113

Fowl
Posted on April 12, 2021 by David M Willis
The Dumbing of Age Book 10 Kickstarter hit $50K this Sunday evening, meaning the next character magnet tier is unlocked: HOSTAGE SARAH!  She clocks in at about 2"x4.5", and you can pledge for her individually, choose to get her and others in the PICK THREE and PICK FIVE MAGNETS tiers, or go all-in for COMPLETE MAGNET POWER! NEXT UP:  At $55K, it’s a magnet of Galasso’s daughter, Conquest!  Or simply Connie, if one doesn’t want to broadcast one’s divine right to rule.

113 thoughts on “Fowl”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    maybe beds that close to the ceiling aren’t such a good idea

    *had a bunk in college but it was a single and hell if I was gonna sleep in the top of a bunk with no guard rails when I totes fell out of the BOTTOM once but it was a waste of space to separate the bunk into two “regular” beds*

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Never had a bunk in college, but I did share a bunk with a sib when I was a kid. I kept bumping my head into the ceiling fan. It was not pleasant.

      I eventually just started sleeping in the guest bedroom and de facto took it over. Not like anyone could really stop me.

    2. drs

      Have never slept in the top bunk. My freshman roommate gave me a choice so I picked bottom, and my junior roommate and I had a big enough room to split the bunks. We both used the bottom part as a huuuuuuge desk since that was a configuration option at Caltech (solid wood instead of slats); I avoiding the top bunk by putting my mattress UNDER my desk. And got a third sheet to create a privacy curtain.

    3. Devin

      Can confirm that beds that are a height such that you can sit up and hit your head on the ceiling are a bad idea.

      Source: I had a loft bed growing up. This is how I decided I had grown out of it.

    4. Needfuldoer

      My grandpa had a hunting cabin up in the mountains that we went to a few times when I was a kid. (He’d long since stopped hunting, it was mostly for ‘just getting away’ and the county fair by that point.) When the roof was redone, they just drove nails through the sheathing wherever, so there were dozens of rusty spikes sticking down about two feet over the top bunks.

      There’s also a ‘real’ set of metal Jarts up there, the fridge was the antique kind with the latching door, and I nearly broke my shoulder crashing a minibike in the woods one year. The place is a wonderland of dangerous fun.

    5. Kirt Dankmyer

      Ah yes. I still remember the way freshman roommate, Thor, would roll drunkenly out of the top bunk bed (forgetting he was on top) in the dead of night, fall in a path which, while arc-like, I’m sure broke several laws of physics, hit the desk across the room, grunt, and stagger to the bathroom.

      Surely his vocalizations replicated the sound of the common prey of the Deinonychus and other similar dinosaurs of the early Cretaceous Period.

  2. Doctor_Who

    Chicks dig chirping. Everyone knows chicks dig chirping.

    1. Shitbird

      Girls like swarms of lizards, right?

      1. ValdVin

        Jim Stafford (Spiders and Snakes) has done some field research about girls w.r.t. amphibians and reptiles.

        1. elebenty

          “Do you remember when & would you like to get together again?”

          Mom had that on an 8-track.

      2. jflb96

        That sounds about right^1

        1:*The Lost World: Jurassic Park*

        1. jflb96

          Burn me, why’d it have to be HTML instead of Markdown?

    2. Sirksome

      Can confirm. Sometimes it feels like that’s all they talk about.

  3. Sirksome

    Becky calls getting up at 6am too early? What a lightweight.

    1. milu

      Tbf she’s 18? I used to enjoy 10h nights at the time. Now I can make do with 7. Unless i’ve smoked weed the night before, then I will sleep for 12 straight hours no matter what lol

  4. Nono

    Becky seems to be learning… subtext?

    Too bad that Dina doesn’t operate off subtext.

    1. Shitbird

      I don’t get the subtext

      1. Bicycle Bill

        Replacement shirt will read “Tweet!”

      2. milu

        Becky: You used to wake me up by growling suggestively into my ear! Now you make silly goose sounds! You don’t see me the same way anymore!
        Dina: …wait, what?

  5. Proto_Eevee

    banging your head is a price that must be paid for the privilege of top bunk.

    1. milu

      Top bunk is where all the quality head banging’s at

      1. Demoted Oblivious

        Missing an ampersand after “head.”

        1. milu

          On second thought missing also and ampersand after head ^^

        2. milu

          Oh wtf I am so fucked up. Yeah just agreeing whatever lol

  6. Mr D

    Becky, you’re basically taking every single thing Dina does as an example of her being different than you thought. Either get your shit together or break up.

    1. Doctor_Who

      I’m really starting to get the impression that Becky is looking for an excuse at this point.

      Don’t know if it’s because of her fear of the relationship getting physical, or she’s not over Joyce (I think it’s telling that lately she’s put more work into her “rivalry” for Joyce’s attention with Dotty than her real relationship), or if her upbringing has impacted her sense of self-worth and she doesn’t feel like she deserves to be happy.

      But she really seems intent on self-sabotage at this point.

      1. Zor

        My bet’s mostly on the last one but I’m concerned about all of them very very much

      2. Needfuldoer

        All of the above?

    2. Exarch

      Dina doesn’t deserve the way that Becky’s been treating her; I really hope the two of them can sit down and have an honest, mature conversation. It’s looking more and more likely that they’re not as compatible as they seemed earlier (although that’s largely because of Becky’s hangups), but I like them both and so I hope this ends well regardless of what they decide for their future as a couple

  7. Cmasta1992

    Becky and Dina are gonna break up and we should start preparing for it now

    1. Bagge

      I refuse.

      1. Cmasta1992

        It’ll only hurt more later if you don’t steel yourself now

        1. Mravac Kid

          Dammit Bones, I *need* my pain!

        2. Leah

          I appreciate the reference!

        3. Demoted Oblivious

          Most illogical.

    2. Sirksome

      Thinking of a weird future where Becky ends up dating Daisy even though I really hope Dina and Becky last.

      1. Doctor_Who

        I don’t know if Becky and Daisy would work, unless Becky gets over a few of her hangups pretty darn quick.

        I mean, Daisy’s primary thing isn’t just that she wants a girlfriend, it’s that she wants a girlfriend and is thirsty as hell, so said girlfriend had better be into that.

        1. Sirksome

          That’s exactly what Becky wants. The only hurdle is similar to the one with Dina only for different reasons. Which could be a deal breaker. Becky’s ideal situation is a girlfriend that is as horny for her as she is for them but also willing to abstain because of her religious beliefs. It’s a harsh contradiction that might even be a little selfish in a certain light.

        2. Zach

          In what light isn’t it? Isn’t it obvious that she’s using religion as an excuse for her fear of intimacy? She’s been told, and rejected, so many things are sins all her life. Isn’t it telling that she clings to this one? This one that’s tangentially related to her sexuality, no less.

        3. Cmasta1992

          Daisy wouldn’t be bad for that freshman year fling that leads to nothing more than a few really fun Saturdays and has no other effect on your life.

          Thank you UNT.

        4. Sirksome

          I don’t know why Becky chooses to uphold her religious beliefs and I won’t judge her for that part. What’s selfish to me is expecting her partner to be both mutually horny for her and willing to abstain. Honestly it just makes me think she’s still hung up on Joyce. Cause if those two were dating that is exactly the relationship they would have.

        5. thejeff

          To be fair, if Joyce and Becky were actually dating, they would have had sex by now. Followed by a whole bunch of guilt and then they’d get over it. It’s not an uncommon pattern for fundie girls.

          Beyond that, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to want a partner with a similar sex drive – even if you’re not ready to have sex yet. If you’re thinking long term, then the difference in mutual horniness is going to be a much longer conflict in the relationship than the initial abstinence period.

        6. Demoted Oblivious

          Having lived this (incompatible desire levels), yes it sucks being rejected regularly by your partner. While Becky may be selfish to want that, it’s not an unreasonable level of selfishness. Now the difference is that Dina is (at least now) fully prepared to fullfill her partner’s sexual desires, even if she’s not experience the drive to begin it herself. Still, it’s not unreasonable for Becky to want to feel desired also. We are still animals and not disembodied conciousness. The only bit that’s a little weird is the wanting to still abstain, but there are enough people in the world that Becky should be able to find several matches in her area.

          Queue “lonely horny lesbians abstaining in your area!” ads. “Don’t have sex again tonight, but don’t do it, TOGETHER!””

        7. Spencer

          It’s not really the sex drive at this point, though, since Becky is paralyzed by the thought of actually having sex. What she wants right now is for Dina to jump up and down screaming that she wants to tear Becky’s shirt open with her bare hands but then never actually act on that until they get married, while Dina lacks the capacity to be as horny on main for Becky as Becky is for her, but also made it abundantly clear she would like to have sex with Becky when she’s comfortable.

        8. Jeff K!

          I don’t think Becky *wants* her partner to abstain.
          I think she wants her partner to be horny enough to ignore her protests and give Becky what she actually wants, leaving Becky the moral high ground of “I did my part, God, I said no.”

          As a similarly torn youth, that’s what all my horny daydreams consisted of: being trapped into situations where I *had* to have sex, because otherwise I would be looking at (essentially) Hell.

          It’s an awful mental space to be in – knowing what you want, and knowing that you will lose EVERYTHING you have been raised to value if you pursue it.

        9. Spencer

          Yeah this is a read I’m coming around to, albeit it’s one I only understand academically since my own religious upbringing was never like that and basically completely petered out by the time I turned 13.

          Becky has an avenue for someone to make her have sex, but even if Dina weren’t Grey-Ace that’d also be ridiculously immoral, that Becky needs and wants herself to be pressured to be into sex so she can stay clean in the eyes of God.

        10. Joy

          …where do you think her fear of intimacy comes from?

    3. Thag Simmons

      There’s definitely a lot of foreshadowing for that.

      I’m inclined to think they’re going to make it to a slipshine, simply because every other major couple has, but after that, all bets are off

      1. King Daniel

        Garbage Skowl never got beyond rooftop makeouts and one single offscreen instance of dry-humping in Amber’s bed.

        1. Sirksome

          Apparently they were still an item for part of the time skip. At least until Halloween. That’s more than enough time to have banged.

        2. Sirksome

          It would actually be kind of funny if a Walky and Amber slipshine is the only flashback we ever get. And then they breakup at the end!

        3. Cmasta1992

          As much as I would like to see Amber back in action…

          Lucy and Joyce (Or Julia Gray if we must) are just right there yknow

        4. Needfuldoer

          Walky’s Grayverse equivalent is probably the squadron’s goofy but adept mechanic, cut from the same cloth al Lowell from Wings or Woody from Cheers.

        5. Mr D

          Walky’s grayverse equivalent would be pretty much Han Solo. Scruffy, rude, (apparently smelly?), hidden heart of gold. Also a looker but the main character is deeply in denial about that until many issues in.

        6. Needfuldoer

          Ooh, I like that idea better!

    4. Keulen

      I’m hoping they don’t break up, but I’ve got a damn you Willis prepared just in case.

      1. Kirt Dankmyer

        Practice shaking your fist.

    5. Leah

      Nope. Nope nope nope nope Nope.

      1. Leah

        Oh, that was supposed to ho in the thread about Becky and Dina breaking up.

    6. timemonkey

      It’ll make Dina sad, and that’s unfortunate, but it’;ll mean we can have stories about her without having to deal with Becky and that’s a plus.

      I don’t hate Becky but right now she’s attached to basically all the best characters and I really need a break.

      1. Spencer

        You think Becky’s insufferable with Dina imagine what it’ll be like when all of the Becky strips no longer involve the best romance in the series.

        1. timemonkey

          They have had some nice moments together, I admit.

  8. Thag Simmons

    Chirping seems a lot more likely than Hompking for most dinosaurs.

    Less funny though.

    1. RacingTurtle

      There are smol dinosaurs! Chirp chirp I’m a compy

      1. Thag Simmons

        I’m not just talking the small ones, I can totally see a Tyrannosaur chirping.

        1. RacingTurtle

          Like bald eagles! They look large and majestic but their vocalizations range from “seagull” to “li’l tweety bird”.

        2. jflb96

          The chicks probably did, but they reckon that the adults sounded more like a very deep bittern – a sort of booming noise kinda like what you get if you try to hum with your mouth wide open.

          There’s also speculation that T. rex hunted in packs, with the chicks kettling prey by nipping at shins and ankles to where the adults could take it down more easily.

        3. jflb96

          Oops, that was meant to be a backslash after ‘rex’.

          I’m evolving!

  9. Bagge

    I have previously mused on the discrepancy between Dina’s love for the unchanging nature of dinosaurs, and our ever evolving understanding of them.

    Here I’m answered. You go, Dina. You do you.

    1. Stephen Bierce

      I’m sure everybody has a subject that, the more they learn about it, the more they like learning about it.

  10. Stephen Bierce

    *plays Rick Dees’ “Disco Duck” on the hacked Muzak*

    1. Doctor_Who

      …I’ll allow it, but that’s as far into the Bad Seventies as we go.

      I hear Convoy, Having My Baby, Afternoon Delight, or anything by the Captain & Tennille and you will be brought up on charges in the Hague.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Todd in the Shadows can make any song tolerable.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzw6WpwYSv8

      2. Edwin I Callahan

        You’re also in trouble if I hear There’s Got to be a Morning After or The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. Spiders and Snakes already has been bought up but that’s worth a special warning. Also, Grand Funk Railroad.

      3. hof1991

        Osmonds. So bad we tend to have amnesia about them.

        1. Needfuldoer

          ♫ You can torture me with Donnie and Marie
          You can play some Barry Manilow
          Or your can play some schlock
          like New Kids on the Block
          Or any Village People song you know

          Or play Vanilla Ice
          Hey you can play him twice
          And you can play the Bee Gees any day
          But mister deejay please
          I’m beggin’ on my knees
          I just can’t take no more of Billy Ray          ♫

      4. Stephen Bierce

        Ahem! With all due respect, Doctor…
        Yes, I agree with you on those first three songs but I’ll have you know that in my opinion The Captain & Tennile remake of “Shop Around” is far superior to the Smokey Robinson original.
        I suggest we avoid a slammie-fest as I’ve just been informed that I have a pile of Yanni in my record collection, and some Hudson Brothers, and some Bobby Goldsboro…

      5. Roborat

        Add Honey by Bobby Goldsboro or anything by Red Sovine and you have a deal.

  11. Skater Girl

    Becky is letting her insecurities destroy the best thing in her life. An important life event most us go through. Multiple times

    1. Bryy

      Yup. A completely manufactured reality, brought on yet again by how the church absolutely fucked her views on love.

    2. milu

      I have no idea what you’re talking about

  12. BBCC

    TBF, *I’d* be freaked if I was woken up by loud hompking.

    1. Devin

      Same, but I’d also be awake. Which isn’t nothing.

    2. Reltzik

      IKR? Loud growling just means that the dogs are play-fighting again.

  13. pops

    Oh no, no, Becky, do not hang on to the idea that Dina’s feelings for you will one day change. This will end badly.

    1. Bryy

      So, I was thinking it would be the exact opposite by now. I was thinking Joyce would be clinging to her religious views, but it turns out that’s Becky.

      1. C.T Phipps

        For Joyce, her religion was a prison.

        For Becky, her religion was a shield against the prison.

    2. milu

      See as long as Dina woke her up by emitting low growls Becky could still fool herself into thinking the whole “I’m a dinosaur” thing could be a sex thing. But it turns out she really was just into being a dinosaur, and being saucy was simply not a concern ever

  14. SeanR

    How about a raptor’s cry, taken down a few octaves? I like to imagine that perhaps the T-Rex sounded like an eagle, if the eagle was a base.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      What if the eagle was on acid?
      sorry, couldn’t resist picking up on the misspelling of ‘bass’)

      1. Zach

        ‘An’ and ‘on’ imply very different things about this eagle

      2. Needfuldoer

        Most of the “eagle screams” you hear are actually red-tail hawks, IIRC. We Milli-Vanilli-ed our national bird.

        Or for the other kind of Eagle, you can’t tell me Don Felder never tried it even once. I think they gave at least one hit to everyone who contributed to Heavy Metal.

    2. remi

      Don’t eagles mostly chirp and cluck? I think if you took that down a few octaves it would still sound fairly close to hompk

  15. Newllend(henryvolt)

    So I’ve been wondering what birds would make that sound. We have birds that squawk, birds that chirp, and whatever sound eagles make. But I didn’t know for sure what bird would make a “Hompk” sound, but then it hit me….Flamingo.

    1. BarerMender

      Dina already said: goose.

      1. Newllend(henryvolt)

        Do flamingos count as a type of goose?

        1. milu

          No they don’t you silly flamingo

    2. Zaxares

      I wonder which dinosaurs would have made penguin noises…

      1. milu

        Why, the penguinosaurs certainly.
        What penguinosaurs you ask.
        *sigh*, i sigh, we haven’t found their fossils yet, OK? Focus on how cool these penguin-convergent marine dinosaurs are. Very cool. They made penguin-y sounds.

    3. hof1991

      Flamingos sound a bit like cranes. You can hear a sandhill crane a mile or two away. Sandhills would definitely wake you up at close range. Or keep you up if they are within a block or two.

  16. Rotunda

    Dina’s suggestion of chirping might go with Becky’s head-bang, since little tweeting birds are a frequent alternate to stars for indicating head injuries in cartoons.

  17. Keulen

    Now would be a good time for Becky to talk with Dina about her worries, but I get the feeling she’ll avoid doing that because this comic’s not called “Smarting of Age”.

  18. Rabisch

    Awwwwww….. With Dina Becky seems so defenseless and insecure. I almost feel sorry for her and how much this is adorable♡.

  19. ValdVin

    If Becky’s head is startled into the ceiling why do I still see her eyebrows? They’d ought to be a couple feet above her head in the last panel.

  20. DarkoNeko

    hat-less becky ?

  21. thumb

    Dina is so honest and straightforward and dedicated to truth and accuracy that a horrible fate for her is inevitable.

    1. Thag Simmons

      she probably won’t go kaboom this time at least

    2. Needfuldoer

      It’s the best she can do.

      1. Spencer

        Am I crazy or did this just not catch on the way “act with integrity” did?

        It’s like the most raw gut punch Willis has written in their entire career. Actually my all-time favourite moment of It’s Walky!, and that’s a comic with a lot of good plot beats.

        1. RacingTurtle

          It’s easier to be funny about “act with integrity”, because Roomies! doesn’t show the same mastery of drama and tragedy achieved in It’s Walky!; “act with integrity” is sad, yes, but compared to “the best I could do”, it’s a little…narmish, I guess?

          As long as I’m here, in case Willis happens to see this: I was trying to make myself sad by re-reading “The Best I Could Do” today, and got brought up short by some layout-breaking comments here: http://www.itswalky.com/comic/set-up-them-the-bomb/

          (That’s literally how I ended up here in yesterday’s comments. The messed-up page set off my ADHD and now I’m pointlessly roaming the internet. Yer a flippin’ weirdo, RacingTurtle.)

        2. RacingTurtle

          Okay, mission accomplished, went back and read BICD and made myself sad. AWI is also more memeable because it involves the protagonist feeling heroic vs. the protagonist feeling like a screwup. Both are grim, but the second is, like, extra-grim

        3. thejeff

          “Act with integrity” is a better line I think. It’s not as good a scene by any means, but the line itself is better.

  22. Wakeangel2001

    I still maintain a falcon-like “scree” is more likely than a goose style “honk”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.