A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Paranatural
Zack Morrison
Superpowered middle schoolers fight evil spirits in their rural hometown. Come for the jokes, stay for the cast, the creatures, and the mystery that ties them all together!
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
Starhammer
J.N. Monk, Harry Bogosian
A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
Love Not Found
Gina Biggs
Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Devil's Candy
Rem, Bikkuri
A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
Tiger, Tiger
Petra Nordlund
A young noble lady steals her brother's identity and his ship to find love and adventure, and to write a book about the fascinating life cycle of sea sponges!
Bybloemen
C.B. McPherson
An infernal plan to corrupt the small town of Stenen Brug at the height of tulipmania is complicated by a pact made between a talented young merchant and a demon looking to change careers.
Lilith's Word
inkPangur
If you had the power to make any wish come true using just one word, what would you say?
Kochab
Sarah Webb
A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
Bicycle Boy
Jackarais
A cyborg named Poet wakes up in the post-apocalyptic desert with no memory, no limbs, and no idea why he keeps getting punched.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Phantomarine
Claire K. Niebergall
A ghostly princess must sail across a haunted sea to save her soul from a devious, shapeshifting death god known as the Red Tide King.
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Jailbird
Charlie Davis
An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
Godslave
Meaghan Carter
Edith has been thrown into the dangerous world of modern-day Egyptian mythology. Fighting monsters and dealing with family drama of godly proportions.
The Automan's Daughter
Mike Stamm
Aisha Osman and her uncle Siddig outwit bikers, spies and kidnappers while gearing up for a showdown with the formidable Widowmaker mecha.
Caramel Corn
Potchimew
Sarah is the only human left in a world full of mythical creatures and monsters. All she wants to do is live a quiet life, but everything changes when she meets her guardian angel, Jacob.
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
The Sanity Circus
Windy
Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
This is Not Fiction
Nicole Mannino
What do you do when the person you're in-love with is an anonymous romance novelist? Get your best friend to hire your worst enemy for help!
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Astral Aves
Moon Cabal
A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
Ghost Junk Sickness
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Two hunters try to survive and end up being pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost".
Kiwi Blitz
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
Steffi thinks she can use her kiwi mech to become a superhero. This idea turns out to be very stupid.
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Fireweeds Moors
Gato Iberico
A cat-headed man and a girl with a sandwich hankering accidentally end up in a myth-infused country where magic chalices are a really big thing.
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
Tigress Queen
Allison Shaw
A barbarian warlord and a pampered prince try to avoid a marriage alliance that could end decades of violence.
Cut Time
Juby
Rel and her trusty avian friend Fugue are on a quest to save a world that's lost track of time. Follow them and their new recruits, in a story written with help from the stars.
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
I mean, tbf Dorothy is wearing an open button down with an undershirt… All she need to do is take the undershirt off and button up the overshirt, but just to the point that she has cleavage showing
Tbf while walky might’ve not been in the best state to need to reach out and chill with an ex, i don’t think amber was necessarily in an ‘unstable’ mood to where she’d have a spur of the moment hookup/fling like ethan’s doing with asher
oh yes. James, even in text, is a trip and a half. (Ditto for his cats.) I shared rec.arts.sf.written with him for many years, and the Events just kept randomly coming, usually severey understated
You have to cross your arms and grab the bottom of the shirt on both of your sides, then keep your hands at your sides while raising them until they’re over your head.
I was gonna suggest that. I mean, me and my friends used to do that to get into football games in college. Or, more accurately, to get non-student friends/family into student sections free.
I feel like even without the Blues Traveler video for reference, it’s still a very common/well known tactic for underage drinkers and/or cheapos to employ.
Both Walky and Joyce got stuck by trying out the sexy arms-crossed shirt-removal. By way of experiment, I just tried it myself, and it definitely requires practice. The way I got stuck on first attempt is similar to the way Joyce got stuck. The crossed arms are really about making the effective length of the arms shorter so that you can just flip the shirt up around your head. If you try uncrossing the arms, you won’t make it that far.
I wonder if it would be easier in a loose or stretchy shirt so you could hook your elbows into the hem? (Yes, I’m too lazy to get out of bed and try it myself.)
I continue to be baffled by the notion that this is the “sexy” way to take off a shirt, because I seriously did not know there was another way until Walky informed us of that.
(Okay, yes, there’s bending over, rucking it up in back, and then putting your arms up over (down under?) your head and wriggling, but that only really works with my mail hauberk.)
((In fact, the sexy way to get your shirt off is the way Joyce seems about to use, which is to have someone else take it off you.))
I had never even considered it, because it seems like an unreasonably obtuse way to go about it, and I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen anyone do it. I tried it after the last comments discussion about this brought it up, and ended up a) pulling my hair, and b) getting it hung up on my shoulders, which are stupidly wide.
The “sexy” method, on the other hand, is just grab hem, arms go up, shirt is off. No contortions and having to clear my hair out of the way to get hold of the back of the collar, no hanging up on my shoulders. (And, bonus, it’s sexy, apparently.) I am confused as to how Joyce and Walky are managing to mess it up. I’ve been doing it without any issue since I was a very small child.
This does, however, raise the question: Who exactly is Joyce taking off her shirt sexy-like for?
there is also {sfx: disrobing noises} hands under front of shirt on their own sides / pull up sides / left hand over, inside shirt, into right sleeve / right elbow into right sleeve (optional/short sleeve: left hand sticking out of right sleeve) / both hands pull shirt over head (taking care for glasses) / left sleeve off left arm
shorter version: don’t try to take both arms out of sleeves at same time, you FOOLS {/sfx = Galasso}
Oh, yeah, I have used the “pull one arm inside and out the bottom, then repeat with the other arm, then lift collar over head” method, though not in a while because I’m too bulky these days for there to be room inside the shirt. Last time I recall using it was to get a hoodie (much baggier than my usual T-shirts) off while I was driving, because it let me keep a hand on the wheel at all times, and my eyes on the road except for the brief moment when I was actually pulling it off my head. And I could do it while in a car with a low roof and a seatbelt across my chest.
Honestly, it’s partly a gender thing. As someone AFAB, that was just… how you remove a shirt. It was actually something I tried to change in myself when I realized I wasn’t a girl, but at a point I was like… who cares. (And it still can happen that one gets stuck, especially depending on the time of shirt, but even then it’s usually easy enough to navigate.)
A drunken Dorothy is going to impulsively kiss Joyce and it is going to launch Joe/Joyce, Walky/Lucy, Dina/Becky, and/or Dorothy/Whoever into complete disarray. The Chaos Scenario I’ve been foretelling for years is coming to pass. I know I’ve been wrong every previous time I’ve claimed that, but THIS TIME FOR REAL!
Besides that, they grew up together. Sometimes that can make the brain categorize someone as a pseudo-sibling and veto that kind of relationship with them even if they’d tick all the boxes if they were strangers.
I mean, arguably it’s an equally low blow for Joyce, too. She’s already had ONE best friend try to kiss her and recontextualize their entire relationship as a result, she really doesn’t need it to happen AGAIN, right after getting her first actual boyfriend since Ethan.
And yes, that’s true REGARDLESS of whether she’s actually attracted to Dorothy or not.
Yeah, that’s why I’d hate for it to happen. Either way would be bad, really–if Dorothy suddenly kissed her, for the reasons you outlined. Or if Joyce was okay with it, well, cheating sucks and would especially hit Joe badly.
(Though tbh, it’d be nice to see what Becky did finally get addressed as something nonconsensual and therefore messed up. Like I get that from Becky’s end, she thought she was seeing green flags, but it was still not okay and I feel like, if it had been a guy friend suddenly kissing Joyce, it would’ve been treated that way.)
If I may say so, you’re honestly very good at treating character actions proportionally, without a lot of gender bias, so “what if that had been a guy instead of a girl” p much never actually changes anything if imagined in good faith.
if it makes you feel any better, having not seen any prior instances of you making this prediction, that is 100% the Underpinning Line Of Tension that I keep wondering if I’m accurately sensing as this storyline gets into gear.
I was just about to say something similar! Hell, I couldn’t change in front of anybody for ages, after having grown up in a similar mire of fundie BS. I’m proud of her
This….looks questionable? I wonder if Joyce can keep up with Sal there. Anyway, don’t do anything that results in waking up in the drunk tank of the jail with sore fists and the whole building mad at you.
Dorothy’s seen her in her panties, too, so I think Joyce is a little less hung up on this now. Hell, she even walked through the halls with no pants on once at Walky’s suggestion. (Not in front of him, granted, she isn’t quite at that level of no fucks given.)
Like, there is probably no such thing as an objectively sexy pose that couldn’t be made unsexy if you tried hard enough. It’s not about what she’s doing with her arms, it’s that she was in fact TRYING to be sexy about it.
In a lot of comics this would be shameless fanservice, but in this comic? God damn is this downright triumphant. She’s come so far since the days when the mere idea of having any sort of sexual aspect to her being gave her existential terror and the fear of eternal suffering. She’s finally begun to feel a real sense of ownership over her own body.
I feel like in my college experience, the simplest way to get alcohol as an underclassman was just to ask an upperclassman and/or go to someone’s dorm room party.
I respect a slightly convoluted plan being used to launch a more dramatic plot, though. “Beg a junior you vaguely know to pick you up some vodka and Two Buck Chuck” is not as interesting a narrative.
Joyce like, just explain that you want to commit a mild opposition of authority to Sal. She would totally hook you up in a scenario where you’ll be able to safely experiment.
This made me lol because once my grandma ran out of room on someone’s cake and literally wrote “hap birth” on it. I thought i’d never see this awful abbreviation again! i shall second, hap birth to Willis!
There’s a patreon strip where Dorothy’s dad semi-seriously complains that because his daughter is “perfect” he’s never been given the opportunity to be an understanding parent. I guess it could go “I thought I would be, but it turns out I’m not.”
i feel like i saw some of bravely default where there was interesting outfits. there was even a ‘team’ dialogue about the boy charas trying to convince the female pcs to change to a specific class because it looked’ sexy’ lol
I’ve only played FF8, most of FF9, all of FF14 and FF15, like an hour each of FF7, FF6 and World of Final Fantasy, and Chocobo’s Dungeon 2. Been meanin’ to get further into the games, but it’s such a time investment and I keep losing track of where I’m at in the older ones.
… How loudly is she shouting “help”? What are the chances of somebody else bursting in as Dorothy helps her out of her shirt tangle and misconstruing the situation..?
I agree that those would probably be their go-to calls.
Placing private bets with myself right now that Sal would actually be of no help at all, because her particular brand of Hot Girl isn’t something she does on purpose enough to be able to tell anyone else how to replicate it. She just kinda puts on clothes and they become sexy by the transitive property of being on her (she did as much with one of Joyce’s shirts back before the time skip).
Jennifer, meanwhile… hmmm. I think she’d offer to help with a lot more confidence than Sal, but nothing we’ve seen on-page actually indicates that she’s that much better at being deliberately sexy. (See: her early-comic attempts to appeal to guys. I kinda feel like that Jennifer’s answer to “how do you seduce a guy” would honestly have been “step one: take your top off; there are no more steps”.) (And her makeover attempt at the mall was kind of hit-or-miss: the sundress worked for Joe, but the jacket she picked out to go with it was apparently the wrong size…)
Mind you, she’s dressing a bit differently these days, and I think she’d at least claim to have a more sophisticated sense of sexiness, but we haven’t actually seen her make any moves on anyone, so it’s hard to say.
That’s fair, though as things to misremember in a fifteen-year-old comic go, I’m happy enough with it haha.
Same difference, really: the dress Jennifer picked out looked good on Joyce, but the jacket she picked out to go with it was the wrong size. (And the boots were definitely Joyce’s favorite part of the outfit, but they were Uggs; not generally regarded as sexy.)
Why am I getting a mental image of a big bouncer dude just sighing, picking Joyce up by the back of her shirt and putting her down in front of the club
“Come back when you are 21, kid.”
All of these gorgeous dweebs keep trying the “take my shirt off all sexy like a calvin klein model”-method and it keeps being so satisfyingly unsuccessful.
I feel like this is going to end with a sober Joyce sitting at the bar with a zonked out Dorothy, because Dorothy’s an absolute featherweight when it comes to holding her drink.
Today’s lesson at University of Indiana: “Being in trouble” is a fake idea.
Dorothy might unconsciously want to get arrested (for some victimless crime like public intoxication) because she feels it would end her hopes of ever being president, but then she’ll be shocked to find out that nobody even has to find out you were arrested, if you’re an adult. (And then she’ll want to try something more extreme. . .)
I think Dorothy underestimates the power of having a large chest. I (unfortunately very busty at a young age) got offered beer at a rock festival when i was 13 while my mother got carded by the exact same guy 3 times… I think they will be fine lol
On the other hand, Joyce is starting with being a mess before having even a drop of alcohol. She will do well. This will end in a good place. Which in this case is, yes, being handcuffed in a cop car. Joe’s not coming along, but it’ll end with him there, sporting a black eye from the bouncer.
Request: Could Willis put in his will where everyone ends up (like at the end of a 1980s movie?) to be posted on whatever platform Dumbing of Age is still on? Probably he’s going to outlive me, but like just in case? I have to know if Dorothy becomes a politician vs. academic vs. something entirely different. (Narrator: She never found out.)
Women like Joyce and Dorothy both seem unable to understand how impossibly hot they are simply being themselves. This checks out compared to reality as well.
Loading ...
🥳 🪅
Happy Birthday to you!!!!!
The world is a zoo!!!!
We wish you a great party!!!!
And some sweet
*looks at tonight’s strip*
AAYOOOOAOAOAOAOAOAOOOOO!!!
You did it NGPZ!
Hqppy Birthday Willis!
Did wat LOL
You beat Ana Chronistic for the first post
LOL
still easier than getting a P-rank in Pizza Tower XD
Me, too, NGPZ, me too…
accidentally called the streaking haha
habby burfday willis
Hab a birb day!
Happy Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary, Other David Willis.
Or you could just ask Sal, it’d probably be easier.
I mean I believe in you but I doubt either of you own any “hot chick” clothing, so…
tbf, any clothing (or none at all) is Hot Chick Clothing if it is being worn by Hot Chicks™
Suspenders and Pants up to your navel with socks with sandals.
Add some blunt bangs and thick-rimmed tortoiseshell glasses and you’ve got a deal
Pretty sure I saw that getup in a Playboy pictorial back in the ’60s or ’70s and believe me it worked just fine
I mean most girls pants are up to the navel these days (i refuse to wear anything lower) so that sounds pretty easy
I mean, tbf Dorothy is wearing an open button down with an undershirt… All she need to do is take the undershirt off and button up the overshirt, but just to the point that she has cleavage showing
She wouldn’t even need to button all the buttons, just a couple strategically chosen ones near the middle.
Dorothy probably still has a KFC shirt that Walky got her.
it was Kraft Mac n Cheese
Sal replies, wearily, “yeah I can help you finish takng that shirt off, you came to the right person this time”
joyce needs somebody
not just anybody
y’know she needs someone
When she was younger, so much younger than today, she never needed anybody’s help in any way.
There’s no way this possibly ends poorly.
it’s hard to read it as straight when joyce takes her shirt off off in front of dorothy and talks about becoming hot chicks lol
i see no possible way this could go wackily sit-com-level-misunderstandingly wrong
–Dave, tfw when you’re using the James Nicoll Event List as a checklist
That’s what people said about that time with Walky playing games pantless with Amber and that actually did not happen.
Tbf while walky might’ve not been in the best state to need to reach out and chill with an ex, i don’t think amber was necessarily in an ‘unstable’ mood to where she’d have a spur of the moment hookup/fling like ethan’s doing with asher
Is this the list you’re referring to?
https://dd-b.net/NicollEvents/
oh yes. James, even in text, is a trip and a half. (Ditto for his cats.) I shared rec.arts.sf.written with him for many years, and the Events just kept randomly coming, usually severey understated
I have tried to take my shirt off the way Joyce did same thing happened. I don’t know how people do it.
You have to cross your arms and grab the bottom of the shirt on both of your sides, then keep your hands at your sides while raising them until they’re over your head.
They can always just lick someone else’s stamp like in the Blues Traveler video “Run-Around”.
Dorothy (not this Dorothy) was definitely the hot chick, and they had to resort to that.
But, none of these kids have ever heard of Blues Traveller, let alone seen the video, or know why it got them blackballed.
I was gonna suggest that. I mean, me and my friends used to do that to get into football games in college. Or, more accurately, to get non-student friends/family into student sections free.
I feel like even without the Blues Traveler video for reference, it’s still a very common/well known tactic for underage drinkers and/or cheapos to employ.
I think they’re really going to need Sal for this.
Dorothy, just help Joyce, she might drown.
Happy birthday, Willis!
Huh, he has the same birthday as me. Happy birthday to all the Fool’s day dodgers out there.
Wait, if it is on the 3rd then I’m wrong and it’s a day off. I’m on the 2nd.
It’s Willis birthday, but the gifts are for us (last panel).
Both Walky and Joyce got stuck by trying out the sexy arms-crossed shirt-removal. By way of experiment, I just tried it myself, and it definitely requires practice. The way I got stuck on first attempt is similar to the way Joyce got stuck. The crossed arms are really about making the effective length of the arms shorter so that you can just flip the shirt up around your head. If you try uncrossing the arms, you won’t make it that far.
I vaguely remember a video showing that certain cuts of shirts are much harder to do the crossed arm shimmy out of
I wonder if it would be easier in a loose or stretchy shirt so you could hook your elbows into the hem? (Yes, I’m too lazy to get out of bed and try it myself.)
I tried it in a T-shirt. It’s just a matter of letting the back slide up at the same rate as the front.
i should have known the comments would contain at least one semi-expert on ANYTHING Willis manages to put into the strip
–Dave, we are a sundry and diverse lot
I continue to be baffled by the notion that this is the “sexy” way to take off a shirt, because I seriously did not know there was another way until Walky informed us of that.
(Okay, yes, there’s bending over, rucking it up in back, and then putting your arms up over (down under?) your head and wriggling, but that only really works with my mail hauberk.)
((In fact, the sexy way to get your shirt off is the way Joyce seems about to use, which is to have someone else take it off you.))
You didn’t know you could grab the back of the collar and pull up?
I had never even considered it, because it seems like an unreasonably obtuse way to go about it, and I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen anyone do it. I tried it after the last comments discussion about this brought it up, and ended up a) pulling my hair, and b) getting it hung up on my shoulders, which are stupidly wide.
The “sexy” method, on the other hand, is just grab hem, arms go up, shirt is off. No contortions and having to clear my hair out of the way to get hold of the back of the collar, no hanging up on my shoulders. (And, bonus, it’s sexy, apparently.) I am confused as to how Joyce and Walky are managing to mess it up. I’ve been doing it without any issue since I was a very small child.
This does, however, raise the question: Who exactly is Joyce taking off her shirt sexy-like for?
there is also {sfx: disrobing noises} hands under front of shirt on their own sides / pull up sides / left hand over, inside shirt, into right sleeve / right elbow into right sleeve (optional/short sleeve: left hand sticking out of right sleeve) / both hands pull shirt over head (taking care for glasses) / left sleeve off left arm
shorter version: don’t try to take both arms out of sleeves at same time, you FOOLS {/sfx = Galasso}
Oh, yeah, I have used the “pull one arm inside and out the bottom, then repeat with the other arm, then lift collar over head” method, though not in a while because I’m too bulky these days for there to be room inside the shirt. Last time I recall using it was to get a hoodie (much baggier than my usual T-shirts) off while I was driving, because it let me keep a hand on the wheel at all times, and my eyes on the road except for the brief moment when I was actually pulling it off my head. And I could do it while in a car with a low roof and a seatbelt across my chest.
Honestly, it’s partly a gender thing. As someone AFAB, that was just… how you remove a shirt. It was actually something I tried to change in myself when I realized I wasn’t a girl, but at a point I was like… who cares. (And it still can happen that one gets stuck, especially depending on the time of shirt, but even then it’s usually easy enough to navigate.)
A drunken Dorothy is going to impulsively kiss Joyce and it is going to launch Joe/Joyce, Walky/Lucy, Dina/Becky, and/or Dorothy/Whoever into complete disarray. The Chaos Scenario I’ve been foretelling for years is coming to pass. I know I’ve been wrong every previous time I’ve claimed that, but THIS TIME FOR REAL!
That would be a really low blow for Joe and Becky mainly.
I mean, tbh they don’t owe Becky anything. Even if Joyce did turn out to like girls, you don’t owe anybody reciprocation just because they like/d you.
But we’re talking about Becky, rest assured she’s capable of creating drama.
Besides that, they grew up together. Sometimes that can make the brain categorize someone as a pseudo-sibling and veto that kind of relationship with them even if they’d tick all the boxes if they were strangers.
Absolutely. It’s called the Westermark effect. That is how the incest prevention in us works. It’s based on growing up together, not genetics.
I mean, arguably it’s an equally low blow for Joyce, too. She’s already had ONE best friend try to kiss her and recontextualize their entire relationship as a result, she really doesn’t need it to happen AGAIN, right after getting her first actual boyfriend since Ethan.
And yes, that’s true REGARDLESS of whether she’s actually attracted to Dorothy or not.
Yeah, that’s why I’d hate for it to happen. Either way would be bad, really–if Dorothy suddenly kissed her, for the reasons you outlined. Or if Joyce was okay with it, well, cheating sucks and would especially hit Joe badly.
(Though tbh, it’d be nice to see what Becky did finally get addressed as something nonconsensual and therefore messed up. Like I get that from Becky’s end, she thought she was seeing green flags, but it was still not okay and I feel like, if it had been a guy friend suddenly kissing Joyce, it would’ve been treated that way.)
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/bubbling/
That was addressed like a billion years ago!
If I may say so, you’re honestly very good at treating character actions proportionally, without a lot of gender bias, so “what if that had been a guy instead of a girl” p much never actually changes anything if imagined in good faith.
lol yeah, that was my bad. it’s been forever since I did a reread, and it was a fleeting thing so I had forgotten about it
if it makes you feel any better, having not seen any prior instances of you making this prediction, that is 100% the Underpinning Line Of Tension that I keep wondering if I’m accurately sensing as this storyline gets into gear.
and suddenly the diagram on the greenboard becomes the Love Hexaflexagon
X3 ty for this comment
“Kiss”. Okay, let’s go with that.
(next chapter: “You had sex with Dorothy?! On the hood of a police car?! Twice?!“)
Nice ‘Buffy’ ref.
Dorothy/Whoever…
God, imagine the Joyce of her first semester ever doing this, the one that didn’t even like changing in front of Sarah.
She’s come a long way.
She still has her details, but it’s something, I guess.
I was just about to say something similar! Hell, I couldn’t change in front of anybody for ages, after having grown up in a similar mire of fundie BS. I’m proud of her
Amen to that.
Joyce
Stop
No
Yes, this is making me slightly uncomfortable.
Joyce yes!
Joyce
Don’t
Stop
Believing
Hold on to
That feeling
Streetlight
People
WhooooooAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
This….looks questionable? I wonder if Joyce can keep up with Sal there. Anyway, don’t do anything that results in waking up in the drunk tank of the jail with sore fists and the whole building mad at you.
There I do think that Sal should keep them company.
She still has her details, but it’s something, I guess.
Yepp, this’ll go just fine!
Whatever happened to not wanted to be seen in her bra?
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/dressing/
**not wanting to be seen
it’s a bit of the breadcrumb trail of Totally Not Gay™ that the two have been leaving behind :3
Dorothy’s seen her in her panties, too, so I think Joyce is a little less hung up on this now. Hell, she even walked through the halls with no pants on once at Walky’s suggestion. (Not in front of him, granted, she isn’t quite at that level of no fucks given.)
Have I been taking off my shirt sexy my whole life?
I have been wondering this too. I just thought it was a normal shirt-taking-off pose.
You two are kidding, right?
Like, there is probably no such thing as an objectively sexy pose that couldn’t be made unsexy if you tried hard enough. It’s not about what she’s doing with her arms, it’s that she was in fact TRYING to be sexy about it.
Absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan, and I unreservedly endorse it.
Yep, let’s trust that Joyce will give a 1000% effective result
tbf college would be the best time for ill advised plans
Rookie mistake Joyce. Take the glasses off first, then the shirt.
In a lot of comics this would be shameless fanservice, but in this comic? God damn is this downright triumphant. She’s come so far since the days when the mere idea of having any sort of sexual aspect to her being gave her existential terror and the fear of eternal suffering. She’s finally begun to feel a real sense of ownership over her own body.
You go, Joyce.
It’s Shameless fanservice but in the context of shame being something she’s confidently casting off.
I predict that she’ll have about the same amount of success casting off her shame as she is having casting off that shirt.
this is the finest of jokes and I suspect you’re right. But hey, the important thing is that she’s trying hahaha
DoA Book #next: I Have Cast Off My Shame Like I cast Off This Shirt … … help
She could ask her boyfriend…
I kept wondering about the “breaking the law” part because I had once again forgotten that the USA has a drinking age of 21
Also I drew a lewd billie and a lewd amber.
Trying to imagine you drawing non-lewd versions of the aforementioned and I feel like your hand would rebel and not allow it.
What! Where!
I feel like in my college experience, the simplest way to get alcohol as an underclassman was just to ask an upperclassman and/or go to someone’s dorm room party.
I respect a slightly convoluted plan being used to launch a more dramatic plot, though. “Beg a junior you vaguely know to pick you up some vodka and Two Buck Chuck” is not as interesting a narrative.
I feel like that would fall into the “raiding Ruth’s pockets” category of “But that’s not us buying alcohol underage!”
Joyce like, just explain that you want to commit a mild opposition of authority to Sal. She would totally hook you up in a scenario where you’ll be able to safely experiment.
Hap birth Willis
This made me lol because once my grandma ran out of room on someone’s cake and literally wrote “hap birth” on it. I thought i’d never see this awful abbreviation again! i shall second, hap birth to Willis!
Hap birth, Willis!
Joyce
Yes
Keep this up
Oh Anti-Joyce where are you when we need you?
Is this the Dumbiverse incarnation of Anti-Joyce?
Happy birthday, David!
Is this the arc where we learn Dorothy’s parents drop the supportive facade when they turn up as the station…
There’s a patreon strip where Dorothy’s dad semi-seriously complains that because his daughter is “perfect” he’s never been given the opportunity to be an understanding parent. I guess it could go “I thought I would be, but it turns out I’m not.”
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking. He may think intellectually he will be all supportive but the reality is he’ll blow up at her for ruining her life
Unrelated, but I’d do many unsavory things to see art of this cast dressed as classic Final Fantasy jobs.
that’s what commissions are for
i feel like i saw some of bravely default where there was interesting outfits. there was even a ‘team’ dialogue about the boy charas trying to convince the female pcs to change to a specific class because it looked’ sexy’ lol
I ain’t got $2000+ for some fan art, I’ll just learn how to draw.
I understand that feeling since I’m the middle of replaying all the games (in the middle of V).
I’ve only played FF8, most of FF9, all of FF14 and FF15, like an hour each of FF7, FF6 and World of Final Fantasy, and Chocobo’s Dungeon 2. Been meanin’ to get further into the games, but it’s such a time investment and I keep losing track of where I’m at in the older ones.
Oh come on, Jennifer! You’ll tell them about Fake IDs but not the places you know forget to card? MEAN.
joyce’s HAIR in the last panel
exquisitely drawn chaos
This is so friggin cute.
… How loudly is she shouting “help”? What are the chances of somebody else bursting in as Dorothy helps her out of her shirt tangle and misconstruing the situation..?
Joyce is going to walk up to some boys and speak in 1970s slang complete with “Daddy-o” and they’re going to assume she is a sting.
This. It’ll be even funnier if she calls the huge bouncer “Daddy-o.”
Okay, I don’t think either of them know how to do a legit make-over, they are going to need to call for the help of a third-party. But who?
My guess is either Sal or Jennifer, because those would be the two that Joyce and Dorothy think of respectively.
I agree that those would probably be their go-to calls.
Placing private bets with myself right now that Sal would actually be of no help at all, because her particular brand of Hot Girl isn’t something she does on purpose enough to be able to tell anyone else how to replicate it. She just kinda puts on clothes and they become sexy by the transitive property of being on her (she did as much with one of Joyce’s shirts back before the time skip).
Jennifer, meanwhile… hmmm. I think she’d offer to help with a lot more confidence than Sal, but nothing we’ve seen on-page actually indicates that she’s that much better at being deliberately sexy. (See: her early-comic attempts to appeal to guys. I kinda feel like that Jennifer’s answer to “how do you seduce a guy” would honestly have been “step one: take your top off; there are no more steps”.) (And her makeover attempt at the mall was kind of hit-or-miss: the sundress worked for Joe, but the jacket she picked out to go with it was apparently the wrong size…)
Mind you, she’s dressing a bit differently these days, and I think she’d at least claim to have a more sophisticated sense of sexiness, but we haven’t actually seen her make any moves on anyone, so it’s hard to say.
MAYBE WE WILL FIND OUT
The sundress was all Joyce. The minidress from the mall was worn to church with Jacob, and leggings were needed to keep her from feeling scandalous.
That’s fair, though as things to misremember in a fifteen-year-old comic go, I’m happy enough with it haha.
Same difference, really: the dress Jennifer picked out looked good on Joyce, but the jacket she picked out to go with it was the wrong size. (And the boots were definitely Joyce’s favorite part of the outfit, but they were Uggs; not generally regarded as sexy.)
Carla. And hilarity ensues…
Yes, Dorothy, Joyce needs your help undressing.
Joyce be wildin
Happy Birthday Mr Willis!
I don’t know if there a easier way to get alcohol, because I only had my first drink at my 30’s
get some white sugar and bread yeast and do some biology.
Many happy returns to Willis.
Why am I getting a mental image of a big bouncer dude just sighing, picking Joyce up by the back of her shirt and putting her down in front of the club
“Come back when you are 21, kid.”
All of these gorgeous dweebs keep trying the “take my shirt off all sexy like a calvin klein model”-method and it keeps being so satisfyingly unsuccessful.
Extra special kudos for drawing Joyce trying to get out of a shirt. Complex tension points are a pain.
Oooh, Becky will be so mad!
I feel like this is going to end with a sober Joyce sitting at the bar with a zonked out Dorothy, because Dorothy’s an absolute featherweight when it comes to holding her drink.
Today’s lesson at University of Indiana: “Being in trouble” is a fake idea.
Dorothy might unconsciously want to get arrested (for some victimless crime like public intoxication) because she feels it would end her hopes of ever being president, but then she’ll be shocked to find out that nobody even has to find out you were arrested, if you’re an adult. (And then she’ll want to try something more extreme. . .)
Sure, but like, you two are a 4. 7 with filters.
Remember: hot, notcool, which is also hot.
The history of the comic has shown that Joyce is actually really really hot when she isn’t wearing oversized sweaters.
That sundress would destroy literally all of us.
Really?
I always figured photorealistic portraits of Joyce and Dorothy would look a bit like Kristen Bell and Allison Mack, respectively.
this could actually be a good plan now that joyce is a bit more socially aware
that must have been very hard to draw
I think Dorothy underestimates the power of having a large chest. I (unfortunately very busty at a young age) got offered beer at a rock festival when i was 13 while my mother got carded by the exact same guy 3 times… I think they will be fine lol
A good friend will bring you bail money.
A great friend will be sitting next to you saying, “Damn! That was fun!”
On the other hand, Joyce is starting with being a mess before having even a drop of alcohol. She will do well. This will end in a good place. Which in this case is, yes, being handcuffed in a cop car. Joe’s not coming along, but it’ll end with him there, sporting a black eye from the bouncer.
I’m thinking Dorothy will buy in and come up with a less risky approach to the same end. It will still go wrong, but maybe not so wrong.
This will be so fun for see! Can’t wait. I hope Sarah will go with them.
I love Joyce so much. I approve of this new goblin phase.
Maybe I was wrong– maybe Dorothy does need some goofing off. Maybe this is better than karaoke.
Request: Could Willis put in his will where everyone ends up (like at the end of a 1980s movie?) to be posted on whatever platform Dumbing of Age is still on? Probably he’s going to outlive me, but like just in case? I have to know if Dorothy becomes a politician vs. academic vs. something entirely different. (Narrator: She never found out.)
Joyce how did you fuck up taking off your shirt, you do that every day
I guess Joyce is going to go braless so she can be a “hot chick”. Instead of stuffing her bra to look bigger.
How Sal gets her alcohol.
Also how Sal gets her alcohol.
HIJINKS! HIJINKS!
Women like Joyce and Dorothy both seem unable to understand how impossibly hot they are simply being themselves. This checks out compared to reality as well.
NEW LOCATION? NEW LOCATION? NEW LOCATION?