Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
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!
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
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
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
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The implication is that the regulars of Wal-mart are the type of people to drive a pickup with a well-stocked gun rack in the back. It’s a pretty well known stereotype even if it’s not technically correct for most of the country
Ah, that makes sense. I forgot about the Walmart consumer = Redneck trailer trash line of humor. I haven’t heard one of those jokes in three, four years easily.
I get it now. Sorry for needing the joke explained.
Do you mind if I ask a question that’s always bothered me now that I see the opportunity?
What’s the attraction to parking lots? I mean, they’re empty and featureless, provide no shelter against the elements, have no good places to sit down, and provide no privacy. Why on Earth do drive to a Walmart or grocery store parking lot and hang out there when they could go to someone’s house or yard or a park or *anything else*?
In part the attraction os all those things you describe. Because they are such an unattractive hangout the odds if getting caught are low. Nobody is supicious when they see a car there because, well, it’s a parking lot and cars are expected to be there. If the drivers are drunk no prob, the cars are parked already so no DUI.
Also, because the cars then become a welcome and huddled around part of the party, and many of the people who do those sorts of parties enjoy showing off their rides. Also, cars come with stereos, so a music selection is already handled, and because they are, well, cars, they can be sat in when cold or sat on when hot.
It’s a parking lot, so there’s not a ton of biting mosquitoes and ticks and such that you might get in a grassy yard, and it’s already clear so you don’t have to worry about tripping over stuff in the dark.
If the cops come ’round, you already have transport out, meaning a quick get away. You already have plenty of space so if someone rolls up late or has to leave early, you don’t need to find a parking space around the block or have the hassle of moving cars in the driveway to get someone out.
Did I miss something? After that almost phobic reaction to the holding on the motorcycle I’d almost expect “wear clothes at all times” to be writen into their roommate agreement.
Also I think there was a joke in the comments a few strips back about Joe’s “make out now” powers actually working on Billie and Sal without anyone realizing it.
Well, Sal’s a bit anti-social so I figure she kind of modified the standard. My dad grew up in rural Illinois and I’ve heard a lot about his high school days and how they hung out, hahaha.
I grew up in Iowa in the 60s and 70s. Dad raised Black Angus cattle, corn and soybeans. I have some expertise in midwestern rural parties myself. Back then there would typically be four or five kegs and about two hundred people involved, and the venue was usually a mowed hayfield, woodlot or someone’s barnyard.
That essentially is how kids party these days. Any time I go to Walmart there are at least two groups of kids huddled around a pickup truck “living it up.”
Honestly, I’d prefer Sal’s party to a college party. I never found them all that fun. It was a lot of posing, obnoxious drinking, and shocking amount of relationship drama at a lot of them. The most fun I normally had as a small group of friends, just kicking back and doing our own things.
Although I’d prefer not doing it at a Wal-Mart Parking lot. Maybe Target…
The sad part is that in the middle-of-nowhere town that my college resides in, going to the Walmart on a Saturday night is considered a good time even without the beer.
There’s another of her standing precisely behind the first one of her, so that the first one blocks the view of the second one. She’s so opposed to the very idea of her suggestible roommate becoming drunken drug-using party girl mark 2 that she’s spontaneously cloned herself in rage.
It probably will turn out to involve five folks, a case of beer, anna Walmart parking lot.
Per the last comic Dorothy thinks that Joyce would not be comfortable at the party, by the way. She could be just guessing of course – though she does know the venue in which it will be taking place, which might give a clue. Also Roz implied that it might be hard to find here there, suggesting a rather large crowd. Lots and lots and lots of people playing Apples-to-Apples, perhaps?
Anyone else think Joyce is absurdly like Sally at the beginning of When Harry Met Sally? Get rid of the religiousness and they’re practically identical.
I’m really starting to dislike Sarah. Yes, she’s had some shit to deal with, and yes, people are treating her unfairly over the thing with her roommate, but the whole “You’re stupid for wanting to go to a party, they suck and you suck and people suck” deal is getting a little old.
No, it wouldn’t be, because simply going to one party, or even several, isn’t necessarily going to make one a “drunken, drug-using party girl.” Plenty of people (most, actually) can regularly party without becoming total burnouts.
And c’mon. It’s Joyce. She’s got about as much chance of becoming a party girl as Joe has of falling madly in love with Walky.
Actually, I suspect that her reaction was entirely BECAUSE it was Joyce and Dorothy. Sarah is keenly aware that Joyce has absolutely no experience with drinking and general college reverie, and Dorothy exhibits a similar lack of experience.
To not declare their pairing a bad idea would be like approving of giving a blind man a blind guide dog.
Her opposition to Billie going with them is fairly straightforward as well: Billie is a hardcore partier, and would probably try to talk them into doing things that they (esp. Joyce) would rather not do.
Sarah’s a bit of a busybody in this case, but she’s not driven by internal angst and rage. It’s genuine concern, I think.
Hmmm. That could also be true. Even if that is the case, though, I do think she’s going about it a bit too angrily. But that would make me like her a bit more, even if she is being a busybody.
We have yet to see her show any concern for anything besides herself, so I’m skeptical that she’s genuinely concerned for the roommate for whom she apparently has mild dislike.
Having conducted a thorough re-examination of the archive to gather information about interactions between Joyce and Sarah thus far, I find your skepticism to be reasonable.
It is entirely plausible that Sarah is simply trying to prevent her roommate from becoming a party-hound like Billie for her own convenience. At the least, she still bears deep wounds from her experiences.
Still, I am convinced that Sarah at least likes Joyce and has her best interests partially in mind. She expresses a warning about the dangers of Billie’s lifestyle early on, and subsequently admiration of Joyce’s trusting nature (even if she does view it as naive). Similar warnings were given with regard to Joyce’s desire to date with Joe, and again admiration was expressed when Joyce rejected Joe of her own volition.
Hey, better Walmart than S-Mart. I hear they had to close that chain down because of random zombie incursions, transplanar rifts, and elder god manifestations.
So, I just had a thought about how this party thing could be a terrible idea. Joyce is going as backup, right? And Roz will be there, possibly hosting. And Joyce and Roz got along extremely poorly this morning. In my mind, it’s a toss-up whether Roz will let Joyce in to break her out of her shell, or refuse to let her in.
And I’m sorry if anyone mentioned this already; it just came to me today.
SAL HAS JUST DESCRIBED THE PERFECT SOUTHERN PARTY. Except around here we mostly use Piggly Wiggly because we’re kinda’ small and driving all the way to Wal-Mart’s just a bit too far.
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Roz and Billie WOOOOO
And thus began the fan fic writing.
Your statement implies that the fanfic writing ever stopped….
Or that it wasn’t already in motion.
That’s Sal. Livin’ it up.
Just like your avatar!
FIFTY.
MCNUGGETS.
Walky’s idea of a party involves a Monkey Master marathon on a big screen, a couch and lots of McNuggets.
What is five folks? Does she literally mean five people?
Indeed.
No, no- Five Folks. You know- Dwarves, Elves, Humans, Hob–er, Halflings, and Dryads Or Whatever. Sal only rocks out DnD style.
I know DnD is my idea of a party.
The only thing missing from Sal’s idea of a party are rifles and pickup trucks.
Those were implied by “Wal-Mart.”
I am not too familar with the details of Wal-mart as I am not an American.
I thought they sold Ammo but not guns. Maybe that’s a quirk of our Canadian gun control though.
Can you buy Rifles at Walmart south of the border?
In the south, it’s pretty common, but in the north, it’s unheard of. I don’t think Rachel’s right about the implication.
The implication is that the regulars of Wal-mart are the type of people to drive a pickup with a well-stocked gun rack in the back. It’s a pretty well known stereotype even if it’s not technically correct for most of the country
Ah, that makes sense. I forgot about the Walmart consumer = Redneck trailer trash line of humor. I haven’t heard one of those jokes in three, four years easily.
I get it now. Sorry for needing the joke explained.
I’m not in the south, and I can buy rifles or shotguns at my Wal-Mart.
I’m in the south and I can’t.
Sam’s Club has ’em in bulk
Sal’s party sounds like my after-party. You can see some “interesting” people going to and from walmart at 2am.
The question is what do those people think when they see you.
Just go to peopleofwalmart.com, save yourself the trip.
That’s not a party, it’s an “intimate get together”.
I’m talking I to the N to the T-I-M-A-T-E get together!
And if it were a party, it wouldn’t be Sal’s party, it would be MY party!
Do you mind if I ask a question that’s always bothered me now that I see the opportunity?
What’s the attraction to parking lots? I mean, they’re empty and featureless, provide no shelter against the elements, have no good places to sit down, and provide no privacy. Why on Earth do drive to a Walmart or grocery store parking lot and hang out there when they could go to someone’s house or yard or a park or *anything else*?
In part the attraction os all those things you describe. Because they are such an unattractive hangout the odds if getting caught are low. Nobody is supicious when they see a car there because, well, it’s a parking lot and cars are expected to be there. If the drivers are drunk no prob, the cars are parked already so no DUI.
Also, because the cars then become a welcome and huddled around part of the party, and many of the people who do those sorts of parties enjoy showing off their rides. Also, cars come with stereos, so a music selection is already handled, and because they are, well, cars, they can be sat in when cold or sat on when hot.
It’s a parking lot, so there’s not a ton of biting mosquitoes and ticks and such that you might get in a grassy yard, and it’s already clear so you don’t have to worry about tripping over stuff in the dark.
If the cops come ’round, you already have transport out, meaning a quick get away. You already have plenty of space so if someone rolls up late or has to leave early, you don’t need to find a parking space around the block or have the hassle of moving cars in the driveway to get someone out.
Really, the list goes on and on.
Billie is still fully dressed? They clearly didn’t get past 3rd base then.
I don’t see a fully dressed Sal in that shot.
That is a very good point; hope springs eternal.
Sal and Billie! My new OTP.
Your avatar today scares me for reasons I cannot fully comprehend.
Also, Ruth should totally be Dorothy’s second if Joyce gets talked out of it. Just because.
That is because a happy Ruth means that somewhere, there is a person dying from the violent removal of their femurs.
Did I miss something? After that almost phobic reaction to the holding on the motorcycle I’d almost expect “wear clothes at all times” to be writen into their roommate agreement.
The inference we were drawing was that Billie and Sal did something MORE than JUST sign an agreement, that something naughtier.
Also I think there was a joke in the comments a few strips back about Joe’s “make out now” powers actually working on Billie and Sal without anyone realizing it.
But that would only be six beers per person. What kind of redneck is she?
A very cheap one it seems.
i thought the “each” was implied.
You are also assuming it will be CANS of beer not BOTTLES.
Sal’s party sounds like a typical rural midwest party.
Trust me. No honest rural midwestern party would get by with only five people or one case of beer.
Well, Sal’s a bit anti-social so I figure she kind of modified the standard. My dad grew up in rural Illinois and I’ve heard a lot about his high school days and how they hung out, hahaha.
I grew up in Iowa in the 60s and 70s. Dad raised Black Angus cattle, corn and soybeans. I have some expertise in midwestern rural parties myself. Back then there would typically be four or five kegs and about two hundred people involved, and the venue was usually a mowed hayfield, woodlot or someone’s barnyard.
Billie: “Hey, Creepy Guy, wanna go to a party?”
Creepy Guy: “Does it involve flying bones and bursting eyeballs and screaming women drowning in seas of blood as dogs chew out their n-”
Billie: “Never mind.”
I’d party with Sal.
Yes. Yes I would too.
Hate beer, but I would also party with Sal.
I bet she’d be cool to hang out with in general. Still, I think I look at her a little to similarly to Joyce to have a reliable, unbiased opinion…
Better to party with 4 good friends than 400 people you don’t know.
Unless its a party where they have to give you stuff, in which case quantity over quality.
But what if they all give you a penny?! Then you only have $4 to show for it.
that’s still $4 richer than before the party.
Depends on who’s buying the beer.
That greatly depends on your party goals. None of my close friends want me to Joe them.
…and that statement is 40% funnier with this icon.
Sal’s idea of a party is somewhat frightening to me.
lol wrong window.
Looks like Sal’s idea of a good party is anything that involves steers and police showing up.
So Sal and billie are friends now? They bonded over their common dislike of Ruth?
I think Billie has bonded over beating Ruth at something, and Sal just doesn’t care enough either way to actively bother not being friendly.
How come she is not disappearing anymore?
She and Billie made a deal that she stick around long enough to get the roommate agreement hammered out.
Yesssss. Billie in her element.
Sal’s idea of a party sounds like my town’s idea of a party
Sal sounds like a gal who knows how to have a good time.
I love Billie’s body language in the last panel.
Also, Sal has reminded me that it’s very hard to tell between hipsters and strange southerners.
She’s not coming because she knows if she shows, the world’s awesome quotient will be maxed out.
I… I feel like I’ve been stereotyped just by reading that… <— Floridian College Student
Fist pumpin’ time
un tiss un tiss un tiss un tiss
That essentially is how kids party these days. Any time I go to Walmart there are at least two groups of kids huddled around a pickup truck “living it up.”
That’s lame. They’d have more fun playing Apple to Apple.
Oh a rousing game of BANG! Now that’s an awesome game. Especially if you get the Dodge City expension set and play with 8 people! TWO RENEGADES!
Honestly, I’d prefer Sal’s party to a college party. I never found them all that fun. It was a lot of posing, obnoxious drinking, and shocking amount of relationship drama at a lot of them. The most fun I normally had as a small group of friends, just kicking back and doing our own things.
Although I’d prefer not doing it at a Wal-Mart Parking lot. Maybe Target…
Honestly, most of the college parties I went to involved five folks and a case of beer…
The sad part is that in the middle-of-nowhere town that my college resides in, going to the Walmart on a Saturday night is considered a good time even without the beer.
“Sarahs”? I only see one in the comic…
My guess is Willis made a typo in the tags.
There’s another of her standing precisely behind the first one of her, so that the first one blocks the view of the second one. She’s so opposed to the very idea of her suggestible roommate becoming drunken drug-using party girl mark 2 that she’s spontaneously cloned herself in rage.
She’s beside herself
Walmart? Seriously, Sal?
You know, we don’t KNOW yet if that’s not what the party is about, yet.
It probably will turn out to involve five folks, a case of beer, anna Walmart parking lot.
Per the last comic Dorothy thinks that Joyce would not be comfortable at the party, by the way. She could be just guessing of course – though she does know the venue in which it will be taking place, which might give a clue. Also Roz implied that it might be hard to find here there, suggesting a rather large crowd. Lots and lots and lots of people playing Apples-to-Apples, perhaps?
That’s what I was thinking. How does Billie know all this information she’s telling Sal?
‘Hey, Sal!’ Hahaha, my OTP is coming along nicely.
Ain’t no party like a Wal-mart Party, cause a Wal-mart party don’t stop!
I’m hoping Walky ends up being there too, I’m anticipating the inevitable Walky/Joyce moment.
Sal’s idea actually sounds way more fun.
Wild girls gonna go wild.I am looking forward to this.
Anyone else think Joyce is absurdly like Sally at the beginning of When Harry Met Sally? Get rid of the religiousness and they’re practically identical.
I’m really starting to dislike Sarah. Yes, she’s had some shit to deal with, and yes, people are treating her unfairly over the thing with her roommate, but the whole “You’re stupid for wanting to go to a party, they suck and you suck and people suck” deal is getting a little old.
Methinks she doesn’t want another roommate that’s a drunken drug using party girl. So any step in that direction would be a bad one.
No, it wouldn’t be, because simply going to one party, or even several, isn’t necessarily going to make one a “drunken, drug-using party girl.” Plenty of people (most, actually) can regularly party without becoming total burnouts.
And c’mon. It’s Joyce. She’s got about as much chance of becoming a party girl as Joe has of falling madly in love with Walky.
Actually, I suspect that her reaction was entirely BECAUSE it was Joyce and Dorothy. Sarah is keenly aware that Joyce has absolutely no experience with drinking and general college reverie, and Dorothy exhibits a similar lack of experience.
To not declare their pairing a bad idea would be like approving of giving a blind man a blind guide dog.
Her opposition to Billie going with them is fairly straightforward as well: Billie is a hardcore partier, and would probably try to talk them into doing things that they (esp. Joyce) would rather not do.
Sarah’s a bit of a busybody in this case, but she’s not driven by internal angst and rage. It’s genuine concern, I think.
Hmmm. That could also be true. Even if that is the case, though, I do think she’s going about it a bit too angrily. But that would make me like her a bit more, even if she is being a busybody.
We have yet to see her show any concern for anything besides herself, so I’m skeptical that she’s genuinely concerned for the roommate for whom she apparently has mild dislike.
Having conducted a thorough re-examination of the archive to gather information about interactions between Joyce and Sarah thus far, I find your skepticism to be reasonable.
It is entirely plausible that Sarah is simply trying to prevent her roommate from becoming a party-hound like Billie for her own convenience. At the least, she still bears deep wounds from her experiences.
See: Sept. 20, 2010 “High”; Apr. 22, 2011 “Chaser”; Jul. 1, 2011 “Join”.
Still, I am convinced that Sarah at least likes Joyce and has her best interests partially in mind. She expresses a warning about the dangers of Billie’s lifestyle early on, and subsequently admiration of Joyce’s trusting nature (even if she does view it as naive). Similar warnings were given with regard to Joyce’s desire to date with Joe, and again admiration was expressed when Joyce rejected Joe of her own volition.
See: Dec. 15, 2010 “Follow”; Dec. 22, 2010 “Twilight”; Feb. 16, 2011 “Impressed”; May 2, 2011 “Frathouse”; May 3, 2011 “Break”
I am of course open to alternative interpretations.
EPIC SHRUGGING!
“Ah well, whatcha gonna do?”
Yay? A party? With Joyce? And Billie? And Roz? Nothing bad could happen, right?
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek
You misunderstand Sal, when she says a case of beer, she doesn’t mean a dozen or a twofour, she means a pallet.
I admit, I do prefer 4 people, a cooler of beer, and the sidewalk in front of my house.
Yep.
Yep.
Yup.
Uh-huh.
See’mtheredangol’MikeJudgeI’mtalkingabout?
Hey, better Walmart than S-Mart. I hear they had to close that chain down because of random zombie incursions, transplanar rifts, and elder god manifestations.
So, I just had a thought about how this party thing could be a terrible idea. Joyce is going as backup, right? And Roz will be there, possibly hosting. And Joyce and Roz got along extremely poorly this morning. In my mind, it’s a toss-up whether Roz will let Joyce in to break her out of her shell, or refuse to let her in.
And I’m sorry if anyone mentioned this already; it just came to me today.
SAL.
SAL HAS JUST DESCRIBED THE PERFECT SOUTHERN PARTY. Except around here we mostly use Piggly Wiggly because we’re kinda’ small and driving all the way to Wal-Mart’s just a bit too far.
BUT STILL, SAL I LOVE YOUUUUU…
You know, I’m guessing Roz’s party is just a Feminist Club meeting, and they’re completely misunderstanding it.
You’re more optimistic than I am. Still, I think even a Feminist Club meeting would frazzle poor Joyce’s delicate circuits.
is sal from holton, ks?