193

Thing
Posted on November 7, 2012 by David M Willis
Panel two without dialog Three or four weeks ago when I was drawing this comic and Maggie came up behind me and saw this panel, she asked me what in the fuck was I on.  That's when I knew this was going just how I'd planned.

193 thoughts on “Thing”

  1. Rognik

    And then she woke up in a padded room, with blood on her hands.

    1. Equius

      D –> That or we see Walky holding a college snowglobe

      1. Random NPC

        Equius is secrectly Sal? …I knew it.

      2. Random NPC

        Equius is secretly Sal? …I knew it.

    2. Zap Rowsdower

      I don’t think that’s blood.
      *eyebrow waggle*

  2. Jen Aside

    THING

    1. Wack'd

      Is it from another world?

      1. Joe H

        She was raised in a strict, religious, conservative household. It might as well be from another world.

        1. Raoullefere

          It Came from Planet Pants

        2. Joe H

          Plan Penis from Outer Space

        3. hmrc4evr

          And I for one welcome our Pajama Pants wearing overlords.

        4. Wack'd

          Penis of the Monster
          Penis Avenger: The Adventure of the Penis Kid
          Penis of the Lepus
          The Sinister Penis
          Take it out in Penis
          Penis or Glenda…oh, wait, no, that one actually makes sense, never mind.

        5. GlaDOS

          Plan Sixty-Nine from Outer Space

        6. Malisteen

          That was the plan, to give you a boner. And you got one!

          http://youtu.be/507Ve-rCb8o

        7. BrokenEye, True False Prophet

          “We are all interested in Ethan’s pants, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives….”

  3. David Herbert

    That last panel seems to contain a metaphor for something, but I don’t know what.

    1. Blob Marley

      It’s an upside-down happy face! The Joyce/Walky posters are the eyeballs. See?

    2. NCP19

      I figured she’d just watched The Nightmare Before Christmas since it looks like the weird hill.

      1. otusasio451

        And soooooomewhere deeeeeep insiiiiiide of these boooooones…

    3. Valdrax

      Bulimia?

    4. I.care.0

      Blowjob.

      The upside down happy face is doing a blowjob on the disform mass that appeared just after she told Ethan to show his “thing”. And both of then are being thrown from the disform mass to the mouth.

      1. I.care.0

        Dorothy and Becky are here portraying the two conflicting opposites in Joyce’s soul: The lust and the conservative upbringing. They’re portrayed as faces on windows due to the old saying: The eyes are the windows to the soul. Therefore, the clock tower represents the monster that Joyce associates with people whose flower of innocence had all the petals plucked which she transformed into as soon she gave in to lust.

        The mass is logically Ethan’s penis, and has non-identifiable, but definitely phallic form due to the fact that Joyce probably doesn’t know how a penis looks like.

      2. I.care.0

        It probably didn’t made a whole lot of sense, but whatever. I’m sleep-deprived.

        1. Liam

          Dun worry, part of that was something I hadn’t thought about, so it’s okay by me. Besides, I’m prone to making silly comments myself at 2 am.

      3. Valdrax

        Thank you for explaining the joke. No one would have gotten it without you.

        No one.

        1. Liam

          Look’s like someone’s got a a case of the Mundays? D:

          (Office Space, anyone?)

        2. I.care.0

          You’re welcome.

  4. Wonder Wig

    His think is a Playstation Move?

    1. ASmellyOgre

      I was thinking it was a vibrator, but I like your answer better.

      1. GoldStarz

        It’s a flashlight. It’s way too dark in there for anyone to see any thing.

        1. Wixvhen

          But if she turns on the light everybody else will see it too!

        2. StClair

          You are likely to get ****ed by a grue.

        3. Jim

          It’s a FLESHlite!

        4. Andrusi

          I was gonna guess a microphone.

      2. Undrave

        I think it’s one of those ‘magic wand’ vibrating thing. Why Joyce knows about it though…

        1. Zap Rowsdower

          Know thine enemy.

        2. Valdrax

          Biblically.

        3. Aydr

          No, this is just as close to a penis as Joyce can picture.

  5. Sensedog

    …I chose one hell of a night to read this comic while drinking.

    1. RelicOven

      You and me both

      1. Wixvhen

        You know she’s going to wake up feeling horribly guilty over this lil nightmare of hers. And then Mike will make a joke when he hears about it to compound that skull breaking humiliation of it.

        1. Khrene

          I hope he doesn’t, cause this has been a really traumatizing like… two weeks(?) for Joyce. I mean just after almost being raped, she starts having seemingly strong sexual feelngs for a man, complately contradicting with everything she feels to be right.

          She could start viewing her sexuality as uncontrollable, and/or questionong her teachings, and herself, and just being generally confused and frustrated.

          With Ethan turning out to be gay on top (or not on top depending on how you look at it), I don’t think she needs Mike’s heavy handed hypothesis on how her head being hopped up on hornness and hormones is holistic, and not a heretic habit that she won’t be halting hereafter.

        2. curiousg

          Holy hell, you have half a handful of H’s.

    2. otusasio451

      I chose the wrong night to read this comic while sniffing glue.

      1. Spazman

        AIRPLANE!

      2. Andrusi

        Joyce, do you like movies about gladiators?

        1. Valdrax

          Have you ever seen a grown man naked?

    3. thomas0comer

      I did that backwards- started drinking after reading this.

      1. thomas0comer

        On second thought, maybe I should have chosen something other than water.

  6. Stone

    Dude. What?

    1. The Cakemeister

      Seriously.

  7. Plasma Mongoose

    I wonder if this dream Joyce is having is autobiographical in nature…. hmmmmmmmm! 😀

    1. Ryorin

      The mind-bending twist:

      IT’S NOT A DREAM.

      1. Wack'd

        Great, the comic’s going all Prisoner on us.

        1. Ancestral Hamster

          “I am not a number, I am Joyce Brown!”

          *Mocking Laughter*

        2. Kai Gon

          Dude!
          I’m listening to old Iron Maiden stuff as I read these
          comments! 😀

        3. GrrArg42

          I’m not a number. I’m a man! And my NAME IS.. oh wait, I’m #6.

  8. Yotomoe

    Dorothy: yes…let the lust flow through you. Turn to the sex side.

    1. Blob Marley

      *Come* to the dark side? Eh? Eeeehhhh?

      1. Khrene

        Naw. Dotty is on the Caramel side S=J

        1. DaJoshMaster

          Oppa Caramel Style!

  9. Philippe G.

    Who’s the mysterious grey silhouette in panel 2?

    1. Regalli

      I think it might be Joe. It might also be random anonymous silhouettes of anything, they’re in five, too.

    2. Mogotoo

      Going by the head, I’d have to say Joe.
      Fitting, really.

      1. Yotomoe

        Joe is always going by head.

        1. Wixvhen

          And yet he’s so square.

    3. Chuck

      looks like Joe?

    4. Yotomoe

      Joe. He’s where all sex happens. He’s the angel of banging.

      1. Khrene

        Joe needs a themesong, now

        1. Kryss LaBryn

          Na na na na na na na na BANGING!

        2. Maycroft

          “Pow-chika pow pow.”

    5. Mogotoo

      And…wait, is that Walky beside him?

      1. Wonder Wig

        I think that’s Gerald from Hey Arnold! behind Joe.

    6. RaijinK

      Since they’re not in the tags, they’re probably nobody in particular, but they sure look like Joe and Walky. It makes sense, since that accounts for just about everyone Joyce knows whose judgement over her PSL she subconsciously fears.

    7. Valdrax

      Trapdoor Joe is watching you fornicate.

  10. Cholma

    LOL And people thought Walkyverse Joyce dreaming of herself as a squirrel was weird! 😀

  11. Tristan J

    Man, ordinarily this comic reads like a (really good!) newspaper comic, so it’s a bit of a shock when some manbutt pops into frame.

    1. Stone

      Maybe Willis contracted Butts Disease from Jeph Jacques.

      1. Baroncognito

        I’m pretty sure that Willis had it first.

        1. Tristan J

          I always assumed Willis was Patient Zero.

        2. Rowen Morland

          The interplay between the eyes of your avatars is intense.

        3. Baroncognito

          You’re disappointed that you’re not in on the action, aren’t you?

    2. Yotomoe

      Man-Butt is the best super hero name ever. He was once an ordinary frat boy until he mooned a vat of nuclear waste.

      1. Tristan J

        His sidekick is Cheeky, the Butt Wonder.

        1. Aububuh

          He prowls the streets at night, protecting the city from evil such as The Assimilator, The Rear Admiral, and Dr. Heine Drie.

        2. Tristan J

          His best friend is, and always will be, Doctor Feintush, a buttologist from Sweden.

        3. Aububuh

          “This week in ‘The Marvelous Man-Butt’: The Case of the Mysterious Aroma”

        4. diremoi

          “What a beautiful Wisconsin morning, Cheeky. Just breathe it in!”

          “Gee, Man-Butt, i sure do love the smell of dairy air!”

        5. Originalslugboy

          “We can anal-ize this evidence back at the Buttcave. To the Buttmobile!”

        6. lightsabermario

          And it turns out he is heir to the royal buttline, as evidenced by the unique birthmark on his posterior.

        7. Spazman

          And that’s all for this week. Butt toon in next week, when the marvelous Man-Butt has to save the world from an Assteroid that’s heading right for the Marianas Trench–the lowest crack in the world!

        8. thomas0comer

          Oh god his Butts disease has spread to all of you via the webcomic what is happening

        9. Roborat

          You guys are hysterical, I love it.

      2. Plasma Mongoose

        I don’t suppose that he had a brown asterisk as his insignia did he?

        1. CWR

          That’s Kurt Vonnegut’s insignia.

        2. Kryss LaBryn

          E Pluribus Anus.

  12. Platypus

    Joyce’s dreams are very… sureal. It’s like a Dali painting.

    1. Resne

      It’s like a Dali painting if you crinkled it up, tore it slightly, soaked it in the lagoon and kissed it with Coral Blue Number Two lipstick.

      1. Lieutenant Dan

        You found me millionth Dali?

  13. George

    What is she holding in Panel 4?

    1. Yotomoe

      Do you REAAAAAAALLY want to know?

    2. begbert2

      She’s holding his shoulders. What he’s holding, on the other hand…

  14. slicedtoad

    clearly willis has been drinking in celebration of oboma’s victory.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      Willis knew about Obama’s victory 3 weeks ago??

      1. Baroncognito

        Yes, and he’s been holding out on us.

      2. Zap Rowsdower

        He also knows the winners of the next five US elections, the next three Canadian elections, the next two Miss Americas, and whether your soul will go to heaven or hell.

        He never tells us anything.

        1. LuckyStar7

          DAMN YOU, WILLIS!!!

  15. Rayrayrave

    That was….different.

  16. Melvin Schlock

    I want Joyce to wake up with Mike whispering all this into her sleeping head.

    1. Rayrayrave

      YES

    2. Raoullefere

      Wearing an Ethan wig.

  17. Tom Speelman

    Surprised people aren’t noting the side of Ethan we see in panel 2…

    1. Vabolo

      The backside?

  18. GoldStarz

    And then he showed it to her… His ENTIRE Transformers toy collection.

    1. CWR

      “It’s, it’s…TOO BIG!”

  19. Kristine Derping

    I just saw the last panel as an blow job. Just flip it upside down. (I think? Maybe a tongue going into a mouth? I’m such a virgin)

    1. historyman68

      Now I can’t unsee it.

  20. Robert

    That’s either a shake weight that ethan is holding or a pepper wand. I can’t tell unless someone starts sneezing.

    1. marr

      Yeah I thought he was about to offer her Fresh Pepper.

      1. Raoullefere

        Ethan’s going to pepper Joyce, all right! Hur Hur Hu… sorry.

        1. Robert

          Joyce is being offered fresh pepper in the middle of a sex dream? This isn’t a dream it’s a NIGHTMARE!!!

  21. John Madden

    Wait, what? Did somebody slips Joyce a brownie laced with LSD or something?

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      maybe she did some door to door bible-bashing and got offered hash brownies by some hippy grandma as a result.

    2. StClair

      Repression. It’s a hell of a drug.

  22. Tristan J

    Also, I enjoy that Joyce’s vision of Ethan is hairless (and possibly nipple-less?) when certain pinups have shown us Ethan is hairy as all fuck.

    1. Valdrax

      I was wondering if anyone else noticed that.
      Now the shame is slightly lessened.

  23. Ben

    Someone has a fever. I know my dreams get insane when I get sick

    1. DaJoshMaster

      With that smile they can’t be too bad. 😛

  24. Kschenke

    SHOW ME YOUR THING! At least she’ll figure out what a dildo is the first time she sees one, right?

  25. Philippe G.

    So, Joyce is the Ego, her parents are the Superego, the silhouette of Joe(?) is the Id. What do the faces of Dorothy and Becky represent?

    1. vlademir1

      Well in the second panel, they’re obviously the two opposing outside peer influences on Joyce. In panel five, irises to the eyes of the felatiating head, itself a very different Freudian expression. Also I expect the final unaccounted for person in panel five may be Sarah.
      I am growing to believe that DoA Joyce is… experienced… in some form and I ain’t talking about Ryan; though elements there lend to my suspicions. If Willis is going where I now suspect he may be with this it’ll be both more bold and more exceedingly controversial than Anti-Joyce could ever have hoped to be. It’ll also explain even more why Joyce went off and glassed Ryan so readily.

  26. Mike B

    SHOW ME YOUR THING!
    -Rejected Capt Falcon lines in SSB: Melee.

    1. kschenke

      I was going to comment that my boyfriend made the exact same joke, but then I saw your name. Hi Mike.

  27. fishamaphone

    I’m not sure what’s going on in this dream, but I’m sure it doesn’t bode well for Ethan…

  28. lawzlo

    PLOT TWIST: This is reality, and the rest of Dumbing of Age is a dream!

    Also: Bruce Willis was dead the WHOLE TIME!

    I’m gettin’ my Shyamalan on.

    1. GeekRyuu

      Wait, so it turns out that the village wasn’t in the 19th Century? And that the villain was actually Shyamalan’s vastly overinflated ego?

  29. Wack'd

    Oh my god.

    It’s the Secret Thing.

  30. Kernanator

    “And now for more wet dreams from Salvador Dali.”

  31. Deimir

    I…wait, what?

  32. Kensou

    Ah, shoulda figured. Now I’m gonna be humming “Dreamtime” for an hour or two. Meh.

    1. tahrey

      We kinda figured out it was a dream a couple strips back when Joyce’s bedroom didn’t match how the dorm was actually laid out.

  33. coobee

    So considering recent revelations that Roomies!Joyce is autobiographical, to what extent is DOA!Joyce…?

  34. shoeboxjeddy

    I wanted a crazy sex dream and Willis totally effin delivered. A++ would trip with this person again.

  35. DiDi

    All right, I see Joyce’s mom and dad. And that person on the right frame in the second panel is her best friend from back home. I get all that…

    Why is Dorothy there? Does it have to do with her being an atheist? And how Joyce’s beliefs seems to be opposite to hers? Especially about the sex thing?

    1. Wack'd

      Given the decidedly evil smirk on her face, I’m gonna say your interpretation’s correct.

      1. Raoullefere

        And Joyce was PDA competing with Dotty and Walky earlier. Plus, Dotty’s expression is all but screaming, “You know you want to! Do it! DO IT!”

  36. RickZarber

    Gotta love yesterday’s strip’s “No one can know” being immediately followed by her parents and friends showing up. Subconscious, why you gotta be like that?

  37. Furie

    What is Joyce/Ethan holding in panel 4? Pretty sure Japan would mistake it for a new type of mushroom.

    1. vlademir1

      Here’s a potentially NSFW clue.
      If it weren’t for a girlfriend back during my own college days I’d have never recognized one of these, she was a collector… nearly to the level Willis is with Transformers.

  38. Raoullefere

    Leering/horrified audience, daring the forbidden in front of authoritah, surrealist insertion imagery… all this needs is “Que Sera, Sera” being sung in a minor key.

  39. tahrey

    “Show it to me! Show me your thing!” is now the best and only pickup line. It must be tried. Even though it’s a decidedly Pintsize thing to shout.

    1. Spazman

      I should really make up a list of horrible, horrible lines like that to try in a bar sometime when I’m really bored.

    2. Andrusi

      It’s like hentai dialog.

      1. Zap Rowsdower

        No, that involves more onomatopoeia and, if my memory serves correctly, comments regarding similarity to yogurt.

        1. Andrusi

          No, see, that’s the next panel.

  40. GeekRyuu

    …yeah, so that’s why you don’t do the brown acid before bed, hon.

  41. DaJoshMaster

    Hmmm… I can fap to this.

  42. Minouris

    Hey, my Book 1 arrived! 😀 Thanks for the awesome Amazigirl sketch!

  43. Cope

    So this was Dorothy’s evil plan all along.

  44. Jimmy

    “Sweet dreams are made of these…”

    1. Zap Rowsdower

      I’m pretty sure the lyric is “sweet dreams are made of cheese”.

      Cheese is delicious, after all.

      1. Kryss LaBryn

        That’s why cheese-makers are blessed…

      2. Jimmy

        There need to be more songs dedicated to the deliciousness that is cheese.

      3. GeekRyuu

        I wear the Cheese. It does not wear me.

  45. Karishi

    Level with us, Willis. You got the entire idea for this sequence from a drunken conversation with Josh Lesnick, didn’t you.

  46. Keebs

    I kept hearing the seagulls from Finding Nemo in that last panel.
    “Joyce, Joyce, Joyce….”

  47. Darwin2000

    Ok, now I’m *almost certain* it’s a dream.

  48. Dr.Z

    Who needs drugs when we have Willis? 🙂

    God, this is gloriously wrong/fun.

    I love the floor morphing into a catapulting phallus-wang-form-thing.

    OH! And Joyce’ dream eyes are even scarier then her normal normal, multi-blue-no-iris day-time devil eyes.

    Good show all around!

  49. Ron

    Detachable Penis!!!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byDiILrNbM4

  50. Arkadi

    Dorothy likes what she’s seeing.

  51. Aaron Bourque

    Last panel needs a sound effect.

    I suggest WANG

  52. JebJeb

    Wild stab in the dark: By the end of the dream Ethan’s face will morph into Ryans, and Joyce will wake up screaming.

  53. Notebooked

    Well, that’s it for certain, then. Now we know it isn’t a dream.

    1. begbert2

      Willis ruled out aliens in this continuity; he never ruled out all of reality going spontaneously out to lunch. So I maintain this is still reality.

      If we see Joyce teleported abruptly into her bed in the next strip or two, that’ll seal it: this is the work of the teleporting reality-warper fairies. Of whom Sierra is an example.

      1. Mogotoo

        I’m still holding out for the Cheese.

  54. SonicBlueRanger

    Thing Ring do your Thing!

    1. hmrc4evr

      As awesome as your Thing Ring reference is I might be the only other person on here old enough to get it.

      🙁

      1. Zap Rowsdower

        I got it, but only because Internet.

  55. krashthemytro

    >.0 …. kay so that just happened.

  56. IPGComic

    Joyce has some pretty intense wet dreams.

  57. Aydr

    …I thought that vision of Becky was Danny at first. Wasn’t really quite sure why Dorothy’s ex boyfriend should be looking on in horror in her dream.

  58. Steven Fisher

    This fan desperately needed a cameo by Mike in the last panel. Too bad Joyce doesn’t know him that well yet.

  59. penguintruth

    David Willis is now David Lynch?

  60. scabby

    Stuff like this happens to me sometimes.

    I call those “Tuesdays.”

  61. someguywithakatana

    I remember you writing once that Joyce is autobiographical.

    …

    …

    … Willis, should we be worried about you…?

    1. vlademir1

      IIRC the exact phrasing was “semi-autobiographical”.

      1. Boom

        So Willis isn’t secretly a girl? Damn!

        I just bought this damn engagement ring too…

  62. RobHagen

    Weirdness. What Dreams Really are. *thumbs up*

  63. Alain

    So, who did you vote for? Magritte or Dali?

  64. Random832

    Calling it, the “Joyce, Joyce” is someone trying to wake her up. And she’s going to blurt out something embarassing about her dream.

    Now taking bets on who it is.

    1. Narf

      As it turns out, you were wrooooooooong. 😀

  65. vmgx

    Anyone knows who are the people in the second door?

    1. Rusty

      I would go with silhouettes of parental figures that she imagines are his parents.

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