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How to be a Werewolf
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Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Namesake
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There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
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A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
Cyanide & Happiness
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Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
The Last Diplomat
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Samma and Tark didn't ask to be stuck together, but now they're partners on the adventure of a lifetime.
Saint for Rent
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Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Alice and the Nightmare
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Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
Aquapunk
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In an underwater world of unknown coordinates, inhabited by aliens, ghosts, and robots, a young member of a warrior underclass is framed for a crime and goes on the run. Little does he know he is part of a grand design that only gods and ancestors could choreograph.
Edison Rex
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The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Empowered
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A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Love Not Found
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Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Ride or Die
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Ride or Die is an LGBTQ webcomic about two street racers who team up with a demon-possessed muscle car in the search for a missing woman, while being hunted by a deadly religious cult.
Goodbye to Halos
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Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
The Golden Boar
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A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
Blindsprings
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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.
Barbarous
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A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
Not Drunk Enough
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Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Sister Claire
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In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Lies Within
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Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
The Substitutes
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Star Impact
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A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Gzhel Guardian
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The Railway World is a complex, mysterious network of trains, towns and mechanical monsters. Leo is a Guardian of one of these towns, and although their burn-out and depression has taken hold of them, they have one last job to finish.
Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life
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The 21st century retelling of the life and legends of Alexander the Great.
The Forgotten Order
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A young witch for whom every spell is a misfire finds solace and friendship in her new companion - a cursed doll.
Nerf Now!!
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A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Astral Aves
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A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
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.
Missing Monday
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Two girls fall in love through a magic door connecting their worlds. When Monday suddenly goes missing, it's up to Foyle to find her. How she's going to navigate an entirely unfamiliar world is another matter.
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Stand Still, Stay Silent
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Scape
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Freakshow
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The Weave
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Sleepless Domain
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Monsterkind
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Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Guilded Age
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Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Quick$ilver
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The flirtatious, directionless, and ever disastrous Luci searches for excitement in a life of crime, and finds himself caught in a web of messy romance and bad blood.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
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Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
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.
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
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I’ve always seen “Hiroshima – 1945” win. I guess I play with a bunch of sick fucks.
My favorite time though was putting “The New York Yankees” for “Corrupt.” All the Boston fans at the table jumped up and ran around yelling “OHHHHHH SNAAAAP.”
There is indeed a penguin card. I know this because one person I played with was obsessed with penguins. It didn’t matter what the green card was. If you played penguin on her turn, you won no matter what.
My favourite combo in Cards Against Humanity was “Step 1. (AIDS)
Step 2. (Licking things to claim them as your own)
Step 3. ????
Step 4. Profit”
Because in a sick way it might actually work. The judge that round didn’t like it though.
I had to stop playing that game with my brother and his friends, because it got to the point where every other fuckin’ card was an “insta-win” card, or as they said, “trump card.” They’d say, “Oh, Batman? Trump card!” and it happened so often that I wondered why I even bothered playing the damn game, since that is the one way to play it that totally disregards whatever skill or nuance there is to be had in trying to pick a red card to match the green ones. I would even rather play it with my ex-wife’s fundamentalist parents who never picked any cards that were played ironically. God, that game is actually a good litmus test for sussing out personality disorders, as poor lovely Dinar up there is demonstrating.
When I was a teenager, I played a few times with the family of one of my friends. It was incredibly frustrating. The worst was when I tried to make the case for the Pacific Ocean being “peaceful”, and having my friend’s mom shout over me, telling me I was wrong, while I tried to explain my reasoning. I never got a chance to make my point.
By the way, the word “Pacific” literally means “peaceful.” The name of the ocean is “the Peaceful Ocean.” Literally. It’s been more than a decade, and that one still annoys me.
I’d have no problem if she was being a stickler for the rules… but everyone in these games would try to make the case for their card (I haven’t played in a long time, but I’m pretty certain that’s not allowed). Her argument wasn’t that I wasn’t allowed to make my case because of the rules, her argument was that big storms exist and therefore there is never a context in which the Pacific Ocean might be considered peaceful.
…Or maybe you’re not replying directly to me, and the world doesn’t revolve around me.
As has no doubt been stated before, AtA is not really about being right, or stating a case about factual accuracy. It’s a social game, which means it’s about understanding the personalities of the people you’re playing with. This is, of course, why I avoid the game – I suck at interpreting people.
My worst one was the time I tried to get “China” by for “delicate”. No one appreciated the double meaning of china but if I had been judge, I would have picked that one in a minute.
You can thank Magellan for that. He coined the name after a rocky passage around Cape Horn. The Pacific seemed calm by comparison, to his relief.
Now the Atlantic, that one you can blame on the Greeks. “Sea of Atlas” and all, since the titan was supposed to stand far to the west. That was way before Plato muddled things with the Atlantis stuff, including a second Atlas.
Well, Autism Spectrum Disorder doesn’t fall into the category of personality disorders. Unless, you mean she’s exhibiting Antisocial Personality Disorder in addition to being on the Autism Spectrum, in which case, sure/nevermind!
my brothers favorite was when he played luscious and i just drew the helen keller card and knew if i played id win and i had been losing all the rounds so i did. He flipped over my moms which was something like suckers and my sister which was batman i think and then mine before it even hit the table again he was laughing to hard to breath properly can declared it a winner. My sister was upset for wasting her card.
I both love and hate this game for exactly this reason… what if I pick a card and no one else thinks it’s funny or makes any sense?? What if the only person who meets my choice with good cheer is the person whose card was chosen? What if the card I put in isn’t chosen and no one laughs when it’s read out and everyone figures out it was my card and judge me solemnly for it.
I get where you’re coming from, so, I’m gonna give you some affirmations if that’s okay…
re: I both love and hate this game for exactly this reason… what if I pick a card and no one else thinks it’s funny or makes any sense??
In Apples to Apples, that means YOU ARE RIGHT and THEY ARE WRONG. Its okay to be wrong here, so long as they don’t shove your face in it. And, it can be lonely being all alone being right. But, its okay. Take comfort in your inherent rightness!
re: What if the only person who meets my choice with good cheer is the person whose card was chosen?
Then you are one other person are right. When you’re picking the card, that makes you god-queen-emperor of rightness with respect to picking a card.
re: What if the card I put in isn’t chosen and no one laughs when it’s read out and everyone figures out it was my card and judge me solemnly for it.
Say your hand sucked. Because it probably did. If you then play a card that woulda been perfect, say you just drew it (because that ALWAYS happens argh this game).
Totally okay, and completely appreciated! I can rationalize my thoughts, but it’s so much harder in the moment… (and my hand always sucks; I get the worst cards somehow).
I feel like right now our gravatars should be swapped.
Then you just shrug and say you threw away a card that round. That way if it’s funny people will still laugh and if it’s not everyone thinks it’s not your fault.
Oh baby! I guess I would tell her to pick a random card and put it down. Sometimes those are the funniest. Sometimes those are the worst. 50-50 chance.
Oh, there are incorrect choices. If you get arrested for indecent exposure, I think that counts as a bad outfit choice. Or you don’t get the job because you showed up wearing a garbage bag.
I think Willis said that Dina has never been diagnosed with anything, so, to me, that would preclude any sort of actual therapy.
It sounds more like some well meaning person attempting to make Dina “express herself” in a way that they deem acceptable. They tell her there’s no wrong answer and then her answer always disappoints them. Probably because they were looking at Dina as a “problem” they could “fix” and she would be “normal.”
Possibly, yeh.
Though since I had therapy on and off for about 17 years before anyone actually diagnosed me (and I’m *classically autistic*) she could have had it. Talk therapy is not just for those known to be neurodivergent.
I mean…Becky is both wrong and right at the same time. Whatever card you put down is the best of your hand, and therefore the right one to choose. But the winning card is the “right” answer. But don’t tell Dina that. xD
Never played, but it sounds like even if you choose a card that’s just wrong (Hiroshima – Sunbathing?), doesn’t entirely mean it’s incorrect, depending on the audience. Sounds like an interesting game…
If someone handed me Hiroshima for a green card that was related to sunburn or tanning, etc. I would most likely pick it. That is morbidly hilarious. IMO, of course.
If I were 20 years younger and in the Dumbing of Age continuity, I would so be attracted to Dina (especially the female aspects of my personality, Petra).
Hell, I’m over 50 and I’m attracted to her. She’s cute, smart, considerate of others even though she does not understand people, and damnit she tries to do/be good. I mean what about her is not to like?
This makes me sad somehow. It’s also kinda funny though. Tragically hilarious – Dina in a nutshell for me. She inspires my overly protective side, too. Protect Dina At All Cost 2k15.
That position in which Dina is sitting looks extremely uncomfortable. But she’d probably be a solid butterfly goalie given any sort of reflexes and vision. No problem getting post-to-post if she’s that comfortable sitting like that.
As a butterfly goalie who can’t sit like that, I would appreciate that sort of hip flexibility in the interest of being less extremely sort after playing.
Poor Dina! She would be left completely at sea by something like this, wouldn’t she?
One way this could be used: No matter what happens for the rest of the night, the last panel always has Dina butting in with some pithy or appropriately funny card combination to sum up the strip.
Becky is being nice to another human being, maybe because she recognizes that there is no harm in Dina. How can anyone not be nice to her?
Dina is adorable as usual, that hat on top of the hoodie just kills me. She is so serious about being sociable. Anyone notice that she is actually part way out from under the jacket?
Joyce gets the guts to talk to her parents about Becky’s situation. After a lot of huffing and puffing, Becky’s father agrees to allow Becky to transfer to the college so long as Joyce personally undertakes not to allow Becky’s ‘deviancy’ to progress further. Other events lead to a ‘musical chairs’ with dorm room spaces and Becky ending up as Dina’s new roomie.
An odder couple, a stranger friendship and a deeper sisterly bond the hall had never seen before.
Other moves, demanded by Ruth in the aftermath of the Sal/Amber fight – Sal moves in with Joyce because Ruth both wants to punish Joyce for being the vector for all this disturbance (no matter how inadvertently) and thinks that being with Joyce would make Sal miserable. Amber moves in with Sarah (and both are quite happy to have a roomie who does not want to interact with them at all) and, officially at least, Billie is with Carla. Officially. We all know where she’s really spending the nights. Carla is more than willing to be party to this deception after Ruth presents her with a list of her misdemeanours that would otherwise find its way to administration. (“Bring me down and you come down with me, skater girl!”)
*Has flashback to Teen Titans Go, only version I’ve seen* Hmmm, yeah, could work. Similar situation here, only I like to dive in dead first anyway. Sure, I’ve had to ground-bridge myself out of police holding cells a few times, but Humans understand, right?
You have that backward. Real life is most often “won” by the people who break the unstated norms most effectively. People who play strictly by the rules are generally at a huge disadvantage against those who don’t, and the more power one accrues the more deviation you can get away with. Of course, the stakes rise with the value of the pot so getting caught and called out becomes more painful in the process. Plenty of politicians will testify to that.
I’ve been thinking about it and the best explanation I can for how this game works is: “The objective is to play two cards, the words upon which are printed combine to form a funny, unusual or otherwise abnormal combination; the winner of a given round is the one whose combination is agreed by all players to be the funniest.”
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t help Dina who clearly has some kind of communications/social disorder and probably has a difficult or nearly impossible time understanding verbal humour (puns and the like) anyway. The concept of a phrase being inherently ‘funny’ simply by being wrong, miscommunicating or in some way implying a scatological or sexual innuendo would be confusing to her to the point of being incomprehensible.
If I were Becky, I’d advise her not to actively play but to observe and learn from other players’ combinations how words’ meanings can sometimes shift with context and what is considered inherently ‘funny’. Draw back: Dina starts making sexual or scatological puns in everyday life, having misunderstood the game to mean that these are completely routine and acceptable.
I have a friend who reminds me a lot of Dina, dinosaur obsession and all. She ALWAYS wins at Cards Against Humanities, because the sheer hilarity and shock (though at this point we should know better) how how FILTHY the cards she plays are compared to her normal way of talking.
My trick in Apples to Apples is to try to use my knowledge of the other person’s personality. Are they the kind of person who would go with a literal answer, or a “wrong” answer?
I’ve not played “Apple to Apples” but have played “Cards Against Humanity.” Where, yes, knowing how to pitch to your audience is HARD. Particularly as the most fitting choice is generally either horrifically racist or involves some sexual practice I really don’t want to have to explain to everyone….
Dina’s right – in social contexts, no matter how relaxed and forgiving people claim to be, there are always wrong answers. Finding out which those are, though, is something you have to learn by making mistakes. That’s called growing up.
I’m really confused about how they’re playing this game… I’d Dina has the green card she doesn’t play a red card. Theres only one green card per round and the judge doesn’t play, just chooses a winning card from everyone else’else’s. Maybe I’m just not reading this right, but it sounds like Becky is telling Dina to pick both cards every round?
I assume the green card on panel is the green card in play right now, and Dina grabbed it so she could get a closer look at it. Her vision is restricted the way she has the hoodie on, and the way she’s trying to avoid looking at faces.
I think she’s the judge, actually. Dina’s “hand” is spread out right now, and I’m sure Dina’s played some kind of card game before, and so knows not to do that. Becky’s advice works just as well in either case anyway.
Oh, oh, I see it now. That makes the most sense. The fact that the advice itself could work either way, and the fact when I’m learning new card games I tend to have my whole hand out confused me for a bit.
Dina reminds me much of Terry Pratchett, except Pratchett did it on purpose, while Dina’s both extremely hilarious and extremely accurate social commentary is made by accident.
On a side note, Willis has stated that this comic is greatly autobiographical, and I find myself wondering if he knew (knows) a real-life Dina, which is something I don’t know how to feel about. On the one hand, more Dina-like people can only make for a better world; on the other hand, it seems their life features a great amount of anxiety they do not deserve foisted upon them, and therefore wishing for more Dina-like people in the world makes me feel like a horrible person.
As a very Dina-like person (autistic, which a lot of us firmly believe Dina is because OH SO MUCH RELATING,) yeah, there’s a lot of anxiety. Not being able to read other people’s social cues when they expect you to be able to for some ungodly reason plus near-constant sensory issues plus everyone you DO talk to being like “oh yeah they’re talking about *special interest* again ignore them” equals not a lot of fun.
On the other hand: DINOSAURS! (Or in my case primarily, POKEMON!) Hyperfocusing on a specific interest is really fun, and most of our biggest problems are less inherent and more having to navigate a society that doesn’t really like us at best and at worst is actively hostile.
If Dina is any indication, I can’t help but wonder if society at large not really liking you (as you put it) is derived from the fact that you can’t help but call out the bullshit (which is, of course, society at large’s fault for trying to impinge the bullshit upon you in the first place). From my experience dealing with proselytisers, society at large tends to get pissed off when you call them out on their bullshit. I, of course, have the advantage that I bullshit-call on purpose, whereas Dina seems to do it in the hope of educating the misguided.
I DO wonder if my perception of Dina is coloured by the fact that I, too, am a dinosaur fan (as are all right-thinking people, of course), and if I would feel different if her subject of choice were, say, the intricacies of carpet-weaving by an obscure north-american tribe.
My godson is on the spectrum and I always found the things that he hyperfocused on to be delightful and interesting, for the most part. His interests would shift every few years (this is not true for all folks on the autism spectrum, but was for him), so we had 3 years where all we heard about was mythical creatures (I now know a LOT about basilisks), a few years of obsessions with how ancient civilizations (primarily the Mayans and the Romans) developed, a few years of the plausibility of physics in movies. talking with him was nice for me (as someone with anxiety), as I usually knew what we would be talking about, that he would enjoy it, and I would often learn something.
There is a lot to appreciate about neurodivergent people’s minds. I wish our culture was better set up to recognize that.
‘Whatever you choose is automatically the correct answer’: Misleading and unhelpful.
If you have the cards ‘sky’ and ‘kangaroos’, and across two rounds the green cards are ‘blue’ and ‘bouncy, then whether objectively or subjectively there’s one order of card choice which is better than the other. (Unless there are in-jokes about blue kangaroos that I haven’t predicted.)
That said, if one prefers to choose the one which sounds wrongest, then one is eventually playing a variant of the game within the game.
If one makes a choice which is worse than the best possible choice to achieve one’s goals (whether that is winning the game or making others laugh) then the consequence is that one doesn’t progress as much towards one’s goals (winning/funnyness).
If the game were really as simple as whichever one one chose being automatically correct, it would be exceedingly boring and provoke no thought at all.
(That said, I have seen the choosing of a cake slice (in hopes of choosing a slice with a prize hidden inside) used to good effect in a visual novel–whichever piece is chosen the character gets the prize, but making the player make a choice helps the player empathise with the character who’s temporarily paralyzed when faced with so many pieces of cake to choose from.)
The correct answer to that situation is, of course, to eat ALL the slices of cake, therefore ensuring you get the prize regardless of what slice it’s in.
I thought Dina was awarding the green card right now. The challenge was for other people to submit red cards she’s most likely to pick; whichever she actually does pick is inherently the correct answer.
I need more Muslim characters! Or at least more prominent ones who aren't Raidah. It is a huge giant hole in my strip that makes it suck. The current storyline would've been way better if they existed. But they don't, and no amount of throwing Asma in for three strips solves it.
TRANS WOMEN OF BLUESKY:
What was your egg cracking moment?
When did you know you were trans? What made you realize?
And did you know you were a woman right away, or did you pass through other identities first
Happy Nonbinary People's Day, you gemstones. A year or two back we introduced FLASH GORDON's first enby, the outlaw lawman Bones Malock. Having known and loved a lot of nonbinary people, I knew the truest way to represent you was as a unsettling desert pirate with a lightning sword
Happy International Non-Binary People's Day to all those who work, create, parent, protest, love and live without ever fitting into someone else's category.
Okay, everyone's jumping to conclusions, but Joyce was hit with a mysterious pink gas in Thursday's strip.
Now, in recent years, the police are known to increasingly use military grade weapons.
Which reminded me of this bit of proposed technology from the 1990s:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb
hey, kid, what do you want to play with from the cool superhero movie? is it a nude, melting senator who feels like a stretch armstrong doll that has been left out in the son and maybe mildly chewed by a neighborhood dog? WELL, SON, YOU'RE IN LUCK!
mel! @mel.bzky.team ⋅ 5m
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Dina, just pick “Barfing”
((INSTA-WIN REGARDLESS OF CARD))
Actual game quotes:
(Colorful) “CASABLANCA??? NO…”
(Perfect) “I can’t believe I won with Chicken!”
(Juicy) “You guys suck! …It’s gotta be Going to Grandma’s”
I’ve always seen “Hiroshima – 1945” win. I guess I play with a bunch of sick fucks.
My favorite time though was putting “The New York Yankees” for “Corrupt.” All the Boston fans at the table jumped up and ran around yelling “OHHHHHH SNAAAAP.”
I once one “ritzy” with Hiroshima… It is my tragic backstory.
I thought I had a surefire thing once putting America down when the card was “Idiotic”. Little did I know that my friend had put down Britney Spears.
Is there a penguin card in whatever game this is? If so: Hiroshima + Penguin = SKREEONK!
There is indeed a penguin card. I know this because one person I played with was obsessed with penguins. It didn’t matter what the green card was. If you played penguin on her turn, you won no matter what.
Appealing to the judge is a fine tradition in Apples to Apples (or CAH for that matter!)
Tentacle Sex is an insta-win for me in CAH.
For my friends, it’s always been who had the biggest out of the big black dick cards.
My favourite combo in Cards Against Humanity was “Step 1. (AIDS)
Step 2. (Licking things to claim them as your own)
Step 3. ????
Step 4. Profit”
Because in a sick way it might actually work. The judge that round didn’t like it though.
HIV is not spread through saliva. It also cannot survive long outside of a human body. It would not actually “work.”
Note to self, whenever playing CAH with David Willis make sure all card combinations are scientifically plausible.
Or just give me something that’s funny. Not knowing how AIDS works is not one of those things.
So… we make all combinations scientifically plausible, then.
Or, you know, not tying into hysteria that has caused some serious and unnecessary harm to people who are terminally ill with an incurable disease.
Because it’s unheard of for gums or other parts of the mouth to bleed and mix with saliva.
I had to stop playing that game with my brother and his friends, because it got to the point where every other fuckin’ card was an “insta-win” card, or as they said, “trump card.” They’d say, “Oh, Batman? Trump card!” and it happened so often that I wondered why I even bothered playing the damn game, since that is the one way to play it that totally disregards whatever skill or nuance there is to be had in trying to pick a red card to match the green ones. I would even rather play it with my ex-wife’s fundamentalist parents who never picked any cards that were played ironically. God, that game is actually a good litmus test for sussing out personality disorders, as poor lovely Dinar up there is demonstrating.
When I was a teenager, I played a few times with the family of one of my friends. It was incredibly frustrating. The worst was when I tried to make the case for the Pacific Ocean being “peaceful”, and having my friend’s mom shout over me, telling me I was wrong, while I tried to explain my reasoning. I never got a chance to make my point.
By the way, the word “Pacific” literally means “peaceful.” The name of the ocean is “the Peaceful Ocean.” Literally. It’s been more than a decade, and that one still annoys me.
Sticklers for rules can be so annoying at times. I would know – I’m one of them.
I’d have no problem if she was being a stickler for the rules… but everyone in these games would try to make the case for their card (I haven’t played in a long time, but I’m pretty certain that’s not allowed). Her argument wasn’t that I wasn’t allowed to make my case because of the rules, her argument was that big storms exist and therefore there is never a context in which the Pacific Ocean might be considered peaceful.
…Or maybe you’re not replying directly to me, and the world doesn’t revolve around me.
As has no doubt been stated before, AtA is not really about being right, or stating a case about factual accuracy. It’s a social game, which means it’s about understanding the personalities of the people you’re playing with. This is, of course, why I avoid the game – I suck at interpreting people.
My worst one was the time I tried to get “China” by for “delicate”. No one appreciated the double meaning of china but if I had been judge, I would have picked that one in a minute.
I can’t believe I never noticed that before.
– pacifier
– pacifist
– Pacific
You can thank Magellan for that. He coined the name after a rocky passage around Cape Horn. The Pacific seemed calm by comparison, to his relief.
Now the Atlantic, that one you can blame on the Greeks. “Sea of Atlas” and all, since the titan was supposed to stand far to the west. That was way before Plato muddled things with the Atlantis stuff, including a second Atlas.
I had to stop playing because we rarely had more than three people to play with (also, I knew all the cards by then and combos were less surprising)
Well, Autism Spectrum Disorder doesn’t fall into the category of personality disorders. Unless, you mean she’s exhibiting Antisocial Personality Disorder in addition to being on the Autism Spectrum, in which case, sure/nevermind!
helen keller, insta-win.
sexy? helen keller.
Juicy? Helen keller.
furry? helen keller.
perfect? Helen keller!
Saw Helen Keller once played on “touchy-feely”
THAT’S just appropriate.
Best I’ve seen was Helen Keller for “senseless”.
My favorite had to be when I won the game with Hellen Keller on Touchy Feely. I’m a very bad lady.
my brothers favorite was when he played luscious and i just drew the helen keller card and knew if i played id win and i had been losing all the rounds so i did. He flipped over my moms which was something like suckers and my sister which was batman i think and then mine before it even hit the table again he was laughing to hard to breath properly can declared it a winner. My sister was upset for wasting her card.
I’m more partial to the card Dick Cheney.
Not on purpose she can’t.
I hope it won’t become one of those “laughing with” vs. “laughing at” kind of deals.
Dina either makes me laugh of go “Awwww”.
Sometimes both at the same time. It sounds like “Hawwww”.
Dang it now I have that darn DoA live studio audience sound playing in my head.
“Dying is easy; comedy is hard.” (attributed to Edmund Kean, and after him Lucille Ball)
Aw, Dina.
It’s especially difficult because she has to guess what OTHER people will think is the best answer! What does that even mean??
Maybe there will be some dinosaur cards, and the choice will be obvious.
There are no obvious answers in AtA.
Abort mission, ABORT MISSION.
The grim look on Dina in panel 5 is precious.
The hat atop the coat is really what makes it for me <3
4th panel Dina has been me many times. Except I never wore a hoodie on my head. I never got that bad.
wrongest + grossest = grongrest. Always bet on the grongest!
Hover text is 100% correct.
nobody puts dina on the spot
They do sometimes put her in a corner, but that’s okay, she likes having less visual stimulation.
When in doubt, just whip it out.
I’ve tried that, but it usually causes more problems. The screaming, some laughter (don’t know why), getting chased by the Cops…
…Wait, what are we talking about again?
I’m not certain either.
I thought it was “When in doubt, rub one out!”?
Whip it good?
I both love and hate this game for exactly this reason… what if I pick a card and no one else thinks it’s funny or makes any sense?? What if the only person who meets my choice with good cheer is the person whose card was chosen? What if the card I put in isn’t chosen and no one laughs when it’s read out and everyone figures out it was my card and judge me solemnly for it.
AGH stop reading my thoughts! my social anxiety is bad enough without people actually knowing about it!
I get where you’re coming from, so, I’m gonna give you some affirmations if that’s okay…
re: I both love and hate this game for exactly this reason… what if I pick a card and no one else thinks it’s funny or makes any sense??
In Apples to Apples, that means YOU ARE RIGHT and THEY ARE WRONG. Its okay to be wrong here, so long as they don’t shove your face in it. And, it can be lonely being all alone being right. But, its okay. Take comfort in your inherent rightness!
re: What if the only person who meets my choice with good cheer is the person whose card was chosen?
Then you are one other person are right. When you’re picking the card, that makes you god-queen-emperor of rightness with respect to picking a card.
re: What if the card I put in isn’t chosen and no one laughs when it’s read out and everyone figures out it was my card and judge me solemnly for it.
Say your hand sucked. Because it probably did. If you then play a card that woulda been perfect, say you just drew it (because that ALWAYS happens argh this game).
Totally okay, and completely appreciated! I can rationalize my thoughts, but it’s so much harder in the moment… (and my hand always sucks; I get the worst cards somehow).
I feel like right now our gravatars should be swapped.
Then you just shrug and say you threw away a card that round. That way if it’s funny people will still laugh and if it’s not everyone thinks it’s not your fault.
Oh baby!
I guess I would tell her to pick a random card and put it down. Sometimes those are the funniest. Sometimes those are the worst. 50-50 chance.
*gasp* they turn into emoji things!
Given that Rando wins Cards Against Humanity all the damn time around here, picking your cards face down in Apples to Apples should work just as well.
Rando Cardrissian, that smug bastard.
Then Hand Solo took him down a notch, and walked away with the Millennium Deckon.
Hand Solo plays AtA with a one-card hand – and wins.
Oh, and btw…
Hand dealt first.
*runs*
Is that when you just take a card from the box and play it without looking every turn, and the game wins if it’s taken?
My friends and I have lost many a game of Apples to Apples to Rando, as well.
Ha. Classic Rando.
Last panel Becky looks like she’s wearing a nappy.
For the Americans in the audience, Plasma thinks Becky is wearing a diaper.
Thanks, I forgot that Americans called nappies diapers.
Coming up: Dina picks a card at random for each round and wins every single one.
I wonder what experiences Dina is referring to. Sounds awfully grim.
The “no answer is incorrect” thing smacks of some kind of psych therapy to me.
Or of choosing clothes to wear.
Oh, there are incorrect choices. If you get arrested for indecent exposure, I think that counts as a bad outfit choice. Or you don’t get the job because you showed up wearing a garbage bag.
When your parents are particularly picky about appearance, everything you like is the wrong answer. And everything they like is the right answer.
Unless, of course, you and mom have the same taste in men’s clothing. My wardrobe is getting out of control.
A much better way of putting it is “There are no answers, only jokes.”
There are no answers, only Zuul.
I’m the Keymaster. Are you the Gatekeeper?
Or that infuriating ‘everybody’s a winner’ philosophy.
I think Willis said that Dina has never been diagnosed with anything, so, to me, that would preclude any sort of actual therapy.
It sounds more like some well meaning person attempting to make Dina “express herself” in a way that they deem acceptable. They tell her there’s no wrong answer and then her answer always disappoints them. Probably because they were looking at Dina as a “problem” they could “fix” and she would be “normal.”
Possibly, yeh.
Though since I had therapy on and off for about 17 years before anyone actually diagnosed me (and I’m *classically autistic*) she could have had it. Talk therapy is not just for those known to be neurodivergent.
Probably most of them. There is always a right answer and a wrong answer, people just expect you to guess it.
The best part of living in this day and age is that you can at least google the answers.
Thank god for google. I’d be so lost on a regular basis without the maps feature.
The tragedy is that despite Dina’s hilarity she is 100% correct.
True, but in AtA, as in real life, being technically correct isn’t the point. This is what Dina must learn.
Technically correct is the best kind of correct!
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheComicallySerious
I mean…Becky is both wrong and right at the same time. Whatever card you put down is the best of your hand, and therefore the right one to choose. But the winning card is the “right” answer. But don’t tell Dina that. xD
I assume based on this strip that Dina is the “moderator” for the round, choosing between cards someone else has laid down.
Oh I see! I wasn’t looking properly. I suppose she could still pick at random.
Never played, but it sounds like even if you choose a card that’s just wrong (Hiroshima – Sunbathing?), doesn’t entirely mean it’s incorrect, depending on the audience. Sounds like an interesting game…
If someone handed me Hiroshima for a green card that was related to sunburn or tanning, etc. I would most likely pick it. That is morbidly hilarious. IMO, of course.
The question is who can be wrongester than who.
Man, wrongsters these days…
If I were 20 years younger and in the Dumbing of Age continuity, I would so be attracted to Dina (especially the female aspects of my personality, Petra).
Hell, I’m over 50 and I’m attracted to her. She’s cute, smart, considerate of others even though she does not understand people, and damnit she tries to do/be good. I mean what about her is not to like?
I’m already voting for a Dina/Becky spinoff strip just for their wacky hijinks.
‘Dina & Becky’ would be amazing. Maybe Becky winds up spending Winter Break with Dina? Sure, that sounds plausible enough for a premise.
This makes me sad somehow. It’s also kinda funny though. Tragically hilarious – Dina in a nutshell for me. She inspires my overly protective side, too. Protect Dina At All Cost 2k15.
That position in which Dina is sitting looks extremely uncomfortable. But she’d probably be a solid butterfly goalie given any sort of reflexes and vision. No problem getting post-to-post if she’s that comfortable sitting like that.
As a butterfly goalie who can’t sit like that, I would appreciate that sort of hip flexibility in the interest of being less extremely sort after playing.
Ok, now I’m shipping these two. Willis, how much to make it happen?
I have similar problems to those Dina has. I have a tendency to make others laugh when I am dead serious.
We call that the Swanson-Ludgate effect.
What is i when one looks like they are trying not to laugh when telling a disbelieved truth?
I like that her cap is on top of his sweater
Nope, I still don’t see the appeal of that game.
Poor Dina! She would be left completely at sea by something like this, wouldn’t she?
One way this could be used: No matter what happens for the rest of the night, the last panel always has Dina butting in with some pithy or appropriately funny card combination to sum up the strip.
I want to hug Dina. Again.
I think you mean still.
Cute strip.
Becky is being nice to another human being, maybe because she recognizes that there is no harm in Dina. How can anyone not be nice to her?
Dina is adorable as usual, that hat on top of the hoodie just kills me. She is so serious about being sociable. Anyone notice that she is actually part way out from under the jacket?
She has to be to be able to see the cards, otherwise she’d be trying to see through fabric. XD
Possible Twist:
Joyce gets the guts to talk to her parents about Becky’s situation. After a lot of huffing and puffing, Becky’s father agrees to allow Becky to transfer to the college so long as Joyce personally undertakes not to allow Becky’s ‘deviancy’ to progress further. Other events lead to a ‘musical chairs’ with dorm room spaces and Becky ending up as Dina’s new roomie.
An odder couple, a stranger friendship and a deeper sisterly bond the hall had never seen before.
Other moves, demanded by Ruth in the aftermath of the Sal/Amber fight – Sal moves in with Joyce because Ruth both wants to punish Joyce for being the vector for all this disturbance (no matter how inadvertently) and thinks that being with Joyce would make Sal miserable. Amber moves in with Sarah (and both are quite happy to have a roomie who does not want to interact with them at all) and, officially at least, Billie is with Carla. Officially. We all know where she’s really spending the nights. Carla is more than willing to be party to this deception after Ruth presents her with a list of her misdemeanours that would otherwise find its way to administration. (“Bring me down and you come down with me, skater girl!”)
Dave, you did your research.
Sometimes when I read Dina’s dialogue I hear it in the voice of Starfire. Both aliens to this humon culture.
*Has flashback to Teen Titans Go, only version I’ve seen* Hmmm, yeah, could work. Similar situation here, only I like to dive in dead first anyway. Sure, I’ve had to ground-bridge myself out of police holding cells a few times, but Humans understand, right?
I really feel for Dina here – because she is damn well right. ‘No wrong answers’ is a rotten trap.
As if we needed it, here is confirmation that Becky was the clown of her social circle.
Strange game, the only losing move is to break unstated, social norms that no one is able to explain properly.
“Would you prefer to play a game of Global Thermonuclear War? (y/n)”
The only losing move is to break unstated norms? That’s not a game, that’s all of life.
You have that backward. Real life is most often “won” by the people who break the unstated norms most effectively. People who play strictly by the rules are generally at a huge disadvantage against those who don’t, and the more power one accrues the more deviation you can get away with. Of course, the stakes rise with the value of the pot so getting caught and called out becomes more painful in the process. Plenty of politicians will testify to that.
Yes, Dina, that’s what make’s it a “party game”. You’d be more happy playing Power Grid or Puerto Rico.
Tsuro would be a better choice than any of those for this crowd.
Just tell her that for this game she’ll need to be a clever girl, and she’ll suddenly get it!
I’ve been thinking about it and the best explanation I can for how this game works is: “The objective is to play two cards, the words upon which are printed combine to form a funny, unusual or otherwise abnormal combination; the winner of a given round is the one whose combination is agreed by all players to be the funniest.”
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t help Dina who clearly has some kind of communications/social disorder and probably has a difficult or nearly impossible time understanding verbal humour (puns and the like) anyway. The concept of a phrase being inherently ‘funny’ simply by being wrong, miscommunicating or in some way implying a scatological or sexual innuendo would be confusing to her to the point of being incomprehensible.
If I were Becky, I’d advise her not to actively play but to observe and learn from other players’ combinations how words’ meanings can sometimes shift with context and what is considered inherently ‘funny’. Draw back: Dina starts making sexual or scatological puns in everyday life, having misunderstood the game to mean that these are completely routine and acceptable.
That’s the problem (fun?) with playing Apples to Apples with strangers. It’s hard to tell what they’d like or not so you’re trying to guess correctly.
I always love Dina. Her lines are often so close to word-for-word what my son would have said at 8, it’s uncanny. Especially today.
I have a friend who reminds me a lot of Dina, dinosaur obsession and all. She ALWAYS wins at Cards Against Humanities, because the sheer hilarity and shock (though at this point we should know better) how how FILTHY the cards she plays are compared to her normal way of talking.
My trick in Apples to Apples is to try to use my knowledge of the other person’s personality. Are they the kind of person who would go with a literal answer, or a “wrong” answer?
Dina: “I see the problem. You lost me at ‘personality’. I don’t understand those.”
I’ve not played “Apple to Apples” but have played “Cards Against Humanity.” Where, yes, knowing how to pitch to your audience is HARD. Particularly as the most fitting choice is generally either horrifically racist or involves some sexual practice I really don’t want to have to explain to everyone….
In that regard, A2A is easier. The options are not as racy or sexy, so there’s not as much embarrassment potential.
If you’re not choosing “Two midgets shitting into a bucket” then you don’t know what real living is.
Dina’s right – in social contexts, no matter how relaxed and forgiving people claim to be, there are always wrong answers. Finding out which those are, though, is something you have to learn by making mistakes. That’s called growing up.
I’m really confused about how they’re playing this game… I’d Dina has the green card she doesn’t play a red card. Theres only one green card per round and the judge doesn’t play, just chooses a winning card from everyone else’else’s. Maybe I’m just not reading this right, but it sounds like Becky is telling Dina to pick both cards every round?
I assume the green card on panel is the green card in play right now, and Dina grabbed it so she could get a closer look at it. Her vision is restricted the way she has the hoodie on, and the way she’s trying to avoid looking at faces.
I think she’s the judge, actually. Dina’s “hand” is spread out right now, and I’m sure Dina’s played some kind of card game before, and so knows not to do that. Becky’s advice works just as well in either case anyway.
Oh, oh, I see it now. That makes the most sense. The fact that the advice itself could work either way, and the fact when I’m learning new card games I tend to have my whole hand out confused me for a bit.
Worst Cards Against Humanity moment:
40 acres and a mule. It’s a trap!
Dina reminds me much of Terry Pratchett, except Pratchett did it on purpose, while Dina’s both extremely hilarious and extremely accurate social commentary is made by accident.
On a side note, Willis has stated that this comic is greatly autobiographical, and I find myself wondering if he knew (knows) a real-life Dina, which is something I don’t know how to feel about. On the one hand, more Dina-like people can only make for a better world; on the other hand, it seems their life features a great amount of anxiety they do not deserve foisted upon them, and therefore wishing for more Dina-like people in the world makes me feel like a horrible person.
As a very Dina-like person (autistic, which a lot of us firmly believe Dina is because OH SO MUCH RELATING,) yeah, there’s a lot of anxiety. Not being able to read other people’s social cues when they expect you to be able to for some ungodly reason plus near-constant sensory issues plus everyone you DO talk to being like “oh yeah they’re talking about *special interest* again ignore them” equals not a lot of fun.
On the other hand: DINOSAURS! (Or in my case primarily, POKEMON!) Hyperfocusing on a specific interest is really fun, and most of our biggest problems are less inherent and more having to navigate a society that doesn’t really like us at best and at worst is actively hostile.
If Dina is any indication, I can’t help but wonder if society at large not really liking you (as you put it) is derived from the fact that you can’t help but call out the bullshit (which is, of course, society at large’s fault for trying to impinge the bullshit upon you in the first place). From my experience dealing with proselytisers, society at large tends to get pissed off when you call them out on their bullshit. I, of course, have the advantage that I bullshit-call on purpose, whereas Dina seems to do it in the hope of educating the misguided.
I DO wonder if my perception of Dina is coloured by the fact that I, too, am a dinosaur fan (as are all right-thinking people, of course), and if I would feel different if her subject of choice were, say, the intricacies of carpet-weaving by an obscure north-american tribe.
My godson is on the spectrum and I always found the things that he hyperfocused on to be delightful and interesting, for the most part. His interests would shift every few years (this is not true for all folks on the autism spectrum, but was for him), so we had 3 years where all we heard about was mythical creatures (I now know a LOT about basilisks), a few years of obsessions with how ancient civilizations (primarily the Mayans and the Romans) developed, a few years of the plausibility of physics in movies. talking with him was nice for me (as someone with anxiety), as I usually knew what we would be talking about, that he would enjoy it, and I would often learn something.
There is a lot to appreciate about neurodivergent people’s minds. I wish our culture was better set up to recognize that.
‘Whatever you choose is automatically the correct answer’: Misleading and unhelpful.
If you have the cards ‘sky’ and ‘kangaroos’, and across two rounds the green cards are ‘blue’ and ‘bouncy, then whether objectively or subjectively there’s one order of card choice which is better than the other. (Unless there are in-jokes about blue kangaroos that I haven’t predicted.)
That said, if one prefers to choose the one which sounds wrongest, then one is eventually playing a variant of the game within the game.
If one makes a choice which is worse than the best possible choice to achieve one’s goals (whether that is winning the game or making others laugh) then the consequence is that one doesn’t progress as much towards one’s goals (winning/funnyness).
If the game were really as simple as whichever one one chose being automatically correct, it would be exceedingly boring and provoke no thought at all.
(That said, I have seen the choosing of a cake slice (in hopes of choosing a slice with a prize hidden inside) used to good effect in a visual novel–whichever piece is chosen the character gets the prize, but making the player make a choice helps the player empathise with the character who’s temporarily paralyzed when faced with so many pieces of cake to choose from.)
The correct answer to that situation is, of course, to eat ALL the slices of cake, therefore ensuring you get the prize regardless of what slice it’s in.
That reminded me we had cake at work today, but I was going to wait after I got off to get a slice, and forgot to go get it.
I thought Dina was awarding the green card right now. The challenge was for other people to submit red cards she’s most likely to pick; whichever she actually does pick is inherently the correct answer.
So when is the inevitable Dina spin-off, or making her take over Joyce’s lead status?
Probably soon, since the next storyline is called “Walking With Dina”
-saurs?
If there ever is a Dina spin-off, I’d like it to be named “Dina Soars!”
No Dina! Your virginity!
oh god somebody please praise Dina after she picks one. She needs praise for doing a good job on social things so badly…
Second Panel: Becky understands the real joy of Apples to Apples.
Someone should lobby for a Walkyverse cards against humanity set, I’d love to see the possible combos it’d produce
Dina. She’s more and more awesome.
How does Dina sit like that? It hurts just looking at her.
… i ship it