doty, do women with an actual personality intimidate you?

I hate victoria

If you’re not going to show your tat, why get one?

According to many psychologists years ago, tattoos were a sign of latent homosexuality. I guess that is one reason for getting tattooed and not showing it. I have seen hundreds of tattoos removed, which used to be much more painful than the tattooing itself.

My father passed with “Lillian” on his arm. My mothers name was Sylvia.

I love my tats and I love the clever ways Victoria handles Danae…

Has Wiley been flagged yet?

Victoria’s secrets continue. Is she a tattoo buff?

that’d be different! Wiley gets flagged in the comments section of his own strip…..HA!

Maybe it’s a tattoo of a pirate. Or a fisherman!

Of course! It’s a tattoo of Cap’n Eddie!

Love the strip, Wiley! Victoria’s a great (and unpredictable) addition!

What’s a “real family”, Joe?

i agree! she is really funny!

He’s gonna marry a woman and doesn’t know if she has a Tatoo yet? In 2010? thats not realistic.

I said the samething to my nephew, he wanted to get a tat “to stand out” I asked him who Has a tat? then who doesn’t? whats stands out more? he walked away mummbling something.

in joe’s mind “family circus” is a REAL FAMILY.

Just as long as her tattoo isn’t Bob.

I love the tension between these two people/characters, but am torn because on one hand I hate it when characters destroy their chance at a successful relationship through some easily avoidable stupidity on their part. On the other hand if they establish a relationship the material often becomes boring. (I hear that now days this is called, “Jumping the Shark.”) I hope whatever the artist has in mind for these characters’ future his freshness and creativity continues at its current, and historical, level.

you guys analyze your analyses. Try enjoying the strip. Morning all.

Well played Victoria, twice.

We DO know she’s really a woman, right? RIGHT?

(If a “family strip” is supposed to be ABOUT a family, then what is a “family” newspaper, restaurant, or resort?)

thanks for the visual, nightshade, but i think it would be more like the line from wedding crashers…….might as well be a bullseye. nicely played trump, victoria…..and you’d better believe she’s got one!

Hey, the Borgias were a family too. It used to be a joy reading the comments with the witty banter that flew back and forth. THEN, the resident defender of narrow minded personal values showed up. Now, even if comments are not directed at him, you may be flagged.

pschearer -

I guess a family restaurant is sort of like a beef restaurant.

I have three tattoos on my body, two show all the time, the third is covered (due to it’s location). I didn’t get them to “stand out”, I got them because I wanted them. One has very special significance for me, and I’m proud to show it off. If anyone ever asks, I’m not embarrassed to explain why I got it in the first place. Don’t bash people who have tattoos or choose to get them simply because you don’t have any or want any. Everyone is entitled to do to their bodies what they will, no matter how old they are. My parents had told me that I couldn’t get a tattoo until I moved out. I respected that and only got the first when I left home. I’m proud of mine, I have no regrets, and I was smart enough to not get a name tattoo’d either… :)

Joe, I doubt she’s moved in if he doesn’t know if she’s telling the truth about a hidden tattoo.

Everyone is entitled to their bodies, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to see them as gross. I’m not saying I wouldn’t have married my wife if she’d had a tattoo, but it definitely would’ve been a factor. I would not have wanted to look at it for the rest of my life and get turned off every time.

(fortunately, my wife is the type who would look at you like you had two heads if you even suggested the idea that she get one)

I had a college friend (female) who started getting the first of maybe a dozen tattoos decades before they became fashionable. All the ones I saw on her were well done, even beautiful. But my mental associations with them are tainted by her following emotional breakdown and collapse of a once impressive career. I try not to generalize from her to everyone with a tattoo, but it does make me suspicious of most people’s decisions to get one.

I expect the fad will pass and most people will look back on them the same way others look back on pictures of themselves in bell-bottoms, but at least bell-bottoms you can take off.

How could Joe not know what tats Victoria has by this point in their relationship? That makes no sense. She is living with him & they have plans to marry. They aren’t fundamentalist Xtians, so it is not plausible that they are waiting until their wedding night. That would be totally out of character.

I for one, am loving Victoria… and the way the relationship between her and Joe is developing.

Agree with the majority that love Victoria. Danae has finally met her match. What a handful Victoria must have been as a child! As far as the tat goes, it is probably hidden in plain sight and looks like a bracelet or an anklet…or is so privately located that it is very hard to find.

How many really good hiding places are left nowadays?? I guess the roof of the mouth might work.

Doty said: “Has the controlling woman moved into Joe’s house yet?”

I actually had that first impression of Victoria, too. Remember the questionaire? But I got to thinking - she doesn’t put Joe down, she gets him to put himself down to win her over. And I don’t recall her ever getting mean or angry at him, she accomplishes this with a smile and a shrug. She’s really very, very clever.

She’s growing on me.

For a very different take on this issue, please see Wiley’s Sunday, 11 June 2006 Non-Sequitur strip (http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2006/06/11).

A bit heavy, but should be on your required-reading list.

(If it’s not available to non-paying subscribers, perhaps Mr. Miller and gocomics.com could have it made available as a public service? Thanks)

I’ve never posted a comment before, but a thought just occured to me – when did Joe & Victoria actually get engaged? I remember him answering her “pre-marriage” questions & her loving his final answer. The next time was Danae (over?) reacting to the news.

I’m probably forgeting things, but I really don’t remember them getting engagement rings… or even one asking the other about getting engaged.

Just wondering.

zev.farkas said, 15 minutes ago

For a very different take on this issue, please see Wiley’s Sunday, 11 June 2006 Non-Sequitur strip (http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2006/06/11).

I love it… but with all due respect, you can’t call it a COMIC when it makes you cry instead of laugh. But it’s a very good TRAGIC worthy of a graphic novel award of whatever type exists or might one day exist out there….

It all ties together because of the tatoo mentioned in today’s strip.

farr0003, you’re fine, unless of course those frames appeared in another dimension (or on Lars’s planet?). Zev: that comic should be seen by everyone! Joe doesn’t know if she was bluffing? oh right, the questionnaire was HERS! Tattoo in a place that doesn’t show, see “Defying Gravity” discontinued series (frak!)

Daughter is a fan-atic of LOTR (like her old man). She had the inscription from the Ring of Power tatooed on her calf in a circle in Elvish. I had to admit, that was pretty bleeep cool. I don’t think (but don’t know) if she has any others.

Woe to Victoria if Danae ever figures out how easily she’s been had.

Victoria has been there, done that!

Lol, I’ve been telling you guys for what, 2 months now, that Victoria will make a perfect foil for Danae because she’s going to be able to be the one person to put Danae in her place, didn’t I? Didn’t I?

Anyways, I loved this strip, and I have to say to you Wiley that Victoria has never looked prettier than in that second to last panel!

Is the Wiley that made reference to the Doty Joe’s comment (8 hrs. ago) about the “Controlling woman” any relation to Wiley the Cartoonist? Anyone? Anyone?

Aaand, tonight begins “The Great Tattoo Search”! What a great way to flirt!

littledutchboy - Wiley is the great Wiley Miller, Cartoonist.

zev.farkas - Today it is available to non-paying subscribers.

Wiley - You amaze me.

Poor Joe… until it’s too late, he’ll have no idea that he walked right into the middle of a Venus Fly Trap. She is going to eat him alive. Oh wait… Venus is the Roman goddess of love, right? Oooooooooo… conflict.

Joe and Danae will both win if/when Victoria moves in. And thanks for making the other tattoo Non-Sequitur available. Loved it - it should be posted every Remembrance Day (or is it Veterans Day in the states?)

Tiny tats hidden away, or nearly hidden away, are sexy. Big ones, not so much. They all look greenish-blue from a distance.

Thanks Mr. Miller. -For clarification, for making people think, for a great cartoon and for your participation.

Oh, there for a while I was wondering about your gender.???

Going back to yesterday - clueless Joe. I am also strongly in the camp that loves Victoria, a women of spirit, intelligence and drive. And before anyone asks, I happen to be male, thank you very much. It absolutely amazes me what Wiley can convey with a few incredibly-well placed lines.

Whew. After reading some of the early comments here about waiting for the wedding night and not getting the tattoo culture, I thought I had been transported to some mysterious land before time. Everyone does know what century this is, right? Has anyone actually checked out the internets? Watched TV? Read a magazine or newspaper lately? Left their house, even?

Doty, not to be an bleeep, dude, because I too know women who are controling as hell. In fact my last ex/current best friend has a problem with being controling. I’ve learned to just put my foot down every once in a while. That’s helped quite a bit. But I don’t think that’s the case here. I don’t see Victoria as trying to control everyone’s lives. I do see her as a clever young woman, and a fiercely assertive one, but I don’t see her as a controling one. I think she genuinely likes Joe, probably even loves him, and I know she loves the girls and they love her back (who spent so much time trying to hook them up in the first place?). She’s just not a woman that’s going to be pushed around though. I think Wiley’s taking his time establishing that so that we can see how that plays against Danae’s own assertive, domineering personality later.

Or to put it another way, from one person who’s gotten yelled at for taking comic books too seriously to another comics fan, you’re taking this strip way too seriously. You’re reading motivations into a character that simply aren’t there and trying to paint her as some kind of malicious succubus, which she simply is not! Yes, Wiley is a satirist first and foremost, but he’s not Garry Trudeau and this isn’t Doonesbury (not to disparage that strip though since I absolutely adore it and think Trudeau is the best satarist in the history of comics, be that strips, comic books, or graphic novels). There’s no hidden meanings to look for in his stuff. He just bludgeons you with it.

Nice double bind for Danae – you go Victoria!

More like subborn and irrationally fearful of self-assured women.

once again joe, what’s your point. all latent infers is concealment of that which is present without showing itself. if you’re in the closet, basically your latent ,until you come out. thanks for letting us know you made the transition along with all that other useless information.

Brilliant strip Wiley, thanx.

My 17 year old daughter got a tat last year (with my permission), an eighth note behind her right ear - she’s a music lover, sings and plays the violin. I love the tattoo :D

Love Victoria too, a great part of the series.

NoBrandName said, about 12 hours ago

“Whew. After reading some of the early comments here about waiting for the wedding night and not getting the tattoo culture, I thought I had been transported to some mysterious land before time. Everyone does know what century this is, right?”

Just because everyone else does it doesn’t mean I have to. I’m actually glad that I don’t have any tattoos. It makes me different and makes me stand out from the crowd.

My old Dad, a 31-year Marine, had a couple of tats, the usual (no names, though).

He once told me “Don’t ever get any tattoos; as ‘distinguishing marks’, you won’t ever get picked for The President’s Goon Squad!” Never been quite sure if he was kidding… But I didn’t.

Whoa, did I read that correctly?? Is Joe-Allan telling us he is gay??? Old Bible-quoting Joe? Now finally he explains something to us that wasn’t obvious. Or is he being spoofed?

Open note; It’s okay to spell the word christian, unless you’re afraid of the name. Also historically accurate and much easier to understand., 28. Might be “Antichristian” and that would mean we missed the message entirely..

Even if Victroria is not LIVING with Joe yet, it is implausible that they have not had sex & seen each other nude. So Joe must have had ample opportunity by now to explore every possible tattoo location.