A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
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.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
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.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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Very likely. Now when Ruth is doing better she can’t use her as an excuse to skip classes. OOOOOPS, TURN OUT WALKY NEEDS A FRIEND TO NAVIGATE HIM THROUGH THIS DIFFICULT TIMES. TO THE MURDER CAVE TO DRINK ROCKET FUEL!!!
I think she’s going from “I’ll badmouth her a bit to make this seem better” (and perhaps letting out some restrained irritation at Dorothy) to “ooooops, fucked that up, better change tack fast”.
I personally read it as “deliberately over casual?” Like, when one is Tough and Cool, the acceptable levels of overt emotional display are low, so comforting someone in distress often involves intense sideways glances as one attempts to read the level of distress without looking directly at them or indicating that you are in any way worried.
I do notice that in contrast to her appearance of not caring before, Joyce does appear sympathetic here. Wonder what’ll come of that, especially since Joyce is… marginally more tactful than Billie?
Surprised no one mentioned Johny. And if we bring in everyone’s favorite breakup experts Ben and Jerry we can make milk shakes as well as bad decisions. Although combining some of the aforementioned with some flavors of icecream is a bad decision unto itself (Tequila cookie dough strikes me as a particularly bad combination.)
I mean, do we know how many serious relationships Billie had pre-Ruth? Especially since Alice seemed to be much less of a formal relationship due to Billie’s internalized biphobia, and who knows if Walky actually realized they were a thing at all. Certainly Billie responded to seeing/being confronted by Alice again badly, since that spurred the initial sexy lesbian suicide pact.
… Yeah for all we know Billie might not know how to handle a breakup any better than Walky. At least not of a serious relationship.
Walky definitely knows Billie and Alice were banging. He joked about how being a drama hurricane was apparently sexually transmissible (implying Alice caught it from Billie. Or vice versa).
Thank you! Yeah that definitely means that he knew, and now that I checked he witnessed the ‘I cut off contact over the summer to BREAK UP because you have a serious problem and are endangering people’ speech. So uh yeah, one breakup we know she had and he saw was seriously ugly.
I dunno if it’s reading this comic or real life but ” breaking up and no longer willing to talk to someone ” does not rank under “ugly breakup” to me. Ugly starts somewhere around “talking seriously bad about the other person to all and sundry” (venting to selected friends doesn’t count), works it way down with “intentionally telling lies about the other person to make them look bad” (i.e. the talker actually knows they are lies, not talking about the two side of the coin that look incredibly different), and from there on spirals downward into intentionally hurting, stalking, …
Breaking up and no longer willing to talk says “stayed in far too long” to me.
Which would be a coward’s breakup Billie had reason to resent, but still there’s some space still before “ugly”.
Or maybe you have a word that goes beyond ugly you can use for worse?
I generally use ‘ugly’ to refer to any unpleasant break up or post breakup interaction, yeah. Seems like different uses.
It seems like the fight in the lunchroom was confirmation for Billie that they didn’t just fall out of touch but Alice didn’t want her anymore and cut her off. So, sort of like a break up?
Sort of like a break up sounds right. Because it was sort of like a relationship.
But not an acknowledged one and probably more serious on Alice’s side. Or possibly Billie was just in denial. Couldn’t actually be dating a girl, just fooling around with her friend, like girls do.
And probably having drunken sex with boys all along.
For me it’s the ‘saying all of this in public, with friends around, including that detail about the drunken car accident that New Friend probably doesn’t know about’ combined with the ‘cut you off without explicitly telling you we were broken up* and you apparently didn’t realize this’ thing. Neither Billie nor Alice comes off particularly well from that detail.
* Granted, we’re pretty sure there was some serious ambiguity about that relationship, but since Alice was invested enough to say she thought she loved Billie, still not a good way to do things.
I’m not sure if he’s saying Billie isn’t good at breakup counseling or if he’s saying he will take 10.000 h to be good at not being with Dorothy.
Or both.
(And you know the saying that if you learn a new instrument (or craft) , you have to invest 10.000 h in practice to become good at it?)
I thought he was joking that Billie had had 10,000 breakups, so that’s why she was good at it.
Just, like, as a kind of mean banter to undermine her tone of superiority (and also because she seemed to be annoying him)
I mean, Billie /is/ doing a terrible job, and she’s also always assuming that her guidance is good because of her experience — so Walky’s comment is, like, poking at that presumption, /because/ she’s being so unhelpful and condescending?
LOL the more I try to explain myself the more complicated it seems, but it really does make sense in my head. o.O
I’m not sure what activity Walky is referring to practicing for 10000 hours to master, whether it’s for Billie or himself but I think she’s not the most helpful person right now.
Ah. That makes a bit more sense. Billie has said two negative things about the breakup/Dorothy already and it’s only been a few seconds.
Imagine what more she can say over the next few hours.
I feel really bad for Walky and he seems to be in a bad place, but his disgruntled faces are pleasing to me. I don’t know why; they’re just so fun to look at…
honestly as bad as dorothy THINKS she was for walky (cause how hard he started working for her) she was really the opposite. i hope they get back together for both teir same; -;
I think they both have individual issues that need confronting before they can get back together or date someone else,* but yeah they both brought out good sides in each other and could be a really good long-term pair.
* Dorothy: leisure is not frivolous, it’s a necessity. You cannot literally do everything, all the time, but you also can’t go full-force to the detriment of your hygiene, sleep, eating habits, and physical and mental well-being. There’s more than one path to the presidency and/or Yale and Smarting Harder until you succeed probably isn’t the best one. (And even then, it doesn’t matter that you’re the perfect candidate on paper because Other People will always be tricky. Keep dreaming, just know that like, people suck.)
Walky: OH DEAR GOD THAT SELF-ESTEEM/SELF-WORTH VIA EFFORTLESS ACADEMIC SUCCESS. Basically the Dorothy thing was a double-edged sword because while she inspired him to act better, she also inadvertently reinforced some of his underlying thinking he was garbage. This is actually the one that I think really needs to get dealt with before they get back together for long-term working out rather than just ‘Dorothy You’re Gonna Burn Out, Stop.’
Dorothy also needs to work on her thing of setting boundaries and then casually blowing through them. Which ties into your “leisure is not frivolous” point, but isn’t quite the same.
Also, good to know that Walky told one sister he and his girlfriend broke up, and that one sister can express concern for his emotional well-being. Also explains why she wasn’t concerned he was missing class today, habit of skipping aside – this is his first major breakup, and if he was already in a bad headspace wrt this class, it would not help at all.
Ah, that makes sense. She knew about the pause, assumed it was actually a break up. Probably knows nothing about the pause being a lie or the actual break up that followed, but she’s checking in on him anyway, because she already thought it was a break up.
More I think that Dorothy had proven to herself that she couldn’t stick with the “pause”. Because she’s bad at sticking to the kinds of limits she thinks she needs to set.
Mind you, I’m not convinced the break will go any better for her than the pause did.
Billie’s thoughts: “Okay, how can I make Walky understand how little I think of him? What’s the worst thing I can say in a breakup?”
Billie’s mouth: “She was the best thing that’ll ever happen to you.”
Billie’s thoughts: “A good start, yes… but I can do better. What if she thinks the world of her? Then he might think he can still get a girl who’s almost as good as her, someone who’s still pretty good. I’ve got to crush that hope immediately. And also belittle him for liking her in the first place.”
Billie’s mouth: “Not that she was that great or anything!”
I’m a bit surprised. I was hoping Billie would actually try to support Walky during this time, but I actually didn’t think it would happen.
Though she’s not doing a good job of it, I’m glad she’s trying.
It is quite common for people to most strongly object to perceived flaws in others that are in fact their own flaws. Freud called it projection. Freud was an ass, but a very smart ass.
A prime example these days is known for his orange hair.
Sheltered, pampered, nag? Words that could describe Billie too. While I do think Dorothy has a problem with workoholism Billie has a real problem with alcoholism and wouldn’t even be there if Jason looked the other way.
You know, I really want to know what the gossip chain looked like leading up to this point. I’m guessing that Joyce told Sal but I can’t help wonder if she got told off for being a bit too gleeful about it. I’m basing that on her expression in panel 2.
The combination of her reflexive dislike for Walky’s life attitude and her jealousy about his relationship with Dorothy makes most of Joyce’s reactions to Walky fairly uncool.
She looks best when standing next to… well, Toedad and Roz and (in his uglier moments) Joe. When otherwise besides most of the other main characters… eh. Her best quality aside from that is managing to coax Sarah outside of her shell.
I mean, when Billie comes off as more well-adjusted than you half the time…
She’s certainly not well-adjusted. She’s got a ton of nasty baggage from her religious upbringing. She’s got serious boundary issues.
OTOH, we’ve seen her drop that baggage basically as fast as she’s seen it hurt an actual person. She’s fiercely protective of friends and family of choice – which she’s perhaps too intent on expanding.
Everyone in this comic is messed up in their own way and I like all of them for it. (Other than the outright villains, of course.)
Yeah, Joyce has definite Issues with over-familiarity and boundaries, but at the same time she does legitimately seem to be working on them a bit. Slowly, but a lifetime of relatively limited social opportunities and probably pretty rapidly changing what contacts she had takes a while to readjust, plus whatever stuff she absorbed from church. (Remember, boundaries mean nothing to Jesus, Joyce was homeschooled, and her family changed churches regularly. She probably adopted some of this as a way to make new friends quick.) And she has a LOT of good qualities, as mentioned.
Walky… is it possible that Dorothy dumped you because you weren’t… experience enough? That you didn’t know how to please her enough? Not enough time in the sack to know what to do?
And Billie just confirmed that. You do need to do something for 10,000 hours to be good at that. And Billie just offered to help…
Dorothy has never been one to sugarcoat or lie to her friends and loved ones, so why would she have not brought this up? At what point has any evidence for this come up?
The 10,000 hours stuff is nonsense. I’ve played nearly that much basketball and am still no good. Uncorrectible eye issues, poor coordination, a bad knee. Practice doesn’t make perfect, especially if it is poorly conducted.
I’m glad the Dorothy/Walky relationship is dead. Because it really does open up new avenues and stories for the characters. Dorothy has been kind of a dead end character arc for a while and this will force her to examine elements of her life and personality. Walky too.
a plague has hit our house
both children singing billie eilish's "what was i made for" but entirely in "meows"
we can't get them to stop
it's been weeks
please send help
The plantation burning reminds me of when the residential school burnt down in Shubenacadie.
I was very young. Not understanding why we were all there watching a scary looking building burning. Cars lined up all over both sides of the road. It seemed like the entire rez population (1)
Someone is citing the MA constitutional provision explicitly allowing the state to impede federal marshals enforcing the fugitive slave act, DAMN the average citizen is radicalized
you’re laughing. the largest antebellum plantation house burned down & there are brides who will not get to spiritually absorb the poisoned spectral energy of the land for their big day, & you’re laughing.
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
Dana Simpson 
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poor walky
Billie means well, but yowch.
Does she mean well, though? Or does she mean to use Walky’s breakup as an excuse to ditch class and get smashed.
why not both
She doesn’t need an excuse, she was perfectly capable of coming up with one herself a few strips ago.
What she needs is someone whose shoulders she can sit on while wearing a trench coat and a false mustache. That’s what Walky is for.
THIS! This made me spit out my morning coffee.
I’m a little concerned about Billie’s motives, not gonna lie.
They’re gonna skip all the rest of their classes and get completely smashed.
Very likely. Now when Ruth is doing better she can’t use her as an excuse to skip classes. OOOOOPS, TURN OUT WALKY NEEDS A FRIEND TO NAVIGATE HIM THROUGH THIS DIFFICULT TIMES. TO THE MURDER CAVE TO DRINK ROCKET FUEL!!!
Billie saying someone’s girlfriend wasn’t as good as they think. Glass houses.
Considering how they started off, I don’t think Billie was ever in a stage of thinking that about Ruth.
Considering how they started off, I don’t think Billie has ever stopped thinking of Wally as her not-my-boyfriend.
this could be good for walky?
I feel like billies help is beer
Not helpful enough. Dr. Billie proscribes at least 40 proof worth of help.
she could recognize drinking wouldnt help
And she’ll demostrate it first-hand.
Walky is now learning the life lesson: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. All that worrying about depressed Billie? Now it comes back to bite him.
I really hope Billie sticks around for a bit so Walky can really get going.
Also: Hella side-eye from Sal, goddamn.
I’m having trouble reading her expression here. Is she being aloof? Is she angry? And if the latter, wonder why.
My best guess is she somehow knew he was behind her and is suspicious what’s up.
I can’t imagine she hasn’t noticed Walky ditching.
I think she’s going from “I’ll badmouth her a bit to make this seem better” (and perhaps letting out some restrained irritation at Dorothy) to “ooooops, fucked that up, better change tack fast”.
I personally read it as “deliberately over casual?” Like, when one is Tough and Cool, the acceptable levels of overt emotional display are low, so comforting someone in distress often involves intense sideways glances as one attempts to read the level of distress without looking directly at them or indicating that you are in any way worried.
Did I miss Sal finding out they broke up or is she commenting on something else?
*class magically apparates behind him*
I was about to question if they were old enough, but they should all be 17.
*Looks up apparate.* Wait, are you saying that I’m old enough to magically teleport to or from a place?
You had to look it up? I though everyone learned what ‘apparate’ meant from Harry Potter…
I uhh… *Mumbles something about reading other books, and not paying enough attention to the movies to learn new words.*
I do notice that in contrast to her appearance of not caring before, Joyce does appear sympathetic here. Wonder what’ll come of that, especially since Joyce is… marginally more tactful than Billie?
She’s gonna wait until his back is turned before she breaks into a song and dance routine because she’s got Dorothy to herself now.
Master of tact!
Quick, Billie, how many strategies can you try for helping a friend with a break-up? You have thirty seconds, go!
beer. lots if it
I said many strategies!
Billie: Okay, meet Jim, Jack and Jose.
Don’t forget Jameson, Jerry, Juan, and… Jägermeister.
Billie: …and that’s just the “J”s!
I uhh… Okay, gotta admit, I’m a little impressed.
How many alcoholic beverages begin with “J”?
Surprised no one mentioned Johny. And if we bring in everyone’s favorite breakup experts Ben and Jerry we can make milk shakes as well as bad decisions. Although combining some of the aforementioned with some flavors of icecream is a bad decision unto itself (Tequila cookie dough strikes me as a particularly bad combination.)
In Cannery Row, Doc orders a beer milkshake just out of curiosity.
He tells the waitress, “It’s not so bad when you get used to it.”
A good stout in a chocolate malt might even be good.
Beer milkshakes are a thing in Colorado. And yes, yes they are. A vanilla porter goes nicely too.
I’ve done Guinness ice cream floats…
crap I forgot johnny
Vodka and gin probably go well with lemon ice cream.
is Walky saying Billie is bad at helping in the last panel?
Probably, or implying it’s not something Billie is especially practiced in.
I mean, do we know how many serious relationships Billie had pre-Ruth? Especially since Alice seemed to be much less of a formal relationship due to Billie’s internalized biphobia, and who knows if Walky actually realized they were a thing at all. Certainly Billie responded to seeing/being confronted by Alice again badly, since that spurred the initial sexy lesbian suicide pact.
… Yeah for all we know Billie might not know how to handle a breakup any better than Walky. At least not of a serious relationship.
Walky definitely knows Billie and Alice were banging. He joked about how being a drama hurricane was apparently sexually transmissible (implying Alice caught it from Billie. Or vice versa).
Thank you! Yeah that definitely means that he knew, and now that I checked he witnessed the ‘I cut off contact over the summer to BREAK UP because you have a serious problem and are endangering people’ speech. So uh yeah, one breakup we know she had and he saw was seriously ugly.
Yeaaaaahhhh, Walky knows Billie likes the ladies.
*knew I guess. Everyone knows that now.
I dunno if it’s reading this comic or real life but ” breaking up and no longer willing to talk to someone ” does not rank under “ugly breakup” to me. Ugly starts somewhere around “talking seriously bad about the other person to all and sundry” (venting to selected friends doesn’t count), works it way down with “intentionally telling lies about the other person to make them look bad” (i.e. the talker actually knows they are lies, not talking about the two side of the coin that look incredibly different), and from there on spirals downward into intentionally hurting, stalking, …
Breaking up and no longer willing to talk says “stayed in far too long” to me.
I mean, the actual break up was pretty ugly imo, even if their later treatment of each other isn’t.
What do we know about the actual breakup? I think Billie totaled the car and whathername never showed her face again?
I’m referring to the fight in the lunch room. Not much of a break up no but it was pretty ugly.
Which would be a coward’s breakup Billie had reason to resent, but still there’s some space still before “ugly”.
Or maybe you have a word that goes beyond ugly you can use for worse?
You have a point about the fight in the lunch room. Saying all that in public starts to go into “ugly” territory.
I generally use ‘ugly’ to refer to any unpleasant break up or post breakup interaction, yeah. Seems like different uses.
It seems like the fight in the lunchroom was confirmation for Billie that they didn’t just fall out of touch but Alice didn’t want her anymore and cut her off. So, sort of like a break up?
Sort of like a break up sounds right. Because it was sort of like a relationship.
But not an acknowledged one and probably more serious on Alice’s side. Or possibly Billie was just in denial. Couldn’t actually be dating a girl, just fooling around with her friend, like girls do.
And probably having drunken sex with boys all along.
For me it’s the ‘saying all of this in public, with friends around, including that detail about the drunken car accident that New Friend probably doesn’t know about’ combined with the ‘cut you off without explicitly telling you we were broken up* and you apparently didn’t realize this’ thing. Neither Billie nor Alice comes off particularly well from that detail.
* Granted, we’re pretty sure there was some serious ambiguity about that relationship, but since Alice was invested enough to say she thought she loved Billie, still not a good way to do things.
I’m afraid I’m also unsure about what exactly the punchline is trying to say.
I’m not sure if he’s saying Billie isn’t good at breakup counseling or if he’s saying he will take 10.000 h to be good at not being with Dorothy.
Or both.
(And you know the saying that if you learn a new instrument (or craft) , you have to invest 10.000 h in practice to become good at it?)
I thought he was joking that Billie had had 10,000 breakups, so that’s why she was good at it.
Just, like, as a kind of mean banter to undermine her tone of superiority (and also because she seemed to be annoying him)
Nah, it’s that Billie is doing a shit job of being comforting right now, in part because she hasn’t done it much before.
I mean, Billie /is/ doing a terrible job, and she’s also always assuming that her guidance is good because of her experience — so Walky’s comment is, like, poking at that presumption, /because/ she’s being so unhelpful and condescending?
LOL the more I try to explain myself the more complicated it seems, but it really does make sense in my head. o.O
Is he wrong, tho?
Walky has Jason to thank for this… “help”.
As soon as forever is through
I’ll Be Over You…
I’m not sure what activity Walky is referring to practicing for 10000 hours to master, whether it’s for Billie or himself but I think she’s not the most helpful person right now.
Helping someone to navigate through breakup is what he’s referring to. Billie has not done a stellar job of it so far.
Ah. That makes a bit more sense. Billie has said two negative things about the breakup/Dorothy already and it’s only been a few seconds.
Imagine what more she can say over the next few hours.
And this is Billie Helping While Sober.
Billie may be used to nastier breakups? Sometimes this kind of ragging on the ex works.
Of course, starting off with “she was best thing that ever happened to you” kind of counters that.
Still, it’s good to see her reaching out to help Walky, even if she’s not exactly doing a great job.
I feel really bad for Walky and he seems to be in a bad place, but his disgruntled faces are pleasing to me. I don’t know why; they’re just so fun to look at…
honestly as bad as dorothy THINKS she was for walky (cause how hard he started working for her) she was really the opposite. i hope they get back together for both teir same; -;
I think they both have individual issues that need confronting before they can get back together or date someone else,* but yeah they both brought out good sides in each other and could be a really good long-term pair.
* Dorothy: leisure is not frivolous, it’s a necessity. You cannot literally do everything, all the time, but you also can’t go full-force to the detriment of your hygiene, sleep, eating habits, and physical and mental well-being. There’s more than one path to the presidency and/or Yale and Smarting Harder until you succeed probably isn’t the best one. (And even then, it doesn’t matter that you’re the perfect candidate on paper because Other People will always be tricky. Keep dreaming, just know that like, people suck.)
Walky: OH DEAR GOD THAT SELF-ESTEEM/SELF-WORTH VIA EFFORTLESS ACADEMIC SUCCESS. Basically the Dorothy thing was a double-edged sword because while she inspired him to act better, she also inadvertently reinforced some of his underlying thinking he was garbage. This is actually the one that I think really needs to get dealt with before they get back together for long-term working out rather than just ‘Dorothy You’re Gonna Burn Out, Stop.’
Dorothy also needs to work on her thing of setting boundaries and then casually blowing through them. Which ties into your “leisure is not frivolous” point, but isn’t quite the same.
Also true. And probably, ultimately, some kind of readjustment about her priorities and the fact that they change.
Oh Billie. You… have issues.
Also, good to know that Walky told one sister he and his girlfriend broke up, and that one sister can express concern for his emotional well-being. Also explains why she wasn’t concerned he was missing class today, habit of skipping aside – this is his first major breakup, and if he was already in a bad headspace wrt this class, it would not help at all.
She called it back when they were on pause: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/coin/
I really need to check the archives. But then it’s midnight.
Ah, that makes sense. She knew about the pause, assumed it was actually a break up. Probably knows nothing about the pause being a lie or the actual break up that followed, but she’s checking in on him anyway, because she already thought it was a break up.
She probably heard ‘pause’ and figured ‘pauses almost never work, she pretty much dumped him’.
Yeah, especially since it was a ‘still like each other but one member Does Not Have Time’ thing, Dorothy needed to commit to the clean break.
More I think that Dorothy had proven to herself that she couldn’t stick with the “pause”. Because she’s bad at sticking to the kinds of limits she thinks she needs to set.
Mind you, I’m not convinced the break will go any better for her than the pause did.
Another classic Walky/Billie interaction, this should get framed too.
These two are the best pair surrogate siblings.
Oh, Billie, I love you and your terrible brand of helping. Hijinks? Hijinks!
Well you can’t say she isn’t trying.
[Altogether now:]Very, very trying.
So I guess Billie managed to make it to class after all.
Billie’s thoughts: “Okay, how can I make Walky understand how little I think of him? What’s the worst thing I can say in a breakup?”
Billie’s mouth: “She was the best thing that’ll ever happen to you.”
Billie’s thoughts: “A good start, yes… but I can do better. What if she thinks the world of her? Then he might think he can still get a girl who’s almost as good as her, someone who’s still pretty good. I’ve got to crush that hope immediately. And also belittle him for liking her in the first place.”
Billie’s mouth: “Not that she was that great or anything!”
Billie’s thoughts: “This is working out great!”
Pretty much. Sometimes Billie’s the kind of friend you don’t need any additional enemies to.
I’m a bit surprised. I was hoping Billie would actually try to support Walky during this time, but I actually didn’t think it would happen.
Though she’s not doing a good job of it, I’m glad she’s trying.
I agree. She’s very trying.
Walky speaks fluent Billie, so he likely understands, even if he can’t quite appreciate it now.
Never have I liked Billie more than I did on Pannel 4. Thank you Billie
The irony of Billie calling anyone else sheltered and pampered…
It is quite common for people to most strongly object to perceived flaws in others that are in fact their own flaws. Freud called it projection. Freud was an ass, but a very smart ass.
A prime example these days is known for his orange hair.
Sheltered, pampered, nag? Words that could describe Billie too. While I do think Dorothy has a problem with workoholism Billie has a real problem with alcoholism and wouldn’t even be there if Jason looked the other way.
Aaaaaalpha bongo!
if you look closely you can actually pinpoint the exact moment his heart breaks in two!
You know what?
Yeah. I’m down for this.
Nice of Sal to ask
You know, I really want to know what the gossip chain looked like leading up to this point. I’m guessing that Joyce told Sal but I can’t help wonder if she got told off for being a bit too gleeful about it. I’m basing that on her expression in panel 2.
No gossip chain at all, I think.
Sal knew about the pause and assumed it would be a real breakup. That’s probably all she still knows.
I’m pretty sure that’s 10,000 hours before you become an expert at something.
I love how Billie trying to be better is still messed up as ever.
But You’re trying. Just not well.
Pretty uncool of Joyce, outing him like that infront of the others.
The combination of her reflexive dislike for Walky’s life attitude and her jealousy about his relationship with Dorothy makes most of Joyce’s reactions to Walky fairly uncool.
Joyce has been my least favorite main character for awhile now and just continues to dig her hole with every strip she’s in.
She looks best when standing next to… well, Toedad and Roz and (in his uglier moments) Joe. When otherwise besides most of the other main characters… eh. Her best quality aside from that is managing to coax Sarah outside of her shell.
I mean, when Billie comes off as more well-adjusted than you half the time…
I like Joyce a lot.
She’s certainly not well-adjusted. She’s got a ton of nasty baggage from her religious upbringing. She’s got serious boundary issues.
OTOH, we’ve seen her drop that baggage basically as fast as she’s seen it hurt an actual person. She’s fiercely protective of friends and family of choice – which she’s perhaps too intent on expanding.
Everyone in this comic is messed up in their own way and I like all of them for it. (Other than the outright villains, of course.)
Yeah, Joyce has definite Issues with over-familiarity and boundaries, but at the same time she does legitimately seem to be working on them a bit. Slowly, but a lifetime of relatively limited social opportunities and probably pretty rapidly changing what contacts she had takes a while to readjust, plus whatever stuff she absorbed from church. (Remember, boundaries mean nothing to Jesus, Joyce was homeschooled, and her family changed churches regularly. She probably adopted some of this as a way to make new friends quick.) And she has a LOT of good qualities, as mentioned.
man, 10 000 hours of sex ?
At once. If you have to restart, you reset the clock.
That Willis has read Chuck Jones’ autobiography and knows of that alt-text surprises me not one bit.
Walky… is it possible that Dorothy dumped you because you weren’t… experience enough? That you didn’t know how to please her enough? Not enough time in the sack to know what to do?
And Billie just confirmed that. You do need to do something for 10,000 hours to be good at that. And Billie just offered to help…
Do I see another Slipshine coming?
Considering that Billie and Walky see each other as effectively being siblings (not biologically related, but nevertheless), I’ll pass, kthnx.
Dorothy has never been one to sugarcoat or lie to her friends and loved ones, so why would she have not brought this up? At what point has any evidence for this come up?
wtf
Hey, everyone’s missed THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of this comic!
MIKE. Lurking just behind Walky, poised to strike.
Remember, this is HIS chapter, we need to pay attention to him…
Anyone who says 10,000 hours equal mastery has never seen a cabbie drive.
The 10,000 hours stuff is nonsense. I’ve played nearly that much basketball and am still no good. Uncorrectible eye issues, poor coordination, a bad knee. Practice doesn’t make perfect, especially if it is poorly conducted.
I’m glad the Dorothy/Walky relationship is dead. Because it really does open up new avenues and stories for the characters. Dorothy has been kind of a dead end character arc for a while and this will force her to examine elements of her life and personality. Walky too.
Hey I think I saw one of your books on a audiobook download site
In the hover text, who is addressing who?
Fuck off, Billie. Walky doesn’t need romantic advice from a potential suicide practitioner.
Sometimes you forget that Billie is Sal and Walky’s sister in all but blood. Sometimes, like today, you remember it.
GOD DAMN YOU WILLIS THERE ARE 2 AMBER CLIFFFHANGERS HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME CARE ABOUT OTHER CHARACTERS!
you’ll be thankful for the days when there were only two
You are a mean one, Mr Willis.
I just started nervous laughing because its keeping me from crying.
Wow, that was unexpected. True, but still.
Billie will be just the tonic for Sally that he was for her here.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/mccrankypants/
Just passing along the Dina cameo in Questionable Content today. Well done.
Yeah, this was awesome
We just don’t know!
Completely OT Willis, but has anyone ever told that you look like Guillermo del Torro?