I have another guest strip up over at Questionable Content!
I’m spending the rest of the week over in San Diego for some reason Comic-Con, and I’ll see you either there (booth 1330) or when I return! Comics here will continue as normal, what with the buffer. It just hit December!
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Belligerent Sexual Tension at its finest.
Billiegerent.
What you did there… I 0_0
…we saw it! ^_^
“fucking liar” being one who lies while fucking?
by the way
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/boyfriend/
Heh, the first comment.
0.0
DUN DUN DUNNN
Could this be the first actual case of the comments affecting the strip? The buffer rule does not apply here! *excited like a historian*
Thanks. I was going to go look.
Or someone who is fucking a liar?
No, that’d be a liarfucker. And they should shup up their fuckin’ face.
i honestly don’t see the sexual tension here. Ruth is pissed and has good reason to be.
We were doing okay, friendly banter. And then…
In a continuation of today’s QC strip, Faye walks in.
And they all die of Butts Disease.
Seriousely Billie. Stop trying to prove how much of a liar you are. We get it already!
JUST DOOOOOOO ITTTTTT!
There’s a bed right THERE!
Heck, Billie’s sitting on one right now.
It’d be the first time anyone’s done it in THAT bed. HEY-O!!!!
(I know the fact that Walky is in one of the only functioning relationship makes this joke have a lot less weight but it’s still probably true)
They probably tried it once but its harder to make Mike leave the room than Sierra.
Oh, he’d probably get Daisy. “Is that the R.A. you wanted to write about?”
Who knows who had that bed before them though?
This is something that you must never contemplate if you ever want to touch any surface in the dorm again.
ruth is handling this shockingly well so far
I think her being calm is scarier than her yelling.
yeah for real. before even the really mean edge of the last line, her “teasing” remarks are killing me
The last line actually is the compassionate one. It’s “I don’t buy you being fine, we have to do something about it, that’s why none of is going anywhere, so let’s start with getting the things between us in the clear first” in Ruthspeak.
She really is my kind of asshole. I don’t know whether her approach will work out.
exactly, she’s mad at Billie about lying, but she recognizes that Billie isn’t fine and is buckling down and gonna make sure she helps her. Ruth is handling this shockingly well, putting aside her own (very severe) issues to help someone in need. That’s admirable.
THAT. LAST. PANEL.
Verbally, Ruth’s been known to play hard, and even relatively subtle (for what we expect from the Femurnator). But that – that was a scalpel drawn across a muscle, verrrrrrrry slooooooowly and carefully.
I’m not gonna joke about the sexual tension on this – this is too damn harsh for that.
Walky’s gonna come home to TWO girls in his bed.
Walky: Caramel Abs, Great Grades, Favorite Child, Hot girlfriend who has gone all the way with him, Metabolism of a god. Yeah. All he needs is Lesbians making out in his bed and he will have achieved college student Nirvanah.
damn, I never really thought of Walky like that. Kinda makes me wanna root against him.
Smells like teen
spiritdischarge.1) They’re bisexual
2) he thinks of Billie as a sister
To quote Tedd: “ugly cousin! ugly cousin!”.
You beat me to it! Curse you!
Weird, my reaction to two leasbians making out in my bed would be…”if you have fucked in my bed you will have to pay the washing machine”.
I think you’d still be able to use it as bragging rights.
not to mention his alternate dimension version of himself is a freaking superhero
He’s already fantasizing of that happening with Dorothy and Joyce. And with the way those two occasionally speak it might not be all too long off of an event.
Either that or I’m just a crazed JxD fan seeing things in my own dreams. xD
Way to make this easier Billie.
Ruth jumps right to the anger again.
Run, Billie, she’s no good for you, get out before you get hurt.
Billie jumps right to the lying again.
We’ve already established that they’re no good for each other.
Saying “I’m fine” when you don’t want to talk to someone about your problems isn’t really a lie per say.
Ruth is still doing her job as an RA to check this out and not just dismiss it at that, but insulting her when she’s been called to help out is sort of shitty. Though it is long established that Ruthless isn’t winning any RAing based awards.
It’s also established that Billie is a liar.
It’s also established that, try as she might, she isn’t fucking.
Aww, Ruth, have a little fai- actually, nevermind.
At least they are talking. Well, talking-soon-to-be-yelling I think.
Woo boy.
Everyone’s head shrank in 2 weeks.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/boyfriend/
And I’m a masturbating honest person.
Somebody’s jeeeaaaallllouuussss…
The comic mentioned in the hovertext.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/boyfriend/
Everyone had the same idea.
For Grud’s sake Plasma, that’s today’s update of EGS. Seriously, how do you even do it O_o
Must… stop… the italics…
Dang. That didn’t work. Maybe this will
I tried to stop it and failed too T_T
Hmm. I wonder…
Okay, let’s try this:
I believe only Willis can fix the italics problem now.
Arkadi: With
Photoshoptechnically its actually Corel PhotoPaintninja skills of cause. 😀Instant-cool-avatar-no-jutsu?
Well, phooey.
Here goes nothing…
I am helpful! http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/boyfriend/
that is one BIG art upgrade
I agree. I thought the mark making and proportions were perfect before, but now there’s a boost in confidence to go with it. Bravo Willis.
Stop yer Gravatar glaring Mary. That was meant to be a compliment.
You are helpful!
Wow Ruth now tell us what you really think.
BTW, what’s the brown stuff under Billie’s eyes?
Eye goop?
Her cheeks?
Caramel.
Sobering blush marks?
I believe Billie is supposed be looking extra pale, drawn, and unhealthy at the moment.
I’ve been trying to figure that out for a while now.
It’s easier a result of her drinking or her depressed crying. Maybe a combination of both.
She hasn’t slept all night and I think she still has a hangover.
OMG guys! guys! She got shitfaced!
Unhealthy blushing.
“Billie the Liar” has a nice ring to it.
“Billie Liar with her hands in her panties,
Starin’ over at her RA’s knickers down…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmp7-EpNsbY
So…. not fine?
Oh Billie’s Fine, all right. Even in an otherwise uninteresting plain yellow v-neck shirt.
True dat.
“I’m Joyce. Nice to meet you, Fine!”
And a fine pair of jeans, I might add.
Closer to fine.
ouch… cold don’t begin to describe that glare.
So let me put this in perspective Billies problem is that she thought she could help make other peoples lives better, but now she’s convinced that she can’t even help herself. I’m not too far out in left field with this am I?
Is everyone posting this link?:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/boyfriend/
Okay I did it. Am I cool now? I want to be cool.
Not all men.
“Look, the sky is blue.”
“I don’t believe you, Billie!”
Of course she’s lying. The Crisis is happening in the DoAverse.
Wow, the alt text made me realize that you’ve been doing this since September 2010. This comic has been running for 4 years now.
Are we still in the first semester?
Hell, we’re barely out of the first month.
Assuming that this webcomic skips all vacations, covers only two 16-week semesters per in-comic year, and that it will run for 4 in-comic years, we have 128 in-comic weeks. You say we’ve done about one in-comic month, so we’ve done one in-comic week per real life year. Assuming the current velocity holds, this means that it will take about 124 more years to complete this webcomic.
Did I get my math wrong anywhere?
Why do people think the story “completes” when everyone graduates rather than when the dang story’s over?
Perhaps because fanfiction will pick up wherever you leave off?
If Dumbing of Age stops, it’s because a meteor has destroyed all civilization.
And that’s canon.
Wait, you’re moving the hosting of the comic to Yahoo? Why would you do that?
Screencapping this for possible future shenanigans.
You actually plan to keep this comic going until you die? Well, shortly after that because of the buffer, but you know what I mean. Pretty hardcore.
Once civilization is destroyed, aliens will visit after thousands of years to soft through the ruins. They will stumble upon this website, still updating at 12:01 every night.
Currently hoping that he keeps a meteor-death strip at the end of his buffer at all times, just in case.
So that is how DoA is going to end. Damn, you’ve spoiled it!
I figured Dumbing of Age stops when you die, unless you’ve discovered a way to become immortal. No meteors necessary.
He never said to what December he has the buffer to, it could be the December of 2020 or something around there.
A meter is the only thing that could kill Willis. And even if it weren’t, I’m sure he would continue the comic even after death. I mean, haven’t you ever heard of a ghost writer?
It scares me a bit that I might read DoA for the majority of the rest of my life.
Why should that scare you? People read “Peanuts” for almost fifty years and “Doonesbury” for over forty (and are still reading the re-runs of both), and they would probably still be reading “Calvin and Hobbes” and “The Far Side” if Bill Watterson and Gary Larson had kept on drawing them.
Of course, that’s the in-comic universe that gets wiped out, not ours.
Or, in GM terms, “Rocks fall, everyone dies.”
Roll reflex saves.
Sure, DC 10,437. 🙂
What if the heat death of the universe happens before that?
Because graduation’s the only thing that could put all these folks out of their misery . . . 😀
What’s the deal with Ruth’s hand in panel 1?
She just dropped the condom she was about to give Billie? (and yes, I know that was the deadbolt, not a condom)
We get to see a pretty wide range of Ruth characteristics here: Ruth the would-be sweetheart, Ruth the bully, Ruth the responsible R.A., Ruth the alcoholic who despises all alcoholics, all of them neatly converging in some brief, crunchy dialogue that flows smoothly and organically to one hell of a cliffhanger. Billie has less to do, but we do get to see her fear, denial and mostly forced anger. And I can see why David called this installment one of his favorites.
bless
Yeah, this is really good. Im on the edge of my seat to see what happens next.
This.
*pushes takashid out of the seat
Even better…
*pulls the chair back*
wow, the alt-text is right. their proportions made them look like children back then. it also doesn’t help that Billie is throwing a temper tantrum.
To me it registers as their bodies shrinking, not their heads getting bigger. But same general idea, the random button + art evolution = weirdness.
So is Billie lying about being fine, about not fucking Walky, or both? I like how none of this even fazes Ruth anymore.
Since all she said is “I’m fine”, that must be what she’s lying about ;3
Should be “Before I thought thou dost protest too much”. The Shakespeare line this alludes to is “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”, but let us assume that Ruth has a major allowing her to conjugate basic Early Modern English. It’s do/dost/doth for I/thou/she.
Sorry, it’s just a stomach-turner for me. Coming from a Germanic language with non-streamlined grammar, Early Modern English forms are sort-of natural for me and so riding roughshod over it probably throws me off a lot more than the typical audience.
I really wouldn’t put it past Ruth to fuck up the phrasing.
Ruth is an English major and so I changed it.
My heartfelt thanks for that.
Ruth’s hand in the first panel is bothering me.
I think this week should be interesting to read.
As someone who spent this entire day trying and failing to draw faces, I just have to say that I love how much emotion you can get out of these characters. I mean, holy hell, look at all the subtle differences between panels five and six. The eyebrows arch slightly, the line work gets thinner around the irises, that twitch-
…
Any chance I can steal Willis’s art ability with a magical Space Jam basketball?
I think Ruth is aware of the fact that Billie did not sleep with Walky: maybe due to Walky’s impassioned plea in his underwear for her help and his obliviousness to their on again off again relationship.
Looks like Ruth is keeping her promise to Walky, she’s talking to Billie. And can’t blame her for getting her digs in. Billie’s hurting big time, but she hurt Ruth pretty bad with her lying.
Hope this gets them started talking honestly and for cripe’s sake go to AA, both of you.
Ruth knows damn well that Billie and Walky didn’t do anything – she just wants to get that knife in.
She might even want to help afterwards, but she first off wants to make it clear to Billie what those consequences were.
OK, yeah, my idea of what was going to happen was pretty naive.
You seriously thought that?
If by “that” we mean “no yelling”, yes.
And cue the dramatic music!
Okay, Ruth, this will definitely get to the heart of the problem. I think Walky was hoping for an approach using a chisel more than dynamite, though.
Walky did not see the sculpture, let alone think about the appropriate tool to use. I mean, I’m envious of him. He gets more stuff right without half trying than he is entitled to.
No wonder Sal is not a fan of him.
Man, this is intense. Good quips, also y’know, heartbreaking. Not really sure how to feel about this exchange.
Now, Kiss!
ouch right on nerve
Also, questionable content today. What is even the fuck?
Willis is obsessed with butts and what comes from butts besides shit? Well there’s your answer.
Man, what an asshole…
Get it? Cause the comment on his previous guest strip was “man, what a jerk” and assholes are part of butts, so…moving on…
Heh… Shithead. She-Tedd.
I see what you did there…. and approve!
I buy that one for a dolloar!
He’s been hangin’ with Pintsize and/or Dooce, and therefor: butts? That’s my guess.
Ruth is my favorite. Most complex but sympathetic character.
I love this strip.
Ruth trying so hard to just… Ruth her way through this encounter until she’s forced to call Billie on her bullshit. The expressions, oh god, the expressions.
Like, you can tell she’s -trying- to be “Mean Ol Ruthless” there in panel two, but it’s cracking around the edges.
I can’t wait to see how this rolls.
You can tell she’s been wanting to say something like that in the last panel for awhile now. Which begs the question why she’s been avoiding talking to Billie. Afraid having it out might lead to forgiveness, perhaps?
One thing to note about the final panel is that, for all that it’s a harsh comment about Billie, in context it is also “I don’t believe you are doing fine and I am here to try to help you with that.”
AWOOOOGA!! AWOOOO))))GA!! all hands on deck for the ship of Bille/Ruth! We’ve got incoming canon fire and we are taking on water!!
That was months ago. We’ve been sunk at the bottom of the ocean since then. What you just felt was a kraken picking up the ship and throwing it away. If we’re lucky, we might break the surface for a breath of air before we start sinking again.
Should be interesting to see this scenario play out, though I don’t think they’ll be making out or sexing it up any time soon. Both characters have so many flaws and a bunch of things to discuss and apologize for. I can’t really side with one over the other.
And as others have mentioned, this here is gud arts.
Also butts.
One scary redhead lady coming up.
Make that two, to go, please.
I think your eyes are bigger than your femurs.
+1 Internets.
Honestly… I think Ruth is being overly sensitive. Billie is an alcoholic, which means she’s addicted, which means it’s very hard to quit cold turkey. What they should be doing is encouraging each other to quit and supporting each other through the struggles and setbacks. Not blowing up like Ruth did because Billie didn’t beat her addiction on the first try. Just saying 😛
As Ruth asserts here, her problem isn’t that Billie fell off the wagon, it’s that she told Ruth she was still sober.
Man, I love me some Ruth
HOH DAYM
I FEEL AN ARGUMENT THAT ENDS WITH PEOPLE CRYING COMING.
OR PEOPLE KISSING. YOU NEVER KNOW WITH THESE TWO.
Why choose when you can have both?
Linked over here by QC. Binge-read all of comic in a night. Love it. *passes out*
Congrats. Little bit hardcore, but I actually think this happens fairly frequently with webcomics, lol. The idea of this comic is pretty similar to QC, so it makes sense.
Ruth wins so hard in this strip. The lady’s frakkin’ METAL!
Smiling Ruth is kinda terrifying, because you know what’s coming. Much prefer the dead pan Ruth, where the pain is out in the open.
For some reason I went back to the Dec. 10th comic (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/snipped-2/) instead of the Dec. 27th. As chance would have it, my head still exploded.
Get some ice for that burn.
Yay, Ruth is back!
Well, let’s not say that Ruth can’t get back for being betrayed. Of course, this is why RA’s and other authority figures shouldn’t have intimate relationships with their charges…
I just saw your guest strip at Questionable Content. WTF, seriously? Why did you waste your time and ours with that?
Welcome to my website.
Because he has a reputation as a jerkface that he has to do justice
Butts Disease is a lifetime affliction with no known cure. Much like herpes, it has periodic flareups where it becomes more visible.
Nice Mary gravatar you got there.
I’m guessing you like Jeph’s work. You do know he took some of Willis’s strips and overlaid similar sound effects at least a couple of times? Not to mention Willis doesn’t just get to unilaterally put something up on Jeph’s site? He thinks it’s funny, too (and so did I).
He and Jeph have this butt-centric pseudo-rivalry going.
You’ve obviously never met Mr. Willis in person. Incapable of speech, he communicates by means of farts and tap-dancing. His guest strip is just a small illustration of his real-life social interactions.
Like Rowan Atkinson as Dr. Who, where he warns the Master via carefully controlled farts.
http://youtu.be/Do-wDPoC6GM
*slow clap* last frame KILLS it!
I want to add here, that although the heads were notably bigger three and a half years ago, that’s not a bad thing per se. It never botherd me in the slighest way. I fell in love with the look of this comic from the very beginning. I’d even say that for the reader to identify with comic figures, they MUST be cartoon-like to a certain degree and not drawn too realistically.
I’ve spent the last 10 years hating the Bratz doll inspired aesthetic that I got to watch conquer bobble head toys that were the cheapest plastic schlock that could be given away free as promotional material, then cartoons, then comic strips, then action figures (colonizing children’s imaginations with the cheapest schlock), then webcomics. The sooner bobble heads are out of fashion, the better.
I have SO MANY feels about this.
All cartoonists do it. Click here to see how much Charlie Brown and Snoopy changed over the years.
Wow, like, barely at all after 1960