Move-in day was August 29th, and today is October 14th. DoA follows 2010’s calendar for its days of the week, but DoA isn’t a period piece so it’s always “this year” relative to the real world.
If you started reading in June 2012, you started with “Time Keeps On Slippin'”, which was Friday September 10 (and apropos to the discussion at hand).
To put this into further, even more convoluted perspective, there have been a total of thirty seven days covered in the series. Several days are missing. It’s essentially only been a month and a half. Dorothy and Walky got together on September 5th (first kiss). Dorothy told Walky she loved him September 23rd. They broke up on October 11th. Walky and Amber got together October 13th.
Basically a lot happens in a very short span of time!
Guest42
I started reading a long time ago when the series was called âRoomies.â When I was in jr High and it had a crossover Halloween comic with slight freelance. Then it was called âIts Walkyâ (wiigii, a typo of woohoo from the transformers worldâs worst site and Dalnet irc Days) then âshortpackedâ around the time I was in college.
Now Iâm way older and itâs called âdumbing of ageâ and I feel ashamed of any PSL I felt for these characters when I was younger than they are as Iâve gotten older than they are.
Still a fan though. My brother had the old roomies shirt about best friends and orgy supplies.
Norah
âDumbing of Ageâ is a reboot of the characters in the other comics, though. Same characters but different ages and setting.
Y’know, Billie is bossy in a more “let me help you” way, and less in the “let me cross your boundaries however I like” way that Joyce has. Billie wants to give parts of herself away. Joyce wants people do do what’s right, and she’s the arbiter of that.
Not that Billie’s not problematic, too, of course. đ
Norah
Billie has better social skills than Joyce, unless she doesnât care if someone likes her or not. Then she says whatever comes into her head.
Hehe, I wasn’t expecting confirmation one way or another quite this fast, so I was pleasantly surprised! I’m glad Sal and Joyce didn’t leave it hanging.
This is almost as good as seeing Amber kiss Walky and think âwow, imagine if Sal showed upâ and she literally was in the next strip
DailyBrad
There’s a few times this has happened. I’ve got to give it to Willis, he puts out these many strips and he still has plenty of room to surprise us with how fast or slow a breakthrough moment can come, though often, the ones that come quick are payoffs to something that already had been built towards.
Like, the Sal/Amber fight going so quickly into them making up and joining the roller derby SEEMS quick, but it’s more a payoff to Sal vs Marcie, which was a slow burn, plus obviously ages of Amber and Sal cat and mouse games prior to the fight.
I think Sal walked into the bathroom, and the light wasn’t on in there. (That’s the literal reason, of course. In terms of presentation it’s good way to juxtapose the two characters.)
It’s a common thing, building a shell to keep people out, whether she did it on purpose or not. It can be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of thing, hating being misunderstood, but also not wanting to put yourself out there. It’s a shitty situation to find yourself in.
This is what I got out of it- she hates being misunderstood but directly refuses to answer questions about herself. I believe she even mentioned that she assumes people will try to make a project out of helping her, then give up sooner or later…
Amber said something similar, so there’s something else they have in common with each other.
I think she might’ve cultivated it defensively. It hurts less if you set people up to have low expectations of you and then you exceed them than if their expectations are high and you fall short.
What image is it she’s cultivated that she’s now rejecting? If you mean being rebellious and a biker, that’s not an image. Sal is both of those things. If you mean the constant glove wearing, there is a medical (and psychological) reason for that (and neither of those is the be all end all of what Sal’s problem is). That’s not an image thing.
I think the “aloof biker rebel” image isn’t entirely an act, but she’s used it as a defense mechanism to for so long that it’s become a tough habit to break.
Sal wants to make more friends, but she’s been burned so much that she’s afraid to let her guard down long enough to let anyone in (besides Marcie and maybe Danny).
Sam
It isn’t an act at all though. She doesn’t really want to be friends with people that suck-up to her/project on to her. She has remained politely nice with Joyce regardless but it has been Joyce’s own projections onto her that have kept Joyce at arm’s length. Her aloofness is often because she is being polite kind to people that she doesn’t want to offend but doesn’t really want to be that close to either.
She is friends with Marcie and Danny because neither of them project onto her. They don’t act like they *know* Sal better than Sal does. This is also why she cannot stand Malaya who projects her own imagining of Sal onto her all the damn time. And she hasn’t said she really wants more friends – Marcie said she should get more, but Sal herself often avoids opportunities to because too many people have tried to turn her into a ‘project’ to fix – part of it is defensive like when she avoided dinner with Dorothy and Walky.
Having to correct someone else’s image of you, and make them stop projecting, and getting them to see the real you, can take a lot of time and effort when you’re someone like Sal where you look cool so people are likely to assume a ton of things though. And Sal clearly doesn’t think it is worth it to do that for every person she meets. And it is fair for her to think so – she doesn’t really ‘owe’ anyone the emotional labour of doing that.
She hates being misunderstood genuinely, but she also doesn’t owe anyone the emotional labour of correcting people over every little thing when they are responsible for keeping their assumptions to themselves. So the problem isn’t really that it is a defense mechanism or that she is afraid of letting people know of her softer sides, it is that she has to try to get people past their initial assumptions, putting in effort on her own part, when they may just turn around and try to ‘fix’ her or ‘change’ her and she has found that to be a fruitless endeavor before. Finding the motivation to keep *trying* is hard for her, especially when almost no one really asks her anything about herself that isn’t potentially painful.
BBCC
Yeah, the two people Sal’s called her friends on screen are both people who let Sal be Sal. Marcie’s known her since they were tiny and was there for all the rough stuff, and Danny is really good at being supportive and not voicing much, if any, of the things he speculates about her.
I think that’s precisely the point and why she’s getting teary-eyed? She built her personality, she made it a brand and enjoyed being recognised by it, as it gave her validation she was not obtaining in any other way… but it eventually became a prison.
The letter F will appear in a word balloon 10 years from now. The U will appear a week later. The C and the K, being part of the same sound, will appear a couple days apart about a week after that.
184 thoughts on “Stings”
Doctor_Who
“I mean, I know it’s only been a few weeks, but it feels like years.”
ProfessorDetective
‘If not nearly a decade.’
Alan
I’m always so thrown off by the time scale on webcomics and such. It gets confusing sometimes đ
bodmans
I know I started reading this 6 years ago, but howmuch time has actually passed… Is someone keeping score?
Doctor_Who
I believe it’s currently October in the webcomic.
Bluesnake462
I know the comic as a whole has been going for about 8 or 9years now.
Reltzik
They moved into the dorms late august, currently mid-October.
Needfuldoer
Move-in day was August 29th, and today is October 14th. DoA follows 2010’s calendar for its days of the week, but DoA isn’t a period piece so it’s always “this year” relative to the real world.
If you started reading in June 2012, you started with “Time Keeps On Slippin'”, which was Friday September 10 (and apropos to the discussion at hand).
Source: http://walkypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Dumbing_of_Age_Timeline
Sazazezer
To put this into further, even more convoluted perspective, there have been a total of thirty seven days covered in the series. Several days are missing. It’s essentially only been a month and a half. Dorothy and Walky got together on September 5th (first kiss). Dorothy told Walky she loved him September 23rd. They broke up on October 11th. Walky and Amber got together October 13th.
Basically a lot happens in a very short span of time!
Guest42
I started reading a long time ago when the series was called âRoomies.â When I was in jr High and it had a crossover Halloween comic with slight freelance. Then it was called âIts Walkyâ (wiigii, a typo of woohoo from the transformers worldâs worst site and Dalnet irc Days) then âshortpackedâ around the time I was in college.
Now Iâm way older and itâs called âdumbing of ageâ and I feel ashamed of any PSL I felt for these characters when I was younger than they are as Iâve gotten older than they are.
Still a fan though. My brother had the old roomies shirt about best friends and orgy supplies.
Norah
âDumbing of Ageâ is a reboot of the characters in the other comics, though. Same characters but different ages and setting.
Roborat
I have given up trying to keep track, I just go with the flow now.
Pacce
Aww puppies…
Lumino
Now kiss…
Doctor_Who
To Becky’s regret, Joyce hasn’t changed that much.
Proxiehunter
Becky isn’t regretting anything, she has the best and cutest girlfriend in the comic.
Baf
No, Dina does
Opus the Poet
You’re both right.
HeySo
Becky and Dina are secretly the same person with split-personality, what? =O
LeslieBean4Shizzle
Lumino: Ah, man, you beat me to it. I wanted to have the first “now kiss!” post.
Agemegos
Try for something less bossy.
Doctor_Who
One of the people she’s trying to be more like is Billie, so I don’t know if that’s in the cards.
GoblinScribe
Y’know, Billie is bossy in a more “let me help you” way, and less in the “let me cross your boundaries however I like” way that Joyce has. Billie wants to give parts of herself away. Joyce wants people do do what’s right, and she’s the arbiter of that.
Not that Billie’s not problematic, too, of course. đ
Norah
Billie has better social skills than Joyce, unless she doesnât care if someone likes her or not. Then she says whatever comes into her head.
drs
Kudos to a bunch of commenters from last night: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/exhibit/#comment-1374648
AntJ
Whoa, I got a kudo!
Koms
Where do I redeem my kudos
Opus the Poet
At the chocolate bar.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51s-%2BzF75XL.jpg
DailyBrad
Hehe, I wasn’t expecting confirmation one way or another quite this fast, so I was pleasantly surprised! I’m glad Sal and Joyce didn’t leave it hanging.
AntJ
This is almost as good as seeing Amber kiss Walky and think âwow, imagine if Sal showed upâ and she literally was in the next strip
DailyBrad
There’s a few times this has happened. I’ve got to give it to Willis, he puts out these many strips and he still has plenty of room to surprise us with how fast or slow a breakthrough moment can come, though often, the ones that come quick are payoffs to something that already had been built towards.
Like, the Sal/Amber fight going so quickly into them making up and joining the roller derby SEEMS quick, but it’s more a payoff to Sal vs Marcie, which was a slow burn, plus obviously ages of Amber and Sal cat and mouse games prior to the fight.
Stephen Bierce
Take a risk now
And let my love rain down on you
So we can wash away the past so that we can start anew–Ambrosia “You’re The Biggest Part of Me”
Delicious Taffy
Why’d they turn the light off?
Mollyscribbles
Don’t think she turned the light off; she just went to wash her hands without bothering to turn the bathroom light on.
Yumi
Sal went into the half-bath, where presumably the light wasn’t on, and she left the door to her room open and didn’t turn on the bathroom light.
Clif
It’s symbolic. Also effective.
mrj
I think Sal walked into the bathroom, and the light wasn’t on in there. (That’s the literal reason, of course. In terms of presentation it’s good way to juxtapose the two characters.)
Rosicrucian
They didn’t. She just didn’t turn the bathroom light on.
Ivy
Just in case no one told you yet, Sal is in the bathroom now and the bathroom light is off
Needfuldoer
I think Sal left the bathroom light off on purpose, to hide the oncoming breakdown. Darkness and running water hide the pouting.
Washing her hands may also be a psychological coping thing because of the scar.
Iain
I can still definitely relate
ShinyNeen
Relating to the characters is perhaps the most relatable thing in this comic.
(and that’s what I love most about DoA)
Sporkaganza
I’m always here for Big Shiny Sad Eyes Sal. Very cute. Even if it is because she is about to cry.
purblebirb
Aaaaaaaaaand hug it out
MM
Light sympathetic physical contact.
JetstreamGW
I’d sympathize more with Sal’s position if she hadn’t cultivated this image she’s rejecting so deliberately.
DailyBrad
It’s a common thing, building a shell to keep people out, whether she did it on purpose or not. It can be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of thing, hating being misunderstood, but also not wanting to put yourself out there. It’s a shitty situation to find yourself in.
Deathjavu
This is what I got out of it- she hates being misunderstood but directly refuses to answer questions about herself. I believe she even mentioned that she assumes people will try to make a project out of helping her, then give up sooner or later…
Amber said something similar, so there’s something else they have in common with each other.
Mollyscribbles
I think she might’ve cultivated it defensively. It hurts less if you set people up to have low expectations of you and then you exceed them than if their expectations are high and you fall short.
BBCC
What image is it she’s cultivated that she’s now rejecting? If you mean being rebellious and a biker, that’s not an image. Sal is both of those things. If you mean the constant glove wearing, there is a medical (and psychological) reason for that (and neither of those is the be all end all of what Sal’s problem is). That’s not an image thing.
Needfuldoer
I think the “aloof biker rebel” image isn’t entirely an act, but she’s used it as a defense mechanism to for so long that it’s become a tough habit to break.
Sal wants to make more friends, but she’s been burned so much that she’s afraid to let her guard down long enough to let anyone in (besides Marcie and maybe Danny).
Sam
It isn’t an act at all though. She doesn’t really want to be friends with people that suck-up to her/project on to her. She has remained politely nice with Joyce regardless but it has been Joyce’s own projections onto her that have kept Joyce at arm’s length. Her aloofness is often because she is being polite kind to people that she doesn’t want to offend but doesn’t really want to be that close to either.
She is friends with Marcie and Danny because neither of them project onto her. They don’t act like they *know* Sal better than Sal does. This is also why she cannot stand Malaya who projects her own imagining of Sal onto her all the damn time. And she hasn’t said she really wants more friends – Marcie said she should get more, but Sal herself often avoids opportunities to because too many people have tried to turn her into a ‘project’ to fix – part of it is defensive like when she avoided dinner with Dorothy and Walky.
Having to correct someone else’s image of you, and make them stop projecting, and getting them to see the real you, can take a lot of time and effort when you’re someone like Sal where you look cool so people are likely to assume a ton of things though. And Sal clearly doesn’t think it is worth it to do that for every person she meets. And it is fair for her to think so – she doesn’t really ‘owe’ anyone the emotional labour of doing that.
She hates being misunderstood genuinely, but she also doesn’t owe anyone the emotional labour of correcting people over every little thing when they are responsible for keeping their assumptions to themselves. So the problem isn’t really that it is a defense mechanism or that she is afraid of letting people know of her softer sides, it is that she has to try to get people past their initial assumptions, putting in effort on her own part, when they may just turn around and try to ‘fix’ her or ‘change’ her and she has found that to be a fruitless endeavor before. Finding the motivation to keep *trying* is hard for her, especially when almost no one really asks her anything about herself that isn’t potentially painful.
BBCC
Yeah, the two people Sal’s called her friends on screen are both people who let Sal be Sal. Marcie’s known her since they were tiny and was there for all the rough stuff, and Danny is really good at being supportive and not voicing much, if any, of the things he speculates about her.
Pylgrim
I think that’s precisely the point and why she’s getting teary-eyed? She built her personality, she made it a brand and enjoyed being recognised by it, as it gave her validation she was not obtaining in any other way… but it eventually became a prison.
General Tekno
In 20 years, she’s gonna be making money drawing porn of her webcomic loosely based on/inspired by her experiences.
Rabid Rabbit
But we’ll never see it, because we won’t get to it for another 600 years or so.
Mollyscribbles
She’ll be writing Dexter and Monkey Master erotic fanfic by the time the year’s out, I bet.
nlips
OMG nested webcomics. Joyce will write a webcomic/slipshine, within which her alter-ego will write a webcomic…
Of course, it would be several tens of thousands of years in our time for the 3rd iteration of webcomics to progress a single week.
Keulen
In a few trillion years the 4th nested webcomic will get through it’s first week.
Miri
Would this be spelt comiception or comicception?
MatthewTheLucky
Recomicsion.
Comicception is when you implant an idea for a joke in someone’s subconscious.
Deanatay
Willis-ception.
AntJ
Wow. Totally called it yesterday. This is probably my favorite strip since âEscalationâ
(yes that was only a month ago, there are lots of favorite strips okay?!)
Sean Dillon
In ten years time, Joyce will finally say the word “Fuck.”
AntJ
and collects her own red panel
DSL
The letter F will appear in a word balloon 10 years from now. The U will appear a week later. The C and the K, being part of the same sound, will appear a couple days apart about a week after that.
Minotaur
Our time or comic time?
BBCC
I love these two, if only because of moments like this.
I also love the detail of Sal running to wash her hand after Joyce brings up her scar. Nice touch.
You can’t wash it off, Sal.
DailyBrad
Damn, this is a good strip. This is going to go down as one of my favorite Joyce moments, but honestly, one of my favorite Sal ones, too.
AntJ
This is the most personal weâve seen her since crying in the bathroom at Galassoâs with Dorothy.
lilyliv