183

Comic strip
Posted on December 26, 2020 by David M Willis

183 thoughts on “Comic strip”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Well THERE’S some references

    I once did a Neopet Comics but since there’s no comments section and no one Neomailed me idk if anyone got it

    1. Regalli

      Oh hey! Neopets! Good times. (And creative use of disparately-sized toys. Mega Lupe is delightful.)

    2. foamy

      *looks at alt-text*

      *ages instantly into ash, Indiana Jones style*

      1. Needfuldoer

        *Saving Private Ryan aging sequence dot gif*

    3. Clif

      Personally, I think Walky should go with HOW THE DINOSAURS DID IT. It’s ambiguous enough to cover just about anything he might put in a dinosaur themed comic, and yet suggestive enough to support his inevitable path toward Internet pornlord.

      1. Clif

        Still, I’m looking forward to seeing the Head Dinosaur design.

  2. BBCC

    Sorry, Jennifer, when you’re an ex head cheerleader, you get LOTS of attention.

    1. BBCC

      So grav roulette is….

      1. BBCC

        DAMMIT. WRONG WALKERTON.

        1. Regalli

          SO close!

        2. SadnessWithASmile

          Ooh, let’s see here…

        3. SadnessWithASmile

          … Okay, I’m still holding out hope for him.

        4. Sunny

          I’m ok with my new one. It also makes it extra weird whenever I say something wrong about star wars.

    2. Varangian

      Wait, how’d you get Malaya in the top comment and Walky in the reply? Does it switch ‘em twice? I knew I had everyone’s favorite thirstmonster as of like last week, but it only rolled once.

      1. thejeff

        Change the capitalization of your email address and you get a different random gravatar.

  3. Proto_Eevee

    Walky completely ignores the destruction of his friendship here, providing is either too dumb to realize or he just doesn’t care. I love it

    1. Switchchris

      I think he always thought of her more as a sister then a friend to begin with, which is why he annoys her so much on purpose, thats the role of the brother in his eyes, and its also why he didn’t react poorly to her saying that, because in his mind, everything will be ok, because they are family, and family fights happen.

      1. DailyBrad

        Yeah, she’s a sister to him moreso than a friend. I don’t think she really classified him as a friend prior, either, due to an early strip having Billie lament that Joyce was her de facto best friend in college.

        1. DailyBrad

          Oh awesome, I am Carla now, that is a huge upgrade from Galasso. And I like Galasso.

        2. Proto_Eevee

          Carla is an upgrade over everything

        3. Casi

          I agree, here’s hoping i get carla!!

        4. Casi

          Dorothy ain’t too bad 😀

        5. ktbear

          And I ended up with Walky. Walky ffs!!

        6. Sunny

          Not just any Walky, though, a triangle-smile Walky!

        7. Council

          Ooooo gib me something goood

        8. Council

          Hot dog, Dorothy’s awesome, heck yeah

        9. BarerMender

          Right? I didn’t like being Galasso.

      2. Keulen

        Yeah, this. Walky definitely seems to think of Jennifer as more like a sister than a friend.

    2. timemonkey

      It’s like the third time she’s tried to end their relationship.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Seems like every time hubris throws her off the social ladder, Walky’s there to catch her. When she doesn’t need him, he may as well not exist.

        1. DailyBrad

          That’s mostly how he likes it. He tends to defuse situations with warmth by cracking jokes since, “we ain’t a hugging family”.

    3. Jane

      I’m not certain whether the fact that he’s blatantly ignoring the fact that Jennifer pretty much got cut out of the newspaper in favor of talking about his new comic makes it better or worse, either.

      1. BBCC

        She was told the paper needed pictures of the new superhero. That is something she can do. Working superheroes was her beat before for a while, and before that she…..wasn’t really working there much. She was told ‘try a small local interest story and we’ll see’. Whether she likes it or not, the superhero is the best shot she has at a regular job at the newspaper.

        1. Jane

          She’s obviously upset about it, though, and he’s totally ignoring it.

          Plus, he darned well knows she’s never getting pictures of Nightguy, since he’d be a complete idiot to be around her in costume.

        2. Mae

          …Walky IS a complete idiot, though. Like, he’s a whole twelve-course meal of idiot.

        3. Suzi

          Yeah, that’s not an excuse for ignoring a woman when she tells you to stop. Even my brother (who has a hard time with social cues) understands that when someone says STOP you stop. Walky is being disgutingly disrespectful here, which is gross behavior we’ve seen from him before.

        4. Suzi

          Oh great, now I’m a cis white bro, just love it.

        5. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          Cis White Bro with THE HAT!

        6. Mae

          Oh, yeah- no excuses for Walky, when I say he’s being an idiot, ‘disrespectful’ is included in that package. I was moreso saying that he’s dumb enough to accidentally reveal to Jennifer that he’s ‘Nightguy.’

        7. Jane

          …Walky might not have a great relationship with common sense, but I’d hope that he’d recognize that someone who’s been with him for most of his life would probably not be fooled by a hastily-assembled costume, especially when she knows how interested he is in that kind of thing.

          Then again, I guess I can see him not realizing why being reported on is something that he should strive to avoid…

        8. BBCC

          Billie thought AG was Sal. I think he’d be okay being around her as Nightguy.

          And yes, he ignored her saying he ruined her meeting, and he could try to make her feel better about that. One way is to change the topic to something else like them being family and talking about the comic. Honestly though, the meeting was dead in the water, even before he said anything. The only thing Daisy wanted from Billie before he spoke up was stuff about AG. When she was told AG was gone but there was a new hero, all she wanted was stuff about that. Daisy does not have another use for Billie – she won’t even make her superhero stuff a regular beat, so I don’t think there’s much for Billie anyway. Even after Billie was putting in stories on AG, Daisy never hired her for regular work. Dorothy, working on the same beat later on, did seem to be hired. Heck, she considered hiring Roz for a regular sex column without knowing anything about Roz’s potential writing skills. I just don’t think Daisy has any intention of hiring Billie as a regular.

        9. Jane

          The fact that the meeting was doomed from the start still doesn’t make it any better to crash a meeting with your friend’s boss, ignore your friend’s efforts to try to get out of a ridiculous, dead-end assignment by persuading her boss that there’s still potential there, and then turn the conversation towards your own interests instead of what the meeting is actually about.

          Jennifer has absolutely every right to be angry with Walky here, because he took a slim chance to improve her position at the paper, and made it non-existent. It’s no different than if he took a call for Daisy on her behalf, and answered everything for her. It was her meeting to screw up, and he refused to give her that chance because he’s more interested in proving to Jennifer that she can’t ignore him.

          That the outcome would be the same doesn’t matter; what matters is that he’s interfering in things that are important to her.

        10. BBCC

          I think Jennifer has the right to be angry with Walky, but I also think it’s okay to talk about why I’m not particularly angry with him and that’s because Billie’s chances were ALWAYS non-existent. She had 0 chance of persuading Daisy to give her something non superhero related to do and honestly, giving Daisy the idea there’s still blood to be wrung from that stone might have saved Billie’s chances of doing ANY kind of work for that paper.

        11. Jane

          I’d also like to stress that Walky had no idea that Daisy had such a haphazard management style, or that Jennifer had little chance of getting real work – it’s essentially pure chance that he avoided doing significant harm here. I mean, in a real office, Jennifer would have already taken a significant hit for lack of professionalism when she didn’t force him to stay outside when she went to meet her boss.

          He went into what should have been a delicate situation with rather self-centered goals, and it was only by pure chance that it didn’t turn out terribly. What if he were to do the same with Sal, or Joyce, or… Well, frankly, any of his friends, they all have certain situations that need a lighter touch. This time the only real consequence was being yelled at by Jennifer, but what about the next? If he doesn’t learn some basic discretion, like not messing with people at work, he could actually hurt somebody some day. And sure, he won’t have meant it – but the harm will still have been done.

        12. BBCC

          I don’t disagree with any of those things. That said, I’m personally not that annoyed with him after weighing intent, potential impact, and actual impact. especially since both I and Jennifer do know about Daisy’s haphazard management style. That doesn’t mean he’s not being a shit and he doesn’t need to knock it off before he really DOES do serious harm.

        13. Sirksome

          Um we don’t actually know that though. You can claim Daisy would’ve still rejected Jennifer but just by Walky being there and inluencing Daisy to begin with changed the nature of the conversation. It went from “Amazi-girl retired maybe I can pitch you something else” to “Amazi-girl retired but rumor has it there’s a NEW hot vigilante operating I could get pictures of” We have no idea how that first conversation goes because Walky interjected when he wasn’t even supposed to be there. He did rui that meeting for Jen and claiming this outcome was a positive ignores Jennifers feelings on the matter because she clearly doesn’t want to work a vigilante photo gig and didn’t even get a chance to try for something else. Why does Walky get credit for this?

        14. Newllend(henryvolt)

          100% percent confident that unless Jennifer was going to propose anything that involved sexy lesbian activity then Daisy would not have cared, also with it being day one of the new semester Jennifer wouldn’t have had anything new to make a story so she would haft to have Daisy give her a assignment but she only had one thing in mind but that got derailed do to no sighting of the last cape prowler going M.I.A.

          She can be mad that she doesn’t want to babysit Walky sure that’s fair, but to give the tabloids a tip of a possible new lead wouldn’t really count as interrupting work more like giving them something to stay relevant.

        15. BBCC

          @ Sirksome – I don’t know how many times I can keep saying it. Walky was being a shit. Jennifer has every right to be mad at him. Walky needs to knock it off before he does do serious harm. However *I*, personally, am not that annoyed by it because *I* think that the meeting was most likely dead in the water based on Jennifer and Daisy’s past interactions where the most interested Daisy has ever acted with Jennifer’s work is the AG story and that did not result in Jennifer being hired and, in fact, convinced her Jennifer was an unprofessional spoiled child and that the story should be given to Dorothy. That is the last time Jennifer had anything even REMOTELY resembling a regular beat. The fact that the only thing that might keep Jennifer on board at the paper is the thing she doesn’t want to do doesn’t make things less sucky for Jennifer or mean Walky was right to interrupt the meeting. Sometimes it’s just a sucky fact – the only job the boss is interested in you doing is the one you don’t want to do.

        16. Sirksome

          @BBCC Yo. I get it. I just got a little upset cause it feels like no one is acknowledging Walky’s fault in this but I get what you’re trying to say. There is a histoty there that meant this outcome probably wouldn’t have ended well for Jennifer anyway. I think that’s also part of the reason she’s trying to change. So she can be taken more seriously and be seen in a better light. (Unless this whole Jennifer is trying to improv herself is an elaborate bait and we end the day seeing her downing shots half naked with Asher!) I just don’t think Walky is helping with that. But a lot of criticism does need to fall on Daisy whose sexual frustrations are negatively effecting the students she might even supposed to be mentoring. It kind of feels a little shitty being against a gay character but Daisy is being really selfish here and that’s unacceptable. She’s only able to prioritize her horniness because she’s in charge and this is borderline abuse of power.

        17. BBCC

          Yeah, Walky is being a shit. Just because he didn’t cause massive harm this time doesn’t mean he’s not. We don’t really know what’s up with Jennifer – she could be trying to change for the better, it could be a ruse, or any other number of things. We don’t know.

          In fairness to Daisy, the campus superhero IS newsworthy. I don’t understand people implying it’s not a real assignment. Any university campus with a legit superhero would almost certainly report on it. That said, her motives are definitely about her horniness and the way she handles it isn’t cool.

        18. Mr D

          @Sirksome
          There’s also evidence of you hating on walky for pretty much existing and complaining every time he shows up, so people aren’t gonna listen to you about him too much, even when you got a point.

        19. Sirksome

          @ Mr D. Actually in my experience for the most part people in the comments are open enough to at least hear out and argue points I make about Walky without dismissing it. And I do actually try not to be too unfair to him even if I fail at it or be too obnoxious with my comments. I know a lot of people really like Walky and that I’m geberally in the minority in my opinion on him. This strip doesn’t do me any favors though.

      2. Abbe_Faria

        Have to agree that Walky derailed her meeting, accounting for Daisy’s mentality and management style is what Jennifer was probably “trying” to do before Walky snuffed out what attention span Daisy had (which given how thirsty she is, isn’t much), Jennifer probably could have bargained or pitched other ideas for her new assignment had he not injected himself. There are times I only get a brief window to connect with people above or below me at work and like this case here having things diverted by unproductive tangents can cause me to be unable to address other priority things with the time I have with them face to face.

        1. CJ

          We have seem then Billie trying to do that with daisy and not really getting anywhere a long time ago already.

    4. Deanatay

      Destruction of their friendship? Maybe… until you realize that this interaction PRECISELY mirrors their interactions at the start of Book 1. This is a pattern for Jennifer – she pushes her old friends away when she’s feeling confident or angry, and then gravitates back to them when she’s feeling weak or sad.

      1. thejeff

        Not so much confident, I think. At the start she was trying to push him away because she was afraid being seen with a nerd like him would ruin her chance to make a good new start at college.
        As she settled in (and accepted her failure to become the alpha queen of college) she comes back to Walky. Especially when she completely crashes, of course, but even when she’s in a better state.

        We haven’t seen enough of her yet to know where she is now or how close a parallel this is, but I don’t think it bodes well for her.

      2. Needfuldoer

        Walky’s her safety net, there to catch her when hubris inevitably pushes her off a cliff.

  4. UnfrozenNeanderthal

    I would not complain if we got a plotline about Jen trying to get Daisy laid

    1. Nono

      I think it’ll be Walky trying to get Daisy laid to make his family happy.

      1. UnfrozenNeanderthal

        Also possible, and equally entertaining

    2. Rose by Any Other Name

      I am remarkably down for that.

    3. DailyBrad

      I can dig it. Daisy is someone we’ve seen so sparingly, after all.

    4. Deanatay

      Of course, Willis usual ‘Parent Trap’ storylines go like this:

      Person1: Let’s get Person2 laid!

      *Person2 gets laid through happenstance*

      Person1: WOW!! I’m REALLY good at this!!

  5. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    Hornt? Some word made up by These Damn Kids Today?

    1. Bicycle Bill

      …. pretty much.  Here’s an article about some of the other made-up words that will be popular for, ohhh, maybe the next six months or so.

      1. Rainhat

        Into it? Yesn’t.

      2. Needfuldoer

        I thought it was a legit typo that didn’t get caught.

    2. Johan

      The t is next to the y on the keyboard so it’s prolly a common typo that became slang

      1. DailyBrad

        Likely, yeah, plus just emphasis, like Teen Girl Squad’s “ARROW’D!”

        1. Needfuldoer

          Corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior!

    3. Keulen

      I’m assuming it’s slang for horny, but I haven’t actually seen it used before now.

  6. Bicycle Bill

    For the record, Walky, “Xenozoic Tales” (also known by its alternate title of “Cadillacs and Dinosaurs”) has also been used.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      May I suggest “The Adventures of NightGuy”?  I’ve even got the tagline for you —
      “He’s not the hero we deserve. He’s not even the hero we needed. But he’s the one we’ve got.”

      Which reminds me …. Willis, when you do magnets for book 10, NightGuy needs to be included.

  7. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    Rule of young adults: Everybody Hornt

    Is Jennifer going to play matchmaker? That has gone so well for her in the past /s

    1. Needfuldoer

      Well, she knows a certain lanky redhead who’s recently single… What could possibly go wrong?

  8. Emperor Norton II

    “Hornt” is a particular guttural sound you make when you get too horny to be able to use actual words.

    (This comment will make no sense once Willis fixes the mistake.)

    1. TheKelliestKelly

      It’s not a mistake. It’s slang

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Nah, it is when you injure yourself somehow because you are …

    3. Emperor Norton II

      And no, I do not like getting Sierra replaced with…. well, anyone not Sierra, really.

  9. crow

    Jennifer knows the basic plot of Dexter and Monkey Master, what a nerd.

    1. UnfrozenNeanderthal

      She knows Walky, so of course she does

      1. Emperor Norton II

        Jennifer knows Walky. What a nerd.

  10. Khyrin

    Jennifer, I say this with all due respect: Walky wasn’t the only problem in that room. You weren’t ever going to get what you want out of Daisy.

  11. pjeseb

    Rex and the Prehistorians

  12. Newllend(henryvolt)

    The more things change the more they stay the same with old Jennifer Billiesworth. In all fairness to Walky I don’t see that meeting going any different for her if he wasn’t there.

    1. Jane

      It really wouldn’t have.

      But at least if she could have tried to talk Daisy out of her cape obsession with Amazigirl gone, and tried to talk up her other merits in hopes of getting a real assignment, she would have still lost by her own merits – she’d feel like she had a chance, and couldn’t make it work.

      The way it went, though, she never even had a chance to talk, because Walky took that chance to talk about his own issues with someone who should have been completely irrelevant to him. Sure, Daisy probably would have just cut her off regardless – but the way things went, she’ll never have the opportunity to know that.

      1. Jane

        Oh, shoot, that was supposed to be to Khyrin.

        Well, it still works well enough here, I guess.

        1. Newllend(henryvolt)

          The point you made still comes across here it’s fine.

    2. Regalli

      Yeah, that seemed to be about standard levels of Daisy Interaction Productivity, at least from what we encountered. (The fact that she didn’t realize AG hasn’t been active in a month and a half is… not a stunning display of competence.) At least the Nightguy thing might provide momentary hope for the photographers on campus?

      1. Newllend(henryvolt)

        It doesn’t feed into daisies horney fantasies but it’s still a story so yeah.

        1. StClair

          Honestly, I’m not sure she cares about stories that don’t.

        2. cmasta1992

          From what we see Daisy is amazingly incompetent even as a horny J. Jonah Jameson expy.

        3. Regalli

          That would be the ‘momentary’ there, yeah. Soon as it was clear Nightguy WASN’T a hot lady, interest would once more be lost.

          I don’t care for Daisy in general, though, let’s be clear. The ‘your RA kissing you could be a serious abuse of power/show me how it happened/tries to kiss Jennifer and then covers by saying she’s technically not her boss because she never actually hired her’ thing left a bit of a lasting impression. (Especially since it was one of her last major appearances for years, and was her last one with Jennifer.) At least there was never a question Ruth was a massive pile of dysfunction (and they actually started to be an item when JENNIFER decided to lean into her own massive depressive dysfunction. Doesn’t make the first kiss better, but eh, it tempers the relationship’s start as a whole for me.)

  13. Newllend(henryvolt)

    Hornt= Horny on TURBO.

    1. Caninse

      I was gonna say, I don’t think Hornt is slang but it definitely needs to be now.

  14. Switchchris

    I cant wait to see a Convo between Walky and Dina about dinosaurs, and she forces him to tell scientifically correct stories with the correct names lol.

    1. Khyrin

      Their collaboration is so well-recived that Walky doesn’t even need prompting to split the US$5.00/strip with her. it takes him a few weeks to find his feet, but Walky eventually settles into a steady twenty-five-panel-a-week structure with arcs lasting the entire semester. David and Dina Talk Dinosaurs is a staple of the paper until they graduate.
      Four months later they announce their first in a series of informational children’s books. Dina’s passion is tempered by Walky’s understanding of when non-Dina-level-enthusiasts would lose interest proves an irresistible combination to foster a thirst for knowledge in children. A decade later, inspired by this renaissance of scientific interest, Jurrasic Park β is released. This film is a beat-for-beat recreation of the original Jurrasic Park film, but the dinosaurs all have the most accurate possible bodies vis a vis body fat, protofeathers, size,et cetera.

      1. Chris

        I like it.

      2. Ike

        This comment is perfection.

  15. Alden

    How about “Quaesitosaurus Content”?

  16. Octopus Ink

    I’m trying to brainstorm a new comic right now, myself. I can totally feel Walky’s pain.

    1. Yotomoe

      My issue is I have a bunch of ideas for comics.. I even know how most of them end. I’m just too lazy to start. Comics are a lotta work.

      1. Clif

        They don’t have to be. It’s not like you aren’t going to be drawing anyway. Just do it in a three panel format of whatever strikes your fancy at the time and give it a name like, oh, HYPNAGOGIA (hypnagogia is the transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep). Can cover anything. You can do part of a story, leave it, and come back with no explanation and put in 3 panel strips with no connection to anything else. Get a starting buffer of 90 strips before you post anything. Get a technogeek friend to set up a website where it’s dead easy to add a new strip and move the current one to the archive. If you want to evolve the comic or start over with a new one at any point, you can. But in the meantime you can have fun, and it’s not like you weren’t going to be drawing anyway.

  17. Cattleprod

    Billie and the Cloneasaurus?

  18. Newllend(henryvolt)

    You know the fact she never confirms or denies Walkys claime of “We’re family” can be taken so many ways and I like it.

    Like her reply back is one of none serious mild annoyance but never real confirmation. That “ugh” can be taken as “Ugh, great the only real sense of family I have and it’s the annoying brother who won’t listen to me,” or if there are still people out there who pan for a romantic interests between the two it could come off as “Ugh, It’s so annoying you’ve never seen me as anything other than just that.”

    To anyone else their first impression of these two would come off as the latter option. But with time you can see how Walky very well could be right about it being more of a pseudo sibling type relationship.

    1. Diner Kinetic

      Honestly this is a pretty well-constructed conflict: two people with radically different understandings of the situation they’re in failing to communicate with one another in a way that works for either of them, since Jen’s hostility is something Walky became all-but immune to forever ago and filters out like white noise; and meanwhile Walky can’t manage any deeper communication than “I’ll be genuinely frustrating to you” so there’s no real reason for Jennifer to engage in frank-but-not-mean conversation. It’ll be interesting to see what ends up bridging their perspectives and what kind of resolution results

    2. Sirksome

      What? Sorry but this is kind of the problem. Jennifer set a boundary. They are not friends and she doesn’t want him around. This is not code for him to try harder or just ignore her wishes because “they’re family”. Jennifer isn’t failing to communicate anything if Walky continues to force interactions than he’s failing to listen. The best thing he can fo is apologize for upsetting Jennifer and give her some space. Anything else would be incredibly disrespectful.

      1. Clif

        If I was making a random guess, it would be that you didn’t grow up with a sibling of the opposite sex about your age.

  19. Stephen Bierce

    And here I thought that Walky would go the Willis route, produce the entire term’s buffer overnight, then collect the pay the next day and binge on whatever fast-food place he fell through the door for.

    1. Stephen Bierce

      –Daisy reviews the strips…
      DAISY: I don’t get it.
      WALKY: It’ll be funny the day it’s printed.

  20. Yotomoe

    Is that an invitation billingsworth? Because yoto hasn’t thought about drawing Walky/Billie but I’d DEFINITELY be up for it.

    1. UnfrozenNeanderthal

      I mean the implication I got was that she’d get someone else to do it. Offer ’em a fiver. Or stock options

      1. Yotomoe

        Yeah I know, but a boy can dream

    2. Newllend(henryvolt)

      You always haft to tempt me with something I know is wrong. Part of me is filled with curiosity but-…wait a minute you have drawn Walky/Billie before.

      1. Newllend(henryvolt)

        Still though, curiosity it’s getting the better of me.

      2. Yotomoe

        Wait, did I? Seriously have I. I don’t remember half the fanart I did for this comic.

        1. Newllend(henryvolt)

          Found it, exhibit A and B.

          1. http://i.imgur.com/QXMHFBq.png
          2. http://i.imgur.com/EAG8Qo6.png

        2. Yotomoe

          Haha wow that’s OLD. Whalp no shame in rehashing old crackships.

        3. Clif

          For both links I get “we can’t find that page” which is disappointing.

        4. Spencer

          I once commissioned you to draw Joyce as Jotaro Kujo.

          I still treasure it.

  21. Kitschensyngk

    You know, denial is the first sign of a lifelong friendship.

  22. drs

    Hey Billie you’re bi, there’s a direct way of getting Daisy laid…

  23. Sirksome

    Well she finally said it. That’s too bad for Walky. I guess Jennifer wasn’t as endeared by his behavior as the rest of us. At least he still has his comic!

    1. Newllend(henryvolt)

      Nah, this dynamic feels like the same old song and dance as they usually have.
      She’s changed but not drastically.
      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/sister/

      1. Sirksome

        Ironically I think this is what she’s trying to avoid. This is why she goes by Jennifer now. She’s even mentioned the old her wasn’t nice to Walky. Walky is bringing out this side of her by annoying her because that’s the dynamic he’s used to but not the one she wants. His feelings don’t get priority over hers. This is a dangerous game he’s playing and soon Jennifer might say they’re not even family anymore.

        1. Newllend(henryvolt)

          Next your going to tell me he’s the cause of her drinking.

          I’ll be honest I don’t see Jennifer has an improvement over Billie. The only thing I see wrong she’s doing in the comparison of the old and new her is constantly trying to cut out the one person who hasn’t left her side through out the years. Her parents walked out on her and her high school click cut ties with her. But out of all of the mistakes she’s made it’s Walky that stayed true.

          With the old Billie yeah sure she was mean with the words sure, but unlike Jennifer atleast she knowledge his existence instead of brushing him off the first time seeing him after months of radio silence. YES I get it she doesn’t want to baby sit Walky because let’s be honest no one fucking does and she can be allowed to be mad about that but I wouldn’t say the intention selfish even if he does end up being obnoxious in his typical walky way.

          But fine if cutting out her last sense of family she has is what she thinks is her prefer method of growing up then why tell her no? She seems to be doing that with everybody so why not him too?

        2. C.T Phipps

          Jennifer is apparently sober and in therapy. I think she’s made a great improvement.

          She just doesn’t like Walky or her old “friends.”

        3. thejeff

          Evidence for being sober or in therapy?

          She was before the timeskip, thanks to Ruth, but it’s quite possible that’s changed. Likely as either the cause of or result of the break up.

        4. C.T Phipps

          She’s said she’s in therapy. Also, she’s shown no sign of day drinking.

        5. Sirksome

          I don’t think Jennifer was even trying to avoid him at first. Walky just kind of took it that way because she didn’t immediately acknowledge him and when she didn’t he chased after her shouting “Babe” over and over. She even went along with him following her into her meeting unwanted. Now she IS avoiding him which is a situation he created by not respecting her boundaries in the first place. If had just chilled this could’ve went completely different.

    2. Regalli

      I think part of the issue is that, after she apparently was ‘elusive’ for a while (how long, exactly? Since break? Before that?), she comes in doing the massive change thing… again. This is the third time she’s tried to cut Walky out to move onto bigger and brighter things (once in high school, then again in the first semester, and we see her repeat that pattern of the all-new, all-different Jennifer – in this case, with no glasses or acknowledging of vulnerabilities, which she at least realized the issue with pretty quickly – in Forest Quad) and it’s never exactly worked. Last semester when her depression started setting in, she went to Walky’s room looking for comfort, which does show there’s a genuine familial bond there on her part as well. So he’s probably still thinking this is business as usual… but the last few times also went VERY badly. Jennifer’s Cool Cheerleader Bestie Alice who she went to Cool Kid Parties with was the one with her during the DUI, which suggests they may have been at a party beforehand or the like. Her attempt to be Cool Head Cheerleader Bongo In Charge in college was almost immediately soured by her depression, and that depression included the dysfunctional relationship with Ruth. (And Walky clearly hasn’t forgiven that, and was the one who made sure Chloe knew Jennifer ALSO had self-destructive and potentially suicidal tendencies when she got called in, because she was clearly in a REALLY bad place when she came to see him.) Now she’s dating Asher… who Walky knows called the cops on Sal to save his own ass, so I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s another Does Not Trust This alarm going off in Walky’s head. (And we the audience know he’d be right to have concerns, because we know he’s not as out of the mob as he told Sal he was trying to be.)

      To be clear, he is ABSOLUTELY being an ass here and Jennifer has every right to be annoyed. But I do think Walky’s being an ass, in part, because every time she’s done something like this before it’s tended to go badly. Catastrophically so, sometimes. Add in his general Walkyness – and believe me, I do think he’s deeply immature in a lot of ways, even if some of them are clearly ‘coping mechanisms for living in an abusive household, which at 18 he is only just experiencing independence from’ – and it becomes Total Annoying Asshole mode. Lay off it, Walky, but I do get why it’s happening.

      1. thejeff

        Yeah. Walky’s covering it with his usual nonsense, but he’s here because he’s worried about her. Rightly so.

        1. Needfuldoer

          But he can’t just say that point-blank, he has to dance around it with his goofball deflection nonsense.

          These two need to communicate better, or they’re going to be stuck in this feedback loop forever.

        2. thejeff

          You’re right. He can’t.

          Have you watched these two communicate? They generally understand each other pretty well, as much as they tease and snap and deny it.

  24. Sporky

    He didn’t ruin your meeting, Jennifer. You just suck.

    1. Megz

      Actually Daisy is the one who sucks. She’s too focused on being horny for female super heroes (or who she’s convinced are women) that she’s not willing to work with Jennifer (who is in the Jounalism major) on a way to get in the paper. In fact, Daisy is a really inappropriate boss. There was even that one time she tried to kiss Jennifer (than Billie) while she had Jennifer describe how Ruth had pressed her against a wall and kissed her. I’m surprised no one has brought this up to the administration.

    2. Sirksome

      He did though. He interfered in her meeting and changed the outcome in a way she didn’t like. That ruined it for her. It is really baffling to me that people are defending Walky on this. He did a bad thing to Jennifer here. He’s the one that sucks. It’s like Jen’s feelings don’t even matter.

  25. Megz

    I’m glad Jennifer finally tried to lay down the line with Walky but he’s to determined to keep the bond he thinks they share intact. Instead, if he were her brother, he’s actually being a really shitty brother: he won’t leave her alone even when asked, messes up her important meeting, and continues to focus on the things that matter to him (trying to cling to her and his comic thing) instead of recognizing what’s important to her. I get he may be doing this because he just spent a whole winter break trying to be a good brother to his real sister; but, that doesn’t give him the right to go off and be a shitty “brother” to someone who doesn’t even want to be his friend right now.

    1. CJ

      I don‘t think he was needed to mess up that meeting. daisy has never given her the time of the day expect when she was reporting on Amazi-Girl.

      1. DrunkenNordmann

        We’ll never know because Walky saw the need of injecting himself into and taking over a conversation he had no business being a part of.

        He brought up NightGuy, essentially redirecting the conversation to Daisy’s obnoxious obsession.

        And honestly, his “we’re family” comment is pretty bad as well – because he makes it sound as if that somehow makes it better.

        “Being family” doesn’t entitle you to anything – plenty of people have obnoxious or toxic relatives and it’s not rare for them to just cut them out of their lives.

        1. thejeff

          He didn’t redirect the conversation. It was already about Daisy’s obsession with AG.

    2. Needfuldoer

      He’s does this same shit to Sal, too. Remember the flashback sequences of Linda catching Sal sneaking in from “choir practice”, where he kept interrupting? Or the bit over the GoFundMe money for Marcie?)

      1. Megz

        He USDED to do that. Now he’s trying to be a better brother to Sal and venting all his “shitty brother” energy toward Jennifer, an unwilling party that wants to cut ties. What Walky needs to do is mature a little and not a shitty brother at all. That’s one of Walky’s major hurdles he needs to overcome and should have been doing from the start: growing up and realizing he can’t just act like a shitty brother or taunting butthole toward “friends” because not everyone finds that charming at least for long.

        1. thejeff

          Or maybe he doesn’t want to abandon Jennifer like he blames himself for abandoning Sal.

        2. Needfuldoer

          More “never stood up for” than “abandoned”, I think. In retrospect, he probably sees a lifetime of opportunities to back Sal that he passed up to protect his status as the ‘golden child’. The biggest example would probably be when Linda decided to send Sal to boarding school, not that anything he said or did by that point would change her mind.

  26. Didi

    Beware Dina for this Idea, walky. I’m pretty sure if you are inacurate about your dinausaurs,she will kill you in your sleep. Maybe she created a comic strip about this before . And she will use it.

    1. vlademir1

      I’m not so sure there. Consider this early comic.

    2. Needfuldoer

      If they collaborate, the end result would probably be “Mark Trail Sundays but with dinosaurs”.

      … That could work!

  27. Madock345

    Why do I think it’s not a coincidence that Wally has a yellow stripe shirt for this storyline?

    I honestly can’t wait to see what he does next lol.

  28. Koms

    Walky brought up the NightGuy topic. Who knows, had Walky not been there, Daisy might have given up on superheroes and given Jeniffer something else to do?

    1. Keulen

      This strip is in January if I remember right, and Daisy hasn’t given up on superheroes even though Amazi-Girl hasn’t been seen since October. So I’m not sure it would be that easy to get her to give up on superheroes.

  29. Moon

    the alt text hit me like a cinderblock what the fuck

  30. cmasta1992

    Jennifer is pretty in the right to be ticked off by this. Walky really had no business going with her to the journalism wing and then he took over a conversation he had no business being a part of and got a job out of it.

    I like Walky moderately but that would frustrate the absolute fuck out of me in real life. Evidence that she is justified in dropping her first semester crew continues to accrue.

  31. Tobias

    Walky’s going write all his friends into the comic and end up re-writing “It’s Walky!”, isn’t he.

  32. Delicious Taffy

    Maybe it really would be best for Jennifer to cut all ties with every single other character in the story and avoid them at all costs. I can definitely see her staying relevant as a complete satellite.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Didn’t she already try that with the move to Forest Quad (except for her tie to Ruth)? Her recent past quickly caught up to her.

      Besides, she’s with Asher now. That’s only one degree of separation from Sal.

  33. BenRG

    Jennifer, I’ve already told you: You need to bring Daisy something that she wants. Absent Amazi-Girl sprawled on her desk, that means a story with a big, simple headline.

    Walky? Try “I Was A Teenage Dinosaur”. Ask Dina if she wants to be a technical consultant and ask Joyce to write the scripts, just for the comedy value that the two of them at the same scriptwriters’ meeting would generate.

  34. Rabisch

    Walky, PLEASE, go away from her! She’s bad! She is better to lost than to found.

  35. Yenklette

    I would have liked Walky trying to reach out to Jennifer and not give up on her. I would have liked their sibling relationship being emphasized in a more positive way. The current vibe is kind of… well, it’s a bad way of looking at family, where Walky feels like the unhealthy family member who won’t give the withdrawing member a chance to get away.

    My hot take is it’ll work if Walky cries later. Like, I think that’s the best way to justify this: Walky is feeling abandoned and Jennifer realizes how much he misses and relies on her and maybe the two understand each other a little better. Actually, I’m hoping they both cry. Give us some sibling catharsis!

    1. Yenklette

      HOT DANG I GOT BEST GIRL FOR AVATAR

  36. ValdVin

    “Dinosaur Comix“, Walky?

    You will shortly be the subject of a bidding war between Dingo Pictures and The Asylum to make mockbusters.

  37. Needfuldoer

    Nah, the characters who should go get fucked are right here in today’s comic.

    Walky, go get fucked for being an intrusive pest. This is the worst way to ask the question you want answered.

    Jennifer, go get fucked for giving one of your long-time friends the cold shoulder out of the blue, then getting pissy when they want to know why. What did you expect?

  38. ziggy78eog

    As much as Billie/Jennifer might not like it, Walky is not entirely wrong. They may not be related by blood, but those two as just as much brother/sister, as Sal is. In his own way, Walky is telling her, in his own way, that he is never going away, and that he will be there for her, just as much as he will be there for Sal.

    Also, Jennifer, you know there is someone available, to help with Daisy’s, shall we say, “issues”. Just hook them up.

    1. DrunkenNordmann

      “Being family” doesn’t actually entitle you to anything, though. Plenty of people cut relatives out of their lives for being toxic or incredibly obnoxious.

      And Walky apparently can’t get into his head that his inconsiderate bullshit is neither whacky nor charming – it’s exhausting at best. And Jennifer is clearly not having it, considering she’s telling him to STOP.

      1. Regalli

        It absolutely doesn’t. However, as far as Walky’s ever seen, Jennifer will tell him to fuck off because she’s too good for him now and then he’ll still be the person she turns to whenever things are rough. So he has no reason to think things are different this time, and several reasons to be concerned for her (since he knows her new boyfriend sold Sal out during the convenience store incident, and also since Jennifer trying out a Cool New Identity who Doesn’t Hang Out With Nerds Like Walky has ended in the past with the DUI incident and the fall semester depression spiral. MAYBE the Forest Quad mid-semester bit didn’t end badly, but even before the timeskip we got the TMI self-sabotage attempt hall meeting.)

        He just barely knows how to interact with people in ways that aren’t Irreverent Goofball or letting out his repressed feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing. Kind of an issue. (At least we HAVE seen him let out said repressed feelings a bit more often than Becky? But they are absolutely two of a kind in the ‘Charming’ Goofball Facade as a coping mechanism for abusive parent with impossibly restrictive expectations for them.)

      2. Ziggy78eog

        Yes, Walky is being obnoxious, but no more than any other time, in the series. Joyce, Sarah, Dorothy, even Ruth, are all people she met in the dorms. She really does not have much of a connection to them, but Walky is different. Those two have been close, since they were kids, and Walky is not going to let them drift apart, like he and Sal did. Hopefully, he will figure out less obnoxious ways to express this.

  39. voidsiren

    Yikes. I feel so bad for Walky. He’s had to put up with Jennifer acting like this for years now. I had really hoped Jennifer getting therapy meant she’d realize how terrible she treats her friends and family over the years, or at least be more introspective. But Jennifer just kind of takes her anger out on everyone instead of trying to come up with a better plan.

    C’mon, do better Jennifer.

    1. DrunkenNordmann

      I don’t feel bad for him – he still thinks his inconsiderate asshole act is endearing and Jennifer clearly isn’t having it.

      1. Needfuldoer

        They’re both being little shits who need to drop the malarkey and just fucking TALK to each other.

        1. Regalli

          Yes, very much this.

        2. Ziggy78eog

          Nailed it.

  40. Varangian

    My new grav will be only too happy to help with that project, Jennifer dear.

  41. Carl Muckenhoupt

    So basically at this point the question isn’t “Is Walky going to wind up making the Dumbiverse’s version of ‘Roomies!'”, it’s “Is Walky’s version of ‘Roomies!’ an alternate version or is it literally just ‘Roomies!’ as we’ve already seen it on the web and it’s now canon that ‘Roomies!’ it’s always been just a comic-within-a-comic written by Dumbiverse Walky?”

    1. Regalli

      I hope it’s a bit less… uh, 90s and repressed fundie than Roomies.

      Given Walky’s Aggressive, Obnoxious Atheism though, I think the risk of that’s rather low.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Walky’s new comic being drawn in the Roomies! style would be a fun callback, though.

  42. Bagge

    ah, Jennifer is going for the alpha bongo solution I see.

    1. Clif

      Go with your strengths.

      1. Varangian

        I mean, it’s what she knows, it’s proven to work, and she even has a willing Walky Lust Receptacle in the form of Lucy

        Who I would not describe as such except Jennifer literally basically recommended Walky fuck her to get his stress out in front of Lucy, and Lucy was like “hey, sounds cool to me”

  43. Moonie

    Is anyone else still kinda holding out for Walky/Dorothy reuniting?

  44. a/snow/mous/e

    grav roulette out of malaya

    1. a/snow/mous/e

      …hmmmmm….
      OK, take 2

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        Lucy seems fine but let’s check another, why not

        1. a/snow/mous/e

          whoo back to Amber and inner turmoil mixed with a hint of anger issues! too relatable tbh :/

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