Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
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carla doesn't even like bubblegum she just likes looking disaffected
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July 11, 2026

Seventh

by David M Willis on April 28, 2019 at 12:01 am
  • 03 - Sometimes the Sky Was So Far Away
└ Tags: carla, lucy, ruth, spencer

Discussion (81) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. Ana Chronistic
    Ana Chronistic
    April 28, 2019 at 12:04 am | #

    quick Lucy get a wig so we can have a redhead convergence

    (and invite Becky too I guess)

  2. Doctor_Who
    Doctor_Who
    April 28, 2019 at 12:05 am | #

    Maybe Carla and Lucy are actually really good friends. I could see Carla being into Rifftrax, it’s all about mockery, so maybe they have a shared interest.

    • LookingIn
      LookingIn
      April 28, 2019 at 12:09 am | #

      She’s taking Lucy on as her protege, it’s entirely business-related social interaction and not because she’s bored and actually likes Lucy or anything 😉

      • King Daniel
        King Daniel
        April 28, 2019 at 12:21 am | #

        “Y’know, newbie, I like you. You’re okay.”

        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/jello/

  3. Meagan
    Meagan
    April 28, 2019 at 12:06 am | #

    It took me a good minute to figure out where this is going. Why is Carla there?

    • Yumi
      Yumi
      April 28, 2019 at 12:08 am | #

      Carla does what she wants. Like a cat.

      • Bagge
        Bagge
        April 28, 2019 at 12:35 am | #

        That’s a very apt description.

        • showler
          showler
          April 28, 2019 at 8:10 am | #

          Like a motherfucking goddess is a better description.

          • Zee
            Zee
            April 28, 2019 at 9:16 am | #

            Cat goddess

            • Sunny
              Sunny
              April 28, 2019 at 7:40 pm | #

              The old egyptians had some of those.

            • Michael Haneline
              Michael Haneline
              April 28, 2019 at 11:42 pm | #

              Carla for Bast 2019

    • Meagan
      Meagan
      April 28, 2019 at 12:08 am | #

      Damn, and now that I see what’s going on, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Is Ruth going to apologize? Surely not, she was standing up for herself. Well, maybe apologizing for how it was delivered, but the message was legit. Is she actually going to try to support Billie through her problem, while Billie is still in the denial stage, while still in the baby steps of her own recovery?

      I would speculate that she is only there to finalize a breakup, but the conversation with Walky implies otherwise, if I understood that correctly. That was what that Walky convo was about, right? Being good to/for Billie?

      • GoblinScribe
        GoblinScribe
        April 28, 2019 at 1:33 am | #

        If she’s not good for Billie, they need to break up. That could be the direction here.

        • Needfuldoer
          Needfuldoer
          April 28, 2019 at 10:00 am | #

          Billie’s flippant toxicity is no good for Ruth’s recovery. For her own mental health Ruth needs to either offer Billie an ultimatum or sever and move on.

          Considering Ruth has opened up to Carla before, and Lucy has picked up on a few subtleties of their relationship, I think this is the perfect set-up for that to play out.

    • LookingIn
      LookingIn
      April 28, 2019 at 12:10 am | #

      It seemed like she was taking Lucy on as a protege for some reason…

  4. Danielle
    Danielle
    April 28, 2019 at 12:06 am | #

    this could be bad or very fulfilling

  5. Schpoonman
    Schpoonman
    April 28, 2019 at 12:06 am | #

    I don’t know why this is happening but I am so okay with it.

    • Schpoonman
      Schpoonman
      April 28, 2019 at 12:07 am | #

      Oh, panel 6 is supposed to fake us out by making us think its Billie. I never even considered that.

      • LookingIn
        LookingIn
        April 28, 2019 at 12:11 am | #

        nah, she just knows Carla well enough to know that something is going on that it’s best not to know about…plausible deniability and all of that

      • Schpoonman
        Schpoonman
        April 28, 2019 at 12:02 pm | #

        Coming back to this I now remember (thanks to other commenters) that Billie now rooms with Lucy. She’s going to react so well to the combination of Ruth, Lucy, and Carla together.

    • Bagge
      Bagge
      April 28, 2019 at 12:34 am | #

      That’s a pretty common reaction to Carla.

  6. Stephen Bierce
    Stephen Bierce
    April 28, 2019 at 12:09 am | #

    Today’s strip is sponsored by FOX NATION. Hate everybody so you can fell like you love your country.

    • abysswatcher1993
      abysswatcher1993
      April 28, 2019 at 12:34 am | #

      Next week sponsor is Chick Fil A. We do delicious burgers, but we dont think a man should kiss another man.

      • Keulen
        Keulen
        April 28, 2019 at 1:51 am | #

        The week after that is sponsored by Alex Jones. Gay frogs or something, I don’t even know.

      • woobie
        woobie
        April 28, 2019 at 1:56 am | #

        What burgers?

        • C.
          C.
          April 28, 2019 at 8:14 am | #

          Some people call chicken sandwiches “chicken burgers”. I don’t know either.

          • DSL
            DSL
            April 28, 2019 at 4:39 pm | #

            Grind the meat and make a patty and maybe you can convince people it’s a burger. Otherwise, “chicken sandwich.”

            • Dean
              Dean
              April 28, 2019 at 8:29 pm | #

              Look, if it’s on a bun, it’s a burger.

              • Clif
                Clif
                April 28, 2019 at 11:28 pm | #

                And if it ain’t got beans it ain’t chilli.

  7. NF
    NF
    April 28, 2019 at 12:11 am | #

    Oh yes, we’re getting a Ruth visits Billie in Forest story! And bonus Carla!

    • Shane Wegner
      Shane Wegner
      April 28, 2019 at 3:42 am | #

      This strip strains my ability to care about who lives with who in which dorms and what their names even are, (dorms and characters), but lots of people seem to have those mappings down no problem.

      • Spriteless Girl
        Spriteless Girl
        April 28, 2019 at 11:06 am | #

        look it was a plot point that Billie moved away from the dorm where her GF is an RA.

  8. AntJ
    AntJ
    April 28, 2019 at 12:13 am | #

    Spencer calls Ruth by her last name. I wonder how this whole debacle has affected Ruth’s status among the other RAs.

    • DailyBrad
      DailyBrad
      April 28, 2019 at 12:19 am | #

      I wasn’t sure if Spencer was her last name, too, and it was just them both being all pro at each other.

      • Norah
        Norah
        April 28, 2019 at 12:45 am | #

        I think Spencer’s first name is Carly.

    • Bagge
      Bagge
      April 28, 2019 at 12:34 am | #

      I think that relationship was pretty strange even before Ruth’s crash and reinstatement, given that a) Ruth run her wing like a bully tyrant and behaved exactly like a person an RA is supposed to be on the lookout for, and b) Chloe indicated that even for that, Ruth was the only competent one of the bunch.

      • Schpoonman
        Schpoonman
        April 28, 2019 at 12:09 pm | #

        Given that Chloe has shown all the classic signs of being an idiot combined with what seems to be fairly tame conditions in other dorms, I’m going to go out on a limb that she has it backwards, and only thought Ruth doing well was simply an absence of complaints.

        Other dorms get stuff like “My RA wrote me up for using a homophobic slur,” or “My RA wouldn’t let me in his room to keep punching my floormate for (insert horrible reason X).”

  9. Stellar
    Stellar
    April 28, 2019 at 12:16 am | #

    Who IS that mysterious, tall redhead?

    • King Daniel
      King Daniel
      April 28, 2019 at 12:19 am | #

      I have no idea, but she certainly seems cool!

      • ValdVin
        ValdVin
        April 28, 2019 at 12:31 am | #

        I wanna wear a jacket with her name on it, for some undefined reason.

        • Pl0x
          Pl0x
          April 28, 2019 at 5:39 am | #

          God, me too.

          • Clif
            Clif
            April 28, 2019 at 11:30 pm | #

            Who wouldn’t?

    • Bagge
      Bagge
      April 28, 2019 at 12:32 am | #

      For whatever reason I feel like a bug in her presence.

    • Shane Wegner
      Shane Wegner
      April 28, 2019 at 3:40 am | #

      Don’t worry, she’ll tell you repeatedly.

  10. fire_daws
    fire_daws
    April 28, 2019 at 12:30 am | #

    “Don’t thank me yet. Here’s the thing about me liking somebody: either I’m nice to ’em or I bug the everlovin’ shit outta ’em forever. There’s no middle.”

    Seems like Lucy got the latter.

    • ValdVin
      ValdVin
      April 28, 2019 at 11:42 am | #

      But Carla is, almost, the person who can be “nice to them” and “bug the everloving shit out of them” at the exact same time. Isn’t she?

  11. Bagge
    Bagge
    April 28, 2019 at 12:31 am | #

    “Helllllloooo, person who’s love life I helped maintain. My, my how the tables have turned, now people like you are coming to people like ME. Please, enter. Enter the room of the Alpha Sweetie”

    First a new friend, THEN a person in an “it’s complicated” relationship that Lucy actually has helped. I’m pretty sure Lucy enjoys this.

  12. abysswatcher1993
    abysswatcher1993
    April 28, 2019 at 12:32 am | #

    Ruth: “What is going on? And I want a gay explanation.”
    Carla: “We are watching She-Ra.”
    Ruth: “Okay.”

  13. Bagge
    Bagge
    April 28, 2019 at 12:40 am | #

    So let’s recap where Billie’s and Ruth’s relationship are at the moment

    “Worth dying for, but never worth living for.”

    …yeah, I BET Ruth enjoys having CARLA here for the next bit. 🙁

    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/worth/

    • tirachokko
      tirachokko
      April 28, 2019 at 1:54 am | #

      oh man i totally forgot that strip existed but it reminded me of <a href = "https://youtu.be/nnxwpcW5EFw&quot; title = "suicide squad live for me scene")this

      • tirachokko
        tirachokko
        April 28, 2019 at 1:55 am | #

        ah nuts i fucked that up

  14. Marsh Maryrose
    Marsh Maryrose
    April 28, 2019 at 12:45 am | #

    The human mind is a strange thing. Or at least mine is.

    When I saw the title of the strip (“Seventh”), some part of my brain instantly went to “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago. “Pop! Six! Squish! Uh-uh! Cicero! Lipschitz!” I don’t know where that part of my brain was going with that, but I can tell you this:

    She had it coming, she had it coming,
    She only had herself to blame,
    If you’d have been there, if you had heard it,
    I betcha you would have done the same!

  15. BBCC
    BBCC
    April 28, 2019 at 12:46 am | #

    Well, this’ll be fun.

    • Deanatay
      Deanatay
      April 28, 2019 at 10:57 am | #

      You thinking “intervention”?

      I’m thinking “intervention”.

  16. newllend(henryvolt)
    newllend(henryvolt)
    April 28, 2019 at 12:47 am | #

    Good to see Carla and Lucy still getting along.

    • BenRG
      BenRG
      April 28, 2019 at 7:24 am | #

      What I liked was that, in their last appearance together, Carla frankly told Lucy that she could be annoying, self-centred and pushy but Lucy has decided to invite her over despite that. I hope that Carla has finally found someone who can like her despite her many bad qualities and encourage her to good qualities. After all, if Carla gets acceptance, she may not feel the need to be so abrasive anymore.

  17. Geneseepaws
    Geneseepaws
    April 28, 2019 at 12:48 am | #

    Can anyone explain to me why she isn’t there for movie night? I feel like I missed something. I don’t feel like I’ve missed an up date?

    • Bagge
      Bagge
      April 28, 2019 at 1:03 am | #

      Movie night was last night, with Lucy and Walky. Billie was there in the end.

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/circleoffriends/

  18. Keulen
    Keulen
    April 28, 2019 at 1:53 am | #

    I forgot that Spencer was the name of Billie’s new RA in Forrest Hall, it’s been so long since we last saw her.

  19. Pl0x
    Pl0x
    April 28, 2019 at 1:59 am | #

    Either Spencer wears a binder, or she got surgery, or she never had breasts in tthe first place.

    • Holly
      Holly
      April 28, 2019 at 3:38 am | #

      Nah, with A and AA cups a couple of layers of loose hanging baggy clothes can give that effect, especially if heavy material.

      • Pl0x
        Pl0x
        April 28, 2019 at 5:37 am | #

        That doesn’t rule out the possiblities of what I said, though.

    • Charlotte
      Charlotte
      April 28, 2019 at 6:28 am | #

      Why are we still commenting on the size of women’s breasts?

      • Fart Captor
        Fart Captor
        April 28, 2019 at 10:15 am | #

        I’m pretty sure Pl0x is just theorizing that Spencer might be non-binary or a trans man

        • Pl0x
          Pl0x
          April 28, 2019 at 4:38 pm | #

          Or she could be a trans woman who doesn’t have breasts. But I don’t actually think that’s likely, because if she didn’t take HRT, how did she ‘prove’ to doctors and officials she’s a trans woman? Would bottom surgery be enough, in that case?

          And yeah, I’m theorizing the possiblility of Spencer being transgender or nonbinary.

  20. tropicalfreeze
    tropicalfreeze
    April 28, 2019 at 2:05 am | #

    Carla has a Switch! I wonder what games she has. Since she’s blowing bubble gum I’ll assume she’s enjoying a certain game with Dixie Kong in it.

    • tropicalfreeze
      tropicalfreeze
      April 28, 2019 at 2:08 am | #

      I swear I’m not a paid Nintendo drone my username just happened to work perfectly with this situation

    • JessWitt
      JessWitt
      April 28, 2019 at 6:38 am | #

      Whoa, first Switch sighting. And not in Amber’s hands either.

      • David M Willis
        David M Willis
        April 28, 2019 at 9:30 am | #

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/doubleten/

        • tropicalfreeze
          tropicalfreeze
          April 28, 2019 at 11:26 am | #

          Damn, I never noticed those were Joycons! Still find new things in old comics even when I think I’ve seen it all.

  21. BenRG
    BenRG
    April 28, 2019 at 2:55 am | #

    I’m sure that there is a long, complicated and only semi-believable story to explain what Carla is doing in Billie and Lucy’s room but I doubt Ruth is going to feel that she has sufficient spare sanity to deal with it.

    No, what she is here fore and what she needs to spend all of her focus on, is to ask Billie whether they are going to try to do this still or whether they should part ways now. The thing is that I’m not sure either of them are necessarily ready to confront this issue, no matter how much they should.

  22. maxyai
    maxyai
    April 28, 2019 at 3:38 am | #

    Is this an intervention? How exciting!

  23. TheFlamingonator
    TheFlamingonator
    April 28, 2019 at 4:38 am | #

    Hi Carla please step on me I mean rollerblade over me I mean HI

  24. ruhrow
    ruhrow
    April 28, 2019 at 8:04 am | #

    I’m so confused about what is happening here. I honestly have no clue what is going on or why any of these people are in the same space. Or even who the first non-Ruth person IS.

    • BenRG
      BenRG
      April 28, 2019 at 8:14 am | #

      * Ruth is going to Forrest Hall (another dorm) to talk to Billie to determine if they’re still girlfriends or are now ex-girlfriends; understandably, this is an emotional journey that she’s reluctant to take;
      * Spencer is the RA for this floor of Forrest Hall;
      * Carla and Lucy have apparently decided to be friends or, at the very least, Lucy has decided that her contribution to society is to keep Carla focussed on her rather than randomised ‘look at me!’ outbursts.

  25. Slartibeast Button, BIA
    Slartibeast Button, BIA
    April 28, 2019 at 9:13 am | #

    She came here to look disaffected and chew bubblegum.

    • Bicycle Bill
      Bicycle Bill
      April 28, 2019 at 10:25 am | #

      And I am almost out of bubblegum, right?

    • fire_daws
      fire_daws
      April 28, 2019 at 10:46 am | #

      I’m here to kick ass and drink cups of tea. And I’m all out of tea.

    • Sunny
      Sunny
      April 28, 2019 at 7:46 pm | #

      https://xkcd.com/1560/

  26. Ethics Gradient
    Ethics Gradient
    April 28, 2019 at 12:09 pm | #

    “You ain’t seen me. Right?”

  27. Sock_V
    Sock_V
    April 28, 2019 at 10:02 pm | #

    Anybody else read that in Mrs. Pancake’s voice?

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