Jokes on Sarah though. Liz can just run right past Juanita and order that ride anyway. What’s Juanita gonna do? Stop her? Please! She’s only been in this comic for one strip, she literally hasn’t proven she can do anything!
Knowing and seeing are fine and all, but it doesn’t technically stop Liz. What power does Juanita have over Liz that makes her knowledge of Liz’s actions a threat? I’m actually asking though, cause that’s a legitimate question. I personally wouldn’t care much if my friends were aware I was leaving.
You wouldn’t, but what Liz thinks her friends think of her is a pretty big deal to her; it’s a big part of why she has that whole “putting on a front” thing going on.
I still don’t get it. But I don’t know what Liz’s motivation is anyway since the mystery hasn’t been revealed. She already thinks her friends look down on her, that they’ve made assumptions and perceive her as someone she doesn’t want to be. Isn’t that why she tried to sleep with Joe to begin with? What does she have to lose here by leaving if she wants to? Are her friends gonna follow her to IU or wherever she goes. It seems weird that her plan has failed here, this just seems like a speed bump.
I read what she wrote about this (ugh I read Ayn Rand). Beside that now I need brain bleach, it’s just another way to say parasite (it’s written so) and consider most of human interaction as useless. It’s fun like saying the first primate to stand on two feet was an innovator and the second was a second hander, a parasite.
So why bring Rand in this, or is it a way to rehabilitate these people as victims of Rand’s sociopathy? There was a whole bunch of literature works about it before even Rand got a pen. And several names for this kind of comportment.
replace *anything with *everything in my previous comment.
I am under Rand’s level of competence using english (hence I’m a second-hander-parasite, but also, I don’t care).
juanita seems fairly happy to see her tho. unless it’s one of those passive aggressive smiles laid on with guilt trips about Christianity or whatever/one of the reasons that made her wanna run in teh first place lol
I laid out a bit of analysis yesterday in which I compared Liz to other Off-Campus Siblings of the Main Cast that’ve appeared in the comic to date (namely Faz, Howard, and Jocelyne), and deducing from that’ve predicted that Liz’s next reappearance is most likely to be in another year or two at minimum; Faz last appeared two years ago and previously last appeared two years before that, Howard last appeared five years ago and previously four before that…and—interestingly-enough for what it may bode for 2022—Jocelyne has consistently maintained a three-year gap between appearances in 2013, 2016, and 2019. And 2022 is three years since her last appearance.
Considering the next three chapters (the first of which is only 20ish pages away, and only a rough quarter of those being not Dina strips) are titled “Don’t Stop Billie-ving”, “This Was Halloweeen”, and “Bring Me to Life Drawing”–the last one being actually the first chapter of the next book–I’d be surprised if we saw Liz again before the year is out, barring any last bits from her in the next few strips or so. I don’t doubt we’ll hear from her again eventually, but things can easily take a while.
It’s quite possible yes this will be it for a little while at least but it will all blow up in some way. Like there’s multiple storylines after all which requires attention. While Liz is an important Joyce mirror and Joyce is the main character, Joyce and her storyline aren’t the only thing of importance.
For Joyce while losing her religion is very important it isn’t even the only thing surrounding her that needs attention. Like Joyce still has to find out she has a sister and two brothers not the previous sibling set up she believed she had. Or the true mystery of one of those two brothers come to that still has to be revealed even to the audience. Though I wonder if Willis would save the latter until he’s in the last quarter for this comic. So maybe five years if we’re lucky..
I mean, we’ve got like 20 pages total left in this chapter and something like 15 of them will be Dina strips, so I do really kind of think this is basically it for the Sarah storyline this chapter
When Willis finishes drawing a chapter, he usually announces its length on Twitter and mentions that people can ask them a character’s name and if they feel like it, they’ll then answer with the number of strips in said chapter to feature the named character. In Dina’s case, I believe the answer was that she’s in 48 strips this chapter–and she’s only appeared in 32 so far.
On a cartoon character, very-very slight crosseyes often (though not always) indicates the character is focused intently inwards or at their immediate vicinity, or that the character lacks a long-range view at that moment. Like, they’re looking right at their nose, not at the distant horizon, metaphorically.
I’ve used it in acting, accompanied by a giant smile, to make a larger-than-life character look focused and excited but a tad daft.
(Not saying you look daft! It’s a cartooning thing, I doubt it applies to real people. And Dina looks smart, just focused.)
Also there are still expanded tax credits this year, like the expanded Earned Tax Credit (now open to those who made too little to qualify previously), the Recovery Rebate Credit, and the 2nd half of the child tax credit. Local state governments sometimes have new credits and stimulus payments too. So if anyone has been putting off filing their taxes because of feeling overwhelmed or not making enough money to need to file, they can get free tax help (and possibly some money credited to them) from VITA, at https://irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep/
Also, for those interested in filing for disability benefits, this resource really helps: https://www.disabilitysecrets.com/
It’s best to seek out a certified legal specialist in social security disability law to help you on a contingency fee basis, though. DIY is super tough!
I’m sorry you are having a hard time right now. I know what that’s like. I can empathize. I really hope you get what you need to stay afloat.
If you have a specific unmet need, like food or rent or medical care, please feel free to let me know, and I can look for some more focused resources. I mostly know stuff in the US, but have looked up resources in other countries too.
On the other hand I’m not sure what Liz’s plan is here either. Sure, she can afford a cab ride I guess, but then what? If she had somewhere to go she probably wouldn’t have came back to her sister after wandering around campus for a couple days.
One possibility is that Sarah’s done something in an effort to resolve the issues that makes Liz want to run away from College.
I *hope* she didn’t out her sister as being a non-believer to her friends, because that would be a massively dick move, but there’s various options and degrees and such. And it is possible that Liz has been paranoid about coming out as an atheist to her friends at school for silly reasons, because teenagers.
There’s also the possibility of her being outed to her stepmother/father as her losing her tuition money depending on her online fallout from friends if they out her there. Honestly Liz pretending to be Christian because of that alone is fine and parents who’d have the ability to pay but wouldn’t deserve to be tricked. Tuition costs over in the US sound insane and I wonder how anyone without a scholarship gets through it. Like the Uk and all isn’t great either but damn.
That’s about as far as it can go, yeah. Beyond that, you run the risk of getting a degree you never wanted, for no reason other than “X person wanted me to”, which is a good way to end up miserable and broke.
spinoff comic of liz monologuing her pratfalls as sarah smugly rideshares into the distance?? i’m not saying it could be the new qwantz i’m just saying
Genuinely surprised that we’re seemingly getting zero interaction between Liz’s friends and Sarah. I’m wondering if something will happen that leads to Sarah asking the driver to turn around? Or maybe we’ll get a conversation between Sarah and the mysterious driver. In any case, I get the distinct feeling that Sarah is going to regret this. The story is called “Trial and Sarah,” after all.
Love to see Sarah machinations, they are the best.
I’m curious what Liz even wants a ride FOR, though. Don’t really have a good grip on her motivation. Everyone at Ball State thinks she’s a good Christian girl, so she has to…go to Indiana University…?
I mean, teens make bad plans, for sure. I just don’t understand her goal.
Her last word on the subject, before Sarah kidnapped her asked Carla for the rideshare, was that she wanted to “drop out and live at [IU] and do all the drugs and sex all the time”. Probably not such a good plan.
I went back and looked, and she a) doesn’t want people to see her not at church, which I really feel like is a non-danger at this point after a 2 hour not!uber, and b) wants to do rad danger sexy stuff, which isn’t EXCLUSIVELY at indiana state but she certainly got CLOSE so I can see why she might associate the two.
So maybe she just wants a ride to anywhere-but-heresville? Can’t fault her there, really.
Watsonian answer: She hates being the Joyce of Ball State, and wants to start over with a clean slate somewhere. She has a connection to IU (Sarah), like Becky did (Joyce), so running there makes sense. Even if their motivations were very different, that connection still provides some safety net for her shenanigans.
Doylist answer: If Liz didn’t show up at IU, she wouldn’t have been in the comic.
Damn. Two great, genuine, but totally different Sarah smiles in one strip? That’s impressive.
Though I’m really pissed off that I can’t remember who the second one reminds me of. For some reason John Allison’s work is coming to mind, but none of it feels quite right.
… still not entirely comfortable with the idea of forcing someone who isn’t out back into a peer group that she’s not out with and who is obviously traumatized by the closet that living with them forces her into.
Yes, Liz IS being completely stupid and I’m 94% thinking that Sarah IS making the right big-sister call here, but I’m still not comfortable with that aspect of it.
It’s Liz’s choice whether or not she continues to interact with the people she used to know at Bell State, She can make new friends who accept her for who she is without fucking up her life prospects by dropping out and trying to slum it at a university she doesn’t go to.
When Liz went “I’ll just stay here and do weed!” did anyone actually think that was a serious and rational statement by Liz, who two entire panels ago admitted what her problems were to Sarah, how they were emotionally exhausting and that she couldn’t do it anymore?
Because I know I’m a Brain Genius but that sure sounded like a desperate cry for help towards Sarah, someone who’s supposed to care instead of just assert authority on the grounds of “I can do whatever I want because deep down, I care.” I don’t think Joyce was legitimately expecting to run away to a country that doesn’t exist and take Dorothy with her so she could avoid Becky after Becky hunted her down.
I think dropping out of college can be the right move if you’re struggling emotionally. You’ll get more out of your education if you’re in a better frame of mind. However this idea hasn’t entered popular culture and most people act like Sarah, that a young person must be in college at all costs.
Sarah is viewing it as Liz being a dumb spoiled baby who’s not appreciative, yes, on top of deciding that Liz’s stated problems are not real.
This is because Sarah is an emotionally abusive person and thinks she’s allowed to selectively dole out affection to people she is entitled to do as she pleases with, since she is “bad with people.”
But that’s not really an option either for Liz. She can’t just drop out of college without telling her stepmom why she’s doing it – which is the key to her whole problem. And why she’s not actually doing anything to drop out.
Her current plan, as near as we can tell, is to just avoid her problems at Ball State by going to stay with Sarah at IU. That doesn’t address any of the issues.
this, right here.
IMO, she’s not looking to confront, address, or seek help with her problems. she just wants to avoid and ignore them, pretend they don’t exist.
opinions may vary as to whether it’s anyone else’s responsibility to engage, or make her engage, with those problems.
okay, I read a bit further down and you’re right, I’m wrong.
I still think she’s being immature and avoidant and, like King Daniel, I’m not sure there’s any point in discussing this further or trying to convince you otherwise.
Whether or not Liz is immature and avoidant isn’t even what I’m talking about, let alone relevant to Sarah’s responsibility to someone she professes that she loves and how Sarah bulldozed into the situation deciding that she knew best and Liz’s problems are stupid and fake and don’t matter.
Liz is immature (she’s 18) and avoidant (because her friends are making her miserable) so, what, exactly?
There’s a chance she can’t really afford it, even if she technically has the money available. For all we know, she could be cutting into her food budget or some kind of allowance. It’s not like we’ve been given a detailed look at her finances, y’know?
I don’t think Sarah can afford things without a thought. I’m pretty sure she offered to pay Mary for art commissions with snack food because she didn’t have much of a budget.
Sarah’s here on scholarship and it’s an easy subtext that she thinks Liz is just trying to piss out of college when it’s her dad and stepmom paying for it.
(Incidentally, if my “Sarah didn’t actually help Dana” theory ever pans out, I do think it’d be an important plot element that Sarah had no other choice if she wanted to stay in college. Dana’s rich, at least she could go back after recovering)
Sarah seeing it as her only option is canon, yeah. Something about the terms of her scholarship being really strict and Dana’s spiral starting to affect Sarah’s grades. If Dana’s family has money, it’s less of a problem for her to re-enroll than it would be for Sarah, regardless of whether Dana actually was helped in the long run.
No yeah that’s all true, but I meant that a Big Drama Bomb about Sarah solving that crisis on her own to negative consequence would still, by design, be the absolute best choice she had available.
Like whether or not the action is wrong, it’d be more of an examination of Sarah as someone who, like she is here, bulldozing through a crisis and then lionizing herself for it. Whether or not it seemed a good idea at the time, someone Sarah cares about and loves got hurt.
I guess I’m one of the few people in these comments who doesn’t approve of Sarah just leaving Liz there at Ball State and not even bothering to try and help her with her problems.
Liz refuses to be helped though. Sarah asked her directly what was the problem and Liz changed the subject and turned her face away. Can’t help someone who refuses to tell you what the problem even is
“It’s not just about church. I mean, it sort of was to begin with. I’m just exhausted of pretending to be the person everyone expects me to be. And they’ll hate me for it.”
“See? You can stop the hero worship. Liz isn’t any better than you! She’s a fraud!
Yes, Liz has real problems of her own and needs help, but Liz pretending to be someone she’s not—and being exhausted of pretending to be so—is not solely Sarah’s issue to fix. They haven’t lived in the same household for ages, and only even see each other once a year; it certainly shouldn’t obligate Sarah to upend her entire college life because Liz decided the answer to her stated problem was “run away from my college and go to IU to have pizza and tacos with my Facebook friend and do drugs and sex without my friends knowing, lurk around campus and live on the street for days, and only tell Sarah what’s going on if made to”.
Like, I’m pretty sure the narrative is not going to go “Actually Liz Was Completely In The Right The Whole Time Here And Sarah Was Being Completely Awful In Her Reactions”.
In shorter terms: could Sarah perhaps do more? Sure, not particularly going to argue that. Is she obligated to do everything for Liz? No, Liz is eighteen, she shouldn’t have to foist all the responsibility onto Sarah.
DoA’s comments section sure does spend a lot of time making sure that you are only allowed assistance if you’re a proper victim and then properly categorizing what this victim is allowed to do before they stop being a proper victim.
So where did you get the idea that she had to do “everything” when her current amount of help has been actively detrimental, because the context of what I’m talking about has been Sarah’s long-established inability to do good by people around her outside of a crisis.
Well first she’s dragging Liz back to a situation she doesn’t fully understand or attempted to understand, she just heard Liz describe how her problem was making her feel so she went “lmao you two are frauds,” and then when a contingent of that problem is “Liz doesn’t want to see anyone she knows, because her existing friends are at the source of her predicament,” Sarah rang up Juanita here to meet her.
Moreover: when the eff did I have to say Sarah had to do “everything” for Liz.
Liz was completely in the right the whole time here and Sarah was being completely awful in her reactions, yes. This is because Sarah has an emotional responsibility to her little sister if believing and stating that she loves her is a thing she is interested in living up to.
If Sarah does not care, she does not have to help. If Sarah cares, and she does, she has told Liz over this trip that she loves her, then she has a responsibility to hear Liz out instead of asserting control, but Sarah is a grumpy pissgoblin and only needs to give back in a crisis so she can go back to being a grumpy pissgoblin. She did, we learned that Sarah thinks Liz’s problems are stupid.
Unless Liz had actually came to the well-thought and rational conclusion of “I’ll just stay here forever and do weed” and this wasn’t the flailing panic of an 18 year old in a crisis, a scenario that has never once happened in the entire course of the comic, but as established above: I cannot believe anyone could have read that strip and thought “wow, Liz definitely thinks this a good plan.”
“Liz was completely in the right the whole time here and Sarah was being completely awful in her reactions, yes.”
Okay, yeah, this is what I believe is called an “irreconcilable difference”. We’re probably not going to get any further debating if this is the baseline you’re working from.
Ah, I’ve been meaning to ask you about how you interpret power dynamics. Presumably you’re familiar with the distinction between “power to” (e.g., to do things), which is usually a good thing, and “power over” (other people), which is more likely to be a problem?
I don’t know where the fuck you get off going “oh those certain people” when the only reason I’m having this conversation in the first place is because you began it.
in all honesty, “certain people” wasn’t only directed at you, but also at some other commenters (like that one who doubled down on comparing being Jewish to being a Nazi a few months ago, to name one example)
sorry, have no more spoons for this now, have a good one tonight
I have to wonder who Liz’s roommate is. If she’s an Uber Christian who belongs to the same group she attends it’s probably hell. But even if not she likely still has to keep up somewhat a facade for whoever who is the Sarah to her Joyce. Which would be exhausting on a greater level. Can’t even be yourself in your own damn room.
It’s a minor hobby of mine to look at pictures of my favorite characters naked, and Ruth already got like a dozen Slipshines so Dina’s been due for a hot minute. If there were a “triple yes” I woulda picked it. Mad respect for the principled contrarianism, regardless.
That’s LaFollette, isn’t it? I think they finally tore it down a couple years ago, only ten years after they told us residents that it would probably be gone in five years.
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Sarah playing 400th dimensional spite-chess
She should challenge someone to 5D Chess, which is a real game available on Steam btw. Sarah will be declaring checkmate in 5 minutes.
Anyone figure out a move to block queen backs?
You tie them up taking care of white bishops.
Jokes on Sarah though. Liz can just run right past Juanita and order that ride anyway. What’s Juanita gonna do? Stop her? Please! She’s only been in this comic for one strip, she literally hasn’t proven she can do anything!
Liz is specifying getting a ride before anyone she knows sees her
Juanita knows her and sees her, so mission failed
Knowing and seeing are fine and all, but it doesn’t technically stop Liz. What power does Juanita have over Liz that makes her knowledge of Liz’s actions a threat? I’m actually asking though, cause that’s a legitimate question. I personally wouldn’t care much if my friends were aware I was leaving.
You wouldn’t, but what Liz thinks her friends think of her is a pretty big deal to her; it’s a big part of why she has that whole “putting on a front” thing going on.
Liz is trying to avoid her friends, for some reason.
Juanita seeing her means she failed
The whole point of Liz avoiding Ball State is to avoid her friends. That doesn’t really work if her friends know where she is.
I’m thinking her RA.
It’s nowadays called the Meta power. It has something to do with stepmoms.
Is that like the whole “what’cha doin’ step-bro” meme I keep seeing around, including on MetaTM-owned social-media services?
Not unless it’s going straight to Slipshine from here.
I still don’t get it. But I don’t know what Liz’s motivation is anyway since the mystery hasn’t been revealed. She already thinks her friends look down on her, that they’ve made assumptions and perceive her as someone she doesn’t want to be. Isn’t that why she tried to sleep with Joe to begin with? What does she have to lose here by leaving if she wants to? Are her friends gonna follow her to IU or wherever she goes. It seems weird that her plan has failed here, this just seems like a speed bump.
Some people’s personal images depend solely on what they think other people think of them. Ayn Rand dubbed these folks “social second-handers.”
I read what she wrote about this (ugh I read Ayn Rand). Beside that now I need brain bleach, it’s just another way to say parasite (it’s written so) and consider most of human interaction as useless. It’s fun like saying the first primate to stand on two feet was an innovator and the second was a second hander, a parasite.
So why bring Rand in this, or is it a way to rehabilitate these people as victims of Rand’s sociopathy? There was a whole bunch of literature works about it before even Rand got a pen. And several names for this kind of comportment.
Now, now. There’s no need to bring Ayn Rand into this.
There’s no need to ever bring Ayn Rand into anything.
Might be wise to avoid quoting from the woman who was wrong about everything
Oh, come on. No-one could be wrong about everything.
Why, no. I haven’t read Ayn Rand.
Well she’s not wrong about anything. I mean she clearly uses grammar in a way her sentences make sense in a purely syntagmatic level.
replace *anything with *everything in my previous comment.
I am under Rand’s level of competence using english (hence I’m a second-hander-parasite, but also, I don’t care).
That’s what makes Juanita so terrifying.
Her powers are unknown and theoretically limitless.
juanita seems fairly happy to see her tho. unless it’s one of those passive aggressive smiles laid on with guilt trips about Christianity or whatever/one of the reasons that made her wanna run in teh first place lol
To quote Willis’s Most Definitely Favorite Film Evar:
“So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye”
“Such heroic nonsense”
But Liz would like to stay and taste her first champagne!
How do you solve a problem like Juanita?
That depends on how good at solving problems Juanita is.
Which is legit what I thought that song was talking about for YEARS before it finally dropped what they actually meant.
Thatz was beutifull war
Hey would you look at that, we finally get to meet this Juanita character.
Well, everyone knows Juanita…
Sarah is a genius. I guess this means Liz is gone, though for how long I can’t say. Also is Juanita their mom or something?
Roommate, probably, given Sarah’s comment.
I laid out a bit of analysis yesterday in which I compared Liz to other Off-Campus Siblings of the Main Cast that’ve appeared in the comic to date (namely Faz, Howard, and Jocelyne), and deducing from that’ve predicted that Liz’s next reappearance is most likely to be in another year or two at minimum; Faz last appeared two years ago and previously last appeared two years before that, Howard last appeared five years ago and previously four before that…and—interestingly-enough for what it may bode for 2022—Jocelyne has consistently maintained a three-year gap between appearances in 2013, 2016, and 2019. And 2022 is three years since her last appearance.
I very strongly doubt that we’re done with Liz
Considering the next three chapters (the first of which is only 20ish pages away, and only a rough quarter of those being not Dina strips) are titled “Don’t Stop Billie-ving”, “This Was Halloweeen”, and “Bring Me to Life Drawing”–the last one being actually the first chapter of the next book–I’d be surprised if we saw Liz again before the year is out, barring any last bits from her in the next few strips or so. I don’t doubt we’ll hear from her again eventually, but things can easily take a while.
THIS WAS HALLOWEEN?
Yup, “This Was Halloween“ is the final chapter of the current book. We’re finally getting the fabled Halloween Chapter of legend.
Upon completing it Willis tweeted, “it’s very blue.”
This was Halloween
This was Halloween
Halloween, Halloween
In this town
of Bloo-ming-ton
Mike’s death means an end to fun
Bring Me to Life Drawing sounds like a Malaya/Mary chapter, which sounds horrifying.
Malaya is at her best paired with Mary.
Yeah, Vader was at his best standing against the Emperor.
It’s probably Joyce taking a life drawing class. Lotta comedy potential there.
It’s quite possible yes this will be it for a little while at least but it will all blow up in some way. Like there’s multiple storylines after all which requires attention. While Liz is an important Joyce mirror and Joyce is the main character, Joyce and her storyline aren’t the only thing of importance.
For Joyce while losing her religion is very important it isn’t even the only thing surrounding her that needs attention. Like Joyce still has to find out she has a sister and two brothers not the previous sibling set up she believed she had. Or the true mystery of one of those two brothers come to that still has to be revealed even to the audience. Though I wonder if Willis would save the latter until he’s in the last quarter for this comic. So maybe five years if we’re lucky..
Who do you think the life model will be? Liz or Joe?
On The Road Again…
Yeah, Sarah will do smart and mean.
I’m wondering how soon she’ll be back. I doubt a storyline called Trial and Sarah will be resolved for Sarah that easily.
I mean, we’ve got like 20 pages total left in this chapter and something like 15 of them will be Dina strips, so I do really kind of think this is basically it for the Sarah storyline this chapter
? how do you know how many strips will have dina in them? did willis say that somewhere?
When Willis finishes drawing a chapter, he usually announces its length on Twitter and mentions that people can ask them a character’s name and if they feel like it, they’ll then answer with the number of strips in said chapter to feature the named character. In Dina’s case, I believe the answer was that she’s in 48 strips this chapter–and she’s only appeared in 32 so far.
considering the length of their buffer, i’m impressed with your memory.
Being impressed is the correct response to a lot of King Daniel’s comments =P
No argument.
Really obliging of that taxi driver to peel out like that to round off the moment.
Sarah slipped him an extra $20 to screech the tyres dramatically.
What are the chances Jaunita also becomes a long running cameo that borders on being a regular cast member like Liz?
Dorothy: “The chances are 0.0000000000000000001%”
Liz: “Hold my edibles”
Well look at that, situation resolved for good.
Thus solving the problem once and for all!
but…
butt
See? A very impressive human
RIP LaFollette Hall
Hey kinda weird to say this here but whatevs.
I’m open for commissions and kinda need it right now, so don’t hesitate to send me a message if you’re interested! 😉
They are twins. To me, that sounds inappropriate.
Twincest has a long tradition in hentai doujins.
Selling your own art on someone else’s page for their art-related business?
Seems pretty uncool to me. Maybe you should look into actual methods of selling art rather than trying to piggyback here in the comments?
Or at least message Willis to see if he’s cool with you poaching down here in the comments. It would be the respectful thing to do.
By “kinda weird” you mean “wildly inappropriate” to sell knockoffs of someone’s art on their own site.
And coming from Joe, “wildly inappropriate” is a strong statement.
Maybe I missed something, but I don’t see the part where Wellerman mentions any knockoffs.
There was a Willis-deleted comment Gwyn was replying to originally. It mentioned Walky and Sal.
O my! I’m sorry if I caused anyone here any stress! 🥺
Having a chessmaster of a sister must suck when you have your own dastardly plans.
Are Liz’s eyes slightly crossed? Or is it just me? (Also, Dina’s too?) I was born with crossed eyes, and I notice it sometimes.
Eh, I think that’s just Willis’s style. Akira Toriyama does that with his characters too.
On a cartoon character, very-very slight crosseyes often (though not always) indicates the character is focused intently inwards or at their immediate vicinity, or that the character lacks a long-range view at that moment. Like, they’re looking right at their nose, not at the distant horizon, metaphorically.
I’ve used it in acting, accompanied by a giant smile, to make a larger-than-life character look focused and excited but a tad daft.
(Not saying you look daft! It’s a cartooning thing, I doubt it applies to real people. And Dina looks smart, just focused.)
Thanks for the explanation Leorale!!!
Also, care to spread the word about my commissions? I’m kinda desperate for something to stay afloat right now. 😅
If you are in the States, you might be able to get some help by calling 2-1-1 or visiting the following sites:
https://www.211.org/
https://connectie.org/
https://www.findhelp.org/
Please feel free to pass along to anyone who needs help staying afloat.
Or these:
https://www.benefits.gov/
https://www.needhelppayingbills.com/
https://www.usa.gov/ (Has a section just on help with bills, but the other sections are also interesting)
Also there are still expanded tax credits this year, like the expanded Earned Tax Credit (now open to those who made too little to qualify previously), the Recovery Rebate Credit, and the 2nd half of the child tax credit. Local state governments sometimes have new credits and stimulus payments too. So if anyone has been putting off filing their taxes because of feeling overwhelmed or not making enough money to need to file, they can get free tax help (and possibly some money credited to them) from VITA, at https://irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep/
Also, for those interested in filing for disability benefits, this resource really helps: https://www.disabilitysecrets.com/
It’s best to seek out a certified legal specialist in social security disability law to help you on a contingency fee basis, though. DIY is super tough!
I’m sorry you are having a hard time right now. I know what that’s like. I can empathize. I really hope you get what you need to stay afloat.
Take good care. 🙂
If you have a specific unmet need, like food or rent or medical care, please feel free to let me know, and I can look for some more focused resources. I mostly know stuff in the US, but have looked up resources in other countries too.
Hey, you’re pretty awesome Laura <3
Awww…. Shucks! *Blushes.* Thank you, Milu! I try.
Yikes.
I’ve noticed it once on Joyce in, like, Book 9 DoA, so I figured it was a nod to people who occasionally go cross-eyed.
I do it. Astigmatism.
So, um, is Juanita going to kidnap Liz and lock her in the basement? I’m not entirely sure what the threat here is?
Liz doesn’t want anyone to know she’s avoiding them, so now she’s trapped forever, bwahahaha! Sarah is an evil genius!
On the other hand I’m not sure what Liz’s plan is here either. Sure, she can afford a cab ride I guess, but then what? If she had somewhere to go she probably wouldn’t have came back to her sister after wandering around campus for a couple days.
One possibility is that Sarah’s done something in an effort to resolve the issues that makes Liz want to run away from College.
I *hope* she didn’t out her sister as being a non-believer to her friends, because that would be a massively dick move, but there’s various options and degrees and such. And it is possible that Liz has been paranoid about coming out as an atheist to her friends at school for silly reasons, because teenagers.
There’s also the possibility of her being outed to her stepmother/father as her losing her tuition money depending on her online fallout from friends if they out her there. Honestly Liz pretending to be Christian because of that alone is fine and parents who’d have the ability to pay but wouldn’t deserve to be tricked. Tuition costs over in the US sound insane and I wonder how anyone without a scholarship gets through it. Like the Uk and all isn’t great either but damn.
They get through it by taking loans that they pay back for literally decades, often throughout their entire working life these days.
When your parents are paying for college, it pays not to rock the boat.
That sentiment can only go so far.
True, but you can pick your arguments.
That’s about as far as it can go, yeah. Beyond that, you run the risk of getting a degree you never wanted, for no reason other than “X person wanted me to”, which is a good way to end up miserable and broke.
spinoff comic of liz monologuing her pratfalls as sarah smugly rideshares into the distance?? i’m not saying it could be the new qwantz i’m just saying
Genuinely surprised that we’re seemingly getting zero interaction between Liz’s friends and Sarah. I’m wondering if something will happen that leads to Sarah asking the driver to turn around? Or maybe we’ll get a conversation between Sarah and the mysterious driver. In any case, I get the distinct feeling that Sarah is going to regret this. The story is called “Trial and Sarah,” after all.
Wow, two whole panels that features a smiling Sarah.
They feature Sarah’s favourite pastimes:
– Being told she’s a good person after putting in the slightest, most nominal amount of effort into expressing that she cares about someone.
– Being able to make that same person miserable for her own amusement.
When did “residence hall” replace “dorm?”
Because “dorm” implies sleeping only, and they’re actually living there when they’re not in class or working.
Two nice looks from Sarah and an end, for now, to the Dina/Becky storyline so thats a pretty good start to the storyline
I love Liz’s design. I feel like she is a new(er) character there Willis could start her design fresh
Love to see Sarah machinations, they are the best.
I’m curious what Liz even wants a ride FOR, though. Don’t really have a good grip on her motivation. Everyone at Ball State thinks she’s a good Christian girl, so she has to…go to Indiana University…?
I mean, teens make bad plans, for sure. I just don’t understand her goal.
Her last word on the subject, before Sarah
kidnapped herasked Carla for the rideshare, was that she wanted to “drop out and live at [IU] and do all the drugs and sex all the time”. Probably not such a good plan.I went back and looked, and she a) doesn’t want people to see her not at church, which I really feel like is a non-danger at this point after a 2 hour not!uber, and b) wants to do rad danger sexy stuff, which isn’t EXCLUSIVELY at indiana state but she certainly got CLOSE so I can see why she might associate the two.
So maybe she just wants a ride to anywhere-but-heresville? Can’t fault her there, really.
Watsonian answer: She hates being the Joyce of Ball State, and wants to start over with a clean slate somewhere. She has a connection to IU (Sarah), like Becky did (Joyce), so running there makes sense. Even if their motivations were very different, that connection still provides some safety net for her shenanigans.
Doylist answer: If Liz didn’t show up at IU, she wouldn’t have been in the comic.
She’s got two connections to IU. Joyce.
I suspect she’s depressed and hasn’t thought it through beyond getting away from the environment that makes her miserable.
Damn. Two great, genuine, but totally different Sarah smiles in one strip? That’s impressive.
Though I’m really pissed off that I can’t remember who the second one reminds me of. For some reason John Allison’s work is coming to mind, but none of it feels quite right.
Sarah has a 2-hour car ride back with no one who needs her attention. This whole thing was clearly a set up so she could take an uninterrupted nap.
Wow. This reminds me of my dumbass (back then) younger brothers so much.
… still not entirely comfortable with the idea of forcing someone who isn’t out back into a peer group that she’s not out with and who is obviously traumatized by the closet that living with them forces her into.
Yes, Liz IS being completely stupid and I’m 94% thinking that Sarah IS making the right big-sister call here, but I’m still not comfortable with that aspect of it.
It’s Liz’s choice whether or not she continues to interact with the people she used to know at Bell State, She can make new friends who accept her for who she is without fucking up her life prospects by dropping out and trying to slum it at a university she doesn’t go to.
Okay asking you but it’s a broad question:
When Liz went “I’ll just stay here and do weed!” did anyone actually think that was a serious and rational statement by Liz, who two entire panels ago admitted what her problems were to Sarah, how they were emotionally exhausting and that she couldn’t do it anymore?
Because I know I’m a Brain Genius but that sure sounded like a desperate cry for help towards Sarah, someone who’s supposed to care instead of just assert authority on the grounds of “I can do whatever I want because deep down, I care.” I don’t think Joyce was legitimately expecting to run away to a country that doesn’t exist and take Dorothy with her so she could avoid Becky after Becky hunted her down.
I think dropping out of college can be the right move if you’re struggling emotionally. You’ll get more out of your education if you’re in a better frame of mind. However this idea hasn’t entered popular culture and most people act like Sarah, that a young person must be in college at all costs.
Sarah is viewing it as Liz being a dumb spoiled baby who’s not appreciative, yes, on top of deciding that Liz’s stated problems are not real.
This is because Sarah is an emotionally abusive person and thinks she’s allowed to selectively dole out affection to people she is entitled to do as she pleases with, since she is “bad with people.”
But that’s not really an option either for Liz. She can’t just drop out of college without telling her stepmom why she’s doing it – which is the key to her whole problem. And why she’s not actually doing anything to drop out.
Her current plan, as near as we can tell, is to just avoid her problems at Ball State by going to stay with Sarah at IU. That doesn’t address any of the issues.
this, right here.
IMO, she’s not looking to confront, address, or seek help with her problems. she just wants to avoid and ignore them, pretend they don’t exist.
opinions may vary as to whether it’s anyone else’s responsibility to engage, or make her engage, with those problems.
“awayyyyyyyyyyy”
Can only see part of Juanita and I like her. More please.
More Juanita:
https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1452837236257566731
Hell yes.
It’s funny, I’ve answered this tweet, but I didn’t remember her.
I guess I’m working more than normal …
Man smug Sarah got me feelin’ some type of way.
The driver is very keen to get out of there huh. Can’t say I blame them.
Juanita was tagged, that means we will be seeing her in the future. How far…?
Squirrel also got tagged, but we haven’t seen it in over a decade.
She also got a character model.
The trial never ends,
PicardSarah.You might call this…
Revenge of the Sis.
Good move, Sarah.
This isn’t breaking new ground here at all, but Liz is hot. Only thought about this strip.
Hello, reversed version of me.
An unrelated thought, but if Muncie had a Nobody, its name would be Mucinex.
Please have higher standards for your older siblings than “calls you a fraud when you admit your problems to them.”
Liz has not actually given any information about her problems, only a desire to avoid and run away from them.
okay, I read a bit further down and you’re right, I’m wrong.
I still think she’s being immature and avoidant and, like King Daniel, I’m not sure there’s any point in discussing this further or trying to convince you otherwise.
Whether or not Liz is immature and avoidant isn’t even what I’m talking about, let alone relevant to Sarah’s responsibility to someone she professes that she loves and how Sarah bulldozed into the situation deciding that she knew best and Liz’s problems are stupid and fake and don’t matter.
Liz is immature (she’s 18) and avoidant (because her friends are making her miserable) so, what, exactly?
Alexa, play “Everyone Knows Juanita” from Coco
must be nice to be able to afford several rides like that without any thought
It is nice to have the means to escape a scenario that makes you miserable, yeah.
There’s a chance she can’t really afford it, even if she technically has the money available. For all we know, she could be cutting into her food budget or some kind of allowance. It’s not like we’ve been given a detailed look at her finances, y’know?
I don’t think Sarah can afford things without a thought. I’m pretty sure she offered to pay Mary for art commissions with snack food because she didn’t have much of a budget.
Sarah’s here on scholarship and it’s an easy subtext that she thinks Liz is just trying to piss out of college when it’s her dad and stepmom paying for it.
(Incidentally, if my “Sarah didn’t actually help Dana” theory ever pans out, I do think it’d be an important plot element that Sarah had no other choice if she wanted to stay in college. Dana’s rich, at least she could go back after recovering)
Sarah seeing it as her only option is canon, yeah. Something about the terms of her scholarship being really strict and Dana’s spiral starting to affect Sarah’s grades. If Dana’s family has money, it’s less of a problem for her to re-enroll than it would be for Sarah, regardless of whether Dana actually was helped in the long run.
No yeah that’s all true, but I meant that a Big Drama Bomb about Sarah solving that crisis on her own to negative consequence would still, by design, be the absolute best choice she had available.
Like whether or not the action is wrong, it’d be more of an examination of Sarah as someone who, like she is here, bulldozing through a crisis and then lionizing herself for it. Whether or not it seemed a good idea at the time, someone Sarah cares about and loves got hurt.
I’m talking about Liz, who shows all the sign of never having to ever worry about money her whole life ; the opposite of Sarah
I guess I’m one of the few people in these comments who doesn’t approve of Sarah just leaving Liz there at Ball State and not even bothering to try and help her with her problems.
Liz refuses to be helped though. Sarah asked her directly what was the problem and Liz changed the subject and turned her face away. Can’t help someone who refuses to tell you what the problem even is
“It’s not just about church. I mean, it sort of was to begin with. I’m just exhausted of pretending to be the person everyone expects me to be. And they’ll hate me for it.”
“See? You can stop the hero worship. Liz isn’t any better than you! She’s a fraud!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/heroworship/
This happened in the currently ongoing chapter.
Yes, Liz has real problems of her own and needs help, but Liz pretending to be someone she’s not—and being exhausted of pretending to be so—is not solely Sarah’s issue to fix. They haven’t lived in the same household for ages, and only even see each other once a year; it certainly shouldn’t obligate Sarah to upend her entire college life because Liz decided the answer to her stated problem was “run away from my college and go to IU to have pizza and tacos with my Facebook friend and do drugs and sex without my friends knowing, lurk around campus and live on the street for days, and only tell Sarah what’s going on if made to”.
Like, I’m pretty sure the narrative is not going to go “Actually Liz Was Completely In The Right The Whole Time Here And Sarah Was Being Completely Awful In Her Reactions”.
In shorter terms: could Sarah perhaps do more? Sure, not particularly going to argue that. Is she obligated to do everything for Liz? No, Liz is eighteen, she shouldn’t have to foist all the responsibility onto Sarah.
DoA’s comments section sure does spend a lot of time making sure that you are only allowed assistance if you’re a proper victim and then properly categorizing what this victim is allowed to do before they stop being a proper victim.
I literally just stated that it could well be that Sarah could’ve done more, but go off and strawman me I guess
Sarah could do more within the context of what has currently been revealed, like asking “are you feeling okay.”
I did not dispute that.
So where did you get the idea that she had to do “everything” when her current amount of help has been actively detrimental, because the context of what I’m talking about has been Sarah’s long-established inability to do good by people around her outside of a crisis.
“her current amount of help has been actively detrimental”
[citation needed]
Well first she’s dragging Liz back to a situation she doesn’t fully understand or attempted to understand, she just heard Liz describe how her problem was making her feel so she went “lmao you two are frauds,” and then when a contingent of that problem is “Liz doesn’t want to see anyone she knows, because her existing friends are at the source of her predicament,” Sarah rang up Juanita here to meet her.
Moreover: when the eff did I have to say Sarah had to do “everything” for Liz.
Liz was completely in the right the whole time here and Sarah was being completely awful in her reactions, yes. This is because Sarah has an emotional responsibility to her little sister if believing and stating that she loves her is a thing she is interested in living up to.
If Sarah does not care, she does not have to help. If Sarah cares, and she does, she has told Liz over this trip that she loves her, then she has a responsibility to hear Liz out instead of asserting control, but Sarah is a grumpy pissgoblin and only needs to give back in a crisis so she can go back to being a grumpy pissgoblin. She did, we learned that Sarah thinks Liz’s problems are stupid.
Unless Liz had actually came to the well-thought and rational conclusion of “I’ll just stay here forever and do weed” and this wasn’t the flailing panic of an 18 year old in a crisis, a scenario that has never once happened in the entire course of the comic, but as established above: I cannot believe anyone could have read that strip and thought “wow, Liz definitely thinks this a good plan.”
“Liz was completely in the right the whole time here and Sarah was being completely awful in her reactions, yes.”
Okay, yeah, this is what I believe is called an “irreconcilable difference”. We’re probably not going to get any further debating if this is the baseline you’re working from.
I don’t know why I need to consider Both Sides when one side has all the power and is causing all the problems.
I am not nearly centre-right enough for that shit.
Ah, I’ve been meaning to ask you about how you interpret power dynamics. Presumably you’re familiar with the distinction between “power to” (e.g., to do things), which is usually a good thing, and “power over” (other people), which is more likely to be a problem?
That was completely uncalled for and you know it.
Oh, please. It wasn’t even about you.
I don’t know where the fuck you get off going “oh those certain people” when the only reason I’m having this conversation in the first place is because you began it.
in all honesty, “certain people” wasn’t only directed at you, but also at some other commenters (like that one who doubled down on comparing being Jewish to being a Nazi a few months ago, to name one example)
sorry, have no more spoons for this now, have a good one tonight
(See, this is why I swore off debating this topic with certain people in the comments the last time.)
Yeah, it takes a lot of enjoyment out of commenting here when some of the most prolific commenters are toxic.
I have to wonder who Liz’s roommate is. If she’s an Uber Christian who belongs to the same group she attends it’s probably hell. But even if not she likely still has to keep up somewhat a facade for whoever who is the Sarah to her Joyce. Which would be exhausting on a greater level. Can’t even be yourself in your own damn room.
A Dina/Becky slipshine sounds nice but the poll gave me an option to be a contrarian and I felt compelled to take it. Forgive me.
It’s a minor hobby of mine to look at pictures of my favorite characters naked, and Ruth already got like a dozen Slipshines so Dina’s been due for a hot minute. If there were a “triple yes” I woulda picked it. Mad respect for the principled contrarianism, regardless.
No.
Has no-one else noticed that in panel 6 Juanita is sitting in the car?
She left with Sarah on the way back to IU – presumably the phone is to indicate that she is informing others that Liz is back.
That’s… That’s just Sarah.
Yeah, that was a confusing comment.
Ah. How embarrassing. Thank you for the correction.
*starts Initial D music just for the last panal*
Ooo I like that game.
That’s LaFollette, isn’t it? I think they finally tore it down a couple years ago, only ten years after they told us residents that it would probably be gone in five years.