WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Come Hell or High Water
Jenny/Star, Mori
Prince Gladimir was never meant to fall for a pirate. Swearing off love for duty, the threat of war propels him back into the Captain’s world of high seas and high stakes. Their relationship could be the thing to save the kingdom of Yvoire - or destroy it.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Anacrine Complex
Sae Cotton
A superhuman heist involving probably too many pigeons than entirely necessary.
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Solstoria
Angelica Maria
After her brother goes missing, Samantha vows to become a Knight and help those around her in the Kingdom of St. Helena.
Far to the North
Allison Shaw
Kelu turns to the monsters of her remote mountain home when her family is held hostage by outsiders.
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Tove
Severin
The end of the world is coming, and Tove doesn't want to be a hero, but SOMEONE has to look after her little brother.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Heart of Gold
Eliot Baum, Viv Tanner
A pianist with failing eyesight seeks out a priest with a miraculous healing touch, drawing him deeper into a world of miracles and curses.
Folklore
Adam Ma, Colin Tan Wei
A superhuman horror story focused on a small band of survivors trying to navigate a war-torn world in the aftermath of the Federation’s collapse.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Drugs & Wires
Mary Safro, Io Black
Dan used to be a VR operator until his brain got fried by malware. Now he's stuck delivering packages in a post-Soviet hellhole all while trying to adjust to his new life and find some answers.
Clockwork
Chikuto
Cog Kleinschmidt is a diligent, quiet worker at the Mercia Fortress, the world power's leading stronghold. His orderly life is thrown into chaos when an enemy kingdom sends a diplomat for peace talks. This diplomat needs something from Cog - whether he agrees to their terms or not!
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Patrik the Vampire
Bree Paulsen
Patrik loves to knit, bake, and help his friends while dealing with his own demons... like his thirst for blood because, oh yeah--he's a vampire.
Spinnerette
Krazy Krow, Rocio Zucchi, Pablo Rey
When a lab accident gives Heather Brown spider powers and six arms, she does what any midwest comic geek would do: Become Ohio's #3 superhero!
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Fairmeadow
Kendra P. / KP
A wayward soldier finds herself in a pacifist commune deep in the wilderness of a war-weary land. Living in isolation brings her closer to those she was sworn to kill than she could ever imagine - but also threatens to tear the place apart.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Demon Studies
Miyuli
Four students summon and study potentially dangerous demons within the walls of the mysterious Summerland University.
Killjoys
Flatw00ds
When two disgraced ex-feds fall backwards into trouble with the clown mafia, getting out in one piece is gonna be no joke!
Goblins
Ellipsis
A fantasy RPG as told through the eyes of the low-level monsters.
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Lunar Blight
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Lunar Blight is a gothic horror story about an elite knight serving a moon cult who must choose between upholding his honoured duty or condemning everything he’s grown to know.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
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I needed this. The seventh anniversary of my mom’s death is a little over a month away. She mentioned me in her suicide note; she was worried I’d break down if not told gently that she’d killed herself. I still think I could’ve stopped her had I been more present in the situation. I don’t know what I should hold onto, but I’m trying to figure out what direction to go.
Perhaps that even in the depths of her despair and hopelessness, she loved you, wanted you to be OK, thought that there was a way to break it gently so the news would hurt you less, and belief that you would find the strength and courage to live your life without her?
Probably. She had untreated borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder. When she was manic, she could be an awful person, but she also loved my family and I. She could be emotionally manipulative like Willis’s mom and rarely apologized, but I loved her.
I’d say it’s good advice. Telling people to move on is usually like telling someone to “calm down” when they’re stressed, or “stop crying” when they are.
I feel that “hold on to what you need to but keep walking” is a bit… easier, and a step in the right direction, rather than asking them to solve it all in one swoop.
He’s going to start appearing and talking to Joe now too. Because he’s a ghost who was haunting Amber and Joe has just decided to take on part of that burden.
Although that could possibly mean that Joe will be waking up to ghostly teabagging in the near future.
I think it might be exactly what she neess to hear. Not someone to push her prpblems onto or hide her problems, but someone to simply make it weigh less heavily on her.
Honestly, I think Joe’s being his best self here. Or at the very least, he could be a lot worse.
And as for freezing, it’s currently in the teens here in Hoosierland. Two weeks ago, it was fricking seventy Fahrenheit on Christmas day. I would say “WTF?”, but a lifetime in Indiana has left me deluded into thinking this is normal.
well arm stripes aside it just looks like a plain yellow shirt you can prolly buy online, and the blue part is a separate sleeveless hoodie. (tho i think isaw a post saying willis used online references for outfit designs so maybe there are some stores you can use to find similar clothes lol [tho i guess, other than a pastel or a pattern, yellow isn’t that popular of a shirt color?])
Most of the cast’s outfits seem to be based on stuff Willis finds at a nearby Target or Meijer. If you’re in the Midwest at all, try walking around the nearest block and you’ll probably bump into one. Of course, department stores tend to cycle their clothes pretty often, so it may be either sold out or just rotated out by now. If you’re willing to brave it, you could also search those stores’ websites and hope the terrible layout coughs up a result that can either be delivered or picked up. Naturally, if you’d rather not expend quite so much energy hunting down a shirt like it’s an 18-point buck, you can probably find something comparable on any given clothes site.
Amber’s brothers are pretty great at helping her move a little step forward when she really needs it, aren’t they? (And will almost inevitably ruin it after, but hey.)
The fortunes of fables are able to sing the song
Now witness the quickness with which we get along
To sing the blues you’ve got to live the dues and Carry On–CSNY
wow, i’ve listened to that song so many times that i was singing it in my head
by the 1st 4 words…before i even figured out what it was. ahhh CSNY quotes
You can sing a happy song if you’re glad,
You can sing a protest song if you’re mad,
But if you wanna sing the blues?
Boy you got to learn how to lose, if you wanna sing the blues.
D. Bromberg, RIP
I know for some people, it must be an odd concept. Why wouldn’t Amber want to move on from this death, especially of a person like Mike? Shouldn’t she WANT to move on with her life? In truth, grief is a lot more complicated than ‘getting over’ and ‘moving on’. I lost my mother in April, and there was a period of time where I felt like Amber in panel 4. I didn’t WANT to move on, because it felt like if I did, if I felt better, if I started to adjust to this new life without my mom, it’d become more real. And I’d be that much closer to this new life without her.
It felt as if entrenching myself in my grief for her was the only way to keep her around. To prove that I loved her, to prove she existed. Grief is a process and you just have to find your own way, at your own pace. What Joe said is right. You don’t have to move on and forget someone who has passed, but you do need to carry on in whatever way suits you best, and when you are comfortable. I think about my mom most every day, and I try to do things I know she enjoyed.
that feeling where the sun coming up the next morning is a deliberate insult from the universe. seriously, how dare you, i will fucking cut you. the sun, i mean. not you.
My daughter’s feeling like that over my grandfather’s death That she can’t be happy or imagine life without him without it being a betrayal… She’s just turned 7… It’s hard seeing her hating on herself for being human and sometimes being happy
When we lost my mother, it felt like “moving on” would be a betrayal of her. And it doesn’t matter how many times someone says, “She’d WANT you to move on.”
Don’t remember where I read it, but a badly paraphrased because I don’t remember it quote from my childhood that stuck with me –
when you share your joy with a loved one, the amount of joy in the world doubles so you can each keep it – when you share your pain with a loved one, you each carry half of it – so share things with people you love, and don’t try to hide your pain until you break.
Right this is actually pretty impressive. It’s supportive and he’s not making light of it and I can actually see this sort of working. She needs much more help than this. BUt this a good thing for her to hear I think
Yeah, Joe is being a decent human being and all, but neither of them is dressed for the weather and it is cold outside with sneaux on the ground. They need to get their butts inside before hypothermia sets in.
Hmm, how should Amber carry Joe’s issues? She could try getting a song stuck in her head. When Joe was younger, he watched Richard cry and curse at the wind. He’d broke his own heart, and Joe watched as he tried to reassemble it. And Karen swore that she would never let herself forget. That was the day Joe promised that he’d never speak of love if it does not exist. Unfortunately,
Joyce is the only exception
[Verse 1]
When I was younger I saw my daddy cry
And curse at the wind
He broke his own heart and I watched
As he tried to reassemble it
And my momma swore that she would
Never let herself forget
And that was the day that I promised
I’d never sing of love if it does not exist
Hah, sorry, yes. My comment was brought to you by a combination of Benadryl and having had The Only Exception stuck in my head for a week. Thank you, Yumi and Twitcher, for explaining
Joe’s line is indeed raw as hell and something I wish I’d been told. I’m glad Amber isn’t pushing him away like at first (feels like it was so long ago :’3). Look at her laughing!
They have a really sweet dynamic and ffffyea, thank you I needed the wholesome
God Joe get with the program you’re a good person already. You’re a good person who cares about people’s feelings and gives good advice and is good at listening??? It happened out of nowhere but guess what, just like Joyce is capable of getting better and better despite starting out in a shit place doing shit things, so are you. You’ve gotten much better despite your many attempts to not. You’re worthy of Joyce.
Considering Joe seems to be LITERALLY the only person right now capable of showing Joyce any real empathy for her struggles with her faith, I don’t think Joe cares about all that shit.
He knows that above all Joyce is a constant work in progress, that she will keep trying to do the right thing no matter how stubborn she SEEMS to be at the moment, and she will come out of the end of this transition an even better person than before. While everyone else seems to be dismissing her outright, or getting on her case for daring to change or make mistakes, this probably just reinforces Joe’s affection and admiration for her.
And when Joe first learned about Joyce’s changing beliefs, his first reaction was ‘hey, that’s like, a HUGE deal, right?’, acknowledging that this is a big thing that she’s chosen to confide in him about, but then compassionately choosing not to make an even BIGGER deal about it by caring more about his own feelings in response than hers. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/shackles/
‘Cause if we want to talk Authorial Intent and The Moral Of The Story, it feels pretty danged Authorially Intentional that no one in the last three months has asked Joyce how she’s feeling or what brought all this about.
I’m absolutely going to do that thing where I highlight how The Character I Like is good and The Character I Don’t Like is bad, but upon finding out Joyce is an atheist, the very first thing these two said was:
Joe asking her if it was a big deal.
Dorothy telling her to think if she was rushing into fast and should ease herself in with “a nice deism.’
where were you when Joe was better at this than Dorothy
NO. YOU’RE WRONG. Dorothy’s FIRST reaction to finding out Joyce was an atheist was ‘this was more disappointing than you skipping class’, like. Yeah, OBVIOUSLY the situation wasn’t ideal, but like, Joyce probably KNEW Dorothy would react weirdly and that’s why she didn’t confide in Dorothy of her own volition like she did with Joe!!
Like Joyce already KNEW who was safe to confide in, and both Becky AND Dorothy were clearly stamped as ‘Not Safe’. Sarah and Joe were, so she calmly and casually told them about it instead of it being this whole drama, and it was fine. (Sarah later totally fucking ruined it but like whatever, at least her first initial reaction was relatively neutral and nonjudgmental. For her, anyway.)
So obviously part of this drama is caused by Joyce holding things back, if she’d worked up the courage to just tell at LEAST Dorothy in a calm way (cause the conversation would never have gone well with Becky no matter how calm and collected Joyce was), then perhaps all of this extra drama and doubling down could have been avoided. But this is dumbing of age not smarting of age and also yknow what it’s her right to choose who she wants to tell and who not. She shouldn’t HAVE to work up the courage, this should not have been a big deal to start with.
That was surprisingly heart-warming.
I think I like the dynamic between the two of them. It was good to see Amber laugh and smile. I hope she will be able to help Joe in return.
But it seems that just talking about it already helped a little.
At this point I don’t think Joe is someone who had to learn, where he says he’s “bad at feelings” and then bullrushes in with a truckload of empathy.
I actually think this is the real Joe, and we just never saw it because his character for the first half of the series was exclusively placed in scenarios where he’d act on his ideas of toxic masculinity and objectifying the women around him. Helping Joyce while she was at her parents’ was the first crack, but then it shattered upon learning what he was making Joyce feel acting the way he did.
Since then he’s been in scenarios that let him share his thoughts, and at worst he’s been blunt, at best he’s how he’s been acting to Amber and Joyce; they’re hurting and he dolls out emotional support in a way that almost feels practiced.
I wonder if prior to his parents’ divorce, Joe was just like this all the time and it was them and his throwing himself into his toxic vision of masculinity, relationships and sex that led him crafting a persona of Fun No Feelings Sex Bro. Not that Joe wasn’t that guy, but more like he only started acting like it because of his own emotional turmoil and now that he’s given it up, that persona is gone.
Now you’re making me really hope we get a flashback to Joe’s childhood at some point, like we’ve gotten for Amber, Sal, and Joyce. Seeing how he met Danny would be really enlightening.
It’s all well and good that Joe extracts a smile (a laugh!) from Amber, but his “trade and carry” metaphor has very short legs. Anyway, it would be endlessly funny if Ghost Mike migrated to Joe’s head.
I need more Muslim characters! Or at least more prominent ones who aren't Raidah. It is a huge giant hole in my strip that makes it suck. The current storyline would've been way better if they existed. But they don't, and no amount of throwing Asma in for three strips solves it.
TRANS WOMEN OF BLUESKY:
What was your egg cracking moment?
When did you know you were trans? What made you realize?
And did you know you were a woman right away, or did you pass through other identities first
Happy Nonbinary People's Day, you gemstones. A year or two back we introduced FLASH GORDON's first enby, the outlaw lawman Bones Malock. Having known and loved a lot of nonbinary people, I knew the truest way to represent you was as a unsettling desert pirate with a lightning sword
Happy International Non-Binary People's Day to all those who work, create, parent, protest, love and live without ever fitting into someone else's category.
Okay, everyone's jumping to conclusions, but Joyce was hit with a mysterious pink gas in Thursday's strip.
Now, in recent years, the police are known to increasingly use military grade weapons.
Which reminded me of this bit of proposed technology from the 1990s:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb
hey, kid, what do you want to play with from the cool superhero movie? is it a nude, melting senator who feels like a stretch armstrong doll that has been left out in the son and maybe mildly chewed by a neighborhood dog? WELL, SON, YOU'RE IN LUCK!
mel! @mel.bzky.team ⋅ 5m
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That was well said Joe, I’m proud of you. This whole thing has gone much better than I expected.
Well, better than his offer to Sarah. But now Amber has agreed to carry Joyce. This will definitely end well.
I needed this. The seventh anniversary of my mom’s death is a little over a month away. She mentioned me in her suicide note; she was worried I’d break down if not told gently that she’d killed herself. I still think I could’ve stopped her had I been more present in the situation. I don’t know what I should hold onto, but I’m trying to figure out what direction to go.
I’m so sorry.
Perhaps that even in the depths of her despair and hopelessness, she loved you, wanted you to be OK, thought that there was a way to break it gently so the news would hurt you less, and belief that you would find the strength and courage to live your life without her?
Probably. She had untreated borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder. When she was manic, she could be an awful person, but she also loved my family and I. She could be emotionally manipulative like Willis’s mom and rarely apologized, but I loved her.
It feels so good to see her laugh 🥲
She hasn’t done that in a long time.
Indeed, it is nice to see a smile on her face, even if it wasn’t for very long. Them becoming siblings might be a great thing after all.
I can’t decide if this is good advice or not but boy I think it might be!
Even if it isn’t the best advice, it got her to smile which is a great thimg.
It’s better then anyone else has offered Amber so far imo
Even if it’s not perfect it’s definitely better then what she’s been doing
idk but it’s raw as fuck
It’s good advice.
I’d say it’s good advice. Telling people to move on is usually like telling someone to “calm down” when they’re stressed, or “stop crying” when they are.
I feel that “hold on to what you need to but keep walking” is a bit… easier, and a step in the right direction, rather than asking them to solve it all in one swoop.
It seems like pretty good advice to me.
Ironically, Mike of all people would tell her, “You absolutely should move on from me.”
I wonder how all this is going to affect HeadMike and Amber’s reactions to him.
He’s going to start appearing and talking to Joe now too. Because he’s a ghost who was haunting Amber and Joe has just decided to take on part of that burden.
Although that could possibly mean that Joe will be waking up to ghostly teabagging in the near future.
Yep, ghostly teabagging is probably how he’ll find out about him.
It’s cool. Joe’s going to wake up in the morning to find he has received Head Mike.
Guess that is better than waking up receiving Mike head.
But with a side note of knowing it would make her feel worse.
Joe’s actually a pretty good brother. In his own way, of course, but maybe the way Amber needs.
I think it might be exactly what she neess to hear. Not someone to push her prpblems onto or hide her problems, but someone to simply make it weigh less heavily on her.
Honestly, I think Joe’s being his best self here. Or at the very least, he could be a lot worse.
And as for freezing, it’s currently in the teens here in Hoosierland. Two weeks ago, it was fricking seventy Fahrenheit on Christmas day. I would say “WTF?”, but a lifetime in Indiana has left me deluded into thinking this is normal.
Seriously though if I don’t find out where she got that shirt of hers, I’m gonna go BANANAS
What shirt is she wearing?
That yellow one. So simple yet so sleek.
well arm stripes aside it just looks like a plain yellow shirt you can prolly buy online, and the blue part is a separate sleeveless hoodie. (tho i think isaw a post saying willis used online references for outfit designs so maybe there are some stores you can use to find similar clothes lol [tho i guess, other than a pastel or a pattern, yellow isn’t that popular of a shirt color?])
Most of the cast’s outfits seem to be based on stuff Willis finds at a nearby Target or Meijer. If you’re in the Midwest at all, try walking around the nearest block and you’ll probably bump into one. Of course, department stores tend to cycle their clothes pretty often, so it may be either sold out or just rotated out by now. If you’re willing to brave it, you could also search those stores’ websites and hope the terrible layout coughs up a result that can either be delivered or picked up. Naturally, if you’d rather not expend quite so much energy hunting down a shirt like it’s an 18-point buck, you can probably find something comparable on any given clothes site.
Eh, I have better stuff to do, but I still want the shirt.
Hmmm….
OK next person to shoot me a link to Amber’s shirt gets a free pixel art commission!!!
This is out of stock but fairly close. You’re looking for a yellow women’s football tee, specifically a style with longer, striped sleeves; any combo of keywords there should help you find something you’ll like. https://www.torrid.com/product/v-neck-football-tee—vintage-burnout-yellow/13632692.html
Uh… ya want the commission now or…
That looks a lot like the shirt Becky wore a couple chapters ago.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/05-as-long-as-its-free/cake-2/
They’re good siblings. Cute.
That went remarkably well, Joe.
Amber’s brothers are pretty great at helping her move a little step forward when she really needs it, aren’t they? (And will almost inevitably ruin it after, but hey.)
I love the Amber and Joe sibling dynamic
He sounds just like my mom
For a nickel. But really he does.
That’s a good way to handle it when you can’t or don’t want to move on, carry it in a direction. I like that.
The fortunes of fables are able to sing the song
Now witness the quickness with which we get along
To sing the blues you’ve got to live the dues and Carry On–CSNY
wow, i’ve listened to that song so many times that i was singing it in my head
by the 1st 4 words…before i even figured out what it was. ahhh CSNY quotes
You can sing a happy song if you’re glad,
You can sing a protest song if you’re mad,
But if you wanna sing the blues?
Boy you got to learn how to lose, if you wanna sing the blues.
D. Bromberg, RIP
Wait is Joe a…. DECENT BROTHER!?
He’s not a bad one.
Good brother, bad wingman. Everything balanced out.
I’d go so far as saying terrible wingman.
Oh man, Amber in panel 4…
I know for some people, it must be an odd concept. Why wouldn’t Amber want to move on from this death, especially of a person like Mike? Shouldn’t she WANT to move on with her life? In truth, grief is a lot more complicated than ‘getting over’ and ‘moving on’. I lost my mother in April, and there was a period of time where I felt like Amber in panel 4. I didn’t WANT to move on, because it felt like if I did, if I felt better, if I started to adjust to this new life without my mom, it’d become more real. And I’d be that much closer to this new life without her.
It felt as if entrenching myself in my grief for her was the only way to keep her around. To prove that I loved her, to prove she existed. Grief is a process and you just have to find your own way, at your own pace. What Joe said is right. You don’t have to move on and forget someone who has passed, but you do need to carry on in whatever way suits you best, and when you are comfortable. I think about my mom most every day, and I try to do things I know she enjoyed.
I’m sorry for your loss. It is a process and we each go through it our own way. Take care of yourself.
Take care of yourself slick. And thanks for sharing this.
that feeling where the sun coming up the next morning is a deliberate insult from the universe. seriously, how dare you, i will fucking cut you. the sun, i mean. not you.
Anyone who’s lost someone understands that moving on can feel like a betrayal.
My daughter’s feeling like that over my grandfather’s death
That she can’t be happy or imagine life without him without it being a betrayal… She’s just turned 7… It’s hard seeing her hating on herself for being human and sometimes being happy 
When we lost my mother, it felt like “moving on” would be a betrayal of her. And it doesn’t matter how many times someone says, “She’d WANT you to move on.”
I’m sorry for your loss. I, too, know that feel. What helps you to process?
Don’t remember where I read it, but a badly paraphrased because I don’t remember it quote from my childhood that stuck with me –
when you share your joy with a loved one, the amount of joy in the world doubles so you can each keep it – when you share your pain with a loved one, you each carry half of it – so share things with people you love, and don’t try to hide your pain until you break.
That is wonderful advice.
I love these two as siblings. It really works well.
I do really hope that if Richard blows it, and I hope he doesn’t, that the two would keep it going as siblings, even if it wasn’t official anymore.
joe’s stubble has spread to his ears
Aw, Joe is such a good brother here.
Damn, Joe is really being an excellent brother here. Really good siblinging from a guy who has only been one for a scant few months.
Right this is actually pretty impressive. It’s supportive and he’s not making light of it and I can actually see this sort of working. She needs much more help than this. BUt this a good thing for her to hear I think
Nnnnnn, a sweet strip? Between Amber and Joe? My heart.
Yeah, Joe is being a decent human being and all, but neither of them is dressed for the weather and it is cold outside with sneaux on the ground. They need to get their butts inside before hypothermia sets in.
Tonight Amber gonna be working on her “Help me stepbrother I’m stuck in my own head” Joe siscon fanfic
Hmm, how should Amber carry Joe’s issues? She could try getting a song stuck in her head. When Joe was younger, he watched Richard cry and curse at the wind. He’d broke his own heart, and Joe watched as he tried to reassemble it. And Karen swore that she would never let herself forget. That was the day Joe promised that he’d never speak of love if it does not exist. Unfortunately,
Joyce is the only exception
What
It’s an extended reference to a song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7J_IWUhls
[Verse 1]
When I was younger I saw my daddy cry
And curse at the wind
He broke his own heart and I watched
As he tried to reassemble it
And my momma swore that she would
Never let herself forget
And that was the day that I promised
I’d never sing of love if it does not exist
I forget where I heard this from but I heard the singer hates this song because the guy she wrote it about turned out to be a huge asshole
Hah, sorry, yes. My comment was brought to you by a combination of Benadryl and having had The Only Exception stuck in my head for a week. Thank you, Yumi and Twitcher, for explaining
*supportively claps at developments*
Joe’s line is indeed raw as hell and something I wish I’d been told. I’m glad Amber isn’t pushing him away like at first (feels like it was so long ago :’3). Look at her laughing!
They have a really sweet dynamic and ffffyea, thank you I needed the wholesome
God Joe get with the program you’re a good person already. You’re a good person who cares about people’s feelings and gives good advice and is good at listening??? It happened out of nowhere but guess what, just like Joyce is capable of getting better and better despite starting out in a shit place doing shit things, so are you. You’ve gotten much better despite your many attempts to not. You’re worthy of Joyce.
(And before anyone says anything feeling worthy of someone is not the same as feeling entitled to them OKAY.)
It helps that Joyce has been tanking her Good Person points for a while now.
Yeah, she was prettier when she smiled.
/s?
Considering Joe seems to be LITERALLY the only person right now capable of showing Joyce any real empathy for her struggles with her faith, I don’t think Joe cares about all that shit.
He knows that above all Joyce is a constant work in progress, that she will keep trying to do the right thing no matter how stubborn she SEEMS to be at the moment, and she will come out of the end of this transition an even better person than before. While everyone else seems to be dismissing her outright, or getting on her case for daring to change or make mistakes, this probably just reinforces Joe’s affection and admiration for her.
And it’s not like he gives her a pass either, but all of his criticism seems to come first and foremost from a place of concern about HER. Such as when he told her not to swear here: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/05-as-long-as-its-free/exist/ Which he said not because he gives a fuck about Joyce swearing, but because HE knows that swearing only when it really matters is something that Joyce previous cared about a lot: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/word/
And when Joe first learned about Joyce’s changing beliefs, his first reaction was ‘hey, that’s like, a HUGE deal, right?’, acknowledging that this is a big thing that she’s chosen to confide in him about, but then compassionately choosing not to make an even BIGGER deal about it by caring more about his own feelings in response than hers. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/shackles/
In other news, I ship JoJo like wildfire.
yeh
‘Cause if we want to talk Authorial Intent and The Moral Of The Story, it feels pretty danged Authorially Intentional that no one in the last three months has asked Joyce how she’s feeling or what brought all this about.
I’m absolutely going to do that thing where I highlight how The Character I Like is good and The Character I Don’t Like is bad, but upon finding out Joyce is an atheist, the very first thing these two said was:
Joe asking her if it was a big deal.
Dorothy telling her to think if she was rushing into fast and should ease herself in with “a nice deism.’
where were you when Joe was better at this than Dorothy
NO. YOU’RE WRONG. Dorothy’s FIRST reaction to finding out Joyce was an atheist was ‘this was more disappointing than you skipping class’, like. Yeah, OBVIOUSLY the situation wasn’t ideal, but like, Joyce probably KNEW Dorothy would react weirdly and that’s why she didn’t confide in Dorothy of her own volition like she did with Joe!!
Like Joyce already KNEW who was safe to confide in, and both Becky AND Dorothy were clearly stamped as ‘Not Safe’. Sarah and Joe were, so she calmly and casually told them about it instead of it being this whole drama, and it was fine. (Sarah later totally fucking ruined it but like whatever, at least her first initial reaction was relatively neutral and nonjudgmental. For her, anyway.)
So obviously part of this drama is caused by Joyce holding things back, if she’d worked up the courage to just tell at LEAST Dorothy in a calm way (cause the conversation would never have gone well with Becky no matter how calm and collected Joyce was), then perhaps all of this extra drama and doubling down could have been avoided. But this is dumbing of age not smarting of age and also yknow what it’s her right to choose who she wants to tell and who not. She shouldn’t HAVE to work up the courage, this should not have been a big deal to start with.
Prediction: in the epilogue set years in the future Joe is a therapist.
Business partners with Booster maybe.
Wow. That was kinda fuckin beautiful
Joe can get deep when he wants to.
… Yes, that way too.
Joe better be careful he doesn’t delve too greedily and too deep
As long as he doesn’t awaken any Balrogs I think he might be ok.
That was surprisingly heart-warming.
I think I like the dynamic between the two of them. It was good to see Amber laugh and smile. I hope she will be able to help Joe in return.
But it seems that just talking about it already helped a little.
I wish I could see Joe transformation. He were always proud to be shallow…
In Amber’s terms, Joe’s Pokemon hidden ability would be “Decent Human Being”
What world is this now where I love Joe but hate everyone else
Sweet Joe♡. That was so nice to propose.
Huh. Where’s Ana, are they okay? They’re usually the first comment every comic.
At this point I don’t think Joe is someone who had to learn, where he says he’s “bad at feelings” and then bullrushes in with a truckload of empathy.
I actually think this is the real Joe, and we just never saw it because his character for the first half of the series was exclusively placed in scenarios where he’d act on his ideas of toxic masculinity and objectifying the women around him. Helping Joyce while she was at her parents’ was the first crack, but then it shattered upon learning what he was making Joyce feel acting the way he did.
Since then he’s been in scenarios that let him share his thoughts, and at worst he’s been blunt, at best he’s how he’s been acting to Amber and Joyce; they’re hurting and he dolls out emotional support in a way that almost feels practiced.
I wonder if prior to his parents’ divorce, Joe was just like this all the time and it was them and his throwing himself into his toxic vision of masculinity, relationships and sex that led him crafting a persona of Fun No Feelings Sex Bro. Not that Joe wasn’t that guy, but more like he only started acting like it because of his own emotional turmoil and now that he’s given it up, that persona is gone.
doles out
And there is my daily spelling error. Better luck tomorrow.
It makes sense that he was more empathetic in the past, or I don’t think Danny would have kept up the friendship for all these years.
Now you’re making me really hope we get a flashback to Joe’s childhood at some point, like we’ve gotten for Amber, Sal, and Joyce. Seeing how he met Danny would be really enlightening.
Possibly it’s wholesome, but maybe Joe was already displaying aspects of toxic masculinity that Danny mistook for confidence.
My Joe + Dorothy ship just got a little more realistic.
Bleedin’ ‘eck, Joe, when did you become all wise and mature?
Look at Joe, being all mature, and nurturing like. Good for you, Joe, you definitely are best brother.
Profound.
Profoundeez nutz
Joe I’m so freaking proud of you… is that weird…? Being proud of a fictional character? Idk but I am in this moment.
It’s all well and good that Joe extracts a smile (a laugh!) from Amber, but his “trade and carry” metaphor has very short legs. Anyway, it would be endlessly funny if Ghost Mike migrated to Joe’s head.
My gravatar says that Joe is actually good at Feelings and he has a right to be smug about it.
Wow, Joe giving out wisdom an earnestly wanting to help Amber? I’m impressed.
The current poll needs another option: wrong question.