This month’s first Patreon bonus strip is about Lester, the cop who was there in Blaine’s hospital room when a bullet hit him somehow!!!! All patrons can go check it out.
And, as always, you can pledge up to read TOMORROW’S strip TODAY!
Discussion (109) ¬
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the family abused by folks together
reused thy jokes together
…wait no
the family bunching up together
punching up together?
This week is it Blake Backlash or Dirk Pitt
Just dye Sal’s hair red and they could probably pass for Dirk Jr and Summer, haha
To be fair, she makes that joke DAMN easy, Sal.
Joyce seems to think that’s a joke.
yes. ha ha. joke.
Joycy’s in denial. It really isn’t just a river in Egypt, y’know! ;D
Honestly, I’m impressed she’s picking up on it at all.
Okay everybody. Bookmark this strip now. We’ll pull it out in three or four years when Joyce actually kisses Dorothy there.
I’ve been predicting it for awhile.
We’ll be up to, say, winter finals by then? Maybe January of second semester? Oh who am I kidding? It won’t even be Thanksgiving by then.
Rooftop gatherings usually end in a bad fall or someone eventually deciding to become a masked vigilante.
We’ve already had both.
Where do we go from here?!
Smooching!
Founding of a hero team.
You are looking into my dreams somehow!
Founding of a smooching hero team.
Joyce and her friends will wake up from a drunken super hero party and realize what they did.
Is this a motherfucking Persona 5 reference?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XdAQpq_1Xw
I assume the rest of that Patreon strip is a beat panel and then everyone laughing.
I assume that the second panel is Lester handing over his badge and gun, and the third is the chief handing them back.
And saying to Lester, “pro forma investigation; completed. Yer good to go, guy!”
Lester: you know my name is Lester! (Wink)
All three: (laughter)
Cue to all of them being butchered by mobsters to not leave loose ends, or them being arrested by federal agents because there was a mole in their corrupt cop group.
Directed by Martin Sorceses, the pretentious director that doesn’t like the MCU.
Whether Scorsese is pretentious or not, he was making a valid point about the business of film. The MCU is not everyone’s idea of great cinema, and that’s fine. But when theater screens are dominated by franchises, there is less exposure available for other films. This is especially true when films can really disappear quickly from screens if they aren’t putting butts in seats – the hook can come pretty quickly before word of mouth can build. The bottom lines affect what films can get made, so traditional studios are more loathe to take chances on films that don’t have a huge market built in.
I do think his comments ignore the newer markets of Streaming services, but even with those, they are often focusing on their own productions and the model for film-to-streaming isn’t fully developed yet.
Sorry. I think that this subject is worthy of a long-form examination, though I’m not the one to write it. As fans, it’s a great time to be a content consumer. But there is another side of the story as well.
I’m not sure if franchises really change the business. Movies have always competed for attention and sequels and remakes have always tried to cash in on the success of their predecessors – with varied success.
The Marvel franchise is really the only one that really puts a lot of films out there and even that is only 2 (or 3 for the last few pre-COVID) years. It’s not really taking up that much theater time.
Studios are loathe to take chances, but that’s not new. And the franchise movies still have to put butts in seats, which traditionally has been hard to sustain.
I wanna make a comment on today’s strip but the Lester teaser has me thinking the final panel just ends with them all laughing!
Time to vandalize their cars and leave fruit flies there.
Protocol dictates an investigation, but somehow I suspect those cops don’t give a shit about protocol.
The panel about Lester really makes me wish I could afford Patreon, I want to see how that plays out.
Also, Joyce you could do a lot worse than sharing your first kiss with Dorothy, trust me.
Shouldn’t it be ‘jive’ instead of ‘jibe’? I had to look up what jibe meant and that didn’t sound like it fit.
Jibe can mean “to be in harmony or accord; agree.” Which is exactly how she’s using it. (Look at the dictionary.com definition, scroll down about half way. )
Merriam-Webster says “jibe : to be in accord : AGREE —usually used with with”
Everyone agrees that coming about with the bows to the wind is so much less ‘fun’ and ‘exciting’ than coming about with the wind astern. With that everyone jibes.
“Jibe” is actually correct, and “jive with” is corrupted from “jibe with.” The more you know!
I’m not sure which dictionary you consulted if the ‘agree’ sense (the only one that’s not a variant spelling of a different word – gibe or gybe) wasn’t the first, as it’s by far the most common.
*cues up The Purple One*
Okay I got one. The Joyce x Dorothy jokes are played out. We need some new material. Unfortunately it’s not gonna happen in this universe. Maybe the next Shortpacked reboot a few decades from now.
At this point, everyone can see that Joyce is bisexual, and clearly attracted to Dorothy. The mystery is, does Dorothy return her feelings.
Is this a joke? I can’t tell. I genuinely don’t read Joyce as bi at all. Where are people getting this?
It’s no joke. There are hints all over the comic. Joyce is constantly gushing over Sal and Dorothy (I think she even blushed around them). Lucy even called her “a blonde, bisexual version of me.”
Here: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/proselytize/
Uh…
It’s all very well to point to “hints of Joyce being bisexual” but I feel like if she was, at all, the Becky storyline would have ended very differently. How’d you square her being bisexual with her reaction there?
Friendly reminder to look up photographs of Victorian male friends. Physical and emotional intimacy does not necessarily imply romantic or sexual attraction.
I mean just because your bisexual doesn’t mean your attracted to everyone she saw becky as a sister so the attraction was weird for her.
And on the flip side, Joyce said that growing up BFFs with Becky may have warped her understanding of acceptable behavior in platonic same-sex friendships. (Sorry, don’t have a link handy.)
She is definitely perceived as bisexual, due to said warped boundaries, and perhaps a hint of actual curiosity, but I don’t think we’re at the point of saying she definitely is. So far, anyway…
Yeah, I don’t read her as bisexual at all, honestly, although I can see her being confused about that at some point in the future. She and Dorothy are just in the early stages of being Heterosexual Life Partners.
I’m not going to try to figure out linking, block out a few hours, and google it.
And while those hints exist, they’re relatively subtle compared to her blatant attraction to guys.
That could just be repression, but I suspect if she was actually feeling attraction, she’d be more conflicted and trying to hide any traces of it. Embarassed and ashamed rather than treating it as normal.
Sure, it’s just…given how much soul-searching she did later about how to square Becky’s orientation with the Bible, her general reaction to such, not to mention her other bits of soul-searching regarding her own sexuality, you’d think that if she was attracted to women at all something of that would have come out in her self-examination, as opposed to basically nothing at all, don’t you reckon? I’m not saying it’s IMPOSSIBLE that she’s bi, just noting that the evidence is pretty circumstantial and so far Willis has passed up multiple opportunities to explore that side of her, if it existed.
Something else I want to point out, too: I brought up Victorian male intimacy earlier, and one of the reasons that intimacy existed was because men weren’t really supposed to form relationships with women other than their wives and family members, so they ended up pouring out much of their emotional and touchy-feely feelings onto their male peers. Well, Joyce is from an upbringing where hugging a man outside of the context of family or a loving relationship destined for marriage is the slippery slope to fornication and sin. If she wants physical (non-sexual) intimacy, then the only choice is to direct it at her female friends. Throw on Becky subtly skewing her ideas of appropriate affection between friends and I don’t think it’s that hard to see how she could be straight and yet still be way more touchy than you’d expect with other women.
Her infatuation with Dorothy. Some things she’s said about Sal’s hair. Something about Billie’s breasts, I think.
Not just Sal’s hair. She wanted to use her as a living dress-up doll at one point.
I think at some point somebody says something about her and Sal and her response is “I wish! No way am I good enough for her” and Mike asks for confirmation that she’s the one Joyce would officially switch teams for?
Joyce definitely was thinking about Billie’s breasts way back in this strip.
If you are a completely straight girl, you do not look at someone’s breasts and say you could crawl into them to be safe and warm forever. Which is pretty much word for word a thing Joyce said to Billie. There is also the fact her friendship with Dorothy got really intense really quickly (like on Becky levels, within weeks and showing jealousy over Walky taking up time with Dorothy) and Becky herself said Jacob was Joyce’s type because he was the biggest Dorothy she had ever seen.
Like, Joyce may not be aware of it, but she does seem to express some level of attraction to Dorothy and Billie. The Sal’s hair thing could be hyperfixating or attraction or both, and I’d consider it both. There are hints all around that it is likely, which is why Walky, Becky and Sal now have all teasingly and jokingly made comments about it.
This. The hints of Joyce’s bisexuality are pretty much all over the place.
Yeah but that’s definitely something she doesn’t want to deal with right now and I dont blame her. Although I think she could handle it better now than in the past.
Agreed, I think she’s putting that in ‘skewed sense of platonic affection’ rather than full repression, because it’s one more paradigm shift she’s not ready for just yet. (I also consider it a possibility she’s heterosexual and biromantic, and therefore has NO frame of reference whatsoever for the concept of split-model attractions like this.)
I mean after years of ‘oh I totally hate my reproductive system, but that’s normal, right? Especially if you have endometriosis. Sure I fantasize about its full removal, and sure I feel distressed I have a body I feel I have little control over and wish I were a robot or a being of pure energy but like, who wouldn’t?’ I’m only just now starting to realize I’m probably less cisgender than previously thought, so I can see Joyce genuinely not recognizing the degree to which she’s experiencing attraction and figuring that since she’s not attracted to Becky because Westermarck Effect, clearly she’s not attracted to girls at all.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/nemesis/
Sal and Walkie are sharing Amber?
agreed. I like Dorothy x Joyce and a bisexual Joyce, but as someone who had to come to terms with their orientation, it’s really annoying to be flippantly teased with it by other people – at one point it just feels shameful.
especially when it’s clear that Dorothy doesn’t feel the same way at all.
Joyce said she wants to smooch! Out loud! That’s real progress!
She’s wanted to smooch for a long time. The girl has a strong sex drive. The question is whether she’s ready to do so with another girl.
Walky and Sal should double team Joyce…verbally.
Not what I thought you were going for at first, but I’d be fine with either outcome.
I’m not gonna lie I’m super fond of a couple of twins just going to town on someone. Like I’d love to see android 17 and 18 double teamin’ Krillin!
~twincest is wincest
too much information (is android 16 going to be pimp?)
He’s dead :c
A good tongue lashing, you say?
This was a really needed laugh right now for me.
Farewell, Chadwick Boseman.
So sad. R.I.P.
You took the words out of my mouth. May he RIP and may his family, friends and fans have a peaceful mourning process.
YES I AM HERE FOR THE LEAD-IN TO THE JOYCE/DOROTHY SLIPSHINE.
it’s just becky having a very confusing nightmare
Your avatar is very spot-on right now.
awwwwww, Walky in the last panel. Good on you for getting your sister back, little mouse boy.
clezrly sharing things heavier than hellos and greetings. Like feelings and gossip. Not just the ‘rents and “Hey.”
Joyce, you just described a good persona 5 romance scenario, and now I want a fanfic where you and Dorothy make out in the garbage roof I didn’t set on fire.
I mean, a good hypothetical romance scenario.
Is now their sacred duty to make the necessary joke if the other sibling is not doing it fast enough. It’s a huge responsability.
The last panel reminds me of the current banner for the Joyce and Walky-rerun: Walky, Joyce, Sal and Dorothy at the very end.
Spin the bottle!
So, judging by it is nigt, and if this scene is the end of the arc, the time jump happens and Joyce and her mom just will not have talked?
That’s…. wow.
Good. Hope she never has to interact with her mother ever again
I don’t, either, but it just stuns me that Carol and her crew and so unhealthy that Joyce’s world changed in literal months.
Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, Joyce.
I guess?
As long as you don’t share Jason
Drop kick Dorothy over the side, Amber!
Walky is yours and so is Garbage roof!
Amber: Listen, you don’t like me and I don’t like you…
Dot: I like you just fine!
Either that’s Becky’s line, or Dorothy’s getting a lot more one-sided rivalries than she’s aware of.
Both!
🙂
Yeah, there’s going to be a Joyrothy kiss in the next couple of chapters, isn’t there?
Lol. Joyce is so expressive in the last panel. I can almost hear the grumble
I LOVE this new side of Sal♡. And totally agree with what she’s saying.
Joyce said “smooch”. She has always had the thirst, but now, in front of people? Wow.
Smoochers Assemble!
Is Joyce wearing bi pride striped vest? Dorothy did say she was Kinsey scale like 1 or 2…. I’m hoping foreshadowing to a happy healthy romance for Joyce and Dorothy though complicated by Beky’s past longing
She’s been wearing it all day. I’d actually been wondering A: whether Becky bought it for her, and B: when someone in the comments would mention it.
She’s had it since the start. Becky didn’t buy it for her.
When did she wear it before? (Also, if she has had it since the start, Becky still might’ve bought it for her.)
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/seats/
She wore it on the first day of class.
It could still be a gift from Becky but since Becky didn’t know what bisexuality was until she met Billie, she probably wouldn’t have bought it to represent the Bi flag.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/blog/joyces-wardrobe/
Joyce’s original character design also has this vest.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/kinsey/
Unless I’m forgetting something, she actually said she’s probably a zero. But she also followed that with “I guess that estimate could change”, and it’s very possible that the absence of a total confirmation that she’s not bisexual is essentially a confirmation that she is.
Or just an acknowledgement that not everyone is completely aware of their sexuality at 18.
Yeah I guess I’m overthinking this
Now they’ve really become twins
It took me till now to realize Joyce’s vest is the colour of the bisexual pride flag.
So I take it this is effectively just going to be a slow trickle in of all the major characters leading up to one big group shot to end off year 10.
Just a nice slow burn as everyone piles onto the Garbage Roof
I’ve been low-key shipping Joyce and Joe while holding out for Walky and Dorothy, but Joyce and Dorothy is an acceptable eventuality.
Why suicide? Couldn’t he have said Blaine & he were wrestling for the gun, and it accidentally fired nailing Blaine? Or would that be too much of a coincidence?
Simple lies are easier than complicated lies.