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✪ Jonathan H. Gray says: “Beware the Tide Pods of March” ✪ @jongraywb.bsky.social ⋅ 10h
BNO News @bnonews.com ⋅ 11h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com ⋅ 1d
trash panzer @panzertron.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
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Kekeflipnote
“hahahahaha no I wouldn’t HARVEST them”
…
“wait uh I mean”
I like that Walky’s reaction to her sweetness is to be creeped out rather than charmed.
“You remind me of Joyce and she’s a serial killer in the making.”
Harvesting his organ… on the black market…
Slipshine theme?
Or Repo! the Genetic Opera homage.
“You Stole My Heart (and more)”, a Valentine’s Day Dumbing of Age pornographique by David “dude seriously do you need a hug or something” Willis
He doesn’t look creeped out. I think he’s just joking.
Afer-last panel Lucy: Uh… yeah….
*hurriedly pushes surgical tray with chloroform and surgery knives under the couch*
So they ended up being just two
Ergo Walky had to split up his McNuggets very little. And Lucy got him all to herself.
A win-win.
But Walky didn’t want to share his McNuggets though.
He enjoyed sharing them with Dorothy and he would have enjoyed sharing them with
thic DorothyAmber,Excuse me, there are TWO c’s in THICC tyvm
You tell them Amber.
Dumbing of Age Book 9: yeah just the last panel
DOA 9: Just the third panel.
DoA Book 9: Was This, Um, Fun?
Book 9: … Yeah.
Awww, this is so sweet.
Who’s ready for emotional whiplash?
I’m definitely not, which means it must be just around the corner.
Sometimes I really dread checking my inbox at midnight. It’s like “Haha, that was funny, ooh, tomorrow’s strip yay patreon drama noooo.”
Let’s be real sunset in this comic basically just means we’re about to see the world implode; between Amber and Sal’s last two evenings I was visibly alarmed to see it was now dark out because that means the _monsters_ are coming.
By which I mean maybe Billie?
“Hey Lucy, you said you were trying to get Billie to come, and maybe Ruth too. Where are they?”
*Billie walks in hungover*
“Hey Billie, where’s your girlfriend?”
*silent panel*
*cut to shot of Ruth somewhere else, possibly drinking alcohol*
Fuck, I can see that happening.
Oh shit, I hope not.
She wouldn’t be hung over yet, hangovers are an activity for the day after.
In this strip, if you say “monster,” I think, “Amber’s POS Dad.”
I’m expecting it like two comics from now
This is definitely sweet, so I’m betting the next couple strips will be something sad involving Billie and Ruth’s fight.
“Damn! How did you guess?!?”
*the sound of Lucy pulling out scalpels*
Have you seen the way Walky takes care of himself? I’m sure there are better quality organs around somewhere. Not Billie’s.
Billie called dibs on the liver.
“So… there’s a DEMAND for them…!”
That just means Walky’s organs have been tested under load, so you know they’re good. They’re not “used”, they’re “certified pre-owned”!
Oh she certainly wants to ‘harvest’ ONE organ in particular…
Yikes
Yep. The heart!
He needs that to live!
Glad I scanned the comments before saying something along those lines myself.
Same!
That sixth panel genuinely hurts, and it’s hard to pin down the exact reason at first viewing.
Lucy isn’t used to being solitary.
But a genuine connection with one person (especially someone like Walky who is really good with emotions) is far better than many superficial connections with the rest of the people on her floor.
Walky? “really good with emotions”? Which Walky is this?
Yeah, Walky’s historical response to difficult emotions has been to tune them out, by his own admission: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/to-navigate/
He can’t manage his OWN but he has serious skill at being the supportive boyfriend. He de-stressed Dorothy and defused Amber, now he’s being there for Lucy when the world is deserting her.
Walky’s been a pretty great boyfriend thus far, yeah (though, tbf, nobody knows the extent of Amber’s problems). He does have a problem with trouble, but it’s also true that sometimes supporting family and supporting dates are very different matters. (Especially when the problem is you are finally, finally noticing your parents are bigoted, abusive tools).
OK, while “good with emotions” may not be exactly the phrase you’re looking for, I will say that Walky does care a lot for his girlfriends; whenever he just gets past his own toxic upbringing.
“I just want you to be able to everythin’ you wanna do.” is how it finally ended with Dorothy. And that is probably my favourite Walky moment ever, in all its sadness.
The phrase goes “If you love someone, set them free.” How many stories do we ever see where that actually happens, as opposed to “if you love someone, pursue them forever and ever”. Not very often.
And this one went one step further, because the saying (and thus the stories) often continues with how they will/should then come back on their own accord. This time, that is not likely to happen. Walky certainly doesn’t expect it to happen. And he said it anyway. He truly and fully meant those words.
Walky has a lot of growth to do in many areas… But strip away his eternal “I’ll laugh this off” attitude, and you’ll find that he does care about other people. Very deeply.
One of the things I really love about this comic is that so many characters are mostly defined by their surface defense mechanisms, but you get just enough glimpses past that to what’s really underneath. If you’re paying attention, that is.
If you’re not it’s easy to just write them off based on the surface.
Cerberus taught me to look for what’s underneath.
My guess is that Lucy is used to being solitary. Like, too used to it. I’m guessing she was lonely in highschool and that’s why she’s no pushy to make friends now
Yeah, that’s definitely my read on her too. Her wariness about Billie’s cheerleader status gives me the impression she had a pretty not great time at high school and “cool” kids had a hand in it.
OH NO MY ORGANS
*awakens in bathtub full of ice*
Oh no, my cabbages!
I want Amber x Walky, but these two seem really good for each other too!
Honestly Walky seems cute with nearly everybody. He’s just naturally good at being a supportive boyfriend, and soooo many characters need a person like that in their life
…maybe not with Sal, tho.
TWINCEST
FOLGERS COFFEE INTENSIFIES
Walky x Mary?
*inhuman screeching noises*
She might be interested in at least one organ.
The liver?
Hammond.
I guess after FOTN they saw Back to the Future (1) and Robocop (1)?
*plays Huey Lewis & The News’ “Back In Time” on the hacked Muzak*
So with no Billie, no one else showed up? If she wasn’t interested in him, she would have declared the night a disaster…
Lucky bugger…
There’s still time for her to declare it a disaster. Wally thinks she seems nice, but I don’t think he’s attracted to her.
The big question is: where is Billie? And if they aren’t with Billie, where are her 3 Fangirls?
Aw, they took my freakin’ kidney!
Candy Mountain, Charlie!
blllllp!
No big, you still have the other one, don’t you?
As much as this was just a reference to a video I loved in middle school, fun fact about me: I might only have one kidney! I’m not sure! And, like, how many people who have yet to have kidney problems are truly aware of how many kidneys they have?
In my case, I had a congenital cyst that generally develops around the same time as the kidneys and may result in only one kidney happening, but not necessarily. So like. Who knows.
Hardly a week goes by when I don’t learn something about the human body that makes me think that life truly runs along on a catastrophe curve.
This caused me to ponder. I’ve always assumed I have two kidneys, but it’s not like I ever made a point of verifying that. As you say, who knows?
I have one kidney and one portal to the deepest pits of hell.
You might be wondering how I found out about this biological abnormality.
Tennis.
but, but, but… don’t you get like physicians systematically checking for that in utero, at birth, three times as a baby, twice as a toddler, and then like every three years during school?
Am I really in a communist country because not only healthcare is almost free but also mandatory until adulthood?
I dunno about kidneys, but my parents were told I had a heart condition not long after I was born because of things like check ups.
In utero I could see it coming up, but maybe it just didn’t, or it was hard to tell? But after that, definitely not to mine or my parents’ recollection. If I have one kidney, it’s doing the job well enough not to cause me any issues, so there hasn’t been a ton of reason to check post-birth. I also didn’t find out this was a thing until I was 22 and had the (by that time very large) cyst removed, and a doctor was like, “By the way, sometimes when this happens, you only have one kidney. Crazy, right?”
Seems to me that would have been a good time for them to check and verify the situation, don’t you think?
If you mean during the surgery, they didn’t have to cut me open for it, and the ultrasounds and stuff leading up to it were focused lower than where the kidneys would be. I did want to be like, “Well…can we check on that?” But I already had the various bills from the surgery and wasn’t really feeling like any more appointments.
Ah, that makes more sense. I thought it was a surgery, so they would have been in there anyway, so looking to verify a kidney was actually present would have been trivial.
I was born long before ultrasound was even available for fetal monitoring. As far as I can tell, ultrasound wasn’t routine before the 80s.
After birth, if a baby appears to be healthy, and there’s no reason to put them through some kind of screening (x-ray, CAT scan, ultrasound, MRI), they could have one kidney and never know it, and be happy and healthy. (One kidney is all you need, assuming it’s functioning properly.)
My sister was born in ’92. Mum had scans with her because she was an ‘older mother’ at 34. She didn’t get them with my brother (’82) or me (’84).
Blood flow to kidneys was one of the things they checked in utero with my two bubs (’14) and (’17) as part of the routine scans.
No. Kidneys and cysts look alike, and soft tissue is not easy to differentiate generally, and the best way involves maybe 14 grays of exposure. If you show no symptoms, nobody will look.
t. has 1<x<2 kidneys now.
I have two and a half! One of my kidneys split during fetal development and isn‘t quite working right. Never wouldn‘t known if it hadn‘t been prone to infections.
Interesting. I highly look forward to what happens next. I’m having trouble reading Lucy’s feelings in panel 6. Is she feeling bittersweet about it being just them? Is it her reflecting on this not being the only time she’s been stuck watching movies alone?
I could see it being like, she’s reflecting on how she’s so used to being alone (if she was, pre-college) that even the group activity she had planned was a “solitary activity” and she hadn’t even realized it.
Or, like, a million other things. She’s looking down at the tools she’s gonna use to cut Walky open. I don’t know.
I assume it has something to do with her massive insecurity towards people liking her (compounded by every interaction she had with Malaya and Billie) and Walky’s answer being less “being here with you was nice” and more “watching movies alone is nice”
You’ve finally done it, comments section: you pointed out how slow time passes in the strip so many times that now Willis has skipped almost an entire day! Are you happy? Is this what you wanted?
(The above paragraph was made entirely in jest.)
At currently 69 (nice) strips, this is a shorter day than average, though there is some variance. My point being, we could be close to the end of the day, but there’s still time for shit to go down.
Willis stated that this storyline runs through March 3.
Get out of here with your facts.
(No, but really, good to know.)
Forest Wing is in a different timezone (citation needed)
Yes.
Well, not for the black market anyway.
Walky, she’s not after your vital organs. She’s trying to sap your precious bodily fluids. (Well, some of them at least.)
Skeksies not hurt Gelflings, Skeksies LOVE Gelflings. We just want your vital essence!
Well, that was a reference I was not expecting.
Good news for Lucy: This is the 69th strip of this chapter.
If I know anything about Willis based off his comic, it is 100% intentional.
Lucy and Walky perform a–no, actually, they don’t, that would be absolutely bonkers
Not his organs! He needs those to live!
But his femurs are already spoken for! (Ruth called “dibs” on the entire building)
Idk, you wouldn’t have mentioned it if it hadn’t at least crossed your mind, Walky.
Omg, if this nerd ass get’s laid AGAIN, like. YOU NEED TO SORT OUT YOUR DRAMA BEFORE YOU MOVE ON TO THE NEXT BOO, WALKY
The crisis when Joe discovers Walky is getting laid more than he is.
So far we have 2 confirmed sexual partners for Walky and 2 confirmed for Joe. The question becomes what we’re going to do about potential-but-not-confirmed sexual partners, of which Joe has at least one, and about sexual partners who didn’t show up in the story because it all took place off-panel.
So, in short, I don’t think Walky’s getting laid more than Joe.
Three confirmed for Joe (Roz, Penny & Malaya). I suspect there weren’t any others and it was all just bluster, but it’s possible.
Depending on what counts, only one for Walky. He made out with Amber, but there’s no indication it went farther than that.
Of course, if you go from “number of sexual partners” to “number of times having sex”, Walky almost certainly wins. Sex seemed to be a pretty regular thing with Walky and Dorothy.
Which matches my college experience: The boring people who paired off into couples had a lot more sex than the supposed studs who were trying to score with different girls every party.
Oh yeah, I forgot Penny.
Also, wasn’t there some whisper of Willis that Joe and Roz had sex multiple times? Not saying you’re wrong (you’re probably right), but just saying.
A couple of times at least. The sex tape and the slipshine. Implied others. When Roz couldn’t find someone she liked better. Heavily implied to have ended sometime before the list came out as Roz got tired of his shit.
“So, in short, I don’t think Walky’s getting laid more than Joe.”
Over the course of their lives, or even college careers (all two months), no. *Right now*, maybe.
I am more interested in Billie’s reaction when she walks in on them.
I have trouble thinking of Walky as having drama. I mean, sure he accidentally started dating the person who stabbed his twin, but that kind of wasn’t his fault? And he seems to be handling it in a pretty low-drama way, all things considered. (I haven’t forgotten his lurking outside Sal’s door, but that seems more like semi-deliberate slapstick than real drama.)
Drama around him doesn’t seem to change who he is or how he behaves. He’s got a lot of integrity that way. “You need to sort out your drama” reads to me like “You need to stop reacting in a bad and unusual way to this thing that’s thrown you off-center.” But Walky isn’t off-center.
So, aside from making a simple decision about Amber (and hopefully communicating it to her) I don’t really see that Walky needs to do any changing before getting together with Lucy … if that’s going to happen, which somehow I feel like it won’t.
He’s not handling his problems with his math class very well. But I don’t think I’d call that drama, exactly.
I think of it more “you need to get a handle on all of the shit going on in your life and that requires your full attention right now.” Walky has drama heading his way he’s not even aware of (Amber changing his grades). Dude’s got a lot going on and he needs to buckle down and deal with it instead of finding distractions.
well you need to sort your drama before having a relationship, if you can, but I don’t see why it would stop you from getting laid…
During butchering, you want to keep the animal calm (distraction by feeding for example) because adrenaline from fear while dying will mean tough meat. Walky will be…most tender.
Um – I hope you keep the animal calm during slaughter (and before), not during butchering. During butchering it should be dead.
…At least, if you’re human, the food should be dead. Most predators don’t seem to care much about including prey in their circle of sympathy.
You should see the 60’s documentary “The Pig” of Jean Eustache. It’s a 50 minute flick about old school peasants butchering a pig and making food out of it. At the start the pig is still alive.
> you want to keep the animal calm (distraction by feeding for example)
But that would mean Costco is… Oh. Oh my god.
*tilts head* . . . I can’t tell if Walky is being purposely dense or if he really is just that naturally dense. Also I think I only half support this ship. I want Lucy to be happy mind. . . but then again it is WALKY we are talking about and his emotional depth. . .is not the most evolved.
Hell I think that Joe before his relapse might have actually had more emotional maturity if not mental and sexual.
I saw the following tweet not long ago (but did not make it):
Me: I am so dense when it comes to girls being interested in me, they can smack me on the back of my head to show they like me, and I won’t have a clue.
Lady friend: *smacks me on the back of my head*
Me: Hey, what the hell did you do that for?!?!
Yeah, I don’t so much see this as Walky being dense so much as Walky making an inane comment to break the conversational ice.
Some guys really are so dense that they’ll miss even the most blatant hints that a girl likes them.
I hate this ship on every conceivable level. It’s like Littlefinger and Sansa to me.
As someone who also hates Littlefinger/Sansa on every conceivable level, I gotta say – goddamn, I underestimated your hate for this ship. That’s some intense ship hate.
Been a little while since I read the books (and I dropped the show after, like, Season 3), but if your hate for that ship matches mine for Tauradonna…
So, like, Lucy thought Walky’s dad was super hot or something?
“Nerd stuff isn’t a pit. Nerd stuff is a ladder.”
I mean I hate it a whole lot but not the same amount as I hate a grown man preying on a traumatized child.
Sounds like how I felt about Walky and Amber from start to (hopefully*) finish
(*: I dread we have not actually seen the last of it)
As for this one, I’m not enthused, but it does not have me screaming internally and/or externally.
What, Lucy and Walky? I think it’s kinda detached. Walky, at least, is not the slightest bit interested, and he’s too preoccupied with his other lady troubles to even get his mack on.
I have this vision of the two of them going to bed together and then wondering what they’re doing there, and if it’s nice.
I initially read this as Littlefoot, and I was very, very confused.
I mean, Walky’s not wrong, Blancmange music videos were indeed kind of creepy.
Walky: I’m glad after two breakups that I can just sit back and enjoy a movie with someone I’m not attracted to.
He hasn’t really given any indication one way or another he’s thought of her in that way, but we also don’t know that he never will. He’d met Amber before they got to smooching, and he didn’t immediately go ga-ga for her like he did Dorothy.
I don’t think she wanted all his organs, and only to borrow the one she wanted.
And Iclasari ninja’d me.
Hmmmm you would only find a cluster of chicken nuggets no actual organs.
nah dude, your organs are safe, SHE WANTS YOU WHOLE!
No you don’t want his organs. Have you seen his diet? His organs probably aren’t good quality.
Oh the conclusions Walky’s mind formulates for possible ulterior motives.
These two really don’t seem to have much chemistry to me. I can’t really find myself rooting for her and him to get together.
Lucy is sweet in many ways. I hope the fact that Walky isn’t interested in her doesn’t break her heart too badly!
I take Lucy and Walkie to be the start of something real, possibly lasting. Start slowly make a bonfire. Cup of gasoline on a pile of sticks –and once the gas is gone, it goes out.
Oh no! What if Lucy is on the run from the cops and travels town to town to murder way macho dudes and stealing their shirts for her trophy wall?
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/freshstart/
You can’t prove anything!
What’re you anyways, a cop?
Also, experts (Dorothy/Danny) have determined that if she is murdering macho dudes, Walky is safe.
What if Walky is Lucy’s idea of a macho dude?
What if Walky is Lucy’s idea?
What if Walky is?
Perfect gravatar for this comment!
I’m not sure either of those two are what I’d like to call experts on the subject.
It’s be real nice if walkthrough were just like “hey I’ve had two breakups in the span of a week and I’m really not emotionally in a spot to entertain the thought of a new relationship, because I think I’m one bad relationship away from mental implosion” and then Lucy was like “Oh hey that is understandable. As much as I think you are fuckable, because I am a good person, let me back off but also be friendly and supportive and just help you through this difficult time, out of genuinely selfless motivations, because I just like you as a person.
I don’t think that’s what’s gonna happen, because they are stupid college kids. But, you know, it’d be nice.
My phone turned walky into walkthrough
Walkthrough is a good nickname.
As a stupid college kid, I feel confident in saying that that response is more common than you would think, but less common than you’d hope
That conversation exactly will happen.
And then they’ll fuck.
Well, the title of the comic isn’t “Smart and Emotionally healthy decisions of Age”.
Walky would be surprised when Lucy turns out to be a Repoman working for Roti Largo and his murderous children.
Also, it’s sad that Lucy was left alone by her supposed friends. I hate the term sheeple for it’s right wing implications, but her friends seem like sheep. Again, that term is offensive to both people and sheep.
“It’s a thankless job, but somebody’s got to do it!”
… shit you’re right, Lucy COULD be a Repoman.
The Anti Lucy would have a good evil singing voice.
Poor Lucy. I can’t believe everyone ditched her like that. But this is still really cute.
None of her “friends” seemed terribly reliable, to be honest. You know your wing’s probably not great when you try to reach out to friggin MALAYA and BILLIE to talk to.
Hobestly, I don‘t think what Lucy thinks of her friends EVER were her friends.
From what I‘ve seen the relationship basically consisted out of lucy mistaking their superfluous politeness for friendship. And Lucy ran after them and the more clingy she got, the less they wanted to do with her.
But since polite people don‘t yell at their roommates and Lucy’s a bit desperate, she missed all the „nope, I‘m just cordial, don‘t WANT a friendship“ signals from the others.
Honestly, it may also simply be Lucy is showing a movie no one wants to see.
It was already established that the deciding factor for those weirdo sheeple was whether or not Billie was going to be there.
Billie is a lot of fun! Mature and CHEERLEADERY.
What comic have you been reading dude
Things are always either the best-case or worst-case scenario with you, aren’t they Walky?
Oh Walky. There’s definitely one “organ” she wants to harvest.
Sustainably!
And repeatably!
Dang. I was hoping Walky would have gotten a text.
I hear that is a common concern with 20 year old college students in Indiana.
Here’s a question: Is it a date if only one of the participants thinks of it as a date?
No, it’s an afternoon with Slender Man.
No, it’s not.
I suppose it’d depend which one you asked.
Seriously though, no.
I’ve had a couple dates that were only so in retrospect.
I don’t think Lucy thinks it’s a date. She is crushing on him, but I think even she would know better than to think something is happening yet.
As someone whose been on one of those, the answer is no. No it is not. *cry*
It also occurs to me that Billie isn’t around. I do hope that she hasn’t reacted to the incident with Ruth by doing something foolish.
Honestly doing something foolish (usually involving alcohol) seems like Billie’s standard course of action.
Uh oh Walky. Its thinking like that that could end up costing you a kidney.
Its sweet, but it also seems kind of sad. Lucy seems to be a very nice character, which is kind of unlike any one else so far.
Yeah, it is really sad. Lucy needs to find some normal people to be friends with, quickly. (No, not Walky.)
There are a lot of nice characters. Dina’s a sweety, Dorothy is always trying to make the world a better place, Jacob’s consistently kind and thoughtful, etc.
Yeah, Lucy is the anti-Joyce. Shy, and sort of respectful, sort of, and sweet.
Well, I mean…you’re not WRONG…
darn it Willis! Stop making me ship everyone with Walky!!!
I said this a while ago, this is going to turn into a harem manga.
This is just kinda sad tbh
Most of the strips with Lucy are kinda sad.
Poor naive Walky. I’ll miss him. Except for the spleen.
So, Lucy just casually moves in on Walky after his breakup. Not cool. Not cool at all.
So did Amber, and Walky did the same with Dorothy after her breakup with Danny. Also, I’m not much for the idea of relationships requiring a mourning period especially not the like 2 day one Walky had with Amber (assuming that one is even over).
Yes and they got all manner of crap for it.
And it was kind of silly then too.
It’s so casual that Walky hasn’t even noticed.
I mean, I guess she’s putting herself out there, but she’s hardly doing anything about it.
Can you believe she said “yeah” three times and she actually went as far as asking if he had fun watching a movie? The nerve, I tell you!
Well, there is a particular part of you that she is interested in “harvesting”. Well, more like “milking”. But you have been with Dorothy enough times to know this
Walky gonna get laaaaid.
3 women in one week though. There’s gonna be drama.
Girls saying “Yeah”. It’s a trope now!
I’m extremely neutral about these two as a ship, but if she and Walky could just be fun nerd friends, I think that’d be really great. Lucy’s obviously pretty starved for reliable friendships, and I think she’d ultimately enjoy it more than getting mired in Walky’s romance problems.
I’m fairly neutral about it as a friendship to but yeah, it would be better for both of them and also I don’t want it to be a relationship just because they’re attracted to each other’s gender and happened to meet while single.
I think it could be fun to see Lucy mired in Walky’s romance problems as long as she’s not one of them. They could both use a kind friend with whom they don’t already have complicated ties and maybe they could end up supporting each other’s growth in a good way. I think they could learn from each other in other ways, too, like Walky gets a good look at what it looks like to put real effort into making friends instead of just waiting for them basically to fall in your lap and Lucy could see what it’s like to have a bit more…chill, I guess?
THAT was a concern for him?