Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
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.
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.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
All Known Alternatives
Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
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.
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.
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I’m bad at reading subtext, but the idea is that Jason’s saying, “At least go to class, and if you come back at a reasonable time, then I can consider selling you alcohol”, right?
indeed, I spent a lot of time working at a pizza shop in a college town, as a non-traditional student I was bound to live off campus, and I was trying to pay for college and an apartment. There were 3 full time employees, the rest were students and every September was a joy-filled blast of hiring (and firing) until a stable cadre of employees was established. I actually like working in restaurants, the downside being extremely irritating members of the public and the hours.
Yeah, no, I’m pretty squarely with Jason on this one. Never ever sell alcohol to anyone you’re not 100% sure is of age. That’s a good way to lose your job and potentially a liquor license.
Also JESUS CHRIST WHEN DID HIGHSCHOOLERS GET SO BIG? last week I went to pick up my baby brother at school (School is huge, different buildings fro pre-school, elementary and highschool, but they all exit by the same gate) and I saw this dude that was in 1st year of highschool that had a thicker stubble than me. WTF.
A Billie/Becky/Lucy meeting would be fun. A little overlap between Billie’s two worlds. Someone who thinks the world of Billie, but also knows most of her actual situation.
And who also knows she’s not legal.
Not sure what her attitude towards Billie trying to drink here and now would be.
What a lot of people don’t get is that if the seller of restricted items is in any doubt about your age (or that you’re possibly buying for a minor) they can 100% turn you down, “real” ID or no.
Of all the beer joints in Bloomington open at 9:00 AM, she walked into the only one that there was.
After a cursory Yelp review, I’ve yet to find a beer-serving place in Bloomington that opens before 11:00 AM. I assume there must be one somewhere — 7:00 AM is when you can legally serve alcohol in Indiana — but “Opens before xx:xx” is not yet a Yelp filter.
Okay but wait… Lucy is working here?
[narrows hie eyes]
We are one step closer from the Class Omega Encounter between Joyce and Lucy which will result in a Sunshine Collapse that will devour the solar system in an explosion of rainbows and glitter.
Nah, she likes to shine the rainbow at people, but she doesn’t seem the type to share it with the straights. So she probably wouldn’T meld it with them. (Not that we know that Lucy is straight, except via the Law of Willisverse Sexual Orientation Conservation.)
Well, Jason has that bonus from Galasso in the bag, I think. He even used Big G’s second favourite word – ‘Begone’!
As for Billie? Well, I’m not sure at this point if she was being truthful or brazenly stupid either! Actually, I may borrow that phrase for my own use in future. ‘Brazenly stupid’ just has that extra special feel to it.
Poor Lucy, I do hope that, one day, she gets a roomie who appreciates her!
I dunno, when you get to the point that the person you’re dating can quite literally grab an entire building and lift it like it was made of Papier mache, they hold a bit more power than just physical strength.
Yes. Lois has a strongly dominant personality. I can’t see Clark getting his way much… or even much consideration of his viewpoint… in a relationship with Lois.
At the same time, I’d imagine that he only lets himself be pushed around when it doesn’t matter. Clark’s not strongly dominant, but he’s not especially submissive either. If it’s important to him, I suspect he’s the immovable object to Lois’s unstoppable force.
“Incredibly brazenly stupid” is the hallmark of addiction speaking. If you happen to look at it from the outside. From the inside it just seems logical.
When did Jason gain authority? He neve came across this clear and impressive when teaching maths.
I’d say that a lot of readers actually got it right: He is bad at teaching. Also, he may not have enjoyed his job and only used it as a way to stay the fuck away from his evil dick of a father.
Also, taking in account the sheer ammount of evil parents in this strip, do ya think Willis needs to talk to his parents?
As he once pointed out to Sal, as a TA, he’s not “The Man”. He’s at best 1/8th of the man. (Or whatever the fraction was.) He feels diminished in that role, particularly as no one gives him any respect (the first time he picked up their papers, he found one paper calling his mother a prostitute and another showing him being eating by a dinosaur). You can see him trying to establish that respect in the first class, but it clearly fails. Then his interactions with Sal demonstrated to him that he wasn’t a good teacher and therefore didn’t really deserve any respect in the classroom.
Here, he’s behind the bar, he knows he’s in the right, and Billie is cowed enough by authority to feel the need for a fake ID (unlike Sal, who manages without, as Jason has discovered). Plus, though he probably doesn’t know it (though Asma and Ruth did), she’s been in trouble with the cops due to alcohol before. Whether he knew it or not, that was the perfect threat.
Luckily there are other places where they take her fake id and she can just forget the bar, pick a bottle and go back to the dorm and crawl inside it.
Wait, did I say luckily? That sentence got darker than it was supposed to at first.
I’m kind of surprised that Lucy recognized her, to be honest. If DC comics has taught me anything, it’s that donning a pair of glasses will suddenly make a revered icon completely unrecognizable, and make them appear like the mild-mannered nerd version of themselves. Billie clearly can’t pull off the Clark Kent effect.
Clark Kent also wears clothes that make him look bulkier, slouches a lot, usually doesn’t have the hair curl, and behaves much more mildly than normal.
If I show up to work in glasses, kind of slouchy, with my hair a bit messy and acting kind of tired and looking like I gained 15 pounds, people are going to assume that I just had a rough weekend, not that I’m a completely different person.
So, is Willis setting Jason up to find his true calling in life – The Wise Barkeep, who is both oracle and sage to the sad dregs of Bloomington that waft through his life? I could see there being entire chapters being his perspective of various dates and angsty singles drifting through Galasso’s and his (sometimes even slightly useful) advice to them about their relationship issues.
Maybe. I kind of hope not. Feels like there should be more to Jason’s character arc than “He sucks at teaching. He loses his teaching job and gets a bartending one. Happy ending.”
Certainly seemed to be set up for more.
Viewing this through the lens of “Everything in DoA is a parallel to IW”, I imagine this new job is the equivalent to Jason being suspended from SEMME following the attack on Denver in 2002. So I think you’re on to something.
Pretty much yeah. My university has the same courtesy rule. If after fifteen minutes the prof isn’t there, you can assume they aren’t coming and leave. If it’s a long class (like 3 hours) I’d give them half an hour before texting my ride.
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can’t decide if Galasso would be upset at losing a sale
I mean, since when is Galasso bound by rules
“GALASSO LAUGHS AT YOUR DRAM SHOP RULE”
… wait, is it a dram shop as in the unit of drams measuring liquor, or a dram shop in that you get an extra topping of drama?
In this world, the two go hand in hand.
Surely he would be more upset at Jason displaying weakness.
As Sydney Yus discovered: “Your weakness shames this institution.”
Jason did successfully intimidate Billie into not being served, so that would go well with Galasso.
Jason successfully cowed a customer. The bow-tied one shows potential.
Well, of course, I mean, just look at that bowtie.
Loyalty to the restaurant may trump that weakness- saving it from closure by the city for serving minors!
He said “Begone. I will not serve you alcohol today.” The phrasing alone guarantees him his job.
Galasso would be pleased that bowtie guy is starting to speak like Galasso.
Begin the “begone”!
Twist: Lucy is older than she looks, and actually works as a bartender too.
When she learns Jason got all her shifts, the two of them must settle this in the gladatorial arena, as outlined in the Galasso’s Employee Manifesto.
She is older than she looks. Why just 4 years ago she was 18. . . . .
Billie’s grandpa is Galasso, she just doesn’t know it yet
Does that mean Conquest is her mom?
yes
Hey, it works for Marvel! They got two whole movies out of timestream hijinks!
Jason’s eye is melting in the first panel
Billie, and for that matter the entire cast, should know better by now than to say things like that.
speak of the Nana and she shall appear
I hope so. But which one is Billie worried about?
Definitely the Chinese one, speaking from experience.
Only if you say her name three times while looking in a mirror.
Billie’s parents and extended family all quietly lower their heads beneath the back of the booth they’re all in.
The Temptation of Lucy: Will she get Billie alcohol?
Maybe why she distrusts cheerleaders is because of the amount of drinking they do?
I don’t think Billie and Lucy have reached the *Doing Illegal Favors* stage of their friendship just yet.
*plays the Elton John version of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” on the hacked Muzak*
Lucy, in disguise, with demons.
begone, young one
begorrah!
That’s a pretty significant range of possibilities you’re leaving open there, Jason.
Lucy’s a good egg.
Does anybody else from Billie’s new place work there too apart from Lucy?
Nope. Well as far as we know.
I’m holding out for a place like “McAwesome’s Arcade (and Pizza!)” for them to work in, just as a Shortpacked! parallel.
Ken? i think.
Hey that’s Bullshit Billie your the one casting a shadow over her life and yet she’s still welcoming you in it with open arms.
Kinda like a grandmother am I right
Fair enough.
I’m bad at reading subtext, but the idea is that Jason’s saying, “At least go to class, and if you come back at a reasonable time, then I can consider selling you alcohol”, right?
Well he did get Walky drunk so…
Or call the cops.
Her fake ID may say “Yunru”, but “Incredibly, Brazenly Stupid” is Billie’s real middle name!
What do you think “Yunru” means?
How many people from their college work at Galasso’s now? Seems like a lot so far.
IME, for places like Galasso’s (insofar as there are places like Galasso’s), most or all of the employees being students at the college is typical.
indeed, I spent a lot of time working at a pizza shop in a college town, as a non-traditional student I was bound to live off campus, and I was trying to pay for college and an apartment. There were 3 full time employees, the rest were students and every September was a joy-filled blast of hiring (and firing) until a stable cadre of employees was established. I actually like working in restaurants, the downside being extremely irritating members of the public and the hours.
As far as students go, so far we’ve seen Lucy, Ken, and Sayid.
Technically Becky as well, I’m pretty sure she’s still enrolled at that other college.
Fools! Galasso requires an army to do his bidding!
Yeah, no, I’m pretty squarely with Jason on this one. Never ever sell alcohol to anyone you’re not 100% sure is of age. That’s a good way to lose your job and potentially a liquor license.
Here in small third world country you’ll be damn lucky if they card 12 year olds.
That is very true, but I’m talking about Jason and he’s in a city in Indiana.
Also JESUS CHRIST WHEN DID HIGHSCHOOLERS GET SO BIG? last week I went to pick up my baby brother at school (School is huge, different buildings fro pre-school, elementary and highschool, but they all exit by the same gate) and I saw this dude that was in 1st year of highschool that had a thicker stubble than me. WTF.
So, who is going to show up next?
Daisy? Alice? Clint?
I would have sworn I closed that tag.
Someone still owes Daisy a girlfriend, says a guy still fighting to keep his shipper side surpressed.
Daisy’s lack of romantic success is a constant of the universe.
*multiverse?
Sexual orientation is constant between Willisverses, and Daisy’s is “cantgetanysexual”.
Who do I have to bribe to get Daisy a Slipshine?
My money is on Becky.
A Billie/Becky/Lucy meeting would be fun. A little overlap between Billie’s two worlds. Someone who thinks the world of Billie, but also knows most of her actual situation.
And who also knows she’s not legal.
Not sure what her attitude towards Billie trying to drink here and now would be.
What a lot of people don’t get is that if the seller of restricted items is in any doubt about your age (or that you’re possibly buying for a minor) they can 100% turn you down, “real” ID or no.
Good on Jason for turning her down.
Of all the gin joints in all the world, Billie had to go one with a bartender who knew her actual age.
AND THAT WAS HER UNDOING!
Of all the beer joints in Bloomington open at 9:00 AM, she walked into the only one that there was.
After a cursory Yelp review, I’ve yet to find a beer-serving place in Bloomington that opens before 11:00 AM. I assume there must be one somewhere — 7:00 AM is when you can legally serve alcohol in Indiana — but “Opens before xx:xx” is not yet a Yelp filter.
It’s a sign from God to stop drinking!
Rotfl
I am actually glad Billie couldn’t get alcohol there, it was great timing.
Aw I’m sad this interaction is over. Jason and Billie had next to no interaction in the Walkyverse, as far as I can recall.
Incredibly, brazenly stupid decisions are still a substantive part of Billie’s repertoire, so odds are she’ll be back at some point.
If it would make her reconsider her rampant alcoholism then bring in all the Grandmas!
And if that won’t work, equip them with La Chanclas!
Billie’s grandma is porbably British or Asian, so no chancla. Maybe a bag full of bricks?
Dual Wielding a Walking cane and one of those shirasaya katana scabbards?
Katanas are Japanese, her grandma would be Chinese.
Then whatever Chinese are using.
Okay but wait… Lucy is working here?
[narrows hie eyes]
We are one step closer from the Class Omega Encounter between Joyce and Lucy which will result in a Sunshine Collapse that will devour the solar system in an explosion of rainbows and glitter.
Our only hope is that Becky is indeed scheduled at the same time, so that her snark can throw a shield before all our eyes and spare us.
Or she’ll just add more rainbow…
Nah, she likes to shine the rainbow at people, but she doesn’t seem the type to share it with the straights. So she probably wouldn’T meld it with them. (Not that we know that Lucy is straight, except via the Law of Willisverse Sexual Orientation Conservation.)
She would start an uncontrolled lesbian reaction which would generate Rainbows if Dina was there though!
Billie’s Grandma: Willie don’t say those words like that!
Well, Jason has that bonus from Galasso in the bag, I think. He even used Big G’s second favourite word – ‘Begone’!
As for Billie? Well, I’m not sure at this point if she was being truthful or brazenly stupid either! Actually, I may borrow that phrase for my own use in future. ‘Brazenly stupid’ just has that extra special feel to it.
Poor Lucy, I do hope that, one day, she gets a roomie who appreciates her!
That would be when Joyce moves in with her and ALL will suffer from that
Brazen, certainly.
Not truthful, also certainly. We know she’s normal freshman age (18-19) and the ID is fake.
Stupid is more open to question.
…Lucy works at Galasso ?
She’s been in a couple bonus strips set there, but this is the first time it’s acknowledged in the main comic.
Random thought:
Would Superman’s relationship with Lois Lane count as unequal power dynamics?
No, unequal power dynamics need more than a distinct difference in physical strength.
And where stupidity in certain areas is concerned, they are evenly matched
I dunno, when you get to the point that the person you’re dating can quite literally grab an entire building and lift it like it was made of Papier mache, they hold a bit more power than just physical strength.
Well, there’s also the part where he can spy on you at any time with a glance and hear anything you ever say.
But generally it all gets handwaved away as “He’s Superman, he wouldn’t abuse it”, so he only hears her from miles away when it’s plot-convenient.
Yes. Lois has a strongly dominant personality. I can’t see Clark getting his way much… or even much consideration of his viewpoint… in a relationship with Lois.
Nah, Clark is quiet but generally pretty stubborn too. It’s part of why she likes him, I think.
I believe one comic had her explain it as “finally, I had found someone who could *keep up*”.
At the same time, I’d imagine that he only lets himself be pushed around when it doesn’t matter. Clark’s not strongly dominant, but he’s not especially submissive either. If it’s important to him, I suspect he’s the immovable object to Lois’s unstoppable force.
Clark’s a ‘Yes, Dear’ type, but voluntarily. He cedes dominance to Lois, which actually gives him a lot of power in the relationship.
Not really.
“Incredibly brazenly stupid” is the hallmark of addiction speaking. If you happen to look at it from the outside. From the inside it just seems logical.
When did Jason gain authority? He neve came across this clear and impressive when teaching maths.
I’d say that a lot of readers actually got it right: He is bad at teaching. Also, he may not have enjoyed his job and only used it as a way to stay the fuck away from his evil dick of a father.
Also, taking in account the sheer ammount of evil parents in this strip, do ya think Willis needs to talk to his parents?
Well that was a non-sequitur at the end there.
But he really cared about being a good teacher, he never looked as hurt as when Sal told he he sucked as a teacher.
As he once pointed out to Sal, as a TA, he’s not “The Man”. He’s at best 1/8th of the man. (Or whatever the fraction was.) He feels diminished in that role, particularly as no one gives him any respect (the first time he picked up their papers, he found one paper calling his mother a prostitute and another showing him being eating by a dinosaur). You can see him trying to establish that respect in the first class, but it clearly fails. Then his interactions with Sal demonstrated to him that he wasn’t a good teacher and therefore didn’t really deserve any respect in the classroom.
Here, he’s behind the bar, he knows he’s in the right, and Billie is cowed enough by authority to feel the need for a fake ID (unlike Sal, who manages without, as Jason has discovered). Plus, though he probably doesn’t know it (though Asma and Ruth did), she’s been in trouble with the cops due to alcohol before. Whether he knew it or not, that was the perfect threat.
Luckily there are other places where they take her fake id and she can just forget the bar, pick a bottle and go back to the dorm and crawl inside it.
Wait, did I say luckily? That sentence got darker than it was supposed to at first.
He’s a bartender who wears a bowtie! There is no higher authority!
B E G O N E T H O T
*T H O U G H T
Why do people keep spelling it that way?
THOT = That Ho Over There
It’s an insult.
I think it’s originally Egyptian.
Dr. Fate’s version really is the best one.
Alternatively I think you were referring to Thoth
Oh hey, Billie’s wearing her glasses here. I wonder if Lucy’ll notice?
Lucy is too kindly and sweetly positive to mention something like that.
I’m kind of surprised that Lucy recognized her, to be honest. If DC comics has taught me anything, it’s that donning a pair of glasses will suddenly make a revered icon completely unrecognizable, and make them appear like the mild-mannered nerd version of themselves. Billie clearly can’t pull off the Clark Kent effect.
Clark Kent also wears clothes that make him look bulkier, slouches a lot, usually doesn’t have the hair curl, and behaves much more mildly than normal.
If I show up to work in glasses, kind of slouchy, with my hair a bit messy and acting kind of tired and looking like I gained 15 pounds, people are going to assume that I just had a rough weekend, not that I’m a completely different person.
So, is Willis setting Jason up to find his true calling in life – The Wise Barkeep, who is both oracle and sage to the sad dregs of Bloomington that waft through his life? I could see there being entire chapters being his perspective of various dates and angsty singles drifting through Galasso’s and his (sometimes even slightly useful) advice to them about their relationship issues.
Maybe. I kind of hope not. Feels like there should be more to Jason’s character arc than “He sucks at teaching. He loses his teaching job and gets a bartending one. Happy ending.”
Certainly seemed to be set up for more.
Viewing this through the lens of “Everything in DoA is a parallel to IW”, I imagine this new job is the equivalent to Jason being suspended from SEMME following the attack on Denver in 2002. So I think you’re on to something.
Yay Lucy!
She desperately needs to meet Joyce! Unicorns and Rainbows forever!
Pretty sure that the DOA universe would implode from the overdose of positivity and cheerfulness.
CONFIRMED: Billie’s grandma is a heavy drinker. ILLUMINATI!!!!
So, what are the odds that there is no math class because there is nobody there to teach it?
0 because Jason didn’t teach the class. Professor Rees does.
But what if Professor Rees never showed up due to a series of wacky hijinks?
The students hang around for about 15 minutes and then all leave.
Billy arrives to find a completely empty room.
Pretty much yeah. My university has the same courtesy rule. If after fifteen minutes the prof isn’t there, you can assume they aren’t coming and leave. If it’s a long class (like 3 hours) I’d give them half an hour before texting my ride.