Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Mac Hall
Matt Boyd
The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
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!
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.
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.
Countdown to Countdown
Velinxi
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.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
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?
Fantomestein
Beka Duke
Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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.
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.
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.
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We’ve all been waiting for it. And through the fourth wall comes the nod. The nod from god, er… well Willis. Although it’s odd for god to nod, I wave farewell Mike, beneath the sod.
Booster really filling in for the “Mike, but pretentious” role. Booster, in ten years, no one is going to remember what switch games were the big hits in [comic year] and which were just all time classics, and they’re definitely not going to be reminded by looking at grease on the buttons.
It feels like Booster is the sort of person who takes pretentious selfies where they’re pretending they’re not really taking a bathroom mirror selfie like a pleb.
I don’t read Booster’s explanation like that at all. To me it doesn’t sound odd at all that someone interested in photography would be looking for pictures that “tell a story”.
This feels really bad faith. Like, booster’s been ragged on for their 3(?) whole appearances (scenes not strips) being one note and we get a brief view of their inner world and it’s treated with the same shallowness as walky is treating them.
We could be curious about the significance of preserving this moment with their sister (Is the console especially important to their sister if so, why does booster have it? Are they close and booster misses her or has something happened?) or about their interest in photography (when the comment section has previous been all about how boosters only hobby seemed to be psychology).
And the comment section still comes to the same conclusion s walky that booster is just a pretentious Mike.
(Not to mention walky is being an entitled little shit. W: “oh look a thing that doesn’t belong to me gimme gimme gimme you’re mean because you’re not immediately doing what I want ” b: “actually right now I am doing something that is meaningful for me” w:”you’re wrong d dumb gimme gimme gimme”
That’s a fair call out. I didn’t give walky the same consideration. Partly because when sstarted I saw how long the post already was and partly because i was replying to a post with a focus on booster and a common response o them.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of walky’s (and others’) journey dealing with his grief around Mike and trauma as a whole. Narratively I think Booster is an excellent addition to the cast because theyvdont why from hard subjects the way others might want to, so they’ll both help others progress while also having to grow themself in how they relate others.
Walky has overstepped boundaries with a lot of characters recently by doubling down on his happy-go-lucky trait which in tense situations is taken as irritating and unwanted. I realise this is probably his way of avoiding dealing with feelings and situation that are too hard for him atm.
But. In the current interaction he immediately demanded access o someone else’s property with no regard for the fact they were in the middle of something, then there a tantrum because he did not receive an immediate yes. Even given an explanation of what they were doing he showed little interest in them.
No white obvious that it the interaction was a set up to begin a dialogue about his… complicated relationship with Mike, he still acted like a 2 year old told they can’t have candy.
I also want to note that willis fucking nails the writing for their age group. It’s spot on for their developmental stage, including the variety of outcomes and explorations of identity formation. I’m getting way of topic but it my jam. I am seeing walky as an example of identity diffusion which is when the identity crisis is unresolved due to a refusal to commit tovalues or goal. Procrastination and avoiding issues are two signs. Joyce is fascinating to me. She’s either an example of identity foreclosure (when an identity is assumed without exploration due to external pressures) or moratorium (which is the postponement of addressing the identity crisis for a later, safer date) but I think ambG is a better example of the latter.
But hey! At least Walky recognizes that he is both stupid, and a loser! Acknowledging one’s flaws is the first step toward self improvement! Good for him!
Hey! I resent that! I wasn’t mean to Walky at all yesterday and he was breathing all over the place! He was even yawning which is like the more annoying version of breathing!
Yikes “his last roommate enjoyed emotionally manipulating people for fun then died” might be the better take away than him technically calling himself a “stupid loser”
To be fair, it was made pretty clear that Mike was emotionally manipulative for what he saw as the greater good, not just for fun (except maybe with Carla). And he died for the same reason.
(And BTW Willis, damn you for making Mike sympathetic THEN killing him off. Nothing personal, but I kind of hate you forever for that).
The greater good in that the sound of Walky suffering is the cure for covid19 and Mike knew that. He’s travelling the world distributing it right now which is why he’s gone and also why the DoA verse isn’t dealing with it right now!
What part of “I’ll have sex with my oldest friend, who has clearly been attracted to me for years, in order to manipulate his new friend that I would’ve sexually manipulated had my friend not asked me to leave him be” screams “greater good” to you?
I interpreted that whole thing as Mike realising that Danny and Ethan were too dumb to recognise their feelings for each other, and intending to sleep with one of them to create just enough jealousy that their actual feelings come to the surface.
Also, I more got the impression that Mike had always been into Ethan than the other way round
Even in the case of Amber, where the argument is strongest that he thought he was doing it for the greater good, Mike himself realized in the confrontation with Blaine that he was making the same excuses for abusing Amber that Blaine was. That all his “greater good” nonsense was bullshit.
Yeah, probably. I’m no fan of Mike but Walky has also been incredibly annoying of late, including mercilessly roasting Joyce over something that legitimately bothered her, and unapologetically invading Jennifer’s personal space and disrespecting her boundaries. I’m actually trying (and failing) not to roast Walky so hard but he kind of set me up for this one. But I’ll keep trying not to actively hate Walky so blatantly.
It’s always interesting seeing how different people interpret different relationships. I guess Walky/Joyce it’s toss up. She’s given it good to him in the past too so I’ve just assumed that this is their friendship. She was overjoyed when she thought Dorothy broke up with him.
The Jennifer one. Well I see that as someone who’s had this relationship with someone for a very long time as annoying “younger brother” and annoyed “older sister” but they still love each cause their family, and is now seeing that their “sister” doesn’t want that anymore. To him it’s probs like a family member you thought you were on good terms with wanting nothing to do with you for “seemingly” no reason.
I can see the flip side though of how someone can just see him as an annoying brat. Cause yeah he is one, haha
Yeah, see to me Joyce and Walky aren’t even friends. They’re more like two people that exist in the same social circle. I struggle to find any situation where either of them would elect to spend time together. It’s always more like we’re heading in the same direction with other people we know, or we have the same class, or I’m best friends with the person you’re dating. I don’t think they enjoy being around each other at all and that’s why the relationship is so antagonistic. To me it’s usually a more even back and forth between them, but yesterday specifically Joyce showed a vulnerability in the glasses complex and Walky pounced on it unwarranted.
The Jennifer situation is more complex and I do actually sympathize with Walky there but his methods were just a little out of line to me. But I think he paid the price for that. Maybe if he learns from it that relationship can be salvaged.
Walky and Joyce have previously spent time together of their own free will, because of their shared interest in cartoons. This has been established as a thing which they have done in Dumbing of Age (although I am not going to search out a link for evidence), and therefore, they have opted at least sometimes to act as ‘friends’.
Joyce also has quite a few of the same types of ‘ribbing’ interactions with both Becky and Sal, which further indicates that, as is the case with most casual friendships, a fair bit of ‘picking on people for fun’ can be applied. Furthermore, although Joyce has been unusually harsh toward Walky in particular, that might be because she grew up with a household of older brothers*, and so learned to snark back sufficiently to hold her own in the family pecking order (If I had to guess, you didn’t grow up with many siblings, did you?).
But, for what it’s worth, it wasn’t undeserved for Walky to pick on her in downright mean fashion, because she *has* crossed the line from ‘friendly play’ to ‘downright mean’ herself a fair few times, mostly to do with Dorothy. Neither of them, in other words, have been entirely the victim in their interactions.
Also, your anti-Walky rants are rather irksome… Sirksome. (sorry, figured I had to go for the available pun)
*From Joyce’s current perspective, she has only older brothers.
It’s times like this I wish we could upvote comments, ala reddit. This, extremely this in all points made by Mano308gts. Including Sirksome’s irksome ranting about Walky. No one deserved Mike as a roommate, not least of whom, Walky.
Hey! You figured out why I named myself Sirksome! That’s pretty cool! There is an urge to argue some of your points but I feel in a way that would only prove others so in the spirit of cutting Walky some slack he doesn’t deserve I’ll try not to.
I really want to though! I don’t like that tit for tat argument. It also kind of implies Joyce now has one in the bank for later and is this really how “friends” choose to act? But maybe I just don’t understand this “friendship” they supposedly have. I don’t think it justifies at all Walky’s actions yesterday but uh….maybe it does? I don’t know.
If anything, what justifies Walky’s actions yesterday is that without him pushing, she wouldn’t have gotten the glasses.
But yes, how that all comes across depends very much on how you see their friendship. It’s at the very least clearly established that their teasing of each other is mutual, not just Walky harassing Joyce.
@thejeff I disagree on that. That’s the same argument people make for Mike and you even debunked that yourself. Being a jerk to motivate someone is still just being a jerk. Walky even went out of his way to see Joyce after she got her glasses just to roast her some more.
I admit I don’t fully comprehend the potential nuance in the Joyce/Walky “friendship” but I think it’s stretch to say he was a factor in her getting glasses. That really discredits Dorothy and to a much lesser extent *after considerable self reflection on her own toxic “friendship” dynamic with Dorothy* Becky’s efforts to get her through that.
Joyce considers Walky a friend. When she had her terrible day in La Porte visiting her parents after the shooting, Walky was one of the people she wanted.
Come on. Everyone in this series is occasionally terrible except Joyce, Dina, and Booster (ranked by order of appearance). The rest (including the adults) are all a few feet from being a wreck.
When you see the real, professional photographers at sports events or documenting other things like weddings, graduations, or historical events like today’s inauguration of Joseph Biden, they aren’t using iPhones.
iPhones are great for going live back to s TV station with minimal equipment involved. Just run the app for whichever platform the station uses, plug into a battery pack, and go. You’re still not going to get the same quality you would out of a shoulder cam with a proper 2/3 image sensor, mind you, but the phone’s a tiny fraction of the cost of just the camera body (never mind the glass and wireless gear. When you see a TV news videographer, they’re usually toting tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment.)
No matter how good phone cameras get, real cameras will always take better pictures. Processing still can’t beat bigger lenses and image sensors at gathering light.
Meh, it’s kind of pretentious. All photography is slightly pretentious. By photographing something you inherently imply more meaning to it just by the action of preserving/documenting it.
I would argue that human behavior in and of itself is pretentious. It’s kind of what separates us from the animals in a way. It’s not a negative description but I think here it’s accurate and fitting. Especially since photography is a more artistic hobby.
‘Pretentious’ is a word that, at the time of writing, has negative connotations. Art by its nature isn’t pretentious, even if it does seem to attract a heavier portion of snooty people. No more than Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. It’s not even an inherently human behaviour; animals perform mating displays, for instance.
In other words, almost all human actions are pretentious, so by logic we should only call them pretentious when they’re -over- the norm.
So, then, photography isn’t by itself any more pretentious than 99% of human behaviour, so no reason to see it all as such.
Now, there -are- ways to make it more pretentious than average, but that applies, again, to anything a human does to give meaning to the things around itself.
Or they got a 35mm SLR body for next to nothing. I’ve even seen those thrown in with used lens bundles (intended for DSLR bodies that can take old glass).
As a fellow hard science leaning telecom major, I empathize with Walky here. The fun thing’s right there, why are we talking about it when we could be using it? In his mind he’s probably going “artsy fartsy blah blah blah whatever I bet I can beat you on Wario’s Gold Mine”.
I can’t help myself, I also feel like Mike is still alive somehow. Though, if he is really dead, I feel like he’d relate a lot to the glasses Tony Stark made “Even Dead, I’m The Hero”.
He lost me during the class, unlike Mike he’s a jerk who is being a jerk just because he can be and is using the reactions for his own benefit instead of for a good reason.
I was starting to like Booster until they went way overboard with psychoanalizing everyone at that floor meeting. Now I’m back to not liking them again.
Hmmmm yeah actually considering how Mike went for deep cuts I guess I can see how paranoid Walky might be about a roommate attempting to emotionally toy with him to great effectiveness, especially with what Booster pulled at that meeting
Wow honestly thinking having Mike as your first ever roommate could be downright traumatic
The worst my did was play video games with his friends back in China until the early morning
Roz is oddly perhaps the least vulnerable to Mary. She’s incredibly open about all the sex secrets stuff that Mary preys on.
And she still made that play for dorm RA just to try to get out of rooming with Mary.
What’s unclear is whether Malaya would be like that with everyone, or if it’s specific to Sal. (Obviously she wasn’t great to Lucy, but there are extenuating circumstances there.)
But given the original slate of options, I’d say the clear winner is Carla, though Mike might be more irritating from moment to moment. I enjoy Carla from a distance, but I’m certain the narcissism mask she sports would wear thin real fast up close.
Mike would seem more cruel, but his pranks and nasty wit were designed to force people to confront their fears and insecurities, which is ultimately healthy, even if unpleasant.
Mike. With Mary a distant runner up. Carla might be annoying, but Mike would be a nightmare.
We’re having this discussion in a strip in which we see that Walky is literally still traumatized by living with Mike, months afterwards.
If you actually think that I’m pretty sure you completely missed the point of his whole heroic sacrifice storyline? Literally the point of all of the flashbacks to Mike’s past, especially his interactions with Blaine, was to compare and contrast Mike’s attitude towards people (and especially Amber) with Blaine’s. Partially due to the fact that Mike’s shitty attitude was at least in some part INSPIRED BY Blaine.
Right at the end, when Blaine started ranting about how his “tough love” was meant to make Amber “strong” because he viewed her as “weak”, Mike learned that Amber is Amazi-Girl and realized, to some degree, her DID and all of her most horrific hardships and pain was a direct, specific result of the TRAUMA caused by Blaine’s treatment of her with that philosophy.
Mike understood that he and his shitty attitude was far more like Blaine than he’d ever bothered to examine, and that his attempts to bully Amber into “self-reflection” were actually just bullshit excuses to hurt her in basically the same ways Blaine did. He’d treated her, and everyone else, HORRIBLY for a huge portion of his life, and she was still trying to save his life despite that. He felt she deserved for him to fix his shit and actually do something right by her, for once.
I personally wish Mike had survived so we could actually examine this whole thing in greater detail with an alive Mike slowly learning to change for the better. Instead, Willis went with a “you either die a Mike or you live long enough to become a Blaine” direction. SIGH.
Agreed. Probably would have said ‘this behavior is completely unjustifiable and unacceptable’ louder for the folks who still aren’t getting it to hear it from Mike himself, too.
Probably still Mike. He actively attempted to torment whoever possible. Carla’s chaotic and a lot to handle, but she’s not nearly as actively malicious. And Becky’s still pretty tolerable outside her very specific roommate situation.
Booster, on the other hand, actually seems to have yet to anything really bad to Walky specifically, especially when compared to how quickly they jumped on the others. Possibly due to not wanting a second hostile roommate situation, but as a roommate in general, they really haven’t seemed too bad so far.
Hmmmm. Well, with Becky as long as I don’t seemingly pose a threat to her position as best friend with the last remaining connection to her old life, we’d be cool.
I feel like Carla could be annoying but probs doesn’t care if I’m the one giving her attention as long as someone does.
Mike probably would have been able to play Freshman year me like a fiddle so I’d say still Mike. If he could make Walky feel bad about himself I’d be low hanging fruit.
As bad as this sound either Lucy or Booster for me. I’m bad with people that are overenthusiastic. I’m more of a Jennifer type so I’d try to be polite at first but it’d eat at me till I broke. I don’t know how Booster is as a roommate but If I saw what they pulled at that meeting I’d nope out of that arrangement real fast. Don’t need a wanna be shrink who’s not afraid of sharing their diagnosis learning everything about me
This is actually a very interesting question. Like what’s the metric for good vs bad roommates? Is it base or personal chemistry or interactions? Cause while personally I don’t like Mary I think as long as you don’t bring up religion or politics and stay quiet she won’t be that bad. Becky on the other hand is more likeable but actively more antagonistic in her roommate circumstances.
It’s kind of like how people were saying Lucy deserved better than Jennifer as a roommate but it that really true is Jennifer isn’t really around to be a roommate? I feel like that would be more neutral.
And Carla never had a roommate right? What are people basing her roommate grade on?
Not every roommate can be a Joyce or a Dorothy and some people would hate that more than rooming with Mary. I’m interesting in opinions on this.
I think it would be incredibly difficult not to get on Mary’s bad side, given she delights in judging others and would ABSOLUTELY bring up scripture (cherry-picked to cite whatever she wanted that day) and how she was going to church, and aren’t you also going to attend church, and oh THAT church doesn’t ‘respect traditional values’ and seriously it would be CONSTANT. Also you couldn’t ever have sex, or stay out long enough in the evenings or on weekends that Mary could feel justified in grilling you about NOT having had sex. And if you mentioned that, say, you don’t have sex because you’re asexual THEN you’re defying God’s will to go forth and multiply. Not to mention she would almost certainly complain about the people in this hall (very possibly with open homophobic or transphobic slurs, possibly just with barely-veiled euphemisms showing her contempt) and demand validation from you.
People like Mary are not REMOTELY quiet about their views. And they demand total agreement from others. You could not possibly keep your head down enough to avoid that experience being terrible, and just the trying would be traumatic in itself.
In short: Mary is not a quiet religious person who happens to hold terrible views. Mary’s religion is 100% weaponized so that she can use it against people she doesn’t like. Mary would judge a Catholic who otherwise agrees with her 100% because they were Catholic. (Something something idolatry, something something not REAL Christians, something something secret conspiracy with the Muslims and Jews who are all ACTUALLY worshipping Satan. Thank you, Chick Tracts.) The only way to survive Mary as a roommate is to be the exact same variety of hateful and the exact same denomination of Christian as she is. So uh, she’d probably be quite happy to room with Carol I guess.
Except Roz rooms with her and Roz is almost tailor made to be everything Mary hates yet Roz hasn’t snapped and tried to strangle Mary with piano wire yet. We’ve only had brief peeks at their roommate dynamic and while it wasn’t good at all:
Although on second thought maybe we just don’t give Roz enough credit for rooming with Mary. I know a lot of people dislike Roz because of how vocal she is with her beliefs and opinions but rooming with Mary has to count for something right?
Roz has dealt with sisters who are nothing like her and piss her off constantly, she’s used to people like Mary so is able to ignore her and likely has enough dirt on her via outside sources to make Mary quiver in fear and avoid Roz at all costs.
And Mary isn’t stupid: she has to either endure Roz or she’s going to get kicked out of the dorm and likely the school. Roz’s attention grab saved her, Mary isn’t stupid enough to go after the person who likely could get her out of the spotlight and expulsion simply by doing what she normally does.
Oh, I ABSOLUTELY think Roz deserves more credit for surviving a semester with Mary. (And we know it was killing her to do so, it prompted her entire run for RA.) Seriously, in-universe I genuinely think Roz has had less energy for genuine activism and gotten more confrontational because she has to share a living space with Mary and her hugeass Ronald Reagan poster. (Out of universe, there are clearly other real-world influences.) And Mary probably had Peter over and they judged in stereo at least once. *shudders*
Seriously though, Mary sat outside her room to glare at the hallway because Riley slept over on family weekend (rude but not unheard of, and doesn’t appear to have been unforgiveably disruptive of Mary’s plans) and then death-glared a 12-year-old for asking her about her cereal preferences. “Everyone’s done something wrong.” https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/judgy/ You will not escape her judgment.
Beyond all that, it’s not just the personality clash. Mary is a snoop and a blackmailer. She’s going to judge you, but she’s also going to be looking for things you don’t want known to use to control you.
Roz is mostly not vulnerable to that because she’s so open about her sex life, there’s nothing Mary can hold over her. It’s still awful living with Mary, but not as much as it would be for someone a bit more repressed.
I feel like every aspect of who I am as a person is against what Mary believes, haha. From the few tiene we see her it seems like Mary doesn’t keep to her own with what she believes anyways.
I feel like personal chemistry is a big thing. Like, someone like Lucy or early DOA Joyce would be rough for me cause I need personal space and less cheerfulness. On the other hand Becky may have a big personality but she’s got some edge to it, which works for me. Danny would be neutral for me, probs Walky as well since all he needs is chicken nugs and cartoons to keep him quiet. Dorothy and Sarah could either be neutral or positive since they have their own stuff going on, are respectful, and don’t need to interact all the time (or prefer nor for studying)
Agreed. I suspect Sal would be a pretty solid roommate for someone who’s not in deep personal conflict with her (sorry Malaya) once you got some ground rules about windows down, but she’s also very much a ‘keep to herself’ type and not a ‘let’s be best friends!’ – she and Joyce would probably not be anywhere near as compatible as roommates as they are as non-cohabitating friends.
Amber’s odd hours and woefully-undermanaged trauma would be pretty big subjects of concern after a while – think Sarah with Dana, only Dana was secretly a vigilante and all her friends were ALSO concerned, but the therapists on campus suck and no one knows what other steps can be taken. That said, her nerdiness and general keeping to herself would probably be a perk for a fair number of people.
On the mens’ side of things: Joe would be insufferable for anyone who’s not his best friend. Danny can be irritating at times and has serious foot-in-mouth tendencies, but I do believe deep down he’s a good egg who learns from his mistakes. Ethan would probably be okay but that does depend entirely on how comfortable you are with a room full of Transformers.
Personally though, my pick is Dina. We’re on similar enough socializing wavelengths that we would probably not interact a ton except to infodump at each other about special interests. I would catch up so much on dinosaurs. It would be wonderful. That said I could see her holding strong opinions on Pokemon as a franchise’s use of ‘evolution’ so it’s entirely possible she would not like me anywhere near as much.
Mary. No matter how nasty Malaya is, Mary is 1000x worse. At least Malaya had reasons for being a grouch and a bongo that might be working out for the better, Mary is simply a horrible person
And doesn’t Carla have her own room due to her being born wrong?
Why would Carla be a bad roommate, assuming her roommate treated her like a real person? Her obnoxious persona is an inch thick over a foot of genuine caring. As a trans woman she knows the world is a hostile place and she needs armor, but I bet if her room was a safe space she’d drop enough of the armor to at least not be a jerk.
Becky would probably annoy me, but (similar to Carla) I think she’d probably tone it down if her roommate made the room a safe place and treated her like a person. …And actually had a conversation where they calmly listened to her talk about important things. (Which I don’t think Carla would need as much. With her, I’d probably make friends by geeking out about technology.)
Mike, I think, was too far gone into asshole-for-asshole’s-sake. He treated people badly, including his roommate, when he had no reason to. I don’t trust the character of people like that and I’d prefer to avoid him. It would be like living with a rattlesnake under my bed (note that rattlesnakes like to crawl into beds for the warmth and then bite people when they move in their sleep).
I choose to believe Booster put extra emphasis on “the Nintendo Switch” to try to get Walky to stop calling it “a Nintendo,” but Walky just keeps saying it
I dunno, in this case just saying, “a switch” sounds more natural; I guess cause Nintendo usually has a lot more going on at the same time than it does right now (Still, they’re still selling full priced 3DS games in the stores so I suppose it’s not totally dead..). With cars I feel like you can get away with just saying the brand, the model, or both without it sounding weird
Sure, it’s fair to call it that. He’s technically not wrong. It’s also understandable if someone found that mildly annoying, especially since Walky has said it four times now (and has also been annoying in other ways).
I feel this particularly with Nintendo because they released a console called the Nintendo Entertainment System (now often called an NES), which was followed by the Super Nintendo. Without context, if someone mentioned having “a Nintendo,” I would assume they meant an NES, which is not the same as a Nintendo Switch.
It’s not like someone needs to justify finding behavior annoying, or that someone has to be doing something “unfair” for someone else to try to influence their behavior in subtle ways. I find my headcannon amusing, and art is subjective, so I’m going to roll with it. This has nothing to do with how much I like or dislike Booster or Walky.
Oh, I also think they enjoy photography. I don’t see that contradicting my headcannon or relating to certain words in panel 1 being both bold and in italics
I wish he would, although i know he won’t. I liked mike’s story/growing up, even if he could be a total… i think the feeling of loss is even worse gecause i didn’t expect it.
So far i think i like booster, as long as the character doesn’t become mike. At least they’ve different hobbies
I need to make myself stop believing Booster is secretly Mike, because the day I manage that will be the day Booster takes their Mission Impossible mask off.
OK, so pretty much 100% of Switch games uses the A and B buttons more than the X and Y buttons. That is the only thing you can possibly be certain of, and you don’t need to take pictures to know that.
We suppose that if the L/ZL and R/ZR buttons are used at all, that -might- narrow it down; but there would still a couple hundreds of possibilities left.
In any case, We know she’s been doing the M-rated visual novels the Switch likes selling now. Those are download only, so won’t show up as a micro-cartridge in the back.
There’s quite a bit of variation, actually. For example, if they played Monster Hunter, that’d result in the X button being used quite a lot, and the Y button being used comparatively little.
I’m very sorry that this has probably been asked and answered before but I can’t find it and I don’t know what the deal is, but didn’t willis say he would not kill any characters, but all the (remaining) characters are saying that he definitively DIED… and he’s not even on the cast page?
Willis mentioned elsewhere on the internet that he didn’t think any characters would die because of how slowly time passes, but it wasn’t an ironclad promise. Mike’s old cast page is still findable, and, well, RIP Mike: https://www.dumbingofage.com/cast/attachment/2014castmike/
Holy fuck, though, it really does hammer home how much damage Mike did to Walky as a roommate.
Seriously I think Mike actually dying was a wasted opportunity for the realization we saw from Mike just prior and way worse for Ethan and Amber, but FUCK Mike. I do not miss him at all.
I don’t know if this specific page shows how much damage Mike did to Walky as a roommate. I mean Mike obviously was a horrible room mate to Walky. But the “I feel they might walk in at any second ” thing is very common when losing people. The ” I faked my death to make you sad” part is concerning but just very on brand for Mike.
Somewhat less the ‘I faked your death’ part and more the ‘I assume everything you do is some kind of prank because that was every interaction with Mike’, especially given the pranks we know he pulled. (Elaborate spoof site to record him crying, for instance.)
Is it an Indiana thing for Walky to default to “a Nintendo”? I’m waaaay East Coast and arguably the South and haven’t heard anyone under the age of 54 call it that before now.
no lol, we usually say “nintendo switch,” too. I think the angle here is “walky likes a few specific video games, isn’t enough into gaming to keep up with current consoles, and associates nintendo with mario cart”
Yep, Booster definitely is an arts person and probably would prefer the arts to whatever medical courses they are on right now.
Meanwhile, I wonder how long Mike is going to keep living rent-free in Walky’s head? I’m sure that, wherever he is, Mike would consider that last panel to be a proof of ‘my work is done’ but it is disturbing in some ways!
Speaking as someone who is also an artsy psych student, they probably don’t want to ruin their hobbies by making them into work. They seem very interested in psych, and I’m sure they’re enjoying their courses plenty
Nah, it’s going to be about this mild Mr Average and his extrovert horndog long-term friend and roommate who is probably a bit shyer than he makes out. There will be this crazy stalker girl who’s always cheerful and others like that. However, it will mostly be a domestic comedy about living in the dorms. No ripping off Dexter and Monkey Master or anything like that.
So would I. OTOH, if I was roommates with someone who felt otherwise, and it was their video game, I’d like to believe I’d at least wait until they’d finished before whining about it.
Anyone here remember the bit in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy where you kept waiting for a certain character — who I won’t name for spoiler reasons — to come back, and they never do? They died off-screen, too.
They weren’t they only one teased about still being alive. Some of the deaths weren’t even in-scene definitive, merely, “oh yeah, they’re gone” likely. Absolutely one of my favourite series.
Around 2035, Willis will insert some Mike references in DoA and nobody will get it (“…who’s that Mike guy, Joyce’s lost brother?”). Then Mike will reappear and make everyone’s life miserable.
So, what, is Booster supposed to be Sherlock Holmes now? Not only psychoanalyzing people at a glance but can tell what you’ve been playing by which buttons are more used? Just piling on the unrealistic character bullshit.
It’s a bit of an odd one, but being interested in environmental storytelling isn’t the strangest of things to be interested in. Booster doesn’t explicitly say WHAT game was being played (though if they do so in the next comic, correctly, consider me told), merely having a thought exercise about what game might’ve resulted in particular smear marks on the console.
Meanwhile, all I can glean from what’s being mentioned is that Booster’s sister has greasy hands and needs to wipe the dang Switch down once she’s done using it.
This is the part where you call the series unrealistic? Being aware of social cues and paying attention to details.
It wasn’t the multiple kidnappings and vigilante heroes; not the homeless social media intern to a member of congress; not the college girl who constantly cosplays a dinosaur?
And you’re so outraged that you have to call it “unrealistic character bullshit?”
I hope you’ve got gloves on while handling such a hot take.
When it’s their twin sister who they pass the switch around with? Yeah, they can probably tell what game it was because it’s THEIR GAMES. They even said their sister does this too. It’s their ‘thing’. Sometimes families have those. Chill out.
When I was an angsty middle schooler it really irked me when people referred to any console as “a Nintendo” and not whatever specific console it actually was. I was an unpleasant middle schooler to be around.
I kinda want a flashback comic to Mike and Walky interracting. Now I’m imagining any number of swift pranks that could have been had, in little one off strips.
How many of the bonus strips had mike guys I might want to pay Willis 5 dollars for a month because it’s just now hitting me. T_T
I’m pretty sure the only way for Mike to nail this prank in the proper way it deserves is to find Walky at some Parisian cafe in a decade, college a distant memory, and he looks up from his table and spots Mike sitting at a table across the cafe, who flips him off and then points at his table, to which Walky looks down at his check and sees “This is for your Mom” at the bottom with a nickel taped next to it. And when Walky looks up, Mike has suddenly vanished.
I’m torn between some Mike/Yo’mamma variant of “shut up and take my money”, except Mike just covered that, and… frustratingly pointing out that I’ll be dead in a decade of in-comic time. Long dead.
I’m gathering from the comments I’m the only one who reads this as patiently explaining something you’re into and worried questioning of a really concerning statement from your roommate and not “Booster is a pretentious jerk who overanalyzes everying”
I mean unsolicited amateur psychoanalysis of strangers is generally seen as a dick move. It’s the sort of thing that makes a bad first impression, and those can take a while to shake
I mean, I’m not saying they weren’t a dick, but I do think it’s a bit ridiculous that commenters that know this is fiction are looking at it as though that’s going to be Boosters only personality and characterization ever.
(I don’t fault anyone in universe for making this judgment, or fault anyone reading who had an emotional reaction to it, it’s the prolonged taking every panel Booster’s in in bad faith that’s putting me off)
I didn’t visit the comments section for this comic yesterday and literally left a comment on tomorrow’s that says, “Booster hasn’t been around long enough to be hated”.
Apparently, I am VERY wrong and it only takes the one thing.
I don’t see any bloodshotness, but I mean, probably? Where I live it would be weirder for a college student not to smoke weed (or like, anyone over 16-17 or so), at least on occasion. Unless they just vape or something.
If they have bloodshot eyes, I’d guess it’s lack of sleep before I’d guess weed. I only knew a couple folks who had access to weed, but not one of my fellow students had a stable sleep schedule.
I literally can’t imagine looking at a Nintendo Switch someone else used and coming up with this. Like I can kinda understand capturing someone else’s use of a game console (although the more reasonable reaction is “I need to clean this up”), but to make a “guess what game they were playing” activity out of that? What the fuck?!
I know everyone one gets their own opinions, but it feels wrong to lose the genuine heart character with the death of mike. Like Joyce tries her best, and walk muddles through, but when you can tell Mike truly cares? Those were the best parts of dumbing of age. I’ve lost a lot of friends growing up, and I didn’t think that was something I was gonna have to cope with when Willis promised no deaths. This whole arc is kinda triggering, in the “people I was close to now barely register I exist sense” this isn’t me complaining or deriding the authors intent, I’m just explaining why this whole new semester makes me feel sad in a deep kinda way.
Whatever the fuck you’re taking that makes you think a borderline villainous character (I think I’d rather deal with Mary) was the “genuine heart” of the cast, would you mind sharing? My green doesn’t get me nearly high enough to reach that take.
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 ⋅ 2d
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 ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
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Walky thinking what we’re all thinking
except he isn’t trying to yank off Booster’s face a la Scooby-Doo to see if that’s a mask
Not yet anyway
That comes in a few more days(in-universe)…
We’ve all been waiting for it. And through the fourth wall comes the nod. The nod from god, er… well Willis. Although it’s odd for god to nod, I wave farewell Mike, beneath the sod.
Booster really filling in for the “Mike, but pretentious” role. Booster, in ten years, no one is going to remember what switch games were the big hits in [comic year] and which were just all time classics, and they’re definitely not going to be reminded by looking at grease on the buttons.
It feels like Booster is the sort of person who takes pretentious selfies where they’re pretending they’re not really taking a bathroom mirror selfie like a pleb.
I don’t read Booster’s explanation like that at all. To me it doesn’t sound odd at all that someone interested in photography would be looking for pictures that “tell a story”.
This feels really bad faith. Like, booster’s been ragged on for their 3(?) whole appearances (scenes not strips) being one note and we get a brief view of their inner world and it’s treated with the same shallowness as walky is treating them.
We could be curious about the significance of preserving this moment with their sister (Is the console especially important to their sister if so, why does booster have it? Are they close and booster misses her or has something happened?) or about their interest in photography (when the comment section has previous been all about how boosters only hobby seemed to be psychology).
And the comment section still comes to the same conclusion s walky that booster is just a pretentious Mike.
(Not to mention walky is being an entitled little shit. W: “oh look a thing that doesn’t belong to me gimme gimme gimme you’re mean because you’re not immediately doing what I want ” b: “actually right now I am doing something that is meaningful for me” w:”you’re wrong d dumb gimme gimme gimme”
Of course we then immediately move on to get a glimpse at Walky’s trauma and the comment section focuses on him being an entitled little shit.
That’s a fair call out. I didn’t give walky the same consideration. Partly because when sstarted I saw how long the post already was and partly because i was replying to a post with a focus on booster and a common response o them.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of walky’s (and others’) journey dealing with his grief around Mike and trauma as a whole. Narratively I think Booster is an excellent addition to the cast because theyvdont why from hard subjects the way others might want to, so they’ll both help others progress while also having to grow themself in how they relate others.
Walky has overstepped boundaries with a lot of characters recently by doubling down on his happy-go-lucky trait which in tense situations is taken as irritating and unwanted. I realise this is probably his way of avoiding dealing with feelings and situation that are too hard for him atm.
But. In the current interaction he immediately demanded access o someone else’s property with no regard for the fact they were in the middle of something, then there a tantrum because he did not receive an immediate yes. Even given an explanation of what they were doing he showed little interest in them.
No white obvious that it the interaction was a set up to begin a dialogue about his… complicated relationship with Mike, he still acted like a 2 year old told they can’t have candy.
I also want to note that willis fucking nails the writing for their age group. It’s spot on for their developmental stage, including the variety of outcomes and explorations of identity formation. I’m getting way of topic but it my jam. I am seeing walky as an example of identity diffusion which is when the identity crisis is unresolved due to a refusal to commit tovalues or goal. Procrastination and avoiding issues are two signs. Joyce is fascinating to me. She’s either an example of identity foreclosure (when an identity is assumed without exploration due to external pressures) or moratorium (which is the postponement of addressing the identity crisis for a later, safer date) but I think ambG is a better example of the latter.
And this is why I didn’t go into walky lol
You have no idea how much I appreciate your humanity and humanization here. I am so burnt on how toxic these comments are.
I think we were all kind of waiting to see if Dave would “pull a Marvel”, yes.
I mean, it’s not like that isn’t something Mike would do.
Exactly. Smart move on Walky’s part. You can never be too careful when it comes to Mike.
…and if it helps to keep his spirit alive(metaphorically) then more power to him!
Yeah uh…I don’t feel bad for you Walky. Not even a little. Let Booster enjoy their hobby.
But hey! At least Walky recognizes that he is both stupid, and a loser! Acknowledging one’s flaws is the first step toward self improvement! Good for him!
Oh, I get it! You’re the comment section’s Mike!
maybe the real mike was the friends we made along the way
He’s the designated walky hater of the comment section. If walky exists, you can find him down here getting pissed off about him breathing.
Hey! I resent that! I wasn’t mean to Walky at all yesterday and he was breathing all over the place! He was even yawning which is like the more annoying version of breathing!
DoA has that for a bunch of things. Like anti-muses.
Yikes “his last roommate enjoyed emotionally manipulating people for fun then died” might be the better take away than him technically calling himself a “stupid loser”
To be fair, it was made pretty clear that Mike was emotionally manipulative for what he saw as the greater good, not just for fun (except maybe with Carla). And he died for the same reason.
(And BTW Willis, damn you for making Mike sympathetic THEN killing him off. Nothing personal, but I kind of hate you forever for that).
What the fuck was the greater good in elaborately faking the cancellation of Walky’s favorite cartoon and then recording him crying?
Hell, what the fuck was the greater good in recording Walky crying and then offering to show it to people for fun immediately after his first breakup?
The greater good in that the sound of Walky suffering is the cure for covid19 and Mike knew that. He’s travelling the world distributing it right now which is why he’s gone and also why the DoA verse isn’t dealing with it right now!
What part of “I’ll have sex with my oldest friend, who has clearly been attracted to me for years, in order to manipulate his new friend that I would’ve sexually manipulated had my friend not asked me to leave him be” screams “greater good” to you?
I interpreted that whole thing as Mike realising that Danny and Ethan were too dumb to recognise their feelings for each other, and intending to sleep with one of them to create just enough jealousy that their actual feelings come to the surface.
Also, I more got the impression that Mike had always been into Ethan than the other way round
Despite it not working out that way and despite Mike’s explicit statement to himself (and us) of what he was doing.
Even in the case of Amber, where the argument is strongest that he thought he was doing it for the greater good, Mike himself realized in the confrontation with Blaine that he was making the same excuses for abusing Amber that Blaine was. That all his “greater good” nonsense was bullshit.
Yeah, probably. I’m no fan of Mike but Walky has also been incredibly annoying of late, including mercilessly roasting Joyce over something that legitimately bothered her, and unapologetically invading Jennifer’s personal space and disrespecting her boundaries. I’m actually trying (and failing) not to roast Walky so hard but he kind of set me up for this one. But I’ll keep trying not to actively hate Walky so blatantly.
It’s always interesting seeing how different people interpret different relationships. I guess Walky/Joyce it’s toss up. She’s given it good to him in the past too so I’ve just assumed that this is their friendship. She was overjoyed when she thought Dorothy broke up with him.
The Jennifer one. Well I see that as someone who’s had this relationship with someone for a very long time as annoying “younger brother” and annoyed “older sister” but they still love each cause their family, and is now seeing that their “sister” doesn’t want that anymore. To him it’s probs like a family member you thought you were on good terms with wanting nothing to do with you for “seemingly” no reason.
I can see the flip side though of how someone can just see him as an annoying brat. Cause yeah he is one, haha
Yeah, see to me Joyce and Walky aren’t even friends. They’re more like two people that exist in the same social circle. I struggle to find any situation where either of them would elect to spend time together. It’s always more like we’re heading in the same direction with other people we know, or we have the same class, or I’m best friends with the person you’re dating. I don’t think they enjoy being around each other at all and that’s why the relationship is so antagonistic. To me it’s usually a more even back and forth between them, but yesterday specifically Joyce showed a vulnerability in the glasses complex and Walky pounced on it unwarranted.
The Jennifer situation is more complex and I do actually sympathize with Walky there but his methods were just a little out of line to me. But I think he paid the price for that. Maybe if he learns from it that relationship can be salvaged.
Walky and Joyce have previously spent time together of their own free will, because of their shared interest in cartoons. This has been established as a thing which they have done in Dumbing of Age (although I am not going to search out a link for evidence), and therefore, they have opted at least sometimes to act as ‘friends’.
Joyce also has quite a few of the same types of ‘ribbing’ interactions with both Becky and Sal, which further indicates that, as is the case with most casual friendships, a fair bit of ‘picking on people for fun’ can be applied. Furthermore, although Joyce has been unusually harsh toward Walky in particular, that might be because she grew up with a household of older brothers*, and so learned to snark back sufficiently to hold her own in the family pecking order (If I had to guess, you didn’t grow up with many siblings, did you?).
But, for what it’s worth, it wasn’t undeserved for Walky to pick on her in downright mean fashion, because she *has* crossed the line from ‘friendly play’ to ‘downright mean’ herself a fair few times, mostly to do with Dorothy. Neither of them, in other words, have been entirely the victim in their interactions.
Also, your anti-Walky rants are rather irksome… Sirksome. (sorry, figured I had to go for the available pun)
*From Joyce’s current perspective, she has only older brothers.
It’s times like this I wish we could upvote comments, ala reddit. This, extremely this in all points made by Mano308gts. Including Sirksome’s irksome ranting about Walky. No one deserved Mike as a roommate, not least of whom, Walky.
Hey! You figured out why I named myself Sirksome! That’s pretty cool! There is an urge to argue some of your points but I feel in a way that would only prove others so in the spirit of cutting Walky some slack he doesn’t deserve I’ll try not to.
I really want to though! I don’t like that tit for tat argument. It also kind of implies Joyce now has one in the bank for later and is this really how “friends” choose to act? But maybe I just don’t understand this “friendship” they supposedly have. I don’t think it justifies at all Walky’s actions yesterday but uh….maybe it does? I don’t know.
If anything, what justifies Walky’s actions yesterday is that without him pushing, she wouldn’t have gotten the glasses.
But yes, how that all comes across depends very much on how you see their friendship. It’s at the very least clearly established that their teasing of each other is mutual, not just Walky harassing Joyce.
@thejeff I disagree on that. That’s the same argument people make for Mike and you even debunked that yourself. Being a jerk to motivate someone is still just being a jerk. Walky even went out of his way to see Joyce after she got her glasses just to roast her some more.
I admit I don’t fully comprehend the potential nuance in the Joyce/Walky “friendship” but I think it’s stretch to say he was a factor in her getting glasses. That really discredits Dorothy and to a much lesser extent *after considerable self reflection on her own toxic “friendship” dynamic with Dorothy* Becky’s efforts to get her through that.
Dorothy did more (and took a lot of criticism here for it), but if Walky hadn’t been ragging her about it, Dorothy wouldn’t have known.
For the first part, I think that comes back to our disagreement on their friendship.
Joyce considers Walky a friend. When she had her terrible day in La Porte visiting her parents after the shooting, Walky was one of the people she wanted.
Come on. Everyone in this series is occasionally terrible except Joyce, Dina, and Booster (ranked by order of appearance). The rest (including the adults) are all a few feet from being a wreck.
I like Joyce a lot but shes been terrible in the past, attempting to break up Jacob and Raideh for example
Dina spying on Jacob and Raidah while not terrible is kinda sketchy
Booster is…well if Booster had received a smack in the head I wouldn’t condone the action but I’d sort of understand why
Not the worst Booster moment, I guess. Still a little artsy fartsy but hasn’t crossed the mind into pretentious… yet.
It did for me because Booster is using some kind of weird cell phone that doesn’t connect to the internet or make calls, just take pictures.
He’s a photography nerd, so he’s got some specialized equipment.
*they
yeah that’s my bad
When you see the real, professional photographers at sports events or documenting other things like weddings, graduations, or historical events like today’s inauguration of Joseph Biden, they aren’t using iPhones.
It’s called “using the proper tool for the job.”
iPhones are great for going live back to s TV station with minimal equipment involved. Just run the app for whichever platform the station uses, plug into a battery pack, and go. You’re still not going to get the same quality you would out of a shoulder cam with a proper 2/3 image sensor, mind you, but the phone’s a tiny fraction of the cost of just the camera body (never mind the glass and wireless gear. When you see a TV news videographer, they’re usually toting tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment.)
No matter how good phone cameras get, real cameras will always take better pictures. Processing still can’t beat bigger lenses and image sensors at gathering light.
Meh, it’s kind of pretentious. All photography is slightly pretentious. By photographing something you inherently imply more meaning to it just by the action of preserving/documenting it.
Applying meaning to a thing is not inherently pretentious. It’s kind of a basic part of human behavior.
It’s also pretty much a valid definition for the entire concept of “art”.
I would argue that human behavior in and of itself is pretentious. It’s kind of what separates us from the animals in a way. It’s not a negative description but I think here it’s accurate and fitting. Especially since photography is a more artistic hobby.
‘Pretentious’ is a word that, at the time of writing, has negative connotations. Art by its nature isn’t pretentious, even if it does seem to attract a heavier portion of snooty people. No more than Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. It’s not even an inherently human behaviour; animals perform mating displays, for instance.
Yeah, you say ‘pretentious’ and people assume you’re using it as a perjorative.
Bird mating behaviors (the dancing and impractically fancy tails and such in particular) are delightfully bizarre.
In other words, almost all human actions are pretentious, so by logic we should only call them pretentious when they’re -over- the norm.
So, then, photography isn’t by itself any more pretentious than 99% of human behaviour, so no reason to see it all as such.
Now, there -are- ways to make it more pretentious than average, but that applies, again, to anything a human does to give meaning to the things around itself.
If Booster’s using actual film, then I think we’re over the line into pretentious.
Or they got a 35mm SLR body for next to nothing. I’ve even seen those thrown in with used lens bundles (intended for DSLR bodies that can take old glass).
Ascribing “pretense” to interests that differ from one’s own is, in itself, pretentious.
Eh, even if it were pretentious, “pretentious” isn’t that annoying relative to the rest of the cast.
It’s definitely into the pretentious realm…and worse is he knows that it’s pretentious and is apathetic to how he looks doing it
Weird, i posted a comment correcting you (it’s them) but it’s not appearing, but when I try to post it again the site tells me it’s a duplicate >:?
As a fellow hard science leaning telecom major, I empathize with Walky here. The fun thing’s right there, why are we talking about it when we could be using it? In his mind he’s probably going “artsy fartsy blah blah blah whatever I bet I can beat you on Wario’s Gold Mine”.
Honestly, wouldn’t put it past him.
*them
Pretty sure they’re talking about Mike, not Booster.
Referring to Mike in this case. I know Booster is they/them.
That. Is understandable and obvious in hindsight. I thought this was in reply to something else ig. Sorry
I love this habit of Boosters. It sounds like the kind of ‘thing’ families or friends and other loved ones actually do.
And while tbf, it does sound like Mike, I’m still gonna say shut up, Walky, we’re trying to ease Mike fans OUT of the denial stage.
“Andy, did you hear about this one?”
If anyone’s goofing on Elvis, It’s Walky!
Just let him play the Nintendo, Booster.
You’ll not have to deal with him for the rest of the semester.
Not a chance of that Walky
He wouldn’t pop out of the closet. He’d be more elaborate than that.
I can’t help myself, I also feel like Mike is still alive somehow. Though, if he is really dead, I feel like he’d relate a lot to the glasses Tony Stark made “Even Dead, I’m The Hero”.
Ha ha, I madre you paranoide you stupid loser.
I don’t like Booster
Hilarious that their avatar be chosen for my comment, however
Hey, this is DoA. Plenty of self loathing for everyone!
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about them
He lost me during the class, unlike Mike he’s a jerk who is being a jerk just because he can be and is using the reactions for his own benefit instead of for a good reason.
They.
I was starting to like Booster until they went way overboard with psychoanalizing everyone at that floor meeting. Now I’m back to not liking them again.
It’s like you’re mad at them for being good at analysis and honest, since Booster said nothing that was incorrect or even mean-spirited.
I think that most of the cast needs a little truth from an objective observer. At least Jennifer and Ruth got some therapy off-panel.
The thing is, it’s not their job, and they carry on doing it even when it’s clearly making people uncomfortable.
You say that like being uncomfortable is the worst thing that can happen to a person. This comic proves otherwise.
*plays “Yakety Sax” from the hacked Muzak in honor of Benny Hill’s birth anniversary*
Thank you!!!
*Pats the nearest short bald man on the head*
*points to Cholma* This man knows Jack.
Hmmmm yeah actually considering how Mike went for deep cuts I guess I can see how paranoid Walky might be about a roommate attempting to emotionally toy with him to great effectiveness, especially with what Booster pulled at that meeting
Wow honestly thinking having Mike as your first ever roommate could be downright traumatic
The worst my did was play video games with his friends back in China until the early morning
Who would be the worst roommate out of: Mike, Carla or Becky? Have I missed anyone?
You missed Malaya and Mary.
Yeah good point about Mary but Malaya isn’t in the same league I reckon
Remember how Malaya treats Sal? Mary only throws a few barbs at Roz from time to time and the rest of the time they just cohabitate in sullen silence.
Roz is oddly perhaps the least vulnerable to Mary. She’s incredibly open about all the sex secrets stuff that Mary preys on.
And she still made that play for dorm RA just to try to get out of rooming with Mary.
Malaya will largely ignore whomever is around.
What’s unclear is whether Malaya would be like that with everyone, or if it’s specific to Sal. (Obviously she wasn’t great to Lucy, but there are extenuating circumstances there.)
For a long time, the only person Malaya was shown being at all nice to was Marcie. Granted most of the interaction we saw was Sal, but not all of it.
There’ve been a couple of glimpses more recently that seemed to dig a little deeper, but the pattern did exist.
Mary.
Definitely. Mary is always The Worst.
But given the original slate of options, I’d say the clear winner is Carla, though Mike might be more irritating from moment to moment. I enjoy Carla from a distance, but I’m certain the narcissism mask she sports would wear thin real fast up close.
Mike would seem more cruel, but his pranks and nasty wit were designed to force people to confront their fears and insecurities, which is ultimately healthy, even if unpleasant.
Nah, Mike thought that’s what he was doing, but he was toxic and cruel – far more so than Carla.
Carla doesn’t have one IIRC, while Mike wasn’t too bad once you got used to his antics. Mary has zero redeeming value to anyone except herself.
Mike. With Mary a distant runner up. Carla might be annoying, but Mike would be a nightmare.
We’re having this discussion in a strip in which we see that Walky is literally still traumatized by living with Mike, months afterwards.
If you actually think that I’m pretty sure you completely missed the point of his whole heroic sacrifice storyline? Literally the point of all of the flashbacks to Mike’s past, especially his interactions with Blaine, was to compare and contrast Mike’s attitude towards people (and especially Amber) with Blaine’s. Partially due to the fact that Mike’s shitty attitude was at least in some part INSPIRED BY Blaine.
Right at the end, when Blaine started ranting about how his “tough love” was meant to make Amber “strong” because he viewed her as “weak”, Mike learned that Amber is Amazi-Girl and realized, to some degree, her DID and all of her most horrific hardships and pain was a direct, specific result of the TRAUMA caused by Blaine’s treatment of her with that philosophy.
Mike understood that he and his shitty attitude was far more like Blaine than he’d ever bothered to examine, and that his attempts to bully Amber into “self-reflection” were actually just bullshit excuses to hurt her in basically the same ways Blaine did. He’d treated her, and everyone else, HORRIBLY for a huge portion of his life, and she was still trying to save his life despite that. He felt she deserved for him to fix his shit and actually do something right by her, for once.
I personally wish Mike had survived so we could actually examine this whole thing in greater detail with an alive Mike slowly learning to change for the better. Instead, Willis went with a “you either die a Mike or you live long enough to become a Blaine” direction. SIGH.
Agreed. Probably would have said ‘this behavior is completely unjustifiable and unacceptable’ louder for the folks who still aren’t getting it to hear it from Mike himself, too.
But, alas.
Probably still Mike. He actively attempted to torment whoever possible. Carla’s chaotic and a lot to handle, but she’s not nearly as actively malicious. And Becky’s still pretty tolerable outside her very specific roommate situation.
Booster, on the other hand, actually seems to have yet to anything really bad to Walky specifically, especially when compared to how quickly they jumped on the others. Possibly due to not wanting a second hostile roommate situation, but as a roommate in general, they really haven’t seemed too bad so far.
Mike probably.
Hmmmm. Well, with Becky as long as I don’t seemingly pose a threat to her position as best friend with the last remaining connection to her old life, we’d be cool.
I feel like Carla could be annoying but probs doesn’t care if I’m the one giving her attention as long as someone does.
Mike probably would have been able to play Freshman year me like a fiddle so I’d say still Mike. If he could make Walky feel bad about himself I’d be low hanging fruit.
As bad as this sound either Lucy or Booster for me. I’m bad with people that are overenthusiastic. I’m more of a Jennifer type so I’d try to be polite at first but it’d eat at me till I broke. I don’t know how Booster is as a roommate but If I saw what they pulled at that meeting I’d nope out of that arrangement real fast. Don’t need a wanna be shrink who’s not afraid of sharing their diagnosis learning everything about me
Oh my god I forgot Mary I change my answer Mary for sure. Mike might make be depressed but Mary would make me constantly angry.
This is actually a very interesting question. Like what’s the metric for good vs bad roommates? Is it base or personal chemistry or interactions? Cause while personally I don’t like Mary I think as long as you don’t bring up religion or politics and stay quiet she won’t be that bad. Becky on the other hand is more likeable but actively more antagonistic in her roommate circumstances.
It’s kind of like how people were saying Lucy deserved better than Jennifer as a roommate but it that really true is Jennifer isn’t really around to be a roommate? I feel like that would be more neutral.
And Carla never had a roommate right? What are people basing her roommate grade on?
Not every roommate can be a Joyce or a Dorothy and some people would hate that more than rooming with Mary. I’m interesting in opinions on this.
How’d I also forget Ruth?!?!
I think it would be incredibly difficult not to get on Mary’s bad side, given she delights in judging others and would ABSOLUTELY bring up scripture (cherry-picked to cite whatever she wanted that day) and how she was going to church, and aren’t you also going to attend church, and oh THAT church doesn’t ‘respect traditional values’ and seriously it would be CONSTANT. Also you couldn’t ever have sex, or stay out long enough in the evenings or on weekends that Mary could feel justified in grilling you about NOT having had sex. And if you mentioned that, say, you don’t have sex because you’re asexual THEN you’re defying God’s will to go forth and multiply. Not to mention she would almost certainly complain about the people in this hall (very possibly with open homophobic or transphobic slurs, possibly just with barely-veiled euphemisms showing her contempt) and demand validation from you.
People like Mary are not REMOTELY quiet about their views. And they demand total agreement from others. You could not possibly keep your head down enough to avoid that experience being terrible, and just the trying would be traumatic in itself.
In short: Mary is not a quiet religious person who happens to hold terrible views. Mary’s religion is 100% weaponized so that she can use it against people she doesn’t like. Mary would judge a Catholic who otherwise agrees with her 100% because they were Catholic. (Something something idolatry, something something not REAL Christians, something something secret conspiracy with the Muslims and Jews who are all ACTUALLY worshipping Satan. Thank you, Chick Tracts.) The only way to survive Mary as a roommate is to be the exact same variety of hateful and the exact same denomination of Christian as she is. So uh, she’d probably be quite happy to room with Carol I guess.
As someone who lived with a Mary for a semester before I ran screaming, I’ve gotta say… yeah. Mary. She used to watch me sleep.
Except Roz rooms with her and Roz is almost tailor made to be everything Mary hates yet Roz hasn’t snapped and tried to strangle Mary with piano wire yet. We’ve only had brief peeks at their roommate dynamic and while it wasn’t good at all:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/fraud/
It kind of felt like a more mutual. “We have nothing and common but as long as we don’t talk to each other we’ll manage.” type deal.
Although on second thought maybe we just don’t give Roz enough credit for rooming with Mary. I know a lot of people dislike Roz because of how vocal she is with her beliefs and opinions but rooming with Mary has to count for something right?
Roz has dealt with sisters who are nothing like her and piss her off constantly, she’s used to people like Mary so is able to ignore her and likely has enough dirt on her via outside sources to make Mary quiver in fear and avoid Roz at all costs.
And Mary isn’t stupid: she has to either endure Roz or she’s going to get kicked out of the dorm and likely the school. Roz’s attention grab saved her, Mary isn’t stupid enough to go after the person who likely could get her out of the spotlight and expulsion simply by doing what she normally does.
Oh, I ABSOLUTELY think Roz deserves more credit for surviving a semester with Mary. (And we know it was killing her to do so, it prompted her entire run for RA.) Seriously, in-universe I genuinely think Roz has had less energy for genuine activism and gotten more confrontational because she has to share a living space with Mary and her hugeass Ronald Reagan poster. (Out of universe, there are clearly other real-world influences.) And Mary probably had Peter over and they judged in stereo at least once. *shudders*
Seriously though, Mary sat outside her room to glare at the hallway because Riley slept over on family weekend (rude but not unheard of, and doesn’t appear to have been unforgiveably disruptive of Mary’s plans) and then death-glared a 12-year-old for asking her about her cereal preferences. “Everyone’s done something wrong.” https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/judgy/ You will not escape her judgment.
As Roz put it, “You hate my little sister because she still has joy in her heart.”
Beyond all that, it’s not just the personality clash. Mary is a snoop and a blackmailer. She’s going to judge you, but she’s also going to be looking for things you don’t want known to use to control you.
Roz is mostly not vulnerable to that because she’s so open about her sex life, there’s nothing Mary can hold over her. It’s still awful living with Mary, but not as much as it would be for someone a bit more repressed.
Raerae: … Yeah that’s terrifyingly invasive and I hope you never had to interact with that person again.
I feel like every aspect of who I am as a person is against what Mary believes, haha. From the few tiene we see her it seems like Mary doesn’t keep to her own with what she believes anyways.
I feel like personal chemistry is a big thing. Like, someone like Lucy or early DOA Joyce would be rough for me cause I need personal space and less cheerfulness. On the other hand Becky may have a big personality but she’s got some edge to it, which works for me. Danny would be neutral for me, probs Walky as well since all he needs is chicken nugs and cartoons to keep him quiet. Dorothy and Sarah could either be neutral or positive since they have their own stuff going on, are respectful, and don’t need to interact all the time (or prefer nor for studying)
Agreed. I suspect Sal would be a pretty solid roommate for someone who’s not in deep personal conflict with her (sorry Malaya) once you got some ground rules about windows down, but she’s also very much a ‘keep to herself’ type and not a ‘let’s be best friends!’ – she and Joyce would probably not be anywhere near as compatible as roommates as they are as non-cohabitating friends.
Amber’s odd hours and woefully-undermanaged trauma would be pretty big subjects of concern after a while – think Sarah with Dana, only Dana was secretly a vigilante and all her friends were ALSO concerned, but the therapists on campus suck and no one knows what other steps can be taken. That said, her nerdiness and general keeping to herself would probably be a perk for a fair number of people.
On the mens’ side of things: Joe would be insufferable for anyone who’s not his best friend. Danny can be irritating at times and has serious foot-in-mouth tendencies, but I do believe deep down he’s a good egg who learns from his mistakes. Ethan would probably be okay but that does depend entirely on how comfortable you are with a room full of Transformers.
Personally though, my pick is Dina. We’re on similar enough socializing wavelengths that we would probably not interact a ton except to infodump at each other about special interests. I would catch up so much on dinosaurs. It would be wonderful. That said I could see her holding strong opinions on Pokemon as a franchise’s use of ‘evolution’ so it’s entirely possible she would not like me anywhere near as much.
You never know! She wasn’t too happy when Ross thought Pokemon was something to pray over. Maybe she’s a fan! https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/pokeman/
It is entirely possible! Meant more ‘that is a possibility’, not any judge of likelihood.
Either way though, dinosaurs.
Mary. No matter how nasty Malaya is, Mary is 1000x worse. At least Malaya had reasons for being a grouch and a bongo that might be working out for the better, Mary is simply a horrible person
And doesn’t Carla have her own room due to her being born wrong?
…”born wrong”????????????? please just say transgender…
Excuse me for using the wrong words.
I get trashed for forgetting that Booster is nonbinary and I get trashed for being polite to a transgender person…no matter what, I can’t win.
Holy shit, you think that was being polite?
(Also, you think that was being trashed?)
Why would Carla be a bad roommate, assuming her roommate treated her like a real person? Her obnoxious persona is an inch thick over a foot of genuine caring. As a trans woman she knows the world is a hostile place and she needs armor, but I bet if her room was a safe space she’d drop enough of the armor to at least not be a jerk.
Becky would probably annoy me, but (similar to Carla) I think she’d probably tone it down if her roommate made the room a safe place and treated her like a person. …And actually had a conversation where they calmly listened to her talk about important things. (Which I don’t think Carla would need as much. With her, I’d probably make friends by geeking out about technology.)
Mike, I think, was too far gone into asshole-for-asshole’s-sake. He treated people badly, including his roommate, when he had no reason to. I don’t trust the character of people like that and I’d prefer to avoid him. It would be like living with a rattlesnake under my bed (note that rattlesnakes like to crawl into beds for the warmth and then bite people when they move in their sleep).
Rooming with Mary would be a hideous experience.
In hindsight I wrote Carla but meant Ruth…dang it
I dunno, I’m not sure Mike was ever in the closet.
I choose to believe Booster put extra emphasis on “the Nintendo Switch” to try to get Walky to stop calling it “a Nintendo,” but Walky just keeps saying it
I really don’t like Walky at all and I don’t why other people do but in this case its fair enough to call it Nintendo
I drive a Nissan Ute and my other car is a Mazda Hatchback, I don’t say Nissan Navara or Mazda 3 unless someone asks specifically
I dunno, in this case just saying, “a switch” sounds more natural; I guess cause Nintendo usually has a lot more going on at the same time than it does right now (Still, they’re still selling full priced 3DS games in the stores so I suppose it’s not totally dead..). With cars I feel like you can get away with just saying the brand, the model, or both without it sounding weird
Sure, it’s fair to call it that. He’s technically not wrong. It’s also understandable if someone found that mildly annoying, especially since Walky has said it four times now (and has also been annoying in other ways).
I feel this particularly with Nintendo because they released a console called the Nintendo Entertainment System (now often called an NES), which was followed by the Super Nintendo. Without context, if someone mentioned having “a Nintendo,” I would assume they meant an NES, which is not the same as a Nintendo Switch.
It’s not like someone needs to justify finding behavior annoying, or that someone has to be doing something “unfair” for someone else to try to influence their behavior in subtle ways. I find my headcannon amusing, and art is subjective, so I’m going to roll with it. This has nothing to do with how much I like or dislike Booster or Walky.
I doubt that I think they just enjoy photography.
Oh, I also think they enjoy photography. I don’t see that contradicting my headcannon or relating to certain words in panel 1 being both bold and in italics
More torture? More torture.
Opening the closet 24/7 might solve some things, but also not really
AND I like the butt taco t-shirt! Man, these guys just rule today!
Man, I didn’t even notice the butt taco! Butt taco returns!
Yesterday’s alt text: “good morning, butt taco”
Mike has been dead before, but there hasn’t been enough magic, religion, or alien tech in this series for him to return.
Secretly put into witness protection maybe?
…that actually makes sense given just WHO he dealt with and what he knew.
Thank you for keeping hope alive!
Of course, you’re probably going to need to wait for Dumb of Age’s sequel for him to show up at the start with no immediate explanation.
Dumbing of Age: The Mikening.
Honestly, I was expecting witness protection rather than faking his death.
I’m still not 100% sure he’s dead.
Is his sister dead?
Because saying someone ‘handled’ something seems more like a CSI they’re dead and this has prints on it moment.
Whoops, ‘their’
That’s a pretty cool art project, booster.
I wish he would, although i know he won’t. I liked mike’s story/growing up, even if he could be a total…
i think the feeling of loss is even worse gecause i didn’t expect it.
So far i think i like booster, as long as the character doesn’t become mike. At least they’ve different hobbies
Mike was also into photography. I don’t blame Walky for being nervous.
I’d totally forgotten that. Thanks. Mr Willis, you are a cruel man to set Walky up like this lol
I need to make myself stop believing Booster is secretly Mike, because the day I manage that will be the day Booster takes their Mission Impossible mask off.
I am still lowkey nettled that Booster’s major isn’t theatre but I will be greatly content with being a weird artsy photography kid.
OK, so pretty much 100% of Switch games uses the A and B buttons more than the X and Y buttons. That is the only thing you can possibly be certain of, and you don’t need to take pictures to know that.
We suppose that if the L/ZL and R/ZR buttons are used at all, that -might- narrow it down; but there would still a couple hundreds of possibilities left.
In any case, We know she’s been doing the M-rated visual novels the Switch likes selling now. Those are download only, so won’t show up as a micro-cartridge in the back.
Yeah, my brain miswired and read Walky’s comment as “turn around [the Switch] and look.”
Stupid brain.
There’s quite a bit of variation, actually. For example, if they played Monster Hunter, that’d result in the X button being used quite a lot, and the Y button being used comparatively little.
Booster wants to catch the exact moments Joycon Drift sets in, demonstrating the inevitability of decay
At least Walky is teying to be thorough on Mike watch.
I’m very sorry that this has probably been asked and answered before but I can’t find it and I don’t know what the deal is, but didn’t willis say he would not kill any characters, but all the (remaining) characters are saying that he definitively DIED… and he’s not even on the cast page?
Willis mentioned elsewhere on the internet that he didn’t think any characters would die because of how slowly time passes, but it wasn’t an ironclad promise. Mike’s old cast page is still findable, and, well, RIP Mike: https://www.dumbingofage.com/cast/attachment/2014castmike/
Willis’ Word of God is not immutable or unchanging. He reserves the right to change his mind.
When he killed off Mike, Willis did make an announcement that he was breaking one of hi own rules so…
Holy fuck, though, it really does hammer home how much damage Mike did to Walky as a roommate.
Seriously I think Mike actually dying was a wasted opportunity for the realization we saw from Mike just prior and way worse for Ethan and Amber, but FUCK Mike. I do not miss him at all.
I don’t know if this specific page shows how much damage Mike did to Walky as a roommate. I mean Mike obviously was a horrible room mate to Walky. But the “I feel they might walk in at any second ” thing is very common when losing people. The ” I faked my death to make you sad” part is concerning but just very on brand for Mike.
Somewhat less the ‘I faked your death’ part and more the ‘I assume everything you do is some kind of prank because that was every interaction with Mike’, especially given the pranks we know he pulled. (Elaborate spoof site to record him crying, for instance.)
Is it an Indiana thing for Walky to default to “a Nintendo”? I’m waaaay East Coast and arguably the South and haven’t heard anyone under the age of 54 call it that before now.
no lol, we usually say “nintendo switch,” too. I think the angle here is “walky likes a few specific video games, isn’t enough into gaming to keep up with current consoles, and associates nintendo with mario cart”
The trauma is real…
Yep, Booster definitely is an arts person and probably would prefer the arts to whatever medical courses they are on right now.
Meanwhile, I wonder how long Mike is going to keep living rent-free in Walky’s head? I’m sure that, wherever he is, Mike would consider that last panel to be a proof of ‘my work is done’ but it is disturbing in some ways!
A person can have multiple fields of interest though…
Speaking as someone who is also an artsy psych student, they probably don’t want to ruin their hobbies by making them into work. They seem very interested in psych, and I’m sure they’re enjoying their courses plenty
This conversation leads Walky to decide that the comic strip he’s making for the IU Daily will star Mike. It will be called … Lawsome!
Nah, it’s going to be about this mild Mr Average and his extrovert horndog long-term friend and roommate who is probably a bit shyer than he makes out. There will be this crazy stalker girl who’s always cheerful and others like that. However, it will mostly be a domestic comedy about living in the dorms. No ripping off Dexter and Monkey Master or anything like that.
He’ll call it… ‘Roomies’ or something like that.
Keep in mind that editor he is selling this comic to is Daisy, and her editorial biases are well established
Congratulations! You were right!
Mike… was my favorite.
Yeah… *sniff* That sounds like something Mike would do.
I thought Mike already came outta the closet?
Yep. Outta the closet and into the casket. He was just dying to show us his real self.
That definitely sounds like the sort of thing Mike would do.
Wouldn’t put it past him, to be honest
And I’m gonna have to agree with Walky about video games. I’d much rather just play them than take artsy pictures of them.
So would I. OTOH, if I was roommates with someone who felt otherwise, and it was their video game, I’d like to believe I’d at least wait until they’d finished before whining about it.
Ugh, Galva-Mike is the worst.
“I accept your terms! I ACCEPT!”
Anyone here remember the bit in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy where you kept waiting for a certain character — who I won’t name for spoiler reasons — to come back, and they never do? They died off-screen, too.
Well, let’s hope Gosho Ayoma doesn’t to that in Detective Conan.
They weren’t they only one teased about still being alive. Some of the deaths weren’t even in-scene definitive, merely, “oh yeah, they’re gone” likely. Absolutely one of my favourite series.
Around 2035, Willis will insert some Mike references in DoA and nobody will get it (“…who’s that Mike guy, Joyce’s lost brother?”). Then Mike will reappear and make everyone’s life miserable.
He’ll start replying to our comments in-character as Mike.
That would be intense and awesome!!!
So, what, is Booster supposed to be Sherlock Holmes now? Not only psychoanalyzing people at a glance but can tell what you’ve been playing by which buttons are more used? Just piling on the unrealistic character bullshit.
It’s a bit of an odd one, but being interested in environmental storytelling isn’t the strangest of things to be interested in. Booster doesn’t explicitly say WHAT game was being played (though if they do so in the next comic, correctly, consider me told), merely having a thought exercise about what game might’ve resulted in particular smear marks on the console.
Meanwhile, all I can glean from what’s being mentioned is that Booster’s sister has greasy hands and needs to wipe the dang Switch down once she’s done using it.
They’re. Just being artsy fartsy. Please aquire some chill.
This is the part where you call the series unrealistic? Being aware of social cues and paying attention to details.
It wasn’t the multiple kidnappings and vigilante heroes; not the homeless social media intern to a member of congress; not the college girl who constantly cosplays a dinosaur?
And you’re so outraged that you have to call it “unrealistic character bullshit?”
I hope you’ve got gloves on while handling such a hot take.
When it’s their twin sister who they pass the switch around with? Yeah, they can probably tell what game it was because it’s THEIR GAMES. They even said their sister does this too. It’s their ‘thing’. Sometimes families have those. Chill out.
Mike was kind of a Sherlock too.
When I was an angsty middle schooler it really irked me when people referred to any console as “a Nintendo” and not whatever specific console it actually was. I was an unpleasant middle schooler to be around.
I always meant to clarify which one I meant, but always fell short, so I talked about playing ‘intendo. We would’ve made great friends.
I kinda want a flashback comic to Mike and Walky interracting. Now I’m imagining any number of swift pranks that could have been had, in little one off strips.
How many of the bonus strips had mike guys I might want to pay Willis 5 dollars for a month because it’s just now hitting me. T_T
*Mike pops out of my brain closet*
Ha ha yeah! That’s what’s happening! Mike’s pranking everyone by faking being in a coma and dying!
Really funny prank, Mike!
… C’mon Mike.
Mike has damaged Walky forever. That’s a trauma!
Its a legacy!
I just wanna say the morning lighting in this strip is really pretty! I feel all cozy looking at it
I’m pretty sure the only way for Mike to nail this prank in the proper way it deserves is to find Walky at some Parisian cafe in a decade, college a distant memory, and he looks up from his table and spots Mike sitting at a table across the cafe, who flips him off and then points at his table, to which Walky looks down at his check and sees “This is for your Mom” at the bottom with a nickel taped next to it. And when Walky looks up, Mike has suddenly vanished.
I’m torn between some Mike/Yo’mamma variant of “shut up and take my money”, except Mike just covered that, and… frustratingly pointing out that I’ll be dead in a decade of in-comic time. Long dead.
Now I’m half expecting that to be how this book ends.
Dang, Boost, that’s a neat concept!
burrito~
I’m gathering from the comments I’m the only one who reads this as patiently explaining something you’re into and worried questioning of a really concerning statement from your roommate and not “Booster is a pretentious jerk who overanalyzes everying”
No, I did too.
Yeah, no, same.
Yeah no that’s the reasonable reading of it
don’t you know that since people didn’t like their first appearance, it means everything booster does is intentionally rude and harmful?
I mean unsolicited amateur psychoanalysis of strangers is generally seen as a dick move. It’s the sort of thing that makes a bad first impression, and those can take a while to shake
I mean, I’m not saying they weren’t a dick, but I do think it’s a bit ridiculous that commenters that know this is fiction are looking at it as though that’s going to be Boosters only personality and characterization ever.
(I don’t fault anyone in universe for making this judgment, or fault anyone reading who had an emotional reaction to it, it’s the prolonged taking every panel Booster’s in in bad faith that’s putting me off)
I didn’t visit the comments section for this comic yesterday and literally left a comment on tomorrow’s that says, “Booster hasn’t been around long enough to be hated”.
Apparently, I am VERY wrong and it only takes the one thing.
Booster’s eyes look bloodshot
does he smoke weed?
They, and it’s just the lighting. I don’t think they even have scalaras
I don’t see any bloodshotness, but I mean, probably? Where I live it would be weirder for a college student not to smoke weed (or like, anyone over 16-17 or so), at least on occasion. Unless they just vape or something.
If they have bloodshot eyes, I’d guess it’s lack of sleep before I’d guess weed. I only knew a couple folks who had access to weed, but not one of my fellow students had a stable sleep schedule.
same avatar, very different student experiences. (well, on the weed front. everyone I knew had weed AND bad sleep, so we’re together there.)
(also just to note, I don’t and didn’t smoke weed, so it wasn’t just that I surrounded myself with stoner friends)
I literally can’t imagine looking at a Nintendo Switch someone else used and coming up with this. Like I can kinda understand capturing someone else’s use of a game console (although the more reasonable reaction is “I need to clean this up”), but to make a “guess what game they were playing” activity out of that? What the fuck?!
So now we know how the comic is gonna end.
The question is will it be Dumbing Mike or extradimensional Its Walky Mike?
Both, fighting back The Soggies
I know everyone one gets their own opinions, but it feels wrong to lose the genuine heart character with the death of mike. Like Joyce tries her best, and walk muddles through, but when you can tell Mike truly cares? Those were the best parts of dumbing of age. I’ve lost a lot of friends growing up, and I didn’t think that was something I was gonna have to cope with when Willis promised no deaths. This whole arc is kinda triggering, in the “people I was close to now barely register I exist sense” this isn’t me complaining or deriding the authors intent, I’m just explaining why this whole new semester makes me feel sad in a deep kinda way.
Whatever the fuck you’re taking that makes you think a borderline villainous character (I think I’d rather deal with Mary) was the “genuine heart” of the cast, would you mind sharing? My green doesn’t get me nearly high enough to reach that take.
Everyone in the cast got PMSD (Post-Mike Stress Disorder)
So…we’re not finding out what game his sister played are we?
Oh thank god Booster is being likeable I was so worried he’d just be a Mike replacement
*They, been so long I forgot they are non binary. Sorry
I was very “white guy blinking dot GIF” at the first panel. I really, really thought they were going to sell their Switch on eBay, not make art.