174

Pit stop
Posted on February 3, 2024 by David M Willis

174 thoughts on “Pit stop”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    imagine still having the same opinions you did when you were like eight

    *shudder*

    1. Doctor_Who

      I STILL firmly maintain that Keebler’s Soft Batch Cookies are better than Chips Ahoy, and you can fight me!

      1. Marvelman

        But not as good as homemade!

        1. thejeff

          More consistent though.
          I’ve had (and made) some pretty lousy homemade cookies.

      2. Needfuldoer

        The best pre-packaged cookies are from Peggy Lawton.

        https://www.plkitchens.com/products/chocolate-chip-cookies

      3. JA

        But, they are though. Chips Ahoy are too cry and crummy.

        1. JA

          Dry* But you know what, you’re crying as you eat them because your mouth is drier than a desert after one cookie.

        2. staszu13

          I liked “cry” better

    2. Marianne

      I have the entire same ethical and sociopolitical alignment I had when I was 8. Star Trek. When Captain Picard’s your moral compass, and your ideal form of government is “moneyless socialist utopia”, why ever change?

      1. Rose by Any Other Name

        … cause Sisco is hotter?

        1. Decidedly Orthogonal

          White chocolate, dark chocolate. They’re both sweet, moral, and strong people who strive to exemplify the ideals of their “moneyless socialist utopia”. Solid role models both.

        2. foamy

          “In The Pale Moonlight” has some thoughts on that one :v

        3. Just Karen

          Not really. The big thing about that episode wasn’t that Sisko cast aside his morals for the sake of expediency like Section 31, or that he had no morals to begin with. The big, interesting part was that he was moral, but flexible enough to be non-violently devious… except that Garak was violently devious. It wasn’t “Sisko’s moral” vs “Sisko’s amoral” it was “will he accept the consequences of his failed attempt to walk the edge of his morality”.

        4. sultryglebe

          And with shiny heads!

      2. GholaHalleck

        Meanwhile Picard seasons one and two…

    3. Nono

      Crunchy peanut butter is STILL better than smooth, I maintain.

      1. clif

        Dr. Pepper is the best Coke.

      2. Casi

        for sandwiches and cookies, yes, but for making sauces or icings not so much.

    4. anon

      i mean, being able to have tater tots/nuggets for lunch and a nap time doesn’t seem so bad

    5. Furie

      Rodimus is a better leader than Optimus and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on all these years later.

    6. Freezer

      Square pizza still slaps. (Though I wouldn’t have said “slaps” 42 *shudder* years ago)

    7. Stephen Nedland

      What’s wrong with that? Becky did, and now she has an awesome girlfriend.

    8. Coco

      I don’t think she’s eight. I don’t think anyone has braces before 12. 12 is the age most people get their last adult teeth.

      1. Scarlett

        I got braces around 9

        1. Scarlett

          and about the baby teeth thing, around the time I was about to get braces, the dentists had to remove a bunch of my baby teeth so that those wouldn’t be a problem

        2. Aura

          Imagining these comments in Homestar’s voice is delightful ^^

      2. Ana Chronistic

        1. I said “like 8”
        2. bc she’s acting MENTALLY like it

    9. Mturtle7

      As an eight-year-old, I thought it was REALLY annoying how EVERY single song was about love and smooching, and EVERY single book or movie meant to be watchable/readable by adults HAD to have a romantic subplot. However, I quickly learned that regardless of how I felt now, once I grew up my opinion would completely change and suddenly all those love songs and subplots and stuff would be the Best Thing Ever. That seemed bizarre to me, but I accepted the inevitability of it, and patiently waited.

      Turns out I’m acearo and I still think amatonormativity can go f*** itself lol

    10. Azhrei Vep

      I one hundred percent stand by A nightmare on Elm Street being a damn good horror flick, Gremlins being the best Christmas movie, and Ghostbusters being the best comedy. I have yet to be presented any sufficiently convincing evidence that any of these are incorrect, I just lucked into some great movies when I was eight.

  2. Animedingo

    This better not awaken anything in me…

    -Joyce

    1. Rose by Any Other Name

      Heh – love that line.
      I wish I could claim to have ever said it myself, but no – when things awakened things in me, it always came as a complete surprise.

  3. NGPZ

    *plays “School Rumble End Theme” on passing car’s radio*

  4. C.T. Phipps

    Oh Becky, you realize you drove Joyce down the road of heterosexuality.

    The blue filter is the filter of REGRET AND DESPAIR!

    1. Thag Simmons

      We really don’t get happy flashbacks that often, huh

    2. Jeremiah

      I don’t get what you mean? Only thing Becky says here is “totes” about boys being gross. Which unlike Joyce she is completely sincere about.

      1. C.T. Phipps

        She’s the one who is encouraging her to Tristan.

        1. BorkBorkBork

          That’s Misha.

      2. anon

        i’m just more surprised ‘totes’ would be slang even that far back in their childhood versus them being teens

        1. Furie

          Been using it since the early 90s so it’s been around for a while.

        2. Needfuldoer

          This is only about 5 to 7 years ago.

        3. ValdVin

          But 5-7 years before when? The sliding timescale is weirdly sci-fi like.

          I half expect to see a car with Joycedriving, Becky shotgun, and Hank napping in the back, going the other way.

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/get/

        4. Needfuldoer

          It’s always five to seven years ago.

        5. ValdVin

          Ergo the “sci-fi” sightings. Reading webcomics is like being outside of time and watching all the timelines alongside each other.

        6. clif

          We’re all totes surprised.

    3. John Campbell

      I mean, it’s better than the red ones.

  5. Imogen

    Who’s the untagged Glasses Kid in Panel 1? Jocelyn?

    1. Imogen

      anyways misha is giving serious Other Mother

    2. NGPZ

      Deduction suggests Misha?

      1. Imogen

        Nah, we already know what Misha looks like. As stated below, it’s probably just a rando background character.

        1. Thomas

          I think his name is actually Rando.

    3. Cattleprod

      I think one of the Brown siblings wouldn’t be calling Hank “Mr. Brown”.

      1. RassilonTDavros

        I could maybe see Jordan doing it as an act of rebellion, though.

    4. Imogen

      Wait, it’s not Jocelyn, since they’re saying “Mister Brown” instead of “Dad”.

    5. Thag Simmons

      Joss has Joyce’s Blue Eyes. Might be Jonathan, but I would assume if they aren’t tagged they aren’t important.

      1. Thag Simmons

        Belay that “might be Jonathan”, he wouldn’t be calling his own dad Mr Brown.

        1. Needfuldoer

          And he’s significantly older than Joyce. He’s probably in his mid to late 20s at this point.

    6. HueSatLight

      Statistically Jennifer, but based on the haircut more likely Steve.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Eh, Steve!

        1. morleuca

          I was just trying to teach my 10 year old about hsr!

  6. Thag Simmons

    Jeez, I wonder why Becky might have thought Joyce was also gay.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Yeah, it’s honestly not that big of a leap.

    2. Yumi

      I can definitely see Becky flashing back to the moment later on like, “Oh, that’s what I meant!” Followed by the thought, “Wait, is that what Joyce also meant?”

    3. anon

      well joyce did have some kinda ‘boy crazy’ phase at one point, tho i’m sure some kids realize that at that age, although i guess it’s good parents aren’t too harsh to leap in logic when you hear ‘boys are gross’ and thinking that there might be an ‘issue’ with wanting to spend more time with their own gender more

  7. C.T. Phipps

    Toe Dad is notably thinking of sacrificing Becky. Who is doing NOTHING.

    He’s literally a worse father than the one in Castlevania.

    1. BBCC

      That’s the radio, not Toedad singing.

      But yeah, what an evil toe.

      1. Cattleprod

        The lyrics about Abraham playing over him feels deliberate.

        1. clif

          It’s what we call post-forshadowing.

        2. BBCC

          For sure, but he’s not singing along here.

    2. RassilonTDavros

      That speech bubble’s actually coming from the vehicle’s stereo, not Toedad, but that’s still a good catch. For those unfamiliar with the story in question, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, as a test of faith. Just as Abraham is about to kill him, God tells him to stop and that it was only a test of his loyalty. It is… very much in line with Toedad’s “parenting.”

      1. John Campbell

        You who build these altars now
        to sacrifice these children,
        you must not do it anymore.
        A scheme is not a vision
        and you never have been tempted
        by a demon or a god.
        You who stand above them now,
        your hatchets blunt and bloody,
        you were not there before,
        when I lay upon a mountain
        and my father’s hand was trembling
        with the beauty of the word.

        1. Agricultural Porcupine

          Always upvote Leonard Cohen

      2. HueSatLight

        God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
        Abe said, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
        God say, “No.”
        Abe say, “What?”
        God say, “You can do what you want, Abe, but
        The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
        Well, Abe said, “Where you want this killin’ done?”
        God said, “Out on Highway 61”

        1. clif

          Goes off to check which parts of Highway 61 go through mountains.

    3. Chaucer59

      You mean the second Castlevania? Nocturne? The blond priest (bishop?)?

      1. cbwroses

        Dracula beat Alucard so bad that the dude had to sleep for a year, and he’s still a better dad than the priest in Nocturne and Toedad.

    4. Mturtle7

      Oh dear God, the significance of that song on the radio totally flew over my head. Nice catch!

  8. HMRC4EVR

    Nothing about this flashback sits well with me.

    At all.

    1. anon

      i think most flashbacks have never been as positive overall

  9. BBCC

    Well I’m convinced! Are you guys convinced?

    1. Queezle

      Yes. I am convinced Becky does not like boys. And Joyce also-ofcourse.

      1. Mark

        For the moment. But I think when kids start saying“boys are gross” / “girls are icky” then it’s hard to go wrong when thinking “well, that’s just about to change!”

  10. Forte Issimo

    Can’t tell where this is going; is this maybe an ‘accidentally convinced herself she had a crush on Tristan to feel normal’ sort of thing?

    1. cbwroses

      Pretty sure the sudden sparkles around Tristan last strip would support the opposite of that.

      1. clif

        I thought the sparkles indicated that Tristan was secretly an 85 year old vampire.

    2. RacingTurtle

      I think that she allowed herself a rare moment to feel the possibility of attraction, liked it, and is now drowning in Puritan shame. Joyce is a social person; her friend’s suggestion was able to rattle her youthful repression.

      Even non-fundies can find the transition from cooties to crushes awkward and uneven, though

      1. thejeff

        Yeah, I think this is more the standard transition that comes with puberty than any religious repression.

        1. Mturtle7

          Both?

          Both.

          Both is good even more confusing and awkward for Joyce.

      2. C.T. Phipps

        I feel like if you find the transition to puberty non-awkward, you are an alien of some kind.

        Fundamentalism or not.

    3. furubatsu

      I think this is, in part, an exploration of Joyce’s Catholic I meant Secular Guilt and she’s gonna feel horny for the first time and freak out.

    4. thejeff

      Why would it be anything like that? Joyce doesn’t have to pretend to crush on boys, we’ve seen her do it multiple times in the present. This is just her first pass at it.

    5. Mturtle7

      The key to understanding Joyce, as far as I’m concerned, is that she’s always been DESPERATE to see herself as a pure, noble, virgin who’s perfectly content doing nothing but following other people’s orders and waiting to catch the eye of a man, who will then court and marry and put babies in her in a purely functional manner. But, in part BECAUSE of that desperation, she’s also super needy and touchy-feely and horny (though that last one maybe doesn’t apply as much in this flashback).

      And this results in a general pattern of feelings and behavior which has stayed pretty constant throughout not only this strip, but also the Walkyverse: find someone who’s both physically AND socially attractive to her (e.g. “my parents would totally approve of this person as a husband”), obsessively plan out their inevitable future courtship/marriage/reproduction, assume that all her desires are actually his desires (and therefore OK for her to have), and then stay glued to his hip as much as possible in order to catch his attention.

      I think this scene is the stirrings of the very first formation of that pattern for Joyce. She’s just starting to find boys attractive, just starting to feel pressure form her peers to have a boyfriend, and she’s just been told Tristan likes her. And I think there was a line somewhere in the past about her biking past Tristan’s house as a kid a silly number of times “by accident!” I predict that soon enough, we’ll get to see flashback Joyce secretly drawing her and Tristan getting married in her notebook or something.

  11. Marvelman

    It’s unsettling to see Becky’s dad doing something as mundane as driving kids home from camp.

    1. True Survivor

      I think he wanted to be a good dad and I think he really, really tried – just you, know, often in very very bad and certifiably crazy ways.

      1. Zach

        It’s hard to know right from wrong when you’re raised in a cult.
        He COULD have got into the ultra-conservative life for the power tripping, but I’m betting, given how devote he was, that he’s little more than a product of his raising, and that Joyce only escaped because she had a social network outside the church, she had exposure to the wider world, and her church isn’t THAT crazy.

        1. clif

          We’re all a product of our raising. Unless we decide not to be.

      2. RassilonTDavros

        He wanted to be “a good dad” but had such a deranged understanding of what that entailed that he was instead a horribly abusive one, if not outright evil.

    2. RassilonTDavros

      The Banality of Toedad.

    3. anon

      tbf this was probably before her mom died

      1. Needfuldoer

        Long before. Bonnie died a little less than a year ago, in-universe.

    4. morleuca

      Or, y’know alive

  12. Marvelman

    Hey Willis. How much of this backstory did you have worked out before starting the strip and how much of it are you making up as you go along? As a writer, I’d love to know.

    1. anon

      i think you might get a quicker reply if you try asking on twitter or tumblr

  13. shadowcell

    Dumbing of Age Book 14: Boys Are Gross!

    1. Jess

      Dumbing of Age Book 14: Sometimes I Think of Abraham

  14. Josh Spicer

    I know this time period (as fluctuating as it is) would’ve have had Britt Nicole releasing this at that point, but he only relevant song I can think of is “You stood right there until I saw me, I saw me through Your eyes.”

    1. Josh Spicer

      *wouldn’t’ve had

  15. morhek

    I’m just waiting for the twist, when Tristan turns into Dorothy just as Joyce wakes up.

    1. anon

      i kinda half want tristan to end up being a trans girl

  16. C.T. Phipps

    Prediction: Tristan likes girls.

    He likes Jocelyn but they can’t be together.

    YET.

    1. anon

      how much of an age difference is there? i would think tristan would be closer to joyce’s age than jocelyn

      1. Li

        Jocelyn isn’t that much older than Joyce, is my impression. Very early twenties. Could be wrong tho.

  17. tim gueguen

    If you think boys are gross now, 8 year old Joyce, wait until you find out what they look like without clothes.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Wait, is that how old she’s supposed to be here? I was thinking she looked more like 12 or so.

      1. tim gueguen

        U thought someone said she was 8 in the comments to a previous panel.

        1. tim gueguen

          That U should be an I.

        2. Yumi

          Not exactly sure how old she’s supposed to be, but I’d certainly think older than eight. (She has braces, which most kids don’t get until at least a couple years later, and the fantasy details that sprung to Tristan’s face seem more in line with a tween perspective.)

        3. Rabbit

          He looks vaguely like rpatz with the filter in the last one (also kind of joe-ish now that I think about it) so I think she’s like 13 here.

    2. David M Willis

      She’s 12 here.

      1. HueSatLight

        So like the summer of 2018, I wonder what was going on in the strip back then.

  18. Tanglaar

    misha is DEFINITELY if giving the vibe that shes trying to get joyce to embarrass herself. i had a “friend” that did a similar thing to me when i was about her age (told the guy i had a crush on i liked him behind my back and then tried to innocently get me to tell himself knowing he didnt feel the same bc she thought it would be funny)

    1. anon

      i wouldn’t be surprised if some kids that age wanted to play cupid, some of my friends in high school tried setting ppl up but it sometimes backfired, more times than not tho none had bad intentions, but given that joyce said ‘boys are gross’ i imagine she’d be backed up by becky if misha just goes up to tristan and says “joyce liiikes you” anyways lol

    2. Mark

      Or Misha is at that stage: “okay, boys are deliciously interesting but this is soooo scary I want someone else to go first.”

  19. Rabbit

    I don’t know why but I get the vibe that Tristan never thought twice about Joyce and this is a mean joke on the part of Misha trying to embarrass her.

    1. Rabbit

      How dare my gravatar be so accurate to my negative assumption

    2. Mturtle7

      It’s the eyebrows. Those are NOT a pair of innocent eyebrows on Misha’s face in the second panel!

  20. Rabbit

    sidenote but Tristan looks familiar but I don’t know why

    1. RassilonTDavros

      His character model kind of reminds me of Genderbent Walkyverse Joyce, minus the blue eyes and SEMMF stripe.

      1. Rabbit

        I almost feel like I’ve seen him as a background character in DOA- weird.

        1. NickG

          To me he looks a lot like Amber’s online boyfriend Nate’s (unnamed) roommate in ‘Shortpacked’ (From May 24th 2006 onwards).

        2. NickG

          Also featuring SP! Meredith.

  21. Reltzik

    That pit stop’s going to have to wait a bit, because apparently NO ONE here’s got a turnoff.

    1. Needfuldoer

      And that pit stop was at… THE gas station!

  22. Icalasari

    Becky: “Wait, you were all lying about that?”

  23. Amós Batista

    “I – I don’t like boys! Boys are gross!”
    And, since then, Becky has kept it into hearth.< like forever.

  24. Thomas

    Jinkies! There’s at least seven people in that car. How is that even possible.

    1. Rabbit

      May I introduce you to: the power of sedans.

      (my mom had one growing up. 3 seats in front, 3 in the back, two in the driver area)

      1. Dragon

        I think you might be confused. A sedan-style car refers to the typical style with 5 total seats – two up front, and three in back. Are you thinking of a station wagon?

    2. John Campbell

      It’s a Suburban. So called because you can fit your entire suburb into it.

      1. clif

        I never knew that, but it certainly makes sense.

    3. HueSatLight

      Are they all in the same vehicle? Tristan and Misha both have left side shoulder straps, but it looks like the glasses kid is behind Ross. Are there 4 row suburbans?

      1. System of Eleven

        My family had a van with four benches, plus the driver and front seats. Pack a small family’s worth of stuff under the seats, and every kid got to lie down on their own bench for a four day road trip to the other side of the country. Pull out the back bench for storage space, and you can easily carpool twelve kids on a six hour ride to and from summer camp.

    4. anon

      wouldn’t be surprised if they were driving for some kinda church event and the vehicle is owned by the church as opposed to becky’s dad’s van

    5. Amelie Wikström

      Yeah I can’t make any sense of the seating arrangements. Might have needed at least one establishing shot inside the car. . .

      1. Mark

        They’re tweens — they keep swapping seats.

    6. Needfuldoer

      It’s a full size truck-based SUV with three rows of seats.

    7. David DeLaney

      I am clearly older than you, for I grewup with … STATION WAGONS as the family vehicle

      –Dave, they had a back seat and a Way Back section

    8. ValdVin

      The really unusual thing is a 3-row SUV with more than two people in it.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Rare as a lifted 2500 pickup truck doing anything a sedan can’t.

        1. ValdVin

          Hey, you never know when Gravedigger can’t make it and the Coach needs a guy (no sic) in the audience to drive his own truck from the parking lot to take place in the monster truck competition.

  25. M!a

    Be funny AF if Tristan turns out to be gay… or trans… or socialist… or– ya know what, just *different* in any way whatsoever from that mythical 1950s ‘Murka.

    1. NGPZ

      ‘Murka? Pika pi?

      1. Needfuldoer

        *Glares in Freedom*

      2. clif

        Some pronounce it Amurka. And rather than being mythical, the 1950’s were a great time to grow up in, provided you were a white middle-class mainstream protestant kid who wasn’t weird.

        1. Taffy

          Every time is a great time to grow up, when you fit the bill for “Normal”.

        2. clif

          Fair enough, but there was something to be said for growing up in a time and place safe enough that we never locked our doors before I was about 12, even when making two week trip to visit relatives, and nothing was ever stolen.

        3. Mark

          See also “‘murica”. Possibly a slur on the US Midwestern accent.

        4. Taffy

          Pretty sure the slur is aimed a little more southways.

      3. NGPZ

        I asking about what ‘Murka means XD

        1. Tan

          It is the word “America” pronounced in an exaggerated accent associated with rural working-class white conservative types.

        2. NGPZ

          Ah, thank you for clarification.

          Yeah, checks out. ?

    2. anon

      it’d be cool if they could meet as present day friends and vibe, though the mom didn’t say anything when she visited, assuming he hadn’t moved away or interacted as much by them lol

      1. Mark

        I have it in mind that Tristan grew disenchanted years ago, escaped that church, is at IU, and has been carefully avoiding Joyce for fear she’ll try to drag him back in. Sadly, he’ll never know how she’s evolved.

        1. anon

          well, unless he moved away, given how big of a deal the church made about it i’m sure he would’ve at least known what happened with becky’s dad

  26. Bruno

    This comic intimately understands the lesbian experience.

  27. ValdVin

    So, the SUV behind them is the one with the Six Jennifers? I can’t imagine this arc without them.

  28. DarkoNeko

    oh, Becky…

    1. Zaxares

      Yeah, I just had a big 🙁 on my face reading that. I don’t know if Joyce kept this act up throughout their childhood, but if she did, I can see why Becky felt like Joyce was a kindred spirit and why she fell as hard for her as she did.

      1. Mark

        I won’t deny your conclusion, but I don’t think it’s an act. A lot of kids go through a stage in which attraction and repulsion develop together, before attraction wins, repulsion having done its job. I think it’s a mechanism for finely synchronizing the development of different components in the machinery of sexual/romantic response.

        It’s also terribly confusing and flustratious. Oh, Joyce….

      2. HueSatLight

        From a bonus comic (April 2023), she did keep up the act, but it was very obvious she was into Tristan. Like so obvious it wrapped around and Becky thought she was pretending to like Tristan by intentionally pretending poorly not to like him.

    2. Yumi

      To me, it’s just kind of funny– Becky definitely fully didn’t understand what she meant by that, or else there’s no way she would have said it so casually in this setting. My own queer awakening included flashbacks to various “oh, THAT’S what I was on about” moments from earlier in my life, so that’s what I see this moment as being for Becky.

      (When I was, like, six, I pulled two of my neighborhood friends into my garage to tell to them that the reason I was being mean to a particular babysitter was because I liked her. Took me another seven years to understand what I meant by “liked.”)

  29. thumb

    Are we heading towards an embarrassment that will scar her for life?
    Well, obviously. But I mean, imminently?

  30. Suet

    Do I blame Misha for playing Cupid? Maybe.

    Do I wish Joyce’s statement was true? Also maybe, but you know how that went.

    *plays this song instead of Rich Mullins*

  31. Amós Batista

    Joyce’s learning that life is not only Bible and school

  32. erinacea

    Well, that’s a face I had hoped never to see again

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