Iris Black is a self-proclaimed inventor with the curious ability to bring his drawings to life, and yearns to find a space where he can use his powers freely.
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Mac Hall
Matt Boyd
The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Fantomestein
Beka Duke
Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Slightly Damned
Chu
Rhea Snaketail returns from the dead, befriending a Demon who falls in love with an Angel. The afterlife ain't what it used to be!
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It definitely will have to come to a halt at the end of the Phosphorus Age in 2150 or thereabouts. No phosphorus -> no fertilizer -> no food -> global starvation, social upheaval, and population collapse. The survivors will be lucky to have electricity.
Oh, Walky remembered Amber’s name much earlier than he admitted. He just didn’t recall it intentionally. He seems to prefer to show complete disinterest for a person until his brain has had time to acclimate. Probably as a defense mechanism.
I assume it’s mostly ‘Lucy awkwardly projects Attraction’ more than anything else (even a crush given how fast she went into it from not knowing who he was,) but that’s in part because I think Walky’s love life is already getting worrisomely in need of a relationship chart and we all know how things end with THOSE around! (Soggies may rule.)
The Amber thing’s not resolved. Not with the grades still hanging over it.
You know, that really begs the question whether Willis has a pre-planned storyline for all of this – and, if so, then how long this storyline is going to last? If he intends to cover the gangs’ adventures over their whole college education, then it seems to me that such a goal cannot be realistically achieved. Unless Willis turns this comic into a franchise that will last for centuries…
I don’t have a link, but I think he once said the comic will probably never make it out of the first semester.
Considering it’s been almost 8.5 years out of universe, and 1.5 months in-universe (and that’s with a time skip or two), then time is moving around 68x slower in the DoAVerse.
So a roughly 4 month semester will take over 22 years to complete.
The most mathematically rigorous analysis of DoA time was done by Needfuldoer, just over a year ago; the current DoA freshmen will graduate in 2261, our time.
As I recall (too tired to look it up or redo the math) I once calculated that the end of the current semester will occur sometime around the time that Willis turns 70, assuming he keeps it going for that long.
If Willis wants to retire earlier than that, he’d better get started on training the twins to take over the family business.
What will be?
I mean if he just jumped her right here and now, sure. That would be sleazy, but there’s no sign of that.
If he breaks off the budding relationship with Amber over the stabbing issues and hooks up with Lucy over the next few days, I don’t see anything sleazy about it.
So reading the comments here, it seems that if you know someone has relationship problems, asking the vaguest of questions as to how they’re dealing with these problems is actually code for totally wanting them to dump that person for you.
This strongly confirms my long-ago decision that the safest thing to do is never talk to anyone about anything, ever.
Billie totally spawned that crush in Lucy by suggesting that Walky hook up with her. The Forest Quad folks are innocent, and even Lucy isn’t immune to Billie’s influence.
(I still really like Billie as a character, but I don’t think that was okay for her to insinuate. However, her track record for puppeteering Walky’s love life has not been great so far.)
And after she mentioned he could get a new girlfriend when he wasn’t upset about Dorothy (if the rebound was short), she asked for his social media. Again, it’s reasonable imo to read a crush.
It’s not her asking the question in panel three, it’s her gesture in the following panels and especially her look in the last panel (so the panels after she has heard that he is going to think ending the new relationship).
Combined with her reactions to Billie’s suggestion in their previous scene together.
Mind you, I don’t read Lucy as “totally wanting them to dump that person for you”, but as interested and hopeful, especially since she knows this was just barely a starting relationship. I don’t think she’s doing anything wrong here.
I know I say this with, like, every character… but Lucy’s expressions are so cute here. I love her. I want to maybe take her gently by the shoulders and tell her, “no, this is a [too?] bad idea” but also. She’s just so endearing and I love her. I loved her in the other ‘verse and I also love her here.
Lucy seems to have a genuine heart and wouldn’t mind some lovin’ with Walky it seems. Walky seems a little less clear on what he wants. Amber’s curvy body, fun, not to be too scared by math.
It’s okay Walky. You are feeling the correct amount of bad for your situation.
Lucy is precious and if her dating Walky means more of her, all I can say is bring it on! I will also accept her being friends with a main cast member.
Even if Lucy manufactures her own likability, Walky is genuinely a good person and he seems to rub off on everyone. He destressed Dorothy and defused Amber; who’s to say he can’t turn Lucy into the person we all want her to be?
That would be completely against her character as written in Shortpacked!, so honestly, it would feel like a betrayal.
Lucy is (sometimes frustratingly) genuine.
On that one, I think it’s more about how she would feel about the person who helped put a spot light on their family “thug”. The above comment was more in the vein of her possible prejudices that she applies against her daughter also being applied to other women in Wally’s life. David is still the golden child who will fulfill her dreams to perfection (like being a doctor and probably not being with someone less than generically beige).
I’m shipping Walky and Lucy as well, but I’m also still shipping Walky and Amber. I really shouldn’t be shipping conflicting ships, but I can’t help myself.
If there’s going to be a poly quad ship that I can get behind, it’ll be Danny/Ethan/Amber/Walky.
That said, I’ve never seen a quad polycule go well IRL, so I hope not.
Lucy, I love you, but maybe don’t try and get with the guy who is currently concerned he got together with a new girl too fast. That would be a bad idea.
Also, has Willis been watching Young Justice? This conversation is giving off some whelming vibes.
I don’t want to sound like Joyce right now, but if Walky breaks up with Amber and immediately starts up something with Lucy that’s far too soon.
It also doesn’t reflect well on Lucy if she is actively flirting with a guy that as far as she knows is STILL seeing someone. That is some homewrecker style right there. Come on Lucy.
Also also it reflects poorly on me because I want her to be happy and so if she wants this boy then I support her and that means I’m supporting someone who is trying to seduce a taken person and that is wrong.
What I’m trying to figure out is how Walky came up with “Benjamin” and Stephanie.” Is this an inside Doctor Who joke? An inside Willis joke? Or just Walky pulling up random names as a way of showing Lucy he doesn’t care about her fandom?
“Mister Benjamin Who” has come up before.
“Stephanie” seems to be a new one, though, and the fact that Walky’s brain invented it to accommodate just-now-gained knowledge of the 13th Doctor proves he just doesn’t care.
I mean, if Lucy and Walky will be friends, that’d be cool. More than that could get awfully dicey, and I do not envy Lucy if Amber would be pestering her.
I’m mostly just impressed to see Lucy holding a normal conversation.
Which probably just serves to emphasize the fact that she’s only ever been around the wackiest of characters up till now. ..then again, when we have to consider Walky as the bar for “normal”, that’s probably not especially ideal.
Because I crave drama, I sort of want to see these two ill-advisedly hook-up, Walky get bored of her by the time it’s over, and Lucy entering an indescribable rage upon seeing Walky the next half-dozen times they meet.
IMO that wouldn’t be in-character for either of them. Walky doesn’t strike me as being interested in one-night-stands with people he doesn’t like and Lucy seems more of the “pretend everything is fine, then run off and cry” type than the jealous rage type.
Based on the logo on Lucy’s Blue Who shirt, it’s likely a Matt Smith era shirt.
I don’t know how that may or may not affect the pronouns though because Time Lord biology and gender is already too weird to fit in human terminology; let alone when you consider the timey-wimey aspects…
Well Lucy is correcting Walky’s misgendering (as emphasised by the ilalics on ‘her’, so that’s what got me thinking.
Fourteen is female but One to Thirteen are male, but when talking about a previous Doctor in a narrative with distinct non-linear temporal elements…
Have any of the episodes with Jodie Whittaker aired in the US? I think I’ve just seen trailers.
Sliding timescales are weird thinks – it’s October in the comic, but it’s also “this year”, so confusion abounds in my headcannon.
Walky, I will ignore that you barely pay attention to what is Doctor Who and order you to talk to your sister! Your genre savviness with Willis isn’t going to save you from responsibilities, mister!!!!!
This is probably an overshare, but what else is the internet for?
Sometimes when I’m depressed, I get further saddened by the thought that, with all the energy I’ve put into caring about this comic, I’m not gonna get to see how it ends because even if I don’t kill myself today, there’s no way I can last another 14 years or however long it ends up taking. But I try to remind myself that’s the depression (with some help from it’s friend anxiety) talking, and that a day after a day after a day eventually adds up to decades and maybe seeing the end of this comic.
The other part of my depression and this comic is that every day, I have at least one small thing to look forward to. And new strips come at midnight my time, so sometimes it even feels like a reward for officially surviving another day. That probably sounds overly sentimental, but if you can’t cry about webcomics and their interaction with your will to live at 1:30am, then why even have tear ducts.
There are obviously a lot of factors at play when it comes to depression and suicidal thoughts and all that, and I’m not saying, like, “this comic saved my life,” just that…it helps. And anyway, this is just what got stirred up in me by tonight’s discussion of the progression of comic time vs. our time.
I’ve been finding myself really concerned about the/my future. To the point where I have pseudo-visions of the world likely ending in the next 20 years. And yet, if it’s out of my control, I say to myself…why worry? And *better* yet, we are a lot farther away from metaphorical hell than we expect. In times of crisis, we act with surprisingly good intentions. And if we are struck with danger anyway, we cope better than we initially think. It’s only when we don’t think things through that danger catches us by awful surprise.
I feel like I’m rambling. But at the same time, I rarely share this stuff with anyone, even though I want to. All I ultimately want to do is to help someone else out of their problems, their self-destructive cycles. I’ll admit there’s a selfish side: if I can help others, no matter how little, I feel better about dealing with my own problems. At least, I can ensure no one else has to be in the same pit of misery I’ve been in. It keeps me going day to day, and suddenly I realize that those long, dreary summer months weren’t as long as I thought. Hell, it’s winter now! When did *this* happen?!
TL;DR: Whether it be for a moment or a lifetime, take what helps you and run with it.
you do what you can, you take the rewards you earn i understand the struggle, and wish you the best. i’ve enjoyed the comments you make, and i hope you continue, cuz as you said, the internet is for sharing
Not sure how much it’ll mean to you, but you’re among the handful of people who keep me reading the comments here and occasionally posting rather than just reading the comic and moving on to other things.
At the risk of seeming facetious (I’m really not), that does sound like an inordinate amount of bad. Anyway, keep piling up those days, you’re doing great so far.
The longer you keep going, the easier it gets to keep going, right? And there’s lots to look forward to as time passes- character arcs you’d like to see resolve, characters interacting that haven’t before, stuff like that
And like others have said, if something makes you happy, there’s no need to second-guess that. Let it make you happy! I’m confident Willis would be glad to know that DoA has had such an impact on you.
Hopefully Lucy will teach Walky that while girls like Amber may be interesting, in the long run girls like Lucy make much better girlfriends…mind you we haven’t seen much of her baggage yet
At the moment Lucy appears to have the least amount of baggage out of the main female cast, she has shared and/or similar interests to Walky and seems like a nice, caring girl.
Yeah I don’t give a crap if you think Lucy specifically would make a better girlfriend for Walky than Amber.
It’s the “girls like Amber may be interesting” / “girls like Lucy make much better girlfriends” bit that drew my contempt. Because it’s a shitty generalization.
Lucy seems to have much less issues than Amber and Ambers issues will take a lot time and professional to help get sorted, if at all.
We’ve already seen how Amber treated Danny and theres no reason to think it wouldn’t be the same or worse with Walky given that Walky is emotionally weaker than Danny and is more inexperienced in handling relationships
So yeah Amber is more interesting and Lucy is much better girlfriend material
It’s still a shitty generalization because you have no idea what Amber might be like given time to deal with her problems and learn from them, which she is trying. And saying “girls like her” is foolish as people are individuals and categorizing them as types like that is wildly unhelpful.
I’m sure with a few years worth of therapy she’ll be a fantastic girlfriend but right now she isn’t and any other girl like Amber (meaning the type that go looking for fights, wear masks,multiple personalities, verbally abuse their boyfriends etc etc) don’t make good girlfriends
Yeah its really bad timing because Lucy is the type of girlfriend Walky needs right now. Emotionally hes still more a kid than even a teenager so he needs a…less complicated girlfriend in his life which will make it easier on him to grow emotionally
I mean the idea of Walky dealing with Ambers issues just doesn’t bare thinking about
One thing Walky is clearly not good at is reading bashful young women’s body language. Or reading between the lines, I mean Lucy pretty much explicitly said: “They’re not doin’ so good! Great! I have a chance!”
Ok, What did I miss ? I read and reread this page and I just can’t see why everybody is all “oooh Lucy nooo” or other “Yes, I ship’em” (well, besides the obvious “shippers gotta ship”).
To me, Lucy just looks like her geeky, nice to a fault, self. No trace of hitting on Walky, unless we consider pretty much every of her interactions with everybody else as hitting on them…
When she met Walky in her room with Billie and blushed at the fact that Billie suggested they hook up. Now when she learns that he and Amber aren’t doing well, she’s getting a bit flustered and talking a bit slower. That suggests she has some interest in Walky. It also could mean she just plainly doesn’t know what to say.
I could also read it as being painfully aware that someone suggested the hook up to her and now she’s talking to the person and she can’t help but think about it (regardless of actual interest or not) and now she has to think about that while trying to be normal and social.
Is the Benjamin Who reference Walky’s confused mixing of Benjamin Button and Dr Who? I guess if you didn’t watch either and just knew they had something to do with time, you could merge them.
I can never tell when women are coming on to me, if indeed they ever are. So I’m the wrong person to ask. But I have been told that that guesture in which women raise their hand to the side of their head with their elbow back is a signal of interest. Willis might have been told the same.
Taking that with other bits of context I would say the answer is yes.
It’s a pity really: almost any young women deserves a boyfriend who is less self-absorbed than Walky.
Last year, these strips were set in October of 2018. The year before that, October of 2017. Now, October of 2019. If someone is reading today’s strip five years from now, it will be set instead in October of 2024.
I do say the correct amount of bad!!! Sometimes you just gotta accept things are bad, and feel the correct amount of bad about them! And take it like it is. Cry if it needs to, be grumpy if it needs to, but just not make the whole starry big drama out of it.
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
Hot Toys Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 1/6 Scale Darth Vader Deluxe ($495) & Standard ($315) is up for preorder at Sideshow - shrsl.com/4wcx6 #ad
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 2d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
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Considering the subject matter of panel two, I feel like some contribution to the discussion is expected of me.
So, um…Butts.
Now we need Butts to come in and make a reference to some sort of BBC sci-fi soap. You know the one.
Class.
Read BBC as BBCC, just to add to this group of referenced commenters.
….Okay, good, I’m not the only one who read too fast and read it that way.
Yeah, but it’s not vain of me.
The irony is yumi.
Hey, I just thought I saw it and went ‘Wait, what, what’d I do – ohhhhh, BBC, not BBCC.’ Missing one initial there.
I read your comment thinking of BCB (ie, the webcomic Bittersweet Candy Bowl)
it’s about angsty teen anthropomorphic cats and also some dogs
I miss class.
Fazzes are cool.
Oh wait, fezzes are cool! Fazzes are just creepy
a well deserved headlight
I went back to check, and she was. It was also a Darkwing Duck reference. I can’t believe I noticed neither of these things at the time.
Oh damn, that’s good! Works on so many levels.
Or OctOgre, as Piers Anthony fans call it.
Today’s strip is sponsored by Ragu tomato sauces.
Better than the following months, NoRemember and Dismember.
This is why you don’t let ogres name months.
How about Jejune
Isle of View, man
By the time they graduate they’ll all be 2 years into being human enlightenment
The floating timeline may have to halt when downloading a college education directly into your brain becomes possible in 2050.
It definitely will have to come to a halt at the end of the Phosphorus Age in 2150 or thereabouts. No phosphorus -> no fertilizer -> no food -> global starvation, social upheaval, and population collapse. The survivors will be lucky to have electricity.
What? *do a quick research* Great, an other way we’re all gonna die…
(Thanks for the info, I had no idea)
That’s an excessive amount of bad, go get like a popsicle or something.
Lucy, no.
Lucy, yes!
Lucy, we require more time to reach a consensus on whether to tell you ‘yes’ or ‘no’!
As the other person whose email generates a Lucy avatar, I must also add a “Lucy, no!”
…I liked Walky/Amber. It made sense. ._.
And my mind just turned this into a Dexter’s lab thing. DEE DEE NOOOO!
Better than it getting Shia-Surprised.
But Amber trained him in jiu jitsu!
Your mind seems to be all over the place too, Lucy.
Also No Walky don’t do that noooo
REGRET IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO REMEMBER THINGS
like posting at midnight sharp
We wondered.
Don’t scare us like that!
I know hints of it have just pretty much just started, between this and them meeting, but I’m not feeling this ship.
Well it’s mostly a one sided crush for now. I don’t think Walky even remembers her name.
A fact which has never dissuaded any shipper ever.
Walky didn’t even remember Amber’s name until like one conversation before they were making out.
Oh, Walky remembered Amber’s name much earlier than he admitted. He just didn’t recall it intentionally. He seems to prefer to show complete disinterest for a person until his brain has had time to acclimate. Probably as a defense mechanism.
Agreed. It seems a common trait with him – his refusal to say Jason’s name may be similar.
Which may suggest he remembers Lucy more than he lets on here as well.
Reckon it’s similar to Sal’s nickname thing?
I assume it’s mostly ‘Lucy awkwardly projects Attraction’ more than anything else (even a crush given how fast she went into it from not knowing who he was,) but that’s in part because I think Walky’s love life is already getting worrisomely in need of a relationship chart and we all know how things end with THOSE around! (Soggies may rule.)
The Amber thing’s not resolved. Not with the grades still hanging over it.
Not to mention he’s still sad and awkward about Dorothy.
Oh god, the grades. Thanks for increasing my “nope” counter by two.
Wait, they met *yesterday*? The time really moves slowly in this comic…
You have no idea.
You know, that really begs the question whether Willis has a pre-planned storyline for all of this – and, if so, then how long this storyline is going to last? If he intends to cover the gangs’ adventures over their whole college education, then it seems to me that such a goal cannot be realistically achieved. Unless Willis turns this comic into a franchise that will last for centuries…
I don’t have a link, but I think he once said the comic will probably never make it out of the first semester.
Considering it’s been almost 8.5 years out of universe, and 1.5 months in-universe (and that’s with a time skip or two), then time is moving around 68x slower in the DoAVerse.
So a roughly 4 month semester will take over 22 years to complete.
The most mathematically rigorous analysis of DoA time was done by Needfuldoer, just over a year ago; the current DoA freshmen will graduate in 2261, our time.
As I recall (too tired to look it up or redo the math) I once calculated that the end of the current semester will occur sometime around the time that Willis turns 70, assuming he keeps it going for that long.
If Willis wants to retire earlier than that, he’d better get started on training the twins to take over the family business.
I think the ratio has changed, we’ve had a couple long days since then. The math WILL be updated someday!
But yeah if I remember right it was somewhere around 67:1.
I believe I calculated a while back that the DoA-verse was moving at over 99% of the speed of light, based on relativistic time dilation.
Willis has things planned in broad strokes, he’s said. He fills in the details as they come and sometimes those details lead places.
Keep commenting about it, and somehow Sir Willis will find a way to make comic time run backwards.
TOO BAD Doctor Who is “a little” too much for you, Walky…
One does one’s best.
It’s a bigger too much on the inside.
Okay Walky, this really will be sleazy if you do this.
And this time Joyce would be right, and I don’t want to agree with Joyce.
Do what? I’m seeing exactly zero interest here from Walky’s side. I’m not seeing what he could be doing different that would be any better.
What will be?
I mean if he just jumped her right here and now, sure. That would be sleazy, but there’s no sign of that.
If he breaks off the budding relationship with Amber over the stabbing issues and hooks up with Lucy over the next few days, I don’t see anything sleazy about it.
I believe Matthew’s concerns is they’ll hook up now.
So reading the comments here, it seems that if you know someone has relationship problems, asking the vaguest of questions as to how they’re dealing with these problems is actually code for totally wanting them to dump that person for you.
This strongly confirms my long-ago decision that the safest thing to do is never talk to anyone about anything, ever.
That wasn’t actually meant to be a reply to this comment, which is more on the Walky side of things, and is even more baffling.
In these commenters defence, a lot of people read Lucy blushing at the end of their last meeting as the beginning of a crush.
Billie totally spawned that crush in Lucy by suggesting that Walky hook up with her. The Forest Quad folks are innocent, and even Lucy isn’t immune to Billie’s influence.
(I still really like Billie as a character, but I don’t think that was okay for her to insinuate. However, her track record for puppeteering Walky’s love life has not been great so far.)
And after she mentioned he could get a new girlfriend when he wasn’t upset about Dorothy (if the rebound was short), she asked for his social media. Again, it’s reasonable imo to read a crush.
It’s not her asking the question in panel three, it’s her gesture in the following panels and especially her look in the last panel (so the panels after she has heard that he is going to think ending the new relationship).
Combined with her reactions to Billie’s suggestion in their previous scene together.
Mind you, I don’t read Lucy as “totally wanting them to dump that person for you”, but as interested and hopeful, especially since she knows this was just barely a starting relationship. I don’t think she’s doing anything wrong here.
I know I say this with, like, every character… but Lucy’s expressions are so cute here. I love her. I want to maybe take her gently by the shoulders and tell her, “no, this is a [too?] bad idea” but also. She’s just so endearing and I love her. I loved her in the other ‘verse and I also love her here.
Her expressions in the last two panels are especially telling. And adorbs.
Lucy seems to have a genuine heart and wouldn’t mind some lovin’ with Walky it seems. Walky seems a little less clear on what he wants. Amber’s curvy body, fun, not to be too scared by math.
Isn’t “not to be too scared by math” what we ALL truly want?
Not we math majors. I ain’t scared.
Agreed. The more math, the better.
fear of math is a terrible thing. it leads to… economics.
But then Galbraith gets away with his phony math.
Math rules. Wasn’t Galbraith one of Tolkien’s elves?
how does lucy know about the two-soon girlfriend?
Walky was discussing the topic with Billie in front of her yesterday. It’s how Lucy and Walky first met.
No that was about the too-soon girlfriend.
Only now she learns about the two soon-ex-girlfriends.
Honestly, he has a good point.
It’s okay Walky. You are feeling the correct amount of bad for your situation.
Lucy is precious and if her dating Walky means more of her, all I can say is bring it on! I will also accept her being friends with a main cast member.
But what if Lucy really is what some people accuse her of: an Alpha Bongo that just fakes kindness to get to the top of the pack..?
Then we’ll need to check up on Willis, because it’ll mean he’s finally snapped under the weight of stupid comments.
…You say that like it would make her character LESS interesting.
Even if Lucy manufactures her own likability, Walky is genuinely a good person and he seems to rub off on everyone. He destressed Dorothy and defused Amber; who’s to say he can’t turn Lucy into the person we all want her to be?
That would be completely against her character as written in Shortpacked!, so honestly, it would feel like a betrayal.
Lucy is (sometimes frustratingly) genuine.
Don’t tell Linda. Lucy is not what she would want for her pre-med student. He’s going to be a doctor. He just doesn’t know it yet.
How would she feel about a superhero /costumed vigilante?
On that one, I think it’s more about how she would feel about the person who helped put a spot light on their family “thug”. The above comment was more in the vein of her possible prejudices that she applies against her daughter also being applied to other women in Wally’s life. David is still the golden child who will fulfill her dreams to perfection (like being a doctor and probably not being with someone less than generically beige).
This is your chance, Lucy! Now you can give your pep-talk uninterrupted.
Be sure to mention the “You will have someone new before too soon” part
With a healthy dose of “she can be anywhere, even right under your nose”?
I like your gravatar!
I am shipping Walky and Lucy harder than I’ve ever shipped anything.
I’ve also never used the verb “ship” in anything other than the context of package transportation, so this is new ground for me.
I’m shipping Walky and Lucy as well, but I’m also still shipping Walky and Amber. I really shouldn’t be shipping conflicting ships, but I can’t help myself.
I’m still shipping Walky and Dorothy as well, so don’t feel bad.
Perhaps we could do a polyamorous ship with all 4 of them.
If there’s going to be a poly quad ship that I can get behind, it’ll be Danny/Ethan/Amber/Walky.
That said, I’ve never seen a quad polycule go well IRL, so I hope not.
Join us in multi shipping hell!
Lucy, I love you, but maybe don’t try and get with the guy who is currently concerned he got together with a new girl too fast. That would be a bad idea.
Also, has Willis been watching Young Justice? This conversation is giving off some whelming vibes.
Well, Lucy certainly has been, so I bet this conversation is just furthering any attraction to Walky.
I don’t want to sound like Joyce right now, but if Walky breaks up with Amber and immediately starts up something with Lucy that’s far too soon.
It also doesn’t reflect well on Lucy if she is actively flirting with a guy that as far as she knows is STILL seeing someone. That is some homewrecker style right there. Come on Lucy.
Also also it reflects poorly on me because I want her to be happy and so if she wants this boy then I support her and that means I’m supporting someone who is trying to seduce a taken person and that is wrong.
I am whelmed that somebody else got the same read from this strip that I did! Also whelmed that I missed your post on the first go-around.
Confirmation I guess: https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1083894454094888960?s=09
My wife watches it. Sometimes I look over at her and on the screen there are bearded seven-foot adults with nice homes and children.
I personally haven’t really seen much of it since the first season.
Oh, Lucy. No. Just no.
To be fair, I think she’s wearing the logo from Matt Smith/Peter Capaldi.
What I’m trying to figure out is how Walky came up with “Benjamin” and Stephanie.” Is this an inside Doctor Who joke? An inside Willis joke? Or just Walky pulling up random names as a way of showing Lucy he doesn’t care about her fandom?
I feel like I’m missing something there as well.
“Mister Benjamin Who” has come up before.
“Stephanie” seems to be a new one, though, and the fact that Walky’s brain invented it to accommodate just-now-gained knowledge of the 13th Doctor proves he just doesn’t care.
I mean, if Lucy and Walky will be friends, that’d be cool. More than that could get awfully dicey, and I do not envy Lucy if Amber would be pestering her.
Let us ponder for a moment that Lucy is standing right outside Joyce’s door, and she’s probably still in there….
And if Walky were to date Lucy sometime in the future, would other people tease him for how similar she is to Joyce?
Well there’s more than few differences to make sure that probably wouldn’t happen
He is standing before Sal’s and Malaya’s door.
Which is right next to Joyce’s door.
I’m mostly just impressed to see Lucy holding a normal conversation.
Which probably just serves to emphasize the fact that she’s only ever been around the wackiest of characters up till now. ..then again, when we have to consider Walky as the bar for “normal”, that’s probably not especially ideal.
Because I crave drama, I sort of want to see these two ill-advisedly hook-up, Walky get bored of her by the time it’s over, and Lucy entering an indescribable rage upon seeing Walky the next half-dozen times they meet.
IMO that wouldn’t be in-character for either of them. Walky doesn’t strike me as being interested in one-night-stands with people he doesn’t like and Lucy seems more of the “pretend everything is fine, then run off and cry” type than the jealous rage type.
Based on the logo on Lucy’s Blue Who shirt, it’s likely a Matt Smith era shirt.
I don’t know how that may or may not affect the pronouns though because Time Lord biology and gender is already too weird to fit in human terminology; let alone when you consider the timey-wimey aspects…
Just go with the ones that fit how the time lords present themselves unless corrected, I guess?
Well Lucy is correcting Walky’s misgendering (as emphasised by the ilalics on ‘her’, so that’s what got me thinking.
Fourteen is female but One to Thirteen are male, but when talking about a previous Doctor in a narrative with distinct non-linear temporal elements…
Have any of the episodes with Jodie Whittaker aired in the US? I think I’ve just seen trailers.
Sliding timescales are weird thinks – it’s October in the comic, but it’s also “this year”, so confusion abounds in my headcannon.
Her first season already aired in the U.S.
Walky, I will ignore that you barely pay attention to what is Doctor Who and order you to talk to your sister! Your genre savviness with Willis isn’t going to save you from responsibilities, mister!!!!!
I get the feeling Lucy wouldn’t be too upset if Walky and Amber break up over this.
Ya think?!
This is probably an overshare, but what else is the internet for?
Sometimes when I’m depressed, I get further saddened by the thought that, with all the energy I’ve put into caring about this comic, I’m not gonna get to see how it ends because even if I don’t kill myself today, there’s no way I can last another 14 years or however long it ends up taking. But I try to remind myself that’s the depression (with some help from it’s friend anxiety) talking, and that a day after a day after a day eventually adds up to decades and maybe seeing the end of this comic.
The other part of my depression and this comic is that every day, I have at least one small thing to look forward to. And new strips come at midnight my time, so sometimes it even feels like a reward for officially surviving another day. That probably sounds overly sentimental, but if you can’t cry about webcomics and their interaction with your will to live at 1:30am, then why even have tear ducts.
There are obviously a lot of factors at play when it comes to depression and suicidal thoughts and all that, and I’m not saying, like, “this comic saved my life,” just that…it helps. And anyway, this is just what got stirred up in me by tonight’s discussion of the progression of comic time vs. our time.
*appropriate gestures of support and hugs if wanted*
I hope you keep hanging on. You’re cool.
And any reason to keep going is a good reason.
Same.
I’ve been finding myself really concerned about the/my future. To the point where I have pseudo-visions of the world likely ending in the next 20 years. And yet, if it’s out of my control, I say to myself…why worry? And *better* yet, we are a lot farther away from metaphorical hell than we expect. In times of crisis, we act with surprisingly good intentions. And if we are struck with danger anyway, we cope better than we initially think. It’s only when we don’t think things through that danger catches us by awful surprise.
I feel like I’m rambling. But at the same time, I rarely share this stuff with anyone, even though I want to. All I ultimately want to do is to help someone else out of their problems, their self-destructive cycles. I’ll admit there’s a selfish side: if I can help others, no matter how little, I feel better about dealing with my own problems. At least, I can ensure no one else has to be in the same pit of misery I’ve been in. It keeps me going day to day, and suddenly I realize that those long, dreary summer months weren’t as long as I thought. Hell, it’s winter now! When did *this* happen?!
TL;DR: Whether it be for a moment or a lifetime, take what helps you and run with it.
It means a lot to me too. I’m glad it helps you.
you do what you can, you take the rewards you earn
i understand the struggle, and wish you the best. i’ve enjoyed the comments you make, and i hope you continue, cuz as you said, the internet is for sharing 
Not sure how much it’ll mean to you, but you’re among the handful of people who keep me reading the comments here and occasionally posting rather than just reading the comic and moving on to other things.
At the risk of seeming facetious (I’m really not), that does sound like an inordinate amount of bad. Anyway, keep piling up those days, you’re doing great so far.
The longer you keep going, the easier it gets to keep going, right? And there’s lots to look forward to as time passes- character arcs you’d like to see resolve, characters interacting that haven’t before, stuff like that
And like others have said, if something makes you happy, there’s no need to second-guess that. Let it make you happy! I’m confident Willis would be glad to know that DoA has had such an impact on you.
“Yesterday”
Comic time never ceases to surprise me.
Hopefully Lucy will teach Walky that while girls like Amber may be interesting, in the long run girls like Lucy make much better girlfriends…mind you we haven’t seen much of her baggage yet
At the moment Lucy appears to have the least amount of baggage out of the main female cast, she has shared and/or similar interests to Walky and seems like a nice, caring girl.
That’s mostly because Lucy hasn’t been in the main female cast.
“Always date outside the main cast.”
“Always date outside the main cast.”
I think your avatar would agree
That’s because we don’t know her that well give it time.
Nope I shall continue to rush to judgement because it always works out well
Yeah I don’t give a crap if you think Lucy specifically would make a better girlfriend for Walky than Amber.
It’s the “girls like Amber may be interesting” / “girls like Lucy make much better girlfriends” bit that drew my contempt. Because it’s a shitty generalization.
No it isn’t.
Lucy seems to have much less issues than Amber and Ambers issues will take a lot time and professional to help get sorted, if at all.
We’ve already seen how Amber treated Danny and theres no reason to think it wouldn’t be the same or worse with Walky given that Walky is emotionally weaker than Danny and is more inexperienced in handling relationships
So yeah Amber is more interesting and Lucy is much better girlfriend material
It’s still a shitty generalization because you have no idea what Amber might be like given time to deal with her problems and learn from them, which she is trying. And saying “girls like her” is foolish as people are individuals and categorizing them as types like that is wildly unhelpful.
I’m sure with a few years worth of therapy she’ll be a fantastic girlfriend but right now she isn’t and any other girl like Amber (meaning the type that go looking for fights, wear masks,multiple personalities, verbally abuse their boyfriends etc etc) don’t make good girlfriends
It all depends on what you’re looking for.
Lucy chill, he’s clearly not in the mental state for more shenanigans right now
Yeah its really bad timing because Lucy is the type of girlfriend Walky needs right now. Emotionally hes still more a kid than even a teenager so he needs a…less complicated girlfriend in his life which will make it easier on him to grow emotionally
I mean the idea of Walky dealing with Ambers issues just doesn’t bare thinking about
One thing Walky is clearly not good at is reading bashful young women’s body language. Or reading between the lines, I mean Lucy pretty much explicitly said: “They’re not doin’ so good! Great! I have a chance!”
love the quantifying of too bad! lolol
I appreciate that Walky corrects himself to avoid misgendering The Doctor, even if he insists on using a silly made up name.
Ok, I don’t usually comment things like this but THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE. This is a great comic. Todays comic is golden. Fantastic work, Willis.
Honeslty this has been my exact thought with like, every single DoA strop until now.
Shirt, I forgot they met once already back at Forest.
Maybe instead of “too bad”, “really bad” is a better option?
“If it sits, it shits”
Ok, What did I miss ? I read and reread this page and I just can’t see why everybody is all “oooh Lucy nooo” or other “Yes, I ship’em” (well, besides the obvious “shippers gotta ship”).
To me, Lucy just looks like her geeky, nice to a fault, self. No trace of hitting on Walky, unless we consider pretty much every of her interactions with everybody else as hitting on them…
When she met Walky in her room with Billie and blushed at the fact that Billie suggested they hook up. Now when she learns that he and Amber aren’t doing well, she’s getting a bit flustered and talking a bit slower. That suggests she has some interest in Walky. It also could mean she just plainly doesn’t know what to say.
I could also read it as being painfully aware that someone suggested the hook up to her and now she’s talking to the person and she can’t help but think about it (regardless of actual interest or not) and now she has to think about that while trying to be normal and social.
I like how Lucy is getting to be a bit more fleshed out. Always liked her but she never really got to do much.
Is the Benjamin Who reference Walky’s confused mixing of Benjamin Button and Dr Who? I guess if you didn’t watch either and just knew they had something to do with time, you could merge them.
Wow, I never noticed that Lucy was wearing a Doctor Who shirt before. I’m not very good at picking up things sometimes.
Is Lucy coming onto Walky?
I can never tell when women are coming on to me, if indeed they ever are. So I’m the wrong person to ask. But I have been told that that guesture in which women raise their hand to the side of their head with their elbow back is a signal of interest. Willis might have been told the same.
Taking that with other bits of context I would say the answer is yes.
It’s a pity really: almost any young women deserves a boyfriend who is less self-absorbed than Walky.
Lucy likes Young Justice, right? There’s totally a joke about being “whelmed” in that last panel.
Wait, how does time work in here again? I thought it was in “real” time, so isn’t this a few years ago when there was no lady doctor?
It’s in pseudo current time. It’s October, but it’s October of “now”, so that cultural references don’t eventually become a period piece.
Last year, these strips were set in October of 2018. The year before that, October of 2017. Now, October of 2019. If someone is reading today’s strip five years from now, it will be set instead in October of 2024.
I wish i could remember how many years I’ve been reading this strip and they’re like only halfway into their second month of school
That’s the correct amount of bad. You should do something about that before you get anymore… Whoops… Too bad..
Yunno now that Walky’s said it… Yeah why do we say that?
That’s too bad == That’s not enough good == THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH
The Jeph is strong in this strip.
The correct amount of bad is “good”. Maybe a little bit of bad is tolerable, but it definitely should be leaning towards the goodish side.
I do say the correct amount of bad!!! Sometimes you just gotta accept things are bad, and feel the correct amount of bad about them! And take it like it is. Cry if it needs to, be grumpy if it needs to, but just not make the whole starry big drama out of it.