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had i gone to topatocon to see him, i would’ve asked to shake his hand while frowning disapprovingly throughout. probably just as well that i didn’t drive 100 miles
There was an innocent part of me that truly believed I would bear witness to something wonderful. However, my mind was not unsullied, and part of me knew otherwise. There was a part of me that knew as the clock struck midnight, I would whisper into my empty room, “Damn you, Willis.”
Toedad is like the Goblin King. He wants to kidnap someone, but he has o power over the cool female protagonist who doesn’t want to date boys. She just has to realize it.
I would scroll back to the October previews but the amount I’d have to scroll over would drive my computer insane. (I’ve tried.) Maybe I should start saving the preview panels in a dedicated folder.
Well in that case you have to:
1) Install Noscript or similar plugin for your browser;
2) Browse Willis’ tumblr with Javascript disabled – giving you a paged view;
3) Look up “binary search” on wikipedia for the fastest way to find the page you are looking for!
Sounds like more trouble than I’m willing to go through. Instead I just clicked on the “archives” tab and while my computer did have some difficulty with that as well, it went pretty fast and easy.
But thank you for the advice, I might need it for something else someday. ^^
I’m sure that they’ll have a pleasant non-confrontational chat about exchanging paperwork and he’s not about to violently drag her to the car without even getting violent at Dina who he sees as betraying him. And then they’ll all go out for ice cream and…
I decided months ago to hope for that. I’d nearly forgotten by now.
I mean, nonviolent resolution would be better, but something tells me Ross is pretty good at ignoring words.
Either a) Sal and Amazi-Girl both turn up within moments of each other and end up teaming up against Ross to save the day, or b) someone inexplicably called the cops ahead of time and he gets hauled off before anything major can happen.
Oooh yes, or Ruthie shows up and kicks Russ’s toe-like face in. Your avatar reminded me.
Then, still worked up from the beating, she has massively adrenaline-fueled fun with Billie for the next 2 hours (or about 4 months of daily strips :P)
That’s what I was expecting! This is my first comment on here, just to hopefully add to the reader knowledgebase trying to guess what Willis has planned.
Willis expended a lot of characterization and time talking about the Joyce lying subplot – “Joyce is going to have to lie to her parents/Ross to keep Becky safe” so I was almost certain that this would happen with Ross confronting Joyce, leading into character development, etc. But, now that Ross definitively knows Becky is on campus, where does that leave us? Willis is definitely too good of a writer to just abandon that loose end.
There’s really nothing big for Joyce to lie about at the current moment, so I’m at a loss. If Ross is somehow incapacitated – i.e., he knows but he’s out of the picture so Becky’s presence becomes a secret again – we’re back in business. But that seems pretty unlikely. The only other thing I can think of is much later, when a new secret springs up that Joyce has to keep from her parents, Willis will make Joyce lie cleanly and effortlessly, to show the development of her character.
Or, Dina and Becky successfully evade Becky’s dad for now. He finds Joyce at the fountain, questions her, she lies but he knows she’s lying, and there is fallout from that confrontation. Hopefully with Sal still nearby…
Character development can still come from getting caught in the lie.
I know, right, this is the body language and demeanor of a man set to hand over some missing paperwork and have a nostalgic little chat about how quick children grow up. Get to know his daughters new partner and maybe give them a little gift for the first date…. yeah…
Do not tempt the sith, Darth Willis has already given us ToeDad. And that means he must of got off the bus early, and caught a cab back to his car. We had a couple of months worth of comic book time before we should have reappeared.
Not that that tells us anything: Willis was very careful to keep her out of preview panels at the start of the last book until her new haircut premiered.
I was going to ask if you meant she was kept out of the preview panels until she showed up, but now that I think about it, when she showed up (October 2014 real time), the buffer was probably around where she got her haircut. (February 2015 real time). Or close enough anyways.
I think that after she first showed up (October 2014) Willis let her appear on some preview panels (the one from the end of Chapter 2 was framed to make it look like she didn’t have her haircut yet, but other than that, she didn’t show up in the preview panels much until she got the haircut.
But more seriously, I suspected that Toedad would return today and see Dina and Becky together and get violent about it, but I was really really hoping I was wrong.
Sal’s already in the area. Hopefully she can intervene long enough for Amazi-girl to show up and tip the scales for a 2v1 beatdown.
Bonus points for making Amber question Sal’s place on the Good/Evil scale.
Maybe Ruthie’s gonna show up out of nowhere too; she often appears when students are least expecting it, maybe she’ll use her powers for good this time?
Then we could see the awesomeness of a 3-on-1 smackdown of Ruthie, Amazi-Girl and Sal handing various parts of Toe-Dad’s arse to him for the next several strips!
Due to the shifting timeline the characters would eb forever stuck grieving. Fortunately this also means nothing too bad will happen to anyone, including Becky as Joyce would never recover.
honestly, he can say nobody dies all he wants but that will not make me any less suspicious of the idea that someone will get hit by a bus or a semi truck or something.
I’m now picturing Carla rollerskating around campus and suddenly having a car block her way, some mad man Ross stepping out and yelling “REBECCA MCINTYRE” and hilarious confusion ensuing. Also, the same with Ruth, and Toedad’s femurs get removed. Ah yes. That is a nice picture. So very nice. *goes off into fantasy land where Ross never spots Becky and Dina and everyone lives happily ever after*
I saw the last panel out of the corner of my eye and for some reason thought he said “FOUND YOU!” which for some reason was infinitely scarier than the full-name treatment
Not so scary if you’ve seen episode 10 of Code MENT.
“FOUND YOU!!”
“Oh, uh, nothing! Oh, it’s just you two idiots.”
“You’re the idiot.”*I am so good at comebacks.
AND WITH THAT, THE HAPPY TIMES ARE DEAD! Now, if you will excuse me, I am preemptively going to go fetch some tissues, I have the feeling that some strong emotions are going to be evoked in the next chapters.
Yup. Here’s the pokemans who led him astray being all cutesy with his property, I mean progeny… Add that to the fact that Dina has made a vow she has no intention of breaking to not let Toedad take or hurt her. And the fact that we already know he’s a violent jerk…
I’m really hoping this doesn’t end in the violence I’m so strongly suspecting.
If the encounters with the terrible fathers in this comic bas taught me anything, its to expect someone, more often than not the terrible dad, to take a fist to the face.
And unlike Blaine, this one isn’t in love with the sound of his own voice. I think this conflict is going to escalate to violence very quickly if he can run fast enough to catch them – which seems pretty likely if Becky freezes up in panic, regardless of his top-heavy build.
Or possibly something like this (best scene in Jurassic park 2, because I’m a big fan of Peter Stormare swearing in Swedish and getting eaten by dinosaurs. )
If he manages to get Becky into his car, she can dial 911 and yell about being abducted. (As far as I know parents can’t just take their adult children like they’re 7 years old and went to the playground without permission.) She doesn’t even need to talk directly with the operator, an open mic in the car listening to their argument should be enough to raise suspicion.
(I’m assuming he turned on the child safety locks on the back doors, so even if they’re unlocked you can’t open them from inside. No tuck-and-roll escapes.)
Dina can also run to the nearest emergency phone (or payphone or business if they’re still off-campus) and report a kidnapping. She’ll probably remember the plates, or at least make, model, and color, of the Toedadmobile.
Dangerous! TV makes it look like it's like jumping off a tailgate (that is not moving) but actually even at town speeds it's bloody dangerous.
There was a mum who was having a conversation with her teenage daughter as she was driving the daughter home from somewhere that the daughter really did not want to have. They were only doing town speeds (so 50 km/30 mph). The daughter bailed.
She died a few days later in hospital never having regained consciousness.
DON'T DO IT. Not unless your life is already in immediate actual danger, because this move will fuck you up.
Well, they are in a public space, so I guess that might discourage him maybe? Or at least depending on the gravity of what he does, there’ll be witnesses and he’ll pay legal consequences for it?
Yeah, good point. He’d probably feel in his right as a father to treat his daughter however, especially since he’s following the holy word of god and all, and human laws are irrelevant to a man doing the lord’s work. Ugh.
Yeah, and given previous behavior he’s going to be moving to grab her again and drag her off right quick. So, given the time frame, Dina is far more likely to attempt to physically intervene in order to stand by her promise than risk losing Becky in the time it would take to contact the police.
Physical intervention against a man at least double her size… who has reason to resent her… and that’s assuming she doesn’t let slip that she’s dating Becky… No, bad hospital preview, you’re just a bad dream.
Dina fangirling incessantly, spouting all sorts of facts every time she spots a new dinosaur. Becky recalling the religious textbook explanations on dinosaurs. Galasso trying to subdue a T-rex and use it to take over the Jurassic world. I’d read devour that.
“Realistically” the best thing that could happen would for there to be a huge fuss, and the campus police show up and haul everybody in. Even if Becky is only 17, the police probably won’t let her dad haul her off. Leslie Bean would get involved, and I’m sure she could find some sort of women’s shelter for Becky to legally live in until she gets a job (at Galasso’s) and stuff.
Dunno. In Texas, the parents have full rights.
I’ve known a lot of bad situations- including my own- where obviously abused children were mistreated (sometimes greviously so) by police.
Then again, Texas police are notorious [as being corrupt, violent, law-breaking bullies]- every single person I knew growing up hated and feared the police, and thought that was normal. Didn’t realize later on it totally wasn’t. Or, rather, that it shouldn’t be.
This is so weird to me, because I’ve had to call campus police at a local university, who then got local police involved, but seeing as the person was an adult, they didn’t contact his parents. If he had been kicked out, of course, he probably would have had to tell them (if he didn’t have either the money or get-go to improvise living in the city himself, which he probably didn’t).
You are talking about adults right? Because I can comprehend calling someone’s parent/guardian if they’re underage (even if it isn’t the best idea, I can understand why it would be allowable). If they’re 18, unless there’s a reason for emergency contacts to be called, I don’t think it would/could happen here.
I mean, also, I’m assuming if parents are funding the school and it’s early enough to get a refund, they’d be able to pull out funding and such (although that’s dubious in its own way, because colleges love early ‘no more withdrawal refunds’ dates), but they wouldn’t be allowed to take the person home unwillingly. They’d be able to stop the kid from getting their classes that term and/or living in the dorms, which is a big blow
I just realized now you might be talking about in general, not at universities, but if it’s in general, parents can’t have full legal rights over an adult even in texas, right? I mean, the police can be shitholes who side with shitty parents, but the ‘rights’ bit, I mean.
No, this is the correct attitude to have when dealing with police. They have power over you and very little accountability for wrongdoing. That alone is reason enough to be on your guard. The naive view that police are somehow magically better people than normal is misguided at best and can ruin your life or kill you at worst.
Spouse on phone: “Bagge is so happy nowadays. ‘They are kissing, they are kissing’, and I find doodles of dinosaurs all over the place.”
Bagge in the background, pours up coffee, opens laptop: “…sitting in a tree. S-M-O-O-C-H-I-N-G on the mouth.”
Spouse on phone: “And things seem to be better between Joyce and Dorothy…. something about a cinemon roll.”
Bagge, in the background, opens new tab: “‘No, Joyce, YOU are the perfect cinamon roll. Let us be best of friends forever and ever.'”
Spouse on phone: “So I think there will be no more incid…”
Bagge, in the background, sprays coffe over laptop, drops cup in the floor: “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!”
Spouse on phone, calmly: “…damn you Willis.”
M-Maybe all those nice totally not-homophobes were right and he’s just about to prove what a loving and caring dad he is and give her a big hug and fully pledge to support her and her sexuality…?
Maybe…?
Yeah, I’m right there with you in being locked in FUUUUUUUCK mode.
Well, Deinonychus does mean “Terrible Claw”, which is a GREAT name, and they’re the BEST, but I just checked a page that says that impressive hind claws are a feature of raptors, in general:
“raptors can be broadly described as small- to medium-sized, bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs equipped with grasping, three-fingered hands, relatively big brains, and (most distinctively) huge, solitary claws on each of their hind feet, which they probably used to slash and occasionally disembowel their prey.”
I mean, she’s 18 right? What can he do? Will amazigirl show up? Will joyce save the day? But if joyce saves the dya, what reprecussions will she have with her family? As much as the crew thinks they are 100% independant, they still have their families to answer to if they pay for their education. uuuugghhh
I mean, it will be illegal as fuck, but he doesn’t care. He thinks he’s saving her soul from a great and powerful evil and that this is a personal test of his conviction and dedication to his deity.
Remember he belongs to a religious group that believes that “man’s laws” can be neatly discarded when it comes to matters of faith and he has absolute faith that a firm disciplinary hand is needed to “fix” his daughter.
Eh, people keep saying there’s nothing he can do, but that’s entirely backwards. There’s plenty he can do, most of it double-plus ungood; it just means there will be legal consequences – if, and only if, he’s (a) reported, (b) arrested, (c) charged, (d) tried and (e) convicted.
Actually, the legal repercussions begin at “arrested”. Granted they’re very small, and probably won’t mean anything anywhere Ross Babies MacIntyre is active, but hey, thank god for small favors.
Rebecca McIntyre, Ive been doing a lot of thinking and I have decided I am okay with you begin gay. From know on you will be getting your education in a school that is actually accredited. Also here is you social security number.
I guess Becky doesn’t have a middle name, he surely would’ve used it.
Side note: for some reason I thought Toe-dad was short and stocky til I saw him coming out of that car. This guy is a gorilla.
She is…wait idea….what if she just denied knowing him.
Toe dad: Rebecca!
Becky: Who is this guy?
Toe dad: You know who I am
Becky: Ive never seen you before in my life!
Toe dad: Your coming with me.
Becky: Im calling campus security
Many do have them. My last school had a program where you can call for an officer to escort you to or from your vehicle. Which does no good if something happens unexpectedly.
Another school I went to had them, but, due to construction(large schools almost always have some sort of construction or renovation), only about half of them worked. And even then, an officer would have to be pretty close by to respond quickly because campus was massive.
It’s just as much of a crapshoot as calling the regular police in a large city, really.
Toe Dad forces Becky into his car and drives off, but not after Dina get’s a few raptor bites in.
Sal sees all of this and gives chase.
Assuming they’re close to the fountain, Joyce sees all of this too and runs to find Amazi-Girl.
Amazi-Girl is duly notified and tracks down the car.
AG finds Sal about to engage with Toe Dad but is able to set aside her old grudge (and may vocally say as much) for the sake of rescuing the innocent. They team up and take down Ross.
AG thanks Sal for all her help, but Sal shrugs it off and reminds her she’s still pissed about her attacking her friends at Walmart. AG is a bit shaken at the implication she attacked them for no reason.
They get Becky the hell out of there and AG leaves an anonymous phone call with the (campus?) police about an attempted kidnapping and where to pick up the would-be kidnapper.
Everyone goes home happy and Becky doesn’t join Joyce in the Break The Cutie trope?
I don’t think Becky’s getting out of this without at least a little more trauma, even in a best-case scenario where Ross doesn’t manage to force her into the car or get anywhere near her. Dude’s scary.
But I don’t think he’s getting her in the car, either. That would make this take a LONG time to resolve even at 7 strips a week – aside from that, it seems you beat me to the prediction.
My prediction… is that the whole things turns into a cluster-flip and several people will get hurt.
Ross demonstrates anger issues (borderline homicidal) when someone says ‘no’ to him. He turns out to be his own worst enemy when in confrontation with the authorities.
Joyce will have to choose her side. She makes a choice and she’ll never look back. Nor will her relationship with her family ever be the same again.
This. He probably will do something like BenRG says to fuck himself with the authorities, but that could still have nasty violent consequences for someone especially with that hospital panel coming up.
Legally so long as Becky is eighteen there isn’t a monkey flipping thing her dad can force her to do without it being a crime. But considering he literally has a block head I think he’d be willing to try anyways.
I don’t want to make assumptions based on his appearance… But based on his appearance I’m gonna assume he would not hesitate to physically force his daughter to get into the car, dragging, pushing, whatever it takes.
He wouldn’t necessarily have to lay a hand on her(not that I would put it past him). Becky has shown a remarkable level of strength and resilience, but it’s a lot harder to confront an angry parent who is right in front of you demanding your obedience. Especially when you’ve spent most of your life to this point acceding to that demand. Becky has high hopes for her future in this moment, but all of that is based largely on optimism. (If they could keep her presence a secret from her dad, if no one discovers she’s squatting in a dorm, if she can find a job to support herself, and so on) Her dad, in all his bigoted ragey, concern troll glory, is a reality she’s underprepared to face, I think
This is going to be pretty devastating for everyone, no matter the outcome.
That’s a good point, and could certainly apply to a lot, if not most, people, but I don’t really see Becky meekly getting into her dad’s car. Because she has this hope for a new life here, a future, being with Dina and maybe getting a job and being independent, I think she’s gonna put her foot down and stand up to him, say no, and that he will not take this away from her.
And then let’s not forget Dina’s here. I highly doubt she would let Becky obey her dad, instead she’s more likely to stand between Becky and Ross and tell him off.
And unfortunately I can’t see either of those scenarios unfolding without one of the girls getting slapped or worse.
So yeah, that plus the fact that she wiggled out of his grasp and ran off the first time suggests that he intends to use much more force this time to get his property into its proper place. All the time psyching himself up about his struggle against the “demon”.
Legally, yes. However, Ross would tell you that he is serving a higher law than that of any human legislation. I could see him actually fighting cops to ‘save his daughter’.
Well, seeing as QF has been up since 12:10 am, I think Willis is allowing this one. Besides, they haven’t spoiled any thing, they just confirmed everyone’s suspicions.
Maybe this is the third time he’s tried pulling up to them and screaming, but Beck and Dina were so engrossed in chatting about dinosaurs that they ignored him and kept walking.
Alas, I can’t even reference what I want properly. There’s a Danny Elfman piece that was used in a chase scene in one of the Eight-Bit Theater Flash shorts…but I don’t know the real title of the piece.
Toedad is back. He’s a real heel. He’s trying to get a leg up on Becky. Hopefully she hasn’t stepped in it this time. Or it might be the final nail in her coffin.
I can tell that the car at the back is some kind of Audi, given the shape of its tail lights, but I can’t identify Ross’s car. It doesn’t even have the company’s symbol at the front.
GUYS, I CAN’T STRESS HOW GREAT AND TERRIBLE IT IS TO BE A PATREON MEMBER, PLEASE SIGN UP AND JOIN US, YOU KNOW IT’S WORTH IT. Sorry about the all caps, but IT’S WARRANTED.
No kidding, yesterday when people were all “Oh, this is starting to look grim I hope we get another strip of Dina and Becky soon to cheer us up” I was LAUGHING MANIACALLY.
I’m a patron and I purposely ignore the day-early strips. It’d just mean I skipped a day once and then still had to wait, and I wouldn’t get the fun of reacting in real time with the rest of the comments section…
(But yes, sign up anyway and $upport your favourite creators.)
You’d think so, but floppy, dead weight is way more difficult, pound for pound. Now, if she can really get physical in counter action, maybe that would be more effective, but just trying to not be dragged, not so much.
I am commenting for the first time in order to say that the last panel actually made every muscle in my body tense. I am genuinely terrified of what’s coming next.
Let’s get one thing perfectly straight, Ross. You are NOT Becky’s parent any longer. To be a parent is not a God given privilege. It’s a JOB. One of THE MOST IMPORTANT jobs. A job you utterly SUCK at. A job that you, in case Becky hadn’t made that perfectly clear already, HAVE BEEN FIRED FROM.
A parent’s job is to support, to lift up, to guide, to encourage, to protect, to nurture. You are doing the complete opposite. You are not a parent any longer – you are EXACTLY THE SORT OF THING A PARENT IS PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM. You are a bully, an ogre, an enemy, a fucking toeshaped hurdle for Becky to overcome.
She has been away from you for less than a week. And she has friends, a partner, she’s looking for job, she’s getting interested in an education… she has A FUTURE lining up, a future she’s making HERSELF, WITH NO HELP FROM YOU – in SPITE of you – AND A FUTURE WHERE YOU HAVE NO PLACE, YOU COMPLETE FAILURE OF A HUMAN BEING.
And you know what, that is A GOOD THING, because you have nothing of any value whatsoever to offer her. Restrictions? Abuse? Isolation? Lies? Is THAT your idea of parenting? Is THAT what you think makes a good person? IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK YOUR DAUGHTER DESERVES, SHITHEAD???????? I’LL TELL YOU WHAT SHE DESERVES, SHE DESERVES TO GET AWAY FROM YOU, SHE DESERVES TO NEVER AGAIN IN HER LIFE HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR FUCKING SENSE OF PRIDE OR PATHETIC NEED FOR CONTROL OR WHATEVER OTHER REASON YOU MAY HAVE FOR TRYING TO RUIN YOUR DAUGHTER’S LIFE YOU FUCKING SHIT-STEAMING PIECE OF FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But Baaaagggeeee! Don’t you know that toedad is only concerned about the daughter whose education he forcibly ended? I mean, it’s not his fault he doesn’t understand why ruining his daughter’s life for wanting to kiss ladies is wrong! That’s a really hard concept to grasp!
A shootout has a risk of harming said law enforcement, or worse, bystanders.
Besides which, Willis is on record as saying no one’s gonna die in DoA. Doesn’t mean he won’t be badly injured, though.
[Theory incoming. Possible spoilers if it’s not as crazy as I feel like it sounds?] Okay okay guys! Something just occurred to me! In yesterday’s comic there was a skateboarding guy by the fountain! Which is where Becky and Dina were headed, so they must be close right now! AND! The skateboarding guy was only by the fountain in the first panel so maybe he happened to leave in the direction Becky and Dina were about to come from! Why is that relevant?, you ask. I just remembered a while ago Willis asked our opinions on tumblr for names for a new character who had a skateboard! Maybe he swoops in and saves the day somehow? I have a vague feeling the thing with that skateboarder appeared on tumblr before the preview panel involving the ambulances.
Am I on to something or am I just desperately trying to find ways to convince myself that neither Dina nor Becky will end up in the hospital? I have no idea.
OK… I’m good, I’m good. Let’s talk about the rest of the strip.
I would love for Becky to take introductionary biology. Sure, there would be some steep re-learning but there is an entire world opening up right there. And in those intro classes you get the entire shebang. Becky would do great, and I really think she would like it a lot. Corn and dinosaurs are just the beginning… Dina would LOVE to tutor her, in fact, she’s doing that already.
AWWWWWWWWW, the third panel. Possibly the cutest Becky/Dina moment yet (and that is in TOUGH competition). Look at Dina’s expression, she really, really wants Becky to stay close to her. And look at Becky, she really wants to come with Dina too, but she also sees and acknowledges and shares Joyce’s need for her. It’s OK, there is enough Becky for everyone.
And they are just so HAPPY, and everything is working out and… and… FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDGE YOU ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, that parts a really important and key moment. It’s a nice contrast with the toedip into a little codependent behavior and the way Dina seems to feel a lot better shows that they are really dealing with potential speed bumps in their relationship in a positive and healthy way. And yeah, it’s totally setting up a potential future between them as a couple paleontologist team.
Cutting out that last panel, it’s a really sweet moment between them.
Dina Saruyama and Becky MacIntyre. One is a caring but introverted obsessive with people issues, the other is a fun-loving extrovert fleeing a repressive past.
These are the moments where I remember why I chose this gravatar. It is the same glare I wish upon my impending sense of dread and its damned ability to always be right.
I don’t know anything about IU’s campus, BUT someone dug up this preview panel yesterday http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/124539780842/october-11 . Judging by Joyce’s face, it’s probably a fair bet to assume either Dina or Becky (or someone else they know who happens to witness the scene) is gonna text Joyce to tell her about what’s happening.
Dunno, Joyce had her phone out yesterday and was about to text Dotty, and the strip’s been dropping enough hints that something’s up there too.
… oohhhhh, now I’ve finally tracked down the ambulance preview. (Silly me, searchign on Willis’ tumblr instead of DOA one.) That looks like it belongs to the Ruth storyline, no?
Just been doing a bit of maths on the dates. This chapter started on 31st Aug, so that would make Weds 11 Nov the 73rd strip in the chapter. Well within Willis’ recent average chapter length, but earlier ones were much shorter and Walking With Dina was only 52. So the ambulance could belong to either this chapter or the next, really.
The next chapter (That Perfect Girl […is gone??]) is the Ruth one, isn’t it? ‘Cos now I’m making connections to Dotty as the Perfect Girl, as noted here before and particularly with the cinnamon roll gag, and she was planning to move on, and I know the chapter titles can often apply to more than one person at once…
Willis said in his tumblr a couple of days ago that characters have just walked across Jordan Avenue at a point between Read Hall (the dorm) and the Simon Music Library. The Showalter Fountain, where Joyce is waiting, is a good quarter-mile away and there’s a couple of building in the way besides. Depending on where she parked it and where she is going, Sal (on her motorcycle) is going to be the best hope for one of the main characters to observe the coming confrontation and be in a position to intervene.
That location is in a future strip that runs in December. Right now, Dina and Becky are at the edge of Dunn Meadow, just having crossed over from 6th St.
The fact that I can sit in my chair in the UK and use an online map to see exactly where Dina & Becky are, and their current distance from Joyce, is kinda crazy.
The fact that you can sit in the UK taking part in a discussion of a cartoon set at an an American university with people from many places in physical-space isn’t far behind.
This is the point where you pull out your dinaphone and call the police to report a massive screaming man who just ran onto the sidewalk and is making threatening gestures.
She also has to give them a description:,,Shaped like a toe,has a porndtache.”
Cop on phone:,,….From what depths of the underworld did this thing spawn from?”
I didn’t think I would say it, but this is the right time to pull an Amber. Get away from him, involve bystanders, get out of the scene (and if a pissed off RA hands him his femurs, so much better)
That plan might backfire, if one of the people involved starts to wonder where Becky is staying. Especially if they get an RA (who isn’t Ruthless) involved.
Is it coincidence that I typed out “Ruth” and my phone suggested “Ruthless?”
Er… To my (very limited) knowledge, the driver of a tank drives it and other crew handle the shooting, especially with modern tank designs that eschew hull-mounted machine guns in favor of stronger front armor and let sponsons or coaxial guns on the turret pick up the slack with more versatile firing arcs.
Y’know, the more I look at Ross the more it occurs to me that Blaine might actually lose his position as THE WORST FATHER EVER (yes it deserves to be capitalized) in the Dumbingverse
On the one hand, Blaine’s abusiveness comes from a desire to control everyone and let those dependent to him be always aware of who’s top dog and what he’s owed.
Meanwhile, WHAT WE’VE SEEN of Ross SO FAR is that he’s abusively controlling out of a misplaced concern for his daughter’s eternal soul.
Like, there’s a difference between being awful because you’ve been taught that’s how to keep your charges on the path to Heaven, and being awful because that’s how you prove you’re superior.
(This is also why I’m convinced, until Willis shows more of them, that Linda Walkerton is a worse mother than Carol Brown.)
Of course, Ross still has some strips before the end of the chapter to overtake Blaine. Can religious zeal triumph over mere vileness?
Very true. I suppose it will hinge on what exactly Ross is willing to do to bring Becky back into the fold. If he resorts to violence it will certainly be a big step towards catching up to Blaine. We will just have to wait, I guess.
Intent might determine whether you are more redeemable as a person, but I don’t think it matters so much for whether you are worse at being a father or mother.
When you’re experiencing it, it really doesn’t feel much different if you’re receiving the abuse or the bullshit because of misguided belief in the value of being “firm”, religious faith, supposed love, or a fully cognizant desire to control.
The abuse is still the abuse. The excuses just make it easier for the perpetrator to rationalize it. And they always rationalize it.
People talk about abuse as if it only happens for its own sake. That toedad is only a speech away from realizing the errors of his way and that his religious justifications are enough for their to be some kind of redemption. It’s so, amazingly wrong.
If you’re a horrible enough person to think that anyone with rules as stupid as Ross believes his god enforces is worth listening to, I think you trump someone with severe enough self-worth issues to inflict them on others.
Linda seems to genuinely be motivated by a desire to see her son succeed as much as he ‘should’. As long as we’re using this shit to give parents a tiny scrap of leeway and all, it’s not like She doesn’t have SOMETHING, like Carol.
Since everyone is too concerned about the growing dread to mention it, I will have to: the way Willis uses small caps for shouting “MacIntyre” is kind of neat.
All this time I have not voted in the latest poll, as my life is relatively free of dread. From time to time I’ve considered going ahead and doing it anyway just to see how the votes fell out, but never did.
Now I know that all along I was just waiting for this day.
On a second look, I’m actually not sure what exactly that is – I’d expect grass, but the color is more like dirt, and it seems to be divided into panels matching the sidewalk, but it definitely looks like something that should not have a car wheel on it.
This should be interesting. Will Ross be willing to take ‘no’ for an answer? Will he be able to get away with anything on the middle of a city street (especially after breaking several traffic laws)? More importantly, just how many of the regular cast are in this general area and about to see and/or participate in what follows?
NOTE FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE POND: Our cars are arranged differently; it took me a moment realise that Ross wasn’t in the front passenger seat.
Meta-logic compels me to assume it’s Ross, if only because having either Dina or Becky get seriously injured would take them out of the strip for real-world months. Maybe he gets hit by a car?
Or it could be a minor injury, needing an ER visit but no stay, in which case all bets are off. Dammit Willis, let me have my dreams.
My guess at the moment is that he gets a few licks in, probably on Becky and Dina, before he’s dog-piled by Joyce, Sal and a couple of Campus Cops. There’s no particular reason why a visit to an ER necessitates being written out for a while. It’s possible that Becky may be sporting a black eye for a while or Dina may need to wear a cast or something. FWIW, it’s possible that the Ruth-focus chapter may be about how she tries to retake charge of her floor after a dressing-down by the Dean for letting a situation like this develop without knowing anything about it.
What happens next with respect to Ross is up in the air. I’m guessing that Joyce’s folks will bail him out of the lock-up and he’ll just vanish for a while to plot his revenge (yes, I’m thinking he’ll jump bail). I’m also thinking that the spoiled future visit by Joyce’s too-nice dad will probably be an attempt on his part to get the lost bail money back and also talk Joyce into persuading Becky to ‘return to the fold’.
Combined with the impending explosion over Jocelyn’s trans status, I suspect that an estrangement is brewing between Joyce and most of her biological family.
I don’t know what everyone is so upset about. This needs to get faced at some point and I think it will work out for the best for Becky if she faces down her bigoted father. She’s a grown woman and I look forward to seeing her overcome this.
Have you SEEN Becky’s dad? And his build?! Of course Becky would have had to face her parents some day, but her dad is clearly extremely mad right now and I don’t think anyone would put it past him to inflict physical harm unto his daughter or anyone standing between him shoving her into his car.
I would feel much more comfortable with this situation if there was a cop or a campus authority figure around.
That’s true, but if he hurts her or takes her by force, she will have the legal grounds to remove him from her life. I prefer to look at the positive that will come out of this than the negative. Also, Amazi-Girl will fuck his steez if he hurts her.
At least there will be a witness to whatever he does. And if he harms Dina, the law will hopefully be to busy fighting those charges to be able to commit Becky.
I dunno, we’ve already had one horrible parent that’s willing to resort to violence (Blaine), I feel like for the sake of storytelling Ross might be slightly different. He might try to pull her back into the car, but I don’t think he’d punch her.
This is probably me and it is extremely unlikely but I’d love it if Becky managed a completely nonchalant and/or snarky one liner in the next strip – something like: “Oh, hey Dad! See you’re still workin’ on that drivin’ ban!”
For Toedad, women don’t need middle names, because after they get married, they use the maiden name as a middle name. So Becky has an empty space waiting for her inevitable marriage. He just doesn’t know it might be to Dina.
ASSAULT. ARREST HIM FOR ASSAULT. Come on, I can see it, he’s gonna get physical with one of them and BAM self-defense and a 911 call later and that motherfucker is OUT OF HERE.
Alternate possibility – Anticlimactic but not unrealistic:
We cut away for a few strips so we can follow Joyce’s traumatic reconciliation (in her mind) with Dorothy. It will be cute and bitter-sweet. Cute because Dorothy doesn’t know that there is anything wrong and bitter-sweet because it will demonstrate just how deeply Joyce’s friendship for her runs and how heartbroken she was at the thought of there being enmity between them.
After that, we cut back to Becky and her dad sitting on a bench. He’s trying to persuade her to try the ‘intensive cure’ class he’s found (“Look! They even have colour brochures!”). She keeps on refusing. He gets angry but also sad. He tells her that, if she refuses, then she’s an orphan and he’s childless. She agrees to those terms. There is a long, dead pause (one silent panel before)…
“Well, goodbye, stranger. I doubt we’ll meet again.”
“Bye.” A beat then. “I’ll need my Social Security number.”
“I’ll post the stuff to Joyce Brown. I have no doubt she’ll know where to find you.” Then Ross gets in his car and drives off as Becky breaks down on Dina’s shoulder.
I think Becky’s dad is trying to be a good parent in the way he knows how. A good parent WOULD do their best to find their 18-year-old child who’s run away from home with only the clothes on her back, no job, and no car. He’s not willing to abandon her, even after what he considers to be her horrible misbehavior and/or betrayals. I believe he’s trying to be a good parent in the way that he knows how.
But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say. Good intentions alone do not a good parent make.
Becky’s dad has some very deeply ingrained and damaging beliefs, and I don’t think he’ll change. I actually feel pretty bad for Ross because I don’t think he’s a bad person, I think he’s someone trying to be good who was taught damaging beliefs by his own parents/church community as a kid, and now the cycle has continued. It may not look it, but I’m sure he’s going through his own problems and conflicts over his daughter– her being gay, her running away, etc.
That being said, I obviously hope Becky doesn’t go with him, and finds a way to get on her own feet with a job, apartment, etc. and figure out where she fits in the world. That’s ultimately the best thing she can do for herself. Fortunately, she has supportive friends, and I think that will go a long way to helping her.
They’re in the middle of a crowded campus in broad daylight, nothing can possibly go wrong. They’re in the middle of a crowded campus in broad daylight, nothing can possibly go wrong. They’re in the middle of a crowded campus…
About time, toedad needs to be put in his place with regards to his college age daughter and Dina needs to go prehistoric in his ass, preferably teaming up with Amazigirl, Sal, Ethan, Jacob and Ruth.
A few things that may become important: Becky currently has Dina’s phone. Becky presumably knows Joyce’s number. There is a preview panel from an upcoming strip (pre-ER) that shows Joyce staring at her phone with a very worried look.
It occurs to me that Becky and Dina won’t be meeting Joyce for a while. It also occurs to me that that could result in even more badthings given Joyce’s current inability to be in public alone.
Because, yknow, this strip wasn’t bad enough, I had to go imagine future bad possibilities arising from it.
I hope there’s a way this can end civilly, I mean she’s 18 so legally he can’t do anything, and if he wants to stay in her life somehow then he really should…
Basically the ratio between jerk parents and nice parents in this comic world is way too slanted the wrong way, if you ask me. =P
That’s actually a solid description of them, isn’t it? They’re the Anti-Mike. Mike’s mom doesn’t just bake you delicious cookies; she sneaks them into your bags without your notice. Mike’s dad doesn’t just give dating advice; he gets disturbingly lurid about it. They’re as overwhelmingly nice as Mike is an overwhelming asshole.
In other scary news, I saw someone who looked exactly like toedad today. I feel sorry for him. No one (except toedad and simular such horrors) should have to look like that.
How long did she honestly think she’d be able to randomly hide right next to her best friend? This was always an awful plan.
And Dina’s smarter than that, how long did she think her trick was realistically going to work for? It was only gonna take him a matter of a few hours to realize she’d lied and then beeline straight back to her.
All they needed was to hide from him long enough for her to get her own place, then he can’t do shit to her. She needed to stay near Joyce because Joyce is literally her only source of food, clothing and shelter. They can easily call the cops on her dad but the problem was she was staying in the dorms illegally, so if they drew attention to that she’d get kicked out and end up homeless.
People are so busy freaking out they don’t realise this is awesome. This encounter was inevitable, it happening now just means we won’t have to spend months and years worrying about it. Becky will be fine for the same reason nobody will die, the alternatives would cause at the least Joyce to be depressed, grieving and angry for basically the rest of the comic’s existence.
My money’s on the dad acknowledging Fundie’s school’s will be a better environment for her, when he sees that her new friends accept her without discrimination, albeit he wont approve of the lezbo thing (or the butch haircut).
Makes sense ditching that catholic school while it’s still only 5 weeks into the semester, even if Ross’ initial idea of reform might’ve been more homeschooling.
…at least Joyce won’t have to convincingly lie to Ross about Becky not being around.
How old is Becky? Can’t she legally tell her dad to suck it? I mean if it goes the way I hope it goes, she’ll go to a cop or a guard, tell them that she’s getting chased by a toe with a shotgun and that’s immediate grounds for a restraining order, no?
She’s 18, it’s been covered a bunch but I’m too lazy to look up where
Legally, he can go suck a dick, but realistically there are parents with children who are THIRTY YEARS OLD and they still want to control everything they do
I could have read the strip in proper order. I could’ve had a few more moments of happiness. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw a grayish vehicle standing at an angle in the last panel, and I thought: “Wait, is that a tank? Is it supposed to be a reference to the guy who stood in front of the tanks on Tiananmen Square? Aw, I have to know, right now! I’ll just take a peek, probably won’t be enough context to spoil the punchline or anythHOLY FUCK DIE DIE DIE IN A FIRE hssssssssssssssssssssss”
Oh, boy. Never, EVER say things are looking up. Things *were* looking up, and now everything’s crashing down.
Becky is within her father’s reach. Dina is clearly in view, and now Toedad knows that she deliberately misled him. We don’t know exactly how he’ll respond, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume it won’t be friendly.
Meanwhile, Becky and Dina definitely aren’t making it to the fountain to meet Joyce. Joyce is outside alone, and we’re a couple of comics from this. http://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/124578089296/itswalky-october-11
Also, we know that someone’s ending up in the hospital before the end of this in-comic day. I knew this story-line would be a dark one, and now, our steep plummet downhill truly begins! Our growing sense of dread is very much justified.
My when I first saw them walking to class with Joyce (2015-09-07-fall) my reaction was: Walking on a public street in daylight? This is the worst way to hide from ToeDad! Why would they do that? Now we know.
Willis has officially become Joss Whedon. Happy characters not allowed for more than 10 minutes at a time. Walky is going to end up with a Reaver spear through his chest any second now.
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Say, Becky, he might know your SSN! =D
…
DAMN YOU WILLIS
Willis, can you let nothing pure and good remain in this world?!
had i gone to topatocon to see him, i would’ve asked to shake his hand while frowning disapprovingly throughout. probably just as well that i didn’t drive 100 miles
There was an innocent part of me that truly believed I would bear witness to something wonderful. However, my mind was not unsullied, and part of me knew otherwise. There was a part of me that knew as the clock struck midnight, I would whisper into my empty room, “Damn you, Willis.”
Well, that was short lived.
Moment too good for this world, too pure
Rorschach you read Dumbing of Age?
Deanatay +1
The Willis knew we were happy, and so he could not let it stand.
The girls will look up at us and shout, “Save us!”
and Willis will answer
“No”
*finally votes in the dread poll*
^<__<^
This? This is exactly why I voted Yes.
Toedad is like the Goblin King. He wants to kidnap someone, but he has o power over the cool female protagonist who doesn’t want to date boys. She just has to realize it.
100 miles? That’s nothing! Hardly a days work.
100 miles? pffft, here we drive 100 miles for a cup of coffee.
“Do you feel a growing sense of dread?”
I guess he did give us a fair indirect warning.
For more dread you can view the #previewpanels™!
I would scroll back to the October previews but the amount I’d have to scroll over would drive my computer insane. (I’ve tried.) Maybe I should start saving the preview panels in a dedicated folder.
You should. Trying to figure out what’s coming next is one of my favourite (and most stressful) games.
Hopefully it is Dina punching him in the FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
(sorry)
Wait that tumblr has Infiniscroll, too?
Well in that case you have to:
1) Install Noscript or similar plugin for your browser;
2) Browse Willis’ tumblr with Javascript disabled – giving you a paged view;
3) Look up “binary search” on wikipedia for the fastest way to find the page you are looking for!
Sounds like more trouble than I’m willing to go through. Instead I just clicked on the “archives” tab and while my computer did have some difficulty with that as well, it went pretty fast and easy.
But thank you for the advice, I might need it for something else someday. ^^
You mean the very existence of the character Ross MacIntyre within this comic?
Well, it’s scarier when you say it… sort of…
No I don’t have a growing sense of dread today, but I DO have a growing sense of dad…
Did I mean to say “today” or “toe-dad”? I dunno. xD
I’m sure that they’ll have a pleasant non-confrontational chat about exchanging paperwork and he’s not about to violently drag her to the car without even getting violent at Dina who he sees as betraying him. And then they’ll all go out for ice cream and…
Holy fuck is this going to be terrifyingly bad.
Looks to me like they need some muscle to make this a more even confrontation.
I wonder how near Sal still is.
Sal shows up,then Amazi-Girl,they put aside their past encounter and kick his ass togheter.
I decided months ago to hope for that. I’d nearly forgotten by now.
I mean, nonviolent resolution would be better, but something tells me Ross is pretty good at ignoring words.
That sounds amazing.
Then when they’re done, Sal turns to Amazi-Girl and says: “Ah still think yer a power-trippin’ loon.”
In the extended/slash/slipshine version, it then leads into them angrily making out with one another.
Oh, you know in your heart of hearts you ship that.
Either a) Sal and Amazi-Girl both turn up within moments of each other and end up teaming up against Ross to save the day, or b) someone inexplicably called the cops ahead of time and he gets hauled off before anything major can happen.
I’m rooting for a).
That would be me. I ship that.
Hee! I would love to see that!
Eh, Sal already has a hatefuck outlet. You generally don’t need more than one of those.
Unless you’re a masochist.
Oooh yes, or Ruthie shows up and kicks Russ’s toe-like face in. Your avatar reminded me.
Then, still worked up from the beating, she has massively adrenaline-fueled fun with Billie for the next 2 hours (or about 4 months of daily strips :P)
Nah, Joyce can lie and say that Becky isn’t on campus, all according to plan!
That’s what I was expecting! This is my first comment on here, just to hopefully add to the reader knowledgebase trying to guess what Willis has planned.
Willis expended a lot of characterization and time talking about the Joyce lying subplot – “Joyce is going to have to lie to her parents/Ross to keep Becky safe” so I was almost certain that this would happen with Ross confronting Joyce, leading into character development, etc. But, now that Ross definitively knows Becky is on campus, where does that leave us? Willis is definitely too good of a writer to just abandon that loose end.
There’s really nothing big for Joyce to lie about at the current moment, so I’m at a loss. If Ross is somehow incapacitated – i.e., he knows but he’s out of the picture so Becky’s presence becomes a secret again – we’re back in business. But that seems pretty unlikely. The only other thing I can think of is much later, when a new secret springs up that Joyce has to keep from her parents, Willis will make Joyce lie cleanly and effortlessly, to show the development of her character.
Any ideas, anyone?
Or, Dina and Becky successfully evade Becky’s dad for now. He finds Joyce at the fountain, questions her, she lies but he knows she’s lying, and there is fallout from that confrontation. Hopefully with Sal still nearby…
Character development can still come from getting caught in the lie.
Maybe Jocelyn comes out to her?
I know, right, this is the body language and demeanor of a man set to hand over some missing paperwork and have a nostalgic little chat about how quick children grow up. Get to know his daughters new partner and maybe give them a little gift for the first date…. yeah…
He’s the toe golem. His weakness is stubbing. Hopefully they can defeat him.
And Willis said, “Roll Initiative”
Hurry! Find a dimly-lit room with lots of end tables!
To quote Sergeant Cortez of Timesplitters fame:
“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!”
To quote the Doctor on about every season ever.
RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!!!!!
DAMMIT I LAUGHED SO HARD MY FAMILY STARED AT ME
Damn. You. Willis.
What? No. This is an AWESOME development
(Ew, that emoticon looks weird. Almost like he’s licking his upper lip with a white tongue.)
“Awesome” in the sense that we are no longer waiting for the shoe to drop, that much I will give you.
dat growing sense of dread tho
“Awesome” in the sense that conflict and hardship is the soul of any good story.
Do not pass go, do no collect $200…
Holy shit.
Sadly there is nothing holy about this.
Cursed shit.
You think a cursed one is bad? What about a possessed one?! We need a special exorcist for a situation like that!
Sounds like a real shituation…right..right…..I’m just gonna show myself out >.>
A shitorcist.(why does that sound like a sith thing?)
Exorshit?
Eh. Sith happens.
Do not tempt the sith, Darth Willis has already given us ToeDad. And that means he must of got off the bus early, and caught a cab back to his car. We had a couple of months worth of comic book time before we should have reappeared.
The time he was put on a bus was in the “Walking with Dina”-storyline and that was yesterday (in comic).
Last page of “Walking with Dina”is Dina starting to sleep.
Following strip is Joyce and Becky arousing Sal on the next morning!
My understanding is that to defeat the Golgothan, you need air freshener wielded by a prophet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEdOqYEwcT8
How not to tempt fate–not on the homeschool curriculum, apparently.
subverted hubris! subverted hubris!!!
Yep. Right when things were starting to look up.
Oh shit dog!
He’s back and he’s not happy!
ToeDad? Not happy? Perish the thought. I’m sure he’s charmed.
Nope, ‘cuz now he knows Dina deliberately misled him.
Well, we saw that coming. Good cliff-hanger though.
It was the bus we saw coming, but we stared into its headlights and let it hit us anyway =C
Ohhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
t.
!
Damn you, Willis!
So, uh…anyone recall if Becky appears at all in the next three months of preview panels?
She doesn’t.
Not that that tells us anything: Willis was very careful to keep her out of preview panels at the start of the last book until her new haircut premiered.
I was going to ask if you meant she was kept out of the preview panels until she showed up, but now that I think about it, when she showed up (October 2014 real time), the buffer was probably around where she got her haircut. (February 2015 real time). Or close enough anyways.
I think that after she first showed up (October 2014) Willis let her appear on some preview panels (the one from the end of Chapter 2 was framed to make it look like she didn’t have her haircut yet, but other than that, she didn’t show up in the preview panels much until she got the haircut.
Willis is history’s greatest monster. :C
But more seriously, I suspected that Toedad would return today and see Dina and Becky together and get violent about it, but I was really really hoping I was wrong.
I hope you’re wrong about the hospital. I really, really hope you’re wrong.
If Amazi-Girl shows,Ross might end in the hospital. But there are chances to meet his ,,brother” there.
This is now my desperate head-canon until the horrible inevitable comes to pass.
Sal’s already in the area. Hopefully she can intervene long enough for Amazi-girl to show up and tip the scales for a 2v1 beatdown.
Bonus points for making Amber question Sal’s place on the Good/Evil scale.
Yeah, my money is on Sal too. If it comes to kidnapping I think her “no chauffeur” line (and Dina’s traceable phone) will turn out to be forshadowing.
Maybe Ruthie’s gonna show up out of nowhere too; she often appears when students are least expecting it, maybe she’ll use her powers for good this time?
Then we could see the awesomeness of a 3-on-1 smackdown of Ruthie, Amazi-Girl and Sal handing various parts of Toe-Dad’s arse to him for the next several strips!
I dunno, the “nobody dies” declaration puts him leagues below George R.R. Martin
still pretty evil, tho
I suppose sometimes a quick death can be better than a long and torturous life? nah, what am I saying… :/
I dunno. The dead don’t have anything worse to worry about.
He said that?
Certainly a change from the original universe
Not that too many people STAYED dead, there :X
Due to the shifting timeline the characters would eb forever stuck grieving. Fortunately this also means nothing too bad will happen to anyone, including Becky as Joyce would never recover.
I dunno about that– near-rape is kinda close to “too bad”.
Joyce is still unable to walk around on her own. I wouldn’t exactly describe her current state as “recovered”.
Exactly, it’s an ongoing story, but one that doesn’t completely cripple her character.
honestly, he can say nobody dies all he wants but that will not make me any less suspicious of the idea that someone will get hit by a bus or a semi truck or something.
I surprised he was able to recognize her, with the new haircut, all the other redheads on campus, and while driving (there ARE other redheads, right?)
Heck, she’s not even the only redhead in the comic who likes women (Ruth, Carla).
I’m now picturing Carla rollerskating around campus and suddenly having a car block her way,
some mad manRoss stepping out and yelling “REBECCA MCINTYRE” and hilarious confusion ensuing. Also, the same with Ruth, and Toedad’s femurs get removed. Ah yes. That is a nice picture. So very nice. *goes off into fantasy land where Ross never spots Becky and Dina and everyone lives happily ever after*I believe there is some competition for that title.
No the others you are thinking of are worse monsters. Willis is history’s greatest monster.
It’s a Shocking Swerve!
Did he steal that car?
It’s his car:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/stringent/
He must have just picked it up from the impound.
She jinxed it, Willis had to act
Nice parking, jackass!
HOLY FUCKIN’ SHIT!RUN,FROM THE BIGOT WITH A PORNSTACHE!
Fuck.
On another note (of which I’m slightly ashamed that I still am seeing), I keep thinking Ross is saying “REBA MacINTYRE”.
Oh good I’m not the only one.
me too.
Oh so I’m not the only one who thought that.
[waves] Where does the club meet?
JESUS YES. I had to reread that one like three times. XD
Maybe he is and he didn’t recognize Becky with her new haircut.
I’m sure his first line in the next comic will be, “I’m such a huge fan!!”
Same. At first I thought he was shouting it to avoid taking the name in vein and all that but then I had to go reread to be sure
.
Well said.
We all knew this day would come, and yet still it must be said… Goddamnit! Damn you Willis!
The wrath I wish upon that man is not healthy.
He’s on campus without permission attempting to kidnap a legal adult.
He’s an acceptable target. Wish away.
Well that’s a clever variation of the “Damn you Willis!” theme!
I saw the last panel out of the corner of my eye and for some reason thought he said “FOUND YOU!” which for some reason was infinitely scarier than the full-name treatment
Not so scary if you’ve seen episode 10 of Code MENT.
“FOUND YOU!!”
“Oh, uh, nothing! Oh, it’s just you two idiots.”
“You’re the idiot.”*I am so good at comebacks.
I saw the last panel out of the corner of my eye and thought someone had mistaken Becky for Reba McEntire!
Nobody gets to be happy, ever. Angst for everyone, forever.
^ New slogan for Hot Topic.
See, this is why whenever things are going good for me I mostly feel worried it’s because THE UNIVERSE ALLOWS US NO JOY
Oh hi there Nihilist Arby’s.
Yeah, we just call that Arby’s.
AND WITH THAT, THE HAPPY TIMES ARE DEAD! Now, if you will excuse me, I am preemptively going to go fetch some tissues, I have the feeling that some strong emotions are going to be evoked in the next chapters.
Also, I just realized that Dina. Is right there, so now it’s twice as bad.
Let’s just hope he can’t recognize her out of her pokemanz outfit.
Maybe he’s like a T-Rex. You don’t move he can’t see you…. Wait, pretty sure that’s myth… Well… Hope Dina is ready to unleash the raptor.
I’m still holding out for Amazi-girl and Sal showing up to tag-team him, but I’d rather like Dina to deliver the finishing blow to his knees.
I’m not entirely sure he has knees.
Then Dina will make knees for him, by applying massive force to the backs of his legs.
She could always give him a plantigrade leg, like a bird.
Yup. Here’s the pokemans who led him astray being all cutesy with his property, I mean progeny… Add that to the fact that Dina has made a vow she has no intention of breaking to not let Toedad take or hurt her. And the fact that we already know he’s a violent jerk…
I’m really hoping this doesn’t end in the violence I’m so strongly suspecting.
If the encounters with the terrible fathers in this comic bas taught me anything, its to expect someone, more often than not the terrible dad, to take a fist to the face.
And unlike Blaine, this one isn’t in love with the sound of his own voice. I think this conflict is going to escalate to violence very quickly if he can run fast enough to catch them – which seems pretty likely if Becky freezes up in panic, regardless of his top-heavy build.
Also unlike Blaine, I bet half the cast could kick his ass, because he doesn’t look like he makes punching people a hobby.
Faaaaaaaaaace
Stop the faces!
If it ever comes to violence between ToeDad and Dina, I figure it will go something like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp1hoY3hdk0
I’d like to hear Dina’s rant about JP’s inaccurate portrayal of Dilophosaurus. I’m sure she has one prepared that she’s refined over the years.
“Even if it’s scientifically inaccurate you are going dooooown” *Jumps toedad*
Or possibly something like this (best scene in Jurassic park 2, because I’m a big fan of Peter Stormare swearing in Swedish and getting eaten by dinosaurs. )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty5sEGtClLE
Normal I would be one to steal soft serve from you but under these circumstances… -donates all her soft serve to Boomwolf-
I’ll just steal soft serve from someone else >.>
…. You sure about this? I know how hard it was to get all this? And how do you know I won’t just have someone arrest you this time?
Eh, we’re fine. Dina is sensible to just call the cops if things get in any way dicey.
. . .
Becky’s holding Dina’s phone.
Ross doesn’t know that.
If he manages to get Becky into his car, she can dial 911 and yell about being abducted. (As far as I know parents can’t just take their adult children like they’re 7 years old and went to the playground without permission.) She doesn’t even need to talk directly with the operator, an open mic in the car listening to their argument should be enough to raise suspicion.
(I’m assuming he turned on the child safety locks on the back doors, so even if they’re unlocked you can’t open them from inside. No tuck-and-roll escapes.)
Dina can also run to the nearest emergency phone (or payphone or business if they’re still off-campus) and report a kidnapping. She’ll probably remember the plates, or at least make, model, and color, of the Toedadmobile.
I just went back and saw the car’s a 2-door.
That’s even worse, if he can get her in the back seat.
Aargh, leaping from moving cars. ><
Dangerous! TV makes it look like it's like jumping off a tailgate (that is not moving) but actually even at town speeds it's bloody dangerous.
There was a mum who was having a conversation with her teenage daughter as she was driving the daughter home from somewhere that the daughter really did not want to have. They were only doing town speeds (so 50 km/30 mph). The daughter bailed.
She died a few days later in hospital never having regained consciousness.
DON'T DO IT. Not unless your life is already in immediate actual danger, because this move will fuck you up.
An excellent idea, except for one small flaw:
What he would be able to do in the time it takes for the cops to arrive.
Well, they are in a public space, so I guess that might discourage him maybe? Or at least depending on the gravity of what he does, there’ll be witnesses and he’ll pay legal consequences for it?
Maybe somebody else might think twice about doing something but… I mean just look at the guy. Does he look like the type who would be rational?
Yeah, good point. He’d probably feel in his right as a father to treat his daughter however, especially since he’s following the holy word of god and all, and human laws are irrelevant to a man doing the lord’s work. Ugh.
Yeah, and given previous behavior he’s going to be moving to grab her again and drag her off right quick. So, given the time frame, Dina is far more likely to attempt to physically intervene in order to stand by her promise than risk losing Becky in the time it would take to contact the police.
Physical intervention against a man at least double her size… who has reason to resent her… and that’s assuming she doesn’t let slip that she’s dating Becky… No, bad hospital preview, you’re just a bad dream.
Ross that is not how you are supposed to park.
Pretty sure he spotted Becky on his way out and swerved to get close.
Run, Becky, run.
So this is where Galasso shows up, punches Toedad in the face, then grabs Becky and Dina while saying “COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE”, yes?
You forgot to say ,,FOOLS” at the end.
I’m just gonna leave my gravatar here
THAT MAN IS AN ENEMY OF PIZZA.
…and subs.
Yes and he brings them to his Tardis and they go back to live in the Jurassic period
YES.
Can this be Willis’ next comic? Galasso, Becky, and Dina in the Jurassic period?
Dina fangirling incessantly, spouting all sorts of facts every time she spots a new dinosaur. Becky recalling the religious textbook explanations on dinosaurs. Galasso trying to subdue a T-rex and use it to take over the Jurassic world. I’d
readdevour that.Dina explaining to Galasso again ad again that there are no Tyrannosaurs in the Jurassic…
I’d totally read that :X
I say we let Toedad be there. And by “be there” I mean “get used for T. rex chow.”
Fuck yes.
Oh double fricktits.
I dunno, I suspect if Becky starts screaming, at least a couple of people would get involved.
“Realistically” the best thing that could happen would for there to be a huge fuss, and the campus police show up and haul everybody in. Even if Becky is only 17, the police probably won’t let her dad haul her off. Leslie Bean would get involved, and I’m sure she could find some sort of women’s shelter for Becky to legally live in until she gets a job (at Galasso’s) and stuff.
But of course we know that ain’t gonna happen.
The best thing would be for toe dad to try and attack campus police and get assault charges
By campus police you mean Amazi-Girl,right? She’s the only law keeper I’ve seen there.
Amazi-Girl should commission some Amazi-Police!
I want all police to be called this now.
That’s because the actual police are less interesting by virtue of following the law. Including the ones about vigilantism.
We have seen Asma mentioning “security”, but you are right that we so far have never seen members of security / campus police themselves.
Does Dummy-verse IU even have campus police? Have they ever been seen?
Well, someone responded to Toedad’s parking violation. Not sure if that would have been campus police though.
Dunno. In Texas, the parents have full rights.
I’ve known a lot of bad situations- including my own- where obviously abused children were mistreated (sometimes greviously so) by police.
Then again, Texas police are notorious [as being corrupt, violent, law-breaking bullies]- every single person I knew growing up hated and feared the police, and thought that was normal. Didn’t realize later on it totally wasn’t. Or, rather, that it shouldn’t be.
This is so weird to me, because I’ve had to call campus police at a local university, who then got local police involved, but seeing as the person was an adult, they didn’t contact his parents. If he had been kicked out, of course, he probably would have had to tell them (if he didn’t have either the money or get-go to improvise living in the city himself, which he probably didn’t).
You are talking about adults right? Because I can comprehend calling someone’s parent/guardian if they’re underage (even if it isn’t the best idea, I can understand why it would be allowable). If they’re 18, unless there’s a reason for emergency contacts to be called, I don’t think it would/could happen here.
I mean, also, I’m assuming if parents are funding the school and it’s early enough to get a refund, they’d be able to pull out funding and such (although that’s dubious in its own way, because colleges love early ‘no more withdrawal refunds’ dates), but they wouldn’t be allowed to take the person home unwillingly. They’d be able to stop the kid from getting their classes that term and/or living in the dorms, which is a big blow
I just realized now you might be talking about in general, not at universities, but if it’s in general, parents can’t have full legal rights over an adult even in texas, right? I mean, the police can be shitholes who side with shitty parents, but the ‘rights’ bit, I mean.
No, this is the correct attitude to have when dealing with police. They have power over you and very little accountability for wrongdoing. That alone is reason enough to be on your guard. The naive view that police are somehow magically better people than normal is misguided at best and can ruin your life or kill you at worst.
And now this is the part where they make up and everyone is happy forever!
Spouse on phone: “Bagge is so happy nowadays. ‘They are kissing, they are kissing’, and I find doodles of dinosaurs all over the place.”
Bagge in the background, pours up coffee, opens laptop: “…sitting in a tree. S-M-O-O-C-H-I-N-G on the mouth.”
Spouse on phone: “And things seem to be better between Joyce and Dorothy…. something about a cinemon roll.”
Bagge, in the background, opens new tab: “‘No, Joyce, YOU are the perfect cinamon roll. Let us be best of friends forever and ever.'”
Spouse on phone: “So I think there will be no more incid…”
Bagge, in the background, sprays coffe over laptop, drops cup in the floor: “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!”
Spouse on phone, calmly: “…damn you Willis.”
uh, let me say it for you since you’re distracted
‘FUDGE YOU ROSS’
Thanks. Let me join you. FUDGE YOU ROSS
M-Maybe all those nice totally not-homophobes were right and he’s just about to prove what a loving and caring dad he is and give her a big hug and fully pledge to support her and her sexuality…?
Maybe…?
Yeah, I’m right there with you in being locked in FUUUUUUUCK mode.
It would be nice.
But then I’d be waiting for him to grab her and flee when she dropped her guard and rationalize the sin of lying later.
Oh dear.
Fuck Toe-dad. I wonder what kind of music he listens to. What are his toe jams?
I’m going to bet overly religious country music.
what could possibly go truck?
i’m gonna get that trending if i have to run it into the ground!
…mixed metaphor
Running gags are half the fun around here.
why should a gag run when it can (much like a bird-flipping amazigirl) ride a truck?
In Dumbiverse, maybe you jump on truck.
In Walkyverse, truck jump on you!
Sal’s femurs are Amazi-girl’s FAAAAAACE! Damn you Willis something something Danny.
“No, I’m not Becky MacIntyre. My hair’s completely different to hers. And I have a phone, which, as far as you know, she doesn’t have. See?”
“…Sorry. My mistake.”
That would almost work except how would not-Becky Becky know she’s not like Becky
(granted, we don’t know HOW intelligent Toedads are)
Okay Dina, it’s your time now.
Fight him.
The raptor prepares to defend her mate…
Does Dina have one of those razor sharo, hinged claws that she can deploy to eviscerated him?
Those are actually from Deinonychus.
Well, Deinonychus does mean “Terrible Claw”, which is a GREAT name, and they’re the BEST, but I just checked a page that says that impressive hind claws are a feature of raptors, in general:
“raptors can be broadly described as small- to medium-sized, bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs equipped with grasping, three-fingered hands, relatively big brains, and (most distinctively) huge, solitary claws on each of their hind feet, which they probably used to slash and occasionally disembowel their prey.”
Raptors are fast. Ross skipped leg day.
Running seems prudent if Becky can keep up.
Actually, raptors focused on power rather than speed.
Round One. FIGHT!
(One ‘philosophical discussion’ later…)
Reptile Wins!
Flawless Victory!
Fatality!
I mean, she’s 18 right? What can he do? Will amazigirl show up? Will joyce save the day? But if joyce saves the dya, what reprecussions will she have with her family? As much as the crew thinks they are 100% independant, they still have their families to answer to if they pay for their education. uuuugghhh
Beat her up and kidnap her.
I mean, it will be illegal as fuck, but he doesn’t care. He thinks he’s saving her soul from a great and powerful evil and that this is a personal test of his conviction and dedication to his deity.
Remember he belongs to a religious group that believes that “man’s laws” can be neatly discarded when it comes to matters of faith and he has absolute faith that a firm disciplinary hand is needed to “fix” his daughter.
I think the scariest part is how easy understanding that mindset is.
I honestly wish I had less personal experience with this personality type. Cause they’re legitimately scary.
Eh, people keep saying there’s nothing he can do, but that’s entirely backwards. There’s plenty he can do, most of it double-plus ungood; it just means there will be legal consequences – if, and only if, he’s (a) reported, (b) arrested, (c) charged, (d) tried and (e) convicted.
Actually, the legal repercussions begin at “arrested”. Granted they’re very small, and probably won’t mean anything anywhere Ross Babies MacIntyre is active, but hey, thank god for small favors.
Noooooooooooooooooo…
I don’t like Toe Dad. I’m going to take a stand and say he’s bad.
Toe Dad, Ohnoe Dad, Foe Dad, Towed dad, any other good names for this guy?
I-just-wanted-to-hang-out-with-my-Beau, Dad
I-will-never-let-it-go Dad?
Why-won’t-you-just-go Dad?
Oh, ToeDad
Head-fulla-snow-Dad
Gonna-lay-you-low-Dad
Then-you’ll-eat-crow-Dad
I recall Willis using one a while back, and it caught on for a few days. I’ve forgotten what it was, though.
Personally, I’m vying for Ross Babies MacIntyre. I just think it’s rather poetic that one of Willis’s personal euphemisms fits so well here.
DAMN IT, WILLIS!!
Rebecca McIntyre, Ive been doing a lot of thinking and I have decided I am okay with you begin gay. From know on you will be getting your education in a school that is actually accredited. Also here is you social security number.
What? A man can dream.
Guys like that who come to their senses are few,maybe even extinct.
Your grav is screaming out you for writing this I see.
I guess Becky doesn’t have a middle name, he surely would’ve used it.
Side note: for some reason I thought Toe-dad was short and stocky til I saw him coming out of that car. This guy is a gorilla.
Oh, huh, he’s got his car.
Oh spit. Darn you Willis.
Toedad you, Willis!
Nooooo damn you Willis ;_; Then again, I knew this was coming. But still. Damnit. ;_;
Know you see this is why you don’t brag about how good your life is, especially in a David Willis Comic.
It could have been worse, in any other willis comic that would have been a death sentence.
What is this, Greek tragedy/myth?
We’ll…there is a statue of venus
You mean the naked chicken in the clamp gettin spit on by fish? Is that what that is? Huh.
Chicken? Really, spellcorrect? I did write bongo…
Did not. Giving up here….
Come on. Keep trying. You’ll get it right eventually.
Its not nice to tease the keyboard-challenged.
For the record, the “bongo” thing wasn’t the spell check.
Pretty sure the subtext should be “ohtoe dad”
Quick Becky, turn 18 so you can press charges for harassment and kidnapping.
Wait so she’s not? Well this makes this harder.
She is…wait idea….what if she just denied knowing him.
Toe dad: Rebecca!
Becky: Who is this guy?
Toe dad: You know who I am
Becky: Ive never seen you before in my life!
Toe dad: Your coming with me.
Becky: Im calling campus security
Think that would work if campus security was already there.
Don’t most colleges have a post with a button you can push that calls them automatically
Ummmm, mine does but it’s a small Jr.college
Never heard of such things, and not everyone’s paranoid enough to program the number into their ICE list… Poor fools.
Many do have them. My last school had a program where you can call for an officer to escort you to or from your vehicle. Which does no good if something happens unexpectedly.
Another school I went to had them, but, due to construction(large schools almost always have some sort of construction or renovation), only about half of them worked. And even then, an officer would have to be pretty close by to respond quickly because campus was massive.
It’s just as much of a crapshoot as calling the regular police in a large city, really.
Campus police — minutes away when you need them *RIGHT NOW*!
Becky is 18.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/respond/
Then that makes it pretty damn illegal for him to do pretty much anything to Becky she doesn’t want.
In her words, “He can go screw.”
I predict:
Toe Dad forces Becky into his car and drives off, but not after Dina get’s a few raptor bites in.
Sal sees all of this and gives chase.
Assuming they’re close to the fountain, Joyce sees all of this too and runs to find Amazi-Girl.
Amazi-Girl is duly notified and tracks down the car.
AG finds Sal about to engage with Toe Dad but is able to set aside her old grudge (and may vocally say as much) for the sake of rescuing the innocent. They team up and take down Ross.
AG thanks Sal for all her help, but Sal shrugs it off and reminds her she’s still pissed about her attacking her friends at Walmart. AG is a bit shaken at the implication she attacked them for no reason.
They get Becky the hell out of there and AG leaves an anonymous phone call with the (campus?) police about an attempted kidnapping and where to pick up the would-be kidnapper.
Everyone goes home happy and Becky doesn’t join Joyce in the Break The Cutie trope?
That is actually a plausible guess on how this could go.
I do hope it comes down to Joyce vs Ross
This can be arranged.
http://imgur.com/Rex3Doy
Along the line is a scene of Joyce riding shotgun with Sal with a TERRIFYING expression of rage and determination.
YES
Sal tilts the motorcycle forward and Joyce leaps at Ross with her fist outstretched
Joyce: Rooooossssss!!
I don’t think Becky’s getting out of this without at least a little more trauma, even in a best-case scenario where Ross doesn’t manage to force her into the car or get anywhere near her. Dude’s scary.
But I don’t think he’s getting her in the car, either. That would make this take a LONG time to resolve even at 7 strips a week – aside from that, it seems you beat me to the prediction.
Hush, I’m blissfully drowning in denial right now.
*but not /before/ Dina get raptor bites in.
My prediction… is that the whole things turns into a cluster-flip and several people will get hurt.
Ross demonstrates anger issues (borderline homicidal) when someone says ‘no’ to him. He turns out to be his own worst enemy when in confrontation with the authorities.
Joyce will have to choose her side. She makes a choice and she’ll never look back. Nor will her relationship with her family ever be the same again.
I’m actually kinda scared that this confrontation will result in Dina or Becky actually getting physical scars or a messed up limb.
This. He probably will do something like BenRG says to fuck himself with the authorities, but that could still have nasty violent consequences for someone especially with that hospital panel coming up.
Legally so long as Becky is eighteen there isn’t a monkey flipping thing her dad can force her to do without it being a crime. But considering he literally has a block head I think he’d be willing to try anyways.
I think the main issue is him causing a scene and getting Becky kicked out of Joyce’s dorm, since she isn’t technically supposed to live there
Yeah, he is quite clear that he owns his daughter. I’d be quite surprised if he didn’t think that the ‘law of God’ trumps the laws of men.
Well his flagrant disregard of traffic laws should be a pretty good indicator.
I’m hoping that a car slams into the back of Toedad’s car which causes him to get run over by his own car.
That would be a beautiful anticlimax. I wonder how Becky would feel about it – he’s still her father, even if he’s really shitty at it.
He lost the right to be called a father long ago.
I don’t want to make assumptions based on his appearance… But based on his appearance I’m gonna assume he would not hesitate to physically force his daughter to get into the car, dragging, pushing, whatever it takes.
He wouldn’t necessarily have to lay a hand on her(not that I would put it past him). Becky has shown a remarkable level of strength and resilience, but it’s a lot harder to confront an angry parent who is right in front of you demanding your obedience. Especially when you’ve spent most of your life to this point acceding to that demand. Becky has high hopes for her future in this moment, but all of that is based largely on optimism. (If they could keep her presence a secret from her dad, if no one discovers she’s squatting in a dorm, if she can find a job to support herself, and so on) Her dad, in all his bigoted ragey, concern troll glory, is a reality she’s underprepared to face, I think
This is going to be pretty devastating for everyone, no matter the outcome.
That’s a good point, and could certainly apply to a lot, if not most, people, but I don’t really see Becky meekly getting into her dad’s car. Because she has this hope for a new life here, a future, being with Dina and maybe getting a job and being independent, I think she’s gonna put her foot down and stand up to him, say no, and that he will not take this away from her.
And then let’s not forget Dina’s here. I highly doubt she would let Becky obey her dad, instead she’s more likely to stand between Becky and Ross and tell him off.
And unfortunately I can’t see either of those scenarios unfolding without one of the girls getting slapped or worse.
He’s done it before:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/fix/
So yeah, that plus the fact that she wiggled out of his grasp and ran off the first time suggests that he intends to use much more force this time to get his property into its proper place. All the time psyching himself up about his struggle against the “demon”.
Legally, yes. However, Ross would tell you that he is serving a higher law than that of any human legislation. I could see him actually fighting cops to ‘save his daughter’.
REMINDER TO EVERYONE THAT PATREON SUBSCRIBERS GET TO SEE TOMORROW’S STRIP A DAY EARLY.
You may not want to see tomorrow’s strip.
Man fuck you now I desperately need to see it.
Join uuuuuuuus
Like, what? He drags Becks into his car? She runs into the street and gets hit? People have mentioned previews involving hospital…
It’s a preview for November 10, yeah.
More likely we cut to another story for a while.
And now for something completely different: Danny and Ethan goofing around!
Ha ha ha! Man. That would just be exceptionally cruel.
Just a heads up, but I don’t think patreon members are allowed to talk about the context of the next strip before it launches tomorrow.
Well, seeing as QF has been up since 12:10 am, I think Willis is allowing this one. Besides, they haven’t spoiled any thing, they just confirmed everyone’s suspicions.
Well, shows what I know.
I was reading this panel by panel and the last panel actually frightened me
This is why we can’t have nice things.
The diarrhea is about to collide with the turbine.
… Run????
How did they not hear him run onto the curb?
He was going really fast!
I mean, he was yelling while he was screeing onto the curb, it happened all at once. He is not sneaky.
He’s Ninja Bigot!
Maybe this is the third time he’s tried pulling up to them and screaming, but Beck and Dina were so engrossed in chatting about dinosaurs that they ignored him and kept walking.
Oh no. I was so happy and smiling along at cute girlfriends until the last panel and my heart dropped down to my stomach.
Oh so THAT’S how Willis is going to send the love train off the rails this time around.
Aaaaand, there’s the other shoe dropping.
That’s no Shoe, that;s a steel TOE Boot.
And it’s only getting ready to drop.
That’s pretty much the entire shoe store dropping.
Boink! There goes Toe-Pops!
No, this is where either Becky or Dina get spikey blonde hair, a golden aura, and PUNCH DICKBAG DAD INTO THE SUN!!!
I hope they… reach an understanding :[
One that doesn’t involve concentration/reeducation camps.
*cues the blues harmonica*
Alas, I can’t even reference what I want properly. There’s a Danny Elfman piece that was used in a chase scene in one of the Eight-Bit Theater Flash shorts…but I don’t know the real title of the piece.
Let us know if you find it.
Danny Elfman plus harmonica equals “I am interested.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S6WggEZeVE
HA! Got it!
Becky, Dina, run!
DAD IT, WILLIS!
Wait, no, I did that wrong.
GOD DAMN IT RUN!!!!!
Toedad is back. He’s a real heel. He’s trying to get a leg up on Becky. Hopefully she hasn’t stepped in it this time. Or it might be the final nail in her coffin.
http://imgur.com/gallery/sPwgpLj
lets hope he has a heel-face turn
If by that…you mean, he TURNS around and suddenly gets a HEEL to his FACE!
…Then I hope!!!
I’d rather he get hit by a truck and end up with his own heels in his face.
NnNoOoOoOoOoOo D:
The dread is strong with this one.
FFFffffff…
OK maybe if Sal came in on her motercycle and got her out of there then dropped her off Marcie maybe things can work out.
I can tell that the car at the back is some kind of Audi, given the shape of its tail lights, but I can’t identify Ross’s car. It doesn’t even have the company’s symbol at the front.
GOD…MY…OH!!!
GUYS, I CAN’T STRESS HOW GREAT AND TERRIBLE IT IS TO BE A PATREON MEMBER, PLEASE SIGN UP AND JOIN US, YOU KNOW IT’S WORTH IT. Sorry about the all caps, but IT’S WARRANTED.
Wait: great AND TERRIBLE?
No kidding, yesterday when people were all “Oh, this is starting to look grim I hope we get another strip of Dina and Becky soon to cheer us up” I was LAUGHING MANIACALLY.
I’m a patron and I purposely ignore the day-early strips. It’d just mean I skipped a day once and then still had to wait, and I wouldn’t get the fun of reacting in real time with the rest of the comments section…
(But yes, sign up anyway and $upport your favourite creators.)
Well, shit.
Augh. Time to avoid the comic for a few days so my anxiety doesn’t go through the roof.
Dang it.
Dont suppose Becky know how to go limp and froppy so toedad can’t grab her and force her into his car?
Wouldn’t that make it easier? There’d be no real resistance.
You’d think so, but floppy, dead weight is way more difficult, pound for pound. Now, if she can really get physical in counter action, maybe that would be more effective, but just trying to not be dragged, not so much.
He seems like a pretty big guy so dead weight probably wouldn’t hinder him much.
It makes her total dead weight and thus slows him down somewhat.
That’s a concern for if he catches her.
The further she runs from the car, the further he would have to deal with dead weight.
I am commenting for the first time in order to say that the last panel actually made every muscle in my body tense. I am genuinely terrified of what’s coming next.
Becky’s just like “Everythin’ lookin’ pretty up fer….Fuck Me!”
Dina: “Not at this time, we must avoid your father first!”
How does he even fit inside that car?
It’s like the Tardis…it’s bigger on the inside!
Ross is the worst timelord ever.
Let’s get one thing perfectly straight, Ross. You are NOT Becky’s parent any longer. To be a parent is not a God given privilege. It’s a JOB. One of THE MOST IMPORTANT jobs. A job you utterly SUCK at. A job that you, in case Becky hadn’t made that perfectly clear already, HAVE BEEN FIRED FROM.
A parent’s job is to support, to lift up, to guide, to encourage, to protect, to nurture. You are doing the complete opposite. You are not a parent any longer – you are EXACTLY THE SORT OF THING A PARENT IS PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM. You are a bully, an ogre, an enemy, a fucking toeshaped hurdle for Becky to overcome.
She has been away from you for less than a week. And she has friends, a partner, she’s looking for job, she’s getting interested in an education… she has A FUTURE lining up, a future she’s making HERSELF, WITH NO HELP FROM YOU – in SPITE of you – AND A FUTURE WHERE YOU HAVE NO PLACE, YOU COMPLETE FAILURE OF A HUMAN BEING.
And you know what, that is A GOOD THING, because you have nothing of any value whatsoever to offer her. Restrictions? Abuse? Isolation? Lies? Is THAT your idea of parenting? Is THAT what you think makes a good person? IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK YOUR DAUGHTER DESERVES, SHITHEAD???????? I’LL TELL YOU WHAT SHE DESERVES, SHE DESERVES TO GET AWAY FROM YOU, SHE DESERVES TO NEVER AGAIN IN HER LIFE HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR FUCKING SENSE OF PRIDE OR PATHETIC NEED FOR CONTROL OR WHATEVER OTHER REASON YOU MAY HAVE FOR TRYING TO RUIN YOUR DAUGHTER’S LIFE YOU FUCKING SHIT-STEAMING PIECE OF FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FUDGE YOU ROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And this is why I so badly wished we had an upvote function even though I know it breaks the sites formating.
+1
Upvote buttons are stupid bullshit!
You get comment sites like tumblr, were the actual comments drown in a sea of “likes this”.
NO UPVOTE BUTTON! NEVER COMPROMISE!
NOT EVEN IN THE FACE OF TOE-DAD!
Preach.
Amen.
(I am a dad, and wish to give this all the available upvotes / likes / reblogs etc.)(Also, *hugs* to Bagge.)
Thanks all, yeah, I’m a parent to and… wow, this storyline really hits a nerve.
*hugs Bagge*
Seconded. Hugs and bats for all!
Great, now you need to will yourself into the comic to repeat it. I wonder if the fourth wall can be broken from the outside.
Agreed. This is amazing.
But Baaaagggeeee! Don’t you know that toedad is only concerned about the daughter whose education he forcibly ended? I mean, it’s not his fault he doesn’t understand why ruining his daughter’s life for wanting to kiss ladies is wrong! That’s a really hard concept to grasp!
I want to frame this post and send it to all toedads everywhere.
I pray this ends with ross dying in a shootout with law enforcement preferably the FBI, as kidnapping a federal crime.
A shootout has a risk of harming said law enforcement, or worse, bystanders.
Besides which, Willis is on record as saying no one’s gonna die in DoA. Doesn’t mean he won’t be badly injured, though.
I don’t trust Willis.
I trust Willis compleatly. Hence the growing sense of dread.
Becky! Why?! You said the one thing GUARANTEED to get you caught! Nooooooooo…..
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NothingCanStopUsNow
When will they ever learn.
Oh, hi dad! I was just about to sit in on my girlfriend’s bio class. Wanna come too?
[Theory incoming. Possible spoilers if it’s not as crazy as I feel like it sounds?] Okay okay guys! Something just occurred to me! In yesterday’s comic there was a skateboarding guy by the fountain! Which is where Becky and Dina were headed, so they must be close right now! AND! The skateboarding guy was only by the fountain in the first panel so maybe he happened to leave in the direction Becky and Dina were about to come from! Why is that relevant?, you ask. I just remembered a while ago Willis asked our opinions on tumblr for names for a new character who had a skateboard! Maybe he swoops in and saves the day somehow? I have a vague feeling the thing with that skateboarder appeared on tumblr before the preview panel involving the ambulances.
Am I on to something or am I just desperately trying to find ways to convince myself that neither Dina nor Becky will end up in the hospital? I have no idea.
And then he saw her FACE
of a non-believer!
FUUUUUUUUUCK YOU ROOOOOO….
OK… I’m good, I’m good. Let’s talk about the rest of the strip.
I would love for Becky to take introductionary biology. Sure, there would be some steep re-learning but there is an entire world opening up right there. And in those intro classes you get the entire shebang. Becky would do great, and I really think she would like it a lot. Corn and dinosaurs are just the beginning… Dina would LOVE to tutor her, in fact, she’s doing that already.
AWWWWWWWWW, the third panel. Possibly the cutest Becky/Dina moment yet (and that is in TOUGH competition). Look at Dina’s expression, she really, really wants Becky to stay close to her. And look at Becky, she really wants to come with Dina too, but she also sees and acknowledges and shares Joyce’s need for her. It’s OK, there is enough Becky for everyone.
And they are just so HAPPY, and everything is working out and… and… FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDGE YOU ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, that parts a really important and key moment. It’s a nice contrast with the toedip into a little codependent behavior and the way Dina seems to feel a lot better shows that they are really dealing with potential speed bumps in their relationship in a positive and healthy way. And yeah, it’s totally setting up a potential future between them as a couple paleontologist team.
Cutting out that last panel, it’s a really sweet moment between them.
Dina Saruyama and Becky MacIntyre. One is a caring but introverted obsessive with people issues, the other is a fun-loving extrovert fleeing a repressive past.
Together, they FIND DINOSAURS.
I’d watch it.
These are the moments where I remember why I chose this gravatar. It is the same glare I wish upon my impending sense of dread and its damned ability to always be right.
Oh, fuck. How close are they to the fountain? Will Joyce be able to see/hear this? SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THINGS ABOUT IU’S CAMPUS FIGURE THIS OUT.
I don’t know anything about IU’s campus, BUT someone dug up this preview panel yesterday http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/124539780842/october-11 . Judging by Joyce’s face, it’s probably a fair bet to assume either Dina or Becky (or someone else they know who happens to witness the scene) is gonna text Joyce to tell her about what’s happening.
Dunno, Joyce had her phone out yesterday and was about to text Dotty, and the strip’s been dropping enough hints that something’s up there too.
… oohhhhh, now I’ve finally tracked down the ambulance preview. (Silly me, searchign on Willis’ tumblr instead of DOA one.) That looks like it belongs to the Ruth storyline, no?
Just been doing a bit of maths on the dates. This chapter started on 31st Aug, so that would make Weds 11 Nov the 73rd strip in the chapter. Well within Willis’ recent average chapter length, but earlier ones were much shorter and Walking With Dina was only 52. So the ambulance could belong to either this chapter or the next, really.
The next chapter (That Perfect Girl […is gone??]) is the Ruth one, isn’t it? ‘Cos now I’m making connections to Dotty as the Perfect Girl, as noted here before and particularly with the cinnamon roll gag, and she was planning to move on, and I know the chapter titles can often apply to more than one person at once…
Willis said in his tumblr a couple of days ago that characters have just walked across Jordan Avenue at a point between Read Hall (the dorm) and the Simon Music Library. The Showalter Fountain, where Joyce is waiting, is a good quarter-mile away and there’s a couple of building in the way besides. Depending on where she parked it and where she is going, Sal (on her motorcycle) is going to be the best hope for one of the main characters to observe the coming confrontation and be in a position to intervene.
That location is in a future strip that runs in December. Right now, Dina and Becky are at the edge of Dunn Meadow, just having crossed over from 6th St.
The fact that I can sit in my chair in the UK and use an online map to see exactly where Dina & Becky are, and their current distance from Joyce, is kinda crazy.
The fact that you can sit in the UK taking part in a discussion of a cartoon set at an an American university with people from many places in physical-space isn’t far behind.
I don’t think they can see eachother… my only hope is that Joyce has Dina’s number and that she tries to call them :/
This is the point where you pull out your dinaphone and call the police to report a massive screaming man who just ran onto the sidewalk and is making threatening gestures.
She also has to give them a description:,,Shaped like a toe,has a porndtache.”
Cop on phone:,,….From what depths of the underworld did this thing spawn from?”
“Whichever level the Westboro guys come and go from”
Haha!
Cheese it!
New plan, run like hell and get away from him.
I didn’t think I would say it, but this is the right time to pull an Amber. Get away from him, involve bystanders, get out of the scene (and if a pissed off RA hands him his femurs, so much better)
That plan might backfire, if one of the people involved starts to wonder where Becky is staying. Especially if they get an RA (who isn’t Ruthless) involved.
Is it coincidence that I typed out “Ruth” and my phone suggested “Ruthless?”
That’s what I said!
Ah well, we were warned, but…..never say, ‘my life is going great”. Ever.
Damn you Willis!
Run you two. NOW. Toedad is built like a damn tank, how fast can he be?
Tanks are actually scary fast…
And their drivers shoot pretty much anything that’s in front of them.
Er… To my (very limited) knowledge, the driver of a tank drives it and other crew handle the shooting, especially with modern tank designs that eschew hull-mounted machine guns in favor of stronger front armor and let sponsons or coaxial guns on the turret pick up the slack with more versatile firing arcs.
Yes, most tanks have a separate loader and gunner in addition to the driver and possibly a commander. I saw it in an anime.
And now I want Dina, Becky, Joyce, and Sal as a tankery team.
Well the M1 has a jet engine so…
Luckily, Ross seems like the type of person who always skipped leg day and cardio day.
Willis knows enough tropes to know his “Baiting Murphy” lines!
Guess who’s back!!!
…I’m going to hell aren’t I?
Y’know, the more I look at Ross the more it occurs to me that Blaine might actually lose his position as THE WORST FATHER EVER (yes it deserves to be capitalized) in the Dumbingverse
Well…
On the one hand, Blaine’s abusiveness comes from a desire to control everyone and let those dependent to him be always aware of who’s top dog and what he’s owed.
Meanwhile, WHAT WE’VE SEEN of Ross SO FAR is that he’s abusively controlling out of a misplaced concern for his daughter’s eternal soul.
Like, there’s a difference between being awful because you’ve been taught that’s how to keep your charges on the path to Heaven, and being awful because that’s how you prove you’re superior.
(This is also why I’m convinced, until Willis shows more of them, that Linda Walkerton is a worse mother than Carol Brown.)
Of course, Ross still has some strips before the end of the chapter to overtake Blaine. Can religious zeal triumph over mere vileness?
Very true. I suppose it will hinge on what exactly Ross is willing to do to bring Becky back into the fold. If he resorts to violence it will certainly be a big step towards catching up to Blaine. We will just have to wait, I guess.
Intent might determine whether you are more redeemable as a person, but I don’t think it matters so much for whether you are worse at being a father or mother.
That is a very good point.
This.
When you’re experiencing it, it really doesn’t feel much different if you’re receiving the abuse or the bullshit because of misguided belief in the value of being “firm”, religious faith, supposed love, or a fully cognizant desire to control.
The abuse is still the abuse. The excuses just make it easier for the perpetrator to rationalize it. And they always rationalize it.
I know I’ve had a miserable day when this strip still manages to be the highlight of it.
So damn true.
People talk about abuse as if it only happens for its own sake. That toedad is only a speech away from realizing the errors of his way and that his religious justifications are enough for their to be some kind of redemption. It’s so, amazingly wrong.
No.
No.
If you’re a horrible enough person to think that anyone with rules as stupid as Ross believes his god enforces is worth listening to, I think you trump someone with severe enough self-worth issues to inflict them on others.
Linda seems to genuinely be motivated by a desire to see her son succeed as much as he ‘should’. As long as we’re using this shit to give parents a tiny scrap of leeway and all, it’s not like She doesn’t have SOMETHING, like Carol.
I figured QF was talking about the way Linda treats Sal. Don’t know if I’m right though!
I can’t believe Willis did this to me on my birthday! Damn you Willis!
Happy birthday! Your gift is angst and horror.
(In seriousness, happy birthday. One more orbit of the Sun complete.)
“Do you like the cute little relationship unfolding, do you? How about a TOESHAPED PIECE OF SHIT for your birthday?”
With Christian fundamentalism on top of it.
Welp, we’re boned.
ＳＴＵＢ ＴＨＥ ＴＯＥ
I have a chemistry quiz tomorrow, I do not need this on my mind.
Oh dear…
Oh my god. He’s such a huge asshole, he specifically parked on top of a squirrel
Cannot unsee.
Since everyone is too concerned about the growing dread to mention it, I will have to: the way Willis uses small caps for shouting “MacIntyre” is kind of neat.
Dun dun DUN.
All this time I have not voted in the latest poll, as my life is relatively free of dread. From time to time I’ve considered going ahead and doing it anyway just to see how the votes fell out, but never did.
Now I know that all along I was just waiting for this day.
Oh no, I knew it was coming and I fell for it. I still fell into the false sense of security oh NO
Well, shit. Not unexpected, but not something I was looking forward to. This has to be settled, otherwise he’ll hound Becky for the rest of her life.
Also, what is it about DoA characters and shitty parents? Becky’s dad, Joyce’s parents, Amber’s dad…
Sometimes parents are buttholes. Sadly, parents are buttholes more frequently than most people want to admit.
Console yourself with thoughts of Dorothy’s accepting, nurturing and just all-around awesome parents? Mike’s parents seemed nice too.
Also dina’s
If I recall correctly, Sierra’s parents were also very nice
“They fuck you up, your mom and dad …”
Poop, meat fan blades.
*meet*
*mate*
Bastard.
Well, that settles it. If anyone was on the fence about Toedad being a being of pure evil, just look at where he’s “parked”.
On a second look, I’m actually not sure what exactly that is – I’d expect grass, but the color is more like dirt, and it seems to be divided into panels matching the sidewalk, but it definitely looks like something that should not have a car wheel on it.
Poor squirrel.
Is he, is he parking on the bicycle lane?
Oh noe, that inhuman monster!
Now I have to stop reading for a week or so so I don’t have to read this day by day.
Amazi-girl beat up the last asshole dad, I nominate Sal to take care of this one
Toe dread
This should be interesting. Will Ross be willing to take ‘no’ for an answer? Will he be able to get away with anything on the middle of a city street (especially after breaking several traffic laws)? More importantly, just how many of the regular cast are in this general area and about to see and/or participate in what follows?
NOTE FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE POND: Our cars are arranged differently; it took me a moment realise that Ross wasn’t in the front passenger seat.
he was REALLY MAD when he got in the car
Drama tag has been pulled!
Sorta makes that “next to” comment look like small potatoes.
…Pota-toes.
Ah, good, character conflict time!
Even better Joyce is waiting for them but for some reason I kind of doubt they’ll show up.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.
K.
You forgot the “C”
Huh. It’s odd that there’s no sound effect for the car jumping the curb.
Uh-oh. Butthole dad. Dina, use your roar attack!
nnnnnnnnnnnOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
also it was impossible for me to not see the last panel first, which is a real tragedy
https://youtu.be/6cvWSmeIRlk
….. Aannnnd the fertilizer has officially hit the fan.
Where’s a weed whacker when u need one?
Well, shit. I think the words “fuck”, “me”, and “sideways” cover this situation nicely.
I think that we now know why Willis has drawn the local hospital’s ER. The only question is who is in there as a patient?
Meta-logic compels me to assume it’s Ross, if only because having either Dina or Becky get seriously injured would take them out of the strip for real-world months. Maybe he gets hit by a car?
Or it could be a minor injury, needing an ER visit but no stay, in which case all bets are off. Dammit Willis, let me have my dreams.
My guess at the moment is that he gets a few licks in, probably on Becky and Dina, before he’s dog-piled by Joyce, Sal and a couple of Campus Cops. There’s no particular reason why a visit to an ER necessitates being written out for a while. It’s possible that Becky may be sporting a black eye for a while or Dina may need to wear a cast or something. FWIW, it’s possible that the Ruth-focus chapter may be about how she tries to retake charge of her floor after a dressing-down by the Dean for letting a situation like this develop without knowing anything about it.
What happens next with respect to Ross is up in the air. I’m guessing that Joyce’s folks will bail him out of the lock-up and he’ll just vanish for a while to plot his revenge (yes, I’m thinking he’ll jump bail). I’m also thinking that the spoiled future visit by Joyce’s too-nice dad will probably be an attempt on his part to get the lost bail money back and also talk Joyce into persuading Becky to ‘return to the fold’.
Combined with the impending explosion over Jocelyn’s trans status, I suspect that an estrangement is brewing between Joyce and most of her biological family.
Another potential meaning for the Perfect Girl reference, too.
Well, it could always be a cutaway to seeing how Blaine’s recovery from that beatdown a while back is going.
Because multiple cliffhangers is something I’ve learned to expect.
Spoke too soon!
Here’s hoping that picture of an ambulance is due to Dina kicking his throat out. UNLEASH THE RAPTOR!
OH. SHIBBLY WIBBITS.
This is getting real good real fast
I’m having flashbacks. Toe Dad and Prime are basically the same person…
AAAAAaaaaaannnnnd here comes reality, rearing its big-ass, ugly, toe-shaped head.
Aww man… I came here to distract myself from my sense of dread and now it’s only made worse.
Damn you, Willis.
DIDN”T YOU READ THE POLL?!?!?!
Wow okay Toe dad just came out of fuckin nowhere.
actually he prolly came straight from the impound yard
I predict Amazigirl and Sal team ups
*DRAMATIC THUNDERCLAP*
And just like that, the shit has hit the fan yet again.
In hitting the fan, it got real!
The worst time for s**t to get real, is just before it hits the fan. Imaginary s**t hitting fans doesn’t make quite the same mess.
CHEESE IT!
Oh hey, it’s that guy.
Fuck that guy.
(I’m just really really glad that Friday cliffhangers aren’t a thing any more.)
RUN, BECKY! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, RUN!
I don’t know what everyone is so upset about. This needs to get faced at some point and I think it will work out for the best for Becky if she faces down her bigoted father. She’s a grown woman and I look forward to seeing her overcome this.
Have you SEEN Becky’s dad? And his build?! Of course Becky would have had to face her parents some day, but her dad is clearly extremely mad right now and I don’t think anyone would put it past him to inflict physical harm unto his daughter or anyone standing between him shoving her into his car.
I would feel much more comfortable with this situation if there was a cop or a campus authority figure around.
That’s true, but if he hurts her or takes her by force, she will have the legal grounds to remove him from her life. I prefer to look at the positive that will come out of this than the negative. Also, Amazi-Girl will fuck his steez if he hurts her.
That’s assuming that she can escape from the “asylum” where she’s “committed” by only semi-legal means until she’s “cured”. It happens.
At least there will be a witness to whatever he does. And if he harms Dina, the law will hopefully be to busy fighting those charges to be able to commit Becky.
“The law” doesn’t have anything to do with the kind of “committing” under discussion…
I dunno, we’ve already had one horrible parent that’s willing to resort to violence (Blaine), I feel like for the sake of storytelling Ross might be slightly different. He might try to pull her back into the car, but I don’t think he’d punch her.
Dial 555-AMAZIGIRL
Taking care of asshole dads and Whiteboard-Ding-Dong-Bandits
Her number would be 269-4475 (AMZ-IGRL). Hehe.
@CallAmz_Grl on Twitter.
but what can he honestly do to stop her shes 18 he cant do jack shit
Break her legs?
Hey, you asked.
I knew horribleness was coming. Knew it knew it knew it! And there it is. The Human Toe has returned.
(Falls on knees, looks up, and raises fists into the air) DAMN YOU WIIIIIIIIIILLIIIIISSSSSS!!!!
*puts on Vader helmet*
NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
FUCK!
This is probably me and it is extremely unlikely but I’d love it if Becky managed a completely nonchalant and/or snarky one liner in the next strip – something like: “Oh, hey Dad! See you’re still workin’ on that drivin’ ban!”
“Like my new haircut? Isn’t it rad?”
Wouldn’t you say my lesbian collection’s complete?
Wouldn’t you think I’m a girl, a girl who has, all the poon?
What’s the christian stance on fate? ‘Cause Anderson obviously never had a class about tempting it.
The fundamentalist stance on fate is, as with most things fundamentalist, selfcontradictory.
“SHOW ME YOUR KUNG FU!”
DAMN YOU WILLIS
If she’s at least 18, there’s nothing he can do… if she’s 17…. wellllll….
Legally, there is nothing he can do.
Does Ross look like legality means a damn thing to him?
BOSS FIGHT
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I summon wild toe-dad!
Your move girls!
WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?
*more uncontrollable screaming*
Who pulled the drama tag?
I think it was the guy who tried to date-rape Joyce
The dumbiverse comes with the drama-tag pre-pulled!
Eve : /
Huh, guess Becky doesn’t have a middle name? Cause this right here is a middle name situation, no doubt about it.
For Toedad, women don’t need middle names, because after they get married, they use the maiden name as a middle name. So Becky has an empty space waiting for her inevitable marriage. He just doesn’t know it might be to Dina.
ASSAULT. ARREST HIM FOR ASSAULT. Come on, I can see it, he’s gonna get physical with one of them and BAM self-defense and a 911 call later and that motherfucker is OUT OF HERE.
Alternate possibility – Anticlimactic but not unrealistic:
We cut away for a few strips so we can follow Joyce’s traumatic reconciliation (in her mind) with Dorothy. It will be cute and bitter-sweet. Cute because Dorothy doesn’t know that there is anything wrong and bitter-sweet because it will demonstrate just how deeply Joyce’s friendship for her runs and how heartbroken she was at the thought of there being enmity between them.
After that, we cut back to Becky and her dad sitting on a bench. He’s trying to persuade her to try the ‘intensive cure’ class he’s found (“Look! They even have colour brochures!”). She keeps on refusing. He gets angry but also sad. He tells her that, if she refuses, then she’s an orphan and he’s childless. She agrees to those terms. There is a long, dead pause (one silent panel before)…
“Well, goodbye, stranger. I doubt we’ll meet again.”
“Bye.” A beat then. “I’ll need my Social Security number.”
“I’ll post the stuff to Joyce Brown. I have no doubt she’ll know where to find you.” Then Ross gets in his car and drives off as Becky breaks down on Dina’s shoulder.
Not anti-climactic at all, that’s a wonderfully dramatic outcome.
Mister Willis,i just saw the tweet about the guy supporting Ross.Hope you don’t mind if i ask,but what do you think of people like him?
The tumblr has a low key reaction to Jim…
I think Becky’s dad is trying to be a good parent in the way he knows how. A good parent WOULD do their best to find their 18-year-old child who’s run away from home with only the clothes on her back, no job, and no car. He’s not willing to abandon her, even after what he considers to be her horrible misbehavior and/or betrayals. I believe he’s trying to be a good parent in the way that he knows how.
But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say. Good intentions alone do not a good parent make.
Becky’s dad has some very deeply ingrained and damaging beliefs, and I don’t think he’ll change. I actually feel pretty bad for Ross because I don’t think he’s a bad person, I think he’s someone trying to be good who was taught damaging beliefs by his own parents/church community as a kid, and now the cycle has continued. It may not look it, but I’m sure he’s going through his own problems and conflicts over his daughter– her being gay, her running away, etc.
That being said, I obviously hope Becky doesn’t go with him, and finds a way to get on her own feet with a job, apartment, etc. and figure out where she fits in the world. That’s ultimately the best thing she can do for herself. Fortunately, she has supportive friends, and I think that will go a long way to helping her.
Well sh*t!
They’re in the middle of a crowded campus in broad daylight, nothing can possibly go wrong. They’re in the middle of a crowded campus in broad daylight, nothing can possibly go wrong. They’re in the middle of a crowded campus…
Does the name “Kittty Genovese” mean anything to you?
Oh no!!!
About time, toedad needs to be put in his place with regards to his college age daughter and Dina needs to go prehistoric in his ass, preferably teaming up with Amazigirl, Sal, Ethan, Jacob and Ruth.
most of which are busy at school right now.
last I saw, morning classes had let out and everyone had dispersed.
DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!!!!
Up next: Toedad gets kicked in the dick
I can’t believe they all kicked you in the dick…
Oh, No! I see a need for Amaza-Girl in the next 15 seconds . . .
FUCK.
WELL THIS EXPLAINS THAT GROWING SENSE OF DREAD
A few things that may become important: Becky currently has Dina’s phone. Becky presumably knows Joyce’s number. There is a preview panel from an upcoming strip (pre-ER) that shows Joyce staring at her phone with a very worried look.
Oooo, a brutal twist! Still it does make sense that Toe-Dad would not give up and it is a small campus.
Well played ser.
Bless you Willis
It occurs to me that Becky and Dina won’t be meeting Joyce for a while. It also occurs to me that that could result in even more badthings given Joyce’s current inability to be in public alone.
Because, yknow, this strip wasn’t bad enough, I had to go imagine future bad possibilities arising from it.
Queue Duel of the Fates,
Dinogirl vs ToeDad,
Round one, Fight!
Then Car bonus stage!!!!
I hope there’s a way this can end civilly, I mean she’s 18 so legally he can’t do anything, and if he wants to stay in her life somehow then he really should…
Basically the ratio between jerk parents and nice parents in this comic world is way too slanted the wrong way, if you ask me. =P
Jerk parents: Browns, Blaine, Walkertons, Ross, Billingsworthians, Siegals
Nice parents: Keeners, Warners, Saruyamas, Sierra’s, Amber’s mom, probably Joe’s dad (in that he’s fairly inoffensive in the big picture).
Seems about right.
Yeah, the ratio of nice vs. jerks should be, ideally, like 1/0, so anything closest to that is best. =P
I mean, Joyce herself learned how to change, it’d be nice to see someone else too.
The Warners are just jerks by acting too nice. No respect for boundries or personal space.
That’s actually a solid description of them, isn’t it? They’re the Anti-Mike. Mike’s mom doesn’t just bake you delicious cookies; she sneaks them into your bags without your notice. Mike’s dad doesn’t just give dating advice; he gets disturbingly lurid about it. They’re as overwhelmingly nice as Mike is an overwhelming asshole.
Quick get the angriest mob we can muster and attack the toe! He’s just a giant living fungal infection from where you’ve fucked up clipping the nail!
I despise parents like him. He’s the reason why kids commit suicide.
I opened today’s comic, immediately saw the last panel, and screamed out loud.
I kinda hope that Amazi-Girl shows up to help ’em…
In other scary news, I saw someone who looked exactly like toedad today. I feel sorry for him. No one (except toedad and simular such horrors) should have to look like that.
How long did she honestly think she’d be able to randomly hide right next to her best friend? This was always an awful plan.
And Dina’s smarter than that, how long did she think her trick was realistically going to work for? It was only gonna take him a matter of a few hours to realize she’d lied and then beeline straight back to her.
I guess they had to try something.
All they needed was to hide from him long enough for her to get her own place, then he can’t do shit to her. She needed to stay near Joyce because Joyce is literally her only source of food, clothing and shelter. They can easily call the cops on her dad but the problem was she was staying in the dorms illegally, so if they drew attention to that she’d get kicked out and end up homeless.
*screams in terror*
Don’t panic yet. He’s failed to get her in the car before.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/respond/
DUN! DUN! DUNNN!!!
Everything is awesome! Oh wait, it’s not LEGO… Damn you Willis!
Wait. Did he just drive the front tire into wet concrete? Or is that just mud or dirt?
And the current score is 14 “Damn you Willis” in 516 comments.
No … Wait. Damn you Willis! = 15
Make that 16.
And the Willis strikes again.
HORY SHET!
THIS IS BABIES MACINTYRE
where amaz-girl when you need her , run for the hill Rebeca
and also DAMN YOU WILLIS
People are so busy freaking out they don’t realise this is awesome. This encounter was inevitable, it happening now just means we won’t have to spend months and years worrying about it. Becky will be fine for the same reason nobody will die, the alternatives would cause at the least Joyce to be depressed, grieving and angry for basically the rest of the comic’s existence.
My money’s on the dad acknowledging Fundie’s school’s will be a better environment for her, when he sees that her new friends accept her without discrimination, albeit he wont approve of the lezbo thing (or the butch haircut).
Makes sense ditching that catholic school while it’s still only 5 weeks into the semester, even if Ross’ initial idea of reform might’ve been more homeschooling.
…at least Joyce won’t have to convincingly lie to Ross about Becky not being around.
How old is Becky? Can’t she legally tell her dad to suck it? I mean if it goes the way I hope it goes, she’ll go to a cop or a guard, tell them that she’s getting chased by a toe with a shotgun and that’s immediate grounds for a restraining order, no?
She’s 18, it’s been covered a bunch but I’m too lazy to look up where
Legally, he can go suck a dick, but realistically there are parents with children who are THIRTY YEARS OLD and they still want to control everything they do
I could have read the strip in proper order. I could’ve had a few more moments of happiness. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw a grayish vehicle standing at an angle in the last panel, and I thought: “Wait, is that a tank? Is it supposed to be a reference to the guy who stood in front of the tanks on Tiananmen Square? Aw, I have to know, right now! I’ll just take a peek, probably won’t be enough context to spoil the punchline or anythHOLY FUCK DIE DIE DIE IN A FIRE hssssssssssssssssssssss”
And here we are.
Oh, boy. Never, EVER say things are looking up. Things *were* looking up, and now everything’s crashing down.
Becky is within her father’s reach. Dina is clearly in view, and now Toedad knows that she deliberately misled him. We don’t know exactly how he’ll respond, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume it won’t be friendly.
Meanwhile, Becky and Dina definitely aren’t making it to the fountain to meet Joyce. Joyce is outside alone, and we’re a couple of comics from this. http://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/124578089296/itswalky-october-11
Also, we know that someone’s ending up in the hospital before the end of this in-comic day. I knew this story-line would be a dark one, and now, our steep plummet downhill truly begins! Our growing sense of dread is very much justified.
you can look up when you’re knocked flat on your back
…
=C
This will end in punching.
I hope the next panel is ross being hit by a bus.
truck*
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! YOU WHERE THE CHOSEN ONES!!!
Saw this coming the minute Dina and Becky were out together.
My when I first saw them walking to class with Joyce (2015-09-07-fall) my reaction was: Walking on a public street in daylight? This is the worst way to hide from ToeDad! Why would they do that? Now we know.
The fact that Dina is here and holding Becky’s hand makes her the EVIL LESBIAN CONVERTING ACCOMPLICE.
$%&*@# Willis. D A M N Y O U .
Quick! Someone flash the Amazi-girl signal! Oh crap, it doesn’t exist yet?! Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu….
Hey you! You can’t park there!
Someone call a toe-truck!
Aw shit son.
Everytime a good thing happends, a worst come slap you in the face.
MAYBE A COP SAW HIM SWERVE OFF THE ROAD AND CRASH INTO THE SIDEWALK AND HE’LL GET ARRESTED
Damn you Willis!
The Day of the Toe
Ohhhh nooooo. DX
Oh shit (checks dinas hat) phew she is a predator today he is not coming out of this okay.
There are people this crazy, seriously. I knew a guy with parents this nuts when I was in college- he was a legally emancipated minor because of it…
Willis has officially become Joss Whedon. Happy characters not allowed for more than 10 minutes at a time. Walky is going to end up with a Reaver spear through his chest any second now.
This explains that odd poll.
DAMN YOU WILLIS
DAMN YOU WILLIS!