Dumbing of age. Doa

Tonight's strip.

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The real joke is how much Willis hates the people who raised him and will never ever let that go while raising his own children who will come to see him as a shit peddler obsessed with collecting children toys.

Joyce is better-socialized than this. There is no reason for her to react like this. Not a single reason. Why is the music thing so upsetting? The point is for her to be open-minded and not seem like a weirdo. She is failing so hard at everything for no reason at all.

Willis needs to pad out the rest of this book so that he can reveal on the last page that Becky's dad got out of prison on a technicality(Jesus took the wheel).

Oh also expect another two strips of Danny and Ethan being gay without actually being gay.

Y'know, I used to love seeing Joyce's worldview get shattered as her upbringing collides with reality, but this is starting to get...mean. Spiteful.

Like Willis is *so* ashamed at his past self's freakouts that he has to aggressively distance himself from that and show how "better" he is than that by mocking Joyce over and over. It creates this weird tonal dissonance where Joyce's suffering is played for both drama and comedy and we're never sure how sympathetic she's supposed to be at any given moment.

Considering the way Willis treats practically all the characters he writes, I'd say he's the REAL abusive parent here.

>Willis makes yet another comic with a very specific reference to something he clearly used to believe/was told by his fundie parents
Jesus (pardon the expression) Dave, when are you gonna let this shit go? Ever wonder if you'd be happier writing Transformers fanfiction or something?

He already does/has done Recordicons in an official Transformer magazine.

Joyce is coming off as completely childish to the point one wonders if she's ever had any actual theological education or even read the Bible. She doesn't give the theological argument for opposing crucifixes - idolatry - nor does she give doctrinal reasons for not using crucifixes like focusing on different aspects of the Crucifixion and how they related to believers. Instead she spouts of some simplistic claptrap like she's a seven year old in Sunday school then freaks out about minute differences. Have we all been interpreting the comic wrong? Is what we thought a sheltered and naive worldview actually undiagnosed autism? She has the food thing, now she has the church thing too; it kinda fits.

That's an excellent summation of my issues with these developments. There's not a good in-universe reason for her to react like this, it's just him putting his own issues onto his character. Of course maybe we'll find out a priest raped her with a cross or something like that, who knows.

Ethan needs to fuck Danny. This webcomic has no other reason to continue existing.

lol, joyce sucks

She's reacting worse to an Episcopal church than she is to Dina's outright antitheism. At this point one must assume that a very formative event in her childhood involved John Calvin returning from the dead and teaching Joyce the evils of Catholicism and Catholicism-related accessories through the power of up-tempo soft rock.

Being weirded out over theological differences or being uncomfortable because it's a very different experience than what she's used to is one thing, but Joyce is having an honest to God breakdown over this. About the only worthwhile thing in the strip is that Jacob looks confused and somewhat angry at how Joyce is behaving.

Based on Willis's art habits, the change in her eyes indicates that she's having a legit issue.

If I didn't know better, I'd say she looks like she's having a panic attack. However, it's a closer representation of panic attacks than the ones Willis has allegedly shown in the comic, which means it's just Joyce being played for laughs.

The dot eyes are frequently used as a gag and the strip ends on a gag panel.

Still waiting for Joyce and Sarah to fuck over here.

I'm waiting on so many characters to fuck I'm gonna start spamming whoever runs the smutdoc with shitty slashfic.

Noooooooooooo. Use a Pastebin or something. I can link it in there.

*shoo, shoo*

I have no first hand experience of such things, but I've heard that many nondenominational evangelical churches place much more of an emphasis on criticising mainline christian denominations than on non-christian religions or atheism. Some sects are still stuck in the reformation mindset where the evil robed priests in their dark gothic cathedrals are this all-powerful cabal bent on oppressing their scrappy underdog brand of christianity.

Remember, Joyce is supposed to be one of the Good Christians, welcoming & supporting of others.

Maybe Mrs Willis will eventually get tired of being his online shield-maiden and take the kids & herself elsewhere?

Joyce was once Willis good Christian waifu, but now that he's grown and become Enlightened & Independent he has to break and discard his Christian cutie to appease his fans.

Oh no, you read that terrible slashfic DocGirl, you read it good.

You're not wrong. A bunch of nondenom publications have opinions that are basically, "Aren't mainline Christians stupid/aren't Catholics godless heathens/what the fuck is this Orthodox and Coptic you speak of?"

>Why is the music thing so upsetting?
Willis is probably trying to make her autistic now.

willis is an SJW hack. Fuck this comic

>Oh no, you read that terrible slashfic DocGirl, you read it good.
Noooooooooooooo!

Good idea on the name!

Man, if I went back for my doctorate, that name would be perfect.

>Y'know, I used to love seeing Joyce's worldview get shattered as her upbringing collides with reality, but this is starting to get...mean. Spiteful.
Right. Like I could see Joyce debating Theology with someone with that Cross w/ or w/o Jesus shtick, but the fact that she actually seems traumatized that someone would hang a cross with him still on it is just stupid.

Joyce's worldview gets shattered if you put olives on her pizza. It doesn't take much to break her paradigm.

Go back for your doctorate.

That's what made the Jacob/Joyce interactions interesting in the beginning as they were debating theology.

Joyce is pretty much Willis bashing his old self.

Wow, this is so dumb.

Accurate, but how does that relate to the stupid but current strip?

I think this is one of the least SJW strips of his I've seen in a while.

I guess I just didn't know the difference since he's used them so inconsistently.

This looks like autism more than socializing, and considering how she eats and bathes, Joyce is a complete spastic.

This seems like a freakout that should have happened the first week or two of the semester. Didn't Joyce go to a different kind of church than the one she grew up in with Mary and some of the random bitches in her dorm years (real-time) ago? This service might have a little more Popery than she is accustomed to, but she should be able to hold off a panic attack.

>one of the Good Christians
no such thing

t.Willis

Well remember, Joyce is an avatar for Willis himself. Yknow, a well-meaning, ultimately kind and collected character whose flaws are solely caused by their upbringing, and more specifically their parents, and more specifically their MOTHER MAY SHE BURN IN HELL.

It actually seems a bit self-indulgent. Like we know he was hardcore fundie at some point and he's trying to ensure people know he wasn't one of THOSE fundies, yknow the kind that think gays will burn in hell and whatnot, he'd never think that, I'm David Willis and I would NEVER be spiteful or judgemental like that, I was one of the GOOD ones!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Mullins
>Rich Mullins (October 21, 1955 – September 19, 1997) was an American contemporary Christian music singer and songwriter best known for his worship songs "Awesome God" and "Step by Step". Some of his albums were also considered among Christian music's best, including Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth (1988), The World As Best As I Remember It, Volume One (1991) and A Liturgy, a Legacy, & a Ragamuffin Band (1993).

>The year that he died, Mullins declared: "A lot of the stuff which I thought was so different between Protestants and Catholics [was] not, but at the end of going through an RCIA [Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults] course, I also realized that there are some real and significant differences. I'm not sure which side of the issues I come down on. My openness to Catholicism was very scary to me because, when you grow up in a church where they don't even put up a cross, many things were foreign to me. I went to an older Protestant gentleman that I've respected for years and years, and I asked him, "When does faithfulness to Jesus call us to lay aside our biases and when does it call us to stand beside them?" His answer to me was that it is not about being Catholic or Protestant. It is about being faithful to Jesus. The issue is not about which church you go to, it is about following Jesus where He leads you."

So unless I'm mistaken, Willis invoking Rich Mullins' name in an argument about Catholicism and Protestantism is a sign he didn't even look up Mullins' Wikipedia page at any point in the writing.

It's been a loooooooooooong time since I went to Church, or gave too much of a shit, but isn't the important part of the crucifixion that Jesus died for the sins of man?

I mean yeah, cool, he rose again from the dead.
But isn't the dying the spiritually important part?

Tbcf to Willis I can fully imagine certain hardcore Christfags getting their panties in a wad over shit like that.

Personally even having been raised by and to be a hardcore fundie Christfag I never got why some people were just obsessed with being not only THE religion but THE denomination that had it "right". It was all fairly trivial.

I thought he sperged out and left that gig over something SJW-y. Not that it matters now since TFCC is out of business.

>raised strictly lutheran
>LCMS not that hippie ELCA bullshit
>go to baptist service with friend
>they really do have electric guitars and amps

To this day, that still feels totally bizarre to me.

If I had a choice to bear with Joyce's retarded and childish church splerge or bear with characters taking about Transformere, I wouldn't know what to pick

Willis is a bad writer with no consistency, especially when it comes to what each character specifically knows and how they behave.

Stop expecting more of him.

It's a matter of theological opinion as to whether or not the sacrifice or the resurrection is the important part.

Raised Greek Orthodox and High Anglican, to this day I'm weirded out by the Southern Baptist church that something like 1/4 of my entire hometown attends.

I'd prefer Transformers. Surely there are different jokes to be made than that Joyce is uncomfortable with new things.

It's like he's constantly trying to atone & make amends for his new target audience. He's so obsessed with establishing himself as an Ally that he just can't do his own thing and just enjoy himself. Even when he's won the game of life & bringing in loads of Kickstarter & Patreon money, he's just perpetually miserable.

I'm kinda sad for Mrs Willis and the kids at this point. They have to deal with a disgruntled high-school in an adult body trying to prove himself online 24/7.

Keeping up with newer Transformers stuff, and pop culture humor in general, requires a minimal amount of research that even Willis doesn't want to deal with.

That's the big reason he shifted from Shortpacked to Dumbing of Age: He can basically write college slice-of-life stuff in his sleep and keep it going forever. Also, keep cycling through the same character beats forever.

HE HAS KIDS?!

Why are their arms blue? is it denote movement? has he ever done this before?

I just find it really awkward.

Twins. He did a short comic about it, called It's Pregnancy.

Why do the background characters have ghost arms?

He did it a couple times in Shortpacked, and I think with Marcie as well, to denote sign language.

Yeah, he's got two boys, both around two. Pretty sure Mrs Willis does the lion's share of the work, as a lot of Dave's efforts seems to consist of "If I show my kid's clothing/toys/whatnot on my Twitter, it becomes a 'business expense' SWEET".

In other unfortunate Twitter news, he did a thing on what a church is "supposed" to be.

>It's a Protestants don't know how to handle real Christianity episode

It's signifying sign language. It's why they're looking at each other and not the person they're talking to.

Willis is so obnoxious.

I'm not sure why he thinks blue arms is a good way of showing sign language and movement.

The last panel doesn't even denounce movement because he only drew one set of arms. Is this fucker doing this badly on purpose?

How do other comics do sign language?

That's actually something that could be intriguing to use in a comic.

Check out That Deaf Guy. Good comic.

>The end result of this is likely going to be Joyce getting with Jacob
>Joyce, along with Danny, Ethan and (in Shortpacked) Robin, are a surrogate for Willis
>All are gay or bi

Does Willis want to be blacked or something?

> Raised Roman Catholic
> MFW attending my girlfriend's Evangelical Baptist Church
The entire concept of a testimonial during church still baffles me.

Every character is a surrogate for Willis.
So if you do the math, it would appear that Willis is a closeted homosexual who wishes to transition into a woman and get fucked in the ass by beefy black men. Also, he's autistic.

I believe it.

I've never actually seen testimonials in Evangelical churches during regular services. It's always either a revival or a secondary service specifically for that fact.

Yeah but he also wants to be a lesbian with incredibly shitty taste in women.

Good point.
So Willis is a closeted bisexual who desires to transition into a woman and get fucked by either beefy black men or obnoxious college lesbians.

If he becomes a woman and has sex with men, then Willis would be straight.

Besides, there are way more bi women in his comics. He's obviously an autistic, bisexual trans woman. Problem solved.

>Raised Catholic
>Grandfather's second wife dies, she was Catholic but the rest of her family was Baptist
It was incredibly bizarre to see half the Church in quiet Catholic contemplation and the other singing and playing music in between the priests' rites.

I hate Willis and all but Baptists really are creepy fucking weirdos.

"non-denominational" churches like Joyce's are basically just cults run by egomaniacs who can make up anything they thought of in the shower that morning as a new rule all their worshippers have to follow. And they can do it because they're not under the authority of a wider church. It's entirely possible Joyce's pastor/reverend/whatever the fuck title they give themselves told their congregation that crosses with Jesus on them were the work of Satan or some shit.

But none of those characters seem to be hearing impaired.

Where I'm from I generally equate "Baptist" with "default Christian", characterized by:

>Not enough devoutness to want to put effort into their spirituality
>Devout enough to go once a week or so so they can still claim to be a Christian and whine about other faiths/denominations/people who don't go to church as much/etc.
>Spend said church time gossiping, putting people down, and finding a good Christian partner to fuck that afternoon

The redhead seems to be. She said at some point that she didn't know what Billie said.

Not true where I'm from, other than being the "default" type. The church itself was the big issue we dealt with. They were just wasteful and selfish with members' funds. Good attendees, though, once you get done being a teen.

The vast majority of non-denominational churches operate under congregationalism which places the local congregation as the authority of the local church and that church only, though many are part of some kind of greater association of churches that is not a formal denomination. Pastor-led and controlled churches are a completely different thing and arguably are closer in practice to Catholic episcopal polity.

Most non-denom churches aren't Pentacostal/charismatic are functionally Baptist.

>tfw my experience of church was having to go as a scout every couple of months
>all we'd do is sing a few hymns, vicar would tell a life story related to whatever was the part of the bible he'd read that day
>would get to go up for communion and get a grape

Was pretty chill to be honest.

By singing a few hymns do you mean actually singing a few hymns or blasting tacky Christian pop-rock while having convulsions?

The former.

Just open the little 4 page book that was made for the service, and in my case guess what the tempo/rhythm was as the organ player played. Most people were posh english white people in their 70's.

>The church itself was the big issue we dealt with. They were just wasteful and selfish with members' funds

Absolutely, I have no idea why the retards at the churches we had experience with as a child ever gave them anything. The pastor had like 6 fucking bitching rides (wonder where that money came from) and was a massive cunt. I remember him giving a sermon over Jacob's daugher Dinah's rape while she was visiting friends, and the moral he claimed for it was "She shouldn't have been friends with those women" or some shit.

The "missionary" shit was pretty retarded as well. I had one devout Christfag friend whose church funded a "missionary trip" to Ireland, consisting of 90% sightseeing and a single day of standing on a streetcorner with "Jesus Loves You" signs. And even the more "hardcore" missionaries wouldn't start their trip until they had enough money to stay somewhere and eat very nice while they preached to the poor and disadvantaged, which to me would spell "disingenuous".

My church as a kid was this tiny, 30 member Episcopal church with most of its members past the retirement age and we still manged to send "missions" every two or three years that were basically circuit riding in isolated Chilean communities in the Andes mountains in partnership with the local church authorities.

...

This is by far the most annoying thing about Willis. I can stomach the SJW stuff and the weird toy obsession.

But if you were a Christian fundamentalist who was too scared to even touch your own dick until you were like 22, you don't get to be a smug reddit-tier atheist when you come to your senses later.