If you had the power to make any wish come true using just one word, what would you say?
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
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.
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".
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...
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.
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.
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
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.
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
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?
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
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.
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.
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!
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.
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
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.
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.
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!
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.)
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
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!
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.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
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.
Starhammer
J.N. Monk, Harry Bogosian
A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
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.
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.
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
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.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
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.
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!
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!
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.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Tigress Queen
Allison Shaw
A barbarian warlord and a pampered prince try to avoid a marriage alliance that could end decades of violence.
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.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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!
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.
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!
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
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...
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
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+1 for remembering the most obscure character in Peanuts. Didn’t help he looked exactly like Linus, so the few times he did appear nobody knew it was him…
Also, I hope they’re already dating so we can just pick up where we left off in that relationship: Lucy’s younger brother wondering why E Honda hasn’t tapped that yet.
Sometimes I wish searching tags of other Street Fighter character’s names would return the results result of searching for Ken. That’s probably a pain in the ass, though, so I’m going to drop it after mentioning it this one time.
I’ve actually been eagerly hoping for Lucy’s inclusion in Dumbiverse pretty much because I’d love to see her developed more as a character than she got in Shortpacked.
Yeah, her first strip was amazing (even with her as a one-off) but since she came in during the last couple years she didn’t really have enough time to make an impact and develop fully.
She dressed up as Batman that one time! And she loved superheroes, but was sick of the culture that cared about her interest either secondarily or not at all!
As a complete aside, every time I come on this website I see the slipshine advert out of the corner of my eye and just for a second mistake it for Walky and Mike.
An It’s Walky! era alternate reality in which Mike and Walky did hook up/start a relationship while still on the same team would make for an amazing read and I would pay cash money for that AU. js
The serious answer is that Ninja Rick won’t be in DoA, because he’s based on a real person (which really raises way more questions).
My headcanon is that he’s the campus mental health counselor.
Joe, Howard, and Mike are based on Willis’ friends, but only in a very abstracted way. Ninja Rick, Hooper, etc. are much more closely based on real individuals.
Checked willis tumblr that saddens me but it makes sense I guess. I do wonder why its okay to use characters based on real people in short packed but not in dumbing of age?
b/c Shortpacked! was primarily for goofing around, hence the continuity breaks for throwaway toy-based jokes, whereas DoA strives to be more original and less borderline infringe-y?
You know who else was based on a real person? The guy who, in this continuity, created Dexter & Monkey Master. Back in the Walkyverse, he was Ethan’s Transformers rival, none other than Willis himself.
I see, Marcie is suggesting they shake up a soda can and open it while pointing is at her. Shame on you Marcie, can you imagine the cleanup a mess like that would require?
I was trying to figure out why she’s signing “hot”, but in a way that suggests it’s a bad thing. It’s like her hand is saying Lucy’s hot, but her face is saying “ew, yuck, gross.”
Seriously, y’all. Look up the sign for “hot” in ASL and tell me that’s not what she’s saying.
She might still put on the pounds after college but barring any comic strips that show the post-college future of DoA, I doubt we will see her that way.
I vaguely recall some authorial statement that for the most part, unless otherwise specified, everybody in DoA is Christian. Just on account of it taking place in a predominately Christian part of the world.
Most of the cast obviously isn’t as actively Christian as Joyce or Mary, but probably not quite Godless Heathens either.
I imagine being incredibly devout just creates more room to butt heads with Mary anyway.
If this comic is as autobiographical as it has been made out to be, Willis must’ve lived in the most stereotype-filled asscrack of the world. All Jewish characters, not particularly religious and don’t try to spread their own outlook. All non-denom Christian characters, either a little or completely brainwashed by their elders, the lone Catholic, super imperious, holier-than-thou, and judgemental. All other religions, even other yes-denom Christians flat-out don’t seem to exist. The atheists are the only ones that vary, though most are understanding yet encouraging of others to look beyond the teachings. I’ve lived in several locations, and I’ve never failed to meet a variety of personalities for every belief system they’ve had. Most of them never aligned with the “official” stereotypes, and for example, almost all of the Catholics I’ve known don’t consider other Christians as very different or wrong, just, as one adult explained it, “a different flavor of love”. I’m not criticizing the veracity of any of this, I’m just saying, Indiana must be a seriously homogenized collection of people, and all fitting exactly to the general stereotypes. It really sounds like an awful place.
The more conservative forms of Judaism hold that you can only be born Jewish, and therefore don’t accept converts. It’s kind of the opposite of Christianity from the perspective that the more conservative your faith and the more closely you adhere to “the letter of the law” the less likely you are to accept people who’ve converted to your faith, let alone encourage them.
Which conservative forms of Judaism are you talking about? Because I know people who converted to Lubavich Judaism (which is about as conservative as it gets).
As a person of a small religious minority that wins a disproportionate number of Nobel prizes, I can say that all forms of Judaism do not actively recruit converts. Some Jewish groups try to convince Jews who are not observant to become more observant. However there is no form of Judaism that I am aware of which will not accept someone who sincerely wants to convert.
Judaism is matrilineal, which means it can only be inherited from the mother. However, the children of a woman who converted to Judaism are just as Jewish as any other Jewish woman’s children.
My branch of Hinduism has the “born into” part but is kind of opposite in that you can’t convert out. So even though I? I’m atheist, or even if I converted to another religion, I would always be considered Hindu because I was born into it.
Are you describing Mary as the “lone Catholic”? She’s not Catholic, she’s Protestant. We’ve seen that she goes to the same church at college that Joyce does. The DeSantoses and Amber and Marcie are Catholic, as well as most of Dorothy’s family.
Regardless, there is no “lone Catholic,” and I don’t think any of them match the awful description you made for whoever they are.
There’s been a Muslim character in the strip: the girl who gave bullie keys to the dorm and said “don’t drink”. But yeah, collectively, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists make up only 6% of the US, and that’s combined. I moved to west Michigan a couple years ago, and there’s a ridiculous about of people who have never met someone with Indian ancestry, don’t know what Hinduism is (they think most Indians are Muslim), or think that Jainism and Sikhism are part of Hinduism or part of Islam. Like, can’t deal.
Plenty of people will assume that anyone in a turban is a Muslim. As for Sikkhism and Jainism, I’d bet the UK is the only Western country in which an average person is likely to have heard about those religions…
Maybe… There were a lot more people in San Francisco, where I moved from, who knew about non-Christian religions than here. Sure, there were people who thought anyone in a turban was Muslim, but they were considered uninformed, not the norm really.
Highly religious Jews don’t “try to spread their own outlook”. Proselytizing has never been a Jewish thing. It’s never been a thing for most religions; Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism are the main missionary religions (or religious families); Hare Krishnas have gotten into it but I think they’re unusual for Hindus. Some Jain and Baha’i activity, less successful.
Orthodox Jews can be more obviously Jewish, but they’d be less likely to go to IU. Or living in Indiana. Or eating in the cafeteria with the others. (I’m guessing Ethan doesn’t keep kosher.) But again, even if they were around, they wouldn’t be preaching at or trying to convert people. It’s not a “stereotype” on Willis’s part.
Dude. He’s not claiming that this is the general population of Indiana. Just the population of the people in his fictionalized version of IU. You get all sorts no matter where you are. Especially in a college as big and well-known as IU – you get people from other states and countries coming in just to study there. And I’m pretty sure this comic is not Willis’ autobio – I want the college with superheroes! – but that Joyce specifically is, and has been for a while, a character created based on his personal childhood/young adult experience. I personally grew up in central Indiana, though, and let me tell you, I WISH there had been so many diverse people in my area!
“I vaguely recall some authorial statement that for the most part, unless otherwise specified, everybody in DoA is Christian.
I think you’re confusing DoA with Roomies!. Everyone in Roomies! was Christian by default. I, a lifelong atheist, did not notice this pervasive christianity (except for Joyce and Mary), so I guess it was pretty well hidden even if it wasn’t intended to be.
What they mean is that the majority of Americans will say they are Christians, even though most don’t really care about it. so there’s a good chance in a cast of American characters, all characters not stated to be otherwise are Christian.
There are plenty of people for whom besides believing that God exists and maybe go to Church on special occasions are not really practising Christians.
I don’t get why it’s “obvious reasons” though. Like one of my transmale friends in undergrad had a cismale roommate, and it was no problem…? I means, is it different for girls?
But were your friends just thrown together as roommates? The university has a responsibility to their students, so they can’t just randomly assign Carla a roommate (imagine if she got Mary), and they can’t question potential roommates for compatibility without violating confidentiality (Carla is clearly not out about her identity, nor should she have to be).
Actually, depending on Carla’s point in her transition, she doesn’t necessarily have to disclose her status to her school at all. If her legal name and gender marker have already been changed, that’s not information they require. I can definitely see why she’d prefer a single, though – I know I did. Even though it was in the wrong wing.
I can’t remember the exact strip, but when Sarah was being interrogated by Amazi Girl, she made it sound like Agatha’s roommate was well known for being mean. Though we don’t know who Agatha’s roommate is yet. Or if she’ll ever show up.
Yeah, and how much abuse did Robin take from ol’ Bats before the Silver Age ended? Wayne didn’t bother with therapy either, but it didn’t exactly do the man any favors.
malaya may not be a protagonist or anything but shes closer to one here than she was in shortpacked im pretty sure, and lucy had a lot more introduction there than here
plus, marcie doesnt like her either, so its not just a malaya thing
I would expect an 18-year-old Malaya to act like a jaded goth middle schooler who has no real reasons to be jaded yet, but Marcie ignoring someone for being nice is disappointing
Ok, judging from the comments, this Lucy dame is apparently liked (of course this could be me displaying my incapability to comprehend sarcasm over the internet, despite utilizing sarcasm on a near daily basis)
Either way, this just reminds me that I really need to read more of Mr. Willis’ work. All these characters who were parts of other strips, and I don’t know squat about any of em.
It’s not sarcasm, Lucy is fantastic. Bonus, she wasn’t even around all that long (she was a later addition to SP!), so you could probably catch up with her stuff pretty quickly
She is actually a pretty nice person if you somehow failed to garner that from everything she said and did in this strip and I can’t actually think of a reason to dislike her without being a big ball of hate that despises almost everything.
weird how malaya seems to go out of her way to be unlikeable. interestingly enough, marcie was agreeing with her, but i only feel the urge to frown disapprovingly at one of them
If you’re jumping in for the very first time then you might miss out on some references to Willis’ earlier work, It’s Walky, but Shortpacked is more or less self contained bar the occasional reference and cameo.
Willis has published four webcomics in the now-finished “Walkyverse”. In order, these are Roomies, It’s Walky, Joyce and Walky, and Shortpacked. itswalky.com is actually reposting all of these from the beginning, in order, on a daily basis – if you want to get into it, I’d start from the beginning there, catch up to where that is, and then enjoy the ride from there daily.
Only mute, and nope, we don’t know yet how she became so.
I, too, am curious about how one becomes mute without being deaf. I think Roger Ebert became mute as a result of thyroid cancer, but that can’t be the only way.
Well there are several ways a person can become mute:
1) Trauma – emotional trauma can cause such a shock that the person becomes unable to speak because of a mental block even though they may physically be capable of speech. They might be able to speak again, but they also might never speak again.
2) Physical damage to the vocal cords or another body part required for speaking e.g. the lungs or tongue – this one is the most obvious as you can’t speak when the parts needed for it are damaged.
3) It can be a sign of lower than average intelligence or of difficulties with communication – people with low IQs and people with autism are more likely to have difficulties learning to communicate over all to begin with, so they might become mute instead of continuing to try to speak – it is particularly common for people with autism to be mute.
4) If they are selectively mute, they become mute whenever in an uncomfortable situation due to their anxiety – they aren’t being disobedient or rude when they do this, they just can’t will themselves into being comfortable enough to speak.
There are likely other ways people can become mute too, but these are the ones that spring to mind.
The inventor of the IQ test would like to remind you that he made many strident protests to keep people from treating it as a measure of intelligence. It is a knowledge test, heavily biased towards the cultural expectations of the local population, and also demonstrably gender-biased.
Fun fact: on the SAT, women originally did better in language portions and men better in math, so the test designers rebalanced it until men performed better in language and… uh, left math completely alone, because that was fine.
I do know it isn’t supposed to be a measure of intelligence – I didn’t say low IQs = lower than average intelligence, though my sentence structure may seem to imply it, that wasn’t my intent.
I mentioned low IQs because children who score lower than average on the test are usually struggling with learning over all or are likely to have learning difficulties – which means over all they’re more likely to struggle with learning communication as they’re struggling with learning itself.
IQ tests are also only supposed to be for children as well.
But again, since IQ tests are hugely culturally and gender-biased, a low score doesn’t necessarily indicate that at all. It’s a very poor shorthand for what you want to say, which is that people who have difficulties communicating — for whatever reasons — are more likely to present as mute.
Like that’s literally all you had to say, and it’s more accurate.
A lot of people with autism would also challenge your assertion that that the difficulties some of them have communicating with allistic people are because of their autism. They will give you plenty of examples of situations where the fault lies with us, because the minute we know they’re autistic we stop trying, or because we insist on repeating the same techniques over and over even when they’re clearly not working, or because we just plain ignore their clear communications.
(Like speaking English more loudly to someone who doesn’t understand it. If you do that, the communication problem is not that THEY don’t understand English. The problem is that YOU aren’t interested in finding any other way to communicate.)
Severe head trauma and/or other damage to the speech areas of the brain (such as a stroke, seizure, etc) can also cause someone to lose the ability to speak
According to IQ tests I wasn’t suppoed to graduate highschooland at best I’d spend my life flipping burgers. I graduated second in my class and have a degree as a vet tech.
Did you have an emotionally-traumatic experience involving speaking to someone? It sounds like that would be the case, but I’ve heard of other cases where weird things like this happen because of actual physical problems. You might want to see a neurologist though
Seeing plenty of doctors, and no, nothing traumatic. Just was violently coughing, and eventual narrowing down, it got to speech (and a few other triggers – humid to non-humid, some temperature variance, etc.)
We don’t know how this happened but my current headcanon is a throat injury during a Sal-enabled gang rumble. It is very much Sal’s fault and the guilt is part of the glue between them.
Her sensei chose her to inherit leadership of their ninja clan, bypassing the sensei’s own offspring. Said offspring became jealous and tried to assassinate them both; Marcie survived getting her throat cut, but had to flee after being framed for her sensei’s death.
She was kidnapped as a hostage to flush out her father, a noted mercenary and super-soldier. He gambled that he could rescue her, but was a second late, and her throat was cut. As a result, his wife shot his eye out, and she learned she could jump into people’s bodies and control them if she made eye contact.
One way is to be cryogenically frozen by your loving parents in the hope that The Future will be able to cure your fatal illness, only to be awakened in a retrograde, ultra-patriarchal society where you’re used as a commodity to get on the good side of the emperor.
My prediction: Sarah and whats-her-name fight over jacob like crazy, alienating both of them in his eyes, and then Lucy comes in and sweeps him off his feet. Except she doesn’t even like him.
I would guess because the other three ladies mentioned were all black, and the fact that Lucy is brought in when I can’t recall her having any interaction with Jacob at all indicates that Kathleen chose her because she’s the same race as Jacob too. I could be wrong, but I’d imagine that’s where Jason’s comment comes from, that there’s nothing wrong with Jacob dating someone non-black too.
I was expecting to see the portal to LOtP’s side of the multiverse, but apparently Jen Aside in his universe made first post. I was hoping to see what Alter Willis has posted to his version of DoA, the last one was awesome.
I once had a very cheerful, extroverted roommate with boundless energy, who could not stand to spend a minute alone and always wanted to do stuff with me. His personality was completely, hopelessly incompatible with mine. I was glad to move to another place a couple of months later, because by then his voice was like nails on a blackboard to my ears, even though he was possibly one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
Except it isn’t Linus. It’s from more than a decade before the van Pelts were introduced. It’s Shermy and Patty. (Charlie Brown was also something of a troll in the early strips, though Patty and Violet were his usual victims, not Shermy.)
It makes sense that someone as basically nasty as Malaya wouldn’t like a cheerful person! Well, I like you already, Lucy! So don’t let the naysayers get to you!
I wonder how long they are going to sit there awkwardly, just doing cellphone stuff until Marcie makes a move? Will she make a move or will she choke on her nerves?
Yeah, up until now she was largely interacting with people who were just as dickish as her but the moment she pulls that schtick with someone who isn’t kind of an ass it becomes very tedious.
For someone to shake off such a cold reception so easily, I’d take a wild guess that Lucy suffers from a rock-bottom sense of self-worth, and probably thought them ignoring her was her fault for being a worthless, pathetic human being.
I don’t know if it that’s simple for Joyce, since there’s been a few occasions now where Joyce outright says that Sarah hates her. The first time it happened Sarah was offended that she could save Joyce’s life and she’d still think she hated her.
Also, I don’t ask myself “why do we like this character, again?” about her, which (excepting Dina and people we barely see, like Sierra) I’ve asked about literally every character in this strip.
Okay, so what SP characters have still not appeared in DoA? Off-hand I can think of: Historical Jesus, Ronald Reagan (okay, I assume the technology to bring people back from the dead doesn’t exist in the Dumbiverse), Ninja Rick, Sydney Yus, Conquest, Buckets-of-Blood Guy, Whitey McJority, Soggies, Dab, dab, dab…
Buckets-of-Blood Guy also had an appearance in one strip, if I recall correctly.
Ninja Rick won’t show up as he’s actually based on a real life person, and Willis once stated that characters with that background are not going to appear in Dumbing of Age.
Aww. Shame as he’s the one non-“villain” on the list I can think of (other than dead historical figures). Oh, there was that senator (or was he a house rep?) that Robin slept with. And I suppose all the seasonal employees, but they’re too minor. Then there were those people at the competing toy-store across the street. Oh, and of course Singularikitty, though that was mostly a shared crossover gag with GWS and Something Positive. Speaking of pets, have we seen Fuckface yet?
i actually think in asl it’s “jerk-off” as opposed to “wanker”. though i am now picturing that marcie had a british accent when she could speak. it is fairly awesome.
I’d be pissed if I was gonna try and get it on with someone and their roommate decided to come in to the dorm! It’s not Lucy’s fault, and it is a pretty petty thing to feel but still. Bit of resentment.
I think Lucy actually got a sound bit of character development in this strip alone. She displays the pitfall of a lot of straight fangirls who treat gay pairings as “cute” and a form of entertainment. (see also: yaoi fangirls) That, or she’s just one of those people who has to tell you about every single thing she sees on the internet, regardless of whether anybody is interested, which is also acceptable as a negative character trait.
Either way, it’s great to see her again, but yikes, I can actually sympathize with Malaya here.
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
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
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 10h
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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Malaya, you are the worst
Perfect first comment for this strip. Jen Aside couldn’t have done better.
if only because I passed out from a taco dinner + gay wedding induced coma =p
[yay Lucy!]
Are you saying that gay marriage actually is dangerous?
o.0
Those liars were telling the truth all this time!
Is “taco dinner” a euphemism?
Great minds, etc.
Haha gay wedding + taco dinner. Double entendre much?
AGREED!
I very much agree.
Indeed!
You’re the new Jen.
Ahhh, the cutaway! I knew it was coming….
LUCY!!!
LINUS!!!
Rerun!
Doctor Scott!
DENNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS
KHAAAAAAAN!!!
(Surprised no one beat me to that.)
ADRIAN!
Brad!
Rocky?
Soggies?
MAY RULE!
Janet!
Rooory!! Did you drop a thermal cuplink??
SPONGEBOB!
Grunt!
+1 for remembering the most obscure character in Peanuts. Didn’t help he looked exactly like Linus, so the few times he did appear nobody knew it was him…
I guess being overshadowed by Fred Berry didn’t help either.
Except Rerun never carried a blanket.
Ahh, ahh, ahhhhhh! It’s Lucy!
Does that mean Ryu is going to make an appearance soon?
I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed that horrible joke since Shortpacked ended.
Right? I wonder who his roommate would be…
Also, I hope they’re already dating so we can just pick up where we left off in that relationship: Lucy’s younger brother wondering why E Honda hasn’t tapped that yet.
Dhalsim showed up a while ago. I think he’s rooming with, and possibly dating, Arnold.
Jesus H Christ on a stick how did I miss that?
‘Cause if Blanka were a Wikipedia article, he’d get deleted for non-notability?
Sometimes I wish searching tags of other Street Fighter character’s names would return the
resultsresult of searching for Ken. That’s probably a pain in the ass, though, so I’m going to drop it after mentioning it this one time.Shortpacked’s blandest character returns.
I’ve actually been eagerly hoping for Lucy’s inclusion in Dumbiverse pretty much because I’d love to see her developed more as a character than she got in Shortpacked.
Yeah, her first strip was amazing (even with her as a one-off) but since she came in during the last couple years she didn’t really have enough time to make an impact and develop fully.
Agreed! Lucy need some demons, defects and a place in the love dodecahedron.
normally i would object but your avatar makes it ok
although i would like to point out: http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1932
Jacob showed up ages ago.
HOLY SHIT
That was HOLY SHIT worthy?
Lucy doesn’t look like Ken at all, so I’m not sure how you mistook her for him.
She loved the Teen Titans cartoon, but hated the Nu52 comic series! What other character development do you need?
She dressed up as Batman that one time! And she loved superheroes, but was sick of the culture that cared about her interest either secondarily or not at all!
Batgirl.
The name of Lucy shall forever be remembered
I understood that reference immediately upon realizing where that link went.
Huzzah, Lucy!
As a complete aside, every time I come on this website I see the slipshine advert out of the corner of my eye and just for a second mistake it for Walky and Mike.
ive seen walky, but I never thought of mike. tbh i love it
This entire time I thought it was Walky and Mike…. Only until I read your comment did I realize it was Sal….
I’d buy that Slipshine in a heartbeat
For a nickel?
I see it now, too.
I don’t see it, nor do I particularly want to.
Nice to have you and your gravatar back, though.
I poke my head in and out of here as I desire. =)
It also occurs to me I’ve been reading Willis’ work for well over a decade now. Holy crap.
An It’s Walky! era alternate reality in which Mike and Walky did hook up/start a relationship while still on the same team would make for an amazing read and I would pay cash money for that AU. js
Huzzah indeed.
God Lucy stop being so sunny!
The brightness and optimism, it burns, it buuurns.
The horror, THE HORROR!
LUCYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(You forgot some exclamation points!)
Thank you!!!!!!
I demand Ninja Rick!
Wasn’t he the janitor at Galasso’s Pizza (and subs)?
I think he’s a cashier somewhere.
I said that too, but.
Ninja rick will be the hero at the end of the strip
He’s in every strip, you just can’t see a master of invisibility.
Dina is aware of him, she is secretly his pupil.
Such is his stealth that you can’t even see his tag under the strip.
Plus he’s got spiders to kill.
The serious answer is that Ninja Rick won’t be in DoA, because he’s based on a real person (which really raises way more questions).
My headcanon is that he’s the campus mental health counselor.
arnt most of the characters in dumbing of age based on willis highschool friends?
Joe, Howard, and Mike are based on Willis’ friends, but only in a very abstracted way. Ninja Rick, Hooper, etc. are much more closely based on real individuals.
Checked willis tumblr that saddens me but it makes sense I guess. I do wonder why its okay to use characters based on real people in short packed but not in dumbing of age?
b/c Shortpacked! was primarily for goofing around, hence the continuity breaks for throwaway toy-based jokes, whereas DoA strives to be more original and less borderline infringe-y?
I wonder what the actual Ninja Rick would say tho
something about ninjas and retribution probably
You know who else was based on a real person? The guy who, in this continuity, created Dexter & Monkey Master. Back in the Walkyverse, he was Ethan’s Transformers rival, none other than Willis himself.
Well if Willis gets mad about how Willis represents Willis, Willis can talk to Willis.
I see, Marcie is suggesting they shake up a soda can and open it while pointing is at her. Shame on you Marcie, can you imagine the cleanup a mess like that would require?
her gesture would indeed require a clean-up
I though that she was saying Lucy used a shake weight.
“Shake weight,” indeed.
I was trying to figure out why she’s signing “hot”, but in a way that suggests it’s a bad thing. It’s like her hand is saying Lucy’s hot, but her face is saying “ew, yuck, gross.”
Seriously, y’all. Look up the sign for “hot” in ASL and tell me that’s not what she’s saying.
Lucy’s hairstyle is super cute.
I wonder if Dumbing of Age was just an excuse for Willis to change everyone’s hairstyles?
Malaya didn’t change it though
Malaya, Malaya never changes
Malaya never changes
So the weight gain in SP! isn’t canon?
(man, that’s like the third time I’ve referenced that SP! strip this month)
She might still put on the pounds after college but barring any comic strips that show the post-college future of DoA, I doubt we will see her that way.
Et tu Marcie?
Wow, no wonder Malaya is so grumpy, having to share a room with that. Like sheesh.
Lucy’s like Mike’s parents
hmm
Why do I see this Lucy as a secular Joyce?
Maybe it’s the naïveté.
Agreed!
The earnest friendliness, too.
She seemed to be religious over in Shortpacked!, since it was her and Robin pestering Historical Jesus in that one Easter strip.
Is that gag me with a spoon or spoon me with a gag?
That latter option implies real kinky stuff.
I’m not entirely sure how the latter would even work.
1- apply ballgag (or whatever other kind you have; a wadded up rag will do)
2- cuddle
3- ???
4- Profit!
You leave Reese Witherspoon out of this!
Sorry, Rule 34.
she arrives
I wonder if Mary and Malaya would hit it off?
If Malaya wasn’t a godless heathen.
I vaguely recall some authorial statement that for the most part, unless otherwise specified, everybody in DoA is Christian. Just on account of it taking place in a predominately Christian part of the world.
Most of the cast obviously isn’t as actively Christian as Joyce or Mary, but probably not quite Godless Heathens either.
I imagine being incredibly devout just creates more room to butt heads with Mary anyway.
If this comic is as autobiographical as it has been made out to be, Willis must’ve lived in the most stereotype-filled asscrack of the world. All Jewish characters, not particularly religious and don’t try to spread their own outlook. All non-denom Christian characters, either a little or completely brainwashed by their elders, the lone Catholic, super imperious, holier-than-thou, and judgemental. All other religions, even other yes-denom Christians flat-out don’t seem to exist. The atheists are the only ones that vary, though most are understanding yet encouraging of others to look beyond the teachings. I’ve lived in several locations, and I’ve never failed to meet a variety of personalities for every belief system they’ve had. Most of them never aligned with the “official” stereotypes, and for example, almost all of the Catholics I’ve known don’t consider other Christians as very different or wrong, just, as one adult explained it, “a different flavor of love”. I’m not criticizing the veracity of any of this, I’m just saying, Indiana must be a seriously homogenized collection of people, and all fitting exactly to the general stereotypes. It really sounds like an awful place.
The more conservative forms of Judaism hold that you can only be born Jewish, and therefore don’t accept converts. It’s kind of the opposite of Christianity from the perspective that the more conservative your faith and the more closely you adhere to “the letter of the law” the less likely you are to accept people who’ve converted to your faith, let alone encourage them.
Which conservative forms of Judaism are you talking about? Because I know people who converted to Lubavich Judaism (which is about as conservative as it gets).
As a person of a small religious minority that wins a disproportionate number of Nobel prizes, I can say that all forms of Judaism do not actively recruit converts. Some Jewish groups try to convince Jews who are not observant to become more observant. However there is no form of Judaism that I am aware of which will not accept someone who sincerely wants to convert.
Judaism is matrilineal, which means it can only be inherited from the mother. However, the children of a woman who converted to Judaism are just as Jewish as any other Jewish woman’s children.
My branch of Hinduism has the “born into” part but is kind of opposite in that you can’t convert out. So even though I? I’m atheist, or even if I converted to another religion, I would always be considered Hindu because I was born into it.
Are you describing Mary as the “lone Catholic”? She’s not Catholic, she’s Protestant. We’ve seen that she goes to the same church at college that Joyce does. The DeSantoses and Amber and Marcie are Catholic, as well as most of Dorothy’s family.
Regardless, there is no “lone Catholic,” and I don’t think any of them match the awful description you made for whoever they are.
I thought Mary was the Lone Gunman…
There’s been a Muslim character in the strip: the girl who gave bullie keys to the dorm and said “don’t drink”. But yeah, collectively, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists make up only 6% of the US, and that’s combined. I moved to west Michigan a couple years ago, and there’s a ridiculous about of people who have never met someone with Indian ancestry, don’t know what Hinduism is (they think most Indians are Muslim), or think that Jainism and Sikhism are part of Hinduism or part of Islam. Like, can’t deal.
And west Michigan is more diverse than what I have seen of Indiana so…
Not surprising.
Plenty of people will assume that anyone in a turban is a Muslim. As for Sikkhism and Jainism, I’d bet the UK is the only Western country in which an average person is likely to have heard about those religions…
Maybe… There were a lot more people in San Francisco, where I moved from, who knew about non-Christian religions than here. Sure, there were people who thought anyone in a turban was Muslim, but they were considered uninformed, not the norm really.
Highly religious Jews don’t “try to spread their own outlook”. Proselytizing has never been a Jewish thing. It’s never been a thing for most religions; Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism are the main missionary religions (or religious families); Hare Krishnas have gotten into it but I think they’re unusual for Hindus. Some Jain and Baha’i activity, less successful.
Orthodox Jews can be more obviously Jewish, but they’d be less likely to go to IU. Or living in Indiana. Or eating in the cafeteria with the others. (I’m guessing Ethan doesn’t keep kosher.) But again, even if they were around, they wouldn’t be preaching at or trying to convert people. It’s not a “stereotype” on Willis’s part.
Dude. He’s not claiming that this is the general population of Indiana. Just the population of the people in his fictionalized version of IU. You get all sorts no matter where you are. Especially in a college as big and well-known as IU – you get people from other states and countries coming in just to study there. And I’m pretty sure this comic is not Willis’ autobio – I want the college with superheroes! – but that Joyce specifically is, and has been for a while, a character created based on his personal childhood/young adult experience. I personally grew up in central Indiana, though, and let me tell you, I WISH there had been so many diverse people in my area!
“I vaguely recall some authorial statement that for the most part, unless otherwise specified, everybody in DoA is Christian.
I think you’re confusing DoA with Roomies!. Everyone in Roomies! was Christian by default. I, a lifelong atheist, did not notice this pervasive christianity (except for Joyce and Mary), so I guess it was pretty well hidden even if it wasn’t intended to be.
What they mean is that the majority of Americans will say they are Christians, even though most don’t really care about it. so there’s a good chance in a cast of American characters, all characters not stated to be otherwise are Christian.
There are plenty of people for whom besides believing that God exists and maybe go to Church on special occasions are not really practising Christians.
Malaya might be too brown for Mary’s taste.
Wow, some favorites just took a dive in the ratings.
Yay, Lucy! I thought she’d be Carla’s roommate tho but this is tres neat.
IIRC Carla has a solo room, for obvious reasons.
I don’t get why it’s “obvious reasons” though. Like one of my transmale friends in undergrad had a cismale roommate, and it was no problem…? I means, is it different for girls?
But were your friends just thrown together as roommates? The university has a responsibility to their students, so they can’t just randomly assign Carla a roommate (imagine if she got Mary), and they can’t question potential roommates for compatibility without violating confidentiality (Carla is clearly not out about her identity, nor should she have to be).
Actually, depending on Carla’s point in her transition, she doesn’t necessarily have to disclose her status to her school at all. If her legal name and gender marker have already been changed, that’s not information they require. I can definitely see why she’d prefer a single, though – I know I did. Even though it was in the wrong wing.
I can imagine that plenty of people would prefer to have a room to themselves if that option is available and not costly.
Carla has a single.
Right, right. I meant your avatar’s roommate. Agatha’s not in a single, right?
I can’t remember the exact strip, but when Sarah was being interrogated by Amazi Girl, she made it sound like Agatha’s roommate was well known for being mean. Though we don’t know who Agatha’s roommate is yet. Or if she’ll ever show up.
Man, will that mystery ever be solved?!
Eh, I can wait.
All of the female members of her squad are accounted for, so she could be rooming with one of the other McAwesomes employees
I’m guessing it’s the girl from Daisy’s squad we never quite saw because she was always just off-panel or concealed by shadows or something.
Why do I get the feeling that Lucy is the anti-Sarah…
Because she is? If not the anti-Sarah, then she’s like some weird alternate reality Sarah that actually likes people.
Sarah and Lucy as roommates…
oh, you and your anti-matter experiments ^_^
Well, someone’s gotta do them! This universe won’t rend itself!
I love your avatar so much, it makes me so happy
I made it for a single response, and it makes me happy it brings joy.
Hooray for Lucy!
Lucy! It’s Lucy! Everyone it’s Lucy, Lucy’s here!
See? Nobody cares.
Lucy and Joyce must meet.
This might just be enough to negate the potential wormhole of obnoxiousness caused by a meeting of Mike, Mary and Malaya.
(Alliteration!)
Theres a large chance that they will repel each other so much that they drag the universe down with them
I think that I’d enjoy seeing Mike antagonize Mary and Mary–although they’d be way too easy for him. I assume Malaya will physically attack him.
Yay, Lucy!
oh cool, Lucy showed up, now give her a utility belt and have her become a second amazi-girl to team up with amber and do amazing stuff
That could be neat, though I think Amber has a ways to go before Amazi-Girl is ready for a sidekick.
Also, Aang’s got a ways to go before he’s ready to save anyone.
But I believe that he’ll save us all!
Right after penguin sledding…
and most of that way leads through therapy.
She could be the stable Dick Grayson-type to Amber’s grimdark Batman.
Yeah, and how much abuse did Robin take from ol’ Bats before the Silver Age ended? Wayne didn’t bother with therapy either, but it didn’t exactly do the man any favors.
Or she could put a stop to the crazy and end Amazi-Girls reign of violence.
For some reason that reaction from Marcie surprised me. I didn’t realize she was as snarky as Malaya.
I don’t think she is. I think she just wants to act like she is to get in Malaya’s pants.
I hope so because Marcie is the most sensible one in Sal’s group, but people have done far worse to get laid.
See also: the Trojan war
She hangs out with the likes of Sal, Carla and Malaya. If she wasn’t snarky herself, then by now she’s definitely absorbed the habit from them.
This.
Really Marcie?
Damn Lucy’s one friendly little neighbor. She’d make a great teacher.
Ugh, Lucy’s so horrible! Kill her! KILL HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lucy is the worst.
No, I thought of a funnier one:
God dammit, Lucy
i love lucy
Exactly what I was going to say!
I see what you did there.
https://markmushakian.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/vitameatavegamush.jpg?w=640
damn it, missed making that joke by 7 minutes
Wait Lucy, no! Come back! Come Baaaccckkkk!!!! LUUUCCCYYY!!!
I doubt it will be, but it’d be hilarious if this was Lucy’s one and only appearance in all of Dumbing of Age.
It would! Kinda like Riley so far
Preview panels already confirm that Lucy reappears on Monday.
Don’t get my hopes up
LMAO Malaya and Marcie are truly made for each other.
And hiiiiii Lucy, nice to finally meet your DoA version
Suddenly a wild Lucy appears!
Lucy uses ‘smiling and being nice’. It’s not effective.
It is! ^^ Only probably not in the way she meant.
Those two are the least awkward couple to txt each other while in the same room.
Also Yay Lucy is also a freshman we won’t have to wait three decades for her to show up maybe.
Texting would be the quickest way for Marcie and Malaya to have a conversation until Malaya is fluent in sign.
I’m pretty sure that’s what Spriteless meant: LEAST awkward.
LUCY!!!
HI LUCY! WE’VE MISSED YOU, LUCY!!!
GO HANG OUT WITH AMBER RIGHT THIS INSTANT!
RECREATE THE SHORTPACKED MAGIC!
So, this is a first, a universe where I actually like Malaya but immediately can’t stand Lucy.
The hell happened here?
You’re doing it wrong, that’s what ;3
pov
malaya may not be a protagonist or anything but shes closer to one here than she was in shortpacked im pretty sure, and lucy had a lot more introduction there than here
plus, marcie doesnt like her either, so its not just a malaya thing
You’re developing good taste.
Is Malaya sitting on her own keyboard? Are they playing a game together or just hanging out without talking or interacting in any way.
(Admittedly, this is the best way to hang out with Malaya.)
Maybe they’re texting each other?
That last sign can be translated* as “Christ, what an asshole.”
Translation: “Wanker”?
I would hate to meet this Lucy in real life, even if she would make a great kindergarten teacher.
Also, you know it’s a David Willis comic when you see that last panel and automatically assume Malaya’s on the toilet.
Ah, I remember when being happy and polite was uncool.
Then I turned 14.
+1
I would expect an 18-year-old Malaya to act like a jaded goth middle schooler who has no real reasons to be jaded yet, but Marcie ignoring someone for being nice is disappointing
Ok, judging from the comments, this Lucy dame is apparently liked (of course this could be me displaying my incapability to comprehend sarcasm over the internet, despite utilizing sarcasm on a near daily basis)
Either way, this just reminds me that I really need to read more of Mr. Willis’ work. All these characters who were parts of other strips, and I don’t know squat about any of em.
It’s not sarcasm, Lucy is fantastic. Bonus, she wasn’t even around all that long (she was a later addition to SP!), so you could probably catch up with her stuff pretty quickly
She is actually a pretty nice person if you somehow failed to garner that from everything she said and did in this strip and I can’t actually think of a reason to dislike her without being a big ball of hate that despises almost everything.
Malaya (popping up): “Did somebody call me?”
Also: Malaya, Marcie has her own place. And I’m sure she’d be happy to share. Though I’m afraid there’s only one bed…
Wanker.
Malaya, please empty your trashcan, this is giving me anxiety. Clean your side of the room in general tbh.
The Siegfrid Line must not fail!
weird how malaya seems to go out of her way to be unlikeable. interestingly enough, marcie was agreeing with her, but i only feel the urge to frown disapprovingly at one of them
Your bias shows.
Also the extra years of Shortpacked about how Malaya was as likeable as a swarm of flesh eating beetles.
i do have to go back and read that some day. how many years did it run for? and how frequently did it update?
January 2005 to January 2015, with MWF schedule.
If you’re jumping in for the very first time then you might miss out on some references to Willis’ earlier work, It’s Walky, but Shortpacked is more or less self contained bar the occasional reference and cameo.
…is…is there an optimal order? has a walky-style comic map been created?
Willis has published four webcomics in the now-finished “Walkyverse”. In order, these are Roomies, It’s Walky, Joyce and Walky, and Shortpacked. itswalky.com is actually reposting all of these from the beginning, in order, on a daily basis – if you want to get into it, I’d start from the beginning there, catch up to where that is, and then enjoy the ride from there daily.
I get Malaya being Malaya, but why is Marcie being Malaya now too?
Your gravatar fits perfectly here since it looks like a headache.
And Marcie is likely acting that way to seem more likeable to Malaya so she can get with her.
Marcie wants to get in good with Malaya, for possible makeouts
Marcie is part of the sorta-crew with Sal and Carla. If she wasn’t a bit… abbraisive, I doubt she’d manage long.
(Unrelated, but my autocorrect turned ‘Marcie’ into ‘Latvia.’ The fuck?)
L and M are next to each other, as are T and R. Could be common letter substitutions.
Marcie is being Marcie.
Or, perhaps Marcie is being Sal.
Malaya’s not the first abrasive snark-beast in Marcie’s life.
Because Marcie is a good judge of character.
Wait I’m confused, is she mute? I always assumed she was deaf
I’m not actually sure how one becomes mute. We’ve seen she wasn’t born that way.
Only mute, and nope, we don’t know yet how she became so.
I, too, am curious about how one becomes mute without being deaf. I think Roger Ebert became mute as a result of thyroid cancer, but that can’t be the only way.
It could be damage to the vocal cords or an anxiety condition. Those are two common causes I know of.
Well there are several ways a person can become mute:
1) Trauma – emotional trauma can cause such a shock that the person becomes unable to speak because of a mental block even though they may physically be capable of speech. They might be able to speak again, but they also might never speak again.
2) Physical damage to the vocal cords or another body part required for speaking e.g. the lungs or tongue – this one is the most obvious as you can’t speak when the parts needed for it are damaged.
3) It can be a sign of lower than average intelligence or of difficulties with communication – people with low IQs and people with autism are more likely to have difficulties learning to communicate over all to begin with, so they might become mute instead of continuing to try to speak – it is particularly common for people with autism to be mute.
4) If they are selectively mute, they become mute whenever in an uncomfortable situation due to their anxiety – they aren’t being disobedient or rude when they do this, they just can’t will themselves into being comfortable enough to speak.
There are likely other ways people can become mute too, but these are the ones that spring to mind.
The inventor of the IQ test would like to remind you that he made many strident protests to keep people from treating it as a measure of intelligence. It is a knowledge test, heavily biased towards the cultural expectations of the local population, and also demonstrably gender-biased.
Fun fact: on the SAT, women originally did better in language portions and men better in math, so the test designers rebalanced it until men performed better in language and… uh, left math completely alone, because that was fine.
I do know it isn’t supposed to be a measure of intelligence – I didn’t say low IQs = lower than average intelligence, though my sentence structure may seem to imply it, that wasn’t my intent.
I mentioned low IQs because children who score lower than average on the test are usually struggling with learning over all or are likely to have learning difficulties – which means over all they’re more likely to struggle with learning communication as they’re struggling with learning itself.
IQ tests are also only supposed to be for children as well.
But again, since IQ tests are hugely culturally and gender-biased, a low score doesn’t necessarily indicate that at all. It’s a very poor shorthand for what you want to say, which is that people who have difficulties communicating — for whatever reasons — are more likely to present as mute.
Like that’s literally all you had to say, and it’s more accurate.
A lot of people with autism would also challenge your assertion that that the difficulties some of them have communicating with allistic people are because of their autism. They will give you plenty of examples of situations where the fault lies with us, because the minute we know they’re autistic we stop trying, or because we insist on repeating the same techniques over and over even when they’re clearly not working, or because we just plain ignore their clear communications.
(Like speaking English more loudly to someone who doesn’t understand it. If you do that, the communication problem is not that THEY don’t understand English. The problem is that YOU aren’t interested in finding any other way to communicate.)
Severe head trauma and/or other damage to the speech areas of the brain (such as a stroke, seizure, etc) can also cause someone to lose the ability to speak
According to IQ tests I wasn’t suppoed to graduate highschooland at best I’d spend my life flipping burgers. I graduated second in my class and have a degree as a vet tech.
As a current mute, it could be something like what happened to me (cause still unknown): If i speak, I cough and vomit or black out momentarily.
It doesn’t appear to be any of your cases, though 2 is probably closest (but frustratingly can’t be found.)
Did you have an emotionally-traumatic experience involving speaking to someone? It sounds like that would be the case, but I’ve heard of other cases where weird things like this happen because of actual physical problems. You might want to see a neurologist though
Seeing plenty of doctors, and no, nothing traumatic. Just was violently coughing, and eventual narrowing down, it got to speech (and a few other triggers – humid to non-humid, some temperature variance, etc.)
We don’t know how this happened but my current headcanon is a throat injury during a Sal-enabled gang rumble. It is very much Sal’s fault and the guilt is part of the glue between them.
Her sensei chose her to inherit leadership of their ninja clan, bypassing the sensei’s own offspring. Said offspring became jealous and tried to assassinate them both; Marcie survived getting her throat cut, but had to flee after being framed for her sensei’s death.
She was kidnapped as a hostage to flush out her father, a noted mercenary and super-soldier. He gambled that he could rescue her, but was a second late, and her throat was cut. As a result, his wife shot his eye out, and she learned she could jump into people’s bodies and control them if she made eye contact.
“I’m not actually sure how one becomes mute.”
One way is to be cryogenically frozen by your loving parents in the hope that The Future will be able to cure your fatal illness, only to be awakened in a retrograde, ultra-patriarchal society where you’re used as a commodity to get on the good side of the emperor.
That only works if you’re female, though.
I don’t want to know, do I…
The second panel looks oddly familiar. Did David Willis ever post it on Tumblr before?
I’m pretty sure, yeah.
It’s in one of the previews.
Oh, I had never seen those. Thanks.
Lucy!
My prediction: Sarah and whats-her-name fight over jacob like crazy, alienating both of them in his eyes, and then Lucy comes in and sweeps him off his feet. Except she doesn’t even like him.
Or … he dates a white girl.
Insanity!
Amber’s mom?
…I’m afraid to ask, but why is that so important to you?
I would guess because the other three ladies mentioned were all black, and the fact that Lucy is brought in when I can’t recall her having any interaction with Jacob at all indicates that Kathleen chose her because she’s the same race as Jacob too. I could be wrong, but I’d imagine that’s where Jason’s comment comes from, that there’s nothing wrong with Jacob dating someone non-black too.
Wellll Jacob did sort of have eyes on her in Shortpacked, but it never went anywhere.
Nah, Mike x Lucy = OTP. The Devil and the Angel, positions inverted when drunk!
That whole thing was such a mom interaction. Is Lucy going to bring over some hot macaroni and cheese that M&M will eat while Malaya complains loudly?
Hopefully she’ll remember to prepare some fried chicken as a utensil.
*giggle* that’s so true
I don’t know who Lucy is but I like her already. It’s nice to see I haven’t been fooled.
I was expecting to see the portal to LOtP’s side of the multiverse, but apparently Jen Aside in his universe made first post. I was hoping to see what Alter Willis has posted to his version of DoA, the last one was awesome.
Aww, Lucy!
Yay! Lucy! I don’t begrudge sharing a name with her, she is just too nice
I once had a very cheerful, extroverted roommate with boundless energy, who could not stand to spend a minute alone and always wanted to do stuff with me. His personality was completely, hopelessly incompatible with mine. I was glad to move to another place a couple of months later, because by then his voice was like nails on a blackboard to my ears, even though he was possibly one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
I appreciate this take on it, because it’s true: sometimes people just grate on you and it’s nothing to do with them or you.
Poor Lucy.
“The niceness! It burnsss!!” XD
Yay Lucy!
This is what Marcie wants to do: http://static.fjcdn.com/gifs/I_2f4517_283336.gif
Lucy has to live with Malaya and she’s still perky? SHE IS THE BADDEST DUDE OF US ALL
Lucy, Daughter of the Devil.
Making fiends, making fiends,
Malaya’s always making fiends,
While Lucy makes friends!
LUCY! <3
Lucy is probably the anti-Mike. She’s always cheerful and helpful, and her parents are misanthropic psychos.
And she’s a mean drunk?
Quite possibly!
Yay Lucy! I’m so happy to see her, she was such a sweet character in Shortpacked!
Bubbly people are actually just measuring your skin for shower curtains.
True Story.
“Good ol’ Lucy . . . how I hate her.”
Charles Schulz hated that strip. He said that it was OOC and gave the wrong message about how Linus viewed Charlie.
Except it isn’t Linus. It’s from more than a decade before the van Pelts were introduced. It’s Shermy and Patty. (Charlie Brown was also something of a troll in the early strips, though Patty and Violet were his usual victims, not Shermy.)
Yeah those two are perfect for each other
It makes sense that someone as basically nasty as Malaya wouldn’t like a cheerful person! Well, I like you already, Lucy! So don’t let the naysayers get to you!
I wonder how long they are going to sit there awkwardly, just doing cellphone stuff until Marcie makes a move? Will she make a move or will she choke on her nerves?
They may already be hooked up. We don’t know.
Aw crap, I caught up. I just read through the entire archive in one sitting. Now what do I do?
Iunno. Build a pillow fort in the meantime while you wait for the next update?
YAAAS thank you Willis for bringing Lucy into this universe.
Oh diddley oh, neighborino!
Wonder if Lucy is a comic book nerd in the DOA-verse?
Ugh, kindly fuck off to whatever joyless hellpit spawned the pair of you she is a delight.
And yet you demonstrate yourself to be more like Malaya than Lucy with your comment, how ironic.
The sheer terribleness of Malaya has that effect on people.
It is known.
i was always sort of bored with lucy but shes alright
its perfect that these two are roommates though
All that goodwill I had built up for Malaya aaaaand it’s gone.
Yeah, up until now she was largely interacting with people who were just as dickish as her but the moment she pulls that schtick with someone who isn’t kind of an ass it becomes very tedious.
Lucy x Mike anyone?
For someone to shake off such a cold reception so easily, I’d take a wild guess that Lucy suffers from a rock-bottom sense of self-worth, and probably thought them ignoring her was her fault for being a worthless, pathetic human being.
IT’S A WILLIS COMIC, EVERYONE HAS PROBLEMS
Jacob seems pretty well adjusted… In this comic anyway.
Another possible explanation is that it’s simply her way of coping with the constant rudeness from Malaya – not unlike how Joyce deals with Sarah.
I really want to know how Mary and Roz deal with each other.
I don’t know if it that’s simple for Joyce, since there’s been a few occasions now where Joyce outright says that Sarah hates her. The first time it happened Sarah was offended that she could save Joyce’s life and she’d still think she hated her.
Mostly by not speaking until one has call to denigrate the other’s political and/or religious beliefs.
Probably.
Oh good, we are spending more time with Malaya.
By good I mean bad.
I don’t like Malaya.
YAY LUCY
boo malaya
yay Lucy!!!
i feel like Lucy and Joyce will become friends in the near future
lucys eyes also look like fried eggs in the 1st and 3rd panel
sorry meant second and third
Yay! LUCY!
Star of the ONLY Walkyverse strip I’ve ever shown to someone who wasn’t already reading this stuff! http://www.shortpacked.com/2011/comic/book-13/04-remedial-adulthood/math/
Also, I don’t ask myself “why do we like this character, again?” about her, which (excepting Dina and people we barely see, like Sierra) I’ve asked about literally every character in this strip.
“I’m bored. Show me your penis.” is still one of the greatest moments in webcomic history.
How. HOW is it possible she’s even cuter here?! Someone get her a better roommate, a teddy, and a hug, STAT!
Seriously looking forward to seeing more of Lucy.
Okay, so what SP characters have still not appeared in DoA? Off-hand I can think of: Historical Jesus, Ronald Reagan (okay, I assume the technology to bring people back from the dead doesn’t exist in the Dumbiverse), Ninja Rick, Sydney Yus, Conquest, Buckets-of-Blood Guy, Whitey McJority, Soggies, Dab, dab, dab…
Conquest has appeared, she’s working at Galasso’s.
Drew, Manny, and Thad haven’t appeared yet, if we’re considering exclusively SP! characters.
Buckets of Blood Guy has appeared. He tried to sit next to Amber in class.
Buckets-of-Blood Guy also had an appearance in one strip, if I recall correctly.
Ninja Rick won’t show up as he’s actually based on a real life person, and Willis once stated that characters with that background are not going to appear in Dumbing of Age.
Aww. Shame as he’s the one non-“villain” on the list I can think of (other than dead historical figures). Oh, there was that senator (or was he a house rep?) that Robin slept with. And I suppose all the seasonal employees, but they’re too minor. Then there were those people at the competing toy-store across the street. Oh, and of course Singularikitty, though that was mostly a shared crossover gag with GWS and Something Positive. Speaking of pets, have we seen Fuckface yet?
Rose was one of these people (the Amber counterpart). And Rose has appeared in DoA.
Opposites do not attract?
Malaya was being an arse whilst Lucy was in the room, within hearing distance.
Lucy looks so cute and pretty in panel 2, Willis your style is better and better with the time!
You picked a fine time to show up, Lucille.
Oh hey Lucy!
… Yeah, it’s minimum 8 PM on a Saturday night, probably later, she is way too perky for that time of day.
“Here comes good ol’ Charlie Brown!
Oh, how I hate him!”
Wasn’t that the alt-text of a recent strip?
Yes, it was! (For varying degrees of “recent”).
Great, now I dislike Marcie.
Way to go Malaya, your dickery is contagious.
How much food is on that desk?
…in the Sky with Diamonds!
Malaya and Marcie both share my opinion on Lucy!
Oh, Lucy. Such a bon…
Nah, I can’t even joke about it. Lucy’s awesome.
Lucy is awesome. Unrelenting pleasantness is awesome.
On a separate note, Malaya, that is not how chairs were designed to be used. Nor desks, for that matter.
Malaya is too cool for furniture
So I guess Marcie knows both ASL and BSL.
i actually think in asl it’s “jerk-off” as opposed to “wanker”. though i am now picturing that marcie had a british accent when she could speak. it is fairly awesome.
The comments about Marcie are hilarious.
“The girl who exclusively hangs out with a trio of total assholes is a trifle unpleasant? Egads!”
To those of you upset with Marcie…
I’d be pissed if I was gonna try and get it on with someone and their roommate decided to come in to the dorm! It’s not Lucy’s fault, and it is a pretty petty thing to feel but still. Bit of resentment.
I actually started clapping my hands and squealed “Lucy!” at this strip.
Yay, Lucy!
Lucy – The daughter of all things inner evil.
I think Lucy actually got a sound bit of character development in this strip alone. She displays the pitfall of a lot of straight fangirls who treat gay pairings as “cute” and a form of entertainment. (see also: yaoi fangirls) That, or she’s just one of those people who has to tell you about every single thing she sees on the internet, regardless of whether anybody is interested, which is also acceptable as a negative character trait.
Either way, it’s great to see her again, but yikes, I can actually sympathize with Malaya here.
Agreed. Also it amazes me how many people dislike Malaya on here. I find her pretty relateable.