Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
Monster's Garden
Ash G.
Champion pit fighter Kilo Monster was content to spend the rest of his days tending to his quiet garden alone... until he met a curious robot girl and her human family.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
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.
Angel's Orchard
Harry Bogosian
After the events in Demon's Mirror, Gerda has accepted her role as a Demon Hunter, and Cezar has traveled back to the Demon City. Demons have existed alongside humans for millennia, so things begin to return to normal. But an impossibly powerful Relic has been taken by one of the Demon Masters, and a silent war enters its final stages.
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.
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Three Panel Soul
Matt Boyd, Ian McConville
It's a pretty rigid format but we keep the content loose, you know?
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
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.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
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.
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
The Messenger
indui
In a ruin-abound town cursed with bad luck, Kai and Kalla--a young boy and a fledgling dragonbird spirit--take on a quest in hopes the reward will solve all of their problems.
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
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Maybe Joyce needs to let the situation Freeze over.
It’s important that she learns, for things like this, to Let it Go.
Maybe some Ice-olation would do her some good.
Then again, Walky is kind of giving this entire “love” thing the Cold Shoulder.
I don’t agree with Joyce on much, but I agree that being loved is the best possible gift. Being in a sexual relationship is great, but someone being willing to be vulnerable enough to love you is the best gift.
Who says he doesn’t want it? We are talking about this guy. I think he was blindsided by Dorothy’s change from “this ends the day I leave for Yale (and that day will come)” to “I love you (and who knows what that may imply regarding my plans for the future)”.
Joyce is mad because she’s projecting her own frustrations onto Walky here. I’m going to hold off on being mad at Walky until he decides not to have a serious talk with Dorothy. The jury is still out.
I mostly agree with you. Regarding Joyce, I think it’s more like this: She’s mad because Walky screwed up with Dorothy in the whole ” I love you department”. Part of it is her desire for what they have minus the current disaster, another is Dorothy is her best friend. (Apologies if I don’t make sense. SOOOO TIRED)
Only if you’re ready to receive it and it’d have been nice if Dorothy had chosen her time better like not when Walkys been put through the emotional ringer
I think Joyce has a good reason to be pissed off. The first guy she liked in college tried to rape her. The second guy she liked can’t love her the way she wants to be loved – the way Walky appears to be loved! And he is, in her opinion, wasting it, and hurting her friend in the process. She’s already struggling with how easy others seem to fall in love around her while she is guilty and frustrated, so Walky brushing it off like no big deal? I’d be mad too!! Yes, she needs therapy. But Walky has absolutely no idea what Joyce has gone through.
No, you’re right, it is a private matter. But, in a vulnerable state, it’s easy to project your problems onto someone else. Not the best thing, but a human thing. Plus, Walky isn’t exactly keeping it private himself.
Also, she’s not exactly ripping his head off here. She’s just barely holding in her frustration, but she’s still walking away “to get soft serve” before she says something nasty, so it’s possible she realizes she’s taking this too seriously – we’ll see next comic.
Even very moral people don’t always act morally. We are a robot riding a horse, and no matter how hard the robot tugs on the reins, sometimes the horse is gonna do what it needs to do. Joyce is a very controlled person, but she’s very frustrated right now, and those frustrations are starting to leak out.
Is it a private matter between Walky and Dorothy? Yes.
Do I blame Joyce for caring about the well being of one of her two best friends, when she feels that fried is wrong? No. (And it probably doesn’t help her current frame of mind that her other best friend is suddenly becoming very chummy with the alleged wronging party…)
Bloody hell, I need to proof read before hitting “post comment.” That should have read, “when she feels that friend is wronged?” And looking at it now, if I had proof read, I’d probably further have changed it to “has been wronged.”
Actually no matter how naive her feelings on how love works, she is correct here. The problem is not that Walky didn’t say he loved Dorothy. The problem is he did, turned that declaration into a stupid joke thus invalidating it, and in the process inadvertently laughed at Dorothy for “having stupid feelings when this should be for fun”. Essentially he trivialized Dotty’s solemn declaration of love. He would have been better off not saying anything.
yes, this exactly: the problem for Joyce is refusing to take love as something important. I think she would have been appalled by walky seriously saying “sorry, I don’t love you back, but this is not what happened here.
Ehhh… I think it’s kinda a dick move on Dorothy’s part to just drop an “I love you” when she already dropped the “this is just for shit’s and giggles” card. I mean, she’s trying to make a fuck buddies relationship into an actual one, and Walky never signed on for that.
So he said “I love you” back, then explained how *just saying it* doesn’t mean jack shit. I don’t see how this is a bad thing really, he’s not so much invaliding love, but saying “Yeah, it’s just words, love is probably more then that, putting stock into saying ‘I love you’ is bullshit.”
I think there was a bit of a problem in how they both handled it.
Did Dorothy make it clear initially that is was supposed to be a casual relationship, and is she now potentially trying to add more weight to it? Yes. But just because her brain intended one thing, that doesn’t mean her heart might be feeling differently.
Was Walky maybe a bit blind sided by her declaration of love? Sure he was. And that could excuse him responding in not the best fashion. But the way he did respond was, to be frank, rather tactless.
I never thought I would experience the sentence, “Never before has ‘I’m getting some soft serve’ sounded so much like ‘fuck you'”. And yet, here we are.
I never thought I would see the sentence “I never thought I would experience the sentence, “Never before has ‘I’m getting some soft serve’ sounded so much like ‘fuck you’.” And yet, here we are,” typed as a comment in a forum.
I’m trying to decide if Walky has a pretty healthy attitude towards this whole thing of it just reeks of his typical immaturity and allergy to depth/feelings.
I’d imagine it works okay if you have access to soft serve. Nowhere around my school has it; the closest thing is milkshakes – which are admittedly more portable.
IRL, I could see it being used for many things.. actually getting ice cream, volleyball, perhaps sex with a person in volleyball, perhaps with ice cream as well as getting sex with a volleyball player.. oh, or tennis in all those situations.. or someone saying that as a sarcastic ‘I just didn’t get served by that weak shit you just said.” …but ‘fuck you’ being an option for that? It’s definitely this situation only.
I feel what she was about to say there was “Do you know how much I envy you?”
Love like that is the one thing Joyce feels like she can’t have. And by that I mean like, unconditional love (not that I feel Dorothy loves Walky unconditionally but I can see how Joyce would compare Dorothy and Walky as people in her mind and come to that conclusion based on how little she thinks of him). Not lady love. Although maybe lady love too.
I’m pretty sure to her the main issue for her is that Walky treated love as unimportant, just as he does for most things in his life (except cartoons, duh).
Ethan’s already that guy! Ethan said he loved her this morning in comic time! And I don’t think he didn’t mean it either!
But let’s be real: Joyce doesn’t just want love or romance. She wants sex. And Ethan’s never going to be able to give that to her in any satisfactory way.
I only point this out because Joyce is already becoming aware of this, even if she doesn’t want to admit it, so on some level what she’s saying about love has to be a bit dishonest.
I agree. She’s probably really sexually frustrated, but can’t admit to it so she takes out her frustrations on Walky. Walky, who has everything she doesn’t, but does not meet her expectations on how people should love each other.
Am I the only one who thinks Joyce is really adorable here? I like how she tries to not insult people harshly even if they make her really mad.
Also, I hoped Becky would be coming here to maybe help Joyce grow and become more open-minded, but I’m starting to think I bet on the wrong person to do that.
A soft-serve (heh) place on one of my regular travel routes was once called “Whippy Dip.” Then the name was changed to “Xtreme Creme.” I’m sure the new owners thought it was an improvement.
Joyce, that’s the exact opposite of how gifts work. If you give somebody something they don’t want that’s a bad gift. Possibly a thoughtless gift. An object’s value as a gift is determined by how much it will be appreciated by the person you’re giving it to. It’s not a good gift just because somebody else really wanted it.
I feel like this is the sort of stuff they teach in children’s television. Clean up after yourself. Sharing is caring. Give thoughtful gifts. That’s gotta come up even in whatever Christian Media she was exposed to, right? At some point there must’ve been an episode where Chastity Churchmouse wanted to give Hymmel a chastity belt but Jesus pulled her aside and said “How would he wear it? Think about what he would like” and they ended up getting him a bookmark with his favorite bible verse written on it.
She must have missed that episode. She apparently missed the seventy-nine where they reinforced the lesson that the greatest gift of all is the love of Jesus, and mere mortal love pales in comparison, so don’t let your love for your friends stop you from getting out there and proselytizing to them until they convert or stop talking to you!
“Autodog,” as we used to call it in the Navy, is definitely the best possible thing. To understand the “autodog” moniker, think chocolate. It’s even better slang than a “creemee.”
Time to mention one small detail…it only been a month, its still moving to fast, at the beginning of all this they both were thinking ” I got no time for no relationship nor do I want one,” and now this.
Joyce started out seeking sophistication through getting her Mrs degree, and Walky came here get his Bachelor status certified. (Though not necessarily in the sense of a “confirmed bachelor”, if you know what I mean.) None of that seems to have changed. Joyce is less susceptible to hickups (sic) about her hang-ups, and to Walky the mysteries of women are no longer unknown, that is all. Or am I missing something?
While Joyce’s idea of love is definitely misguided and naive, Walky needs to take love more seriously. before he does something to REALLY fuck up his relationship.
The fact is that he doesn’t need to, based on how Dorothy outlined the relationship in the beginning. A “for fun” relationship is meant to be casual and non-committal, especially since Dorothy plans to leave for Yale.
Then now Walky needs to understand that sometimes circumstances change and he needs to decide whether he wants the new situation or not. Attempting to blow it off with a joke does not work.
Honestly that second panel sums it up. It’s not important to him. He was showing some real progress too: apologizing to Sal, worrying about Billie, but he still has growing up to do. He at least needs to learn to read a fucking situation. It’s called “tact” Walky.
Pretty sure Joyce already knew that. Dorothy has acknowledged not being a virgin in Joyce’s presence but I don’t think Joyce reacted much s they weren’t really hanging out at the time.
Oh, I totally get where Joyce is at. Where I work, they constantly *throw away* hardware that minions like me can’t afford, and wish we could have. Sooo frustrating, yet pales in comparison to someone who trivializes love like Walky. Really, I think the “Fuck You” is going both ways. The megacorporation is like, “Oh, wish you could have a monitor like this? Too bad, it’s getting recycled, loser!” An’ Walky is all like, “Wish you could have Dorothy’s love? PHHHHHHHHHT! It’s not worth nothin’!”
The phrase “I love you” is only a great gift if you feel the same way in return. I have had that fact pounded into me by being the one saying it to somebody who doesn’t feel it.
This does not mean that Dorothy shouldn’t feel the way she does. Feelings aren’t something you should apologize for. I am critical of Joyce for yet again choosing not to consider Walky’s feelings about things. This is less egregious than when she got him back together with Dorothy just because he wasn’t allowed to choose who he dumps, but it’s the same line of thinking.
The phrase “I love you” is only a great gift if you don’t feel the same way in return. It’s like someone handing you a blank check. If you feel the same, you won’t cash in on it but still have the responsibility and worry associated with its safekeeping. And you’ll always be worrying whether your own blank check could be considered an adequate return.
For some people it’s much more cheap and ephemeral to state “I love you” than it is for others to hear it. That does not mean that the statement was made with malicious intent.
It’s like “I’m comfortable leaving this chest in your house”. You have no idea what may be in there and whether it is a good idea to go out ever again. And a year later, you find you have been guarding tennis balls. Which explains why anyone would feel no large discomfort leaving them under your guard.
There was never any statement about just what was supposed in that chest. “Love” is like a chest: you just don’t have a way to know what is supposed to be the content, and it is tabu talking about it or prying the lid open.
Hmm. I am forced to concede that the definition of “love” is so fuzzy and lacking in consensus that there is a margin of plausibility in your argument. “I love chocolate” and “I love my mom” have muddied the meaning enough that it’s sort of believable that somebody could say, “I have mild regard for you. Now guard my tennis balls, sucker!” and run cackling off into the night.
However, in America, the phrase, “I love you” when said in something resembling a romantic relationship, has something approaching a supernatural power to it. (A fact which Walky specifically referenced while actively defying it.) A woman can say “I love you” and mean it causally, but she’d be wise to quickly qualify it with something like “like a brother” or “as a friend” because scientific studies have shown that men WILL take it the wrong way. And a man who thinks the phrase is “cheap and ephemeral” is pretty much always a woman-tricking douchebag, because (as Walky said), we *know* what the phrase means in a relationship. (Even Walky knows it’s not ephemeral; he was just is trying to buck the system to avoid getting dragged to a level or relationship which would hurt more later.)
Walky is about 18? Its acknowledged by all, especially Dorothy, that hes immature, Dorothy said it was a relationship for fun and then she springs I love you on him after hes been put through (for him) the emotional ringer about worry for his oldest friend
Hes an idiot yes, hes immature yes but in this instance Dorothy (and Joyce) need to take thier share of the blame for this situation
Is that the tone Joyce uses when responding to “Happy Holidays!” with “Merry Christmas?” I hope she’s not one of those people, even though her super-Christy background suggests she might be.
The best part of all this is that I’m sure Dorothy’s just in her room studying, without any clue that anybody is freaking out, or even moderately upset about all this.
(I mean, seriously, she even said she EXPECTED Walky not to be ready for what she said. She was probably moderately disappointed for a few minutes, and then forgot about it.)
Ok, I’m sorry… but it’s been at least two or three weeks since Dorothy and Walky started hooking up. It was RIGHT after Dorothy and Danny broke up, and even though their relationship wasn’t strong, Dorothy still jumped into another relationship with someone. And then she says “I love you” REALLY soon, and is hurt that Walky can’t reciprocate. If anything, with the maturity and knowledge Dorothy has, she seems really inexperienced with relationships if she can’t draw or define the line between casual/serious. If anything, it was certainly obvious Walky was okay with casual.
Joyce has ‘been’ there, or experienced publicly, the Walky/Dorothy relationship. She has a limited but fractured, or repressed, sexuality. But, she’s overreacting at this point a bit – though I can understand a point of her frustration through reading some of the comments.
Even if Walky has immature tendencies, he was relatively calm about the whole relationship. Joyce (and Mike in one instance) really put pressure on the relationship for him. I mean, good lord, even if it’s casual what’s the point of butting yourself into their relationship like that? Why does Walky have to love her so soon? Give him (and her) some more room to be themselves as a person and discover why they love themselves, and how they see that in other people.
That’s a great/bad thing about this comic. There’s so much drama in real life situations packed onto these characters, but they react so dramatically and hastily, that the audience can see where their faults lie.
I am sad for Dorothy. She got involved too much and is now hurt. It will be tough, but I think she will get over this soon.
Walky comes off as, well, immature…and that;s not exactly new information. I wish he had handled the situation a bit more tactfully. Hopefully, he will realize his mistake, learn from it.
Joyce calls Dorothy’s love “the best possible thing anyone could be given”
I know we joke a lot about Joyce having romantic feelings for Dorothy but this is the first time I, a bisexual woman, have seriously considered it
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 21h
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 ⋅ 21h
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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Is it the “I’m gonna get some”?
Nah, she just can’t even.
She’s so
I think it’s Walky who’s gonna get some. Right up the down side of the front side of his backside.
Ooooh Myyyyy
Soft serve is the cure for near homicidal rage and kind of being an immature asshole.
And chocalate vanilla swirl is DEATH. TASTY TASTY DEATH
“I’m getting some” is “you.” “Soft serve” is “fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.”
Good Call Walky.
lately, “Walky” and “good call” seem to be mutually exclusive
I think Walky just got soft SERVED
That’s cold.
Joyce needs to chill.
But a cold heart might get brittle and break!
Not that melting in the warmth is much better.
Walky just got Coned.
Can I at least +1 gravitar relevance?
And Creamed!
he’ll be licking that wound for a while.
And wearing the Cone of Shame.
Joyce knows you can’t be soft with Walky
It’ll be hard for him to SHAKE that one off.
This is what Joyce sounded like: GIVE ME A CONE OF SOFT SERVE
~bows down~
TY TY ^_^
I’m glad I’m not the only one who heard that in the “possessed by a demon” voice.
Maybe Joyce needs to let the situation Freeze over.
It’s important that she learns, for things like this, to Let it Go.
Maybe some Ice-olation would do her some good.
Then again, Walky is kind of giving this entire “love” thing the Cold Shoulder.
All right, I’m done for the night
“You’re my hero…” *Cameron Frye’s voice*
But are their your ICE QUEEN?
how do i misgrammar so hard i hate everything
how do i misgrammar so hard i hate everything
Let me guess, you were using a (not so)smart-phone?
And now Joyce has red panels.
I want to take that panel and just put other Joyce quotes in the text bubble, see how many of them become sinister sounding in that context.
I think which ones don’t might be the shorter list.
“It’s like Twilight, but with Jews instead of Vampires.”
Eh. Still could be sinister.
“While you’re down there, get more boxes”.
“I’m immune to influence!”
“At the start of your shower, did you have long hair?”
WILLIS IF YOU WANT ME TO STOP SHIPPING THEM THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE CORRECT DIRECTION.
I did not think I would ever entertain the possibility of Joyce being even remotely capable of Hate-Fucks. Once again, Willis has proven me wrong.
She hates him so much – she’s ‘cream’ing herself.
Who are you shipping with whom?
Or is it a ménage à trois ship?
Joyce\Dotty. Who are YOU shipping?
im shipping the redhead with Joyce. The signs are all there.
When you have as many hang ups as Joyce does you get *really* good at subtext.
Implying it, not reading it in others.
I don’t agree with Joyce on much, but I agree that being loved is the best possible gift. Being in a sexual relationship is great, but someone being willing to be vulnerable enough to love you is the best gift.
Yeah but if you don’t want it you don’t have much of an option. Unfortunately you can’t regift love…
Sounds like a country song.
You obviously never learned the magic penny song in Sunday school. :p
Who says he doesn’t want it? We are talking about this guy. I think he was blindsided by Dorothy’s change from “this ends the day I leave for Yale (and that day will come)” to “I love you (and who knows what that may imply regarding my plans for the future)”.
Joyce is mad because she’s projecting her own frustrations onto Walky here. I’m going to hold off on being mad at Walky until he decides not to have a serious talk with Dorothy. The jury is still out.
I mostly agree with you. Regarding Joyce, I think it’s more like this: She’s mad because Walky screwed up with Dorothy in the whole ” I love you department”. Part of it is her desire for what they have minus the current disaster, another is Dorothy is her best friend. (Apologies if I don’t make sense. SOOOO TIRED)
EE, I think you are missing the highly suppressed desire for Dorothy on Joyce’s part.
I don’t really have any ships for Joyce. However I do ship Walky and myself. I’m weird that way I guess.
That’s a good point; I’d kind of forgotten about the Yale thing.
Only if you’re ready to receive it and it’d have been nice if Dorothy had chosen her time better like not when Walkys been put through the emotional ringer
Only if their loving you doesn’t require that you love *only* them. Otherwise they are just being selfish and stupid.
True, love is the greatest thing in the world.
Except for a nice MLT.
Dorothy gave Walky a lifetime supply of pizza?
He rejected it because it wasn’t a lifetime supply of McNuggets.
Though I should note a lifetime supply of McNuggets isn’t very large because you can’t live long eating nothing but McNuggets.
Dorothy gave Walky James Bonds super car?
Joyce needs to stfu and grow the hell up…or get some therapy
I think Joyce has a good reason to be pissed off. The first guy she liked in college tried to rape her. The second guy she liked can’t love her the way she wants to be loved – the way Walky appears to be loved! And he is, in her opinion, wasting it, and hurting her friend in the process. She’s already struggling with how easy others seem to fall in love around her while she is guilty and frustrated, so Walky brushing it off like no big deal? I’d be mad too!! Yes, she needs therapy. But Walky has absolutely no idea what Joyce has gone through.
“I think Joyce has a good reason to be pissed off. The first guy she liked in college tried to rape her”
Bwuh? Joe was not the dude at that party. And Mike was punching him every time on that date anyway.
Oh yeah, i forgot about Joe. Still, that wasn’t exactly a positive experience either.
+1
So what? Its a private matter between Walky and Dorothy, her experiences (as bad as they were) are her own and nothing to do with Walky
She just needs to understand that life isn’t like the Twilight books
No, you’re right, it is a private matter. But, in a vulnerable state, it’s easy to project your problems onto someone else. Not the best thing, but a human thing. Plus, Walky isn’t exactly keeping it private himself.
Also, she’s not exactly ripping his head off here. She’s just barely holding in her frustration, but she’s still walking away “to get soft serve” before she says something nasty, so it’s possible she realizes she’s taking this too seriously – we’ll see next comic.
Even very moral people don’t always act morally. We are a robot riding a horse, and no matter how hard the robot tugs on the reins, sometimes the horse is gonna do what it needs to do. Joyce is a very controlled person, but she’s very frustrated right now, and those frustrations are starting to leak out.
Is it a private matter between Walky and Dorothy? Yes.
Do I blame Joyce for caring about the well being of one of her two best friends, when she feels that fried is wrong? No. (And it probably doesn’t help her current frame of mind that her other best friend is suddenly becoming very chummy with the alleged wronging party…)
Bloody hell, I need to proof read before hitting “post comment.” That should have read, “when she feels that friend is wronged?” And looking at it now, if I had proof read, I’d probably further have changed it to “has been wronged.”
Well said.
Actually no matter how naive her feelings on how love works, she is correct here. The problem is not that Walky didn’t say he loved Dorothy. The problem is he did, turned that declaration into a stupid joke thus invalidating it, and in the process inadvertently laughed at Dorothy for “having stupid feelings when this should be for fun”. Essentially he trivialized Dotty’s solemn declaration of love. He would have been better off not saying anything.
yes, this exactly: the problem for Joyce is refusing to take love as something important. I think she would have been appalled by walky seriously saying “sorry, I don’t love you back, but this is not what happened here.
Ehhh… I think it’s kinda a dick move on Dorothy’s part to just drop an “I love you” when she already dropped the “this is just for shit’s and giggles” card. I mean, she’s trying to make a fuck buddies relationship into an actual one, and Walky never signed on for that.
So he said “I love you” back, then explained how *just saying it* doesn’t mean jack shit. I don’t see how this is a bad thing really, he’s not so much invaliding love, but saying “Yeah, it’s just words, love is probably more then that, putting stock into saying ‘I love you’ is bullshit.”
I think there was a bit of a problem in how they both handled it.
Did Dorothy make it clear initially that is was supposed to be a casual relationship, and is she now potentially trying to add more weight to it? Yes. But just because her brain intended one thing, that doesn’t mean her heart might be feeling differently.
Was Walky maybe a bit blind sided by her declaration of love? Sure he was. And that could excuse him responding in not the best fashion. But the way he did respond was, to be frank, rather tactless.
Can’t decide if jealous because general lack of “I love you”s, or specifically because lack of Dorothy “I love you”s.
Joyce must have misheard. Dorothy didn’t give Walky a RACE CAR.
I know! C’mon Joyce, she didn’t even give him a Velociraptor clone!
I don’t see any crates full of Cadbury Dairy Milks.
Paging the “fuck” counter.
It seems so far Walky has gotten one, and said one.
He’s gotten a few more than that, I think.
You called?
I’m pretty sure that is Walky’s first F-bomb ever. It’s definitely his first of DoA.
Mouseover certainly says so. That’s interesting; he talks a lot of shit but does it using less outright cuss-y language, I guess.
It doesn’t count, it was in quotes.
Live long and prosper.
4th panel Joyce face is most disturbing face.
I feel her smile is creepier.
Its her dislocated fingers, which break themselves in their barely controlled desire to choke Walky.
God damn it ! We were this close from seeing her just Blowing up, but yet again another tease what the hell will it take !
I never thought I would experience the sentence, “Never before has ‘I’m getting some soft serve’ sounded so much like ‘fuck you'”. And yet, here we are.
I never thought I would see the sentence “I never thought I would experience the sentence, “Never before has ‘I’m getting some soft serve’ sounded so much like ‘fuck you’.” And yet, here we are,” typed as a comment in a forum.
And yet, here we are.
Wherever that may be.
Bloomington.
I’m trying to decide if Walky has a pretty healthy attitude towards this whole thing of it just reeks of his typical immaturity and allergy to depth/feelings.
I like Walky’s chill view on life. I’m pretty passive about a lot of junk cuz I hate stress.
Hes probably inadvertently both on this one
Little bit of column A, large serving of column B.
Not that Joyce’s attitude is any better.
He’s handled this pretty immaturely since he told Dorothy he loved her, but that it didn’t mean anything.
But he’s pretty self-aware about his own immaturity, and sure that he wants a casual relationship where he doesn’t have to act mature.
So… immature, but in a completely different way than Joyce, who says the stuff she does in panel 1 unironically.
I bet he’s thinking,”OK I don’t know how but I fucked up but I can fix it…maybe…probably not I don’t know.”
Well Walky’s clearly smitten with her, so I’m gonna go with immaturity.
I’m using “I’m getting some soft serve” from now on.
I’d imagine it works okay if you have access to soft serve. Nowhere around my school has it; the closest thing is milkshakes – which are admittedly more portable.
IRL, I could see it being used for many things.. actually getting ice cream, volleyball, perhaps sex with a person in volleyball, perhaps with ice cream as well as getting sex with a volleyball player.. oh, or tennis in all those situations.. or someone saying that as a sarcastic ‘I just didn’t get served by that weak shit you just said.” …but ‘fuck you’ being an option for that? It’s definitely this situation only.
I feel what she was about to say there was “Do you know how much I envy you?”
Love like that is the one thing Joyce feels like she can’t have. And by that I mean like, unconditional love (not that I feel Dorothy loves Walky unconditionally but I can see how Joyce would compare Dorothy and Walky as people in her mind and come to that conclusion based on how little she thinks of him). Not lady love. Although maybe lady love too.
Walky gets everything everyone wants. That’s just his super power.
But does he get a jetpack
Or a nice roommate?
Does anyone in his vicinity want a jetpack?
Probably everybody, they just don’t know it yet
And that’s why he hasn’t gotten one.
Yet.
Who DOESN’T?
Pretty sure Joyce does. Having (and being able to use) a jetpack was her superpower in the other universe, after all.
Nope, I value my femurs too much.
So… does Joyce think that falling in love with someone is a choice? I mean, she’s clearly not talking about the words in the first panel.
Joyce thinks being gay is a choice. Just for perspective.
I wonder what she thinks about divorce ?
She thinks it’s a mistake to be fixed. Remember her date with Joe?
Falling in love is not a choice. Offering someone your love is.
not if you don’t love them.
Joyce did say before that loving someone should be a choice according to her pastor, if I recall correctly.
I’m pretty sure to her the main issue for her is that Walky treated love as unimportant, just as he does for most things in his life (except cartoons, duh).
Burgers= existential ennui, soft serve= fuck you, got it.
Therefore fries=drop dead?
chicken strips = melancholy moping?
ketchup = bloody evisceration?
buffalo wings = “I enjoy one of the local sports teams.”
Not all foods are that deep on subtext.
Cheese fries= enlightenment.
ALL PRAISE THE CHEESE FRIES
Chili cheese fries = damnation. Tasty, tasty damnation.
Eww. Damnation is gross.
Damn, Joyce literally can’t even…
Walky was cursing as a 1-year-old?
(I know, I know, just let me have my dumb joke)
As Benny Hill said, “The Count of Monte Cristo cursed the day that he was born”!
His first words were “mothafucka”, that’s why you don’t allow young kids to watch Samuel L Jackson.
Or to hang out with Jay & Silent Bob…
The gal has a future in grunge music.
Knowing Joyce’s quirks, it would be more accurate to say that Never before has “I’m getting some soft serve” sounded like “fudge you.”
Chocolate fudge? My favourite!
You’ll find that “I love you” guy someday, Joyce. It’s clearly not going to be Ethan.
Ethan’s already that guy! Ethan said he loved her this morning in comic time! And I don’t think he didn’t mean it either!
But let’s be real: Joyce doesn’t just want love or romance. She wants sex. And Ethan’s never going to be able to give that to her in any satisfactory way.
I only point this out because Joyce is already becoming aware of this, even if she doesn’t want to admit it, so on some level what she’s saying about love has to be a bit dishonest.
I agree. She’s probably really sexually frustrated, but can’t admit to it so she takes out her frustrations on Walky. Walky, who has everything she doesn’t, but does not meet her expectations on how people should love each other.
This can still get better if somehow Walky and Becky are making out when Joyce gets back.
Are you trying to push her over the edge…because that would do it. Full on dose of pure psycho Joyce.
You mean the “Snap and suck a billion dicks-ocaust”
One can only hope, as it would be the preferable alternative to her slashing one thousand throats in one night…
…it sounds like it be risking a lot but I’m so tempted to think about what will happen , and I really want to see her lose it.
Yyyyyyyyyyep.
Walky done fucked up.
Like he hasn’t already ?
Wally Fuckup Count *ding*
I think you mean “dun soft served up.”
Am I the only one who thinks Joyce is really adorable here? I like how she tries to not insult people harshly even if they make her really mad.
Also, I hoped Becky would be coming here to maybe help Joyce grow and become more open-minded, but I’m starting to think I bet on the wrong person to do that.
yeah, but she’s clawing the table. She may still be not insulting Walky harshly but she’s VERY angry.
Around these parts, “soft serve ice cream” is called “a creemee”.
You may start your innuendos.
ew
A soft-serve (heh) place on one of my regular travel routes was once called “Whippy Dip.” Then the name was changed to “Xtreme Creme.” I’m sure the new owners thought it was an improvement.
Joyce, that’s the exact opposite of how gifts work. If you give somebody something they don’t want that’s a bad gift. Possibly a thoughtless gift. An object’s value as a gift is determined by how much it will be appreciated by the person you’re giving it to. It’s not a good gift just because somebody else really wanted it.
I feel like this is the sort of stuff they teach in children’s television. Clean up after yourself. Sharing is caring. Give thoughtful gifts. That’s gotta come up even in whatever Christian Media she was exposed to, right? At some point there must’ve been an episode where Chastity Churchmouse wanted to give Hymmel a chastity belt but Jesus pulled her aside and said “How would he wear it? Think about what he would like” and they ended up getting him a bookmark with his favorite bible verse written on it.
She must have missed that episode. She apparently missed the seventy-nine where they reinforced the lesson that the greatest gift of all is the love of Jesus, and mere mortal love pales in comparison, so don’t let your love for your friends stop you from getting out there and proselytizing to them until they convert or stop talking to you!
“Autodog,” as we used to call it in the Navy, is definitely the best possible thing. To understand the “autodog” moniker, think chocolate. It’s even better slang than a “creemee.”
We have more Joyce expressions being good candidates for that How Are You Feeling Today? poster – red panel = the ‘FUCK YOU’ face
OK time
Time to mention one small detail…it only been a month, its still moving to fast, at the beginning of all this they both were thinking ” I got no time for no relationship nor do I want one,” and now this.
I don’t know.
Joyce started out seeking sophistication through getting her Mrs degree, and Walky came here get his Bachelor status certified. (Though not necessarily in the sense of a “confirmed bachelor”, if you know what I mean.) None of that seems to have changed. Joyce is less susceptible to hickups (sic) about her hang-ups, and to Walky the mysteries of women are no longer unknown, that is all. Or am I missing something?
Well… She is angry…
What’s new when Walky and Joyce hang out ?
Nega-Joyce is growing stronger
Nega-Joyce is actually just a really nice gal. She and Joyce are gonna get brunch next week. They actually have a lot in common.
I think we might’ve reached (at least one of the) meanings of the storyline title.
Oh Joyce you have no idea how much I needed this:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oy6DwHAi70
Even Becky’s looking a little like “Walky you might of just I’m getting some soft served up a bit.”
Somehow I doubt this will end in ice cream kisses.
Walky certainly dropped an F-bomb in Walky Performs a Sex.
Well, Dorothy gave Walky great head, I guess that counts as a gift.
According to the Slipshine, Dorothy gave Walky quite a bit more than that.
Of course it sounded like it, there was the silent F . . . and silent U . . . and silent C . . . and K . . . and Y . . . and second U.
never knew i could dislike Walky
*backs away from Demonic Joyce*
Soft serve, Joyce? Pfft. Froyo’s where it’s at.
Frozen Yogurt is great, but “froyo” tastes like pretentious hipster bullshit.
While Joyce’s idea of love is definitely misguided and naive, Walky needs to take love more seriously. before he does something to REALLY fuck up his relationship.
The fact is that he doesn’t need to, based on how Dorothy outlined the relationship in the beginning. A “for fun” relationship is meant to be casual and non-committal, especially since Dorothy plans to leave for Yale.
Then now Walky needs to understand that sometimes circumstances change and he needs to decide whether he wants the new situation or not. Attempting to blow it off with a joke does not work.
Honestly that second panel sums it up. It’s not important to him. He was showing some real progress too: apologizing to Sal, worrying about Billie, but he still has growing up to do. He at least needs to learn to read a fucking situation. It’s called “tact” Walky.
And in that moment, I swear I was Joyce.
I’m wondering if this is actually not all about love and more that Joyce thinks Dorothy handed Walky her v-card.
Pretty sure Joyce already knew that. Dorothy has acknowledged not being a virgin in Joyce’s presence but I don’t think Joyce reacted much s they weren’t really hanging out at the time.
Lies. Wherever there is premarital hanky-panky, Joyce is there.
Walky caught the implication here, but Joyce may not have; she was a little distracted. I don’t recall if it’s come up otherwise. Joyce certainly knows that Dorothy’s banging Walky, though.
I’m sticking with the theory that Joyce is upset because she wants Dorothy to say she loves her, and that’s what she can’t get out in panel three.
My comment was actually a (failed) joke. I know all that.
My comment wasn’t addressed to you in any way.
Soft serve.
Lesbi-honest here Joyce; you’d be less mad if Walky wasn’t dating Dorothy
Oh, I totally get where Joyce is at. Where I work, they constantly *throw away* hardware that minions like me can’t afford, and wish we could have. Sooo frustrating, yet pales in comparison to someone who trivializes love like Walky. Really, I think the “Fuck You” is going both ways. The megacorporation is like, “Oh, wish you could have a monitor like this? Too bad, it’s getting recycled, loser!” An’ Walky is all like, “Wish you could have Dorothy’s love? PHHHHHHHHHT! It’s not worth nothin’!”
Next scene: Joyce hysterically shouting “fudge you, fudge you, fudge you” while she coldly fudges Walky front and behind.
And on slipshine: “the battering”.
The phrase “I love you” is only a great gift if you feel the same way in return. I have had that fact pounded into me by being the one saying it to somebody who doesn’t feel it.
This does not mean that Dorothy shouldn’t feel the way she does. Feelings aren’t something you should apologize for. I am critical of Joyce for yet again choosing not to consider Walky’s feelings about things. This is less egregious than when she got him back together with Dorothy just because he wasn’t allowed to choose who he dumps, but it’s the same line of thinking.
The phrase “I love you” is only a great gift if you don’t feel the same way in return. It’s like someone handing you a blank check. If you feel the same, you won’t cash in on it but still have the responsibility and worry associated with its safekeeping. And you’ll always be worrying whether your own blank check could be considered an adequate return.
Only if you’re a horrible, manipulative human being who likes seeing others suffer.
For some people it’s much more cheap and ephemeral to state “I love you” than it is for others to hear it. That does not mean that the statement was made with malicious intent.
It’s like “I’m comfortable leaving this chest in your house”. You have no idea what may be in there and whether it is a good idea to go out ever again. And a year later, you find you have been guarding tennis balls. Which explains why anyone would feel no large discomfort leaving them under your guard.
There was never any statement about just what was supposed in that chest. “Love” is like a chest: you just don’t have a way to know what is supposed to be the content, and it is tabu talking about it or prying the lid open.
Hmm. I am forced to concede that the definition of “love” is so fuzzy and lacking in consensus that there is a margin of plausibility in your argument. “I love chocolate” and “I love my mom” have muddied the meaning enough that it’s sort of believable that somebody could say, “I have mild regard for you. Now guard my tennis balls, sucker!” and run cackling off into the night.
However, in America, the phrase, “I love you” when said in something resembling a romantic relationship, has something approaching a supernatural power to it. (A fact which Walky specifically referenced while actively defying it.) A woman can say “I love you” and mean it causally, but she’d be wise to quickly qualify it with something like “like a brother” or “as a friend” because scientific studies have shown that men WILL take it the wrong way. And a man who thinks the phrase is “cheap and ephemeral” is pretty much always a woman-tricking douchebag, because (as Walky said), we *know* what the phrase means in a relationship. (Even Walky knows it’s not ephemeral; he was just is trying to buck the system to avoid getting dragged to a level or relationship which would hurt more later.)
Becky! What are you planing!? What are you waiting for?! The goddamit suspense!!!
So… countdown to Walky and Becky slipshining it?
You mean, like, a hate fudge?
Oops, wait, you said Becky and Walky? Becky isn’t the one exhibiting strong feelings about Walky here.
Achievement unlocked: Possessed!
Yaaay
Joyce is so badass.
I know right!? Who else but here to make something like ice cream sound so badass!?
Becky seems amazing *unsurprised* by this side of Joyce. As her oldest friend, maybe she has seen this before from Joyce.
Just in case the point hasn’t been made clear enough: Walky is an idiot.
not really…
Walky is about 18? Its acknowledged by all, especially Dorothy, that hes immature, Dorothy said it was a relationship for fun and then she springs I love you on him after hes been put through (for him) the emotional ringer about worry for his oldest friend
Hes an idiot yes, hes immature yes but in this instance Dorothy (and Joyce) need to take thier share of the blame for this situation
Is that the tone Joyce uses when responding to “Happy Holidays!” with “Merry Christmas?” I hope she’s not one of those people, even though her super-Christy background suggests she might be.
Awww! Walky is learning to speak fluent Joyce.
The best part of all this is that I’m sure Dorothy’s just in her room studying, without any clue that anybody is freaking out, or even moderately upset about all this.
(I mean, seriously, she even said she EXPECTED Walky not to be ready for what she said. She was probably moderately disappointed for a few minutes, and then forgot about it.)
I think the problem is Walky thinks Dorothy is a great girlfriend but, no, he doesn’t love her.
That’s the tragic part (for Dorothy).
Dorothy is Danny.
I look forward to that realization.
That…that’s…that’s just perfect. And not in a sarcastic sense, either.
look, keep defending walky, walkydefenders – we know it’s out of your own secret shame
Ok, I’m sorry… but it’s been at least two or three weeks since Dorothy and Walky started hooking up. It was RIGHT after Dorothy and Danny broke up, and even though their relationship wasn’t strong, Dorothy still jumped into another relationship with someone. And then she says “I love you” REALLY soon, and is hurt that Walky can’t reciprocate. If anything, with the maturity and knowledge Dorothy has, she seems really inexperienced with relationships if she can’t draw or define the line between casual/serious. If anything, it was certainly obvious Walky was okay with casual.
Joyce has ‘been’ there, or experienced publicly, the Walky/Dorothy relationship. She has a limited but fractured, or repressed, sexuality. But, she’s overreacting at this point a bit – though I can understand a point of her frustration through reading some of the comments.
Even if Walky has immature tendencies, he was relatively calm about the whole relationship. Joyce (and Mike in one instance) really put pressure on the relationship for him. I mean, good lord, even if it’s casual what’s the point of butting yourself into their relationship like that? Why does Walky have to love her so soon? Give him (and her) some more room to be themselves as a person and discover why they love themselves, and how they see that in other people.
That’s a great/bad thing about this comic. There’s so much drama in real life situations packed onto these characters, but they react so dramatically and hastily, that the audience can see where their faults lie.
The part where Walky is slowly realizing than dealing with women is way harder than watching cartoons.
That is so true it hurts.
Augh, since when do I relate to Joyce?
What the hell is going on here?!
For a little moment, I thought that Joyce would become in She-Hulk.
-You… you… AAARRGGG!!! JOYCE SMASH!! JOYCE SMASH!!
Darth Joyce
“I see ya drivin’ round town with the girl I love, and I’m like, ‘I’m getting some soft serve.'”
… doesn’t have the same punch.
I wonder if Becky still thinks this is the same Joyce.
Ah, that level of frustration and rage that can only be expressed in the form of a non-sequitur.
“Thats it! I’m boiling eggs!”
…Really, Walky? Because to me it sounded like “I am mere inches from strangling you with your own intestines.”
I was thinking more “I’m mere seconds from…”.
Because technically, she’s at least a couple feet away from his Intestines.
That’s divine fury.
Joyce is so infuriating with her arrogance…yet I can’t stop reading this to see what happens.
This strip is like a rorschach test all on its own
She’s not arrogant, more misguided than anything else, but I don’t see any arrogance in her. Everything she does is pretty genuine
Does this mean Mike would get soft serve with your Mother for a Nickel?
Wow, Joyce ragequitting IRL. I am agog.
I am sad for Dorothy. She got involved too much and is now hurt. It will be tough, but I think she will get over this soon.
Walky comes off as, well, immature…and that;s not exactly new information. I wish he had handled the situation a bit more tactfully. Hopefully, he will realize his mistake, learn from it.
Joyce calls Dorothy’s love “the best possible thing anyone could be given”
I know we joke a lot about Joyce having romantic feelings for Dorothy but this is the first time I, a bisexual woman, have seriously considered it
I’m kinda with Joyce on this some of us can’t even meet decent girls but walky can almost throw them away
Oy. Oy. Oy. Are those words ever going to come back to haunt her.
Emotions. Such silly things. …..and now I want some soft serve. Vanilla. With hot fudge.