295

Classes
Posted on February 24, 2015 by David M Willis

295 thoughts on “Classes”

  1. Jen Aside

    “also she’s a great-ass kisser”

    [“not to be confused with ‘great ass-kisser'”]

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      And who can really blame her?

      1. newllend(henryvolt)

        Ya those are a couple of great asses

    2. Yotomoe

      FINALLY. I’VE BEEN WAITING YEARS.

      1. Jen Aside

        I posted that like YEARS ago, not my fault you didn’t look at old posts |=p

        1. SmartAlec105

          All characters in everything are bisexual until proven otherwise.

        2. Rycan

          And even after that point, fans will continue to ship them anyways. Because.

        3. -Sentinel-

          No one can ever be proven non-bisexual! Joyce did not return Becky’s kiss, but it only means she’s not Becky-sexual.

        4. Kang the Unbalanced

          ‘Twas your avatar for a stretch as well. That’s your work?? Very nice!

    3. Rowan Mikaio

      Indeed, I’m sure she only kisses great asses, rather than their lesser-ass cousins.

      1. xKiv

        Something something Malaya something something ass something something great?

    4. hemlockstones

      old joke: what is the difference between ass kissing and brown nosing?

      depth perception.

    5. Twilightomens

      What a nice ass-car.

  2. T Campbell


    I turn my chin music up
    And I’m puffing my chest
    I’m getting red in the face
    You can call me obsessed
    It’s not your fault that they hover
    I mean no disrespect
    It’s my right to be hellish
    I still get jealous

    ‘Cause you’re too sexy, beautiful
    And everybody wants a taste
    That’s why (that’s why)
    I still get jealous

    1. snogglethorpe

      Justin Bieber…?

    2. Jenna

      Get off of here with your Jonas brothers shenanigans. We don’t need you ’round these parts. *cocks gun*

      1. Vklav

        *guns cock*

        1. Sailor_Arashi

          Stop gunning that cock!

        2. Vklav

          My cock shall be unbeatable in combat

        3. Sonja

          I like how it devolved into cock jokes.

        4. Screwball

          Yeah, it was a dick of a thing to do, get all cocky & just drop this line of comments into male genitalia jokes…

        5. Rycan

          Hey! No cockfighting!

    3. JetstreamGW

      Out! OUT!

      None of that!

  3. Idon'tcarenomore

    So she is trying to learn sign. Good for her.

    1. Jen Aside

      I actually had a deaf (and maybe non-verbal?) co-worker once who did just this so we could talk with her. Took me a while to figure out, though, because no one actually told us she couldn’t hear or speak =p

    2. T Campbell

      The thing about Malaya is that she rations on her caring gestures so sparingly that when she turns around and does something like this, it’s REALLY meaningful.

      1. Kodra

        also, kinda like Mike, all of her caring gestures conveniently piss someone else off

        1. MeghanTheWorldEater

          If your kindness doesn’t piss off someone yer doin it wrong!

        2. Kang the Unbalanced

          Indeed! A very Klingon statement. I just knew those sunglasses were there to hide the bumps.

      2. Northcutt

        Also, y’know, she wants to hit that.

        Jus’ sayin.

  4. Dusk Tornado

    awwwww

    1. MeghanTheWorldEater

      Your grav makes it seem like Galasso is screaming in pain rather than swooning :p

      1. Dusk Tornado

        ONLY MASTER GALASSO’S ENEMIES SCREAM IN PAIN!!!

        1. MeghanTheWorldEater

          Of course!
          Please forgive my foolishness Master Galasso D:

        2. JacHunter

          Really? Great job, Meghan, you’ve sent him off on another tirade. This would be the part where I say “I’m gonna go hide in the broom closet”, but Mike locked me out.

          Again.

        3. All Hail Dina

          … Wow, he really doesn’t want his gay’s closeted does he?

          I guess that makes sense – it’s easier to know you don’t want to go into a room than to know that you don’t want to go into a closet.

          SERIOUSLY GUYS!!! PICK A ROOM WITH A SOCK HOLDER ON THE OUTSIDE!!!!!!

          (Yes, I am fully aware that is not what it means to be in the closet)

  5. Seerow

    Wait was that only 3 days ago in comic time? I thought it was at least a week by now.

    1. John

      It’s Friday afternoon now. The confrontation in the Wal-Mart parking lot was early Tuesday morning. So a bit more than three full days.

      1. Mike

        How do you keep track? This comic needs a permanent in-universe calendar/clock widget or something.

        1. John

          I did an archive crawl and assembled a detailed timeline with links.

        2. Rex Vivat

          Huh. I went “that address looks familiar”, and then it hit me.

        3. Gigafreak

          Some of those summaries are pretty perfect

        4. Roborat

          That’s what you get for standing in the street.

        5. Thanks, I'll Have Another!

          Hey, this is pretty great. Bookmarked.

        6. Bagge

          That’s awesome!

        7. Mike

          Wow, this is extensive! I’m impressed.

          I’m also shocked we’re only 4 weeks in. The people I know hardly got this much personal growth in 4 years of college, let alone 4 weeks.

        8. Screwball

          I could have done that too, if I wanted… 😛

          Nice work on the timeline. That’s going in the bookmarks. Any chance it’s going to be updated as time rolls on?

        9. John

          It’ll probably always be a couple scenes behind, because it’s easier to summarize events after they’ve shaken out a little, but, yeah, I intend to keep it reasonably up to date. It wouldn’t be super useful if I didn’t.

        10. Screwball

          Cool. That’s going in the bookmarks once it’s working again…

      2. Northcutt

        And the conversation that Sal’s mad about that took place earlier this morning was posted about MORE THAN A MONTH AGO.

        Comic time, ladies and gentlemen.

  6. Jon Rich

    That’s dedication. What’s that last sign mean, though?

    1. Riku

      “Yes”

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        That or the sign for revving up a bike…

    2. Em

      The last panel sign means “yes”

      1. Em

        Oh. It appears someone has beat me to it!

  7. Plasma Mongoose

    Sal thinks fun is too square for a cool babe like herself obviously.

    1. Yotomoe

      She’s a stone cold betty.

    2. Doctor_Who

      But I thought it was hip to be a square.

      Did Huey Lewis lie to me?

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Yes… yes he did. 😛

        1. Doctor_Who

          Next you’ll be telling me I DO need money, fame, or a credit card to ride this train. 🙁

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          Well DUHHHH! 😛

        3. Tacos

          You do indeed.

        4. grantimusmaximus

          Pretty soon, we’ll all want a new drug.

        5. neeks

          I’ll settle for the power of love.

        6. Deanatay

          I wanna new duck
          Not a swan or a goose
          One I can dress real cute
          Think I’m gonna name him Bruce

          I wanna new duck
          Not a quail or an owl
          One that won’t stick his bill in my mail
          One that won’t smell real ‘fowl’

          One that won’t beg for bread crumbs
          Waddling all around
          One that’ll teach me how to swim
          And help me not to drown
          And teach me how…. to GET DOWN
          GE-ET DOWN BABY (GET IT??)

          QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK

        7. saltchocolate

          So good. Have an internet.

        8. Roborat

          Once this thread started, the Weird Al reference was inevitable.

        9. jesslin

          It was quite a while before I found out that wasn’t the original song… i lived a very sheltered life where pop music was concerned 😀

        10. Lawzlo

          He’s been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

        11. Ray Radlein

          The only thing Elvis Costello and Huey Lewis have in common is that The News were Elvis Costello’s backing band on his first album, “My Aim Is True”

        12. S. Noir

          To the best of my knowledge, the backing band for Elvis Costello on album #1 were the Attractions, not the News.

        13. S. Noir

          And I correct myself. Tour yes, album no.

        14. gwalla

          (psst…Lawzlo was quoting “American Psycho”)

  8. Keroshino

    Yeah…fun.

  9. Yotomoe

    Being attacked by a superhero isn’t FUN. It’s exciting, sure, but not really fun.

    1. Doctor_Who

      Didn’t Watchmen feature a “supervillain” who was just really into getting beat up? It creeped everyone out, if I recall.

      1. John

        Until he tried it on Rorschach, and Rorschach threw him down an elevator shaft.

        1. Doctor_Who

          I guess you could say he (removes sunglasses) got off at the ground floor.

        2. insomniac

          …are we still doing this?

          …well… okay.

          YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

        3. jeffepp

          We will be doing this, until an entire generation has come to pass, that has not seen the show. Then, we will keep doing it, just to troll them.

        4. JacHunter

          “Mom? Why does Grandpa always take his sunglasses off when he makes a really bad play on words?” “I…I don’t really know.”

        5. Tenn

          Noooooooo you’re supposed to put them on, not take them off! Now time will start going backwards!

          *beat*

          Oh, you’ve already fixed it?

        6. Kang the Unbalanced

          It’s jokes like that that gave me these bumps.

    2. newllend(henryvolt)

      I had to fight IRON MAN yesterday but its all Good I won, Hacked into his Google+ account had complete control of the fight before it really even started.

      1. Deanatay

        And yet, you still got beat up… is there something you’d like to share?

        1. newllend(henryvolt)

          Ya Turns Tony Stark is a HUGE masochist, who would have saw that coming ?

        2. newllend(henryvolt)

          Turns out

  10. TheLurkerAbove

    Typing with a smartphone – because it’s just easier than making Malaya learn. 😛

    1. Yotomoe

      Sign language is HARD.

      1. grantimusmaximus

        Crazy hard. It’s like… another language, dude.

        1. MeghanTheWorldEater

          Nah learning another language ain’t so hard.
          You just spend all day studying only to realize the next day you only half rememb-
          Okay yeah it’s pretty damn hard.

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      Smart-phones are smart so we don’t have to be. 😛

      1. Solenoid

        Meanwhile, years in the future…

        1. StClair

          You seem to have left out the link. Here you go.

        2. Plasma Mongoose

          Nice… also a tad freaky…

        3. No Name

          You forgot the obligatory side link. Here you go

        4. Screwball

          Was that supposed to go to a specific page, or to the latest, cause it’s going to the latest…

      2. neeks

        Once I was texting back and forth with a coworker and he asked if I had a smartphone because my texts were so “punctuate” (bro stop that is not an adjective) and I was like “no I just know how to spell” and he called me a nerd. But considering we’d just spent the last shift arguing about whether I should give up on Runescape so I could play WoW….I thought the “nerd” part was a given, really.

    3. Foxhack

      Malaya is still very new at sign language.

      1. Ailorn

        Agreed. Also it’s pretty cool of Malaya to automatically go towards looking up the sign rather than just ask Marcie to type it.

    4. newllend(henryvolt)

      But its funny to make her do such a hard task.

    5. All Hail Dina

      Or because the message was not something particularly common for sign language, and Marcie didn’t particularly want to wait for Malaya to try to search each sign individually.

  11. Mass Confusion

    But Malaya, motorcycle!

    1. Tenn

      Motorcycle, Malaya butt!

  12. All Hail Dina

    How come Marcy’s mouth NEVER moves?

    1. timemonkey

      Because she’s not talking or eating?

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      Of cause it doesn’t, Marcie wouldn’t be any good as a ventriloquist if it did.

    3. All-purpose guru

      She is really Hello Kitty?

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        Hell O Kitty

        Possibly NSFW

        1. Screwball

          You just had to open your mouth & show us that, didn’t you… 😛

        2. All Hail Dina

          Least she put a NSFW sign. YoToMoe didn’t.

        3. Plasma Mongoose

          But of cause. ψ(｀∇´)ψ

    4. Rycan

      Why would she need to move it? She can’t speak anymore, after all. Hence the sign language.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        More people can lip-read than know ASL.

    5. Sarah

      Actually, that’s a pretty good question. A good portion of ASL is based on facial expressions.

      1. agentksilver

        Yes, precisely. It would be like skipping half your words in spoken language.

      2. Em

        Most of it is. Moving your eyebrows and the rest of your face is actually a significant part of the grammar structure, ESPECIALLY the eyebrows. I always found it strange that Marcie speaks in a monotone.

        1. winter

          Maybe she is moving her eyes and eyebrows and the characters can see it from behind the shades, but we can’t because of the artstyle.

          Or maybe she’s just not quite as fluent as we might expect. She was apparently a speaking person as a child, so ASL isn’t her first language, and, depending on when she turned mute, she may have missed the critical period.

  13. Jupiterror

    nice mike impression with the face, malaya

  14. caesaria82

    Marcie and Sal are the true OTP of this comic.

    1. 3oranges

      The one true OTP? 🙂

      1. caesaria82

        I realized this immediately after I typed it, I was hoping no one would notice. Damn :p

      2. StClair

        I was gonna comment on this, but I had to run out to the ATM machine.

        1. neeks

          Don’t forget your PIN number.

        2. Doctor_Lantern

          And if you are affected by this winter’s cold it is always good to remember to check your Hot Water Heater.

        3. Sailor_Arashi

          I lost my CAC card!

    2. Opus the Poet

      You’re probably right, but it is a platonic OTP

      1. Opus the Poet

        And I used the wrong altvatar for that comment.

      2. caesaria82

        (in my mind they can be anything, including non-platonic ;-))
        But yes, in canon they’re the one true friendship pairing and I love them a lot.

  15. Solenoid

    Jealousy. Envy. The green-eyed monster. It comes for them all.

    1. randonimity

      I was taught that envy and jealousy are different. Jealousy is when you don’t want others to have what you believe is yours. Envy is wanting something others have that you don’t.

  16. Regalli

    Aww, Marcie. Aww, Malaya trying.

  17. James

    And thus does Sal/Marcie reach the level of a “Don’t Care If It’s Platonic or Romantic, I Want Them Together” OTP.

    1. grantimusmaximus

      You don’t have to worry. They will surely be together 5ever. (dat mo den 4 eva)

      1. Doctor_Lantern

        I crey evertim

    2. Regalli

      Yes. NOW SNUGGLE.

  18. Bagge

    Ooooh, backstory

    1. newllend(henryvolt)

      Well a bit but more like stating something we already knew.

  19. newllend(henryvolt)

    Now you see the jealousy is unnecessary, everyone that means something to her loves the hell out her and would go to far langths to be around her.

    Although I will admit it is cute seeing her jealous.

  20. JessWitt

    Oh, Marcie’s not an IU student? She just lives around in the area? What if she hosted Becky in her home?

    1. Jon P

      I was about to say “I guess we don’t need to worry about where she [Marcie] fits in the dorms anymore”, but you’ve got a clever idea.
      Of course, this isn’t even “friend of a friend”, it’d be asking Marcie, “Hey, can we have the friend of a friend of your friend’s roommate crash with you?” Might be a bit of an ask.

      1. John

        “Your friend’s roommate already paid her twenty bucks to go away, but I’m sure you’ll like her! I mean, you put up with Malaya.”

      2. Gangler

        If Marcie’s got an extra room then she’s a nice option for when Becky’s got a job though.

        They might be an interesting couple too. Could see Becky learning a new language just to pick up a cute roller derby girl. Not sure if Becky would be her type though. I mean, we don’t really have any info about what Marcie’s type is, but I just have trouble picturing that end of it.

        1. JessWitt

          Now you’re shipping!

        2. Robin

          Now you’re thinking with shipping goggles!

        3. Bagge

          Heh, and given how annoying Becky has been for some people in the comments section – just imagine what Sal will think.

      3. JessWitt

        It’s a stretch yeah. But it’s also a comic! Anything can happen – within reasonable limits.

        1. Carriethedragon

          Yeah, it’s not like you could have a college story transition into a story about an alien invasion and parallel universes, or anything like that!

        2. Solenoid

          Sounds like a boring shift. Definitely not the sort of thing one can keep up for 15 years. What would it even be like? Absurd to the point of making the all-powerful MacGuffin a branch?

        3. Robin

          I mean, as long as it doesn’t spin off into a story about a toy store, with stories like a talking car and, say, the employees locking up their boss in a cage, I’d still consider reading it.

        4. Screwball

          Sounds good, long as it doesn’t get soggy towards the end tho…

      4. Kamino Neko

        A friend of a friend of your brother’s girlfriend would be more accurate. I don’t know that Billie and Joyce count as friends any more than Joyce and Walky.

        1. Rycan

          So Marcie would wind up hosting a friend of a friend of a hitlfriend of a brother of a friend. That’s only five degrees of separation!

  21. advancecasette

    damn

    I must know more

  22. John

    Sal’s Marcie’s Peppermint Patty, Malaya.

    1. grantimusmaximus

      Except she would never call anyone “sir.” Marcie just doesn’t give a shit about titles.

      1. No Name

        My god. I never realized just how well Marcie resembles, well, Marcie! The hair, the goggles, even the color scheme!

        1. Doctor_Lantern

          I do remember Willis saying that Charles Schulz was a huge influence on him.

        2. John

          Original-flavor Marcie has an even stronger resemblance to Marcie from Peanuts. It’s even called out in her Walkypedia bio.

  23. Just Me

    Marcie seems nice enough, but it seems a waste for her to not be thinking about her own future. Also makes Sal seem less cool and not much of a friend.

    1. MM

      I kinda doubt Marcie was college-bound (or at least ready for it right now) if she was willing to be that impulsive, Sal or no. There might be more opportunities for her here than back home anyway.

    2. caesaria82

      We don’t even know what she does, she could have a great job. Not everyone is made for college (not that I’m saying she can’t go, of course she can but she obviously doesn’t want to right now) and college isn’t the only option to have a future.

      1. Marie

        Yes, this, thank you. No college does not mean no future, or irresponsible. Fuck.

    3. newllend(henryvolt)

      Depends on really what she does ? We still barely know anything about her for all we know she could be filthy stinking Rich or have the most kick ass Job ever or she has really successful Webcomic, ya that sounds about right she the Author of “Kick ass girls with Skate boards” in all honesty its a better read than “Dumbing of Youth”

    4. Yotomoe

      She’s just waiting for Marcie Pro Skater 3 to drop so she can get that Playstation money.

      1. newllend(henryvolt)

        Good choice going with Soney, Microsoft would just fuck her over and she’ll never make a living.

        But on that same topic that gives me an Idea what do you guys think of a Dumbing of age video Game ? You can either have Marcie Pro skate or an AMAZI-GIRL beat em-up where she just fighting crime and you can Sal as a Boss then after with that fight you can have her as a co-op character, either that or a dating Sim I would help Kickstart the shit out of any of these .

        1. Opus the Poet

          Or a dating simulator. what?! It is a thing, they are really big in Japan.

        2. Bagge

          The dating sim would have a slipshine DLC…

      2. Deanatay

        Playstation money? Is that like Internet money? I gotta get me somma dat.

  24. Gangler

    Eeh, that adds a bit of weirdness to their relationship dynamic. Sal goes places because of goals, or because her parents are sending her here or whatever, and Marcie just tags along, uprooting her life to be wherever Sal is?

    And now Sal’s getting bent out of shape because Marcie has two whole friends. Like Marcie hasn’t already given her enough indication that she’s committed to this relationship. Most significant others don’t even move along with you after you graduate out of highschool.

    1. MeghanTheWorldEater

      Sometimes significant others follow you after high school.
      Didn’t go so well for Danny and Dotty though.

      1. Gangler

        Yeah, sometimes. A lot don’t though. Point is it’s pretty far above and beyond what you’d expect of a friend.

        1. Carriethedragon

          I’m not sure whether to think that they just have a really special, loyal, platonic relationship, or whether Marcie is in love with Sal.

        2. MeghanTheWorldEater

          Well…if we return to the Danny and Dotty example…>.>

    2. Bagge

      Marcie has got more than friends. She and Malaya share the roller derby team which is a social context and hobby that Sal is not part of. Still completely disproportionate response from Sal, though.

  25. Gigafreak

    Marcie moved because Sal moved? She was able to pull up roots that easily? Where does she live? Does she have a job?

    1. Bilal Kalyal

      She gets around.

    2. insomniac

      “Roots” are often pretty shallow, especially right out of high school.

      1. Gangler

        Before this I’m pretty sure Marcie lived at a catholic boarding school, so I guess she had to go somewhere. Couldn’t very well just stay where she was.

        1. Nono

          That’s Sal.

          I presume that Marcie might have moved nearby though. We don’t know her reaction to Sal’s conveience store spree.

        2. Gangler

          Yeah, but I’m pretty sure Marcie was there with Sal. It doesn’t sound like they’re just now reuniting after being apart for years. It hasn’t specifically been stated where she was before this but “At the catholic boarding school with Sal” makes the most sense.

          She coudln’t have just moved into the neighborhood of Sal’s new school. They were kids. She by necessity lived wherever her parents did, unless of course she was sent to a boarding school.

    3. lekoppa

      I’m not really surprised that Marcie would follow Sal to Bloomington, but given that she went to all that trouble, I wonder why they aren’t roommates. You’d think Sal would prefer apartment living with her BFF to the dorms.

      1. Greenygal

        As a freshman, Sal probably has to live on campus.

        1. No Name

          Besides, this way she can stick it to her mom by by making her spend more money for the dorm residence.

        2. nightsbridge

          Not always true. I lived off campus during freshmen year.

        3. David M Willis

          That’s not allowed at Indiana University. Freshman have to live on-campus.

        4. lekoppa

          I went to IU and never lived on campus- I couldn’t afford the housing costs. I had a terrible commute, which was really annoying, but it was perfectly allowed.

          It may be that IU used to have that rule, though- and it certainly makes sense here, as it serves the story.

        5. David M Willis

          http://www.rps.indiana.edu/resrequire.cfml

          First-year students are required to live on-campus, with some allowances made for those who live with a parent or guardian within 25 miles. Sal’s parents live a couple hours away, and that doesn’t address her living with Marcie anyway.

        6. lekoppa

          All this time, I had no idea! That certainly explains my circumstances in freshman year. I’m sorry for the confusion!

        7. Marie

          I’m not saying you’re wrong, because you just linked that, but that’s crazy. I’m so glad none of the schools here have that.

        8. John

          The college I went to had a similar rule. I had a couple of friends who were a little older than traditional college students, and married with a young daughter, who were still required to live in campus housing their freshman year. There was limited married couple housing, so at least they got to room together, but their daughter had to stay with her grandmother during the school year.

        9. JWLM

          Replying to John: Eh? Married student housing at IU was apartment based. Spouse and I didn’t have kids, but we certainly could have housed them if we did.

  26. Bilal Kalyal

    Oh my, I half expected Marcie to rip Sal a new one behind her back, or at least a criticism.

    1. newllend(henryvolt)

      That’s kind of unnecessarily Spiteful

      1. Bagge

        And just plain unnecessary. If she want so be mean to Sal, hanging out with someone else seems to do the job just fine.

        1. newllend(henryvolt)

          Classic shunning

  27. Nena

    I wonder what happened to cause Sal to dislike Malaya so much.

    1. bleeters

      She met her.

    2. MeghanTheWorldEater

      Did Sal get attacked by Amber before Malaya showed up? I think not…okay she did…but she didn’t have a costume back then >.>

    3. Just Me

      Jealousy, perhaps?

      1. Bagge

        I think it started with “someone else wants to hang out with me when I’m cool”. But now its jealousy.

    4. segnosaur

      Remember, the first time you saw Malaya she was complaining about how much beer she was getting. That type of complaining might grate on a person.

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/beer-weiser/

    5. John

      I just browsed back through the Malaya tag, and… we haven’t really seen much of her in this universe, and while she’s hot-headed and a little obnoxious, there hasn’t been any real sign that she’s the spite-fueled hate machine that she was in Shortpacked!. I’m thinking that Sal’s pack just needed an omega wolf, and Malaya drew the short straw.

      1. Gigafreak

        Shortpacked Malaya was a spite-fueled hate machine probably because she was several years older than she is in Dumbing of Age, and employed by a culture she views as beneath her, recruited into it by a dude hoping to Nice Guy his way into her pants.

        1. John

          I actually realized recently, somewhat to my horror, that Malaya’s my favorite of the Shortpacked! new generation. Lucy’s too nice to be really interesting, I never managed to relate to Jacob and his too-hot sex-addict drama, and Zangief wobbles between being a completely bland milquetoast and being a douchecanoe without ever stopping at being someone I care about or want to read about. Malaya at least is all-in on that spite-fueled hate machine thing.

        2. Rycan

          Zangief? Who’s dat?

      2. Kintrex

        Yeah, as someone who hasn’t read Shortpacked, I’m rather in the dark about why Malaya get so much hate in the comics, when in this comic Carla’s just as much of a jerk as she is, but everyone in the comments loves Carla for whatever reason.

  28. Arianod

    Campus ain’t big enough for the two of ’em.

  29. grantimusmaximus

    I think I kind of like Malaya. She’s feisty.

    1. Yotomoe

      Aw yeah. Solidarity.

      1. timemonkey

        Soon all shall join the Malaya side.

  30. OnyxIdol

    So does Marcie not care about her own future or is she already an established webcomic artist and hence has no need for a degree?

    1. grantimusmaximus

      Maybe she just kind of walks the earth, David Carradine style.

      1. StClair

        You mean she’s a bum.

        1. grantimusmaximus

          Residential flexibility has nothing to do with the gluteous maximus, thank you and good day. I SAID GOOD DAY

        2. Gigafreak

          Her bum is probably pretty excellent though considering her proficiency at roller derby

          She has a very competent bum

          It is a bum of iron, and a bum of wrath

        3. OnyxIdol

          I wanted to say basically the same thing, but I couldn’t find the exact PF quote quickly enough.

    2. Ray Radlein

      Perhaps she has a sizable trust fund from a legal settlement from whatever incident rendered her mute.

      1. OnyxIdol

        Interesting thought, and quite reasonable.

    3. Gangler

      Sounds like she must have her living situation looked after somehow, so she’s probably doing alright for herself. Wouldn’t be the first person to get where she’s going without a college diploma.

  31. Archivist

    So is there an easy way to look up signs based on the hand movements?

    1. Opus the Poet

      Quite literally, there’s an app for that.

      1. Opus the Poet

        https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/asl-translator/id421784745?mt=8
        Just one of the dozens of apps I found to translate ASL for both iOS and Android.

        1. Archivist

          (Thank you for essentially Googling that for me.) Awesome. The information age is great.

    2. elinoria

      signingsavvy.com really helped me when I was learning asl, but it definitely doesn’t have everything. But I like it because you can actually see it in action, rather than an illustration.

      1. Archivist

        Useful! Thanks.

  32. zoelogical

    Malaya’s like a marshmallow coated in porcupine.

    1. No Name

      Soooo…. A hedgehog?

      1. zoelogical

        …AND SHE CANNOT BE BUGGERED AT ALL.

  33. anonymsly

    Hmm. I believe it. Despite Marcie’s general awesomeness, I bet she doesn’t have a lot of friends since whatever happened to make her lose her voice. Sal might well have been the only one to actually learn sign language to keep on speaking with Marcie.

    If that hypothetical is so, I can see that earning a lot of loyalty from Marcie. All other things being equal, I would certainly like to go where that friend does.

    Which means I very much like seeing Marcie making friends apart from Sal, especially friends who are also willing to learn sign like Malaya apparently is. (True facts, this one fact makes me warm right up to Malaya, and I have warmed to no other Malaya.)

  34. Tucker

    Something like this happened to me. I was visiting an ER because I train nurses and a couple had come in, at least one with non-lifethreatening injuries and both were unable to speak or hear. The staff were looking for a way to contact an interpreter and since I know a few signs and how to finger spell because my wife was born severely hearing impaired I was about to offer to help, when I realized we were all being stupid and said, “If anyone has a note pad and a pen that might be all they need.” We all looked at each other for a second like, ‘Why was that so hard to figure out?’ and that was that.

  35. Prior Semblance

    Nice blue arms in panel 2 =p

    1. Prior Semblance

      I know it’s meant to be that way btw, it just looks funny =p

      1. MeghanTheWorldEater

        Sorta looks like someone else’s arm is coming in from off panel don’t it.

    2. WeezerLuvr3030

      Wait a minute… Those aren’t blue, they’re silver! She is either: a T-1000 on a mission on campus; or: she is trying to hide the Power Cosmic (and faltering).

      Either way, as far as I’m concerned, from now on both of those subplots are canon.

  36. The Wizard

    Yay, more Sal, Marcie, Malaya, and Carla content; the comic has been severely lacking these four, especially lacking Sal.

    1. saltchocolate

      More Sal, please!!!

  37. Marc in MN

    The last panel should have said, “Well, she is over there sneering at people from a wall….I do enjoy doing that….”

  38. neeks

    Yesterday: Sal wonders what’s so great about Malaya.
    Today: Malaya wonders what’s so great about Sal.

    1. Rowen Morland

      Tomorrow they make out?

      1. grantimusmaximus

        http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/582/tumblr_lmputme3co1qa6q7k_large.png

  39. GoogerGeiger

    Huh. What’s-her-name is curvier than I realized.

  40. DeCorrector

    YOU SHALL NOT RUIN THIS FRIENDSHIP!
    SO SPEAKS GALASSO!

    1. Superdud

      I approve this message.

    2. Keroshino

      so sayeth emperor galasso!

    3. Flame_Warp

      Emperor galassooooo~

      He’s the best elder of all~

      His hq is a toy store/pizza place~

      But his power’s hardly small~

      1. Flame_Warp

        Ruler, not elder! Please don’t execute me!

        1. DeCorrector

          YOU DO WELL TO RESPECT THE AUTHORITY OF GALASSO!

  41. heavvymetalqueen

    Awww. I like the idea that Marcie just goes where Sal goes, but I also like Malaya making such an effort to be her friend. I like both a lot tbh.

  42. ninja_jesus

    Malaya is a darling. I mean I know she had a reputation in Walkyverse, but this ain’t Walkyverse. Go Malaya.

  43. bumpercrumpets

    Her gloves went from blue to red to blue again. Damn auto balance.

  44. Bagge

    Marcie is good at those little affectionate gestures. Like here when she reaches out to borrow the phone, or earlier when she put her hand on Malaya’s in a ‘shush’ gesture. Note how Malaya isn’t startled at any point. Marcie moves slow enough to silently ask for and be given permission for an intimate gesture.

    Sal may be onto something…

    1. Rycan

      How does someone who’s deaf or mute typically interrupt someone?

  45. Spencer

    Aaand Marcie suddenly became really, really depressing.

  46. DarkoNeko

    …this kinda makes me wonder where Marcie lives and what she actually does for a living. I mean, students are pretty much provided for by the school, but.. ?

  47. Flame_Warp

    You know, you’re actually kinda making me start linking malaya.

    IAMUNUSEDTOTHEEMOTIONSIAMCURRENTLYFEELING

  48. diello

    What do you suppose is the app she’s using?

  49. tim gueguen

    Perhaps Sal is Marcie’s job. She’s been hired by someone for some reason to keep Sal out of really serious trouble. Being Sal’s friend forever just makes it that much easier to find an excuse to hang around with her.

  50. Chris

    Well, fuck you, Malaya.
    Sheeeeesh.

  51. Spencer

    So what’s Marcie saying in the last panel? It’s probably not the title of the strip.

    1. anonymsly

      That’s just ‘yes’, IIRC. Fist going up and down like a nodding head.

    2. Em

      The title of the strip is maybe what she’s about to sign in the first one? It doesn’t look like classes to me. (I am partially deaf, and so I learned sign!) Possibly a different dialect? Yes–those exist.

      This is the one I’m used to: https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/CLASS/75/1
      (it’s kinda hard to just explain)

      I actually have no idea what she’s signing. It doesn’t appear to sync up with the rest of the sentence that she wrote down. *shrugs* Maybe she was about to sign.

      1. Em

        Actually, now that I’m looking more closely, she could be signing “none,” and ending the sentence.

        Hmmm that makes more sense with what Malaya said…

  52. Cybersnark

    “Or you could just pull a Celty. That works too.”

  53. JBento

    Why have we wasted so many strips on Becky when we could be following these four?! ANY of these four?! Or Dina, but that’s a given.

    Also, when can we expect a flashback to Marcie’s story? I wants.

    1. Keroshino

      There is always time for more Dina!!!
      …but yeah, I also want more Marcie story! 🙂

      1. All Hail Dina

        –

  54. Jen

    Reporting an IAMs video ad that I couldn’t pause. I don’t mind ads but video ads are really annoying, especially when I’m at work.

  55. Splooshy

    It’s seriously only been THREE DAYS since Amazigirl attacked them?! Holy crap, what are the parameters of the Dumbverse??? One day there is half-a-year for us??? Jeeeeeeeezzzz…

    1. No Name

      Welcome to the joys of “comic time”. Just be glad the seasons aren’t cycling in real time.

    2. timemonkey

      Get this, it’s only been like four weeks since the comic started. One month.

      1. Rycan

        At least it won’t be hard to have this comic only span freshman year.

    3. John

      It’s been averaging about a Dumbiverse week per real-world year.

    4. DuckDuckMoose

      I anticipate the characters getting to the semester break in 2020. Maybe.

  56. Vangeln

    And that luxurious river of chocolate.

  57. All Hail Dina

    … We’ve heard of most of the main character’s parents already, but nothing about Marcie’s. She moves around and follows Sal without a care for anything else. She isn’t in college, though about the same age as Sal.

    Is she an orphan?

    1. Keroshino

      Yeah, now I really want to know more about Marcie.

      …hopefully this storyline leads to us readers finding out soon.

      1. Spencer

        If she’s able to move to Bloomington without actually taking college courses, solely to follow Sal, I’d say chances are high that Marcie’s an orphan/

        1. JWLM

          Or that her parents are quite wealthy and they’re supporting her.

        2. Spencer

          Would any parent allow their kid to move someplace just to follow a friend? I don’t think even Billie’s folks are that laissez-faire.

        3. Rycan

          They knowingly sent their alcoholic daughter to college. That is, I assume that they know about her alcoholism, or that she’s even in college.

    2. TwinBladeWarrior

      Had a look at the flashback and I think Marcie being an orphan would help to make walkermoms “what kind of parent” line even better/worse/more amusing

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/castlemarcie/

  58. PlainMarie

    If I had to choose between Sal and Malaya, there’d be no contest.

    1. No Name

      Soooo… Which one?

      1. Keroshino

        Sal, duh!

      2. xKiv

        Between Sal and Malaya is Marcie.

  59. Los

    Sooo…unless it happened and I didn’t notice, are we ever gonna get around to why Marcie opted for sign language instead of speaking (which she did as child)?

    1. Spencer

      Presumably, there was an incident that occurred (Sal’s only word on the subject is that she and Marcie learned ASL together because “stuff happens”) that caused her to lose the ability to speak. Marcie doesn’t choose not to speak, she’s mute.

      1. Rycan

        Or deaf and a skilled lip-reader.

        1. All Hail Dina

          No, http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/fun-2/ . Last panel.

  60. TwinBladeWarrior

    I like that Malaya actually goes to look the signs up, it shows that she cares and is willing to put the effort into being Marcies friend

    not sure what to think about Marcie following Sal though, could be a little weird depends what her situation is

  61. Jaco

    David Willis, Marcie’s hands still need to be colored.

    1. Jen

      When her hands aren’t colored, that signifies that they are moving and she is doing sign language. 🙂

  62. OmegaDez

    Okay, I don’t understand why her arms turn blue when she signs… Is that some sort of convention to see her hands better?

    1. DarkoNeko

      movement indications

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