Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

Dumbing of Age

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June 1, 2026

De-escalate

by David M Willis on October 28, 2018 at 12:01 am
  • 01 - Flyin' to the Red
└ Tags: marcie, sal

Discussion (129) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. lilyliv
    lilyliv
    October 28, 2018 at 12:01 am | #

    She’s so proud of herself. I’m grinning so hard.

    • lilyliv
      lilyliv
      October 28, 2018 at 12:03 am | #

      …So is Ethan in my avatar, I guess.

    • Golddragon
      Golddragon
      October 28, 2018 at 12:04 am | #

      Cripes, the relief on her face is tangible. It’s gonna suck to see what happens when she tries this on Amber, though…

      • Stu
        Stu
        October 28, 2018 at 12:05 am | #

        Honestly, I’m reading that less as relief and more as “Stressed the fuck out and hoping that this might get Marcie to interact with me a bit more so I can vent a bit”

    • BenRG
      BenRG
      October 28, 2018 at 3:16 am | #

      Yeah, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen her so happy!

      • Clif
        Clif
        October 28, 2018 at 3:54 pm | #

        Victory is where you find it.

  2. butts
    butts
    October 28, 2018 at 12:02 am | #

    well at least they’re talking again

    …fuck whoops

    • ProfessorDetective
      ProfessorDetective
      October 28, 2018 at 3:24 am | #

      At least they are interacting again.

      • Clif
        Clif
        October 28, 2018 at 3:55 pm | #

        It’s a good sign.

    • Jimi
      Jimi
      October 29, 2018 at 2:48 am | #

      This comment wasn’t about butts! I demand a refund.

  3. Doctor_Who
    Doctor_Who
    October 28, 2018 at 12:02 am | #

    Marcie is dubious. This is like the time Sal claimed that she was abducted by aliens, or that she didn’t cry watching Inside Out OR Toy Story 3.

    • Mr D
      Mr D
      October 28, 2018 at 12:08 am | #

      I didn’t cry but then again, when I first watched those movies I was at the emotional dead age that is being between 17 and 24. Too old to get emotional, too young to feel too empathic. Also, I was just starting out with the psyche pills, so it took a while.

      Now, if I first watched those movies NOW, at 27? I’d likely tear up a bit.

    • Zach
      Zach
      October 28, 2018 at 12:48 am | #

      Toy Story 3 was to toy story 2 what Jimmy Neutron was to Chicken Little: a shameless, lazy photo copy with a color swap. Toy Story 2 though, that has Sally’s Song!

      • MatthewTheLucky
        MatthewTheLucky
        October 28, 2018 at 1:46 am | #

        What?

      • Delicious Taffy
        Delicious Taffy
        October 28, 2018 at 3:54 am | #

        The Jimmy Neutron movie came out in 2001. Chicken Little came out in 2005. Sally’s Song was in The Nightmare Before Christmas, not Toy Story 2.

        I hope you’re just being ornery.

      • Khyrin
        Khyrin
        October 28, 2018 at 12:11 pm | #

        So… The toys sliding into the incinerator, saying their last goodbyes does nothing for you?

      • Mr. Bulmbin
        Mr. Bulmbin
        October 28, 2018 at 2:39 pm | #

        I think you got the terms backwards, there. Chicken Little is, compared to the Jimmy Neutron movie, at least, pretty soulless, relying almost exclusively on pop-culture references for any emotional connection. This, combined with the above fact that it came out four years later . . .

    • BBCC
      BBCC
      October 28, 2018 at 12:53 am | #

      I liked both but cried at neither.

      Nice It’s Walky reference btw.

      • Joshua Kronengold
        Joshua Kronengold
        October 28, 2018 at 1:07 am | #

        Wow. DId you manage to avoid crying in the first 10 minutes of Up?

        • BBCC
          BBCC
          October 28, 2018 at 1:57 am | #

          Yup. I haven’t cried at fiction (beyond sometimes tearing up) since I saw Bridge to Terabithia when I was younger.

          • Keulen
            Keulen
            October 28, 2018 at 2:07 am | #

            I think one of the few moments in movies that makes me cry is the scene in The Land Before Time when Littlefoot’s mother dies.

            • BBCC
              BBCC
              October 28, 2018 at 2:37 am | #

              That franchise was my childhood.

            • Ghostforge
              Ghostforge
              October 28, 2018 at 12:00 pm | #

              I recently tried to torture the players I DM for by making them kill a dino specifically meant to remind them of both Littlefoot’s mom, and Goat-mom from Undertale. I designed the encounter in such a way, that all obvious options were horrible and ended with at least the dino dying, if not the entire forest in the Knock-off big valley it was trapped in. I say tried, because they managed to concoct a shrink potion in order to save the thing. the best laid plans…

          • Mr D
            Mr D
            October 28, 2018 at 3:43 am | #

            I legit teared up at the end of Logan.

            Might have something to do with my personal problems with my old man and shit tho.

  4. LeslieBean4Shizzle
    LeslieBean4Shizzle
    October 28, 2018 at 12:02 am | #

    Speaking of Marcie… yay Marcie!
    And yeah, Sal really should have taken a selfie with Ethan.

  5. Well_Played
    Well_Played
    October 28, 2018 at 12:03 am | #

    That’ll make for a weird moment with Amber.

    • Bobcat
      Bobcat
      October 28, 2018 at 12:06 am | #

      Red panels, red panels everywhere!

      • Needfuldoer
        Needfuldoer
        October 28, 2018 at 7:54 am | #

        And you get a red panel! And YOU get a red panel!

        • Willinwoods
          Willinwoods
          November 4, 2018 at 4:49 am | #

          *pats on roof* Wait til you see how many red panels you can fit into this li’l beauty!

      • BBCC
        BBCC
        October 28, 2018 at 12:53 pm | #

        I still wanna see if the stabbing’s another red panel for Sal. We know Marcie’s accident was but I still wanna know about the stabbing.

  6. meep
    meep
    October 28, 2018 at 12:04 am | #

    What is the sign that
    Marcie uses mean?

    • Mr D
      Mr D
      October 28, 2018 at 12:08 am | #

      “Bullshit”

      (Just guessing)

      • Bruceski
        Bruceski
        October 28, 2018 at 12:27 am | #

        I believe “bullshit” is two forearms hand to elbow, one making the bull’s horns and the other plopping out the back.

      • TheKelliestKelly
        TheKelliestKelly
        October 28, 2018 at 12:34 am | #

        No, bullshit is signed with the arms folded on top of each other in front of the torso. The non dominant hand is on top in a Y shape (the pinky and thumb extended with other fingers folded – kinda like metal horns) and with the dominant hand open, palm down you wave the fingers.

        I don’t know what sign Marcie is using but it does not look like bullshit to me. If it is, it is conveyed differently than Willis has drawn it in the past, a variant of the sign, or I’m just not recognizing it from this perspective

        Here’s a link to when he drew Bullshit
        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/bullshit-2/

        I really wish I knew the sign in this strip too. Bullshit was a good guess tho

        • Deanatay
          Deanatay
          October 28, 2018 at 12:45 am | #

          I’m guessing the sign is ‘de-escalate’ – Willis has a custom of titling his strips with Marcie’s most significant sign. He even mentioned it in one of the alt-texts.

          It’s probably signed sarcastically, since Sal got that she doesn’t believe her.

        • All-Purpose Guru
          All-Purpose Guru
          October 28, 2018 at 3:45 am | #

          My cousin does this one while snapping the fingers of the dominant hand.

    • David M Willis
      David M Willis
      October 28, 2018 at 12:57 am | #

      It’s “believe.”

      She’s probabably in the middle of saying something like “nope, don’t believe it”

      • pablo360
        pablo360
        October 28, 2018 at 2:22 am | #

        “probably”

        • Ryek Hvek
          Ryek Hvek
          October 28, 2018 at 9:12 am | #

          Marcie was stuttertering

          • MatsuoTanuki
            MatsuoTanuki
            October 28, 2018 at 5:06 pm | #

            DBZA!Krillin: “If some one with one arm does sign language, is that an accent or a speech impediment?”

            • BlackCatGodess
              BlackCatGodess
              October 28, 2018 at 10:17 pm | #

              The majority of signs in ASL were designed to be done one handed so…non-regional diction?

              • MatsuoTanuki
                MatsuoTanuki
                October 28, 2018 at 11:46 pm | #

                *cue “The More You Know!” star and rainbow*

    • Arianod
      Arianod
      October 28, 2018 at 5:53 pm | #

      “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen”

    • Ivy
      Ivy
      October 29, 2018 at 12:02 am | #

      “Pics or it didn’t happen”

  7. ShinyNeen
    ShinyNeen
    October 28, 2018 at 12:05 am | #

    S’been 24 hours and I’m still hung up on how expressive Sal is in panels 4+5. And then framing those panels with Marcie’s initial expression and then reaction… I like that touch.

  8. shadowcell
    shadowcell
    October 28, 2018 at 12:05 am | #

    plot twist: reinvigorated by the reminder that he cheated death, Ethan decides to make sure the Beast Wars character wins the poll by resorting to open terrorism

    • Doctor_Who
      Doctor_Who
      October 28, 2018 at 12:07 am | #

      He starts an political movement called the Pollcepticons. Their motto is “Beast Through Tyranny”.

  9. Antonio Tyler
    Antonio Tyler
    October 28, 2018 at 12:07 am | #

    As someone who used to have a terrible temper, her pride in de-escalating a stressful made me tear up TBH.

  10. Mr D
    Mr D
    October 28, 2018 at 12:09 am | #

    panel 4-5 Sal looks so emotional.
    Panel 4 she looks drained.
    Panel 5 looks like she is about to break, look at the mouth.

  11. Roger
    Roger
    October 28, 2018 at 12:10 am | #

    personally, as incredulous as the situation may be, it’s just so completely unbelievable that there’s no way Sal would have made that up

  12. tirachokko
    tirachokko
    October 28, 2018 at 12:10 am | #

    Oh Sal

  13. Regalli
    Regalli
    October 28, 2018 at 12:11 am | #

    … So are we actually going to get that selfie, or do we need to bribe Willis first?

    … Would adding a knife make the painfully awkward moment better or worse?

    • showler
      showler
      October 28, 2018 at 11:06 am | #

      Halloween costume?

  14. DailyBrad
    DailyBrad
    October 28, 2018 at 12:12 am | #

    Good on you, Sal, both for de-escalation and confronting your past, AND for trying to mend things with Marcie pro-actively.

    I get Marcie’s hesitation, given how obviously, they’ve got a lot of history together, but Sal definitely doesn’t seem like someone who lies often at all, so incredulous as she may be, I don’t think Marcie would think Sal would make it up wholesale.

  15. Stephen Bierce
    Stephen Bierce
    October 28, 2018 at 12:13 am | #

    Kodachro~o~ome!
    They give us those nice bright colors
    They give us the greens of summers
    Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day
    I got a Nikon camera
    I love to take a photograph
    So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
    …

  16. BBCC
    BBCC
    October 28, 2018 at 12:13 am | #

    We’re sorry, BBCC is unable to comment, because between Sal being fucking adorable, Marcie returning and the two of them actually talking, this strip killed her.

    In lieu of flowers, consider donating and/or boosting the gofundme for the Tree of Life synagogue and vote in any future elections: https://www.gofundme.com/tree-of-life-synagogue-shooting

    • woobie
      woobie
      October 28, 2018 at 11:47 am | #

      Already voted.

  17. Regalli
    Regalli
    October 28, 2018 at 12:14 am | #

    For us I mean. It would definitely make the moment worse for them. But also I figure deliberately asking for the knife means we won’t be surprised by it.

    • Clif
      Clif
      October 28, 2018 at 4:19 pm | #

      Here, have a cell phone.

  18. Kyrik Michalowski
    Kyrik Michalowski
    October 28, 2018 at 12:16 am | #

    Does anyone know what Marcie is signing in the last panel? My knowledge of ASL is basically non-existent.

    • 10LettersIsTooLong
      10LettersIsTooLong
      October 28, 2018 at 12:40 am | #

      It looks basically like, “Pics or it didn’t happen”, but I’ve been squinting at it for twenty minutes and I’m just not positive what I’m looking at.

    • Sam
      Sam
      October 28, 2018 at 1:13 am | #

      Willis has responded to an above comment saying it is ‘believe’ as in part of a sentence for ‘I don’t believe that’ or something similar.

      • 10LettersIsTooLong
        10LettersIsTooLong
        October 28, 2018 at 6:46 pm | #

        Ah! I couldn’t see what was happening near the stair-rail so I zeroed-in on the upper motion which is “photograph” or part of it

  19. Bagge
    Bagge
    October 28, 2018 at 12:34 am | #

    Awwww. Sal is just so PROUD! Well done, Sal. Well done indeed.

    But don’bt be so hard on yourself. You have de-escalated at least two times with Amazi-girl.

    • BBCC
      BBCC
      October 28, 2018 at 12:52 am | #

      “Don’t be so hard on yourself”

      Does not compute. Sal.exe is rejecting this input.

      • Regalli
        Regalli
        October 28, 2018 at 1:20 am | #

        But taking on unnecessary guilt is what Sal does best!

        (Someone help her. Please. She needs cocoa and blankies stretching across time.)

        • BBCC
          BBCC
          October 28, 2018 at 2:02 am | #

          Sal’s always struck me as having issues with guilt. Some because of actual terrible shit she’s done (robbery) and some because emotional abuse is a hell of a trip.

    • Deanatay
      Deanatay
      October 28, 2018 at 1:30 am | #

      Has she? When?

      • Bagge
        Bagge
        October 28, 2018 at 8:36 am | #

        Here
        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/beforesunrise/

        • Bagge
          Bagge
          October 28, 2018 at 8:37 am | #

          and here
          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/prove/

          • Bagge
            Bagge
            October 28, 2018 at 8:38 am | #

            And you might want to count this as well
            http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/yerself/

    • BigDogLittleCat
      BigDogLittleCat
      October 28, 2018 at 5:53 pm | #

      Don’t forget all her conversations with Danny, almost pleading with him to talk down AG.

      Sal is in many ways the calmest and most rational one in the bunch. The problem is, when she does snap she’s much more likely to resort to violence than anyone else. She doesn’t want to be violent, but if you bring it to her, she’s not afraid of it, and that makes her even scarier.

      So she ends up saddled with this image of

  20. Darkoneko
    Darkoneko
    October 28, 2018 at 12:36 am | #

    lol. I can imagine her coming up to Ethan again with “err, mah friend did’n believ’ me”

  21. WateryBabe
    WateryBabe
    October 28, 2018 at 12:44 am | #

    It’s super pixelated and doesn’t indicate whether the arm is rising or falling, but I think Marcie is making an emphatic chopping motion, to cut off Sal’s words.

  22. Derek
    Derek
    October 28, 2018 at 12:49 am | #

    I’m getting somewhat annoyed at Marcie, not because she’s keeping Sal at a distance (she has a right to be annoyed) but because she Sal’s best friend and as far as we’ve know she hasn’t bothered to talk about the incident that made her angry.
    It’s not entirely a misunderstanding, but it’s not as much of Sal’s fault as Marcie thinks

    • Sam
      Sam
      October 28, 2018 at 1:33 am | #

      Sal might have been fighting for the right reasons, but for Marcie that doesn’t really change things. The problem isn’t motivations. It is her escalation of situations and Sal not keeping her word, which Sal knows already I’m pretty sure.

      • Regalli
        Regalli
        October 28, 2018 at 1:44 am | #

        Also, regardless of circumstances, getting your friend fired from her job* is kind of a big deal. At least tell her up front ‘that intern there roofied a friend, we know this for certain, what do we do with this’. (Things were actually relatively under control and within some semblance of protocol until Marcie’s higher up sided with AG and then AG saw Gashface. Marcie seemed upset Sal dragged AG out and escalated it, but she also seemed aware of the fact that deescalating a stalker is pretty damn hard.)

        * That she knows is morally degrading but is taking to pay the rent so that she can room with a bunch of other people in a crappy apartment to be close to you, and you know all this as well. No matter how noble the reasons, Marcie has to care about keeping this job at least enough to make the mental calculus, so a little acknowledgement that she was putting Marcie in a really bad situation with everything would have helped a lot.

        • BBCC
          BBCC
          October 28, 2018 at 2:00 am | #

          Thankfully Marcie has her regular job, but yeah, I’m guessing security would have paid more.

        • Axel
          Axel
          October 28, 2018 at 3:13 am | #

          Did she get fired?

          • BBCC
            BBCC
            October 28, 2018 at 3:17 am | #

            Almost certainly, yeah.

    • DailyBrad
      DailyBrad
      October 28, 2018 at 2:51 am | #

      It’s been like 2 weeks, tops, hasn’t it? So, I get that she’s wanted space, even if she and Sal miss one another.

      • BBCC
        BBCC
        October 28, 2018 at 3:11 am | #

        About 11 days, yeah.

  23. AnvilPro
    AnvilPro
    October 28, 2018 at 12:53 am | #

    Aww, Marcie doesn’t believe Sal. That’s sad, I’m sad.

  24. Deanatay
    Deanatay
    October 28, 2018 at 1:35 am | #

    In the end, Sal. you gotta be you for you. You can’t de-escalate just to get Marcie’s approval. You gotta do it for yourself.

    Same with us. We are all very proud of you. But, that can’t be the reason you do it.

  25. Keulen
    Keulen
    October 28, 2018 at 2:04 am | #

    Would Sal getting a selfie with Ethan convince Marcie anyway? Does Marcie even know what “the kid Sal grabbed in the convenience store” looked like?

    • Keulen
      Keulen
      October 28, 2018 at 2:05 am | #

      Also, am I the only one who imagines Sal sounding kinda like Applejack when she talks? And why are all my sentences questions?

      • Zatar
        Zatar
        October 28, 2018 at 3:24 am | #

        You aren’t the only one.

      • Smooti
        Smooti
        October 28, 2018 at 4:37 pm | #

        IIRC the voice actress for Applejack based her accent off of Dolly Parton, who’s from Tennessee, so I guess it’d be accurate.

  26. zappata15
    zappata15
    October 28, 2018 at 2:06 am | #

    Sal if you get pics do it with Ethan remember Amber and forgive her for the knife incident.

    • BigDogLittleCat
      BigDogLittleCat
      October 28, 2018 at 5:30 pm | #

      My money says Sal doesn’t need to forgive Amber because Sal believes it’s all her fault.
      One of the most interesting things about Sal is that while she is open and upfront about having a record, she hides her scar, even from herself. She doesn’t even take the gloves off when she goes to sleep.

  27. Catman
    Catman
    October 28, 2018 at 2:31 am | #

    Daawwww Sal’s so proud of herself

    anyway, I call Gravroulette

    • Catman
      Catman
      October 28, 2018 at 2:31 am | #

      Heh. Happy Dorothy.

      • Catman
        Catman
        October 28, 2018 at 2:33 am | #

        I think I prefer malaya for some reason

        • Catman
          Catman
          October 28, 2018 at 2:35 am | #

          But good to know I can be Sal when I want to

  28. Catman
    Catman
    October 28, 2018 at 2:35 am | #

    Last one

    • Catman
      Catman
      October 28, 2018 at 2:36 am | #

      woops

  29. BenRG
    BenRG
    October 28, 2018 at 3:19 am | #

    I’m thinking that Marcie is basically saying : “Pics or STFU”.

    In more detail, she’s expressing her scepticism that Sal is able to really fix any of her problems at all, only avoid them. Although this isn’t without justification, it seems a bit mean given Sal’s mood and makes me wonder if there can’t be any real healing between them, that Sal’s issues have finally driven them apart.

  30. Tawdry Quirks
    Tawdry Quirks
    October 28, 2018 at 3:36 am | #

    Plot twist: Marcie’s skepticism is over Sal wearing the Rutten jacket, and not the de-escalation.

  31. SpaceshipPilot
    SpaceshipPilot
    October 28, 2018 at 4:12 am | #

    Aw, I was hoping for more Thethan. (Ethad?)

  32. CJ
    CJ
    October 28, 2018 at 4:20 am | #

    Yeah, a selfie with ” this is the girl who stabbed me after the convenience store robbery” is totally the thing to do.

    • Dean
      Dean
      October 28, 2018 at 5:16 am | #

      Sal holding a knife, Ethan with an arm raised to jokingly ward it off, both totally smiling…

      • JBento
        JBento
        October 28, 2018 at 8:23 am | #

        50 thousand likes in the first 2 minutes.

  33. Emily
    Emily
    October 28, 2018 at 5:10 am | #

    And Marcie continues to become increasingly unlikable.

    • BenRG
      BenRG
      October 28, 2018 at 5:29 am | #

      FWIW, Sal has given her some reason to doubt that she’d ever change her ways.

      • Emily
        Emily
        October 28, 2018 at 5:53 am | #

        It’s worth nothing.

  34. Doopyboop
    Doopyboop
    October 28, 2018 at 8:01 am | #

    I’m gonna be devil’s advocate here for Marcie, I don’t blame her for still being upset. The latest flashbacks have helped me understand her point of view. We don’t know exactly what happened, but we know Sal feels responsible and her immediate response was to promise to stop fighting. She seems to have forgotten this promise, although she definitely remembered the money promise. I dunno, if I had a friend who had a habit/character trait/did SOMETHING that was correlated with me being permanently disabled, and they promised to stop doing that thing, only to continue doing that thing repeatedly with me constantly holding her back…? I’d get pretty sick of it too. Because the message becomes “I could die next time and you will STILL keep doing this shit, what’s it gonna take?” and that’s a sad feeling.

    However, Marcie definitely shouldn’t have just let Malaya talk shit about Sal the way she did. That was crummy. I know you had feelings for her Marcie, but that’s rude as hell. Especially since Malaya wasn’t talking shit about how Sal picks fights but how she’s ‘fake’ which Marcie knows firsthand isn’t true. I hope these two have a good discussion about their issues and come through the other side better for it.

    • BBCC
      BBCC
      October 28, 2018 at 12:18 pm | #

      I don’t think she needs a devil’s advocate. I think it’s natural to still be upset and to have a hard time believing something that Sal and Ethan made up and de-escalated in such a short time.

  35. Guest42
    Guest42
    October 28, 2018 at 11:55 am | #

    Amber won’t be an issue, she Views Sal as her sidekick.

    Anyone know what Marcie is signing? Is it “yeah, pull the other one?”

    • SpaceshipPilot
      SpaceshipPilot
      October 28, 2018 at 2:05 pm | #

      Amazi-Girl does. They’re not the same person anymore.

  36. ǝ snow ʍousɐ
    ǝ snow ʍousɐ
    October 28, 2018 at 12:51 pm | #

    The Ethan/Thad ship may have been on Willis’ mind for a while! I looked through Thad’s tags and it appears he may have held hands with another boy besides Ethan, which I believe may have been foreshadowing for Ethad: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/crushed/

    It’s not immediately evident from the picture whether they actually were holding hands or not. But they were walking side by side, with Thad farther away, and yet you can see Thad’s left sleeve but not the guy’s right arm, so either the other boy’s arm was in a very strange position or his arm and Thad’s were crossed, which only makes sense if they were holding hands.

    This handholding occurs in the background of a comic in which Ethan is in the foreground. The guy in question was tagged as Evan, which is just “Ethan” with a “v” instead of a “th”, and that’s the only time that Evan has appeared. Handholding is the way Thad revealed his romantic feelings for Ethan, so if you were to foreshadow Ethad, it would make sense to do it through handholding. Further, the title of the strip is “Crushed”, which could be a hint that Thad would eventually have a crush on Ethan.

    QED, there is substantial (okay, fine, a little bit of somewhat convincing) evidence that “Crushed was foreshadowing for Ethad.

    • ǝ snow ʍousɐ
      ǝ snow ʍousɐ
      October 28, 2018 at 12:52 pm | #

      *Crushed” (last paragraph)

      • ǝ snow ʍousɐ
        ǝ snow ʍousɐ
        October 28, 2018 at 12:54 pm | #

        (also, i’m pretty sure i used QED wrong)

    • BBCC
      BBCC
      October 28, 2018 at 12:56 pm | #

      We see Evan a little bit in Patreon canon. He seems very popular with the gay and multi-spec guys on his floor. So even if he and Thad were holding hands, they might not be exclusive.

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      October 28, 2018 at 2:21 pm | #

      And that was like yesterday and just a bit after Mike had talked about Evan, so if anything it wasn’t foreshadowing, but an apparently clue that they weren’t available.

    • ShinyNeen
      ShinyNeen
      October 28, 2018 at 3:48 pm | #

      There’s something to be said for Ethan/Thad being an old, failed (is that the right word?) ship from back in Shortpacked!. I’m willing to bet that Willis has considering using DoA to give Ethan/Thad another shot at least a few times over the years. Yay, alternate continuities!

  37. Micki
    Micki
    October 28, 2018 at 1:02 pm | #

    Yay Sal. <3

  38. abysswatcher1993
    abysswatcher1993
    October 28, 2018 at 1:17 pm | #

    Marcie: *In sign language* “You can’t just feel bad every time you do something bad! You have to do better!”

    Sal: “Marcie, I am not a bitter horse with criminal tendencies.”

    Joyce: “Who is ready to party!”

  39. BenRG
    BenRG
    October 28, 2018 at 3:16 pm | #

    I was looking at the last panel of this strip again and suddenly visualised a supremely uncomfortably-posed selfie of a grinning Sal with Ethan and Amber (the latter in the middle of a flashback/blackout).

  40. MatsuoTanuki
    MatsuoTanuki
    October 28, 2018 at 5:11 pm | #

    They are talking, this is progress. Now if she could just find out that Malaya had sex with Joe, meaning she is at worst not into girls and at best not interested in Marcie, so she’ll dump her girl crush on that self-absorbed tart, that would be great.

    • Rabid Rabbit
      Rabid Rabbit
      October 28, 2018 at 6:31 pm | #

      She was there, she knows: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/shrug/

      • MatsuoTanuki
        MatsuoTanuki
        October 28, 2018 at 11:34 pm | #

        Huh. Either I missed that strip or plain forgot about it. I don’t know what to make of her lack of a reaction though, knowing Willis she could just be deep in denial. If not, and she HAS moved on, then yay, one less thing to create friction between her and Sal.

        • C.T Phipps
          C.T Phipps
          October 28, 2018 at 11:58 pm | #

          Or she thinks Malaya is bisexual. They exist.

          • MatsuoTanuki
            MatsuoTanuki
            October 29, 2018 at 3:52 am | #

            Very true.

    • timemonkey
      timemonkey
      October 28, 2018 at 9:24 pm | #

      How does having sex with Joe mean she wouldn’t be open to Marcie? Marcie’s never made a move so Malaya has no reason to factor her into her romantic choices yet.

      • MatsuoTanuki
        MatsuoTanuki
        October 28, 2018 at 11:31 pm | #

        Infiltrating a Life Art class as a nude model seems like a pretty big “move” to me…

        • Rabid Rabbit
          Rabid Rabbit
          October 29, 2018 at 12:47 am | #

          If you’re able to stay still, they’re also easy money, and we know Marcie needs all the money she can get, so it’s easily explained as not a move at all.

  41. Tam
    Tam
    October 28, 2018 at 5:20 pm | #

    “But I don’t want a selfie”
    “WE ARE TAKING A SELFIE”

  42. C.T Phipps
    C.T Phipps
    October 28, 2018 at 6:53 pm | #

    I totally think we need a Halloween alternate universe slasher movie with this cast.

  43. Roborat
    Roborat
    October 29, 2018 at 3:31 pm | #

    How does Marcie manage to avoid whacking herself on the back of the head with the skateboard carried like that?

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they both suck actually
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Lock combination by Quentin Tarantino
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Joyce!
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