Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
RSS
‹
›
  • Home
  • About/Read before posting
  • Archive↓
    • by calendar
  • Cast
  • Store↓
    • Main Store (books and stuff)
    • T-shirts
  • Patreon↓
    • Patreon (regular)
    • Patreon (NSFW)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
i knew it
First Previous Random 64Comments Share Next Latest
Reddit Digg Facebook MySpace Delicious Stumbleupon Buzz Up! Mixx Technorati Google Bookmarks Yahoo Bookmarks Yahoo MyWeb Windows Live Propeller FriendFeed Newsvine Xanga LinkedIn Blinklist Twitter
Discover more Hiveworks comics
BOOKMARK
Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
Goto TagClear Tag


BUFFER WATCH Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:

July 8, 2026

Violet

by David M Willis on March 18, 2020 at 12:01 am
  • 03 - When It Crumbles
└ Tags: amber, ethan, mike

Discussion (64) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. Ana Chronistic
    Ana Chronistic
    March 18, 2020 at 12:02 am | #

    classic Mike

    in a few senses

    • butts
      butts
      March 18, 2020 at 12:21 am | #

      more like ASS-ic mike

      …not to speak ill of the dead

      • Reltzik
        Reltzik
        March 18, 2020 at 12:30 am | #

        …. because he’s not dead?

        • butts
          butts
          March 18, 2020 at 3:25 am | #

          perhaps

        • Agemegos
          Agemegos
          March 18, 2020 at 5:37 am | #

          Indeed not! He’s in a gimp suit with a hose and lotion, holding the evil dads in durance at the bottom of a dry well in the basement of an abandoned house, for Ambi-Girl.

    • MrBookBoy
      MrBookBoy
      March 18, 2020 at 12:21 am | #

      Do you think he’s gotten to the “your mom” quotes at this point, or is he just sticking to analyzation right now?

      • Kyoulkoa
        Kyoulkoa
        March 18, 2020 at 5:33 pm | #

        … Yes.

  2. Stephen Bierce
    Stephen Bierce
    March 18, 2020 at 12:04 am | #

    “I need you for a shield–I mean study partner. Ahem.”

    • Pablo360
      Pablo360
      March 18, 2020 at 12:05 am | #

      if this were Wiggenstaff’s he could be both

  3. BBCC
    BBCC
    March 18, 2020 at 12:04 am | #

    Sure, Mike, keep telling yourself that’s why.

  4. BigDogLittleCat
    BigDogLittleCat
    March 18, 2020 at 12:05 am | #

    Walked right into that one, Ethan.

    And you don’t even realize it.

  5. drs
    drs
    March 18, 2020 at 12:06 am | #

    This seems like a random monologue?

    • clif
      clif
      March 18, 2020 at 2:47 am | #

      No.

    • Agemegos
      Agemegos
      March 18, 2020 at 9:17 pm | #

      I think that this flashback will serve to establish something we need to know about Mike, Amber, and Amazi-Girl. When we get to the denouement of the fight between Amazi-Girl and Mike against EvilDad and Ross, someone is going to do something important that we will see is in character because of what we are learning now, but that would make us nope out if we didn’t know it.

      That is the usual purpose of a flashback in a dramatic story, and I think this is a literary flashback, not any character suffering dissociative hallucinations. Unlike, for instance, Mike lounging in Amber’s bed while she was humping Walky.

  6. Rose by Any Other Name
    Rose by Any Other Name
    March 18, 2020 at 12:07 am | #

    There goes Mike, keeping hope alive.

    • Jamie
      Jamie
      March 18, 2020 at 12:55 am | #

      He’s basically Pandora.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      March 18, 2020 at 2:38 am | #

      Unlike himself. Probably.

  7. Kyrik Michalowski
    Kyrik Michalowski
    March 18, 2020 at 12:16 am | #

    Oh Mike, your tsundere ways are not lost upon us. Also I haven’t noticed, does Amber still call them her peers in current day or has she upgraded to calling them her friends?

    • MrBookBoy
      MrBookBoy
      March 18, 2020 at 12:22 am | #

      I think friends. I definitely recall her referring to Ethan by a friend at one point.
      Probably Dina too, but I’d have to check to make sure.

      • Sunny
        Sunny
        March 18, 2020 at 6:42 am | #

        I think Dina first called Amber a friend and was happy when Amber confirmed it because she wasn’t quite sure. I tried searching for it but couldn’t find the strip, so there’s a possibility I’m getting some things mixed up.

      • BBCC
        BBCC
        March 18, 2020 at 4:07 pm | #

        Amber’s gained a lot of confidence since this flashback. And even this flashback is a big leap from the one before.

        • thejeff
          thejeff
          March 18, 2020 at 6:13 pm | #

          Though I don’t believe she’s called Mike a friend in the present. Or thinks of him that way.

  8. MrBookBoy
    MrBookBoy
    March 18, 2020 at 12:20 am | #

    I understand how Mike wanted to mess with Ethan during this time, but what’s his angle with Amber? I can’t tell if he just wants to mess with her or legitimately help her (as in the math test example).

    • deathjavu
      deathjavu
      March 18, 2020 at 12:26 am | #

      I think it’s meant to be somewhat ambiguous and also filtered through the lens of “Mike is not actually good at helping”

    • DailyBrad
      DailyBrad
      March 18, 2020 at 1:12 am | #

      I think he wanted to help her. Stuff like with her dad or teacher, I don’t think Amber ever knew about Mike’s machinations, so if it was just to troll her, it’d be kind of pointless.

    • Sam
      Sam
      March 18, 2020 at 1:12 am | #

      I think we are learning that Mike wanted to legitimately help her but after his past failures, he started to use his sharp observations to needle them both rather than helping directly. This series of flashbacks is also likely to humanise the superhero stuff by showing that Amber did have to trial and error it a lot more before.

    • Hazel
      Hazel
      March 18, 2020 at 2:14 am | #

      I think Mike likes to mess with people and help people, but especially help people by messing with them. This does not always go as planned however.

  9. Pocky
    Pocky
    March 18, 2020 at 12:32 am | #

    . . . How’d you remember the parts you weren’t there for?

    • Abdomino
      Abdomino
      March 18, 2020 at 2:04 am | #

      Who said it was Amber’s flashback?

      • Ron again
        Ron again
        March 18, 2020 at 2:58 am | #

        No, don’t give me hope.

        Flashbacks don’t have to be someone’s. They can just be story flashbacks for the reader. I think.

        • Agemegos
          Agemegos
          March 18, 2020 at 5:34 am | #

          Yeah. The main strip doesn’t stick to a single character’s point of view. I don’t see that the flashbacks should have to.

        • Khyrin
          Khyrin
          March 18, 2020 at 8:33 am | #

          Unless Willis is going supernatural on us for serious, and Mike’s disembodied soul has taken up residence as an eternal backseat driver in Amber/Amazi-girl’s system, and will be harrying them both.

        • Daibhid C
          Daibhid C
          March 18, 2020 at 2:23 pm | #

          There was one strip a while ago where the alt-text specifically said that nobody was having the flashback, it was just happening to make a point to the readers.

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      March 18, 2020 at 7:23 am | #

      Amber is tagged?

      Could be Ethan’s flashback, if it’s anyone’s. He’s the only one there for all of it.

  10. Chronos
    Chronos
    March 18, 2020 at 12:40 am | #

    Joke’s on you, Mike. You caught feelings despite yourself. Those very feelings forced me to acknowledge you as a character instead of a “mere” force of nature.

    A very, very *bad* character that sometimes goes after even worse characters, but a character nonetheless.

  11. Keulen
    Keulen
    March 18, 2020 at 1:01 am | #

    I’m assuming this flashback story arc is leading up to the reveal of what happened to Mike, but I could be wrong.

    • Casi
      Casi
      March 18, 2020 at 2:54 am | #

      I’m wondering if Ethan is the one who found mike. So far this entire flashback sequence has had one common character: Ethan. Willis did a good job with a fake out by starting the sequence with Amber kicking the tree, but all of this looks like it’s Ethan’s memories of an important day in his life.

      • Amara Rezby
        Amara Rezby
        March 18, 2020 at 4:36 am | #

        I think it’s multiple days in Ethan’s life in the year(s) following The Incident. I highly doubt tree kick and roof fall were same day affairs, after all.

  12. Bagge
    Bagge
    March 18, 2020 at 2:14 am | #

    “…yes. Friends. Just friends. Nothing else. Obviously.”

    • Bagge
      Bagge
      March 18, 2020 at 2:16 am | #

      I really didn’t expect paralells between Mike and friggin’ Becky, but here we are.

      • BenRG
        BenRG
        March 18, 2020 at 5:33 am | #

        Of all people in this comic, I never thought MIKE would be the illustration of why ‘dropping hints’ is absolutely pointless.

      • Agemegos
        Agemegos
        March 18, 2020 at 5:40 am | #

        They both have stylish hair.

  13. Opus the Poet
    Opus the Poet
    March 18, 2020 at 2:16 am | #

    Of course you knew it, you wrote it!

    • McBogue
      McBogue
      March 18, 2020 at 2:37 am | #

      Or maybe this storyline was written by Willis’ alter-ego, Incredi-Dude.

      • woobie
        woobie
        March 18, 2020 at 4:22 am | #

        Because Incredi-Boy was taken.

  14. abysswatcher1993
    abysswatcher1993
    March 18, 2020 at 2:32 am | #

    Mike is quite insightful for his age in this time. He must have collected many skulls of mad men in Yharnam.

  15. clif
    clif
    March 18, 2020 at 2:53 am | #

    The answer is yes. 5% of the time.

  16. Dracke
    Dracke
    March 18, 2020 at 2:56 am | #

    Ethan used to be able to see right through Mile Used to, He really cared too much and his only way to act was incredible coarseness…so with time they stop trying to deal with him…and he died for one of his friends…

  17. BenRG
    BenRG
    March 18, 2020 at 3:01 am | #

    It makes sense to me from the start that Mike was onto Amber’s degeneration. However, being a cynical misanthrope, he really didn’t have any tools to do anything about it other than try to needle Ethan into doing something.

    • Zee
      Zee
      March 18, 2020 at 11:15 am | #

      I’d also say that being 13 he didn’t really have the tools to do anything about it

  18. Agemegos
    Agemegos
    March 18, 2020 at 5:25 am | #

    Am I going to have to look up “shrinking violet”?

    • BenRG
      BenRG
      March 18, 2020 at 5:32 am | #

      You might, it’s a fairly out-of-use bit of colloquial English. Basically, a Shrinking Violet is a person who retreats from social interactions, preferring to be inconspicuous or, ideally, invisible.

      • Lieutenant Dan
        Lieutenant Dan
        March 18, 2020 at 6:49 am | #

        The Incredibles intensifies.

    • Me et al.
      Me et al.
      March 18, 2020 at 11:05 am | #

      see also: wallflower

    • Agemegos
      Agemegos
      March 18, 2020 at 5:24 pm | #

      Well there you go! It just means a shy and socially-retiring person. I had always supposed that it implied timidity and lack of resolve.

  19. jufreire
    jufreire
    March 18, 2020 at 7:16 am | #

    Mike, to me, looks VERY ANNOYED in the last page which kind of tells me he’s been aware of his crush for longer than we thought.

    • Me et al.
      Me et al.
      March 18, 2020 at 11:08 am | #

      Maybe. But when does Mike not look annoyed? (ans: when he’s in a coma) It seems like this may be pre-crush Mike. Honestly that goofy smile he had for Ethan in his last days is so new I suspect he may not have even realized he let us see it. Mike isn’t known for letting his guard down.

  20. CJ
    CJ
    March 18, 2020 at 8:50 am | #

    Now who is having this flashback?

    • King Daniel
      King Daniel
      March 18, 2020 at 12:11 pm | #

      I say Eef

    • Casi
      Casi
      March 18, 2020 at 1:03 pm | #

      As i said earlier in another reply, this is most definitely Ethan’s flashback, since he’s the only common character so far in all the strips. Makes me think Ethan is the one who found Mike.

    • Agemegos
      Agemegos
      March 18, 2020 at 5:26 pm | #

      It’s probably a literary device, not a dissociative episode. Probably just something that happened in the past, not anything occurring in the main continuity.

  21. DarkoNeko
    DarkoNeko
    March 18, 2020 at 1:07 pm | #

    past Jock Mike

  22. eskimolos
    eskimolos
    March 18, 2020 at 1:32 pm | #

    I enjoy what mike is talking about here, as someone who still does this – I can’t really call people my friends even still.

  23. Sombrero
    Sombrero
    March 18, 2020 at 6:55 pm | #

    Mike Warner. Working on the desperate since 1999.

CHOOSE A SIDE, NO COWARDS

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive
CONVENTION APPEARANCES


September 13/14, 2025 - Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland

©2010-2025 Dumbing of Age | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Privacy Policy | Back to Top ↑