A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Tigress Queen
Allison Shaw
A barbarian warlord and a pampered prince try to avoid a marriage alliance that could end decades of violence.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Starhammer
J.N. Monk, Harry Bogosian
A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Ghost Junk Sickness
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Two hunters try to survive and end up being pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost".
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Jailbird
Charlie Davis
An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
Fireweeds Moors
Gato Iberico
A cat-headed man and a girl with a sandwich hankering accidentally end up in a myth-infused country where magic chalices are a really big thing.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Godslave
Meaghan Carter
Edith has been thrown into the dangerous world of modern-day Egyptian mythology. Fighting monsters and dealing with family drama of godly proportions.
This is Not Fiction
Nicole Mannino
What do you do when the person you're in-love with is an anonymous romance novelist? Get your best friend to hire your worst enemy for help!
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
Kiwi Blitz
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
Steffi thinks she can use her kiwi mech to become a superhero. This idea turns out to be very stupid.
Astral Aves
Moon Cabal
A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
The Sanity Circus
Windy
Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
Kochab
Sarah Webb
A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Star Impact
Jack McGee
A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Lilith's Word
inkPangur
If you had the power to make any wish come true using just one word, what would you say?
Caramel Corn
Potchimew
Sarah is the only human left in a world full of mythical creatures and monsters. All she wants to do is live a quiet life, but everything changes when she meets her guardian angel, Jacob.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Paranatural
Zack Morrison
Superpowered middle schoolers fight evil spirits in their rural hometown. Come for the jokes, stay for the cast, the creatures, and the mystery that ties them all together!
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
Devil's Candy
Rem, Bikkuri
A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
The Automan's Daughter
Mike Stamm
Aisha Osman and her uncle Siddig outwit bikers, spies and kidnappers while gearing up for a showdown with the formidable Widowmaker mecha.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
Love Not Found
Gina Biggs
Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Cut Time
Juby
Rel and her trusty avian friend Fugue are on a quest to save a world that's lost track of time. Follow them and their new recruits, in a story written with help from the stars.
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
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You never want to overblow, but you don’t want to play too soft. You want the notes to sound crisp except when you want them to sound melodious. However, I play the tuba so I just blow.
Except LimeTH is referring to how they’ve swapped roles in the present. Additionally, “have” is already past tense, and it’s a contraction in “they’ve”.
Agreed about Amber and the clarinet. Let’s put Ethan down for mellophone then, if for marching season… and either [French] horn or 3rd trumpet if for concert band. Just my gut feeling.
I have never met a heterosexual male double-reed player. I’m going with Ethan on oboe or bassoon. Amber possibly on flute, clarinet, or bass clarinet? Actually, Amber could also be an oboe girl . . .
She LOOKED adorable, though. Especially when she smiled.
But yeah, I hear you, taekwondogirl and hoop. “The eight-year-old is rocking in the corner with a blank expression, failing to respond to any stimuli? D’aww!”
It’s arguable. Being “adorable” means that you give others an urge to care for you and protect you. Being in some way pitiable or vulnerable DOES invoke such an urge, in the form of compassion.
I don’t think that’s what most people mean when they say someone’s adorable, though. I realize that I’m treading the “No True Scotsman” ground a little here, but adorable and cute are basically used interchangeably. With the context given, it definitely seems as though the intention/implication of the statement was that she’s precocious and cute, not “aww I want to take her under my wing and make her safe”.
He has mentioned them, when he was talking with Mike in the lobby about the new difficulty of finding a geeky gay Jewish man now, rather than just finding a geeky straight Jewish woman.
Then Mike said something, Joyce came by, and Ethan sprinted for the closet.
So, wait: In an ideal world, Ethan would have wanTed a (1) gay (2) geeky (3) Jewish (4) boy? Because he thought that would be to difficult to find, he’s now with a (1) straight (2) not-originally-geeky (3) Christian (4) girl?! Three out of four wouldn’t have been enough, like a gay Jewish boy supportive of his geekiness, or a non-Jewish religiously-tolerant geeky gay boy? It was all or none with him.
I think he decided that while he was compromising one of his biggest desires in a mate, he might as well go for broke. Ethan’s made the mistake of thinking he’ll be lonely for life if he doesn’t immediately get someone first year of college. Pretty common problem, actually.
Yes, what taekwondogirl said.
I know they’ve been on campus only 4 weeks now, but if Indiana is like other Big 10 schools there are plenty of gays and lesbians around. One of my frustrations here.
In Ethan’s ideal world he would be on the road to (1) a wife (2) who is a geek, and a future with (3) kids.
Remember he has faced the rejection of everybody he knew except (1) blonde asshole (self described) and (2) life long friend who needs space. As a kid, he doesn’t exactly have much knowledge of the world.
As far as I know, Joyce isn’t a geek, but I don’t know other Walkkyverse continuities. She’s just incredibly white and uptight.
He only needs to convince her that he’s converted to (1) Christianity and (2) being straight while (3) prying her legs open.
But a handsome reasonably friendly guy should be able to make friends pretty easily if he’d leave the half a dozen (all dorm locations count as 1) locations they’ve been in. He could be (1) under, (2) on, or (3) in a pile of men in no time.
Okay this is the weirdest board I’ve ever seen. I was second poster. I refreshed 5x watching new comments coming in, and now I’m in 3rd place? Verrry interesting.
And the winner (high-note shifted score of William Tell Overture overlaid with sound FX of breaking glass, springs and slide whistles, then a horse whinny) … Beetlebaum!
As noted, it can be hard to tell age from Willis’ art sometimes. That said, I agree that IMO they were drawn rather young there (though not as young as Robin et al over in the other strip, obviously).
Ehh, I’d say it’s accurate. At that age, girls kinda look older than guys. Amber’s pretty close to what she’ll look like as a young adult, but Ethan still needs a growth spurt.
Yeah, I purposefully drew Amber further along in puberty than Ethan. Girls do that sooner. It’s also why Amber’s not nearly as short compared to Ethan versus how she is normally.
I think that Amber is in the past and is gong to stay there. I said that when we come back to the present….Amber will be sitting on the step sucking her thumb.
Nope won’t get hit by a truck.
more significantly, I was trying to figure out the earliest combination of “pretool” and a new Bumblebee being on shelves. Classics Bumblebee is 2006, which feels right timewise, but that wasn’t a thing the fandom was aware of, as Hasbro didn’t start aggressively doing it until Generations, two years later, and the only Bumblebee in that line was a Legends-class.
Deluxe Animated Bumblebee, maybe. Joke’s on her, that mold was never retooled into anyone!
Just find it neat Yotomo that we all move around in postion and posting time has nothing to do with it apparently. Between refreshing 5x I moved down and you moved up and a couple others popped up in the middle.
Red panels just aren’t good no matter what they are for or prepresent.
Wasn’t there a time in ‘the past’ when Amber was at a table with friends and wouldn’t pull her head out of the DS and got some of them mad at her?
I think I remember that. I should go back and re-read the strips, I’ve only done it once a long time ago.
Yes, Mike and Ethan. They weren’t angry exactly. Mike reminded her of Ethan’s complete rejection of her on prom night to get her attention, but that’s Mike.
That’s understandable. She spent the whole spring and summer fighting everybody on behalf of Ethan, the one who rejected her. She started to climb back into her shell and needed to decompress, which also led to Amazi-Girl.
But one of the people she needed space from was also intruding.
Ahah I got it. Every time you post, you move down.
I don’t want to see what happens to Amber. I’ll come back when they are either shoveling her off the sidewalk or committing her.
You seem to be posting a series of separate comments instead of replying on the comment thread you started. All these fresh comments can’t help in keeping track.
The time stamps make it look like the order makes sense.
It’s sad if you see how much she needed Ethan to deal with her father and open up to the rest of the world.
You can see why she was so committed to him even after the humiliation of prom night.
More depressing to see the source of the low self esteem that leads to Danny – common tastes not withstanding.
I don’t think this (unless you’re talking about the effects of Blaine’s abuse on Amber) is that sad, or that her relationship with Danny was because she had low self-esteem. She wasn’t with Danny because she didn’t think she deserved better, she was with Danny because she thought he was wonderful. The failure to demask was partly a self-esteem thing, but I don’t see how it would relate to this strip in particular, except, again, the general shittiness of being Blaine’s daughter that has permeated her existence.
She had a friend in Ethan, a good friend who helped keep her sane under the onslaught of her father’s constant belittlement. That’s so much more than some abused children have — as a kid with a dad a lot like Amber’s, I was so isolated that at school I spoke to no one. My dad would never have allowed a friend from school to come visit; it was almost as unthinkable as the idea that he’d drive me to a band competition.
So this makes me glad she had Ethan. No, she didn’t get to marry her knight in shining armour, but she HAD SOMEONE. Probably her only someone for a long, long time. Ethan was a lifeline, someone who cared about her and believed in her and had things in common with her and enjoyed spending time with her. That gift is something so fucking precious, especially when you live a life full of fear and shame.
You don’t forget a friend that good when he needs you. She stuck by him after prom night because she cared deeply about him. Not because she felt she owed him something, necessarily, but because she loved him so damned much for being the kind of guy who would stick by her all those years when home was a scary place for her to be.
Sorry Ace, but I posted in 2nd place. Only Jen was ahead. There was no comment to comment on that …er..nothing to nest too.
I guess.
That I see posts stating that they are sorry their comments are not in order and it is meant for the post upstream – so were is the ‘nesting’ then.
This is probably going to come off like I’m a sarcastic asshole, but… okay, I am a sarcastic asshole, but I mean this in a sincere and helpful manner.
See how next to the time and date on each comment there’s a little dark red “Reply”? That’s a link. If you click on that, the comment-entry box will move up to right under the comment you clicked on “Reply” for, and when you hit “Post Comment”, instead of appearing at the end of the page, your comment will appear right under the comment you replied to (possibly after other replies to that comment), and indented a step. You can reply to replies, and the indentation gets deeper.
That’s why other comments are appearing above your initial comment, even though they have later time stamps. Your initial comment is still the second base comment, after Jen Aside’s. All those indented comments between Jen Aside’s comment and your first one are replies to Jen’s, or to replies to replies to Jen’s, or etc., the longer the reply chain, the further to the right they’re indented.
Also, sometimes a comment doesn’t appear immediately when it’s posted, because it gets caught by the spam filter for one reason or another (someone’s first comment on the site, or more than one link in the comment), and Willis has to manually approve it before it appears. That’s not what you’re seeing here, though.
Granted, it’s one of the ways Amber reminds me of me (I’m no stranger to finding myself buried in a game or book, and am not overly talkative), but seriously…she could at least attempt to string 2 or more words together, or close the game to let Ethan know she’s paying attention to him.
She’s avoiding reality. Being around her father makes her feel terrible inside, so she’s shutting out. One summer when I was eleven I stayed at a relative’s house for a month. My father called three times to talk to me. Each time, I had a flat affect and spoke maybe two words to anyone for the rest of the day. Just being around him, even when he didn’t say any nasty barbs, was enough to shut me down for at least 24 hours. And that was just hearing his voice on the phone.
Amber’s not a rude little brat, she’s a traumatised child in an abusive situation who is hiding from the reality that she is not safe from her father. Ethan is doing great to draw her out like this, but even if he hadn’t succeeded, it would be naive and insulting to assume that Amber’s just being rude.
They are two different guys. Though partly because Hasbro didn’t own the trademark for “Bumblebee” in those years, and only fought to get it back just before the live-action movie.
Two different characters, and Bumblebee’s the older one by almost 20 years – Bumblebee predates the FIRST character called Hot Shot by a decade and a half, but that one didn’t resemble him or the other Hot Shot at all.
The first Hot Shot was black with flames. He also had a very different personality and role. It’s the second one (and the one that followed) who resembled Bee. (…Well, he was yellow, and had a similar role, anyway.)
It’s grayer than that because in early Armada bible stuff, Hot Shot’s name was indeed “Bumblebee.” Though later he’d be written more like Hot Rod and his toys started to look like it, too.
Well, in the flashbacks there is a hand on Amber’s shoulder. I had been wondering about that. Also, looks like Ethan and Sal have not met so far, so we don’t know if he would remember her face like amber did. (As far as I can tell, the closest they have come to meeting each other is in this strip http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/diddlin/ )
Agree with Bearfuz. If you check the flashback scene in this strip there doesn’t appear to be anyone else around her. And I’m going to say now that it is Sal’s hair that we see in the top left of the flashback panel.
To be fair, between her face being mostly shadowed and the hand being mostly base tone, and the strip as a whole having two different kinds of weird color-skew, so Amber’s skin tone isn’t the same from one panel to the next, it’s not real obvious.
I’d assumed it was someone else’s hand just because of the position… the angle looks uncomfortable if it’s Amber’s. But now that you mention it, the skin tone does look to match Ethan’s in that other red-shaded panel better than it does Amber’s…
So you’re saying that this is the robbery in Amber’s flashbacks, but that this particular robbery then has absolutely nothing to do with Sal? Interesting twist, and just the sort of thing that Willis would do!
Welp, this is looking increasingly like Sal is the traumatizee in this case. Bravo to those who figured it out before all this talk of gas stations came up.
Between this arc and the new Shortpacked! there are so many flashbacks I’m waiting for the Silverhawk Flashback to show up and try to find out who’s stealing his gimmick
What kinds of transformers do you buy exactly? My favorite transformers are Shockwave and Soundwave so now that I’ve got Quakewave and MP Soundwave, I feel my collection is complete enough to just buy a few here and there (Totally need that generations scoop).
My personal moral compass feels “they had x amount of time to do it before doing illegal things is okay” should apply to stuff like food and medicine, not luxury items.
well over a week I just caught up on DoA from the start and must say I really like this comic a lot Dina is by far my favorite character. so now we are about to see her superhero origin story and mental breakdown x_x
When I was in grade 7, band was mandatory. I picked clarinet because I was told it was the easiest. I tried for a week and gave up. After that, I just moved my fingers along the notes (not blowing) and pretended to play. The teacher never found out and I got away with never doing anything for a whole year (and I got high marks for it).
I wonder if that’s what Ethan might mean by not blowing. I’m probably reading too much into it though, he probably didn’t cheat.
Is anyone else slightly irritated that so many people are saying, “Ermagerd, It’s gonna be Sal in there who robs the convenience store and traumatizes Amber. I called it months ago”? I kinda hope that doesn’t happen, so that Willis’s sleight-of-hand and creative genius fools us all! (I suspect you all are correct, though.)
No? I mean, someone pointed it out months ago and everyone agreed that it was a pretty plausible theory, based off the comic where Amber recognized Sal and looked unhappy. When she had her breakdown on Parents Day, it further added to the evidence.
Yeah ditto here. Also anybody else here think it’s kind’a random they stopped? Blaine never really seemed the kind to make stops, more the “if you need to pee, do it in the soda can!” Kind’a guy.
Here’s an idea. Blaine comes into the store, sees a colored girl, and starts beating on her before robbing the store. And his daughter and her bff watch from hiding.
That what you had in mind?
Willis has seemed more interested in crafting consistent foreshadowing than in making shocking reveals, so you might as well get used to the idea of it being Ethan.
Also, the advent of internet fandoms must be hell to any creator that releases serially and wants to create surprise twists. Seriously, all the picking and guessing and nagging…
This is pretty much how I work. One word answers until you come across something I’m unhealthily obsessed with, then I will almost literally talk your ear off.
Why does it feel like this relationship was doomed from the start? Like, I can SEE why she would make a bad. They dont have much of a chemistry, even for a gay guy and and awkward girl.
Willis should go back and change Amber’s dialogue in the final panel every year or so, just to keep it properly ‘five years ago’ (it’s not like he’s too busy with anything else… right?).
Is it bad that I don’t actually pity amber that much when it comes to the Ethan situation. If he’s happy with Joyce, j he’s happy with Joyce. I feel like she’s being selfish for thinking unless he’s homosexual he has to be with her and no one else.
I don’t know if it’s bad, but it does show a lack of empathy. She got dumped pretty hard. That hurts. She’s not over it, he is AND he’s dating another straight chick. Whether or not it wasn’t right for Amber doesn’t mean she shouldn’t feel anything.
Also, just because the situation is convenient currently doesn’t mean what Ethan’s doing is okay.
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hmm, I wouldn’t have pegged either of them for band…
Maybe after they learn how at band camp.
Your mind works in strange and disturbing ways. I am impressed.
I’m glad SOMEone got that. I was worried I’d used poor wording.
It’s like…Middle school. He probably means Concert Band Class.
Don’t you ruin my marching band of age dreams!
(Dumbing of band? Marchingpacked? It’s drumline? Bringbackbandcamp? I’ll figure out the name later)
Drumming of Age.
All I can say is +1
“Here come the drums. Here come… the drums.”
“Can you hear it, Doctor? The drumming?”
I don’t hear anything. Hit harder.
Aaaaand here come the Whovians. Didn’t take long.
Drums in the deep. They are coming…
Brilliant
I love it.
That’s what I meant–I was in orchestra, myself. Less blowing =p
They were both big in the marching band until they sat down with an archive of Funky Cancer Caner.
A good place to hide, the past is.
Like Yoda speak, you does.
Speak like Yoda, you do not.
Talk street to break out of popular stereotypes, yoda does. Hip & happening marketer of vodaphone, yoda now be.
*yoda body popping commences*
“Yeah, but you were supposed to blow notes – you play the trombone. Pretty good silence, though.”
As a trombonist, I know the band lingo. You don’t wanna blow notes.
You never want to overblow, but you don’t want to play too soft. You want the notes to sound crisp except when you want them to sound melodious. However, I play the tuba so I just blow.
And then there are those of us who play the bagpipes. We have no excuse.
Bagpipes rock!
Dubstep guns are where it is at.
Well until they build one, bagpipes will have to do.
BASS CANNON
You blew it!
*ahem*
Tromboners stand erect!
OK, so I’ve never played it in performance — mostly a saxophonist, though I did march baritone bugle with drum corps.
My brother was such a huge band geek that he turned into…
A Music Teacher!!
He mostly played trombone & baritone in high school band.
Oh my god, they’ve become each other.
They became each other. Since this is the past.
Except LimeTH is referring to how they’ve swapped roles in the present. Additionally, “have” is already past tense, and it’s a contraction in “they’ve”.
And i thought she ignored him before…
Sounds like movie toyline. Did that ever have a cliffjumper retool?
I recall buying a red redecoed Bumblebee for a friend as a gift. So I’m gonna go with “Yes”
Yes, but “pretool” implies this is real-life-recent, talking about IDW Bumblebee (whose pretool was…. Bumblebee!)
Half of me is going “Aww” and the other is going “DON’T FALL FOR IT IT CAN’T LAST”
So at least Danny was a geek boy.
But please remember Amber, he’s still Danny. Better off without him.
Ethan is still Danny, because deep down, everyone is Danny.
Man, those five years did a number on Ethan.
Made him into a ginormous ass.
glorious hot chiseled ass … but still yeah an ass
So in this universe Amber is a bigger transformers fangirl than Ethan?
Makes sense to me. In this universe the girl everyone wants to love is more emotional about cereal than about people going through depression.
Pretty much very character has been exaggerated in this universe.
The term is “more developed”.
Or at least that’s the term I prefer when I’m going around exaggerating things.
Oh man the suspense is killing me
I’m waiting for Sal to appear at any moment.
Amber is Shortpacked Ethan!
Oh hey, they’re band kids? Sweet! Wonder what instruments they play?
Amber played a Roland TR-808.
Ethan played the theremin.
FACT.
If only…..
I dunno about Ethan, but Amber seems like a clarinet to me for some reason.
Agreed about Amber and the clarinet. Let’s put Ethan down for mellophone then, if for marching season… and either [French] horn or 3rd trumpet if for concert band. Just my gut feeling.
French horn. Definitely French horn.
I have never met a heterosexual male double-reed player. I’m going with Ethan on oboe or bassoon. Amber possibly on flute, clarinet, or bass clarinet? Actually, Amber could also be an oboe girl . . .
Amber was even more adorable when she was younger. If that’s possible!
No. Nononono. This is painful, not adorable. There are some disturbing undertones for saying someone with social problems this blatant is adorable.
yeah, this isn’t adorable, this is sad.
AW THAT SOLDIER WITH PTSD IS SO CHARMING WHEN HE STARES OFF INTO THE DISTANCE FOR HOURS AT A TIME
She LOOKED adorable, though. Especially when she smiled.
But yeah, I hear you, taekwondogirl and hoop. “The eight-year-old is rocking in the corner with a blank expression, failing to respond to any stimuli? D’aww!”
It’s arguable. Being “adorable” means that you give others an urge to care for you and protect you. Being in some way pitiable or vulnerable DOES invoke such an urge, in the form of compassion.
I don’t think that’s what most people mean when they say someone’s adorable, though. I realize that I’m treading the “No True Scotsman” ground a little here, but adorable and cute are basically used interchangeably. With the context given, it definitely seems as though the intention/implication of the statement was that she’s precocious and cute, not “aww I want to take her under my wing and make her safe”.
Hold up , they where in a band? Man I wonder what happened to make them brake up-Oh wait a minute
Mike kept using their heads as drums.
Could you imagine mike being the douchebag member of the band that all the girls have the hots for
He’s that in his everyday life.
Mike is second-chair trumpet, obviously.
Ahahahahahaha that’s beautiful.
Have we ever seen Ethan playing with Transformers at all in this universe?
Yeah, though I can’t remember specifically when. He does have a few Transformers posters in his room too.
Plus he showed Joyce Beast wars
Amber has a TF:Animated poster in her room also.
He has mentioned them, when he was talking with Mike in the lobby about the new difficulty of finding a geeky gay Jewish man now, rather than just finding a geeky straight Jewish woman.
Then Mike said something, Joyce came by, and Ethan sprinted for the closet.
So, wait: In an ideal world, Ethan would have wanTed a (1) gay (2) geeky (3) Jewish (4) boy? Because he thought that would be to difficult to find, he’s now with a (1) straight (2) not-originally-geeky (3) Christian (4) girl?! Three out of four wouldn’t have been enough, like a gay Jewish boy supportive of his geekiness, or a non-Jewish religiously-tolerant geeky gay boy? It was all or none with him.
I think he decided that while he was compromising one of his biggest desires in a mate, he might as well go for broke. Ethan’s made the mistake of thinking he’ll be lonely for life if he doesn’t immediately get someone first year of college. Pretty common problem, actually.
Yes, what taekwondogirl said.
I know they’ve been on campus only 4 weeks now, but if Indiana is like other Big 10 schools there are plenty of gays and lesbians around. One of my frustrations here.
In Ethan’s ideal world he would be on the road to (1) a wife (2) who is a geek, and a future with (3) kids.
Remember he has faced the rejection of everybody he knew except (1) blonde asshole (self described) and (2) life long friend who needs space. As a kid, he doesn’t exactly have much knowledge of the world.
As far as I know, Joyce isn’t a geek, but I don’t know other Walkkyverse continuities. She’s just incredibly white and uptight.
He only needs to convince her that he’s converted to (1) Christianity and (2) being straight while (3) prying her legs open.
But a handsome reasonably friendly guy should be able to make friends pretty easily if he’d leave the half a dozen (all dorm locations count as 1) locations they’ve been in. He could be (1) under, (2) on, or (3) in a pile of men in no time.
It’s been pointed out by Willis that the strip is called “Dumbing of Age”. Not something about making good decisions.
Okay this is the weirdest board I’ve ever seen. I was second poster. I refreshed 5x watching new comments coming in, and now I’m in 3rd place? Verrry interesting.
My guess is that other people started their posts before you which makes them first even if they didn’t finish their posts until after you.
This is too good to be true. Which is why there us a red background.
Altogether now, “DARN YOU WILLIS!”
While he has that Twitter avatar, I’m just going assume evil things are happening in his webcomics.
remember the scene in her flashbacks where she is pinned to a snack stand? this could be that memory… brace yourselves
And now Yotomoe is in 3rd and I’m down to 4th but Jen still in 1st. Yup weird.
And behind Gotta Wonder is Silver Dasher in 5th. It’s anybody’s race now!
And the winner (high-note shifted score of William Tell Overture overlaid with sound FX of breaking glass, springs and slide whistles, then a horse whinny) … Beetlebaum!
WIN!
There’s nothing weird about it. Comment replies to a specific comment are shown below it, but above the next unrelated comment. It’s called nesting.
This flash back is red due to the red-shift of it being in the past and us in the present speeding away from it.
Science!
So what you are saying is that when this is over someone is going to have a color-blind image for about 3 minutes?
“So…nice weather we’ve been having. Except for the weird red light.”
“I know, it’s making it impossible to see my game.”
“Could be worse. We could have a blue-white light at night.
Either it’s a bad memory flashback or they live in the Evangelion universe.
Or their whole universe is inside a giant Virtual Boy
Now that would be traumatic.
So they are inside a digitized Astroboy?
.
.
Oh, its a game system that promoted severe neck strain and the onset of blindness …. never mind.
Visual boy. Astro boy is a robot kid.
How sweet! They are so cute. I take it they were platonic at that time.
Oh, I didn’t realize she was into transformers as much as Ethan. And Willis.
As much as Shortpacked! Ethan. I think she’s more into them than DoA Ethan.
Five? Based on the previous strip I thought they were like 8. I read Ethan’s dialogue entirely in a high-pitched pre-mutation voice.
Naw, they’re definitely in middle school. 8th grade probably. 8 year olds are dumb.
They’re 13, at least if the reasonable assumption that that flashback panel is coming up in a few minutes here holds true.
As noted, it can be hard to tell age from Willis’ art sometimes. That said, I agree that IMO they were drawn rather young there (though not as young as Robin et al over in the other strip, obviously).
Ehh, I’d say it’s accurate. At that age, girls kinda look older than guys. Amber’s pretty close to what she’ll look like as a young adult, but Ethan still needs a growth spurt.
Yeah, I purposefully drew Amber further along in puberty than Ethan. Girls do that sooner. It’s also why Amber’s not nearly as short compared to Ethan versus how she is normally.
I think that Amber is in the past and is gong to stay there. I said that when we come back to the present….Amber will be sitting on the step sucking her thumb.
Nope won’t get hit by a truck.
Maybe not literally but figuratively for sure.
Well, I see you’ve dated this comic to 2008 or later, for sure.
(Since pretools weren’t a thing until Universe 2.0, after all.)
(And it’s sad I know this off the top of my head. Yeah.)
more significantly, I was trying to figure out the earliest combination of “pretool” and a new Bumblebee being on shelves. Classics Bumblebee is 2006, which feels right timewise, but that wasn’t a thing the fandom was aware of, as Hasbro didn’t start aggressively doing it until Generations, two years later, and the only Bumblebee in that line was a Legends-class.
Deluxe Animated Bumblebee, maybe. Joke’s on her, that mold was never retooled into anyone!
I think that this would accurately be around the time the 1st Transformer’s movie came out.
Just find it neat Yotomo that we all move around in postion and posting time has nothing to do with it apparently. Between refreshing 5x I moved down and you moved up and a couple others popped up in the middle.
Pretty excite this flashback is finally happening, but the suspense is killing me.
Red panels just aren’t good no matter what they are for or prepresent.
Wasn’t there a time in ‘the past’ when Amber was at a table with friends and wouldn’t pull her head out of the DS and got some of them mad at her?
I think I remember that. I should go back and re-read the strips, I’ve only done it once a long time ago.
Amber has always been a geek I think.
Yes, Mike and Ethan. They weren’t angry exactly. Mike reminded her of Ethan’s complete rejection of her on prom night to get her attention, but that’s Mike.
That’s understandable. She spent the whole spring and summer fighting everybody on behalf of Ethan, the one who rejected her. She started to climb back into her shell and needed to decompress, which also led to Amazi-Girl.
But one of the people she needed space from was also intruding.
And now Im in 7th place.
Yeah Plasma, Im tired.
Doesn’t everyone like Yoda speak, want to do?
I guess maybe you missed my reply to you explaining what’s going on.
“There’s nothing weird about it. Comment replies to a specific comment are shown below it, but above the next unrelated comment. It’s called nesting.”
I don’t think someone who keeps making a new post instead of replying is going to immediately catch on…
AH I see!
Ahah I got it. Every time you post, you move down.
I don’t want to see what happens to Amber. I’ll come back when they are either shoveling her off the sidewalk or committing her.
You seem to be posting a series of separate comments instead of replying on the comment thread you started. All these fresh comments can’t help in keeping track.
The time stamps make it look like the order makes sense.
hey this is funny, not sad!
Willis! We were depending on you for some depressing comics!
It’s like a roller coaster. The higher the hill, the steeper the trip down.
With this strip you can practically hear the ominous “clack clack” as the car ascends.
Wait! Did that sound like a snapping truss to you?
It’s sad if you see how much she needed Ethan to deal with her father and open up to the rest of the world.
You can see why she was so committed to him even after the humiliation of prom night.
More depressing to see the source of the low self esteem that leads to Danny – common tastes not withstanding.
I don’t think this (unless you’re talking about the effects of Blaine’s abuse on Amber) is that sad, or that her relationship with Danny was because she had low self-esteem. She wasn’t with Danny because she didn’t think she deserved better, she was with Danny because she thought he was wonderful. The failure to demask was partly a self-esteem thing, but I don’t see how it would relate to this strip in particular, except, again, the general shittiness of being Blaine’s daughter that has permeated her existence.
She had a friend in Ethan, a good friend who helped keep her sane under the onslaught of her father’s constant belittlement. That’s so much more than some abused children have — as a kid with a dad a lot like Amber’s, I was so isolated that at school I spoke to no one. My dad would never have allowed a friend from school to come visit; it was almost as unthinkable as the idea that he’d drive me to a band competition.
So this makes me glad she had Ethan. No, she didn’t get to marry her knight in shining armour, but she HAD SOMEONE. Probably her only someone for a long, long time. Ethan was a lifeline, someone who cared about her and believed in her and had things in common with her and enjoyed spending time with her. That gift is something so fucking precious, especially when you live a life full of fear and shame.
You don’t forget a friend that good when he needs you. She stuck by him after prom night because she cared deeply about him. Not because she felt she owed him something, necessarily, but because she loved him so damned much for being the kind of guy who would stick by her all those years when home was a scary place for her to be.
Holy shit, I need to pay better attention to post length. Sorry.
Ok, that’s sorta depressing. But if I don’t get any serious emotional trauma soon, I’m calling the cops.
Anyone thinking after this big flashback (or many), she will hook up with an online boyfriend like from shortpacked?
NO, FUCKING NO, anything to not repeat the…just please no
Hah.
Or chase Sal with a corn popper.
Sorry Ace, but I posted in 2nd place. Only Jen was ahead. There was no comment to comment on that …er..nothing to nest too.
I guess.
That I see posts stating that they are sorry their comments are not in order and it is meant for the post upstream – so were is the ‘nesting’ then.
All of the comments that ended up between yours and Jen Aside’s were replies to Jen Aside’s, or replies to replies of Jen’s.
This is probably going to come off like I’m a sarcastic asshole, but… okay, I am a sarcastic asshole, but I mean this in a sincere and helpful manner.
See how next to the time and date on each comment there’s a little dark red “Reply”? That’s a link. If you click on that, the comment-entry box will move up to right under the comment you clicked on “Reply” for, and when you hit “Post Comment”, instead of appearing at the end of the page, your comment will appear right under the comment you replied to (possibly after other replies to that comment), and indented a step. You can reply to replies, and the indentation gets deeper.
That’s why other comments are appearing above your initial comment, even though they have later time stamps. Your initial comment is still the second base comment, after Jen Aside’s. All those indented comments between Jen Aside’s comment and your first one are replies to Jen’s, or to replies to replies to Jen’s, or etc., the longer the reply chain, the further to the right they’re indented.
Also, sometimes a comment doesn’t appear immediately when it’s posted, because it gets caught by the spam filter for one reason or another (someone’s first comment on the site, or more than one link in the comment), and Willis has to manually approve it before it appears. That’s not what you’re seeing here, though.
Yeah, I was also confused as to whether or not that person knew how to use the “reply” button. <_<
It kind of looks like plane wreckage, spread out as it is.
You’ve done everyone a great service here.
That’s very rude of you, Amber.
Granted, it’s one of the ways Amber reminds me of me (I’m no stranger to finding myself buried in a game or book, and am not overly talkative), but seriously…she could at least attempt to string 2 or more words together, or close the game to let Ethan know she’s paying attention to him.
She’s avoiding reality. Being around her father makes her feel terrible inside, so she’s shutting out. One summer when I was eleven I stayed at a relative’s house for a month. My father called three times to talk to me. Each time, I had a flat affect and spoke maybe two words to anyone for the rest of the day. Just being around him, even when he didn’t say any nasty barbs, was enough to shut me down for at least 24 hours. And that was just hearing his voice on the phone.
Amber’s not a rude little brat, she’s a traumatised child in an abusive situation who is hiding from the reality that she is not safe from her father. Ethan is doing great to draw her out like this, but even if he hadn’t succeeded, it would be naive and insulting to assume that Amber’s just being rude.
Does anybody remember when bumble bee used to be called hot shot, or are they two different characters?
They are two different guys. Though partly because Hasbro didn’t own the trademark for “Bumblebee” in those years, and only fought to get it back just before the live-action movie.
Two different characters, and Bumblebee’s the older one by almost 20 years – Bumblebee predates the FIRST character called Hot Shot by a decade and a half, but that one didn’t resemble him or the other Hot Shot at all.
What about there color scheme and design?
They’re both yellow cars. That’s where the similarities end.
The first Hot Shot was black with flames. He also had a very different personality and role. It’s the second one (and the one that followed) who resembled Bee. (…Well, he was yellow, and had a similar role, anyway.)
It’s grayer than that because in early Armada bible stuff, Hot Shot’s name was indeed “Bumblebee.” Though later he’d be written more like Hot Rod and his toys started to look like it, too.
Oh no-convenience store…is it about to get robbed? Ethan wasn’t in previous flashbacks of the robbery IIRC. That would be new information, right?
Well, in the flashbacks there is a hand on Amber’s shoulder. I had been wondering about that. Also, looks like Ethan and Sal have not met so far, so we don’t know if he would remember her face like amber did. (As far as I can tell, the closest they have come to meeting each other is in this strip http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/diddlin/ )
I think that hand is Amber’s own left hand.
Agree with Bearfuz. If you check the flashback scene in this strip there doesn’t appear to be anyone else around her. And I’m going to say now that it is Sal’s hair that we see in the top left of the flashback panel.
you are bad at spotting hands which are colored in different skin tones
To be fair, between her face being mostly shadowed and the hand being mostly base tone, and the strip as a whole having two different kinds of weird color-skew, so Amber’s skin tone isn’t the same from one panel to the next, it’s not real obvious.
I’d assumed it was someone else’s hand just because of the position… the angle looks uncomfortable if it’s Amber’s. But now that you mention it, the skin tone does look to match Ethan’s in that other red-shaded panel better than it does Amber’s…
(And, yeah, GIMP says exact match. #b0896c)
Prepare yourself for the surprise reveal that it was Ethan who robbed the store.
Hey, it could happen.
So you’re saying that this is the robbery in Amber’s flashbacks, but that this particular robbery then has absolutely nothing to do with Sal? Interesting twist, and just the sort of thing that Willis would do!
I guess Amber could be really tirying at times in those years I guess.
The border is red. We can’t trust it.
Deal with reality by withdrawing from reality. My favorite defense mechanism
Welp, this is looking increasingly like Sal is the traumatizee in this case. Bravo to those who figured it out before all this talk of gas stations came up.
Between this arc and the new Shortpacked! there are so many flashbacks I’m waiting for the Silverhawk Flashback to show up and try to find out who’s stealing his gimmick
Soon Amber will find her new hate-crush. Sal would make a great girlfriend for Amber.
Sal would make an awesome Catwoman to Amber’s Batman.
What happens to the sliding timeline if Hasbro sells the Transformers property or becomes defunct and a period of time longer than five years passes?
Then my greater concern isn’t this webcomic.
What kinds of transformers do you buy exactly? My favorite transformers are Shockwave and Soundwave so now that I’ve got Quakewave and MP Soundwave, I feel my collection is complete enough to just buy a few here and there (Totally need that generations scoop).
I have 800 of them.
That’s a lot of shelves.
So, pretty much everything then? Do you have a Quakewave? He rocks!
That’s not a Transformer, so no. I try not to buy things that involve intellectual property theft on that scale.
They had 30ish years to do it and they didn’t. All that time and we get exactly one g1 looking shockwave. (that I’m aware of)
My personal moral compass feels “they had x amount of time to do it before doing illegal things is okay” should apply to stuff like food and medicine, not luxury items.
well over a week I just caught up on DoA from the start and must say I really like this comic a lot Dina is by far my favorite character. so now we are about to see her superhero origin story and mental breakdown x_x
So what do (did) they play, or is that yet to be revealed?
Still am a clarinetist here, 12 years after high school!
They both played French horn.
Dagnabit, I was superseded by the Word of God! That’ll teach me to comment before I read every one else’s first . . .
Great kissers but they hold you funny.
Willis? Where’s my emotional breakdown?
Willis?
WILLIS!!!
When I was in grade 7, band was mandatory. I picked clarinet because I was told it was the easiest. I tried for a week and gave up. After that, I just moved my fingers along the notes (not blowing) and pretended to play. The teacher never found out and I got away with never doing anything for a whole year (and I got high marks for it).
I wonder if that’s what Ethan might mean by not blowing. I’m probably reading too much into it though, he probably didn’t cheat.
Shortpacked suddenly leaked to DoA!
Wouldn’t it be great if the next few strips were just blocks of dialogue about transformers stuff from five years ago?
Is anyone else slightly irritated that so many people are saying, “Ermagerd, It’s gonna be Sal in there who robs the convenience store and traumatizes Amber. I called it months ago”? I kinda hope that doesn’t happen, so that Willis’s sleight-of-hand and creative genius fools us all! (I suspect you all are correct, though.)
No? I mean, someone pointed it out months ago and everyone agreed that it was a pretty plausible theory, based off the comic where Amber recognized Sal and looked unhappy. When she had her breakdown on Parents Day, it further added to the evidence.
Yeah ditto here. Also anybody else here think it’s kind’a random they stopped? Blaine never really seemed the kind to make stops, more the “if you need to pee, do it in the soda can!” Kind’a guy.
That attitude doesn’t get you very far when you end up stopped in the middle of a highway because you ran out of gas.
Nah. I bet she’s just the fall guy
“I constantly get mistaken for my twin sister”, remember?
Here’s an idea. Blaine comes into the store, sees a colored girl, and starts beating on her before robbing the store. And his daughter and her bff watch from hiding.
That what you had in mind?
Willis has seemed more interested in crafting consistent foreshadowing than in making shocking reveals, so you might as well get used to the idea of it being Ethan.
Also, the advent of internet fandoms must be hell to any creator that releases serially and wants to create surprise twists. Seriously, all the picking and guessing and nagging…
Sal’s long lost sister will come and rob the store.
Plot twist: It was Danny who held up the store, and Sal was the one who saved her.
He cares so much for her. The feels are crippling.
This is pretty much how I work. One word answers until you come across something I’m unhealthily obsessed with, then I will almost literally talk your ear off.
I have absolutely no background in ShortPacked!
So Amber really freaks the crap out of me.
I want Mike to find Amber crying, and then go kick the $*@& out of Ethan.
No. Ethan actually had a point. Ethan could not be what Amber actually wants. She’s emotionally vulnerable, but even still was able to recognize that.
But Ethan also can’t be what Joyce ultimately wants either, even if she is so traumatized from her attempted rape to know it!
If my suspicions regarding Ethan’s parents are true, Joyce might make do with a lifetime of pretending.
I agree with you there, but my point is that Ethan isn’t really responsible for Amber’s breakdown.
Ahh, a little bit of happiness before the emotional train wreck to come. Why must you toy with us, Willis?
Just as a weird aside, does anyone else think that castration was thought up by women?
Sorry, talk of Blaine makes me think of eliminating him from any future contributions to the gene pool.
Actually, I’m pretty sure castration was come up with by men, to reduce the competition. Remember kids, people are awful
Maybe nothing bad happens and Amber is just retreating into herself into a much happier time.
Why does it feel like this relationship was doomed from the start? Like, I can SEE why she would make a bad. They dont have much of a chemistry, even for a gay guy and and awkward girl.
Willis should go back and change Amber’s dialogue in the final panel every year or so, just to keep it properly ‘five years ago’ (it’s not like he’s too busy with anything else… right?).
I wrote it so it’d be basically timeless. It’s what the hovertext talks about!
I know, I saw that. I just think it would be funny if you changed it every now and then, just to occasionally mess with people’s heads.
great page
Second place again. You’re losing your touch, old man.
idk… something is coming full circle….
Is it bad that I don’t actually pity amber that much when it comes to the Ethan situation. If he’s happy with Joyce, j he’s happy with Joyce. I feel like she’s being selfish for thinking unless he’s homosexual he has to be with her and no one else.
I don’t know if it’s bad, but it does show a lack of empathy. She got dumped pretty hard. That hurts. She’s not over it, he is AND he’s dating another straight chick. Whether or not it wasn’t right for Amber doesn’t mean she shouldn’t feel anything.
Also, just because the situation is convenient currently doesn’t mean what Ethan’s doing is okay.
That’s how I am with Bionicles.