DUMBING OF AGE BOOK 11 KICKSTARTER UPDATE
It’s the FINAL WEEK for the DUMBING OF AGE BOOK 11 Kickstarter! So here he is — and this is heavy — a surprise PROFESSOR BROCK magnet reveal!
You can pledge for him by himself at the PROFESSOR BROCK MAGNET tier, you can pick him to join your CHOOSE THREE MAGNETS or CHOOSE FIVE MAGNETS tiers, or you can go all in and him to your growing pile of COMPLETE MAGNET POWER!
JOE MAGNET is still queued up to unlock at $55k! Just seven days left in this thing. Will there be more magnets? We’ll see how this last week goes.
Remember, you can now “add-on” previous years’ magnets as part of your pledge!
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some folks want a… headrest?
faceplant?
hood(ie) ornament?
Does Sal horny?
No she’s just in looooove.
Both can be true.
backplant
I think Sal might have been looking for – and found – ‘a-dork-able’.
Hey, I was going to say that!
Everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around.
Or do they just want prosthetic Danny on their forehead?
Throw the crib door wide
Let the Danny come inside
I didn’t realize a Venn diagram existed between the set of people
who read this webcomic and fans of They Might Be Giants…
Do not underestimate the DOA fans.
Sal wants Adorkable. Just different enough from adorable to be it’s own category.
I see you Alt-text. Totes, say I! totes.
Awe, the adorable just keeps coming!!!! 😍
*plays “Beautiful Fantasy” from Sailor Moon CD on hacked muzak*
It’s nice that Sal has an Emotional Support Dork.
It’s that smile in the last panel that sells it. Sal knows she’s being adorable and is fine with it.
Yup.
But unlike some people, she doesn’t have a compulsion to broadcast it. She’s perfectly happy just being who she is, with the person she’s into.
And Danny’s happy to let her figure that out at her own pace, no expectations or quid pro quo attached.
Eh, Sal does have the opposite compulsion of hiding it, though. I guarantee if anyone else she knew saw her right now she’d be embarrassed, not because she’s being cutesy with Danny, but because she’s being cutesy with anyone.
What Fay said. Sal’s tried of being looked up to by some (e.g., Joyce off the top of my head) and being looked down upon/ignored by others (e.g., Asher’s circle.) She’s tired of being the resident bad ass, but doesn’t know how or where to move on from it (or if she even wants to move on.) With Danny she can “be herself”, and Danny’s perfectly willing to wait patiently while she figures out what that means. BTW, I appreciate this comments section. Whenever I have a WTF reaction to a strip, you all tell me what’s up. Thanks.
Also a structural support dork, if she leans any farther.
Somewhere, somehow, a chill goes up Malaya’s spine.
I mean Sals right, not everyone wants adorable
Sal absolutely does though
No, Sal wants adorkable there’s a difference.
Are you saying Dina isn’t adorkable?
Dina is way too cool to be adorkable. Besides, Danny’s dorkiness dwarfs that if anyone..
While Dina is adorkable herself, Dina and Becky are adorable.
Sal wants her own adorkable. And that’s Danny.
I’ve got a vague memory of a Calvin Klein fragrance commercial. But which one?
Nothing comes between me and my fragrance but Brooke Shields?
To soon?
D’awwwwwww.
D’awwwwwwdorable.
…my heart just grew three sizes.
Sounds painful tho.
“Yeah, turns out your heart growing three sizes is bad for your health.”
Dilated or hypertrophic?
She said maybe not everyone.
That doesn’t mean she’s not one of them.
Hopefully Danny is, because Sal is being adorable.
Adorbs how Sal’s so comfortable that her hair goes natural.
Sal’s hair has been natural since the time skip, I thought?
It’s equally cute and sad for me to see this comic cuz like. We know Sal is tired of people seeking her out as cool and vying for approval.
but i am happy she has Danny
https://i.imgur.com/J1PhCi8.png (NSFW)
Guys. I just like drawing Billie. She’s got a lot of fun shapes.
Story so far…
https://imgur.com/a/9Ob1cy3 (NSFW)
Wii Gii!!!! 😂
Just in case no one else has said it …
Thank you for doing this on Imgur instead of making me sign up for something like DeviantArt in order to see this.
You said it!
The censors can suck my octagon!!!
I’m glad you like drawing her because the way you draw her is A+
Shirt on boob sometime better than no shirt on boob. Consult doctor.
hey, i’m curious, what do you use as reference?
do you have someone around you can ask to pose? do you take pictures of yourself in roughly the position you want? do you find pictures online? or have you just had so many live sketching sessions in art school that you can draw basically any position from memory now? i’m just really impressed with Billie’s positions and gestures in today’s strip.
It’s all from my head. Sometimes I’ll use art I like or Willis’ art for reference but 9/10 I just sorta make up the poses from my head.
no shit!?
wow. that is a sick superpower to have.
Sarah Andersen: it’s practice =D
also Sarah Andersen:
There are also pose apps you can get. I use to date an artist and she had a few apps like Magic Poser on her tablet.
Oh I’m well aware. If I run into a pose I’m having trouble with I’ll probably use that. Probably more likely when I get to lining this behemoth. But for now I’m keeping it simple and loose.
Gotta say your art is very impressive! Can’t wait to see the updates!
Magic Poser…
Tell me human, please, is there a free alternative to this for Windows, that can be used with pre-made 3D models?
Ya got me! No longer dating an artist and I can barely use mspaint!
Always the possibility of running bluestacks to emulate android though
Thanks for replying anyway! 😊
You good with sound or searching the web for sounds and music?
I’m making a a free DOA game and highly appreciate all the help I can get!!!
Maybe I’ve said before that your draws are getting better and better…
Kaguya-sama’s Narrator: That was a lie.
aww
Not everything is about gaining acknowledgement and impressing people. Sometimes people are just excited about something and want others to share in their excitement.
When that thing is ” WE FUcKEd” Thats not appropriate to ” share” with other people, especially without consent.
…why is that an inappropriate thing to share though? (i’m still fielding answers to that question because i’m honestly puzzled by the number of people saying some variation on that, and i’d like to understand.)
Some people are uncomfortable with sex…. either culturally or because they find managing the feelings difficult. Some people intensely delineate between public and private personas and dislike it when people cross the boundaries. Honestly there could be all sorts of and combinations of reasons.
do you fall in either of these categories?
i guess my unease about this is down to how much i LOVE hearing personal stories, including about sex. (i don’t think i’m aspirational in that ftr, i just live vicariously through others most of the time lol) so my instinct is to be like “let people tell you they’re happy, that doesn’t obligate you in any way”. but i’m wondering maybe that’s an insensitive thing to say. maybe it’s also a culture thing, in my circles talking about sex is widely welcomed and considered emancipatory, so i may be out of touch with the larger culture.
I would find it obnoxious if someone carried on talking about it after the other person has expressed disinterest or irritation, but i feel like drawing the line at “just don’t talk openly about sex, period” is kind of skirting with socially conservative attitudes (especially when directed towards people of marginalised orientations, although i personally don’t mind anyone talking about sex).
i can also appreciate that being openly stoked about getting laid might hit a nerve with people who are lonely, or just broke up maybe. but again, should you avoid talking about it at all for that reason?
Also, i know i’ve been insensitive about ace-spec folks before, so maybe this is relevant here. Maybe ace people would rather sexuality be less omnipresent in public discourse. But Dina is ace, so what does that mean? Is she out of touch, is she an outlier, is her characterization problematic here? Or is this all beside the point.
i’m also curious how people come to react negatively to these interactions in the context of, well, reading DOA, a story very much about romance and sex.
and of course i realize different people will have different reasons for finding Becky & Dina irritating or insensitive here. Just curious what those reasons might be.
So… Talking about sex in workplaces is in general inappropriate because it can create an atmosphere others can find offensive but feel stuck with and this can amount to sexual harassment. Telling your friend you had sex is different because there isn’t the sort of power dynamic that means you can’t tell them if it’s too much and making you uncomfortable… Telling people you had sex but not to tell somebody also puts you in a position of having to keep a secret or potentially being expected to lie to somebody, and that’s not really fair. These two aren’t going into graphic detail, or continuing after people are asking them to stop, so my main concern is that Joyce will [over]hear talking about this and get upset about them keeping it specifically from her…
oh definitely there are contexts where this would constitute harrassment, but this isn’t that sort of situation.
otoh sure the “don’t tell Joyce” thing is weird. fair point, that does make it awkward and unpleasant.
As a person that identifies as Ace myself, I find talking about sex just as uncomfortable and “Ew tmi” as when a friend cooes about the most satisfying dump they just took, it’s natural, most people are capable of doing it, and I didn’t ask for that information.
This isn’t Becky and Dina talking to a few close friends, and telling a story, it’s them loudly announcing what they do in their private time to literally anyone with ears.
Some people just aren’t comfortable hearing about your bodily functions, or sexual acheivements.
Not because “They are lonely or just broke up” and not because “You should avoid talking about it”
They can talk about it if they want.. *with their friends*
They barely know Walky, Dina has never to my knowledge had a conversation with Lucy either.
They are going up to people who are on friendly terms at *best* and announcing their sex lives.
It’s rude, don’t burp in people’s faces, don’t tell the checker at the store “Lol me and my girlfriend totally fucked each other raw last night” either.
And Dina is “following Becky’s lead” as she said, and Becky is obnoxious and shove in your face about things.
Yeah ok, i think i see what you mean. Thank you for sharing and sorry if that came off as prying.
Naw, you’re fine! 😀
Being in the same zipcode as Joe may have given them the wrong idea as nobody complained very much when he was comfortably going around talking about his penis’s feelings and achievements with women whose names he never bothered to learn, and very little else. (And when they did, it was his objectification they complained about.)
Probably they won’t realize it bothers anyone until they’re told about it.
Becky and Walky are friends.
Not sure about Lucy but it seems like she’s been hanging out with them for a while, and Walky’s hung out with them almost every day since October.
I’m not disputing the rest of your point at all, just for the record, I’m just disputing the ‘Walky is not their friend’ bit.
Yeah, but Dina and Walky are not :V
Because it is – or at least, I feel it SHOULD be – a personal matter.
Because, despite what social media mavens may say, there are some things out there that don’t need to be announced, posted, publicized, or documented via video on Tikky Takky or Instagroan.
Let me ask you – do you, after returning from the lavatory, announce that “I POOPED!” and then proceed to provide details as to size, color, and texture? Same idea…
regarding the poop thing, and while being well aware that my own perspective is anecdotal (as is yours, mind) and in no way normative of people who feel differently, i will say that 1) the comparison falls flat because taking a poop is something everybody does on a daily basis, but 2) if the poop being advertized represented an achievement, say if they had been having massive and debilitating constipation for days, then sure, i’m definitely happy to hear about it and celebrate it with the person =)
But again, that’s just me. i know i don’t make the rules, nor should i. if people’s sensitivities are offended, then sure, some level of restraint is in order, regardless of whether i personally need it.
Good GOD that’s…well you know what I was going to say.
Hypocritical?
It’s a type of hypocritical I don’t of mind because it’s cute as hell.
No argument here.
How? its not hypocritical to want to HEAR about other peoples sex lives and cuteness while wanting to just enjoy your own quietly
Her hair, her expression, her everything in last panel. So cute.
She’s really allowed herself to melt with him. Like, one of the most guarded, the most vigilant characters in the strip, and she’s just… the weariness is melting right off of her when she’s around him. It’s really sweet.
Yes <3. I just want to like your comment because I love this about them right now too.
He sees the difference and it’s getting better all the time.
They might be my favourite DOA couple now 🙂
“Gimme’ your wallet.”
How could Sal have possibly known that Becky and Dina have banged?! It was such a well kept secret! Sal has scary intuition I tells ya!
very cute moment
thats adorable
Is Sal a Trump supporter, cause that’s a lot of projecting.
….
I’m… just going to imagine Sal making this series of faces at what you just typed.
Note, Sal doesn’t say SHE doesn’t want adorable. XD Clearly, she does.
Too cute, am dead.
Sal wants adorable tho and She’s got Danny! Hell yeah!
Thank you Sal
That last panel is so happy. It’s actually cheered me up a bit after having a rough day.
This murdered me.
While I am here I am also just going to link this strip (mainly for the last panel, but then also the next page and the one after). https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/friends-3/
“Becky, does Sal not understand that we can see her at this distance? I estimate it is only 6.32 meters.”
<3
Ok Sal
Sal’s smile is – dare I say it? – adorable.
Isn’t it tho?
“It’s not like I’m happy for you or anything, bakas!”
*blinking furiously* has there ever been a character in Willis multiverse more purely needing of an affectionate hug than Sal.
Aw, adorable Saaaal ^^
“This isn’t adorable, this is badass.”
“How?”
“…Cause ahm doing it”
I mean, if you take a second look, she doesn’t ever actually say that she doesn’t want adorable :D.
this comic is actually going to be the thing that turns me into shipper twash and frankly i find that really amusing
anyway, this is me, i am sal, hello
BOOP
Given Danny’s track record, he’s about to keep walking without noticing her.
Pot and kettle babey.
You say that, Sal, like you won’t come running to them to brag when you and Danny finally do it
I’m pretty sure Sal is too private for that
She wouldnt, because thats not a thing Sal would do….
Did’t they already do it on the Window
At first I was like “oh no, she’s envious” and then I saw the last panel and went “oh”
awww. very wholesome.
Veering dangerously close to bonk territory there, Sal
Not in any way hypocritcial.
Sal’s got them in the A D O R A B L E department.
Sal’s not just a cutie
You win.
I think sal is the inverse of Shikimori
Sal’s not just a badass
“My girlfriend is really cool, but sometimes…she’s super cute!”
Good point
I was always really sad about how things ended up for Sal in the Walkyverse so it’s really lovely to see her getting to just be a college student and be with Danny in this universe 🙂
Rarely have i liked Sal to such a high Degree as in that moment, that was the right way to tell them off.
dont misunderstand i always liked Sal ,just now she is extra likeable..and totaly dorbs
It would be cool if they fucked adorably, like in that one movie.
Which movie?
I see a contrast between what Sal says in the fourth panel and the way she smiles in the fifth, dipping her face into Danny’s back. She wants the adorable too♡, but there is something stopping her… Could she be a little jealous of how light-hearted Becky and Dina are on the subject right now? THIS IS EXTREMELY ADORABLE!
It must be love, love, love
Aaawwwww.
MIXED FEELINGS ALERT
I think YOU want adorable, Sal, if that content smile is any indication.
She does, but she doesn’t want to lose her “cool motorcycle badass” cred
Sometimes I feel guilty grumbling so much about Becky and Dina hogging the spotlight so hard the last five months because I know deep down if it was Danny and Sal I’d be writing 5000 word posts a day that could be summed up as “it cute.”
Anyway it’s not me if I’m not doomposting so; I think Sal’s not gonna be as open in public as she’d probably like to with Danny, definitely not as much as Danny would like to.
Sal’s life has been defined by being put in boxes by people around her. Her parents decide she’s the Bad Seed enough that she starts hanging out with the wrong crowd and commits a crime, as if that was an inevitability and not the ruinous endpoint of a decade of neglect and emotional abuse by that point. She comes to IU a badass biker chick who was supposed to find Jesus, not leather, and over time it’s been revealed that this is just something else decided for her; Sal isn’t Badass Biker Chick, she’s Sal. She just wants to be Sal, but she can’t be honest about that without someone treating her as a puzzle to be solved.
Danny, I think, is so significant to her because not just because she can be vulnerable around him, but because she can do so without him then going “ha, you were a big ol’ softie all along, weren’t you?” Sal isn’t the Broken Woobie Girl, she’s Sal. Sal can admit she wants a friend and she was looking for comfort and stability while trapped in another state, where she escaped her boarding school just so she could find another person to feel alive, and Danny will not hold this against her in any capacity, including the one where someone goes “you were sad all along :(” because Danny gets it; Sal is Sal. She’s not the tattooed biker chick who’s so out of his league he wouldn’t think about it, he is someone she has placed a phenomenal amount of trust because he proved he was worthy of it.
But I think Sal kind of needs that Badass Biker Chick armour, at least in the immediate moment, and a major struggle for her and Danny going forward will be how willing she is to leave it behind. Being seen as a badass is still an adulation that Sal never got even if it was still artificial (as she explained to Joyce that one time, she’s always going to be boxed in by someone), but it’s still Sal’s status quo that she uses to avoid being vulnerable around anyone. When Malaya sees Sal has flowers, their first instinct is to rib her and Sal says that she stole them (which is technically correct, but not really emotionally honest).
Or: Sal’s current status quo is defined by becoming something that other people defined for her. That vulnerability she entrusts to Danny, that she can do what she’s doing in this strip here where she finds him just to be affectionate, what’s she going to do when it becomes the latest link in a chain of “wow, Sal, is this really you?”
Moreover, Sal’s trust in Danny is real, but it’s contingent on Danny never doing anything to violate Sal’s trust issues and those are deep. If Danny were to respond favourably to the idea of Sal being cute around him, would Sal think of that as a betrayal? If Sal were to learn that Danny did have a crush on her when he got her that bike (in the sense that it was there, but he didn’t do it with the expectation of a relationship and his stated intent is truthful), would she not view that as proof that Danny was using her?
Sal’s defined by expectations and those expectations are something she had to start throwing back to defend herself. She’s dating a man with the same capacity for deception as an affectionate golden retriever after you’ve left the house for an hour, but that trust she has in him isn’t just contingent on him being Danny, I think it’s contingent on him being someone who never does or say anything that trips her alarms.
I think you’re probably right, and a big saving grace may well be that Sal knows it, too. She’s been pretty communicative with Danny as a result, which is good, and fortunately for her Danny has a pile of good traits in addition to the tendency to golden retriever love and honesty – he pays attention, he listens, he learns. In short, he’s not only safe (vanishing rare in Sal’s life are Safe People) he’s a safe person who has so far continued to BE safe despite minor alarm trips.
For Sal, Danny’s unconditional affection/love is freeing, where it’s been smothering or enabling for his previous partners. Which means this is genuinely good for him too. He wants Sal to be Sal, whoever that is, and she wants him to Danny to his maximum Dan.
It cute.
I think it’s a good sign that she’s being affectionate with Danny in public, even if it’s not in front of her friends.
Sal definitely wants adorable, or she doesn’t realize how adorable she’s being in the last panel.
I didn’t understand that either.
Fuck yeah back to best ship
No strife, no anger, just dapper hat.
thx Willis!
bye creep!
I’m still freaking out about it!!!
I used hypnotic suggestion to get him to spill even more, but you up and sussed him out as MrSmith right off the bat!!!
Milu, you would make an EXCELLENT ADHDemon!!!
😈😈😈 🔥🔥🔥
*plays “Hypnotik” by Ken Arai on hacked muzak*
Trump shill. Allergic to periods. Wildly unearned smugness about his politics.
It wasn’t very hard…
besides if i may, trying to draw him out wasn’t really necessary or useful. he was already drooling fascistoid talking points, so beyond telling someone like that to go diaf i feel it’s best not to engage, even if your ultimate goal was some sort of psyop. whether he was MrSmith’s alias or not doesn’t add much to the fact that he was already a blight on this comment section.
cool track tho!
Albeit it may have been unnecessary in hindsight, it was still well worth it to affirm confidence in your senses Milu.
His deplorable views were sus enough, I managed to get him to spill evidence that practically spoke for itself —
Using “favourite” instead of “favorite” suggests someone who lives in either the UK, Australia, or New Zealand.
At 5:00 AM server time, he said “I have work in the morning”, and since it was already morning in the UK by that time, that left us with New Zealand or Australia.
He mentioned his favorite drink being “sauvignon blanc”, which out of the possible countries is ESPECIALLY popular in New Zealand!
All that evidence, plus his repugnant attitude and views, pointed to really high likelihood of him being MrSmith.
Willis confirming his identity on Twitter was just icing on the cake. A DEMON ENERGY cake!
You were right in suspecting him all along Milu! Come on, be a Good Demon and celebrate!!!!
😈😈😈
Oh my god it was him???
That’s amazing. Milu, Ace Detective busted this caper.
lol you cuties are cute <3
Hey Spencer!!!! Come to celebrate too, I see?
The more ADHDemons, the merrier!!! 😈🧠🏳️🌈
Wait that was Mr. Smith??? Yooooooo
No wonder his takes were so nuclear
I didn’t even realize that creep got banned, but now that you mention it the comments have been nicely free from his particular brand of garbage lately
Thank you milu, you’ve done us a great service
(Also just wellerman @ your “favourite” point, i wouldn’t rely on that so heavily. It’s kind of a general common wealth thing, they teach British spellings in the Caribbean and i can only assume the other former colonies as well. The others are good points tho)
Thanks bruh!!! 😊😊😊
*followed by “Super Sonic x 20!!!!” from Assassination Classroom CD on hacked muzak*
To quote the great joyce: “And they always cut to a shot of Sal that proves wrong whatever Sal just said!”
oh my God i think this may be the most wholesome strip yet (don’t even ship danny/sal, but sal being happy is ❤ regardless)
“It’s ADORABLE, that’s what it is,” says Sal…angrily?
But seriously, I love her expressions in this. Esp. the last panel.
ok, but not everyone . . .
Not everyone wants adorable
Doesn’t mean sal doesn’t want it
I think this is the biggest I’ve smiled ever in DoA
I think she is really talking to herself here. I also think she isn’t sure about if/when/how to take that step with Danny who is not her usual type.
Awwwwww
I’m not adorable, YOU’RE adorable! 🙂
Without the last thing Sal said, what she said to Dina and Becky was ok. Her last bubble was mean. Why shit on their excitement and happiness? Like damn. It’s not just about being “adult” to them, it was about the strength and depth of their love. Basically like shouting from the rooftops “we love each other so much!”