Reminds me of that one scene in an episode of How I Met Your Mother when Ted tries to fire his boss and increasingly tragic things happens in the boss’s life.
My mother just died this last June. I can tell you that it’s a devastating enough event to turn everybody’s lives upside-down at once. I can see why things would suddenly get extremely worse for Dana. There’s a brief period when simply functioning is almost too difficult to handle, and unless you have a support network, you’re just not gonna make it. Though I think Dana did have a support network (her friends – trust me, friends are worth a lot). I guess we’ll see how it went down, and how bad the drug abuse got.
Yeah, I don’t know what happened yet (nor wil we until next week), but she probably delved more into substance abuse to try to escape from the grief.
Also, hey, sometimes there just isn’t a support network, or the support is faulty. If you manage to keep your life together and support other relatives, your family can always bite back with, “You’re not grieving right! You suck! Waaah! Waaaah! Waaah!”
No, it was definitely there pre-drama tag. There’s a strip when Robin wants to move in and says “My father beat me” and Amber says that what may have been a joke for her could be others’ reality or something similar.
I would lean towards that first option, and for good reason. Dana’s already got the signs of someone with a very bad addiction that’s not very good at hiding it (her thoughtless “second question”, the way she looks in panel two versus how well-kept she looks in panel one, the fact that it looks like she’s just toking up in their room without a single thought for things like -air flow- and that rooms have vents and lighting up inside isn’t something that’s going to be kept secret for long…)
Gotta say Danah and her friends seem nice enough so far, pot smoking aside. And her mother passing away just makes her more sympathetic. Of course as someone mentioned already that’s the sort of thing that can make the wheels come off someones life and maybe forced Sarah to do something for Danah’s own good, even if it alienated her newfound friends.
Even that doesn’t paint them with the bongo brush though, I’m wondering what happened that Sarah is so hostile.
Raidah and her cronies became pretty hostile too. Sarah ratting out Dana could have pissed them off, causing them to be hostile toward her, which made this conversation happen a few times.
Know the part that makes Raidah and the other two bad friends? Their “friend” was doing something illegal that they could have helped her with – and didn’t. And they’re also using the argument “They may be doing something wrong, but I still like them.” That’s what people say to justify still talking to bigots and violent people. “Sure, they may express this particular attitude, or only do this bad thing when they’re drunk, but the rest of the time they’re a great person!” The one does _NOT_ excuse the other, it makes it worse.
It’d be like someone trying to make that argument in favor of the guy that tried to rape and assault Joyce. “Sure he made this mistake in judgement, but he’s a great guy when he’s not planning on taking advantage of a woman he’s drugged!” =\
I think it’s pretty much a given that the whole group smoked weed. As far as the wrongness goes, well I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole, this isn’t the place for that kind of discussion. That being said, I wouldn’t put smoking pot your freshman year in college in the same category hate crimes, battery and assault or date rape, not all crimes are equal after all.
Read my post again, I was specifically saying it’s not the same, Zanosuke_Kurosaki was making the comparison, or that’s how I read it, still read it for that matter. I was just doing my clumsy best to refute them.
Well, just cause weed is illegal doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Tbh, it’s a lot less destructive than alcohol physically speaking, and quite possibly emotionally too(never heard of anyone coming home high off marijuana and beating their wives). From what I’ve heard it’s only illegal for political reasons.
Now I’m not a user of marijuana. I’m too much of a pussy to do anything illegal XD
But just BECAUSE it’s illegal doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Hell, it was illegal for women to vote in america long long ago, and that isn’t wrong. Politicians and, notably, a good portion of the public just thought so.
./is probably going to catch some flak for that comment, but I’m leaving on a trip and won’t be able to see anything for the weekend, so whatever, I won’t be responding to anything
I’ve been around a lot of people that have smoked a LOT of weed. Other than falling asleep or eating everything in the house, I’ve never seen anyone get their shit seriously fucked up. Other than the illegality of it, which isn’t much here, just a $100 dollar fine for possessing under an ounce, it’s nowhere near as destructive as alcohol, tobacco, or even the majority of pharmaceuticals, considering so many of them are just thrown at people when they really don’t need them. I have seen plenty of peoples lives completely destroyed by alcohol, many in my own family, lost several to smoking related illnesses, but the ones that just smoke weed, are still alive and kicking, and still plenty much enjoying their lives without harming anyone around them.
I’m thinking in Dana’s case pot will be a gateway drug for worse and this is one of those situations where Sarah probably acted to save Dana from self destruction as much as self preservation, but her friends didn’t see it that way. That’s how a lot of grudges start.
I *really* hope DW doesn’t go down that route. As thoroughly as the “gateway drug” concept has been debunked, it would be almost to the level of Ethan being successfully “cured” by one of those camps.
The gateway drug theory is ultimately, yes, bullshit, but there are things that look similar that are actually pretty true (sorry that sentence was messed up, I am bad at making things make sense).
Like, if you are already used to self-medicating daily irritations and minor stresses with things like marijuana, and something really REALLY fucked up happens (death of a parent), you’re going to be more likely to jump to self medicating with hard drugs then somebody who isn’t already used to using substances to deal with their feelings.
Why yes, you can just see her cackling malevolently there, filled with glee over her roommate’s destruction. See that face in panel 2? That is her murder face.
Next Monday’s revelation: Sarah is the one who killed Dana’s mom!
Sarah finds Dana crying in their room one evening and in a moment of lucidity Dana realizes that she needs somebody’s help. So she asks Sarah and Sarah does what she honestly thinks is the best thing she can do.
Then, when Sarah is feeling like the biggest asshole on the planet Dana calls and thanks her, which gives her the strength to deal with all the bullshit she gets.
Just a theory.
Dana had it all. The young protege of a wealthy family of lawyers, she was gonna go far in life. Raised to follow in their footsteps and become a public figure. Then one day her parents were killed by radioactive cancer. From that day forward, by day she was the eccentric heir to her parents moderate wealth living a lifestyle of affordably priced hookers and blow. By night she becomes Snowflame and takes her justice to the streets. Stopping crime so that nobody else will have to experience what she went through.
Seriously. It’s even worse when their tears get on your stuff. It’s hard enough to get good grades on a paper without turning it in with tear stains on it.
I was wondering if Willis started this series to create a “better” Funky Cancercancer Winkerbean; I’m not really familiar with American newspaper comics. Well, except for Garfield.
As someone who had it happen to me in Uni, I’ll be interested to observe how quickly Raidah & co. suddenly switch from false friendliness to being completely, unjustifiably bongoy based on what little they know of what actually happened.
Huh. No wonder Raidah is so pissed at Sarah. Not only did Sarah get Dana expelled, but she probly did it while Dana was dealing with the loss of her mother (albeit, not in the healthiest way, most likely), and she betrayed her friendship with the whole group. Unless Dana starts smoking literal mountains of weed, I’m not seeing how Sarah will walk out of this as the good guy. I really hope that after the story, her friends go “Seriously, WTF.”
Is it jumping to conclusions time?
OF COURSE IT IS! THIS IS THE INTERNET!
*me reading your comments*
(I know a lot of you aren’t jumping to conclusions, just taking guesses at where the story goes but I wanted to say it so I did)
(Actually I typed it)
(I have no idea how to use parentheses)
I am seriously thinking [jumping to the conclusion] that she switched from smoking weed to, like, heroin.
Well, I know there have been a couple sides of people being like “my mom died so this hit home”.
Well, I got kicked out of college for drug possession/dealing, ended up doing jail time for it, and am currently 6 months into my 3 years of probation, and in the middle of outpatient drug treatment. So I’ve been reeeeal curious about how this was going to turn out, and initially, actually felt a little upset about how one-sided it seemed like this debate was going to turn out. This makes it seem a lot more real. Nobody ends up getting really fucked by drugs without some shit going down in their life.
I could definitely see how Raidah and the rest of the group would be upset at Sarah if they thought that in Dana’s weakest moments Sarah “ratted” her out to get her kicked out of school. Doesn’t excuse their behavior, but I could see as how it happened. Have to wait and see how it goes down though.
As people have said before, Dana’s going to start smoking more as her way of trying to cope with her mother’s death.
But instead of Sarah ratting her out for that, what happens is Dana gets caught, and they both end up in trouble. Sarah “rats her out” to save her own skin and her scholarship.
I think we’ve all got it wrong so far. Drugs are just what Willis wants us to think at this point.
Dana actually starts inducing near-death experiences with some kids over at the med school in an attempt to see her mother again. Instead of seeing her mother, though, something else comes back with her. It’s actually Zuul that ends up disrupting Sarah’s studying.
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Sarah’s attempts at initiating a whip cream party seem to be failing.
It’s not a party until the whipped cream comes out.
Sarah’s aim needs to get better.
She seems to suffer from premature spraying.
Gotta hate it when that happens. Although it beats nothing coming out of the can, or so I’m told.
So this is how one goes from talking about spraying cream to packing fudge… Huh…
Oh.
Ooooooh
Yeah, that would probably increase usage.
Makes sense, nobody cards you for weed.
It would also make getting her kicked out of school seem a lot more like piling things on.
Reminds me of that one scene in an episode of How I Met Your Mother when Ted tries to fire his boss and increasingly tragic things happens in the boss’s life.
How does one fire their boss?
With a flamethrower.
He was his former boss.
sadly I tried to find a clip of it online to no avail.
As it turns out, very carefully.
That’ll do it.
I’m thinking she went on a “pot > chemo” kick.
Oh that makes things so much worse.
This is getting INTENSE. Just so many FEELINGS that I have to brace for all weekend!
Sarah murdered Dana’s mother?!?!?!?!?
too soon man
It’s the only way I could think of twisting today’s comic into making Sarah the villain.
Sarah threw a crab at her.
Sara gave her crabs? Incoming Rule 34!
Awww that was in hilariosuly bad taste…
No, too soon would be saying that a nickel was left graveside.
Just one?
Mike only needs one.
aaand that’s a really ironic avatar
Yes it is. It made me LOL if that’s any consolation.
Damnit, misspelled my own email. And it’s disheartening to know that my default gravvy would be Roz. I feel dirty…
What are you talking about?
technically it’s been a year…let it go.
Okay, non-silly post.
Wow.
My mother just died this last June. I can tell you that it’s a devastating enough event to turn everybody’s lives upside-down at once. I can see why things would suddenly get extremely worse for Dana. There’s a brief period when simply functioning is almost too difficult to handle, and unless you have a support network, you’re just not gonna make it. Though I think Dana did have a support network (her friends – trust me, friends are worth a lot). I guess we’ll see how it went down, and how bad the drug abuse got.
Maybe Dana is one of those people who don’t want that support network when it’s their life that’s going down the drain.
Yeah, I don’t know what happened yet (nor wil we until next week), but she probably delved more into substance abuse to try to escape from the grief.
Also, hey, sometimes there just isn’t a support network, or the support is faulty. If you manage to keep your life together and support other relatives, your family can always bite back with, “You’re not grieving right! You suck! Waaah! Waaaah! Waaah!”
Yeah man, that sucks, I’m sorry. My friend’s dad died and he ended up dropping out of high school. Things can get tough.
And… punchline!
More like a WHAM line.
punch-to-the-dickline
“Nnnhyyrg!! *wheeze* That’s alright DoA, *cough*, I didn’t need those.”
Willis might, though.
Mike gave her breast cancer with extreme rubbings during sexytimes.
Yay weee-. . . Ah Maaaaan!
not to many jokes I can make about this strip…
Then watch this. I don’t know what it has to do with the strip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SstaPDdf3pQ&feature=related
Wait, her mom died?
…
That bongo. No wonder Sarah got tired of her shit.
Got moms dyin’ all over the place…
I walked in on her with 9 dead moms one time. I was like “do you expect me to clean this shit up?”
one nickel at a time… Mike style :p
Congrats, I didn’t think I could laugh on a strip like this, but you proved me wrong.
I knew Yotomoe was prematurely sobering,
I agree. That post got me laughing, too 😀
Is that a Girls With Slingshots Grav?!!
So what you are saying to Yotomoe is “Like a Champion”?
Hooray!
Once again, I’m reminded that this comic comes pre-drama-tag-pulled.
Though I do recall some serious Amber-centric drama in Shortpacked! pre-drama tag. Or am I recalling incorrectly?
No, it was definitely there pre-drama tag. There’s a strip when Robin wants to move in and says “My father beat me” and Amber says that what may have been a joke for her could be others’ reality or something similar.
NO PUNCHLINE TO SEE HERE FOLKS, MOVE ALONG.
*watches anyway*
So, you do like to watch.
But of cause I do. 😀
Kinky.
Kinky is using a feather, perverted is using the whole chicken and disturbing is using the frozen chicken.
And squick is using that air cannon they test jet engines/windshields with.
Oh, hey, it’s Yomi, the glasses girl from Azumanga Daioh.
But now with braids for that extra class-rep feeling.
… holy butt tacos, I did not notice until now.
Couldn’t cope with the grief or really glad she’s passed away?
I would lean towards that first option, and for good reason. Dana’s already got the signs of someone with a very bad addiction that’s not very good at hiding it (her thoughtless “second question”, the way she looks in panel two versus how well-kept she looks in panel one, the fact that it looks like she’s just toking up in their room without a single thought for things like -air flow- and that rooms have vents and lighting up inside isn’t something that’s going to be kept secret for long…)
Ahahahahaha! Ah, your comics make me laugh so.
…
Wait. That wasn’t funny. Damn you, Willis!
Gotta say Danah and her friends seem nice enough so far, pot smoking aside. And her mother passing away just makes her more sympathetic. Of course as someone mentioned already that’s the sort of thing that can make the wheels come off someones life and maybe forced Sarah to do something for Danah’s own good, even if it alienated her newfound friends.
Even that doesn’t paint them with the bongo brush though, I’m wondering what happened that Sarah is so hostile.
Raidah and her cronies became pretty hostile too. Sarah ratting out Dana could have pissed them off, causing them to be hostile toward her, which made this conversation happen a few times.
Know the part that makes Raidah and the other two bad friends? Their “friend” was doing something illegal that they could have helped her with – and didn’t. And they’re also using the argument “They may be doing something wrong, but I still like them.” That’s what people say to justify still talking to bigots and violent people. “Sure, they may express this particular attitude, or only do this bad thing when they’re drunk, but the rest of the time they’re a great person!” The one does _NOT_ excuse the other, it makes it worse.
It’d be like someone trying to make that argument in favor of the guy that tried to rape and assault Joyce. “Sure he made this mistake in judgement, but he’s a great guy when he’s not planning on taking advantage of a woman he’s drugged!” =\
I think it’s pretty much a given that the whole group smoked weed. As far as the wrongness goes, well I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole, this isn’t the place for that kind of discussion. That being said, I wouldn’t put smoking pot your freshman year in college in the same category hate crimes, battery and assault or date rape, not all crimes are equal after all.
Are you an elf?
No, no I am not
You look annoyed. Are you alright?
I did your mother last night but instead of a nickel I got a metal slug.
WOW
Are you seriously comparing pot to rape?!
Haven’t you heard? Rape is the new Hitler.
It’s perfect, too, because while racism isn’t cool anymore misogyny is still very much in style.
No, racism is still very much en vogue.
You just have to be a lot more subtle about it.
I invoke Godwin’s Law!
Read my post again, I was specifically saying it’s not the same, Zanosuke_Kurosaki was making the comparison, or that’s how I read it, still read it for that matter. I was just doing my clumsy best to refute them.
…yes, that would be why I clicked the “Reply” button next to his post and not yours.
Well, just cause weed is illegal doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Tbh, it’s a lot less destructive than alcohol physically speaking, and quite possibly emotionally too(never heard of anyone coming home high off marijuana and beating their wives). From what I’ve heard it’s only illegal for political reasons.
Now I’m not a user of marijuana. I’m too much of a pussy to do anything illegal XD
But just BECAUSE it’s illegal doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Hell, it was illegal for women to vote in america long long ago, and that isn’t wrong. Politicians and, notably, a good portion of the public just thought so.
./is probably going to catch some flak for that comment, but I’m leaving on a trip and won’t be able to see anything for the weekend, so whatever, I won’t be responding to anything
Yeah but doing to much weed can seriously fuck your shit up. And it’s [b]REALLY[/b] hard to watch a friend ruin their life like that.
I’ve been around a lot of people that have smoked a LOT of weed. Other than falling asleep or eating everything in the house, I’ve never seen anyone get their shit seriously fucked up. Other than the illegality of it, which isn’t much here, just a $100 dollar fine for possessing under an ounce, it’s nowhere near as destructive as alcohol, tobacco, or even the majority of pharmaceuticals, considering so many of them are just thrown at people when they really don’t need them. I have seen plenty of peoples lives completely destroyed by alcohol, many in my own family, lost several to smoking related illnesses, but the ones that just smoke weed, are still alive and kicking, and still plenty much enjoying their lives without harming anyone around them.
And I can only guess things will go downhill from there 🙁
I’m thinking in Dana’s case pot will be a gateway drug for worse and this is one of those situations where Sarah probably acted to save Dana from self destruction as much as self preservation, but her friends didn’t see it that way. That’s how a lot of grudges start.
As this video proves all too well.
You don’t need to “gateway” into worse things for self-medicating with marijuana to become a serious problem.
Nope, but if Dana graduates to smack or blow it is whole other level of “you should probably think about not doing that.”
I *really* hope DW doesn’t go down that route. As thoroughly as the “gateway drug” concept has been debunked, it would be almost to the level of Ethan being successfully “cured” by one of those camps.
No. Nonononono. Including one drug-related fallacy doesn’t come anywhere NEAR the level of that sort of homophobic bulllshit. No.
She just means in degree of ‘incorrect’, not in level of awful.
Rippy the Razor!
Flippin’ sweet!
The gateway drug theory is ultimately, yes, bullshit, but there are things that look similar that are actually pretty true (sorry that sentence was messed up, I am bad at making things make sense).
Like, if you are already used to self-medicating daily irritations and minor stresses with things like marijuana, and something really REALLY fucked up happens (death of a parent), you’re going to be more likely to jump to self medicating with hard drugs then somebody who isn’t already used to using substances to deal with their feelings.
I’ll wait for someone else to make a The Room joke.
Don’t wait too long, or you’ll definitely get cancer.
Oh hai, Doomdarts.
The whole next week worth of strips will be nothingbut touch football
anyway how’s your sex life?
What a Story, Doomdarts
HA HA HA HA! Oh, priceless.
Wait, hang on.
I am waiting for the part where Sarah turns out to not be the jerk in this story. It isn’t looking good.
Why yes, you can just see her cackling malevolently there, filled with glee over her roommate’s destruction. See that face in panel 2? That is her murder face.
Next Monday’s revelation: Sarah is the one who killed Dana’s mom!
For a nickel? Oh wait… that’s maybe someone else?
Sarah finds Dana crying in their room one evening and in a moment of lucidity Dana realizes that she needs somebody’s help. So she asks Sarah and Sarah does what she honestly thinks is the best thing she can do.
Then, when Sarah is feeling like the biggest asshole on the planet Dana calls and thanks her, which gives her the strength to deal with all the bullshit she gets.
Just a theory.
Dana had it all. The young protege of a wealthy family of lawyers, she was gonna go far in life. Raised to follow in their footsteps and become a public figure. Then one day her parents were killed by radioactive cancer. From that day forward, by day she was the eccentric heir to her parents moderate wealth living a lifestyle of affordably priced hookers and blow. By night she becomes Snowflame and takes her justice to the streets. Stopping crime so that nobody else will have to experience what she went through.
Yotomoe, draw it!
you rang?
YESSSSSSSS
YOTOMOE, YOU ARE THE BEST!! ALL OF THE AWARDS!!
You are truly a gift to the community.
SOMEONE GET THIS CONCEPT A COMIC. NOW.
Snowflame is already a DC comics supervillain.
There’s this feeling of impending doom.
I have a feeling I will cringe either for a character, or AT a character. D:
“Dana’s mother died, breast cancer, that’s why I got her expelled. No shirt, no mother, no education.”
Well yeah. It’s really hard to study when you roommate won’t stop crying. Talk about inconsiderate.
Seriously. It’s even worse when their tears get on your stuff. It’s hard enough to get good grades on a paper without turning it in with tear stains on it.
Anyone else notice Sarah’s face not cracking into pieces in panel #2?
SUDDENLY, FUNKY WINKERBEAN
Don’t you meant Funky Cancercancer?
I was wondering if Willis started this series to create a “better” Funky
CancercancerWinkerbean; I’m not really familiar with American newspaper comics. Well, except for Garfield.I’m thinking Dana became convinced that legalized pot could have saved her mother, and started being more brazen about it.
Hmm, that is a storyline I hadn’t thought of. Although if her mother does the chemo, pot would definately help. So it is not too far out.
Holy wham line, Batman!
As someone who had it happen to me in Uni, I’ll be interested to observe how quickly Raidah & co. suddenly switch from false friendliness to being completely, unjustifiably bongoy based on what little they know of what actually happened.
Tsssssss
Huh. No wonder Raidah is so pissed at Sarah. Not only did Sarah get Dana expelled, but she probly did it while Dana was dealing with the loss of her mother (albeit, not in the healthiest way, most likely), and she betrayed her friendship with the whole group. Unless Dana starts smoking literal mountains of weed, I’m not seeing how Sarah will walk out of this as the good guy. I really hope that after the story, her friends go “Seriously, WTF.”
Willis, I really hope you keep going down this path.
The idea of making a character that people identify with and then showing how morally deplorable they *can* be is…Beautiful.
Is it jumping to conclusions time?
OF COURSE IT IS! THIS IS THE INTERNET!
*me reading your comments*
(I know a lot of you aren’t jumping to conclusions, just taking guesses at where the story goes but I wanted to say it so I did)
(Actually I typed it)
(I have no idea how to use parentheses)
(You have a point there.)
I am seriously thinking [jumping to the conclusion] that she switched from smoking weed to, like, heroin.
Well, I know there have been a couple sides of people being like “my mom died so this hit home”.
Well, I got kicked out of college for drug possession/dealing, ended up doing jail time for it, and am currently 6 months into my 3 years of probation, and in the middle of outpatient drug treatment. So I’ve been reeeeal curious about how this was going to turn out, and initially, actually felt a little upset about how one-sided it seemed like this debate was going to turn out. This makes it seem a lot more real. Nobody ends up getting really fucked by drugs without some shit going down in their life.
I could definitely see how Raidah and the rest of the group would be upset at Sarah if they thought that in Dana’s weakest moments Sarah “ratted” her out to get her kicked out of school. Doesn’t excuse their behavior, but I could see as how it happened. Have to wait and see how it goes down though.
Theory!
As people have said before, Dana’s going to start smoking more as her way of trying to cope with her mother’s death.
But instead of Sarah ratting her out for that, what happens is Dana gets caught, and they both end up in trouble. Sarah “rats her out” to save her own skin and her scholarship.
Just noticed that, for once, you didn’t use the title of the comic in the actual dialogue. Huh.
I noticed that too!
Danas mom dies-
Da.a spins into an out of control spiral of depression and drug use.
Gateway drugs become dangerous drugs. Dana nearly od’s.
Sarah saves her. Sarah reports the drug use to save Danas life. Booted from college as a consequence.
hmmm…. That’s my prediction.
Thought the exact same thing. Coincidence five!
I think we’ve all got it wrong so far. Drugs are just what Willis wants us to think at this point.
Dana actually starts inducing near-death experiences with some kids over at the med school in an attempt to see her mother again. Instead of seeing her mother, though, something else comes back with her. It’s actually Zuul that ends up disrupting Sarah’s studying.
YAY REX HONDO