The shortpacked wordpress MS site exploded!@ so I moved dumbingofage over to its own little area.
Working on fixing it back up right now, sorries!
– Phil (Frumph)
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The only post that I couldn’t retrieve from Google cache when rebuilding this website was the one about Walky and his change of clothes. I can’t really remember exactly what I wrote about it in length, but let me summarize best to my recollection:
Walky is a slob who should change his clothes more often.
First of all, after today’s strip everyone should probably recognize where the site’s wallpaper comes from. Yeah, it’s the actual tile pattern from the real-life lobby of Read Hall, which is where the strip’s characters live. I liked it so I’m using it!
I began working on what would become Dumbing of Age on the plane trip home from San Diego Comic-Con. To the left is a scan of the first page of my brainstorms. Joyce was a no-brainer, as was the outfit I started giving her post It’s Walky! for some Joyce and Walky! segments. It really suits her. Then there’s a prototypical Sarah to the left, before I figured out what to do with her hair.
And, hey, it’s Becky, Joyce’s friend from the J&W! material.
And, of course, down below is art of Billie, the nose of whom I botched so badly I had to call it out to myself. That makes it somehow better. This way if someone goes through my sketchbook (no one ever really does), they won’t think I thought the art was acceptable! I’m saved from the full measure of scorn!
And finally, there’s two attempts at Ruth. She used to wear overalls (why?) and wear glasses the size of her face. Both of these would have to go.
Here’s some stuff I drew up for Billie to wear. The “97″ on the shirt she wears in her first appearance refers to 1997, the date that Roomies! started. I really like this shirt, but the others I might tweak before they appear, as they aren’t as visually compelling. I do like the hoodie. But then, I just like hoodies.
T Campbell and I are sitting adjacent to each other at Intervention this weekend, and we’ve been talking about the problems plaguing aging male artists attempting to nonlaughingly clothe teenagers. How do those Archie folks do it?
Anyway, since I have no idea if it will actually ever come up in the strip, I might as well come out and say that Billie is half-Asian now. Everyone always assumed she was Asian back in Roomies!, what with the black hair and fair complexion, even though she was conceived as thoroughly English. So I figgered this go-round, hey, she’s half-Asian, why not? These are the galaxy-sweeping alterations I am making! The ones that make absolutely no real impact on the strip! Her dad, of course, is still white through-and-through, because, dude, last name’s friggin’ Billingsworth, man.
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Joyce’s father in an It’s Walky! strip from March 17, 2003
Joyce’s father, Hank Brown, in today’s Dumbing of Age strip articulates some of my feelings upon revisiting my old college dorm online. They have all these pictures, and it’s all sparkly and they have these awesome-looking loft beds and… oh my god, they’ve probably upgraded from ethernet cords to wifi at some point in the past 13 years. My mental image of my college home hadn’t been updated since then.
I’m still closer to this Joyce’s age than her father’s (oh thank god), but it feels weird writing a strip in which he’s the mouthpiece instead of the wide-eyed freshman. Thankfully, until I crank out four kids and get the youngest to college, I won’t have much more in common with him.
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