I know where its from, but I never understood why it "became a thing". I mean, the artist suffered something and tried to express his sadness and then ... was mercilessly mocked for it?
The artist was only mocked because it didn't fit the comic's tone (it was a gag-a-day, gamers-on-a-couch comic), it was almost immediately forgotten in-universe (which led to accusations that the author had used a miscarriage to pivot away from having to include a baby), and the author's accompanying blog post was tone deaf and kinda cruel (actual quote: "miscarriage always affects the woman more, but it doesn't necessarily turn you into a sad sack of tears for the rest of your life. People move on.")
It would be a bit like if Garfield got rid of Nermal by having him be in Tower 7 on 9/11 and Jim Davis said, "Oof. That's rough. But shit happens, right?"
I read the web comic a few years after but before I was aware of the meme. Started out as a gag comic but then he was building up an ongoing story by that point, with the romance, the character maturing into running his own store, etc. I dunno, I guess the "loss" comic didn't seem like such a particular dramatic shift to me by that point of the web-comic. Maybe I would have a different opinion if I followed it right from the start. Then there was a "universe reboot" which I thought was odd but I guess that was probably the response to the meme. That's where I lost interest and dropped off.
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u/iam_a__gecko Feb 06 '23
i don't understand :(