Be hilariously messed up if she and joe finally hooked up and her saying tristan’s name, tho hopefully he wouldn’t take that too personally i’m sure joe’s hooked up with women saying someone else’s name 😛
Breakcore usually pisses me off. It’s too all over the place for me to concentrate on other things with it playing, due to my ADHD forcing me to keep track of it.
Aaaah, I remember hiding the drawings I made in my church programs from the people around me. About two thirds of them were of Sonic the Hedgehog, albeit generally not bowing before the crucifixion. The other third were other characters from cartoons I watched. All three thirds were drawn exclusively in three-quarters view, and the vast majority were headshots with no body.
None of these figures include the ones where I just wrote down random lists of things.
If there’s anything the Internet taught me against my will, it’s that there are many things someone can draw Sonic doing that aren’t prostrating himself before a cross.
I guess it could work. I’ve seen some plugs with fairly narrow bases, (they’re kinda like an old-timey anchor) but you’d have to do something about the corners, like using round rods instead, otherwise you might risk some very avoidable injuries.
Becky has been antagonistic her whole time in this comic, there’s literally no reason to think Joyce’s first sexual/romantic awakening wasn’t entirely a one-off joke she said to fuck with her.
It was Misha. Misha is the person who said that Tristram likes Joyce. Well, she said that Izzy said that Kory said that Carrie said Tristram likes Joyce. Any one of those people could be messing with her, but Becky’s involvement in this has been pretty much purely “mildly annoyed about the idea for reasons she’s not prepared to articulate even to herself”.
Okay, I’m about 110% sure I’m wrong here, but since we’ve never seen Tristan in the present, I’m starting to wonder if this flashback is building to Joyce and Becky making out, before they really knew what they were doing? It would explain why Becky thought she could get away with kissing Joyce, and we’ve been shown a thousand times that pretty much the only character who thinks Joyce is totally straight is Joyce.
But would she have counted kissing Becky, if it had been done “for practice”? That seems like just the sort of deeply arbitrary and thoroughly irrational self-deception a young Joyce might engage in (and Becky urge her to adopt) in order to avoid admitting to something so unChristian.
Obviously the single most exciting interaction Joyce ever had with Tristan.
There’s not much to go on, but he seems a bit scornful of her drawing. So instead of extremely bland, he’ll probably turn out to be a controlling jerk with an supreme lack of imagination or appreciation for anything remotely artistic.
I mean, the fact that he just walks through is not an indicator of a warm interest in Joyce or her drawing. It’s a thing that she does that he’s way too serious for, because he’ll soon be a man and thus a responsible adult member of the congregation. If church teaches anything it’s teaching young men to feel self-important. As if any of them needed exhortation, anyway.
It is my firm belief that Tristan will turn out to be either extremely bland or else just as horrible as the worst representatives of that congregation. What we’ve got so far points towards bland. Joyce had a crush on a guy who is just not that special. It happens.
But he does seems a bit frowny… and certainly not interested in her drawing. Extrapolating and wildly exaggerating from that I arrive at the type of religious youth that has absolutely no sense of humor or playfulness because he is a serious adult and frivolity is a distraction. They exist. They would probably be boring anyway, but their upbringing favours the lack of spirit as a virtue.
He could have picked up her psalter for her, right? It would have been kind. What kind of christian leaves a religious book lying on the floor? So he seems a bit above actually being attentive to her.
I think you’re way off. Look at his nose, it’s much longer than a typical boy his age. This is a very old artistic flourish to indicate somebody is being dishonest, in reference to the story of Pinocchio, a living boy-shaped puppet whose nose grew when he lied. Pair that with Joyce explicitly denying she’s drawing (or has ever done so) and it becomes clear that Tristan is accusing her of things he knows she isn’t doing (and never does), deliberately telling lies and starting rumors.
Notice also how he only says it while Becky is near Joyce, that’s our second clue. He wants an audience. He needs an audience, otherwise his lie is for nothing. He needs Becky to hear it, to manipulate her and implant the idea into her mind of Joyce drawing, not just now but “again”, implying this is a habit of hers. This is something she Does™, a defining trait of hers, and since Becky is Joyce’s best friend, he’s planting more than an idea; he’s planting doubt.
As far as Becky knows, her bestie doesn’t draw, because Joyce is a good and honest Christian girl who hates lying (she even said so to Ethan later in life), so Becky should be able to feel certain that Joyce is not, in fact, a draw-er. But now she can’t, because Tristan is saying otherwise. As certain as Becky may be, someone is contradicting the reality she knows, someone who she likely trusts as a member of the same congregation.
It’s genuinely fucked up, the way Tristan is playing these two against one another. If we see him in the present day, I don’t doubt he’s going to be an antagonist. He’s way too much of a scumbag to be anything else.
paragraph 1: agree with Pinocchio allusion
paragraph 2: disagree. He only says it while Becky is near Joyce because Becky is throwing her voice.
Tristan is a marionette that Becky has somehow animated in a cruel mockery of life, and must do ventriloquism to make him appear to speak, all for the goal of teasing Joyce.
If we see him in the present day, he will have gone feral, operating on a twisted version of the last commands Becky gave him.
I would have said distracted, keeping in touch while hurrying by for some reason…
…wait, I know this one! Tristan does like Joyce, and can’t resist saying something, but is keeping it bland because he’s scared of saying the wrong thing.
In the year 2525, when Mr. Willis’ distant descendants are drawing these characters in their 60s, these two will run into each other at the supermarket and Tristan will say, “heh, I used to have the biggest crush on you, but I couldn’t get you to notice me.” Joyce will be unable to speak for hours.
Kind of wondering if this is building up to us seeing Tristan in the present day. So what’s he doing now:
A) Training to be a youth pastor
B) Ran off with the mysterious brother Jordan
C) Dead
Weren’t these characters 18-19 just a few strips ago? What the fuck? If they’re suddenly all 13 (and not even in the same fucking building as before???), then what’s going on with the scene we were just reading? Are Charlie and Carla 5 years younger too? Is everyone in the main cast just underage now? This doesn’t make any fucking sense, and I have to call bullshit on this random, unexplained narrative twist. Time doesn’t work that way, for fuck’s sake!!!
Joyce’s Dad has been very insistent multiples times in this comic that THIS church they’re in now is OK with dancing! It was only the LAST church they belonged to that hated dancing! The Baptist one! THIS ONE IS BETTER (in that highly specific capacity)!
It’s late so idk how many people will see this but this feels too relevant to not share, I found this TikTok/shorts series about basically Joyce if she was born into a slightly different situation
Even the hair is kinda similar, it was all i could think the whole time
“ARE YOU CALLING ME A DRAWER DO I LOOK LIKE FURNITURE”
Way to stifle youth creativity, Tristan! You jerk!
well she’s taking nude drawing classes now at least
I feel like this is leading to something repressed, that I am not ready to see.
I really have no idea what the payoff for this is going to be, so that’s exciting. Slightly ominous, mostly exciting.
I smell a new plot arc that won’t be resolved for three years.
the payoff is going to be Becky saving the picture as her first love token, because Joyce drew them together.
Be hilariously messed up if she and joe finally hooked up and her saying tristan’s name, tho hopefully he wouldn’t take that too personally i’m sure joe’s hooked up with women saying someone else’s name 😛
Sure, but not his first serious girlfriend.
I’m expecting the repressed memory is a Titanicesque drawing scene with Tristan as her first model.
… or trauma.
I’m guessing: Joyce secretly already knows Charlie, who lives in the next town over.
It’s all fun and games until the blue tint changes to red.
have you watched Turning Red? it’s really good, and also has, uh, drawings.
Smooooooooooth.
I guess in this first contest of wills…. It’s a draw.
*Rimshot*
Had to read that 3 times to check if you’d written ‘contest of willis’
*giggles!* I read it as contest of willies. ?
omg this would be an interesting setting for a dick-measuring contest ?
motion lines are from the Bible coming alive and turning into Psalty, to teach Joyce the importance of using the cover as a hard surface.
Just in case anyone’s feeling as easily excitable and distractible as Joyce is, here’s some concentration music to help folks stay focused:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSfMk06xQKo
(I’m struggling to concentrate on work, and sending hope to anyone else who might be struggling with something similar.)
* Played on the hacked gym speakers, of course.
Or for those with ADHD like I have, there is this
(TW: Cover art shows self harm)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osrqsgO6MGY
Breakcore for some reason works with ADHD
Breakcore usually pisses me off. It’s too all over the place for me to concentrate on other things with it playing, due to my ADHD forcing me to keep track of it.
Highly distracting.
Aaaah, I remember hiding the drawings I made in my church programs from the people around me. About two thirds of them were of Sonic the Hedgehog, albeit generally not bowing before the crucifixion. The other third were other characters from cartoons I watched. All three thirds were drawn exclusively in three-quarters view, and the vast majority were headshots with no body.
None of these figures include the ones where I just wrote down random lists of things.
I remember drawing a bunch of weird little monsters, because I had just read Bill Peet’s autobiography.
Regretably I missed this fun exercise because my mother never took me to Wiccan gatherings.
Don’t worry, we Wiccans didn’t have programs to draw in.
Is it even possible to draw Sonic the Hedgehog not prostrating himself before a cross?
If there’s anything the Internet taught me against my will, it’s that there are many things someone can draw Sonic doing that aren’t prostrating himself before a cross.
I’m betting that an alarming number of those things DO involve prostration, though!
And probably also prostate stimulation, for that matter. Possibly with crosses, even! #SorryNotSorry
I guess it could work. I’ve seen some plugs with fairly narrow bases, (they’re kinda like an old-timey anchor) but you’d have to do something about the corners, like using round rods instead, otherwise you might risk some very avoidable injuries.
That explains the bonus strip so much.
You can’t distance yourself from Tristan forever, Joyce! She’s giving Tristan the Geiger counter treatment!
he’s either gonna end up being a youth pastor or even louder at being lgbt than becky haha
Never going to live down the autism accusations.
“Accusations”?
Thanks, I’m stealing this phrase for general purposes.
Didn’t even bat an eye. Probably used to it
based on how he looks it seems like he’s a young teen with joyce being like 11-12 so he prolly just thinks she’s being a silly kid?
It’s been implied that Tristan went away to college at the same time Joyce and Becky did, so I doubt he’s significantly older
They’re all 13 here.
Why do I get the feeling the end of this is going to be Becky going “oh him? I just said that to mess with you. or maybe find out if you like girls.”
I think somebody else said it first. But one of the other commenters suggested it might have been a way to make fun of Joyce.
Becky has been antagonistic her whole time in this comic, there’s literally no reason to think Joyce’s first sexual/romantic awakening wasn’t entirely a one-off joke she said to fuck with her.
It was Misha. Misha is the person who said that Tristram likes Joyce. Well, she said that Izzy said that Kory said that Carrie said Tristram likes Joyce. Any one of those people could be messing with her, but Becky’s involvement in this has been pretty much purely “mildly annoyed about the idea for reasons she’s not prepared to articulate even to herself”.
Tristram is a shitty name. I’ve only known one and I never saw him sober.
I only played Diablo 3 and that’s all I can think.
Tristan is a Corny name.
Okay, I’m about 110% sure I’m wrong here, but since we’ve never seen Tristan in the present, I’m starting to wonder if this flashback is building to Joyce and Becky making out, before they really knew what they were doing? It would explain why Becky thought she could get away with kissing Joyce, and we’ve been shown a thousand times that pretty much the only character who thinks Joyce is totally straight is Joyce.
It could be awesome, but Joyce already told her first kiss was with Ethan.
But would she have counted kissing Becky, if it had been done “for practice”? That seems like just the sort of deeply arbitrary and thoroughly irrational self-deception a young Joyce might engage in (and Becky urge her to adopt) in order to avoid admitting to something so unChristian.
I think it would’ve come up before now, given how hard Becky has thirsted (and still low-key thirsts) for Joyce.
S H A M E
My bet is Joyce and Joe will have their first time in this storyline.
Her first time actually touching Joe’s tushy, more likely. Without removal of pants, of course.
Obviously the single most exciting interaction Joyce ever had with Tristan.
There’s not much to go on, but he seems a bit scornful of her drawing. So instead of extremely bland, he’ll probably turn out to be a controlling jerk with an supreme lack of imagination or appreciation for anything remotely artistic.
I mean, the fact that he just walks through is not an indicator of a warm interest in Joyce or her drawing. It’s a thing that she does that he’s way too serious for, because he’ll soon be a man and thus a responsible adult member of the congregation. If church teaches anything it’s teaching young men to feel self-important. As if any of them needed exhortation, anyway.
I cannot tell if this a serious analysis or if you are joking
It is my firm belief that Tristan will turn out to be either extremely bland or else just as horrible as the worst representatives of that congregation. What we’ve got so far points towards bland. Joyce had a crush on a guy who is just not that special. It happens.
But he does seems a bit frowny… and certainly not interested in her drawing. Extrapolating and wildly exaggerating from that I arrive at the type of religious youth that has absolutely no sense of humor or playfulness because he is a serious adult and frivolity is a distraction. They exist. They would probably be boring anyway, but their upbringing favours the lack of spirit as a virtue.
He could have picked up her psalter for her, right? It would have been kind. What kind of christian leaves a religious book lying on the floor? So he seems a bit above actually being attentive to her.
I think you’re way off. Look at his nose, it’s much longer than a typical boy his age. This is a very old artistic flourish to indicate somebody is being dishonest, in reference to the story of Pinocchio, a living boy-shaped puppet whose nose grew when he lied. Pair that with Joyce explicitly denying she’s drawing (or has ever done so) and it becomes clear that Tristan is accusing her of things he knows she isn’t doing (and never does), deliberately telling lies and starting rumors.
Notice also how he only says it while Becky is near Joyce, that’s our second clue. He wants an audience. He needs an audience, otherwise his lie is for nothing. He needs Becky to hear it, to manipulate her and implant the idea into her mind of Joyce drawing, not just now but “again”, implying this is a habit of hers. This is something she Does™, a defining trait of hers, and since Becky is Joyce’s best friend, he’s planting more than an idea; he’s planting doubt.
As far as Becky knows, her bestie doesn’t draw, because Joyce is a good and honest Christian girl who hates lying (she even said so to Ethan later in life), so Becky should be able to feel certain that Joyce is not, in fact, a draw-er. But now she can’t, because Tristan is saying otherwise. As certain as Becky may be, someone is contradicting the reality she knows, someone who she likely trusts as a member of the same congregation.
It’s genuinely fucked up, the way Tristan is playing these two against one another. If we see him in the present day, I don’t doubt he’s going to be an antagonist. He’s way too much of a scumbag to be anything else.
paragraph 1: agree with Pinocchio allusion
paragraph 2: disagree. He only says it while Becky is near Joyce because Becky is throwing her voice.
Tristan is a marionette that Becky has somehow animated in a cruel mockery of life, and must do ventriloquism to make him appear to speak, all for the goal of teasing Joyce.
If we see him in the present day, he will have gone feral, operating on a twisted version of the last commands Becky gave him.
If webcomics have taught me anything, it’s that characters drawn with extremely long noses are werewolves.
I would have said distracted, keeping in touch while hurrying by for some reason…
…wait, I know this one! Tristan does like Joyce, and can’t resist saying something, but is keeping it bland because he’s scared of saying the wrong thing.
In the year 2525, when Mr. Willis’ distant descendants are drawing these characters in their 60s, these two will run into each other at the supermarket and Tristan will say, “heh, I used to have the biggest crush on you, but I couldn’t get you to notice me.” Joyce will be unable to speak for hours.
All the elegance and subtlety of a brick through a window.
The real news is that Joyce pulled past Dina on the “who’s hottest” poll.
(Booster is still beating Jason.)
Danny was doing surprisingly well at one point. He was in the top ten for a while.
Roz probably deserves to be higher than she is (currently dead last). But she’s rarely going to be someone’s first choice.
This comic needs a better voting method i say! One which prevents the creation of a ‘Two hotties’ system.
Single Transferrable Hotness.
Then we just end up with a Three Hottie Problem.
*slow clap*
We’ll have to find the points where the attraction of the three hotties balances. I think they’re called Menage points.
while reading this thread i kepler-ning more about how dreadful puns can get
All the british people in the world are offended and have no idea why.
Realized I worded this poorly, was referring to how low Jason is in the rankings if anyone was wondering 😡
If you talk about the poll, you might cause the observer effect, and your favorite will drop ranking.
Sal, meanwhile, is close to lapping the competition for a third time… 😀
Kind of wondering if this is building up to us seeing Tristan in the present day. So what’s he doing now:
A) Training to be a youth pastor
B) Ran off with the mysterious brother Jordan
C) Dead
Joyce needs to get into a life drawing class. No hikinks (er, hijinks) there!
She might end up drawing Marcie.
Possible ideeeer for a Slipshine.
I’m not a republic serial villain,
fanart. It can be whatever skill-level you’re at.
Weren’t these characters 18-19 just a few strips ago? What the fuck? If they’re suddenly all 13 (and not even in the same fucking building as before???), then what’s going on with the scene we were just reading? Are Charlie and Carla 5 years younger too? Is everyone in the main cast just underage now? This doesn’t make any fucking sense, and I have to call bullshit on this random, unexplained narrative twist. Time doesn’t work that way, for fuck’s sake!!!
It’s called a flashback, mate. We’re seeing Joyce’s memories.
You can’t just make things up.
Pretty sure the blue flashback strips are the true DOA timeline and the rest will be revealed to be young Joyce‘s dream.
I think Taffy’s doing a bit. See also the avatar…
I am Joyce in this strip: I’m used to draw and write in church. But I do it during service, too.
I miss Mitch, too.
Bible-flop
Drawing is a sin…. gateway to (horrors!) DANCING!
If somebody tried to draw while dancing, they might draw something that’s not a white European Jesus, and that’s bad for some reason.
Joyce’s Dad has been very insistent multiples times in this comic that THIS church they’re in now is OK with dancing! It was only the LAST church they belonged to that hated dancing! The Baptist one! THIS ONE IS BETTER (in that highly specific capacity)!
Wait, is this a thing? Is drawing discouraged?
I’m pretty sure it’s because she doesn’t want Tristan to know she drew him.
She’s just reflexively panicking at being seen and acknowledged by Tristan in any way.
Yeah, he’s gonna go rat her out to the Church Cops and they’re gonna take her to Church Jail.
She’s making herself some images in the form of some things on the earth.
well she’s managed to tell joe she likes drawing so, suck it tristan
throwing the Lord’s book in vain
dang she really learned to associate anything and everything love-related to shame, didn’t she? ToT
Religion will fuck up a young mind.
It’s late so idk how many people will see this but this feels too relevant to not share, I found this TikTok/shorts series about basically Joyce if she was born into a slightly different situation
Even the hair is kinda similar, it was all i could think the whole time