Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
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.
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
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!
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
All Known Alternatives
Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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It’s just Jennifer who wanted “out.” Might have made some mildly unkind comments about nerds, but the worst she has done is not talk to any of them for like a few weeks. All she’d have to do is hurry down the steps.
They’ll be like “Hey Bjennifer, where have you been?” and “She has her COOL friends now, she doesn’t like us” and she’ll be like “Shut up Walky, I like you fine. Sorry I been so busy but, it turns out, today I’ve got time for friends. So what have I been missing?”
You know, in the alternate reality where Jennifer can make a single simple obvious good decision.
that comic is so boring though. All the conflicts are resolved extremely quickly, nobody does anything stupid, and if they do, their friends are always 100% supportive and get them through it.
It’s a feel good comic, but i need conflict dangit!
everyone was fine with Jennifer walking with the group a few days ago when Sarah started her smile saga. here its just her own issue of does she want to run to catch up and risk looking over eager or walk behind alone.
A peek in the archive indicates that Dorothy was last seen the day prior sending Joyce a lewd photo.
So yeah, I have no idea what Walky is talking about here.
It’s been heavily implied if not just outright stated that Dorothy was likely going to join Jocelyne at the protest. Y’know that protest that just escalated this morning? Hopefully she’s just making out with Jocey and not in jail.
I just went back and re-read all the Dot/Joce strips to see if I’d missed something. Don’t think I have. That has neither been stated nor IMHO implied.
Feel free to tell me your interpretation of it. I could be wrong on my read. To me that at least implies she would consider attending the protest. What else is she writing apology letters for? It’s either the protest or Dorothy has something else irritating planned.
I for one interpreted it as Dorothy trying to come around to the idea of being President to be an irritant, but that Dorothy still feels the urge to pre-write apology letters for the presidential war crimes
I think the alt-text supports considering protesting. “dear mister president, there are too many social inequities these days, please eliminate three (ps i am not a crackpot)” Sounds like a very Dorothy protest letter
I think you’re right that Dorothy means to go to the protest, and specifically that she is there right now. I’m excited to see what changes come of this and I really hope she finds a healthy outlet for the overwhelming urge to be a force of change and good in the world that she struggles with.
Joyce is the only one who’s aware to any degree and I don’t think she realizes how bad it is or could be. The others are a bit too separated from Dorothy to really know, I think. At least, the others in this specific group. Ruth and Jennifer definitely know Dorothy’s heading for a crash out.
Everytime I hear this song, I think “Yeah! Supertramp!” but then each time I look it up YouTube, it’s actually Matthew Wilder, and then I’m like, “Who the hell is Matthew Wilder?” I have no idea why I can’t him. Hell, I *lived* thru the ’80s! I consider ’80s music to be MY MUSIC, and yet, some things just won’t lock into my brain.
I was in the ’70s also, as well as part of the ’60s, and while I love The Beatles, Creedance Clearwater Revival, The BeeGees, KISS, Led Zeppelin, Bob Segar, The Carpenters, Elton John, etc, it’s always the ’80s that I return to return to music-wise. (But not the fashion; dear Cheese, not the fashion!)
Would be less of a disaster than what I’m expecting. We know Jennifer’s looking for someone to help her convince Alice that she’s fine and normal, and I 100% expect circumstances to conspire such that she enlists Ruth for that task
I personally feel, with regards to names, that there’s at least two camps of people. There are people who feel that their name defines who they are, and by changing it they change themselves. Then there are people whom their names define themselves, that even when they start going by or accepting a new name doesn’t define themselves by that name but adds it to their whole name.
Billie / Jennifer is very much in the more extreme side of the first group. She found her name as Billie from Walkie right before she entered a whole new phase of her life and a peer group, putting away ‘Jennifer’, and defined herself by ‘Billie’ for, what, twelve or thirteen formulative years. When she decided she was ‘Jennifer’, she tried to pack up everything that was Billie and put it away, jettison it, unless she absolutely needed to go unpack something of that former person. As far as she’s concerned, she’s eliminated ‘Billie’. She’s ‘Jennifer’ now.
Don’t get me wrong – both types of name / indentity association could be unhealthy. (Also, this is how I look at others and their applications of names – it is by no means any sort of psycology that I know of) – but in Billie/Jennifer’s case, she’s taking it a bit too far. As a consequence, today she’s more ‘Jennifer’ than she’s ever been-
And none of these people have ever been friends of Jennifer’s.
maybe, but it probably helps that Tony makes her comfortable saying ‘they are annoying but I like them’ rather than making her feel like she has to pretend she’s cooler than them or that she has to pretend to be more friendly than she is
Also with regard to Tony specifically, he has explicitly expressed his preference for being direct and straightforward with one another. Putting up a front about not “really” caring about them even though she clearly does would work against her.
They’re all freshman?! Gross! Sarah and Tony need to drop that dead weight. As the campus’ new ruling couple they’re too influential to be associated with freshies.
It bums me out a little. Tony doesn’t strike me as the type to be “choose me or your friends”, but it does feel like that story is headed to a point where it’ll become a point of friction. Sarah has been maintaining she doesn’t “suffer fools”, but lately she very much has been.
I don’t really get that impression, I think he was just asking. Because from his perspective it is probably a little strange all her friends are freshmen.
I’m hoping it’s more “[I don’t recognise them from any classes, and I’m sure I haven’t seen them around all that long/I don’t think I know any of these people]? Is this group composed of Freshmen?” With maybe a little bit of “Are they naïve fools, or are they serious about their education and capable of holding rational conversation?”
I think it might be an interim solution for her. Jennifer v1 was kind of a failure. If she can let herself be Billie again for a while (while avoiding the alcohol abuse) maybe she can grow organically into Jennifer v2 rather than applying a “mature” persona like paint.
Panel 4, I dunno, something about Sarah’s expression is interesting to me. Blissful, for sure, but I dunno. Definitely suspect the story’s far from finished, though I am super happy for her current, well, happiness.
I do feel for Jennifer, but she’s going to have to make some decisions about who she is, what she wants, and who she wants to share herself with.
To me it read kind of like contentment mixed with relief. Sarah’s happy with Tony, but it’s probably also mixed with “good closure” feelings to know that Jacob approves and she can let go of her desire to pursue him and remain friends with him.
I read Sarah in panel four as giving a little bit of catty side-eye to Lucy. Lucy and Jacob said basically the same thing in panel three, and Sarah is pointedly thanking… Jacob. I think there might still be a little resentment between Sarah and Lucy.
Yep, looks like I interpreted Jacob correctly yesterday. His surprise was more that ANYBODY managed to snag Tony rather than thinking Sarah isn’t deserving of anybody
Heh, I was wondering if anyone else was like me and still had sympathy for poor, lost Jennifer. “It is never too late to turn away from the darkness” is a creed I hold strongly to.
I don’t know if it’s just because I’m bad at telling what people’s ages are in general, but it seems kinda weird that Tony is able to tell whether someone is a freshman or a sophomore just by looking at them.
Tony lives in the same dorm as these people. I don’t think he knows Lucy or Joyce, but he’ll have seen Joe, Walky and Jacob around enough to be pretty sure they’re freshmen.
I don’t know about Tony, but experienced faculty and post-grads can develop a feeling for identifying freshmen. Fall semester is easier than Spring semester, though.
When I was 24 working as an usher at a movie theater, I could pin down the 17 year olds from the high school graduates from the 19 year olds from the 20 year olds. There’s such a clear personality shift in people during that period that when you spend time with enough of them, you can recognize the differences.
When I was 20 I was too blissfully unaware to be able to recognize such things, though. Tony’s on top of things.
I do remember going back to visit my high school during my first year of college. They were children! It was amazing. So much younger than when I was there the year before.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this comfortable or relaxed before. After the trauma of dealing with Dana’s spiralling and the aftermath of Raidah’s bullshit, she deserves this. Absolutely.
It does make me wonder, was Raidah always “evil”, or did it only happen after Dana was taken out of school? Cos I don’t think Sarah would have put up with Raidah’s current bullshit from the beginning.
Not that it remotely excuses Raidah’s behaviour ever.
My suspicion is that Dana was the leader of their little clique while she was there and Raidah’s issues became a lot more obvious when she took over after Dana left.
Hard to say for sure since Sarah doesn’t many flashbacks of interacting with Radiah before things went south. I do strongly suspect however that Radiahs obsession with being an adult is atleast partly her doubling down after Sarah did the mature hard thing for a problem she wanted to ignore.
Well, remember a few comics ago, when BJ tried to ‘rescue’ Tony from Sarah? And got roundly rejected? Yeah, trying to casually hang out with them now might be awkward…
I can’t believe how awful Jacob is being about this. Look at him, standing there and saying nice things throughout the entire interaction, that son of a son. Goddamn, he makes me so mad I just wanna fill him with cranberry sauce until he’s had a comfortable amount of it and can’t really hold more without it becoming a bother. That’d show him.
I can never really get back into that weird headspace of teenhood where a single year difference in cohort was a big frigging deal. I once dated a guy one grade below in highschool and it was le scandal.
Um, What has Tony got against new folks, and why does he feel the need to label them? Or is this a USA thing? Sophomores are “wise fools” and “Freshman” is also an insult. Man it’s confusing for non USAvians! First year, second year, third year is so much easier, and nothing like as judgemental.
The fact that Sarah has zero friends who were at school with her last year is genuinely a bit concerning, though. Especially so since it’s followed up by ‘they took me in’ which essentially outright says ‘yeah, all my friends from last year ditched me’. The question of why becomes important. (Note: I expect Tony would have zero problems with Sarah’s actions in the Dana situation, aka the reason all of Sarah’s last-year friends ditched her. He’d have done the same.)
I don’t think he has a problem with them, he just noticed something kinda curious to him. While not unheard of its more common for friend groups to be formed during someone’s freshmen year.
This. Plus 18-22 is a period of great change in most people so a year’s growth can make a big difference in attitude, dress, confidence that “I belong here”, the way they carry themselves.
And when you show up as a freshman the older kids already have their friend groups and they’re busy doing their own things, while there are also all these other new freshmen who don’t know anyone looking for people to hang out with.
Also, for whatever reason, it seems a large majority of people on their floor are freshmen, with a handful of sophomores and no one older?
It’s standard US terminology. Most high schools and colleges are four years, and both use freshman, sophomore, junior & and senior as the names of the years. None of them are considered derogatory, and would guess that 99+% of students are never even aware of the etymology of sophomore.
OK, thanks for the explanations here, people. As I say, it can be very confusing when you are not used to it. And possibly, what i said could sound judgemental in the light of the other info/explanations people have given me… but that is why I asked “why”, and prefaced it with “Um” – I spoke as my social upbringing caused me to interpret it. I was questioning that.
So, yeah, thanks for teaching me new stuff.
Hope that Tony comment doesn’t end up coming back to be bad. Its (normally) never about the Age Disparity in College; its about the Experience Disparity & how much of your soul you carry into doing more Adult things.
I would expect him to inquire why all Sarah’s friends are freshmen since ‘they took me in’ all but outright says ‘any friends I had last year ditched me’. It would be a good idea to poke a bit at why that was. (I would also not expect Tony to have a single problem with ‘my roommate was doing drugs in our room and spiraling hard, she needed help and also my grades were slipping from trying to take care of her, so I called her dad’ as said why.)
Lol, checked the whole comment section to see if someone else mentioned this yet before posting the question and then you beat me to it as I was typing it. Oh well, glad I’m not the only one wondering, I guess.
Hm. Am I overthinking it to wonder why Sarah replies to thank specifically Jacob and not Lucy in panel 4 after they BOTH encourage her to spend time with Tony? Is there still some animosity between Sarah and Lucy?
I think Sarah could be reading Lucy’s statement as condescending. We release you could feel a bit like assuming that they have ownership of her time.
To be clear, as a person who has had my awkward efforts to be nice read that way before, I’m on the fence. It’s just as likely Sarah just feels petty towards Lucy about dating Jacob, or perhaps that she’s feeling a bit smug towards Jacob after feeling rejected by him before for not being ultra-smiley.
Hoping that Tony noticing Sarah’s entire friendgroup is freshmen leads into a question of why and Sarah explaining the whole deal with Dana and Raidah’s group, so Tony is fully armed with information when Raidah comes sniffing around
Tony, being the son of one of the Deans, may or may not already know about that drugs-related suspension from the previous semester. I can see it either way. But he definitely should know about the incident of the active shooter, kidnappings, and student death.
Is Jennifer gonna realize soon that she’s been treating like crap a bunch of people who would like to be friends with her if she treated them better? I’d like to hope so, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she learns the wrong things somehow.
Maybe, but this isn’t really a rejection. She hasn’t been walking with them, so they weren’t waiting for her and she came out late enough they didn’t notice her.
I’ve found that something that usually works with untreated clinical depression (which Dorothy definitely is showing signs of – I remember them well) is just keeping busy, staying too distracted to be in a downward spiral. Be it keeping busy or getting busy – if your mind is preoccupied, it can’t acknowledge that it’s not getting enough time on the seratonin
Other characters have had the big, dramatic character development, but Sarah’s really come a long way. Original Flavour Sarah would have maybe admitted she loved Joyce, if forced, but probably not to a guy she’d formed a connection with over hating people. She certainly wouldn’t have aknowledged out loud that she cares about the rest of these doofuses.
I mean, Billie hasn’t walked with them in weeks, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t be waiting for anyone else
Wonder why Jennifer’s waving at them, she’s never walked with these people
She is not “allowing” her anything, she just tell her she can go with him instead of walking with them if she wants, making her not fell obligated to anything.
( squints )
I’m runnin’ and I won’t touch ground
Oh no, I got to keep on moving…
Never let another girl like you
Work me over
Never let another girl like you
Drag me under
Y’know, I’m actually pretty skeptical of Tony’s ability to identify freshmen by appearance? People’s appearance doesn’t change that much from 19-22, it’s not like you can just look at somebody and immediately know what year of college they’re in.
it’s possible it could also be process of elimination of not having any of them as classmates in specific classes, even if college is more flexible of freshman and 2nd-3rd years being all mixed together
Researchers showed clips of the podcast to survey respondents and had them share their thoughts. 57% expressed a negative reaction to his agreement with Charlie Kirk on "woke" language and 63% had a negative reaction to his comments on trans athletes
The great thing about writing for a Transformers Wiki is occasionally getting to write sentences like "Megatron has a theory that he can attract young men by wearing cat ears and ending his sentences with meow." because it's a thing that happened in a cartoon once.
Gavin Newsom sees 10-point net drop in favorability since launching his podcast. Survey finds "the podcast only made 13% of voters have an improved perception of the Governor, with 26% saying that it harmed their perception."
today in #9ChickweedLane I learned we should ask our parents completely normal, not fucked-up questions like "hey what was sex with the other parent like"
So many opportunities for a good old-fashioned booing
paulaptb@paulaptb.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Schumer begins a book tour this week.
Mon 3/17 7pm Central Library, Baltimore
Wed 3/19 Politics & Prose, DC 7pm
Thursday 3/20 at the Weizman, DC 12:30PM
Sunday 3/23 · 3pm Moss Theatre Santa Monica, CA
Mon 4/21 MJCCA Atlanta 7:30PM
Line the sidewalks. (List may not be complete)
These are the same Senate Democrats who lectured the base for years about the importance of preserving the filibuster so it would still be available when Democrats were in the minority
new from me: I wrote about the mess that just went down in the Senate, where Democrats under Chuck Schumer look disjointed and rudderless in the face of Trump's agenda, especially compared to their House counterparts
The most annoying thing about this cowardice by the book-touring Dems is that MAGA will lose. A full-throated opposition will win. This administration is brazen and corrupt, but they're overconfident and incompetent and not people to run away from. We'll win, even if we have to do it ourselves.
today in #9chickweedlane i've learned that the fetishization of post-marital hanky-panky has resulted in the straining of everyone's mental health, #somehow
paulaptb @paulaptb.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Winter’s Politics
@winterspolitics.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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Oops, the friends you pushed away have all moved on!
Shhh. It’s better this way. Better for Willis’ drawing hand.
Time to get rid of Billie to bring in a new character who is always on a bicycle or a horse.
Could introduce a new mysterious superhero. Call her…The Cheerleader, or something.
How could anyone have seen this obvious fallout comi— oh right, it’s Billie.
Jennifer if you’re nasty.
I feel like if she talked to them, at least some of them would accept her back in. They are just not going to wait for her.
Walky put up with her and the other cheerleaders bullying him through high school. This is nothing compared to that!
It’s just Jennifer who wanted “out.” Might have made some mildly unkind comments about nerds, but the worst she has done is not talk to any of them for like a few weeks. All she’d have to do is hurry down the steps.
They’ll be like “Hey Bjennifer, where have you been?” and “She has her COOL friends now, she doesn’t like us” and she’ll be like “Shut up Walky, I like you fine. Sorry I been so busy but, it turns out, today I’ve got time for friends. So what have I been missing?”
You know, in the alternate reality where Jennifer can make a single simple obvious good decision.
As depicted in the syndicated newspaper comic “Coming of Sage Decisions”
that comic is so boring though. All the conflicts are resolved extremely quickly, nobody does anything stupid, and if they do, their friends are always 100% supportive and get them through it.
It’s a feel good comic, but i need conflict dangit!
Do you??? DO Y…Oh you mean in your comics. Yeah I get that
everyone was fine with Jennifer walking with the group a few days ago when Sarah started her smile saga. here its just her own issue of does she want to run to catch up and risk looking over eager or walk behind alone.
Is there some reason they should have been expecting her?
Don’t look at me. I’m trying to figure out if that’s a goodbye wave or a wait up wave in the last panel.
Are none of them aware of Dorothys slowly escalating crashout?
I think Walky’s interpreted her keeping herself occupied as a good sign regarding that. We’ll see whether or not he’s right.
Clearly not aware enough to be concerned
… do we know what Dorothy is busy doing?
I feel like the comic thinks I know, but I don’t remember.
Or is this foreshadowing for an upcoming reveal?
A peek in the archive indicates that Dorothy was last seen the day prior sending Joyce a lewd photo.
So yeah, I have no idea what Walky is talking about here.
It’s been heavily implied if not just outright stated that Dorothy was likely going to join Jocelyne at the protest. Y’know that protest that just escalated this morning? Hopefully she’s just making out with Jocey and not in jail.
I just went back and re-read all the Dot/Joce strips to see if I’d missed something. Don’t think I have. That has neither been stated nor IMHO implied.
Jocelyn definitely offered for Dorothy to go with her to the protest. That’s as far as the implication went, though.
Did you read this one?
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/02-the-one-where-jocelyne-returns/carve/
Feel free to tell me your interpretation of it. I could be wrong on my read. To me that at least implies she would consider attending the protest. What else is she writing apology letters for? It’s either the protest or Dorothy has something else irritating planned.
I for one interpreted it as Dorothy trying to come around to the idea of being President to be an irritant, but that Dorothy still feels the urge to pre-write apology letters for the presidential war crimes
I think the alt-text supports considering protesting. “dear mister president, there are too many social inequities these days, please eliminate three (ps i am not a crackpot)” Sounds like a very Dorothy protest letter
It’s a reference to The Simpsons, where Grandpa was typing a letter to the White House complaining that he thinks there are too many states.
I think you’re right that Dorothy means to go to the protest, and specifically that she is there right now. I’m excited to see what changes come of this and I really hope she finds a healthy outlet for the overwhelming urge to be a force of change and good in the world that she struggles with.
Maybe they’re making out in jail?
Now that’s hot, and Dorothy deserves it.
Well if it’s not something new it either involves pictures of boobs or the upcoming protest.
She’s at the protest, topless.
This is honestly the only possible correct interpretation.
So she sent Joyce a glam shot photo of her breasts, because only her closest friend gets early access and premium content?
Ya know how writers need their beta readers? So, yeah, lewdness leaders need their beta lookers.
Creatives need editors
Mars needs Moms
But Mike needs
yourMom.For a nickel.
Topless protesting is the next logical step.
Sometimes the real protest is the friends we made (out with) along the way.
Have a +1 internet point.
Maybe she’s snagging another byline.
Getting the scoop on an unidentified person burning down the ROTC building. She just happened to be the first on the scene.
Joyce is the only one who’s aware to any degree and I don’t think she realizes how bad it is or could be. The others are a bit too separated from Dorothy to really know, I think. At least, the others in this specific group. Ruth and Jennifer definitely know Dorothy’s heading for a crash out.
Maybe she’ll take the hint that she’s a terrible friend and actually change. She won’t but you know.
Maybe she’ll take the hint that just standing there waving at people whose backs are to her and are walking away from her isn’t all that effective.
Well, these guys are definitely an improvement on trying to get Raidah to be your character witness at least
Billie: I am also here (allegedly)
*You Say Run begins playing as she proclaims this*
AIN’T NOTHING GONNA BREAK MY STRIDE
NOBODY GONNA SLOW ME DOWN
Everytime I hear this song, I think “Yeah! Supertramp!” but then each time I look it up YouTube, it’s actually Matthew Wilder, and then I’m like, “Who the hell is Matthew Wilder?” I have no idea why I can’t him. Hell, I *lived* thru the ’80s! I consider ’80s music to be MY MUSIC, and yet, some things just won’t lock into my brain.
He was in the 80s, but he was the part of the 80s that would fit comfortably in the 70s.
I was in the ’70s also, as well as part of the ’60s, and while I love The Beatles, Creedance Clearwater Revival, The BeeGees, KISS, Led Zeppelin, Bob Segar, The Carpenters, Elton John, etc, it’s always the ’80s that I return to return to music-wise. (But not the fashion; dear Cheese, not the fashion!)
Music is best considered by years ending in 5. 1955-65 pre-Beatles. 1965-1975. Post Beatles but pre disco. 1975-1985. Synth and disco.
Supertramp doing that song would be WILDLY different. Surely halfway to “Crazy.”
If it helps, he apparently also composed music for Mulan (and provided the singing voice for Ling).
OH NO!
I’VE GOT TO KEEP ON MOVING!
Maybe Jennifer & Dorothy will hang out together. I’m sure that wouldn’t be a disaster.
Would be less of a disaster than what I’m expecting. We know Jennifer’s looking for someone to help her convince Alice that she’s fine and normal, and I 100% expect circumstances to conspire such that she enlists Ruth for that task
Well. asking Raidah was certainly a mistaker, and based on today’s Bonus strip on Patreon, Jennifer should definitely avoid asking Dina!
“No, Jennifer, I will not help you talk with Alice, because she has wrong ideas.”
“Is she anti-science?”
“No, she is anti-cereal.”
All this is moot. In Book 13, on page 167, Willis reveals that Dina and Jennifer are endgame!
Sal don’t look now but there’s a massive dick behind you
That’s what she said
That might explain her facial expression.
Nobody likes Jennifer. Billie was suicidal. Is there a middle ground?
Well, if we wanna be overly literal about the “middle” part, she could always start going by Yunru.
I personally feel, with regards to names, that there’s at least two camps of people. There are people who feel that their name defines who they are, and by changing it they change themselves. Then there are people whom their names define themselves, that even when they start going by or accepting a new name doesn’t define themselves by that name but adds it to their whole name.
Billie / Jennifer is very much in the more extreme side of the first group. She found her name as Billie from Walkie right before she entered a whole new phase of her life and a peer group, putting away ‘Jennifer’, and defined herself by ‘Billie’ for, what, twelve or thirteen formulative years. When she decided she was ‘Jennifer’, she tried to pack up everything that was Billie and put it away, jettison it, unless she absolutely needed to go unpack something of that former person. As far as she’s concerned, she’s eliminated ‘Billie’. She’s ‘Jennifer’ now.
Don’t get me wrong – both types of name / indentity association could be unhealthy. (Also, this is how I look at others and their applications of names – it is by no means any sort of psycology that I know of) – but in Billie/Jennifer’s case, she’s taking it a bit too far. As a consequence, today she’s more ‘Jennifer’ than she’s ever been-
And none of these people have ever been friends of Jennifer’s.
I don’t know.
Sometimes I think the audience here takes Jennifer’s name chance much more seriously than she does.
Also have a better idea how to read Jacob’s line last page now, seems like the charitable interpretation is the correct one. Happy about that
Which leads me to think if he gets wind that Raidah is trying to end this—we may see an actually angry Jacob.
Sarah openly admitting her affection for her friend group? Is she ill?
maybe, but it probably helps that Tony makes her comfortable saying ‘they are annoying but I like them’ rather than making her feel like she has to pretend she’s cooler than them or that she has to pretend to be more friendly than she is
I feel like some of that was also from her decision to change, even if she was forcing it a little.
Also with regard to Tony specifically, he has explicitly expressed his preference for being direct and straightforward with one another. Putting up a front about not “really” caring about them even though she clearly does would work against her.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/02-the-one-where-jocelyne-returns/buffoonery/
It’s real nice to see Sarah so happy and comfortable.
I’m surprised we don’t see more, “oh, hey, you’re one of the abductees” when new people meet this group.
“Hey you’re one of the abductees, and so are you, and so are you! Am I about to fucking get kidnapped?
“So, what’s your affinity with alien tech?”
had half a second of ‘oh, they forgot jennifer’ before realizing she isn’t supposed to be exiting from their building anyway
Suddenly Jennifer
I was going to go down the Shia LaBeouf (cannibal) musical route?
Read like CinemaSins.
They’re all freshman?! Gross! Sarah and Tony need to drop that dead weight. As the campus’ new ruling couple they’re too influential to be associated with freshies.
Heh.
It bums me out a little. Tony doesn’t strike me as the type to be “choose me or your friends”, but it does feel like that story is headed to a point where it’ll become a point of friction. Sarah has been maintaining she doesn’t “suffer fools”, but lately she very much has been.
Suffer fools, but complain about it the whole time.
More like “Suffer friends, but complain about it the whole time”.
As opposed to Billifer’s take: “Suffer, friends, but complain about it the whole time”.
A point of concern is that Tony’s on the football team, so even if he’s cool a lot of his buddies probably aren’t.
So we have seen *cough* Paul Incellerator*cough*
I don’t really get that impression, I think he was just asking. Because from his perspective it is probably a little strange all her friends are freshmen.
I’m hoping it’s more “[I don’t recognise them from any classes, and I’m sure I haven’t seen them around all that long/I don’t think I know any of these people]? Is this group composed of Freshmen?” With maybe a little bit of “Are they naïve fools, or are they serious about their education and capable of holding rational conversation?”
So many things have changed since the comic started, but no matter what… they’ll always walk to math class.
I think Jennifer is becoming Billie again and that might be a problem for her.
I think it might be an interim solution for her. Jennifer v1 was kind of a failure. If she can let herself be Billie again for a while (while avoiding the alcohol abuse) maybe she can grow organically into Jennifer v2 rather than applying a “mature” persona like paint.
Panel 4, I dunno, something about Sarah’s expression is interesting to me. Blissful, for sure, but I dunno. Definitely suspect the story’s far from finished, though I am super happy for her current, well, happiness.
I do feel for Jennifer, but she’s going to have to make some decisions about who she is, what she wants, and who she wants to share herself with.
Sarah has had her setbacks, but now is the time for her to have a big moment.
Jennifer…well, she was the one who broke away and joined Raidah, and at some point she’ll realize that joining her was a bad idea.
To me it read kind of like contentment mixed with relief. Sarah’s happy with Tony, but it’s probably also mixed with “good closure” feelings to know that Jacob approves and she can let go of her desire to pursue him and remain friends with him.
I read Sarah in panel four as giving a little bit of catty side-eye to Lucy. Lucy and Jacob said basically the same thing in panel three, and Sarah is pointedly thanking… Jacob. I think there might still be a little resentment between Sarah and Lucy.
Yep, looks like I interpreted Jacob correctly yesterday. His surprise was more that ANYBODY managed to snag Tony rather than thinking Sarah isn’t deserving of anybody
Go figure.
It’s almost like jumping to the worse possible interpretation is stupid.
(*grumps) I don’t like it.
Go, go to them, Jennifer.
Heh, I was wondering if anyone else was like me and still had sympathy for poor, lost Jennifer. “It is never too late to turn away from the darkness” is a creed I hold strongly to.
As long as she’s willing to try and everyone is okay with it, why not?
Yeah, I enjoy seeing evil get its comeuppance, but Jennifer’s not evil.
I don’t know if it’s just because I’m bad at telling what people’s ages are in general, but it seems kinda weird that Tony is able to tell whether someone is a freshman or a sophomore just by looking at them.
They lack the scent of cynicism and despair.
Tony lives in the same dorm as these people. I don’t think he knows Lucy or Joyce, but he’ll have seen Joe, Walky and Jacob around enough to be pretty sure they’re freshmen.
Isn’t there an Athletic dorm(s) at IU?
I wouldn’t know, but if there is Tony doesn’t live there
I do hope Tony comments at least once on Walky being Walky. “Kinda glad my dad dodged that bullet.”
I don’t think he will, he hasn’t shown any needless cruelty so far.
Plus he’ll only have seen them this year, which is a pretty good if not definitive clue.
I don’t know about Tony, but experienced faculty and post-grads can develop a feeling for identifying freshmen. Fall semester is easier than Spring semester, though.
When I was 24 working as an usher at a movie theater, I could pin down the 17 year olds from the high school graduates from the 19 year olds from the 20 year olds. There’s such a clear personality shift in people during that period that when you spend time with enough of them, you can recognize the differences.
When I was 20 I was too blissfully unaware to be able to recognize such things, though. Tony’s on top of things.
I do remember going back to visit my high school during my first year of college. They were children! It was amazing. So much younger than when I was there the year before.
Alternate title: How Sarah Got Her Groove Back.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this comfortable or relaxed before. After the trauma of dealing with Dana’s spiralling and the aftermath of Raidah’s bullshit, she deserves this. Absolutely.
It does make me wonder, was Raidah always “evil”, or did it only happen after Dana was taken out of school? Cos I don’t think Sarah would have put up with Raidah’s current bullshit from the beginning.
Not that it remotely excuses Raidah’s behaviour ever.
I’m expecting we’ll find out Raidah and Dana were a thing.
My suspicion is that Dana was the leader of their little clique while she was there and Raidah’s issues became a lot more obvious when she took over after Dana left.
Hard to say for sure since Sarah doesn’t many flashbacks of interacting with Radiah before things went south. I do strongly suspect however that Radiahs obsession with being an adult is atleast partly her doubling down after Sarah did the mature hard thing for a problem she wanted to ignore.
*I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sarah this comfortable or relaxed, I mean.
(Bonus avatar roll GO)
I’m literally the opposite of Daisy, I’m sorry.
Could be worse but one more time
That was Agatha, not Daisy.
“Does it make me look more desperate to walk to class alone or to run to catch up to them? Hmm…”
“Would it make me look cool and confident to shout, ‘hey, wait up!’?”
Well, remember a few comics ago, when BJ tried to ‘rescue’ Tony from Sarah? And got roundly rejected? Yeah, trying to casually hang out with them now might be awkward…
Jennifer, for once in her life, is actually asking the question “wait, why can’t I have that?”
Jen, you *could have* taken up Ruth on her offer for you to return, or you could have not been a manipulative bongo re Asher, but no…..
I can’t believe how awful Jacob is being about this. Look at him, standing there and saying nice things throughout the entire interaction, that son of a son. Goddamn, he makes me so mad I just wanna fill him with cranberry sauce until he’s had a comfortable amount of it and can’t really hold more without it becoming a bother. That’d show him.
But only if he likes cranberry sauce of course.
If he doesn’t, the only difference is it takes way less cranberry sauce.
An unusually specific response. But you failed to mention the most important point: jelled or whole berry.
Jellied, for sure. You can fit more in before he notices he’s full.
I am afraid to tell you this is someone’s fetish.
aw, she said she loves them~
Head Cheerleader, Timing Master
Billie: *pushes all her friends away*
Everyone: *moves the fuck on*
Billie: *surprise pikachu*
Sarah: Now I am the alpha bongo.
I can never really get back into that weird headspace of teenhood where a single year difference in cohort was a big frigging deal. I once dated a guy one grade below in highschool and it was le scandal.
I am bemused now to reflect that there were, like, 500 kids in my high school and every single one that I knew was in my graduating class.
The oofs keep coming and they don’t stop coming.
Um, What has Tony got against new folks, and why does he feel the need to label them? Or is this a USA thing? Sophomores are “wise fools” and “Freshman” is also an insult. Man it’s confusing for non USAvians! First year, second year, third year is so much easier, and nothing like as judgemental.
The fact that Sarah has zero friends who were at school with her last year is genuinely a bit concerning, though. Especially so since it’s followed up by ‘they took me in’ which essentially outright says ‘yeah, all my friends from last year ditched me’. The question of why becomes important. (Note: I expect Tony would have zero problems with Sarah’s actions in the Dana situation, aka the reason all of Sarah’s last-year friends ditched her. He’d have done the same.)
What with all the angst and stuff the previous year, Sarah kinda didn’t have a freshman year, socially.
I don’t think he has a problem with them, he just noticed something kinda curious to him. While not unheard of its more common for friend groups to be formed during someone’s freshmen year.
This. Plus 18-22 is a period of great change in most people so a year’s growth can make a big difference in attitude, dress, confidence that “I belong here”, the way they carry themselves.
And when you show up as a freshman the older kids already have their friend groups and they’re busy doing their own things, while there are also all these other new freshmen who don’t know anyone looking for people to hang out with.
Also, for whatever reason, it seems a large majority of people on their floor are freshmen, with a handful of sophomores and no one older?
It’s standard US terminology. Most high schools and colleges are four years, and both use freshman, sophomore, junior & and senior as the names of the years. None of them are considered derogatory, and would guess that 99+% of students are never even aware of the etymology of sophomore.
You’re the one being judgmental here.
OK, thanks for the explanations here, people. As I say, it can be very confusing when you are not used to it. And possibly, what i said could sound judgemental in the light of the other info/explanations people have given me… but that is why I asked “why”, and prefaced it with “Um” – I spoke as my social upbringing caused me to interpret it. I was questioning that.
So, yeah, thanks for teaching me new stuff.
Bye bye, Billie.
Hope that Tony comment doesn’t end up coming back to be bad. Its (normally) never about the Age Disparity in College; its about the Experience Disparity & how much of your soul you carry into doing more Adult things.
I would expect him to inquire why all Sarah’s friends are freshmen since ‘they took me in’ all but outright says ‘any friends I had last year ditched me’. It would be a good idea to poke a bit at why that was. (I would also not expect Tony to have a single problem with ‘my roommate was doing drugs in our room and spiraling hard, she needed help and also my grades were slipping from trying to take care of her, so I called her dad’ as said why.)
I do anticipate some tension, with Sarah now having her friend group and also access to Tony’s, who likely average older.
It’s possible Tony has teammates rather than friends.
That Joyce face…
I could do with at least 5 times as much Joyce in this page.
She’s still ultrasonically squealing.
Oooooooone is the loneliest number that you’ll ever doooooooooooo
Excited for the eventual return of Billie and departure of Jennifer
…is there a third option? Please?
Alien Abduction.
Where do you think his football prowess comes from? The Dean?
Thank you… Jacob ? He’s not the one who offered.
Lol, checked the whole comment section to see if someone else mentioned this yet before posting the question and then you beat me to it as I was typing it. Oh well, glad I’m not the only one wondering, I guess.
Everyone overlooks Lucy. Except Jacob.
Hm. Am I overthinking it to wonder why Sarah replies to thank specifically Jacob and not Lucy in panel 4 after they BOTH encourage her to spend time with Tony? Is there still some animosity between Sarah and Lucy?
I think Sarah could be reading Lucy’s statement as condescending. We release you could feel a bit like assuming that they have ownership of her time.
To be clear, as a person who has had my awkward efforts to be nice read that way before, I’m on the fence. It’s just as likely Sarah just feels petty towards Lucy about dating Jacob, or perhaps that she’s feeling a bit smug towards Jacob after feeling rejected by him before for not being ultra-smiley.
Hoping that Tony noticing Sarah’s entire friendgroup is freshmen leads into a question of why and Sarah explaining the whole deal with Dana and Raidah’s group, so Tony is fully armed with information when Raidah comes sniffing around
Tony, being the son of one of the Deans, may or may not already know about that drugs-related suspension from the previous semester. I can see it either way. But he definitely should know about the incident of the active shooter, kidnappings, and student death.
Dana wasn’t suspended. Her dad pulled her out (probably went down officially as a leave of absence due to bereavement/mental health)
Ahh. Then definitely Tony won’t know about it. Not news-worthy; not fodder for dinner table discussion at the McHenry house.
Full-body OOF at that last panel.
Is Jennifer gonna realize soon that she’s been treating like crap a bunch of people who would like to be friends with her if she treated them better? I’d like to hope so, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she learns the wrong things somehow.
Maybe, but this isn’t really a rejection. She hasn’t been walking with them, so they weren’t waiting for her and she came out late enough they didn’t notice her.
Hopefully Dorothy is busy exploring her bisexuality and/or protesting with Jocelyne and not continuing her downward spiral.
I’ve found that something that usually works with untreated clinical depression (which Dorothy definitely is showing signs of – I remember them well) is just keeping busy, staying too distracted to be in a downward spiral. Be it keeping busy or getting busy – if your mind is preoccupied, it can’t acknowledge that it’s not getting enough time on the seratonin
I know the symptoms as well, fellow depression warrior.
I need my phone or the darkness take over my brain
That’s Jacob recognizing that he and Sarah were not a good match. And wishing her the best. Now they can be friends without any awkwardness.
Other characters have had the big, dramatic character development, but Sarah’s really come a long way. Original Flavour Sarah would have maybe admitted she loved Joyce, if forced, but probably not to a guy she’d formed a connection with over hating people. She certainly wouldn’t have aknowledged out loud that she cares about the rest of these doofuses.
Out of curiosity. Will this mean that Other Jacob is renamed Other Tony?
I mean, Billie hasn’t walked with them in weeks, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t be waiting for anyone else
Wonder why Jennifer’s waving at them, she’s never walked with these people
Wow so gracious of Lucy to let Sarah be happy with her new boyfriend. She’s so cool.
She is not “allowing” her anything, she just tell her she can go with him instead of walking with them if she wants, making her not fell obligated to anything.
The road behind was rocky
But now you’re feeling cocky
You look at me and you see your past
Is that the reason why you’re runnin’ so fast?
what the fuck
( squints )
I’m runnin’ and I won’t touch ground
Oh no, I got to keep on moving…
Never let another girl like you
Work me over
Never let another girl like you
Drag me under
Escitalopram helps with my paranoid thoughts and empty pessimism. Ask your doctor about it.
Lucy literally cannot be A TOTALLY NICE HUMAN BEING without some bozo treating her like a monster. It’s wild.
Lucy literally saw Jacob and Sarah getting close and intercepted him like prime Deion Sanders with the Falcons. High Step and everything.
Yes. She got with a guy who was single and capable of making his own decisions ~what a monster~ lmao.
“Oh look, the consequences of my actions”
You say her actions were consequential?
Hi Jennifer
I do not like that look on sarah on panel 4. Sarah, don’t.
Y’know, I’m actually pretty skeptical of Tony’s ability to identify freshmen by appearance? People’s appearance doesn’t change that much from 19-22, it’s not like you can just look at somebody and immediately know what year of college they’re in.
Oh, believe me, you know. Freshmen still have gleam in the eyes, to name one example
it’s possible it could also be process of elimination of not having any of them as classmates in specific classes, even if college is more flexible of freshman and 2nd-3rd years being all mixed together