[inb4 TOO SOON: 1. Willis committed this months ago 2. “too soon” after WHICH mass shooting? it’s just as much prophetic since in America there’s a new one practically fucking weekly]
What do you mean, a danger? He is saving her from worse. Her immortal soul might not yet be irretrievably lost. But now’s the time to cut her losses, obviously.
…….Fucking hell…. Willis. Please. I REALLY want some Gore in the next few pages/chapters, Give us some catharsis with Nutjob up there getting shot by the cops.
“He is saving her from worse. Her immortal soul might not yet be irretrievably lost. ”
In the NT that’s not his call. Never was. Never will be.
But don’t let me get in the way of your opinion.
I’m not allowed to.
I could kind of sympathise with him before this strip. He’s just ignorantly trying to help his daughter, so he’s just the classic bumbling, overprotective dad!
Then he draws a gun, and I’m like, WTF?
This will be good.
While it is a drastic turn of events, the girls are actually pretty safe considering the context. The fact that there was almost immediate cover and that he had to spend time taking the gun out gives them a considerable amount of time for the police to arrive. The fact that he has done this on a college campus means that the initial police response will be within 3 minutes, but I would guess within 1 to 1.5 minutes considering that IU has a police department. The following police response would take 3-5 minutes but would be massive, possibly involving multiple police departments. SWAT would be called, but I don’t know where the nearest team is based, so they might not even make it there before the situation is resolved.
He’ll be arrested either way. Seriously, I’m starting to wonder what happened to his wife…
There are already witnesses, and while a courtroom may empathize with the Browns, being clean-cut, ‘productive members of society’ & well to do, they may feel less understanding about ‘Toe Dad,’ who basically comes off as a short, redneck nutjob, who’s probably been unemployed for a long time, engaging in ‘typical redneck behavior’ and probably planning to shoot up the nearest government building next unless he’s put away soon.
Joyce’s parents may blame Toe Dad’s actions of her, Becky, and their ‘heathen’ friends once the Pubic Eye isn’t watching, but I’d imagine they would keep their distance during his trial….Especially if the prosecution convinces him to take the stand…Part of the same Church Family or not.
I would have to guess the ‘little lady’ was so ground under the heel of religious horseshit that she would sit back and take it, just like that dumbass Duggar bongo.
This is the first time I’ve really seen someone use the bongo word to try to dehumanize someone on here (I wasn’t here when the filter was instated), so I’m not surprised it’s in a blaming the victim context as well.
Eh… maybe. I don’t think so though… I don’t particularly care for Joyce’s parents, but they strike me as too honest and sincere to be that calculating about the whole thing.
Calculating? Actions as basic as being mad at a party that they’re already predisposed to view as ‘in the wrong’ due a knee-jerk impulse to separate themselves from something that’s just too much from them to handle (not just what Ross is doing, but the fact he’s one of their own, who’s supposed to be inherently above this kind of ‘stabbing and shooting’ and they trusted them) and not diving at the chance to make themselves an accomplice to ‘mad gunman’ infanticide, which everyone will see them and what they stand for as being about (it’s too difficult for them to even fathom Ross using such criminal methods as it is)
Kind of like how a bunch of kids all gather to support that idiot daredevil wanna-be they hang out with when he shows off his latest stunt, but run for the hills without getting an adult or anything when that stunt goes horribly, and life-threateningly, wrong. It’s more fight-or-flight based reaction than a deliberately conniving attempt to evade accountability. Why develop the awareness that’ll lead to an understanding of the importance of accountability when simply being sincere and having good intentions will keep all but the most cynical jerks from blaming you for anything that goes afoul in your life?
Damn, can you imagine how the characters would react if they knew some of the stuff posted in these comment chains? He’d possibly take aim at us for the Toe-Dad comments alone. Then if he saw the other stuff? He’d wanna go to TOEn on all of us… O_O
If the fourth wall was that thin, I’d start throwing stuff straight from Mortasheen at him. Specifically, this: http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/pride.htm. Seems appropriate, no?
Ol’ Shotgun Rossie’s starting to validate our Family Guy-assed assumptions from his first appearance, that were solely based on the way he looked, so less.
Then there’s how it stacks with he way he speaks, in contrast to how Mr. and Mrs. Brown talk. They sounded like actual ‘fundies.’ Ross sounds like someone sent by a religious cult to act as an enforcer/martyr. I don’t think that’s something he picked up form his and the Brown’s pastor or their church family in general without the assistance of the voices in his head.
That part’s the punchline. Jackie & Dina’s lives being in danger are scary enough as it is. They may have help, too. Sal’s pretty sharp in these kind of situations, this is hardly the first thug-father based security threat this university had to deal with this semester, and how long to you think he will last once he fails to get a clear shot at Amazigirl?
What I don’t see on that firearm is a front sight, so it’s not a rifle – not a .22, not a BB gun, not a high calibre rifle. It’s a shotgun. Maybe about 20 gauge from the looks of the barrel.
It’s a Ruger “No.1”, and old style single shot rifle that costs $1200+ and comes in a ton of weird calibers you’ve never heard of. About as far “Tactical” or “Assault” as you can get, this says a bit about him as this is something you’d take big game hunting and not something you’d see with a so-called militia or a nutso “prepper”.
Without sights, it’s unlikely to hit what he’s aiming at outside of a about 50 feet (depending no how used to hipshooting he is)… but it’s deadly out to a mile and a half.
If it is indeed a Ruger 1V (which seems to be the general consensus) he’s got only one shot before the girls get into the cover of the woods, but he’s also got the roof of his car to use as a bench rest. I’m afraid there will be blood.
The No.1V’s (varminter) are all chambered in small lightweight cartridges so generally around 300-400 yards/meters but with no sights on that rifle if he’s good at point shooting maybe 100? But then again if they’re taking this into the woods that may be more than he’ll have. Dunno how dense the woods in Indiana are but the only large forested areas between the Noodle&Co and the fountain look to be at the Kirkwood Observatory and behind Lily Library, both of which have many walking paths.
I am deeply impressed by how quickly you guys identified the rifle in question. I am also heartened to learn it’s a single-shot with no sights; I am also pleased to note the person in the background who noticed Ross haul it out.
I am sure the S.W.A.T. team will be here within ten. Meanwhile, at least there’s a certain amount of cover.
Hmm. Which is going to be more important to him, getting even with Dina or “saving” Becky? I suspect the latter.
Not that it really matters because RUN.
Oh hey also in Texas at least it’s now legal to conceal-carry on college and university campuses. It will probably cause more problems than it solves but hey, someone could take out Toe-Dad, at least. Whether or not they could do it without taking out any innocent bystanders, though… And whether or not someone else who was also armed just saw the first person taking Ross down and figured they were the shooter and took them down… That could end up like the Monty Python bit about the autumn leaves committing suicide.
Many target rifles have double triggers. On has a long pull to set the second trigger. The second trigger is almost a hair trigger. I’ve used them in competition. Fortunately, they’re less than useless on a moving target.
Looks like a single shot hunting rifle. They are usually chambered in older big bore hunting cartridges used for buffalo or elephant. The lever under the triggers opens the breach. The twin triggers are probably what is called a single set trigger. Single set triggers are used for fine shooting. The first trigger is pulled to “set” the rifle, making the second a hair trigger that will go off at the lightest touch. Hence the term “hair trigger” which is entirely appropriate for Toe Dad.
You’d be surprised the damage a BB gun cause. It may be air powered, but’s it’s still enough to put you in the ER, especially if it gets you near a vital organ.
BB guns are a type of pellet gun that shoots spherical ammo (similar to an Airsoft round but metal) instead of the sort of conical ones a lot of pellet guns use. So you may have them there after all?
I’ve been shot from close range with a high-powered CO2 pellet pistol (in the weirdest driveby ever) and I can tell you that a metal pellet will go through very heavy denim, cotton, skin, and flesh quite handily. Fortunately for me (and hilariously, because I tell this story aiming for a laugh these days) where they got me was square in my left arse cheek. Bled like a bastard, though, hurt like hell, my arse was black and blue for weeks, and I limped for about a week.
It looks like either a BB gun or a .22, and I’d assume the latter for a variety of reasons. And lever-action isn’t semiautomatic which is what’s usually used for this sort of insanity. But it’s still definitely a deadly weapon on school grounds that he’s threatening 2 people with as part of a hate crime. Fortunately .22 shots are more survivable than most bullets, but that’s not saying much.
No, it’s definitely some sort of 12 gauge break-action.
I can’t tell if it’s a single or double barrel model and even if there’s only one trigger visible it doesn’t mean it’s not a double barrel since some models are designed to operate with a single trigger.
I really doubt there’s any intention of super-accurate gun representation, as lever-action double-set triggers (your best bet for google search term, here) kind of went out of style in the 1880s, and were almost never seen in shotguns. Toe-dad doesn’t strike me as an obscure historical firearms collector 😉
Closest matches would be: Low Wall Model 1885 in .22 Hornet (which is only a .22, but very much on the “magnum” end),
or Marlin Model 1881 in 40-60 gauge Marlin (despite the use of the word “gauge” there, is not a shotgun).
Nobody has done that weird open-lever design in about 130 years because it’s simply begging for a chance to snag on something and cause a fatal accident. Simply owning a gun increases your chance of getting shot (just, like, statistically speaking, really don’t want to start a fight), and open-lever is actively begging for that.
Finally, the barrel looks too narrow to be anything but BB/.22, but again: really doubt there was any intended accuracy here. It’s probably as dangerous as it needs to be to serve the narrative, right?
If I can just remind you that we’re talking about a cartoonist who sets his strips in a real world location, knows the exact street / building they’re in, and constantly updates his backgrounds from photographs of the setting to make sure they stay accurate?
That’s… a really good point. Before I escaped via college I was raised in the *exact* same culture as Joyce/Becky/the cartoonist, basically by Joyce’s parents but half the church was exactly like Becky’s, so just hanging out with friends (non-church friends super discouraged) meant a surprisingly thorough education in firearms just through, like, osmosis. The Low Wall (specifically this one is actually a 1995 production heavily based off historical styles, so it’s physically possible for Toe-Dad types to own one in the real-world. Just… my experience was that’s way more of a Remington 700 generic deer-rifle crowd.
Eh, I know basically nothing about guns (and pretty happy to stay that way) but when people in the comments started naming specifics I figured it was probably intentional – Willis does his research.
I imagine it’s intended to tell us something about Toedad, like his Walmart-issue combat pyjamas, though the specifics go over my head.
I want to be a collage student. just stare at them all day and try to learn what magazines the pictures came from. would be boring and pointless probably, but a hell of a lot cheaper
(Damn my fingers always get the a and e keys mixed up)
Collages can be really fun if they’re well made. And pretty. Though not as pretty as decorated bentou. (I don’t know why but whenever I try to picture a collage, a pokémon-style bentou I saw once somewhere always pops into my head.)
! Last week Montage ™ figured in another webtoon that I follow, now Collage ™ here. Same class of pharmaceuticals, right? They cause visions of multiple images posted in close proximity of space or time, often bleeding into each, right?
Probably beyond Amber’s budget, but not Bruce Wayne when he was in college. Seriously. There are some schools with more than a few students with access to serious scratch.
I don’t remember what show it was on Spike, but they showed that if you fold a piece of silk over several times it will actually stop a bullet. No idea what calibre bullet though. TL;DR: Silk pajamas ftw?
Silk pyjamas, it ends up, at least what can be bought online, are ridiculously expensive (went looking a while back). Silk fabric, though, can be a lot cheaper; I got my cream silk satin for $10/metre; and a friend got her red silk at $6/metre. Canadian. And that was in stores, not online. I can’t even get cotton broadcloth that cheap here. And Amber can apparently sew…
Little India in Vancouver, BC and Little Pakistan at the top end of Surrey, BC are amazing fabric places, yo.
I’d not, but that’s just because its safer to not get involved. If they’re really concerned, what’s stopping Dina or Becky from using the phone they had and calling the police. They’re both adults and just because a parent wants something means nothing once they hit the age of majority, a parent can’t legally for them to pass the salt.
If you see a man pulling out a rifle while chasing two college-aged girls, and you *don’t* call the cops, you’re not a coward, you’re a freakin’ monster.
Dina and Becky are a bit busy being pursued trying to not be shot right now. Guy in the background has a lot more leisure time to fish his phone out of his pocket, turn it on, dial 911, and describe what he saw.
Plus, he’s far enough away that the conversation’s not gonna be heard by toedad unless he’s a phone-yeller.
Maybe even get Random Bystander 2 to take some pics/video as either later evidence for Police or to help identification (or more likely Facebook… -_- )
Hmmm….I believe this is an occasion meriting profanity. Yes. This definitely qualifies.
FUCK you, dude. It doesn’t put you in any more danger to run away and call 911 than it does to run away and go about your day. If you honestly wouldn’t call the police after seeing someone chasing two girls with a gun, then yeah, you’re part of what’s wrong with the world.
One night we were lying in bed, unable to sleep. It was an unusually warm night so we had the window at the head of the bed cracked open a bit. Suddenly, we heard gunfire. Bang. Bang bang. Bang.
“Help me! Somebody help me!” Tires squealing.
I called 911. My husband pulled on some pants and tried to find the guy, whom he could still hear calling for help.
We later talked to someone in the neighbourhood (the shooting was in the field across the road from him; the cops took the opportunity to bust him for having a grow-op; he said it was unrelated and it might have been; everyone has a grow-op in Vancouver) who had talked to other neighbours in the area; lots of people had heard the shooting; many of them were closer than we were.
The cops told us we were the only people who had called them. Middle of the night, lights off in all the houses, no way to tell what anyone was doing, and nobody else “wanted to get involved”. Because apparently picking up a phone and spending ten minutes talking to the 911 operator to get help for a gunshot victim WITH NO RISK AT ALL is “getting involved”. >:(
I’ve been that person too, with someone getting the shit beat out of them with a board (and screaming) outside my apartment building, at which at least 6 apartments facing the scene were occupied, as well as various houses.
I want to thank you for making the call, but also to be fair, you said this was at night? Maybe other folks were out/asleep/had earplugs in because bedmates snore (I fall into the latter category).
((unrelatedly?, I do sometimes worry because my partner regularly has earphones on and wouldn’t find me for at least an hour or two if I fell in the shower))
You’re right I am what is wrong with this country it took this girl over a decade to learn the lesson that the police won’t protect me, and don’t care. Took trying to report my first sexual assualt, threatened with jail time over trying to report their unwillingness to take my report, let alone investigate/arrest my attacker, arrested for a brunt out tail light, ohhh and lets not forget being sexually assulted by a male officer at a checkpoint…. Sure I’m what’s wrong with this world. I could go on but it’d do no one any good would it?
Your experiences are valid, but they aren’t relevant to this, they don’t negate the need to get emergency services on site in this sort of situation and calling 911 does not mean having to talk to or be around police (and at worst you can get someone else to call in (eg, the person next to the person in the last panel background)). I can comprehend why you wouldn’t want to be involved even if I don’t have your deep understanding of your experience, but calling 911 doesn’t mean getting involved and could be a life or death difference for someone else.
Indeed it is. I was in high school when Columbine happened, and it was a huge deal. I live a long way from Colorado, and it was still a major topic of conversation in my school for quite some time. Now, mass shootings are a regular occurrence. “Terrifying” isn’t a strong enough word, but I can’t think of a strong enough word to do our present situation justice.
I hate to rain on everyone’s parade of doom, but violent crime in the US (including murder) has been trending steadily downwards for several years now, with current rates the lowest in decades. Call me strange, but I find the idea of fewer people being murdered a good thing.
I’m not for one second trying to suggest that the murders that do happen aren’t horrible, or that even lower rates wouldn’t be better. I’m just saying that it makes no sense to run around shouting “The sky is falling!” when things are actually getting better.
Violent crime in general is declining, but there is a worryingly huge increase in the specific category of violent crime where one person goes into a public space and kills as many people as they can before being killed or arrested themselves.
Saying that things are getting better because crimes are decreasing is like saying that the number of insect stinging incidents is decreasing while ignoring the fact that 40% of insect stinging incidents are swarms of killer bees killing toddlers (please not that this is a hypothetical example). If there are half as many stings, and 40% of them are dead toddlers, that’s still millions of dead toddlers, which tends to be an indication that something is horrifically wrong.
On a more realistic note, it’s like the incidence of heart disease. As I recall from research, the average life expectancy has gone up steadily, but the risk of heart disease has also gone up. You’re basically saying “don’t worry about heart disease, you’re likely to live longer so it doesn’t matter.” That’s completely wrong. You worry about heart disease. Take care of your shit. If something is as completely outside the norm as the number of mass shootings we have in the US on a yearly basis in the last few years (which has risen to an enormous, horrifying level from almost none just ten years ago), something needs to be done about it. If it were only the ration that was going up, it wouldn’t be a concern, but the ratio and the numbers are going up. As most crime is falling off, this one specific thing rises the way you would expect of a cross between a James Bond movie and a frikkin’ war.
You’re right. “Things” are getting better, but we’re not talking about “things.”
We’re talking about mass killings. And those are absolutely getting worse.
Except, is it? Does pure violence ever really solve issues, or more just delay/bury them? It’s like that cheap fix that you know is going to break worse than the first time, but later, and hopefully you’ll have the money/time/wit to deal with it then.
Um… what world do you live in where terrible people realise they’re being terrible and stop? Terrible people are either always in denial that they are terrible (like Toedad here who is now claiming to be the Hand of God), or they know they are terrible and like themselves that way.
I know it’s nigh-impossible to do that. I just wish there was a way to a: make people less defensive regarding their preconceived notions b: make them less likely to discard statements out of hand and think them through, allowing you to make people realize how horrible they are. Unless there’s some kind of ridiculous neurochemistry-affecting kind of fungus out there that does that, I hold no illusions that such a thing is actually possible.
So what you’re saying is what we need is Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare. That allows the recipient to feel exactly what they put the other person through.
While I’m guessing you mean to deal with Toedad, I think that might be a bit inappropriate considering another American idiot went stupid with a gun recently…
Not calling you a liar, but as awful as they are, school shootings do not happen every day. To the best of my knowledge. I’ll readily accept solid information to the contrary.
Not school shootings. Mass shootings, in which there are at least four victims. Scroll down to find a large in-lined calendar chart of them. Can’t miss it.
Seriously? What the fuck is wrong with people. I suppose I can’t expect that the gun lobby wisely decided that it might not be a good idea to push their interests this year.
I don’t understand why he pulls out a gun. Why does he need a gun? He’s trying to capture an unarmed woman. Unless he intends to use the threat of harm to compel her he’d be better off using his bare hands to subdue her. How does he intend to put her in a car at gunpoint without getting arrested?
Is it because he knows he can’t run her down? We know that he beats her so he must be able to catch her and subdue her without a gun. Unless he uses the weapon to force her to submit to beatings. Are we supposed to know more about his character and a preference for guns from a pre-DOA work?
He might be the ‘corporal punishment’ type, although I don’t believe it was mentioned anywhere.
His intent with the gun may be many things. With his short legs, I think he knows he cannot outrun his daughter, so maybe he seeks to lame her, or slow her down – more than a bit harsh, but in his mind, gentler attempts to change her have failed.
Another, even more disturbing, option, is that the gun is meant for Dina. He knows Dina intentionally deceived him, and may now view her as aggravating his daughter’s rebellion. His warped mind may justify killing Dina as a way to save Becky.
I have a major problem with any religion (or, to be more fair, any religious person) that considers what is done to a corporeal body as completely irrelevant so long as you can save their soul by doing so. You know. Save it by the rules of your interpretation of your religion.
I’d rather you not mess up someone’s physical body to save their souls, thanks all the same. Geez. That was the same justification for burning witches.
At least if all Ross is concerned about is saving her soul to the complete detriment of all else, and doesn’t think she’s currently in a state of grace, he proooobably won’t actually kill Becky? Although of course that doesn’t necessarily preclude outright harm.
“Love one another.” “Treat each other as you would want to be treated.” Honestly, how is that so hard?
I think you have unrealistically high expectations for the rational forethought and planning ability of the typical American fundamentalist gun-wielding maniac.
Since the year this strip takes place in is free to incorporate elements of real-world happenings from [i]many[/i] years, it’s possible that the IU students are aware of what to do in the event of shootings.
I spent a lot of time digging around Willis’ tumblr last night looking for it, and I can’t seem to find it anymore. He posts a lot of stuff. It’s in there somewhere, though.
Oh, hey, maybe Blaine and Ross will meet in the hospital, talk things over, and decide to team up! That way we won’t have to deal with their separate plot threads and less time will be devoted to them total, because they’ll be sharing screen time when they get any! Yay!
Knocking a human unconscious without doing lasting damage is a very tricky thing to do. That why anaesthetists exist as a job separate from surgeons. The amount you use varies according to height, weight, sex, age, and a million other factors. It’s far harder to do than the movies have taught us.
I mainly get it from the consultant anaesthetist I’m friends with who rants about how easy the movies make his job. And also about how most medical shows completely ignore them, even though they are the second most important person in the room when something goes wrong during surgery.
(I do similar ranting whenever anyone misuses the word “firewall”.)
*spits out half-a-mouthful of frootloops
Are you telling me people CAN’T have a quiet conversation in a datacenter like in the movie Firewall?
/sardonic
Willis has specifically said that he’s not going to kill off any of his DoA characters. I was concerned yesterday that Becky would be hauled into the car and simply never seen again.
I feel like perma comas or brain injury resulting in loss of any sense of self count as killing, since part of the reasoning is that they would be grieving forever and that applies, except first they’d be visiting the hospital/care home forever.
A major gunshot wound could leave someone in the hospital then rehab for the rest of DoAs 1 year in universe time frame. That seems a path that Willis might have chosen, consistent with this universe — and real life. The so called news LOVES to report shootings and body counts etc, BUT does WAY LESS the consequences for the wounded. (Or the loved ones of those killed). Some news organizations should cover the post-shooting for at least one person day by day by day. Doubt any will. But it’s something that Willis might, given how he’s already following a year in the life of how many troubled kids?
Well, this actually managed to go beyond what I feared would happen, which was that he would try and forcibly abduct her. Shouldn’t have underestimated a religious zealot.
yeah, no joke! to everyone who had envisioned their version of the worst possible path this could take, shotgun-wielding hick chase through the woods: anyone thought it’d be worse than that?
He shoots Dina, Becky gets the gun away from him and kills him. The stress and guilt drives her to drug abuse and eventually suicide. Dina survives and has to live with all of it. Joyce is broken?
Also, Joyce’s parents blame Becky. Jocelyn angrily comes out to them to try to make them understand what they’re actually saying. They disown her and she becomes homeless and forced into prostitution to survive. Joyce spends her sophmore year in a mental institution after a breakdown. Dorothy’s worldview collapses when she learns just how horrible people can be to each other. She gives up, on everything. Sarah gets terminal cancer, because, fuck, why not at this point.
He successfully abducts her and she disappears into a shady conversion camp. The camp administrators apply dangerous psychiatric techniques they don’t understand how to properly use on her, such as electroconvulsive therapy, maybe deep brain stimulation. Becky is rendered a vegetable.
That was actually exactly what I thought his plan was. Horrible enough on its own, but I never considered he would actually take a more hands-on approach to viciously murder his daughter.
yup. now imagine that all happening while dina is hospitalized in critical condition. now remember that all of the good characters have to survive and the comic only lasts through freshman year. bullet dodged!
*on the hacked Muzak, Danny Elfman’s “Hot To Trot” continues and is followed up by “Runaway” from the 007: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY soundtrack (also known as the theme song on RUNAWAY WITH THE RICH & FAMOUS)*
The true standard of heroism is valuing need over capacity. A true hero doesn’t worry about whether they’re capable of stopping a threat, only how badly the threat needs to be stopped. This is why so many of them die.
Well I did say on the bright side. The fact that it’ll take people time to get there is the downside.
And I can’t help but notice that every previous excerpt in this was crafted SPECIFICALLY to show how the people most likely to take down toedad are elsewhere at the moment.
Sarah’s in class, Ruth is so out of it that Billie wasn’t even sure she was breathing at first, Amber’s upstairs with her piece of plastic…
holy cow, that is some big-picture stuff you’re pointing out! i see now that this chapter has been building. but even if amber finishes with jacob iii…
Oh man, if something bad happens to Dina or Becky, and Amber realizes she was playing with Transformers as Amber while it happened, it’s possible that it will mean she tries to forego being Amber entirely.
Then Amazi-Girl doesn’t attend classes, and Amber faces the possibility of flunking out as a result. It’s a terrible plan, but Amber isn’t quite held together as it is.
I believe that the series where if you become important when you weren’t before, you die horrifically would be Gundam, correct?
I don’t think Willis would go that far.
The ONLY reason I’m not freaking the fuck out right now is because Willis has said that nobody dies. I, however, am still freaking out (just not freaking the fuck out) because “gunshot” does not mean “dead”. And “comatose” is not “dead” either.
Oh fuck. If she gets shot as Amazi-girl, the reveal of her secret identity would make that yet another horribly traumatic incident to add to the count of the five or six horrible potential outcomes we’ve already identified.
Current headcanon is that Sal winds up (briefly) in hospital after running Toedad down and failing to land cleanly after going over the handlebars. Toerad meanwhile rots in a Sheriff’s infirmary with broken ribs, a broken pelvis, and two aspirin.
(alternative nearly-happy resolution: Becky’s put in hospital with minor wounds, sorting out her accommodation woes briefly and coming up on Leslie’s radar, who decides let’s sort this shit out.
Daniel here. I would have said “In Australia”, but then I remembered my High School had an onsite Police Officer. Unarmed, mainly to do “don’t break the law” sessions, inform students of the laws they might have broken by doing #####, nothing like preventing school shootings…
My experience in the university of queensland also says the contrary. They had campus guards and im pretty sure they had emergency buttons around the campus ( or maybe im confusing it with smu in dallas).
Averàge police emergency response is 5-10 minutes. Averàge active shooter situation is over in 2-3 minutes. Newtown took under 30 seconds. Even if bystanders are all calling 911, flight is the best response. Moving targets are hard to hit. They are both faster than him, since age and a weapon will slow him down. He doesn’t have an assault weapon. No burst setting. No large magazine. Maybe only a couple rounds. Splitting up will make him think for a second and seconds count. Sucks that I have training on surviving such things.
Imagine someone you loved very much was committing terrible sins. Imagine that you were concerned if they continued they would be damned to hell forever. But if you stopped them (by maybe killing them), they might get off with a brief stint in purgatory.
The options are temporary pain or eternal damnation, and as a parent you would be a failure if you didn’t save your children from eternal damnation. This is the kind of fundamentalism that allows people to do some of the most terrible things anyone has ever thought to do.
I’ve never really understood why fundies don’t see the potential third option. If someone tries to hurt your child, why not try to stop them? Omniscience would make you very, very vulnerable to seizure-inducing imagery.
Yes, but if you’re too lazy to prevent people from trying that in the first place, or make people actually like you and capable of adhering to your ridiculous standards, you’re probably too lazy to protect yourself against that.
I think most of us try and give people the benefit of the doubt and not think they’re total monsters until a guy just pulls out a gun and kind of ruins what little credibility he may have had.
It’s wrong to call Toedad a strawman, since there are people like this out there, most people are not so extreme as Toedad. And Willis has included more moderate examples of people with the same cultural background in Joyce’s parents, so it’s not like we’re suffering from a case of Toedad= all fundementalists.
But people are probably going to call him a strawman anyway for reasons. Goodish reasons, in fact.
Like, to think pulling a gun on your daughter and her girlfriend is okay is so out of most people’s experience that it’s kind of hard for most people to reconcile that with being human. Thus, strawman.
It also means we’re unlikely we’ll ever see Toedad be rational here – a character whose logic is so ingrained in blind faith to a relatively recent religious movement, that he cannot accept that his daughter can be a lesbian and not go to hell. To me that’s a really interesting (and horrible) way of thinking that I want to see explored.
Obviously that’s not the way Willis wanted to take his story. And that’s cool. But disappointed people who wanted to see a basically okay person tragically fail to do good because of their faith, as opposed to psycho gunman 5, are probably going to call strawman. Even if their terminology is wrong.
“…relatively recent”? There have been those who kill their relatives in the name of religion for hundreds of years, while fundamentalists may be ‘relativel recent’, like around 2,000 years: this isn’t a new occurance in human history sadly.
I’m not a fan of any kind of organized religion. Just my own take on things.
The Christian Fundementalist Movement in the US is early 20th century stuff. But, yeah, people have been killing relatives for all sorts of dumb reasons, religion included, for eons.
The more likely thing to happen is that now people will accuse Willis of using Foedad to promote his lib anti-gun and anti-christian agenda by making this good, God-fearing, daughter-loving, real American the villain in the story.
And they’ll be totally wrong. Merriam-Webster has just announced that Toedad’s picture will appear as an illustration for ‘asshole’ in the next edition.
Evil means you have at least a shred of style, logic (and associated lack of hurting people for no reason) and above all, know that you are actually doing something that goes against normal morality. Ross has no style, no capability to reason to speak of and is such an asshole precisely because he’s unwilling to admit that what he’s doing is wrong. Meanwhile, Galasso is pretty much perfectly evil: he has ridiculous amounts of style, is quite logical and nice (being nice to people means more potential followers, you know) and seems quite aware that he is pretty much a supervillain.
whoever jumps in front of the shot. basically, if he corners becky, then dina gets heroic. any wagers? who sits guiltily bedside? becky? still can’t picture him shooting his daughter with non-tranq, but i refuse to do character analysis on him anymore
I’m afraid it’s going to be Dina. Not because he targets her, or because she jumps in front of Becky, but because this Nimrod couldn’t hit the side of a barn from the inside and just starts blazing away indiscriminately.
Aw shit…waiting 24 hours for the next one is going to suck. If this was a (full time) super hero comic this would be a great time for an Amazi-Girl / Ruthless teamup, but it isn’t and the gun scares me.
Seriously, has the musical Into The Woods taught you nothing? People die in the woods! And there are giants! And essentially it’s all a giant metaphor for sex! … wait, the last one was not a negative one. BUT GIANTS. LADY GIANTS.
I’d say he’s going to go after Dina, not Becky. He probably blames her insidious “oriental” influence for turning Becky gay or something, and thinks that if he removes that influence by killing her, he’ll be able to put Becky back on what he perceives as the straight and narrow.
Hopefully the background person will be able to stop it in time. :-/
Of course he’s not concerned with the legality of his actions. Leviticus told him all he needs to know about legality when it comes to such things as homosexuality, never mind all the other Leviticus proscriptions he probably broke all across his own lifetime. That’s where fundies get to pick and choose.
Honestly, he strikes me as the kind of guy who follows all the Leviticus proscriptions to the letter and enforces them on his family and anyone else he thinks he can get away with enforcing them upon. No mixed fabrics for Becky!
Huh, maybe that’s why Becky was so excited about the prospect of Long John Silver’s. She’s never had the opportunity to eat shrimp before.
The Lord is his Judge! No authority on Earth comes close. The Lord gives him strength. The laws of man are naught compared to the Laws of god. The Police mean nothing, he’s on a mission from God…
Those sound like the arguments of someone like Toedad. I grew up in a strongly religious background myself, still barrack for The Big Guy, but I’m not gonna shove a Bible down anyone’s throat. I can see how such mentality can build up, especially in a community type setup where it can all feed back on itself & just get worse & worse, creating people like Toedad here…
Oh I guessed that. I was referring to the fact that people were saying that if Becky was 18 there was nothing Ross could legally do.
(Though now that I think about it, all Ross needed to do was tell on the school authorities, and Becky would be in the same situation as she was in the start except this time with no Joyce to turn to)
That scene was for turning a Church into little more than a Sunday stall, possibly even selling religious symbols from other religions. Usually he was all about messages of pease, “Love one another, as I have loved you”.
That said, if he did the table-flip thing with the CAR, so it landed on top of Toedad so it pinned him with crippling but not fatal injuries, I’d be OK with that…
I suspect a proto-hippie probably wouldn’t like guns. Or Ross in general. God complex or not, I find it doubtful that you’d be able to inspire a following of any reasonable magnitude if you’re enough of a jerk to like Ross.
This is either perfect or the absolute worst timing possible. Also either Willis can see the future or this country is just too predictable when it comes to this. 🙁
What the fuck man!? I just wanted to tell jokes about a family being torn apart by a father not being able to accept his daughter for who she is, why you gotta make it weird by bringing in attempted homicide?
I’m going to guess that Toedad’s the flavor of right-wing that takes a gun everywhere because “it’s mah right” rather than specifically bringing it for this…
Though then again, he believes he is fighting a great demon who has stolen his daughter property from him and the way of the Lord sooooo…. who knows, maybe this really was consciously planned.
Actually those two are just mild forms of right-wing America. The others more extreme ones are basically terrorist who’ve been active since the late 70’s.
do not worry. it is a harmless truck-gun. it’s like a monkey-gun, but it shoots trucks. and there’s no way that anyone would ever die from something like that!
Not wanting to get into the whole gun debate thing here but in the state of mind that hes in do you think he’d follow any gun laws right now since hes already broken a few traffic laws and is currently trying to kidnap his daughter
Yes, but better gun laws could have kept him from owning a gun in the first place. Though tbh I suspect he’s the sort who would do whatever it takes to have a gun.
depends on his background. without a history of violent crime or serious mental health issues, an extreme religious belief-set would likely not keep him from a gun. not christian, anyway
Disclaimer alert, I own a number of firearms and I enjoy shooting them but I agree that certain people shouldn’t own firearms ie certain types of intellectually disabled people shouldn’t and violent convicted criminals shouldn’t but for the rest of us where is that line?
Also I live in NZ so as I understand it our gun laws are different to yours
I’m not saying they’re inherently violent and I’m not saying all shouldn’t but there are some and its specifically those who don’t understand the responsibility of owning a firearm that shouldn’t be allowed access to firearms
I’m just pointing out that you should be careful about how you’re generalizing (especially since people with mental disabilities are actually more likely to be a target of violence, not to commit it).
@christ73 , well, look at it this way, how do you think people would react if you said “certain types of black people”. The fact that you said “certain types” probably doesn’t make it less jarring.
One thing that link makes clear is that the mentally disabled [i]are[/i] more violent on average (even if only a little). All of the statistics listed are easily explained since we’re talking about a small minority – of [i]course[/i] they wouldn’t contribute much to the overall rates. I’ve rarely felt so strongly that someone was trying to mislead me using (accurate) statistics.
If certain conditions are strongly correlated to violence, that would be a good reason to bar those people from ownership. If not, not. But saying that the disabled are in general not violent is irrelevant.
Alright, so, I work with the mentally disabled every day.
I suppose it is technically true that if you took the entire lot, the average trend toward aggression would be higher, because specific disabilities do result in higher aggression. My job has sent me to the ER on at least two occasions.
However, there are “A LOT” of different kinds of disabilities, so lumping them altogether and saying they are more aggressive shows a profound level of ignorance.
At the very least it’s unhelpful. Sorry if my post came off as arguing for the importance of generalizations – I wrote it quickly and while annoyed at what felt like manipulation. I don’t think the overall statistics one way or another are relevant.
As to the debate: I don’t see a problem with the original post. I don’t feel qualified to say much more than that, though.
It’s not so much as the guns as how people who are able to access them handle the responsibility that comes with it. Simply saying ‘NRA’ is both a complete and strong argument in favor of gun control laws, for example.
I wish people wouldn’t use differing paradigms in arguments like this. The societal values of modern day schools and the 1860’s are two entirely different things. 🙁
It’s prevalence in conversation on any high tension subject has me wondering if maybe the problem isn’t with the subjects themselves, but rather with the way we are being taught to rationalize our arguments in debate. Thoughts?
This is what I say in response to the notion that students with guns on campus will solve school shootings — unless gun training is at the level of the constant training in small unit tactics the military does you cannot convince me that I’m safer if the 25 students in my classroom have firearms than if only cops have them on campus. And I’m the professor, so I’m the one most likely to get shot in the classroom.
Yeah. If you’ve got training in how to properly act under pressure, have been trained for similar situations, and have proper gun training and a firearm with you, you might be able to help. Everyone else is just going to make things worse if they’re armed. I don’t get why suddenly people think they’re prepared for this stuff if they know how to shoot a gun, panic and uncertainty are pretty normal human responses to this sort of thing! And even if you manage to think clearly, you can come to the WRONG conclusions about the right thing to do if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. So I’m talking probably either police or military personnel, and not everyone with those backgrounds is going to be helpful, either.
TL;DR – stricter gun laws are far more helpful for preventing incidents like this than arming everyone and teaching them to aim and fire. Friendly fire is absolutely a thing, and a room full of scared, adrenaline-fueled people with guns is not a room you want to be in.
cops with proper gun safety training shoot innocent and/or unarmed people all the time. If I can’t trust cops who are trained to use guns, why the hell would i trust a “gun safety trained” citizen that i don’t know the agenda of with a gun?? You cannot improve a situation by bringing a gun into it. Period. If you introduce a gun into a tense situation you have escalated that situation, even if you’re “properly trained” on how to use it.
If someone else was armed, I’d give it a 25/75 shot. Toe dad already has his gun out and loaded, he’s high on adrenaline, and he’s willing to kill, none of which is true of the potential Big Damn Hero, who also has to shoot well enough to stop him instantly. Meanwhile, running, breaking line of sight, and forcing the angry idiot to aim just has to work long enough for trained professionals to show up. I mean, if you have a gun and are competent/careful, sure use it if you’re feeling brave, but returning fire only guarantees that someone will be shot, not that the right person will be.
It’s been shown that people without proper training for acting under pressure being armed in a situation like this makes things WORSE. You can be of sound mind and have proper firearms training, but if you’re panicking, it’s still a bad combo.
Like the American passengers on plane taken by terrorist: they attacked the terrorists and let the plane fly into the ground rather than allow it to be turned into a weapon on 9/11?
Maybe not the best example as all died, but they acted under the worse pressure very herorically.
Yes. But shooting in an enclosed space would have very bad for them anyway if any of them had had guns, and sadly their heroics came about in the sort of situation where, well, everyone would have died anyway, and mostly the way to be a hero was to also die. Shitty situation. Has nothing to do with gun control.
I live in the UK. Others here are from Australia. Please compare our gun deaths stats with the US’, and look up what really happens when multiple people start exchanging fire.
The ‘if only the victims were armed’ argument has been debunked so thoroughly and repeatedly it’s not even funny.
Assuming Becky had a gun, and assuming she had the wherewithal to use it properly, and the willingness to do so, having to deal with the emotional baggage of shooting or even killing your own father, even if he is a horrible person, is not something to casually wish for.
There’s a reason that most civilized societies regard killing as a last resort, rather than a political statement.
Ross has already gotten his gun out and could finish Dina or Becky before they got theirs out.
If they drew on him first they’d be the criminals. I mean until he got the gun out he hadn’t done anything to justify it.
The same applies to the bystander only they have even less reason to get involved and risked their lives or freedom.
And if you think people should carry 24/7 you need to now apply this logic to EVERY SITUATION WHERE SOMEONE FEELS THREATENED.
You know what makes me feel threatened? People who have such boners for their guns they openly carry, like those thugs I’ve seen pictures of in Wal-Marts with rifles over their shoulders. Is your thinking I should immediately take out my gun whenever I see these people, tell them to get in the ground and shoot them if they don’t comply?
I like it even better in colleges and schools because those places are both densely crowded and full of highly emotional people with less real world experience.
And lets not forget the fact that even people with firearms training (Like cops) tend to miss with most shots and frequently make bad choices about when to employ force. Now apply this everyone, who have no training and the fact any missed bullet from even a handgun will often go all the way through walls and vehicles.
In a country with strict gun control laws, access to firearms is extremely restricted, and the amount of guns in ‘circulation’ in the general population is very low, which would mean it would be very very difficult for him to own or acquire a gun. His intentions with regard to breaking gun laws would be rather academic; there wouldn’t be any guns for him to get.
The laws are effective at lowering gun violence. It is simple, because the biggest risk factor in being a victim of gun violence is the local prevalence of guns. Laws that reduce the number of guns in the general populace reduce gun violence. Of course, the laws aren’t nearly so effective when you can drive an hour away and buy a gun basically without any restrictions.
It is unlikely Becky’s father would have a gun if he didn’t already own one or if it was hard to acquire.
I just don’t think gun laws or restricting them are the way to go for example in NZ once you get your firearms licence after the necessary background checks you then need an endorsement to be able to purchase MSSA (military style small arms) and pistols which seems a good way of going about it
But outright banning firearms or making them very restricted will only emake ven more profits for gangs selling them
That isn’t the only effect it will have though. Its been shown to have been an effective solution in other countries, and is even effective in the US to a more limited extent.
There are benefits and costs to other solutions, but it doesn’t do any good to ignore the actual merits of the alternatives.
Ok so why do NZ, Canada and Switzerland (all first world countries) have relatively low rates of firearm deaths when those countries all have reasonably high firearm owning rates
And in Switzerlands case that includes easy access to assault rifles (fully automatic rifles)
chris73, good questions! You should look into how NZ, Canada, and Switzerland regulate their guns. It is very different from the “everyone should have one, carry it into Target, and be prepared to be in a firefight at all times” approach.
I’m from NZ and I have my firearms licence plus my endorsements for pistol and military style small arms and to get it (abridged version) took testing, background checks, interviews with myself and friends/family, checks of my property, checks of my storage and reasons for owning
Fair enough; I missed where you had said you were from NZ. There are notable differences from the US in all that. You could easily have a case where more restrictions would not be a positive where you are, but would in Indiana.
So compare those rates to NZ which has a much fairer system of gun ownership yet is in the lower half of gun deaths
Sorry I can’t post the links I want without going into moderation but if you google fbi gun homicide statistics and crime you’ll see that both violent crime and homicide by firearms is dropping and has been for years
Arms traders aren’t immune to economics. If nobody has guns easily available for theft (because guns are tightly regulated), then criminals can’t steal guns, and so they can’t sell stolen guns. When they can’t sell stolen guns, criminals can’t buy stolen guns.
The criminals could of course import illegal guns from other countries with more lax gun laws… but then the criminals would still have to smuggle them across the border. This increases the number of middle-men involved in the process, which raises the price of the gun – and when the price goes up, less criminals are able to buy guns.
I don’t think there’s any evidence that making guns more expensive/rarer means that people will commit more crimes just to afford them. You can’t just “probably” that argument.
Thats true but if a criminal wants a firearm and it becomes more expensive I doubt they’ll get a job and save up their pennies until they can afford one
They might not just get a gun at all. At some point the risks outweigh the benefits, even for criminals. Also, if other people don’t have guns, there is less of an incentive for the criminal to have a gun in the first place.
“No it just means criminals will probably just commit even more crime to afford the weapons they want”
That doesn’t make any sense, not least because you have to toss any gun you use in a crime ASAP. The cops will grab the bullet from the scene and if they ever find the gun on you or in your property they’ll match and you’re basically already convicted.
You also forget the other obvious result that criminals will just do crimes that don’t require guns instead, do those crimes without guns or possibly even get real jobs since it’s much harder to commit many crimes that would be easy if you had a gun.
Less of a joke than your BS, for serious. You’re the one talking about the gangbanger’s piggybank.
Also please name these countries because I’m guessing the answer is “Because they be relatively poor with fewer resources to go around” combined with “There is something illegal that a profit can be made on” like the USA’s crazy drugs laws added to “Crimes are committed by disenfranchised groups who feel they are not part of society so are not held by its rules”.
All three have strict gun control laws. All three have roughly a quarter of the rate of murders the USA suffers. I feel the murder rate is the fairest way to analyse the trend. After all if you can kill as easily with a car or a knife or a home made bomb it’d be pointless ban guns. But you can’t.
Why does Switzerland have a high rate of murders involving guns? Because everyone has guns. But they have fewer actual murders because ownership is highly regulated, not just in who can own what and what they can do with them and where they can take them and what records can be kept but in the entire culture of how guns are treated. In the USA for example it’s entirely based on masturbation and really stupid paranoia.
(There’s also the fact that poverty leads to crime and that per-capita the USA is closer to broke-ass-Greece than Switzerland).
“Australia’s gun laws changed drastically after Port Arthur yet its percentages of homicide by firearm is still above 10%”
So it has 1/4th the rate of murder as the USA and 1/10th of those involve guns. So regulation does in fact work according to this example.
“The UK brought in new rules after Dunblane as well but gun crime is still increasing”
And what does that even mean? Dunblane was twenty years ago and after it private gun ownership basically stopped except for highly regulated shotguns for farmers and by extension gun crime dropped right through the floor. If over that twenty years gun crime was at (To pick a number at random) an average of five crimes a year and then last year it was ten that’s a 100% increase but it’s still probably less than any week in New York.
So compare those rates to NZ which has a much fairer system of gun ownership yet is in the lower half of gun deaths
Sorry I can’t post the links I want without going into moderation but if you google fbi gun homicide statistics and crime you’ll see that both violent crime and homicide by firearms is dropping and has been for years
Only a jerk disconnected from reality believes criminals will commit crimes for the purpose of owning guns. For fucks sake, let’s just put this argument in its place – check out Poland. Poor as fuck, with pretty fucking high rates of street crime. There’s also basically no gun deaths. Organized Crime has access to guns, sure! But ordinary criminals don’t.
you realise that the possibility that someone might break a law doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make that law, right? People still commit murder even though it’s illegal, that doesn’t mean we should roll over to the will of the criminals and make murder legal.
Or we could reduce this situation to a matter of basic math. If there are ten guns, and ten people who want a gun, each person is probably going to obtain a gun. But if a gun restricting law put in place that reduces the number of available guns from 10 to 2, at least 8 of those people AREN’T going to get a gun. a 20% chance of a criminal being able to obtain a gun is a WAY safer option than a 100% chance of them obtaining one.
I’m not against gun control, what I’m against is people saying gun control as if thats the answer, it is not.
In this situation gun restrictions would do nothing because unless Toe Dad has broken laws in the past there would be no reason why he couldn’t have what looks like a hunting rifle
What would work is:
1. Standardized laws between the states
2. Rigorously enforced background checks on all weapons sold
3. Checks that weapons can be stored properly before a licence is issued
4. A basic gun ownership test before a licence is issued
and for mass shootings the media needs to stop posting images and names of the shooters
That right there will lower the gun deaths in America faster and fairer then any gun restriction change would do
Sorry I must not have explained it that well, people say gun control/restriction without any specifics as to what those gun restrictions are
For example someone saying gun control might mean that no one is allowed a firearm or that someone may only have one firearm or someone may only have a rifle or so forth
I’m trying to give specific ideas as to what would actually work to bring down the death by firearm rate as opposed to just saying gun control and leaving it at that
Also gun control would do nothing in this situation because I’m assuming Toe Dad has been, up to this point, a law abiding citizen which means there was no reason to not allow him to own a rifle in the first place
Perhaps, but it is far too late for that. And I don’t mean in this situation, I mean in America in general. The right to bear arms was considered important enough to the American public in the late 1700’s that the founding fathers wrote that in as the SECOND Amendment to the constitution, right after the Freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition in the first one. It is simply unfeasible to change that fundament of law, especially since the amendment process is so hard and requires so many people, the only time an amendment was rescinded was when it interfered with our drinking. And even if it weren’t, there are so many guns around today that rounding them all up would be near impossible.
You do realize he could acquire guns from an out of country syndicate don’t you? Many of the illegal weapons in the US are bought through straw purchases, or when someone has an illegally acquired gun who sells it to a person that is buying it for someone else.
I honestly believe that gun control can work two ways: Extremely strict no gun policy whatsoever, or your average conservative gun nut belief of gun control.
Ridding ourselves of straw purchases would be trivial. All we have to do is have gun purchases reported to the FBI and registered. When the straw buyer’s weapons show up as murder weapons at crime scenes, they likely can be charged as accessories to murder.
The illegal weapon black market could be shut down, if we wanted to. The problem right now is the our police organizations effectively have to try to stop it while being blind folded, hog tied, and locked in a broom closet.
I don’t think more gun control is the answer, according to this: http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/publications/gunbook4.pdf there are about 300 gun laws in the USA but the quickest way to lower the death toll would to make gun laws the same throughout your entire country…of course that would also be the hardest thing to do as I understnad it
Especially since the US Constitution expressly forbids the abridgment of the right to bear arms, so the federal government’s hands are tied on that front. And since the Fourteenth Amendment allows and has caused the Bill of Rights to apply to the states, The right-wing gun nuts actually have the upper hand. The only hope is the “Militia” reading of the Second Amendment. That and the same type of pork-barreling that forced the drinking age up to twenty-one.
Do you really think the NRA cares about a more nuanced reading? How about the average American, who chooses who to put in charge of amending the Constitution? (Starting the process requires two-thirds of either the state legislatures or both Houses, completing it requires three-fourths of either)
No but what I’m suggesting is having a standardized set of laws throughout your country would, for example here in NZ the same laws apply whether you travel from the South Island to the North
However I don’t know what type of change that would require in the USA to happen
Gun control is better thought of along public health lines in that if you reduce the amount of guns the number of mass shootings will go down not stop all together.
It’s most likely a double barrelled shotgun, judging by the build and the double triggers. Of course it could be a gun in general, I hear artist have a very difficult time drawing firearms and such
It’s a more complicated problem than that. Gun violence against others doesn’t track with gun ownership (for example, the district of Columbia has one of the lowest rates of legal gun ownership, but one of the highest rates of gunshot homicides in the country). And even despite the news, gun violence has been going down for years. The terrifying assault weapons are in fact the least likely to be involved in a homicide.
On the other hand, gun control would almost certainly reduce gun related deaths. What nobody talks about is that on average two thirds of deaths from firearms are self inflicted, predominantly suicide. Alaska, which has an extremely low rate of gun violence against others, leads the nation in total gunshot deaths. Eighty percent of those are believed to be suicide. When you provide a populace with an easy method of suicide, suicide rates go up, and guns are a very easy method of suicide.
Shorter version: Gun ownership does not correlate to gun violence, gun violence has been going down considerably, gun control would still probably have a meaningful effect of reducing suicides, but the underlying issues are so complex that targeting the guns only is just a band-aid that doesn’t address the underlying cultural, societal, and medical problems that feed it.
It would also significantly reduce what are the second most common victim of guns: your own family. The source of this would be both domestic violence and accidents.
Waiting periods on gun purchases also probably serve the same purpose as anti-bridge jumping barriers. They are far less likely to go through with it because there was an obstacle.
It’s something that weighs heavily on my mind. I’m fundamentally conservative and all about freedoms. I know that taking away the guns doesn’t fix the fundamental root problems. I live in a house with guns, enjoy target shooting, and have a healthy respect for them and what they represent. You might call this a house of model gun owners who are no threat to anybody, and I know the vast majority of gun owners are the same.
But I’m also painfully aware of the ugly parts of the equation. I’m recovering from suicidal depression, and I’m obsessive about understanding things, so I know where most gunshot deaths come from. I know that taking away the easy path will save lives. And I know that even illegal weapons have to come from somewhere (see also nearly every gun in mexico). And I know that we are in no position to fix the problems we face. Brass tacks, gun control will protect more lives than it will threaten.
It also isn’t the same as the rate of illegal guns flowing into the area from elsewhere. Regardless, you don’t see a corresponding increase in gunshot murder in states with high occurrence of legal gun ownership, such as Idaho and Alaska. You do see a corresponding increase in gunshot deaths, however, because once again the vast majority of gunshot deaths are self inflicted.
It’s a complicated issue is what I’m saying. The availability of guns is only PART of the problem, and stricter gun controls won’t address the rest. What weighs heavily on me is that I don’t know if anybody knows how to address the rest of the problems. How do you fix poverty, social conflict, a crippled mental health care system, the unwillingness of those who need that sort of help to seek it, a media desperate for the next sensational story, and the tendency for people to scream at and denigrate anybody they disagree with rather than actually talking? I’m sure I don’t know how. Stricter gun control might only be a band aid, but it might also be the only thing we’ve got.
Did you really just go there?
I’m not even going to try reading this thread, as even while I trust DoA commenters to be civil it’s just too much text, but here’s my 2¢.
In a country like New Zealand where guns aren’t all over the place yet, sure, but firearms are so widespread in the US that heavy gun control is a lost cause. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be strict regulations, but they’ll have limited effectiveness when it’s not particularly difficult to come by firearms with or without the law’s approval.
It’s a lost cause for any state that remains in the union, between the commerce clause (which means that states can’t have national-style border control – needed to slow the import of illegal guns – even if 2A or 14A weren’t a thing, as that’s a right that Congress is explicitly granted), 2A, 14A, and the foreseeable political state of the union.
However, blue state secession would allow states to not be subject to any of that.
However, once it comes to that pass, we all have a much larger list of pressing issues, at the top of which is the remaining states’ inevitable declaration of war.
Given some of the current events this hits a little too close to home. On the upshot something like this will get him arrested and banned from the campus.
See his reply below. He *did* expect it, because mass shooting average one a week. And a lot are at schools too. There isn’t really any time you can drop a storyline like this and not have it near one.
Smartphones are limited so I couldn’t read everything, but I understand and prefer the story not be rearranged because of another all too frequent tragedy. That’s what I like about webcomics is its not censored by editors who are worried that readers might take something the wrong way.
I am so glad I don’t read the news sometimes. I am also glad I don’t go to any schools that have had this sort of thing. (For the record, the most recent one I remember hearing about is Sandy Hook.)
Not knowing they are really common is part of the issue. If people don’t realise there’s a problem, they aren’t motivated to fixing it. Ignoring the news doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening.
You need to work on your creative thinking. I can come up with a dozen ways to make it worse, and that’s without involving more people, a change in the weather, sexual violence, orthe undead. I’m just wondering if DW will give us a soft landing, or if we are going to see an increase of characters suffering from PTSD.
Undead would actually help this situation. If Becky’s mother was a nice person, she could probably take advantage of the fact that fundamentalists don’t know to shoot zombies in the head to wrestle away his gun and restrain him.
He’s a religious zealot. He’s a violent ****face. With a gun. Dina “deceived” him. He’s pissed. He will “correct Becky” by “any means necessary”. He won’t hesitate to shoot either one.
But will likely start with Dina if he finds her.
No. No. No. No. No. No.
The flash forward mentioned. Where can one find it?
Also… I know, Willis, that you write these WAY in advance… but given some of the events in the past week, be prepared to get some e-mails about being in “bad taste”.
With the 2 school shootings yesterday (and 2 attempted ones in Colorado and Montana), this is going to hit some chords.
Dude, I wrote this four months ago EXPECTING there to be a school shooting. Because there’s one EVERY WEEK, on average. And this particular leg of the story will take a few weeks itself, meaning we’re probably going to have a few in real-time along the way. I mean, if you can find me a nice hole in our national schedule where there isn’t one, please tell me, I’ll be happy to live there forever.
Try Switzerland. One of the most gun-friendly and one of the least gun-violent countries out there. A lovely place to be, if you don’t mind dick-shriveling cold, and are an aspiring gunsmith, such as myself.
We (Switzerland) are a gun-friendly country? I never knew. I mean, I only have one acquaintance whom I know owns a gun, and aren’t the only allowed guns ones related to military duty?
As far as Europe goes, it has one of the highest rates of legal gun ownership, I believe around 30 percent or so of the population owning them. Nothing like the United States, but also nothing like the majority of Europe. Permits are required, but firearms are more prevalent in Switzerland than you think.
So tell me why a permit should me necessary to own a firearm. I don’t need a permit to carry my (oh-so-scary) spring-assist knife, or my fixed-blade hunting knife. I mean no disrespect, I just would like to know why I would have to be government approved to defend myself with a tool that allows anyone with proper training to be on the same level as any other armed assailant.
You’re the one pointing out how Switzerland is safe but ‘gun-friendly’ and brought up permits. To me, that sounds like it has stricter gun laws than the US.
You’re the one pointing to a country with stricter laws and saying it’s as gun friendly but safer than the US.
Well for one, it’s much easier to kill a lot more people with a gun than with a knife. Like, unless you can move extremely fast or are a skilled knife thrower, there’s only so many people you can kill within a a few second. With a gun, depending on the type of gun, that’s a whole’nother story. And as far as I recall, you’re not allowed to carry any knife with a blade bigger than your palm, so it’s not like there’s no restrictions on knives either.
Also, it’s much easier to accidentally shoot someone than it is to accidentally stab someone, and the damage from an accidental shooting is likely to be worse than an accidental stabbing (based on assumptions that I am making).
Switzerland is 41 285 km². USA is 9 629 048 km². You are comparing policies with a country that is about 233 smaller than the US.
Now for a few fun facts :
-There’s a saying in Switzerland that “the mountain are porous”. Because… they have a lot of bunkers bug inside them.
-Every bridges and main road and built with a way to destroy them easily in mind, “in case of invasion”. Bridges also have slots for land mines.
Switzerland, as a country has historically been VERY wary of invasion. It’s kind of a different story from the fuckers that own guns because they assume “the government is secretly after them” or whatnot.
Now, regarding the huge amount of guns swiss people have at home, I’ll quote about.ch :
“Every male citizen has to do military service. This starts at the age of 20 and ends when we become 42. During that time, soldiers keep their arms at home, an automatic rifle for simple solders like me, a pistol for officers, plus a couple of bullets in a sealed box. At the age of 42, we have to return the gun, the bullets and all the clothing etc.”
(women may serve but don’t have to)
I should add that I’m actually have no specific opinion about gun control, other than
– gun control alone will do nothing significant to change violent crimes but CAN affect suicide rates and gun-related accidents (disclosure: brother’s schoolmate shot and killed his best friend when playing with a LOADED handgun, safety off–basically “LOL I SHOOT YOU” and *DEAD*)
vs.
– gun control is always proposed in “good vs. evil” terms rather than trying to address the mentality behind the “evil” (many “criminals” commit crimes because “the system has failed them” and they have no other options)
so I kinda have the same stance on gun control as abortion–why are we choosing sides instead of trying to make it not so much of an issue in the first place
I’d like to think federally making rigorous background checks legally required, closing the loopholes allowing private sales without such checks, requiring permits / licenses for ownership and open / conceal carry, banning all guns on all school grounds and maybe also launching a buyback operation like they did in Australia would do more than just reduce the number of accidental shootings and suicides.
Violent crimes will still happen, but shootings like yesterday’s, that (as far as I’m aware of) were not at all premeditated and only happened because this one idiot got into an altercation while carrying a gun, wouldn’t happen as much, at least not on school grounds. Or maybe I’m just a naive optimist?
But then, who are we kidding, as long as the NRA has all the politicians in their pockets, gun control is never gonna get significantly tougher on the national level.
With a knife, the collateral damage radius isn’t much beyond the reach of your arm (I mean, if it slips out of your hand it keeps going for a bit, but not much).
What’s the backstop radius on a handgun? How about a rifle? Shotgun? Pretty sure all of those have a significantly larger “danger zone” than a knife.
Switzerland. I was once in central Zurich outside the main train station when the men were coming back from their annual training/maneuvers: thousands of guys pouring out of the train station carrying military rifles, heading off in every direction. To an American, totes surrealistic. I remember standing there watching this thinking, “Yeah, I am NOT in America”. I’ve read (forgotten the source) that in Switzerland respect for the military rifles is such that most gun crimes are committed with non-military weapons, even when the criminal possesses a military issue.
“So tell me why a permit should me necessary to own a firearm. I don’t need a permit to carry my (oh-so-scary) spring-assist knife, or my fixed-blade hunting knife. I mean no disrespect, I just would like to know why I would have to be government approved to defend myself with a tool that allows anyone with proper training to be on the same level as any other armed assailant.”
You make an excellent point. You should probably need a license to use some of those other weapons too.
Here’s a question: Why do we need a driver’s license to operate a car? The obvious the answer is that a car is a dangerous piece of equipment that operates at high speeds. If used improperly it can and has been fatal to its user and the rest of the populous. So then my question is…if we require a license to own and operate a tool that can be deadly if improperly used why in the FUCK would we NOT require a license to use and operate a tool whose explicit purpose is to KILL PEOPLE?
THIRTY PERCENT?! If you’d asked me I would have guessed something like… I don’t know… 8 percent maybe. Max. Jeezus. That seems unbelievable. And wikipedia’s saying it’s actually 45.7 guns per 100 people… If it weren’t for the fact that I haven’t heard of anyone shooting up any place here since that crazy dude in Zurich forever ago, it’d make me not wanna live here anymore.
Ooh yeah, legal carry’s a whole nother thing from ownership, right. Being a girl and all, I really don’t know anything about the military related stuff since I never had to do the service.
But wow, crap, nearly 50 guns per 100 people makes me really uneasy. I’m gonna spend some time looking into Swiss gun laws now…
Oh, no, wait wait, I should have looked more carefully. That 45.7 number includes the militia guns, so it’s actually probably closer to 25 guns per 100 residents. Still a bit unsettling to me though.
Well, add the fact we aren’t allowed to keep ammo at home. BTW, I don’t own or carry or have any access whatsoever to a gun, having skipped military service (and I’d be overage by now); it would be relatively easy to get a permit and buy some kind of firearm, but I don’t like hunting and I’m no psychopath so I don’t see the need for a gun.
The Swiss just don’t go around toting a gun; I guess the average Swiss doesn’t even think of a gun as something different from a toy for immature people or a tool to hunt delicious food. Might be because we have decent living standards, high-level education, social awareness, that kind of thing that makes people feel good enough to not go bananas.
Because I enjoy Hetalia, an anime about personified countries, and live in the South. I also support men who are willing to take up arms when their farms are being razed to the ground, not the ‘government’ that caused such a thing to occur to begin with.
actually The upper and middle class who owned slaves fearmongered the poor hard workers who didnt into thinking that the Government stopping the slave trade meant they were going to come for THEIR property next, thus tricking thousands of men and children to die to defend slavery and when all those 10s of thousands of people fought to hard it forced the union into engaging in horrific war tactics. If you are going to defend a racist ideal, get the order correctly. Burning homes to the ground was what ENDED the war, not what started it. And as a Born and Bred Texan i say to Secessionists “bring it” we burned White supremecy to the ground once and we’ll do it again.
As a gun enthusiast i do support gun regulations as long as they make sense. There are too many people who shouldn’t have guns owning and operating guns, and there is a huge community of good people who are gun owners kinda being shat upon because of all the crazy shit associated with gun owners now indays.
weren’t you the one spouting above that you’re from switzerland? Cause if there’s one thing i know about europe, it’s that the confederate flag is widely used by white supremacists and neo-nazis because they cannot use the swastika flag. So for you, as someone from europe, to think that the use of the confederate flag is okay in any context, says to me that you’re okay with nazism. And I very much take offence at that because I live in a city where neo-nazi incited violence against people like me has become an escalating issue.
Good fiction should hit some chords. I read this comic because it does… and to be honest Danny and Becky have been hitting a lot of them for me.
The comparison isn’t apt, considering that this isn’t anything like a mass shooting situation. More correctly categorized as a form of domestic violence. It is only superficially and trivially similar to those other incidents. Of course, people will get up set by that, too, as we are not supposed to look in those dark corners.
Sorry, but that is the first step to figuring out how to make it not happen. Basic tactics requires you to think about what the enemy can do to you so that you can contravene those options. In order to fight evil, you have to be able to think like evil so you can out-think evil.
If I’ve read the map correctly the woods are on campus grounds. Willis said yesterday that Becky & Dina had just crossed from 6th street towards Dunn Meadow: http://bit.ly/1jgHdih
This will only make him more sympathetic to the people who already find him sympathetic. It’s incredibly depressing that I’m not sure if I’m even being sarcastic or not.
“Why are people getting so mad at this man who clearly just wants to take his wayward ungrateful child on a hunting trip to celebrate her new relationship? I mean, has no one noticed that she’s gay and thus untrustworthy as a narrator?”
But seriously, I’m genuinely hoping this is so unequivocally villainous to make those types stop trying to defend Toedad’s actions and move instead to whining about how Willis only writes “caricatures of Christians” as “some-sort of straw-man”.
Though I’m also half expecting to see my opinion of humanity drop even more before the day is over.
Number 2 is quite eye-rolling. It’s pretty much in the same vein as “She’s not really a lesbian, she just needs to meet the right guy/she just needs to have sex with a guy” and its even more disturbing cousins.
We had that one a while back too. Talked about how Becky only thought she was gay because she hadn’t seen an erect penis because that’s how sexuality works and because only guys have penises.
Basically, Becky has brought out a large amount of awful over the past few months.
In his current state of mind I doubt he could go into a gun shop to buy a gun without even the most lax/clueless gun shop owner picking up that he should not be selling a gun to this guy.
Apparently, the current line is that both the planet and the moon are named Endor, which is stupid and confusing, but I guess in a galaxy full of planets, some of the backwaters have gotta be pretty poorly named.
It’s a dangerous projectile fired from a gun. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a bullet, although bolt is good for specifying the projectile type. And anyway, considering how easily blaster bolts are deflected by lightsabers, at least some of them will probably be equipped with kinetic weaponry.
His head would be nice, but I’d settle for his crotch. That way he gets to suffer. And I’m not usually the type of person who wishes suffering upon others.
This – I was surprised more people hadn’t mentioned this possibility. It’s clear they did see the gun by the shocked reaction. While there are countless examples of people ignoring a dangerous situation and not calling for help, I’d like to think a rifle on college campus would be enough to get most witnesses to call the police.
People often fail to call for help because they assume someone else is doing it.
If there’s a small number of witnesses, they’re less likely individually to ignore it.
Double rifles do exist, but it’s extremely unlikely that Ross would have one. They’re used mostly for dangerous-game hunting and they’re hideously expensive. So yeah, probably a shotgun.
I have never commented on a Dumbing of Age page before, nor have I ever verbally reacted to something in a webcomic. Congrats, Willis. You made me say, “Oh sweet Jesus!” Loud enough to startle my dogs awake.
The Hand of God has a very physical form in this world…
If Willis is mean enough to imagin this situation, pretty sure bystander effect might kick in here.
Oh god, is Dina going to die all over again? No no no no no this isn’t okay, Willis please don’t do this, they both have to get through this okay, please!
I think Becky would still mourn. And Joyce. They might feel bad about it, since he’s done absolutely nothing to merit anyone being sad he’s gone, but I don’t think either of them would be able to help doing it.
Suddenly, I’m starting to think that Joyce’s parents trying to let Joyce know that Becky’s dad was looking for her may have, in fact, been a warning. I could be wrong, of course, but you never quite know with Willis…
Also, you know someone’s really backwards when they say “oriental” to describe anything besides rugs, Trading, or ramen.
I have to say, this is a little freaky, that Willis plans these strips MONTHS in advance, and yet this comic appeared shortly after two school shootings. Perhaps, though, it’s more depressing… that school shootings are so common in our country, the odds of this comic coinciding with an actual shooting are greater than we may think. Here’s hoping that person in the background who seems to notice his gun is able to alert the authorities before things turn tragic. And Willis’ comics are no stranger to tragedy.
That’s… actually possible. Joyce’s parents have been shown to be prey to the same bigoted belief system, but have shown flexibility in handling their progeny’s little “rebellions”. Toedad does not seem like the type of person that would have made much in the way of friends even among fellow travelers and it’s possible that his rants were even too much for them.
That said, I’m suspecting their warning would have been along the lines of “I know you care about your friend, but don’t get in his way. Your friend is sick and he’s a bit unhinged and I don’t want to see you get hurt while she’s getting helped.”
Indeed. They seem like a less . . . militant form of oppressive. Maybe the kind of person who ‘refuses to allow any of that in their house,’ maybe kicks someone out for it, perhaps just refusing to acknowledge any of it happening and taking every opportunity to try to talk their child away from ‘sin.’ Maybe they take the ‘good guy’ version of threats to heart, withholding what they consider privileges from the child until they ‘choose’ to ‘accept help,’ rather than openly threatening with things like violence and such.
Willis has a strong track record of not having any taste for the “seemingly terrible parents are actually doing the right thing” option, as this page shows more than ever. I don’t think Joyce’s are an exception.
You’re probably right. Parents in Willis’ comics have a strong tendency to be bigoted, self-centered, controlling, or some combination of the three. Still, Willis does like to catch us unawares. And while it’s easy to think of Joyce’s parents as just being “bad”, they still care about their daughter. If they wanted to make sure that Joyce wasn’t in any danger, it wouldn’t be out of character for them.
Make no mistake – Joyce’s parents are still flawed, bigoted, obnoxious, close-minded buttholes. And they’re probably terrible parents. But they aren’t “pure evil”. There’s a good chance that they’ve done plenty of good things off-panel over the course of their lives. That certainly doesn’t excuse their terrible behavior, but just because they see the world in black-and-white doesn’t mean that we should see them in black-and-white.
Of course, I could be totally wrong and Joyce’s parents could just be one-note characters. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but I do love me some complex villains in stories.
Honestly? I would be surprised if Joyce’s parents expected a member of their community to take such measures. Even if they’ve seen more of him than we have, people like to have blinders around those they interact with frequently.
See also all those reports on gunners where friends and family will say how “he was such a kind man/sweet child”.
“What? Ross? But he was such a loving church-going man? Full of love for his daughter. This is such a shock to see how he fell off the path of Christ. Let us pray for him to find his way.”
If I recall correctly, yes. I’m not all that good at researching numbers, if I were I’d look up right now how many shootings of any nature there have been this year so I could confirm this.
It sounds insane, and at the same time it doesn’t, when you consider the size of the country and the number of guns in it. : /
I did find these numbers with a quick search: http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/ but I have no idea how reliable this site is, and no experience with finding out if a site can be trusted.
Well I remember posting on here a while back that it was too nice and cutesy and we needed some drama so well done Mr Willis I didn’t expect you to up the ante in this way
After wigging out, I noticed one of the background people has the ‘alarm’ lines around their head. The other person looks like they may or may not have Roz’s sister’s hairstyle.
This is looking like the worst case scenario but I suspect Becky and Dina will have someone saving them (from getting killed) at the last second.
Never said that anyone should go after a gun wielding sicko or that they would. I said Becky and Dina get “saved” at the last second. Never stated how.
Eep… so to answer everyone asking “what’s the worst that he could do” yesterday.
This. This is the worst he can do. He genuinely thinks he’s fighting a pair of demons that have stolen his last family from him and the way of the Lord and forced him to surrender his soul into the darklands of a liberal secular university. And he will save her soul by any means necessary. After all, if he can kill the demons before her soul is lost…
And in before Bagge to say FUDGE YOU, ROSS! FUDGE YOU STRAIGHT TO HADES!
Ross MacIntyre, your only worth in this world is as a manual sperm donor, and that worth ran out a long time ago. Scum, while gross and slimy and nasty, actually has a purpose. It provides to the ecosystem. You are a tumor on your daughter’s life, big, festering and bulbous. Your ongoing existence drains the blood and life from everyone who you claim to love, and when excised, like a tumor, the only feeling anyone who you ‘love’ will be an ongoing worry that one day you will come out of remission and ruin their life again.
Well at least you have some way to articulate your feelings towards him. Meanwhile I have only inarticulate cold rage towards this worthless sack of shit.
On the plus side, it makes me feel oddly better about my own disownment and attempted “fixing”. My dad may have tried to ruin my life, but he didn’t actually hunt me down with a shotgun, so, yeah, could have been worse.
Assuming Willis doesn’t have anybody actually die, probably not prison for the rest of his life. Indiana doesn’t have a hate crime statute, and even attempted murder doesn’t get you life.
I want him to live. If you’re dead, you can’t be punished for being such a horrible person. Death is far, far too good for him. Even prison seems a little too nice. This makes me feel like a horrible person for saying this, but I think he needs to have a mental breakdown due to realizing his complete and utter shittiness at the very least.
I just can not think of a punishment severe enough for him. I do wonder what would happen if he was simply locked up in an isolation cell for days. At what point would it begin to affect him? Or would he just forever think that those that put him there were minions of Satan?
You seem to assume him only being charged for one crime. If he gets convicted of multiple crimes carrying long terms he can still end up in jail for the rest of his life even if a single one of them doesn’t carry a “life sentence”
Mostly I think I’m channeling my father a little. The system follows the path of least resistance. Toedad is fundamentally a bully who will fold under the pressure of someone bigger than him, in this case the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system will want to go for a speedy resolution because of the media circus. Thus, plea bargain, no life in prison without death.
Only under two condititons is Kidnapping in the us a federal crime;
1) You cross state lines in the commision of the crime (usually when a person is removed from the state they were kidnapped in.
2) There is an attempt at ransom. (that was started after the Hindenberg baby wasn’t saved by the local/state police and people thought the FBI could have saved the baby.)
I believe it’s only a federal offense if the victim is transported across state lines. The FBI likes to jump into any case where it’s possible the victim has been taken across state lines, which basically means any case in an era of air travel and interstate highways.
No but there is a Federal level one (hate crime), that leds feds in theory take over if the locals don’t do enough to prosecute a hate crime, never heard of it actually being used though….
Ok, with all the ‘fundamentalists’ I grew up around, even some I considered way the hell far out there belief wise, this is still a complete shocker. Kick someone out, try to ship someone off for ‘treatment’ etc, but going all shooty in this kind of situation? Nope, wouldn’t have seen that coming at all.
Now if they caught you stealing a tractor, maybe, and then probably rock salt.
…this is a joke, but I WOULD be hella pissed if someone was trying to steal a tractor I owned and used, and would probably do SOMETHING to scare them but not actually hurt them.
I am really really hoping that THIS is what it will take for people to finally stop defending this guy. Of course now it will turn into complaining about poisoning the good name of this poor innocent fatherly character. Ah fuck it…
When I posted about him on yesterday’s comic, I thought, maybe he’s just badly misguided. I believe my exact words were “The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but good intentions alone do not a good parent make.”
I don’t think I’ve defended the guy on here, and I don’t think I would after this strip, but I understand the inclination. I think some of us were rather imagining Ross as a different character – a guy with control issues and a highly prejudiced and homophobic attitude – but someone who had maybe acquired those views innocently, and who was concerned about the health of Becky’s body and soul foremost. Not, yanno, a psychopath who brings a rifle to a confrontation with his own daughter.
Like, I might defend that first guy – somebody who I didn’t agree with but who had a character arc I could follow logically without having to account for pulling a rifle. Reasonable people who do bad things and have bad opinions, but who aren’t the scum of the earth. That guy’s interesting. I might defend that guy. Not this guy tho.
In the paid J&W! strips he is a real assbag, so people that read those wouldn’t be likely to cut him any slack, for one thing. Though this version now trumps the J&W! version for pure evil.
Faz mentioned that he was Amber’s stepbrother. I think Willis has also said that they aren’t half siblings in this universe but I’m not sure. (Wouldn’t be shocked in the slightest if this universe’s Blaine did just as much cheating as the other universe.
Willis shared a couple of them on tumblr didn’t he? When Becky was reintroduced. Ross was kind of batsit and lectured Walky about how dancing was evil when Walky wouldn’t cop to having sex with his fiance.
This version’s terrifying, though! Yikes! I’m pretty much willing to cut everybody slack, as in everybody probably has been a force of good for somebody at sometime in their life, and are thus not pure ‘evil’. Toedad, included. Not willing to cut slack with the reality that Toedad must now be imprisoned forever, due to the fact that, left unchecked, he cannot be trusted not to murder people. o_o
Luckily somebody seems to be on the case already, though. By the look of the passersby in the last panel, I bet somebody’s calling the police.
Also congratulations Willis, you finally managed to get me so riled up that for the first time in my life I have actually bothered to comment on a webcomic. I must say, well played sir. That being said I am filled with nothing but dread now for what is to come. So PLEASE for once just let us down gently dear Willis, be kind to us just this once. Because I honestly don’t know if my poor heart can take much more of this emotional roller coaster
Annnddd…. he has a gun. I was really tired and drowsy after a very long day, and forcing myself to stay awake because I wanted to see what would happen in DOA. I saw that last panel, and suddenly, I’m a whole lot more awake. Yikes.
I mean, of course the man has a gun. After all, he is a good ‘Murican, and everyone knows how those ‘Muricans love their guns. All the shootings make that abundantly clear.
Incidentally, I’m American myself, so I think I’m allowed to say those things. Never mind the fact that I’m a blue stater who has never touched a gun, and has no desire to ever have anything to do with guns.
I just wrote, then deleted a lengthy rant on guns, because it got a bit overly political. Even if the majority of people here are likely to agree with my views, this is probably not the place for it.
Anyway…. wow. Just…. wow. Things have indeed taken a dark turn. My sense of dread continues to grow.
Ehhhh he’s white, its a rifle, if he doesn’t shoot it I bet he doesn’t get arrested. Heck, even if he does… I don’t know what Indiana’s laws are like, but I can think of quite a few states where the police officers would treat him like their bro.
I think he’ll probably SURVIVE, but *Looks it up*… yeah, legally he’s allowed to have brought a gun (even concealed carry) on the campus, so unless he shoots it there’s a chance he’ll get off. I think Becky and Dina can make a good case for perceiving him as a threat, though, which should at least get them a good way to a restraining order. (Leslie, help!)
No, he is not legally allowed to have a gun on campus. Take it from someone who works in the IU system. You can get arrested for keeping a gun that you have a license for in your car. This is because all state colleges are covered by the same laws that make carrying a gun on state government property illegal.
You don’t have to be faster than the bullet, you have to be faster than the shooter. If the girls use the trees for cover and continually zigzag unpredictably instead of bolting in a straight line it’ll make it difficult for him to line up a shot, increase the chances of him missing with shots fired, and give more time for someone to call 911 and for cops to intervene.
In a sort of surreal moment, not long after Columbine, the nuns at my (Catholic) middle school had someone come in and discuss was us what to do in an active shooter situation and even do drills.
When I attended CSULB for college, they emailed the student body a video an active shooter situations and what to do, and it was pretty much the same stuff.
Yeah, I’m torn between “I wonder if Becky knows that because overhearing scary adults or doesn’t because they tried to protect her for being female.” :/ And even if she does, she probably ought to tell Dina as well, Dina is smart but possibly under pressure isn’t a great time to realise you should be zigzagging.
… she also has a predator costume on today. I hope she doesn’t try to circle around and take toedad on herself, that seems like a recipe for increased scary.
There’s a difference between “perpetuating a stereotype” and “writing from reality”. Fact is, in America, fundamentalist religious beliefs and gun worship go hand in hand far more than most people are really comfortable acknowledging.
Considering Joyce’s upbringing is largely based on personal experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if Willis himself knew parents who would do this exact thing.
Still remember the parent of a friend in high school who liked to clean his gun in front of his kid’s friends while talking about how he’d react if some horny teenage boy came sniffing around his daughter. Also the other one who sharpened knives while casually talking about how he’d kill any of his kids who turned out to be a (slur for gay man).
Considering that these people exist and that DoA has portrayed very religious people who aren’t like this, I’d say it’s less stereotype perpetuation and more good use of this character.
Btw, a zealot IS religious by default, as the original Zealots were religious, so unless you’re using zealot derivatively: “religious zealot” is redundant. Ross would probably be proud to be called a zealot. Whether or not all zealots are crazy … well, as the centurion said when he was posted to Judea, “Jove, i hate this place, these people are crazy!”
Clearly we need a gun worshipper who doesn’t officially subscribe to organized religion to round out the cast. They’re very rare from what I understand, and Willis is usually big on minority representation.
Maybe make them a Sovereign Citizen to get some extra laughs in.
Okay, I’m curious. Are you a gun owner who’s offended by the idea that some gun owners are zealots, or are you a zealot who’s offended by the idea that some zealots own guns?
Fun fact: If you’re USian you live in a country with actual, factual, religiously motivated rebels who wish to establish christian dominion in a developed nation by force.
Just to be clear, this isn’t exaggeration or misrepresentation – armed rebellion is the actual MO. They’re powerless, but they exist, and have tried shit before. But you know, WILLIS is the problem here.
Guys. You realize this is going to be Dina, right? He’s not trying to shoot Becky. He is after Dina. It doesn’t matter if they split up, because he only has one target. He’s mad because she sent him to Indianapolis and likely thinks she has tricked Becky into a relationship. Honestly, he probably thinks that Becky is being torn away from him and is trying to save his family in the worst possible way. We’re about to see Dina get shot. There’s no way the police are going to get there in time…
…yeah. And Becky is the one with the phone and Joyce is about to react all panic like, so those two’ll probably reconnect right before they both hear a shot…
And… nope. Going to pretend his gun is filled with pretty flowers now, because nope, just nope.
Oh man… you’re right. Willis has been setting this up. Willis made sure Becky has Dina’s phone and split the two up because Dina is getting shot. She won’t have a communication device and is going to be IN THE WOODS away from other people. Joyce is alone because she’s more on edge and more likely to panic at Dina getting shot. And let’s be honest here… Joyce and Becky are not the most responsible people. Joyce will be freaking out and Becky will be flat out terrified. Joyce will probably have to calm her down, which is kind of impossible and in the commotion they may not even remember to call 911 right away. The only good thing is the two people on the sidewalk that saw the gun.
I am familiar actually. I am also aware Willis has gone on record that Deaths will not happen in this strip. Not out of consideration for any human feelings, but because the overtone of Grief would be a constant drag on the story thereafter.
I’m pretty sure that he think his daughter is doing something wrong and the only way to fix her is to punish her. So if there’s a point where he is sure his daugther will not let him fix her, he might prefer to kill her than to let her live in sin. That sin, in his mind, is his responsibility.
Now, I do think it’s gonna be Dina. I’m almost sure. It makes me so sad. There’s a reason Willis dedicated a whole chapter to her; he made sure everyone of us fell in love with the character and, at the same time, ensured Toe dad had a believable reason to really hate her. He has no desire to save Dina from sin, only to punish her. He has to cause real big damage in order to prove the evil behind the ideals he represents. It makes sense, in a universe made by Willis, that the receiver of that harm is one of the most liked characters.
If it was Becky, whose character is defined by tragedy, everything would be too standard for Willis, the readers would have a pretty accurate idea of how every character would be afected. But, if it was Dina, who we have come to love, whose character is far from serious direct drama or tragedy, it would be shocking. For example, how would Joyce react?, she doesn’t get along with Dina, she was initially against Becky dating her, her values would be questioned even more. It would be a very good opportunity for character development.
I actually don’t know who he is going to try to shoot. I doubt he recognises Dina. She was wearing a different top, considerably, and she’s not white and he acts like someone who doesn’t do the telling people apart thing. I know many of us would jump on the dinosaur and dinosaur connection, but to him its probably a fad of this godless college. Orientals in different types of lizard costumes. Y’know.
However, you raise a point I didn’t think of, which is that he might consider cleansing the corruption of satan (and not a person, so the police won’t care) more important than just making sure his daughter isn’t given more chances for corruption?
Ok, damn you willis, stop making me think like this, I haven’t had to for awhile and it was NICE. Gahhhh gonna go freak out now.
Also I don’t think he carnes about the police, he follows the law of God not the law of men. Maybe that’s why he has a loud weapon, so the police can catch him quickly after he fires, that way this arc can progress faster.
Don’t worry. It’s a chocolate gun. After he scares the love of God back into her, he’ll peel the foil back and give her a chunk. And then she’ll cast the yellow-skinned harlot aside and settle down with a nice local preacher’s son. A happy ending for all those who are righteous. Amen.
… cause it’s yes. Yes, he’s going to shoot her because she put him on a bus and is dating his daughter.
Because in his mind, this is a clear sign of the hand of Satan and proof that a vile corruptor is stealing the mind of his progeny and only blessed instruments of the righteousness can remove that taint and restore his daughter’s sanity and allow her to be cured to the path of the righteous.
In fact, I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that part of his thought process is, she wore the horns of the Beast, which are the signals of the Antichrist and his herald. Look at her wicked tongue corrupting the words of your dearest Rebecca to try and strike to wound you. Look at her deceiving marking of the snake who tempted Eve, only you can cut such a transparent evil out and restore your daughter away from the demon-infested lands of such a wicked place. If only you hadn’t thought any university could be free from demonic taint.
After all no action is too unthinkable or underhanded when your beloved is under the sway of a great evil, one who has convinced her of an impossibility and made her into something she is not. After all, the ends justify the means and if you can just get that progeny home, then they can be healed in blessed isolation from the corrupting influence.
And all their squaks to the contrary can be ignored, because you know in your heart what must be done to set this right. After all, you were clearly not firm enough in your discipline in order to nip this in the bud from the start.
I really wish I had less personal experience with this line of thought in both its religious and secular incarnations.
Actually, I bet he doesn’t recognise her. I think he’s just going to shoot her because she’s with his daughter, and worse a LESBIAN. And all lesbians need to be killed for their own good, but extra for defiling his daughter and sending her to hell (plus she’s not a real person, she’s an oriental, eh?)
I want to thank everyone who accused Willis of misrepresenting fundamentalist christians. Because I, Megatron, just had a moment where I thought to myself No is like that. But, of course there are people who will bring a gun to a school to shoot either their daughter or their daughter’s girlfriend. And call her “Oriental” to boot.
I like Becky. When I take over I’m going to put her in charge of Portland.
Rose Madder? Really? A wife beating, homicidal cop chasing his finally rebellious wife into another world?
Not a lot of similarity I think…except a man forcing a woman to do his bidding, violently.
My daughter is 8 now. I swear this, if she comes out as a lesbian, I will only ask her how fabulous she wants her wedding. I will not be ToeDad. I will be accepting. I will be a loving dad who has not prioritized a Deity above his child for reasons likely misread.
That’s great and all, but “If my daughter comes out as a lesbian, I will not track her down and attempt to murder her” really should be the default response, not something you have to proclaim.
Also, I’m surprised no one else has mentioned this, but I think Blaine may have actually been dethroned for the Worst Dad Award. I mean, sure Blaine may be a child punching, manipulative, kidnapping, emotionally abusive asshole, but he, as far as I know, never actually started planning to murder two children and claim God told him to.
And now I need to throw up because I said relatively positive things about Blaine. Bob damnitt, Toedad, does your evil know no bounds?!?
I kinda did, though it’s very easy to miss some comments through this storm.
…of course, Willis did mention he abstained from having Blaine claim he had been beaten up by a black guy because making him racist on top of all his abusiveness and kidnapping/blackmail would push him towards the cartoony extreme (and would make the Walkerton parents’ racism that much more deniable).
My best guess here is that he’s not inclined to “go easy” on people who believe what he used to believe.
But how could they have possibly known that someone who gave all sorts of signs of being horrible and abusive would be above average horrible and abusive? Surely it was less likely than that he was perfectly normal and his runaway daughter was the only one in the wrong!
I have heard a lot worse and I’m not going to add to your therapy by telling you the details but involved child abuse and a negligent sheriff’s department resulting the death of a minor by the hands of his father on the orders of a cult leader (not Jonestown it happen in the heartland USA).
And then maybe that pious family friend (assuming he was young and unattached enough) could then marry her, to ensure she stayed on the right course. (In other news, ALL MY NO here.)
There is no good ending for this for Becky, unless Ross actually dies in a shootout with the police and no one ever figures out he was shooting at someone other than Dina. Otherwise, no matter what happens next, Becky’s busted – the University can’t help learning about her and her current situation. She’s about to lose that lovely place to live she was talking about, probably costing her Dina too – so Ross is going to win, even if he loses.
Not true. If Ross dies, there’s a possibility that he has some form of life insurance. Failing that, a large number of people die without leaving a will, in which case all their property almost inevitably devolves to the closest living relative–usually in the order of spouse then children then siblings or parents. If Ross bites it, Becky might be able to hock all his goods (starting with the inevitable rest of his gun collection) and get enough money to pay deposits and rent for long enough to find steady work.
America (except Louisiana, which uses French) uses English Common Law with regards to inheritance, and since there are no noble titles by law, there is no entailment, meaning everything (after taxes) goes to the next in line in the event of no will regardless of who that is (except in Louisiana, where it has to be split evenly among the sons at least, probably all the children now that it’s the 21st century, or in the event of no children, all other heirs).
i feel like this guy is basically the distillation of every Hoosier dad. i am certain i have a photo of my dad posing exactly like that with an assault rifle in front of a thunderbird. if he’s like the dads i know, he’s just whipping that around for extra authority, not because he intends to shoot someone. kinda curious why it’s a lever action instead of, like, a pump action.
Actually im not sure what it is because it has two triggers like a double barrel, but it doesn’t seem wide enough to be a side-by-side and its definetly not an over-and-under, i don’t think its a lever action because it looks more like a broken trigger guard than a lever anf if it was a lever it doesn’t look that great of one.i think Willis kinda took bits from hunting rifles/shotguns that would be popular in media than drawing it from an actual gun like the pump action double barrel from the Simpsons. Either way i don’t like where this is going, even if he is not intending to shoot someone it may come to that maybe by accident or by ignorence.
Modern double-barrel internal hammer shotguns have a top lever to break the action but early ones had a bottom lever as drawn here. Pushing the lever down and forward broke the action and ejected the shells so you could put new shells in, return it to its original location cocked the hammers and allowed closing the action. Willis seems to have had trouble drawing the area of the bottom lever and trigger guard, he was probably operating off an old photo that was not very clear, but there’s enough there for a tentative identification of the general class of gun.
Welp, I was really off the mark in my thinking that somehow Toedad would say the n-word in front of Sarah and Sal and cause a shitshow over that (because honestly while fundamentalist born-again Christianity and racism are not ALWAYS together, they hold hands embarrassingly often).
I was sort of right with the racism?
Am I too optimistic in thinking that he has a rifle to scare Becky into submission (which is still incredibly abusive) rather than having the intention of murdering his own daughter?
Sad as I am to say it, I wouldn’t put it above Toedad to try something like that. I dunno where his limit is, but he seems like the kinda guy who would go there.
Not really; the problem is what happens if it doesn’t work. Then you have an angry man with a screwed-up moral compass and a loaded gun with the cause of his anger standing in front of him.
I admit I don’t understand the logic path on this one:
My daughter is a lesbian, which is against one of a number of picky rules in Leviticus, so I will fix this by MURDERING her, in violation of one of the Ten Commandments.
And you think God is going to be OK with that?!?!?
We’re talking about the same God who, on at least one occasion, got pissed off at the Israelites for not being murder-y enough. So yeah, He’s probably cool with it.
I think that you will find that this has very little to do with Becky and a lot to do with Ross’s own self-image as a ‘perfect Christian husband and father’. That’s being threatened and his only countermeasure is to destroy everything that could be evidence of his own failures.
Maybe I’m just trying to be optimistic, but the gun might not be loaded. It could be just a scare tactic (I’m from Pennsylvania and I’ve seen it happen, but maybe it’s less common elsewhere…). Doesn’t explain the future hospital scene, but… Maybe someone trips…
Well Becky and Dina wouldn’t know the gun’s not loaded, he might be trying to frighten them. Scare them straight as it were?
Or maybe just use the gun to force Becky into the car?
I’m not giving Toedad the benefit of the doubt as much as I don’t want anybody to get hurt.
yeah my timing’s just so amazingly bad, should have tried better to land this storyline during that one whole week in april when there actually wasn’t a mass shooting
Is there a developed country where each of these shootings would be national news, rather than below national consciousness? Seiously, because how many people here knew this data? Which Congress forbade NIH/CDC from studying scientifically. Climate Change denial ain’t in it.
It depends what you consider a developed country. Mass shootings are far more common in Brazil, though they are often crime related. Brazil is a bit fucked up.
Sonfoabongo….that is horrifying. I know that there are many shootings, but seeing this in print is just ….horifiying, stupid, amazing, scary..God there isn’t a word for it.
It looks like Sunday is the day of the week with most shootings, which might be ironic (Lords Day …), though I spose that most of those occurred Sunday Morining closer to midnight as part of Saturday Night, than to Sunday School. When I was in college there was a (sardonic) joke that the neighborhood Knife and Gun Club met at the local E-Room either side of weekend midnights.
Mr. Willis, I’m seeing a lot of sometimes wildly different numbers for mass shootings. Can I ask for a link to your source? I figure I’m not miserable enough yet.
This made me look up New Zealand’s statistics. Apparently here 2 deaths constitutes a ‘massacre’, 2 died in 2014, 3 in 2001. 76 massacred in the last hundred years, if I ignore a prisoner of war camp riot in ’43. I feel sorry for those American’s that don’t like guns. Surprisingly we apparently have 1.1 million firearms here, I don’t know what we do differently other than not having a ‘constitution’.
Okeysure: are you saying that comics about school shootings are cool after a month has gone by and everyone has forgotten about it and gone back to whatever they were doing? (Seriously: that’s what happens, isn’t it?)
So, after renting a car at the airport, he what, just stopped at a sporting goods store and got a hunting rifle? He did not get on the bus with that thing!
OK, listen Ross you racist piece of shit, another reason why you suck is tha… um… are you pointing a gun at your child?
You are, aren’t you?
You are pointing a gun at your child.
You are pointing a GUN at your CHILD.
You are the man who points a gun at your child. That’s all you are. You are not a human any longer. You are not a person. You are just the man who points a gun at a child.
However this plays out, if you get gunned down by the police, if you rot in prison, if you – by some horrible flaw in the justice system – goes free and goes back to you home where 18 years of memories of the child you turned the gun to waits for you, you will always be the man who pointed a gun at his child.
But, Bagge, if he doesn’t murder his daughter and her girlfriend in cold blood then the gay agenda wins. There’s just so much at stake for him, you don’t even understand…
But seriously, yeah, this is the end-point sometimes, oftentimes, when you view your kids or your loved ones as property you have acquired to mold as you see fit. Especially when they turn out to be their own people with their own lives and try to do right by themselves by getting away from you.
A thing to remember with most mass shootings is that most begin with an aggrieved type starting by going after a woman or women he feels have wronged him in some way. Largely because he feels he was entitled to such people in his life even against their will.
This was always who Toedad could have become when he started on that path of viewing his daughter as a thing to mold into piousness. And he can rationalize it all he wants with talk of deception and demons and saving souls and God’s will, but at the end of the day, he’s a petty controlling fuck and he’s doing this mostly over having lost his control over her.
As you say, there is no justifying that as a parent or even a person who can claim to any form of morality that is real. He’s a complete scumsucking murderous fuck.
And the worst part is he is intentional for the whole system. After all, every one of him is one more dozen queer kids or battered wives who thinks twice before walking out the door or saying no to a demand to submit to “reparative therapy”. Because this is the unspoken threat in the air that all who dare be true to themselves and their needs have to consider solemnly before making their choices.
That’s pretty much everything I’ve wanted to say about this mindset and how it pertains to Ross and the Browns, and thank you. Because yes, this is why Becky ran away. This is why Joyce accepting her was such a tremendous moment. This is why Jocelyne’s not out and may never feel safe enough to be able to. Because this is the threat. This is the worst-case scenario and it is very, terrifyingly real. And since it looks like we’ll be seeing Hank (and thus probably other Browns) before this book is out, it looks like there’s going to be another confrontation on the horizon. (I’m hoping it’ll be less terrifying as this one, if only because it’s as likely as not to be in a hospital, but it’s still going to be tense.)
Yup, this. I know people who have parents very much from this culture who are scared to come out (even fully to themselves) even though they have been living with same gender partners for years due to this passive threat. It probably wouldn’t go that badly, but it would be bad and it could be this bad, so why risk it?
I saw this page and wondered if it was April already. Then I remembered even if it was, I don’t think Willis has done any joke pages that actually went up on this site before. You’ve gotta be kidding me. Like he isn’t the type of idiot who would just use it to scare people either. He legitimately thinks he’d be doing the right thing by killing his gay daughter. I’m sick to my stomach.
Like I desperately want someone to step in, like I want Amazigirl to show up and beat the fat out of his stupid neck, but that would mean she was facing a shotgun, too. Honestly the fact that this kind of thing could legitimately happen and totally does happen in this country sickens me.
I’m not gonna assume someone has done something that horrible unless I see indicators that it might have happened. I don’t know much about sexual assault, and much less about victims of sexual assault perpetrated by a family member, but Becky does not give me the vibe of someone who’s gone through that, and Foedad, horrible and awful and evil and terrible as he is, does not give me the vibe of someone who would do something so vile to their own blood.
Blaine is more about subtle cruelty, manipulation and mental abuse.
Why wield a gun when you can terrorize with words ? (I’d compare him to Mike for that one aspect)
Blaine’s more like the Joker (yes, Yatsuyan had it right): Loves mind games, f**king with people, doesn’t want them dead, because that ends the fun.
Ross is more like… well, I don’t know any religious zealot villains in the Batman pantheon, so I’m gonna say… the Punisher. Thinks he’s the good guy, kills because he feels his targets are evil, and deserve death.
“Ok, dude, I know you’re in the zone and everything. But this seems a little much. Maybe you should just put down the gun and-” *Ross turns the gun on him* “Or! Or, you rough her up a bit, maybe kidnap her girlfriend and hold em hostage outside of a McDonalds in the rain. I mean, that’s what I’d do at least. But hey, you do you chief, you’re the one with the gun.”
I feel like Blaine would plainly be smarter than to threaten gun violence in public, where he could be witnessed. Toedad has a hot-tempered rashness that makes him act differently than Blaine’s cold cruelty.
If Blaine were here, he would be saying something like, “Look, I understand you need to let the hellion know who’s in charge, but you really don’t want the attention that using the gun will get you. I mean, you’re easily stronger than both of them!”
Having known a lot of the religious psychos myself, I feel like IN REALITY, it would be far more likely that he just brought the gun to be threatening and has no intention of actually shooting anybody.
In fiction, he almost certainly intends to shoot somebody. And obviously likelihood of anything doesn’t affect the fact that someone should most definitely be calling the cops RIGHT THE HELL NOW.
Jezi, I will tell you one thing though: if he brought the shotgun, he intends to use it. These people do not play, and they do not joke. If they hear that voice in their head that tells them to kill their child, they will pray, but they will do it. Then quote scripture justifying it.
That’s always the thing with carrying a weapon ‘just in case’. You think it’s just gonna be used for show. But that’s not how weapons work…..once you get angry, or when you pull it out for a threat and your target doesn’t play along…….things never end well.
In reality, a lot of people die because someone brought a gun or a knife just to threaten somebody. I hate to say it, but I’ve almost been there…..when I was a bullied, depressed teenager (years ago now) I carried a knife, hidden away in my jacket ‘just in case’. Thankfully I threw the damned thing away and just changed school before that little timebomb ever went off…..but it does teach you. Doesn’t matter why you brought something with you. Doesn’t matter if you use it in self-defense, pre-meditated, or just because something made you finally snap. If you think you’re the type that would choose to use a weapon if you’ve got it there……you probably should think very hard about having any kind of weapon at hand. And then don’t do it. Because it’s seriously not worth it.
Not that toedad would ever do that, of course. He’d take pride in being the type to do what he’s doing now.
Also eighteenth-ing the fact that it’s almost certainly Dina he’ll go after. He initially told Becky to get in the car, not “hold still so I can exorcise you with lead.”
The question now, of course: no matter how this goes off, is Willis going to include the fundamentalists starting GoFundMe campaigns for his legal defense, blaming Becky and Dina for any incidental injuries, and sending either/both of them death threats?
Wow…. look at this exchange between Becky and Ross. He turns up from nowhere, she says ONE line in shock, ONE line of defiance and then she starts to run. Complete with thinking through tactics.
He finds them on the sidewalk, pulls up, says ONE line of demands, ONE line of threats and then he BRINGS OUT A FUCKING GUN!!!!
They both know that this is very, very, very serious. I don’t know if Becky expect him to flat out murder her and Dina, but she obviously knows the magnitude of things he is capable of.
He must have been cruising around, hoping to find them. He doesn’t even have to open the trunk to get the gun or something, he had it next to him. THIS IS NOT EVEN A SECOND RESORT – THIS IS THE PLAN!!!! HE CAME HERE TO KILL HIS CHILD.
Shit, you’re right. Best case scenario this was in the back seat.
Worst is he may not have been intending to shoot his daughter. The gun may have been intended for Dina all along, whether or not she turned out to be involved with Becky or not, simply because she embarrassed and delayed him on his important mission.
That or for Joyce for hiding Becky in the first place.
Basically, he was probably planning on murdering a wide-variety of kids and feels no compunction about adding his daughter to the list.
Y’know what would be ironic/extremely unfortunate? If He got that gun sometime the day before, around when he realized he’d been dupped. Cause while its glarringly apparent that Ross is nuttier than a bag of squirrel poop, I don’t think he came with the intentions to go trigger happy on his kid. He prolly thought this would be a simple, yell, snatch and drive.
Then he got played by a girl in “a pokemanz” outfit, and he figured if walking softly didn’t work, maybe a big stick would. A big boomstick that is. Hopefully, we’ll just go back to the walking softly oart and the big stick won’t ever get to be used.
Wouldn’t have been time for a federally-mandated background check. He either already owned that gun, borrowed it, or bought it at an Indianapolis gun show.
Honestly, the most likely scenario is that he keeps that gun in the car all the time. A person who would resort to using it that quickly is no the type of person who isn’t always “prepared.”
I don’t think he brought the gun with the intention of harming Dina, especially because he didn’t know that Dina is Becky’s girlfriend until this point and he obviously had the gun prepared.
Before, the only capacity he knew Dina is that she tricked him into taking a one-way non-stop bus out of the city, which is grounds to be angry, but he would have to be really unhinged (or unhinged in the a different way) to take such offence to that that he’d be willing to murder.
What I’m trying to say is: yeah he’s likely to hurt Dina now (God forbid) but he didn’t bring that gun with the specific intention of murdering the Asian woman who tricked him, he brought that gun to “help” Becky.
whats …”interesting” is that i here some people were being apologists, suggesting we only knew Becky’s side of the story and that Toeface might be reasonably worried. I wonder who thought that Maybe Becky was being courtious to her dad and downplaying his abusive attitude. Knowing what we do about hte world and his attitude its quite likely that if Becky hasnt been (physically) abused its because she’s been savy enough to Fake being a “good” daughter.
If anything i’m disappointed in myself for not even thinking that things could be worse than Becky presented. That him forcing her to “not kiss girls” was the worst that could be happening
Even the worst of that would still have been “reparative therapy” and/or rape, but yeah. Becky hasn’t “just” been living in terror from the abuse that is “you must behave this way for fear of hell”, she hasn’t “just” had her life controlled to the point where she wasn’t allowed a method of independent outside contact (and here I’m remembering that I thought it was a warning sign my mom’s half-sister* didn’t have her own Facebook page years back once she had entered college,) she’s been living with a guy who has almost certainly threatened violence before, if not actually committed it against her or her mom.
* Long story, but my biological grandfather is basically a terrifying combination of Toedad and Blaine. Certainty he is Right because God and the presence of mind to hide the actual threatening and hurting people behind closed doors? REALLY FUCKING CREEPY, particularly when combined with a “I’m so sorry for disowning you please love me again I’m dying” period and the fact that he’s actually been a pastor before and thus had a position of power. My mom’s managed to keep him out of my brother’s and my lives, and to minimize his presence in her own, but we still hear stories occasionally and they are NOT pretty.
Or – and I REALLY didn’t want to go there – she HAS been abused but downplayed it. Or at least there have been violent episodes that she never mentioned to Joyce or anyone else.
Becky doesn’t want to be a debby downer, you know.
Becky shows a lot of signs. Her ability (and need!) to pretend to be fine and happy while near the edge of a breakdown, her need to be fun and loud so people will like her. That’s all textbook defensive mechanism.
I still think it’s probably “just” emotional abuse, not physical, but that whole persona blatantly screams “it’s not safe to show your real self” and certainly dates back to before even she knew she was a lesbian.
It’s also possible that her mother, recently deceased, was also abused and perhaps protected her somewhat, so things were worse since. But that’s wild speculation.
Pretty much. Abused kids don’t tend to overplay their abuse. Rather the opposite. Because to do otherwise is to “betray the family” and invite even worse consequences.
He probably brought the gun for coercion purposes. However, he strikes me as dumb enough to think that it is possible to ‘shoot to woung’ with a shotgun or medium-calibre rifle.
Ben, I agree with you. But keep in mind our BEST CASE SCENARIO involves him using a loaded weapon to force his daughter into his car for the purposes of kidnapping and “re-educating” her. This is the most possible optimistic view on Blaine.
*PLEASE* let the completion of this scene being Amazigirl taking Ross down before he can hurt anybody… preferably with amazing amounts of humiliation followed by jail, then a prison term. But, mainly, Amazigirl defeating him before he hurts anybody!
After recent events someone bitterly joked to me that the best thing about home school is that there is no fear of a school shooting. I think if I showed this to him he’d think that Toe dad was the exception. Though I’m not surprised by his actions given he’s already told a complete stranger that he’d do whatever to “fix” her.
Well, someone in the background totally sees this and will probably call it in. At least this’ll end with Ross being gunned down by a squad of cop ca-
AHAHAHA, sorry, couldn’t complete that. Unless he shoots himself he’ll be totally fine, he’s a white middle-aged dude. They’ll cuff him, swing by a fast food joint for milkshakes, then finally stop by the jail for his required ‘slap on the wrist’ before letting him go. At worst he’ll get off with a few weeks in jail and a fine he can easily pay. Then he can go straight back to planning to murder his daughter in the name of God, to preserve her soul from Satan’s temptations!
Yeah right.
A white man, with a rifle, drawn and ready to fire, on a college campus-in todays America with a shooting a week going down – do you really believe that Kocel?
No. It is definitely not a tranq rifle. It’s real, and when a religious nut starts praying to God for strength to do what’s needed and he’s holding a gun, that’s when you better run, run like the wind, because that is *not* good news.
Hey, Toe.
Where are you goin’ with that gun in your hand?
Hey, Toe.
I said where are you goin’ with that gun in your hand?
I’m goin’ down to shoot my young lady.
You know I caught her messin’ ’round with a Pokeman.
I’m suddenly reminded of the song “Folded Flags” written by Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd fame) made specifically for the animated British film “When the Wind Blows”. Chilling as fuck.
Yeah, but… doesn’t Becky have the only phone between them? Which kinda makes the wait time for the authorities who tend to take a while to get there a butt ton longer, assuming what I think is gonna happen actually happens.
Anyone else hear that? Yes, that is the sound of all hell breaking loose. I’m just gonna go and hyperventilate now. Call me when no one is dead.
“He was exercising his right to open-carry! And he just CARES STRONGLY about his daughter who’s WASTING HIS COLLEGE MONEY!”
Open carry of long guns actually IS legal in Indiana :c theoretically he could get away with this..
Is carrying said weapon while chasing your daughter and her friend legal?
(That is a kinda serious question, I’m not from the US and am still confused by the gun rules …)
At that point, he should present a clear threat to them and they’re making the right move, legally, by retreating (ie, running for dear life,) because they feel their lives are in danger. I’d say the bystanders are completely justified in calling the police, and they’ll probably be able to get him arrested, but unfortunately I’d say I’m not CERTAIN he’ll get serious jail time for this. It’s likely (you can only pull out your gun with intent to shoot in Indiana legally, apparently, which means any argument it was just for “intimidation factor” would only minimize his jail time rather than eliminate it, and it should be an easy case that he intended to kill or at least seriously injure them,) but not certain until he actually shoots it, at which point it becomes “assault with a deadly weapon”, battery if he actually hits someone, and, depending on where he’s aiming, possibly an attempted murder charge. So basically he’s getting charged with SOMETHING regardless, but it might not be serious enough to ensure he doesn’t threaten Becky and Dina again yet.
Open carrying on state government property (like a state university) is actually illegal in Indiana, so chasing them isn’t even a prerequisite for him getting arrested.
A comic about a guy with a gun on campus when there’s just been a school shooting. Talk about bad timing. At least it would be Europe; in America it’s almost expected timing.
And to think a couple days ago I considered taking a break from DoA for a few weeks so I could binge-read later. I could have watched this entire horror unfold in just a few clicks and minutes rather than having to suffer through the angst and worry of what’s about to happen to Becky and Dina over an extended period of time. Darn it.
If there were ever one character who deserved to be on the wrong side of a “misunderstanding” with the police…
Well, okay, until he actually *shoots* at them, he’s still tied with Blaine for that distinction. He escalates any further than he has now, and he’s going to actually leave Blaine in the dust for “fuck-face parent-in-name-only of the year.”
So, uhh, good job, Willis? I didn’t think Blaine O’Malley could be topped, but he’s sure getting a run for his money.
I think the sole act of taking out a gun when chasing after his daughter already makes him worse than Blaine. There’s physical abuse and then there’s intentional use of a deadly force.
It’s possible (extremely unlikely at this juncture, but possible) that he would not have the… I don’t want to say “wherewithal” because that makes it sound like a bad thing, but will to shoot his daughter, and getting the gun out is in a fit of rage. Again, the way this is going, I don’t think that’s the case, because he’s shown himself to be a bigoted, narrow-minded bastard who ironcladly believes he is right, but it’s still, remotely, possible.
Which is why, unless he actually tries to shoot them, I’d say he’s only *tied* with Blaine for “Worst Father (in name only)” in the strip.
Now, Willis has previously said that nobody would die in DoA. That means that, as far as I can tell, there’s three possibilities:
A) Nobody gets (physically) hurt. But we’re still left with the fact that Toe McIntyre *tried to shoot his daughter*, and all that accompanies that.
B) Willis lied, and we’re possibly about to get our first character death (I really hope not).
C) Someone is about to get horribly injured, and thus, Willis keeps his word and still everything gets to be exponentially worse.
The lord shall answer his call…Satan the dark lord and master of hell shall answer his call to give him strength to assault his daughter and/or her adorable lover. I don’t think the good lord would be into helping him do that, no matter how much they like to believe so.
…and with that last panel I believe this has crossed the line from simple annoying intolerance to criminal activity. I sure hope the shaded background characters we saw in the last panel do the right thing and call the police.
Huh, now I might be thinking that the phone call Joyce’s mum made way back when might have been her trying to warn her about Becky’s dad charging around with a shotgun…
I dare say they might have been a tad more insistent to get through if that was the case.
“Did you warn Joyce that her best friend’s father is coming her way with a gun?”
“No, I was going to but she was on her way to the mall so…”
“Oh, no problem, we can call her again in a few days.”
…hmmmm. For some reasons the jokes become a lot less funny when there is a school shooting involved.
Sadly, some people just bend the rules to their liking. “It’s okay cause it’s in the name of bigger good” … something along those lines. The crusades were in the name of God and I’m pretty sure they had the big ten already.
When Moses brought down the stone tablets, he found that his people had started worshiping a golden idol.
He was so furious he smashed the tablets. Then he divided his people into two groups. Those who planned to follow God and those who planned to do their own thing. He had the believers kill the unbelievers.
Then he had to go back up Mt Sinai, get a new set of tablets with some easier to follow rules. Included in those rules was “Thou Shalt Not Kill”, but still, even within that story it seems God does condone mass murder under certain circumstances.
It’s “Thou Shalt Not Kill” in the King James version. Can’t speak for all translations obviously but King James is probably the most commonly used one.
Either way, even if we’re going by “You shall not commit murder” it’s still given a pretty big exception clause by the preceding events within the story. The issue probably isn’t that Ross is unfamiliar with the tenets of his own faith here.
I do remember it happened before. I was just there a couple days ago, going through the archives, but I cannot for the life of me remember which strip it was.
Aw, shit! He’s gone postal! If he’s so delusional that he thinks that he has the divine right to ‘punish’ random strangers, then there is no limit to what he is capable of doing. This will end in blood; the only question is whose blood.
And of all the comments I’ve read and made I’m left with the oh shit no comment. No one dies you’ve said…but I’m afraid for Dina and Becky.
Amazing horrifying work Mr. Willis. Never had a comic affect me the way this one does. You win the prize for the Biggest Prick of the Year-Ross- character.
Amazi-Girl is pretty much out of this one…I think…I hope…this is above her paygrade.
Sal is the closest one to this, she’s just leaving the fountain. When the gun goes off she will likely beat the cops there. I don’t want her hurt either.
What I want to do is go hide from this for about 2 weeks, and then come back and read it all at once. But, I can’t.
Wow. He pulled up a lever-action rifle. Where most shooters in these cases have either used the standard-issue AR-15, a pistol, or a semi-automatic shotgun, this guy pulls up one of the oldest surviving firearms in human history. This is a first…at least for my viewing.
You get shotgun and pseudo-rifle versions of the lever-action, AFAIK. However, Relzik is right. It’s just a ‘gun’ that Willis has thrown together from any number of reference photos. He might have even deliberately tried not to make it look exactly like any particular model for fear that the manufacturers may take a dim (and litigious) view of him portraying their products as the weapon of a child-killer.
A gun owner doesn’t necessarily need to own the latest in ammo technology. Grandfather’s shotgun, which did just fine on the old family farm, would certainly work just as well now.
I can see tDad tossing it in the back seat of the car before taking off for Bloomington, “just in case”. Who knows what sort of people he might… argh, I can only channel George Zimmerman for so long.
so since this is obviously going to make the news no matter how it goes, how will joyce’s parents react?
itd be nice to think that theyd obviously side against ross and be horrified, because i mean last time i checked THEY were well-intentioned, but theres a pretty high likelihood theyll support his cause if not his methods
They’ll condem Ross’s ‘unjustifiably extreme’ actions but insist that it was ultimately Becky’s fault for defying him and pursuing a sinful course. I’ve thought for a while that there is an estrangement coming between Joyce and her family.
One one hand they will react with fear and want to pull their daughter out of a dangerous place.
One one hand they will have to confront the fact that the danger was brought BY THEIR community.
One one hand they will have to confront the fact that one of their own, a man in their own community, TRIED TO MURDER HIS CHILD IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, a child that THEY KNOW AND LOVE, a child who spent a LARGE PART OF HER CHILDHOOD UNDER THEIR ROOF, BY THEIR TABLE, WITH THEIR DAUGHTER.
If the Browns are even a tenth of the good person their daughter is, they will come out of this fully on Becky’s side. Of course, the exact nature their help takes may not be wanted or constructive, but at least their hearts will be in the right place.
On one hand… on the other hand. weighing two sets of facts against each other. Why the expression is “On one hand” rather than “in one hand” I don’t know, except that one is a normal expression and the other is confusing.
Yeah, one hopes that any “but she IS going against the Lord’s path” points will be saved until well after this, and that maybe knowing that this girl they know and love cannot change who she is and was THREATENED BY HER FATHER will open their eyes that maybe just maybe they might have been wrong about many many things.
That said, I’m still betting their compromise will be more of a “love the sinner, hate the sin” type and that an estrangement’s still coming, just not as immediate. (Though I can hope that maybe this prompts Jocelyne to VERY discreetly say “you’re not alone and I support you,” though probably not come out unless she’s also willing to come out to Joyce. Which is totally possible here.)
Her father’s just had a new character model show up on the tumblr, and the next chapter title is ‘That Perfect Girl’ (which I’m taking to be a reference to the ‘… is gone’ line from Let It Go). So yes, waiting to see what that means for Joyce too, and where it fits into Willis’ autobio plan for her development.
Will his ideas be good enough to rewrite five months worth of scripts and artwork to make the necessary changes? Doubtful. Whether for good or ill, Becky’s fate was decided well before any of us could guess what the outcome will be.
As of today’s installment, Becky has appeared in 165 strips.
Other ‘main’ characters:
Mike — 123
Ruth — 166
Dina — 197
Ethan — 202
Amber — 202 (304 if you count when she was tagged as Amazi-Girl)
Sal — 204
Sarah — 237
So yeah, I guess I’d consider her a main character.
And I think it’s interesting that as of today, Joyce has appeared in …. 666 strips.
by now she probably is, but either way; if becky dies joyce and dina (who are definitely main characters) will spend the entire rest of the comic mourning and willis’s said he doesnt want to do that.
Wow. I figured Toedad would say/do something horrible, but this is a huge leap form what I was expecting. Even if that’s not a real firearm there’s no way Becky is going to have to move back in with him.
Hopefully this will end with Becky getting to be adopted by Dina’s family, or maybe even Joyce’s.
I think Zaxares is on top of it. Look at the sequence:
Panels 1 through 3 — Becky and Dina stand their ground and Becky and Toedad “converse” from a distance.
Panel 4 — Toedad mentions “the Hand of God”.
Panel 5 — Becky, who knows what “the Hand of God” is, immediately turns tail and skedaddles while telling Dina to do the same.
Panel 6 — (musical sting) ♪♫ dun-dun-DUN!
Oh yeah, cause its been all light hearted and fun up till now, what with Joyce and the attempted date rape, Sal and her racist parents, Billie and Ruth’s abuse turned romance relationship plus destructive alcoholism, and of course Amazigirl putting her dad in the hospital. Yep yep yep, nothing but laughs a minute here.
that’s a bit overblown. i mean okay, obviously the problem of her being taken away will be completely cleared when his dad takes a gun out in public, lol. if he’d just restrained her by hand, she’d have been taken away.
Not really. Becky is eighteen, which would make it kidnapping. Ross wouldn’t get very far going that route. He might get her in the car, sure, but even if he got her all the way home, she wouldn’t be staying there long.
I feel like this has really removed a lot of tension and suspense.
Ross is not going to kill either of them. I could be wrong but given the comic up until now and Willis’s posts on Tumblr etc about fridge-ing characters it just seems really unlikely. Supposedly Willis also said he’s not going to kill anyone off but I’ve never seen that post with my own eyeballs so that could just be BS.
By the end of the day Ross will no longer be a personal problem because he’ll either be in hospital, the morgue or jail. There’s not going to any sort of argument because that’s something that always comes before some mother-fucker pulls a gun. Even the most hick police or judge won’t let him near Becky, even if by some miracle he survives and doesn’t spend the next 5 years in jail. Such a restraining order could also extend to anyone else in the family.
I also see way too many ways for this resolve Becky’s illegal residency problem for one of them not to happen. This is going to be national news. Does the university want to be known as the place that kicked out the almost-murder victim and the friend who tried to protect her? (This is even assuming they make the link). Are there no GLBT support groups in the state or nation who could be drawn in by this? Is this going to pass by the notice of Leslie, an intelligent gay professor who can offer no end of good advice? Hell, if Becky sets up a donation page she’ll get enough money for a few months at least.
The only person still at risk is Joyce from her parents and “Well I wanted to protect Becky from Ross and Ross drew a gun” is a pretty sweet argument.
I totally agree, the gun completely drained all tension from this scene. In addition to your points, it’s also incredibly unbelievable that any average person would chase their daughter with a shotgun–it’s a complete reminder that none of this is real, like when bad acting takes you out of a movie by reminding you that it isn’t real.
Now I’m sure there are psychos who would, in fact, chase their daughter with a shotgun. But Ross, before now, was not established as a psycho, just a terrible and hateful man. Making him go from 0 to 60 on the psycho character development scale is what really pulls me out of this, as a reader.
He kinda was portrayed as a psycho. Even if you didn’t know him from the Walkyverse he’s been stated to be even more of a controlling fanatic than Joyce’s family, and the general reaction to Joyce’s family was ‘YIKES, crazy fundies’. Plus he’s trying to force her to go to torture and rape camp to try and de-gay her.
No, previously he has come off as a total idiot and a classic indoctrinated Christian fundie. That’s hardly the same thing. There was no previous that suggested he’d pull a gun, or even that he’d be violent.
I would be shocked if Joyce’s parents hit her (Though I could believe it in context) but I can’t imagine them drawing a gun on her.
Also while I loath gay conversion therapy and think it should be banned for anyone but a consenting adult please don’t throw hyperbole into this by calling them rape and torture camps. They’re abusive as fuck but rape and torture are not an official part of the menu.
They are, at the very least, psychologically torturing. And I’m not really comfortable with “gay conversion therapy” being legal for “consenting adults”. There are lots of rules in society to protect people from doing stupid things, so they should probably be illegal full stop, whether you want to do them or not. Same way it’s not legal to chop someone’s arm off even if they consent to it.
A lot of things are psychologically torturing. Many sorts of Churches are psychologically torturing as are many schools. The problem is if you allow them to be banned, especially for consenting adults, you create more problems than you solve. People will subvert the law openly or in secret and you have to spend energy and money and time on that and not on other issues.
You also have to factor in that if the law allows the banning of something you dislike then people you dislike are going to use it to ban things you like. In the USA state or even lower level jurisdictions would have such powers and there’s not short of ones where conservatives et al are either the majority or large enough to be able to swing a majority vote behind them.
There’s no end of things adults like to do that’s bad for them or considered bad for them by others and that they would like to regulate.
As for the arm thing, I don’t really feel a comparison between a mental process and treatment is comparable. An arm, once cut off, can’t be grown back.
I wouldn’t ban gay conversion therapies because I “dislike” them. I’d ban them because they are provably dangerous and have absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
“An arm, once chopped off, can’t grow back.” Likewise there are lots of “mental processes” that can never be recovered from. Just because the scars aren’t visible doesn’t mean that they are not there.
All of the rulings and interpretations of the law by courts that enforce freedom and equality for women, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, GLBT etc also do the same for adults to try and pray the gay away.
Also while I don’t think gay people should feel like they should try to be not gay or that it can actually work I can’t make those decisions for them. People need to be free to make their own choices, even bad ones. That paternal style of society is also the one that promoted women as possessions to be traded between men, minorities as children who needed a strong hand to rule them and homosexuality as a mental illness to be punished or treated.
And while gay conversion therapy is unpleasant and unhealthy it’s not on the “Cannot recover from this” scale and most things aren’t. Certainly I can’t think of something that is beyond recovery that is also not highly illegal.
But hey, in your example of the cut off arm: They got to the doctor and are refused. So they do what a lot of people with body dysmorphia do: Try to cut it off themselves. Assuming they don’t die what you going to do? Lock them away forever for their own good? Such a great option.
Are you trying suggest I’m contradicting myself? Because that’s not a contradiction, that’s me listing the fact there’d be not one problem with banning GCT but multiple problems with banning it.
1) The ethical problem of restricting the freedom of adults to make their own choices
2) The legal problem that banning the choices of consenting adults need good reasons to passed into law
3) The consequences of that legal problem where every group and their mother use the new precedent to ban things they don’t like
4) The enforcement problem. Are you going to have the police bust into private meetings in people’s houses and Churches and investigating if people are trying to pray the gay away?
Annoying complexities don’t go away just because it’s convenient for you.
I’m not remotely accusing you of contradicting yourself. Where’d you even get that?
That’s not at all what I’m accusing you of.
Laws against hurting people are the main purpose of laws existing. Suggesting that we can’t outlaw that behavior because people will break the law makes no sense. No reason to outlaw murder–people will murder illegally anyway!
Like, I was openly mocking you and you’re saying that is, in fact, your reasoning. See, I was kinda hoping you’d maybe figure out the problem there.
The victim is not the only person involved in anti-gay therapy. There’s also a therapist. A fraud therapist who is committing a hate crime.
You think stopping people from hurting others is unethical!? What do you think ethics is!?
Um… politely, trauma is a thing and a medically recognized injury. And emotional abuse is recognized as abuse even if it is not as frequently prosecuted because crisis centers are underfunded and overworked.
People recognizing an abusive organization that does not do anything positive and shutting it down is not the same thing as banning a Church because people think it’s selling some bunk theology.
Speaking as someone who both suffers from and has helped a number of individuals with PTSD, I can assure you it can be just as long-term debilitating as physical injury.
Yes. It’s one of the more popular methods for “curing” women who like women. It’s also a common “cure” method for trans people, especially trans men (this was part of the tragedy that befell Brandon Teena), but trans women can get it as well usually as part of a means of trying to convince them that they are “deluded” about their gonads.
That is not a camp, it’s not dressed up a cheery summer activity that will make your child straight again.
“corrective” rape is nearly always some awful guys deciding that their violence is a solution or they just want to excuse their awful acts. It’s not a freaking organized camp where people would send their children. it’s not an organized activity
Jesu, I would almost accuse you of baiting. Pray the gay away camps and corrective rape are two concepts rooted in homophobia but I don’t think they happen together
And the worst part is its not even always in the form of some half-justified douchebro. I’ve known transwomen and asexual men raped by their women partners because “all you need is someone to love you right and then you’ll see (that you were always a “man”/that this ace stuff is a delusion)”. A number of lesbian and asexual women I’ve known over the years have reported incidents in their past where they came out to male partners who’ve sexually assaulted them because “they haven’t met the right guy yet” or because the perpetrator believed their genitals could fix things and train them to “stop fearing proper sex”. People who really did see their act as an important piece of salvation, a loving act to cure a terrible delusion.
And yeah, the poorly regulated and completely unsupported by the APA organizations that bill themselves as places to cure homosexuality and transsexuality often use the techniques society in general thinks will cure sexuality. Between convincing people that sex should be a sacrifice one simply submits to to protect one’s soul to “ex-gay” camp leaders who get overly grabby with individuals sent there to yes, straight up sexual assault of lesbians and transmen to train them of their “proper place”.
And these especially becoming more common when you move out of the high-profile “ex gay camps” like Exodus International into the unregulated weeds of the “teen correction industry”.
It’s a thing that happens and much like sexual assault in general, it’s more frequent than one wants to admit: http://www.rrsonline.org/?page_id=944
I do not deny a lot lesbian women, trans men and women and even gay men suffer from sexual assault and rape because other people either believe that they are not deserving of human rights or they think this will “correct” them.
And also I do not deny that those who are sent to these awful camps suffer these attacks from the very people who supposedly are there to help them. But I had the notion that these attacks were not endorsed by the camps themselves.
I just have a lot of trouble wrapping my head around rape being an organized activity, something that is part of the schedule in one of those camps, right between praying and scrubbing the toilets.
Perhaps you’re right and the notion is horrifying (as if those camps of psychological torture were not bad enough already) it’s just so awful part of me does not want to believe it.
Not in the USA, at least not as part of the official treatment programme (You can find rape in any widespread org with kids. Orphanages and juvenile prisons are both infamous for it).
I think you severely overestimate how much people care about school shootings. MAYBE, if someone dies, this would be national news, but even if it was it wouldn’t show up on social media, which is where most people get their news these days.
If you asked the average American how many school shootings we’ve had this year, he’d probably say “several.” I just asked my dad, and he guessed ten. I only just learned yesterday that the real number is closer to two hundred. That’s why there are so many people on here complaining that Willis did this storyline so soon after a school shooting showed up in the news: because they don’t realize school shootings happen all the damn time, and it is just coincidence that the story came out so soon after a shooting that was big enough to merit their attention. I know that sounds callous, but that’s the way it is.
So, the odds of Becky’s story going viral and resulting in an outpouring of political support and sweet, sweet cash are pretty low (Of course, if Becky and Dina were conservative Christians suffering from “religious persecution,” that would be an entirely different story).
Becky’s chances of getting help from Leslie/ a glbt support group are a lot better… But they aren’t really improved by this event. It’s not like GLBT support groups only help people who get shot at by their evil parents. I’m sure if Joyce or somebody had gone to Leslie before this happened, she would’ve happily lenses a hand.
As for whether or not Ross pulling a gun put an end to any tension in the story… I disagree. This story could still end with Ross getting off scot free and Becky going into hiding in a different state to get away from him: a totally tragic yet relatively plausible ending that doesn’t involve anyone dying. Ross hasn’t shot at anyone yet, all he’s done is shown that he is willing to do it. Hell, even if he does kill somebody, that’s no guarantee he’ll be getting punished for it (George Zimmerman anyone?). And just because a restraining order against Ross COULD be extended to the rest of Becky’s family doesn’t mean it WILL. So there are lots of ways this could end horribly, regardless of whether or not Willis has promised not to kill off any characters.
If you go on one of the many crowd funding sites there are always way more of these things than you’ve heard of donating much more than you’d expect. Becky could live for longer than DOA will go on for on just a few grand which is a pretty reasonable expectation. Still I admit Willis not even mentioning this option would hardly be unreasonable. Fiction gets pretty tricky if everyone and everything always goes reasonably.
You’re also right it’s hit and miss over what killings get national attention and which ones don’t. Still, I feel “Father with gun chases gay daughter through middle of city” is a really attractive headline for news programmes and click-bait titles on new sites. Again though, it’d be getting off topic for the comics usual focus to get into that… though that raises the question as to why escalate to guns.
As for Christians get persecuted those stories get more attention because they have the value of rarity! Like diamonds or good Star Wars media.
And yeah, he could, it’d be a weird narrative angle. He starts with being borderline disabled in his stupidity getting on the bus. Then he draws a rifle in the middle of the city. Then he goes into subtle undermining and threats? And Becky gets shunted out the comic after all this effort to build her up? I guess that’d be a surprising twist.
What you talk about as alternatives is what I was hoping for and expecting. It has a lot of potential in it as a storyline and has the value of realism. This will either give us an easy answer or have to twist itself up to get back to where it was before today.
‘MacIntyre, don’t the bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?’
‘Quite specific. It is however somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps’
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Utahraptors were way too large compared to JP’s raptors, and Utahraptors also look very different from Velociraptors in terms of proportions.
I heard that when Steven Spielberg saw the size of a velociraptor, he wanted something a bit bigger, so they used the utahraptor instead. After talking to my ex, she informed me that the velociraptor in the film was a Deinonychus Not a Velociraptor.
I’ve got to say, if this story arc goes where it appears to be going, this is a rather cheap-shot (no pun intended) and in poor taste recent events taken into consideration. I could be wrong and it might be a clever ruse and I certainly hope so.
I can think of only one way this could end without drama, and it involves a freak tornado picking up a cassowary from a nearby zoo and dropping it on toedad. Also, what the fucking hell. I’m about halfway towards swearing in Latin now. I will actually start swearing in Latin if it turns out that he actually loaded the gun and didn’t just bring it along for intimidation. Actually, now that I think about it, that’s another quick and non-horrible way this could end: in his incredible stupidity, toedad forgets to observe proper firearm safety and shoots himself by accident.
As someone who hasn’t been Beckys biggest fan I must say I’m impressed with her situational awareness and clear thinking, no panicking, no hesitation and the foresight to come up with a plan in a highly stressful situation
She’s definitely been shown to be incredibly resourceful in traumatizing situations.
I mean, her reappearance came from her escaping her dad and having the wherewithal to travel cross-country to her best friend and come up with her plan to reconnect with her romantically which while flawed in its assumptions about Joyce’s sexuality did at least show the ability to do some quick thinking in a crisis to make sure she was able to make it there despite just having the clothes on her back.
I can’t really see the dude being willing to murder his daughter, but then, I’m apparently optimistic. Going with tranqs or BBs or just something non-lethal.
Read “The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right ” by Daniel Levitas. The Southern Poverty Law Center website also has good info as well.
From a writing perspective, I am slightly disappointed by the cartoonish (and I am aware of the irony) nature of toedad. From a drama pov, making the bad-guys nice provides a real shock when their hidden nature is revealed. I realise though that this would make DOA even more complex.
I am an outsider but I grew up with the idea of America, and I have visited. It still haunts my dreams. I am disturbed and disappointed by the sheer number of shootings in schools and elsewhere. It’s almost as if America has become a huge open air lunatic asylum, where the weekly mass-shootings have become a mere foible to be passed off by some as “stuff happens.”
If someone paid for me to go to the US on holiday, would I take it? Probably not.
If I had the money to set up a business, would I choose the US knowing my potential employees might face this sort of danger? I’ll think about it.
Would I befriend an American who I knew carried guns? Interesting question.
Guns have been inserted into American culture in such a way as to make the mechanics and arithmetic of love, relations and business slightly more tricky.
Eh, he came off plenty “nice” enough for a considerable number of people to argue that it was clear that he was going to turn out super awesome and Becky would end up being the villain. So, there was enough for a “twist”.
It’s also the case that yes, abusers tend to be charismatic and usually hide their worst natures when interacting with strangers, but a lot of the niceness of really awful people comes from their privileges. People who share those privileges are less likely to notice red flags like ranting about immigrants, thinking women are property, or joking about “inhuman scum who deserve to die”.
And sadly, Toedad is based on real people who sadly exist and exist in a terrifyingly numerous amount in these United States.
Come to think of it, I kind of ignored the commenters who thought toedad was “nice”. They seemed to fit their own agendas to this character’s actions.
Yes, I’ve known people like Ross in reality but I was talking about the needs of the fiction.
To me, Ross isn’t a fully formed character. He seems to be a collection of negatives. However, from a fiction POV, I think it’s better for bad characters to be sympathetically drawn by the author.
What I was getting at is that – in my scenario – Toedad turns up after Becky, charms the pants off of everyone, and she goes crazy trying to persuade people he’s really bad.
Bad people are people too …
Anyway, this isn’t my story and I’m happy (!) the way things are playing out.
Alright, Ross, there’s a line in the sand, and you were already over it, but now you can’t even see the line in the sand with a jetpack and telescope. You are off on a frozen cliff face somewhere yelling about how the sand is invading the gummint.
Wait… I thought Toe-Dad was supposed to be Christian?! This bringing a gun onto campus is the very opposite of Christian behavior. It makes no sense and is anti-Christian. Is he a member of some cult? It’s the only thing that makes sense… except the cult wouldn’t send their children to any college, not even a religious one; because they know they are fringe elements and that sending their children to a center of higher learning would deprogram the cult behavior.
Which is why the cultier elements of Christianity are so terrifying – they have their own colleges. Granted, Anderson appears to actually be accredited, but there’s certainly religious schools that are actually full-on culty and nobody would accredit them if their life depended on it.
Turns out religious extremists are religious extremist, yup.
(AKA: I agree with you.)
It makes me mad when people go on about Islam being a religion that specifically caters to extremists with certain passages about infidels, though. It’s like, dad, no, you’re an intelligent man, the bible has it’s own fair share of stoning and genociding, and yet I don’t see you being at all violent.
Not everyone who lives outside America is familiar with American social mores. I was in my teens before I became aware of this phenomenon, and it was quite baffling to me.
Well, on the flip side, this might bring Joyce around on her past community’s beliefs. In fact, it’ll be kind of interesting to see how she’s gonna deal with that one, considering her already present problem with her trauma.
Even indirectly, this webcomic just keeps on breaking Joyce apart, doesn’t it…
Horribly enough, I’m getting the feeling that the only character who could help right now is Mike. And while Mike is a master at making people realize why they are stupid and wrong, which is exactly what toedad deserves, I don’t think this universe’s version of him can withstand bullets.
“And YOU, you that call yourselves collectors. Until now, you have all sustained fantasies in which you are the maltreated heroes of your own stories. Comforting daydreams in which, ultimately, you are shown to be in the right.
No more.
For all of you, the dream is over. I have taken it away.
For this is my judgement on you: that you shall know, at all times, and forever, exactly what you are. And you shall know just how LITTLE that means.”
Ok Sorry 24 other person out of over a thousand comment also noticed it and I missed that. I taught it might be interesting to turn the conversation towards who it might actually be. Maybe it’S Amber and Amazi-Girl is on the case. Maybe Amazi-Girl will get shot. Who knows. So sorry I offended you and you’re perceptive skills. You really didn’t need to be so bongoy in you’re come back. And if you weren’t trying to be bongoy may I humbly suggest that you read yourself back before posting because with out intonations, things can sound angrier then they are meant. Also your Avatar doesn’t help in that department.
Dude, everyone noticed: That guy yelled out “get in the car” and brandished a firearm in front of multiple witnesses plus, he’s blocking traffic, creating more potential witnesses.
I think I need to stop reading this comment section for a while. I’m starting to feel more and more guilty that I can’t prevent this sort of stuff from happening. As in screaming in frustration at frequencies associated more with whistles and getting so angry that my jaw movements are getting to the same frequencies.
nothing says “love thy neighbor” like two shells of buckshot to the chest.
in all seriousness, this is the part where, hopefully, the two people in the background call the police immediately. i also hope toe-for-head has next to no shooting experience, trips on a branch, and shoots himself.
I highly doubt Ross Babies MacIntyre (I’m going to make this name a thing if I have to drive it into the ground!) hasn’t any shooting experience. He’s a Murkin, and all Murkins know how to shoot (all Americans, on the other hand).
That’s an expensive rifle, not a cheap knockoff. No one owns a Ruger 1V on a whim. Its almost certainly part of a larger arsenal. He may have chosen it because it was a favorite. Not a great killing or threatening weapon.
There’s a few posts here talking about how there’s no real tension from this since Willis has promised not to kill any of his characters.
But that’s not what’s scary about this scene. What’s scary is that this exact scenario has probably happened hundreds of times to real people. Real parents dead set on destroying their children’s lives for daring not to follow the script they wrote. Real parents who will brandish firearms on their kids to get them back in line.
Ross MacIntyre isn’t just some cartoon villain; He is very real.
There’s a few posts here talking about how there’s no real tension from this since Willis has promised not to kill any of his characters.
But he did leave the door wide open for grievous bodily harm, and we’ve already had scenes in which:
1) one of the characters was damn near date-raped;
2) one of the characters, armed with a huge fuckin’ knife, took another character hostage;
3) one of the characters actually did get stabbed, with that same knife;
4) one of the characters got into a fight with her step-parent and quite literally left him for dead.
5) now we’ve got someone who brought a gun to a fistfight.
If you ask me, given the cited examples (and I could probably come up with others if need be), there’s more than enough tension to go around.
The thing I love the most about this is the subtlety. He believes that he is the underdog. This man could lift both those girls with one hand, yet he brandishing a shotgun and asking God for strength. He doesn’t believe he is fighting two teenage girls. He sincerely believes he is in a fight against Satan.
It’s actually pretty relevant: there is a huge undercurrent of victimization and martyrdom in the white male community at the moment, brought on by changing social conditions and an erosion of the normal rights and privileges that being white, male, and Christian used to bring. Normally, it doesn’t get beyond the complaining stage. Every now and then, though, you see someone go right the hell off the deep-end.
White male Christian faux-martyrdom for exactly the reasons you note has been a thing for a very long time now and there’s a lot of people who view “I don’t have as much automatic regard or extra rights to control the lives of others” as “I have lost my God-given rights” and think that violence will fix that and set things “right”.
And it is especially a thing in the particular flavor of Christianity that Toedad belongs to. That Pre-Millennial Dispensationalist Rapturist culture is all about faux-martyrdom of middle-class white Christian identity. You’re not just someone who is comfortable and privileged and without much in the way of day-to-day struggle, you are locked in an eternal battle of good against evil. One that directly relates to you personally and how well you can defeat a much greater enemy who intends to corrupt your soul and the souls of all your loved ones in order to deny them the pleasure of going to Heaven early and getting to laugh at all the poor sods left behind.
Suddenly, getting all snippy because the gays are getting married is now a sign of your courageous attempts to fight back against Satan’s corrupting influence as the literal end of the World (which will be in your lifetime, because your life is the most important time in the history of the World) draws nigh. It’s a great way to justify the belated thrashing of an individual who refuses to grow up with the times as some poignant and soul-defining struggle against an evil so great and powerful that it controls most of the world’s governments, banks, news organizations, and school systems.
And all the evidence that that is not what’s going on, that that person is just an asshole who is cheering against things like peace or their daughters’ rights to be happy and they have a giant wealth of privileges are just signs of how deep the conspiracy theory goes and how direly we are in the End Times and thus how much more committed they need to be to taking every possible step to demonstrate their piety and commitment and either disown or “fix” any wayward family members who fall prey to Satan’s temptations.
The whole “persecuted victim” thing is also a strong theme in Christianity in general, probably because Christianity was heavily persecuted for much of the time the New Testament was being written/compiled.
The world and society attacking you is seen as a sign of your righteousness, like the martyrs of old. And of course, since the righteous are persecuted, you look for signs of that persecution everywhere.
Not disagreeing with anything you said, just pointing out that Christianity can prime people for it.
Fred Clark (slacktivist) rants on this one a lot. He describes it as a game of fantasy roleplay, where the fundies cast themselves as courageous heroes standing against a tide of evil. This, naturally, requires the invention of a despicable Them that We can be better than, because that’s much easier than actually trying to be better people or to imitate Christ.
Like Fred, I prefer to cast the whole thing in terms of tribes rather than religion, because the religious aspect is usually just a convenient hook to hang all the rest of the tribal aspects on (the behavioural markers, the gatekeepers, the Ins and the Outs, etc) – and as noted above, most flavours of extremism seem to wrap around and meet in the middle regardless of their stated creed. I’m fortunate to live far, far away from the flustercluck that is the US evangelical / fundamentalist subculture; I just wish it were some kind of fictional culture I could nerd out over rather than a very real, very toxic factor in so many people’s lives.
(It doesn’t help that its proponents loudly proclaim their allegiance to my chosen faith, despite their worldview being anathema to everything I believe in.)
Yes, I love him. His writing really helped me understand the internal view of a lot of the culture I grew up surrounded by and really helped me more fully empathize with a lot of what my friends were going through trying to break away from the type of culture that Joyce and Becky are pulling from.
It’s surreal how far from the teachings of Christ the Dispensationalists have gotten, but as far as they’re concerned, they’re the one, true faith. I can’t even go to church anymore, because I’m seeing that ‘us vs. them’ mentality permeating through everything.
Don’t you find it fascinating how quickly “religious zealots” forget things like :”thou shall not kill”
Because cherry picking is the best kind of picking
I am almost certain that one of the other… 1069… huh… comments may have mentioned this, but it is sad how scarily topical something drawn months ago happens to be today. Especially as this pops up at 11:00 PM my time, so all three had happened or been reported by then. Please Willis, stop predicting the future! You’re reaching The Onion levels of unintentional accuracy!
As has been mentioned, unfortunately, shooting incidents are common enough there would have been one recently whenever the strip was posted, and there’ll probably be another while the storyline is ongoing.
It’s not a lucky shot if the entire target is bullseye.
Aaaaaand maybe I could have come up with a better analogy, but I’ll let that stand.
Yeah, but there is a difference between having one recently and Friday having, if I recall, three in one day. Northern Arizona University, Texas Southern University and one with no fatalities that happened to be at a school at Pepper Tree Elementary School in California.
Considering that the literal main character of DoA is a Christian and has never been shown to be a gun carrying nut job, clearly he’s not painting every Christian like this.
Last I checked Joyce, Becky, Billie, Danny, Amber, Sierra, Mary, Jocelyne, Joyce’s parents, Walky and Sal’s parents, Danny’s parents, Sierra’s parents, and probably way more that I’m forgetting right now don’t all violently wave around firearms.
Joyce has been in over 600 strips, is a Christian, is the main character, and is not “painted as a gun carrying nut job.” Becky, who’s in this very strip, is another Christian who’s not “painted as a gun carrying nut job.” In fact, in over 5 years of strips, this is its first gun, despite having a cast full of Christians.
So if you, like, maybe actually read this webcomic, you’d have the answer to your question.
It’s fair to miss panels and even…major characters and storylines, I guess.
But why is it so many people who pay that little attention then seize up on negative portrayals of Christian individuals, and assume the comic being awful to Christianity is more like than that they missed something?
You’ve got some odd Bayesian priors going on, is what I’m saying.
That’s not my experience at all. You hear lots of talk about how persecuted Christianity is, even in cases when it’s only someone being asked to be fair to other religions.
What 3oranges said. When a shooter is atheist or non-Christian identified then that is what makes the news and we get a lot of think pieces about those religions or non-religions and whether this is a sign of greater militance. But when a shooter is Christian and is specifically killing others because of their Christian beliefs, it usually gets deflected in the same way that racist or sexist killings do into the general grab-bag of “mental health”.
Why do you hate dads, Willis? Between this guy and Blaine, your radical momist agenda is shining clear through. Your ridiculous strawmen aside, most dads are perfectly normal people who love their children, and I don’t see why you can’t represent any dads like that instead of these agenda-driven stereotypes. As a person with a dad, I am offended.
No, but see, you showed A gun carrying nut job who is a Christian. The only possible explanation there is that you are trying to paint all Christians with a broad brush and push a liberal atheist agenda against all those who believe in a deity.
… so he didn’t found a millstone around, there is no sea nearby… and the daggers of Megiddo are stuck in the customs office… the 12g ought to do fine!!
Toedad is very certain of his righteousness. He would expect the police to side with him and help him take his wayward daughter home. A young women without ID and a concerned father.
White guys waving guns around rarely end up shot in the US. After all they are just exercising their rights. And Toedad is as white as they come.
Kudos for the exact rifle. Writers don’t do things accidentally. The Ruger 1V is a high end rifle. Tells us Toedad probably owns a small arsenal, of which this is his favorite. Expensive, long range weapon. Fortunately, a bad weapon for mass shooting, since it doesn’t come with a large magazine. No scope, so harder to aim accurately. But someone with one of these is probably a good shot and well practiced. He’s not planning on killing lots of people, just one or two, after which he will wait for the police to congratulate him on his shooting.
In any part of the country or world, if you want to piss off men, get in the way of their complete control of their women. Only slightly less true in the US than in Afghanistan.
White guys shooting at young white women don’t tend to do so well. Yeah, he likely won’t get shot, but he’s not likely to be seen as “just exercising his rights”.
Your last line though sadly applies just as much if you’re one of those women trying to take control of yourself.
My reaction to this comic:
“Awww man, Becky’s dad found her. That kinda sucks, I was hoping to see more of her day with….. is that gun? Fuck, that’s a gun! NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!! Don’t kill the awesome dinosaur girl!”
Well one of the people in the background sees him with the gun – notice the white exclamation lines over his/her head. I’d bet 911 will be dialed quickly. The question is how long will it take for them to get there and stop Toedad; and will it be in time to save Dina/Becky?
I went and checked the comic and right after he says that is when Becky tells Dina to run. Not too implausible a headcanon. And if so, I’d argue Becky knows.
I kinda wish I liked Becky, Dina, and Joyce a bit more as characters right about now. I do hope Becky’s dad chases her past the fountain. Rescuing her best friend should counter Joyce’s week or two of anxiety mighty fine. This also makes me glad I have the parents I do. I came out in my Twenties but I knew the whole time I was raised Pentecostal that I was gayer than gay. No Becky or Ethan drama at all. They’re the types who took the whole leaving the judging up to God part seriously.
Just… I knew this comic has been political in all the best ways, trying to be respectful of the topics it represents but this just about blew- surprised me. REALLY surprised me.
Also, I hope Willis isn’t going the route so many are expecting; the unemployed religious nut who believes in lax gun laws. While yes, that would help make him look like more like a shooter than he already does dressed like that, but think about if he not only HAD a job, but he owned a small business in his town? Anyone can become a shooter with the wrong morals, and I think it’s better to to portray that than cut to the easy stereotype.
(Not trying to tell him how to write his on comic, just a personal opinion I have about commenting on current events using expected cliches)
You know DoA has Joyce, one of the most respectful depictions of a Christian upbringing in basically all of fiction, right? Just because Willis doesn’t skip over the ugly stuff doesn’t mean he’s trying to push an evil strawman agenda.
I think we’ll finally ditch the “But what if Ross has a point” people. However, they’ll simply transform themselves into “Ross is a strawman!” people. So it’s mostly a lateral move.
There’s been no mention of how/if Ross makes money, so I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure he’s not unemployed. He can afford to send Becky to Christian college after all.
Something tells me we’re never going to find out though. Since Ross is an adult, I’m going to go with “employed until proven otherwise.”
Also, I never noticed how many real-life famous mass shootings were committed by unemployed people before now. Granted, a good number of them that I can think of were students, but still…
People unstable enough to go chasing their children around with rifles are not necessarily going to be great at holding down a job. That’s not a “stereotype”, that’s a natural consequence of being fucking unhinged.
VARMINTS???
Enough folks labeled Toes gun as a Ruger 1V that I looked it up and the photos definitely show Toes gun. Wikipedia has a stub for the Ruger 1. It says its a single shot. Is it the 1v that is double barrelled. What is the thing even intended for? Wiki-p says there is a variant called a “Varmiter” — is that the 1v? Is it intended for shooting “varmints”? VARMINTS?? He’s hunting Becky and Dina wit a “Varminter”??
VARMINTS!!!
There can’t be any way that Willis did not deliberately put a “VARMINT HUNTING” rifle (not shotgun) in Toedad’s hands. All of those who thought that Willis was casual/indifferent about drawing that gun accurately, you need to flip that around 180 degrees. He was totes deliberate and very accurate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varmint_hunting NEVER think that Willis does things without a reason.
On the Ruger site the 1V is the model chambered for .223 (i.e., same round that the AR15 uses). .223 is basically useful only for killing varmints (and people) in the real world. It is a single-shot rifle. It does appear Willis used a Ruger Model 1 as his model, but they all look pretty much the same, they’re all single shot rifles, just chambered for different rounds such as the more typical .30-06 used for deer hunting.
So, very light weight gun, potentially accurate within a few hundred yards, firing high velocity rounds, one of which will probably kill a conventional varmint and at the very least knock down an unarmed lesbian so that you can move in on her for the kill?
Speaking as an open atheist (a class which is less trusted in America than homosexuals and Muslims) in a very Christian place, I can count on no fingers the amount of people I’ve encountered who fit this description. This isn’t a character, this is a hate-sink, a living obstacle.
I haven’t had to ‘go through’ anything except a few rather lovely debates and answering a lot of questions. Perhaps I live in a nexus of tolerance but I’ve never encountered anyone like this cartoonishly evil person.
He maybe built of negatives as it stands – we’ve not really had the chance to see Ross in a “normal” situation – but his actions ring horribly true for me.
if you havent had to “go through” anything overly negative because of your beliefs then where exactly do you get the idea that being an atheist is treated as worse than being gay or muslim, people who do actually “go through” horrible things because of who they are regularly
You stated that you are the greatest victim of prejudice, not Spencer. If you haven’t gone through anything, maybe consider that the people who have are not better off than you.
Anecdotal evidence doesn’t prove jack shit. I don’t understand why people are so ready to take the word of others as long as they’re attached to a sob story.
Do people like this exist? Probably.
Are they in any way representative of religious people as a group? Absolutely not.
And any way, the main issue most people are having with this development has nothing to do with real life. It’s this ludicrous spike in ToeDad’s evil streak that sent him from the lovechild of Blaine and Joyce’s folks to a B-movie villain.
Well no. This is not every religious person on Earth. Hell, he’s not even representative of pre-millennial dispensationalist Christians who live in Indiana in this comic and are parents of a major cast member.
And that’s because he’s not intended to be. He’s an illustration of an abusive man whose abuse has intermingled deeply with the most poisonous branch of that type of theology as has been seen by people who’ve lived near or grown up in the types of communities being discussed.
If this character looks like a B-movie villain instead of a particularly scary family member, fellow Church member, or parent of a friend from your past, then congratulations on having avoided such people.
But for the rest of us, this isn’t so much “oh, for bloody sake” as “yeah, right, that’s what X would have done in Toedad’s case”.
Maybe that might be a clue that your source for thinking that being atheist is in any way comparable to the prejudice that LGBT and Islamic people face might be a little skewed?
Welp, this storyline just got a million times less compelling. I mean, a gun toting psycho?
I get that this sort of thing happens in real life but when it comes to fictional stories, it’s just a plain black-and-white conflict. How is this any different from Amber’s dad, other than “I’m abusive and controlling because RELIGION, also I have a GUN”?
Time to lurk until we get back to Sarah or Joyce, I guess.
I get that you were trying to be snarky but you realize I haven’t implied that there’s anything “unrealistic” about this, right. Are you sure you’ve responded to the right post?
I just don’t get why this suddenly makes things black and white; it’s always been that way. There was never any ambiguity to this situation. Toedad was always a crazy, violent asshole and Becky was always the victim.
Last time we saw him he was just a guy going around asking for his kid and then getting put on the wrong bus. We knew he was religious and strict but that’s as far as we knew.
Now he’s got a car and a gun and he’s completely insane.
Unless you could see the future then no it was not “always” this way as far as the reader is concerned, I mean, do you think all the people in the thousand plus comments above us are surprised because they’re stupid?
And the first time we saw him he pulled Becky out of college to send her to conversion therapy. When he spoke with Dina he talked at length about how she was on an evil path and he had to fix her. We know from Becky’s character page that she was forced to go to Anderson because Ross had decided how she had to live her life.
People just fucking trip over themselves finding reasons why a Christian father can never do any wrong.
I feel like you’re not actually addressing anything I’m personally saying, but are venting your frustrations to me about stuff other people maybe might be saying which I’m not seeing but you’re clearly pissed off about.
Is there anyone on this page who is even trying to justify what Toedad is doing? I’m certainly not seeing it. At most all I’ve seen is people hoping for a little, you know, nuance to the story. Because this is supposed to be a story. It’s not a documentary, “this happens in real life” doesn’t automatically make it compelling.
I mean, we already have Monstrously Abusive Father With The Goal of Controlling His Daughter. Now there’s a second one? And besides that, what’s the reader getting out of this? There’s just no nuance to this conflict. Heck, even superhero comics where the villain is totally evil can get away with it because the actual conflict is how the superhero is going to deal with whatever clever trap is set for him or the cool over-the-top fight scenes he’s going to have. What are we going to get out of this? A chase scene and then “Homophobia’s bad”? The whole readership is people who don’t dislike homosexuality, that’s just preaching to the choir.
You could just skip to the end of this storyline because from this page onwards you can already tell that since Toedad crossed the line from “strict and controlling” to “WAVES A FUCKING FIREARM AROUND IN PUBLIC” then he’s probably going to get arrested and there’s no room for Becky to really do anything different from what she’s already been doing for the past book or two unless, I don’t know, Toedad manages to escape the law and Becky has to leave for everyone else’s safety or something. And then I guess the conflict is in how Becky’s baggage is affecting everyone else? Which might be interesting I don’t know?
But that’s besides the point, I’m just judging by what I’m seeing and what I’m seeing now is that any room for complexity on Toedad’s part has been killed off and the story’s flatter for it.
Um… *raise hand* Maybe the point is to depict a story that is not often told, surrounding exactly what the frequent disownment and abuse of queer youth who come out, especially to religious institutions and family.
Which is not about saying “homophobia is bad”, but about showing its manifestations and its damage, its connections to abuse and how it part and parcel of a whole philosophy of desperate control that hurts people in the real world.
I’m glad that this is all boring theoretical fiction about “gay shit” to you. I’m glad you’re life can be disconnected from the reality. Not everyone can say the same. For someone like me who has lost one’s family because one’s father wanted to fix me. Who has counseled a number of kids terrified of coming out lest they become a statistic or who have lost key parts of their support network or family because of the disease that is homophobia and transphobia, this is not some boring old “gay people are human or whatever, gay marriage woo” preaching to the choir. This is one of only a handful of depictions I can think of to look at the world surrounding “conversion” and familial disownment of queer youth.
To me, this is legitimately healing from a really traumatic year and a half and darkly familiar at parts.
I can get that to you this is disconnected to your daily life, about things you can’t possibly hope to connect with on an emotional level and which really seem like basic blahdeblah. That is fair. That is how I feel about most heterosexual will they/won’t they admit their feelings type stories or stories about a middle aged white person worried about their taxes being too high or about the vast majority of stories that get told.
That’s not bad storytelling. It’s just not the story you’re interested in. That you have enough access to connect with. And that’s legit. But that’s not a universal truth.
Your inability to spot villains because they don’t have devil horns puts people like Becky in danger.
It doesn’t make overt abuse and violence–that Dina, who is stated to have difficulty understanding people, easily figured out all by herself–less than a black-and-white issue.
And if you couldn’t figure it out for yourself, the comic helpfully told you anyway.
Excuse me? I’m talking about a work of fiction not a real life person. I’m not putting anyone in danger. And no my treatment of fiction doesn’t reflect my treatment of real life people because that would be insane. I’m just looking for a good story here, and am a little disappointed that I got Abusive Dad Two: Electric Boogaloo instead. Like pardon me that I had a little benefit of a doubt because I hoped we wouldn’t have a character who is basically a rehash of Amber’s dad.
And yeah of course Dina instantly realized the dad is evil incarnate because all the characters are written by Willis and he had it set in his mind while he’s writing this that the dude is The Bad Guy Who Will Commit Criminal Acts even if the reader hasn’t seen him act like a criminal yet. There was a possibility that Dina was just unquestionably accepting of Becky’s version of events but nope now it turns out the guy was a walking powder keg of villainy and how dare the reader even vaguely consider that he had a shred of humanity in him.
I’m sorry, I’m trying very hard to understand what you are trying to express here, but I don’t get it. It’s almost like you are against black-and-white morality writing just on principle. Do you just want the entire story to be grey-and-gray morality?
I don’t see how making Ross just like Joyce’s parents, except with a gay daughter, is any more predictable or unoriginal or whatever than making him exactly like Blaine, only religious. I say that because it sounds like you would be perfectly happy if Ross was just like Joyce’s parents. Your description of what you would have preferred Ross to be sounds pretty much exactly like Joyce’s parents.
Also, I don’t consider Ross to be completely inhuman. He’s a horrible person, sure, but his character seems like a fairly plausible result of fear, piety, and other human emotions. I’m not trying to say that Ross is realistic; you’ve already stated you don’t care whether he is realistic or not. I’m trying to say that, for a very minor character in this story, he seems like a fairly accurate portrayal of humanity to me–humanity at it’s worst, maybe, but still humanity.
I think the objection isn’t the black and white nature or who is and is not the victim, but the absolutely cartoonish levels of her father’s evil. At this point in this comic we’ve had two patriarchs who can be classified as Saturday Morning Cartoon villains or an after-school special bad guy.
This thread line was actually about how he is too realistic and therefore boring.
Well, it was also about justifying all the other blatantly evil/abusive things he’s done.
I don’t consider Ross’s behavior to be cartoonish at all. Could you explain what you mean by ‘cartoonish’ and why you feel that Ross is portrayed that way?
Because before people could rationalize to themselves that Becky was in the wrong and that Toedad was misunderstood and now that it is clear to everyone who doesn’t have the background of too many encounters with Toedad types that he’s bad news, it’s suddenly a sign of a giant shark jump as this character becomes “suddenly” unlikeable.
Basically, the frequency (not necessarily this individual incarnation) of this critique may be partially coming from the same place as the “But Toedad hasn’t done anything ‘wrong’ yet” crowd.
And read further into the conversation where Alex literally makes a “but Toedad hadn’t done anything wrong yet” comment. So, yeah, feel very confident in this suspicion.
Got to admit you have a point, up until now this dispute seamed to be in the rational since of mind but with the hole gun thing it kind of just de humanizes Ross. Before he was just over religious shit dad that couldn’t except his daughter as a member of the gay community, but then he took sudden swerve to being crazy over religious nut case dad who’s willing to hunt college kids in the woods with a gun.
When I came here last night I was expecting some serious shit to go down maybe even for him to flat out hit someone…but I wasn’t expecting him to be ready to shoot someone over this. It’s like going from Trevor From GTA 5 to the Dude from HATRED.
No. It never was rational. Our introduction to this storyline was him trying to take his adult daughter to “discipline her, to fix her” – Which has horribly scary overtones that you might just be missing.
And then there’s this from a few weeks ago: “Only so when some gross dude claimed me, I could better homeschool our dumb kids.
The danged extent of my ambitions. My life goals.”
This goes way beyond “couldn’t except his daughter as a member of the gay community” and has from the start. This is “women as property”. She’s his until he passes her to a husband and she needs to be disciplined if she doesn’t obey.
Other one time through this entire arc were we led to believe that he’should actually crazy enough to resort to murder. All I was expecting was him to forcefully put her through some sort of Bullshit gay rehab program not resort to,”you will follow my God’s rule or die for your insolence.
Maybe if there where less hints that it was leading to this instead of religiously obsessive man looking his run away daughter and more hints of crazy guy with a history of Violente tendencies. His dead wife would have been a clue to that if the stron had focused a bit more like make sound it sound like it made him more cold and more angry, just something instead of talying like a religious homophobe.
I can see where you are coming from, but I honestly don’t think Blaine and Ross have much in common besides both being abusive fathers with no redeeming qualities.
Blaine’s abuse is motivated by his extreme selfishness and egotism, while Ross’s is motivated primarily by his religion. Ross sincerely believes he is doing the right thing, while Blaine doesn’t give a shit. Blaine is the classic self-aware sociopath who can be charming when he wants to be, while Ross is brutally honest and very upfront about telling you when he thinks you are putting your eternal soul in danger by dressing up as a “Pokeman.” Blaine is too cunning to chase his daughter across campus with a gun, he prefers to use manipulation and tricks to get what he wants. Ross, meanwhile, is either too stupid to realize he’s going to get arrested for this, OR he knows and he doesn’t care because he is honestly trying to HELP his daughter… which would still make him almost the opposite of Blaine.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Honestly, if Blaine showed up right now and Ross knew all about the kind of person he was it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Ross yelled “Die, monster!” and shot him dead (last time I checked, “adultery” is somewhere above “homosexuality” on the Bible’s list of sexual sins, on account of it probably being more common).
I mean, if you think about it, Ross would probably think of Amber as the perfect daughter: submissive, quiet, indoorsy, and of course, straight. From everything I have seen of him, Blaine honestly HATED Amber for her personality (assuming all of the put-downs and insults weren’t just designed to keep her under his thumb. An argument could be made either way).
The difference in motivation doesn’t matter when they’re both so entirely unsympathetic and irredeemable, and when the motivation is just another reason to find them unsympathetic and irredeemable. When their treatment and role in the narrative is virtually identical then those differences are superficial.
No it was “Okay we know this guy is terrible but maybe possibly there’s something to read into here that’s not so simple”, there was the possibility that there was something more to the conflict than just “evil dad”.
Now he’s chasing a pair of lovers through the forest with a shotgun. You could replace him with a slasher villain and the scene would be the same.
Well, I guess it IS close to Halloween, maybe he’ll turn out to be Jason Vorhees in disguise.
When actual abuse happens in real life do you spend a lot of time thinking about why the abuser is motivated to do it, or are you more concerned with the people they’re hurting?
Or are real abusive parents all strawmen or something?
I’m talking about stories and narratives here. I’ve repeatedly made it clear that I keep my views of fiction and reality separate and that I’m not considering how “real” this is- that I find that in fact an entirely irrelevant factor- because it is not a documentary it is a comic strip, I am speaking purely in the interests of storytelling. Please actually read what I’m writing because this is not the first or even the second time I’ve said any of this.
The fact that it’s her father is most certainly different from a monster in a slasher movie.
And this is a complication. This is it being not so simple.
That he is the villain was established as soon as he was introduced. He is not subtly evil, and never tried to be.
There really isn’t anything complicated about this at all. There was when he wasn’t pointing a gun at her. But now he is so the fact that he’s her father… really doesn’t play into it anymore? Nobody is going to force a kid to stay with a father who threatens to shoot said kid, not even in the most gun-crazy states of the West. Nobody is going to go, “Okay, but he’s her dad” no he’s just a violent criminal now. It is simple, it is not complicated, it is utterly uncompelling in a story where the entertainment value is driven by its drama fifty percent of the time because where else is it going to go from here besides “The dad goes to jail for threatening kids with a gun” or “The dad almost goes to jail for threatening kids with a gun but escapes somehow”? It’s not going to go, “Everyone sees the dad threaten the kids with a gun but the fact that he’s her father changes everything for most people and the kid is forced to stay with the dad”, I know we can talk about how that can happen in the real world but the last time I checked the story isn’t set inside the potato farm of a UFO cult it’s set in a college that’s liberal enough to have LGBT clubs and some form of police force nearby.
What’s she going to do that’s any different from what she’s already been doing? She already treated him like he was going to shoot her for being gay. Now she’s going to… continue treating him like he was going to shoot her for being gay?
If you are really concerned with how compelling this storyline is, then think more about the consequences of this situation’s resolution.
No one will die (this is a given from Willis), regardless of injuries there is going to be media coverage because a person has pulled a gun and chased people on a college campus in the USA. This means both Ross and Becky will have their faces and names broadcast. It will be discovered that Becky is not a student and will no longer be able to hide in campus as her identity as the girl chased by the gunman is revealed to the student body.
Becky is 18 so the authorities cannot force her to live with additional family if/hopefully/when Ross is arrested, so she will be forced to find somewhere new to live immediately. IU most likely will not take pity on her beacaue 1) she is not a student 2) Tbey may believe that she in part brought this negative attention to the campus by hiding out there.
There will probably be increased strain between Joyce and her family because her parents will find out that Becky is ga and that Joyce lied to them while she was hiding Becky in her room. They most likely will not be pleased that she is okay with Becky’s homosexuality, remember how they reacted to finding out that Dorothy was an atheist.
These are just a few possibilities and none of these situations take Dina into account and how her family will react, as we don’t know too much about them.
Just because there is no longer any gray area for Ross doesn’t mean you can write the rest of this storyline off wholesale. There is still plenty of room for drama, resolution, and long lasting consequences.
I don’t think Willis will let Dina or Becky die. Both characters have too much potential for development to be killed for the sake of shock value.
Becky’s crazy asshole father, yes, he will be arrested and jailed and could even be shoot by the police (I think US’s police must have some kind of rapid reaction protocol for school shootings by now).
What I am eager to see now is Joyce’s parents’ reaction…Will they side with Becky’s dad and try to justify his behaviour, to put the blame on Becky?
I know their counterparts in old Walky comic wouldn’t do something like that; I think they weren’t real fundies, but rather a couple who suffered the consequences of their excesively hedonist youth and tried to raise their children to become the opposite, but to Joyce’s surprise weren’t too upset despite thinking her a closet lesbian, and encouraged her to have (heterosexual) pre-marital hanky-panky and get pregnant as soon as possible, but those were different characters…
Just based on what we’ve seen of them, I’d be honestly shocked if they sided with the gun toting psychopath over their daughter’s best friend, even if she is gay and the whack job is her dad.
well i mean they did make a public scene about an 18 year old girl being raised an atheist and tried to forbid joyce from being friends with her. also compared her to hitler.
i dont think the browns would themselves hunt their children down with a gun, but im not exactly expecting waves of compassion and tolerance from them regarding beckys situation.
Well, the Browns certainly aren’t the good kind of Christian fundamentalist. Silly restrictions on fiction are one thing, but they were extremely vocal about how Dorothy was evil.
What separates them and Toedad is that they had the basic decency to actually step back and let their daughter make her own choices and recognize that they shouldn’t try to stop her.
FWIW, I could see a scenario where Ross turns out to be rich and influential and it rapidly turns into some kind of “support me or I call in those three mortgages I gave the church!” BS manipulation.
Dina’s in danger. She’s the “deceptress.” Rats. I’ve seen this kind of behavior and thinking up close, it doesn’t go well without serious disruption and intervention.
Wouldn’t surprise me that the person on the news will be the arrest of the black, convicted felon Sal for running over an upstanding and morally correct middle-aged white guy with her motorcycle while preventing a shooting. This is Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America, after all.
It’s probably not Danny and Ethan, since neither is listed in the characters for this page. Characters have been listed in the past even if all that’s visible is a bit of a hand or elbow.
I think Dina may be the target too. I suspect Becky realizes it too.
Wild speculation: Becky turns back and lets him take her to keep him from shooting Dina. “Don’t look back” is the clue.
He won’t kill her and won’t realize she has a phone, which will let her be rescued.
OK, I’m prepared to state my theory about how this will work out. I believe the ambulance in 31 days will contain ToeDad. However, it will also, I believe, contain Sal.
Yes, SAL. Because, of all the members of the cast, she is the only one with the sheer ‘nads to take down a crazy man with a rifle. She’s nearby (her Joyce escort has diverted her from her usual hangouts) and alone.
ToeDad (as many suspect) is after Dina, and pursues her to a dead end. As he raises his gun to fire, Sal grabs the gun and cold-cocks him with it, sending him to his knees. She looks down at him, and says “Wha’ the hell’s the ma-”
And that’s when the cops arrive, see Sal – a black person holding a gun, standing over a white man she’s clearly assaulted – and take her down.
I’d say the larger the campus the more like there’s a police force dedicated to the site. Especially if the “campus” and the “college town” are the same thing.
With this many comments, I was actually expecting more of them to be idiotic and horrible. So, yay humanity for not letting me down as much as you could have?
Now to read Willis’ Tumblr to see the comments that got deleted…
I’m just gonna go ahead and hold out hope that it’s either a tranq, or a beanbag. Not that they wouldn’t still hurt…. or can’t both be lethal… you know what? Nevermind. I’ll shut up now.
so other people in the comments have been saying that Toedad is using a Ruger 1v. for me an admitted gun owner and bird hunter its a relief that Toedad is using the 1V as the rifle is a single shot the damage he will/could do is much less than if he was armed with say a AR 15. that of course presumes that Toedad is using a rifle in the Case that the excuse for a father is toting a shotgun is worse however its still not as bad as a assault rifle given the spread of both bird and buckshot.
All that can be said with certainty is that it’s a falling block action. Of course the most common modern example of this is the Ruger #1. It is indicative of neither particular skill, nor investment, as some have commented. In fact I think entirely too much is being made of the choice of rifle. I’ll admit that it’s *weird* enough, this is not a firearm one tosses in the car when going to look for trouble.
Maybe it’s the only thing daddy left him. Maybe DW pulled a random source image.
Personally I wouldhave put crazy fundie dad down for a Wal-Mart Mossberg.
Isn’t it a “varminter”? I spect that might be why he has it BUT ALSO that its a statement by Willis about Toedad: that he’s hunting his lesbian daughter with a varmint hunting rifle.
Well, couldn’t one hit from that gun do a lot of damage to Becky or Dina, even if it’s not a lethal shot? Maybe Toedad is actualLY competent with the thing.
I’d be tempted to get up in the middle of the night to read the next comic, but I’m expecting that one to be even worse than this one. At least if I wait until tomorrow to read it I can worry at work instead of staying up the rest of the night.
I’m mentally going through the other universe ends for dina and just. my heart will not be ready if dina doesn’t end this series happy with someone and IF SHE GETS HURT I WILL BE BROKEN.
and i’m worried about becky too because idr her from the other universe so. I’m just so worired about both the babies and amber and everyone *internal screaming*
This isn’t referring to everyone but some, after the posts I’ve been reading. There’s a lot of “assuming” about peoples character going on, the assumptions made from reading the opinions/comments of those with wildly differing life experiences from the folks who have been through literal hell with their parents over issues like this.
A difference in experience is just that; a difference in experience. People will make assumptions about subjects they don’t understand. It comes from a place of “not knowing”… and God Forbid they do. There is absolutely no need to treat them like horrible people when we’re all doing the best we can.
We, commenting on a web comic of all things, are human beings. We should see each other as human beings instead of pseudo-characters when we find someone with vastly differing life experiences. Asking questions instead of going “…… well you’re clearly clueless” or some variation might help people get along better than what I’m seeing here.
Oh wow, I did not see that coming. Figured we’d come to sympathize with Toe Dad and see him as a tragically misguided figure.
Then he brought a rifle to school.
How the fuck did Captain Crazypants get a gun that quick?! Didn’t he JUST go to Indianapolis? What kind of madman thought “Yes I’ll give this toe looking son of a bongo a rifle. He certainly won’t shoot a kid, near a school, or anything. He TOTALLY doesn’t look as if he’s choking on a crate of tennis rackets!” Dammit Willis know I know fear TWICE THIS WEEK.
OK, I was one of those who was giving Ross the benefit of a doubt. Unlike deliberately villainous Blaine, Ross just might had been chasing Becky out of concern for his daughter, through his very, very misinformed perception of the world.
That sympathy? Went out the window with this strip.
So a milestone I dunno if I should congratulate folks for or not….this is officially the most talked about strip in DOA by comment volume. It beat out Jocelyne coming out to Ethan by a couple hundred. Which is an interesting parallel, because what happens here will no doubt weigh on Joyce’s mind when her family discovers that their son is actually their daughter.
I don’t expect everything in this comic to be realistic, but I’m sorry — this is where it jumps the shark.
The uber conservative Christian boogyman? Really??? Here’s a fun fact. I have a similar upbringing to Willis. Ultra right wing conservative, very theologically conservative, all that. And to this day, huge numbers of relatives, friends of the family, childhood friends, debate partners(I participate on some forums dedicated to religious and political discussion), etc. who hold a lot of conservative, and in some cases even fundamentalist, views on things, and . . . just . . . never.
He was already a caricature, and now he’s just an offensive misrepresentation of the views nad practices of a not-insignificant number of people(at least in the US). I may be gay and non-conservative myself, but wow is this horrible.
A boogie man is something made up to scare people. Care to place a wager on whether or not we can find any number of incidents similar to this situation through a Google search?
Loading ...
The Lord is his cat
also, fuck that dude
in the face
with a sledgehammer
[inb4 TOO SOON: 1. Willis committed this months ago 2. “too soon” after WHICH mass shooting? it’s just as much prophetic since in America there’s a new one practically fucking weekly]
Yikes. Thought the same thing… I’m sure that tomorrow we will learn that it is a bb gun or something.
From the triggers, I’m guessing double-barreled shotgun.
Grant him the strength
but no ammo
yeah that works-ish
seriously though what the fucking fuck WILLIS WHY
Well… because it’s much easier to prove he’s a danger to his daughter this way.
If that’s what the aim of this strip was, I’d say it bloody well succeeded.
And then poll totally fits this situation.
I meant regarding the in-comic cops and justice, but sure, that too.
I’m not sure the bullet is for her.
Dina has a history with bad endings…
What do you mean, a danger? He is saving her from worse. Her immortal soul might not yet be irretrievably lost. But now’s the time to cut her losses, obviously.
img: fry.jpg
totes, brah
…….Fucking hell…. Willis. Please. I REALLY want some Gore in the next few pages/chapters, Give us some catharsis with Nutjob up there getting shot by the cops.
“He is saving her from worse. Her immortal soul might not yet be irretrievably lost. ”
In the NT that’s not his call. Never was. Never will be.
But don’t let me get in the way of your opinion.
I’m not allowed to.
Now now, he’s clearly just a concerned parent trying to help his daughter, uh, well… er, I…
Eh, I’m sure they’ll come up with somethin’.
I could kind of sympathise with him before this strip. He’s just ignorantly trying to help his daughter, so he’s just the classic bumbling, overprotective dad!
Then he draws a gun, and I’m like, WTF?
This will be good.
See, I knew it!
And surprisingly, the UNconcerned and hateful dad, Blaine, has been slapped billions of levels down the “worst dad” list.
Goes to show that deranged concern is probably worse.
There’ll probably still be people defending his actions though.
While it is a drastic turn of events, the girls are actually pretty safe considering the context. The fact that there was almost immediate cover and that he had to spend time taking the gun out gives them a considerable amount of time for the police to arrive. The fact that he has done this on a college campus means that the initial police response will be within 3 minutes, but I would guess within 1 to 1.5 minutes considering that IU has a police department. The following police response would take 3-5 minutes but would be massive, possibly involving multiple police departments. SWAT would be called, but I don’t know where the nearest team is based, so they might not even make it there before the situation is resolved.
no need, we have Amazi-Girl
Actually we have Two Amizi-girls, and I hope they Both show up and start an argument over who gets to “save the day”
He’ll be arrested either way. Seriously, I’m starting to wonder what happened to his wife…
There are already witnesses, and while a courtroom may empathize with the Browns, being clean-cut, ‘productive members of society’ & well to do, they may feel less understanding about ‘Toe Dad,’ who basically comes off as a short, redneck nutjob, who’s probably been unemployed for a long time, engaging in ‘typical redneck behavior’ and probably planning to shoot up the nearest government building next unless he’s put away soon.
Joyce’s parents may blame Toe Dad’s actions of her, Becky, and their ‘heathen’ friends once the Pubic Eye isn’t watching, but I’d imagine they would keep their distance during his trial….Especially if the prosecution convinces him to take the stand…Part of the same Church Family or not.
I would have to guess the ‘little lady’ was so ground under the heel of religious horseshit that she would sit back and take it, just like that dumbass Duggar bongo.
Pisses me off I even know their last name.
bongo corrected to bongo
Don’t ask me.
It’s the filter from the last quad digit comment strip before this.
Don’t worry; we all know what you mean.
Blaming the victim: never the right choice.
This is the first time I’ve really seen someone use the bongo word to try to dehumanize someone on here (I wasn’t here when the filter was instated), so I’m not surprised it’s in a blaming the victim context as well.
The pubic eye…?
Eh… maybe. I don’t think so though… I don’t particularly care for Joyce’s parents, but they strike me as too honest and sincere to be that calculating about the whole thing.
Calculating? Actions as basic as being mad at a party that they’re already predisposed to view as ‘in the wrong’ due a knee-jerk impulse to separate themselves from something that’s just too much from them to handle (not just what Ross is doing, but the fact he’s one of their own, who’s supposed to be inherently above this kind of ‘stabbing and shooting’ and they trusted them) and not diving at the chance to make themselves an accomplice to ‘mad gunman’ infanticide, which everyone will see them and what they stand for as being about (it’s too difficult for them to even fathom Ross using such criminal methods as it is)
Kind of like how a bunch of kids all gather to support that idiot daredevil wanna-be they hang out with when he shows off his latest stunt, but run for the hills without getting an adult or anything when that stunt goes horribly, and life-threateningly, wrong. It’s more fight-or-flight based reaction than a deliberately conniving attempt to evade accountability. Why develop the awareness that’ll lead to an understanding of the importance of accountability when simply being sincere and having good intentions will keep all but the most cynical jerks from blaming you for anything that goes afoul in your life?
Are you sure it’s a shotgun? It seems more like a hunting rifle.
Hoping is the official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!
I would have thought it was a rifle if not for the double trigger. I think he’s holding it at an angle where we can’t see multiple barrels.
…it’s remarkable that we’re able to chit-chat so calmly about this, innit?
Well,the weapon ain’t aimed at us. Unless he manages to shoot through the fourth wall.
Damn, can you imagine how the characters would react if they knew some of the stuff posted in these comment chains? He’d possibly take aim at us for the Toe-Dad comments alone. Then if he saw the other stuff? He’d wanna go to TOEn on all of us… O_O
If the fourth wall were that easily penetrated I’d have killed him by now. If he’s had his throat slit next strip you’ll know I got through.
Or if his skull is dented then me and my hammer got through and time-travelled into the past.
If the fourth wall was that thin, I’d start throwing stuff straight from Mortasheen at him. Specifically, this: http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/pride.htm. Seems appropriate, no?
Ol’ Shotgun Rossie’s starting to validate our Family Guy-assed assumptions from his first appearance, that were solely based on the way he looked, so less.
Then there’s how it stacks with he way he speaks, in contrast to how Mr. and Mrs. Brown talk. They sounded like actual ‘fundies.’ Ross sounds like someone sent by a religious cult to act as an enforcer/martyr. I don’t think that’s something he picked up form his and the Brown’s pastor or their church family in general without the assistance of the voices in his head.
That part’s the punchline. Jackie & Dina’s lives being in danger are scary enough as it is. They may have help, too. Sal’s pretty sharp in these kind of situations, this is hardly the first thug-father based security threat this university had to deal with this semester, and how long to you think he will last once he fails to get a clear shot at Amazigirl?
He’ll shoot her eye out!
What I don’t see on that firearm is a front sight, so it’s not a rifle – not a .22, not a BB gun, not a high calibre rifle. It’s a shotgun. Maybe about 20 gauge from the looks of the barrel.
Turns out I’m wrong… looks like a Ruger 1 Varminter.
And from the trigger guard, it appears to be very broken.
Nope, antique. 1800’s antique.
The trigger guard is broken?
*TRIGGERING INTENSIFIES*
Looks very much like a .50cal black powder rifle.
It’s a Ruger “No.1”, and old style single shot rifle that costs $1200+ and comes in a ton of weird calibers you’ve never heard of. About as far “Tactical” or “Assault” as you can get, this says a bit about him as this is something you’d take big game hunting and not something you’d see with a so-called militia or a nutso “prepper”.
Yeah, pretty sure you’re right. Either that or something similar like the Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878.
Didn’t Quigley use a Sharps down under?
The separate scope mounting blocks mark it as a Ruger No.1V. He won’t be hitting much without an optic of some kind though.
What’s the effective range like on it?
Without sights, it’s unlikely to hit what he’s aiming at outside of a about 50 feet (depending no how used to hipshooting he is)… but it’s deadly out to a mile and a half.
If it is indeed a Ruger 1V (which seems to be the general consensus) he’s got only one shot before the girls get into the cover of the woods, but he’s also got the roof of his car to use as a bench rest. I’m afraid there will be blood.
The No.1V’s (varminter) are all chambered in small lightweight cartridges so generally around 300-400 yards/meters but with no sights on that rifle if he’s good at point shooting maybe 100? But then again if they’re taking this into the woods that may be more than he’ll have. Dunno how dense the woods in Indiana are but the only large forested areas between the Noodle&Co and the fountain look to be at the Kirkwood Observatory and behind Lily Library, both of which have many walking paths.
I am deeply impressed by how quickly you guys identified the rifle in question. I am also heartened to learn it’s a single-shot with no sights; I am also pleased to note the person in the background who noticed Ross haul it out.
I am sure the S.W.A.T. team will be here within ten. Meanwhile, at least there’s a certain amount of cover.
Hmm. Which is going to be more important to him, getting even with Dina or “saving” Becky? I suspect the latter.
Not that it really matters because RUN.
Oh hey also in Texas at least it’s now legal to conceal-carry on college and university campuses. It will probably cause more problems than it solves but hey, someone could take out Toe-Dad, at least. Whether or not they could do it without taking out any innocent bystanders, though… And whether or not someone else who was also armed just saw the first person taking Ross down and figured they were the shooter and took them down… That could end up like the Monty Python bit about the autumn leaves committing suicide.
Yep, Ruger 1 Varminter… still available for purchase: http://ruger.com/products/no1DE/specSheets/11389.html
SERPENTINE, BABOU! SERPENTINE!
I don’t know much about guns, but I know some of them have a trigger safety lock that you must pull first before the regular trigger to fire the shot.
Many target rifles have double triggers. On has a long pull to set the second trigger. The second trigger is almost a hair trigger. I’ve used them in competition. Fortunately, they’re less than useless on a moving target.
Looks like a single shot hunting rifle. They are usually chambered in older big bore hunting cartridges used for buffalo or elephant. The lever under the triggers opens the breach. The twin triggers are probably what is called a single set trigger. Single set triggers are used for fine shooting. The first trigger is pulled to “set” the rifle, making the second a hair trigger that will go off at the lightest touch. Hence the term “hair trigger” which is entirely appropriate for Toe Dad.
Ruger #1 with set triggers (a single-shot rifle)…
I’m not so sure of that. Someone will be ending up in the hospital, after all. The preview panels have shown us that much.
You’d be surprised the damage a BB gun cause. It may be air powered, but’s it’s still enough to put you in the ER, especially if it gets you near a vital organ.
Yup. They put the warning labels on those things for a reason. With regard to the hospital, we can always hope it’s not related to this incident, but…
Can’t even get BB guns in Australia. Closest is either Nerf guns or pellet guns, which may require a license…
Off-topic question, but then how can Australian Boy Scouts earn their ‘Marksmanship’ merit badges?
Archery?
Boomerangs, of course.
(I’m sorry someone had to say it ;_; )
“Boy Scouts of America”, mysteriously, doesn’t have an Austrailian chapter.
Rifles. You can get small-capacity small-bore rifles with a licence, and you can get a licence for target shooting.
The World Organisation of the Scout Movement, however, does have an Australian affiliate: Scouts Australia.
BB guns are a type of pellet gun that shoots spherical ammo (similar to an Airsoft round but metal) instead of the sort of conical ones a lot of pellet guns use. So you may have them there after all?
maybe he’ll shoot his eye out
That would be very God-induced karma now, wouldn’t it…
That’s a single shot hunting rifle. If he shoots himself in the eye, it’ll take a good portion of his brain with it.
Not that he’s using it for anything at the moment.
The question is : why would a grown up lunatic choose a BB gun, rather than a “manlier” real one ?
Unflinching, lunatic faith.
Not hating on faith in general, but the mindset that you can do no wrong never ends well.
I’ve been shot from close range with a high-powered CO2 pellet pistol (in the weirdest driveby ever) and I can tell you that a metal pellet will go through very heavy denim, cotton, skin, and flesh quite handily. Fortunately for me (and hilariously, because I tell this story aiming for a laugh these days) where they got me was square in my left arse cheek. Bled like a bastard, though, hurt like hell, my arse was black and blue for weeks, and I limped for about a week.
So you don’t mind being the butt of those jokes then, since you’re the 1 telling them?
Man, that must have been a pain in the arse.
Sounds like a half-assed shooting.
Punalty box! 30 minutes! All of you! Right now!
Wondering: who was the ass that shot you?
Some cheeky marksman.
Some drunk person was boasting about how they could kill me with their BB gun one time. I kinda wish they hadn’t been holding it at the time.
Hopefully Toedad blows his own head off by accident by looking down the barrel of his loaded weapon when it jams.
It looks like either a BB gun or a .22, and I’d assume the latter for a variety of reasons. And lever-action isn’t semiautomatic which is what’s usually used for this sort of insanity. But it’s still definitely a deadly weapon on school grounds that he’s threatening 2 people with as part of a hate crime. Fortunately .22 shots are more survivable than most bullets, but that’s not saying much.
No, it’s definitely some sort of 12 gauge break-action.
I can’t tell if it’s a single or double barrel model and even if there’s only one trigger visible it doesn’t mean it’s not a double barrel since some models are designed to operate with a single trigger.
I really doubt there’s any intention of super-accurate gun representation, as lever-action double-set triggers (your best bet for google search term, here) kind of went out of style in the 1880s, and were almost never seen in shotguns. Toe-dad doesn’t strike me as an obscure historical firearms collector 😉
Closest matches would be:
Low Wall Model 1885 in .22 Hornet (which is only a .22, but very much on the “magnum” end),
or Marlin Model 1881 in 40-60 gauge Marlin (despite the use of the word “gauge” there, is not a shotgun).
Nobody has done that weird open-lever design in about 130 years because it’s simply begging for a chance to snag on something and cause a fatal accident. Simply owning a gun increases your chance of getting shot (just, like, statistically speaking, really don’t want to start a fight), and open-lever is actively begging for that.
Finally, the barrel looks too narrow to be anything but BB/.22, but again: really doubt there was any intended accuracy here. It’s probably as dangerous as it needs to be to serve the narrative, right?
If I can just remind you that we’re talking about a cartoonist who sets his strips in a real world location, knows the exact street / building they’re in, and constantly updates his backgrounds from photographs of the setting to make sure they stay accurate?
That’s… a really good point. Before I escaped via college I was raised in the *exact* same culture as Joyce/Becky/the cartoonist, basically by Joyce’s parents but half the church was exactly like Becky’s, so just hanging out with friends (non-church friends super discouraged) meant a surprisingly thorough education in firearms just through, like, osmosis. The Low Wall (specifically this one is actually a 1995 production heavily based off historical styles, so it’s physically possible for Toe-Dad types to own one in the real-world. Just… my experience was that’s way more of a Remington 700 generic deer-rifle crowd.
Eh, I know basically nothing about guns (and pretty happy to stay that way) but when people in the comments started naming specifics I figured it was probably intentional – Willis does his research.
I imagine it’s intended to tell us something about Toedad, like his Walmart-issue combat pyjamas, though the specifics go over my head.
It’s a Ruger Number 1 V. It is a single shot falling block rifle. Available in calibers ranging from .219 zipper to .450 nitro express.
I think you’re right. Really matches the pictures of Ruger 1s
It’s definitely not a lever action.
What it seems you guys think it’s a lever is very clearly a trigger guard
No, it’s the lever that moves the block. What some people are identifying as a second trigger, however, IS, in fact, part of the trigger guard.
Amazi-Girl rescue? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0HLAKm1_1Q
I actually think this is a job better left to the cops this time,
And with that Grav, that’s saying something.
After all she’s only immune to criticism, not bullets.
Amazi-Girl may be amazing, but she’s not bullet-proof. The less non-cops are involved in this, the better.
I suppose adding bullet-resistant materials to her jumpsuit is a little beyond the realm of “some alterations.”
Also probably beyond the budget of a collage student. Note that I’m saying this without any idea what supple bullet proof materials cost. Wild guess.
I want to be a collage student. just stare at them all day and try to learn what magazines the pictures came from. would be boring and pointless probably, but a hell of a lot cheaper
(Damn my fingers always get the a and e keys mixed up)
Collages can be really fun if they’re well made. And pretty. Though not as pretty as decorated bentou. (I don’t know why but whenever I try to picture a collage, a pokémon-style bentou I saw once somewhere always pops into my head.)
! Last week Montage ™ figured in another webtoon that I follow, now Collage ™ here. Same class of pharmaceuticals, right? They cause visions of multiple images posted in close proximity of space or time, often bleeding into each, right?
Probably beyond Amber’s budget, but not Bruce Wayne when he was in college. Seriously. There are some schools with more than a few students with access to serious scratch.
I don’t remember what show it was on Spike, but they showed that if you fold a piece of silk over several times it will actually stop a bullet. No idea what calibre bullet though. TL;DR: Silk pajamas ftw?
Silk pyjamas, it ends up, at least what can be bought online, are ridiculously expensive (went looking a while back). Silk fabric, though, can be a lot cheaper; I got my cream silk satin for $10/metre; and a friend got her red silk at $6/metre. Canadian. And that was in stores, not online. I can’t even get cotton broadcloth that cheap here. And Amber can apparently sew…
Little India in Vancouver, BC and Little Pakistan at the top end of Surrey, BC are amazing fabric places, yo.
No, can’t be now. It’s a double barrel shotgun, you can see both triggers.
And your avatar is appropriate… Looks like some of the background people have noticed what’s going on too.
Unfortunately, it’s this guy.
No one is that coward to not reach his phone and call the police,right?
I’d not, but that’s just because its safer to not get involved. If they’re really concerned, what’s stopping Dina or Becky from using the phone they had and calling the police. They’re both adults and just because a parent wants something means nothing once they hit the age of majority, a parent can’t legally for them to pass the salt.
If you see a man pulling out a rifle while chasing two college-aged girls, and you *don’t* call the cops, you’re not a coward, you’re a freakin’ monster.
Dina and Becky are a bit busy being pursued trying to not be shot right now. Guy in the background has a lot more leisure time to fish his phone out of his pocket, turn it on, dial 911, and describe what he saw.
Plus, he’s far enough away that the conversation’s not gonna be heard by toedad unless he’s a phone-yeller.
Maybe even get Random Bystander 2 to take some pics/video as either later evidence for Police or to help identification (or more likely Facebook… -_- )
Hmmm….I believe this is an occasion meriting profanity. Yes. This definitely qualifies.
FUCK you, dude. It doesn’t put you in any more danger to run away and call 911 than it does to run away and go about your day. If you honestly wouldn’t call the police after seeing someone chasing two girls with a gun, then yeah, you’re part of what’s wrong with the world.
One night we were lying in bed, unable to sleep. It was an unusually warm night so we had the window at the head of the bed cracked open a bit. Suddenly, we heard gunfire. Bang. Bang bang. Bang.
“Help me! Somebody help me!” Tires squealing.
I called 911. My husband pulled on some pants and tried to find the guy, whom he could still hear calling for help.
We later talked to someone in the neighbourhood (the shooting was in the field across the road from him; the cops took the opportunity to bust him for having a grow-op; he said it was unrelated and it might have been; everyone has a grow-op in Vancouver) who had talked to other neighbours in the area; lots of people had heard the shooting; many of them were closer than we were.
The cops told us we were the only people who had called them. Middle of the night, lights off in all the houses, no way to tell what anyone was doing, and nobody else “wanted to get involved”. Because apparently picking up a phone and spending ten minutes talking to the 911 operator to get help for a gunshot victim WITH NO RISK AT ALL is “getting involved”. >:(
Yeah, there’s lots of stories like that, which is why I felt justified throwing my ault words at System Failed. Good on you for doing the right thing.
I think the thing that got me the worst was his cavalier “oh, don’t worry, it’ll be fine” attitude.
When there’s psychos with guns involved, things are *not* fine. Yeah, I know it’s just a fictional cartoon and not real life, but god damn.
Unrelated to this conversation but I also live in Vancouver, BC! SUP NEIGHBOR.
I’ve been that person too, with someone getting the shit beat out of them with a board (and screaming) outside my apartment building, at which at least 6 apartments facing the scene were occupied, as well as various houses.
I want to thank you for making the call, but also to be fair, you said this was at night? Maybe other folks were out/asleep/had earplugs in because bedmates snore (I fall into the latter category).
((unrelatedly?, I do sometimes worry because my partner regularly has earphones on and wouldn’t find me for at least an hour or two if I fell in the shower))
You’re right I am what is wrong with this country it took this girl over a decade to learn the lesson that the police won’t protect me, and don’t care. Took trying to report my first sexual assualt, threatened with jail time over trying to report their unwillingness to take my report, let alone investigate/arrest my attacker, arrested for a brunt out tail light, ohhh and lets not forget being sexually assulted by a male officer at a checkpoint…. Sure I’m what’s wrong with this world. I could go on but it’d do no one any good would it?
Your experiences are valid, but they aren’t relevant to this, they don’t negate the need to get emergency services on site in this sort of situation and calling 911 does not mean having to talk to or be around police (and at worst you can get someone else to call in (eg, the person next to the person in the last panel background)). I can comprehend why you wouldn’t want to be involved even if I don’t have your deep understanding of your experience, but calling 911 doesn’t mean getting involved and could be a life or death difference for someone else.
Check it out! Toedad is using the “God said so” defense!
It’ll never hold up in court. Only “Simon says” is consider valid.
Or “sudo”.
but that require the root password
sudo exists so that you don’t need the root password.
Which’ll get’em the “Not Guilty Due to Reason of Insanity” sentence. Would a Bug House really be a less miserable place for him than a Big House? Heh.
It is really, really, really, REALLY hard to prove mental deficiency.
It almost never happens.
Movies like it. It’s not a defense that most can mount.
I prefer 12 gauge slug at point blank range.
Really dude? Today? Of all days?
What day would be better? In 2015, school shootings happen more often than Pizza Day in the cafeteria.
In 2015, there have been more days in the US with a mass shooting than there were school days. It’s fucking terrifying.
Indeed it is. I was in high school when Columbine happened, and it was a huge deal. I live a long way from Colorado, and it was still a major topic of conversation in my school for quite some time. Now, mass shootings are a regular occurrence. “Terrifying” isn’t a strong enough word, but I can’t think of a strong enough word to do our present situation justice.
“Terrifyingly surreal.”
I hate to rain on everyone’s parade of doom, but violent crime in the US (including murder) has been trending steadily downwards for several years now, with current rates the lowest in decades. Call me strange, but I find the idea of fewer people being murdered a good thing.
I’m not for one second trying to suggest that the murders that do happen aren’t horrible, or that even lower rates wouldn’t be better. I’m just saying that it makes no sense to run around shouting “The sky is falling!” when things are actually getting better.
Violent crime in general is declining, but there is a worryingly huge increase in the specific category of violent crime where one person goes into a public space and kills as many people as they can before being killed or arrested themselves.
Saying that things are getting better because crimes are decreasing is like saying that the number of insect stinging incidents is decreasing while ignoring the fact that 40% of insect stinging incidents are swarms of killer bees killing toddlers (please not that this is a hypothetical example). If there are half as many stings, and 40% of them are dead toddlers, that’s still millions of dead toddlers, which tends to be an indication that something is horrifically wrong.
On a more realistic note, it’s like the incidence of heart disease. As I recall from research, the average life expectancy has gone up steadily, but the risk of heart disease has also gone up. You’re basically saying “don’t worry about heart disease, you’re likely to live longer so it doesn’t matter.” That’s completely wrong. You worry about heart disease. Take care of your shit. If something is as completely outside the norm as the number of mass shootings we have in the US on a yearly basis in the last few years (which has risen to an enormous, horrifying level from almost none just ten years ago), something needs to be done about it. If it were only the ration that was going up, it wouldn’t be a concern, but the ratio and the numbers are going up. As most crime is falling off, this one specific thing rises the way you would expect of a cross between a James Bond movie and a frikkin’ war.
You’re right. “Things” are getting better, but we’re not talking about “things.”
We’re talking about mass killings. And those are absolutely getting worse.
Well, that’s fair. Suggesting the twelve-gauge slusg solution is really not good any day.
Violence is never good. It is, however, highly effective.
Unfortunately, it’s more often highly effective at bad things, since the good-aligned tend to avoid it.
Except, is it? Does pure violence ever really solve issues, or more just delay/bury them? It’s like that cheap fix that you know is going to break worse than the first time, but later, and hopefully you’ll have the money/time/wit to deal with it then.
Only if it involves dropping hotels on people, and even then, only if you know exactly what is under the hotel and the exact history of said things.
Even then, though, it’s a lot more satisfying to make said people realize exactly why they are horrible people.
Um… what world do you live in where terrible people realise they’re being terrible and stop? Terrible people are either always in denial that they are terrible (like Toedad here who is now claiming to be the Hand of God), or they know they are terrible and like themselves that way.
I know it’s nigh-impossible to do that. I just wish there was a way to a: make people less defensive regarding their preconceived notions b: make them less likely to discard statements out of hand and think them through, allowing you to make people realize how horrible they are. Unless there’s some kind of ridiculous neurochemistry-affecting kind of fungus out there that does that, I hold no illusions that such a thing is actually possible.
So what you’re saying is what we need is Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare. That allows the recipient to feel exactly what they put the other person through.
I really do not like Ross.
While I’m guessing you mean to deal with Toedad, I think that might be a bit inappropriate considering another American idiot went stupid with a gun recently…
Where’s the Edit/Erase button when you need 1…
There is basically a school shooting everyday.
Source?
Not calling you a liar, but as awful as they are, school shootings do not happen every day. To the best of my knowledge. I’ll readily accept solid information to the contrary.
Not school shootings. Mass shootings, in which there are at least four victims. Scroll down to find a large in-lined calendar chart of them. Can’t miss it.
Nope, they happen twice a day now. http://boingboing.net/2015/10/09/america-outdoes-itself-with-no.html
American idiots go stupid with guns every week.
That’s pretty sad.
Actually, this year it’s averaged out to literally daily.
Seriously? What the fuck is wrong with people. I suppose I can’t expect that the gun lobby wisely decided that it might not be a good idea to push their interests this year.
Meanwhile, back at the MacIntyre house…
http://littlep-brane.deviantart.com/art/ASSUMING-DIRECT-CONTROL-308115139
or up the butt
with a razor
What the FUCK.
cue “well, this escalated quickly.gif”.
I don’t understand why he pulls out a gun. Why does he need a gun? He’s trying to capture an unarmed woman. Unless he intends to use the threat of harm to compel her he’d be better off using his bare hands to subdue her. How does he intend to put her in a car at gunpoint without getting arrested?
Is it because he knows he can’t run her down? We know that he beats her so he must be able to catch her and subdue her without a gun. Unless he uses the weapon to force her to submit to beatings. Are we supposed to know more about his character and a preference for guns from a pre-DOA work?
I find the last panel extremely confusing.
I don’t think he intends to catch her. I think he intends to kill her.
How do we know if Toedad beats Becky? I don’t remember this
He might be the ‘corporal punishment’ type, although I don’t believe it was mentioned anywhere.
His intent with the gun may be many things. With his short legs, I think he knows he cannot outrun his daughter, so maybe he seeks to lame her, or slow her down – more than a bit harsh, but in his mind, gentler attempts to change her have failed.
Another, even more disturbing, option, is that the gun is meant for Dina. He knows Dina intentionally deceived him, and may now view her as aggravating his daughter’s rebellion. His warped mind may justify killing Dina as a way to save Becky.
I have a major problem with any religion (or, to be more fair, any religious person) that considers what is done to a corporeal body as completely irrelevant so long as you can save their soul by doing so. You know. Save it by the rules of your interpretation of your religion.
I’d rather you not mess up someone’s physical body to save their souls, thanks all the same. Geez. That was the same justification for burning witches.
At least if all Ross is concerned about is saving her soul to the complete detriment of all else, and doesn’t think she’s currently in a state of grace, he proooobably won’t actually kill Becky? Although of course that doesn’t necessarily preclude outright harm.
“Love one another.” “Treat each other as you would want to be treated.” Honestly, how is that so hard?
“He might be the ‘corporal punishment’ type, although I don’t believe it was mentioned anywhere.”
Somehow I think that’s what he means by “lay my hands on you in prayer”.
Maybe he brought the gun to rescue his daughter from the lesbian cult that brainwashed her.
Which makes Dina target no. one.
In his fucked up mind, he might think killing his daughter is the only way to save her soul.
I think you have unrealistically high expectations for the rational forethought and planning ability of the typical American fundamentalist gun-wielding maniac.
This is making me *really* worried about that hospital flash-forwarded that Willis posted months ago.
*flash-forward
I do notice that someone in the background in the last panel seems to have noticed the gun. Hopefully he/she does something…
Since the year this strip takes place in is free to incorporate elements of real-world happenings from [i]many[/i] years, it’s possible that the IU students are aware of what to do in the event of shootings.
Heck, the Va-Tech shooting isn’t that long ago.
At least it wasn’t the cemetery.
Linky?
I spent a lot of time digging around Willis’ tumblr last night looking for it, and I can’t seem to find it anymore. He posts a lot of stuff. It’s in there somewhere, though.
That’s a shame. At least I learned that deceptress is a word. But not according to google chrome..
It sounds like one of those words a fundamentalist Christian might use. They can get pretty hung up on gender.
Maybe he discovered the word “temptress” and thought he could do better.
Is this what we’re looking for?
http://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/125868231997/bloomington-ambulances-are-x-treme-nonplayskool
That’s the one.
I’m going to hope that the two aren’t related. At the end of the day, that’s all I can do.
Or that her dad is the one that ends up in the hospital, somehow.
I-it’s the university hospital.
Someone’s just walking by…
Maybe it’s Blaine getting out of the hospital! 😀
You know something’s gone horribly wrong when were hoping for the (now second) worst dad in existence to come out of the hospital….
that’s so he can get caught up in the crossfire
Oh, hey, maybe Blaine and Ross will meet in the hospital, talk things over, and decide to team up! That way we won’t have to deal with their separate plot threads and less time will be devoted to them total, because they’ll be sharing screen time when they get any! Yay!
I noticed we still have 31 days to go before that.
Well, obviously there’s going to be a chase.
I think that’s gonna be Dina. I’m absolutely terrified that it’s gonna be Dina in the hospital.
M-maybe Toedad will shoot himself in the foot (literally) and Joyce is only worried because she’s just that kind and decent a person.
If Toedad shoots himself in the foot, does that mean he’ll hit his head?
no-toe dad
that’s pretty much the feeling i have as well
That gun better be a tranquilizer.
Just as bad many animal tranquilizers contain lethal amounts for humans.
B-but Metal Gear Solid has taught me that people can be repeatedly shot full of tranq darts and will wake up ten minutes later with no side effects!
Ten minutes? I wish. Little bastards wake up on me after a three-minute power nap.
Yes,some of the agents can be deadly to humans if they are in overdose,but most of the time a single dart can knock out a human in time.
Knocking a human unconscious without doing lasting damage is a very tricky thing to do. That why anaesthetists exist as a job separate from surgeons. The amount you use varies according to height, weight, sex, age, and a million other factors. It’s far harder to do than the movies have taught us.
“It’s far harder to do than the movies have taught us.” Are you sure about that, I get most of my eduaction/information from the movies.
I mainly get it from the consultant anaesthetist I’m friends with who rants about how easy the movies make his job. And also about how most medical shows completely ignore them, even though they are the second most important person in the room when something goes wrong during surgery.
(I do similar ranting whenever anyone misuses the word “firewall”.)
*spits out half-a-mouthful of frootloops
Are you telling me people CAN’T have a quiet conversation in a datacenter like in the movie Firewall?
/sardonic
Ok, sure, but the movies are still a reliable source about everything else, right?
Everything apart from the actual height of Tom Cruise. That will forever be a mystery.
5′ 6″ without the shoes.
What the HELL?
Thumb Wars: Revenge of the ______
Bigot
He’s a TOE, not a THUMB!
I DO NOT LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING
Willis- “Hmmmm, what’s worse than a bus? Wait! Bus… Car… Shotgun… Yes, that’ll be great!”
nobody dies nobody dies nobody dies nobody dies
(please let it be true)
There’s dead, and then there’s worse than dead but still alive. Guess what Toe Dad is getting?
He’s a slave to ideology. He’s already worse than dead.
The Willis has said nobody dies in this comic, if that helps. But a lot can still go wrong . . .
It would be kinda nice if Dina didn’t die again. I really don’t need to see her take off her hat that badly.
This is somehow both better and worse than I had imagined.
Religious nut calling a young woman deceptrice and then pulling a gun out, I’d say it couldn’t have been worst.
Willis has specifically said that he’s not going to kill off any of his DoA characters. I was concerned yesterday that Becky would be hauled into the car and simply never seen again.
And it is very good that he has stated that…especially since one of the two characters is Dina.
Killing off Dina AGAIN would be simply horrible.
all I can think of now is the Dina highlander image someone made a long time ago.
Is that a challenge? Because it can always get worse. Even with the no-kill rule.
Comas aren’t killing… crippling injuries aren’t killing… yeah someone is screwed here
Traumatic brain damage isn’t killing. It’s just killing the character, you know, the person, what makes them them.
You can dangle the possibility of recovery. Or don’t go for full vegetative state.
People who are brain dead aren’t really dead! Tom DeLay told me so!
I feel like perma comas or brain injury resulting in loss of any sense of self count as killing, since part of the reasoning is that they would be grieving forever and that applies, except first they’d be visiting the hospital/care home forever.
You’ve got to be kidding me!
holy fuck
This is unfortunately topical O_O
You mean it happened on a day?
I’m afraid it’s always topical in the US.
and/or TOO SOON.
(It Has Been __ Days Since Our Last Mass Shooting)
OH SHIT MAN I DIDN’T THINK HE’D GO THAT FAR I AM SCARED
I did, well actually I thought he’d go a little farther.
there’s always tomorrow!
what the fuck
Holy. Fucking. FUCK.
what the fuck, toedad?
What the fuck?!
What the everloving fuck. What the fuck.
…well, now I guess we know how we get to the hospital in the previews.
Ok, last time we went from 0-60 in half a second
NOW WE’RE AT 120 AND THERE’S NO GOING BACK.
Hold onto your hats kids, this isn’t going to be pretty.
*Said driver then hits Toedad at 120…*
I’ve read it first as “Sal driver”, and now I want some motorcycle rescue.
A major gunshot wound could leave someone in the hospital then rehab for the rest of DoAs 1 year in universe time frame. That seems a path that Willis might have chosen, consistent with this universe — and real life. The so called news LOVES to report shootings and body counts etc, BUT does WAY LESS the consequences for the wounded. (Or the loved ones of those killed). Some news organizations should cover the post-shooting for at least one person day by day by day. Doubt any will. But it’s something that Willis might, given how he’s already following a year in the life of how many troubled kids?
Wow.
Well, this actually managed to go beyond what I feared would happen, which was that he would try and forcibly abduct her. Shouldn’t have underestimated a religious zealot.
yeah, no joke! to everyone who had envisioned their version of the worst possible path this could take, shotgun-wielding hick chase through the woods: anyone thought it’d be worse than that?
I did.
What the hell, in the name of all things cute and cuddly, went through your head?
You don’t want to know.
I’m morbidly curious.
He shoots Dina, Becky gets the gun away from him and kills him. The stress and guilt drives her to drug abuse and eventually suicide. Dina survives and has to live with all of it. Joyce is broken?
Also, Joyce’s parents blame Becky. Jocelyn angrily comes out to them to try to make them understand what they’re actually saying. They disown her and she becomes homeless and forced into prostitution to survive. Joyce spends her sophmore year in a mental institution after a breakdown. Dorothy’s worldview collapses when she learns just how horrible people can be to each other. She gives up, on everything. Sarah gets terminal cancer, because, fuck, why not at this point.
……ok, you either need to be awarded an emmy, or you should be placated with ice cream and belly rubs. whichever comes first, cuz geez, man!
Three rubs, as per protocol. No more, no less.
Willis DOES read Funky Winkerbean…
He successfully abducts her and she disappears into a shady conversion camp. The camp administrators apply dangerous psychiatric techniques they don’t understand how to properly use on her, such as electroconvulsive therapy, maybe deep brain stimulation. Becky is rendered a vegetable.
That was actually exactly what I thought his plan was. Horrible enough on its own, but I never considered he would actually take a more hands-on approach to viciously murder his daughter.
i think he plans to murder dina. after all, she’s the soulless infidel trying to corrupt his innocent daughter.
yup. now imagine that all happening while dina is hospitalized in critical condition. now remember that all of the good characters have to survive and the comic only lasts through freshman year. bullet dodged!
She’d have to be comatose to buy him time to get across state lines. Slow down identification.
“But, at least he saved her soul from sin.” Right?
*on the hacked Muzak, Danny Elfman’s “Hot To Trot” continues and is followed up by “Runaway” from the 007: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY soundtrack (also known as the theme song on RUNAWAY WITH THE RICH & FAMOUS)*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S6WggEZeVE <- "Hot To Trot"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUepDDnujdQ <- "Runaway"
I’m sure this old favorite comes next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnHmskwqCCQ
I’m hoping Amazi-Girl shows up and it turns into this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9YvDfiAXT8
I thought I knew my James Bond movies, but I can’t place the scene with that incidental music.
The ski chase involving the German biathlete on the motorcycle.
I guess “Yakety Sax” to lighten the mood is out of the question.
+1
Are you secretly Lady Diamondback?
How about “Kill the wabbit”?
Dude! What the fuck!
Some crazy shit has happened but I’ve never actually yelled what the fuck out loud at my computer before!
On the BRIGHT SIDE….
He’s already been noticed. (See; the shocked people in that last panel.)
There is a visibly angry man on the campus with a gun, who is clearly not security in any capacity.
He is in so much goddamn trouble.
Yeah,but it will take time for the police or Amazi-Girl to arrive.
This maaaaay be a little above Amazi-Girl’s paygrade.
Does Amazagirl have access to a car?
Car>shotgun, and rifle’s are unwealdy in close range.
Tree>Car.
Motorcycle>Car. “No time to argue! An armed gunman is chasing Becky and Dina! –Damn, how do you drive this?!”
Cue best team-up followed by the best smackdown in the history of the comic.
You’re assuming Amazi-girl realizes it’s above her paygrade.
Amazi-Girl is immune to realizing things are above her paygrade.
It’s basically her yellow sun and kryptonite all rolled into one.
The true standard of heroism is valuing need over capacity. A true hero doesn’t worry about whether they’re capable of stopping a threat, only how badly the threat needs to be stopped. This is why so many of them die.
Well I did say on the bright side. The fact that it’ll take people time to get there is the downside.
And I can’t help but notice that every previous excerpt in this was crafted SPECIFICALLY to show how the people most likely to take down toedad are elsewhere at the moment.
Sarah’s in class, Ruth is so out of it that Billie wasn’t even sure she was breathing at first, Amber’s upstairs with her piece of plastic…
holy cow, that is some big-picture stuff you’re pointing out! i see now that this chapter has been building. but even if amber finishes with jacob iii…
I don’t think that’s what she meant by “this fucking robot,” but OK.
You’ve left out Sal — the fountain she’s just leaving is presumably the same one Dina and Becky were walking towards?
Holy-! yeah that is some great story building.
Oh man, if something bad happens to Dina or Becky, and Amber realizes she was playing with Transformers as Amber while it happened, it’s possible that it will mean she tries to forego being Amber entirely.
Amber attends classes. It’d look really weird for Amazi-Girl to starrt attending Amber’s classes.
Then Amazi-Girl doesn’t attend classes, and Amber faces the possibility of flunking out as a result. It’s a terrible plan, but Amber isn’t quite held together as it is.
Don’t forget that we just had a whole big chapter about Dina and how great she is. That’s *never* a good sign.
I had not looked at it that way before.
Concern: amplified.
I believe that the series where if you become important when you weren’t before, you die horrifically would be Gundam, correct?
I don’t think Willis would go that far.
The ONLY reason I’m not freaking the fuck out right now is because Willis has said that nobody dies. I, however, am still freaking out (just not freaking the fuck out) because “gunshot” does not mean “dead”. And “comatose” is not “dead” either.
I really hope Amber isn’t stupid/crazy enough to try and confront someone armed with a gun. That’s like the worst thing she could do as amazi-girl
She can sneaky enough to approach him without seeing her. She showed this in a couple of strips if I’m correct.
Not in this case.
Oh fuck. If she gets shot as Amazi-girl, the reveal of her secret identity would make that yet another horribly traumatic incident to add to the count of the five or six horrible potential outcomes we’ve already identified.
IU has an on-campus police department. That’ll help response time.
Response time is still probably not faster than bullet.
Current headcanon is that Sal winds up (briefly) in hospital after running Toedad down and failing to land cleanly after going over the handlebars. Toerad meanwhile rots in a Sheriff’s infirmary with broken ribs, a broken pelvis, and two aspirin.
(alternative nearly-happy resolution: Becky’s put in hospital with minor wounds, sorting out her accommodation woes briefly and coming up on Leslie’s radar, who decides let’s sort this shit out.
Here’s hoping Toe Dad is a bad shot.
Minor, unrelated wounds, such as breaking a leg via bouncing off a car while fleeing at high speed.
(maybe the car that cripples Toedad? *crosses fingers*)
Nope, but running buys time.
Hold on, there are universities without on-campus police?
Daniel here. I would have said “In Australia”, but then I remembered my High School had an onsite Police Officer. Unarmed, mainly to do “don’t break the law” sessions, inform students of the laws they might have broken by doing #####, nothing like preventing school shootings…
My experience in the university of queensland also says the contrary. They had campus guards and im pretty sure they had emergency buttons around the campus ( or maybe im confusing it with smu in dallas).
Averàge police emergency response is 5-10 minutes. Averàge active shooter situation is over in 2-3 minutes. Newtown took under 30 seconds. Even if bystanders are all calling 911, flight is the best response. Moving targets are hard to hit. They are both faster than him, since age and a weapon will slow him down. He doesn’t have an assault weapon. No burst setting. No large magazine. Maybe only a couple rounds. Splitting up will make him think for a second and seconds count. Sucks that I have training on surviving such things.
Also that rifle is a single-shot with no sights, so yay for that at least?
Whoa, whoa, WHOA, WHAT THE FUCK, TOEDAD? JESUS CHRIST!!!
He just loves his daughter and is trying to protect her from sin.
With a bullet.
To her and her gf.
Spreading ,,God’s teachings.”
Imagine someone you loved very much was committing terrible sins. Imagine that you were concerned if they continued they would be damned to hell forever. But if you stopped them (by maybe killing them), they might get off with a brief stint in purgatory.
The options are temporary pain or eternal damnation, and as a parent you would be a failure if you didn’t save your children from eternal damnation. This is the kind of fundamentalism that allows people to do some of the most terrible things anyone has ever thought to do.
Which is one reason why I find constant fundie panic about Satanic baby-killers so ironic and deeply, deeply depressing.
I’ve never really understood why fundies don’t see the potential third option. If someone tries to hurt your child, why not try to stop them? Omniscience would make you very, very vulnerable to seizure-inducing imagery.
Yeah, but omnipotence would put a real damper on the effects.
Yes, but if you’re too lazy to prevent people from trying that in the first place, or make people actually like you and capable of adhering to your ridiculous standards, you’re probably too lazy to protect yourself against that.
I was going to say, hey, on the bright side we’ll finally get people to stop defending this shitlord, but will we? Will we really?
Probably not.
(For the record, because Poe’s Law and all, my comment was dripping so much sarcasm that you’ll need a mop to clean up the floor.)
(Oh yeah, I was pretty sure you were joking. Pretty sure. Hoping.)
I think most of us try and give people the benefit of the doubt and not think they’re total monsters until a guy just pulls out a gun and kind of ruins what little credibility he may have had.
Mmmmaybe, but I suspect most of his defenders will switch to calling ‘strawman’.
It’s wrong to call Toedad a strawman, since there are people like this out there, most people are not so extreme as Toedad. And Willis has included more moderate examples of people with the same cultural background in Joyce’s parents, so it’s not like we’re suffering from a case of Toedad= all fundementalists.
But people are probably going to call him a strawman anyway for reasons. Goodish reasons, in fact.
Like, to think pulling a gun on your daughter and her girlfriend is okay is so out of most people’s experience that it’s kind of hard for most people to reconcile that with being human. Thus, strawman.
It also means we’re unlikely we’ll ever see Toedad be rational here – a character whose logic is so ingrained in blind faith to a relatively recent religious movement, that he cannot accept that his daughter can be a lesbian and not go to hell. To me that’s a really interesting (and horrible) way of thinking that I want to see explored.
Obviously that’s not the way Willis wanted to take his story. And that’s cool. But disappointed people who wanted to see a basically okay person tragically fail to do good because of their faith, as opposed to psycho gunman 5, are probably going to call strawman. Even if their terminology is wrong.
Uguu!
*There are people like this out there, even though most people are not so extreme as Toedad.
“…relatively recent”? There have been those who kill their relatives in the name of religion for hundreds of years, while fundamentalists may be ‘relativel recent’, like around 2,000 years: this isn’t a new occurance in human history sadly.
I’m not a fan of any kind of organized religion. Just my own take on things.
The Christian Fundementalist Movement in the US is early 20th century stuff. But, yeah, people have been killing relatives for all sorts of dumb reasons, religion included, for eons.
The more likely thing to happen is that now people will accuse Willis of using Foedad to promote his lib anti-gun and anti-christian agenda by making this good, God-fearing, daughter-loving, real American the villain in the story.
And they’ll be totally wrong. Merriam-Webster has just announced that Toedad’s picture will appear as an illustration for ‘asshole’ in the next edition.
Asshole seems like a mild term for him.
Nothing wrong with calling him an asshole: its endorsed by Wonderella, and thats good enough for me!
http://nonadventures.com/2015/06/20/the-some-of-all-fears/
(I’ve forgotten how to make this an active link 🙁
Merriam-Webster reads DoA? ‘,:/
WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA WILLIS
Haha, “Foedad.”
I like it.
He has defenders?
I mean, I can sympathize with him more than I’d like, but that’s pity, not defense.
One hopes. I mean, between the racism, the homophobia, and the gun, there’s not a ton of room left, right?
Not that I’m interested in defending the pile of trash, but just for the sake of accuracy, have we actually seen racism from him?
Whoop, nevermind, I somehow totally missed the “oriental girl” line.
Yeah, as of this strip he’s got the whole awful trifecta.
Oriental? Which means the EXACT SAME as asian?
Wooooow!!! 0_0
Oh Fuck.
That’s it, no snarky jokes or anything, it’s just ‘Oh Fuck’.
What went from 0 to 100 in a hurry
Well that escalated
Really hoping that those people in the background will be like, Sal or Ruth or actually wait no ANYONE NOT A TOEDAD
Anyone with a phone and the good sense to call the cops and also maybe pre-emptively and ambulance would do, really.
wWHAT THE FUCK
what the fuck
Well THAT escalated quickly.
He is certainly “combat ready.”
Even without a combat skirt.
So.
Well.
Looks like Blaine’s no longer the Worst Dad.
I never expected to see that sentence. I hope Ross is never one-upped by another dad.
Turns out that Sierra’s parents are Darkseid and Satan
that’d fly with the whole ‘adoption’ thing. technically, we don’t know that they’re not!
Meh. Still better than Ross.
Evil is always better than asshole.
Technically I’d say that at this point Ross qualifies as both.
Evil means you have at least a shred of style, logic (and associated lack of hurting people for no reason) and above all, know that you are actually doing something that goes against normal morality. Ross has no style, no capability to reason to speak of and is such an asshole precisely because he’s unwilling to admit that what he’s doing is wrong. Meanwhile, Galasso is pretty much perfectly evil: he has ridiculous amounts of style, is quite logical and nice (being nice to people means more potential followers, you know) and seems quite aware that he is pretty much a supervillain.
Don’t say that. He might try to figure out how to get his title back.
Well, he did avoid throwing racist dogwhistles last time around, so there’s that.
THE DAY OF THE TOE
http://orig07.deviantart.net/0d78/f/2012/276/8/9/spleen_by_flooki-d5gprey.gif (I know it’s a thumb, but let’s pretend)
Oh my god is that from Angry Beavers
Heck yes
You are the finest spoothead
I’m freaking out as to whether it is Dina or Becky who is in that Hospital panel in the future.
whoever jumps in front of the shot. basically, if he corners becky, then dina gets heroic. any wagers? who sits guiltily bedside? becky? still can’t picture him shooting his daughter with non-tranq, but i refuse to do character analysis on him anymore
I’m afraid it’s going to be Dina. Not because he targets her, or because she jumps in front of Becky, but because this Nimrod couldn’t hit the side of a barn from the inside and just starts blazing away indiscriminately.
I think he’s going to go after Dina because he sees her as an insidious “oriental” “deceptress” who is responsible for corrupting his daughter.
The Mighty Hunter. I remember my OT.
The idea of jumping in front of Becky makes me think Joyce might show up and literally take the bullet too.
31 strips until the hospital preview comes to pass.
I’m not sure I can last that long.
“the oriental girl”
Oh hey, he’s racist too. And yet somehow he’s at the point where that seems like a MINOR offense by comparison.
I was going to comment on that, but, really, it seems so insignificant in comparison.
Bigotries tend to breed like rabbits. Get one or two and it’s usually only a matter of time before you collect the whole set.
surely, you at least need 2 compatible ones joined in holy matrimony. if you had just one, there’d be no room for diversity
…which i guess is kinda the point
Yeah, they have to be in the same egg group.
(Pokemon jokes are my way of coping).
Bigotries, much like bacteria, breed by asexual reproduction. It’s less “sinful” that way.
And also like bacteria, they can share genetic code with out reproducing, homogenizing the whole petri-dish in the process.
Well, yeah, you don’t want your bigotries being corrupted by *hock, spit* diversity.
When you’re about to kill someone for hooking up with your daughter, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re using the preferred nomenclature.
What the ever loving Hell just happened
Aw shit…waiting 24 hours for the next one is going to suck. If this was a (full time) super hero comic this would be a great time for an Amazi-Girl / Ruthless teamup, but it isn’t and the gun scares me.
Okay what
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.
Jeeze.
Don’t go into the woods.
but that is the only way to safely avoid a hick with a shotgun! although, he does get the camo advantage….
Rifle (Ruger No.1V) not a shotgun. He hasn’t mounted a scope, so I doubt he’ll hit anything.
Seriously, has the musical Into The Woods taught you nothing? People die in the woods! And there are giants! And essentially it’s all a giant metaphor for sex! … wait, the last one was not a negative one. BUT GIANTS. LADY GIANTS.
yeah, and also, bears shit there! come on, people!
Not to repeat The previous 30 comments or anything, but
Holy SHIT Ross!
You are walking onto a school campus with a gun?! Are you Insane?!
He asked the Lord to give him strength to injure his daughter with a shotgun. So yes, insane.
I’d say he’s going to go after Dina, not Becky. He probably blames her insidious “oriental” influence for turning Becky gay or something, and thinks that if he removes that influence by killing her, he’ll be able to put Becky back on what he perceives as the straight and narrow.
Hopefully the background person will be able to stop it in time. :-/
hoping it’s this dude
I think he means to kill her.
WHAT THE FUCK TOEDAD
Holy shit, Ross
That… Escalated further than I expected. And quicker. So I guess Ross isn’t too concerned about the legality of his actions. Holy shit.
Of course he’s not concerned with the legality of his actions. Leviticus told him all he needs to know about legality when it comes to such things as homosexuality, never mind all the other Leviticus proscriptions he probably broke all across his own lifetime. That’s where fundies get to pick and choose.
Honestly, he strikes me as the kind of guy who follows all the Leviticus proscriptions to the letter and enforces them on his family and anyone else he thinks he can get away with enforcing them upon. No mixed fabrics for Becky!
Huh, maybe that’s why Becky was so excited about the prospect of Long John Silver’s. She’s never had the opportunity to eat shrimp before.
It’s been clear from the start that he wasn’t overly concerned with legality.
Daniel here.
The Lord is his Judge! No authority on Earth comes close. The Lord gives him strength. The laws of man are naught compared to the Laws of god. The Police mean nothing, he’s on a mission from God…
Those sound like the arguments of someone like Toedad. I grew up in a strongly religious background myself, still barrack for The Big Guy, but I’m not gonna shove a Bible down anyone’s throat. I can see how such mentality can build up, especially in a community type setup where it can all feed back on itself & just get worse & worse, creating people like Toedad here…
Oh I guessed that. I was referring to the fact that people were saying that if Becky was 18 there was nothing Ross could legally do.
(Though now that I think about it, all Ross needed to do was tell on the school authorities, and Becky would be in the same situation as she was in the start except this time with no Joyce to turn to)
Jesus Christ!!!!!!
He needs to ask WWJD and I am fairly certain that doing things Jesus’ way wouldn’t involve a rifle.
You’re right. Jesus would use a hand gun.
no no, Jesus would use a nail gun
Damn. Also, it’d be a whip.
You’re all sick, twisted, and awesome.
I like that.
Remember that when asking “WWJD”, flipping over tables and chasing people with whips is definitely a possibility.
That scene was for turning a Church into little more than a Sunday stall, possibly even selling religious symbols from other religions. Usually he was all about messages of pease, “Love one another, as I have loved you”.
That said, if he did the table-flip thing with the CAR, so it landed on top of Toedad so it pinned him with crippling but not fatal injuries, I’d be OK with that…
I’ve always felt that was an entirely appropriate response to (people with) tables full of tacky WWJD merch.
Sniper Jesus would. But it would be pointed at Ross.
I suspect a proto-hippie probably wouldn’t like guns. Or Ross in general. God complex or not, I find it doubtful that you’d be able to inspire a following of any reasonable magnitude if you’re enough of a jerk to like Ross.
Second amendment Jesus is a thing. It not a joke like dinosaur Jesus, but the web’s have lots of images of armed smiling whie Jesus.
Whaaat?!?
We can always live in hope that all Toedad accomplishes is grazing Becky in the arm before getting annihilated by local police.
It’s gonna be Dina, not Becky 🙁
ObligatoryIWjoke: Maybe we’ll get to see what she’s hiding under the hat then.
what tHE FUCK
In Gun We Trust?
Try something more like, “No flesh shall be spared !” think that fits the mood better.
Nice touch Willis.
So when can we as country have a discussion guns in are society.
Anytime you want, but for the love of god don’t do it here.
Yeah, it often seems people prowl the Internet looking for the merest mention of gun control so they can get their angry on.
Don’t worry I learned my lesson last time (Willis knows what I mean)
Meh, we DISCUSS it all the time, we just never DO anything about it.
This is either perfect or the absolute worst timing possible. Also either Willis can see the future or this country is just too predictable when it comes to this. 🙁
Also OHHHHHH SHITTTTTTTTTTTTT
The latter. Shootings are like clockwork.
There have been 47 school shootings in the US this year. There is nothing surprising about this timing.
Yep. It could have happened any time before now this year, and still been within a week of a school shooting.
There will be one next week, count on it )=|
Daniel here. I personally agree with what this guy says here. Heads up tho, that clip is on Facebook. Tried finding it on Youtube, only found the next few minutes…
What the fuck man!? I just wanted to tell jokes about a family being torn apart by a father not being able to accept his daughter for who she is, why you gotta make it weird by bringing in attempted homicide?
Guess it’s just one of those “Damn you, Willis” moments.
Oh my god we’re all freaking out
I’m not(yet)
Willis… why are you trying to get all murdery?
And why would he pack a shotgun in the first place? Did he really anticipate this kind of trouble?
“Uh-oh… my gay daughter has run away. Better pack heat.”
I’m going to guess that Toedad’s the flavor of right-wing that takes a gun everywhere because “it’s mah right” rather than specifically bringing it for this…
Though then again, he believes he is fighting a great demon who has stolen his daughter property from him and the way of the Lord sooooo…. who knows, maybe this really was consciously planned.
Actually those two are just mild forms of right-wing America. The others more extreme ones are basically terrorist who’ve been active since the late 70’s.
Or part of terror cells that have been active since the 60s… 1860s that is.
No these guys are actually more dangerous because they are a somewhat indiscriminate. Also it includes Timothy McVeigh.
Although you could probably trace the origins of such cells back to around 60 AD.
Even the worst case of right-wing-don’t-take-mah-gun-nut only see TWO uses of guns in combination with children.
1. Family fun time at the shooting range or at a hunting trip.
2. To DEFEND THEM AGAINST PEOPLE LIKE TOEDAD!
You would be surprised. Look up changeling.
NOPE
That’s… not really worst-case. At all. More like what I’d (perhaps naively) expect the standard to be among gun owners.
Its what I’d HOPE the standard would be.
Ah, but what if the child is gay? Or might be gay?
What if he’s a toddler and you’re worried he might grow up to be gay?
You don’t think these people kill kids?
PLEASE WILLIS I BEG OF YOU, DO NOT KILL ANYONE
do not worry. it is a harmless truck-gun. it’s like a monkey-gun, but it shoots trucks. and there’s no way that anyone would ever die from something like that!
Listen to them, Willis. Don’t kill Becky or Dina or anyone in the comic.
…..or real life. Generally, just good advice all around.
Oh FUCK NO.
Daddy’s got a Gun.
And he’s not happy.
And that’s why strict gun control is necessary!
Not wanting to get into the whole gun debate thing here but in the state of mind that hes in do you think he’d follow any gun laws right now since hes already broken a few traffic laws and is currently trying to kidnap his daughter
Yes, but better gun laws could have kept him from owning a gun in the first place. Though tbh I suspect he’s the sort who would do whatever it takes to have a gun.
depends on his background. without a history of violent crime or serious mental health issues, an extreme religious belief-set would likely not keep him from a gun. not christian, anyway
Disclaimer alert, I own a number of firearms and I enjoy shooting them but I agree that certain people shouldn’t own firearms ie certain types of intellectually disabled people shouldn’t and violent convicted criminals shouldn’t but for the rest of us where is that line?
Also I live in NZ so as I understand it our gun laws are different to yours
Just gonna drop this here
http://depts.washington.edu/mhreport/facts_violence.php
I’m not saying they’re inherently violent and I’m not saying all shouldn’t but there are some and its specifically those who don’t understand the responsibility of owning a firearm that shouldn’t be allowed access to firearms
I’m just pointing out that you should be careful about how you’re generalizing (especially since people with mental disabilities are actually more likely to be a target of violence, not to commit it).
Thats why I said certain types not all types
@christ73 , well, look at it this way, how do you think people would react if you said “certain types of black people”. The fact that you said “certain types” probably doesn’t make it less jarring.
Well how would you have said it then?
@chris73; I would have not been ableist and not said anything.
One thing that link makes clear is that the mentally disabled [i]are[/i] more violent on average (even if only a little). All of the statistics listed are easily explained since we’re talking about a small minority – of [i]course[/i] they wouldn’t contribute much to the overall rates. I’ve rarely felt so strongly that someone was trying to mislead me using (accurate) statistics.
If certain conditions are strongly correlated to violence, that would be a good reason to bar those people from ownership. If not, not. But saying that the disabled are in general not violent is irrelevant.
Alright, so, I work with the mentally disabled every day.
I suppose it is technically true that if you took the entire lot, the average trend toward aggression would be higher, because specific disabilities do result in higher aggression. My job has sent me to the ER on at least two occasions.
However, there are “A LOT” of different kinds of disabilities, so lumping them altogether and saying they are more aggressive shows a profound level of ignorance.
At the very least it’s unhelpful. Sorry if my post came off as arguing for the importance of generalizations – I wrote it quickly and while annoyed at what felt like manipulation. I don’t think the overall statistics one way or another are relevant.
As to the debate: I don’t see a problem with the original post. I don’t feel qualified to say much more than that, though.
The daughter or her girlfriend owning guns would ALSO remedy the situation. Or if those shocked bystanders had them.
that’s why the battle of gettysburg was actually a really safe place, because everybody had guns
Just so you know, I’m going to be stealing that one in the future.
1000 points for that.
Also, that’s generally true for any battleground.
It’s not so much as the guns as how people who are able to access them handle the responsibility that comes with it. Simply saying ‘NRA’ is both a complete and strong argument in favor of gun control laws, for example.
I wish people wouldn’t use differing paradigms in arguments like this. The societal values of modern day schools and the 1860’s are two entirely different things. 🙁
It’s prevalence in conversation on any high tension subject has me wondering if maybe the problem isn’t with the subjects themselves, but rather with the way we are being taught to rationalize our arguments in debate. Thoughts?
Only if they know how to use them correctly with proper training otherwise they’d probably just make things worse
This is what I say in response to the notion that students with guns on campus will solve school shootings — unless gun training is at the level of the constant training in small unit tactics the military does you cannot convince me that I’m safer if the 25 students in my classroom have firearms than if only cops have them on campus. And I’m the professor, so I’m the one most likely to get shot in the classroom.
Yeah. If you’ve got training in how to properly act under pressure, have been trained for similar situations, and have proper gun training and a firearm with you, you might be able to help. Everyone else is just going to make things worse if they’re armed. I don’t get why suddenly people think they’re prepared for this stuff if they know how to shoot a gun, panic and uncertainty are pretty normal human responses to this sort of thing! And even if you manage to think clearly, you can come to the WRONG conclusions about the right thing to do if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. So I’m talking probably either police or military personnel, and not everyone with those backgrounds is going to be helpful, either.
TL;DR – stricter gun laws are far more helpful for preventing incidents like this than arming everyone and teaching them to aim and fire. Friendly fire is absolutely a thing, and a room full of scared, adrenaline-fueled people with guns is not a room you want to be in.
Friendly fire isn’t.
@Huttj Maxim 15. Only you can prevent friendly fire.
*random guy shoots crazy old guy chasing girls with guns*
*random guy sees random guy shooting toedads with guns*
more shooting more death
cops with proper gun safety training shoot innocent and/or unarmed people all the time. If I can’t trust cops who are trained to use guns, why the hell would i trust a “gun safety trained” citizen that i don’t know the agenda of with a gun?? You cannot improve a situation by bringing a gun into it. Period. If you introduce a gun into a tense situation you have escalated that situation, even if you’re “properly trained” on how to use it.
Hell yeah.
If someone else was armed, I’d give it a 25/75 shot. Toe dad already has his gun out and loaded, he’s high on adrenaline, and he’s willing to kill, none of which is true of the potential Big Damn Hero, who also has to shoot well enough to stop him instantly. Meanwhile, running, breaking line of sight, and forcing the angry idiot to aim just has to work long enough for trained professionals to show up. I mean, if you have a gun and are competent/careful, sure use it if you’re feeling brave, but returning fire only guarantees that someone will be shot, not that the right person will be.
It’s been shown that people without proper training for acting under pressure being armed in a situation like this makes things WORSE. You can be of sound mind and have proper firearms training, but if you’re panicking, it’s still a bad combo.
Like the American passengers on plane taken by terrorist: they attacked the terrorists and let the plane fly into the ground rather than allow it to be turned into a weapon on 9/11?
Maybe not the best example as all died, but they acted under the worse pressure very herorically.
Yes. But shooting in an enclosed space would have very bad for them anyway if any of them had had guns, and sadly their heroics came about in the sort of situation where, well, everyone would have died anyway, and mostly the way to be a hero was to also die. Shitty situation. Has nothing to do with gun control.
Yeah, ’cause Toedad would definitly buy Becky a gun. You know, the daughter he strictly tried to control all her life.
Oh god don’t get into this… no don’t… dammit…
I live in the UK. Others here are from Australia. Please compare our gun deaths stats with the US’, and look up what really happens when multiple people start exchanging fire.
The ‘if only the victims were armed’ argument has been debunked so thoroughly and repeatedly it’s not even funny.
Don’t confront the faith partisans have in their chosen team with facts. It’ll just make them angry and even more stubborn.
Yes, that’s why everyone needs more guns. Because killing is the only way to argue with people with guns.
Assuming Becky had a gun, and assuming she had the wherewithal to use it properly, and the willingness to do so, having to deal with the emotional baggage of shooting or even killing your own father, even if he is a horrible person, is not something to casually wish for.
There’s a reason that most civilized societies regard killing as a last resort, rather than a political statement.
I’m curious how you think this would go down.
Ross has already gotten his gun out and could finish Dina or Becky before they got theirs out.
If they drew on him first they’d be the criminals. I mean until he got the gun out he hadn’t done anything to justify it.
The same applies to the bystander only they have even less reason to get involved and risked their lives or freedom.
And if you think people should carry 24/7 you need to now apply this logic to EVERY SITUATION WHERE SOMEONE FEELS THREATENED.
You know what makes me feel threatened? People who have such boners for their guns they openly carry, like those thugs I’ve seen pictures of in Wal-Marts with rifles over their shoulders. Is your thinking I should immediately take out my gun whenever I see these people, tell them to get in the ground and shoot them if they don’t comply?
I like it even better in colleges and schools because those places are both densely crowded and full of highly emotional people with less real world experience.
And lets not forget the fact that even people with firearms training (Like cops) tend to miss with most shots and frequently make bad choices about when to employ force. Now apply this everyone, who have no training and the fact any missed bullet from even a handgun will often go all the way through walls and vehicles.
No logical involved, just dick jerking.
This isn’t fucking Pulp Fiction. They’re not just gonna gun him down in sync and act real badass. For fuck sake.
Until the “good guy with the gun” decides to stop the “bad guy” and SHOOTS THE VICTIM IN THE HEAD in the process: http://www.khou.com/story/news/2015/09/27/one-man-injured-after-carjacking-shooting-at-gas-station/72923278/
I don’t think I can say it better than Duke. The whole series of strips around that is very spot-on.
In a country with strict gun control laws, access to firearms is extremely restricted, and the amount of guns in ‘circulation’ in the general population is very low, which would mean it would be very very difficult for him to own or acquire a gun. His intentions with regard to breaking gun laws would be rather academic; there wouldn’t be any guns for him to get.
Access to people who don’t want to break those laws you mean and Toe Dads shown he doesn’t care too much about laws
The laws are effective at lowering gun violence. It is simple, because the biggest risk factor in being a victim of gun violence is the local prevalence of guns. Laws that reduce the number of guns in the general populace reduce gun violence. Of course, the laws aren’t nearly so effective when you can drive an hour away and buy a gun basically without any restrictions.
It is unlikely Becky’s father would have a gun if he didn’t already own one or if it was hard to acquire.
I just don’t think gun laws or restricting them are the way to go for example in NZ once you get your firearms licence after the necessary background checks you then need an endorsement to be able to purchase MSSA (military style small arms) and pistols which seems a good way of going about it
But outright banning firearms or making them very restricted will only emake ven more profits for gangs selling them
That isn’t the only effect it will have though. Its been shown to have been an effective solution in other countries, and is even effective in the US to a more limited extent.
There are benefits and costs to other solutions, but it doesn’t do any good to ignore the actual merits of the alternatives.
Ok so why do NZ, Canada and Switzerland (all first world countries) have relatively low rates of firearm deaths when those countries all have reasonably high firearm owning rates
And in Switzerlands case that includes easy access to assault rifles (fully automatic rifles)
chris73, good questions! You should look into how NZ, Canada, and Switzerland regulate their guns. It is very different from the “everyone should have one, carry it into Target, and be prepared to be in a firefight at all times” approach.
I’m from NZ and I have my firearms licence plus my endorsements for pistol and military style small arms and to get it (abridged version) took testing, background checks, interviews with myself and friends/family, checks of my property, checks of my storage and reasons for owning
Fair enough; I missed where you had said you were from NZ. There are notable differences from the US in all that. You could easily have a case where more restrictions would not be a positive where you are, but would in Indiana.
So compare those rates to NZ which has a much fairer system of gun ownership yet is in the lower half of gun deaths
Sorry I can’t post the links I want without going into moderation but if you google fbi gun homicide statistics and crime you’ll see that both violent crime and homicide by firearms is dropping and has been for years
Arms traders aren’t immune to economics. If nobody has guns easily available for theft (because guns are tightly regulated), then criminals can’t steal guns, and so they can’t sell stolen guns. When they can’t sell stolen guns, criminals can’t buy stolen guns.
The criminals could of course import illegal guns from other countries with more lax gun laws… but then the criminals would still have to smuggle them across the border. This increases the number of middle-men involved in the process, which raises the price of the gun – and when the price goes up, less criminals are able to buy guns.
No it just means criminals will probably just commit even more crime to afford the weapons they want
I don’t think there’s any evidence that making guns more expensive/rarer means that people will commit more crimes just to afford them. You can’t just “probably” that argument.
Thats true but if a criminal wants a firearm and it becomes more expensive I doubt they’ll get a job and save up their pennies until they can afford one
They might not just get a gun at all. At some point the risks outweigh the benefits, even for criminals. Also, if other people don’t have guns, there is less of an incentive for the criminal to have a gun in the first place.
“No it just means criminals will probably just commit even more crime to afford the weapons they want”
That doesn’t make any sense, not least because you have to toss any gun you use in a crime ASAP. The cops will grab the bullet from the scene and if they ever find the gun on you or in your property they’ll match and you’re basically already convicted.
You also forget the other obvious result that criminals will just do crimes that don’t require guns instead, do those crimes without guns or possibly even get real jobs since it’s much harder to commit many crimes that would be easy if you had a gun.
Ok so how do you explain gun crime in countries with with highly restrictive gun laws and really?
“or possibly even get real jobs since it’s much harder to commit many crimes that would be easy if you had a gun.”
Thats a joke right?
Less of a joke than your BS, for serious. You’re the one talking about the gangbanger’s piggybank.
Also please name these countries because I’m guessing the answer is “Because they be relatively poor with fewer resources to go around” combined with “There is something illegal that a profit can be made on” like the USA’s crazy drugs laws added to “Crimes are committed by disenfranchised groups who feel they are not part of society so are not held by its rules”.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list
Switzerland, while a high firearm owing country is highly regulated
Australias gun laws changed drastically after Port Arthur yet its percentages of homicide by firearm is still above 10%
The UK brought in new rules after Dunblane as well but: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/london-overtaken-gun-crime-capital-5172325 gun crime is still increasing
Ok so my comments in moderation so I’ll try it without the links
Switzerland, while a high firearm owing country is highly regulated and has a high percentage of gun related homicides
Australias gun laws changed drastically after Port Arthur yet its percentages of homicide by firearm is still above 10%
The UK brought in new rules after Dunblane as well but gun crime is still increasing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
http://uk.businessinsider.com/oecd-homicide-rates-chart-2015-6?r=US&IR=T
All three have strict gun control laws. All three have roughly a quarter of the rate of murders the USA suffers. I feel the murder rate is the fairest way to analyse the trend. After all if you can kill as easily with a car or a knife or a home made bomb it’d be pointless ban guns. But you can’t.
Why does Switzerland have a high rate of murders involving guns? Because everyone has guns. But they have fewer actual murders because ownership is highly regulated, not just in who can own what and what they can do with them and where they can take them and what records can be kept but in the entire culture of how guns are treated. In the USA for example it’s entirely based on masturbation and really stupid paranoia.
(There’s also the fact that poverty leads to crime and that per-capita the USA is closer to broke-ass-Greece than Switzerland).
“Australia’s gun laws changed drastically after Port Arthur yet its percentages of homicide by firearm is still above 10%”
So it has 1/4th the rate of murder as the USA and 1/10th of those involve guns. So regulation does in fact work according to this example.
“The UK brought in new rules after Dunblane as well but gun crime is still increasing”
And what does that even mean? Dunblane was twenty years ago and after it private gun ownership basically stopped except for highly regulated shotguns for farmers and by extension gun crime dropped right through the floor. If over that twenty years gun crime was at (To pick a number at random) an average of five crimes a year and then last year it was ten that’s a 100% increase but it’s still probably less than any week in New York.
So compare those rates to NZ which has a much fairer system of gun ownership yet is in the lower half of gun deaths
Also its interesting to note that in the USA violent crime is dropping:
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/violent-crime/violent-crime
and that gun deaths is also dropping: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2009-2013.xls
So compare those rates to NZ which has a much fairer system of gun ownership yet is in the lower half of gun deaths
Sorry I can’t post the links I want without going into moderation but if you google fbi gun homicide statistics and crime you’ll see that both violent crime and homicide by firearms is dropping and has been for years
Only a jerk disconnected from reality believes criminals will commit crimes for the purpose of owning guns. For fucks sake, let’s just put this argument in its place – check out Poland. Poor as fuck, with pretty fucking high rates of street crime. There’s also basically no gun deaths. Organized Crime has access to guns, sure! But ordinary criminals don’t.
you realise that the possibility that someone might break a law doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make that law, right? People still commit murder even though it’s illegal, that doesn’t mean we should roll over to the will of the criminals and make murder legal.
Or we could reduce this situation to a matter of basic math. If there are ten guns, and ten people who want a gun, each person is probably going to obtain a gun. But if a gun restricting law put in place that reduces the number of available guns from 10 to 2, at least 8 of those people AREN’T going to get a gun. a 20% chance of a criminal being able to obtain a gun is a WAY safer option than a 100% chance of them obtaining one.
I’m not against gun control, what I’m against is people saying gun control as if thats the answer, it is not.
In this situation gun restrictions would do nothing because unless Toe Dad has broken laws in the past there would be no reason why he couldn’t have what looks like a hunting rifle
What would work is:
1. Standardized laws between the states
2. Rigorously enforced background checks on all weapons sold
3. Checks that weapons can be stored properly before a licence is issued
4. A basic gun ownership test before a licence is issued
and for mass shootings the media needs to stop posting images and names of the shooters
That right there will lower the gun deaths in America faster and fairer then any gun restriction change would do
So… gun control/restrictions?
Sorry I must not have explained it that well, people say gun control/restriction without any specifics as to what those gun restrictions are
For example someone saying gun control might mean that no one is allowed a firearm or that someone may only have one firearm or someone may only have a rifle or so forth
I’m trying to give specific ideas as to what would actually work to bring down the death by firearm rate as opposed to just saying gun control and leaving it at that
Also gun control would do nothing in this situation because I’m assuming Toe Dad has been, up to this point, a law abiding citizen which means there was no reason to not allow him to own a rifle in the first place
Perhaps, but it is far too late for that. And I don’t mean in this situation, I mean in America in general. The right to bear arms was considered important enough to the American public in the late 1700’s that the founding fathers wrote that in as the SECOND Amendment to the constitution, right after the Freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition in the first one. It is simply unfeasible to change that fundament of law, especially since the amendment process is so hard and requires so many people, the only time an amendment was rescinded was when it interfered with our drinking. And even if it weren’t, there are so many guns around today that rounding them all up would be near impossible.
It was for the purpose of maintaining a militia for defense in case of invasion. Think National Guard type thing.
I’m well aware of that. I’m also aware of all the nutjobs who either disregard that bit or claim that they are following that bit.
You do realize he could acquire guns from an out of country syndicate don’t you? Many of the illegal weapons in the US are bought through straw purchases, or when someone has an illegally acquired gun who sells it to a person that is buying it for someone else.
I honestly believe that gun control can work two ways: Extremely strict no gun policy whatsoever, or your average conservative gun nut belief of gun control.
Ridding ourselves of straw purchases would be trivial. All we have to do is have gun purchases reported to the FBI and registered. When the straw buyer’s weapons show up as murder weapons at crime scenes, they likely can be charged as accessories to murder.
The illegal weapon black market could be shut down, if we wanted to. The problem right now is the our police organizations effectively have to try to stop it while being blind folded, hog tied, and locked in a broom closet.
I don’t think more gun control is the answer, according to this: http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/publications/gunbook4.pdf there are about 300 gun laws in the USA but the quickest way to lower the death toll would to make gun laws the same throughout your entire country…of course that would also be the hardest thing to do as I understnad it
Especially since the US Constitution expressly forbids the abridgment of the right to bear arms, so the federal government’s hands are tied on that front. And since the Fourteenth Amendment allows and has caused the Bill of Rights to apply to the states, The right-wing gun nuts actually have the upper hand. The only hope is the “Militia” reading of the Second Amendment. That and the same type of pork-barreling that forced the drinking age up to twenty-one.
No it doesn’t. the 200 years of history between then and now says that, the document actually implies more nuanced meaning.
The “militia reading” is what it actually says.
That’s not a reading, that’s just reading.
Do you really think the NRA cares about a more nuanced reading? How about the average American, who chooses who to put in charge of amending the Constitution? (Starting the process requires two-thirds of either the state legislatures or both Houses, completing it requires three-fourths of either)
That’s not nuanced. It’s literally what it says. It states it outright.
No, I do not believe the NRA is known for that literacy. At least not on purpose.
“here are about 300 gun laws in the USA”
And in some states there are only one or two such laws. 300 isn’t that many when it’s split up between 50 states.
No but what I’m suggesting is having a standardized set of laws throughout your country would, for example here in NZ the same laws apply whether you travel from the South Island to the North
However I don’t know what type of change that would require in the USA to happen
Gun control is better thought of along public health lines in that if you reduce the amount of guns the number of mass shootings will go down not stop all together.
That’s a rifle. Unless you want to completely outlaw hunting, he’d probably still have access to that gun.
It’s most likely a double barrelled shotgun, judging by the build and the double triggers. Of course it could be a gun in general, I hear artist have a very difficult time drawing firearms and such
Depends on the number of hoops he’d have to jump through.
Indeed. If he doesn’t have strict control of his gun, he will not be able to drop both moving targets.
It’s a more complicated problem than that. Gun violence against others doesn’t track with gun ownership (for example, the district of Columbia has one of the lowest rates of legal gun ownership, but one of the highest rates of gunshot homicides in the country). And even despite the news, gun violence has been going down for years. The terrifying assault weapons are in fact the least likely to be involved in a homicide.
On the other hand, gun control would almost certainly reduce gun related deaths. What nobody talks about is that on average two thirds of deaths from firearms are self inflicted, predominantly suicide. Alaska, which has an extremely low rate of gun violence against others, leads the nation in total gunshot deaths. Eighty percent of those are believed to be suicide. When you provide a populace with an easy method of suicide, suicide rates go up, and guns are a very easy method of suicide.
Shorter version: Gun ownership does not correlate to gun violence, gun violence has been going down considerably, gun control would still probably have a meaningful effect of reducing suicides, but the underlying issues are so complex that targeting the guns only is just a band-aid that doesn’t address the underlying cultural, societal, and medical problems that feed it.
It would also significantly reduce what are the second most common victim of guns: your own family. The source of this would be both domestic violence and accidents.
Waiting periods on gun purchases also probably serve the same purpose as anti-bridge jumping barriers. They are far less likely to go through with it because there was an obstacle.
It’s something that weighs heavily on my mind. I’m fundamentally conservative and all about freedoms. I know that taking away the guns doesn’t fix the fundamental root problems. I live in a house with guns, enjoy target shooting, and have a healthy respect for them and what they represent. You might call this a house of model gun owners who are no threat to anybody, and I know the vast majority of gun owners are the same.
But I’m also painfully aware of the ugly parts of the equation. I’m recovering from suicidal depression, and I’m obsessive about understanding things, so I know where most gunshot deaths come from. I know that taking away the easy path will save lives. And I know that even illegal weapons have to come from somewhere (see also nearly every gun in mexico). And I know that we are in no position to fix the problems we face. Brass tacks, gun control will protect more lives than it will threaten.
How many of the people in DC don’t live there?
Rates of gun ownership among residents isn’t the same as rates of gun ownership among people there.
It also isn’t the same as the rate of illegal guns flowing into the area from elsewhere. Regardless, you don’t see a corresponding increase in gunshot murder in states with high occurrence of legal gun ownership, such as Idaho and Alaska. You do see a corresponding increase in gunshot deaths, however, because once again the vast majority of gunshot deaths are self inflicted.
It’s a complicated issue is what I’m saying. The availability of guns is only PART of the problem, and stricter gun controls won’t address the rest. What weighs heavily on me is that I don’t know if anybody knows how to address the rest of the problems. How do you fix poverty, social conflict, a crippled mental health care system, the unwillingness of those who need that sort of help to seek it, a media desperate for the next sensational story, and the tendency for people to scream at and denigrate anybody they disagree with rather than actually talking? I’m sure I don’t know how. Stricter gun control might only be a band aid, but it might also be the only thing we’ve got.
Did you really just go there?
I’m not even going to try reading this thread, as even while I trust DoA commenters to be civil it’s just too much text, but here’s my 2¢.
In a country like New Zealand where guns aren’t all over the place yet, sure, but firearms are so widespread in the US that heavy gun control is a lost cause. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be strict regulations, but they’ll have limited effectiveness when it’s not particularly difficult to come by firearms with or without the law’s approval.
“it’s a lost cause so we shouldn’t even bother” is a very depressing and very easy argument to make.
It’s a lost cause for any state that remains in the union, between the commerce clause (which means that states can’t have national-style border control – needed to slow the import of illegal guns – even if 2A or 14A weren’t a thing, as that’s a right that Congress is explicitly granted), 2A, 14A, and the foreseeable political state of the union.
However, blue state secession would allow states to not be subject to any of that.
However, once it comes to that pass, we all have a much larger list of pressing issues, at the top of which is the remaining states’ inevitable declaration of war.
Given some of the current events this hits a little too close to home. On the upshot something like this will get him arrested and banned from the campus.
I wrote the same thing… but I know he does these so far in advance, there’s no way he could have known.
See his reply below. He *did* expect it, because mass shooting average one a week. And a lot are at schools too. There isn’t really any time you can drop a storyline like this and not have it near one.
Smartphones are limited so I couldn’t read everything, but I understand and prefer the story not be rearranged because of another all too frequent tragedy. That’s what I like about webcomics is its not censored by editors who are worried that readers might take something the wrong way.
That’s not a limit on smartphones so much as humans. It’s a lot of text today.
*day.
thing is, this is never not relevant to “current events”. There’s maybe a two day window every few months where this kind of thing isn’t “too soon”
I am so glad I don’t read the news sometimes. I am also glad I don’t go to any schools that have had this sort of thing. (For the record, the most recent one I remember hearing about is Sandy Hook.)
they happen almost every week, whether they’re widely publicized or not, and it’s been that way for quite a while.
Not knowing they are really common is part of the issue. If people don’t realise there’s a problem, they aren’t motivated to fixing it. Ignoring the news doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening.
This is going worse than I could ever have imagined
You need to work on your creative thinking. I can come up with a dozen ways to make it worse, and that’s without involving more people, a change in the weather, sexual violence, orthe undead. I’m just wondering if DW will give us a soft landing, or if we are going to see an increase of characters suffering from PTSD.
Undead would actually help this situation. If Becky’s mother was a nice person, she could probably take advantage of the fact that fundamentalists don’t know to shoot zombies in the head to wrestle away his gun and restrain him.
Blaine got nothing on Religious Fanatic Community Dads.
He’s a religious zealot. He’s a violent ****face. With a gun. Dina “deceived” him. He’s pissed. He will “correct Becky” by “any means necessary”. He won’t hesitate to shoot either one.
But will likely start with Dina if he finds her.
No. No. No. No. No. No.
The flash forward mentioned. Where can one find it?
…yeah. Hopefully they can both run like ever-loving hell.
Dina did actually deceive him, though. That part’s true.
Also… I know, Willis, that you write these WAY in advance… but given some of the events in the past week, be prepared to get some e-mails about being in “bad taste”.
With the 2 school shootings yesterday (and 2 attempted ones in Colorado and Montana), this is going to hit some chords.
Dude, I wrote this four months ago EXPECTING there to be a school shooting. Because there’s one EVERY WEEK, on average. And this particular leg of the story will take a few weeks itself, meaning we’re probably going to have a few in real-time along the way. I mean, if you can find me a nice hole in our national schedule where there isn’t one, please tell me, I’ll be happy to live there forever.
If I do, I’ll save you a spot next door to me.
I want to be able to upvote this reply forever, only because it’s unfortunately true. 🙁
Try Switzerland. One of the most gun-friendly and one of the least gun-violent countries out there. A lovely place to be, if you don’t mind dick-shriveling cold, and are an aspiring gunsmith, such as myself.
We (Switzerland) are a gun-friendly country? I never knew. I mean, I only have one acquaintance whom I know owns a gun, and aren’t the only allowed guns ones related to military duty?
As far as Europe goes, it has one of the highest rates of legal gun ownership, I believe around 30 percent or so of the population owning them. Nothing like the United States, but also nothing like the majority of Europe. Permits are required, but firearms are more prevalent in Switzerland than you think.
“than you think”
he lives there…
That’s part of the problem in the US, we have around the same or higher gun ownership, but not every state requires a permit to own.
So tell me why a permit should me necessary to own a firearm. I don’t need a permit to carry my (oh-so-scary) spring-assist knife, or my fixed-blade hunting knife. I mean no disrespect, I just would like to know why I would have to be government approved to defend myself with a tool that allows anyone with proper training to be on the same level as any other armed assailant.
You’re the one pointing out how Switzerland is safe but ‘gun-friendly’ and brought up permits. To me, that sounds like it has stricter gun laws than the US.
You’re the one pointing to a country with stricter laws and saying it’s as gun friendly but safer than the US.
I didn’t say it was ‘as’ gun-friendly. I said that it just was.
I think you were using percentage of gun owners as your metric.
You said Switzerland is 30%; the US is estimated at 35%.
It still sounds like needing permits helps.
Well for one, it’s much easier to kill a lot more people with a gun than with a knife. Like, unless you can move extremely fast or are a skilled knife thrower, there’s only so many people you can kill within a a few second. With a gun, depending on the type of gun, that’s a whole’nother story. And as far as I recall, you’re not allowed to carry any knife with a blade bigger than your palm, so it’s not like there’s no restrictions on knives either.
Also, it’s much easier to accidentally shoot someone than it is to accidentally stab someone, and the damage from an accidental shooting is likely to be worse than an accidental stabbing (based on assumptions that I am making).
Switzerland very highly regulates both its guns and its ammunition. It’s a very terrible example to bring up if you’re anti-regulation.
Because guns are ranged weapons and explosives. Knives, unless thrown and strapped to a stick of dynamite, are neither.
Switzerland is 41 285 km². USA is 9 629 048 km². You are comparing policies with a country that is about 233 smaller than the US.
Now for a few fun facts :
-There’s a saying in Switzerland that “the mountain are porous”. Because… they have a lot of bunkers bug inside them.
-Every bridges and main road and built with a way to destroy them easily in mind, “in case of invasion”. Bridges also have slots for land mines.
Switzerland, as a country has historically been VERY wary of invasion. It’s kind of a different story from the fuckers that own guns because they assume “the government is secretly after them” or whatnot.
urgh damnit. This is so stupid I can’t type properly.
Now, regarding the huge amount of guns swiss people have at home, I’ll quote about.ch :
“Every male citizen has to do military service. This starts at the age of 20 and ends when we become 42. During that time, soldiers keep their arms at home, an automatic rifle for simple solders like me, a pistol for officers, plus a couple of bullets in a sealed box. At the age of 42, we have to return the gun, the bullets and all the clothing etc.”
(women may serve but don’t have to)
I spent too long looking for where I found an image, then I found it in five seconds by searching “facebook gun laws switzerland” in GIS =p
I should add that I’m actually have no specific opinion about gun control, other than
– gun control alone will do nothing significant to change violent crimes but CAN affect suicide rates and gun-related accidents (disclosure: brother’s schoolmate shot and killed his best friend when playing with a LOADED handgun, safety off–basically “LOL I SHOOT YOU” and *DEAD*)
vs.
– gun control is always proposed in “good vs. evil” terms rather than trying to address the mentality behind the “evil” (many “criminals” commit crimes because “the system has failed them” and they have no other options)
so I kinda have the same stance on gun control as abortion–why are we choosing sides instead of trying to make it not so much of an issue in the first place
also why are we coddling white dudes latching onto their John McClane fantasies for dear life, NRA
I’d like to think federally making rigorous background checks legally required, closing the loopholes allowing private sales without such checks, requiring permits / licenses for ownership and open / conceal carry, banning all guns on all school grounds and maybe also launching a buyback operation like they did in Australia would do more than just reduce the number of accidental shootings and suicides.
Violent crimes will still happen, but shootings like yesterday’s, that (as far as I’m aware of) were not at all premeditated and only happened because this one idiot got into an altercation while carrying a gun, wouldn’t happen as much, at least not on school grounds. Or maybe I’m just a naive optimist?
But then, who are we kidding, as long as the NRA has all the politicians in their pockets, gun control is never gonna get significantly tougher on the national level.
With a knife, the collateral damage radius isn’t much beyond the reach of your arm (I mean, if it slips out of your hand it keeps going for a bit, but not much).
What’s the backstop radius on a handgun? How about a rifle? Shotgun? Pretty sure all of those have a significantly larger “danger zone” than a knife.
Switzerland. I was once in central Zurich outside the main train station when the men were coming back from their annual training/maneuvers: thousands of guys pouring out of the train station carrying military rifles, heading off in every direction. To an American, totes surrealistic. I remember standing there watching this thinking, “Yeah, I am NOT in America”. I’ve read (forgotten the source) that in Switzerland respect for the military rifles is such that most gun crimes are committed with non-military weapons, even when the criminal possesses a military issue.
“So tell me why a permit should me necessary to own a firearm. I don’t need a permit to carry my (oh-so-scary) spring-assist knife, or my fixed-blade hunting knife. I mean no disrespect, I just would like to know why I would have to be government approved to defend myself with a tool that allows anyone with proper training to be on the same level as any other armed assailant.”
You make an excellent point. You should probably need a license to use some of those other weapons too.
Here’s a question: Why do we need a driver’s license to operate a car? The obvious the answer is that a car is a dangerous piece of equipment that operates at high speeds. If used improperly it can and has been fatal to its user and the rest of the populous. So then my question is…if we require a license to own and operate a tool that can be deadly if improperly used why in the FUCK would we NOT require a license to use and operate a tool whose explicit purpose is to KILL PEOPLE?
THIRTY PERCENT?! If you’d asked me I would have guessed something like… I don’t know… 8 percent maybe. Max. Jeezus. That seems unbelievable. And wikipedia’s saying it’s actually 45.7 guns per 100 people… If it weren’t for the fact that I haven’t heard of anyone shooting up any place here since that crazy dude in Zurich forever ago, it’d make me not wanna live here anymore.
Ooh yeah, legal carry’s a whole nother thing from ownership, right. Being a girl and all, I really don’t know anything about the military related stuff since I never had to do the service.
But wow, crap, nearly 50 guns per 100 people makes me really uneasy. I’m gonna spend some time looking into Swiss gun laws now…
Oh, no, wait wait, I should have looked more carefully. That 45.7 number includes the militia guns, so it’s actually probably closer to 25 guns per 100 residents. Still a bit unsettling to me though.
Well, add the fact we aren’t allowed to keep ammo at home. BTW, I don’t own or carry or have any access whatsoever to a gun, having skipped military service (and I’d be overage by now); it would be relatively easy to get a permit and buy some kind of firearm, but I don’t like hunting and I’m no psychopath so I don’t see the need for a gun.
The Swiss just don’t go around toting a gun; I guess the average Swiss doesn’t even think of a gun as something different from a toy for immature people or a tool to hunt delicious food. Might be because we have decent living standards, high-level education, social awareness, that kind of thing that makes people feel good enough to not go bananas.
And the military duty situation you’re thinking of pertains to the legal carry of weapons in a public place, not ownership.
why does your gravatar have the confederate flag
Because I enjoy Hetalia, an anime about personified countries, and live in the South. I also support men who are willing to take up arms when their farms are being razed to the ground, not the ‘government’ that caused such a thing to occur to begin with.
wow.
oh good so it IS because you’re a racist, that makes this easier
Well I sure hope the “dick-shriveling” cold discourages this guy from coming to Switzerland. -_-
actually The upper and middle class who owned slaves fearmongered the poor hard workers who didnt into thinking that the Government stopping the slave trade meant they were going to come for THEIR property next, thus tricking thousands of men and children to die to defend slavery and when all those 10s of thousands of people fought to hard it forced the union into engaging in horrific war tactics. If you are going to defend a racist ideal, get the order correctly. Burning homes to the ground was what ENDED the war, not what started it. And as a Born and Bred Texan i say to Secessionists “bring it” we burned White supremecy to the ground once and we’ll do it again.
I’ll just leave that reminder here
As a gun enthusiast i do support gun regulations as long as they make sense. There are too many people who shouldn’t have guns owning and operating guns, and there is a huge community of good people who are gun owners kinda being shat upon because of all the crazy shit associated with gun owners now indays.
So Treason basically with a side helping of stupidity.
DarkoNeko, a good point, but it would be poisonous symbol either way.
True
weren’t you the one spouting above that you’re from switzerland? Cause if there’s one thing i know about europe, it’s that the confederate flag is widely used by white supremacists and neo-nazis because they cannot use the swastika flag. So for you, as someone from europe, to think that the use of the confederate flag is okay in any context, says to me that you’re okay with nazism. And I very much take offence at that because I live in a city where neo-nazi incited violence against people like me has become an escalating issue.
If you mean that other guy, I’m 99% sure he’s american.
Whoa, there’s an anime about personified countries?
If i remember correctly had that gravatar for a while. Did you see the flag only now?
The avatar isn’t just the flag. It’s a character holding the flag, which is a bit different.
He just found a reason to question it.
There is actually you would probably be disappointed.
Switzerland has almost five times the rate of gun homicide compared to the UK, what are you talking about?
And so would I.
Pretty pretty please.
Good fiction should hit some chords. I read this comic because it does… and to be honest Danny and Becky have been hitting a lot of them for me.
The comparison isn’t apt, considering that this isn’t anything like a mass shooting situation. More correctly categorized as a form of domestic violence. It is only superficially and trivially similar to those other incidents. Of course, people will get up set by that, too, as we are not supposed to look in those dark corners.
I hope his figure comes from consuming red meat and not cocaine and steroids.
On the plus side, it appears someone in the background of the last panel noticed her dad go all “praise-the-Lord-and-pass-the-ammunition”…
When he said he’d “Rehabilitate her by any means necessary” so many people bent over backwards to read that as a nonthreatening statement.
I remember that… and was wondering about it, because “any means necessary” is ALWAYS a threatening statement.
Yeah, it might not always be physical violence, but it is always violence and abuse.
Yeah literally if a cinnamon roll said it was going to do something by any means necessary that would be threatening.
If a cinnamon roll said anything, it would scare the shit out of me.
Poppin Fresh, the Pillsbury doughboy is frightening?
Technically, Poppin Fresh was a crescent roll.
What he became is a doughy abomination unto science and nature.
Everyone who ever defended him can honestly die in a fire. To be honest.
I can’t think of anything to add here that you guys haven’t said yet, but seriously: YES.
if that’s double barrel it looks like he can chase both of them
Or, y’know, reload.
They split up. It’s not some sort of bugs bunny shotgun where the barrels weave interdependently to target each of them.
…sorry, I’m not about to discuss exactly how to best hunt 2 teenagers with a weapon 😐
Sorry, but that is the first step to figuring out how to make it not happen. Basic tactics requires you to think about what the enemy can do to you so that you can contravene those options. In order to fight evil, you have to be able to think like evil so you can out-think evil.
TBH it was the worst part of doing security work.
I just hope this isn’t Dumbing of Age jumping the shark.
yea you’re right no one’s ever brought a gun to a school
Are they already on campus ground ? As far as I see they’re on the way back to it, on a random road.
If I’ve read the map correctly the woods are on campus grounds. Willis said yesterday that Becky & Dina had just crossed from 6th street towards Dunn Meadow:
http://bit.ly/1jgHdih
Oh.
Dina did see that shark way back when at the lake. Perhaps she should have invested in jet skis?
Guns are a necessary deterrent against on-campus shark attacks.
I assume IU on campus shark attacks are a big part of the plot of Jaws 19.
This is why Fundamentalist parents should be arrested for child abuse.
As much as I agree with you, as a pagan parent the majority religion would use that exact argument to try to take my kids, so no.
Wow. I honestly thought I couldn’t dislike Toe Dad more. Learn something new every day.
This will only make him more sympathetic to the people who already find him sympathetic. It’s incredibly depressing that I’m not sure if I’m even being sarcastic or not.
“Why are people getting so mad at this man who clearly just wants to take his wayward ungrateful child on a hunting trip to celebrate her new relationship? I mean, has no one noticed that she’s gay and thus untrustworthy as a narrator?”
But seriously, I’m genuinely hoping this is so unequivocally villainous to make those types stop trying to defend Toedad’s actions and move instead to whining about how Willis only writes “caricatures of Christians” as “some-sort of straw-man”.
Though I’m also half expecting to see my opinion of humanity drop even more before the day is over.
Wait what? People think he’s a good guy?
http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/130809420732/spoilers-this-guy-is-going-to-be-very
And this is just one example of one guy. If you go further back through Willis’ tumblr you’ll find many more like it.
It happens:
http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/130809420732/spoilers-this-guy-is-going-to-be-very
Shockingly frequently too:
http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/127479384082/a-very-promising-twist
Number 2 is quite eye-rolling. It’s pretty much in the same vein as “She’s not really a lesbian, she just needs to meet the right guy/she just needs to have sex with a guy” and its even more disturbing cousins.
We had that one a while back too. Talked about how Becky only thought she was gay because she hadn’t seen an erect penis because that’s how sexuality works and because only guys have penises.
Basically, Becky has brought out a large amount of awful over the past few months.
I was going to say “what the FUCK”, but it looks like 50 people beat me to it.
mu ha ha ha ha.
I shall now pray that this man’s aim is as bad as that of a 501st Stormtrooper stationed on Endor.
Besides,did he already have that or bought it from a gun store in the city?
In his current state of mind I doubt he could go into a gun shop to buy a gun without even the most lax/clueless gun shop owner picking up that he should not be selling a gun to this guy.
Woah woah woah…
It was THE FOREST MOON of Endor. They weren’t actually on Endor.
Get it right, nerd.
Wow, all this time I thought “the forest moon of Endor” was a forest moon named Endor.
Apparently, the current line is that both the planet and the moon are named Endor, which is stupid and confusing, but I guess in a galaxy full of planets, some of the backwaters have gotta be pretty poorly named.
Surprise plot twist: one stormtrooper’s aim is so bad that a bullet manages to cross universes and kills toedad.
Uh, Stormtroopers fire blasters bolts, not bullets. Duh.
Gawd.
It’s a dangerous projectile fired from a gun. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a bullet, although bolt is good for specifying the projectile type. And anyway, considering how easily blaster bolts are deflected by lightsabers, at least some of them will probably be equipped with kinetic weaponry.
A- A gun. A fucking gun? A FUCKING GUN?! Nonononononoshit I suspected as a fundie he might be into guns but NONONONO damnit!
Pleasepleaseplease let him the kind of idiot who shoots himself please ;_,
That is a hospital panel I can get a thousand percent behind. C’mon ironic ricochet off a tree taking out a kneecap.
His kneecap in specific otherwise I’m just setting up one hell of a terrible irony later.
A bullet in the kneecap can immobilize him,unlesd he’s a tough sob and uses his other leg to move.
I’d rather hope the gun ricochet hit a little higher up. Like, say… his head.
His head would be nice, but I’d settle for his crotch. That way he gets to suffer. And I’m not usually the type of person who wishes suffering upon others.
Oh, so you want him to shoot himself in the brain (since he is obviously someone who needs to drop his pants to use his brain. )
Shoot himself in the toe.
By which I mean the head.
Holy shitballs. This man is unhinged, someone call the damn police.
With any luck, the passerbys in the last panel will.
This – I was surprised more people hadn’t mentioned this possibility. It’s clear they did see the gun by the shocked reaction. While there are countless examples of people ignoring a dangerous situation and not calling for help, I’d like to think a rifle on college campus would be enough to get most witnesses to call the police.
People often fail to call for help because they assume someone else is doing it.
If there’s a small number of witnesses, they’re less likely individually to ignore it.
why the FUCK
did he bring
that
RIFLE
WHAT THE HOLY FUCKING HELL
I’m trying to think of reasons that don’t involve “The Most Dangerous Game” and drawing a complete blank.
Not sure it is a rifle. I am seeing two triggers, and the only double barreled gun I know of (other than one-offs and stuff) are shotguns
Double rifles do exist, but it’s extremely unlikely that Ross would have one. They’re used mostly for dangerous-game hunting and they’re hideously expensive. So yeah, probably a shotgun.
He looks like one of “guns are mah God-given right to carry” type.
On the eighth day, God created both Smith and Wesson.
“And on the third day, God created the Remington bolt-action rifle, so that man could fight the dinosaurs. And the homosexuals.”
Well holy shit I knew he was awful but I didn’t realise he was shoot people levels of awful O.O
Don’t know if he’s using tragulizers or not but either way I wouldn’t want to find out.
Why would anyone outside animal reserve and zoo buy a *tranquilizer gun* 😐
Nope, it’s most probably a “real” one.
If he’s got tranquilizer shells in that shotgun, they’re going to be measured to take out Becky, and would kill the much smaller Dina.
There’s a reason we don’t see tranq guns much outside of videogames.
And I thought I needed heart medication after yesterday’s final panel.
I have never commented on a Dumbing of Age page before, nor have I ever verbally reacted to something in a webcomic. Congrats, Willis. You made me say, “Oh sweet Jesus!” Loud enough to startle my dogs awake.
The Hand of God has a very physical form in this world…
If Willis is mean enough to imagin this situation, pretty sure bystander effect might kick in here.
Well… this escalated alot quicker then I was expecting…
Holy shit! I was preparing myself for the worst but god damn, it never crossed my mind that things would go this far!
And that’s coming from someone using Walter White/Heisenberg as his avatar.
Oh god, is Dina going to die all over again? No no no no no this isn’t okay, Willis please don’t do this, they both have to get through this okay, please!
Willis said long ago that there are no deaths in DOA
he said that because ‘the mourning would take forever’ or some such, yes? so, what if it were ross? would there still be mourning forever?
I think Becky would still mourn. And Joyce. They might feel bad about it, since he’s done absolutely nothing to merit anyone being sad he’s gone, but I don’t think either of them would be able to help doing it.
Oh thank goodness… I had resigned myself to her inevitable death in the name of character development for Joyce and Becky
Death may be out of the equation but grievous maiming unfortunately isn’t.
Two words : permanent coma.
I’m pretty sure that counts as death. I hope to GOD that that counts as death. And by GOD I mean Willis.
Disfigurement and crippling don’t count as death, right? ._.
A gunshot can do really bad damage …
A few thoughts on today’s comic:
Suddenly, I’m starting to think that Joyce’s parents trying to let Joyce know that Becky’s dad was looking for her may have, in fact, been a warning. I could be wrong, of course, but you never quite know with Willis…
Also, you know someone’s really backwards when they say “oriental” to describe anything besides rugs, Trading, or ramen.
I have to say, this is a little freaky, that Willis plans these strips MONTHS in advance, and yet this comic appeared shortly after two school shootings. Perhaps, though, it’s more depressing… that school shootings are so common in our country, the odds of this comic coinciding with an actual shooting are greater than we may think. Here’s hoping that person in the background who seems to notice his gun is able to alert the authorities before things turn tragic. And Willis’ comics are no stranger to tragedy.
That’s… actually possible. Joyce’s parents have been shown to be prey to the same bigoted belief system, but have shown flexibility in handling their progeny’s little “rebellions”. Toedad does not seem like the type of person that would have made much in the way of friends even among fellow travelers and it’s possible that his rants were even too much for them.
That said, I’m suspecting their warning would have been along the lines of “I know you care about your friend, but don’t get in his way. Your friend is sick and he’s a bit unhinged and I don’t want to see you get hurt while she’s getting helped.”
Indeed. They seem like a less . . . militant form of oppressive. Maybe the kind of person who ‘refuses to allow any of that in their house,’ maybe kicks someone out for it, perhaps just refusing to acknowledge any of it happening and taking every opportunity to try to talk their child away from ‘sin.’ Maybe they take the ‘good guy’ version of threats to heart, withholding what they consider privileges from the child until they ‘choose’ to ‘accept help,’ rather than openly threatening with things like violence and such.
….
I think about this too much.
Willis has a strong track record of not having any taste for the “seemingly terrible parents are actually doing the right thing” option, as this page shows more than ever. I don’t think Joyce’s are an exception.
You’re probably right. Parents in Willis’ comics have a strong tendency to be bigoted, self-centered, controlling, or some combination of the three. Still, Willis does like to catch us unawares. And while it’s easy to think of Joyce’s parents as just being “bad”, they still care about their daughter. If they wanted to make sure that Joyce wasn’t in any danger, it wouldn’t be out of character for them.
Make no mistake – Joyce’s parents are still flawed, bigoted, obnoxious, close-minded buttholes. And they’re probably terrible parents. But they aren’t “pure evil”. There’s a good chance that they’ve done plenty of good things off-panel over the course of their lives. That certainly doesn’t excuse their terrible behavior, but just because they see the world in black-and-white doesn’t mean that we should see them in black-and-white.
Of course, I could be totally wrong and Joyce’s parents could just be one-note characters. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but I do love me some complex villains in stories.
Honestly? I would be surprised if Joyce’s parents expected a member of their community to take such measures. Even if they’ve seen more of him than we have, people like to have blinders around those they interact with frequently.
See also all those reports on gunners where friends and family will say how “he was such a kind man/sweet child”.
“What? Ross? But he was such a loving church-going man? Full of love for his daughter. This is such a shock to see how he fell off the path of Christ. Let us pray for him to find his way.”
Well according to Joyce they changed churches often.
There have been 47 school shootings in the US this year. That’s (6) more than one every week. So yeah. The odds were pretty high.
…
you know, sudden thought.
That’s just school shooting ?
ALL THE OTHER SHOOTINGS, like, happening in other places, aren’t counted ?
If I recall correctly, yes. I’m not all that good at researching numbers, if I were I’d look up right now how many shootings of any nature there have been this year so I could confirm this.
It sounds insane, and at the same time it doesn’t, when you consider the size of the country and the number of guns in it. : /
I did find these numbers with a quick search: http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/ but I have no idea how reliable this site is, and no experience with finding out if a site can be trusted.
Theres this from the FBI: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2009-2013.xls
But it doesn’t specifically deal with school shootings
Workplace shootings are more common than school shooting. Just no longer news.
Well I remember posting on here a while back that it was too nice and cutesy and we needed some drama so well done Mr Willis I didn’t expect you to up the ante in this way
After wigging out, I noticed one of the background people has the ‘alarm’ lines around their head. The other person looks like they may or may not have Roz’s sister’s hairstyle.
This is looking like the worst case scenario but I suspect Becky and Dina will have someone saving them (from getting killed) at the last second.
No one in their sane mind goes after a gun wielding stranger. They call the police.
If I was with someone I’d tell them to call the police and then try to stop or slow him down before he got to his intended targets.
Never said that anyone should go after a gun wielding sicko or that they would. I said Becky and Dina get “saved” at the last second. Never stated how.
Depends on the exact circumstances.
I hereby antichristen ToeDad “FuckingInsaneDad.”
Well, that’s actually sort of okay. I mean it’s terrifying, but this just means the police will definitely have a reason to remove toedad forever.
before or after he shoots Dina? She died in previous universes Willis made, I do not think her chances here are all that good
Unfortunately they’d have to find him first cuz there’s no way in hell that he’s just going to stand there while the cops come.
Eep… so to answer everyone asking “what’s the worst that he could do” yesterday.
This. This is the worst he can do. He genuinely thinks he’s fighting a pair of demons that have stolen his last family from him and the way of the Lord and forced him to surrender his soul into the darklands of a liberal secular university. And he will save her soul by any means necessary. After all, if he can kill the demons before her soul is lost…
And in before Bagge to say FUDGE YOU, ROSS! FUDGE YOU STRAIGHT TO HADES!
Fudge you seem a bit tame in the circumstances… But I really don’t know any words strong enough so… FUDGE YOU ROSS, FUDGE YOU FOREVER..
In all my life, I’ve never had the urge to spout the F-word stronger than this day.
Let me give it go a go;
Ross MacIntyre, your only worth in this world is as a manual sperm donor, and that worth ran out a long time ago. Scum, while gross and slimy and nasty, actually has a purpose. It provides to the ecosystem. You are a tumor on your daughter’s life, big, festering and bulbous. Your ongoing existence drains the blood and life from everyone who you claim to love, and when excised, like a tumor, the only feeling anyone who you ‘love’ will be an ongoing worry that one day you will come out of remission and ruin their life again.
So fuck you, asshole.
Thanks, I think that capture the essence of it.
A gun… seriously?
FUDGE that guy
I am going to need to save that insult for later because that is quite accurate.
Well at least you have some way to articulate your feelings towards him. Meanwhile I have only inarticulate cold rage towards this worthless sack of shit.
Corrective rape then murder is worse.
HOLY SHIT THIS BUY IS CRAZY! Well It’s official toe-dad is the worst Dad in ALL of DoA. He makes Amber’so dad look like a boy scout.
*Guy
Oh shit. Shit just got real to the MAX
Even the guys in the background of the last panel know that shit is popping off.
NEVERMIND! I take it back! I take back what I posted in response to yesterday’s comic! I completely take it back!
On the plus side, it makes me feel oddly better about my own disownment and attempted “fixing”. My dad may have tried to ruin my life, but he didn’t actually hunt me down with a shotgun, so, yeah, could have been worse.
Horray?
Always look on the bright side of life …
Its great how youre able to keep things in perspective.
This seems to be going in the direction I imagined.
Death by cop or prison for the rest of his life.
Assuming Willis doesn’t have anybody actually die, probably not prison for the rest of his life. Indiana doesn’t have a hate crime statute, and even attempted murder doesn’t get you life.
What about attempted kidnaping with a deadly weapon?
Or the use of said weapon against a cop?
Still not a life sentence.
Terrorist charges? He’s about to discharge a weapon that he carried onto a school campus?
That and law enforcement actually consider people like Ross more of a threat to the community than Islamic terrorism and drug cartels.
Well then just tell the other prisoners he’s a child rapist.
Yeah I do not want Ross live.
I want him to live. If you’re dead, you can’t be punished for being such a horrible person. Death is far, far too good for him. Even prison seems a little too nice. This makes me feel like a horrible person for saying this, but I think he needs to have a mental breakdown due to realizing his complete and utter shittiness at the very least.
Yeah I don’t think that is going to happen.
I just can not think of a punishment severe enough for him. I do wonder what would happen if he was simply locked up in an isolation cell for days. At what point would it begin to affect him? Or would he just forever think that those that put him there were minions of Satan?
There doesn’t seem to be any doubt in his heart so the latter.
Gamaran, how about strapping him to a plank and then feeding him, face-up, feet-first, and fully conscious, into a wood chipper Fargo-style?
Wha? I don’t live in Indiana but I’m pretty sure shooting a cop will get you a life sentence in any state.
Killing a cop. And it would likely carry the death penalty. Attempting to kill someone doesn’t carry the same penalty as successfully doing so.
I thought that kidnapping was a federal offence or something?
Same here.
You’re assuming success. Also doesn’t generally carry a life sentence.
I don’t think Ross likes the Federal Government will probably react violently toward the FBI.
You seem to assume him only being charged for one crime. If he gets convicted of multiple crimes carrying long terms he can still end up in jail for the rest of his life even if a single one of them doesn’t carry a “life sentence”
Mostly I think I’m channeling my father a little. The system follows the path of least resistance. Toedad is fundamentally a bully who will fold under the pressure of someone bigger than him, in this case the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system will want to go for a speedy resolution because of the media circus. Thus, plea bargain, no life in prison without death.
Only under two condititons is Kidnapping in the us a federal crime;
1) You cross state lines in the commision of the crime (usually when a person is removed from the state they were kidnapped in.
2) There is an attempt at ransom. (that was started after the Hindenberg baby wasn’t saved by the local/state police and people thought the FBI could have saved the baby.)
I believe it’s only a federal offense if the victim is transported across state lines. The FBI likes to jump into any case where it’s possible the victim has been taken across state lines, which basically means any case in an era of air travel and interstate highways.
No but there is a Federal level one (hate crime), that leds feds in theory take over if the locals don’t do enough to prosecute a hate crime, never heard of it actually being used though….
It’s open season! Non-christianish things beware!
Looks like Amazigirl will have to go toe to toe with Toe Dad
…and get shot before she even gets in range ? 😐
TOE DAD, NO
NO
(I understand these strips have been written and drawn for a long time now, but the timing on this is just … wow.)
Here is Toe-Dad taking the first place in the Worst Parent of DOA category… everybody be afraid… very afraid
Ok, with all the ‘fundamentalists’ I grew up around, even some I considered way the hell far out there belief wise, this is still a complete shocker. Kick someone out, try to ship someone off for ‘treatment’ etc, but going all shooty in this kind of situation? Nope, wouldn’t have seen that coming at all.
Now if they caught you stealing a tractor, maybe, and then probably rock salt.
To be fair, tractors can be expensive!
…this is a joke, but I WOULD be hella pissed if someone was trying to steal a tractor I owned and used, and would probably do SOMETHING to scare them but not actually hurt them.
WHAT THE FUCK
I am really really hoping that THIS is what it will take for people to finally stop defending this guy. Of course now it will turn into complaining about poisoning the good name of this poor innocent fatherly character. Ah fuck it…
When I posted about him on yesterday’s comic, I thought, maybe he’s just badly misguided. I believe my exact words were “The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but good intentions alone do not a good parent make.”
Now I’m all NOPE NOPE NOPE.
I don’t think I’ve defended the guy on here, and I don’t think I would after this strip, but I understand the inclination. I think some of us were rather imagining Ross as a different character – a guy with control issues and a highly prejudiced and homophobic attitude – but someone who had maybe acquired those views innocently, and who was concerned about the health of Becky’s body and soul foremost. Not, yanno, a psychopath who brings a rifle to a confrontation with his own daughter.
Like, I might defend that first guy – somebody who I didn’t agree with but who had a character arc I could follow logically without having to account for pulling a rifle. Reasonable people who do bad things and have bad opinions, but who aren’t the scum of the earth. That guy’s interesting. I might defend that guy. Not this guy tho.
In the paid J&W! strips he is a real assbag, so people that read those wouldn’t be likely to cut him any slack, for one thing. Though this version now trumps the J&W! version for pure evil.
Just like Ryan. Oddly enough, Blaine seems to be less evil than his previous incarnation.
Well, we don’t KNOW if he’s the biological father of Faz in this one, but other than that I’m thinking “give him time and opportunity,” honestly.
Faz mentioned that he was Amber’s stepbrother. I think Willis has also said that they aren’t half siblings in this universe but I’m not sure. (Wouldn’t be shocked in the slightest if this universe’s Blaine did just as much cheating as the other universe.
He said stepbrother and I seem to recall the biological bit being deliberately ambiguous? At least at his first introduction.
I mean even if not I’m not expecting much from the dude the question’s more just “Are you also involved with the mafia this time around?”
Willis shared a couple of them on tumblr didn’t he? When Becky was reintroduced. Ross was kind of batsit and lectured Walky about how dancing was evil when Walky wouldn’t cop to having sex with his fiance.
This version’s terrifying, though! Yikes! I’m pretty much willing to cut everybody slack, as in everybody probably has been a force of good for somebody at sometime in their life, and are thus not pure ‘evil’. Toedad, included. Not willing to cut slack with the reality that Toedad must now be imprisoned forever, due to the fact that, left unchecked, he cannot be trusted not to murder people. o_o
Luckily somebody seems to be on the case already, though. By the look of the passersby in the last panel, I bet somebody’s calling the police.
Woah that escalated quickly… this is some fucked up stuff going on now
Becky and Dina gonna be on CNN
“Those dames were no angels!”
I make bad jokes to deal with my dread, sorry.
Also congratulations Willis, you finally managed to get me so riled up that for the first time in my life I have actually bothered to comment on a webcomic. I must say, well played sir. That being said I am filled with nothing but dread now for what is to come. So PLEASE for once just let us down gently dear Willis, be kind to us just this once. Because I honestly don’t know if my poor heart can take much more of this emotional roller coaster
Annnddd…. he has a gun. I was really tired and drowsy after a very long day, and forcing myself to stay awake because I wanted to see what would happen in DOA. I saw that last panel, and suddenly, I’m a whole lot more awake. Yikes.
I mean, of course the man has a gun. After all, he is a good ‘Murican, and everyone knows how those ‘Muricans love their guns. All the shootings make that abundantly clear.
Incidentally, I’m American myself, so I think I’m allowed to say those things. Never mind the fact that I’m a blue stater who has never touched a gun, and has no desire to ever have anything to do with guns.
I just wrote, then deleted a lengthy rant on guns, because it got a bit overly political. Even if the majority of people here are likely to agree with my views, this is probably not the place for it.
Anyway…. wow. Just…. wow. Things have indeed taken a dark turn. My sense of dread continues to grow.
I understand how you feel. I was half asleep when I got here. I doubt I’m getting much sleep tonight now though.
Here you go, for reference
oshit
Also, I imagine
Thisis how I imagine most of the initial Toe Dad supporters are feeling about now…
Well, the ambulance/ER center panel is dated Nov. 10th, so whatever happens will probably happen within the next week’s worth of installments.
just noticed the person noticing in the background. Yeah, pretty sure Ross isn’t gonna get very far with this
He’s getting arrested for sure. The only question is how much damage he’s going to wreak before that comes to pass.
Arrested? I hoping for suicide by cop.
Ehhhh he’s white, its a rifle, if he doesn’t shoot it I bet he doesn’t get arrested. Heck, even if he does… I don’t know what Indiana’s laws are like, but I can think of quite a few states where the police officers would treat him like their bro.
I think he’ll probably SURVIVE, but *Looks it up*… yeah, legally he’s allowed to have brought a gun (even concealed carry) on the campus, so unless he shoots it there’s a chance he’ll get off. I think Becky and Dina can make a good case for perceiving him as a threat, though, which should at least get them a good way to a restraining order. (Leslie, help!)
No, he is not legally allowed to have a gun on campus. Take it from someone who works in the IU system. You can get arrested for keeping a gun that you have a license for in your car. This is because all state colleges are covered by the same laws that make carrying a gun on state government property illegal.
Awesome! What I could find online said universities, didn’t realize it qualified as state government property. YES! DUDE IS GETTING SOME JAIL TIME!
No matter how fast someone does something, I’m not sure if they can do it faster than a bullet.
that sounds like a challenge to Amazi-girl
oh shit Amber’s gonna hate herself for not being able to stop this
it’s the DoAmino effect
You don’t have to be faster than the bullet, you have to be faster than the shooter. If the girls use the trees for cover and continually zigzag unpredictably instead of bolting in a straight line it’ll make it difficult for him to line up a shot, increase the chances of him missing with shots fired, and give more time for someone to call 911 and for cops to intervene.
Good thing everyone is trained to do that when they graduate high school! After all, it’s not like they live in a peaceful country. 🙁
In a sort of surreal moment, not long after Columbine, the nuns at my (Catholic) middle school had someone come in and discuss was us what to do in an active shooter situation and even do drills.
When I attended CSULB for college, they emailed the student body a video an active shooter situations and what to do, and it was pretty much the same stuff.
Yeah, I’m torn between “I wonder if Becky knows that because overhearing scary adults or doesn’t because they tried to protect her for being female.” :/ And even if she does, she probably ought to tell Dina as well, Dina is smart but possibly under pressure isn’t a great time to realise you should be zigzagging.
… she also has a predator costume on today. I hope she doesn’t try to circle around and take toedad on herself, that seems like a recipe for increased scary.
Oh, for fucks sake, really Willis? Let’s perpetuate the stereotype of the Crazy, Religious Zealot Gun Owner some more.
Because Americans are pretty good at perpetuating it by themselves?
There’s a difference between “perpetuating a stereotype” and “writing from reality”. Fact is, in America, fundamentalist religious beliefs and gun worship go hand in hand far more than most people are really comfortable acknowledging.
Considering Joyce’s upbringing is largely based on personal experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if Willis himself knew parents who would do this exact thing.
They exist.
Still remember the parent of a friend in high school who liked to clean his gun in front of his kid’s friends while talking about how he’d react if some horny teenage boy came sniffing around his daughter. Also the other one who sharpened knives while casually talking about how he’d kill any of his kids who turned out to be a (slur for gay man).
charming.
Indeed. Its a culturally approved joke to talk about threatening the life of your daughters boyfriend.
Yes our culture approves of threatening to murder children. Because our culture teaches us that the Daughter’s bajingo is property of her father.
… Euuugh, I am so sorry you grew up in THAT environment.
Considering that these people exist and that DoA has portrayed very religious people who aren’t like this, I’d say it’s less stereotype perpetuation and more good use of this character.
i think crazy, religious zealot gun owners are doing a fine job of that by themselves
Perpetuate? What do you live under a rock?
ISIS is a stereotype? Who knew?
Btw, a zealot IS religious by default, as the original Zealots were religious, so unless you’re using zealot derivatively: “religious zealot” is redundant. Ross would probably be proud to be called a zealot. Whether or not all zealots are crazy … well, as the centurion said when he was posted to Judea, “Jove, i hate this place, these people are crazy!”
Clearly we need a gun worshipper who doesn’t officially subscribe to organized religion to round out the cast. They’re very rare from what I understand, and Willis is usually big on minority representation.
Maybe make them a Sovereign Citizen to get some extra laughs in.
Okay, I’m curious. Are you a gun owner who’s offended by the idea that some gun owners are zealots, or are you a zealot who’s offended by the idea that some zealots own guns?
Fun fact: If you’re USian you live in a country with actual, factual, religiously motivated rebels who wish to establish christian dominion in a developed nation by force.
Just to be clear, this isn’t exaggeration or misrepresentation – armed rebellion is the actual MO. They’re powerless, but they exist, and have tried shit before. But you know, WILLIS is the problem here.
I know a lot of the fundamentalist stuff is drawn from your real life experiences, I sure hope this wasn’t.
Me to, but there is a WHOLE lot of reference material out there. Some of it will make you lose faith in humanity.
HOLY COW. O_O
Guys. You realize this is going to be Dina, right? He’s not trying to shoot Becky. He is after Dina. It doesn’t matter if they split up, because he only has one target. He’s mad because she sent him to Indianapolis and likely thinks she has tricked Becky into a relationship. Honestly, he probably thinks that Becky is being torn away from him and is trying to save his family in the worst possible way. We’re about to see Dina get shot. There’s no way the police are going to get there in time…
…yeah. And Becky is the one with the phone and Joyce is about to react all panic like, so those two’ll probably reconnect right before they both hear a shot…
And… nope. Going to pretend his gun is filled with pretty flowers now, because nope, just nope.
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope
Oh man… you’re right. Willis has been setting this up. Willis made sure Becky has Dina’s phone and split the two up because Dina is getting shot. She won’t have a communication device and is going to be IN THE WOODS away from other people. Joyce is alone because she’s more on edge and more likely to panic at Dina getting shot. And let’s be honest here… Joyce and Becky are not the most responsible people. Joyce will be freaking out and Becky will be flat out terrified. Joyce will probably have to calm her down, which is kind of impossible and in the commotion they may not even remember to call 911 right away. The only good thing is the two people on the sidewalk that saw the gun.
I hope I’m wrong. Just… NO. Do not shoot Dina.
At least she’ll live….
That’s true. And you can still read about dinosaurs when you are paralyzed from the neck down, so everything is still good. No worries.
Someone hasn’t played Life is strange. -shivers-
You’re really unfamiliar with Willis’ track record, aren’t you? 🙁
I am familiar actually. I am also aware Willis has gone on record that Deaths will not happen in this strip. Not out of consideration for any human feelings, but because the overtone of Grief would be a constant drag on the story thereafter.
It makes sense. When did he say that? I’d love to read it.
I’m pretty sure that he think his daughter is doing something wrong and the only way to fix her is to punish her. So if there’s a point where he is sure his daugther will not let him fix her, he might prefer to kill her than to let her live in sin. That sin, in his mind, is his responsibility.
Now, I do think it’s gonna be Dina. I’m almost sure. It makes me so sad. There’s a reason Willis dedicated a whole chapter to her; he made sure everyone of us fell in love with the character and, at the same time, ensured Toe dad had a believable reason to really hate her. He has no desire to save Dina from sin, only to punish her. He has to cause real big damage in order to prove the evil behind the ideals he represents. It makes sense, in a universe made by Willis, that the receiver of that harm is one of the most liked characters.
If it was Becky, whose character is defined by tragedy, everything would be too standard for Willis, the readers would have a pretty accurate idea of how every character would be afected. But, if it was Dina, who we have come to love, whose character is far from serious direct drama or tragedy, it would be shocking. For example, how would Joyce react?, she doesn’t get along with Dina, she was initially against Becky dating her, her values would be questioned even more. It would be a very good opportunity for character development.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be Dina :(.
I actually don’t know who he is going to try to shoot. I doubt he recognises Dina. She was wearing a different top, considerably, and she’s not white and he acts like someone who doesn’t do the telling people apart thing. I know many of us would jump on the dinosaur and dinosaur connection, but to him its probably a fad of this godless college. Orientals in different types of lizard costumes. Y’know.
However, you raise a point I didn’t think of, which is that he might consider cleansing the corruption of satan (and not a person, so the police won’t care) more important than just making sure his daughter isn’t given more chances for corruption?
Ok, damn you willis, stop making me think like this, I haven’t had to for awhile and it was NICE. Gahhhh gonna go freak out now.
Remember he just referred to her as the “deceptress” and indicated he’s familiar with her.
Also I don’t think he carnes about the police, he follows the law of God not the law of men. Maybe that’s why he has a loud weapon, so the police can catch him quickly after he fires, that way this arc can progress faster.
I don’t think that man should be allowed to have guns. Or children. This is not good
Don’t worry. It’s a chocolate gun. After he scares the love of God back into her, he’ll peel the foil back and give her a chunk. And then she’ll cast the yellow-skinned harlot aside and settle down with a nice local preacher’s son. A happy ending for all those who are righteous. Amen.
when i said i didnt want becky to get a job before me this is not what i had in mind
I seriously hope he doesn’t consider his gun the hand of God. What is he going to do, shoot her because he put her on a bus?
…maybe that’s not the question I want answered here…
… so you don’t want me to tell you?
… cause it’s yes. Yes, he’s going to shoot her because she put him on a bus and is dating his daughter.
Because in his mind, this is a clear sign of the hand of Satan and proof that a vile corruptor is stealing the mind of his progeny and only blessed instruments of the righteousness can remove that taint and restore his daughter’s sanity and allow her to be cured to the path of the righteous.
In fact, I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that part of his thought process is, she wore the horns of the Beast, which are the signals of the Antichrist and his herald. Look at her wicked tongue corrupting the words of your dearest Rebecca to try and strike to wound you. Look at her deceiving marking of the snake who tempted Eve, only you can cut such a transparent evil out and restore your daughter away from the demon-infested lands of such a wicked place. If only you hadn’t thought any university could be free from demonic taint.
After all no action is too unthinkable or underhanded when your beloved is under the sway of a great evil, one who has convinced her of an impossibility and made her into something she is not. After all, the ends justify the means and if you can just get that progeny home, then they can be healed in blessed isolation from the corrupting influence.
And all their squaks to the contrary can be ignored, because you know in your heart what must be done to set this right. After all, you were clearly not firm enough in your discipline in order to nip this in the bud from the start.
I really wish I had less personal experience with this line of thought in both its religious and secular incarnations.
Actually, I bet he doesn’t recognise her. I think he’s just going to shoot her because she’s with his daughter, and worse a LESBIAN. And all lesbians need to be killed for their own good, but extra for defiling his daughter and sending her to hell (plus she’s not a real person, she’s an oriental, eh?)
He does recognize her. He says as much in the fourth panel.
I want to thank everyone who accused Willis of misrepresenting fundamentalist christians. Because I, Megatron, just had a moment where I thought to myself No is like that. But, of course there are people who will bring a gun to a school to shoot either their daughter or their daughter’s girlfriend. And call her “Oriental” to boot.
I like Becky. When I take over I’m going to put her in charge of Portland.
Maine or Oregon?
There are two cities with the same name on this mud ball?
The one in Oregon is actually named after the one in Maine. Portland, Oregon was literally a coin-toss away from being named “Boston”.
Hey, hands off! That’s my random fact!
You’d be surprised.
Several in fact.
Three at least. Portland cement (and Portland, Maine) refer to Portland, UK. Look we aren’t computers, we don’t have good random name generator ok?
FINE, let’s just put Becky in charge of all cities/provinces named Portland. That’s effective management organisation, right?
I might need to rename some things when I take over. Who want’s to live in Megatronia?
I would be glad to. I would also like to recommend some others who you might find useful as servants in the empire of Megatron.
You could always do the Alexander the Great thing and just call all the cities you conquer Megatronia.
(Except Jersey. Name Jersey after Starscream, so that the jokes that noone wants to live there can carry on without confusion.)
Going in to tonight’s comic, I was prepared for batshit crazy zealotry, but I was not prepared for attempted homicide. Jesus Christ Ross…
Ya this was 10 times worse than what I was expecting.
I wasn’t, but that’s because of my reading habits.
This is so like Rose Madder. I hope the outcome will be like that too. Ross is a perfect Norman.
Rose Madder? Really? A wife beating, homicidal cop chasing his finally rebellious wife into another world?
Not a lot of similarity I think…except a man forcing a woman to do his bidding, violently.
Sorry, I meant the chasing with a gun part. Not the wife beating part and other world part. I should have made it clearer.
We could be looking at this wrong. He could be asking the lord to give him strength enough to turn that gun on himself and blow his brains out!
More likely the strength to stop himself from doing that considering its a sin in christianity.
My daughter is 8 now. I swear this, if she comes out as a lesbian, I will only ask her how fabulous she wants her wedding. I will not be ToeDad. I will be accepting. I will be a loving dad who has not prioritized a Deity above his child for reasons likely misread.
That’s great and all, but “If my daughter comes out as a lesbian, I will not track her down and attempt to murder her” really should be the default response, not something you have to proclaim.
The fabulous lesbian wedding bit though, that’s worth proclaiming.
Also, I’m surprised no one else has mentioned this, but I think Blaine may have actually been dethroned for the Worst Dad Award. I mean, sure Blaine may be a child punching, manipulative, kidnapping, emotionally abusive asshole, but he, as far as I know, never actually started planning to murder two children and claim God told him to.
And now I need to throw up because I said relatively positive things about Blaine. Bob damnitt, Toedad, does your evil know no bounds?!?
but what have we learned here?
many dads are terrible
:(:(:( that didn’t make me feel better to point out :(:(:(
Does anyone except Dorothy have decent parents in this comic?
Man, fiction is FILLED with terrible parents, ain’t it.
and….. reality?
Of the major characters?
Dina, and I’m hoping the narrative doesn’t go giving them too much reason to further show it over this.
I kinda did, though it’s very easy to miss some comments through this storm.
…of course, Willis did mention he abstained from having Blaine claim he had been beaten up by a black guy because making him racist on top of all his abusiveness and kidnapping/blackmail would push him towards the cartoony extreme (and would make the Walkerton parents’ racism that much more deniable).
My best guess here is that he’s not inclined to “go easy” on people who believe what he used to believe.
I used to think the worst dad I’d ever seen was Ging Freecss. Then Toedad came along and made that man look like a friggin Saint.
OK, SO HE’S GOT A GUN! NO, THIS IS FINE! THERE’S NO WAY THIS COULD END HORRIBLY, THATS CRAZY TALK! I’M NOT FREAKIN OUT, YOU’RE FREAKIN OUT!!!!!!
I didn’t think anyone could instantly outcrazy Blaine in the course of a single comic strip, but here we are…
Holy Shit!
Hey, Toedad supporters! And by that I mean people constantly defending this dude’s intentions!
THIS IS WHAT YOU’VE BEEN DEFENDING
…..maybe he’s just agitated and wants to calm down with an impromptu round of paintball?
But how could they have possibly known that someone who gave all sorts of signs of being horrible and abusive would be above average horrible and abusive? Surely it was less likely than that he was perfectly normal and his runaway daughter was the only one in the wrong!
(To be clear: so sarcasm. much contempt.)
God, check, gun, check, homophobe, check. Yup, clearly the villain. What does the dad do for an encore? Corrective rape?
And with that, I now have something to add to my vault of nightmares.
Not gonna lie. Having a vault of nightmares sounds kind of badass.
I have heard a lot worse and I’m not going to add to your therapy by telling you the details but involved child abuse and a negligent sheriff’s department resulting the death of a minor by the hands of his father on the orders of a cult leader (not Jonestown it happen in the heartland USA).
For Becky’s sake (and my brain’s), if that’s the case, I really hope he’s too old or something to get it up.
That’s…um… actually a common way used to “correct” lesbian women, sooooo….
Don’t be silly, Toedad wouldn’t have sex with his own daughter, that would be incest.
He’ll have someone else do it. Probably a particularly pious family friend.
And then maybe that pious family friend (assuming he was young and unattached enough) could then marry her, to ensure she stayed on the right course. (In other news, ALL MY NO here.)
I wish I didn’t know that that’s a thing which actually happens.
…
You know, I had hoped the ‘incest’ angle would be enough to prevent it, but I hadn’t even thought of that workaround. Now I’m sad and a bit sick.
That’s what the re-education camp for lesbians is for.
Now would be a good time for whomever has the cellphone to take a pic as evidence and call 911.
There is no good ending for this for Becky, unless Ross actually dies in a shootout with the police and no one ever figures out he was shooting at someone other than Dina. Otherwise, no matter what happens next, Becky’s busted – the University can’t help learning about her and her current situation. She’s about to lose that lovely place to live she was talking about, probably costing her Dina too – so Ross is going to win, even if he loses.
Not true. If Ross dies, there’s a possibility that he has some form of life insurance. Failing that, a large number of people die without leaving a will, in which case all their property almost inevitably devolves to the closest living relative–usually in the order of spouse then children then siblings or parents. If Ross bites it, Becky might be able to hock all his goods (starting with the inevitable rest of his gun collection) and get enough money to pay deposits and rent for long enough to find steady work.
And then there is Leslie.
Unless it is a state or commonwealth with laws stating that the state gets the estate and doles out what it want to, to the survivors.
America (except Louisiana, which uses French) uses English Common Law with regards to inheritance, and since there are no noble titles by law, there is no entailment, meaning everything (after taxes) goes to the next in line in the event of no will regardless of who that is (except in Louisiana, where it has to be split evenly among the sons at least, probably all the children now that it’s the 21st century, or in the event of no children, all other heirs).
i feel like this guy is basically the distillation of every Hoosier dad. i am certain i have a photo of my dad posing exactly like that with an assault rifle in front of a thunderbird. if he’s like the dads i know, he’s just whipping that around for extra authority, not because he intends to shoot someone. kinda curious why it’s a lever action instead of, like, a pump action.
Actually im not sure what it is because it has two triggers like a double barrel, but it doesn’t seem wide enough to be a side-by-side and its definetly not an over-and-under, i don’t think its a lever action because it looks more like a broken trigger guard than a lever anf if it was a lever it doesn’t look that great of one.i think Willis kinda took bits from hunting rifles/shotguns that would be popular in media than drawing it from an actual gun like the pump action double barrel from the Simpsons. Either way i don’t like where this is going, even if he is not intending to shoot someone it may come to that maybe by accident or by ignorence.
Modern double-barrel internal hammer shotguns have a top lever to break the action but early ones had a bottom lever as drawn here. Pushing the lever down and forward broke the action and ejected the shells so you could put new shells in, return it to its original location cocked the hammers and allowed closing the action. Willis seems to have had trouble drawing the area of the bottom lever and trigger guard, he was probably operating off an old photo that was not very clear, but there’s enough there for a tentative identification of the general class of gun.
ATTENTION
HE IS GOING THERE
WILLIS IS GOING THERE
this is amazing, I am strapping in and I am so so so very excited. also dear god somebody stop toedad jfc
Willis, I see that you’ve managed to avoid showing Dina or Becky in any of the preview panels after this point. Well played.
I have a question that is going to sound naïve: Do people like this really exist?
Yes.
The answer to this question, no matter how horrifying the “people like this” are portrayed, is always yes.
Unfortunately… yes.
The short answer is yes, they do.
The long answer is that while they might not do exactly what Ross is doing in this situation, people of a similar mindset unfortunately do exist.
Religious influence gun baring maniacs? It’s sounds mostly like a horror movie gimmick but ya it’s very very real.
Yes, I’ve met them. They’re… charming.
Yes and worse.
Read “The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right ” by Daniel Levitas for more information.
Yes
Look, it’s an Honor Killing. Lululululu!
Yep. Yesterday’s terror is completely vindicated. I’m gonna hide in the corner and cry now; come get me when it’s over.
Can I join you in the corner? I don’t know if I’ll be able handle what may or may not happen. We can watch Friends reruns till its over.
All are welcome in the corner. It’s nice and warm and safe and nothing bad ever happens to our favorite characters there ever.
To the corner!
I wish I could join you, but someone must watch till the end, if only to come get you guys once it ends.
That is until someone busts out their copy of Game of Thrones
Welp, I was really off the mark in my thinking that somehow Toedad would say the n-word in front of Sarah and Sal and cause a shitshow over that (because honestly while fundamentalist born-again Christianity and racism are not ALWAYS together, they hold hands embarrassingly often).
I was sort of right with the racism?
Am I too optimistic in thinking that he has a rifle to scare Becky into submission (which is still incredibly abusive) rather than having the intention of murdering his own daughter?
Nah. He probably just wants to murder Dina.
Sad as I am to say it, I wouldn’t put it above Toedad to try something like that. I dunno where his limit is, but he seems like the kinda guy who would go there.
Not really; the problem is what happens if it doesn’t work. Then you have an angry man with a screwed-up moral compass and a loaded gun with the cause of his anger standing in front of him.
I admit I don’t understand the logic path on this one:
My daughter is a lesbian, which is against one of a number of picky rules in Leviticus, so I will fix this by MURDERING her, in violation of one of the Ten Commandments.
And you think God is going to be OK with that?!?!?
We’re talking about the same God who, on at least one occasion, got pissed off at the Israelites for not being murder-y enough. So yeah, He’s probably cool with it.
People like this have no need for your Satanic “logic paths.”
I think that you will find that this has very little to do with Becky and a lot to do with Ross’s own self-image as a ‘perfect Christian husband and father’. That’s being threatened and his only countermeasure is to destroy everything that could be evidence of his own failures.
Just now seeing this. OI, TWO PEOPLE IN THE BACKGROUND WHO JUST SAW THE CRAZY MAN PULL OUT A GUN, THATS YOUR CUE! CALL THE FRIGGIN COPS!!!
At least one of them has noticed. They got attention lines around their head.
This is the time for Arnold and um… Ryu? to really shine!
First of all, fuck this guy. Second of all, holy fucking shit, 400 comments in an hour!
Well shits getting than it ever has before, date raping assholes and a average dead beat controlling dad has nothing on this guy.
True. Not that those people weren’t fucking despicable. Just less so than Toedad, supreme ruler of all assholedom.
It’s true, though. More comments than ‘The Kiss’, easily.
Nothing like a gun to bring out the righteous indignation.
Maybe I’m just trying to be optimistic, but the gun might not be loaded. It could be just a scare tactic (I’m from Pennsylvania and I’ve seen it happen, but maybe it’s less common elsewhere…). Doesn’t explain the future hospital scene, but… Maybe someone trips…
What’s the method here? ” Don’t run away again our next time I hunt you down I will shoot you ?”
Well Becky and Dina wouldn’t know the gun’s not loaded, he might be trying to frighten them. Scare them straight as it were?
Or maybe just use the gun to force Becky into the car?
I’m not giving Toedad the benefit of the doubt as much as I don’t want anybody to get hurt.
Wow…bad timing with the recent college shootings there Willis.
yeah my timing’s just so amazingly bad, should have tried better to land this storyline during that one whole week in april when there actually wasn’t a mass shooting
Beat me to the punch, you did.
When a developped country that isn’t in civil war situation literally cannot go more than 8 days without a mass shooting, you know shit’s fucked up.
Is there a developed country where each of these shootings would be national news, rather than below national consciousness? Seiously, because how many people here knew this data? Which Congress forbade NIH/CDC from studying scientifically. Climate Change denial ain’t in it.
http://www.theonion.com/article/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-36131
In all seriousness, this doesn’t happen in other developed coumtries
It depends what you consider a developed country. Mass shootings are far more common in Brazil, though they are often crime related. Brazil is a bit fucked up.
Sonfoabongo….that is horrifying. I know that there are many shootings, but seeing this in print is just ….horifiying, stupid, amazing, scary..God there isn’t a word for it.
That is really depressing. You could almost set your watch by it.
It looks like Sunday is the day of the week with most shootings, which might be ironic (Lords Day …), though I spose that most of those occurred Sunday Morining closer to midnight as part of Saturday Night, than to Sunday School. When I was in college there was a (sardonic) joke that the neighborhood Knife and Gun Club met at the local E-Room either side of weekend midnights.
Mr. Willis, I’m seeing a lot of sometimes wildly different numbers for mass shootings. Can I ask for a link to your source? I figure I’m not miserable enough yet.
This made me look up New Zealand’s statistics. Apparently here 2 deaths constitutes a ‘massacre’, 2 died in 2014, 3 in 2001. 76 massacred in the last hundred years, if I ignore a prisoner of war camp riot in ’43. I feel sorry for those American’s that don’t like guns. Surprisingly we apparently have 1.1 million firearms here, I don’t know what we do differently other than not having a ‘constitution’.
Is there a point when it would have bee good timing?
Okeysure: are you saying that comics about school shootings are cool after a month has gone by and everyone has forgotten about it and gone back to whatever they were doing? (Seriously: that’s what happens, isn’t it?)
So, after renting a car at the airport, he what, just stopped at a sporting goods store and got a hunting rifle? He did not get on the bus with that thing!
Isn’t there a wait? Usually for this exact situation
Not at gun shows.
The laws applying to sales at gun shows are exactly the same as those applying to sales at any other time or place.
Guns shows are also hotbeds of anti-government paranoia.
This is ‘murica. There are some states that have no gun laws at all.
technically no, every state has some form of gun laws.
Probably picked his car up from impound by this point, with the rifle still inside.
Gun stores are really the only place you have to “wait” for anything. He could just go to facebook and look for someone selling guns and buy one easy.
I think it is more likely that he drove cross-country from Anderson.
Yeah. Who plans to haul someone off to a re-education camp on a commercial flight? If you’re going to do a kidnapping you need your ride.
Hell, if he’d had a little more money and done a bit more research the reeducation camp would probably have paid for the expenses of retrieving Becky.
A GUN? THE FUCK????
OK, listen Ross you racist piece of shit, another reason why you suck is tha… um… are you pointing a gun at your child?
You are, aren’t you?
You are pointing a gun at your child.
You are pointing a GUN at your CHILD.
You are the man who points a gun at your child. That’s all you are. You are not a human any longer. You are not a person. You are just the man who points a gun at a child.
However this plays out, if you get gunned down by the police, if you rot in prison, if you – by some horrible flaw in the justice system – goes free and goes back to you home where 18 years of memories of the child you turned the gun to waits for you, you will always be the man who pointed a gun at his child.
Goodbye Ross.
But, Bagge, if he doesn’t murder his daughter and her girlfriend in cold blood then the gay agenda wins. There’s just so much at stake for him, you don’t even understand…
But seriously, yeah, this is the end-point sometimes, oftentimes, when you view your kids or your loved ones as property you have acquired to mold as you see fit. Especially when they turn out to be their own people with their own lives and try to do right by themselves by getting away from you.
A thing to remember with most mass shootings is that most begin with an aggrieved type starting by going after a woman or women he feels have wronged him in some way. Largely because he feels he was entitled to such people in his life even against their will.
This was always who Toedad could have become when he started on that path of viewing his daughter as a thing to mold into piousness. And he can rationalize it all he wants with talk of deception and demons and saving souls and God’s will, but at the end of the day, he’s a petty controlling fuck and he’s doing this mostly over having lost his control over her.
As you say, there is no justifying that as a parent or even a person who can claim to any form of morality that is real. He’s a complete scumsucking murderous fuck.
And the worst part is he is intentional for the whole system. After all, every one of him is one more dozen queer kids or battered wives who thinks twice before walking out the door or saying no to a demand to submit to “reparative therapy”. Because this is the unspoken threat in the air that all who dare be true to themselves and their needs have to consider solemnly before making their choices.
I have said it before, I’m afraid I’ll have cause to say it again – I REALLY wish you weren’t right.
This should be mandatory reading to teach people exactly what they shouldn’t be and why.
That’s pretty much everything I’ve wanted to say about this mindset and how it pertains to Ross and the Browns, and thank you. Because yes, this is why Becky ran away. This is why Joyce accepting her was such a tremendous moment. This is why Jocelyne’s not out and may never feel safe enough to be able to. Because this is the threat. This is the worst-case scenario and it is very, terrifyingly real. And since it looks like we’ll be seeing Hank (and thus probably other Browns) before this book is out, it looks like there’s going to be another confrontation on the horizon. (I’m hoping it’ll be less terrifying as this one, if only because it’s as likely as not to be in a hospital, but it’s still going to be tense.)
Yup, this. I know people who have parents very much from this culture who are scared to come out (even fully to themselves) even though they have been living with same gender partners for years due to this passive threat. It probably wouldn’t go that badly, but it would be bad and it could be this bad, so why risk it?
It’s a very toxic thing.
I saw this page and wondered if it was April already. Then I remembered even if it was, I don’t think Willis has done any joke pages that actually went up on this site before. You’ve gotta be kidding me. Like he isn’t the type of idiot who would just use it to scare people either. He legitimately thinks he’d be doing the right thing by killing his gay daughter. I’m sick to my stomach.
Like I desperately want someone to step in, like I want Amazigirl to show up and beat the fat out of his stupid neck, but that would mean she was facing a shotgun, too. Honestly the fact that this kind of thing could legitimately happen and totally does happen in this country sickens me.
Congratulations Ross you have officially reached Blaine levels of evil
“What does it take to be a worse parent than Blaine,” we wondered. YEAH, OK, HUNTING YOUR KID AND HER GIRLFRIEND WITH A GUN is what does it.
Some questions actually DON’T NEED an answer.
Okay then, well, next question.
“What does it take to be a worse parent than Toedad” ? 🙂
Just…don’t
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope
It’s been done before.
At this point the only type of parent worse than this fucker that I can think of is the type that abuses kids sexually.
You assume sexual abuse hasn’t happened.
I’m not gonna assume someone has done something that horrible unless I see indicators that it might have happened. I don’t know much about sexual assault, and much less about victims of sexual assault perpetrated by a family member, but Becky does not give me the vibe of someone who’s gone through that, and Foedad, horrible and awful and evil and terrible as he is, does not give me the vibe of someone who would do something so vile to their own blood.
Not that flavor of vile, anyway.
Not without prompting, at least. He didn’t know she was gay before this whole debacle, after all.
Until proven, sure I do. I think the presumption of innocence pending proof of guilt is very important.
Honestly? I think at this point Blaine would be telling him to tone it down.
Blaine: “Dude. Um, too far, man, just beat her a little. Okay a lot. But don’t point a gun at her!”
(Alternately) Blaine: *hands over wsd title belt* “Master, teach me your ways”
Blaine is more about subtle cruelty, manipulation and mental abuse.
Why wield a gun when you can terrorize with words ? (I’d compare him to Mike for that one aspect)
Mike is nowhere on the level of Blain. He just isn’t.
Blaine’s more like the Joker (yes, Yatsuyan had it right): Loves mind games, f**king with people, doesn’t want them dead, because that ends the fun.
Ross is more like… well, I don’t know any religious zealot villains in the Batman pantheon, so I’m gonna say… the Punisher. Thinks he’s the good guy, kills because he feels his targets are evil, and deserve death.
Blaine’s more of a coward. That’s all.
“Ok, dude, I know you’re in the zone and everything. But this seems a little much. Maybe you should just put down the gun and-” *Ross turns the gun on him* “Or! Or, you rough her up a bit, maybe kidnap her girlfriend and hold em hostage outside of a McDonalds in the rain. I mean, that’s what I’d do at least. But hey, you do you chief, you’re the one with the gun.”
I feel like Blaine would plainly be smarter than to threaten gun violence in public, where he could be witnessed. Toedad has a hot-tempered rashness that makes him act differently than Blaine’s cold cruelty.
In public, no. Once he’s got them back in the car and they’re still trying to question him, maybe.
This seems WAY past Blaine levels of evil.
More like toppled Blaine in levels of evil.
If Blaine were here, he would be saying something like, “Look, I understand you need to let the hellion know who’s in charge, but you really don’t want the attention that using the gun will get you. I mean, you’re easily stronger than both of them!”
“Also: ‘Oriental deceptress’? Really?”
Gotta blame the other, because there is no way this can be his fault, right?
More like beyond.
I wished that I wasn’t right yesterday but he has actually overtaken Blaine as the worst father in the universe.
Having known a lot of the religious psychos myself, I feel like IN REALITY, it would be far more likely that he just brought the gun to be threatening and has no intention of actually shooting anybody.
In fiction, he almost certainly intends to shoot somebody. And obviously likelihood of anything doesn’t affect the fact that someone should most definitely be calling the cops RIGHT THE HELL NOW.
Jezi, I will tell you one thing though: if he brought the shotgun, he intends to use it. These people do not play, and they do not joke. If they hear that voice in their head that tells them to kill their child, they will pray, but they will do it. Then quote scripture justifying it.
That’s always the thing with carrying a weapon ‘just in case’. You think it’s just gonna be used for show. But that’s not how weapons work…..once you get angry, or when you pull it out for a threat and your target doesn’t play along…….things never end well.
In reality, a lot of people die because someone brought a gun or a knife just to threaten somebody. I hate to say it, but I’ve almost been there…..when I was a bullied, depressed teenager (years ago now) I carried a knife, hidden away in my jacket ‘just in case’. Thankfully I threw the damned thing away and just changed school before that little timebomb ever went off…..but it does teach you. Doesn’t matter why you brought something with you. Doesn’t matter if you use it in self-defense, pre-meditated, or just because something made you finally snap. If you think you’re the type that would choose to use a weapon if you’ve got it there……you probably should think very hard about having any kind of weapon at hand. And then don’t do it. Because it’s seriously not worth it.
Not that toedad would ever do that, of course. He’d take pride in being the type to do what he’s doing now.
I’m eager to see Ross’ comeuppance.
Also eighteenth-ing the fact that it’s almost certainly Dina he’ll go after. He initially told Becky to get in the car, not “hold still so I can exorcise you with lead.”
The question now, of course: no matter how this goes off, is Willis going to include the fundamentalists starting GoFundMe campaigns for his legal defense, blaming Becky and Dina for any incidental injuries, and sending either/both of them death threats?
If he’s going for realism yeah.
Making Becky a national celebrity in the process ?
Hey hey hey, you’re gonna put somebody’s eye out with that thing! >:(
haha
ha
(Involuntary eye twitch. Screaming internally. I called this so wrong.)
HOLY SHIT WHAT
I’m sure all Willis had in mind was a shotgun wedding…
God damnit hawkwing.²
I won’t put it past him.
Thanks for making me smile, (laugh actually), I was getting too depressed reading the other comments 😀
Wow…. look at this exchange between Becky and Ross. He turns up from nowhere, she says ONE line in shock, ONE line of defiance and then she starts to run. Complete with thinking through tactics.
He finds them on the sidewalk, pulls up, says ONE line of demands, ONE line of threats and then he BRINGS OUT A FUCKING GUN!!!!
They both know that this is very, very, very serious. I don’t know if Becky expect him to flat out murder her and Dina, but she obviously knows the magnitude of things he is capable of.
He must have been cruising around, hoping to find them. He doesn’t even have to open the trunk to get the gun or something, he had it next to him. THIS IS NOT EVEN A SECOND RESORT – THIS IS THE PLAN!!!! HE CAME HERE TO KILL HIS CHILD.
Jesus…
Shit, you’re right. Best case scenario this was in the back seat.
Worst is he may not have been intending to shoot his daughter. The gun may have been intended for Dina all along, whether or not she turned out to be involved with Becky or not, simply because she embarrassed and delayed him on his important mission.
That or for Joyce for hiding Becky in the first place.
Basically, he was probably planning on murdering a wide-variety of kids and feels no compunction about adding his daughter to the list.
Y’know what would be ironic/extremely unfortunate? If He got that gun sometime the day before, around when he realized he’d been dupped. Cause while its glarringly apparent that Ross is nuttier than a bag of squirrel poop, I don’t think he came with the intentions to go trigger happy on his kid. He prolly thought this would be a simple, yell, snatch and drive.
Then he got played by a girl in “a pokemanz” outfit, and he figured if walking softly didn’t work, maybe a big stick would. A big boomstick that is. Hopefully, we’ll just go back to the walking softly oart and the big stick won’t ever get to be used.
Wouldn’t have been time for a federally-mandated background check. He either already owned that gun, borrowed it, or bought it at an Indianapolis gun show.
Honestly, the most likely scenario is that he keeps that gun in the car all the time. A person who would resort to using it that quickly is no the type of person who isn’t always “prepared.”
I don’t think he brought the gun with the intention of harming Dina, especially because he didn’t know that Dina is Becky’s girlfriend until this point and he obviously had the gun prepared.
Before, the only capacity he knew Dina is that she tricked him into taking a one-way non-stop bus out of the city, which is grounds to be angry, but he would have to be really unhinged (or unhinged in the a different way) to take such offence to that that he’d be willing to murder.
What I’m trying to say is: yeah he’s likely to hurt Dina now (God forbid) but he didn’t bring that gun with the specific intention of murdering the Asian woman who tricked him, he brought that gun to “help” Becky.
whats …”interesting” is that i here some people were being apologists, suggesting we only knew Becky’s side of the story and that Toeface might be reasonably worried. I wonder who thought that Maybe Becky was being courtious to her dad and downplaying his abusive attitude. Knowing what we do about hte world and his attitude its quite likely that if Becky hasnt been (physically) abused its because she’s been savy enough to Fake being a “good” daughter.
If anything i’m disappointed in myself for not even thinking that things could be worse than Becky presented. That him forcing her to “not kiss girls” was the worst that could be happening
To be fair no one was expecting him to resort to attempting murder.
Actually I did.
With a few exceptions.
It’s safe to say that Ross murdering Becky is unprecedented, at least until tomorrow’s strip.
Even the worst of that would still have been “reparative therapy” and/or rape, but yeah. Becky hasn’t “just” been living in terror from the abuse that is “you must behave this way for fear of hell”, she hasn’t “just” had her life controlled to the point where she wasn’t allowed a method of independent outside contact (and here I’m remembering that I thought it was a warning sign my mom’s half-sister* didn’t have her own Facebook page years back once she had entered college,) she’s been living with a guy who has almost certainly threatened violence before, if not actually committed it against her or her mom.
* Long story, but my biological grandfather is basically a terrifying combination of Toedad and Blaine. Certainty he is Right because God and the presence of mind to hide the actual threatening and hurting people behind closed doors? REALLY FUCKING CREEPY, particularly when combined with a “I’m so sorry for disowning you please love me again I’m dying” period and the fact that he’s actually been a pastor before and thus had a position of power. My mom’s managed to keep him out of my brother’s and my lives, and to minimize his presence in her own, but we still hear stories occasionally and they are NOT pretty.
Or – and I REALLY didn’t want to go there – she HAS been abused but downplayed it. Or at least there have been violent episodes that she never mentioned to Joyce or anyone else.
Becky doesn’t want to be a debby downer, you know.
*sighs* Possibly. (cures the state of Indiana)
Becky shows a lot of signs. Her ability (and need!) to pretend to be fine and happy while near the edge of a breakdown, her need to be fun and loud so people will like her. That’s all textbook defensive mechanism.
I still think it’s probably “just” emotional abuse, not physical, but that whole persona blatantly screams “it’s not safe to show your real self” and certainly dates back to before even she knew she was a lesbian.
It’s also possible that her mother, recently deceased, was also abused and perhaps protected her somewhat, so things were worse since. But that’s wild speculation.
Pretty much. Abused kids don’t tend to overplay their abuse. Rather the opposite. Because to do otherwise is to “betray the family” and invite even worse consequences.
Truth.
I’ve seriously seen kids who try to justify what they went through as if they deserved it, and it’s legitimately one of the saddest things I’ve seen.
Not necessarily. The gun might just be for whoever might be standing in his was from taking Becky back. Or potentially a scare tactic.
If that’s the case it sure didn’t take him many seconds, or many atoms of defiance, to include Becky in that list.
Not helping.
And not making it better
He probably brought the gun for coercion purposes. However, he strikes me as dumb enough to think that it is possible to ‘shoot to woung’ with a shotgun or medium-calibre rifle.
Ben, I agree with you. But keep in mind our BEST CASE SCENARIO involves him using a loaded weapon to force his daughter into his car for the purposes of kidnapping and “re-educating” her. This is the most possible optimistic view on Blaine.
I mean Toedad. Christ, I’m getting my shittiest fathers of DoA confused now!
*PLEASE* let the completion of this scene being Amazigirl taking Ross down before he can hurt anybody… preferably with amazing amounts of humiliation followed by jail, then a prison term. But, mainly, Amazigirl defeating him before he hurts anybody!
Please.
I really don’t want Amazigirl to go against someone with a *gun*.
THIS A JOB FOR PROFESSIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT NOT SOME TWOBIT VIGALANTE!
Sorry about that. That was directed at somebody else.
“What are you gonna’ do, shoot me?”
-Random bystander, moments before he was shot.
Ben Carsons last words.
After recent events someone bitterly joked to me that the best thing about home school is that there is no fear of a school shooting. I think if I showed this to him he’d think that Toe dad was the exception. Though I’m not surprised by his actions given he’s already told a complete stranger that he’d do whatever to “fix” her.
Holy shit.
OH!
MY!
GOD!
What if that’s his gun-shaped toenail clippers!
Wait, he looks like a giant toe and that’s his toenail clipper? I c wat u did thar. 😛
Wait a minute >.> *looks at poll* oh what the fuck Willis !?
I think that was our 2-minute warning (their time) to prepare for the horror that was coming.
It’s still up, and Willis is commenting. I think there’s still worse to come.
You mean you don’t have automatic sense of dread when you read this comic?
I guess Willis decided there were too many lesbians in this story.
Now I know y “DAMN YOU, Willis!” became so popular.
I guess Willis decided there was too much joy in our lives…. or too low blood pressure.
He had to balance out the happy thoughts from the Dina chapter somehow.
Well, someone in the background totally sees this and will probably call it in. At least this’ll end with Ross being gunned down by a squad of cop ca-
AHAHAHA, sorry, couldn’t complete that. Unless he shoots himself he’ll be totally fine, he’s a white middle-aged dude. They’ll cuff him, swing by a fast food joint for milkshakes, then finally stop by the jail for his required ‘slap on the wrist’ before letting him go. At worst he’ll get off with a few weeks in jail and a fine he can easily pay. Then he can go straight back to planning to murder his daughter in the name of God, to preserve her soul from Satan’s temptations!
Yyyeah. Like I said yesterday on the Patreon comments of this strip: “He’s a white man in Indiana. Take from that what you will.”
Your avatar is perfect for that comment.
In a fictional comic run by Willis. Depressing reality has no power here.
Depressing fiction, on the other hand.
There’s a part of me that’s hoping that Ross counts as “nobody”, so that the transitive property can be applied to “nobody dies”.
This is in Bloomington a college town. Things are a little different.
Yeah right.
A white man, with a rifle, drawn and ready to fire, on a college campus-in todays America with a shooting a week going down – do you really believe that Kocel?
To my memory Dina and Guns don’t mix well…sorry Dina
Walkyverse Dina and BOMBS didn’t mix.
They shouldn’t have run [though I can understand why]. They should have just kept on walking. If he actually tried anything, he’d be arrested.
Other people have already saw him with a gun though.
Casual disregard of someone who’s to the point of irrationality that he’s pulling out a gun is how you get shot.
yeah but you win the war.
Not doing them a lot of good if they’re dead.
By the cops who are conveniently parked just off-panel, you mean?
I’m guessing it’s a tranq rifle. I wouldn’t think he’d resort to shooting Dina (or god forbid, Becky) but he’s already stepping down a dangerous path.
No. It is definitely not a tranq rifle. It’s real, and when a religious nut starts praying to God for strength to do what’s needed and he’s holding a gun, that’s when you better run, run like the wind, because that is *not* good news.
It’s a good thing there was a forest patch nearby, really. No long range visibility at all, chances to lose him, etc.
Hey, Toe.
Where are you goin’ with that gun in your hand?
Hey, Toe.
I said where are you goin’ with that gun in your hand?
I’m goin’ down to shoot my young lady.
You know I caught her messin’ ’round with a Pokeman.
(sorry, not sorry)
I’m suddenly reminded of the song “Folded Flags” written by Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd fame) made specifically for the animated British film “When the Wind Blows”. Chilling as fuck.
You are the hero this strip deserves.
OK, OK, I know this looks grim but let’s focus on the upside.
They are running into the woods.
They are splitting up.
ToeDad McChildMurderer will focus on Becky, giving Dina some room.
Dina knows what to do.
Dina has prepared for this movement her entire life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5wryDdEI0
Yeah, but… doesn’t Becky have the only phone between them? Which kinda makes the wait time for the authorities who tend to take a while to get there a butt ton longer, assuming what I think is gonna happen actually happens.
Anyone else hear that? Yes, that is the sound of all hell breaking loose. I’m just gonna go and hyperventilate now. Call me when no one is dead.
I know, I know. I just retreated to a happy place of wish fulfillment and dinosaurs.
Be verwy verwy quiet. I’m hunting wezbians. huhuhuh.
This is the best. I love you
…….. Shoot, that actually kinda good.
Should’ve been expecting this, but didn’t expect such a quick escalation.
Holy Shit. And OMG.
I know Willis does these months in advance. So it is not a play on recent campus shootings. But, God it is getting way too prevalent.
Don’t let him hit either of them damn it…no way.
Or anyone. Willis no main character dies….
It actually is a play on recent campus shootings that Willis predicted would happen – scroll up.
Predicted ? there’s nothing to predict, there’s pratically one every week.
What in the fuckity fuck fuck is he doing?
He’s going to ‘save’ Becky from sin. Whether she and Dina survive the experience is clearly not a priority to him.
Actually, worse, I think it is a priority to him at this point, at least in Dina’s case.
Oh boy! I can’t wait to see the people who will try and find some way to defend toedad now!
“He was exercising his right to open-carry! And he just CARES STRONGLY about his daughter who’s WASTING HIS COLLEGE MONEY!”
Open carry of long guns actually IS legal in Indiana :c theoretically he could get away with this..
Is carrying said weapon while chasing your daughter and her friend legal?
(That is a kinda serious question, I’m not from the US and am still confused by the gun rules …)
At that point, he should present a clear threat to them and they’re making the right move, legally, by retreating (ie, running for dear life,) because they feel their lives are in danger. I’d say the bystanders are completely justified in calling the police, and they’ll probably be able to get him arrested, but unfortunately I’d say I’m not CERTAIN he’ll get serious jail time for this. It’s likely (you can only pull out your gun with intent to shoot in Indiana legally, apparently, which means any argument it was just for “intimidation factor” would only minimize his jail time rather than eliminate it, and it should be an easy case that he intended to kill or at least seriously injure them,) but not certain until he actually shoots it, at which point it becomes “assault with a deadly weapon”, battery if he actually hits someone, and, depending on where he’s aiming, possibly an attempted murder charge. So basically he’s getting charged with SOMETHING regardless, but it might not be serious enough to ensure he doesn’t threaten Becky and Dina again yet.
Short answer: no, it is not legal in the US for a civilian to chase other civilians with a gun.
Open carrying on state government property (like a state university) is actually illegal in Indiana, so chasing them isn’t even a prerequisite for him getting arrested.
A comic about a guy with a gun on campus when there’s just been a school shooting. Talk about bad timing. At least it would be Europe; in America it’s almost expected timing.
Expected? More like inevitable. There have been more than one school shooting every week in the US this year.
And to think a couple days ago I considered taking a break from DoA for a few weeks so I could binge-read later. I could have watched this entire horror unfold in just a few clicks and minutes rather than having to suffer through the angst and worry of what’s about to happen to Becky and Dina over an extended period of time. Darn it.
Oh dear fuck no.
If there were ever one character who deserved to be on the wrong side of a “misunderstanding” with the police…
Well, okay, until he actually *shoots* at them, he’s still tied with Blaine for that distinction. He escalates any further than he has now, and he’s going to actually leave Blaine in the dust for “fuck-face parent-in-name-only of the year.”
So, uhh, good job, Willis? I didn’t think Blaine O’Malley could be topped, but he’s sure getting a run for his money.
I think the sole act of taking out a gun when chasing after his daughter already makes him worse than Blaine. There’s physical abuse and then there’s intentional use of a deadly force.
You assume he’s chasing his daughter.
Imagine the comments section when he kills Dina.
That would be the second time she died…if she dies.
It’s possible (extremely unlikely at this juncture, but possible) that he would not have the… I don’t want to say “wherewithal” because that makes it sound like a bad thing, but will to shoot his daughter, and getting the gun out is in a fit of rage. Again, the way this is going, I don’t think that’s the case, because he’s shown himself to be a bigoted, narrow-minded bastard who ironcladly believes he is right, but it’s still, remotely, possible.
Which is why, unless he actually tries to shoot them, I’d say he’s only *tied* with Blaine for “Worst Father (in name only)” in the strip.
Now, Willis has previously said that nobody would die in DoA. That means that, as far as I can tell, there’s three possibilities:
A) Nobody gets (physically) hurt. But we’re still left with the fact that Toe McIntyre *tried to shoot his daughter*, and all that accompanies that.
B) Willis lied, and we’re possibly about to get our first character death (I really hope not).
C) Someone is about to get horribly injured, and thus, Willis keeps his word and still everything gets to be exponentially worse.
Reeally, really hoping it’s the first option.
“Ah, the most dangerous game! Thrilling, is it not?”
THE FUCKING HELL?!
I mean, shit, I was prepared for some truly assholish behavior, but HOLY FUCK, WILLIS.
Oh. Oh Jesus.
This may be the first time I’ve felt genuinely chilled by the end of the strip. Bravo, Willis.
THE F*CK, WILLIS??
“Grant me the strength to shoot a child.” Great.
Calling that it’s probably a tranquilizer gun.
Calling that is what I HOPE it is.
.-.
…why would anyone outside vets own that ?
To kidnap your own children for the lord? Just to pick the easy example.
“Lord, grant me the strength.” Lord says, “No.”
Hey, we can hope…..
Actually I the Lord stop answering calls a thousand years back.
LORD, IT’S TIME TO ANSWER SOME LESBIAN PRAYERS, STAT!!!!!!
The lord shall answer his call…Satan the dark lord and master of hell shall answer his call to give him strength to assault his daughter and/or her adorable lover. I don’t think the good lord would be into helping him do that, no matter how much they like to believe so.
Especially since “the Lord” in this case is Willis. Wait… Darn.
DAMN YOU TO WILLIS?
I hope his response is to crush him with a life-size model of the Enterprise, to be honest.
The starship or the aircraft carrier?
Not that it would make that much difference.
Ross; ” Welcome to the Danger Zone”
There obligatory Archer reference
…and with that last panel I believe this has crossed the line from simple annoying intolerance to criminal activity. I sure hope the shaded background characters we saw in the last panel do the right thing and call the police.
…What in fuck do you think you’re doing with that gun?????
Huh, now I might be thinking that the phone call Joyce’s mum made way back when might have been her trying to warn her about Becky’s dad charging around with a shotgun…
…Though it’s probably not tthe case.
NOW I want to hear what theither two cents a out this is.
I dare say they might have been a tad more insistent to get through if that was the case.
“Did you warn Joyce that her best friend’s father is coming her way with a gun?”
“No, I was going to but she was on her way to the mall so…”
“Oh, no problem, we can call her again in a few days.”
…hmmmm. For some reasons the jokes become a lot less funny when there is a school shooting involved.
Oh crap…
Just as in the Walkyverse, where Dina died while sacrificing herself to save those she loved…
I’m really. dreading the next few weeks of strips… 🙁
You know, it’s been a while since I considered myself a christian, but last I checked “thou shalt not murder” was kind of a big one
The more extreme sects regard Christ as a ‘weakling’ and prefer to follow the example of John Birch.
Sadly, some people just bend the rules to their liking. “It’s okay cause it’s in the name of bigger good” … something along those lines. The crusades were in the name of God and I’m pretty sure they had the big ten already.
When Moses brought down the stone tablets, he found that his people had started worshiping a golden idol.
He was so furious he smashed the tablets. Then he divided his people into two groups. Those who planned to follow God and those who planned to do their own thing. He had the believers kill the unbelievers.
Then he had to go back up Mt Sinai, get a new set of tablets with some easier to follow rules. Included in those rules was “Thou Shalt Not Kill”, but still, even within that story it seems God does condone mass murder under certain circumstances.
It was actually ‘You shall not commit murder’, which is a lot more situation-specific than ‘You shall not kill’.
It’s “Thou Shalt Not Kill” in the King James version. Can’t speak for all translations obviously but King James is probably the most commonly used one.
Either way, even if we’re going by “You shall not commit murder” it’s still given a pretty big exception clause by the preceding events within the story. The issue probably isn’t that Ross is unfamiliar with the tenets of his own faith here.
…AND THAT’S WHEN AMAZI-GIRL COMES IN TO SAVE THE DAY 😀
713 comments and counting. Will we reach a thousand ? Has it happened before ? (I forgot)
I do remember it happened before. I was just there a couple days ago, going through the archives, but I cannot for the life of me remember which strip it was.
Ah, there it is: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/moral/
And it’s not the only one! I just remembered there was a Danny & Ethan strip that had a gazillion comments so I looked it up and here it is with its 1163 comments! http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/thoughts/
And when Billie and Ruth kissed and Billie pushed her away and told her to fuck off.
And the comic with Jocelyne was the record holder, I believe.
One thousand fifty-five and counting.
oh boy.
Aw, shit! He’s gone postal! If he’s so delusional that he thinks that he has the divine right to ‘punish’ random strangers, then there is no limit to what he is capable of doing. This will end in blood; the only question is whose blood.
Oh man i can’t WAIT to see this dbag taken down
on the other hand i know how the esteemed Mr Willis likes to “pull the drama tag” so to speak so i should prepare for heartbreak
I was just thinking, “Oh shit unpull the drama tag right NOW so it shoots pies and he’s just lovingly overprotective.”
WOAH
I can just imagine Ross telling someone
“It was the best I could do”.
“I was doing the lord’s work.”
,,Dispensing teaches through lead.”
And of all the comments I’ve read and made I’m left with the oh shit no comment. No one dies you’ve said…but I’m afraid for Dina and Becky.
Amazing horrifying work Mr. Willis. Never had a comic affect me the way this one does. You win the prize for the Biggest Prick of the Year-Ross- character.
Amazi-Girl is pretty much out of this one…I think…I hope…this is above her paygrade.
Sal is the closest one to this, she’s just leaving the fountain. When the gun goes off she will likely beat the cops there. I don’t want her hurt either.
What I want to do is go hide from this for about 2 weeks, and then come back and read it all at once. But, I can’t.
Wow, GREAT timing Willis.
Run Through The Woods In Terror week is JUST around the corner.
(Anyone notice how it always falls at the end of October? That’s a coincidence, right?)
Wow. He pulled up a lever-action rifle. Where most shooters in these cases have either used the standard-issue AR-15, a pistol, or a semi-automatic shotgun, this guy pulls up one of the oldest surviving firearms in human history. This is a first…at least for my viewing.
At first glance i thought it was a lever action as well but some are saying shotgun so maybe Mr Willis could let us know what type of firearm it is?
I think it’s a “Willis doesn’t care enough about firearm accuracy to make it a real gun” gun.
heh. Thought about that too. Not sure.
You get shotgun and pseudo-rifle versions of the lever-action, AFAIK. However, Relzik is right. It’s just a ‘gun’ that Willis has thrown together from any number of reference photos. He might have even deliberately tried not to make it look exactly like any particular model for fear that the manufacturers may take a dim (and litigious) view of him portraying their products as the weapon of a child-killer.
The LA has certain cultural connotations. It is easier to carry around unnoticed than a military-grade assault rifle.
A gun owner doesn’t necessarily need to own the latest in ammo technology. Grandfather’s shotgun, which did just fine on the old family farm, would certainly work just as well now.
I can see tDad tossing it in the back seat of the car before taking off for Bloomington, “just in case”. Who knows what sort of people he might… argh, I can only channel George Zimmerman for so long.
so since this is obviously going to make the news no matter how it goes, how will joyce’s parents react?
itd be nice to think that theyd obviously side against ross and be horrified, because i mean last time i checked THEY were well-intentioned, but theres a pretty high likelihood theyll support his cause if not his methods
will this break up the brown family news at 11
They’ll condem Ross’s ‘unjustifiably extreme’ actions but insist that it was ultimately Becky’s fault for defying him and pursuing a sinful course. I’ve thought for a while that there is an estrangement coming between Joyce and her family.
One one hand they will react with fear and want to pull their daughter out of a dangerous place.
One one hand they will have to confront the fact that the danger was brought BY THEIR community.
One one hand they will have to confront the fact that one of their own, a man in their own community, TRIED TO MURDER HIS CHILD IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, a child that THEY KNOW AND LOVE, a child who spent a LARGE PART OF HER CHILDHOOD UNDER THEIR ROOF, BY THEIR TABLE, WITH THEIR DAUGHTER.
If the Browns are even a tenth of the good person their daughter is, they will come out of this fully on Becky’s side. Of course, the exact nature their help takes may not be wanted or constructive, but at least their hearts will be in the right place.
Not to take away from your points, but… “One one hand”?
Imperfect grasp of english idioms.
On one hand… on the other hand. weighing two sets of facts against each other. Why the expression is “On one hand” rather than “in one hand” I don’t know, except that one is a normal expression and the other is confusing.
Yeah, one hopes that any “but she IS going against the Lord’s path” points will be saved until well after this, and that maybe knowing that this girl they know and love cannot change who she is and was THREATENED BY HER FATHER will open their eyes that maybe just maybe they might have been wrong about many many things.
That said, I’m still betting their compromise will be more of a “love the sinner, hate the sin” type and that an estrangement’s still coming, just not as immediate. (Though I can hope that maybe this prompts Jocelyne to VERY discreetly say “you’re not alone and I support you,” though probably not come out unless she’s also willing to come out to Joyce. Which is totally possible here.)
Her father’s just had a new character model show up on the tumblr, and the next chapter title is ‘That Perfect Girl’ (which I’m taking to be a reference to the ‘… is gone’ line from Let It Go). So yes, waiting to see what that means for Joyce too, and where it fits into Willis’ autobio plan for her development.
IIRC, Willis has said on Tumblr that he and his parents are pretty much estranged, hasn’t he? I expect to be corrected if I’m wrong.
“Run! Split into the woods!” Gee, he had to go after two of the three people on the entire campus LEAST LIKELY to have ever seen a horror movie.
I don’t think Becky was expecting Ross to have brought a long-range weapon to the party.
It’s a sound move. Field of vision obfuscated.
…. so you’re saying it seems like a good idea at the time?
Would have been if he really didn’t have a gun.
I’d rather have cover than running throught a road in plain view, when it comes to ranged weapons.
Not into the woods! Into a crowded area full of witnesses!
…. question.
I know Willis has said that he’s not going to kill off any of the main characters.
But did he ever say if Becky was a main character?
Wait, what?
Don’t say something like that, you’ll give him ideas! D:
Will his ideas be good enough to rewrite five months worth of scripts and artwork to make the necessary changes? Doubtful. Whether for good or ill, Becky’s fate was decided well before any of us could guess what the outcome will be.
As of today’s installment, Becky has appeared in 165 strips.
Other ‘main’ characters:
Mike — 123
Ruth — 166
Dina — 197
Ethan — 202
Amber — 202 (304 if you count when she was tagged as Amazi-Girl)
Sal — 204
Sarah — 237
So yeah, I guess I’d consider her a main character.
And I think it’s interesting that as of today, Joyce has appeared in …. 666 strips.
….Yeah…I think I’ll go grab some holy water…and wine.
by now she probably is, but either way; if becky dies joyce and dina (who are definitely main characters) will spend the entire rest of the comic mourning and willis’s said he doesnt want to do that.
TOEDAD ON THE OTHER HAND,
He said nobody would die. Because the after effects would cripple the comic forever.
I’m hoping that logic also applies to severe, permanent injuries.
Yes, that does have the effect of crippling forever.
Wow. I figured Toedad would say/do something horrible, but this is a huge leap form what I was expecting. Even if that’s not a real firearm there’s no way Becky is going to have to move back in with him.
Hopefully this will end with Becky getting to be adopted by Dina’s family, or maybe even Joyce’s.
Anybody else get this sinking feeling that “The Hand of God” is what he calls his rifle? And that’s why Becky told Dina to run? :/
Yeah. It’s still a little unclear whether Becky is aware of the gun or not, but Becky certainly seemed to know the urgency of the situation.
By the angle of the 4th panel, he’s likely pulling the gun off panel.
I think Zaxares is on top of it. Look at the sequence:
Panels 1 through 3 — Becky and Dina stand their ground and Becky and Toedad “converse” from a distance.
Panel 4 — Toedad mentions “the Hand of God”.
Panel 5 — Becky, who knows what “the Hand of God” is, immediately turns tail and skedaddles while telling Dina to do the same.
Panel 6 — (musical sting) ♪♫ dun-dun-DUN!
Since the weapon is apparently patterned after a German Ruger 1V, I wonder if he has Gott mit Uns engraved on the receiver or carved in the stock?
YOU PROMISED ME NO ONE WOULD DIE 🙁
So toedad thinks he is the hand of God?
god has guns for hands everybody knows that
That mindset seems to respond to everything it doesn’t want to hear with some variation of “I’m A GOD WARRIOR!”
Have fun finding out if the Armor of God is tazer-proof, asshole.
Brandishing a weapon with clear intent to fire it on people who get in the way of “God’s mission”?
That won’t be a taser, that’ll be .40 S&W or 9×19 Parabellum that he’s going to eat, most likely.
the fuck you kill someone willis and i will end you
Daab dab death dab dab dab pain dab dab
Hey.
HEY.
no threatening the author.
ever.
even as a joke.
‘k ?
Dab dab blood dab dab dab toedab dab dab
I was not prepared for this level of escalation
The move from Funky Winkerbean to Funky CancerCancer is almost complete.
Oh yeah, cause its been all light hearted and fun up till now, what with Joyce and the attempted date rape, Sal and her racist parents, Billie and Ruth’s abuse turned romance relationship plus destructive alcoholism, and of course Amazigirl putting her dad in the hospital. Yep yep yep, nothing but laughs a minute here.
Well at least it appears that the gun toting Toe Dad has already been spotted by a fellow student. Hopefully they’ll call the cops or something.
Oh balls.
“She ALSO will be punished by the Hand of God.”
*cha-chak!*
Say hello to the Hand of God.
*BLAM* God wills it.
*BLAM* God wills it.
…well fuck me sideways with a rock. That escalated beyond intensity.
Welp, that escalated quickly.
Toe-dad : “And Will put in the grave as many as I can.”
Willis told he isn’t gonna kill off characters, right?
…Right?
…right?
…………………….far right.
LEFT!
HOLY SHIT!……….So much for being civil. O.O
I just had a terrifying thought, how did Becky’s mom die again?
She didn’t go to the church this one Sunday.
Today’s strip reignites my suspicion that Ross murdered her with malice and forethought for a reason that probably made sense to him.
It was cancer?
OMG, that got so much darker than I expected!
Could get darker
Yeah, just wait until dusk.
Oh, it’s gonna be murder to wait that long.
Oh you
I actually expelled all air from my lungs and then DID NOT BREATHE for around 2 seconds. I’m actually being literal here.
ahahahahha, alright, then.
that’s a bit overblown. i mean okay, obviously the problem of her being taken away will be completely cleared when his dad takes a gun out in public, lol. if he’d just restrained her by hand, she’d have been taken away.
Not really. Becky is eighteen, which would make it kidnapping. Ross wouldn’t get very far going that route. He might get her in the car, sure, but even if he got her all the way home, she wouldn’t be staying there long.
Anyone else fervently wishing for this to be the set up to some kind of ‘ clever girl’ scenario?
YES
Oh gosh. They split up, Ross tracks Becky, takes aim, then Dina jumps him.
Aaaand you called it.
I think hes going to kill dina
Is this the first strip that doesnt end with a joke? ;-; wait yesterdays mightve not either
So, we have two horrible abusive dads.. and we know how willis is.. this means, we’ll have a horrible abusive mother in the future
Nobody’s going to die, especially not Dina.
Lots of strips don’t end with a joke. There’s been plenty of drama to go around since the first chapter.
The abusive mother is Linda Walkerton
And Ethan’s mom.
I feel like this has really removed a lot of tension and suspense.
Ross is not going to kill either of them. I could be wrong but given the comic up until now and Willis’s posts on Tumblr etc about fridge-ing characters it just seems really unlikely. Supposedly Willis also said he’s not going to kill anyone off but I’ve never seen that post with my own eyeballs so that could just be BS.
By the end of the day Ross will no longer be a personal problem because he’ll either be in hospital, the morgue or jail. There’s not going to any sort of argument because that’s something that always comes before some mother-fucker pulls a gun. Even the most hick police or judge won’t let him near Becky, even if by some miracle he survives and doesn’t spend the next 5 years in jail. Such a restraining order could also extend to anyone else in the family.
I also see way too many ways for this resolve Becky’s illegal residency problem for one of them not to happen. This is going to be national news. Does the university want to be known as the place that kicked out the almost-murder victim and the friend who tried to protect her? (This is even assuming they make the link). Are there no GLBT support groups in the state or nation who could be drawn in by this? Is this going to pass by the notice of Leslie, an intelligent gay professor who can offer no end of good advice? Hell, if Becky sets up a donation page she’ll get enough money for a few months at least.
The only person still at risk is Joyce from her parents and “Well I wanted to protect Becky from Ross and Ross drew a gun” is a pretty sweet argument.
I totally agree, the gun completely drained all tension from this scene. In addition to your points, it’s also incredibly unbelievable that any average person would chase their daughter with a shotgun–it’s a complete reminder that none of this is real, like when bad acting takes you out of a movie by reminding you that it isn’t real.
Now I’m sure there are psychos who would, in fact, chase their daughter with a shotgun. But Ross, before now, was not established as a psycho, just a terrible and hateful man. Making him go from 0 to 60 on the psycho character development scale is what really pulls me out of this, as a reader.
He kinda was portrayed as a psycho. Even if you didn’t know him from the Walkyverse he’s been stated to be even more of a controlling fanatic than Joyce’s family, and the general reaction to Joyce’s family was ‘YIKES, crazy fundies’. Plus he’s trying to force her to go to torture and rape camp to try and de-gay her.
No, previously he has come off as a total idiot and a classic indoctrinated Christian fundie. That’s hardly the same thing. There was no previous that suggested he’d pull a gun, or even that he’d be violent.
I would be shocked if Joyce’s parents hit her (Though I could believe it in context) but I can’t imagine them drawing a gun on her.
Also while I loath gay conversion therapy and think it should be banned for anyone but a consenting adult please don’t throw hyperbole into this by calling them rape and torture camps. They’re abusive as fuck but rape and torture are not an official part of the menu.
They are, at the very least, psychologically torturing. And I’m not really comfortable with “gay conversion therapy” being legal for “consenting adults”. There are lots of rules in society to protect people from doing stupid things, so they should probably be illegal full stop, whether you want to do them or not. Same way it’s not legal to chop someone’s arm off even if they consent to it.
A lot of things are psychologically torturing. Many sorts of Churches are psychologically torturing as are many schools. The problem is if you allow them to be banned, especially for consenting adults, you create more problems than you solve. People will subvert the law openly or in secret and you have to spend energy and money and time on that and not on other issues.
You also have to factor in that if the law allows the banning of something you dislike then people you dislike are going to use it to ban things you like. In the USA state or even lower level jurisdictions would have such powers and there’s not short of ones where conservatives et al are either the majority or large enough to be able to swing a majority vote behind them.
There’s no end of things adults like to do that’s bad for them or considered bad for them by others and that they would like to regulate.
As for the arm thing, I don’t really feel a comparison between a mental process and treatment is comparable. An arm, once cut off, can’t be grown back.
I wouldn’t ban gay conversion therapies because I “dislike” them. I’d ban them because they are provably dangerous and have absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
“An arm, once chopped off, can’t grow back.” Likewise there are lots of “mental processes” that can never be recovered from. Just because the scars aren’t visible doesn’t mean that they are not there.
All of the rulings and interpretations of the law by courts that enforce freedom and equality for women, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, GLBT etc also do the same for adults to try and pray the gay away.
Also while I don’t think gay people should feel like they should try to be not gay or that it can actually work I can’t make those decisions for them. People need to be free to make their own choices, even bad ones. That paternal style of society is also the one that promoted women as possessions to be traded between men, minorities as children who needed a strong hand to rule them and homosexuality as a mental illness to be punished or treated.
And while gay conversion therapy is unpleasant and unhealthy it’s not on the “Cannot recover from this” scale and most things aren’t. Certainly I can’t think of something that is beyond recovery that is also not highly illegal.
But hey, in your example of the cut off arm: They got to the doctor and are refused. So they do what a lot of people with body dysmorphia do: Try to cut it off themselves. Assuming they don’t die what you going to do? Lock them away forever for their own good? Such a great option.
“You can’t make hurting people illegal!
“People will just do it illegally, and then what are you gonna do!?”
…. yes?
Are you trying suggest I’m contradicting myself? Because that’s not a contradiction, that’s me listing the fact there’d be not one problem with banning GCT but multiple problems with banning it.
1) The ethical problem of restricting the freedom of adults to make their own choices
2) The legal problem that banning the choices of consenting adults need good reasons to passed into law
3) The consequences of that legal problem where every group and their mother use the new precedent to ban things they don’t like
4) The enforcement problem. Are you going to have the police bust into private meetings in people’s houses and Churches and investigating if people are trying to pray the gay away?
Annoying complexities don’t go away just because it’s convenient for you.
I’m not remotely accusing you of contradicting yourself. Where’d you even get that?
That’s not at all what I’m accusing you of.
Laws against hurting people are the main purpose of laws existing. Suggesting that we can’t outlaw that behavior because people will break the law makes no sense. No reason to outlaw murder–people will murder illegally anyway!
Like, I was openly mocking you and you’re saying that is, in fact, your reasoning. See, I was kinda hoping you’d maybe figure out the problem there.
The victim is not the only person involved in anti-gay therapy. There’s also a therapist. A fraud therapist who is committing a hate crime.
You think stopping people from hurting others is unethical!? What do you think ethics is!?
Um… politely, trauma is a thing and a medically recognized injury. And emotional abuse is recognized as abuse even if it is not as frequently prosecuted because crisis centers are underfunded and overworked.
People recognizing an abusive organization that does not do anything positive and shutting it down is not the same thing as banning a Church because people think it’s selling some bunk theology.
Speaking as someone who both suffers from and has helped a number of individuals with PTSD, I can assure you it can be just as long-term debilitating as physical injury.
Yeah, we’re being unfair:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/11/24/ecuador-gay-cure-clinics-use-rape-and-torture-as-corrective-measures/
Like really hyperbolic:
http://www.queerty.com/boys-were-raped-given-shock-treatment-to-cure-them-of-being-gay-at-this-facility-20150819
Super unfair:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/08/30/mississippi-man-i-was-raped-during-gay-cure-sessions/
wait, rape camp?? Do kids actually get raped in the pray-the-gay-away conversion camps???
There have been scandal tortures and some case of kids dying from mistreatement, at the very least.
Yes. It’s one of the more popular methods for “curing” women who like women. It’s also a common “cure” method for trans people, especially trans men (this was part of the tragedy that befell Brandon Teena), but trans women can get it as well usually as part of a means of trying to convince them that they are “deluded” about their gonads.
It’s a lot more common than people think.
That is not a camp, it’s not dressed up a cheery summer activity that will make your child straight again.
“corrective” rape is nearly always some awful guys deciding that their violence is a solution or they just want to excuse their awful acts. It’s not a freaking organized camp where people would send their children. it’s not an organized activity
Jesu, I would almost accuse you of baiting. Pray the gay away camps and corrective rape are two concepts rooted in homophobia but I don’t think they happen together
Derek-
All the trigger warnings from this point out for descriptions of sexual assault.
I really wish you were right. I really do:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/11/24/ecuador-gay-cure-clinics-use-rape-and-torture-as-corrective-measures/
And the worst part is its not even always in the form of some half-justified douchebro. I’ve known transwomen and asexual men raped by their women partners because “all you need is someone to love you right and then you’ll see (that you were always a “man”/that this ace stuff is a delusion)”. A number of lesbian and asexual women I’ve known over the years have reported incidents in their past where they came out to male partners who’ve sexually assaulted them because “they haven’t met the right guy yet” or because the perpetrator believed their genitals could fix things and train them to “stop fearing proper sex”. People who really did see their act as an important piece of salvation, a loving act to cure a terrible delusion.
And yeah, the poorly regulated and completely unsupported by the APA organizations that bill themselves as places to cure homosexuality and transsexuality often use the techniques society in general thinks will cure sexuality. Between convincing people that sex should be a sacrifice one simply submits to to protect one’s soul to “ex-gay” camp leaders who get overly grabby with individuals sent there to yes, straight up sexual assault of lesbians and transmen to train them of their “proper place”.
And these especially becoming more common when you move out of the high-profile “ex gay camps” like Exodus International into the unregulated weeds of the “teen correction industry”.
It’s a thing that happens and much like sexual assault in general, it’s more frequent than one wants to admit:
http://www.rrsonline.org/?page_id=944
I do not deny a lot lesbian women, trans men and women and even gay men suffer from sexual assault and rape because other people either believe that they are not deserving of human rights or they think this will “correct” them.
And also I do not deny that those who are sent to these awful camps suffer these attacks from the very people who supposedly are there to help them. But I had the notion that these attacks were not endorsed by the camps themselves.
I just have a lot of trouble wrapping my head around rape being an organized activity, something that is part of the schedule in one of those camps, right between praying and scrubbing the toilets.
Perhaps you’re right and the notion is horrifying (as if those camps of psychological torture were not bad enough already) it’s just so awful part of me does not want to believe it.
Not in the USA, at least not as part of the official treatment programme (You can find rape in any widespread org with kids. Orphanages and juvenile prisons are both infamous for it).
Well, corrective rape IS a thing.
So would you say willis jumped the gun?
I think you severely overestimate how much people care about school shootings. MAYBE, if someone dies, this would be national news, but even if it was it wouldn’t show up on social media, which is where most people get their news these days.
If you asked the average American how many school shootings we’ve had this year, he’d probably say “several.” I just asked my dad, and he guessed ten. I only just learned yesterday that the real number is closer to two hundred. That’s why there are so many people on here complaining that Willis did this storyline so soon after a school shooting showed up in the news: because they don’t realize school shootings happen all the damn time, and it is just coincidence that the story came out so soon after a shooting that was big enough to merit their attention. I know that sounds callous, but that’s the way it is.
So, the odds of Becky’s story going viral and resulting in an outpouring of political support and sweet, sweet cash are pretty low (Of course, if Becky and Dina were conservative Christians suffering from “religious persecution,” that would be an entirely different story).
Becky’s chances of getting help from Leslie/ a glbt support group are a lot better… But they aren’t really improved by this event. It’s not like GLBT support groups only help people who get shot at by their evil parents. I’m sure if Joyce or somebody had gone to Leslie before this happened, she would’ve happily lenses a hand.
As for whether or not Ross pulling a gun put an end to any tension in the story… I disagree. This story could still end with Ross getting off scot free and Becky going into hiding in a different state to get away from him: a totally tragic yet relatively plausible ending that doesn’t involve anyone dying. Ross hasn’t shot at anyone yet, all he’s done is shown that he is willing to do it. Hell, even if he does kill somebody, that’s no guarantee he’ll be getting punished for it (George Zimmerman anyone?). And just because a restraining order against Ross COULD be extended to the rest of Becky’s family doesn’t mean it WILL. So there are lots of ways this could end horribly, regardless of whether or not Willis has promised not to kill off any characters.
Lended. Dammit. Lent? Lent.
Leslie would have lent a hand.
If you go on one of the many crowd funding sites there are always way more of these things than you’ve heard of donating much more than you’d expect. Becky could live for longer than DOA will go on for on just a few grand which is a pretty reasonable expectation. Still I admit Willis not even mentioning this option would hardly be unreasonable. Fiction gets pretty tricky if everyone and everything always goes reasonably.
You’re also right it’s hit and miss over what killings get national attention and which ones don’t. Still, I feel “Father with gun chases gay daughter through middle of city” is a really attractive headline for news programmes and click-bait titles on new sites. Again though, it’d be getting off topic for the comics usual focus to get into that… though that raises the question as to why escalate to guns.
As for Christians get persecuted those stories get more attention because they have the value of rarity! Like diamonds or good Star Wars media.
And yeah, he could, it’d be a weird narrative angle. He starts with being borderline disabled in his stupidity getting on the bus. Then he draws a rifle in the middle of the city. Then he goes into subtle undermining and threats? And Becky gets shunted out the comic after all this effort to build her up? I guess that’d be a surprising twist.
What you talk about as alternatives is what I was hoping for and expecting. It has a lot of potential in it as a storyline and has the value of realism. This will either give us an easy answer or have to twist itself up to get back to where it was before today.
Still, your points are well taken.
Yeah, having your father try to murder you is totally fine.
It’s not like she died, which is the only level of harm that exists.
wat
You said there’s no suspense and tension because they’re not going to die, as if that’s the only possible consequence.
Even though the fact that her father wants to murder her is already a consequence.
Well, that escalated quickly.
I thought she was supposed to be punished by the hand of God, not the toe of God.
He’s more like the veruca of god.
“Becky MacIntyre!”
“I volunteer!”
On the lighter side… Toedad’s mustache is actually a Batarang.
‘MacIntyre, don’t the bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?’
‘Quite specific. It is however somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps’
Somebody is going to the special Hell 😉
So now a slipshine comic where Amazigirl anally violates toe-dad with his own gun? “And instead of lubricant, we have gunpowder!”
Please no. Please don’t joke about rape as a “punishment”.
To joke about something takes away some of its power.
so we’ve had
duck season,
rabbit season,
elmer season,
even tourist season,
now it’s becky and dina season.
mind you based on this picture
http://hivemill.com/collections/dumbing-of-age/products/dumbing-of-age-evolution-print
I would have to say that dina is a velociraptor (even if the ones in jurassic park were utahraptor’s)
So you’ve got a velociraptor who’s mate is being hunted. even Robert Muldoon wouldn’t mess with a velociraptor
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Utahraptors were way too large compared to JP’s raptors, and Utahraptors also look very different from Velociraptors in terms of proportions.
I heard that when Steven Spielberg saw the size of a velociraptor, he wanted something a bit bigger, so they used the utahraptor instead. After talking to my ex, she informed me that the velociraptor in the film was a Deinonychus Not a Velociraptor.
Even so threatening Dina’s mate is a bad idea
I’ve got to say, if this story arc goes where it appears to be going, this is a rather cheap-shot (no pun intended) and in poor taste recent events taken into consideration. I could be wrong and it might be a clever ruse and I certainly hope so.
Have you seen Willis’s rants in the comments? It is literally impossible for him to avoid topicality.
Also it was written and drawn 4 months ago.
That does mitigate things… slightly.
I can think of only one way this could end without drama, and it involves a freak tornado picking up a cassowary from a nearby zoo and dropping it on toedad. Also, what the fucking hell. I’m about halfway towards swearing in Latin now. I will actually start swearing in Latin if it turns out that he actually loaded the gun and didn’t just bring it along for intimidation. Actually, now that I think about it, that’s another quick and non-horrible way this could end: in his incredible stupidity, toedad forgets to observe proper firearm safety and shoots himself by accident.
Well, that escalated quickly.
Maybe it’s a tranquilizer dart gun? Eh?
No.
Well that took a dark and rather terrifying turn.
Also the comments should be quite interesting. I shall have to read them later.
Toe head: Lord, grant me strength
Lord: NO.
As someone who hasn’t been Beckys biggest fan I must say I’m impressed with her situational awareness and clear thinking, no panicking, no hesitation and the foresight to come up with a plan in a highly stressful situation
You never know how people will handle a life-or-death situation until you put them in one.
…or so I heard.
She’s definitely been shown to be incredibly resourceful in traumatizing situations.
I mean, her reappearance came from her escaping her dad and having the wherewithal to travel cross-country to her best friend and come up with her plan to reconnect with her romantically which while flawed in its assumptions about Joyce’s sexuality did at least show the ability to do some quick thinking in a crisis to make sure she was able to make it there despite just having the clothes on her back.
I can’t really see the dude being willing to murder his daughter, but then, I’m apparently optimistic. Going with tranqs or BBs or just something non-lethal.
Tranquilizers and BB’s can be lethal.
Well, tranquilizers can, anyway.
I believe the industry term is “less-lethal”
I can’t belive the father is such religious nutjob to kill/harm his daughter for being gay…
I hope he is not ISIS or some African countries level.
I dont know if he’s gonna try shoot becky.
Though DINA on the other hand….
White Christian fundamentalists are crazy enough for this, thank you.
Read “The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right ” by Daniel Levitas. The Southern Poverty Law Center website also has good info as well.
I am enjoying this arc immensely.
From a writing perspective, I am slightly disappointed by the cartoonish (and I am aware of the irony) nature of toedad. From a drama pov, making the bad-guys nice provides a real shock when their hidden nature is revealed. I realise though that this would make DOA even more complex.
I am an outsider but I grew up with the idea of America, and I have visited. It still haunts my dreams. I am disturbed and disappointed by the sheer number of shootings in schools and elsewhere. It’s almost as if America has become a huge open air lunatic asylum, where the weekly mass-shootings have become a mere foible to be passed off by some as “stuff happens.”
If someone paid for me to go to the US on holiday, would I take it? Probably not.
If I had the money to set up a business, would I choose the US knowing my potential employees might face this sort of danger? I’ll think about it.
Would I befriend an American who I knew carried guns? Interesting question.
Guns have been inserted into American culture in such a way as to make the mechanics and arithmetic of love, relations and business slightly more tricky.
Peace.
Eh, he came off plenty “nice” enough for a considerable number of people to argue that it was clear that he was going to turn out super awesome and Becky would end up being the villain. So, there was enough for a “twist”.
It’s also the case that yes, abusers tend to be charismatic and usually hide their worst natures when interacting with strangers, but a lot of the niceness of really awful people comes from their privileges. People who share those privileges are less likely to notice red flags like ranting about immigrants, thinking women are property, or joking about “inhuman scum who deserve to die”.
And sadly, Toedad is based on real people who sadly exist and exist in a terrifyingly numerous amount in these United States.
Come to think of it, I kind of ignored the commenters who thought toedad was “nice”. They seemed to fit their own agendas to this character’s actions.
Yes, I’ve known people like Ross in reality but I was talking about the needs of the fiction.
To me, Ross isn’t a fully formed character. He seems to be a collection of negatives. However, from a fiction POV, I think it’s better for bad characters to be sympathetically drawn by the author.
What I was getting at is that – in my scenario – Toedad turns up after Becky, charms the pants off of everyone, and she goes crazy trying to persuade people he’s really bad.
Bad people are people too …
Anyway, this isn’t my story and I’m happy (!) the way things are playing out.
he has proven himself to be a threat to them regardless.
Alright, Ross, there’s a line in the sand, and you were already over it, but now you can’t even see the line in the sand with a jetpack and telescope. You are off on a frozen cliff face somewhere yelling about how the sand is invading the gummint.
Wait… I thought Toe-Dad was supposed to be Christian?! This bringing a gun onto campus is the very opposite of Christian behavior. It makes no sense and is anti-Christian. Is he a member of some cult? It’s the only thing that makes sense… except the cult wouldn’t send their children to any college, not even a religious one; because they know they are fringe elements and that sending their children to a center of higher learning would deprogram the cult behavior.
There are many, many Americans who see no contradiction between being a Christian and waving guns around.
Which is why the cultier elements of Christianity are so terrifying – they have their own colleges. Granted, Anderson appears to actually be accredited, but there’s certainly religious schools that are actually full-on culty and nobody would accredit them if their life depended on it.
Fundies are only christians for the parts that works with their agenda. Fundamentally, they are extremists.
Would I draw a comparison with muslim extremists ? yes, totally.
Turns out religious extremists are religious extremist, yup.
(AKA: I agree with you.)
It makes me mad when people go on about Islam being a religion that specifically caters to extremists with certain passages about infidels, though. It’s like, dad, no, you’re an intelligent man, the bible has it’s own fair share of stoning and genociding, and yet I don’t see you being at all violent.
Literally everything he’s done is the opposite of Christ-based behavior. Why do you think this is different?
It is also exactly how people like this actually behave. They like their guns as much as they hate homos.
Do live under a rock or something?
Not everyone who lives outside America is familiar with American social mores. I was in my teens before I became aware of this phenomenon, and it was quite baffling to me.
WE NEED YOU, AMAZIGIRL! Or Sarah, or Sal, or the POLICE! Or Dorothy.
If Joyce’s parents told Ross about Dorothy, I don’t want her to come within ten miles of him. He’ll jump at the chance to kill her, gun or no gun.
The difference between people like Becky’s dad and the Operative is that the Operative wasn’t in denial about his own damnation.
Well, on the flip side, this might bring Joyce around on her past community’s beliefs. In fact, it’ll be kind of interesting to see how she’s gonna deal with that one, considering her already present problem with her trauma.
Even indirectly, this webcomic just keeps on breaking Joyce apart, doesn’t it…
*sigh* We’re not making it to Gender Studies are we?
This is like a field trip.
Hands-on learning!
Horribly enough, I’m getting the feeling that the only character who could help right now is Mike. And while Mike is a master at making people realize why they are stupid and wrong, which is exactly what toedad deserves, I don’t think this universe’s version of him can withstand bullets.
A Mike/Ross confronting would be awesome!
What’s that Sandman quote again?
“And YOU, you that call yourselves collectors. Until now, you have all sustained fantasies in which you are the maltreated heroes of your own stories. Comforting daydreams in which, ultimately, you are shown to be in the right.
No more.
For all of you, the dream is over. I have taken it away.
For this is my judgement on you: that you shall know, at all times, and forever, exactly what you are. And you shall know just how LITTLE that means.”
Okay I’ve got another hypothetical. Right offscreen is the rapist guy and Ross is going to redeem himself by shooting him in the face!
Ryan get’s what he deserves, Ross goes to jail for being a psycho. Everyone wins.
JESUS!!! That went straight past the ‘I’m trying to save my daughter’ and went directly to ‘Oops! I forgot this will get me tossed in the clink.’
That guy is done…
Seriously. No one noticed the two passerby in the background and one of them is clearly shown to notice the gun and be concerned by it?
Do you mean no one in the comments noticed that?
Because everyone in the comments noticed that.
Ok Sorry 24 other person out of over a thousand comment also noticed it and I missed that. I taught it might be interesting to turn the conversation towards who it might actually be. Maybe it’S Amber and Amazi-Girl is on the case. Maybe Amazi-Girl will get shot. Who knows. So sorry I offended you and you’re perceptive skills. You really didn’t need to be so bongoy in you’re come back. And if you weren’t trying to be bongoy may I humbly suggest that you read yourself back before posting because with out intonations, things can sound angrier then they are meant. Also your Avatar doesn’t help in that department.
Dude, everyone noticed: That guy yelled out “get in the car” and brandished a firearm in front of multiple witnesses plus, he’s blocking traffic, creating more potential witnesses.
Even if it’s a bb-gun, that guy is done…
The guy is on campus out in the open with a long arm. Campus security, the police, etc.. will all be showing up in about 5 minutes….
five minutes is a very long time. Most mass shootings are done in under 3. Newtown took 23 seconds.
I think I need to stop reading this comment section for a while. I’m starting to feel more and more guilty that I can’t prevent this sort of stuff from happening. As in screaming in frustration at frequencies associated more with whistles and getting so angry that my jaw movements are getting to the same frequencies.
WHAT THE F-
(Also, did the person in the background notice the scene, or are those white lines over his head just part of the background ?)
*SCREAMING*
Willis. Willis, please stop. That gun is scary.
The title “To those who’d ground me” takes on a rather more sinister bent with these developments.
Bravo, Willis.
No one mourns the wicked…
Got a account just for this page.
Well…..shit just got real.
nothing says “love thy neighbor” like two shells of buckshot to the chest.
in all seriousness, this is the part where, hopefully, the two people in the background call the police immediately. i also hope toe-for-head has next to no shooting experience, trips on a branch, and shoots himself.
I highly doubt Ross Babies MacIntyre (I’m going to make this name a thing if I have to drive it into the ground!) hasn’t any shooting experience. He’s a Murkin, and all Murkins know how to shoot (all Americans, on the other hand).
That’s an expensive rifle, not a cheap knockoff. No one owns a Ruger 1V on a whim. Its almost certainly part of a larger arsenal. He may have chosen it because it was a favorite. Not a great killing or threatening weapon.
Spoiler for next week ;-P ?
Picture of Toedad after the weekend: http://oi58.tinypic.com/2v9qg6r.jpg
He drew this weeks/months ago. It wasn’t exactly inspired by recent events.
Also HOLY FUCK TOE DAD what the FUCK are you planning to do with THAT thing?! How could this possibly seem like a good idea?!
Oh no this is REALLY bad
Huh. And I actually believed nobody could be a bigger douchebag in this comic than Blaine.
You should read the comment section more often, we see one passing from time to time 😀 (before they get banned)
Uh-Oh. Now I’m seeing his moustache as a monster-mouth.
There’s a few posts here talking about how there’s no real tension from this since Willis has promised not to kill any of his characters.
But that’s not what’s scary about this scene. What’s scary is that this exact scenario has probably happened hundreds of times to real people. Real parents dead set on destroying their children’s lives for daring not to follow the script they wrote. Real parents who will brandish firearms on their kids to get them back in line.
Ross MacIntyre isn’t just some cartoon villain; He is very real.
“There’s a few posts here talking about how there’s no real tension from this since Willis has promised not to kill any of his characters.”
Wow. Haven’t any of those commenters seen The Return of Jafar?
There’s no tension in that movie, it’s just a good time.
There’s a few posts here talking about how there’s no real tension from this since Willis has promised not to kill any of his characters.
But he did leave the door wide open for grievous bodily harm, and we’ve already had scenes in which:
1) one of the characters was damn near date-raped;
2) one of the characters, armed with a huge fuckin’ knife, took another character hostage;
3) one of the characters actually did get stabbed, with that same knife;
4) one of the characters got into a fight with her step-parent and quite literally left him for dead.
5) now we’ve got someone who brought a gun to a fistfight.
If you ask me, given the cited examples (and I could probably come up with others if need be), there’s more than enough tension to go around.
The thing I love the most about this is the subtlety. He believes that he is the underdog. This man could lift both those girls with one hand, yet he brandishing a shotgun and asking God for strength. He doesn’t believe he is fighting two teenage girls. He sincerely believes he is in a fight against Satan.
It’s actually pretty relevant: there is a huge undercurrent of victimization and martyrdom in the white male community at the moment, brought on by changing social conditions and an erosion of the normal rights and privileges that being white, male, and Christian used to bring. Normally, it doesn’t get beyond the complaining stage. Every now and then, though, you see someone go right the hell off the deep-end.
This and also what philip said.
White male Christian faux-martyrdom for exactly the reasons you note has been a thing for a very long time now and there’s a lot of people who view “I don’t have as much automatic regard or extra rights to control the lives of others” as “I have lost my God-given rights” and think that violence will fix that and set things “right”.
And it is especially a thing in the particular flavor of Christianity that Toedad belongs to. That Pre-Millennial Dispensationalist Rapturist culture is all about faux-martyrdom of middle-class white Christian identity. You’re not just someone who is comfortable and privileged and without much in the way of day-to-day struggle, you are locked in an eternal battle of good against evil. One that directly relates to you personally and how well you can defeat a much greater enemy who intends to corrupt your soul and the souls of all your loved ones in order to deny them the pleasure of going to Heaven early and getting to laugh at all the poor sods left behind.
Suddenly, getting all snippy because the gays are getting married is now a sign of your courageous attempts to fight back against Satan’s corrupting influence as the literal end of the World (which will be in your lifetime, because your life is the most important time in the history of the World) draws nigh. It’s a great way to justify the belated thrashing of an individual who refuses to grow up with the times as some poignant and soul-defining struggle against an evil so great and powerful that it controls most of the world’s governments, banks, news organizations, and school systems.
And all the evidence that that is not what’s going on, that that person is just an asshole who is cheering against things like peace or their daughters’ rights to be happy and they have a giant wealth of privileges are just signs of how deep the conspiracy theory goes and how direly we are in the End Times and thus how much more committed they need to be to taking every possible step to demonstrate their piety and commitment and either disown or “fix” any wayward family members who fall prey to Satan’s temptations.
The whole “persecuted victim” thing is also a strong theme in Christianity in general, probably because Christianity was heavily persecuted for much of the time the New Testament was being written/compiled.
The world and society attacking you is seen as a sign of your righteousness, like the martyrs of old. And of course, since the righteous are persecuted, you look for signs of that persecution everywhere.
Not disagreeing with anything you said, just pointing out that Christianity can prime people for it.
Then too, the old testament is not exactly divorced from this sort of thing. Re: Moses and the Exodus.
Fred Clark (slacktivist) rants on this one a lot. He describes it as a game of fantasy roleplay, where the fundies cast themselves as courageous heroes standing against a tide of evil. This, naturally, requires the invention of a despicable Them that We can be better than, because that’s much easier than actually trying to be better people or to imitate Christ.
Like Fred, I prefer to cast the whole thing in terms of tribes rather than religion, because the religious aspect is usually just a convenient hook to hang all the rest of the tribal aspects on (the behavioural markers, the gatekeepers, the Ins and the Outs, etc) – and as noted above, most flavours of extremism seem to wrap around and meet in the middle regardless of their stated creed. I’m fortunate to live far, far away from the flustercluck that is the US evangelical / fundamentalist subculture; I just wish it were some kind of fictional culture I could nerd out over rather than a very real, very toxic factor in so many people’s lives.
(It doesn’t help that its proponents loudly proclaim their allegiance to my chosen faith, despite their worldview being anathema to everything I believe in.)
Yes, I love him. His writing really helped me understand the internal view of a lot of the culture I grew up surrounded by and really helped me more fully empathize with a lot of what my friends were going through trying to break away from the type of culture that Joyce and Becky are pulling from.
It’s surreal how far from the teachings of Christ the Dispensationalists have gotten, but as far as they’re concerned, they’re the one, true faith. I can’t even go to church anymore, because I’m seeing that ‘us vs. them’ mentality permeating through everything.
No. It’s the strength of mind to go through his “dedication” that he’s asking. Not the physical one.
Pulls out a gun on/near a college campus…. familiar … and very ‘Murican.
And then he gets body tackled by Blaine and Faz.
What? It could happen.
Holy Crap! I expected some unpleasantness from this comic…… I did not expect crazy nutjobs with guns.
So I am REALLY hoping that Amazagirl is going to show up in the next panel. Knock the weapon out of the Toes hands and have the following exchange.
Toe:”I swear to god..”
Amazagirl:”SWEAR TO ME!”
+1
Becky’s dad has the most delicate, feminine hands.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Don’t listen lord! give him patience, if you give him strength he’s gonna kill somebody!
If he were granted patients, he’d simply be more methodical about doing so.
*patience…
GIVE HIM THE RUNS! HE’LL BE TOO BUSY ON HE TOILET TO CHASE THEM!!
Don’t you find it fascinating how quickly “religious zealots” forget things like :”thou shall not kill”
Because cherry picking is the best kind of picking
Well, they read about picking APPLES, and that didn’t end well.
Cherries are smaller and safer.
I am almost certain that one of the other… 1069… huh… comments may have mentioned this, but it is sad how scarily topical something drawn months ago happens to be today. Especially as this pops up at 11:00 PM my time, so all three had happened or been reported by then. Please Willis, stop predicting the future! You’re reaching The Onion levels of unintentional accuracy!
As has been mentioned, unfortunately, shooting incidents are common enough there would have been one recently whenever the strip was posted, and there’ll probably be another while the storyline is ongoing.
It’s not a lucky shot if the entire target is bullseye.
Aaaaaand maybe I could have come up with a better analogy, but I’ll let that stand.
And the entire room is the target…
Yeah, but there is a difference between having one recently and Friday having, if I recall, three in one day. Northern Arizona University, Texas Southern University and one with no fatalities that happened to be at a school at Pepper Tree Elementary School in California.
4kids dub of this cartoon: Oh no! Ross doesn’t like that Becky is now best friends with Diane. He challenges them to a paintball contest.
I like that you remembered to whitewash Dina.
I really hope you’re not painting every christian as a gun carrying nut job
its just this guy, right?
Considering that the literal main character of DoA is a Christian and has never been shown to be a gun carrying nut job, clearly he’s not painting every Christian like this.
Last I checked Joyce, Becky, Billie, Danny, Amber, Sierra, Mary, Jocelyne, Joyce’s parents, Walky and Sal’s parents, Danny’s parents, Sierra’s parents, and probably way more that I’m forgetting right now don’t all violently wave around firearms.
Joyce has been in over 600 strips, is a Christian, is the main character, and is not “painted as a gun carrying nut job.” Becky, who’s in this very strip, is another Christian who’s not “painted as a gun carrying nut job.” In fact, in over 5 years of strips, this is its first gun, despite having a cast full of Christians.
So if you, like, maybe actually read this webcomic, you’d have the answer to your question.
while its common not to see young ones carrying guns, the first pissed off christian adult happens to have a gun.
I guess im reading too much into this panel. maybe i should see the progression from parents to the kids on how peoples view change. my bad
Ignoring all the students who are adults, Joyce’s parents were very explicitly pissed off Christians.
must have missed that panel
It wasn’t a panel, it was literally a storyline.
Consider also the religious background of the author.
It’s fair to miss panels and even…major characters and storylines, I guess.
But why is it so many people who pay that little attention then seize up on negative portrayals of Christian individuals, and assume the comic being awful to Christianity is more like than that they missed something?
You’ve got some odd Bayesian priors going on, is what I’m saying.
Because nobody cares that much if a gun-nut is areligious, but given any possible reason to throw more ammunition at religion and they’ll take it.
That’s not my experience at all. You hear lots of talk about how persecuted Christianity is, even in cases when it’s only someone being asked to be fair to other religions.
What 3oranges said. When a shooter is atheist or non-Christian identified then that is what makes the news and we get a lot of think pieces about those religions or non-religions and whether this is a sign of greater militance. But when a shooter is Christian and is specifically killing others because of their Christian beliefs, it usually gets deflected in the same way that racist or sexist killings do into the general grab-bag of “mental health”.
I see both, depending on the leanings of the person interpreting the incident.
Panel? That’s the entire comic.
Why do you hate dads, Willis? Between this guy and Blaine, your radical momist agenda is shining clear through. Your ridiculous strawmen aside, most dads are perfectly normal people who love their children, and I don’t see why you can’t represent any dads like that instead of these agenda-driven stereotypes. As a person with a dad, I am offended.
(note: this comment is parody)
#NotAllDads
The solution is clearly that all households must have two dads to keep each other in line.
No, but see, you showed A gun carrying nut job who is a Christian. The only possible explanation there is that you are trying to paint all Christians with a broad brush and push a liberal atheist agenda against all those who believe in a deity.
Obviously.
… so he didn’t found a millstone around, there is no sea nearby… and the daggers of Megiddo are stuck in the customs office… the 12g ought to do fine!!
Toedad is very certain of his righteousness. He would expect the police to side with him and help him take his wayward daughter home. A young women without ID and a concerned father.
White guys waving guns around rarely end up shot in the US. After all they are just exercising their rights. And Toedad is as white as they come.
Kudos for the exact rifle. Writers don’t do things accidentally. The Ruger 1V is a high end rifle. Tells us Toedad probably owns a small arsenal, of which this is his favorite. Expensive, long range weapon. Fortunately, a bad weapon for mass shooting, since it doesn’t come with a large magazine. No scope, so harder to aim accurately. But someone with one of these is probably a good shot and well practiced. He’s not planning on killing lots of people, just one or two, after which he will wait for the police to congratulate him on his shooting.
In any part of the country or world, if you want to piss off men, get in the way of their complete control of their women. Only slightly less true in the US than in Afghanistan.
White guys shooting at young white women don’t tend to do so well. Yeah, he likely won’t get shot, but he’s not likely to be seen as “just exercising his rights”.
Your last line though sadly applies just as much if you’re one of those women trying to take control of yourself.
My reaction to this comic:
“Awww man, Becky’s dad found her. That kinda sucks, I was hoping to see more of her day with….. is that gun? Fuck, that’s a gun! NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!! Don’t kill the awesome dinosaur girl!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRZCybLZQDE
Wow! Dude is batshit crazy! I hope he gets arrested.
Well one of the people in the background sees him with the gun – notice the white exclamation lines over his/her head. I’d bet 911 will be dialed quickly. The question is how long will it take for them to get there and stop Toedad; and will it be in time to save Dina/Becky?
Question is whether Beck can keep it together long enough to realize she’s carrying Dina’s smartphone.
Some people desserve a bike tire in their face. You know, Akira Clown fight style.
Nonono I wanna give him a high 5! In the face. With a chair. At 75 mph.
Also, 20 bucks says this loser totally named his gun “The Hand of God.” I could just see him being that lame.
I went and checked the comic and right after he says that is when Becky tells Dina to run. Not too implausible a headcanon. And if so, I’d argue Becky knows.
Holy F**king Sh*t, this went dark fast!
Oh, Willis, you finally got me to click the, “Well NOW I do” button in the poll.
Mississippi is going to declare war to force Massachusetts back into the Union?
Oh fuck.
yo wtfuck
I kinda wish I liked Becky, Dina, and Joyce a bit more as characters right about now. I do hope Becky’s dad chases her past the fountain. Rescuing her best friend should counter Joyce’s week or two of anxiety mighty fine. This also makes me glad I have the parents I do. I came out in my Twenties but I knew the whole time I was raised Pentecostal that I was gayer than gay. No Becky or Ethan drama at all. They’re the types who took the whole leaving the judging up to God part seriously.
Just… I knew this comic has been political in all the best ways, trying to be respectful of the topics it represents but this just about blew- surprised me. REALLY surprised me.
Also, I hope Willis isn’t going the route so many are expecting; the unemployed religious nut who believes in lax gun laws. While yes, that would help make him look like more like a shooter than he already does dressed like that, but think about if he not only HAD a job, but he owned a small business in his town? Anyone can become a shooter with the wrong morals, and I think it’s better to to portray that than cut to the easy stereotype.
(Not trying to tell him how to write his on comic, just a personal opinion I have about commenting on current events using expected cliches)
It’s not a stereotype. Or at least, not an unjustified one. There are lots of people this shitty.
You know DoA has Joyce, one of the most respectful depictions of a Christian upbringing in basically all of fiction, right? Just because Willis doesn’t skip over the ugly stuff doesn’t mean he’s trying to push an evil strawman agenda.
I think that NichFlamel isn’t worried about stereotypes around Christian upbringing, but rather about stereotypes around shooters.
I think we’ll finally ditch the “But what if Ross has a point” people. However, they’ll simply transform themselves into “Ross is a strawman!” people. So it’s mostly a lateral move.
I think that’s the safest bet you could possibly make.
There’s been no mention of how/if Ross makes money, so I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure he’s not unemployed. He can afford to send Becky to Christian college after all.
Something tells me we’re never going to find out though. Since Ross is an adult, I’m going to go with “employed until proven otherwise.”
Also, I never noticed how many real-life famous mass shootings were committed by unemployed people before now. Granted, a good number of them that I can think of were students, but still…
People unstable enough to go chasing their children around with rifles are not necessarily going to be great at holding down a job. That’s not a “stereotype”, that’s a natural consequence of being fucking unhinged.
Amazi girl to the rescue!
I sure hope Ross shoots his eye. Screw it, both of his eyes out. Hate his freaking guts.
Toedad: God give me strength.
Pulls trigger, gun blows up in his face.
God: What did you think I was going to do?
Additionally, I have a feeling that this will be the storyline where Joyce says Fuck.
With this comment, we’ve got 1,21 KILOCOMMENTS??!!!
(OK, so two more snuck in before I hit Post.)
Holy hell fucker. Please let this end alright….
With Ross getting whacked in the nuts by Amazi-Girl.
And maybe also in the face. I would very much like to see some face to bat action
Well, technically it would be bat-to-face action. Unless he realizes
how much of a dick he’s been and begs to be hit for it.
Sarah is the one that wields the bat.
VARMINTS???
Enough folks labeled Toes gun as a Ruger 1V that I looked it up and the photos definitely show Toes gun. Wikipedia has a stub for the Ruger 1. It says its a single shot. Is it the 1v that is double barrelled. What is the thing even intended for? Wiki-p says there is a variant called a “Varmiter” — is that the 1v? Is it intended for shooting “varmints”? VARMINTS?? He’s hunting Becky and Dina wit a “Varminter”??
VARMINTS!!!
There can’t be any way that Willis did not deliberately put a “VARMINT HUNTING” rifle (not shotgun) in Toedad’s hands. All of those who thought that Willis was casual/indifferent about drawing that gun accurately, you need to flip that around 180 degrees. He was totes deliberate and very accurate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varmint_hunting NEVER think that Willis does things without a reason.
On the Ruger site the 1V is the model chambered for .223 (i.e., same round that the AR15 uses). .223 is basically useful only for killing varmints (and people) in the real world. It is a single-shot rifle. It does appear Willis used a Ruger Model 1 as his model, but they all look pretty much the same, they’re all single shot rifles, just chambered for different rounds such as the more typical .30-06 used for deer hunting.
So, very light weight gun, potentially accurate within a few hundred yards, firing high velocity rounds, one of which will probably kill a conventional varmint and at the very least knock down an unarmed lesbian so that you can move in on her for the kill?
Huh. That escalated quickly.
Wow. Hasn’t been a strip that got people talking like this since Dina kissed Becky. Of course, one of these was a happier moment than the other.
Good thing she’s got Chekhov’s phone.
Jesus Christ. Why don’t you give him a Snidely Whiplash mustache and top hat, too?
Because Snidely Whiplash is a cartoon character and people like Ross MacIntyre actually exist.
If you say so.
Is parental abuse a foreign concept to you? Are you that unaware of what some parents will do to their LGBT kids?
If so, you are a really lucky person.
Speaking as an open atheist (a class which is less trusted in America than homosexuals and Muslims) in a very Christian place, I can count on no fingers the amount of people I’ve encountered who fit this description. This isn’t a character, this is a hate-sink, a living obstacle.
Whatever you’ve gone through because of your beliefs, I’m sorry you had to put up with it, but you’re wrong.
People like Ross are real. Commenters here will speak of how they’ve had to deal with their own Ross their whole lives.
I haven’t had to ‘go through’ anything except a few rather lovely debates and answering a lot of questions. Perhaps I live in a nexus of tolerance but I’ve never encountered anyone like this cartoonishly evil person.
He maybe built of negatives as it stands – we’ve not really had the chance to see Ross in a “normal” situation – but his actions ring horribly true for me.
if you havent had to “go through” anything overly negative because of your beliefs then where exactly do you get the idea that being an atheist is treated as worse than being gay or muslim, people who do actually “go through” horrible things because of who they are regularly
You stated that you are the greatest victim of prejudice, not Spencer. If you haven’t gone through anything, maybe consider that the people who have are not better off than you.
Then you are very fortunate.
Not all of us have been so lucky.
Anecdotal evidence doesn’t prove jack shit. I don’t understand why people are so ready to take the word of others as long as they’re attached to a sob story.
Do people like this exist? Probably.
Are they in any way representative of religious people as a group? Absolutely not.
And any way, the main issue most people are having with this development has nothing to do with real life. It’s this ludicrous spike in ToeDad’s evil streak that sent him from the lovechild of Blaine and Joyce’s folks to a B-movie villain.
Holy crap, dude.
Well no. This is not every religious person on Earth. Hell, he’s not even representative of pre-millennial dispensationalist Christians who live in Indiana in this comic and are parents of a major cast member.
And that’s because he’s not intended to be. He’s an illustration of an abusive man whose abuse has intermingled deeply with the most poisonous branch of that type of theology as has been seen by people who’ve lived near or grown up in the types of communities being discussed.
If this character looks like a B-movie villain instead of a particularly scary family member, fellow Church member, or parent of a friend from your past, then congratulations on having avoided such people.
But for the rest of us, this isn’t so much “oh, for bloody sake” as “yeah, right, that’s what X would have done in Toedad’s case”.
Maybe that might be a clue that your source for thinking that being atheist is in any way comparable to the prejudice that LGBT and Islamic people face might be a little skewed?
You are right! And I can count on zero fingers the number of people who have shot up schools — or martians! I think that proves the point.
oopsy: the number of people who … that I have met…
What the hell?
I have to wait until tomorrow?
Welp, this storyline just got a million times less compelling. I mean, a gun toting psycho?
I get that this sort of thing happens in real life but when it comes to fictional stories, it’s just a plain black-and-white conflict. How is this any different from Amber’s dad, other than “I’m abusive and controlling because RELIGION, also I have a GUN”?
Time to lurk until we get back to Sarah or Joyce, I guess.
psh i know right who ever heard of someone bringing a gun to a college campus
I get that you were trying to be snarky but you realize I haven’t implied that there’s anything “unrealistic” about this, right. Are you sure you’ve responded to the right post?
I just don’t get why this suddenly makes things black and white; it’s always been that way. There was never any ambiguity to this situation. Toedad was always a crazy, violent asshole and Becky was always the victim.
Last time we saw him he was just a guy going around asking for his kid and then getting put on the wrong bus. We knew he was religious and strict but that’s as far as we knew.
Now he’s got a car and a gun and he’s completely insane.
Unless you could see the future then no it was not “always” this way as far as the reader is concerned, I mean, do you think all the people in the thousand plus comments above us are surprised because they’re stupid?
And the first time we saw him he pulled Becky out of college to send her to conversion therapy. When he spoke with Dina he talked at length about how she was on an evil path and he had to fix her. We know from Becky’s character page that she was forced to go to Anderson because Ross had decided how she had to live her life.
People just fucking trip over themselves finding reasons why a Christian father can never do any wrong.
I feel like you’re not actually addressing anything I’m personally saying, but are venting your frustrations to me about stuff other people maybe might be saying which I’m not seeing but you’re clearly pissed off about.
Is there anyone on this page who is even trying to justify what Toedad is doing? I’m certainly not seeing it. At most all I’ve seen is people hoping for a little, you know, nuance to the story. Because this is supposed to be a story. It’s not a documentary, “this happens in real life” doesn’t automatically make it compelling.
I mean, we already have Monstrously Abusive Father With The Goal of Controlling His Daughter. Now there’s a second one? And besides that, what’s the reader getting out of this? There’s just no nuance to this conflict. Heck, even superhero comics where the villain is totally evil can get away with it because the actual conflict is how the superhero is going to deal with whatever clever trap is set for him or the cool over-the-top fight scenes he’s going to have. What are we going to get out of this? A chase scene and then “Homophobia’s bad”? The whole readership is people who don’t dislike homosexuality, that’s just preaching to the choir.
You could just skip to the end of this storyline because from this page onwards you can already tell that since Toedad crossed the line from “strict and controlling” to “WAVES A FUCKING FIREARM AROUND IN PUBLIC” then he’s probably going to get arrested and there’s no room for Becky to really do anything different from what she’s already been doing for the past book or two unless, I don’t know, Toedad manages to escape the law and Becky has to leave for everyone else’s safety or something. And then I guess the conflict is in how Becky’s baggage is affecting everyone else? Which might be interesting I don’t know?
But that’s besides the point, I’m just judging by what I’m seeing and what I’m seeing now is that any room for complexity on Toedad’s part has been killed off and the story’s flatter for it.
What he said.
Um… *raise hand* Maybe the point is to depict a story that is not often told, surrounding exactly what the frequent disownment and abuse of queer youth who come out, especially to religious institutions and family.
Which is not about saying “homophobia is bad”, but about showing its manifestations and its damage, its connections to abuse and how it part and parcel of a whole philosophy of desperate control that hurts people in the real world.
I’m glad that this is all boring theoretical fiction about “gay shit” to you. I’m glad you’re life can be disconnected from the reality. Not everyone can say the same. For someone like me who has lost one’s family because one’s father wanted to fix me. Who has counseled a number of kids terrified of coming out lest they become a statistic or who have lost key parts of their support network or family because of the disease that is homophobia and transphobia, this is not some boring old “gay people are human or whatever, gay marriage woo” preaching to the choir. This is one of only a handful of depictions I can think of to look at the world surrounding “conversion” and familial disownment of queer youth.
To me, this is legitimately healing from a really traumatic year and a half and darkly familiar at parts.
I can get that to you this is disconnected to your daily life, about things you can’t possibly hope to connect with on an emotional level and which really seem like basic blahdeblah. That is fair. That is how I feel about most heterosexual will they/won’t they admit their feelings type stories or stories about a middle aged white person worried about their taxes being too high or about the vast majority of stories that get told.
That’s not bad storytelling. It’s just not the story you’re interested in. That you have enough access to connect with. And that’s legit. But that’s not a universal truth.
Your inability to spot villains because they don’t have devil horns puts people like Becky in danger.
It doesn’t make overt abuse and violence–that Dina, who is stated to have difficulty understanding people, easily figured out all by herself–less than a black-and-white issue.
And if you couldn’t figure it out for yourself, the comic helpfully told you anyway.
Excuse me? I’m talking about a work of fiction not a real life person. I’m not putting anyone in danger. And no my treatment of fiction doesn’t reflect my treatment of real life people because that would be insane. I’m just looking for a good story here, and am a little disappointed that I got Abusive Dad Two: Electric Boogaloo instead. Like pardon me that I had a little benefit of a doubt because I hoped we wouldn’t have a character who is basically a rehash of Amber’s dad.
And yeah of course Dina instantly realized the dad is evil incarnate because all the characters are written by Willis and he had it set in his mind while he’s writing this that the dude is The Bad Guy Who Will Commit Criminal Acts even if the reader hasn’t seen him act like a criminal yet. There was a possibility that Dina was just unquestionably accepting of Becky’s version of events but nope now it turns out the guy was a walking powder keg of villainy and how dare the reader even vaguely consider that he had a shred of humanity in him.
I’m sorry, I’m trying very hard to understand what you are trying to express here, but I don’t get it. It’s almost like you are against black-and-white morality writing just on principle. Do you just want the entire story to be grey-and-gray morality?
I don’t see how making Ross just like Joyce’s parents, except with a gay daughter, is any more predictable or unoriginal or whatever than making him exactly like Blaine, only religious. I say that because it sounds like you would be perfectly happy if Ross was just like Joyce’s parents. Your description of what you would have preferred Ross to be sounds pretty much exactly like Joyce’s parents.
Also, I don’t consider Ross to be completely inhuman. He’s a horrible person, sure, but his character seems like a fairly plausible result of fear, piety, and other human emotions. I’m not trying to say that Ross is realistic; you’ve already stated you don’t care whether he is realistic or not. I’m trying to say that, for a very minor character in this story, he seems like a fairly accurate portrayal of humanity to me–humanity at it’s worst, maybe, but still humanity.
We already knew that this is the second story of an abusive dad, because that is the entire story.
If you didn’t want that story, fine.
But you’re claiming somehow the abuse we’ve seen all along was fine–he didn’t become a villain until just now.
Dina didn’t hear Becky’s version of events (also known as “the truth”) until after. We saw her figure it out. The same words were in the comic. .
I mean, he actually told Dina that Becky had “escaped.” He outright told her Becky’s version of events before Becky did. He thinks abuse is righteous, and therefore has no reason to lie.
I think the objection isn’t the black and white nature or who is and is not the victim, but the absolutely cartoonish levels of her father’s evil. At this point in this comic we’ve had two patriarchs who can be classified as Saturday Morning Cartoon villains or an after-school special bad guy.
All the parents are fairly stereotypical. They aren’t the focus of the story.
We only see glimmers of their characters, and in Ross’s case it’s not pleasant.
The story is about Dina, Joyce etc.
This thread line was actually about how he is too realistic and therefore boring.
Well, it was also about justifying all the other blatantly evil/abusive things he’s done.
Here’s your reply.
…huh?
I don’t consider Ross’s behavior to be cartoonish at all. Could you explain what you mean by ‘cartoonish’ and why you feel that Ross is portrayed that way?
Because before people could rationalize to themselves that Becky was in the wrong and that Toedad was misunderstood and now that it is clear to everyone who doesn’t have the background of too many encounters with Toedad types that he’s bad news, it’s suddenly a sign of a giant shark jump as this character becomes “suddenly” unlikeable.
Basically, the frequency (not necessarily this individual incarnation) of this critique may be partially coming from the same place as the “But Toedad hasn’t done anything ‘wrong’ yet” crowd.
And read further into the conversation where Alex literally makes a “but Toedad hadn’t done anything wrong yet” comment. So, yeah, feel very confident in this suspicion.
Got to admit you have a point, up until now this dispute seamed to be in the rational since of mind but with the hole gun thing it kind of just de humanizes Ross. Before he was just over religious shit dad that couldn’t except his daughter as a member of the gay community, but then he took sudden swerve to being crazy over religious nut case dad who’s willing to hunt college kids in the woods with a gun.
When I came here last night I was expecting some serious shit to go down maybe even for him to flat out hit someone…but I wasn’t expecting him to be ready to shoot someone over this. It’s like going from Trevor From GTA 5 to the Dude from HATRED.
No. It never was rational. Our introduction to this storyline was him trying to take his adult daughter to “discipline her, to fix her” – Which has horribly scary overtones that you might just be missing.
And then there’s this from a few weeks ago: “Only so when some gross dude claimed me, I could better homeschool our dumb kids.
The danged extent of my ambitions. My life goals.”
This goes way beyond “couldn’t except his daughter as a member of the gay community” and has from the start. This is “women as property”. She’s his until he passes her to a husband and she needs to be disciplined if she doesn’t obey.
It’s an extreme version, but it’s all too human.
Dropped a word:
“The danged extent of my allowed ambitions.
Other one time through this entire arc were we led to believe that he’should actually crazy enough to resort to murder. All I was expecting was him to forcefully put her through some sort of Bullshit gay rehab program not resort to,”you will follow my God’s rule or die for your insolence.
Maybe if there where less hints that it was leading to this instead of religiously obsessive man looking his run away daughter and more hints of crazy guy with a history of Violente tendencies. His dead wife would have been a clue to that if the stron had focused a bit more like make sound it sound like it made him more cold and more angry, just something instead of talying like a religious homophobe.
I can see where you are coming from, but I honestly don’t think Blaine and Ross have much in common besides both being abusive fathers with no redeeming qualities.
Blaine’s abuse is motivated by his extreme selfishness and egotism, while Ross’s is motivated primarily by his religion. Ross sincerely believes he is doing the right thing, while Blaine doesn’t give a shit. Blaine is the classic self-aware sociopath who can be charming when he wants to be, while Ross is brutally honest and very upfront about telling you when he thinks you are putting your eternal soul in danger by dressing up as a “Pokeman.” Blaine is too cunning to chase his daughter across campus with a gun, he prefers to use manipulation and tricks to get what he wants. Ross, meanwhile, is either too stupid to realize he’s going to get arrested for this, OR he knows and he doesn’t care because he is honestly trying to HELP his daughter… which would still make him almost the opposite of Blaine.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Honestly, if Blaine showed up right now and Ross knew all about the kind of person he was it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Ross yelled “Die, monster!” and shot him dead (last time I checked, “adultery” is somewhere above “homosexuality” on the Bible’s list of sexual sins, on account of it probably being more common).
I mean, if you think about it, Ross would probably think of Amber as the perfect daughter: submissive, quiet, indoorsy, and of course, straight. From everything I have seen of him, Blaine honestly HATED Amber for her personality (assuming all of the put-downs and insults weren’t just designed to keep her under his thumb. An argument could be made either way).
The difference in motivation doesn’t matter when they’re both so entirely unsympathetic and irredeemable, and when the motivation is just another reason to find them unsympathetic and irredeemable. When their treatment and role in the narrative is virtually identical then those differences are superficial.
It was a black-and-white conflict the entire time.
No it was “Okay we know this guy is terrible but maybe possibly there’s something to read into here that’s not so simple”, there was the possibility that there was something more to the conflict than just “evil dad”.
Now he’s chasing a pair of lovers through the forest with a shotgun. You could replace him with a slasher villain and the scene would be the same.
Well, I guess it IS close to Halloween, maybe he’ll turn out to be Jason Vorhees in disguise.
When actual abuse happens in real life do you spend a lot of time thinking about why the abuser is motivated to do it, or are you more concerned with the people they’re hurting?
Or are real abusive parents all strawmen or something?
I’m talking about stories and narratives here. I’ve repeatedly made it clear that I keep my views of fiction and reality separate and that I’m not considering how “real” this is- that I find that in fact an entirely irrelevant factor- because it is not a documentary it is a comic strip, I am speaking purely in the interests of storytelling. Please actually read what I’m writing because this is not the first or even the second time I’ve said any of this.
Perhaps the story Willis is telling is simply not the story you were expecting him to tell.
The fact that it’s her father is most certainly different from a monster in a slasher movie.
And this is a complication. This is it being not so simple.
That he is the villain was established as soon as he was introduced. He is not subtly evil, and never tried to be.
There really isn’t anything complicated about this at all. There was when he wasn’t pointing a gun at her. But now he is so the fact that he’s her father… really doesn’t play into it anymore? Nobody is going to force a kid to stay with a father who threatens to shoot said kid, not even in the most gun-crazy states of the West. Nobody is going to go, “Okay, but he’s her dad” no he’s just a violent criminal now. It is simple, it is not complicated, it is utterly uncompelling in a story where the entertainment value is driven by its drama fifty percent of the time because where else is it going to go from here besides “The dad goes to jail for threatening kids with a gun” or “The dad almost goes to jail for threatening kids with a gun but escapes somehow”? It’s not going to go, “Everyone sees the dad threaten the kids with a gun but the fact that he’s her father changes everything for most people and the kid is forced to stay with the dad”, I know we can talk about how that can happen in the real world but the last time I checked the story isn’t set inside the potato farm of a UFO cult it’s set in a college that’s liberal enough to have LGBT clubs and some form of police force nearby.
The story is driven by its drama, but you don’t think the fact that her father is trying to murder her doesn’t play into it?
No for all the reasons I literally just said.
What’s she going to do that’s any different from what she’s already been doing? She already treated him like he was going to shoot her for being gay. Now she’s going to… continue treating him like he was going to shoot her for being gay?
Murder attempts are the least dramatic thing I can think of!
It’s not the destination, it’s the ride.
If you are really concerned with how compelling this storyline is, then think more about the consequences of this situation’s resolution.
No one will die (this is a given from Willis), regardless of injuries there is going to be media coverage because a person has pulled a gun and chased people on a college campus in the USA. This means both Ross and Becky will have their faces and names broadcast. It will be discovered that Becky is not a student and will no longer be able to hide in campus as her identity as the girl chased by the gunman is revealed to the student body.
Becky is 18 so the authorities cannot force her to live with additional family if/hopefully/when Ross is arrested, so she will be forced to find somewhere new to live immediately. IU most likely will not take pity on her beacaue 1) she is not a student 2) Tbey may believe that she in part brought this negative attention to the campus by hiding out there.
There will probably be increased strain between Joyce and her family because her parents will find out that Becky is ga and that Joyce lied to them while she was hiding Becky in her room. They most likely will not be pleased that she is okay with Becky’s homosexuality, remember how they reacted to finding out that Dorothy was an atheist.
These are just a few possibilities and none of these situations take Dina into account and how her family will react, as we don’t know too much about them.
Just because there is no longer any gray area for Ross doesn’t mean you can write the rest of this storyline off wholesale. There is still plenty of room for drama, resolution, and long lasting consequences.
I don’t think Willis will let Dina or Becky die. Both characters have too much potential for development to be killed for the sake of shock value.
Becky’s crazy asshole father, yes, he will be arrested and jailed and could even be shoot by the police (I think US’s police must have some kind of rapid reaction protocol for school shootings by now).
What I am eager to see now is Joyce’s parents’ reaction…Will they side with Becky’s dad and try to justify his behaviour, to put the blame on Becky?
I know their counterparts in old Walky comic wouldn’t do something like that; I think they weren’t real fundies, but rather a couple who suffered the consequences of their excesively hedonist youth and tried to raise their children to become the opposite, but to Joyce’s surprise weren’t too upset despite thinking her a closet lesbian, and encouraged her to have (heterosexual) pre-marital hanky-panky and get pregnant as soon as possible, but those were different characters…
Just based on what we’ve seen of them, I’d be honestly shocked if they sided with the gun toting psychopath over their daughter’s best friend, even if she is gay and the whack job is her dad.
well i mean they did make a public scene about an 18 year old girl being raised an atheist and tried to forbid joyce from being friends with her. also compared her to hitler.
i dont think the browns would themselves hunt their children down with a gun, but im not exactly expecting waves of compassion and tolerance from them regarding beckys situation.
Well, the Browns certainly aren’t the good kind of Christian fundamentalist. Silly restrictions on fiction are one thing, but they were extremely vocal about how Dorothy was evil.
What separates them and Toedad is that they had the basic decency to actually step back and let their daughter make her own choices and recognize that they shouldn’t try to stop her.
FWIW, I could see a scenario where Ross turns out to be rich and influential and it rapidly turns into some kind of “support me or I call in those three mortgages I gave the church!” BS manipulation.
Willis did say once that nobody dies in this comic
Dina’s in danger. She’s the “deceptress.” Rats. I’ve seen this kind of behavior and thinking up close, it doesn’t go well without serious disruption and intervention.
Wouldn’t surprise me that the person on the news will be the arrest of the black, convicted felon Sal for running over an upstanding and morally correct middle-aged white guy with her motorcycle while preventing a shooting. This is Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America, after all.
Also, is that Danny and Ethan in the background?
The sense of dread and doom never leaves.
It’s probably not Danny and Ethan, since neither is listed in the characters for this page. Characters have been listed in the past even if all that’s visible is a bit of a hand or elbow.
sometimes Willis changes tags
I think Dina may be the target too. I suspect Becky realizes it too.
Wild speculation: Becky turns back and lets him take her to keep him from shooting Dina. “Don’t look back” is the clue.
He won’t kill her and won’t realize she has a phone, which will let her be rescued.
Becky definitely scented danger. She switched from defiance to tactics instantly, before he went for the gun.
wow, I am fucked up. My first thought wasn’t any sort of “Oh, shit!” reaction, it was “A gun… really? What a coward.”
OK, I’m prepared to state my theory about how this will work out. I believe the ambulance in 31 days will contain ToeDad. However, it will also, I believe, contain Sal.
Yes, SAL. Because, of all the members of the cast, she is the only one with the sheer ‘nads to take down a crazy man with a rifle. She’s nearby (her Joyce escort has diverted her from her usual hangouts) and alone.
ToeDad (as many suspect) is after Dina, and pursues her to a dead end. As he raises his gun to fire, Sal grabs the gun and cold-cocks him with it, sending him to his knees. She looks down at him, and says “Wha’ the hell’s the ma-”
And that’s when the cops arrive, see Sal – a black person holding a gun, standing over a white man she’s clearly assaulted – and take her down.
You are scaring me! ;_;
Dammit, Satan, what have we told you about venturing into the comment sections
The worst part about this is that it’s probably the cheeriest possible outcome for this at this point.
:C
New thought: are there any police on campus? Even the small university I went to had a precinct on campus to handle things of this nature.
I’d say the larger the campus the more like there’s a police force dedicated to the site. Especially if the “campus” and the “college town” are the same thing.
Don’t you dare kill dina in this comics too!
….Time for Mike to save the day
With this many comments, I was actually expecting more of them to be idiotic and horrible. So, yay humanity for not letting me down as much as you could have?
Now to read Willis’ Tumblr to see the comments that got deleted…
…And my faith in humanity has been restored.
And by “restored”, I mean “lowered”.
Still, not as much as it could have!!!!! *grins maniacally*
There was quote along those lines I’ve been trying to find for ages.
Something like “Every time I start to think people might be alright, some asshole like you comes along to restore my faith in humanity.”
Tenn, the most horrible ones have been deleted/banned. You can find a few on the author’s tumblr, http://itswalky.tumblr.com/
Reading fail?
I just have to say that there’s hope, because I noticed the tiny figure in the background who’s seen what’s going on.
I’m sure someone in the thousands of posts has also seen him, but I wanted to say that I have also.
Apropos nothing: I just remembered why I *am* Proper Dave. I’d forgotten.
Yep I saw him
“Rebecca, come back: Your grandpa died and left you his rifle!”
Yeah, I’m going with this and never reading the comic again.
…at least until midnight.
“…and his bullets.”
… they may want to look back!
I’m just gonna go ahead and hold out hope that it’s either a tranq, or a beanbag. Not that they wouldn’t still hurt…. or can’t both be lethal… you know what? Nevermind. I’ll shut up now.
Well, that’s bad.
I have to say that since this is autobiographical in nature that Mr Willis has had a one helluva life already
Oh SHIT.
I repeat my comment from yesterday about hoping that Amazi-Girl shows up and increase it by 10x. Plus Infity.
Amazi-Girl is vulnerable to bullets though.
But at least AG is immune to critical hits.
Oh good a witness in the last panel.
So this strip has officially surpassed “Writer” as the most commented strip on the site.
The hate for Toedad burns.
Look upon your works, ye Willis, and despair.
Writer…that was the one that revealed Joc, yes?
Correct.
Speaking of Jocelyne, I’m wondering if she’ll show up along with her dad in the next story arc.
New poll !
I’m betting lots of votes for Dina and Becky, since their lives are actually in danger at the moment.
You would win that bet.
dear lord
please strike Toedad dead with as many lighting bolts and freak heart attacks as you can.
Woah, this got a lot darker than I anticipated.
David Willis.
so other people in the comments have been saying that Toedad is using a Ruger 1v. for me an admitted gun owner and bird hunter its a relief that Toedad is using the 1V as the rifle is a single shot the damage he will/could do is much less than if he was armed with say a AR 15. that of course presumes that Toedad is using a rifle in the Case that the excuse for a father is toting a shotgun is worse however its still not as bad as a assault rifle given the spread of both bird and buckshot.
All that can be said with certainty is that it’s a falling block action. Of course the most common modern example of this is the Ruger #1. It is indicative of neither particular skill, nor investment, as some have commented. In fact I think entirely too much is being made of the choice of rifle. I’ll admit that it’s *weird* enough, this is not a firearm one tosses in the car when going to look for trouble.
Maybe it’s the only thing daddy left him. Maybe DW pulled a random source image.
Personally I wouldhave put crazy fundie dad down for a Wal-Mart Mossberg.
Isn’t it a “varminter”? I spect that might be why he has it BUT ALSO that its a statement by Willis about Toedad: that he’s hunting his lesbian daughter with a varmint hunting rifle.
At around $1000 new its an expensive statement
Eh. Not really in the wide world-o-rifles. Middle of the road.
Well, couldn’t one hit from that gun do a lot of damage to Becky or Dina, even if it’s not a lethal shot? Maybe Toedad is actualLY competent with the thing.
Well this is a plan that certainly won’t end without toedad getting shot by the police
I’d be tempted to get up in the middle of the night to read the next comic, but I’m expecting that one to be even worse than this one. At least if I wait until tomorrow to read it I can worry at work instead of staying up the rest of the night.
nO.
(excuse me person in the background but if you could side-tackle that guy right this instant it would be mUCH APPRECIATED)
Oh, better RUN! Toe-dad is here!
I go out for my twenty first, miss two updates. And now we have toe dad chasing after his daughter and girlfriend with a gun…
Things move fast.
I see two figures behind toe-dad, one seems shocked in his direction. SOMEONE TO INTERVENE?
Under the circumstances, the new poll feels like a hostage situation.
“Which of these characters do you want to see again? You only get to pick one!”
All I know is I’m voting for Marcie.
I want to see more Joe. That horndog’s been absent.
Suddenly, I long for someone to get hit by a truck, it seems much less painful than whatever is to come.
Also, it’d be great if it was Toedad.
I’m mentally going through the other universe ends for dina and just. my heart will not be ready if dina doesn’t end this series happy with someone and IF SHE GETS HURT I WILL BE BROKEN.
and i’m worried about becky too because idr her from the other universe so. I’m just so worired about both the babies and amber and everyone *internal screaming*
Damn it Willis what the fuck!
This isn’t referring to everyone but some, after the posts I’ve been reading. There’s a lot of “assuming” about peoples character going on, the assumptions made from reading the opinions/comments of those with wildly differing life experiences from the folks who have been through literal hell with their parents over issues like this.
A difference in experience is just that; a difference in experience. People will make assumptions about subjects they don’t understand. It comes from a place of “not knowing”… and God Forbid they do. There is absolutely no need to treat them like horrible people when we’re all doing the best we can.
We, commenting on a web comic of all things, are human beings. We should see each other as human beings instead of pseudo-characters when we find someone with vastly differing life experiences. Asking questions instead of going “…… well you’re clearly clueless” or some variation might help people get along better than what I’m seeing here.
I bet I’ll get mocked for this post.
GO BECKY AND DINA!!
Oh wow, I did not see that coming. Figured we’d come to sympathize with Toe Dad and see him as a tragically misguided figure.
Then he brought a rifle to school.
23:59. The dawn of a new day draws near.
don’t jynx it inkblot.
and we have reached a record! over 1500 comments
How the fuck did Captain Crazypants get a gun that quick?! Didn’t he JUST go to Indianapolis? What kind of madman thought “Yes I’ll give this toe looking son of a bongo a rifle. He certainly won’t shoot a kid, near a school, or anything. He TOTALLY doesn’t look as if he’s choking on a crate of tennis rackets!” Dammit Willis know I know fear TWICE THIS WEEK.
You assume he didn’t have it while posting flyers.
Got to stock up and be prepared for the rapture.
white peopleALSO it took me so long to scroll to the bottom of the comments to actually comment i almost forgot what i was going to say
OK, I was one of those who was giving Ross the benefit of a doubt. Unlike deliberately villainous Blaine, Ross just might had been chasing Becky out of concern for his daughter, through his very, very misinformed perception of the world.
That sympathy? Went out the window with this strip.
So a milestone I dunno if I should congratulate folks for or not….this is officially the most talked about strip in DOA by comment volume. It beat out Jocelyne coming out to Ethan by a couple hundred. Which is an interesting parallel, because what happens here will no doubt weigh on Joyce’s mind when her family discovers that their son is actually their daughter.
Why are all the dads in this comic such douchebags?
This is the least of the things happening here, but I suspect Ross’s car is getting towed again.
If Dina or the police don’t kill him first, he’s sooooo going to jail for a long time.
Ah, yes, a gunman on campus… I foresee this ending very well for our friends. Obviously unstable; not a good parent; independent status granted…
Ah. Cartoonish villainy.
But with non-cartoonish consequences.
Be werry werry qwuite. I’m hunting wesbians. huhuhuhuhuh.
I’m not sorry, by the way. Not a little bit!
I don’t expect everything in this comic to be realistic, but I’m sorry — this is where it jumps the shark.
The uber conservative Christian boogyman? Really??? Here’s a fun fact. I have a similar upbringing to Willis. Ultra right wing conservative, very theologically conservative, all that. And to this day, huge numbers of relatives, friends of the family, childhood friends, debate partners(I participate on some forums dedicated to religious and political discussion), etc. who hold a lot of conservative, and in some cases even fundamentalist, views on things, and . . . just . . . never.
He was already a caricature, and now he’s just an offensive misrepresentation of the views nad practices of a not-insignificant number of people(at least in the US). I may be gay and non-conservative myself, but wow is this horrible.
A boogie man is something made up to scare people. Care to place a wager on whether or not we can find any number of incidents similar to this situation through a Google search?
*looks at comment*
*looks at Tumblr Ask he just responded to*
*looks at comment again*
well sure, why not
http://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/131073984682/love-your-stuff-all-of-it-and-this-storyline-is
Hmm, pulling out a weapon in plain sight on a university campus. That is going to draw a heavily armed police reaction very quickly.
It’s official. Becky’s dad doesn’t have a mouth.
He’s also a psycho.
when he said “oriental girl” I was so offended I had to back away from my computer abit.