Schlongs
Posted on September 15, 2014 by David M Willis

436 thoughts on “Schlongs”

  1. Jen Aside

    “I, um… well… ANSWER THE QUESTION?!”

    =C

    1. T Campbell

      IIIIIIIII had a feeling we might be going here.

      Amazi-Girl thinks she just did it as a silly little impulse to fit in (and the strip David blogged would seem to support that), but it’s not hard to see that such imagery has special meaning to Joyce as a survivor. Images of erect penises everywhere, in a medium that can almost be ignored but that still vaguely disturbs and threatens… that’s not a bad symbol for what Joyce is going through now.

      1. apostateCourier

        Hoo boy. Yeah, right there with you. That was a huge event in her life, and is probably one of the primary causes for her being so frightened. Being victimized like that while so sheltered can break a person.

      2. a4lbi

        You’re right. While I was wondering when this’ll be brought up again, I didn’t expect it to be so soon.

    2. Lord Geovanni

      That subject change

  2. Khaner

    Well… this took a turn for the dramatic.

    1. Opus the Poet

      Well not so much a turn as changing towards a different dramatic.

      1. Maveric1984

        Drama tag has been pulled.

        1. Khaner

          THis series started out without one.

        2. GoldStarz

          Because Pamela took more vitamins.

        3. Jen Aside

          no CLEARLY it’s from not vaccinating!

        4. David Herbert

          “Well I have a million results that disprove your point and one that does.”

        5. Sam

          “I knew it.” *Takes only the result that does agree*

  3. stevecharb

    reality ensues

  4. liahansen

    Oh Joyce

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Joyce isn’t too happy at all.

      1. liahansen

        N-nega-Joyce? Is that you?

      2. Opus the Poet

        Once again your comment is perfectly mirrored by your current gravatar.

  5. otusasio451

    …OH.

    1. Leorale

      Yeah. Kinda dropped the ball on that case, didn’t she.

    2. Anfernee

      That was exactly my reaction.

  6. bob99938

    Oh my, this escalated quickly. This is not a happy topic. I am not happy about this, why is this back? I thought this was gone

    1. Jen Aside

      After like a couple weeks “IRL”? If only =/

      1. Doctor_Who

        Yeah, events like this aren’t the sort of thing you can just brush off.

        I hope Amazi-Girl decides to track Ryan down for Joyce. It’s more important than dong-bandits, and that dude needs fifty kicks to the dick followed by a long jail sentence.

        1. JustCheetoDust

          …that dude needs fifty kicks to the dick followed by a long jail sentence.

        2. JustCheetoDust

          Where the hell did the quotation marks go? And that alt text?

          (HTML tag fail strikes again)

        3. Opus the Poet

          The quotation marks ate the alt text. It’s a common HTML parser error to see too many quotes and remove the part inside one set of quotes. If you need to use quoted inside a HTML statement use the “&# 34;” without the quotes and extra space after the hashmark.

        4. garaden

          That sounds like bad code, not a problem with the parser. Also, you can use & to represent an ampersand.

        5. gwalla

          Well, in HTML the value of a tag attribute (like TITLE=”blah blah”) is contained within the first quotation mark and the second. That’s just how HTML parsing is supposed to work. So if you try to do TITLE=””a quotation I’m using for hovertext””, then instead of getting hovertext containin quotation marks you instead set the TITLE attirbute to an empty string (no hovertext) and the rest of the words are interpreted as unknown HTML attributes and ignored.

        6. JustCheetoDust

          I can’t account for the quotes in any way, it’s easier to just say that I forgot to use them when posting. Though I could have sworn that I was using single quotation marks to indicate that I was quoting someone, that’s all in the past now.

          As for the alt-text, I think I combined ” a href” and “title” so I’ll probably switch to using “a href” and “abbr title” separately.

        7. Some guy

          It’s going to be a pretty difficult court case at this point. Medical evidence from the drugs is long-gone, and drunken witnesses at the party will probably only remember things starting with Dorothy glassing the guy.

        8. paradoxius

          Can still have the 50 kicks though…

        9. airyu

          I thought joyce was the one who glassed Ryan… “to glass” meaning to hit in the face with a glass cup, right?

        10. Some guy

          Whoops, sorry – you’re right. I don’t come here much, and I’m terrible with names.

        11. Rani

          If only she’d also glassed him in the sense of “Plasma bombardment until the ground vitrified.”

        12. Lume

          Agree… Hey, didn’t the dude say he really WAS the pastor’s kid? Just have Joyce do facial recognition to see if he’s there and they’ll catch a lucky brea- oh wait this is drama. That can never happen. 🙁

      2. bob99938

        I know it isnt long for them, but it is long for me. This is every level of not okay. I read this for fun, not for feels

        1. shoeboxjeddy

          Willis tends to mix the two quite a bit. And no, complaining about it won’t change that.

        2. bob99938

          I know this too well. Every time it gets fun, suddenly it goes back to serious topics

        3. JessWitt

          Questionable Content is a nice alternative for your non-sequentialized funny needs.

        4. Dreizehn

          Though when QC goes on a feels trip it takes you on it and make you giggle a bit afterward.

        5. Some guy

          Questionable Content is hardly drama-free. I know of at least one board that has banned the mention of QC because of how… involved some its fans seem to be.

        6. Maxy

          I quite like QC, but I don’t personally feel that its ‘Drama’ is really up to scratch. Every single character is pretty much an OK nice person, and there is rarely any outside conflict that we get to see. (At least recently.) For a while there were arcs which came close to DoA level drama, (The VespAvenger, everything with Faye’s dad and that reveal,) but most of the plot comes from nice people being nice to each other or else being upset because everyone overreacts to issues.

          That being said, it’s still friggin’ great because of the snappy dialogue, nice art, and fun characters. But I read it for light fun, not drama or feels.

        7. WaytoomanyUIDs

          Yeah, I would say there is far more drama in the fan’s overinvestment in the characters and overreaction to the character’s actions. I still like it, though.

        8. beetnemesis

          Hmm, the QC drama is pretty low, lately. There’s some of it, but the romantic tension has kind of fizzled.

        9. Opus the Poet

          QC is a relationship comic. I have never seen a relationship that was drama-free and Jaques has like 15 or 20 relationships going among the characters in his comic, with some characters having relationships with 8 to 9 other characters, who are relating to other characters …

        10. Mattyos

          Hate to burst your bubble…BUT I’M AFRAID I’VE GOT SOME BAD NEWS!

          http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140911054813/smashbroslawlorigins/images/6/67/BNBgif.gif

        11. Jen Aside

          I think you’re reading the wrong comic

        12. JWLM

          I think they’re reading the wrong author. And wrong genre.

          And I’m not sure whether they’re reading the wrong language or species.

        13. Cholma

          David Willis is the King of Drama, if that’s not for you, then you are definitely in the wrong place.

        14. Durandal_1707

          Yes, because that alcoholism storyline from a couple of weeks ago was nothing but a barrel of laughs.

        15. Kiggy

          In-Comic Time it’s been, what?… 2-3 weeks? A month?

        16. licoricepencil

          According to the wiki, it was most likely exactly 3 weeks ago.

        17. Winter

          Really? I read for feels, so right now my blood is boiling with dramas and sadistic anticipation.

        18. isitsevenyet

          Yeah, me too. I love dramatic stories. Partly because I grew up emotionally dysfunctional because reasons, and dramatic stories have actually helped me in that area a bit.

        19. Gadgeteer Smashwidget

          From reading the comments section here, I think a disproportionate number of people reading this comment grew up emotionally dysfunctional for reasons.

        20. Leorale

          Or it could be that being kinda emotionally dysfunctional is part of the human condition. I think that this comment section is a little extra-specially honest, not extra-specially dysfunctional.

        21. Opus the Poet

          Yay! Honesty.

        22. isitsevenyet

          Eh in my case, I actually have reasons, those reasons being an awful childhood filled with verbal abuse, but in a way you have a point.

        23. Narf

          You read this for fun and not for feels.

          Do you enjoy being frequently disappointed? Lol

    2. shoeboxjeddy

      Yeah uhh… something like this doesn’t just “go away” especially when it wasn’t reported and thus the guy is still lurking out there somewhere.

      1. bob99938

        Of course it doesn’t go away. It never really goes away. This is the kind of thing that will be around in her head for quite a while. But this was getting to be a more fun comic and not as serious anymore.

        1. Jon P

          That’s not true at all. It was only a short time ago that Amber’s father showed up unsolicited and the two of them got into a brutal fight. This comic has always bounced between fun and serious.

        2. Superheadache

          This comic is always going to have a lot of drama and angst. The funny parts are the rest we get before Willis rips our hearts out and throws them against a wall while laughing… or something along those lines but less super villain-y.

        3. Syngraphea

          The funny parts help us to like and care about the characters more, so we really feel their pain when drama happens to them. It’s great characterization.

        4. Mr. Morningstar

          Well if his Tumblr posts are anything to go by Willis is definantely NOT laughing at ripping our hearts out….

          …this time

        5. TheOthin

          Wait, which comic have you been reading? One that doesn’t contain Ruth or Billie?

        6. beetnemesis

          Ruth/ Billie isn’t drama, it’s one of those “Morality” haunted houses that scare you about the Evils of Alcohol.

        7. timemonkey

          Between the attempted rape, the abusive parents, Danny getting kidnapped, Amber being hideously unstable, Joyce’s repression, Billie and Ruth being alcoholics spiralling into suicidal despair and Sal and Walky’s issues this comic has been getting steadily more serious as time goes on.

        8. 3oranges

          Sarah alluded to the same incident only a month ago…which sounds like a long time now that I say it, but it really isn’t.

        9. etybolik

          Remember that time Amber beat the shit out of her dad in a McDonald’s parking lot because he’d basically coerced and then tried to kidnap Danny, and she pretty much broke down for a while afterwards? Or that time Ruth hinted she’d kill herself and Bille confronted her about it later in tears and misery?

          Fuck yeah that shit was hilarious, huh?

          I agree with the others, you’re reading the wrong comic.

    3. Animedingo

      At first I thought it might be “reaching” when they brought this plotline back, but it kinda makes sense. Joyce was pretty fucked up by that incident and started having crazy dreams that made her start questioning her sexuality. Not just her orientation but the existence of it entirely.

    4. Anfernee

      Because things like this don’t just go away.

    5. Charlie

      Yeah, I’m upset about it too 🙁 It makes for some pretty unsafe-feelings on a what’s usually a happy-making comic (at least for me it’s usually happy-making, in the sense that I look forward to reading it. Now I just feel kinda scared about reading tomorrow’s).

  7. Kenny the toliet king!

    Whoopsies!!

  8. penguinsinmyhead

    Wasn’t expecting to feel today. Ended up feeling.

    1. Cliff B

      so you’re saying you didn’t expect to read DoA today, but then you did?

      …sorry, low hanging joke fruit. Willis = some kinda feels

  9. Dorsilus

    oh shit.

  10. Tom Speelman

    And THAT’S a boomerang right back around to the feels. Thanks, Willis.

    1. bob99938

      I don’t wanna feel these feels right now. This is not happy

      1. Sye

        Admitting this only serves to feed the insatiable hunger in the depths of the abyss that lay where Willis’ soul once was.

        1. Opus the Poet

          About when do you think he lost his soul?

        2. JustCheetoDust

          No abyss there, just a bottling plant for those nourishing tears.

        3. Mr. Morningstar

          and transformers

  11. toonie

    Yeeeep… I was wondering how Amazi-Girl had the gall to get up in Joyce’s face like that. Turns out she just forgot about that time she accidentally helped Joyce’s would-be rapist get away. (Admittedly, because she has a lot going on in her life right now. But you’d think you’d remember the person you seriously wronged, albeit on accident.)

    1. MrSirk

      Oh yeah that’s right! Amazi-girl was kind of an inept jerk that time wasn’t she?

      1. Catullus

        Inept I’ll buy, but jerk is kind of unfair, considering she did spend the entire rest of the night searching for him (as suggested here).

        1. toonie

          Yeah, I wouldn’t call her a jerk and clearly she felt terrible about it at the time. But I’m really surprised it’s something that she would forget. Like, you’d think that she would strongly associate Joyce with that memory.

        2. Jen Aside

          It takes me a few times to solidly remember someone I’ve just met, especially if I’ve spent most of the night awake with the mental image of some beat-up dude I’ve never seen stuck in my head.

          Okay, not EXACTLY that, but still!

        3. toonie

          Yeah, but the thing is, Amber/Amazi-Girl doesn’t really know Joyce outside of that incident. If your most major interaction (by far) with a person you’ve met is something so dramatic/traumatic, I just can’t imagine separating the person from the incident. If they hung out together a lot and Amber/Amazi-Girl had lots of other memories to think of when it came to Joyce, I could find it a little more understandable. But only one stands out.

        4. timemonkey

          She didn’t interact with Joyce at the party though. She showed up, got told off by Sarah and took off in search. Amber’s biggest and most memorable interaction with Joyce was screaming in her face in the cafeteria for helping Ethan crawl back in the closet.

        5. toonie

          That’s true. However, as we see from her conversation with Sarah, Amazi-Girl actually did remember who Joyce was, but forgot when getting caught up in her detective-ing.

        6. Jen Aside

          Yeah, because everyone has crystal clear memory and can follow up with, “Oh yeah, you’re THAT girl” after seeing her for literally two seconds. Especially someone who spends non-superhero free time killing spiders.

        7. toonie

          Amazi-Girl’s whole point is superhero-ing/detective-ing. She obviously knows who Joyce is; Sarah already referenced what happened with Joyce and Amazi-Girl in an earlier strip, and Amazi-Girl didn’t seem confused. If anything, she built her conversation with Sarah on that point. So she is not having to remember based off a two-second viewing. She was aware, but forgot in her detective frenzy.

        8. Jen Aside

          oh dang, I just noticed Ryan looks like he’s being DRAGGED away

          hmm, I now forgot how I was gonna retort to you

        9. toonie

          And just to be clear, I SUPER LOVE Amber/Amazi-Girl. But I’m like damn girl, show some tact

        10. MrSirk

          Okay maybe she’s not a jerk….but still it is kind of a lot her fault. Maybe she’ll do better this time now that she’s got a whole month of Amazi-ing under her belt.

        11. Leorale

          I’d like to see AG hunt down Ryan. I think we all would, actually.

        12. thinkingofthechildren

          Well you’ve just got me sucked into reading 3 years of backlog.

          Man…3 years IRL, something like a couple weeks in-comic?

        13. Opus the Poet

          Word of God (Willis) is coming up on 5 weeks. Parents’ weekend was about 5 days ago (today is Wednesday after).

    2. Cat

      I’d just like to remind everyone this is not the first time Amazi-Girl has gotten all up in Joyce’s face like that. This is just the first time she’s done it as Amazi-Girl.

      1. ChocolateRat

        This is actually a very good point to make, it kind of makes me view her earlier quarrel with Joyce differently. Had I been in Amber’s position I would definitely not have been so harsh with Joyce after what had happened.

        1. timemonkey

          Amber was kind of mid-mental breakdown last time she got in Joyce’s face. While still in the wrong a degree of leeway is warranted.

        2. ChocolateRat

          Personally that is only a small amount of leeway I would give, but I’m sure Amber will apologize to Joyce properly and consider it in the future, since she’s a good person, but I still consider it a pretty big mistake she’s done, until then she has done those things.

        3. Sam

          And I would like to remind you that Amber’s reason for being angry with Joyce in the first place was that she was pretty much telling her BEST FRIEND, that his sexuality was wrong, that he can be ‘fixed’, that he isn’t normal the way he currently is essentially…and Sarah agreed that Amber had a point to be mad about that.

          The time they met when she was Amazi-Girl likely didn’t even cross her mind at all at the time – all she could likely think was ‘HOW DARE SHE’ because she was INFURIATED by the fact that Joyce was reinforcing the things she had fought so hard to prevent Ethan believing, that she had fought so hard to keep his family from believing, that she HATES seeing people believe because it can be really goddamn harmful to someone’s self-image and cause them a ton of pain.

          If you were in Amber’s position, that incident likely wouldn’t even come to mind – it would be the times you spent arguing with people endlessly for your best friend that would come to mind, it would be the PAIN your best friend went through when his own family said those things to him that would come to mind.

          Joyce’s recent pain at that time would not even factor in because that wouldn’t be on your mind – all you’d see is some person that could seriously hurt your best friend if you left them alone to do whatever they want.

        4. DSL

          Also worth mentioning: At the time of the cafeteria confrontation, Amber was still somewhat compartmentalizing Amazi-Girl.

    3. JWLM

      I don’t think she thought through the consequences of her actions. Sure, Sarah yelled at AG, but Joyce was incredibly emphatic that she didn’t want any follow-up.

      However…now it’s clear that she really did want follow-up, and that it’s AG’s fault. It also explains why Joyce was desperately trying to reach Becky yesterday — that seemed out of character if she wanted to confess, but it’s totally in character if she wanted some moral support.

      OK, AG…now you’re going to have to provide that support.

      1. Jen Aside

        *expression of sympathy via light contact*

      2. LWS

        I’d forgotten about the “Caped Attention-Hogger” snark from Sarah.

    4. Scott

      Didn’t Sarah remind her about it just yesterday, comic time?

    5. Sam

      It’s likely because THIS memory wasn’t the one in her head at the time – it would have been one from the morning when Joyce was acting suspicious or the entire event string in general.

      She clearly has NOT forgotten the event, it just wasn’t sitting at the front of her mind when she came to confront Joyce, hence why she didn’t immediately understand what she meant, but still quickly realised what she meant, as the question provoked it to come back to the front of her mind.

  12. Cephalo the Pod

    Remember how Joyce hesitated to praise Amazi-Girl in this strip?
    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/leads/

    1. timemonkey

      Yup, and then there was Sarah’s reaction to her.

  13. MrSirk

    Gone are the innocent days of whiteboard defacing this just moved to SVU level investigating.

  14. clodia

    1) No wonder Willis was tired of hearing “there’s dozens of way to remove permanent marker”

    2) Straight to the feels.

    1. Jen Aside

      Yeah, WHY would someone who has a thing planned well in advance EVER get tired of having it pointed out before it has a chance to show up of its own accord =p

  15. timemonkey

    Well played, Willis. Here I was all prepared for Joyce to over react and panic in an amusing matter and instead we get sobbing and flashbacks to her attempted rape. Emotional whiplash hurts so good.

    1. Sensedog

      This.

      Considering what almost happened to Joyce at the party, it’s a damn good question to ask Amazi-Girl.

      1. Emperor Kiva

        I’m with you

      2. Sam

        She didn’t really let him though – he was gone before she even knew there was a guy involved. :/

        Looking back at those pages, I’d say it’s not even her fault he got away in the first place either because absolutely NOBODY was even watching him before she got there, they were all looking at Joyce, then all looking at her – they weren’t looking at him.

  16. Sila

    You’re breaking my heart, Joyce. 🙁

  17. Ari

    … 🙁

  18. Rhy

    Uh, anyone have the link to the strip this is referring to?

    1. Catullus

      This one.

      1. Rhy

        Thanks. Totally forgot about Amazi-Girl’s involvement with that event.

      2. MrSirk

        Got give Ryan some credit there actually. He’s a scumbag but he really hauled ass considering he was beat all to shit by Sarah.

        1. JustCheetoDust

          You might be on your own with that one.

        2. MrSirk

          HAHAHAHHAHA!!! That’s funny :)……still I know I wouldn’t be able to walk, shamble or whatever the hell he did to get out of there after the concussion I’m sure he got from a bat to his head or the implied curb stomping. Hey! Maybe he died from his injuries!

        3. Jen Aside

          Juuuuuuust noticed that Ryan is tagged, but the only one that looks like it could be Ryan is being possibly DRAGGED away…???

        4. neeks

          Or slinking backwards while remaining low to the ground so as not to draw attention to himself.

  19. Yotomoe

    “Because every superhero needs to miss their first chance at nailing the villain before they finally take ’em down and get their redemption at the end of the movie…DUH.”

    1. Aizat

      By the way…is it really necessary for every superhero movie to end with the villain dead by the end? I mean, I can only remember a handful of movies where they didn’t kill the villain.

      1. bob99938

        No, of course not. I am a big fan of franchises that avoid the killing thing at all costs, unless it is indeed necessary.

      2. Swerve Is Dead

        Yeah, it’s really turning the superhero genre into a generic action movie genre. In the Christopher Reeves “Superman” movies, Lex Luthor always gets sent to jail, but ever since Tim Burton’s “Batman”, the supervillain dies. Or if there is more than one supervillain, at least one dies.

        1. Aizat

          Heck, the few movies I can remember at the top of my head that didn’t kill the villains would be Thor, the old Superman movies, The Avengers and The Dark Knight. Though TDK is a bit iffy because while the Joker lived….Two Face bites it.

        2. timemonkey

          Technically all the villains survived Batman and Robin. Well, unless Freeze kills Ivy at the end.

        3. Ray Radlein

          Yes, but the audience didn’t survive.

        4. timemonkey

          It’s better than Batman Forever.

        5. neeks

          Or “Catwoman”; I saw that for free and I still wanted my money back.

        6. newllend

          Thank God I blocked all three movies out of my memory.

        7. Tenn

          NO.

      3. Kernanator

        It’s because action movie tropes got tied to superhero movies years ago.

      4. Leorale

        Batman doesn’t kill villains, does he? Or Supes, or Spider-Man. Sometimes they die of their own accord, but I seem to remember lots of handcuffed or arkham-bound baddies.

        1. Aizat

          Let’s see, 1989: Joker bites it. Returns: Max Shreck and Penguin bites it. Forever: Two Face bites it. We are not going to talk about that other movie. Begins: Ra’s Al Ghul bites it. Dark Knight: Two Face bites it. Dark Knight Rises: Talia and Bane bites it.

        2. timemonkey

          In the four Batman movies from the 90s he totally did. Even when it was unnecessary, but he ends up realising it doesn’t make him feel any better and advises Robin against it.

        3. Leorale

          Ah, good to learn. I knew you all wouldn’t let me down on superhero facts. =)

        4. StClair

          In the comics, Batman needs to keep villains around so that they can continue to make trouble (and drive stories, and sell books) for decades. Regardless of how absurd it gets (e.g., Joker Immunity).

          Movies? They’re only going to make a few of them, maybe three or four at most in the current set. And most heroes have enough personal villains to fit two or three in every movie, and that’s just the “big names” in their rogues’ galleries. So they can afford to, ah, waste them. So to speak.

        5. newllend

          Batman doesn’t the Dark knight on the other hand.

      5. Jen Aside

        It’s not, but Hollywood is super lazy about things like including non-token female and/or minority representation and shit like that

      6. Mr. Morningstar

        Marvel seems to be avoiding that trend lately actually.

    2. newllend

      You can’t be a real superhero unless you failed to help at least one person ( this is all true by the way).

      1. Aizat

        Oh come on, we’re playing the “My Greatest Failure” card?

        1. Swerve Is Dead

          That’s only true for Spider-Man. He failed to save his Uncle Ben, Captain George Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Gears, Ben Reilly and his marriage.

        2. Aizat

          Yeah…can someone not shit on Spidey just once?

        3. Swerve Is Dead

          Hey, I like Spider-Man! But let’s be honest, he has a less sterling track record than Captain America or Optimus Prime. Spidey tries his hardest, and that makes him a hero. (But he should have used a higher tensile webbing formula when trying to secure Gears.)

        4. newllend

          Batman with Jason Todd the second Robin.

        5. timemonkey

          Spidey shits on Spidey, he’s pretty much responsible for 90% of the shit that happens to him. On some level he likes to be the victim.

        6. Deanatay

          Considering the context, I think it’s valid to bring it up, yeah.

      2. TheHorseCouncil

        If this escalates amazi-girl’s arch nemesis truly will be joyce aka thewhiteboard ding dong bandit. And it will be a greatest failure/ revenge thing between them.

        After all superheroes create their villains.

        1. DSL

          “You complete me.” — This-is-no-Joker to Battywoman.

  20. rachel

    UHHHHH didn’t see this coming, that’s utterly blindsiding

  21. Aizat

    Oh God….what did I miss?

  22. chris73

    One moment its all veiny ding dongs, the next its all repercussions about drugged sexual assault

  23. Van Jealous

    Meanwhile, 5 or 6 weeks ago in ARC time…..(3 1/2 years in DOA reader time 🙂

  24. Benjy

    Oh…Ohhhhh…

    (That’s okay. Who likes happy ending anyways?)

    1. Benjy

      (Answer: I do.)

      1. Aizat

        So do I….err…what kind of happy ending we’re talking about here? The one where the hero walked towards the ocean and the sunset?

        1. Benjy

          No. The one where the hero rides a horse towards the ocean and sunset.

        2. Maveric1984

          If you pay $25 for the first month and $9 for subsequent months, you can see Amber get a happy ending about 20 minutes before the events in this strip.

        3. Aizat

          Wait….how long have I been away?

        4. Benjy

          Aww. I gotta PAY for a happy ending?

        5. Benjy

          *headdesk* You know, I completely forgot the *other* meaning for “happy ending” just then.

        6. Kelly

          Ok, that was hilarious 😀

        7. Aizat

          Well, it’s been done by some video game companies.

    2. etybolik

      Pffffthahahaha, these do no exist in DoA.

      1. Benjy

        I’m beginning to think they don’t exist, period. Willis has crushed my faith in all of reality.

  25. vile_gamer

    Wow, that party? It feels like that was YEARS ago…

    But in all seriousness, I hope that Ryan gets his. I’ve been hoping for that to happen for a while…

    1. Maveric1984

      This loose end has been wafting in the breeze for so long that most have forgotten about it. I get the feeling it’s going to be tied before the end of the book.

  26. Cephalo the Pod

    Dorothy is fucking creepy in that flashback.

    1. Yotomoe

      Hello, viewers at home.

    2. Wigii!

      best comment here

    3. BadgerGuy

      She’s smiling and she really shouldn’t be.

      1. Benjy

        I think she was smiling that Amazi-Girl was there to save the day.

        1. 3oranges

          More that seeing Amazi-Girl made her forget what is going on – the smile goes with an autograph request.

        2. Random832

          Speaking of mood whiplash, we went straight from that storyline into Pajama Jeans.

    4. timemonkey

      And Sarah is hating Amazi-Girl so hard.

    5. Aydr

      Dorothy’s derpy smile is so distracting it’s almost hard to notice what the fuck is going on with Sarah’s face.

    6. JebJeb

      …I didn’t notice that at first and now I can’t un-notice it. Kinda have to put my finger over her face ’cause it’s kinda unnerving to me. Half expect to pull my finger away and find the face burned onto it.

  27. Aizat

    By the by….did anyone called that Joyce is the one that did it yet?

    1. newllend

      …your serous.

    2. Keroshino

      I didn’t see a confession…just Joyce being reminded that a so called “superhero” let her attacker get away.

      1. pyrophobia

        WE’RE UNCONFIRMED YET
        THERE’S STILL TIME FOR IT TO BE SOMEONE ELSE

  28. newllend

    Fuuuuck , this is Really opening up the flod gates of Joyces backed up mental stress here isn’t it.

  29. Marc in MN

    Amazi-Girl totally should have broken the fourth wall here.

    “There’s dozens of ways to remove them. Haven’t you read the comment section?”
    “The what now?….”
    “Never mind.”

    (Yes, I know there’s a buffer and that this comic was drawn weeks ago.)

    1. Jen Aside

      More like months ago??

      In all seriousness, Willis broke the fourth wall ONCE way back in It’s Walky! and has pretty much vowed NEVER to do it again.

      1. TParadox

        Not way back in It’s Walky, way way back in Roomies!

        1. Jen Aside

          IT’S ON IT’S WALKY I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT

          [no I don’t good catch]

      2. 3oranges

        Unless you count the drama tag, art tracing jokes, and so on in Shortpacked!…

  30. Plasma Mongoose

    So the subject switched from a bunch of dicks to a particular dick…

    1. Jen Aside

      That’s a peen observation there!

      1. Leorale

        Yeah, Joyce is pointing out the time that Amber really cocked it up. (Just look at all the things she can point to.)

        1. Deanatay

          BAM! Weenus pointed!

    2. JessWitt

      A dick dastardly, to be precise.

  31. Swerve Is Dead

    You know, if only Amazi-Girl spent half the energy she spent tracking down Joyce for petty vandalism on looking for slags like Ryan…

    1. Aizat

      About that…does no one ever noticed a dude bleeding with glass possibly embedded in said wound?

      1. Jen Aside

        Huh–the strip clearly shows people standing BEHIND where Ryan was. WTF were THEY doing??

        1. espanolbot

          From what I’ve read about American colleges, they were probably trying to work out how to blame Joyce for the assault so Ryan could keep his football scholarship or something.

        2. Aizat

          Or…find a way to blame patriarchy for Joyce’s assault…if you follow the mindset of third wave feminists.

        3. Kerry

          oh joy, we’ve got an anti-feminist

        4. Benjy

          *KLAXON SOUNDS*

        5. Swerve Is Dead

          They were probably drunk. It was a party, there was lots of alcohol, and the only responsible people (Sarah and Dorothy) were distracted by a vigilante showing up.

    2. Catullus

      She did spend the entire night searching for Ryan after she left the party.

      1. Swerve Is Dead

        But she never really followed up. By contrast she’s spent the whole day trying to crack a trivial case, beat up her father and tried to pick a fight with Sal. She could definitely try to canvas the campus to ID Ryan, especially now that she’s grown popular with the student body.

        Also, from Joyce’s POV, seeing Amazi-Girl is causing her to remember a very painful night she’d rather forget.

        1. Jen Aside

          Yes, because this is totes called, “Smart people always make good decisions”

    3. nothri

      She spent all night looking for the bastard. What more could she have done?

      1. timemonkey

        Continued the search for more than one night? Checked the hospitals? Asked around?

        1. Aizat

          Search the hospitals? No..too obvious. Best look at the vets.

        2. Keroshino

          He shouldn’t be “too” hard to find…

          Not many guys have huge scar-ing gashes going diagonally across their faces!

        3. nothri

          We don’t know how hard or long Amber searched. Most of the “investigation” has been happening off panel. All we know is that Amber kind of forgot about that incident, probably because she got swept up in her own traumatic crap.

          And not to piss on Joyce or dismiss what she went through…but the police should have been brought in on this. THEY probably would have found the guy by now.

        4. Nogre

          She’s not exactly a police officer. Looking around the hospitals wouldn’t have really helped much, since she’d be kicked out in short order. She could have continued looking and asking around more, but after a certain point, the trail ends up too cold to follow without official resources.

          You can only do so much as a vigilante, which is why we have police to begin with and why the lack of official follow up is due to the decision not to report. But that’s not entirely Joyce’s fault. Reporting rape, even attempted, is a difficult thing. Bleh… This whole situation just sucks. Fuck Ryan. Seriously. He’s the one who is 100% at fault here.

  32. Yotomoe

    I wasn’t even fully aware of the situation. I had literally just asked “What’s going on here?” and the dude crawled away.

    1. newllend

      Batman wouldn’t have used that excuse, then again she ain’t batman.

    2. anonymous

      Twist: He never actually left. After Sarah hit him on the head he turned invisible and got ghost powers.
      Then he got sued by Nickelodeon and now he’s a delusional hobo.
      I don’t think you can actually see him in the panels after the bottle-hitting one, so it’s possible.

  33. JessWitt

    Ow! Dramatic whiplash!

  34. Mkvenner

    I was wondering when we’d get back to this.

  35. Marc in MN

    Does everyone hear that?….

    It’s the sound of no one saying, “Called it!”

    1. Aizat

      Actually, I heard the sound of someone saying…”Remember to drink your Ovaltine” which is odd because I absolutely loathed Ovaltine.

      1. Kelly

        Ovaltine is the best. I go through a jar a week.

        1. Keroshino

          I am Canadian…and I honestly don’t even know what the hell Ovaltine is.

        2. Swerve Is Dead

          Kids, listen to Sgt. Schlock: drink your own Oval-Kwik, not his!

        3. anonymous

          It’s powder for chocolate milk or hot chocolate.

        4. madd

          It’s a chocolate malt powder. Kind of like Milo.

  36. Grimlock64

    Aw, we were having a fun little mystery about marker board genitalia, and you suddenly turn it around and do this! Joyce is suddenly thinking back to that night and Amazi-Girl runs into the one person who may end up hating her.

    Damn you, Willis. (Long time reader, first time damner)

    Joking aside, I’m interested to see where this goes and hope I’m wrong. 🙁

    1. Jen Aside

      Congratulations on your first damning! Here’s to many more!

  37. Keroshino

    That’s right…you are a poor superhero, Amazi-girl

    1. Emperor Kiva

      Wow now I’m agreeing with you instead of the other way around.

  38. kicho

    smart approach, guilt trip her into oblivion

    1. Leorale

      Looks like this Amazi-Girl isn’t immune to criticism.

      1. JWLM

        +1

  39. LeslieBean4Shizzle

    I was wondering when this was going to come back. And yet, it surprised me when it did. Nicely done Willis.
    It helps that I entirely forgot that it was Amazi-Girl’s fault he escaped.

  40. Kiggy

    awwwwww shiiiiiiit. . . . . . =(

  41. vlademir1

    Damnit Willis!! Ya know, I wasn’t expecting to start the week with this coming back up…

    1. newllend

      He’s got to keep you on your toes.

      1. vlademir1

        Yeah, thing is I was expecting this to come up when it was Joyce drawing those penises, just not in this way or quite this soon.

  42. motorfirebox

    “Well… I didn’t, actually. I’ve got his skull and spine in my closet, Predator-style. Wanna see? Might make you feel better.”

    1. Emperor Kiva

      Holy shit that sounds awesome

    2. Aizat

      Well…I have his head on the hood of someone’s car. Is that OK?

    3. Jen Aside

      “Skull and spine?? Great, how does that PROVE it’s him, it could be just ANYONE’S skull and spine!!”

      1. Warren

        “There’s still little bits of glass in the cheekbone. You’ve got a really mean right hook, by the way.”

  43. Yoohoo

    Whiiiiplash

  44. Insanenoodlyguy

    Complete and total redirection! JOYCE IS THE GREATEST SUPERVILLIAN IN THE DUMBINGVERSE!

    1. pyrophobia

      Obfuscation: one of the greatest tools in the toolkit of evil!!

  45. Lonas

    In hindsight, should have seen coming. Immediately said,”Yeah…that…”, wondering if it was gonna come up again.

  46. Emperor Kiva

    Find the bastard and put him in the ground! Geez, I have a list of superheroes that would have gotten Ryan. Some beating the shit out of him (HULK and Batman). While others (Superman) would have taken the freak to jail.

    1. Aizat

      While the Punisher would’ve just put a bullet between his eyes.

      1. liahansen

        The Punisher should not be put in charge of Joyce’s problems.

        1. Aizat

          Why?

        2. liahansen

          Because shooting a dude’s brain’s out all over her would not have been a positive addition to the situation!

        3. JustCheetoDust

          He could sub in for Mike the next time she goes on a date.

  47. Salmo

    122 comments by 12:25. I wasn’t watching to see when we hit 100, but I bet we broke the record.

    1. AgentKeen

      I think the Ethan/Danny dream kiss might have the record still.

  48. Lordmazapan

    UUUUFFFFFF this is gonna be interesting.

  49. newllend

    This shit came out of no where I won’t lie.

  50. advancecasette

    woah what if sarah walked up and yelled at amazi-girl nvm she’s masturbating

  51. thias

    oh SHIT

  52. timemonkey

    This would be a terrible time for Sarah to walk in.

  53. Idon'tcarenomore

    Aw geez.

  54. Aolbain

    *Hugs Joyce*
    Oh you poor girl… 🙁

  55. caesaria82

    Holy callback, Batman.

  56. Mass Confusion

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc
    An accurate representation of my reaction
    I wish I knew you to do a text link

    1. Mass Confusion

      *how. Damn my typing is crap tonight

      1. Jen Aside

        <a href=link goes here>Textify This Space!</a>

  57. MrSirk

    I know Amber was joking at first but after this Joyce could actually be a credible villain for her. How many Batman villains were created because he failed them somehow? Like all of them. At least a clean 80%.

    1. liahansen

      I doubt Joyce will become a for-serious villain because she was sexually assaulted.

      1. MrSirk

        Not because of the assault, but because she has legitimate reasons for seriously disliking Amazi-girl. She’s been watching a lot of Dexter and Monkey Master! This practically writes itself. All she needs is a catchy name.

        1. Sam

          I’d say her ‘legitimate reason’ is more just because of her point of view at the time though. If you actually look back at the pages, everyone seen around Amazi-Girl when she appeared was looking straight forward, toward Joyce, then at her.

          Who was watching Ryan before Amazi-Girl showed up? No one was. He likely would have crawled away regardless due to the fact no one was really keeping an eye on him.

          Amazi-Girl tried to do her best to find him though, but there wasn’t much she could do after one night – hospitals can’t give away the information she’d need, she can’t access school records to see if he goes to where they do, she didn’t have a photo to show around to ask if anyone saw him around.

        2. MrSirk

          Misdirected contempt. Also a good trait for a arch enemy.

    2. TheHorseCouncil

      Not to mention that even ooutside costume amber and joyce have not had any positive interaction.

      And willis has a pretty good track record of taking what was once a funny situation and making it come back for emotional moments and plot development.

      1. TheHorseCouncil

        Well at the very least amber and joyce won’t be besties for quite sometime….

        I can see a lot of resentment from eachother, like how billie and ruth used to be only without the sex tension

  58. Jim

    Seriously? Yeah, the guy was an absolute creep who escaped, but the intervention was still quite a generous act. You can’t always expect divine intervention and then just crucify your heroes when they aren’t perfect. Oh, wait.

    1. luxlucis

      Yeah, but didn’t the guy escape BECAUSE Amazi-Girl took a lot of the attention to herself? At least that’s what Sarah said and it did seem to rang true.
      The moments was a little bit of comedy at that point but at the end Amazi-Girl not only helped Ryan escape but also didn’t caught him after presenting herself as a hero to Joyce (in a really dark moment).

    2. Mr. Morningstar

      okay yeah but from what we know joyce doesnt fully remember it, being drugged and all, plus it was a pretty traumatic experience so i don’t think she was really paying attention to all possibilities like a super hero’s chance of catching the guy.

      1. Some guy

        Bearing in mind that she doesn’t remember much, I’d guess that if she’s had a conversation with Sarah about it, she’ll think Amazi-girl let him get away. Even without a conversation, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sarah had made a grumpy comment about it at some point.

      2. luxlucis

        Or maybe she was lying and she does remember everything that happened? I don’t think it would be unlike her to think that something so traumatic didn’t happen.

        1. Mr. Morningstar

          Fair point I suppose, but so far all the evidence we have seen has stated she does not remember most of it, so im probably going to stick with that unless stated otherwise.

        2. Nogre

          It’s also possible that the memory is coming back from seeing Amazi-girl in this situation.

  59. Syngraphea

    I’m actually really glad this came up again. It’s important. People like Ryan shouldn’t be allowed to walk free. Did they ever actually submit that police report Sarah promised they would file the morning after the party? And I don’t remember for sure, but I don’t think Amazi-girl (or Amber) ever mentioned him again after looking for him that night.

    1. JessWitt

      Alas, no police report was submitted. I think Joyce was afraid her parents would pull her out of IU if they knew about this.

      1. Jen Aside

        It actually wasn’t clear whether that happened, but Sarah did mean to submit a police report [which could be done w/o the Browns finding out so long as the police aren’t idiots and/or corrupt]. No hospital, though.

        1. Jen Aside

          NOPE I WAS WRONG

          [I’ve posted this elsewhere, but the comments section proves that no one reads all of them except Willis]

    2. Mr. Morningstar

      Dammit I wish his name wasn’t Ryan.

      My name is Ryan,

      so now i’m going to spitting my own name in disgust now that I remembered that animals name.

  60. Regalli

    Aaaaaaaaaaand yeah remember when this was the happy funny comic relief plot to go with Billie and Ruth’s downward spirals?

    I miss that.

    1. Mr. Morningstar

      and so the tale of the ding dong bandit took a flacid turn/.

  61. Weebles

    Read back around that part in the strip. Unless I’m misreading, Amazi-girl shows up, asks what she can do to help, is told about The Guy, asks what guy, turns out he got away, and then she immediately goes to try to find him. Later, she gets home the next morning after unsuccessfully being able to find him. That would at least on the surface look like she did everything she could to help but was unsuccessful, which was miles above anything 99% of everyone else at the party was doing.

    I don’t think that Amazi-Girl particularly needs to feel guilty, unless the strips soon to follow are going to lay additional context or information out that we are unaware of at the moment.

    Maybe the “why did you let him get away?” is less a specific accusation towards Amazi-girl and more a general accusation towards rape culture- ie, why has NOBODY been following up on this? Attempted rapist out there and we, the public, are more concerned with dickerdoodles than real problems?

    1. Alex

      Last panel.
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/caped/

      1. Kamino Neko

        … Says the girl who actually let him get away, in order to yell at the ‘caped attention hogger’. I love Sarah, but laying this on Amber’s shoulders (instead of those of everyone in the room except Joyce, including Amber and Sarah) is just wrong.

        1. Mr. Morningstar

          yeah literally no one stopped the obvious rapist from leaving..

          Of course Joyce has likely been talking to Sarah and its more then likely she put in her head it was ALL Amazi Girls fault

  62. Pyr05

    “Because every superhero needs an arch-nemesis, and that guy’s CRAFTY”

  63. Gram91

    Yeah, I’m still not over the fact that she let a rapist get away because of her ego guided vigilantism that so far, besides her own father, has only involved stopping delinquency and vandalizing as far as I remember.

    1. Mr. Morningstar

      To be fair, out of every single person in the room at the time, how did no one notice the guy with a bloody face leaving?

      Sarah seemed to notice but didn’t do a thing.

    2. segnosaur

      Actually, those aren’t the only crimes she has stopped. Remember, she saved Danny when he was about to be beaten up (I think that was their first interaction). Plus, in a later comic, she is seen returning a purse to a woman (whom I assume was the victim of theft).

      1. neeks

        Think she saved someone’s bike from theft, too, right before being chased by Dorothy and walky.

  64. Chaucer59

    Table turned. The marketed dongs are all Amazi-Girl’s fault.

    1. Jen Aside

      Who was she marketing them to?

      1. Camachri

        Horny college kids with enough money for a slipshine sub, duh.

  65. JA

    And the webcomic universe’s monkey’s paw strikes again. The feels…

    I hope drawing dongs on the boards won’t be Amazi-girl’s version of the bat signal

  66. Sabrina Pandora

    Mr. Willis, your characters are deeply flawed. They make terrible mistakes. They forget details, and they fail, often on a large scale.

    They are human, and they are real. And that is what makes them engaging. Thanks.

  67. Norah

    Is this the first time that Joyce consciously remembered something that happened during the time that she was drugged?

    1. Jen Aside

      This is *Amazi-Girl* remembering it

      1. Kamino Neko

        Joyce necessarily remembers it, since she brought it up.

    2. gwalla

      Well, she had a nightmare about it earlier.

  68. Opus the Poet

    I think you left a not out of that statement, as in “should not be possible to fit down there was somehow forcefully inserted down there” and followup “like a Mack truck.”

    1. Opus the Poet

      And the post I was replying to seems to have vanished, making my little jape less than meaningless.

      1. Archivist

        It’s pretty entertaining out of context though.

  69. Jacob Newburn

    Now that’s the David Willis I know! Have a fun situation and a great set up to an unexpected punch line, then immediately make me feel sad… It’s Ruth from Roomies! all over again…

    1. Mass Confusion

      Yeah, this hit like an 18-wheeler
      (I’m sorry)

      1. Brissin

        GO TO YOUR ROOOOOOOOOOOOOM

  70. isitsevenyet

    Awwww, Joyce. I just want to hug her. 🙁

    No one deserves what she went through. Or, for that matter, what Amber went through, and various other characters whose sob stories (I know that’s usually used sarcastically, but I mean it seriously here) I can’t quite recall off the top of my head.

    I have to say, one thing I really enjoy about this comic is that it deals with these very real issues.

  71. Archivist

    Got Amazi-Girl in the banner this time. I love it when they’re thematically appropriate. (Darkly ironic? Guess it depends on whether she goes to seek VENGEANCE.)

  72. newllend

    So I’m guessing what’s she’s thinking right now is,” If your able to figure all this out how come you couldn’t find that one guy who tried to hurt me.”

    1. Rybridge

      Which is a really valid question. Not to mention that in a society that victim blames, Joyce is a victim that gets apprehended while the abuser gets away, reinforcing a culture of sexism.

      1. Kerry

        oh dang, I didn’t even make that connection
        fucking hell

  73. MattR

    Damn you, Willis.

  74. Golli

    why does Dorothy look so stoned in the picture before last?

    1. neeks

      She’s fangirling.

      1. newllend

        “My friend was almost raped but hey atleast I got to meat Amazi-girl.”

  75. Clayton

    …I suddenly feel the need to cuddle with my pillow and dream of crying puppies..Damn you Willis.

  76. zmm

    Well him getting away wasn’t really Amazi-girl’s fault.. but Joyce needs to talk to someone for sure. So I hope Amazi-girl’s been practicing her superhero empathy. I think she could help Joyce a lot with the emotional stuff..
    and she should probably go make a man a eunic or at least impotent. She’s got big boots and I can not lie, I want her to play mario on his balls.

    Basically. Joyce really needs friends or a counciler and assuming time hasn’t passed tooo far (unless admiting it in public court hurts her more) a cop.
    Amazigrl I hope has more empathy than her dimensional doppleganger, but needs to stomp on that guy’s manhood until it’s an innie.

    1. pyrophobia

      “I want her to play Mario on his balls”
      *mental image of AG jumping up and down on a guy’s crotch with the classic Mario jump sound effect as she jumps*
      Thanks bruh, 4 am and day already made.

  77. Mr. Morningstar

    Jesus christ.

    That got heavy real fast

  78. Vancore

    Course Amazi- girl could find him with the right information that joyce has never told anyone. Wonder if it will go that way.

    1. neeks

      That’s assuming Joyce even has “the right information”….although…

      Wouldn’t it be just her luck if his dad was the priest (or a visiting one) at her church of choice, and their next encounter is at a church function? Where she sees him chatting up Mary, because let’s compound the awful.

      1. Hannah

        … No.

        I mean for the comic’s sake that would intensify the drama to a point beyond a lot of the other stuff we’ve seen so far in DoA, and probably add to the overall story value.

        But for Joyce’s sake… No.

        1. AgentKeen

          Oh man, and what if he’s friends with MARY?

    2. newllend

      I’m still rooting for “Raptor gal the Dino girl wonder.”

  79. Koms

    It’s heartbreaking to see Joyce like this. I like that kid.

  80. Harry

    Surprise! Human being, not comic book villain, after all.

  81. Shadow12000

    This needed to happen. You can’t just let that shit stay bottled up inside. Amazi-comforting time!

  82. Avery

    You know, Joyce doesn’t have to be blaming Amazi-Girl to feel sad about the situation and to feel sad that Amazi-Girl managed to put in enough effort to solve a relatively small, meaningless crime, but couldn’t help Joyce when it really mattered. Sometimes people try their best and still fail, and you don’t blame them, but you can still be sad about it.

    1. Dani Kelley

      Yes! This. Very much this.

    2. J-Debs

      AG put alot more effort into finding the WBDDB than she did to catch an actual criminal though. Did she really even try?

      1. Dani Kelley

        She started looking here and spent all night looking, coming back to her room the next morning looking worn out and defeated.

      2. APersonAmI

        She spent all night, apparently. As I understand it, much more effort than she gave this. It just wasn’t depicted in the comic.

  83. YBAlex

    Am I the only one, always getting lost when there is a reference to a precedent comic ? Either it’s a flashback or just Willis getting back to some characters after following some others, I never clearly remember what happened before…
    Is there a way to find easily which was the comic referenced in a flash back, or when was the last time we’ve seen a character ?

    1. ailorn

      Just click Joyce’s name below the comic and review the history. Wilis very awesomely references every character for each strip they’re in to help with this.

      1. ailorn

        Edit to add you could click Ryan’s name since he’s the perp being referenced

  84. nooB

    So, I went back to that and found that Amazigirl spent all night looking for that guy.

  85. The Funkalicious Cale Andrew Baird

    Shit, either they don’t tell and she’ll have psychologically disturbed dick-drawing habits or they do tell and she leaves.

    …DAMN YOU WWWWWWWWWIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  86. Wolfie

    it’s about damn time this was brought up again.

  87. Sir Robin

    “Well … my work is done”

    *throws down smoke pellet*

    1. Sir Robin

      “For great justice!!!”

  88. vmgx

    Mqn I really belived she was over what happened. I guess it is less time for them than for us, and it is a big enough deal that it wouldn’t be that easy for her to forget. Poor Joice, she needs a hug. Also now Amazi girl, its your job to catch that guy(After a few strips of Joyce guilting you of course)

    1. Kerry

      as someone who’s had to deal with street harassment, you don’t just get over that shit
      I remember every single instance very clearly, because it was fucking terrifying
      the stuff I’ve gone through is nothing compared to what joyce has, but it’s had a huge effect on me nevertheless
      (only as a girl, mind you – I never get harassed as a guy)

      1. apostateCourier

        Being trans sucks. The way people treat us is even worse.

        1. Kerry

          it’s less that being trans sucks, and more that the way cis people have structured the world to benefit at our expense sucks
          speaking of, I hope we get to see more of carla
          I want to see her destroying transmisogyny

  89. boomwolf

    Well, i think its safe to say the fan has been sufficiently hit by now.

  90. Alexis

    Oh shit everyone get on the bus because it’s time for a
    -HONK HONK-
    GUUUUILT TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP

    1. Jen Aside

      watch out for all that baggage

  91. Farmer_10

    This was a storyline about dongs on whiteboards and now we’re here. What the fuck, Willis?

  92. sandbridgekid

    There’s is why we call him “Damn YOU Willis”…

    1. David

      No no, it is “David Willis is a jerkface”. I have it from authority.

      1. neeks

        I think I started reading shortpacked because that’s what the link from qc is titled and I expected a comic about a guy being a jerkface.

        1. AgentKeen

          To be fair, a lot of his characters can be jerkfaces.

  93. Slinx

    : (

  94. NeutroBlaster96

    I always forget about the fact that this strip’s timeframe is much shorter than real life. That only happened a few days ago for Joyce, but for us it’s been years.

    1. Darkflame

      This is actually pretty like Marvel time, but you dont notice it because they constantly realign the current day to “the present”.
      Still, the whole of Marvels comic history supposedly happened from 12 years ago to the present. (whenever the present happens to be)

      If superhero comics were like the more realistic portrayals in DOA they would all have had major burnout + full mental breakdowns a long time ago.

      Comics!

  95. The Weirdo

    GodDAMMIT WILLIS
    PEOPLE WERE HAPPY IN THE COMIC
    THINGS WERE GOING WELL
    NOW WE ALL GON GET CRAY CRAY AGAIN

    DAAAAAAAAAAMN YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU WIIIIIIIIILLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSS!

  96. Jenny

    I’m glad this plot line is back. Joyce is a victim of sexual assault and this kind of stuff doesn’t just “go away” for people. She’s been bottling up her feelings and doesn’t have the mental tools to deal with this stress on her own. She’s been wronged at a fundamental level, God never punished the man who attacked her. She must feel like she deserved what happened to her if no one bothered to punish that guy.

  97. Arkadi

    The drama hits again Ó_Ò

  98. Hannah

    As a survivor myself, this comic was a knife to the gut. I mean I’m glad that you’re going back to this because there is NO way that Joyce was going to just be “okay”, ESPECIALLY someone like Joyce, and the subject needed to be dealt with in more depth, but dang man… Deep emotional turmoil revealing itself through seemingly unrelated physical actions hits a little too close to home for me personally. But again though, overall I am glad this has come up again, for reasons.

    I feel for Joyce, and everyone else who’s had to go through that kind of thing. I really do.

    1. The_Bionic_Doctor

      +1 and all the feels for you, I also feel for Joyce and all the anonymous survivors out there. It IS good that for once sexual assault is treated this way: it is not a trope that affects a disposable character just to characterize someone as “the bad GUY”, and it does not necessarily mean that the victim is “broken forever” and has no hope of leading a happy life ever again… and still, lots of situations are hidden minefields, where PTSD-like memories and emotions can creep up unannounced.

    2. JWLM

      I haven’t been able to read most of the sequence of strips leading up to the AmaziGirl shows up strips — they’re so similar to my own assault that they trigger flashbacks.

      That said, I’ve lived a happy and productive life since then. The assault is a part of my life, and it changed me — but it didn’t kill me, it didn’t destroy me, and it didn’t break me.

      And if you’ve been raped or assaulted, then it doesn’t have to break you, either. Help is available, you didn’t do it, it wasn’t your fault. Call your local sexual assault hotline. A lot of the folks you’d talk to there have been through it themselves; they’ll understand. You aren’t alone.

  99. Dani Kelley

    I’m really, really glad this came back around. I think about Joyce (and that night) a lot, usually when I think about my college assault. I’m really glad that you tell the stories you choose to tell.

  100. Deanatay

    AHA! I have you now, Whiteboard Ding-dong Bandit! There’s no way for you to escape JUSTICE!

    …Oh. Bringing up my greatest failure.

    Yeah. That… that might work.

  101. ShadowDJ

    There is always that ONE Case that haunts a super hero…always that one mistake that will haunt them for their days…

    And after the whole debacle with her father, I think she may have forgotten. BUT knowing Amber and seeing how upset joyce is, I think she may forget about that for now and promise her that she’ll find Ryan.

  102. Maycroft

    OUCH!

  103. hof1991

    Turns out that AG isn’t immune to ALL criticism. Joyce is her kryptonite. After Danny, does she have any powers left?

  104. Lulu

    Will Amazing Girl get her own version of Robin sidekick as Batman had?

  105. Bagge

    But, but, but being a superhero was supposed to be about me – it wasn’t supposed to have consequences for other people I now have to deal with.

    AMBER is the weak one that make mistakes. AMAZIGIRL is supposed to be immune to criticism.

  106. Robert

    Ryan is the real ding dong bandit. And quite possibly the real slim shady.

  107. Regalli

    For Joyce, the night Amazi-Girl graced that party with her presence was the most traumatic night of her life. But for Amazi-Girl… it was a Friday night. A busy one at that.

  108. Sam

    Guilt trap..sprung!

    1. Voiddragon13

      It’s super effective…..and now no one can feel happy.

  109. Julia

    I now realize Joyce has a point here… I mean, Amazi-girl spent quite some time tracking a stupid prankster and no time at all tracking a sex offender… priorities much?

    1. Kerry

      she spent an entire night, actually, but she didn’t follow up on it at all after that point

    2. Cypherfox

      Amazi-girl spent part of one day tracking down a ‘stupid prankster’ and apparently ALL NIGHT hunting a sex offender. Joyce doesn’t know that, but omniscient reader does. That the prankster-tracking took a few dozen strips and the all-night search only one doesn’t mean that prankster-tracking took longer, in-universe-time.

  110. Razzmatazz MacKenzie

    Not bad. Actual character depth and moral ambiguity from Joyce. This just got interesting.

  111. acher4

    Ok, clearly this chapter has the most whipslash feelings ever in everything.

  112. Alexx

    Oh. OOOH. Uh-oh.

  113. Aaron Bourque

    Well. That’s an uncommon supervillain origin.

  114. 2K

    Oh Oh, Amazing-Girl. You have an unsolved case. You have to restore this black spot.

  115. Aolbain

    Smiling Dorothy is so wonderfully misplaced.

    1. Kerry

      tbh, I can’t help but laugh every time I look at that panel, just because of dorothy’s face

  116. wakeangel2001

    wait, so she still remembers the trauma of the time some guy tried to rape her? Shock and awe! (BTW, it’s hard to get a feel of time compression in this comic, has it been months, weeks, or days?)

    1. RJ

      According to this, it’s been week and a half.

  117. APersonAmI

    Dammit.

    @ The mood whiplash reaction: Yes, this went suddenly from accusations of doodled penises to trauma from attempted rape. Which is about what I feel post traumatic stress disorder is. It means a part of you is broken. That suddenly you are reminded of that horrible thing and whoops, you went from happy to a wreck.

    That’s certainly how I felt. Broken. Like a part of me was lost forever.

    Before I was raped, sex didn’t matter to me, so I didn’t notice it unless explicitly brought up. After, though… I started noticing all that innuendo around me. And it was not pleasant. Right after I had been raped turned out to be a bad time to suddenly notice the obsession with and glorification/demonization of sex all around me.

    Now, many years later, I have to some degree regained the ability to not care about sex, but it’s been a slow process, and I still occasionally regress to a complete angst-ridden wreck.

  118. Tealjoy Berry

    Things got real intense real quickly

    1. Keroshino

      Well, brace for impact…because tomorrow’s stip is apparently worse!!!

  119. Matt

    Low blow joyce. really low

  120. jose231ful

    Am I the only one who had to sit there for a minute to remember this scene xD

  121. Tenn

    Ouch, gut punch! 🙁

  122. Em

    Well shit. This is going to lead her to hunting that guy down, isn’t it? I can feel it.

  123. Adork

    This makes me wonder a bit. Is this Joyce (and partly Sarah) just placing blame out of frustration because Amazi-girl is the only one she feels that she can blame? I get that Amazi-girl is suppose to embody a sense of justice about the campus but she has no real authority. But often times I’ve seen that when something bad happens to someone they place the fault on just about anyone involved. It makes me wonder if Joyce has mentally thought: “If I hadn’t followed Dorothy and Billie to that party. If Dorothy didn’t have to have that interview with Roz. If Roz didn’t go and post a premarital hanky panky tape.” And so-on.

    When AG showed up at the party following the beatdown of the guy it looks as if he was already slinking away when everyone was distracted first with Joyce then Amazi-girl’s appearance. She didn’t get a look at the guy but spent the night looking for him, probably assumed that Joyce had filed a police report or possibly just forgot. Either way I foresee a huge guilt trip.

    But do Joyce regret not having reported Ryan or is it just that helplessness after hearing that no matter what it seems as if the guy would get away and trying to pretend as if it never happened.

    1. Matt

      I could be wrong but I think its just a lot of pent up feeling from the party incident. as well as some misplaced frustration that AG was able to detective work her little incident but was unable to figure out Ryan.

      1. Jen Aside

        To be fair, even Joyce had to realize it wasn’t like she’d go to JAIL or anything just from defacing some whiteboards (unless campus security is particularly horrible, but who’d bother to ACTUALLY call police on such a minor prank who isn’t Maey?). Ryan knew he’d basically be dead if he didn’t GTFO.

        It’s harder to catch someone who has more to lose from being caught.

        1. Jen Aside

          –who isn’t MARY–

          sheesh, only typoing the ONE WORD in that that wouldn’t be clear from context |=I

  124. Idon'tcarenomore

    I don’t think it was AG’s fault. The guy was slinking away at that time. And Amazi-girl went to the logical place to go, to the circle of people surrounding Joyce.
    I am going to go reread that section, but I think that Sarah tried to get her to file the report, and Joyce wouldn’t do it.

    1. Johnny Z

      That’s right. Her family is protective and she thought they’d pull her out if they heard about it (which if she filed a report would be likely). So Joyce told her not to.

    2. Jen Aside

      It was Sal who said don’t go to cops with no evidence, then Dorothy saying, yeah, campus harassment is basically not thought of as a big deal = “WHATEVER can I just try to forget it happened”

      1. Johnny Z

        The comic’s right there, Joyce is the one who said not to do anything about it.
        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/hospital/

        1. Jen Aside

          Yes, she said NO HOSPITAL but did not explicitly say also NO POLICE until everyone else basically talked her out of it. Police != contact parents, necessarily.

        2. Kiwi Song

          This is the strip Jen is referring to.
          Sarah was going to file a police report, but Sal convinced them otherwise.
          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/assault/

  125. Soozi

    Man, the amount of feels is just overwhelming.

    i think about how hard it must be for Joyce. She believes everyone she ever loved will see her lusts and sins. Then they will see her cut that guy in the face with glass. Wrath is a sin. They will see her lie (another sin) about it happening. And poor Joyce, must be feeling like it’s her fault, because God (using her previous justifications about God) sent him to do that to her. To scare her like that.

    Then she’s around Ethan, whom she obviously has the hots for, and is fighting temptation to do it with, but then she’s rooming with Sarah. I’m not blaming Sarah one bit, but Sarah is super open about her sexuality. About being sex positive and enjoying dongs. Then her best friend there is having pre-martial hanky-panky and she wants to know but is scared to know.

    Poor Joyce.

  126. Lume

    DAMN YOU WILLIS T_T

  127. Sambo

    WELL THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY

  128. hof1991

    What a game of fifth dimensional chess by Mike. He sets all this in motion, bringing AG out of her recently achieved bliss. Will they both get the counseling they need? Will they finally get some help?

    1. Jen Aside

      Next, you’ll be saying MIKE invited Ryan to the party…

      …

      …NO D=

      1. Itama

        thats my new theory!
        mike totally invited ryan to the party!

  129. Ed Rhodes

    I hate to look stupid, but can someone give me a link to where in the series this happens so I can re read it?

    1. Ed Rhodes

      Never mind. I clicked on Ryan’s name in the list and followed the timeline.

    2. Kerry

      here

  130. Dragon

    It’s probably because as long as she’s just Batmanning it up on campus, it’s a school matter, but if he doesn’t go to that college or is homeschooled, she’d have to go to his house and beat him up, and then the police would get involved. They might be a bit too much for even Amazi-girl to handle.

  131. Lonas

    The traumatic Danning it up levels are pretty high here.

  132. tbo

    Three years ago in real time. No wonder I had no idea what this was.

  133. Daniel

    DAMN IT WILLIS WHY. I wasnt ready for feels

  134. Onion

    She seriously forgot about that?

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