A superhuman horror story focused on a small band of survivors trying to navigate a war-torn world in the aftermath of the Federation’s collapse.
Lunar Blight
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Lunar Blight is a gothic horror story about an elite knight serving a moon cult who must choose between upholding his honoured duty or condemning everything he’s grown to know.
Anacrine Complex
Sae Cotton
A superhuman heist involving probably too many pigeons than entirely necessary.
Heart of Gold
Eliot Baum, Viv Tanner
A pianist with failing eyesight seeks out a priest with a miraculous healing touch, drawing him deeper into a world of miracles and curses.
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Patrik the Vampire
Bree Paulsen
Patrik loves to knit, bake, and help his friends while dealing with his own demons... like his thirst for blood because, oh yeah--he's a vampire.
Far to the North
Allison Shaw
Kelu turns to the monsters of her remote mountain home when her family is held hostage by outsiders.
Drugs & Wires
Mary Safro, Io Black
Dan used to be a VR operator until his brain got fried by malware. Now he's stuck delivering packages in a post-Soviet hellhole all while trying to adjust to his new life and find some answers.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Fairmeadow
Kendra P. / KP
A wayward soldier finds herself in a pacifist commune deep in the wilderness of a war-weary land. Living in isolation brings her closer to those she was sworn to kill than she could ever imagine - but also threatens to tear the place apart.
Come Hell or High Water
Jenny/Star, Mori
Prince Gladimir was never meant to fall for a pirate. Swearing off love for duty, the threat of war propels him back into the Captain’s world of high seas and high stakes. Their relationship could be the thing to save the kingdom of Yvoire - or destroy it.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Tove
Severin
The end of the world is coming, and Tove doesn't want to be a hero, but SOMEONE has to look after her little brother.
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Clockwork
Chikuto
Cog Kleinschmidt is a diligent, quiet worker at the Mercia Fortress, the world power's leading stronghold. His orderly life is thrown into chaos when an enemy kingdom sends a diplomat for peace talks. This diplomat needs something from Cog - whether he agrees to their terms or not!
Killjoys
Flatw00ds
When two disgraced ex-feds fall backwards into trouble with the clown mafia, getting out in one piece is gonna be no joke!
Demon Studies
Miyuli
Four students summon and study potentially dangerous demons within the walls of the mysterious Summerland University.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Solstoria
Angelica Maria
After her brother goes missing, Samantha vows to become a Knight and help those around her in the Kingdom of St. Helena.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Goblins
Ellipsis
A fantasy RPG as told through the eyes of the low-level monsters.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
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.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Spinnerette
Krazy Krow, Rocio Zucchi, Pablo Rey
When a lab accident gives Heather Brown spider powers and six arms, she does what any midwest comic geek would do: Become Ohio's #3 superhero!
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
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All these bad dads suffering deaths FROM ABOVE!!!
Sorry, your Accurate Alliterative Appeal Added Ambivalence, I thought we were referencing Dominic Deegan for a second there.
You forgot to put “Delusional” in front of “Dire.”
Mobster One couldn’t face reality anymore because his daughter could now take him in a fight. Short One probably never fully dealt with reality in his life…
I dunno, I use-ta look forward to learning new tunes, and remembering old ones. I mean I can get used to the new sourdough, everyone does that, but I miss the Wry.
We do NOT bathe ourselves with our tongues, however. Nor leave headless prey where we are certain you will step on and appreciate them. That’s all cats!
Although Toedead wasn’t a good parenti thinkbecky was closer with her father than Amber was with hers. Toedead at least tried to have a few good experiences with his daughter, like taking her to 6flags, even if he restricted what prizes she would be able to get. Blaine seemed to barely tolerate Amber;s presence
I am a little skeptical Blaine would’ve actually told anyone he was found out by a 13 year old kid. Like the mob would’ve killed him way before he had a chance to kidnap anyone if he’d revealed that shit.
Yeah, I think the only way he could’ve possibly gotten away with it is ‘that kid must have done some investigating in the last year or two, it wouldn’t be the first time he stuck his nose where he has no business’ or something, and if he did convince someone Mike needed to die, Mike would already be dead.
But they were just kidnapped by him yesterday, so I don’t expect them to be taking a huge step back and going ‘y’know, he was an impulsive dumbass but he also cared more about saving face than anything else’. And, well, it only takes one person Blaine can convince to kill the kid in a coma.
Little known fact. After he finally graduated college he started using his middle name and ran away to become a deck hand, working on a tiny ship that set sail on a three hour tour, but was somehow lost at sea.
Actually, a very little known fact was that in the show once someone asked him what the G. stood for, and the answer was Walter. And trivia experts are still arguing over whether Gilligan was a first or last name.
Doh! That’s right. Bob Denver played Maynard. It was Dwayne Hickman that played Dobie. But the show was called “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” so that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw Denver’s face up there.
He’s sarcastically agreeing with Dorothy, then throwing in the bit about punching her because Amber’s subconscious is trying to keep him in (unsympathetic) character… Also Amber may be aware at least subconsciously that Walky still has feelings for Dorothy (or at least some level of discomfort about the fact that her two college relationships to date have both been rebounding from dating Dorothy).
It depends on what Willis thinks presents better story opportunities, I think. Ross and Blaine dying offered more than them living – the only things Ross could do were stay in jail (and eventually a probable trial storyline) or try to kidnap Becky again. Blaine was always going to keep coming up with schemes against Amber until he was incapacitated – and his mob ties meant he was never going to just stay in jail, because if they thought he was still an asset they’d get him out and we’ve seen what they’d do once he’s not. By contrast, if they die? Sweet, sweet, angst. Ross in particular gives us a LOT of story options with Joyce as well as Becky (hey Carol, we still haven’t addressed how you trusted a guy who murdered your own!)
So we had this grand arc where they got to escalate shit, Blaine got to go full supervillain like he always wanted to, and at the end of it they’re cleared from the field for good so they can’t escalate further because there’s no up to go. Joyce gets to tell Ross off, point blank, and make him feel a moment of ‘just maybe, this plan I hitched myself to is terrible, has me associating with terrible people, and will backfire on me’ before the end (even though he rejects it because Ross was ultimately a piece of shit.) Becky gets to have a huge Twitter rallying speech about how she refuses to be terrified back into the closet by her dad or anyone else, and how she’s not letting him force her to run away again. AG gets a kickass fight sequence with her true nemesis, and she and Amber get to recognize that they’re not Blaine, they’re not destined to become him, and they are ultimately the ones who choose how they go forward. (And Amber gets to scare Blaine utterly shitless, reject him, and see the look on his face when she does so. Will I ever stop linking this Shortpacked strip? Not when Blaine is a topic of conversation still, I don’t think. https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/last-respects ) Plus, bonus Faz character development! Faz character development that includes telling Amber that he struggles with the exact same fears about Blaine fucking him up, and she is his role model and inspiration. Nothing more Blaine or Ross’s continued presences can really add to anyone’s character arcs, and their deaths each establish a bigger threat (Blaine for Ross’s death, Asher for Blaine’s.)
By comparison, Mike is a supporting character, but he’s one with enough internality to sustain an arc of his own. There is, in fact, a clear route forward for his arc if he remains in the strip. The question is whether Willis is interested enough in that arc for the investment it would require, and whether they think it’s got more options than removing Mike from play permanently and letting that play out among the remaining cast – there’s a huge difference between ‘shitbag parents died’ and someone in their peer group, even if Mike was a shitbag himself. I could see it either way, even as I’d prefer Mike to get an actual redemption arc rather than a redemption equals death.
The Mike that lives in Amber’s hallucinations is kind of funny, in an odd way. Like he’s almost a cardboard cutout of Mike, the most shallow aspects of his personality for the most part. I guess because Amber herself cannot quite wrap her head around the idea that Mike genuinely cares about her. (This being Amber though, that tracks)
Seriously though, this girl needs a doctor. And much as I would love for Amber to stay in school just out of spite towards Linda, she probably needs a long stay in a hospital. Hallucinations and frequent dissociative incidents are very bad things.
Well, but if you look at what imaginary Mike is actually saying, he’s making the sarcastic point that of course he would ask her to sacrifice herself seeing as how it would make his sacrifice in vain. So he wouldn’t really.
So you see, imaginary Mike is actually nicer than real Mike.
My concern is honestly that a hospitalization stay might well make things WORSE – inpatient can be traumatic, and it’d almost certainly cut her off from even healthy coping mechanisms (like, the internet.) They definitely need a LOT of sleep, though, and support for establishing healthy body cohabitation strategies, and help for their massive self-esteem/self-sacrifice issues. (And probably some antidepressants.) They need therapy and probably a medical leave of absence, I just wouldn’t recommend inpatient to anyone who can avoid it and the therapy has to be competent.
If I remember correctly, the Mafia takes care of the families of fallen members. However this is the Korean mob, so they may function differently, and Blaine was not a member anyway, just a mob adjacent. With Yuri being mob family, maybe???
Brain damage can cause major personality shifts. I have a friend that I met as an adult who I would describe as outspoken and EXTREMELY blunt. I’ve met some of his other friends that knew him before a serious car accident in his early adulthood, and they say that before the accident, he was very timid and hardly spoke.
My money is still on Mike waking up and perpetually having the demeanor that he had while drunk in the walkyverse (alcohol made him really nice)
How weird is it that my first thought was, “Really? You ran the whole way there Becky?” Granted, that was before it occurred to me that her/Robin’s apartment is at most 5 blocks from the hospital. Granted, that run would kill me as I have a mild form of muscular dystrophy and the straightest path would involve running up a couple of small hills, but a normal person can handle that just fine.
A few years ago I had a recently-graduated nurse staying with me for a couple of weeks while she had a training placement at the local hospital. She asked me whether I could recommend any good routes for a run, and I suggested one that involved cross both the bridges across the river and running up Reservoir Hill and Commandant Hill, and down five flights of stairs. About a five-kilometre circuit. When she got back I asked whether she for it good, and she answered that it was the best run she’d been on, and that she had enjoyed it so much that she had gone around twice.
Young people are crazy, but they can run without it hurting.
I’m sorry Becky, you’ll have to wait till someone with the same coping mechanism as you has the same experience. Maybe see if either of Walky’s parents are at deaths door.
Yeah, I don’t know what real!Mike would think of being the voice of Amber’s self-loathing and sense of inadequacy and failure. I suspected that ‘red memory’ Amber would evolve into her own distinct psyche in time but I was never expecting it to be as Mike!
I read Becky’s donkey doo comment as being about at the whole situation, rather than amber’s reaction. Like, she wanted to be there to talk to amber about have dead dad’s, but it all just kinda sucks balls full stop.
… It hadn’t occurred to me that she might be referring to anything *other* than being a member of the Dead Dreadful Dads Club until I read your comment…
The fact is that, on a certain level, Becky did still crave Ross’s love and acceptance. Amber long ago learned that there was nothing she wanted from Blaine and, not a few hours ago, she realised that his approval was the single worst thing that he could possibly give her. So, frankly, if she needs help at the moment, it’s to deal with the fact that she desperately wants to dance on Blaine’s grave and feels like a monster for having that desire.
Yeah, AmbG’s had years to figure out Blaine was just complete, total shit. Will probably still have messy emotions about how he fucked them up and how they can’t divorce who they are now – or hell, their existence as a system – from the trauma of growing up with Blaine, but the closest thing to paternal we’ve ever seen from Blaine was showing up late to Amber’s birthday party and calling her a potato. And they knew he was a mobster and tried not to think about how he maybe cheated on Stacy with a teenager for years, and had plenty of distance to realize how fucked up things were. Any grief they have is likely more on the lines of ‘why did we have to get this shitty excuse for a sperm donor?’ or ‘why can’t we feel sad about this like a normal parent-child relationship?’ than ‘why couldn’t we have had more times like that family trip to Six Flags?’ (Note that Becky and Joyce seem to have relatively happy day trip memories with Ross, and the only known equivalent for Amber is the Field Trip Of Doom where he berated her in the car all day and then the traumatic convenience store incident happened. I suspect there’s a reason for that.)
By contrast, Ross showed Becky affection sometimes, and she’s only recently had time to start recognizing how messed up her entire upbringing was. (Becky also doesn’t have the same frame of reference for parents who aren’t controlling nightmares, since Ross was basically in line with the church community. Not having a cell phone was unusual, but ‘children should obey their elders without question’ is the party line. Ethan’s parents aren’t GOOD, but they’re still markedly different from Blaine, and Mike’s parents seem perfectly nice.) It seems like Ross and Becky’s relationship also took a turn for the worse after Bonnie’s death, though I think that was less ‘Ross got more controlling’ and more ‘Bonnie was a mediator’ and ‘Becky seems to recognize and acknowledge that Bonnie’s suicide attempt wasn’t a sudden act of Satan.’ The rift’s much more recent and there are good memories to be had that are tainted by Ross’s later actions.
I do think there will be some eventual common ground of ‘man my dad’s sudden death after a day of rapidly-escalating trauma was something I was not remotely prepared to handle’ or ‘god, why did our dads suck so damn much?’ but it’s not the same baseline.
Yes, it’s gone all…sorts of not good when you can’t even cuss. I shant’ mention cussing is entirely different from cursing and I’m tired of the blasphemous bums who get that wrong.
There is a weird comfort in having an acquaintance share a horror like this with you. It’s how I got one of my closest friends. No one else can udnerstand our special brand of f*cked up.
I am wondering, what is the procedure for a shooting in a hospital, if it is evacuation, wouldn’t they evac the patients as well? Or would they lock the hospital down so nobody can leave?
Don’t claim to know the definitive answer, but in many cases the patients CAN’T leave. I would that first, the floor or wing/ward where the shooting occurred would be sealed tight — absolutely NO ONE comes or goes; although since Amber is on the outside, I’m obviously wrong on that part. Secondly, I assume each floor or wing has lock-down procedures so only designated essential staff remains, no one else enters, and everybody else gets the bum’s rush out the doors.
But remember — this was an “assisted suicide by cop” and the cop himself (Lester) is there to assume control of the situation and spin the story, so the “normal’ lockdown procedures in case of an active shooter situation never got past the first step of “evacuate all non-essential persons” (and how fucked up is our country that I can write a sentence like that with barely a second thought?) Now we readers and the regular cast know Lester is as bent as a corkscrew, but the hospital staff — not so much, so they take him at his word and DEFCON 5 or Condition Red or whatever gets downgraded to ‘cleanup on aisle 6’.
Me two weeks ago: Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, not to protect anyone, but because entering prison as the world's most illustrious pedophile makes that a logical decision. Conspiracy theories make less sense than the stated story.
Me now: The Pee Tape was shot on Epstein Island.
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Q: “Did Bondi tell you your name appeared in the Epstein Files?”
TRUMP: “The files were made up by Comey, Obama, Biden…”
Nothing to see here, folks!
I need more Muslim characters! Or at least more prominent ones who aren't Raidah. It is a huge giant hole in my strip that makes it suck. The current storyline would've been way better if they existed. But they don't, and no amount of throwing Asma in for three strips solves it.
TRANS WOMEN OF BLUESKY:
What was your egg cracking moment?
When did you know you were trans? What made you realize?
And did you know you were a woman right away, or did you pass through other identities first
Happy Nonbinary People's Day, you gemstones. A year or two back we introduced FLASH GORDON's first enby, the outlaw lawman Bones Malock. Having known and loved a lot of nonbinary people, I knew the truest way to represent you was as a unsettling desert pirate with a lightning sword
Happy International Non-Binary People's Day to all those who work, create, parent, protest, love and live without ever fitting into someone else's category.
Okay, everyone's jumping to conclusions, but Joyce was hit with a mysterious pink gas in Thursday's strip.
Now, in recent years, the police are known to increasingly use military grade weapons.
Which reminded me of this bit of proposed technology from the 1990s:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb
hey, kid, what do you want to play with from the cool superhero movie? is it a nude, melting senator who feels like a stretch armstrong doll that has been left out in the son and maybe mildly chewed by a neighborhood dog? WELL, SON, YOU'RE IN LUCK!
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Nothing to see here, folks!
mel! @mel.bzky.team ⋅ 5m
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Dire Daddies Die Deservedly
Becky Bombastically Brings Bereavement
Amazi-Amber Amasses Ambivalence
How much doo would a doo donkey do if a doo donkey did do doo.
All y’all are amazing xD
Not me. I forgot the question mark at the end.
My life is a failure.
That’s okay. I plan to demand a do-over.
A doo-over?
How much doo would a doo donkey do if a doo donkey did do doo a doo-over over Dover?
Baby shark doodoo doodoo doodooo. Baby Shark.
A re-doo-doo, if you will.
All these bad dads suffering deaths FROM ABOVE!!!
Sorry, your Accurate Alliterative Appeal Added Ambivalence, I thought we were referencing Dominic Deegan for a second there.
It’s like everyone woke up and wanted to be Walter Winchell today.
Highly entertaining.
You forgot to put “Delusional” in front of “Dire.”
Mobster One couldn’t face reality anymore because his daughter could now take him in a fight. Short One probably never fully dealt with reality in his life…
“like, for one thin’, Amber has this SUPER ADORBS POUTY POUT and I have this weird freakazoid face”
The little tears in her eyes in panel one D:
“Blaze of Glory” plays on the hacked muzak?
(Are they still hacking the muzak ’round these parts?)
Better you than me, pal.
I dunno, I use-ta look forward to learning new tunes, and remembering old ones. I mean I can get used to the new sourdough, everyone does that, but I miss the Wry.
*cues up Wild Band of Indians’ “Fry Bread”*
Whether It’s Good For You I Can’t Judge.
Which version of “Blaze of Glory”?
Some of the techno covers were pretty bad.
“SOME”?
I want a plot twist to be that Dina sees “Mike” too, and just hasn’t bothered to mention it.
Don’t ask me why, or what the implications would be, I just really want it to happen for some reason.
Perhaps Dina reminds you of a cat?
There are many similarities between cats and auts.
We do NOT bathe ourselves with our tongues, however. Nor leave headless prey where we are certain you will step on and appreciate them. That’s all cats!
… I take the Fifth.
Sssh! We’re lulling them into a sense of security.
They’re both Stand Users.
Dina, of course, has inherited Scary Monsters.
Language, you lady!
To paraphrase Bess Truman (even if apocryphal):
“It took us fifteen years to get her to say doo“
Although Toedead wasn’t a good parenti thinkbecky was closer with her father than Amber was with hers. Toedead at least tried to have a few good experiences with his daughter, like taking her to 6flags, even if he restricted what prizes she would be able to get. Blaine seemed to barely tolerate Amber;s presence
Is that Mike talking, or Walky?
Mike is tagged and Walky is not, so probably it’s Amber’s inner Walky.
I am a little skeptical Blaine would’ve actually told anyone he was found out by a 13 year old kid. Like the mob would’ve killed him way before he had a chance to kidnap anyone if he’d revealed that shit.
This.
And he was a lying SOS, who’d say a anything to get what he wanted.
Yeah, I think the only way he could’ve possibly gotten away with it is ‘that kid must have done some investigating in the last year or two, it wouldn’t be the first time he stuck his nose where he has no business’ or something, and if he did convince someone Mike needed to die, Mike would already be dead.
But they were just kidnapped by him yesterday, so I don’t expect them to be taking a huge step back and going ‘y’know, he was an impulsive dumbass but he also cared more about saving face than anything else’. And, well, it only takes one person Blaine can convince to kill the kid in a coma.
Welcome to the Terrible Dead Dads Club, we got… cookies I guess?
Polite of Dina to let her girlfriend tag along with her in the Behind Open Door Transit System.
Actual footage of how Dina gets around.
Crap. Let me try that again.
That was Dina’s punk stage, it didn’t last very long as it made her very self-conscious.
I prefer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zUnINuvcRI
Thank you for bringing this into my life.
Dobie Gillis avatar! NOICE.
Pretty sure that’s our man, Manard G. Krebs.
You rang?
Little known fact. After he finally graduated college he started using his middle name and ran away to become a deck hand, working on a tiny ship that set sail on a three hour tour, but was somehow lost at sea.
Actually, a very little known fact was that in the show once someone asked him what the G. stood for, and the answer was Walter. And trivia experts are still arguing over whether Gilligan was a first or last name.
Gilligan was his last name. Willie was his first name as per word of God (Sherwood Schwartz). His first name never came up in the series.
Doh! That’s right. Bob Denver played Maynard. It was Dwayne Hickman that played Dobie. But the show was called “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” so that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw Denver’s face up there.
Dobie was a real Danny with the girls; cute in a really awkward way.
Who was it that played Zelda? (I think that was her name?)
Sheila Kuehl under the stage name “Sheila James”.
Thank you.
Well, Becky normally travels via exploding closets, but she didn’t want to do that in a hospital, so she tagged along with Dina.
Depending on how far away Becky’s new place is, she must have a lot of stamina to not be gasping for air.
(Running is lame y’all)
Becky’s place is 1.1 km from the hospital entrance. Many 18-year-olds have no particular difficulty running this far.
1.1 kilometers is about 2/3rds of a mile
Yes it is, Becky, yes it is.
Talking about feelings isn’t donkey’s doo, but your expectations about people’s reactions are a bit off, Becky.
I’m glad to see that Imagi-Mike is just as much of an ass as real Mike. If he does die, at least his replacement has the necessary qualifications.
I know Willis had the rule about not killing people(who would be mourned) but how likely are the odds that something does happen to Mike?
I honestly expect Mike’s Coma to last until the fandom decides he isn’t waking up, and then he WILL wake up, just to spite US.
What’s the likelihood that Mike will stay in the coma until we get a brief timeskip for second decade DOA and then he will just be awake again.
He’s sarcastically agreeing with Dorothy, then throwing in the bit about punching her because Amber’s subconscious is trying to keep him in (unsympathetic) character… Also Amber may be aware at least subconsciously that Walky still has feelings for Dorothy (or at least some level of discomfort about the fact that her two college relationships to date have both been rebounding from dating Dorothy).
I’m unawake enough that I thought you wrote “Imagic-Mike”, like a pun on the movie.
It depends on what Willis thinks presents better story opportunities, I think. Ross and Blaine dying offered more than them living – the only things Ross could do were stay in jail (and eventually a probable trial storyline) or try to kidnap Becky again. Blaine was always going to keep coming up with schemes against Amber until he was incapacitated – and his mob ties meant he was never going to just stay in jail, because if they thought he was still an asset they’d get him out and we’ve seen what they’d do once he’s not. By contrast, if they die? Sweet, sweet, angst. Ross in particular gives us a LOT of story options with Joyce as well as Becky (hey Carol, we still haven’t addressed how you trusted a guy who murdered your own!)
So we had this grand arc where they got to escalate shit, Blaine got to go full supervillain like he always wanted to, and at the end of it they’re cleared from the field for good so they can’t escalate further because there’s no up to go. Joyce gets to tell Ross off, point blank, and make him feel a moment of ‘just maybe, this plan I hitched myself to is terrible, has me associating with terrible people, and will backfire on me’ before the end (even though he rejects it because Ross was ultimately a piece of shit.) Becky gets to have a huge Twitter rallying speech about how she refuses to be terrified back into the closet by her dad or anyone else, and how she’s not letting him force her to run away again. AG gets a kickass fight sequence with her true nemesis, and she and Amber get to recognize that they’re not Blaine, they’re not destined to become him, and they are ultimately the ones who choose how they go forward. (And Amber gets to scare Blaine utterly shitless, reject him, and see the look on his face when she does so. Will I ever stop linking this Shortpacked strip? Not when Blaine is a topic of conversation still, I don’t think. https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/last-respects ) Plus, bonus Faz character development! Faz character development that includes telling Amber that he struggles with the exact same fears about Blaine fucking him up, and she is his role model and inspiration. Nothing more Blaine or Ross’s continued presences can really add to anyone’s character arcs, and their deaths each establish a bigger threat (Blaine for Ross’s death, Asher for Blaine’s.)
By comparison, Mike is a supporting character, but he’s one with enough internality to sustain an arc of his own. There is, in fact, a clear route forward for his arc if he remains in the strip. The question is whether Willis is interested enough in that arc for the investment it would require, and whether they think it’s got more options than removing Mike from play permanently and letting that play out among the remaining cast – there’s a huge difference between ‘shitbag parents died’ and someone in their peer group, even if Mike was a shitbag himself. I could see it either way, even as I’d prefer Mike to get an actual redemption arc rather than a redemption equals death.
Dumbing of Age Book 10: Just a Big Pile of Donkey Doo
The Mike that lives in Amber’s hallucinations is kind of funny, in an odd way. Like he’s almost a cardboard cutout of Mike, the most shallow aspects of his personality for the most part. I guess because Amber herself cannot quite wrap her head around the idea that Mike genuinely cares about her. (This being Amber though, that tracks)
Seriously though, this girl needs a doctor. And much as I would love for Amber to stay in school just out of spite towards Linda, she probably needs a long stay in a hospital. Hallucinations and frequent dissociative incidents are very bad things.
Well, but if you look at what imaginary Mike is actually saying, he’s making the sarcastic point that of course he would ask her to sacrifice herself seeing as how it would make his sacrifice in vain. So he wouldn’t really.
So you see, imaginary Mike is actually nicer than real Mike.
Imaginary Mike says nice things in a dickish way that totally undercuts the niceness, so pretty much like real Mike.
My concern is honestly that a hospitalization stay might well make things WORSE – inpatient can be traumatic, and it’d almost certainly cut her off from even healthy coping mechanisms (like, the internet.) They definitely need a LOT of sleep, though, and support for establishing healthy body cohabitation strategies, and help for their massive self-esteem/self-sacrifice issues. (And probably some antidepressants.) They need therapy and probably a medical leave of absence, I just wouldn’t recommend inpatient to anyone who can avoid it and the therapy has to be competent.
I wonder if the mob will pay for Amber’s tuition.
I wonder if someone has already come up with this idea.
Even the mob knows what a shitty person Blaine was and were like “We gotta do this girl a solid.”
Because the mob is widely known for their generosity and fair play. Bound to happen.
I could see it.
Mob Boss: Amber, we’d like you to get your computer degree. So you can do credit fraud for us.
a small prize to keep an actual factual super hero off their back
Amber isn’t bulletproof.
Neither is antman
If I remember correctly, the Mafia takes care of the families of fallen members. However this is the Korean mob, so they may function differently, and Blaine was not a member anyway, just a mob adjacent. With Yuri being mob family, maybe???
Dumbing of Age Book 10: But Honestly It’s All Just a Big Pile of Donkey Doo
It looks like Becky’s grief has finally caught up with her.
Aaand here…we…go!
Give her a hug, Becky.
did becky think of that nickname on her way there
Yes.
Nah, she’s called her “Amber the hamster” or some variation before.
Pretty much since they met.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/splitsville/
Oof, Dorothy in here with the past tense in regards to Mike.
Ooh, I didn’t even catch that. Ouch.
It’s imperfect past tense — […] even he would ask that […]. Can very well be said about someone who is alive and kicking.
Now, if it would have read “even he would have asked that”, ze plot, she would thicken.
But “he was a jerk”
He still is, but he also used to be.
Perhaps she mistakenly thinks that his sacrifice means he is no longer a jerk?
Plot twist: he wakes up, only he’s really nice now, and it freaks everybody out and they’re practically begging him to be a jerk again
Brain damage can cause major personality shifts. I have a friend that I met as an adult who I would describe as outspoken and EXTREMELY blunt. I’ve met some of his other friends that knew him before a serious car accident in his early adulthood, and they say that before the accident, he was very timid and hardly spoke.
My money is still on Mike waking up and perpetually having the demeanor that he had while drunk in the walkyverse (alcohol made him really nice)
Becky has it all planned out. amber will be there, sitting alone, maybe crying, she will take her hand and tell her “it’s okay…”
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/morebecky/
Aw. Amber’s so pretty. Poor girl, what a fucked up situation.
I knowwwww, she’s such a cutie. I hope we get to see her heal.
How weird is it that my first thought was, “Really? You ran the whole way there Becky?” Granted, that was before it occurred to me that her/Robin’s apartment is at most 5 blocks from the hospital. Granted, that run would kill me as I have a mild form of muscular dystrophy and the straightest path would involve running up a couple of small hills, but a normal person can handle that just fine.
A few years ago I had a recently-graduated nurse staying with me for a couple of weeks while she had a training placement at the local hospital. She asked me whether I could recommend any good routes for a run, and I suggested one that involved cross both the bridges across the river and running up Reservoir Hill and Commandant Hill, and down five flights of stairs. About a five-kilometre circuit. When she got back I asked whether she for it good, and she answered that it was the best run she’d been on, and that she had enjoyed it so much that she had gone around twice.
Young people are crazy, but they can run without it hurting.
that and their non-cauterized faculties for feeling joy, god they’re just the WORST. we hates them, we hates them forever.
I’m sorry Becky, you’ll have to wait till someone with the same coping mechanism as you has the same experience. Maybe see if either of Walky’s parents are at deaths door.
Linda might die once Walky inform her he is flunking math, so there’s always that possibility
Heart attack fuelled by shock, rage, and my hate. Darn shame. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer shitheel.
And she was so young, too. *Dabs a completely dry handkerchief at a completely dry cheek*
Yeah, I’m sure we’re all deep in mourning.
I have these balloons for a completely unrelated party.
Yeah, I don’t know what real!Mike would think of being the voice of Amber’s self-loathing and sense of inadequacy and failure. I suspected that ‘red memory’ Amber would evolve into her own distinct psyche in time but I was never expecting it to be as Mike!
I read Becky’s donkey doo comment as being about at the whole situation, rather than amber’s reaction. Like, she wanted to be there to talk to amber about have dead dad’s, but it all just kinda sucks balls full stop.
… It hadn’t occurred to me that she might be referring to anything *other* than being a member of the Dead Dreadful Dads Club until I read your comment…
Mike’s dad is still nearby in frames 2 and 3, possibly listening.
Indeed. Talking about Mike in past tense when he’s still alive and maybe in danger? Way too harsh, Dorothy!
Is this the real Dorothy talking or a figment of Amber’s imagination?
The fact is that, on a certain level, Becky did still crave Ross’s love and acceptance. Amber long ago learned that there was nothing she wanted from Blaine and, not a few hours ago, she realised that his approval was the single worst thing that he could possibly give her. So, frankly, if she needs help at the moment, it’s to deal with the fact that she desperately wants to dance on Blaine’s grave and feels like a monster for having that desire.
Yeah, AmbG’s had years to figure out Blaine was just complete, total shit. Will probably still have messy emotions about how he fucked them up and how they can’t divorce who they are now – or hell, their existence as a system – from the trauma of growing up with Blaine, but the closest thing to paternal we’ve ever seen from Blaine was showing up late to Amber’s birthday party and calling her a potato. And they knew he was a mobster and tried not to think about how he maybe cheated on Stacy with a teenager for years, and had plenty of distance to realize how fucked up things were. Any grief they have is likely more on the lines of ‘why did we have to get this shitty excuse for a sperm donor?’ or ‘why can’t we feel sad about this like a normal parent-child relationship?’ than ‘why couldn’t we have had more times like that family trip to Six Flags?’ (Note that Becky and Joyce seem to have relatively happy day trip memories with Ross, and the only known equivalent for Amber is the Field Trip Of Doom where he berated her in the car all day and then the traumatic convenience store incident happened. I suspect there’s a reason for that.)
By contrast, Ross showed Becky affection sometimes, and she’s only recently had time to start recognizing how messed up her entire upbringing was. (Becky also doesn’t have the same frame of reference for parents who aren’t controlling nightmares, since Ross was basically in line with the church community. Not having a cell phone was unusual, but ‘children should obey their elders without question’ is the party line. Ethan’s parents aren’t GOOD, but they’re still markedly different from Blaine, and Mike’s parents seem perfectly nice.) It seems like Ross and Becky’s relationship also took a turn for the worse after Bonnie’s death, though I think that was less ‘Ross got more controlling’ and more ‘Bonnie was a mediator’ and ‘Becky seems to recognize and acknowledge that Bonnie’s suicide attempt wasn’t a sudden act of Satan.’ The rift’s much more recent and there are good memories to be had that are tainted by Ross’s later actions.
I do think there will be some eventual common ground of ‘man my dad’s sudden death after a day of rapidly-escalating trauma was something I was not remotely prepared to handle’ or ‘god, why did our dads suck so damn much?’ but it’s not the same baseline.
Yeah. She got Blaine’s aprovel at one point (sort of). It wasn’t super great.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/proved/
Oh no, I hope Brain Blaine isn’t still in there, or using the Mike avatar…
He seems to be a one-off Brain Ghost. Mike’s been noticeable because we’ve seen him several times over a period of days, compared to the one.
Becky has the same philosophy I had at that age. “When in doubt, be blunt”. On the other hand, she manages to do it without being a dick.
worth a try
Becky caring about her might be the thing that breaks Amber.
Yes, it’s gone all…sorts of not good when you can’t even cuss. I shant’ mention cussing is entirely different from cursing and I’m tired of the blasphemous bums who get that wrong.
There is a weird comfort in having an acquaintance share a horror like this with you. It’s how I got one of my closest friends. No one else can udnerstand our special brand of f*cked up.
This really made me love Becky. I was just starting to like her, and this tipped the scales all the way.
I am wondering, what is the procedure for a shooting in a hospital, if it is evacuation, wouldn’t they evac the patients as well? Or would they lock the hospital down so nobody can leave?
Don’t claim to know the definitive answer, but in many cases the patients CAN’T leave. I would that first, the floor or wing/ward where the shooting occurred would be sealed tight — absolutely NO ONE comes or goes; although since Amber is on the outside, I’m obviously wrong on that part. Secondly, I assume each floor or wing has lock-down procedures so only designated essential staff remains, no one else enters, and everybody else gets the bum’s rush out the doors.
But remember — this was an “assisted suicide by cop” and the cop himself (Lester) is there to assume control of the situation and spin the story, so the “normal’ lockdown procedures in case of an active shooter situation never got past the first step of “evacuate all non-essential persons” (and how fucked up is our country that I can write a sentence like that with barely a second thought?) Now we readers and the regular cast know Lester is as bent as a corkscrew, but the hospital staff — not so much, so they take him at his word and DEFCON 5 or Condition Red or whatever gets downgraded to ‘cleanup on aisle 6’.
Wait, Becky saves the day with raw anger and sympathy!? Honestly, it’s not the hero we want, but the hero we need right now.
Oh, and good luck, Mike. You were a dick, but I’ll miss you if something worse happens and takes you out of this comic.
big pile of donkey doo should be the title of the next volume