Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
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.
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.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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.
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.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
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If they are in such a hurry to die, I’m sure the State Police can assist them in their endeavor. They’ll be packed so close together that a couple of frag grenades will do the job in a few seconds.
Not necessarily. I have a feeling he’s not going to talk *to* Becky. He’s going to get talked *at* by Becky. Perhaps yelled at even. With much profanity, one hopes.
Once you hear an evangelical define Christianity as, essentially, “I don’t care what you did before, you can walk with my posse as long as you say I’m da man,” that becomes very easy to understand. And avoid.
Honestly I can’t wait to see Joyce’s parents’ reactions to this. Carol needs a huge reality check on this entire situation. Who the hell puts in effort to free a man from jail after he shoots a gun specifically to scare/threaten your daughter?!
Unfortunately, since Joyce is autobiographical and based on Willis’ type of upbringing, her parents are likely heading to a divorce. With Carol only getting worse and worse…
Coupla questions here.
#1 — Where did Ross get a cellphone? Remember when he was kidnapping Becky in the earlier incident and he found that she had a cellphone, apparently something he had prohibited her from having (“How much have you defied me?”), he nearly lost his shit.
#2 — How did Becky – or more likely AmaziGirl – get his phone number?
He NEEDS to have one, so he can check on his bank account, Look up Bible verses and check for updates and see the in-box to his account on
Hot-Christian-Babes-4-U(dot)com.
Goddamn if that isn’t the truest motherfuckin’ shit.
My parents, evangelical scum that they are, have been extremely technophobic with regards to us accessing ANYTHING they couldn’t control. But sure, they can watch movies with “profanities” and nudity, and play games with rock music, and own a phone.
It’s the classic Christian way to control women, by cutting off their access to the outside world, except through them. If Becky needs something off the Web, she should go through her father.
Poor Joyce. Just when she summons the gumption to put that giant toe in his place, Becky calls and stomps all over her perfectly planted Seed of Doubt™️. I hope Joyce can get a refund on that.
not necessarily. Becky could be calling from an officer’s phone, or with an officer there, and get the address for where they are from him in the conversation.
A thought (that’s likely been said by others before, but I don’t really feel like trawling through several days’ worth of previous comments to check): Since Dina came of her own volition afterwards, she likely is still carrying her own cell phone – The goons would have removed and shut off/destroyed the phones of everyone else, if they had them on their person when they were abducted.
Dina’s phone could be tracked by the police, were they alerted to the situation – By Amazi-Girl [Likely not what she’d want to do, given that she knows the gravity of the situation and wants to resolve it herself, and is aware of corruption in police ranks], Becky [Who may not be fully aware of the volatility of the situation, but still would be operating with a, shall we say, less unconventional view of justice and police than Amber/Amazi-Girl, or yet, by the Guards, who have overheard everything that Amazi-Girl/Amber has just told Becky, assuming that she took them down without rendering them unconscious.
You underestimate the difficulty of even having that capability and getting something like that actually done, both by physically being able to do it or not, and then the considerable legal hurdles.
Actually Dina may have a find-my-phone app installed. (These can be used by anybody to help find stolen phones.) We have already seen such a program used by Sal in tracking down Amazigal in-universe. (Granted it was one custom built by Amber).
True but those type of apps are freely available. Many people install them in case they lose their phone. Or maybe amazigirl installed a version on Dina’s phone as a procaution.
If you have an iPhone it already has the “Find my iPhone” app pre-installed, and generally cranks up automatically when you activate your iCloud account. There is something similar for the intelligent people (Android users) but it has to be downloaded and activated.
I am tired of moral entropy too, but what I consider moral entropy is corruption, social apathy, exploitation of marginalized communities, xenophobia, extreme poverty, and a bunch of grim stuff that happens in real life. You are just a mad man, Ross. Your crusade against LGBT people and secular movies like Frozen has made you a pathetic scumbag not different than gamergaters, q anons, anti-sjws, neoreactionaries, dark enlightenment pricks, communists obsessed with the soviet union, menenists, radfems, conspiracy theorists, anti vaxxers, stans of serial killers, proud boys, neonazis, etc.
For some reason my first thought when I saw that last panel was that he had a secret long lost son that was suddenly calling him rather than the obvious of it being his actual known child who we just saw two pages ago. I think maybe it had something to do with “Dad” being like, a male descriptor, and I had a major brain fart when I saw that and somehow thought this also meant the person calling was male.
Amber, if you really wanted Becky out of the way, maybe don’t tell Becky that you envision no realistic win over the people holding her hostage.
Ross, I respected you more in the last strip, where you seemed to be fairly realistic about who Blaine was and his likely future actions, but trusted God to protect you from them. And I know we live in a contradictory world, but some contradictions really are irreconcilable. Either Blaine is a brother in Christ or he’s preparing to throw you to the wolves. It can’t be both.
If the best person who ever lived was tortured to death and that’s a good thing (the very best thing), then anything is OK. Substitutionary atonement and an all powerful god opens the door to all kinds of evil being good. Holocaust? Got to be God’s will. Couldn’t have happened otherwise. After that, working with a mobster is small potatoes.
So you’re back to being in denial about the type of man Blaine is. I expected you to ignore the things about him being an abusive ass-hat. I mean you really shouldn’t but I expected it. But he cheated on his ex wife. I mean I know that to you that’s better than being lesbian somehow but I’d think that would be enough for you to realize that he’s not a good Christian.
No reason to think Ross knows about the abuse or the cheating. You’d think the mob connections or the threatening to murder kids would be enough, but I guess that’s all acceptable while reclaiming straying daughters.
Amber told him as much. I could easily see him dismissing Amber’s abuse claims because there are those who would call him abusive because he is. But Amber’s claims that Blaine is an adulterer should be harder to dismiss.
Diana’s trust is built on more than the power of true love. I think she knows more than she is saying. Did she alert Ruth? Call the police? That might explain why she was OK with joining her friends, since she is certain that this will work out. As a narrative piece, her serene certainty calls for justification. DYW loves red herrings, but not extra points in the narrative. They cause him to draw more than necessary and he ain’t got no time for that.
people should realize that raising entire generations of kids with active shooter drills and the threat of being murdered at school while also telling them that there is nothing they could do because the Republicans deserve their AR 15s more than they deserve to live readied them for these fights.
Civilians are now cheering and yelling when ICE fires upon them. They’re treating the tear gas, smoke bombs and pepper grenades like fireworks. This is actually hilarious mocking of ICE.
Captain America has been keep punching Nazis always. Now and forever
Al Ewing Writes Comics@al-ewing.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Marvel United: A Pride Special is out this Wednesday! In which I pour a lot of rage out on the page (and a little joy too if you're into that) in the company of @keizama.bsky.social, @br-peer.bsky.social, Irma Kniivila and @airy.bsky.social.
Plus three more stories from a panoply of stars!
Realised that @damnyouwillis.bsky.social's characters might actually work really nicely with the River City Girls style, so until I make some more sprites here's Joyce telling Yoko that omigosh she also has a friend who likes hockey, and has she heard of this team called the 'Leafs'?
2010: My source of existential dread is climate change
2016: ... climate change! and fascism
2020: ... climate change!! and fascism and pandemics
2024: ... climate change!! and fascism!! and pandemics and AI
really not enjoying the direction this is going to be quite honest
yesterday i tried an "apple jack latte" at a local coffee place, seemed like an okay flavor to try, like, woo, brown cinnamon, whatever
but they put actual apple jack cereal on top of it
do you know what you're drinking now
soggy cheerios
For May's second bonus strip, let's discover where WALKY is! IS he working out? Read this bonus strip and hundreds of previous at the Dumbing of Age Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/second...
and remember you can always pledge up to read tomorrow's strip right the eff now
One of the best things about Posting is you never know what obscure preoccupations your followers have. There will be a guy who has followed you for years and never said anything but then one day you disparage applesauce and he activates like a sleeper agent and dedicates his life to destroying you
I'm thinking this Pride about how I've been able to make a whole bundle of pretty unusual life choices with basically no pushback because of people before me who were willing to be the weirdo.
What would be funnier, a Marvel Soundwave who’s blue, or Hasbro releasing a Marvel Soundwave who’s purple right after releasing a printing of the comics where he’s been “corrected” to blue?
“yeah, he might destroy everything I love, but he hates some of the same things I do! and he reminds me of our president”
“#NOTMYPRESIDENT”
2020 is the biggest vibe check of all time
Moral entropy in action.
Oh snap!! That’s one way to do it
“Hello, my name is, uh, Lecky. I’m your unknown, secret daughter. Come find me! I’m located in uhhhh Iowa.”
“Iowa? Why are you in Iowa? I clearly said Idaho.
… don’t worry, it’s a state you’ll like.”
If they are in such a hurry to die, I’m sure the State Police can assist them in their endeavor. They’ll be packed so close together that a couple of frag grenades will do the job in a few seconds.
Sorry-not-sorry.
Owiaho, the Ohio/Iowa/Idaho mashup state.
“She’ll blend in, disappear. You’ll never see her again.”
“Got lost in her own home?”
“EXCYOOOOSE ME, DOES ANYONE HERE SPEAK ENGLISH??”
*plays the Indiana Jones theme on the hacked muzak*
*Dad.*
*TOE DAD*
Mister Telephone Man…there’s something wrong with my line…
The Wichita lineman
Is still on the line…
Becky, don’t do anything stu– (looks at the title of the comic). Never mind, carry on.
Seriously, though, I hope Becky has a really good plan that doesn’t backfire in any way.
*angrily and holding back tears* “IS YOUR REFRIGERATOR RUNNING?”
hahahahahahahaha
i would also have accepted “it’s me, your cousin marvin, MARVIN BERRY???”
Wonder if Becky got to see that growing up.
To find out we’d have to go back to the past.
Also, butter-go ketchup.
Doubtful. It depicts teenage lust and acknowledges the 1950s aren’t perfect.
And, of course, the classic fall back, “Do You have Prince Albert in the can?”.
“Hello Neo! Do you know who this is?”
Go for the jugular, Joyce! And also Dina, but in a less metaphorical way!
First you’d have to find it on that lump of flesh he has for a neck
Welp, that was a setup.
oh no
Becky totally ruined Joyce emotional comment just now.
Not necessarily. I have a feeling he’s not going to talk *to* Becky. He’s going to get talked *at* by Becky. Perhaps yelled at even. With much profanity, one hopes.
Besides, Joyce likes that kind of thing. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/horizons/
“Becky will never, EVER talk to you again!”
::literally one second later::
Ross’ chin in the third panel kinda looks like a mouth.
For some reason he reminds me of Art from On the Fastrack.
“He’s a mobster.”
“So?”
There ya go folks! Modern American evangelical Christianity in action! These are the people telling us we’re immoral demons.
You know Jeesus would condone it because it’s what they want
Once you hear an evangelical define Christianity as, essentially, “I don’t care what you did before, you can walk with my posse as long as you say I’m da man,” that becomes very easy to understand. And avoid.
Honestly I can’t wait to see Joyce’s parents’ reactions to this. Carol needs a huge reality check on this entire situation. Who the hell puts in effort to free a man from jail after he shoots a gun specifically to scare/threaten your daughter?!
Well, it’s Joyce. So he’s doing the Lord’s work.
Or not.
Unfortunately, since Joyce is autobiographical and based on Willis’ type of upbringing, her parents are likely heading to a divorce. With Carol only getting worse and worse…
I am fine with them divorcing honestly… unfortunately Joyce will very likely NOT be fine with it
Honestly picking up for an unknown number is the most christian thing I’ve seen Ross do.
I would like to award you a gold star for that comment. I just laughed out loud, literally
The phone rings alike for the just and unjust.
Or something like that.
Therefore, send not to know for whom the phone rings – it rings for thee.
Coupla questions here.
#1 — Where did Ross get a cellphone? Remember when he was kidnapping Becky in the earlier incident and he found that she had a cellphone, apparently something he had prohibited her from having (“How much have you defied me?”), he nearly lost his shit.
#2 — How did Becky – or more likely AmaziGirl – get his phone number?
Trying the link again … (“How much have you defied me?”)
He prohibited her from having one. Not himself.
He NEEDS to have one, so he can check on his bank account, Look up Bible verses and check for updates and see the in-box to his account on
Hot-Christian-Babes-4-U(dot)com.
Goddamn if that isn’t the truest motherfuckin’ shit.
My parents, evangelical scum that they are, have been extremely technophobic with regards to us accessing ANYTHING they couldn’t control. But sure, they can watch movies with “profanities” and nudity, and play games with rock music, and own a phone.
It’s the classic Christian way to control women, by cutting off their access to the outside world, except through them. If Becky needs something off the Web, she should go through her father.
Ross, being an adult and a male human, has always had a cellphone. Becky knows his number because she called him from a land line when she was young.
*fingerguns*
way to fuckin jinx it, Joyce
Ha I knew it I knew Becky wouldn’t listen to amber then again this could be a trap of some sort by amber.
*Looks up at fan* Well, that’s definitely more shit, that’s for damn sure.
In such a situation, looking up at the fan is generally not recommended.
It doesn’t stay on the fan. That’s the point.
You know, I’d never thought of the fan in that metaphor as being the one on the ceiling.
Hoo boy.
You can say that again.
Hoo boy.
You can say that again.
Hoo boy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxzYszntWuE
40 of them
I would also have accepted, “that again.”
Hoo boy.
Poor Joyce. Just when she summons the gumption to put that giant toe in his place, Becky calls and stomps all over her perfectly planted Seed of Doubt™️. I hope Joyce can get a refund on that.
Yes, yes, Dina. You have a rad-ass girlfriend. It is very important to brag about that right now.
What you said exactly, but without sarcasm.
I mean, Dina has learnt from Becky. What else is to be expected.
Why do I feel that 1) Becky will agree to go with Ross 2) Becky maybe called the cops?
She wouldn’t know where the hideout is, if Amazi-ber didn’t tell her.
The police would have to triangulate Ross’s cellphone to find his location, and assume he’s there.
not necessarily. Becky could be calling from an officer’s phone, or with an officer there, and get the address for where they are from him in the conversation.
A thought (that’s likely been said by others before, but I don’t really feel like trawling through several days’ worth of previous comments to check): Since Dina came of her own volition afterwards, she likely is still carrying her own cell phone – The goons would have removed and shut off/destroyed the phones of everyone else, if they had them on their person when they were abducted.
Dina’s phone could be tracked by the police, were they alerted to the situation – By Amazi-Girl [Likely not what she’d want to do, given that she knows the gravity of the situation and wants to resolve it herself, and is aware of corruption in police ranks], Becky [Who may not be fully aware of the volatility of the situation, but still would be operating with a, shall we say, less unconventional view of justice and police than Amber/Amazi-Girl, or yet, by the Guards, who have overheard everything that Amazi-Girl/Amber has just told Becky, assuming that she took them down without rendering them unconscious.
>Dina’s phone could be tracked by the police
You underestimate the difficulty of even having that capability and getting something like that actually done, both by physically being able to do it or not, and then the considerable legal hurdles.
The police cops have a magic police cop button that tracks your cell phone no matter what. Haven’t you watched CS:GO Miami?
Actually Dina may have a find-my-phone app installed. (These can be used by anybody to help find stolen phones.) We have already seen such a program used by Sal in tracking down Amazigal in-universe. (Granted it was one custom built by Amber).
It also only worked for Amber’s phone and Sal deleted it.
True but those type of apps are freely available. Many people install them in case they lose their phone. Or maybe amazigirl installed a version on Dina’s phone as a procaution.
If you have an iPhone it already has the “Find my iPhone” app pre-installed, and generally cranks up automatically when you activate your iCloud account. There is something similar for the intelligent people (Android users) but it has to be downloaded and activated.
Definitely, I’m only referring to AG’s app that was specifically for Amber’s phone.
This is the point where Becky makes the offer that Ross can’t refuse but later wishes that he did.
Becky outsmarting Ross?
I never!!!!?????
I am tired of moral entropy too, but what I consider moral entropy is corruption, social apathy, exploitation of marginalized communities, xenophobia, extreme poverty, and a bunch of grim stuff that happens in real life. You are just a mad man, Ross. Your crusade against LGBT people and secular movies like Frozen has made you a pathetic scumbag not different than gamergaters, q anons, anti-sjws, neoreactionaries, dark enlightenment pricks, communists obsessed with the soviet union, menenists, radfems, conspiracy theorists, anti vaxxers, stans of serial killers, proud boys, neonazis, etc.
“moral entropy” is a pretty big phrase for a toe to be using.
Not if the toe is merely repeating something he’d been told. He doesn’t have to understand it. Surely you’ve seen that in action IRL.
What does Becky want this time?
Ross: Becky?
Becky: No, I’m Batman.
Ni-yice. That is all.
For some reason my first thought when I saw that last panel was that he had a secret long lost son that was suddenly calling him rather than the obvious of it being his actual known child who we just saw two pages ago. I think maybe it had something to do with “Dad” being like, a male descriptor, and I had a major brain fart when I saw that and somehow thought this also meant the person calling was male.
The bubble’s also in Becky-text mint green.
Maybe bubble-text color is inherently genetically form the mother.
Amber, if you really wanted Becky out of the way, maybe don’t tell Becky that you envision no realistic win over the people holding her hostage.
Ross, I respected you more in the last strip, where you seemed to be fairly realistic about who Blaine was and his likely future actions, but trusted God to protect you from them. And I know we live in a contradictory world, but some contradictions really are irreconcilable. Either Blaine is a brother in Christ or he’s preparing to throw you to the wolves. It can’t be both.
I’d comparing to Judas but it’s kinda insulting to J.
If the best person who ever lived was tortured to death and that’s a good thing (the very best thing), then anything is OK. Substitutionary atonement and an all powerful god opens the door to all kinds of evil being good. Holocaust? Got to be God’s will. Couldn’t have happened otherwise. After that, working with a mobster is small potatoes.
Joke’s on you, Joyce
So you’re back to being in denial about the type of man Blaine is. I expected you to ignore the things about him being an abusive ass-hat. I mean you really shouldn’t but I expected it. But he cheated on his ex wife. I mean I know that to you that’s better than being lesbian somehow but I’d think that would be enough for you to realize that he’s not a good Christian.
does toedad even KNOW that blaine abused his wife?
No reason to think Ross knows about the abuse or the cheating. You’d think the mob connections or the threatening to murder kids would be enough, but I guess that’s all acceptable while reclaiming straying daughters.
Amber told him as much. I could easily see him dismissing Amber’s abuse claims because there are those who would call him abusive because he is. But Amber’s claims that Blaine is an adulterer should be harder to dismiss.
Oops. Never mind.
And now will begin a new type of drama! Becky will say to her “dad” how much she hate him or what? I love this♡!
Ah, the true mistake Toedad made in this endeavor… answering a call from an unknown number.
Diana’s trust is built on more than the power of true love. I think she knows more than she is saying. Did she alert Ruth? Call the police? That might explain why she was OK with joining her friends, since she is certain that this will work out. As a narrative piece, her serene certainty calls for justification. DYW loves red herrings, but not extra points in the narrative. They cause him to draw more than necessary and he ain’t got no time for that.
Wow Joyce and Becky are so in tune they’ve got a good cop bad cop thing going on without even being in the same room.
The speech bubble is blocking Wa-!
. . .
damn you, willis
*gets popcorn*
Dina and Joyce have tapped into their Prophetic Powers. Mark their words!
“He’s a man of God.”
“He’s a mobster involved in theft, extortion, and murder.”
“….I don’t see how those two statements contradict one another.”
Put the phone down, he’s already dead.
I like the crisp “Dad”. I’m eager to see the next strip. 🤩
Now we’ll see how aware Becky is that his dad is a walking death wish. Amber’s hand of cards in DoA is awful, but Becky’s is not much better.
technically his shoulder – the best kind of shoulder
Ross almost slipped up and gave them Ballpeen’s name…
He needs a mask of his own, so they can join forces as the evil duo ‘Hammertoe’.