I’ve seen these before. They’re sweatpants with jean-colors and fake jean designs.
So, basically it’s like camo sweatpants. Except instead of printing camp on them, they print fake jean designs. Often seen on “What Not to Wear”, ect, along with people saying, “Girl, you’re not fooling anyone. Those are so obviously pajama pants.”
Depends on what you think of them as! For girls’ jeans, they’re probably around the middle ground of expense. But for pajamas, they’re frigging expensive as crap.
After they invented jean-lookalike diapers for babies (which is, by definition, so babies) and the Snuggie, I doubted they’d have much further to go in fashion technological innovation.
Before I was moved to a different department at my job, part of my morning routine focused on folding these stupid things and putting them back in their boxes.
Yes. This was a routine thing. Every day people took these pants out of their boxes, decided NOT to buy them, even though there’s a little whole that lets you feel the fabric, and just walk away leaving me to do the work that they could have done.
On the one hand, I’d point out that being able to touch a small portion of the fabric tells you fairly little about how the fabric will drape when not confined to a box.
On the other, I used to work fashion retail as well, and the number of people who are apparently completely incapable of putting so much as a long sleeved t-shirt back on a hanger rather than throwing it in the corner of the dressing room made me want to go on a shooting spree in the food court.
We would not have sold pajama jeans even if that wardrobe atrocity had been committed back then. I never thought to be grateful for that until now.
Exactly. It’s like how there are rules for how things that aren’t on hangers had to be folded, so I knew when someone tried one on there was a 99% chance I’d have to re-do it, but the effort to fold anything at all really was appreciated just for the fact that some respect was being implied.
I see your complaint and raise you a “how DARE the lone minimum-wage meat wrapper cleaning the meat department at thirty minutes to closing because one of the cutters left five full racks at a quarter to six and didn’t offer to help finish up refuse to put together a fifteen piece machine with a scalloped saw blade capable of taking off your hand before you can say “what was that GRRNK noise” that he has never been trained to use so I can get this roast cut into steaks when there are already two dozen pre-cut packaged steaks in the case because it saves me ten cents!”
For every employee you’ve met that doesn’t want to help you, there’ve been at least twenty customers that employee has had to bend over backwards for because basic sense is in short supply. In that month alone.
Doubly so if it’s a small-town business. Infinitely so if you recognize him as the guy that was stocking Aisle 4 yesterday, chasing carts two days ago, cleaning the ten-inch-deep pool of rotten meat drippings out of the deli’s industrial smoker last week, and stocking the frozen food department while the department’s one employee (that is, the Frozen Food Manager) spends half an hour talking with a cashier after returning from a two-hour lunch while her eight-year-old runs around making a mess.
(Aye, I might still be a little bitter about that job.)
I never blamed the customer. No, no. I blamed the backwards-minded offal that ran the company into the ground with such wond’rous ideas as “let’s make our package assistants do potentially hazardous work that normally constitutes a pay raise but not actually transfer them out of package assistance under fear of punitive action if they don’t, after letting go a dozen employees across the store and not hiring anyone to fill the gaps!”
tl;dr – Sometimes an employee isn’t acting entitled so much as already dealing with a shitty job and none-too-pleased that circumstances are what they are. Also, sometimes their boss is a dick and insists that things that aren’t their job are, and you’re just the unfortunate soul that they’ve sighted in their time of impotent rage. (To my credit, customers often said I was a very nice and helpful person. Might’ve been the proximity to sharp objects, though.)
…Okay, to be honest, I should’ve thought a bit more before I said that, but you know what? I’d LOVE IT if my store’s policy would change to “do not open item up unless you’re going to buy it”. Because apparently they’re not aware that this makes their product look WORSE when other customers see the box lid open.
OR worse, it invites MORE people to open the box as well, which leads to that neverending cycle I mentioned earlier.
It wouldn’t work. I’ve spent time in retail too. If such a policy existed, some people would still open them and then leave them behind. And if you had someone watching them to make sure they didn’t do that, they’d take the empty box and the pants and stuff them behind something on the far side of the store. You’d find them in a mop bucket or a cat bed or something like that. :p
Right, but who knows why they didn’t put it back. Maybe they got a text from their grandma saying she got hit by a tractor-trailer. Which is facetious. But it’s also kind of like complaining that someone had an accident when it is your job to clean bathrooms—sucks when that happens, but sometimes it just happens, and it’s what you’re paid to do. Complaining about the customer is a nice defense mechanism, but that’s pretty much all it is.
Well done review. I can’t say I agree with every point made, but then I read only a few webcomics and Mr. Willis’ is the only one I read daily.
I do have to say, though, humor is *highly* subjective and may not be a great point to rate in things… perhaps instead of rating it, compare and contrast the general humor style of the strip with other sources so that way folks who read the review will have an idea of what to expect…
Thanks, David. Now I can post something vaguely readable. MS Word ate my breaks between paragraphs.
I already posted this on Saturday, but I’ll repost it here since a lot of people won’t have seen it. Again, sorry for the double post.
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.
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.
Humor: 5/10. 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, so those weren’t included in this rating.
Pacing: 6/10. Decent. Some strips seemed unnecessary, but only a handful were plodding or slow.
Political correctness/Offensiveness: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.
I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with the length of your post. It was thoughtful and well-written, and (in my opinion) not unnecessarily prolonged.
With regards to the content of your review, I can’t say I disagree with any of your statements on the comics itself, except that I, personally, never found the backgrounds dropping out during close-ups terribly distracting.
With regards to the portion of the review which dealt with Willis’ interactions with his fans, particularly trolls or “overly critical fans”, I’m somewhat torn. I have never been in the position of moderating a comments section the way that Willis is, and so I’m not certain how I would handle situations involving trolls. Being generally a pretty anti-censorship kinda guy, I for one would be very uncomfortable wielding the banhammer (although I do recognize that in certain cases it is necessary). So I can’t really criticize Willis for preferring to attempt to engage the trolls, at least for a while, before smiting them. It seems only fair to give them a fair chance to reform.
i disagree with your excessively short post! And now I am going to write a fairly long sentence for no other purpose at all save to allow my comment to fall into the middle ground between long and short. There, that should do it.
Only disagreement I can think of at the moment is about the background disappearing for close-ups. I was never confused and thought it generally was a good way to highlight the character’s emotion. I did not assume that the character’d instantaneously teleported to a featureless, monochromatic void.
Hehehehe. Oh them jean alternatives. Although I find them more tolerable then jeggings.
I’m at a modeling agency right now which leaves me encountering a lot of teens and tweens who want to do want they want. And it always comes up “You can’t wear jeans at an audition.” “Oh, these are okay! These are jeggings. They only look like jeans.”
Me, too, to wear under a skirt. (At least, assuming that these are stretchy leggings that have been painted to look like jeans, yeah?) I find it amusing to have clothes that look like other types of clothes.
I also find it amusing. I totally have a jogging outfit that looks like I’m running around naked. Most people don’t seem to get it though. I swear, the police have no whimsy in their souls…
Your review is well thought out, but it seems completely unnecessarily long for a comment on this strip. Generally, I come to the comment session to find out what people’s reactions to the strip in question are, not not read a fully spelled out review of over a year’s worth of material with no discussion of the specifics. But that’s just me.
Maybe you should start a webcomic review blog, so you can post your indepth reviews to that?
In other news, if I could get away with it, I’m totally wear pajama jeans every day.
This is the only place where I can be sure at least SOME of the audience of the comic, at least the regular commenters, will see it. Nobody reads my blog/twitter. Yet.
Here’s my two cents: If the comment section turned into everyone’s very serious in-depth review of the span of the comic, complete with how funny they found it on average (not just the immediate strip), I wouldn’t read the comments section anymore and would probably spend much less time on this site. I don’t mean to be rude, normally I’d ignore something like this but, in your original now deleted post, you mentioned the possibility of writing further (possibly daily) reviews and you seemed to want feedback about all your ideas. This is my feedback.
Honestly I don’t think that’s a possibility. This comment section section is a lot of fun, and I don’t think even someone as awesome as me could hope to trigger that kind of change. I also disagree that it would be a bad thing for people to write more in-depth comments on the series.
The daily reactions will be here as long as we have a comment section. Thanks for the politeness in your feedback. This really is one of the nicer places on the interwebs. 🙂
I’ve heard of these things, but It’s not something I’d wear. Haven’t worn anything resembling sweat pants due to an incident with how easily they come off like 15 years ago. PJ pants stay inside the apartment, period.
Beware, I live! (OLD old OLD meme is old, if you know where it’s from, you’re too old for this comic and make sure you didn’t fill your adult diaper yet.)
They’re real. As real as the excessively large women I’ve seen squeezed into these at two sizes too small and wearing a ‘babydoll’ tee shirt with the word “Sexy” on it in glittery cursive that looks like a Bedazzled brassiere because they can’t squeeze it past the first fat roll.
I’m certain there exists a place where women wear clothing that fits, and is attractively styled in such a way that it emphasizes their natural figure without reaching into blatant sexuality. It’s two miles east of the Fountain of Youth and just an hour’s walk from the Land of Milk and Honey.
Such a place does exist, and it’s not nearly so mythical. You just need to know where to look. Surely my wife isn’t the ONLY one shopping at Lane Bryant.
That just defeats the entire purpose of denim’s invention back in the late 18th Century, and it’s adoption by pioneers during the gold rush for panning and mining operations.
I have storyline whiplash! It’s worse than in Shortpacked, because I know Shortpacked is liable to interrupt drama with transformers bits at every moment, but this is just…dramadramadramadrama make fun of Walky!
I’m amused that the title of the storyline itself is “Pajama Jeans.” Might our freshmen characters spend their entire weekend talking about, looking for, buying, and then wearing pajama jeans??
P.S. I’ve seen these infomercials too, though not in a long time.
It’ll probably be a quick story compared to the others we’ve seen so far. Maybe a couple comics about pajama jeans and goofing around to bring us back in the happy mood we were in before attempted date rape.
And watch as it turns out to be a six month long epic tale. About Pajama Jeans. There will be car chases, arrests, at least two separate pregnancies, and the school will burn down.
I’m fairly sure I’ve seen these. Oddly, though, what first came to mind when I read this was an ancient Sam & Fuzzy storyline about people wearing pajama pants as regular pants. Okay, maybe not so odd, since I recently did an archive binge and it was still somewhat fresh in my mind.
I want this so badly. 😐 even at that price it’s -cheaper- than the jeans I usually buy. It’s only unfortunate that they’re only available in the US. (T^T)
I’ve seen these on girls before. Not only are they probably comfortable for the girl, those things hug the butt like yoga pants! In other words, omg sexy!
I approve the product placement. Ladies, go buy these now!
Loading ...
Indeed
Walky Approved!
I think Walky’s face was designed for a gravatar here.
I wonder if Walky Prime had access to such wonders and insights while Cheesing.
The world may never know!
What?
I…. have no idea. Are they really loose denim or denim-look soft fabric?
Or is this just a mind-screw?
Willis isn’t the mindf*ck kind of person.
Randy Milhound is.
The only thing I can think of is flannel pants designed to look like jeans.
I’ve seen these before. They’re sweatpants with jean-colors and fake jean designs.
So, basically it’s like camo sweatpants. Except instead of printing camp on them, they print fake jean designs. Often seen on “What Not to Wear”, ect, along with people saying, “Girl, you’re not fooling anyone. Those are so obviously pajama pants.”
…What?
https://www.pajamajeans.com/
Google, yo.
… These are really goddamn expensive.
Depends on what you think of them as! For girls’ jeans, they’re probably around the middle ground of expense. But for pajamas, they’re frigging expensive as crap.
i hate that you’re right.
I’m confused. It looks like Walky is the one who climaxed, but Dorothy isn’t here. Or is he just imagining her wearing those?
Why would Walky be watching this commercial? Does he like wearing women’s clothes?
Why? Don’t you? 😛
It’s little Walky that’s watching the commecrial.
Depending on what channel he’s watching, these commercials are kind of hard to avoid…
I think he’s on his laptop. But if he’s watching blip videos then yeah, the ads would be unskippable.
Aint PJ jeans essentially tracksuit pants?
humanity’s way of jumping the shark
Is that what they call it these days?
Still clings to your cottage cheese ass like actual jeans!
(Enhanced self-esteem not included.)
Is Walky climaxing at this commercial while Dorothy is still sitting on the bed next to him?
Maybe she left and the commercial is just what he needed to end his “frustration” afterward.
Well, that’s one way to break the ice, I suppose.
Humankind’s Ingenuity is kind of a long name for one’s penis. I just call mine Pepe.
A long name for sure, but it is certainly impressive looking to have a name like that tattooed on your willy.
Mine is “Gargo the Pleasure Cyclops.”
After they invented jean-lookalike diapers for babies (which is, by definition, so babies) and the Snuggie, I doubted they’d have much further to go in fashion technological innovation.
Next step, everyone gets their standard issue Star Trek:TNG civilian unitard.
Wait, do they have denim snuggies now?
..Overalls?
Pannel 1, Is Dora’s behind, without a doubt. It’s like a seventh sense.
OH NO THE BUTTS DISEASE IS SPREADING
I’m with Walky. I want ‘guy’ pajama jeans… 😛
Don’t judge me (with your faaaaaaaaaace!)
Would you rather I judge you with my penis?
It’s gotta be one thread meme or the other. CHOOSE.
I’m judging you both. For a nickel.
GAH! OUTMANEUVERED!! AND FOR WHAT YOU REFER TO AS A NICKEL!
oh hey its Sonja, nice to see another Wotch fan, even if its a very old comment
Before I was moved to a different department at my job, part of my morning routine focused on folding these stupid things and putting them back in their boxes.
Yes. This was a routine thing. Every day people took these pants out of their boxes, decided NOT to buy them, even though there’s a little whole that lets you feel the fabric, and just walk away leaving me to do the work that they could have done.
Bottom line, I FUCKING HATE PEOPLE.
So are they denim or aren’t they? The people need to know!
According to their website, they’re a proprietary blend of cotton and spandex.
THEY ARE NOT SPANDEX!!!!
Sorry, old Power Rangers RPM reflex kicking in there…
They don’t feel like jeans. That’s all I got.
On the one hand, I’d point out that being able to touch a small portion of the fabric tells you fairly little about how the fabric will drape when not confined to a box.
On the other, I used to work fashion retail as well, and the number of people who are apparently completely incapable of putting so much as a long sleeved t-shirt back on a hanger rather than throwing it in the corner of the dressing room made me want to go on a shooting spree in the food court.
We would not have sold pajama jeans even if that wardrobe atrocity had been committed back then. I never thought to be grateful for that until now.
I agree. I imagine some people want to get an idea of how stretchy they are or how long they are, etc. But they could at least TRY to put them back.
Exactly. It’s like how there are rules for how things that aren’t on hangers had to be folded, so I knew when someone tried one on there was a 99% chance I’d have to re-do it, but the effort to fold anything at all really was appreciated just for the fact that some respect was being implied.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Your avatar makes this horrifically appropriate to say.
I kind of love it when people think that things that are their job are not their job, and blame their customers rather than their employers.
Or themselves.
Oh my god, why do I have to slice meat for this person, it’s almost closing time!
I see your complaint and raise you a “how DARE the lone minimum-wage meat wrapper cleaning the meat department at thirty minutes to closing because one of the cutters left five full racks at a quarter to six and didn’t offer to help finish up refuse to put together a fifteen piece machine with a scalloped saw blade capable of taking off your hand before you can say “what was that GRRNK noise” that he has never been trained to use so I can get this roast cut into steaks when there are already two dozen pre-cut packaged steaks in the case because it saves me ten cents!”
For every employee you’ve met that doesn’t want to help you, there’ve been at least twenty customers that employee has had to bend over backwards for because basic sense is in short supply. In that month alone.
Doubly so if it’s a small-town business. Infinitely so if you recognize him as the guy that was stocking Aisle 4 yesterday, chasing carts two days ago, cleaning the ten-inch-deep pool of rotten meat drippings out of the deli’s industrial smoker last week, and stocking the frozen food department while the department’s one employee (that is, the Frozen Food Manager) spends half an hour talking with a cashier after returning from a two-hour lunch while her eight-year-old runs around making a mess.
(Aye, I might still be a little bitter about that job.)
I never blamed the customer. No, no. I blamed the backwards-minded offal that ran the company into the ground with such wond’rous ideas as “let’s make our package assistants do potentially hazardous work that normally constitutes a pay raise but not actually transfer them out of package assistance under fear of punitive action if they don’t, after letting go a dozen employees across the store and not hiring anyone to fill the gaps!”
tl;dr – Sometimes an employee isn’t acting entitled so much as already dealing with a shitty job and none-too-pleased that circumstances are what they are. Also, sometimes their boss is a dick and insists that things that aren’t their job are, and you’re just the unfortunate soul that they’ve sighted in their time of impotent rage. (To my credit, customers often said I was a very nice and helpful person. Might’ve been the proximity to sharp objects, though.)
Yes, how dare the customer not show a shred of decency and common sense?
…Okay, to be honest, I should’ve thought a bit more before I said that, but you know what? I’d LOVE IT if my store’s policy would change to “do not open item up unless you’re going to buy it”. Because apparently they’re not aware that this makes their product look WORSE when other customers see the box lid open.
OR worse, it invites MORE people to open the box as well, which leads to that neverending cycle I mentioned earlier.
It wouldn’t work. I’ve spent time in retail too. If such a policy existed, some people would still open them and then leave them behind. And if you had someone watching them to make sure they didn’t do that, they’d take the empty box and the pants and stuff them behind something on the far side of the store. You’d find them in a mop bucket or a cat bed or something like that. :p
The retail slave’s job is to clean up, yes.
The customer, however, can have the courtesy to not be an asshole and put things back where they found them.
Right, but who knows why they didn’t put it back. Maybe they got a text from their grandma saying she got hit by a tractor-trailer. Which is facetious. But it’s also kind of like complaining that someone had an accident when it is your job to clean bathrooms—sucks when that happens, but sometimes it just happens, and it’s what you’re paid to do. Complaining about the customer is a nice defense mechanism, but that’s pretty much all it is.
I’d rather put clothes back in boxes, personally.
First jeggings, now this….
Jeggings! Glad you remembered that. I knew what they were but prying the name out of my cold, dead brain would have taken all day.
These Pajama jeans wouldn’t happen to be a new line of merch you are working on by any chance Willis?
No, they’re a real thing.
Willis got it down to the checkboxes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFoGg_aJYkM
Well done review. I can’t say I agree with every point made, but then I read only a few webcomics and Mr. Willis’ is the only one I read daily.
I do have to say, though, humor is *highly* subjective and may not be a great point to rate in things… perhaps instead of rating it, compare and contrast the general humor style of the strip with other sources so that way folks who read the review will have an idea of what to expect…
And now the review is gone. I feel foolish. 😛
It’s back now. I asked David to delete it because MS Word ate the breaks between the paragraphs. It’s less of a Wall-Of-Text now.
In-jean-nuity?
Looks like he’s got an in-jean-something…
With his in-jeanis.
Were these two items of clothing combined with jean-splicing technology?
I don’t know, but if he wants to save money, he can just wait until somebody comes out with a jean-eric brand.
Thanks, David. Now I can post something vaguely readable. MS Word ate my breaks between paragraphs.
I already posted this on Saturday, but I’ll repost it here since a lot of people won’t have seen it. Again, sorry for the double post.
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.
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.
Humor: 5/10. 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, so those weren’t included in this rating.
Pacing: 6/10. Decent. Some strips seemed unnecessary, but only a handful were plodding or slow.
Political correctness/Offensiveness: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.
TFL;DR. Love the Comic. Keep up the good work 🙂
I disagree with the unnecessarly long post.
Again? It’s even longer this time, what with all the apologies 🙂
I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with the length of your post. It was thoughtful and well-written, and (in my opinion) not unnecessarily prolonged.
With regards to the content of your review, I can’t say I disagree with any of your statements on the comics itself, except that I, personally, never found the backgrounds dropping out during close-ups terribly distracting.
With regards to the portion of the review which dealt with Willis’ interactions with his fans, particularly trolls or “overly critical fans”, I’m somewhat torn. I have never been in the position of moderating a comments section the way that Willis is, and so I’m not certain how I would handle situations involving trolls. Being generally a pretty anti-censorship kinda guy, I for one would be very uncomfortable wielding the banhammer (although I do recognize that in certain cases it is necessary). So I can’t really criticize Willis for preferring to attempt to engage the trolls, at least for a while, before smiting them. It seems only fair to give them a fair chance to reform.
i disagree with your excessively short post! And now I am going to write a fairly long sentence for no other purpose at all save to allow my comment to fall into the middle ground between long and short. There, that should do it.
tl;dr
Wow, when Spammy McSpamster thinks my post is too long, I KNOW I’ve gone too far 😉
Only disagreement I can think of at the moment is about the background disappearing for close-ups. I was never confused and thought it generally was a good way to highlight the character’s emotion. I did not assume that the character’d instantaneously teleported to a featureless, monochromatic void.
Dammit. This was supposed to be a reply to ALostProphet, but his post got deleted from the top of the page while I was writing this post.
I thought it was a great use of the medium (webcomic) to add dramatic emphasis. Like when a movie’s soundtrack drops out.
It’s back now. Now, I’ve completed my master plan of fucking up the order of posts in the comment section! Epic Troll! 😉
(I am kidding. I did not mean to. Please don’t ban me 🙂 )
I’ve seen comercials on those things, so unless he’s been selling them on TV, I’d have to go with “no”.
This was supposed to be a response to Plasma Mongoose.
@Davecom3, I think that replies to comments sometimes end up in the wrong place whenever comments are removed.
Again, sorry.
I forgive you my son. 😀
The cruelest cut of all is that Pajama Jeans aren’t made for men.
…Walky might still be able to pull them off.
Yes, but pull them off of whom?
Duh… Dorothy, of course! ^_^
I’ve got to admit, the number of people in this thread who have been unaware of Pajama Jeans until now amazes me. Here’s the infomercial.
I don’t watch TV much anymore and unless I am mistaked, this ad most likely doesn’t even exist in Oz.
I only knew about them from FailBlog’s “Poorly Dressed” section.
Hehehehe. Oh them jean alternatives. Although I find them more tolerable then jeggings.
I’m at a modeling agency right now which leaves me encountering a lot of teens and tweens who want to do want they want. And it always comes up “You can’t wear jeans at an audition.” “Oh, these are okay! These are jeggings. They only look like jeans.”
Is this what Walky and Dorothy were seeing at the end of last week?
I…I might own a pair of those. YOU CAN’T PROVE NUTHIN’.
Me, too, to wear under a skirt. (At least, assuming that these are stretchy leggings that have been painted to look like jeans, yeah?) I find it amusing to have clothes that look like other types of clothes.
and… now I’m imagining Tony in leggings. Thanks, random avatars!
I also find it amusing. I totally have a jogging outfit that looks like I’m running around naked. Most people don’t seem to get it though. I swear, the police have no whimsy in their souls…
Your review is well thought out, but it seems completely unnecessarily long for a comment on this strip. Generally, I come to the comment session to find out what people’s reactions to the strip in question are, not not read a fully spelled out review of over a year’s worth of material with no discussion of the specifics. But that’s just me.
Maybe you should start a webcomic review blog, so you can post your indepth reviews to that?
In other news, if I could get away with it, I’m totally wear pajama jeans every day.
This is the only place where I can be sure at least SOME of the audience of the comic, at least the regular commenters, will see it. Nobody reads my blog/twitter. Yet.
We’re regular commenters; we don’t need you to sell us on DoA, we’re already hooked.
Plus, this is the only way I can be sure the author sees it, and there’s not much else a critic can ask for 🙂
Here’s my two cents: If the comment section turned into everyone’s very serious in-depth review of the span of the comic, complete with how funny they found it on average (not just the immediate strip), I wouldn’t read the comments section anymore and would probably spend much less time on this site. I don’t mean to be rude, normally I’d ignore something like this but, in your original now deleted post, you mentioned the possibility of writing further (possibly daily) reviews and you seemed to want feedback about all your ideas. This is my feedback.
Honestly I don’t think that’s a possibility. This comment section section is a lot of fun, and I don’t think even someone as awesome as me could hope to trigger that kind of change. I also disagree that it would be a bad thing for people to write more in-depth comments on the series.
The daily reactions will be here as long as we have a comment section. Thanks for the politeness in your feedback. This really is one of the nicer places on the interwebs. 🙂
I’m lucky, in that I get to wear jeans to work. 😀
I don’t think pajama pants would pass inspection. Jeans are comfy enough. 😉
Aaaaand this could easily be made into a meme. Any takers?
Your mom is a meme. Mike took her for a nickel. With his faaaaaaaace.
Are you sure he didn’t take her faaaace with his penis for a nickel?
Serious strip > Serious strip > Serious Strip > Pajama jeans.
Hey now, Pajama Jeans are serious business.
Thuper theriouth buthineth.
Wasn’t it more Serious strip > Serious Strip > FREAKING ADORABLE STRIP OHMAHGAH > Pajama Jeans?
Don’t fall for it, Walky!
…I want a pair
I felt as if I had been rickrolled reading this strip
Careful there, Walky, you’re nearing jeggings territory…:S
Wait… jeans that do not feel like I am wearing sandpaper on my legs? jeans with pockets that can fit a wallet or keys?
WOW!
it is true, such items in this cosmos exist.
Are you kidding? My and my friend’s jeans have pockets so deep that I’m always surprised whenever I reach in and actually get what I was going for.
Seriously, they’re like little dimensions.
and that is how the Time Lords ended up inventing TARDISs.
Must… resist… bigger on the inside joke…
Greg Dean already beat you to the punch. 😛
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/111031.html
I’ve heard of these things, but It’s not something I’d wear. Haven’t worn anything resembling sweat pants due to an incident with how easily they come off like 15 years ago. PJ pants stay inside the apartment, period.
WIIGI!
Haven’t seen that catchphrase in a while. *dusts off box of old memes* IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZA!!1!
CRYOTEK WILL EAT YOUR OLD MEME!
All old memes KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!
Beware, I live! (OLD old OLD meme is old, if you know where it’s from, you’re too old for this comic and make sure you didn’t fill your adult diaper yet.)
A WINNER IS YOU
I hunger.
For great justice!
“Wiigii” has four ‘i’s.
I’ve occasionally wondered, how is it officially pronounced? Like the board?
I just pronounce it as Whee and Gee combined. So we thought along the same lines probably.
I thought it was like “wiggy”
What. What what. Whatwhatwhatwhatwhat. Are you telling me this is a real thing? If it is, then I feel like punching someone.
Why? Cos they haven’t created a men’s version?
Funny, I was thinking about getting a pajama, and this is popping. tell me this is real, because I want one!
Are these real? Please tell me these are real.
They’re real. As real as the excessively large women I’ve seen squeezed into these at two sizes too small and wearing a ‘babydoll’ tee shirt with the word “Sexy” on it in glittery cursive that looks like a Bedazzled brassiere because they can’t squeeze it past the first fat roll.
I’m certain there exists a place where women wear clothing that fits, and is attractively styled in such a way that it emphasizes their natural figure without reaching into blatant sexuality. It’s two miles east of the Fountain of Youth and just an hour’s walk from the Land of Milk and Honey.
Such a place does exist, and it’s not nearly so mythical. You just need to know where to look. Surely my wife isn’t the ONLY one shopping at Lane Bryant.
Geez, Walky spends one night watching videos with Dorothy and now he’s got a pajama fetish.
I think you’re caught Jeph’s butt disease.
Not that I’m complaining…
These are… *puts on shades* injeanious.
YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
Well done, sir.
There could be a better name. :3 How about Pajeamas?
Is this actually a new invention?
My friend owns a pair and they actually are pretty great. I do not need an excuse to never get out of my pajamas though.
“Human-kind’s ingenuity has climaxed.”
And judging by the look on his face, so has Walky.
Yeah. I went there.
Walky reaches for a packet of nachitos and a tissue.
He takes a Nachito… AND EATS IT!
That just defeats the entire purpose of denim’s invention back in the late 18th Century, and it’s adoption by pioneers during the gold rush for panning and mining operations.
Totally relevant today.
I have storyline whiplash! It’s worse than in Shortpacked, because I know Shortpacked is liable to interrupt drama with transformers bits at every moment, but this is just…dramadramadramadrama make fun of Walky!
I’m amused that the title of the storyline itself is “Pajama Jeans.” Might our freshmen characters spend their entire weekend talking about, looking for, buying, and then wearing pajama jeans??
P.S. I’ve seen these infomercials too, though not in a long time.
It’ll probably be a quick story compared to the others we’ve seen so far. Maybe a couple comics about pajama jeans and goofing around to bring us back in the happy mood we were in before attempted date rape.
And watch as it turns out to be a six month long epic tale. About Pajama Jeans. There will be car chases, arrests, at least two separate pregnancies, and the school will burn down.
And the mastermind WILL be Mike.
Pajama Jeans were conceived in the deepest pits of Hell when Satan had sex with your mom for a nickel with his penis.
I’m fairly sure I’ve seen these. Oddly, though, what first came to mind when I read this was an ancient Sam & Fuzzy storyline about people wearing pajama pants as regular pants. Okay, maybe not so odd, since I recently did an archive binge and it was still somewhat fresh in my mind.
So, am I the only one to think Walky’s not looking very healthy on this strip??
It’s probably like 4 in the morning and he’s been with Dorothy all night. I would more than likely look like that too.
You’re probably right. I just assumed it was already next day.
We’ve gone from Book 1 to Book 2. I’m predicting that some time has passed since the party incident.
I want this so badly. 😐 even at that price it’s -cheaper- than the jeans I usually buy. It’s only unfortunate that they’re only available in the US. (T^T)
What the product placement?
I’ve seen these on girls before. Not only are they probably comfortable for the girl, those things hug the butt like yoga pants! In other words, omg sexy!
I approve the product placement. Ladies, go buy these now!
http://www.lakeside.com/catalog/all_sku_listing_product_detail.jsp?productId=prod320380&showSoldOut=true&fm=pinSearch&_requestid=23267
Walky has to wait no longer, they do guys ones now too 😀
That was my reaction too