I use to have the same problem. Kinda suprizes that Willis
did it right. Not because he doesn’t usually,
but because that is exactly how I fixed such a
problem.
Well, there’s TONS of pre-1990 fossil evidence of dinosaurs traveling in herds, both in migration routes and in communal breeding grounds, but Alan Grant SOMEHOW didn’t realize that! Seriously, that always bugged me. HE’S A PALEONTOLOGIST, HE ALREADY KNOWS THIS.
Yeah, I got that concept from the film, but it’s not like they were surprised to see that the Brachiosaurus was eating plants, or that the raptors were hatching from eggs. There are just some things that aren’t speculation, and herbivorous dinosaurs traveling in groups is one of those things. Now, if he said that about a pack of raptors, I wouldn’t have been as miffed.
Or she could carry faceless masks with her. When amongst a group and experiencing too many faces, she could hand out the blank masks to everybody around her and then she wouldn’t have to see so many faces. They could all just look like blank grey masks with eye, nose and mouth holes and nothing at all to distinguish them.
HA. I had this conversation with some coworkers one drunken night not long ago.
It culminated the following week with one of said coworkers bringing real actual chaps to work and another taking a picture of me wearing them. (With non-assless pants under them, of course.)
It’ll be another dumb fun type blockbuster. It’ll be fine for what it is. Mind you, I say that having had over twenty years to come to terms with the adaption decay of that franchise from Crichton’s novels. Those who liked Spielburg’s version may well have it rougher.
Depends. From what I’ve seen, at least some of the dinosaurs were “designed” (whether they were being figurative or not I do not know) and are rather intelligent, so either this is used to explain paleontological inaccuracies, or it isn’t. For me, it really depends on how accurate the dinosaurs are.
From what I know, only one was genetically engineered. All the other inaccuracies are just the director not caring about being scientifically accurate.
The handwave for the inaccuracies grandfathered in from the 90s is that they filled the DNA gaps in with amphibian and lizard DNA. It even gets a mention on the “park’s” website’s fictional reviews that they cut corners there and dammit, these dinosaurs are supposed to be feathered. (The amphibian DNA is also how the ones in the second movie reproduced, I think.)
Any remaining inaccuracies can probably be chalked up to something like “we bred/designed them to be non-haggressive.”
Eh… the original book went into more detail about it, but there was a lot of meddling with the DNA of the dinosaurs. The frog/amphibian DNA addition to fill in the gaps was just the beginning, but they also did things like made the dinos dependent on a certain amino acid that they added to their food in order to “ensure” that they couldn’t survive off the island (spoiler: said amino acid can be found in plenty in the flora of the area. Surprise, surprise.) and so on…
Like someone said before, the inaccuracies were in major part because the source and the resulting movies were written when much less was actually known about dinosaurs, so it’s understandable that they were there. But the extra DNA could explain a lot (including the lack of feathers?) – though it would explain a lot more if they showed other aspects of the added DNA, such as modified/not-quite-dino shapes, different skins, random mutations, etc. Though I guess if people have managed to get dog breeds relatively consistent in shape, form, colourings, etc, through selective breeding, scientists with dubious morals in labs can achieve a lot more in a short amount of time…
That’s the most accurate part of all! Because it was named by a marketing department. Apologies to anyone who works in marketing (I have a friend who does, and if I was offered a job there right now I would take it), but marketing is a cancer on the world.
Wait…that’s backwards. Either you mean Dina’s a social caterpillar, or…she’s the only reverse-butterfly (or insect with complete metamorphosis) in existence.
Mxyzptlk showed up in 1944. His repeated “pranks” in Metropolis take a much darker tone when you realize they were indirectly helping the Axis hold out a little longer. Dirty rotten 5th dimensional Nazi sympathizer.
Bat-Mite was 1959. Qwsp was 1962. I prefer the latter on the basis that being a fanboy of Batman is taking the easy road, especially in the era when Aquaman was still running fish hospitals and teaching octopi to be one-man bands. Bat-Mite never had to live with the cancellation of his idol’s books.
Yeah, I know. I brought it up more to make a joke than anything else. I did hear that the whole “Triceratops is a baby Torosaurus” thing lost some traction in recent years, but I also know that it hasn’t been completely disproven. Mostly, at this point, but not completely. However, Brontosaurus being a thing? Hasn’t been disproven! Yet.
Meanwhile, at their armored keyboards, and wearing their dinosaur pajamas and hats, the Dinarmy are awating Jayax’s response, ready to strike at any moment.
RUN. The Dina fans are coming. I mean, I’m amongst them, but I’m just the introductory vanguard. Be wary Be wary of the nurdrage. Or nurdconfusion and misunderstanding, to be more accurate.
I’m honestly indifferent to her as well. I mean yeah she’s a good character and she’s funny, but I just never liked her nearly as much as some of the other characters.
well, some genuine concern from becky there. i think i like her better now than when she’s busy being awesome. i would like to advocate the idea of becky and dina striking up an unlikely bromance. becky is always a lot to process, so it’d be a heart-warming puppy-in-a-slipper scenario. there’s also a ‘coming out of the closet’/’hiding behind the door’ joke in there somewhere
I think Dina liked Becky because of their first interaction back when she was telling people to attend Joyce’s party. I mean look at her, she’s smiling in those two strips. She -rarely- smiles in this comic, most of the time she’s got a neutral looking face. (The only other time I remember her smiling was in the cereal comic.)
And Becky probably thinks she’s cool because of her hat.
Too late, they are already buying a cottage on the outskirts of town so they can both get to their jobs, Dina’s teaching job, and Becky’s… Say what is Becks good at that she can use to earn a living?
Activism? She’s got plenty of person experience of things being shitty, and putting up with bongos, so she might, especially once she’s on her own two feet and not dependent on her unrequited love, be good at relating to other queer Christians.
Well, it’s the party invitation that’s making Dina smile, not Becky per se; she doesn’t know Becky beyond passing her in the halls a couple times. (Assuming for a minute that Dina hasn’t been hiding behind Joyce and Sarah’s door, which one can never entirely rule out.) But she may well have positive associations with Becky now as The Deliverer of Party Invitations.
God, the fact that this is a movie starring Chris Pratt with swords, riding a motorcycle, and leading his own raptor pack, is WAY more than enough to get me hyped for the movie, because THAT is GODDAMN AMAZING IMAGERY.
In my head, I’ve been thinking of it as an alternate reality JP, taking place in a universe where none o the negative events of the previous movies have ever happened. After all, there is NO WAY it would get the go ahead after all of the crap that went down in the three movies preceding it.
Now, not associating it with dinosaurs…that might be more difficult.
I saw it as taking place in the distant future of JP, maybe by then the negative press of the first three stories died down. The tech certainly seems futuristic.
They aren’t dinosaurs. They’re the products of bizarre DNA mashups that somehow strongly resemble certain species of dinosaur. I mean, the dinosaur DNA they would have to work with would have degraded down to a soup of nucleotides by now, with zero information content left. So, ‘filling in the gaps’ with the DNA of other species just means recombining DNA from different species until you get something that somehow resembles a dinosaur.
The “no feathers” thing makes some sense in the context of visitor protection. No feathers mean that the dinosaurs cannot preserve their internal body temperature as efficiently, which means that they’d get very exhausted very quickly and be significantly more lethargic.
On the other hand, there is no excuse for pterosaurs carrying off people using their feet.
It’s still some time in October in-universe…she’s got a few months before Jurassic World comes out…or else she saw it months ago. It hasn’t been confirmed WHICH relatively-contemporary October it is. >_>
Yeah that’s the opposite reaction I have. I usually wind up going to the nearest restroom, locking myself in a stall, hyperventilate and browse my phone.
This made me actually laugh at loud.
Dina is the cutest damn thing and Ethan can be very good guy.
Dina is going to be fine, she needs to ‘process her new data’. She’s happy.
She is a scientist. Clearly, with this successful new experiment and the influx of important observations, she cannot afford distractions until she has thoroughly analyzed it and reached conclusions consistent both with these data and past information.
Look for the publication in Science or Nature in the coming weeks.
I am enjoying this concert! I really am enjoying it very much! Yes, I am hunched over with my face in my lap and my fingers in my ears. This is what “enjoying the concert very much” looks like on me. I am in fact having a good time.
Also, if I’m in a room full of people all talking and I have my headphones on and you notice that whatever they are connected to is turned off? No need to point it out to me. Everything is functioning as I require it to function.
I’ve always loved Ethan, but I didn’t realize until now how much I fricking adore him. I guess I can relate to him way more than I thought I did. That’s what I love about this comic! ♥
(also…. been reading for over a year, but first time commenting..?!)
Dinah is definitely my favourite character in this strip. I work with autistic kids, including one who reacts socially just like this. He loves it and wants to be a part of it, but the processing is really difficult for him.
I’m an autistic woman, and yeah. Pretty classic sensory/information overload (except I would be in a closet, if a bathroom were not in evidence. Yes, at 27.) with shutdown.
Except I can’t word in shut down in full sentences. And sometimes not at all. Which in fact is why I don’t do loud parties much, and when I have to, I take bathroom breaks so often people think I have a bladder condition.
I create curriculum for an autism center, and this is a very excellent portrayal of someone with high functioning autism (Asperger’s perhaps). The coat over the head is literally what I tell people to look for if they’re wondering if their child has undiagnosed autism.
Dina is adorable AND ONLY GOOD THINGS SHOULD HAPPEN TO HER WILLIS…but I already kind-of felt that way about Joyce (beyond needing to acclimate to the different personalities in the world) to an extent and look how that turned out.
The Dinasaru has learnt tool use! Soon, there shall be fire!
I wonder if, as an alternative to hooding, Dina’s is going to take a breather in the bathroom and her interaction with Sarah is what pushes her to the next step of her Destroy Raidah plan (or away from its pettiness).
I said it on Twitter about yesterday’s strip and I’ll say it today –
I’m an aspie and there is officially no way you can tell me Dina isn’t on the spectrum.
I’m a late diagnosis but you are damn right this is aspie behaviour. I used to do this as a kid, but didn’t get the help and eventually turned it all into panicky shivers and soft kitten mews to cope. I’m a 20yo male and I STILL do that.
So I’m a teacher for individuals with autism, I showed this and the previous comic to one of my coworkers, and she just *beamed* This kind of behavior is totally within the range of “normal” for us. Seeing good representation is GREAT.
I really like the showing that there is a difference between being overwhelmed from sensory stuff and having an anxiety attack. A lot of writers who portray sensory overload tend to write it as though it’s exactly the same as an anxiety attack, but they’re both very very different feelings. I like that Joyce is talking to Dina normally as well, without judging her for the coat as well 😊
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didn’t expect Dina to be the first one to undress Ethan
(other than with one’s eyes)
Dangit, of course you beat me to that.
The thought of hundreds of DoA readers every night.
Dina is overwhelmed by the feels. And so many faces.
(I nearly put an extra “e” in faces, that would’ve been…bad)
I use to have the same problem. Kinda suprizes that Willis
did it right. Not because he doesn’t usually,
but because that is exactly how I fixed such a
problem.
How much do you think needs to be removed before Danny becomes the NEXT one to hit the floor?
Boo-yah!
Just the shirt.
One shoe.
Only a single shoelace. That’s how pent up Ethans feelings are
Oops meant Danny. Sorry.
He will steal the shoelace and incorporate it into the statue of Ethan made out of gum in his closet.
That’s not gum. While you are on the right track, it is not hardened secretions from a rubber tree we are talking about here.
Would they be hardened secretions from a flesh tree, then?
So basically “gum” is one letter off, then.
It’s things like this that remind me why I read the comments.
#sameAF
She’s overwhelmed because she’s realizing that people travel in herds. They DO travel in herds.
A herd of nerds?
Revenge of the Herd
Nerd herders!
Are they scruffy looking?
But of cause!
‘Cause when the going gets Scruff…
The scruff gets growing.
Okay, Plasma, I have to ask, why do you say “cause” instead of “course”? Is it dialect? A personal quirk? A surprisingly consistent typo?
‘Cause = short for “because.” “Because when the going gets tough, the tough get GOING.” Course wouldn’t make sense in that sentence.
If you ever see this Scribbles, No Name was referring to Plasma saying “of cause” rather than “of course”, not Stephen’s reply to that comment.
which you can mainly find assisting you at your local Buy More retailer
Huh. A Chuck reference. Not something you see very often.
But is it like herding cats?
more like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNfLcXPc0ZY
That was brilliant.
They’re herding this way!
Then, a couple strips later, after a twist ending:
LOOK AT THE BLOOD.
Billie: Uh, which side of the party room are you planning to stay on?
Dina: Amber said I should party with you ’cause it’d be good for you.
I feel like Dina’s gotten trapped in enough people-herds in the past few weeks that she should already know that….
Well, there’s TONS of pre-1990 fossil evidence of dinosaurs traveling in herds, both in migration routes and in communal breeding grounds, but Alan Grant SOMEHOW didn’t realize that! Seriously, that always bugged me. HE’S A PALEONTOLOGIST, HE ALREADY KNOWS THIS.
Yes, but there’s a difference between fossil evidence and seeing it yourself.
Yeah, I got that concept from the film, but it’s not like they were surprised to see that the Brachiosaurus was eating plants, or that the raptors were hatching from eggs. There are just some things that aren’t speculation, and herbivorous dinosaurs traveling in groups is one of those things. Now, if he said that about a pack of raptors, I wouldn’t have been as miffed.
I didn’t get the impression he was surprised, so much as amazed seeing how perfectly it worked out.
Dinosaurs travel in flocks, not in herds.
it’s just as well, the other alternative when there are too many faces is what we call the optimus prime solution
Maybe she would get along with Vos once he took his face off.
It could happen. The DJD getting along surprisingly well with tiny adorable females is canon.
Or she could carry faceless masks with her. When amongst a group and experiencing too many faces, she could hand out the blank masks to everybody around her and then she wouldn’t have to see so many faces. They could all just look like blank grey masks with eye, nose and mouth holes and nothing at all to distinguish them.
It’s Dina. She would hand out dinosaur masks and it would be the best party ever.
Wait, how does the logistics of that work? She de-hoodied him without him bending his head to get it through the neckhole?
Texas gay dudes have assless chaps, maybe Indiana ones have backless hoodies?
Aren’t all chaps assless? I’m fairly certain they are.
HA. I had this conversation with some coworkers one drunken night not long ago.
It culminated the following week with one of said coworkers bringing real actual chaps to work and another taking a picture of me wearing them. (With non-assless pants under them, of course.)
I’ve also seen this conversation being discussed not too long ago in the comic forum. I believe we eventually agreed the term is redundant.
Yes, but chaps are meant to be worn with pants. The phrase ‘assless chaps’ usually refers to wearing chaps without pants.
But, wait, if assless chaps are chaps worn without anything under them, then why are they ‘assless’. Shouldn’t they be ‘assed’?
Well the TX Lege is chapless asses, so I guess that makes for a kind of symmetry.
Stripper jacket perhaps?
That is the magic of gutters (the gap between panels). However your mind can fill in the blanks, that’s how it happened.
I’m good at that. My mind is always in the gutter.
It is a little-known velociraptor skill. Largely because they didn’t have jackets.
Actually they did, unfortunately their Jackets degraded over millions of years and now are completely gone.
I am now imagining a gang of velociraptors in black leather jackets on the prowl.
Bunch of velociraptors in letter jackets, harassing a velociraptor nerd by the lockers.
Who grows up to master crystal technology and fights a robot, no doubt.
And attacking another gang by aggressively singing show tunes.
The other gang being composed of megaladons, I assume?
It’s best not to question the phenomenon that is Dina.
Maybe it has a zipper?
It does. Page back to where he and Danny were walking over to the party and you can see it’s zipped.
Considering the look on his face, Ethan may be asking himself that as well.
Dina has been absorbing Amber’s Amazigirl powers by being in close proximity to her.
Oh, hockey players manage it all the time. You grab it by the back hem and over the head she goes!
–Maybe Dina’s secretly Canadian? 😀
I’m sure Ruth would know that…
And keeping his hair perfectly coiffured at the same time.
The magic of comics.
Yes less clothing on Ethan is very good thing A++
*plays the Hoodie Ninja jingle for the Honda Civic commercials on the Muzak*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1uG03JRQiU
As a service to you.
There is no way this scene is scored by anything but the Jurassic Park theme. The lovely bit where it swells and sounds magical.
And then Joyce turns it off because that movie claims the earth is more than 6000 years old, and she has no idea how the theme got on her playlist.
Alternatively:
Open the door Dina’s on the floor everybody hug the dinosaur.
https://youtu.be/zYKupOsaJmk?t=50
Behind the door
She’s on the floor
Everybody avoid looking at the Dina-saur
BOOM BOOM AKA LAKA LAKA BOOM
Consensus on whether Jurassic World is going to turn out well?
It’ll be another dumb fun type blockbuster. It’ll be fine for what it is. Mind you, I say that having had over twenty years to come to terms with the adaption decay of that franchise from Crichton’s novels. Those who liked Spielburg’s version may well have it rougher.
Depends. From what I’ve seen, at least some of the dinosaurs were “designed” (whether they were being figurative or not I do not know) and are rather intelligent, so either this is used to explain paleontological inaccuracies, or it isn’t. For me, it really depends on how accurate the dinosaurs are.
Intelligent Designed Dinosaurs? Joyce may enjoy this one after all.
From what I know, only one was genetically engineered. All the other inaccuracies are just the director not caring about being scientifically accurate.
Or it’s stuff that people actually didn’t know about in the early 90s, such as dinosaurs being warm-blooded and many having feathers.
The handwave for the inaccuracies grandfathered in from the 90s is that they filled the DNA gaps in with amphibian and lizard DNA. It even gets a mention on the “park’s” website’s fictional reviews that they cut corners there and dammit, these dinosaurs are supposed to be feathered. (The amphibian DNA is also how the ones in the second movie reproduced, I think.)
Any remaining inaccuracies can probably be chalked up to something like “we bred/designed them to be non-haggressive.”
Eh… the original book went into more detail about it, but there was a lot of meddling with the DNA of the dinosaurs. The frog/amphibian DNA addition to fill in the gaps was just the beginning, but they also did things like made the dinos dependent on a certain amino acid that they added to their food in order to “ensure” that they couldn’t survive off the island (spoiler: said amino acid can be found in plenty in the flora of the area. Surprise, surprise.) and so on…
Like someone said before, the inaccuracies were in major part because the source and the resulting movies were written when much less was actually known about dinosaurs, so it’s understandable that they were there. But the extra DNA could explain a lot (including the lack of feathers?) – though it would explain a lot more if they showed other aspects of the added DNA, such as modified/not-quite-dino shapes, different skins, random mutations, etc. Though I guess if people have managed to get dog breeds relatively consistent in shape, form, colourings, etc, through selective breeding, scientists with dubious morals in labs can achieve a lot more in a short amount of time…
But why do they call it “Jurassic (whatever)” when most of the dinosaurs were from the Cretaceous period?
That’s the most accurate part of all! Because it was named by a marketing department. Apologies to anyone who works in marketing (I have a friend who does, and if I was offered a job there right now I would take it), but marketing is a cancer on the world.
It’s dinosaury-ish, and that’s close enough 🙁
Because “Jurassic” sounds cooler. Heck, I’m surprised they didn’t replace that c with a k.
Jura’s sick park/world.
Dina! You’re so much more optimistic then the others, it’s too cute.
She’s like Yuki Nagato. Seeing any emotion from her is a big deal.
I presume you’re not watching The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan yet then, seeing as it’s filled with her showing emotions. ;D
Isn’t that a different universe?
Original series Yuki Nagato didn’t usually ever show any emotion.
She’s pretty emotional in Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, although you make an argument that’s an alt-universe as well.
Eh, in the novel, Kyon managed to pick them after a while. They’re subtle but they’re there.
I always imagine Dina with Michelle Ruff’s voice for exactly that reason.
Well everything went better then expected
Agreed. Dina is happy, Ethan has less clothing on, Dorothy’s glasses are unbroken, all is well.
Dina is a social butterfly and now she’s making herself a jacket cocoon.
Wait…that’s backwards. Either you mean Dina’s a social caterpillar, or…she’s the only reverse-butterfly (or insect with complete metamorphosis) in existence.
I wasn’t thinking 4th dimensionally.
Wh…what? Neither was I! I was thinking BIOLOGICALLY.
Well there is that I guess.
Yup. As a biologist, I tend to be rather sensitive about biological impossibilities.
But were you at least thinking 5th dimensionally?
…Mr. Mxyzptlk?
Kltpzyxm?
He’s just a dried-out version of Qwsp. Although the derby does lend a certain touch of class.
Yeah, except Mxyzptlk was a thing WAY before Qwsp popped up on the scene. So was Bat-Mite, if I recall.
Mxyzptlk showed up in 1944. His repeated “pranks” in Metropolis take a much darker tone when you realize they were indirectly helping the Axis hold out a little longer. Dirty rotten 5th dimensional Nazi sympathizer.
Bat-Mite was 1959. Qwsp was 1962. I prefer the latter on the basis that being a fanboy of Batman is taking the easy road, especially in the era when Aquaman was still running fish hospitals and teaching octopi to be one-man bands. Bat-Mite never had to live with the cancellation of his idol’s books.
Wouldn’t that make her a social caterpillar?
Better than a very hungry caterpillar.
Dinosaur metaphors would be more preferable.
…A social Caudipteryx?
Like what? A social Sinosauropteryx?
I’m not a dinosaur expert so yeah sure, whatever tickles your Tricerstops.
ExCUSE me (*pushes up dinonerd glasses*), but Triceratops isn’t a thing! Brontosaurus, on the other hand, IS.
Not a dinosaur expert! 😝
What do you mean? The “Triceratops is a juvenile” thing? That hasn’t really received a lot of love in the community…
Yeah, I know. I brought it up more to make a joke than anything else. I did hear that the whole “Triceratops is a baby Torosaurus” thing lost some traction in recent years, but I also know that it hasn’t been completely disproven. Mostly, at this point, but not completely. However, Brontosaurus being a thing? Hasn’t been disproven! Yet.
Either way, ‘triceratops’ got named first, so they stay a thing however it shakes out.
I think this is the first a comic has made me like Dina.
So prior, you were indifferent to her, yes?
(Say yes for god’s sake or incur the wrath of her fans.)
Meanwhile, at their armored keyboards, and wearing their dinosaur pajamas and hats, the Dinarmy are awating Jayax’s response, ready to strike at any moment.
The raptors demand an answer!
There is something terribly wrong with you, sir.
First…you…what…I don’t understand.
RIGHT????
This looks like every other girl ganging up on Joyce about Dina. How appropriate somehow.
Plus the Mad Hatter and Sarah’s clone.
If we were talking about Walkyverse Dina, I might understand. But this Dina?
Dude, take my word here.
RUN. The Dina fans are coming. I mean, I’m amongst them, but I’m just the introductory vanguard. Be wary Be wary of the nurdrage. Or nurdconfusion and misunderstanding, to be more accurate.
Listen to otusasio! Run or be devoured to bits!
And by devoured, we mean “annoyed and pestered.”
Or possibly actually devoured. Who knows WHO reads this webcomic?
Umm, “rent” to bits, torn apart but left behind, “devoured” consumed quickly and completely.
This has been another service of the Vocabulary Patrol.
It’s okay to not like characters everyone else does.
Except in the case of Dina.
I’m honestly indifferent to her as well. I mean yeah she’s a good character and she’s funny, but I just never liked her nearly as much as some of the other characters.
I agree with you on that. I think she’s alright but not a big time love for her.
I don’t have “social” anxiety so much as I have “I really want to talk to people, but I’m afraid of looking like an idiot” anxiety.
I believe the name for that is “perfectly normal human being.”
Or…social anxiety (like how else would you define it?)
Dina…God, I love you Dina. You will always be my favorite character.
DAAAAWWWW
Who do you think will be on the floor next? I’m voting for Walky.
Likely, he has zero tolerance for alcohol.
lets see here:
Dina
Walky
Billie
Danny
Amber (will have shown up by this point)
Ethan
Dorothy will survive
thats my guess
Wait, wasn’t Willis doing some sort of ‘Hunger Games’-esque elimination trial between all of his characters? Who actually won that??
Sarah, if I remember right.
well, some genuine concern from becky there. i think i like her better now than when she’s busy being awesome. i would like to advocate the idea of becky and dina striking up an unlikely bromance. becky is always a lot to process, so it’d be a heart-warming puppy-in-a-slipper scenario. there’s also a ‘coming out of the closet’/’hiding behind the door’ joke in there somewhere
Becky’s next act of rebellion against her fundamentalist upbringing: asking Dina to tell her more about this “Mesozoic Era” business.
I think Dina liked Becky because of their first interaction back when she was telling people to attend Joyce’s party. I mean look at her, she’s smiling in those two strips. She -rarely- smiles in this comic, most of the time she’s got a neutral looking face. (The only other time I remember her smiling was in the cereal comic.)
And Becky probably thinks she’s cool because of her hat.
Stop before the Dina-Becky shipping begins.
Too late, they are already buying a cottage on the outskirts of town so they can both get to their jobs, Dina’s teaching job, and Becky’s… Say what is Becks good at that she can use to earn a living?
Loudly smashing closets. So, demolition?
I’m with willis in this one. Seualizing dina is weird.
There’s nothing inherently sexual about shipping becky and dina tho
Activism? She’s got plenty of person experience of things being shitty, and putting up with bongos, so she might, especially once she’s on her own two feet and not dependent on her unrequited love, be good at relating to other queer Christians.
Becky would be correct. That hat is very cool
Well, it’s the party invitation that’s making Dina smile, not Becky per se; she doesn’t know Becky beyond passing her in the halls a couple times. (Assuming for a minute that Dina hasn’t been hiding behind Joyce and Sarah’s door, which one can never entirely rule out.) But she may well have positive associations with Becky now as The Deliverer of Party Invitations.
Dina and Becky would make an awesome tv show.
♫One’s gay and the other likes dinosaurs♪
I would watch the HECK outta that.
This is so sweet and sad. I just hope she continues to have fun. :3
Maybe the party will devolve into a camp circle with pillow-blanket tents?
Woot! Pillow tents/forts!
Now I’m really looking forward to Amber showing up.
“Why is my roommate huddled on the floor under a man’s jacket?”
Plus she’d probably recognize it’s Ethan’s
“Ethan, didn’t I give you that hoodie for your birthday?”
Ethan rules.
Useful Ethan is useful.
Eh? Jurassic World comes out in like two weeks so she won’t be down long.
I both can’t wait for it, and dread the inevitable SUCK that it will carry with it.
Chris Pratt trains raptors and they somehow explain away the absolute idiocy in creating a super dinosaur. I see no potential for suck here.
God, the fact that this is a movie starring Chris Pratt with swords, riding a motorcycle, and leading his own raptor pack, is WAY more than enough to get me hyped for the movie, because THAT is GODDAMN AMAZING IMAGERY.
as an action/monster movie it looks fine. I just pretend it has nothing to do with JP or dinosaurs 😛
In my head, I’ve been thinking of it as an alternate reality JP, taking place in a universe where none o the negative events of the previous movies have ever happened. After all, there is NO WAY it would get the go ahead after all of the crap that went down in the three movies preceding it.
Now, not associating it with dinosaurs…that might be more difficult.
I saw it as taking place in the distant future of JP, maybe by then the negative press of the first three stories died down. The tech certainly seems futuristic.
They aren’t dinosaurs. They’re the products of bizarre DNA mashups that somehow strongly resemble certain species of dinosaur. I mean, the dinosaur DNA they would have to work with would have degraded down to a soup of nucleotides by now, with zero information content left. So, ‘filling in the gaps’ with the DNA of other species just means recombining DNA from different species until you get something that somehow resembles a dinosaur.
The “no feathers” thing makes some sense in the context of visitor protection. No feathers mean that the dinosaurs cannot preserve their internal body temperature as efficiently, which means that they’d get very exhausted very quickly and be significantly more lethargic.
On the other hand, there is no excuse for pterosaurs carrying off people using their feet.
Except it looks scary if you don’t know how wrong it is.
I had to sit through the trailer for that for Mad Max, and I kept thinking… shit, it would be pretty damn cool having a movie about giant griffins.
It’s still some time in October in-universe…she’s got a few months before Jurassic World comes out…or else she saw it months ago. It hasn’t been confirmed WHICH relatively-contemporary October it is. >_>
I thought it was mid-September, since it’s been 28 days and IU’s fall semester starts in late August.
2 weeks in comic time so… 6 months ?
all right, tops comin’ off
turnin’ up
Yeah that’s the opposite reaction I have. I usually wind up going to the nearest restroom, locking myself in a stall, hyperventilate and browse my phone.
This made me actually laugh at loud.
Dina is the cutest damn thing and Ethan can be very good guy.
Dina is going to be fine, she needs to ‘process her new data’. She’s happy.
She is a scientist. Clearly, with this successful new experiment and the influx of important observations, she cannot afford distractions until she has thoroughly analyzed it and reached conclusions consistent both with these data and past information.
Look for the publication in Science or Nature in the coming weeks.
Drat no edit. Laugh OUT loud. sigh
poor loud
Always mocked and derided. It’s volumism, I tell you.
Not loud’s fault at all. He has a decibility.
That sounds like problem… sheesh that was weak. Guess I’ll just stay quiet. Maybe turn down for the night… ok I’m done.
Its a sound problem
So I hear.
We have to find the way to soften the blow.
That pun is worth at least two internets.
Who needs a door when you’ve got Ethan?
Ethan is best door.
Ethan is more door than man now. He’s … Doorman.
I am the Doorman. My doors are delicious.
Spoon?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcm-J7lQT3w
I couldn’t find video of Doorman himself, confound it all.
Doorman Senses… tingling! Hold it right there, SIDEKICK!
I hate to say it, but I think Danny is the better door.
He swings both ways and he’s easy to push around.
And prior to becoming Doorman he trained for many years as Doormat.
A door that can turn into a doormat is a pretty shoddy door, to be honest. I find that doors work best when they stay on their hinges.
But the reverse, that of a doormat turning into a DOOR!
A trapdoor, then? I find it unlikely that Danny can sweep anyone off their feet. (Amazi-girl is the one doing that to him most of the time.)
Maybe Danny will be revealed to be a reverse trap (door).
Ethan’s not just a door, he’s an entire closet.
Aww…the image of Dina using Ethan for comforting is just too damn adorable.
…even if she is just using him for his hoodie!
#gpoy
Dina is perfect.
We aspies are problem solvers. Of course, not many see that those problems exist, and not many find the solutions intuitive.
I am enjoying this concert! I really am enjoying it very much! Yes, I am hunched over with my face in my lap and my fingers in my ears. This is what “enjoying the concert very much” looks like on me. I am in fact having a good time.
Also, if I’m in a room full of people all talking and I have my headphones on and you notice that whatever they are connected to is turned off? No need to point it out to me. Everything is functioning as I require it to function.
Dina’s dislike of contractions makes me imagine everything she says is in Teen Titans Starfire’s voice.
No, I hear Adventure Time’s Princess Bubblegum voice 🙂
Panel 3 Dina may be the most adorable thing in the entire comic so far.
this party is off the chain
OMG. I love Dina. Overload is fun!
You can always tell a Shaman player.
It’s not a real party until you have drama, alcohol, and somebody hitting the deck.
Dammit Dina, stop being the best character ever. I have only so much room in my heart, you know.
Like Jello, there’s always room for Dina.
Usually behind a door.
First time ever I’ve had an overwhelming urge to comment.
Dina is absolutely the best.
OMG. WHAT’S THAT PUDDLE ON THE FLOOR!? MY HEART YOU SAY!? *Dies*
It…it melted?
Yeah, that holds up.
I think it’s just that drink your gravatar spilled yesterday.
I’ve always loved Ethan, but I didn’t realize until now how much I fricking adore him. I guess I can relate to him way more than I thought I did. That’s what I love about this comic! ♥
(also…. been reading for over a year, but first time commenting..?!)
This made me emit a sound that I can only describe as a “squeeee”
Open the door…Dina’s on the floor.
Everybody… stop having faces near the dinosaur?
Did Ethan just take charge of the situation? I’m impressed, and Dina’s clear instructions are. Awesome
I love Becky being overdramatic. You can just feel that she wants to add a “NOOOOOOO”
…. Everytime I look at the slipshine promo I think it’s Walky and Mike.
Oh god…i see it now!!!
OH. MY. GOD.
Becky, look at her butt.
awwwwwwwh dinaaaa
Dinah is definitely my favourite character in this strip. I work with autistic kids, including one who reacts socially just like this. He loves it and wants to be a part of it, but the processing is really difficult for him.
As a 36 year-old autistic kid, I have to agree! 😀 David Willis, you are doing a great job!
I’m an autistic woman, and yeah. Pretty classic sensory/information overload (except I would be in a closet, if a bathroom were not in evidence. Yes, at 27.) with shutdown.
Except I can’t word in shut down in full sentences. And sometimes not at all. Which in fact is why I don’t do loud parties much, and when I have to, I take bathroom breaks so often people think I have a bladder condition.
I create curriculum for an autism center, and this is a very excellent portrayal of someone with high functioning autism (Asperger’s perhaps). The coat over the head is literally what I tell people to look for if they’re wondering if their child has undiagnosed autism.
Am I a really bad person that I want to see Dina in Slipshine moment out of curiosity to witness how that would play out?
honestly ever since willis started doing porn of his characters im pretty sure everyone is curious what everyone would do in that situation
woo, actual character development for her. so good.
i have to say this is a very accurate representation of what i do when i suffer badly with social anxiety XD
Never before has Dina’s hat looked more sinister. Clearly it thrives on Dina having fun in social situations.
Well dina, you could go settle down in the closet, but I’m afraid it’s already a bit overcrowded already.
Also at this rate she may associate Ethan’s scent/clothes with feel safe.
a weird love hexagon ensues.
Diagram of said hexagon gets presented by Congresswoman DeSanto. Nobody notices on account of it being on C-SPAN.
OMG. Dina is the most adorable thing ever! 🙂
Dina is adorable AND ONLY GOOD THINGS SHOULD HAPPEN TO HER WILLIS…but I already kind-of felt that way about Joyce (beyond needing to acclimate to the different personalities in the world) to an extent and look how that turned out.
Sorry this was meant to be its own comment…still works I guess?
The Dinasaru has learnt tool use! Soon, there shall be fire!
I wonder if, as an alternative to hooding, Dina’s is going to take a breather in the bathroom and her interaction with Sarah is what pushes her to the next step of her Destroy Raidah plan (or away from its pettiness).
Also, Dina is the most bestest character ever.
I said it on Twitter about yesterday’s strip and I’ll say it today –
I’m an aspie and there is officially no way you can tell me Dina isn’t on the spectrum.
I’m a late diagnosis but you are damn right this is aspie behaviour. I used to do this as a kid, but didn’t get the help and eventually turned it all into panicky shivers and soft kitten mews to cope. I’m a 20yo male and I STILL do that.
Very happy with how this is turning out for her. Go Dina!
Great comic, cheers! I’ll have to do something similar the next time I get societal anxiety!
I really appreciate Ethan here, especially how he asks Dina what she wants, instead of trying to make decisions for her.
You young kids…
Open the door, get on the floor, Dina is doing the Dinosaur.
I’m so happy she’s having fun <3 I love Dina so much.
Dina’s smiling. All ‘s right with the world.
So I’m a teacher for individuals with autism, I showed this and the previous comic to one of my coworkers, and she just *beamed* This kind of behavior is totally within the range of “normal” for us. Seeing good representation is GREAT.
Elliot’s Coat of Solitude has Traveled.
Everyone loves Dina, but Ethan’s “Oh, okay, this is my life now” face in the last panel is adorable.
Ethan would make an awesome dad.
Dina is happy. Ethan is taking clothes off.
WE ALL WIN!
Well, that brings back memories. I haven’t done the hiding in sweatshirts thing since middle school.
I really like the showing that there is a difference between being overwhelmed from sensory stuff and having an anxiety attack. A lot of writers who portray sensory overload tend to write it as though it’s exactly the same as an anxiety attack, but they’re both very very different feelings. I like that Joyce is talking to Dina normally as well, without judging her for the coat as well 😊
That look on her hat’s face makes it look like it’s got a diabolical plan to suck the life energy out of her or something