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www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Patrick Willems @patrickhwillems.bsky.social ⋅ 1m
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️𝓝𝓪𝓷𝓲 
“GIRL R U A MAGAZINE CUZ U GOT ISSUES”
“yeah u wanna subscribe”
sorry ‘sall I got I been sick
i like that one. haven’t heard it before. will definitely find occasion to use it here
“Man, she doesn’t just have issues. She has anthologies.”
Sarah can do no wrong. She even sent Dina to act as the cutest agent in the history of spying.
Ay gurl, are you my calculus textbook?
Cut you got problems.
best one yet
“Boy, are you a software update, ’cause not now”
Addendum to the calculus one:
“I’d be fine, boy, except for…
… dx.”
Are you a revolutionary banner?
Cause you’re totally a red flag.
Ooh, more:
Are you a Nymphomaniac? Cause you’ve gotta screw loose.
Did you have crawdads for lunch? Because you smell cray.
Gurl, you so fine… as in the Italian, for ‘finished’.
I really find the speed limit signs in Italy hilarious which are tagged with “a fine tunnel”. So vain.
Don’t run away, Sarah !
Perhaps she considers it a preferable alternative to trying to woo Jacob out of jealousy– if she does, I must say I agree.
I… hoped for an honest bit of conversation
Give it time; he may decide to open conversation. I don’t think Sarah will, though.
I think he got tired of trying.
Well, he can bang Raida first and Sarah will still be there once he’s ready for a change.
nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
Oh god I want to hug her…she needs a hug.
All I can imagine is that if anyone tried to give her one right now, she’d hiss like a cat and somehow make herself look twice as big.
haagen dazs’ll do that to ya
Her ponytail would probably stand on end.
foomp
fweep?
We know for a fact that when threatened with hugging, Sarah resorts to her bat: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/guard/
Does that mean she has the bat with her at all times? Where does she keep it?
…Oh. Well, that would explain the crankiness.
That is NOT a bag of holding.
If I might quote Nash & Tara.
Although a lot of folks might have read these last two strips and thought ‘WTFIWWY’ about her behavior.
Just like Batman and all his gadgets,even though he has a belt,i find it too small to store all the stuff he uses. So Batman logic.
Some realities have hammerspace. Sarah has Batspace. Unrelated to Batman.
She needs a bunch of things, but she’s not going to get any of them until she seriously opens herself up to the idea that she can possibly get them.
Until then, she’s going to continue to wallow in a vat of self-fulfilling bitterness.
The most immediate thing she needs right now is her book. She left it on the other desk. That’ll be awkward.
Her book and her scarf. They’re holding her place until she returns to the front.
Opening up isn’t easy, especially when you have actual proof of it going completely wrong and everyone hating you for it.
I’m not trying to blame you for anything, but I dislike when people talk about how all of Sarah’s problems would be solved if she just opened up, as if it’s the simplest thing in the world to do.
No one said that it is going to be *simple*. However she’s not likely to deal with any of her issues in a healthy way unless/until the point where she can start taking the hard steps toward dealing with everything.
I agree. I’d hug her right now.
Baseball bats for you.
Good think the crowd missed the show. Who knows what they would think.
I think the Hoodie Dress Crowd should be a recurring cast, like the BROS BROS BROS of QC.
I’m just wondering who the girl is who just walked through the door? I keep thinking it’s Sydney Yus but I’m not sure.
No tags, so obviously they’re optical illusions.
I was thinking Lucy, but no tag.
They would think “huh, so that Sarah girl is crazy, that’s rough, but she doesn’t want me to be around,” which is what Jacob is probably thinking, too.
They would think “huh, so that Sarah girl is crazy, that’s rough, but she doesn’t want me to be around so there’s nothing I can do for her,” which is what Jacob is probably thinking, too.
Whoops, sorry for double-post, please delete.
Sarah will have to come back eventually, her book is still there.
Oh, good point. All the awkaaaards.
UNLESS… it’s all part of her plan to look awkward and pathetic, to the point where Jacob brings the book back to her, in sympathy.
All part of her evil, evil, (pathetic) EVIL plan.
Aww. Poor Sarah.
I wonder how Marcie and Malaya are doing.
I was expecting a cutaway today. Glad Willis didn’t spring one on us!
Could still happen tomorrow. I almost think the timing would be meaner, after seeing that pained look in panel 5.
Probably having a sword fight in some abandoned parking lot by now.
Yeah, a ‘sword fight’.
With… strap-ons?
Ues or no, for them, it’s foreplay.
How about Dina and Becky? We could always have more Beckasaurus.
The beckasaurus is with you always! Just open your heart to it’s data sets.
Just look down, and dig.
Busy basking in the shining glory of their new relationship and consequently forgetting Sal even exists, no doubt.
*plays The Zombies’ “Tell Her No” on the Muzak*
you know what that last panel says to me. Someone just realized a personal fault (or two) they are not comfortable with and may try to change it.
From this distance, that one Hoodie Dress person is almost Lucy.
That’s what I was thinking. No tag, but that doesn’t kill the idea, Willis has skipped tags before.
What makes me question it is that the main cast are still just freshmen; does IU often have advanced placement high schoolers take classes?
Sarah’s a sophomore and she’s part of the main cast.
Sarah is gonna be in sophomore level classes. But freshman can test into higher level classes. They can sometimes skip freshman level classes if they took AP classes in high school.
Yeah, but Sarah explicitly went to this school last year. Dana?
If Sarah was a beer she’d be Flying Monkeys Alpha Fornication.
Oh, Sarah! Raidah’s tears only help with one strip… I’d hoped a little more effect!
*cross arms, defense position*
nooope.
I am Sarah
I am Spartacus
I am Groot.
I am Alpharius.
I am Iron Man
*guitar riff*
I am what I am!
I am the Walrus.
I am Batman.
https://youtu.be/52kxR94b9_0
I am the terror that flaps in the night.
I am one with the Universe.
Disappointing really. You’d think the universe would be more original.
Lo, I have become Death, Stealer of Pie
Yoda I am.
I. am.OZ!
OZ the great and powerful or OZ from down under?
BOOOOTHHH!-waves fingers-
Sorry Jacob, that ship has sailed.
The blonde girl in front of Sarah looks a bit like Joyce when she smiles. I want her and Joyce to be friends and they can be adorable together.
People always ask, “Why do people hate X character because they’re *unlikable*? Why is being likable so important?”
This. This is why.
So…. this is been frustrating and uncomfortable.
That’s all I can come up with to say about that.
The more I see of Sarah’s outfit the more I realize she was loaded for bear. Those heels!
I hope Jacob tries to check in with her, despite Sarah’s angry face. If only everyone had a Dina level of patience and acceptance.
someday
oooooooor, probably not. but you know. maybe its better this way
Panel 3 can be the face that gets drawn on this book when it gets published.
If it’s not, you can print it out and add it anyway.
This is breaking my heart.
This.
The worse part, I think, is that Sarah really does like Jacob.
While Sarah’s social skills definitely need some honing, I’m finding more and more that Jacob’s whole personality is flawed, which is a lot harder to fix.
In other words, I’m starting to get a strong dislike to Jacob. I get a feeling that he’s quite unempathetic and self-sufficient.
I’m not sure about Jacob yet.
Sara is kinda hard to read, especially if you haven’t had that kinda friend yet. He just may not know what to do. If you drive people away, most will go. Joyce is just staying cause she’s a special nutcase
Really? He just seems like a regular dude. Pretty well-adjusted, too, as opposed to our main cast, each of which has some kind of not-so-hidden neurosis or personality flaw.
Here are Jacob’s sins: tried to get to know Sarah. She was unresponsive, so he backed off a bit, until they bonded over telling “Joyce” stories. Meanwhile, because “talking sometimes after class” is not a monogamous relationship, he also talked a bit with a girl Sarah didn’t like.
And… that’s basically it?
Oh also a girl sitting next to him just flipped out and ran away from him, and he found that a little strange.
You forgot starting a relationship with Sarah’s archnemesis. But Jacob didn’t know that until after Sarah found out about it, so that’s not much of a sin either.
And honestly, even if he did… Raidah’s not a bad person. Has a bit of a more casual attitude towards pot use, and holds a bit of an unfair grudge towards Sarah, but beyond that, she hasn’t been malicious.
She was also a jerk to Dina. But you’re right, it’s not like Raidah is a universally terrible person. I don’t think the way she’s been bullying Sarah would be right even IF Sarah had just wanted to get rid of Dana, but if the story was being told from Raidah’s point of view, I’m sure Sarah would be the one coming off as a cruel jerk.
Well, to reply to you all, I’d say that to me, bullying = terrible person.
And also, that being a neurotic person who has almost only neurotic friends, I would’ve found it very obvious in Sarah’s acting that she’s suffering, and I would’ve offered at the very least some small acts of kindness, even if I decided to stay away. But Jacob’s attitude strikes to me as unconcerned and borderline mean in a quite uncalled for way.
So yeah, while your statements that he’s “just a regular guy” might be true. I might be one of those people that really just can’t stand “regular guys”.
People’s neuroses are basically just (perhaps wounded) sensitivity and vulnerability, and it means a lot when that person shows it to you. Less sensitive people really get on my nerves sometimes.
And as for the argument of a story told by Raidah, well, I would certainely not be reading a comic that condones bullying and makes the victim appear like a jerk.
Did Sarah forget her head scarf? Is it still up in the desk by the front? That would be awkward. Heh.
Also, is this another one of those “everyone in a hoodie dress except Sarah” days? Heh heh.
oh sarahhhh
well that plan failed
Oh, for crying out loud! Someone hug her already!
Failed the hate is not strong enough in this one…..
I’m sure she is doubly happy to be seated behind a blonde clone of Joyce.
I won’t be surprised if Jacob actually tries to talk to Sarah after the lesson just because he’s worried about her. I would be too: She looks like she’s going into a deep, dark ‘down’ phase to me!
He did say he would decide for himself who he wants to try and be friends with. If he really felt like being friends with Sarah at some point, I could totally see him going over to her with her book and scarf and trying to understand her.
At this point it should be pretty clear to him that she has trouble in social situations. He was already identifying it when he noticed that she only talked to Jacob when riffing on Joyce.
I’m glad she couldn’t go through with it based on getting back at Raidah. But, I do wish she could just go after him for the real reason, she likes him.
Somebody needs to hug her if they weren’t all scared to.
You mean this person?
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/guard/
You don’t become that way after only one semester of “my associates stopped liking me because I called my depressed roommate’s dad” and you just know THAT hug came with big-assed containers of cookies on top and SHE WASTED IT.
He can choose to be her therapist or he can choose to be her friend but, he can’t choose both and one cannot exist without the other.
Some people don’t like hugs from strangers. That’s fairly simple and understandable.
Ditto what Nightsbridge said. Also, how do you hold up that strip and say that Sarah is the one who’s wrong for not accepting the hug? Mike’s mother is CREEPY and she has no respect for boundaries. I get hella unnerved if people try to hug me when they just met me.
Ditto x2
Amber’s fine getting a hug from Mrs. Warner because she knows who she is. Sarah does not, and more importantly, Sarah doesn’t suddenly reject recovery because she didn’t want to be hugged by a stranger.
I can understand a person not wanting to be hugged by stranger but, there’s a proportion of response that’s appropriate.
She jumped straight past “Ma’am, please respect personal space” to “MA’AM, I WILL DEFEND MY PERSON WITH WEAPONS” without knowing anything other than Amber, who she knows and is standing right next her, just received a warm hug from the mother of Mike, who she also knows.
A hug is not a threat. THAT hug was not an attack.
Her response was extreme.
It was a joke based on comical exaggeration. It’s a webcomic, so sometimes the characters aren’t going to be acting fully within the limits of reality if it interferes with a good punchline, unless you think Sarah carries that bat with her everywhere.
Comedy aside, it was extreme.
Here’s contrast: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/halfbath/
Plus, the state of Sarah’s problems in Joyce’s dialog: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/break/
No, I don’t think she carries a bat everywhere but, she does have at the party. What kind of a person, apart from AG, shows up to a campus party with a weapon?
(AG is in the background already having a fight…)
She brought a weapon because she thought she’d need to pull Joyce out of a bad situation.
Which she had to.
By the way, that link with Joyce you had? At that point Sarah was just the grumpy curmudgeon of the cast, the same way Joyce was the ingenue, or Walky was just the dorky goofball. We know now that Sarah doesn’t consciously reject people; she does it because she’s been burned in the past.
At this point we are saying something similar but, it seems to be a little more than just ‘she’s been burned.’
It’s not natural to go to a party with a weapon after saying she wasn’t going to go.
A person goes to a party to dance. She went expecting a fight.
She went to the party because she was worried Joyce was going to be hurt by some raging asshole. This is outright stated.
Sarah is introverted, and because of her traumatic experience in her first year she’s all the less willing to open up to people. She pushes people away and decides that they can’t see any worth in her because that’s easier than accepting people can actually love her.
Having said that, Sarah’s allowed to respond negatively to any type of physical contact she doesn’t want.
Sings: Sarah, Sarah
Storms are brewin’ in your eyes . . .
Doing the right thing frequently feels awful.
Yeah, Jacob is half concerned, half worried about walking home alone in the dark.
Oh, Sarah, you poor thing…
Sarah you are breaking my heart right now.
Man Sarah is so so so bad at this
Sarah doesn’t really want to be a misanthrope.
In face, I think she wants to HIT a particular anthrope pretty bad.
It’s hard to use someone as a tool for revenge when you like them so much.
I think this is just solidifying in his mind that she’s the crazy bongo that Raidah said she was. And that makes me sad.
Mission aborded but not for the best.
The real question of interest here is why are those two girls in the first panel wearing the exact same outfit?
theyre part of the hoodie dress appreciation guild
There is a lot of sympathy on here for Sarah.
I say no way! Shes miserable, its her own making, and if she wants to change that then get some help and take responsibility.
But Jacob can do better than either of those girls, too.
I think it’s okay to feel bad for Sarah? I think it’s okay to say “man this situation sucks ass.” But I agree, this IS her own making. She didn’t just randomly happen into all this. She pushed Jacob away intentionally. She punched Raidah in the face that one time. I think the thing where she told her roomate’s dad that she was losing control of her life wasn’t a bad thing? I don’t feel like that was a mistake.
I dunno, he and Raidah have some great chemistry together. From Jacob’s perspective she’s a catch. I think that they could have a lovely relationship together.
I do want Jacob to confront her and for Sarah to reveal what happened between her and Raidah. I also really really want to see her try and explain her assault on Raidah.
Something like about this strip is that it’s not afraid to show the main characters as having actual issues, even if those issues are funny sometimes.
Like, Joyce is sometimes funny when she says hanky-panky, or talks about her beliefs. But it’s also clear that yes, she is repressed, and has issues.
Likewise with Sarah, it’s easy to have her be a “grumpy sourpuss who secretly cares about her friends,” but here we see that she is actually just kind of fundamentally messed up. Like, seriously, the act of smiling feels so fake to her that she had to retreat.
Like, another strip would have her being cheerful, and then everyone would be all “Aw Sarah, we miss the old you! You can be grumpy if you want!”
But I’d love to see the day where Sarah can actually talk to people like a normal human being.
Yeah, it’s weird to think of all the times problems people like Sarah have are depicted almost as non-issues in fiction. It’s what I appreciate the most about DoA, actually; it treats them as the real, damaging problems they are. There’s never any kind of cartoonish brushing aside of the characters’ issues.
It’s okay Sarah, you will eventually seduce him with your awkwardness.
Dear lord, the man is not a bleeping psychic; it’s enough that he sensed the disturbance in the force. They are not friends, and she’s made it pretty clear that personal questions are off the table. Fact is, he has a girl to focus his attention on, and the only reason he has to try to figure out Sarah is a genuine concern for her mental health. Even then, he’d probably ask Joyce what’s going on, rather than Sarah.