Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
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June 14, 2026

Gender-wise

by David M Willis on January 28, 2025 at 12:01 am
  • 02 – The One Where Jocelyne Returns
└ Tags: becky, jocelyne, joyce

Discussion (162) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. Ana Chronistic
    Ana Chronistic
    January 28, 2025 at 12:01 am | #

    Flurple! Only unicorns can see it.

    • Wizard
      Wizard
      January 28, 2025 at 7:40 am | #

      You’re not missing much, it’s not a very pretty color.

    • Kazuma Taichi
      Kazuma Taichi
      January 28, 2025 at 9:08 pm | #

      well that’s cute

  2. NGPZ
    NGPZ
    January 28, 2025 at 12:01 am | #

    Riviera?

    Oh! So it matches her eyes!

    Cute! (^-^)

    • Dean
      Dean
      January 28, 2025 at 12:04 am | #

      It’s actually the same shade as Geraldo Rivera’s moustache!

      • Needfuldoer
        Needfuldoer
        January 28, 2025 at 4:13 am | #

        There was actually a lifetime supply of it in Al Capone’s vault, but he didn’t want to share so it was hidden from the cameras.

  3. Nono
    Nono
    January 28, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    You’re nailing it, Joyce.

    • Charles Phipps
      Charles Phipps
      January 28, 2025 at 12:05 am | #

      She did break into a house with her sister!

  4. Slartibeast Button, BIA
    Slartibeast Button, BIA
    January 28, 2025 at 12:03 am | #

    Borrow her clothes without permission?

    That’s something sisters do, right?

    • Opus the Poet
      Opus the Poet
      January 28, 2025 at 12:07 am | #

      According to my wife they do, yes.

    • Kimi
      Kimi
      January 28, 2025 at 2:07 am | #

      Provided you both wear the same size clothes, yes. Otherwise it is left to accessories and jewelry.
      Tbh, I think some of that comes from hand-me-downs or having jewelry that the kids could trade wearing (since kid sized). As I was the youngest child (and a skinny bean growing up), I would always get the hand-me-downs from my sister. I still sometimes do. The problem arose when I could fit it before she grew out of it and we both liked it.
      Being in a dorm with international students who would have to “downsize” their wardrobe before going back home was nice too. So many nice free shirts at the end of the year that they would dump in a cardboard box labeled “free”.

    • eh, whatever
      eh, whatever
      January 28, 2025 at 6:01 am | #

      Yes.

    • Segnosaur
      Segnosaur
      January 28, 2025 at 2:09 pm | #

      Problem with borrowing clothes is that Joyce has to worry about her jugs.

      You know, the milk-jug shoes that Carla designed for the shower.

  5. Charles Phipps
    Charles Phipps
    January 28, 2025 at 12:04 am | #

    I hope we get the Bulmeria plot and it’s a deep one.

    Because politics in the RL have been absolute crap.

    • NGPZ
      NGPZ
      January 28, 2025 at 12:15 am | #

      Bulmeria is a stand-in for Gaza and corresponding student protests just so you know

      Which is why I also kinda resent how those are being covered up by that pseudonym if I’m being honest

      • Dana
        Dana
        January 28, 2025 at 12:37 am | #

        In ten years when something else is being protested irl people reading the comic for the first time will find it more useful as fictionalized. That and Willis wrote this like a year ago so how could he know what was appropriate or not to say about Gaza now?

        • mindbleach
          mindbleach
          January 28, 2025 at 3:20 am | #

          If Murphy’s law for writing ten years ahead is that peace breaks out in the middle east…

      • Charles Phipps
        Charles Phipps
        January 28, 2025 at 12:59 am | #

        Bulmeria was also Russia when Alex became Snowden.

        It’s also a couple of other places.

        Here, it’s a stand in for Gaza but we don’t know how that will end.

      • Cholma
        Cholma
        January 28, 2025 at 1:04 am | #

        The fictional country of Bulmeria has existed in-comic since the days of Roomies! so I don’t know why you think it’s a Gaza reference. Without word from Willis himself, I’ve always assumed it was a generic African country. (since that’s where most missionaries go)

        • Nymph
          Nymph
          January 28, 2025 at 1:19 am | #

          Thisthisthisssss.

        • NGPZ
          NGPZ
          January 28, 2025 at 1:45 am | #

          true what you said about the role it’s played in the past but,

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/02-the-one-where-jocelyne-returns/carve/

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-15/02-the-one-where-jocelyne-returns/divest/

          Besides Jocelyn stating that their University invests in military contractors who’re fueling the genocide, the fact that it’s taking place in Dunn Meadow of all places references the very real Pro-Palestine protests at IU which happened just last year

          • Yumi
            Yumi
            January 28, 2025 at 8:48 am | #

            It does have parallels to Gaza, but it’s not the 1:1 reference you seem to be arguing. As for it taking place in Dunn Meadow… that’s where these things happen. You can find articles from the 90s about people gathering there to protest the Gulf War. (Gets a mention here, for instance: https://archive.is/8RtMi )

          • Tan
            Tan
            January 28, 2025 at 5:49 pm | #

            It would be nice if US weapons being used for genocide/atrocities in other countries was a one-off situation that specifically referred to a particular example rather than an evergreen general concept, but that’s not the timeline we live in.

            • Tan
              Tan
              January 28, 2025 at 5:51 pm | #

              (nicer still if it was just an unimaginable piece of fiction, of course)

        • BorkBorkBork
          BorkBorkBork
          January 28, 2025 at 2:26 am | #

          Bulmeria is eternal. Bulmeria is a stand-in for all of the stupid wars, atrocities, and injustices which are tolerated or ignored by the country perpetrating them, simply because it is far away, and those people do not look like me, and I have enough going on without worrying about something I can’t cortrol.

          In 30,000 years, when space archeologists uncover a remarkably well-preserved anthology of Dumbing of Age within clay jars in caves along the Dead Sea, they will marvel at the word of Willis and his prophecies. “Bulmeria! Is this not a stand-in for the Florxians of Rigel 7, and how the Todad are occupying them?” “No, the neckless father Saint Becky is an allegory for the todads; the Bulmerian Prophecy refers to the conquest of the Blojokats.”

          • jflb96
            jflb96
            January 28, 2025 at 6:11 am | #

            In 30 000 years the Dead Sea will be under three miles of hive city

          • Michael Steamweed
            Michael Steamweed
            January 28, 2025 at 8:31 am | #

            A religion based on all of the holey scriptchers of dumbing of age, its walky, and shortpacked, would be a convoluted thing indeed. True, the ethics and morality are pretty cut-and-dried, but the dogmatic disagreements would lead to several major schisms.

            • thejeff
              thejeff
              January 28, 2025 at 7:49 pm | #

              The originalist sect that held to young Willis’s morality from the early Roomies! would have a lot of conflicts with everyone else.

        • Dana W
          Dana W
          January 28, 2025 at 1:00 pm | #

          Its the “I don’t want the forum to disintegrate into factional screaming” country I’m guessing.

          • Charles Phipps
            Charles Phipps
            January 28, 2025 at 8:39 pm | #

            The problem was I didn’t automatically assume Jocelyn was talking about Gaza. I was confused by the Eastern European name and was wondering why Jocelyn was protesting sending weapons to Ukraine.

            • Yumi
              Yumi
              January 28, 2025 at 10:32 pm | #

              So then the problem was assuming it was a specific real world place

      • Kyulen
        Kyulen
        January 28, 2025 at 6:53 am | #

        Bulmeria has been a stand-in for a lot of countries in Willis comics over the years, some real and some fictional. I agree with you that it’s probably a stand-in for Gaza this time.

    • Nymph
      Nymph
      January 28, 2025 at 1:19 am | #

      I also hope the Bulmeria plot line ends up being really deep and interesting. Anxious about what the comment section will do, but interested still.

    • Kyulen
      Kyulen
      January 28, 2025 at 6:37 am | #

      Sadly IRL politics have been absolute crap for a lot of people for a very long time, not just recently. And I’d rather not elaborate on that.

  6. Dara
    Dara
    January 28, 2025 at 12:05 am | #

    RIVIERA – Green(tm) – “Turquoise Blue” is not fucken GREEN, mates

    what other colours do you have in your GREEN. any REDS? any REDS in your GREEN range?

    i hate branding so much xD

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      January 28, 2025 at 12:09 am | #

      It’s a brightful color. As Joyce tends to wear light color clothes, her eyes and nails are the only things with strong color.

      • Dara
        Dara
        January 28, 2025 at 12:27 am | #

        Oh I like the colour. I’m just mad they’re calling it green. It’s not. It’s not even a little. Aqua, okay, I’ll live with calling that a green. Turquoise is not green and I’m salty about it.

        • Dana
          Dana
          January 28, 2025 at 12:41 am | #

          Looks like they do have reds in their Green range. https://us.manucurist.com/products/indian-summer

          • Dara
            Dara
            January 28, 2025 at 2:44 am | #

            YAY everything is stupid! xD

            (Yes I read the other comments below saying it’s vegan and plant based. Calling it green is still stupid and looking at specifically colour products used as colourant and seeing “green” is still gonna make me salty because STOP LYING TO ME. xD )

        • HueSatLight
          HueSatLight
          January 28, 2025 at 12:45 am | #

          Green as in plant based and vegan. not a great name choice for finger nail polish. Not quite as bad as Petchow brand rat poison, though.

          • Dara
            Dara
            January 28, 2025 at 2:42 am | #

            are you making that up

            oh okay it’s a comedy skit that’s fine xD

            • neeks
              neeks
              January 28, 2025 at 6:48 am | #

              I used to work in an Amazon fulfillment center and I remember my initial confusion when trying to find a Green toy truck because the only one in the bin was blue, only to realize that was the name of the brand.

        • VicMortimer
          VicMortimer
          January 28, 2025 at 7:25 am | #

          But turquoise IS green. It’s just also blue.

          • BorkBorkBork
            BorkBorkBork
            January 28, 2025 at 4:29 pm | #

            I’m of the opinion that turquoise is neither green nor blue, in the same way that gray is neither black nor white, or orange is neither red nor yellow. It is turquoise.

            It is also a gem, in the same way that orange is a fruit and periwinkle is a flower and salmon is a fish and green is people.

        • Michael Steamweed
          Michael Steamweed
          January 28, 2025 at 8:32 am | #

          Marketing is one of the stupidest forces in capitalism. 🙁

          • NGPZ
            NGPZ
            January 28, 2025 at 7:16 pm | #

            that it is, and that stupidity is a direct result of the very premise that makes capitalism capitalism:

            that products and services are developed not directly for usability, but first and foremost for profit; under capitalism, goods and services are only made for use indirectly in theory, however as we’ve seen then and now, this is HARDLY always the way it turns out in practice :/

            • thejeff
              thejeff
              January 28, 2025 at 7:52 pm | #

              “under capitalism”?

              This is hardly original to capitalism. Unless capitalism covers most of written history.

              • NGPZ
                NGPZ
                January 28, 2025 at 10:49 pm | #

                um, no?

                hunter-gatherer societies were/are those in which products and processes were developed primarily for use, even with intention to barter, as before the invention of money it was not nearly as common on account of the need for double coincidence of wants, at a time when human populations were not nearly as large as they were today

                the widespread practice of production oriented primarily for profit was a result of the introduction of stores of universally accepted value to use in future trade (money), specifically emergent desire to acquire massive surpluses of value to acquire ownership of capital

                • NGPZ
                  NGPZ
                  January 28, 2025 at 11:02 pm | #

                  no less than socialism and capitalism, hunter-gatherer and traditional economies of eras past are still economies, even though the latter two are not oriented towards growth and development (in traditional economies such as that in Medieval Europe, even with the invention of money, prices for commodities were not set by their producers but fixed via legal fiat)

                • thejeff
                  thejeff
                  January 29, 2025 at 7:57 am | #

                  HG societies don’t fall under written history, so you’re basically agreeing there.
                  “traditional economy” seems a very broad term covering a huge variety of systems – everything between hunter-gatherers and whenever we say capitalism starts.
                  Prices being set by legal fiat doesn’t mean people don’t do things for profit. There’s also a lot of room I think between “primarily for use” and “primarily for profit”. The staggering amount of wealth held by the upper classes in antiquity and medieval periods seems to belie a “primarily for use”. The elites were acquiring massive surpluses of value even in those traditional economies of the past, even if the peasants weren’t far from subsistence agriculture.

        • Doxkid
          Doxkid
          January 29, 2025 at 12:04 am | #

          Turquoise is a green and I will die on this hill.

    • Stevonnie
      Stevonnie
      January 28, 2025 at 12:41 am | #

      There are, in fact, many red polishes in the Green™ range! Which is so named because it’s vegan, largely plant-based, and allegedly better for people and the environment than other polishes.

      (I have no idea whether any of that holds water, but it doesn’t bother me that it’s using a different sense of “green” than the color.)

      • Dara
        Dara
        January 28, 2025 at 2:46 am | #

        They’re still gonna be using acetone and the thing is acetone is produced by animals including humans so you can say its totes organic and natural but that still doesn’t actually make it good for you xD

        • VicMortimer
          VicMortimer
          January 28, 2025 at 7:28 am | #

          Well of course acetone is organic. There’s carbon in it.

        • Tan
          Tan
          January 28, 2025 at 6:56 pm | #

          According to their website: “Can be removed at home, without acetone, by rubbing “

      • Proxiehunter
        Proxiehunter
        January 28, 2025 at 3:39 pm | #

        Wonder if it contains as much plastic as vegan plant based alternatives to leather do.

    • Thing2
      Thing2
      January 28, 2025 at 1:20 am | #

      I get ya, I really do, even if ‘green’ turns out to be a brand name. When the ‘rainbow’ spectrum of colours were quantified and named, the one after (lime) green was called “blue” but actually it was cyan/turquoise, call it what you will, and the next one (Indigo) was what we now call blue. People draw it as purple, but violet is the purple one. But then they are drawing with pigment, not light. So when people get in an argument about where green stops and blue begins, just direct them to cyan/turquoise/aqua. Then they can argue where green or blue ends and cyan begins!

      • Kimi
        Kimi
        January 28, 2025 at 2:18 am | #

        Why if I really get specific with my favorite color, I say crayola crayon cerulean, as it can vary in what it looks like depending on who is defining it. Copper solutions (like copper sulfate or copper chloride) can sometimes be the color I am looking for too, though that can vary in its color.

      • Dara
        Dara
        January 28, 2025 at 2:47 am | #

        It is, turns out, but it’s still just … I’m looking at a blue, the biggest word and the only specifically colour word on the label is GREEN in all caps. I’m looking at a red, and the biggest word and the only specifically colour word on the label is GREEN in all caps.

        STOP LYING TO ME

        that’s all I’m saying. stoppit. i hate it. xD

        • Nymph
          Nymph
          January 28, 2025 at 11:08 pm | #

          This comment looks like it should be a poem. It isn’t, but it could be with a little polish.

    • Kimi
      Kimi
      January 28, 2025 at 2:13 am | #

      I have seen greenish turquoise, but that turquoise is not green. Their azure also isn’t very azure (saphir).
      I knew someone who thought that school buses and lines on the road were orange instead of yellow.

    • Max
      Max
      January 28, 2025 at 2:20 am | #

      You might like the site:
      ismy.blue
      I learned that I’m 83% green.That means I see more green than blue. So I might see Riviera as green.

      • Michael Steamweed
        Michael Steamweed
        January 28, 2025 at 8:36 am | #

        I had not known of that website. Turns out I’m at 80%. Turquoise is def blue. Thanks!

      • Kimi
        Kimi
        January 29, 2025 at 12:01 am | #

        Your screen color settings could affect that.

    • eh, whatever
      eh, whatever
      January 28, 2025 at 6:06 am | #

      It’s neither green nor blue. It’s in between. It’s turquoise.

      • Mark
        Mark
        January 28, 2025 at 6:44 am | #

        Grue. Or maybe bleen.

        • Michael Steamweed
          Michael Steamweed
          January 28, 2025 at 8:38 am | #

          No, not the Grue! :O

          *promptly gets eaten

          • Proxiehunter
            Proxiehunter
            January 28, 2025 at 3:42 pm | #

            Should have carried a flashlight.

            • Michael Steamweed
              Michael Steamweed
              January 28, 2025 at 4:54 pm | #

              Dang! I always forget that!

      • Kimi
        Kimi
        January 29, 2025 at 12:04 am | #

        I mean, there is a reason why we call things blue-green or red-orange. Sometimes it is more one than another but othertimes it is basically halfway in between and is neither. It would be like asking if something is blue or yellow when it is green.

    • Mark
      Mark
      January 28, 2025 at 6:42 am | #

      I’ve long since lost any ability to care about color names in the business world since they obviously don’t make any sense. My theory is that most color names today are the result of somebody drinking too much absinthe. Just give me the HLS coord.s please.

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        January 28, 2025 at 2:13 pm | #

        Ah Absinthe, the Sea Foam fairy.

        Riviera (sample from screenshot):
        Hue: 187
        Sat: 48.7%
        Lightness: 61%

    • Leadsynth
      Leadsynth
      January 29, 2025 at 8:17 am | #

      Sometimes what looks blue in the bottle turns out looking a lot more green when it’s on human-colored nails. It’s happened to me!

  7. Suet
    Suet
    January 28, 2025 at 12:06 am | #

    Those two need a full-on sleepover. Make-up isn’t enough of a sistery thing.

    Riviera? I’m starting to think blue is Joyce’s fave color

    • Michael Steamweed
      Michael Steamweed
      January 28, 2025 at 8:38 am | #

      With _those_ eyes? Nah. 😀

  8. Amós Batista
    Amós Batista
    January 28, 2025 at 12:06 am | #

    No, pls! Come back, Jocelyne.

  9. Yumi
    Yumi
    January 28, 2025 at 12:09 am | #

    Jocelyne walks outside, and Ruth and Jennifer are still at the steps, staring at each other in silence.

    • clif
      clif
      January 28, 2025 at 1:19 am | #

      Mandatory Damn You Willis!

    • Pergola
      Pergola
      January 28, 2025 at 10:18 am | #

      Booster limps away with a bruised ass.

  10. Claire
    Claire
    January 28, 2025 at 12:10 am | #

    Great art joke here.

    • Thomas
      Thomas
      January 28, 2025 at 3:44 am | #

      Nice pun likewise.

      Willis delivering a double punch with two very subtle jokes.

  11. Dante
    Dante
    January 28, 2025 at 12:12 am | #

    I do have a little sister. I dye her hair and she steals my clothes, but also we just… Listen to each other in good times and bad, and spend time together doing whatever, including having fun meals. I do things like Jocelyne’s this weekend, and she doesn’t participate on but she supports me.

    Joyce is doing more than alright :33

  12. Cassie
    Cassie
    January 28, 2025 at 12:13 am | #

    Honestly? Yeah, you probably should’ve. Painted nails really are affirming as heck, and having someone else to teach you makeup is so fucking nice.

    • a/snow/mous/e
      a/snow/mous/e
      January 28, 2025 at 12:16 am | #

      Maybe Joyce can bring nail polish to the tent…

      • NGPZ
        NGPZ
        January 28, 2025 at 12:30 am | #

        and some marshmallows and hotdogs ^^

        • a/snow/mous/e
          a/snow/mous/e
          January 28, 2025 at 3:00 pm | #

          I suppose technically Jocelyne is on a camping trip… 😛

    • Doopyboop
      Doopyboop
      January 28, 2025 at 1:27 am | #

      Painting nails is also fun with another person. When my mom was alive, she and I would help paint each other nails since she was lefthanded and I’m righthanded, so we were able to help paint each other’s dominant hands.

    • Kimi
      Kimi
      January 28, 2025 at 2:22 am | #

      Painting nails is funn but I fidget too much for mine to last any length of time. I would love someone to teach me about makeup, since that sounds like it could be fun.
      Doing henna tattoos on each other can be a fun experience too. If you aren’t that great at freehanding on a non-flat surface, you can use wet paper with a stencil (cut out where the henna would go). I did a really nice rose on someone’s shoulder that way.

  13. Rose by Any other Name
    Rose by Any other Name
    January 28, 2025 at 12:18 am | #

    I love the casual interaction between Joyce and Becky in the final panel.
    Like, I have no profound observations or anything. Just really love that moment of casual friendship.

    • Grimey
      Grimey
      January 28, 2025 at 12:29 am | #

      Same. It’s such a casual reminder that yes, friendships never have to die they just change in dynamics.

  14. BBCC
    BBCC
    January 28, 2025 at 12:18 am | #

    If it’s the same riviera that comes up on google (matches her glasses) then yeah, it IS a nice colour.

  15. HueSatLight
    HueSatLight
    January 28, 2025 at 12:27 am | #

    She’d have to ask Carla how to do make-up.

    • HueSatLight
      HueSatLight
      January 28, 2025 at 12:30 am | #

      The fingernail polish meta-joke though. It’s familiar, but last time they left it ambiguous if Joyce was wearing any, iirc. just trying to remember who she was talking to.

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        January 28, 2025 at 10:39 am | #

        >a href=”ttps://www.dumbingofage.com/commune/#sidebar-overblog”>Bonus strip June 2018

        • HueSatLight
          HueSatLight
          January 28, 2025 at 10:41 am | #

          le sigh.
          Bonus Strip June 2018

  16. IntangibleMatter
    IntangibleMatter
    January 28, 2025 at 12:29 am | #

    Aside from the sweetness of the comic, panel 2 Becky looks uncannily Sonic-esque in that pose.

  17. DailyBrad
    DailyBrad
    January 28, 2025 at 12:32 am | #

    There will be time for nails later, which is good, because nail polish is so goddamn fun and interesting.

  18. AnonGrouch
    AnonGrouch
    January 28, 2025 at 12:41 am | #

    Man I hate it when actual plot gets interrupted for no fucking reason. It’s not even a good tease, it’s not even a weekend cliffhanger, it’s just…. Whatever this is

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      January 28, 2025 at 12:46 am | #

      Cry

      • AnonGrouch
        AnonGrouch
        January 28, 2025 at 11:29 pm | #

        The only thing I’m crying about is you missing a perfectly good opportunity to say ‘it is Tuesday’

    • clif
      clif
      January 28, 2025 at 1:21 am | #

      This is plot. It may not be the plot we wanted, but plot it is.

      • Nymph
        Nymph
        January 28, 2025 at 1:22 am | #

        It’s the plot I wanted.

    • Nymph
      Nymph
      January 28, 2025 at 1:22 am | #

      Buddy idk how to tell you this but… interpersonal relationships ARE the plot in this comic.

      • AnonGrouch
        AnonGrouch
        January 28, 2025 at 11:24 pm | #

        And I was watching one particular interpersonal relationship that had quite a good moment get friggin cutawayed.

    • NGPZ
      NGPZ
      January 28, 2025 at 1:50 am | #

      … a slice of life comic having a slice of life?

      ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        January 28, 2025 at 2:41 am | #

        Unprecedented

    • Queezle
      Queezle
      January 28, 2025 at 3:23 am | #

      What do you mean? What makes this less “plot” then the Jennifer/Ruth thing from yesterday or the Sarah and Booster thing for before?

      • AnonGrouch
        AnonGrouch
        January 28, 2025 at 11:25 pm | #

        the sarah booster thing was also plot and i’m annoyed at it being cut away too.

    • Caro
      Caro
      January 28, 2025 at 10:59 am | #

      it’s a willis strip. if you don’t like the meta humor how have you survived this guy’s whole career

    • HueSatLight
      HueSatLight
      January 28, 2025 at 12:36 pm | #

      The reason is to let time advance in the story we just left, without us watching it, and to advance other stories that are happening the same day.

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        January 28, 2025 at 1:16 pm | #

        Were gonna get back to Billie and Ruth tomorrow night and they’re still gonna be staring at each other.

        • HueSatLight
          HueSatLight
          January 28, 2025 at 1:45 pm | #

          One strip in between is rookie numbers. Let’s see them still staring at each other tomorrow night, comic time.

      • AnonGrouch
        AnonGrouch
        January 28, 2025 at 11:24 pm | #

        off screening emotional impact is bad writing.

  19. Taffy
    Taffy
    January 28, 2025 at 12:51 am | #

    I love it when the comic takes the time to show these characters just being friends and having normal conversations. It keeps things from feeling overly dire.

  20. Pocky
    Pocky
    January 28, 2025 at 12:58 am | #

    get yo nails dun gurl

  21. Charles Phipps
    Charles Phipps
    January 28, 2025 at 1:00 am | #

    I fully believe Joyce will show up to the protest and turn it into a riot by assaulting a cop.

    Dorothy will end up in jail and think it finally frees her from Presidency (but will be good for her profile)

    • Michael Steamweed
      Michael Steamweed
      January 28, 2025 at 8:42 am | #

      Dorothy becomes the second president to have prior convictions.

  22. Cloud
    Cloud
    January 28, 2025 at 1:23 am | #

    Current Joyce is the sibling I need

    • Cloud
      Cloud
      January 28, 2025 at 1:24 am | #

      I have no idea how to select gravitars, send help.

      • Slartibeast Button, BIA
        Slartibeast Button, BIA
        January 28, 2025 at 2:03 am | #

        Change the capitalization of your email you use to comment.

        cloud@example.com will get one avatar.
        Cloud@example.com will get a different avatar.
        cLoud@example.com will get a third avatar.
        etc.

        Pedantically a gravatar is an avatar you set for yourself with your email address at gravatar.com which will then show up hear and other places. (It has something to do with wordpress.com also.)

        You can set any picture you supply there. That is how I’ve got that picture of Bear from the anime .hack//SIGN there.

        (I assume there are *some* limits on what picture you can use, like nothing obscene or associated with hate literature, etc.)

        • HueSatLight
          HueSatLight
          January 28, 2025 at 4:29 pm | #

          Gravatar/Wordpress lets you set “ratings” for your gravatars. This forum uses the G rated ones. It’s all self-assigned though. I could set my “PG” avatar as G and it would show up.

  23. Vanessa
    Vanessa
    January 28, 2025 at 1:24 am | #

    Such a nice little moment.

  24. Thomas
    Thomas
    January 28, 2025 at 1:30 am | #

    See, it’s funny because Nice is on the Riviera.

    If only she painted her nails Warszawa Blue… **that** would be some actual polish!

    • Michael Steamweed
      Michael Steamweed
      January 28, 2025 at 8:43 am | #

      I had not seen what he did there. But now, thank to you, I see what he did there. And I see what you did there.

      • Thomas
        Thomas
        January 28, 2025 at 12:02 pm | #

        He’s done it before. The colour of Joyce’s glasses came up. I was not quick enough to spot it back then. Not sure if I can claim credit here if I needed someone to point it out to me earlier.

        • Michael Steamweed
          Michael Steamweed
          January 28, 2025 at 4:55 pm | #

          If we have seen further, it was by standing on the shoulders of giants.
          😀

  25. jeffepp
    jeffepp
    January 28, 2025 at 1:36 am | #

    Joyce had to be reminded she’s a girl.

  26. Queezle
    Queezle
    January 28, 2025 at 2:02 am | #

    Awww Joyce. Joyce is being adorable.
    I hope we see more of Jocelyne in the comic. I like her and I like her relationship with Joyce.

  27. BadRoad
    BadRoad
    January 28, 2025 at 2:21 am | #

    Is it possible to get an A+ in “Trans Ally” or normal to want one?

    • DoverianDragoon
      DoverianDragoon
      January 28, 2025 at 5:52 am | #

      Possible? Yes.
      Normal to want? … Wish I could say it was, but I’m hoping it becomes normal real soon.

      • Mark
        Mark
        January 28, 2025 at 6:58 am | #

        I’m gonna stick my neck out and say I hope it doesn’t. I hope it soon becomes normal to treat people as individuals and let them be who they are.

        Mind, I don’t expect that anytime soon, but that’s what I’d like.

      • Yumi
        Yumi
        January 28, 2025 at 8:53 am | #

        It’s possible? Who’s in charge of the grading? Is there a rubric?

    • Thomas
      Thomas
      January 28, 2025 at 6:18 pm | #

      It’s not that Joyce desperately wants the Rainbow Unicorn sticker that you get for performing A+ Allyship, it’s just that she’s afraid to do anything wrong and possibly hurt her sister. But yeah, I guess trying to be an ally comes with overdoing it in the learning stage.

  28. Nothri
    Nothri
    January 28, 2025 at 3:12 am | #

    Fretting about what affirming fun thing you could have done better is like the best possible problem to have in this situation, Joyce. Put it on your bucket list for stuff to do next visit.

  29. darkoneko
    darkoneko
    January 28, 2025 at 4:23 am | #

    Becky’s colourblind ?

    • Daibhid C
      Daibhid C
      January 28, 2025 at 5:34 am | #

      If being unable to identify the made-up colour names of nail polishes by sight classifies you as colour blind then sure, her and me both.

    • S.R.
      S.R.
      January 29, 2025 at 11:18 pm | #

      Nail polish colors have all sorts of names. It’s never just “blue” or “green” like you can see with your eyes.

  30. Rowan
    Rowan
    January 28, 2025 at 4:33 am | #

    This feels like the first time in ages that Becky and Joyce have hung out by themselves! Hope they get a good friend catch up in.

  31. Da Boy
    Da Boy
    January 28, 2025 at 4:46 am | #

    For what Jocelyne will be doing in the next couple of days Joyce should have fashioned her with some Lightning Claws instead.

  32. Kyulen
    Kyulen
    January 28, 2025 at 6:43 am | #

    Joyce, you don’t have to do stereotypical “girly” things to affirm your sister’s gender. You’ve already done pretty good just by accepting her for who she is.

    And while I kinda want to see some of Jocelyne at the Bulmeria protests, I get the feeling that would result in a lot of arguing in the comments, so I’m also fine if we don’t get to see that.

  33. ValdVin
    ValdVin
    January 28, 2025 at 7:16 am | #

    I was gonna say I’d never seen Joyce in makeup excepting the Drank Caper.

    Then I realized, “Wait, is the meta joke about how Willis doesn’t draw fingernails?”

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      January 28, 2025 at 8:05 am | #

      Stop making up anatomy

      • ValdVin
        ValdVin
        January 28, 2025 at 12:08 pm | #

        Peridot: Where are our noses?
        Steven: Oh, that’s kinda part of my style lately.
        Peridot: Is not having fingers also your style?

    • Michael Steamweed
      Michael Steamweed
      January 28, 2025 at 8:44 am | #

      Freckles, yes. Fingernails, no.

  34. thumb
    thumb
    January 28, 2025 at 7:38 am | #

    Willis needs to give us an occasional Ren & Stimpy style closeup.

    It’d get in the way of the buffer though, and we need to bring that up to three years or what are we (i.e. Willis) even doing?

    • Thomas
      Thomas
      January 28, 2025 at 6:25 pm | #

      Preferably of Joyce’s gnarly toenail that she stubbed in the gym! 😀

      …or maybe we don’t want anything to do with Ren & Stimpy and their problematic creator. Yikes.

  35. Michael Steamweed
    Michael Steamweed
    January 28, 2025 at 8:24 am | #

    I see freckles on Becky. But I see no painted fingernails on Joyce.

    Freckles are smaller than fingernails.

    Mr. Willis, I look upon you with judgement.

    😀

    • Whirlakitty
      Whirlakitty
      January 28, 2025 at 9:25 am | #

      This is why Becky needs to ask which color she painted them. 🙂

    • thumb
      thumb
      January 28, 2025 at 1:30 pm | #

      Sure sure, BUT she’s got way more freckles than nails. So at this level of detail, the freckles average out to “a few” and the fingernails average out to “take my word for it, bro”.

      That’s just math.

  36. Schpoonman
    Schpoonman
    January 28, 2025 at 10:06 am | #

    I thought Riviera was going to be roughly the same shade of skin that Joyce has before the alt-text and art style got me.

  37. BorkBorkBork
    BorkBorkBork
    January 28, 2025 at 10:21 am | #

    Joyce, it’s 2025. Technically, you could’a done her nails before she even introduced her as Jocelene. Though it would’ve made your parents lose their shit all the same.

  38. Dana W
    Dana W
    January 28, 2025 at 1:04 pm | #

    For me its Sally Hansen Xtreme wear Pacific Blue. Cheap, cheerful and it wears like iron.

  39. HueSatLight
    HueSatLight
    January 28, 2025 at 1:35 pm | #

    Which of her friends have sisters, so she can ask them what sisters do? Is it just Sarah? So sisters swoop in on potential suitors. That’s already covered.

    • Gigafreak
      Gigafreak
      January 28, 2025 at 1:51 pm | #

      Does Walky count as a friend? Because his sister is Sal and that’s a hard act to follow

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        January 28, 2025 at 2:20 pm | #

        Walky’s like the last person she needs sister advice from. His sister might be Sal, but he sucked as a brother for ~99% of their lives.

        • Charles Phipps
          Charles Phipps
          January 28, 2025 at 2:32 pm | #

          To be fair, he was a child while she was gone.

          • Taffy
            Taffy
            January 28, 2025 at 4:06 pm | #

            He was also a child during the 13 years she wasn’t gone, and the flashbacks don’t make him look great during those either.

            • Rotunda
              Rotunda
              January 28, 2025 at 8:32 pm | #

              Five years, ages 13-18 for both of them.

              • Nymph
                Nymph
                January 28, 2025 at 11:00 pm | #

                Taffy said “the 13 she wasn’t gone.”

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        January 28, 2025 at 2:59 pm | #

        Walky doesn’t count because nobody’s stabbed Jocelyne through the hand, so who would Joyce dry hump? “What do sisters do with each other” implied, but that’s secondary to no knife maniac to dry hump.

    • Yumi
      Yumi
      January 28, 2025 at 7:28 pm | #

      Well… she could ask Roz?
      Honestly, I think that’d be funny considering other recent inquiries made of Roz… she’d definitely assume it was time for more Sex Talk as a tangle of misunderstandings built.

  40. Romanticide
    Romanticide
    January 28, 2025 at 11:55 pm | #

    A makeup brand released a eyeshadow palette with the name Riviera and the colors were super cute https://www.temptalia.com/product/anastasia-eyeshadow-palette/riviera/

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