Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
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this subversion of book 9's title was bound to happen eventually
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July 11, 2026

Bright pink

by David M Willis on June 23, 2025 at 12:01 am
  • 04 – The Only Exception
└ Tags: dorothy, joyce

Discussion (207) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. Claire
    Claire
    June 23, 2025 at 12:02 am | # | Reply Report comment

    You go girls!!! I’m nervous for them

  2. Pocky
    Pocky
    June 23, 2025 at 12:03 am | # | Reply Report comment

    I wonder how much harder of a time Carla would have tellin them apart now.

    • Savail
      Savail
      June 23, 2025 at 12:05 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Don’t be ridiculous; Joyce is the one with the jugs!

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      June 23, 2025 at 12:13 am | # | Reply Report comment

      I think Carla is more attentive to people she thinks are queer, so now that she’s picked up on the subtext that is rapidly becoming text I think she might have dedicated some more mental space to remembering these two.

  3. katerly
    katerly
    June 23, 2025 at 12:03 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Oooooh they’ve been kettled

    • not someone else
      not someone else
      June 23, 2025 at 12:04 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Hahaeeheheohdear…

    • AlexanderHammil
      AlexanderHammil
      June 23, 2025 at 12:16 am | # | Reply Report comment

      fenced in, not kettled. kettling’s down with bodies, not barriers

      • katerly
        katerly
        June 23, 2025 at 12:18 am | # | Reply Report comment

        I thought it was a universal term.
        The more you know

        • Dara
          Dara
          June 23, 2025 at 1:01 am | # | Reply Report comment

          It can be both. They’ll bring fences with them sometimes, or have a fence area set up and use bodies for the rest.

    • Jim Campbell
      Jim Campbell
      June 23, 2025 at 1:25 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Oh good. They can make a nice cup of tea. /s

  4. IntangibleMatter
    IntangibleMatter
    June 23, 2025 at 12:03 am | # | Reply Report comment

    I, too, hope to continue feeling this exact portion alive, Joyce.

    Any more alive and I’d probably be insufferable.

  5. Rose by Any other Name
    Rose by Any other Name
    June 23, 2025 at 12:04 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Oh! The way they put their arms around eachother there at the end.
    My sapphic heart is aflutter!

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      June 23, 2025 at 12:12 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Didn’t figured out how they are holding hands when entering the camp.
      Are they walking all the way from campus like this?

      • Nymph
        Nymph
        June 23, 2025 at 5:43 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Yeah, they’re holding hands and walking to the protest, then they get there and put their arms around each other. What needs figuring out about that?

    • Tan
      Tan
      June 23, 2025 at 12:18 am | # | Reply Report comment

      It somewhat mirrors the pose of the original line. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/subterfuge/

  6. Sisyphus
    Sisyphus
    June 23, 2025 at 12:04 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Ominous fence closing

    • Rose by Any other Name
      Rose by Any other Name
      June 23, 2025 at 12:06 am | # | Reply Report comment

      I didn’t even catch that until you mentioned it. Thanks. I think?

      • Sisyphus
        Sisyphus
        June 23, 2025 at 12:07 am | # | Reply Report comment

        It’ll be fine. I’m sure nothing will come of this powderkeg in a cage

        • Sirksome
          Sirksome
          June 23, 2025 at 12:13 am | # | Reply Report comment

          This is clearly a very peaceful protest. Just young, passionate citizens and students camping out and exercising their rights. I’m sure the local authorities are ran by rational and experienced leadership that have well trained officers instructed to de-escalate and not resort to armed force at the slightest of provocation. Everything will be fine.

          • Uly
            Uly
            June 23, 2025 at 12:30 am | # | Reply Report comment

            We’ve definitely learned better since Kent State.

          • Steamweed
            Steamweed
            June 23, 2025 at 8:56 am | # | Reply Report comment

            Tony’s father seems to be a quite level-headed administrator who does not react inappropriately. However, various law enforcement groups may act on their own without going through him. (local, county, and state police groups)

            • vulcanodon
              vulcanodon
              June 23, 2025 at 4:21 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              Or vigilantes. Some teenager from the next state over maybe.

    • RassilonTDavros
      RassilonTDavros
      June 23, 2025 at 12:11 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Oh shit, you’re right. Do they close automatically, or is it the wind or something? Or maybe it’s someone pushing a button from a distance, since there doesn’t seem to be anyone shutting them directly.

      • Thag Simmons
        Thag Simmons
        June 23, 2025 at 12:14 am | # | Reply Report comment

        There’s the silhouette of a person closing the gate.

        • Tan
          Tan
          June 23, 2025 at 12:24 am | # | Reply Report comment

          It looks to me less like someone closing a gate and more like someone putting up a fence, though I could be wrong

          • Taffy
            Taffy
            June 23, 2025 at 12:36 am | # | Reply Report comment

            A really shitty fence, at that. No supports on the corners, it’s just kinda stood there. Looks easy to knock over.

          • Thag Simmons
            Thag Simmons
            June 23, 2025 at 1:02 am | # | Reply Report comment

            Yeah. I can’t defend missing the angle of the fence segment in the third panel, but it’s a little hard to tell what side of the fence those wheels are on.

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        June 23, 2025 at 12:19 am | # | Reply Report comment

        there’s a figure in panel 4 moving the fence. The red sign looks like it’s an ex post facto application of a county ordinance.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      June 23, 2025 at 12:14 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Hey uh, someone more familiar with the geography of the IU campus, is there normally a big fence in this park?

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        June 23, 2025 at 12:50 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Is there normally a big fence being haphazardly placed by a rando with a wagonload of fence segments? No, probably not.

        • Thag Simmons
          Thag Simmons
          June 23, 2025 at 1:01 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Oh, that is a wagon. My first assumption was wheeled gate, which it clearly isn’t on second look.

          • Taffy
            Taffy
            June 23, 2025 at 1:03 am | # | Reply Report comment

            It might be a trailer attached to a small vehicle, too. Maybe a quad bike or buggy.

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        June 23, 2025 at 12:53 am | # | Reply Report comment

        There was for a while, following the anti-genocide protests. It was removed in December, after 136 days.

    • Kyulen
      Kyulen
      June 23, 2025 at 12:32 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Hopefully there’s another way out of the area.

    • Steamweed
      Steamweed
      June 23, 2025 at 8:53 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Soon as they show up, suddenly a chainlink fence?? :O

      • Proxiehunter
        Proxiehunter
        June 23, 2025 at 6:29 pm | # | Reply Report comment

        To the tune of “Suddenly Seymour” ♪ ♪Suddenly chain link is closing behind you♪ ♪

  7. mindbleach
    mindbleach
    June 23, 2025 at 12:04 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Again, hoping for a protest sign like ‘Can you imagine if our leader was the villain in every movie, at least shit’s not that bad.’

    Fiction should be aspirational.

    • Torgamous
      Torgamous
      June 23, 2025 at 5:44 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Yes, all the best protest signs are both incoherent and conciliatory.

  8. Nadamás
    Nadamás
    June 23, 2025 at 12:06 am | # | Reply Report comment

    For some reason panel 4 make me think of a point and click adventure game. That actually woild be pretty neat.

    • TheFungus
      TheFungus
      June 23, 2025 at 12:26 am | # | Reply Report comment

      I was a bit hesitant to point it out at first for i would hope obvious reasons but it reminds me a bit of Disco Elysium. There’s been a shift from the familiar warmth of the college dorms to the sobering cold reality of the snow painted canvas of Dunn Meadow immediately took me back to Revachol. It’s taking me a lot not to snap into a long winded faux DE monologue that would probably be way lamer than cool.

      • Nadamás
        Nadamás
        June 23, 2025 at 12:32 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Omg i love disco Elysium! Making a dumbing of age AU would be pretty cool.

        • Proxiehunter
          Proxiehunter
          June 23, 2025 at 6:32 pm | # | Reply Report comment

          Jennifer/Billy in the role of Harry Du Bois?

      • Kyulen
        Kyulen
        June 23, 2025 at 12:57 am | # | Reply Report comment

        I love that game.

    • NGPZ
      NGPZ
      June 23, 2025 at 3:35 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Examine Tent:

      This ain't no Yuru Camp we walkin' into.

      • Needfuldoer
        Needfuldoer
        June 23, 2025 at 6:24 pm | # | Reply Report comment

        Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS.

        What wouldst thou deau?

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      June 23, 2025 at 9:29 am | # | Reply Report comment

      > GET FLASK

      Ye can’t get ye flask!

  9. Lodum
    Lodum
    June 23, 2025 at 12:06 am | # | Reply Report comment

    AH! THE FONT IS DIFFERENT!

    • David M Willis
      David M Willis
      June 23, 2025 at 12:12 am | # | Reply Report comment

      It is not!

      • Kevin K
        Kevin K
        June 23, 2025 at 12:22 am | # | Reply Report comment

        It’s the increased resolution. The font renders a bit differently.

        • TheFungus
          TheFungus
          June 23, 2025 at 12:31 am | # | Reply Report comment

          oh SNAP WE’RE HD!!!

          • Yumi
            Yumi
            June 23, 2025 at 12:48 am | # | Reply Report comment

            DUN DUN DUNNNN (Meadow)

            • Steamweed
              Steamweed
              June 23, 2025 at 8:58 am | # | Reply Report comment

              +1 point to you

        • Lingo
          Lingo
          June 23, 2025 at 12:32 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Time for a new font then!

        • Lodum
          Lodum
          June 23, 2025 at 12:40 am | # | Reply Report comment

          I thought that might be it!

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      June 23, 2025 at 3:46 am | # | Reply Report comment

      it’s the same hamburger, but crispier

    • Lodum
      Lodum
      June 24, 2025 at 2:04 am | # | Reply Report comment

      THE FONT IS UNDIFFERENT NOW

      • Lodum
        Lodum
        June 24, 2025 at 2:07 am | # | Reply Report comment

        The resolution is now the normal resomoultion, too.

  10. Sirksome
    Sirksome
    June 23, 2025 at 12:07 am | # | Reply Report comment

    They seem dangerous. Better call the marines to stop them.

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 23, 2025 at 12:31 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Probably gonna have to nuke the campus, just to be sure. It looks like someone’s got a drink kettle or something, over by that tent. It’s probably full of bombs and emails, better to just wipe it off the map.

  11. Amós Batista
    Amós Batista
    June 23, 2025 at 12:07 am | # | Reply Report comment

    last panel resume my fears when I went to a protest first time

  12. Joe Moose
    Joe Moose
    June 23, 2025 at 12:09 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Oh no, that sudden appearance of fencing is worrying.

  13. Jon
    Jon
    June 23, 2025 at 12:09 am | # | Reply Report comment

    So there wasn’t…like, a REAL reason to go contact Jocelyne, in person, immediately. Right?

    Sure her dad recognized her, but I feel like if Joyce & Dorothy weren’t prepared for this, it was a pretty reckless thing to do.

    Yeah yeah I know, not called smarting of age blah blah blah

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      June 23, 2025 at 12:11 am | # | Reply Report comment

      It seemed like a thing Joss urgently needed to know, and I don’t think Joyce is fully cognizant of the danger. Dorothy probably is, but she’s also not the one leading here.

      • Bash
        Bash
        June 23, 2025 at 12:58 am | # | Reply Report comment

        What was the thing she needed to know urgently? I’m not following.

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          June 23, 2025 at 1:01 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Her dad saw a photo of her.

    • Llamo
      Llamo
      June 23, 2025 at 12:53 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Protest op-sec says no phones to avoid tracking. Going in person was the only way to guarantee contact within the next few hours.

      • Jon
        Jon
        June 23, 2025 at 1:10 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Yes I’m aware of that, but why? What purpose does it serve to tell Jocelyne her dad might’ve seen her on the news?

        I mean to tell her RIGHT NOW, as opposed to in five hours or whenever she meets up with them/checks her phone again.

        At the very least, it feels like it would be the last thing on her mind in the midst of a protest.

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          June 23, 2025 at 1:23 am | # | Reply Report comment

          It moves the plot along.

        • Radiance
          Radiance
          June 23, 2025 at 1:41 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Among other reasons: in case the dad in question responds by coming there in person. (Or if anyone else sees them. Were I in Jocelyne’s position, I’d be worried about some kiwifarms types crawling out of the woodwork. Possibly in some kind of laughable supervillain cosplay.)

          • Astariel
            Astariel
            June 23, 2025 at 10:23 am | # | Reply Report comment

            Why would he drive four hours to show up in person because he saw a photo of her at a protest? And what would happen if he did? She lives independently, so he can’t threaten to kick her out. She’s not dressed femme, so her being trans probably isn’t going to come up. I may be missing something, but it seems to me that Joyce panicked and isn’t thinking things through.

            • Taffy
              Taffy
              June 23, 2025 at 5:58 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              I agree with the vibe that Joyce is overreacting out of panic. I sorta wonder if whatever commotion is coming wouldn’t be coming if she’d thought about it for a few more seconds before going in all guns blazin’.

            • Proxiehunter
              Proxiehunter
              June 23, 2025 at 6:34 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              How out of character for Joyce to panic and not think things through. And in the comic Smarting of Age too.

      • NGPZ
        NGPZ
        June 23, 2025 at 4:23 am | # | Reply Report comment

        like I heard you could just put your phone in air-plane mode to made sure the tracking shit don’t happen, is this true? :0

        • Nymph
          Nymph
          June 23, 2025 at 5:50 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Some phones still have GPS running even in airplane mode, or are capable of storing location data for later retrieval, and I just generally don’t trust companies to be honest about what data they do and do not collect and/or pass on to the authorities.

        • Steamweed
          Steamweed
          June 23, 2025 at 9:01 am | # | Reply Report comment

          GPT-based tracking does still happen in airplane mode. It doesn’t transmit out at that time, but the data remains on the phone. When next the phone is connection-enabled, any on-phone apps that share location data (metadata, etc) will immediately begin transmitting that data. If the phone is seized, law enforcement, et al, can find the location tracking data on it.

          • NGPZ
            NGPZ
            June 23, 2025 at 1:41 pm | # | Reply Report comment

            like, strictly speaking, whether or not you have your phone on you, whatever they want to know they have other ways of knowing. while it’s important to care about privacy in general, it’s also important to be realistic

            also I’m just gonna say it because it seems it really needs to be said —

            the idea the governments are all-seeing, all-knowing, etc, is Nazi propaganda

            • Taffy
              Taffy
              June 23, 2025 at 2:18 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              I’m a little curious, since it’s being discussed. If my location data is there, don’t the pigs have to suspect me of being there in the first place for that to matter? And then we need to consider how many people walk past a protest while it’s happening. They probably have their phones, meaning they would flag as being there, too. Is 7-11 Andy getting arrested because he walked by on his way to get a slushy? Don’t they have to actually get the data from your phone first? I assume there’s not just a pig sitting at a magic computer that hoovers up all the GPS data of every phone near a target location and automatically generated arrest warrants.

              • bhtooefr
                bhtooefr
                June 23, 2025 at 4:56 pm | # | Reply Report comment

                There are actually devices called Stingrays that have existed for over 20 years, that capture the identifying details of every phone in an area. Then, whichever three letter agency who wants to do it can just ask the cell carriers who an IMEI belongs to.

                And, with triangulation, they don’t need the GPS data, they just need three cell sites and the relative signal strengths.

                • thejeff
                  thejeff
                  June 23, 2025 at 5:18 pm | #

                  Sure, they can. But are they just going out and rounding up everyone who was near a protest?

                • Taffy
                  Taffy
                  June 23, 2025 at 5:59 pm | #

                  That’s pretty scary, tbh. I wonder how often it actually gets used, compared to how many protests occur.

            • thejeff
              thejeff
              June 23, 2025 at 2:39 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              Don’t those two statements contradict?
              “the idea the governments are all-seeing, all-knowing, etc, is Nazi propaganda”
              and
              “whatever they want to know they have other ways of knowing”

              • NGPZ
                NGPZ
                June 23, 2025 at 2:55 pm | # | Reply Report comment

                it’s exactly my point that it’s easy to think that in an atmosphere of paranoia that the Oppressor seeks to instill

                in times like this, it is important to know that most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given to it by ordinary people

                By any means, they seek to instill fear and depend on citizens to give into it, into the will to Obey In Advance, because that’s literally doing over half the work for them

        • vulcanodon
          vulcanodon
          June 23, 2025 at 4:25 pm | # | Reply Report comment

          FWIW I have done experiments simply wrapping a phone in aluminum foil and trying to call it. The foil effectively blocks incoming signals. and I presume, outgoing.

          Of course, shut the phone off or it will exhaust the battery trying to connect.

      • Proxiehunter
        Proxiehunter
        June 23, 2025 at 6:35 pm | # | Reply Report comment

        Meanwhile there are protests out there asking you to RSVP.

  14. EtchJetty
    EtchJetty
    June 23, 2025 at 12:13 am | # | Reply Report comment

    The resolution bump!!!! Incredible!!!!!!

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 23, 2025 at 12:19 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Good eye. 1000×333 yesterday, 4800×1600 today.

    • Nadamás
      Nadamás
      June 23, 2025 at 12:34 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Your mom is a resolution bump

      • Steamweed
        Steamweed
        June 23, 2025 at 9:02 am | # | Reply Report comment

        No, you were the resolution bump inside your Mom.
        (for a few months, anyway)

  15. Rosalyn
    Rosalyn
    June 23, 2025 at 12:14 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Sure hope Sal didn’t leave her phone in a jacket pocket!

    • Steamweed
      Steamweed
      June 23, 2025 at 9:04 am | # | Reply Report comment

      “Sally Walkerton, we have evidence you were at the unauthorized and illegal protest.”

      • Cybersnark
        Cybersnark
        June 23, 2025 at 9:23 am | # | Reply Report comment

        “Ah mean, that sounds like me. . .”

  16. Bryy
    Bryy
    June 23, 2025 at 12:15 am | # | Reply Report comment

    The art and storytelling in this strip is flat out fucking incredible.

  17. Schol-R-LEA;2
    Schol-R-LEA;2
    June 23, 2025 at 12:22 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Toxic Yuri Status: RAINBOW QUARTZ

    • AGV/Ruby
      AGV/Ruby
      June 23, 2025 at 12:50 am | # | Reply Report comment

      “What can I do for you? What can I do that no one else can do”🎶

  18. Owlmirror
    Owlmirror
    June 23, 2025 at 12:22 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Wait.

    Is that dark jacket the same one that has RUTTEN in large letters on the sleeve?

    Hm, looking at the stitching pattern, I suspect not:
    https://www.dumbingofage.com/hey/

  19. Taffy
    Taffy
    June 23, 2025 at 12:23 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Yeesh. They’re not gonna die, and the structures of power aren’t gonna be threatened by them telling Jocelyne that Hank saw a photo of her.

    • Nadamás
      Nadamás
      June 23, 2025 at 12:37 am | # | Reply Report comment

      It is a protest in the united states, the possibility of fatalities is never zero.

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        June 23, 2025 at 12:39 am | # | Reply Report comment

        That’s irrelevant. These two aren’t gonna die.

        • Nadamás
          Nadamás
          June 23, 2025 at 12:45 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Yeah we know that, the characters don’t know that though.

          • Taffy
            Taffy
            June 23, 2025 at 12:47 am | # | Reply Report comment

            Oh, well.

            • Purple Floof
              Purple Floof
              June 23, 2025 at 1:35 am | # | Reply Report comment

              No no, you have a point even there; we haven’t had any information about the protests being at all violent iirc – if I’m wrong, please send me the relevant strips – so it wouldn’t make sense that they’d be worried about any kind of danger going into this area. Like, with all the info we have on this, it seems about as dangerous as going into one of those Occupy Wallstreet protest areas where they had tents and stuff set up in open areas for their protest – unless this is more of a CHAZ/CHOP/whatever kind of protest, I don’t see how they’d think of this as a “entering the belly of the beast” kind of situation.

              • Taffy
                Taffy
                June 23, 2025 at 1:38 am | # | Reply Report comment

                I’m gonna chalk it up to their emotions being heightened from all the horny energy they just had interrupted.

              • Thag Simmons
                Thag Simmons
                June 23, 2025 at 1:39 am | # | Reply Report comment

                Protestors usually aren’t the ones who initiate violence.

              • Bobby
                Bobby
                June 23, 2025 at 1:51 am | # | Reply Report comment

                yall realize that peaceful protests get escalated by police all the time in the states, right? If you believe otherwise, that’s the propaganda you’re believing. Police infiltrate protests then throw rocks and incite stuff to violence ALL. THE. TIME. They have every right to be worried, with the state of things right now

                • Taffy
                  Taffy
                  June 23, 2025 at 2:10 am | #

                  Yeah yeah, real life protest = dangerous, for fuck’s sake. Everyone fucking knows that. It doesn’t have to paint my expectation of Joyce and Dorothy’s well-being while they’re at this one, and it’s really goddamn condescending for so many comments to basically be repetitions of “Um, actually, real protests are dangerous actually” as if anyone not in a frothing panic is just uninformed.

              • Nadamás
                Nadamás
                June 23, 2025 at 2:34 am | # | Reply Report comment

                The protestors being violent isn’t the dnager here.

        • Thag Simmons
          Thag Simmons
          June 23, 2025 at 1:14 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Would this scene be improved if both characters were aware of and confident in their plot armour to keep them safe from harm?

          • Taffy
            Taffy
            June 23, 2025 at 1:23 am | # | Reply Report comment

            Let’s not bother with bad-faith questions like this.

            • Thag Simmons
              Thag Simmons
              June 23, 2025 at 1:40 am | # | Reply Report comment

              It’s just a rhetorical question

            • Zero
              Zero
              June 23, 2025 at 3:33 am | # | Reply Report comment

              It’s what you said, so if it’s bad faith…

              • Taffy
                Taffy
                June 23, 2025 at 6:30 am | # | Reply Report comment

                It’s not what I said, actually, if you read the words that are there without inventing new ones.

                • esolo
                  esolo
                  June 23, 2025 at 2:09 pm | #

                  The reason you (and I) can be *so* certain that Joyce and Dorothy are going to be just fine is at least in part due to their plot armor. If these were two random real people at a random real protest, the chances are *good* that they would also be fine, but given the very real and non-negligible chances of violence erupting even at protests that begin peacefully, I don’t think you’d be able to have the same degree of certainty you seem to be showing here.

                • Taffy
                  Taffy
                  June 23, 2025 at 2:31 pm | #

                  But they’re not real people at a real protest, so that doesn’t need to be a factor in my assessment of the comic.

    • Leorale
      Leorale
      June 23, 2025 at 12:42 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Yeah, they’re mainly gonna be threatening to students of Bulmerian descent at the school. The power structures are doing fine either way.

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        June 23, 2025 at 12:45 am | # | Reply Report comment

        I don’t see how Bulmerian students are threatened by them, either. They’re here to deliver a message that probably could’ve waited, not to actively participate in the protest.

    • Tesset
      Tesset
      June 23, 2025 at 1:49 pm | # | Reply Report comment

      I mean, Willis would have to be a much worse writer than he is to hit the “protests are dangerous” reminder half a dozen times and then not fire checkov’s gun, especially in a story that has hit these kinds of stakes before. Like, readers are nervous because the narrative has built the tension up, both with in-story reminders and by connection to events happening irl that inspired this storyline.

      No one died in To Those Who’d Ground Me, but it was hardly without consequence, right? Both for the characters and their arcs, and for the broader plot. Would you *prefer* the story go with “Joyce and Dorothy get pushed over, and that’s all that happens”? Maybe that’s more realistic, but would it be narratively satisfying to you? Or do you want to see things escalate and become tense and exciting and action-filled, in concert to the stakes being built?

      • Taffy
        Taffy
        June 23, 2025 at 2:06 pm | # | Reply Report comment

        I reject your short-sighted dichotomy. What I’d personally like to see most is Joyce and Dorothy sticking around the protest after they deliver their piddly coulda-waited message to Jocelyne, realizing nobody’s around to hold them accountable or probably even recognize them, and start making out behind a tent. With this comic, I don’t often care about exciting violent action like fight scenes or kidnappings or cops existing, so dangling that in front of me like a carrot won’t get a response you probably like. I wanna see these dipshit queers do messy things with their friends, and if they get tear gassed it’s none of my business.

        • Tesset
          Tesset
          June 23, 2025 at 6:19 pm | # | Reply Report comment

          You’re so right bestie, I can’t believe I’ve let my yuri senses be clouded by the promise of violent action. More makeouts, Willis!

          • Taffy
            Taffy
            June 23, 2025 at 6:24 pm | # | Reply Report comment

            Like, we’ve already had two violent and perilous season finales, so do we really need a third? The “Rule” of Threes is old hat. When’s the last time you saw a Big Dramatic Arc that had a little bit of danger and way more ill-advised makeouts than usual? Physical harm is an easy way to raise the stakes, but it can’t be the only way or it gets repetitive. Until and unless Joyce and Dorothy lock lips, I’m not convinced anything is at stake.

          • Nymph
            Nymph
            June 23, 2025 at 7:43 pm | # | Reply Report comment

            We should all be thankful to Taffy today for reminding us where our narrative priorities lie.

  20. Kyulen
    Kyulen
    June 23, 2025 at 12:31 am | # | Reply Report comment

    I hope they’re all right at this event, though the fence behind put up behind them worries me. And my knowledge of how campus protesters were treated by the authorities last year around the time these strips were written has me worried too.

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 23, 2025 at 12:33 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Worst I anticipate is one of them getting knocked over by someone who’s running past them, maybe a scare from some commotion.

      • Kyulen
        Kyulen
        June 23, 2025 at 12:45 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Lots of colleges and universities called the cops to arrest student protesters last year, and cops don’t exactly have the best record with how they treat protesters. Especially when they’re people protesting against evil things that the US government is doing, like aiding a genocide.

        • Kyulen
          Kyulen
          June 23, 2025 at 12:46 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Also while the protesters might not get violent, the counter-protesters might.

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          June 23, 2025 at 12:46 am | # | Reply Report comment

          Yes, I’m aware. I just don’t see Joyce and Dorothy getting more than a little bumped around during a scuffle.

          • Nadamás
            Nadamás
            June 23, 2025 at 12:49 am | # | Reply Report comment

            Why?

            • Taffy
              Taffy
              June 23, 2025 at 1:00 am | # | Reply Report comment

              How often do these two actually come to any major harm? Somebody always intervenes before it gets too severe. Hell, the longest-lasting physical damage Joyce has taken was basically self-inflicted, when she punched Becky’s dad hard enough to put her hand in a brace for a little while. It would be silly of me to expect these two are gonna get genuinely hurt, after reading this comic so many times and seeing them always come out basically fine.

      • Thag Simmons
        Thag Simmons
        June 23, 2025 at 1:13 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Eh, I’d be surprised if either sustained more than superficial injury, but if one or both of them ended up getting arrested I wouldn’t be surprised.

        We’re coming up on the point in the first “season” where Becky got kidnapped, I expect things at this protest to escalate beyond the norm for this comic.

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          June 23, 2025 at 1:17 am | # | Reply Report comment

          And while they’re in the overnight cell with about 200 other people, they both notice the other is lookin’ pretty fine behind bars, and since there’s not much else to do in a jail cell, they start making out. I like this idea you had that’s yours.

          • Thag Simmons
            Thag Simmons
            June 23, 2025 at 1:28 am | # | Reply Report comment

            I wouldn’t be surprised.

        • thejeff
          thejeff
          June 23, 2025 at 7:08 am | # | Reply Report comment

          An arrest is definitely possible, especially since they arrived at a critical moment, judging by the fences going up. Getting a bit roughed up in the process is also possible. Tear gas. Serious injury or death is very unlikely – even without plot armor. That isn’t to excuse any violence from cops (or the policy to clear the encampment), but the danger is routinely exaggerated – partly just because violence is the only part that makes the news.

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      June 23, 2025 at 7:24 am | # | Reply Report comment

      It’s possible the fence is being put up to trap all the protesters for arrest, but it’s more likely they want to control access – keep new protesters from arriving or people from wandering in and out. Let anyone who wants to leave and then arrest those who stay.

    • Erik
      Erik
      June 24, 2025 at 12:02 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Dumbing of Age: a story ripped from last year’s headlines!
      …and unfortunately this year’s and quite possibly next year’s as well. Unless things get even worse between now and then, which seems likely…

  21. darkoneko
    darkoneko
    June 23, 2025 at 12:40 am | # | Reply Report comment

    it’s pretty terrifying that “don’t bring a phone with you to not be trackable” is something that must be done in the US for peaceful protests.

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 23, 2025 at 12:42 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Cops here are chickenshit cowards who only care about who they’re gonna murder next, and if we see one we have to assume it’s no exception. I can see the wisdom of not letting them track you in a contentious crowd, even if I personally wouldn’t follow the advice.

    • Nadamás
      Nadamás
      June 23, 2025 at 12:43 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Even the most peaceful demonstration can be condemned as a riot if someone in charge yell it loud enough.

    • Kevin K
      Kevin K
      June 23, 2025 at 8:12 pm | # | Reply Report comment

      I’m still shocked that so many people agree to carry a tracker on their person at all times. But clearly I’m not in the majority.

  22. Ray Radlein
    Ray Radlein
    June 23, 2025 at 1:14 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Jocelyne stepped away for a bathroom break so she’s not here and then the riot police start their riot and Joyce winds up getting arrested

  23. Dante
    Dante
    June 23, 2025 at 1:16 am | # | Reply Report comment

    My heart started racing. I’m devouring this strip pixel by pixel. The angles! The colors! Joyce’s eyes being the most saturated thing! God, they were walking in hand in hand, and a fence closed right after they came in for reasons unknown.

    The subversion of the title (and the “it was bound to happen eventually”, of sapphic risky decisions) is the cherry on top of a _really_ delicious sundae.

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 23, 2025 at 1:21 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Reasons unknown, but highly guessable, given the environment. I’m willing to bet the fence is there to keep the protesters caged in and agitate them so they’re more likely to act up, like in real life.

      NO PR(oresting?)
      BY CI(ty?)
      COUN(cil?)
      ORD(inance?)

      • Dante
        Dante
        June 23, 2025 at 1:49 am | # | Reply Report comment

        … Yeah, ok, they’re guessable alright. Thank you! :33

        I meant it more like, we don’t know how it’s gonna develop (including when shit’s gonna hit the fan.) I’m seated, though ^^ It’s gonna be a tricky storyline to navigate, what with the Very Real Life parallels (that keep and keep going, gdi) — but I wholly trust Willis as a storyteller.

  24. Matrix
    Matrix
    June 23, 2025 at 1:18 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Do we have a volume title? I think we have a volume title

  25. Boh No
    Boh No
    June 23, 2025 at 1:26 am | # | Reply Report comment

    The advice being said here is good just y’know, if anyone’s in the US right now…

    Heck, this is probably more of a nod to the Gaza college encampments and it was good advice THEN, too…

    Things have been bad and just continue to shit, huh?

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 23, 2025 at 1:31 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Things have been bad for quite a while, yes. Honestly, I don’t think it’s ever stopped getting worse since at least 9/11, and probably before that. People like to pretend 2016 was some sort of anomaly that marked the start of the Current Shit, but it was consistently horrid for a long time beforehand.

      • Steamweed
        Steamweed
        June 23, 2025 at 9:08 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Even since the Kent State murders in 1970.

        • Proxiehunter
          Proxiehunter
          June 23, 2025 at 6:44 pm | # | Reply Report comment

          I was going to say Nixon getting off with nothing more than a resignation but then I checked the dates and you make a good point.

  26. BorkBorkBork
    BorkBorkBork
    June 23, 2025 at 1:26 am | # | Reply Report comment

    I just want to point out the fact that Joyce has, at this point, been drugged and nearly raped, smashed the girl’s face open with glass, rode with Sal to rescue her best friend from being kidnapped by an armed gunman, was kidnapped, hogtied in a basement, where it was apparent that endgame was their death, was the one chosen by her group of abductees as the one most rage-filled and therefore the most dangerous, then got kidnapped again and helped toss a kid to be caught in midair by a motorcycle.

    But no, they’re going to a peaceful protest on campus and THIS is what is truly terrifying.

    I’m not sure if they’re so PTSD’d that something which is truly mildly subversive is in actuality akin to walking in a warzone, or if in this universe, college protests are extremely unusual and often put down with lethal force and extreme prejudice.

    Its admittedly been a while since I was in college, but there’d be protests half the weekend about one thing or another.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      June 23, 2025 at 1:35 am | # | Reply Report comment

      I would encourage you to look into the way anti-police/anti-war/anti-genocide protests in the States have been responded to by police in recent years in the universe we live in.

      • BorkBorkBork
        BorkBorkBork
        June 23, 2025 at 1:50 am | # | Reply Report comment

        I’m not denying at all that there’s a small percentage of peaceful protests that do result in a some level of police retaliation and arrests, or of violence in general.

        What I stand by – and I 100% do – is that it is safer to enter a peaceful demonstration, with a buddy, long enough to find your sister, deliver a message, and leave – something that should take ten to fifteen minutes tops – than for two short underage college girls to go alone to a bar, get smashed drunk, and stagger through the streets of their town completely inebriated until they get back on campus. And they willingly chose to do the former without much thought to the consequences.

        • Yumi
          Yumi
          June 23, 2025 at 2:26 am | # | Reply Report comment

          I’m not sure about the timeline depending on the size and vibe of the protest, but I do agree with your overall idea. What’s interesting is that they’ve been conditioned to think of the protest option as scary and the bar option as normal– which I think is the case for a lot of people their age. Many people do things that can be very scary or risky all the time, but they don’t think of them that way because the things are “normal.”

          Both things they should be able to do without real danger, but unfortunately it’s a risk to some degree in each.

          From an outside perspective, it makes sense to think that the chances of them encountering danger during this task are low, even if they don’t feel that way. Then you take another step in perspective to consider that this is a comic and we expect some sort of even to happen, and I can see where readers might be worried about something happening to them.

          • thejeff
            thejeff
            June 23, 2025 at 7:20 am | # | Reply Report comment

            They’re obviously arriving at a dramatic moment, considering the fence being put up, but yeah, there’s definitely conditioning to think of protesting as scary (and we see it not just with them, but with a lot of commenters).

            • Charles Phipps
              Charles Phipps
              June 23, 2025 at 8:23 am | # | Reply Report comment

              I think everything I would say is the summary that one of the Palestinian protestors only just now got released and the President still wants him in jail.

              • thejeff
                thejeff
                June 23, 2025 at 11:01 am | # | Reply Report comment

                Yeah, and that’s absolutely indefensible, but it’s still one out of how many?

                That’s not the common experience. Not the usual outcome of going to a protest.

            • Yumi
              Yumi
              June 23, 2025 at 10:29 am | # | Reply Report comment

              The level of danger also varies by protest and the likelihood of something happening while there also varies with how long someone is there. Like, definitely getting some clues that Dorothy and Joyce just have the worst timing, but presumably there have been plenty of other fifteen minute windows where they would have been fine.

              • thejeff
                thejeff
                June 23, 2025 at 11:06 am | # | Reply Report comment

                It definitely does. Most protest rally kind of things are almost completely safe – like the No Kings last weekend. Encampments like this are higher risk, since they’re likely eventually going to be cleared out. Even then, there’s usually the opportunity to leave before the cops decide to go in with force.

                If you’re going to night protests where there’s already been violence on previous days? Be ready for street fighting.

        • HueSatLight
          HueSatLight
          June 23, 2025 at 1:49 pm | # | Reply Report comment

          They’re being fenced in.

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 23, 2025 at 1:36 am | # | Reply Report comment

      For real, though. If someone tries to genuinely hurt Joyce or Dorothy, Joyce is just gonna go all Kaio-ken on their ass and probably Amazi-Girl will show up to punch several identical white guys. It’ll be a fun fight scene, but I’ll change my name to Punished Taffy for a month if Joyce or Dorothy gets any injury more severe than a mild black eye.

    • Bobby
      Bobby
      June 23, 2025 at 1:44 am | # | Reply Report comment

      this is a peaceful protest in the states. things are crazy here and have been for a long time

    • Kyulen
      Kyulen
      June 23, 2025 at 1:50 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Police in the US often don’t treat protesters very well, especially when those protesters are protesting against genocide, war, or previous bad actions of the police.

      • Nadamás
        Nadamás
        June 23, 2025 at 2:31 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Or current bad actions by the police.

      • thejeff
        thejeff
        June 23, 2025 at 7:18 am | # | Reply Report comment

        This is all true, but at the same time, the danger is often wildly overstated. The vast majority of protesters walk away completely unharmed. Shit does happen. The police do get violent and there’s no excuse for that, but still overwhelmingly it’s still safe to protest. The media focuses on the violence of course, so that sets the impression.
        Go protest. You’re not actually taking your life in your hands.

      • BorkBorkBork
        BorkBorkBork
        June 23, 2025 at 12:19 pm | # | Reply Report comment

        I would like to point out that I, personally, am a person within the United States who has been a part of more than one protest, and yet somehow I am both alive, without an arrest record, and in possession of most of my teeth.

        For everyone saying, “OK, but you’re CLEARLY not familiar with how protests go in Amurica, they have guns and evil police,” congrats, you’re engaging in stereotype.

        • Nadamás
          Nadamás
          June 23, 2025 at 4:35 pm | # | Reply Report comment

          Yeah because nothing bad having happen to you personally is representative of everyone’s experience ⬆️

          • Taffy
            Taffy
            June 23, 2025 at 5:02 pm | # | Reply Report comment

            It’s not their fault you’re too stupid to understand the difference between a recounted personal experience and a sweeping statement of all humans.

            • Nadamás
              Nadamás
              June 23, 2025 at 5:36 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              You are fucking exhausting today.

              • Taffy
                Taffy
                June 23, 2025 at 5:49 pm | # | Reply Report comment

                You don’t have any room to complain about me.

          • thejeff
            thejeff
            June 23, 2025 at 5:23 pm | # | Reply Report comment

            Protests can go bad. No one’s denying that. Police violence does happen. Protestor violence happens too, though more rarely. People get arrested unjustly. These things happen. They shouldn’t. It’s indefensible.

            But it’s also not the common experience. Vast majority of protestors don’t go through any of that.

            Why are we so dedicated to pushing the idea that protesting is incredibly dangerous? Who does that serve?

            • Nadamás
              Nadamás
              June 23, 2025 at 5:36 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              Nobody had that said anything about protesting been “Incredibly dangerous” here just the regular amount of dangerous you seem to agree to.

              • Freemage
                Freemage
                June 24, 2025 at 7:31 pm | # | Reply Report comment

                I think thejeff is pointing to the strip at this point. Narratives about the dangers of protesting, particularly those centered on main characters, create the impression that such dangers are ‘typical’ of protests in general. This, in turn, creates reluctance to actually engage in protests, thereby diminishing their effectiveness.

            • Taffy
              Taffy
              June 23, 2025 at 6:03 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              Yeah, I don’t really get the scaremongering. Even simple statements like “I don’t think they’re in much danger” is just being invariably met with “But real protests can be dangerous”, like that’s supposed to fix our flawed naivete and make us scared for Joyce and Dorothy.

          • BorkBorkBork
            BorkBorkBork
            June 23, 2025 at 6:29 pm | # | Reply Report comment

            I’m arguing that it’s unreasonable to, when showing up to a protest for a planned fifteen minute jaunt, be loudly terrified that you might be killed, because the chances of that happening are incredibly miniscule.

            25 people were killed in the US in 2020 while protesting. There were over 10,600 protests across the US that year. Statistics show that over 95% were completely peaceful, and that there was no property damage or physical injury, either on police or protestor side, for 98% of them.

            Protest sizes ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand, so let’s be generous here and say that there was, on average, 300 attendees for each protest. That would mean that your chance of being killed attending a protest in 2020 would be 1 in 127,200.

            In comparison, statistics by the National Safety Council also show that your chance of being in a car accident is roughly 1 in 366 for every 1,000 miles you drive. If you crunch the numbers – and I did – that means that if you drove five miles to get to the protest, you were in more danger driving to the protest than participating in it.

            But no, I’m the one using anecdotes to try to push a narrative, rather than demonstrate that Joyce and Dorothy are perhaps being a tad melodramatic when they exclaim loudly that they sure hope they’ll keep being alive.

            • Taffy
              Taffy
              June 23, 2025 at 6:36 pm | # | Reply Report comment

              I’m inclined to take the word of someone who’s actually been at a protest and didn’t die, over the incessant pants-wetting of people who are too afraid to even consider the odds of returning alive might be higher than 0%.

        • Nadamás
          Nadamás
          June 23, 2025 at 5:43 pm | # | Reply Report comment

          And you know what that is not an stereotype that is an accurate statement about america. It got a massive gun and police violence problem, it’s not up for debate.

          • BorkBorkBork
            BorkBorkBork
            June 23, 2025 at 6:38 pm | # | Reply Report comment

            I think you don’t know what the word ‘stereotype’ means.

            As you stand here making a loud, unshakable statement about a different group of people, which you have gathered from a lot of what has been said about those people, and refuse to listen to reasoned arguments that claim that yes, while SOME are like this, you cannot assume that ALL are like this, or even MOST are like this. You instead say, no, I am not debating or discussing this, those people have a massive problem, it is exactly what I say it is.

    • Daibhid C
      Daibhid C
      June 23, 2025 at 8:11 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Okay, and did all of them involve people coming from outside the school, like Joss has, news coverage, which is how Hank knows about this, and someone cordoning off the area, like we’re seeing in this strip? Or does that suggest something bigger and potentially more likely to involve polive violence than protests that happen “half the weekend about one thing or another”?

      • Daibhid C
        Daibhid C
        June 23, 2025 at 8:13 am | # | Reply Report comment

        *police violence, not polive.

      • Freemage
        Freemage
        June 24, 2025 at 7:48 pm | # | Reply Report comment

        So, I just did a little digging, and looked up what was happening with protests at UIB specifically during the time these strips would’ve been written. A pro-protest site I found did not talk about actual serious injuries or deaths; it did, however, talk about temporary arrests (charges were ultimately not filed, due to the prosecutors’ concerns that the arrests themselves were unconstitutional) and the University coming up with very targeted policies about ‘temporary structures’ meant to disperse the protestors, and about students being charged with violations of UIB policy–which could lead to suspension from campus.

        Interestingly, the non-lethal consequences I mention above are actually, by virtue of being non-lethal, absolutely something that could happen to one or both of the girls, with long-lasting ramifications (especially for Dotty–an arrest for being a protestor would absolutely be the final nail in the coffin to her political ambitions).

  27. Kiashi
    Kiashi
    June 23, 2025 at 2:07 am | # | Reply Report comment

    theyre HOLDING HANDSSSSSS

    do u think they held hands the whole walk over, i think they did, oh they’re so girlfriends <3

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      June 23, 2025 at 2:12 am | # | Reply Report comment

      They definitely did. I wonder how long they managed to separate their hands while they were getting dressed. I imagine seconds at most, just long enough to slip a sleeve past.

    • Thing2
      Thing2
      June 23, 2025 at 2:35 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Maybe they don’t want to get separated at a protest. Boring answer.

      • Nymph
        Nymph
        June 23, 2025 at 5:56 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Super boring, since they’re holding hands well before they actually enter the protest crowd.

  28. Suet
    Suet
    June 23, 2025 at 2:24 am | # | Reply Report comment

    guess this won’t,at worst, serve as a humanizing anecdote

    borrowed the hat, nice

  29. Thing2
    Thing2
    June 23, 2025 at 2:32 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Innumerous? That’s a new one on me. Must be another linguistic difference I was not aware of, not having met it before!

    • Daibhid C
      Daibhid C
      June 23, 2025 at 7:40 am | # | Reply Report comment

      There are a lot of differences between various English dialects, yes. Some might say an uncountable number of them.

  30. EtchJetty
    EtchJetty
    June 23, 2025 at 2:40 am | # | Reply Report comment

    aw the resolution got reverted. here i was thinking that it was uploaded in hd specifically so we could see dotty and joyce holding hands LOL

    • RassilonTDavros
      RassilonTDavros
      June 23, 2025 at 10:45 pm | # | Reply Report comment

      Wayback Machine gotcha back.

  31. Acher4
    Acher4
    June 23, 2025 at 3:39 am | # | Reply Report comment

    This feels like a finale of a sort is coming.

    • Nymph
      Nymph
      June 23, 2025 at 5:57 am | # | Reply Report comment

      I’m not sure what you mean?

      • Deanatay
        Deanatay
        June 23, 2025 at 7:54 am | # | Reply Report comment

        Well, they’re calling back the punchline, for one.

  32. Thing2
    Thing2
    June 23, 2025 at 4:48 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Protesters could jump in the waterway if kettled?

  33. ValdVin
    ValdVin
    June 23, 2025 at 8:15 am | # | Reply Report comment

    i wonder when this was put onto the buffer, and also in the real world if IU’s given in to one of the Elise Stefaniks of the GOP.

  34. Charles Phipps
    Charles Phipps
    June 23, 2025 at 8:16 am | # | Reply Report comment

    The argument about not having your phone and disguising your identity is good to avoid the police arresting you or harrassing you. Other people think that you actually have to be willing to be arrested to make the protests work. Sadly, very few people want to be a martyr nor should anyone have to be.

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      June 23, 2025 at 11:17 am | # | Reply Report comment

      Being arrested is a valid protest tactic, but it’s far from the only or most effective one.

    • Huttj
      Huttj
      June 23, 2025 at 5:22 pm | # | Reply Report comment

      I generally support people who choose themselves to be in danger in order to make their voices heard.

      Those who demand others put themselves in danger for the same purpose, generally get the side-eye from me.

  35. Andy
    Andy
    June 23, 2025 at 8:23 am | # | Reply Report comment

    It’s not like we have evidence that the local police are corrupt and tied to the mob. Willing to kill to protect themselves from discovery. They wouldn’t hurt someone in a public place like a park or a hospital. And get totally away with it.

  36. Zamperla
    Zamperla
    June 23, 2025 at 8:40 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Honestly I’m really proud of both of them. Something like this would have been too politically dangerous for Dorothy, once. And unthinkable for Joyce, once.

  37. Steamweed
    Steamweed
    June 23, 2025 at 8:51 am | # | Reply Report comment

    BE QUEER; DO PROTESTS.

  38. George the Archon
    George the Archon
    June 23, 2025 at 9:13 am | # | Reply Report comment

    A callback!

    We do love a callback.

  39. beth
    beth
    June 23, 2025 at 10:13 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Oh my Cheese I love the callback!

  40. Reltzik
    Reltzik
    June 23, 2025 at 11:18 am | # | Reply Report comment

    Well, silver lining, Mary’s now in a cage too.

    …. I mean, she has to be, right? It’s not like the power structures at hand would treat the protest and counter-protest with anything other than total, even-handed equality, right? Right?

  41. Laura
    Laura
    June 23, 2025 at 1:14 pm | # | Reply Report comment

    Just wanted to check in, in case anyone is having a hard time today.

    Remember that peer support is always available.

    For example

    https://translifeline.org/

    877-565-8860

  42. BorkBorkBork
    BorkBorkBork
    June 23, 2025 at 1:53 pm | # | Reply Report comment

    “I feel naked without my phone.”

    “Me, too.”

    …

    …

    *handholding intensifies*

  43. Pharmadan
    Pharmadan
    June 23, 2025 at 3:57 pm | # | Reply Report comment

    That “portion alive” bit would make a great title for the next book.

    Especially if it includes some Mike flashback or other bonus material

  44. Charles Phipps
    Charles Phipps
    June 23, 2025 at 7:24 pm | # | Reply Report comment

    So what are the odds that Jocelyn gets dumped into a van by the police and triggers Dorothy?

  45. David
    David
    June 23, 2025 at 7:25 pm | # | Reply Report comment

    Be gay, do crime that topple oppressive power structures

  46. BYM!
    BYM!
    June 23, 2025 at 11:18 pm | # | Reply Report comment

    Is it gay to do callbacks with your best friend

    • Freemage
      Freemage
      June 24, 2025 at 8:01 pm | # | Reply Report comment

      Only if you do them right.

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  • Polls Archive
CONVENTION APPEARANCES


September 13/14, 2025 - Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland

David M Willis! avatar
David M Willis!
@damnyouwillis.bsky.social
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2h
Dumbing of Age: "Detouring" www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/b... #webcomics #webcomic
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Detouring
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3h
wilding out at this old becky profile
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Linkara @linkara.bsky.social ⋅ 16h
Also, I see we're bringing back the ol' love octagon.
Several panels from the webcomic Shortpacked! depicting the character Robin Desanto unveiling a chalkboard that shows various characters in the webcomics' romantic relationship statuses to each other, the equivalent of a
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John Berry @drawncoyote.bsky.social ⋅ 8h
It worked! Thanks, Joe! Also, sorry, Joe.
Joe:
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 9h
I think you mean Poop. Prints don't drop from the butt.
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Dan Schkade @danschkade.bsky.social ⋅ 10h
Happy Nonbinary People's Day, you gemstones. A year or two back we introduced FLASH GORDON's first enby, the outlaw lawman Bones Malock. Having known and loved a lot of nonbinary people, I knew the truest way to represent you was as a unsettling desert pirate with a lightning sword
Flash Gordon's Bones Malock:
Bones Malock, under captions reading:
Bones Malock and Flash Gordon.

Flash: Okay... wait thirty seconds, then give me a distraction.

Bones: Got just the thing.

Flash: Do NOT blow the place up.

Bones: You're the boss.
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Hannah Who @notablyuncool.bsky.social ⋅ 17h
Happy International Non-Binary People's Day to all those who work, create, parent, protest, love and live without ever fitting into someone else's category.
header image - a yellow purple and black flag flies in the wind
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Alt: Non-binary flag blowing in the wind
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Haus of Decline @hausofdecline.bsky.social ⋅ 15h
A blond female Philly Phanatic says
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Bits @bitshammer.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Mood
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Jacob @jacobaugust.bsky.social ⋅ 21h
Nice.
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DaisyFM ✒︎ @daisyfm.net ⋅ 1d
Okay, everyone's jumping to conclusions, but Joyce was hit with a mysterious pink gas in Thursday's strip. Now, in recent years, the police are known to increasingly use military grade weapons. Which reminded me of this bit of proposed technology from the 1990s: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb
en.wikipedia.org
Gay bomb - Wikipedia
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 18h
I ain't readin' all that!
damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatarDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Dumbing of Age: "LIVE JOCELYNE REACTION" www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/b... #webcomics #webcomic
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LIVE JOCELYNE REACTION
that's not the end!  there's more tomorrow, already on patreon!...
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Dumbing of Age: "LIVE JOCELYNE REACTION" www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/b... #webcomics #webcomic
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LIVE JOCELYNE REACTION
that's not the end!  there's more tomorrow, already on patreon!...
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Jay Edidin @edidin.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
hey, kid, what do you want to play with from the cool superhero movie? is it a nude, melting senator who feels like a stretch armstrong doll that has been left out in the son and maybe mildly chewed by a neighborhood dog? WELL, SON, YOU'RE IN LUCK!
the most upsetting toy of all time: a small and horrible statue of melting, nude Senator Kelly from the first x-men film
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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
James Gunn i demand u bring back Conservative Superman
Superman shaking Jared Fogle’s hand
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
(July 10, 2026)
Sal and Danny saw you from across the room and enjoy your vibe.
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
trying to voice recognition a search for superman's actor
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Drivaaar @drivaaar.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
I want YOU to transform Autobot City (with generous green spaces, affordable public transport and amenities, and plentiful social initiatives)
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
welp back to drawing comics featuring a character you can't see yet for like 11 months
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Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Then they came for the sarcastic people and I was like oh great that's exactly what we need right now well done to all concerned.
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Cass 🪻 @cassmoney.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Comic of a man peering through a window.
damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatarDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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Can’t leave you if I stay
jesus christ tomorrow's strip early on patreon oh my god...
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The Nerdy Lawyer @nerdylawyer.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Dorothy: You can't just follow me into fire! Joyce: You don't want me following you into fire? Then don't run into fire!
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
today in #9chickweedlane i learned i apparently gotta go see if "correlate" has an archaic definition that means something nonsense
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Virginia Barksdale @virginiabarksdale.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
screaming, crying, throwing up, Pete the Peacock is real, I feel lesbian God in this chili's tonight
damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatarDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Dumbing of Age: "Can’t leave you if I stay" www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/b... #webcomics #webcomic
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Can’t leave you if I stay
jesus christ tomorrow's strip early on patreon oh my god...
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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www.dumbingofage.com
Can’t leave you if I stay
jesus christ tomorrow's strip early on patreon oh my god...
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RiotGrlErin @riotgrlerin.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
pam bondi as porta potties: thread
Pam bondi and he side profile wearing a dark yellow coat.
A yellow porta potty probably less shitty than Pam.
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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Brigid Keely She/Her @brigid.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Joyce is absolutely totally straight and just wants to hang out with her best friend, who happens to be another lady. This is normal behavior and a normal biblical quote to use that has no other context. GAL PALS
damnyouwillis.bsky.social's user avatarDavid M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
joyce walks down an aisle
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Paul Southworth ☢️ 🐟 @southworth.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
A lot of songs are lowkey about being horny
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Stuart Webb @inflatabledalek.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
OK, I said I was going to a thread of receipts together on the guy who runs Kapow, in odder to explain why I personally would recommend not giving him your business at TFN. Starting with the original post, revealing the guy loves sharing right wing fascist stuff on LinkedIn.
xjmaw.bsky.social's user avatarAlex Maw @xjmaw.bsky.social ⋅ 6m
Since you might think it's weird you got a like on this over a year after the fact, the director of Kapow just shared this on LinkedIn; i.imgur.com/hqQYWgO.png
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