THE SEVENTH DUMBING OF AGE KICKSTARTER IS GO!
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preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 19h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 4d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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I love how Ruth actually looks sort of impressed in the last panel.
That might be my favorite Ruth expression of all time, tbh.
Well, Joyce is an attractive girl. I’m sure a lot of bi/lesbian women would enjoy having her fill the gaps in one’s recreation quadrant. I mean, I always enjoy it when an attractive young woman fills the gap in my recreation quadrant, so I can only assume that Dorothy feels the same about her recreation quadrant.
… I just like saying “recreation quadrant.” I think it’s my new euphemism. I intend to bring it up in conversation.
Recreation quadrant? Is that where the cast of Voyager could only dream the Caretaker stranded them?
Maybe that’s where the Amusement Park Planet from “Shore Leave” was located.
Risa should be located there!
Don’t get me started on quadrants. I’ve been places the word “quadrant” itself is vulgar.
So true, so true.
Also…
“Dumbing of Age book 8: I’ve Only Been Out Of The Closet For Eight Days But That Is The Gayest Thing I’ve Ever Heard”
I love that the “Title of Book 8: ____ ___ ____…” is the new
“______ ________ is the name of my ________ cover band”
Oddly enough, “I’ve Only Been Out Of The Closet For Eight Days But That Is The Gayest Thing I’ve Ever Heard” is also the title of the first song by my Fall Out Boy cover band.
I don’t know if I should apologize or thank you for the inspiration…
Shit, I mean tribute, tribute band! Cover bands just do covers, stupid past me!
And Becky wasn’t even mentioned! Impressive, indeed.
“6 Weeks” Oh yeah. Webcomic time.
People who entered high school when this comic started are now graduating from college.
Da fuq? that’s like when my son reached the age that he was half as old as me….
6 weeks? What about the 8 days? Mighty civilisations have risen, spawned great empires and fallen to dust in those 8 days.
Joyce would tell us it only took 7 to create the world.
Don’t be ridiculous! It was 6 days and 1 vacation day.
I have to admit that the “6 weeks” remark threw me. I don’t know how long the time period has been, but i surely thought it was months, not weeks.
I think every storyline (i.e. 1/4 of a book, lately) is meant to be one day, and they’re all consecutive except for a short while back when iirc he skipped a week in between two storylines. Which would make the timing more or less work out to six weeks since move-in day.
There’ve been a couple of time skips – of a few days apiece. (after the pajama jeans, after Toedad’s happy fun gun times and after the stabbing incident, IIRC)
We’re in the middle of October now.
I did the math, at the current pace, it’ll take the characters 108 more irl years to graduate college.
I just discovered this comic a couple months ago and decided to binge-read it from the beginning. The comic has been running for seven years and they still aren’t up to mid-terms in the fall semester. At this rate it’ll be 2039 or so before they finish their first year.
“oh yes fill the gap in my recreation quadrant, fill it with so much recreation”
“Where can I get one of these Strap-on things? I’m about a size 6…” XD
Wasn’t completely on the mark with the wording, but you know what I meant…
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/pagans/
lol. I didn’t see that one before. Back in my college days we had a girl in our group who was like that. Years after school one of the other girls was telling us that M. somehow made it to college without knowing what a dildo was.
Just filled to the brim with recreation
That particular Danny face just makes the comment so much more hilarious.
Randomly selected gravatars are just the best
Huh. That’s what the kids are calling it these days.
Joyothy confirmed
Walky’s Joyothy senses are going off and he’s just sitting at his desk TRYING for the love of god to study but shouting “COME ON” because he’s not even there to be able to make jokes.
At some point he snaps and stands up and shouts “DID I DIE? IS THIS HELL?”
Mike is his roommate, so probably.
Is that the title to the Dorothy x Joyce Wttfz?
Okay no one make any phrasing jokes! Wait does this count?
Yes. Unless you want it to, in which case it doesn’t. Mike designed the system.
How long have Ruth and Billie been together in-comic time, so far?
Less than six weeks, probably.
If Dorothy and Walky were only together for six weeks, definitely a shorter time than that. I know Ruth and Billie got together (at least officially) after that.
They got together in Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit, which was three weeks ago tomorrow. Seems like longer.
Though the initial kiss/assault was a week or so earlier.
the recreation quadrant *is* in my top four quadrants
What phrasing issues? She’s just coming out.
Dorothy: No, no, she will serve me sexually but it will not count because there will be no relationship.
Joyce: Oh! Is that a thing?
Dorothy: Yes…yes it will be.
*becky wakes up from her nightmare*
Becky: GAHHHHHHHHHH!
Isn’t that just American Pie? (I haven’t seen American Pie.)
No, there weren’t any General Motors cars or artificial hills devoid of moisture.
Eight day, uh.
Yes, I’m sure Joyce would be happy to fill all those recreational gaps…
Dorothy, you’re one of the only straight people in this cast, but you could’ve fooled me.
Dorothy and Joyce prove that all straight people in DoA are secretly closeted; they just aren’t self-aware enough to realize it.
Jesus did Dorothy just say that her and walkys relationship wasn’t special? Also side note YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THIS COMIC HAS LASTED SIX WHOLE WEEKS IN THEIR TIME?
I think it’s been seven weeks. They weren’t together the first week.
We’re going at a clip of about a week each year, then? Dear lord, freshman year will last until, what, 2030? 2040?
I was in eighth grade when this comic started. Saying I might own a house by the time we’re done with freshman year is only a stretch because it implies I will ever be able to afford one.
Pretty close to an in-universe week to a real-world year, yeah.
I think Dorothy might be repressing her feelings about breaking up with Walky – she even stutters when trying to claim she’s okay because her relationship “only” lasted 6 weeks.
“Today” is October 12th. Move-in day was very late August, presumably the 29th.
Ohhh man, only 3 years until in-comic Halloween
I thought we weren’t doing “phrasing” anymore.
*Sets phraser to stun* Think again.
Six weeks……………. just wow.
The word “quadrant” makes this the nerdiest thing Ruth has ever heard, whether she knows it or not.
Confusing romance?
Quadrants?
Must be 4/13 again.
I know what the timestamp says but it’s still 9 pm out here on the Best Coast.
Lucky bastard.
So sad, it’s a day late.
Oh, good!
Hussie confirmed!
Just in time….
I was waiting for someone to mention homestuck
Phasing!
It’s just weird to thing that a storyline that’s been in work for a couple of years now… is only 6 weeks in story-time. And they hooked up not long after they got there, so they’re almost getting close to Halloween. I wonder if that will be a thing soon? (Or are holidays just glossed over? Basically, is there ever going to be a “between semesters” period, or is it eternally going to be in the Fall semester of their Freshman year?)
They’re roughly in the middle of October, so I’m sure it’ll come up soon.
Yes, it could be any year now.
Right. I’m sure having the person you love no longer be a part of your life is simple to replace with a friend.
I mean, a friend can help, but such a situation should never be so easy to handle if your feelings were that serious.
And if part of the problem was you didn’t have time to do everything, including spend time with Walky (not the main reason they broke up but it was a problem with her balancing her workload), how are you supposed to find time to spend with Joyce?
that is a difficult question that I’m sure she will completely ignore.
Well, she was spending time with Joyce anyway, so it’s still a net gain in study time.
She hasn’t hung with Joyce since she went on Pause with Walky.
Joyce just gave her a bagged lunch off screen.
At least as far as we’ve been shown. Maybe they had serious bonding time off screen as well.
A friend who wants to shove her face into your crotch, to be fair. So at least you’re not losing all the advantages of a lover. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/overbearin/
this comic has been running for years
seven books
….. only six weeks.
Well, six weeks since Dorothy and Walky started their relationship, which wasn’t right at the beginning, though was fairly early on.
Needfuldoer wolframmed it way more accurately than I did: 1 DoA day = 66.76 real-world days.
We have all had years to become deeply invested in these fictional characters’ relationships. But in-universe, it’s been six weeks and two days.
And yes, I know I mathed it wrong, see below.
Six weeks is longer than my first few college relationships, and those were all pretty lifechanging in their own ways.
Great examples of how not to do relationships too.
Wow this college has had a more eventful first six weeks than mine did XX
Just gals being pals. Gal pals!
Willis is going to be dead before these kids graduate.
Last time I did the math, at the current rate, Willis will be in his 70’s by the time the freshman year move-out date rolls around. It’s possible his hypothetical grandchildren might see them graduate, but it’s more likely that that task will be left to the great-grandchildren.
I think that was basically the plan. To have a strip he could do for the rest of his working life, if he wanted. No intention of going beyond freshman year.
Move out day sounds like the logical place to end the strip, really. The characters won’t be on each others’ space so much, they’ll be making new contacts, exploring the city instead of lurking on campus.
Talk of filling quadrants while it’s still homestuck day in my timezone?
Wait shit is mentioning homestuck breaking a rule of some sort
The curse has been lifted.
After an eternity I am now free-
to tell you about Homestuck
Please, S)(–ELL US about )(omestuck! 38D
See, there’s this one guy who’s the number one athlete. Then there’s another who always wears boxing gloves, some other guy who runs a concession stand, a sad Stay Puft marshmallow man, and a talking broom who gets crank calls on her answering machine all the time. Sometimes it’s all old-timey, and sometimes it’s Halloween, but mostly it’s about the boxing gloves guy reading his email.
I mean…
The day after 413, no less!
Dorothy, people don’t work like that. Relationships don’t work like that. You can’t work yourself like that!
Also, phrasing.
If my first couple of months at college had been HALF this eventful, I would’ve dropped out by then and probably foregone any “going outside my house” activities forever out of sheer overwhelmedness. (Aka somebody give all these kids a hug.)
waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait…
This whole comic… HAS ONLY BEEN 6 WEEKS?!?!?!!??
Well, there was a week in-comic before they got together, but they were actually together for a little under six weeks, so
Not so strange considering this is a mostly dialogue driven slice of life. Most of the story is conversation. Talking takes a lot longer to convey in images. We’ve waited two days for let’s say what would be thirty seconds, maybe a minute of dialouge if this were like an Adult Swim cartoon.
No, no, don’t be silly.
It’s been seven weeks.
Each week of comic time takes about a year of real time.
Following the Walkypedia timeline:
Walky threw his Monkey Master toy at Dorothy on August 30.
Walky and Dorothy first watched DVDs together on September 3. Not a date per se, but the first time she sought him out for emotional comfort.
Today is October 12. So they’ve know each other for just over seven weeks, and they’ve dated for about six and a half weeks.
(“And they called it…puppy love.”)
Whether you count their start date as September 3 or September 5 (as I do), it’s actually under six weeks that they’ve dated.
So, Jacob and Raidah hat their second date on September 25th, which is little more than 3 weeks ago.
I don’t even want to make jokes.
I just want it to be true.
When your relationship with your best friend is TOO gay for the resident bisexual.
Resident assistant bisexual! Get it right! Or I’ll zap you with my future seeing laser eyes!
Dorothy is a zero on the Kinsey Scale. HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHA! *snort* Yeah, right.
So, like… Willis was expecting a sea of “phrasing” comments, but was he prepared for the sea of Homestuck comments? It’s his own fault, using the phrasing of “quadrant.”
Here’s a link to the timeline, for everyone freaking about the six weeks comment:
http://walkypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Dumbing_of_Age_Timeline
A bonus game for those of us with birthdays in the timeline, what chapter took place on your birthday? For me it was “When Somebody Loved Me” aka BECKY!
That also means that Becky kissed Joyce on Celebrate Bisexuality Day. Joyce hadn’t gotten the memo, though.
Hmm, I wonder what it says that my B-Day was “Whiteboard Ding-Dong Bandit”?
My birthday isn’t coming up for another 9.33 years or so.
That makes mine “Guess What, I’m a Lesbian”, which is only correct in that I prefer girls.
Well Hey, Guess What, I’m a Lesbian! is the book. What chapter was on the specific day?
I will likely be dead before my birthday is canonical since it is in June.
I will also never have a birthday.
I imagine my birthday will be got to while I’m in good health.
Mine, appropriately enough, is on Walking With Dina.
Three’s A Crowd
Pajama jeans!
I hate the teasing! Joyce and Dorothy like Walky and Jason!
…. huh. It’s almost like he’s ASKING for phrasing jokes in the comments.
Do you want phrase with that?
…..
*crickets*
reltzik no
Do you really want to do that, Reltzik? I mean, don’t let my opinion faze you. But before you start a fracas, you might consider if that’s really a good idea, or if you’re just doing it to get a raise out of everyone. Because that sort of thing is usually just a phase people go through, but it seems maybe more worthy of praise to simply refrain from it.
Besides, how many puns on phrase could there be, anyway? I can’t think of any.
This was well done.
Oh my god.
All these puns left me in a daze.
*retroactively realizes I could have tried for first comment*
Since all the phrasing jokes have already been made, I’ll just go with my by-now-standard Dorothy NOOOOOO. God this poor girl’s gonna kill herself like this.
The amazing part to me is this comic time wise is only like… two months. Man a lot of shit happens in this world day to day.
I think it’s ’cause the characters interact with each other*. When I’m like, “Why doesn’t that much happen in my life?” I remember that I’m basically a hermit. And then I’m like, “Oh, yeah.”
Somewhere in this universe there’s a similarly withdrawn person who’s thinking about how not much has happened this school year. Like, a couple crimes they heard about in passing, but nothing that happened to them.
*And ’cause fiction
I feel like in real life these events would take place over the course of two years. And I agree: you miss out on a lot (both good and bad) as a hermit.
I’m sure we see concurrent events one at a time, too. Each strip is usually only about 30 seconds of dialogue.
Aw, Dotty… “Soling your relationship issues” is not really a suitable task for a five minute time slot. Just don’t burn yourself out.
I love that the “recreational quadrant” thing is just the sort of innocent innuendo JOYCE could have said. They are really rubbing off on each other.
No, I mean… eh, who am I kidding. You know EXACTLY what I mean.
Wow. even ice ain’t that cold Dorothy, though she isn’t wrong, though I feel Ruth is correct too. (about relationships that is).
So pretty much nearly 2 months have gone by, good lord. So in that time, one sexual assault (that we know of), several massive beatings, one school shooting, a guy getting cut to ribbons in front of a dorm, the case of the ding dong bandit, and more scandals than there are weeks of those 2 months. I am not sure what is scarier, the fact this is a work of fiction, or the fact it might not be that far off from reality…
More than one. Three other girls came forward about Ryan.
Though unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think we know if their encounters with Ryan were also during term-time, or from before?
I’m sure Joyce would love to “fill the gaps” in Dorothy’s “recreational quadrant.” She did say she’s a friend of Dorothy after all.
Dammit sometimes I wish these comments had an edit function.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/earliest/
Thank you. I didn’t know the slang when I first read that. Thank you so much.
HOW HAVE I MISSED THAT ALL THESE YEARS
Well, shit, Willis. Obviously book 8 has to be “Dumbing of Age is Totally Gay.”
Subtle.
And also the title of a Shortpacked book.
It comes full circle, you see.
Dorothy be dumb.
Thank you !
I won’t dance like a puppet for you, alt-text!! I won’t!!!
I’ve been a general supporter of Dorothy’s organizational instincts, but yeah, this is a giant red flag.
Dorothy is expecting Joyce taking the lead in their friendship? Does she even know the girl?!?
Dorothy has the theory of work life balance down pat.
What about practise though.
In theory there is no different between theory and practice.
In practice there’s a huge difference.
So Dorothy expects Joyce to fill up the gaps Walky will not do anymore?
Time for Slipshine moment.
off-Topic: Happy march for Science day
In Berlin, Germany, a bunch of Scientists go into pubs and cafes to get into conversations about science with people. How cool is that?
Dorothy confirmed for fucking homestuck :v
Ehehehe she said ” gap “
I think Joyce will have issues with this plan
Either version.
so I think we can all agree that Dorothy is not a homestuck… but Ruth is.
I like Ruth’s rare moment of self-reflection in panel 4.
If this is half the comic I think it is:
Next Panel: Faz busts with graphs and charts showing “Dorothys recreation quadrant” and Faz’s capability in filling it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrhTB2Sij8c&ab_channel=MadMegatax
Also, phrasing comment…phrasing comment…ah, I’ve got one.
Far from being the gayest thing I’ve ever heard, i find this situation rather sad.
As much as she’s going to need a lot of encouragement before she acts on it, you know Joyce does want to fill those holes.
<reference href=”Thomas Sanders>Could be gayer.</reference>
So Joyce is Dorothy’s moirail? Also, Dorothy no! You need to eat, sleep, wash and bang Walky when you both want! You can’t just live doing homeworks and studying! You are developing Karoshi and becoming like those people in Japan that seclude themselves because of work and anime interests, and you are worse because you aren’t even seeking entertainment! Joyce should do the moirail thing and get Dorothy out of her room, but only after dealing with her self esteem issues. Otherwise, this could end like the April Fool’s Day nsfw comic of Dorothy x Joyce.
Well, Dorothy said Joyce would fill /the same quadrant Walky did/ 9.9
but yeah Joyce needs to moirail Dorothy more than she ever moirailed before
Dorothy x Joyce would be awkward for Walky, like some Legend of Korra scenario, but it would be interesting. Dorothy has said she is a zero in the scale of heterosexuality/homosexuality, but I think Joyce may be a two after many things. Then I remember Joyce doesn’t like female anatomy below the neck and she fantasizes about big muscled men.
Nobody’s made a Dumping of Age joke yet?
THEN ALLOW ME!
Also all this quadrant talk one day after Homestuck day is killing me.
DAMMIT someone beat me to it.
What is going on with the pop-ups on the site right now? My phone’s Google chrome app has blocked 25 after viewing 4 pages.
Anyone notice how Ruth’s expression in the last pane matches David’s?
I keep forgetting it really hasn’t been that long
RIGHT!?