168

S’pretty wild
Posted on October 20, 2018 by David M Willis

168 thoughts on “S’pretty wild”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    payback’s a… hashtag

    [This is clearly a fiendish plot by The Organization! El. Psy. Congroo.]

    1. Ana Chronistic

      ok now I wanna see who won but fuck me tryna navigate Facebake pages

    2. Siddif

      I’m only just starting Stiensgate and I love that get this reference haha

    3. Bagfaceman

      >steins;gate reference

      You’re my favourite person.

  2. C.T Phipps

    So when is Sal going to reveal her desire to finish him off? Flashbacks mean that this is all building to a violent murder confrontation. Kill Bill taught me that.

    1. Cholma

      She has to learn the Five-Point-Palm Exploding-Heart-Technique first!

      1. Doctor_Who

        I would kill to see a martial arts training flashback with Sal.

        especially since I keep picturing her sensei as Galasso for some reason.

        1. Leorale

          I know Ninja Rick won’t be appearing in DoA, but, Ninja Rick, I’m just saying.

        2. Doctor_Who

          Ninja Rick is the Elle Driver in this scenario.

        3. Walky_Talky

          Never presume a man doesn’t have ninjas at his disposal.

        4. Bladeglory

          Of course he won’t be appearing. He’s a ninja. All we’ll see is the remains of his enemies after he’s done.

        5. Emperor Norton II

          Ninja Rick -has- appeared in DOA.

          In every single strip.

        6. chris73

          Considering just how easy both Sal and Amber find it to beat up multiple guys twice their size I’m surprised neither of them have entered the UFC and made some big money

        7. thejeff

          I kind of like the idea that Sal’s all street-fighting, no formal training. She got in a lot of fights and got good at it.

      2. Victor Riley

        No, we just have to see the flashback of her learning it… but in the present, she already learned it.

    2. Irredentist

      My mind went somewhere completely different when you said “Sal’s desire to finish him off”…

      1. Sol Karas

        So did mine… lol

      2. jeffepp

        Mine didn’t, but really should have. Good call.

      3. Crusading Barista

        FINISH HIM:

        https://youtu.be/B9EQO-Cn6ms

        Hmmmm, good.

        1. Sunny

          I was expecting Mortal Kombat.

        2. Crusading Barista

          you were expecting Death,

          BUT IT WAS ME

          ROMANCE!

    3. doubleW

      Closure is its own kind of violence

  3. Shiro

    Well, did she?

    (I watched a bit of Beast Wars after school when I was a kid and she’s, like, the only one I remember. I think I liked her because she was a girl.)

    1. Cattleprod

      She did.

      1. Shiro

        Woohoo!

      2. Doctor_Who

        Awesome.

  4. Wright

    You two are completely adorable.

  5. Derek

    I’m sure Sal is not trying to romantically pick up Ethan, but it kinda reads that way

    1. DailyBrad

      Ethan’s one of the hotter guys in the cast, but I can’t remember if she knows he’s gay or not. If she does, probably not flirtation, obviously. If she doesn’t, well, bets are off.

      1. Emily

        “Hey, sorry I made you think you were gonna die, let’s fuck”

        I mean I don’t know how Sal rolls but I think she’d at least get to know Ethan and prove she’s not total shit before having a lay with him

        1. HeySo

          You seem to forget that Sal has magical powers of irresistibility..

        2. thejeff

          Right. Which is why she’s offering to buy him dinner first.

        3. Agemegos

          Sal has track for treating sex as a favour she can bestow for ulterior motives, and for expecting guys to accept it as a commodity in trade. Paying off Ethan (in the belief that he’s straight) isn’t much different from buying off Jason.

        4. Deanatay

          I’ve heard worse come-ons.

    2. Roger

      yall gotta learn to un-associate “Lemme by you dinner” with romantic intent

      1. MatthewTheLucky

        Hey, she’s expressed an interest before, and she doesn’t know it’s pointless yet.

        1. MatthewTheLucky

          Also panel 4 reads like a cheesy porn intro.

        2. merbrat

          “You’re tall. Ah go fer tall.” (at Apples to Apples)
          That was the only “flirt-like comment at the time.

        3. MatthewTheLucky

          Pretty conclusive stuff.

      2. Emily

        This comment section needs to un-associate “Any interaction whatsoever” with romantic intent.

        1. chris73

          That’d remove roughly half the commentators

        2. thejeff

          Don’t be silly. Shippers don’t need “any interaction” to assume romantic intent.

        3. Deanatay

          Billie x Random Guy In Background OTP!! (jk)

      3. thejeff

        Only when people stop using “Lemme by you dinner” to hint at romantic intent.

    3. Irredentist

      Totes is

    4. Keulen

      I think Sal is one of the few characters who doesn’t know Ethan’s gay, pretty much because she’s had so little interaction with him so far.

  6. Van Jealous

    “Past few weeks”???? Seems like Past Eight Years to me :-/

    1. Opus the Poet

      You seem unfamiliar with the term “comic book time”. Like how it can be Spring at the beginning of the day, and 9 issues and 18 hours of in-comic time they have to weave around Christmas decorations in the final battle of the arc.

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        DoA is more Brigadoon time. Every night when the characters go to sleep, they wake up the next morning two months later.

        1. Needfuldoer

          Thanks to the difference in the amount of time that’s passed, and the theory of general relativity, we can only assume the DoA-verse is travelling much, much faster than our universe.

          Or it’s entirely fictional, who knows. Maybe we’re all inside Tommy Westphall’s snow globe.

        2. Rartorata

          According to Walkypedia, DoA has, to date, covered 46 days in-universe. In our world, the comic has been running for 2962 days. This is a factor of 64.3913042, which means, under special relativity, the Dumbiverse is travelling at 99.98% of the speed of light relative to our own.

        3. Rartorata

          Correction: DoA will have covered 46 entire days as of the end of this storyline (December 5th), day 3008 since its debut. This time dilation factor of 65.3913043 gives the Dumbiverse a speed of 0.9998830620710321c, which is to say 299,757,401 metres per second, or 1,079,126,643 kilometres per hour.

    2. Van Jealous

      What I do think is that someone may not appreciate the words “gentle” or “sarcasm” :-). I was raised on “Gasoline Alley” and “Mary Worth” in the 1960s, so I am very experienced with “comic book time”, but I do appreciate your comment, never the less.

  7. DailyBrad

    Priorities!

  8. ShinyNeen

    Fast-forward a bit to Sal, staring angrily at her phone, maybe even viewing this poll’s results. “Ah hate this fandom more than anythin’ an’ ah gotta have more.”

    1. Doctor_Who

      A couple years back, there was a Humble Bundle with the first several volumes of TF: MTMTE. I already had them through comixology, so I sent to pdfs to a friend, saying he should check them out.

      He blames me for the fact that he now owns over 2 dozen plastic robots.

      1. Regalli

        I got that bundle! And now I’ve gotta catch up to Lost Light.

        … I am so lucky you can’t really recreate Transformers in crochet or I’d be working on all of them. Or maybe super unfortunate, there has to be a market for cuddly Rewinds and Chromedomes out there.

        1. Minotaur

          Is it because of the legs?

        2. Regalli

          All the blockiness in general, really. Not the easiest to make rectangles in crochet. And I’ve only been doing it for a year so I’m not super-comfortable with regular color changes like you’d see on a lot of them. I’m sure it’s DOABLE (I have seen someone crochet Lulu’s belt skirt from Final Fantasy X,) but I’ve never really seen a pattern for them as dolls and I don’t feel confident yet freehanding something round. Betting they’d be more advanced just as a given.

        3. tirachokko

          but think of the sewing! a quilted fabric could keep structural integrity of the blocks without sacrificing the cuddliness. You could put flannel over the quilted fabric and start your kids early in their induction to the fandom.

        4. Regalli

          I am planning on taking up sewing in the near future, just need space for storage.

          Unlikely to have kids, but oh how I can corrupt the niblings. I mean, instill an interest in stories and strong narratives or some shit like that.

          (My brother’s already made the joke about passing his first Charizard from Fire Red down to the favorite grandkid, he knows what I’d get up to.)

        5. ShinyNeen

          Wait, what? Someone crocheted FFX Lulu’s stupid belt skirt? The thing that was so needlessly complex that the game’s animators apparently took great pains to avoid having to render it? Granted, I know nothing about crochet, but still. Wow.

        6. Schpoonman

          I want picture proof.

        7. Regalli

          , and even then she hit the upper limit on the number of belts one can fit on a doll, the stitches of the skirt body, and just in a physical realm. (It’s still in progress, but her work is amazing – her FFX Yuna and Keyleth from Critical Role inspired me to learn myself. If the link doesn’t work try Moonwhing.tumblr and scroll down to her crafting by daylight tag, Lulu should still be near the top now and there’s multiple in-progress shots of the belt skirt.)

          (I have to imagine it’s a commission and have no idea how much it cost, but guessing ‘quite a bit.’)

        8. Regalli

          Links. Damn it. Moonwhing on Tumblr, whose work I only admire more since learning how to do some of this stuff myself because she works without patterns.

        9. ShinyNeen

          Daaaaaang. Checked out the tag, saw the completed(?) doll- that’s adorable!

    2. Bagge

      Lol!

  9. Cattleprod

    Years from now, due to the sliding time scale and more Beast Wars characters being in the Hall of Fame, Ethan will be campaigning to get beloved major character Retrax in.

    1. Regalli

      I mean, Inferno’s not in yet. I like BW Inferno, the little weirdo.

      Also I’m gonna bet now, Under-3 gets in at some point before the comic ends. I believe in Under-3.

  10. adjudicus

    This is turning out really well

  11. Stephen Bierce

    I’m having flashbacks to the “election” in Sabrina*Online between Blackarachnia and Grimlock.

    1. Stephen Bierce

      Today’s strip is sponsored by Best Buy.

  12. kay

    SOMEONE TELL ME HOW THE HASHTAG ENDED. Did Sal cast the deciding vote?

    1. Regalli

      Ethan’s pick Blackarachnia won, beating out Omega Supreme and Unicron.

      (It’s… actually a wonder to me Unicron made it this far without induction, but whatever! Maybe this year’s Vengeance Against Imperialism Personified version will up his popularity some more?)

      Anyway this’ll end up being critical later once Sal needs to convince Amber she truly wants to make amends. Anyone who likes Blackarachnia can’t be all evil. Or of course Willis will make another extended re-enactment of a character’s finest moment, which in this case I think would be Bad Spark for him?

      1. Inahc

        yay!

  13. Sporky

    This really isn’t how I expected this to go at all.

  14. Teddae

    sal is a good egg.

    ethan please bring up amber and her issues please i beg of you

    1. Mollyscribbles

      Not sure if that’s the best option; he might think it’s not his place to blab her secrets.

      1. Regalli

        Yeah, he talks about Amber, Sal realizes the girl who stabbed her is the one who was smooching her brother last night, Sal is pretty much guaranteed to have thoughts on that subject and want to talk to Amber about it and without forewarning Amber’s just gonna freak the fuck out.

        1. Regalli

          And I don’t even know if Sal will necessarily disapprove of Amber smooching Walky, it’s just that that’s the sort of thing you HAVE to have serious thoughts on. It’s weird!

      2. not someone else

        There are gentle, polite-to-Amber ways of bringing it up. He could just say “my best friend is also here, but that encounter might be a lot more complicated for both of you” or something?

        1. Alanari

          Amber isn’t ready for this conversation. Probably not even ready to talk about it with a friend, or her boyfriend. Ethan probably knows that. There’s no point in bringing her up.

  15. Irredentist

    Perfection. I’m so glad these guys finally broke the ice about that incident. And them getting along is so adorable! I only hope they can work things out with Amber.

    1. Lieutenant Dan

      That last sentence makes me wonder which comic you’ve been reading for the past 8 years… 😉 #damnyouwillis

  16. Tacos

    Which poll was this? Either way, we know the Beast Wars character won because that’s what happens when you put one Beast Wars character among a selection of G1 guys.

    Anyways this is adorable.

    1. Regalli

      Transformers Hall Of Fame. This year’s pick was Blackarachnia against Omega Supreme and Unicron. Obviously the right one won.

      1. Tacos

        Good. Now if only Sky-Byte can win the next one dammit >:O

        1. Regalli

          If I used social media with any regularity, you’d have my vote next year!

  17. Rabid Rabbit

    I know there are other ways to interpret her expression, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sal look so sad as she does in the last panel. I mean, that’s almost Carla-sad.

    1. BigDogLittleCat

      I read it as “completely baffled”.
      There are some people who just don’t understand how anything in nerdland is interesting. It’s not that they’re down on it; they just don’t get it.

  18. Alden

    I identify strongly with Ethan right now.

  19. MatsuoTanuki

    Ethan is such a swwetheart. I hope and pray he and his husband live long an happy with their 22nd century genetically grafted clone children and grandchildren.

    1. Regalli

      But will there still be Transformers then? And will people still care as much about Beast Wars?

      (Will Rung have a toy in the 22nd century?)

      1. Catman

        Yes, maybe, most likely not.

      2. Eldritch Gentleman

        Who cares, Ethan will 3D print and put together his own moving and talking AI Transformers!

  20. JessWitt

    Oh lord these two. XD

    Now just wait for Amber to bear witness to this unholy sight.

  21. Stoodmuffin

    You Asked!

    Honestly, if they end up being friends, I am okay with that. I was so worried, folks. I was so nervous. But this has been so cute and wholesome so far.

    And again, Sal. You asked!

  22. Delicious Taffy

    Wow, I can’t believe Sal actually did her best to start making amends, instead of tracking Ethan down and beating the stuffing out of him. What a massive surprise, which no decent human being could possibly have expected. /sarcasm

    On a less bitter note, this is cool of Sal. She’s really trying her best, and Ethan seems to be very eager to accept her apology. In his shoes, I can’t say for sure if I’d do the same. They’re both good eggs.

    1. Alanari

      If you’ve made your peace with your past, it’s easier to accept an honest apology from whoever made said past horrible. For others, forgiving your attacker is a step towards their own healing.

      I think for ethan, it’s more the first.

    2. TemperaryObsessor

      Well we haven’t seen her interacting with Leland present day.

  23. Bagge

    Then it turns out Amber rooted for another winner of the poll

  24. Eldritch Gentleman

    Yes! Yes! Bring Sal into the darkness of nerdiness and corrupt her into becoming one of us!

    1. Stoodmuffin

      Yeeeeees! Mario Kart isn’t enough!

  25. Brotato

    Anyone else picking up on the fact that Sal has a soft spot for dorks?

    Joyce, Danny, her bro sometimes despite their issues, technically Amber (tho she doesn’t rly know that yet, but, Amazi-girl is kind of a dork too tbh), Jason (tho Idk if a hatefuck is a soft spot…), and now it seems Ethan as well.

    She always vaguely protests/insults them, but keeps “tolerating” their presence & coming back for more. It’s especially obvious with Danny, where there is genuine affection by her standards.

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      [snorts] She is being tsundere and in self-denial XD

      1. Stoodmuffin

        Canon.

  26. Peter

    That is the Ethanest thing that Ethan ever Ethaned.

  27. Zaxares

    I was starting to chant “DATE DATE DATE” and then I remembered that Ethan’s gay. XD Ah well.

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      If he’d turn out to be Bi we could have a sweet polyamory between him, Sal and Danny.

      1. TemperaryObsessor

        I’m pretty sure he learned it with Amber. I mean he technically could be like a Kinsey scale five and Amber could just not one of the few exceptions.

        1. Eldritch Gentleman

          A shipper can always dream :-3

        2. ego

          i dream of sal bringing Mike home to meet the parents. wouldn’t linda be thrilled? briefly

        3. Eldritch Gentleman

          If not for the ocean of pure pity I’d feel for Sal this would get my seal of approval. But sorry, no amount of revenge is worth paying THIS kind of price.

        4. Shiro

          I wonder if Mike could be persuaded to do it on the grounds that he’d be ruining someone’s day…although knowing him, he’d find a way to ruin Sal’s day too, so best not to poke the bear

        5. Eldritch Gentleman

          Sal might consider that a price worth paying though….

        6. BBCC

          He did once agree to chaperone Joyce on a date because he got to be dickish to someone else.

    2. Sunny

      Maybe they could go on a friendship date.

  28. Abel Undercity

    Ethan’s gotta Ethan.

  29. Darkoneko

    Ethan…

  30. Bagge

    Awww. Panel 3 Sal is ADORABLE. “Gotta do something nice… what have I that could possibly be of interest… MOTORCYCLE! THAT’S IT!”

    Somehow, and fittingly, I think very much of Walky trying to woo Dorothy with his monkey toy.

    1. BBCC

      I know right? She’s trying, Ethan. Very cutely I might add!

  31. Eric

    How does she use a phone with fingered gloves?

    1. dethtolldotmid

      Believe it or not there ARE gloves that let you use a phone. I’ve considered buying a pair.

    2. Daibhid C

      I feel like I should make a Homestar Runner reference in response to this, only I know literally nothing about Homestar Runner except what I’ve read on TV Tropes.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Go watch it. Seriously, even fifteen years later it holds up. Sbemails are only a few minutes long each, and there are official and not-official uploads all over YouTube so you don’t even need a Compy that still runs Flash Player to watch it.

  32. Bagge

    Huh, where is BBCC today? I had kinda expected a big SQUEEE about all this Sal adorableness.

    1. BBCC

      Studying for a 9 AM law midterm that I had this morning. Even *I* couldn’t justify staying up for this to post on main with that over my head.

      1. Bagge

        Dorothy would be proud of you!

        1. BBCC

          It was a law class, so if I can get Sarah’s approval, I’ll be happy!

          Although Sarah likes Dorothy, so surely that transfers?

        2. Bagge

          Hmpf. You like adorable things so I’m sure Sarah would disapprove.

        3. BBCC

          I also like crabby things and cranky snark! Will that do?

          Besides, we both can agree on at least one adorable thing – Joyce.

        4. Reltzik

          I don’t think Sarah DOES approval.

        5. BBCC

          She approves of Dorothy though!

      2. ShinyNeen

        Maybe it’s heresy to say so, but school does come before making comments on a webcomic. Hope the midterm went well!

        1. BBCC

          Thank you! It wasn’t even ‘I need to study and not look at Dumbing of Age’ it was ‘I need about an hour to get up, get ready and drive to campus and it starts at 9 AM so I can’t justify staying awake to see this strip go live on main, no matter how much I love it’.

      3. Regalli

        Best of luck, hope it went well and that any grade curves be favorable!

        1. BBCC

          I hope so. I think things went well. The professor said that when you understand the principles behind legal consent and capacity, you should do okay, and the questions were all simple enough so I hope I did well.

      4. seeprybyrun

        Man, law school sucks, but a midterm on a Saturday? Geez.

        1. BBCC

          I’m not even in law school. I just really like law classes so I took Health Law this semester. It’s fun and the teacher’s hilarious, but yeah, Saturday midterm + 9AM? Yeah, ouch.

        2. Inahc

          cool 🙂 I had a required law class for my first CS degree, and I found it really interesting. you’d think reading about court cases would be dull, but I actually enjoyed reading some of the important supreme court cases.

          but… saturday midterm? eeeewww, that is *evil*.

        3. BBCC

          Yeah, I thought law was fun in my last two years of high school, so I took intro to law a couple years ago and decided to take the only other undergrad law class, which was health law. I’m in history, so it’s not TOTALLY inapplicable?

          Yeah, when our professor told us, the first thing he said was ‘Yes, I know, Saturday at 9 AM, I’m sorry, I didn’t pick it, please don’t hate me’.

        4. Regalli

          Good legal documents can be super interesting, and on rare and magical occasions, hilarious. Sometimes I think of the ACLU of West Virginia’s amicus brief for John Oliver against coal magnate and known spurious-defamation claimer Robert Murray, and I feel joy in my cold dead heart. Anyone can legally say ‘eat shit, Bob!’

        5. Regalli

          Damn links. I have got to figure out what’s up with that. Whatever, Google it, it’s worth it.

        6. BBCC

          I think the law by itself is super interesting, I just don’t have the blood pressure to go into it professionally (I mean, y’all saw me with the Walkertons – can you imagine me in court?). Besides, librarian hood is where it’s at for me.

  33. Guest42

    Sal, it makes no sense your paths haven’t crossed.

    You both hang out with Danny, you even play video games with him (before you judge a transformers post)

    You both hang out with Amber.

    He used to date Joyce, your friend.

    And your twin brother is a giant nerd.

    Really the only times your paths shouldn’t have been crossing is when you were hanging out with Carla, Malaya, and Marcie…. which is surprisingly often given how you seem to hate 2/3 of those.

    1. Emperor Norton II

      She doesn’t really hate Carla. There’s been several times they’ve hung out voluntarily. Heck, they even share interests, such as sneering at everyone from a wall.

      1. BBCC

        Yeah, she likes Carla and she loves Marcie (whether you see it as platonic or not, I don’t think that’s deniable especially after that flashback).

  34. tirachokko

    Oh Sal

  35. Felian

    Oh goodness Ethan, really? She owes you for life and you can wish for basically anything and THISS is what you go for?
    ok fine…. yourkinkisnotmykinkbutyourkinkisok…

  36. JMP

    Sal’s gloves work with touchscreens?

    1. ensiform

      Most modern gloves do, yes.

      1. Inahc

        including everything from the dollar gloves I usually wear, to the super-warm snowboarding gloves I got recently, which were so bulky I couldn’t really hold my phone anyways. 🙂

    2. BBCC

      So do mine. Wear them enough and you learn to compensate.

      Sal only takes her’s off when her parents are around.

  37. figureaddict

    Great to know Ethan can be Ethan in about any situation. If Sal thinks its wierd ‘two’ of them ended up at the same university, just wait!

    1. ShinyNeen

      Yeah, Ethan is the easy setting compared to Amber. But then, narratively speaking, that’s probably part of why this went so well for Ethan and Sal- the hard work’s going to be in making peace with Amber.

  38. BBCC

    So, as Bagge predicted, I just about MELTED at this adorableness. I mean, first of all, Sal looks ADORABLE. And it’s actually super cute seeing her trying to figure out what you do for an ex-hostage. I don’t think hallmark makes cards for that.

    Sal and Ethan’s current interactions remain absolutely precious and even if we never get more friendship out of this, I will always love this interaction.

    And pffft, yeah, go figure Ethan goes for polling for a transformers character. Oh, Ethan. Honey.

    1. Bagge

      There TOTALLY should be a card for that

      1. MatthewTheLucky

        Puppy with sad eyes and a sheathed knife.

    2. Emperor Norton II

      Front: “The truth twist like a knife ’cause it hurts…

      Inside: “..And truth is, I almost hurt you really badly with a knife, and that was a crappy thing to do.

      I’m sorry.”

      1. BBCC

        PFFFT

        1. Emperor Norton II

          PFFFT!

      2. Regalli

        Someone, somewhere, must have made one of those things.

        I mean come on. Loki is how popular, again?

  39. Red Comet

    I hope things work out. Ethan broke the ice but isn’t *required* to be friends with her. Even if he wants to, he doesn’t have to be friends with her right away. I hope he gets space to sort his feelings out whatever winds up happening.

    I’m glad for Sal too. I hope she doesn’t get too pushy with trying to “redeem” herself to Ethan after this and also has some help on her end dealing with this interaction outside of Ethan.

    1. Sunny

      They have a bunch of stuff to figure out, but I’d say things are looking good so far.

  40. ValdVin

    The detail of RUTTEN on the sleeve is just right when Sal bends her arm a few different angles. Nice work and a bit tricky to make look accurate.

  41. Micki

    This is almost too nerdy (even for me), but I friend-ship Ethan and Sal so hard now.

  42. nlips

    Ethan, let your nerd light shine! It’s the only way the other nerds will be able to find you!

  43. Gojira

    Ethan could have made his mother happy forever by passing her off as his girlfriend.

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