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NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! NEANDERTHAL FINGERPRINT! 🤯
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Patrick Willems @patrickhwillems.bsky.social ⋅ 1m
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️𝓝𝓪𝓷𝓲 
“hey Wonderbread, hope ya like things ah fished outta the trash”
“I mean, i assume that’s why you seem ta like me”
And now I’ve given it to you, I own you.
“See, ‘least I own up ta my manipulatin’.”
MY HEART
Call an AWWWmbulance!
MINE TOO
Oh mY GOOOOOD.
I mean that hat’s decent but it’s never gonna be blue hat. It’s not even close.
But it came from Sal and so Danny will treasure it forever on account of Danny not being the brightest bulb in the pack.
No, but sometimes he’s the sharpest!
Yes… high praise, being the sharpest marshmallow in the bag.
Okay, over/under on whether or not the hat is stolen.
I don’t think post-robbery Sal is into Crimes.
More like what’re the odds she’ll chicken out and find a way to give that to Danny without actually personally giving it to him.
Sal’s gonna sneak up behind him, put it on him, and vanish away like the ninja she is. By the time he notices it, he’ll have been wearing it for a week.
This seems incredibly possible.
It will be witnessed by one person, Ms Billingsworth, further cementing her claim that Sal is Amazi-Girl.
She hasn’t stolen anything. She was lying about it because Sal has a hard time being vulnerable. Even if she used the “I stole it” line, it would mean that she thought of him. And she has a hard time admitting she’s in love with Danny to herself, much else other people. She thinks she deserves a guy like Asher, after all.
It could be love, romantic or sexual, or she could just be feeling good to have a friend. I’m guessing Sal’s been lonely with Malaya distracting Marcie.
Whether this is going to go very good or very bad, I don’t think my heart can handle having to find out over the course of a week.
“over the course of a week”
Oh ho HOO.. Aren’t we being quite the optimist today!
This entire chapter has been about characters who used to have old ships getting into more interesting ones.
So I have a question. I feel like I heard/read somewhere that Willis had said he is not going to pair any of the characters with people they had been paired with before in the other ‘verse. Did I make that up? Because if it’s true then this all feels very hollow.
I think the point was more that he wasn’t going to retread the Walkyverse pairings unless he felt he could do new things with them, not that he was opposed to revisiting those pairings on principle. Ruth/Billie, Walky/Dorothy and Sal/Jason all happened in both the Walkyverse and the Dumbiverse, and all of them happened fairly early on.
I don’t think it’s an early on thing, Sal/Jason was a significant length of the Walkyverse and even stretched into the paid strips. In fact it was probably the last ship to properly take off in IW!, even later than Joe/Rachel.
Sal/Jason happened early on in Dumbing of Age was my point. This wasn’t like a thing Willis said and then changed his mind about, it’s just never been the case that Walkyverse pairings aren’t allowed in Dumbing of Age.
My understanding of that was that it came up “unless they could find something new to do with the pairing.” I think we’ve already seen this with some couples in the strip.
It’s happened a lot, fairly early on too. Ruth/Billie, Walky/Dorothy, Sal/Jason, Mandy/Grace/Sierra, there’s been a fair few walkyverse reduxes.
He did say that, but with the caveat that he still might if he could think of a new angle, hence why Robin and Leslie and Ruth and Billie could be a thing. Danny and Sal broke up very early on in the Walkyverse and so this is more of a chance to see them developing what could turn into something romantic.
Yeah, Walkyverse Danny/Sal started with a Sal who hadn’t yet become Batman and a Danny who was kind of a dick. When Post-Angstening Sal reached out to Danny, she still had him on a pedestal as part of the normal life she no longer had, and would sometimes try and force some of her cheerful wacky old persona because it was what he knew from her.
This Danny’s had character development before he and Sal really started bonding, and since this Sal became a cool biker chick before college, he wouldn’t expect any different. Walkyverse Danny/Sal was supposed to be endgame before Billie waltzed into the plot and became a character, but Dumbingverse Danny/Sal seems to have healthier foundations for a longterm relationship.
I mean, Danny/Billie was walkyverse endgame, anyway, so I feel like this would still be fine even if he rigidly held to that.
Like, he had Mike, Blaine, and Ross die after previously having hesitation about what he did with Walkyverse Ruth or others who died, so nothing is really set in stone.
Well one, it’s hypothetically endless serialized fiction and if it runs long enough than any viable pairing could happen. No one saw Ruth/Jason coming, that’s for sure.
The other more important bit is that it’s less that the Walkyverse ships are off-limits and more that if the Walkyverse ships depict these characters as ideally as that pairing can depict them, then there’s no real point in going over that again. Sal disappeared from Danny’s life and he moved and got with Billie, so we don’t actually know what Danny and Sal actually seriously together would be like. You’re never gonna see Joe/Rachel again, for example, not only because both of them are different characters here with different narrative goals, but because Joe/Rachel was explored to its limits by the time of Shortpacked’s conclusion. Conversely we are absolutely gearing up for a romance narrative about Joe and Joyce even though that was explored in the Walkyverse, and Joe is even kind of hitting the same beats where Joyce inspires in him feelings he doesn’t know how to deal with after he begins to see her in a new light beyond “fundie weirdo”, but that still manifests differently here because everyone reading It’s Walky! knew from the get-go Joe would never be with Joyce because Walky’s name was the danged title, and that being up in the air means a go at that relationship has different goals and expectations.
Ruth/Billie was a bit of a big deal in the Walkyverse, except there’s no way to call that a repeat here in DoA because both of them are such different characters. Meanwhile Walky/Dorothy was explored on much the same level as Danny/Sal was, and at the moment in the Walkyverse reruns Dorothy is trying to beat Walky to death with her bare hands. Life comes at you funny sometimes.
“No one saw Ruth/Jason coming, that’s for sure.”
I would disagree with this. Once Ruth and Jason started interacting during the date, a lot of people started to figure it out.
I feel like that’s a bit…late for what Spencer is talking about.
Maybe. But the reason I’d say nobody saw it coming prior to Jason’s new look is because nobody expected him to be an important character again and he had minimal connections to the non-Walkerton members of the cast
No one saw the Americans being willing to nuke Japan, but once they hit Nagasaki, a lot of people started to figure it out.
If someone wants to claim they were actually shipping Ruth and Jason before their first interaction or even post-skip before it actually became a thing, I’m going to call [citation needed].
I like you Thag, but I’m pretty sure anyone claiming they saw it coming, would have to have violated causality.
Ruth/Billie in the Walkyverse was also explored primarily/most explicitly in the Roomies Redux strips, as I recall, which were written and published after Ruth’s death there. They were very different characters with a different dynamic here, but it was also a chance to explore their relationship in realtime.
Oh, also, after Shortpacked ended and Dumbingverse Dina/Becky became a thing, Willis posted some art and declared it canon of Walkyverse Becky and Dina together against the Soggies. When we saw Walkyverse characters again in an April Fools strip in 2017 or so, Becky was with the Shortpacked universe-hopping squad looking for anti-Soggie weapons, so yeah, that relationship is definitely Walkyverse canon too, the rules just don’t apply since they only met AFTER the Walkyverse ended.
Sal/Danny happened in Roomies, yes; but so early on that their characters were barely established (and Sal ended up becoming someone so completely different to her initial incarnation that she might well have been an entirely different character).
So I’d make an argument that whilst a ‘Danny’ and ‘Sal’ once dated in a different comic, these two characters as they are now depicted never dated.
I can’t recall if he said that, but I’m pretty sure Willis at some point said he wasn’t gonna have anyone die in this comic, and then he went and killed off Mike. So even if he did say that maybe we shouldn’t assume it’s still accurate anymore.
The ‘people won’t die’ was never absolute – the issue was that, like breaking a bone (even Joyce spraining her wrist put her in the brace for ages,) the status quo change of ‘grieving’ would last the rest of the comic without a timeskip, but even then they made occasional jokes that like, Tony could die, because Tony was too minor a character to derail things with grief. (‘Who’s Tony?’ Yeah, exactly. If he died offscreen over the break due to ridiculous shenanigans with murderous llamas invading the football field during a game, it would still have no impact on the story whatsoever.)
But yeah, the rules change as the story needs them, especially when, say, a storyline’s been inching towards ‘kill off the Alliance of Evil Dads so they can no longer escalate and get some Becky angst in’ and that’d probably require a timeskip ANYWAY. (Also neatly skipping the inevitable Drama of Thanksgiving and winter break that would have split up the cast.) I distinctly recall that when Blaine and Faz first showed up, Willis said Blaine wasn’t Faz’s bio-dad, but by the time the Faz is Great storyline ran they’d forgotten saying that (I can’t find the quote but remember hearing they had admitted to that) and evidently found it more interesting and a better story angle for Faz to be in all likelihood Amber’s half-brother… and also fear ending up like Blaine, but Amber is the person who shows him he doesn’t have to be. While also making it extra clear that yes, Blaine is in fact THAT MUCH human garbage. (The hints that Yuri was a teenager when Faz was born in conjunction with the way his arc’s gone are the kind of thing you don’t casually drop as a red herring, not for a storyline that’s only an occasional drop-in on Amber’s plot. So unfortunately, I assume Blaine was a sex predator in addition to an abusive fuckstain, mob stooge, and half-rate supervillain whose only trick was ‘try and kidnap Amber’s friends’.)
The relationships one has always been more malleable than others because by now, most characters have very different dynamics than they had in the Walkyverse, and many started diverging from the start. (Walkyverse Joyce and Dorothy hate each other, as do that Joyce and Sal.) But I still wouldn’t hold my breath to see Walky/Joyce as a canon ship again because their dynamic as friends is close enough to the Joyce and Walky! one that there’s not much new ground to tread. Same reason, I suspect, why Amber/Mike was never actually readdressed – even adding AG into the mix, the most that relationship could work would’ve been pretty close to their dynamic in Shortpacked all over again. By comparison, Walky/Dorothy and Joe/Joyce were only explored as actual relationships as opposed to crushes briefly in an AU before it intersected with the plot, Ruth/Billie was explored largely via flashback (and had a different dynamic due to that Ruth being Billie’s childhood babysitter), and Danny/Sal’s dynamic is so different here than it was there that it won’t go down the same lines if it does become a thing there. (Also, it’s been SO MUCH LONGER since Willis wrote or thought of them as a romantic couple than Amber/Mike or even Joyce/Walky, so they’ve probably had the space to reassess that relationship as well.) If there’s a new spin on it, or potential that wasn’t explored, it’s more likely to have a chance.
CUTE
AGREED.
I mean if I was Sal I probably wouldn’t want to meet Danny at his dorm either. The room probably stinks of Joe scent and Danny has become nose blind to it.
D’aww.
Awe, that’s really sweet of you Sal!
But seriously, if you’ve never seen it get that dark by 4 p.m. you’ve obviously never seen what the California wildfires can do.
Something I hope remains true.
This makes me so happy
This is so cute and gay
……gay?
This doesn’t really fit either definition of gay that I’m familiar with.
Wait a minute, what if they’re using the very old definition, meaning “happy”?
There’s a reason I said “doesn’t fit either”
This is sweet and cute but it’s not what I’d call happy.
The teens are calling everything gay again, but in a positive way this time.
Sometimes I just call cute romantic things gay because “gay” is the word I most often use in my own relationships for different reasons. But also, Danny is bisexual, so this is all quite gay. ^.^
Oh yeah, from the “everything,” romantic things, regardless of orientation, are the most likely to be called “gay” from what I’ve seen.
AWWWWWWWWWWW.
Find him and kiss him you fool!
cute moment
Oh Sal, I hope you can give Danny his hat in person and not through some third party. And I hope you can accept Danny doing nice things for you.
I look forward to you and Danny going on your first date sometime in 2025.
This is the content I live for
Joe is the first reason that pops into mind, but I wonder.
Just more evidence that Willis is a storytelling genius. As if you needed it.
But if he gets the new hat, won’t the old hat inevitably show up at the worst possible moment, leading to incredible conflict and angst?
Yes. He can never let the two hats meet.
It’s his old hat’s quantum duplicate.
Plot twist: this is his old hat. After it blew away, someone found it and donated it to a charity shop, where Sal bought it.
Unless that ‘Danny’s hat’ bonus strip ends with it blowing into a wood chipper, or something.
Or the story point down the road that marks the end of their relationship.
D’awwww
BUT THE HAT CAME BACK
THE VERY NEXT
DAYBOOKTHE HAT CAME BACK
AND NOW HE HAS A LOOK
…”And now it has her shook”?
meh
We thought it was goner, now it’s back this way,
But the Hat came back, it just couldn’t stay away.
How close are stores to this campus and/or how fast does e-commerce work in this universe.
I’m betting in many cases same/next day due to the proximity of stores generally around a college campus. College kids probably have more disposable income nowadays and perhaps ‘I want it now’ gratification mindset so local business would want to take advantage of that.
This is all just guesswork on my part. When I was in college it was pre-internet. The big place you went to for anything was a Phar-Mor (kids, ask your parents!) and it was a 5-10 minutes bike ride depending where on campus you were.
Hell, we were still using microfiche readers in the library alongside some Apple IIs (I think).
The comic doesn’t deviate that much from reality, just look up IU Bloomington on Google Maps. (The biggest differences are Galasso’s for Mother Bear’s, and that Robin’s apartment building is an office building in real life.)
There’s a good-size mall with a Target a stone’s throw east of campus. The characters even went there before on-screen.
She also could have bought it for him over the break.
Well, at least Sal has at last admitted it to herself!
This is really sweet and romantic ♡. Let’s hope our shy Sal finds the strength to give that hat to Danny. I can see her holding that hat in her pocket for months before this happens. Danny will be so happy and surprised.
Anyone else thinks of Park and Recs April and Andy when imagining Sal and Danny dating? The whole “Someone will die…” “…of fun!” dynamic?
Though on second thought they feel closer to B99’s Rosa and Boyle
I mean I was thinking about it so
https://i.imgur.com/lW4sw3V.png
Meanwhile, Amazamber is watching her from above
“the baggins stole our danny, preciious”
Amber’s long gotten over Danny or at least thinks she’s not good enough for him.
I think she actually said Sal should take a shot at him, now that I think about it.
She dropped the accent at the end there. Pretty sure that’s important, but my memory isn’t always the best.
Malaya indicated that the accent might be a deliberate way to stand out.
TBF, she also said that she drops it when she’s angry but when I looked back through Sal’s strips, this wasn’t really born out – if anything, her accent was THICKER when she was angry.
Can confirm. I start dropping my Rs when I’m ranting.
So you are anting then.
This is adorable and has me hoping that the Sal/Danny ship might still have a chance of sailing.
Dont worry, Danny is just a Phase.
As soon as he Dannys it up again it will be all over and you can move on.
I don’t think she’s interested in Walky like that.
That’s how Danny knows Sal’s the one.
She can’t date break up with him and start dating Walky.
Haaaaa.
Makes sense!!!!
DW: This is the weekend for the “Awesome Con” pop culture convention in Washington DC. Woulda been a better show if you were out here.
But the world is still covered in death!
While this is adorable, I can’t help but think Sal bought Danny a hat because she feels obligated to get Danny a gift because he gave her a gift – twice, technically, even if she paid him back for the first one, and rejected (and then stole) the second. I’m not even questioning whether she likes him – she clearly does – but transactional gift-giving, and transactional affection in general, is just toxic.
It’s toxic only when forced. What if Sal wants to give Danny the hat because she thinks it will make him happy? We don’t even know if he bought it now, after spending the afternoon smelling the flowers, or not. Maybe she had bought it days ago, but she couldn’t give it to him because she’s shy.
What does that word even fucking mean anymore
When I was younger, my parents always taught me that when gifts were given, they had to be reciprocated or no one would like you, ever. That’s done *wonders* to my perception of gifts. I kinda hate gifts now.
Reminds me a story I read once. A couple moved into a new house and a pair of gay dudes came with a cake as a house-warming gift. The couple returned some baked goods, the gay dudes gave them some crocheted stuff and soon they found themselves in an adorable arms-race of niceness.
I think the toxic part is the reverse part – expecting such gifts to be reciprocated. It’s toxic partly because it preys upon a real instinct for reciprocation. That instinct isn’t a bad thing, unless it’s being exploited. It’s part of how we build social bonds.
The toxicity is when it sits in the back of the mind. “The only way I can be a real friend is if I give Friend as much value in gifts as they gave me.” “I can’t afford to get Friend a gift after they got me one, they must hate me and I am an awful person.” A person can absolutely learn to measure their own self worth through what they’re giving to other people and that is absolutely a toxic way to think imo.
I love to see that introspection turned on herself. Sal is really starting to grow as a person.
I dispute you alt text. In canuck-land, the earliest sunsets are a little after 4pm. On checking, the 2021 earliest sunset in Bloomington, Indiana is 5:24:39 pm with twilight ending at 5:52:55 pm, and occurs in december. I’m watching you comic-book time. You can dilate. You can slow. A college girl can throw herself at a moving car and catch it, or vault to the roof of a multi-story dorm. But claiming your sunsets are earlier that the truth… that’s crossing a line I apparently won’t tolerate.
^ This one, I like you
As mid-northish canuckian, I too was like “4 pm sunset south of the 49th? hah, fat chance”, but I wasn’t prepared to do research to back up my claims, so hella props to you for beating me to the punch, and punching harder than I planned
Really? I’m in the south of Canada, but I’ve had sunsets that early. Twilight around 5ish and it’s fucking dark by 6 or 7.
I can see it maybe just east of mountain ranges, since that changes the effective height of the horizon, or if there’s enough tall buildings in the vicinity to create a similar effect.
Other than that, everything else in the strip makes perfect sense?
Teen female superheroes that can flip out a 2nd story window and land silently?
Nobody arrested or detained from the kidnapping, much less not thrown out of school?
Dormitory roof doors left unlocked?
For the entertainment it offers, I’ll accept an early sunset. Hell, I’ll accept a talking moon that throws pies.
Maybe it’s just really cloudy/there’s a thunderstorm approaching?
Hey, I gave examples of things I tolerate. Your examples fit well within the parameters of acceptable comixology. But incorrect sunsets… this is the hill I will die upon. Tell my children I love them, and my exes to fuck off, I have better things to do. I… expire.
Are we talking actual sunset, or when it gets dark? In IN the clouds typically knit together and cover the sky from sometime in December to mid-March, with occasional breaks. It’s half-dark all the time, and at sunset it’s been quite dark for a bit already.
Sal was wearing the same outfit at the party, but now it’s unbuttoned far enough to show some cleavage, as we can see when she lowers the hat in the last two frames.
Really? Looks the same to me.