Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
All Known Alternatives
Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
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!
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
Very not just you. There’s a de-synch and the backend DB/content server isn’t using NTP to keep the time correct. As a result, the web-page and comments etc.. all track at ~+12mins. And it’s getting worse.
it’d be safer to just fake a cramp but it’d be concerning if everyone started injuring themselves just to get jacobs attention (tho it would be a hilarious anectdote leading him to becoming a doctor instead of a lawyer or whatever)
No, but if someone already gave me the go ahead like Jacob already has to Sarah I might have more confidence to engage. Like he’a already into her, the hard part’s done.
I don’t think Jacob is into Sarah the way Sarah is into Jacob. To be honest I’m not sure he’s actually “into her” at all, he’s just comfortable talking to her and would like her to reciprocate. Maybe I’m wrong on that one, but he’s also said he’s not looking for casual sex (in front of Sarah in fact) and she’s said that’s specifically what she’s looking for- unless something has changed for one or both of them, there’s an incompatibility there. And Sarah knows it.
A lot has changed since he said that including just the passage of time. I don’t think Jacob has changed his stance on sex, but Sarah has changed something, since she didn’t think she deserved him after discovering his relationship expectations. Yet here she is going for it again. Even if Jacob isn’t specifically looking to date right now, he told her he wants to spend time with her as long as she’s open and respects him. That sounds like an in to me.
If it’s any consolation, people are incredibly bad at figuring out who is flirting. I vaguely remember a study where the subjects had to answer if somebody was flirting, Y/N, and people had worse than a 50% accuracy. Like, they’d have guessed more accurately by literally flipping a coin.
So you might as well just go for it, your crush won’t know for sure anyway.
(Unless, of course, you use my flirting method, which includes texting the person “I am totally flirting with you.” …We’re married now.)
This is the way to communicate people. Not games. Not, “what does it mean when boys or girls do ‘x’?” No. Being direct is both attractive, and easy to understand. This reduces misunderstandings and that reduces hurt feelings.
This is the way:
use my flirting method, which includes texting the person “I am totally flirting with you.”
I met my husband on a dating site. Our meeting up for the first time was me asking to take them out to dinner on Valentine’s Day. I was flirting as hard as my autistic face knew how and getting incredibly mixed signals back because their autistic face missed everything from “take you out to dinner on Valentine’s Day” on down.
I got to the point where I was just like “I WANT TO KISS YOU” and we worked it out. But yeah. People are bad at it. I don’t even want to guess how many signals I’ve missed over the years.
I am on the spectrum, and found this about myself after decades of what were missed signals. (Happy ending, though: My obtuseness to others’ signals didn’t include my now-wife’s.)
Yeah this! Romcoms and other fiction give is this sense that you can’t/shouldn’t just be straightforward with a partner/potential partner, but they have to do that because fiction needs conflict and if everyone just communicated clearly, the story would be over in 5 min.
But in real life, being straightforward is essential to any healthy relationship in the long run. Basically do the OPPOSITE of what they do in those “will they, won’t they” stories (unless it’s a story featuring Vulcans). My husband and I have always tried to be straightforward, open, and honest with each other. For example, the marriage proposal wasn’t a surprise cliffhanger, it was a calm mutual discussion that developed over time, and that’s pretty much how we do everything. It may not have the surprise drama of fiction, but IRL I much prefer calm and stability and clarity.
Also my relationship with my husband totally started with him telling me he was interested, and me bluntly and honestly responding that I was kind of interested in someone else but wanted to get to know him better as a friend for now and see how it went.
At this point he assumed I was letting him down easy with the “let’s just be friends” speech and I had to clarify that no, I too was being straightforward, and literally meant exactly what I said: that I just didn’t know him well enough to know if I could have feelings and was willing to spend time as friends for *now* and see where it went/if more developed (which it obviously did).
I think he found it refreshing because he wasn’t used to that level of upfront-ness from others. I know that’s certainly how I felt as well!
imo flirting is not limited to sexyromantic hopefuls (responding less to OP than to people making a distinction between flirting and “talking”)
maybe i want to be someone’s friend, if i’m feeling confident and approach them deliberately, that’s absolutely flirting, in the sense that i’m hoping to get them to like me (also, get to know them better and decide if i actually like them. sometimes after a bit of footsie they say something that makes me go nope nope nope)
Yes but no, in that I’ve gotten up the nerve to go talk to the person, but the planned statements do not come out in the right order and the interaction will turn out as more “baffling” than “flirting.”
Not if I’m attracted and seriously would want to ask them out. But I’ve been told I do it all the time, but then I’m just thinking that I’m just being a decent human being in wishing people a nice day. It feels good to see people to feel good, y’know?
I can understand wanting to be injured (within reason) but usually ppl use injuries as an excuse to get /out/ of a situation, not to have someone come to your rescue
My primary method of flirting is banter, which is *also* my primary method of engaging with friends, so I guess it depends on who you ask. XD
Tbh I don’t think there’s really one “right” way to flirt, because it’s always going to depend on the person you’re flirting *with* whether they take it as flirting, what they’re into, etc. I feel like a large part of dating is just finding a person who communicates relatively the same way you do.
People stress so much over trying to find the “right” way to do stuff like this but if you have to change your entire natural communication style (other than like…improving toxic/problematic communication habits) to get another person to understand you, they might not be the right partner for you anyway?
I mean sure, most of us have had a crush here and there where deep down we’re probably incompatible but we’re desperate to try to make it work anyway, but in my experience, one of the reasons my husband ended up becoming my husband was because communication was so easy for us from the start, even though it’s something I often struggle with as a neurotypical person.
It’s like mushy french fries over a censor bar.
Everyone else got better haircuts over the timeskip. Sarah’s is especially great. But Jacob must never go to that barber again.
I don’t think it looks badly, and anyway it’s his hair, but I’ll play along: it’s a consequence of the Law of Conservation of Haircuts. If everybody else got better hairstyles, the badness had to go somewhere and Jacob drew the short straw.
This haircut IRL is fine as hell. short dyed/bleached locs with shaved sides? Straight up sexy. Maybe Willis’s style ain’t the best portrayal but just knowing but it’s actually supposed to look like makes it way more attractive than the nerd look he had going on before. I’m also just gonna knee jerk prefer any black hairstyle to the “idk how to draw/model black hair” close crop shave in media
well, when you don’t HAVE legs it’s easy to forget about
–Dave, Joyce doesn’t currently have ANY toes, nor does Sarah
ps: headcanon now is that Sarah can just appear out of Joyce’s shadow when certain words are mentioned. cuz there’s no way she could have been hiding behind her, right
Step 1: take off shoes.
Step 2: walk on step machine (6 steps in total)
Step 3: break toe
Step 4: get princess carried out by Jacob
Step 5: ???
Step 6: profit.
Actually no pull a Zach from try guys and fuck up on the treadmill so bad you get a piece of glass impaled in your leg. Then Jacob will have to carry you out. And worry about you for an extended period of time. Profit
Do good intentions make an accidentally bad outcome better? What about ignorant intentions? Can we make this fight last longer than it took for hat broken toenail to heal?
Also, I think it’s called a “bridal carry”, but I don’t know if using that term would work out any better for Jacob in this case. . .
I’d heard of a ‘fireman’s carry’ and a ‘backpack carry’, and way back in lifesaving classes I learned about a ‘hip carry’ … but I’d never heard the term ‘princess carry’, so I Googled it and found out that it is the classic “carry the bride across the threshold” position.
Yeah, it’s basically the worst way to carry someone. Just maximizing your back pain. Jacob gets away with it because he’s probably the strongest guy in the comic.
jacob is really incredibly well-adjusted around joyce and sarah considering he has had some hard weird experiences with them and not always been treated fairly in the process. good for him. nice young man
Right? Jacob is not my type (beautiful, religious, very good boy – I have too many edges, my partner needs some too), but he seems like a genuinely lovely person and I want to be his friend.
Loading ...
Less chatting more sporting !
We’re at 12 minutes now, ladies & gents & nonbins !
I wonder how long the time buffer will get; I’m expecting it to be at 15 by April.
Willis does love a good buffer
It’s been 12:13 for me for a few months now? Is that just a me problem
Very not just you. There’s a de-synch and the backend DB/content server isn’t using NTP to keep the time correct. As a result, the web-page and comments etc.. all track at ~+12mins. And it’s getting worse.
“Just drop the dumbbell on your foot”
“I can’t lift Joe!”
I’m pretty sure Joe is not the dumbbell in this situation.
“MTG does it just fine!”
Googles ‘MTG workout videos’.
…why.
Now youve got me curious.
No no Joe is the dumb beau. Joyce is the dumb belle.
Sarah disagrees!
What kind of friend won’t break your toe for you when you ask?
The kind that is into pain and knows it will hurt more if they don’t.
Dumbing of Age Book 14: We Kiss! On the Mouth!
That’s actually not bad.
Truly a dys-toe-pian society.
It’s funny because the Evil Toe Man gets dead
Toe-gies may rule!
LOVE Joyce’s tongue in last panel, is a treat
I noticed that. It’s fantastic!
That’s what he said!
Oh, hush.
He being Joe.
It’s S Tier. Joyce is perfect to me.
it says that Joe’s argument is invalid.
…that’s not the last panel
hahaha you right XD
It is if it’s the last panel you look at, because tongue…
I mean if he’s just offering free princess carries for toe injury victims you’d be a fool not to take the offer. That’s amazing value!
it’d be safer to just fake a cramp but it’d be concerning if everyone started injuring themselves just to get jacobs attention (tho it would be a hilarious anectdote leading him to becoming a doctor instead of a lawyer or whatever)
Well yeah but she probably wore shoes.
Sarah, you can just go up to Jacob and talk to him.
I say this, but I can’t even follow my own advice. Anyone here have the courage to just go up to someone and start flirting?
Never
oh god no
Talking like a normal person, maybe. Flirting? Never.
Hahahaha NOPE!
No, but if someone already gave me the go ahead like Jacob already has to Sarah I might have more confidence to engage. Like he’a already into her, the hard part’s done.
I don’t think Jacob is into Sarah the way Sarah is into Jacob. To be honest I’m not sure he’s actually “into her” at all, he’s just comfortable talking to her and would like her to reciprocate. Maybe I’m wrong on that one, but he’s also said he’s not looking for casual sex (in front of Sarah in fact) and she’s said that’s specifically what she’s looking for- unless something has changed for one or both of them, there’s an incompatibility there. And Sarah knows it.
A lot has changed since he said that including just the passage of time. I don’t think Jacob has changed his stance on sex, but Sarah has changed something, since she didn’t think she deserved him after discovering his relationship expectations. Yet here she is going for it again. Even if Jacob isn’t specifically looking to date right now, he told her he wants to spend time with her as long as she’s open and respects him. That sounds like an in to me.
Just because he’s not looking for it doesn’t mean a thirsty young woman can’t hope he’ll find it. With her. A few times.
that would require Not Being Terrified, friend, and some things are simply too much to ask
If it’s any consolation, people are incredibly bad at figuring out who is flirting. I vaguely remember a study where the subjects had to answer if somebody was flirting, Y/N, and people had worse than a 50% accuracy. Like, they’d have guessed more accurately by literally flipping a coin.
So you might as well just go for it, your crush won’t know for sure anyway.
(Unless, of course, you use my flirting method, which includes texting the person “I am totally flirting with you.” …We’re married now.)
This is the way to communicate people. Not games. Not, “what does it mean when boys or girls do ‘x’?” No. Being direct is both attractive, and easy to understand. This reduces misunderstandings and that reduces hurt feelings.
This is the way:
Yes. Direct communication is key.
Otherwise I have no idea unless things drastically escalate.
(Writes I…am…totally…flirting…with…you in notebook.)
I met my husband on a dating site. Our meeting up for the first time was me asking to take them out to dinner on Valentine’s Day. I was flirting as hard as my autistic face knew how and getting incredibly mixed signals back because their autistic face missed everything from “take you out to dinner on Valentine’s Day” on down.
I got to the point where I was just like “I WANT TO KISS YOU” and we worked it out. But yeah. People are bad at it. I don’t even want to guess how many signals I’ve missed over the years.
I am on the spectrum, and found this about myself after decades of what were missed signals. (Happy ending, though: My obtuseness to others’ signals didn’t include my now-wife’s.)
That said, I really felt the first panel of this comic.
Yeah this! Romcoms and other fiction give is this sense that you can’t/shouldn’t just be straightforward with a partner/potential partner, but they have to do that because fiction needs conflict and if everyone just communicated clearly, the story would be over in 5 min.
But in real life, being straightforward is essential to any healthy relationship in the long run. Basically do the OPPOSITE of what they do in those “will they, won’t they” stories (unless it’s a story featuring Vulcans). My husband and I have always tried to be straightforward, open, and honest with each other. For example, the marriage proposal wasn’t a surprise cliffhanger, it was a calm mutual discussion that developed over time, and that’s pretty much how we do everything. It may not have the surprise drama of fiction, but IRL I much prefer calm and stability and clarity.
Also my relationship with my husband totally started with him telling me he was interested, and me bluntly and honestly responding that I was kind of interested in someone else but wanted to get to know him better as a friend for now and see how it went.
At this point he assumed I was letting him down easy with the “let’s just be friends” speech and I had to clarify that no, I too was being straightforward, and literally meant exactly what I said: that I just didn’t know him well enough to know if I could have feelings and was willing to spend time as friends for *now* and see where it went/if more developed (which it obviously did).
I think he found it refreshing because he wasn’t used to that level of upfront-ness from others. I know that’s certainly how I felt as well!
Flirting? No. Talking? Also no. Acknowledging their existence? Strike three, I’m out.
No, but I’ve flirted with someone attractive when I didn’t mean to.
I did that once. Ended up getting a wife and two kids out of it.
imo flirting is not limited to sexyromantic hopefuls (responding less to OP than to people making a distinction between flirting and “talking”)
maybe i want to be someone’s friend, if i’m feeling confident and approach them deliberately, that’s absolutely flirting, in the sense that i’m hoping to get them to like me (also, get to know them better and decide if i actually like them. sometimes after a bit of footsie they say something that makes me go nope nope nope)
On purpose? No.
On accident? A few times.
Yes but no, in that I’ve gotten up the nerve to go talk to the person, but the planned statements do not come out in the right order and the interaction will turn out as more “baffling” than “flirting.”
I used to, but it was before smartphones killed the possibility of topical attention, discussion and humor.
Yes. I am incredibly smooth and it works every single time.
Of course you’re smooth, you’re Taffy.
Over confidence could lead to a sticky situation, though.
Not if I’m attracted and seriously would want to ask them out. But I’ve been told I do it all the time, but then I’m just thinking that I’m just being a decent human being in wishing people a nice day. It feels good to see people to feel good, y’know?
I can understand wanting to be injured (within reason) but usually ppl use injuries as an excuse to get /out/ of a situation, not to have someone come to your rescue
My primary method of flirting is banter, which is *also* my primary method of engaging with friends, so I guess it depends on who you ask. XD
Tbh I don’t think there’s really one “right” way to flirt, because it’s always going to depend on the person you’re flirting *with* whether they take it as flirting, what they’re into, etc. I feel like a large part of dating is just finding a person who communicates relatively the same way you do.
People stress so much over trying to find the “right” way to do stuff like this but if you have to change your entire natural communication style (other than like…improving toxic/problematic communication habits) to get another person to understand you, they might not be the right partner for you anyway?
I mean sure, most of us have had a crush here and there where deep down we’re probably incompatible but we’re desperate to try to make it work anyway, but in my experience, one of the reasons my husband ended up becoming my husband was because communication was so easy for us from the start, even though it’s something I often struggle with as a neurotypical person.
You could probably get a princess carry for free, if you play your cards right.
Now I am picturing some kind of dating sim card game…
made by Stephen KIng?
just offer to sit on top of him while he does pushups ;P
Jacob managing to be at all appealing to women with haircut that makes him look like he’s wearing a mop on his head is no mean feat
It’s like mushy french fries over a censor bar.
Everyone else got better haircuts over the timeskip. Sarah’s is especially great. But Jacob must never go to that barber again.
I think he is in the early stages of growing out locs.
I don’t think it looks badly, and anyway it’s his hair, but I’ll play along: it’s a consequence of the Law of Conservation of Haircuts. If everybody else got better hairstyles, the badness had to go somewhere and Jacob drew the short straw.
And then glued the straw to his head.
But no, I agree. It’s a gym-bro cut for sure, but I don’t see it as bad. I think it suits him. And he’s having fun.
It’s characterful, and college is the best time in your life to make ill-advised hairstyle choices
I really like his hair. It seems like it’s portraying something similar to Michael B Jordan in Black Panther, but partially bleached
Odell Beckham Jr feel to it.
I like it conceptually, but I don’t think he’s pulling it off.
Glob of scrambled earwax… He used to have this sweet Clark Kent thing going on (ok the 3 piece suit was closer to Luthor)
This haircut IRL is fine as hell. short dyed/bleached locs with shaved sides? Straight up sexy. Maybe Willis’s style ain’t the best portrayal but just knowing but it’s actually supposed to look like makes it way more attractive than the nerd look he had going on before. I’m also just gonna knee jerk prefer any black hairstyle to the “idk how to draw/model black hair” close crop shave in media
Ohhhh yeah, that’s definitely the words of someone who’s totally over Joyce for realsies.
Remember when Jacob told Joyce that his new “girlfriend checklist” is “gonna sound a lot like you”? Calling it now, he’s gonna end up meeting Jocelyne somehow and it’s gonna get gloriously messy.
That would be fun. Really though I’d be down for anything that gets Joss in the comic again
add. to. CART.
–Dave, especially if we get to see an excerpt from Jocelyn’s blog (remember the blog?) about the day she first saw him up close
DAMN those shoulders !!
Well well well, I thought they’d never meet again
Sarah, no more toenail dislocation… just fall hard on the treadmill. Just as painful.
i can imagine her comedically checking jacob out and ending up injuring herself unintentionally anyways
The stars are not in position for this, Sarah!
Hush hush
Keep it down now
Princess carry
+1 (you should’ve waited ‘Til Tuesday to post this!) ;P
Princess Carrie is one with the Force now
I was just scrolling through the comments to see if I needed to make this one
Oh, hey, I just realized. It’s that weight machine that Willis wanted to never draw again.
The boys seem to be skipping leg days a fair amount though
well, when you don’t HAVE legs it’s easy to forget about
–Dave, Joyce doesn’t currently have ANY toes, nor does Sarah
ps: headcanon now is that Sarah can just appear out of Joyce’s shadow when certain words are mentioned. cuz there’s no way she could have been hiding behind her, right
also, Sarah YES
–Dave, Rube Goldberg Planning Department ACTIVATE
ps: I am choosing to believe that is maple syrup all over Jacob’s head
–Dave, because otherwise I can’t help but see it as Tr*mp’s tribble. and now neither can YOU
Crisis Hairjob Jacob amuses me.
The sass in the penultimate panel is great.
Step 1: take off shoes.
Step 2: walk on step machine (6 steps in total)
Step 3: break toe
Step 4: get princess carried out by Jacob
Step 5: ???
Step 6: profit.
“Wait what is a princess carry, how does that work?”
“That doesn’t sound right, show me and I’ll tell yo if I feel like a princess.”
Get it together Sarah, it would be so easy.
I’m happy to see Joyce and Jacob getting along :3
oh man my new gravatar is going to make everything I post look thirsty, isn’t it
That’s half the fun!
The whole toe thing is shaping up to be one of those things that couples still argue (but not like, ARGUE argue) about years later.
Joseph Rosenthal
20xx-20yy
Beloved husband
even though he did break my toe
Hey! Ten years ago he was born in the 90’s! That hasn’t changed. 🤬
grumps off
Don’t just jump off the treadmill so you can magically pop up behind friends!
That stuff’s dangerous.
Could you break your toe doing it?
Actually no pull a Zach from try guys and fuck up on the treadmill so bad you get a piece of glass impaled in your leg. Then Jacob will have to carry you out. And worry about you for an extended period of time. Profit
Do good intentions make an accidentally bad outcome better? What about ignorant intentions? Can we make this fight last longer than it took for hat broken toenail to heal?
Also, I think it’s called a “bridal carry”, but I don’t know if using that term would work out any better for Jacob in this case. . .
I’d heard of a ‘fireman’s carry’ and a ‘backpack carry’, and way back in lifesaving classes I learned about a ‘hip carry’ … but I’d never heard the term ‘princess carry’, so I Googled it and found out that it is the classic “carry the bride across the threshold” position.
Yeah, it’s basically the worst way to carry someone. Just maximizing your back pain. Jacob gets away with it because he’s probably the strongest guy in the comic.
Joyce will be so insufferable after her first time.
Like this: she will be like this
TW: Lotta of screming.
Dorothy would refuse a princess carry, because that’s not an elected office.
What about Secret Service Carry?
but Queen is, on Naboo.
I love Joyce sticking out her tongue, its so adorable and silly.
perfect gravitar for this comment
Like somebody said yesterday, she’s made great strides but she’s still Joyce.
jacob is really incredibly well-adjusted around joyce and sarah considering he has had some hard weird experiences with them and not always been treated fairly in the process. good for him. nice young man
Right? Jacob is not my type (beautiful, religious, very good boy – I have too many edges, my partner needs some too), but he seems like a genuinely lovely person and I want to be his friend.
“Sorry Jacob, but your princess is on Another Treadmill!”
I thought Princess Carrie was in Star Wars!
Joyce looks SO CUTE sticking her tongue out at Joe ♥