Webcomic / Motherlover

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Imogen Dawson is a stay-at-home mother of four - Lucas, Gavin, and the twins Adrian and Aidan. Dropping everyone off at school for the twins' first day, she meets Alexis Koenig, a single mother whose daughter, Nolan, is also going to her first day of school. Alex has just moved in next door to Imogen, so they bond and become friends...and maybe more.

The comic began as a spin-off of Lindsay's earlier comic, How Baby. An initial comic about two unknown moms led Lindsay to decide they made a cute couple.

The comic was posted weekly from May 2018 to June 2024, and is available at motherlovercomic.com. A print version is available from Iron Circus Comics.

Tropes found in Motherlover include:

• Abusive Parents: Eiji's view of his and Alex's parents. They weren't physically abusive, but he considers them to have been emotionally abusive. He cut them out of his lives rather than come out as gay to them, after seeing how they responded when Alex came out as a lesbian. Alex eventually realizes that a lot of her trauma comes from them, specifically her inability to accept help from anyone.
• Affair Letters: Imogen reads Jonathan's texts to and from the woman he's cheating on her with.
• The Annotated Edition: Patreon backers got a "Pop Up Video" version of chapter 1, which points out several subtle bits (an early sighting of Alex and Nolan, and that Gavin's jacket is a hand-me-down from Lucas) and adds notes on some of the characters (Alexis was the name of Lindsay's first "Mary Sue", and Jackie has a multi-level marketing business).
• Armor-Piercing Question: Imogen is talking about how she can't cut her hair short, because it's so much work if she can't just tie it back.
  Alex: Imogen...are you worth the work?
• Bitch Alert: The first time we see Jackie, she immediately makes a snide comment about how young Imogen is to have a child as old as Lucas.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed. Jonathan is never shown to be a particularly great husband, but he's been cheating on Imogen long enough, and it's serious enough, that he's using his mistress's middle name as the password to his and Imogen's bank account.
• Bookends:
  • The comic begins with the twins' and Nolan's first day of kindergarten, and ends with Imogen graduating from nursing school.
  • One of the first things Imogen does is wipe the nose of Alex's daughter. At Imogen's graduation, Alex wipes the nose of one of Imogen's sons.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Imogen uses the sleeping Jonathan's thumb to unlock his phone.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: When Lu comes out as trans, Alex thanks Imogen for understanding, commenting that it "wasn't always like that in this house", an oblique reference to how her parents handled her coming out as lesbian.
• Cast Full of Gay: Alex is a lesbian, her brother is in a relationship with another man, Lucas is trans, and Imogen is either bi or lesbian.
• Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: Imogen is plushly curved, while Jonathan is rather skinny.
• Closet Gay: Downplayed. Eiji never came out to his and Alex's parents, or to Alex, after seeing what Alex coming out did to their relationship. He finally admits to Alex that he's in a relationship with his roommate.
• Coming-Out Story: Lucas - "Lu" - comes out as trans in chapter 12.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Lucas's father left Imogen, not wanting to be a father.
  • Nolan was conceived via IVF and the identity of her father is unknown.
  • After he moves away, Jonathan wants nothing to do with Lu, and will have relatively little contact with her younger brothers. It's unclear if the lack of interest in Lu is because she's trans, because she's not his biological child, or both.
• Disowned Parent: Eiji stopped talking to his parents, and eventually to Alex as well.
• Distant Finale: We skip forward from Imogen's first semester of nursing school to her graduation.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: Jonathan makes several settlement offers that are underwhelming before he finally decides to stop fighting, sell the house, and move away. Imogen gets half of the increased value of the house (a significant sum of money) in lieu of spousal support, plus child support.
• Dream Sequence: At the beginning of Chapter 9, Alex dreams she's waking up with Imogen.
• Drink-Based Characterization: In an early chapter, Imogen gets a pumpkin spice latte, showing she's a typical suburban mom. Alex (despite the complaints of the barista) gets a bulletproof coffee (coffee with butter), showing her focus on efficiency and being her best.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Jonathan's reaction to meeting Alex while she's dressed for running (in a sports bra and leggings) is to ogle her and make flirtatious comments.
• The End of the Beginning: Chapter 17, the final chapter before the epilogue, is titled "The Beginning". Alex and Imogen finally get a Relationship Upgrade.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Imogen is busy getting four kids to school, showing that her life revolves around the kids.
  • Lucas is looking out for his younger brothers, showing that he's ultimately a pretty good kid.
  • Alex walks her daughter the six blocks to the school, then makes snarky comments about everyone driving everywhere, accidentally insulting the other moms. This shows how she doesn't quite fit in with the rest of them.
  • Jonathan sees Alex and immediately starts ogling her, showing that he pays more attention to other women than his wife and kids.
• Extreme Doormat: Imogen lets Jonathan walk all over her. Even as she's getting her stuff so she can move next door with Alex, she stops to clean up the breakfast dishes for him. She later realizes that she really likes helping people and has a hard time pushing back against them.
• Fake Relationship: Imogen pretends to be dating Alex at the orchestra event after too many questions about why she's there. Alex plays along; Sparrow realizes that both of them are Unknowingly in Love.
• Fish Out of Water: How Imogen feels at Café Celestine. She's a suburban mom who's had tight budgets for her whole life, at a French restaurant fancy enough that there are no prices on the menu. ^note The menu displayed is based on one from the French Laundry, an internationally-famous restaurant in the Napa Valley with three Michelin Stars; there are no prices because the French Laundry has a prix fixe tasting menu. She ends up getting overwhelmed, claims she isn't feeling well, and leaves to wait at the nearby bookstore.
• Flowers of Romance: After Imogen catches him cheating, Jonathan shows up with flowers as an Apology Gift.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Eiji is the foolish sibling, who went off on his own and spent his inheritance before his parents were even dead. Alex is the responsible sibling who took care of their parents and inherited the house.
• Forgot to Pay the Bill: Jonathan forgot to make sure the power bill got paid, leading to a Power Outage Plot.
• From Roommates to Romance: Imogen moves in with Alex long before they become a couple. Lampshaded by Alex:
  Alex: Ohmygod we moved in together before we even started dating.
• From the Mouths of Babes: Nolan repeats her mother's negative description of her uncle's life situation to an older woman who was friends with their parents.
• Gilligan Cut: After Alex breaks her ankle and is having trouble getting up the stairs, Imogen suggests scooting up backwards. Alex protests angrily, "I know how to get up stairs!" In the next panel, Alex is at the top of the stairs, facing backwards, having scooted herself up that way.
• Glamorous Single Mother: Alex has a decent inheritance, plays cello in the orchestra, is a viral video sensation on YouTube, and has a daughter conceived via IVF.
• Hapless Self-Help: How Alex describes her brother's life, which is quoted at an awkward time by Nolan. Subverted; he's ultimately doing better than Alex and he helps her come to terms with the issues of their childhoods.
  Nolan: (quoting Alex) "Uncle Eiji fixes rich people's lives which is funny because he can't even fix his own."
• Important Haircut: Imogen cuts her long Motherly Side Plait short after she catches Jonathan cheating, leading her to move in with Alex.
• Intimate Haircut: After Imogen leaves Jonathan, she gives her children haircuts; Alex asks for one as well, which leads to a conversation between them that ends with Alex giving Imogen an Important Haircut.
• iPhony: The laptop that Imogen uses to try to log into the bank accounts has a glowing pair of cherries on the back of the screen.
• Ironic Episode Title: Chapter 9 is titled "Forsaking All Others". Imogen discovers that Jonathan has been cheating on her for quite some time.
• LGBT Awakening:
  • Alex and Imogen talk about whether Imogen is interested in women. Imogen says she's considered it but it doesn't matter because she's Happily Married.
  • Later, Eris comments that Imogen hasn't been a lesbian very long. She's about to deny she's a lesbian at all, when she realizes that she's in love with Alex.
    Eris: Welcome to the club of people hopelessly in love with Alex. It's not much, but we have each other.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Imogen is light feminine, showing her love for people by helping them but making herself dependent while doing so, while Alex is dark feminine, independent and unwilling to accept help.
• Love Triangle: Imogen is the hinge between Alex and Jonathan.
• Meaningful Rename: Imogen goes back to her maiden name of Weaver before her graduation.
• Meet Cute: The title of chapter 1. Imogen and Alex meet up as they both drop their children off at school.
• Motherly Side Plait: Imogen wears her long red hair in braids that often drape over her shoulders, showing how her personality has been entirely focused on being a mom. She cuts her hair short after Alex convinces her she's more than just a mom.
• New Year's Kiss: Imogen and Alex have their first kiss just after New Years, watching the fireworks.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Imogen finds a note from Aidan and Adrian apologizing for breaking a pair of Alex's heels; she recognizes something's up because they'd never preemptively apologize. Lucas made them write the note to cover that he broke the shoes trying to wear them.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: An accidental version. The idea for the comic came from a How Baby strip about two moms, one a stay-at-home mom and one a mother working outside the home, both thinking the other is so impressive and a better mom than they themselves are. As often happens, the characters in the final comic aren't quite the same as the ones in the "pilot" - the Imogen-equivalent has a small baby in a sling, while the Alex-equivalent has multiple daughters.
  (from The Rant under the comic) PS: I don’t know how it happened, but I kind of fell in love with these two characters? In my head, they definitely end up dating. They don’t even have names yet, but I think HB just picked up its first pair of background NPCs, haha.
• Post-Op Ditziness: Downplayed. When Alex breaks her ankle, it doesn't get operated on but she's on (as Eiji's boyfriend puts it) "the good drugs". When Imogen arrives, the doctor comments that she's heard so much about Imogen.
  Alex: ...apparently I run my mouth when I'm doped to the gills.
• Power Outage Plot: Chapter 6 involves Imogen's house losing power in the winter, so she takes the kids next door to Alex's where it's warm. Jonathan forgot to have the money in the right account to pay it, so the power company shut off power.
• Pun-Based Title: Chapter 5, where Imogen flees lunch at Café Celestine because of being a Fish Out of Water, is titled "Failure to Lunch".
• The Rant: Underneath most pages, especially the first pages of chapters. Generally includes a transcript of the page content after Chapter 1, along with Lindsay's thoughts on the page.
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Alex has enough of an inheritance that she can afford to take an extended leave; Jonathan claims to be barely getting by. An uncommon variant: the rich suitor is the right one in the end.
• Speech-Bubbles Interruption: The speech bubble with the actual amount of money involved in the settlement offer is hidden behind Imogen's head.
• Spotting the Thread: The clue that makes Imogen realize that something is up with Jonathan is that the password clue for their bank account is "Her middle name" but no variant on her own middle name works. When he does give it to her, after a noticeable delay, claiming that he wouldn't use just her middle name, she logs in and sees a warning that the account was just logged into from an unknown location - he had just changed the password.
• Suburbia: The setting for the comic. Alex grew up there and moved away, but moved back after her parents died and she inherited the house. She decided to stay to raise Nolan there.
• Teen Pregnancy: Imogen got pregnant right out of high school. She dropped out of college to become a full-time mother.
• A Threesome Is Hot: Jonathan seems to think so - drunk after a date night with Imogen, he asks Alex if she swings, embarrassing Imogen.
• Tragic Dropout: Imogen dropped out of college after she had Lucas, due to inability to keep her grades up as required for her scholarship. She goes back to nursing school and gets her diploma in the last strip.
• Undisclosed Funds: The exact amount of the divorce settlement offer is covered by Imogen's head.
• Unknowingly in Love: It takes Imogen a long time to realize how she feels about Alex.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Alex's parents were extremely controlling, and demanded obedience and perfection. Alex is still trying to meet their lofty requirements even after their deaths.
• Would Hit a Girl: Jonathan takes a swing at Alex when she's preventing him from going in the house while Imogen is packing her things. She kicks him and knocks him on his ass.