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Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
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Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
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No, Amber is actually Willis in a skin suit. They’re all actually Willis in a variety of masks. Its like the end of The Prisoner: at the end of DoA they pull off Amazi-girl’s mask and Willis is underneath, laughing at us insanely before running up a ladder and slamming the hatch, trapping us in The Village forever.
No, some memes are actually funny. None that apply to any generated by fans of Willis’ comics, but some of them are actually funny. For a while anyway.
Everybody is everybody! There’s really only been one character in this whole strip since the very beginning – what we’re seeing are multiple facets of his and/or her fractured psyche.
It was the perfect crime. Mainly because he would simultaneously be screwing a relative of the entire pantheon. It’s something you just couldn’t do with the Norse gods.
Though criminals can be argued to be more dangerous, assume for the sake of the argument that this comparison is controlled for that and refers to non-criminals that are equally dangerous in a self-defense situation.
wait kill what with fire? the cake or the red pill cause both aren’t alive and it seems like a waste of perfectly good fictional cake. Also red pills are expensive.
The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak. It can still be killed, though. With FIRE.
I’m not so sure that the convenience store memory involves Blaine and her mom.
1) the hair is too dark for her mom’s. It could be a friend or another relative who got hurt though.
2) i’m not sure an abuser would stage a beatdown in a public place where men like Reno, Ethan, and Mike would get involved.(mind you, I’m regarding Mike as a decent guy.)
Amber has opened up to Danny that she was involved somehow in a robbery and that it was an emotionally intense experience that she had trouble dealing with.
The first panel was almost identical to that flashback.
I assume it’s a robbery. Like, she was in a store (maybe a 7/11 type thing?) and the place got held up. I could be wrong. The scene with Ethan is just…ahhhh. So much emotion! Seriously, this strip is well done. I have a night full of rolling around on the ground crying planned.
I think Amber witnessed a violent crime. There was something in what she told Danny as Amazi-girl that implied it. Damn my heart breaks for these imaginary people.
The first 50 or so issues of Excalibur from Marvel are the epitome of long range foreshadowing. Anything by Peter David is also likely to have something.
I’m not sure it really counts as a two-year foreshadow – didn’t we learn A) that Amber had witnessed a robbery and B) that Sal had committed one in relatively close proximity? The fact that no-one had made the connection at the time doesn’t really change that, there’s nothing special about _this_ comic that makes the connection either (whereas the actual in-comic reveal, assuming it’s true, could be as far in the future as that is in the past)
Disregard this, apparently we heard about the robbery only a few months ago. And of course we didn’t know Amazi-girl was Amber until today. (You can’t argue with tags!)
Ha, I wish! No, I was helped by two things: 1, Willis calls attention to it in the printed Book 1 (which I have read through several times), and 2, one of the panels from that strip was made into one of the DoA site banners.
I’ll admit, part of it doesn’t make sense to me. She said the robbery happened when she was 13. Sal and Amber are about the same age. So, what? Sal robbed a store when she was 13? I feel like Sal needs to be a couple years older than that for it to work.
And through the magic of the multi-tag system, I’ve just verified that (at least on camera), Amber and Sal have never spoken to each other. The only other time they even see each other is at a floor meeting.
That makes sense. Looking forward to when it’s revealed that it was actually Sal. That hair doesn’t look much like hers to me, but who knows how Sal used to look at 13.
Anyway, Amber has always been my favorite DoA character
Most likely this. There’s a second reason it’ll be Ruth that hasn’t been mentioned yet: Ruth implied that she knows what Amber is going through, even if it’s a vague abstract “problems with father-types” similarity. Ruth is also repurposing her internal demons into something resembling a good cause: being a good R.A. Neither of them are doing a great job of any of it, but it’s similar.
The main problem with this is that it means a new character dynamic that wasn’t there before… being thrown into the unstable existing dynamic that is Ruth-Billie. If I’m right, and Willis pulls this off, he gets pushed way up on my Most Impressive Author list.
Can’t wait to see a proper explanation of the first panel. Something vending machine or convenience store. What a disturbingly excellent view onto a traumatized mind. get better amber!
I’m guessing that Sal must have humiliated Blaine somehow during the robbery and that led Blaine to take it out on Amber’s mom. I’m guessing that Blaine and Amber/Amazigirl will run into Sal with Billie just failing to catch up and see that Sal isn’t Amazigirl.
This strip shows how much of her emotions Amber is locking away. Blaine is the cause of the events that triggered the emotions she is locking away. Therefore, Paul wants to rewatch Blaine suffer for his crimes.
True. But accessing feelings is rarely wrong. Locking away emotions is wrong. If you feel things and then bottle them inside that doesn’t fix the problem. It only exacerbates it.
But there’s a big difference between a therapeutic release of emotion, and emotional abuse causing someone to relive the most traumatizing events in their lives. And even if good does come from this, I can still hate Blaine for putting Amber through this in the most painful way possible.
Amazi-girl is the self confident part of Amber. Check back in the old strips, she created ‘her’ to allow herself to strike back. She’s safe behind her mask, if she doesn’t put herself behind it permanently.
Come’on Ruth find her for cryin’ out loud.
Reminds me of an old JLA comic book collection where Batman and Superman do the big reveal to he rest of their teammates. And then aliens split the heroes from their secret identities.
So Batman/Bruce becomes a bland socialite and a tactician and warrior with major anger issues and no impulse control. And it took Eel O’Brian, sleazy P.I./criminal to figure out that the one with the anger issues was Bruce, not Bats.
Dammit, Willis! Stop transitioning to new storylines. We were focused on Amber here. Now you jump to Amazigirl? At least before you would wait to transition between strips. Now its like Amber Amber Amber Amber Amber BAM Amazi Amazi. Just stick to one character at a time, man!
(This is probably more funny in my head than reality. Too tired to care! Night everybody!)
True. But this is also the man who is chasing his daughter through the halls of a dorm hall after emotionally abusing her in front of several witnesses, and physically assaulting an RA and another parent in front of even more witnesses.
Subtly doesn’t seem to be his strong suit, if you piss him off enough, is what I’m trying to say.
Oh great, then we could have Amber travel to a weird pillow world, meet the love of her life and marry there, grow old and on her deathbed, her mate would ask her to never forget her only for Amber to forgot him/her after she came back. Yes, Puhoy is one of my favorite episodes of Adventure Time along with Simon and Marcy and Five More Short Graybles.
Every time they do an episode like that, I just scream at the TV “FINN, STOP BEING AN IDIOT!” Which just shows how accurate the portrayal of first love/teenage romance is on the show. =/
Actually, Amazi-Girl becoming Rorshach is suddenly way more plausible now. Hide behind a mask for too long, and you start to forget you’re wearing one.
And the most composed character has suddenly become a middle-class Batman’s worth of issues. I’m going to shake my head, and hope for a character foil to just balance out this mess, heck I’d take a loveable super villain at this point.
Yes, it’s not really a -surprising- reveal, but it is a most effective one.
-And- it sets up/reminds us of another mystery (the mystery event at the convience store).
You’ve been shaking your head from the irony of all of these “Sal is really Amazigirl” comments the entire time, haven’t you, Willis? Sal isn’t Amazigirl, she’s Joe Chill, isn’t she?
Not sure it’s so much a separate personality as more of a cap to hold everything in, but like a ketchup nozzle cap so she can ‘re-purpose’ the negative into crime-fighting butt-kicking.
Then again, I’m no psychiatrist, and I’m sure that Batman being part of Bruce Wayne’s fractured psyche is a rich discussion topic.
Now we know why she chose Danny for a BF. His blandness wasn’t a fault, it was a selling point. Danny unequalled ability to not emotionally arouse is perfect for a girl who is afraid of strong feelings.
I don’t know if that’s the case, but yesterday’s strip made it pretty clear that, on at least some level, a part of her actually enjoyed hitting her father.
The robbery thing always bothered me because of the ellipsis. There’s a fifty-fifty chance between it was a stress ellipsis or a lying about it ellipsis. Trust me. I know the ellipsis…
This has got to be one of the most unhealthiest ways of dealing with your problems that I have ever seen or thought of. And I have a screwball imagination, so that kinda says something. And I feel like it’s only gonna get worse from here.
I think we can all agree that Amber is the most screwed up member of the cast at this point, and is the best at hiding it. Which is probably why she’s so messed up.
It’s incredible what sort of stuff can go on behind a mask.
I can understand that. Unfortunately, from what I’m seeing, it doesn’t seem to have helped Amber very much. These last couple comics, especially this one in particular, have shown just how tenuous her grasp on her sanity really is.
She might be re-purposing her anger into helping others, but she doesn’t seem to have done much to help /b/herself/b/.
There was a running joke in Shortpacked wherein Amber is not Amazi-girl. Obviously, she is. But no one acknowledges this. At one point, I believe Ultra-Car was announced to be Amazi-girl.
So, the answer is “Yes, they were both being serious and trying to be funny.”
Finally we can get the whole Amber = Amazi-Girl thing out the way. I got pretty tired of the jokes suggesting otherwise early on. Even those would defend the notion by saying this is just cosplay can’t (realistically) argue with the character tags of truth!
And in the words of Scar(and number 354 of things I really wanted to say but could never find an opportunity to say it): And here’s my little secret, I KILLED MUFASA!
Oh man she’s made an alter ego in which she’s always calm and controlled and using familiar parts from that to anchor herself to a stable state of mind!
And possibly Sal robbed her parents’ convenience store?
ghh so intense
Amber? Why is Ethan in the third panel when you’re trying to suppress your rage, Amber? Did you do or say something to Ethan at that moment that you regret, Amber?
For the record, your attempts to bury and re-direct your rage, as opposed to taking pride in it like your father, are what make you different than him. It can be a thin line, but it means there’s still hope for you.
That’s when he told her he was gay. On their prom night. When they were in the process of doin’ it. This isn’t all about rage, it’s about her compartmentalizing all of her emotional trauma and hiding it behind the mask.
Wait, isn’t Billie still trying to track down Amazi-girl? Isn’t Amber’s Dad chasing Amber? Isn’t Billie chasing Amber’s Dad? And Amber is wearing her mask…this could get really interesting in a few panels….
Stephanie Plum? Oh, wait–she’s not a super-hero(ine); outside of a poor screen adaptation featuring Katherine Heigl, she just kicks @$$. For the most part unintentionally.
If you’re talking about Barry Allen as the Flash, then he had serious issues regarding his parents’ deaths which have caused him to unintentionally fuck the universe over a là Flashpoint IIRC.
I’m talking about the Barry Allen who first appeared in SHOWCASE and went on to have a good thirty years of adventures in his own title, ending with an iconic sacrifice in the first Crisis – without any of the gratuitious, disgusting revisionist baggage that Johns (like many fanboys stuck between their unironic childhood love of a simple, unambiguously heroic paragon and the guilty need to make him as “mature” as they now imagine themselves to be) tainted the character with when he brought him back.
Superman is NOT without issues. His entire race was killed, and he constantly has to hold back to not destroy the planet. At times, he clearly has anger and control problems. He’s just very disciplined, but he has issues, too.
The reason there are not many stories about perfect, happy families is that happy families tend to be happy in the same way, and therefore, are boring.
Think it was starting to be “repressed” – until she realized where Amazi-Girl comes from; a repurposing of the anger and helplessness she has felt, channeling it into this secondary identity where it can be expressed relatively harmlessly.
The trick is, when staring into the Abyss – don’t blink.
It’s obviously Hanners on meds, who conveniently passes out and forgets her escapades once the sensation of traveling throughout the city in an unsanitary manner becomes too much to bear.
And there was Ethan, suddendly alone with this girl he couldnt recognize anymore, a crazy gleen in her eyes, grinning at him while tearing the buttons of his shirt. “Is this what the pig feels when its going to get porked?” he thought “I am supposed to get exited by her shallow breathing in my face?”. Because as might as he tried he couldnt return the lustful glances of Amber rubbing against him. He was not aroused at all. “This is it” he told to himself. “I ought be gay”…
Little he knew that the flu was blocking her powerful feromones making him inmune to the charms of violent sexual approach.
yeah, yeah, I know. In the other universe he is such and such. But, image for a moment, that this panel alone, is all you know about the matter.
There’s been a flashback to something similar, but it showed about the same amount of information (I don’t have the exact strip, but I think it was when Danny asked Amazi-Girl about why she started crimefighting). So we don’t have details yet, just guesses.
David, this whole exchange and development is really potent. I’m still new to all of your work, but a little bit of the story and each universe becomes clearer every day. These past few weeks have been just as definitive to your writing and art. Dang, man. Really well done.
what? were we really not supposed to know this years ago..? there have been whole storylines playing up the funniness of amber being friend and girlfriend of the same guy. I’m about the densest person I know and I was so confused by this comic because I didn’t even realize it was supposed to be a secret…
I’ve always been able to relate all too well to Amber, especially in the horrible-dad department… Blaine and Amber’s relationship is so horrifyingly like the one i have with my dad that it feels like Willis is following me around all day. Really, really well written. Down to the hugely satisfying rage followed immediately by self-hatred and a slew of emotions that drag you down further and further, reading Amber’s last few strips has been like looking in a mirror, it just strikes so close to home.
I figured it out, this is all just Willis’s plan to get us to like Danny, whose gonna find her there and comfort her, her boyfriend. he’s gonna learn her secret and be there for her, god damnit Willis is the cleverest man I ever met!
Man. I teared up at this. The look on her face in the second to last panel, as she’s frantically tying on her mask so she can ward away all of those feelings…mere moments before that electric, paralyzing panic completely overwhelms her. Incredibly moving. I like to think I don’t have any of the same kinds of issues as Amber, but nonetheless I find empathizing with her a simple thing.
ok after today’s strip (just check the date, I won’t link it here in case people are archive binging) I came back to this one and just AAAUUUGH CRYING, GOOD GOD, what a ridiculously intense and well drawn and incredible character.
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 18h
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
It's #webcomicday? We have a special day???
Well, my name is Pat McHoarney and I draw 69 Mouse-Ear Blvd, a multigenerational story about women who all have sexy legs and probably other features. There was a grandmother, but she wasn't hot and so she died off-panel.
Elizabeth Holmes is in prison for defrauding investors through her blood-testing company, Theranos. Her partner, Billy Evans, is now trying to raise money for a company that describes itself as “the future of diagnostics.” nyti.ms/3FbtZm9
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 18h
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
The New York Times @nytimes.com ⋅ 5d
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 3d
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Amber was Amazigirl? Holy–
The real question is, can we still pretend she’s not and get away with it?
Evidently, yes.
Clearly that shirt is her superhero costume! It even has a logo on it!
And that clearly isn’t Amazigirl’s logo!
Hell, if Danny can…
Now come on, you really think people would endlessly repeat those questions if they weren’t serious?
Besides, this only proves that Amber is trying to throw the scent off of the real Amazi-Girl. Who we all know is Danny.
So if Dannyl is Amazi Gir, then does that mean Amber is Danny?
Yes.
Oh, hello banana that flies! We meet at last; I am the banana that un-flies.
Also, clearly everyone has things backwards: Danny is Amber, not the other way around.
Arn’t you the banana that flies backward in time?
No, I un-fly. That’s different from going back in time because of multiple time dimensions being a thing.
It is my time that flies backwards. I just go where it goes.
I am now imagining Amazigirl unzipping and becoming Danny in a skin suit like Gir wears
No, Amber is actually Willis in a skin suit. They’re all actually Willis in a variety of masks. Its like the end of The Prisoner: at the end of DoA they pull off Amazi-girl’s mask and Willis is underneath, laughing at us insanely before running up a ladder and slamming the hatch, trapping us in The Village forever.
Close. They all remove their masks and are revealed to be the Burger King.
Pleasant dreams!
WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?
Your Gravatar is suddenly very appropriate.
Well, it wasn’t all that funny to begin with so why stop not being funny now?
THAT’S THE SPIRIT!
Congrats, you’ve figured out how memes work.
And shit, I forgot to switch my avatar back from yesterday. I made an already unfunny joke unfunnier by accidentally repeating it.
This just got depressingly self demonstrating.
No, some memes are actually funny. None that apply to any generated by fans of Willis’ comics, but some of them are actually funny. For a while anyway.
Faaace!
My only response to you is this:
FAAAAAAAACEEEE!!!!!!!!
SPAAAAAAAAAACE
SPAAAAACCCCE FAAAAACCCCE
FAAAAAAAACE FROM SPAAAAAACE.
RIIICCCE DIISSSH. Yeah I’m contributing!
Gee, it’s a good thing Willis has you, otherwise there’d never be ANY laughs around here. You know, considering we never say anything funny.
I love your gravatar.
Reality has never stopped anyone before.
Reali-what?
Amber’s dark secret: she likes to cosplay as Amazigirl.
Well, now I don’t need to post this.
Exactly. Joe knows, by the way, and is a little flattered.
Who’s pretending? She obviously just found that mask on the floor, after AG accidentally dropped it whilst doing a quick change.
There’ll be plenty of hilarious shenanigans later on when AG comes looking to get it back, I’m sure.
That or we end up in a full on Tyler Durden type scenario.
Marvel does it all the time.
You sir have balanced this…’saraid’ with your comment.
A.k.a
I had the same thought!
“You’ve achieved a +1 Like, for your comment”
What— No, clearly she is the Nightwatcher!
Which means Amber is Sal!
A haircut indeed…
Rule Number One of the University of Indiana is don’t talk about the University of Indiana.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY. INDIANA UNIVERSITY. INDIANA. UNIVERSITY!
Indy U! *dead*
Oh wait, you already beat me to the idea. Nevermind.
Everybody is everybody! There’s really only been one character in this whole strip since the very beginning – what we’re seeing are multiple facets of his and/or her fractured psyche.
And at the end of this comic series we’ll be seeing the university in a snow globe.
The whole comic is just a dream by Mike, who was cursed by Olympus to spend an eternity in college.
Because he had sex with Zeus’s mom?
For a dime!
It was the perfect crime. Mainly because he would simultaneously be screwing a relative of the entire pantheon. It’s something you just couldn’t do with the Norse gods.
No proof! It is just a mask!
David Willys is playing with ours minds!
Exactly! This only proves Amber is an Amazigirl fan. Anyone can make a mask from a strip of fabric, after all.
Of course, if she IS Amazigirl (and I’m not saying she is), then this would be the opportune moment for someone to learn her secret…
Amazi-Girl is in the tags.
It’s to throw us all of the track.
It’s just her way of coping, being a fan of Sal like that.
Say What???
Next you’ll tell me that Luigi is Mr. L!!!
And next you’ll be telling me that Ben has something to do with Glory!
(Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference, for those that don’t get it).
Please tell me, I am not the only one who saw it?
Still incredibly sad, becoming increasingly less healthy.
Abuse and emotional self-torture can do that
…what about dressing in a stupid costume and assaulting criminals struck you as healthy to begin with?
The exercise, mainly.
And by comparison with dressing in a stupid costume and assaulting non-criminals.
Though criminals can be argued to be more dangerous, assume for the sake of the argument that this comparison is controlled for that and refers to non-criminals that are equally dangerous in a self-defense situation.
Mark? Is that you?
Hey! The only real-life stuff I want in my comics is the naked parts!
Horrible, horrible memories… and sex
Sounds like a regular friday night to me!
(except for the sex)
And here I thought I was the only one.
I think it was a horrible memory because it wasn’t sex, actually…
You’re right… It was a poor attempt to forget about all the emotional abuse. With sex
No, it wasn’t sex because there was no sex, because her boyfriend turned out to be one of them gay fellas. It’s all in the archives.
I assumed they did have sex and that’s how Ethan realized he’s gay.
Which is worse: not having sex with a guy because he realizes he’s gay just before, or having sex with a guy who realizes he’s gay right after?
The second one. Mainly because then comes the thought that you were so terrible in the sack that you’re lover swore off women forever.
My interpretation is that he stopped her right before they got down to it.
You know, I apologize for my presumption. I just reread it myself, and the amount or degree of sex is never made – haha – explicit. Innnnnnnteresting.
That doesn’t rule out sex. There are several ways that can still happen.
Can someone get her a nice hot cup of coco and a hug or something? D; Please?
Ruth’s on her way!
Seriously. Ruth, where are you?
…hell, I’d even take Danny at this point.
Noone wants Danny at such a delicate time. He’s the most indelicate person on Campus. WALKY would be better.
Well, yeah. He’d prolly just show her some D&MM.
Is Danny even into that? I mean, we know he’s a brony, but..
Hell, MIKE in full snark mode would be better!
I have to say that even Mike would probably of more help here.
*be.
Hmm, I can’t decide whether the idea of rehashing the Mike relationship would help the psychological situation, or make it much, much worse.
Mike doesn’t let people B.S. themselves, he punctures balloons. Is that what Amber needs?
Amber, stop pretending you’re amazigirl
She’s clearly gone mad from the stress.
We can all appreciate good cosplay.
Amber’s not Amazi-girl, she’s Leonardo, from the TMNT.
She’s been hiding it for years :p
Does that make Dina Donitelo?
and Ruth Raphael.
And Billie Mikey?
Eh, I think Walky fits as Mikey more, and Dorothy as Donatello
That puts a different spin on Amber cosplaying as Mikey way back in Shortpacked!
She just wants to be Walky?
And marry Dorothy. As Walky.
Clearly, Mike is Mikey.
Leonamber
Dinatello
Walkelangelo
Ruthael
I’d buy that for a dollar. No way is Dotty Don. She’s too busy trying to take over the world.
That’s right: Dorothy is the Brain. And someday, Joyce will be Pinky.
Narf!
You amaze me Joyce
“Amber? Why are you dressed up as Amazi-Girl?”
Somebody call Pfieffer!Catwoman.
I would if I could, man. But only for my own personal purposes. No sharing!
WHAT THE bongo IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!!!1!!!
EVERYTHING IS BROKEN AND FREAKING OUT!
I DON’T KNOW! STOP STRESSING ME!
horrible flash backs about abuse and unhealthy responses to them
EVERYONE JUST CALM THE F@!K DOWN!
I’M PERFECTLY CALM!!
http://i.imgur.com/h9QHe.jpg
AMBER IS AMAZIGIRL!!! EVERYTHING IS A LIE!!! NOTHING IS REAL!!!
AMBER IS AMAZIGIRL!!!
SOMEONE WILL DIE RIGHT NOW GODDAMMIT
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KuFLRX-w8Zc/UTNGAq8X2kI/AAAAAAAAAPU/Oq9A1xS4cEk/s1600/Suicide_Squad_Vol_1_1.jpg
THE ONLY THING THAT IS A LIE IS THE CAKE!!!! JUST TAKE THE RED PILL DAMN IT!
Both are quite yummy.
KILL IT WITH FIRE, bongo
wait kill what with fire? the cake or the red pill cause both aren’t alive and it seems like a waste of perfectly good fictional cake. Also red pills are expensive.
KILL EVERYTHING THAT MOVES! THEN EVERYTHING THAT DOESN’T MOVE! THEN KILL THE FIRE WITH FIRE!
The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak. It can still be killed, though. With FIRE.
Incinerate it NOW!
I DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE YELLING ABOUT!
Dun. Dun. Duuuuuuuuuuuhn!!!
I’m not going duh duh duh for you dad.
Young man, that is not how I raised you!
Oh the feels.
SO STRONG.
This universe is rotten to the core, but in a good way.
Well, it’s a good thing we’re nowhere near the center of the universe.
I mean isn’t it obvious? In this one, Joyce is the Lord our God, the Alpha and the Omega, looking for a SWF Our Savior Come Again.
I mean, she is the first character to get introduced
So that means Galasso was God in Shortpacked?
I can believe that.
So Joyce is rotten?
Good thing. Last thing we need is Oa next door and the batshit crazy Guardians giving out power Rings to this batch.
Amber is Zorro!
Amber is Zero!
Zorro is Zero!
Code Geass finally makes sense!
So what’s the first thing? Probably asshole Blaine-related?
There appears to be someone else’s hair in the first panel. My guess is that it’s her mother’s.
Her mother is not in the tags. Amazi-girl is. This can only mean that the hair belongs to Amazi-girl, who is clearly not Amber. Ha-HA!
That bandanna in panels 6 and 7? Amber is a Donatello fangirl, d’uh!
I saw food and chips, but I don’t think the brown hair in the corner is Amber’s. Maybe something with her mom (and possibly Blaine).
I’m sure we’ll find out about the first thing in time.
I assumed it was the robbery she mentioned, her origin story.
I’m not so sure that the convenience store memory involves Blaine and her mom.
1) the hair is too dark for her mom’s. It could be a friend or another relative who got hurt though.
2) i’m not sure an abuser would stage a beatdown in a public place where men like Reno, Ethan, and Mike would get involved.(mind you, I’m regarding Mike as a decent guy.)
When you assume, you make an ass out of….
You
and
Me.
When you go assuming, you make an ass out of you and some guy named “Ming.”
hah if there were karma or something on this thread i would be handing it to you in bundles for that excellent reference
That was Merciless!
When you make assumptions, you make an ass out of you and mptions.
Amber has opened up to Danny that she was involved somehow in a robbery and that it was an emotionally intense experience that she had trouble dealing with.
The first panel was almost identical to that flashback.
-Bem
No no, that was Amazi-girl.
Then I’m guessing it was Sal’s hair in that panel, but that is, of course, jumping wildly to conclusions.
Have the two interacted at all?
Not that we’ve seen so far.
What I saw was potato chips and a scale (as if she started eating her way out of distress)
Then I took a second look at it and I think it’s the first time Amber saw her dad hit her mom (in a grocery store) or something
I assume it’s a robbery. Like, she was in a store (maybe a 7/11 type thing?) and the place got held up. I could be wrong. The scene with Ethan is just…ahhhh. So much emotion! Seriously, this strip is well done. I have a night full of rolling around on the ground crying planned.
Oh damn Bemmie beat me to the whole robbery thing.
Didn’t Sal supposedly hold up a convinience store too? Could Sal be Amber’s Joe Chill?!
Oh my god you’re a genius. That’s got to be it.
Although whether Sal was armed remains to be seen.
Walky said she “held up two convienence stores”, which isn’t very easy to do without a gun.
Unless, of course, one is very strong. But even then, a building is very hard to balance on one’s up-stretched arms.
I think Amber witnessed a violent crime. There was something in what she told Danny as Amazi-girl that implied it. Damn my heart breaks for these imaginary people.
Someone needs to play some Mario-kart STAT!
Mario Kart Stat is the long awaited combination of Mario Kart and Dr. Mario.
Whenever someone falls off the waterfall, Lakitu yells CLEAR! and electrocutes them. And then Mario stuffs pills down his throat.
All the pills have little motors and whoever stacks the pills the fastest gets a turbo boost.
except Dry Bones. All the pills just fall out of his torso.
It’s all fun and games until someone uses THE GODDAMN BLUE SHELL
And here I thought Amber knew what color Donatello’s headband was.
If you’re gonna compartamentalize via Ninja Turtles cosplay, get the colors right!
Maybe in this universe she’s a fan of Leonardo.
didn’t she say that she can’t be Donatello, because she wanted to marry Donatello or something?
But, alas, that would still mean she wants to do Donatello as his brother.
Twincest is disturbingly popular in yuri/yaoi circles after all.
If Sal is the person who robbed the convenience store traumatizing Amber, then why doesn’t she recognize her around campus? PTSD?
Maybe she did: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/margaret/
Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!!
And if that was foreshadowed, wow, congrats to Willis for two year foreshadow, I’ve only seen foreshadowing like that from manga really.
Try “8-Bit Theater” on for size.
There are other astonishing examples of insane foreshadowing, but that has one of the best. It doubles as an ultra-insane brick joke.
Also, Narbonic has foreshadowing out the wazoo.
Never really looked into 8-bit, maybe I should.
it’s got like…. a billion pages and at points the plot is more dense and convoluted than a granite octopus.
That said, very good read.
Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero, and Order of the Stick also have good foreshadowing.
The first 50 or so issues of Excalibur from Marvel are the epitome of long range foreshadowing. Anything by Peter David is also likely to have something.
I’m not sure it really counts as a two-year foreshadow – didn’t we learn A) that Amber had witnessed a robbery and B) that Sal had committed one in relatively close proximity? The fact that no-one had made the connection at the time doesn’t really change that, there’s nothing special about _this_ comic that makes the connection either (whereas the actual in-comic reveal, assuming it’s true, could be as far in the future as that is in the past)
Disregard this, apparently we heard about the robbery only a few months ago. And of course we didn’t know Amazi-girl was Amber until today. (You can’t argue with tags!)
Holy crap, that is… Amazing.
Wait, is there a previous strip talking about Amber being in a robbery situation?
No, but there is one with Amazigirl. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/color/
Kernanator…do you have Wack’d level memory?
Ha, I wish! No, I was helped by two things: 1, Willis calls attention to it in the printed Book 1 (which I have read through several times), and 2, one of the panels from that strip was made into one of the DoA site banners.
Mother of god.
NOW her reactions make sense.
Whoa. WHOA.
MIND = BLOWN
I’ll admit, part of it doesn’t make sense to me. She said the robbery happened when she was 13. Sal and Amber are about the same age. So, what? Sal robbed a store when she was 13? I feel like Sal needs to be a couple years older than that for it to work.
Also, “robbery” could completely be a metaphor for, say, being robbed of one’s innocence.
I’m not sure how fond 18 year olds are of using complicated metaphors in casual conversation.
It’s been stated by Walky that he and Sal have barely talked in 5 years, presumably because she was sent away to Tennessee for Catholic school.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/helmet/
She was sent to Catholic school because she held up two convenience stores
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/news/
Five years ago, Sal was 13.
And through the magic of the multi-tag system, I’ve just verified that (at least on camera), Amber and Sal have never spoken to each other. The only other time they even see each other is at a floor meeting.
https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/2727748211/c3d0981ae770f926eedf4eda7505b006.jpeg
That makes sense. Looking forward to when it’s revealed that it was actually Sal. That hair doesn’t look much like hers to me, but who knows how Sal used to look at 13.
Anyway, Amber has always been my favorite DoA character
This seems to be the most despairing part of Amber’s arc.
Also, I’ll bet 20 monopoly dollars that somebody is going to find her. Right now. With the mask on.
DID SOMEBODY REQUEST A DISGRUNTLED CANADIAN R.A.?
Most likely this. There’s a second reason it’ll be Ruth that hasn’t been mentioned yet: Ruth implied that she knows what Amber is going through, even if it’s a vague abstract “problems with father-types” similarity. Ruth is also repurposing her internal demons into something resembling a good cause: being a good R.A. Neither of them are doing a great job of any of it, but it’s similar.
The main problem with this is that it means a new character dynamic that wasn’t there before… being thrown into the unstable existing dynamic that is Ruth-Billie. If I’m right, and Willis pulls this off, he gets pushed way up on my Most Impressive Author list.
I’m thinking Danny.
Ugh, I hope not. Danny needs to work through his own “stop being a loser” arc. He’s really no help to Amber OR Amazi-Girl.
i’m thinking billie since she’s chasing after blaine who i believe is still chasing after amber
I have 30 no prizes on it being Sal who finds her!
Amber! Why are you dressing up as Sal?
Because she IS Sal you moron.
Sorry, saw an opportunity to quite Batman Returns and I took it.
And then a bunch of rocket penguins walk in and blow everything up.
That honestly wouldn’t surprise me anymore.
You mean “was Sal”. *shoots gun*
“My mum taught me tha’ I should always take feelings like that, and bury them inna deep dark part o’ my soul and nev’r ev’r talk about ’em again.”
Really? Cuz my mum always taught me that “Life is a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
So not only do you own a multi million shrimp company, but you can draw too, Damn!
“Well, unless you get a box of a specific kind of chocolate. Then you probably know what you’re gonna get.”
My mum once told me that “Ferrero Rochers are pretty awesome.” And she was right!
I said “Stowaway Sweets are pretty sweet.”
Seriously, great chocolate shop.
Mah momma always tole me, “Life is like a box o’ chocolates. Fattening an’ bad for the teeth.”
That part of the movie annoyed me, they changed the quote completely from the book.
That’s tha dwarven way
Can’t wait to see a proper explanation of the first panel. Something vending machine or convenience store. What a disturbingly excellent view onto a traumatized mind.
get better amber!
I think that was her memory of her mother getting beaten by Blaine.
Ah, yes, the thrilling tale of when Amber’s parents were robbed by a rogue vending machine.
it’s likely Sal when she was robbing a convenience store as theorized by Kernanator and backed up by Amber’s reaction to Sal here
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/margaret/
SAL is her traumatic past?!???
What’s the grocery shelf scene about?
I think it’s that same repressed memory Amber (AG) hinted at before with Danny… Now it’s definitely got me curious.
Oh right! The convenience store… and Sal…
Wait wait wait.
Where was the convenience store Sal robbed? Was it near Amber’s hometown? Because uh that looks kinda like Sal’s hair.
yeah with all this talk about sal probably being the robber it does look an awful lot like her crazy curly hair
I’m guessing that Sal must have humiliated Blaine somehow during the robbery and that led Blaine to take it out on Amber’s mom. I’m guessing that Blaine and Amber/Amazigirl will run into Sal with Billie just failing to catch up and see that Sal isn’t Amazigirl.
Holy shit, I never would have guessed.
Using a headband to squeeze your brain and numb your nerves. Good thinking Amber!
Amber, you need a therapist
Agreed. Presumably the campus has free resources.
If you don’t mind my asking, what was so problematic about this strip to you, Mr. Author?
Whether to do the reveal which Rachel says was a great idea in the thread below yours. So I guess it worked for at least one person!
Make it double.
Agreed.
TO PROTECT THE WORLD FROM DEVASTATION.
TO UNITE ALL PEOPLES WITHIN OUR NATION
y’all just couldn’t help yourselves…
TO DENOUNCE THE EVILS OF TRUTH AND LOVE
TO EXTEND OUR REACH TO THE STARS ABOVE
Amber, Amazi-gril
JESSIE
(yotomoe)
JAMES
(vizard)
AND MEOWTH, THAT”S RIGHT
(Geminia)
(DAMMIT GEMINIA, YOU MESSED UP THE TIMING. Ahem.)
TEAM ROCKET BLASTING OFF AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT
SURRENDER NOW, OR PREPARE TO FIGHT!
And this is why I love you guys.
WOBBUFFET!
CHIME CHIME.
MIME, MIME!
TO EXTEND OUR REACH TO THE STARS ABOVE!
Okay, I know I’m like five minutes too late but my name IS James so mine’s way more valid than the other. XD
OOOH, a long post. Let me try. ANSWER ME, DoA COMMENTER. THE SCHOOL OF THE UNDEFEATED OF THE EAST!
To have Grace Jones dance the Watusi on my back in stiletto heels.
Hi James! My name is Kaci. It’s why I post as Kaci
(creative, I know)
I think he has been avoiding “officially” revealing the identity of Amazi-girl.
Well, my post is redundant. That’s… not altogether unusual.
Also DAAAAMN what an awesome powerful effective way to officially reveal amber as amazi-girl!!! GODDAMN WILLIS. GODDAMN.
Thank you.
HOLY SHIT AMBER IS AMAZIGIRL
Is that Amber’s Mom’s hair in the upper left corner?
Amber’s mom doesn’t have hair that curly. Someone else does… 9.9
Immune To Criticism!
I need one of those masks…
Now, if everyone will excuse me, I’m going to go look at the strip of Blaine getting clocked in the jaw. And hell, maybe his funeral.
…I don’t think I’ve ever disliked a fictional character this much.
Why this strip in particular?
This strip shows how much of her emotions Amber is locking away. Blaine is the cause of the events that triggered the emotions she is locking away. Therefore, Paul wants to rewatch Blaine suffer for his crimes.
Hmm. Good idea.
True. But accessing feelings is rarely wrong. Locking away emotions is wrong. If you feel things and then bottle them inside that doesn’t fix the problem. It only exacerbates it.
But there’s a big difference between a therapeutic release of emotion, and emotional abuse causing someone to relive the most traumatizing events in their lives. And even if good does come from this, I can still hate Blaine for putting Amber through this in the most painful way possible.
Amazi-girl is the self confident part of Amber. Check back in the old strips, she created ‘her’ to allow herself to strike back. She’s safe behind her mask, if she doesn’t put herself behind it permanently.
Come’on Ruth find her for cryin’ out loud.
I hope “Amber O’Malley” doesn’t become the mask, and Amazi-Girl the true identity…
:'(
What if Blaine finds her first… He does have a head start on the others. I’m honestly nervous :). Way to go, Mr. Writer!
Reminds me of an old JLA comic book collection where Batman and Superman do the big reveal to he rest of their teammates. And then aliens split the heroes from their secret identities.
So Batman/Bruce becomes a bland socialite and a tactician and warrior with major anger issues and no impulse control. And it took Eel O’Brian, sleazy P.I./criminal to figure out that the one with the anger issues was Bruce, not Bats.
Dammit, Willis! Stop transitioning to new storylines. We were focused on Amber here. Now you jump to Amazigirl? At least before you would wait to transition between strips. Now its like Amber Amber Amber Amber Amber BAM Amazi Amazi. Just stick to one character at a time, man!
(This is probably more funny in my head than reality. Too tired to care! Night everybody!)
Wow. Amber must be a big Amazi-Girl fan to have made a replica of her mask!
Oh, Amber. A character I relate to far, far too much. C’mere bb and let me hug you and remind you its not your fault
Amber is Amazi-Girl? I thought she was going to be Sal! MY MIND HAS BEEN BLOWN!!!!!!! XD
So Amazi girl is actually a cooping mechanism created by Amber to deal with angst repressed memories.
Honestly its not the most disturbing super hero origin ever.
But Amber probably talk to a professional soon .
He hit her mom. That’s the first panel. It just hit me. He hit her mom. That was the first time she saw.
maaaaaaaaaaybbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
That’s definitely one possibility.
He hit her mom? In the middle of the grocery store?
I’m gonna say no. That looks like a store, and abusevermin like Blaine aren’t likely to hit their victims in public. They need to hide it.
True. But this is also the man who is chasing his daughter through the halls of a dorm hall after emotionally abusing her in front of several witnesses, and physically assaulting an RA and another parent in front of even more witnesses.
Subtly doesn’t seem to be his strong suit, if you piss him off enough, is what I’m trying to say.
Not to mention, it’s not that hard to find an empty aisle in a grocery store.
Try Safeway…
Nah, it’s the robbery she mentioned to Danny.
Wait, a minute? What’s gonna happen if Amazi-Girl, I mean Sal, sees Amber pretending to be Amazi-Girl?
I mean, Amber’s tough, but she’s gonna need more than a chance uppercut to beat Amazi-Girl, I mean, Sal!
…..
Why are you all looking at me that way?
Because the joke is dead, and you killed it.
Panic attacks are the worst.
This.
Amber. Don’t let this fester
There’s no good kind of festering.
-Jake T. Dog
Oh great, then we could have Amber travel to a weird pillow world, meet the love of her life and marry there, grow old and on her deathbed, her mate would ask her to never forget her only for Amber to forgot him/her after she came back. Yes, Puhoy is one of my favorite episodes of Adventure Time along with Simon and Marcy and Five More Short Graybles.
How dare you not mention WHAT WAS MISSING!?
Yeah, sorry about that. So, what do you think about Too Old?
It wasn’t as bad as I feared. I was afraid Finn’d make a bigger fool of himself.
Every time they do an episode like that, I just scream at the TV “FINN, STOP BEING AN IDIOT!” Which just shows how accurate the portrayal of first love/teenage romance is on the show. =/
I must disagree. There is always Uncle Festering.
Holy shit.
She really is Batman. All of her trauma channeled into kick sploding for *Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune voice* JUSTICE!
“Use it. USE IT.” — Blade.
(Probably not the most stable of superheroes, either, but hey.)
I’m Sierra on my iPad, Galasso on my PC. That MEANS something!
This shit is *dark*.
Actually, Amazi-Girl becoming Rorshach is suddenly way more plausible now. Hide behind a mask for too long, and you start to forget you’re wearing one.
And the most composed character has suddenly become a middle-class Batman’s worth of issues. I’m going to shake my head, and hope for a character foil to just balance out this mess, heck I’d take a loveable super villain at this point.
Still fewer psychological issues than Batman.
Batman trained to be the best at having psychological issues.
Called it!
Yes, it’s not really a -surprising- reveal, but it is a most effective one.
-And- it sets up/reminds us of another mystery (the mystery event at the convience store).
You’ve been shaking your head from the irony of all of these “Sal is really Amazigirl” comments the entire time, haven’t you, Willis? Sal isn’t Amazigirl, she’s Joe Chill, isn’t she?
Holy crap… the patch of curly hair in the first rectangle.
Good thing Danny or Billie didn’t see this.
They’d probably just ask why Amber was dressing up as Amazi-Girl.
You mean like that one scene in Batman Returns when Max Shreck asking Bruce Wayne why he’s dressing up a Batman?
There is only one conclusion. Amber is Ultra Car.
You know, someone commented yesterday of using the theme from Batman:Mask of the Phantasm for yesterday’s strip…I think the theme is fitting here.
Goddamnit I thought Roz was Amazi Girl.
Yes, for we all know this is a perfectly healthy way to get a grip on things.
Yeah, when I’m losing my grip on things, I started to create multiple personas.
Not sure it’s so much a separate personality as more of a cap to hold everything in, but like a ketchup nozzle cap so she can ‘re-purpose’ the negative into crime-fighting butt-kicking.
Then again, I’m no psychiatrist, and I’m sure that Batman being part of Bruce Wayne’s fractured psyche is a rich discussion topic.
It’s richer than Bruce Wayne.
The worry hat? http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1203
Wait… Amber is… Donatello? IT ALL MAKES SENSE
Someone please just hand the poor girl the number of the campus counselor.
So…Ruth finds her wearing the mask, but has no idea that Amazi-Girl even exists so she mostly dismisses it.
Now we know why she chose Danny for a BF. His blandness wasn’t a fault, it was a selling point. Danny unequalled ability to not emotionally arouse is perfect for a girl who is afraid of strong feelings.
What is that first panel? Is she hiding behind snacks?
as was referenced earlier, Amber/Amazi-Girl has told Danny of a traumatic experience when a store was robbed in her presence.
It is also suspected that maybe Sal was involved in that robbery and that that was foreshadowed by Ambers reaction to Sal in this strip.
Calling it now. She is repressing the urge of acting like her father…
I don’t know if that’s the case, but yesterday’s strip made it pretty clear that, on at least some level, a part of her actually enjoyed hitting her father.
Wh-what!? Where did Amber get Amazi-girl’s mask!? O__o
Her cosplay will make her feel better.
Amazi-Girl: Like “Kick-Ass”, except with all the Mark Millar and his Assorted Misogynist Bullshit replaced with awesome.
Actually, fuck that, this makes me think Batman.
The relief in that last panel is just…palpable and unhealthy and yet strangely wonderful.
Goddamn, Willis.
The person that needs to find her like that… is Mike.
Mr. Willis, I feel I must commend your character development abilities even though I desperately want to murderize you for them.
My emotional leve.l can be summed up thusly: RAWER
The robbery thing always bothered me because of the ellipsis. There’s a fifty-fifty chance between it was a stress ellipsis or a lying about it ellipsis. Trust me. I know the ellipsis…
Man, if her shirt reads “IT’S OKAY” I might end up an emotional wreck.
Soap operas have never left, they simply got made into web comics.
This has got to be one of the most unhealthiest ways of dealing with your problems that I have ever seen or thought of. And I have a screwball imagination, so that kinda says something. And I feel like it’s only gonna get worse from here.
I think we can all agree that Amber is the most screwed up member of the cast at this point, and is the best at hiding it. Which is probably why she’s so messed up.
It’s incredible what sort of stuff can go on behind a mask.
A lot of people deal with trauma and abuse by traumatizing and abusing other people. Trying to help others seems like a pretty good response.
Agreed.
I can understand that. Unfortunately, from what I’m seeing, it doesn’t seem to have helped Amber very much. These last couple comics, especially this one in particular, have shown just how tenuous her grasp on her sanity really is.
She might be re-purposing her anger into helping others, but she doesn’t seem to have done much to help /b/herself/b/.
Meanwhile Mike is by far the healthiest.
Guys, please tell me that you not knowing Amber is Amazi-girl Is just sarcasm.
Amber is Amazi-Girl? I’m pretty sure it’s Sal…
So were people actually serious about the whole “X is Amazi-girl” thing or were they just trying (and failing) to be funny?
There was a running joke in Shortpacked wherein Amber is not Amazi-girl. Obviously, she is. But no one acknowledges this. At one point, I believe Ultra-Car was announced to be Amazi-girl.
So, the answer is “Yes, they were both being serious and trying to be funny.”
…that one, everyone acknowledges it except Robin.
Here, no one does.
It’s an old inside joke carried over from Shortpacked. It is, of course, all Robin’s fault: http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1232
what the hell is going on in the first panel?
There are currently two theories:
1. It is when Amber first saw Blaine hit her mom.
2. It is when Amber was involved ina convienence store robbery (possibly perpetrated by Sal, discussed somewhere above)
*GASP*
Amber is Amazi-Girl!!!!!!
Too many feels.
Feels hurt so bad…..
I thought for sure Jacob was Amazi-Girl in this continuity.
Oh.
That… that explains a lot.
Oh man
Amber is a Ninja Turtle cosplayer? Also, Willis, your tags are off. It says Amazi-girl but the only woman shown here is Amber.
We’ve been Clark Kented.
Finally we can get the whole Amber = Amazi-Girl thing out the way. I got pretty tired of the jokes suggesting otherwise early on. Even those would defend the notion by saying this is just cosplay can’t (realistically) argue with the character tags of truth!
Could still be a title, not a person. Their might be a “legacy” Amazing-girl too, and this is just the origin of the new one.
[/THERES ALWAYS A WAY]
WAT http://static4.fjcdn.com/comments/wat+_e6712bf87cce999f52675ef70d0476cc.jpg
The reminder of the running sort-of joke to which this is the sort-of punchline kind of wound up undoing the impact a little bit…
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…?! That came completely out of nowhere!
Amber, in the words of Mufasa: Remember who you are!
And in the words of Scar(and number 354 of things I really wanted to say but could never find an opportunity to say it): And here’s my little secret, I KILLED MUFASA!
The child of a Mobster?
If so I agree completely.
Blaine was only a mobster in the Shortpacked! Universe. He could be an insurance salesman in this universe for all we know.
If FAX is any indication,he’s probably fathered many kids again. I hope not but he has changed much.
FAX? Is that some sort of convention I haven’t heard of?
I think it was meant to be FAZ.
Either that, or it’s a convention for fax machines.
Oh man she’s made an alter ego in which she’s always calm and controlled and using familiar parts from that to anchor herself to a stable state of mind!
And possibly Sal robbed her parents’ convenience store?
ghh so intense
Maybe it was her Dad? (Or at least I kind’a hope it was.)
Get thee to a therapist.
CAMEL TOE in the last panel! WooHoo!!
Those are jeans.
Perfect gravatar-comment sync.
Not unless I do it in italics.
Those are jeans.
See? It just works.
Why must you say such things, Ivan?
Oh hey, that synchs up with my grav too.
Is it odd that Amber’s horrifying inner turmoil has turned her into my favourite character?
In walks Billie: Sal? what are you doing here?
Backing up, did Sal recognize Blaine as he ran past her. Does she feel some animosity to him? Kick his ass Sal!
“There, my Amazi-Girl cosplay will make me feel better.”
Anybody else wondering what is in the first panel?
Of course. I’m sure we’re supposed to. If I had to guess, I’d say it was a particularly terrifying incident between her dad and her mom.
That was the robbery from when Amazi-Girl was trying to give her “origin story” a while back.
Hmmmm…The person in that robbery sure does have curly hair. ;p
Amber? Why is Ethan in the third panel when you’re trying to suppress your rage, Amber? Did you do or say something to Ethan at that moment that you regret, Amber?
For the record, your attempts to bury and re-direct your rage, as opposed to taking pride in it like your father, are what make you different than him. It can be a thin line, but it means there’s still hope for you.
I think it might be part of an emotional tidal wave of flashbacks to times that have made her feel anger/frustration.
That’s when he told her he was gay. On their prom night. When they were in the process of doin’ it. This isn’t all about rage, it’s about her compartmentalizing all of her emotional trauma and hiding it behind the mask.
So …. what is the shocking reveal?
The shocking reveal is…
ETHAN IS GAY.
OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD!!
I’m feeling strangely indifferent about the reveal. I just want to give her a hug. :'(
Just hugs? I’d give her a hug and a ki……tten…yeah..that’s the word.
Wait, isn’t Billie still trying to track down Amazi-girl? Isn’t Amber’s Dad chasing Amber? Isn’t Billie chasing Amber’s Dad? And Amber is wearing her mask…this could get really interesting in a few panels….
So this is not where I was hoping this was going at all…
To quote Bruce Wayne, “Anyone who dresses up as a bat clearly has issues.”
And here we see exactly what all of Amazi-Girl’s issues are.
Once. Just ONCE. I’d like to see a well-adjusted superhero who isn’t Superman.
Captian Marvel? Captian America? Thor? Stephanie Brown?
Stephanie Plum? Oh, wait–she’s not a super-hero(ine); outside of a poor screen adaptation featuring Katherine Heigl, she just kicks @$$. For the most part unintentionally.
The Flash? Luke Cage? Squrriel Girl? The Human Torch? Both Hawkeyes?
If you’re talking about Barry Allen as the Flash, then he had serious issues regarding his parents’ deaths which have caused him to unintentionally fuck the universe over a là Flashpoint IIRC.
I’m talking about the Barry Allen who first appeared in SHOWCASE and went on to have a good thirty years of adventures in his own title, ending with an iconic sacrifice in the first Crisis – without any of the gratuitious, disgusting revisionist baggage that Johns (like many fanboys stuck between their unironic childhood love of a simple, unambiguously heroic paragon and the guilty need to make him as “mature” as they now imagine themselves to be) tainted the character with when he brought him back.
(credit-where-credit-is-due dept: Dan Didio needs to share the blame for this one, and the generally sorry state of DC today.)
Wonder Woman
Superman is NOT without issues. His entire race was killed, and he constantly has to hold back to not destroy the planet. At times, he clearly has anger and control problems. He’s just very disciplined, but he has issues, too.
The reason there are not many stories about perfect, happy families is that happy families tend to be happy in the same way, and therefore, are boring.
Hey guys…I don’t think Sal is Amazi-Girl after all.
Clearly Ultra-Car is Amazi-Girl.
Re-Repurposed?
Stuttering, possibly.
Think it was starting to be “repressed” – until she realized where Amazi-Girl comes from; a repurposing of the anger and helplessness she has felt, channeling it into this secondary identity where it can be expressed relatively harmlessly.
The trick is, when staring into the Abyss – don’t blink.
Now the only question is who is pizza girl?
Hazel, of course.
Obviously, Sal is pizza girl.
It’s obviously Hanners on meds, who conveniently passes out and forgets her escapades once the sensation of traveling throughout the city in an unsanitary manner becomes too much to bear.
If someone could draw Hannelore cosplaying as Amazi-girl I would literally cry out in joy.
And there was Ethan, suddendly alone with this girl he couldnt recognize anymore, a crazy gleen in her eyes, grinning at him while tearing the buttons of his shirt. “Is this what the pig feels when its going to get porked?” he thought “I am supposed to get exited by her shallow breathing in my face?”. Because as might as he tried he couldnt return the lustful glances of Amber rubbing against him. He was not aroused at all. “This is it” he told to himself. “I ought be gay”…
Little he knew that the flu was blocking her powerful feromones making him inmune to the charms of violent sexual approach.
yeah, yeah, I know. In the other universe he is such and such. But, image for a moment, that this panel alone, is all you know about the matter.
Well that makes me sad. Amber is in a horrible, horrible place right now.
Just had a mini heart attack, you are soo good at writing these things, making amazagirl amber’s emotional escape, duuude, well done.
Next strip is going to be one of Danny.
Damn. There’s a severe lack of funny in those strips. Poor Amber. D:
I… don’t think I understand the first panel though. Anybody knows what it is about?
There’s been a flashback to something similar, but it showed about the same amount of information (I don’t have the exact strip, but I think it was when Danny asked Amazi-Girl about why she started crimefighting). So we don’t have details yet, just guesses.
Nevermind, I had to go back and look for it anyhow.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/color/
She mentions a robbery when she was 13, but we still don’t have details.
I had completely forgotten about this until you all reminded me.
RRRIGHT!
I remember that, now.
Thank you!
David, this whole exchange and development is really potent. I’m still new to all of your work, but a little bit of the story and each universe becomes clearer every day. These past few weeks have been just as definitive to your writing and art. Dang, man. Really well done.
what? were we really not supposed to know this years ago..? there have been whole storylines playing up the funniness of amber being friend and girlfriend of the same guy. I’m about the densest person I know and I was so confused by this comic because I didn’t even realize it was supposed to be a secret…
Congratulations on your expert joke-missing. Why, I haven’t seen joke-missing like that since the great flat stare of 1932! Bravo to you, madame!
what, is it supposed to be a joke that it’s a “shocking reveal” he debated over for a week? how is that funny..?
I’ve always been able to relate all too well to Amber, especially in the horrible-dad department… Blaine and Amber’s relationship is so horrifyingly like the one i have with my dad that it feels like Willis is following me around all day. Really, really well written. Down to the hugely satisfying rage followed immediately by self-hatred and a slew of emotions that drag you down further and further, reading Amber’s last few strips has been like looking in a mirror, it just strikes so close to home.
Well done, Willis. Well done.
Who She Is and How She Came to Be
I figured it out, this is all just Willis’s plan to get us to like Danny, whose gonna find her there and comfort her, her boyfriend. he’s gonna learn her secret and be there for her, god damnit Willis is the cleverest man I ever met!
Umm… Wat exactly is the first square in the strip supposed to represent in Amber’s painful memories which made her become amazigirl
^ Oh whoops. Yeah.
v Both of these at once, I suppose.
So what happened in the grocery store? I seem to have missed something.
Nice work on packaging a whole origin story into about five frames, by the way. That’s some commendable efficiency.
All-Star Amazi-Girl
Oh my Willis! She’s a ninja! Too bad she’s neither teenage, mutant, nor turtle.
Man. I teared up at this. The look on her face in the second to last panel, as she’s frantically tying on her mask so she can ward away all of those feelings…mere moments before that electric, paralyzing panic completely overwhelms her. Incredibly moving. I like to think I don’t have any of the same kinds of issues as Amber, but nonetheless I find empathizing with her a simple thing.
Damn you, Willis. You’re quite the storyteller.
ok after today’s strip (just check the date, I won’t link it here in case people are archive binging) I came back to this one and just AAAUUUGH CRYING, GOOD GOD, what a ridiculously intense and well drawn and incredible character.
It’s probably a good thing “Frozen” wasn’t out when this was first posted, but still…
Is Amber a poster-girl for Conceal Don’t Feel or what?
Holy shit… How did Amber manage to get Amazi-Girl’s mask?