110

Softy

110 thoughts on “Softy

  1. These two have never been more JD and Turk than they are right now. They’re often a little JD and Turk, but now they’re like 100%.

    1. ♫Guy love, between two guys…♫

  2. Increasingly (shockingly) common Danny W

    1. He’s paid his dues in losing. He deserves at least a few years to be cool.

    2. “… okay it’s Joyce”
      “CONSEQUENCES”

  3. the juxtaposition of Danny’s big smile with Joe’s cranky little frown in the last panel I’d absolutely sending me

    1. * is absolutely sending me. sigh

    2. Sending you … where, exactly?

  4. D’awwwwwwwe this one makes my heart feel happy

  5. Oh yeah he’s got it bad for her.

    1. Joe grovels at the foot of her pedestal, hoping the Goddess will look down and notice him.

  6. ϞϞ(๑⚈ ․̫ ⚈๑)∩ ???

    Pokemon Day!!! Pokemon Day!!!
    Today today is Pokemon Day!!!
    How will you all celebrate!?!?
    27 years of Pokemon YAY!!!

    *plays “Pokemon Theatrical Theme” on hacked muzak*

  7. let’s be real: danny deserves this moment completely. in every true friendship there must be some amount of shit talking, and dan has weathered far more than his fair share during the course of the comic. let it happen, joe. ya boy has earned this.

  8. I like Joe’s shirt.

    1. I can’t, however, figure out if Danny is wearing only a long sleeve shirt with a light blue section bisecting the navy blue part OR if he is wearing both a long sleeve shirt and an undershirt that is the exact same dark navy as the lower part of the long sleeve shirt. This has been bothering me.

      1. You have left out the secret third option: he’s wearing one of those extremely cropped shirts that’s cut above the chest, for whatever reason

      2. Only a long sleeve shirt.

      3. isn’t it just a variation of a ‘baseball shirt’?

      4. It’s an undershirt of similar but not matching color. The bit above the neckband is #262c38, while the main color of the torso of Danny’s shirt is #3d4554, which is a much bluer shade. Even the shadow seen across his shirt today (#362f3b) doesn’t match the color above the lighter blue neckband. And yes, the palette for his outfit is very consistent across strips.

        1. Wow, you put a lot of work into answering this question for me. Thank you so much. I like your bow-tie cat avatar.

        2. It wasn’t much work at all…I just have an eye dropper browser plugin (an essential for front-end work) that saves colors to a palette and shows hex values.

          And my avatar is Sahn from Saphie the One-Eyed Cat, who strongly resembles my late cat Henry in both looks and personality.

      5. It’s a baseball shirt.

        1. Oh I see the undershirt now. My b.

  9. Don’t worry, Joe, there’s nothing wrong with being a machine that produces orgasms, because that means you also wash and dry clothes for a quarter

  10. I could read about Danny and Joe being friends all day long.

    As long as it’s in a good comic, anyway.

  11. Running aside, I think this genuinely does feel good to Danny. Not that Joe is twisting, though that’s fun, but that he said ‘shower me with you insecurities’ and Joe kind of DID. still eternal BFFs!

    1. Yeah, Joe is grumbling a little, in general, but he’s being pretty sincere about this all.

  12. Ahhh, learning emotional vulnerability. It sucks, you’re gonna hate it, and it’s gonna be annoyingly helpful.

  13. so he shows up to the door early … this could be an interesting discovery …

    1. well i assume the door wouldn’t be unlocked but by the time he gets there i imagine joyce willl be hopefully calm versus even more flustered, as entertaining as that’d be

  14. Ohhhhh…this is sweet.

  15. I would say 5 minutes is okay

    1. depends on how far/soon the class is

      1. For walking someone to class, 5 to 10 minutes is okay. That’s assuming that it’s 5 to 10 minutes before leaving time, not class time. Class may be in the next building or on the other side of campus 30 minutes away. If you’re really unsure and want to know if it’s okay to show up early, there’s this nifty invention called the cell phone.

        That said, it really depends on the girl. Some may start getting antsy if there’s no sign of you 15 minutes before and some will still be getting g ready one minute before and down to the wire.

        1. Yeah I was definitely think before leaving time. I also agree to extending it to 10 min. 15 minutes seems like a lot and that’s coming from someone who is perpetually early.

  16. The mortifying ordeal of being known, whereas in the past, people only tended to “know” Joe in the Biblical sense.

    1. emotional vulnerability is def a good thing in a partner as long as they don’t use their insecurities to manipualte others.

  17. Answer the question though, Danny.

    1. WHY WONT YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION DANNY

  18. I fuckin’ love these two

  19. SO CUTE MORE JOE DANNY HUGS PLZ

    1. Tomorrow: joe and danny having a hug for four panels straight
      Comment section: AKGHFJSDKHGGGGHJGJXZ

      1. (three distressed commenters: is danny just gonna ignore joe’s question then??? What is going on?!? ?)

  20. lol well if anything, it’d be great to go asap to not risk being late

  21. Responding to the alt text: as far as material published on the internet goes, yes.

  22. I think if Joe punched Danny on the shoulder he’s end up in the hospital.

  23. This is sweet, but maybe Danny could actually answer the question too.

    1. Why danny won’t answer joe’s question may remain forever a tantalizing and ominous mystery

  24. I mean, I get that we’re getting in digs at Joe’s social and emotional hangups, but no unsolicited hugging of someone who clearly doesn’t want it Danny.

    1. I think they’re close enough friends that he gets a pass on that.

      1. Nnnno. No one’s close enough friends for that. Nobody should be subjected to such an awful, horrifically uncomfortable expression of affection, unless they asked for it.

  25. Dumbing of Age Book 13: Shower Me With Your Insecurities!

    1. Well damn you’re right ☺️

      You celebrating Pokémon Day this year Regalli?

  26. Just answer the question Dan… Hahaha this is precious tho

  27. I’d say 5-10 mins early is ideal. It shows you’re a responsible person who’s on time but is also wise enough to give some extra leeway in case of unexpected delays. 15 is acceptable only if you were going to do something beforehand that finished earlier than expected (and then you should be prepared to wait for another 5-10 mins for them to be ready.) Anything earlier than that is starting to be too early.

    1. What is this… “early” of which you speak?

  28. Let’s take off Joe and Joyce aside for a moment and focus on his friendship with Danny.

    Joe never have talked about feelings with his best friend. He’s always a stupid jock. I remember this strip in particular.
    But, even unfair to him, Danny has kept together to Joe. And, without big moment, each day after, Danny has grown as a human and a partner.

    Today, it’s the great day: Joe has finally conceded the victory to Danny, that’s passing advices and giving hugs to him.

    Today’s a great strip. To remember to be better to my friends. To always reach out those I don’t have sexual thoughts, but that I must have intimacy.
    To give hug to a boy like me, that’s angry or depressed. To try to save some man to the very know abyss of hate that treat our generation.

    Today is a good day, Danny won the crown.

  29. it’s not like it’s only gonna be the 2 of yous, anyway

  30. wow joes becoming human being

  31. Danny and Joe hugging!
    It’s a Walkyverse miracle!
    😛 😀 awwww

  32. Danny’s being really toxic right now, encouraging Joe to be emotionally available like this. He’s gone too far.

    1. Yeah. Joe doesn’t owe him the disclosure of his insecurities. It’s like Danny thinks he’s entitled to Joe’s vulnerability. Learn some boundaries, Danny! Joe is explicitly stating he wants you to stop! Very disturbing interaction between these two human persons.

  33. Bruh, you gotta hug your bros sometimes

  34. I love these two adorable dorks.

  35. This is sweet but also Danny is kinda centring himself in Joe’s sincere request for help so maybe Danny you should keep these thoughts to yourself and just answer your buddy’s questions.

    1. Agreed. He’s not doing this part particularly well.

      1. He’s doing fine?? It’s a conversation between BFFs, not therapy. He’s not a rotating desk fan.

        1. Agreed.

  36. Joe has skipped the chapter on “dipping he pigtails into the inkwell”! Good, as that was never cool, and became “archaic” decades ago.

    Jumping ahead to “walk her to class”? Intriguing.

  37. It’s the Midwest the answer is it’s never too early. Although [obligatory negative aspersions on Indiana from midwesterner from another state].

  38. Awwwww… I’m a sucker for a redemption arc, and Joe’s has been long and convincing. Made more realistic by the people who aren’t having it.

    Also good job Danny

    1. You gotta remember it’s been years for us but only a few weeks in comic time. It has been January for them since (checks notes) 2020 for us.

  39. I really really like this scene between these two boys. Yeah Joe is hiding that it’s Joyce but that’s fine, I hid the true identity of plenty of my crushes out of similar insecurities. Just a nice sweet little moment between friends.

    1. danny doesn’t rly have a connection with joyce other than telling her “i have a hat now” and that awkward chat at halloween (tho he might be jealous he couldn’t get him to open up as quickly [“with you it only took two weeks” or so] but i can imagine not saying anything til there’s more of a step, though i imagine he’d be cool with it in the long run since Sal doesn’t have an issue with Joyce

  40. It’s awkward when you realize that the entire comic is Joyce overcoming her relationship/intimate hangups with a bunch of filler characters.

    Except Joe. Joe is the best.

    1. No, no. The entire comic has been about Dorothy coming to terms the reality of her ambitions and Carla demonstrating her awesomeness.

      Also Mike died.

  41. I think it’s a positive sign that instead of deflecting with something about sex, he asks a practical question about how to be a good boyfriend.

  42. I want to say you have drawn Joe hugging Danny some time in the early versre(s). Because he was overcome with emotion at something ill- something like they had to go to strip joint of school/work (I mean, I never saw that, but something like that).

    1. A strip joint of schoolwork?

      1. A strip joint of schoolwork.

        1. I’m not seeing any links.

        2. The link only shows itself to the pure. Renounce your fearful quest for meaning, loosen your sickly grip on logic, only then may you perceive the Link.

        3. No no. Just something I am pretty sure I saw from the whole prior verse(s) rerun starting with Roomies (and the rerun was when I first saw it, since I only started reading toward the end of Shortpacked! some time before DoA started). I am not willing to take the time to look back to find it. I just remember Joe hugging Dan from something that was worth being emotional by his standards

  43. alt text made me sad 🙁 comic made me glad 🙂

  44. I sympathize with Joe here.

  45. joooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooe

    this is so cute i love it

  46. This is where Danny leans in and whispers in Joe’s ear: “You know, men have nipples, too.”

  47. awww, joe !! youre becoming a real boy !!!

    1. WAIT A MINUTE
      was pinocchio’s nose, which lengthens when he’s being dishonest, always an indictment of the eroticization of insincerity inherent in heteronormative seduction scripts???

      Well, it is now

      1. Now see, I always assumed it was the symbolic eroticization of noses.

        1. Of wooden noses though. Nudge wink!

  48. d’awwwww (never has my gravatar been less accurate)

    1. Considering it’s of a young American black woman, and you are an old communist, that’s probably saying something!

      1. Haha silly Council, you got your decades mixed up! We’re in the 2020’s, not the 1950’s! Americans are allowed to be communists now.

        1. Very much true! Speaking as a Marxist Pokemon-loving alien parasite here! ?

  49. Aww the hug. Awwww. C’mon. My heart. ♥♥♥♥ These boys are good boys.

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