Dumbing of Age Book Fourteen

Dumbing of Age

A college webcomic by David Willis
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October 20, 2026

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Worldly vices

Posted In: comic
└ Tags: joyce, sarah, tristan

Discussion (188) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. Ana Chronistic
    Ana Chronistic
    March 27, 2024 at 12:02 am | # | Reply

    “…sholes”?

    come to think of it, I remember a classmate who did KIND of this, but something more of a progressive→regressive conversion

    • Ana Chronistic
      Ana Chronistic
      March 27, 2024 at 12:03 am | # | Reply

      aw, that’s not fair—maybe it was just taking the reins of the patriarchal system that suppresses far too many women and minorities, idk

      • Clif
        Clif
        March 27, 2024 at 2:14 am | # | Reply

        I didn’t know the patriarchal system had reins. Now I’m picturing six old white guys yoked to a cart and being whipped up to speed by a young hoiden. Reins in one hand and whip in the other, glasses slightly askew as the wind whips through her hair, she bears a remarkable resemblance to Joyce.

        • someone
          someone
          March 27, 2024 at 4:10 am | # | Reply

          I’m sure there are people with that fetish.

          • Clif
            Clif
            March 27, 2024 at 2:47 pm | # | Reply

            WElcome to the Internet.

    • Opus the Poet
      Opus the Poet
      March 27, 2024 at 4:36 am | # | Reply

      The wordbreak doesn’t fit FB formatting. It never hyphenates a word, just leaves a gap and skips to the next line.

  2. IntangibleMatter
    IntangibleMatter
    March 27, 2024 at 12:03 am | # | Reply

    Joyce is now following one of the first pieces of advice my parents gave me about dating: Never date a hardcore christian, they’re gonna try and convert you.

    • IntangibleMatter
      IntangibleMatter
      March 27, 2024 at 12:05 am | # | Reply

      I’m sorry if my comments aren’t the best I’m trying to comment before Ana Chronistic and honestly it’s like trying to shave a framerule

      • Decidedly Orthogonal
        Decidedly Orthogonal
        March 27, 2024 at 12:37 am | # | Reply

        Good luck. Best bet is to keep it short, or even draft it based on the day before’s comic and hope it remains relevant. Then just copy-paste-and-submit.

        But a better approach is to just submit and accept that you can’t bend time.

        • thejeff
          thejeff
          March 27, 2024 at 7:41 am | # | Reply

          Get Patreon and write your comment based on that.

          • IntangibleMatter
            IntangibleMatter
            March 27, 2024 at 4:05 pm | # | Reply

            Joke’s on you I’m a broke high school student

      • Imp
        Imp
        March 27, 2024 at 1:13 am | # | Reply

        That’s how people go crazy – trying to beat Ana to the first comment.

        • Clif
          Clif
          March 27, 2024 at 1:33 am | # | Reply

          And even if you are first you’ll know that Ana let you post first out of pity.

        • IntangibleMatter
          IntangibleMatter
          March 27, 2024 at 1:47 am | # | Reply

          Joke’s on you, I’m already crazy, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken this on

          • Clif
            Clif
            March 27, 2024 at 2:16 am | # | Reply

            I must admit, that’s a fair point.

        • Needfuldoer
          Needfuldoer
          March 27, 2024 at 3:17 am | # | Reply

          Post, post, post
          As fast as you dare,
          But you’ll always find Ana
          Is already there.

          Burma-Shave

          • Lokitsu
            Lokitsu
            March 27, 2024 at 6:33 am | # | Reply

            I wish I could upvote your rhyme.

      • Alan in DC
        Alan in DC
        March 27, 2024 at 6:59 am | # | Reply

        Not having played any Mario-related game for many years, I was more than unfamiliar with the term “framerule”. In fact, I thought I was seeing a word pronounced as “framma-rool”, thinking it was refetencing something biblical.

        Shows what I know…

      • PedanticJerkass
        PedanticJerkass
        March 27, 2024 at 9:56 pm | # | Reply

        Being “first” to comment on an Internet thing is not (and has never been, and never will be) important.

  3. Taigan
    Taigan
    March 27, 2024 at 12:04 am | # | Reply

    Pretty sure if Joyce messaged him asking to hook up, he’d be considerably less godly.

    • TheLurkerAbove
      TheLurkerAbove
      March 27, 2024 at 12:05 am | # | Reply

      Indeed, these types are the biggest hypocrites.

      • Opus the Poet
        Opus the Poet
        March 27, 2024 at 12:54 am | # | Reply

        ?can confirm.

    • Thag Simmons
      Thag Simmons
      March 27, 2024 at 12:06 am | # | Reply

      Still wouldn’t recommend it, but yeah.

    • BarerMender
      BarerMender
      March 27, 2024 at 12:15 am | # | Reply

      As long as he gets to define her.

    • anon
      anon
      March 27, 2024 at 2:04 am | # | Reply

      we need someone to catfish him and get him to fall for a trans girl to change his ways

      • Proxiehunter
        Proxiehunter
        March 27, 2024 at 2:26 am | # | Reply

        Yeah, the likely result of that is he murders a trans girl and the court lets him off because he panicked when he found out she was trans. So lets NOT try that.

        • Opus the Poet
          Opus the Poet
          March 27, 2024 at 4:52 am | # | Reply

          Yep, gay or trans panic is still a legal defense in 31 states.

          • Yumi
            Yumi
            March 27, 2024 at 8:30 pm | # | Reply

            And even if it didn’t hold– at least not enough to let him fully get away with it– we’re still left with a dead trans woman. Fir what?

            It kinda feels like when people wish gay kids on homophobes. Queer people don’t exist because you want others to learn a lesson. A person shouldn’t have to suffer a transphobic/homophobic living environment or physical violence so that maybe someone will stop saying slurs.

            • EmCaCo
              EmCaCo
              March 28, 2024 at 5:15 pm | # | Reply

              Absolutely.
              It’s really more “one day you might find out how many people you love that you estranged from yourself, if you have any kind of self-comprehension or insight.”
              But not a great experience for anyone.

            • Li
              Li
              March 28, 2024 at 7:27 pm | # | Reply

              Marginalized children are not an ironic punishment.

      • zee
        zee
        March 27, 2024 at 10:24 am | # | Reply

        Nah he definitely already secretly watches trans porn and then spews vitriol to “””repent”””

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          March 27, 2024 at 5:47 pm | # | Reply

          The really odd thing is, he goes out of his way to find the stuff that’s not just fetish-tag material. The stuff that’s by transfolk, for transfolk and costs Real Money™ to even access.

      • Nymph
        Nymph
        March 27, 2024 at 12:59 pm | # | Reply

        Yeah we don’t put trans people in danger to try and “fix” shitty people who don’t want to get better.

      • PedanticJerkass
        PedanticJerkass
        March 27, 2024 at 10:00 pm | # | Reply

        Why would you ever want to inflict that on a trans woman?

    • someone
      someone
      March 27, 2024 at 4:22 am | # | Reply

      People who are so performative about their faith are very rarely sincere about it.

    • Pylgrim
      Pylgrim
      March 27, 2024 at 5:45 am | # | Reply

      You are mistaken, he’d still be godly.

      (Sure, he would still absolutely get into her pants but he’d keep spouting indulgent Bible-sounding aphorisms all the way up to the touching of bits. Then, right after he’d guilt her for “tempting” him and try to manipulate her into being his submissive sex pet Christian wife.)

      • MadScientist520
        MadScientist520
        March 27, 2024 at 6:32 am | # | Reply

        Ughh, most certainly digging up gash face trauma.

      • thejeff
        thejeff
        March 27, 2024 at 8:40 am | # | Reply

        Maybe. Not all the godly types actually want to marry every girl they talk into bed. He could also just blame her for being a slut and refuse to marry anyone that easy.

  4. Alongcameaspider
    Alongcameaspider
    March 27, 2024 at 12:04 am | # | Reply

    So what are the odds this ends with Joyce accidently “liking” a post and having to deal with the consequences of that

    • Mollyscribbles
      Mollyscribbles
      March 27, 2024 at 12:29 am | # | Reply

      would it be better or worse if she reacts with the angry face emote.

      • Opus the Poet
        Opus the Poet
        March 27, 2024 at 4:54 am | # | Reply

        Worse, the angry reaction is weighted 3 times more than a “like” on FB’s algorithm.

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      March 27, 2024 at 12:31 am | # | Reply

      hey, everybody is here for chaos

  5. TrueVCU
    TrueVCU
    March 27, 2024 at 12:04 am | # | Reply

    You know what that is?

    G R O W T H

    • HueSatLight
      HueSatLight
      March 27, 2024 at 12:20 am | # | Reply

      It’s bittersweet, being able to admit to liking him, but also when that attraction is permanently gone.

      • Nono
        Nono
        March 27, 2024 at 12:24 am | # | Reply

        Doesn’t seem like it’s permanently gone, going by the last panel.

        • HueSatLight
          HueSatLight
          March 27, 2024 at 12:43 am | # | Reply

          That’s the panel that looks like she realized it’s permanently gone.

          • Nono
            Nono
            March 27, 2024 at 12:56 am | # | Reply

            Weird, I read it as a ‘yeah he’s problematic… but why do I still find him attractive?’ Along with the previous panel where she’s goes into panicked defensive mode.

            • M!a
              M!a
              March 27, 2024 at 1:26 am | # | Reply

              I wonder if that’s more like, letting go of one of the very last shreds of a world that was simpler.

            • Weatherheight
              Weatherheight
              March 27, 2024 at 3:29 am | # | Reply

              I saw it more as “Wait, have *I* changed that much?”

              Sometimes your self image isn’t in synch with who you’ve become.

  6. Icalasari
    Icalasari
    March 27, 2024 at 12:05 am | # | Reply

    The alt text

    I never expected an alt text like that in reference to Joyce

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      March 27, 2024 at 8:00 am | # | Reply

      Could you explain the Alt text to me? Sometimes is difficult to understand what Willis writes.

      • Lee
        Lee
        March 27, 2024 at 8:29 am | # | Reply

        TL;DR He’s implying that Joyce’s erm, ladies region, is now closed for business, in the context of any attraction she may have had for Tristan is gone. “The blinds are closed, nobody is home.”

        • thejeff
          thejeff
          March 27, 2024 at 2:36 pm | # | Reply

          Which is odd, because she’s saying the same kinds of thing she said when denying her attraction to Joe (or even to Jacob).

          • Clif
            Clif
            March 27, 2024 at 2:52 pm | # | Reply

            Our minds have motives that our self models know naught of.

            Humans are complicated.

          • Daibhid C
            Daibhid C
            March 27, 2024 at 2:56 pm | # | Reply

            You mean panel four? Yep. She’s also said the same kind of thing when denying her attraction to Tristran.

            Panel 5 is her realising “Oh, wait, that’s true now.”

          • someone
            someone
            March 27, 2024 at 3:02 pm | # | Reply

            She got a crush on him just because she heard another girl claiming he had a crush on her. Which was never substantiated by any discernible fact, but she still went full on stalker mode on him and thinking they’d be together in the future.

            Her excessive denial is like a reflex. In that last panel, she is realizing that in this case, it has actually become true. The alt-text is basically the author’s confirmation that yep, she is completely over him.

            She has kind of realized she had built her childhood crush upon some dreamed up version of Tristan and that she never actually knew who he really was. Now her illusions are getting dispelled.

  7. jeffepp
    jeffepp
    March 27, 2024 at 12:05 am | # | Reply

    How much of his tuition is coming from his church? That might have an effect on his social media presence

    • Wraithy2773
      Wraithy2773
      March 27, 2024 at 12:09 am | # | Reply

      Maybe, but it’d probably just push him to make the occasional blandly pro-christian-but-not-really-offensive-to-anyone post, and just be quiet on social media in general.

    • HueSatLight
      HueSatLight
      March 27, 2024 at 12:16 am | # | Reply

      He came from a fundamentalist background, and when he left home he made that his identity. I don’t think you have to come up with a reason why he’s not following the pretty common trajectory he appears to be.

      • C.T. Phipps
        C.T. Phipps
        March 27, 2024 at 1:55 am | # | Reply

        I think someone suggested Mary actually is way more Far Right than her parents.

  8. DailyBrad
    DailyBrad
    March 27, 2024 at 12:07 am | # | Reply

    You can never go home again.

    I mean, she really can’t once her mom sells the place, but-

  9. HueSatLight
    HueSatLight
    March 27, 2024 at 12:13 am | # | Reply

    Tristan has THE WORD backed up in him, avoiding taking hold of those worldly vices.

    • Dean
      Dean
      March 27, 2024 at 12:48 am | # | Reply

      Tristan needs more fibre in his diet.

    • Devin
      Devin
      March 27, 2024 at 12:48 am | # | Reply

      This is what happens when you don’t get enough fiber.

    • anon
      anon
      March 27, 2024 at 2:06 am | # | Reply

      LOL i wonder what kinda worldly vices are tempting him…if he’s not just passive aggressively/vagueposting about someone he sees ‘sinning’

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        March 27, 2024 at 10:05 am | # | Reply

        Not to get Gnostic, but THE WORD is an Emanation.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      March 27, 2024 at 3:22 am | # | Reply

      I prefer THE EXCEL.

      • Jon
        Jon
        March 27, 2024 at 9:39 am | # | Reply

        I’m too cheap for that – I use THE OPEN OFFICE.

        Just as salvationy, but free!

        • spriteless aunty
          spriteless aunty
          March 27, 2024 at 12:34 pm | # | Reply

          My compy is too weak for that, I use the LIBRE OFFICE

      • Clif
        Clif
        March 27, 2024 at 2:59 pm | # | Reply

        Men may cry out, DOCUMENT, THE WORD and SPREADSHEET, THE EXCELL, but I say unto you. THE OPENOFFICE, and lo, not only is it free, but all thine bases are covered.

        • Clif
          Clif
          March 27, 2024 at 3:01 pm | # | Reply

          Makes note to self to refresh page before answering a comment.

          Promptly loses note.

    • David DeLaney
      David DeLaney
      March 27, 2024 at 5:31 pm | # | Reply

      I am a fundamentalist; I far prefer THE NOTEPAD

      –Dave, *krakaTHOOM*

      • anonymsly
        anonymsly
        March 27, 2024 at 6:11 pm | # | Reply

        Yea, the Notepad has offered salvation on many occasions.

  10. C.T. Phipps
    C.T. Phipps
    March 27, 2024 at 12:14 am | # | Reply

    I wonder how much of Tristan is conversion versus just adopting fundamentalist performatively.

    Which we’ve discovered is very massive but also pursued by many completely lacking in self-awareness.

    Sarah’s sister, at least, isn’t a bigot and is aware of her own false identity.

    • anon
      anon
      March 27, 2024 at 2:08 am | # | Reply

      i wonder if his parents are encouraged so he doesn’t get targeted for being jewish (since it’s established that his last name is jewish? even if his family doesn’t particularly follow that faith)

      • jflb96
        jflb96
        March 27, 2024 at 3:41 am | # | Reply

        His last name isn’t Jewish, it’s Polish, and there’ve been plenty of reasons why non-Jew Poles want to leave

    • Bash
      Bash
      March 27, 2024 at 2:48 am | # | Reply

      Maybe he’s a normal teenager going to parties, and he just posted this stuff to keep his parents off his back.

      The redefining a woman part doesn’t really fit with that, though.

      • Regret
        Regret
        March 27, 2024 at 2:54 am | # | Reply

        Lots of normal teenagers are sexists douches.

      • Aura
        Aura
        March 27, 2024 at 7:08 am | # | Reply

        That was my first thought, but the antivax, ‘globalist’ conspiracy theory bs we saw yesterday doesn’t fit it either. If it was performative to keep the folks back home off his back then he’d be looking for the most inoffensive to normal people options to post.

        • thejeff
          thejeff
          March 27, 2024 at 8:45 am | # | Reply

          Yeah, we’d be seeing the “Isn’t God wonderful” stuff, but not so much the antivax and transphobic stuff.

          It was a nice thought, but each strip makes modern Tristan look worse and worse.

  11. Reltzik
    Reltzik
    March 27, 2024 at 12:19 am | # | Reply

    Is it really a lie if it ends up being true? Isn’t that more like a promise or something?

  12. Newlland(Henryvolt)
    Newlland(Henryvolt)
    March 27, 2024 at 12:19 am | # | Reply

    Joyce has become so secular that the most phoney evangelicals who don’t believe a word they preach seem like the most over the top bible thumpers to her.

    • Jeremiah
      Jeremiah
      March 27, 2024 at 2:39 am | # | Reply

      It’s not like there is much difference.

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      March 27, 2024 at 8:47 am | # | Reply

      How much they actually believe doesn’t have anything to do with how over the top they preach.

      And whether he believes it on not, Tristan isn’t just mouthing vague Christian platitudes, but anti-vax and transphobic stuff as well.

  13. Yotomoe
    Yotomoe
    March 27, 2024 at 12:19 am | # | Reply

    Have you heard The Word!? Cuz I was under the impression that everyone had heard.

    AH-WELL-A BIRD BIRD BIRD. B-BIRD’S THE WORD A WELL A BIRD BIRD BIRD. B-BIRD’S THE WORD.
    DON’T YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BIRD?
    EVERYONE KNOWS THAT THE BIRD IS THE WORD.
    BIRD, BIRD, B-BIRD’S THE WORD A WELL-A BIRD. BIRD. B-BIRD’S THE WORD.

    • M!a
      M!a
      March 27, 2024 at 1:22 am | # | Reply

      I can only say: oo mow mow, papa oo mow mow.

      • Clif
        Clif
        March 27, 2024 at 1:36 am | # | Reply

        Easy for you to say.

        • M!a
          M!a
          March 27, 2024 at 1:40 am | # | Reply

          If I had it to do over again, I’d have formatted it like legit conversation, e.g.: “Oo mow mow, papa. Oo. Mow. Mow.”

          • Opus the Poet
            Opus the Poet
            March 27, 2024 at 4:15 am | # | Reply

            Except the lyric is actually “Um mau mau” source I was alive then and listening to AM radio, and also aware of the book Mau-mauing the flack catchers.

            • Opus the Poet
              Opus the Poet
              March 27, 2024 at 4:17 am | # | Reply

              And it didn’t take the underscore formatting under the book title.

            • someone
              someone
              March 27, 2024 at 4:30 am | # | Reply

              Was it?

      • David DeLaney
        David DeLaney
        March 27, 2024 at 5:32 pm | # | Reply

        but ting tang, walla – walla bing bang!

    • Lee
      Lee
      March 27, 2024 at 8:30 am | # | Reply

      Thank you for making me laugh so hard this morning I needed a drink.

    • PedanticJerkass
      PedanticJerkass
      March 27, 2024 at 10:15 pm | # | Reply

      This is the “Peter Griffin singing Surfin’ Bird” equivalent to Tristan on social media.

  14. Pocky
    Pocky
    March 27, 2024 at 12:21 am | # | Reply

    what’s the opposite of a glow up?

    • Decidedly Orthogonal
      Decidedly Orthogonal
      March 27, 2024 at 12:38 am | # | Reply

      Throw up

    • Clif
      Clif
      March 27, 2024 at 1:38 am | # | Reply

      A Dim Down. Or maybe it was Dim Sum.

      • NGPZ
        NGPZ
        March 27, 2024 at 1:59 am | # | Reply

        Ya Dim Sum ya lose sum.

        • Clif
          Clif
          March 27, 2024 at 2:18 am | # | Reply

          Damnit, now I’m hungry.

          • NGPZ
            NGPZ
            March 27, 2024 at 2:21 am | # | Reply

            I wish I could teleport you some orange chicken I just made.

            Texture is kinda funny ’cause I had to use xanthan gum to thicken it, but it good.

            • morleuca
              morleuca
              March 27, 2024 at 5:17 am | # | Reply

              I just misread that as “Xanax gum”….gonna be some very interesting chicken.

    • zee
      zee
      March 27, 2024 at 10:28 am | # | Reply

      A fall off, dude fell off hard

  15. Adam Black
    Adam Black
    March 27, 2024 at 12:21 am | # | Reply

    I dont know why Joyce is taking this is a sincere conversion , he could be “pastors son” saying the same things.

    • Bryy
      Bryy
      March 27, 2024 at 4:27 am | # | Reply

      Because, as she stated, that used to be her.

      • NGPZ
        NGPZ
        March 27, 2024 at 4:30 pm | # | Reply

        It’s like looking at herself 6 months in the past.

        I sure hope she has some Pepto-Bismol on hand ?

    • HueSatLight
      HueSatLight
      March 27, 2024 at 4:35 pm | # | Reply

      My suitemate was a pastor’s son, and he didn’t say things like that. He said he thought his father was probably an atheist too, but hid it because he thought a lot of people got comfort from religion.

  16. Nono
    Nono
    March 27, 2024 at 12:23 am | # | Reply

    You all laugh but the number of people I see on social media responding to a celebrity call out post going ‘I don’t care if he’s problematic I still love him!’…

    • Amós Batista
      Amós Batista
      March 27, 2024 at 12:38 am | # | Reply

      not in his case. Not even a like he got

  17. BBCC
    BBCC
    March 27, 2024 at 12:24 am | # | Reply

    Yeah, that’s pretty much right.

  18. Mr. Random
    Mr. Random
    March 27, 2024 at 12:31 am | # | Reply

    It’s weird seeing how I’ve changed since high school.
    It used to be just… how not awkward I was becoming. But it’s interesting to see myself change.
    And to see all of the people I grew up with and never clicked with… they’re becoming adults too. Some I DEFINITELY don’t want to associate with for a couple reasons, but others becoming… an odd kind of different too.
    Life really pulls us so many different ways, and it tends to hit different.

    I sometimes wonder if anyone I knew in kindergarten has died and I’ve never known.

    • Clif
      Clif
      March 27, 2024 at 2:22 am | # | Reply

      Plot twist. Everyone you knew in kindergarten has died and you are the only one surviving.

      So far.

      • Opus the Poet
        Opus the Poet
        March 27, 2024 at 4:21 am | # | Reply

        Well that was 60 years ago and in a state I can’t get to easily unless Greyhound gets a route to Oahu, so I would have no way of knowing that.

        • David DeLaney
          David DeLaney
          March 27, 2024 at 5:34 pm | # | Reply

          the Internet, being a space existing tangent to reality at every point, has made finding things like this out weirdly easier

    • Woop de doop
      Woop de doop
      March 27, 2024 at 2:37 am | # | Reply

      I’m still awkward but at least now I’m braver to just GO WITH IT.

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      March 27, 2024 at 2:49 am | # | Reply

      My best friend in kindergarten went on to help kill a man and hide his body in a river. Maybe he’s dead too, by now.

      • Clif
        Clif
        March 27, 2024 at 3:10 pm | # | Reply

        I’m reasonably certain that my best friend in first grade did prison time as an adult. In my defense, he was interesting.

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          March 27, 2024 at 5:49 pm | # | Reply

          Yeah, back then all he cared about was showing off his PS1 games, and then I moved away after 1st grade so we didn’t ever really talk after that.

  19. brumagem
    brumagem
    March 27, 2024 at 12:33 am | # | Reply

    Nothing like the bitter pill of realizing you-in-the-past would be TOTALLY INTO the dude with the mega-cringe twitter takes.

    • anon
      anon
      March 27, 2024 at 2:22 am | # | Reply

      be interesting to see how easily he’d change his ways if roz seduced him for fun and had another leaked tape

  20. Amós Batista
    Amós Batista
    March 27, 2024 at 12:41 am | # | Reply

    don’t be sad, Joyce. That’s why I never asked to visit any personal Facebook or Twitter from any college

  21. HueSatLight
    HueSatLight
    March 27, 2024 at 12:45 am | # | Reply

    I don’t think we’ve seen Joyce’s desk from this angle before today/yesterday. Or it’s been a very long time, I skimmed the Joyce tag going back to the start of this semester. Can anyone make out the drawing or photo that’s behind her?

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      March 27, 2024 at 12:49 am | # | Reply

      It’s furry porn

      • NGPZ
        NGPZ
        March 27, 2024 at 1:07 am | # | Reply

        It looks kinda like Dotty lol

        • Proxiehunter
          Proxiehunter
          March 27, 2024 at 2:29 am | # | Reply

          Furry porn of Dotty?

          • NGPZ
            NGPZ
            March 27, 2024 at 1:20 pm | # | Reply

            I mean, Walky technically did a furry Dotty in one comic where he drew her as a puppy.

      • HueSatLight
        HueSatLight
        March 27, 2024 at 4:37 pm | # | Reply

        insert “bury the bone” Roomies link here.

    • Clif
      Clif
      March 27, 2024 at 2:27 am | # | Reply

      It’s a portrait of Sarah. The real Sarah is just off screen.

  22. Taffy
    Taffy
    March 27, 2024 at 12:51 am | # | Reply

    “We need to stop redefining women! God made us all as tall as we’re supposed to be, and we can’t just be deciding everyone under 5’11” is a woman!”

    • Clif
      Clif
      March 27, 2024 at 1:44 am | # | Reply

      I mean you could. I have my doubts about how well it would work, but that’s another question.

      I used to be just over 5’11” but now I’m much closer to 5’10”. Would that make me trans?

    • anon
      anon
      March 27, 2024 at 2:09 am | # | Reply

      watch as he ends up as an ‘egg’/trans himself or a ‘chaser’

      • thejeff
        thejeff
        March 27, 2024 at 8:50 am | # | Reply

        Which “worldly vices” do you think he’s turning to the WORD to resist?

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          March 27, 2024 at 5:42 pm | # | Reply

          Cock.

  23. NinjaNick
    NinjaNick
    March 27, 2024 at 12:57 am | # | Reply

    That was then, this is now.

    • M!a
      M!a
      March 27, 2024 at 1:36 am | # | Reply

      CHRIST I got so sick of S. E. Hinton…

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      March 27, 2024 at 3:26 am | # | Reply

      Something tells me you’re not referencing Something Happened on the Way to Heaven.

  24. M!a
    M!a
    March 27, 2024 at 1:20 am | # | Reply

    He’s got a stupid nose, Joyce. And who the fuck wears vests all the time?

    • Aura
      Aura
      March 27, 2024 at 7:13 am | # | Reply

      Oooh ooh I know this one, it’s Joyce! Joyce wears vests all the time 😀

  25. M!a
    M!a
    March 27, 2024 at 1:31 am | # | Reply

    Hey Tris… if I wanna identify as a fucking ’54 Buick, why the fuck do you care?

    …cuz it ain’t like you’re getting a ride, either way… –AYYYYYYY

    • M!a
      M!a
      March 27, 2024 at 1:32 am | # | Reply

      Three ‘fucks’ in two posts; must burn down the Internet and dispose of the witnesses…

      • Clif
        Clif
        March 27, 2024 at 1:45 am | # | Reply

        I never saw a thing. Honest!

      • Proxiehunter
        Proxiehunter
        March 27, 2024 at 2:31 am | # | Reply

        Four fucks in three posts now.

      • David DeLaney
        David DeLaney
        March 27, 2024 at 5:36 pm | # | Reply

        luckily for you that extensive testing has shown the internet to be self-conflagrating

        –Dave, fires with cats’ fur, surrounded by cats in flames

    • Taffy
      Taffy
      March 27, 2024 at 2:36 am | # | Reply

      I’m sure a lot of people here wouldn’t mind a ride from Joyce. Y’know, if she were about 10 years older.

  26. Thomas
    Thomas
    March 27, 2024 at 1:54 am | # | Reply

    Dumbing of Age Book 15: His Dumb Stupid Face Is Repellent To Me.

    This is the one, folks. Title confirmed. It’s perfect.

    • anon
      anon
      March 27, 2024 at 2:22 am | # | Reply

      would make amusing matching couples tshirts

      • Aura
        Aura
        March 27, 2024 at 7:14 am | # | Reply

        I was rather liking Dumbing of Age Book 15: … It Must Be Stored Up In You ?

  27. Ray
    Ray
    March 27, 2024 at 2:01 am | # | Reply

    Girl, I learned more than ten years ago: never peek at what the former Halfass Teen Rebel’s growing up to. This world has many Tristans, some tragic, most douche. Go climb the tallest and hairiest man you know, maybe have a gender crisis, an orientation crisis, just a crisis about the strap idk. Buy a handheld massager. The world is your oyster and oh god sharp shell edges sharp shell edges

    • anon
      anon
      March 27, 2024 at 2:13 am | # | Reply

      was he that rebellious? well, other than by christian/joyce’s standards of ‘hanging out’ with that girl, he just seemed like a regular teen girl, tho in a small religious community like joyce’s you either escape or are beaten into submission.

      But that’s his own issue and hopefully we don’t have to watch a whole arc of “i can fix him/save him” or so (versus maybe even becky meeting him and bonding to see how it is with someone that’s religious AND queer)

      • Ray
        Ray
        March 27, 2024 at 10:14 am | # | Reply

        I don’t think he was rebelling much at all, nah, ‘Halfass’. Just thinking of the extreme double standard I’ve known several to grow up with involving dating.

        Some realistic fears in some fundie contexts can involve full excommunication from the only social circles you’re allowed physical access to, institutionalization, and homelessness. There’s also an extent of steeping in effectual constant sexual threat for some people, which is part of why Joyce is so fucking neurotic.

        Tristan’s the demographic it’s built for, which is why he got to be indifferent at an entirely legally vulnerable age, and still gets the advantages now. It’s a destructive situation for him, too, yeah, but the broad strokes have been choking-on-spit hilarity one-to-one with the people who fucked around as they liked and believe in God-Given Spouse And Child Ownership now. I’m not sure that doesn’t fit this comic’s humor, especially as a kind of passing foil.

        • spriteless aunty
          spriteless aunty
          March 28, 2024 at 3:45 pm | # | Reply

          I know it’s probably too late for a response, but what does “the broad strokes have been choking-on-spit hilarity one-to-one with the people who fucked around as they liked and believe in God-Given Spouse And Child Ownership now” mean? At first parse it means ” It’s basically funny compared with the people who fucked around as kids but now believe in their piece of the patriarchy,” but then you’re calling Tristan a joke compared to Tristan? So I get the sense that you’re so angry, perhaps remembering your fear of homelessness or institutionalization should you fail purity, that you described your target twice. You compared how sure he was damaged by his childhood, with the damage he continues meting out. Is it the damage that you’re comparing? It’s a joke how damaged he is, compared to how much an AFAB person would get damaged? Or someone who doesn’t see much appeal of sexing a wife?

          I guess I’m just commenting to sort through what you typed as much as to ask. I know a comment section is low stakes and you don’t need to copy edit for me. But if you’re writing for others, be it work or zines for your local rainbow club or a blog, consider breaking up your long sentences and avoiding mixed metaphors. Stream of consciousness does not work well without a face to get cues from. (Or if you’re going for a style wherein making the audience work is the goal, that’s something you could add more of like happy noodle boy)

      • Ray
        Ray
        March 27, 2024 at 10:18 am | # | Reply

        ANYWAY thank you for the engaging reply and big handshake on the not wanting or seeing an “I can fix him” arc from this, albeit I tend to roll with whatever DoA does and go “yeah okay right on”.

    • David DeLaney
      David DeLaney
      March 27, 2024 at 5:37 pm | # | Reply

      plot twist: during all this Tristan is climbing the tallest and hairiest man he can find

  28. DarkoNeko
    DarkoNeko
    March 27, 2024 at 2:10 am | # | Reply

    Yeah.

  29. Bogeywoman
    Bogeywoman
    March 27, 2024 at 3:41 am | # | Reply

    Gotta get that godliness in you. Get it right up in there. Not just the tip of god, you need Jesus balls deep in you. So much godliness just filling you all the way. A full Christian cream pie.

    • Mr D
      Mr D
      March 27, 2024 at 4:55 am | # | Reply

      Oh man all this time I thought spit-takes were an urban myth. And then I choked on my breakfast cereal.

      • morleuca
        morleuca
        March 27, 2024 at 5:23 am | # | Reply

        Cheerios do not belong in tbe sinuses

    • David DeLaney
      David DeLaney
      March 27, 2024 at 5:37 pm | # | Reply

      holy bukkake, Batman!

  30. TheFlamingonator
    TheFlamingonator
    March 27, 2024 at 3:44 am | # | Reply

    Tristan is reminding me of a loot of Christian vloggers who made being Christian their whole personality – online that is. I wonder what we will find out about what hides behind this façade.

    • someone
      someone
      March 27, 2024 at 4:33 am | # | Reply

      Probably a serial killer.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      March 27, 2024 at 4:51 am | # | Reply

      He’d get along swimmingly with Mary.

    • Da Boy
      Da Boy
      March 27, 2024 at 12:09 pm | # | Reply

      95% probability he was buddies with Ryan or whatever was the name of the guy whom Amber shanked

      • LeafletErin
        LeafletErin
        March 27, 2024 at 1:02 pm | # | Reply

        If I remember correctly Joe got his name right on the first go with Druggo Mcstabbed.

        • Da Boy
          Da Boy
          March 27, 2024 at 1:33 pm | # | Reply

          Perfect

    • Yeet
      Yeet
      March 27, 2024 at 12:35 pm | # | Reply

      If he was secretly cool I reckon he’d lay off the redefining women thing and vaccines at the very least
      Secretly uncool in a different way, very possible

    • NGPZ
      NGPZ
      March 27, 2024 at 5:07 pm | # | Reply

      “In an online world where nobody is bound by their word, what is the difference between appearing to have an opinion, and having an opinion?”

      — The Alt-Right Playbook

  31. Da Boy
    Da Boy
    March 27, 2024 at 6:01 am | # | Reply

    Had the opposite kind of experience with a buddy from Middle School. Back then he was one of those very religious and saintly kids who wanted to become a priest. Years later at a best friend’s wedding he came up in a conversation and turns out he started partying Hard afterwards. Couple years more and I heard he got into a car accident, supposedly while drunk.

  32. Chubsius
    Chubsius
    March 27, 2024 at 7:48 am | # | Reply

    Don’t know if it’s just me, but there’s a new ad on this site that makes reading the comments on mobile very difficult.

  33. Nicoleandmaggie
    Nicoleandmaggie
    March 27, 2024 at 7:55 am | # | Reply

    I guess if I donate $25 to donors choose for lgbt positive stuff every time I see something anti-trans I should do that even if it’s from a character in a comic. I wonder if the state of Connecticut still has those matches.

  34. thumb
    thumb
    March 27, 2024 at 8:01 am | # | Reply

    It feels like the fear of regressing. Of knowing what you used to be and knowing that, even if you don’t see it from here, there will always be a way back to… that.

  35. Callid13
    Callid13
    March 27, 2024 at 8:38 am | # | Reply

    Huh, it seems Tristan isn’t tagged for some reason…

  36. Sean Franco
    Sean Franco
    March 27, 2024 at 8:42 am | # | Reply

    Why did Tristan get tagged yesterday but not today? Was that his backlit silhouette in the post? I thought Willis was tagging the profile pictures…

    • Sean Franco
      Sean Franco
      March 27, 2024 at 8:43 am | # | Reply

      I guess my ctrl-f for “tag” didn’t work, since the person right above me had the same question…

  37. Da Boy
    Da Boy
    March 27, 2024 at 8:44 am | # | Reply

    Kowalski, huh? I wonder how many generations from the original Polish immigrants. Go Catholic buddy, it’s in your blood!

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      March 27, 2024 at 2:40 pm | # | Reply

      According to Carol, his dad was from Poland. And she assumed he was Jewish originally, despite going to their church.

      • Da Boy
        Da Boy
        March 27, 2024 at 3:38 pm | # | Reply

        Ah a fresh immigrant then, I wonder how did he get involved with Brows and the whole Fundie thing. We do have some Jehovah’s Witnesses here but most people are Catholic. Maybe it was the only Christian community available?

  38. Hof1991
    Hof1991
    March 27, 2024 at 9:20 am | # | Reply

    Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true. Or is it something worse.

    This extends beyond Tristan. This is her mother, brother and most of her childhood. It’s looking into a future that she could have lived in. And rejecting it all. A confirmation of the haphazard changes that she’s been going through. She knows the path she’s on now and isn’t going back.

  39. Hambone Jones
    Hambone Jones
    March 27, 2024 at 11:17 am | # | Reply

    That’s soooome alt-text you got there, Willis.

  40. Leadsynth
    Leadsynth
    March 27, 2024 at 11:41 am | # | Reply

    Is Tristan the same age as Joyce, and now also a freshman in college? I assumed he was maybe a year or two older because he sorta looks that way in the flashbacks. Maybe we’ll find out.

    • thejeff
      thejeff
      March 27, 2024 at 2:42 pm | # | Reply

      Seemed the same age. When she mentioned him in her visit back home, it didn’t sound like she was used to him having been away.

  41. hatman
    hatman
    March 27, 2024 at 12:55 pm | # | Reply

    I know this is a reach but why do I get the feeling Tristan will be intermingled with glassface ryan?

  42. Daibhid C
    Daibhid C
    March 27, 2024 at 2:53 pm | # | Reply

    Hang on though. It’s just occurred to me that it was previously implied that this is pretty much what Joyce’s Buddy In Atheism Liz’s Facebook looks like. I’m not saying Tristram is also maintining a facade of being Very Christian so his parent’s don’t flip, but it’s a possibility.

    • Daibhid C
      Daibhid C
      March 27, 2024 at 2:54 pm | # | Reply

      Oh, others have already thought of that obviously. That’s what I get for coming in late and skimming the comments.

    • HueSatLight
      HueSatLight
      March 27, 2024 at 4:47 pm | # | Reply

      no likes or comments on any of them, he’s just saying all that freely into the void. So a facade for whom?

      • David M Willis
        David M Willis
        March 27, 2024 at 5:03 pm | # | Reply

        The number of comments would be tallied off panel to the right.

        • Taffy
          Taffy
          March 27, 2024 at 5:43 pm | # | Reply

          So he’s getting ratio’d just off-panel, got it.

  43. System of Eleven
    System of Eleven
    March 27, 2024 at 5:52 pm | # | Reply

    Ten bucks says he attended a christian youth retreat a couple weeks ago, and is still riding the endorphin high those retreats are engineered to create. I was always the least religious of my siblings, but I was always the loudest during worship service and wearing the “christ is cool” shirts to school, after one of those retreats.

  44. Yumi
    Yumi
    March 27, 2024 at 8:34 pm | # | Reply

    One time when I was a freshman in high school, a girl in my Spanish class invited me to her youth group, and I desperately needed friends, so I seriously considered going, but at the same time thought, “Okay, this might turn out to be a cult, so I should get some pepper spray to take with me just in case,” and then my mom wouldn’t let me get pepper spray, so I ended up not going.

  45. PedanticJerkass
    PedanticJerkass
    March 27, 2024 at 10:04 pm | # | Reply

    If this is the very last we ever have to see of Tristan in this comic, that would be the best possible timeline.

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