155

Never leave
Posted on December 21, 2021 by David M Willis

155 thoughts on “Never leave”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    SENPAI, YOU NOTICED

    1. Deanatay

      I mean, obvs

  2. DarkoNeko

    Mike : “duh ?!”

  3. Thag Simmons

    Alright so she was trying to get people to dislike her. Decent tactics for it, honestly.

  4. The Wellerman

    Tulpa or Alter or something else, it looks like Brain Mike has achieved self-awareness.

    Now what?

    1. Doctor_Who

      You call the Ghostbusters.

      1. The Wellerman

        But Doctor, surely YOU’RE more qualified to deal with these kinds of phenomena?

        1. Doctor_Who

          The Doctor actually has a history themselves of hallucinating deceased/departed friends during traumatic moments.

          So maybe not the best person to ask. “Oh, that’s normal, she’s just about to regenerate into a new form.”

        2. The Wellerman

          Well if ya call the Ghostbusters, it’s a 50/50 split between spawning a portal to Marshmallow Hell at the best and the proton streams crossing and ending all life at the worse.

          Your call doc!

        3. Abel Undercity

          And after it’s all over, there’s a high probability of a lawsuit.

    2. Opus the Poet

      He’s a harbinger of Skynet, or whatever they’re calling it now.

      1. begbert2

        Facebook.

        1. Clif

          No fair making me laugh while I’m drinking coffee.

        2. powerpowerpow

          Well if it’s what they’re calling it now then I suppose it’s Meta.

        3. TheScreenJockey

          It’s only called “Meta” in the same sense that the company that owns Google is technically called “Alphabet, Inc.”

        4. Needfuldoer

          They’re not going to stop until we’re living like the humans in Wall-E and paying a monthly subscription for the privilege, are they…

        5. thejeff

          Meta

    3. Kirt Dankmyer

      Now you have to push him over to the original Walkyverse where his Tulpa ass can manifest in full as a latent Martian superpower to fight the Soggies or something.

  5. Svata

    “Yeah, no shit, obviously I am”

  6. crow

    Your mom’s a cry for help

    1. Doctor_Who

      If only therapy cost a nickel like your mom does.

      1. Ed Rhodes

        Well, if you can find Lucy, in her psychiatric booth, it will!

        1. Needfuldoer

          That’s only for the psychological trauma she inflicts.

          (Have to admit, that’s a pretty good racket she was running against good ol’ Charlie Brown. Build him back up so she could knock him right back down again.)

        2. StClair

          *pulls football away, walks up to him lying on his back on the ground*

          “Five cents, please.”

        3. The Wellerman

          In a capitalist society, it is rather wise NOT to take advice from people who give advice for a living.

        4. crow

          It’s the Lucy Industrial Complex

    2. Rabid Rabbit

      Amber’s mom cried for help. And found it. Or at least, Richard definitely helped her to something. Wah-hey.

  7. Romanticide

    this is one hell of a moment…

  8. Stephen Bierce

    *the guitar jam at the end of “Hotel California” plays on the hacked Muzak*
    (It was either that or Rick Astley’s “Cry For Help”.)

    1. Pilgrim

      “How can I miss you if you won’t ever leave?” by the Shirtless Biddles. Bonus points for being an Indiana Band

  9. audkitten

    I’m still upset that Mike is dead, but I also like the Mike in Amber’s head.

    1. Gnoka

      Personally, I’m holding onto the delusional headcanon that he’s in witness protection from the mob.

      1. WanderingLynx

        +1, we might never get to see it refuted nor confirmed, which actually helps to hold onto the delusion.

        (I did wonder if Booster was Mike for a hot second, but there’s a lot of reasons it’s not them.)

        1. King Daniel

          Willis actually updated Mike’s entry on the site cast page to say that he’s dead, which might count as an “official” confirmation that he’s dead if anything does.

        2. Clif

          Mike’s been officially dead before.

        3. The Wellerman

          SAUCE?

        4. Needfuldoer

          That was in the old sci-fi continuity. Mike died in the climactic battle at the end of It’s Walky!, only to inexplicably reappear in Shortpacked! for the lulz. (His reappearance was explained years later.) This was a universe where resurrection technology existed, and he wasn’t the only character to come back.

        5. Opus the Poet

          They brought back Reagan and Historical Jesus, among others.

        6. King Daniel

          Also Walky himself was killed and brought back from the dead, and several minor characters were mentioned to be in a “waiting line” to be resurrected.

        7. Bicycle Bill

          Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much.  It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead.  There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.  Mostly dead is slightly alive.  With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.

        8. Plain Marie

          hahaha! So apparently your friend here is only literally dead. If he were figuratively dead, he could nag you like he was alive. Oh, wait.

        9. Deanatay

          Go through his pockets and look for loose change!

        10. temperaryobsessor

          Yea but this stories less sci fi.

      2. thejeff

        Got to admit, inside Amber’s head is a place the mob is unlikely to look.

    2. Harmony

      Did he die? I thought he was just in a coma?

      Was there a funeral I missed?

      1. Queezle

        So I wanted to type that the funeral was during the time skip and we only heard characters referencing Mikes death and the funeral, but now I am not sure anymore if that was a serious question. Maybe you are being ironic. I am sorry.

      2. fudo81

        We all missed it, because of the timeskip

    3. Keulen

      I think I preferred the Mike in the other universe.

  10. The Wellerman

    Hey if you squint at the middle panels Amber kinda looks like a Pikachu. Heh heh.

    1. Sunny

      Now I cannot not see it.

  11. BBCC

    I MEAN, IF WE’RE JUST GONNA COME OUT AND *SAY* IT.

  12. newlland(Henryvolt)

    What the hell else would he be?

  13. Zach

    So his assholery was a cry for help all along?

    1. WanderingLynx

      … I’d believe it. Things point it started as a schtick to keep Blaine away from himself and out of guilt for having messed up both Amber and Ethan by forcing him to drive them – And the more we saw of him (from “Of Mike and Men” and onwards) it seemed like it had gone on so far and for so long he couldn’t stop… And also that he was realizing it was screwing himself over, on top of everyone else.

      1. Rabid Rabbit

        Eh. He was pretty messed up and manipulative even from the start of “Of Mike and Men,” so I don’t think we can claim it started in response to Blaine. I mean, that was a pretty advanced “I’m more of a sociopath than you are, douchebag” move he pulled on Blaine. It seems unlikely that he just improvised it.

    2. Thag Simmons

      Amber’s has been, but I think Mike was more “smart kid who thinks he knows better than everyone else”

    3. Joyfulldreams

      I mean. I’m pretty sure the strip is saying that the existence of ghost mike, and amber talking to him, is in of itself a cry for help from amber.

    4. Sombrero

      That’s what Amber believes.

  14. jmsr7

    I just noticed that Mike is always easy to see an never has any shadows on him.

    1. jmsr7

      Yep, confirmed: https://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/amber+mike/

      It’s been bothering me for a while now because i could tell when “Mike in Amber’s head” was there because he was different than real Mike, but i couldn’t figure out what it was…I thought maybe it was the overlapping/impossible locations he occupied, but it was actually the art style that showed it.

      1. King Daniel

        Yeah, it was first noticed in the comments during the kidnapping arc a year ago, but was more recently confirmed as well when Willis mentioned on Twitter that they’d accidentally shaded Mike in one strip and quickly had to fix that before uploading it to the buffer (also, they’d forgotten to add cheek blushes to Amber and that while for any other characters it wouldn’t be such a big deal, for Amber it’s literally the visual differential feature dividing her from Maisie, so).

        1. Joyfulldreams

          Wow. ‘Maisie’ is quite a good name to use instead of Amazi-girl. Now I hope she actually starts going by that, or something similar, tbh.

        2. Needfuldoer

          I don’t know, it’s kinda corny…

        3. zee

          Cornier than “Amazi Girl”?

        4. Needfuldoer

          “Maise” is, yes.

        5. Agemegos

          Boo!

        6. seregiel

          The Wonderful M(r)s. Maise(l)

  15. Cmasta1992

    Well whoever guessed self sabotage gets six points with the extra point pending

  16. Skater Girl

    TFW your subconscious is more self-aware than you are

  17. WanderingLynx

    Look. If the Mike in Amber’s head can nag her into actually getting therapy…

    I can’t remember if Amber ended up either remembering or being reminded by Amazigirl of what Mike had said and done at the end of his brief life. Either way, Brain Ghost Mike seems to be the self-actualized version the real thing didn’t get to be so. I appreciate his presence.

  18. Carms

    Aw. Mike’s a part of her brain that LOVES her.

  19. Rose by Any Other Name

    Happy Solstice everyone!
    I would have said so earlier, but I had to get the presents under the tree.

    Wee! It looks so pretty!

    1. The Wellerman

      That must be sweet!

      And oh yeah!

      The moon looks lovely, and just tops it all off!!! ?

    2. Amós Batista

      wait, didn’t we open at day 25?

      1. JBento

        CHRISTMAS is on the 25th. The Winter Solstice is on the 21st.

        1. Rose by Any Other Name

          Indeed!
          And now, the present opening is done. The kids are playing with their new toys and I am thawing the chicken that will be Solstice lunch while also booting up a video game to play. Good times.

          Merry Solstice to all! And to all – see you tonight (probably).

        2. JBento

          Have fun! (or considering when you’re likely to read this, “I hope you had fun”?)

        3. Rose by Any Other Name

          We did. It was very pleasant.

    3. The Wellerman

      I wish you a very happy Solstice indeed!

      Now, I haven’t had sleep in 24 hours, so…

    4. JBento

      Happy Solstice!

      Today a year dies. Having lived through it, can’t say it’s a big loss.

  20. UrsulaDavina

    My ex boyfriend and current girlfriend use the term you’re (whatever thing we are arguing about) when they have seemingly lost an argument l. So Amber as lost an argument to herself.

  21. Bagge

    My takehome from all this is that Amber is doing fine.

    1. King Daniel

      Finally making that speedrun attempt
      In Super Mario Bros.
      No time for anything else
      Even sleep

    2. Thag Simmons

      Not getting into any more car chases or street fights is a pretty major plus as far as well-being goes, but there’s a lot of stuff that she’s still struggling with

    3. Keulen

      She’s doing fine like that meme comic of the dog in a building that’s on fire.

    4. StClair

      She’s fine!

  22. Chaucer59

    No, YOU’RE a figment of MY imagination.

  23. Rabid Rabbit

    “I COULD.”

    Could what, exactly, Amber? Socialize? Squick people out? (As opposed to squicking them, I assume that’s a step too far even for her.) Miss something? Warm bridges? Burn bridges?

    Inquiring Mikes want to know!

  24. Adam Black

    I don’t get this.
    It makes no sense.

    There was literally no narrative point to killing off Mike. None. He’s still here. Hes stil ruining lives.
    But now the conic is lost in a narrative swamp of no escape and accomplished all wrong said he would avoid.

    Like Bury your gays, and characters never escaping a grieving story line.

    The only thing that makes sense … Only seems unlikely due to esteem. The most obvious reason ( if it wasn’t Willis )… He just ran out of story ideas?

    1. Thag Simmons

      This entire narrative right now doesn’t happen without Mike dying, and a dead character persisting as a ghost (of sorts) doesn’t mean that character didn’t die, even if technically he’s still here.

    2. AGV

      You’re starting to look like a troll

    3. Rani

      I think they mean that Mike’s death doesn’t have any thematic or emotional value since we were never attached to him to begin with. His death does trigger the current narrative-but functionally that narrative is either causing some characters to retread old ground (Amber) or become functionally unusable with the current cast (Ethan), and on top of all this Mike is still ‘around’, so there wasn’t really a ‘loss’ after all.

      Put another way: most of the time, character deaths are supposed to shake up a narrative. Here, Mike’s death slowed everything way the fuck down.

      1. Adam Black

        Yeah. But that was the explicit cannon reason for not killing characters on a sliding timeline. Time goes to slow.

        If the reason is the character Is garbage and holding the strip back. The reverse happened. They are still in strip. And holding the characters back more just as we were getting growth.

        1. powerpowerpow

          I’m sorry but this and all your other responses are genuinely confusing. Are you upset that Mike was killed off, or upset that Ghost Mike is still around?

        2. Fuzzy

          Both: Willis had said that a main character dying wouldn’t happen because people’s grieving would go on for so long out-of-universe because time passes so slowly in-universe. People are grieving Mike, so Mike dying is bad.

          So what’s good about Mike dying? Well, he wasn’t a great character, so maybe that’s a benefit to him dying: he’s theoretically removed from the narrative. But instead, Brain Mike is still here and doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.

          So there’s no upside and several downsides to Mike’s death. And Ghost Mike is part of why. (At least in Adam’s opinion, how I’ve interpreted it. I’m relatively neutral on Mike’s death.)

        3. thejeff

          Brain Mike plays a different role than actual Mike did though. Even for Amber and basically no role for anyone else.

      2. Spencer

        His death does trigger the current narrative-but functionally that narrative is either causing some characters to retread old ground (Amber) or become functionally unusable with the current cast (Ethan), and on top of all this Mike is still ‘around’, so there wasn’t really a ‘loss’ after all.

        I think this is a really linear take on storytelling. Amber’s “retreading old ground” because:

        – her friend died and she’s stricken with grief.

        – Amber never left that old ground to begin with.

        Ethan being “functionally unusable” is the story. He was a character who existed on the margins and could only coo support and warmth at his friends, and now he is in need of it from the people who only want him in a crisis. That’s a good start to a character who was in dire need of a status quo shakeup.

    4. dralou

      What gays were buried ? Becky is so lesbian that the mere mention she might not be, makes her appear to correct it.

      Ethan ? He’s not hiding his homosexuality anymore, he just doesn’t feel like playing the field at the moment, what with his best friend with benefits being dead and all.

      Jennifer and Ruth ? They both are bisexual, even if one is identifying as “straight but curious”. The fact that they’re both with men right now don’t mean anything for “the gays”.

      About your accusation of characters never escaping a grieving story line: half of the chapter has nothing to do with Mike’s death, and deals with Joyce deciding she’s superior since she “finally opened her eyes” on god not being real, and acting like a jerk because of it.

      You don’t like Mike ? That’s fair. You really can’t stand the guy, to the point that its mere appearance makes you groan ? Also fair.

      But saying that the author has no more story ideas, because he uses him to advance the plot ? That’s nonsense.

      Granted, right now the story is dealing with the grieving process, but it would be highly difficult to avoid completely the subject, as Mike WAS important for two mains characters.

      Not dealing with it at all would either make those two disappear for years IRL, or make the comic skip for an even longer time than it already did.

      1. Adam Black

        My response to you was destroyed twice by autoloading videads on kindle browser.

        You clearly didn’t understand what i meant, Even saying the inverse about mike, and praising me for what i don’t believe.

        I was talking about TROPES story elements, not judging as a whole in a gay math death Formula.

        The trope is fullfilled by its function in tne story or not.
        as it was fulfilled in Roomies retstrospectively , when Wilkis gave billieAnd Rutha queer relationship before Ruth killed herself to save unworthy Billy;

        thus giving the story the benefits of gay pathos for straight relationships without fulfillment to gay readers.
        Its called “Bury your Gays” an established trope, the wiki will explain better than i.

        Its not a contest a science proof or an equation. Thats a bit like saying blaine isnt a kidnapper because of all the characters he didn’t kidnap.

        < a bit note on this trope. I think you should be a little less aggressive when discussing it. I do not know what it is like to have my personal desire reinforced my entire life through culture. Sounds great. Its this absence bury Your Gays points to, and this absence is sadly real. Ive buried my best friend, ive lost lovers to addiction or ODing to Hiv and aids disease and simply going terminal from going mad of undiagnosed mental illness.

        Dumbing of Age made a promise early on no major dead characters with reasonns explained. That was enough for me to open my circle of trust, and allow myself to enjoy the little things i had missed out on. as if it was written by a non straight writer wholl see the story line through( unsure of Willis status now , just a prior description of a reader trusting a writer with a sensitive story line. .

        Im not entitled. Its his story. He can write the story he wants. But i feel ive given an unfair level of trust to see the story line through, it got me to care a lot about a story the author didn't. That feels a little shitty, and i wish it didn't.

        But mostly im not seeing any positive growth from these events. I don't know why thet were written orvfor what purpose. Maybe the speculation is pointless. Maybe we have to wait 5 years. Maybe it will end ( if the author has gotten bored with the story to recycle plots. Ok

        Be kind , be weell. Third time the charm

        I don't feel that way about Mike. I was repeating other peoples speculation why they heard mik was offed. Its Wilkis comic. His rules. We are just trying to understand story motives.

        My issue was Mike was same as billi& ruth roomies. He was a queer character whos growth meant he had to die. He grew, he changed then buried. Uts classic repeat of a bury your gays storyline. Other characters had also grown, esp Ethan. Now its been trashed for dead gay pathos instead of living learning relationships that earned their growth over 5 years.

        Finally you misunderstood what i said about Willis. I said the opposite: knowing him, the creative esteem we hold him, his body of works, its almost absurd, irrational to think he did this again because he ran out of story ideas. But i feel its the elephant in the room.
        When we rule out the impossible, whatever shakes down is probably the truth. It seems absurd. You agree. But i don't really know why.

        The characters never escaping a greiving story line DOES NOT Come FROM Me. Its not an accusation, its a paraphrase quote from Willis. Im just agreeing with the Angel on his shoulder. I feel the weight of why he didn't want to, and wonder why he did.

        1. Adam Black

          Dr lou. I apologize for the bad grammar on the first ( i passed out from boost shot) and on the overly stiff curt tone of the second (it was deleted 2x)

          I just had to complete despite it sounding robotic.

          It was originally written in a warmer friendly tone, lost in the paranoi of loading video ads stealing content. **

          My op comment is really a meta criticism about how story elements are being used, not criticism of those elements themselves. And WHY. ( not i like x, i don’t like x) but does this serve the story, why or why not? The Elements themselves are ok.

          Its not My story. I have no rights to change it. I just have opinions of an invested reader & r being mystfied about recent choices.

          & i really miss offerings the trust of author with my fiction reading heart.
          Good morning friend. Sleep time for boosted adam

    5. zee

      Killing one queer person in a cast that’s half queer isn’t bury your gays, for fuck’s sake

      1. JBento

        There’s no graveyard large enough to “bury your gays” this webcomic.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          They could probably fit in the Falkreath graveyard. (Incidentally, every time an NPC in Skyrim brags about how “large” that graveyard is, I get irrationally annoyed because there can’t be more than a dozen graves in Falkreath and they’re telling lies,)

        2. Queezle

          I am sure there is a mod for that

        3. King Daniel

          I just like to mentally remind myself that the in-game province of Skyrim is only like 3 or 4 square km when “canonically” in the lore the region is thousands of square km (similarly to how in Fallout 3 for example, you can make it from Raven Rock to the National Mall in a matter of hours on foot…even though Raven Rock is in Pennsylvania), and everything in the game is just scaled down for gameplay purposes.

      2. Sum Dum Gai

        Yeah, this. Per TV Tropes: “the problem isn’t merely that gay characters are killed off: the problem is the tendency that gay characters are killed off in a story full of mostly straight characters, or when the characters are killed off because they are gay,” neither of which is the case here.

      3. Spencer

        Adam’s issue isn’t the killing of a queer character in that sense, more that Mike was one of the three queer men in the series in contrast with a larger set of queer women.

        I’ve litigated and religated my own thoughts on this, Adam’s feelings are valid insofar as whatever disagreement I have with them they don’t need to be run by me to mater, all I can really say is that I fundamentally oppose with the idea that a story can’t have a queer character die or else it’s Bury Your Gays (if I had one wish it would be to smite TVTropes off the face of the earth), because all it does is create specific little boxes that queer characters get to exist in, and that a certain amount of Representation (a term I am also coming to loathe) is required before you’re allowed to write someone as an actual character.

        1. JBento

          I just did a cast page headcount (excluding Mike): there’s 15 girls, 8 of which are definitely queer (and yes, I’m only counting Becky as one); and 8 dudes, 3 of which are definitely queer. That’s close, proportionately.

        2. Spencer

          Danny, Ethan and who else?

        3. Spencer

          Oh hey, Asher has a bio now and it says “women want to be with him, men also want to be with him.”

          That’s not necessarily a hard confirm but I’m going for it.

        4. Fuzzy

          No character needs the possibility of dying to be written as an actual character, unless the threat of death is an ever present part of the narrative. Which it isn’t in this comic. “Doesn’t die” is not an overly constrictive box for gay characters to exist in, imo.

          I think part of Adam’s reaction is that he trusted the comic to not kill ANYONE and only read it/lowered his guard because of that. He has trauma related to death, specifically deaths caused by the deceased’s marginalized status as gay people. Selecting your media to avoid your triggers is totally reasonable.

        5. Spencer

          “Doesn’t die” is not an overly constrictive box for gay characters to exist in, imo.

          It is, but certainly not if “a queer character dying” is something an audience member can’t stomach rather than as a standard of storytelling. You can write stories about queer characters dying even if it’s Bury Your Gays, because BYG just means “a queer character has died” in a vacuum, and the actual meat of the issue is in a surrounding context of stories about the Tragic Gay. Mike died because he was such a worthless character that he had no value to the series, his death provided more interesting character drama than Mike could were he alive, and sometimes bad shit just happens and the scoundrel who suddenly revealed himself as not so bad after all loses the chance to meaningfully redeem himself.

          Yakuza 0, a game I adore, has its climax begin when the blind lady at the center of the plot gets shot and put into a coma, and so protagonist Majima goes absolutely tilted. That is a story where a woman is Stuffed Into The Fridge so that a man can go beat up the dudes who caused it; not even “technically,” that’s just the definition. Is the story itself just that, though? Can the feelings I had about the story and Majima as a character be boiled down to just that? Is a female character getting for a dude something to apologize for, or is it just something that’s happened so often with the average poor quality of a thing that happens often enough that, regardless, it’s doomed to be a substandard story?

        6. BBCC

          For that last paragraph, that’s up to you. For you, the story goes beyond that moment and it doesn’t need to be defined as that trope, even if you recognize it is harmful in a pattern. For someone else, yeah, that moment probably DID ruin the story. I’ve known of stories people found incredibly meaningful and deep that were ruined for me by fridging. Although, personally, I’d say it doesn’t sound SUPER fridge-y to me. Most people don’t tend to count Death by Backstory as fridging in my experience.

    6. Delicious Taffy

      Mike isn’t here, and he’s not ruining lives. The “Mike” with no shading is a symptom of Amber’s incredibly unhealthy coping process after his death, a hallucination or similar that only manifests for her and hasn’t interacted with even one other character. As far as “growth” or “redemption”, the closest Mike got before he decided to tackle Blaine off a roof was a sudden realization that he’d been kind of a prick. He didn’t really get a lot of time to make good on any potential growth, so there’s not much to say on that end.

    7. Amelie Wikström

      I’d question Mike being a “character”. Actually I have on many occasions, over the years. It’s been my theory Mike turned out impossible to write when the cast of Shortpacked! was transplanted to this more real world-like story; he works as a surreal, Sadistic Good archetype whose existence comprises a series of laser targeted zingers and acts of violence aimed at improving things for people in the most comically painful and melodramatic way imaginable, but little else. To even try to give him any kind of vulnerabilities and human motivations as the comic has done has seemed to turn him into a different character, in my opinion. I expect he had to be retired mainly because there was no room for him here. I expect his ghost isn’t going to stay for long either.

      So, I could certainly agree, Willis may have run out of story ideas – for Mike. But I wouldn’t take that as any indication for the prospects of any of the many other, nuanced, human characters here.

  25. Steelbright

    Oof.

  26. Heather

    People who called it on Amber being creepy to drive people away? Congratulations. You get a cookie. ?

    1. Reaver

      Hey this had raisens in it!

      1. Heather

        I need to get some of your five a day into you somehow.

        1. The Wellerman

          Raisins? It doesn’t happen to be an oatmeal raisin cookie by any chance, does it? ?

    2. Plain Marie

      She seems conflicted. She needs people, but hates having to need people.

      1. Alaric

        She doesn’t just hate having to need people. She considers herself a horrible person, and doesn’t want to inflict herself on other people.

  27. Anon A Mouse

    Can we just not have Mike around anymore? I was SO happy when he died and more than a little disappointed we got a “Replacement Mike” so soon but at least Booster is marginally less cartoonish in their assholery.

    1. beige

      I mean, this isn’t mike

      this is amber. and ambers self loathing, that she now externalizes as a Mike halucination, because amber is really not in a good headspace

    2. Needfuldoer

      Amber needs to get some sleep, then Brain!Mike should be suppressed for a while.

    3. zee

      Booster still isn’t comparable to Mike :/

      1. Delicious Taffy

        But Booster’s been rude and inappropriate, which we all know Mike had a monopoly on before he got the Big Ouch.

      2. Anon A Mouse

        Booster doesn’t know any of them well enough to dunk on them like Mike did but they still feel the need to psycho-analyze everyone around them unbidden. I think they are easily comparable.

        1. Spencer

          Not true!

          Booster had to actually be bidden by Ruth. Otherwise, they’ve made pretty simple observations.

        2. BBCC

          Seriously. Roz SCREAMS “Middle child syndrome” something FIERCE. This was not rocket science.

    4. Keulen

      I would rather we still have the real Mike than a replacement.

  28. Sombrero

    Does a brain ghost exist if nobody’s there to hallucinate him?

    1. Plain Marie

      I wondered the same thing. Can Ghost Mike have a thought when Amber is not there? Maybe she is just out of view.

  29. Rabisch

    I wonder why ghost Mike is not trying to possess Amber’s body for return alive. I don’t think she will be against that actually, she would be happy to let her conscience be erased. Maybe he was not so bad, after all…

    1. Needfuldoer

      This isn’t literally Mike’s ghost, this is Amber’s “I can be better” thoughts compartmentalized and manifested with a Mike avatar. He might be running quasi-independently in her head, but he can’t take helm control like AG can.

      1. Rabisch

        I know it. So, what better excuse for Amber to start acting like Mike and then say he’s possessing her? She could be another person, this time someone who is not a hero and has no obligation to others

  30. Throwatron

    it is a huge burn on mike for willis to make the funniest fucking thing he ever said, post-mortem

  31. Buli-Buli

    I have figured it out.

    Ghost-Mike fulfills a role for Amber. The same one A LOT of readers thought real Mike had.
    Encouraging self-improvement in Amber/others through negative reinforcement.

    Which mskes me confused. On one hand Blaine’s negative reinforcement caused Amber’s problems. And real Mike’s (possible) attempts just exacerbated Amber’s issues.
    So it makes sense her new Alter or hallucination or whatever would use the same technique, but raises the question if it would help.
    Now granted Ghost-Mike HAS been nicer and more direct about it so maybe it will.
    Which then raises the question that if Ghost-Mike’s criticism and advice are born from Amber’s own knowledge and perception of herself… how long will that criticism stay remot eer ly constructive.
    I mean if Amber foes go to therapy and starts making progress, will Ghost-Mike disappear, job done? Or will he start trying to give her bulimia or something?

    1. Needfuldoer

      This isn’t Touched by an Angel, the Dumbiverse doesn’t lean on supernatural elements. Amber didn’t somehow absorb Mike’s soul and memories when he died.

      We’ve had on-panel confirmation that Ghost Mike has access to information Real Mike would not have.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/pride/

      Ghost Mike isn’t a literal continuation of Real Mike. At the same time, he’s also not a deliberate “that’s what Mike would’ve said right now” muse Amber conjures at will.

      I think he’s a product of Amber compartmentalizing any “I need to be better” thoughts. He runs semi-independently, like he’s in his own Docker container, and he got Mike’s voice and appearance thanks to timing, trauma, and her memories of his pushing her while he was alive.

      1. Buli-Buli

        What? I never meant to suggest Ghost-Mike and Real-Mike are the same person.

        Wait… I literally refer to Ghost-Mike as an Alter/hallucination/etc and claim he and his commentary are born from Amber’s own perceptions and thoughts.

        Did you mean to respind to someone else?

        1. Needfuldoer

          Either that or it’s another case of “me read words not good”. :\

        2. Needfuldoer

          You’re right, checking again I meant to post that as a reply to Rabisch up the page a ways. Sorry!

        3. Kirt Dankmyer

          Okay, but you get a thumbs up for the Docker metaphor.

      2. Roborat

        Not Touched by an Angel? Well, that is good, because I absolutely hated that show.

    2. Axel_Grease

      I think its similar to an abuse victim ending up in an abusive relationship. We seek out people that hurt us in familiar ways. So no, I don’t think it will help.

  32. Amós Batista

    Oh, Amber in 4th panel got an adorable asshole face. Love it!

  33. Amós Batista

    I want to protest: if we got a Ghost-Mike, we deserve a Ghost-Bonnie, too!!

    1. J. Gawain

      Willis is just dangling Ghost-Mike in front of us so when he moves on we can follow him to a spinoff in Ghost-land where we will get to meet Ghost-Bonnie. The down side is we will also have to put up with Ghost-Blaine and Toest-Dad. I’m debating whether or not its worth it.

      1. Needfuldoer

        And it turns out there actually are water slides and you can eat cake until you feel barfy. (Blaine and Toedead have to clean up the barf.)

  34. Beau Kirin Maysey

    If we gradually increase the distance between Mike Tulpa and his source, can we materialize him for real??

    CAN we have Force Ghost Mike???

  35. Kitsune

    Keep in mind, Mike does have a habit of coming back from the dead.

  36. Mr.Morningstar

    Honestly this is is a very self aware hallucination

  37. ADLegend21

    ugh Mike is on the strip for my birthday booooooo

  38. nothri

    Its a shame she can’t just gain mental clarity and cease to have this alternate personality.

    I mean, who doesn’t like to make a good Mike Drop, am I right?

  39. C.T. Phipps

    I am fully comfortable with the fact Mike is there without her.

    So he’s a ghost not an alternate personality or figment.

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