An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
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Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
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The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
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The Glass Scientists
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A gaslamp fantasy comic about the life and times of a ragtag group of mad scientists and their enigmatic leader, Dr. Henry Jekyll.
No Need for Bushido
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The flash of a blade, the clash of steel! A runaway princess and her samurai companion navigate a fractured country on the brink of war.
Starhammer
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A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
Monster Pulse
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Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Cyanide & Happiness
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Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Never Satisfied
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Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
Heroes of Thantopolis
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A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
Novae
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A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
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Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
Wilde Life
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Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Nerf Now!!
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A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
[un]Divine
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A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Witchy
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The Hunter of Insania
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Wiol Alkko sells fake magical objects to those desperate for cures. When he tries to scam a real witch, she curses him: within a year, Wiol must learn and respect magic, or succumb to corruption of body and mind.
Real Science Adventures
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Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Sam & Fuzzy
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Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
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Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
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Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
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Between Failures
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The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Star Trip
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The Sanity Circus
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Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
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MASKLESS
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In a world where people can wield the magic of elemental Masks, all Ashe wants to do is help. Maskless and useless, with dreams of fire and smoke on the back of his tongue, he finds himself on a strange, dangerous path to uncovering the secrets of these incredible objects, and the source of the monsters plaguing his home.
El Goonish Shive
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Awkward Zombie
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Demon's Mirror
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Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Lighter Than Heir
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A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Ozzie the Vampire
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Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
Demon Street
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Two kids explore a world full of monsters and magic trying to find their way home again. But when home has been stolen from you, where do you go to get it back?
Stand Still, Stay Silent
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A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Girl Genius
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In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Knights Errant
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Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Parisa
Ellen K
Two friends, Nolan and Gwen, take it upon themselves to escort the amnesiac spirit Lelief across the world of Parisa.
Laws and Sausages
Zach Weinersmith
Your cartoon guide to the American governement!
Devil's Candy
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A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
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well jacob’s aware of it but i mean he has told it to sarah and joyce before he wanted to be seen as more than a sexual object to others
tho it would be hilarious karma for sarah if he ended up being asexual still willing to date the same way dina does (tho i imagine he’s had experience before at this point but doesn’t mean he can’t from now on)
either way he obviously wants more in a relationship than that, i wouldn’t be surprised if some how they miraculously got together it’d end b/c sarah was too impatient/in a rush to hook up versus an emotional connection
Haha, that would be great. It’s high time these women spent some time with the weights. Dorothy could use a way to sweat out all those emotions that isn’t just more cardio.
Wasted on Sarah. She can’t have an epiphany as she’s already aware, she knows that the game is up, and she’s far too stubborn to do anything other than pretend to be offended and pretend to storm off
She’s probably surprised that he might want to be friends, she knows she’s bad at that and doesn’t think of herself as likable at all. He finds her interesting as well as attractive. Fingers crossed she rises to the challenge and the invitation.
If you mean it in a complimentary context, yes. In fact, it is the person that is best to call a “hot chick” as your attraction to them at this point, is already encouraged and mutual.
Man, I don’t get how people are forgetting that the time since he was being a massive chode is really short for them. Like, I like Joe! I liked Joe when that was not a popular opinion. But we’ve had literal years of character development – the characters have had months since he was still List Dude, and some rather distracting incidents since.
Oh no, a guy had a list of people he found attractive. He apparently respected when people told him no, and was upfront about wanting no emotional attachment in his hookups during both his high school years and his first college year.
i cant help but feel like, if i went into your house via your unlocked window, catalogued your sex toys, and then announced my findings to your acquaintances, that you wouldn’t feel like YOU were the asshole in that scenario.
My private sex toy collection isn’t really a good analogy for a list of the women that I wanted to “do”, complete with ratings and commentary. One’s your private business, the other is all about objectifying the women around him.
And that ignores the fact that the list had an RSS feed and he regularly offered the password to fairly casual acquaintances.
It’s such a terrible comparison lol. On every single level.
I know misanthrope probably didn’t mean to compare living feeling thinking human beings to toys that only exist for the pleasure of the owner, but it IS funny.
Eh, let’s be honest. Joe’s list wasn’t actually a list of only those people he found attractive. It was a list of every single woman he met and assigning them a numerical score for physical beauty, like a one a one-man version the hotornot website, from back in the day. It was a list of people he found unattractive, as well. And it was shallow enough that he even gave Mary a high score, if I remember correctly.
IIRC It was an open secret he willingly shared. He didn’t put it on billboards or anything, but he wasn’t exactly ashamed after it leaked. (Not until Rachel told him off and he had his epiphany, anyway.)
To clarify, my position was fully: ‘Joe was an asshole.’ And he was an asshole for years. I think Danny said that he made the encryption for the list in junior high. Imagine the hurt and/or bullying that would have resulted if that list leaked in 8th grade. New Joe is indeed way better than old Joe, but I can understand why Dorothy and Sarah are super wary.
They do, but Joyce really hasn’t tried to say a lot that would change their minds. She keeps being distracted by her horniness or by superficial stuff like “He thinks I’m hot!”, none of which gives any reason to think she has reasons to think Joe’s changed.
@thejeff fully agreed. I think Joyce is so caught up in how happy she is with him that she’s kind of forgotten how much of his character development is something he’s only shared with her.
When I was a student at M.I.T. in the early 70’s a co-ed of my acquaintance wrote an article in Thursday, the weekly Arts newspaper at the school at the time. In it she grading the sexual skills of the several lovers she had had, by name, from 1 to 5 stars. It caused quite a stir. No, I did not make the list (I was not qualified, nor had I ever sought to be).
We had a chat later. Apparently she was called into the Chancellor’s office and asked “How many credits do you need to graduate?” The answer being essentially “If I take a full load next semester I’ll graduate then”, she was then told “Then that will be your last semester at M.I.T.”. I was amazed that there were no sanctions against the paper for choosing to publish it.
In case it isn’t clear: yes that was also gross. Complicated by the different attitudes towards women being openly and unapologetically sexual in the 1970s — I can definitely get why that would parse as feminist at the time — but naming the dudes crosses an important line. There’s a difference between being open and unapologetic about your own sex life, and exposing other people who almost certainly didn’t agree to be publicly rated.
(And yes, Joe’s ratings were functionally public. He sent the RSS feed link and password to people he’d just met.)
Dude, having a list is fucking weird. People who do that IRL get socially black listed, because that is stalker shit. And he only respected a “no” if you screamed it in his face like Sarah or Rachel. And even then, he thought that was kinda hot. Fucking hate this, no he wasn’t a literal rapist. Doesn’t mean he was an okay guy. People need to quit white washing his past, otherwise what’s the whole point of giving him a redemption arc. It’s demeaning to both the character and IRL people who have dealt with jackasses like early Joe.
I think Joe’s deliberately taking it slow. From what I’ve seen in this strip so far he’s used to getting a girl in bed within hours of their first encounter – and quite willingly on the girl’s part. He’s trying to be careful with Joyce, because he knows her backstory on sex is far different from the other girls he’s been around – and perhaps also because once that bond is created with Joyce it’s going to be a lot harder for him to break it. He actually likes Joyce, and knows he’s going to be in deep trouble with the rest of the group if he screws this up (so to speak …).
well they haven’t had their one on one moments to see joe attempt to grow and change, that said there are ppl who’d be petty and hold onto grudges and still be pissed off at someone over something that happened a decade ago
I’m kinda at the point where YES, he was a big ol’ wad of grundus with his “assigning every woman an appearance rating” list, HOWEVER…
1) He’s also top-tier with his consent game and both Dorothy and Sarah are aware of why that might be ESPECIALLY important for Joyce.
2) Freshman year of college is when you are SUPPOSED to make huge sweeping changes in yourself upon your first exposure to a larger world than whatever place you grew up in was.
Dude. Saying it’s bad to sleep with a chick if she’s drunk or crying is not “top tier consent game”, it’s the goddamn floor of being normal and decent. It took 3 very loud nos to make him stop hitting on you. See any early interaction with Sarah or any at all with Rachel. Even then he lied about having a threesome for the bravado image and joked that alcohol is a good gateway to them. So like, publicly projecting a not so great (average college guy tbh) idea of consent. He wasn’t a literal rapist, that’s it.
Mostly I’m pushing back pretty strongly against the assumption that Dorothy and Sarah couldn’t POSSIBLY see Joe changing, largely because again this is when people are often seen making large changes but also because one of the biggest outward manifestations of that change involved Sarah’s sister, who based on their car ride is known to tell her things.
Knowing Joyce, maybe? I think the idea is that they should know Joyce well enough to know good consent etiquette is especially important for her, separate from the impossible knowledge they don’t and can’t currently have. It’s just that if they did have it, they’d probably feel safer.
Joyce feels like the kind of girl to share her diaries for friendsy reasons. That would help, I think…but as we’ve never seen her do this…
On the same note, just speculation: Dorothy would probably share her “journals” (specifically Not a diary) to make certain she is adjusting appropriately with a grammatically correct flair.
I think Dorothy knows Joyce well enough to know that horny can override her good sense – see her pursuit of Jacob.
Do we know that “good consent etiquette” is important to her? Do we even know that she knows what good consent etiquette is? She was raised in a culture where the only consent that counted was “I do”. She’s obviously left that behind and she obviously has triggers tied to Ryan, but I’m not sure how much she’s really thought about it otherwise.
The Jacob example is a solid one. Joyce’s judgment has, if anything, seemed pretty consistently compromised when it comes to dating and sex.
They’re still her mistakes to make, she has the right to autonomy, Dorothy and Sarah need to relax — but in-comic, she’s been pretty consistently a starry-eyed romantic who believes that True Love is enough to fix everything. She very specifically ignored Dorothy trying to point out that even if you can get Jacob to cheat with you, that isn’t a trait you want in a boyfriend, by claiming that he would only ever cheat once, and then they’d be happy together forever.
I’m assuming that Sarah would eventually hear the real story of what happened between Joe and Liz, based on the fact they talked pretty frankly about a lot of stuff on the parts of the car ride we saw.
I think admitting that she basically had a panic attack and all her Cool Atheist Casual Sex-Haver talk evaporated and she had to ask him if they could please stop instead of following through is… way way way more vulnerable than Liz seemed willing to be with Sarah.
You and I know there’s nothing wrong with changing your mind about having sex with someone, but I don’t think Liz actually agrees. I think she’s probably deeply ashamed of “freaking out” and “letting” herself be controlled by the puritanical beliefs she’s supposed to have let go of (specifically where she said “I almost ruined myself forever”).
Also the idea is that Sarah and Liz having that conversation wouldn’t have been important enough to show on-panel? Even with all the work that’s gone into Joe’s characterization?
No. I think it’s much more likely that we someday get a like, phone call between Sarah and Liz where Sarah complains about Joe, and THEN Liz sheepishly admits he was a good guy with her, thus giving Sarah a real reason to change her attitude towards him.
Do to a variety of factors, including poor mental health infostructure and loosened gun regulation, American instructions of learning have become a frequent target of acts of armed violence. Reporting shots fired in a school gym, means something different here. Fortunately, reporting a major burn is not (at least until the NRA decides to start selling congress the idea that every man has the right to hunt waterfowl with a military grade flame-thrower).
Fun Fact: Unless I am mistaken, the heart’s movements (contractions) are actually only modified rather than controlled by the brain. The electric signals used to control the heart rate are produced “pacemaker cells” located in the hearts sinoatrial node (the rate eclectic potentials produced by these cells is influenced by nerves originating in the brainstem and upper spine).
Also, the enteric nervous system, which governs the gastrointestinal tract can operate independently of the brain (but something has gone very wrong if it is).
(I don’t know when brains evolved, some invertebrates have brains, like arthropods and cephalopods… But are those structures actually analogous to vertebrate brains? Or did they arise separately? It’s a mystery (to me, because i’m too lazy to wiki it now)
Some people, certainly. But he’s aiming that comment very pointedly at Sarah, who has done a very convincing impression of only seeing him for his body thus far.
I mean…
Whenever she’s around Jacob that’s all she’s brought up. His body.
It may have been a long time, but I can’t remember if she’s actually interested in anything about him beyond his form or how Raidah was with him at one point.
I think she does actually like him. The few times they’ve talked alone she seems to enjoy his presence. Sarah just isn’t a huge talker by design. Some people are okay just being near people they like.
I agree, and I think getting any deeper would be scary for Sarah. It’s easier to think, and say, that what she likes about Jacob is his body. It’d be terrifying for her if she had to admit to herself, and say out loud, that she appreciates his kindness and how patient he is. That’s emotional vulnerability and she’s so far only been able to do that with Joyce and even that’s got about a 50/50 shot!
Maybe if she also dyed it dirty blonde. The mop look is a specific pitfall with blonde hair, especially dyed blonde hair, although theoretically a blue or green haired person could invoke a more modern version but I think you’d have to try for that
I kinda think you guys are both complaining about Willis’s stylized rendering of dreadlocks, which. Mmmm. I think has some very unfortunate connotations?
well im sure he’s taking other advanced classes besides that political(?) one, but i imagine his convo with joyce and sarah at that pizza place based on previous experiences and other than keeping his muscles toned at the gym he probably tries to dress modestly (not that one should have to to avoid being sexualized/ogled) and just living his life.
Tho surprised he doesn’t take tips from walky on how to act unattractive (even tho walky’s…walkyness ended up working/charming some girls lol xD)
That’s something that’s really disturbing, besides, the last conversation they had, Joyce seemed to be enthusiastic about helping Dorothy, but she was just babbling clearly, here I can only think that it’s likely that Dorothy made excuses for it and Joyce will be so insistent. which is going to cause something not so pleasant for the two of them.
It looks like she is suffering a revelation or two. It’s OK for a hot dude to make your friend happy! Maybe Dotty wants a large hairy man to find her attractive as well.
I’m not convinced it’s a large hairy man Dorothy’s after. Her dating history says she may not be into large and hairy, and there’s a lot in her recent behaviour to suggest there’s a specific person she’d like to make happy who ticks 0/3 of those.
Mmhmm. Usually I’d be very cautious about trying to force an interpretation of a close friendship as necessarily romantic because it can often feel like devaluing that sort of platonic friendship, but I think there’s more than enough textual evidence here of non-platonic feelings to justify it.
I think both “Turning Saints into the Sea” and “The Love I Haven’t Got” are about Dorothy’s feelings for Joyce. Not just the chapters, the titles too.
The first references being driven by jealousy to do something drastic. The second is about unrequited love.
I think Dorothy is bi for Joyce, but doesn’t understand her own feelings. Dorothy wants someone who believes in her. Joyce has showered her with affection, stood up to her parents for Dorothy, trusts her, and bought into her “future president” plan whole-heartedly.
Their both so used to taking care of Joyce (Dorothy in particular) they are struggling with who Joyce is growing into vs who she is to them. I actually think Dorothy’s talk with Joyce yesterday about tranmissable sin being unfounded probably helped though Dorothy’s clearly not in the mind to appreciate that right now.
My take is jealousy Joe is clearly not good enough for Joyce. No, she needs someone more academic, more ambitious; someone who understands Joyce on a level Joe never could and knows how to look after her; someone smaller and skinnier and bonier and more poindextery; someone more… feminine. Someone like, well, someone just like Dorothy. But I mean, obviously not Dorothy herself, right? That would be ridiculous.
Kinda feel bad for Jacob. He clearly wants to engage with Sarah and she’s giving him nothing despite wanting the same. This has big extrovert meets introvert energy.
nothing wrong with a back and forth convo but most of the time extroverts do most of the talking for both of them. Tho other than being outta breath/stamina from the weights, maybe if jacob rambled on about some “nerdy shit” or even some religious stuff she wouldn’t care about, it’d cool off sarah’s thirst
I mean, “Anger” is her main emotion lol. That said, girlfriend/boyfriend status aside i feel like she’d find another way to ‘crash and burn’ on a first date too, a real ‘trash fire date’ unlike the one walky and amber staged lol
imagine if there had been like 2-3 other ppl in the gym all along just off to the side just quietly eavesdropping/too awkward to move to change their equipment and stuff lol
While I feel that, this might not be a good webcomic for those people. It’s had three murders at least that I recall. This comment section discusses my triggers, even today there’s discussion about Ryan hunting down women. It’s our own personal responsibility to decide whether we’reready to go into a public forum, knowing there could be a trigger: even in the form of a joke. Joyce is not a real character, she’s not real. Even if someone relates to her on a heavy level: she is not real.
Examples: I am not comfortable with one of the DoA commenters because they support police brutality, but it is my personal responsibility to decide if I am comfortable continuing to comment in the same space.
I am uncomfortable talking about SA, but no one comments needing to be worried about triggers on the other posts because this comic contains themes about it.
Like two or three days ago there was mention of toe-dad being murdered.
She’s already had this revelation before, kind of, back when Jacob complimented Joyce and Ethan dating. But I think this is the moment when it’s going to pivot into “sitting in the ‘want to get closer but scared to be vulnerable’ region with someone you’re attracted to is largely identical to just treating them as a sex object.”
hopefully sarah’s not the type of person to be like “it’s ok when women do it to men tho”, although hopefully she’d believe jacob if he were to be like “Joe’s working hard on changing” if she was to be like “why do you hang out with ppl like joe” or so
Sarah historically leans into being brittle and distant so we’re either going to see her digging in that “that’s not the same thing” or she’s going to be visibly jolted by the comparison to her and Joe and have to pivot. Given the final panel is her looking truly Gotten, I’m thinking we’re heading into an arc with her where she starts to trust people who aren’t Joyce.
i feel like she wouldn’t be the type to openly comment on it versus just doing a scary glare at you (tho nothing wrong if ur into that lol) if you’re someone she just found hot rather than someone she willingly talks to but i can’t imagine her approaching some rando she also founds hot lol
at this point i’m surprised sarah wouldn’t just move on if she’s just attracted to jacobs body more than personality but other than like everyone knowing sarahs reputation feels like it’d just be easier to find a random f*ckboy to hook up with (even tho ppl are frustrated with sarah rn i’m sure there’s people who would be willing to put up with her for half an hour to get laid lol)
Don’t go just yet! Who’ll spot you if you’re alone?! Yeah I don’t fully expect a Swolothy in the future, but if we do… it’s all because of Jacob, Joyce and Joe? JJJ?
i imagine she’s probably not going to do any thing as intense as jacob, or like, maybe not use hte machines that need you to lie down like what he’s doing, after all theres prolly dumbbells (maybe a larger weight might need a spotter too) but i’m sure she’d ask for help if she needs it
Jacob correctly getting fed up with Sarah’s bullshit because it’s not actually cute or endearing that you don’t want to emotionally engage. Getting stared at sucks and he’s been trying to open up to her for ages.
It’s not a competition. But Joyce seems to be winning, Dorothy is jealous, and Sarah finally begins to understand how similar she is to someone she doesn’t like at all because he has (used to have) that kind of behavior they kinda share. So bad that it’s not a competition.
It’s actually so funny since Sarah is (unknowingly) projecting so hard. Joe is actually genuine and real in his affection for Joyce. Sarah meanwhile is extremely shallow and just seeing Jacob as a buff piece of sexy meat.
Yep! Joe took steps to take down his ‘do’ list, presented himself as a human, and cleaned up his act to make himself a proper boyfriend for someone who invited him into her life. Sarah is like “that sounds stupid” while ogling Jacob and sneering at him for being horny.
Sarah got an apology donut, and Dorothy has made peace with the relationship. Sarah just doesn’t know how to turn off her cynical pessimism enough to ask questions or doubt herself.
Yeah, addicts who are trying to quit harmful behavior they’ve ingrained in them for a long time are full of shit. The next time an alcoholic tells you they’re trying to quit the bottle, tell them they’re full of shit, put a pint in their hand, then take a picture and parade it around as proof they’re not trying to quit.
That’s actually pretty egregious, even for me, putting “Do you read what you write?” right after a strawman.
Lemme try to clear up the matter: This is a relationship between Joyce and Joe. Their foibles and fuck-ups are between them, and Joyce has explicitly stated that she’s willing to forgive Joe if he does do something that hurts her. Jury’s out on whether or not she does if/when that happens, but her intent is important.
Dorothy and Sarah are just Joyce’s friends. They have every right to give their warnings, which they have, or even ban Joe from their room, which Sarah kinda has. But it’s not their relationship, Joyce decides how many times Joe screws up and how badly before she ends it, not them. Sarah baiting a reflexive response from Joe is not indicative of his lack of intent on being faithful to Joyce, either.
A: not necessarily true
B: not necessarily /bad/ for someone who’s figuring out sexuality and being attractive to others, provided they’re a piece of meat being treated with basic respect.
(is that something Joyce is looking for? Don’t think so. Is “we’re fuckin’ because we find each other hot and that’s the extent of it” bad for everyone? Not at all.)
There’s some points I want to defend Sarah. She have reasons about what she said 4th panel.
Shit, Joe is not helping, too: Beyond his past, he accepted have some with her in the same room of his girlfriend.
And now, Sarah learned that the only praise Joyce get from Joe is “hot chick. Just by Sarah’s viewpoint.
How could I blame Sarah for thinking about Joyce only being a conquest to Joe?
PS: Yesterday, the only person I have to blame is Joyce. Could her just keep the dirty talk between them???
Some of y’all need to reread the comic bc I think you’re forgetting this man needed a redemption arc in the first place. Maybe go back to the page where Joyce explained how that kind of objectification feels and compared it to how Ryan made her feel. Or the page where Ryan said he tracked down Dorothy using the list. I love Joe and I adore this ship but it’s gag worthy how people are white washing his past. He a a creep pos, Sarah and Dorothy arent omnipotent. The most they saw of his actual redemption arc was probably the free donuts. It was probably huge gossip on their floor when he slept with Malaya during that time too. No one knew he was conflicted about it. They have every right to mistrust him. They just need to be nicer to Joyce about it. If you think your friends boyfriend sucks, the last thing you want is to annoy her into cutting you off or shutting you out
It’s been a consistent take on Joe, even when he was at his worst.
But Ryan never said he tracked Dorothy using the list. He saw her and followed her, waiting until her “big friend” was out of the way. Lots of people speculated the list could be used by Ryan or someone like him, but there’s no evidence it was.
Only the readers know that Joe has really made an effort, Dorothy and Sarah evidently do not know about it and the mistrust is obvious……you know, it is not common, but it is refreshing to read comments where the typical hatred for Joyce’s friends, plus the latter is not perfect either, at this moment she has not done something stupid, but we should not let our guard down and say that she is the only one that deserves attention, yes, she is the protagonist, but this comic has a list Huge and everyone has their favorites.
Apropos of absolutely nothing, I now and then catch glimpses of some potentially major writing chops. I can’t help but wonder if any of our regs are authors in their own right: of any genre, pro or devoted amateur. Would it be too nosy to solicit a show of hands?
Personally, I wrote conspiracy-thriller fiction for a long time. Until the real world surpassed the limits of my imagination.
I recently finished a Middle Grades novel. It’s called A Year With the Fairies, and it’s about an Autistic girl who learns she can be a hero in her own way.
Next I’ll send it to literary agents, and also illustrate it.
I edited a few novels that went into publication and wrote music columns for a newspaper, then I was a scrivener for a time, but never been a real writer – even if I have a few novel skeletons in my closet.
Eyyy, Sci-fi Romantic Drama writer here. Can’t really call myself an author on account of not having published anything I’m proud of, but I’ve fully finished four books (70k-120k, with a 240k exception that falls under “Not Proud Of This”) so that counts for something right? Lol
Man I used to be a naysayer about Joyce/Dorothy but I’ve been having a hard time reading Dorothy and Joyce’s recent behaviors and words without seeing that subtext. Feels like they both have crushes on each other and are feeling very uncomfortable about it.
Jonathan Joss being shot outside his home while protecting his husband after being sent a threatening and distressing package is WHY we need Pride
It's 2025 and people are still being shot and killed for being queer
This is why we march and why we fight
the thing about white liberal Americans is that they'll argue to accept bigots into their tent before accepting the bigots' targets.
the targets that have been on the same side as white liberals from the jump.
John Redcorn was pretty much the only contemporary Native representation I had in comedy growing up. Probably the funniest Native character in cartoon history and a lot of that was on Jonathan Joss' pitch perfect rezzy uncle performance. RIP to one of the best to ever do it.
today in #9chickweedlane i learned that, yes, lolly is so edda 2.0 that she's even wearing her mother's wedding dress as she gets married to Her Dad (But Taller)
online transformers collectors: i hope ss86 megatron doesn't have big ol' treads on his back!!!
ss86 megatron: *treads fold up inside the legs*
online transformers collectors: HIS LEGS ARE TOO CHUNKY >>>:((((
the big disconnect that happens here is between the correct message for D politicians (especially in red states), which is “you’re right, this isn’t who you are, you’re better than that, vote differently next time”
and the actual truth, which is yes you did, fuck you
Raw milk has the opportunity to do the funniest thing
Ferric Fang@fangferric.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
RFK Jr celebrated the release of the MAHA report by downing raw milk shooters in the White House with influencer Paul Saladino. Hazards of raw milk include Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Yersinia, E. coli O157:H7, and now-- avian flu.
ETPC @etpc.bsky.social ⋅ 8h
Kendra, regular version @kendrawcandraw.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Kevin Buist @kevinbuist.com ⋅ 2d
Ferric Fang @fangferric.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
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(Digi Desktop Vtuber)
⚧️
Sarah: “Wait, does Jacob think his face is just a piece of meat?”
Upsetting personal revelation in 3, 2, 1
Sick burn in 6, 5, 4..
well jacob’s aware of it but i mean he has told it to sarah and joyce before he wanted to be seen as more than a sexual object to others
tho it would be hilarious karma for sarah if he ended up being asexual still willing to date the same way dina does (tho i imagine he’s had experience before at this point but doesn’t mean he can’t from now on)
If people’s sexual preferences are consistent across universes, Jacob is anything but ace.
either way he obviously wants more in a relationship than that, i wouldn’t be surprised if some how they miraculously got together it’d end b/c sarah was too impatient/in a rush to hook up versus an emotional connection
Ain’t no standards like double standards.
It’s twice the standards!
We cut back to Dorothy in three days and she’s fucking jacked.
Girl’s too used to overachieving, she doesn’t know how to not get maximum results.
Haha, that would be great. It’s high time these women spent some time with the weights. Dorothy could use a way to sweat out all those emotions that isn’t just more cardio.
Real world 3 days or comic 3 days. Cause it could genuinely be a year and a half before we come to three days later.
replaces achievement high for Lifting High. No pickle jar is safe.
She should be like Chidi and do push-ups whenever she gets stressed.
In a week she’ll be able to arm wrestle Jacob with her pinky.
“every time i end up feeling frustrated with life i do one push up”
[snap snap double snap]
Wasted on Sarah. She can’t have an epiphany as she’s already aware, she knows that the game is up, and she’s far too stubborn to do anything other than pretend to be offended and pretend to storm off
oh hi jacob we forgot you were here
We as in the royal we, or we as in the comment section, or we as in Joyce Sarah and Dotty, or e all of the above or yes?
we’ll get back to you on that
+1
Hey, his neck ain’t gonna strangle itself. It takes the dedicated ignorance of Sarah neglecting her spotting to achieve that.
it’s super effective!
Really want to see some more back and forth between Sarah and Jacob on this topic.
I want to see him just utterly eviscerate her. She’s been a right jerk for days and deserves an emotional wedgie.
+100. Not sure it would make any difference, but it needs to happen.
Ha ha, get wrecked, Sarah.
I mean… she’d like to….
Jacob went from Lifting weights to Dropping the Hammer.
Nice of him. Hammer hasn’t had work in like thirty years.
Still, they had some classic horror flicks in their day.
Hammer’s got connections. Don’t worry about him.
(That 3M ad campaign a few years ago helped, too.)
(the Hammer is his penis)
–Dave, dropped, drooped, what-evah
I am glad if this is going to get through to Sarah, that this dude wants to form an actual connection with her.
Also, it’s comical how wrong Dorothy and Sarah evaluate Joe on this, but I get it: once bitten, twice shy.
She’s probably surprised that he might want to be friends, she knows she’s bad at that and doesn’t think of herself as likable at all. He finds her interesting as well as attractive. Fingers crossed she rises to the challenge and the invitation.
This isn’t the first time they’ve had this dance.
Right, guy dating girl calls her pretty the audacity of him.
Is “hot chick” a compliment to tell to your girlfriend friend?
If you mean it in a complimentary context, yes. In fact, it is the person that is best to call a “hot chick” as your attraction to them at this point, is already encouraged and mutual.
If you mean it patronizingly, no.
Is someone saying that?
Joe is very good at making women despise and mistrust him
Man, I don’t get how people are forgetting that the time since he was being a massive chode is really short for them. Like, I like Joe! I liked Joe when that was not a popular opinion. But we’ve had literal years of character development – the characters have had months since he was still List Dude, and some rather distracting incidents since.
Oh no, a guy had a list of people he found attractive. He apparently respected when people told him no, and was upfront about wanting no emotional attachment in his hookups during both his high school years and his first college year.
What a fucking monster Joe was before.
He wasn’t a monster, but he was an asshole.
I mean people don’t like reading that they’re a ‘chubby cheerleader’ or ‘a 3 out of 10’.
Joe’s allowed to have thoughts, he’s just an idiot for putting it into a word document and letting it be easily accessed.
i cant help but feel like, if i went into your house via your unlocked window, catalogued your sex toys, and then announced my findings to your acquaintances, that you wouldn’t feel like YOU were the asshole in that scenario.
My private sex toy collection isn’t really a good analogy for a list of the women that I wanted to “do”, complete with ratings and commentary. One’s your private business, the other is all about objectifying the women around him.
And that ignores the fact that the list had an RSS feed and he regularly offered the password to fairly casual acquaintances.
It’s such a terrible comparison lol. On every single level.
I know misanthrope probably didn’t mean to compare living feeling thinking human beings to toys that only exist for the pleasure of the owner, but it IS funny.
Eh, let’s be honest. Joe’s list wasn’t actually a list of only those people he found attractive. It was a list of every single woman he met and assigning them a numerical score for physical beauty, like a one a one-man version the hotornot website, from back in the day. It was a list of people he found unattractive, as well. And it was shallow enough that he even gave Mary a high score, if I remember correctly.
Okay, so he was an equal-opportunity asshole. That doesn’t make it better. He still thought it was a good idea to put all that in writing, in public.
New Joe is way better than Old Joe.
Just a minor clarification, it was not in public as far as I recall, but instead something that got leaked.
IIRC It was an open secret he willingly shared. He didn’t put it on billboards or anything, but he wasn’t exactly ashamed after it leaked. (Not until Rachel told him off and he had his epiphany, anyway.)
To clarify, my position was fully: ‘Joe was an asshole.’ And he was an asshole for years. I think Danny said that he made the encryption for the list in junior high. Imagine the hurt and/or bullying that would have resulted if that list leaked in 8th grade. New Joe is indeed way better than old Joe, but I can understand why Dorothy and Sarah are super wary.
Absolutely. They’re right to be on yellow alert.
They also need to listen to Joyce.
They do, but Joyce really hasn’t tried to say a lot that would change their minds. She keeps being distracted by her horniness or by superficial stuff like “He thinks I’m hot!”, none of which gives any reason to think she has reasons to think Joe’s changed.
@thejeff fully agreed. I think Joyce is so caught up in how happy she is with him that she’s kind of forgotten how much of his character development is something he’s only shared with her.
When I was a student at M.I.T. in the early 70’s a co-ed of my acquaintance wrote an article in Thursday, the weekly Arts newspaper at the school at the time. In it she grading the sexual skills of the several lovers she had had, by name, from 1 to 5 stars. It caused quite a stir. No, I did not make the list (I was not qualified, nor had I ever sought to be).
We had a chat later. Apparently she was called into the Chancellor’s office and asked “How many credits do you need to graduate?” The answer being essentially “If I take a full load next semester I’ll graduate then”, she was then told “Then that will be your last semester at M.I.T.”. I was amazed that there were no sanctions against the paper for choosing to publish it.
In case it isn’t clear: yes that was also gross. Complicated by the different attitudes towards women being openly and unapologetically sexual in the 1970s — I can definitely get why that would parse as feminist at the time — but naming the dudes crosses an important line. There’s a difference between being open and unapologetic about your own sex life, and exposing other people who almost certainly didn’t agree to be publicly rated.
(And yes, Joe’s ratings were functionally public. He sent the RSS feed link and password to people he’d just met.)
Dude, having a list is fucking weird. People who do that IRL get socially black listed, because that is stalker shit. And he only respected a “no” if you screamed it in his face like Sarah or Rachel. And even then, he thought that was kinda hot. Fucking hate this, no he wasn’t a literal rapist. Doesn’t mean he was an okay guy. People need to quit white washing his past, otherwise what’s the whole point of giving him a redemption arc. It’s demeaning to both the character and IRL people who have dealt with jackasses like early Joe.
Dorothy has apparently known him a long time. Probably they’re worried that he’s gonna pressure Joyce into having sex before she’s “ready”.
Plus, a lot of people don’t like to admit it, but your first judgement of a person is really hard to shake.
His encounter with Liz taught him better than that, but I don’t think Dorothy knows about it.
I think Joe’s deliberately taking it slow. From what I’ve seen in this strip so far he’s used to getting a girl in bed within hours of their first encounter – and quite willingly on the girl’s part. He’s trying to be careful with Joyce, because he knows her backstory on sex is far different from the other girls he’s been around – and perhaps also because once that bond is created with Joyce it’s going to be a lot harder for him to break it. He actually likes Joyce, and knows he’s going to be in deep trouble with the rest of the group if he screws this up (so to speak …).
well they haven’t had their one on one moments to see joe attempt to grow and change, that said there are ppl who’d be petty and hold onto grudges and still be pissed off at someone over something that happened a decade ago
I’m kinda at the point where YES, he was a big ol’ wad of grundus with his “assigning every woman an appearance rating” list, HOWEVER…
1) He’s also top-tier with his consent game and both Dorothy and Sarah are aware of why that might be ESPECIALLY important for Joyce.
2) Freshman year of college is when you are SUPPOSED to make huge sweeping changes in yourself upon your first exposure to a larger world than whatever place you grew up in was.
What reason do they have to think he’s “top-tier with his consent game”? The way he used to only back off if the target yelled at him?
Dude. Saying it’s bad to sleep with a chick if she’s drunk or crying is not “top tier consent game”, it’s the goddamn floor of being normal and decent. It took 3 very loud nos to make him stop hitting on you. See any early interaction with Sarah or any at all with Rachel. Even then he lied about having a threesome for the bravado image and joked that alcohol is a good gateway to them. So like, publicly projecting a not so great (average college guy tbh) idea of consent. He wasn’t a literal rapist, that’s it.
In re consent game: I’m operating under the assumption that Sarah actually knows what happened with Liz.
Mostly I’m pushing back pretty strongly against the assumption that Dorothy and Sarah couldn’t POSSIBLY see Joe changing, largely because again this is when people are often seen making large changes but also because one of the biggest outward manifestations of that change involved Sarah’s sister, who based on their car ride is known to tell her things.
Excuse me, how tf would Dorothy and Sarah be aware of it??? Telepathy????
Knowing Joyce, maybe? I think the idea is that they should know Joyce well enough to know good consent etiquette is especially important for her, separate from the impossible knowledge they don’t and can’t currently have. It’s just that if they did have it, they’d probably feel safer.
Joyce feels like the kind of girl to share her diaries for friendsy reasons. That would help, I think…but as we’ve never seen her do this…
On the same note, just speculation: Dorothy would probably share her “journals” (specifically Not a diary) to make certain she is adjusting appropriately with a grammatically correct flair.
I think Dorothy knows Joyce well enough to know that horny can override her good sense – see her pursuit of Jacob.
Do we know that “good consent etiquette” is important to her? Do we even know that she knows what good consent etiquette is? She was raised in a culture where the only consent that counted was “I do”. She’s obviously left that behind and she obviously has triggers tied to Ryan, but I’m not sure how much she’s really thought about it otherwise.
The Jacob example is a solid one. Joyce’s judgment has, if anything, seemed pretty consistently compromised when it comes to dating and sex.
They’re still her mistakes to make, she has the right to autonomy, Dorothy and Sarah need to relax — but in-comic, she’s been pretty consistently a starry-eyed romantic who believes that True Love is enough to fix everything. She very specifically ignored Dorothy trying to point out that even if you can get Jacob to cheat with you, that isn’t a trait you want in a boyfriend, by claiming that he would only ever cheat once, and then they’d be happy together forever.
I’m assuming that Sarah would eventually hear the real story of what happened between Joe and Liz, based on the fact they talked pretty frankly about a lot of stuff on the parts of the car ride we saw.
Really? You think so?
I think admitting that she basically had a panic attack and all her Cool Atheist Casual Sex-Haver talk evaporated and she had to ask him if they could please stop instead of following through is… way way way more vulnerable than Liz seemed willing to be with Sarah.
You and I know there’s nothing wrong with changing your mind about having sex with someone, but I don’t think Liz actually agrees. I think she’s probably deeply ashamed of “freaking out” and “letting” herself be controlled by the puritanical beliefs she’s supposed to have let go of (specifically where she said “I almost ruined myself forever”).
Also the idea is that Sarah and Liz having that conversation wouldn’t have been important enough to show on-panel? Even with all the work that’s gone into Joe’s characterization?
No. I think it’s much more likely that we someday get a like, phone call between Sarah and Liz where Sarah complains about Joe, and THEN Liz sheepishly admits he was a good guy with her, thus giving Sarah a real reason to change her attitude towards him.
As earthlings say, “shots were fired…”
Hey this is set in an American university, you can’t say that here.
Pika?
Do to a variety of factors, including poor mental health infostructure and loosened gun regulation, American instructions of learning have become a frequent target of acts of armed violence. Reporting shots fired in a school gym, means something different here. Fortunately, reporting a major burn is not (at least until the NRA decides to start selling congress the idea that every man has the right to hunt waterfowl with a military grade flame-thrower).
I was referring to the metaphorical shots Jacob fired, but yes, I am very much aware of the attacks you are referring to
I get it, I was just trying to make (I suppose in retrospect distasteful) joke. Sorry for the confusion. How have you been?
No worries, I’ve been alright. In terms of code commissions I’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel recently for Xmas cash.
Also rewriting platformer physics code to allow for sloped one-way platforms, as well as fixing bugs in a platformer boss AI.
You?
Interesting, I wasn’t aware there was such a thing as a civilian grade flame thrower.
Don’t you sold ducts?
I mean ,technically a school shooting did happen in this universe/story line with beckys dad XP
alt text beat me to it.
If you think about were all meat delcious delicious meat on that note humans can be considered a vegan meat option if we consent to be cannibalize?
Also 100% joking about cannibalism. Not a Canibal.
(Disregard my “flag”; it was accidental out-of-bounds clickage.)
I think you’d still get your vegan license revoked by the vegan police
Like oysters or cultured meat, it depends who is doing the considering, and why they’re a vegan.
Cannibalism is the most romantic form of intimacy ;P
But i wouldn’t be surprised if ppl preferred that over the regular sexualization of their body
Hey people see Jacob as more than a piece of meat….he’s smart right? I’m personally too busy staring at his muscles to know for sure.
The brain is also a muscle a very sexy muscle powering all the other sexy muscles, and what were we talking about again?
Fun Fact: Unless I am mistaken, the heart’s movements (contractions) are actually only modified rather than controlled by the brain. The electric signals used to control the heart rate are produced “pacemaker cells” located in the hearts sinoatrial node (the rate eclectic potentials produced by these cells is influenced by nerves originating in the brainstem and upper spine).
Also, the enteric nervous system, which governs the gastrointestinal tract can operate independently of the brain (but something has gone very wrong if it is).
I mean, if we want to get that technical, we should start with saying the brain is not a muscle.
It also doesn’t power anything, but I was trying not to point out too many flaws, just give out fun tidbits of tasty knowledge.
Makes sense, since we had a gut and a circulatory system before a brain.
“we” being eukaryotes?
or animals? i suppose sponges probably don’t have brains
Sponges are animals =)
(I don’t know when brains evolved, some invertebrates have brains, like arthropods and cephalopods… But are those structures actually analogous to vertebrate brains? Or did they arise separately? It’s a mystery (to me, because i’m too lazy to wiki it now)
Some people, certainly. But he’s aiming that comment very pointedly at Sarah, who has done a very convincing impression of only seeing him for his body thus far.
I mean…
Whenever she’s around Jacob that’s all she’s brought up. His body.
It may have been a long time, but I can’t remember if she’s actually interested in anything about him beyond his form or how Raidah was with him at one point.
I think she does actually like him. The few times they’ve talked alone she seems to enjoy his presence. Sarah just isn’t a huge talker by design. Some people are okay just being near people they like.
I agree, and I think getting any deeper would be scary for Sarah. It’s easier to think, and say, that what she likes about Jacob is his body. It’d be terrifying for her if she had to admit to herself, and say out loud, that she appreciates his kindness and how patient he is. That’s emotional vulnerability and she’s so far only been able to do that with Joyce and even that’s got about a 50/50 shot!
He also has a mop on his head
to be fair (to be fair (TO BE FAAAAIR)), so does she
–Dave, we have not seen any mopthoughtbubbles on whether THEY appreciate each others’ looks, tangles, or the brains upon which they rest
Maybe if she also dyed it dirty blonde. The mop look is a specific pitfall with blonde hair, especially dyed blonde hair, although theoretically a blue or green haired person could invoke a more modern version but I think you’d have to try for that
I kinda think you guys are both complaining about Willis’s stylized rendering of dreadlocks, which. Mmmm. I think has some very unfortunate connotations?
well im sure he’s taking other advanced classes besides that political(?) one, but i imagine his convo with joyce and sarah at that pizza place based on previous experiences and other than keeping his muscles toned at the gym he probably tries to dress modestly (not that one should have to to avoid being sexualized/ogled) and just living his life.
Tho surprised he doesn’t take tips from walky on how to act unattractive (even tho walky’s…walkyness ended up working/charming some girls lol xD)
I’m glad Joyce isn’t letting those two kill her mood and wow does Dorothy look angry that Joyce is happy to be around somebody whose not her or Becky.
Dorothy is a girl who has nothing going on. Without her ambition or friends to devote herself to she’s naturally frustrated.
Well, lifting weights helps her let off steam and channel it.
and now she’s got a head (full) of steam worked up!
–Dave, win-win
True, and she likely tells herself atleast a little that she’s staying because Joyce needs her.
That’s something that’s really disturbing, besides, the last conversation they had, Joyce seemed to be enthusiastic about helping Dorothy, but she was just babbling clearly, here I can only think that it’s likely that Dorothy made excuses for it and Joyce will be so insistent. which is going to cause something not so pleasant for the two of them.
It looks like she is suffering a revelation or two. It’s OK for a hot dude to make your friend happy! Maybe Dotty wants a large hairy man to find her attractive as well.
I’m not convinced it’s a large hairy man Dorothy’s after. Her dating history says she may not be into large and hairy, and there’s a lot in her recent behaviour to suggest there’s a specific person she’d like to make happy who ticks 0/3 of those.
Yeah, like, I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but Dotty’s behavior is *extremely* sus in this arc.
Mmhmm. Usually I’d be very cautious about trying to force an interpretation of a close friendship as necessarily romantic because it can often feel like devaluing that sort of platonic friendship, but I think there’s more than enough textual evidence here of non-platonic feelings to justify it.
I think both “Turning Saints into the Sea” and “The Love I Haven’t Got” are about Dorothy’s feelings for Joyce. Not just the chapters, the titles too.
The first references being driven by jealousy to do something drastic. The second is about unrequited love.
I think Dorothy is bi for Joyce, but doesn’t understand her own feelings. Dorothy wants someone who believes in her. Joyce has showered her with affection, stood up to her parents for Dorothy, trusts her, and bought into her “future president” plan whole-heartedly.
Happy for Joyce too. Sarah and Dorothy can be kinda shitty friends so I’m glad she’s just enjoying the moment and not letting them get her goat
King shit.
i’m not fond of raidah but it’d be hilarious if jacob agreed to make out with raidah in front of sarah to spite her lol
Sarah really needs some kind of reality check to make her less cartoonish.
I know she’s literally a cartoon, but hopefully you get what I mean anyway.
Well done Joyce, this is some fantastic character development.
Here she is knowing full well how Dorothy and Sarah feel about Joe and not giving a single fukc about it
Sarah and Dorothy could both learn something from Joyce because from where I’m looking shes surpassed both of them when it comes to maturity
Also why does Dorothy have a stink face in panel two?
She is probably learning something from Joyce for once and she doesn’t like it.
Their both so used to taking care of Joyce (Dorothy in particular) they are struggling with who Joyce is growing into vs who she is to them. I actually think Dorothy’s talk with Joyce yesterday about tranmissable sin being unfounded probably helped though Dorothy’s clearly not in the mind to appreciate that right now.
My take is jealousy
Joe is clearly not good enough for Joyce. No, she needs someone more academic, more ambitious; someone who understands Joyce on a level Joe never could and knows how to look after her; someone smaller and skinnier and bonier and more poindextery; someone more… feminine. Someone like, well, someone just like Dorothy. But I mean, obviously not Dorothy herself, right? That would be ridiculous.
I was going to write a comment about Dorothy being jealous, but you’ve said it better than I ever could.
I can’t wait to see Dorothy get as jacked as Joe to get attention
This would be amazing.
“Man, she really likes that Joe is big and muscular, huh. Well, I’m going to go lift weights for no particular reason I can think of.”
well, joyce was briefly attracted to sal’s ‘coolness’/from the neck up lol
her ponytail to-day has clearly been partaking of that same fountain of cool
–Dave, is it live, or is it Memorex?
Talk your shit king! Let her know!
Kinda feel bad for Jacob. He clearly wants to engage with Sarah and she’s giving him nothing despite wanting the same. This has big extrovert meets introvert energy.
nothing wrong with a back and forth convo but most of the time extroverts do most of the talking for both of them. Tho other than being outta breath/stamina from the weights, maybe if jacob rambled on about some “nerdy shit” or even some religious stuff she wouldn’t care about, it’d cool off sarah’s thirst
And this again. Jacob left her behind some couple years ago. It’s great he’s trying to reach to her, but I’m afraid it’s a lost battle.
Jacob 1, Sarah 0
o o o f holy shit XD BOOM
And shots fired! Let’s see how Sarah responds. Sorry kiddo, you might gotta learn to Emotion.
Let the upcoming chronicals of how Sarah mastered her first emotion and Dorothy learned self value begin.
I mean, “Anger” is her main emotion lol. That said, girlfriend/boyfriend status aside i feel like she’d find another way to ‘crash and burn’ on a first date too, a real ‘trash fire date’ unlike the one walky and amber staged lol
There is SO MUCH going on with just this morning workout. Absolutely delicious. I’d hate to be in that room, but it’s incredibly fun to read.
To think, it isn’t even eight am
imagine if there had been like 2-3 other ppl in the gym all along just off to the side just quietly eavesdropping/too awkward to move to change their equipment and stuff lol
my headcanon is and has been that all along, Dina has been behind a weight machine
–Dave, and is busily scribbling dinosaur-encoded notes on this Real People Interacting 102 class
Oooooo, burrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnn
those calories, Jacob. Burn burn burn.
audience: “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH”
Sorry Dorothy but your boss status with Joyce has been overriden.
wow theres a *LOT* happening on this page…
Deserved, Sarah.
“Oh. Hi, Mark.”
holy crap that piece of meat spoke
Dorothy should murder Joyce.
I–
pardon???
Death. Joyce. At Dorothy’s hands. I want it to happen.
…Alright, I’m starting to be swayed to your side. Go on
Careful. Being murdered is a trigger for some people.
While I feel that, this might not be a good webcomic for those people. It’s had three murders at least that I recall. This comment section discusses my triggers, even today there’s discussion about Ryan hunting down women. It’s our own personal responsibility to decide whether we’reready to go into a public forum, knowing there could be a trigger: even in the form of a joke. Joyce is not a real character, she’s not real. Even if someone relates to her on a heavy level: she is not real.
Examples: I am not comfortable with one of the DoA commenters because they support police brutality, but it is my personal responsibility to decide if I am comfortable continuing to comment in the same space.
I am uncomfortable talking about SA, but no one comments needing to be worried about triggers on the other posts because this comic contains themes about it.
Like two or three days ago there was mention of toe-dad being murdered.
No, the trigger pulling is slightly before the actual murder. It doesn’t count until after the bullet hits.
Where’s the chart of DoA characters referring to sex as either violent innuendo or as scientific experimentation?
I need this chart
This took a yandere turn lol
Also, Dorothy should cook and eat Joyce’s right arm.
I think that one actually slipped through Sarah’s shields.
40-love; Jacob serving.
Comparing her behavior to Joe’s may have actually gotten through to her.
Thank goodness. Some personal growth from my favorite character
She’s already had this revelation before, kind of, back when Jacob complimented Joyce and Ethan dating. But I think this is the moment when it’s going to pivot into “sitting in the ‘want to get closer but scared to be vulnerable’ region with someone you’re attracted to is largely identical to just treating them as a sex object.”
hopefully sarah’s not the type of person to be like “it’s ok when women do it to men tho”, although hopefully she’d believe jacob if he were to be like “Joe’s working hard on changing” if she was to be like “why do you hang out with ppl like joe” or so
Sarah historically leans into being brittle and distant so we’re either going to see her digging in that “that’s not the same thing” or she’s going to be visibly jolted by the comparison to her and Joe and have to pivot. Given the final panel is her looking truly Gotten, I’m thinking we’re heading into an arc with her where she starts to trust people who aren’t Joyce.
Well then, Jacob, it’s a good thing that you don’t HAVE to imagine the feeling.
….. wait no.
I wouldn’t mind being seen as a piece of meat by Sarah…
i feel like she wouldn’t be the type to openly comment on it versus just doing a scary glare at you (tho nothing wrong if ur into that lol) if you’re someone she just found hot rather than someone she willingly talks to but i can’t imagine her approaching some rando she also founds hot lol
Suck it, Sarah. And not in the way you’d like.
at this point i’m surprised sarah wouldn’t just move on if she’s just attracted to jacobs body more than personality but other than like everyone knowing sarahs reputation feels like it’d just be easier to find a random f*ckboy to hook up with (even tho ppl are frustrated with sarah rn i’m sure there’s people who would be willing to put up with her for half an hour to get laid lol)
You tried to do a good deed, Sarah, but it’s time to go back to your hole.
IDK if i’d consider “shitting on your roommates current bf in front of one of his friends/someone he gets along with decently” to be a ‘good deed’ lol
I 100% agree with Jacob, here.
Don’t go just yet! Who’ll spot you if you’re alone?! Yeah I don’t fully expect a Swolothy in the future, but if we do… it’s all because of Jacob, Joyce and Joe? JJJ?
Hypocrisy, thy name is Sarah Clinton.
i imagine she’s probably not going to do any thing as intense as jacob, or like, maybe not use hte machines that need you to lie down like what he’s doing, after all theres prolly dumbbells (maybe a larger weight might need a spotter too) but i’m sure she’d ask for help if she needs it
An immediate joking response along the lines of “Holy shit. The piece of meat spoke!” accompanied by a grin counts as a save. But any delay is fatal.
Jacob correctly getting fed up with Sarah’s bullshit because it’s not actually cute or endearing that you don’t want to emotionally engage. Getting stared at sucks and he’s been trying to open up to her for ages.
Hey, Joyce should give a shitty compliment to Joe, too, instead saying “handsome man”.
Like, “my bigass dog”, or something like that
problem is he’s a bigshoulders looongcatarms middleass
–Dave, he might even be a bubblebutt
Oh seems like Jacob is starting to get tired of Sarah’s crap.
I’m surprised he still wants to have anything to do with her
Seems like he is getting to that point. That’s the most annoyed I have ever seen him and he is normally such a ray of sunshine.
He is in the middle of a workout. Hard not to be annoyed when the person who should be spotting you is distracted by shallowness.
SASS
Real talk, Sarah. Real talk.
It’s not a competition. But Joyce seems to be winning, Dorothy is jealous, and Sarah finally begins to understand how similar she is to someone she doesn’t like at all because he has (used to have) that kind of behavior they kinda share. So bad that it’s not a competition.
It’s actually so funny since Sarah is (unknowingly) projecting so hard. Joe is actually genuine and real in his affection for Joyce. Sarah meanwhile is extremely shallow and just seeing Jacob as a buff piece of sexy meat.
Yep! Joe took steps to take down his ‘do’ list, presented himself as a human, and cleaned up his act to make himself a proper boyfriend for someone who invited him into her life. Sarah is like “that sounds stupid” while ogling Jacob and sneering at him for being horny.
Sarah has no reason to know any of that. Other than that he got caught for the list.
Sarah got an apology donut, and Dorothy has made peace with the relationship. Sarah just doesn’t know how to turn off her cynical pessimism enough to ask questions or doubt herself.
And she she offered to have sex with him, his first reaction was to jump at the opportunity. Joe is working on being better, he’s not done.
This ^^^
I mean “hE sAiD hE wAsN’t GoInG tO”
Yeah, addicts who are trying to quit harmful behavior they’ve ingrained in them for a long time are full of shit. The next time an alcoholic tells you they’re trying to quit the bottle, tell them they’re full of shit, put a pint in their hand, then take a picture and parade it around as proof they’re not trying to quit.
Do you people read what you write?
That’s actually pretty egregious, even for me, putting “Do you read what you write?” right after a strawman.
Lemme try to clear up the matter: This is a relationship between Joyce and Joe. Their foibles and fuck-ups are between them, and Joyce has explicitly stated that she’s willing to forgive Joe if he does do something that hurts her. Jury’s out on whether or not she does if/when that happens, but her intent is important.
Dorothy and Sarah are just Joyce’s friends. They have every right to give their warnings, which they have, or even ban Joe from their room, which Sarah kinda has. But it’s not their relationship, Joyce decides how many times Joe screws up and how badly before she ends it, not them. Sarah baiting a reflexive response from Joe is not indicative of his lack of intent on being faithful to Joyce, either.
The context to my comment was, “Sarah just doesn’t know how to turn off her cynical pessimism.”
Genuine question: has Joe ever indicated he has a sex addition?
A: not necessarily true
B: not necessarily /bad/ for someone who’s figuring out sexuality and being attractive to others, provided they’re a piece of meat being treated with basic respect.
(is that something Joyce is looking for? Don’t think so. Is “we’re fuckin’ because we find each other hot and that’s the extent of it” bad for everyone? Not at all.)
Story arc about Dorothy getting jacked and suddenly having abs? (I have never posted before, but now suddenly I want to…)
An extremely satisfying dunk
Glad Joyce can recognize when her friends are being dumb
the fish realizing she is surrounded by water
–Dave, see: comic title/premise
There’s some points I want to defend Sarah. She have reasons about what she said 4th panel.
Shit, Joe is not helping, too: Beyond his past, he accepted have some with her in the same room of his girlfriend.
And now, Sarah learned that the only praise Joyce get from Joe is “hot chick. Just by Sarah’s viewpoint.
How could I blame Sarah for thinking about Joyce only being a conquest to Joe?
PS: Yesterday, the only person I have to blame is Joyce. Could her just keep the dirty talk between them???
Not the only praise – but, apparently, the first piece Joyce has so taken to heart
–Dave, for of course the wrong reasons, based on the myths and legends perpetrated upon her in her upbringing
Some of y’all need to reread the comic bc I think you’re forgetting this man needed a redemption arc in the first place. Maybe go back to the page where Joyce explained how that kind of objectification feels and compared it to how Ryan made her feel. Or the page where Ryan said he tracked down Dorothy using the list. I love Joe and I adore this ship but it’s gag worthy how people are white washing his past. He a a creep pos, Sarah and Dorothy arent omnipotent. The most they saw of his actual redemption arc was probably the free donuts. It was probably huge gossip on their floor when he slept with Malaya during that time too. No one knew he was conflicted about it. They have every right to mistrust him. They just need to be nicer to Joyce about it. If you think your friends boyfriend sucks, the last thing you want is to annoy her into cutting you off or shutting you out
It’s been a consistent take on Joe, even when he was at his worst.
But Ryan never said he tracked Dorothy using the list. He saw her and followed her, waiting until her “big friend” was out of the way. Lots of people speculated the list could be used by Ryan or someone like him, but there’s no evidence it was.
Only the readers know that Joe has really made an effort, Dorothy and Sarah evidently do not know about it and the mistrust is obvious……you know, it is not common, but it is refreshing to read comments where the typical hatred for Joyce’s friends, plus the latter is not perfect either, at this moment she has not done something stupid, but we should not let our guard down and say that she is the only one that deserves attention, yes, she is the protagonist, but this comic has a list Huge and everyone has their favorites.
i am scquiring a continual joy from Willis knowing his commenters well enough to design that topmost poll option for them
–Dave, possibly beatable out only by “another option which I shall discuss at length in the comments neener”
For the record, Dorothy did not turn her conversation with Jacob into stellar wingwomaning for Sarah. Maybe she intended to, but I doubt it.
No, it’s okay when I do it! I’m protecting myself from caring too much and getting hurt!
nobody asked but here are my government assigned fursonas (or what animal id make them in an anthro au if asked)(no one did)
Joyce – Squirrel (I forgot she was already assigned squirrel in Roomies lol)
Walky & Sal – Mice is the easy answer but I also see them as cats (animal that is equally cool and silly)
Dorothy – Pomeranian
Amber – Racoon
Ethan – Maybe it’s the Hasbro but horse
Mike – Duck
Jennifer – some kind of fancy rich people Pony
Becky – Rabbit
Sarah – Sajuuk-Khar yesterday said owl, I second that
Dina – if not a dinosaur (i do not know dinosaurs sorry) than a cute (but formidable) raptor bird, like a kite?
Ruth – Fox
Joe – Sajuuk-Khar also gave Joe jacked wolf or german shepherd. Co-signed.
Danny – An underwhelming but still charming dog like a beagle
Lucy – Chipmunk
Carla – this sounds mean but a weasel? lol
Leslie – Cat (easy answer) or a deer
Jacob – not sure tbh, maybe a Lion?
Robin & Roz – Bunnies also
Jason – Common Shag (the bird)
Malaya – Fuckface
Booster – Eagle
Asher – I KNOW THEY’RE NOT REAL but a phoenix
Mary – Lamb of The Good Shephard (sheep)
bless your heart but Mike is _clearly_ a (mostly horrible) goose
–Dave, he doesn’t actually fit honey badger
Apropos of absolutely nothing, I now and then catch glimpses of some potentially major writing chops. I can’t help but wonder if any of our regs are authors in their own right: of any genre, pro or devoted amateur. Would it be too nosy to solicit a show of hands?
Personally, I wrote conspiracy-thriller fiction for a long time. Until the real world surpassed the limits of my imagination.
I used to write semi-erotic absurdist fanfic, and I’m (glacially) working on a small fantasy RPG. No published samples remain, though.
I’m a professional writer who specializes in superhero and sci-fi comedy.
But Willis has me wrapped around his keyboard.
I recently finished a Middle Grades novel. It’s called A Year With the Fairies, and it’s about an Autistic girl who learns she can be a hero in her own way.
Next I’ll send it to literary agents, and also illustrate it.
I write ham-handed shitposts and slightly obtuse technical documentation, does that count?
What’s the difference?
The number of swears you can include before people get angry.
Please tell me shitposts have the lower threshold.
I used to write a lot of poetry and short stories. I haven’t put pen to paper in years though.
I edited a few novels that went into publication and wrote music columns for a newspaper, then I was a scrivener for a time, but never been a real writer – even if I have a few novel skeletons in my closet.
Eyyy, Sci-fi Romantic Drama writer here. Can’t really call myself an author on account of not having published anything I’m proud of, but I’ve fully finished four books (70k-120k, with a 240k exception that falls under “Not Proud Of This”) so that counts for something right? Lol
Have not written a book. (I copy-edited a few a couple years back.) But I did write a FAQ about three decades back, the net.legends FAQ.
–Dave, a completely different writing style than pretty much any book ever
Man I used to be a naysayer about Joyce/Dorothy but I’ve been having a hard time reading Dorothy and Joyce’s recent behaviors and words without seeing that subtext. Feels like they both have crushes on each other and are feeling very uncomfortable about it.
BURN!
oof!
Will Sarah actually learn something from this or will she do something stupid…
Dammit, I’m going to be here when this updates again.
And then we’ll switch to someone else.
No, I’m not currently pledging on Patreon. I’m just 80% sure that’s what he’ll do.
Hoping it’s not Lucy, ugh
The freebie Patreon previews are too blurry to read dialogue (most of the time), but they’re usually clear enough that you can figure out who appears.
Hooo shit, here we go…