The Dumbing of Age Book 11 Kickstarter is live!
I Excised All my Anxieties into Cartoon Characters Who Definitely Don’t Have Feelings for Each Other will collect “Year Eleven,” spanning the five storylines that start on September 10, 2020, and complete on August 26, 2021. This includes new commentary, 24 Patreon bonus strips, behind-the-scenes artwork, and new character designs into an 224-page tome with luxurious glossy paper all bound up into a sturdy presentation. Plus a foreword by Kendra Wells!
Reciprocation of a behavioral meme spawned by Becky!!! Fantastic!!!!
She even refined (or should I say evolved) it one step further by integrating a step of optimal social deployment!!! 🤩 🧠
Well played, as expected by the Empress of Evolution herself!!!
🤘😆🤘 🦖🦕🥚🌈
*plays “Beat Koro Sensei!!!” from Assasination Classroom CD on hacked muzak*
*adds a notch to the F-bomb counter*
Two, in fact.
I somehow wasn’t counting Walky bc that’s not as interesting
There’s a counter now?
. . .what’s it up to?
See that red “John Campbell” next to the unimpressed cat face? Click it.
Oh wow… looks like we’re at exactly 399 of them, too!
TWO-ninety-nine, even. >.<
You bet there is! (It’s diligently updated, too.)
http://www.ci-n.com/~jcampbel/doafbombcount.php
This storyline has already tripled Dina’s fucks so far.
I’m starting to worry about Joyce becoming the only one in the friendship that doesn’t know have this knowledge. Total strangers are gonna know Becky and Dina smashed before Joyce. Hell Jason does, so that’s basically the same thing.
Cut to the Dr. Strangelove war room where a general hands the president a report that simply says ‘Becky and Dina fucked’.
Turgidson’s folder now reads “WORLD TARGETS IN MEGAFUCKS”, and every sheet in it is surveillance-style shots of Becky and Dina from an unmarked Department of Defense van.
5 bucks Walky spills it.
Is it “spilling” if you don’t know it’s supposed to be secret?
i guess you’d have to call it “pouring”
I’m gonna say yes, mostly because it makes me more likely I’ll be right.
More like dishing?
Yeah, that’ll hurt Joyce’s feelings.
I mean Joyce isn’t entitled to this information any more then Becky was entitled to knowing about Joyce’s Atheism
She’s not entitled to it, I agree. It’s just that the tone kind of changes when literally everyone else knows. It means it’s not really a secret. It means that Becky doesn’t trust Joyce and I wonder what that will do to their friendship. They’ve gradually started to separate, and I wonder if they’ll even be friends by the end of the comic.
She’s not entitled to it, but it’ll still hurt her feelings that everyone else knows except her (including instructions that people shouldn’t tell her, specifically). These two besties used to tell each other pretty much everything, but now, they don’t.
Joyce didn’t exactly out and tell Becky she became an atheist, either. Trust is a two-way street.
it’s disappointing but not surprising that Becky thinks she can’t trust Joyce with this information.
If she doesn’t trust Joyce with the information, why is she taking a course of action that ensures the Joyce will receive the information? Telling everyone she meets, shouting it so loudly that it can be heard in an adjacent room: these actions must have some other purpose than keeping a secret from Joyce.
Subconscious self-sabotage? She’s more afraid of what Joyce’s reaction will be than of her having this information. This way, someone else will be on the front lines when the alleged kaboom happens.
This isn’t really a matter of trust. Joyce was very open that she was starting to doubt her religion and stopped when Becky got irritated.
However Becky 100% had Joyce’s approval (not that it was needed) to have sex with Dina. Joyce told her to go ahead at least twice.
This is more like Becky doesn’t want to hear Joyce say “I told you so.”
I like this take. It’s a good take.
“… be friends by the end of the comic.”
You’re funny. My biggest concern is whether or not I’ll still be alive by the end of the comic.
Guess that depends on how old you are. Best to stay healthy. I`m sure Willis will die or lose the capacity to write and draw eventually.
They’re likely to outlast me. I’m fifteen years older and in poor health.
Everything’s always about “who’s entitled to what”, nowadays. It’s a reductive way to look at the world, really. Hiding information from only one person in a group is weird at best.
Weird and ineffective.
who entitles the entitlers anyway???
It’s entitlers all the way down.
You’ve seen what Becky’s OpSec looks like, right?
Joyce is gonna find out.
Billboards are a perfectly cromulent means of conveying sensitive information, what are you talking about?
yeh
More specifically, I think Becky feels guilty about having a secret from Joyce when she was loudly insistent on Joyce not keeping secrets from her ever, but now she has one she doesn’t feel like she’s equipped to readily share with her because of the difficult conversation it’ll invite, but I’m starting to think it might be less of an outright engineered plan to heroically defend herself from the edgy atheist, and more like Becky feels bad about earlier and wants to be told she’s an asshole.
If Joyce gets mad then Becky all at once gets:
– Someone who will validate her feelings of guilt, because guilt is what she’s feeling in this specific context while everyone else recognizes it as a healthy and positive development under her control and discretion but what Becky feels right now is the same thing Amber felt when Ethan and Danny cooed over how great she was; I feel like shit and I need to right now, even if it’s wrong.
– Joyce gets back at her for Becky finding out in secret. I don’t think Becky is at all unaware of the hypocrisy going on, and I think she wants Joyce to be mad at her because she thinks Joyce deserves to be mad at her for this, or at least she can be mad now because Becky made a big show of all the Lies and the Secrets and now Becky’s got her own and, in her mind, she should be sharing it with Joyce because they’re not supposed to share anything with each other. If Joyce yells at her for this then Becky gets both of her kinds of guilt validated.
Oh interesting, something to keep in mind as future developments unfold. That certainly feels possible. Becky does have a lot of self-awareness.
(Thus proving that you can be pretty self-aware and still incredibly annoying.)
I’m going to laugh if after all this Joyce finds out and is like “yeah ok, whatever”
This is exactly how a young relative is handling their school crush. Their friends know. Their teammates know. Their classmates know. The teachers know. And they have started telling the crushes friends. But they are total surprised Pikachu face when you say, “Your crush probably knows too at this point.”
aww but that’s such a cute way of letting someone know that you like them =) even though it wasn’t deliberate. the way i did it as a teen was mournfully stare at them, which i’m sure was irritating as fuck and not endearing
BTW
A TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE is happening NOW!!!!
GET EXCITED!!!! 😆
🔭🎑🌌
*plays “Vain Star” on hacked muzak*
It’s cloudy where I am and I am so, SO bummed 😭😭
It’ll be happening for 3 more hours bruh! If you’re lucky you might be able to catch the last few minutes of the total eclipse and then the rest of the partial eclipse!
I feel ya. I was looking forward to this, but it was raining and heavily overcast here all through it.
I would go outside to look but even at 11 PM it’s currently like 85-to-90 degrees where I am and I literally just took my pre-sleep shower, so nah
If only for a few minutes? It’s a Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse and well worth it!
I
I was just outside watching it. I got to see it turn red even as the last bit of fully reflected white light dwindled on the moon’s horizon. It was beautiful.
I missed this one due to lousy weather, but I did catch one a few years back. And I agree, it was quite the sight.
It’s well below the horizon where I live. The time is 2 PM here.
I went on a nightwalk listening to moon themed anime music and it was a transcendent experience.
🤩 AWESOME!!!! 🌌
Care to share those tunes?
Sillhouette-Kana Boon (Naruto Shippuden)
Night Running- Shin Sakiura (BNA)
Paper moon- Tommy Heavenly6 Cover by Geekyfandubs (Soul Eater)
I started doing this when I walk my dog at night but it’s Frank Sinatra and/or buttrock.
It’s day and rainy over here :/
Skies were clear all during the partial phase, but then near-complete cloud cover appeared out of nowhere just before totality. Ended up waiting outside for half an hour, then there was a break where much of the sky cleared for the next 40 minutes or so, allowing me to enjoy maximum totality in the end.
I saw it shortly after I got off work. It was cool.
Her utter glee is honestly super endearing.
No, but nice try
Lucy “damn, EVEN Dina fucked but I still haven’t”
What she waiting for then? She’s got a Walky right there!
In the snow??
Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it. Can recommend.
Look, when people say it’s “fuckin’ cold outside” I don’t think that’s what they mean
Maybe you’re not hanging out with cool enough people.
maybe your friends treat their butts like precious snowflakes
What if you’re in an igloo? 😛
Why do you need igloo?
Do you have a broken ig?
Mmm snow in my ass
I bet it isn’t as bad as sand.
I’m old enough and adventurous enough to verify that. Sand is much worse and harder to get rid of.
Snow melts. Sand… does not, at least not until you get up to glass temperatures.
I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
Depends on the sand. I was on a beach in Crete a couple weeks ago (just casually letting y’all know) where the sand was this perfect size and feel, more like tiny pebbles really so that it was both comfortable but also easy to brush off. it was awesome.
i did not have sex, but i was with some hot friends and we were just lounging there on the sand naked, so i think i deserve to make you all very jealous anyway. (i did get a pretty bad sunburn though haha oops)
What a thing to say lmao
Bless your heart, Dina.
🎵 IF YOU DON’T FUCK ME NOW 🎶
🎶 YOU WILL NEVER FUCK ME AGAIN 🎵
🎵 I CAN STILL HEAR YOU SAAAAAAAY IT 🎶
🎶 NEVER FUCK THE FLAME (NEVER FUCK THE FLAME) 🎵
Fleetwood Mac Parody👍
Thank you. For some reason my first instinct was to try and cram that into If You Leave Me Now by Chicago.
I think Lucy’s brain has gone into emergency shutdown.
She’s really way too normal a person for this group.
Yeah, no, we’ve seen how much she’s been thirsting for Walky, she’s more than weird enough for this group.
“Thirsty/horny 18 year old” is one of the most normal things there is, as much as some religions try to pretend and/or indoctrinate otherwise.
She sucked a ketchup stain off of Walky’s shirt so I’m fine with including her among the rest of the freaks.
this strip goes well with yotomoe’s fancomic
panel 2.5:
Walky: Heck she even fucked me once when I was reeling from Mike’s death and my breakup with Amber.
Lucy: Wait, what?
panel 3
Dina: Becky and I have fucked!
panel 4
Dina: Did I execute my involvement in the conversation properly?
BAM. Headcannon
His joke today juxtaposed next to his joke from the strip below make you wonder if something is going on subconsciously there.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/sufferable/
Why is Dina there? She doesn’t even take math.
(Actually why doesn’t Dina take a math class, she’s doing a biology degree.)
Dina went with Becky to meet friend group
Perhaps she tested out of the first semester Math class, and is using the opportunity to get ahead on her other requirements?
She was in the Tuesday and Thursday section. The others were in Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
All we know is that she doesn’t take calculus. She might be speaking a stats class or something else the rest of the cast isn’t, or just not taking math this term.
I also remember when we were given a full schedule of each character’s classes, yes. Conservation of detail, we don’t need to see every single class to assume Dina takes maths.
Always remember to refresh the page before snarking, folks. Someone else probably said it first.
Dina did take math last semester, but was in a different lecture section from most of the cast. We saw in an early strip where she was given Walky’s class notes by mistake.
I seem to remember that Dina is in a different class.
Dina does have math; she’s just in a different section than the others.
I took lots of math because I enjoy it, but for biology you don’t really need a
lot of math outside of statistics and low level computer science for Bioinformatics. Dina might not necessarily even need that last one as paleontology doesn’t deal with DNA unless you’re working with phenology of extant species (or those we have the DNA from).
molecular paleontology is a booming field, ancient DNA has now been found in fossils up to 1Mya and there’s a chance this might be pushed back by another million (2Mya is the hard upper limit for DNA but i think older RNA and proteins might exist. it’s controversial as yet)
but also, there’s lots of other approaches to paleontology that do require some mathy programming, your population simulations, your 3D modelling and stress analysis (bite force, stride length &c), your molecular clock dating…
but also also, paleontology is a multi disciplinary field that tolerates near-total illiteracy in math if you’re gonna be doing say, fossil prep. or field work i guess. that said there is growing demand for engineering and programming backgrounds in paleo, i’ve heard.
Perfect timing, Dina
Dina volunteered information about her sex life unprompted, somebody #Cancel her quick. She’s just as bad as Ryan for that.
/S
I love this.
Okay, remember how I was totally sure that that other chapter was going to end in an emotional Joyce recklessly kissing Dorothy just when Becky walked into the room, causing everything to blow up in her face and massively complicating Dorothy’s departure?
Well, that didn’t happen. But this time I’m definitely right: Joyce and Billie are going to end up kissing before the chapter is out. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but it’s going to cause SO MUCH DRAMA.
One of these days I’m gonna be right about one of these, and everyone’s going to think I’m a GENIUS.
Go you!
I sure hope you’re wrong. I don’t trust Asher any further than I could throw him, but he doesn’t deserve to have his girlfriend cheat on him.
Jennifer is a good friend despite being frustrating at times but a lot of friends often are.
Yeah! She usually felt a little bit bad about it when she joined the other cheerleaders in shoving Walky into the lockers in high school.
It wasn’t charming when Joe went around announcing he fucked someone every five seconds and it’s really not any better with Dina and Becky.
Yes but you forget about the double standards that are applied to characters
That’s all well and good, but applying different standards to different characters isn’t especially harmful, any more than it would be for real people. Most human brains don’t operate on the Lawful end of the spectrum, in the sense that you can’t reasonably expect a person to have perfect consistency of reaction for every single person in every single circumstance, for their entire life. It’s even sillier to hold that up for fictional characters. It’s Fine, Actually if Dina mentions that she ficked her girlfriend.
Taffy, like this comment from you. I think it is well written.
Depends on how neuroatypical you are I guess. I was taught from childhood that I should treat everyone equally, see no race, see no gender, all that jazz. My little autist brain absorbed that and made that the default state of existence.
The problem is? last decade or so I’ve been told that is NOT the right way to see things, and is apparently also problematic.
So here I am, my brain already wired to see things one way, already having a hard time interacting with people, gotta add yet another layer on top for socialization, and this one is a massive layer that has to alter the base on which I built my entire social contract on.
(Which, you’ll understand, means double standards really ruffle my jimmies because it is yet another layer of bullshit I have to deal with)
I tell you what, you humans never get any easier to understand. 😑
Screw this guessing game. I’m an ADHDemon, and were both neurodivergents with far better things to do!!!
Care to tell me what you’re up to? 🙃
Eh, I’ve gotten old enough that my social contract program is developed enough I can mostly fake it like a regular human. Doesn’t change that it really grinds my gears when shit changes one year to the next and I’m expected to make do like regular people.
Is it really “faking” it? After all, is consciousness not what can trick another “conscious” being into thinking you are? Does the same not apply to all elements of consciousness therefore, including social awareness?
Before I get into a whole sprawl about Alan Turing and philosophy of cognition,
Tell me some hobbies of yours. Surely they’re FAR more interesting than the guessing game called “social cues”.
It’s their first times, no?
I didn’t, but I totally wanted to tell everyone after my first time.
EVERYONE.
I told my improv troupe. 🙂
Yeah, but when Joe said it, it just came off like he was bragging about his “conquests”. When Becky and Dina say it, it comes off as genuine glee.
It doesn’t matter if they are bragging about a conquest or being giddy with glee, its kinda gross to go around announcing your adult funtimes to people who didn’t ask.
I think it’s also just the characters involved. If Joe/Joyce end up being a thing, they bone, and Joe goes around telling everyone in a dreamy, gleeful mode that ‘yeah me and Joyce totally had sex’…. it would still come off a little smarmy because it’s Joe.
I don’t think this at all, unless Joe does so without Joyce’s consent. The problem is not that Joe went around saying he had sex, it’s that he talked about it almost exclusively and for the purpose of making sure everyone knows he’s a cool stud who fucks a lot. “We fucked!” isn’t a transgressional conversation, or at least one that’s so transgressional that it has to be assumed as a violation of any kind of social boundary that can’t be checked afterwards to say “I really don’t want to talk about this with you.”
When you said “because it’s Joe” I think you’re right, but that’s because Joe’s history would make him appear as insincere and treating Joyce as a conquest when if he ever said it to another person it’s probably because he’d be floating in mid-air with little cartoon hearts floating around him.
This is a good take on it. I’d add that Joe is self-serving in that he’s wants others to know he fucks a lot so they consider him as an option. It’s a sort of “always be selling” mindset; advertise past performance to secure future success. I’d also add that if he did have sex with Joyce, quite a few people would assume he just wanted to “corrupt” her (i.e., he made her a specific target instead of just another notch in his bedpost) and it makes it seem even grosser when he tells people.
To be fair, when he asked her out at the beginning of the year, that was precisely his intention and he said it out loud to other people.
He’s done a lot of growing! But in comic time, that wasn’t very long ago and it would be beyond reasonable for almost anyone who isn’t aware of the depth of his feelings for Joyce to make that uncharitable assumption about his motives.
https://i.imgur.com/X1vVKnP.png
Kinda rushed this one out cuz I gotta go see the eclipse!
Story so far…
https://imgur.com/a/9Ob1cy3 (NSFW)
😊😊😊
Hee hee hee!!!
The eclipse is so sweet bruh!!!! 🤩
Condoms are for the weak. Spray-on latex or nothing, lest ye be marked as a coward.
UGH! Right in the feels!
Pfft I wonder if thinking of Mike will kill his boner? That would be the ultimate cockblock, one from beyond the grave!
Who knows? maybe it’ll make him HARDER.
Not if I can help it!!!
🌀🌀🌀
Parasite Powers: Horny Hypnosis!!!!
*plays “Hypnotik” on hacked muzak*
Initially I was like “ah man, Walky and Joyce?” cause it made sense why Joyce would be in a bed because of what’s happenin but then he dropped a “Billie, I’m gonna–” and I was like “oh this…this will do.”
oh no. oh no oh no oh nooooo
Nailed it Dina!
And also Becky.
Perfectly timed; I’d say.
😆 *internet high five*
Dina, please, maybe not when Joyce is not that far away. XD I mean, you’re the one who doesn’t want her to find out.
Excellent interjection, Dina. Five stars.
Dina you little attention pony, dont look directly on the camera
Smooth.
Real smooth
I’m curious, Dina. Exactly what did you fuck Becky with? And, if it wasn’t a penis, is it truly “fucking?”
And, can we get a Slipshine? Purely for educational purposes, I assure you!
Answer 1: Fingers and mouth. Answer 2: Yes, of course. Answer 3: There’s already one out, look under and to the left of the comic to find a link.
Hey, are you new here?
I hope you know that your first two questions reek of homophobia.
Penetration isn’t necessary for sex. That’s half heteronormativity and half purity culture nonsense.
Taffy has your answers, I just wanted to suggest you google things before you ask questions like this. I particularly caution you against posing the questions to any RL sapphic people you may know.
She said “fuck” not “sex.” While I’m aware that two women can “fuck” using things like strapons and dildoes and they can “finger fuck, “tongue fuck,” and even “fist fuck,” but she just said “fuck.” Having not seen the slipshine, can anyone tell me which they did?
As for potential accusations of “homophobia,” you’d be mistaken.
Okay, Walky, you’re banned from metaphors for 24 hours, that was some truly unnecessary torture of one there…
Witch one.
I thought it worked pretty well. i can see Billie+Ruth as a moth trying to fuck a flame, ie a truly terrible idea that almost got everyone killed.
presumably Billie+Alice was a similar kind of scenario, and did it almost get everyone killed? why yes it did.
That is certainly a time to interject, yes Dina.
There was definitely a segway to be had.
*internet high five*
Ok Diane, we all understand that you can see the fourth wall. Of course we know you know we’re here. We’re glad that you want us all to know.
I really like the way Lucy’s mouth drops in panel three, it’s just a tad but very effective.
Diane has mastered teleportation
Okay Thats becoming less cute
Walky knows Jennifer really well. And Dina… please stop with that.
Oh jeez. This reminds me of the college acquaintance who, after she and her boyfriend had sex, would announce it in the dorm as if it were some momentous occasion that no-one else had ever experienced. Some side eye there. No-one wants to know.
I dunno, there’s so much unhappiness in the world I’m starting to think we should just celebrate each other’s little triumphs every chance we get. “You fucked? Hell yeah!” (High five)
I mean it personally increases my UNhappiness when people I am not talking to inserts themselves into my conversation with someone just to inform me they and their partner have fucked.
Like okay? Didn’t ask, nobody asked.
Yeah, I think you have a good point there.
I may not have been able to enjoy the slipshine myself because of my severe disconnection, anxiety and depression, but Willis himself did a very good thing by releasing the Slipshine, I can tell lots of people really needed that island in a sea of dread.
“So shines a beacon of hope in a dreary world.”
🥹🥹🥹
*plays “The Sea” by Thomas Dvorak*
Jennifer x Joyce is a relationship I never had expected.
No, but honestly I’m so happy with it. The way Dorothy swooped in and talked [i]to Jennifer[/i] about booking Joyce an appointment? Literally not talking to Joyce at all, just [i]about[/i] her while she stood right there. After talking about Joyce like a child or a dog who would need pills hidden in peanut butter?
I hope Joyce gets to enjoy the actual support for a while. She’s having a really hard time.
just casually forgetting how to do italics
No, just remembering how to make them on phpbb forums ca. 2005.
Well in their first semester, Jennifer actually admitted that Joyce was her current best friend. It was super sweet. I really want Jennifer to keep being Joyce’s friend.
Am i the only one who is tired hearing about that they fucked?
Really? just me? oh well, carry on then.
I promise you it’s not just you.
I think the issue is that we’re seeing ALL of the instances of B+D telling people, but it probably flows more easily in-universe because each person only has to hear it once.
^
|
|
This.
I mean. I wish I’d gotten a content warning on every time my own sister decided she was going to announce to me that she’d performed a sex act on one of her partners. It’s only happened three times, and all three times, I would have rather that she didn’t, and would have opted out given the choice.
Sex positivity is a very contextual thing. Personally, I would prefer an opt-in choice on hearing about yes, even so vague as “we DID it” on other people’s sex lives. I don’t feel harmed by knowing that you fucked a person, or masturbated, or whatever, but it’s also not information I’m terribly interested in in general, and there are MANY specific situations where someone announcing their sexual activities in any way whatsoever would raise the hair off the back of my neck.
Dumb college students proudly announcing I Just Had Sex (for the first time) And It Felt So Good is not one of the latter. But Dina and Becky are still being really annoying about this.
It is the setup for seeing Joyce’s Zombie Face again.
Joyillie is not a relationship that makes sense at first… but when i think about it, not bad.
Yup, Dina. You nailed it (much like you nailed Becky).
Dina in the last panel feels like me when I have something I want to say during a conversation with a group of people.
Yes, very natural and seemingly apropos, Dina. Well done!
It’s lovely to see Dina so happy 🙂
She is always and still a moth to folly’s candle.
(It’s been three weeks since this comic so probably no one is reading these comments, but I felt wrong realising no one had commented with this quote, so now the imbalance has been redressed.)