Really, this is the first Walky’s been back to his room since that comment and he doesn’t know how long Amber’s been there. For all he knows it *could* have been within an hour of Sal’s comment.
I started scrolling back through comics to find out what Sal said, then was like “nah, I’ll just look at the comments, somebody will have linked it”. 😀
I caught it before comments had the answer, so I just hit up Walky’s tag and went back through the pages he’s shared with Sal most recently. Thankfully, it was pretty recent.
In the beginning, the Walky relationships were lasted twelve weeks, then six. The last one with Dorothy was a week. In four days, we could be seeing a Walky girlfriend every eight hours, until they are coming every four minutes.
Marshal, we should witness a double event within seven days.
Thankfully for Amber, it seems neither are any security cameras or passing students either. (The security cameras I get since they’ll mostly be pointed at the ground where 99.9% of students are, but I figure a bunch of cops raiding a building would get a few onlookers to gather/rubberneck and maybe point cameras around, if not start a whole dang anti-cop protest themselves)
Bit presumptive of you there Walky, but I adore the SS Garbage Scow so I do not care and cannot be made to. Go play games with Amber and make her feel less like crap, be adorable together.
I dont know if we know where the boy’s rooms are in relation to the girl’s but it may have been as simple as his was the easiest accessible room that she knew wouldnt immediately sell her out
Ten bucks says she’s going to make a comment about the most plausible deniability of hanging out in his room since everyone knows Ethan is gay and his room is closest.
Both because “this is a smart plan from Amber” but also because “This is the sort of thing Amber would say to forcibly push away people who want to get closer to her.”
A: She feels potentially worse imposing on Ethan than on Walky
B: Ethan’s room would also include Jacob and/or Asher, who are People(tm) in a sense that would be difficult to be comfortable around, whereas Walky’s would “just” be Booster
Suggestion — Walky: “Sal said we’d be boning by three o’clock. Hafta wait ten more minutes to prove her wrong.”
Amber: “Okay…(removes an article of clothing)”
[immediate fucking]
If they finish before 3:00pm, then it doesn’t count. Then when they bone again after 3pm, they can (by some measures of English interpretation) they can say “nyeah you’re wrong” to Sal.(1)
(1) who will immediately see through their bullshit anyway
Ngl the depths of my dojo fatigue have pushed me into actually liking this ship by comparison. That and their respective character changes have made them more interesting together to me
I don’t necessarily ship them myself, but I do think their interactions always have the potential for excellent storytelling, given how they somehow both cover for and exacerbate each other’s weak points as people.
I’m hoping this will go well for both of them. Walky doesn’t necessarily /need/ a new girlfriend, but he definitely needs someone to talk to. If Amber can be both then I’d say Walky would be ok.
Honestly sounds like it’ll last as long as it takes for Amber to tell him that she sorta pushed Dorothy and Joyce together (not entirely her fault, but she has guilt and he’ll want someone to blame).
Walky already knows that, Booster told him. His response was “it wouldn’t have mattered because those two were gonna get together anyway, so Amber didn’t change anything.”
Yay, Amber’s okay! That’s a relief, and pretty impressive making her way along the outside of the building. No more painkiller bubbles, though. I hope she’s not hurting too badly.
So we’re potentially 3-for-3 in “questionable relationships Walky jumped into to stave off emotional collapse.” Good stuff, can’t wait to see how this blows up on them.
In Walky’s defense, she literally just appeared in his bed like magic. He didn’t jump into this, it fell in his lap and crushed him from the third story.
Also, I’m hoping they just have like some good, solid friend time. As much as I want cute cuddles and doting, both these people absolutely need someone to check in on them desperately.
no. nooooo. for gods sake walky youve had… what, four relationships with three girls to learn your lesson by now? pleeease dont do this walky what would the point even be
Pants could be too constrictive, and too painful to keep on right now. Another theory is that if they were old pants that she just grabbed before getting to the ledge then she might not want to wear dirty pants in Walky’s bed.
That, or she’s planning to seduce Walky into letting her stay there until the cops are gone.
So two days ago we couldn’t be trusted to remember what happened the previous day so it all had to be recapped. But today we have to figure out this is Walky’s room based on tiny easily missable clues and remember a throwaway line from nearly a month ago to understand the punchline. Right…
That being said, if this actually goes somewhere it might be interesting. We’ll see.
At first I thought this was Walky checking in on back Amber in her room, too. The architecture and furniture are all the same, and the D&MM poster is mostly obscured.
I think it would’ve been more obvious if today’s Panel 2 had the “camera” positioned behind Walky and over his shoulder, so we could see him opening the door with his and Booster’s names on it and notice Amber in the room beyond. Then the next panel could have been the tight shot of Amber in the Patreon strip to get her reaction in.
The comics before this make it clear what happened just by context.
On the 25th, she’s realizing she has to bail. On the 27th, she’s perched in the window. On the 29th, she’s standing against a brick wall. She’s in a different room than her own now.
Walky just stepped into someone’s room that had the lights off, just having come back from class. Room is filthy and the window is suspiciously in frame. You can see a sheet of paper fluttering to the ground because she *just* got in his bed moments ago.
Look fam i will defend the right to complain but this is literally such a nothing burger. You’re just looking for something to bongo about here. Skill issue
I think this was more about why there was a recap in the DoJo running around strip than about this strip needing one. And I kind of agree that felt off.
And, just to be clear for people who don’t follow the link, he’s not unconvinced that she thought it would be funny if Dorothy responded to Joyce’s titpic, he’s unconvinced that this whole thing wouldn’t have happened anyway.
The question is not that she thought it would be funny if Dorothy responded to Joyce’s titpic, it’s that she encouraged it specifically with the goal of breaking Walky and Dorothy up so he would be available.
But the point still stands that he’s unconvinced the whole thing wouldn’t have happened anyway, and he has a solid case.
There’s nothing real you can give as an example of a panacea bc despite what Wellness influencers and people in pyramid schemes will tell you, they don’t exist
If they are then Walky, and Amber would have to pretend to be having sex, so if the cops burst in they will be likely to notice Amber’s wound/description.
What a calamity! They’ll have to pretend it’s really passionate too, and that Wally is treating her really gently. And toake sure the buy it they might have to *gulp* take off their clothes.
Honestly, I’m at the point where I really wish we’d see Walky actually develop some more.
He’s been pretty explicitly struggling with Mike’s death and his own kidnapping and all sorts of relationship and parental trauma and I’m just kinda tired of seeing him as a supporting character to other people’s stories.
Don’t get me wrong, him being a supporting character isn’t bad or anything. But there’s this elephant that’s been in this room for in-universe months now, and it ain’t going away, and I just wish would get addressed at some point. Hazards of a massive ensemble story, I guess, not all of the characters can get the time their stories are calling for.
The way this webcomic is I’m pretty sure the second you’ve developed him at all and gotten him to any sort of stable place you’ve effectively written him out of the story.
You mean like how he tried to apologize to Amber for not being there for her, because he was coping with Mike’s demise very poorly himself? The depictions of him struggling have been aknowledgment of his trauma.
I mean, maybe a little. It’s a very easy reading to make that many of us want to happen. So I mean yeah, comments like this or like ones I’ve made before confidently asserting it’s gonna happen are partially just that we want it to happen. Though I will say, given how Willis has responded to things about it, and the fact that he’s trans himself (I think? Can’t remember ever hearing a specific gender label, but I know he uses he/they. But I have known people who use he/they or she/they and don’t consider themselves trans) I genuinely do think it has a pretty solid chance of happening.
But even if it is purely manifesting it: so fucking what? Yeah, we want to see transfem characters. Sue us. personally, *I’m* tired of this exact same fucking reaction any time anyone anywhere says they think a seemingly-guy character is eggy.
it’s less “trying to manifest” and moreso “inferred from and informed by the way walky acts”, and the tgirl readings only ever get bolstered by paratextual word of god, so like skill issue, ig? sorry not everything in the world caters to men
1) something something subtext something something tl;dr the comic’s been teasing T!Walky since its inception
2) Even if it wasn’t. Even if I were making it up with absolutely no backing on the comic’s part. If I just headcanon Walky as trans because I think it’s neat: What would be the problem?
And you know what? Fuck you, here’s another predict, though it’s less likely:
Doyce aren’t endgame. Joyce and Walky are gonna end up together (again, I think?) after Walky transitions. There’s been just enough Joyce/Walky teasing for it to be plausible (Even though it’s probably just jokes about the old Willis works)
It honestly really bothers me too but I dont bring it up because I’m not trans and I know people are just doing it out of a desire to see more people like themselves but Golly seeing people willfully misgender a character that I identify a lot with definitely makes me a bit uncomfortable.
I literally do not give a fuck about whether Walky (or whoever) ends up being trans or not, but it’s incredibly shitty of people to keep talking about it when they have been told that it’s a trauma trigger for some readers.
It be shitty to talk about it to/at someone who has stated it is a trauma trigger to them. It is not shitty to talk about it in general. Lots of things are trauma triggers to people and may be part of meaningful readings or discussions to others.
He’s grown a lot, and I think this arc is going to grow him further since he’s going to be spending a lot of time with a freshly incapacitated Amber forced to talk about his feelings and hers, and maybe come to some realizations about how she pushes him away out of fear.
The whole arc of Walky’s parents visiting that ended with him calling out his mom for racism was a pretty significant development for Walky and happened about a week ago in-comic. The comic moves slow and there are going to be development lulls for every character, (except maybe Joyce).
I think “the comic moves slow” should just be a permanently pinned post at the top of every comments section. 80% of the complaints I feel are just directly addressed by that simple fact. It doesn’t make anybody feel any better about it, but it’s the reality of consuming a daily serial.
It also updates every single day and has done for fifteen years, which is pretty friggin’ uncommon for a webcomic. The usual suspects (you know who you are) might actually die if they tried reading something like Dolmistaska, which basically updates when the creator feels like it and spent about 2 months on a single panel update of someone saying “By the way, welcome to Quebec.” and nothing else. Spoiled rotten behavior.
I know she dresses up as Amazi-Girl, but Amber doesn’t have any actual superpowers and she could barely get out of bed due to her injuries not that long ago in-comic.
The last time she was shown, she was standing on the outside of the building on the window. She used to climb windows to get places as Amazi-girl and Sal has that habit too, so the assumption here is that she shimmied her way to Walky’s and entered through the window.
Mind you I don’t have the schematics for the building so I don’t entirely know the layout but these co-ed dorms are on the same floor so Amber pretty much just had to climb across windows rather than, say, dropping down or climbing up a story.
I’d say it’s more likely for Amber to manage the short burst of adrenaline needed to make it to Walky’s room than it is for her to stay out the window long enough to outlast the manhunt. Especially since Sal has already established entering and leaving through windows in this universe doesn’t require any sort of superpowers.
AG doesn’t have super powers either. She probably climbed to the roof, walked over to the Beck wing, and then climbed down to Walky’s room.
Their building is shaped like an X, [i]in the Dumbiverse[/i]. The wings are also not in the same place as they are in real life, either because Willis made a geometry mistake early on, or they didn’t want to be drawing a map to where real life 18 year olds live.
Both Amber’s room and Walky’s room get direct sunlight during sunrise, the only positioning of the wings where Amber wouldn’t be going around the ends of the wings is if Beck and Clark were the SE and SW wings. Because of the bend in the hall between them (shown in several strips), the geometry for that doesn’t work out. The geometry might not work out for any possible layout though.
It’s all kind of moot though, Amber lives near the end of the wing. If she’s trying to avoid being seen, and straining her injury the least, up a story and a half and then sneaking on the roof is probably better than ducking under every window while moving on a ledge the whole wing.
Aight. The first time this ship came around I found it so uninteresting, I liked danber and dorky more and the two kids checked out of their own lives getting together and stewing together felt boring.
But this time I’m totally team Garbage Scow, this feels earned, they both are at their lowest and in desperate need of comfort and kinship and I think it would be good if they found it in each other.
Plus I’ve always been of the opinion that, of all the relationships Walky has had so far, Amber is actually by far the best suited partner for him. At his heart, Walky is a pleasant, unambitious person who just wants to coast through life doing the things he loves with the person he loves. However, he’s also a bit of a slacker, so his partner has to be someone with more responsibility and drive to keep him on track when necessary. Amber, Dorothy and Lucy all meet the second criteria, but only Amber meets the first. Dorothy, despite her recent breakdown, I feel still wants to do great things with her life and improve people’s lots. She may not do it as a politician anymore, but I could see her starting some NGO or not-for-profit charity assisting marginalized or minority groups to fulfill that need. But that kind of life demands a lot from you, and she needs a partner who fully supports that goal AND can also help her with it. Walky is too passive to be that partner, and stuff like his failing grades show that Dorothy cannot both help him AND keep her dreams going. Eventually, it will start to feel that Walky is holding her back, and the relationship will start to crumble under the weight of resentment.
Meanwhile, Lucy doesn’t have such lofty goals, but she also doesn’t really share Walky’s interests. It’s also fairly obvious that Walky doesn’t feel as strongly for Lucy as he did for Dorothy and Amber. If they did get together, theirs would be a relationship where Lucy is always giving more than Walky is reciprocating, and that kind of unequal balance in the relationship typically winds up turning the relationship sour or rocky.
Which brings us back to Amber. Amber is actually extremely talented and intelligent, and she can come up with innovative and clever solutions for their problems, but she also doesn’t have the ambition or drive to really do more than “fix local or small scale issues, then back to gaming”. I could easily see the two of them settling down in some smaller town or city, finding small jobs, and then living a life of gaming and TV while keeping each other company. “A beautiful, quiet life.”, in other words.
I’ve been saying this for years!! And this is also hard carried by the fact that their separations have been driven by external factors creating internal relationship drama. The second these two learn how to communicate properly (and Walky stops being avoidant as shit), they’re basically among the most solid couples in the comic.
That’s also the reason I think they’re not gonna end up back together, at least not for a while — we’ve seen Amber get a lot of development in the comic, and Walky not so much. And unless there’s interest from Willis in actually developing him as a character, that’s probably not changing. He gets good moments, but those moments haven’t actually led to any notable or measurable changes in his character compared to Amber, or most of the cast in fact.
I’ve said it many times before. Dorothy and Lucy push Walky to a higher standard but Amber doesn’t which makes Walky hold HIMSELF to a higher standard.
I dunno i felt like they OOZED chemistry the first time around. Less of a “unearned” and more of an “over too soon” I would say Becky and Dina had a similar beginning but they had time to develop. Garbage Scow just needed time.
That’s subjective bc it felt like they had negative chemistry to me, straight to didn’t work for me. Square peg round hole. It feels more compatible now tho, idk
I lol so much how Sal was again right to the point.
(and so much more lol, on how this disapproves once again the fantasy reality of the moral superiors, who were attacking Sal for not ‘protecting her brother’)
A lot of people who dislike Doyce were mad at Sal for not getting onto Joyce for the cheating thing because they viewed it as her being a bad sister, and Acher4 is mocking them.
For all my grievances with the Doyce arc, that wasn’t one of them because Sal and Walky just aren’t close like that at all. Walky would defend Sal, I don’t think Sal would defend Walky to anyone except their parents and maybe if they were like… super aggressively shit talking him. I feel like there’s still a high threshold people could get away with though, Walky has virtually no friends.
And to clarify, I say that from a “if my kid told me their friends acted like that, I’d tell them to find better friends” angle, not a “grrr treat Walky special” angle. People like to be mean to him and I don’t think Sal is one of them, but I don’t think she realizes that it bothers Walky either.
I mean, it’s right there in the post, “the fantasy reality of the moral superiors”. The “moral superiors” only exist in this colorful character’s fantasy reality. You can tell because no direct examples have ever been given of these alleged “moral superiors”, and none ever will be. This is the same person who spend days on end posting links to unrelated protest pictures with people kissing, surrounded by delirious manic gibberish.
Breddah drop me your PayPal. I will literally pay you money for every day you don’t bring up the people who dislike your otp completely unprompted on unrelated strips
If there’s one thing we can rely on Walky for, it’s to be at least somewhat oblivious about things that aren’t part of his anxieties that he papers over with his goofball act.
Likely the argument that Walky should look more devastated about the cheating or that Joyce made fun of him. Like he himself hadn’t been making the prediction it was gonna happen Every.Other.Day.
Because that’s how Walky would treat it?
Even if he’s hurt, he’s Walky. Do you expect him to. What. Go and argue with Dorothy and Joyce over something he knew was coming from day 1?
I actually wouldn’t trust Booster to deal with cops.
Not because they’d be a narc! I think they’d have that premise down pat just fine.
I wouldn’t trust them to deal with cops, because I can’t imagine Booster passing on any opportunity to rile up or antagonize someone, even to their own immediate detriment.
I think the funniest possible move would be for Joyce to wait three in-story months to talk to Joe – only to have him switch colleges off-screen, so we fully never see him again. You could even write a Joe Spaghetti incident that Danny and Sal reference 😉
I don’t personally think it would be “funny,” but at least the bandaid would be ripped off and the waiting for something to happen in that regard would finally be over. He’s practically halfway there already.
1. Very darn glad that drug-addled Amber isn’t flirtin’ with death by walkin’ around on high-up ledges.
2. Also darn glad that she clambered into Walky’s room.
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SS Garbage Scow, ready to sail once again.
Womp womp!
(that was the sound of the garbage scowl horn sounding)
But no Amazi-gymnastics yet.
How exactly do you think Amber got into Walky’s bed
Careful climbing, ledge-walking, and while tripping balls.
Gymnistics judges would assign her 3s and 4s for scoring at best.
WOMP WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMP WOMP
merry christmas to amazigirl and nightguy
Merry Christmas to Amazi and to all a good Nightguy
Willis bless us every one.
After following their work for two+ decades, I think I’ll duck out before any “blessings”.
“May you have an interesting plot,” isn’t what I’m looking for.
That’s a Decidedly Orthogonal Point of View
Does Walky still have his Nightguy costume? I wonder what cops would make of it? They’re not famous for making subtle distinctions.
Walky and the perpetual cycle of situationships
This could be the title of an entirely different webcomic.
Wait… which prediction is Walky referring to here? The only prediction of Sal’s I remember is the one about Walky and Lucy…
“Give it like an hour and you’ll have a new girlfriend”
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/02-im-the-problem-its-me/rescinded/
Blessed are those that come with the receipts!
Thank you, I thought I was having a stroke because I had no idea what that text was in reference to.
We all figured it wouldn’t take long for Walky.
Gee there were a lot of comments that day.
Really, this is the first Walky’s been back to his room since that comment and he doesn’t know how long Amber’s been there. For all he knows it *could* have been within an hour of Sal’s comment.
I started scrolling back through comics to find out what Sal said, then was like “nah, I’ll just look at the comments, somebody will have linked it”. 😀
I caught it before comments had the answer, so I just hit up Walky’s tag and went back through the pages he’s shared with Sal most recently. Thankfully, it was pretty recent.
Here ya go: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/02-im-the-problem-its-me/rescinded/
Walky will probably have lots of relationships with many attractive women, but most of them will last shorter than the life of a carton of milk.
In the beginning, the Walky relationships were lasted twelve weeks, then six. The last one with Dorothy was a week. In four days, we could be seeing a Walky girlfriend every eight hours, until they are coming every four minutes.
Marshal, we should witness a double event within seven days.
**Ignores obvious Pacific Rim reference to instead giggle about a single phrase within**
Every four minutes? I hope they stay hydrated!
‘Twas my first concern too.
Very 4 minutes? They are going to need to set up saline solution ivs.
A long time ago I had a girlfriend who could manage that, and keep it up (snerk) for an hour or more
All the internets, plus a big ol’ grin from me. Bravo.
The Walky situationships will continue until self-esteem improves. So, likely never.
he’s basically a sticom protagonist, so it tracks.
Love his first instinct is to sass his sister.
I am pleased both that Amber is off the ledge and that she is in Walky’s bed.
Things are looking up.
Fortunately, the cops weren’t among those things.
Thankfully for Amber, it seems neither are any security cameras or passing students either. (The security cameras I get since they’ll mostly be pointed at the ground where 99.9% of students are, but I figure a bunch of cops raiding a building would get a few onlookers to gather/rubberneck and maybe point cameras around, if not start a whole dang anti-cop protest themselves)
Lol
MUST AVOID FEELINGS
ONLY JOKE
Just imagining this text flash across his field of vision like Robocop’s directives.
Bit presumptive of you there Walky, but I adore the SS Garbage Scow so I do not care and cannot be made to. Go play games with Amber and make her feel less like crap, be adorable together.
If it’s been longer than an hour the text is accurate no matter what happens between him and Amber.
I mean, he’s presuming he’s got a new girlfriend, that’s what the text to Sal is about lol
Ok, she would not get away with that in Calgary. We actually look up here sometimes
OF course; you never know when the Northwest Territories might fall on you from above
One can never know when the Polar Lords might invade southward.
I think it’s sweet that this is where she thought to go. I still don’t really ship them but I’ll give them this one.
Huh, why here instead of Ethan’s?
She and Ethan have not been very close since mike died
I dont know if we know where the boy’s rooms are in relation to the girl’s but it may have been as simple as his was the easiest accessible room that she knew wouldnt immediately sell her out
I know she’s desperate to watch Asher and Ethan go at it, but I think she needed somewhere potentially safer in the men’s dorm lol
Ten bucks says she’s going to make a comment about the most plausible deniability of hanging out in his room since everyone knows Ethan is gay and his room is closest.
Both because “this is a smart plan from Amber” but also because “This is the sort of thing Amber would say to forcibly push away people who want to get closer to her.”
I think there are a few factors here
A: She feels potentially worse imposing on Ethan than on Walky
B: Ethan’s room would also include Jacob and/or Asher, who are People(tm) in a sense that would be difficult to be comfortable around, whereas Walky’s would “just” be Booster
C: She explicitly wants to be around Walky but doesn’t think she deserves it (see https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/01-not-so-smooth-criminals/rewarded/ ) and this is a great fuckin excuse
D: Maybe the geography worked out that way who knows besides The Willis
Ethan might have Asher as a guest. Amber isn’t certain about safety re: Asher. (plus Walky isn’t all gay)
My desire to draw Walky x Amber is increasing by the minute.
Suggestion — Walky: “Sal said we’d be boning by three o’clock. Hafta wait ten more minutes to prove her wrong.”
Amber: “Okay…(removes an article of clothing)”
[immediate fucking]
(vibratingeyes.gif)
You are the hero we need.
If they finish before 3:00pm, then it doesn’t count. Then when they bone again after 3pm, they can (by some measures of English interpretation) they can say “nyeah you’re wrong” to Sal.(1)
(1) who will immediately see through their bullshit anyway
Suggestion: walky/amber, but amber is writing slashfic about Joyce & Dorothy out loud in order to rile him up and give him something to prove
Yes, please!
Yotomoe, maybe just some nice cuddling until we’re sure the knife wound won’t start bleeding again. Amber is literally being held together with glue.
“For the record, it is not easy to make love to a man with badly bruised ribs.”
– T. Kingfisher, in Hemlock & Silver
Yes, no sex while recovering from abdominal surgery please.
Do it. Doooo eeeet!
For some reason I assumed this was Amber’s room and Walky was checking in on her. Her coming to him makes more sense
Ngl the depths of my dojo fatigue have pushed me into actually liking this ship by comparison. That and their respective character changes have made them more interesting together to me
I came back on to see a million replies to my post and braced myself for someone being weird and hostile to me again. Glad that wasn’t the case!
Never underestimate the power of yoto being thirsty. No bullying here only shipping.
Weird and hostile. Hmm.
Dot, how dare you post so little this vital and important development. Your letting your side down (whatever it is).
Okay, I’ve got nothing.
I don’t necessarily ship them myself, but I do think their interactions always have the potential for excellent storytelling, given how they somehow both cover for and exacerbate each other’s weak points as people.
I’m bracing myself like I just saw a deer in the wild and don’t want to startle it.
Please. Please. PLEASE.
I’m just so fuckin releaved both of them are ALIVE rn 😩 😭
To quote the CG Cats comic about Chocobo Breeding, “Have sex damn it!” and “Just have sex already!”
I see you are a Rose of culture.
[inuyasha monocle]
…did someone say VG Cats? My gods, it’s been 84 years
I’m hoping this will go well for both of them. Walky doesn’t necessarily /need/ a new girlfriend, but he definitely needs someone to talk to. If Amber can be both then I’d say Walky would be ok.
Honestly sounds like it’ll last as long as it takes for Amber to tell him that she sorta pushed Dorothy and Joyce together (not entirely her fault, but she has guilt and he’ll want someone to blame).
Walky already knows that, Booster told him. His response was “it wouldn’t have mattered because those two were gonna get together anyway, so Amber didn’t change anything.”
Firstly, he already knows.
Secondly, Walky does Not have the self esteem to stand up for himself like that.
Yay, Amber’s okay! That’s a relief, and pretty impressive making her way along the outside of the building. No more painkiller bubbles, though. I hope she’s not hurting too badly.
Most likely she’s in massive pain
He doesn’t even need to look down at his phone to taunt Sal. Respect game.
So we’re potentially 3-for-3 in “questionable relationships Walky jumped into to stave off emotional collapse.” Good stuff, can’t wait to see how this blows up on them.
In Walky’s defense, she literally just appeared in his bed like magic. He didn’t jump into this, it fell in his lap and crushed him from the third story.
Also, I’m hoping they just have like some good, solid friend time. As much as I want cute cuddles and doting, both these people absolutely need someone to check in on them desperately.
Plus, Amber has dermal containment issues, is held together in places with just surgical glue, and is experiencing pain.
Those papers are still falling did she *just* scamper up there?
Could be blowing because she left the window open?
Oh my god I just realized she’s pantsless.
Pantless is my weakness
That’s the best part; she’s in too much pain for anything, but it’s still great.
Okay, I’m more relieved that Amber got out from window.
no. nooooo. for gods sake walky youve had… what, four relationships with three girls to learn your lesson by now? pleeease dont do this walky what would the point even be
WALKY CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS GODDAMN IT, (S)HE CAN’T KEEP GETTING ON AND OFF WITH THE SAME GIRLS
Walky’s hair has delectable feminine energy and it makes him a snack
(crucially, a “snack” and not a “meal”)
okay fine I can cite my sources
Aw, and the Ecce Homo lady just passed away, too
I know that Walky found her in his bed, but I sincerely doubt she’s up for anything other than lying still and sleeping.
Also my second favorite ship is happening <3 and this is the best news I've had all day.
Anyone else excited for Wamber? Amky? Still don't know what to call it.
Garbage. It’s Garbage.
Delicious delicious garbage.
Awmablekry.
It’s the Garbage Scow!
Taking shoes off makes sense but why the pants, Amber
Pants could be too constrictive, and too painful to keep on right now. Another theory is that if they were old pants that she just grabbed before getting to the ledge then she might not want to wear dirty pants in Walky’s bed.
That, or she’s planning to seduce Walky into letting her stay there until the cops are gone.
Abdominal injury + pants = no bueno
Why would she keep wearing pants on purpose, if it wasn’t required?
In bed no less?!?
So two days ago we couldn’t be trusted to remember what happened the previous day so it all had to be recapped. But today we have to figure out this is Walky’s room based on tiny easily missable clues and remember a throwaway line from nearly a month ago to understand the punchline. Right…
That being said, if this actually goes somewhere it might be interesting. We’ll see.
Skill issue.
I mean Walky is there, in the doorway, the lights are off… so it’s safe to assume it’s his room..
You sure like to whine a lot I’ve noticed, and not about anything interesting.. shame
Oh, good. I thought it was just me over-reacting.
No they really are like that all the time.
If nothing is ever good enough for someone and yet their approval is constantly being held hostage, how much value does their opinion really have?
This is why Taffy is my favorite
Gods, you’re such a crybaby.
At first I thought this was Walky checking in on back Amber in her room, too. The architecture and furniture are all the same, and the D&MM poster is mostly obscured.
I think it would’ve been more obvious if today’s Panel 2 had the “camera” positioned behind Walky and over his shoulder, so we could see him opening the door with his and Booster’s names on it and notice Amber in the room beyond. Then the next panel could have been the tight shot of Amber in the Patreon strip to get her reaction in.
The comics before this make it clear what happened just by context.
On the 25th, she’s realizing she has to bail. On the 27th, she’s perched in the window. On the 29th, she’s standing against a brick wall. She’s in a different room than her own now.
Walky just stepped into someone’s room that had the lights off, just having come back from class. Room is filthy and the window is suspiciously in frame. You can see a sheet of paper fluttering to the ground because she *just* got in his bed moments ago.
Look fam i will defend the right to complain but this is literally such a nothing burger. You’re just looking for something to bongo about here. Skill issue
it’s the “I am deeply negative all the time so i must be the smart one” mindset.
I think this was more about why there was a recap in the DoJo running around strip than about this strip needing one. And I kind of agree that felt off.
And complaining about it on that strip was fair. But here, it’s just kinda sad.
aw
I give them a week
Amber is not exactly in a position to push him away again!
those wounds would make pushing hard, yes.
Walky will have to hide Amber for the rest of her life.
Not that that’s a problem.
got mustard on my titty reading this #walkymoment
hahaha happens with me all the time XD
This is either too much information or not enough.
Didn’t even say what kind of mustard, so clearly not enough.
Be right back; got great alternate version of the old “Grey Poupon” commercials to script out.
How much mustard do you need to put on a tit, for it to no longer count as naked? Science needs to know.
Well, we relaunched Dorky, now we’re relaunching Garbage Skowl.
This will last like a day and a half until he finds out that she deliberately broke up him and Dorothy, and then he’ll somehow end up back with Lucy.
He has been informed, and was unconvinced.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-16/02-im-the-problem-its-me/knob-2/
And, just to be clear for people who don’t follow the link, he’s not unconvinced that she thought it would be funny if Dorothy responded to Joyce’s titpic, he’s unconvinced that this whole thing wouldn’t have happened anyway.
The question is not that she thought it would be funny if Dorothy responded to Joyce’s titpic, it’s that she encouraged it specifically with the goal of breaking Walky and Dorothy up so he would be available.
But the point still stands that he’s unconvinced the whole thing wouldn’t have happened anyway, and he has a solid case.
This has been subjected to entirely too much analysis for a throwaway gag about the rate at which Walky’s recycling relationships.
Walky please do not continue to allow women to use your penis as some kind Panacea
Walky continue to let women use your penis as a panacea and also advertise it as such on your online dating profiles.
penicea
Hey so can someone please explain what this Panacea thing is because I am concerned and curious at the same time
A cure all. Like Penicillin.
Penisillin.
Penicillin is an antibiotic, not a cure-all.
Penisillin is definitely not a cure-all. But a valuable scientific development nonetheless.
There’s nothing real you can give as an example of a panacea bc despite what Wellness influencers and people in pyramid schemes will tell you, they don’t exist
You can have specifically limited panaceas, ie. a panacea for something. Example – The scientific method is a panacea for ignorance.
This example is something Dina would say, not me.
Panacea is a word for a theortical something that cures all ailments, and it is frequently in video games.
theoretical*
Video games are a panacea for boredom.
Thank you for the explanation! I thought it was a sex thing at first lmao
It will be once he starts telling women that his dick can cure depression.
His dick can cure any depression except his own. He’s got the Pagliacci of cocks.
So Amber’s here to heal her abdominal wound with Walky’s penis?
Mucho bad idea.
(now, oral, with the other hand…i mean, on the other hand…)
Are the cops also investigating the boys’ dorm?
Amazi-girl could be pulling a Cybersix.
If they are then Walky, and Amber would have to pretend to be having sex, so if the cops burst in they will be likely to notice Amber’s wound/description.
All they gotta do is put a sign on the door. “Do not touch! Science project”
Cops open the door; see the fuckin’; close the door.
“Man, this college is really into science.”
What a calamity! They’ll have to pretend it’s really passionate too, and that Wally is treating her really gently. And toake sure the buy it they might have to *gulp* take off their clothes.
(Also I fat-fingered the report button, sorry)
They wouldn’t have a reason to — they think they snuck up on the girls wing and gave no warning or notice.
Honestly, I’m at the point where I really wish we’d see Walky actually develop some more.
He’s been pretty explicitly struggling with Mike’s death and his own kidnapping and all sorts of relationship and parental trauma and I’m just kinda tired of seeing him as a supporting character to other people’s stories.
Don’t get me wrong, him being a supporting character isn’t bad or anything. But there’s this elephant that’s been in this room for in-universe months now, and it ain’t going away, and I just wish would get addressed at some point. Hazards of a massive ensemble story, I guess, not all of the characters can get the time their stories are calling for.
The way this webcomic is I’m pretty sure the second you’ve developed him at all and gotten him to any sort of stable place you’ve effectively written him out of the story.
I mean, Dorothy and Joyce have gotten a fuckton of development in the last few arcs, and people are complaining that they’re overtaking the story.
I’m not saying he needs all his traumas to be resolved instantly, I just want him to have a story arc where those traumas are actually acknowledged.
You mean like how he tried to apologize to Amber for not being there for her, because he was coping with Mike’s demise very poorly himself? The depictions of him struggling have been aknowledgment of his trauma.
Also, how can you develop perfection?
In a dark room.
But seriously, here Walky is being considerate and letting his sister know she doesn’t need to worry about him. He’s developing in front of our eyes.
Girls, girls, relax.
It’ll all make sense once the egg cracks.
So tired of this egg stuff. It’s like people are trying to manifest stuff, desperately.
I mean, maybe a little. It’s a very easy reading to make that many of us want to happen. So I mean yeah, comments like this or like ones I’ve made before confidently asserting it’s gonna happen are partially just that we want it to happen. Though I will say, given how Willis has responded to things about it, and the fact that he’s trans himself (I think? Can’t remember ever hearing a specific gender label, but I know he uses he/they. But I have known people who use he/they or she/they and don’t consider themselves trans) I genuinely do think it has a pretty solid chance of happening.
But even if it is purely manifesting it: so fucking what? Yeah, we want to see transfem characters. Sue us. personally, *I’m* tired of this exact same fucking reaction any time anyone anywhere says they think a seemingly-guy character is eggy.
it’s less “trying to manifest” and moreso “inferred from and informed by the way walky acts”, and the tgirl readings only ever get bolstered by paratextual word of god, so like skill issue, ig? sorry not everything in the world caters to men
1) something something subtext something something tl;dr the comic’s been teasing T!Walky since its inception
2) Even if it wasn’t. Even if I were making it up with absolutely no backing on the comic’s part. If I just headcanon Walky as trans because I think it’s neat: What would be the problem?
And you know what? Fuck you, here’s another predict, though it’s less likely:
Doyce aren’t endgame. Joyce and Walky are gonna end up together (again, I think?) after Walky transitions. There’s been just enough Joyce/Walky teasing for it to be plausible (Even though it’s probably just jokes about the old Willis works)
Willis already said no repeat relationships that were in another comic.
You mean like Danny and Sal?
Fairly certain hte rule has been broken before. Never take word of god at face value. Especially over such an old, ongoing comic.
It honestly really bothers me too but I dont bring it up because I’m not trans and I know people are just doing it out of a desire to see more people like themselves but Golly seeing people willfully misgender a character that I identify a lot with definitely makes me a bit uncomfortable.
I literally do not give a fuck about whether Walky (or whoever) ends up being trans or not, but it’s incredibly shitty of people to keep talking about it when they have been told that it’s a trauma trigger for some readers.
Ah, yes, we’re so shitty for *checks notes* thinking a character is trans. God forbid.
Have people said that? I don’t recall.
It be shitty to talk about it to/at someone who has stated it is a trauma trigger to them. It is not shitty to talk about it in general. Lots of things are trauma triggers to people and may be part of meaningful readings or discussions to others.
Except this already came up with the person in question, and these assholes QUINTUPLED DOWN.
It actually got so bad that Willis had to delete the thread.
Alright, tell me who the reader is, I’ll make sure to never reply to them with this stuff.
Don’t listen to the career victim, Egg Walky is canon and cracks April 27, 2026.
Still as toxic and casually cruel as ever, I see.
SnooPING AS usual, I see.
Walky has grown a lot in the comic. It’s just that his changes are less dramatic than Dorothy and Joyce’s.
Turning on his mother, understanding he has light skin privilege, his trauma with Mike, and so on.
Yes, but those don’t count. For mysterious reasons we can’t talk about.
He’s grown a lot, and I think this arc is going to grow him further since he’s going to be spending a lot of time with a freshly incapacitated Amber forced to talk about his feelings and hers, and maybe come to some realizations about how she pushes him away out of fear.
The whole arc of Walky’s parents visiting that ended with him calling out his mom for racism was a pretty significant development for Walky and happened about a week ago in-comic. The comic moves slow and there are going to be development lulls for every character, (except maybe Joyce).
I think “the comic moves slow” should just be a permanently pinned post at the top of every comments section. 80% of the complaints I feel are just directly addressed by that simple fact. It doesn’t make anybody feel any better about it, but it’s the reality of consuming a daily serial.
It also updates every single day and has done for fifteen years, which is pretty friggin’ uncommon for a webcomic. The usual suspects (you know who you are) might actually die if they tried reading something like Dolmistaska, which basically updates when the creator feels like it and spent about 2 months on a single panel update of someone saying “By the way, welcome to Quebec.” and nothing else. Spoiled rotten behavior.
The cops don’t think Amazi-Girl pulls. Fools.
All superheroes pull, just look at Spider-Man, he’s the biggest dork of all
She pulls aggro, anyway.
Batman wouldnt go down on catwoman so amazi-girl won’t go down on night guy. Logic tracks.
We’ll see if it lasts longer than an hour too
I am excited to see amber alive. Also, I like this ship, so I hope it goes well.
ll at walkyyping in ‘nyeah’ as opposed to having the text to speech pick it up
(my bad didn’t mean to send this through twice)
What text-to-speech? Is there any reason to think he’s ever used any?
…or speech-to-text for that matter…
Huh. My guess was Ken’s room. That’s what I get for remembering Ken.
Don’t let it happen again.
Let him remain beyond our ken
Shortpacked character, partial credit.
ll at walky typing in ‘nyeah’ as opposed to having the text to speech pick it up
Wait, did Walky go to check up on Amber in her room, or did she somehow manage to get all the way to Walky’s room despite her injuries? I’m confused.
I know she dresses up as Amazi-Girl, but Amber doesn’t have any actual superpowers and she could barely get out of bed due to her injuries not that long ago in-comic.
The last time she was shown, she was standing on the outside of the building on the window. She used to climb windows to get places as Amazi-girl and Sal has that habit too, so the assumption here is that she shimmied her way to Walky’s and entered through the window.
Mind you I don’t have the schematics for the building so I don’t entirely know the layout but these co-ed dorms are on the same floor so Amber pretty much just had to climb across windows rather than, say, dropping down or climbing up a story.
I’d say it’s more likely for Amber to manage the short burst of adrenaline needed to make it to Walky’s room than it is for her to stay out the window long enough to outlast the manhunt. Especially since Sal has already established entering and leaving through windows in this universe doesn’t require any sort of superpowers.
AG doesn’t have super powers either. She probably climbed to the roof, walked over to the Beck wing, and then climbed down to Walky’s room.
Their building is shaped like an X, [i]in the Dumbiverse[/i]. The wings are also not in the same place as they are in real life, either because Willis made a geometry mistake early on, or they didn’t want to be drawing a map to where real life 18 year olds live.
Both Amber’s room and Walky’s room get direct sunlight during sunrise, the only positioning of the wings where Amber wouldn’t be going around the ends of the wings is if Beck and Clark were the SE and SW wings. Because of the bend in the hall between them (shown in several strips), the geometry for that doesn’t work out. The geometry might not work out for any possible layout though.
It’s all kind of moot though, Amber lives near the end of the wing. If she’s trying to avoid being seen, and straining her injury the least, up a story and a half and then sneaking on the roof is probably better than ducking under every window while moving on a ledge the whole wing.
It’s Walky’s room. You can tell by the Dexter the Head Alien toy doll on the desk
Aight. The first time this ship came around I found it so uninteresting, I liked danber and dorky more and the two kids checked out of their own lives getting together and stewing together felt boring.
But this time I’m totally team Garbage Scow, this feels earned, they both are at their lowest and in desperate need of comfort and kinship and I think it would be good if they found it in each other.
Plus I’ve always been of the opinion that, of all the relationships Walky has had so far, Amber is actually by far the best suited partner for him. At his heart, Walky is a pleasant, unambitious person who just wants to coast through life doing the things he loves with the person he loves. However, he’s also a bit of a slacker, so his partner has to be someone with more responsibility and drive to keep him on track when necessary. Amber, Dorothy and Lucy all meet the second criteria, but only Amber meets the first. Dorothy, despite her recent breakdown, I feel still wants to do great things with her life and improve people’s lots. She may not do it as a politician anymore, but I could see her starting some NGO or not-for-profit charity assisting marginalized or minority groups to fulfill that need. But that kind of life demands a lot from you, and she needs a partner who fully supports that goal AND can also help her with it. Walky is too passive to be that partner, and stuff like his failing grades show that Dorothy cannot both help him AND keep her dreams going. Eventually, it will start to feel that Walky is holding her back, and the relationship will start to crumble under the weight of resentment.
Meanwhile, Lucy doesn’t have such lofty goals, but she also doesn’t really share Walky’s interests. It’s also fairly obvious that Walky doesn’t feel as strongly for Lucy as he did for Dorothy and Amber. If they did get together, theirs would be a relationship where Lucy is always giving more than Walky is reciprocating, and that kind of unequal balance in the relationship typically winds up turning the relationship sour or rocky.
Which brings us back to Amber. Amber is actually extremely talented and intelligent, and she can come up with innovative and clever solutions for their problems, but she also doesn’t have the ambition or drive to really do more than “fix local or small scale issues, then back to gaming”. I could easily see the two of them settling down in some smaller town or city, finding small jobs, and then living a life of gaming and TV while keeping each other company. “A beautiful, quiet life.”, in other words.
Yeah, heartily agree.
I’ve been saying this for years!! And this is also hard carried by the fact that their separations have been driven by external factors creating internal relationship drama. The second these two learn how to communicate properly (and Walky stops being avoidant as shit), they’re basically among the most solid couples in the comic.
That’s also the reason I think they’re not gonna end up back together, at least not for a while — we’ve seen Amber get a lot of development in the comic, and Walky not so much. And unless there’s interest from Willis in actually developing him as a character, that’s probably not changing. He gets good moments, but those moments haven’t actually led to any notable or measurable changes in his character compared to Amber, or most of the cast in fact.
I’ve said it many times before. Dorothy and Lucy push Walky to a higher standard but Amber doesn’t which makes Walky hold HIMSELF to a higher standard.
Well said.
Same, it was weird and lame the first time. Unearned is a good way to put it. This time tho? This is good, this is interesting
I dunno i felt like they OOZED chemistry the first time around. Less of a “unearned” and more of an “over too soon” I would say Becky and Dina had a similar beginning but they had time to develop. Garbage Scow just needed time.
That’s subjective bc it felt like they had negative chemistry to me, straight to didn’t work for me. Square peg round hole. It feels more compatible now tho, idk
Phew.
Happy endings for all! 😛
I lol so much how Sal was again right to the point.
(and so much more lol, on how this disapproves once again the fantasy reality of the moral superiors, who were attacking Sal for not ‘protecting her brother’)
Buddy… what?
I wouldn’t question it, Acher4 doesn’t know what they’re on about either.
A mystery we’ll never solve, I guess!
A lot of people who dislike Doyce were mad at Sal for not getting onto Joyce for the cheating thing because they viewed it as her being a bad sister, and Acher4 is mocking them.
For all my grievances with the Doyce arc, that wasn’t one of them because Sal and Walky just aren’t close like that at all. Walky would defend Sal, I don’t think Sal would defend Walky to anyone except their parents and maybe if they were like… super aggressively shit talking him. I feel like there’s still a high threshold people could get away with though, Walky has virtually no friends.
And to clarify, I say that from a “if my kid told me their friends acted like that, I’d tell them to find better friends” angle, not a “grrr treat Walky special” angle. People like to be mean to him and I don’t think Sal is one of them, but I don’t think she realizes that it bothers Walky either.
Walky has lots of friends. He has virtually no male friends.
Good ol’ Acher4, perpetually having an argument that only exists inside their own head with no one who actually exists.
I mean, it’s right there in the post, “the fantasy reality of the moral superiors”. The “moral superiors” only exist in this colorful character’s fantasy reality. You can tell because no direct examples have ever been given of these alleged “moral superiors”, and none ever will be. This is the same person who spend days on end posting links to unrelated protest pictures with people kissing, surrounded by delirious manic gibberish.
Breddah drop me your PayPal. I will literally pay you money for every day you don’t bring up the people who dislike your otp completely unprompted on unrelated strips
Oooo. Can I get in on this deal?
The text message is so cheeky but his face is so worried for her. Very sweet.
oh thanks fuck she’s safe
…did she enter from the window ? I hope the room didn’t lose too much heat
I find it interesting that Walky doesn’t seem to know why the cops are all over the place
I hope he’s about to find out.
If there’s one thing we can rely on Walky for, it’s to be at least somewhat oblivious about things that aren’t part of his anxieties that he papers over with his goofball act.
“See, Walky doesn’t even CARE, why are you people complaining about this?”
Sorry Willis, it doesn’t work like that
What
Whoops, accidentally reported this when I meant to just hit reply.
But when in the history of this comic has Walky being flippant and making jokes meant he actually doesn’t care?
What are you talking about?
No clarification will be happening, most likely. I’ll bet 8 bars of bass on it.
I’ll take that bet, not because I think you’re wrong but because I’m hilariously lame and want an excuse to say “all your bass are belong to us.”
all your bass
your bass
bass
bass
all your bass
are belong to us
Likely the argument that Walky should look more devastated about the cheating or that Joyce made fun of him. Like he himself hadn’t been making the prediction it was gonna happen Every. Other. Day.
Ah shit I messed up that last link.
I don’t even know how I managed that.
… ok what?
Anyways it’s supposed to be Overbearin’, go find it I guess.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/overbearin/
In short- yes.
Or rather, it’s annoying that Willis treats it so nonchalantly. It has a strong vibe of “see? It’s not a big deal.”
Because that’s how Walky would treat it?
Even if he’s hurt, he’s Walky. Do you expect him to. What. Go and argue with Dorothy and Joyce over something he knew was coming from day 1?
Walky Performs a Wound Dressing
Good choice to hide with Walky. He swore on garbage roof that he would never reveal her to be Agnes McMarshmallow.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/shortround/
It would be much better to hide in Booster’s room though. They would be much better in misdirecting the cops.
I actually wouldn’t trust Booster to deal with cops.
Not because they’d be a narc! I think they’d have that premise down pat just fine.
I wouldn’t trust them to deal with cops, because I can’t imagine Booster passing on any opportunity to rile up or antagonize someone, even to their own immediate detriment.
… Walky’s room is Booster’s room. They’re roommates.
I was going to say.
I think the funniest possible move would be for Joyce to wait three in-story months to talk to Joe – only to have him switch colleges off-screen, so we fully never see him again. You could even write a Joe Spaghetti incident that Danny and Sal reference 😉
I don’t personally think it would be “funny,” but at least the bandaid would be ripped off and the waiting for something to happen in that regard would finally be over. He’s practically halfway there already.
Who’s Joe?
Exactly!
That’s interesting, I had a similar idea where we just got rid of YOUR favorite character for no reason.
1. Very darn glad that drug-addled Amber isn’t flirtin’ with death by walkin’ around on high-up ledges.
2. Also darn glad that she clambered into Walky’s room.
Our two favourite messes, being messy together.