Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
The Mash
L.F. Garcia, Danigami
In a world shrouded in mystery and threatened by great evil,a young mummy prince will use his new life to unite with other monster children to save it.
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
Little Red & Wolf
Aoi Maneki
Delve into the daily lives of two famous fairytale characters, and their adventures in this big weird world we all live in.
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
Jailbird
Charlie Davis
An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
Helvetica
J.N. Wiedle
This story follows Helvetica's quest to uncover who he was in life, his existential crises, and his struggle to to make death worth living.
Ghost Junk Sickness
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Two hunters try to survive and end up being pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost".
Tove
Severin
The end of the world is coming, and Tove doesn't want to be a hero, but SOMEONE has to look after her little brother.
Starhammer
J.N. Monk, Harry Bogosian
A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
Kelly Turnbull
A weekly comic celebrating the finer things in life. Like manly men, lumberjacks, and time traveling special ops agents.
Laws and Sausages
Zach Weinersmith
Your cartoon guide to the American governement!
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
The Sanity Circus
Windy
Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Devil's Candy
Rem, Bikkuri
A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
Demon Street
Aliza Layne
Two kids explore a world full of monsters and magic trying to find their way home again. But when home has been stolen from you, where do you go to get it back?
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
The Glass Scientists
Sage (S.H.) Cotugno
A gaslamp fantasy comic about the life and times of a ragtag group of mad scientists and their enigmatic leader, Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Spinnerette
Krazy Krow, Rocio Zucchi, Pablo Rey
When a lab accident gives Heather Brown spider powers and six arms, she does what any midwest comic geek would do: Become Ohio's #3 superhero!
MASKLESS
kickingshoes
In a world where people can wield the magic of elemental Masks, all Ashe wants to do is help. Maskless and useless, with dreams of fire and smoke on the back of his tongue, he finds himself on a strange, dangerous path to uncovering the secrets of these incredible objects, and the source of the monsters plaguing his home.
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Witchy
Ariel Slamet Ries
In the witch kingdom Hyalin, the strength of your magic is determined by the length of your hair.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Elephant Town
Danielle Corsetto
The long, slow tale of Kris, Paul, Berto and Mirando, four people who live in the same creaky old house, but don't know each other. New chapter updates every 2 months.
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
The Hunter of Insania
Aoi Maneki
Wiol Alkko sells fake magical objects to those desperate for cures. When he tries to scam a real witch, she curses him: within a year, Wiol must learn and respect magic, or succumb to corruption of body and mind.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
No Need for Bushido
Suburban Samurai, J W Kovell
The flash of a blade, the clash of steel! A runaway princess and her samurai companion navigate a fractured country on the brink of war.
The Din
Karin (Karrey)
The Din changed the world, mankind & its technology. Gregg Emilio dreams of flying in a sky that hasn't carried airplanes in a century.
Parisa
Ellen K
Two friends, Nolan and Gwen, take it upon themselves to escort the amnesiac spirit Lelief across the world of Parisa.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Awkward Zombie
Katie Tiedrich
Gags and goofs about videogames and the things that happen in them.
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
the funny thing is, in my mind it was Mike hitting him knocking him down, b/c of her date with Joe. idk if mike is even at the party, but i love your comment with my thoughts. to bad tomorrow will ruin my li’l daydream.
Mel Brooks explained it best.
Someone breaks a finger, its a tragedy.
A guy walks down the street and falls into a man hole (probably killing himself)? Comedy gold.
I actually would like it to be her roommate. She says she doesn’t care, but we know better…
Any way, we all know it’s ultra car transformed into mike, disguised as amazi-girl, wielding a marble scooter transformed into a baseball bat by the power of greyskull. DUH!
Cmon willis, you can’t put one over on us for THAT long.
I’m kinda hoping it to be Joe, if only so she sees “even bad boys have standards” from her POV. He was, after all, far more honest with who he is compared to Ryan, and had far less sinister motives (if they can even be called sinister at all).
I’m betting on it being one of the gamers from the room, just because a bedroom is the most concievable place one could come up with a baseball bat at the party (not that there aren’t others, but that just seems most likely).
I don’t know that I think of joe as a “bad boy” in the least. horn dog yeah, but honestly I’ve always had the impression that if he were to be witness to something like what’s happening to joyce, he’d most likely protect the girl first, and then hit on her after she’s sobered up and safe.
In that case he’s really throwing us off because clubbing some guy over the back of the head doesn’t sound like the Walky I know. Not without making his presence known at the very least… Sounds a little bit RuthLesse to me.
(Also I’d like to point out that the bat looks like it’s being swung by someone around Sarah’s height or taller, so assuming Willis’ art is on it really can’t be any of the known partygoers. The characters we know aren’t tall enough.)
I knew he wasn’t down for the count. Well, no… he probably is now. And who is the Bat Man coming to the rescue? I’m still thinking it’s a Girl, and Amazi-Girl!
It’d fit. After all, after this, Ryan’s going to be able to use the “Want to know how I got these scars” line. He just better lie, because “from a puritan college freshman wielding a simple drink glass” just isn’t that intimidating.
Who’s on the other end of the bat I wonder? Obvious choices like Amber, Dorothy, or Billie? Or someone unexpected like Roz, Joe, or Mike? Looking forward to it!
I dunno, have we seen Amazi-Girl use anything but fists and feet before? A baseball bat, while deliciously emphatic, doesn’t quite seem her style to me.
Me, I’m betting on Derek Jeter. Only a fool would try to rape a girl right after the Yankees lose a play-off series, there’s always some angry infielder looking to take out his frustrations on evil-doers.
Now that we’re thinking of people who might…Ruth, if she was out to start some shit, and Sarah might.
Mike probably would. He’d find a use for it. Even if it was just part of the process of banging your mom. For a nickel. With his penis. In the FAAAAAAAAAAACE.
It is a house. No one had to bring a bat. There might have been one there already. I mean, I keep a lacrosse stick next to the bed. Y’know in case of home invasion or zombie apocalypse.
Could be the bat was already there. Someone in the house plays baseball, and whoever it is using it saw it in a corner and grabbed it. Just one possibility, anyway.
If you look two comics ago, you can see a certain someone thinking the words “This looks like a job for…”
So Amazi-girl may not be holding the bat but she will almost absolutely be in this next scene.
yep, I must be stupid as all hell- I see no such thing. the closest I can manage is amber putting a finger to her lips. being that I’m not only not a mind reader, but the pixels have no mind to be read, I can’t honestly say there were any thoughts being put to words.
Oh, I’m not saying that the idea of Joe fighting someone with a baseball bat is out of the question. But on the back of the head, unannounced? nah. If nothing else, I’d say Joe is at least a little smarter than that… He’s already under a lot of scrutiny this week, and a baseball bat? From a guy as big as Joe, on someone who doesn’t know he’s there? Yeah, that definitely classifies as excessive force. If it’s Joe he’s probably not going to be attending this school much longer.
I’m guessing Roz. Given her feminist rhetoric, she’s probably very conscious of this sort of thing happening at college parties, and keeps a bat around for just this reason. Bludgeoning villains with a baseball bat seems rather… unromantic for Amazi-Girl.
What the hell did Ryan think would happen, though? He’s in the middle of a crowded party, thrown by ROZ, of all people. Did he really think everyone would just stand there and not notice?
Why not? Isn’t there a certain poetic justice to the forceful application of a phallic symbol to somebody who was planning the same with an innocent victim?
And thus ends the did he or didn’t he drug her discussion. But I can’t believe he seems to be saying he gave her the other bible verse intentionally. Smug prick!
Well done, Magnitude!
I know what you’re thinking: He’s in the background in the first panel, so it can’t be him.
Well, clearly, Magnitude pop-popped next to her, ready for the rescue!
Pop-Pop, Magnitude! You’re a hero to us all!
I love the colouring shifting in tone with Joyce coming under the effects of the drug. Makes me wonder, will we see her saviour next week as only a fuzzy silhouette?
I’ve discovered a disturbing trend: each successive Willis comic takes less time to start really fucking up its characters than the last. This one only took a week, in-story. I predict that within 4.8 Williscomics, we will approach the Willisarity, where every comic begins with the universe exploding.
Yeah, and they are usually covered in blue and black fur, have long horns and spiked tales and teeth too big for their mouths and drool blood, so with that in mind you can easily avoid all rapists in the future . . .
I’m confused – are you saying that rapists DO have normal moral thought-patterns? Because most of them really don’t, actually. It’s just harder to spot than the fur, horns, etc. that they don’t actually sport.
Rape is an action. A rapist is one who rapes. One does not rape because one is a rapist, one is a rapist because one rapes. Rape is immoral, but one need look no farther than pretty much any war zone too see that people who we think are completely normal can rape. Rape is not a though crime, it is specific act.
My money is on it being Sal, but Joyce is not going to remember it clearly. Sal won’t claim credit for it, and all Joyce will remember is a Sal-like shape… Cue her fascination with Walky…
Or is that too simple? Willis has got tricks up his sleeve, after all.
Oh, I want it to be Sarah too. Ever since Ryan showed up, I’ve wanted for Sarah to crash thru something crashable (the nearest window, the bathroom door, ect), claws extended towards Ryan’s throat. It’d be awesome if she were the one holding that bat in the next strip.
And having said all that, I know I’ve just jinxed any chance of that happening.
I kinda think it was Joe, who was in the party trying to pick up chicks and found someone sortof crossing the line and making all the joes in the world have a more difficult time joeing those in need of joement.
Still worried about how this’ll affect Joyce the morning after. She’s unlikely to need a rape kit, but if all she has are hazy memories, little cuts on her hand and her friends’ guilty accounts of what happened… well, there’s a real chance she could become a Sarah after this, instead of what she was earlier tonight, the kick in the ass Sarah needs.
Agreed. She might get more cautious, but she’s so optimistic- and so sincerely religious- that if she has fuzzy memories of a failed attempted rape and she knows she didn’t stop it herself she’ll probably assume divine intervention until she gets the real story.
While I wouldn’t want Joyce to shut herself in and become a cynical, jaded shell…
…I don’t want her to stay her ultra-naive (and at times self-righteous) current self. So, I’m looking forward to character development, and I figured some disillusionment would be required.
Joyce’s problem is that she’s not Sarah enough. Sarah’s problem is that she’s not Joyce enough.
The best place is a happy medium–savvy yet optimistic–and this is definitely gonna mess with Joyce’s inner world, but I hope it doesn’t put too much Sarah in her. Grimdark Joyce is not something I wanna see.
Maybe we’ll have a short run of “Dark Joyce” from It’s Walky? Or Sal will be the savior and all Joyce will remember is the face and mistake Walky for it?
Even after that last comic, I didn’t think she was holding a glass. I thought they were just serving drinks with plastic cups, but if they were, it would ruin Joyce’s Crowning Moment of Awesome(and possibly Dorothy’s/whatever her roommate’s name is I forgot sorry)
OTOH, at least she avoided one worst-case scenario, the one where Ryan hit his head on something, Amazi-Girl sees her beating on this innocent pastor’s son, and swears a lifelong vow to BRING JOYCE TO JUSTICE!
That wouldn’t stop him from asking us who it should be. Of course then we’d have to wait a whole month (6 hours of comic time) to find out who really did it (it was Colonel Mustard).
a month’s worth of alternate DoA timelines in which every character hits ryan with the bat. there will even be a timeline where ryan hits himself with a bat!
it all makes sense when you consider the magnitude cameo (POP POP) and last night’s community.
Given the obvious foreshadowing of Sarah’s line earlier in the story about not coming to Joyce’s rescue, either Willis is playing it straight and it’s her on the other end of the bat, or that was a red herring and he’s about to throw us a curveball.
Baseball bat is a little strong for our local super hero…or our intrepid reporter/friend. So I’m thinking either roommate who actually cares coming in to the rescue, or drunk Billie is a badass and a true friend.
Its dark, but its not as dark as a Roomies storyline (first webcomic by Willis) dealing with death. The whole noble sacrifice thing was very well done.
He could have made it a lot worse. he could have stopped at the fourth panel and let us think joyce would indeed get raped. however, i suspect he would have to leave the country for the weekend to avoid being bludgeoned to death by a couple hundred angry readers.
I like the pacing here, ending with the bat. If the last panel had been Ryan covering Joyce’s mouth while the drug was kicking in… the comments would be very different.
I also like how the panels have an increasingly red ambiance to them as Ryan starts forcing himself on Joyce, only to have it (mostly) let off as he gets knocked out with the bat.
Ooh, now there’s an idea… What happens to other comics when given the 3eanuts treatment?
(IE take a one shot, or one edition of an episodic strip, and remove the final panel… without the usual punchline or denoument, the often totally different situation that existed in the preceding panels is implied to continue forever… The actual 3eanuts are usually darkly humorous, but here, the result is very nasty.)
I… I am irrationally furious at Ryan right now (I say “irrationally” only because he’s a fictional character). It’s bad enough to try to drug and rape an innocent young woman, but BLAMING HER for simply defending herself is just the worst of the worst. Can he be carted off to jail for a long time now? Let’s throw some poetic justice in there while we’re at it and have him repeatedly molested by large inmates.
Yeah, I’m not taking this too well… better just move along.
You know I’m actually of the opinion someone hired Ryan to do it given the whole “Mark” thing.
If so even if convicted he probably won’t spend a huge amount of time in jail for it. Plus at no time did she actually say “no” and just attacked him. Ryans lawyer might be able to use that.
I mean, I’m pretty sure shoving a girl up against a wall qualifies as assault. Add the verbal threats to that, and he probably won’t have an easy time slithering away.
Namenduke: he felt she was “putting out” he gets angry (and there is no real evidence to suggest attempted rape here) she smashes a glass in his face. He gets angrier and shoves her against a well. Nope no rape here, he might have just been about to give her another telling off before calling an ambulance to have the huge psychologically damaging, work disrupting scar looked at. Which incidentally: she now owes him allot of money for.
SUTBEric: who says he did it? Did anybody see the pills?
Well, probably the fact that she got woozy from a cup of Sierra Mist; few, if any people would get as woozy as Joyce has from someone slipping some vodka into their soda. It’s not like Joyce has had a few. That somewhat narrows the list of what could be in there.
The roofying is enough to suggest attempted rape.
Also, how often do you simply tell someone off if you’re telling them they’re “going to pay for what they did?” Especially when you look particularly murderous at the time. If someone isn’t in fear of their safety (or the other person’s in this case), then there’s something very wrong.
Gargamel, my point was that the question of whether or not there was a clear and present danger of rape aside, Ryan has already done enough, in front of witnesses, to get himself arrested for assault and possibly making terrorist threats.
Also, I’m curious: when you say that there’s “no real evidence to suggest attempted rape,” are you looking at it from a hypothetical cop or defense attorney’s perspective who hasn’t seen the events leading up to this, and giving your opinion on what the law will end up finding, or are you talking from a reader’s perspective, and think that given what we’ve seen in the comic, that there’s no evidence of it?
(That may not be the most articulate way of asking, so feel free to ask for clarification)
Henry: What I meant was that anybody else at the party could have drugged her. I know from personal experience there are people who get off on randomly dropping roofies into people’s drinks. It happened to my girlfriend and a male friend of mine.
Narmenduke: Rather I was taking a defence attorneys or police officers point of view than the reader as we all know he was trying to rape her.
I think the telling point here is that the readers know he was considering Joyce as a “Mark” in his thoughts. The people *in* the comic won’t have that knowledge.
Ah. Makes sense. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone like that. Thanks for clarifying. I think I see what you mean now.
The thing is, with the drugs in her system, and with other (admittedly, drunk people) being able to say he gave her the drink, even if Ryan were innocent of that, it doesn’t exactly look great for his defense.
A guy who thinks he’s entitled to non-consensual sex in the first place isn’t the type of guy who’s going to take responsibility when his plan destructs on him. But I wouldn’t call being mad at that “irrational.”
Bit OT But: In general and in society it seems, women (the most common victims of such a thing with men as the perpetartors) are often blamed for their own victimhood in rape. For a multitude of half assed things- as if she was asking for it somehow perhaps it how she ‘dressed’ or ‘acted’ or because she was ‘drunk’ or whatever as if this was an invitation for a man to force themselves on them and the ‘poor rapist’ obviously got his signals wrong. When obviously the reason rape happens is because people f***ing rape, nothing more. It is NEVER the victims fault, yet often blame is shifted on them in some way. Doesn’t surprise me that an attempted rapist (who has probably done this to some other poor girl) does it himself here on some level.
Then of course on the flip side when a man is raped by a woman it’s apparently hilarious and all men want sex all the time and of course would never refuse something like sex!
How society in general treats rape victims is disgusting.
Could NOT agree with you more, Heather. People in general are more keen to blame the victim than the assailant. If a girl has even sort of a party-girl reputation, suddenly it’s as though she deserves being taken advantage of while drunk. I was victim-blamed after I got assaulted, and I don’t have a reputation of that kind at all.
I kind of hope that Willis goes into that sort of thing (victim-blaming and the like) with Joyce, and uses it as character development as opposed to the “I got raped oh woe is me!” Victim-blaming needs to be put out there. We get enough storylines about rape (though shoddily-done, and rape SHOULD BE TALKED ABOUT don’t get me wrong) but none of them talk about victim-blaming. At all.
I kinda wonder if that’s why Willis chose Joyce for this treatment. Given how prevalent victim-blaming is, I can imagine that had it been anybody other than Joyce (maybe not Dorothy), the comments may have been a fair bit different.
Joyce, not drinking and going to the party in a thick sweater, isimmune to a lot of the most common victim-blame comments (although one can still get creative).
And in some way, the opportunity for exploring this is there, if Ryan’s attitude is any indication. He believes he’s not responsible for his own actions and pins it all Joyce, which unfortunately, is what many outside observers will want to believe, hearing of it after the fact.
As a rape survivor I feel that the worst thing society does to us is freak out about rape. Rape is a horrible, violent crime (even when violence is not obvious in its use). But there are lots of other horrible violent crimes. Society romanticizes rape when it elevates it to the “worst” imaginable crime. Rape, as bad as it was for a thirteen year old boy, isn’t even the worst thing that ever happened to me; but it is the one thing in my past I cannot bring up in conversation without people freaking the hell out.
Agreed. And even in other forms of abuse, the abuser often blames the victim. “See what you made me do?! Why do you have to make me so mad?!!” Etc. Or, “I wouldn’t get so mad if you weren’t such an idiot!”
To clarify, of course it would be horribly wrong of the inmates to do it, there is no disputing that. And if Ryan were not a fictional character, I would probably feel differently. I might still wish for it on some level, but were it to actually *happen* I would probably gain no pleasure out of it.
It must be providence that I chose to use Mayo Mitama from SZS as my gravatar today, one of her favourite weapons is the baseball bat and she is evil enough to do it.
“I am the white void. I am the cold oak. I am the just wood. With bat in hand shall I reap the sins of this world, and cleanse it in the fires of destruction! I am Hakumen! The end has come!”
First a broken glass to the face, then a baseball bat to the back of the head.
Comeuppance is a bongo.
Now, an entire weekend before I get to find out who’s wielding the bat. Willis, you sly fox.
Wait, wait, woah. I didn’t even notice… You know, I didn’t even know about Magnitude before last night? That’s not another Community reference, either. I don’t really watch the show. I googled “Magnitude character” to find out about him, and then I looked up the Youtube clip to find out more about him. I did not know he was actually in the background of the strip, I was just trying to make a cheap wisecrack.
I hoestly don’t think it’s Amazi-Girl. We can see the room she was in a couple of days ago behind Joyce, and Ryan gets hit from the opposite direction, so for it to be Amber she would have had to get changed and run around the house to find them in what was probably only a minute or so.
Maybe it’s not Amazi-Girl/Roz/Amber/Joe/Sara/Spider-Car/Ruth/Dorothy/Billie/Teleporting Magnitude. Maybe it’s just a completely unrelated, hitherto unnamed party-goer, who saw what happened and thought, “Whoa, date rape! This calls for some blunt force trauma. Thankfully, our host keeps a rack of Assault Prevention Bats for just such an occasion.”
But no, whoever it is, I doubt we’ll find out Monday. We’ll probably jump ahead to when Joyce wakes up the following day, with her just as curious as us.
amazi-girl has used a corn popper as a weapon before. i don’t know if we can rule her out on weapon use alone.
but i don’t think it’s her. i think it’s sarah, her roommate. the first paragraph in this post by willis is what makes me think she’s the best candidate.
Well, I can’t speak for any of the other guys around here, but while I may not necessarily NEED a bat to stop a rape-in-progress, I’m certainly not going to turn one down if it’s available.
Nope, me neither. I’m well aware of my own limitations in that I’m not the strongest of guys, so if I were in that position, I’d be going for a weapon too.
Of course, considering that there were obviously witnesses in the background, you could still defuse this situation in a non-violent manner by yelling out, “HEY! Where are you taking my friend?” and causing a scene. Still, the stakes have been upped, and violence in self-defense would be an acceptable measure here.
I’d be afraid that I’d acidentally hit the girl with the bat as well, actually. My first instinct would be to drag the fucker off, then start throwing punches. Not that I’m trying to act like an internet badass, and not that I’ve ever been in that situation, thankfully, but that’s what my mind immediately jumps to. Or maybe not. I dunno how things might change when the situation’s legtimately stressful and I’m not thinking clearly.
*Nods* I’ve, thankfully, never been in a similar situation myself, and it’s all too easy to talk big, but I have been accused (quite rightfully so) of having a bit (lot) of a white knight complex which, if anything, has only been increased by fatherhood. I think I can safely say that “clear thinking” and “restraint” may very well be the first two things to go out the window if I ever see a girl in similar straits.
bats are good, blades are good for intimidation but bad for actual use (too easy to get carried away and kill them from blood loss tho i guess the same could be said with the bat and internal bleeding.. anyways) i like a stomp kick to the back of the knee and a choke till he passes out.
Ruth saving Joyce doesn’t have much pull, from a writing perspective, since they don’t interact much. Neither do most of the other choices that have been offered. Someone who would, though, is Sarah. The two had a big fight, the last time we saw Sarah, wtih Joyce telling Sarah that she has no friends. Sarah claimed that she didn’t care if anything happened to Joyce, but we know that deep down that isn’t true. So, she follows along,bringing a baseball bat as a weapon, which she would totally use, to make sure nothing happens, and establish herself as a good friend for Joyce. All the while denying any mushy friendship feelings.
You see, its all about the writing opportunities that it creates afterwards, and making the writing flow from ongoing relationships.
I actually really hope it’s not Sarah, because I don’t agree with her jaded, shut-yourself-off-from-everyone-and-everything-to-avoid-getting-hurt worldview. This would just cement that view in Sarah’s mind, and then she would have reason to bongo at Joyce for doing anything she doesn’t approve of.
Ruth has been mentioned a couple times in this comment section, and I like the idea. Even though it might not have much pull for her to save Joyce, I think the true potential in that scenario lies in Billie seeing her do it, and realizing that she’s not completely an evil hellbongo. It would also be an opportunity for some backstory/character development for Ruth, which we haven’t seen since Billie hid in her closet (and even that wasn’t much).
Ruth knowing Joyce doesn’t seem too relevent, to be honest; Ruth seems like the sort of person who, if they saw something like this taking place, would intervene regardless of who the victim was.
And using a Louisville Slugger to intervene seems very much like Ruth.
There is also still the theory that Ruth was a previous victim of Ryan’s, since SOMETHING upset her like crazy earlier. And, since he was the one who talked her into sex in the Walkyverse…
Maybe it doesn’t matter that Joyce doesn’t know Ruth. Maybe Ryan does.
Stuff I’m willing to bet on:
We won’t know who that is until Saturday night character time.
It’ll be Ruth behind the bat nonetheless, with Sarah behind her.
Wow, sure brings back memories of my first week at college. Remember all that attempted rape with roofies and inflicting permanent life-altering scars on strangers’ faces before assaulting them with a baseball bat?? Good times. It was just so hard to escape all the rape and violence. This strip is so gritty and realistic. Makes you think.
Anecdotal evidence. Just because it never happened to you doesn’t mean it happening to others is completely implausible.
Furthermore, this is a comic involving at least one superhero who runs around a college campus breaking up fights. If you’re going to call a comic out on trying to be “gritty and realistic”, first make sure it’s actuallytrying to be.
Guy got kicked off a degree course / evicted from the college dorms (despite being an exchange student, so no local-ish place to traipse back to) for trying to molest a female dorm mate in our cheap co-ed digs… Fortunately he wasn’t ever so strong or fit, and she kicked up enough of a fuss that he didn’t get “that” far, but enough for it to class as an assault. Unfortunately he didn’t choose to pick on one of the sportier, more violent girls would would have beaten him black & blue THEN screamed for help.
And that all without even the cover of a party, just in the shared kitchen when (he thought) no-one else was about.
Just sayin’, like. It does happen. Thankfully not very often, but – hey – this is a dramatic story. There has to be a higher than natural level of drama, otherwise it just becomes reality TV.
There is a very real thing called the “Red Zone” that my college made time to talk to the freshmen about. The rate of sexual assault/rape on college campuses nationwide are MUCH higher to a ridiculous amount during the first ten weeks of your freshman year, and it’s MUCH higher among freshmen than any other age range.
This isn’t just fearmongering or overcompensating for something, this is a very real statistic everywhere.
Theories about it is partly because, going into your first month or so of school, you don’t know everyone and nobody really knows you so you’re more likely to try riskier things. Social boundaries have not been in place yet, so you have less of a “safety net” of people if something bad DOES happen, and you don’t really know who to be wary of.
It’s also partly because you haven’t really formed any solid social bonds yet, people that would easily come to your defense in case of problems. The victim doesn’t necessarily have a “defense force” and the assailant doesn’t necessarily have to fear becoming a social pariah, because they haven’t formed any bonds with people that would shun them for their transgressions.
I mean, yeah, the rumor mill can be rough, but the rumor mill also isn’t always full of bullshit. One of the things that protected me during my first year was making friends with older people who guided me on how to party safely, and made sure to keep an eye on me in case any creepers tried to do their creepin’ thing.
Willis is just actually expressing a very real phenomenon that happens in colleges, that you are lucky you didn’t experience.
Not sure how realistic this comic is planning to be, but in real life hitting someone with a baseball bat in the head is an excellent way to kill them dead.
Also: note his hand over her mouth. Like I said last strip, she was still in danger. He has done this before and wasn’t planning on letting her scream.
Yah, but most people don’t know or at least don’t think about that. I think the vast majority of people in that situation while holding a bat would naturally go for the head. It’s what they do on TV!
The count is 3 and 2, 2 outs, this is the last chance for a game saving hit, Ryan throws a fast ball high and in, And the Batter connects OH MY! REALLY GOT A HOLD OF THAT ONE ITS GOING… GOING… ITS OUTTA HERE! A GAME SAVING GRAND SLAM!
Beef, wanting to inflict maximum pain.
Jesus. Seriously, it’s Jesus, right?
Roz, as they don’t seem to be too far from where Dorothy first spotted her and split off from Joyce. She hasn’t really moved, but Dot and Billie have gone running off in a panic to look for her.
One of the drunks who they were playing Settlers with.
Orrrrr the Jock-type guy who got Joyce her first Sierra Mist, is actually the host of the party, and was showing off his new bat to some buddies when he heard the glass smash (…a noise that anyone hosting a party at their own place is quite attuned to
Notice in the first panel that this Joyce/Ryan bullshit is happening very close to where Roz and Dorothy are.
So regardless of what happens, I can at least make the safe bet that Roz and Dorothy are going to notice (I mean it’s pretty hard to ignore a guy getting beaned with a baseball bat and I’m SURE there will be an ensuing, very noisy scene) and take Joyce home.
A couple people have said Ethan, I think that would be a good choice seeing Joyce has already been a bit smitten with him since their first meeting, this would make it even more-so
It’s a frat party, a cute but “woozy” looking freshman girl is in a fight with some dude in a sweater… Who wouldn’t attack said dude with a baseball bat?
Most guys would probably just stick with fists. So it’s probably a girl – or some physically unimposing guy.
Watch it be Faz. “Faz has helped! And you look woozy, so let me take you into this fine small bathroom to hold and comfort and hold you to Faz’s body for support.”
I have no theory (except to say that if it’s Amazi-Girl, then Billie is a quick-change artist, because we just saw her in plainclothes), but I will add – it’s lucky for Ryan he’s a cartoon character. Because justified or not, any head trauma that has sufficient force to cause your entire body to rotate 90 degrees midair is likely to leave you in a gradually enlarging puddle of your own cranial matter.
Well, who knows how hard it hit the guy. It could have just pushed him off-balance. What really matters here is if he passes out, because then that’s a one-way ticket to deadsville.
Check him – his body is perfectly horizontal, three feet above the floor. There’s not even any hint of bending at his waist.
And worse yet – in the prior frame his face was right next to Joyces, and now it’s in the same place, only a couple of feet down. If he was tipping sideways, his head would be far off to the side – this means that upon being struck, he rotated at his head, flinging his entire body sideways up into the air. From there it began to fall, presumably straight down from the horizontal pose he levitated himself up to.
So. happy. that Ryan got his.
Still, if this were real life, it’d be JOYCE who would be in a lot of trouble: she’ll now have no evidence of his dark designs, while he has a scar and can probably get glass fragments with her fingerprints. And it’ll be his word against hers.
Tests would show the drugs in her system. Nobody, unless they literally want to be raped, would roofie themself. And given the way Joyce regards her purity, she wouldn’t.
Here’s a short list of those I don’t think have been selected:
Leslie (doing “fieldwork?”)
Jason
Daisy
Robin (invited to party by an even-handed Roz saying it would be a chance to speak to campus media)
I’d like Ruth for this, except bare-hands is more her style. Joe may be big, and even exercise regularly, but he’s still a good candidate for bat use (he’s technical, he’ll look for the right tool for the job). Can’t be Mike, he’d try to top Joyce’s drinking glass trick with a bottle.
And I know non-drinkers who’ve been tricked by pranksters slipping vodka into their drinks.
The bat part certainly makes it seem like it’s a girl, although to be perfectly fair I have hit a person with a barstool at least once. A bat is a serious offensive weapon though, and I’m gonna assume it was a girl.
I’d like it to be Joe, Mike, or (gasp) somehow Walky, but that’s just fanciful thinking. Though I don’t think it would be outside the realm of possibility for Mike to use a bat: he likes hurting people, I’m not sure he’s all that concerned about how…
I predict that the bat-wielder is in fact Ryan himself. Now, follow me on this. We’re actually witnessing an alternative timeline effective this strip. In the previous timeline, Ryan attacks Joyce and is later sent to a state penitentiary for several years. During his time there, he contemplated the foolishness of his actions, and then devoted his life to the advancement of particle physics. Gradually his studies carried on, until eventually he discovered a method through which to assemble a time machine. After whoring himself out for several decades and selling space-drugs to space-criminals, Ryan raised sufficient funds to construct his machine. He then chose to go back to the moment which ruined his life (this moment) and stop himself from ever raping Joyce. He had to do so in a way that his past self wouldn’t see him, so he chose to render it unconscious with a blunt instrument. And now, here we are.
Here’s a fun exercise for everyone: imagine the genders were switched.
Imagine it was a girl trying to drug a guy to forcibly have sex with him. Would you still cheer if the man broke a glass on her face and someone hit her with a baseball bat? Discuss.
A female serial rapist was caught a while ago. She spiked men’s drinks with rohypnol and viagra. Most of the victims said that she was a good-looking woman who didn’t need the drugs and they would have been happy to have sex with her if she’d just asked.
It’s never about the sex with rapists. It’s about the power. Good looking men can be rapists, too (they tend to be the more famous ones), and sometimes they try to deflect the blame in the media by having their lawyers/family say “He’s so handsome and famous, he has women all over him, why would he need to rape a woman to get sex?” Which of course, is an utter bullshit question.
I just thought it would be an interesting topic to talk about, especially since most of the people here seem willing to discuss gender issues in a mature manner.
Suddenly I’m hated
It was actually an interesting experiment for ME, because I was actually cheering Joyce for breaking a glass on his face until I thought of the gender-switch.
Now I think the violence is a bit excessive and I’m willing to defend that statement were the predator male or female. That does NOT excuse what he/she was trying to do, they still deserve full punishment, but violence might make the law take the victim less seriously. My two cents.
The right to self-defense is deeply ingrained in the American legal system, unless one is a member of a minority group or a woman in which case defending yourself is not only wrong but a setback for your entire ethnicity/gender . . .
Say we had the gender switch, and the assault was successful. But instead of waking up raped, the men woke up missing kidneys? Or were tortured or killed?
We know what Ryan’s intent was because he was fairly explicit. But if he hadn’t been, or if we thought he actually intended to kill Joyce, nobody would have batted an eyelash about the violence, and nobody would hesitate to say the same violence would still be justified if the genders were reversed.
I feel like the violence is entirely justified because any gender combination wouldn’t change the situation. Rapists, whether they succeed or fail, deserve whatever their victim does to them unless it’s murder or a significantly more violent/traumatic rape. And even murder can be justified by imminent threats like this case… not that I’d want Joyce to kill someone, but I’d not fault her for it.
I’m echoing what others have said, but in the case of self-defense, the violence is justified under the law. Just the fact that he incapacitated her with drugs is enough of a reason for it, never mind the threat of of rape.
I don’t have a problem, I just thought it would be an interesting thing to think about; how do people’s perspectives change when the genders are reversed?
narmenduke was right, I just wanted to know what others thought; why is everyone (including Willis) jumping on me?
But there is a difference between a woman slicing a male rapist’s face and a male slicing a female rapist’s face, and I’m not talking about the ridiculous “all men are horndogs and rape is funny when it’s female on male” trope.
Men have historically been in a place of privilege. Historically, women have been the ones who are victims of rape, assault, murder, domestic violence, all of that. I’m not saying men can’t be abused by their wimminfolks, but in the case of a man defending himself against a woman, it calls into question the idea that men are using their historical privilege against women to keep women oppressed.
Part of why there’s a whole “men shouldn’t hit women” thing isn’t because women are incapable of defending themselves (on the contrary, most males understand fully that, if they were going to get into an all-out fight with a woman, they will most likely get their ass whooped), it’s because it’s an abuse of male privilege.
On the contrary, women have historically been abused by men in all manner of ways women can be abused. A woman physically defending herself against a man is her defending herself against a whole, fucked up societal system. It’s a system most people, on some level, realize to be fucked up and realize should be changed. A woman defending herself against a man is a visual example of a woman trying to destroy the status quo.
That’s a socio-political interpretation, but people aren’t solely socio-political puppets. Sometimes a person, male or female is just angry or afraid or both and acts their feelings. I guess in this case Joyce is more angry than afraid and attacks the guy because she senses her feelings have been toyed with in a hurtful way.
Of course it still sets an example for spectators in the way you described it: woman breaks out of victim role, yay, nuh!, whatever, i’m too drunk to care etc…. it may also set an example for us viewers that women aren’t the “weak sex” that is easily taken advantage of.
These speculations aside, a male victim defending themselves against a female aggressor should still have the right to resort to violence if absolutely necessary, whatever others may think of that in a socio-political context. Submitting yourself to violence by making yourself weaker than you are and suffering the traumatic consequences seems idiotic. At least you need a very special mindset to let someone rape you because defending yourself by all means necessary might occur politically incorrect to some bystanders.
That’s an interesting perspective. What do you call a man defending himself against a woman?
I think a man punching a woman who was attacking him is as acceptable as the other way around. Obviously violence should be the last the resort and not the first answer, but self defence against an overly aggressive woman should not be less acceptable.
I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you really aren’t trying to troll and that you honestly have no idea just how many times the whole “Well, yeah, but this would be totally different if the genders were reversed” thing has been used in an intentional effort to stir up a huge shitstorm.
Though to be fair, in most of those other cases, it is usually this that is being responded to, and justifiably so. That isn’t the case here at all, though.
Rape is rape. And it can be considered as one of those things as utterly impossible to forgive. In preventing rape on yourself or someone else, I think almost anything goes.
I agree, though I wonder if knocking out the rapist (male or female) is strictly necessary. Most rapes are opportunistic and the offender is likely to back off if it’s clear that the potential victim will fiercely protect her/himself.
I actually thought that this arc would be over when Joyce broke her glass on his face, he probably would have backed off when she showed she was not afraid to protect herself had she not been drugged.
See, I can’t see good Christian Joyce agreeing with you here. Would she actually be incapable/unwilling to forgive a reformed Ryan? Doesn’t her faith teach her to always forgive if the offender has truly reformed?
I’m not cheering now. A bit relieved, perhaps, but I don’t take much joy in seeing someone get pounded, no matter how much they might have merited the beating.
Now here’s a fun exercise for you: 1) get off your horse; 2) measure it; 3) determine whether you need a shorter one.
Oh, I know this isn’t a real life situation, I think thought it would be interesting to discuss it. The comments section of David Willis’ comics invite interesting opinions about real-life situations and I honestly wanted to know what people thought about it.
I have no idea how it degraded into me defending rapists everywhere.
Wait, you mean to say that it’s somehow OK that a girl is drugging up a guy? Are you saying that if it’s a guy, ‘it’s not forced sex, cause all guys want it!’. Are you saying it’s ok to lie and resort to drugs to get a guy to sleep with you? That this would be somehow ok if it was, say Roz (acting evil and out of character), who was forcing herself on, say, Walky, that’d be ok by you? That a horny, well experienced girl is perfectly alright forcing herself on a shy, virginal young man ‘because he asked for it by wearing a cute outfit’.
Maybe your should use the mirror on yourself first, dude.
WHEN exactly did I defend ANY rapist, male or female? WHERE do you get the idea that I think female on male rape is okay??
I think ALL rape is horrible and it should be punished with the full weight of the law, regardless of the gender of the perpetrator. Rape is unacceptable regardless of the context. You’re talking to a hard-core feminist here >:U
Seriously, how did you get this idea? All I did was try to have a discussion on what people think when genders are reversed. It’s interesting discussion to have, not a way to excuse a predator’s actions.
Now that it’s been cleared up that you’re not trying to start an argument but want an honest discussion of it…
I think that, no matter what, I’d be relieved and a bit happy if this situation was reversed. As said, rape is rape. It’s a terrible thing. Anything that can be done to stop it should be. It wouldn’t matter to me if a guy is trying to rape a girl, a girl trying to rape a guy, a guy trying to rape a guy, etc. I would be relieved it was averted. Not cheer, but relieved.
I think that people are cheering because, since it’s technically a comic, none of it’s real. If this occurred in the real world, they would be relieved, not cheering. That and Ryan is a jerkwad.
Also OP, I think the reason everyone thought you were trying for the gender-reversal argument was because of how your first comment was worded. I’ll admit, I thought the same too until I read some of your replies to other people.
I’m no sure about the cheering thing. I have seen videos of real violence on youtube and the comments are usually really aggressive as well. Even if you take it with a grain of salt and assume people are being extra jerks because they are anonymous on youtube; I think there ARE people who honestly think violence is the answer.
It’s an interesting thing to think about.
And yeah, in retrospect, saying it would be “fun” was the wrong thing to say.
I do think the anonymous nature of the internet does make people more violent. They can say things they wouldn’t get away with in real life. Does it mean they’re violent? Not necessarily.
I did cheer when Ryan got wailed in this and the previous comic. I wouldn’t cheer in real life. I’m more hostile towards people on the internet, but only because I know there are no repercussions. Now one day I might not be able to do that, but until then I’ll abuse it to get some of my own personal frustrations off me.
Some people ARE that violent, yes, but no where near as many as the internet suggests.
I’ve seen violence in real life. I’ve seen people shot. I’ve been shot myself. I’ve stumbled across a scene where a whole family was placed against a wall and machine-gunned. Nothing anonymous about it. It’s not funny.
Rape isn’t funny. Violence isn’t funny. I assure you, there’s nothing fucking academic about this discussion to me. David’s art and story here has taken me back to a couple of very real incidents that I saw happen, about thirty years ago. It is to his everlasting credit that my good friend David Willis can craft story and art that speaks to me so realistically, that takes me back to that time so vividly.
There wasn’t any internet then. It didn’t make people more or less violent. There were only people with ill intent, and other people that were willing to use force to stop them.
Listen, this is a story, but it presents a scenario that really happens. It happens all the time, in small towns and big cities all across the country. When I saw it happen to a girl I knew, we sought out the guy who did it and visited some wrath upon him, just like David has shown in today’s Friday cliffhanger.
I didn’t have any sympathy then for the son of a bongo who slipped a girl acid trying to get laid. We put his ass in the ER and I have no regrets about that. If this were a real scenario, I’d have no regrets about laying a stout piece of hickory across the skull of this son of a bongo. Sometimes evil intent has to be met with force.
I don’t know how to answer to that without looking grossly insensitive. I’ve been fortunate enough in my life to not have to resort to violence to defend myself or someone who needs to be defended. I know I’m lucky to be able to talk about these situations in a purely theoretical manner.
September 30th or thereabouts there is a superhero in the background, could be him. I still think its Sal or Billie tho, tho the frat guy who got her the sierra mist is also a viable candidate!
Until the roofie kicked in, I was really hoping that Willis was going to surprise us with a naive, homeschooled, devout innocent who somehow managed to handle herself just fine.
It seemed for a while there that she would be sort of vindicated in what she believed, despite being wrong about Ryan in particular and pastors’ children in general.
I still hope she stays a sweet Christian girl, despite learning the hard way how to avoid creeps, because I think that’s a legitimate lifestyle choice sometimes. To show that it’s not always the product of naiveté would be unusual and empowering.
I’d like to see a webcomic that’s so comfortable with GLBT people and freed sexuality also be comfortable with a character who chooses to be religious but not an asshole or a total naif. The diversity would be refreshing.
Joyce is still religious in the Walkyverse too, and she can handle herself just fine. Problem is that it’s a basic fact of life that being naive can get you in to trouble, that part’s got to go. If you just stumble through life thinking god’s got your back so you don’t watch it for yourself and nothing bad happens, that’s not being vindicated. I’d imagine she’s going to go through a bit of a rough patch here, but should be the same sweet Joyce in the end.
I’m relieved to hear that opinion. I’d like to see Joyce become more people-wise without losing her religious identity. She adds an interesting element to the mix of people there, and I’d hate for readers to take away from this yet another example of “Christians/religious people are all idiots.”
I’m going to try to trust Willis’s ability to handle this storyline as delicately as he handled the Ethan/Drew breakup storyline.
I don’t think Joyce will change much in her personality. I don’t know how Willis intends to continue her character, but she did say earlier she believes that Jesus has her back and wouldn’t let something like this happen. Though she was drugged, she wasn’t raped. It seems someone WAS watching over her, and probably, that’s what she’ll take away from all this.
Maybe not so naive anymore, but still the same person.
Maybe I’m just unaware how you get from Jésus to soccer without racial stereotyping. Is there some particularly well known Jésus being referenced here?
Wouldn’t the stereotyping be if I had make a baseball joke based on the number of Hispanics in baseball? I went with a sport that quite frankly is worldwide. Sheesh, I get in trouble for not hitting the softball joke the way I could’ve.
To paraphrase my man Inigo Montoya, Ryan- “You keep using that verse…I do not think it means what you think it means.” But fortunately we have a volunteer with a baseball bat to help illustrate the definition for you.
I think its Amazi-girl also….she was in fighting form earlier at the party (check 9/29 and 9/30 strips). But the tag says “Magnitude” new character or just reference to the escalation of violence? Maybe Magnitude is Mike’s superhero name?
Magnitude is the name of the guy in the background of the first panel. He was also in one of the other strips. He’s a character from the NBC sitcom community, and he is awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-_4mcYsQdE
go back to the strip on the 12th and one notices Amber eavesdropping on Dorothy and Billie XD (though a sick little part of me still wants it to be Mike)
For some reason, I think it’s going to be her roommate. I think it would be kind of nice if Sarah was too worried and restless to stay home, so she went to the party and found a convenient baseball bat.
Unfortunately, I think if this DOES happen to be the case, all Joyce will take away from it is that Jesus watches over her, not that she needs to be more cautious, exercise better judgment, avoid dangerous situations, etc.
Either that or Jesus is secretly watching over her! DAMN YOU WILLIS! (..in the Christian sense, of course. Willis is a Christian, right? He’s also Joyce and secretly telling the story of his life, right?)
Why? He’s definitely sexy enough to catch one’s attention, at least I would totally want to rape him, if I was a rapist, which I’m not, so it’s probably rather “do”… Since I’m not going to get a chance for either, let this be an example of a girl with a motif for you. And I’m sure there are more out there who are into Willis’ type, so – it’s definitely possible! Although not completely conclusive.
And there are the inebriated spots I mentioned before. So much for not being ruffied. Poor Joyce, she does not deserve this.
This guy is a freaking psychopath as well as a rapist. I know the psychology behind why people do shit like this, but I can’t comprehend it on an emotional level. How could anyone do something so evil as to rape another person? Its disgusting.
Glad to see someone had Joyce’s back. I wonder if its Amazi-Girl (probably not, as she wouldn’t use a bat, but instead fists of justice).
And now, my long shot bet on who it is. Kyle Gass (a.k.a. Kage a.k.a. KG) as he stumbled into a college party after he and Jack Black (a.k.a. Jables a.k.a. JB) had a falling out on their way to the Museum of Rock ‘n’ Roll to steal the Pick of Destiny! It is his seeing the attempted rape of Joyce that he grabbed the nearest non-guitar weapon he could find, before heading off to go help his compadre and get the movie back on track.
My list of potential bat wielders: Mike, Walky, Danny, Joe, Dorothy, Sal, Amazi-Girl, guy with awesome beard, Roz, Ruth, Ethan, Beef Nukem, Billie and finally some random bat wielding party goer who happened to be drunk.
On a side note, maybe it’s just the cluster-logic way my brain works, but I find all the Batman comments amusing in a strangely meta way, since the one time I know of for sure that he’s actually used a baseball bat in the comics (even using the “Bat-man” pun) was against…
These guess’s are all way too obvious, its probably someone unexpected;
Heres my votes;
Linkara, Squirrel Girl,Moya (the living ship from Farscape),CookieMonster,Scott(or is it Steve) from Lost, BatMite, The Inanimate Carbon Rod (from that simpsons episode),Felicia Day or The Spanish Inquisition
And now we’ve got ANOTHER character who can be summed up in one or two words. Seriously, the characters are kinda two dimensional; Joe is “horny” Sal is “Teen Rebel”, Walky’s “acts eleven”, mike’s “asshole”, dina’s “shy”, Ruth’s “dictator”, Sarah is “jaded outcast”, Ryan’s “rapist”, and Billie’s “arrogant alcoholic”.
It seems like Joyce and Dorothy are the only characters who feel like real, 3 dimensional people with complex personalities and conflicts. everyone else seems… flat.
On a completely unrelated note, I’m seriously pissed off with Billie being the “funny drunk”. I know it’s indicated to be a serious problem and will probably get a serious storyline eventually, but for now alcoholism is portrayed as something funny, a punchline for a lot of goofy, offensive jokes.
You forgot Amber as “person who only plays video games and has no other side to her whatsoever”.
On the other hand, we’ve seen these people for what, four days their time? Even a soap opera takes longer than that to delve into deep existential angst. Give it time. By the time we see the end of the semester, in 2036, I’m sure they’ll all be quite fleshed out. (Well, except Mike.)
And on Billie – have you forgotten all her previous characterization already, as a person who built up her identity based on her high school popularity and is struggling with the loss thereof? And, I don’t see her drunkenness as being all *that* funny – in a way, it’s sort of pathetic.
What I learned from your comment is that within a year I’ve managed to characterize a dozen characters strongly enough that you can easily describe them, with a select few receiving more fleshed out characterizations.
I can’t see that as a negative. Thanks for the unintentionally positive feedback.
That’s a good point. Your characters, the mains at least, are quite identifiable, so if that’s your goal, you’re matching it admirably. But after 13 months, you have 2 fully developed characters.
I guess my issue is with the pacing. DoA seems to take 10-20 strips to show what could be done in 5-10. If you tightened it up a bit maybe the characters would have developed more by now.
To finish up, I mean this as constructive criticism. If I was just trying to troll, I’d have done a lot worse.
I’d reason you’re forgetting development for some of the characters you claim are one-dimensional. It’s easy to pick a trait and say that’s all they are. It’s not a compelling argument to me when I know I’ve displayed other sides to many of them.
(I’ll leave others to give examples if they want. It feels a little petty for me to spoonfeed that sort of information, plus if I’m doing my job I shouldn’t have to.)
Cutting stories down into fewer strips seems like it’d remove the very character moments you say are missing. That’s why events are expanded, to add room for subtlety. I’m comfortable and pleased with the speed at which things happen, rate of actual time passage notwithstanding, so that’s not likely to change. Altering that would make it harder to do what I want to do.
Ok, I don’t think I’ve gotten across my point about characterization very well. I’ll use Billie as an example. To me, the “character moments” are mostly punchlines that reinforce what we already know about her, specifically her arrogance “I’m a cheerleader!” and her alcohol addiction “I focus better after a shot of whiskey”.
To me, while those punchlines can, and usually are funny, but they’re overused, and they drag things out.
Previously, I said that Dorothy was a well developed character, and Joe wasn’t. Despite them having comparable numbers of appearances, Dorothy has had two well written character arcs, the break up and her journalism, The majority of joes strips are “Joes such a horndog ;)”. You can clearly write good character arcs succinctly, in my opinion you should focus on them and show us the complexity you’ve planned out in your head.
I’m guessing every main character’s going to get their moment in the sun. If you improved your pacing, We’d have seven or more fleshed out characters, rather than two.
If the only things you’re taking from Billie’s characterization is that she’s an alcoholic cheerleader, you’re missing the point. Most of Billie’s strips showcase the fact that, just like Joyce, Billie really isn’t prepared for college, just in a different way. Billie is slowly coming to realise that nobody cares about high school anymore, and considering the strip has covered about a week so far, it’s unrealistic to expect her to have made much progress (and as for the fact it’s taken so long to cover a week? It’s a webcomic, that’s how it works.)
Let’s also consider Joe: sure, most of his strips showcase that he’s a horndog, but he’s an HONEST horndog. He never hides who he is and is perfectly accepting of other attitudes. He also has plenty of other displayed traits, like his love of snarking Danny.
The thing you have to remember is, reading a webcomic is a different experience to reading a book. It’s a slow ass way of telling a story, because you only get a moment or so a day. Sure, a webcomic like “Something Positive” or “Questionable Content” might move characterization faster, they’re far more gag a day oriented then DoA, which is more story driven.
(If everyone else is going to consistently misspell Amazi-Girl, I will too. …unless that’s just yet another idiotic meme of which I have somehow been unaware until now, in which case I profusely apologize for propagating such a terrible thing.)
Isn’t Joyce likely to be facing felony assault charges? Smashing somebody in the face with a glass (assault with a weapon) is likely only legally justified if one can persuade a judge that one was facing imminent physical harm with no means of escape. It’s somewhat doubtful that her action would be construed as the minimum reasonable force necessary to prevent that, given he hasn’t touched her at that point.
Attempted murder (baseball bat to the head) is likely to be problematic as the minimum reasonable force necessary to stop him, but at least there he’s already touched grabbed her.
If this were taking place in small-town Indiana, where most of the local police likely to be members of his dad’s “flock,” then yeah, I’d be pretty worried for Joyce. I don’t see the Bloomington police being quite to sympathetic to an attempted rapist.
The only potential problem I see arising is if his family also has lots of money (he did mention horses), in which case it may be the school that tries to keep things hushed up. Although, if it happened off-campus, I’m not sure that the school would have any actual involvement…
He was attempting by intimidation to get her “alone,” in such a way that a reasonable person might believe he meant to force himself upon her once they were. In short, he threatened to rape her – that takes the gloves off big time. In many jurisdictions, she or another could straight-up knife him provided that there weren’t a reasonable avenue of retreat.
Besides, Willis’s comics have always been somewhat… anarchic.
He literally just told her that he had been following her around all night, and was getting ready to force her into a bathroom. And she had already consumed the drink, and was starting to go under the effects of the drug and go out of it.
When exactly was she suppose to be making reasonable assessments on how much force she should level? She didn’t even last until the end of this comic before starting to collapse against the doorway.
My immediate thought is that Danny is our batter. It’d be a good reason for Joyce to attach herself to him.
My crack “I want this to be true because it would be ludicrious” pick is The Cheese. You know, just to prove that even if God doesn’t have her back, something close does.
I have to say, though, I do like Joyce’s reaction to all of this. She’s the naive, home-schooled girl who just went to her first ‘Real’ Party and her naivete got her roofied and almost raped…
BUT! Upon realizing it, she defended herself the only way she could. She quickly assessed she had a potential weapon to defend herself with, and she used it. She didn’t turn into a meek little girl begging someone else to help her. Had the roofies not kicked in when they did, she probably would have gotten away just fine.
And to everyone bongoing about how Joyce ‘will’ get prosecuted for the ‘horrible assault’ (That’s how I see you saying it), you need to realize something.
THIS IS A WEBCOMIC AND AN AWESOME AT THAT AND WHAT WILLIS SAYS GOES SO GET OVER IT AND ENJOY READING IT!!!
Considering her “Wrath of God” reaction to Joe, a fairly benign run-of-the-mill horndog, it’s not really much of a surprise that, when confronted with a genuine sexual predator, she really called down the thunder. I get the feeling that if he hadn’t drugged her, he would have found out that True Faith isn’t just for use against vampires any more.
At the end of the day I’m betting Ryan’s not particularly eager to run off and tell the story anyway. Sure, he could twist it to make it sound like it was all her fault and he was just an innocent victim, but he’d probably prefer the events of this night just never get investigated at all.
He’s probably not the only person leaving this party with a busted up face or ending the night unconscious. As far as he’s concerned the fewer questions asked the better.
Panel 4: He’s right up next to her (as far as my mortal eyes can tell).
Panel 5: He is hit so hard that his legs got pulled out from under him.
GENTLEMEN, I give to you a suspect for consideration… The goddamn carpet. Nobody ever expects the carpet to yank itself from out underneath you and then club you like it’s its job to go clubbing people with bats.
Does Indiana have those “stand your ground” laws where if you attack someone and they fight back you have the right to do whatever you want to them? Ryan sure seems to think so!
Loading ...
Bonk!
The Scout saved the day!
A shame it wasn’t the Pyro.
So instead of BONK, it would be BMFF?
More like “I AM BURNING! FIRE FIRE FIRE!”
Not so tough now are ya? ARE YA!?
the funny thing is, in my mind it was Mike hitting him knocking him down, b/c of her date with Joe. idk if mike is even at the party, but i love your comment with my thoughts. to bad tomorrow will ruin my li’l daydream.
You mean Monday.
It appears that I am on fire
Do you believe in Magic?
Or Baseball bats?
More like B.A.M.F.
Speaking of which, who was that masked bad @$$ mofo?
Love the adam west era batman sound effects btw
Anyone keeping track of Sarah’s heads batted in?
I guess this is *puts on sunglasses* a homerun
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
WIN
http://yeahbutton.com/
now this is what i call a WIN. XD
I prefer http://epiconeliner.com/ even tough it’s a bit less majestic
ROFLMAO you are an idiot for that!
Everybody gets one. Tell em, Peter.
One what? Who’s Peter?
It’s a Family Guy reference. Spider-Man saves someone, tells them ‘everybody gets one.’
Now, Joyce! Puke on him while he’s down!
Yup, my thoughts exactly, the next page, the very first panel is Joyce puking on him, in the FAAAAAAAACE.
Whoa! All of a sudden joyce is Ruth Lessick!
So much for toning down the violence XD
its a welcomed addition
I hope it was Dorothy. But probably it was Amazing girl
And now his skull’s broken. Hooray.
Concussions are comedy gold eh.
Also, these last strips look a lot to me like a regular batman (no pun this time!) villain origin, down to the (almost) obligatory face scarring.
Are we seeing Amazi-Girl’s first villain? What will his name be? I am bad at coming up with these things, so I will give no examples.
Ruhyp-Not?
PartyFoul
I don’t know his name, but he’s immune to the word “no”.
You wanna know a good way to not get concussions? Don’t rape in public settings and wear a seatbelt. Problem solved.
Wait what–is it bad for me to wear a seatbealt when I rape in public settings?
Very. Restraining your own movements is horrible form in rape.
Also, don’t play rugby.
in public settings… without a seatbelt
Please please tell me this isn’t the start of yet another retarded meme… -_-
please please tell me it IS!
FAAAAAAAACE!
Mel Brooks explained it best.
Someone breaks a finger, its a tragedy.
A guy walks down the street and falls into a man hole (probably killing himself)? Comedy gold.
No, it’s “I break my finger” and “You fall down and die”.
The distinction between it being yourself or another person is a pretty important part.
Well, Joyce gets credit for defending herself halfway.
Masked hero gets the rest of the credit, I think.
How do we know they’re masked? Could be Sal or Walky.
I’m still holding out hope for a Mike-ing to come.
I actually would like it to be her roommate. She says she doesn’t care, but we know better…
Any way, we all know it’s ultra car transformed into mike, disguised as amazi-girl, wielding a marble scooter transformed into a baseball bat by the power of greyskull. DUH!
Cmon willis, you can’t put one over on us for THAT long.
Oh hey, her roommate is actually a fantastic guess. I hadn’t even thought of that.
I’m kinda hoping it to be Joe, if only so she sees “even bad boys have standards” from her POV. He was, after all, far more honest with who he is compared to Ryan, and had far less sinister motives (if they can even be called sinister at all).
I don’t think Joe would have been at the party with a baseball bat. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him there, but I think he’d have thrown a punch.
I’m betting on it being one of the gamers from the room, just because a bedroom is the most concievable place one could come up with a baseball bat at the party (not that there aren’t others, but that just seems most likely).
“Oh no, the Queen is in danger! I must risk my life to protect her!
(And then maybe go get more beer)”
I don’t know that I think of joe as a “bad boy” in the least. horn dog yeah, but honestly I’ve always had the impression that if he were to be witness to something like what’s happening to joyce, he’d most likely protect the girl first, and then hit on her after she’s sobered up and safe.
Someone call Scooby-doo!
Cripes, I meant to post this @Wandering meme
I assumed you just wanted some pros to find out who Amazi-girl was behind that mask.
I would LOVE it to be Sarah!
Walky? Hitting some guy on the head with a baseball bat? Yeah right.
It could be that Willis just wanted to throw us off and that they will actually get together right away.
In that case he’s really throwing us off because clubbing some guy over the back of the head doesn’t sound like the Walky I know. Not without making his presence known at the very least… Sounds a little bit RuthLesse to me.
(Also I’d like to point out that the bat looks like it’s being swung by someone around Sarah’s height or taller, so assuming Willis’ art is on it really can’t be any of the known partygoers. The characters we know aren’t tall enough.)
I’m pretty sure it’s Billie actually. Seems right up her alley.
Pretty sure Billie’s too drunk to wield a baseball bat right now.
But would that stop her from doing so?
I suppose I should clarify: too drunk to ,accurately wield a baseball bat.
It’s Jesus. He has her bat.
(sometimes he hears things wrong, which may explain a lot)
HAHAHAHA.
yes, bad pun and I loved it.
lol LOVE this!!!
I also love the Sarah guess.
Perhaps it’s Baseball Rick, who in the DOA universe loves baseball with every fiber of his being.
Or maybe it’s…
…Bat man? “I’m bat man.”
no… it’s pirate rick!
Roz, if Ryan has a reputation for being a creep.
Definitely
I knew he wasn’t down for the count. Well, no… he probably is now. And who is the Bat Man coming to the rescue? I’m still thinking it’s a Girl, and Amazi-Girl!
Definitely. We’re already seen that Amber is at the party after all. ^^
What if the mystery Bat-Man is actually Batman?
Nah, it was certainly the Settlers of Canaan guy with facial hair.
Now the question is: who had the baseball bat?
Dorothy or Amazi- Girl, my metaphorical money is on Dorothy.
I’m taking the longshot bet and guessing Dina.
Groverfield guy?
Somehow a Louisville Slugger doesn’t seem Dorothy or Amazi-Girl’s style.
Whoever guessed Ruth, I’m gonna have to agree. That seems exactly like something Ruth would use.
Longer shot: It’s going to be the “buckets of blood” guy
Nope. It’s Daisy. Defender of virgin sweater puppets everywhere.
Peanut Butter Jelly with a baseball bat.
definitely.
But then who was phone?
Banana Phone!
It’s Ruth.
Yeap, even my money would be on Ruth.
Maybe, but I think Ruth would enjoy using her bare hands too much.
Bat man
I’d also like to make a nonsmartass suggestion with my long shot bet of roz
Same here!
Zing
It’d fit. After all, after this, Ryan’s going to be able to use the “Want to know how I got these scars” line. He just better lie, because “from a puritan college freshman wielding a simple drink glass” just isn’t that intimidating.
I’d like it to be Marci
Hooper. He sez it’s time for ass kickin’.
It’s Jesus. Haven’t you all been paying attention?
Holy son of god wielding a
bat man!
It’s not a bat, it’s Stoolie the amazi-stool in battle mode!
It was totally jesus.
“It’s me, Austin! Oh, son of a bongo! It was me all along, Austin!
But who drove the hummer?!?!
We will never know.
the butler
Batman, duh. *rimshot*
So Ryan…this has been a pretty bad night for you eh buddy? Time to go to sleep yeah?
Knocked out by irony. Oh, and a baseball bat to the head. Both were delicious.
Needs moar sauce thou.
And still no castration? I’m disappointed. I’m issuing a formal complaint.
WITH A BASEBALL BAT
made of femurs.
Dinosaur femurs, which gives credence to my Dina as the bat-girl theory.
It’s not in his faaaaaaaaace though.
If this keeps going, as I’m sure we all hope it will, it might be his penis though.
Dina is Batgirl!
Dina Batgirl is best Batgirl!
Do the peanut butter jelly
peanut butter jelly
I’m kinda hoping it’s Roz.
Who’s on the other end of the bat I wonder? Obvious choices like Amber, Dorothy, or Billie? Or someone unexpected like Roz, Joe, or Mike? Looking forward to it!
I’d love to have fun with the guessing game, but I have a hard time seeing *anyone* bringing a bat to this party who isn’t Amazi-Girl.
Which implies to me that it’s Roz…she may not like Joyce, but damned if she’s gonna let that crap go on at her place
I dunno, have we seen Amazi-Girl use anything but fists and feet before? A baseball bat, while deliciously emphatic, doesn’t quite seem her style to me.
Me, I’m betting on Derek Jeter. Only a fool would try to rape a girl right after the Yankees lose a play-off series, there’s always some angry infielder looking to take out his frustrations on evil-doers.
Well, it’s in a different universe, but in Shortpacked!, Amazi-Girl’s weapon of choice is a Fisher-Price Corn Popper.
Nah, Jeter would swing and miss, if his playoff performance is any indicator. My money’s on Robinson Cano.
Mike definitely would.
Not even mike?
Now that we’re thinking of people who might…Ruth, if she was out to start some shit, and Sarah might.
Mike probably would. He’d find a use for it. Even if it was just part of the process of banging your mom. For a nickel. With his penis. In the FAAAAAAAAAAACE.
Oh my god….the baseball bat IS his penis :O
Ah! Now I can’t stop seeing it!
It is a house. No one had to bring a bat. There might have been one there already. I mean, I keep a lacrosse stick next to the bed. Y’know in case of home invasion or zombie apocalypse.
Oh good, I’m not the only one, though, in my house it’s a Scottish war hammer, you know the kind with the spike.
Or sudden lacrosse match.
Clearly Magnitude did it.
Pop POP
Freakung YES!!!!
Unless he has super-speed, it couldn’t be. He’s too far away in the first panel.
Maybe too far away for YOU, but nothin’s too far for Magnitude!
Pop Pop!
if it was magnitude, the sound in the last panel would have been POP POP!
Could be the bat was already there. Someone in the house plays baseball, and whoever it is using it saw it in a corner and grabbed it. Just one possibility, anyway.
I am guessing the bat belongs to one of the residents of the house.
or it could just as easily be someone from the game group. after all, if there were games in the room already, why not a bat behind a door or closet?
If you look two comics ago, you can see a certain someone thinking the words “This looks like a job for…”
So Amazi-girl may not be holding the bat but she will almost absolutely be in this next scene.
yep, I must be stupid as all hell- I see no such thing. the closest I can manage is amber putting a finger to her lips. being that I’m not only not a mind reader, but the pixels have no mind to be read, I can’t honestly say there were any thoughts being put to words.
But as bad as the line for the bathroom has been where would Amber change back into Amazi-Girl at? Closet? Outside in the bushes?
Actually Joe wouldn’t be a bad choice, considering it’s possible he’s at the party.
My choice is Joe, in other words.
Not a chance. Joe’s a pretty big guy, he’d use his fists. Don’t see him turning right to a baseball bat.
No. Joe’s fully capable of using a baseball bat.
(I think the rules say I’m not allowed to mention why I think this.)
Oh, I’m not saying that the idea of Joe fighting someone with a baseball bat is out of the question. But on the back of the head, unannounced? nah. If nothing else, I’d say Joe is at least a little smarter than that… He’s already under a lot of scrutiny this week, and a baseball bat? From a guy as big as Joe, on someone who doesn’t know he’s there? Yeah, that definitely classifies as excessive force. If it’s Joe he’s probably not going to be attending this school much longer.
For variety’s sake, I’m gonna say it was Ethan.
I’m guessing Roz. Given her feminist rhetoric, she’s probably very conscious of this sort of thing happening at college parties, and keeps a bat around for just this reason. Bludgeoning villains with a baseball bat seems rather… unromantic for Amazi-Girl.
What the hell did Ryan think would happen, though? He’s in the middle of a crowded party, thrown by ROZ, of all people. Did he really think everyone would just stand there and not notice?
Do we know Roz is throwing the party? For all we know, she was just telling Dorothy about a party she’d heard about and was going to.
That said, I could definitely see Roz as the one using the baseball bat.
Feminist isn’t going to harm someone with a phallic symbol.
Why not? Isn’t there a certain poetic justice to the forceful application of a phallic symbol to somebody who was planning the same with an innocent victim?
I’m thinking Faz
Congratulations. I’m pretty sure you’ve come up with something even less likely than Jesus. I didn’t think it was possible!
It’s…. Bat-man?
I see what you did there….
Now we need his sidekick Ribbon to tie hime up.
No, his sidekick Robin… DeSantos.
Bet it’s Roz with the bat.
And the redshifting does a good job of highlighting the mood. Very effective.
It is eye candy as a strip. Beautiful!
I complely agree. It made it legitimately unsettling, and gave it a very real sense of danger.
Must be Spider Car Amazigirl doesn’t use weapons.
he mad
Now they need to hide the body.
I suggest under Mike’s bed. He’ll find a use for it somehow.
I wonder if they have one of those huge composting machines like in the classic Doctor Who storyline, The Seeds of Doom.
That way at least his blood and bone can help the plants grow.
Stick Ryan in Deliverance County. See how he likes it.
*banjo music*
He doesn’t have a purty mouth, though, what with all the blood and glass in it.
There’s a fair chance that Ryan is [b]from[/b] Deliverance County . . .
It’s BATMAN!!!
Who thinks its Joe
I really want it to be Beef holding the bat. Just to make sure he stays down.
I don’t think Beef would use a bat. There would just be a huge hand entering the frame and the Ryan get’s crumpled up like so much used tinfoil.
Hmm, he was going to be my suggestion as well, but now that you mention it… it’d just be a donkey punch, wouldn’t it.
And thus ends the did he or didn’t he drug her discussion. But I can’t believe he seems to be saying he gave her the other bible verse intentionally. Smug prick!
Well done, Magnitude!
I know what you’re thinking: He’s in the background in the first panel, so it can’t be him.
Well, clearly, Magnitude pop-popped next to her, ready for the rescue!
Pop-Pop, Magnitude! You’re a hero to us all!
I can see it now. Magnitude with the bat raised over his head, ready to strike again: “Pop pop!”
Pop pop! Infield fly rule is in effect, do not advance to the next base, muthafucka.
Magnitude is Amazi-Girl’s sidekick.
Hmm, I have Ruth as my gravatar today… maybe it’s Ruth. She’s one for solving problems with violence.
I love the colouring shifting in tone with Joyce coming under the effects of the drug. Makes me wonder, will we see her saviour next week as only a fuzzy silhouette?
That would be utterly evil of Willis. I’m now terrified that that’s what will happen.
My guess: Joyce is already out. Monday begins another day.
Batman strikes… or is it Batgirl?
Joyce: “You didn’t say the magic word, Ryan!”
Ryan: “What’s the magic word?”
Joyce: “I’m Batman.”
Ryan: “I’m…Batman?”
Batman: “I’m Batman.” *PUNCH*
Aw man, now e gotta wait till Monday.
PUPPET PAL CLEM THERE’S A BUG IN YOUR BED
BONK!!!!
YES!!! Ten internets to you!
I thought he’d said spider.
Also that bat is no bonker.
Captain Baseball Bat Boy!
Max Payne? That sounds like Max Payne. (what an awesome game that was)
HIT HIM AGAIN! HIT HIM AGAIN!! His head still has a definable shape!
I wanna see the candy come out!
You need to string him up first if you want to use him as a pinata.
Yes. That’s the whole fun of the piñata. Otherwise it’s like beating a dead horse … full of tasty treats.
Mmm…skull candy!
Brain Candy?
Harder! Harder! His vitals aren’t flat lined yet!
This guy is one scary creep. Good job, mystery baseball fan!
I’ve discovered a disturbing trend: each successive Willis comic takes less time to start really fucking up its characters than the last. This one only took a week, in-story. I predict that within 4.8 Williscomics, we will approach the Willisarity, where every comic begins with the universe exploding.
“Blasphemy! The heretic must be burn-ed!”
“but what if it’s true?”
“we’re all gonna die!”
“the second eaton Will rise!”
…See what you started?
So… Willis is secretly Steven Moffat?
Be Ruth Be Ruth Be Ruth Be Ruth
I bet it’s Roz. Sal or Amber come in a close second and third.
What she did?
I think he’s referring to getting glassed in the face. Should anyone really be surprised that Ryan’s blaming Joyce for not wanting to be raped?
I mean, it’s been established that his thought-process is pretty screwed up.
I think it’s not just the glassing, though. That was icing atop the anger he already had simmering for making him wait so long to hurt her.
Rapists do not have normal moral thought-patterns.
Yeah, and they are usually covered in blue and black fur, have long horns and spiked tales and teeth too big for their mouths and drool blood, so with that in mind you can easily avoid all rapists in the future . . .
I’m confused – are you saying that rapists DO have normal moral thought-patterns? Because most of them really don’t, actually. It’s just harder to spot than the fur, horns, etc. that they don’t actually sport.
Rape is an action. A rapist is one who rapes. One does not rape because one is a rapist, one is a rapist because one rapes. Rape is immoral, but one need look no farther than pretty much any war zone too see that people who we think are completely normal can rape. Rape is not a though crime, it is specific act.
BOOM!
(Please be Sarah behind the bat, please be Sarah behind the bat…)
My money is on it being Sal, but Joyce is not going to remember it clearly. Sal won’t claim credit for it, and all Joyce will remember is a Sal-like shape… Cue her fascination with Walky…
Or is that too simple? Willis has got tricks up his sleeve, after all.
What if it’s Walky?
Why would Walky even be at a party? He probably has fifty McNuggets for ten bucks.
He’s stalking Dorothy?
Walky follows Dorothy to the party and in keeping with the theme of the whole night, wants to show her his “Monkey Master?”
With a baseball bat? Sheesh, Walky’s kinda creepy about Dorothy but not THAT creepy.
That’s just what he wants you to think with his blank stares and poop jokes.
Walky is actually a hardened predator.
With those gravatars its like Walky arguing with himself over whether or not he’s a creep.
The next story arc will be Walky leading Joyce and Dorothy down the pass of Cirith Ungol.
Wouldn’t surprise me.
If it’s male, Joyce will hope he’s christian and single.
It’s sarah to the rescue! At least I hope.
Oh, I want it to be Sarah too. Ever since Ryan showed up, I’ve wanted for Sarah to crash thru something crashable (the nearest window, the bathroom door, ect), claws extended towards Ryan’s throat. It’d be awesome if she were the one holding that bat in the next strip.
And having said all that, I know I’ve just jinxed any chance of that happening.
I kinda think it was Joe, who was in the party trying to pick up chicks and found someone sortof crossing the line and making all the joes in the world have a more difficult time joeing those in need of joement.
…joe
Joe’d
Joe has a baseball shaped penis? Holy shitballs!
Of course not. He’s a “little” dickmonster!
He will totally defile your nethers though.
No, no, it just looks smallish cuz it’s obscured by partially bein’ in a chick.
I would love if this were Joe, given Joyce’s previous encounters with him.
agreed. It’d probably blow here mind if it was “non Christian Joe” or indeed any of the other non Christians who saved her from the “Christian”
Holy shit, this is getting serious.
Getting serious? It already GOT serious me thinks.
there are few character I have enjoyed seeing get beat up as much as this guy.
Still worried about how this’ll affect Joyce the morning after. She’s unlikely to need a rape kit, but if all she has are hazy memories, little cuts on her hand and her friends’ guilty accounts of what happened… well, there’s a real chance she could become a Sarah after this, instead of what she was earlier tonight, the kick in the ass Sarah needs.
Yep. Queen Joyce may have ended. No more cootie catchers with the drunks unless she can sort herself out after this. I do not want to see goth Joyce.
Nah, I don’t see that happening. Maybe she’ll evaluate her husband candidates more stringently, but someone was ultimately looking out for her.
Agreed. She might get more cautious, but she’s so optimistic- and so sincerely religious- that if she has fuzzy memories of a failed attempted rape and she knows she didn’t stop it herself she’ll probably assume divine intervention until she gets the real story.
Which might still be divine intervention…you never know!
It’s the Cheese!
While I wouldn’t want Joyce to shut herself in and become a cynical, jaded shell…
…I don’t want her to stay her ultra-naive (and at times self-righteous) current self. So, I’m looking forward to character development, and I figured some disillusionment would be required.
Joyce’s problem is that she’s not Sarah enough. Sarah’s problem is that she’s not Joyce enough.
The best place is a happy medium–savvy yet optimistic–and this is definitely gonna mess with Joyce’s inner world, but I hope it doesn’t put too much Sarah in her. Grimdark Joyce is not something I wanna see.
Maybe we’ll have a short run of “Dark Joyce” from It’s Walky? Or Sal will be the savior and all Joyce will remember is the face and mistake Walky for it?
ANTI-JOYCE!
OH NOOOOOOOO!
A near rape experience brings out her healthy sexual attitude and social grace!
Nope, not likely.
Even after that last comic, I didn’t think she was holding a glass. I thought they were just serving drinks with plastic cups, but if they were, it would ruin Joyce’s Crowning Moment of Awesome(and possibly Dorothy’s/whatever her roommate’s name is I forgot sorry)
You can gash the hell out of someone by using a broken plastic cup. You just have to be *mad* enough.
The next week is just going to be Ryan being beaten up, isn’t it?
Note that i am completely OK with this.
Only one week of Ryan getting beaten up? Say it an’t so, Willis!
Sarah. In the frat house. With the baseball bat.
I’m really hoping it’s either her or Ruth.
this old post from “thursday” leads me to believe you’re right. it almost HAS to be her.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/blog/super-racist-new-doa-header-image/
In post: “Right off the bat” you say? HMMM
I counter your guess.
Amazi-Girl. In the hallway. With the bat.
OTOH, at least she avoided one worst-case scenario, the one where Ryan hit his head on something, Amazi-Girl sees her beating on this innocent pastor’s son, and swears a lifelong vow to BRING JOYCE TO JUSTICE!
Huh. Inventive. The worst case scenario I had thought out was that she might get raped.
Which will it be Monday?
1. The identity of the bat swinger.
2. Willis with a poll on who the bat swinger should be.
Willis writes these comics weeks in advance so he has already chosen who it was…most likely.
That wouldn’t stop him from asking us who it should be. Of course then we’d have to wait a whole month (6 hours of comic time) to find out who really did it (it was Colonel Mustard).
With his penis. For a Nickel.
with her faaaaaaaith
He could always draw duplicate comics with alternate storylines, depending on who has the bat.
a month’s worth of alternate DoA timelines in which every character hits ryan with the bat. there will even be a timeline where ryan hits himself with a bat!
it all makes sense when you consider the magnitude cameo (POP POP) and last night’s community.
And in the end it turns out to be Maggie Simpson.
I like to think that willis would never, EVER create a choose your own adventure comic. it helps me sleep at night.
Given the obvious foreshadowing of Sarah’s line earlier in the story about not coming to Joyce’s rescue, either Willis is playing it straight and it’s her on the other end of the bat, or that was a red herring and he’s about to throw us a curveball.
Nice pun
That happened completely by accident, I swear.
Well, I guess ol’ Ryan is reaping what he sowed. Can I get a AMEN?
Sure can, but it’ll cost you a nickle.
You need to do his mother first before you get that.
With my penis? But I don’t have one!
Borrow someone’s then.
How ’bout Ryan’s?
That plan has real merit.
What Would Lorena Bobbit Do?
WWLBD! I think I have that on a bracelet.
Fifth panel. Only lower and with a butcher knife.
This is a Faye style intervention. She has been noted as saying she was bitten by a radioactive Ani DiFranco.
Now I’m going to have that song in my head all night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDss8V2OME4
Bonus points if you beat him with his own bloody femurs.
He’s sow gonna get reaped by the bat, man.
I don’t care who’s with the bat, he got what was coming to him.
Baseball bat is a little strong for our local super hero…or our intrepid reporter/friend. So I’m thinking either roommate who actually cares coming in to the rescue, or drunk Billie is a badass and a true friend.
Now that you mention it…
I suddenly suspect it’s Ruth.
but if it’s dorothy, joyce gets to quote the golden girls theme.
/thankyouforbeingafriend
…marry me?
((I’m determined to be Sophia when I’m an old lady, I’m already partway there))
Darkest Willis comic ever. Ryan looks legitimately frightening here.
Also, CLIFHANGER! DAMN YOU, WILLIS!
DARKEST COMIC! DARKEST COMIC! DARKEST COMIC!
Its dark, but its not as dark as a Roomies storyline (first webcomic by Willis) dealing with death. The whole noble sacrifice thing was very well done.
He could have made it a lot worse. he could have stopped at the fourth panel and let us think joyce would indeed get raped. however, i suspect he would have to leave the country for the weekend to avoid being bludgeoned to death by a couple hundred angry readers.
Very fitting last words.
Someone at the party must have found the drama tag.
It’s set on a college campus! Drama tags don’t last five seconds once the students show up.
The Drama Tag works pan-dimensionally.
Goddamn it, did someone pull the Drama Tag again? They’ve got to start putting a warning on those things.
Pretty sure this one came with the tag pulled.
I think that these last two comics count as ‘WHAM Episodes’.
I will avoid posting the TVTropes link for all those who have work to do.
But Tropes Are Not Bad, even if Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary and Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.
But TVTropes Will Eat All Of Your Time.
I think what you two were working towards is “TVTropes Will Ruin Your Life”
I’m more of the idea that TVTropes Will Enhance Your Life.
i must be the only person on earth who doesn’t get hooked onto that site.
Quick! Get yourself to a medical research facility so they can isolate the antibodies and work on a cure!
WIN.
Dang, this party got nasty fast…
Take that, creepy dude!
I just want it to be Walky. Even if there’s no logical reason he’d be there.
Obviously it was Raoh.
Because Joyce needs to survive long enough to become a worthy opponent.
Raoh? No it can’t be him. Raoh have a black horse and an aweosme helmet.
This feels like old school Roomies days, man. I dig it.
I like the pacing here, ending with the bat. If the last panel had been Ryan covering Joyce’s mouth while the drug was kicking in… the comments would be very different.
Believe me, that was intentional.
I also like how the panels have an increasingly red ambiance to them as Ryan starts forcing himself on Joyce, only to have it (mostly) let off as he gets knocked out with the bat.
Ooh, now there’s an idea… What happens to other comics when given the 3eanuts treatment?
(IE take a one shot, or one edition of an episodic strip, and remove the final panel… without the usual punchline or denoument, the often totally different situation that existed in the preceding panels is implied to continue forever… The actual 3eanuts are usually darkly humorous, but here, the result is very nasty.)
It’s Snape! He was a good guy all along after all!
You are correct!
Beat on the brat with a baseball bat!
Apologies to the Ramones.
Nice, I’m thinking it was Amazi-Girl myself. Now whoever it is, hit Ryan again until he’s dead. >:D
Somehow I thought this comic would be less violent than those in the other universe. Oops.
Dead bodies haven’t started flying through the air quite yet, so I’d say Dumbing of Age is still less violent.
It lasted a little over a full year before getting to this point. And nobody’s been ripped in half or shot. Yet.
holy shit
I can’t help thinking this comment is because your avatar is being eaten by Singularikitty.
I… I am irrationally furious at Ryan right now (I say “irrationally” only because he’s a fictional character). It’s bad enough to try to drug and rape an innocent young woman, but BLAMING HER for simply defending herself is just the worst of the worst. Can he be carted off to jail for a long time now? Let’s throw some poetic justice in there while we’re at it and have him repeatedly molested by large inmates.
Yeah, I’m not taking this too well… better just move along.
You know I’m actually of the opinion someone hired Ryan to do it given the whole “Mark” thing.
If so even if convicted he probably won’t spend a huge amount of time in jail for it. Plus at no time did she actually say “no” and just attacked him. Ryans lawyer might be able to use that.
I mean, I’m pretty sure shoving a girl up against a wall qualifies as assault. Add the verbal threats to that, and he probably won’t have an easy time slithering away.
And the drugging. Let’s not forget the drugging!
Namenduke: he felt she was “putting out” he gets angry (and there is no real evidence to suggest attempted rape here) she smashes a glass in his face. He gets angrier and shoves her against a well. Nope no rape here, he might have just been about to give her another telling off before calling an ambulance to have the huge psychologically damaging, work disrupting scar looked at. Which incidentally: she now owes him allot of money for.
SUTBEric: who says he did it? Did anybody see the pills?
Well, probably the fact that she got woozy from a cup of Sierra Mist; few, if any people would get as woozy as Joyce has from someone slipping some vodka into their soda. It’s not like Joyce has had a few. That somewhat narrows the list of what could be in there.
The roofying is enough to suggest attempted rape.
Also, how often do you simply tell someone off if you’re telling them they’re “going to pay for what they did?” Especially when you look particularly murderous at the time. If someone isn’t in fear of their safety (or the other person’s in this case), then there’s something very wrong.
Gargamel, my point was that the question of whether or not there was a clear and present danger of rape aside, Ryan has already done enough, in front of witnesses, to get himself arrested for assault and possibly making terrorist threats.
Also, I’m curious: when you say that there’s “no real evidence to suggest attempted rape,” are you looking at it from a hypothetical cop or defense attorney’s perspective who hasn’t seen the events leading up to this, and giving your opinion on what the law will end up finding, or are you talking from a reader’s perspective, and think that given what we’ve seen in the comic, that there’s no evidence of it?
(That may not be the most articulate way of asking, so feel free to ask for clarification)
Henry: What I meant was that anybody else at the party could have drugged her. I know from personal experience there are people who get off on randomly dropping roofies into people’s drinks. It happened to my girlfriend and a male friend of mine.
Narmenduke: Rather I was taking a defence attorneys or police officers point of view than the reader as we all know he was trying to rape her.
Ah. K. Thanks for clarifying.
I think the telling point here is that the readers know he was considering Joyce as a “Mark” in his thoughts. The people *in* the comic won’t have that knowledge.
Ah. Makes sense. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone like that. Thanks for clarifying. I think I see what you mean now.
The thing is, with the drugs in her system, and with other (admittedly, drunk people) being able to say he gave her the drink, even if Ryan were innocent of that, it doesn’t exactly look great for his defense.
A guy who thinks he’s entitled to non-consensual sex in the first place isn’t the type of guy who’s going to take responsibility when his plan destructs on him. But I wouldn’t call being mad at that “irrational.”
As I said, I only call it irrational because he’s a fictional character.
Bit OT But: In general and in society it seems, women (the most common victims of such a thing with men as the perpetartors) are often blamed for their own victimhood in rape. For a multitude of half assed things- as if she was asking for it somehow perhaps it how she ‘dressed’ or ‘acted’ or because she was ‘drunk’ or whatever as if this was an invitation for a man to force themselves on them and the ‘poor rapist’ obviously got his signals wrong. When obviously the reason rape happens is because people f***ing rape, nothing more. It is NEVER the victims fault, yet often blame is shifted on them in some way. Doesn’t surprise me that an attempted rapist (who has probably done this to some other poor girl) does it himself here on some level.
Then of course on the flip side when a man is raped by a woman it’s apparently hilarious and all men want sex all the time and of course would never refuse something like sex!
How society in general treats rape victims is disgusting.
Could NOT agree with you more, Heather. People in general are more keen to blame the victim than the assailant. If a girl has even sort of a party-girl reputation, suddenly it’s as though she deserves being taken advantage of while drunk. I was victim-blamed after I got assaulted, and I don’t have a reputation of that kind at all.
I kind of hope that Willis goes into that sort of thing (victim-blaming and the like) with Joyce, and uses it as character development as opposed to the “I got raped oh woe is me!” Victim-blaming needs to be put out there. We get enough storylines about rape (though shoddily-done, and rape SHOULD BE TALKED ABOUT don’t get me wrong) but none of them talk about victim-blaming. At all.
I kinda wonder if that’s why Willis chose Joyce for this treatment. Given how prevalent victim-blaming is, I can imagine that had it been anybody other than Joyce (maybe not Dorothy), the comments may have been a fair bit different.
Joyce, not drinking and going to the party in a thick sweater, isimmune to a lot of the most common victim-blame comments (although one can still get creative).
And in some way, the opportunity for exploring this is there, if Ryan’s attitude is any indication. He believes he’s not responsible for his own actions and pins it all Joyce, which unfortunately, is what many outside observers will want to believe, hearing of it after the fact.
As a rape survivor I feel that the worst thing society does to us is freak out about rape. Rape is a horrible, violent crime (even when violence is not obvious in its use). But there are lots of other horrible violent crimes. Society romanticizes rape when it elevates it to the “worst” imaginable crime. Rape, as bad as it was for a thirteen year old boy, isn’t even the worst thing that ever happened to me; but it is the one thing in my past I cannot bring up in conversation without people freaking the hell out.
Agreed. And even in other forms of abuse, the abuser often blames the victim. “See what you made me do?! Why do you have to make me so mad?!!” Etc. Or, “I wouldn’t get so mad if you weren’t such an idiot!”
So the moral of this comment is “Rape == Bad, but Prison Rape == Just Punishment”?
Of course not. I was just *that* angry that it would make me feel better for him to get what he intended to give.
To clarify, of course it would be horribly wrong of the inmates to do it, there is no disputing that. And if Ryan were not a fictional character, I would probably feel differently. I might still wish for it on some level, but were it to actually *happen* I would probably gain no pleasure out of it.
I think Beef is batman, why else would he be introduced earlier?
Chekhov’s Beef?
Avoid any beef that comes back up in the third act.
Amazi-Girl strikes again!
…and again!
oh! Why didn’t I even consider Amazi-Girl was using the bat? :O
It must be providence that I chose to use Mayo Mitama from SZS as my gravatar today, one of her favourite weapons is the baseball bat and she is evil enough to do it.
Now barf on, Joyce! Barf all over his stupid, concussed head.
Arg, there should be a “him” in that first sentence… >>
I think it works, though.
Barf on, Joyce, barf on.
And barf proudly.
And plus she hasnt eaten anything so it’ll just be basically stomach acid.
So Vomit for Victory!
Well, now that we know she WAS drugged, at least Joyce’ll have an opportunity to sleep it off safely.
“My bat is thirsting for broken necks!”
CHOKE SLAMS FOR EVERYONE
The batter swings, a beautiful hit!! And the Crowd Goes Wild!!
It is a a mixed blessing for Joyce that she isn’t going to remember any of this.
Peanut Butta Jelly with a Baseball Bat!
Baseball bat swing to the back of the head… he MIGHT be dead. At the very least some brain damage
Hey, it’s not like he was using those brain cells, right?
For sure, not only was he handed the Idiot Ball, he must have swallowed it too.
Wait…, I got it!
It’s George Michael!!
THE WHEEL OF FATE IS TURNING
REBEL TWO
ACTION!
Alternately:
HEAVEN OR HELL?
DUEL TWO
LETS ROCK!
DeStRoYeD!
Oh god it’s Taokaka. Calling it now, she’s the one with the bat.
Or maybe…
“I am the white void. I am the cold oak. I am the just wood. With bat in hand shall I reap the sins of this world, and cleanse it in the fires of destruction! I am Hakumen! The end has come!”
Oh god I love you!
“Now that I, Faz, have saved the damsel in distress, I will wait for her to awaken and shower me with gratitude. Preferably upon my genitalia.”
Faz. Wow, I don’t think ANYONE thought of that except you.
Yeah, I’m special that way…:P
Then Ruth grabs the bat and performs the dreaded “Twin Baseball Bat Femur Strike.” Faz dies.
You know, when you name an evil, you give it power.
I’m also special THAT way.
First a broken glass to the face, then a baseball bat to the back of the head.
Comeuppance is a bongo.
Now, an entire weekend before I get to find out who’s wielding the bat. Willis, you sly fox.
If this was Ruth, her batting skills should surely bestow her with a new nickname… “Babe”
What Babe?
The babe with the power.
What power?
The power to wield the bat.
(No, not that bat.)
The power of voodoo!
Who doo?
You do!
Do what?
Remind me of the babe…
Wait a minute, in the bottom there, in the tags… “Magnitude”?
Wow, he’s a hero AND a one man party!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-_4mcYsQdE
Magnitude is way in the background in the first frame, hes wearing square frame-less glasses. plenty of time for him to swing in!
First panel, bottom left corner.
Not the Unknown Soldier.
Wait, wait, woah. I didn’t even notice… You know, I didn’t even know about Magnitude before last night? That’s not another Community reference, either. I don’t really watch the show. I googled “Magnitude character” to find out about him, and then I looked up the Youtube clip to find out more about him. I did not know he was actually in the background of the strip, I was just trying to make a cheap wisecrack.
Crazy.
Amazi Girl to the rescue?
That’s what I thought first, but would Amber use a bat? I’m not sure.
What does Amber have to do with Amazi-Girl?
i could see amazi-girl using the bat. she’s been known to use weapons before.
I hoestly don’t think it’s Amazi-Girl. We can see the room she was in a couple of days ago behind Joyce, and Ryan gets hit from the opposite direction, so for it to be Amber she would have had to get changed and run around the house to find them in what was probably only a minute or so.
Why does everyone think that’s a bat?
It’s clearly one of the legs of the Amazi-stool.
My money’s on Sal or Billie, either one could be Bat girl, unless its Walky being a Scout. BONK!
Maybe it’s not Amazi-Girl/Roz/Amber/Joe/Sara/Spider-Car/Ruth/Dorothy/Billie/Teleporting Magnitude. Maybe it’s just a completely unrelated, hitherto unnamed party-goer, who saw what happened and thought, “Whoa, date rape! This calls for some blunt force trauma. Thankfully, our host keeps a rack of Assault Prevention Bats for just such an occasion.”
But no, whoever it is, I doubt we’ll find out Monday. We’ll probably jump ahead to when Joyce wakes up the following day, with her just as curious as us.
It was just a drunk blindfolded guy looking for a pinata.
THIS PLZ
i want it to be joe. i really want it to be joe
Magnitude? Is that the black dude in the background???
yes it is. he is a recurring character on NBC’s “community”. pop pop!
I think it is either:
Ruth- to provide a little Revenge, multiverse style, that she didn’t receive in the walkyverse.
Her roommate- who I can never remember her name, just to go “I told you so”
Or Billie- just to show that although drunk, she is still a somewhat decent person.
Amazi-Girl and the male characters don’t really NEED a baseball bat to kick ass(well I think they would try fisticuffs over bat to the head).
Just my thoughts.
Person I ACTUALLY want it to be: Robin. That would just kick all kinds of ass.
amazi-girl has used a corn popper as a weapon before. i don’t know if we can rule her out on weapon use alone.
but i don’t think it’s her. i think it’s sarah, her roommate. the first paragraph in this post by willis is what makes me think she’s the best candidate.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/blog/super-racist-new-doa-header-image/
Whoever you are, offscreen guardian, we salute you!
For those about to BONK!
We salute you
You’re one of the bonkers, I see.
Well, I can’t speak for any of the other guys around here, but while I may not necessarily NEED a bat to stop a rape-in-progress, I’m certainly not going to turn one down if it’s available.
Nope, me neither. I’m well aware of my own limitations in that I’m not the strongest of guys, so if I were in that position, I’d be going for a weapon too.
Of course, considering that there were obviously witnesses in the background, you could still defuse this situation in a non-violent manner by yelling out, “HEY! Where are you taking my friend?” and causing a scene. Still, the stakes have been upped, and violence in self-defense would be an acceptable measure here.
I’d be afraid that I’d acidentally hit the girl with the bat as well, actually. My first instinct would be to drag the fucker off, then start throwing punches. Not that I’m trying to act like an internet badass, and not that I’ve ever been in that situation, thankfully, but that’s what my mind immediately jumps to. Or maybe not. I dunno how things might change when the situation’s legtimately stressful and I’m not thinking clearly.
*drag the fucker off of her . That should be specified.
And “as well” just refers to “along with the guy,” I’m not misinterpreting anyone’s comment. God, I can’t type right today.
*Nods* I’ve, thankfully, never been in a similar situation myself, and it’s all too easy to talk big, but I have been accused (quite rightfully so) of having a bit (lot) of a white knight complex which, if anything, has only been increased by fatherhood. I think I can safely say that “clear thinking” and “restraint” may very well be the first two things to go out the window if I ever see a girl in similar straits.
bats are good, blades are good for intimidation but bad for actual use (too easy to get carried away and kill them from blood loss tho i guess the same could be said with the bat and internal bleeding.. anyways) i like a stomp kick to the back of the knee and a choke till he passes out.
Bat to the head.
Na, na!
Ruth saving Joyce doesn’t have much pull, from a writing perspective, since they don’t interact much. Neither do most of the other choices that have been offered. Someone who would, though, is Sarah. The two had a big fight, the last time we saw Sarah, wtih Joyce telling Sarah that she has no friends. Sarah claimed that she didn’t care if anything happened to Joyce, but we know that deep down that isn’t true. So, she follows along,bringing a baseball bat as a weapon, which she would totally use, to make sure nothing happens, and establish herself as a good friend for Joyce. All the while denying any mushy friendship feelings.
You see, its all about the writing opportunities that it creates afterwards, and making the writing flow from ongoing relationships.
I actually really hope it’s not Sarah, because I don’t agree with her jaded, shut-yourself-off-from-everyone-and-everything-to-avoid-getting-hurt worldview. This would just cement that view in Sarah’s mind, and then she would have reason to bongo at Joyce for doing anything she doesn’t approve of.
Ruth has been mentioned a couple times in this comment section, and I like the idea. Even though it might not have much pull for her to save Joyce, I think the true potential in that scenario lies in Billie seeing her do it, and realizing that she’s not completely an evil hellbongo. It would also be an opportunity for some backstory/character development for Ruth, which we haven’t seen since Billie hid in her closet (and even that wasn’t much).
Ruth knowing Joyce doesn’t seem too relevent, to be honest; Ruth seems like the sort of person who, if they saw something like this taking place, would intervene regardless of who the victim was.
And using a Louisville Slugger to intervene seems very much like Ruth.
Sorry, to clarify; the fact that Ruth doesn’t really know Joyce wouldn’t seem to matter all that much.
We have to remember that Joyce is already passing out, well before the bat is used, so the likelihood of her remembering who it even was is slim.
There is also still the theory that Ruth was a previous victim of Ryan’s, since SOMETHING upset her like crazy earlier. And, since he was the one who talked her into sex in the Walkyverse…
Maybe it doesn’t matter that Joyce doesn’t know Ruth. Maybe Ryan does.
… Joyce is officially painful as hell to get on the wrong side of.
Obviously it’s either Head Alien or Joyce and Walky’s kid.
duh.
Because head alien could use it against her while their kid would be protecting his existence since he started the party in the first place.
Stuff I’m willing to bet on:
We won’t know who that is until Saturday night character time.
It’ll be Ruth behind the bat nonetheless, with Sarah behind her.
Wow, sure brings back memories of my first week at college. Remember all that attempted rape with roofies and inflicting permanent life-altering scars on strangers’ faces before assaulting them with a baseball bat?? Good times. It was just so hard to escape all the rape and violence. This strip is so gritty and realistic. Makes you think.
Anecdotal evidence. Just because it never happened to you doesn’t mean it happening to others is completely implausible.
Furthermore, this is a comic involving at least one superhero who runs around a college campus breaking up fights. If you’re going to call a comic out on trying to be “gritty and realistic”, first make sure it’s actually trying to be.
Guy got kicked off a degree course / evicted from the college dorms (despite being an exchange student, so no local-ish place to traipse back to) for trying to molest a female dorm mate in our cheap co-ed digs… Fortunately he wasn’t ever so strong or fit, and she kicked up enough of a fuss that he didn’t get “that” far, but enough for it to class as an assault. Unfortunately he didn’t choose to pick on one of the sportier, more violent girls would would have beaten him black & blue THEN screamed for help.
And that all without even the cover of a party, just in the shared kitchen when (he thought) no-one else was about.
Just sayin’, like. It does happen. Thankfully not very often, but – hey – this is a dramatic story. There has to be a higher than natural level of drama, otherwise it just becomes reality TV.
Ooh! Avatar clash! One of us is gonna have to go home and change.
There is a very real thing called the “Red Zone” that my college made time to talk to the freshmen about. The rate of sexual assault/rape on college campuses nationwide are MUCH higher to a ridiculous amount during the first ten weeks of your freshman year, and it’s MUCH higher among freshmen than any other age range.
This isn’t just fearmongering or overcompensating for something, this is a very real statistic everywhere.
Theories about it is partly because, going into your first month or so of school, you don’t know everyone and nobody really knows you so you’re more likely to try riskier things. Social boundaries have not been in place yet, so you have less of a “safety net” of people if something bad DOES happen, and you don’t really know who to be wary of.
It’s also partly because you haven’t really formed any solid social bonds yet, people that would easily come to your defense in case of problems. The victim doesn’t necessarily have a “defense force” and the assailant doesn’t necessarily have to fear becoming a social pariah, because they haven’t formed any bonds with people that would shun them for their transgressions.
I mean, yeah, the rumor mill can be rough, but the rumor mill also isn’t always full of bullshit. One of the things that protected me during my first year was making friends with older people who guided me on how to party safely, and made sure to keep an eye on me in case any creepers tried to do their creepin’ thing.
Willis is just actually expressing a very real phenomenon that happens in colleges, that you are lucky you didn’t experience.
I do remember all of these things from my college years, and I remember those years mostly fondly. A lot of shit can happen in half a decade.
Sharp. Dark. Turn. SO called it.
Also, this juxtaposed with Ponies is kinda strange.
What ponies?
Not sure how realistic this comic is planning to be, but in real life hitting someone with a baseball bat in the head is an excellent way to kill them dead.
Also: note his hand over her mouth. Like I said last strip, she was still in danger. He has done this before and wasn’t planning on letting her scream.
Yah, but most people don’t know or at least don’t think about that. I think the vast majority of people in that situation while holding a bat would naturally go for the head. It’s what they do on TV!
Consdering the violence we’ve seen such far in this series, I don’t think it’s supposed to be entirely realistic.
Galasso to the rescue! Or is it Ultra-Car?
E-C-DUB! E-C-DUB! E-C-DUB!
http://www.yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.com/
I’m betting this is one of the guys who is running the party.
I want Leslie to be Batwoman so she can have a Robin.
I don’t get why no one has rewarded you with an internet yet. Here, have mine.
If only all the thousands of daily rape attempts ended this way…
The count is 3 and 2, 2 outs, this is the last chance for a game saving hit, Ryan throws a fast ball high and in, And the Batter connects OH MY! REALLY GOT A HOLD OF THAT ONE ITS GOING… GOING… ITS OUTTA HERE! A GAME SAVING GRAND SLAM!
I’m Bat Man.
And I can club rapists.
In space. Where I can also breathe.
Nice.
Oh Ryan… I’m quite sure you mean “Rape” what you sow.
And I just realized we’re left to wonder who this is for the entire weekend. DAMN YOU WILLIS!
Well, if you want canola oil, yes, exactly.
LOVE Joyce’s expression in the first panel. It’s like she’s experiencing every non-positive emotion at once.
Bat-person is Robo-Vac. You read it here first.
My theories:
Beef, wanting to inflict maximum pain.
Jesus. Seriously, it’s Jesus, right?
Roz, as they don’t seem to be too far from where Dorothy first spotted her and split off from Joyce. She hasn’t really moved, but Dot and Billie have gone running off in a panic to look for her.
One of the drunks who they were playing Settlers with.
Orrrrr the Jock-type guy who got Joyce her first Sierra Mist, is actually the host of the party, and was showing off his new bat to some buddies when he heard the glass smash (…a noise that anyone hosting a party at their own place is quite attuned to
Notice in the first panel that this Joyce/Ryan bullshit is happening very close to where Roz and Dorothy are.
So regardless of what happens, I can at least make the safe bet that Roz and Dorothy are going to notice (I mean it’s pretty hard to ignore a guy getting beaned with a baseball bat and I’m SURE there will be an ensuing, very noisy scene) and take Joyce home.
A couple people have said Ethan, I think that would be a good choice seeing Joyce has already been a bit smitten with him since their first meeting, this would make it even more-so
. . . I wanted something to happen, and it did. . . Oh God. . . am I David Willis?
Go count your Hot Shots. If you don’t lose count, you’re probably still you.
It’s a frat party, a cute but “woozy” looking freshman girl is in a fight with some dude in a sweater… Who wouldn’t attack said dude with a baseball bat?
Most guys would probably just stick with fists. So it’s probably a girl – or some physically unimposing guy.
Watch it be Faz. “Faz has helped! And you look woozy, so let me take you into this fine small bathroom to hold and comfort and hold you to Faz’s body for support.”
Too bad I already gave away my internet earlier… have a cake instead.
Your logic seems irrefutable. I don’t have any internets to award you with, will a big truck work?
I think the dude with the bat is Joe. I mean he doesn’t get along with joyce but I doubt he would want her to get raped.
Maybe we will never know!
Joyce looks like she is about to go out. Maybe the next seen will be her waking up wondering what happened!
And the Lord doth smiled upon the young man getting pwned and said, “He WAS warned. Mess with Joyce and thou wilt be pwned.”
And the Lord doth smiled upon the young man getting pwned and said, “He WAS warned. Mess with Joyce and thou wilt be pwned.”
And I apologize for the double post.
Twice the hillarity.
I’m betting Joyce passes out and we don’t find out who had the baseball bat until next May.
amazi-girl, with the bat, at the party
It’s probably some random person at the party; completely unrelated to the plot. The person just HATES sweaters.
I hope not. Otherwise Joyce might be next.
betting on the roommate
I have no theory (except to say that if it’s Amazi-Girl, then Billie is a quick-change artist, because we just saw her in plainclothes), but I will add – it’s lucky for Ryan he’s a cartoon character. Because justified or not, any head trauma that has sufficient force to cause your entire body to rotate 90 degrees midair is likely to leave you in a gradually enlarging puddle of your own cranial matter.
Well, who knows how hard it hit the guy. It could have just pushed him off-balance. What really matters here is if he passes out, because then that’s a one-way ticket to deadsville.
Check him – his body is perfectly horizontal, three feet above the floor. There’s not even any hint of bending at his waist.
And worse yet – in the prior frame his face was right next to Joyces, and now it’s in the same place, only a couple of feet down. If he was tipping sideways, his head would be far off to the side – this means that upon being struck, he rotated at his head, flinging his entire body sideways up into the air. From there it began to fall, presumably straight down from the horizontal pose he levitated himself up to.
He was hit so hard he defied the laws of physics.
I didn’t know Joe Page was at this party!
(Yup, that’s one for the 10%-ers out there)
If it was Joe Page, wouldn’t it have been a hockey stick instead of a baseball bat?
Longer reach, less killing power. Gotta go with the bat.
I don’t know – Joe P was pretty much a hockey purist, eh?
So. happy. that Ryan got his.
Still, if this were real life, it’d be JOYCE who would be in a lot of trouble: she’ll now have no evidence of his dark designs, while he has a scar and can probably get glass fragments with her fingerprints. And it’ll be his word against hers.
Tests would show the drugs in her system. Nobody, unless they literally want to be raped, would roofie themself. And given the way Joyce regards her purity, she wouldn’t.
Not true, ro-hypnol is also used as a party drug ’cause peoples is stoopid.
There wouldn’t be fingerprints on the glass. The soda would compromise them.
‘Sides, it’s a party with alkee-halls, chances are the bathroom’s a hotspot, so there’d be witnesses. It’s not just her word.
Anyone pick Sal for the batwielder yet?
Here’s a short list of those I don’t think have been selected:
Leslie (doing “fieldwork?”)
Jason
Daisy
Robin (invited to party by an even-handed Roz saying it would be a chance to speak to campus media)
I’d like Ruth for this, except bare-hands is more her style. Joe may be big, and even exercise regularly, but he’s still a good candidate for bat use (he’s technical, he’ll look for the right tool for the job). Can’t be Mike, he’d try to top Joyce’s drinking glass trick with a bottle.
And I know non-drinkers who’ve been tricked by pranksters slipping vodka into their drinks.
The bat part certainly makes it seem like it’s a girl, although to be perfectly fair I have hit a person with a barstool at least once. A bat is a serious offensive weapon though, and I’m gonna assume it was a girl.
I’d like it to be Joe, Mike, or (gasp) somehow Walky, but that’s just fanciful thinking. Though I don’t think it would be outside the realm of possibility for Mike to use a bat: he likes hurting people, I’m not sure he’s all that concerned about how…
I predict that the bat-wielder is in fact Ryan himself. Now, follow me on this. We’re actually witnessing an alternative timeline effective this strip. In the previous timeline, Ryan attacks Joyce and is later sent to a state penitentiary for several years. During his time there, he contemplated the foolishness of his actions, and then devoted his life to the advancement of particle physics. Gradually his studies carried on, until eventually he discovered a method through which to assemble a time machine. After whoring himself out for several decades and selling space-drugs to space-criminals, Ryan raised sufficient funds to construct his machine. He then chose to go back to the moment which ruined his life (this moment) and stop himself from ever raping Joyce. He had to do so in a way that his past self wouldn’t see him, so he chose to render it unconscious with a blunt instrument. And now, here we are.
This.
Here’s a fun exercise for everyone: imagine the genders were switched.
Imagine it was a girl trying to drug a guy to forcibly have sex with him. Would you still cheer if the man broke a glass on her face and someone hit her with a baseball bat? Discuss.
Of course. Rape is a violent act. What’s your problem?
no no you see, he must prove that we are all reverse sexists.
Yeah, he’s a real hero.
Or maybe he’s just interested in people’s responses in a curious/academic sense, and may not have any “problem” or greater point to prove.
That being said, yes, I would still be happy that a female rapist was thwarted. By whatever means necessary.
A female serial rapist was caught a while ago. She spiked men’s drinks with rohypnol and viagra. Most of the victims said that she was a good-looking woman who didn’t need the drugs and they would have been happy to have sex with her if she’d just asked.
Hmm. I don’t doubt that such a person exists, but I guess for her it wouldn’t be about the sex. Do you have an article to link?
It’s never about the sex with rapists. It’s about the power. Good looking men can be rapists, too (they tend to be the more famous ones), and sometimes they try to deflect the blame in the media by having their lawyers/family say “He’s so handsome and famous, he has women all over him, why would he need to rape a woman to get sex?” Which of course, is an utter bullshit question.
Thanks, that was actually my intent. I don’t see how the heck people interpret what I said as me siding with the rapist.
I just thought it would be an interesting topic to talk about, especially since most of the people here seem willing to discuss gender issues in a mature manner.
Suddenly I’m hated
I apologize. The gender-switch subject has been used to intentionally stoke arguments before. Sorry I jumped on you.
(The answer still remains the same, though. Rape is rape.)
No, I wasn’t trying to troll :0
It was actually an interesting experiment for ME, because I was actually cheering Joyce for breaking a glass on his face until I thought of the gender-switch.
Now I think the violence is a bit excessive and I’m willing to defend that statement were the predator male or female. That does NOT excuse what he/she was trying to do, they still deserve full punishment, but violence might make the law take the victim less seriously. My two cents.
The right to self-defense is deeply ingrained in the American legal system, unless one is a member of a minority group or a woman in which case defending yourself is not only wrong but a setback for your entire ethnicity/gender . . .
May I offer a counterpoint?
Say we had the gender switch, and the assault was successful. But instead of waking up raped, the men woke up missing kidneys? Or were tortured or killed?
We know what Ryan’s intent was because he was fairly explicit. But if he hadn’t been, or if we thought he actually intended to kill Joyce, nobody would have batted an eyelash about the violence, and nobody would hesitate to say the same violence would still be justified if the genders were reversed.
I feel like the violence is entirely justified because any gender combination wouldn’t change the situation. Rapists, whether they succeed or fail, deserve whatever their victim does to them unless it’s murder or a significantly more violent/traumatic rape. And even murder can be justified by imminent threats like this case… not that I’d want Joyce to kill someone, but I’d not fault her for it.
I’m echoing what others have said, but in the case of self-defense, the violence is justified under the law. Just the fact that he incapacitated her with drugs is enough of a reason for it, never mind the threat of of rape.
I don’t have a problem, I just thought it would be an interesting thing to think about; how do people’s perspectives change when the genders are reversed?
narmenduke was right, I just wanted to know what others thought; why is everyone (including Willis) jumping on me?
But there is a difference between a woman slicing a male rapist’s face and a male slicing a female rapist’s face, and I’m not talking about the ridiculous “all men are horndogs and rape is funny when it’s female on male” trope.
Men have historically been in a place of privilege. Historically, women have been the ones who are victims of rape, assault, murder, domestic violence, all of that. I’m not saying men can’t be abused by their wimminfolks, but in the case of a man defending himself against a woman, it calls into question the idea that men are using their historical privilege against women to keep women oppressed.
Part of why there’s a whole “men shouldn’t hit women” thing isn’t because women are incapable of defending themselves (on the contrary, most males understand fully that, if they were going to get into an all-out fight with a woman, they will most likely get their ass whooped), it’s because it’s an abuse of male privilege.
On the contrary, women have historically been abused by men in all manner of ways women can be abused. A woman physically defending herself against a man is her defending herself against a whole, fucked up societal system. It’s a system most people, on some level, realize to be fucked up and realize should be changed. A woman defending herself against a man is a visual example of a woman trying to destroy the status quo.
That’s a socio-political interpretation, but people aren’t solely socio-political puppets. Sometimes a person, male or female is just angry or afraid or both and acts their feelings. I guess in this case Joyce is more angry than afraid and attacks the guy because she senses her feelings have been toyed with in a hurtful way.
Of course it still sets an example for spectators in the way you described it: woman breaks out of victim role, yay, nuh!, whatever, i’m too drunk to care etc…. it may also set an example for us viewers that women aren’t the “weak sex” that is easily taken advantage of.
These speculations aside, a male victim defending themselves against a female aggressor should still have the right to resort to violence if absolutely necessary, whatever others may think of that in a socio-political context. Submitting yourself to violence by making yourself weaker than you are and suffering the traumatic consequences seems idiotic. At least you need a very special mindset to let someone rape you because defending yourself by all means necessary might occur politically incorrect to some bystanders.
That’s an interesting perspective. What do you call a man defending himself against a woman?
I think a man punching a woman who was attacking him is as acceptable as the other way around. Obviously violence should be the last the resort and not the first answer, but self defence against an overly aggressive woman should not be less acceptable.
See, I don’t think that’s fair at all and flies in the face of the point of making both sexes equal. Which is supposed to be the point.
So to me, I don’t care what gender the two are, it was more then an acceptable action to protect herself. We all have the right to protect our selves.
I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you really aren’t trying to troll and that you honestly have no idea just how many times the whole “Well, yeah, but this would be totally different if the genders were reversed” thing has been used in an intentional effort to stir up a huge shitstorm.
Though to be fair, in most of those other cases, it is usually this that is being responded to, and justifiably so. That isn’t the case here at all, though.
I wasn’t trying to stir up a shitstorm, I just wanted to know what other people thought about the subject.
Rape is rape. And it can be considered as one of those things as utterly impossible to forgive. In preventing rape on yourself or someone else, I think almost anything goes.
I agree, though I wonder if knocking out the rapist (male or female) is strictly necessary. Most rapes are opportunistic and the offender is likely to back off if it’s clear that the potential victim will fiercely protect her/himself.
I actually thought that this arc would be over when Joyce broke her glass on his face, he probably would have backed off when she showed she was not afraid to protect herself had she not been drugged.
See, I can’t see good Christian Joyce agreeing with you here. Would she actually be incapable/unwilling to forgive a reformed Ryan? Doesn’t her faith teach her to always forgive if the offender has truly reformed?
I’m not cheering now. A bit relieved, perhaps, but I don’t take much joy in seeing someone get pounded, no matter how much they might have merited the beating.
Now here’s a fun exercise for you: 1) get off your horse; 2) measure it; 3) determine whether you need a shorter one.
What horse? Since when is inviting an open discussion about gender roles mean I’m better than anyone?
I’ve seen, “Here’s a fun exercise,” used too many times by would-be lecturers. Since your horse appears to be properly sized after all, I apologize.
Yeah, including the word “fun” seems to have set off the sarcasm alarms everywhere. Maybe “interesting” would have been better.
OP, please see the MST3K Mantra. I’m not going to link to TVTropes for everyone’s sake.
Oh, I know this isn’t a real life situation, I think thought it would be interesting to discuss it. The comments section of David Willis’ comics invite interesting opinions about real-life situations and I honestly wanted to know what people thought about it.
I have no idea how it degraded into me defending rapists everywhere.
Wait, you mean to say that it’s somehow OK that a girl is drugging up a guy? Are you saying that if it’s a guy, ‘it’s not forced sex, cause all guys want it!’. Are you saying it’s ok to lie and resort to drugs to get a guy to sleep with you? That this would be somehow ok if it was, say Roz (acting evil and out of character), who was forcing herself on, say, Walky, that’d be ok by you? That a horny, well experienced girl is perfectly alright forcing herself on a shy, virginal young man ‘because he asked for it by wearing a cute outfit’.
Maybe your should use the mirror on yourself first, dude.
Um….W.T.F?
WHEN exactly did I defend ANY rapist, male or female? WHERE do you get the idea that I think female on male rape is okay??
I think ALL rape is horrible and it should be punished with the full weight of the law, regardless of the gender of the perpetrator. Rape is unacceptable regardless of the context. You’re talking to a hard-core feminist here >:U
Seriously, how did you get this idea? All I did was try to have a discussion on what people think when genders are reversed. It’s interesting discussion to have, not a way to excuse a predator’s actions.
Now that it’s been cleared up that you’re not trying to start an argument but want an honest discussion of it…
I think that, no matter what, I’d be relieved and a bit happy if this situation was reversed. As said, rape is rape. It’s a terrible thing. Anything that can be done to stop it should be. It wouldn’t matter to me if a guy is trying to rape a girl, a girl trying to rape a guy, a guy trying to rape a guy, etc. I would be relieved it was averted. Not cheer, but relieved.
I think that people are cheering because, since it’s technically a comic, none of it’s real. If this occurred in the real world, they would be relieved, not cheering. That and Ryan is a jerkwad.
Also OP, I think the reason everyone thought you were trying for the gender-reversal argument was because of how your first comment was worded. I’ll admit, I thought the same too until I read some of your replies to other people.
I’m no sure about the cheering thing. I have seen videos of real violence on youtube and the comments are usually really aggressive as well. Even if you take it with a grain of salt and assume people are being extra jerks because they are anonymous on youtube; I think there ARE people who honestly think violence is the answer.
It’s an interesting thing to think about.
And yeah, in retrospect, saying it would be “fun” was the wrong thing to say.
Now, imagine that it is a lil tiny man drugging a a woman much larger than him, and she cuts his face open with a glass. Yeah, that’s overkill.
I don’t think it has as much to do with gender, as it does with SIZE. And Ryan is bigger than Joyce.
Hmmm, good point.
I do think the anonymous nature of the internet does make people more violent. They can say things they wouldn’t get away with in real life. Does it mean they’re violent? Not necessarily.
I did cheer when Ryan got wailed in this and the previous comic. I wouldn’t cheer in real life. I’m more hostile towards people on the internet, but only because I know there are no repercussions. Now one day I might not be able to do that, but until then I’ll abuse it to get some of my own personal frustrations off me.
Some people ARE that violent, yes, but no where near as many as the internet suggests.
I’ve seen violence in real life. I’ve seen people shot. I’ve been shot myself. I’ve stumbled across a scene where a whole family was placed against a wall and machine-gunned. Nothing anonymous about it. It’s not funny.
Rape isn’t funny. Violence isn’t funny. I assure you, there’s nothing fucking academic about this discussion to me. David’s art and story here has taken me back to a couple of very real incidents that I saw happen, about thirty years ago. It is to his everlasting credit that my good friend David Willis can craft story and art that speaks to me so realistically, that takes me back to that time so vividly.
There wasn’t any internet then. It didn’t make people more or less violent. There were only people with ill intent, and other people that were willing to use force to stop them.
Listen, this is a story, but it presents a scenario that really happens. It happens all the time, in small towns and big cities all across the country. When I saw it happen to a girl I knew, we sought out the guy who did it and visited some wrath upon him, just like David has shown in today’s Friday cliffhanger.
I didn’t have any sympathy then for the son of a bongo who slipped a girl acid trying to get laid. We put his ass in the ER and I have no regrets about that. If this were a real scenario, I’d have no regrets about laying a stout piece of hickory across the skull of this son of a bongo. Sometimes evil intent has to be met with force.
This is one of those times.
I don’t know how to answer to that without looking grossly insensitive. I’ve been fortunate enough in my life to not have to resort to violence to defend myself or someone who needs to be defended. I know I’m lucky to be able to talk about these situations in a purely theoretical manner.
As someone else who has needed to use violence to right wrongs, consider yourself lucky.
There are times that violence is the only way to make sure that the problem does not reoccur.
If you succeed in making yourself a problem I will give you NO sympathy when the solution is put to you.
Oh boy, is Ryan having a good time.
Say, would a threesome with Ruth and Ryan be referred to as “getting a little R&R”?
I’m not saying that’s Ruth, even if she is the babe with the power. I think we’re more likely to find Casey at the bat.
Yes. Yes, it would. That is hilarious. Also, I love Casey at the Bat!
September 30th or thereabouts there is a superhero in the background, could be him. I still think its Sal or Billie tho, tho the frat guy who got her the sierra mist is also a viable candidate!
I wonder who is saving her?
I kind of hope for Roz myself for some reason.
Why has no one suggested the most obvious choice?
It’s Ronald Reagan.
Until the roofie kicked in, I was really hoping that Willis was going to surprise us with a naive, homeschooled, devout innocent who somehow managed to handle herself just fine.
It seemed for a while there that she would be sort of vindicated in what she believed, despite being wrong about Ryan in particular and pastors’ children in general.
I still hope she stays a sweet Christian girl, despite learning the hard way how to avoid creeps, because I think that’s a legitimate lifestyle choice sometimes. To show that it’s not always the product of naiveté would be unusual and empowering.
I’d like to see a webcomic that’s so comfortable with GLBT people and freed sexuality also be comfortable with a character who chooses to be religious but not an asshole or a total naif. The diversity would be refreshing.
Joyce is still religious in the Walkyverse too, and she can handle herself just fine. Problem is that it’s a basic fact of life that being naive can get you in to trouble, that part’s got to go. If you just stumble through life thinking god’s got your back so you don’t watch it for yourself and nothing bad happens, that’s not being vindicated. I’d imagine she’s going to go through a bit of a rough patch here, but should be the same sweet Joyce in the end.
I’m relieved to hear that opinion. I’d like to see Joyce become more people-wise without losing her religious identity. She adds an interesting element to the mix of people there, and I’d hate for readers to take away from this yet another example of “Christians/religious people are all idiots.”
I’m going to try to trust Willis’s ability to handle this storyline as delicately as he handled the Ethan/Drew breakup storyline.
Given that he has done a similar character arc for her in IW!, I feel like you’ll be vindicated.
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:14.
Cute little hint there. Though that was hardly the only one.
I don’t think Joyce will change much in her personality. I don’t know how Willis intends to continue her character, but she did say earlier she believes that Jesus has her back and wouldn’t let something like this happen. Though she was drugged, she wasn’t raped. It seems someone WAS watching over her, and probably, that’s what she’ll take away from all this.
Maybe not so naive anymore, but still the same person.
If it’s not Jesus with a baseball bat on Monday, I’ll be greatly disappointed.
What if it’s Jésus with a baseball bat on Monday?
Why would he put his scholarship on the line? Do you know how hard soccer scholarships are to get in the US?
Boo. No internets for you.
I dunno, that seemed rather internet worthy to me.
Maybe I’m just unaware how you get from Jésus to soccer without racial stereotyping. Is there some particularly well known Jésus being referenced here?
Wouldn’t the stereotyping be if I had make a baseball joke based on the number of Hispanics in baseball? I went with a sport that quite frankly is worldwide. Sheesh, I get in trouble for not hitting the softball joke the way I could’ve.
if it isn’t Amzi-girl i’ll be so disappointed
If it isn’t Faz – who then promptly steps in to fill the void Ryan left – I’ll be so disappointed. :p
I would be relieved if that weren’t the case, myself.
The last panel makes me think Joyce is about to puke. Probably on an unconscious Ryan.
“You reap what you sow.”
To paraphrase my man Inigo Montoya, Ryan- “You keep using that verse…I do not think it means what you think it means.” But fortunately we have a volunteer with a baseball bat to help illustrate the definition for you.
Wow, asshole to major creep asshole in 2.8 seconds.
Seriously!!! I didn’t think Ryan could get any sketchier…boy was I wrong.
Amazi-Girl with the walk off grand slam!
After this he will rise as a zombie, and then when struck down again he’ll turn into an eldrich abomination.
And *then* he’ll turn into a TV screen showing The Sound of Music, to finish off anyone still with their sanity intact.
Oh, yeah!! Now we know he’s dead!!!!!
IT’S WALKY!
( Get it?
)
Or it could be Danny, and we get to experience Joyce’s hilarious unrequited love for him all over again.
I think its Amazi-girl also….she was in fighting form earlier at the party (check 9/29 and 9/30 strips). But the tag says “Magnitude” new character or just reference to the escalation of violence? Maybe Magnitude is Mike’s superhero name?
Magnitude is the name of the guy in the background of the first panel. He was also in one of the other strips. He’s a character from the NBC sitcom community, and he is awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-_4mcYsQdE
Good eyes, I missed that!
I know who it was.
This is obviously the correct answer.
Amizi-Girl saves the day!
go back to the strip on the 12th and one notices Amber eavesdropping on Dorothy and Billie XD (though a sick little part of me still wants it to be Mike)
Please, oh, please be Mike or Sarah.
Wow, if that hit as hard as it looks, somebody might have a serious case of being dead.
For some reason, I think it’s going to be her roommate. I think it would be kind of nice if Sarah was too worried and restless to stay home, so she went to the party and found a convenient baseball bat.
Unfortunately, I think if this DOES happen to be the case, all Joyce will take away from it is that Jesus watches over her, not that she needs to be more cautious, exercise better judgment, avoid dangerous situations, etc.
Either that or Jesus is secretly watching over her!
DAMN YOU WILLIS! (..in the Christian sense, of course. Willis is a Christian, right? He’s also Joyce and secretly telling the story of his life, right?)
Part of me doubts that Willis has been roofied.
Why? He’s definitely sexy enough to catch one’s attention, at least I would totally want to rape him, if I was a rapist, which I’m not, so it’s probably rather “do”… Since I’m not going to get a chance for either, let this be an example of a girl with a motif for you. And I’m sure there are more out there who are into Willis’ type, so – it’s definitely possible! Although not completely conclusive.
And there are the inebriated spots I mentioned before. So much for not being ruffied. Poor Joyce, she does not deserve this.
This guy is a freaking psychopath as well as a rapist. I know the psychology behind why people do shit like this, but I can’t comprehend it on an emotional level. How could anyone do something so evil as to rape another person? Its disgusting.
Glad to see someone had Joyce’s back. I wonder if its Amazi-Girl (probably not, as she wouldn’t use a bat, but instead fists of justice).
I suspect Amazi-Stool in front of the bathroom with the baseball bat!
I’m def. on board with the “it’s her roommate theory”
And now, my long shot bet on who it is. Kyle Gass (a.k.a. Kage a.k.a. KG) as he stumbled into a college party after he and Jack Black (a.k.a. Jables a.k.a. JB) had a falling out on their way to the Museum of Rock ‘n’ Roll to steal the Pick of Destiny! It is his seeing the attempted rape of Joyce that he grabbed the nearest non-guitar weapon he could find, before heading off to go help his compadre and get the movie back on track.
Maybe it’s Roy Hobbs and the bat is Wonderboy.
Looks like this will end up as the new record holder for the most comments if this keeps up.
Needs to beat 628 comments as of this time.
I am going to guess it is her roommate showwing up by surprise because she actually worried about Joyce
We’ve been left way too many Chekhov’s Guns for it to NOT be Amazigirl. :\ Though I totes want it to be Jesus.
You’re all wrong. It’s clearly just a very well mannered Bat that saw trouble and fucked Ryan’s shit up.
It will be the bearded board game guy and in her drugged up state she will think it’s Jesus.
My list of potential bat wielders: Mike, Walky, Danny, Joe, Dorothy, Sal, Amazi-Girl, guy with awesome beard, Roz, Ruth, Ethan, Beef Nukem, Billie and finally some random bat wielding party goer who happened to be drunk.
If one of those guesses turns out to be right, be sure to post “CALLED IT!” first thing on Monday.
I’ll try though I might be a little late on that.
Of course it is, they just listed the entire cast.
You’re wrong. It’s obviously Head Alien.
It’s going to be Magnitude – he’s in the tags! He saw the violence in action (he’s looking the right way in panel 1) and then rushed for his bat.
Your right this would totally ruin a Magnitude party there is no “Pop POP” to this
Hoping for Joe. And a drugged out thanking/hugging/clinging. Followed by puking all over him.
On a side note, maybe it’s just the cluster-logic way my brain works, but I find all the Batman comments amusing in a strangely meta way, since the one time I know of for sure that he’s actually used a baseball bat in the comics (even using the “Bat-man” pun) was against…
Wait for it…
A Predator.
Okay, yeah, that is admittedly pretty epic.
Y’know, I think ending a comic on a Ryan-gets-bashed-in-the-head panel would remain satisfying for another dozen or so strips.
It is just as well that Ryan never bothered to take advice from Dr Rudi, otherwise Joyce would be in big trouble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WCpb30lYKE
Hypothesis: It’s Joyce’s Drunk People, who come to save their leader.
I’m totally late to this party, but for what it’s worth: it’s Sarah. That’s my guess anyway:)
These guess’s are all way too obvious, its probably someone unexpected;
Heres my votes;
Linkara, Squirrel Girl,Moya (the living ship from Farscape),CookieMonster,Scott(or is it Steve) from Lost, BatMite, The Inanimate Carbon Rod (from that simpsons episode),Felicia Day or The Spanish Inquisition
It’s Lil’ Slugger.
And now we’ve got ANOTHER character who can be summed up in one or two words. Seriously, the characters are kinda two dimensional; Joe is “horny” Sal is “Teen Rebel”, Walky’s “acts eleven”, mike’s “asshole”, dina’s “shy”, Ruth’s “dictator”, Sarah is “jaded outcast”, Ryan’s “rapist”, and Billie’s “arrogant alcoholic”.
It seems like Joyce and Dorothy are the only characters who feel like real, 3 dimensional people with complex personalities and conflicts. everyone else seems… flat.
On a completely unrelated note, I’m seriously pissed off with Billie being the “funny drunk”. I know it’s indicated to be a serious problem and will probably get a serious storyline eventually, but for now alcoholism is portrayed as something funny, a punchline for a lot of goofy, offensive jokes.
You forgot Amber as “person who only plays video games and has no other side to her whatsoever”.
On the other hand, we’ve seen these people for what, four days their time? Even a soap opera takes longer than that to delve into deep existential angst. Give it time. By the time we see the end of the semester, in 2036, I’m sure they’ll all be quite fleshed out. (Well, except Mike.)
And on Billie – have you forgotten all her previous characterization already, as a person who built up her identity based on her high school popularity and is struggling with the loss thereof? And, I don’t see her drunkenness as being all *that* funny – in a way, it’s sort of pathetic.
What I learned from your comment is that within a year I’ve managed to characterize a dozen characters strongly enough that you can easily describe them, with a select few receiving more fleshed out characterizations.
I can’t see that as a negative. Thanks for the unintentionally positive feedback.
My mind has been blown yet again.
That’s a good point. Your characters, the mains at least, are quite identifiable, so if that’s your goal, you’re matching it admirably. But after 13 months, you have 2 fully developed characters.
I guess my issue is with the pacing. DoA seems to take 10-20 strips to show what could be done in 5-10. If you tightened it up a bit maybe the characters would have developed more by now.
To finish up, I mean this as constructive criticism. If I was just trying to troll, I’d have done a lot worse.
I do kinda dislike how slow it is, but in a way I like how that allows for more story detail.
I’d reason you’re forgetting development for some of the characters you claim are one-dimensional. It’s easy to pick a trait and say that’s all they are. It’s not a compelling argument to me when I know I’ve displayed other sides to many of them.
(I’ll leave others to give examples if they want. It feels a little petty for me to spoonfeed that sort of information, plus if I’m doing my job I shouldn’t have to.)
Cutting stories down into fewer strips seems like it’d remove the very character moments you say are missing. That’s why events are expanded, to add room for subtlety. I’m comfortable and pleased with the speed at which things happen, rate of actual time passage notwithstanding, so that’s not likely to change. Altering that would make it harder to do what I want to do.
Ok, I don’t think I’ve gotten across my point about characterization very well. I’ll use Billie as an example. To me, the “character moments” are mostly punchlines that reinforce what we already know about her, specifically her arrogance “I’m a cheerleader!” and her alcohol addiction “I focus better after a shot of whiskey”.
To me, while those punchlines can, and usually are funny, but they’re overused, and they drag things out.
Previously, I said that Dorothy was a well developed character, and Joe wasn’t. Despite them having comparable numbers of appearances, Dorothy has had two well written character arcs, the break up and her journalism, The majority of joes strips are “Joes such a horndog ;)”. You can clearly write good character arcs succinctly, in my opinion you should focus on them and show us the complexity you’ve planned out in your head.
I’m guessing every main character’s going to get their moment in the sun. If you improved your pacing, We’d have seven or more fleshed out characters, rather than two.
If the only things you’re taking from Billie’s characterization is that she’s an alcoholic cheerleader, you’re missing the point. Most of Billie’s strips showcase the fact that, just like Joyce, Billie really isn’t prepared for college, just in a different way. Billie is slowly coming to realise that nobody cares about high school anymore, and considering the strip has covered about a week so far, it’s unrealistic to expect her to have made much progress (and as for the fact it’s taken so long to cover a week? It’s a webcomic, that’s how it works.)
Let’s also consider Joe: sure, most of his strips showcase that he’s a horndog, but he’s an HONEST horndog. He never hides who he is and is perfectly accepting of other attitudes. He also has plenty of other displayed traits, like his love of snarking Danny.
The thing you have to remember is, reading a webcomic is a different experience to reading a book. It’s a slow ass way of telling a story, because you only get a moment or so a day. Sure, a webcomic like “Something Positive” or “Questionable Content” might move characterization faster, they’re far more gag a day oriented then DoA, which is more story driven.
Hey I bet it was that Anozin’ Woman or whoever.
(If everyone else is going to consistently misspell Amazi-Girl, I will too. …unless that’s just yet another idiotic meme of which I have somehow been unaware until now, in which case I profusely apologize for propagating such a terrible thing.)
Isn’t Joyce likely to be facing felony assault charges? Smashing somebody in the face with a glass (assault with a weapon) is likely only legally justified if one can persuade a judge that one was facing imminent physical harm with no means of escape. It’s somewhat doubtful that her action would be construed as the minimum reasonable force necessary to prevent that, given he hasn’t touched her at that point.
Attempted murder (baseball bat to the head) is likely to be problematic as the minimum reasonable force necessary to stop him, but at least there he’s already touched grabbed her.
He spiked her drink without her knowledge, which was already illegal.
Doesn’t mean she won’t be facing charges, though. She might have an especially hard time of it if she can’t show the drink was spiked.
With all the drugs in her system and her rescuer to testify?
Not unless there are some REALLY stupid cops, no.
Her rescuer would be a witness of the assault. As soon as the dude touched her, she can legally charge him with assault.
If this were taking place in small-town Indiana, where most of the local police likely to be members of his dad’s “flock,” then yeah, I’d be pretty worried for Joyce. I don’t see the Bloomington police being quite to sympathetic to an attempted rapist.
The only potential problem I see arising is if his family also has lots of money (he did mention horses), in which case it may be the school that tries to keep things hushed up. Although, if it happened off-campus, I’m not sure that the school would have any actual involvement…
He was attempting by intimidation to get her “alone,” in such a way that a reasonable person might believe he meant to force himself upon her once they were. In short, he threatened to rape her – that takes the gloves off big time. In many jurisdictions, she or another could straight-up knife him provided that there weren’t a reasonable avenue of retreat.
Besides, Willis’s comics have always been somewhat… anarchic.
He literally just told her that he had been following her around all night, and was getting ready to force her into a bathroom. And she had already consumed the drink, and was starting to go under the effects of the drug and go out of it.
When exactly was she suppose to be making reasonable assessments on how much force she should level? She didn’t even last until the end of this comic before starting to collapse against the doorway.
My immediate thought is that Danny is our batter. It’d be a good reason for Joyce to attach herself to him.
My crack “I want this to be true because it would be ludicrious” pick is The Cheese. You know, just to prove that even if God doesn’t have her back, something close does.
Karma is a mother fucker, isn’t it?
Karma prefers to be called Mike. Parent’s were hippies, whatcha gonna do?
I have to say, though, I do like Joyce’s reaction to all of this. She’s the naive, home-schooled girl who just went to her first ‘Real’ Party and her naivete got her roofied and almost raped…
BUT! Upon realizing it, she defended herself the only way she could. She quickly assessed she had a potential weapon to defend herself with, and she used it. She didn’t turn into a meek little girl begging someone else to help her. Had the roofies not kicked in when they did, she probably would have gotten away just fine.
And to everyone bongoing about how Joyce ‘will’ get prosecuted for the ‘horrible assault’ (That’s how I see you saying it), you need to realize something.
THIS IS A WEBCOMIC AND AN AWESOME AT THAT AND WHAT WILLIS SAYS GOES SO GET OVER IT AND ENJOY READING IT!!!
Considering her “Wrath of God” reaction to Joe, a fairly benign run-of-the-mill horndog, it’s not really much of a surprise that, when confronted with a genuine sexual predator, she really called down the thunder. I get the feeling that if he hadn’t drugged her, he would have found out that True Faith isn’t just for use against vampires any more.
At the end of the day I’m betting Ryan’s not particularly eager to run off and tell the story anyway. Sure, he could twist it to make it sound like it was all her fault and he was just an innocent victim, but he’d probably prefer the events of this night just never get investigated at all.
He’s probably not the only person leaving this party with a busted up face or ending the night unconscious. As far as he’s concerned the fewer questions asked the better.
Take your own advice bongo!! >:( Glad someone decked him!!
Way to go, Sarah
Joly sh*t I checked this strip and the one before whilst listening to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVC9jFQ6T20
It works very well.
It’s this girl! http://www.c.urvy.org/c/20111015.png
I just noticed the page title is queasy, but the URL is bat. Was there a last minute change?
My guess is that “queasy” was substituted because “bat” would be kind of a spoiler.
So like, I just noticed.
Panel 4: He’s right up next to her (as far as my mortal eyes can tell).
Panel 5: He is hit so hard that his legs got pulled out from under him.
GENTLEMEN, I give to you a suspect for consideration… The goddamn carpet. Nobody ever expects the carpet to yank itself from out underneath you and then club you like it’s its job to go clubbing people with bats.
someone just got peanutbutter jellied.
with this strip Dumbing of age has surpassed Shortpacked in terms of creepyness.
. . . I miss nice, morally right Danny.
why did his shirt suddenly turn purple?
Does Indiana have those “stand your ground” laws where if you attack someone and they fight back you have the right to do whatever you want to them? Ryan sure seems to think so!
DOA should have more magnitude cameos
Most badass moment in DOA ever
Wait, so he really IS a pastor’s son?
“For wrath kills the foolish person, and anger slays the silly one.”
Job 5:2