It's hanky-panky time again! A new Dumbing of Age Pornographique “Fast An’ Impersonal,” featuring Danny and Sal, is LIVE NOW on Slipshine! It’s SEVENTEEN all-new, full-page comic pages of definitely Not Safe For Work stuff. It’s the sexytimes comic over a quarter-century in the making! All gloves are off! eventually
Also, there’s a new SAMPLER!!! section of the upgraded Slipshine website, and there you can find the uncensored first eight pages of the previous comic from me there, Becky/Dina’s “Hold On To Yer Butts.” Just navigate over to the Sampler section in the top menu and find the eight pages (among many others’) in the dropdown.
So grab your subscription and dive in! Blind-boxed
It's hanky-panky time again! A new Dumbing of Age Pornographique “Fast An’ Impersonal,” featuring Danny and Sal, is LIVE NOW on Slipshine! It’s SEVENTEEN all-new, full-page comic pages of definitely Not Safe For Work stuff. It’s the sexytimes comic over a quarter-century in the making! All gloves are off! eventually
Also, there’s a new SAMPLER!!! section of the upgraded Slipshine website, and there you can find the uncensored first eight pages of the previous comic from me there, Becky/Dina’s “Hold On To Yer Butts.” Just navigate over to the Sampler section in the top menu and find the eight pages (among many others’) in the dropdown.
So grab your subscription and dive in!
131 thoughts on “Blind-boxed”
Jen Aside
WOW! So COOL and so UNFAKEY!
Decidedly Orthogonal
Hey Jen’s back! Hey Jen!
DarkoNeko
There was an attempt.
Animedingo
Ocd and adhd
Needfuldoer
Where everything has to be done, and done perfectly, but only briefly.
Sirksome
Is there a Dexter in this strip I can’t see?
Thag Simmons
I think he’s getting tagged for the mention.
cbwroses
The head alien reference I assume.
Unless one or both have him on their keychains.
Ryan
Yes, Dexter = Head Alien.
Dave
Yes, he’s taken over Dorothy’s mind.
…in another universe.
(Listen, the degree to which Walky and Joyce and Dorothy love the Head Alien given all the horrific things he did to all three of them back in It’s Walky is REALLY FUNNY, never lose sight of that)
HueSatLight
early strips had more tagging, for things in the dialogue. And a few of the tags persist. So significant Dexter mentioning gets tagged.
clif
I prefer a more rational explanation; that the use of the head alien’s name summons his immaterial presence from his lair in the rooms at the end of the hall.
HueSatLight
The spirits of Chick-fil-a and Taco Bell dwell in the double across from Dorothy and Becky.
Marvelman
Does Walky officially have ADHD? Has Willis confirmed this?
Dante
Other characters have commented on it. IDK about Word of God, but the only reason he hasn’t been confirmed is, he hasn’t gotten diagnosed on-screen. And honestly? He’s like, textbook undiagnosed AMAB case.
Regalli
Yeah, while I wouldn’t take Mike’s word as gospel and he’s the only one I can recall using the disorder name outright, he’s SUCH a textbook “made it to college with undiagnosed ADHD because they were smart enough to fly under the radar, suddenly hit a wall as soon as there’s material they can’t immediately learn because they never learned to study, studying is not working for them” case that I treat it as basically canon. The fact that he’s NOT diagnosed is an explicit point of drama because getting a name for it gives him access to way more strategies for managing it.
lyzyrdwyzyrd
I can see why people think of Walky as having ADHD but I definitely don’t read him that way.
My brother has ADHD.
Wally reminds me a lot more of me than my brother.
I was a gifted kid and never learned to study effectively.
I made it through a high school for gifted kids, and most of college without ever learning how to study properly. Hell, I made it through 9 of 10 graduate courses and never learned to study well.
I am also a nervous wreck.
I have been evaluated for ADHD, and I don’t have it according to the test.
I’m not saying he doesn’t have ADHD; but if he does there is so much more going on than that.
Jay
Well, if the test says you don’t…
…then it’s possible the test is wrong? Because “can’t study” and “nervous wreck” don’t shout “everything is fine and normal”, you know? And it *does* run in families, even if it doesn’t manifest with the same symptoms and intensity in everyone.
Just speaking as someone who also got through 80% of my uni courses with zero effort and scraped passes in the other 20%, and then got diagnosed 20 years later…
lyzyrdwyzyrd
The main thing is I don’t meet the childhood markers for ADHD or autism.
In my case it’s generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and bipolar disorder.
It’s not “can’t study” it’s “never learned.”
Studying is a skill which requires forethought and discipline.
Which, I never really needed for the longest time and so I never learned.
lyzyrdwyzyrd
That experience is not unique to ADHD nor indicative of it.
I had Walky’s experience, as a gifted kid and then underwhelming adult.
My brother has ADHD and did not have Walky’s experience.
Jeremiah
ADHD, like autism, is a spectrum, it doesn’t manifest in the exact same way for everyone or with the same intensity.
lyzyrdwyzyrd
NT is also a spectrum.
I’m not saying Walk doesn’t have ADHD.
I’m saying this is a trait which exists on both sides of the fence.
Lokitsu
Gender dysphoria? Why do you say that? Honestly curious, because its just never occurred to me to think of Walky that way.
Thag Simmons
I don’t think they’re calling Walky an egg (although I’ve seen people make that case), I think they’re saying that he’s a pretty textbook example of how ADHD manifests in cis guys.
Vulcanodon
I love the description; “My frontal lobe’s got, like, restless leg syndrome”
Nymph
Who said gender dysphoria?
Dante
No, not dysphoria! It’s a useful marker so I don’t go and say “this is for boys, this is for girls.” Gender influences the way shit develops too, not in a bio-essentialist way but in a “this is how we’re raised so some manifestations and coping mechanisms are statistically likelier.” It’s a socialization thing. I’m non-binary (kind of a genderflowey pangender??) but a good part of my experiences stem from my family raising me as a girl, and my environment treating me like one. Meanwhile the symptoms themselves, like, as they came in the package, were not gendered.
Miafillene
What is AMAB for the uninformed like myself? I know what ADHD is, but not AMAB.
Doopyboop
Assigned Male At Birth. The distinction is because when it comes to ASD(autism spectrum disorder) and ADHD, there is a difference in how people present based on sex. Namely, the ADHD we typically think of with being hyperactive and impulsive is more common among those who are AMAB with ADHD, whereas it presents different for those who are AFAB. This leads to lots of girls being missed when it comes to diagnosis, because they don’t present the “typical” way.
The jury is out on why such a thing is so. Whether the difference in presenting is due to society, actual differences in the brain, or a combo. For example, with ASD, one symptom is being nonverbal or not talking much, being quiet, and historically women, especially little girls, have been treated with a “better seen than heard” mentality. Thus, if a little girl is quiet and keeps to herself, she’s just shy. If a boy is quiet and keeps to himself, then SOMETHING must be up because boys are “supposed” to be loud and rambunctious.
Needfuldoer
See also: Dina
https://www.dumbingofage.com/thatbad/
NGPZ
Yup. Surprise surprise, medical racism is very often an obstacle to getting a formal diagnosis.
NGPZ
Which is exactly why you should have no patience with people who claim that ADHD or autism are getting “over-diagnosed these days” — it’s because of growing awareness of racism and misogynies which have plagued the medical system for decades that doctors are only just starting to play a much-needed game of catch-up.
Needfuldoer
Just look at the “sudden” population explosion of left-handed people around the mid-1960s.
You know, when teachers stopped forcing them to write with their right hands.
I’m sure there’s no correlation there at all. /s
Lysbeth
Note that there are heavy suggestions this is not based on what the doctors assign you as at birth, but how you are treated in infancy – AMAB and AFAB are often used as “boy but without saying boy” and “girl but without saying girl” in a lot of internet discussions where they’re not relevant – if we’re talking about gendered education, it’s about gender and not assigned sex, if we’re talking about body parts, it’s about those one has at the time regardless of assigned sex at birth, etc etc
morleuca
We also can’t forget the all important “assigned cop at birth”
clif
The cop I was assigned at birth resigned long ago, but never said why.
Dante
ACABs can and should work on transing their gender as well. But the kool aid is strong on those ones.
Dante
Doopybop gave you a good answer! Though I make the distinction between gender and sex here precisely because I subscribe to the “socialization rather than innate” school of thought. I’m an ADHD/ASD combo who had hyperactivity and talked to everyone at 150 kms/h. But I had also always been an obsessive bookworm with a big vocabulary who daydreamed a lot when left alone. My opposition to authority, questioning of rules that didn’t make logical sense, and zero sense of social cues was blamed on both, & exasperated adults shrugged.
Anyway. AFAB, right? I got traumatized out of the hyperactivity and sociability, I had a phobia of letting adults help me fix my own stuff (since I was also perma-praised for being so grown-up), nobody realized how bad shit got at school until I had done a total 180 in personlity, took the textbook AFAB nosedive instead of the AMAB one. Went undiagnosed on the ADHD until my mid-twenties…. And on the ASD until my mid-thirties.
… I’m not quite a woman.
Doopyboop
Similar hat, Dante! I have (as far as I know) ADHD but was never diagnosed as a kid because I was AFAB. I also did really well in school and got great grades. But I mainly got such great grades because I was great at hyperfocusing. I’d finish classwork early and be left bored in my chair, where I’d usually either daydream or doodle in my notes.
I also have had difficulties with sleeping all my life (can’t really fall asleep unless I’ve exhausted myself, otherwise I just have hours of tossing and turning in bed), and I was (and still kinda am) a notorious picky eater. As a kid the adults in my life just thought I was being a brat, even though I was well behaved in every other aspect. I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain that I had issues with how the texture of some food hit my mouth, and would instead default to “it tastes gross”. I also have difficulty with auditory processing, such as an example as recent as two months ago where I went to a restaurant with friends after a very busy day of socializing. The atmosphere inside the place was full of loud music and loud people, and I eventually just had to shut down for a bit from being overstimulated. My friends were thankfully very understanding and gave me the space I needed to work through it.
Fidgeting with a little pop it cube also honestly did wonders to help me through that. I’ve also begun embracing this year that I stim. I was never really aware of it, though I do remember doing odd “things” and “movements” as a kid that I was swiftly bullied for and probably socialized to stop doing. But now as an adult I’ve learned to stim again, and it’s a strange sort of discovery about myself to make. But not unpleasant.
And also, not quite a woman! *fingerguns*
Mark
“…finish classwork early and be left bored….” That’s hyperfocus? I just thought it meant the work was too easy. Some of the teachers would have a table of enrichment materials you could go to if you had extra time, like the beloved (by me, anyway) “SRA box” full of story cards with questions, sorted by difficulty. For the other classes, well, like you I had a pencil, paper, and thoughts, and what more does one need to be entertained?
Doopyboop
It can be hyperfocus if you’re narrowmindedly focused on completing the task at hand (to the point of not registering what’s going on outside your task) like I would be. And when the neurotypical kids around me were all still working at it because they couldn’t do that. Sometimes the work could definitely be too easy as well.
Perhaps a better example of hyperfocus would be like, for example, when my mom passed away and the funeral home requested we give them a thumbdrive of pictures so they could make a memorial video. I had a whole week to do this. But, instead, I sorted through all available pictures (including multiple photo albums), scanned them in, cropped them as needed, and put everything onto a flashdrive in a matter of hours because I hyperfocused my way through it.
The downside of hyperfocus is that, again, the rest of the world kinda gets… put to the sidelines which isn’t so bad until you come out of a task 6 hours later and you’re like “oh, shit, I’m really hungry. And I need to use the restroom. When’s the last time I drank water?”.
Coatl
Not that I know of. But I think Walky’s dialogue suggests that he has done some research.
IntangibleMatter
Bojack Horseman vs Mister Peanutbutter, summed up in a single comic.
For real though, Dorothy, I feel tat. I envy how other people seem like they can just have fun without worrying about it, even if they might have other stuff going on that I can’t see.
Miri
Lush do a product called Fun. It’s like heavily scented play dough you can play with in the bath and use like soap.
I got my kids some Rainbow Fun when I did an order recently because I am a good parent and told my eldest I don’t think she’s too old for Fun. She was very pleased.
Doopyboop
Dorothy would benefit from having a hobby of some kind. She approaches everything as a job, even things like eating and relaxing are regulated and timed like a job. There’s definitely success and benefits in the life style she has, she’d make a killing on Wall Street, but it also leads to burn out.
Coatl
Dorothy has rigidly mechanized her life, but now that she no longer has that weight that tormented her, she now has the opportunity to finally find what she really needs, yes, it is not now, but it must come.
Shade
The problem is she wouldn’t know how to do a hobby without treating it like she has everything else. It wouldn’t be relaxing the way its supposed to be.
Vanessa
She would have a side-hustle. Not helpful.
CJ
Yes, that’s her problem. A hobby would just be another job to do.
Asking Walky basically how he does it is typical for her approach to life: find out how to do a job and follow the steps.
Mark
Another way to look at it: organizing and regulating everything is her hobby.
HueSatLight
she could try arson.
Dante
She needs something where she can release all this stress and utterly destroy some shit instead of build something as a discipline. Self-harm is aggression, gotta turn it outwards without resorting to hurting other people (or a fight club.) I’d suggest non-competitive kickboxing.
Just you, the sandbag, and enough technique to kick the hell out of it without breaking yourself.
Mturtle7
Well, she does at least have a fandom. She likes Dexter and the Monkey Master! That’s a hobby, kind of.
NGPZ
Dorothy, are you trying to say “hyperfixation”?
Dante
Girlie is autistic. Nobody will convince me otherwise. Apart from all the #Signs, imagine the dramatic irony after how she’s hounded Joyce on it.
True Survivor
I hope they get back together. Not necessarily because I think they would make a good couple, but just to see how their children’s’ neurology pans out.
Dante
I’ve been known to extoll the virtue of ADHD/ASD couples. Their dynamic reigns supreme. Incidentally, so do their genes.
ian livs
My partner and I are (respectively) ADHD and autistic/ADHD(/some other stuff) and tbh, yeah, it works fantastically.
Miri
One of my friends has three boys with AuDHD diagnoses… Very bright, curious kids with no impulse control, varying difficulties relating to others and with shades of nuance and “sometimes it’s X and sometimes it’s Y”, problems with getting overstimulated… The 5 year old is a runner (and fast). The teenager, she worries might wonder what would happen if he set fire to something because he’d pretty promptly set it on fire to find out… She’s part-homeschooling the middle one because he was masking as much as he could, poor button, and just so miserable and exhausted, and she needed to find him a better way. All three of them are getting extra support in different ways, and she’s an absolute warrior, making sure they get what they need to survive and thrive (the eldest was in a really dark, low state when he was about 13, 14, when this all came to a head and she realised and she got him into a “has a handful of places a year” specialised school because mainstream schooling had labelled him a problem and was treating him like one and refusing to see how hard they were trying… If she hadn’t done that, not sure he’d still be here, honestly (not sure if running away or something more permanent).
She loves them, they’re amazing kids and clearly adore her too, but she’s also on high alert a lot of the time. Things like being terrified of teaching the youngest to ride a trike/balance bike because making a small person with no road sense (or danger perception), who frequently RUNS, far and fast, faster than you are , seems ill-advised…
Miri
She’s an amazing mother, and she’s doing everything in her power to make sure they turn out happy, confident adults who know how to function in society and have all of the skills they need to do that – but I think she’s got the dial permanently set to extra-hard mode.
But the combination of traits can be hard to live with, and if you don’t necessarily know what’s the underlying cause, schools can be unsympathetic and shovel steaming piles of manure on top.
Dante
Oh, this resonates 🙁 She’s fantastic. Honestly, those boys have the most amazing mother they could have, and yeah, the different mentioned combos can’t be easy to raise (thrice!!) but the fact she understands them, and does her best to counter how shitty the outside world can be to neurodivergent kiddos, counts a lot. Hats off to her!
Doopyboop
Not a couple, but my best friend and I are (respectively) AuDhd and ADHD, which leads to us being a pretty good brain team together. We even out each other’s strengths/weaknesses, can commiserate on each other’s texture based issues, and help recognize when the other is overstimulated and needs some help/advice.
jeffepp
I want to do a parody song based off that middle panel, set to the tune of “Wish You Were Here”, by Pink Floyd.
Dante
We’re just two lost souls, on a big pile o’snow
Fear after fear
NGPZ
also SLIP SHINE TIME!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
literally me rn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FFfuqMWnw
NGPZ
So wait Willis is he gonna be called “Dexter” or “Head Alien” in the comic form now on?
(asking for reasons which may or may not involve a possibility of having to change art and/or code)
Dante
I feel like “Head Alien” is a nickname, you’re ok :33
Thag Simmons
Head Alien is a title, not some mere nickname.
Tan
Unless referring specifically to pre-cartoon-show comic book version (or Walkyverse version), he’s “Dexter” or “Dexter the Head Alien”. See https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/throw/ and https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/smitten-2/
Nono
Is Restless Leg Syndrome a Girls with Slingshots reference?
Pippy
No, it’s when you can’t stop moving your legs. It happened to me when a nurse gave me too much medication in the hospital. Weird shit. Also extremely uncomfortable.
Cholma
RLS is a real thing.
Decidedly Orthogonal