If this were anime, one of them would be late for class and have a slice of buttered toast in their mouth. Sometimes, a cat running into the street is involved. … Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen what exactly happens to the toast in those.
Well, Walky WAS following Dorothy just previously, so it’s possible they might bump into someone. Or Sal could jump through a window and stop anyone from seeing anyone.
Now that I’ve had a night’s sleep, I think that is exactly what’s going to happen. Danny is probably going to bump into, like, Roz or someone, and Joyce and Sarah are going to go eat lunch and continue talking like nothing’s happening.
That’s the one. I can’t recommend it enough. Its treatment of Aristotle alone is worth a look. His gods are a fun bunch too, if you can handle people for being famous.
I could imagine Sarah making a move on Danny, she’d be thrilled to finally be able to have a conversation with a normal person. Danny though, is a romantic. If they got together with Sarah, he’d eventually cheat on her with Adventure.
Though Sarah waiting with a frying pan behind the door while Danny is trying to tiptoe his way in is hilarious.
On that note, this Sarah seems a lot less promiscuous than the one from before. She’s scored with Joe in the other universe, remember?
Less douchebaggy, but just as creepy. She’s what, 18 years old, and she’s already got the whole stereotyped-late-middle-aged-single-woman thing going on? “Wraaaagh, must find man! Must settle down forever are you single no then GET OUT OF MY WAY!”
Alright, so perhaps I’m exaggerating, but as a current university student, I know that if I went on a date with someone and they told me that they were only interested in a relationship that was guarunteed to end in marriage, I would be decidedly spooked. I can only speak for myself, but I imagine many other people feel the same way…
The guy I dated in college, until I came out of the closet was totally like that. He told me he loved me and wanted to marry me waayyy too early in our relationship, in front of his parents too. And given that acting straight took a crapload of effort, it seemed like a good deal to me – less having to fake interest and just having to make myself feel committed, which is easier.
Footnote: he went on to cheat on me with a 17 yr old, put down my achievements, and just be a general tool. Now he’s married to someone he met in graduate school who was in his department, and I hope he’s either become a decent person or she’s just using him for a greencard.
Also: if your SO tells you that his/her goal is to be married/engaged by a certain age – run for it! Unless that’s your goal too and like being in miserable relationships just to keep up appearances.
I think what makes it worse is the expression on Joyce’s face. She has this creepy naive and simple smile as she talks about how her future husband is at this school and that she’s going to find him. I often find those who are oddly happy when they plot creepier than the dark and sinister villain.
That line inside of the solid black portions of the art is continuing to bug me.
Seriously Willis, I love your stuff, and I apologize about sounding like a jerk when I mentioned this before about three weeks ago, I’m just trying to give some constructive criticism.
Photoshop’s fill tool doesn’t get along with anti-aliased lines, leaving a small visible gap (the semi-transparent anti-aliased pixels) between the actual line and the filled area. A lot of the time it’s not really noticeable, depending on the color of the line, the color of the object, and color of what’s going to be showing through from beneath it… But when it’s a black outline with a black fill it tends to be really visible, like on Sarah’s hair in panel 1.
David uses the pencil tool and draws about 8 times the size (for print) so that even if there were anti-aliasing, it would go away when the image shrank. On our monitor, the line where that might happen (like the scallops over her bangs), I can’t see anything like the “fill line” – believe me, we know what you mean. Is that visible on your monitor?
If you mean the grey behind her scarf, then those are highlights where the light bounces off her hair.
Yeah, it definitely shouldn’t happen with him using the pencil tool… And I’ve never seen it in any of the Shortpacked strips, but it seems to be present in a lot of the DoA strips.
Sometimes I can only see it if I’m looking for it (for example, in Joe’s hair in this strip), but other times it’s visible enough that I really can’t help but notice it…
R’s Random Fanfic Theater presents: Sarah/Danny fanfic, limited by the confides of a comment….
Danny looked up and saw a gorgeous woman wearing a kerchief. She was talking with a friend. He paused. His roommate Joe had just told him that bangable chicks might just be around the corner, he had been wrong – for him LOVE had just been around the corner.
“Do you know who she is?” Danny asked Joe in a hushed voice.
“Oh her?” Joe asked, feigning surprise. “Yes I do. I can introduce you.”
“Joyce!” he called, prompting Joyce and Sarah to stop and turn around.
“I’d like to meet my single and available roommate Danny,” Joe said. “He’s not engaged to anyone.”
Joyce smiled politely, her eyebrows giving away her disapproval (he didn’t look particularly Christian). “Nice to meet you Danny.”
“Can I ask you to introduce me to your friend?” Danny asked with a hopeful smile.
“This is my roommate Sarah,” Joyce said with a smile, pointing to her roommate. “She wants to be a lawyer and hates drugs.”
“I hate drugs too,” Danny said smiling a little too much.
Sarah rolled her eyes. She didn’t want new friends. She was still pissed at her old ones. And this guy looked needy and was poorly dressed.
“I’m running late,” Sarah said to excuse herself. “I’ll see you guys around.”
Danny waved, hoping that he would run into her again.
I don’t want to see Joyce fall for Joe, but it would be fun to see Danny fall for Joyce and she is disinterested (but too nice to push him away?). And don’t forget about Ruth 😉
There are corners there, too! There are corners everywhere! She is around some corner in the room (here “around” means “nearby). So Joe isn’t wrong! LOOK BEHIND YOU, DANNY!
One thing to remember is with this being an alternate universe, there’s no problem with ‘plot reuse’.
At some point in the past the definative moment where this parallel universe was created has already happened, but who’s to say that even in this timestream events might unfold similiary to the main timeline.
If this branch timeline is close enough to the main timeline, the number of radical differences will be lower than say it was WAAAY the hell off the main timeline, where everything would be totally ass backwards I.E. the Shatteredverse in TF continunity.
Now if we walk into Mike’s closet and there’s skeletons of his foes dangling over lava pits (or lamps) then you can start to worry.
So are you postulating a perfect universe in the sense of Plato’s world of forms, and that all other universes are but imperfect reflections of that Ideal? So the Ideal of romantic pairings in the Walkyverse is Joyce/Danny and all other romances are flawed attempts to meet that Ideal?
Thank you. Hamsters have deep, soulful eyes in my opinion, but I can’t take credit for the avatar’s effect on you. It was drawn for me by Larom, for the Megatokyo forum so all kudos and/or brickbats properly go to him.
And rereading Pagannerd’s comment, I’m beginning to think it means that depending on how close the DoA continuity is to the Walkyverse continuity, the more similar events and personalities will be. A really distant continuity would be one were everything was radically different (i.e. Mike is not an asshole, but caring and considerate on a regular basis, and Joyce is “The Mike” in that universe).
Man, I don’t know if it would even WORK in this universe, but I do kind of like the idea of Joyce/Joe. But I think a lot of what made them such good friends in IW! and lead to the Joe-loves-Joyce problem in the first place was their circumstance. Which, clearly, don’t exist here. Sigh.
Maybe we can still get Dina/Mike though! HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL.
Nope, doesn’t smell right, and spidey senses are tingling. This setup is much to obvious, either something is going to derail this, or they are in different buildings.
I could see that, though I can’t remember her name and can’t check that series here. I also thought she resembled Grace from El Goonish Shive, who’s been shown to wear green a lot. The hair isn’t quite right for her, however.
WOO DANNY AND SARAH
and Joyce and Joe
Shipped
Dan/Sarah, Joyce/Joe. DS and JJ
Knowing Willis, I’d put money on this happening.
The concept of Joyce and Joe interacting amuses me to no end, as always.
She could teach him the value of commitment and he could teach her the value of banging.
And bum sex.
No, no. He wouldn’t even Joe her in the butt. Not in any universe, even this one.
He would, just to get around any ‘must be virgin until marriage’ rules :p
This could go like four hundred different kinds of wrong.
Only 400?
Yesssssssssss.
Also, I love how emo!Danny is dressed in grays instead of blues. Because he’s depressed.
OH MAN now Emo Danny and Emo Robin HAVE to hook up! D=
Will they literally walk into each other and Joyce will hate Danny this time around because he accidentally copped a feel?
I think every harem anime ever already has that covered.
which means either yes or no. My bet is on no.
Or he said that because he didn’t want everyone to know I got it right!
Probably not though.
Or just that Joe doesn’t accidentally cop feels. Though he might automatically…. 😀
If this were anime, one of them would be late for class and have a slice of buttered toast in their mouth. Sometimes, a cat running into the street is involved. … Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen what exactly happens to the toast in those.
No, it will be JOE who cops the feel, because Joyce is ranked just high enough to make a feel worth it but not high enough to persue.
(I’ve subscribed to his RSS feed.)
And, of course, he’ll let Joyce blame Danny.
Least they have their priorities straight.
Something tells me they won’t stay that way. Mwuahahahaha.
You mean we wind up with Joyce/Sarah and Danny/Joe by the end of this series?
I’m kind of warming up to the Danny/Joe ship a bit. It’s weird, but it could be fun.
Danny/Joe is my OTP!!
Oh the days back when we didn’t read homoerotic overtones into everything.
Should I be happy about the progress we’ve made since?
Now you’re talking! Woot!
I have had a Joe/Danny obsession scince the first alien abductions arc in Roomies!
So, either they like each other at first sight, or…walk by each other. Yeah.
It’s weird to remember that Joyce was originally in love with Danny in Roomies!
This comic made me hungry.
Don’t forget that Joe also had feelings for Joyce in It’s Walky, ones that came awfully close to confusing things.
Speaking of confusing things, now would be a good time for Robin to throw her hat into that corner.
so, i’ve been meaning to ask…Mr. Willis, is Walky named after the town of Walkerton, IN?
he answered that on formspring and yes
Indirectly, yes. I grew up ten miles from there.
I smell some plot recycling around the corner…
Is there anyone else here who thinks the set-up is too obvious? I don’t think Danny and Joe will bump into Sarah and Joyce in the next strip.
yes, Willis is planning something to trip us up
Well, Walky WAS following Dorothy just previously, so it’s possible they might bump into someone. Or Sal could jump through a window and stop anyone from seeing anyone.
Or Mike could cock-block?
Yes, this timeline definitely needs more Sal jumping through windows! 😀
Holy Cheese, I’m Amazi-girl! And here I’ve been thinking all along that it was Amber behind that mask. Or maybe Spider-car. 😉
OR is that just parinoia and Willis is playing on that so really they will get together blowing our minds?
Just because you’re paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you, y’know.
Now that I’ve had a night’s sleep, I think that is exactly what’s going to happen. Danny is probably going to bump into, like, Roz or someone, and Joyce and Sarah are going to go eat lunch and continue talking like nothing’s happening.
…this has me shipping Danny and Sarah, now. They both value their food, it seems. It’s quite obvious, isn’t it?
Ooor we could have plot recycling, of course. XD
But Sarah/Danny sounds even more fun.
Re:”They both value their food, it seems.”
Nothing wrong with that. Very pragmatic of them. Although, Danny might be only eating because he’s depressed and seeking solace elsewhere.
“Evil men live that they might eat. Good men eat that they may live.”
“YES, SOCRATES!”
One of William Messner-Loebs’ finest works.
Would that be Epicurus the Sage? I looked up the name and found a list of his works on Wikipedia, and Epicurus the Sage interests me.
“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.” – Desiderius Erasmus
That’s the one. I can’t recommend it enough. Its treatment of Aristotle alone is worth a look. His gods are a fun bunch too, if you can handle people for being famous.
I could imagine Sarah making a move on Danny, she’d be thrilled to finally be able to have a conversation with a normal person. Danny though, is a romantic. If they got together with Sarah, he’d eventually cheat on her with Adventure.
Though Sarah waiting with a frying pan behind the door while Danny is trying to tiptoe his way in is hilarious.
On that note, this Sarah seems a lot less promiscuous than the one from before. She’s scored with Joe in the other universe, remember?
But… Sarah is too tall for Danny?
Actually, in the big cast image further down the home page, they look to be exactly the same height – or am I missing something here?
YEEESSSS MY JOE/JOYCE SHIP
yeah this probably won’t go anywhere
BUT I’M HOLDING ONTO HOPE
I second this.
That is exactly where my mind went. <3
Seeing <3 next to Mike's face just destroyed my mind.
did you do this on purpose
I didn’t actually know I was Mike. XD
But this one is for you:
=’ 3’= I’m a kitty! 8D
salkdfjalsdf
Hope appreciates the display of affection, but wishes to inform you that you’re cutting off her circulation right now.
lol I see what you did there
Hold onto that Hope.
You might get rewarded with plot deliverence and/or a Blue Lantern ring.
Either would be awesome
Blue Lanterns…
the creepy stalker exes of the Universe
I can’t even begin to express my excitement about this being set at IU
Awww come on….don’t make her pine for Leading-on Danny in THIS story, too… D:
See, Dahlia? You said something other than, “I agree,” today. 🙂
Also…this. 😉
o: I can be taught! lol
o: 8U
A HUGE part of me really wants for the relationships in this ‘verse to go completely differently. Walky ends up with Sarah, Joyce with Sal, etc, etc 🙂
Is it odd that I find the fact that Joyce is only going to college to find a husband more creepy than Joe’s sexual cross-hairs?
no. I’ve always felt that her intentions were way more creepier than Joe’s.
Less douchebaggy, but just as creepy. She’s what, 18 years old, and she’s already got the whole stereotyped-late-middle-aged-single-woman thing going on? “Wraaaagh, must find man! Must settle down forever are you single no then GET OUT OF MY WAY!”
Alright, so perhaps I’m exaggerating, but as a current university student, I know that if I went on a date with someone and they told me that they were only interested in a relationship that was guarunteed to end in marriage, I would be decidedly spooked. I can only speak for myself, but I imagine many other people feel the same way…
The guy I dated in college, until I came out of the closet was totally like that. He told me he loved me and wanted to marry me waayyy too early in our relationship, in front of his parents too. And given that acting straight took a crapload of effort, it seemed like a good deal to me – less having to fake interest and just having to make myself feel committed, which is easier.
Footnote: he went on to cheat on me with a 17 yr old, put down my achievements, and just be a general tool. Now he’s married to someone he met in graduate school who was in his department, and I hope he’s either become a decent person or she’s just using him for a greencard.
Also: if your SO tells you that his/her goal is to be married/engaged by a certain age – run for it! Unless that’s your goal too and like being in miserable relationships just to keep up appearances.
I think what makes it worse is the expression on Joyce’s face. She has this creepy naive and simple smile as she talks about how her future husband is at this school and that she’s going to find him. I often find those who are oddly happy when they plot creepier than the dark and sinister villain.
I know that you said that DoA can be read with out reading Roomies, etc, but damn everyone keeps talking about them, so now I just have to! 😀
Roomies isn’t a bad read, but be warned: Willis is kind of damned preachy in it.
That line inside of the solid black portions of the art is continuing to bug me.
Seriously Willis, I love your stuff, and I apologize about sounding like a jerk when I mentioned this before about three weeks ago, I’m just trying to give some constructive criticism.
Photoshop’s fill tool doesn’t get along with anti-aliased lines, leaving a small visible gap (the semi-transparent anti-aliased pixels) between the actual line and the filled area. A lot of the time it’s not really noticeable, depending on the color of the line, the color of the object, and color of what’s going to be showing through from beneath it… But when it’s a black outline with a black fill it tends to be really visible, like on Sarah’s hair in panel 1.
David uses the pencil tool and draws about 8 times the size (for print) so that even if there were anti-aliasing, it would go away when the image shrank. On our monitor, the line where that might happen (like the scallops over her bangs), I can’t see anything like the “fill line” – believe me, we know what you mean. Is that visible on your monitor?
If you mean the grey behind her scarf, then those are highlights where the light bounces off her hair.
I can see the “fill line” too but it’s not that noticeable, I have to be looking for it. Except now I’m looking for it…
Hrrrmm … okey!
Yeah, it definitely shouldn’t happen with him using the pencil tool… And I’ve never seen it in any of the Shortpacked strips, but it seems to be present in a lot of the DoA strips.
Sometimes I can only see it if I’m looking for it (for example, in Joe’s hair in this strip), but other times it’s visible enough that I really can’t help but notice it…
I’ve tried adjusting the levels on the image to make it more visible. In the resulting image, I can even see it in the background characters’ pants, where I couldn’t before.
Walp! That’s weird!
Really visible? I had to zoom to almost 300% to see what you’re talking about. And I think its supposed to be subtle shading.
Wow, Joyce and Joe are essentially 2 extremes of the same person!
Danny and Sarah! It’s meant to be!
R’s Random Fanfic Theater presents: Sarah/Danny fanfic, limited by the confides of a comment….
Danny looked up and saw a gorgeous woman wearing a kerchief. She was talking with a friend. He paused. His roommate Joe had just told him that bangable chicks might just be around the corner, he had been wrong – for him LOVE had just been around the corner.
“Do you know who she is?” Danny asked Joe in a hushed voice.
“Oh her?” Joe asked, feigning surprise. “Yes I do. I can introduce you.”
“Joyce!” he called, prompting Joyce and Sarah to stop and turn around.
“I’d like to meet my single and available roommate Danny,” Joe said. “He’s not engaged to anyone.”
Joyce smiled politely, her eyebrows giving away her disapproval (he didn’t look particularly Christian). “Nice to meet you Danny.”
“Can I ask you to introduce me to your friend?” Danny asked with a hopeful smile.
“This is my roommate Sarah,” Joyce said with a smile, pointing to her roommate. “She wants to be a lawyer and hates drugs.”
“I hate drugs too,” Danny said smiling a little too much.
Sarah rolled her eyes. She didn’t want new friends. She was still pissed at her old ones. And this guy looked needy and was poorly dressed.
“I’m running late,” Sarah said to excuse herself. “I’ll see you guys around.”
Danny waved, hoping that he would run into her again.
“I hope so,” Danny said to no one.
This time around, Danny’ll be the one to fall for Joyce, but Joyce will fall head over heel with Joe.
: D
Didn’t she already fall for Joe in IW?
This time it’ll work out.
I don’t want to see Joyce fall for Joe, but it would be fun to see Danny fall for Joyce and she is disinterested (but too nice to push him away?). And don’t forget about Ruth 😉
I’m not sure I want to see a Danny/Sarah pairing, but somehow I get the feeling that’s what might be happening here.
I think it would be funny as hell if Joyce were to latch on to Joe this time around
I expect one of two things may happen :
a)Danny and Sarah fall for each other, totally unexpectedly…
b)Joyce and Danny are meant for each other, and that will keep being hinted at as they keep near-missing each other for the better part of 2011…
Danny! DANNY! DON’T LISTEN TO JOE!
Anyone with eyes could see that the right person for you just got on the elevator.
SHE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU, DANNY! PIPES ARE PLAYING, BOY!
There are corners there, too! There are corners everywhere! She is around some corner in the room (here “around” means “nearby). So Joe isn’t wrong! LOOK BEHIND YOU, DANNY!
Look around you.
Look around you.
Look around you!
Have you found what you’re looking for yet?
The answer is “love.”
Please ensure you have your copy book at hand, as you will be asked to take down notes from the screen at various points throughout the program.
Well, so much for my eyes. She was behind Joyce all along.
NE’ER MIND, THEN, DANNY!
Girl in green. Girl in green.
Oooh, good eye. Yes, it must be her.
One thing to remember is with this being an alternate universe, there’s no problem with ‘plot reuse’.
At some point in the past the definative moment where this parallel universe was created has already happened, but who’s to say that even in this timestream events might unfold similiary to the main timeline.
If this branch timeline is close enough to the main timeline, the number of radical differences will be lower than say it was WAAAY the hell off the main timeline, where everything would be totally ass backwards I.E. the Shatteredverse in TF continunity.
Now if we walk into Mike’s closet and there’s skeletons of his foes dangling over lava pits (or lamps) then you can start to worry.
So are you postulating a perfect universe in the sense of Plato’s world of forms, and that all other universes are but imperfect reflections of that Ideal? So the Ideal of romantic pairings in the Walkyverse is Joyce/Danny and all other romances are flawed attempts to meet that Ideal?
Actually, I think she was just postulating that some shit may happen the same, and some shit may happen differently… That’s about it, really.
Although admittedly, your avatar made your comment sound distressingly profound. I swear, that hamster is looking into my soul…
But didn’t Willis say he didn’t want to reuse old storylines? I mean, Joyce/Danny was the ORIGINAL Walkyverse storyline
But it was one-sided given the characters in that universe at that time. Were Willis to pursue Danny/Joyce in DoA, it could be radically different.
Thank you. Hamsters have deep, soulful eyes in my opinion, but I can’t take credit for the avatar’s effect on you. It was drawn for me by Larom, for the Megatokyo forum so all kudos and/or brickbats properly go to him.
And rereading Pagannerd’s comment, I’m beginning to think it means that depending on how close the DoA continuity is to the Walkyverse continuity, the more similar events and personalities will be. A really distant continuity would be one were everything was radically different (i.e. Mike is not an asshole, but caring and considerate on a regular basis, and Joyce is “The Mike” in that universe).
Whoops. The second paragraph should have started, “And rereading HMRC4EVR’s comment.” The reply was to Pagannerd. Sorry for the confusion.
Man, I don’t know if it would even WORK in this universe, but I do kind of like the idea of Joyce/Joe. But I think a lot of what made them such good friends in IW! and lead to the Joe-loves-Joyce problem in the first place was their circumstance. Which, clearly, don’t exist here. Sigh.
Maybe we can still get Dina/Mike though! HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL.
Dina/Mike? Most abusive relationship everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I can hate Dina again because she’s alive.
PS HUGS
I liked Joe/Joyce in IW. I actually liked it better than Walky/Joyce. (Don’t kill me!)
Oh look a conviently placed corner, lets go around it.
DannyxLunch
Nope, doesn’t smell right, and spidey senses are tingling. This setup is much to obvious, either something is going to derail this, or they are in different buildings.
Look! In the background! It’s black Amber! Will these shameless skin ports never end?
Can you make Joyce less psycho-stalker this time around?
That’s a tall order… from a DEAD MAN.
Oh noes.
as soon as i finished this i got an image of Charlie Brown screaming his short “argh!” in my head..probably b/c she’s Joyce Brown
side note: i voted to see moar mike, dina, and amber, and they are the top 3, lol
The girl in the background looks like that character in Something Positive….Mike’s girlfriend/mother of Shazam. I can’t remember her name though.
I could see that, though I can’t remember her name and can’t check that series here. I also thought she resembled Grace from El Goonish Shive, who’s been shown to wear green a lot. The hair isn’t quite right for her, however.
HOLY CRAP IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE
http://www.joyceandwalky.com/d/19981015.html