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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 22d
Bayjmin Tuckles @bayjmin-tuckles.bsky.social ⋅ 17h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 22d
Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social ⋅ 21h
Mae Dean @maegodhavemercy.com ⋅ 2d
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breaking out the “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang”
Liz is never going to Ball, huh
She might not be relevant to stories again for months or even years but she’ll periodically be seen lurking in the background.
I hope that happens, like, a year from now Joe drops something and liz picks it up and Joe says “Wait Liz what are you still doing here?” and she says “oh im just waiting for my ride, goodbye forever!” and then the same thing happens a year later.
I just want to know where she’s spending the nights.
Kinda like how Seinfeld *really* should have recorded a secret final episode of the gang getting out of prison a year later, and just going back to doing nothing. But then don’t make a big deal out of the episode, and just put it in with the other syndicated episodes.
Newhart had the best series finale.
I love this and hate it.
Is Liz this comic’s answer to “Shortpacked!”s Aslan-at-the-bus-stop?
She can only aspire to such heights!
Starting to wonder if Liz almost hooking up with Joe was her looking for a place to spend the night.
… I did the inverse of that once.
I was dating someone and it wasn’t working, but I needed a place to stay, so I waited on pulling the plug until after I no longer required said place.
Not my finest moment, I will admit.
Not ideal but it sounds like you did have a legit relationship to begin with. Hope things got better.
I mean, I officially broke things off once I no longer needed the housing, so it got better in the sense that it was over. We’d been together something like 10 months.
” All that is solid melts into air… “
I’m seriously thinking she dropped/flunked out and doesn’t know what to do or who to tell.
…I feel like the commentary of this old Roomies! strip may have some insights WRT Liz’s situation.
Yeah.
Pretty much what I’ve been referencing.
It just feels like she’s a bundle of nerves that doesn’t really let go, but more…. unclenches for brief moments. And that reminds me a lot of what he shared.
That is some excellent commentary, and I suspect you’re right. Thanks for linking to it.
I could see her back story being the golden child who both parents always bragged about so when her grades didn’t get her into Ball she just went out and pretended to go to college.
I pretended to go to college for about 3 years after dropping out. security eventually thought I was a grad student. The university wasn’t very good at deleting internet accounts. So after tailgaiting into a building, I could still log in.
Woah.
Didn’t see that coming.
Wonder if we’re gonna see any more mega strips.
Last mega-strip like this we had was…2012, I think? During the beach storyline.
And that was just one big panel, right
More like the Sunday color funnies.
Too much feels for one comic to contain. Only a triple comic is up to the task.
But how to interpret that last panel?
Feels to me like a sort of sense of closure and peace that can come with a major cry. It’s draining but cathartic- emotional pain relief, which can lead the cryer in a better place for healing.
Just my take though- and my hope.
For what it’s worth, I agree.
Amber’s needed that relief for a long time.
I mean Amber shifting from crying to manically cheerful has to be a good sign, right?
I hope so.
Is that how you read those last panels ? Personally, I see Amber being still sad, but smiling because she ‘s having a positive thought.
I don’t know what thought, but I’m guessing its something along the line of her recognizing that her sadness is the beginning of her healing.
Her positive thought: oh damn, it was friggin MIKE all this time, what was i thinkin’?
Goddamnit Liz, go home already!
I’m beginning to suspect she doesn’t have a home to go back to at this point
I hope she can at least find somewhere inside to go.
Same to both of these thoughts. If she stays any longer, she better go talk to Sarah.
Sarah needs a good trial.
Becky 2.0
“You took my best friend away, fine, but copying my schtick is just TOO FAR!”
“Boo! It’s been done!”
So my guess is Amber is going to start processing her grief and start moving on while Ethan wallows in it and that’s going to be a source of friction between them going forward
I’d love it if it culminated in Amber actually emotionally supporting Ethan and helping/encouraging him to move on/cope in healthier ways.
Character growth!
I just read the strip in sync with the song and it was FUCKING FANTASTIC!!!
I sure hope we get more of these!!!
At your suggestion I did the same, and wow, that was beautiful.
To do that would require listening to Christian music. I gave that a whirl back when I was interested in such things, but outside of a couple actual rock groups like Deliverance and maybe even Holy Soldier, the music was too…..flavorless, for lack of a better description.
To be completely honest I wasn’t really listening to the lyrics of the song as I was syncing the strip with it — just the cinematic energy seemed to complement the strip PERFECTLY, and it’s really Willis’s comic doing the heavy lifting here, you know?
The music is just a superb supplement to everything else.
I tried to also sync in the bit of My chemical Romance, it was tricky. But the rhythm of the Chorus is not too far off from that part of Mullins’s song. I didn’t really nail it, but there might be a possibility to make an arrangement, for someone who actually know how to edit sound (i.e.: not me)
I guess it’s intended the two are about death.
hey babies, we all want an animation of this, has anyone made an animation of this?
i tried but it turns out i suck at video editing, furthermore i thought i had premiere, guess i don’t anymore, i tried a couple freewares, they sucked, short story: i cooked up a soundtrack from the two featured songs, i plucked out the individual panels as a bunch of PNGs, making some sort of corny diaporama should be a baby-sized piece of cake for any of you geeks who knows the first thing about animation, who’s up for it? email’s in the handle, hit me xoxoxo
oh hey GUIGUI turns out i replied to you, because you gave me the idea but i meant for this announcement to be top level, here let me try again:
Hard agree. Actually hearing the music gave the move from panel to panel a heavy mood.
I’m a month late, but I just did this too. It really worked.
Oooh, mega-strip? I was not expecting that.
…I think this might be the first one in all of DoA, actually.
We’ve had one before: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/christmas/
But only that one.
There’s also a kind of “non-standard-sized” strip too: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/littlebit/
If we’re counting that dress reveal, then this dress reveal also qualifies: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/dress/
Wow, I didn’t remembered this strip!
KINO
Uh, what does that mean?
It stands for flirting/touching, I believe.
… is this about Sal and Danny? Cause I don’t really see any other flirting/touching going on above.
Urban Dictionary’s definition, which I think makes a little more sense in this case, is that “kino” means “Excellent, superb, of the highest quality. Originally referred specifically to films.”
So, maybe that?
*ding ding ding*
Well, correct you are, slick! It was indeed a KINO!!! 🤩
ding ding ding
Winner, winner,
Blue-box dinner!
That’s interesting, I never heard about that. It’s funny though – “kino” in polish literally means just “cinema”.
Weird. Elsewhere it just means “cinema”.
…and not just in Polish by far!
I like the visual parallel between Amber and Joe in those couple panels.
This is the most panels in a single Dumbing of Age strip ever, right?
I believe the previous record was 13: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/box-2/
Maybe the phantom is Walky, didn’t even get a tag.
“Trial and Sarah”… There’s only one direction this is headed towards
I’m almost surprised to see him in this strip, since he’s been such a non-entity lately. What emotional crisis are we building up to here?
He’s been around a bit this arc, and we saw a little of how he responded to Mike’s death
Time for Wally & Amber to reconnect!
Wait who’s Wally??
Perhaps an even more pertinent question than the eternal ‘Where’s Wally?’
(I type this as I realise this won’t make sense to lots of people because he has a different name in other parts of the world.)
Maybe he’s still struggling in a couple classes.
Or he’s reflecting on his status as the Golden Child Who Can Do No Wrong, in contrast to Sal.
Or maybe he’s worried he’s not as invested in his relationship with Lucy as she is.
There’s plenty of Walky story to mine, this just wasn’t his chapter.
He’s also still dealing with the trauma of Mike’s death, which is likely why he’s in this montage.
We’ll see. Remember how confident everyone was that Sister, Christian would be about Jocelyne?
I’m still hoping Jordan shows up in non-flashback strips eventually. I know that’s playing with fire after how John Brown turned out, but the fact that Jordan went low/no contact with the rest of the family gives a little more hope that he’s decent…
Liz’s continued presence worries me because I was so danged sure the next chapter would be about Dana coming back and revealing Raidah and Sarah both fucked it up.
And also she’s dating Jacob now.
Liz’s dating Jacob now? Then “Trial and Sarah” will be a Law & Order episode.
No, Dana.
Jacob’s only allowed to date girls with some complicated relationship with Sarah.
Liz doesn’t meet criteria for that?
“Murdered by my sister” sounds kind of complicated, so Jacob is allowed to date Liz.
Dana returning and taking a sledgehammer to Raidah and Sarah’s rivalry would be amazing, but I think their story would have to progress a bit more first. Last we heard via Raidah, Dana was still miserable back at home, and the cold war between Raidah and Sarah would have to turn hot again for maximum effect.
Well yeah, but last we heard was eight years and a timeskip ago.
Not saying it can’t happen, there’s just some groundwork to do first.
I don’t think it so. Dana could start the winter term and, for obvious reasons, not want to be hanging around the people who neglected her during a drug dependency and mental health crisis, and the other person who sent her back to a home where she hasn’t improved.
She can bunk with Alice in the “avoiding our toxic ex-friends” wing.
I’m partially convinced that Juanita girl we saw art for a while back will be introduced as Jacob’s new girlfriend, but given my track record with predictions in general and this comic in specific I’m probably wrong
Oooo, a triple strip. Remember that although he taketh, Willis gives as well.
Also a real smile from Amber, even if there is a few tears still left in her eyes, is a great thing to see.
+1
Bye Mike.
goodbye Mike. ~<3
Decades from now scholars of the webcomic are going to make pretentious theories about the symmetry between the fall of Mike in this series and the death of Ruth in Roomies! and whether they are thematically —CENSORED—
Someday, I too will be thematically censored.
Somehow I needed this exact thing.
…
We named our firstborn after a Rich Mullins song, you know?
“Let mercy lead, let love be the strength in your legs, and every footprint that you leave, there’ll be a drop of grace”
That’s not very nice. You KNOW that their first grade teacher is going to make them write their ENTIRE name. The one on their birth certificate and school roll. At LEAST give them one that is under 20 letters and not, let’s count, 23 SEPARATE WORDS.
How’d you even FIT that on the birth certificate. Didn’t the doctor look at you funny, and ask if you were Absolutely Certain you wanted to name the child “Let mercy lead, let love be…”, and not something simpler, like, maybe just Mercy?
You’re right. Should have just stuck with the kids name in the beginning of the song.
Let?
No lol thats not the beginning of the song
That’s a long name
Shit should have reloaded
Someday I’m gonna learn to just not say anything online when I’m having a bad trigger day
We’re here for you Robbie. I want to say “It’s OK,” but maybe you don’t feel OK, and that’s OK too.
I think Grace is a pretty name. Was that the name you actually chose?
I looked up the song, and it starts off with “Aidan.”
Trivia: this is the first time Ethan and Sal have been in a strip together since the end of November.
In 2018.
That was a really good strip, too: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/blueshells/
Though that was a flashback. Their last actual appearance together was just a couple days earlier though, at the end of the Amber/Sal fight.
That was already three years ago?
Holy crap.
The emotions truck just burnt rubber after knocking me down yesterday to U-turn, floor it, and mow my ass over ten times harder today.
I love it. ;w;
No regrets?
Didn’t Rich Mullens almost become Catholic? Things would have ended up very different for Joyce’s musical childhood tastes if that had happened, I imagine.
Oh my god. All the emotions. How do I even start? I like the little banter in Dorothy and Joyce and the nostalgia for things that felt good but probably could’ve been better. I feel like Becky’s still being confrontational here but less so and it’s nice to see her, Dorothy and Joyce smiling in the first panel of the second strip. Joyce trying new music sounds like it’ll be fun. Amber crying over Mike but managing to smile is truly wonderful to see – she’s finally starting to cope with something that seems unbearable and it makes me proud. Meanwhile, Walky and Ethan aren’t there yet and it makes me sad and worried how they’re going to deal with this. Ethan staring at what I’m pretty sure is Dinobot leading into the panel of Mike falling is *chef’s kiss*, as are Joe and Liz being by themselves and probably thinking about where they’re going from their issues and time here, and of course, Sal and Danny singing together makes my shipper heart sing.
Overall, I’d say this is healing and it pulls me in so many directions. A+ Willis.
I will note that Ethan is in fact staring at Dinobot.
Walky and Ethan in particular seem very worrisome, especially because Walky’s been trying so hard to bury his grief. I am hopeful Amber’s maybe starting to process her own.
Next storyline is Trial and Sarah, so between that and the Liz panel it seems VERY likely we’ll find out what, exactly, is going on with her soon. (Honestly, glad for it – It’s pretty rare for Sarah to headline a story, and Liz’s introduction quickly became more about Joyce and Liz than Sarah and Liz. I want to see how that one falls apart, including Sarah grappling with the fact that whatever’s going on with Liz, she didn’t tell Sarah about it despite needing somewhere to sleep for two nights straight.)
Notice Joe is rubbing his cheek? Perhaps remembering the punches he got from Joyce and Mike.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure if that was a Dinobot toy or not.
Foolish of me. When it’s Ethan, always assume Dinobot.
THREE
No tag for Walky? He really is fucked.
As someone who has never listened to a single Rich Mullin’s song. I like to think that they are listening to death metal.
Youtube did not to my attempt to give Rich Mullins a chance any favours. This is much better than anything else it wanted to show me.
Of course, I was specifically looking for hammer-dulcimery stuff so that probably threw it off.
I mean, it’s basically soft country-rock? But it’s fine. I have a severely negative lifetime of experience with fundamentalist evangelicals and I can just listen to this as a song and it’s like, “yeah, this is okay.”
It’s okay to forgive.
It’s okay to not fully accept.
It’s okay to grieve.
It’s okay to fail.
It’s okay to love openly.
It’s okay to love closed.
It’s okay to ruminate.
It’s okay to not know where you’re going.
It’s okay to accept.
it’s going to be okay.
that’s also hard..
now I’m reminded of the other Jordan that is waiting, Joyce’s enigmatic brother who is currently Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Comic
and it feels unfair to note the absence of one character when there are 12 in this strip
13 if Rich Mullins counts
We don’t talk about Jordan.
A+
Or Bruno.
Can we sing about him? (To music composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and/or Rich Mullins?)
Okay, so Dorothy and Joyce didn’t kiss at the end of this chapter.
I will be back with this theory… next chapter!
In front of becky???? Listen this isn’t my ship but that would be so out there I’d actually be ok with it
Joyce/Dorothy/Dina triad who have premarital sex while talking about how God is dumb.
I just couldn’t help but imagine this played to the tune of “Fitchl’s Lied”
Oh cheese, this is incredible.
Thank you, for doing this all in one go. I’m not sure it would have w*rked out any other way, but I am absolutely sure it w*rked this one.
So I dunno how many people saw me talking about my spouse and the ccm and the control the other day but I read “should I stay or should i go” this past year. He’s been in therapy. He did the Lundy Bancroft work for men who want to change. I’ve been journaling a lot, trying to figure out what I want and what I need. Part of his work was to make a list of the harmful things he’s done. I wanted to know he’d actually recognized all that so I asked him to make a list like that specifically for me to read and I wanted it to also list specific actions he was doing or going to do to sort of… Make up for that and stop doing those kinds of things. This was important because he’s done some really abusive stuff because that’s just what being a man & husband was like in our culture, and he’s changed slowly and used to just be sort of “oh well” after be realized he’d done something harmful, like he believed it was impossible to ever make up for that kind of thing so he just wouldn’t try. I’d just have to get over it… That’s changing..
So it was like, a month later than he said he’d finish it but he gave that document to me this weekend, with prior notification it was coming. It was…. Rough. I knew I’d be willingly opening up to traumatic memories (I have PTSD from growing up with parents like Joyce’s but possibly worse). But I think it was good? Will be good? Eventually? Maybe?
I’m ready to heal. I’m ready to be heading somewhere better.
I just wanted to give you internet hugs for going through all of that. Best of luck. *hugs*
*Sits with you.*
We are here and listening and caring, Robbie.
We’re here for you, Robbie!
Congratulations on your newfound readiness!
Internet hugs indeed.
Show of hands: How many of you stopped to put on the music before you kept reading? *raises hand*
This was my favorite. The music just played in my head, even after so many years
I did!!!! 🤩
I did. This song is wonderful and fits perfectly into this strip.
This probably has nothing to do with the comic itself, but I can relate to the Mac and cheese as comfort food here. My parents had a severely messy divorce, and the first night my mom realized she didn’t have to cook the strict foods my dad would demand of her, she made Mac and cheese. It immediately made everything seem like it would be okay.
Fast forward to many years later and I went through some hard times of my own. I won’t get into it, but it ended up with me in a psych ward. When I got out, I was in bad shape (mentally) and had lost my home in the process. My nephews, very young at the time, saw me crying and made me some kraft easy Mac. They said it made them happy when they were sad. It was shit times, but somehow that gave me that same hope it did so many years ago with mom. I’m in a MUCH better place now, and somehow anytime I’m down, I end up with some kraft Mac and cheese to remind to keep going. Stupid as it sounds.
I love how everyone in this strip is reaching some sort of catharsis in their way. I also love how amber and Joe are basically mirroring their expressions, like if they were indeed sharing the burden. It’s been a while since a comic strip has grabbed my emotions in a good way and made me truly feel for each character in the page.
Mac and cheese is good comfort food. It always has been.
honestly i think willis is trying to make me listen to this rich mullins guy
A Willis full page! I haven’t seen those in a while. Every time it comes out, it’s always special. Thank you!
Farewell, Mike. You lived like an asshole ans died to an
heroslightly less awful asshole.So…
Wait, did Becky basically just accept that her best friend called her an idiot for believing in God?
Did I somehow miss them actually resolving their differences or…?
No. Becky’s just being an asshole about it now. The pizza scene would have gone A LOT differently, I think, is Dorothy was there to hear Becky say that Joyce was over-reacting to her church almost killing both of them twice.
Their differences are more in an “Uneasy Non-Aggression Pact with Trade Agreements” place than “Peaceful Resolution”. Nothing really got resolved exactly, but they’ve agreed to stop swiping at each other and have figured out how to be around each other socially.
My read on this is that Becky is slowly realizing just how different Joyce’s faith always was from hers. She’s starting to understand why Joyce is rejecting it because Becky actually agrees that a lot of the stuff Joyce believed is crap. But she’s simultaneously frustrated because she feels like Joyce is throwing the baby out with the bathwater and can’t comprehend that Joyce is apparently utterly incapable of distinguishing between the good parts of faith and the crap.
…I’m starting to think I need to change my username because I’m identifying much more with Becky lately. I think (hope?) I’ve always been better than Becky at controlling my faces and tempering my responses to be gentle with my friends in the Joyce role, but I’ve definitely felt like Becky is feeling in these last few strips.
Re: distinguishing the good parts and crap of faith, can Becky really tell the difference, either?
She’s mortally afraid to do consensual premarital sex, which harms nobody whatsoever, but yet allows herself to antagonize Joyce and let her possessiveness harm those around her like it’s no big deal?
Honestly, I don’t think so. She cast aside the parts she didn’t like, not necessarily the ones that were wrong or harmful.
Passive-aggressively antagonizing Joyce is her half of the “I am right I just need to convince her of that” conflict they’re going through.
Honestly, I wager most of her deal with pre-marital-hanky-panky-ness is just garden variety “sex is a big scary unknown thing” that a lot of teenagers deal with. Some kids are intimidated by it, especially when it’s been placed up so high on a pedestal all their lives, and will freak the fuck out about it when they get close to it.
I strongly doubt that Becky really cares all that much about it otherwise, it’s just that the religion stuff is a useful excuse that helps her avoid really interrogating herself on why she’s so freaked out about it all.
Becky is like “but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good.” But Joyce is ready to burn it all down. Been both places.
Joyce did not call Becky an idiot.
She thinks Becky’s being lied to be her abusive death cult and is smart enough to overcome it, like Joyce did. This is a conclusion Joyce came to after the first fight she’s ever had with her best friend on the most intimately important topic in her life, and will probably mellow out when given the opportunity, like she did now, where come Galasso’s she still can’t acknowledge any of Becky’s own wrongdoings and instead took the burden of reaching out to her again.
This.
I took that line as Joyce attacking a strawman of the person she used to be, but casting a much wider net than she realized in the moment. Liz practically dragged it out of her, too.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-12/01-sister-christian/lookitme/
“Becky’s smart, she’ll come around” highlights the root of their conflict: they had vastly different takeaways from their shared upbringing, but both assumed the other shared their own.
holy shit, Willis.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLY FRICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aww.
Song is good. Reminds me a bit of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer’s When I Go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imf2GYV0xNo
My father played that song for me when my first husband died at 31.
One of his 2 best friends died a few years back, of cancer, and now his other best friend is dying too, also of cancer. It’s like the Johnny Cash song, “Hurt”: “Everyone I know goes away in the end.”
I’m dealing with an injury I got last August doing something stupid while dealing with grief. And now every time it hurts I think of loss.
Been crying a lot today. Two of my very dearest old friends are now dying of cancer. And a third and a fourth and a fifth are fighting their cancer like hell.
“Everyone I know goes away in the end.”
“And should you glimpse my wandering form out on the border line, between death and resurrection and the counsel of the pines, do not worry for my comfort. Do not sorrow for my soul. All your diamond tears will rise up and ignite the sky beside me when I go.”
-Carter/Grammer
Imagine if he just ended it here like lol what a power move
The comic, for want of clarification
I thought of this too.
That crossed my mind as well. That’s a hefty capstone.
goodbye, mike.
Darn, Mike’s really gone now.
Just listen to the hammered dulcimer, only then can the healing begin?
that “hang in there” poster ahaha
Joe is remembering being punched by Mike.
<3
Wow.
All I can say is….thank you everyone, for coming on this wild ride with me.
And thank you, Willis.♥
Ah I see Willis has embraced the Scrubs model of ending an episode with music set over the end of multiple stories. Though Joyce didn’t narrate, I suppose.
This has been the most powerful and emotional rewarding webcomic I have ever read. Thank you so much for this masterpiece.
One of your all-time greatest, gotta say.
some of those old Christian songs would strike onto something really emotionally resonant. i still love many of them, even though I’m no longer Christian.
….god this is such a sincere moment. holy wow
Yeah, me too.
I think i can see why Joyce idolized him
https://medium.com/belover/the-queer-love-of-rich-mullins-f14170612b63
I would love a history Joyce finding her sexuality in Mulins’s life.
For other side, I don’t know if was with you, but this kind of articles bother me a lot. Calling someone gay only because he/she don’t stay in a relationship, for any reason is like your parents does to your when you’re taking so long to get any personfriend. It’s annoying.
A few others on the topic:
http://www.audiori.net/richmullins/articles/aconversation.html
https://medium.com/belover/did-rich-mullins-have-aids-c311bb66521
https://medium.com/@jklaszus/rich-mullins-died-20-years-ago-this-is-what-he-left-me-63f1288b47dc
Apparently he frequently talked about the need for acceptance and compassion toward lesbian and gay folks, in his concert monologues and interviews. That was brave!
That phone must be pretty loud if they can all hear it, huh
that was … beautiful.
Triple update needed for certain. :_) :_(
YOU touched ME
(It’s a Joe quote; not gonna search for the strip now, but his sad little hand reminded me of it.)
I’m listening to really old Fleetwood Mac (1969’s Oh, Well) That’s just what came up on the playlist.
(sigh) Amber, no. Killing yourself does *not* count as progress.
Ok, I am going to go way out on a limb here, but … what was so bad about Mike, again? I mean, yes, he did provoke numerous emotionally awkward confrontations and enjoyed manipulating people, but it usually turned out for the best, no? He’s kind of like the trickster god (Anansi spider, badger, coyote, Bre’r rabbit…) who manipulates people but ultimately inspires greater growth and character development. His seducing Ethan certainly sparked Ethan’s sexual awakening, no? And his needling Joyce and Walky ultimately brought them closer together, if I’m not mistaken?
I mean, only 2 people he actually blackmailed were Amber’s father and her sexist teacher. Both of whom had it coming.
Ok, he punched Joe (at Joyce’s request) and he made a lot of “Your Mom” jokes. But in what way was he actually BAD ? I just don’t see the monster in him that everyone else sees.
He told Amber she was doomed to become her abusive father, recorded Walky sobbing in his sleep, mocked Ruth and Billie while the former was hospitalized for suicidal depression, and fucked Ethan for the explicitly stated purpose of making Danny miserable.
You’re gonna carry that weight
…Beatles?
Cowboy Bebop.
(which was paraphrasing Beatles)
Ironically a comforting and nostalgic show.
Now to make some Mac and Cheese and Kool Aid!!!
(seriously does anyone else have strong cravings during the full moon)?
I finished my first rewatch a couple weeks ago.
The end of Hard Luck Woman successfully reduced me to a sobbing wreck yet again.
Imma just watching them as they come along on Toonami on Saturday nights.
Edward is the best!
Werewolves.
Hmm. Yeah, those were pretty dickish moves. I didn’t remember those.
Also followed Dorothy to Gender Studies so he could call her a big dumb slut for hanging out with Walky, because then Dorothy would try to protect her image and this would hurt Walky’s feelings.
He also made an elaborate fake website to convince Walky his favorite show was ending, for the purpose of recording Walky crying because he thought it was funny.
Like, you can think Walky crying about that is childish all you want, I’ll point out he’s eighteen but whatever, the point doesn’t change that he arranged an elaborate situation for the purpose of recording Walky crying.
Also, he didn’t BLACKMAIL Amber’s shitty teacher – from what we can tell, he befriended a football player and then leaked information that she was in an online relationship with said football player to get her fired. The thing is, from the phrasing (‘Our arrangement is over,’ Mike says to said football player,) it is VERY unclear whether or not that relationship already existed when Mike befriended him. Because Mike’s thirteen I’m HOPING he wasn’t enough of a supervillain to arrange another kid getting sexually abused the way I HOPE his ‘I put you in a car together to make you both miserable’ to Blaine was post-facto justification to a known Unsafe Person, but uh. That situation is actively and worryingly unclear! (In favor of Mike not doing so is the fact that he probably wouldn’t have needed to involve a second person to get Mrs. Phillips in a sting… but like. We don’t KNOW what went down there beyond ‘the way he dumped Bret was dickish’ and ‘eight hundred thousand red flags for a situation Mike was clearly and actively involved with.’)
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/arrangement/
Yeah, you’re completely right about that. Manipulating Bret was super gross and creepish. I had forgotten about most of that stuff. Sorry. Guess my “Speak nothing but good of the dead” training clouds my memory sometimes.
Thank you for reminding me.
I think it’s worth remembering that Mike was only a young teenager, still trying to do the right thing but not always knowing what’s best. I think it’s important to remember that a lack of maturity can wrap the best intent and not give the best judgment of action to take. Not saying he is irresponsible, but don’t judge Mike like an adult or even a college student, for those events.
Like, he was literally 13. Try to be back to being your 13 year old self (I know, what I ma suggesting there is basically self-harm), and try to think how well you would have handled such an adult situation.
To be fair, while screwing with Danny was the stated reason for him fucking Ethan, I suspect another motive may have been hiding under the surface.
You’ve pointed all the good thing Mike did to everyone. Sadly, I still think even all this good is not worthy that much against a character that are so mean to others. Mike is inexcusable for me.
From just before his own revelation that his excuses were like Blaine’s:
I’ve been poking Amber’s bear for five friggin’ years. She’s multiple time bombs. Just wind her up and point her dadwards.
“sure he repeatedly punched Joe at Joyce’s request, but is what he did really BAD”
did I really just read that
No, you’re right of course. Punching is bad. It’s just there didn’t seem to be any blowback on Sarah when she punched Raidah, nor on Joyce for arranging the punching (and joining in). So I guess I just figured maybe this comic doesn’t take punching as seriously as it should be taken.
Yeah, Mike delighted in making others suffer and in manipulating people. I guess I was just kind of trying to figure out those complicated emotions that the other cast members feel for him. Seems a kinder, gentler Mike showed up in Amber’s hallucinations, so I forgot about or glossed over the meaner stuff he had done prior.
It’s just there didn’t seem to be any blowback on Sarah when she punched Raidah, nor on Joyce for arranging the punching (and joining in).
Not necessarily. Joyce and Mike punching Joe was definitely played for “haha, it’s funny, guys can’t be hurt” until Joe yelled at her the next day, whereupon the previous night was contextualized as Joyce herself engaging in this gendered standards.
Sarah punched Raidah, but the latter let it go.
Sarah punched Raidah in the heat of the moment, and Raidah had specifically been bullying, tormenting, and socially isolating her.
Mike punched Joe because he was paid to and he thought it’d be funny, and Joe *didn’t do anything to deserve it.*
I mean, I think it’s probably pretty controversial to say that Raidah “deserved it” but at the very least, Sarah was -actually- provoked. Joe was just getting punched for *feeling things.*
True, true. Very true. Thank you for that important context!
Wasn’t expecting a musical strip, but I sure as hell ain’t complaining. Some of my favorite strips are ones where Willis busts out his playlist.
Damn, son.
This was a lot.
Time to go distract myself with some work.
There’s a lot of interesting stuff here, like how Amber’s made more progress than Walky and Ethan on the “grieving Mike” thing, something the both of them are clearly still struggling with, and Danny and Sal having the absolute best night in such a way that is filling me with a massive dread for when Drama strikes. Sal’s just so danged happy there.
But it’s 4AM and I’m not falling back asleep, so it’s time to go off one about how Dorothy and Becky suck.
I don’t really have any funny or succinct way to say that their behaviour in this strip is the same they’ve been acting the last two chapters: Joyce infers something of clear emotional pain and Dorothy thinks she just has to handhold silly fundie Joyce to being a real adult, and Becky laughs at Joyce the way she always has. It’s the same script it’s always been, this is how these two always act, but lately has been the first time it’s been contextualized in a deeply negative way and at Joyce’s expense. She’s not their Joyce anymore but damn if they’re gonna give that up without a fight.
I am fully confident that this storyline has been far more on Joyce’s side than it’s been read as, and that her oft-complained Edgy Atheism is, in fact, the angry lashing out of a traumatized young adult that matters more than the feelings of her possessive, judgmental nutbar friends or the integrity of a massive institution of cultural misery. We’re just seeing Joyce really loud and really angry, but she’s next to a toothless coward like Dorothy, who’s decided that Joyce’s anger is Problematic and doesn’t deserve to exist because of poor smol bean Becky while the both of them make Joyce’s day worse.
For me, at this point, I really don’t want them to just be friends again once their own antagonism becomes textual as opposed to merely blaring subtext. It’s been two full chapters of these idiots not being able to give Joyce an ounce of emotional support and then actively making her worse (and I will say as I always do: Joyce didn’t start acting like this until coming to terms with her atheism became a thing she had to run by these two utter failures), I don’t think that’s the kind of thing that can be solved by Dorothy privately admitting she’s been the Problematic one this whole time and deciding to Be Better, and for Becky to, I dunno, get kidnapped again or something so Joyce can prove she loves her. Maybe Joyce can be kidnapped again and rescued by Becky this time, spice things up.
It just feels like it’s gone on long enough and gotten bad enough that Dorothy and Becky getting away with it because they say sorry isn’t enough, let alone that Joyce spending the rest of the series fawning over these two like she always has feels like it’d be real difficult after this quagmire they’ve inflicted onto her. A lot of characters get dragged through the mud in this series, Ethan has very sensibly dumped Amber to the ground and we still manage to like Amber because “the characters not being friends anymore” doesn’t immediately make them horrible villainous curs, it’s cool if Becky and Dorothy face the slightest consequence for their controlling abuse of Joyce and have to learn to be better friends.
If Joyce got kidnapped again, I don’t think Becky would do a thing, honestly. She can’t be assed to be even slightly supportive of Joyce in a comparatively minor tough situation without Dorothy handing over an All About Becky pass first. (Yes, I’m talking about the glasses.) There’s no way she’d be supportive of or helpful to Joyce in times of greater need.
As, frankly, this past storyline has already showed in exquisite detail.
I mean, she totally tried to hand herself over to her dad twice when Joyce’s life was at risk.
Bailing Joyce out of a sick car chase is probably the only thing Becky could conceivably do as a good friend, she’s kinda mucking it up with everything else since her conflicts with Dorothy and now Joyce herself have been rooted in her Joyce being taken from her.
I can’t agree with that. In that sort of life-or-death scenario Becky would absolutely be putting herself on the line to try and help, and she’s already proven that in two separate kidnappings
Agreed.
Part of it may be that she’s caught up in her own problems and defense mechanisms enough that she doesn’t recognize Joyce’s smaller problems (or hints at larger ones) for what they are, but once she does she’ll absolutely be there for Joyce.
See also when she found out about Gashface and also going home with Joyce after the first kidnapping.
She dismisses at lot of it as “Joyce nonsense” – which is a character flaw, but once she realizes it isn’t, she’s good.
It’s really kind of amazing how much worse the Becky hatred is around here than any complaints about Joyce, but how passionate those defending Joyce get about it.
Sure, “Joyce is now an Edgy Atheist and that makes her awful” is a shitty take that ignores her trauma and her character arc, but “Becky would never support Joyce” not only ignores her own trauma, but all the times she actually has. (Or worse than ignoring her trauma, claims it’s just used as an excuse for her behavior – often while using Joyce’s trauma as an excuse for hers.)
None of these characters are perfect people. They’re messed up traumatized kids, with their own struggles and problems, but they’re all good people behind their coping mechanisms. Even when they come into conflict, none of them are outright villains.
It’s really kind of amazing how much worse the Becky hatred is around here than any complaints about Joyce,
This is deeply amusing to me because this is how I felt the entire time the Faith-Off was happening and the possibility of Joyce being allowed to be angry about her death cult was silly, she was definitely just being mean to Christians, the second most oppressed group of all, and Becky did nothing wrong by tracking Joyce down to Joe’s room and totally would have accepted Joyce’s atheism if she just told her.
Becky’s also, like, definitely not supported Joyce in the slightest since this whole shindig went down? Joyce is the one who still had to break Becky’s barriers by going “I know you need a buffer” while Becky was telling her that everything about her was a lie and that Joyce was now a total stranger to her. I know you read Becky’s stream of barbs as her being “funny, kooky Becky, just like she always is” and you are correct; that’s why it’s a problem. Their entire friendship has been recontextualized by its wild codependency.
Becky took the emotional labour for Joyce exactly one time in the entire series, finding out about Ryan, and every other time something’s gone wrong it’s had to do with Joyce protecting Becky from her evil dad or Joyce’s evil mom.
Spencer, always with a resonant take! Yes! Maybe I appreciate Joyce’s position too as someone frequently misunderstood as a youngster.
I was ooing to point a finger at Becky’s assholering, about her putting a farewell song into Joyce’s party, but as a non-primary english speaker, I confess I must did something like this a lot.
Like, putting Guns ‘n Roses to play in a children party, for example.
I mean, hey, it’s better than playing Rage Against The Machine while at a Trump rally, or Born in the USA at a Republican gathering.
Throw Fortunate Son on the pile of “vaguely patriotic sounding songs conservatives don’t actually listen to”.
Did Becky make the dinner party playlist all by herself? I was assuming that she just pulled some sort of Rich Mullins Best Of playlist from Youtube or Spotify or Zoomer Music or something.
I don’t know, I think she knows rich mullins too, and chosed this song to annoys Joyce.
I mean, I’m sure that she knows him, but I just don’t know if she had enough time between finishing work and getting to the Mac and Cheese Dinner Party to make a custom playlist to maxmize her passive-aggressive jab at Joyce.
There’s plenty of musical artists where I basically know their discography by heart but if I want to play them for someone, I’m just gonna pull up “The Wombats Essentials” or whatever from Apple Music, y’know?
I guess it’s unclear if this is an autoplaying song or if Becky choose it manually – but she’s having dinner, usually you’d just put on a playlist cause your hands are preoccupied.
Plus, with her expression and reaction on this page – a strained, akward smile (unlike the smug expression she had when she started playing Mullins) it kinda feels like she didn’t realize this song was about such a heavy topic and that it was that it used to be that meaningful to Joyce. Like, if she planned this spesific song to jab at Joyce for her lack of faith… why would she dismiss the idea the song was prophetic?
(of course, the whole act of playing Christian Music at this dinner party that’s supposed to be about making peace with her newly-‘out’ Atheist friend is a huge dick move and a passive-aggresive jab at Joyce. I just feel like Becky was probably “I’m gonna put on Rich Mullins to remind Joyce of how important Christianity was important to her and then she will Come Back” or even thinking about it as a way to reaffirm her own faith while being totally uncaring of how Joyce feels about it more than she was being like “Okay, I am gonna play this song to remind Joyce of her faith and than I’m gonna play THIS song because it’s a sad farewell and….”. A lot of Becky’s worst moments come when her spontaneity becomes thoughtlessness. That is to say, Becky usually doesn’t put in that much thought into being a jerk.)
It’ll be interesting to see more of how Walky feels about Mike’s death. Although Amber and Ethan probably suffered the most from his toxic behavior if only because they’ve known him for so long – Mike’s torment of Walky is the one we’ve seen the most on-panel. He didn’t have the same emotional attachment to Mike that A&E did, either – but he’s still clearly saddened that he’s gone.
Ah, I love this comic.
BEST WEBCOMIC SO FAR!
Closure, at last.
This strip leaves with the urge to watch a TV series written by Willis.
If my skills of an artist were any good, I would’ve animated a few sequences in Flash by now…
Been a lurker for years and never commented before but this is just so beautiful. Reading it synced with the music was just…wow. Fantastic job Willis!
Welcome to the
Welcome!
I was worried this was going to be END OF STORY rather than just END OF STORYLINE when I saw the big update.
This is very beautiful. So many good moments and so many questions. Joe seems to have been punched by someone… OH NO!
This is beautiful, especially with the song played overtop. It doesn’t take much for things like this to make me tear up, but I somehow always find myself in awe when it happens. Thank you Willis!
I didn’t expect a extra-long strip. Nicely done though, and I really hope somebody introduces Joyce to some other music. Also, Emothan still looks way too much like Ken to the point where I wondered why he was in this strip today until I checked the tags.
I’ve known several home schooled or Catholic schooled folks who were only permitted to listen to suitably “Christian” music as children, and every single one of them has immensely enjoyed “Tonight, Tonight” the first time they’ve heard it.
Is this science? Have I proven something?
Do you start with Tonight from West Side Story, then Tonight, Tonight by Smashing Pumpkins, and follow that with Tonight, Tonight, Tonight by Genesis?
I apologize for my ignorance, but who is “Elijah”? And how did he “go out”?
Elijah was a prophet an miracle worker in the Bible, and was taken to heaven alive in a whirlwind while riding a chariot of fire.
Accompanied by Vangelis’s Chariots of Fire.
… what? The Bible doesn’t spell out what OST tracks were playing in what scenes. Prove me wrong!
Like Mike when, as in panel 11, you put the strip “This Side Up”.
Thanks for the info! I was affraid that googling “Elijah” would offer too many possible results. That narrows it down.
So what kind of music is Dorothy into? Pop rock? Lilith Fair? Norwegian black metal?
lo-fi mixes to study to.
I love lo-fi mixes to study to <3
It turns out Dorothy listens exclusively to vocaloids. The most atheist musical genre, not even the singer is real!
The question we’ve been too scared to ask: which cast member watches Vtubers
My bets are on Mary.
I don’t think there’s a Ronald Reagan Vtuber yet.
Mary likes anime. Have we forgotten that already?
Y’know, I have often wondered why no one has bothered to make an anime version of the Book of Revelation. Despite it being traumatic as a child, think how ten-headed beasts rising from the deep, various cataclysms, etc, would look pretty awesome in an anime. I bet Mary would agree…not that Mary agreeing with me is a good thing, ugh.
As an atheist Vocaloid fan, I feel strangely called out LOL
That panel of Mike tho. I yelped. Don’t know if a trigger warning would have helped.
I hope it wasn’t too bad. Personally I think being effected by art is a good thing, even if it is sometimes shocking.
I don’t mean anything intentionally cruel and intended to disturb for it’s own sake. This was just… powerful and moving to me.
Apparently Rich was from Richmond Indiana, where I went to college. I believe that Jim Jones was also from Richmond.
Panel 11… a comic can have the impact of a scene in a movie. Even have background music.
This was very nice.
Beautiful song! I may go to Rich Mullins’ you tube channel to listen to his other songs. Amber seems to be at the acceptance stage of grief. That big cry did her good.
I have never listend to Richard Mullin music but dang that is a powerful page to end the chapter.
I love that we got one song going on, and then in panel 9 it just gets hijacked by a different song.
Reminds me of when I use a fm broadcaster for my personal music and I cross paths with someone else using the same
who else thought this was saying END OF COMIC? I wasn’t ready!
Not when he’s already got 6 months worth of advance material in the pipeline.
I thought that, but relieved by hovertext
Rich Mullis have made this song for David Willis put on this strip.
Exactly, in this order.
Copy that. Played the song while reading the strip.
hey babies, we all want an animation of this, has anyone made an animation of this?
i tried but it turns out i suck at video editing, furthermore i thought i had premiere, guess i don’t anymore, i tried a couple freewares, they sucked, short story: i cooked up a soundtrack from the two featured songs, i plucked out the individual panels as a bunch of PNGs, making some sort of corny diaporama should be a baby-sized piece of cake for any of you geeks who knows the first thing about animation, who’s up for it? email’s in the handle, hit me xoxoxo
Thanks for offering, milu!
But I don’t think the username part of your email is kept in the handle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
oh hell. i mean i think if you click on it you get it in the url field or something…
but whatever, i thought of a simpler way:
—> https://filetransfer.io/data-package/V0G4J2EJ#link <—
it's all in there! maybe tag yourself if you're picking up this SCARY MISSION so that we don't end up with more than one video
I’m trying Character Animator, I would love to see a DoA animation, too.
I’m so irritated with Becky, is she capable of saying ONE nice thing?
“You’re bad at enjoying music” maybe you’re very bad at being a friend Becky
Right now, she’s being a bad friend. Because they’re fighting. She’s hurt and angry and scared and has no idea how to handle being at odds with her best friend, the dependable, predictable rock she’s always leaned on.
So no, she doesn’t have anything nice to say. And I’ll bet that’s killing her too.
Top Six Scrubs Endings
that’s all i ask
Well, he did die in a chariot of fire.
Huh. Amber actually saw Mike hit.
That’s gonna be traumatic.
Took me a day to realize this, but now that I’ve heard this song, Mullins’ line about how he “didn’t ascend bodily to heaven like Elijah” back in Joyce’s dream makes a lot more sense than it did on first read. (The juxtaposition with Mike’s death here is further interesting, because back in the old continuity he flat-out didn’t leave any body and had to be resurrected via some blood that spilled onto Joyce’s shirt.)
Those are some loud phone speakers.
I want “Black Parade” on uke.
This arc finished nine days before my adoptive mother’s funeral, and I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to reread it without crying all over again.
Sometimes timing is serendipitous. Sometimes it just happens that someone posts a bit of art that breaks the wall between you and your grief, at just the right moment when you’re prepared to handle it.
Sometimes grief hits gently.
Thanks for the stories, Dave.