Discussion (266) ¬
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 1d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 10d
The New York Times @nytimes.com ⋅ 5d
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 3d
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At last, Malaya’s bongoiness finds a useful outlet.
…I feel like I should’ve seen that censoring coming somehow
Hindsight’s a bongo, isn’t it?
Sudden thought: wouldn’t it be interesting if the actual word bongo was replaced with something else so we know whether people are self-censoring or not?
Maybe he could replace percussion instrument with percussion instrument.
But then how do you know if they’re self-censoring, or self-censoring their self-censor?
Wait. Have people not been typing bongo on purpose all this time?
Well, people have been typing bongo on purpose too. Some have even been censoring their bongoes//
A word that rhymes with “witch” and can also mean “female canine” is autocensored/corrected to bongo. =D
I read that as “boingoness” —which is an awesome way to beat the censor
…”Get a new MasterCard at Bongovia National Bank”…
(In the interest of Full Disclosure: the main pieces of pop music running through my mind these days have been Mick Jagger’s “Hard Woman”, Streisand and Summer’s “Enough Is Enough”, and The Monkees’ “Auntie Grizelda”. But these are NOT on the hacked Muzak tonight, as a service to YOU.)
bongo bongo bongo I don’t wanna see the citch no more?
Wow I always thought people were doing that themselves. Doesn’t seem like any other curse words get censored
nope, just the one!
There’s a history there. People were using a particular word to describe Roz, I believe when she had a go at Joyce. DW didn’t particularly like that (I feel like some of the comments were rather unpleasant), so he introduced a filter for that word. And now it’s just sort of part of the culture of the comment section.
So we are making yogurt now?
To quote MPFC: Silly Bunt. =P
There are or were a few others. Mostly not actual curse words, just things that got annoyingly overused.
I think “For me it was Tuesday” is still censored.
Sadly, “SJW” isn’t, cause I liked that one.
Apparently not.
What was the censor for SJW?
“glistening phallus”, IIRC.
Is “For me it was Tuesday” the censored version? Or has it, too, been de-censitized?
Yay for bongoerity
once again we see that evil can be battled only by some other evil
I’m just going to assume everyone else in that class is also terrible so I don’t have to feel sorry for whoever’s stuck sitting near them.
Aw, don’t lump Malaya in with that! She’s got a (very) prickly exterior, but is still a decent person. Mary’s a hypocrite who’s convinced SHE’S the Best Possible Person Ever and only those who live up to HER standards are even remotely worth dealing with. Given that the only things that have changed from the Walkyverse are ages and aliens, there’s a little something from Mary’s high school years that I just can’t WAIT to come out here. If only to see her try to justify it.
Wait, how is Malaya a decent person? Carla is a decent person with a prickly exterior, Malaya shines a light in someones eyes and says they’re the jerk.
Put anyone next to Mary and they look decent.
She’s absolutely a jerk, but “being abrasive and unpleasant to interact with” still leaves Malaya MILES above Mary’s grab bag of aggressive, bigotry-fueled cruelty and willingness to push someone towards suicide.
Malaya isn’t nice, friendly, polite, gracious, or pleasant, but “basic decency” is something she has on Mary.
I feel like what “basic decency” means to us is something that could be heavily discussed. I mean, to me, being actively malicious to vulnerable people isn’t a “lack of basic decency”- it’s being an asshole. It’s basic decency- to me- to be polite because that helps ensure other people’s days are a little less shitty. It’s basic decency to NOT be actively antagonistic to people just because. That’s my concept of it- which Malaya fails.
But it sounds like the term means something different to you. Which, to be clear, I’m not criticising! That’s the nature of language- there’s a lot of nuance, and what we mean by the same words often doesn’t align perfectly.
You mean isn’t just a lack of basic decency, but also actively being an asshole. Basic decency is one of those phrases that does mean different things to different people. I think it means either getting a D or a C in the decent human behavior lab, and everyone has slightly different grading scales.
And yea Malaya may not be Mary levels of evil but do I think she sort of lacks basic decency as well.
I would generally think of that more as “politeness” than decency. And by basic decency, I mean something even more rudimentary.
Like, Malaya might be an asshole, but she’s not a monster or a bigot like Mary is. She’s just very unpleasant.
Very true. But that doesn’t make me not want to put them in a boxing ring and take bets on who will kick whose ass. hahaha
how indecent =(
…Malaya is convinced that no one actually likes or cares about anything, so she hates everyone in the world for being a bunch of posers. How is that decent?
So she’s an angsty 18 year old. That makes her myopic, not evil.
Until she stands on some ones foot they tell her to get off and she gets into this debate where she claims they only pretend they want her to stop standing on there foot because they are a bunch of posers instead of getting off there foot.
Their their – have some commas: , , ,
Their what? Please tell us
[I do the same thing when not paying attention to auto-correct]
Commas, I think. There, they’re their commas.
… … .. . Well done. ⇬
The fact that people see any kind of moral equivalency between Mary and Malaya – and Mike, for that matter – somewhat disturbs me. Y’all realize that the worst Malaya has done is be kind of inconsiderate and rude to other people, whereas Mary & Mike have LITERALLY tried to destroy people’s lives. So why are they lumped together? It’s probably because their names all start with the letter M, right?
Wait Mike tried to destroy someones life? Are we reading different comics?
They could be referring to Mike’s Ethan/Danny plot – which technically so far is just an attempt.
Shagging someone’s crush doesn’t deserve to be in the same category as actively and purposefully worsening someone’s depression. Or implying that she wanted to have a hand in CARLA DYING. A crush getting with someone else is a long way from “life ruining”.
Purposefully doing it to “turn the other into a jealous whimpering mess” goes a little beyond “a crush getting with someone else.
It’s still a step below Mary’s blackmail, if only because Danny isn’t suffering from suicidal depression.
Sure, Mike isn’t going to win any saint awards with his behaviour, but the phrasing was that Mike and Mary have actively tried to ruin people’s lives. Mike sure as hell isn’t trying to do right by either Danny or Ethan, but trying to hurt someone isn’t the same as trying to ruin their lives. Those are extremely strong words.
I think mike actually considers what he does to be for peoples own good, or at least, tries to rig things to make sure that could be used as a fairly true argument in his defense after the fact. I bet nothing gets his rocks off like making someone miserable only to be thanked for it after the fact.
Ok, y’all are getting hung up on the wrong thing. Mike and Mary don’t have moral equivalency, fine. I think Mike’s less terrible too.
The point I’m trying to make is about people saying *Malaya* and Mary are both equally bad when one of them’s surly and misanthropic and the other one is literally trying to ruin other people out of bigotry.
Mike – An asshole. (Self-aware.)
Malaya – As asshole. (Arguably? Not self-aware.)
Mary – Literally evil
I suppose it’s kind of up to the individual whether you think the mike brand of assholery is better or worse than the Malaya brand. Personally, I think they’re pretty much equal, but in different ways. It balances out.
And now I’m thinking about Mike and Malaya as like a yin/yang pair of assholery. The idea of the two of them trying to asshole at each other and the kind of bizarre infinite mobius double reach-around that would occur has me extremely amused.
I ship it?
A submarine of the Victoria Class?
Belches diesel. Needs lots of work. Elicits highly emotional responses from those all around. Still manages to get things done.
I’d say Mike’s worse. Just because he’s more active. Self-aware, as you say, and sneakier and always plotting.
Malaya’s a jerk and I wouldn’t hang out with her, but if our paths crossed I wouldn’t be worrying about whether every interaction was some new way to torment me.
See, I guess this is the difference. I feel like I would enjoy hanging out with Malaya. She seems essentially harmless to me, in a bark-is-worse-than-her-bite kind of way. But then, I do tend to have a soft spot for pessimistic, sarcastic ladies who speak their minds.
Morally, Mary is definitely the worst. I still hate Malaya the most though because her way of being abrasive needlessly really just infuriates me so on an emotional level.
Mike told Amber that she’s destined to become like her father.
In my book that’s far worse than his current shenanigans.
Could you find that panel and link it for me? If it’s the one I’m thinking of, he never told her she was destined for anything(Mike definitely doesn’t do ‘destiny’), he merely made a true(if hurtful) observation about her interactions.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/ensnared/
Panel three has the “doomed to follow your parents’ pattern” line. It’s not completely overt, but the implication is definitely there, IMO.
That’s just Mike rolling her own logic. He doesn’t state that he agrees with anything she says, only saying that IF she’s right, then X would be the result.
If she turned around and stopped comparing her relationships to her parents, I don’t get the impression he’d try to convince her that she was right the first time.
I see him as basically saying “Either you’re like your dad, or realize your logic to make no sense, and be your own self”.
I hear him sayng those lines in a sarcastic tone, almost like someone “agreeing” with someone else’s horoscope xD
Mmm, Mary’s anger is so delicious.
and high in salt too.
I can’t wait for Malaya and Carlas alliance against Mary to finally set off in the plot. I want to see Mary destroyed.
Ruth might get in on that action too.
If Mary doesn’t beat them to it and destroy herself.
Yeah, actually, this is pretty great. It’s like an explosion where only people I hate are in the blast radius.
This isn’t the scenario here, but it reminds me of a time in high school where two people I really disliked started dating. My closest friends and I were thrilled about it because them dating each other meant that they weren’t making the people we actually liked miserable.
Just came here to say that that recently happened to me in college lol
You sat next to someone unpleasant? Not sure what “that” is pointing to. At first I thought you meant two people started dating, but that isn’t something that happened to you, so I dunno.
I didn’t know how much I needed Malaya going after Mary.
Completely savage.
I bet Mary is even going to start to miss Billie soon. At least Billie didn’t make fun of her not-Pokemon.
I wish they were roomies
Then Sal and Roz can be roomies?
tbh they’d probably be best like that
Everyone wins!
Pictured: the moment before Malaya’s burns cause Mary to burst into flames
But doesn’t the fiendish template include resistance to cold and fire?
Best to verify. Does she has 60′ darkvision?
I don’t usually care much for Malaya but goddamn this is great.
My enjoyment of Malaya is directly proportional to the character she is antagonizing.
I love this analogy.
Okay, so who else legit went back and reread the strips where they first met on the hall?
“Maybe you should click on my tag in your brain and reread your mental archives.”
“I’m Mary.” “I know.” Almost as good a love story as Han/Leia.
So who ends up frozen in carbonite?
Both of them?
haha mary SUCKS
…again, a surprisingly-appropriate-and-yet-inappropriate gravatar.
Yup. What does she suck?
You have the Internet, you oughtta know by now.
Pardon my ignorance, but who is Buddy’s icon?
Looks like a Brown? But the only sibling we haven’t seen is Jordan and I’m not sure how that’s appropriate or otherwise with what little we know of him. I might have missed something though.
It’s Mary’s boyfriend introduced a chapter or two ago, by the name of Peter Paul. Hence the “appropriate-yet-inappropriate” comment.
Well, your avatar should know.
SO Mary draws in a Manga like style? That’s a little odd given her fundamentalist outlook. I would have thought the content in most Manga would have her organising book burnings rather than fandom.
She drew anime door portraits for Joyce and Sarah (against the latter’s wishes)
Also here: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/fraud/
Look I know we don’t like Mary, but do we really have to act like everything she does is automatically awful? That’s just petty and lowers her actual crimes. Oh no, she drew a picture for Sarah that didn’t affect Sarah’s life in the slightest how terrible.
…wh
I am not at all sure how that comes off as ripping on Mary? It was meant to be a joke about Sarah’s grumpiness because of how harmless an anime portrait is.
Like, this is the second time recently you’ve reached hard to find something to snap at in my comments, is there something I should be aware of?
Sorry the joke just doesn’t come off very clearly, and there is a large amount of people on this site who will attack characters for really dumb reasons. After the fiftieth Danny is terrible for so and so bullshit reason I snapped.
Still, you might want to keep in mind that people here are commenting on fictional characters, while you’re responding to actual people. Some of your recent comments have made me personally more hesitant to comment here, and I haven’t even been someone you’re responding to.
yeah man, that was a little harsh for something that only pointed out that Mary draws in a style that is a little unexpected given it’s relation to her beliefs and the stereotypes about beliefs related to her beliefs, and that Sarah is grumpy. It wasn’t even a statement of an opinion like “everything Mary does is evil incarnate” or “Mary is such a hateful character”, just a fact (with a link that goes to a semi unrelated strip)
Some1 has had a heel realization. Some1 has realized he probably gets overly upset when he sees something his subconscious perceives as everyone ganging up on a person regardless of who’s real and what they’ve done in the past due to Some1 being bullied as a child.
Some1 would like to go cry in the corner now.
Please don’t cry, you didn’t do anything terribly wrong. A bit upset, yes, but you did an ok thing pls no cry bby
Crying is good. It’s a release. If crying helps, cry away.
Anyway, personal growth is a good thing, even (especially?) when it’s hard.
Fair enough, I know the feeling, please do remember to take care of yourself and your own well-being. Comments sections can be a trial, even ones that are usually good.
Thank you, I was incredibly close to going full “he who fights monsters” for the last couple days. I spent so long trying to be better then the people around me and arguing that there is some good in nearly everyone that I only ended up hurting those around me.
You should check out Willis’s Tumblr some time. He finds all sorts of fascinating specimens of anime-influenced “up with Jesus” material.
And then you can rip your eyes out at The manhwa Let’s Bible which is all sorts of horrible.
Lots of people in South Korea for something like that to upset, as the population is around 30 percent Christian.
“Excuse Me Sir, Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Bishounen Jesus?”
Is Bishounen Jesus semme or uke?
Bishonen Jesus hangs out with Bishonen Buddha. No idea if they have sex.
Have a look at this link for a book entitled “The Manga Bible – Extreme”
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=2655
The ocasional super right wing appears in anime fandoms so Mary is not exactly a surprise, and Mary been Mary would probably be considered as annoying in anime and manga circles as she is outside them.
yea, if memory serves, that is her thing, drawing manga.
Never in my life have I needed something so badly and not known until I was given it.
And that Mary Gravatar I was given makes that comment so much better.
(This comment will contain wrassling terms. If you don’t know these terms… Frankly, you’re probably better off. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.)
Basically, Malaya is now doing a classic face turn, and like the best face turns (Steve Austin, CM Punk), it means she’s just as horrible as she always is; it’s just that her target is now an even more despised heel, so that makes it all suddenly OK.
Of course, this is just a build-up for the crowd coming in every day. The true showdown will probably happen in the PPV that Willis is planning on his Patreon page.
So will Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or John Cena guest star in this showdown?
Since it’s a comic and we don’t have to deal with things like “permanently out of the scene due to injuries”, I’d prefer Bryan Danielson.
Isn’t he joining a different company after his contract is up because he’s been cleared by doctors but WWE isn’t willing to put him back in the ring on the off chance he gets injured again? Or was that someone else?
Don’t know, stopped following the wrassling scene shortly after CM Punk left.
I just tune into LittleKuriboh’s “Mark Remark” show for some laughs, and occasionally pick things up from conversations.
Well, I occasionally read Wrestlecrap; which usually reminds me why I stopped actually watching the wrassling itself.
“Faz was hoping to see girl on girl action between Malaya and Mary, but it does not look like it will happen.”
…suddenly I find Malaya so much less obnoxious and more likeable. Funny, that.
Could it be her complete unwillingness to let Mary’s lie pass by unchallenged?
Malaya gets more likable the more awful the person she’s interacting with is and more repugnant the nicer they are.
The guy behind them deserves a name.
Darius. And the blonde next to him is Veronica, the girl that put him off last ’cause he played harmonica in art class.
…maybe he deserves better than a name from me.
I like how Mary’s like, “You didn’t even recognize me!” when clearly she did not recognize Malaya.
And by “I like,” I mean, “screw Mary.”
So of course I checked IUB’s course catalog.
And of course I ran into this thing where someone at IUB must be reading DoA, with a mandate to mess things up for Willis. Fine Arts no longer exists as a separate department, and there does not appear to be a Life Drawing class named as such.
But there are several Drawing classes of various sorts, all of which are capped at 18 seats or fewer. How the hell did Mary get six weeks into the semester without being able to recognize one of only 17 other students in her class?
Malaya’s brown?
Yeah, three of the people in the frame kinda look the same, right? [insert Poe’s law disclaimer]
Malaya’s not-Mary? Also, seems Willis has drawn Mary as someone for whom other people don’t exist except as opportunities or threats. Now that Malaya has drawn (ahem) praise Mary thinks should go to her — and rejected Mary’s attempt to establish a superior-inferior relationship — Malaya is now a “threat.”
Not to mention, Malaya clearly did recognize her, or at least know of her.
Malaya how are you like this. You’re a child in 2018, you know what anime is.
Naw see only NERDS know what anime is.
In all seriousness though she might really not know what anime is. It took me a long time to realize that so many shows I watched were actually anime. Shows like Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, One Piece, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Saint Seiya, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, and Fullmetal Alchemist. This first show I actively knew was anime was Naruto.
The first anime I ever watched was Battle of the Planets, and that was so incredibly butchered that it really may not count as anime.
I’ll see your Battle of the Planets and raise with Kimba the White Lion, Speed Racer, Astro Boy (the original 60s run) and The Amazing Three! At ten years old(ish), I was wondering why the speech cadence was so weird.
Nah, Kimba the white Lion wasn’t anime. The word didn’t exist in German at the time the show aired
Yea, I was going to say Astro Boy and Speed Racer, both original run of course. Also watched Japanese live action, namely Ultra Man. You haven’t lived until you have seen cheesy, poorly dubbed 60’s live action sci-fi, little radio controlled models, men in rubber monster suits, foam sets, the works. I found it on DVD and had to buy it just to show my kids what their dad was forced to watch as a kid.
A characteristic of just about any super-nerdery (including in my own areas of interest) is the assumption that detailed knowledge of your nerdery is common knowledge to anyone, while resenting someone’s attempt to either learn the details or simply enjoy the subject of your nerdery in their own way.
Yes, it’s possible for people of all ages to live a full life without knowing what anime is, or the difference between a Type II Phaser and Type F Shuttlecraft (heresy!), or why we should brace ourselves! for winter, or the difference between a gearless bulker and a bow thruster.
“What anime is” is hardly “detailed knowledge of your nerdity”.
And I think it’s getting harder to grow up without knowing what anime is, even if you’re not into it.
It’s not “the difference between a Type II Phaser and Type F Shuttlecraft”, but “What’s Star Trek?”
Yeah, “what anime is” was maybe niche knowledge in like the 90s and early 2000s but at this point anyone whose grown up with the modern internet should know at least that much purely by cultural osmosis.
You’d think so, but there are plenty of people who grew up with modern internet that either never really use it, or only use it in very specific ways, such as watching whichever Youtube star is “in” right now.
And I’m sure there are people who grew up without seeing Transformers cartoons, but that doesn’t mean Transformers is niche.
Knowing about anime isn’t some weird bit of nerdity. Knowing details of specific anime or the differences between various styles and genres might well be.
Ok, and? I never said anything about it being niche.
I’m literally just saying it’s perfectly plausible that a teen in 2018 might not know what anime is, because it doesn’t cross their radar.
I know plenty of people who’ve managed to grow up without knowing what anime is, including some folks one would think ought to.
As a teenager I was definitely turned off anime because all the ones I saw were ones where Shinto Buddhism was basically required reading to have any idea what was going on. Combined with stuff like Final Fantasy VII, my attitude was basically, “Nope, not going to sit through yet another incomprehensible Japanese plot.”
I don’t know what your first anime was, but…
My first anime was about a family of anarchist trolls who live in a tall blue house on a hill.
My second anime was about a kid who traveled around the country, collected weird-looking critters, and made them fight each other.
My third anime was more of the same, except there was a bunch of kids, they each had exactly one critter, and they only made the critters fight other critters when their lives were threatened by the other critters.
My fourth anime was about a bunch of buff dudes who fought evil space nazis with martial arts and energy beams.
Only the third of those actually required me to really understand anything a seven-year old wouldn’t be expected to. (Which might be why I had only the vaguest idea of its plot until I rewatched it as a teenager.)
It’s not 2018 in Dumbing of Age, it’s more like 20XX.
Right now, the comic is set in 2018; next year, it’ll be set in 2019. That’s how the “20XX” sliding-timescale-thing works in this ‘verse.
In Mary’s eyes, it’s always 20X6.
So where is Dr. Wiley and the Robot Masters, and will Willis send in MegaMan to kick Mary’s ass?
I teach I kid who doesn’t know what pokemon is
How old are they?
12 ish
maybe she knows, but she is still Malaya and what she is saying is sure to annoy Mary so she will probably keep at it. Hell she could think Otomo’s style is the bees knees and still will keep at it.
Malaya could know what anime is, but just used Pokemon the same way everyone uses Scott Pilgrim when it comes to a western cartoon-y style.
Or even just to tweak Mary.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/introduction/
Ah, so that’s how Malaya knew Mary. I just assumed that her reputation for awfulness preceded her.
Thank you for the link!!
I don’t like Malaya but I do like seeing her annoy Mary.
me too
Guy in the background and the left side of the panels: all I ever see is half of a smiley face.
At first I was like, “what?,” but now I can’t not see it.
Some plastic surgery gone wrong.
This whole interaction really makes me laugh. So good. I love when a couple of jerks are being jerks to each other lol.
Malaya calls anime Pokemon – “Hey Marcie, you seen that pokemon with the naked giants that break shit?”
Marcie has tried to correct her several times, but always fails.
This is now my headcanon, and additionally, she does it on purpose because she knows it irritates anime fans
Yessss, Malaya mainly subsists on salty nerd tears.
Like calling all movies “Disneys” in Cloud Atlas.
I hate them so much separately and yet together? I’m in heaven
You and me both ^^
Does this count as an example where two wrongs do make a right?
More like two wrongs make for an entertaining time.
…I wish I could have made that into a joke somehow.
I love Malaya. So so much.
Mary knows the plural is Pokémon, not Pokemons. This makes her, like, 1% more sympathic to me.
“everyone loves a good mary/malaya scene”
I mean…you’re not…you’re not really WRONG…
Everyone but Mary.
I’m starting to love Malaya more!
I said I was here for this, and I did not lie.
I side with the one who dissed pokemon if that’s any indication how much I don’t like Mary
Who did that?
Mmmmmmm, catharsis….
Mary draws pokeman? I pray for her soul.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/pokeman/
Finally, some art majors!
and thus the great Mary / Malaya war has begun. My bet’s on Malaya.
The entire comic should just be Malaya and Mary and that weird black dude in the back who seems to be staring at the fourth wall.
He is afraid that if he moves, the plot will notice him and land him in a bunch of dumb drama to make him a recurring character.
Nah, he’s just so caught up in his own dumb drama he can’t spare any attention for the main characters.
My head canon is that there’s nothing exceptional about our main cast. Everyone on campus is going through just as much crap. We’re just not focusing on it.
Heh,
I like your headcanon much better than mine. Drama it is!
When I think of it, that was sort of confirmed when we got to know Billie’s new dorm mates.
Except for Agatha. She has a boring, drama free life (It’s my headcanon and I’m sticking too it – despite all evidence to the contrary)
Agatha has the usual wild, exciting life. She’s just completely oblivious to it.
This reminds me of a Manga my wife reads that stars a pink haired heroine as the main character. Her mother left her at a young age because she knew it was either that or die because her child had “Anime Protagonist Syndrome”.
Nonsense, there is nothing anime-like about Mary’s art style
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/pretty/
Nothing at all…
They don’t look much like pokemons though.
Not really a fan of the specific crapthrowing technique used by Malaya here but Mary’s “Always happy to help a NOVICE” was rude as well.
And admittedly, in a life drawing class… that specific style’s… Nothing wrong with it by any means, but… LIFE drawing.
Props for the callback to Mary’s door decorations.
I’m cutting Malaya some slack here because I’m seeing the natural reaction of someone who’s busted their gluteal region to get as far as they have to the condescension of someone who has (in her own mind, at least) gotten farther without as much apparent work.
There’s no reason to think that Malaya and Mary haven’t taken the same art classes. The situation here isn’t someone better trained offering to help tips to someone genuinely new, it’s someone blatantly insulting somebody while acting better than they are. Malaya just flipped that back on her.
I’ve generally found Malaya to be a little shit in speech, but a solid type in deed. I think she’s probably a pretty good egg, but that’s really only detectable when you’ve ALREADY DECIDED she’s a good egg.
I know someone who’s the same deal in a different way. Most ppl have very clear and limited tolerances of his bullshit, but he does no harm and is the number one guy to look after you during a night on the town, for eg.
Once you have decided someone’s a good egg, their actions prove it. The reverse is true. Excluding actions that can only be taken one way whether you like them or not.
So, Mary wants to be an animé artist? Or maybe she doesn’t realise that she wants to be an animé or manga artist!
Panel 4 Mary: And THERE’S the small mouth.
ahhahhahahh
beautiful
I wonder if Malaya’s gonna get in trouble for drawing anatomical details that don’t exist.
I love Malaya. I generally love the total bongoes, Mary is an obvious exception.
This is a Saucy Rivalry here, though I’m surprised Mary would actually goes so far to offer help.
Nah, it’s perfectly in keeping with the passive-aggressive condescension that toxic evangelical christians are good at.
My first reaction was that Mary is being a condescending bongo. But maybe she really is trying to be helpful? (I mean, in an infinite universe… )
Panel 2 is yet again such a wonderful failed attempt of Mary to be an alpha bongo. I really hope Billie gets to see it so she can point and laugh (and feel bad about having been the real deal)
So Mary’s comfortable with naked penises and breasts being thrust in her face?
The only time I’ve met heavy duty Christians was in poetry classes.
Doesn’t she go around her room topless?
Haha anime eyes, the beginner’s downfall
If in doubt, make them bigger.
“Do you think this Alpha Bongo of yours, do you think she stands a chance?”
“The arrogance of the audience is thinking the plot is in our control, and not the other way around… Let them fight.”
Well
I’m ok with this
now if we can just get these two to mutually destroy eachother, all will be right with the world.
Hi there, Malaya
I may often dislike you
But I forgive you
– “Everything,” today’s reaction in haiku
If Mary draws 90s-type anime, she needs to get with the times nowadays.
Yeah, have you seen what the modern Pokemon anime looks like compared to when it started?
I’ve seen clips. It looked good in BW, and then it got weird (but okay) in SM.
“Everybody loves a good Mary/Malaya scene”
… Dammit, Willis! As a kinkster, this raised SO many disturbing scenarios in my head.
… slipshine incoming unless you dodge pretty damn fast
My appreciation for Malaya has shot through the roof
You really have to consider how self-obsessed Mary has to be to not even notice that Malaya was sitting beside her the whole class.
Mary draws anime-style uh
If she is drawing, isn’t it manga style?
I like the bitter face Mary has in panel 4. She earned it.
Bonus: This reinforces that the teacher’s comment about wresting free of artistic habits was directed at Mary.
Panel #5 should be a mic drop
I never thought this comic could do it.
But it has,
I actually like Malaya a little now…
Provided she’s in scene with Mary and making her life miserable
Tough call for people who hate both these characters.
In a heel vs. heel match, the crowd goes for the one with the biggest charisma.
Since Mary has anti-charisma, Malaya wins the crowd by default.
Malaya studies art for the same reason Vogons write poetry.
Not, as many people think, because beneath each of their mean, callous, heartless exteriors lies a sensitive soul yearning to be loved.
They actually do it to throw their mean, callous, heartless exteriors into sharp relief.
Which is not to say that there ISN’T a sensitive soul yearning to be loved somewhere in there.
They just don’t want YOU to know about it.
That guy in the background you staring straight at us breaking the fourth wall the entire strip.
Pretty sure he’s supposed to be looking down at his drawing.
That, or studying the model. Maybe he can do both without moving his eyes much.
it’s very satisfying to see the two most obnoxious characters (in my opinion) getting into a fight with each other.
I love it when Malaya uses her powers for f— you, Mary.
It strikes me as odd that Mary is an anime-drawer, you’d think with how off the deep end religious she is that she’d be one of those “anime is from Satan” nutcases
Every SDCC someone would come to my booth and hand me a Christian Otaku flyer.
Google that phrase.
“Jesus is my Senpai”
well… that was a thing I found today… alright
My mind has been opened to a new level of Damn You Willis.
WHY DID YOU TELL ME TO DO THIS
WHY DID I LISTEN
#it’swhatshedeserves
That guy in the background is trying to hypnotise me.
…yes master…
Nah, I need MORE Malaya shitting on Mary comics, cuz it makes people appreciate Malaya more. And also because I have a MIGHTY NEED to see how critiques in this class go between the two of them.
It’s funny how if you didn’t know any other strip Malaya would be the biggest jerk here.
I dunno, even without the full context of Mary’s… Mary-ness, the whole “If you need any pointers, let me know, I’m always happy to help a novice” when they are both in the same year taking the exact same class is arrogant as hell.
As well as Mary treating Malaya as an intruder in her class, when she’s been there all along and Mary just didn’t notice, but Malaya had and had recognized her in the dorm.
Malaya’s more abrasive, while Mary’s doing her faux politeness, establish dominance thing, so it would be easy to mistake what’s going on.
Mary starts by being shocked that Malaya’s in the class, and then straight up lies* to Malaya about which of them failed to reckognise the other.
Then when being called out on it in a fairly polite manner**, she does not apologise like any half-decent person would have, but instead immediately changes the subject into basically doing another attempt at humble-bragging and also negging of Malaya (referring to her as a novice, i.e. implying that her skills aren’t as good as Mary’s).
Oh yeah, and the whole “I’ll help out a novice thing” coming -right after- the art teacher had just shown how he is genuinely more impressed with Malaya’s skills.
The only two strips you need for context to establish who’s the biggest jerk is yesterday’s strip, and the strip where it’s established that Mary was the one not reckognising Malaya.
*OK, so there may be a small chance Mary actually believes this version of events, but it’s more likely she’s deliberately lying because she’s trying to establish herself as a victim.
**I don’t know about you, but when someone straight up lies to me like that, I stop giving a shit
Stop giving a shit about being particularly polite to them, that is.
I actually believe her here – She just never registered Malaya in class until she’d met her in the dorm. She had no clue who Malaya was, or she would have raised that earlier, and certainly missed that Malaya’d recognized her.
Makes no sense to lie about it – it’s not even possible she’d be believed.
But that’s not what Mary claimed. Mary claimed that Malaya was the one not recognising Mary. Which Malaya did. Malaya already knew her name.
Malaya’s calm rebuttal in the second panel should tip off even a first-time reader that the jerk is actually Mary. People are surprisingly smart at figuring out contextual clues, and most of them know abrasive words don’t mean much, so I’d wager the percentage of people who would mistake the situation is pretty low.
I love Mary’s face in the last panel.
It makes the strip.
does He have name?
Tennyson Bradley
So I think this exchange marks the first time Malaya has not been my least favorite character in the day’s comic.
…I’m honestly surprised her professor didn’t offer corrections if she is drawing manga style in a LIFE DRAWING studio course. That is kind of not how life drawing works.
TWO DAYS LATE! TWO DAYS LATE! THE NEXT STRIP IS TWO DAYS LATE! THE END IS NIIIIGH!
Anyway yeah, hope whatever it is gets cleared up easy and that nothing’s wrong with anything important at least. Have a good one!
Wait, nevermind, I hit the latest comic button and they were both in the system. Dunno why it didn’t come up at first, because I punched in the front page to get here but whatevs.
The one time I actually like Malaya and don’t think she’s a complete asshole… a glorious moment.
(Belatedly catching up.)
So um. Yeah. Came to see what the comments here would be like. Professional artist who grew up drawing anime style and went through a Fine Arts program here. I now work in games, so, y’know, I’m doing okay for myself.
While it’s ultimately good to break out of that style a bit and learn fundamentals, it’s equally important to be true to what you like in your personal work, using what you’ve learned to push it further. I wish this comments section wasn’t entirely people hating on Mary, because I’ve been where she is. A well-rounded, viable art skillset DOES NOT mean anime/cartoon style is only for idiot teenagers, nor does it mean you are entitled to bongo that your teachers don’t “get you” when they push you to draw something else.
Mary’s been a shitstain to Carla, which is why I don’t like her. Malaya’s got a bad attitude, which actually makes her super relatable to me personally but probably irritating to most readers. But this exchange is pretty human on both sides, IMO, and I guess I find it a little demoralizing that people are just hating on the characters so hard because they like -insert trendy thing to make fun of here-. :/