160

Bandage
Posted on November 9, 2011 by David M Willis

160 thoughts on “Bandage”

  1. JackNapier

    This could take some explaining. Where’s a chalkboard when you need it?

    1. NCP19

      Sarah’s got some ‘splainin’ to do…

      1. Canvas Hat

        Some serious ‘splaining. Serious Joeing ‘splaining.

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          We need Faz here to explain it all.

        2. Mkvenner

          NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

        3. calendarman27

          i hope she’s not all “no it can’t be! he was gonna be my husband” that will cause a huge fight with sarah and im really liking the big sister/little sister dynamic they’ve got going

        4. Wandering Meme

          Yes yes yes! Faz, the fountain of ultimate wisdom can enlighten us with his bar-graph of truthiness.

          “…This line represents ‘x’, where x is the amount of roofies in your system, multiplied by the measurement of the bulge in your stomach, all divided by the inverse of the likelihood of pastorson McRapist being brought on the maury show by you. “

        5. Ess

          Forget Faz, bring in Clarissa, please!

        6. Joebo

          As in she who explains it all?

    2. Kalan

      Robin’s campaign office

      1. Wandering Meme

        Where a scandal is about to break out…

    3. Elintepic

      Now she has the same hand as the scout

  2. freefall

    Noooooo Joyce.

  3. Jen Aside

    “He wasn’t hurt was he?? I would just DIE if he was!! D= “

    1. calendarman27

      “because i’d neeeeeeeever do anything violent” *cough cough* Joe *cough cough*

      1. calendarman27

        not that i dont totally think ryan deserved that and so much more.

  4. Nilla

    Poor Joyce 🙁

  5. David Herbert

    But does she remember being queen of the drunks? She can’t forget her people.

    1. fellixe

      Or “big sister”?

      1. Digidestined of Trust

        That was while she was asleep. She wasn’t aware of anything at that point.

      2. Canvas Hat

        Yeah, “sis” can lead the drunks in her place…

  6. calendarman27

    “do you have anymore of that delicious sprite?”

    1. NCP19

      IT WAS TERRIBLE SIERRA MIST. THE DEVIL’S DRINK.

      1. Wandering Meme

        She only drinks drugged Sierra Mist! Not that weak stuff!

  7. The Sound Defense

    It’s going to be fun for me to watch, at least.

    …that’s probably not a good sign.

  8. A. Colunga

    What is the religious equivalent to falling off the wagon called?

    1. Mkvenner

      Heretic?

    2. MM

      Turning plowshares into swords?

    3. Plasma Mongoose

      Going prodigal?

      1. Wandering Meme

        Compared to what she did to ryan’s face, which was “going ape$#!+”

      2. Another Commenter

        Prodigal actually doesn’t mean what most people thinks it means.

        1. Bekah

          A person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way?

        2. Michelle J Caboose

          Prodigal refers to the word “prodigy.” The “prodigal son” was basically “the talented one.” The one who was expected to “be somebody.”

          A man had two sons, one of whom was expected to go on to do great things, because he was so talented/smart/whatever. The talented (or prodigal) son left home and basically learned that it doesn’t matter how gifted you are, being a success requires work. He wasted all his money and goofed off, and wound up broke and homeless.

          I’m sure you know how the rest of the story goes.

          tl,dr: “prodigal” does not mean “spendthrift” or “wandering.” It’s the word “prodigy” as an adjective.

        3. Bekah

          According to the OED, you’re about as wrong as wrong gets.

        4. David

          Origin of PRODIGAL

          Latin prodigus, from prodigere to drive away, squander, from pro-, prod- forth + agere to drive — more at pro-, agent

        5. Valerie

          Wandering, right? Lost? Something like that?

    4. Canvas Hat

      I think it’s universally called a bruise, and possible fractures. How high off the ground is this wagon?

      1. taekwondogirl

        That got a laugh out of me. Well done.

    5. Mkvenner

      Schism?

    6. Mkvenner

      Mormon?

    7. Valdrax

      Being a holy roller?

    8. StClair

      Apostasy.

    9. Aniphx

      I believe most would call it backsliding.

      1. Aizat

        A wagon? I’LL STEAL IT! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!

        1. DSL

          That makes you the pro from Dover, boy.

    10. Wandering Meme

      “What is backsliding? Religious colloquialisms for $400 Alex.”

      1. a99steaksauce

        Lets get ryan in on this.

    11. Björn

      “Losing my religion”?

    12. begbert2

      Doubting.

    13. mickeyten

      Lapse, actually. As in “a lapsed catholic.”

  9. Mkvenner

    Nobody has seen him since.

    State Troopers are preparing to search lake monroe.

    1. Wandering Meme

      Amazi-girl missed him when he mindlessly wandered into that gay bikers club, making indiscernable moaning sounds with his pants hanging off his ankles.

      No one ever saw him again.

      1. Mkvenner

        Who said it was Amazi-girl?

      2. shoeboxjeddy

        Dude, HE was the rapist. Why you gotta make homosexual bikers into rapists to punish him? That’s messed up…

        1. a99steaksauce

          As messed up as kicking a man while he’s down with a scar in god knows where?

  10. Muffinivorous

    Oh dear. I’m no expert but I’d say this sets back any chance of a police report in one of Ryan’s orifices. I’m hoping that it all comes back to her, and not just because of that…the idea of any kind of permanent memory loss for her is actually really scary.

    1. T Campbell

      As I understand it, she’s just lost most of the evening. It’s retrograde, not anterograde amnesia like in Memento or Finding Nemo.

      FWIW, Joyce’s memory loss probably means that any chance of prosecuting Ryan was doomed from the start, no matter what decisions Joyce, Dorothy, Billie and Sarah made after hitting him.

      1. Canvas Hat

        Blurry amnesia?

      2. R

        Her lack of going to a hospital to get her blood drawn and tested for the drug doomed her chance of being able to prosecute Ryan. Sexual assault is hard to convict, attempted sexual assault is harder, attempted sexual assault in a “date”-ish setting (they were seen talking happily earlier by a number of people) is excessively hard.

        1. Asuka L.S.

          DING-DING-DING! We have a winner!

          Still, there are other ways to make Ryan pay than the legal channels. As a commenter below has stated, he has a characteristic wound and an entire party’s worth of witnesses to his deeds. Even if the police are unable to act upon him, the entire campus is well aware by now that he’s a raping bastard. If he should ever return to an IU party, he WILL be recognized.

          Of course, he could just hop over to another campus’ parties, but the power of electronic social networks is such that he will never be totally safe to prowl again.

      3. Wandering Meme

        Whew…well, that makes things simpler…

        …now they just have to castrate him.

    2. Historyman68

      Oh god, more memory loss for Joyce?

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Joyce has dealt with more cases of amnesia than the cast of Smallville.

        1. Zuche

          A show she doesn’t recall watching, by the way.

        2. Creativerealms

          Which makes Joyce luckier then the some. I wish I could forget most of Smallville.

        3. Mancuso

          That was in another comicverse, guys… remember what David so politely asked us.

        4. begbert2

          To stop claiming that Ethan is gay?

        5. Wandering Meme

          I loved the blur! But why did he look so much like clark kent?

      2. Wandering Meme

        And now she’s gonna fall in looooove with walky. which will create a weird triangle what with dorothy being in the picture…

    3. Kalan

      What likely happened is the effects of the drug interfered with her short-term memory getting processed and stored in long-term memory. Basically the neural equivalent of not saving and letting the temp files delete. It affects the later part of the evening but shouldn’t extend past that. Unless Willis has plans for that.

      1. Gargamel

        I’m actually surprised she doesn’t remember Ryan shouting. When my gf was drugged she could remember a few minutes after the event.

        1. lauren

          When I was I didn’t remember conversations had with people starting pretty much from the moment it happened. Sane and rational conversations held with people that would provide no indication I’d just been drugged. But I still remembered everything before.

        2. begbert2

          There’s actually reason to believe that some time passed between when she started sipping his drink and when the bathroom finally opened up – she complained of the delay.

  11. Mkvenner

    Bat credit card.

    1. OneBeardToRuleThemAll

      Dont.Tempt.Me.

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      Are you trying to make things worse? 😛

      1. Canvas Hat

        Ice puns would be making things worse….

        1. Plasma Mongoose

          Ice puns wouldn’t stand a snowflake in hell’s chance in today’s comments.

        2. Shade743

          Ice-ee what you did there.

        3. begbert2

          Cool it, you guys.

        4. Plasma Mongoose

          JUst chill out everyone.

        5. Zuche

          No, if you’re Denny O’Neill, it just doesn’t get worse than the Bat credit card.

  12. Confuzor

    “welllll, other than the gash on his face and broken ribs….”

  13. MM

    Look on the bright side, Sarah. After your little confession, at least you don’t have to deal with “You like me! You really, really like me!”

  14. Caffienated

    Uh oh, this can’t be good.

  15. Plasma Mongoose

    We need someone with great understanding, maturity and sensitivity to talk to Joyce about last night, unfortunately Mike isn’t around. 😛

    1. Jacob

      He’s off Joeing your mom. For a nickel.

      1. Wandering Meme

        In her faaaaaaaace…or her Faaaaaaaaz!

        1. madd

          With no paaaaants.

        2. Björn

          But with his penis.

    2. a99steaksauce

      “It is unfortunate for me to say, but the man you speak of drugged you and attempted to go have sex with you. However, you were saved by your friend Sarah.”
      Is that any good?

  16. Wistful

    Oh man, that just made me laugh out loud. I feel like such a bad person. How dare I laugh at Sarah’s exasperation.

  17. iggzy

    This will get interesting. Maybe Amazi-Girl can help

  18. Digidestined of Trust

    Oh boy. Hate to break it to ya Joyce…… Where’s the mind wiper when you need it so we can reverse it to get her to remember. Though it’d probably be best to make her forget being at the party altogether.

    1. T Campbell

      Oh, geez, the mind wiper. I totally missed THAT little parallel.

      1. Digidestined of Trust

        I almost did too, but I was trying to figure out the easiest way to break it to her and that came up. Unfortunately, the Mind Wiper had quite a few setbacks in it so it might not work too well.

  19. Leon Real

    That depends on the perspective, Sarah.

  20. Organs

    Call me slow on the uptake, but I’m getting that de ja vu feeling…

    1. fellixe

      Not again!

  21. Matt Boyd

    “Losing your faith” or “apostasy,” depending on how hard you do it.

    1. Matt Boyd

      This was supposed to go under the thread about falling off religious wagons.

  22. Ancestral Hamster

    Normally, you sit the victim down when giving them bad news. Looks like Sarah needs to sit down instead. (With something strong after.)

  23. ScytheAkse

    Poor girl =/

  24. Aizat

    No he’s not fine, Joyce. He’s probably in the hospital judging by how bad Sarah beat the tar out of him.

    1. Shifty

      To say nothing of the massive cut Joyce herself inflicted on him.

      1. Björn

        A huge scar over the face–inflicted by the protagonist–gives him great possibility to become the strip’s cloaked/masked supervillain.

        1. narmenduke

          Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease let that culminate in a massive fight across campus between him and Amazi-girl in which many buildings are destroyed.

        2. MarcinMN

          He can go all Phantom of the Opera with a mask over half his face. =P

  25. alicemacher

    Whether Willis intended for us to do so or not, I find tonight’s strip very sad. I’ve a feeling Joyce will never quite be the same again after Sarah tells her what the “nice pastor’s boy” was up to. ;__;

    1. ScytheAkse

      agreed

    2. begbert2

      On the other hand, she seems to have recovered just fine after Joe’s betrayal of her expectations. So maybe she’ll write Ryan off as another ‘Mr Wrong’ and move straight on to the next Mr Right.

      1. taekwondogirl

        Joe didn’t really do anything actually *evil*, though. She also went into the date knowing he’s Jewish and the idea that she would convert him.

        If you’re as naive as Joyce, learning that people can outright lie to you (Joe didn’t, Ryan did) about being good in order to take advantage of you in one of the worst ways… that’s kind of earth shattering.

        1. begbert2

          I’m just saying I can see it going either way – especially since she doesn’t actually remember the betrayal. She could still be shattered by the second-hand account, but alternatively she could fail to internalize it and, after a troubled morning/day/week, fall back into her usual mindset.

        2. taekwondogirl

          Hmm, that’s true…

    3. narmenduke

      What I fear is that she’ll refuse to believe Sarah. *crosses fingers in fervent hope that this isn’t the case*

  26. Locke

    “He’s probably fine, he just got a gash in the face, as well as some blunt head trauma. HINT HINT.”

    1. Khrene Cleaver

      Ah I see what you did there… For a nickel.

      Oh and it seems the the f word has been replaced with “Joe;” well met Mr.Willis very well met.

      1. Rikushadow5

        Wait, what? Does it really? Fuck.

        1. Rikushadow5

          >.>
          <.<
          This has been a test of the emergency broadcast system. This was only a test. If there'd been a real emergency, it'd be something like "HELP HELPUS PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL HUMANITY!! NO NO NO!!"

          Thank you.

      2. Locke

        Wait, really? Motherjoe-er.

  27. Uniqueantique

    Joyce had been handling herself really well up until a**hole made his rush at her and Sarah showed him the error of his ways..so to speak.
    Joyce may just come through this better than Sarah thinks she will. She was attacked, she fought back, friends helped her. Now all they have to do is ‘find’ the ‘body’ that crawled away…

  28. Brendan

    I’m kind of surprised she says “that doesn’t sound like me.” Again, from everything we’ve seen of her, here and in the Walkyverse, since she’s female, she’s probably had “A HEATHEN WILL RAPE YOU” drilled into her brain, and as casually as she broke the glass on his face, I doubt it would be beyond the realm of her sober mind.

    1. Aizat

      So what you’re saying is that Joyce was not herself when she broke the glass on Ryan’s face?

      1. lawzlo

        She was possessed!

    2. begbert2

      Joyce probably doesn’t acknowledge that “rage Joyce” is part of her personality. If you asked her, she probably would fail to recall that she personally participated in beating Joe – the whole evening’s failure would undoubtedly be his own doing.

      1. taekwondogirl

        This.

  29. aaron_bourque

    He was drugged too. Also, coincidentally, he’s got scars like someone attacked him with a broken bottle. Also, he looks just like the guy who drugged you. But the nice pastor boy went back home. Yeah.

    1. Michelle J Caboose

      Imaginary panel 6:

      Sarah: “Actually, he died before the party. The rapist killed him and wore his skin to lure you into having sex.”

      Joyce makes a face like the “Scream” painting.

  30. Kelvin

    Really loving this dynamic between Joyce and Sarah. ^_^ Can’t wait to see more.

    And yes, Joyce. He went home…to KINGDOM COME! MWAHAHAH! >:D

  31. Dr.Z

    And this is one of the reasons they should have called for an ambulance.

  32. Acher4

    I know that it was mostly hinted that Joyce was going to be okay.
    But today i finally let a huge ‘phew’ seeing her really ok after the whole ordeal.
    Damn you Willis for taking 1 1/2 week to show her. 😛

  33. Joraiem

    Is panel 2 the only time we’ve ever seen Sarah without angry eyes?

    1. taekwondogirl

      No… when she was watching over Joyce in bed, she wasn’t wearing them.

  34. Webcomic Addict

    Okay, on one hand, if real world logic applies here, he’s not going to get arrested or prosecuted. On the other, by now the entire campus knows what he did. He’s got obvious facial lacerations, internal contusions, broken bones, etc. He’d better get used to severe injuries, because I don’t see this campus letting him off easy.

    1. G.S.Mercs

      Assuming, of course, he’s a student. I don’t recall if he was or not. I don’t believe he is

  35. ryan

    and now joyce is reminding me of aunt may from the 90s cartoon. always calling every supervillain she casually meets “a nice young man”.

  36. Lord Synick XXIII

    …

    …….

    In his FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE?

    1. Lord Synick XXIII

      And I’m the Head Alien. Must have been the inclusion of ‘Lord’.

  37. Kernanator

    Time for SOUL CRUSH.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      It’s bad enough already that her masturbating hand is injured, she doesn’t need more bad news.

      1. Rex Hondo

        Just means she has to cross-train. It’s not that hard to do…

  38. sockv

    …and Ryan files a police report saying she got drunk and assaulted him.

    1. Shifty

      That’s what I fear.

    2. MM

      Which will go nowhere once the police get a look at those guileless baby blues and the other witnesses turn it into a he said/she said. If Ryan’s smart, he’ll realize his best bet is just to let this fade into obscurity.

      Of course, if Ryan were smart, he wouldn’t have done this or lost his temper in the first place, so who knows?

      1. begbert2

        Seriously! If he’d just stayed calm for five minutes longer, he would have had a happy fun evening and got away scot free. That is literally all it would have taken.

        Isn’t that a joyous thought?

      2. Shifty

        Unfortunately, even Joyce’s big blue eyes might not help her. Joyce didn’t go to the police or the hospital when it happened. She doesn’t remember Ryan drugging her, and can’t prove it was him who did it, particularly when the party has such a big group of people there. Sarah, who saved Joyce, is the only one who saw Ryan assaulting her, and then she proceeded to beat the crap out of him with a baseball bat. People saw Sarah do this, but didn’t see Ryan do anything. Because the girls didn’t take immediate action and go to the proper authorities, there is now no evidence that Ryan actual did anything to Joyce. Unless they can find evidence, Ryan could easily get off scott-free unfortunately.

  39. Shifty

    Ugh… this is so sad. And I really worry about what the aftermath of this is going to be. Particularly since they never went to the hospital or called the police.

  40. ziggy78eog

    Whoooooooo, boy, no matter how Sarah tries to approach this, it is going to be awkward.

  41. Professor Zoot

    The pastor’s son is dead, he was killed by Darth Ryan.

  42. begbert2

    Wait – how does Sarah know that Joyce is talking about Ryan? She didn’t discuss his upbringing with him before she beaned him, nor did any of the rest of our heroes. For all Sarah knows Joyce could be talking about somebody else.

    1. Joraiem

      She was around in the comic where Joyce was accusing him of not being a pastor’s son. Presumably she overheard.

  43. Steven

    I was always under the impression that a cup was either a unit of measurement or a small liquid container not made of glass.

  44. nothri

    This should be pretty easy to explain, actually. Just mention how Joe was also theoretically religious (being from a jewish family and all) but turned out to be kind of a sleeze, then show her that “powers of ten” video and explain that this guy was basically the entire universe if Joe is planet earth.

  45. nothri

    This should be pretty easy to explain, actually. Just mention how Joe was also theoretically religious (being from a jewish family and all) but turned out to be kind of a sleeze, then show her that “powers of ten” video and explain that this guy was basically the entire universe if Joe is planet earth.

  46. Kalan

    Soooo…Joyce isn’t wearing pants either?

    1. JA

      Pants not necessary.

    2. begbert2

      So far in this storyline, only Amber, Walky, and Sarah have been confirmed to be wearing pants. Dina, Mike, and Joyce (and Sal) could easily have been wearing underwear or less in the shots seen so far. And Walkywas only confirmed to be pantsed when he left his bedroom; his status while talking to Mike and browsing womens’ clothing online was unknown.

      Just so you know!

  47. Valerie

    Oh God, poor Joyce. And poor Sarah for having to explain it.

  48. DarkoNeko

    …nope, it’s not.

  49. BrokenEye, True False Prophet

    “Then I heard a human voice coming from between the banks of the Ulai. It called out, “Gabriel, enable this person to understand the vision.””

    Daniel 8:16

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