Dumbing of Age Book Eleven

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
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September 20, 2023

Punch

by David M Willis on September 29, 2010 at 12:01 am
  • 01 - Move-In Day

└ Tags: agatha, dina, jennifer, joyce, mary, rachel, ruth, sarah

Discussion (55) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. Cassidy
    Cassidy
    September 28, 2010 at 10:59 pm | #

    Scott pilgrim action lines.

    • David
      David M Willis
      September 28, 2010 at 11:11 pm | #

      …you think Scott Pilgrim invented action lines?

      • Akiriuu
        Akiriuu
        November 20, 2013 at 3:03 pm | #

        Seriously think she was just saying the scene reminds her of Scott Pilgrim.

    • JayStrang
      JayStrang
      September 28, 2010 at 11:20 pm | #

      Hahaha. You ever *seen* a comic before?

    • Trae Dorn
      Trae Dorn
      September 28, 2010 at 11:42 pm | #

      Dumb comment is dumb

    • Matt
      Matt
      September 29, 2010 at 4:57 am | #

      Unbeknownst to Billie, Ruth is the best fighter in the province.

      • Wackd
        Wackd
        September 29, 2010 at 12:47 pm | #

        Oh, THOSE action lines! I thought you were referring to actual lines of dialogue. “What?” and “I…uh…” are certainly lines Pilgrim would come up with.

        Yeah. Turns out you’re just ignorant of basic comic conventions. Who woulda guessed?

        Oh. Right. The people above me. Never mind.

        • Cassidy
          Cassidy
          September 29, 2010 at 2:49 pm | #

          i was really just kidding……

          • Scotch
            Scotch
            September 29, 2010 at 6:59 pm | #

            Nope. Doubt it.

          • Jenny Creed
            Jenny Creed
            June 3, 2013 at 4:28 am | #

            I thought it was funny.

  2. Chris M
    Chris M
    September 28, 2010 at 11:00 pm | #

    And that is how she gets you!

    Attendance + 30, Ruth Level Up!

  3. Cholma
    Cholma
    September 28, 2010 at 11:01 pm | #

    “No one puts Billie in a corner!”

    Two seconds later . . .

    Billie’s unconscious on the floor. Morale of the story? You don’t mess around with Ruth. (Feel free to tug on Superman’s cape)

    • Wackd
      Wackd
      September 29, 2010 at 12:48 pm | #

      Or mess around with Jim.

  4. addude
    addude
    September 28, 2010 at 11:10 pm | #

    Ruth is more awesome everyday

  5. BumblebeeZ3
    BumblebeeZ3
    September 28, 2010 at 11:28 pm | #

    Is Ruth going to dodge and lay her out with a Batman style “One Punch”?

  6. David Herbert
    David Herbert
    September 28, 2010 at 11:48 pm | #

    Yes! Cat fight! Will Willis surprise us tomorrow with ripped clothes and bare boobies? Let us watch and see.

  7. Alan / Falcon
    Alan / Falcon
    September 28, 2010 at 11:55 pm | #

    The action lines over transparency makes me shed a tear for the the old background behind the comic.

    /shed

    How awesome that would have been for me.

    • David
      David M Willis
      September 28, 2010 at 11:57 pm | #

      Yeah, I had to change the color of the lines last-minute when I realized that the previous brownishness didn’t work so well on the blue. Dang!

  8. RaijinK
    RaijinK
    September 28, 2010 at 11:57 pm | #

    Poor Billie doesn’t even get to squeeze out the littlest bit of cheerleader cred, does she? Just straight out being humbled from day one. But then how long can she subsist on denial?

  9. loneislander
    loneislander
    September 28, 2010 at 11:57 pm | #

    Dammit I want to see this Thunder-Thigh Action!
    Billie will still be getting her ass beat though

    • Mally
      Mally
      July 21, 2015 at 1:28 pm | #

      Slipshine wanted to see said Thunder Thigh Action, too.

  10. RaijinK
    RaijinK
    September 29, 2010 at 12:00 am | #

    Oh, Panel 2 looks like Dina’s staring not at the conflict center stage, but at Agatha’s overwrought tense pose. The background characters are always awesome in this comic.

  11. Vivvav
    Vivvav
    September 29, 2010 at 12:03 am | #

    CAT FIGHT!

  12. Ascension
    Ascension
    September 29, 2010 at 12:04 am | #

    Yep. Billie’s about to take a page from Guy Gardner’s book.

  13. cappadocius
    cappadocius
    September 29, 2010 at 12:26 am | #

    RUUUUUUUUUUUUTH! I LOVE YOU RUTH!

  14. Chad from Canada
    Chad from Canada
    September 29, 2010 at 1:35 am | #

    I’m picturing a clothes-line myself, Billie laid out on the ground.

  15. Zap
    Zap
    September 29, 2010 at 3:38 am | #

    I’m pretty sure we won’t actually get to see what happens to Billie, aside from “pwnt”. Still, it’s funny to imagine various acts of violence.

  16. Deviltrig
    Deviltrig
    September 29, 2010 at 9:12 am | #

    No Punch!

  17. begbert2
    begbert2
    September 29, 2010 at 10:48 am | #

    Crap, with that transparent background I didn’t see the last two panels of the comic! My brain registered the fact that the upper edge of the fourth panel was followed by no edge-of-fourth panel as being the edge of the comic and mentally designated everything to the right of panel four as ads-or-whatever, such as lives on the right side of the Shortpacked! comics, and did me the favor of mentally editing them out. And so I literally did not see the last two panels.

    It’s a good thing the first comment mentioned action lines, because after a “what the hell?” and looking back and forth over the comic five times, my brain finally realized what was going on and let me see the far right panels as being part of the comic.

    I don’t think I like the transparent backgrounds much.

    • begbert2
      begbert2
      September 29, 2010 at 10:51 am | #

      In sentence two I meant “no edge-of-fifth panel”, obviously. The lack of a frame around panel 1 is messing with my ability to count it as a panel – though my brain did at least let me see that one.

      I love the blank uncomprehending expression on Billie’s face in it, by the way.

    • Luke
      Luke
      September 29, 2010 at 11:24 am | #

      I’m trying to read it the way you did, and I literally cannot do it. The last three panels overlap, connecting them in very literal fashion (just like the first two). Also, the proximity of the border in the bottom panel draws the eye across the gutter, cuing the reader into the additional content. If anything, there’s more elements than usual that should have helped the flow.

      • begbert2
        begbert2
        September 29, 2010 at 3:25 pm | #

        As far as my psyche is concerned, the fact that the las- er, third-to-last panel overlaps Ruth’s hair doesn’t connect the panels; it explicitly sets the area in question as being beneath the comic. As in, that red bit is just page background, not anything relevant to the comic like an in-comic character’s hair. And because I’m slavishly accustomed to comics being curbed by non-comic content, I didn’t even register the last panel. Still don’t, really, perhaps due to reading the comic six times before seeing it; as far as I’m concerned panel 4 still seems like the end of the strip, with the other stuff tacked on and not feeling connected at all.

        Now, I know it’s not my business to critique a free comic and obviously not everybody sees everything the way I do, but whatever artistic, stylistic, or story goal is being pursued by these transparent panels, I’m not seeing it, and I *am* seeing a cost in the ambiguity over figuring out where the comic ends and the comic begins. I mean, I guess the blue ‘whitespace’ between the ‘scott pilgrim action lines’ isn’t part of the comic now? Or is it? F’ if I know.

        Meh, I know it’s not worth worrying about, but this transparency stuff has just basically ruined the delivery of the joke for at least one reader, and I thought it was worth letting the author know.

    • Schornforce
      Schornforce
      September 29, 2010 at 6:05 pm | #

      For what it’s worth, I saw it that way too.

  18. MrGBH
    MrGBH
    September 29, 2010 at 11:14 am | #

    So the random background character’s name is Rachel? I checked the Walkypedia yesterday and couldn’t find anyone who looked familiar, but there was a Rachel without either an image or a link.

    Also, Billie’s expression in the first panel is priceless.

    • beeftony
      beeftony
      September 29, 2010 at 11:31 am | #

      Rachel was the woman Joe eventually ended up with in IW! She first appeared as a grocery store check-out girl that Joe unabashedly hit on, and was later revealed as his online chat buddy in a You’ve Got Mail style twist (he originally thought it was Robin). She turned out to be just as good with mechanics as he was and helped build Ultra-Car.

      I haven’t been keeping up on the subscription strips, so I have no idea what happened to her after that.

      • Wackd
        Wackd
        September 29, 2010 at 12:51 pm | #

        Judging by subsequent Shortpacked! strips, Rachel left him, driving him to be even more sex-crazed and toy-obsessive than ever before.

        • Wackd
          Wackd
          September 29, 2010 at 12:51 pm | #

          And holy crap, that IS Rachel. Awesome.

          • Blah
            Blah
            September 29, 2010 at 5:22 pm | #

            Yeah, I called it either minutes before or minutes after Willis put up the tag for Rachel in the other comic. It was pretty fly, and I’ll never know which way it happened.

  19. Fury
    Fury
    September 29, 2010 at 11:31 am | #

    FALLLLCCCONNNNNNNN…..

  20. SinisterTwist
    SinisterTwist
    September 29, 2010 at 12:48 pm | #

    Yay! More Billie strips! Complete with “I was a cheerleader so I’m better than you” action!

  21. ADHadh
    ADHadh
    September 29, 2010 at 4:07 pm | #

    I know I’m probably in the minority, but I’m rooting for Billie. Ruth needs a punch to her face.

    • Deviltrig
      Deviltrig
      September 29, 2010 at 5:38 pm | #

      Me too! Yay for the minority!!

      • Omnibus
        Omnibus
        September 29, 2010 at 7:43 pm | #

        Yeah. I don’t understand where everybody thinks Ruth is gonna super-easily kick Billie’s ass. We’ve seen Billie hold up against a pissed-off Sal before.

        • No0ne
          No0ne
          September 29, 2010 at 11:48 pm | #

          Rtuh will beat Billie for one reason. Billie really doesn’t want to fight, well with fists anyway… Ruth however feels a need to show that she can infact rip out your femurs and beat you to death with them.

  22. Just for kix
    Just for kix
    September 29, 2010 at 4:27 pm | #

    Girls with glasses – HOT!
    Two girls with glasses fighting – NOSEBLEED!

    • MrGBH
      MrGBH
      September 29, 2010 at 6:21 pm | #

      One’s a redhead and one’s Asian – FAINT!

  23. ziggy78eog
    ziggy78eog
    September 29, 2010 at 7:35 pm | #

    Cheerleader Punch!!!!

  24. Bean
    Bean
    September 29, 2010 at 8:20 pm | #

    I’m probably the only one, but I’d really like to see Billie win this. Probably because I have no problem with excessively aggressive people, but smugness really irritates me.

    Although, given the can of worms that beating up Ruth would open, I suppose Billie’s going to lose, Sal is going to appear and intervene before a conclusion is reached.

  25. Angelicfiend
    Angelicfiend
    September 30, 2010 at 12:15 am | #

    i’m a little confused, does this strip take place within the other comics’ continuity or is it like an Else world’s thing?

    • David
      David M Willis
      September 30, 2010 at 12:24 am | #

      It’s an entirely new continuity. Click “About” in the menu bar above the strip.

      • Angelicfiend
        Angelicfiend
        September 30, 2010 at 11:09 am | #

        Ah, Should of noticed that >< hahaha, Thanks for clearing that up, Loving the comic!

  26. Kernanator
    Kernanator
    June 19, 2011 at 9:16 pm | #

    Billie didn’t expect to get called out like that, did she?

  27. andrew
    andrew
    August 3, 2011 at 1:38 pm | #

    second pannel is that this girl, http://itswalky.com/d/20030417.html so freaking looks like her

  28. Thomas
    Thomas
    March 20, 2013 at 5:54 am | #

    Man, Ruth is way into thunder-thigh action, it seems.

  29. pyrophobia
    pyrophobia
    December 18, 2014 at 9:43 am | #

    Anyone else hear a “DING DING!” sound effect between the last two panels? I know I did!

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