This is the last strip of Book One! Now I have to go shove all of these into an inDesign document.
Next, Book Two! With a first storyline that I haven’t titled yet, as of this writing.
This is the last strip of Book One! Now I have to go shove all of these into an inDesign document.
Next, Book Two! With a first storyline that I haven’t titled yet, as of this writing.
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Awwwww.
DAMMIT WILLIS, you just gave everyone reading your comic diabeetus.
And Sarah kinda looks like Rochelle.
I need help over here!
MEDIC!
I NEED A DISPENSER HERE!
Everyone knows TF2 here!!!! Yeayuh!
This.
im downed
Ending the week with a nice frid’aawww strip
Me too! 😀
awwwwwwwwwwwwww
D’AAAAAAWWWWWW
Aweness to the infinate degree…kitten before its eyes are open cute.
aaaw-aa–aww– aww-aaw—
I’m not c-c-crying, is dust in my eye!
Perfect avatar for a Tsundere comment.
For your information, there is just an inflammation in her tear gland.
Her eyes are just a little sweaty today.
They aren’t tears of sadness, they’re tears of joy, she’s been laughing. Ha. Ha. HA. HA.
Ha.
HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!
BAHAHAHA That was brilliant. Kudos.
Happy d’awwwwwww!
so much D’aaawwww
it’s like D’awwwson’s creek over here!
only you know
without all the suck.
Awwww, she really DOES care!
unfortunately its the kind of caring where someone will forget it the next day. except that while trying to comfort Joyce she’ll probably rollover onto sarah’s hand or get her in a bearhug, just to make monday funny, but i like this ending
And then on Monday Joyce wakes up with Sarah and assumes they had sex, killing the mood and making everyone giggle uncontrollably.
That’s the best kind of awkward.
Moreso if there were hands on places where they shouldn’t be. 😀
Well that’s a disgusting concept.
Your avatar says otherwise.
Not an avatar I picked. Point is, one of the parties here is a drugged girl. Any inappropriate behavior is no less a form of rape than it was when the potential offender was Ryan.
Can you control where your hands decide to go while you’re asleep? Because I sure can’t.
http://youtu.be/kCqcMOB6STc?t=46s
@Jabberwocky I assumed it obvious that unintentional remains unintentional. But considering the same poster said “it’s never to late to early in the morning to learn [what lesbians are]…
That’s the context to my response to a specific person that` was not you. And to be clear: It certainly is the wrong time for a person to find out what a lesbian is when said person is drugged and won’t remember the evening.
Joyce might not even know what lesbians are.
It’s never too late or too early in the morning to learn now. 😀
Joyce: “Lesbians? Sure, I know what they are, they’re those pale green beans. My mother usually serves them with lamb chops.”
No need. She knows what premarital hanky panky is.
Just ask joe.
On the first day of Leslie’s class, Leslie made a joke that mentioned lesbians. Joyce’s reaction of horrified embarrassment suggests she knows exactly what that word means.
However, that doesn’t mean she understand everything involved. If she wakes up and thinks they were romantically involved, she might react horrified, thinking that means she’s been turned into one.
what kind of strange world do you live in where monday follows friday?
Good lord, that’s a HORRIBLE thought. DAMN YOU HERBERT!
This made me smile uncontrollably.
C-C-COMBO BREAKER!
Actually, the nostalgia of Killer Instinct just made it worse.
And Sarah’s heart grew 3 sizes that day…
And that’s when she died of cardiovascular disease. Joyce woke up with no memory of how she ending up sleeping next to a corpse.
Goddammit Candlejack, you’re such a dow
Then her brain will shut down…
Ok then, just her penis.
Which shall stand alone!
How many “d’aww”s in a row can one comment section sustain?
Let’s find out.
Apparently only 3.
How many “d’aww”s can it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
The world may never know.
Jora, you have made my day. Thank you.
Isn’t there a backgroud character named Tootsie? Cause I think she’ll help you find out.
The world may never know
And now my teeth have rotted away because it’s so sweet.
Curse you Willis! Your curse is endless happiness!
Completely worth getting dentures for this.
As long as you take care of them and your mouth, it can work to your advantage. No more cringing when you bite right into a popsicle or any of that crap.
My heart melted… D’awwwww
You all beat me to the punch, Awww.
The real question is; will she forget?
God, with your current image, your comment became about a thousand times more terrifying.
BWAAHAHAHAHA! Now what were we talking about just now? *spacy*
……About how my pants are now very, very wet.
If you were a female of the opposite sex, that would be very flattering. 😀
…Isn’t that a redundant statement?
And no I am not, unfortunately for you.
its ok im still game.
The right ava really can make just about any statement better (or worse).
Not really cos females of the SAME sex are a whole different animal, people fall for these sorts of traps all the time. 😀
Not really redundant at all, since male and female are typically terms of gender identification while man and woman are typically terms of physiological and social sex identification… at least in terms of colloquial speech.
I smell a tran-scam.
I SMELL A TRAN-SCAAAAAAAAM!
Is that a new 4chan meme? I haven’t lurked there for quite a while now.
Well, if Sarah hadn’t said anything she would have. Now that she said it, Joyce will never forget.
But then Joyce will somehow confuse the issue by thinking that this means she is black now or something else equally weird.
Ohmigosh! Is your avatar Puni from Dai Mahou Touge?
I dunno. She forgot a lot of stuff in the last continuity.
But odds are she will wake up with it. Smiling in sarah’s face. While sarah will deny like bill clinton.
“I DID NOT HAVE SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH THIS WOMAN!”
Drama button moment when they wake up! Don’t miss it!
My Drama Button is always within reach!
Same here, so is are the nuclear launch codes!
“That depends on what your definition of “is” is!”
Joyce in one of Sarah’s shirts making scrambled eggs and singing.
Regardless of the universe, there’s always a rampant streak of memory loss when it comes to Joyce.
Judging by Sarah’s hand orientation in the last panel they are not, I repeat, NOT spooning.
You SURRRRE about that?
Just wait 30 seconds.
Also no scissoring!
Daisy is so disappointed.
Daisy and Joe can both sense a wasted opportunity.
Daisy (*across campus*): “My pants suddenly just got tight for no reason.
Roomate looks really confused.
Also, no mike sandwich hatefu-
*slap*
What? Just talking ’bout mike?
Judging by Sarah’s body position in panels 1, 2 and 4, they are not spooning.
This strip just gave me diabetes.
If only Doctor Who was here with a jellybaby… 😀
I’m kind of cold. Would he lend me his scarf, too?
Looks like you already got his hat. 😀
What color you want?
Oh my god. That was. So freaking cute.
I just… bluh. My brain just broke.
Bless you, Willis!
That’s right.You all heard me. ^_^
Why? Did he sneeze?
*runs*
Yay!
Wow, a smile and a tear drop….damn emotions!
I’m really glad to Sarah step up and assume her role as a “main character”! I know you had been holding her back for this storyline, but it was definitely worth it. Another great read Willis!
Phew. Glad it’s understood. If Sarah had been so present in the past year, this wouldn’t have had the same power.
It was filled with surprisey goodness!
Lovely, now give us more Dina.
I INSIST.
and add a smiggin of drunk mike. everyone loves drunk mike.
Except Not-drunk Mike, but not-drunk Mike hates everything.
Mike looks very, VERY unsettling when he looks happy. Like, even more intimidating than when he’s glaring.
Your gravatar makes me wonder if that was sarcasm or not.
Asuka L.S, your grav gives off a look of distain.
Can we please not comment on the gravatars every single thread?
Your gravatar gives the comment 35% more attitude.
PJ, somehow I think that is wishful thinking. ^_^
I would think someone with a username like yours would understand the way the internet works.
I agree, More Dina is needed. Now the Armour piercing question is …will she hook up with Mike? or at least find him drunk?
Awesome work willis! Female bonding ftw!
so cute asdfihdasifhudaisfjdasfiuads
I hope Joyce does remember (and is not clueless enough to keep harping on it until Sarah regrets ever saying it)… It’d be good for both of them.
it will surely come to her alooooong time from now when she needs to
-Happy squee!-
D’aww! You…Willis. No words.
I salute you sir!
Toying with our emotions, mind raping us with plot twists, making us laugh, cry, “aww”, and swoon, before finally giving us closure, just to do it all again next week.
I deeply respect your “awesome”, sir
Sarah was a good’un all along. I knew it.
Guess I’m gonna have to start saving for the first book.
Oh Man! Sarah is so cute… when nobody is around ¬¬
Well, I’m guessing that she’s one of those people that doesn’t want to be depended on much. I mean, I’m pretty much lazy just so I won’t have a huge workload around the house, leaving me more time for homework/music/TvTropes/etc.
This is so sweet:-)
So sweet that it temporarily stemmed the flood of “Sarah is EVIL!” posts.
So, uh, “Man, Sarah is SO EVIL! How dare she be nice to someone!”
It’s all part of a cunning plan!
Yeah, she’s luring her into a false sense of security so the hate can be that much more painful.
“You always hurt the ones you looooove…”
And some of us have a punning clan.
Yeah, I really wanna see more of her backstory so we can learn what would make her act all mushy and sweet. Cause right now it seems like she is just being compassionate for no good reason.
why do we need a backstory to explain that? we already know she’s bitter because everyone resented her for narcing on her old roommate. it only makes sense that she would be nice before that incident.
I dunno, some of us were *never* nice. Assume we are at your own peril.
If they are sisters, I’m thinking someone was adopted.
My guess: Beef.
Why would either be adopted? Sarah is pretty light skinned.
Awwwww.
<3
How sweet! 😀
Platonic bed-sharing is so cute. Especially when it’s to prevent, y’know, death.
and especially if it promotes shipping. ^_^
CALLED IT!!!….five years from now….in a parallel universe…..made of cheese…..linburger cheese……wedged between Cheese Billie’s thighs…..I…..I’m not sure where I was going with this….
Lets say it all together now: D’awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…….
….and again!
that seems awful nice of Sarah.
This…is the weirdest comic to read after going on a Bioshock binge. 0_o
Now if we could just give Sarah a big ‘ol drill hand.
“Now if we could just give Sarah a big ‘ol drill hand.”
*sees joyce and sarah in the same bed*
oh, my!
and what will her reaction to waking up in bed with another woman be?
especially as she will not remember why she is there?
And thus did arise such a mighty d’awww from a thousand throats as if quenched by the purest water from an oasis in the center of a searing desert of fire.
So it is written.
I had a whole “I told you so” speech about Sarah’s character set up, but I decided out of taste I should just say this instead:
I’m relieved that I was right. This is a good dynamic, and I’m very happy to see it. I didn’t WANT Sarah to be a self-righteous jerk, I wanted her to be a well-intentioned big-sister figure.
Your Gravatar is beyond appropriate for that speech.
B’awwwwwwww.
Alot of people seem to find the theory of date rape cute and sweet and worth smiling over when the rapist is a girl.
That’s because girls are weak and passive things, and so if a girl date-rapes somebody, that somebody must have been willing and interested to allow the weak and passive rapist to continue. this is especially true when the person they’re raping is conscious, but still holds even when they’re not.
The above goes out the window if their target is even *more* weak and passive than them, like a small child. There’s a hierarchy here.
Wait… WHAT?!
Comments like these:
“And then on Monday Joyce wakes up with Sarah and assumes they had sex, killing the mood and making everyone giggle uncontrollably.”
“That’s the best kind of awkward.”
“Moreso if there were hands on places where they shouldn’t be.:D”
Because yeah, it sure would be cute and giggle-worthy if the drugged Christian girl woke up thinking she had been raped by lesbian.
Personally, the ones about mistaken circumstances don’t bother me that much, but the one about “hands in places they shouldn’t be is bad, as is the one about Dorothy “experimenting” with an unconscious Joyce.
The fact that we’re just coming off a near date-rape storyline makes it worse, imo.
Ah, I see. I thought you were just referring to the comments calling the strip cute.
No. This strip IS cute. What isn’t cute is the place people take it to. So much rage when Ryan appeared to be planning to drug a girl and take advantage of her, and jokes about how cute it would be her female friend took advantage of her instead.
Something seriously broken with some people.
Fairly certain everyone was joking, since Sarah’s obviously not going to do anything. That’s the thing – if it did seem like Sarah was going to take advantage of her, everyone would be yelling “WOAH NOT COOL.” But because that’s never going to happen, people just decided to have a little fun with it, because it’s a comic. Now that the tension is resolved, people want to have fun.
So, are they broken for joking around, or are you broken for making it serious business?
So it’s funny to joke about rape if it’s not likely to occur? So the idea that Joyce might have sex under the influence of roofies (or wake up thinking she did) would be just as cute and giggle worthy to everyone if this was Joe and not Sarah?
To be clear: The ones who are broken are the ones who think rape is a laughing matter under any circumstances. They’re particularly broken if they think it just serious business when the offender is a male, but sweet when the offender is female. That’s just deranged.
Anything can be a laughing matter. For lots of people, laughter is the only and/or best way to cope with adversity, and rape is a pretty big adversity. If I ever got raped, I guarantee you the darkest corners of humor would be one of the few ways I’d even know how to react. When bad things happen to me, jokes are how I conquer the demons. It’s how I reclaim my power, or at least the illusion thereof.
Mind, that doesn’t mean I’m going to engineer a story in which rape is hilarious, because that’s not really what I’m trying to accomplish here, nor do I have a reason to try to accomplish that, plus there’s a good chance I’d fail and I’d rather not risk venturing that territory. (There’s a difference between constructing a story in which something terrible is played as funny and reacting to something terrible in real life with humor.) But don’t say that there’s things you can’t ever ever ever joke about. It’s honestly not true.
I’m engaging in hyperbole. Of course humor can be used to defuse any situation. But making squealing comments about how it might be a good time for Joyce to learn what being a lesbian is, when compared with the utter venom regarding Ryan’s potential intentions (long before clearly stated) is disturbingly hypocritical.
Let’s try it this way: Replace the caring character with Joe. Add the comment: “it’s never to late to early in the morning for a passed out Joyce to learn the joys of premarital sex. 🙂 ”
Sure…. any situation can be funny if handled right. The above is an example of a comment that is in disturbingly poor taste.
Actually, I think people would accept that comment as a standard Joe joke, because we do know that a) Joe is a sex fiend, but b) it’s just a joke, and he would never ever ever do that.
It’s not a male/female thing here. (Well it is for the shippers, but that’s different.) Ryan was presented from the second comic he was in as (at least) wanting to take advantage of Joyce, and we know that Joe would never ever EVER do that. And yet, if Joe was in Sarah’s place, would there still be comments about him “joeing” her? I think there would be.
There’s a scale here. The more ridiculous something is, the more likely it is to be used as a joke. If it’s something believable and terrible, it’s creepy, offensive, and just plain unfunny. If it’s unbelievable and terrible? Why do you think there are so many ridiculous dead baby jokes? (Of course, those aren’t funny for entirely different reasons, namely because 12-year-olds invent them.)
I definitely see where you’re coming from, but none of these people would be responding in the same way if it was actually something occuring, and insulting them is taking this way farther than it needed to go. A “dude, not funny” would have been more appropriate.
Hypocrisy is easily a large part of being human and something people can easily delve into without even noticing. You must have been a hypocrite in some respect at some time in your life. Likely many more times than once.
Cuuuuuuute!
I love Sarah.
Epic cuuuuuuute!
d’awwwww i love sarah!
That was the longest week EVER.
i might be alone when i say this, but i hope we get to see saturday and sunday. weekends are important too!
i agree, i wanna see joyce try to find a church to attend. that will be iiiiiinteresting
Aw, excellent. I was right when I said she was acting like a big sister to Joyce!
Holy crap! Sorry to break the mood, but Joyce was wearing a T-shirt under that sweater? Her puppies are healthy indeed!
Healthy puppies are happy puppies.
I’m not sure what your comment was intending to imply – did you think she was wearing padding or something?
Most girls I know wear shirts under their sweaters, due to sweaters having a loose weave that risks opening peepholes when stretched. Like, around healthy sweater-puppies.
I think they are implying that the shirt would usually make the healthy puppies even harder to notice through the sweater, but since Joyce’s puppies are so healthy they still stood out. I could be wrong though
DING! G.S. Mercs wins the prize!
Adorible
D’awwwwwwww
D’awwwwww. (obligatory)
So I guess this means Walky and Joyce are NOT fated for each other in this storyline, huh? Still, such a nice ending to the Book 1.
that’s right. it’s walky/dorothy and joyce/sarah in DoA.
Yes on the former, NO NO WTF on the latter.
If you have issues with romantic lesbians, you just might be reading the wrong comic author. Just sayin’.
I don’t have issues with romantic lesbians (still upset about Leslie X Robin breaking up.), but I do have an issue with everyone always thinking that any love between two people MUST be sexual. Because, like, what other kind of love is there, oh muh gawd.
Can’t two people ever be close friends? Is that the world we live in now?
To be fair, we went around the bend in It’s Walky too, what with Joyce/Joe and Walky/Dina. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but it’s pretty early, and all we’ve got thus far is a fledgling surrogate sister relationship and Monkey Master depression. Anyone could very well still end up with anyone else, and I wouldn’t put it past Willis to throw us a curveball. Or seven.
In the final accounting, Joyce will end up with Mike and Walky will end up with Sal.
Incest is only wincest if it’s twincest. Oh, shit, they are twins aren’t they….
… gross…
Psh. I still ship Sal/tree branch.
You mean the Power Booster Rod?
So sweet!
Yeah, I’m just gonna admit that I made squealing noises in the back of my throat.
Dude, you have got to get some +1’s up in your posts. Not everyone has a group of friends they share with on twitter and FB.
Also, …. daaaaw!
I deleted my Facebook account back in January, and I don’t have/want a Twitter account, so something would indeed be nice. 8~J
Great, now I feel guilty for asking and have to go look in the store . . .
More Hijinks Plz
I’m so glad Sarah is likable in this continuity, considering how antagonistic she was in the Walkyverse.
Also, d’awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
This is one of the rare situations when I don’t suggest turning it into something sexual. They just seem so perfectly alright as it is, I don’t think they could be any happier having sex (let alone they don’t seem to have any gay tendencies so far, but you never know about that).
There’s also the fact that if this scenario turned sexual, it would be rape.
Everyone say it with me now: D’awwwww!
Let’s face it, everyone in college, especially when starting out, would like to have someone to rely on as a big sister/big brother. Girls are more in tune to having someone watch their back IMO. Guys are, on average, always trying to play the macho self-reliant card. Look where that gets us.
I find it a bit jarring how everybody suddenly likes Sarah now.
I’m still not a big fan of her, but this is still a sweet moment.
I’ve always liked her. Most people haven’t been very empathetic towards her throughout the story because… well I’m not sure why they didn’t just step in her shoes but they didn’t.
At times I’ve found her a bit annoying (that’s right, just a bit), but I’ve liked this version of Sarah from the beginning.
But that may have been because I know how it feels to be ostracized (in my case, it wasn’t anything I did or said — people I didn’t even know would just decide they didn’t like me before they ever even met me).
I vote for her every poll! I found her sensible/funny in her first appearance, if cranky.
I think it’s just that most of us were quiet. Vocal minority sort of thing (though I don’t actually know if it’s minority/majority/even here). I was annoyed at her for not taking Joyce to the hospital, but aside from that, I’ve always liked Sarah.
I don’t know about “like,” but I always at least understood where she was coming from.
Why? I never hated her or said anything against her in the comics, but some of the things she’s said and done have gotten on my nerves. But of course I’m going to think it’s sweet if she shows a softer side to her normally cranky self. And she did protect Joyce, whom I like a lot, so I was already warming up to her.
D’awwwww. :3
Huh.
Very cute, sweet moment… and yet, here I was somehow hoping for a splash panel of Ryan stumbling off into the night, only to bump into Amazigirl… hefting Sarah’s baseball bat.
“Looks like it’s time to call in the pinch hitter.”
^_^
d’awwwwwwwww
well it’s good that everything is ok now (though I feel like something is going to happen with Dorothy or Billie soon)
Hey little sister look what you done?
Hey little sister who’s the only one?
I’ve been away for so long (so long)
I’ve let you go for so long (so long)
Its a nice day to start again…
It was either this or an incest joke, and I thought that would be somewhat inappropriate given what led up to this situation.
Rape is the taboo topic of the moment; I’m pretty sure that incest is still acceptable, so long as it’s consensual.
Cut to stop cutting all these onions, or people are gonna think I’m some sorta softie {Sniff} . . .
So will we find Billie in someone else’s bed?
AAAHHH! Osaka’s going to kill us all!
Indubitably! 😀
I must say, your gravatar-of-the-day is sure getting a good response today!
What can I say? Evil Osaka is made of WIN! 😀
Frequently.
Actually we’ll find Billie in that same bed with them. Nobody will know how it happened.
Is that a standard college bed? Fitting two people in a dorm room single bed is generally more cramped than Joyce and Sarah look there.
Looks more like a smallish double bed to me.
I think you’re right. When I was at college we had to sleep on twin mattresses. The rooms themselves seem to be sized about right, but at least at my college we didn’t have wallpaper or plaster. The walls were cinder blocks painted white.
Of course, we hadn’t had our dorm building renovated since the Carter administration, but still.
While the newest dorms at my school have double beds, the room assignment method means that only seniors really live there. It’s a bit surprising to mee that we’d see sophomores and first years with double beds, but I don’t know anything about IU, so it’s possible.
Bit more unlikely given that this is a top bunk, and I’m not even sure double bunk beds exist.
If they did, I don’t think Rory and Amy would have been so eager to get rid of them, haha.
Help, I have something in my eye! And whatever it is, I must be allergic to it, because it’s making my eyes water.
Book?! Want!
-sniff- That was sweet.
OK, maybe a bit of an unusual connection but this was an oddly familiar moment after I just got done watching the Arrested Development episode “Forget-Me-Now” 😀
AWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
Overkill 😛
Aww this is sweet! 😀
Well, here’s the end of the first book, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. Dumbing of Age is quite hard to review, honestly, because of the downright enormous and highly plotted storyline. Everything is very deeply woven, and clearly planned out far, far in advance. That makes it very hard to point out the plot holes and loose threads, seeing as how plenty have come by, and been explained as part of a storyline.
First, art. DoA!’s artstyle is generally not very exaggerated in terms of basic design (mostly normal proportions with exaggerated heads), but does exaggerate greatly when characters have extremes of emotion. This usually works, but the exaggerated expressions can occasionally suck the impact out of a dramatic moment, such as Sarah’s reaction to being asked to socialize with Joyce and Dorothy. The backgrounds have decent variation for what is a generally static setting, with the recycled backgrounds being limited to places where it would make sense, such as dorm rooms. The only other problem I have with the art is the occasional dropping of background art, usually when focusing on a characters face, or for a non-standard panel. This is really distracting, and makes the strip seem unfinished, which is jarring for such an otherwise polished work.
As for characters, depth has been handed out sparingly, usually after establishing the character with a strong first impression. The technique of presenting a simple exterior, and then pulling back to reveal a characters deeper motivations isn’t overused, with only Sarah and Roz as clear cut examples. Some characters are left underdeveloped, but my instincts tell me to trust the author will develop them further. Eventually.
The core concept of the strip is simple, rebooting the extended Walkyverse! into a single continuity, leaving only human interaction. This was a major step forward for the author, stripping out the geek humor and shocking swerves typical of Shortpacked! and It’s Walky! for the simpler, and more honest approach. One-off jokes and bit characters are rare compared to the rest of the authors various works, leaving more room for realistic interactions. There are no breaks from continuity or fourth-wall humour, with only the occasional call-back to the Walkyverse! .
The authors engaged with the audience pretty frequently, often stepping in to correct misinformation and answer legitimate questions, but he does seem to engage with trolls or overly critical fans a tad too eagerly. In my opinion, the swift application of the banhammer is the best solution. Trolling is a bit less frequent that in the comments section for Shortpacked!, but the mostly shared fanbase is eager to attack any displaying a hint of homophobia or a slut-shaming attitude, leaving the door wide open for thuggish behaviour.
Storyline: 8/10, Very Good. Clearly a complex and carefully arranged plot, with only occasional “Idiot Ball” or “Because the plot says so” coincidences. Well written and engrossing.
Dialogue: 7/10, Good. Usually succinct, but a slight tendency to drift into wall-of-text territory when a character has a point to make.
Art: 7/10, Good. Expressive, with distinctive character designs, but not especially detailed, a la “Questionable Content”
Humor: 3/10. Bad. I only laughed out loud at around one in ten strips, with about a fifth being amusing or better. A great deal of comics have no humor intended at all.
Pacing: 6/10. Decent. Some strips seemed unnecessary, but only a handful were plodding or slow.
Political correctness/ Offensiveness: 8/10 Very Good. A good array of groups and values presented without judgement or an issue being made of it. Joyce’s character handles the issue of offensive behaviour without malice interestingly, without outright condemning any group. The only exception being Billie, with her alcohol addiction being the butt of several jokes.
Regularity: 10/10. Perfect: David Willis has not, to my knowledge, missed a single scheduled update by more than 60 seconds for the lifespan of the comic, the only exceptions being bonus weekend comics at the beginning and first anniversary of the strip.
Overall quality: 7/10. Good. A solid, realistic, believable work from a veteran of the Webcomics industry. David Willis proves he can present believable characters and incredibly complex plots.
My Enjoyment: 8/10. Very Good. I always anticipate the release, and I’ll take a minute out of pretty much anything to check my phone for the newest update and leave a comment or two.
On a personal note, I hope to do more reviews, perhaps at the end of each day/storyline. I’ll repost this on Monday’s comic in case people miss this post.
So, anyone agree/disagree?
I’m of the opinion that 3/10 for the humor score is unreasonably low. I saw a lot more than 1/5 strips being amusing. Furthermore, I think that judging a comic’s humor should be based on strips that were intended to be funny, not the comic overall. When a comic undergoes a serious arc, I don’t see it as reasonable for that to begin detracting from the comic’s ability to deliver humorous punchlines. I think that DoA probably falls at least at a 7 when it’s trying to be funny.
Also, I’m left to wonder why political correctness is a category to be examined at all. An artistic medium should not be restricted to what is inoffensive, and in fact some of the greatest art was intended to be INCREDIBLY offensive. While I greatly appreciate it when an artist approaches their subject matter tastefully, provided they can justify doing so on an intellectual level I won’t object to having subject matter addressed in a very rude manner.
Maybe you examine this criterion as a way to warn the incredibly sensitive about the art’s relative level of potential offensiveness while not intending to reward pursuit of inoffensiveness? In other words, it’s more of a “Look, this could tick you off. You’ve been warned. Proceed at your own peril.” sort of thing? I can accept examining offensiveness for a practical reason like that.
Ok, the rating on humour is my opinion of the strips level of humour as a a whole, rather than how funny it is when the author is trying to be funny. I’d give a serious film with effective, but rare, comic relief moments a 1 or a 2.
I rate offensiveness because it takes real skill to handle some subjects without being unfair, and it can really take away from the enjoyment of something if i think theres prejudice or offensiveness present. It’s the same reason I lowered my rating of Phantom Menace because of Jar-Jar, and Transformers 2 because of Skids and Mudflap.
“the swift application of the banhammer is the best solution”.
Yes, because emulating the Tim Buckley Method is such a winning option.
Look, here’s the thing: ‘overly critical fan’ is about as vague a term as you can ask for, and in fact just sounds like a good all-encompassing term to use when shutting up any voice of dissension. I actually really like it that Willis holds his own in the comments; he’s not afraid to get dirty and defend his work–if he were to simply ban people, you’d easily get people crying out that he’s simply too thin-skinned…just before they too got banned. He allows freedom of opinion here, which I find far more healthy (to have arguments and discussions out in the open) than to have ‘shut up and drink your water’.
If I define humour as successful only if I laugh out out in real life, then most comedies including my most favourite ones would score very poorly as I am a tough nut to crack these days.
If the subject matter is able to raise an amused smile and occassionally a muffled chuckle from me, then it is a success, if you catch me in the right frame of mind and I luled in real life, then that is an awesome bonus.
LP, to begin with, I agree with your general assessment and a number of your specific points as well. Particularly, I agree with you about the strength of DoA’s realistic setting and tone; as a cartoonist, I love metahumor and fourth-wall crud, and I find it hard to stay away from them. I have a lot of respect for the commitment Willis has shown to the down-to-earth-ness of his characters and setting in this strip. But agreeing with each other is boring, so let’s get down to the parts where we differ.
First, I don’t think the way and frequency with which the author engages with the community is relevant to a review. Yes, webcomics tend to have a higher degree of author/audience interaction. It’s still not part of the comic itself. (Okay, except with Homestuck.) What the creator says down here in the comment thread, in my opinion, is no more relevant to a review than a remark he might make in an email or during a convention panel. You might cite his asides in the review, but I can’t see the point of a whole section on author interaction.
Second, while most of your categories appear to be numerical ratings of the strip’s quality, “Political correctness/ Offensiveness” and “Humor” appear to operate differently. Apparently, these function more like sliding scales of how potentially offensive or funny (respectively) the work is. According to your metric, an excellent dramatic work
which tells the serious story that it set out to without ever cracking a smile could easily score rock-bottom in the humor department.
Amidst all those other numerical assessments of quality, the humor “rating” could be misleading.
Instead of numerical scores for humor and political correctness, why not give a qualitative assessment instead? This could be a couple of sentences or a paragraph on each, or even something as simple as: “Tone: Slightly serious” or “Controversial material: moderate.” I think it’d be clearer and more helpful to handle these categories in a similar way.
Hmm. My score on humor is not an assesment of quality, no. A better measurement for quality would the humor value of strips with punchlines, or are at least intended to be amusing. I’ll amend that when I repost the review on Monday.
I stand by my rating system for offensiveness though, because of my opinion that the inclusion of stereotypes or offensive material is usually a symptom of bad writing, and affects my enjoyment greatly. To repeat an example I gave to Asuka. L.S., The presence of characters like “Skids and Mudflap”, racially insensitive caricatures, in Transformers 2 did serious damage to my enjoyment of the film, with their “antics” being a poor mans substitute for effective comic relief.
AMENDMENT TO REVIEW. In the case of the humor score, 3/10 would be for how funny the work is overall, and 5/10, Okay, would be the score of the strips that seem intended to be funny.
Also, I’m reading through “Sketch Comedy” now. I’ll put a review up on twitter (link in my gravatar name) in a couple days.
Cool. I look forward to seeing what you have to say.
Hmm the main thing I’m wondering about is whether this will result in the beginning of some sort of obsessive spiral from Sarah.
It seems that Sarah sees Joyce as kindred spirit, although their reasoning is very different.
Also I’m not sure if the Joyce/Walky relationship will actually happen in this world since Sarah will probably actively try to prevent it.
Sarahs pretty much irratated me until now, I don’t know why exactly she irked me but she just did. But I like her now.
I honestly think she irked everyone at some point in the comic. She irked me most in the Walky and Joyce comic when she was the mean guy’s assistant in getting Joyce thrown in jail (though she toned the irkness down some when she ended up helping them).
She’s an irky person lol she’s pretty cool all in all 🙂
test
For? It just takes me to your twitter account, not sure if it’s supposed to or not
Yeah, it is supposed to. I’m just checking my gravatar is showing correctly. It is! Hooray! 🙂
Awesome 😀
BTW, LOVE the gravatar 🙂
Now RAPE her!
the fact that you’re the last comment somehow makes that funny…
Aww! Thats so sweet 🙂 Joyce said something a while ago about having brothers and wanting a sister (i think she did at least.. o.o ) But still~ sweet
The end of this first book just took my emotions on a roller coaster ride.
I think I officially like this incarnation of Sarah about 100 times more than on the Alpha timeline.
::sniffles:: Fucking onions.
Wow, that more sweeter then those icecream poptart sandwithes at carls.jr
Just reread this storyline after today’s comic. I had forgotten about this! So now I got to have teh feeeeeeels all over again. *sniffle*
“Protect me as you would protect the pupil of your eye! Hide me in the shadow of your wings!”
Psalm 17:8
DID YOU KNOW THAT THIS STRIP IS THE BEST ONE EVER
also i just remembered how when Becky first slept in Joyce’s bed she was lying awake and put her hand on Joyce’s shoulder and im not sure of the significance but there it is