I used to do the same thing. Throughout my teenage years, I was allowed to rent horror movies and watch South Park so long as I didn’t start copying the bad language. (I assume I wasn’t supposed to copy all the killing and sex as well, but it never came up).
I spent a lot of time either cursing in British (“Bloody”, “Bugger”, “Bollocks”, and other lovely terms my parents didn’t recognize as swears), or using fictional cursewords (“Smeg!”, “Zark!” “Frell!”)
True story: there was a time in my life where I “swore” using “ack!” from Cathy, and my dad leapt down my throat because I was just substituting “ack!” for “damn” or “jesus christ”
That’s pretty strict. My parents actually used expressions like “Sam Hill”, (which got me in trouble on a school bus) or more often “gosh darn” to avoid swearing.
I like to think that these comics don’t take place concurrently, and during the whole time the drama with Amber and her dad was going on, the Walkertons were just staring at Sal in silence.
Also, it’s nice to see Linda not crazy. She is not crazy, right? Or is she just a lot better at hiding it than most of these parents have been?
Only in that she’s more interested in the girl her son is dating than her actual daughter who showed up on the scene. So, I guess just the usual sort of parental crazy.
I think Charles might, Linda’s all ‘rar get the girlfriend’ but Charles seems kinda disappointed that Sal’s leaving so quickly. Walky is definitely Linda’s favourite, but I think Charles still cares for both his kids.
It’s not that Walky’s her favorite, it’s that she can’t come to grips with the laws of the universe changing so quickly. She needs visual confirmation.
I was so sad when my daughter finally got tired of long hair and cut it short. It was almost long enough to do in the Sailor Moon meatballs and pony tails
…Sal doesn’t have family trauma in the Dumbiverse, Sal has bad decisions that she made (i.e. being part of armed robbery) refuses to own, and a bottomless well of resentment towards parents who, in this universe, are probably a little scared both of and for her. Because she’s their daughter, whom they love, but she also committed a violent crime, which is hard to reconcile.
Her attempt at making things better is this self-aggrandizing Little Miss I Have My Shit Together Now routine, and it’s sad because its self-inflicted.
I disagree totally. Her Dad has been loving and welcoming, but her mum just totally ignored her, after sending her away to a prison-like school for years. I think all her problems are her mother’s fault, because she makes it so obvious that she prefers Walky.
I somehow don’t think Linda made the decision to send their daughter away to Catholic school in a vacuum. And, like, call me crazy, but I think the “prison” aspect was largely created by Sal’s own attitude towards the school!
Because she was sent to that school why again? Oh, right, because she decided to commit two armed robberies. As in, she pointed a lethal weapon at another human being and threatened their life.
I kiiiinda think maybe that’s the reason her mother can’t really find a way to talk to her just yet.
A thirteen-year-old kid doesn’t commit armed robbery as the result of a rational decision, she does it because she can’t see how life could get any worse. By sending her away to boarding school, her parents are clearly saying: “We’re not going to help you sort out your problems.”
If you think the prison aspect was all in her mind, I suspect you got your idea of boarding school from Harry Potter.
So, unless I missed it, we don’t know the details of the robberies, right? I happened to be reading back some of the archive, the morning after The Party while everyone was deciding what to do about Joyce being roofied, and Sal’s input makes it seem like there may be more to the story with the robbery.
As far as how Linda is treating Sal right now, Walky having a girlfriend is pretty huge news because, well, Walky is Walky, but Linda doesn’t even stop to say ‘Hi’ to her daughter or give her a hug or anything.
We know very little about it. I based the guess of Sal’s age on Walky saying he hadn’t seen her for five years, and assuming she’s eighteen. From the bit you mention after the party, I get the impression she feels she didn’t get a fair hearing from the authorities, but how much weight can you put on that? Walky said their parents sent her away, implying it wasn’t a court order, so maybe her role in the crimes was fairly minor. There are lots of possibilities.
To me the lack of greeting from Linda makes her a bad parent, no matter what Sal did. Love and support is what parents are for.
…Maybe a thirteen-year-old’s reasons for becoming involved with an armed robbery aren’t entirely rational, but they’re still a decision she consciously made. This isn’t like Amber’s situation. Committing an armed robbery, unlike abuse, is not something that happens to you. It’s something you do, of your own volition–even if it’s the tiniest amount of your own volition, it’s still something you’re actively doing, and that you could choose not to do.
Also, wtf? I didn’t say the prison aspect was exclusively in her mind, I said that the fact it was like prison was largely created by her own attitude. I’m sure it wasn’t fucking Hogwarts, it was probably strict as hell and unpleasant to be at, because I imagine its goal was to reform kids on a moral level, which Sal completely resisted. Which is what made it like prison, you see.
Now, granted, we don’t know all the details, and maybe she was just an accomplice. But, like, if I were in Linda’s shoes, and my kid had just been charged as an accomplice to armed robbery? I might turn to the idea of sending her off to a reform school, because what the fuck, the child who I love just was part of an armed robbery; this is something that needs to be fixed, and I’m not sure as a parent I could fix it.
Also I think it’s kind of ridiculous to assign this kind of weight and extrapolate this much from the single fixed point of Linda not saying “hello” to her daughter, but I’m extrapolating from the fixed point of Sal being part of armed robbery, so I guess I don’t have much room to talk.
I agree that we’re both extrapolating from far too little evidence, but on almost everything else, we can only agree to disagree. Of course she bears responsibility for what she did, but if you’ve never done anything you’ve later regretted after being swept along by the enthusiasm of others, I’m amazed.
Saying it was like prison only because of her own attitude is bullshit. People with positive attitudes have done great things in prison: made friends, written books, got degrees, but it’s still prison. They don’t have any choice about being there, and the opportunities are very limited. Sal could have had a great time if she had a vocation to become a nun.
Expecting five years of “strict as hell and unpleasant” life to reform a rebellious teenager is also bullshit. Parents send their children away because they can’t or don’t want to deal with them any more, not because they really think the place will magically turn them into well-adjusted adults. If anything, they hope it will terrify them into obedience, which is a strange definition of “moral reform”.
The robberies happened five years ago (according to Walky). If Linda hasn’t forgiven her daughter by now, she’s never going to. I don’t think she loves her at all.
Only thing I’m going to add is that Sal does seem to have a strong distrust of police/public officials. That could just be because of being involved with an armed robbery or her being a rebel, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole robbery issue wasn’t an instance of profiling or an officer with a grudge and it turns out Sal was wrongfully accused.
But, like has been said, we don’t know everything yet, so it’s hard to say.
Yeah, I agree. Out of everything that’s going on the above barely registers as an event. This family just isn’t all that interesting on their own without the aliens and explosions. They work best when playing off interesting people.
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see how, given the current circumstances, Sal could be doing anything other than trying to get out the door away from her parents without being written poorly.
It’s remarks like that.
My brother and sister stopped talking to Mom a long time ago. I’m now certain that Mom didn’t understand what she sounded like.
Gah, I hate it when people go on about how great I look with straight hair. It’s fine for sometimes, but it takes forever to do, is bad for my hair, and it’s such a pain having to avoid getting it wet. It took me ages to get to a point where I was comfortable and confident with having lots of curly hair and now whenever people tell me that it looks bad and I should change it I feel like punching them in the face!
I will never understand girls/women. The ones with straight hair spend all their time trying to make it curly, and the ones with curly hair spend all their time trying to make it straight.
She robbed two convenience stores so they sent her away the school whose uniform she’s currently wearing. This also resulted in Walky basically becoming their favorite, for obvious reasons.
Or maybe they just make bad decisions and handle situations badly. That doesn’t imply favoratism. They hadn’t raised kids before and none of them have held up two convenience stores. You can’t expect all people to know how best to fix this situation.
No, do not let Sal escape so easily! She needs to spend more time in her family’s watchful eye. If for no other reason than she is going to start having nicotine cravings sometime in the very near future and she will be totally unable to do anything about it.
That and she looks best with this wavy mane. The hairstyle complements her giant ears.
Also, the result is that he’s supportive of her own preference, which is probably what David wants to convey here. Charles is the easy parent & Linda the difficult one. I suppose Charles’ would have reacted differently if Sal’s answer in panel 3 had been: “Yes! Do you like it?”
Nonsense. He’s just trying to establish a connection. He has curly hair. She has curly hair. They can Father-Daughter bond over their collective curliness.
I was getting the feeling it was, at least, not something he probably should say, but I kinda passed it over as I feel it’s overshadowed by Sal’s mother’s almost complete dismissal of Sal even being there.
My grandma always used to go off on me because of my long hair, and me and my cousin because of having piercings, with her main contention being that ‘only women have long hair and wear earrings’ and that, because of having long hair, girls would never like me. So I think I might be slightly desensitized to hair criticism, but can definitely see it as being offensive (especially if there’s racial undertone?).
I’m pretty sure he’s just used to her hair being straight and honestly thought his daughter was pretty that way. And it sounds hypercritical because Sal is putting on a fucking martyrdom song and dance routine of “how hard must I work to please my parents???”
I like Sal, a lot, but I’m not on her side in this.
Personally, I thought she scheduled the appointment mostly so she’d have a legitimate excuse to avoid her parents. Not because she doesn’t love them, but because she doesn’t know how to interact with them.
Uh Oh, seems like Sal’s dad needs to watch Chris Rock’s “Good Hair.” Or maybe he doesn’t care. I wonder if Sal feels that kind of baggage? She isn’t “high-yella.”
That entire exchange between dad and Sal was a blipvert of “Good and Bad Hair” from School Daze.
Doesn’t matter a whole lot what anyone thinks, Sal will wear her hair any way she pleases.
My vote, straight looks fantastic on her. Curly on her is cute, but cute ain’t Sal.
Read some background on the Walkertons, they are far from boring. At least in Roomies. Maybe here they are ‘normal’. Well, as normal as any of David’s parents are.
yeah, I got to chime in with, “this is kind of offensive, David”.
Even if he “honestly” thinks she looks prettier with more straight hair, there is still a huge cultural context of natural = ugly, so I really hope this develops into something and isn’t just left hanging. I trust you to handle these things with tact, David.
Well, this storyline has hardly cast any parent in the best of lights, so maybe be that’s the reason for making him say that, besides showing him as the only Walkerton parent that acknowledges their daughter in any way.
I agree that this wasn’t just dropped casually. I’m looking forward to the stories that develop, particularly if Sal’s issues with her parents come from dad’s preferential treatment to the kid who passes better.
I don’t know if the specific “straight hair” comment by David is supposed to have that much weight. To me, this seems more like a situation where Sal is trying to fit in with her family and be the good daughter; so far, she’s been ignored by her mother, and faced an implied criticism by her father (however well-meaning). It’s a straw that breaks the camels back, and she just wants out of an awkward situation.
I was going to say, “just because a character says something doesn’t mean the author agrees” (sorry if you’re referring to something Willis actually said I’m not aware of) but I just noticed this in his little twitter sidebar:
“Like maybe five people noticed how awful Sal’s dad was being in today’s DoA. My readership is pretty damn white, isn’t it.”
So I’m willing to bet he’s aware of the cultural context.
Wait, what! Why are we having a conversation about how much dad cares for Sal when he clearly put her down? She has natural hair – inherited from him, even – and he tells her that she’s prettier when it is straight. There is a ton of baggage in that, so let me spell it out:
a) Black women get a lot of crap about not being beautiful.
b) Black women are pressured to straighten their hair because their natural hair is considered inappropriate, unprofessional, etc.
In other words, black women are constantly told they are not beautiful in their own right and that they have to do expensive, damaging things to themselves to approximate the white woman beauty ideal. (Not that all white women meet the beauty ideal – I sure as fuck don’t – but that the beauty ideal is white, or at least light skinned.)
In short, while Dad is at least paying attention to Sal, the first thing he said to her (and not to both of his kids) was a put-down about her looks. That’s not good parenting folks. Both parents are a fail for Sal here, regardless of any mistakes she has made in the past.
Holy crap, never thought of that. I never looked into it much partly because it’s the nature of parents to criticize their kids, but I can see where you’re coming from. I’m curly haired myself and I like Sal’s straight look, but I never stopped to think how much of a hassle long hair is.
I think that just maybe you, and others, are reading too much into this. Maybe she does happen to look better in straight hair. Or maybe she prefers straight hair, and Dad is used to seeing her in straight hair.
I hate to bring up authorial intent, especially on a website where he interacts so much with his fans and can speak for himself, but I think Willis is well aware of the politicized nature of black women’s hair and wouldn’t put in something like this without thinking of that.
Agreed. Between the documentaries “Dark Girls” and “Good Hair” a bit of a broader light is being shined on why weave, and relaxers are so much a part of the picture.
Honestly, some pieces of both doco’s are on Youtube. Black hair chemistry is actually very different. A perm for straight hair is not the same thing as a perm for black hair. And if you have a lot of hair like Sal, it would be a complete pain to keep long and straight. Add a bit a moisture and it’s even worse.
So until David Willis says its not a thing, it can be speculated as a thing. Sal has nappy hair, and there is a crap ton of social baggage that goes along with it.
Something’s very fishy with the chemistry here. Like the parents combined are bipolar, and Sal and Walky are trying not to trigger an episode. They act mortally afraid, and the parents are oblivious to that.
Epileptic Tree: Have Amber and Sal interacted at all? I ask because we know that Amber was present at an armed robbery at a store (possibly of the convenient variety) and Sal robbed two convenience stores. Maybe Amber was present? Admittedly this would make it a very small world where Walky built C3-P0…
Ugh this made me cringe so bad. As someone with curly, wild hair I absolutely hate it when someone tells me “oh it looks better straight”. Screw you, I look fabulous no matter what.
I really don’t get the racial/parental appeasement angles a lot of you are trying to hang on the curly-vs.-straight issue. The whole discussion is just a story device allowing for Sal to slip out, since she very obviously isn’t comfortable around her parents.
Considering some of the shit she has pulled in her past, she probably just has a very strained relationship with them and would rather avoid them than confront them.
Nope – my read is if Sal hadn’t wanted to see her parents and impress them that she has “changed”, she wouldn’t be there. But look, she showed up in going-to-church clothes, forced a smile, hoped it would work out, but there goes Mom ignoring her and Dad putting her down again and she doesn’t fight it. She gives up, decides it’s not getting better this time after all, and takes the first excuse to get out of there.
Again, I disagree. Having grown up with a parent I never really enjoyed being around/had much in common with, I can tell you definitely that putting in a brief appearance in clothing said parent would find appropriate and then leaving results in a lot less confrontation than just trying to avoid them completely. They eventually do find you and then it becomes a major production. Best to leave it to a ‘walk on roll’ than risk it becoming a ‘Greek tragedy’.
If he was that concerned about not seeing the two of them together, he could have done something about it. This looks at some of the issues with his comments on her hair. (In the UK, reports at the time suggested this may have been similar)
Man, I HATE it when parents harp on their kids’ appearance (hygiene is different). And though I’m not black, I know that natural vs. relaxed hair can be a very touchy subject. Eesh.
Ouch. Ouch. I can’t tell whether it would be better to be straight-up ignored, like her mom does, or given nasty “compliments” like her dad. Her mom doesn’t even *acknowledge* her. But man, her dad. At least when you’re ignored, you’re not being guilt-tripped for leaving right after an insult.
For the record the reason why you see so many spotlighted black women with straight hair is because Curly hair is “not classy” is “messy” is “unkempt” and “unprofessional”. There was recently (its august 2014 when i’m posting this) a lawsuit due to the military trying to force women to use certain haircuts. the problem being that none of the approved hairstyles could be achieved with Natural black hair, meaning they’d have to literally spend Hours painfully or tediously “fixing” it.
anyways even black parents often try to get their daughters to “straighten” their hair because thats how you are “presentable”.
All of this is no doubt part of the contribution to her later freak out about Walky and Race that will come (i got spoiled on a blog promoting this comic which is why i am here and cant “put it down”)
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a hair appointment with MY MOTORCYCLE
The plan is to go so fast it straightens itself.
Wonder if that requires ludicrous speed?
As long as she doesn’t go to plaid…that would simply clash!
And lint is just … ewwww
DO you think her brains would go into her feet?
No, it just requires a Trojan Twister™.
she looks way better with curly hair anyway.
at least that’s my opinion. sal can keep her hair however she wants to keep her hair.
Maybe she likes how her raven straight hair shimmers in the sunlight??
Joyce sure does.
<__>
With her penis.
Everyone looks better with curly hair. Except for those chosen few who look awesome in dreadlocks, like me.
I prefer straight myself. Curly hair reminds me of clowns, which I am deathly afraid of, and dreadlocks, to me, looked silly.
Them’s fightin’ words.
I got your back, Yo.
Dreadlocks on their back? …. I am confused and awestruck and just a little eckked.
Hey, I’m sorry for that. It’s just that it does looked a tad silly but at least it’s not ridiculous like those weird punk hair whatchamacallit?
Them’s fightin’ words.
TAKE HIM DOWN DETHTOLL. I’m batman.
* twaps with a foam bat *
SNEAK ATTACK!
I dun seen a tall blonde gee ober in Sweedun det had Dreadlocks.
Whereas I, when I don’t buzz it all off, becomes a curly jewfro that makes me look like the unholy love child of Kelsey Grammer and Richard Simmons.
every man i’ve ever been attracted to has had a jewfro. frankly, i find it sexy.
WEAR DREDLOCKS MY BOY, YOU ARE ONE OF THE CHOSEN!
IT IS YOUR DESTINEY!!!!
And remember:
“One Word. One Word an’ y’all die.”
Jeepers? That’s a bit odd for walky.
I read it and the first thing I think of is the scene in the Hercules animated movie with Pain/Panic. “Jeepers? Mister?”
Jeepers went Post op. Its “Miss Jeepers” now.
I bet he was about to go more in the direction of holy saviors.
Ding ding!
Walky tries not to swear in front of his parents. He just barely caught himself.
He overcorrected. Shoulda settled for Jeez.
Jinkies would also have been a winner.
http://youtu.be/cpPR–SBJME?t=32s
I used to do the same thing. Throughout my teenage years, I was allowed to rent horror movies and watch South Park so long as I didn’t start copying the bad language. (I assume I wasn’t supposed to copy all the killing and sex as well, but it never came up).
I spent a lot of time either cursing in British (“Bloody”, “Bugger”, “Bollocks”, and other lovely terms my parents didn’t recognize as swears), or using fictional cursewords (“Smeg!”, “Zark!” “Frell!”)
Jeepers Creepers!
Jeepers, Mr. Kent!
“I’D HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT TOO IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU MEDDLING KIDS AND YOUR LOUSY ULTRA CAR!”
Where’s you get those peepers!
“Frell” is an awesome made up swear word.
Don’t forget ‘frak!’
Beat me to it.
But what about “Feldercarb”?
That’s “Felgercarb.” Don’t forget “Golmonging”, as long as we’re fleeing the Cylons.
Gordon Bennet!
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett-look-at-the-size-of-that-crab and their son Gordon Bennett-look-at-the-size-of-that-crab…
BRING ME THE HAIR-DO OF ALFREDO GARCIA!
And the Beatles’ White Album!
Bring me the shed of Alfredo Garcia!
There was a period of my life where my go-to words were the Japanese “chikusho” and “kuso.”
I’m going to guess this period of your life was concurrent with either high school or college.
Bam. Nailed it.
True story: there was a time in my life where I “swore” using “ack!” from Cathy, and my dad leapt down my throat because I was just substituting “ack!” for “damn” or “jesus christ”
That’s pretty strict. My parents actually used expressions like “Sam Hill”, (which got me in trouble on a school bus) or more often “gosh darn” to avoid swearing.
I thought smeg was a real curse word.
Do you mean “smeg” as in…smegma?
I remember when I was young and didn’t want to offend people so I invented a god just to swear by him. I think his name was Khakk.
It’s kind of weird seeing Walky not swearing by the Cheese.
I may just be blanking, but I can’t think of any swear words that begin with J?
Jeebus!
Was he about to say “Jesus”? I don’t think I’ve heard anybody refer to that as swearing except for super Christians
Counts as taking the name in vain …
Well, I’m getting the feeling he stopped himself from saying “Jeeze, Mom.”
Oh, sonofa… In the space between seeing his comment, and hitting reply, there’s like 5 other replies with my answer.
I’M JUST SLOW, FOLKS. -_-
I think it would be more of “JESUS CHRIST!”
Golly gee!
CLEVER
and am I?
omg
Damn
The random gravatar gods didn’t roll in your favour this time it seems.
Shoulda been Captain Jack riding a bomb.
It should always be Captain Jack riding a bomb.
I wish everyone would change their gravatars to Captain Jack riding a bomb
Smooth, Sal.
I like to think that these comics don’t take place concurrently, and during the whole time the drama with Amber and her dad was going on, the Walkertons were just staring at Sal in silence.
Also, it’s nice to see Linda not crazy. She is not crazy, right? Or is she just a lot better at hiding it than most of these parents have been?
She wants to find Dorothy because only an Alien would date her son.
“NO, you promised! Keep that duct tape and Sound of Music away from my son!!”
I don’t think she’s the same kind of crazy, at least.
Only in that she’s more interested in the girl her son is dating than her actual daughter who showed up on the scene. So, I guess just the usual sort of parental crazy.
It’s the type off crazy that wants grand kids….
I hope at least one person does that by the end, so far Joyce’s mom has been disappointing me.
Sal with curly hair makes me feel that her name should be… Brianna.
Am I the only one who thinks Mrs. Walkerton looks like an older Joyce, but without the blue eyes?
I 100% agree! Instantly thought of this when I first saw her…
That’s getting kind of oedipal.
Only if Walky hooks up with Joyce.
She really REALLY doesn’t want to be around them any longer than she has to.
I wouldn’t blame her. Last time they had a kid that was around them all the time it turned into Walky.
I don’t see the problem here.
…andd having Walky around = less McNuggets for her.
McNuggets killed America.
I thought Corporate Douchbagery killed America.
McNuggets caused 9/11!
And Iran/Contra, too, but nobody remembers that.
I thought they caused Teapot Dome?!?!
The Nullification Crisis as well, but that only comes up on AP US History tests.
I like the bow on Sal’s old school uniform.
It’s like the bow on a present.
The bow you take off just before unwrapping the present.
…and underneath that ‘wrapping’ is a ‘box’ full of ‘goodies’. 😀
….Oh! I get it!
You can blame my humour on the diet of 60s & 70s British sitcoms I was raised on.
And Saturday Night Live I presume.
Except for the odd video clip, I have never watched a single episode of SNL, mainly because they never played it on free-to-air Australian networks.
You animal, you!
Wait.
Down, boy. Down.
Your DOMitage is showing.
(not that I’m not lusting after her myself…)
So, Sal is NOT Walky’s girlfriend? Aw man… /sarcasm
I bet their parents will be dissappointed by the lack of two-headed, flipper-toed grandbabies in that particular future then. 😛
Adoption is a thing. But there are still a lot more reasons why Walky and Sal probably shouldn’t get together.
Yeah. They’re not very compatible.
Like the fact that Sal doesn’t share his love for Monkey Master for example.
And you know this how? I bet she watches it, just like she blares One Direction.
But, does she love fifty McNuggets?
But if they don’t mate with each other, the divine blood of the Pharoahs will be lost when mingled with that of mere mortals!
They call him Flipper! Flipper! Faster than lightning…
… and it gets posted further down than I expected.
No worries. Now it’s a brick joke.
Burger flipper? Too hot to stay put?
Now I’m imagining their two children look exactly like their parents as if their gene pool is some sort of crazy river that loops into itself.
Nah, you’re thinking of the Rosenthals.
OTP
Clever girl, but knowing Willis not clever enough, not clever enough at all.
The inherent ability of parents to see through bullshit will be revealed with the piercing comment, “Great, Sal, we’ll give you a ride.”
I think Charles might, Linda’s all ‘rar get the girlfriend’ but Charles seems kinda disappointed that Sal’s leaving so quickly. Walky is definitely Linda’s favourite, but I think Charles still cares for both his kids.
It’s not that Walky’s her favorite, it’s that she can’t come to grips with the laws of the universe changing so quickly. She needs visual confirmation.
Well, the Walkertons is taking Sal pretty well.
Don’t do it Sal!
Curly hair is very Sexy. 🙂
Well, Sal is good either curly or straight.
But curly enhances her already potent sexiness.
I just like curly haired Sal better, so shoot me.
(Don’t shoot me 🙁 )
Hey, I like’em both. So, no shooting required. Besides, I’m saving ammo for when the rage comes.
Huh. I honestly prefer the straight look myself. Mainly because I have a weird urge to touch her hair when it’s straight.
It probably looks awesome in the wind too. And when wet.
The curls suit her, but the ultra-long straight hair is even better.
In HS I had a thing for a girl who hadn’t gotten a haircut since the 4th grade, and had a ponytail down past her knees. It was pretty hot.
Long straight with drill-curls is pretty awesome looking in its own right.
I was so sad when my daughter finally got tired of long hair and cut it short. It was almost long enough to do in the Sailor Moon meatballs and pony tails
Way to completely blow off your daughter that you haven’t seen in years, bongo.
Well sal hasn’t told them she’s got a boyfriend(?)
Jason is less of a BF and more of a fuck-buddy.
So….friends then?
The best kind of friends.
Friends with benefits!
Unfortunately, the benefits don’t include good grades.
Friends with Benefactors!
I apologize profusely as I realize that this joke involves necrophilia. I’m sorry.
Also you’re welcome.
Wait, what? How is that a necrophile comment? Inquiring minds want to know.
I thought it was a funny play on words. But friends with benefactors are people who give special services to their friends after they are deceased.
More like a Fuck-douchebag.
Or a fuck-acquaintance.
A hate-fuck buddy.
Oh good, I was kinda hoping we would get to have straight haired Sal back, I agree with her dad she does look much better.
I hate to be that guy, but I can honestly say that Sal’s problems are pretty much the thing I am currently least interested in right now.
No seriously. I’m more concerned about Danny and his awkward “I broke up” conversations than this.
>Being even the slightest bit interested in Danny.
DANNY IS ALWAYS NEGATIVE INTERESTING. HE IS A BLACK HOLE FROM WHICH NO INTEREST CAN ESCAPE.
Oh c’mon, that’s just being mean. Besides, I thought Kevin Costner was the black hole of interest.
Yes. Kevin Costner would play Danny in the movie.
Wait, if no interest can escape, doesn’t that mean that he has ALL of our interest?
I think he’s more like the ever-replenishing anti-matter of interest. Whenever he comes into contact with it, it ceases to exist.
TL:DNR …. spinning black holes eventually evaporate.
Are you high? Our two most badass heroines (Amber and Sal) are now experiencing the family trauma that made them who they are. This is hype!
…Sal doesn’t have family trauma in the Dumbiverse, Sal has bad decisions that she made (i.e. being part of armed robbery) refuses to own, and a bottomless well of resentment towards parents who, in this universe, are probably a little scared both of and for her. Because she’s their daughter, whom they love, but she also committed a violent crime, which is hard to reconcile.
Her attempt at making things better is this self-aggrandizing Little Miss I Have My Shit Together Now routine, and it’s sad because its self-inflicted.
I disagree totally. Her Dad has been loving and welcoming, but her mum just totally ignored her, after sending her away to a prison-like school for years. I think all her problems are her mother’s fault, because she makes it so obvious that she prefers Walky.
I somehow don’t think Linda made the decision to send their daughter away to Catholic school in a vacuum. And, like, call me crazy, but I think the “prison” aspect was largely created by Sal’s own attitude towards the school!
Because she was sent to that school why again? Oh, right, because she decided to commit two armed robberies. As in, she pointed a lethal weapon at another human being and threatened their life.
I kiiiinda think maybe that’s the reason her mother can’t really find a way to talk to her just yet.
A thirteen-year-old kid doesn’t commit armed robbery as the result of a rational decision, she does it because she can’t see how life could get any worse. By sending her away to boarding school, her parents are clearly saying: “We’re not going to help you sort out your problems.”
If you think the prison aspect was all in her mind, I suspect you got your idea of boarding school from Harry Potter.
So, unless I missed it, we don’t know the details of the robberies, right? I happened to be reading back some of the archive, the morning after The Party while everyone was deciding what to do about Joyce being roofied, and Sal’s input makes it seem like there may be more to the story with the robbery.
As far as how Linda is treating Sal right now, Walky having a girlfriend is pretty huge news because, well, Walky is Walky, but Linda doesn’t even stop to say ‘Hi’ to her daughter or give her a hug or anything.
We know very little about it. I based the guess of Sal’s age on Walky saying he hadn’t seen her for five years, and assuming she’s eighteen. From the bit you mention after the party, I get the impression she feels she didn’t get a fair hearing from the authorities, but how much weight can you put on that? Walky said their parents sent her away, implying it wasn’t a court order, so maybe her role in the crimes was fairly minor. There are lots of possibilities.
To me the lack of greeting from Linda makes her a bad parent, no matter what Sal did. Love and support is what parents are for.
…Maybe a thirteen-year-old’s reasons for becoming involved with an armed robbery aren’t entirely rational, but they’re still a decision she consciously made. This isn’t like Amber’s situation. Committing an armed robbery, unlike abuse, is not something that happens to you. It’s something you do, of your own volition–even if it’s the tiniest amount of your own volition, it’s still something you’re actively doing, and that you could choose not to do.
Also, wtf? I didn’t say the prison aspect was exclusively in her mind, I said that the fact it was like prison was largely created by her own attitude. I’m sure it wasn’t fucking Hogwarts, it was probably strict as hell and unpleasant to be at, because I imagine its goal was to reform kids on a moral level, which Sal completely resisted. Which is what made it like prison, you see.
Now, granted, we don’t know all the details, and maybe she was just an accomplice. But, like, if I were in Linda’s shoes, and my kid had just been charged as an accomplice to armed robbery? I might turn to the idea of sending her off to a reform school, because what the fuck, the child who I love just was part of an armed robbery; this is something that needs to be fixed, and I’m not sure as a parent I could fix it.
Also I think it’s kind of ridiculous to assign this kind of weight and extrapolate this much from the single fixed point of Linda not saying “hello” to her daughter, but I’m extrapolating from the fixed point of Sal being part of armed robbery, so I guess I don’t have much room to talk.
I agree that we’re both extrapolating from far too little evidence, but on almost everything else, we can only agree to disagree. Of course she bears responsibility for what she did, but if you’ve never done anything you’ve later regretted after being swept along by the enthusiasm of others, I’m amazed.
Saying it was like prison only because of her own attitude is bullshit. People with positive attitudes have done great things in prison: made friends, written books, got degrees, but it’s still prison. They don’t have any choice about being there, and the opportunities are very limited. Sal could have had a great time if she had a vocation to become a nun.
Expecting five years of “strict as hell and unpleasant” life to reform a rebellious teenager is also bullshit. Parents send their children away because they can’t or don’t want to deal with them any more, not because they really think the place will magically turn them into well-adjusted adults. If anything, they hope it will terrify them into obedience, which is a strange definition of “moral reform”.
The robberies happened five years ago (according to Walky). If Linda hasn’t forgiven her daughter by now, she’s never going to. I don’t think she loves her at all.
Only thing I’m going to add is that Sal does seem to have a strong distrust of police/public officials. That could just be because of being involved with an armed robbery or her being a rebel, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole robbery issue wasn’t an instance of profiling or an officer with a grudge and it turns out Sal was wrongfully accused.
But, like has been said, we don’t know everything yet, so it’s hard to say.
Yeah, I agree. Out of everything that’s going on the above barely registers as an event. This family just isn’t all that interesting on their own without the aliens and explosions. They work best when playing off interesting people.
And just like that, Willis is trying to get Sal back out the door.
Or the window, as it were.
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see how, given the current circumstances, Sal could be doing anything other than trying to get out the door away from her parents without being written poorly.
All I can see in that first panel is Sal eating the airplane in the poster on the wall.
Kinda looks like she’s smoking it to me.
Thanks a lot, now I cannot unsee it. 😀
It’s remarks like that.
My brother and sister stopped talking to Mom a long time ago. I’m now certain that Mom didn’t understand what she sounded like.
While awkward, this seems like an accurate comic on many levels.
Walky looks absolutely horrified.
Seeing his sister like that is a terrifying prospect for Walky.
Huh, I have a gravatar, and that ain’t it. What’ll happen now, with this post.
In a nutshell, I feel bad for Sal.
‘K, bugger all happens. I prefer my gravatar icon, but I gotta say I like this one.
NO SAL. KEEP YOUR HAIR CURLY. EMBRACE THE NAPPINESS. http://nappyme.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/boondocks-hueys-hair-intervention2.JPG?w=517&h=201
Love the Boondocks!!!
YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS
All in all, Sal may always be a badass, but this adds a ton of dimension to her character. She’s even more likeable now.
Gah, I hate it when people go on about how great I look with straight hair. It’s fine for sometimes, but it takes forever to do, is bad for my hair, and it’s such a pain having to avoid getting it wet. It took me ages to get to a point where I was comfortable and confident with having lots of curly hair and now whenever people tell me that it looks bad and I should change it I feel like punching them in the face!
Does that mean that you wouldn’t mind their comments so much if keeping your hair staight was no trouble at all then?
gah, I can imagine.
In any case, all hair types are awesome, from curly to straight. Your hair is in all probability totally excellent.
I will never understand girls/women. The ones with straight hair spend all their time trying to make it curly, and the ones with curly hair spend all their time trying to make it straight.
I know I’m late, but: FAAAAAACE!
Why was it that Sal dislikes her parents? I don’t remember, and they don’t seem like completely awful human beings (*cough* Blaine *cough*).
She robbed two convenience stores so they sent her away the school whose uniform she’s currently wearing. This also resulted in Walky basically becoming their favorite, for obvious reasons.
We have no reason to believe that the favouritism was the result of the robberies. It seems much more likely to me that it was the other way round.
Seems most likely that perceived-but-not-actual favoritism might have been a causal factor, with any actual favoritism not occurring until afterwards.
Maybe, but it seems more likely to me that the favouritism was real, which is why they sent her away instead of trying to sort out her problems.
Or maybe they just make bad decisions and handle situations badly. That doesn’t imply favoratism. They hadn’t raised kids before and none of them have held up two convenience stores. You can’t expect all people to know how best to fix this situation.
No, do not let Sal escape so easily! She needs to spend more time in her family’s watchful eye. If for no other reason than she is going to start having nicotine cravings sometime in the very near future and she will be totally unable to do anything about it.
That and she looks best with this wavy mane. The hairstyle complements her giant ears.
No, Sal don’t go! We need you!
…Wait. If she leaves, she might run into Blaine. Go Sal! Be the Batman we all know you are! Become Amazi-Girl!
Be the Hero Indiana University needs, not the Hero it deserves 😛
Also, is what Sal’s father said offensive, or is that just me?
Only if you believe his perference for Sal to have straight hair is based on racism rather than personal aesthetics.
@ PM: Yours is probably the best answer.
Also, the result is that he’s supportive of her own preference, which is probably what David wants to convey here. Charles is the easy parent & Linda the difficult one. I suppose Charles’ would have reacted differently if Sal’s answer in panel 3 had been: “Yes! Do you like it?”
In retrospect the racism angle has been given more credence.
Not really offensive…no. He just liked her hair better straight, that’s all.
Nonsense. He’s just trying to establish a connection. He has curly hair. She has curly hair. They can Father-Daughter bond over their collective curliness.
Wait. He prefers it straight. Dang it, reading skills, you ruined another joke.
it certainly is laden with baggage
I was getting the feeling it was, at least, not something he probably should say, but I kinda passed it over as I feel it’s overshadowed by Sal’s mother’s almost complete dismissal of Sal even being there.
My grandma always used to go off on me because of my long hair, and me and my cousin because of having piercings, with her main contention being that ‘only women have long hair and wear earrings’ and that, because of having long hair, girls would never like me. So I think I might be slightly desensitized to hair criticism, but can definitely see it as being offensive (especially if there’s racial undertone?).
Oh ya back to this LIE!
Suddenly I am so glad of the relationship I have with my parents.
Sooo why is she cosplaying as asuka?
What? Who wouldn’t want to cosplay as Asuka…James?
Actually, if we’re talking about Asuka Langley-Soryu, then the uniform is blue with a red, thin, twisty-tie.
I never said it was a good cosplay of her.
She’s not. She’s cosplaying as Ceilidh MacFarlane.
Check my website link if you don’t know who that is.
I suspect most of the posters here know who she is. That webcomic holds legendary status to many.
Never heard of it.
Apparently you are not one of the many then. But seriously, if you are interested, follow the link in Volkai’s post.
You imply when her hair is natural she is not pretty. Way to go Charles. Make sure your daughter cannot be comfortable with her natural hair.
I’m pretty sure he’s just used to her hair being straight and honestly thought his daughter was pretty that way. And it sounds hypercritical because Sal is putting on a fucking martyrdom song and dance routine of “how hard must I work to please my parents???”
I like Sal, a lot, but I’m not on her side in this.
Personally, I thought she scheduled the appointment mostly so she’d have a legitimate excuse to avoid her parents. Not because she doesn’t love them, but because she doesn’t know how to interact with them.
You are assuming that this appointment actually exists.
I think it sounds hypercritical because it’s hypercritical.
Yeah, so hypercritical…’I like your hair the same way you like it, so it’s too bad it decided to go out of your control.’ What a monster.
He probably thinks it’s prettier straight because she looks more like her mother then.
Yikes that sounds weird. Even still though, if Sal wanted to look like her mom she’d need a serious haircut.
Uh Oh, seems like Sal’s dad needs to watch Chris Rock’s “Good Hair.” Or maybe he doesn’t care. I wonder if Sal feels that kind of baggage? She isn’t “high-yella.”
That entire exchange between dad and Sal was a blipvert of “Good and Bad Hair” from School Daze.
That’s the one I was thinking of. Her dad probably doesn’t even realize what he’s doing.
Doesn’t matter a whole lot what anyone thinks, Sal will wear her hair any way she pleases.
My vote, straight looks fantastic on her. Curly on her is cute, but cute ain’t Sal.
Read some background on the Walkertons, they are far from boring. At least in Roomies. Maybe here they are ‘normal’. Well, as normal as any of David’s parents are.
I like the sibling exchange in the first panel. Very… siblingy.
Yep this is exactly how my sister and I talk to each other. Even though she’s 37 and I’m 31 haha.
you all know not the bane of having long curly hair.
You’re making some large assumptions about a very large base of readers.
It’s more like they don’t know the bane of having kinky black hair in a very straight hair affirming world.
I grew up in the era of feathered hair. My hair would do no such thing. Even if you put actual feathers in it.
Casting another vote for straight hair.
I foresee awkwardness of Dorothy being uncomfortable with Walky in front of her parents.
Walky said “jeepers”? That’s awesome!
I’m gonna try to start using it in my everyday vocabulary now.
yeah, I got to chime in with, “this is kind of offensive, David”.
Even if he “honestly” thinks she looks prettier with more straight hair, there is still a huge cultural context of natural = ugly, so I really hope this develops into something and isn’t just left hanging. I trust you to handle these things with tact, David.
Well, this storyline has hardly cast any parent in the best of lights, so maybe be that’s the reason for making him say that, besides showing him as the only Walkerton parent that acknowledges their daughter in any way.
I agree that this wasn’t just dropped casually. I’m looking forward to the stories that develop, particularly if Sal’s issues with her parents come from dad’s preferential treatment to the kid who passes better.
I don’t know if the specific “straight hair” comment by David is supposed to have that much weight. To me, this seems more like a situation where Sal is trying to fit in with her family and be the good daughter; so far, she’s been ignored by her mother, and faced an implied criticism by her father (however well-meaning). It’s a straw that breaks the camels back, and she just wants out of an awkward situation.
I was going to say, “just because a character says something doesn’t mean the author agrees” (sorry if you’re referring to something Willis actually said I’m not aware of) but I just noticed this in his little twitter sidebar:
“Like maybe five people noticed how awful Sal’s dad was being in today’s DoA. My readership is pretty damn white, isn’t it.”
So I’m willing to bet he’s aware of the cultural context.
If that cut-off is anything to go by, her saying that is NOT going to go over well.
Blarg at that hair comment. Blarg blarg barf.
Wait, what! Why are we having a conversation about how much dad cares for Sal when he clearly put her down? She has natural hair – inherited from him, even – and he tells her that she’s prettier when it is straight. There is a ton of baggage in that, so let me spell it out:
a) Black women get a lot of crap about not being beautiful.
b) Black women are pressured to straighten their hair because their natural hair is considered inappropriate, unprofessional, etc.
In other words, black women are constantly told they are not beautiful in their own right and that they have to do expensive, damaging things to themselves to approximate the white woman beauty ideal. (Not that all white women meet the beauty ideal – I sure as fuck don’t – but that the beauty ideal is white, or at least light skinned.)
In short, while Dad is at least paying attention to Sal, the first thing he said to her (and not to both of his kids) was a put-down about her looks. That’s not good parenting folks. Both parents are a fail for Sal here, regardless of any mistakes she has made in the past.
Holy crap, never thought of that. I never looked into it much partly because it’s the nature of parents to criticize their kids, but I can see where you’re coming from. I’m curly haired myself and I like Sal’s straight look, but I never stopped to think how much of a hassle long hair is.
I think that just maybe you, and others, are reading too much into this. Maybe she does happen to look better in straight hair. Or maybe she prefers straight hair, and Dad is used to seeing her in straight hair.
I hate to bring up authorial intent, especially on a website where he interacts so much with his fans and can speak for himself, but I think Willis is well aware of the politicized nature of black women’s hair and wouldn’t put in something like this without thinking of that.
Agreed. Between the documentaries “Dark Girls” and “Good Hair” a bit of a broader light is being shined on why weave, and relaxers are so much a part of the picture.
Honestly, some pieces of both doco’s are on Youtube. Black hair chemistry is actually very different. A perm for straight hair is not the same thing as a perm for black hair. And if you have a lot of hair like Sal, it would be a complete pain to keep long and straight. Add a bit a moisture and it’s even worse.
So until David Willis says its not a thing, it can be speculated as a thing. Sal has nappy hair, and there is a crap ton of social baggage that goes along with it.
Something’s very fishy with the chemistry here. Like the parents combined are bipolar, and Sal and Walky are trying not to trigger an episode. They act mortally afraid, and the parents are oblivious to that.
Epileptic Tree: Have Amber and Sal interacted at all? I ask because we know that Amber was present at an armed robbery at a store (possibly of the convenient variety) and Sal robbed two convenience stores. Maybe Amber was present? Admittedly this would make it a very small world where Walky built C3-P0…
Is that dark curly hair at the top of panel three?
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/color/
Now it all falls into place. Sal’s parents genuinely care about her and want to avoid her being recognized by witnesses.
Here is the only time that Amber and Sal are onscreen (on panel?) together
At this point Sal is the only person on the floor Amber hasn’t seen before so it makes the most sense that she is reacting to Sal and not Billie
I’m starting to seriously miss Sal’s straight hair. XD
Ugh this made me cringe so bad. As someone with curly, wild hair I absolutely hate it when someone tells me “oh it looks better straight”. Screw you, I look fabulous no matter what.
Yes! Yes you do!
Seriously, people need to step off other peoples’ hair.
I really don’t get the racial/parental appeasement angles a lot of you are trying to hang on the curly-vs.-straight issue. The whole discussion is just a story device allowing for Sal to slip out, since she very obviously isn’t comfortable around her parents.
Considering some of the shit she has pulled in her past, she probably just has a very strained relationship with them and would rather avoid them than confront them.
It can be both.
Nope – my read is if Sal hadn’t wanted to see her parents and impress them that she has “changed”, she wouldn’t be there. But look, she showed up in going-to-church clothes, forced a smile, hoped it would work out, but there goes Mom ignoring her and Dad putting her down again and she doesn’t fight it. She gives up, decides it’s not getting better this time after all, and takes the first excuse to get out of there.
Again, I disagree. Having grown up with a parent I never really enjoyed being around/had much in common with, I can tell you definitely that putting in a brief appearance in clothing said parent would find appropriate and then leaving results in a lot less confrontation than just trying to avoid them completely. They eventually do find you and then it becomes a major production. Best to leave it to a ‘walk on roll’ than risk it becoming a ‘Greek tragedy’.
I hope Sal is telling the truth and she’ll be back to her normal hair soon. She looks too different like this!
She ‘scheduled’ an appointment and she’s ‘tardy’ all the time >_>
*reads waaaaaay too much into it*
To be fair, my curly hair likes to eat combs. And hands.
Like a Venus Fly Trap for stuffs.
Sal is putting a lot more effort into this than her parents deserve.
Than her mother deserves. Dad seems happy to see her.
If he was that concerned about not seeing the two of them together, he could have done something about it.
This looks at some of the issues with his comments on her hair. (In the UK, reports at the time suggested this may have been similar)
Agreed.
Yeeeeah, I’m thinking now it’s less to impress the parents and more to show off to Jason.
I’ll be wrong, but damned if my gut doesn’t think so.
Man, I HATE it when parents harp on their kids’ appearance (hygiene is different). And though I’m not black, I know that natural vs. relaxed hair can be a very touchy subject. Eesh.
Ouch. Ouch. I can’t tell whether it would be better to be straight-up ignored, like her mom does, or given nasty “compliments” like her dad. Her mom doesn’t even *acknowledge* her. But man, her dad. At least when you’re ignored, you’re not being guilt-tripped for leaving right after an insult.
When I’ve missed a few days, I get sad when I catch up.
Wait. What? I just started reading the comic archives yesterday… How am I already up to date???
Waaahhhhhh
For the record the reason why you see so many spotlighted black women with straight hair is because Curly hair is “not classy” is “messy” is “unkempt” and “unprofessional”. There was recently (its august 2014 when i’m posting this) a lawsuit due to the military trying to force women to use certain haircuts. the problem being that none of the approved hairstyles could be achieved with Natural black hair, meaning they’d have to literally spend Hours painfully or tediously “fixing” it.
anyways even black parents often try to get their daughters to “straighten” their hair because thats how you are “presentable”.
All of this is no doubt part of the contribution to her later freak out about Walky and Race that will come (i got spoiled on a blog promoting this comic which is why i am here and cant “put it down”)
Rereading these… Man, I forgot how many people went out of their way to defend the racist stuff in general and Sal’s parents in particular.