Dumbing of Age

Tonight, the good ship SS Mary/Tranny has been sunk. It had a good run.

I guess Mary is just happy because she's getting some pure, Christian, over-the-clothes action.

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inb4 her boyfriend is ryan

>No Mary x Carla.
Willis just can't do ANYTHING right!

Oh, and here's a "bonus" comic where the only bonus would have been if you had never seen it.

Sorry about that.

Oh, So the story line is going to repeat how Mary gets teenage-pregnant and has an abortion?

Hello young people! It's your favorite nerd uncle David! I've heard the young people are into the Dream Daddies nowadays!

>Telling instead of showing.

What a fundamental failure of a comic strip. I get that this joke construction mostly works from not showing it, but it still feels like a missed opportunity.

It's nice to hear that she's just happy to be getting some. Although I'm sure he's gonna be super evil. Assuming he ever appears, It'll be nice to get some of Mary's belief supporting cast in the comic, though. It feels so weird with her having her beliefs without anyone to really bounce those ideas off of. Even her parents are supposed to be "good."

Fuck off Willis.

Does he number these? I have a bunch but I don't really have the release order.

>the dream is over
It was a good run, gentlemen.

Though now I ask why Willis opted to spend so long on this if it was just going to be sunk. He could have made one or two strips to set it up, then dunk it right there. Also of note, this whole matter was resolved off-screen, which is always a bad idea no matter what.

Well, at least we have our current crop of porn. Anybody wanna pony up $300 in the next Kickstarter to get Willis to draw Carla and Mary making out?

Ryan's been arrested, so that won't happen.

Jesus Christ, you're probably right. The father will even be a literally absentee father.

Who could it even be? Are there any males in Shortpacked that Willis hasn't remembered to use?

>are there any males in Shortpacked that Willis hasn't remembered to use?
Hmm. None of Ethan's boyfriends haven't shown up yet.

Not Shortpacked, but Beef hasn't been around since he was going to beat up Danny in like the first month of DoA strips either.

>Who could it even be? Are there any males in Shortpacked that Willis hasn't remembered to use?

Ninja Rick? But somehow younger I guess?

Dreams Daddies is shit

>no hidden option to romance Bat-Mecha Gordon

As far as I can tell the only named males Joyce has never met are Sayid and Ken.

Wouldn't she have been too disturbed to interrupt the make out session?

I imagine that everytime Willis makes a joke that deals with batman anything he thinks it's prime comedy gold. When in reality it's painful that he keep going back to the same old dry well.

It's like Willis saw the threads and was offended that people would DARE ship his "pure perfect trans Waifu" with a Christian Nazi.

How much you want to bet the new boyfriend is a sexist/racist who is just using Mary? (Maybe even try to rape her later).

I'm kinda insulted you called this pop-culture t-shirt mash up of a comic strip a "joke" but I see what you mean.

Remember that time someone made an edit of one of his Batman joke comics and it was better than the original?

It's pretty clear that he's just using the bonus strips as an excuse to make more Shortpacked strips. Also, it really feels like this would make more sense with Amber instead of Joyce.

Last night's password was "creeeaaation". I didn't think Willis would be so clever.
Tonight's password is "exchange".

Here's an interesting angle that I'm honestly wondering if Willis will follow: Note how Carla's immediate reaction to Joyce saying that Mary liked somebody was to think that it was her. What if Carla's been tsundere this whole time and was hoping that Mary liked her? She also appears to have a look of disappointment in Panel 5, if that helps.

It's probably a pipe dream on my end, both in the Carla/Mary ship surviving and in Willis actually bothering to expand upon the idea any further now that he's sunk it. On an unrelated note, Billie should wear a bra. Just look at her drooping tits.

is her boyfriend the guy mike fucked

The one time I wanted a "progressive" romance in this comic and Willis can't even do that.

What the fuck is a catapult suit

Pic Related.

I assume it's a suit in which she can catapult herself.

>Carla and Mary aren't allowed to be together because Willis hates Mary and considers her worse than Hitler
>Billie and Ruth's abusive relationship is okay

>making out in public
There goes my pure mary, thanks a whole lot david.

Oh, that's right, he's the guy she was fucking in Roomies so this is probably a retread. Also he's cheating in that case. (And she's probably not down with him taking or giving the long stroke to another gentleman)

Being Mary is truly suffering.

Although if Ethan was referring to Mary when talking about Eric's girlfriend in that strip (thanks for posting it), her sudden happiness being just over having a boyfriend doesn't scan. Instead he probably just started giving her the good wood and this attitude change is just extended afterglow.

Willis ruins everything.

>What if Carla's been tsundere this whole time and was hoping that Mary liked her? She also appears to have a look of disappointment in Panel 5, if that helps.

>I can't believe that Mary is making out with some guy.
>You almost sound disappointed, Carla, was it actually you who had a crush on Mary?
>Don't even joke. I hate her. It's just that sometimes you hate someone so much you want to toss her to the floor, rip her panties off, and fuck her until she has a screaming orgasm and is laying there quivering and unable to walk properly.
>Jesus Christ.
>What? It's not like I said I wanted to bite her neck until I could lick up her blood or put a cigarette out on her thigh to mark her as my property...you know, unless she's into that.

I think it might actually be worse if this is the case that Eric and Mary are dating, as it would confirm yet again that Willis has run out of original takes in the Dumbiverse and is reaching back to the Walkyverse for character relationships. How many has it been now? Robin/Leslie, possibly Joe/Rachel, and now this.

...

He seems to be intentionally dumping the relationships after doing a setup. Robin and Leslie aren't a thing after that pointless arc and Rachel doesn't like Joe. It's more like a formula for setting up and knocking down rehashes. Granted, he might just do Mary/Eric straight to shit on her, and have the added benefit of him not actually having to address her getting teen pregnant outside a mention, as the pace of the comic means it could be upwards of four years before she misses a period.

Good for her, Mary deserves to have someone who doesn't treat her like shit.


... so, how long until one or all of the terrible trio deliberately sabotages her relationship over some past sleight?

quads confirm it will happen - only a question of when

shame, Mary deserves better

Comments section will breath a sigh of relief at this as they were literally against the idea of Mary ever being a multifaceted character or seeing any redemption whatsoever. Willis sets up some potentially interesting drama to brush it all away a few days later so Mary can probably go back to being an evil bitch.

Also when she inevitably gets dumped it'll be another excuse to dump on her character some more.

I legitimately would not be surprised if there was some level of spite involved in this plot.

I am thoroughly convinced at this point that Willis does it purely because he thinks Batman itself (the name and the very concept) are inherently funny. Hence why his most famous Shortpacked comic is just "I'm Batman" repeated over and over.

"Batman is comedy gold" is actually a recurring joke throughout shortpacked. The logic is, a typically serious person doing something silly is amusing, and who's more serious than Batman?

So I'd like to try and do something...a little ambitious, and something I doubt many of you are interested in participating in, but what the fuck.

With school starting for me soon, I'll once again have access to the Adobe suite, which means I'll be able to do more video editing...thus, I'd like to set on something ambitious: A Sup Forums narrated telling of Dumbing of Age, done with more effort than willis has ever given.

To that end, however, I'll need more than just my own, and therefore, I'd like to open it up to you guys. email me your auditions and the characters you're interested in.

What I'm looking for:

clear voices - I don't need sound booth quality, but ideally, minimal noise in the background, and a clear enough voice that what's being said can be made out.

decently long recordings - not a full paragraph, but a few lines so I can hear what you sound like

the ability to speak at full volume - this one is a bit weird, but I know most of these threads happen at 1 am EST, which means those of you with roommates/family may not be able to speak at full volume. However, whisper talking is VERY obvious.

What I do NOT need:

Genders to match - I'm quite fond of my own interpretation of Becky, and I gave her a deep, manly southern twang. have as much fun with the voices as you like

huge amounts of effort - Willis doesn't care about his comic...why should you? All I ask for is what I mentioned above.

perfect, professional level voices - none of us are professionals. go nuts.

>continued in my next post with what I'd kinda like to see, auditions-wise

>Not Shortpacked, but Beef hasn't been around since he was going to beat up Danny in like the first month of DoA strips either.

Also Tony's existence is limited to a handfull of cameos.

Joyce - a soft-spoken, cute voice. M or F

Walky - nothing picky, ideally M

Dorothy - a more confident voice, ideally F

Billie - whatever you like...maybe a drunken slur?

Amber - I'm looking for a quiet voice that can also pull off full Bale batman...or if you have a better idea, go for it.

Danny - if you believe your voice is 'shit' and you've no confidence in it, this is the audition I want. male or female.

Sarah - the best STRONG SASSY BLACK WOMAN

Becky - if you think you can top my voice, go for it. male or female, I want to hear it.

Sal - the strongest accent I can hear, as long as it isn't tennessee. Male or female

Dina - not super picky on this one.

Ethan - I'd love to hear a feminine voice for the self-insert. Female or just cracked male.

Ruth - the strongest wisconsin/noofie accent you can give me. M or F

Joe - something bassey, or super feminine, sultry if you're a woman

Mike - whatever you'd like

Roz - not sure on this one...something valley-girl like?

Carla - this one, I'd really rather a female voice. I've not voiced her myself for that reason alone. Any sort of female voice is fine

Jacob - see Joe

Marcie - already cast.

extras - send me whatever.

>One more thing - I also need you to have recording software. Vocaroo will not do for this. Audacity is free, and it's more than enough. When sending files, export them as .wmv or .mp3.

>Send all auditions to [email protected]

Why would you leave out BatB Batman?

On the actual website, dumbingofage.com, the images have their date of publication as part of their title if you try to save them to your computer/phone/whatever.

Use AdBlock if you go there!

>Though now I ask why Willis opted to spend so long on this if it was just going to be sunk. He could have made one or two strips to set it up, then dunk it right there. Also of note, this whole matter was resolved off-screen, which is always a bad idea no matter what.
Pretty much.

Ryan's been arrested, so that won't happen.
Plus, it has to be someone that Joyce doesn't recognize, or she would have used his name.

Characters with little significance:
Straight
1. Penny (redhead Brit)
2. Meredith (suddenly appeared in Joyce’s hall)
3. Lucy (Malaya’s roomie)
4. Ken (pointless, works at Galasso’s)
5. Jocelyne/Josh (likes guys) (Joyce’s sibling)
6. Riley (youngest DeSanto, likes cereal)
7. Howard/Howie (Ruth’s brother)
Gay or bi
1. Bryan (Tales of Sinterest)
2. Sayid (Tales of Sinterest)
3. Alice (Billie’s old friend)
Entirely unknown
1. Other Rachel (purple hair)
2. Asma (Muslim at front desk)
3. New Alex
4. Galasso

Characters with no significance:
Peter Paul (straight)
Faz (straight)
Dana (straight)
Carl (straight)
Eric (had sex with Mike) (probably gay)
Char
Chan
Peyton (faceless student)
Dean McHenry
All the parents (straight until stated otherwise)
Professor Rees
Conquest (straight)
Arnold
Duncan (obnoxious about Transformers)
Frieda (Robin’s assistant)
Taylor (intern)
Tyler (intern)
Dawson (intern)
Sydney Yus (worked at Galasso’s)
Old Alex
Jake Manley
Jim
Leland
Tony (blond football player that Danny tried to pick a fight with) (straight)

Willis doesn't want to use any more of his characters that are based on real people, which include Ninja Rick and Ronald Reagan.

Also, Ninja Rick could totally be a janitor at the dorm, if not for that stipulation about not using real people anymore.

Also, more related to actual discussion:

Obviously no character is done anywhere close to well, but what are your favourite and least favourite DoA characters?

I plan to post the results after a while on the actual page, see if they get auto-deleted or if people whine about not getting to vote on the page and skew the results.

strawpoll.me/13646178
strawpoll.me/13646187

>It's pretty clear that he's just using the bonus strips as an excuse to make more Shortpacked strips. Also, it really feels like this would make more sense with Amber instead of Joyce.
Agreed on all accounts.

I thought that too. Joyce is socially unaware in a lot of ways, but she's generally not that stupid in this regard. I would have expected her to get wide eyes and slowly back out to inform the group that it wasn't going to be an issue.

>Here's an interesting angle that I'm honestly wondering if Willis will follow: Note how Carla's immediate reaction to Joyce saying that Mary liked somebody was to think that it was her. What if Carla's been tsundere this whole time and was hoping that Mary liked her? She also appears to have a look of disappointment in Panel 5, if that helps.
Valid points.

>I assume it's a suit in which she can catapult herself.
My assumption was that she would build a catapult around herself and chuck projectiles at Mary if she approached her. Willis's wording is always vague at inopportune times.

I assumed it was in her room.

GirlAnon here. I might send something your way to take the roles of some of the background girls that hardly ever talk.

MARY A GOOD GIRL
MARY DESERVES TO BE HAPPY

I'm expecting unanimous victory for Becky in least favorite.

Why isn't Carla on the "least favorite" list?

I'd love to hear your auditions for some other characters...hell, throw in some guy roles too, for the hell of it. IIRC you mentioned not wanting to swear, and that's understandable.

shit, did I forget to put carla on both lists?

fuck, I was just tabbing through in a rush, and it looks like I completely forgot her.

>where the only bonus would have been if you had never seen it
I hate Ethan so much

>On the actual website, dumbingofage.com, the images have their date of publication as part of their title if you try to save them to your computer/phone/whatever.

I meant the bonus strips, specifically.

How big do you expect this project to be?

I give it a month

depends on the interest. I like doing it myself, and I intend to start from day 1 basically as soon as I can get enough actors.

Willis didn't watch it so it doesn't exist to him

why the fuck is deflautermaus from The Tick in it is what I want to know

>Willis doesn't want to use any more of his characters that are based on real people, which include Ninja Rick and Ronald Reagan.

he used that programming teacher that was replaced by that woman, that was based on one of his trans friends if I remember correctly

I'm not calling you out I'm just saying willis is a hypocrite

It's Golden Age, Rebirth, BTAS/JL, Adam West, Lego, George Clooney, and Frank Miller, from left to right.

I've got Audacity but only a shitty integrated mic on my laptop, would that work?

>mike wears briefs
>in college
I fucking hate willis

I don't need top quality, just legibility.

not everyone has a yeti like me, and I'm aware of this.

He specifically said he didn't want to use *more* after that. He only brought the programming teacher back in to update their gender.

.... of all this bullshit he didn't put in christian bale?

>I'd love to hear your auditions for some other characters...hell, throw in some guy roles too, for the hell of it. IIRC you mentioned not wanting to swear, and that's understandable.
Haha, sure. I'll have some free time in the afternoon tomorrow.

Willis is weird like that.

Oh, yeah, someone on Patreon asked why he didn't include a certain Batman, and he said he only did Batmans who were dad's.

But then you he goes and creates amzi girl. A batman ripoff with all the angst and emotional baggage of batman but none of the cool shit that makes batman fun. Willis takes himself and his whiny self inserts way more seriously than any piece of batman media ever has.

Spoiler alert, it's Joe

What's going to burn our cinnamon roll this time?

If this is the abortion story arc all over again, its just a set-up before she's treated worse though.

I'm pretty sure she'd have said it's Joe, since at this point everyone knows who Joe is; though I wouldn't put it past him to phrase it like that just for the sake of stretching out a "cliffhanger."

>Mary finds out she's pregnant
>Roz immediately bullies her into getting an abortion
>Roz then publicly humiliates her by revealing she had an abortion to the entire campus

Willis storytelling 101

Its not Joe because if this is the Abortion storyline, it will make him accessory to abortion.
If this ISNT the abortion storyline, Joe will have to raise the kid with Mary instead of marrying his sweetheart in the Walmart / his sweethart at the tech campus.

It could be a Buckley storyline though.

>It could be a Buckley storyline though.

I think you mean it could be a BECKY storyline.

Where is Becky anyways?

Batmans with Robins?

Did you mean Loss?

STOP ABUSING MARY
CEASE THIS INSTANT
I swear willy can never do fucking anything right, I wish he at least stabbed his drawing hand.

He was probably gauging it among his fanbase to see if they went for the ship or not, and knowing that crew of screeching assholes, they probably all went berserk at the thought that transphobic evil Mary would be with their perfect tranny, so Willis resolved it this way instead.

Yeah, as other people have mentioned, he'll have Mary get pregnant and have an abortion or something to show what a christian hypocrite she is.

>No Mary x Carla.
Implying Carla won't put up a fight for her. Who ever that guy turns out to be I don't like his odds

He draws these months in advance. Its more likely in the backlog she already aborted it.

See even with this you can still make Mary sympathetic. Mary seems to like this guy but say he manages to get her to have sex with him and only sees her as a pump and dump. Maybe she ends up pregnant, maybe not, but she got played with emotionally and for someone like her that'd be pretty devastating. It'd humble her, make her more sympathetic and you can have her start interacting in a non-antagonistic way with other characters who try to help her out.

I still refuse to believe that. I mean, he probably does draw these a long time in advance but the excuse about his buffer and how he can't change those in the pipeline is bullshit. He uses that to shield himself if a certain strip doesn't get the response he wants, he can act like he had no choice but to let it run. I'm sure he changes strips when he wants to.

If you remember that sequence with Sal and Amber with those big privacy chairs, there was some error (I think Sal lifted one over her head with one hand) that required him to pull an all-nighter to fix it the day before. The buffer is just an excuse. He not only can edit future strips at his leisure, but does so.

>Favorite:
I was torn between Sarah and Dina, but then I realized I would only be voting for Dina because I wanna see her in a Slipshine. So Sarah.
>Least Favorite
Honestly, Dorothy. Becky's a close second but Dorothy just grinds my gears

ESL yuropoor user here, I'm a grill but have a rather deep voice ("I can't tell if this is a girl or a boy" is a common response whenever I've posted vocaroos) and can push it close to movie trailer growl levels. My english has a vaguely british/nordic twang. I've got sound recording gear of reasonable quality, can deliver mp3s.

I suspect you don't need non-us sounding people, but if you do, let me know what lines you want to hear

>Favorite
Mary

>Least favorite
Becky

I mean could it really have been any other way?

Carla, Billie, Ruth, and Amber are strong contenders for being the worst

>Favorite: Joyce

In today's cynical world, I love seeing ingenues (or "cinnamon rolls") in fiction. I always gravitate towards them. Joyce is very cute and despite suffering Willis's shitty plot and all the grief she gets from her shitty friends, she keeps holding her head high like a trooper. I dread the inevitable "Joyce sees the light and becomes as much of a dick as the rest of her social group" plotline.

>Objective Worst: Amber

Psycho hand-stabbing bitch. What else can I say about her that hasn't already been said. Willis's atrocious treatment of this character while simultaneously acting like he's championing the mentally ill by writing her is actually offensive. And as one of those "mentally ill" people myself, I hope I am not supposed to identify with her, because that would be horrifying.

That's true but none are quite as cancerous as Becky. I'm colored by Willis admitting he basically plays God to make sure nothing bad happens to her.

send whatever you like. ESL is fine. if you feel your accent is way too thick, send an application for sal in...I'm hoping for a crazy thick accent for her.

This was unironically a very funny and well executed gag/punchline

The hell is a catapult suit?

Or you know, he like the game and wanted to make a ref joke about it.

Sounds a bit too genuine for Willis.

>Mary gets dumped
>depression
>try to kill self with pills, totally out of character
>our favorite resident lesbian's pill suicide sense starts tingling
>bursts down mary's door and saves her
>mary turns into a lesbian too
Bonus point:
It is all mary's bf's fault and he get sent to prison , of course he is a cis het white male

this one is just bad.
1) what is a catapult suit
2) there's naive and then there's stupid and no way joyce is that stupid.

You want a nordic formula 1 driver sounding sal?

>Dream Daddy
>LEGO Batman
>2010 + 7

I know there's the whole sliding timescale thing, but I'm still triggered by how Willis chooses to inject so many post-2010 pop culture references into the comic. I guess it's more the part where he uses the reference as the bulk of the joke. I dunno.

Which Batmen are these, anyways? I can see Golden Age, BTAS, Adam West, LEGO, and Frank Miller Batmen, but who are the second and sixth?

See below:
>It's Golden Age, Rebirth, BTAS/JL, Adam West, Lego, George Clooney, and Frank Miller, from left to right.

I agree.

Probably. I hope she'll be happy, though.

That sounds downright hilarious.

>That's true but none are quite as cancerous as Becky. I'm colored by Willis admitting he basically plays God to make sure nothing bad happens to her.
Speaking of Becky, where is she????????

He's changed dialogue at the last minute, too. There was something about killing a puppy vs. killing a dolphin very recently.

He does draw things in advance. He's just lazy and doesn't want to edit them if he can avoid doing so. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be difficult to make most of the changes that he really should. He talks a lot about using a variety of layers, so he could easily make edits on one layer without damaging the rest of the panel.

Also, he draws character outlines first, rather than backgrounds. This is stupid.

When I first looked at it my brain saw it as being Amber and not Joyce. then when I opened the image a second time I thought I was looking at an edit.

necrobumper

Think it's more a Simpsons thing where it's always Current Timeframe and always Freshman Year so things don't have to progress to far. The pop culture bits are basically for one-off gags anyway.

Worry about when he has tries to work in new social commentary into his plot, like AI- or cyborg citizen rights.

Abortions are a trying, painful decision for a woman to make... except Mary she's a hypocrite isn't it funny? Take THAT, Mom!