There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
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The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
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Rhea Snaketail returns from the dead, befriending a Demon who falls in love with an Angel. The afterlife ain't what it used to be!
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Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Beeserker
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This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
Countdown to Countdown
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Iris Black is a self-proclaimed inventor with the curious ability to bring his drawings to life, and yearns to find a space where he can use his powers freely.
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.
Cyanide & Happiness
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Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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!
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Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
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It was in both universes since they are childhoood friends. I think the ItsWalky Universe David wanted to call her Billie and Ruth(who was babysitting the two) told Billie to piss him off by calling him Walky. So yeah I guess you could say it was because of both Ruth and Billie. X3 Don’t know if the same thing happened in this universe since Billie doesn’t seem to remember Ruth.
Walky grew up in Indiana in the old universe. I don’t think anything has been mentioned about it up to now in DoA, though, but I’d say that Sal not contradicting Joyce here suggests that Joyce is being accurate.
Most likely India Indian — my dad’s old boss was nicknamed ‘Rimpy’ because as a child he peed on old car tire rims. It’s not too much of a stretch to think of a similarly suited reason for Walky to be called that if not for his last name.
Why does she need multiple sets of bike gear? Plenty of people get by with 1) summer gear, and 2) wet weather/winter gear. And some only ride in warm weather. Then there’s the option of having just summer stuff and pulling on thermals+water proof stuff that goes over the top when it gets cold (would want to have winter gloves, though).
Do you know what a decent set of leathers like that *costs*? I seriously doubt that she has more than one. That said, they don’t typically get that dirty, and wear like iron.
Sal and Walky were already of mixed race in previous webcomics, with a black/white father and a white mother. That remains the same in this new continuity.
This is correct. Using such terms is meant to be very tongue in cheek, because the two kinds of Indians are so totally dissimilar that there should be no need to distinguish between them. Unless a Joyce is in the room, when we say Native American.
CRFH would be in the same universe as FAANS by cross-over rules. And the original Walkyverse is an alternate world from that one. But DoA could be part of that. Though its all a pretty big assumption based on whats likely a non-canon cameo…
Yeah, somehow I don’t think the CRFH gang is in Indiana. At least, I hope not for Joyce’s sake. Don’t think she’d handle Satan’s regular appearances on campus well.
Yes and no.
IIRC, Willis said that, even though the scene with Amber in Coffee of Doom happened in both comics, it doesn’t mean they’re in the same ‘verse.
The end result is that QC doesn’t have an alien invasion in its backstory.
I am not sure how you managed to leap to that conclusion… the more obvious interpretation would be that Native Americans stereotypically have names that are verb phrases, like, say, Dances With Wolves.or Fools Crow or Walks With Freshmen.
There is a large basque population in most parts of the country that have ranching. Examples include Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and eastern California. This is because tha Basques were brought in to the country as expert sheep herders. (I am Basque, BTW)
Speaking as a Texan, I can tell you that there are no “white parts of Texas.” There is a mix of races pretty much everywhere you go – city or country – north, south, east, or west.
Seconded. As a Portland native, moving to California at the age of 17 destroyed my childhood naivety and taught me that there IS such a thing as diversity.
If the walkerton’s are twins, why does only one have the pronounced accent? One might assume that having both been raised in the same region that the development of an accent would have paralleled one another? Not that it matters, course. Just curious.
I guess I assumed the catholic school was probably close to home, though i don’t remember seeing that it was or wasn’t. I also wasn’t sure how long she’d been there. An accent like that seems like it would take some time to develop. Oh well…is what it is.
I’ve heard an seen people acquire accents from being in places for less than a month. My AUnt after going to London and another guy I heard of only went to Canada for a week and he apparently would unknowingly end his sentences with “eh?” They usually fade away after coming back, but Ah guess she was in tha hoosegow fer a long time, eh?
In the earlier webcomics, Sal and Walky were separated at birth and didn’t know about this until a dramatic “I AM YOUR FATHER”-like moment. So Sal grew up with adoptive parents where she got her southern accent (and other kick-ass traits).
I guess the catholic boarding school is Willis’ way of making Sal’s character fit into this new continuity.
Sometimes it’s not about tricking people. Sometimes you just don’t want to be the person saying stupid shit.
It also does effectively derail that line of conversation. Even though Sal knows what she was gonna say, now she’s not gonna have to engage in the painfully awkward conversation that would be telling Joyce why she was wrong there. She can take the much nicer route of just playing along and moving on to more pleasant topics.
I don’t really see why you’d think that this is about fooling anyone at all. All she did is turn a major social faux-pas into a minor moment of discomfort and throw a lampshade on it. It wasn’t exactly meant to be a cunning deception.
Well, Billie was right. Neither Walky nor Joyce could do much to help her get the Roommate Agreement filled out, and thus regain her cheerleading uniform. She needed Sal to be around for that.
Not to mention Joyce and Walky going up against Ruth? Somehow I don’t see them being very affective.
Meanwhile, I really have to wonder how much longer Joyce can get away with saying stupid stuff due to the fact she has such as sheltered childhood…
Well, nobody’s likely to beat her up for it or anything, on account of her being a girl and the fact it’s so painfully obvious that being that ignorant is almost punishment enough. So I think that she’ll ‘get away with’ it indefinitely, aside from the embarrassment which is already starting to get to her.
Ummm… who said anything about someone beating her? (Although saying that no one would hit her for being offensive, just for being a girl is EXTREMELY laughable, since it seems there is a larger number of woman in the cast than men, meaning girl fights are highly likely eventually. Hell we’ve already had one girl fight in the story).
I’m talking where someone just goes off on her, telling her how offensive (i.e. racist, bigoted, zealot) her comments are and that they don’t want her around anymore.
And like I said, it’s blatantly obvious that she means no harm by it and is even promptly apologetic. Getting briefly offended may be justified, but trying to drive her off while she’s working to improve would be unjustified. Any character who would do that would be inclined to drive off anybody for any small offense, not just Joyce.
Just because she means no intentional harm in what she says, doesn’t mean what she says won’t piss people off to the point that they get fed up with her behavior and trying to excuse it.
And I think you’re forgetting that this is a comic. And in comics people’s reactions are often exaggerated to where the can be set off by the smallest of offenses. For example, Joyce went full rage-mode towards Joe because the guy merely LOOKED at another woman and then proceed to assist Mike in beating him.
So considering that particularly scenario, you cannot say that someone might not go off on her for her behavior. After all, she already did it to someone else.
._. pretty sure I had a Joyce moment tonight. Only it was saying he had more visual exposure (he’s big city californian american, I’m rural canadian) for his art, and what it SOUNDED like was: ‘You’re asian, you know more about black people as a result’
How did that turn out?
My sister seems to have a preference for Indian men, which has given my family some insight into Indian culture in regards to familial structure and courtship — that must have been a bitter pill for them to swallow.
I know that in the last panel Joyce confirms that her stupid was about the Indian thing, but I thought she was freaking out at first because “David” is a Christian name.
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She’s lerning….sorta.
She learned from her mistakes quite quickly.
She’s only on step 2 of 25.
Wonder if anyone will ever yell at her for that? (Aside from Billie).
“I am helping!”
“Well stop!”
Smooth Joyce, real smooth.
I think she cross off avoid PR from her list of possible jobs.
avoidThis irony amuses me.
You..have to…sort of give her props for trying?
Not..particularly succeeding though.
No, you really don’t. There’s naive, then there’s halfwit. Joyce’s been rolling on the high side of halfwit for a while now.
You’re being a little harsh. Joyce is doing better than most people in her situation would.
The difference between Joyce and most people, is that Joyce is both aware AND trying.
Walky in this universe got his nick name from Billie right?
It was in both universes since they are childhoood friends. I think the ItsWalky Universe David wanted to call her Billie and Ruth(who was babysitting the two) told Billie to piss him off by calling him Walky. So yeah I guess you could say it was because of both Ruth and Billie. X3 Don’t know if the same thing happened in this universe since Billie doesn’t seem to remember Ruth.
Hooray daily strips again
She’s getting better at this.
Sorta.
She avoided freaking out, that’s progress.
PROGRESS indeed.
Progressive even.
Wouldn’t go that far. Baby steps!
Not so much better as less bad.
Still! Progress!
She’s gradually improving.
Oh please Joyce that only fools the feeble minded.
Are Sal and Walky actually from Indiana? Cause, if so, I would consider myself actually kind of impressed with Joyce’s save there.
Walky grew up in Indiana in the old universe. I don’t think anything has been mentioned about it up to now in DoA, though, but I’d say that Sal not contradicting Joyce here suggests that Joyce is being accurate.
“Walky.” An ancient spiritual name for “He Who Walks Behind The Rows.”
WALKY IS CHILDREN OF THE CORN!
For reals though, what is Joyce saying? I must be missing some cultural main, but what does Indian have to do with a name like Walky?
I think it’s a product of HER not knowing anything, not you.
I might be mistaken, but I believe she was referring to the Trail of Tears. In which case, jeez, that’s kinda f*cked up.
That almost sounds like it makes sense, but it can’t be true because even Joyce wouldn’t think of something so fucked up.
Yeah, I figured her logic was much more simplistic than that, at least. Something like:
Sitting Bull = funny Indian name
Walky = …funny Indian name?
Most likely India Indian — my dad’s old boss was nicknamed ‘Rimpy’ because as a child he peed on old car tire rims. It’s not too much of a stretch to think of a similarly suited reason for Walky to be called that if not for his last name.
i thought it was an ancient spiritual name for “the ghost who walks”
The Phantom?
Joyce: Heart!
Walky: Indiana!
Mike: Punch!
“By your powers combined I am Captain Falcon!”
What kind of lame power is Indiana anyway?
The power of crossroads?
Really long freaking drives.
Captain Falcon approves! We have a pilot episode, folks!
… Soybeans?
We named the DOG Indiana!
If only she could get to her Chick Tracts…
But Joyce likes Sal…right? But she’s not going to climb out windows because she’s immune to influence.
She likes her enough to want to save her soul.
You mean, enough to want to play with her motorbike. She hasn’t even mentioned religion to Sal yet I don’t think.
The girl has her priorities in order.
Didn’t Sal go to a Catholic school? As far as she’s concerned, Sal’s already saved.
I doubt it. Joyce is an evangelical Christian. For a disturbingly large number of them we Catholics are one step above idol-worshiping heathens.
Some of them even refuse to even acknowledge that Catholics are also Christians.
Does Sal wear the same thing everyday? I don’t remember seeing other biker outfits when they showed her clothing.
She has multiple sets of that one outfit.
She have a lot of identical biker outfits?
Well, it’s just in the comic where Billie saw her wardrobe it was full of schoolgirl outfits and nothing else.
Why does she need multiple sets of bike gear? Plenty of people get by with 1) summer gear, and 2) wet weather/winter gear. And some only ride in warm weather. Then there’s the option of having just summer stuff and pulling on thermals+water proof stuff that goes over the top when it gets cold (would want to have winter gloves, though).
Do you know what a decent set of leathers like that *costs*? I seriously doubt that she has more than one. That said, they don’t typically get that dirty, and wear like iron.
Yup. You can easily spend a grand on just a jacket and pants. Textiles are a little cheaper, but still hundreds of dollars.
Walky and Sal are part indian on dumbiverse then? Just to be sure…
They are not. Joyce is mistaken, as always.
As you have changed Billie’s race already, have Sal and Walky’s race changed as well?
Of course he has.
They are no longer part martian.
Sal and Walky were already of mixed race in previous webcomics, with a black/white father and a white mother. That remains the same in this new continuity.
That’s all I needed to know. ^_^
If so, what kind of Indians? American Indians or Indian Americans?
American-Indian Indians.
For simplicity’s sake, many Americans use the terms “dot kind” and “feather kind.”
I know a girl from India who came to America. Her Halloween costume was “feather kind” and many LOLs were had.
…Really? I’ve lived in America all my life, have never heard either of those terms, and they strike me as a little racist. No offense intended.
Given enough time, all terms used to describe people will be considered racist.
Except that a lot of Indians (both American Indians and Indian-Americans) find that pretty offensive.
Where I’m from, calling people “dot kind” or “feather kind” would either get laughs as you are clearly making a joke, or icily glared out of a room.
That said I gotta say the costume bit is pretty great.
This is correct. Using such terms is meant to be very tongue in cheek, because the two kinds of Indians are so totally dissimilar that there should be no need to distinguish between them. Unless a Joyce is in the room, when we say Native American.
A comedian I saw said he was married to an Indian, then clarified: a Tech Support Indian, not a Casino Indian.
Hey, Willis, go take a look at College Roomies from Hell!!! Sal got a cameo.
The comic in question.
It looks like Hannalore from Questionable Content also has a cameo in that same comic (2nd panel).
I like cameos. I especially like it when a cartoonist emulates a well-known art style either in parody or homage.
Wait, that would mean that CRfH, QC and DoA are all in the same ‘verse.
But didn’t Shortpacked! characters visit the coffee shop from QC?
Keeping in mind that it’s at a costume party…
CRFH would be in the same universe as FAANS by cross-over rules. And the original Walkyverse is an alternate world from that one. But DoA could be part of that. Though its all a pretty big assumption based on whats likely a non-canon cameo…
Yeah, somehow I don’t think the CRFH gang is in Indiana. At least, I hope not for Joyce’s sake. Don’t think she’d handle Satan’s regular appearances on campus well.
Yes and no.
IIRC, Willis said that, even though the scene with Amber in Coffee of Doom happened in both comics, it doesn’t mean they’re in the same ‘verse.
The end result is that QC doesn’t have an alien invasion in its backstory.
She has a good point. It’d be stupid to call him by a name they shared.
ok im dumb today(and most other days) but i dont get the conection to “Walky” and being India(or indian)
It’s an odd name. Not a white. Walky’s not white. Just a failed attempt to connect the dots and a misidentified race.
*Not a white name.
ok thought there would be more to it
There is no such thing as a white name.
Joyce shares this viewpoint?
http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/eng_.php here is an entire list of traditionaly white names
Jeez, that’s kinda f*cked up.
(Am I right in assuming this is a reference to the Trail of Tears?)
…nope! Wrong kind of Indian!
Nodnod. So she thought his name was “Walki” or something.
I am not sure how you managed to leap to that conclusion… the more obvious interpretation would be that Native Americans stereotypically have names that are verb phrases, like, say, Dances With Wolves.or Fools Crow or Walks With Freshmen.
Or not, based on what David just said above me.
Walky’s native name is ‘Walks with McNuggets’ :p
Of the McNuggets tribes lead by Mighty Chief Dips McNuggets.
So where’s Joyce from?
Imagine the boringest parts of Europe all mashed together.
Sooo, Wyoming?
Haven’t you learn from Garfield and Friends? Wyoming does not exist.
P.S: To anyone who is from Wyoming, I’m just joking.
Did you know that there’s a surprisingly big Basque population in Wyoming? [/things I learned this weekend and now feel compelled to share]
There is a large basque population in most parts of the country that have ranching. Examples include Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and eastern California. This is because tha Basques were brought in to the country as expert sheep herders. (I am Basque, BTW)
There is a website that discusses the nonexistence of Idaho. I guess I’m behind on my Garfield. What other states do not exist?
I can’t remember from which show but I heard that North Dakota is a myth. Is that true?
According to Google, Maine is the whitest state in the US.
Texas?
Probably not, theres a pretty high Black and Latino population there.
The white parts of Texas?
Speaking as a Texan, I can tell you that there are no “white parts of Texas.” There is a mix of races pretty much everywhere you go – city or country – north, south, east, or west.
Then explain all the innocent people hang from tree branchs and the recent and continuious violation of international law and human rights.
The whitest big city in the US is Portland.
Seconded. As a Portland native, moving to California at the age of 17 destroyed my childhood naivety and taught me that there IS such a thing as diversity.
Thank god for that.
Totally unrelated to anything, but for the statue: I vote that she be wearing her SEMME outfit.
If the walkerton’s are twins, why does only one have the pronounced accent? One might assume that having both been raised in the same region that the development of an accent would have paralleled one another? Not that it matters, course. Just curious.
Sal went to boarding school and acquired an accent. Walky was not “raised in the same region” from the perspective.
I guess I assumed the catholic school was probably close to home, though i don’t remember seeing that it was or wasn’t. I also wasn’t sure how long she’d been there. An accent like that seems like it would take some time to develop. Oh well…is what it is.
The boarding school was in tenessee or some such I believe?
Perhaps she knocked over that convenience store* as an elementary schooler?
* presuming I’m remembering her crime correctly.
I’ve heard an seen people acquire accents from being in places for less than a month. My AUnt after going to London and another guy I heard of only went to Canada for a week and he apparently would unknowingly end his sentences with “eh?” They usually fade away after coming back, but Ah guess she was in tha hoosegow fer a long time, eh?
My New South Welsh accent had been altered due to the fact that the family that babysat me when I was little were Jewish Indians (the dot kind).
I grew up in the air force, and we moved, a LOT. I got to the point where I could pick up the accent and sound like a native in about a month.
In the earlier webcomics, Sal and Walky were separated at birth and didn’t know about this until a dramatic “I AM YOUR FATHER”-like moment. So Sal grew up with adoptive parents where she got her southern accent (and other kick-ass traits).
I guess the catholic boarding school is Willis’ way of making Sal’s character fit into this new continuity.
Oh, Joyce, you never change. Which is sad, actually. But at least you stopped before you said something possibly offensive.
Eh, I think she’s made pretty impressive progress in four days. At this rate she could be completely acclimated within just 2 months.
She stop. It is only a trick to fool the feeble minded, no offense.
Sometimes it’s not about tricking people. Sometimes you just don’t want to be the person saying stupid shit.
It also does effectively derail that line of conversation. Even though Sal knows what she was gonna say, now she’s not gonna have to engage in the painfully awkward conversation that would be telling Joyce why she was wrong there. She can take the much nicer route of just playing along and moving on to more pleasant topics.
I don’t really see why you’d think that this is about fooling anyone at all. All she did is turn a major social faux-pas into a minor moment of discomfort and throw a lampshade on it. It wasn’t exactly meant to be a cunning deception.
I was make a Dracula: Dead and Loving It reference.
Ah, my mistake. Haven’t seen that film.
Well, Billie was right. Neither Walky nor Joyce could do much to help her get the Roommate Agreement filled out, and thus regain her cheerleading uniform. She needed Sal to be around for that.
Not to mention Joyce and Walky going up against Ruth? Somehow I don’t see them being very affective.
Meanwhile, I really have to wonder how much longer Joyce can get away with saying stupid stuff due to the fact she has such as sheltered childhood…
Well, nobody’s likely to beat her up for it or anything, on account of her being a girl and the fact it’s so painfully obvious that being that ignorant is almost punishment enough. So I think that she’ll ‘get away with’ it indefinitely, aside from the embarrassment which is already starting to get to her.
Ummm… who said anything about someone beating her? (Although saying that no one would hit her for being offensive, just for being a girl is EXTREMELY laughable, since it seems there is a larger number of woman in the cast than men, meaning girl fights are highly likely eventually. Hell we’ve already had one girl fight in the story).
I’m talking where someone just goes off on her, telling her how offensive (i.e. racist, bigoted, zealot) her comments are and that they don’t want her around anymore.
And like I said, it’s blatantly obvious that she means no harm by it and is even promptly apologetic. Getting briefly offended may be justified, but trying to drive her off while she’s working to improve would be unjustified. Any character who would do that would be inclined to drive off anybody for any small offense, not just Joyce.
Just because she means no intentional harm in what she says, doesn’t mean what she says won’t piss people off to the point that they get fed up with her behavior and trying to excuse it.
And I think you’re forgetting that this is a comic. And in comics people’s reactions are often exaggerated to where the can be set off by the smallest of offenses. For example, Joyce went full rage-mode towards Joe because the guy merely LOOKED at another woman and then proceed to assist Mike in beating him.
So considering that particularly scenario, you cannot say that someone might not go off on her for her behavior. After all, she already did it to someone else.
._. pretty sure I had a Joyce moment tonight. Only it was saying he had more visual exposure (he’s big city californian american, I’m rural canadian) for his art, and what it SOUNDED like was: ‘You’re asian, you know more about black people as a result’
Joyce… I get you. And I sort of resent it.
Joyce caught herself saying something stupid.
Impressive.
The next step is to stop herself from saying something stupid.
Joyce, Joyce, Joyce, you cannot “catch yourself from saying something stupid”, by saying something just as stupid. Fail.
I’m pretty sure ‘blisteringly stupid’ is a step up from ‘blisteringly stupid and also casually racist’. Progress is progress.
Stop doing the Walky-face, Sal. It’s… confusing.
Walky may be Indian but Joyce is sure a naive American…
Fun trivia: David is also the author’s last name!
gaspshockamazement
….last?
Maybe Zem thinks that the name David Willis is Japanese where the family name comes first??? *shrugs*
Oh, sorry. Funny because I AM actually Hungarian. (No, really.)
That’s no excuse for saying something stupid, sorry.
*Death Stare*
*Ominous Latin Chanting*
Sal… hasn’t lit that cigarette yet. Has she?
It’s so lonely.
O_o I’ve never heard of those “descriptors” before.
That said, my uncle is Cherokee, and his then-fiancée (who is from India) was asked by her parents if her fiancé was Indian.
…She said yes. *grin*
Bit of a shock for them when they came to the US for the wedding.
How did that turn out?
My sister seems to have a preference for Indian men, which has given my family some insight into Indian culture in regards to familial structure and courtship — that must have been a bitter pill for them to swallow.
This is the sort of logic that leads you to conclude that all TV shows are actually the daydream of the autistic kid from St. Elsewhere.
errrrr, not sure how this got down here. IGNORE ME
I just noticed this in today and yesterday’s strips, but did Sal always have a mole/mark above her right eye?
I’m fairly certain that’s just the eyebrow crease(line, whatever it’s called. THING) you get when move your eyebrows like that.
I just noticed Sal first appears in this comic. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/sister/
It’s her on the motorcycle going by.
I know that in the last panel Joyce confirms that her stupid was about the Indian thing, but I thought she was freaking out at first because “David” is a Christian name.
RACIST!Also I don’t get it, what would that have to do with being called “Walky”?