A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Killjoys
Flatw00ds
When two disgraced ex-feds fall backwards into trouble with the clown mafia, getting out in one piece is gonna be no joke!
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
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.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Clockwork
Chikuto
Cog Kleinschmidt is a diligent, quiet worker at the Mercia Fortress, the world power's leading stronghold. His orderly life is thrown into chaos when an enemy kingdom sends a diplomat for peace talks. This diplomat needs something from Cog - whether he agrees to their terms or not!
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Far to the North
Allison Shaw
Kelu turns to the monsters of her remote mountain home when her family is held hostage by outsiders.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
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?
Anacrine Complex
Sae Cotton
A superhuman heist involving probably too many pigeons than entirely necessary.
Fairmeadow
Kendra P. / KP
A wayward soldier finds herself in a pacifist commune deep in the wilderness of a war-weary land. Living in isolation brings her closer to those she was sworn to kill than she could ever imagine - but also threatens to tear the place apart.
MASKLESS
kickingshoes
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.
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
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.
Spinnerette
Krazy Krow, Rocio Zucchi, Pablo Rey
When a lab accident gives Heather Brown spider powers and six arms, she does what any midwest comic geek would do: Become Ohio's #3 superhero!
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
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.)
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Goblins
Ellipsis
A fantasy RPG as told through the eyes of the low-level monsters.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Demon Studies
Miyuli
Four students summon and study potentially dangerous demons within the walls of the mysterious Summerland University.
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.
Folklore
Adam Ma, Colin Tan Wei
A superhuman horror story focused on a small band of survivors trying to navigate a war-torn world in the aftermath of the Federation’s collapse.
Come Hell or High Water
Jenny/Star, Mori
Prince Gladimir was never meant to fall for a pirate. Swearing off love for duty, the threat of war propels him back into the Captain’s world of high seas and high stakes. Their relationship could be the thing to save the kingdom of Yvoire - or destroy it.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Patrik the Vampire
Bree Paulsen
Patrik loves to knit, bake, and help his friends while dealing with his own demons... like his thirst for blood because, oh yeah--he's a vampire.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
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.
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.
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Heart of Gold
Eliot Baum, Viv Tanner
A pianist with failing eyesight seeks out a priest with a miraculous healing touch, drawing him deeper into a world of miracles and curses.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
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!
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.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Sunshine Boy
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New-kid Kelly is sweet but naive. Luckily, he's got his outgoing neighbor Grey in his corner.
Obelisk
Ashley McCammon
In 1908 New York, a young woman struggles to put her life back together in the wake of her father's death - until she discovers a vampire in the shambles of her inheritance.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Drugs & Wires
Mary Safro, Io Black
Dan used to be a VR operator until his brain got fried by malware. Now he's stuck delivering packages in a post-Soviet hellhole all while trying to adjust to his new life and find some answers.
Lunar Blight
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Lunar Blight is a gothic horror story about an elite knight serving a moon cult who must choose between upholding his honoured duty or condemning everything he’s grown to know.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Tove
Severin
The end of the world is coming, and Tove doesn't want to be a hero, but SOMEONE has to look after her little brother.
Solstoria
Angelica Maria
After her brother goes missing, Samantha vows to become a Knight and help those around her in the Kingdom of St. Helena.
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I found DoA through Shortpacked!, but I found Shortpacked! because Willis and JJ did link swaps to each other, but their link text was them insulting each other… I honestly think it’s still like that, but I haven’t checked in ages lol
QC was big enough that I think if you were into webcomics at all back in the day you’re just going to be passively aware of it. Not quite Penny Arcade or XKCD levels but not far removed.
8 Bit Theater, Penny Arcade, VG Cats, Something Positive, Devils Panties, LFG, Girl Genius… So many old webcomics. Dominic Deegan is still an old fave.
S*P was my gateway drug, way back in the before times of December 2001. Quickly picked up (and have since stopped following some of) more comics than I can remember. But what I continue to love about them is that they aren’t beholden to parent corporations. The artists are independent (baring some collaborative ‘houses’), and anything goes.
I think the first web comic I *really* got into was “Goats”. This was back in the Before Time, when there was no patreon or anything, and you had to fund them by buying merch. I still have a “My Killer Robot Skull-Fucked Your Honor Student” t-shirt from those days!
I found DoA via Shortpacked, which I found through someone sharing the “I’m Batman and I can breath in space!” strip. Though I dropped out of reading it for much of the run, and only came back to it in the last couple of years to catch up.
I got into it via a comics app that it turned out was ripping images from feeds and adding their own ads to monetise other people’s content. Fuck those guys, obviously, but kinda thankful to have found it.
I love how, even if you know “Fuckface” is the name of the iguana, that still looks like you’re insulting someone for not being able to properly distinguish an iguana
I know I found this comic directly before the timeskip (literally the last comic of the first semester with the big group shot. But as to how I found it… I genuinely have no idea. Maybe someone posted a link to it somewhere?
I found “Roomies” via Campbell’s “Fans!” and just followed Willis’ succession of comics along from that.
Speaking of first webcomics, mine was “Sluggy Freelance”. Came across a reference to Bun-bun in another source and have been traveling down a roughly 25 year long rabbit’s hole since.
I think it depends on the character for me. Joyce and Jocelyne using largely “correct” grammar makes sense for them IMHO.
Whereas if someone were to write, say, Sonic the Hedgehog or Knuckles the Echidna using articulate grammar all the time (with occasional crumbs of slang, but from no later than 1969), it would just feel like the writer didn’t understand the characters at all.
Feels like this one does this, no? Guess it depends on if you think of “tunes” as, like, a collective uncountable concept, but I would generally think of it a countable noun (as opposed to “music,” for instance).
I’m not sure what Ana meant, but I was thinking of it in terms of how speakers do occasionally make grammar mistakes– not in using slang or dialects or not bothering with prescriptive rules, but in that sometimes you say something and it comes out slightly off. Like if you are saying multiple adjectives for something and they don’t come out in the typical order, and it sounds a little odd– you’d probably say it differently the next time or if you thought it through, but also whatever because it’s not that big a deal.
But also, that’s a level of reality I’m fine with losing in written media because it stands out more (to me at least).
Yup. It’s similar to how shows and writing rarely address defecating unless it’s relevant to the plot. We know characters would have to do it far more often than is portrayed. It’s just not necessary.
I thought this was a comment about the language the characters have been using for a while which has, at times, seemed unnaturally formal. Didn’t realize there was a phrase that could be taken as imperfect grammar until I read the comments about it. What boundless pedantry.
me, a intellectual, for my whole life: “It should be Past Time, because it has to be a traditional way, from the past, to spend your free time. Like baseball.”
given anarchism’s definitive opposition to social pyramids and especially the coercive means used to establish and perpetuate them, and socialism’s goal of ending capitalist coercion in particular,
anarchism is very much compatible with socialism, but not so much with social democracy, at least given the latter’s goal is merely to *reform* capitalism without long-term intent to see it abolished
I was going to suggest Joyce probably has a lot of Disney movie soundtracks, but actually I had an evangelical friend as a kid and he wasn’t allowed to watch most of those.
Too much magic and such. Talking animals were technically allowed but considered very iffy. I remember the day I brought home The Lion King on VHS (naturally banned, whatever newsletter his mom got this stuff from was VERY against visions of Holy Ghost Lion Dads and Baboon Shamanism). We basically planned a multi-stage whole heist to sneak him over to watch it.
That’s wild. I’ve heard from a friend who knew someone in that same boat, too. Many of my fundie-evangelical peers and I grew up on mostly just Disney/other old kids stuff (and no cable TV or internet, ofc) but I can see why the magical elements might make some people clutch their pearls.
The one that broke my brain was that he was explicitly forbidden from ever watching ET.
Sci-Fi was NOT banned in his house, because if it’s science (even fictional science) it isn’t magic. Even when it clearly IS magic; he was allowed to watch Star Wars, though personally I suspect that’s because his dad (much more chill than his mom; very Carol and Hank now that I think about it) was a Star Wars/Trek fan.
ET though? Apparently the evangelical scuttlebutt was that he represented Jesus. He heals people, comes back from the dead, ascends to the heavens, and I guess there was some popular artwork that depicted Jesus with a glowing heart.
And they weren’t offended that ET might be a metaphor for Jesus, they decided that the movie was literally saying Jesus was just an alien, and therefore blasphemous.
No, but I don’t think that was the point. I think it was more Joyse not wanting to listen to heavily religious music while dealing with religious trauma.
Also, a lot of her music is stuff she listened to because it was heavily religious. Not just a cool song that happened to be religious, but part of her religious indoctrination.
You can add invisible chars to your e-mail addy or if you have G-mail you can add digits to the end of the part in front of the @ to get a still-valid addy that will change your avvie.
Yes, I have been terrified for my Trans friends for the next 4 years (had to remove a sub-conscious typo of “tears”). I have more Trans friends than most people, because I have a habit of inviting homeless people into my home and a large proportion were Trans.
helpful reminder that an executive order can very easily be stricken down by federal judges as unconstitutional, even if it’s not gonna completely stop it it can at least by our homies and allies some time
the situation is VERY BAD, but not completely hopeless
in any case do not obey in advance
believe me in CA we’re are going to do EVERYTHING in our power to make sure trans, NB, queer and other vulnerable minorities are safe
even if and when that comes down to drawing a line in the sand
Even they admit a lot of this requires changes in law, but they absolutely will go for maximum enforcement everywhere they can.
I’ve been studying the fundamentalist movement Willis here escaped from for decades. I know their shit, I know who wrote this, I know what they mean by it.
Big trip line will be if they start cancelling existing travel documents. Watch for that.
if we must go as to far as California and surrounding states becoming our own country, with our own economy, and even our own army and navy if need be, to protect the rights of vulnerable people seeking refuge, so be it
our human rights, are those we will protect by any means necessary
As much of a fighter as I am, I really don’t see Americans being willing to do that.
Straights wouldn’t even give up a chicken sandwich to stop funding anti-gay politics. They’re not about to give up the country.
Doesn’t mean don’t fight back, believe me, I’ve been in this a long time. We won last time, and that’s literally why they abandoned rational thought and empiricism to fight the fight again under new, dumber rules. I think we can win, but it’s gonna be a vicious, ugly fight, and it’ll depend upon keeping meaningful elections, which they absolutely want to eliminate (and are eliminating, anywhere they can).
*Hopefully* it won’t have to come to becoming our own country.
Even then, what exactly is “giving up the country” anyway?
If anything, providing reduge to vulnerable minorities would be upholding the promise of a country which is *supposed* to be about freedom and equality, and with it MAXIMUM right to call themselves “Americans”.
And if the bigoted assholes on the other part of the continent don’t like that, THEY are the ones who can dare to succeed again and see what happens.
Hopefully it won’t come to that because any attempt at secession will lead to civil war and that will get really bad, really fast.
There’s an awful lot states can do to mitigate damage short of that, though at the same time one of the worst consequences will be the feds letting loose the worst impulses of the more regressive states.
Right, but the point isn’t “that’s a bad idea” although I think it is. The point was: people won’t do that. They won’t give up the most basic shit to defend us by-and-large, they aren’t going to go to war and secede.
People overwhelmingly voted for Trump. It’s a fucking nightmare and I wish it wasn’t true, but the FACT is that people had an easy way to make sure this didn’t happen and they were either complete morons who voted for him or they failed to vote. (Or they voted third party in a two party system, which is also just a terrible idea).
It’s important to focus on things you can actually affect, on help you can actually offer, rather than pipe dreams of California becoming its own country. I know we’re all stressed, but sweeping assurances of things that absolutely will not happen aren’t helpful. Sorry.
whether or drawing a line in the sand happens de jure, it’s almost certainly gonna happen de facto
one thing’s for sure, official secession and the gruesome shit that come with it ain’t needed for the masses to acknowledge that at this point, this country is “United” in name only
the other side use words like “freedom”, “equality”, “individual rights”,
they may be using the same “English” words and grammar, but they are in fact speaking a very different language than we are
more literally so than you may think.
Over in Europe, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Croatian and Serbian all used to be the same language, Serbo-Croatian, and to this day they all use majorly the same vocabulary and grammar as they did before
but yet they all ardently affirm they speak different languages. Why? It is because their speakers all have very different and fiercely incompatible views on government and civics, important political and cultural differences which are extremely important to them but may be unintelligible to outsiders
no less over here, it is not so much a matter of fostering official division, but of doing away with the Illusion of Unity
we may not be able to affect the government-drawn lines defining *official* territory, but we don’t (or rather *shouldn’t*) even need to
for some of the greatest power of our liberation fronts, and one of the most important elements of a bloodless revolution, via the work of activists and creators alike, comes from long-term mass promotion of a shift in mentality
Not even the states voted overwhelmingly for Trump.
If people want to do something effective about the next four years, they can join the ACLU. This would actually be useful, while talk of succession is not.
NGPZ: Not sure exactly what shift in mentality you’re talking about when you bring up secession, but regardless of mentality, those government drawn lines defining territory are going to continue to matter, since the federal government will continue to enforce its laws (and executive orders).
Which doesn’t mean, as I said, that there isn’t a lot states can do to resist.
indeed, for the sake of resistance, it will very much pay for allies to know the difference between what legal fiat says must *officially* be (de jure) and how effectively them laws can actually be enforced in *practice* (de facto)
for instance, albeit US public schools were de-segregated in 1954 de jure, for the longest time afterwards they were still very much segregated de facto, on account of long-standing economic disparities and cultural circumstances sustaining the practice
during the Prohibition, alcohol production and consumption were illegal *de jure* (with sparse exceptions such as in medicine and industrial use) but those VERY much continued *de facto* on account that the law was virtually impossible to enforce in practice, if only because breaking those laws was largely supported by it’s whole own culture defining the “Roaring 20s”
As we are also reminded in works like On Tyranny, most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.
@NGPZ – I’m not reading that many paragraphs when I already have the vibe of what you’re saying, so apologies for that I just don’t have the spoons right now.
I think it’s important to focus on things that are actually going to help people. If you think it’s important to talk in these grandiose ways about shit that just isn’t going to happen, and even if they did they would start a literal war, that’s totally for you to decide. I disagree with you, but what else is new.
@Uly – Fair. I’ll admit I was thinking of the electoral votes and not the popular vote when I spoke on that. The rest of my point still stands.
uh, what exactly isn’t going to happen, how would it start a war, and how do you know it’s what I’m saying given you said you didn’t read the paragraphs?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But given you said you don’t have the spoons, completely understandable.
I like how they claim its becose they care about women. They do horrible things to women, they don’t even want them to vote. They just think this will play well with gullible leftists of they use what they see as feminist buzzwords.
“Women must be protected, even if they have to be controlled.” Really it’s the other way around of course, but it’s an approach that even appeals to many women.
We should expect that the new administration will do everything it can to (1) control women and (2) force birth rates up. They are scared about future population declines.
Yeah, I’ll admit that I had a really horrible creeping feeling about any extra reasons WHY they’re defining male and female by which half of the baby-making we are.
the whole “population decline” thing is just bullshit
same with “overpopulation”, REAL experts predict that the world population will level off at around 10 billion people, extrapolating shit from the average global birthrate comes from the fundamental error of assuming each country started industrializing at exactly the same time 9-9
yep, very easily goes with the marked obsession with “social decadence” definitive of fascist mentality, as also seen in Mary’s recent attempt at recruiting Joyce (-_-)
I used to be a conservative Republican, its not the birth rate in general they are scared of its the decline in WHITE children they are afraid of. They know that white Americans are not having children fast enough to replace themselves. And THAT terrifies them. They assume that if they become a minority they will be treated the way they treated everybody else.
That helped move me from being a conservative as well.
Especially when I realized what the real reason for a lot of anti-choice people’s takes were. Because they sure as shit weren’t concerned for the mother or what happened to the child after birth.
The weirdest comfort I can offer is from a trans friend. “I’m cautious but I believe that the massive changes the fascists want would require them to be a different combination of stupid, lazy, and corrupt than they are right now. Infighting will do a lot of the heavy lifting for the next four years.”
I mostly find hope in recognizing that the communities I care about have been in worse situations before and have gotten through them before. Now, that’s not meant as “everything will be fine”– there will be needless suffering, for many people, and it may take a long time to start to make progress again. It’s not a short-term hope for me, but a long-term hope that communities will continue on.
The Beatles put out a new single a couple years ago and the kpop fans went apoplectic and bought so many BTS singles it pushed the Beatles out of the top 10 completely.
A lot of the teenagers I know are going through a phase where they listen to the same pop-punk stuff that a lot of us grew up with, oddly enough? idk if it’s because the teen librarian is also in my age group or what, but I’m not complaining
I saw a kid today, a teen wearing an AC/DC Back in Black shirt. I was 15 when this came out in 1980. I am now 59. I’m not against it, its great to see the shirts, I just don’t get it. Its like if in 1980 I was wearing a T shirt for Johnny Ace or the Ink Spots.
They did honestly love Rick Rolling. These were kids who were like 10 to 12, and I was kind of amazed by the longevity of it. One of my students had the song come on in the middle of his talent show performance.
The devastation that would come to the world of popular music from letting Ringo back into their band was only outdone by Lars Ulrich staying in Metallica all these years.
Pretty sure when I was a teenager, everyone was listening to They Might Be Giants, folk music, the Cats soundtrack, and that Discworld album by Dave Greenslade. The charts just didn’t reflect this because of the squares, man.
I’m so far out of touch with the musical zeitgeist that even though I’m into old sea shanties, I missed that week until I found out about it a year or more later.
me too. i was in high school in 2015 and i was only just then discovering the foo fighters about twenty years late. i have no idea what is on the radio right now.
Probably… Taylor Swift? I’m gonna say Taylor Swift.
But my niece is, inexplicably, a fan of 90s music. We discovered a mutual appreciation of Postmodern Jukebox three days before they came here on concert, and she was both the youngest and also by far the most enthusiastic person in that crowd. A whole bunch of people in their 40s and 50s, two teens.
By the sliding time scale, Rich Mullins and dctalk are college kids’ parents’ music. No idea what Christian or recently ex-Christian college kids listen to these days.
I have nothing constructive to add to the comment section, I just saw everyone else talking about the Gravatar pool getting re-rolled and I didn’t want to dig through the archives to see what my new roulette-assigned internet face is.
Despite coming out today, reading this comic feels like discovering a meme template which you’ve seen used for years and only just discovered the source. It just feels “meme template”.
What’s the etiquette of informing Willis of mistakes in this comic? I’ve never been early enough to catch one before. Or is it not a mistake and saying “pass time” instead of “pastime” is an American cultural difference?
I wondered the same thing, it seems to me to be one of those commonly mis-said phrases, like “for all intensive purposes” instead of the correct “for all intents and purposes”. The “a way to pass time” definition seems like a retroactive justification for it. It really stood out to me as a wrong thing for Joe to say, and also so strange because part of why it is commonly mis-said is that it sounds the same, but I’ve never seen it written down, just spoken.
Yep. In this particular context it should indeed be “pastime” that Joe’s saying. It doesn’t really bother me enough to raise a fuss about it, but it IS an error. XD
It’s supposed to be “pastime” even in ‘Murica, so either Willis or Joe has it wrong. Although, to be fair to either, it DOES sound more like “pass time.”
Someone revising the thing they just said but in the exact same tone (or in the case of comics, in the exact same pose, so you know they said it in the exact same tone) is one of my favourite jokes ever.
Well, I don’t have Robin, Amber, Amazigirl, or Jacob yet, so I’m going to keep going. Usually Sal is the last one I get, but she showed up early this time.
Update. Have Amber and Jacob. Still no Robin and … have I seen Amazigirl this time around? I mean I can understand retiring Mary, for example, but Amazigirl?
Argh. Reviewed common avatars from the last few days. No Amazigirl. However it appears that I have not yet found Robin, Ruth, Becky or Ethen. Ruth appears to be the rare one this time instead of Sal
At this point I have Robin and Ruth, but have added Liz and Amazigirl to the list. Additionally there are two different avatars I was counting as Lucy. I’m going to have to seek some clarity.
Heh, it took me a long while to figure out that some of his stuff was parody of specific songs*: I’d never heard the originals. E.g. Another One Rides the Bus. Others I had heard, and recognized (I Love Rocky Road).
———-
* As opposed to parody of styles/genres, like Those Were the Good Old Days or Christmas at Ground Zero.
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Happy Dummingversary to me and to anyone else who found DoA via questionablecontent.net filler ten years ago!
I found DoA through Shortpacked!, but I found Shortpacked! because Willis and JJ did link swaps to each other, but their link text was them insulting each other… I honestly think it’s still like that, but I haven’t checked in ages lol
I don’t recall when/how I got into QC, but I got into DoA when someone I know shared the “Girls Don’t Get Real Pockets?” strip.
QC was big enough that I think if you were into webcomics at all back in the day you’re just going to be passively aware of it. Not quite Penny Arcade or XKCD levels but not far removed.
Don’t know how true that is nowadays.
I am pretty sure the first webcomic I got into was Megatokyo, and still my favorite, sorry DYW and Jeph.
(And Megatokyo is still alive, if four story strips and two non-story strips in 2024 counts as alive.)
Although come to think of it I was into Girl Genius, Dork Tower, and PvP back when they were actual dead treeware comic books before any of the above.
Something*Positive, Girl Genius, and Questionable Content. Shortly after, xkcd, then Dumbing of Age, then others. Lo, from the Long Ago days.
Archaeologists and Historians have studied those times. Clearly all those webcomic authors were good friends and roommates.
8 Bit Theater, Penny Arcade, VG Cats, Something Positive, Devils Panties, LFG, Girl Genius… So many old webcomics. Dominic Deegan is still an old fave.
Did ancient webcomic artists really wear red capes and goggles and draw in high-altitude balloons?
S*P was my gateway drug, way back in the before times of December 2001. Quickly picked up (and have since stopped following some of) more comics than I can remember. But what I continue to love about them is that they aren’t beholden to parent corporations. The artists are independent (baring some collaborative ‘houses’), and anything goes.
It’d be nice if it’d update more than like two times per year. I’ve been waiting 15(?) years for Volume 7 to come out.
My gateway was Order of the Stick, and I thought it was updating slowly these days
I am still a keen fan of QC but gave up on Megatokyo when I realised that I hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on.
I think the first web comic I *really* got into was “Goats”. This was back in the Before Time, when there was no patreon or anything, and you had to fund them by buying merch. I still have a “My Killer Robot Skull-Fucked Your Honor Student” t-shirt from those days!
My first webcomic was 8-Bit Theatre.
I am pretty sure I didn’t get here from there, but I did get to one of the predecessor comics somehow from that.
I found DoA via Shortpacked, which I found through someone sharing the “I’m Batman and I can breath in space!” strip. Though I dropped out of reading it for much of the run, and only came back to it in the last couple of years to catch up.
I got into it via a comics app that it turned out was ripping images from feeds and adding their own ads to monetise other people’s content. Fuck those guys, obviously, but kinda thankful to have found it.
Sadly, according to the DoA link in QC, Dave Willis no longer eats butts.
Too many preservatives in them these days.
Goes off to Google “World’s largest collection of preserved butts.”
Returns with link to “World’s Largest Collection of Fossilized Poop”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/admire-the-worlds-largest-collection-of-fossilized-poop-at-the-new-poozeum-in-arizona-180985309/
That is a horribly missed opportunity for them to call the exihibit the syp-oozeum
I found QC through Shortpacked, funnily enough.
I got here through It’s Walky. But I got to QC through Girls With Slingshots or the Whiteboard.
I joined in 2014 by reference from Captain Cassidy’s blog.
Oh,no! I’m a lizard! I hate it.
that’s an iguana, Fuckface
change the capitalization of your email for a new gravitar
I love how, even if you know “Fuckface” is the name of the iguana, that still looks like you’re insulting someone for not being able to properly distinguish an iguana
woop you’re right LOOOL XD
The real question is how do you distinguish an iguana improperly.
By being Australian and calling a monitor lizard a “goanna”.
that’s pretty distinguished, yeah.
“AND NGPZ COMES IN WITH A TIRE IRON TO THE ANKLE!”
Just sayin’, iguanas are lizards.
I say it’s a lizard, and I say to hell with it.
With a tip of the hat to E.B. White.
There’s an article about Grav Roulette on the Walkypedia.
https://walkypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Grav_Roulette
I know I found this comic directly before the timeskip (literally the last comic of the first semester with the big group shot. But as to how I found it… I genuinely have no idea. Maybe someone posted a link to it somewhere?
This might actually be how I found it!
I can’t remember, but it was around that time! 
Thanks for bringing it up. And hapy tenth to you!
I started following DoA when it was announced on Shortpacked! but I don’t remember how I found Shortpacked! which is to bad I guess?
I did go back eventually and read Actually Everything. It was a ride. xD
I came here from It’s Walky! but I don’t recall how I found that. Maybe found a link at Wapsi Square?
This is me, and I came to QC through Something Positive!
Sorry Dana, I hit Report by mistake.
I found it from Jon Rosenberg reposting a lot of Willis’ twitter posts and I was, “guess I’ll see who this is”
You know what, that is where I found it. Though I think while catching up later
…oh gods, that WAS how I found this wasn’t it? That…does not seem right time wise, noooo.
I found “Roomies” via Campbell’s “Fans!” and just followed Willis’ succession of comics along from that.
Speaking of first webcomics, mine was “Sluggy Freelance”. Came across a reference to Bun-bun in another source and have been traveling down a roughly 25 year long rabbit’s hole since.
Real talk: grammatical perfection in fiction is unnatural, occasionally have grammar flubs in your dialogue to make it feel like real people talking
/said for no reason in particular
Me too
I’m a proofreader and intellectually I understand that, but it also makes my brain itchy. XD
I’ve never been a proofreader, or trained as one, but I tend to mentally re-compose disturbing grammar or usage as I read.
What’s the most disturbing grammar you’ve run across?
Perhaps I should specify, in English.
I think it depends on the character for me. Joyce and Jocelyne using largely “correct” grammar makes sense for them IMHO.
Whereas if someone were to write, say, Sonic the Hedgehog or Knuckles the Echidna using articulate grammar all the time (with occasional crumbs of slang, but from no later than 1969), it would just feel like the writer didn’t understand the characters at all.
Feels like this one does this, no? Guess it depends on if you think of “tunes” as, like, a collective uncountable concept, but I would generally think of it a countable noun (as opposed to “music,” for instance).
Fully disagree.
Grammar exists to emulate speech. If you can say it, you can write it with proper grammar.
That includes slang and dialects.
I’m not sure what Ana meant, but I was thinking of it in terms of how speakers do occasionally make grammar mistakes– not in using slang or dialects or not bothering with prescriptive rules, but in that sometimes you say something and it comes out slightly off. Like if you are saying multiple adjectives for something and they don’t come out in the typical order, and it sounds a little odd– you’d probably say it differently the next time or if you thought it through, but also whatever because it’s not that big a deal.
But also, that’s a level of reality I’m fine with losing in written media because it stands out more (to me at least).
Yup. It’s similar to how shows and writing rarely address defecating unless it’s relevant to the plot. We know characters would have to do it far more often than is portrayed. It’s just not necessary.
Only via circularly defining correct grammar to be “anything that is said”, which isn’t particularly *useful*.
To the contrary, I find it very useful.
No worries. The phrase comes from “passe tyme”. And “pass time” is an older but still correct usage. The very modern “pastime” is also okay.
I thought this was a comment about the language the characters have been using for a while which has, at times, seemed unnaturally formal. Didn’t realize there was a phrase that could be taken as imperfect grammar until I read the comments about it. What boundless pedantry.
Welcome to the Internet, Amelie.
It’d be hard to tell the difference by listening, but Dina can tell that sort of thing, when it’s important.
me, a intellectual, for my whole life: “It should be
Past Time, because it has to be a traditional way, from the past, to spend your free time. Like baseball.”until I looked up
pastimetodayAppropriate gravatar for a born intellectual!
[knowing wink]
WITCHCRAFT!
Amy Grant and Rebecca St James will also get you made fun of, Joyce.
Oh, that’s right, Willis ordered a new Search for Sal season. Let’s roll the dice!
Sure.
re: $80,
I’m ready with vodka, a thick Slavic accent, and desire to CRUSH CAPITALISM
Alcohol does sound really, really nice right now.
Fuck yeah, new Grav!
Yes let’s overthrow laissez faire Capitalism and instate Social Democracy!
Have we really given anarchy a fair chance?
given anarchism’s definitive opposition to social pyramids and especially the coercive means used to establish and perpetuate them, and socialism’s goal of ending capitalist coercion in particular,
anarchism is very much compatible with socialism, but not so much with social democracy, at least given the latter’s goal is merely to *reform* capitalism without long-term intent to see it abolished
I was going to suggest Joyce probably has a lot of Disney movie soundtracks, but actually I had an evangelical friend as a kid and he wasn’t allowed to watch most of those.
Too much magic and such. Talking animals were technically allowed but considered very iffy. I remember the day I brought home The Lion King on VHS (naturally banned, whatever newsletter his mom got this stuff from was VERY against visions of Holy Ghost Lion Dads and Baboon Shamanism). We basically planned a multi-stage whole heist to sneak him over to watch it.
Joyce explicitly wasn’t allowed to watch Tangled and Frozen, so most likely not.
That’s wild. I’ve heard from a friend who knew someone in that same boat, too. Many of my fundie-evangelical peers and I grew up on mostly just Disney/other old kids stuff (and no cable TV or internet, ofc) but I can see why the magical elements might make some people clutch their pearls.
The one that broke my brain was that he was explicitly forbidden from ever watching ET.
Sci-Fi was NOT banned in his house, because if it’s science (even fictional science) it isn’t magic. Even when it clearly IS magic; he was allowed to watch Star Wars, though personally I suspect that’s because his dad (much more chill than his mom; very Carol and Hank now that I think about it) was a Star Wars/Trek fan.
ET though? Apparently the evangelical scuttlebutt was that he represented Jesus. He heals people, comes back from the dead, ascends to the heavens, and I guess there was some popular artwork that depicted Jesus with a glowing heart.
And they weren’t offended that ET might be a metaphor for Jesus, they decided that the movie was literally saying Jesus was just an alien, and therefore blasphemous.
I bet they loved The Life of Brian.
So, I’m betting they were completely opposed to Star Trek V: What Does God Need With A Spaceship.
Was this before or after the highly unsuccessful call to boycott Disney for giving benefits to same sex partners of employees?
Way before that
You don’t have to ideologically agree with music to enjoy it.
Slayer alone is four incompatible directions.
No, but I don’t think that was the point. I think it was more Joyse not wanting to listen to heavily religious music while dealing with religious trauma.
Also, a lot of her music is stuff she listened to because it was heavily religious. Not just a cool song that happened to be religious, but part of her religious indoctrination.
Also this, exactly yes.
I get the sense that something is about to go horribly wrong, and for once that feeling has nothing to do with my personal life.
Any ideas what could/will happen, and how bad it will be?
Gravatar changes? Noooooooo…
Welp, the search begins anew.
No Billie/Jennifer thank you
Acceptable for tonight.
Quiter. We are doomed to search until achieving Sal.
Wait, these are mutable? How?
You can add invisible chars to your e-mail addy or if you have G-mail you can add digits to the end of the part in front of the @ to get a still-valid addy that will change your avvie.
Not sure if this works for non-Gmail users, but I personally re-roll the Gravs by changing the capitalization of various letters in my e-mail address.
liKe So!
Yeah, I’m thinking Becky’s a better fit. Might make another go tomorrow though.
Good luck!
Changing capitalization is the easiest way and should work everywhere.
Email addresses aren’t case sensitive, but the gravatar hashing algorithm is.
I’ll say that’s probably a common feeling right now.
Yes, I have been terrified for my Trans friends for the next 4 years (had to remove a sub-conscious typo of “tears”). I have more Trans friends than most people, because I have a habit of inviting homeless people into my home and a large proportion were Trans.
How about a full declaration of war on trans, nonbinary, and intersex people today by the new administration?
That’s pretty bad.
helpful reminder that an executive order can very easily be stricken down by federal judges as unconstitutional, even if it’s not gonna completely stop it it can at least by our homies and allies some time
the situation is VERY BAD, but not completely hopeless
in any case do not obey in advance
believe me in CA we’re are going to do EVERYTHING in our power to make sure trans, NB, queer and other vulnerable minorities are safe
even if and when that comes down to drawing a line in the sand
Even they admit a lot of this requires changes in law, but they absolutely will go for maximum enforcement everywhere they can.
I’ve been studying the fundamentalist movement Willis here escaped from for decades. I know their shit, I know who wrote this, I know what they mean by it.
Big trip line will be if they start cancelling existing travel documents. Watch for that.
if we must go as to far as California and surrounding states becoming our own country, with our own economy, and even our own army and navy if need be, to protect the rights of vulnerable people seeking refuge, so be it
our human rights, are those we will protect by any means necessary
As much of a fighter as I am, I really don’t see Americans being willing to do that.
Straights wouldn’t even give up a chicken sandwich to stop funding anti-gay politics. They’re not about to give up the country.
Doesn’t mean don’t fight back, believe me, I’ve been in this a long time. We won last time, and that’s literally why they abandoned rational thought and empiricism to fight the fight again under new, dumber rules. I think we can win, but it’s gonna be a vicious, ugly fight, and it’ll depend upon keeping meaningful elections, which they absolutely want to eliminate (and are eliminating, anywhere they can).
*Hopefully* it won’t have to come to becoming our own country.
Even then, what exactly is “giving up the country” anyway?
If anything, providing reduge to vulnerable minorities would be upholding the promise of a country which is *supposed* to be about freedom and equality, and with it MAXIMUM right to call themselves “Americans”.
And if the bigoted assholes on the other part of the continent don’t like that, THEY are the ones who can dare to succeed again and see what happens.
*refuge to vulnerable minorities
*secede again
Hopefully it won’t come to that because any attempt at secession will lead to civil war and that will get really bad, really fast.
There’s an awful lot states can do to mitigate damage short of that, though at the same time one of the worst consequences will be the feds letting loose the worst impulses of the more regressive states.
Right, but the point isn’t “that’s a bad idea” although I think it is. The point was: people won’t do that. They won’t give up the most basic shit to defend us by-and-large, they aren’t going to go to war and secede.
People overwhelmingly voted for Trump. It’s a fucking nightmare and I wish it wasn’t true, but the FACT is that people had an easy way to make sure this didn’t happen and they were either complete morons who voted for him or they failed to vote. (Or they voted third party in a two party system, which is also just a terrible idea).
It’s important to focus on things you can actually affect, on help you can actually offer, rather than pipe dreams of California becoming its own country. I know we’re all stressed, but sweeping assurances of things that absolutely will not happen aren’t helpful. Sorry.
whether or drawing a line in the sand happens de jure, it’s almost certainly gonna happen de facto
one thing’s for sure, official secession and the gruesome shit that come with it ain’t needed for the masses to acknowledge that at this point, this country is “United” in name only
the other side use words like “freedom”, “equality”, “individual rights”,
they may be using the same “English” words and grammar, but they are in fact speaking a very different language than we are
more literally so than you may think.
Over in Europe, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Croatian and Serbian all used to be the same language, Serbo-Croatian, and to this day they all use majorly the same vocabulary and grammar as they did before
but yet they all ardently affirm they speak different languages. Why? It is because their speakers all have very different and fiercely incompatible views on government and civics, important political and cultural differences which are extremely important to them but may be unintelligible to outsiders
no less over here, it is not so much a matter of fostering official division, but of doing away with the Illusion of Unity
we may not be able to affect the government-drawn lines defining *official* territory, but we don’t (or rather *shouldn’t*) even need to
for some of the greatest power of our liberation fronts, and one of the most important elements of a bloodless revolution, via the work of activists and creators alike, comes from long-term mass promotion of a shift in mentality
Nymph: People overwhelmingly voted for Trump.
“Overwhelmingly” is a bit of an exaggeration. He got 49.8% of the popular vote. Harris got 48.3%.
Not even the states voted overwhelmingly for Trump.
If people want to do something effective about the next four years, they can join the ACLU. This would actually be useful, while talk of succession is not.
NGPZ: Not sure exactly what shift in mentality you’re talking about when you bring up secession, but regardless of mentality, those government drawn lines defining territory are going to continue to matter, since the federal government will continue to enforce its laws (and executive orders).
Which doesn’t mean, as I said, that there isn’t a lot states can do to resist.
indeed, for the sake of resistance, it will very much pay for allies to know the difference between what legal fiat says must *officially* be (de jure) and how effectively them laws can actually be enforced in *practice* (de facto)
for instance, albeit US public schools were de-segregated in 1954 de jure, for the longest time afterwards they were still very much segregated de facto, on account of long-standing economic disparities and cultural circumstances sustaining the practice
during the Prohibition, alcohol production and consumption were illegal *de jure* (with sparse exceptions such as in medicine and industrial use) but those VERY much continued *de facto* on account that the law was virtually impossible to enforce in practice, if only because breaking those laws was largely supported by it’s whole own culture defining the “Roaring 20s”
As we are also reminded in works like On Tyranny, most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.
If we know that, we can use that.
@NGPZ – I’m not reading that many paragraphs when I already have the vibe of what you’re saying, so apologies for that I just don’t have the spoons right now.
I think it’s important to focus on things that are actually going to help people. If you think it’s important to talk in these grandiose ways about shit that just isn’t going to happen, and even if they did they would start a literal war, that’s totally for you to decide. I disagree with you, but what else is new.
@Uly – Fair. I’ll admit I was thinking of the electoral votes and not the popular vote when I spoke on that. The rest of my point still stands.
uh, what exactly isn’t going to happen, how would it start a war, and how do you know it’s what I’m saying given you said you didn’t read the paragraphs?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But given you said you don’t have the spoons, completely understandable.
California seceding.
Because America doesn’t like secession.
I started reading and skimmed a bit, just didn’t read in detail.
Remembering why I usually don’t bother responding to you.
Good bye again.
I like how they claim its becose they care about women. They do horrible things to women, they don’t even want them to vote. They just think this will play well with gullible leftists of they use what they see as feminist buzzwords.
“Women must be protected, even if they have to be controlled.” Really it’s the other way around of course, but it’s an approach that even appeals to many women.
We should expect that the new administration will do everything it can to (1) control women and (2) force birth rates up. They are scared about future population declines.
Yeah, I’ll admit that I had a really horrible creeping feeling about any extra reasons WHY they’re defining male and female by which half of the baby-making we are.
the whole “population decline” thing is just bullshit
same with “overpopulation”, REAL experts predict that the world population will level off at around 10 billion people, extrapolating shit from the average global birthrate comes from the fundamental error of assuming each country started industrializing at exactly the same time 9-9
Note that Malthusian economics was the early environmentalist movement but also linked with fascism.
Because it wasn’t, “Too many people.” It was “too men of THOSE people.”
It justified the Irish Famine’s response.
yep, very easily goes with the marked obsession with “social decadence” definitive of fascist mentality, as also seen in Mary’s recent attempt at recruiting Joyce (-_-)
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-15/01-love-dares-you-to-change/advances/
I used to be a conservative Republican, its not the birth rate in general they are scared of its the decline in WHITE children they are afraid of. They know that white Americans are not having children fast enough to replace themselves. And THAT terrifies them. They assume that if they become a minority they will be treated the way they treated everybody else.
That helped move me from being a conservative as well.
Especially when I realized what the real reason for a lot of anti-choice people’s takes were. Because they sure as shit weren’t concerned for the mother or what happened to the child after birth.
The weirdest comfort I can offer is from a trans friend. “I’m cautious but I believe that the massive changes the fascists want would require them to be a different combination of stupid, lazy, and corrupt than they are right now. Infighting will do a lot of the heavy lifting for the next four years.”
I mostly find hope in recognizing that the communities I care about have been in worse situations before and have gotten through them before. Now, that’s not meant as “everything will be fine”– there will be needless suffering, for many people, and it may take a long time to start to make progress again. It’s not a short-term hope for me, but a long-term hope that communities will continue on.
1407 days until it’s over.
What music is even hip with kids today? Billie Eilish?
The Beatles? That’s what the kids listen to; right?
The Beatles put out a new single a couple years ago and the kpop fans went apoplectic and bought so many BTS singles it pushed the Beatles out of the top 10 completely.
A lot of the teenagers I know are going through a phase where they listen to the same pop-punk stuff that a lot of us grew up with, oddly enough? idk if it’s because the teen librarian is also in my age group or what, but I’m not complaining
I saw a kid today, a teen wearing an AC/DC Back in Black shirt. I was 15 when this came out in 1980. I am now 59. I’m not against it, its great to see the shirts, I just don’t get it. Its like if in 1980 I was wearing a T shirt for Johnny Ace or the Ink Spots.
Recent students of mine love this song.
(Together Forever is better.)
Also he does a decent cover of “Everlong”
The kids weren’t requesting those.
[finds Together Forever]
…this isn’t a Pokémon song? How is this not a Pokémon song? Is it just me? It can’t be just me. This just screams Pokémon to me.
His cover of Everlong is pretty fantastic. Just him and a guitar was fantastic, imagine him as a frontman with Dave on drums.
That. Shall. Live. Forever.
I got got, I’ll admit it. Yumi, are they actually asking to listen to that or did you just style on everyone who clicked the link?
They did honestly love Rick Rolling. These were kids who were like 10 to 12, and I was kind of amazed by the longevity of it. One of my students had the song come on in the middle of his talent show performance.
It genuinely slaps
I don’t know, I wasn’t hip with the music of the teens even when I was a teen.
Same. But then the Beatles improved.
How, by breaking up?
(kidding, kidding…)
The devastation that would come to the world of popular music from letting Ringo back into their band was only outdone by Lars Ulrich staying in Metallica all these years.
Pretty sure when I was a teenager, everyone was listening to They Might Be Giants, folk music, the Cats soundtrack, and that Discworld album by Dave Greenslade. The charts just didn’t reflect this because of the squares, man.
That week when everyone got really into old sea shanties was the first time I knew what it felt like to be in touch with the musical zeitgeist
I’m so far out of touch with the musical zeitgeist that even though I’m into old sea shanties, I missed that week until I found out about it a year or more later.
I’m still fond over discovering Gregorian chants, along with tens of millions in my age group.
me too. i was in high school in 2015 and i was only just then discovering the foo fighters about twenty years late. i have no idea what is on the radio right now.
Doesn’t matter. Most people aren’t listening to their music on the radio.
Probably… Taylor Swift? I’m gonna say Taylor Swift.
But my niece is, inexplicably, a fan of 90s music. We discovered a mutual appreciation of Postmodern Jukebox three days before they came here on concert, and she was both the youngest and also by far the most enthusiastic person in that crowd. A whole bunch of people in their 40s and 50s, two teens.
Go meet Sal, and that one dude that hangs out with her, who’s name escapes Joyce.
Nightguy?
–
Perfect gravatar choice is perfect.
Hat?
Never pasa the aux to Joyce. She will thank you for this later.
I have decided to believe that aux is Italian for ox.
Your mom is Italian for ox!
That’s what Mike said.
I love how well Jocelyne knows her sister. Does Gravatar change mean we could get Jocelyne?
asldkfj that’d be so neat! (but hey, at least I’m Joyce’s *other* sister, hehe)
There has to be a Jocelyne one right? I mean even Lyle gets a grav and we only saw him like one time.
I had to check the wiki because I straight up could not remember who Lyle is despite having read both series he’s in like 5 times
Turns out there is a Jocelyne
Awww, I want to go back to being Blowjob Cat.
change the capitalization of your email
Is Blowjob Cat still in the pool?
of course? why wouldn’t they be? XD
I hadn’t been seeing them, and I know sometimes new avatars replace older ones.
heck I saw Needfuldoer with them just yesterday LOL
Blowjob cat is easy. Sal is hard.
I’m glad to see it’s still in the pool, it’s a good avatar
What?
You could copy the picture you want and actually set it as your Gravatar; that way it could be the same even long after the current Gravatar cycle.
Yeah, I did that with the Bloodrose avatar after it got removed from the pool.
:O there was a Bloodrose avatar?
“woof $80!” is always a fun activity with friends.
Expensive after a while though.
Poor Jocelyn doesn’t realize Joyce may soon start to snark back.
The real snark has been inside her all along.
I thought it was the snark she made along the way.
By the sliding time scale, Rich Mullins and dctalk are college kids’ parents’ music. No idea what Christian or recently ex-Christian college kids listen to these days.
Is…Is that a Spanky? Lo, I have not seen of the Our Gang in decades!
I think Joyce would listen to her parent’s music. I think that is right up her alley.
I have nothing constructive to add to the comment section, I just saw everyone else talking about the Gravatar pool getting re-rolled and I didn’t want to dig through the archives to see what my new roulette-assigned internet face is.
Sad Ethan! I think Ethan was one of my first ever gravs nearly a decade ago (MFW the passage of time) so this feels right.
Will Jocelyne see more of Joyce’s art? meet Sarah? None of the above and hi-jinx happen instead?
“yo pass the aux cord” “u better not play Rich Mullins” “…”
[ Hammered dulcimer intensifies ]
Need a new gravitar
No
Did you know Gravitar is the name of an Atari game
It came out in 1982 in arcades and was released on the 2600 the following year
I just realised I’ve been spelling Gravatar wrong which makes the connection to the video game far more tenuous
Maybe you’ve been spelling it right and the Gravatar people spelled it wrong.
Maybe they spelled it that way because (a) it’s more appropriate to their function and (b) please don’t sue us Atari!
I remember. I’m old.
I’m old, but I keep forgetting.
Despite coming out today, reading this comic feels like discovering a meme template which you’ve seen used for years and only just discovered the source. It just feels “meme template”.
What’s the etiquette of informing Willis of mistakes in this comic? I’ve never been early enough to catch one before. Or is it not a mistake and saying “pass time” instead of “pastime” is an American cultural difference?
is cultural difference pretty sure
“Pass time” is short for “a way to pass time.” A pastime is an activity.
And that’s what a popular pastime is.
Why pastime isn’t spelled passtime is beyond me, though. Must be the same stinginess that gave us fulfill…
The phrase came from “passe tyme”. So “pass time” is an older but still correct usage. The very modern “pastime” is also okay.
Something something analogy pasgass.
I wondered the same thing, it seems to me to be one of those commonly mis-said phrases, like “for all intensive purposes” instead of the correct “for all intents and purposes”. The “a way to pass time” definition seems like a retroactive justification for it. It really stood out to me as a wrong thing for Joe to say, and also so strange because part of why it is commonly mis-said is that it sounds the same, but I’ve never seen it written down, just spoken.
It can’t be missaid if it’s pronounced the same. That’s logically impossible.
It can only be miswritten, misspelled, as it has been here.
No you’re right, it should be “pastime”.
Yep. In this particular context it should indeed be “pastime” that Joe’s saying. It doesn’t really bother me enough to raise a fuss about it, but it IS an error. XD
That doesn’t really matter.
No worries. The phrase is originally “passe tyme”. So “pass time” is an older but still correct usage. The very modern “pastime” is also okay.
popular pass (nah, I’ll pass if we’re going to do that) time
In Joe’s head, it’s two words, so his speech bubble is fine.
It’s supposed to be “pastime” even in ‘Murica, so either Willis or Joe has it wrong. Although, to be fair to either, it DOES sound more like “pass time.”
Hey I LIKE the mall! But my Mall is the Mall of America.
That thing is huge.
It has to be in order to hold America.
What?
This America’s faulty, can we please return it?
Google it, its so big the center has an indoor amusement park with multiple coasters.
And an aquarium underneath it!
Damn I miss camp snoopy.
Someday Joyce will graduate to Skillet.
It’s all Js today
Sal achieved!!!
Congrats! May your newfound gravatar identity reign long!
Someone revising the thing they just said but in the exact same tone (or in the case of comics, in the exact same pose, so you know they said it in the exact same tone) is one of my favourite jokes ever.
Oh man, the third panel takes me back. That desire to have nice school affiliated shirts and accessories but everything is WAY overpriced.
Someone get Joyce a more diverse music taste
Great double-take punchline, and totally in character.
Having left christianity and still listening some christian songs. From any reasons, from nostalgia to your love from key-change-songs….
Like, who never??
Time for Jocelyne to meet Carla?
Would be funny if Ruttech was supplying military gear to whatever conflict Jocelyne is protesting. The sweet sweet drama.
Hey now, this is the new Joyce. This is the Joyce who isn’t afraid to try new things. Some of it could be PFR!
PFR = Pretty Far Rout
The third panel is Joyce’s plots world domination face.
I love Joyce’s self confident Joyce Face
I will not play gravatar roulette.
Well, I don’t have Robin, Amber, Amazigirl, or Jacob yet, so I’m going to keep going. Usually Sal is the last one I get, but she showed up early this time.
Update. Have Amber and Jacob. Still no Robin and … have I seen Amazigirl this time around? I mean I can understand retiring Mary, for example, but Amazigirl?
Argh. Reviewed common avatars from the last few days. No Amazigirl. However it appears that I have not yet found Robin, Ruth, Becky or Ethen. Ruth appears to be the rare one this time instead of Sal
I’ll keep an eye out for AG
I am mistaken. Going back a few days there are a number instances of Amazigirl.
At this point I have Robin and Ruth, but have added Liz and Amazigirl to the list. Additionally there are two different avatars I was counting as Lucy. I’m going to have to seek some clarity.
And now I’ve got Liz. So Becky, Ethan and Amazigirl to go.
Yes, you will. 🪓
and may have already won.
Fair, Malaya a pretty good one anyway ^^
Sounds like Joyce needs to try listening to new music and expand her music taste.
I imagine it would go like her experiences with sushi.
Joyce will get really into Weird Al, but won’t know any of the original songs.
I wonder what her take on Amish Paradise would be
Heh, it took me a long while to figure out that some of his stuff was parody of specific songs*: I’d never heard the originals. E.g. Another One Rides the Bus. Others I had heard, and recognized (I Love Rocky Road).
———-
* As opposed to parody of styles/genres, like Those Were the Good Old Days or Christmas at Ground Zero.
That is actually fairly common as I understand it. So much so it’s called “The Weird Al Effect” by TV tropes.
Joyce needs power metal in her life. Stories of valiant knights slaying dragons and riding unicorns to syncopated minor scales.
That … sounds interesting. Is that actually a thing.
Holy Cow!!! It is a thing! Currently listening to Best Of POWER METAL Songs – Compilation Vol.1. Thank You, oh ZerglingOne!!!!!!!!!!
Check out the movie version of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme, if you want a real jam.
Will do. I give about 50% chance you are taking advantage of my gullibility.
We could hang out and smoke some weed, and fill our bellies with DIET soda and play burnout revenge for the PS2
ngl that actually sounds perfect ^^