Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
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Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
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T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
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Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
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Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
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.
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I guess to me the whole practice doesn’t make sense in the first place, like… what comes to mind is a friend in the car with the family:
Friend: oh, look at the cute dog
Kid: WHERE
Friend: we passed it
Kid: Noooo where I didn’t see the cute dog where is it turn around NOOOOOOO
Friend: *never making that mistake again*
Quiet appreciation is okay. What’s problematic is (1) “appreciation” in such a way that’s loud or obvious enough that the subject is going to feel uncomfortable just going about their day, or (2) getting into the habit of ignoring that there’s a human person inside that lovely body.
I dunno – the asking of Amber out seemed perfectly fine. The asking of Ruth out seemed more… deflective than skeevy, but yes, calling her “this fine creature” was not their best moment.
I don’t think they were asking Amber out on a date. I think that was meant as a peace offering/apology for reminding her of her dead friend (she’d just called them ‘new Mike’). RUTH, they wanted to ask on a date. And Ruth didn’t say no, I noticed, but ‘ask again later’.
Maybe not, but ‘maybe I’ll ask her out instead’ kind of implies the same intent for both. Not necessarily, it could be “instead of doing something completely different with you” rather than just “ask her instead of you”.
I *think* that was supposed to be Booster deflecting their failings at the floor meeting and trying to remain cool and flippant when they realized they crossed a line, but in practice it made Booster look like a creep who saw two obviously emotionally damaged women and thought “I can get in on this.”
Booster is good at being creepy. Even here they’re being less than great. They seem to slide between condescending to people and awkwardly hitting on them. It’s a pretty clear case of zero social skills.
Given that they’ve already asked out at least one female cast member and maybe two, their orientation(s) seem to include… female… romantic…
…. dammit, what’s the term for being romantically oriented towards females when the subject is enby and thus neither homoromantic or heteroromantic applies?
I’ve always preferred the ‘-philic’ descriptors, in that they make no assumptions on the gender of the individual, only of the gender of the people they’re interested in.
Trying to figure out if it’s deliberate that their shirt is the colors of the pan flag. They’re good colors, and I’d wear that shirt despite not IDing as pan, but Becky’s outfit has got me thinking about that kind of coding during this storyline.
Gynoromantic. It means romantic attraction to females and/or femininity. The masc version of that is androromantic. Also, romantic attraction to all genders would be omniromantic where panromantic would be being attracted to someone based on their personality with gender not really mattering. I hope that helps!
The term for that would be “nblw,” or “nonbinary-loving-women.” It’s the “Gender-Loving-Gender” format derived from the “wlw” (women-loving-women) and “mlm” (men-loving-men), and it’s been growing a lot of traction for its flexibility in situations like this. (As well as for umbrella situations like when you want to talk about same-sex attraction among women, but saying “lesbians” would make it sound like you’re excluding bi women.)
It’s a neat and flexible system, but you can kinda tell it wasn’t really made with men in mind. Cause, you know, MLM already has a meaning and it ain’t a pretty one.
i mean it kind of depends. i’m nonbinary, but also a lesbian, so. this is something that booster will probably fill us in on at some point organically. personally, i think terms like ‘gynophillic’ and ‘gynosexual/romantic/etc’ to be… really charged in a really uncomfortable way (phile/philic being heavily associated with very harmful groups or things, autogynophile being a transmisogynistic term developed by transphobes, gyno being heavily associated with genitalia in a lot of people’s minds…) some nb folk like the term trixic, some use sapphic, others use nblw, some use ‘traditional’ monikers like lesbian, bi, pan, or straight. it just depends on the person and their relationship to gender, as well as their relationship with attraction.
(also, obviously, some nb people use the aforementioned gynophilic/sexual/romantic)
I’m still on the fence. The floor meeting was bad but also a pretty big setup for Booster to fall in so I can’t completely count that against them. This interaction should be interesting since Booster initiated it. This will show if Booster’s really someone with more malicious intent.
I’m conflicted. On one hand Joe really needs a good call out on his more problematic views especially toward women, but on the other hand Booster’s shown they don’t know how to stop when a point is made and it could easily overflow onto Danny who probably doesn’t deserve a complete mental dissection.
You might be right I think he just internalizes all of that. If you go back to freshman family weekend even his parents pick at his insecurities and don’t seem to have much confidence in him so I think he learned to cope with it. Still it would be nice not to have Booster mentally pistol whip him considering his first appearance this arc was a joke about him struggling with self identity and I really doubt Booster’s gonna pull punches.
Ah, the Johnny/Kirsty dynamic in the Johnny Maxwell books.
“The more she tried to help people by explaining to them how stupid they were, the more they just wandered off for no reason at all. The only reason Johnny hadn’t was that he knew how stupid he was.”.”
No need to waste your time – ever since Kids in The Hall did that series of Chicken Lady sketches ….. well, you know, the stuff existing is anchient …. they even had a picture of her parents, Farmer Brown and Rhoda the Rhode Island Red……
I agree. It’s a hell of a way to start a conversation. Builds off what they’re saying into a silly joke that someone can pick up and run with, or give the actual reason behind, either of which keeps things moving.
It’s actually pretty good. Like, feels as if the show never left. Same voice cast and everything.
It’s mostly just the Warners and Pinky and the Brain, though. There’s only one episode that brings back the other characters. Though I’ve heard in season 2 that more of them are returning.
Rotisserie is a little too close to roastie, a term used by some of the MGTOW and Incel crowds. Of course unlike them Joe doesn’t seem to think that a woman ceases to be attractive once she “hits the wall” at 25 or whatever.
Different meanings, different connotation, different etymology… other than the sexy person = food component of the metaphor, which is pretty universal, I’m not sure what the similarity is?
MGTOW is short for Men Going Their Own Way, men who claim they want nothing more to do with women. But I doubt it will be a surprise that MGTOWs just can’t shut up about women, and don’t seem to be doing much going their own way.
I haven’t delved too deeply into it, but some of the stuff I’ve seen actually seems positive. I’ve seen guys on mgtow forums posting pictures of their tent and talking about going camping on their own to connect with themselves…just supporting each other in having meaning in life outside of women. Which seems awesome to me. It’s kind of like a sex & relationships addicts anonymous type thing. The problem is that/if they blame the problems they’ve had in relationships on women rather than their own orientation to relationships/dating. But developing your own interests outside of dating is very healthy.
Bah! They didn’t even create simp or cuck. They just dragged the latter out into the light through over-and-misuse, and completely invented a new meaning for the former.
I mean it’s apparent that they care deeply for one another. Is it too hard to believe that joe sleeps with women without any actual romantic inclinations for any of them, because he does not realize that his feelings toward his best friend veer romantic?
Honestly I think joe loves dan more than dan loves joe, even in their crackship it’s definitely stronger in one direction
The timing’s a little too perfect. I have three theories:
– The bonus strip was planned ahead of time, when the main strip was written/drawn
– It was a happy coincidence that someone happened to throw Arnold’s name in the hat for the bonus strip subject
– Somebody else’s name was in today’s speech bubbles, and today’s strip was edited to fit the bonus strip before it went live.
I asked on Twitter for folks to throw names at me for the second bonus strip. Wack’d threw Arnold’s name at me, and I knew Arnold was going to be named in today’s strip, so I decided to write the story about Arnold having it going on.
Ok I wanna crack this code. Rotisserie is hot all over. Nuggets must mean…
If I’m to take it to be a description of their overall stature Nuggets may be referring to someone being petite and cute. However, it is NUGGETS, rather than Nugget. So could it be pointing out prominent breasts or even butt. Or perhaps even a pair or group of girls all together whom simply look good together.
I assumed the first one was that he was indicating someone getting nuggets (although I get that it’s a bit redundant with also indicating their 2 o’clock), but that after that he decided to stick to a theme
I don’t know if I want to know what Nuggets was supposed to mean. Your ideas are good! I want to believe it’s “group of cute girls,” but Danny refers to Nuggets as “she,” so I think that’s out. Maybe Nuggets is “plural,” as Booster put it, except that’s a strange and insensitive thing to imply based on a first impression from across the room.
Maybe the breaded and fried suggests they’re dressed nicely or put extra effort into their appearance?
Dangit, I said I didn’t want to know! Stop thinking about this, me!
I honestly assumed he just meant she had some chicken nuggets (which are typically sold in college cafeterias, whereas rotisserie chicken is not) rather than using it as a description.
But you’re right, I should not have assumed that with Joe. **sigh** And I am sad now.
I was assuming Joe was referring to a woman’s breasts with “nuggets”, though I can’t be sure since I’ve never heard someone use that word when talking about a woman.
“Chicken legs” is easy enough to decipher, hotpants or a short skirt. But what would “Chicken wings” be? My first association is with hairstyles, but I couldn’t say exactly what that would look like.
Chicken wings has a meaning. A woman has wings when her upper arm skin/fat starts hanging and is loose. This is normally used by women towards women in the fitness arena. NOW YOU HAVE ONE MORE THING TO BE SELF CONSCIOUS OF. YOU’RE WELCOME.
I’m used to nuggets being used to indicate “a bit of meat”. ie, on a human, that’s presumably be (either/and) a bit of meat on the body or slightly plump, smallish breasts. I’m also seeing “snack size” as a reasonable interpretation?
Definitely would not in any way interpret it as “large”, given how very much that is the opposite of what one would normally associate the concept of nuggets to. Unless the implication is that the person in question ate far too many actual nuggets? In which case I’d think we’d be using it to refer to Walky, instead.. >.>
“No one can hear us, Dan” Joe says, sitting at a table mere inches away from another table which apparently had at least one person sitting at it. I’m sure Joe’s a bit “distracted” right now but does his peripheral not work at all?
See, when I used to ask “why does anyone intentionally hang around Mike?”, there was an answer- a few characters had a history with him, and some of the rest were too nice to tell him to fuck off, because they liked the people that had a history with him.
Well, one, nobody in this strip has anything specific against Booster. For another, even if they did, they’re not hanging out with them. They sat down in a table beside the table Booster’s at and Booster overheard their conversation.
Eavesdropping a on a conversation by two people who happened to sit next to you in a public space and making an appropriate comment on it based on said conversations context is maybe ever so slightly rude and Booster should be called out on it!
Bonus points for the fact it’s not even eavesdropping – most people who can hear would just…naturally overhear them. Happened to me all the time in university when I overheard people. If I knew what they were talking about and it was relevant, sometimes I’d comment.
In my country, if you sit on the counter of a bar, you are expected to take part to all conversations, even if you are reading a book, and regions of the country where such conversations between tables happen are considered as particularly friendly. YMMV, cultural differences or watchacallit….
Even just in the US, I’ve lived in places where commenting helpfully isn’t considered bothersome (assuming they’re talking in a loud/public enough manner; ie, not in a way that makes it clear they’re trying to keep it personal) while, in other places in the US, there’s very much a thorough dedication to the concept of personal bubbles. Not familiar with any place in the US where it’d (on the whole) be deemed appropriate to butt in in the way Booster did but, at the same time, I’ve definitely hung in groups where that was normal. You can sometimes make some fun new friends that way.
Right, naturally. I meant it just for general topics like in the present comic. Obviously not okay to butt into personal topics, unless there’s some clear reason to [eg, even if they’re not publically enquiring about it, if you overhear someone discussing trying to find someone and you think you’ve seen them, then that’s generally a rather reasonable premise for chipping in]. No matter how much we may all sometimes want to tell parents in grocery stores to stop being such abusive, nutty parents to their children, or to raise their children to be less spoiled. >.>
When I overhear men objectifying nearby women I 100% butt in because that is gross and I want to make a point of the fact they are in a public space where other people can definitely hear.
Responses vary based on context/subject (e.g., overheard women on opposing sportsball team complaining about they/them pronouns so I approached them to offer to answer any questions after the game).
It’s not necessarily a callout, because stranger danger, but the personal is political and all that snazzz
Speaking as someone who never liked Mike (as a person; I was fairly disappointed to learn Mike had died, just because it finally looked like he was about to get some actual character growth and maybe become less of a shitheel) and never understood why so many people cut him so much slack:
I honestly do not understand the amount of hate strong dislike Booster gets, based solely on the floor meeting. Was he rude? Yeah. Was he being a jackass? Borderline. But “the new Mike” is reeeeally pushing it.
In one panel, Booster went from “people complaining that the only nonbinary character is ‘too’ perfect” to “HOLY CHEESUS WHAT A DOUCHEBAG!”
this is about where i am. mike was manipulative and intentionally rude, while booster just fucked up without realizing it once.
plus someone here posted a theory about booster being neurodivergent and not having caught on to what’s appropriate/ when to stop with a topic yet, which made a ton of sense to me.
idk, i like them as a character still, even if they’re probably not someone i’d hang out with IRL (but that’s true of most of these characters)
That’s basically how i feel. It’s weird. Like, yes they were rude but people are acting like what they did is evil, irredeemable. Maybe they just know someone like that irl and are projecting
That’s how we roll around here these days. Character flaws are either whitewashed away or magnified into them being monsters. There is no middle ground.
The problem, at least how I see it, is that this was Booster’s big Establishing Character Moment (thanks tvtropes). It’s where they get to show the audience who they are and… they’re a dead ringer for a character who just died, but they then act exactly like said dead guy’s worst excesses.
So all we know about Booster is that they can scan people and instantly pry their backstory out of them, only we had a character who did that and he sucked, so now Booster’s just a lesser version of a character who I already hated for a decade worth of comics.
Booster will get their due and become a great character in their own right, but the audience can only work with what they’re given.
I chalk it up to half sour grapes because how dare they not be Mike and half of the thing the comment section’s been doing lately about any bad thing = satan and it taking 4 or 5 strips before they chill. I get commenting on bad behaviour in the current strip but it’s been overkill lately.
Slightly plump, according to the usage I’m familiar with. So probably just a bit of meat on the body and the breasts? Could also mean “snack-size”, I guess? o.O
Holy shit but that’s nightmare fuel. Look at the way that left corpse is eying us.. that’s a total “How dare you desecrate my corpse, I’m coming for you tonight” look.
I gotta be honest after all these years, Danny and Joe are just…golden together. Joe and Danny are good. Joyce and Joe are good. That’s simply the way of the universe.
It gets a lot more finite when you limit it to “good” kinks, though..
Mmm, Young Harrison Ford x Buffy-Era James Marsters x present day Jake Jake Gyllenhaal, making out on top of a bed of cake while scotch is lovingly drizzled over their shirtless bodies from above..
..look, don’t even pretend you’re not into that. You and I both know better.
Welp, booster is certainly replacement mike in that after reading through the comments hatred for them I’m just sitting here in my corner with my little “I ♥️ Booster” shirt, quoting Marge simpson
“I just think they’re neat”
I loved Mike as a character but sometimes it was hard to hold onto that when I hated the asshole sage argument so much, but I do miss him. And I won't lie, I miss him and Amber as a possibility. SHUT UP, IT WAS MY FAVOURITE IN SHORTPACKED. If Walky/Joyce shippers can want them together here, I can dream. XD
I feel you (╥﹏╥) my friend who introduced me to this these comics (hi Coco if you’re reading this) and i have been praying for a The Warner’s spinoff since short packed ended. I need to see papa mike and Donna growing up damnit!
Willis can solely achieve the accomplishment of making the entire comment section mad if Booster’s psychological read of Danny is “No problems here, you’re perfect.”
I’ve never seen Danny do anything that was really particularly bad beyond being young, inexperienced, and awkward, even from examples from Danny haters. I don’t believe his habit of blurting out the wrong thing is as bad as people make it to be because he always realizes it immediately and, frankly, i’ve rarely disagreed with him.
I love “no one can hear us!” immediately followed by “hi i can hear you!”
Considering Walky barely introduced Joe & Dan to Booster, I can’t wait what shenanigans they will all get into. Especially once Booster hears about Joe’s List.
I know ppl are excited for Booster to psychoanalyze Joe, but personally I want them to psychoanalyze Danny and maybe get him to be a less cringey human being.
Years ago, our code word was “chebs”, in reference to well-endowed breasts. Apparently it’s some British slang term, according to the British guy in the group who introduced it.
It’s a good thing Danny’s into men, because it seems that he’s too wrapped up in trying to figure out how to treat women right to ever attempt to date one again.
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Danno into bears? Would he feel better referring to women as bears?
(j/k idk how the Joeisms would work anyway)
also what’s wrong with quiet appreciation, or IF YOU MUST, referring to “Oval glasses” or “Mom’s hand-knit sweater” or w/e
Jokingly: Because it means Joe can still treat them like meat and not people like he is afraid to do.
Seriously: Because more specific attributes like that might alert said individual to your ogling. Not sure if that makes it any better or worse.
Rotisserie is better?
I mean, I was assuming Joe isn’t LITERALLY SHOUTING hear things if he claims no one can hear them
Hear things?
I guess to me the whole practice doesn’t make sense in the first place, like… what comes to mind is a friend in the car with the family:
Friend: oh, look at the cute dog
Kid: WHERE
Friend: we passed it
Kid: Noooo where I didn’t see the cute dog where is it turn around NOOOOOOO
Friend: *never making that mistake again*
God. I feel like women could and should be able to be classified as bears.
I want a Big Bara GF.Hank’s into the lady bears.
Quiet appreciation is okay. What’s problematic is (1) “appreciation” in such a way that’s loud or obvious enough that the subject is going to feel uncomfortable just going about their day, or (2) getting into the habit of ignoring that there’s a human person inside that lovely body.
I mean there’s appreciation like “hey she’s hot” then there’s literal meat comparison
I cannot simply ignore the fact that the above comment was posted by “Beef”.
Hooray for Crush Crush and Bearverly, I guess?
Some things never change.
…theories that Booster is the person in that chicken suit in three…two…
Hm. Implies Booster had/has/will have a girlfriend and for some reason, that doesn’t seem likely to me.
Alternate universe; anything can happen!
Booster asked both Amber and Ruth out (in a kinda skeevy way, but still) after the floor meeting.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-11/01-this-bright-millennium/odd/
I dunno – the asking of Amber out seemed perfectly fine. The asking of Ruth out seemed more… deflective than skeevy, but yes, calling her “this fine creature” was not their best moment.
I don’t think they were asking Amber out on a date. I think that was meant as a peace offering/apology for reminding her of her dead friend (she’d just called them ‘new Mike’). RUTH, they wanted to ask on a date. And Ruth didn’t say no, I noticed, but ‘ask again later’.
Maybe not, but ‘maybe I’ll ask her out instead’ kind of implies the same intent for both. Not necessarily, it could be “instead of doing something completely different with you” rather than just “ask her instead of you”.
I *think* that was supposed to be Booster deflecting their failings at the floor meeting and trying to remain cool and flippant when they realized they crossed a line, but in practice it made Booster look like a creep who saw two obviously emotionally damaged women and thought “I can get in on this.”
Booster is good at being creepy. Even here they’re being less than great. They seem to slide between condescending to people and awkwardly hitting on them. It’s a pretty clear case of zero social skills.
Can’tbe that skeevy if she said yes
Why not?
Given that they’ve already asked out at least one female cast member and maybe two, their orientation(s) seem to include… female… romantic…
…. dammit, what’s the term for being romantically oriented towards females when the subject is enby and thus neither homoromantic or heteroromantic applies?
Gynophilic
I’ve always preferred the ‘-philic’ descriptors, in that they make no assumptions on the gender of the individual, only of the gender of the people they’re interested in.
Trying to figure out if it’s deliberate that their shirt is the colors of the pan flag. They’re good colors, and I’d wear that shirt despite not IDing as pan, but Becky’s outfit has got me thinking about that kind of coding during this storyline.
I seem to remember Dina having an outfit with the Ace flag colors a while back too.
There’s the neologism trixic.
Gynoromantic. It means romantic attraction to females and/or femininity. The masc version of that is androromantic. Also, romantic attraction to all genders would be omniromantic where panromantic would be being attracted to someone based on their personality with gender not really mattering. I hope that helps!
Technical terms aside, “into women” has always worked for me.
Ie: “I am into both men and women.” or “Booster seems to be into women based on their asking Amber out.”
(Yes, I know the examples probably weren’t necessary – I’m a grammar teacher; it’s habit.)
The term for that would be “nblw,” or “nonbinary-loving-women.” It’s the “Gender-Loving-Gender” format derived from the “wlw” (women-loving-women) and “mlm” (men-loving-men), and it’s been growing a lot of traction for its flexibility in situations like this. (As well as for umbrella situations like when you want to talk about same-sex attraction among women, but saying “lesbians” would make it sound like you’re excluding bi women.)
It’s a neat and flexible system, but you can kinda tell it wasn’t really made with men in mind. Cause, you know, MLM already has a meaning and it ain’t a pretty one.
i mean it kind of depends. i’m nonbinary, but also a lesbian, so. this is something that booster will probably fill us in on at some point organically. personally, i think terms like ‘gynophillic’ and ‘gynosexual/romantic/etc’ to be… really charged in a really uncomfortable way (phile/philic being heavily associated with very harmful groups or things, autogynophile being a transmisogynistic term developed by transphobes, gyno being heavily associated with genitalia in a lot of people’s minds…) some nb folk like the term trixic, some use sapphic, others use nblw, some use ‘traditional’ monikers like lesbian, bi, pan, or straight. it just depends on the person and their relationship to gender, as well as their relationship with attraction.
(also, obviously, some nb people use the aforementioned gynophilic/sexual/romantic)
Ahh, that’s the poultry vocabulary source. Thanks!
I’m less excited seeing Booster than I was their first appearance.
I’m already at saying “fuck off, booster” on sight.
I’m still on the fence. The floor meeting was bad but also a pretty big setup for Booster to fall in so I can’t completely count that against them. This interaction should be interesting since Booster initiated it. This will show if Booster’s really someone with more malicious intent.
My literal reaction to the last panel was, “Oh, hey, it’s ShitMike.”
It really is, isn’t it?
Booster is going to turn out to be Mike with lipstick, hair dye, and head trauma.
Oh hell yes, bring on Booster and Joe.
Hot oil and water, 12 o’clock.
Fun fact: oil and water will mix If there’s alcohol involved.
I’m conflicted. On one hand Joe really needs a good call out on his more problematic views especially toward women, but on the other hand Booster’s shown they don’t know how to stop when a point is made and it could easily overflow onto Danny who probably doesn’t deserve a complete mental dissection.
Danny seems pretty aware of his flaws to me honestly; I feel like he’d just nod his head and keep eating at this point
You might be right I think he just internalizes all of that. If you go back to freshman family weekend even his parents pick at his insecurities and don’t seem to have much confidence in him so I think he learned to cope with it. Still it would be nice not to have Booster mentally pistol whip him considering his first appearance this arc was a joke about him struggling with self identity and I really doubt Booster’s gonna pull punches.
Ah, the Johnny/Kirsty dynamic in the Johnny Maxwell books.
“The more she tried to help people by explaining to them how stupid they were, the more they just wandered off for no reason at all. The only reason Johnny hadn’t was that he knew how stupid he was.”.”
Oh, yay…. Booster.
yayyy….
I feel like lots of us feel less excited to see Booster again after his uneccessary analysis of people.
*their
Ah, yes, sorry. You and Nono have it right.
“Their”.
Booster what are you even doing here? Are you implying that you eat food too and at a similar time to other people? Madness.
Also in reponse to the alt text, I’ll be checking the results of that soon.
You’re a braver person than I am.
Same. Or maybe just more motivated.
No need to waste your time – ever since Kids in The Hall did that series of Chicken Lady sketches ….. well, you know, the stuff existing is anchient …. they even had a picture of her parents, Farmer Brown and Rhoda the Rhode Island Red……
[names were changed to protect the forgetful]
They say the experience left him scarred… scarred for life. ye-ahhh
hell of a way to start a conversation, booster
I mean to be fair they were just building off the energy the convo already had. No need to nuance around sexual chicken metaphors I believe.
I agree. It’s a hell of a way to start a conversation. Builds off what they’re saying into a silly joke that someone can pick up and run with, or give the actual reason behind, either of which keeps things moving.
And it’s a legit funny joke.
100% forgot Booster existed. I’m almost glad I did
Same
Too late to get on this train? Same.
Thought it was a rando until my brain pointed out that kind of line didn’t fit a throwaway character. …so I checked the tags.
So much negativity about Booster. I don’t mind the cast being expanded after 10 years and a major arc ending.
You guys all sound like you’re waiting for a “& Booster died on the way back to his home planet” panel
Well…
I was only half joking when I said that, I mostly just feel they haven’t found their place in the comic yet.
I’d be good with Booster/Danny in a slipshine.
Likewise.
Is that where spit-roasting Joe comes in?
Slipshine! Slipshine! Slipshine!
I dig anyone who will stick that kind of imagery in someone’s head.
Alt text: *picks up phone, says the two magic words*
How about an actual chicken, is it a Chicken Boo?
You know how Chicken Boo’s fake identities usually contained the name “Boo” in there somewhere?
And you also know how to new series reveals that Boo now has access to perfectly human looking disguises, and can even speak?
I’m watching you, “Boo”ster.
New series? Really? Is it as bad as the remake of Teen Titans?
It’s actually pretty good. Like, feels as if the show never left. Same voice cast and everything.
It’s mostly just the Warners and Pinky and the Brain, though. There’s only one episode that brings back the other characters. Though I’ve heard in season 2 that more of them are returning.
I just watched that episode last night.
♪ You wear a disguise, to look like human guys ♪
♪ But you’re not a man, you’re a Chicken Boo(ster) ♪
Rotisserie is a little too close to roastie, a term used by some of the MGTOW and Incel crowds. Of course unlike them Joe doesn’t seem to think that a woman ceases to be attractive once she “hits the wall” at 25 or whatever.
Different meanings, different connotation, different etymology… other than the sexy person = food component of the metaphor, which is pretty universal, I’m not sure what the similarity is?
They’re both cases of reducing people to their body parts.
I am pretty sure I don’t want to look up what that term means.
I was tempted, but I resisted.
Made my Saving Throw, too
Part of me is pretty sure I don’t want to look up what MGTOW means, based solely on it being mentioned in the same breath as “Incel.”
Unfortunately the other part of me already googled it while I was typing this, and now I just have to look.
MGTOW is short for Men Going Their Own Way, men who claim they want nothing more to do with women. But I doubt it will be a surprise that MGTOWs just can’t shut up about women, and don’t seem to be doing much going their own way.
“Look at how much I don’t care”, eh?
In short, incels pretending they’re fine being incels, hence mentioning them in the same breath.
I haven’t delved too deeply into it, but some of the stuff I’ve seen actually seems positive. I’ve seen guys on mgtow forums posting pictures of their tent and talking about going camping on their own to connect with themselves…just supporting each other in having meaning in life outside of women. Which seems awesome to me. It’s kind of like a sex & relationships addicts anonymous type thing. The problem is that/if they blame the problems they’ve had in relationships on women rather than their own orientation to relationships/dating. But developing your own interests outside of dating is very healthy.
…Whelp.
I was right the first time.
After “incel” and “cuck” I’d thought “Well, that’s all the words they need”, and then they had to create “simp”.
I’m not looking up “roastie” either.
I didn’t need to learn any of these.
Bah! They didn’t even create simp or cuck. They just dragged the latter out into the light through over-and-misuse, and completely invented a new meaning for the former.
Metaphores rarely stand close scrutiny
Counterwise, I never metaphor I didn’t like.
Booo, penalty box!
Punalty box.
Boooo!
Do they really need all this punishment?
Shouldn’t stand too close to a semaphore either.
*plays Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken” on the hacked Muzak*
Ozark Mountain Daredevils – Chicken train.
https://youtu.be/TSkN9m7kh9A
“I mean I already call women “chicks”. If anything Chickens are much more age appropriate.”
How come can still call women chicks, but can no longer call men cats?
I’ve had people say I’m a cool cat before. Cuz I am.
Why can’t you call men cats? Is there a new rule or something?
Someone hasn’t heard of cat boys
It’s pronounced “Miqo’te”
I see someone played FF14
‘Gatas’ is used sometimes in Mexico.
Not buying it. As justifications go, that one’s pretty poultry.
*flees for dear punning life*
Bagge, you missed one. /|\
|
For a second there I thought Booster was the person he was looking at
Me to.
Well Danny, I know how *I* feel about it
Then again I’ve had a Danny/Joe crackship since like 2004 lmao
I mean it’s apparent that they care deeply for one another. Is it too hard to believe that joe sleeps with women without any actual romantic inclinations for any of them, because he does not realize that his feelings toward his best friend veer romantic?
Honestly I think joe loves dan more than dan loves joe, even in their crackship it’s definitely stronger in one direction
I am actually shocked at how little DoA fanfic there is on AO3.
Arnold DID choose to wear his sexy jacket today.
I was thinking the same thing
The timing’s a little too perfect. I have three theories:
– The bonus strip was planned ahead of time, when the main strip was written/drawn
– It was a happy coincidence that someone happened to throw Arnold’s name in the hat for the bonus strip subject
– Somebody else’s name was in today’s speech bubbles, and today’s strip was edited to fit the bonus strip before it went live.
I asked on Twitter for folks to throw names at me for the second bonus strip. Wack’d threw Arnold’s name at me, and I knew Arnold was going to be named in today’s strip, so I decided to write the story about Arnold having it going on.
Well played,
ClerksWillis.Truly, the sexy hoodie DOES work.
I mean, it’s a pretty sexy hoodie.
That first panel is a lot less gross before you figure out that he’s not referring to what the human being, Joe, you ass, is carrying.
“Don’t rate women, Joe.”
I’m 100000% giving Booster another shot. Booster meets Joe could be amazing.
So, a Booster shot?
Isn’t it awfully early in the day for drinking?
Oh totally. Honestly Joe arguably could do with a good Boostering. Boost? We need a term for them.
Boost to the head.
Have you learned nothing from the lesson of Joe Rosenthal?
I dislike Booster more with every appearance since the floor meeting
Sorry Willis I’m too busy working on Lucy R34 but I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Oh ARE you, now?
Absolutely. I’m sure I’ll eventually draw most of the girls i like but she was priority one for sure
Ok I wanna crack this code. Rotisserie is hot all over. Nuggets must mean…
If I’m to take it to be a description of their overall stature Nuggets may be referring to someone being petite and cute. However, it is NUGGETS, rather than Nugget. So could it be pointing out prominent breasts or even butt. Or perhaps even a pair or group of girls all together whom simply look good together.
I assumed the first one was that he was indicating someone getting nuggets (although I get that it’s a bit redundant with also indicating their 2 o’clock), but that after that he decided to stick to a theme
I don’t know if I want to know what Nuggets was supposed to mean. Your ideas are good! I want to believe it’s “group of cute girls,” but Danny refers to Nuggets as “she,” so I think that’s out. Maybe Nuggets is “plural,” as Booster put it, except that’s a strange and insensitive thing to imply based on a first impression from across the room.
Maybe the breaded and fried suggests they’re dressed nicely or put extra effort into their appearance?
Dangit, I said I didn’t want to know! Stop thinking about this, me!
Urban Dictionary suggests that the correct interpretation is “Large breasts”
I should think “nuggets” would mean small breasts.
That would be my take as well. Small to medium but nicely accentuated by whatever clothes one may or may not be wearing.
She’s a snack?
I honestly assumed he just meant she had some chicken nuggets (which are typically sold in college cafeterias, whereas rotisserie chicken is not) rather than using it as a description.
But you’re right, I should not have assumed that with Joe. **sigh** And I am sad now.
I’m glad I’m not the only one
I was assuming Joe was referring to a woman’s breasts with “nuggets”, though I can’t be sure since I’ve never heard someone use that word when talking about a woman.
“Chicken legs” is easy enough to decipher, hotpants or a short skirt. But what would “Chicken wings” be? My first association is with hairstyles, but I couldn’t say exactly what that would look like.
Chicken wings has a meaning. A woman has wings when her upper arm skin/fat starts hanging and is loose. This is normally used by women towards women in the fitness arena. NOW YOU HAVE ONE MORE THING TO BE SELF CONSCIOUS OF. YOU’RE WELCOME.
Well, today I learned something then. TBH, I liked it better when I thought it was about haircuts.
I always heard those referred to as “bingo wings”
I’m used to nuggets being used to indicate “a bit of meat”. ie, on a human, that’s presumably be (either/and) a bit of meat on the body or slightly plump, smallish breasts. I’m also seeing “snack size” as a reasonable interpretation?
Definitely would not in any way interpret it as “large”, given how very much that is the opposite of what one would normally associate the concept of nuggets to. Unless the implication is that the person in question ate far too many actual nuggets? In which case I’d think we’d be using it to refer to Walky, instead.. >.>
For me the comic showed up slowly, so when I could only read the ‘nuggets’ line, I totally expected it to come from Walky.
“No one can hear us, Dan” Joe says, sitting at a table mere inches away from another table which apparently had at least one person sitting at it. I’m sure Joe’s a bit “distracted” right now but does his peripheral not work at all?
Maybe Joe needs glasses even more than Joyce
Some people are so self-obsessed that anything outside their immediate interest does not exist!
Look in comics people behind the black don’t exist until comedy dictates they need to
There was no one in frame, Danny. I am completely justified in not noticing anyone that the camera wouldn’t acknowledge.
Joe says, between bouts of comparing people the camera doesn’t acknowledge to poultry products.
Clearly he is speaking to us, the audience. We’re the sexy people.
I knew it!
The camera also doesn’t acknowledge us. CHECKMATE!
If the camera doesn’t see it, it doesn’t exist.
(Trust me, your local TV station’s news set is a mess behind the desk and flats.)
“In other news, I have no pants on. I’m absolutely naked from the waist down.”
Dammit. Screwed the link up.
Trying again.
Wow. Arnold’s hoodie really *is* a sexy hoodie! It’s definitely too powerful for Ryu to wear.
Mmmm, another installment of “heel meets heel and they are antagonistic towards one another”.
Maybe they’ll be friends! Joe of all people knows what a pair of heels can do.
Arnold’s looking sexy in that hoodie.
Enh, its Booster.
See, when I used to ask “why does anyone intentionally hang around Mike?”, there was an answer- a few characters had a history with him, and some of the rest were too nice to tell him to fuck off, because they liked the people that had a history with him.
Booster? Nope.
Well, one, nobody in this strip has anything specific against Booster. For another, even if they did, they’re not hanging out with them. They sat down in a table beside the table Booster’s at and Booster overheard their conversation.
Eavesdropping a on a conversation by two people who happened to sit next to you in a public space and making an appropriate comment on it based on said conversations context is maybe ever so slightly rude and Booster should be called out on it!
Bonus points for the fact it’s not even eavesdropping – most people who can hear would just…naturally overhear them. Happened to me all the time in university when I overheard people. If I knew what they were talking about and it was relevant, sometimes I’d comment.
In my country, if you sit on the counter of a bar, you are expected to take part to all conversations, even if you are reading a book, and regions of the country where such conversations between tables happen are considered as particularly friendly. YMMV, cultural differences or watchacallit….
Even just in the US, I’ve lived in places where commenting helpfully isn’t considered bothersome (assuming they’re talking in a loud/public enough manner; ie, not in a way that makes it clear they’re trying to keep it personal) while, in other places in the US, there’s very much a thorough dedication to the concept of personal bubbles. Not familiar with any place in the US where it’d (on the whole) be deemed appropriate to butt in in the way Booster did but, at the same time, I’ve definitely hung in groups where that was normal. You can sometimes make some fun new friends that way.
Also depends on the context of the conversation – not just the loud/public enough, but the topic. Whether it’s personal or of general interest.
Right, naturally. I meant it just for general topics like in the present comic. Obviously not okay to butt into personal topics, unless there’s some clear reason to [eg, even if they’re not publically enquiring about it, if you overhear someone discussing trying to find someone and you think you’ve seen them, then that’s generally a rather reasonable premise for chipping in]. No matter how much we may all sometimes want to tell parents in grocery stores to stop being such abusive, nutty parents to their children, or to raise their children to be less spoiled. >.>
“nobody can hear us” is about as good an opening as the guy at the next table can ever expect to get.
When I overhear men objectifying nearby women I 100% butt in because that is gross and I want to make a point of the fact they are in a public space where other people can definitely hear.
Responses vary based on context/subject (e.g., overheard women on opposing sportsball team complaining about they/them pronouns so I approached them to offer to answer any questions after the game).
It’s not necessarily a callout, because stranger danger, but the personal is political and all that snazzz
Booster isn’t really well established yet, and it’s not completely clear how they’ll fit into the cast
Honestly non-zero odds that Dan or Joe *do* tell them to fuck off during this conversation
Well, Joe. Danny, probably not l
Booster won’t have to fit in a cast unless AmaziGirl takes exception…
Speaking as someone who never liked Mike (as a person; I was fairly disappointed to learn Mike had died, just because it finally looked like he was about to get some actual character growth and maybe become less of a shitheel) and never understood why so many people cut him so much slack:
I honestly do not understand the amount of
hatestrong dislike Booster gets, based solely on the floor meeting. Was he rude? Yeah. Was he being a jackass? Borderline. But “the new Mike” is reeeeally pushing it.In one panel, Booster went from “people complaining that the only nonbinary character is ‘too’ perfect” to “HOLY CHEESUS WHAT A DOUCHEBAG!”
“They,” sorry. Which is extra bad cause I even pointed out Booster was NB and still messed up.
this is about where i am. mike was manipulative and intentionally rude, while booster just fucked up without realizing it once.
plus someone here posted a theory about booster being neurodivergent and not having caught on to what’s appropriate/ when to stop with a topic yet, which made a ton of sense to me.
idk, i like them as a character still, even if they’re probably not someone i’d hang out with IRL (but that’s true of most of these characters)
That’s basically how i feel. It’s weird. Like, yes they were rude but people are acting like what they did is evil, irredeemable. Maybe they just know someone like that irl and are projecting
That’s how we roll around here these days. Character flaws are either whitewashed away or magnified into them being monsters. There is no middle ground.
The problem, at least how I see it, is that this was Booster’s big Establishing Character Moment (thanks tvtropes). It’s where they get to show the audience who they are and… they’re a dead ringer for a character who just died, but they then act exactly like said dead guy’s worst excesses.
So all we know about Booster is that they can scan people and instantly pry their backstory out of them, only we had a character who did that and he sucked, so now Booster’s just a lesser version of a character who I already hated for a decade worth of comics.
Booster will get their due and become a great character in their own right, but the audience can only work with what they’re given.
I chalk it up to half sour grapes because how dare they not be Mike and half of the thing the comment section’s been doing lately about any bad thing = satan and it taking 4 or 5 strips before they chill. I get commenting on bad behaviour in the current strip but it’s been overkill lately.
Omg right? It’s gotten so intense lately
I was actually starting to like Booster until they went too far with their psychoanalizing everyone at the floor meeting.
Lots of people seem to dislike Booster now. I love them. Bring me the drama and uncomfortable moments (in fiction) I live for it
Me, having read Roomies again recently: I GET IT!
I just cackled. God, I love Booster.
I like them, but then I like smartasses who don’t know when to stop as a rule. Booster, Becky, Walky…
Mike, may his remains be restored to life by aliens.
Starscream…
I don’t think most versions of Starscream qualify as smartasses.
Okay but now I wanna know what “nuggets” means…
Slightly plump, according to the usage I’m familiar with. So probably just a bit of meat on the body and the breasts? Could also mean “snack-size”, I guess? o.O
Minced, breaded, and fried, presumably.
I’m not sure what this “Rule 34” business is about. Walky/Nuggets has been a ship for years!
Is it possible to be cucked by food?
“Country girls make do”, if you follow me.
wow it’s booster…. greaaatt
Replacement Mike here to drop unnecessary “truth bombs” nobody wanted.
(Almost) Everyone else: Booster is just The Worst, why is he even here?
Me: Cannot look at the last panel without chuckling.
“They,” sorry.
Cue images of rotisserie chickens in bikinis.
I’m kidding cos surely that already exists.
Don’t be ridiculous. Who would do that?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ca/5b/88/ca5b881d9352dfaf52325460019351ab.jpg
Thanks for searching for that so Thai I didn’t have to
That *
Holy shit but that’s nightmare fuel. Look at the way that left corpse is eying us.. that’s a total “How dare you desecrate my corpse, I’m coming for you tonight” look.
I gotta be honest after all these years, Danny and Joe are just…golden together. Joe and Danny are good. Joyce and Joe are good. That’s simply the way of the universe.
So, Danny/Joe/Joyce, best throuple?
Alt text: Okay but what if hyopthetically I’ve got a kink for anything so novel that it has yet to be rule-34ed?
Your pool of options is astonishingly low.
Actually, given the finite amount of porn made in human history relative to the number of kinks theoretically possible, they’re uncountably infinite.
It gets a lot more finite when you limit it to “good” kinks, though..
Mmm, Young Harrison Ford x Buffy-Era James Marsters x present day Jake Jake Gyllenhaal, making out on top of a bed of cake while scotch is lovingly drizzled over their shirtless bodies from above..
..look, don’t even pretend you’re not into that. You and I both know better.
Replace young Harrison Ford with young Denzel Washington and replace the cake with a red convertible and you’ve basically nailed one of mine.
Also of most other Revolutionary Girl Utena fans.
I knew it, Arnold WAS one of the hot dudes!
Still got nothing on Sayid..
In fact, I apparently confused Ken and Arnold and, now, huh.
Not what I expected.
Well, anyway. Wasn’t there a cute untagged guy at the bar in Galasso’s at one point? Whatever happened to him?
joe eat your food
Oh, it’s the author surrogate! I guess it’s time for the final two one-paragraph character flaw summaries!
Seriously, Danny, Joe? You’re in a crowded room. How can you honestly not expect to be overheard when it is least convenient to be so?
Booster in pan pride flag colours <3
Booster in general… still making up my mind.
Happy Pan Week!
I feel like Booster is rubbing their hands and going “So much material for my thesis in this place.”
Either that or they’re openly flirting at this point.
That’s kiiiinda the impression I get, honestly.
Joe and Booster should get along like a house on fire.
Chaos, confusion, people running in all directions screaming…
Booster, that is a double edged sword.
Joe, please let’s not do the objectificationThing.
Well, at least the new 10 year anniversary character isn’t a Larry Sue, and lives up to the name Dumbing of Age.
Wouldn’t calling her a rotisserie imply he wants to spit roast her?
Yeah, and he’s all three participants.
Oh, wow, this is an OLD-ass Roomies reference
Still not convinced Booster isn’t Mike’s Galvatron.
Mike was Booster’s Wario.
I know Joe wasn’t referring to Booster with the Rotisserie talk.
But Boomer being a part of Joe’s antics would be…interesting.
I instantly ship Booster with Danny.
BOOSTER AND JOE INTERACTION
BOOSTER AND JOE.
This is gonna fun, psychoanalyze him Boost
I have the distinct feeling they’re gonna get on like a house on fire.
Or at least whatever happens will have the same result…
Welp, booster is certainly replacement mike in that after reading through the comments hatred for them I’m just sitting here in my corner with my little “I ♥️ Booster” shirt, quoting Marge simpson
“I just think they’re neat”
Love Booster <3
I loved Mike as a character but sometimes it was hard to hold onto that when I hated the asshole sage argument so much, but I do miss him. And I won't lie, I miss him and Amber as a possibility. SHUT UP, IT WAS MY FAVOURITE IN SHORTPACKED. If Walky/Joyce shippers can want them together here, I can dream. XD
I feel you (╥﹏╥) my friend who introduced me to this these comics (hi Coco if you’re reading this) and i have been praying for a The Warner’s spinoff since short packed ended. I need to see papa mike and Donna growing up damnit!
It’s about the gift wrapping of it all. Do you want someone making harsh criticisms at you while smiling, or while angry? Personally I prefer Booster.
Willis can solely achieve the accomplishment of making the entire comment section mad if Booster’s psychological read of Danny is “No problems here, you’re perfect.”
I’ve never seen Danny do anything that was really particularly bad beyond being young, inexperienced, and awkward, even from examples from Danny haters. I don’t believe his habit of blurting out the wrong thing is as bad as people make it to be because he always realizes it immediately and, frankly, i’ve rarely disagreed with him.
I miss Mike.
I know comparing people to food is bad, but “rotisserie” being slang for hot all over is great.
I’m curious what will be Booster’s version of punching Joe in the face.
Love the callback to Arnold’s hoodie.
please give us Booster and Danny doubleteaming Joe I need this
Slipshine or figuratively, because Slipshine is canon, and Joe’s straighter than the lines making the panels of the comic.
Booster might be a time-traveller, because they’re pure Gold.
A+.
I love “no one can hear us!” immediately followed by “hi i can hear you!”
Considering Walky barely introduced Joe & Dan to Booster, I can’t wait what shenanigans they will all get into. Especially once Booster hears about Joe’s List.
I know ppl are excited for Booster to psychoanalyze Joe, but personally I want them to psychoanalyze Danny and maybe get him to be a less cringey human being.
I know we all hate Danny, but I’ve definitely been the guy begrudgingly participating in “peoplewatching”
I love Danny and I’m tired of pretending I don’t.
(I have never pretended that I don’t love Danny. He is my precious child)
Danny’s definitely in my top five characters.
Yeah, Danny’s great. He’s also a huge fuckup.
… That’s part of why he’s great.
Godammit Willis you’re going to make me Google that aren’t you?
BOOSTER AND DANNY. PLEASE. THEY MUST BONE.
I’m here for Booster’s comment.
Years ago, our code word was “chebs”, in reference to well-endowed breasts. Apparently it’s some British slang term, according to the British guy in the group who introduced it.
Yknow what? Danny’s right. Arnold’s smokin.
It’s a good thing Danny’s into men, because it seems that he’s too wrapped up in trying to figure out how to treat women right to ever attempt to date one again.
Ah, Welcome again to a time i like to name from now on as:
“Booster Ruins Everything.”
cause i get the sneaky suspicion that this will be boosters role for his character.
Pardon, they Character. (sadly i cant find any “Edit” button on comments.