Now Let’s Go Commit Something Mildly Subversive Which, at Worst, Will Serve as a Humanizing Anecdote and Not as Anything Truly Threatening to the Power Structures at Hand, aka Dumbing of Age Book 9 is now up for Kickstartering!
Book 9 is 216 pages! It’s got the usual strip commentary! It’s got bonus art and rejected strips! It’s got 24 Patreon-only strips! It’s got a foreword by Dork Tower‘s John Kovalic!!!
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Blaine wrote a check his ass couldn’t cash
“what’s a check”
…DAMN IT
His ass-sits were deficient.
Blaine maxxed out his ASStercard.
You checked?
Yeah, I bet Blaine didn’t bank on Joyce attacking him next!
Another charge of assault to his ongoing list of charges. He’s so dead either way.
Oh shit, that’s her dad-punchin’ wrist too. We remember what it did to Toedead, and he had more leftover HP at the time than Blaine has now.
Fuck him up, fuck him up!
Make him swallow his teeth, Joyce!
The ones he still has, anyway….
She’s probably gonna have to get a brace on that hand again, but soooooo worth it!
She also won’t be feeling the pain for a while. At least until the adrenaline rush wears off
Skillet!
Getting a skillet on that hand would probably work as well.
I call for Dorothy to help out and give Blaine some more brain trauma.
Yeah – hit him ’til he’s Blaine-dead!
…I regret nothing.
That was brilliant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5WQu6R_jdM
…..Everyone did hate Ross though. Pretty sure most of them still do.
Actually no that’s wrong. I do think some people in the church liked Ross. Carol…Carol probably liked Ross.
I appreciate that you agree with the supervillain.
Everyone we care about hated Ross, or hated what he stood for.
Ross didn’t rate the death penalty, though.
As you sow, so shall you reap.
Unless, of course, you steal the other guy’s produce.
“The rain, it falleth on the just
“And also on the unjust fella.
“But more upon the just, because
“The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.”
A.H. Clough
Yay! Someone else knows that little ditty.
I thought the last line was “the unjust hath the just’s umbrella.”
It could well be. I’m going by a memory from more than forty years ago.
Feelings, as Dina says, are complicated. Joyce and Becky knew him for years as the guy who (in Joyce’s eyes) was Becky’s dad, and a grownup, and grownups are always right (provided they’re part of the church), and (in Becky’s eyes) as someone who was incredibly strict and constraining, but as far as she thought did genuinely love her. They’ve both got some good memories there, I’m certain.
You can be an UNSPEAKABLY shitty parent and your kid is still likely to have at least vaguely complex emotions about you, especially after your death. Becky, as far as we know, is still downstairs mourning Ross because he never actually saw her, died because he couldn’t wrap his head around the daughter he had, and now she will never have a chance for that relationship to improve at all. (By, you know, him getting his head out of his ass, apologizing profusely, and trying to make amends, say.)
The fact that this arc was clearly conceived and written after the death of Willis’s own mother is probably also a factor. Speaking of complicated emotions.
True, but Blaine is making sure he’ll always be DOA’s most-hated character EVER.
I never liked Ross, but I also didn’t think he deserved to die.
As Dina said: it’s more complicated than that.
They might have hated him, doesn’t mean they wished death on him or that losing him wasn’t sad considering he was murdered rather than say struck by lightning. If it had been an unpreventable occurrence they might not be sad at all, but a murder? You can think someone would deserve to die but still not think they should be murdered.
And Becky and Joyce at least have a cocktail of mixed feelings because they used to love and adore him as a trusted adult figure. Even as hatred won out, that doesn’t mean the love was gone either, the love for the good memories, for the care and kindness he gave, for the love he had shown in good ways… even if there is also so much hatred for the bad memories, for the cruelty, for the ‘love’ he showed in criminal acts and behaviours and justified to himself in twisted ways. The anger and hatred don’t mean there isn’t also sadness and love and a wish that he could have been the type of reliable adult they needed him to be, not the one that unfortunately he was.
Obviously Faz helped out but I wonder if he came with Blaine willingly. Do we add kidnapping to the masked man’s list of charges? Or just child endangerment?
From previous comics is pretty obvious he’s as guilty as Blaine.
I don’t know how much guilt you can actually put on Faz here. He did something bad but he’s also a minor with Blaine as his father who is still very abusive. He shouldn’t even be there and the fact Blaine brought him along kind of makes him another victim. Do you really think he’s there by choice? That Blaine didn’t threaten him in some way to cooperate?
Or lie to him – remember, Amber is Faz’s favorite family member, and someone else has already hypothesized that Blaine may have convinced Faz that this would let him be with her more.
Yeah, the dude’s definitely got a case for being coerced into it
With him being a minor and all, he can probably manage to get off easy
Correction… Faz CLAIMED That Amber is his favorite family member. But, he still willingly acted to steal information from her computer. That doesn’t sound like something you would do to someone you liked.
Plus, if he were really ‘forced’ into things, why did he help Blaine escape? Just leave him tied up and let the police take care of him. Faz wouldn’t be forced any more if Blaine is in prison.
He claimed that to Joyce when the two were alone – why would he have any reason to lie in that situation? I also strongly doubt that the idea to steal the flash drive was Faz’s, or that he did it without some sort of compulsion from Yuri/Blaine.
Yeah, the 15-year-old living in Blaine’s household can’t exactly say no. And Faz is still desperate for Blaine’s approval and acknowledgement because, well… he’s a teenager. People need acknowledgement and affection, especially kids. (Like, physiologically.) None of this makes him a particularly willing participant so much as ‘really exploited by an adult he should have been able to trust’.
That’s… not how abuse works.
He, um, he definitely did some kidnapping.
Blaine’s already got several counts of kidnapping on his list of charges, on top of felony murder. MAYBE this is child endangerment. It’s DEFINITELY contributing the delinquency of a minor… and likely a much more extreme version of that charge… but that’s peanuts compared to six counts of kidnapping and felony murder.
Blaine is guilty of actual murder. It is the bozo boys who face the felony-murder charges.
A conviction for good-old-fashioned murder requires an intent to kill. Otherwise it’s manslaughter. Whether Blaine acted with intent to kill Ross, rather than just lashing out at him in aimless rage that resulted in Ross’s unintended death, is something that a prosecutor would have a hard time proving in court. For that matter, I don’t think WE know if he actually had intent to kill, rather than just lashing out in fury.
But manslaughter or, in this case, felony murder would be EASY to prove…
….
*checks Indiana penal code*
…..
…. my bad. Indiana doesn’t distinguish between normal murder and felony murder. It’s all just murder.
So, yes, he’s guilty of actual murder.
I think you ought to check what the felony-murder rule is. In some cases “felony X” is a more serious form of X that is a felony whereas X is usually a misdemeanour, but there is no such thing as “misdemeanour murder”. Murder is always a felony in jurisdictions that distinguish felonies.
Indiana does not distinguish between different degree of murder, but it does have the felony-murder rule. Blaine actually killed Ross, so he’s guilty of murder. The Bozo boys took part in a felony that involved violence and resulted in a death, so they are included in Baline’s crime under the felony-murder rule.
Sorry, Reltznik. I ought to have read your post more carefully.
Manslaughter is an accidental death where you did something reckless or dangerous enough that you’re still considered partially responsible. Beating someone to death in a fit of rage isn’t premeditated, but it’s still murder.
Only if you had intent to kill. If you just meant to beat them up, it’s manslaughter. Except the kidnapping makes it felony murder in this case.
*Checks Indiana Code again*
Yeah. A heat-of-the-moment (or “acting under sudden heat”, as the law puts it) killing is called Voluntary Manslaughter under the Indiana Code (Level 2 felony). Even that requires intent to kill. If Blaine didn’t intend to kill Ross, but just meant to commit battery, then it’s Involuntary Manslaughter (Level 5 Felony) instead.
Involuntary manslaughter also covers other killings like you describe, where it’s the result of you doing something reckless or dangerous… provided that the reckless or dangerous thing was either a Class A Misdemeanor or a Level 5 or 6 felony. Or it could be felony murder, like in this case. But otherwise, if it’s just death as a result of recklessness that wouldn’t otherwise be a serious crime, then that’s called Reckless Homicide… which is also a Level 5 Felony, so I’m not sure why they bother distinguishing between them.
At least, that’s how Indiana does it.
If you get angry at somebody, shout an insult, and then hit them on the head with a hammer, then maybe a prosecutor or jury might not be convinced that you meant to kill them. But if six witnesses then see you express astonishment that they weren’t killed by the first blow and then hit them again, and then express astonishment at how thick their skull is and then hit then again, and them get into a fight with them and beat them to death, people are going to ask what you did intend on the second, third, and fatal blows. And they are going to be skeptical about your answer if it’s not “No, you got me. I meant to kill the son-of-a-drum”.
Faz is a minor so, I think there’s a ‘corrupting a minor’ charge maybe.
He kidnapped Dorothy, Sarah, Ethan, Walky, Amber, and Joyce. And he intended to use them as hostages, which makes those kidnappings Level 2 felonies under Indiana Code Title 35 § 2 b (3) (D).
He also contemplated murdering them all, and couldn’t think of any reason not to. Also, hitting a man in the head with a hammer has to show intent.
Indeed. That Blaine is guilty of murder seems plain enough. I was responding to Reltznik’s suggestion that his treatment of Faz might add kidnapping to the list of charges against him.
I think the question was if he’d get yet another kidnapping charge for bringing Faz along, and I think the answer will depend on whatever lawyer Yuri hires after all of this is done.
Well, if he struck more than once then yes that’s intent,once might be only 2nd degree murder. I’d prefer him to be carried by six instead of tried by twelve.
The law in Indiana doesn’t distinguish different degrees of murder.
Thank you. My knowledge of different facets ot the American justice system is somewhat lacking obviousl. Then again I’m Canadian.
American law is a complicated web of different jurisdictions. We basically have different legal systems for every single state and then also the federal courts. There’s a couple universal rules from the federal government (like the Fourth Amendment’s requirements about search and seizure,) but even those can be interpreted differently by different states unless and until the Supreme Court says ‘nope, THIS is how we’re reading this.’
To my knowledge Indiana’s the outlier for not distinguishing between degrees of murder and using the ‘malice aforethought’ standard as its primary one. But also, I do not concern myself with the details of criminal law in every single state, because I will NEVER use them all. (No lawyer is going to be considered competent and licensed to practice law in all state courts. You’ll sometimes have ‘their primary state, and a couple bordering ones,’ but that’s not a given by any means.)
In other words: No worries, even Americans with a little legal knowledge here don’t know all that much about this situatio unless they also live in or very near Indiana.
You got it.
There’s a certain similarity though, because they all descend from English Common Law. Well, except for Louisiana, the odd one out that descends from the Napoleonic Code.
I’d settle for him being carried by two. There’s only two handles on a trash can.
At least Twice!
Faz is his kid so probably not kidnapping. Endangerment I can see.
Dina fucking snapped…
…hell yeah
Yeah, but now she has just been hit by Blaine, and may be injured.
Hopefully he connected with his hand and not the hammer.
I expected more from a raptor than gnawing on his outfit.
But I guess this was the best she coul- *vaudeville hook*
A similar scene played out in Ross’ assault on the school:
– Villan is distracted
– Dina attacks like a raptor from the side
– Comment section cheers
– The fact that Dina is a diminutive girl in unarmed combat with men twice her size sets in and she gets swatted away after creating a distraction.
Good call Walky. This is about to get ugly.
I said Walky was smart.
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
is walky pickpocketing the hammer ?
Nah, looks like he’s just getting out of Blaine’s grip
The hammer’s in Blaine’s right hand, so it’d be pretty difficult for him to grab it from where he is
“Everyone hated that guy”
Everyone hates you more.
While I can say nothing actively good about Ross, he never managed to ACTUALLY MURDER SOMEONE. So, uh. Congrats, Blaine. Also to our knowledge he never groomed and had sex with a teenager like Blaine’s heavily implied to have done, so you know. Also that.
The bar was basement-level but when Blaine sees that, he starts digging.
Ross was a bad father and a self riotous asshole, but he actually cared about his daughter. Blaine, I am not so certain won’t eventually try to murder Amber.
Not caring about his daughter is the thing he’s best known for, so uh… no.
Blaine “cares” about Amber in exactly the same way. Actually, he at least likes to think he cares about who she is, so of the two he’s closer.
Reminds me of everyone hating on Mary.
“Ruth was a terrible RA!”
“Yeah, but we can multitask.”
Yeeeah, if Joyce lands that punch I’m thinking she’s gonna break that hand this time.
Yep, that wrist is bent so thats going to hurt big time. Hopefully she hits something soft as well or there goes the fingers
Go for the nads!
True she might break the hand, but with the adrenaline rush she kikely won’t be feeling much, if any, pain.
Not right away, anyway.
Exactly
FUCK EM UP JOYCE, FUCK EM UP [clap clap]
This is Joyce, remember? So —
FUDGE ‘EM UP, JOY-OYCE, FUDGE ‘EM UP!! (clap-clap)
Okay, I’m working out the scene in my head, and if conventional physics apply (it’s an Amazi-Girl storyline so that’s always a bit shaky), then Blaine wouldn’t have much of an arc to swing the hammer; that and the positioning of panel 4 suggests that he slammed it into Dina’s chin. He might not have been able to get a clean hit though, since he wouldn’t have full freedom of his shoulder (since Dina was on his back).
It’ll still hurt, and might knock her for a loop, but I don’t think it should be a serious injury.
Pretty sure he just punched her with his fist. Granted, it’s loaded, but I don’t think he actually used the hammer.
I think with the angle he may not have been able to swing it, rather than his fist, and connect with Dina…
She was behind him in the previous panel. I don’t see how he could have hit her with any force worth mentioning.
You mean that we don’t get to argue about whether she’s dead or not?
I bet we could if we really wanted to.
Okay, I’ll start.
It was clearly a killing blow. Just look at all the force lines in the punch.
Okay, you’ve convinced me.
Willis is being hopelessly unrealistic when he depicts Dina surviving a hit from a “WHAM” with an exclamation point and fourteen force lines. With fourteen force lines a “WHAM” will kill anybody up to 140 pounds, even with no exclamation point. Dina weighs exactly 98 lb., so that’s four force lines and an exclamation point of over-kill.
Now, wait. I was playing devil’s advocate, but now you’ve convinced me.
Dumbing of Age Book X: Feelings Are Complicated
Aah poop, if you load the page, then have to change a nappy before commenting, somebody else gets there first…
Not bad at all though, King D. I wonder if the title has been used before on a book.
Checks Amazon.
Well kind of. Maybe Dina has been reading https://www.amazon.com/Feelings-are-Complicated-Fuckers-Catherine/dp/1720686327/
HOLY SHIT.
I legitimately did not think Willis would let Dina take damage. Obviously Blaine won’t kill her but I didn’t think he’d get a hit in either!
I am worried for everyone not named Blaine now…even if no one else not named Blaine dies
I can’t imagine a way in which Dina wouldn’t take a hit in this situation
Even with Blaine’s wounds, he still probably weighs in the range of almost twice as much as Dina. On top of that armor, there’s not much she could do to him
100 percent thought she had plot armor
Plot armor really only applies to death. You can beat the shit out of characters as much as you want so long as they remain in the story.
Depends on the series. If this was, say, Yu-gi-oh!, then Dina just never loses, ever.
judge, this guy stacked his deck and told me it was “the heart of the cards” when I called him out on it
There’s one single Yu-Gi-Oh! character who never loses a match, and that’s Téa Steve Gardner.
What about Crump?
She won that Duel, thanks to some help from the Dark Magician Girl. The Abridged Series cut the scene short after she took damage, so that there could be a subplot about Tea being possessed and nobody giving a damn.
Oh yeah, the whole “Sage’s Stone lets you summon a Dark Magician from a nearby deck” thing. That was funny.
Though wait a minute, is Tea the only undefeated character in the entire franchise? That’d be hilarious, and now that I think about it might actually be true. Hmmmmm . . . might have to check the Wiki.
It’s kinda weird that she forgot how to play, though. She was initially shown to be good, much better than Joey, though perhaps not tournament-level.
And then very quickly became “What am card?” when her only skill was talking loudly and dramatically.
Yeah, she went from “skilled casual” to “go easy on me, I just started playing today” in no time, though her wins against Joey might be due to him not playing anything other than monsters at that point. Still, that downgrade of her skills became the blueprint for every female character’s storyline after her (Alexis, Akiza, Aoi, Reggie from the GX manga, just to name a few).
She might never lose, but she’d still lose lifepoints during the duel.
Plot armor keeps her from getting killed, not so sure how well it keeps her from getting hurt protecting others.
Where is Dorothy? We need some reinforcements if we’re ever going to see Blaine defeated. The ones in the room won’t be enough.
She’s outside, waiting for the police.
Actually Amber is sufficient. All of Amazigirl’s skills come from Amber’s hard work and training. Those skills are Amber’s too. What Amber lacks is the emotional filters necessary to safely handle the raw rage and delight in violence.
Oh dammit! You have a single weapon to commit murders, a Ball-Peen hammer and what do you do? You seemingly use your fist or the handle part to hit the 102 pound college girl. Just as a reminder folks, Blaine apparently worked with the mafia! I’m guessing he was actually the mobs personal valet.
I think it’s been established he did their wash.
((As in laundered their money.))
God that’s even lamer than being the valet. At least then he’d be able to drive expensive cars for a bit.
I mean, he does apparently have a very fancy car, according to people who know cars? And Mike claimed they laundered ‘millions’ through Blaine’s sham carpentry business, so presumably Blaine is getting a decent cut of that.
Still the saddest possible job for this mob stooge with delusions of grandeur to have while he’s talking about his ‘contacts’ and having people killed. I don’t doubt he knows enough names to do some damage if he was found out, but it won’t impact the mobsters’ day-to-day life if he dies except for the initial logistical headache.
Very unlikely that he is being given a significant cut, at least on account of being the mob’s stooge. He’s not the financial engineer who designed and manages the mob’s money-laundering scheme. He’s not even one of the book-keepers who hides their financial secrets. A stooge is “someone who allows himself to be taken advantage of”.
According to Asher, his gramps owns Blaine, and mobsters don’t pay rent on what they already own. Blaine will be being allowed enough percentage to prevent his getting desperate, but never enough to let him become independent, and is perhaps mainly motivated by Gramps letting his debts continue to ride for so long as he does what he’s told.
If the speculation is correct that Yuri is the daughter of a mob member (direct evidence: none), then maybe he is allowed a little more on her account.
He runs a business through which money is laundered. Not a guy who’s used for hurting people.
Dammit, ninja’d by clif.
Think of it as being right together.
I can live with that.
Well, not for money anyway
I keep forgetting that a ball-peen is a type of hammer and that you guys aren’t just calling him a ball-peen
Porque-no-los-dos.gif
“Why not both?”
As far as the punch go, its probably better that he used the fist and not the hammer for Dinas sake.
So what are the odds this goes well? I know Joyce has a lot of anger, trust me been there, but nothing backs up anger quite like skill and Joyce is sorely lacking in the fighting department. Anyone want to place bets on the next events?
Blaine also has cracked ribs and was already down for the count at least once.
But I’m guessing Blaine is going to ‘win’ stage 1 of this fight because emotional stakes means that Amber has to be the one to ‘win’ here.
Agreed, however if thats Joyces bad hand then if she connects she’ll likely damage herself more
With how she’s angling her wrist, it doesn’t matter which hand it is. It’s gonna snap.
Well as long as we’re going out on a limb. The battle escalates and Blaine and Amber are fighting on the roof, just as the cops arrive, when unexpectedly Jason’s father, an elite highly-paid international assassin takes out Blaine and then pulls a disappearing act, but not before Dorothy has snapped his picture.
Blaine is wounded, tired and off-balanced. Hopefully that’s enough for Joyce to overpower him. Her best bet though is if everyone left pig-piles on him.
Amber, Joyce, Becky and Dina (anyone else there?) would be able to overpower Blaine if they co-ordinated their efforts but it seems tensions, and emotions, are running a bit high for planning unfortunately (and understandably)
Mind you would Walky be able to handle Faz?
Technically since Amber alone once beat Blaine (outside the restaurant with Danny), then Blaine could be defeated by Amber alone, even without the coordination.
And Blaine was healthy then.
That is true but unfortunately it isn’t (imho) as simple as that. Amber did take Blaine by surprise the first time so hes more ready for her now plus Amber herself seems to be running on basically empty so probably a bit more even now
And he’s wearing body armor now.
Yeah, she could beat up Blaine easily, but the Ball-Peen is more than she can handle.
Sarah is still outside with a baseball bat. And Blaine is about to hurt Joyce. I don’t think Blaine is in for a good time once he hurts Little Sister. I just hope everyone else can keep the cops from shooting Big Sister when they finally arrive and see the aftermath.
In (I’m typing on the phone so sorry if I mess up the link) this comic Dorothy tells Sarah she can go home and Sarah makes a sarcastic comment how she could also “fall asleep on the porch” and maybe get killed anyway. I think Sarah left for a well-earned bed.
I guess a question I would have… Joyce may not have fighting skills, but does Blaine?
Blaine was a low-level stooge for the mob. He was a money launderer, not an enforcer. And while he may have been abusive to Amber’s mom, that type of bullying doesn’t really take a lot of skill. So far, in the fights he’s been in, he has been taken out by both Amber/Amazigirl and Ruth. He took out toedad, but he had a weapon at the time. And he did sort of fight Amazigirl to a standstill, but then he had Ross as backup.
Overall, Blaine’s fighting record is spotty at best.
If two people are of equal skill then nine times out of time the larger person wins
Thats without factoring in motivation and injuries of course, both appear to be equally motivated, Joyce is looking like shes about to break her wrist if that punch lands and Blaine has, probably, external injuries
Well, if we’re playing THAT game… Blaine gets a really good hit or two on Joyce just in time for Carol (and possibly others from the ‘church gang’ to walk in very unexpectedly). Carol, seeing her little girl getting smacked down by their so-called ‘savior of Ross’ has a moment then pulls a Mrs. Weasley and does Blain in, herself. This, of course, results in her own incarceration – if only for a little while – and forces the whole Brown family (esp Mr. Brown) to look inward and maybe make a few changes, hopefully for the sane/good/future of the family
Damn. You.
WILLIS.
It’s a good thing Willis was out of plot twists.
((Pay me no mind, I’m just poking at TimeMonkey.))
I said almost out of plot twists. Almost means there’s a few left.
Point taken.
Aw! Now I want to watch Kim Possible!
Blaine may have the most ridiculous non fictional weapon, but he is outnumbered and I doubt Faz is any real threat unless he is such a sociopath that he can use those scissors to stab someone.
A hammers ridiculous?
Yeah, I seem to recall this weapon back in the day, known as a “war hammer”, which could deal a fair amount of pain…
War hammers were a large, heavy, blunt force weapon – think more along the lines of Mjölnir, the hammer of Thor, or Harley Quinn’s oversized mallet – that quickly fell out of serious use once functional plate armor became available in the medieval ages in favor of edged, penetrating weapons like the battleaxe, the mace and chain, or the pole-axe which had a better chance of penetrating the points at which the armor was articulated, like the joints of the shoulder, knee, or elbow.
And comparing Blaine’s ballpeen hammer (the head of which I suspect is probably about 16 to 18 ounces, max, judging from the scale it is drawn to) to a war hammer in the hands of a Viking Berserkr is about as ridiculous as comparing a kitchen paring knife to King Arthur’s ‘Excalibur’.
That’s more the fictional/fantasy war hammer. Real ones were a late medieval design, much like an oversized ball-peen hammer – though often with a spike instead of a ball on the back. The actual hammer head not too much bigger, but a much longer handle. Used against heavy armor where blades would glance off.
Blaine’s hammer isn’t really a good weapon though. Better than just punching, but far less dangerous in this kind of close unarmed fight than a knife. If only because an opponent can grab at it or deflect it without being cut.
A real war hammer was essentially a really long handle with an ordinary hammer head on the end. It was a silly-looking thing, which is why the depictions in media are so inaccurate.
Yep. Just look at this painting – that’s a contemporary depiction of an actual war hammer. Mjolnir, that ain’t.
Ball peen hammers are. Too light to break anything but a skull and not enough reach to make them a defensive weapon. As an improvised skull-cracker it’s not bad but there are other hammers that are better if you shop for that purpose. https://www.harborfreight.com/24-oz-fiberglass-framingrip-hammer-68983.html
Don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever shopped for a hammer with mahem in mind.
Now I’m afraid to follow the link. The URL looks harmless enough but do I really want an electronic record of investigating skull-crackers now that FISA is being renewed?
Harbor Freight’s just a cheap hardware store. It’s innocuous.
Pro tip: Use this website to look up their coupons for even cheaper mayhem! Cheap-assed, newly minted homeowner me uses it all the time!
https://www.hfqpdb.com/
(Don’t bother with their cordless power tools though; for about the same price you can buy Ryobi.)
Its not the best sure and we can certainly debate which weapons would be better (I have some ideas on that) but the choice of a hammer isn’t a bad one either:
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls
Especially given Blaines weakened state he probably doesn’t want anything too heavy so not a bad choice by the author
To put it another way: I have about the upper body strength as Dina appears to. I own and can effectively use a ball-peen hammer (albeit one sized for jewelry and wire-working, Blaine’s seems at least a touch bigger than mine.)
It can do some damage, I’m sure, but given they aren’t really used for carpentry either, it’s not even a good choice for his cover. So it being an odd choice with a funny name to begin with (when we know Blaine’s all about intimidation?) All the better.
Ball-pien hammers have a funny name, and they’re easier to draw than claw hammers. In the context of a webcomic, that’s a win-win.
Actually there are plenty of bones that could be broken or cracked by a relatively lightweight ballpen hammer…. hand, ribs, maybe even forearm. And not only does it give someone swinging it extra momentum, it also increases their range by a foot or so.
And while a longer/heavier hammer might do more damage, it is also harder to hide and takes more energy to swing.
There are always tradeoffs with any weapon.
True. The trade off with, say, a directible Thanos snap is that once you figure out how to do it you have to use it on the other guy before he can figure it out and use it on you. Since you don’t know who might figure it out you have to use it on all the other guys because if you didn’t they would have to use it on you first before you could use it on them. I mean, you could all trust each other, but we know how that goes.
Harbor Freight? Geeze, that’s the ToeDad of hardware stores. It doesn’t cost that much extra to get tools that don’t suck.
Reads like an ad copy:
H A R B O R F R E I G H T
The ToeDad of Hardware Stores
Remember – it doesn’t cost that much extra to get tools that don’t suck.
Harbor Freight – Coming soon to a mall near you.
Well, it eats the extra spacing, but I guess it still works.
Well then you’ll love this!
Geeze, I feel more manly just reading that ad.
I mean the 80-piece rotary nose picking kit alone is impressive, but I couldn’t help noticing that they didn’t include anything really dangerous, like a cell phone.
The hydraulic nail unbender has saved me at LEAST 17 cents so far! I’m putting that savings toward a rain gutter demagnetizer.
My dad had a ballpeen hammer that weighed two pounds. I imagine it could break heads pretty easily.
The skull is one of the hardest to break bones in the body.
Also, ball-peen hammers weigh between 1/4 lb and 2lbs. The lightest warhammers were only about 3 lbs (the heaviest practical ones were about 5lbs) – & warhammers were as the name implies intended for war. A ball peen hammer would certainly be effective for doing serious injury.
It’s not just the weight that makes the difference, it’s the handle. Those warhammers started out at 2-3 long and went up to pole arm size. You get a lot more momentum behind a swing that way.
Plus, as I said above, they were designed for use against armor. In a close fight, against unarmored opponents, use a knife.
Use a cell phone. (Fixed that for you.)
A knives vs a hammer? They both have strengths and weaknesses.
A knife is good for thrusting, but not so much for swinging. It maybe scarier from a psychological point of view but in a brawl it probably needs a bit more skill to use to full effect.
A hammer doesn’t have a cutting edge, but in an uncontrolled melee an unskilled fighter probably would have more success swinging it around as compared to trying to target someone with a knife.
Against unarmored people, a knife basically just needs to make contact to damage. The hammer you’ve got to get a good swing with. Possible more importantly, anyone grabbing for or trying to block the knife is likely to get cut up unless they’re lucky or really good.
Swing a hammer around randomly and they’ll try to block you and take it. Swing a knife around randomly and they’ll get out of the damn way.
Personally speaking knives freak me out big time. I know logically a baseball bat is more dangerous but I’d go up against a bat before a knife anytime
Bat’s nasty because it has reach and enough lever arm to get momentum behind it. Hammer doesn’t.
Using a hammer to fight is not ridiculous.
Intentionally choosing to bring a small hammer to a fight you intend to start is an odd decision. Grabbing a hostage and threatening him by holding a small hammer (with no sharp edge) to his throat is also a poor choice.
If it’s something he grabbed after suddenly finding himself in an unexpected combat situation, that’s another matter entirely. It’s an adequate weapon; it’s an odd choice of weapon.
“Dumbing of Age Book 10: Feelings Are Complicated”?
Also I can see Blaine being really confused as to why a plan that involved manipulating Becky’s dad and kidnapping her friends, and which devolved into killing her dad and punching her girlfriend with a hand holding a hammer (I’m guessing with the angles he didn’t hit her with it anyway. Also if he did that Joyce would be talking less and eviscerating more already.) results in Becky’s friends being THIS pissed with him… “Why is everything coming back to this Becky tonight? This is getting a bit weird…”
Someone handle FAz. before he shoots or stabs someone
Shoots? Okay that would actually be kinda amazing in a fucked up sorta way.
Faz: I think everyone should stop fighting and give their wallets to Faz.
Blaine: Why would we do that?
Faz: I’m the only one who brought a gun.
Everyone else: Oh shit.
I don’t think he brought a gun and without a phone he can’t stab anyone.
He’s only got a pair of scissors. What’s the worse he can do except distract?
Hm. Stab people?
Who would let Faz scissor them?
He can release one or more goons.
Joyce is seeing red. She ain’t going to stop til she’s worked it out or has passed out
And then wakes up wondering why her wrist is busted.
Seriously, I’ve had to punch people before. Joyce’s hand might just snap right off (I exaggerate for effect) if she connects with Blaine while her wrist is cocked like that.
The important thing is, Blaine, you will still be alive when she starts to eat you.
Comments like this are why this comic needs an upvote system.
Just like Disqus.
Based on my experience with other sites that use Disqus for comments, it’s a pretty crappy comment system.
So is Facebook.
I suppose there is the subreddit, but that place is preeeeeeetty dead
Man I hope that’s what people say about me when I die. “You killed yoto.” “Good, everyone hated that guy.”
You’re going to have to work hard on producing crappier art and forcing it on people then. Also lose that sense of humor and generous spirit.
Anything they say about you, Yoto, is probably going to be better than what they say about me…
“What? You mean he was still alive? I thought he checked out years ago!!”
*Goes through already posted comments*
What, nobody commenting on how awesome Blaine’s face in that 1st panel would be as a icon/picture/emoticon? Then I’ll say…
Blaine’s face in that 1st panel would make a perfect “it was at that moment XXX knew they had messed up big time” icon/meme/picture/emoticon…
Don’t use action movie rules! There are four of you, rush him!
I like how Blaine just seems kinda baffled that Joyce is the next one going after him now.
With the psychopathic lack of empathy he’s showing in that second panel there I wonder if, based on his research about the kids, he kind of assumed Joyce would be at least partly swayed to his side for killing Ross with the bad blood between them because he can’t gronk the concept of caring about human life.
Gronk?
I think he meant ‘grok’, a word given to us by sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein.
Who has a lot to answer for. Not just for waldos and waterbeds. Stranger in a Strange Land alone ruined an entire generation.
Maybe you should read it again. Heinlein himself was surprised that some readers thought the book described how he believed society should be organized, explaining: “I was not giving answers. I was trying to shake the reader loose from some preconceptions and induce him to think for himself, along new and fresh lines. In consequence, each reader gets something different out of that book because he himself supplies the answers … It is an invitation to think – not to believe.”
Unless you believe that thinking for one’s self is a bad thing… and that’s all I’m going to say on the subject.
I may not have been completely serious, but was that also the explanation for Starship Troopers?
Come on, She-Hulk! Fuck him up!
Blaine’s lucky he’s not in a Disney Movie…. ’cause this is about the part where the viewer realizes that not only is the villain gonna DIE, but, he’s gonna die UGLY!
We get to watch him fall off of a cathedral into a pool of molten lead??
No, he’s gonna fall off of a big rock into a pool of molten hyenas.
That’s a weird way of spelling “fall off of Big Ben when it starts tolling the hour” there, Taffy.
Molting hyenas are known to science. Molten hyenas have a short shelf life.
You had a good thing gooing, Blaine. You could have stayed on the floor, but noooooo
Hmmm… Was Dina hit with the fist or the hammer? I didn’t see blood, so I am going with that she is ok… Joyce you better go all out because you are now in his threat range.
BLAINE: “Crap! She’s literally tearing apart the body armour! That isn’t supposed to be possible!”
JOYCE: “Joyce smash puny villain!!!“
Y’know, everyone keeps referring to Blaine’s suit as “body armor”. To me, it just looks like mountain-bike clothing; more along the lines of a jogging suit with padding in specific areas to absorb some of the bumps and scuffs one is likely to receive while aggressively riding singletrack, in much the same way ski racers have clothing with padding along the finger, arms, and elbows to absorb the shock of a close encounter with the pole(s) marking the slalom gates. In fact, the best slalom specialists use them to physically beat the upper portion of the poles out of the way so they can cut the gate that much closer and saving split-seconds in doing so.
It will afford him a little bit of protection, sure, but an angered Joyce would be able to go through that like a wrecking ball through a greenhouse.
Willis referred to it on Twitter as “off-the-rack body armor, which these days just happens to look like supervillain gear”.
It looks basically like the stuff I see riders wearing at the national bull-riding championships.
Somebody swipe that hammer and hit evil Blaine in the nuts with it.
I sure hope Dina’s okay.
To Blaine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJrlezLvWnU
He’s got internal injuries, but that vest gives Blaine some protection. Walky. Now that you’re free beat up Faz. You can manage that much, right?
Walky’s a spineless defenseless POS. He won’t lay a finger on anyone. Not even the slightly wimpy Faz. Why would he even bother helping the girls except be Blaine’s little hostage?
The usual weird hate boner is crossing into victim-blaming today. Take it down three notches.
Its true its a bit victim-blamey but its also true hes done nothing during all this, he didn’t help the others fight and then he messed up looking after Blaine (not that we know how that happened so maybe not his fault)
Sure we all experience and react to trauma in different ways but Walky, hopefully, will learn to be a bit more aggressive in future and a bit less passive
As an example hes close to Blaine so he could grab an arm, a leg, a head, the body, anything at all and the fight’d be all but over but instead hes saying hes going to be right over there and, presumably, leave it up to everyone else to sort out
Walky needed help getting down off of a wall. The most productive thing he can probably do is get out of the way and he is doing it.
We can’t all be Amazigirl or Batman.
Well, we could, but it would get confusing.
I’m not asking him to be Batman I’m asking him to try like Dina or like Joyce or Dorothy
You mean like a dinosaur defending it’s mate, like a future president, or filled with righteous fury that has taken out Toe-dad with a single punch while Blain required multiple swings with a hammer. Which one are you asking for. Because that’s not Walky, nor should it be.
Hes in danger, his friends are in danger. I’m asking him to defend himself. I’m not asking him to do more than anyone else but at least try.
Remember his talk with Joe about being a man and shoes well if now isn’t the time for him to act like a man rather than a boy then when is
Its not Walkys fault hes been portrayed that way (I agree with you by the way)
Walky did sucker-punch Asher.
Hell all Walky has to here is just fall at Blaines feet and let him trip over him and he’d be doing something useful…
Wow, jeez, he’s just a scared kid. Not everyone is a fighter. Also, we have the benefit of viewing the situation from a comfortable distance, unlike Walky, who’s just been held hostage by a guy who straight up murdered someone before his eyes. That kinda crap makes it hard to think straight.
This is also Walky’s first direct traumatic experience compared to Sarah (Ryan at the party,) Dorothy (Ryan at the dorm,) Ethan (literally held hostage once before,) Becky (Toedad,) Dina (Blaine at the dorm and Toedad,) or Joyce and Amber (not gonna list them all.)
Every other character in this situation has at least one more firsthand experience with something on about this level of danger/perceived danger.
And Walky did defend Ethan when he froze up.
Go for the eyes.
I swear, I really hope Blaine dies on my birthday (June 2). That’ll be a great birthday present. Or at least up to a point where he’s down and out.
Off topic, but I gotta say, the action can be felt, I really enjoy the way this is drawn.
On the topic, I love that they’re so Becky-focused, not “You kidnapped us!” (which in itself would be a perfectly valid reason to punch him in the face)
*One Punch Man theme starts to play*
Wow, I didn’t expect DoA to end with Blaine killing everybody then bleeding to death 😮
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV_PzRb1pLk
Why did we make such a big deal of Becky attacking him from the sides if all she was gonna do was jump him while everybody else watches as Walky slips away
I feel a pretty obvious ‘gangpile him so he can’t get a leverage on his hammer’ part of this plan had been missing
Dina. Dina attacking him.*
Yeah, Our heroes don’t have it together as well as a typical under-eights Rugby team. But then, its not “smarting of childhood”, is it?
A kids’ sports team has planning, practice, at least somewhat defined roles, and a lot of advice and instruction from adults. Also, they’re not trying to avoid getting hit with a murder weapon.
Yes, this typically allows two entire fifteen-kid teams to form a single pile in the middle of the field, all trying to grab the ball at once.
Indeed. That’s right, kids: attack him one at a time so he can defeat you all individually.
Because it surprised him and let Walky slip away, but if Amber had gone for him instead he would have been able to carry out the threat to his hostage.
Exactly. She threw him off just long enough to lose his hostage.
And now he has Joyce for a hostage.
That’s okay. Joyce is supplying him with another one.
The comment has just been sitting here, and then I’m pulled away just long enough to be ninjad, which of course was okay because what are the odds.
But yeah, I figure Amber is warning her for a reason. Dina was helpful. Joyce maybe less so.
Yeah, he would have cut his throat with the hammer.
Does this count as Dina/Joyce working as a team? (Team Becky, of course)
Anyway, there goes Joyce’s last straw. The situation is now totally out of control and anything can happen. Be ready with your DYWs.
Judging by Amber’s face in P5, the DYW is coming next page with a down stroke of that hammer that just went up.
FEELINGS ARE COMPLICATED!!!
Dina best character
Bro, if you kill Dina again, we’re gonna have WORDS
Looks like Joyce is gonna break that wrist again.
Pllllleeeeeeaaaaasssseee let this be the origin story of One Punch Joyce
The rotation. The switching of the fist.
This is a Rising Dragon Fist!
SHORYUKEN!
Dumbing of Age Book 10: Feelings are Complicated
So….with Blaine gone….are we stuck with Mary as the new antagonist?
Sorry….if he is gone. Suppose he ain’t gone quite yet
There’s plenty of conflict to carry over into season 2 / book 11 and beyond, on top of whatever gets introduced.
Don’t forget about the fallout from Blaine’s crimes, Becky dealing with her parents’ estate, Carol and the parishioners, Sir Clint, the school board tribunal hanging over Jason, Ruth’s depression, and Billie’s alcoholism. Election day will be coming soon.
Do we know this is an election year in the Dumbiverse? Yes, I know Robin is campaigning to retain her congressional seat, but nowadays campaigning for the next election starts about three days after the last election, so that doesn’t really signify anything.
I presume so. It sounded like they were near the end back when Robin fired her old campaign staff, and there’s local news coverage of the race.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/floundering/
Blaine was out-of-frame for quite some time, and this is going to be a storyline with one HELL of a fallout. Carol’s probably going to be a central antagonist for at least the next arc, and we’ve apparently already seen Linda Walkerton in preview images – NOTHING we’ve seen of Linda suggests that one will be totally pleasant and uncomplicated, either.
That said, I DO think there’s going to be a lot of focus in Book 11 on student antagonists and lower stakes as a whole – this is going to need at least a partial resetting of stakes because I do NOT want immediate escalation from ‘season finale with kidnapping and murder’, that way lies madness. Which means yeah, probably Mary, very possibly Raidah (who I’d like to think has at least one standard and that standard is ‘hold off on your vengeance plans until AFTER everyone involved has had at least a week to start dealing with being kidnapped, and that kidnapping ending in at least one death that the victims WITNESSED THE MORTAL WOUND of,’ but I expect to be disappointed in,) probably some more of the slow-burning Rachel/Ruth enmity. But that’s not going to be forever. I think after what’s been established of Linda, she won’t be dealt with in the next storyline while there’s also going to be a lot of Carol-and-congregation focus. (Joyce’s fury will be a thing to witness, I guarantee you.) Clint/Sir has appeared precisely ONCE, and he’s clearly set up to be a physically abusive shitstain with power the way Blaine and Ross were, so I suspect he’ll be showing up again at some point. I also have the Lowest of Expectations for the senior Billingsworths, and with Billie so recently starting to process ‘holy shit I fucked up with the DUI, holy shit no wonder Alice doesn’t want anything to do with me again, holy shit I nearly died,’ her issues seem likely to come into the forefront (relatively) soon. So even going with just known and established Bad Parents, there’s fertile, untapped ground.
Plus, depending on the time skip and Becky’s financial situation post-Toedeath, Robin’s in a position where she can go from ‘incompetent, irresponsible amoral vaguely guardian figure’ to ‘very troublesome amoral vaguely guardian figure,’ especially as we approach the election. (Too much has been set up about her loss of points being insurmountable for me to sleep easy, because narrative.)
After all that’s happening, resetting of stakes will be really difficult, like jumping to the next term, mentioning many therapy sessions, and maybe with one or two of the kids out of college. Amber is already a walking nuclear bomb, Joyce is becoming another one, and there are still a lot of shitty adults out there to push the red button, so I would not be surprised if the stakes quickly spiral up again.
Damn, does anyone in this comic have decent parents?
Dina’s parents seem pretty okay.
Dorothy’s aren’t too bad, for middle-class white cishet neurotypicals.
We still have Carol in the running for main antagonist
Plus Faz, the elusive stepmother Yuri, and maybe Robin herself.
Mary hasn’t done anything in a while, so unless puppies have started going missing . . .
I just want someone to fall on Blaine. Just once. And let that be the end of his ribs.
GO Joyce/Saitama! ONE PUUUUUUUNCH!!!!!!!!
In this emotionally charged state, Joyce becomes a Contractor, and kicks Blaine’s ass.
Overhand punch? Even if she doesn’t break her wrist, she won’t have near the power behind it to do much damage..
Doesn’t matter. Things fall north in answer to lesbians’ prayers.
He hurt Dina. He must die a slow, painful death. Preferably one involving
Fire ants and his urethra.
“My name is Dina Sauryama. You killed my potential father-in-law. Prepare to die.”
If you’re going to quote films, I’d rather see something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPBV33lx9Ls
The look of sheer terror on Blaine’s face in panel one
In spite of the comments section cheering for his potential and then actual death I think that without the filter of fiction most people would find defending your killing of someone with “Everyine hated him” to be super sociopathic
I don’t know about that. There are still places in this country where the statement “He deserved to be killed” would be considered a valid and legitimate excuse.
The “he needed killin defense” may not be expressed quite that way, but yeah, it’s still quietly made.
I think I muddled my point by mentioning the comments section. My focus was more on Blaine seeming confused and saying they all hated him. Maybe I ‘m just reading too much into it but it seemed to be a really off comment. I’m having a hard time putting it into words but it’s not like he felt toedad had any reason to die other than failing him, and it felt like he only cares that they didn’t like him. Like he would say the same thing if he was just a jerk.
Well yeah, I wouldn’t usually stick up on fire ants, rope, and some stakes. Unless it’s my wedding anniversary.
Stock up! Stock up!! I have met my enemy and it is autocorrect!!
now hold on one second is amber actually going to have to face the grim reality that there are appropriate times, places for, and uses of anger, even the most extreme forms of it?
because damn willis, thas mean
though on the downside, this is eating up a lot of the time that Amber needed to disrobe and hide the evidence of Amazi-Girl having been involved in this, and that is the actual, non-sarcastic Mean Thing that is being inflicted =(
Just checking in to see if TimeMonkey has changed his opinion.
Also, Damn You Willis!!!
What the neck? How did I wind up on yesterdays page? Oh well, forward to the future.
Nope – can’t get behind Walky here. That’s a coward moment there. Joyce jumps in and he runs away? She needed his help – if he’d had the courage to grab onto the asshole, while Joyce attacked, it would have given everyone else the chance to get in on top of him and subdue him. Very sad moment for Walky.