199

Tension
Posted on March 23, 2021 by David M Willis

199 thoughts on “Tension”

  1. Sirksome

    Maybe Doris is a conservative?

    1. ANeM

      Somehow I think Dorothy might take even more offense to that at this particular moment in the sliding timescale.

    2. BBCC

      That sounds like a good way to get Dorothy to throw the strip in the trash. 😛

      I’m only joking, but I think Julia would probably be the more likely conservative character.

      1. Heavensrun

        But Julia is pure and noble and just. That’s like, the opposite of modern conservatism.

  2. C.T Phipps

    Dorothy that’s three more than Joyce has. So you have 300% higher lust than Joyce!

    1. Dunedon

      300×0=0

      1. Clif

        Joyce has zero lust? The math sounds a little off to me.

        1. Fist_of_Life

          If we ‘re nitpicking the math a little, 300% would be 3x Joyce’s lust level, not 300. As for Joyce’s 0 lust, that isn’t a math issue, its a setup issue. If you want Joyce to have non-zero lust, then you can’t count lust based on the number of partners one has had… um… thanks for coming to my TED talk?

        2. Delavan

          This is the math I come here for.

        3. J

          TEDxxx

        4. Leadsynth

          You definitely can’t count lust based on number of partners. For example, ecky clearly has over 9000% lust and has 0 partners.

        5. Leadsynth

          *Becky.

        6. Needfuldoer

          That’s the problem with self-reported data.

        7. Deanatay

          Misplaced confidence in the source of one’s data is the source of SO MANY PROBLEMS, which one do you mean

    2. aelfwine

      That’s not how math works!

      1. Thag Simmons

        Wait what? Really?

        Guess I’ve been doing it wrong

    3. C.T Phipps

      Dorothy has also had sex with her boyfriends MORE THAN ONCE!

      Joyce: GASP!

    4. Bicycle Bill

      That’s three more people than I had slept with by my second semester in college.  So maybe Doris is a tense, frustrated, amoral lust machine and cannot understand how someone like Joyce can be so noble and just … and pure … and still be OK with it.

      1. GreyICE

        If we’ve established one thing in this entire comic, it’s that Joyce is desperately NOT okay with it.

    5. Reltzik

      Infinitely higher. Technically. If lust is measured by the number of people you’ve done carnal things with, as opposed to the strength and frequency of the desire to do carnal things with them. Which is probably not how it should be.

      1. Gabriel A Klonoski

        Depends on how you factor drawing penises on other people’s doors to sleeping with people. Does Doris get 1/100th or 1/1000th of sleeping with someone for that or nothing?

    6. BarerMender

      Three? Danny, Walky, and who else?

      1. ASTAPHE

        I mean we should really figure this out so we can learn who Amber’s next unhealthy relationship will be with.

      2. woobie

        Joe?

      3. Alex

        I thought people would be a lot more interested in this. I want to know who the third person is too.

        1. Hartar Janabay

          So do I. It has got to be before Danny, as she soon after got together with Walky and since then hasn’t screwed around with anyone.

          Atleast it hasn’t showed up in the comic. But why choose to not tell a story about a new relationship?

        2. Leorale

          She could mean Tyler, her first kiss from middle-school?

          (Dorothy doesn’t really strike me as a person who slept with anyone in middleschool, particularly not after that particular kiss, but hey, you never know.)

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/02-guess-whos-coming-to-galassos/tyler/

      4. Marsh Maryrose

        Some guy in high school, I think.

      5. Meagan

        Got me wondering the same thing. Is it someone she had sex with during the break?!

  3. Yotomoe

    https://imgur.com/a/LqZ8o8m (NSFW)
    Someone requested Ruth so I drew her.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Well done, it looks fantastic. If I might ask, I’d love to see your version of Sal or Carla.

      1. Dana

        Asking for Carla feels wrong to me. Carla wouldn’t be cool with it.

        1. Yotomoe

          😛 I’ve drawn a lot of awful lewds of Carla already.

        2. RowenMorland

          Is there an archive of your past stuff or is just like getting a fortune cookie with your meal?

        3. Yotomoe

          Personally I have more fun if I’m just an enigma. I just show up from time to time, drop presents and then I disappear, sometimes for years.

        4. RowenMorland

          Fair enough, though also… awww 🙁

        5. deathjavu

          Yotomoe, the smut fairy, leaves lewd art under the comment section for all the good comic readers. Some people say they’re not real, but I believe.

        6. Plain Marie

          A+

        7. Deanatay

          He’s like the Easter Bunny/Santa Claus of lewds!

        8. Needfuldoer

          I can imagine a Carla Yoto-strip that’s a vertical stack of panels of her seductively goading the viewer to keep scrolling for a treat, culminating in a panel that’s just one of those giant “strippers climb out of them” cakes sitting in an empty void.

          Then a beat panel of said cake.

          Then in the last panel, a giant cartoon glove hand on a mechanical arm pops out of the cake, flipping the viewer off.

          Then whitespace, then the same shot of the cake flipping you off but with Carla also in frame, gleefully flipping the viewer off with both hands. “It’s durian covered in fondant!” (The worst cake.)

          Hey I can’t draw worth a damn, but at least I can sort of write…

        9. Regalli

          Scripting is a skill in its own right! And yeah, that would be the kind of thing I could see from a ‘sexy’ Carla comic.

      2. a/snow/mous/e

        ooh, how about amber?

        1. Yotomoe

          Maaaaaybe!

      3. BarerMender

        Better yet, Amber.

    2. He Who Abides

      Do you draw bondage stuff, or just nudity? Because I might have a request if you do.

    3. Delicious Taffy

      Hell yeah, Ruth! Thanks Yoto. I appreciate the freckles especially.

    4. Gizen

      …is it weird to post something like that in the comments of the comic itself? It feels like it is but I also only check the comments every 5 strips or so, so I haven’t a clue what goes on on an average day here.

      It does look really great though. I may be biased however, since it also hits on multiple different buttons of mine.

      1. StClair

        The creator of the comic has ads up for their Slipshine to either side of the comments, so…

        1. Gizen

          I guess. I don’t know, it’s less to do with it being nsfw I guess and more that it’s just that I grew up on comics that would have their own associated message boards, or nowadays reddit communities, where things like that would have a dedicated fan works section to be posted in (something which Willis’s comics have never had as far as I’m aware), so the idea of it just going directly into the comments section of an unrelated individual day’s strip feels weird.

        2. Yotomoe

          😛 Fair enough. I’ve just always posted in comment sections. I don’t use reddit or nuthin’ so I just figure I’d drop ’em where the fans would see it.

        3. Thag Simmons

          Well it kinda is weird

        4. Mravac Kid

          You’d be *very* wrong. 🙂

        5. Daibhid C

          I know what you mean — my first experiene of fan communities was alt.fan.pratchett, which had a definite unofficial policy of “You don’t link to the fanworks in front of Terry”.

        6. BrassyDel

          Willis’ previous works DID have a message board/forum, and an IRC chat, and even a fanart gallery hosted by a non-artist fan. He gave a bunch of fanartists their own gallery to upload to on said fanart gallery. I made so many friends in the online community for It’s Walky!, the strip he was running at the time. I really miss the forums because with blog comments I never know if someone has replied to me. I suppose Reddit is the current iteration of forum-like communities, but I don’t think there’s a subreddit for Willis’ works?

    5. Varangian

      Dang, that’s a nice Ruth, well done. Freckle game is strong.

    6. Mravac Kid

      Does this mean we’re bringing the PSL fanarts back? 🙂

      1. Yotomoe

        PSL :P?

        1. NickG

          Perverse Sexual Lust.

        2. Geneseepaws

          Pumpkin-spice-latte

        3. Deanatay

          Same thing, really.

    7. Keulen

      Very nice.

    8. brumagem

      I was gonna tell this entire thread to BONK go to horny jail, but I realized the tables would be completely turned if it was Ethan or Joe.

  4. Octopus Ink

    They could argue over who has the coolest-looking glasses, but the worst prescription?

    1. deathjavu

      But Julia doesn’t have glasses, she couldn’t be a pilot otherwise! …..That Talky just ruins everything, Julia hates him. How did he end up with someone as awesome as Doris?

  5. Yotomoe

    When’s Joyce gonna release the Doris Slipshine?

    1. deathjavu

      It’s definitely not currently in her computers recycling bin. Definitely. Not.

      1. RassilonTDavros

        We all know that Willis is really just doing this arc to re-learn their old art style in time for the 25th Anniversary Roomies! Slipshine next year.

    2. Yotomoe

      https://imgur.com/a/XYPdFbN
      Ok I did it.

      1. Tawnee

        That amused me, good job.

      2. RacingTurtle

        *snrk*

      3. Varangian

        Amazing. Belongs in the Louvre.

      4. Delicious Taffy

        Love it.

      5. StClair

        *claps* Very nice.

      6. Nayann Martinelli

        *monocle pops* Astonishing!

      7. Opus the Poet

        I like that you signed it with Joyce’s name.

      8. Jhon

        Has anyone ever told you you’re awesome?

        1. Yotomoe

          Yes, but I really like hearing it so feel free to keep saying it.

      9. Bagge

        Love it!

      10. ValdVin

        Now I’m at home and can peruse all the NSFWs. I’m astounded by the images, but somehow not surprised.

      11. ValdVin

        Also, here’s an obligatory go-with for the Robin drawing.

  6. aelfwine

    Three people? Danny, Walky & who’s the third one that am I forgetting? Or was the 3rd one during the timeskip (I think it’s been established that Danny & Dorothy were each others firsts)?

    1. TheStranger

      Walky = Nightguy. Counts as two?

      1. Liquid Len

        But he wasn’t Nightguy until after Dorothy and he broke up, right?

    2. Regina phalange

      Perhaps time-skip? Normally I’d chalk it up to “like three” =/= “literally exactly three,” but the number’s so small that it seems unlikely it would be inaccurate.

    3. Rabid Rabbit

      When Walky was busy not daring to touch her boobs, she rolled her eyes and promised herself that one day she’d date a non-virgin, which suggests that she’d had similar experiences with more than just Danny, so I’m voting against timeskip.

    4. Thag Simmons

      I think some of her dialogue has implied that Danny wasn’t her first.

    5. Regalli

      I rhink it was implied she and Danny were each other’s first sexual partners, but not necessarily established. But that was years ago and I’m only awake because of insomnia, so I could be wrong. Could be she had an actual fling over the timeskip before realizing that yeah, no, this was not what she wants. Could be a pre-Danny boyfriend. Could be in either case she and the partner fooled around but didn’t cross Dorothy’s personal Sex Threshold, thus ‘like three’ people rather than a definite. (Joyce, after all, would probably consider heavy makeouts and petting dangerously close to premarital hanky panky even if there was nothing direct.)

      Could be she secretly hooked up with Jacob at the Halloween party. Who knows.

      1. He Who Abides

        I distinctly remember Joe expressing disbelief that Danny was the one who took her virginity, so I’m leaning towards time-skip nookie.

        1. drs

          With Joe!

        2. BBCC

          Actually, he said Dorothy took Danny’s virginity, not the other way around…

    6. Drakkin the Alien

      uhmm… she told Joyce about this boy, and how she emptied her sinuses on his mouth and how that was paying forward (for some shallowing of fluids afterwards?)…

      1. RacingTurtle

        That boy was her first real kiss. It’s not impossible they dated long enough that he was also her first sexual experience, but she hasn’t said that was the case

    7. Norah

      Dorothy once mentioned that she was the experienced one in her relationships with Danny and Walky. I think she had a boyfriend before Danny.

    8. BBCC

      Well, we know she and Danny dated for three years prior to university, so when they were around 15ish or 16ish (since there’s this weird thing where summer and after birthdays go into the year behind them and are older rather than staying in their year and being younger?). Probably wasn’t before that (though it’s possible) and then she had Walky. If I had to guess, I’d say timeskip.

      1. Giguioto

        Most importantly, when Dorothy told Danny that she had slept with Walky, Danny said “It took me two years to get into your pants” which I personally feel like it means two years of dating. At least based on my personal experience, people who already are sexually active take way less time to hook up with a partner. So yeah, I say timeskip.

        1. a/snow/mous/e

          don’t forget that Danny wasn’t sexually active though. he may talk big now but that doesn’t mean he actually was ready to take that step at the time.

        2. thejeff

          But him hesitating doesn’t really fit with “It took me two years to get into your pants”, since that implies he was trying the whole time. Possible he was just talking big, but it doesn’t really seem that way.

        3. Giguioto

          Danny saying it took him two years to get into Dorothy’s pants doesn’t contraditc and Dorothy’s comment about “dating a non-virgin”.

          The first seems to indicate that Dorothy and Danny lost their virginity together. The second implies that all the people she dated were virgins. Both fit in the narrative that Dorothy didn’t hook up with anyone before Danny, but we could be wrong

        4. Anon A Mouse

          I may be overthinking this but Danny being… well, Danny, that line might just mean they knew each other for two years before sleeping together, not how long they were actually dating. Not to imply their relationship was purely based on Danny trying to get into her pants the whole time, I’m just thinking of how Danny finds the absolute worst way to phrase something.

  7. Jane

    Look, just because Julia wants to sleep with Doris, that doesn’t make Doris an amoral lust machine. It just means that Julia’s attracted to her; it doesn’t actually imply that Doris is trying to draw that attention.

    …We’re still talking about the Grayverse, right?

    1. StClair

      of course we are

    2. Nayann Martinelli

      Yeah, definitely, no way anyone would work out their insecurities through writing fiction, right?

      1. JepMZ

        Shots fired

    3. Keulen

      Clearly the Grayverse, what else would we be talking about?

      1. Fist_of_Life

        maybe this is flash forward and they are talking about the stupidverse? the reboot to the Grayverse where everyone is in college, but it stays that way.

  8. Hoboturtle

    I was about to ask who the third person was cause I’m pretty sure she took Danny’s virginity and then dated Walky, but then I realized that doesn’t mean that Danny took her virginity.

  9. Stephen Bierce

    *plays David Lee Roth’s “Yankee Rose” on the hacked Muzak*

  10. General Tekno

    Why can’t Doris be a fundamentalist Christian? That makes her more electable anyway.

    1. C.T Phipps

      I imagine Joyce will make everyone atheists in her comic. Sal…err Gal can come back from Atheist Camp.

      Atheists have those, right?

      1. Opus the Poet

        No, but we pagans certainly do, and some of them even encourage “encounters” between campers, to the point of stocking non-latex condoms to prevent disease and more campers next year, and make sure people with latex allergies don’t get rashes in uncomfortable locations or have failures from sunscreen applications to skin that usually doesn’t get much sun (and if you have never had a sunburn there, just keep a supply of hypoallergenic SPF50 on hand for those campouts)

      2. wwwhhattt

        There’s this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/28/atheism-camp-uk-richard-dawkins
        Although I don’t think their current website mentions atheism specifically.

  11. raaabr

    Huh. I’m a hair worried that Joyce might be projecting her own issues onto the Dorothy stand in with regards to the lust stuff, but at least she’s willing to admit that she might not be christian? I’m curious if Dorothy picked that up and just isn’t going to comment on it at present.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Dorothy seems to be a perceptive person, so I’m betting she did. We don’t see Dorothy’s reaction as Joyce says that, since the “camera” is a close-up on Joyce’s face, which I’m betting was deliberate. As for Joyce projecting with regards to lust, I think this may be relevant:

      “The shame I had for my own sexual urges was incredible. I was a prisoner in my own sinful brain. The very concept of taking all those nasty terrible thoughts and shunting them into a separate person who would no longer be me was amazingly seductive. I didn’t think about boobies, it wasn’t me. It was…. …. Joe who was thinking about boobies. Let’s shame Joe for thinking about boobies. What a nasty, nasty man he is who is definitely not a legitimate expression of myself! In a way, drawing comics for me has always been like an exorcism. Just… just write out the bad thoughts. Put them on paper. Expunge them.”

      1. Regalli

        Aaah, yes, there’s a pertinent Walkyverse commentary! Thanks, no way was I gonna be able to dig that one up.

      2. raaabr

        Oof. That’s a mood. Makes sense; this is another part of Joyce that is Autobiographical. It’s really interesting to think about at this point, huh? I hope that Joyce has…a better time of it.

    2. Regalli

      Joyce was willing to tell Dorothy about the crisis of faith at Dina and Sarah’s birthday party. I suspect she’s not sharing a lot of details, but Dorothy and Sarah are both ‘safe’ people for her who she felt comfortable reaching out to for advice. Becky, between her response at the birthday party (which felt dismissive of more than just Joyce’s nihilistic tone but her experiences as a whole) and the doubling down on them as Best Christian Friends Forever, is not right now. (I get why, if it is in fact tied to ‘Becky’s lost every other tether to their childhood community in several very traumatic incidents,’ but it’s still putting her firmly in the ‘not ready for this information if Joyce can avoid it’ category.) Less surprising when Dorothy’s already heard some questioning once before, minimum.

      Also, there’s SO MUCH else to unpack here. I can see Dorothy focusing in on the ‘amoral lust’ aspect out of sheer ‘oh, no, this again.’

      1. raaabr

        Oh, absolutely. There’s a lot to unpack here. I love how Doris-sorry, Dorothy, just gives Joyce such a look of “I thought we were past this already. I had forgotten about the birthday party element, so yeah I can see Joyce being more open to her about this kinda stuff.

    3. C.T Phipps

      Joyce doesn’t feel any guilt about being non-Christian. She just feels like it would impact her relationship with Becky. Booster even states Joyce has been an atheist her entire life but lying to herself.

      1. Regalli

        She is not, however, entirely comfortable admitting she doesn’t believe to herself either yet (much less other people.) ‘I’m not an atheist! I just have serious doubts about God’s existence!’ (To Sarah, post-timeskip.) She only recently realized she doesn’t feel God when she prays and never really has, during the Rich Mullins dream. I wouldn’t call it guilt, but there is deep anxiety and shame about it right now because she feels like she SHOULD believe in God. (Though it is a potential guilt aspect in ‘Becky went through worse and she still believes, my mom’s alive and didn’t actually try and kidnap me, what right do I have to lose faith’ going on there.)

  12. RassilonTDavros

    This is… basically how Joe’s Roomies!-era characterization came about, isn’t it. Minus the whole bit about Joyce/Julia not being Christian, anyway. Gotta love Dorothy’s reaction in the last two panels.

    Also slightly curious who the third person Dorothy’s talking about is.

    1. Blackdrazon

      Confirmed, President Doris is Joe.

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        yeah just ditch Doris and have her be friends with Joe fsr

      2. Cass

        Doris does have dark hair, it all checks out.

      3. Sombrero

        Time for an “Amoral Lust Machine” T-shirt, then.

    2. a/snow/mous/e

      probably some boyfriend she had before Danny

    3. RassilonTDavros

      Another thing I just realized: Dorothy doesn’t say “three guys,” she says “three people.” Not sure if that’s significant or not?

      1. Agemegos

        Dorothy guessed that she was “probably a zero” on the Kinsey scale. If the “people” were significantly different from “guys” she’d probably be more certain.

        1. Agemegos

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/kinsey/

        2. C.T Phipps

          Dorothy needs to get that double checked. Maybe Joyce can be her closet key.

        3. Agemegos

          If she does she should take copious notes.

    4. ESM

      I would be at all surprised if Joyce decides to make the influence less obvious by gender-flipping the two MCs and eventually she just straight-up makes Roomies exactly.

  13. BBCC

    And the hilarity begins.

  14. a/snow/mous/e

    meanwhile Walky’s drawings are accidentally photorealistic. he tears it up because he lives in cartoon land and it looks like nonsense to him

    1. C.T Phipps

      That makes me think of Westworld.

      “What does Walky’s art look like?”

      “It doesn’t look like anything to me.”

    2. RacingTurtle

      Why can’t he stop inventing nostrils? Nostrils aren’t real, Walky!

    3. woobie

      like in South Park?

    4. Liquid Len

      Like this?

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        yep just like that! glad to see it’s already established that walky can draw beyond cartoon character comprehension

        1. a/snow/mous/e

          oh oops don’t really want to be asher.

        2. Rycan

          And this is better?

  15. Wizard

    Amoral Lust Machine: definitely my new band name.

    1. Demoted Oblivious

      ^^^ This ^^^. I wanted to go back in time to establish a band in college with that name. Now the best I can do is unironically play at elderly living/care homes and catholic highschools.

  16. Robbie

    Doris has DARK HAIR

  17. Sirksome

    How did Joyce and Dorothy become friends? It’s been so long it feel like it just kind of happened organically over time since they shared Leslie’s class but was their actually conflict between them first? It’s hard to imagine them actually being against each other.

    1. BBCC

      They were friends by the end of the first week, but the first day they met, Dorothy was a little annoyed with her. Nothing vital but noticeable.

    2. Cass

      Dorothy was one of the people who helped her after the party, and one of the most on top of making sure Joyce wasn’t alone anywhere she’d feel unsafe. They were already friendly before that, but I think that was what went a huge way towards reaching the level of Joyce refusing to bow down to her parents about her best friend at school being an atheist by the time parents weekend hit.

    3. Booyahman

      Well originally Joyce was trying to convert Dorothy wasn’t she? Because Dorothy is an atheist? And then Joyce stands up to her parents at family day or w/e about Dorothy being a good person?

    4. aelfwine

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/boo/
      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/tracts/

  18. DarkoNeko

    Walky, Danny and ?

    1. RassilonTDavros

      You thought Dorothy’s first time was with Danny, but it was I, overused JoJo reference!

      1. He Who Abides

        You just described literally any JoJo reference at this point.

    2. Delicious Taffy

      And Joyce. Until I’ve seen proof to the contrary.

  19. Jamie

    ONE attributes, Joyce. ONE attribute.

  20. Romanticide

    Julia strugles at being flexible at some things while Doris tries to be on the look out on where she is going to need to bend?

    1. Nayann Martinelli

      Is this bedroom talk? It sounds like bedroom talk.

      1. Romanticide

        could be that too 😛

  21. Josh Spicer

    I know Doris is clearly meant to be a Dorothy parallel, but somebody mentioned her being a Joe parallel previously and wouldn’t that just be a hell of a venture into finally getting Joyce to come clean and to grips on what’s up with the two of ’em?

    1. Rycan

      This is clearly also meant to be a parallel to the origins of Roomies! (which is where the Doris=Joe parallel is strongest), a comic that Joyce and Dorothy have no knowledge of.

  22. Kella

    There’s that silent second to last panel again!

  23. C.T Phipps

    I now want to know which character Dorothy will horribly murder when Julia drinks one Zima, gets drunk, and is saved by a self-sacrificing yet suicidal Ruth parallel.

    I choose to believe the character she kills will be Billie.

  24. Bagge

    “Doris has dark hair” gets me every time.

  25. EpochFlame

    dorothy looking exasperated with joyce continues to be hilarious

    1. Clif

      Yeah, this just keeps getting better.

  26. Varangian

    God, Dorothy’s expression at being called “an amoral lust machine”, it’s so perfect

    1. BenRG

      “Wait, that’s how Joyce views me? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

      1. BenRG

        Or, possibly, this indicates that Doris is a merger of Dorothy and Joe?

    2. StClair

      She has a LOT of good expressions in this strip.

  27. Bagge

    Something, something lust wolves, something

  28. Nayann Martinelli

    “Doris must be an amoral lust machine”.

    So, she gets the most interesting traits?

  29. BenRG

    Dorothy, I don’t want to be the one to break this to you but I guess I just gotta. Julia is intensely loyal to her friends but sometimes is left wondering if they were ever friends at all. Doris is willing to dump almost everyone and everything in her life to pursue her ambitions and then goes on to regret it bitterly later (which she tries to bury in work).

  30. Keulen

    DoA Book 11: It’s Just… Hard

  31. Opus the Poet

    Just as an aside, but anyone besides me notice the little tab icon for the comic is Joyce and her blue glasses?

    1. Needfuldoer

      Yup, I noticed the favicon change. It’s amazing how much you can convey in only 256 pixels.

  32. Lone Duck

    “I’m not sure Julia’s Christian.” I think Dorothy missed that subtext there, focusing on her own character.

    1. Demoted Oblivious

      Yep. But she’s pretty sharp. Stay tuned for our next exciting episode.

    2. Rycan

      I don’t think she missed it so much as she chose not to address it right now. She’s supposed to be helping Joyce with her comic right now, after all.

  33. milu

    Or– get this Joyce, I know it’s a mindfuck but think about it– maybe Julia has flaws too??!

    1. TheScreenJockey

      Julia is the protagonist in a story written by a teenager. She can’t have flaws, yet. Not until the author matures a bit.

  34. Rabisch

    Go with that, Joyce. Being an amoral, lust machine is strongly required for become president.

    1. Bope

      You may be on to something there. Especially if one uses lust in a more general sense.

  35. Spencer

    I don’t know why, but I was suddenly reminded of an It’s Walky! strip after Walky and Joyce hook up, and they’re working up to having sex and before they can Joyce backs out and Walky complains about it, and Joyce gets on his case that he’s fine with her being Joyce, quirky and weird and churchy and meek and nice, until it suddenly stops him from having sex and then, and only then, is Joyce supposed to be eager to please for his convenience.

    I don’t remember how that played out but I thought it was a pretty interesting take on the common “romance narrative reward” where once the guy and girl hook up they’re just supposed to have sex all the time because reasons. That Joyce can be a prudish ingenue as long as she puts out.

  36. TheScreenJockey

    Obvious solution:

    Doris doesn’t think spaceships are all that exciting or especially worth constructing.

    1. a/snow/mous/e

      doris is a flat-earther

  37. Victor Riley

    What Dorothy is forgetting is that, to many fundamentalists, sleeping with 3 people does qualify as “Amoral Lust Machine”.

  38. ziggy78eog

    Well, that is three more than Joyce, I mean, Captain Julia.

  39. aelfwine

    Btw, I really like how self-referential this is. Not just how Danny-vs-Joe was the original “noble pure” vs “amoral lust machine” split established in Roomies, but also how Willis had been unconfortable with mentioning religion back in the time of Roomies.

  40. Rycan

    You can always have the tension later, such as when one of them refers to the other as an “amoral lust machine”.

  41. Sombrero

    Oh wow! Currently, the last strip in the buffer is the one corresponding to my birthday. I hope it includes Sarah, Sal and/or Carla.

    1. David M Willis

      *checks*

      one out of three

      1. Sombrero

        Great!! Thanks!!!

  42. Devin

    I’m just putting this here as a reminder of things past. Note especially the alt text.

    1. Billifer Jenningsworth

      I’m tellin’ you, it’s just a matter of time before we see Julia/Doris Slipshines…

      1. Devin

        Ahhhhh, but will Amber ever get to see them?

      2. Raen

        But whose wiener would that be, then?

  43. bcb

    Problem with the Grayverse is that by the time Joyce gets around to writing her third comic there will be a lot fewer in-person toystores.

  44. Rikunda

    Too meta…

  45. Bope

    Dorothy should go to Yale.

    I know it doesn’t make sense in the context of a webcomic, as it would mean sending a character away, but speaking as if they were actual people, I think she should.

    She’s in her freshman year of college. She’s made connections that she values, but her studies will keep her somewhat aloof from them.
    Staying in Indiana will be at the opportunity cost of the friends and connections and resources she would otherwise get a Yale. In either path she might look back and have regrets. But which path will be ultimately be better?

  46. JA

    Three people??! Scarlet Letter!

  47. ADLegend21

    I LOVE the amount of DONE in Dorothy’s face in panel five. it’s hilarious.

Leave a Reply to ValdVin Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.