Anyway. Uh… Becky. This is the uncompromising optimism I love. Even when a touch bitterness slips in about only ALMOST having a home and the kind of possessions that are taken for granted by her peers, she is just so dang proud of herself and her accomplishments.
It’s the “from what we have seen” part that I’m commenting on. We’ve seen her in a grand total of eight strips comprising two scenes, in the first of which she was clearly already in an irritated mood. (Like anyone here hasn’t been.)
And maybe she is a total jerk, I’m not saying she’s not. I’m just saying that the evidence for dumping all over her does not yet seem to be in, as far as I can see.
So when’s the evidence in? She’s ranged from jerk to downright asshole in every one of her appearances. Actions speak louder than intentions (not that any intention could justify her behavior in those 8 strips), and her actions and words say “jerkass” loud and clear.
That said, as much as I dislike Anna, I’m not really enjoying the comments complaining about her showing up, either. I don’t *disagree*, it just .. really doesn’t add anything to the discussion.
Thank you. I’ve reached that point where I’m mostly over it, I don’t go looking for reminders anymore, and most of the time I don’t think about anymore, but when Anna was introduced I was still living in Colorado, so people cheering Anna on was the biggest slap in my face this comment section has ever produced.
The way story-telling tends to work is that the author will show us what’s important and leave out what’s not. The fact that Anna hasn’t been nice a single time in her eight strips is pretty clear evidence that Willis intends for her to be portrayed as a jerk. (Obviously Willis’ word outweighs mine on this, if he wants to correct me.)
It’s possible that she might eventually change, get some character development. But relationships that start with a person needing to change are… not usually very healthy. So the only thing I’m shipping Anna with is therapy.
When you first met Anna she was berating Becky. Now, she may have been irritated because she was “standing in the way”, but the polite thing to do would have been to say “excuse me” and get on with life. Then after that she insults Mindy’s appearance. (And, in that same scene, Mindy mentions that her parents would have preferred if she dated a different girl, which suggests that Anna was not very nice to them either.)
When you next saw Anna, she managed to recognize Leslie by calling her “big nose”.
I think she’s had like three or four lines in literally all of her appearances where she wasn’t being incredibly rude and hostile as her first and only option.
Say what you will about Anna, I think everyone can agree Leslie has bad taste in partners. Even if it’s an aberration, being a jerk is how Anna landed her.
I adore Force Awakens. It’s funny how all the fans that scream at me that nobody needed a rehash of Episode IV are men. Look, I couldn’t identify with Luke as a kid, and Leia, awesome as she is, doesn’t have my personality type either. Rey is the hero little kid me deserved, god dammit, and I need her in my life. <3
Also funnily enough, the criticisms leveled at Rey are suspicious similar to those leveled at Korra from the Avatar-verse, who I also love dearly for the same reasons. Can the chosen one archetype just belong to women sometimes? Can they be naturally talented and strong and still mess up and learn form their mistakes? I’m so happy for all the little girls who get to feel like main characters now. Realizing that during TFA made me weep in the theater.
That dream has already passed a half-century duration for me, been wearing glasses for 49 years. Took a while before I figured out why I couldn’t read the board from the back row.
A few times, but not specifically about that – most recently she talked to him in Dina’s room making out with Amber. Before that, when drunk Walky and Jason went to Galasso’s. They talked about the breakup a bit.
I’m surprised Bagge is alive. Because apart from the dream sequence a few days ago, this is Becky’s first appearance since September 18; and I was pretty certain Bagge need her special brand of DOOFUSness to survive.
I hadn’t read the hovertext when I first read your comment, and I thought you were stretching out the word “ten.” Like, yeah, Becky’s homeless, but she’s still a ten.
If you’re in Clark,
Then watch out mate.
Here comes Carla on roller skates.
Zipping quickly down the halls
Driving Mary up the walls.
Look out!
Carla’s on roller skates.
Has she got drones?
Listen bud
Watch them descend from above.
Eager almost any time
To deliver jackets Rutten Style,
Then watch
them leave with a soft buzz.
Who’s an ino-cent cutie
Who prob’ly wants to bone Walky
Solves problems without a fight
And hosts two person movie nights
That’s right!
The wonderful Lucy
He’s super into buying toys,
And also fond of kissing
Yes here he is, the great Ethan
Hear crowds shout out “he’s the man!”
Hot damn,
Apple’s got some tight abs
By an interesting bit of synchronicity, I’ve just been watching Into the Spider-Verse on Google Play. I’d just got to the end credits when I decided to load up the new DOA, and ‘lo the alt-text.
They have the power to hurt a handful of people. Robin was in the position to – and was trying to – hurt whole demographics. Not due to active malevolence, maybe, but being a passive malignancy doesn’t change the damage she would have done by going along with the whole ‘hate on The Gays to get votes’ thing.
As Kamino put it, I’m not. I’m not saying Robin is top of the evil chart (that’s either Blaine or Ryan, I’m still undecided), I’m saying she tops the damage chart. Because those people are localised damages. When Ryan raped someone, that didn’t suddenly encourage all wannabe-rapists across the country.
But when Robin supports anti-gay legislation, that DOES encourage homophobes across the country or, at least, the state. Because bigots are just bullies that have grown too old for people to be comfortable calling them bullies (for some reason), and therefore the only thing holding them back is fear of consequences. And Robin represents the state, which is the ultimate giver of consequences, so when she says, “meh, sure, gaybash”, what bigots hear is “get out of jail free card when you fuck gay people up, go for it, we’re with you.”
There was also that pretty major part of the last few days where Ryan’s attack and subsequent doxxing of some of his victims led a bunch of people to try to attack their houses in the middle of the night.
Robin flatly ignored Leslies wishes whenever convenient for her. She got thrown out of the apartment and broke in through the window. Anna was rude to a stranger that mistreated her friend (because, well, the excuse Leslie gave was pretty obvious and pretty lame). And Anna is the bad choice?
I’ll wait to see how she actually behaves in a relationship. Robin didn’t exactly put the bar very high though.
Anna’s first words in the strip are literally her insulting Mindy in front of Leslie. Furtherrrrrrmore, Mindy’s seems to be her employee or, at least, her hierarchical subordinate (they’re also roommates, for bonus awkwardness points).
They probably also are friends. Friendships can have interesting dynamics. Again, I’ll wait and see. I’m not a fan of early judgement.
Still, even there, Robin has done worse to her employees.
Seriously, Leslie, I don’t think that Alex’s presence offends Becky in any way. You don’t need to hide them from each other, even if Alex likes ribbing you about your ‘fosterling/mini-me’.
On an entirely unrelated topic, I saw this shirt being offered for sale on the Interwebs. There is no way on God’s green earth that Dina would not have one of these, and I want Willis to draw her wearing it.
Leslie doing what she’s doing is the reason she’s probably the kindest, gentlest, most wonderful person in the strip. It’s awful both women had to experience such nightmarish treatment.
My wife notably had a not too dissimilar story herself as a runaway, though for different reasons. 🙁 Thankfully, she managed to survive and find a home as wll.
Spider Becky: “You know the story. Got bitten by a spider, helped my friend deal with nihilism, became the new college vigilante since the previous one retired because of insanity, converted to humanism, got enough money to but a PS5, and now I am going to marry my girlfriend in a natural sciences museum.”
Becky is my hero. I wish I could hold onto my beliefs, change some of them, and progress forward with a bright optimism despite all the crap dumped on me.
And if I squint, I am an English student with a fully fledged future career plan and am not just talking out of my ass every time someone asks me what I’ll be when I grow up
No, she supported her with Mindy… ‘I turned down the girl you tried to hook me up with and went out with her roommate because she was a jerk to me’ is something she probably doesn’t want to explain.
Here’s a thought: I know that some colleges demand that freshman students stay in the dorms. Is that a requirement at IU.
If not, I can see a hyper-cute development where Joyce, Becky and possibly Sal and Amber end up staying in a small studio apartment just off campus. There results the kind of weird pseudo-domesticity that only those four could create.
Sadly, all underclassman have to live in on-campus housing, at least according to Walky when he’s showing Jason around. (I’m assuming this is the only reason Sarah is still anywhere near this dorm and the people in it.)
I would have thought that living in dorms was practically the only housing you can afford on a grant? It has been mentioned that Marcie is sharing a room with several people.
And we all know how diligent Walky is in his research practices. 🙂
I’m not going to dive into the Wayback Machine to check, but, given the floating timeline, that might have been true on move-in day. But as of the “plebs” strip, the on-campus rule applied only to first-year students.
Sarah is probably still in Read because it’s her cheapest option. The co-ops are cheaper, but space is limited, and anyway can you imagine Sarah in a co-op? The (presumably subsidized) on-campus unfurnished apartments are mostly more expensive than the dorms, which probably indicates that off-campus housing is even pricier.
First-year undergrads have to spend their first two semesters in dorms (source).
The floating timeline offers an opportunity for the real-life 2019-2020 academic year when, due to an on-campus housing crunch, that requirement is waived. But during that same time Forest is closed, which would present problems.
Plus due to the floating timeline, it would only be for an in-comic week or so that it was allowed, which would be weird.
I’m not sure the question really matters anyway, we’re at least a real decade away from the start of the next semester, which is the earliest reasonable time for any move off campus, even without rules about residency.
Why do they HAVE to live in the dorms? Like, what if you lived within a relatively easy car/bus trip to the university so it wasn’t necessary? Or you had the funds to acquire housing on your own?
Also I dunno about the states/IU in particular but up here in Canada land student housing is way more expensive than finding a landlord renting out a part of their house to students…
The blunt reason is school rules, but the other is because it’s to open students up to each other and the university experience and get involved.
“Like, what if you lived within a relatively easy car/bus trip to the university so it wasn’t necessary? Or you had the funds to acquire housing on your own?”
Depends on the school. Some will let you out of it if you live close by. Others say ‘Too bad. You have to move in.’
And yes, indeed, university housing is usually much more expensive than finding a place on your own.
Also means the kids out on their own for the first time aren’t living completely unsupervised.
A lot of places will make exceptions for commuter students still living at home and for older students who might be freshmen but worked for some years after high school before going to college. Don’t know if IU does though.
Of course, the alternate cynical explanation is that the university makes money off of dorm housing. 🙂
The argument as to why the must live on campus (at those schools that require it) is usually that it facilitates networking and building required support structures that facilitate better academic performance. There have been studies that facilitate that claim, but for many of them it’s arguable how valid their methodologies are.
That aside, it varies a lot as to what individual universities and colleges do for housing. The school I attended 20 years ago had a lot of options. On campus dorms similar to what we see in this comic were available but were scarce on the ground. On campus apartments were available, but were more expensive, still didn’t have any cooking facilities and had the same rules as the dorms.
The school rented out a large number of local apartment buildings near campus, they were traditional apartments with three bedrooms, a kitchen, a single shared bathroom and a shared living room. They were handled as “off campus housing” through the school which ran shuttle buses to them. They were cheaper than on campus and offered more freedom, but filled up quickly with upperclassmen and were less convenient than on campus housing.
Then one could get off campus housing on one’s own which was oft still cheaper and even less convenient (supply your own transportation). This option was not available to first year students at all.
Then you had what they called “commuter students” like myself. My parents (not I but my parents) had to apply for me to be allowed this option rather than living on campus because I was under 21 and a first year and still living at home. Part of that was waiving the school from any responsibility for anything that might happen to me off campus. Normally this was mainly for working adults taking night classes on campus. I was far from the only one who was a commuter under similar circumstances, but it also required a separate process so many students didn’t bother even if they lived close enough to do it. I was against it myself, until it was pointed out to me that it would cut $15,000 per year in housing plus the cost of a meal plan (itself near $5000 per year) from my student loans and would allow me to keep working without looking for on campus work (off campus work while living on campus was another similar separate application process with another waiver for what happened to me off campus) when I considered having some employment experience important both financially and for other reasons.
The alt text and these Spider comments have reminded me of a fantastic fan art pun idea I had. I wanna draw Stevonnie in Spider-Gwen’s costume, so that it’s a picture of Gwen Stevonnie.
So, just to address this head-on, since I’m coming off inconsistent if you’re a regular comment reader: My last comment here a week or so ago about maybe no longer commenting was in connection with a planned suicide attempt that ended up not happening. It’s super embarrassing! Let’s not talk about it!
On a happier note, I’ve decided to attend TCAF in May, where I will hopefully spot a Willis in the wild. Is anyone else here planning on attending? Also, I’d love to know more artists’ work beforehand. Does anyone have recommendations by artists who will be there, especially webcomic artists? (I know Willis and Danielle Corsetto will be there, along with several graphic novelists I’ve read works by.)
Yumi! Oh my goodness! Now I’m mad that I missed your comments last night- I was super looking forward to hearing from you again! I was really worried, sorry >.>
But wow, TCAF. Sweet. I was strongly tempted to go after I heard Willis was attending. I don’t know any other attendees that other people haven’t already mentioned but, hey, good opportunity to meet new creators rights? I bet it’ll be a great time!
Since you insist, we will not talk about whatever it was weren’t talking about, although we’re glad nothing happened.
Speaking of “in the wild,” I see that Rosemary Mosco is an exhibitor. Her webcomics are Bird and Moon and Your Wild City. She is also a mutual twitter follower both with Robot Hugs and with Jeph Jacques, so maybe she can dish some dirt on them. 🙂
She is, though. Homelessness looks like a lot of things. This is one form of it. No, Becky isn’t living on the street, but lots of people are in situations like her, living on friends’ couches, their car, motels, etc. while they try to get their lives together enough to get out of homelessness. She is staying here thanks to the kindness of others, and that clearly weighs on her.
But also, she’s gonna be okay. She clearly has a life plan to apply for college and financial aid, and she’s working hard saving what money she can.
Why is Leslie constantly checking to see if Becky’s awake? If she wants to sneak (I presume) Anna out, wouldn’t she just check once and then… sneak her out?
Oh god, is Leslie wanting to have “the talk” with Becky?
I had the same experience–down this morning, then up at work, but down again. Seems to be a DNS issue? 8.8.8.8 (Google) and 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) both return NXDOMAIN.
Worse – it appears to be some sort of domain name expiration issue.
Whois.net says that the registrar is joker.com (really!) and that the domain expires in 2020. But if you go to the registrar, it says that the status of the itswalky.com domain is “hold, expired” and that it expired two days ago.
So whether you get it or not depends on which nameserver you wind up at and whether or not it thinks that the domain has expired.
It appears to be gone from the root servers, so people who are getting it are getting it from servers that have cached it. That’s going to end as the various servers reach their time-outs for those caches.
So, has anyone actually messaged Willis about this? I just checked his twitter and it doesn’t seem like he knows. Only Itswalky thing posted in the last 24 is a link to the new strip.
Loading ...
EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE LESLIE’S COUCH
The alt-text is summoning you, Bagge.
It sure did. AND HERE I AM!
If we say your name three times, is it a good blessing or a curse? 😀
It usually means you get a three hour rant about something I find weird but rad 🙂
So…. a bit of both, I suppose.
I’m down for this. Bagge, Bagge, Bagge!
As am I.
Ah… right… rant.
I have performance anxiety.
Anyway. Uh… Becky. This is the uncompromising optimism I love. Even when a touch bitterness slips in about only ALMOST having a home and the kind of possessions that are taken for granted by her peers, she is just so dang proud of herself and her accomplishments.
You go, Becky.
Homeless Teen, Homeless Teen…
*Ends up humming the modified Spiderman theme all day…*
I….think I may have been summoned as well somehow…
Bratty teenage daughter/struggling but cool lesbian mom dynamic is going fine 🙂
I wonder if Becky will develop a crush on Anna’s ex.
Eh, she is just getting over a cute, kind girl with an endearing vulnerability. 🙂
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/vulnerability/
Nah. Once you go Dina, you never go back.
Oh boy, another rousing couple of days of Anna treating everyone around her like shit.
I wish Leslie had better taste.
Unless she looks in the mirror or we get a moderate amount of backstory, there’s no accounting for taste.
Same.
I am petitioning Willis to add Anna to the poll so I can vote for her. Let the Anna wars begin!
Seriously, we have barely seen Anna. I don’t get why people are dumping on her when we barely know her.
Because she’s a total jerk from what we have seen.
My gravatar lolololol
It’s the “from what we have seen” part that I’m commenting on. We’ve seen her in a grand total of eight strips comprising two scenes, in the first of which she was clearly already in an irritated mood. (Like anyone here hasn’t been.)
And maybe she is a total jerk, I’m not saying she’s not. I’m just saying that the evidence for dumping all over her does not yet seem to be in, as far as I can see.
You seem to come from a nice place — is your home dimension accepting refugees?
So when’s the evidence in? She’s ranged from jerk to downright asshole in every one of her appearances. Actions speak louder than intentions (not that any intention could justify her behavior in those 8 strips), and her actions and words say “jerkass” loud and clear.
Also her lines are based on Mike. *Mike*.
That said, as much as I dislike Anna, I’m not really enjoying the comments complaining about her showing up, either. I don’t *disagree*, it just .. really doesn’t add anything to the discussion.
Anna reeks of my last roommate, who spent the entire 15 months we lived together constantly verbally abusing me.
Well shit. :/ That sucks. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with such people in RL any more.
…Well, rarely, at least. There was a random woman who went off on me in Costco last year, and I was shaking for a while afterwards. :/
:c *offers hugs*
Thank you. I’ve reached that point where I’m mostly over it, I don’t go looking for reminders anymore, and most of the time I don’t think about anymore, but when Anna was introduced I was still living in Colorado, so people cheering Anna on was the biggest slap in my face this comment section has ever produced.
(The above was supposed to be in reply to a snow mouse)
The way story-telling tends to work is that the author will show us what’s important and leave out what’s not. The fact that Anna hasn’t been nice a single time in her eight strips is pretty clear evidence that Willis intends for her to be portrayed as a jerk. (Obviously Willis’ word outweighs mine on this, if he wants to correct me.)
It’s possible that she might eventually change, get some character development. But relationships that start with a person needing to change are… not usually very healthy. So the only thing I’m shipping Anna with is therapy.
When you first met Anna she was berating Becky. Now, she may have been irritated because she was “standing in the way”, but the polite thing to do would have been to say “excuse me” and get on with life. Then after that she insults Mindy’s appearance. (And, in that same scene, Mindy mentions that her parents would have preferred if she dated a different girl, which suggests that Anna was not very nice to them either.)
When you next saw Anna, she managed to recognize Leslie by calling her “big nose”.
I think she’s had like three or four lines in literally all of her appearances where she wasn’t being incredibly rude and hostile as her first and only option.
Fuck Anna.
I think Leslie just did.
Like I said, Leslie has bad taste in partners.
Say what you will about Anna, I think everyone can agree Leslie has bad taste in partners. Even if it’s an aberration, being a jerk is how Anna landed her.
Poor Adult Lesbian Joyce (how i consider Anna’s roommate).
Hey, hey, what’d I say?/Anna’s a rude thing all the way./Shoots her mouth, acts like a butt;/Leslie must be some kind of nut.
At least she has good taste in movies, if those posters are any indication.
People always look at me like I’m crazy when I say that I think The Force Awakens is the second-best Star Wars movie.
It’s a better Episode IV. What’s not to like?
Any time someone complains about the new trilogy, I like to go read the fanboy reviews of the OT they’re accidentally quoting.
I adore Force Awakens. It’s funny how all the fans that scream at me that nobody needed a rehash of Episode IV are men. Look, I couldn’t identify with Luke as a kid, and Leia, awesome as she is, doesn’t have my personality type either. Rey is the hero little kid me deserved, god dammit, and I need her in my life. <3
Also funnily enough, the criticisms leveled at Rey are suspicious similar to those leveled at Korra from the Avatar-verse, who I also love dearly for the same reasons. Can the chosen one archetype just belong to women sometimes? Can they be naturally talented and strong and still mess up and learn form their mistakes? I’m so happy for all the little girls who get to feel like main characters now. Realizing that during TFA made me weep in the theater.
My thoughts exactly. I hope she ain’t a dick to Becky, or else my blood will boil to the point my arteries melt.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Leslie ended up with Mindy
Nah, Leslie was a giant asshole to Mindy. Told her she wasn’t ready to date and then jumped Anna the very first opportunity she had.
. . . Oh God Becky is the Todd to Leslie’s Bojack Horseman huh?
Leslie is way better than BoJack, though. Maybe Leslie is Jurj Clooners and Becky is Keith.
At least she’s not Kato Kaelin to Leslie’s OJ Simpson.
spider leslie, spider leslie, doing whatever a spider leslie does
can she pick a good girlfriend?
No she can’t
It’s always bad
Look out, here comes the spider Leslie
Imagine getting out of bed and being able to see, perfectly
That dream has already passed a half-century duration for me, been wearing glasses for 49 years. Took a while before I figured out why I couldn’t read the board from the back row.
Yup. That “you’re that age of teen, so your eyes are gonna shift over night” experience.
Is Becky the Man?
becky has a bed!
………..bedky
But how does she unlock it?
With Walkey!
… I don’t know how she got him to agree to such an inconvenient arrangement, but hey.
He’s probably in awe of her power.
Hey, have they talked since the hospital?
A few times, but not specifically about that – most recently she talked to him in Dina’s room making out with Amber. Before that, when drunk Walky and Jason went to Galasso’s. They talked about the breakup a bit.
These shippings and shipping names are getting out of control.
Hey, everyone deserves a healthy relationship with a bed!
This is the best [grawlix] alt-text ever!
Every five minutes? Did Leslie get any sleep last night?
(…don’t answer that.)
Could it be? Is it possible? Is it… finally… BECKY TIEM?!
<3
aw becky
Who is Becky talking to
Us. Becky will not be silenced by something as trivial as a fourth wall.
Yeah, she is not well known for her ability to shut up.
Becky took out the fourth wall (along with the first through third) when she came out of the closet.
She didn’t come out of the closet. She nuked it until it just wasn’t there anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q
That means the 4th wall is gone and she can see and hear us. HELLO BECKY!!! YOU’RE MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER!!!
Herself, I assume.
To herself and probably to Leslie as well, to let her know Becky is aware of her presence.
I kind of wish that Leslie’s head appearing on the rightmost panel was actually, like, a gif overlay that only showed up every five minutes.
Some people, like the woman I married, are unfamiliar with the concept of the internal monologue. They think it, they say it…
Like in the old saying:
“How can I know what I think if I don’t hear what I say?”
I was hoping for some more Becky. Great stuff.
I’m surprised Bagge is alive. Because apart from the dream sequence a few days ago, this is Becky’s first appearance since September 18; and I was pretty certain Bagge need her special brand of DOOFUSness to survive.
I’ve done a lot of re-reading old Becky strips 🙂
And while there has been a shortage of Becky, we have seen a lot of both Dorothy and Joyce, so I’m good!
Have you done any re-reading of Always Human?
Every time you mention that comic, my dental bill goes up.
I’ll fax it to you, your Majesty. 😛
Honestly not, I haven’t even finished it. Maybe I should archive binge it now when it’s finish… OH MY GOD THEY ARE SO CUTE EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL!
Doctor My Eyes, tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long…?
…”here comes the homeless teeeeeeeen!”
I hadn’t read the hovertext when I first read your comment, and I thought you were stretching out the word “ten.” Like, yeah, Becky’s homeless, but she’s still a ten.
It helps that she’s homeless due to being a badass.
Oh my gosh, that alt-text. Characters get theme songs now!?
I’m no songwriter, but I’m pretty sure some kind of floodgate just opened!
Dananananananananananananananana Sa-Rah!
As Jeph said, All personal theme songs must follow the Spider Man melody.
If you’re in Clark,
Then watch out mate.
Here comes Carla on roller skates.
Zipping quickly down the halls
Driving Mary up the walls.
Look out!
Carla’s on roller skates.
Has she got drones?
Listen bud
Watch them descend from above.
Eager almost any time
To deliver jackets Rutten Style,
Then watch
them leave with a soft buzz.
Who’s an ino-cent cutie
Who prob’ly wants to bone Walky
Solves problems without a fight
And hosts two person movie nights
That’s right!
The wonderful Lucy
He’s super into buying toys,
And also fond of kissing
Yes here he is, the great Ethan
Hear crowds shout out “he’s the man!”
Hot damn,
Apple’s got some tight abs
Here’s the one
You’ve waited for
Our beloved dinosaur
Wearing her green Dino hat
{Becky gets turned on by that}
DINA!
or favorite Dino-girl
Dammit the Ethan one was supposed to say kissing boys.
Hah! Yes! Awesome!
Better than I could have ever hoped for, too. Thank you!
I love them! Especially Lucy’s verse.
There is a precedence
https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3352
Is the alt-text a filk of Blondie’s “Rapture”?
On the off chance that you’re not kidding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUtziaZlDeE
By an interesting bit of synchronicity, I’ve just been watching Into the Spider-Verse on Google Play. I’d just got to the end credits when I decided to load up the new DOA, and ‘lo the alt-text.
…. oh, right. That would make more sense.
I like the transition from Joyce waking up to Becky waking up. (Sorry if anyone’s already commented on that, haha)
Agreed. It was neatly done.
Glad to see she’s still doing somewhat okay.
Who’s the girlfriend? Is it Robin? Please tell me it’s Robin… 😉
I think I would actually be more okay with Robin than Anna.
Me too, I love Robin. But I kinda doubt it.
Robin is literally the most harmful character that has appeared in this strip. She’s a trashfire that sets everything else around her on fire.
You seem to be forgetting toedad, Blaine, “sir”…
They have the power to hurt a handful of people. Robin was in the position to – and was trying to – hurt whole demographics. Not due to active malevolence, maybe, but being a passive malignancy doesn’t change the damage she would have done by going along with the whole ‘hate on The Gays to get votes’ thing.
It’s hard to compare active direct harm to a few individuals with being a small part of indirect harm on a larger scale.
It is, and I hadn’t thought about it that way. Huh.
As Kamino put it, I’m not. I’m not saying Robin is top of the evil chart (that’s either Blaine or Ryan, I’m still undecided), I’m saying she tops the damage chart. Because those people are localised damages. When Ryan raped someone, that didn’t suddenly encourage all wannabe-rapists across the country.
But when Robin supports anti-gay legislation, that DOES encourage homophobes across the country or, at least, the state. Because bigots are just bullies that have grown too old for people to be comfortable calling them bullies (for some reason), and therefore the only thing holding them back is fear of consequences. And Robin represents the state, which is the ultimate giver of consequences, so when she says, “meh, sure, gaybash”, what bigots hear is “get out of jail free card when you fuck gay people up, go for it, we’re with you.”
There was also that pretty major part of the last few days where Ryan’s attack and subsequent doxxing of some of his victims led a bunch of people to try to attack their houses in the middle of the night.
You realise it was AG that did the doxxing, right?
No. Very much not.
Amazi-Girl did some fake doxing to lead them to empty houses instead of the real ones, but there was also real stuff going on.
Message boards are doxing women going to court against our old friend Gash-face, sure. But I also flooded those threads with dummy addresses.
Robin flatly ignored Leslies wishes whenever convenient for her. She got thrown out of the apartment and broke in through the window. Anna was rude to a stranger that mistreated her friend (because, well, the excuse Leslie gave was pretty obvious and pretty lame). And Anna is the bad choice?
I’ll wait to see how she actually behaves in a relationship. Robin didn’t exactly put the bar very high though.
Anna’s first words in the strip are literally her insulting Mindy in front of Leslie. Furtherrrrrrmore, Mindy’s seems to be her employee or, at least, her hierarchical subordinate (they’re also roommates, for bonus awkwardness points).
I’m team nuke it all from orbit.
They probably also are friends. Friendships can have interesting dynamics. Again, I’ll wait and see. I’m not a fan of early judgement.
Still, even there, Robin has done worse to her employees.
Which is more likely to make you scream “Damn You Willis”?
Because that’s the answer. That’s always the answer.
She is definitely dating Anna (the dentist). She specifically said that in class.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/sexydentist/
Holy crow I’m having flashbacks to grad school right now. FEELS, BECKY. FEELS.
Great! Now I have that theme song running through my head. Ahh, childhood memories!
Oh please don’t be the jerk from the grocery store
Best Alt Text Ever!
Seriously, Leslie, I don’t think that Alex’s presence offends Becky in any way. You don’t need to hide them from each other, even if Alex likes ribbing you about your ‘fosterling/mini-me’.
Alex the CompSci teacher? Why would it be her? Is that Patreon info?
No, Alex the dentist. It is Alex, isn’t it?
Anna.
How have you forgotten your own name?
Anna
On an entirely unrelated topic, I saw this shirt being offered for sale on the Interwebs. There is no way on God’s green earth that Dina would not have one of these, and I want Willis to draw her wearing it.
Buggered up the link … try clicking on this to see the design.
Leslie doing what she’s doing is the reason she’s probably the kindest, gentlest, most wonderful person in the strip. It’s awful both women had to experience such nightmarish treatment.
My wife notably had a not too dissimilar story herself as a runaway, though for different reasons. 🙁 Thankfully, she managed to survive and find a home as wll.
Dan is right, Becky looks like Gwen Stacy.
Spider Becky: “You know the story. Got bitten by a spider, helped my friend deal with nihilism, became the new college vigilante since the previous one retired because of insanity, converted to humanism, got enough money to but a PS5, and now I am going to marry my girlfriend in a natural sciences museum.”
Becky is my hero. I wish I could hold onto my beliefs, change some of them, and progress forward with a bright optimism despite all the crap dumped on me.
“All right, peeps, let’s start at the beginning, one last time…”
Best alt-text of all time
And if I squint, I am an English student with a fully fledged future career plan and am not just talking out of my ass every time someone asks me what I’ll be when I grow up
sleepy becky is the bestest becky
So…. why is Leslie SNEAKING her girlfriend in, anyway? Becky supports that shit.
No, she supported her with Mindy… ‘I turned down the girl you tried to hook me up with and went out with her roommate because she was a jerk to me’ is something she probably doesn’t want to explain.
Leslie hitting it off is still Leslie hitting it off.
Here’s a thought: I know that some colleges demand that freshman students stay in the dorms. Is that a requirement at IU.
If not, I can see a hyper-cute development where Joyce, Becky and possibly Sal and Amber end up staying in a small studio apartment just off campus. There results the kind of weird pseudo-domesticity that only those four could create.
Sadly, all underclassman have to live in on-campus housing, at least according to Walky when he’s showing Jason around. (I’m assuming this is the only reason Sarah is still anywhere near this dorm and the people in it.)
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/plebs/
I would have thought that living in dorms was practically the only housing you can afford on a grant? It has been mentioned that Marcie is sharing a room with several people.
I dont think Marcie actually attends the University though. I think she just moved there because of Sal.
And we all know how diligent Walky is in his research practices. 🙂
I’m not going to dive into the Wayback Machine to check, but, given the floating timeline, that might have been true on move-in day. But as of the “plebs” strip, the on-campus rule applied only to first-year students.
Sarah is probably still in Read because it’s her cheapest option. The co-ops are cheaper, but space is limited, and anyway can you imagine Sarah in a co-op? The (presumably subsidized) on-campus unfurnished apartments are mostly more expensive than the dorms, which probably indicates that off-campus housing is even pricier.
First-year undergrads have to spend their first two semesters in dorms (source).
The floating timeline offers an opportunity for the real-life 2019-2020 academic year when, due to an on-campus housing crunch, that requirement is waived. But during that same time Forest is closed, which would present problems.
Plus due to the floating timeline, it would only be for an in-comic week or so that it was allowed, which would be weird.
I’m not sure the question really matters anyway, we’re at least a real decade away from the start of the next semester, which is the earliest reasonable time for any move off campus, even without rules about residency.
Focus, thejeff! Pseudo-domesticity and/or wacky hijinks with Joyce, Becky, Sal, and Amber all under one roof!
Not something Willis has time for, timeline or no, but I’ll bet someone is already writing that fanfic.
Why do they HAVE to live in the dorms? Like, what if you lived within a relatively easy car/bus trip to the university so it wasn’t necessary? Or you had the funds to acquire housing on your own?
Also I dunno about the states/IU in particular but up here in Canada land student housing is way more expensive than finding a landlord renting out a part of their house to students…
“Why do they HAVE to live in the dorms?”
The blunt reason is school rules, but the other is because it’s to open students up to each other and the university experience and get involved.
“Like, what if you lived within a relatively easy car/bus trip to the university so it wasn’t necessary? Or you had the funds to acquire housing on your own?”
Depends on the school. Some will let you out of it if you live close by. Others say ‘Too bad. You have to move in.’
And yes, indeed, university housing is usually much more expensive than finding a place on your own.
Also means the kids out on their own for the first time aren’t living completely unsupervised.
A lot of places will make exceptions for commuter students still living at home and for older students who might be freshmen but worked for some years after high school before going to college. Don’t know if IU does though.
Of course, the alternate cynical explanation is that the university makes money off of dorm housing. 🙂
I think IU has a couple different kinds of housing, but I don’t know if there’s exemptions.
The argument as to why the must live on campus (at those schools that require it) is usually that it facilitates networking and building required support structures that facilitate better academic performance. There have been studies that facilitate that claim, but for many of them it’s arguable how valid their methodologies are.
That aside, it varies a lot as to what individual universities and colleges do for housing. The school I attended 20 years ago had a lot of options. On campus dorms similar to what we see in this comic were available but were scarce on the ground. On campus apartments were available, but were more expensive, still didn’t have any cooking facilities and had the same rules as the dorms.
The school rented out a large number of local apartment buildings near campus, they were traditional apartments with three bedrooms, a kitchen, a single shared bathroom and a shared living room. They were handled as “off campus housing” through the school which ran shuttle buses to them. They were cheaper than on campus and offered more freedom, but filled up quickly with upperclassmen and were less convenient than on campus housing.
Then one could get off campus housing on one’s own which was oft still cheaper and even less convenient (supply your own transportation). This option was not available to first year students at all.
Then you had what they called “commuter students” like myself. My parents (not I but my parents) had to apply for me to be allowed this option rather than living on campus because I was under 21 and a first year and still living at home. Part of that was waiving the school from any responsibility for anything that might happen to me off campus. Normally this was mainly for working adults taking night classes on campus. I was far from the only one who was a commuter under similar circumstances, but it also required a separate process so many students didn’t bother even if they lived close enough to do it. I was against it myself, until it was pointed out to me that it would cut $15,000 per year in housing plus the cost of a meal plan (itself near $5000 per year) from my student loans and would allow me to keep working without looking for on campus work (off campus work while living on campus was another similar separate application process with another waiver for what happened to me off campus) when I considered having some employment experience important both financially and for other reasons.
The alt text and these Spider comments have reminded me of a fantastic fan art pun idea I had. I wanna draw Stevonnie in Spider-Gwen’s costume, so that it’s a picture of Gwen Stevonnie.
That’s hilarious and I love it.
Ahem…
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
So, just to address this head-on, since I’m coming off inconsistent if you’re a regular comment reader: My last comment here a week or so ago about maybe no longer commenting was in connection with a planned suicide attempt that ended up not happening. It’s super embarrassing! Let’s not talk about it!
On a happier note, I’ve decided to attend TCAF in May, where I will hopefully spot a Willis in the wild. Is anyone else here planning on attending? Also, I’d love to know more artists’ work beforehand. Does anyone have recommendations by artists who will be there, especially webcomic artists? (I know Willis and Danielle Corsetto will be there, along with several graphic novelists I’ve read works by.)
Glad you’re still with us, Yumi.
You say let’s not talk about it but I’M SO GLAD YOU’RE STILL AROUND ;-; *sends positive vibes*
A quick scroll through of TCAF’s creators list doesn’t ring any bells tho can’t help you there.
Oof. I hope you’re okay now… You definitely sound better, so that’s good.
Ooh, that’s exciting! Have fun! ^^ No idea who’ll be there… Oh, I bet Ryan North from qwantz.com (Dinosaur Comics) will be! He’s from Toronto!
Ah, yup, just checked the Creators List and he’s on there 😀
99% of the time I only lurk in the comments but you’re one of the names I recognize and appreciate, Yumi.
We’ll agree not to talk about it if you agree not to think about it. Deal?
Yay you, though I admit I chuckled at your classification of it as “super embarassing”, like you just mixed up two people’s names in front of them.
Don’t forget the tranq gun in case of a Willis sighting.
Hey, Yuumi! I’m glad you’re okay!
Depending on transportation, I may well be at TCAF!
I honestly just envision you as your icon, so you have to look like that in case I spot you. Lack of body and everything. I’ll try for the same.
I’ll do my best to morph into Alex! XD
Glad you are still with us.
As far as TCAF, Robot-hugs is often there, and they live in Toronto. I have no specific knowledge of this year though.
Yumi! Oh my goodness! Now I’m mad that I missed your comments last night- I was super looking forward to hearing from you again! I was really worried, sorry >.>
But wow, TCAF. Sweet. I was strongly tempted to go after I heard Willis was attending. I don’t know any other attendees that other people haven’t already mentioned but, hey, good opportunity to meet new creators rights? I bet it’ll be a great time!
Since you insist, we will not talk about whatever it was weren’t talking about, although we’re glad nothing happened.
Speaking of “in the wild,” I see that Rosemary Mosco is an exhibitor. Her webcomics are Bird and Moon and Your Wild City. She is also a mutual twitter follower both with Robot Hugs and with Jeph Jacques, so maybe she can dish some dirt on them. 🙂
*hugs*
High five!
Thanks, everyone. I’m in a much more stable place now. And I’m reading lots of graphic novels in preparation of TCAF.
I’m glad you’re in a stable place and nothing happened.
So far as TCAF I won’t be there but looking over their guests they bloody have Junji Ito and Ryan North in attendance…
BECKY WAS DREAMING SHE WAS JOYCE?!
Yeah, let’s go with that.
She’s demonstrably not homeless. Just because her name isn’t on a lease or deed doesn’t mean she’s homeless.
She is, though. Homelessness looks like a lot of things. This is one form of it. No, Becky isn’t living on the street, but lots of people are in situations like her, living on friends’ couches, their car, motels, etc. while they try to get their lives together enough to get out of homelessness. She is staying here thanks to the kindness of others, and that clearly weighs on her.
But also, she’s gonna be okay. She clearly has a life plan to apply for college and financial aid, and she’s working hard saving what money she can.
Why is Leslie constantly checking to see if Becky’s awake? If she wants to sneak (I presume) Anna out, wouldn’t she just check once and then… sneak her out?
Oh god, is Leslie wanting to have “the talk” with Becky?
Heh, Becky would LOVE it.
It such a mom/bratty teenage daughter setup for shenanigans that she would be all over it (and honestly have a few questions as well)
“You see, when two mommies love each other very much…”
And then Anna ruins it – “I didn’t sign up to play mommy.”
Oh, Becky, honey. XD Cheer up, I’m sure Leslie would be happy for you to consider this home.
Side note: has the “It’s Walky!” website stopped working for anyone else at the moment? My ISP says it doesn’t even exist.
Me too, I been checking from all my devices and other places to make sure my internet wasn’t fucking up.
Likewise, and at least one other person on Twitter reported the same.
It wasn’t working for me this morning but I got it working this afternoon. Is it down again?
I had the same experience–down this morning, then up at work, but down again. Seems to be a DNS issue? 8.8.8.8 (Google) and 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) both return NXDOMAIN.
Worse – it appears to be some sort of domain name expiration issue.
Whois.net says that the registrar is joker.com (really!) and that the domain expires in 2020. But if you go to the registrar, it says that the status of the itswalky.com domain is “hold, expired” and that it expired two days ago.
So whether you get it or not depends on which nameserver you wind up at and whether or not it thinks that the domain has expired.
It appears to be gone from the root servers, so people who are getting it are getting it from servers that have cached it. That’s going to end as the various servers reach their time-outs for those caches.
So, has anyone actually messaged Willis about this? I just checked his twitter and it doesn’t seem like he knows. Only Itswalky thing posted in the last 24 is a link to the new strip.
Oh hey, looks like it’s back online again.
I missed you, Becky! It’s been too long.