The Book 9 Kickstarter ended at $70,903! Which is… jeez, this was my second-best Kickstarter total, after Book 3’s $71k. I’m honestly friggin’ amazed, because with everything going on in the world this spring, I wondered if I should even BOTHER with a Kickstarter. So, like, uh. Thanks for making this work beyond all my expectations.
Keep safe, everyone. And again, thank you.
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“GET TO DA CHOPPAH!!”
“It ain’t a Chopper! Ah ain’t modded SHIT”
on Kickstarter: well, what ELSE are we spending our money on, bars, theater, and concerts??
Yeah, really. Got this stimulus check burning a hole in my pocket.
… we’ve bought so much new furniture lately, it isn’t even funny. Our kids have a new bunk bed, we have a new vanity, padded bench, and ottoman.
Yep, and honestly, at times like this, I’d rather see my money go into the hands of independent creators and small business owners than to giant heartless corporations. (Which is not to say I haven’t also been spending some money with them too, but you know how it is lol)
I bought a new toilet because the old one literally fell apart when the plumber tried to fix it.
1985 was not a good vintage for houses. Or toilets for that matter.
I’ll be your non-stop sidekick
Get wild girl
Your non-stop miracle
I’m your Sal
Get out of my dreams
Get onto my bike
…and kick some Blaine ass!
She has pulled herselves together enough to decide to go and make a huge friggin’ mess. Yeah, you go Amazi-Amber-girl! 😀
You mean there’s no time for Amber’s show-stopping musical number about believing in herself?
Fine, but Sal had better put “Holding Out For a Hero” on the radio as they ride off. Bonnie Tyler will do, but the Jennifer Saunders version is obviously preferred.
Amber can have her musical number, just as long as it’s non-diegetic.
Jennifer Saunders’ version is good, but I’m gonna have to say Bonnie Tyler’s is better.
If they aren’t playing THIS as they ride off to do battle, I will be immensely disappointed.
Talking is a Free Action
Someone more in the know can answer: given that Blaine probably has like a 5 minute head start at this point, how likely is it that a motorcycle can catch up?
I’m willing to be that Blaine’s crashed into something, or at the very least got pulled over
He ain’t doing the best rn
bet*
Well, it’s probably just a few blocks to where ever they crashed the van.
I’m by no means an automotive expert but Sal’s bike is top of the line Rutten technology so it probably easily outpaces Blaine’s work van. The real problem is finding him.
Time is moving slower in the comics than for us, so I imagine he hasn’t gotten that far.
Depends on the traffic, the Salvary can catch up. Motorcycles tend to squeak through traffic.
If it’s a straight shot, definitely depends on what each vehicle is packing. If there are any turns involved, the motorcycle has much more maneuverability than a big top-heavy van and can definitely catch up. Also, I’d say 2 minutes head-start tops.
I think you’d be surprised at how little time dialogue can take when you’re getting it drip fed. He’s probably 90 seconds out at most.
Talking is a free action, especially when superheroes are involved.
1) the Twitter IDing Blaine as a kidnapper went Live about the same time he peeled out.
2) motorcycles are nimble and faster than cars. The sun just came up. The roads won’t be crowded. They have a sporting chance.
It’s plausible and even probable she actually did it, but outside chance the Twitter claim was Becky bluffing.
That’s stupid. He hasn’t gotten that far. Talking is a free action. Duh. 😛
HAH!
A motorcycle like that has FAR greater acceleration than a standard box van, as well as a higher top speed. Even assuming that Sal will drive slower and more carefully with a helmet-less rider, she shouldn’t have much trouble catching up (assuming they know which way he went).
Sal: (putting on sunglasses) “Blaine’s got a 90 second head start, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.”
Amber: “Hit it.”
“Use of excessive violence in the capture of Blaine has been approved.”
Isn’t that a line from a movie or something?
At this point I’m starting to worry for Amber’s physical health more than her mental.
saaame
panel 1 of the next strip is just AG passing out face down in front of the motorcycle
I hope so?? I’m still hoping for a good outcome for everybody, but I’m honestly not keen on Amber delivering it. She is just too tired and beaten up to keep being everyone’s secret weapon.
honestly same with sal, im hoping it’s dotty who goes, or even walky (sidekick to be, also bonding time w/ sal)
As soon as this is over she’s going to collapse and not wake up for 3 days
I’d worry about the effect on her midterms, but it’s Amber, she’s already proved that she can have whatever grade she wants.
Leslie should give Joyce, Walky and Dorothy As just because.
Look, if ‘I was kidnapped’ doesn’t get you at LEAST a free retake on any midterms you have scheduled for the rest of the goddamn week, what does?
I mean I know the ‘if your roommate dies you pass your classes’ thing is exaggeration and not any school’s formalized policy, and I know that a sizable portion of academics are absolute inflexible douchebags, but ‘I was kidnapped in the middle of the night by my friend’s mobster dad and that dude who tried to shoot up the campus a few weeks ago, and the mobster killed him’ is one of those things that is both IMMEDIATELY verifiable and probably goes into even my most inflexible douchebag professors’ ‘I only excuse active deployments, the ER, or jail’ absence policies. If only because the PR’s bad enough that even the completely self-unaware would recognize that’s extraordinary circumstances.
On the other hand, tenure and tenure-track can produce some REAL inflexible douchebags, so who even knows.
It’s not always the professors — they don’t have the power students think they do. A lot of times its administrators who never set foot in a classroom.
Example – my campus has a rather draconian attendance policy I am required to enforce. They want the records in case they get audited by the state. I have had students come to class with open wounds where stitches blew out because they are afraid of being counted absent, and I’ve had students reveal their sexual assault to me because they were worried they’d be counted absent because they needed a day to process being raped. Both of which are, to my mind, totally unacceptable. It’s not me being an inflexible asshole, there — as far as I’m concerned they should go get themselves taken care of, my life is easier if only the students who want to be there show, and in the grand scheme of things one day is not going to ruin anything for them. It’s the campus creating an atmosphere where students fear being absent more than the risks to their mental or physical health.
What is the reasoning from your administrators that this is okay? Why would the students’ attendance be that important to the state; are you teaching court-mandated anger-management classes or something?
Most states only pay local schools for days the student’s butt is actually in a desk.
Doesn’t really apply to colleges.
Wait a minute… Her cheeks are still… OOOOOh!
What?
The voice has changed, but it’s still Amber.
Yeah, Note that AmaziGirl isn’t tagged. Psychologically I’m not sure if this is a sign of personality integration, the creation of a third “Amber presents as AmaziGirl” persona, or what.
Amber mustering up Amazi-Girl’s confidence, I think. The voice and costume are donned at will.
Thanks! I was just noticing for the first time that I can’t rely on the speech bubbles anymore to differentiate them, and now I have a different visual indicator I can use without dipping into the tags everytime one of them is on screen.
I love how the bubbles of being worn out transforms to the lens-flare of awesomeness
Yoooooooooooooooooooo
Holy shit, I didn’t even notice that
The “woozles” were receding in the second and thirds panels, and were completely gone by the fourth panel. Those actually ARE the lens-flare of awesomeness in the fifth panel.
Nice touch, Willis!
Bein’ a picky jerk here, but the angle of those flares is too high given the location of the sun at that hour of the day.
Hell with that … its Clobberin’ Time!
“Look yer clearly putting yourself up by the bootstraps but ah gotta kick you in the gut”
Did we already know Sal knows about A=AG, or is this a first?
She caught them making out on Garbage Roof. She knows.
Amber and Amazi-Girl made out?! Wish I could’ve seen that!
Yeah, she knew about it, it’s why they had a really rough fist fight that one time.
The only person potentially finding out here is Malaya, who may as well know anyway because they’re going to be doing roller derby together and who would Malaya tell, anyway? She has like 2-3 friends. Carla’s like the only person not present who would be new to this information since Marcie knows.
Whole arc, several months ago (IRL)… before the David/Sally connection was mentally made, IIRC
well I dunno what you mean, hypertext, it sounds like Amber and Amazigirl are finally getting along like two peas in a pod
So she’s Amber with Amazigirl’s voice?
Maybe it’s a New Vegas, Dog/God type thing where the two personalities melded
I said this before weeks ago.
I’d agree, but this strip does start with “No, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to pull myself together.”
That is a fair point
Plus, in real life DID alters merging is typically neither common nor recommended.
Yes. In real life that’s like asking your bowel cancer to sit down and talk to you so you can come to to a reasonable compromise
While you are 100% correct and in no way deserve what I’m about to say, I can’t help but feel you should have chosen for an example of afflictions with which one can’t negotiate something that was less…
… accommodating.
*flees for dear punning life*
Ouch ouch ouch!
What makes it worse is I can’t think of a good pun to respond with. Only a few sh*tty ones.
*turns to flee, but is dragged off stage by a large vaudeville hook instead*
Yeah, isn’t harmonious coexistence the ideal goal?
AMBER BACK IN THE CAGE
It was only a couple of weeks back, down in the basement with Ross dying that we had Amazi-Girl without the voice. Like the costume, it’s not intrinsic. Either of them can do the voice or not do the voice as needed.
it sucks when emotional realizations take place at inappropriate moments, like this whole hostage-murder-car chase situation
I for one, believe that since the kickstarter did so well, you should celebrate with a proper Dorothy/Joyce slipshine comic.
That’s the kind of thinking we need around here!
Or, you know, why not Julia Gray / President Doris
Ooh, Julia Gray / President Doris sounds very fun.
If we are doing presidents, then we need Mary / President Ronnie.
President Mary is not a future I want to visit, to be honest.
Silver linging: At least it wouldn’t be one with multiple sex scandals around the President being waved away by all those holier-than-thou evangelical leaders in the height of hypocrisy. It’s not like MARY would be that sort of hypocrite following all her moralizing on the subject.
/sarcasm
DoA Book 10: I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Be Able To Pull Myself Together
Or “Let’s Go Make a Mess.”
She’s got the touch. She’s got the power.
Nanananana she’s got the look.
Sal don’t abide no malarkey.
The Adventures of Sir Coffee, anyone?
Nocturnal Adventures of Sir Coffee; sorry!
“Wow, if I had a nickel for every time I ended up in a motorcycle chase to stop a kidnapping, I’d have.. two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”
Doofenshmirtz knows what is happening.
Hey, it’s two mothers worth.
If you’re Mike.
If I had a nickel for every time I got killed, I would have (counting noises) thirty cents.
Yeah Sale right we just wasting time right now. He got another high-speed chance on our hands. Play the Mad Max Fury Road music.
Next plot twist: they catch up to the wrong white van. Blaine gets away.
and thus were found Hillary’s missing emails :-p
Clutched in the fingers of Jimmy Hoffa who had done a rather successful Elvis.
Little know secret: Jimmy Hoffa died of natural causes in a nursing home outside Paramus NJ in the early 1990s.
Aww. Walky just gave up his cape. That’s so sweet!
A gentleman should always be prepared to offer his cape to a superheroine who has lost hers.
Isadora Duncan (dancer from the early 20th century), died in 1927 as the result of a freak accident when the long flowing scarf she was wearing got tangled in the rear wheels of the open car in which she was riding (you can look it up).
That’s why E says, “NO CAPES!!”
A counter argument:
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/white-heron/why-superheroes-wear-capes/viewer?title_no=212440&episode_no=21
Amber’s idealism and Sal’s pragmatism will keep headbutting just like Joyce’s optimism and Sarah/Joe’s cynicism, but not in annoying way as Danny”s obsessive clinginess and Ethan’s promiscuity. This is the tea I enjoy.
Also, there can be joy in Dorothy’s seriousness dealing with Becky’s silliness.
That’s the sort of thing I hate about this type of character. I hated it whenever I saw it in e.g. She-Ra (tons of characters like that there, Swiftwind, Seahawk, Mermistra) and I hate it in Amazigirl.
This self-obsession and the theatrical posturing even at times of utter urgency!
Joyce has just been kidnapped, and Amber’s still caring more about whether Amber failed or whether Amber is great or not or a good person or not, than about Joyce. Whether she wallows in self-pity as a couple strips ago, or in self-praise, both are forms of utter self-centeredness, and both waste time.
Dude, this is a comic. They are going to get Joyce anyway. Super heroes can get away with these speeches and it is like a short thing in comparison to this long kidnapping arc. If Willis actually kills Joyce it would bring him more hate than when Mike fell from the stairs.
In that case what’s the point?
Also she is kinda the main character and I don’t think her story arch with the church has completed yet.
“This is a comic” is a meaningless excuse for Amber’s behaviour unless she’s aware that she’s in a comic.
If you’re to excuse Amber wasting time via self-obsessed posturing because “she’s in a comic”, you may just as well argue that she shouldn’t care about Joyce at all, because Joyce isn’t real.
In short you aren’t connecting or comprehending what I’m saying at all.
No, Amber isn’t aware she’s in a comic. As you correctly point out, neither she nor Joyce are real. Therefore, Amber isn’t making this decision, and does not need to know she’s in a comic to justify the decision she isn’t making.
Willis has decided that we need a moment here to see Amber pull herself together and know why she’s doing it. We also have characters who care about Amber, such as Walky, witnessing this moment, which will change their dynamic going forward. When characters make speeches like this, it is for the audience’s benefit, to convey feelings and thoughts that cannot be depicted solely in pictures, as well as for the benefit of the story being told, making connections that might be more difficult without them.
To Sal, this reads as time-killing because she does not have the context necessary to recognize the fictional devices being deployed here. (Also, because it’s funny.) Like her’s, your analysis is based entirely on the conceit that these are real people making real decisions. But it doesn’t have to be! You have the power, as an outside observer and real person, to find other lenses through which to examine and analysis works of fiction. I recommend you do so.
The strange thing is that reality as we know it sometimes makes more sense when viewed through those same lens.
Sometimes.
All your words are saying “It doesn’t matter, because it’s fiction”.
Okay.
I think it’d have been preferable for my enjoyment if Willis had chosen to NOT have the character behave like a self-absorbed twit when her friend is in lethal danger.
Willis needed to convey to us what was happening in Amber’s head, since that’s important character development. In a different medium, that might be handled with narration or directly showing the character’s thoughts – which wouldn’t take character time, but with the restrictions he’s chosen for this story, it has to be shown in dialogue or action.
Then Sal lampshades it.
It’s also probably about 15 seconds. More time was wasted last strip filling us in on how Sal and her crew got here.
I mean if none of it mattered I wouldn’t have spent time explaining it, let alone encouraging you to think harder about it. Just because something doesn’t line up with reality doesn’t mean it’s pointless. I wouldn’t have been here for ten years if it was.
That said, you’ve grokked that this is Willis’ choice, and not Amber’s. That’s good! Next comes step two, thinking about why Willis might’ve made that choice and what it’s supposed to say about his characters. I think I supplied a pretty good explanation, but if you want to read this scene as a reflection of Amber’s narcissism I can’t really stop you, so.
All silliness aside, well stateted.
You know I really need to get a better writer for the comic I’m in. Seriously, about the only good part was when he was writing porn.
Don’t forget this is a woman who has had literally no sleep in what, 48 hours? 72? This speech is to psych herself up, or literally to wake herself up. Usually she just goes ahead and does what’s needed as Amazi-Girl. I don’t remember
her making any speeches when she went after Becky and her dad when he kidnapped her.
Near as I can tell, about 24 – probably less. We saw her waking up in bed the morning after the fight Mike got hurt in. It was the following night she decided to stay up to avoid letting AG take control and that same night they were kidnapped in the wee hours and early morning now.
We don’t know when she dragged herself in that night or how much sleep she got, of course.
That wasn’t self praise. That was a pep talk.
I agree. She’s still grappling with Joyce’s question on pretending to be less than capable. Secret ingredient soup moment.
Right? She’s pulling herself up by thr bootstraps and trying to get it together.
I hate to break it to you, dude, but a lot of the time people tend to be pretty self-centered even in real life! Especially people with serious mental illness! Because people with mental illness have an impaired ability to like, compartmentalize feelings and stuff, and only feel the things you think would be appropriate in a given situation.
Also, I don’t know, if you’re thrust into a situation where most signs seem to be pointing to you not having any more control over a situation that seems dire, it seems pretty reasonable to me that your thoughts would then turn to the first ways you can possibly retake control of said situation. For some people, that way is to blame themselves and figure out what they did wrong, and sometimes it’s to reaffirm to themselves the things they do still have control over.
Like, it’s still a fictional comic so none of this is actually the point, but man, do you go through life expecting everyone to always react to things in the most reasonable way? Or maybe that’s your escapist fantasy you want from fiction, which, if that’s the case, fair I guess. But this is super duper the wrong webcomic for that kind of thing.
I hate to break it to you dude, but when you start a comment as dismissively and rudely as “I hate to break it to you, dude”, you’re not endearing me to you. I was sorely tempted to just not bother to read the rest of your comment.
If you don’t care about my perspective, how deeply unpleasant I find Amber’s (and other characters in other media) self-centered theatrical posturing in times when their friends are threatened with death, then that’s just fine. Different people have different tastes in fiction.
I’m inclined to agree in general. It’s obvious that Amber/Amazi-girl is Not Okay. The whole fractured personality thing is a hint. There’s a lot of self-absorbtion, sure. Wallowing and grandstanding. Beating evildoers as a vigilante to blow off stress? Not really the most advisable hobby.
We know she’s not a very shining exemplar of mental health and emotional maturity. I give Willis props for consistency.
Another aspect is, everyone around her is enabling her and leaning into it. Is it her charm and charisma? Sal noticed that she’s in bad shape, dizzy and on the ground. So Sal’s response? “Hey, you seem in bad shape– can you pull yourself together and keep going?” It’s like encouraging an alcoholic- “Wow, you seem to be literally falling down drunk… do you think you can pull yourself together enough to… DRINK THESE FIVE MORE SHOTS I BROUGHT YOU?!? WOOOOOO.” A lot of people know how deep Amber is into this mental unhealthiness, but I don’t remember anyone trying to make a serious attempt to stop her. Ruth was going down that road, to which Amber’s inappropriate response was “I’ll beat you up if you get in my way or try to stop me and do it anyway.” Yet more hints that she needs to be stopped by actual grown-ups all the harder.
We know how Amber got that way- decades of abuse from Blaine, plus some innate qualities. But as she becomes an adult, she inherits responsibility for it. Self-flagellating and wallowing about it isn’t making a meaningful change. And no one around her is doing her the favor of full-on intervening. (She’d probably just ignore them and continue on anyway, but actually trying is worth points for whoever cares enough to do it.)
OTOH, Sal’s response is rational – Amazi-Girl might be in bad shape, but she’s almost as bad-ass as Sal is, so she’s still probably more help than anyone else there.
the “almost” part is Sal’s opinion. 🙂
Trying to get her to stop the dangerous superheroing is a good idea, but the middle of a kidnapping isn’t the best time for it.
Boy, you’re really going to dislike Shakespeare. Characters stop in the middle of things and just talk to themselves.
Fiction can be more than choose your own adventure plots. I’m reading the complete Daredevil and the plot structure evolves from simple episode to long complex narratives. DOA has done that compared to DYW early work.
As always, read what you like (I’m a librarian). But if you’re hate reading this, don’t expect much sympathy. Most of us read this because we really like it.
Yeah, that “theatrical” bit struck me after my previous post.
Yes, it’s theatrical and it’s theatrical for exactly the same reasons it’s traditionally done in theater. Not because plays happen to be about self-absorbed characters prone to monologues, but because that’s a technique plays use to let the audience in on what’s going on in the character’s head.
Shakespeare can’t use thought-bubbles for his theater audience — characters talking to themselves is how he indicates their thoughts. Such asides can be considered non-diegetic.
This doesn’t apply here. Amber is wasting time with her in-story posturing, and Sal is even telling her she’s wasting time.
Anything Amber had to say here for the audience’s sake, we could have seen as thought bubbles as she’s riding with Sal.
When was the last time we saw thought bubbles in this comic? (I think there actually was one case not that long ago, but it is a definite stylistic choice not to use them. And there was “Walking with Dina”, specifically described as “in which a character is allowed an internal monologue”. )
“I’ve got passion… and I’ve got resolve… and I’ve got… uh… about 20 hours of missing sleep… to catch up on… zzzzzzzzz”
Whoops, did Sal just reveal AG’s secret identity to Carla and Malaya?
Carla would have figured it out and Malaya wasn’t paying attention to that nerd stuff anyway.
Joyce is going to seen another example of the Old Testanent God sending someone to save her.
Amazigirl is gonna stomp a hole in Blaine’s ass and walk it dry.
Am I the only one who’s thinking of the soundtrack from the original Iron Man at the moment?
Yeah, Amazi-girl, get on her bike.
Her bike is amazing.
Give it a lick
It tastes just like raisins!
I think she’ll find that “The Universe” covers just about everything.
Willis,
My wife and I budget together and allocate money only when we agree. Even though we’re not spending money on other stuff due to the death virus, I really didn’t think that “What would you think of me blowing a few hundred on a kickstarter, magnets and nine books?” was really going to be a winning argument, but she surprised me with “you really enjoy that web comic.” Fortunately she already had a kickstarter account for one of the writers we both enjoy, so it was pretty painless. Anyway, I’m glad that I was able to do something to respond to your generosity in simultaneously entertaining me and making me think, day after day, year after year. It was something that I wouldn’t have put money on ever happening.
I’m pretty sure that’s not a general explanation for your successful kickstarter though.
So anyway, thanks for the comic. And Damn You Willis in advance.
To understand why he has such successful Kickstarters, you have to realize that there are a LOT of people who like this comic, and are willing to show their support in tangible ways. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to find out that everybody who posts here is a backer, and has been for years.
Probably so, but in my case it was kind of an unexpected freak occurrence. Just one I’m happy about.
Of course I’ll be even happier when the books arrive and give me an excuse to rebinge.
XD AG, I love you, but that’s the kind of speech that’s never gonna work on Sal.
Am I the only one who thinks that this is going to be Amazi-Girl’s last ride? That something’s going to happen that will make both the ladies in her head decide that the time has come to hang up the mask?
So you are one of us!
Nah, eventually Willis will want to draw more action sequences.
I suspect there will be a change in the relation between AG and Amber, but I’m not sure exactly how it will go. There already has been – in that they’re talking to each other again, but I think there’s more to come in this arc or its immediate aftermath.
AG is not really necessary for action sequences, Amber can punch and kick by herself. She is necessary to provide DoA with a superhero theme. So the thing is if Willis will want to draw more superhero stories. And there is always the option to change your superhero. Maybe DoA decade 2 will be about the exploits of The Unshadow.
If this does happen, I wonder how Amazi-girl would adjust to more normal life rather than being a superhero all the time. Like, would she start using a different name?
“C’mon! Let’s run some red lights!”
Lord, Walky’s towel wwwww
Don’t forget to bring your towel!
The adage rings true once more !
Once Amber is out of sight, Walky will no longer know where his towel is.
Where’s Ethan?
Off to check on Mike in the hospital
He left already to go find Mike.
Walky should warn Amber that monologuing makes Sal feel the irrepressible urge to kick the monologist.
The way Amber looks at Walky♡♡♡…. AND NOW, RUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!
Oh, Sal. I’d so hoped that you’d notice that Amber is even more likely to pass out while falling off the roof of a car this time than last time. This should be fun.
(Danny suddenly materializes in the corner: “Wait, now you’re enabling her???”)
Amber: Let’s get Dangerous
Yeah, but “When there’s trouble you call AG” just doesn’t flow as nicely..
“When you OMG just call AG”?
Someday those two won’t argue over petty things
Today is not that day
I’m glad she didn’t say “Blaine must be stopped no matter the cost.” That didn’t work out for Optimus.
I dont know what they plan to do but hopefully it’s just tail the van and relay that information to the police because I dont like the odds of bike vs van