To be fair we don’t even know Angie’s gender, let alone who they prefer genderwise. Assuming Asma’s gender and her roommate shares that gender, we still don’t know if Angie would go for Arnold.
To be fair, the Jesus that keeps being mentioned in DoA is the one that Robin mentions a bunch the white guy who wears a white robe with blue sash, and not the 5’2” middle eastern guy who’s pretty chill.
There was also this one guy that kept showing up named David Something. Don’t really remember the details. I think he wrestled with Ethan in pudding or something. He hasn’t shown up yet.
If Willis ever shows up in DoA, they’ll be the only character that ages according to »our« timeline. Unless Maggie shows up too, of course.
On the other hand, DoA has a No Characters Based On Existing People Rule. (Which has been broken in the case of Alex & that character from a TV show at a party.) Then again, Joe & a few others (Howard) are based on David’s childhood friends. Rules schmules.
Willis has said Ninja Rick was based on a real person and as such won’t be appearing in DoA, presumably bc they don’t have permission to use the person’s likeness in a more commercial work.
It depends on who you count as a DoA-original character. Of the characters who are (relatively) unambiguous, it’s currently Booster at 104 strips, with Jocelyne neck-and-neck with them at 103. Asher is third (I think) at 97, with Raidah at 85. However, there’s a couple of pesky edge cases.
The most plausible of these is Carla at a whopping 246. In a strict sense, she’s DoA-original on the grounds that Carla never appeared in the Walkyverse. However, while she’s a human being rather than a robot and accordingly has a different relationship with the world around her, she is indisputably based on Ultra Car’s third form in terms of both personality and appearance. Notably, the Roomies! 25th anniversary site headers combined Ultra Car’s and Carla’s pictures into a single banner.
Something that those banners didn’t do, however, was combine Amber and Amazi-Girl into a single banner– and nor do the current DoA 15th ones. Which brings me to my second, and far more tenuous, edge case. See, in the Walkyverse, Amazi-Girl wasn’t an alter, or a split personality, or anything. She really was just Amber (or Lucy, a few times) in a costume. Amazi-Girl, as a character of her own distinct from Amber, is therefore arguably a DoA-original character. In which case she’s got even Carla beat at 257, though I’m willing to bet Carla will dethrone her in the near future.
Yeah, I was kind of conflicted feeling about that. I guess it’s not technically unavoidable in the comic that we’d see her waking up or asleep, but I’m unsure if it’s like a faux pas or not. Not really my horse in the race regardless, it’s more for genuine curiosity’s sake than pearl clutching indignant outrage.
(The comic being posted then putting her in a non-girls’ space specifically. I’ve heard in Islam you aren’t supposed to depict people because it can be a form of idolatry, so I’m not actually sure if there’s an answer. My knowledge of Islam is limited.)
My understanding is that only the particularly fundamentalist sects forbid depicting people at all. Mostly it’s depictions of Mohammad that are prohibited, as it’s not the Prophet who should be worshiped, but Allah, and there’s some concern that people might start venerating the wrong thing (kind of like those folks who worship the cross, not the One who was crucified on it).
Eh, we see lots of other characters in situations where they’d really prefer that a bunch of random strangers on the Internet not see them. I don’t see that this is any different from, say, post-coital Dorothy covered only by strategically-positioned limbs.
The way a hijabi explained to me, wearing it is a lot like wearing pants. Like you probably don’t want to take them off in public but at home, well, we’ve seen most of the cast without pants at times.
I tried evolving beyond my need for sleep when I was a sophomore, and it seemed to work the more Diablo 2 I played, but it also resulted in me being half a step away from being kicked out of college. How I survived that second semester of sophomore year I’ll never know.
I used to sleep on my side, and still doze for short periods that way, but my CPAP pretty much requires that I lie on my back for best fit/results. Totally worth it.
I haven’t read any slipshines, but this so much. I kind of wondered if it’s respectful to drawa hijabi like this… Until I remembered she’s a fictional character and we’ve seen others in their underwear (or without, with some careful framing).
And, like almost everything in real life, the answer to “Is it respectful” is, “It depends”. In this case, it depends on whom you ask:
Some Muslims would be incensed. You can include almost all of the ones who rioted in Denmark after the “Mohammed Cartoon” fiasco.
Some wouldn’t care; some of them aren’t even hijabi, themselves, except as a matter of fashion or statements of faith (as opposed to it being a religious requirement).
Some wouldn’t care either, but for the reason that as a non-Muslim, Willis isn’t expected to follow the rules, anyway.
So, yeah, in the end, you just have to follow your gut on things like this, as there is no universal consensus on the hijab in the first place.
I feel there is some level of American privilege here. Unless you’re in a very secular European Muslim country (bosnia, Albania) I don’t think this would be that easy in a Muslim country. But maybe not for hair. A slipshine though… Hmmm
Sure, but Willis is an American comic creator, and Asma is a character who is an American Muslim; that context should inform the ‘disrespectful’ discussion.
idk, I’m pretty sure the “no depictions of Mohammed” is a very specific rule that can’t be generalized to assume that “Muslims are just sensitive about pictures depicting religious things”. Pretty sure it’s the no-graven-images commandment thingie.
Yes, but that’s why I highlighted a particular subset of Muslims who would be offended by portrayals. The riots weren’t just by Muslims who hold to such rules themselves, but who demand that everyone else does, as well. This subset, I’m fairly confident, would also be incensed by even a fictional portrayal of a Muslim woman without the hijab on.
It shouldn’t be too hard to find examples of such outcries if this exist, it’s not like Asma is the first-ever hijabi character portrayed by western media.
Like, let me be very clear, I am not assuming Asma’s portrayal is inoffensive. I am objecting to your assumption and your language (“incensed”, you said, rather than “exasperated” or “annoyed” or even just “offended”).
Also:
“some wouldn’t care; some of them aren’t even hijabi, themselves, except as a matter of fashion or statements of faith (as opposed to it being a religious requirement).”
This just isn’t how anything works. Not being a hijabi != not caring about fictional portrayals of hijabi. I would go as far as to say nocorrelation.gif. It’s a lot like assuming you wouldn’t care what happened to your sister because it’s not happening to you.
I’ve been reding Alice Oseman’s “I Was Born For This” and the main character wears a hijab. There are scenes mentioning her needing to put it on or existing in spaces without it. I didn’t even think that it would be disrespectful in a text story, so it shouldn’t matter in a comic either. But I bet different people would have different views and takes on it.
Some time back Mr. Willis had a brief discussion on Bluesky about this topic but gave up because there was no possibility of getting a consensus and a lot of the people providing feedback had no personal experience to support that feedback.
Meh. The comic has plenty of elements in it that violate this or that fundamentalist religious ideas. If someone wants to get pissy about this thing in particular, they can stand in line after the folks what yell about all the other stuff.
There is a strongly held belief among some that says that only members of a particular minority community should critique that community. I don’t necessarily hold to that belief myself, but I’m aware of the position and understand the arguments for it.
Willis was born and raised in the fundie Christian community; he is thus in an excellent position to critique it. On the other hand, he is not Muslim, and may even have no close acquaintances who are. From a position of ignorance, his critiques are more likely to fall flat, go wide of the mark, or even cause distress to people he’s seeking to give representation to.
(My own take is that you can overcome this risk with some degree of self-education. How much of that is needed will vary. Here’s one bit–I’m not sure “fundamentalist” is even a great way to describe conservative Muslims, as the term itself was originally specifically about a movement within Christianity to remove elements the adherents believed had been introduced or altered by modernity.)
I was trying to make a longer, more elaborated comment make more sense, but I think a better one is ASMA ARC ASMA ARC ASMA ARC?. Fictional young woman’s got me flustered like she is over a perky goth-lite with a beautiful nose.
I hope hers turns out as fun and rewarding as other under-focused character spotlights for development have been, like Lucy. It’s good pacing to the longer-running plot and emotional threads, and it finally lets us get to know someone who’s been around the setting almost as long as the comic’s been around.
I’m so hype for Asma that it took me way, way too long to notice the arc name.
She’s going to have her own disgraceful and learning moments, her own downsides and dysfunctions as a person, and times of just outright suffering the other characters or story circumstances. But I hope she gets to have a good enough time often enough to help pace the painful (if fascinating train wreck) ramifications there’ll be from last arc. It’ll be long-written by now, but Let Asma Have A Good Day.
This almost certainly isn’t an Asma arc. Far more likely a Becky one.
Unless Willis has rewritten far more than we think, this is an individual strip (or couple of strips) inserted into an existing story that didn’t feature Asma at all until sometime early next year.
I would hope that opening on Asma would indicate she’s getting some strong focus this arc, but, well – we opened on Amber and Sal last time, and then we got the Dorothy and Joyce show for three months
She wakes up early specifically to do her morning prayers. You can’t wake up grumpy to greet Allah! So her smile might reflect that she’s aware she rises early for a happy reason.
I mean, it’s equally possible that she looks forward to bowling with Alice & the girls. Who knows? But yeah, there’s also the context of morning prayers.
The main cast continues to grow to such enormous and unwieldy size that net storyline progression slows to an utter crawl, but it’s hard to be upset about it when Willis is such a good writer that every new character is interesting in their own right. Like the story would move faster without whatever Asma arc Willis has cooked up for us, but also I want to see the Asma arc because I like Asma!
I’m confused about logistics. Is this happening in one of the dorms? Is Asma a student here? I assumed she was an employee of the college who spends working hours managing the front desk, but if that’s the case, why is she sleeping in what seems like a dormitory bunk bed? But if she is a student, how does she manage classes? (or who’s at the front desk when she’s in class & why have we never seen them?)
Asma is a student at Indiana University who is also employed by IU to work the front desk at a residence hall. It’s not unusual for students to also have jobs, some them work for private enterprise like Becky as a waitress, and some work for the university like Ruth being a Resident Assistant. The reason Asma is the only person we see working the front desk is narrative convenience, presumably other people also work the front desk but they conveniently never show up.
I had this position back in the day. It’s usually a work-study arrangement, with your pay (always meager) is either used to give you a small dose of spending cash, or directed towards mitigating the loans you might need to cover tuition.
The scene-setting first panel shows the southwest wing of Read Halll, which is where most of the main cast live. Angie’s speech pointer shows her speaking from above because Asma has left her bed already and is standing on the floor.
It’s a part-time job (probably a work-study program); she gives her employer her class schedule and they don’t schedule her for hours that would conflict with classes.
Following up on what other people said, it’s common for students to have some sort of gig at their college they attend in order to have income. And it’s just easier to work where you’re going to school because you can go from class to a shift. I haven’t done it myself, but I’ve known people who have. There’s gigs at libraries, food service, RAs (like Ruth), and working a desk like Asma. I think student services are more volunteer work, those would be things like events coordinators and such.
I worked the front desk of my dorm my freshman year of college. Mostly after midnight before dawn shifts like 3am-7am Thursday morning then had time to get to class. Only one on Thursday and I’d sleep the rest of the day.
Just adding a data point — pretty much all front desk clerks when I went to school were other students, usually working four hour shifts 3-5 times a week plus a longer shift on the weekend or at night, scheduled around classes.
My roommate for example took mostly afternoon classes one year so he could work Mon Tue Thurs Fri 8am-12pm and Wednesday afternoon/evening — I don’t remember when the desk was open but I don’t recall it being open particularly late most days.
Thanks all for the information on how US college jobs work! At my UK uni, the “front desk” role belonged strictly to the college porters, who were very much older adults often portering as a full-time job & not students themselves. Students were more likely to work the college bar, a nice evening job well outside of lecture hours, which I’m only now remembering is less of an option when your country has an inexplicably high legal drinking age.
Though my university was also weirdly strict about term-time jobs and generally expected paid work to be done only during vacations, which made up something like 28 weeks of the year, so I don’t think my experience was normal by anyone’s standards.
RAs, mail/front desk clerks, campus safety patrol (verifying that exterior doors are locked appropriately, keeping an eye on public areas/walkways, etc), computer lab attendants and low-tier technical support, library pages, and food service counter workers in the dining areas were all usually student jobs (the latter four usually populated by Criminal Justice, CompSci, Library Science, and Food Science undergrads — in particular, the dairy science department on my campus also ran a phenomenally good ice cream manufactory and parlor)
Residence directors, maintenance/cleaning staff, mail sorting/distribution, actual campus police (my school was so big we had our own police department separate from the town), actual librarians, serious tech support folks, and the dining hall cooks were all full-time adult jobs.
OK, so Angie is ‘above’ and Asma ‘below’. Not all dorm rooms are the same? Cos Sarah and Joyce have beds above their workspsce, and close enough that Joyce can hang over Sarah and wake her up…
I think the establishing shot well, establishes it’s a dorm room and I believe Asma has actually stood up from her bed to get dressed not necessarily debunking they could have bunk beds but it’s still equally likely they’re lofts.
At some other schools (simply because I’m not aware of IU specifically) students can put their bunkbeds in storage and build lofts, (or hire someone to come in and build one, or buy a kit or a previous student’s loft to assemble). I believe some buildings can also come with different default room layouts but usually not in the same building.
Yeah, at PSU the default room configuration was “two beds on the floor”, and those beds were basically the cheapest possible things with a metal frame with bedsprings plus a reasonable spring mattress on top.
Pretty much everyone either brought a bunk bed frame/loft, or borrowed one from the pile in the storage closets left behind by previous students and put their desk under it. I was considered a bit extra because my dad and I built a loft frame with a really nice built-in desk under it so we could put the kinda crappy dorm default desk into storage.
The school-provided bedframes had legs that could be removed so you could use the metal frame and springs in your loft.
The main bookstores and student stores downtown even sold loft kits specifically marketed as being the correct height and size.
On which you kneel when using your pay-card. Obeisance to the gt god of Mammon? Tee hee.
So hard that these cannot be corrected. I usually see the mistake as I hit ‘Post Comment’… and howl!
The real comments war isn’t between Sickos and Paladins. It’s between people who still think there are bunk beds and people who understand what a loft bed is.
More for the “it depends” take around depicting Asma out of her hijab: I worked very briefly at a Muslim school; hijabs were part of the uniform for girls there, and most wore them outside of school as well. Still, when one was showing friends a video she took at home, showing her without a hijab, she didn’t mind that a couple boys saw.
On the other hand, when I was working in a different school (for the whole schoolyear), one student decided to start wearing the hijab partway through the year (she was in 5th grade.) When she did, she requested that any pictures in the classroom that showed her without her hijab be taken down.
Since Asma is fictional…well, Willis can decide, and I’d imagine they’d decide that Asma would be okay with comics that depict hijabis when they’re not wearing a hijab.
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yaaaaay Asma strip! <3
her bed-head looks so cute! aaaah! ^-^
Yeah, but let’s cut to what’s important. Who shall we ship Angie with.
Arnold?
Arnold can fuck right off. I saw what he posted on that forum.
Wrong gender my friend
To be fair we don’t even know Angie’s gender, let alone who they prefer genderwise. Assuming Asma’s gender and her roommate shares that gender, we still don’t know if Angie would go for Arnold.
Assuming she’s the same Angie that showed up a couple times in Shortpacked!, we can make an educated guess or two.
https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/floorplan
perfect icon is perfect
Super adorable bed head!
Morning, Asma
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu-ElCeJZR8
BOWLING!
BOWLING!
BOWLING!
Asma arc nat 20 let’s go
I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes
we’re waiting on that recall knowledge for the date to pay off lol
Are we officially out of Shortpacked characters?
We haven’t done Historical Jesus or Resurrected Reagan, err, yet, anyway.
They’ve talked a lot about Jesus and a bit about Reagan, which I choose to count.
There was a Ronald Reagan poster behind Mary in one strip a long time ago. I think that counts as the obligatory nod to “Shortpacked” Reagan.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/fraud/
To be fair, the Jesus that keeps being mentioned in DoA is the one that Robin mentions a bunch the white guy who wears a white robe with blue sash, and not the 5’2” middle eastern guy who’s pretty chill.
There was also this one guy that kept showing up named David Something. Don’t really remember the details. I think he wrestled with Ethan in pudding or something. He hasn’t shown up yet.
If Willis ever shows up in DoA, they’ll be the only character that ages according to »our« timeline. Unless Maggie shows up too, of course.
On the other hand, DoA has a No Characters Based On Existing People Rule. (Which has been broken in the case of Alex & that character from a TV show at a party.) Then again, Joe & a few others (Howard) are based on David’s childhood friends. Rules schmules.
Maggie (and her car) has actually appeared in the comic already.
We haven’t met Batman yet, though. He can breathe in space.
Nice to see someone else remembers Historical Jesus. I think we’ve already missed many opportunities for his appearance though.
I like to think Ninja Rick is a goundskeeper at IU.
We just never see him, because he’s a ninja.
That is the way with actual ninja, yes.
*nods
Willis has said Ninja Rick was based on a real person and as such won’t be appearing in DoA, presumably bc they don’t have permission to use the person’s likeness in a more commercial work.
That’s right! He won’t be appearing in DoA because he uses his ninja skills to dodge the cameras.
Singular Cat has not appeared yet
Asma’s also original to DoA, isn’t she?
Yes, she is. In fact, Asma actually holds the honor of being the very first original character DoA introduced, all the way back in the third strip!
What DoA original characters have been in the most strips?
It depends on who you count as a DoA-original character. Of the characters who are (relatively) unambiguous, it’s currently Booster at 104 strips, with Jocelyne neck-and-neck with them at 103. Asher is third (I think) at 97, with Raidah at 85. However, there’s a couple of pesky edge cases.
The most plausible of these is Carla at a whopping 246. In a strict sense, she’s DoA-original on the grounds that Carla never appeared in the Walkyverse. However, while she’s a human being rather than a robot and accordingly has a different relationship with the world around her, she is indisputably based on Ultra Car’s third form in terms of both personality and appearance. Notably, the Roomies! 25th anniversary site headers combined Ultra Car’s and Carla’s pictures into a single banner.
Something that those banners didn’t do, however, was combine Amber and Amazi-Girl into a single banner– and nor do the current DoA 15th ones. Which brings me to my second, and far more tenuous, edge case. See, in the Walkyverse, Amazi-Girl wasn’t an alter, or a split personality, or anything. She really was just Amber (or Lucy, a few times) in a costume. Amazi-Girl, as a character of her own distinct from Amber, is therefore arguably a DoA-original character. In which case she’s got even Carla beat at 257, though I’m willing to bet Carla will dethrone her in the near future.
Today is the day Asma rolls.
Oh hell yeah, nice to meet you, Angie!
(is this someone who was already in the Walkyverse or someone new for DoA? I can never tell, I’ve only read this strip)
Also, Asma plot? Hell yeah!
Very minor (appeared in seven strips total) Shortpacked! character who shared a house with Malaya, Arnold, and M. Bison, whose most notable appearance was as a member of the Axis of Something.
Asma!!!
I don’t know if we’ve met angie before but be hilarious if she was the polar opposite of her but stil goetting along
This is her first appearance in Dumbing of Age (for a given value of appearance) but Angie was a Shortpacked character.
ooh, can’t go wrong with freckles
Asmaaaaaa!
Sleep is just a substitute for caffeine.
And a piss-poor one at that!
Asma no headscarf feels… wrong. Love the hair though.
I mean, it’s very much normal for some Hijabi women to just not wear it when they’re in girls-only spaces ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Girls-only room, and asleep. She’ll put it on with her clothes.
Yeah the oddity here is the comic “camera” beams her to a non-girls only space. It’s a bit of a meta problem.
Yeah, I was kind of conflicted feeling about that. I guess it’s not technically unavoidable in the comic that we’d see her waking up or asleep, but I’m unsure if it’s like a faux pas or not. Not really my horse in the race regardless, it’s more for genuine curiosity’s sake than pearl clutching indignant outrage.
(The comic being posted then putting her in a non-girls’ space specifically. I’ve heard in Islam you aren’t supposed to depict people because it can be a form of idolatry, so I’m not actually sure if there’s an answer. My knowledge of Islam is limited.)
My understanding is that only the particularly fundamentalist sects forbid depicting people at all. Mostly it’s depictions of Mohammad that are prohibited, as it’s not the Prophet who should be worshiped, but Allah, and there’s some concern that people might start venerating the wrong thing (kind of like those folks who worship the cross, not the One who was crucified on it).
I don’t remember Neo getting crucified.
Eh, we see lots of other characters in situations where they’d really prefer that a bunch of random strangers on the Internet not see them. I don’t see that this is any different from, say, post-coital Dorothy covered only by strategically-positioned limbs.
I was just noticing that. It’s especially funny when you consider that one page prior, we were listening in on a sex scene…
i mean even if you shower right before bed, other than the kinda headwear lucy and jacob wear, i dont think sleeping in a headscarf 24/7 would be good
The way a hijabi explained to me, wearing it is a lot like wearing pants. Like you probably don’t want to take them off in public but at home, well, we’ve seen most of the cast without pants at times.
I tried evolving beyond my need for sleep when I was a sophomore, and it seemed to work the more Diablo 2 I played, but it also resulted in me being half a step away from being kicked out of college. How I survived that second semester of sophomore year I’ll never know.
Sleep – I never knew ‘er
Asma, finally.
Who is Angie?
Nice mat.
Where is this building?
So many points….
Angie was a Shortpacked character who has made no previous appearances in Dumbing of Age.
I can’t remember the face of my grandfather, but I remember this.
You do not reference with links. He who references with links has forgotten the face of his grandfather. You reference with in-jokes.
␆
…Asma has hair?
It’s a wig kappa
So much to do, there’s plenty on the farm
I’ll sleep when I’m dead
Saturday night I like to raise a little harm
I’ll sleep when I’m dead
I’m drinking heartbreak motor oil and Bombay gin
I’ll sleep when I’m dead
Straight from the bottle, twisted again
I’ll sleep when I’m dead
Until I’m six feet under, baby
I don’t need a bed
Gonna live while I’m alive
I’ll sleep when I’m dead
Till they roll me over
And lay my bones to rest
Gonna live while I’m alive
I’ll sleep when I’m dead
I’m envious of DoA characters’ ability to sleep on their back. I have to sleep on my side.
Until you end up in the hospital in a neck brace overnight because you got hit by a taxi, then you won’t be able to sleep on your side.
I fear your dark power of prophecy.
I used to sleep on my side, and still doze for short periods that way, but my CPAP pretty much requires that I lie on my back for best fit/results. Totally worth it.
I’m envious of their ability to sleep.
Is … is Asma friends with a demon?
I read that fanfic
Asma!! Excited for her to have her first storyline!
No Slipshine has felt more naked than Asma without her scarf.
I haven’t read any slipshines, but this so much. I kind of wondered if it’s respectful to drawa hijabi like this… Until I remembered she’s a fictional character and we’ve seen others in their underwear (or without, with some careful framing).
And, like almost everything in real life, the answer to “Is it respectful” is, “It depends”. In this case, it depends on whom you ask:
Some Muslims would be incensed. You can include almost all of the ones who rioted in Denmark after the “Mohammed Cartoon” fiasco.
Some wouldn’t care; some of them aren’t even hijabi, themselves, except as a matter of fashion or statements of faith (as opposed to it being a religious requirement).
Some wouldn’t care either, but for the reason that as a non-Muslim, Willis isn’t expected to follow the rules, anyway.
So, yeah, in the end, you just have to follow your gut on things like this, as there is no universal consensus on the hijab in the first place.
I feel there is some level of American privilege here. Unless you’re in a very secular European Muslim country (bosnia, Albania) I don’t think this would be that easy in a Muslim country. But maybe not for hair. A slipshine though… Hmmm
Sure, but Willis is an American comic creator, and Asma is a character who is an American Muslim; that context should inform the ‘disrespectful’ discussion.
idk, I’m pretty sure the “no depictions of Mohammed” is a very specific rule that can’t be generalized to assume that “Muslims are just sensitive about pictures depicting religious things”. Pretty sure it’s the no-graven-images commandment thingie.
Yes, but that’s why I highlighted a particular subset of Muslims who would be offended by portrayals. The riots weren’t just by Muslims who hold to such rules themselves, but who demand that everyone else does, as well. This subset, I’m fairly confident, would also be incensed by even a fictional portrayal of a Muslim woman without the hijab on.
And you are basing this certainty on……..?
It shouldn’t be too hard to find examples of such outcries if this exist, it’s not like Asma is the first-ever hijabi character portrayed by western media.
Like, let me be very clear, I am not assuming Asma’s portrayal is inoffensive. I am objecting to your assumption and your language (“incensed”, you said, rather than “exasperated” or “annoyed” or even just “offended”).
Also:
“some wouldn’t care; some of them aren’t even hijabi, themselves, except as a matter of fashion or statements of faith (as opposed to it being a religious requirement).”
This just isn’t how anything works. Not being a hijabi != not caring about fictional portrayals of hijabi. I would go as far as to say nocorrelation.gif. It’s a lot like assuming you wouldn’t care what happened to your sister because it’s not happening to you.
The fact she’s a cartoon character is also something that would undoubtedly come up. Which is to say, she’s not required to because she’s not real.
I’ve been reding Alice Oseman’s “I Was Born For This” and the main character wears a hijab. There are scenes mentioning her needing to put it on or existing in spaces without it. I didn’t even think that it would be disrespectful in a text story, so it shouldn’t matter in a comic either. But I bet different people would have different views and takes on it.
Some time back Mr. Willis had a brief discussion on Bluesky about this topic but gave up because there was no possibility of getting a consensus and a lot of the people providing feedback had no personal experience to support that feedback.
Meh. The comic has plenty of elements in it that violate this or that fundamentalist religious ideas. If someone wants to get pissy about this thing in particular, they can stand in line after the folks what yell about all the other stuff.
There is a strongly held belief among some that says that only members of a particular minority community should critique that community. I don’t necessarily hold to that belief myself, but I’m aware of the position and understand the arguments for it.
Willis was born and raised in the fundie Christian community; he is thus in an excellent position to critique it. On the other hand, he is not Muslim, and may even have no close acquaintances who are. From a position of ignorance, his critiques are more likely to fall flat, go wide of the mark, or even cause distress to people he’s seeking to give representation to.
(My own take is that you can overcome this risk with some degree of self-education. How much of that is needed will vary. Here’s one bit–I’m not sure “fundamentalist” is even a great way to describe conservative Muslims, as the term itself was originally specifically about a movement within Christianity to remove elements the adherents believed had been introduced or altered by modernity.)
There’s always wahhabi or salafi I guess if you want to describe the most extreme ideologies that nonetheless are supported by the Saudis.
My country is sunni and considered moderate and we come up with this gem
https://www.malaymail.com/news/showbiz/2025/11/16/universal-music-malaysia-pulls-dolla-video-after-backlash-says-move-respects-cultural-values-and-religious-sensitivities/198550
Was Asma in a Slipshine? Or are you saying seeing her without the hijab is like seeing a NSFW post?
It’s the latter.
My wife says Asma reminds her of Marjan from 911 Lone Star.
That is both a compliment and insult I feel.
I wonder what she’s smilin’ about.
I was trying to make a longer, more elaborated comment make more sense, but I think a better one is ASMA ARC ASMA ARC ASMA ARC?. Fictional young woman’s got me flustered like she is over a perky goth-lite with a beautiful nose.
I hope hers turns out as fun and rewarding as other under-focused character spotlights for development have been, like Lucy. It’s good pacing to the longer-running plot and emotional threads, and it finally lets us get to know someone who’s been around the setting almost as long as the comic’s been around.
I’m so hype for Asma that it took me way, way too long to notice the arc name.
She’s going to have her own disgraceful and learning moments, her own downsides and dysfunctions as a person, and times of just outright suffering the other characters or story circumstances. But I hope she gets to have a good enough time often enough to help pace the painful (if fascinating train wreck) ramifications there’ll be from last arc. It’ll be long-written by now, but Let Asma Have A Good Day.
This almost certainly isn’t an Asma arc. Far more likely a Becky one.
Unless Willis has rewritten far more than we think, this is an individual strip (or couple of strips) inserted into an existing story that didn’t feature Asma at all until sometime early next year.
It can be a bit of both, and I’m hoping it is!
I would hope that opening on Asma would indicate she’s getting some strong focus this arc, but, well – we opened on Amber and Sal last time, and then we got the Dorothy and Joyce show for three months
That’s true but lemme have this lmao
Hope springs eternal!
Insomniac/Sleep Disorder solidarity, college was a fucking nightmare. Not that it stopped afterward or anything but still, best of luck Angie
Asma’s little smile is sweet. I do wonder if anything in particular has her in a good mood.
She wakes up early specifically to do her morning prayers. You can’t wake up grumpy to greet Allah! So her smile might reflect that she’s aware she rises early for a happy reason.
I mean, it’s equally possible that she looks forward to bowling with Alice & the girls. Who knows? But yeah, there’s also the context of morning prayers.
Oh. So it turns out she’s the most beautiful woman Willis has ever drawn!
Literally.
Briefly thought “Who’s Angie? Should I remember Angie?” but am glad to see that she’s never been in the strip before.
Same thought process. Same discovery after clicking on the tag.
Hi Asma!!
The main cast continues to grow to such enormous and unwieldy size that net storyline progression slows to an utter crawl, but it’s hard to be upset about it when Willis is such a good writer that every new character is interesting in their own right. Like the story would move faster without whatever Asma arc Willis has cooked up for us, but also I want to see the Asma arc because I like Asma!
oooo Asma focus. Surprised we only moved a few hours ahead for the next plot.
Guess this is the result of Willis soliciting opinions as to whether or not it was okay to depict Asma without a hijab.
Looking forward to seeing where the story goes!
I’m confused about logistics. Is this happening in one of the dorms? Is Asma a student here? I assumed she was an employee of the college who spends working hours managing the front desk, but if that’s the case, why is she sleeping in what seems like a dormitory bunk bed? But if she is a student, how does she manage classes? (or who’s at the front desk when she’s in class & why have we never seen them?)
Asma is a student at Indiana University who is also employed by IU to work the front desk at a residence hall. It’s not unusual for students to also have jobs, some them work for private enterprise like Becky as a waitress, and some work for the university like Ruth being a Resident Assistant. The reason Asma is the only person we see working the front desk is narrative convenience, presumably other people also work the front desk but they conveniently never show up.
Well this is a plot twist for me XD I always assumed Asma was a staff member.
i wonder if she gets paid or it’s some volunteer thing/something she does for credit like billie writing for the newspaper
I had this position back in the day. It’s usually a work-study arrangement, with your pay (always meager) is either used to give you a small dose of spending cash, or directed towards mitigating the loans you might need to cover tuition.
The scene-setting first panel shows the southwest wing of Read Halll, which is where most of the main cast live. Angie’s speech pointer shows her speaking from above because Asma has left her bed already and is standing on the floor.
It’s a part-time job (probably a work-study program); she gives her employer her class schedule and they don’t schedule her for hours that would conflict with classes.
We’ve seen at least one other person who does: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/03-me-and-who-you-say-i-was-yesterday/shifts/
Following up on what other people said, it’s common for students to have some sort of gig at their college they attend in order to have income. And it’s just easier to work where you’re going to school because you can go from class to a shift. I haven’t done it myself, but I’ve known people who have. There’s gigs at libraries, food service, RAs (like Ruth), and working a desk like Asma. I think student services are more volunteer work, those would be things like events coordinators and such.
I worked the front desk of my dorm my freshman year of college. Mostly after midnight before dawn shifts like 3am-7am Thursday morning then had time to get to class. Only one on Thursday and I’d sleep the rest of the day.
Just adding a data point — pretty much all front desk clerks when I went to school were other students, usually working four hour shifts 3-5 times a week plus a longer shift on the weekend or at night, scheduled around classes.
My roommate for example took mostly afternoon classes one year so he could work Mon Tue Thurs Fri 8am-12pm and Wednesday afternoon/evening — I don’t remember when the desk was open but I don’t recall it being open particularly late most days.
Thanks all for the information on how US college jobs work! At my UK uni, the “front desk” role belonged strictly to the college porters, who were very much older adults often portering as a full-time job & not students themselves. Students were more likely to work the college bar, a nice evening job well outside of lecture hours, which I’m only now remembering is less of an option when your country has an inexplicably high legal drinking age.
Though my university was also weirdly strict about term-time jobs and generally expected paid work to be done only during vacations, which made up something like 28 weeks of the year, so I don’t think my experience was normal by anyone’s standards.
Actually, you can work at a bar at 18 in the states even though you can’t drink yet. (Source: I did work at the college bar on my campus).
Nifty. Just to expand, at my own school:
RAs, mail/front desk clerks, campus safety patrol (verifying that exterior doors are locked appropriately, keeping an eye on public areas/walkways, etc), computer lab attendants and low-tier technical support, library pages, and food service counter workers in the dining areas were all usually student jobs (the latter four usually populated by Criminal Justice, CompSci, Library Science, and Food Science undergrads — in particular, the dairy science department on my campus also ran a phenomenally good ice cream manufactory and parlor)
Residence directors, maintenance/cleaning staff, mail sorting/distribution, actual campus police (my school was so big we had our own police department separate from the town), actual librarians, serious tech support folks, and the dining hall cooks were all full-time adult jobs.
I imagine in the UK it might be a union thing that universities would employ full-time professional porters rather than students.
OK, so Angie is ‘above’ and Asma ‘below’. Not all dorm rooms are the same? Cos Sarah and Joyce have beds above their workspsce, and close enough that Joyce can hang over Sarah and wake her up…
Then again, maybe its not a dorm room, maybe Angie is her sister…
I think the establishing shot well, establishes it’s a dorm room and I believe Asma has actually stood up from her bed to get dressed not necessarily debunking they could have bunk beds but it’s still equally likely they’re lofts.
At some other schools (simply because I’m not aware of IU specifically) students can put their bunkbeds in storage and build lofts, (or hire someone to come in and build one, or buy a kit or a previous student’s loft to assemble). I believe some buildings can also come with different default room layouts but usually not in the same building.
Yeah, at PSU the default room configuration was “two beds on the floor”, and those beds were basically the cheapest possible things with a metal frame with bedsprings plus a reasonable spring mattress on top.
Pretty much everyone either brought a bunk bed frame/loft, or borrowed one from the pile in the storage closets left behind by previous students and put their desk under it. I was considered a bit extra because my dad and I built a loft frame with a really nice built-in desk under it so we could put the kinda crappy dorm default desk into storage.
The school-provided bedframes had legs that could be removed so you could use the metal frame and springs in your loft.
The main bookstores and student stores downtown even sold loft kits specifically marketed as being the correct height and size.
They are both in loft beds. In panels 4 and 5, Asma is out of bed setting a prayer mat for dawn prayer while Angie is still in bed.
Oh it’s a payer mat! I definitely thought that was a pair of pants.
On which you kneel when using your pay-card. Obeisance to the gt god of Mammon? Tee hee.
So hard that these cannot be corrected. I usually see the mistake as I hit ‘Post Comment’… and howl!
Oh yes! Thanks for correction. I clearly didn’t look properly. Don’t see so well in the dark! /j
Bedding hanging down! Wondered what that was.
Asma? Nice!
Now that’s a plot twist!
Is she possibly the “problem” of the new chapter title?
No, it’s Becky.
Pretty sure that’s Taylor Swift.
Wait, what?! Asma is the problem?! It’s her??
Nice to see more of Asma, and I hope we get to see more about who she is in future strips. Also I hope we get to see what Angie looks like.
They’ve got Say My Name bad…
Eh, Angie’s offscreen and Asma doesn’t usually look like this. It’s reasonable.
Good morning asma
The real comments war isn’t between Sickos and Paladins. It’s between people who still think there are bunk beds and people who understand what a loft bed is.
now this is the kind of acrimonious dispute i can get behind
My college had configurable beds which could be solo, could be bunked, and could be lofts if you use the desk and/or dresser for one side.
Now you’ve done it.
Well it’s about TIME that we saw Angie! Been SO long!
An entire arc of the front desk lady beholding the main cast’s bullshit from a safe distance?
We can but dream.
Who did it?
Honestly no witty remarks for today. I really like the colouring in this one.
it’s pretty sapphic if you ask me, with all those oranges and pinks
so yea, hard agree, I like~
Dykes own the eventide
Angie? doesn’t sleep? sounds to me like an angel with poor covert naming sense
Does Islam have angels? Are they cool?
To my knowledge Archangel Gabriel was the one who revealed Quran’s contents to Muhammad so I assume so.
Islam does have angels, I don’t know if they’re cool or not.
I don’t care how early stages it is that Asma is becoming a more-than-occasional character, she is already my favourite.
Wonder what Asma was smiling about
yay it’s asma, hoping we get to know angie too <3
More for the “it depends” take around depicting Asma out of her hijab: I worked very briefly at a Muslim school; hijabs were part of the uniform for girls there, and most wore them outside of school as well. Still, when one was showing friends a video she took at home, showing her without a hijab, she didn’t mind that a couple boys saw.
On the other hand, when I was working in a different school (for the whole schoolyear), one student decided to start wearing the hijab partway through the year (she was in 5th grade.) When she did, she requested that any pictures in the classroom that showed her without her hijab be taken down.
Since Asma is fictional…well, Willis can decide, and I’d imagine they’d decide that Asma would be okay with comics that depict hijabis when they’re not wearing a hijab.