The first Dumbing of Age Patreon bonus strip for 2021 is about the EYE DOCTOR LADY! Because hindsight is 2020 i guess nyuk nyuk also dina's there
All Patrons can go read it right the heck now!
Remember you can pledge up to read TOMORROW'S strip TODAY! Comic strip
The first Dumbing of Age Patreon bonus strip for 2021 is about the EYE DOCTOR LADY! Because hindsight is 2020 i guess nyuk nyuk also dina's there
All Patrons can go read it right the heck now!
Remember you can pledge up to read TOMORROW'S strip TODAY!
145 thoughts on “Comic strip”
BBCC
Those….do count but oh hon.
Doctor_Who
Daisy: Okay, I like your energy, but why did you submit 30 different strips about Obama’s tan suits?
Joyce: Well, obviously because Peanuts is under copyright!
Ana Chronistic
also, Chick tracts I guess?
Doctor_Who
Somewhere in the depths of his tumblr blog (which I don’t even now if he has anymore), Willis drew a picture of himself making this face.
It belongs in a museum!
Devin
Well, I don’t have a museum, but I do follow him on tumblr, and I found it for you!
Doctor_Who
A true hero!
Andrew Weil
Saved to my “misc pictures” folder, planning on forgetting the whole thing and going “WTF?” when I see it again in a few years. As is tradition.
Gangler
From what I understand Chick Tracts are technically the highest selling comic of all time, even though they’re never included in lists of comic book best sellers.
Obviously they’re using an entirely different business model though. When every customer buys several hundred chick tracts to pass out to random strangers who don’t want them that kind of skews the results.
GreyICE
There’s simply no way. Action Comics is sitting at 600 million, Detective Comics at 484, and One Piece at 380. Weekly Shonen Jump has moved 1.2 billion issues.
These numbers are just not touchable by some fundamentalists printing home comics, no matter what.
Vegetalss4
Wikipedia claims chick tracts have printed over 800 million comics, so Shonen Jump is the only one of the listed options that actually have them beat.
Sami
You underestimate the power of fundy-spam
Needfuldoer
Hey, it worked for AOL…
Jim
Every Sunday morning when I would stop by my local convenience store for a cup of coffee, I’d swing by the men’s room. and there’d always be a couple of Chick tracts sitting on the urinals. I’d immediately chuck them in the trash before “doing my business”.
Sirksome
She’s more qualified than you Walky.
Sirksome
Honestly if Walky wants her out of the contest all he needs to say is that they’re paying 5 bucks a strip! Then watch her life as she moves on to kickstarter crowd funding the third volume of her Julia Grey graphic novel while drawing dinosaurs for pocket change!
crow
This is just baseless Walky hate. This is a great job for Walky, he’s funny, artistic, and loves comics.
Regalli
We have actually seen Walky draw, yeah.
Then again, I would totally read Joyce Brown’s Julia Gray drawn as XKCD stick figures.
Devin
Well we know she can draw ding dongs! And with some degree of accuracy with a reference!
I’m not sure it’s that kind of newspaper though.
He Who Abides
It’s run by Daisy, so no.
Deanatay
Now, if she drew boobies…
Deanatay
(If it helps, I found this helpful guide to drawing boobies.)
Librain
To further this, a guide to drawing tits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSgK74Th5oo&ab_channel=HovrahAnimation
He Who Abides
Huh. Always thought I’d have to ask Yotomoe about that topic, honestly.
ValdVin
I see a side gig for Joyce with rotoscoping dingdongs and other anatomy for a certain audience.
Sirksome
I didn’t say he wasn’t fit for the job. In fact I think he’s being taken for a ride on this whole thing and should strike out independent if he’s serious about doing a comic. But Joyce has one thing on Walky as of this strip and that’s comic strip reading experience. Walky’s been shown as more of a movies and cartoon guy. If he claims next strip he’s read a bunch of comics I’ll believe him because it’s pretty believable for his character but Joyce did site more experience here. Despite Walky basically insulting her to her face about it.
BBCC
Walky reads at least Dexter and Monkey Master. He also said the newspaper was worthless to him without more comics, because last semester there were only a couple.
Sirksome
Yeah fair enough. Honestly they’re probably about even. Walky maybe has an artistic edge, and Joyce has a passion for writing even if it’s self indulgent wish fulfilment. I just don’t want to be called out for hating on Walky when I’m honestly not trying to. I really do think if he just told Joyce how much this newspaper strip was paying she’d drop out and he’d get what he wants.
BBCC
That’s fair.
Devin
What makes you think he’s serious about doing a comic? This feels very much like this is a thing that caught his attention and is amusing him to put some energy towards, and he’ll probably stop if he gets bored.
Sirksome
He seemed legitimately interested in it, practically brought the subject up himself and was excited at the idea of being published. Maybe it’s just about the money but 5 bucks a day doesn’t seem like that big a motivator to me. It’s more like incentive for something he already wanted to do.
Devin
I mean he never brought it up that I recall before that opportunity, and his original broaching the topic was to read the comics in advance. The fact that more comics were needed and that they had an open contest to fill that opening was brought up entirely by Daisy. And excitement about being published is a pretty neat thing to be able to show around even if you’re just screwing around. And getting paid for it? That sounds pretty awesome, but the evidence that he’s serious enough about it that it makes literally any sense for him to pursue outside of the campus newspaper is pretty flimsy.
Sirksome
Then why is he so defensive about Joyce getting in on this gig he supposedly only has a passing interest in? To me that betrays him having more passion in this newspaper comic than maybe even he realizes. You’re very correct in your explaination but I think there’s more it than that. Especially after that rather solemn conversatiin with Booster ended with him being uncharacteristically serious right before his next appearance here trying to start this comic.
Devin
First, because it’s Joyce, and second, because it seemed like he had basically a clear shot with no competition, and if he’s got to compete it means more effort has to be put in and it’s going to feel more like work. I think the conversation with Booster is unrelated to the idea of drawing a comic. And maybe he’s got something else on his mind that could also be elevating his emotions past what his normal level of investment would be.
Sirksome
@Devin Perhaps I’ve overestimated Walky’s awareness for exactly how much effort this comic strip is actually going to take. Cause regardless of whether Joyce is competition or not this was going to feel like work. I assumed Walky would know that considering he took the opportunity at all. Unless Daisy has absolutely no standards (which might be the case with her track record) she needs something at least competent which will require more effort than the job’s really worth. It’s not gonna be some easy get…well not rich.. but I guess uh..get 5 dollars to cover my fast food nuggets budget quick scheme?
You’ve made your point though. I can admit that but I still wanna see how much time Walky actually puts into this before I assume he’s has no interest in comics.
Keulen
I don’t know, Walky seems to be pretty good at drawing doodles on his notes. If he can translate that into drawing a comic strip, he might be as good or better at drawing comics than Joyce.
Olivia Cheatham
I think it says a lot about Carol that she considers one of the highlights of her life was the time decades ago she decided to bash a fictional gay kid.
TrueVCU
V A L U E S
Undrave
In one of the most wholesome comic strip ever??
Nono
Y’know, as Carol becomes more cartoon villain, I wonder why it took so long for Hank to grow a conscience. Was it ‘for the kids’? Since he kept quiet about hating Toedad for so long…
Suitora
Probably to keep from conflicting with Carol. Carol seems like one of those partners who’s emotionally abusive at the very least. Joyce rarely talks about her mother, and she trusts her dad completely and talks about him more frequently.
Nono
Joyce definitely doesn’t completely trust her dad, and it was only recently that she stopped thinking of them as a monolithic unit. More than Carol, but that’s a Low bar.
Regalli
Nor does Jocelyne, who’s had time to come to terms with both ‘our parents aren’t perfect’ and ‘our parents are people, and therefore can’t be a complete monolithic unit.’ She was even surprised when Joyce brought it up. (Even now, note that Joce is not out, though I can just as easily see that being ‘Joyce can’t keep secrets and Jocelyne wants to be sure Carol doesn’t have a boat or something when it’s time to detonate that bridge.’)
HeySo
Just gonna pop in with a +1 to “definitely doesn’t completely trust her dad”. That just ain’t anything close to what “complete trust” looks like. :S
Sirksome
Strongly ingrained Christian values? My guessing is even the idea of divorce is a taboo to them. Plus I don’t think Carol was as bad as she seems now. Nobody starts out so awful it takes years of that behavior being reinforced and never challenged. Plus we honestly just don’t get to see the other sides of most of the parents in this comic. Not that we’d really want to. I don’t mind not sympathizing with Carol.
AntJ
Because he grew up steeped in that ideology too, and he didn’t have an atheist and a lesbian as his best friends
Regalli
Yep. Remember, even as recently as Family Weekend Hank was bringing up ‘well Hitler was an atheist too.’ He wasn’t ever as entrenched as Carol but that doesn’t mean he didn’t believe in it all.
LiterallyJustSomeGuy
“You know who ELSE was maybe partly Jewish?”
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/moral/
Regalli
God right I was hoping that wasn’t what he had said but suspected.
Yeah uh. That’s a pretty clear case in point that Hank wasn’t BETTER than Carol so much as he was ultimately more willing to reassess.
Vulcanodon
Being willing to reassess is part of becoming better. Carol won’t.
Bryy
But that’s the thing. Carol is very much very real.
LiterallyJustSomeGuy
I’m not sure where you’re going with this, because your question is about Hank growing a conscience, not Hank growing a backbone. Before Joyce confronted him at the fountain on parents’ weekend, I don’t think Hank was just keeping quiet while Carol was bigoted. Hank was bigoted, too, and passive-aggressively prayed over Joyce to not associate with non-believers.
Hank values Joyce, and Hank values Becky, and I think a lot of Hank’s recent growth and evaluation of his beliefs stems from his church becoming a (more obvious) threat to his loved ones.
Sirksome
Hank is no hero and is more than responsible for a lot of the same toxic behavior Carol has shown. The difference and this is a big difference is his willingness to try and change when truly confronted with the implications of his beliefs. That is not easy to do for anyone in his position but especially not for a highly religious, middle aged, white dude, who in more ways than one directly benefits from his past behavior. I don’t know if he’ll ever reach the level where he can be fully trusted, but he has more hope than most.
Regalli
Agreed to all that!
BBCC
THANK YOU. It’s kinda annoying how the comment section acts like Hank never really believed in any bad stuff and must have just gone along with it to make Carol happy.
Deanatay
Joyce was Hank and Carol’s youngest, and when she moved out to go to college, they suddenly found themselves with a lot of time alone with each other. It wouldn’t be the first marriage to fall apart once the child-rearing business is done.
Sam
There’s a lot I could say on this but it can pretty much be summed up as ‘Hank and Carol likely married young, got used to the comfort of their squabbles and compromised and sacrificed for the kids and their marriage and without differing outside points of view, Hank stagnated for years and years for the sake of his family unit and fear of breaking it then Joyce challenged him and it became kids vs wife where he had to choose some of his loved ones over others’.
I don’t feel like Hank was someone who ever chose to be bad. But became complicit and stagnant due to marrying in and being stuck in a culture that supported his worst views. He didn’t have anyone to challenge him to be better or reassess or to tell him that he probably wasn’t very compatible with Carol. While Carol’s views likely got stronger and stricter due to being reinforced by the community which Hank wasn’t as entrenched in. It’s not so much that he grew a conscience so much as he needed to hear differing voices actually going ‘WTF Hank’ rather than it just seeming like personal quibbles and spats that he could let go for the sake of his family unit. You can’t grow to be or do better if you are living in an echo chamber.
KSClaw
Oh Joyce, honey… we need to get you some different comics.
cmasta1992
Panel 4 Joyce is adorable.
Needfuldoer
Every panel Joyce is adorable.
Jamie
Are they allowed to be this self-aware?
Greg
I’m sure everybody got there before me but I’m only just now realizing that due to the sliding timescale most of the cast of Dumbing of Age was 5 years old when Obama was originally elected and… uhhhhhh, I think I need to sit down for a bit.
Doctor_Who
While obviously there’s some drift depending on birthdays and such, we can make some fun assumptions about these characters ages to make ourselves feel ancient!
They are:
* Younger than 2/3 of the Star Wars Prequels (Clones was 2002)
* Do not remember a time before YouTube (Feb 2005)
* Likely had some of their toddlerhoods documented on FaceBook (public got access in early 2004)
* Don’t have any idea why MTV is called that
* Were born into houses that had Gamecubes and XBoxes.
* May have been conceived when their parents went on a date to see a Harry Potter movie.
ValdVin
*Listening to radio stations (well, if they do) and wondering “Why do so many of them play that song my parents were conceived to–the one about Mrs whatshername and that old ballplayer Joe somebody my great-grandfather remembers?”
Needfuldoer
I doubt Carol’s car radio ever left the Christian talk AM stations.
Hank probably had a couple disco and/or hard rock mixtapes hidden away, for when he had the car to himself. At this point he would’ve been Joyce’s age in the late 70s to early 80s.
ValdVin
I don’t want to think about how close I’d be to Hank’s age. Curse you, sliding comic timescale!
Dara
Someone needs to bring in Amber so they can adapt her classic Batman/Superman crossover fics.
Suet
The title “McJeez & Me” should be lampooned, but not as much as that newsnpaper clipping.
*rolls up a newspaper for that hindsight line* of course dinosaurs need eye tests
RacingTurtle
I think it is a lampoon—there was a show called McGee & Me for families like Joyce’s.
Suet
Description checks out… a lot.
plasticwrap
Ty wasn’t sure anyone else had seen these.
Leorale
I want to know how much of this page is autobiographical.
Regalli