I previewed the first panel on Tumblr a while back.
Discussion (159) ¬
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Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 18h
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Sadly, no.
It was Amber’s dad, and there was a mad party XD
I wonder if Amber’s dad is such a douchebag in this universe.
well assuming his choices and actions were not a result of the aliens (in the main walkyverse) one would assume he was just as big a jackass
I asked that on SP a little while back (March 28) and Willis said he’s divorced and remarried in DOA.
Dunno if that helps, but at least we know his first marriage fell apart, which suggests he’s a jerk here too. Though divorce can happen for plenty of other reasons.
It makes sense that he was. Amber is obviously hiding from something in her life as a superhero and online gaming addiction. She obviously has a rage-on for injustice that comes from somewhere.
Personally I’m hoping for a storyline where she trains Mike as her sidekick then has to stop him when he’s himself. That’d really show off Amazigirl’s ethic.
You… really don’t have to be hiding from something to be addicted to games and dumb comics. Nerdyness is its own perpetuator. Childhood trauma hasn’t made me addicted to the internet, the INTERNET had addicted me to the internet. That’s just what it does.
It helps though.
You… really don’t have to be hiding from something to be addicted to games and dumb comics. Nerdyness is its own perpetuator. Childhood trauma hasn’t made me addicted to the internet, the INTERNET had addicted me to the internet. That’s just what it does.
Your point is valid.
However, there is an interesting difference in how one consumes entertainment. See, I like entertainment but it has to be good to keep me engaged; even my lifeblood of gaming. It takes a lot more than COD or Big Bang Theory to keep me interested. My brother on the other hand has some pretty major emotional instabilities, so he sits and takes in anything he can put his hands on. I swear the kid has put 200 hours into Frontlines, and countless more into every Anime he can put his hands on.
So, really, there’s a big difference between me and my brother when it comes to at what rate we consume things, more than our preferred mediums.
We could only wish, Les, we could only wish!
That’s some fine figgy lovin going on there. Someone turned on the Marvin Gaye for a night of romanticizing
ALL the sad faces!
I think Dorothy’s most sad that she can’t yell some more at Roz.
We’re all a little sadder for that.
Fact.
BIEBER DIED? PARTYYYYYYYY
oh wait? He didn’t?
….
man.
you really had me going there.
You want him gone? It’s gonna cost you.
Pah. Mike would do it for a nickel. The trick is making him believe you don’t want him to do it.
Another year or so and he will go the way of all other teeny bopper heart throbs.
Alas, what replaces him may be worse.
Nah, he’s here to stay. He’ll be playing Vegas by 2030.
He could transition to country and eke out a few good years.
I kid. He’s not my thing but he’s got a long career ahead of him yet.
I’m already picturing the Bieber weddings.
Yeah, I can see that.
Justin Bieber, standing on a street corner next to some Vegas hotel, holding up a sign that says “$50.”
Don’t worry,you can kill him
That whole event at the party made me appreciate just how classy Joe actually is.
Yeah. Nothing like a real asshole to show where the “chivalrous” in “chivalrous pervert” comes from.
Fitting Gravatar.
If it was Justin Bieber I bet everyone would be a whole lot happier looking…
I don’t know Joyce strikes me as ah… whatever Bieber calls his fans, i think he calls them maggots or juggalos or something along those lines.
peons. his fans are peons.
Dammit, my R. Kelley joke and link to instantrimshot.com will not post!
I was trying to make an insanely clever and not at all dated joke about R. Kelley and the way the word “peon” sounds, but no such luck.
I see what you tried to do there
You’re the only one :C
Belieber
That was awful and you should feel terrible!
No, that’s seriously what they call them.
No, seriously, toddtr should feel terrible telling us that. My eyes can not unsee what has been seen.
I’m tempted to leave you in blissful ignorance, but that which can be destroyed by the truth, should be. 10 million search results don’t lie.
“Belieber”? Really?? I am so sorry to hear about this.
You didn’t hear it. You read it. 8~P
Justin Bieber Dead, no he’s not 27 yet.
Joke is escaping me. You must explain joke!
famous musicaly talented people known for being the voice of a generation are generally known to die at 27. Such as Amy Whinehouse or Kurt Cobain. The latter of which Justin has compared himself the modern day version of.
That fact is exactly why I avoid all headlines about trash garbage celebs, unless it is their obits.
Dang, I have less than a year to become the voice of my generation. Oh well..
I’ve got a month and a half. Thanks for the reminder!
The important word there is talented…
After a quick trip in a time machine to the future where Bieber called himself this generation’s Kurt Cobain, Kurt quickly bought Bieber’s album, listened to it, then asked for a ride back in time and promptly shot himself in the head with a shotgun to get the horrible lyrics out of his head.
Also, you’re referring to this group:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club
He’s compared himself to Kurt Cobain?
EXCUSE ME REGURGITATING LUNCH LAUGHING TOO HARD.
Technically, anyone or anything can be compared to Kurt Cobain.
Well hopefully all this will lead to a resolution to the assault storyline that isn’t just “I don’t want to talk about it so let’s drop it”, which, for reasons detailed by a few people in the comics when that storyline unfolded, kind of bothered me.
It’s certainly not something gender-studies professor Leslie would have suggested!
Also, yeah people were wrong to jump all over Roz for saying stupid thignsi n the last strip when she clearly didn’t know.
Okay, moralizing over!
Roz is the type of person who thinks college parties are “Real Life™”. I can archive dive if you really need me to cite my source on that. If she doesn’t know that that kind of thing happens at those parties, she’s dangerously blind. If she does know, then her comments last strip make it seem like she’s unbothered by that kind of thing. Which makes all the jumping all over her kind of justified in my eyes.
I think “dangerously blind” sounds accurate. I’d give her credit for being very conscious about having safe sex, but she seems like the kind of gal who gives herself way too much credit for just that and fails to recognize other real dangers of the world.
We’re not saying Roz doesn’t believe date rape can occur at parties in general or that Roz is indifferent towards it.
We’re saying Roz didn’t know date rape occurred at that party specifically. So we haven’t actually seen what Roz’s reaction to rape is.
I’m not saying you’re saying anything. I’m saying my reading of Roz’s statements and behaviour says something about the kind of person she is.
She’s the kind of person who does thoughtless things!
HATE HER!
There’s nothing thoughtless about Roz.
I will retract my previous statement in which I referred to Roz as an “insensitive bongo.” My bad.
And on the topic of Leslie, it may become unavoidable if she learns about what happened at the party from someone who actually does know. It is one thing if Joyce’s friend’s are able to keep it to themselves, but if a faculty member at the university were to find out they may be obligated to inform the higher authorities. Otherwise, they could be risking their job by keeping the secret.
Of course, this would depend upon the university in question and how they might decide to handle the situation, if in fact anything can really be done in terms of catching the guy at this point in time.
I dunno, man. Legally, you basically can’t do anything unless the victim wants to press charges, and Joyce doesn’t want to.
They could connect Joyce with some free counseling, or they could have an advocate help her take him to court, but there’s nothing they can do vs. Ryan unless she calls it.
Legally, the wants of the victim don’t really mean much of anything. The whole “the victim didn’t press charges so we can’t do anything” is largely a myth as technically it is the DA’s office that presses charges. However, date rape and domestic abuse are very hard to prosecute without the help of the victim. So, practically there is nothing that can be done without Joyce.
This is exactly right. They actually used to press charges despite the desire of the victim in many cases of domestic abuse or of rape until someone pointed out that ignoring the victim’s desires was basically victimizing them a second time.
In Canada, it’s the Crown that decides whether or not charges will be pressed, not the victim. Is there a reasonable body of evidence, such that it would be possible to convict if it’s proven correct? Then charges are laid.
Takes out that whole “intimidating victims into backing down” thing you see in movies so often.
Here’s a question, though: What happens in America if the victim does want to press charges, but there isn’t enough evidence of wrongdoing? Does it still go to court? Who decides?
I can’t really blame Joyce for not wanting to talk about it. I can only imagine how traumitized and embarrased she must feel. But I also feel uneasy that they know there’s a sexual predator on the loose and didn’t try to report him.
It’s something she’d not like to think about at the moment. But I imagine it’s gonna come full circle.
It’s possible that Roz or someone else who was there will be able to help identify who the assailant was, if they hear more from Joyce or others who were there.
Probably not the best people to help her identify the assailant would either be Sarah or Dorothy, and Sarah beat the guy with a bat, plus if she didn’t see Joyce all disoriented she probably didn’t see what happened.
if she did then all this rage directed at Roz may have justification. But I am going to stick with a more credible theory and assume Roz did not know what was going on and assumed it was just a drunken brawl.
No, it’s something gender studies professor Leslie absolutely would not object to. A gender studies professor isn’t going to put Joyce on the spot and make her tell the class all about her rape.
Actually, I think that’s exactly what she’d suggest.
She might say that Joyce should talk about it to somebody at sometime, but if she decides that this is the perfect subject for a class discussion? Yeah, that would make her a *really terrible* gender studies teacher. Or teacher at all, really, but especially this.
And that is not where that comment was supposed to go.
Replace “Actually,” with “I agree,” and it makes sense here anyway.
I wasn’t suggesting Leslie would hold a class pow-wow about it, but that she would probably talk to Joyce herself if she got wind of it.
I kind of expected this. Minus the Bieber joke, of course.
I can’t really blame Joyce, under the circumstances.
Why would anyone be sad over Justin’s death? Unless it means that you cannot make jokes about him anymore.
i think you can only not make jokes about people who were genuinely talented and were ruined by scandal. Justin was just laughable. so maybe…2 months before it’d funny again?
Normally social convention usually dictates you have to wait 22.3 years, but since the rise of the internet 2 months seems about right.
I think Michal Jackson took about 1.5 years and he was among the most talented men alive.
Time to joke about a popular celebrity’s death according to internet time is =(sc) x (i) + f
SC(22.3)
i=1/10000
f=years of fame x (1/33)
That formula….. It seems a deliberate misdirection.
Surely you jest…
Hey, I don’t know who he hung out among. Do you?
His name isn’t Shirley
Pffff, I was joking about Jackson’s death the day he died.
Then again, he died during a friend’s birthday so it was kind of hard not to.
Quit Making fun of Justine Bieber she can’t help it that she looks like a boy!
He has about a bajillion fans. Pretty sure they’d be pretty upset.
It’s okay, the music industry will go out and buy them a new pop sensation, and they’ll forget all about the Biebster.
couldn’t have been beiber. There’s not enough balloons or cake.
…And Roz’s Empathy 101 courses begin…
Now I feel bad for Roz. She didn’t know
Although I can’t really blame Dorothy for her reaction. I feel sad for everyone. This strip is a downer.
Except for Leslie. Leslie as usual makes things better.
Leslie always makes things better. I wish I had a leslie to just prevent me from being sad forever.
I second the notion. Having a Leslie would be nice.
I want a Leslie, too. She is cool and nice and pretty, she can be my new girl-crush.
MERCHANDISING NOTE: Leslie plushies, Willis. Just sayin’…
No no no.
Leslie body pillows.
Nah, full main cast body pillows and plush toys. They’ll be expensive to the end users just because of the costs of custom toys in general and this kind of toy in particular, but I’d consider it worth it as much as I do the figures…
Roz actually looks concerned. I’m getting the feeling we misjudged her yesterday.
I would say “Puzzled” and “Curious” more than concerned. She’d probably exploit it or go on a crusade about it if she knew, in spite of how it might affect Joyce. Give a rash, arrogant teen an ideology and more often than not you’ve given him/her a license to be extra dickish.
Also, pretty sure that must be a happy moment Leslie. Nah, I was exagerating, a “Meh” moment.
I wouldn’t really characterize Roz as rash or arrogant. I guess she’s a little proud, but it’s kind of an unfair jump to assume she’d try to exploit attempted assault.
If memory serves correctly (and it might not, I admit) she nearly torpedoed her sister’s political career by posting a video of herself and Joe having sex to make a point. That point? Robin’s constituents are too conservative.
I guess it’s not the same, I’m just saying I can see that kind of stunt coming from her. Perhaps realizing afterwards the terribleness of what she did, once the damage is already done.
But the intention was not to hurt Robin’s career, it was to make a statement about slut-shaming. It didn’t have anything to do with her constituants in particular.
I’m pretty sure that annoying her sister was at the very least a significant bonus if not an outright part of the goal. There’s a lot of envy and simmering resentment there.
But it’s for that same reason that I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that she’d exploit the situation with no regard for the victim. Things aren’t personal between her and Joyce like they are with her sister.
Precisely. If she does exploit what happened to Joyce in any way (and I’m not saying it WILL happen, just saying it’s plausible given what we know about her), the intention won’t be to hurt Joyce. She’s reckless, not evil.
That distinction is the key. People automatically assume that if you do things that most people would consider terrible, that automatically makes you a terrible person and it means you were a terrible person before. I just don’t think this is true.
Many terrible things that happen to us (or unethical things we’ve done) didn’t come from malice but poor judgment and character flaws. The stuff that teenage-hood is made of, practically. A huge part of growing up is either growing a spine or learning not to be a dick, sometimes both.
Considering her interactions with Robin, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she did try and exploit the situation. She strikes me as having the sort of crusading mentality that will justify anything in the name of a good cause.
But there’s a huge difference between exploiting someone’s story of sexual assault and accidentally putting a dent in someone’s career. For all the emphasis Roz puts on safe sex and that her personal choices in her sex life don’t affect anyone, I personally can’t see her doing something so malicious.
But you see, that’s the thing. It’s not malicious, it’s just self centered and reckless. Roz doesn’t go around screwing people over for the lulz, she just does whatever she thinks will advance a worthy cause. The notion that it might cause more harm than good doesn’t seem to register with her.
Yeah. Roz loves sexual freedom and pride. Assault takes away that person’s sexual freedom and pride. I can’t see how she’d be able to justify humiliating an assault victim.
I’m not sure whether that’s concerned or confused. Maybe more the latter. If she knew, I think it’d be closer to concern and outrage. Kinda like Dorothy, actually.
No. The Comments, instinctively lashing out at Roz, over something that she may or may not have done? You must be joking, surely!
But seriously, just because she knows that, in theory, this sort of thing happens at parties, doesn’t mean she, like, goes out of her way to invite rapists to her parties. Roz is the sort to EXPECT that you are going to get hit on at a party (though maybe not by a rapist). She’s also the sort to assume that, if you ARE at a party, you kind of knew the risks already, and are likely looking for a good time.
Only, in this case, we have one of the few characters in the entire cast who did NOT know ahead of time. The chances of the one really pushy dude in the cast meeting up with the one character who would have really fallen for it are… slim, if this wasn’t a narrative medium.
Come now, he was pretty convincing, and Billie was the only one programmed to automatically keep her drink sealed at all times even while drunk. Ryan could easily have targeted Dorothy instead and might have gotten at least as far.
Agreed. It’s pretty clear that he spotted her and, worryingly, he may be skilled at it. Remember the strip “Mark”? (“oh maybe he has a friend called Mark”)
I’d say the chances of this one dude meting up with that one girl in real life are about equal to the chances of that one girl existing. Minus a little bit for interruptions and such, obviously.
I don’t think anyone is going to go back and check their comments from yesterday, but if you two are, I just wanna say that I totally agree. He didn’t pick the only possible target, true, but the point I was trying to make was simply that it’s not Roz’s fault that this happened.
It’s not like she really did anything too out of the ordinary, eithre. She invited people she didn’t know, including Dorothy and Joyce, which happened to include an almost rapist. While a terrible thing to happen, how ELSE do you think you get a ton of people to show up to a rocking party?
Actually, I always check one day earlier. Except sometimes on mondays because, you know, monday. So thanks for that.
And now I hope you do, because I feel a correction must be made. It was not Roz’s party. She also (presumably) did not invite Ryan.
In fact, it’s possible that no one did. He just saw a party happening and walked in. It’s not terribly hard, just go in bearing snacks, and try to blend in.
if it had been bieber they all would have been smiling, except joyce, i have a strange feeling that this universe’s joyce likes bieber (oh god don’t murder me for saying that)
she probably does. And the Jonas Brothers and their purity rings.
I always thought that losing a “Purity Ring” while being “impure” would be kinda funny. Especially if it fell out during half-time cheering!
She does enjoy “The sound of music”. I bet she might think christian rock is too modern.
Naw, Joyce is way hip and liberated. (She has the internet!) Her parents might find him appalling, but Joyce would probably swoon.
That’s Leslie for ya. Finger on the pulse of the youth community.
I’m probably the only person who comments on this thing that likes Justin Bieber… I would mourn his passing.
Anyway, this is interesting. I get the feeling Walky and Joe don’t exactly know what happened either. This is all enough to make you pay attention.
I’d feel a little bad…but it’d be like the little neighbor girls cat just died. I’d be sad. just not very interested.
I can’t say I like justin Bieber, really.
But, I do feel sorry for him ’cause of all of the hate he gets, even though he’s really no worse than any other teen pop singer.
Actually, Walky does know what happened:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/nightmare/
I remember how, as soon as I was slightly above the age of the target audience for Barney, my friends and I used to HATE him. Despise him. Simply because we were above it now, and it’s dumb, so there. The fact that we used to like it, or stuff like it, certainly played a part.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that a lot of Beieber hate seems to more be saying “how dare someone try to create simple and catchy empty pop songs? Music has to be INTELLIGENT and INTERESTING!” (not to mention at least a small amount of jealousy: “how dare this mere CHILD be more popular than me/my favorite band?”). I mean, do I like his music? I could maybe recall one… a small part of one. But I’ve never heard anything that insults my intelligent or makes me ashamed to be a music lover. So billions of kids buy music that doesn’t personally appeal to me. So what?
Justin who?
Perhaps Justin Bieber in the Dumbingverse is a truly beloved Rock God. I know, it’s hard to imagine, but with alternate universes anything is possible.
I am waiting to see how Roz and Leslie will react to Joyce’s stupid decision after that party.
The question is, who will be more pissed: Roz or Leslie?
Roz, if it comes to that. Leslie might disagree but she would be considerate of Joyce’s feelings. I can see Roz going into crusade mode.
I can see both of them going into crusade mode. Their routes and methods would differ, but I can see both bearing swords and wearing crosses on this particular crusade. Roz strikes me as the take-up-arms-and-charge-in-screaming sort of crusader. Gains allies if anyone else gets caught up in the energy of her charge, but can be pretty weak if no one joins her because she doesn’t take time to explain, recruit, organize, and plan. Leslie, on the other hand, is more meticulous and thoughtful. She’d likely attack this issue on several fronta at once: (1) try to coax Joyce into seeing the need to take action, (2) try to locate and convince other victims to join in the crusade, (3) research the perpetrator and his strengths and weaknesses, (4) find ways to separate the rapist from his support network, and (5) convince as many victims as possible to report their assaults to the police and campus authorities. Of course, while Leslie is working her crusade, Roz is probably busily pepper-spraying preacher boy’s jock straps or just getting the campus gorilla to make with the steel-tied boots to preacher boy’s junk.
Don’t get my hopes up like that.
Oh Leslie…if only….
As I’m comparing their faces at the moment – could there be a chance that Ryan and Leslie are related in some way? There seem to be some visual similarities.
There isn’t a single smile in this entire comic except butt taco.
Just, you know, pointing that out.
hahahaha
I can’t tell if Roz is confused or sad.
I’m going with confused. She’s not cruel IMO, just oblivious. Not that she can’t be cruel, but she generally doesn’t seem to be looking for trouble. She just doesn’t avoid it very well.
The mysterious green-shirted person appears to be a woman. Will this person ever have a name? Or a tag? Or a name-tag?
‘She’ should. She’s a recurring character now.
Did ‘Shaggy’ ever get tags?
Actually, I’m more interested in the brown-shirted chick sporting suspenders. Suspenders are a rarity nowadays.
It could just be straps for a bookbag though
Yay Leslie is back!
And looking pretty hot too!
When Joyce’s breasts shrank last comic, that’s where it went.
Leslie is a boob theif.
If only it WAS Justin Bieber. Or Stephanie Meyer.
SAAAAAAD FAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
Bieber will never die. Not because he is good or anything. It’s because he is an evil Disney android, designed by Satan, and built by China to prevent American teens(and their moms) from focusing on something constructive that might actually benifit the world.
I couldn’t have said it better myself (love, a teenage girl)
like Hannah Montana?
I am relieved Roz has no idea, because if she did, the kind of callous disregard she would have thus shown last strip is something I hope is beneath even her.
Leslie is wearing one hell of a push up bra here. Is THAT what todays class is gonna be about?
While I’ve never been a huge fan of DoA Joyce, its still really painful to see how haunted she is by what happened. She’s trying so hard to act like the attack never happened, when its obviously hurting her so much. I really hope she at least talks to someone about this soon, before it consumes her.
And I think even Dorothy could stand a bit of counseling too, because she obviously feels immensely guilty, despite the fact she hold no guilt for what happened.
I’m not sure about the school in this comic, but I know that both my undergrad and grad schools had at least counselor of sorts who would meet with students and talk to them about any problems they might be going through. Of course, that’s assuming someone could get the girls to go to that.
Maybe it was Rebecca Black who died.
Would have ben better if they got killed at the same time
Watch this video:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lLl7Qe35O64
You wish
I wish it was,but then it wouldn’t be sad, it would be a gigantic party.
If Justin Bieber were dead, everyone would be celebrating.