I’ve got that natural mohawk thing going, where the widow’s peak stays but the bits just above each temple pull back, and a spot on the back of the head. I need to find some photos of Grandpa, see how bad it’s gonna get.
The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry. I think everyone is required to read it at some point in high school English. Because it’s litterachur. By which I mean terrible, in that special kind of terrible that boards of education love to turn kids off of reading forever with.
Like most genetics, it’s way more complicated than just “mother’s family.” That has a lot to do with it, for a variety of reasons, but there are a number of studies showing that, if you’re father is bald, you’re several times more likely to go bald yourself, no matter what your mother’s family looks like.
Okay, gender studies has been brought up, Roz and Robin are present, all we need now is Leslie to show up and all the parent day drama will have been worth it.
Then it turns out Head Alien has been manipulating this universe all along, because that’s the only explanation I can possibly think of for why Sal would ever smile.
He great at sensing when episode of Monkey Master is on within a 3 mile radius, and being generally inept at recognizing and observing to social norms and courtesies.
I would argue that he recognizes them at least some of time. He just doesn’t see the point to most of them, and so ignores them unless he gets in trouble for it.
I’ve never understood how mothers transfer the hair gene since I’ve never seen balding women, only men. (not counting women cancer patients) My dad went bald, as did his dad, but my mom has all her hair and both her parents had full heads of hair when they died. (didn’t know my great-grandparents)
Doesn’t make sense that women pass on a gene that doesn’t affect them.
Balding happens to some women — it just doesn’t follow *male patterns.* You can call it thinning, in most women. But some lose so much hair that you can see most of their skull through the wisps and strands. And most of *those* women wear wigs.
It’s because baldness (as the studies show) is contained on the X chromosome. Men can only get an X chromosome from their mother, as their Y chromosome comes from the father.
Quite simply, baldness, like hemophilia, is, at least partially, controlled by recessive* genes on the X chromosome.
An illustration:
Assume a couple has 2 children, a boy and a girl (also assume neither is intersex nor trans).
Now, assume the mother’s father was a hemophiliac with a tendency toward baldness (and that both of those qualities are governed by a single gene, just to simplify the thought experiment**).
She will have gotten a defective X from him, and (again, for simplicity’s sake, we assume) a good one from her mother. Let’s assume, also that the father has a good X.
The girl will have gotten a good X from her father, so no matter which of her mother’s X’s she got a copy of, she will not express baldness nor hemophilia.
The boy on the other hand, will get a Y from his father, thus, if he gets Grampa’s bad X, instead of Gramma’s good one, he will go bald, and he will have hemophilia.
For the girl to express baldness and hemophilia, her father will have to have had those qualities (so she got a bad X from him) and have gotten grampa’s bad X.
Women DO experience baldness, BTW, it’s just rarer and even more likely to be hidden, and is more likely to be assumed to be due to illness or malnutrition, etc, than simple age.
* The dominant/recessive thing is very much oversimplified, but, a) again, trying to keep this as simple as possible, and b) I don’t really know enough to explain how it really works.
** It may or may not be true, but trying to find the current state of knowledge about that is more work than a simple thought experiment is worth.
And one more thing, since men get a Y chromosome from their father, they only get an X from their mother, meaning X-linked baldness can’t be passed from father to son. Same with the “warrior gene” associated with psychopathic killers.
Also, judging by this strip the Dean evidently has the patience of a saint. I can only imagine how much work Robin went through to make him disgruntled at the beginning of the scene.
Either he has the patience of a saint, or just as likely he’s dealt with quite a few students similar to Walky, and so just isn’t as fazed anymore. It depends on how he acts in the next strip.
Wait, I thought it was Leslie who was slut-shaming Roz, and the dean just made the point that you shouldn’t record yourself doing it inside the college dorms?
You’re half right. It was Joyce who slut-shamed Roz, but the Dean just shut it down to save the school’s rep. Leslie backed Roz’s right to express her freedom, but otherwise didn’t really do anything.
Regardless of who was doing it, I don’t really remember that Roz was all that ashamed. It seems to me her biggest concern was her mother threatening that continued conduct like that could derail the gravy train and she’d become an ex-IU student.
Right you are. I’ll eventually get these characters all straightened out as to who’s related to who (and how) and who’s shipping who. Shouldn’t take more than maybe another year….
You know (directed at everyone in this thread), there’s a link to the “roz” tag right at the top of the page, which provides an easy way to find those strips.
Dude, my parents forgot my birthday for 10 years…it was only when I was 15 that they actually remembered my birthday. What’s this have to do about lame birthdays? I don’t know.
Me, one birthday during high school I was suffering from a sinus infection AND I had ACT prep AND my mom forgot school let out early because of that so I had to wait for like half an hour for her to pick me up.
It could still be that without him DIRECTLY recognizing who they are. He could just recomend them by seeing their name on a list or something. He could’ve even had someone in his office do it.
I don’t think the dean’s intervention is all that necessary. It’s generally not all that hard for in-state students to get into that state’s public schools. Where I grew up, I think a 25 ACT or a 3.0 GPA would get you automatic admission. Not hard to believe Walky and Sal managing that.
To describe Walky, I think Ben Franklin said it best: “He’s smart enough to name a horse in nine languages, and yet ignorant enough to buy a cow to ride on.”
There are bald woman but they are more likely to wear wigs than men maybe? Also, fluffy hair permanents conceal some, and woman don’t follow the same bald pattern as men. I read all this somewhere. Got a junkyard mind, most stuff sticks.
Walky doesn’t need help from mom to be enrolled, he’s very bright, he just doesn’t work at it. Sal is another story, she works at what she wants and to hell with the rest of it. So maybe for her, yes.
I’ve known lots of smart people to hit a wall with college level math, when their real strength is in language-based fields. Likewise, a lot of science types — very smart — don’t have it easy in humanities courses.
Why drop the Y when you can drop the
BASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOONTZSSSSSSSSSOONZTSSSSSSOONZSSSSOONTZOONTZONTZOONTZOONTZOONTZ
I don’t understand what anyone sees in Walky. He has all the intelligence of a small community of shellfish and all the charm and wit of a drowned cigarette butt. To steal a line from Foghorn Leghorn: “That boy’s about as sharp as a sack of wet mice.”
Actually, it’s been stated in both DOA and the original Walkyverse that Walky is actually very smart. He’s just kinda lazy and doesn’t like the expectations that come with his intelligence, so he purposely plays dumb.
Of course, he also has the emotional maturity of a ten-year-old, so I suppose that’s something.
There was a friend of mine in college (whom we truly did, and still do, love to death) that the rest of our friend group would describe as “high Int, low Wisdom.”
I find him by far the most charming of the male characters. Danny, Ethan, Joe & Mike are people I would avoid (for different reasons), but Walky I can imagine hanging out with and having fun. Sure, he’s tediously childish at times, but he enjoys life without it being at other people’s expense.
I’ve been wondering that myself. Since this is the only Willis strip I’ve read, I don’t have any alt timeline information about him. I had really just assumed he was getting some kind of indulgence because of who he is in other universes, because in this one he’s just childish and irritating. IMO, of course.
Most american comedy is about people who are far, FAR more idiotic and irritating than Walky. It’s sort of a staple of the medium; if anything we’re getting off easy.
Personally I dislike him for his emotional immaturity. It’s one thing to like what you like and live how you want but he’s so immature and rude about it.
If they were real People Walky is the last male regular cast member I’d want to ever associate with.
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Yeah you’d be fine Walky, otherwise you’d be in quite the hairy predicament.
Hey, every man probably has a brush with the worry of early balding.
Hopefully his fears are receding, though.
That is the pattern, for most males.
It is hard to just brush away the fear.
I should probably comb through previous posts before replying though.
Nah, sometimes just plunking one at random is effective too.
And then everything goes grey.
God is good.
God is fair.
Some he gave brains.
Others, hair.
Thank you!
Wally has both
Maybe he should bring this up at the next gender studies class.
Seriously? Slut shaming is the answer to HALF of a quiz?
I put Slut Shaming for my name and got extra points.
so that’s why I got the wrong paper back
I agree. It should be at LEAST 94% of EVERY quiz.
(I think he might be exaggerating for dramatic effect)
Comedic.
Dromedaryic!
camels?
It may have been a quiz on slut-shaming.
That’s how I did so well on the SAT’s.
Slut-shaming Aptitude Tests?
The answer to the other half is “male academia.”
Walky is hard to miss. Unfortunate for his parents and Walkertons everywhere.
Walky is easy to miss provided he leaves you alone long enough for you to get the opertunity.
He’s even easier to miss if you’re too inebriated to aim properly.
Walky, stop reminding me of myself.
Wait, you are afraid of getting bald too?
And going grey prematurely. There’s family history of both, so I’m nervous.
I’ve got that natural mohawk thing going, where the widow’s peak stays but the bits just above each temple pull back, and a spot on the back of the head. I need to find some photos of Grandpa, see how bad it’s gonna get.
Man, I’ve been going grey since I was 7 years old…
Hair doesn’t drop off your head, it falls through your nose and ears.
And the other half of the quiz is answered by the words “male privilege.”
Check!
The only way to counter male privilege is with Man-Card theft.
What? Damn! Give it back!!!
I burnt my man-card when they asked me to sign up for an unjust war.
The War on Women, right?
2 words, BALD WALKY. 😛
Seen it already.
Where! I got to know!
Just imagine Walky’s hair isn’t there.
Mindblowing 0-0
Other universe, Walky shaved his head for a few strips until it grew back.
I don’t quite remember, that might only be in the paid strips.
No — I’ve seen it, and I haven’t checked those out, yet. It’s somewhere in *It’s Walky.*
Joyce and Walky actually. He sold his hair to buy a chain for Joyce’s pocket watch.
Incidentally, he plans on getting her a pocket watch for her birthday.
Huh. I think I actually read the story that originally came from.
The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry. I think everyone is required to read it at some point in high school English. Because it’s litterachur. By which I mean terrible, in that special kind of terrible that boards of education love to turn kids off of reading forever with.
bald where?
By Bald Walky, you mean his penis right? 😛
That’s right, he meant a “balled” Walky. (I’m so ashamed….)
Walky…..you did learn genetics in school, right?
What he’s saying is true. You get baldness from the female side of the family usually.
Regardless, I think Walky’s skintone means he is quite safe from Dean McHenry’s pattern baldness.
Linda’s not beige. Neither is Deany.
He’s just saying no matter WHAT he wouldn’t have gotten it from him. It’s completely hypothetical.
Like most genetics, it’s way more complicated than just “mother’s family.” That has a lot to do with it, for a variety of reasons, but there are a number of studies showing that, if you’re father is bald, you’re several times more likely to go bald yourself, no matter what your mother’s family looks like.
I find myself right now regretting having not taken a gender-studies class.
I find myself regretting all of Walky’s sentences.
Okay, gender studies has been brought up, Roz and Robin are present, all we need now is Leslie to show up and all the parent day drama will have been worth it.
And then Leslie squiggly smiles and everyone’s life is complete.
Then Joyce super smiles and everyone dies of cute.
Then Sal smiles (period) and everyone dies if shock.
Then it turns out Head Alien has been manipulating this universe all along, because that’s the only explanation I can possibly think of for why Sal would ever smile.
Maybe she’s ticklish.
What about ‘pretending to be from Avalon for her parents’ benefit”? It wasn’t *that* long ago.
A genuine smile, then.
Leslie may be too awesome for parents’ day to contain.
Walky: “I don’t know, but I hope we never have to find out”
Balding of Age: a new webcomic from David Willis, coming this fall.
Now I imagine it’s an alt universe where the parents are the college kids and the main cast is their parents
For a brief moment, I like Roz.
For a boxers moment, I like Walky.
For a thong moment, I like Billie.
For a commando moment I like Marcie.
For a New York Minute, everything can change…
So, Walky wear boxers? Good to know.
Boxers *and* briefs. He is Walky, after all.
Just wait for the multi-part story arc where he learns that Boxer-Briefs are a thing that exists.
For a boxer moment, you really want Amber. Did you see the uppercut that girl’s packing?
His name is Walky, but he’s not so good at the Talky.
Or, he’s great at it, I can never tell.
He great at sensing when episode of Monkey Master is on within a 3 mile radius, and being generally inept at recognizing and observing to social norms and courtesies.
I would argue that he recognizes them at least some of time. He just doesn’t see the point to most of them, and so ignores them unless he gets in trouble for it.
I think he’s just screwing with his mom’s old squeeze and the Dean of his university at the same time. I can’t say I wouldn’t be tempted.
AgentKeen: But for Dotty’s say I hope he is good at the Porky. 😀
say=sake
He is better at it close to the end of joyce and walky
I’ve never understood how mothers transfer the hair gene since I’ve never seen balding women, only men. (not counting women cancer patients) My dad went bald, as did his dad, but my mom has all her hair and both her parents had full heads of hair when they died. (didn’t know my great-grandparents)
Doesn’t make sense that women pass on a gene that doesn’t affect them.
All the women in my family are balding.
There ya go.
They wear wigs. Cuz women don’t like being bald.
There are just somethings that just raises too many questions.
Balding happens to some women — it just doesn’t follow *male patterns.* You can call it thinning, in most women. But some lose so much hair that you can see most of their skull through the wisps and strands. And most of *those* women wear wigs.
It’s because baldness (as the studies show) is contained on the X chromosome. Men can only get an X chromosome from their mother, as their Y chromosome comes from the father.
Quite simply, baldness, like hemophilia, is, at least partially, controlled by recessive* genes on the X chromosome.
An illustration:
Assume a couple has 2 children, a boy and a girl (also assume neither is intersex nor trans).
Now, assume the mother’s father was a hemophiliac with a tendency toward baldness (and that both of those qualities are governed by a single gene, just to simplify the thought experiment**).
She will have gotten a defective X from him, and (again, for simplicity’s sake, we assume) a good one from her mother. Let’s assume, also that the father has a good X.
The girl will have gotten a good X from her father, so no matter which of her mother’s X’s she got a copy of, she will not express baldness nor hemophilia.
The boy on the other hand, will get a Y from his father, thus, if he gets Grampa’s bad X, instead of Gramma’s good one, he will go bald, and he will have hemophilia.
For the girl to express baldness and hemophilia, her father will have to have had those qualities (so she got a bad X from him) and have gotten grampa’s bad X.
Women DO experience baldness, BTW, it’s just rarer and even more likely to be hidden, and is more likely to be assumed to be due to illness or malnutrition, etc, than simple age.
* The dominant/recessive thing is very much oversimplified, but, a) again, trying to keep this as simple as possible, and b) I don’t really know enough to explain how it really works.
** It may or may not be true, but trying to find the current state of knowledge about that is more work than a simple thought experiment is worth.
In other words, women need both Bald-Xs to be bald, men only need one Bald-X.
To sum up, yes.
Science sure is fun. ^_^
And one more thing, since men get a Y chromosome from their father, they only get an X from their mother, meaning X-linked baldness can’t be passed from father to son. Same with the “warrior gene” associated with psychopathic killers.
Wally’s survival instincts are defective. Way to piss off *your Dean,* dude.
Walky’s survival instincts are just as bad.
Damn auto-correct!!
Don’t worry, his nepotism powers will save him.
Also, judging by this strip the Dean evidently has the patience of a saint. I can only imagine how much work Robin went through to make him disgruntled at the beginning of the scene.
You have a point, there, Wack’d. Or two points, to be accurate.
Either he has the patience of a saint, or just as likely he’s dealt with quite a few students similar to Walky, and so just isn’t as fazed anymore. It depends on how he acts in the next strip.
Wait, I thought it was Leslie who was slut-shaming Roz, and the dean just made the point that you shouldn’t record yourself doing it inside the college dorms?
Leslie was all for her expressing her sexuality. I can’t imagine Leslie slut-shaming anyone.
Well, other people had done it for her…..or she really hated shaming people of any kind?
Pretty sure it wasn’t Leslie doesn’t seem like something she would do, Pretty sure Robin who was slut shamming.
You’re half right. It was Joyce who slut-shamed Roz, but the Dean just shut it down to save the school’s rep. Leslie backed Roz’s right to express her freedom, but otherwise didn’t really do anything.
Does anyone have a link to the comic?
Just follow the “dean mchenry” tag – it’s where he has been last seen before yesterday’s comic.
Regardless of who was doing it, I don’t really remember that Roz was all that ashamed. It seems to me her biggest concern was her mother threatening that continued conduct like that could derail the gravy train and she’d become an ex-IU student.
Sorry, it was the Dean who was dropping the unveiled hint that she could be bounced from the student body.
Robin is Roz’s sister, not mother.
Right you are. I’ll eventually get these characters all straightened out as to who’s related to who (and how) and who’s shipping who. Shouldn’t take more than maybe another year….
So, another week in comic time then.
Dosent help the shiping is difernt between the difernt comics with the same charaters
You know (directed at everyone in this thread), there’s a link to the “roz” tag right at the top of the page, which provides an easy way to find those strips.
Aw, what an anti-climactic strip. Lame birthday. D:
Dude, my parents forgot my birthday for 10 years…it was only when I was 15 that they actually remembered my birthday. What’s this have to do about lame birthdays? I don’t know.
I got a head wound on my birthday once. Got tackle-hugged straight into the metal dividing rail on a set of cafeteria doors.
Yeesh, perspective is a humbling thing.
Me, one birthday during high school I was suffering from a sinus infection AND I had ACT prep AND my mom forgot school let out early because of that so I had to wait for like half an hour for her to pick me up.
My brother got spanked on his birthday once. His second birthday, to be specific. Of course, he had just set fire to the living room…
I’m surprised. I figured Linda’s connection to the dean was what got Little Miss Felon and her socially unusual brother enrolled here.
It could still be that without him DIRECTLY recognizing who they are. He could just recomend them by seeing their name on a list or something. He could’ve even had someone in his office do it.
I’m guessing that Walky got in because of his good grades what with him being a Brilliant but Lazy person and all.
How is Walky socially unusual?? (Okay, other than the pajama pants…)
He’s more childish than socially unusual.
I don’t think the dean’s intervention is all that necessary. It’s generally not all that hard for in-state students to get into that state’s public schools. Where I grew up, I think a 25 ACT or a 3.0 GPA would get you automatic admission. Not hard to believe Walky and Sal managing that.
Walky could, he apparently gets straight A grades without trying.
To describe Walky, I think Ben Franklin said it best: “He’s smart enough to name a horse in nine languages, and yet ignorant enough to buy a cow to ride on.”
There are bald woman but they are more likely to wear wigs than men maybe? Also, fluffy hair permanents conceal some, and woman don’t follow the same bald pattern as men. I read all this somewhere. Got a junkyard mind, most stuff sticks.
did you read the part about perms in the 80s
Way to keep thoughts internal, Walky.
Walky doesn’t need help from mom to be enrolled, he’s very bright, he just doesn’t work at it. Sal is another story, she works at what she wants and to hell with the rest of it. So maybe for her, yes.
Work for it? I guess we could call screwing the teacher’s assistant under the assumption he’d improve her grade could be called working.
To be fair, she DID actually study and try to learn the material; it just wasn’t sinking in.
I’ve known lots of smart people to hit a wall with college level math, when their real strength is in language-based fields. Likewise, a lot of science types — very smart — don’t have it easy in humanities courses.
Internal Monologues and Walky do not mix.
I wish Roz wore her condom hat in this strip; it would have been so perfect.
She could headbutt the Dean with it.
Like the rare condom unicorn she is.
She only wears that on holidays and special occasions.
Like Margaret Sanger’s birthday.
Wow, Wally must really want to fight the dean.
And Walky will help him!
Curse, my phone has betrayed me again. *shouts to sky* DAMN YOU AUTO CORRRRRRRRRECT!!!!
There’s a typo in the hover over text. You need to drop the y.
You’re looking at a cached version of the page. Typo was fixed an hour ago!
Why drop the Y when you can drop the
BASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOONTZSSSSSSSSSOONZTSSSSSSOONZSSSSOONTZOONTZONTZOONTZOONTZOONTZ
I miss cooking with Skrillex, it was a great meme.
Man I keep running across “Dave Willis is a jerkface” links and they just bring me here. Already know how to get here.
I don’t understand what anyone sees in Walky. He has all the intelligence of a small community of shellfish and all the charm and wit of a drowned cigarette butt. To steal a line from Foghorn Leghorn: “That boy’s about as sharp as a sack of wet mice.”
Actually, it’s been stated in both DOA and the original Walkyverse that Walky is actually very smart. He’s just kinda lazy and doesn’t like the expectations that come with his intelligence, so he purposely plays dumb.
Of course, he also has the emotional maturity of a ten-year-old, so I suppose that’s something.
Going by this strip, said intelligence seems like an Informed Ability.
You can be very intelligent from a facts and information standpoint and still be very emotionally immature.
Or, for all the D&D players in the audience: Intelligence and Wisdom are different stats.
Getting a good zinger in on the Dean: maybe intelligent, not real wise.
(And then there’s Charisma, which lets you deliver the zinger such that the Dean laughs with you.)
There was a friend of mine in college (whom we truly did, and still do, love to death) that the rest of our friend group would describe as “high Int, low Wisdom.”
Walky is awesome
I find him by far the most charming of the male characters. Danny, Ethan, Joe & Mike are people I would avoid (for different reasons), but Walky I can imagine hanging out with and having fun. Sure, he’s tediously childish at times, but he enjoys life without it being at other people’s expense.
Jason, on the other hand, is awesome. Though he apparently likes the idea of losing his job.
I’ve been wondering that myself. Since this is the only Willis strip I’ve read, I don’t have any alt timeline information about him. I had really just assumed he was getting some kind of indulgence because of who he is in other universes, because in this one he’s just childish and irritating. IMO, of course.
Most american comedy is about people who are far, FAR more idiotic and irritating than Walky. It’s sort of a staple of the medium; if anything we’re getting off easy.
Personally I dislike him for his emotional immaturity. It’s one thing to like what you like and live how you want but he’s so immature and rude about it.
If they were real People Walky is the last male regular cast member I’d want to ever associate with.
I’m just so happy to see “romantic autonomy” and “slut-shaming” discussed in comics. Seriously. I am so happy.
Walkyyy, that’s not how genes work!
METAL GEAR? INFERIOR/SUPERIOR = RECESSIVE/DOMINANT
METAL GEAR!
Couldn’t help being reminded of that. I kinda want to (find someone to) draw Walky as Liquid Snake now.
Therefore Sal must be Solid Snake and thus my arch-nemesis.
I can imagine her dressed as Solid Snake. She’s already got the colour scheme and smoking habit. Also, Walky can go around yelling “SSISTERR!!”
I admire walky’s ability to make meeting his mom’s ex as awkward for that guy as it must be for him. Without, I’m sure, even trying.
So Linda used to be called Linda McHenry? What was her maiden surname?
Mitchell.
Not related to today’s strip, but to Ethan’s situation, I just saw this article on Slate. Upcoming plot twist, Mr. Willis?
Gotta love Walky. He’s just a cute troll.
My brain suddenly started shipping Walky/Roz while I was distracted.
You get used to it after a while
OK this is hilarious. Never get a brain-mouth filter David. Never ever. It wouldn’t be you.
You can tell Linda knows her son well, she just plows through his statement in the first panel.
Punch him in his FAAAAAAAAACE!
Wait, wrong comic.
Woo, archive binge complete! Great comic so far, and looking eagerly forward to its continuation 🙂
…ONE OF US…ONE OF US…ONE OF US…
No, Walky, it doesn’t work that way. My mom’s family has great hair, my dad’s family is bald, and my brother is losing his hair.
Actually, he WAS right. By gene, I’m sure he meant the X chromosome, which indeed does contain the gene for hair.
That isn’t entirely accurate, though in a way I guess.
Well, you know what they say about big noses…