Dumbing of Age

Tonight, we have a comic in which Joe continues to be progressively less Joe-ish.

And apparently Joyce's face is slowly turning into some kind of weird Neanderthal mess, so I guess that's a thing as Willy gets weirdly worse at faces this week.

Honestly, it feels as if nothing has happened at all in this Dumbiverse day. How is it already nighttime?

Also, where was he keeping that doughnut tucked away? And why isn't he offering whatever container it was in to Joyce? Why touch it with his bare hands? That's just rude, no matter how close of friends you are.

Other than that, this is a whole lot of nothing. Well, except for Joe's eyes drifting towards his hairline in Panel Four. The password is "sprinkles".

>Finally out of donuts
IN a real-world scenario, those doughnuts would be gone in minutes

>except for Joe's eyes drifting towards his hairline in Panel Four
Jesus I didn't even see that. Willis doesn't even try.

Sometimes I wish Willis would just get a hand injury or something. I really dislike this garbage. Anyway, thanks for reading this post.

>nothing happened at all in this Dumbiverse day
Hey, that's not true...we learned that Ryan was....uhhh...something somethinged by Amber.

And we learned that the "Do List" was made public by...erm...a person

BUT WAIT! We definitely know now that Danny is totally into Etha--er--Sa--um.....ukuleles.

Yes. Ukuleles. We learned that Danny likes ukuleles. So THERE. That's definitely one thing we learned in this Dumbiverse day. How dare you say nothing happened?!?

JOExJOYCE CONFIRMED
Very happy with how things will unfold!
Except I know willis will fuck it up. He always does it

The blue sprinkles are for boys only, everyone knows that.

Joyce's food OCD seems like it should make for a decent joke, but I rarely find it funny. There was that one where she talks about separating food as being her doctrine not the church's, that one was okay.

Yeah, it's kinda gross, at least it would be for someone who won't share ice cream with her best friend (that she kissed)

Also a good question is why the highlights disappear from the donut in the second to last panel.

You're welcome!

>I have seen you try pick the rice krispies out of a Rice Krispies treat
There is no such thing as ONE rice krispy Willis you fucking hack. There is no such object as a rice krispy The correct joke would have been to say she was picking the RICE out of the Rice Krispies treat.

Also, Joyce is literally retarded because picking colored sprinkles is like saying you like blue M&M's more than the brown ones.

Okay, let's see if I can get a rundown of what's happened today.

Danny and Joe wake up. Danny introduces his new found love of the ukulele to Joe.
Mary compliments Carla, who is immediately put off by the concept of Mary being happy.
Becky wakes up in Leslie's house. They verbally lez out because Becky is defined by her sexuality.
Carla stops skating in the halls after being reprimanded by Ruth, who is lamenting the loss-but-not-really of Billie.
Danny and Joe enter the dorm lobby. Joe learns the hard way that his Do List has been hacked and the password has been shared. Joe forces Danny to abscond him from the premises.
Becky stalks Leslie at the local Whole Foods.
Joe accidentally runs into Joyce, who is saddened by having been ranked a Zero by Joe, who then runs away. It is implied that Ethan is missing.
Becky pisses off a strong independent black lesbian woman who don't need no woman. This leads the black woman's white lesbian friend to apologize on her behalf. The black woman comes back to yell at Becky some more.
For one strip, we cut back to Mary being happy.
We cut back to the supermarket, where Becky tries to hook up Leslie with the white lesbian, only to drop her panties for the black lesbian instead.
Walky meets Dorothy after her therapy session. We get a HILARIOUS flashback to Walky at tutoring. I want to die.
Danny and Joe have a heart-to-heart at their hiding place. It doesn't matter.
Billie and Ruth have a heart-to-heart at their fucking place. It doesn't matter either.
Joe runs into Rachel, who berates him over the existence of the list. Realizing that he is complicit in a campus-wide string of rapes and murders, Joe apologizes by giving out doughnuts.
Amber comes out of hiding only for the reader to wish she went back to her hole in the ground because all she wants to do is cry about how she's the real victim in this situation, yet doesn't actually want to talk about it. Also, Joyce is irreversibly ruined here.
(1/2)

isn't joyce shacking up with jacob?

(2/2)
There's an obscure joke about a local Indiana landmark, because I don't fucking know why it happened, but I guess Willis really wants to fuck that cat.
The mystery behind Mary's happiness is finally revealed as it turns out that she is in love. What is meant to be a red herring becomes an outright slam against Carla/Mary shippers as it shows her making out with a Literally Who in the hallway. Why? Who fucking knows. All I know is that $300 is all you need to get Willis to draw two characters of your choice making out and making noise.
A brief respite from this inanity in the form of Sal and Danny having a pleasant conversation. These two characters, having had little direct conversation over the past seven years of DOA's publication, make for a good character dynamic as they have room for something to grow between them. I like Danny/Sal more than Danny/Ethan, at least.

And that brings us to tonight's strip, in which Joe offers the last doughnut to Joyce. I predict in the coming days that Joyce accepts Joe's apology, and Rachel (watching from a distance) comes to learn that Joe may be a jerk but he knows when not to be one, resulting in the spark of a relationship that previously occurred in Shortpacked.

Meanwhile, throughout all of this, Robin DeSanto has not been seen for three days.

Did I miss anything important? More importantly, does it feel as if anything of actual importance has happened in this Dumbiverse day?

the brown ones are better!

reposting again:


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.

recording software: vocaroo will NOT cut it. Audacity is free, and will more than suffice. just record and export the files as .wmv or .mp3.

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

My sister, to this day, swears up and down that the tan M&Ms used to taste better than the other ones before they replaced them with blue ones when I was little.

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

Walky - nothing picky, ideally M

Dorothy(cast) - a more confident voice, ideally F

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

Amber(possibly cast) - 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(Cast) - 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(cast) - 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(possibly cast by the Dewd ) - something bassey, or super feminine, sultry if you're a woman

Mike - whatever you'd like

Roz (cast)- 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 (cast)- see Joe

Marcie - already cast.

Mary - condescending, uppity. M or F

Robin (cast) - another accent, preferably southern. doesn't need to be super strong. M or F

extras - send me whatever. (galasso cast)


>Send all auditions to [email protected]

>tomothecanadiancomrade

Son of a bitch, that name seems familiar.

>Billie
>drunken slur
You said you don't care about gender, right? as soon as I get more of this 1.5L box of wine in me I'd be happy to give it a shot. My voice isn't particularly deep for a dude, and I might as well use my alcoholism for something..."constructive".

Jacob still has a girlfriend, Raidah.

for now.

you're the canadian porn bro?

yep.

>drinking 1.5L of wine
Psh. Either you're an amateur alcoholic, a depressed housewife, or an old Portuguese man.

Malt beverages or cheap vodka are the gold standards of true alcoholics.

Ouch.
I say to make a Pastebin next time. It's a bit more subtle that way, and then the night janitor won't notice.

What nuke fell on this thread?

I've only been an alcoholic for maybe a year and a half, and I prefer to not have a hangover the next day. Besides, I had a bad experience mixing vodka and fresca, and malt beverages are shit.

I guess everyone's shriveled livers are different.

I can put down 2 pints of vodka with no issue, but any more than three glasses of wine and I'm praying to the porcelain god and wishing for a swift death the next day.

I can put down a shitload of whiskey, but vodka just makes me sick. I usually only drink white wine, do you have the problem with just red? Or all wines?

Mostly red. I can;t stand the taste of white to drink that much of it.

I'm generally fine drinking any 80 proof liquor though. Whiskey, gin, vodka....it's all the same to me.

Wait, what? What were they regarding?

I think the only important thing is that Leslie realized she can move on from crushing on Robin.

It's kind of like picking on an autistic person. Just uncomfortable.

In my experience red fucks me up much worse than white. White goes down smoother. But, hey, if you can do vodka, more power to ya.

I think it's probably whichever janitor has a boner for killing these threads.

With how little in DOA is actually happening, I don't mind their overnight deletion.

But I just wonder what they're saying on /j/ about this, if at all. I wonder if they have threads with posts like this from other people complaining about mods and janitors.

This is a step in the story we needed to see unfold

>With how little in DOA is actually happening, I don't mind their overnight deletion.
Fuck it, this is the comics board and this is a comic. The thread deletions are bullshit.

You don't understand, user. There are some people who don't like these threads so no one is allowed to look at them.

Ah yes Sup Forums. The last bastion of I unrestricted free speech.
Unless you want to talk mediocre webcomics, then fuck you

Why do the comments concerning these threads getting deleted keep getting deleted?

I'd answer but everytime I bring up these threads getting deleted I get banned.

Mildly frustrating

Don't forget that we found out Mary has a boyfriend.

I mean, it didn't go anywhere, but... she does. That was definitely worth spending like a week of comics establishing.

They probably changed the recipe. More/less sugar or cocoa

Because this isn't a meta-thread. Let's put it that way.

In retrospect, it's actually really dumb how Willis focused so much on Mary being uncharacteristically happy/joyful only for the revelation to have no actual bearing on the current story whatsoever.

In fact, nothing that's happened in this Dumbiverse day has had an actual effect on the overarching plot. Not even all the shit that happened with Amber, since all she did was whine about how she was the real victim in Ryan's stabbing without actually putting forth some effort to change herself.

And we probably won't see her being nice to Carla ever again.

I'd put money down on this day being nothing more than a meandering attempt to set up future plot points. It's like it was designed to be the DoA collection you can easily skip but you still feel compelled to buy because it's the background for everything that happens in the collection after it.

It's weirdly incongruous; Mary's nice and personable when her boyfriend isn't around but reverts to being a bitch when he's by her side.

"Mary is nice to everyone because she's on the high of a new relationship" can be the start of rich character work. One could explore the notion that Mary being judgmental is as much a choice as her being nice, the results of a thoroughly unpleasant person basically reversing personality for an extended period on both herself and others, if someone can be judgmental with high expectations and still be a nice person, Mary's complete lack of a social network and how that impacts her relationship, how a relationship with someone like Mary would actually work and what kind of person would be interested in her, and, perhaps most pertinent, how does Billie's bullying campaign against Mary stands up when Mary is being pleasant to others.

Me three, wine is more likely to give me a hangover than hard liquor, and dry red wine is a guaranteed bad time.

Fortunately I hate the taste of dry red wine. Feels like sandpaper.

>It's like it was designed to be the DoA collection you can easily skip but you still feel compelled to buy because it's the background for everything that happens in the collection after it.
According to Willis' archive, this is actually the final chapter in his seventh TPB collection of DOA. The next collection will be the first chapter in Book Eight.

>"Mary is nice to everyone because she's on the high of a new relationship" can be the start of rich character work.
Too bad we can't expect anything of that potential to come from Willis. I'm honestly positive that he only gave Mary a boyfriend to fend off Carla/Mary shippers.

What do you think the odds are of Peter making an appearance in the story outside of "being Mary's boyfriend"? My money's on zero.

>this is actually the final chapter in his seventh TPB collection of DOA. The next collection will be the first chapter in Book Eight.

Okay, so it is nothing more than setup for the next book tacked onto the end of the seventh TPB instead of being used as a slow build first chapter for the eighth.

I don't think it will actually fend off Mary/Carla shippers, being shippers and whatnot, and it even sets up a dynamic for Carla to take an interest in Mary. And Peter will obviously show up as "Mary's ex-boyfriend" the moment Willis wants to write about Mary suffering.

>According to Willis' archive, this is actually the final chapter in his seventh TPB collection of DOA.
Wow, what a shitty denouement. After all the drama came to a head in the previous storyline, nothing was explained, nothing happened, and no one learned anything.

Peter was Mary's husband in its walky!, as well though. It's not like we couldn't have seen this coming.

>But I just wonder what they're saying on /j/ about this, if at all.
No one discusses board moderation on /j/ and they never have. It's mostly people asking for replacements when a janitor goes on vacation and some really old posts about specific legendary shitposters. 99.9% of actual discussion occurs in the IRC channel whose name is an instaban.

>I don't think it will actually fend off Mary/Carla shippers, being shippers and whatnot, and it even sets up a dynamic for Carla to take an interest in Mary.
You say that, but keep in mind that it's Willis. If there's an opportunity for a character to grow or for a story to progress in a creative manner that pushes character development, he'll likely take an opposite path.

>And Peter will obviously show up as "Mary's ex-boyfriend" the moment Willis wants to write about Mary suffering.
Boy, oh boy, I can't wait for the inevitable abortion episode.

Could you imagine if that was how you read DOA?
You'd be waiting months for the next update, only to be disappointed every time.

True, but what I mean is that if we haven't seen anything regarding Peter prior to this, what are the odds we'll ever see anything with him afterwards?

So, why can people have multiple comments about what kind of drinks they like? It seems like that is less relevant than talking about the threads themselves.

Maybe the janitor likes drinking.
Actually, it would explain why posts and threads get deleted all the time: The janitor is one of us, but abuses their powers when we begin to encroach upon topics outside of their immediate interest.

Well, we didn't. We all expected that Willis would regards Mary the same way he regards Joe: as a character he used to enjoy writing for in the past, but now that he's a different person, he makes sure nothing good happens to them so that he never feels like he's encouraging that behaviour again.

Does this mean that David Willis is a janitor?

It's not very likely. However, there was a time where Willis attempted to advertise either Dumbing of Age or Shortpacked on Sup Forums, though that obviously didn't last very long.