310

Hit that
Posted on June 16, 2015 by David M Willis

310 thoughts on “Hit that”

  1. Jen Aside

    Marcie: *signs* “No, tap.”

    Sal: “Yeah, sucks they don’t serve beer here.”

    1. Airyu

      Your comments crack me up so much. Thank you. <3

    2. Lawzlo

      Does ASL have a sign for “thang” (distinct from “thing”), as in: “I’d like to hit that sweet thaaaang.”

      1. Hoodiecrow

        I believe you use the sign for “thing”, but put on a special, neon-colored, glove first.

      2. Paradoxius

        As I understand it, inflection in ASL is done with facial expression, so it’s possible that the meaning can be conveyed.

        1. Gigafreak

          So you make the sign for “thing” but while grinning with an arched eyebrow, like Joe.

        2. gwalla

          I wonder if there’s a SignWriting glyph for “extreme eyebrow waggle”.

      3. Lumino

        True story, some accents actually have different signing in ASL. Boston is a prime example.

    3. modernpython

      Marcie: I mean, fuck.
      Sal: why do you always swear when you are tongue tied?

      1. Rodrigo

        Marcie: I meant “fuck her”!
        Sal: Yeah! Fuck Malaya! Why are we even here?

  2. AHR

    Sal you lovable fool

    1. JessWitt

      Foolish love.

      1. Wire Segal

        Foolish though it may be, marcie looks so happy in panel 3…

    2. Paul

      Lovable fool? No, I think Sal has been a real jerk with this Marcie-Malaya thing all along.

      1. Karen Lynn

        This scene was before that, though.

        It’s like chronolinears don’t understand time at all… 😛

      2. Ed Rhodes

        I think it’s fairly obvious Sal is just as bad at inter-personal stuff as Dina, she just channels it in the wrong direction which is why she gets into trouble.

        1. Karen Lynn

          Plus, there are always people that one just can’t get along with, for little or no reason.

          Everybody has that personality type the instinctively can’t stand. That’s what I’m thinking the actual case is here.

  3. Kris

    Understandable mistake.

    1. MM

      Oh, totally.

      1. sps48

        Rolling your eyes makes you look less sincere, ya know 🙂

        1. Rycan

          Says the pot to the kettle

        2. nothri

          Yeah, but trying to roll other people’s eyes just makes you look crazy.

    2. Aisling

      Gomez: Look dear, he has your father’s eyes!
      Morticia: Gomez! Get those away from him!

      1. Opus the Poet

        I remember that exchange with John Astin and Carolyn Jones from back in the 1960s, it’s funnier now.

    3. das-g

      Mistakable understanding.

  4. otusasio451

    Well, I can’t say I blame her for the confusion.

  5. Frogboy

    Marcie: “I’d hit it.”
    Sal: “McDonald’s? Sure.”

    1. Doctor_Who

      “No, I mean I want to nail her.”

      “Me too. Maybe we can jump her later on?”

      “No, I’m talking about banging.”

      “A gun? Seems a little drastic.”

      “Me. Malaya. S. E. X.”

      “You missed a few letters, that’s not how you spell suplex.”

      1. TheTJ

        OK, the Suplex line got me. XD

      2. Jen Aside

        I’m sure there are some actual HILARIOUS jokes in ASL we’re missing out on because they won’t translate to straight English… =C

        1. Les

          As opposed to gay English or bi-English?

        2. das-g

          As opposed to curled English. The language barrier in today’s strip stems from Sal’s artificially modified hairstyle.

        3. Jen Aside

          as opposed to cussin’ like a sailor STRAIT ENGLISH GEDDIT LOLOLOLOL

          *runs away*

      3. saki

        I love you.

  6. Opus the Poet

    OK I can totally see that happening if Sal didn’t know Marcie was lez or bi.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      If only she knew she was in a Willis comic, she might have figured it out a lot sooner.

    2. Opus the Poet

      Pardon me, I should have just said “into girls”. Sorry.

      1. Karen Lynn

        What’re you apologizing for?

        1. Opus the Poet

          Remembering the minor cat fight that went on a few pages back about calling Becky “lez” instead of “lesbian”.

        2. Rycan

          I don’t recall that, but why am I not surprised?

        3. AtomsOrSystems

          Because you are learned and wise in the ways of the world, my friend.

          …or maybe just in the ways of internet commenting. Maybe you should leave that off your resume.

        4. Rycan

          Yeah, I’ll just stick to ‘skilled in slaughtering bacteria en masse’

        5. Karen Lynn

          Wow… People are so touchy sometimes.

        6. timemonkey

          Some people get sick of being disrespected.

        7. Li

          Thank you.

        8. garbud

          I don’t really see how shortening lesbian to lez is in anyway disrespectful.

        9. Li

          http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lez

          Because that is how it is usually used: disrespectfully! So now that you know, I trust you will refrain from using it in the future…?

        10. Lin

          It’s also usually a slur. If you’re a queer woman, you might decide to reclaim it (the way I and some other queer women have reclaimed the word dyke), but even then it’s not super safe to apply to all queer women or any individual. And straight people should avoid entirely.

        11. Karen Lynn

          I guess I’m just accustomed to different types of people. Couple of my lez friends just say “Yeah, I’m lez, no big deal.”

          Best part about lez friends, more guys for me. :3

        12. Li

          /waits for you to stop using this word generally
          /because you’ve literally just been told it’s considered a slur

          Like. Seriously. Your lesbian friends do not speak for me. They don’t speak for anyone but themselves. The polite thing now is to stop using this word except around them and other lesbians who are okay with it.

          Not that hard, ma’am.

        13. Karen Lynn

          Li, you yourself don’t speak for all gay women either.

          It’d be like saying I should always be offended at the word “tranny”, even when it’s more often than not used to refer to a car’s transmission.

        14. Li

          Wow, no, that’s not at all what it’s like.

          It’s like saying “because some lesbians are offended/hurt by this word, while the rest are indifferent to it, straight people should err on the side of not hurting anyone by avoiding the word.”

          Not. That. Hard.

        15. Li

          (Also I sure hope you are trans yourself, with that example. And I’d love to know what country that’s true of (“usually refers to a car transmission”), because it’s not the USA.)

        16. Karen Lynn

          Actually, Li, it is the US. I’ve only ever heard tranny as a slur twice in person, whereas everyone I know uses tranny to refer to a car’s transmission.

          I’m MtF trans, polyamorous and pansexual.

          So, should Lizzie the Lezzie stop using that name for her twitter and tumbler?

        17. Li

          It’s absolutely not “the US”. It might be your state. It might be a few states! But it is not the US as a whole.

          Still, you’re right about one thing, which is that I should have responded differently. I should have pointed out that “dyke” can also mean dam. The f-word can also mean cigarette, and afaik is still used that way in England. The n-word “originally” meant an ignorant person.

          None of these alternate meanings make the slurs less hurtful to the people hurt by them. It’s literally irrelevant what other associations you might have with them. What should matter to you is that you are hurting someone by using them, so you should stop.

          I’m MtF trans, polyamorous and pansexual.

          Super. You’ll understand my thinking your readiness to use your lesbian friends as an excuse for using one slur might translate to using another slur on a similar pretext.

          Btw, if you wanted to defend your right to use “lez” on the basis of you also being LGBTQIA, you should have done that when we were talking about how using it is something straight people shouldn’t do, by the way. Also your earlier comment about “the great thing about being friends with lesbians” now doesn’t really make sense. Sure, it means more men for you, but also fewer women, so… more of a breaking-even thing than a clear advantage, yes?

          So, should Lizzie the Lezzie stop using that name for her twitter and tumbler?

          Look. I don’t know who that is, or really care. Shall I assume she is a lesbian? Because as has already been explained in this thread, people have the right to reclaim slurs used against them.

          Stop trying to make this into an argument it isn’t. I’m not saying no one gets to use this word. I’m saying that straight people should err on the side of not using it, just as they should avoid “queer”. Just as I, a cis person, should avoid the t-word (whether or not it personally offends you, because it is generally considered a slur and offends lots of other people). Just as white people should avoid the n-word. Just as…. etc, etc, etc.

        18. Karen Lynn

          Li, I’m thinking at this point it may be best to extend an olive branch, and chalk it up to differences in opinion.

          Because knowing how I am, I’m going to say something that’ll probably get me banned from the comments section.

          So, agree to disagree?

        19. Li

          I don’t… see what there is to agree to disagree about, though?? This is so simple…?

          I’m not asking you to agree that “lez” is a terrible bad word to use ever. I’m not saying your lesbian friends are wrong to not be offended by it or to use it for themselves. :|a

          All I’m saying is that the word is a slur. Like all slurs, some of the people in the group it affects are reclaiming it (like your friends), and some are not (like me). I am also making an appeal to common decency and common sense.

          Suppose you are watching TV in the living room. Your roommate Tommy comes into the living room with his hands over his ears and says, “Could you turn that down a little? This much volume is giving me a migraine.”

          You know that your other roommate, Billy, would probably disagree that it’s too loud — he likes listening to the TV from his room. But you also know that Billy can always come into the living room with you if he wants to watch it, whereas Tommy is currently in actual pain from the noise level.

          Doesn’t it make sense to just turn down the TV? Why are you asking Tommy to agree to disagree about whether it’s too loud?

        20. Li

          I really enjoyed that metaphor, but on reflection I think it’s getting in the way a bit of what I wanted to say, which is just: why not err on the side of not using this word, at least in public places where you (the general you!) can’t be sure whether you’re going to hurt anyone. Since not saying “lez” doesn’t hurt anyone, but saying it does, it makes the most sense for straight people to err on the side that is guaranteed to do no harm.

        21. Karen Lynn

          I can see your point. Doesn’t help that I’m the one that’s sensitive to sound… Bah! Logic! 😛 *insert stupid argument bait here*

          Yeah, I guess I’m just accustomed to reclamationists when it comes to certain words. I’ll try to be mindful of out in the future.

          FUUUTUUUUUURE!

          Sorry, couldn’t help that bit.

        22. Li

          Heh. Well, for what it’s worth, I appreciate it. I think that’s all you can do. <3 And this is the part that counts most anyway, in the long run — not whether you offend/hurt anyone at ALL, but how you handle it when you do. You are handling it well!

          FUUUTUUUUUUUUURE

        23. Karen Lynn

          Lez in and of itself, like any other word, isn’t disrespectful. Tone means everything.

        24. me

          And any non-mechanics should definitely refrain from using the words modulator or torque converter.

        25. Rycan

          I don’t follow, me (now that’s a bizarre sentence).

        26. Li

          Rycan, “me” probably is taking a rude pot shot at the idea of reserving slurs for the group they’re used against. The idea seems ridiculous to them, so they’ve made a ridiculous comparison and are under the (wrong) impression that it’s witty and clever.

        27. spriteless

          Marcie could be a trans dude. Then Marcie being into Malaya would mean het or bi. Marcie could also be gender queer, in which case the labels that assume the subject is on one side or another of the “gender binary” and assign orientation relative to that break down. Since Malaya is a girl, though, “into girls” works regardless of Marcie’s gender.

          Because we don’t know, it is a Willis comic, it is trying to balance out a diet of popular culture.

        28. S'toon

          You’re forgetting Sal and Marcie first met when they were kids. Marcie was a little girl back then.

        29. Leadsynth

          Right, “trans dude” would typically mean someone who identifies as a dude and was assigned female at birth. But I’m pretty sure Marcie’s NOT a trans dude. If Marcie WERE a trans man, then he would probably not want everyone to use female pronouns all the time.

          My question is, have we ever seen Marcie being into anyone else before? I feel like this is the first time we’ve seen it!

        30. Gigafreak

          Well, a few details of the subscriber-only pages of Joyce&Walky are written up on TVTropes. Apparently, the other universe’s Marcie dated Jason for a bit.
          Aside from that, everyone in her old SEMME squad (Mandy, Grace, Sierra, plus one other who is not in the Dumbiverse) had a mutually-merry time with each other and Joe. (So that means Mandy, Grace, and Sierra are bi too.)

          But in this universe? This is the first time I remember it happening.

        31. JWLM

          Yes, but that doesn’t mean that Marcie wasn’t trans, Male GAAB, and out. Gender identity has nothing to do with sexual orientation; recognition of the one is completely independent of recognition of the latter.

    3. Cass

      Even if she did know, she could just find Malaya so unpleasant that she couldn’t imagine her own best friend could possibly be interested in the other definition of hitting that. She could barely even wrap her mind around the idea Marcie could want Malaya just as a friend.

  7. Doctor_Who

    I’m pretty sure one interpretation of that sentence or the other is true for 90% of the commenters here.

    1. Yotomoe

      Hopefully we can get it down to 60%. Who’s with me!?

      1. DarkoNeko

        Maybe.

      2. Rich

        Count me out for either. I don’t dislike Malaya anywhere near enough to want to punch her, but sex fantasies about fictional college kids aren’t my thing either.

        1. Disloyal Subject

          You don’t have to dislike someone to want to punch them…

        2. DarkoNeko

          I”m fairly sure I do.

        3. Inlaa

          You can like someone perfectly well and then get angry at them when they do something stupid. It doesn’t make them your enemy and it doesn’t mean you dislike them. It means they’ve pissed you off and you dislike what they did.

          If I liked everything my friends said and did and never wanted to punch them, I’d be a weird human being. Smart people sometimes do stupid things.

        4. Dr. Smart

          shoot I must be a weird human being… I never want to hit anyone!

        5. Rycan

          Unless you’re a boxer.

        6. Lapin

          …So do you just go about your day wanting to punch random people, or something?

        7. MrZombieScordo

          often. I don’t do it, but yeah. often.

        8. Someone

          I prefer to kick people

        9. Karen Lynn

          I’d have to side with you. Years of soccer makes me more likely to kick than punch. 😛

        10. Opus the Poet

          Lifetime cyclist here so kicking (repeatedly) is a better option for me as well, but there’s something to be said for the feeling of fist meeting face where an idiot is involved (since those are the people that make me want to punch/kick people)

        11. Someone

          Plus punching hurts more

        12. Karen Lynn

          Are we in agreement that feet and/or fists of doom are to be reserved for the bodies of idiots?

    2. timemonkey

      I’m in the remaining 10%

    3. xKiv

      There’s a 90% chance you would hit me?

    4. hikaru

      my appreciation for malaya is purely platonic i promise

  8. Speedball

    Huh. Well, now I wonder what Marcie _does_ see in Malaya. In Walky!Verse it was Malaya and Ultra-Car’s shared misanthropy keeping them together.

    1. Sageress

      Probably the freckles.

    2. Rich

      She’s got a great rack? Even Leslie’s mom conceded it.

      More seriously, they share some interests and Malaya’s actually pretty nice to Marcie. Downright complimentary, even. And she’s put some effort into learning ASL to communicate better, which is a promising (pardon the pun) sign.

      1. Cass

        I totally think Malaya’s the most attractive girl in the Dumbi/Walkyverses. Have since her first appearance.

      2. Willoughby Chase

        The signs are good.

    3. Opus the Poet

      Maybe she’s “into” dark-skinned Asian girls?

      1. fit-to-freak

        Malaya’s attractive, and fun (in abrasive way, granted), and into something Marcie’s into…idk why has to be some kind of fetish thing (I think that’s what you meant?)

        1. Rycan

          Being attracted to certain races isn’t a fetish – it’s actually very common. Do we like to talk about it? No, of course not – it smacks of racism, and it’s made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that sexual attraction is pretty intractable. But data collected from places like OkCupid is hard to ignore.

        2. Rycan

          Lemme rephrase that – this is racism, but it’s incredibly intractable to change on an individual level. I think racial perceptions would have to be changed on a cultural level to make any impact.

    4. Gangler

      Sal and Marcie are such a reclusive pair that it was practically the end of an era when Marcie actually decided to seek out the company of another human being. Sal didn’t even know what to do with herself in light of Marcie’s bizarre and uncharacteristic new behavior.

      Shared misanthropy is probably very much an aspect of their relationship.

      1. a snow ʍousɐ

        I don’t think Malaya and MARCIE have a shared misanthropy, though.

        1. Gangler

          You can’t just capitalize Marcie’s name as if that doesn’t apply to her. She’s traditionally very reclusive, to the point that it’s shocking new behavior for her to take an active interest in anybody but her single pre-existing friend. Marcie quite likely isn’t fond of people in general.

        2. Rycan

          Recluse =\= misanthrope

    5. Shikome Kido Mi

      She’s friends with Sal. Apparently she likes women with a violent streak and a chip on their shoulder.

      I’m not saying they’re the same, but there are some similarities there.

  9. MM

    “Well, that changes everythin’! Ya clearly took one too many hits t’the head.”

  10. Tacos

    Damn you, slang! DAMN YOU, SLAAANNNGGG!

    1. Doctor_Who

      Just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

      1. Tacos

        I know V_V

  11. Rich

    All this drama over a simple communications failure. How realistic.

    Stupid idiomatic language.

    1. JessWitt

      Idiomatics be idiotic.

    2. Jepmz

      You should have seen that Death Diaries English dub. It was god awful, I have no idea what those dumb murderous kids were talking about. Awful source material too. Don’t read or watch it 9_9

  12. Plasma Mongoose

    Poor Marcie, her only best friend for ages seems to be obvious to slang.

    1. Opus the Poet

      PM I think the word you are looking for is “oblivious”.

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        D’oh! I cant believe I made that mistake, now you can see why I only ever got Cs and Ds in English.

      2. saki

        Eeh, there’s only a two letters difference. It’s like, poto, potato.

        1. HMRC4EVR

          This has nothing to do with the comic, but since you said ‘potato’ I have to show this as I can’t hear/see the word without thinking of it.

          http://youtu.be/dkgS0wfJlBY

        2. feli

          Thank you for that video 😀 POT-ato … great.

        3. drs

          potato, tomato

        4. Rebecca

          This made me laugh ridiculously hard and clearly I need to sleep.

  13. Yotomoe

    Sal has some god tier Peripheral vision. No wonder she’s good at roller derby.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Hm, Sal doesn’t play.

      1. Rycan

        More like she could be good at it, but she’d probably wind in a knock-down, drag-out fight with somebody.

  14. Gram91

    Given that Malaya is involved, it’s an honest mistake

    1. Deanatay

      When Marcie signs at Malaya, Sal assumes a violent context.

  15. SUGauthor

    Apparently Sal has eyes on the side of her head because she’s clearly not looking at Marcie in panel 4.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      It’s not like you need to see sign language to understand it surely…

    2. LiaHansen

      She must be using her peripheries, which is probably part of the reason for her confusion

    3. caesaria82

      Yeah that’s hilarious lol.

    4. AgentKeen

      Well, a lot of characters are also capable of talking with closed mouths or while drinking. This is just the ASL equivalent.

    5. Rich

      She’s clearly standing slightly behind Marcie and is tall enough to see over her shoulder, which puts Marcie’s hands in her field of vision. Reading ASL from odd angles takes practice and is prone to fails, but she’s had years to learn.

      Now panel 5, she’s totally missing the sign as she daydreams about committing violence on Malaya’s person. Sal’s easily distracted.

    6. timemonkey

      It’s a static image, just assume she quickly glanced at Marcie when she saw movement.

    7. KingoHrts

      Since facial expressions give hints as to the intent of the signer, the fact the Sal couldn’t see Marcie’s face means that Sal had to interpret just based on the actual signs given. Since “I’d hit that” is already idiomatic, the chance for misinterpretation are even greater. Also, its hard to sometimes see your friends as sexual beings.

    8. Em

      We know that she missed the very last sign–Marcie telling her that she’s wrong. But it’s assumed that Sal looked over at her, just as it’s assumed that Marcie tapped Sal on the shoulder or nudged her to get her attention to make sure that she would see what she was saying.

  16. Mandy

    Of course, each of them wants to hit her in a different area.

  17. LiaHansen

    “No, you don’t understand. I wanna pound her”

    “Yeah, me too buddy”

    “no. bang her.”

    “mmhmm”

    “fist her”

    “you bet”

    “I swing that way”

    “Ah’d take a swing at her too”

    1. ChocolateRat

      This comment made me laugh.

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      Sal just cannot imagine Mal as a sexual being me thinks.

      1. Opus the Poet

        Ding, Ding, Ding!

      2. Rycan

        Or she can’t imagine anyone wanting to have sex with her – it just doesn’t register.

  18. advancecasette

    I was reading through doa book 1 yesterday and saw the unfinished blue line dealy for flashbacks, and there was a comment underneath that he’d like to keep doing that, did he ever wind up doing that again? I can’t remember

    1. David M Willis

      The unfinished blue line dealy isn’t for flashbacks, but for a character’s daydreams or imagination. I think I’ve used it at least once more.

      1. Catullus

        The most famous instance is probably this one.

        1. LiaHansen

          heeheehoohoo

          find every excuse you can to post that link

        2. Lord Stoneheart

          I really like the second panel in that one. When I realized that the first three panels were fantasy, I noticed some really minute differences in the second panel. Where the right side of it is slightly less filled in than normal. (It’s most obvious with Danny’s hair). Plus, those smiles are adorable. I mean, they’re imagined smiles, but still adorable.

        3. saki

          I could stare at this strip for hours. The whole thing is just so adorable.

      2. advancecasette

        it really is so good

    2. Someone

      Hasn’t he only used the blue lines for characters thoughts and ideas?

      1. Someone

        Aw crap now my post is redundant

        1. Rich

          Hey, your post is redundant.

        2. Rich

          That is to say, you are merely reiterating something that has already been stated.

        3. Rich

          Repeating an idea, even.

        4. Rich

          Did I mention that I really miss Mojo Jojo?

        5. Rich

          Because I really miss Mojo Jojo.

        6. Tacos

          Then I should mention that Cartoon Network is gonna bring back the Power Puff Girls.

        7. Rich

          Oh, I know. Just dreading it proving to be a disaster. There have been some pretty awful takes on the series in the past.

          And really, I’d rather see Samurai Jack get a proper series wrap up instead.

          An Aku/Mojo Jojo teamup would make me a very happy boy.

        8. Disloyal Subject

          It wouldn’t be the same without Mako voicing Aku though.

        9. Rich

          Oh yeah, that is an issue, isn’t it? Pity. I keep trying to forget we’ve lost him.

    3. advancecasette

      ahh, that’s what it was, thanks.

  19. Jason

    Huh, I guess it’s ambiguous in both languages.

  20. DarkoNeko

    God damnit Sal 🙂

  21. caesaria82

    Today’s strip is 100% adorable. Even Sal’s grouchiness is adorable.

    1. Rich

      It’s about as adorable as you can be without Dina around.

  22. JessWitt

    This will be just like Taming of the Shrew but with lesbians, sign language, and roller derby.

    1. Plasma Mongoose

      I look forward to when the story is like MacBeth but with bisexuals, transformer figurines and Mario-Cart.

      1. Tacos

        Then what would the story look like if it where Othello?

        1. Disloyal Subject

          No survivors.

        2. saltchocolate

          That’s Hamlet.

        3. Opus the Poet

          Romeo and Juliet… Dang he sure used that ending a lot didn’t he?

      2. Gigafreak

        Please, you must refer to it as the Sottish Lay.

    2. Rich

      That’s not really any weirder than the Cowboy Western-themed take on the play that I got the last time I saw that play on stage.

  23. Ragnal

    Things I learned today: The sign for “want” looks like an ass grab.

    Also impressed Sal can look at Marcy’s hands without looking at them.

    1. DarkoNeko

      …now that you mention it, “want” totally looks like that.

    2. Plasma Mongoose

      Only if the ass is really high… http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/signjpegs/w/want.h1.jpg

      1. Kamino Neko

        So it’s grabbing boobs instead.

        1. Rycan

          ASL: Sign language for horny teenage boys (and girls)

        2. PsychoDalek

          Adolescent Sex Language.

        3. Plasma Mongoose

          Yup.

        4. DarkoNeko

          Heh.

    3. Meebo

      the sign for “want” actually is quite similar to a sign for ass/butt

      1. Plasma Mongoose

        I can guess what the sign language for “I want some ass” would look like. 😀

  24. Lapin

    (Dying of laughter) Oh gawd almighty, poor Marcie. She has the worst friends.

    1. DarkoNeko

      You keep saying friends in plural.

      1. Kamino Neko

        We know she has at least two friends. Both of whom are dumbasses.

        1. Lapin

          Pretttttty much. Poor Marcie.

      2. Rycan

        Sal basically has one friend. Doesn’t mean the same is true for Marcie (though it could be).

  25. Tori

    Oh, sitcom misunderstandings, how we love you!

    It kinda cracks me up how swiftly Sal shifts from “jealous bestie” to “supportive wingwoman.”

  26. Plasma Mongoose

    Here are some useful sign language slang terms:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-henson/sign-language-sexual_b_4059840.html

  27. Zuzi

    “Lost in Translation” starring Sal Walkerton and Marcie Diaz

  28. Catullus

    What’s Marcie signing in the last panel?

    1. Kennerly

      Its the shaka sign.

      1. N

        … I don’t understand why she’d make that sign in that context?

    2. Meebo

      Literally, it means “wrong”. She’s saying “um, no”

  29. Dean

    Since Malaya has learned sign language, she can probably see everything Marcie is saying. Or the gist of it, at least.

    1. Rich

      Marcie dragged Sal off a fair distance, which made it pretty clear she wanted to talk to her in private. It’s generally considered rude to play peeping Tom on an ASL conversation you’ve been deliberately excluded from.

      1. Heavensrun

        . . . MALAYA.

        1. timemonkey

          Gives no fucks.

      2. DarkoNeko

        Or simply behing a corner/angle of the building.

      3. podian

        We’re talking Malaya here.

    2. Rycan

      But she can’t see through Sal, and I imagine that she’s in the way.

      1. Rich

        You’re a better door than a window, Sal.

        Actually, you’re not a very good door either. I never did understand that saying.

        1. Rycan

          Doors work best when they get out of your way.

        2. Kamino Neko

          I find they work better when they’re in the way.

          We may have different priorities for the use of doors.

        3. EnerPrime

          Some people assume a wall without a door is just a solid wall, others assume that it’s a wall with a big rectangular hole in it. It’s like the glass half full/half empty thing.

        4. Rycan

          Well, now I know who I shouldn’t hold the door open for, then.

        5. Disloyal Subject

          It’s hard to see through a person, so even if they make a shitty door, they’re still better at it than at being a window.

        6. Gigafreak

          So Sal is a door that enters and exits windows.

          …This sounds like some kind of demented construction porn.

        7. Rich

          I absolutely refuse to google “construction porn” – mostly because I’m afraid it exists.

        8. DarkoNeko

          Bah, you’re more likely to find image akin to “earth porn”, i.e. photo of beautiful buildings.

        9. Rycan

          Or ancient Greek porn, where the Earth is a woman that has sex with/gets raped by the sky.

  30. Daashi

    I wish I knew more about ASL, but there seems to be something wrong with Marcie’s statement.

    “That? Hit. I want.” Would make more sense wouldn’t it?

    1. a4lbi

      I think that was intentional. Sentence structure for ASL appears to be different than spoken English.

      1. Daashi

        I know it is different, which is why; “That? I want to hit.” sounds wrong because it is an casual English sentence.

        But then again I do not know enough about it to make a definite statement. I suppose it could depend on which verb is given emphasis.

        1. David M Willis

          Most English-speaking people would say “I want to hit that.” The structure IS altered, and I checked it past some ASL-speaking folks, as well as several websites.

          I’d have thought putting the object of the sentence up front and with a question mark would make it obvious that it’s not just usual English phrasing, but okey dokey.

        2. Rycan

          Heh, maybe not in formal English, but sometimes we fool around with sentence structure. At least, I do.

        3. C Baker

          Well, topic-fronting is a feature of some English dialects.

        4. Opus the Poet

          Yoda-speak…

        5. Rycan

          Not necessarily. An example would be “That, I could do” (unsure if a comma would go there) – I use it if I had previously said that I couldn’t do something else, and had received a different request. Or something like that. I might also precede the sentence with ‘now’.

        6. Rycan

          That said, ‘That? I wanna hit” does sound off in English. Funny, if ‘wanna’ were replaced with ‘would’, it would sound less odd in my mind.

        7. J Slate

          Well, the sentence structure is okay, considering ASL is flexible in word order (though it does often hold to a Object Subject Verb construction, unlike English with Subject Verb Object) but the sign for “HIT” would make absolutely no sense there, unless you mean to punch, or sometimes to make a conclusion (which comes from the English idiom, to hit upon something) although that’s less common.
          If I had been signing that sentence (As I am an ASL interpreter) I would have used the ASL idiom “SLAP HANDS” with both hands held across the front of the body, one palm up one palm down, and slap the hands together, then dragging them apart so the fingers ‘snap’ against their respective palms. Almost like giving yourself a highfive/handshake. It means something like ‘one night stand’ or ‘casually fuck’

        8. No Name

          Ah, but then Sal would have known what Marcie met.
          Also, I’m not sure Marcie’s planning on a one night stand.

        9. Em

          I think what he did is fine. From the comments section, most people here don’t know ASL. There are a lot of ways to say what Marcie said. It also depends on the area where you are from. I’ve seen it signed completely differently before. What he drew is totally acceptable, and honestly, with the context and her facial expression, I would be able to understand what she meant. Since Sal already had some animosity towards Malaya, she chose to interpret it as literal hitting.

      2. Rycan

        ASL is a separate language from English, so I imagine Willis went ahead and changed the grammar to fit English, like any good translator will do.

      3. Meebo

        Yeah, ASL and English have different structures.

      4. C Baker

        That’s because ASL is not simply a cipher for English.

  31. DarkoNeko

    “ah ah ah they’re reading ASL without looking !!”
    — 90% of the pages with sign language on it.

    sigh.

    1. Z

      …do you not have peripheral vision??? you don’t need to look straight at someone to see what they’re doing.

      1. Majere

        I feel like people in these comments must have peripheral vision like a chameleon if they can see clearly enough to interpret ASL with it. Like the best I could see is that they are signing but the actual content would be entirely lost like trying to understand someone talking when you can only barely hear them.

        1. Clif

          The comic panels are like single frames out of a sequence. Just because they’re glancing in a particular direction at the instant we see them doesn’t mean that they aren’t looking in other directions intermittently. Their main focus is on the game, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make enough side glances to follow a conversation.

        2. Em

          Thank you thank you! I said this above already, but I’m saying it again. We are missing other parts of the interaction, but that’s not really a problem. We’re missing Marcie tapping her to get her attention, as well as Sal glancing over. But the main point is seeing what Marcie is doing. It’s FINE. Take a deep breath, and calm the fuck down.

        3. DarkoNeko

          That and panels tend to be more interesting if everyone aren’t always looking at each other’s hands.

  32. Pilgrim

    Oh, man, Marcie’s smile in panel one…

  33. StClair

    and here Sal shows she’s more like her brother than either of them would like to admit – completely clueless about some things.

    1. Majere

      Most things.

  34. Rycan

    And Marcie kept you from getting your wish, Sal.

  35. Idon'tcarenomore

    Panel one, happy Marcie, enlightened Sal.
    Panel four, typical sit-com screwed up miscommunication.

    Sal can now go back to ignoring Malaya, happily.

    1. Rycan

      THIS IS NOT WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY, SAL!

  36. Bagge

    Take a hint, Sal

    1. DarkoNeko

      She never misses hints. She’s catch them with her good reflexes.

      1. Nightsbridge

        But she throws them at Malaya before she gets a good look at it.

  37. Torra

    I love everything about this strip hahaha

  38. saki

    I wonder if this conversation means that once its over, Sal will decide to leave Marcie and Malaya alone for the evening and go back to Joyce’s dorm party where Amber is still unknowingly waiting to be involved in drama. (wishful thinking. I can’t get off the idea that is party is a dramamine waiting to go off.)

    1. gears

      You expect them to get motion sickness?

      1. Clif

        Marcy and Malaya? Sure. (Actually not, see my comment below.)

        1. Clif

          No edit function strikes again. Please reread with her name spelled Marcie and without the parenthetical comment as the comment down somewhere below doesn’t actually rule out Marie and Malaya motion sickness, if you know what I mean and I’m sure you do.

    2. timemonkey

      So you want the party in Joyce’s personal space, involving the people she trusts, which was thrown specifically to make her feel safe and happy to explode? That’s pretty cruel really.

      1. Rich

        Joyce and all her friends are fictional entities who exist for our entertainment. If Saki were talking about real folks that statement would horrible. As it is, it’s just expressing a preference for drama or tragedy over comedy or slice of life.

        I’d rather not see characters I like put through the grinder, but I’m certainly not going to call a real person cruel for feeling otherwise.

  39. Arianod

    Perfect strip is perfect XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD Thank you, Willis!

  40. nothri

    I imagine Sal and Marcie could make a pretty good Who’s on first routine.

  41. Bagge

    So the moment Marcie told her bff that she wanted to date, Sal started to act increasingly pissy, possessive and jerkish, escalating into almost beating up Marcie’s would-be girlfriend. No wonder Marcie has been annoyed.

    Sal is an even worse WingMan than Joe.

    On the plus side, if this Malaya is anything like her shortpacked counterpart, acting pissy and possessive is a pretty good way of making her want whatever you are possessive about.

    1. TheBiggestTom

      Sal has stopped acting so pissy and possessive. When she saw it as just friends, Sal didn’t understand the point of the relationship and got pissy and possessive of Marcie. To Sal, Malaya is just some dumb jerk who isn’t even worth her time because she’s frustrating to talk to, pugilistic, and abrasive in every sense of the word. This meant that Sal didn’t understand why the hell Marcie was even friends with Malaya.

      In the context of sexual attraction, Sal now understands why Marcie was interested in being friends with Malaya and seems much more willing to spark the friendship – I don’t know how it’s going to go down exactly, but I can speculate that it will end up with Sal swallowing her pride and taking the insults without fighting, for Marcie’s sake. (not sure why people are taking Malaya’s side…she reaches new levels of bongoery in the past few strips that are a little much even for her. There was no need for her to actively try to get under Sal’s skin in the way that she did…)

      Not sure what you think is happening here but I think you have the order of events backwards!

      1. JBento

        I think Bagge is referring to things from Marcie’s point of view. Sal only realised that Marcie wanted to date Malaya now, but Marcie told her that in the flashback. Therefore, for Marcie, Sal went extra pissy after she told her of her romantic interest.

        1. Bagge

          Yup, that was what I was going for. From her point of view Sal has been a real jerk throughout this whole thing.

      2. Nadda

        I think people are also forgetting that Marcie kinda brushed Sal off after hanging out with Malaya back when. . Granted Sal could have joined in but I know if I didn’t want to do something and then when my friend was free, they said “going home” I’d be a little irritated I’d wasted my time waiting without it being a possessive thing. We don’t really know if this is isolated or a pattern of what Marcie’s been doing.

        1. Bagge

          That was after their row and part of mutual escalating pissiness

    2. Spencer

      I doubt that this means everything is sunshine and rainbows for Sal now, considering the same problem still remains: Marcie has a life outside of her and Sal needs to accept that. I was hoping this would drag on a little longer so we could have a greater insight into Sal’s flaws, but the endpoint is still the same: Sal can’t be with Marcie all the time and if she doesn’t want to be alone she needs to open up to other people.

      1. Bagge

        I sincerely hope that is the lesson Sal takes from this. Her complete backtrack yesterday indicates to me that her narrative right now is something in the line

        “Marcie does not want to be friends with Malaya, just have sex with her (kinda like me and Jason). That’s OK, as long as I’m still Marcie’s only friend.”

        I have no idea what sort of relationship Marcie wants to have with Malaya, but the point Sal needs to learn is that whatever it is she should be OK with it. Marcie is allowed to have other friends than her, and Sal is not allowed a veto even if Marcie’s choice is Malaya.

        1. Spencer

          Oh wow, I never even considered it that way and that makes a remarkable amount of sense considering she seems to pull a 180 on Marcie spending time with Malaya when she learns it’s “just” about having sex.

        2. Li

          I mean, Sal asks if they’re dating, Marcie says she’s working on it, so I doubt she really thinks Marcie only wants sex?

          But I otherwise agree. I think Sal has had lots of casual relationships, and some casual sex, and maybe even one serious boyfriend, but she put them all in a separate mental category — and Marcie is also allowed to date people — but another FRIEND is threatening.

          I might add that Sal’s version of even the serious boyfriend might have involved still prioritizing Marcie, and she might expect the same in return, but we will see.

        3. Rutee

          It’s… not unheard of to put a particularly close friend on equal footing as a lover, actually. The problem is more Sal’s need to be the one friend than that.

        4. Li

          I know, but that’s why I used the word “prioritizing”, which implies putting the friend first, always.

          What I’m getting at is that Sal may expect to still be THE most important person in Marcie’s life, even while she’s compartmentalizing Malaya into the more comfortable category of “girlfriend” rather than “friend”. So there may be TWO issues here — Sal’s need to be the only friend, and Sal’s potential expectation than she won’t have to share Marcie all that much even with Malaya.

  42. OnyxIdol

    You and me both, Marcie, you and me both.

  43. Bruise Payne

    I’m gonna be that douche bag, but I play roller derby and wanted to point out that having either a star or a stripe on the design of the helmet is actually illegal, having both even worse. There are two positions in roller derby that require a helmet cover be used, one is the pivot who is denoted by a stripe down the centre of the cover and the other is the jammer who wears a cover with a star on either side.
    In order to prevent confusion during game play helmets cannot have decals that could be misinterpreted as one of these positions. Having both means she appears to be pivot and jammer simultaneously which isn’t possible.
    (I hate that my long time lurking is finally broken just to nitpick!)

    1. Bagge

      Aw. I thought she played jammer.

    2. Jen

      Ah, thanks for the education/reminder! 🙂 It’s been a few years since I’ve seen derby and I had forgotten that.

      1. Gigafreak

        Meanwhile, Sal has been playing clamjammer.

  44. WHATDOESHERSHIRTSAY?

    what does marks shirt say? all i can make out is “blank you can read this I’m skating.” if the word is “if”, how in the world would a person be able to even read the shirt in the first place?

    1. WHATDOESHERSHIRTSAY?

      Marcie’s

      1. Gigafreak

        Because half-pipes and handstands go together often?

        1. Rich

          That, exactly.

    2. Tenn

      DINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING-DING-DING
      DINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING-DING-DING

      Sorry. (Not sorry.) 😛

  45. Majere

    So it’s looking more and more like Sal isn’t going to be learning a lesson about how unhealthy her desire to isolate Marcie from other potential friends is and she’s going to get to just shrug this whole thing off as a misunderstanding.

  46. Lulu

    Two latest updates, a disabled, mute, gay character, brownie points up.
    I’m gonna feel sad for the newspaper lesbian girl that seeing Ruth or Billie or now even Marcie, she never managed to get any gf in college, even just for experimenting of usual straight girl phase.
    What is wrong with her, she has broken gaydar?

    1. Bagge

      Eh, there’re plenty of straight people who don’t manage to find a partner despite being surrounded by straight people.

    2. Spencer

      Marcie’s bi.

    3. Em

      I get the feeling that Daisy wants the girls to come to her. Billie had been looking for men before Ruth came and got her attention. Marcie has been actively seeking Malaya out. I think Daisy sits around waiting for her Princess Charming, and is sad that it’s not happening. Also, Leslie is single as well. Daisy is not the only known out queer person who is single.

  47. Darth Cariss

    Thank you for the subtitles. Much nicer not having to go look at the comments to understand the comic.

  48. Charles RB

    “Working up to it”, as in Malaya doesn’t know that – oh no. I see where this is going. 🙁

    1. Rutee

      Ayup.

    2. DarkoNeko

      “You reject Marcie => I reject your face with extreme prejudice” — Sal

      1. Opus the Poet

        Now there’s a comic I would click “like” over…

      2. Rycan

        That would be a case of ‘STOP HELPING, SAL!’

        1. DarkoNeko

          yep

  49. Jen

    Do we know what the characters’ derby names are? Has this come up yet in comments or Word of God from Willis?

  50. A Scientist

    Is Marcie wearing Morpheus glasses? I see no temples. Of course, I’m not surprised by this.

    1. begbert2

      Her earpieces are drawn occasionally, mostly when she’s in profile. It weirds me out a bit when they are drawn without them (which is a lot).

      1. Em

        Notice that all of the glasses wearing people in DOA do not show the earpieces when shown from the front. Just an artistic choice.

  51. Miles

    XD the way she signs wrong at the end just completes the comic

  52. slapdash

    I don’t know when it happened, exactly. But I’ve suddenly started reading Sal in the voice of AppleJack from My Little Pony. And it’s both disturbing and somehow appropriate.

    1. Jen

      O_o

  53. amrothsirfalas

    Am I the person “who’s now in the spam folder.”? Juest writing to test.

    1. amrothsirfalas

      LOL, guess probably I am (since I couldn’t comment from original IP). Willis just hate any criticism after all.

      1. Spencer

        I whine about Willis all the time in these comments. Yours just sucked.

        1. David M Willis

          Yeah, amroth there said that Marcie being bi was “ridiculous” and then some incredulous stuff about coming out trans. That’s not “criticism” that’s just being a dumb asshole, and it absolutely gets dumped into the fucking spam folder.

        2. timemonkey

          How can being bi be ridiculous?

        3. Coco Pommel

          Fitting that he got a “Joe” yet I bet the real Joe is more sensitive.

        4. Rycan

          That’s an example of a question I’d rather not hear the answer to.

        5. David M Willis

          here is their clarification, which immediately reiterates exactly why I dumped them into the spam folder: https://36.media.tumblr.com/60fa4ba46a42ecdca6406c42f5b9d998/tumblr_nq27f7VeNL1qkinreo1_540.png

        6. Coco Pommel

          Facepalm.jpg

        7. timemonkey

          Riiiiiight, because a handful of non-hetero characters on a campus of hundreds is unbelievable.

        8. Opus the Poet

          Thousands if IU is anything like UT, there are close to 10K students on campus at any one time.

      2. Tenn

        Unoriginal troll is unoriginal.

  54. Clif

    Stop a moment and think. The received wisdom is that sexual orientation is the same across universes (though the expression might differ). Now recall the words “I was experimenting and it turns out I’m not into girls” and their context. And ask yourself where this can possibly be eventually going except in the direction of many “Damn You Willis”‘s. Calling it now. Poor Marcie.

    1. Spencer

      Well, maybe not? She was also very attracted to Ultra Car’s female chassis.

      Like Kamino Neko mentioned yesterday, I think Malaya might be demisexual.

      1. Kamino Neko

        Yeah, it really makes the most sense to me.

        SP!Malaya’s not into robots, she’s into Ultra-Car. IMO, it meshes better with her general personality, and the fact that she’s never had a relationship that worked before her, with guys or with Leslie.

        1. DarkoNeko

          Rather, she hates (most) humans.

  55. Daibhid C

    Am I alone in noticing that Sal’s gesture in the final panel, which she seems to think indicates her desire to hit Malaya in the literal sense, is rather similar to a colloquial gesture indicating what Marcie’s trying to say?

    (Cf. Arnold Rimmer “All you need to know about Yvonne McGruder is…”)

  56. Tenn

    Yesterday, I was all “Ooooh, Marcie and Malaya? That sounds like an interesting relationship with lots of character development!”

    And now, it’s like oh, they’re not actually a thing yet? Oh well, maybe it’ll happen in a few weeks (years).

    1. Em

      Or maybe Marcie will reveal her feelings to Malaya tonight!

      1. a snow ʍousɐ

        So, like, in a week or two.

  57. HiiroArana79

    I don’t like Dumbing of Age as much as your other strips. Marcie being mute is and using ASL to communicate I one of the most interesting thingd I’ve seen side in a comic.

  58. ceeq

    I got a question: how do you use sign language in Canada? When it’s minus 45*C? Do mitts give you a special accent?

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