First of all, after today’s strip everyone should probably recognize where the site’s wallpaper comes from.  Yeah, it’s the actual tile pattern from the real-life lobby of Read Hall, which is where the strip’s characters live.  I liked it so I’m using it! I began working on what would become Dumbing of Age on the plane trip home from San Diego Comic-Con.  To the left is a scan of the first page of my brainstorms.  Joyce was a no-brainer, as was the outfit I started giving her post It’s Walky! for some Joyce and Walky! segments.  It really suits her.  Then there’s a prototypical Sarah to the left, before I figured out what to do with her hair. And, hey, it’s Becky, Joyce’s friend from the J&W! material. And, of course, down below is art of Billie, the nose of whom I botched so badly I had to call it out to myself.  That makes it somehow better.  This way if someone goes through my sketchbook (no one ever really does), they won’t think I thought the art was acceptable!  I’m saved from the full measure of scorn! And finally, there’s two attempts at Ruth.  She used to wear overalls (why?) and wear glasses the size of her face.  Both of these would have to go.

Here’s some stuff I drew up for Billie to wear.  The “97″ on the shirt she wears in her first appearance refers to 1997, the date that Roomies! started.  I really like this shirt, but the others I might tweak before they appear, as they aren’t as visually compelling.  I do like the hoodie.  But then, I just like hoodies. T Campbell and I are sitting adjacent to each other at Intervention this weekend, and we’ve been talking about the problems plaguing aging male artists attempting to nonlaughingly clothe teenagers.  How do those Archie folks do it? Anyway, since I have no idea if it will actually ever come up in the strip, I might as well come out and say that Billie is half-Asian now.  Everyone always assumed she was Asian back in Roomies!, what with the black hair and fair complexion, even though she was conceived as thoroughly English.  So I figgered this go-round, hey, she’s half-Asian, why not?  These are the galaxy-sweeping alterations I am making!  The ones that make absolutely no real impact on the strip!  Her dad, of course, is still white through-and-through, because, dude, last name’s friggin’ Billingsworth, man.

Joyce’s father, Hank Brown, in today’s Dumbing of Age strip articulates some of my feelings upon revisiting my old college dorm online.  They have all these pictures, and it’s all sparkly and they have these awesome-looking loft beds and… oh my god, they’ve probably upgraded from ethernet cords to wifi at some point in the past 13 years.  My mental image of my college home hadn’t been updated since then. I’m still closer to this Joyce’s age than her father’s (oh thank god), but it feels weird writing a strip in which he’s the mouthpiece instead of the wide-eyed freshman.  Thankfully, until I crank out four kids and get the youngest to college, I won’t have much more in common with him.

Back in Roomies! everyone wore the same outfit all the time because my art was primitive and it was easier to tell everyone apart that way.  Also because that just happens in cartoons.  It’s a done thing! But for Dumbing of Age, when I was starting to put this universe together, I wanted everyone to have several changes of clothes.  And I wanted the changes of clothes to be thought out instead of a by-the-seat-of-my-pants sort of thing.  That way lies blank colored t-shirts! So here’s some Joyce torsos that I brainstormed.  I want every character to have their own style, and Joyce’s is, uh, “sweater vests.”  That’s even the name of the file.  Not only does she wear a variety of sweater vests, but they’re also all using a certain range of colors that I’ve assigned to her.  Orange!  Pink!  Brown! At this moment in time I haven’t yet put it into practice, as I’m about a month ahead on DoA strips and they all, so far, take place on the same day.   Joyce is a little spoiled, but not so spoiled that she changes her outfit every other hour.