Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
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.
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.
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.
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“I’m sorry, sir. Bionic Pancreas™ went under, thus making it obsolete, as no one makes the insulin packs. it’ll be 6000 for the new installation plus the cost of the implant. “
I mean she said “my dad shacked up with this kid’s mom” but that’s vague enough in that it doesn’t specify if Faz was born before or after so she might know for all we know and just sticks to the step brother claim to keep distance. On the other hand, he might have said “our father” but that doesn’t necessarily mean he knows but rather that he just views Amber’s dad as a father figure. Basically we know nothing about what they know just from this strip lol
My guess is the divorce was probably three to five years ago. That’s about when the convenience store incident happened, and Amber was with Blaine at the time. When he showed up on Freshman Family Weekend, Amber said she hadn’t seen him in years.
The divorce might have happened before then – divisions of custody in divorces can get convoluted. It’s possible that Blaine only got to see Amber by driving her to school every morning. And maybe every other weekend.
Possible, but hinted against. Blaine seemed to have much more control over the aftermath than I would have expected if he only had partial visitation rights, rather than still being married. Got her into martial arts instead of therapy, for one thing.
Not sure how the “hadn’t seen him in years” bit matches Amber’s apparent familiarity and apparent (step)sibling relationship with Faz.
You know, we’ve met Danny’s parents, so I am not that sure why Danny ought to think much of family bonds, either.
Granted, on the DoA curve, talking down to Danny and being kind of shitty to him still gets them “above average parenting” compared to implicit racism, various forms of abuse, armed kidnapping, etc.
Also, Danny seems the type to think that the way things are for him is the way things are for everyone, or at least the way they should be. He’s certainly internalized his parents’ neglect.
Yeah, Danny’s internalized that enough that when his parents treat him like that, it’s his fault.
I’m sure he was exposed to other, better parents – Dorothy’s for example. But they treated her so well because Dorothy was so much better than him. It’s only reasonable.
wow. I actually prefer the faz comic to the sal+malaya ones. I did not think faz would ever be preferable to anything.
it’s probably because he’s got so little power here, compared to other characters (and compared to Walkyverse Faz). Amber is keeping him under control, so while he does make one want brain bleach, he’s not really looking like a *threat*.
also I’m really wanting to know why faz is here. I think. I may well regret this curiosity.
as for panel 5: oh danny, you sweet summer child. he’s still got that naive idealism… but in panel 6, he’s reminded of reality and he reacts like an adult.
>”also I’m really wanting to know why faz is here. I think. I may well regret this curiosity.”
Betcha it’s a completely emotionally devastating reason for everyone. Like “Faz’ mother died yesterday, so Faz decided to seek solace in the arms of another mature female. And by arms, Faz means…”
Sorry for not being clear enough last night. I blame sleep deprivation. For full disclosure, the wedding I mentioned is between my mother and her abuser, which is why it disgusts me. He’s a raging alcoholic, belittles her constantly, and while I was living there, referred to me as “that thing in the attic”, and would regularly threaten me to get her upset. We moved out, but the new living arrangement was unbearably volatile, so I’ve been staying with my brother.
When I said “not exactly invited”, it was in the sense that I was more or less given an ultimatum. I could go, or she’ll hold it against me like she holds her dad’s funeral against me. See, her family didn’t want her there at all, which I only found out the day of the actual funeral. I didn’t know what to tell her at the time, and a family friend wound up breaking the news. She blames it on me, despite me repeatedly apologising and going out of my way to make up for something that wasn’t even my decision.
So, to sum up: My mother is marrying her abuser, despite doing everything to escape him. I’m being guilted/threatened into going, on the grounds that I “lied about her dad’s funeral”, which wasn’t even the case, and despite repeatedly being told she wasn’t holding it against me. I’m probably still oversimplifying the situation.
Honestly, it sounds like it might just be best, for you, to cut ties entirely. Considering how she’s treating *you*, she’s also an abuser (of the emotional sort). Ultimately it’s all up to you, of course, but it sounds like you don’t need that sort of crap in your life.
maybe it would be less of a pain to just let her believe what she wants about you? it sounds like she’s committed to her questionable-at-best choices…
this seems like a question delicate enough to be worthy of Captain Awkward. (she’s probably sick of getting “do I really have to break up with the nazi” letters anyways )
Your grand-father’s extended family banished your mother from her own father’s funeral and she blames it on YOU? They’re terrible, she’s terrible, you don’t deserve this attitude because nobody does.
Look, I took abuse from my mother for years because I felt guilty about the way my father treated her. It accomplished exactly nothing but hurt me.
You tried to save her from her abuser, and it seems that living together was impossible afterwards.
I don’t know how to say it.
She needs to be saved from this guy, she needs to be saved from the idea that emotional abuse is OK (she uses it on you, she marries the guy who uses it on her), but you’re not the person for the job because she already decided that you were the type of human she gives orders to and not the one who gives orders to her.
Don’t go to the wedding. Announce you won’t go to the wedding. Mother will blame you forever if you don’t? Well, then I guess you will have to stop talking to each other forever.
TL;DR : She needs help, she’s already decided you’re not worthy enough to help her, there’s nothing you can do to change that, let her go (she won’t), make her go.
You weigh the issues that will arise from not going against how much you don’t want to show support for her decision.
Also you need to focus on what you need to do to get to solid ground first before you even ask yourself if you want to try and help her out and if you can without risking being pulled back in.
I say don’t go. You have done more than enough emotional labour for your mother over something that wasn’t your fault and if you don’t want to go, don’t.
Inahc’s suggestion of writing to or reading CaptainAwkward’s previous responses could also help as they give an impression and idea of how to deal with things generally and ways to respond.
I think #1067 would be partially helpful as it deals with a similar kind of attitude and for some of the scripts you could switch tense to present and funeral to wedding.
I’m still going back and forth on how I feel about Amber using the Silver Age spelling over the Golden Age one. Because I’m a horrible pedant. Or maybe a really good pedant. Pedantry is hard.
It reveals unto us which version Willis (and I [*]) grew up with. We can use this somehow for blackmail purposes, and/or ask about getting a Mxy-expy into the Transformers canon and/or wiki!
–Dave, and which pronunciations do you prefer? (I think it may be the 5D equivalent of gender?)
[*] sold my comics collection just over 20 years ago. can STILL babble on to you for hours about Silver-Age-up-through-about-Crisis-on-Inf-Earths DC multiversal happenings and history, though mostly not Batman.
This is terrifying. If Faz weren’t here, Amber wouldn’t have needed Danny’s help, and probably would’ve continued avoiding him, so the two of them wouldn’t be talking right now.
Consequently, I… I think I might actually be… *glad* that Faz showed up
…. Okay, I recommend a vacation of a minimum of two weeks. Focus on calm and relaxation, not excitement, in a peaceful, non-frenetic environment. No stimulants beyond routine caffeine intake, keep alcohol consumption down to no more than two drinks per day, moderate exercise, and full nights of sleep. Avoid anything that might enrage or frustrate or aggravate you, including news, youtube comments sections, and contact with annoying step-brothers.
Ahh, we have clarification. So Blaine in this universe has no direct genetic relationship with Faz. … That we know of yet, anyway. I wouldn’t put it past Willis to pull a twist on us saying that Faz IS directly related to Amber.
Is a genetic relationship really necessary? Faz still considers Blaine to be his father (Amber’s corrected him with ‘step-!’ at least once), and has probably absorbed a little of his hateful emotional abuse over the years. It may be connected to his behavior.
Yeah, Faz is fifteen, nearly sixteen. Amber is eighteen. When Faz was conceived she was about two. But there are assorted indications that she remembers her father abusing her mother from when she was an older age than that, besides which he was still in a position to make her get self-defence lessons instead of counselling after she stabbed Sal. Which certainly happened when she was older than two. So Blaine was still married to Stacey when Faz was conceived.
Last time we saw Alex, I was a confused gender questioner, but now I’m pretty close to sure I’m full trans girl. It’s so affirming to read a comic with multiple trans (maybe Alex, depending which theory we ascribe to) characters, each with a real personality!
Leslie has, as I recall, called out Bulmeria (the country which this Alex claimed the “old Alex” supposedly fled to) in this comic as “not being a real country”, so that’s a possible point in favor of them being the same individual? Dumbing of Ageis set in “our” universe, after all.
And yeah, either way this Alex has been confirmed to be trans, as she’s based off someone Willis knows in person who came out as trans a while back.
I don’t think he ever said that? He said he’s not altering peoples’ sexuality across universes, but that’s not entirely the same thing – and he’s already stated on tumblr before that Faz and Amber are not related by blood – and neither are they related to Zaph, Rose, or any other of Blaine’s Walkyverse kids.
I don’t think Mxy is particularly obscure. He’s been in Superfriends, Superman TAS, Lois & Clark, Smallville, Supergirl, and the one of the Lego Batman video games. So, basically every non-movie, non-comic media he could appear in.
Just out of curiosity, how much is added/lost by reading the other Dumbiverse strips? My first thought is to leave them alone for now, and let DOA unfold on its own, with occasional asides/insights from the comments.
AFAIK, only the Slipshine comics are canon to the DoA, and don’t contain any earth-shattering revalations. Slipshines are the payoffs for stuff that needs an agegate.
while the Walkyverse comics share characters with DoA, those characters are in different circumstances and conditions. e.g. W!Joyce and W!Walky were almost immediately smitten with one another, whereas here they are friends, with different love interests. Becky is original to this comic, and i think Dorothy is too, but bled over to Shortpacked briefly when Shortpacked! was still updating regularly.
Some is gained from reading the Walkiverse strips, but they’re not necessary. Orientations are the same in both universes, but familial relationships can be different. The personalities can be the similar in both versions, but sometimes they are very different. If you read the Walkiverse strips, you will probably detest Danny.
If you have time to binge, go ahead and do it. There will be some cringe-worthy moments. But 1. it shows you how Willis has grown over the years, which may 2. remind you how you have grown over years, and will continue to do so, and 3. you’ll get jokes in DoA that call back to walkiverse strips.
The early stuff is pretty rough, but there are definite moments of brilliance in It’s Walky!.
Shortpacked! can be a mixed bag, depending on whether you like both the random industry/culture jokes and the character arcs, but is overall very good. Without the cringy parts of the early years.
Reading Roomies!/It’s Walky! with the modern commentary, much of which is Willis going “What was I thinking?” makes it a little easier to take.
Something serious has actually happened. Like he found out their related and doesn’t know how to say it. Or his Mom’s going into the hospital. But he’s still Faz deep down and very young. You gotta remember the original Faz dreamed his absentee father was a space man, it’s just how he works. He’s like an awkward oversharing Star Lord.
You know, I kind of figured there would be fifty comments about this rare lapse already, but… last word is misspelled. It’s “acquittal.” And now back to being up in my eyeballs proofing my own stuff…
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Does Faz really deserve to be acquitted?
Repeat offender.
…And now I feel obliged to look up some Richard Marx. Anybody for “Don’t Mean Nothing”?
No it don’ mean nothin’
The words that they say
No it don’ mean nothin’
The games that people play
No it don’ mean nothin’
No victim, no crime
No it don’ mean nothin’
‘Till you sign it on the dotted line
He should at least be tried as a juvenile.
I don’t know, he’s being going around asking women to “try me as an adult” all day.
The one thing we can agree on is that he sure as hell is trying.
And that he’s guilty of being a juvenile.
Faz is gonna save America.
Faz! The president we deserve.
Faz sat quietly through the whole class, and didn’t move or speak for 45 minutes. Yet he still managed to commit sexual harassment 67 times.
What can I say? The boy has a gift.
THIS is why internet-enabled implants must never happen.
…. well, this and a zillion other reasons.
Another reason?
“I’m sorry, sir. Bionic Pancreas™ went under, thus making it obsolete, as no one makes the insulin packs. it’ll be 6000 for the new installation plus the cost of the implant. “
How has Amber managed to not kill him yet?
She tried, but he just got up afterwards muttering something that sounded like “There can only be one.”
She would have to see her father again, it’s the only thing saving that boys life.
That *would* explain why I can’t usually change things.
Dear God, we’re bringing back the old Amber /Faz dynamic are we ?
Well, at least they already know they’re related, so we can skip to like 9 years into shortpacked.
Can we have Drunk Mike now, then?
I think Faz knows they’re related, as he has corrected her saying “OUR father” before. But I don’t think Amber knows.
I think this will be the storyline where Amber finds out her father had been cheating on her mother for years before the divorce.
I mean she said “my dad shacked up with this kid’s mom” but that’s vague enough in that it doesn’t specify if Faz was born before or after so she might know for all we know and just sticks to the step brother claim to keep distance. On the other hand, he might have said “our father” but that doesn’t necessarily mean he knows but rather that he just views Amber’s dad as a father figure. Basically we know nothing about what they know just from this strip lol
Unless the author changed his mind, Amber is Blaine’s only biological child.
http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/21013138638/so-is-ambers-dad-still-have-a-bevy-of-children
My guess is the divorce was probably three to five years ago. That’s about when the convenience store incident happened, and Amber was with Blaine at the time. When he showed up on Freshman Family Weekend, Amber said she hadn’t seen him in years.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/paid-2/
Whether Blaine and Stacy lived separately before the paperwork was filed remains to be seen.
The divorce might have happened before then – divisions of custody in divorces can get convoluted. It’s possible that Blaine only got to see Amber by driving her to school every morning. And maybe every other weekend.
Possible, but hinted against. Blaine seemed to have much more control over the aftermath than I would have expected if he only had partial visitation rights, rather than still being married. Got her into martial arts instead of therapy, for one thing.
Not sure how the “hadn’t seen him in years” bit matches Amber’s apparent familiarity and apparent (step)sibling relationship with Faz.
I don’t think they are related – other than the step-relationship.
As for the correction: When Amber said “My dad”
Faz said “Father does not care”
And Amber corrected him “Not your dad. My dad. Your step-dad”
I suppose Faz could have been hinting at Amber’s “my dad” being the
same as his Father, but it’s far from clear.
Unless it’s a different correction you were thinking of?
Hopefully not all of it. I’m hoping Faz doesn’t have a romantic/sexual interest in Amber like he did in the Walkyverse.
We’ve seen no sign of it. And it’s not like he hasn’t been completely upfront about sexual interest in damn near everything else that moves.
“oh, right.”
She would have to see her father again, it’s the only thing saving that boys life.
You know, we’ve met Danny’s parents, so I am not that sure why Danny ought to think much of family bonds, either.
Granted, on the DoA curve, talking down to Danny and being kind of shitty to him still gets them “above average parenting” compared to implicit racism, various forms of abuse, armed kidnapping, etc.
Danny has an older brother who’s been mentioned a time or two in the comic.
Betcha a nickle he’s just as bad as his parents.
Also, Danny seems the type to think that the way things are for him is the way things are for everyone, or at least the way they should be. He’s certainly internalized his parents’ neglect.
Yeah, Danny’s internalized that enough that when his parents treat him like that, it’s his fault.
I’m sure he was exposed to other, better parents – Dorothy’s for example. But they treated her so well because Dorothy was so much better than him. It’s only reasonable.
wow. I actually prefer the faz comic to the sal+malaya ones. I did not think faz would ever be preferable to anything.
it’s probably because he’s got so little power here, compared to other characters (and compared to Walkyverse Faz). Amber is keeping him under control, so while he does make one want brain bleach, he’s not really looking like a *threat*.
also I’m really wanting to know why faz is here. I think. I may well regret this curiosity.
as for panel 5: oh danny, you sweet summer child.
he’s still got that naive idealism… but in panel 6, he’s reminded of reality and he reacts like an adult. 
“wow. I actually prefer the faz comic to the sal+malaya ones. I did not think faz would ever be preferable to anything.”
Could this possibly be because Faz doesn’t get to say anything in this strip?
quite possibly.
>”also I’m really wanting to know why faz is here. I think. I may well regret this curiosity.”
Betcha it’s a completely emotionally devastating reason for everyone. Like “Faz’ mother died yesterday, so Faz decided to seek solace in the arms of another mature female. And by arms, Faz means…”
We need to quantify this preference in a chart.
Why’s Danny being all “family first” here? His family hates him!
(Okay maybe they don’t hate him, but they’ve almost certainly emotionally abused him…)
he hasn’t figured that out yet. :/
As the saying goes, we accept the love we think we deserve
Sorry for not being clear enough last night. I blame sleep deprivation. For full disclosure, the wedding I mentioned is between my mother and her abuser, which is why it disgusts me. He’s a raging alcoholic, belittles her constantly, and while I was living there, referred to me as “that thing in the attic”, and would regularly threaten me to get her upset. We moved out, but the new living arrangement was unbearably volatile, so I’ve been staying with my brother.
When I said “not exactly invited”, it was in the sense that I was more or less given an ultimatum. I could go, or she’ll hold it against me like she holds her dad’s funeral against me. See, her family didn’t want her there at all, which I only found out the day of the actual funeral. I didn’t know what to tell her at the time, and a family friend wound up breaking the news. She blames it on me, despite me repeatedly apologising and going out of my way to make up for something that wasn’t even my decision.
So, to sum up: My mother is marrying her abuser, despite doing everything to escape him. I’m being guilted/threatened into going, on the grounds that I “lied about her dad’s funeral”, which wasn’t even the case, and despite repeatedly being told she wasn’t holding it against me. I’m probably still oversimplifying the situation.
Honestly, it sounds like it might just be best, for you, to cut ties entirely. Considering how she’s treating *you*, she’s also an abuser (of the emotional sort). Ultimately it’s all up to you, of course, but it sounds like you don’t need that sort of crap in your life.
:/ shitty.
maybe it would be less of a pain to just let her believe what she wants about you? it sounds like she’s committed to her questionable-at-best choices…
this seems like a question delicate enough to be worthy of Captain Awkward. (she’s probably sick of getting “do I really have to break up with the nazi” letters anyways
)
ooh, and she is accepting questions at the moment! https://captainawkward.com/ask-a-question/
here’s a partially relevant thing: https://captainawkward.com/2017/10/11/1031-mom-is-pressuring-me-to-have-relationship-with-abusive-dad-because-hes-my-dad/
another partially relevant one: https://captainawkward.com/2017/06/22/981-watching-from-the-sidelines-in-horror-how-do-i-be-a-supportive-friend-to-my-friend-whos-involved-with-tfg/
OK, I have exactly one piece of advice for you.
Get out of these nonsensical family ties.
Your grand-father’s extended family banished your mother from her own father’s funeral and she blames it on YOU? They’re terrible, she’s terrible, you don’t deserve this attitude because nobody does.
Look, I took abuse from my mother for years because I felt guilty about the way my father treated her. It accomplished exactly nothing but hurt me.
You tried to save her from her abuser, and it seems that living together was impossible afterwards.
I don’t know how to say it.
She needs to be saved from this guy, she needs to be saved from the idea that emotional abuse is OK (she uses it on you, she marries the guy who uses it on her), but you’re not the person for the job because she already decided that you were the type of human she gives orders to and not the one who gives orders to her.
Don’t go to the wedding. Announce you won’t go to the wedding. Mother will blame you forever if you don’t? Well, then I guess you will have to stop talking to each other forever.
TL;DR : She needs help, she’s already decided you’re not worthy enough to help her, there’s nothing you can do to change that, let her go (she won’t), make her go.
Please be well.
You’re probably right. All of you are, I just needed to see it in writing, I think.
You weigh the issues that will arise from not going against how much you don’t want to show support for her decision.
Also you need to focus on what you need to do to get to solid ground first before you even ask yourself if you want to try and help her out and if you can without risking being pulled back in.
I say don’t go. You have done more than enough emotional labour for your mother over something that wasn’t your fault and if you don’t want to go, don’t.
Inahc’s suggestion of writing to or reading CaptainAwkward’s previous responses could also help as they give an impression and idea of how to deal with things generally and ways to respond.
I think #1067 would be partially helpful as it deals with a similar kind of attitude and for some of the scripts you could switch tense to present and funeral to wedding.
“Who ever has any Objections to this Union”
She knows you do, yet shes coercing you to go.
( she subconsciously hoped you will break up the wedding?)
Do it. Go , break up the wedding.
lest there be any doubt, you can tell her inadvance.
I don’t think they say that all the time–or even often–anymore.
But if they do at this particular wedding, I don’t see that making things better.
One day someone is going to have to seek a better answer than “Hell if I know” to a cogent and possibly important question.
Unfortunately that is the primary way things are done here in DoA, I can’t see that changing in the future.
It’s in the title, all things considered.
Quick, Amber! Trick him into saying his name backward!
They encounter Zaph and Rose on the way back to the dorms. Zaph and Faz introduce themselves to each other, then disappear in a puff of smoke.
This is why I try to stay away from puffs of smoke
I’m still going back and forth on how I feel about Amber using the Silver Age spelling over the Golden Age one. Because I’m a horrible pedant. Or maybe a really good pedant. Pedantry is hard.
It reveals unto us which version Willis (and I [*]) grew up with. We can use this somehow for blackmail purposes, and/or ask about getting a Mxy-expy into the Transformers canon and/or wiki!
–Dave, and which pronunciations do you prefer? (I think it may be the 5D equivalent of gender?)
[*] sold my comics collection just over 20 years ago. can STILL babble on to you for hours about Silver-Age-up-through-about-Crisis-on-Inf-Earths DC multiversal happenings and history, though mostly not Batman.
Have we met Ambers real father yet in DoA?
Yes, that was Blaine. Step-brother means Blaine isn’t Faz’s real father, just to nip that retread in the bud.
Too late.
Yes, he came and visited her in an earlier arc along with gas and got kicked out for not being on the dorm approved list.
This is terrifying. If Faz weren’t here, Amber wouldn’t have needed Danny’s help, and probably would’ve continued avoiding him, so the two of them wouldn’t be talking right now.
Consequently, I… I think I might actually be… *glad* that Faz showed up
…..
…. Okay, I recommend a vacation of a minimum of two weeks. Focus on calm and relaxation, not excitement, in a peaceful, non-frenetic environment. No stimulants beyond routine caffeine intake, keep alcohol consumption down to no more than two drinks per day, moderate exercise, and full nights of sleep. Avoid anything that might enrage or frustrate or aggravate you, including news, youtube comments sections, and contact with annoying step-brothers.
It would appeal to Faz’s sense of vanity that he is the key to solving some, if not all, of his sister’s problems.
Alex!
#GiveAlexBlueHair
#GiveAlexaWidowmakerSkin
You gotta have blue hair.
-Strong Bad
On the other hand, Amber, the LESS he is family, the MORE likely he is to consider you a sexual prospect.
So, is Faz the sort of kid who asks dumb questions or is he likely to hit on Alex if Amber isn’t threatening his immediate health and safety?
Faz will ask questions no one has ever asked before, that will make you reconsider the boundaries of “dumb.” And then he will hit on Alex.
Wait, you mean he WOULDN’T hit on Alex if Amber wasn’t physically restraining him, bodily harm be damned?
Ahh, we have clarification. So Blaine in this universe has no direct genetic relationship with Faz. … That we know of yet, anyway. I wouldn’t put it past Willis to pull a twist on us saying that Faz IS directly related to Amber.
I suspect there still is a generic relationship, but Amber hasn’t figured it out yet.
Per an old tumblr post linked above, Amber is his only biological child.
Is a genetic relationship really necessary? Faz still considers Blaine to be his father (Amber’s corrected him with ‘step-!’ at least once), and has probably absorbed a little of his hateful emotional abuse over the years. It may be connected to his behavior.
That’s good advice for all these people, Alex.
Come to think of it, it’s good advice for basically everyone.
OH,>>>I missed thiS comics Subtext<<
Everytime Danny makes Amber say "stepbrother" or "family ties" , Amber has to remember Joe is going to be her other step brother
Of course, then Danny’s going to need extra reminders why Amber’s not thrilled.
dannys First thought: ‘If I marry Amber , Joe and I will be brothers’
Amber’s threat rattled Faz so much that he referred to himself in the first person.
Alex!! c:
(nice choker)
in some strips i am just amber
Trick him into saying his name backwards!
By introducing him to Zaph!
Amber isn’t exactly Sierra-level cheery all by herself, but Faz has accomplished the feat of putting a perpetual grimace on Amber’s face.
I’m glad to see Alex looking so happy and peaceful! (Also, I’m glad to see Alex!)
Wouldn’t that make Faz her Half Brother, not Step Brother,
..Mario Brothers….I don’t know why I said that
The way I’m reading it “shacked up with this kid’s mom” means “shacked up with the woman who was already this kids mom from a previous relationship”/
Yeah, Faz is fifteen, nearly sixteen. Amber is eighteen. When Faz was conceived she was about two. But there are assorted indications that she remembers her father abusing her mother from when she was an older age than that, besides which he was still in a position to make her get self-defence lessons instead of counselling after she stabbed Sal. Which certainly happened when she was older than two. So Blaine was still married to Stacey when Faz was conceived.
Playing Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” on the hacked Muzak.
Last time we saw Alex, I was a confused gender questioner, but now I’m pretty close to sure I’m full trans girl. It’s so affirming to read a comic with multiple trans (maybe Alex, depending which theory we ascribe to) characters, each with a real personality!
IIRC from the first time we saw this Alex, while it’s deliberately unclear whether she’s the same person as the old Alex, she’s definitely trans.
Leslie has, as I recall, called out Bulmeria (the country which this Alex claimed the “old Alex” supposedly fled to) in this comic as “not being a real country”, so that’s a possible point in favor of them being the same individual? Dumbing of Age is set in “our” universe, after all.
And yeah, either way this Alex has been confirmed to be trans, as she’s based off someone Willis knows in person who came out as trans a while back.
So Faz is canonically not Amber’s half-brother in the Dumbiverse? Or is part of the acquittal ignoring that they are half-siblings?
Amber is Blaine’s only biological child.
They are step siblings. Related by marriage,and share no biological traits. This has been addressed
I don’t think that’s possible because Willis has said he’s not altering people’s DNA across universes.
I don’t think he ever said that? He said he’s not altering peoples’ sexuality across universes, but that’s not entirely the same thing – and he’s already stated on tumblr before that Faz and Amber are not related by blood – and neither are they related to Zaph, Rose, or any other of Blaine’s Walkyverse kids.
Where has he said that?
Does that include the Walkerton’s Martian DNA?
Somehow I doubt it.
He has specifically said that Faz isn’t Blaine’s bio-kid. Needfuldoer cited it above, so thanks to them for finding it: http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/21013138638/so-is-ambers-dad-still-have-a-bevy-of-children
It’s possible he’s changed his mind on that, but it seems less than entirely likely.
That exchange between Amber and Danny in the last two panels was really cathartic to read.
It sort of reminds you that Danny is a geek because he gets what is actually a moderately-obscure Superman reference.
I don’t think Mxy is particularly obscure. He’s been in Superfriends, Superman TAS, Lois & Clark, Smallville, Supergirl, and the one of the Lego Batman video games. So, basically every non-movie, non-comic media he could appear in.
And Superboy,with Michael J Pollard in the role he was born to play.
Just out of curiosity, how much is added/lost by reading the other Dumbiverse strips? My first thought is to leave them alone for now, and let DOA unfold on its own, with occasional asides/insights from the comments.
AFAIK, only the Slipshine comics are canon to the DoA, and don’t contain any earth-shattering revalations. Slipshines are the payoffs for stuff that needs an agegate.
while the Walkyverse comics share characters with DoA, those characters are in different circumstances and conditions. e.g. W!Joyce and W!Walky were almost immediately smitten with one another, whereas here they are friends, with different love interests. Becky is original to this comic, and i think Dorothy is too, but bled over to Shortpacked briefly when Shortpacked! was still updating regularly.
Becky and Dorothy first appeared in Joyce&Walky – which was behind a paywll for a long time. Might still be.
Well before appearing here or in SP!.
Some is gained from reading the Walkiverse strips, but they’re not necessary. Orientations are the same in both universes, but familial relationships can be different. The personalities can be the similar in both versions, but sometimes they are very different. If you read the Walkiverse strips, you will probably detest Danny.
If you have time to binge, go ahead and do it. There will be some cringe-worthy moments. But 1. it shows you how Willis has grown over the years, which may 2. remind you how you have grown over years, and will continue to do so, and 3. you’ll get jokes in DoA that call back to walkiverse strips.
The early stuff is pretty rough, but there are definite moments of brilliance in It’s Walky!.
Shortpacked! can be a mixed bag, depending on whether you like both the random industry/culture jokes and the character arcs, but is overall very good. Without the cringy parts of the early years.
Reading Roomies!/It’s Walky! with the modern commentary, much of which is Willis going “What was I thinking?” makes it a little easier to take.
Something serious has actually happened. Like he found out their related and doesn’t know how to say it. Or his Mom’s going into the hospital. But he’s still Faz deep down and very young. You gotta remember the original Faz dreamed his absentee father was a space man, it’s just how he works. He’s like an awkward oversharing Star Lord.
So they aren’t half siblings in this universe, or does she just not know that yet?
Aww, Alex as a self-care focused teacher is beautiful.
And yes, Amber, I feel you so much on the family love expectation thing.
As the song goes:
Can I get an amen? (Amen!)
Can I get an amen? (Amen!)
If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?
I… got introduced (or maybe re-introduced) to Alex by this comic, and she is a lovely lady.
What class is this anyway…..?
A110, Introduction to Computers and Computer Science
You know, I kind of figured there would be fifty comments about this rare lapse already, but… last word is misspelled. It’s “acquittal.” And now back to being up in my eyeballs proofing my own stuff…