Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
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May 19, 2026

Froot Loops

by David M Willis on November 15, 2021 at 12:01 am
  • 02 – I'll Leave You A Phantom
└ Tags: amber, dina, mike

Discussion (272) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. Ana Chronistic
    Ana Chronistic
    November 15, 2021 at 12:05 am | #

    oh we’re still doing this, ok

    Mike getting a lot of screen time for a dead dude

    • Sirksome
      Sirksome
      November 15, 2021 at 12:14 am | #

      You’re only truly dead if people forget about you. So in a way Mike is essentially immortal.

      • Bladeglory
        Bladeglory
        November 15, 2021 at 12:18 am | #

        Sure, we may forget him, but our mothers will always cherish those nickels.

        • King Daniel
          King Daniel
          November 15, 2021 at 12:31 am | #

          And don’t forget all the inexplicable woodpeckers.

          • Clif
            Clif
            November 15, 2021 at 12:41 am | #

            <3

          • Decidedly Orthogonal
            Decidedly Orthogonal
            November 15, 2021 at 7:20 am | #

            > inexplicable woodpeckers

            Bladeglory already mentioned our moms.

            Mike! I hope you’re enjoying your… this.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      November 15, 2021 at 12:16 am | #

      “As the souls of the dead live for’er in my mind”

      • AbacusWizard
        AbacusWizard
        November 15, 2021 at 1:15 am | #

        or in the archives

    • King
      King
      November 15, 2021 at 12:37 am | #

      Is it just me, or does Mike seem to be… crisper? It almost feels like he’s drawn in an older style, like his art hasn’t been updating along with everyone else. Or maybe it’s just lighting?

    • Jamie
      Jamie
      November 15, 2021 at 1:04 am | #

      I, for one, welcome our hallucinatory overlords.

    • Joe Helfrich
      Joe Helfrich
      November 15, 2021 at 2:34 am | #

      I still think Booster is Mike after reconstructive surgery and on enough pain killers to be nice similar to Drunk Mike.

      • King Daniel
        King Daniel
        November 15, 2021 at 2:59 am | #

        If this is a serious theory – then I’ll reiterate again, Booster Sanchez is nonwhite and I am entirely confident Willis won’t be doing a “brownface reveal” in this comic.

        • FaerwenOfValenwood
          FaerwenOfValenwood
          November 15, 2021 at 3:55 am | #

          White hispanics do exist, though.

          Source: am white hispanic

          • Robin
            Robin
            November 15, 2021 at 10:35 am | #

            Hah! Next, you’ll tell me Spain is in Europe!

            • someone
              someone
              November 15, 2021 at 5:24 pm | #

              What does Europe have to do with whiteness? I have it straight from Ben Franklin himself that Europeans are swarthy browns. Only the English and the Saxons are white.

              “And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased.” –Benjamin Franklin

              That’s a true quote and not a joke, BTW.

          • Kazuma Taichi
            Kazuma Taichi
            November 15, 2021 at 11:12 am | #

            While true, comparing the color used for Booster’s skin against the white cast makes it evident enough that Booster is intended to be of slightly darker skin (looks kinda olivish to me)

          • Rani
            Rani
            November 15, 2021 at 11:24 pm | #

            Yes, but is Mike a white hispanic?

      • Thag Simmons
        Thag Simmons
        November 15, 2021 at 1:18 pm | #

        The only “Mike lives” theory that is remotely plausible to me is the “Mike’s death was faked and he is in witness protection”, and I think that actually happening is about as likely as the Head Alien showing up

      • Spencer
        Spencer
        November 15, 2021 at 3:09 pm | #

        Mike is actually Jennifer.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      November 15, 2021 at 7:51 am | #

      Amber gets into pottery in this chapter.

  2. Doctor_Who
    Doctor_Who
    November 15, 2021 at 12:05 am | #

    When I stay up all night gaming, I just see purple spots in front of my eyes.

    They aren’t very sarcastic. Though they sometimes recite Emily Dickinson poems to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme.

    • Leorale
      Leorale
      November 15, 2021 at 12:20 am | #

      🎶 Because I could not stop for Death –
      He kindly stopped for me –
      The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
      And Immortality. 🎶

      • Cholma
        Cholma
        November 15, 2021 at 12:31 am | #

        +1 internets for you.

        I like to sing Gilligan’s Island & the Brady Bunch theme as operas, but this works well too!

        • misanthropope
          misanthropope
          November 15, 2021 at 8:34 am | #

          the old kliban cartoon: “love to eat them mousies” etc. i had it on a tshirt, and was once serenaded by one of my gaming pals with those lyrics to the tune of “ode to joy”

        • SeasideSun
          SeasideSun
          November 15, 2021 at 8:36 am | #

          the opening verse of the original Pokemon theme is also in Common Meter, do with that as you will

        • Edward Rhodes
          Edward Rhodes
          November 15, 2021 at 12:45 pm | #

          Did you ever hear “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island?” Doctor Demento played it ONCE, then the guy who wrote it got sued by Led Zeppalin, AND the writer of the Gilligan’s Island theme! (I think this was before the “parody rule” had been enabled.

          • Cholma
            Cholma
            November 15, 2021 at 6:04 pm | #

            That sounds faintly familiar. I used to listen to Dr D a lot when I was in the Army; the Armed Forces network carried it (at a decent hour) so I got exposed to a lot of great parody songs. (like “Dead Puppies”, “Boot to the Head”, and “Marvin, You’re A Rotten Jerk”, and of course Weird Al Yankovic, before he became famous)

          • Needfuldoer
            Needfuldoer
            November 15, 2021 at 8:44 pm | #

            Our old pal Puddles made a kickass cover of the parody mashup, with the blessing of the guy who (apparently) made the original! (Links in the description.)

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4MKQMTHplI

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      November 15, 2021 at 7:55 am | #

      WELL. Count me as one of today’s lucky 10,000.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSta5iO–Lg

      • milu
        milu
        November 15, 2021 at 8:30 am | #

        ok i don’t get that reference but uh…
        that was a thing =) thanks for sharing

        • Needfuldoer
          Needfuldoer
          November 15, 2021 at 8:35 am | #

          Well then you’re also one of today’s lucky 10,000!

          https://xkcd.com/1053/

          • milu
            milu
            November 15, 2021 at 8:45 am | #

            haha ok i knew that strip, i’d just forgotten about it ^^
            i’m still one of the Emily-Dickinson-sung-to-the-tune-of-Gilligan’s-Island lucky 10,000 though!

            (although based on Randall’s calculation that assumes both of these are in the “everyone knows” category, which is maybe an overstatement in both cases)

    • Charlie Spencer
      Charlie Spencer
      November 15, 2021 at 10:08 am | #

      “Yellow Rose of Texas”, too.

    • C
      C
      November 15, 2021 at 10:11 am | #

      My English teacher in high school taught me about that, and I’ve never shaken it.

    • Opus the Poet
      Opus the Poet
      November 15, 2021 at 11:46 am | #

      I usually sing Dickinson to The Yellow Rose of Texas, but Gilligan’s Island works, too.

      • Eyebrow
        Eyebrow
        November 15, 2021 at 5:34 pm | #

        So does “House of the Rising Sun”. Try that to Gilligans Island sometime.
        Also I’s the By what builds the boat.

    • brionl
      brionl
      November 15, 2021 at 1:17 pm | #

      I prefer Stairway to Gilligan’s Island.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCYLbFxTpI

    • gossamerwillow
      gossamerwillow
      November 15, 2021 at 7:42 pm | #

      Dangit! I already sing Emily Dickenson to Battle Hymn of the Republic and Yellow Rose of Texas. I don’t need another alternative!

  3. King Daniel
    King Daniel
    November 15, 2021 at 12:05 am | #

    What are you doing here, Jennifer

    • Clif
      Clif
      November 15, 2021 at 2:44 am | #

      Just passing through.

  4. Josh Spicer
    Josh Spicer
    November 15, 2021 at 12:05 am | #

    Oh hey Hallucination Mike.

    You’re still here.

    • Clif
      Clif
      November 15, 2021 at 1:05 am | #

      What makes you believe he ever left?

  5. Thag Simmons
    Thag Simmons
    November 15, 2021 at 12:06 am | #

    The triumphant return of Ghost Mike.

  6. Sirksome
    Sirksome
    November 15, 2021 at 12:06 am | #

    Well that happened fast.

  7. StClair
    StClair
    November 15, 2021 at 12:06 am | #

    right on schedule.

  8. The Wellerman
    The Wellerman
    November 15, 2021 at 12:07 am | #

    Oh, goodie! Looks like we ARE gonna get some trippy sleeplessness-induced hallucinations after all! 😆

    Also, hi Mike!

  9. Rocket Relm
    Rocket Relm
    November 15, 2021 at 12:09 am | #

    Dina is such a spirit animal for me, “I will get you some fruit loops” is fucking precious.

    • Doctor_Who
      Doctor_Who
      November 15, 2021 at 12:14 am | #

      I…actually think Dina made a funny.

      Amber is clearly losing it, so Dina decides to bring her the cereal that can be used as a euphemism for madness.

      • Needfuldoer
        Needfuldoer
        November 15, 2021 at 8:02 am | #

        You can get away with a lot of snark if you deadpan it well enough.

        • Clif
          Clif
          November 15, 2021 at 10:24 am | #

          Are we speaking from experience?

        • StClair
          StClair
          November 15, 2021 at 12:12 pm | #

          “What rot, sir! Why, you’re the very model of sanity. Oh, by the way, I pressed your tights and put away your exploding gas balls.”

  10. Zachary R.
    Zachary R.
    November 15, 2021 at 12:09 am | #

    I like the idea of Ghost Mike existing only to Amber, like an evil Hobbes to her desperately-in-need-of-therapy Calvin.

  11. Reltzik
    Reltzik
    November 15, 2021 at 12:09 am | #

    I’d say that SOMEONE should be telling Amber that there’s cause for concern regarding her mental health… but then again, Dina did Warner.

    • King Daniel
      King Daniel
      November 15, 2021 at 12:14 am | #

      That she did, but Mike-oncern is that Dina already’s doing the best she could do for Amber.

      • Reltzik
        Reltzik
        November 15, 2021 at 12:52 am | #

        Just the opposite. Amber’s managed to hold it together for a long while, but now that Dina’s enabling her, Amber’s going to break fast.

        • Clif
          Clif
          November 15, 2021 at 1:10 am | #

          You can’t scramble an egg without breaking omelets.

          Or something like that.

        • King Daniel
          King Daniel
          November 15, 2021 at 1:13 am | #

          Too bad we never got to see ghost-Mike on Halloween, would’ve been nice to see how he reacted to all the “boo!”ze.

          • Reltzik
            Reltzik
            November 15, 2021 at 4:26 am | #

            Maybe that shocking twist was the reason for the record-(length-)skip.

            • milu
              milu
              November 15, 2021 at 5:05 am | #

              You jokers are killing me XD
              But srsly, it’s sobering to see Amber needs an imaginary friend. I guess Mike is her biggest fan rn. He might be dead, but he’s left her a fandom.

              • JBento
                JBento
                November 15, 2021 at 6:37 am | #

                Yeah. Looks like Amber’s stuck with him, whether that’s wraith or wrong.

              • JBento
                JBento
                November 15, 2021 at 6:38 am | #

                (hopefully he won’t make a spectreacle of himself)

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 6:51 am | #

                  i mean in a sense this is heartening. imagine if he’d just ghosted her!

                • JBento
                  JBento
                  November 15, 2021 at 7:34 am | #

                  That’d be cowardly; I don’t think Mike would be such a poltroongeist.

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 8:24 am | #

                  well, maybe. as far as post-death etiquette goes, ouija-st don’t have that much to go on.

                • JBento
                  JBento
                  November 15, 2021 at 8:42 am | #

                  There are those that claim they do, but they’re mostly psychopompous asses.

                • Clif
                  Clif
                  November 15, 2021 at 12:18 pm | #

                  I love this thread and feel like I should make some kind of contribution, but somehow I just can’t get into the spirit of it.

                • King Daniel
                  King Daniel
                  November 15, 2021 at 1:06 pm | #

                  After sleeping on it, I think I’m ready to pun again.

                • Reltzik
                  Reltzik
                  November 15, 2021 at 2:33 pm | #

                  It’s Mike. He’s all about the shade.

                • JBento
                  JBento
                  November 15, 2021 at 4:40 pm | #

                  Yeah, he always put his soul into it.*

                  *It being your mum. For a nickel.

                • King Daniel
                  King Daniel
                  November 15, 2021 at 5:13 pm | #

                  Have we drunk our fill of wordplay yet?

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 7:10 pm | #

                  speaking of drinking, you know, they say you should quit wine you’re ahead. there could w’ale be something to that. there’s a pint where you start to go for cheap shots. I hops i’m not quite there yet but… disaster’s brewing. i can pitcher it.

              • Reltzik
                Reltzik
                November 15, 2021 at 9:17 pm | #

                The pun cup floweth over.

  12. Kyrik Michalowski
    Kyrik Michalowski
    November 15, 2021 at 12:10 am | #

    Oh boy, this is certainly a bad sign. Not that I can say much since I have my own hallucinations.

    So who is excited to see “Mike” again?

    • Wizard
      Wizard
      November 15, 2021 at 12:33 am | #

      Not really. Mike actually seemed to be getting a little character development, then, boom, he was dead. I suspect the Mike in Amber’s head is eternally stuck on “gratuitous asshole”, and in this context, it’s not even a little amusing.

      • Clif
        Clif
        November 15, 2021 at 12:45 am | #

        I, on the other hand, am always pleased to see Mike.

        As long as it isn’t in reality.

        Long live the Mike, for some value of live.

      • Reltzik
        Reltzik
        November 15, 2021 at 4:42 am | #

        Yeah, head-Mike is definitely depicted as a flat character.

        • Exarch
          Exarch
          November 15, 2021 at 4:38 pm | #

          I see and appreciate what you did there

      • Alanari
        Alanari
        November 15, 2021 at 5:22 am | #

        I’m still sore about the “Mike dying right when his character had some development and became interesting for me” – thing.

        • Deanatay
          Deanatay
          November 15, 2021 at 8:43 am | #

          “You left – just when you were getting interesting.”

          Henry Jones, Sr.

        • Thag Simmons
          Thag Simmons
          November 15, 2021 at 3:54 pm | #

          The character has long been established as a dick, and what better dick move than to tease character development and then die before you can follow through

      • Keulen
        Keulen
        November 15, 2021 at 8:16 am | #

        Yeah, I would’ve preferred if Mike had lived and become a better person instead of dying shortly after he realized he needed to become a better person.

        • Spencer
          Spencer
          November 15, 2021 at 3:25 pm | #

          I think the problem there is that there really wouldn’t be much of a “Mike becomes a better person” story.

          Mike realized in his final moments that he was a huge piece of shit and made Amber’s life even worse, and this whole time he thought he was toughening her up. He knew better than everyone, particularly his two favourite victims, and he was fully convinced he was making their lives better.

          I think the issue here for a Mike Redemption Arc is that he’s not really changing his personality like, say, Ruth or Joe. Mike realized he had done wrong, but if he ever woke up where does he go from there? He knows he’s made life worse for everyone, he’d have to make amends with every single cast member, the only person who’d outright forgive him was Ethan.

          Ruth had to stop drinking, stop herself from being a cruel abuser to Billie, and get help for her depression.

          Joe immediately put the kibosh on his No Feelings Fun Sex Bro person when Joyce spelled out in block capital that he was making her feel unsafe around all men, because any of them could objectify her, except removing that comfort and stability he had in that persona’s left him adrift trying to figure out who she’s supposed to be strike>and that’s Joyce’s husband.

          Mike abused people and learned he needed to stop abusing people, particularly his two closest friends. What is there to grow from? He’s Ruth in a sea of Rachels and Sals, people around him constantly judging him for things he actually definitely did and are totally his fault, except Ruth has relationships with characters who aren’t Rachel and Sal so even though they’re right to resent her, they’re not a constant presence in all Ruth strips the way Mike can’t really interact with anyone without someone mentioning “hey Mike remember when you mocked Billie’s depression over Ruth’s hospitalization to Walky’s face” and “hey Mike remember how Blaine driving Amber to the convenience store that night is totally your fault.”

          How do you change Mike in a way where he remains interesting?

          • Spencer
            Spencer
            November 15, 2021 at 3:26 pm | #

            One of these days I will learn the folly of HTML tags.

      • Spencer
        Spencer
        November 15, 2021 at 3:12 pm | #

        I view it as Mike as the dispenser of harsh truths, except those harsh truths are meted out through two frames that contextualize it:

        – Mike had a huge profile on Amber, so Amber has a good idea of what he’d talk like.

        – This is Mike inside the brain of someone he repeatedly abused and then died saving her life.

        Sufficed to say, it’s complicated.

    • Gash
      Gash
      November 15, 2021 at 1:58 am | #

      I occasionally hallucinate while driving, which is pretty bad since i don’t see the road anymore, but i found a workaround for that, which involves sleeping well before ever hitting the road, since i only start seeing shit when i’m tired, and when driving tired is inevitable, well, i arrive at point B with several slap marks on my face, drives the hallucinations away instantly, if i’m aware enough to give myself the slap.
      Let’s not think about the times i’m tripping so badly i can’t raise my arms anymore…

      • Clif
        Clif
        November 15, 2021 at 2:48 am | #

        If you haven’t ever been checked for sleep apnea you might have a word with your doctor. Could save your life.

        • StClair
          StClair
          November 15, 2021 at 3:08 am | #

          As someone who does suffer from that, heartily seconded.

    • Rainhat
      Rainhat
      November 15, 2021 at 2:34 pm | #

      Nope. Head for the light, Mike.

  13. Sirksome
    Sirksome
    November 15, 2021 at 12:10 am | #

    I will say I’m starting to get a little upset with how Amber treats Dina sometimes. It just feels a little one sided every now and then, especially with Amber repeatedly using/manipulating Dina as a buffer because she couldn’t control her horniness around Walky. Now she’s getting snippy when Dina shows legitimate concern? I know they’re friends. AG did save her girlfriend once or twice. But like Amber just comes off like a jerk to Dina sometimes.

    • milu
      milu
      November 15, 2021 at 5:14 am | #

      That feels a bit harsh. Not that I disagree on the surface of it but Amber is not in a good place and I feel like slack-cutting is in order? I’m prone to depression and while close ones showing concern will always be appreciated in the long run, in the moment it may feel invasive and infantilizing, and I may go to some lengths to avoid them. I think it’s a depression thing

      • Spencer
        Spencer
        November 15, 2021 at 7:20 am | #

        This is all true, but it’s a fairly open part of Amber’s character that she does infantilize Dina.

        Amber sees Dina as Amber used to be; unable to understand people, needs things explained, can’t grasp nuances. This is partly true in that Dina does have some major social blinders, but an undercurrent to their interactions has been Amber placing herself as Dina’s guide to faking it till you make it, unaware that Dina’s lapped her a thousand times by now because Dina recognizes her own social issues, resents them enough to challenge them, and grows and adapts and makes connections, whereas Amber’s been on a pretty consistent spiral of worsening mental health since she beat the hell out of her dad that one time.

        • milu
          milu
          November 15, 2021 at 8:39 am | #

          yeah. i guess i’m reacting to Sirk’s comment based solely on today’s interaction, where i can empathize with Amber, but yeah, i see both of you mean.

          • milu
            milu
            November 15, 2021 at 8:39 am | #

            *what both of you mean

    • Rainhat
      Rainhat
      November 15, 2021 at 2:36 pm | #

      There are a few characters who simply view everyone else as context-free support fountains. This is just bad practice. Not necessarily because they’ll stop, but because people aren’t utilities.

  14. bootshivers
    bootshivers
    November 15, 2021 at 12:11 am | #

    ah, my favourite catalyst<3

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      November 15, 2021 at 12:25 am | #

      I’m partial to the Trinity Ghoul’s catalyst personally.

  15. King Daniel
    King Daniel
    November 15, 2021 at 12:11 am | #

    Also, I’ve only now realized that Amber’s starting to revert to her late-Shortpacked!-era hair length, after having spent the pre-timeskip period occasionally lamenting the fact that she was stuck with the “stupid short haircut [she] got for prom”.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      November 15, 2021 at 8:00 am | #

      I like it, it suits her.

      She won’t stop until she can hide inside her hair like Cousin Itt.

  16. Buli-Buli
    Buli-Buli
    November 15, 2021 at 12:12 am | #

    Whelp. This has gone from concerning to unsettling.

    Does Dumbing of Age have character songs?
    Cause I nominate Rehab by Amy Winehouse for Amber.
    Given her comment about therapy and all.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      November 15, 2021 at 12:18 am | #

      Yeah

      • milu
        milu
        November 15, 2021 at 5:45 am | #

        OK but that list is from 2013/september!
        I think an update could be in order both for sliding time scale reasons, and on account of four months being a long time when you’re 18.

        That said I know what Buli Buli meant but I don’t see Amber being into Amy Winehouse. Also, I don’t think she would have the self-awareness and self-deprecating humour to imply that she might in fact need help. The Jonathan Coulton song she’s assigned at present is pretty good, but I think she might be into something with more of an edge musically. Idk I don’t have anything just now.

  17. newlland(Henryvolt)
    newlland(Henryvolt)
    November 15, 2021 at 12:12 am | #

    Oh hey imaginary phantom Mike is still hear, cool I can still get some inspiration for some wicked cool “I fucked your mom” jokes.

  18. The Wellerman
    The Wellerman
    November 15, 2021 at 12:12 am | #

    Also, do stay tuned tonight! Or today, depending on where you are!

    Amos Batista looks like they have something in store for us!

  19. Yotomoe
    Yotomoe
    November 15, 2021 at 12:13 am | #

    Oh right. I forgot that Mike actually lived and just blue-scadooed his way into Amber’s head so that he could persist his existence and annoy her forever. That is what I am going to believe.

    • Kyrik Michalowski
      Kyrik Michalowski
      November 15, 2021 at 12:23 am | #

      If only Amber could put Ethan in her head as well. Then he and Mike can be together until Amber dies or goes insane.

      • Sirksome
        Sirksome
        November 15, 2021 at 12:31 am | #

        Considering Amber’s preference in erotic literature I find it quite possible Ethan and Mike have been together in her head already. Or maybe that’s weird? Is it weird to imagine your friends banging? I’m sure that wouldn’t stop her though. That would put kind of a happy spin on Mike’s death. At least the hypothetical memory of him and Ethan are happy.

        • Yotomoe
          Yotomoe
          November 15, 2021 at 12:47 am | #

          I’ve never imagined my friends banging but I’ve defiintely shipped friends with each other.

        • The Wellerman
          The Wellerman
          November 15, 2021 at 12:48 am | #

          Well as far as I’m concerned, “weird or not” as long as you’re not hurting anyone, you can imagine literally anything you want!

          If it makes her happier and more mentally sound all the while, why not?

        • Rabid Rabbit
          Rabid Rabbit
          November 15, 2021 at 12:55 am | #

          As I recall, when Ethan and Mike did bang, she needed details.

        • zee
          zee
          November 15, 2021 at 9:03 am | #

          I mean she’s DEFINITELY imagined it

      • Clif
        Clif
        November 15, 2021 at 12:56 am | #

        Until Amber dies or goes insane? Depending on one’s exact definition, that ship may have already sailed. But all her problems never stopped her from being outstanding and making a difference for people. Or at least she used to.

        Now she plays Roller Derby.

        • Sirksome
          Sirksome
          November 15, 2021 at 1:11 am | #

          It might be for the best though. AG was kinda operating on a very thin line between helpful and problematic. She saved some lives so I think it’s good she ended her masked vigilante carreer on a high note.

          • Thag Simmons
            Thag Simmons
            November 15, 2021 at 2:26 am | #

            AG’s unambiguously helpful actions didn’t need to come from a masked vigilante, and the ones that did need to come from a masked vigilante may have been unnecessary risks that put everyone in more danger

            • StClair
              StClair
              November 15, 2021 at 3:08 am | #

              ah, so we’re still talking about Batman, then?

              • JBento
                JBento
                November 15, 2021 at 5:27 am | #

                Batman trained to be the best at everything, including being the topic of conversations about a comic he isn’t a part of.

                • Edwin I Callahan
                  Edwin I Callahan
                  November 15, 2021 at 7:22 am | #

                  Remember, Batman can breathe in space.

                • Clif
                  Clif
                  November 15, 2021 at 10:33 am | #

                  Gasp!

  20. Kitschensyngk
    Kitschensyngk
    November 15, 2021 at 12:13 am | #

    Sweets to the sweet.

    And Froot Loops to the fruit loop.

    • King Daniel
      King Daniel
      November 15, 2021 at 12:20 am | #

      Walkyverse Amber is canonically a froot loop.

      • justin8448
        justin8448
        November 15, 2021 at 2:09 am | #

        Oh, wow. Nice catch.

        Does this still count as the longest call-back ever, given that it’s a reference to Amber from a different comic?

        • Thag Simmons
          Thag Simmons
          November 15, 2021 at 2:29 am | #

          I don’t think it breaks the top ten

  21. Stephen Bierce
    Stephen Bierce
    November 15, 2021 at 12:15 am | #

    Follow your nose
    It always knows
    The flavor of DEATH
    Whereever it goes!
    *heavy metal guitar riffing*

  22. Kravis
    Kravis
    November 15, 2021 at 12:15 am | #

    Yeah, sarcasm goes straight to you headright, Mike?

  23. The Wellerman
    The Wellerman
    November 15, 2021 at 12:16 am | #

    *kindly borrows Hacked Muzak from Mr. Bierce and plays “Becoming Insane” by Infected Mushroom*

  24. Nobonesforever
    Nobonesforever
    November 15, 2021 at 12:18 am | #

    Usually a good sign when ur hallucinating ur dead friend!

    • Deanatay
      Deanatay
      November 15, 2021 at 8:47 am | #

      Not when you feel somewhat responsible for his death, it isn’t.

      • Nobonesforever
        Nobonesforever
        November 15, 2021 at 3:28 pm | #

        Oh sorry this was sarcastic, generally u DONT wanna hallucinate dead friends it’s usually considered unhealthy

  25. RassilonTDavros
    RassilonTDavros
    November 15, 2021 at 12:19 am | #

    Da-da-daah-dun daah-dun

    Da-da-da-da-daah-dun

    (hopefully i transcribed this rhythm in a form that is vaguely recognizable)

  26. BBCC
    BBCC
    November 15, 2021 at 12:20 am | #

    Ohhhhhh yeah, no, that’s not good.

    Except Dina. Dina is a good friend.

    • BBCC
      BBCC
      November 15, 2021 at 12:20 am | #

      OH COME *ON*.

      • Kyrik Michalowski
        Kyrik Michalowski
        November 15, 2021 at 12:21 am | #

        How many times is that now?

        • Clif
          Clif
          November 15, 2021 at 1:14 am | #

          Dunno, I lost track. Maybe four in a row?

          • BBCC
            BBCC
            November 15, 2021 at 1:18 am | #

            No, skipped one day for Amber.

            • JBento
              JBento
              November 15, 2021 at 5:28 am | #

              Good. Never skip Amber day.

      • Thag Simmons
        Thag Simmons
        November 15, 2021 at 12:22 am | #

        Delightful.

      • JBento
        JBento
        November 15, 2021 at 5:29 am | #

        Now that you’ve been trapped, you can never escape the caramel-sculpted abs of… the Walkerton!

    • Suzi
      Suzi
      November 15, 2021 at 12:24 am | #

      Yeeeaaahhhh . We need a Capable Adult ™ to get involved here. Poor Amber.

      • The Wellerman
        The Wellerman
        November 15, 2021 at 12:27 am | #

        Uh…. “capable adult”?

        I don’t mean to be too nit-picky, but are you suggesting that Dina is…. you know?

        • Thag Simmons
          Thag Simmons
          November 15, 2021 at 12:29 am | #

          A 19 year old is not an adult, no.

          • BBCC
            BBCC
            November 15, 2021 at 1:18 am | #

            Yeah, it is, but in this specific circumstance, she’s really not capable to give the kind of help Amber needs.

            • Thag Simmons
              Thag Simmons
              November 15, 2021 at 2:20 am | #

              Nobody under twenty is an adult, you cannot change my mind about this.

              • Azhrei Vep
                Azhrei Vep
                November 15, 2021 at 7:03 am | #

                And few people under twenty-five deserve the title either.

                • Needfuldoer
                  Needfuldoer
                  November 15, 2021 at 8:04 am | #

                  The older you get, the higher the “people under X aren’t real adults” line gets.

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 8:49 am | #

                  be it because you feel like you‘ve only recently reached true adulthood… or because you’re still waiting for it to happen o3o

                • Clif
                  Clif
                  November 15, 2021 at 11:32 am | #

                  Dunno. Some people are adults at 17, some of them because they’ve had to be. Some of us reach 72 without ever really growing up and becoming a responsible adult.

                  Why yes, I was born in 1949. Why do you ask?

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 4:32 pm | #

                  it’s true i would never have guessed until i first saw you mention your age, or you made an obscure cultural reference way before my time, whichever it was. is this an uncool thing to say? i thought it sounded like an invitation to be surprised about your age, so i’m obliging =)

                  i should know by now expecting people of any given age to talk or behave a certain way is an ass-u-me situation, but uh.. guess i can’t help myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

              • BBCC
                BBCC
                November 15, 2021 at 2:16 pm | #

                Like, I’m not gonna fight about it, but it’s a personal pet peeve of mine, yeah. You’re an adult at 18. You’re new to adulting and might need help with it but that goes for anything new. And I’m pretty sure if we start listing out any sort of criteria for what counts, you’ll find people under whatever your cut off is who meet it and people over your cut off that don’t.

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 3:48 pm | #

                  yeah, “adult” has a perfectly fine legal definition but it’s basically useless as a maturity benchmark. it’s subjective and almost inherently normative.

                  honestly even “maturity” is dodgy as a concept i think. everyone sucks at SOME skill that, in one context or another is considered core to being an adult. no one nails all the possible requirements for maturity.

                  in this particular situation, being able to help your friend who struggles with her mental health is something many adults will be absolute rubbish at. i don’t think it’s got very much to do with adulthood honestly.

                • BBCC
                  BBCC
                  November 15, 2021 at 4:03 pm | #

                  Yeah, adulthood is a super arbitrary concept that we’ve mostly drawn to decide who’s actually responsible for completing whatever responsibilities that are assigned to the majority (like voting, taxes, etc.)

                  Maturity has a little more basis with biological concepts but it’s still based on averages, and in this case it’s irrelevant. Nobody gets a brain scan before it’s decided they’re allowed to help out with someone’s mental health.

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 4:54 pm | #

                  yeah, i know nothing about the neurological basis of maturity… i’ve heard the thing that Spencer says about the brain being mature at 25 on average, but since i have no clue what this could possibly mean either physiologically or cognitively, and suspect most laypeople don’t either (not talking about you or Spencer, i realize this place is crawling with nerds of all stripes) i think most conversations about maturity aren’t really about biology at all but rather focus on skills and responsability, i.e. on a timeline of growth in both material autonomy and ethical integrity.

                  and i think while there’s a case to be made that part of becoming “mature” (socially speaking) is acknowledging that worrying about your friend/roommate showing signs of mental distress is expected and desirable behaviour, while ignoring them is a sign of being either a dickbag or (benefit of the doubt) immature, and surely there are those who still need to learn this at 18, i feel like this attitude has more to do with personality than with a well-adjusted sense of responsability.

                  idk, maybe that’s just me.

              • Spencer
                Spencer
                November 15, 2021 at 3:27 pm | #

                Which is a weird line to draw, considering the actual maturation of the brain is 25.

        • King Daniel
          King Daniel
          November 15, 2021 at 12:31 am | #

          Dina is a capable adult, but she’s not really qualified at all to fully deal with Amber’s whole situation and is thus not a Capable Adult™.

          • Agemegos
            Agemegos
            November 15, 2021 at 1:44 am | #

            Dumbing of Age does not prominently feature capable adults.

            • Keulen
              Keulen
              November 15, 2021 at 8:19 am | #

              If it did, it’d need a new name.

              • Clif
                Clif
                November 15, 2021 at 12:23 pm | #

                Capable Adulting of Age? Or is that too obvious?

        • Suzi
          Suzi
          November 15, 2021 at 10:54 am | #

          If you are trying to insinuate I am suggesting Dina is not capable due to her (undiagnosed?) autism spectrum – fuck you. You’re intentionally misreading what I said. So fuck you.

          None of the main college cast are adults. They’re still teenagers. The eldest (Dina) is 19, who is not Capable Adult status. That’s “Teenager that can probably survive if you toss them in the wild” at best.

          • JBento
            JBento
            November 15, 2021 at 12:05 pm | #

            Wait, Dina’s the oldest? I thought Ruth and Sarah were the oldest (of the main cast).

            • Opus the Poet
              Opus the Poet
              November 15, 2021 at 12:39 pm | #

              Dina is 19, Ruth turned 21 just before the time skip. Sarah I don’t remember how old she was at the birthday party, more than 19 but less than 22.

              But of the freshman cast, Dina is the oldest.

              • King Daniel
                King Daniel
                November 15, 2021 at 1:11 pm | #

                Dorothy’s been 19 since the beginning of the comic (unless she turned 20 during the timeskip) so actually she’s the oldest of the freshman cast. Dina’s the second-oldest freshman, having turned 19 during the course of the comic itself.

          • The Wellerman
            The Wellerman
            November 15, 2021 at 2:56 pm | #

            Oh my…. I am SO sorry, I didn’t know where my mind was when I wrote that!

            I was infantilized a lot as a child, and even when I went to college it STILL didn’t stop, and I guess I just get really ticked off when people deny the capacity and maturity of college students who deserve much more credit then they’re given. That, and I’m kinda having a bad time where I am right now.

            Wait, you think she has ASD? I always read it as a social anxiety disorder kind of thing, given that’s what I was diagnosed with, and I used to (and still do) share many of Dina’s difficulties. I guess there’s a lot of overlap with things like that.

            • King Daniel
              King Daniel
              November 15, 2021 at 5:25 pm | #

              It’s never been stated in-comic, but majority fandom consensus definitely seems to be that Dina’s on the spectrum, yeah. I believe there’s also a Willis tumblr post specifically discussing Dina where he concludes something like “yeah, she’s probably undiagnosed [autistic]” (IIRC “Asperger’s” was used in the original post but I personally heavily dislike that term).

              • The Wellerman
                The Wellerman
                November 15, 2021 at 6:24 pm | #

                Huh. Care to tell me why you dislike “Aspergers” as opposed to “autism” or social anxiety disorder?

                It’s alright if you don’t want to; I can understand. And thankfully to my knowledge, the “Aspergers” diagnosis has been officially depreciated.

                • King Daniel
                  King Daniel
                  November 15, 2021 at 6:52 pm | #

                  That’s alright; for me it mainly stems from how Hans Asperger himself was a eugenicist, fascist, and literal Nazi. That’s not even really getting into me being queer, autistic, and with a Slavic and (ethnically) Jewish background–any one of which would’ve gotten me killed by the Nazis if he’d been around me back in the day.

                • The Wellerman
                  The Wellerman
                  November 15, 2021 at 7:53 pm | #

                  Oh my… live and learn, I guess.

                  Thinking about it, I guess there’s awful history behind pretty much any label like that, given that area in psychology came out of a really bad place.

                  For instance, what they don’t tell you about “autism” is that when it was first coined, it literally meant “morbid self absorption”. And I’m here looking at the modern autism diagnosis, and I’m like, “how do you get THAT from THAT”. I probably don’t even wanna know.

                  Anyway, with all honesty and respect, I definitely like “traits not labels” when it comes to characters and writing them, mostly because of the sheer baggage that comes with the latter.

                • King Daniel
                  King Daniel
                  November 15, 2021 at 11:52 pm | #

                  That’s fair. I’m pretty sure Willis has even said that they didn’t initially intend to either write Dina as An Autistic Person or write Amber as A Person With DID, but simply gave them particular traits which happened to resonate with readers who were, and it kind of organically grew into them being depicted that way more overtly/with actual intent over time.

          • BBCC
            BBCC
            November 15, 2021 at 2:58 pm | #

            I’d consider Dina an adult but there’s no way she’s equipped for this situation so your point stands.

  27. Joe Moose
    Joe Moose
    November 15, 2021 at 12:21 am | #

    There we go

    • Clif
      Clif
      November 15, 2021 at 12:58 am | #

      And yet, here we are.

      • thejeff
        thejeff
        November 15, 2021 at 7:14 am | #

        No matter where you go…

        • Clif
          Clif
          November 15, 2021 at 11:39 am | #

          … there you go again.

  28. Sirksome
    Sirksome
    November 15, 2021 at 12:22 am | #

    I know this seems very troubling (and it is) but let’s be honest here. Amber’s mental state is so compromised that any day she’s still functioning is a victory for her. Realistically she has all the excuses to go full “We live in a society.” at any moment.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      November 15, 2021 at 12:28 am | #

      She’s not playing Batman anymore! That’s probably a positive development.

      • Rani
        Rani
        November 15, 2021 at 12:41 am | #

        Well, she is, it just so happens that Batman decided to take up roller derby.

        Baby steps, though.

        • Reltzik
          Reltzik
          November 15, 2021 at 1:08 am | #

          I was about to say “art or it didn’t happen”, but…

  29. EpochFlame
    EpochFlame
    November 15, 2021 at 12:22 am | #

    the figment is back!

    • Clif
      Clif
      November 15, 2021 at 1:00 am | #

      Never left.

      • JBento
        JBento
        November 15, 2021 at 5:31 am | #

        Always right.

        • Clif
          Clif
          November 15, 2021 at 11:43 am | #

          Why yes, I am.

          Or at least I always think I am, which is frequently close enough.

  30. Spencer
    Spencer
    November 15, 2021 at 12:25 am | #

    Hey, it worked on Starscream and Bumblebee.

    • Clif
      Clif
      November 15, 2021 at 12:28 pm | #

      I choose to believe that Fruit Loops turned Starscream and Bumblebee’s lives around.

    • The Wellerman
      The Wellerman
      November 15, 2021 at 5:26 pm | #

      Wait, are you referring to that one time Megatron possessed Bumblebee I’m that one CGI Transformers?

      I never got to see the end of that, but when I saw that as a kid, seriously, that was fucking TERRIFYING.

      • Spencer
        Spencer
        November 15, 2021 at 6:44 pm | #

        Nah, the IDW G1 continuity that has since ended.

        Starscream was made ruler of Cybertron and Bumblebee was killed off in an event, and then a ways in Starscream started hallucinating Bumblebee giving him advice on not being the world’s biggest douche with no friends.

        I think it eventually turned out Bumblee was still alive and remotely projecting himself at Starscream or something.

  31. RassilonTDavros
    RassilonTDavros
    November 15, 2021 at 12:30 am | #

    …currently imagining how much better the final year of Roomies! would have been if Danny had been haunted by Imaginary Brain Ruth.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      November 15, 2021 at 12:31 am | #

      More Ruth is always a positive.

    • StClair
      StClair
      November 15, 2021 at 12:47 am | #

      oooh. yes.

    • Rose by Any Other Name
      Rose by Any Other Name
      November 15, 2021 at 10:49 am | #

      That’s beautiful and horrific, and I would love to see a one-off or april fools comic from Willis based on that idea.

  32. Francoinblanco
    Francoinblanco
    November 15, 2021 at 12:47 am | #

    Guess who’s back
    Back again
    Mike’s back
    Tell a friend

  33. JessWitt
    JessWitt
    November 15, 2021 at 12:54 am | #

    Not to besmirch the late Mike Warner, but is seeing his projection more or less healthy for Amber than having a superhero alter?

    • Agemegos
      Agemegos
      November 15, 2021 at 5:46 am | #

      Why not have both?

      • Edwin I Callahan
        Edwin I Callahan
        November 15, 2021 at 7:38 am | #

        Remember, Batman can breathe in space.

        • Edwin I Callahan
          Edwin I Callahan
          November 15, 2021 at 7:44 am | #

          Huh, somehow I reposted that. Anyway, the way things are going, Amber will have two chapters in the next DSM, Amber will have one, and projection Mike will have a sidebar. At least.

          • a/snow/mous/e
            a/snow/mous/e
            November 15, 2021 at 8:23 pm | #

            was one of those Ambers supposed to be AmaziGirl?

    • RassilonTDavros
      RassilonTDavros
      November 15, 2021 at 9:44 am | #

      I mean, IDK if Amazi-Girl is necessarily a “superhero alter” at this point.

      • JessWitt
        JessWitt
        November 15, 2021 at 3:46 pm | #

        If she’s not Amber’s alternate personality/identity who’s a superhero, then who is AmaziGirl?

        • a/snow/mous/e
          a/snow/mous/e
          November 15, 2021 at 8:24 pm | #

          a retired-superhero alter

        • thejeff
          thejeff
          November 15, 2021 at 8:25 pm | #

          Amber’s alternate personality/identity who’s a roller derby queen.

          • JessWitt
            JessWitt
            November 16, 2021 at 12:21 am | #

            Both good answers – I forgot AG comes out during roller derby.

  34. Dara
    Dara
    November 15, 2021 at 12:55 am | #

    I feel like Actual Mike and amberhead!Mike should have different tags.

    • Clif
      Clif
      November 15, 2021 at 1:18 am | #

      They do. They just look alike.

      • powerpowerpow
        powerpowerpow
        November 15, 2021 at 12:45 pm | #

        Well one of them should at least have better shading than the other.

  35. Rani
    Rani
    November 15, 2021 at 12:58 am | #

    Amber doesn’t have an arc, she’s a hamster wheel.

    • King Daniel
      King Daniel
      November 15, 2021 at 1:10 am | #

      Ambster the Hamster

  36. Rani
    Rani
    November 15, 2021 at 12:59 am | #

    Obligatory “Mike’s rather clingy, looks like he really fell for her” shitpost.

    • King Daniel
      King Daniel
      November 15, 2021 at 1:09 am | #

      Well she fell for him in the Walkyverse, so it’s all perfectly balanced

      • Clif
        Clif
        November 15, 2021 at 1:22 am | #

        Mike and Amber together was always endgame.

        • King Daniel
          King Daniel
          November 15, 2021 at 9:37 pm | #

          They’re together foreeeeeverrrrrrr

    • Tannen
      Tannen
      November 15, 2021 at 1:15 am | #

      Well, I’m sure the people who wanted to see Mike after the time skip didn’t have this in mind… but Amber did.

  37. Bagge
    Bagge
    November 15, 2021 at 1:30 am | #

    “I want sarcasm” “I’ll bring you fruit loops.”

    Was… was Dina sarcastic right now?

    • Kyrik Michalowski
      Kyrik Michalowski
      November 15, 2021 at 1:42 am | #

      I think she was ignoring Amber’s sass and is bringing her food anyway. That’s just my interpretation, could be wrong. Only “The Willis” knows for certain.

      • Keulen
        Keulen
        November 15, 2021 at 8:22 am | #

        That’s my interpretation as well.

    • Agemegos
      Agemegos
      November 15, 2021 at 5:52 am | #

      Amber and brain!Mike certainly seem to think she was.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      November 15, 2021 at 8:11 am | #

      An Sarcasm was attempted, but she’s currently uncertain whether it landed. She’ll observe the reaction when she returns.

      (That’s one side effect of having ASD that primarily affects social cues, you can pull off some impressively deadpan snark once you advance the tech tree enough to unlock “sarcasm”.)

      • Keulen
        Keulen
        November 15, 2021 at 8:26 am | #

        I somehow managed to unlock “sarcasm” fairly early on, while I still haven’t unlocked “flirting” and “eye contact” yet after all this time.

        • Needfuldoer
          Needfuldoer
          November 15, 2021 at 8:45 am | #

          Grind for “eye contact” first, it’s easier.

        • Shadows
          Shadows
          November 15, 2021 at 9:08 am | #

          Go for the nose, or if you can manage it, the right eyebrow. It looks almost like eye contact, without the actual shock of looking at their eyeballs. 7 or 8 years of noses, and I was able to unlock actual eye contact with people I know and like.

  38. Juanoku
    Juanoku
    November 15, 2021 at 1:52 am | #

    Not even death can stop Mike
    Is- is he even dead? Wasn’t he just in a coma??
    Must’ve missed some text…

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      November 15, 2021 at 2:21 am | #

      Mike was in a coma and died at some point during the timeskip.

    • King Daniel
      King Daniel
      November 15, 2021 at 3:07 am | #

      Statistically-speaking, the longer you’re in a coma the less-likely you are to ever wake up from it again. This is especially the case when it comes to TBI-induced comas, like was the case with Mike. We’ve also been told in-comic, multiple times, that he died during the timeskip.

      • milu
        milu
        November 15, 2021 at 6:35 am | #

        recently watched 28 Days Later for the first time (it slaps), and that movie has a hilarious take on what a person with brain trauma who’s spent, well, 28 days in a coma, can achieve a few days out the gate. i was like “wtf/ok”

  39. Sharon Cooper
    Sharon Cooper
    November 15, 2021 at 2:01 am | #

    Is there still any more of Amber’s psyche to break? It seems like we’re getting dangerously close to psychotic break here.

  40. Rabisch
    Rabisch
    November 15, 2021 at 2:36 am | #

    This is so scary! Amber really is slowly going insane, but only the few person who know her can see it and they have no success in helping her. Ethan may be able, but he’s in a similar situation… I wonder if Sal and Danny will help them both.

  41. Chris Phoenix
    Chris Phoenix
    November 15, 2021 at 3:08 am | #

    Is it just me, or is Mike’s image becoming more blocky and crude?

    This is NOT a criticism of Willis’ art – I only see it in Mike, not the rest of the art, so if it’s real I assume it’s deliberate. Could it be an indication that Amber’s mental model of Mike is slowly fading or degrading?

    If so – Mike was a one-note character even when he was alive. As bad as knowing Mike would have been, having a cardboard-cutout caricature of him stuck in one’s head would probably be worse…

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      November 15, 2021 at 3:13 am | #

      Ghost!Mike has previously been drawn without shading, but I would be hesitant to draw conclusions based on a single panel

    • Wraithy2773
      Wraithy2773
      November 15, 2021 at 4:26 am | #

      Not just you, exactly what I noticed here. Less detail, less shading, just more simple an image.

      I don’t think this is a sign that he’s becoming a cardboard-cutout caricature. I think its more that she’s forgetting what he looked like, hence the loss of detail, on the biggest, easiest to remember bits are showing right now (scowl and the hair). Not even any detail on his shirt.

    • Icalasari
      Icalasari
      November 15, 2021 at 1:56 pm | #

      Checked it. It’s the same lack of detail as his other “Ghost” appearances except the first one where he had slightly more detail. Nothing to it yet as far as I can tell

  42. Mr.Morningstar
    Mr.Morningstar
    November 15, 2021 at 3:08 am | #

    Amber for the love of God

    Go to therapy

  43. Amós Batista
    Amós Batista
    November 15, 2021 at 3:20 am | #

    Hello, everybody: I’ve made a relationship graph of most recorrent Dumbing of Age’s characters.
    you can click here to see it and navigate through.
    Had Joyce talked to everyone? Did really Walky walked more with Dorothy than Amber? You don’t need to read all books (but I recommend it) to get this kind of insights. You can have everthing visual here, right now.

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      November 15, 2021 at 3:21 am | #

      I confess it was very fun to make. It took me a lot of years to learn to code fast, and I got less than a week to do it.
      I’ve planned some improvements, like separate the chart into storylines. It will depend of people interested or not.

      As I said before, I tried ask permission to Willis, because it’s not exactly a fan art or similar. If he want me to drop the page off, I will.

      • The Wellerman
        The Wellerman
        November 15, 2021 at 3:29 am | #

        Amós, this looks… absolutely fantastic!!!

        This is honestly my favorite kind of art — beautiful, AND informative!

        • Amós Batista
          Amós Batista
          November 15, 2021 at 5:54 am | #

          thank you, I’m glad you liked

      • Steelbright
        Steelbright
        November 15, 2021 at 4:24 am | #

        Ahh, this is really cool! My partner is into data visualization, I’ve gotta send this to him

        • Amós Batista
          Amós Batista
          November 15, 2021 at 5:14 am | #

          Nice, I’ll put some technical details there.

    • milu
      milu
      November 15, 2021 at 9:27 am | #

      whhaaaaaat that’s amazing Amós, although to be fair i have no idea of the amount of work this represents =D In any case it looks really cool!!!

      question, is this updated in real-time with each new comic?

      i do have a few suggestions for making it more useful and convenient, if you’re interested!

      1- i don’t imagine this is something you can do much about without a major overhaul, but it is pretty slow on my end? is there a way to make it load a wee bit faster when selecting a character? at present, ok my laptop is a bit old i suppose but ah… it takes over 15 seconds to load ><
      2- would it be possible to see the character we've selected being highlighted somehow? at present when i click on, say, Roz, i see her and all her “contacts” highlighted in the same colour.
      2- there’s some weirdnesses. like if i click on a very obscure character, like “Sue”. In your graph she seems connected to Roz only; except we also see Roz’s connection to some other people. i guess those are only the people that Sue also appears with. but it’s a bit odd that they’re connected to Roz, and not directly to Sue??
      3- could we see a number on the lines somewhere, that says how many strips these characters have in common?
      4- maybe another option might be to see either “absolute numbers” being represented, or a percentage of total strips the character is present in? (this may be tricky because the ratio will be different for either character in a link)
      5- full screen option maybe?
      6- the physical engine is very funny. i love grabbing a character and just shaking them a bit and seeing everyone else bob around XD …that wasn’t a question

      7- do you want corrections on the text? there are a few mistakes. it’s all perfectly clear and understandable though, so it’s really optional

      • Amós Batista
        Amós Batista
        November 15, 2021 at 12:14 pm | #

        Yes, you can help me fix this. If you don’t have any problem in using GIT, you can make any fix here: https://github.com/amosbatista/amosbatista.com/blob/master/pages/dumbingofage_graph/index.vue.

        I’m working in fix the layout issues, but some things can be very hard to do it. I’m using VIS for the graph, and it is very slow when I set a lot of data. And I alreadt cut 30~40% of all data I crawled from DoA site.

        Peharps I’ll try the suggestion of @egg egg.

        • milu
          milu
          November 15, 2021 at 2:29 pm | #

          i created a github account and corrected your grammar in a new branch. now, i don’t know if you need me to create a pull request or if that’s not necessary? …to be honest i don’t know what any of what i just said means =P

          • Amós Batista
            Amós Batista
            November 15, 2021 at 6:49 pm | #

            yes, you can do a pull request pls

    • egg egg
      egg egg
      November 15, 2021 at 10:09 am | #

      Wow this is nice! Are you using any javascript packages to help with the visualizations? When I’m doing visualizations I usually use d3 and at work we tragically use jquery. I see you’re using nuxt, which i can’t remember if it’s a Vue only thing or if that works with vanilla nodejs or react, but it’s super neat to see that being used in the wild.

      My only 2-cents says that tooltips on hover might be good for character names, to make it look a little less cluttered, and also bc the grey blends in with the background if it doesn’t have a bubble drawing attention to it.

      I’d love to see this go further, tbh! It’s very interesting to me.

      • Amós Batista
        Amós Batista
        November 15, 2021 at 12:06 pm | #

        Nice to see programmers here. So, I’ll keep updating the page, putting the repo and other things.
        Thanks.

  44. Sombrero
    Sombrero
    November 15, 2021 at 3:29 am | #

    OK, so is she sleep-depriving herself because she wants the company of Ghost Mike? Or is this just a secondary effect?

    • Steelbright
      Steelbright
      November 15, 2021 at 4:27 am | #

      This is a concerning theory.

      Not least because it reminds me of Twilight, when Bella was doing dumb shit because she would hallucinate Edward showing up and trying to control her telling her not to do the dumb shit. Except that in this comic it would feel painful and real and in-depth rather than creepy and pathetic.

      …Okay, maybe just all of the above, since creepy and pathetic is also the realm of this comic. just in a, like…good way??

      • Icalasari
        Icalasari
        November 15, 2021 at 11:25 am | #

        Could also be that Mike became an introject – An alter based on somebody else, whether real or fictional. We already know she has DID (Amazigirl), and DID can form from severe trauma

        With all that happened… This could be a fracture in Amber’s mind creating an alter based on Mike to deal with the trauma of losing him

        • StClair
          StClair
          November 15, 2021 at 12:17 pm | #

          I find this distressingly plausible (far more so than all the “Booster is Mike” stuff, which I have to assume is at least half-joking, because the other half / option is “absurdly desperate”).

        • The Wellerman
          The Wellerman
          November 15, 2021 at 2:29 pm | #

          Tell me more about these “introjects”.

          Are they always the product of traumas or otherwise sad and painful experiences?

          Will they always be harmful, or can they be benign or even helpful?

          • Sam
            Sam
            November 15, 2021 at 10:25 pm | #

            Introjects are alters so they usually form as a result of trauma like any alter but not necessarily a specific single trauma. New traumatic events in later life can result in new alters forming for people that already have DID or OSDD. Basically once you have DID or OSDD, new brain roommates can show up forever. And yes, it will usually be because of trauma.

            Whether they are INITIALLY harmful or helpful depends on who the introject is actually based on. An introject based on say, Cinderella, may be very helpful in literally every area of your life. One based on Scar from the Lion King may be belittling and rude and yet may also have the ego and wit to chide anyone else who tries to. While one based on the person that hurt you most, which is the most commonly spoken of kind, may hurt you long after the original person is gone.

            An introject regardless of the form they take though, is trying to help, even if it doesn’t initially look like it and even if they start with misguided methodology. Any alter can learn to use more constructive and healthy methods, none are doomed to be known as ‘evil’ forever or anything. And any harm they inflict will almost always be directed inwards at system members, not outwards at friends or anything. Morality for systems is complicated but to my understanding if the system as a whole will not do something, individual alters won’t either, which is why this is the case, even if the person the alter is based on would have less restraint.

            And introjects can also acquire their own unique traits separate from the source as obviously they can experience new things and change based on those experiences. They aren’t fixed as staying exactly like what they were originally based on. So even if two different people have introjects of the same person or character, the individual alters may still behave in different ways to each other.

            • The Wellerman
              The Wellerman
              November 15, 2021 at 11:20 pm | #

              Fascinating! How do these introjects and alters think? Can they access your semantic or episodic memories, or do they have to make their own?

              Also, is it at all possible to gain one without trauma? Is it possible to intentionally create them within yourself?

              • Sam
                Sam
                November 16, 2021 at 3:10 am | #

                Depending on why precisely this alter was ‘needed’ changes what memories they will have access to and what your brain ‘thinks’ they should know like any other alter. A baby alter may not know what a cat is because it doesn’t need to while a tiger alter may be able to read, write, count and so on. It depends greatly on the individual system and what each individual alter is for. Sometimes alters will come with backstories that feel like their real lived lives to rationalize why they are the way they are which are entirely separate from the body’s actually lived history and sometimes they won’t.

                The way they think will pretty much be just like how any normal person thinks unless they are specifically an alter that is designed not to (some animal alters act just like animals, some robot or alien alters may lack emotions or have restricted ones) or they are currently unable to (some alters are stuck in looped traumatic memories).

                If you mean, how do they perceive themselves, an introject may think they are an outside person to the system or that they can hurt the system without hurting themselves. But this is not unique to introjects – other alters sometimes don’t realise they are part of a system or that they are all sharing a body either. While other times, alters know to begin with that they are alters. It is very variable.

                I am uncertain if you could create an introject or any alter without trauma and my best guess would be that it depends strongly on the system. Some systems will have such a low stress threshold that smallish stressors can create fragments and alters. So I suppose they could in theory create enough internal stress to do so on purpose without something as big as a trauma.

                I don’t know if you could intentionally create an introject specifically though. It might not be impossible, but I imagine trying to do so would be unpredictable and from what I know, splitting can be a very distressing, disorienting and unpleasant sensation for some systems or it can vary in intensity for them. So I can’t imagine a lot of them would want to try and risk making things harder for themselves.

                • justin8448
                  justin8448
                  November 16, 2021 at 4:19 pm | #

                  I have never in my entire life been so fascinated by a series of comments on the internet. Thank you for explaining all this Sam!

                • The Wellerman
                  The Wellerman
                  November 16, 2021 at 10:09 pm | #

                  Sam, I thank you oh so DEARLY for all this information!!! If you could list further sources with which I could continue research on this introject phenomenon, I would REALLY like that too!

                  Just two or three more questions, if you could answer them.

                  When loved ones die, many of us continue to behave as if they’re with us. We talk about them, we talk TO them, and we
                  reflect on physical reminders of them. When we do these things with enough frequency and focus, the “as if” seems to fade. How does this phenomenon compare with the nature of the introject, if at all? How does it contrast?

                  Also, does a trauma or event need to be real to trigger the formation of an introject or alter? Can it be in a dream? And if so, could it be in a lucid dream?

  45. Steelbright
    Steelbright
    November 15, 2021 at 4:21 am | #

    Uh oh. Somebody called it, though I don’t remember who. It’s possible MANY people called it.

  46. DarkoNeko
    DarkoNeko
    November 15, 2021 at 4:46 am | #

    MEEEP

  47. CianM1301
    CianM1301
    November 15, 2021 at 7:07 am | #

    *to the tune of Ducktales*
    Ghost Mike! Woo-oo!
    If you don’t get sleep you’ll see a
    Ghost Mike! Woo-oo!

  48. milu
    milu
    November 15, 2021 at 7:43 am | #

    heyyyy i have a new grav =) thanks Wellerman =)
    it’s me. it’s my face. this is what i look like. hello world

    • JBento
      JBento
      November 15, 2021 at 8:22 am | #

      Hello, milu. Huh, France needs better resolution.

      • milu
        milu
        November 15, 2021 at 8:29 am | #

        it’s called pixel art you philistine *humphs*

        • JBento
          JBento
          November 15, 2021 at 8:39 am | #

          No, THIS is a filly stein.

          https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=DChcSEwiH7JeYvpr0AhUXdhgKHcWXA_AYABABGgJsZQ&sig=AOD64_3PFLLCjgLDVka4Xn6S5OLJnuWJtQ&adurl&ctype=5&ved=2ahUKEwin1IuYvpr0AhUIKhoKHelTAK4Qvhd6BAgBEFw

          • milu
            milu
            November 15, 2021 at 9:31 am | #

            ok i spent way too long looking for pictures of Phyllis Schlafley as a teen.

            you win.

            • JBento
              JBento
              November 15, 2021 at 11:48 am | #

              You’ve bumped Phyllis Schlafy in the Google algorithm, we ALL lose.

              • Clif
                Clif
                November 15, 2021 at 12:09 pm | #

                Hey, I’m still trying to figure out how he found a chain of links from site about a my little pony mug to a site with pictures of Phyllis Schlafy as a teen.

                There are AI models now that have been trained to go from pixilated cartoon images to realistic portraits. milu, I wonder what it would make of yours.

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 2:03 pm | #

                  oh no, i was trying to counter JB’s excellent pun on “philistine” with a pun of my own. (…and now i’m suspecting that if i’m explaining a joke to you it means either the joke was not very intelligible, or you’re making a joke of your own and i’m the one who didn’t get it.)

                  i’m sure there’s AIs that extrapolate realistic portraits from blurred-out photographs; but from pixellated cartoons? for real? who does that.

                  …got a link? =D

                • JBento
                  JBento
                  November 15, 2021 at 3:50 pm | #

                  In case you’re not seeing it, the evolution is:

                  philistine -> filly stein -> phyllis teen

                • milu
                  milu
                  November 15, 2021 at 5:04 pm | #

                  i admit there might be a pronunciation issue. but i searched and found like 4 different possible pronounciations for “philistine”. anything goes, basically. ‘fil-uh-stine, ‘fil-i-steen, even fil’uh-steen according to some wiktionary contributor.

                  another thing that i didn’t make quite clear is that i didn’t, in fact, find any picture of Phyllis Schlafly as a teen. which is probably for the best.

                  ok! this joke is dead and buried now, thank you everyone, goodnight

    • The Wellerman
      The Wellerman
      November 15, 2021 at 2:17 pm | #

      No problem!

      Glad you like it!!! 😁

  49. Needfuldoer
    Needfuldoer
    November 15, 2021 at 7:50 am | #

    Fuckin’ called it!

  50. milu
    milu
    November 15, 2021 at 8:37 am | #

    Dina in the first panel: “This is distressing. Gazing at dinosaur pictures for a few moments will help me remain calm.”

  51. DarkoNeko
    DarkoNeko
    November 15, 2021 at 9:08 am | #

    Mike, managing to make everyone’s life miserable even after his death

  52. zee
    zee
    November 15, 2021 at 9:10 am | #

    Welp. Guess we’re getting an Amber storyline. Fun…

  53. Icalasari
    Icalasari
    November 15, 2021 at 11:14 am | #

    Amber really needs some hard core therapy

  54. Icalasari
    Icalasari
    November 15, 2021 at 11:15 am | #

    …Ah crap that’s why I can relate to her. I have my own ‘Mike’ in my head

    (Yes, I am getting therapy myself)

  55. Spencer
    Spencer
    November 15, 2021 at 11:44 am | #

    So I finished my third read of It’s Walky! (which is fortunate, because now all of Joyce & Walky! is done too) and something kind of popped out to me reading it this time that I was sort of cognizant about as I read it years ago, but really only see now: It’s Walky! is really incompetent.

    Ha, psyche! Bet you thought I was gonna go dunking on it but nah, I still friggin’ love that comic and I’m gonna forever (and would pay money for the whole thing in paperback hint hint), and the defining reason for that is that It’s Walky! lets its characters just be utterly, ruinously terrible when it wants to, and I don’t get enough of that anymore. They are incompetent, all of them; Squad 128, SEMME, the Head Alien, the JFO, even the Cheese, they are all extremely, extremely bad at this. Joyce has an evil clone who’s only evil because she represents thoughts Joyce wants to bury, so Joyce blows her head open with a gun. Walky gets so utterly tilted at the Head Alien he drops Sal’s dead adoptive parents onto him, crashing through the floor and crushing his boss to death. Dina dies in what is, and I mean this utterly and sincerely, one of the most gut-wrenching deaths a work of fiction has put me through, because she took a chance fighting Britjas (British Ninjas) instead of taking a mindwipe, so she chucks a bomb into another room, gets shot, and then scrambles into that same room and has just long enough to think about whether or not anyone will remember her despite being useless in the last years of her life. Danny almost straight up cheats on Billie for Sal and he sure as hell was emotionally, and you know you’re dealing with a vortex of failures when you can imagine any Danny cheating.

    It’s not even just the protagonists either! Linda gets put in charge of SEMME and it turns out she’s a plant three times over and has to watch the son she stole from another family to hide Sal get his face turned into hamburger meat, because he turned on SEMME after everyone stopped caring he existed once Sal’s relation to Walky was revealed. The Head Alien is handed actual omnipotence and an army of pissed off Martians and he still screws it up because of his ego, and there was no other way he’d go out; he’s a cunning manipulator, except he’s a cunning manipulator of a few people in their 20s he has all the receipts for, and his victories and losses are in equal aplomb. Hell, even one of the biggest movers and shapers of the backstory, Jason’s dad Dargon, gets casually offed by Penny because he runs his evil organization under “you have failed me for the last time!” rules and never once considered that the henchman he’s about to dispose of might have a second opinion.

    It’s this genuinely engaging story about people who are all emotion and all ego, totally convinced of their ability to get it done no matter what anyone else says, especially if someone says they’re wrong, and what sticks out to me most of all is how infrequent it is to see that kind of story these days. It’s not something where I feel particularly confident when talking about, I feel it and recognize it when I see it, but that’s not just a perspective from my anecdotal evidence, it’s one that used to indulge in the same kind of “ugh, why are the characters being so dumb” analysis, where the actual emotions of the story didn’t matter, it was the endpoint.

    And that’s weird! It’s weird I indulged in that thinking for as long as I did! I’m pretty sure what changed my mind was an errant piece of media analysis criticism (that is, criticism of real bad fandom takes) on a tumblr I follow that made me go “so what does a story mean to me, anyway?” because I think at some point I started processing stories as a linear line to the most optimal ending, and anything that diverted away from that like, say, characters doing things that cause interesting drama in the name of exploring themes and ideas at the hands of the artists creating their work, was bad and wrong.

    I feel like a total kiss-ass saying this here, I just don’t know how to handle how a webcomic that ended when I was 12 is still, like, a go-to example of a story about characters who fuck up all the time and not for some big dramatic point about the human condition where we all learn something today, they just ruin things and then pick themselves up and keep going.

    Maybe I need to read a book or something. Or stop getting my understanding of how people processes stories from fan forums. Anyway tldr: It’s Walky! good, go read it.

    • Clif
      Clif
      November 15, 2021 at 11:58 am | #

      Well said, Spencer.

  56. Alex
    Alex
    November 15, 2021 at 12:24 pm | #

    I feel bad for Amber. I know she is not perfect but I hope she is able to get help in some form. I do not know if therapy is a viable option because she likely has trust issues from her manipulative dad. But maybe there is something that can help her coming up in the next storyline.

  57. Rani
    Rani
    November 15, 2021 at 5:47 pm | #

    I suspect the meta reason why we’re stuck with Ghost Mike is that he and Dina are the only two people Amber can still interact with amongst the cast. Without GM, any arc of hers would boil down to a hundred strips of her playing video games and sending Dina out for snacks.

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May 3, 2025 - FCBD @ Laughing Ogre Comics in Columbus, Ohio

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David M Willis!
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1h
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Hmmmm hmm
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 5h
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Walky!  Afraid to greet the sun.  It's early.  And it's math.  Ugh.
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 8h
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 10h
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 12h
www.ebay.com/itm/23611085... buy my unopened shang-chi, wenwu, salma hayek, and talos
header image - Marvel Legends Shang-Chi, Wenwu, Ajak, and Talos, unopened | eBay
www.ebay.com
Marvel Legends Shang-Chi, Wenwu, Ajak, and Talos, unopened | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Marvel Legends Shang-Chi, Wenwu, Ajak, and Talos, unopened at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 13h
damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatarDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 13h
just discovered "Humor Me," a editorial cartoon where you, the reader, do the cartoonist's job
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reposted by David M Willis!
atomicdarth.bsky.social's user avatar
unknown @atomicdarth.bsky.social ⋅ 13h
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 13h
they're just gonna cancel it once they reach 3 seasons
rollingstone.com's user avatarRolling Stone @rollingstone.com ⋅ 14h
Netflix has saved Sesame Street!
header image - Sesame Street Is Relocating to Netflix
rollingstone.com
Sesame Street Is Relocating to Netflix
'Sesame Street' finds new home at Netflix for new episodes and back catalog following the end of its streaming contract at HBO.
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 13h
just discovered "Humor Me," a editorial cartoon where you, the reader, do the cartoonist's job
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 17h
www.ebay.com/itm/23609767... one hour left on this dingus
header image - Transformers Siege Netflix Megatron complete Hasbro WFC Generations Voyager | eBay
www.ebay.com
Transformers Siege Netflix Megatron complete Hasbro WFC Generations Voyager | eBay
This is Netflix War for Cybertron Voyager Class Megatron! A Walmart exclusive, he originally came packaged with the Micromasters Lionizer and Pinpointer, but this auction is just for Megatron. No inst...
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
uh oh, chekhov's murderous weirdo
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Dumbing of Age: "Practice" www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/b... #webcomics #webcomic
www.dumbingofage.com
Practice
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
www.ebay.com/itm/23610927... a quake, a quake!
header image - Transformers Titans Return Deluxe Class Quake, loose/complete, no instructions  630509511976| eBay
www.ebay.com
Transformers Titans Return Deluxe Class Quake, loose/complete, no instructions 630509511976| eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Transformers Titans Return Deluxe Class Quake, loose/complete, no instructions at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many ...
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
okay okay -- spider-man reboot idea the lizard is still dr connors, but he's dr PHIL connors, and he wakes up every day and it's groundhog day and he's a lizard is this anything
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Dr. Connors is like a chameleon: always a lizard!!!
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
i dunno, he's kinda a tool, but i could go on
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Somebody teach Greg Evans how to rasterize text and use the warp tool
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
no, he's not a Black dad, he's a
fancy indoor decorating newspaper subsection with the ornate headline
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
4 hours left on [borat voice] my Wipe www.ebay.com/itm/23609982...
header image - Transformers Generations TakaraTomy Legends LG34 Wipe (Mindwipe), incomplete | eBay
www.ebay.com
Transformers Generations TakaraTomy Legends LG34 Wipe (Mindwipe), incomplete | eBay
This is Legends LG34 Wipe (aka Mindwipe), loose! He's also missing Servant, his little monster partner. Yeah, the partner's name is Servant. I just learned that now, somehow, while looking this toy up...
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reposted by David M Willis!
waitingforthetrade.bsky.social's user avatar
Max the comics guy who does comics about comics @waitingforthetrade.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJEA...
header image - Meet Your Second Wife - SNL
www.youtube.com
Meet Your Second Wife - SNL
YouTube video by Saturday Night Live
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Dumbing of Age: "Rascal" www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/b... #webcomics #webcomic
www.dumbingofage.com
Rascal
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
sometimes i like to ruin people's day/life by reminding them that Solo A Star Wars Story and Obi-Wan Kenobi take place at the same time
Adult Han Solo
Child Leia Organa
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Show us your writing process in a GIF.
danacorn.bsky.social's user avatarDana Simpson ✨🦄✨ @danacorn.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Show us your writing process in a GIF.
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
a plague has hit our house both children singing billie eilish's "what was i made for" but entirely in "meows" we can't get them to stop it's been weeks please send help
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
thank god there's no dinobot
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reposted by David M Willis!
brysonthegaytive.bsky.social's user avatar
Bryson The Gaytive @brysonthegaytive.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
The plantation burning reminds me of when the residential school burnt down in Shubenacadie. I was very young. Not understanding why we were all there watching a scary looking building burning. Cars lined up all over both sides of the road. It seemed like the entire rez population (1)
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damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatar
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Describe the plot of your comic with one panel.
danacorn.bsky.social's user avatarDana Simpson ✨🦄✨ @danacorn.bsky.social ⋅ 1m
Describe the plot of your comic with one panel.
Phoebe: “neigh neigh whinny neigh oats”
Marigold: “I will translate from ancient unicornese”
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