Tomorrow’s strip is a good time for Dad to be a campus shooting victim. Just pretend the guy at Purdue is still on the loose, and picks off Amber’s dad for a getaway car.
It’s never a good time for anyone to be a campus shooting victim. Besides, if you’re going to punish the man do something a bit more permanent than death, eh?
I’d finish this up by saying all the guy needs is a little love but…frankly hard to see at this point. I just hope Amber deals with him in a way that get’s him far away.
Now THERE’s a man that is, whether or not their existence is accounted for or not being irrelevant, MUCH too preoccupied with his own balls.
(Is there such a thing as verbal overcompensation?)
Funnily enough, I’m amused by the fact that he’s just staaaaarting to catch on.
This is Blaine’s most successful impersonation of a human yet (I guess it helps that he thinks his brilliant plan to pretend Amber is still scared of him until she becomes scared of him again is totally working). And his little web of lies STILL is just barely good enough to deceive Danny.
I probably shouldn’t be this confident: Blaine could do some serious damage to Danny if he really catches on that his current tactics are out of date– and no, I don’t want to see Danny hurt, and neither does Amber. And maybe (probably) some little part of her is still afraid of him– she certainly loses control around him. But so far at least, Blaine’s hateability is rivaled only by his inability to accept any reality that means his influence might be declining. He’s running out of time to wise up.
Many abusers achieve their results by grinding their victim down. Doesn’t matter if they break free once, twice, a hundred times. If the abuser keeps pushing, and they finally let them back in, the abuser has won. Blaine’s tactics can be incredibly effective.
not to mention how he’s pulling the “This was your idea” thing on Danny, trying to absolve himself of any blame or responsibility. That guy needs a heaping helping of the Flying Justice Clothesline™.
Effective as they may be, ALL tactics have a chance of failure, and Amber seems dead set on slamming the door right on Blaine’s face, lock it up, and throw him down to the bottom of the ocean.
…
Too graphic?
Assuming, of course, he doesn’t default to taking Amber down with him via pressing assault charges, playing Danny and/or her Mother against her or whatever it takes to get her arrested or at least expelled, when they lock his ass up again…Next logical step for trash who use their nuclear families to achieve power validation that’s otherwise out of their league, no?
He might think that would work, but it can’t. He committed a few too many crimes to go to the police, even if the witnesses were cooperative.
Danny’s only cooperating because he’s being deceived, and he’s already figured out that something is off. He certainly wouldn’t back Blaine up in court, and he wasn’t a witness when they fought anyway. Everybody else is definitely on Amber’s side.
Oh hey, you said he’d do that after he gets arrested himself, which means his own crimes are already out there and the reason not to go to the police is gone.
Still, there’s a limit to how much he can manipulate Danny here. In person, Danny may be useful, but certainly not as a witness.
I think we’re long due for a new poll. Perhaps something about Walky Performs a Sex…? I’d like to know what readers think about it before I get my credit card out.
There’s so much free porn (good free porn too) out there that I haven’t looked at. My cheap self thinks it a disservice to myself and my wallet to pay for something I could easily get for free.
I mean… no. Sorry, ugakicka, that’s really quite rude, think what you like but why would you do it HERE? WPaS is terrific and I’m thrilled to finally have an AMAZING reason to pay for the slipshine service.
You have a nasty habit of twisting people’s words the wrong way. My cheap ass could have found a way around your Joyce and Walky payment thing, but I thought you deserved the money and paid for it. Just because I don’t pay for your porn doesn’t mean your work isn’t worth paying for.
Also their prices are quite high. Especially since I’d only use it for one thing.
I think it’s also worth noting that if you choose to create a form of art that competes in a crowded and free marketplace that your work is actually not worth much by virtue of where it competes, regardless of skill put in or resulting quality. It’s just basic supply and demand and smut happens to be as common as sand on the beach.
Personally I place zero value on smut because it seems to do me harm. I do view it from time to time, but I wish I didn’t since it worsens my social anxiety.
I’m trying to think of a form of art that doesn’t exist in a crowded and free marketplace and I’m kind of coming up short. I feel like that’s more of a convenient excuse to scapegoat smut than anything profound “worth noting.”
Likewise, I’m pretty sure my smut work IS worth much because I sold it for hojillions of dollars and it did so well that I was commissioned for more within a few hours. There’s clearly some fuckin’ value. So to speak.
Quite honeslty I find your art is great for a webcomic series and I buy your books, but, well, I do not find it quite worth my money with regards to smut. I simply dont find the art style either arousing or the content interesting enough to justify the cost and Ive seen some of the stuff that is otherwise offered on that website and im not impressed. I hope you do make money on it but really I think the smut was a mistake.
I’m wracking my brain trying to understand the purpose of these posts (well, maybe not, but still, I am confused). If I logged onto every webcomic page from which I was not buying something just to tell the person making the art that I didn’t want to buy it, I’d be spending all my time doing that. And be an a##hole.
People have been drawing other people performing a sex since the first cave men figured out they could draw on cave walls. Get over it people!
I’m not really interested in it and I’m not buying it, but my lack of interest doesn’t seem like a reason why making it was a mistake. I’m also not sure why anybody would care what I didn’t buy. If I bought it and it disappointed me, sure, but not that I didn’t buy it in the first place.
There are lots of things that I haven’t bought.
Im sorry if I wasnt clear, I wasnt trying to say is that the content wasnt enough to make up for the disconnect between the art style and the content. Really if you had used a different art style that worked better for smut I might of bought still bought it. Im not saying change it for me but that if you were to make another comic like it that you might consider a different art style for it. Im sorry if this seems stupid to you but I figured I might as well make my poitn and you ignore it rather than not make a my point at all.
Now that I’m fully awake and can think clearly, let me clarify. Willis’s work is wonderful, but as I work for Walmart and am trying to get through college on my own dime, I cannot justify making that significant an investment on anything, no matter how good. I bought the Joyce and Walky subscription after doing an odd job I took on just for that purpose (which was amazing, btw).
Willis, don’t assume I meant ill. I most certainly didn’t. Not everyone on the internet is a jerk.
I am mostly confused over your choice of the word “morals” in this context. I mean, my budget is too tight for smut ATM as well, but that does not make not spending money on porn a moral concern :\
Yeah, but there’s free porn from artists you can’t choose (mainly live-action, which is okay) and porn you pay for from fantastic artists (which can be amazing!). Some examples are from the creator of Red String-where I have two of her ‘mature’ books, and Rosalarian. I’m also female so I might be a bit biased on this, but if that’s your policy then you are missing out on some amazing stuff.
My policy is if the free stuff is good? The paid must be amazing. And it is.
I have never paid for porn either, but then again, I don’t even watch free porn; not because of any anti-porn moral stance, but simply because I’m rather prudish by nature. What interests me with WPaS, however, is that it involves characters I’m emotionally invested in, not just some nobodies who got paid to show their private parts.
It’s the emotional investiture in the characters that makes me want to consider buying it, for the same reason I bought the paid Joyce and Walky content. If Slipshine offered it as a one-off charge without access to the rest of the site, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Willis, do you have any plans to include this story with the print collections?
I do not. Reprint rights belong to Slipshine, plus I wouldn’t put it in a collection anyway. Many places I bring my books to sell are skittish about, y’know, hardcore pornography.
Yeah, but the specific nature of their complaints seems to bode well. I have to figure “not worth it” means it’s not just 17 pages of hardcore banging.
Well written, well drawn, good character interaction, and sexy. Willis is good at cartoons and it turns out this extends to porn. I found it well worth the price by itself, and who knows, you may find some other stuff on there interesting.
Danny, follow the thought to the logical conclusion. This feels like a ballsy move. You don’t think you would have made it. Something feels off. Blaine is trying to convince you that it’s your idea. He’s manipulating you! He’s manipulating you and this is a bad idea!
But hey, you may not be as smart as Lois, she definitely would have figured this out, but at least you may get to be rescued by your girlfriend/ex-friend.
But did she deliberately do them, or did she Dan her way into them?
Also, given the long history of comics, I don’t feel terribly bad basing Lois on the versions that I’ve seen: Lois and Clark, DCU, the modern Lois, all of whom are way too smart to fall for this.
I don’t see the difference between deliberately doing something and Danning it. Dan deliberately makes choices, but they’re dumb choices. Lois deliberately made dumb choices.
Also, I was kind of using the early incarnations as a parallel, since this is the first incarnation of Amazi-Girl having a Lois Lane. Maybe a Steve Trevor would be a better comparison.
“I think why you have to be hapless idiot, Danny? Why can’t you be more like smart character? Then I have ‘moment of clarity’. If Danny is smart character, who will get manipulated by love interest’s evil father? And I say Danny, you are total idiot, but that does not mean you are ‘total idiot'”
Right? Lot’s of room for character development there. Just them, riding around the country, going on morally questionable adventures having to do with kidnapping and hurting the people they love. It’s like Breaking Bad, but more depressing and with alt text!
The way Willis has created Blaine, it’s not so much as “can barely stand” another person as “sees another person, not as human, but as object to be manipulated.”
I don’t know if anyone else brought this up for another strip, but I just want to throw it out there: Danny is doing essentially the same thing Sarah did with Dana. It’s just that Dana, hopefully, had a better dad.
What MM said. There isn’t much comparison; Dana was having a very hard time coping with the death of a family member; the family member Amber is having hard time coping with is still alive and harming her… There’s an arguable justification for what Sarah did, and very little arguable justification for what Danny’s doing.
Also, we don’t quite know what Blaine told him they’re doing. Really, anything, besides “she’s going to meet us in this car in the rainstorm.”
Except Danny doesn’t have any idea that Amber’s distress is from her father at all. He has absolutely no reason to believe anything other than lines he’s being fed by Blaine at all. Except for a general sense of “this is wrong” that he’s obviously feeling.
Remember folks! Danny does not have the same wealth of knowledge we have.
SArah gave what’s her face time. Lots of it. She kept giving her rope until her midterms came in and she was clearly not doing better. Sarah knew her roommate considerably better than Danny knows Amber. Seriously, this is a comparison that only seems valid at the surface.
Yeah, but the fact that Amber lives with her mum (which Danny knew) and did NOT mention her dad at all should have tipped off that there MAY be something wrong with her dad.
People that spend time with both parents would have mentioned both, just that things didn’t work out between them.
However, that itself shouldn’t have made Danny think Blaine was a bad person as it could have been that they just had a falling out at the time so she didn’t want to talk about him, it should have made him wary though.
And a wary person would be picking up the warning signs (wanting to meet outside of the college limiting witnesses, asking to borrow his phone to call her, still being willing to meet in the rain which happens to limit witnesses further…).
But Danny is overly trusting/oblivious.
Which is why if Blaine was a serial killer, Danny’d be deader than dead.
I’m not saying Danny is doing the correct thing here, but I really think it’s not fair to fault him. Everyone always wants to blame someone; the idea that there isn’t seems to bug people to the core.
Also, I don’t think Amber ever talked about her parents at all to Danny. The most she told anyone about her family situation was Dina.
But there is someone to blaim in this situation, Blaine. He’s the bad guy here, easily the most evil person in this comic continuity (assuming Dexter is just a cartoon character and Willis isn’t planning on pulling a Daring Do on us)
Danny has screwed up, yes, but he is picking up on those hints. He’s outright saying so in this comic.
He hasn’t fully figured everything out yet, but he’s noticed that something is wrong.
I officially gave up all hope for the guy when he bought Billie’s stupid Sal-is-Amazi-Girl theory. He has lowered my expectations so far that the weird things that live at the bottom of the Marianas Trench think it’s too deep and dark down where my expectations for Danny are.
He’s strangely more tolerable when any action that isn’t the dumbest possible thing he could do in any given situation is a pleasant surprise. He can never let me down again.
Kernanator, this is an intervention. You need to get out of this abusive reader/character relationship.
Danny will never be a good character to you. He will always Dan everything up and you can’t change him. Even Willis can’t !
Well, Dan, between this present situation and that thing this morning with Sal….if you do run out of balls, you could always try switching over to brain power since YOU HAVEN’T USED ANY YET TODAY!!
His brain power probably got used up during that awkward as hell conversation with his parents when they found out that Dorothy dumped him and he hadn’t told them. It tried to think of too many excuses too fast and just shut itself down. Poor bastard, he’ll need another day or so to really reboot.
Yeah, this storyline caused me to remember something that happened a very long time ago when a good friend confronted an abusive parent. Thankfully I was not stuck on the parent’s ‘side’ as I already knew he was bad news. But, I do remember the immediate aftermath. Things didn’t go red so much as black and white or something. Scary. Thanfully no one was hurt. These things are NOT good news. Like someone said earlier, at some point the adrenaline kicks in and then it’s kind of autopilot after there, or something.
And I wasnt even the one in the abusive situation.
Regarding Walky Performs A Sex… I’m just wondering if it’s available/going to be available off Slipshine. I have no problem.paying for access, but have no real interest in subscribing to Slipshine as a whole.
If Danny back out here, Blaine has no hostage. He needs to keep Danny there so he can have leverage. Therefore, “Danny” had the idea, and it wouldn’t be “right” to back out of it, right in the middle. At least stay and say hello to Amber. Y’know what? Give me your number, I’ll call you and tell you how it went.
The mind of a manipulator. I enjoy smart characters. Yet, I despise people with far too much pride.
Screw Blaine.
“So, I’m sitting in a car with a complete stranger that just bought me dinner. Now I’m talking about my balls.”
Even if Blaine wasn’t a [series of belligerent, semi-coherent swears edited for space] this would still be creepy. I came up with a metaphor to explain the creepiness, but I had to delete it because I feel like even typing it out was tempting the banhammer.
Anyway:
“Hi, I’m Danny. Sure, I loaned someone my phone, and then preceded to sit in the passenger’s seat of their car–inches away from them–while they made a phone call to a mutual acquaintance. Yeah, I guess it’s true that there is “no way” I could have possibly missed him threatening her when he was talking to her, on my phone, inches away, in his car.
Yeah, I can see why you’d think that this extremely uncomfortable social situation would put me on high alert, especially when the only familiar piece of ground is my phone, that he is talking into. To a person I know and care about.”
It’s a parent. Parents are supposed to be trustworthy. And Amber has been concerning him recently. He’s worried about her. And parents are supposed to be trustworthy.
Plus, if the bit of his and Blaine’s conversation earlier is any indication, Blaine’s a pretty smooth liar and Danny’s definitely a bit of a dope so the sirens definitely wouldn’t be going off.
Maybe it’s me, but I still wouldn’t get into a car with a stranger, especially since it’s clear to Danny that something is not right. If my gut is telling me that a situation is hinky, I tend to listen to it. I really don’t care if the stranger is a friend’s parent.
Well, Danny tends to believe things without questioning too much apparently. That irks me. I know someone like that. Other people joke that she would get into a stranger’s van if the person had a puppy.
Oh wow. I know Blaine is an abusive father who’s trying to attack his daughter through her friends, but now he’s stuck in a car with Danny forced to make awkward conversation with an idiot. I’m not sure if I feel glad he’s getting some karmic justice or sad that he’s a position no poor bastard should ever have to suffer through.
I think I have a handle about why a lot of comment lines (especially those concerning Danny) bug me so much. I see trend in which people with an amazing outsider’s perspective get angry for characters for not seeing things clearly. For example, Danny not seeing that Blain is a piece of garbage. Contextually, though, he has no reason to think this. If he’s anything like me, he assumes the parents of his friends are decent people without otherwise noted. And he’s eighteen! I was all kinds of stupid at eighteen. I’m not saying people aren’t entitled to their comments and rants, just keep in mind that these characters are well written enough that they deserve a little more benefit of the doubt than I think people usually give them.
Absolutely! Amber’s dad is a practiced abuser who is apparently VERY good at manipulating people INCLUDING EXPERIENCED ADULTS and Amber hasn’t told Danny anything about him! I know that she wants to hide how awful her dad is, and doesn’t want to talk about him/relive bad events but if you as someone who’s survived abuse don’t give your friends a heads up about what’s dangerous to you (whether that’s specific people, or situations/triggers, or what) it is NOT THEIR FAULT when they do something that harms you. Danny’s kind of a chump, but he’s being manipulated by someone who’s apparently good at what he does, and it’s not fair to blame him for that. (As someone who’s lived through abuse, I’ve had to have conversations with loved ones about stuff that bothers me. They are frequently stressful, but have always paid out.)
Also, I think it’s sweet that Danny wants to take her out for pizza and tell her she’s funny and pretty. That sounds like a nice time, quite frankly, and something that she could use.
What you wrote kind’o reminded me about a test my psychiatrist gave me once, as part of a screening for autism (turns out I score around 20%, just below aspberger, and within “normal” range). He showed me a matchbook, and shook it so I could hear the matches rattle around inside. Then he asked me what I thought was inside the box. Of course I assumed it was a trick question, but since I had no other information I answered that I couldn’t know but it was probably matches. Then he showed me that it was, in fact, full of pins. Then he asked me “If [name of a friend] were to come in here now, and I asked him the same question, what do you think he would answer?” I answered that he’d probably say something like me. Supposedly, a person with a higher level of autism/aspberger would’ve answered “pins”, because they have a problem separating the knowledge they possess and the knowledge other possesses. No, I’m not claiming that most of the commenters here are aspies or anything, but written communication over the web does tend to temporarily raise everyone’s collective autism quotient. So maybe that’s what going on here, with the Danny-stility that so often surfaces here.
As other replyers to this comment has said, Blaine has YEARS of experience convincing strangers he is a good man. Between his years with Amber’s mom and as Amber’s dad, he knows how to pretend to not be the scum of the earth. And as you say, Danny is 18 and not particularly rebellious … he’s in the mindset of listening to adults, especially if that adult is a dad.
You know I like Danny a lot as a fello Romantic, but as we seen, just Damn Danny , I feel as if he’s the kind of guy who would take out a spray of mace and aim it at some one without knowing it was facing backwards then use it.
I just realized that Danny’s first speech in panel 6 is a reference to their “date” with his parents at Galasso’s. If he’s observant enough to know what makes Amber happy, why can’t he be observant enough to recognize her “dark side”?
Your hover-text is killing me today, David Willis.
(The hover text in general is awesome. I hate reading the comic on my phone because I always feel like I’m missing half of the experience.) (However, I prefer to read it at midnight so usually I’ll go back and read it again on my laptop.)
I agree with Lukas Ramsey. Danny doesn’t really stand a chance vs Blaine.
Blaine is an aggressive, abusive, manipulator.
Danny, while not my favorite character by a long shot, is a kid. He accepted Blaine at face value as being concerned about Amber. I noted that at the lunch date, Danny was not gung-ho about accepting Blaine’s statements 100% when he told him that ‘he felt he should agree with him, because he was a parent”.
Danny is pretty well known to this forum as a bit of a klutz, a mostly unobservant teenager, who is not all that aware of other people’s feelings. But not an intentionally evil guy.
He took Blaine at face value, Blaine is manipulating him into a very dangerous situation and it has been presented as not all that unbelievable.
I am glad Danny is beginning to wake up…I hope he finds his balls.
Okay, even Danny, who I don’t actively love or hate, he’s just kind there to me; even Danny, in all his obliviousness, HAS to realize it’s extremely odd that Blaine stepped outside to call Amber. I mean, it is friggin’ pouring out there, no reasonable person would step out to make a phone call.
I do like that he seems to new becoming somewhat troubled by the whole situation.
Yeah, I thought hard about whether this would seem reasonable if I only knew what Danny knows about Blaine, and I’m pretty sure it still looks bizarre. The only excuse might be that Blaine wanted to have a private conversation with his daughter, but how private does it need to be exactly when he’s inviting her to a meeting that he wants Danny to come along to?
Exactly! I thought that at first too – oh, Blaine could just say it’s a private matter…wait, why would he need it to be private if they’re both going to be at the meeting? It just looks screwy the whole way around.
No, that’s precisely WHY it’d be funny. You have the serious, manipulative, controlling asshole, and the naive, well-meaning sidekick who’s always getting them in trouble. I mean, there wouldn’t even BE adventures without Danny dan-ing things up.
Danny, you know how in horror movies when the main character is isolated and hears something that could be the monster, in the dark room up ahead, and despite their gut instinct and fear, they go into the dark room anyway? THAT IS YOU, DANNY. YOU ARE GOING INTO THE DARK ROOM WHERE THE MONSTER IS; YOU CAN SENSE IT, BUT YOU ARE WALKING INTO THE ROOM ANYWAY. LIKE AN IDIOT.
Sorry, but if I were able to pick up on some fishy stuff like Danny has, I’d back out immediately. Fuck the dark room, fuck the dad, get out and go in a direction that I’m more comfortable with.
You can’t have it both ways at once. You can, however, choose for yourself how you will act. And you can change your choice if you want.
Separating the metaphor from the situation, dark scary places are probably mostly harmless nowadays. Sure, you might stub your toe, but you probably won’t get eaten by a grue. In the past, people who were afraid of the dark probably got eaten less often by lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!) and were able to pass on their fear, whether through memes or genes.
The fight/flight response is still with us, and ninja_jesus is conveying in metaphor the hope that it would trigger in this situation. People can be worse than the monsters of our primal fears (superstitions, if you prefer).
Wow…for Danny [Danny of ALL people!] to start catching on to the GLARINGLY OBVIOUS SIGNS OF IMPENDING DOOM AND DANGER THAT ARE BLINKING LIKE THE WORLD’S LARGEST NEON SIGN!
… Geez, only way this could be more obvious is if Blaine was wielding an ax!
In what way is it obvious? Danny has no big reason to suspect Blaine of anything fishy except for a few of his actions, which in any other context are perfectly harmless.
Maybe for one or two of those, but so far Blaine has shown more than five warning signs:
“Even at eighteen, a girl needs a strong guiding hand…”
“Spending god knows how much”
“…off to college where you can’t look after her anymore”
“We can’t–shouldn’t confront her in the dorm building. It might embarrass her in front of her friends.” [this one even sounds flakey!]
Blaine saying that Amber will meet up with them, in the rain and finally:
“You said Amber was troubled. This was your idea.”
Yeah…I would’ve walked away from this guy at number two or even three of these.
Again, in any other context, with any other parent, most of those lines would be completely harmless. I still think that, because of the knowledge we have of Blaine being an abusive jerk and because we know what’s at stake, people judge Danny’s naivety too harshly. Danny doesn’t know. He is picking up weird vibes, but without a context to place those vibes in, he is completely unaware of what’s going on behind the scenes.
I’ll admit there’s a point to that. Hopefully this whole experience will make him less naive from now on, because if he needs anything right now, is to see how this will all go down. For better or for worse.
A little paranoia is always good, I say.
Man, I don’t say this about fictional characters often, but I really REALLY hope something bad happens to Blaine. Maybe not so much as death (though I wouldn’t feel bad), but something to really knock him down a few pegs.
I’m right there with you. I know that he’s made a lot of mistakes but don’t we all at that age? Not everyone can know exactly what to do or say at the right time.
I think my liking of his character depends on how he reacts when he learns the truth about Blaine. Whether he does the right thing, apologizes for his part in hurting her (even if it’s unintentional) and stands up with her or not will say a lot about his character.
I’m going to close my eyes and pretend that the next panel will involve Blaine’s car exploding, and he and Danny dying horrifically in the resulting fire.
Wait, I know that it has less of an insulting meaning in American-English than it does in British-English, but surely Danny must have heard Blaine call Amber a spaz in the previous strip? Wouldn’t that have tipped some alarm bells?
Though knowing Danny, he probably just zoned out during the conversation.
Look again. Danny was inside the car when that speech took place and not in a position to hear what was said. If he were, he also would have reacted adversely to Blaine describing him as her boyfriend.
“The comic adventures of Blaine and Danny” – hell yeah I’d read that.
It’s The Story about two very different and very flawed guys, at two very different points of their lives. All they have in common is the girl they have both become estranged from. Together, they go on a road-trip to save that girl from her mysterious, masked kidnapper, Amazi-Girl! On the way, they will learn to see life in another perspective, how to escape from mad dogs, and just how little it means to be only human.
And there will. Be. Blood.
Blaine’s got some really interesting facial expressions. Very “40-year-old man with the maturity of an 18-year-old who honestly thinks his life is over because he hasn’t had sex yet”
I love how not into Danny’s plan Blaine is. “Maybe we should tell her she’s a wonderful person and that we support her decisions.” “How about your shut the hell up and not mess with my choice to be the worst father alive, OKAY?”
Oh my gosh, ANYONE should know better then to get in a stranger’s car… well… except danny I guess.
Pleaeepleasepleasepleaseplease let blaine die tomorrow.
Danny isn’t a moron, hes a well-meaning, naive kid. I think the reason most people are down on Danny so much is because he reminds them of themselves at that age. I know I had a tendency to be trusting of others and far too open with myself and in trying to do the right thing I’d screw up at times and I certainly missed what was happening right in front of me.
But I also have faith that Danny will come up trumps (eventually) either by doing the right thing or (most likely) inadvertantly getting it right.
Well I’m generalising of course but when I was Dannys age I didn’t think I was gormless but looking back…well if I had a time machine I’d be using it to go back and slap myself
How would you know? You’re still around Danny’s age. of course you’d deny any resemblance. 😛 It’s only when people are older when they’re able to see the flaws in their younger selves. Hindsight is 20/20.
You know, I’ve gotten so tired of the horseshit where everybody blames Danny personally for not being omniscient, I don’t have the energy or interest to respond to each of the hundreds of comments individually anymore. Or even the small subset of the most egregious and infuriating posts that rise above the rest. So I’ll just post this:
All you brilliant people who constantly dump on Danny for not noticing the “obvious”? You wouldn’t do any better. As dumb as you call Danny? You’re that dumb, or worse. As careless and oblivious as you claim he is? You’re a freaking sack of rocks by comparison. And you know how callously and heartlessly you claim he barrels through life? He’s a freaking paragon of sensitivity by comparison.
How can I say this? Because every accusation of stupidity or insensitivity leveled at Danny is founded in a failure to notice, recognize, and understand the circumstances of the comic that Danny is experiencing. We are seeing a massive, blanket failure realize that Danny doesn’t see his life and experiences with a second pair of eyes floating ten feet to the side. Danny is dealing with the world that he sees, hears, and knows – and that’s it! That’s all he has!
Does Danny come to the wrong conclusions about things? Yes! But why? Well, let’s see. He’s been lied to, had things hidden from him, and been actively deceived by almost every person he’s interacted with since the comic began. All of them! And even worse, other people in his universe have the audacity to do things when he’s not around! These two facts explain 98% of the things he’s done that people endlessly criticize him for. And the other 2% can be attributed to poor night vision.
So that’s his excuse. The fandom, however, has NO excuse. The fact that this is a comic strip is not a secret from them. They are aware that Danny is, at times, not present when certain information is given. They even have an archive through which they can disabuse themselves of whatever heinous actions they’ve imagined that Danny has committed. There is literally no excuse for the ignorance the fandom is proudly displaying. And I’m having trouble resisting the temptation to point out specific examples, so I better wind this up here.
To summarize: We’ve reached the point where the phrase “Danning it up” reads as , “the person who posted this comment is a freaking moron.” And somehow that means it’s no fun to read the comments anymore.
I think most people would actually agree with you, but just like making fun of him anyway. In the last few comment sections, people have described “Danning it up” as “trying to do the right thing but accidentally harming people.” I think that shows some awareness of Danny’s plight. That doesn’t keep them from laughing about it, especially given Danny’s perfect track record of failures.
1 Ragging on Danny is a running joke, don’t take it so seriously
2. Danny’s whole subplot throughout the entire series so far is making one mistake after another, it’s natural to get frustrated at the character
3. A lot of us wouldn’t be talking shit about someone to a complete stranger behind their back.
4. Many people also wouldn’t have cut ties with a friend without getting some kind fo answer.
Yes, we wouldn’t be able to tell Blaine was an abusive asshole or anything like that but there is still a lot that Danny does that we wouldn have done better if only slightly.
he’s not “talking shit about someone to a complete stranger behind their back.” he’s talking to her father (and he is correct to think that), assuming that as her father he cares about her wellbeing and wants to help (and he is incorrect to think that, but has not been given any reason to know that), and he is telling her father about how she’s being pretty crazyballs in a way that suggests that she needs help (and he is correct to think she is being crazyballs, because she is, and that she needs help, because she does; he just doesn’t know how crazyballs she really is), with the obvious intent of helping her (and he is incorrect to think Blaine shares that intent, but again, how would he know that)
the stuff in the parentheses is where the drama/comedy comes in. and unless you’re saying you’re going to assume anyone that you meet during Parents Weekend and convincingly acts the part of the father of a friend you’ve known for a couple weeks who is crazyballs and that you would like to help might actually be an abusive monster, then yeah, you’d probably wind up in Danny’s shoes too.
Danny doesn’t know Blaine, regardless of whether he’s actually Amber’s father he shouldn’t be discussing her life to him without, at the very least letting her know they’re talking.
I would never talk to a friend’s parent without them knowing we were speaking first.
As a girl with a formerly abusive asshole dad who still thinks he can be the boss of me, if anyone ever did what Danny is doing now, I would kill them. And cut ties. But then again, I actually inform people about what my dad is…
In the sequel, Galasso finds pity for the binging boy and takes Danny under his wing. Slowly, over long nights hauling flour bags, “tenderizing” pepperoni, and practicing precision punching with pizza-dough, Danny regains his confidence. With his (meat)balls restored, he takes on an even more important task: creating the perfect pizza pie to serve the dean, thus winning a lifelong pizza contract with the school and impressing Galasso with his skills. As he brings the pie out of the oven, and is bringing its molten cheesy mass over to the dean’s table, he forgets what the dean looks like, asks Billie, who says it is Sal, so serves it to her instead. Hijinks ensue.
He needs to grow some balls so he can follow Blaine’s plan, instead of not having any balls and telling Amber she’s funny and pretty? Yeah, real good time to have some balls.
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Balls, Danny. You have none.
That’s the first sign that there’s something wrong here.
Hey, he has to see out of something
Commence ‘Dannying It Up’ sequence in 3…2…
Hopefully in Amber’s favour
Tomorrow’s strip is a good time for Dad to be a campus shooting victim. Just pretend the guy at Purdue is still on the loose, and picks off Amber’s dad for a getaway car.
I hate that guy.
It’s never a good time for anyone to be a campus shooting victim. Besides, if you’re going to punish the man do something a bit more permanent than death, eh?
I’d finish this up by saying all the guy needs is a little love but…frankly hard to see at this point. I just hope Amber deals with him in a way that get’s him far away.
Danny, stop implying that you have balls.
He’s got marbles.
He lost them a long time ago!
You have no …MARBLES!
You mean had?
Or ever will.
Now THERE’s a man that is, whether or not their existence is accounted for or not being irrelevant, MUCH too preoccupied with his own balls.
(Is there such a thing as verbal overcompensation?)
I know there’s a lot at stake here, but I can’t help laughing at how oblivious Danny is here.
Funnily enough, I’m amused by the fact that he’s just staaaaarting to catch on.
This is Blaine’s most successful impersonation of a human yet (I guess it helps that he thinks his brilliant plan to pretend Amber is still scared of him until she becomes scared of him again is totally working). And his little web of lies STILL is just barely good enough to deceive Danny.
DANNY.
I probably shouldn’t be this confident: Blaine could do some serious damage to Danny if he really catches on that his current tactics are out of date– and no, I don’t want to see Danny hurt, and neither does Amber. And maybe (probably) some little part of her is still afraid of him– she certainly loses control around him. But so far at least, Blaine’s hateability is rivaled only by his inability to accept any reality that means his influence might be declining. He’s running out of time to wise up.
excellent points. GAH I just wish this would update more than once a day.
Yeah, so ridiculous that he ONLY gives us 7 Dumbing of Ages a week!
YEAH HOW DARE HE god I sound pathetic.
Compared to the two or three people this week who have admitted in the comments section that they would rip Willis off? No, you don’t.
Return with us now to the heady days of 2004 when the It’s Walky! Angst was overflowing the boards after each update! 😀
yeah and that was back when characters were actually dying
Many abusers achieve their results by grinding their victim down. Doesn’t matter if they break free once, twice, a hundred times. If the abuser keeps pushing, and they finally let them back in, the abuser has won. Blaine’s tactics can be incredibly effective.
not to mention how he’s pulling the “This was your idea” thing on Danny, trying to absolve himself of any blame or responsibility. That guy needs a heaping helping of the Flying Justice Clothesline™.
Effective as they may be, ALL tactics have a chance of failure, and Amber seems dead set on slamming the door right on Blaine’s face, lock it up, and throw him down to the bottom of the ocean.
…
Too graphic?
A little extreme.
The door slamming is right on, but Amber doesn’t seem the ‘throw into ocean’ type.
is there an ocean conveniently located nearby?
No, but there is a lake with freshwater sharks.
Maps point to .. roughly 600 miles away?
Assuming, of course, he doesn’t default to taking Amber down with him via pressing assault charges, playing Danny and/or her Mother against her or whatever it takes to get her arrested or at least expelled, when they lock his ass up again…Next logical step for trash who use their nuclear families to achieve power validation that’s otherwise out of their league, no?
He might think that would work, but it can’t. He committed a few too many crimes to go to the police, even if the witnesses were cooperative.
Danny’s only cooperating because he’s being deceived, and he’s already figured out that something is off. He certainly wouldn’t back Blaine up in court, and he wasn’t a witness when they fought anyway. Everybody else is definitely on Amber’s side.
Oh hey, you said he’d do that after he gets arrested himself, which means his own crimes are already out there and the reason not to go to the police is gone.
Still, there’s a limit to how much he can manipulate Danny here. In person, Danny may be useful, but certainly not as a witness.
It’ll get worse if Amber shows up and Danny assumes she’s just into cosplay…
I think we’re long due for a new poll. Perhaps something about Walky Performs a Sex…? I’d like to know what readers think about it before I get my credit card out.
I have a long standing rule. No matter how good of porn, nor who it would help, I never pay for porn. Sorry, Willis. Morals and all.
I am curious why, with no judgement intended.
Okay, I shouldn’t get sucked into this, but that’s a really odd place to draw the line. Are you saying you’ll look at porn if it’s free?
There’s so much free porn (good free porn too) out there that I haven’t looked at. My cheap self thinks it a disservice to myself and my wallet to pay for something I could easily get for free.
Every artist’s dream is to be told his work isn’t worth money.
HOORAH, YOU’VE ARRIVED !
I mean… no. Sorry, ugakicka, that’s really quite rude, think what you like but why would you do it HERE? WPaS is terrific and I’m thrilled to finally have an AMAZING reason to pay for the slipshine service.
You have a nasty habit of twisting people’s words the wrong way. My cheap ass could have found a way around your Joyce and Walky payment thing, but I thought you deserved the money and paid for it. Just because I don’t pay for your porn doesn’t mean your work isn’t worth paying for.
Also their prices are quite high. Especially since I’d only use it for one thing.
I think it’s also worth noting that if you choose to create a form of art that competes in a crowded and free marketplace that your work is actually not worth much by virtue of where it competes, regardless of skill put in or resulting quality. It’s just basic supply and demand and smut happens to be as common as sand on the beach.
Personally I place zero value on smut because it seems to do me harm. I do view it from time to time, but I wish I didn’t since it worsens my social anxiety.
I’m trying to think of a form of art that doesn’t exist in a crowded and free marketplace and I’m kind of coming up short. I feel like that’s more of a convenient excuse to scapegoat smut than anything profound “worth noting.”
Likewise, I’m pretty sure my smut work IS worth much because I sold it for hojillions of dollars and it did so well that I was commissioned for more within a few hours. There’s clearly some fuckin’ value. So to speak.
That argument is so invalid, it doesn’t even require a mashup picture of two cool things to demonstrate the fact.
Quite honeslty I find your art is great for a webcomic series and I buy your books, but, well, I do not find it quite worth my money with regards to smut. I simply dont find the art style either arousing or the content interesting enough to justify the cost and Ive seen some of the stuff that is otherwise offered on that website and im not impressed. I hope you do make money on it but really I think the smut was a mistake.
I’m wracking my brain trying to understand the purpose of these posts (well, maybe not, but still, I am confused). If I logged onto every webcomic page from which I was not buying something just to tell the person making the art that I didn’t want to buy it, I’d be spending all my time doing that. And be an a##hole.
People have been drawing other people performing a sex since the first cave men figured out they could draw on cave walls. Get over it people!
I’m not really interested in it and I’m not buying it, but my lack of interest doesn’t seem like a reason why making it was a mistake. I’m also not sure why anybody would care what I didn’t buy. If I bought it and it disappointed me, sure, but not that I didn’t buy it in the first place.
There are lots of things that I haven’t bought.
Pat: i like you
Im sorry if I wasnt clear, I wasnt trying to say is that the content wasnt enough to make up for the disconnect between the art style and the content. Really if you had used a different art style that worked better for smut I might of bought still bought it. Im not saying change it for me but that if you were to make another comic like it that you might consider a different art style for it. Im sorry if this seems stupid to you but I figured I might as well make my poitn and you ignore it rather than not make a my point at all.
Now that I’m fully awake and can think clearly, let me clarify. Willis’s work is wonderful, but as I work for Walmart and am trying to get through college on my own dime, I cannot justify making that significant an investment on anything, no matter how good. I bought the Joyce and Walky subscription after doing an odd job I took on just for that purpose (which was amazing, btw).
Willis, don’t assume I meant ill. I most certainly didn’t. Not everyone on the internet is a jerk.
I am mostly confused over your choice of the word “morals” in this context. I mean, my budget is too tight for smut ATM as well, but that does not make not spending money on porn a moral concern :\
Don’t worry I’m sure it will be worth tons once you kick the bucket.
So with that in mind I’ve made this handy laminated symptom card, let me know if any of these start troubling you….
Damn you Willis your comment made me choke on my Goldfish crackers
*wanders off to clean monitor*
I’m still looking for the SMUT WITHOUT WARNING label.
Yeah, but there’s free porn from artists you can’t choose (mainly live-action, which is okay) and porn you pay for from fantastic artists (which can be amazing!). Some examples are from the creator of Red String-where I have two of her ‘mature’ books, and Rosalarian. I’m also female so I might be a bit biased on this, but if that’s your policy then you are missing out on some amazing stuff.
My policy is if the free stuff is good? The paid must be amazing. And it is.
I don’t see how morals are really relevant to that reasoning.
Are you implyint that this is a controversial or alien idea? I assure you it’s quite a common sentiment.
The odd part was describing this as morals.
I have never paid for porn either, but then again, I don’t even watch free porn; not because of any anti-porn moral stance, but simply because I’m rather prudish by nature. What interests me with WPaS, however, is that it involves characters I’m emotionally invested in, not just some nobodies who got paid to show their private parts.
…Where’s a “like” button when you need one?
It’s the emotional investiture in the characters that makes me want to consider buying it, for the same reason I bought the paid Joyce and Walky content. If Slipshine offered it as a one-off charge without access to the rest of the site, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Willis, do you have any plans to include this story with the print collections?
I do not. Reprint rights belong to Slipshine, plus I wouldn’t put it in a collection anyway. Many places I bring my books to sell are skittish about, y’know, hardcore pornography.
Well, 4chan hates it, so it must be doing something right.
It does not take much to make 4chan hate a thing so I’d say that’s not exactly a hard endorsement (anti-endorsement?) to get.
Yeah, but the specific nature of their complaints seems to bode well. I have to figure “not worth it” means it’s not just 17 pages of hardcore banging.
Eh, it’s fine. It delivers exactly as advertised. Could use less speed lines though
I love the Dorothy/Walky pairing, so I really liked WPAS. It’s very much about them.
Those are my two cents.
Well written, well drawn, good character interaction, and sexy. Willis is good at cartoons and it turns out this extends to porn. I found it well worth the price by itself, and who knows, you may find some other stuff on there interesting.
It’s fun and sexy. And ends with funny. The pages were worth it to me, but I have more disposable income than I am used to.
This conversation reminds me of this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKKxfeNl4uk
God, Willis, you must feel suicidal drawing these two together.
Naw. Willis is a sadist. He gets off on it.
No way, if he was feeling suicidal Faz and Ethan’s mom would be here, too.
Then we’d all be feeling suicidal.
And then Mary helps them find Jesus and they all break down in front of a cross.
Pretty sure he’s done with drawing fanart for evangelical types.
It’s okay, Mary’s not in the car yet.
It took me until this to realize that I am no longer in the “walky performs …” comment thread …
I just want SOMETHING good to happen to Amber. I think she ought to be on, like, suicide watch.
Or Murderer watch.
Apropos of nothing, *please* tell me your avatar really is the Black Rabbit of Inlé! 😀
Tis. I also have a tattoo on my back. Watership Down is the sheeet.
“It’s just…everything’s getting pretty Red tinted”
noooo not a new red panel nooooooooooooooooooooooo–
*breath*
–ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I feel far more conflicted about Blaine deflecting the blame for this on to Danny than I should.
*Pinball pun* *Pinball pun* *Pinball pun*
He’s just a pin-ball wizard . . .
Punball pin.
Danny sure likes to talk about his testicles lately…
Well, it is the new year, so they gotta drop sometime soon, right? Bueller?
one’s a loose cannon abusive dad who doesn’t play by the rules
the other’s an oblivious dorkwad who tries to do the right thing sort of and usually does the completely wrong thing instead
together, they
arefight crimeyes
At least Danny has a somewhat functional “This is kinda skeevy” sense. In his balls.
The only thing his balls are good for.
That and getting kicked.
Danny, follow the thought to the logical conclusion. This feels like a ballsy move. You don’t think you would have made it. Something feels off. Blaine is trying to convince you that it’s your idea. He’s manipulating you! He’s manipulating you and this is a bad idea!
But hey, you may not be as smart as Lois, she definitely would have figured this out, but at least you may get to be rescued by your girlfriend/ex-friend.
Early incarnations of Lois had her do dumb things in order to wind up in distress.
But did she deliberately do them, or did she Dan her way into them?
Also, given the long history of comics, I don’t feel terribly bad basing Lois on the versions that I’ve seen: Lois and Clark, DCU, the modern Lois, all of whom are way too smart to fall for this.
I don’t see the difference between deliberately doing something and Danning it. Dan deliberately makes choices, but they’re dumb choices. Lois deliberately made dumb choices.
Also, I was kind of using the early incarnations as a parallel, since this is the first incarnation of Amazi-Girl having a Lois Lane. Maybe a Steve Trevor would be a better comparison.
Danny, at this point your balls reserves are imploding in upon themselves. You have NEGATIVE balls.
So what you’re saying is he’s suffering from Total Scrotal Implosion?
TSI is a highly serious and common Dannal disorder
I like that in spite of the context, Danny uses “literally” correctly.
I was also hoping to get here before people started bashing on Danny, but it turns out that would have been nearly impossible.
Also, repeating: “[sodomize] Blaine.” I hope Amazi-Girl shows up and wrecks him.
The comic adventures of Blaine and Danny is pretty much the exact opposite of what I want to read.
It almost demands a Lawsome crossover, though.
Like I said yesterday…kick to the balls!
The rain is also in their adventures. It follows them, everywhere. They do not understand why.
Since when is Blaine a British rain god…truck driver.
Oh my god it makes so much sense now.
See, something loves Blaine.
I smell foreshadowing… Danny’s gonna be unDanny for once and help out Amber… save her or something
Danny: not actually a bad guy.
Danny, you are bad guy, but that does not make you “bad guy”.
Now he must crush Blain’s skull like sparrow’s egg between thighs!
“I think why you have to be hapless idiot, Danny? Why can’t you be more like smart character? Then I have ‘moment of clarity’. If Danny is smart character, who will get manipulated by love interest’s evil father? And I say Danny, you are total idiot, but that does not mean you are ‘total idiot'”
Honestly, I’d really want to read those adventures. Such conflicting personalities.
Right? Lot’s of room for character development there. Just them, riding around the country, going on morally questionable adventures having to do with kidnapping and hurting the people they love. It’s like Breaking Bad, but more depressing and with alt text!
yes!
One caveat: Willis is never allowed to make porn of it.
well golly what’s the fun in that
PORN PORN PORN PORN PORN
That would be the opposite of what I like in erotic cartoons.
I’m all for Danny getting a chance to redeem himself. Now if he dreadfully fails in that chance, then he can go get hit by the Amazi-Getaway-Truck.
I get the feeling Blaine also can barely stand Danny.
Yup
I think it’ll be interesting to see if he can maintain his cool long enough for Amber to even get there.
Well if he can barely stand his daughter and his daughter is attracted to Danny, it stands to reason…
The way Willis has created Blaine, it’s not so much as “can barely stand” another person as “sees another person, not as human, but as object to be manipulated.”
…Isn’t that a good thing?
also, “strategic balls reserves” seems like a good title for a book…
I don’t know if anyone else brought this up for another strip, but I just want to throw it out there: Danny is doing essentially the same thing Sarah did with Dana. It’s just that Dana, hopefully, had a better dad.
Her dad could bite the heads off puppies and still have room to be better than Amber’s dad.
Also, Sarah had an established pattern of behavior to report. Danny’s going off bits and pieces at best.
What MM said. There isn’t much comparison; Dana was having a very hard time coping with the death of a family member; the family member Amber is having hard time coping with is still alive and harming her… There’s an arguable justification for what Sarah did, and very little arguable justification for what Danny’s doing.
Also, we don’t quite know what Blaine told him they’re doing. Really, anything, besides “she’s going to meet us in this car in the rainstorm.”
Except Danny doesn’t have any idea that Amber’s distress is from her father at all. He has absolutely no reason to believe anything other than lines he’s being fed by Blaine at all. Except for a general sense of “this is wrong” that he’s obviously feeling.
Remember folks! Danny does not have the same wealth of knowledge we have.
Maybe if Danny metagamed every now and then, we’d like him better.
SArah gave what’s her face time. Lots of it. She kept giving her rope until her midterms came in and she was clearly not doing better. Sarah knew her roommate considerably better than Danny knows Amber. Seriously, this is a comparison that only seems valid at the surface.
Yeah, but the fact that Amber lives with her mum (which Danny knew) and did NOT mention her dad at all should have tipped off that there MAY be something wrong with her dad.
People that spend time with both parents would have mentioned both, just that things didn’t work out between them.
However, that itself shouldn’t have made Danny think Blaine was a bad person as it could have been that they just had a falling out at the time so she didn’t want to talk about him, it should have made him wary though.
And a wary person would be picking up the warning signs (wanting to meet outside of the college limiting witnesses, asking to borrow his phone to call her, still being willing to meet in the rain which happens to limit witnesses further…).
But Danny is overly trusting/oblivious.
Which is why if Blaine was a serial killer, Danny’d be deader than dead.
I’m not saying Danny is doing the correct thing here, but I really think it’s not fair to fault him. Everyone always wants to blame someone; the idea that there isn’t seems to bug people to the core.
Also, I don’t think Amber ever talked about her parents at all to Danny. The most she told anyone about her family situation was Dina.
But there is someone to blaim in this situation, Blaine. He’s the bad guy here, easily the most evil person in this comic continuity (assuming Dexter is just a cartoon character and Willis isn’t planning on pulling a Daring Do on us)
Danny has screwed up, yes, but he is picking up on those hints. He’s outright saying so in this comic.
He hasn’t fully figured everything out yet, but he’s noticed that something is wrong.
C’mon Danny, you can do it. I believe in you!
Poor, poor misplaced faith.
I know he’s let me down so many times before, but surely THIS time he’ll pull through!
I officially gave up all hope for the guy when he bought Billie’s stupid Sal-is-Amazi-Girl theory. He has lowered my expectations so far that the weird things that live at the bottom of the Marianas Trench think it’s too deep and dark down where my expectations for Danny are.
He’s strangely more tolerable when any action that isn’t the dumbest possible thing he could do in any given situation is a pleasant surprise. He can never let me down again.
Kernanator, this is an intervention. You need to get out of this abusive reader/character relationship.
Danny will never be a good character to you. He will always Dan everything up and you can’t change him. Even Willis can’t !
Take as long as you need to Amber. Take as long as you need.
Well, Dan, between this present situation and that thing this morning with Sal….if you do run out of balls, you could always try switching over to brain power since YOU HAVEN’T USED ANY YET TODAY!!
And I’m usually the one on Danny’s side, too…
His brain power probably got used up during that awkward as hell conversation with his parents when they found out that Dorothy dumped him and he hadn’t told them. It tried to think of too many excuses too fast and just shut itself down. Poor bastard, he’ll need another day or so to really reboot.
Daniel you dodobrain.
Is it me or are the background getting blood Red?
Is not you….
Yeah, this storyline caused me to remember something that happened a very long time ago when a good friend confronted an abusive parent. Thankfully I was not stuck on the parent’s ‘side’ as I already knew he was bad news. But, I do remember the immediate aftermath. Things didn’t go red so much as black and white or something. Scary. Thanfully no one was hurt. These things are NOT good news. Like someone said earlier, at some point the adrenaline kicks in and then it’s kind of autopilot after there, or something.
And I wasnt even the one in the abusive situation.
Regarding Walky Performs A Sex… I’m just wondering if it’s available/going to be available off Slipshine. I have no problem.paying for access, but have no real interest in subscribing to Slipshine as a whole.
It will not.
I’m disappointed (and not going to subscribe), but I respect your decision to do what you wish with your art.
I believe it was a commission piece. So it belongs to Slipshine now and Willis no longer has the right to publish it elsewhere.
I know it will be useless, but have you considered adding “WPAS will NOT be available outside of Slipshine” to the FAQ ?
Suck it up like the rest of us and hope no one sees your credit card bill 😛
CCZoe or some crap? WELP here I go
It’ll read “Studio Zoe”. Personally I liked the title that the Slipshine FAQ mentions, which was “PORN PORN PORN”.
That could be on my statement and I wouldn’t care.
Did you write right, or have you wrought what you wrote by the right of might and writing what was wrong?
🙂
I wonder what Faz is doing. I bet he made best friends with Ruth, since they both show affection in the worst way possible.
Seriously, Danny, get a clue. This is going to end badly for you and for
Amber.
If by “friends” you mean “provided justification for her to fall off the wagon,” then yes, possibly.
Okay, that’s not entirely fair. Maybe she pawned him off on Howard as a self-esteem booster. “See, bro? Your social skills aren’t that bad!”
*sighs* Danny *shakes head* ~_~
If Danny back out here, Blaine has no hostage. He needs to keep Danny there so he can have leverage. Therefore, “Danny” had the idea, and it wouldn’t be “right” to back out of it, right in the middle. At least stay and say hello to Amber. Y’know what? Give me your number, I’ll call you and tell you how it went.
The mind of a manipulator. I enjoy smart characters. Yet, I despise people with far too much pride.
Screw Blaine.
Danny, for the love of fucking god, that is your common sense talking. Your stranger-danger as well. Fucking listen to those voices. LISTEN
^ This.
If he senses something is wrong, he would stick around to prevent Amber from being alone with Blaine.
That… Makes sense actually.
I kinda hope Danny just talks Blaine to death.
The Balls in your court Danny, Come on!
Oh, Danny. 🙁 At least you are not dead in a fridge somewhere.
Ugh.
When a girl that Danny knows well puts on a cloth eye-mask, she becomes completely unrecognisable to him.
But even HE thinks there’s something wrong here.
Blaine is truly a master of deceit.
“So, I’m sitting in a car with a complete stranger that just bought me dinner. Now I’m talking about my balls.”
Even if Blaine wasn’t a [series of belligerent, semi-coherent swears edited for space] this would still be creepy. I came up with a metaphor to explain the creepiness, but I had to delete it because I feel like even typing it out was tempting the banhammer.
Anyway:
“Hi, I’m Danny. Sure, I loaned someone my phone, and then preceded to sit in the passenger’s seat of their car–inches away from them–while they made a phone call to a mutual acquaintance. Yeah, I guess it’s true that there is “no way” I could have possibly missed him threatening her when he was talking to her, on my phone, inches away, in his car.
Yeah, I can see why you’d think that this extremely uncomfortable social situation would put me on high alert, especially when the only familiar piece of ground is my phone, that he is talking into. To a person I know and care about.”
Well, there was the whole Blaine-getting-out-of-the-car-to-call-Amber thing. So, not inches away. Plus rain.
It’s a parent. Parents are supposed to be trustworthy. And Amber has been concerning him recently. He’s worried about her. And parents are supposed to be trustworthy.
Plus, if the bit of his and Blaine’s conversation earlier is any indication, Blaine’s a pretty smooth liar and Danny’s definitely a bit of a dope so the sirens definitely wouldn’t be going off.
Maybe it’s me, but I still wouldn’t get into a car with a stranger, especially since it’s clear to Danny that something is not right. If my gut is telling me that a situation is hinky, I tend to listen to it. I really don’t care if the stranger is a friend’s parent.
Supposedly a friend’s parent. He is a guy who looks like his friend and said he is a parent.
Well, Danny tends to believe things without questioning too much apparently. That irks me. I know someone like that. Other people joke that she would get into a stranger’s van if the person had a puppy.
Oh wow. I know Blaine is an abusive father who’s trying to attack his daughter through her friends, but now he’s stuck in a car with Danny forced to make awkward conversation with an idiot. I’m not sure if I feel glad he’s getting some karmic justice or sad that he’s a position no poor bastard should ever have to suffer through.
He is Faz’s step father: I imagine he’s gotten used to it.
Touche.
there now needs to be another universe where these are cops with danny being the new guy and blaine teaching him the ropes
Worst Training Day remake ever.
i need to watch that all the way through
Only if it can be Blaine’s last day before retirement.
nah sal and marcie bust him and danny becomes that worlds amzi-guy
Man, for usually being incredibly oblivious about his immediate surroundings, Danny can be painfully self-aware sometimes.
He could ask questions. Use some critical thinking. SOMETHING.
I think I have a handle about why a lot of comment lines (especially those concerning Danny) bug me so much. I see trend in which people with an amazing outsider’s perspective get angry for characters for not seeing things clearly. For example, Danny not seeing that Blain is a piece of garbage. Contextually, though, he has no reason to think this. If he’s anything like me, he assumes the parents of his friends are decent people without otherwise noted. And he’s eighteen! I was all kinds of stupid at eighteen. I’m not saying people aren’t entitled to their comments and rants, just keep in mind that these characters are well written enough that they deserve a little more benefit of the doubt than I think people usually give them.
Absolutely! Amber’s dad is a practiced abuser who is apparently VERY good at manipulating people INCLUDING EXPERIENCED ADULTS and Amber hasn’t told Danny anything about him! I know that she wants to hide how awful her dad is, and doesn’t want to talk about him/relive bad events but if you as someone who’s survived abuse don’t give your friends a heads up about what’s dangerous to you (whether that’s specific people, or situations/triggers, or what) it is NOT THEIR FAULT when they do something that harms you. Danny’s kind of a chump, but he’s being manipulated by someone who’s apparently good at what he does, and it’s not fair to blame him for that. (As someone who’s lived through abuse, I’ve had to have conversations with loved ones about stuff that bothers me. They are frequently stressful, but have always paid out.)
Also, I think it’s sweet that Danny wants to take her out for pizza and tell her she’s funny and pretty. That sounds like a nice time, quite frankly, and something that she could use.
Frankly, the comments often verge upon Internet-tough-guy behavior: “Of course I’d spot the manipulative abuser and would thwart his plan.”
What you wrote kind’o reminded me about a test my psychiatrist gave me once, as part of a screening for autism (turns out I score around 20%, just below aspberger, and within “normal” range). He showed me a matchbook, and shook it so I could hear the matches rattle around inside. Then he asked me what I thought was inside the box. Of course I assumed it was a trick question, but since I had no other information I answered that I couldn’t know but it was probably matches. Then he showed me that it was, in fact, full of pins. Then he asked me “If [name of a friend] were to come in here now, and I asked him the same question, what do you think he would answer?” I answered that he’d probably say something like me. Supposedly, a person with a higher level of autism/aspberger would’ve answered “pins”, because they have a problem separating the knowledge they possess and the knowledge other possesses. No, I’m not claiming that most of the commenters here are aspies or anything, but written communication over the web does tend to temporarily raise everyone’s collective autism quotient. So maybe that’s what going on here, with the Danny-stility that so often surfaces here.
As other replyers to this comment has said, Blaine has YEARS of experience convincing strangers he is a good man. Between his years with Amber’s mom and as Amber’s dad, he knows how to pretend to not be the scum of the earth. And as you say, Danny is 18 and not particularly rebellious … he’s in the mindset of listening to adults, especially if that adult is a dad.
So close Danny. So close.
These two are a Coen Brothers film gone wrong.
Well, at least Danny knows his role in the comic…
You know I like Danny a lot as a fello Romantic, but as we seen, just Damn Danny , I feel as if he’s the kind of guy who would take out a spray of mace and aim it at some one without knowing it was facing backwards then use it.
I just realized that Danny’s first speech in panel 6 is a reference to their “date” with his parents at Galasso’s. If he’s observant enough to know what makes Amber happy, why can’t he be observant enough to recognize her “dark side”?
Your hover-text is killing me today, David Willis.
(The hover text in general is awesome. I hate reading the comic on my phone because I always feel like I’m missing half of the experience.) (However, I prefer to read it at midnight so usually I’ll go back and read it again on my laptop.)
…..I think Blaine is starting to regretting picking up Danny. Danny is too danning for him I guess.
I agree with Lukas Ramsey. Danny doesn’t really stand a chance vs Blaine.
Blaine is an aggressive, abusive, manipulator.
Danny, while not my favorite character by a long shot, is a kid. He accepted Blaine at face value as being concerned about Amber. I noted that at the lunch date, Danny was not gung-ho about accepting Blaine’s statements 100% when he told him that ‘he felt he should agree with him, because he was a parent”.
Danny is pretty well known to this forum as a bit of a klutz, a mostly unobservant teenager, who is not all that aware of other people’s feelings. But not an intentionally evil guy.
He took Blaine at face value, Blaine is manipulating him into a very dangerous situation and it has been presented as not all that unbelievable.
I am glad Danny is beginning to wake up…I hope he finds his balls.
I think Danny actually does have some strategic balls reserves. They are known as panic and andrenalin. Everyone always has some.
Okay, even Danny, who I don’t actively love or hate, he’s just kind there to me; even Danny, in all his obliviousness, HAS to realize it’s extremely odd that Blaine stepped outside to call Amber. I mean, it is friggin’ pouring out there, no reasonable person would step out to make a phone call.
I do like that he seems to new becoming somewhat troubled by the whole situation.
Yeah, I thought hard about whether this would seem reasonable if I only knew what Danny knows about Blaine, and I’m pretty sure it still looks bizarre. The only excuse might be that Blaine wanted to have a private conversation with his daughter, but how private does it need to be exactly when he’s inviting her to a meeting that he wants Danny to come along to?
Exactly! I thought that at first too – oh, Blaine could just say it’s a private matter…wait, why would he need it to be private if they’re both going to be at the meeting? It just looks screwy the whole way around.
@Hovertext:
EVERYONE.
Damn, I see this is empirically untrue as I read some comments now. Disappointed here, people.
Honestly, it could be funny. Sometimes. On occasion…
…without Blaine. Or Danny dan-ing things up…
…
Oh.
No, that’s precisely WHY it’d be funny. You have the serious, manipulative, controlling asshole, and the naive, well-meaning sidekick who’s always getting them in trouble. I mean, there wouldn’t even BE adventures without Danny dan-ing things up.
Danny Danning things up is one thing. It’d be funny with different execution. But Blaine is another.
I’ll wait for Danny to do something that’ll make everyone like him. . . *dies by turning into a skeleton like in Indiana Jones and the last crusade*
Alt text 😀
I would read that.
Blaine and his lame side kick Annoy-boy.
To the creep mobile!
Phrase I coined re: Blaine while reading this “I’m about to hit you so hard, when you wake up it’ll be Star Trek.”
Danny, you know how in horror movies when the main character is isolated and hears something that could be the monster, in the dark room up ahead, and despite their gut instinct and fear, they go into the dark room anyway? THAT IS YOU, DANNY. YOU ARE GOING INTO THE DARK ROOM WHERE THE MONSTER IS; YOU CAN SENSE IT, BUT YOU ARE WALKING INTO THE ROOM ANYWAY. LIKE AN IDIOT.
Yeah, but then that noise always turns out to be a cat or something, so don’t judge him so harshly yet.
Sorry, but if I were able to pick up on some fishy stuff like Danny has, I’d back out immediately. Fuck the dark room, fuck the dad, get out and go in a direction that I’m more comfortable with.
Except society keeps telling us were idiots to be superstitious about scary places. You can’t have it both ways.
You can’t have it both ways at once. You can, however, choose for yourself how you will act. And you can change your choice if you want.
Separating the metaphor from the situation, dark scary places are probably mostly harmless nowadays. Sure, you might stub your toe, but you probably won’t get eaten by a grue. In the past, people who were afraid of the dark probably got eaten less often by lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!) and were able to pass on their fear, whether through memes or genes.
The fight/flight response is still with us, and ninja_jesus is conveying in metaphor the hope that it would trigger in this situation. People can be worse than the monsters of our primal fears (superstitions, if you prefer).
Wow…for Danny [Danny of ALL people!] to start catching on to the GLARINGLY OBVIOUS SIGNS OF IMPENDING DOOM AND DANGER THAT ARE BLINKING LIKE THE WORLD’S LARGEST NEON SIGN!
…
Geez, only way this could be more obvious is if Blaine was wielding an ax!
In what way is it obvious? Danny has no big reason to suspect Blaine of anything fishy except for a few of his actions, which in any other context are perfectly harmless.
Maybe for one or two of those, but so far Blaine has shown more than five warning signs:
“Even at eighteen, a girl needs a strong guiding hand…”
“Spending god knows how much”
“…off to college where you can’t look after her anymore”
“We can’t–shouldn’t confront her in the dorm building. It might embarrass her in front of her friends.” [this one even sounds flakey!]
Blaine saying that Amber will meet up with them, in the rain and finally:
“You said Amber was troubled. This was your idea.”
Yeah…I would’ve walked away from this guy at number two or even three of these.
Again, in any other context, with any other parent, most of those lines would be completely harmless. I still think that, because of the knowledge we have of Blaine being an abusive jerk and because we know what’s at stake, people judge Danny’s naivety too harshly. Danny doesn’t know. He is picking up weird vibes, but without a context to place those vibes in, he is completely unaware of what’s going on behind the scenes.
I’ll admit there’s a point to that. Hopefully this whole experience will make him less naive from now on, because if he needs anything right now, is to see how this will all go down. For better or for worse.
A little paranoia is always good, I say.
Hey I just realized. Does Blaine want Danny to be present so Amber won’t attack him?
More like to get Amber to come at all, also as something to hold over her head. “Watch out, or I’ll make your friends hate you.”
Man, I don’t say this about fictional characters often, but I really REALLY hope something bad happens to Blaine. Maybe not so much as death (though I wouldn’t feel bad), but something to really knock him down a few pegs.
I like Danny and I don’t care what anyone says. He’s confused but that’s the point of being young.
I’m right there with you. I know that he’s made a lot of mistakes but don’t we all at that age? Not everyone can know exactly what to do or say at the right time.
I think my liking of his character depends on how he reacts when he learns the truth about Blaine. Whether he does the right thing, apologizes for his part in hurting her (even if it’s unintentional) and stands up with her or not will say a lot about his character.
I’m going to close my eyes and pretend that the next panel will involve Blaine’s car exploding, and he and Danny dying horrifically in the resulting fire.
I want her to call Ethan and tell him what’s going on. Then he’ll don his sidekick uniform and they’ll fight the Boss together.
Screw that, it’s a really simple solution. “Hey Mike, wanna kill someone?” “When and where?”
Suddenly, no more problem.
Blaine and Danny.
Blanny.
Sounds like an Eastern European brand soda bread mix.
Is that their ship name?
Wait, I know that it has less of an insulting meaning in American-English than it does in British-English, but surely Danny must have heard Blaine call Amber a spaz in the previous strip? Wouldn’t that have tipped some alarm bells?
Though knowing Danny, he probably just zoned out during the conversation.
Look again. Danny was inside the car when that speech took place and not in a position to hear what was said. If he were, he also would have reacted adversely to Blaine describing him as her boyfriend.
Did/ do people miss things like that often in P&A or GA or etc., T?
I feel bad for Danny. He’s starting to catch on to Blaine’s methods, but he can’t quite get it. And people are hating him for it.
You must find the ball of common sense Danny. FYI it’s not located in your groin region.
I liked Blaine a lot better when he was dead.
Danny?
Stop talking.
*reads Shortpacked*
Well, there’s an idea for the next Slipshine feature KIDDING!
Why wouldn’t you put that comment on the SP! page instead of here?
Because Disqus.
Danny’s «I… guess it was? Was it?» reinforces my opinion that Blaine is a manipulative DOUCHE.
(And it was actually his idea)
(Go Captain Obvious)
Yeah, Blaine is twisting Danny’s words to convince Danny that they’re on the same side.
“The comic adventures of Blaine and Danny” – hell yeah I’d read that.
It’s The Story about two very different and very flawed guys, at two very different points of their lives. All they have in common is the girl they have both become estranged from. Together, they go on a road-trip to save that girl from her mysterious, masked kidnapper, Amazi-Girl! On the way, they will learn to see life in another perspective, how to escape from mad dogs, and just how little it means to be only human.
And there will. Be. Blood.
I get the feeling that Danny’s starting to annoy Blaine with his rambling, and soon he’ll snap, revealing his true colours.
Blaine’s got some really interesting facial expressions. Very “40-year-old man with the maturity of an 18-year-old who honestly thinks his life is over because he hasn’t had sex yet”
God, look at this /face/. I anticipate the moment that Blaine snaps. Maybe, /maybe/ Danny’ll figure it out. And kick his ass. With Amazi-Girl.
hell who am I kidding this is going to go so badly
As much as I’m dreading, on Amber’s behalf, the fact that she’ll be forced to interact with Blaine again, I must say this to Mr. Willis:
Danny’s last line in Panel 6 is one of the funniest and best-phrased things I’ve read all month. Well done, sir, well done.
I love how not into Danny’s plan Blaine is. “Maybe we should tell her she’s a wonderful person and that we support her decisions.” “How about your shut the hell up and not mess with my choice to be the worst father alive, OKAY?”
Oh my gosh, ANYONE should know better then to get in a stranger’s car… well… except danny I guess.
Pleaeepleasepleasepleaseplease let blaine die tomorrow.
Cue Amazi-girl dropping from the truck on top of the car.
Wow, Danny is a fucking moron
I normally dislike people jumping all over him but even I can’t imagine how he will climb out of the hole of no respect this has dug.
Danny isn’t a moron, hes a well-meaning, naive kid. I think the reason most people are down on Danny so much is because he reminds them of themselves at that age. I know I had a tendency to be trusting of others and far too open with myself and in trying to do the right thing I’d screw up at times and I certainly missed what was happening right in front of me.
But I also have faith that Danny will come up trumps (eventually) either by doing the right thing or (most likely) inadvertantly getting it right.
Well, seeing as I am a guy of approximately danny’s age… I hafta say… no, he does not remind me of me.
Well I’m generalising of course but when I was Dannys age I didn’t think I was gormless but looking back…well if I had a time machine I’d be using it to go back and slap myself
How would you know? You’re still around Danny’s age. of course you’d deny any resemblance. 😛 It’s only when people are older when they’re able to see the flaws in their younger selves. Hindsight is 20/20.
if danny doesn’t get his ass kicked by the end of this story line, then everything will be for naught.
You know, I’ve gotten so tired of the horseshit where everybody blames Danny personally for not being omniscient, I don’t have the energy or interest to respond to each of the hundreds of comments individually anymore. Or even the small subset of the most egregious and infuriating posts that rise above the rest. So I’ll just post this:
All you brilliant people who constantly dump on Danny for not noticing the “obvious”? You wouldn’t do any better. As dumb as you call Danny? You’re that dumb, or worse. As careless and oblivious as you claim he is? You’re a freaking sack of rocks by comparison. And you know how callously and heartlessly you claim he barrels through life? He’s a freaking paragon of sensitivity by comparison.
How can I say this? Because every accusation of stupidity or insensitivity leveled at Danny is founded in a failure to notice, recognize, and understand the circumstances of the comic that Danny is experiencing. We are seeing a massive, blanket failure realize that Danny doesn’t see his life and experiences with a second pair of eyes floating ten feet to the side. Danny is dealing with the world that he sees, hears, and knows – and that’s it! That’s all he has!
Does Danny come to the wrong conclusions about things? Yes! But why? Well, let’s see. He’s been lied to, had things hidden from him, and been actively deceived by almost every person he’s interacted with since the comic began. All of them! And even worse, other people in his universe have the audacity to do things when he’s not around! These two facts explain 98% of the things he’s done that people endlessly criticize him for. And the other 2% can be attributed to poor night vision.
So that’s his excuse. The fandom, however, has NO excuse. The fact that this is a comic strip is not a secret from them. They are aware that Danny is, at times, not present when certain information is given. They even have an archive through which they can disabuse themselves of whatever heinous actions they’ve imagined that Danny has committed. There is literally no excuse for the ignorance the fandom is proudly displaying. And I’m having trouble resisting the temptation to point out specific examples, so I better wind this up here.
To summarize: We’ve reached the point where the phrase “Danning it up” reads as , “the person who posted this comment is a freaking moron.” And somehow that means it’s no fun to read the comments anymore.
Amen.
I am smarter than any fleshling.
Yeah, some of your plans in the original cartoon were just dripping with brilliance. DRIPPING.
Starscream? Is that you?
http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=997
Yes
I think most people would actually agree with you, but just like making fun of him anyway. In the last few comment sections, people have described “Danning it up” as “trying to do the right thing but accidentally harming people.” I think that shows some awareness of Danny’s plight. That doesn’t keep them from laughing about it, especially given Danny’s perfect track record of failures.
1 Ragging on Danny is a running joke, don’t take it so seriously
2. Danny’s whole subplot throughout the entire series so far is making one mistake after another, it’s natural to get frustrated at the character
3. A lot of us wouldn’t be talking shit about someone to a complete stranger behind their back.
4. Many people also wouldn’t have cut ties with a friend without getting some kind fo answer.
Yes, we wouldn’t be able to tell Blaine was an abusive asshole or anything like that but there is still a lot that Danny does that we wouldn have done better if only slightly.
he’s not “talking shit about someone to a complete stranger behind their back.” he’s talking to her father (and he is correct to think that), assuming that as her father he cares about her wellbeing and wants to help (and he is incorrect to think that, but has not been given any reason to know that), and he is telling her father about how she’s being pretty crazyballs in a way that suggests that she needs help (and he is correct to think she is being crazyballs, because she is, and that she needs help, because she does; he just doesn’t know how crazyballs she really is), with the obvious intent of helping her (and he is incorrect to think Blaine shares that intent, but again, how would he know that)
the stuff in the parentheses is where the drama/comedy comes in. and unless you’re saying you’re going to assume anyone that you meet during Parents Weekend and convincingly acts the part of the father of a friend you’ve known for a couple weeks who is crazyballs and that you would like to help might actually be an abusive monster, then yeah, you’d probably wind up in Danny’s shoes too.
Danny doesn’t know Blaine, regardless of whether he’s actually Amber’s father he shouldn’t be discussing her life to him without, at the very least letting her know they’re talking.
I would never talk to a friend’s parent without them knowing we were speaking first.
Not in disagreement here, but a minor correction, it isn’t parent’s weekend, that’s already over.
No, it’s Sunday. It’s still Freshman Family Weekend.
“You wouldn’t do any better.”
Talk about someone I knew’s personal details with someone I didn’t know, never mind if they claimed to be her dad? And get into the car with them?
I wasn’t that stupid ever since I could measure my age in double digits.
Yeah, I remember the safety videos of what to do when strangers claim to be friends’ parents and tell you to get into their car.
As a girl with a formerly abusive asshole dad who still thinks he can be the boss of me, if anyone ever did what Danny is doing now, I would kill them. And cut ties. But then again, I actually inform people about what my dad is…
Sounds like an excellent argument for informing people about your situation. Has that helped?
“Uh Blaine isn’t it strange that the sky suddenly turned red? That doesn’t usually happen does it?”
And then Amazi-girl showed up and beat Blaine into a bloody heap and informed Danny that he could piss off. And Danny cried and went on a pizza binge.
And Amber got a motorcycle and went on adventures.
The End
In the sequel, Galasso finds pity for the binging boy and takes Danny under his wing. Slowly, over long nights hauling flour bags, “tenderizing” pepperoni, and practicing precision punching with pizza-dough, Danny regains his confidence. With his (meat)balls restored, he takes on an even more important task: creating the perfect pizza pie to serve the dean, thus winning a lifelong pizza contract with the school and impressing Galasso with his skills. As he brings the pie out of the oven, and is bringing its molten cheesy mass over to the dean’s table, he forgets what the dean looks like, asks Billie, who says it is Sal, so serves it to her instead. Hijinks ensue.
I agree, Danny! Let’s go do that! Only don’t bring Blaine. He’s kind of a downer.
I dunno what’s creepier, his eye twitch face from the last segment or his genuinely convincing smile in the second panel of this one.
“Genuinely convincing” is Blaine’s best trick.
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
But there’s always a red sky at night and at morning. That’s just physics.
Actually, that’s dust. Wind and weather can change how you see it and what exact ranges of tint you get.
Dust physics!
Silly question, but didn’t Faz arrive with Blaine? We haven’t seen him since Dina turned him, neatly trussed, over to Ruth.
So where is Faz now?
He’s made best friends with Ruth. “Nobody who shows their affection in the creepiest way possible can be all bad!”
This, Danny, is one of those times when you’re supposed to grow them.
He needs to grow some balls so he can follow Blaine’s plan, instead of not having any balls and telling Amber she’s funny and pretty? Yeah, real good time to have some balls.
new buddy cop series
^ THIS. ALL OF MY MUNNIES. TO SEE THIS.
I’m looking forward to completing your training. In time you will call me master.