I have that hat, in a dozen colors and styles. But I’m also a 50-something college professor, so it’s less “wacky mid-freshman-year crisis” and more “Dad Hat.”
50-something teacher-mom represent! We are legend. We love comics. And stories. And whatever other creativity the fevered minds of creators can dream up.
45 year old mom here: I started reading “It’s Walky” back in the 90s when the only way I could go online was from the college computer lab. Truth be told, I’d quit because I got tired of the storyline (Joyce was very characturish and then she got zapped in the head and turned slutty or something) but I found out years later that the same guy was still doing a comic and had gotten a lot better at it.
Twitcher
I started reading at Shortpacked. I worked my way back to Roomies, then jumped over to FAANS! (some of the page links are weirdly borked over there, by the way.) When I hit Roomies, I marveled at how grown up our man Willis had gotten in a few years. I, like many, assumed he was Evangelical. Will we ever get any background as to how the Browns protestant faith became specifically “nondenominational?”
cain
The “nondenominational” thing might be related to the fact that a lot of independent churches don’t really advertise themselves as Evangelical or Protestant or anything. The sign just says they’re the “Christ’s Love Community Church” or something, and you have to seek out more information to learn their exact beliefs and connections. (For instance, not all Protestants are young earth creationists, but Joyce’s childhood congregation definitely were.) Many independent churches are Evangelical, but not affiliated with any specific Protestant denomination.
Really? It feels like that’s like half the comments. I think like most of the fanbase picked up roomies in college and stuck around ever since
Then you have stragglers like me who started reading shortpacked as a kid
Jo_cubstar
I started reading shortpacked as a teen, while also working retail I’m a toy store. I could really relate to amber, as I had a transformers collection and shitty dad.
Azhrei Vep
I started on Shortpacked! as an adult, and didn’t really go back to its predecessor comics until the rerun. Quite an interesting experience, that was.
My favorite line about the stranglehold old hits, and no-longer-young people (like me) have on radio and PA music is “I was conceived to this!”
It’s not literal, but does point to how kids today are used to hearing music from three and four decades ago, distilled into a ever-narrower list of songs, instead of stuff they first got into pop music with.
When I was a collegian I did not hear 2/3rd of radio station formats playing music from before the Beatles, or when Tommy Dorsey’s Orchestra was still together.
StClair
the Boomer cultural hegemony messed a lot of things up.
Also not a teen for decades now, 64 YO Wearing Guinness shirt today, but I have concert T-shirts that go back into the latter half of the previous century.
DaveM
Woo! I’m 63 and am now canonically not the oldest person reading this interwebs comic. Oh, since sartorial information seems to be requested, I’m wearing an XKCD “Stand back I’m going to try SCIENCE” shirt. 🙂
…Honestly, I’m having trouble seeing any similarities to their Walkyverse relationship dynamic at all. Agreed on the “actually good” part, though. God, I got sick of all the relentless Danny-praising in the Walkyverse, even if by 2002 or so it was clearly meant to be a character flaw on Sal’s end.
I really hope these two stay together until the end, they are my favorite pairing. Although knowing that, it might convince Willis to break them up. For torture purposes of course.
Not when they remember that the rooms are only soundproof to each other and that Sayid can hear every moan and groan without the ability to leave until his shift is over…so yeah, they actually might.
(Also, lolling at the person yesterday who I only saw now who was surprised and appalled that grown adults care so much about Pokemon. Honestly I wasn’t even trying to argue so much as I saw an excuse to spout Pokemon Facts and did so while admitting it was pedantic of me. Yes, I am that kind of autistic adult who devotes 40% of her brain space to Pokemon. You can’t actually make me feel ashamed for that, I’m immune to it and have nothing to prove to your judgmental ass. My disastrously misassembled physical form takes so much time and energy to maintain and figure out what the fuck’s wrong with it, I’ll take the uncomplicated sources of joy where I find them.)
You wanna see fighting over children’s video game franchises, ask me about how much I liked Kingdom Hearts III. (It’s flawed as hell and obviously the Disney worlds are irrelevant and the banter isn’t even good in half of them, but search your heart, the Disney worlds haven’t been relevant since the first game. The nebulous goal they were looking for to visit the Disney worlds this time was just a lot less convincing than usual. The character beats for characters I was invested in killed it, I wish Nomura would treat the girls better but have by this point lowered my expectations there, and Donald Duck using a spell so exponentially powerful that the ONLY OTHER CHARACTER IN THE FINAL FANTASY EXTENDED CANON to do it was an endboss in Bravely Default empowered by the evil god they serve and countless universes destroyed in his name, and that’s not even the thing that kills him, is so absolutely HILARIOUS it makes up for the time travel getting involved. No, seriously, not even Bahamut destroying FFXIV into A Realm Reborn was a Flare that strong. IT’S JUST DONALD, and the penultimate boss fight of Bravely Default.)
Controversial opinion: The only Kingdom Hearts game I enjoyed was 365/2 Days. (Though I do really enjoy doing deep dives into the lore – to quote HBomberguy talking about something else, it’s a great series to read about on a Wiki.)
I can respect that opinion. Days has a much more reserved story that puts aside the series’ tendency to get absolutely mental with lore in favor of a smaller character drama and it does a very good job at it. None of the weird confusing shit, just three friends who are having a real tough time coordinating their ice cream breaks because their boss wants to destroy the universe.
thakoru
See, this is why I love stirring the pot on Kingdom Hearts discussions. Nothing in the actual games is more entertaining that listening to people who like them try to describe them.
Days is a favorite of mine, in no small part because of how it nails the tragedies of the core trio.
The fact that one of those tragedies is a trans girl asserting her identity in the face of constant misgendering, dehumanizing, and the authority figures in her life trying to shove her into their preconceived path for her, and that story is both deeply sympathetically-depicted and ASTONISHINGLY textually trans for a game released in 2009 and published by Disney of all people is just the capper on it.
I see nothing wrong with adults enjoying fictional games and TV shows and whatever that’s supposedly for children. I got into MLP:FiM a decade ago when I was in my 20s, and I first played a Pokemon game last year, when I was 32. But then, I’m also autistic and I don’t really get why some folks think that only children should be allowed to enjoy cartoons and video games and other stuff.
I am 73, not autistic (as far as I know, though you could probably make a case for attention deficit disorder) and I too don’t really get why some folks think that only children should be allowed to enjoy cartoons and suchlike.
Plain Marie
Amen!
Hof1991
I resemble this remark. But I’m a youthful 68 so I bow to your greater experience.
I think some of these comment thread are pulling us oldsters out of the woodwork. Youngster oldsters? Older oldsters? I’m just happy to know I’m not the only one.
126 thoughts on “Bluster”
Ana Chronistic
then Sayid only agrees if Danny switches majors and puts the hat on Sal and leaves Sal outside
StClair
then you put the fox and the grain in the boat and leave the goose on the riverbank…
justin8448
I’m not gonna lie, this gets complicated pretty quick…
Adept
“then you put the fox and the grain in the boat and leave the goose on the riverbank…”
Excellent 🙂
ValdVin
Wait, what?
I lose more geese that way.
Needfuldoer
Then Sal jumps back through the window and drops Sayid outside. He starts pounding on the door. “WWIILLLMMAAAAAAAAA!”
Opus the Poet
I understood that reference dot gif
Needfuldoer
Plot twist: Wilma is the name of the music department head who has a master key for the practice rooms.
DaveM
Ditto.
Sirksome
Sayid wishes he could pull a Danny.
Puppeteer Nessus
I like these people
Schpoonman
Oh daaaaang.
Wack'd
Monogamy is overrated.
anon
…And then the slipshine happens. And then sal has to reschedule for another day because she never got any practice that day
DrunkenNordmann
And polyamory isn’t for everyone.
Reltzik
…. so they’re going to be Mmbopping uglies, right?
Dr. T
Well, Sayid did just tell Sal that he can hear everything that goes in in those practice rooms.
So yes, Sal is definitely going to initiate relations as soon as that door closes.
Sajuuk-Khar
You. I like your style.
Dave Van Domelen
I have that hat, in a dozen colors and styles. But I’m also a 50-something college professor, so it’s less “wacky mid-freshman-year crisis” and more “Dad Hat.”
Colineo
Not a demographic I expected to be reading this comic, but it makes a lot of sense. Do you know of it’s popular among teachers?
Plain Marie
50-something teacher-mom represent! We are legend. We love comics. And stories. And whatever other creativity the fevered minds of creators can dream up.
Oatmeal Pie
45 year old mom here: I started reading “It’s Walky” back in the 90s when the only way I could go online was from the college computer lab. Truth be told, I’d quit because I got tired of the storyline (Joyce was very characturish and then she got zapped in the head and turned slutty or something) but I found out years later that the same guy was still doing a comic and had gotten a lot better at it.
Twitcher
I started reading at Shortpacked. I worked my way back to Roomies, then jumped over to FAANS! (some of the page links are weirdly borked over there, by the way.) When I hit Roomies, I marveled at how grown up our man Willis had gotten in a few years. I, like many, assumed he was Evangelical. Will we ever get any background as to how the Browns protestant faith became specifically “nondenominational?”
cain
The “nondenominational” thing might be related to the fact that a lot of independent churches don’t really advertise themselves as Evangelical or Protestant or anything. The sign just says they’re the “Christ’s Love Community Church” or something, and you have to seek out more information to learn their exact beliefs and connections. (For instance, not all Protestants are young earth creationists, but Joyce’s childhood congregation definitely were.) Many independent churches are Evangelical, but not affiliated with any specific Protestant denomination.
GholaHalleck
Willis has fans left over from the roomies era, welcome to fanold!
zee
Really? It feels like that’s like half the comments. I think like most of the fanbase picked up roomies in college and stuck around ever since
Then you have stragglers like me who started reading shortpacked as a kid
Jo_cubstar
I started reading shortpacked as a teen, while also working retail I’m a toy store. I could really relate to amber, as I had a transformers collection and shitty dad.
Azhrei Vep
I started on Shortpacked! as an adult, and didn’t really go back to its predecessor comics until the rerun. Quite an interesting experience, that was.
Ana Chronistic
Imagine me seeing a dad wearing a Nirvana shirt and momentarily being offended before remembering… oh, the original target audience is now dad age ?
ValdVin
My favorite line about the stranglehold old hits, and no-longer-young people (like me) have on radio and PA music is “I was conceived to this!”
It’s not literal, but does point to how kids today are used to hearing music from three and four decades ago, distilled into a ever-narrower list of songs, instead of stuff they first got into pop music with.
When I was a collegian I did not hear 2/3rd of radio station formats playing music from before the Beatles, or when Tommy Dorsey’s Orchestra was still together.
StClair
the Boomer cultural hegemony messed a lot of things up.
Opus the Poet
Also not a teen for decades now, 64 YO Wearing Guinness shirt today, but I have concert T-shirts that go back into the latter half of the previous century.
DaveM
Woo! I’m 63 and am now canonically not the oldest person reading this interwebs comic. Oh, since sartorial information seems to be requested, I’m wearing an XKCD “Stand back I’m going to try SCIENCE” shirt. 🙂
Max
Willis-age teacher here. It updates every day and there are no hiatuses. Great for my ADD. I would read more webcomics if they weren’t so flaky.
Raja
they’re so dang cute i love them both
Sporky
this dynamic reminds me of danny and sal in the walkyverse, only actually good
RassilonTDavros
…Honestly, I’m having trouble seeing any similarities to their Walkyverse relationship dynamic at all. Agreed on the “actually good” part, though. God, I got sick of all the relentless Danny-praising in the Walkyverse, even if by 2002 or so it was clearly meant to be a character flaw on Sal’s end.
Jeff K!
It’s like their relationship in Sly Sirs, only better. By the time of Roomies! Willis had moved the characters on from being together.
Keulen
This is definitely a much better relationship dynamic than the Walkyverse versions of these two had.
BBCC
She had to scare ’em all away! XD
Clif
Truly, Sal is a master of strategy.
Kyrik Michalowski
I really hope these two stay together until the end, they are my favorite pairing. Although knowing that, it might convince Willis to break them up. For torture purposes of course.
Venom
that’s how I feel/felt about billie and ruth :'(
Kyrik Michalowski
Same here, I still hope they get back together. Highly unlikely but it would be nice.
bejouled
She bought him the hat? Did we know this or is it new info? It feels new.
Shitbird
Iirc he lost the hat and she replaced it because she knew he liked the hat
eh, whatever
yes
Thag Simmons
She replaced it for him after he lost the first one which he definitely bought himself
bejouled
Thank you!
Mr. Random
They’re gonna bang loudly in that room, aren’t they?
StClair
IMO: nope, they’re going to actually legit Perform a Hanson.
Proxiehunter
And after they finish performing a Hanson they’re going to use the rest of the time in the room to Mmmmm bop.
cbwroses
Not when they remember that the rooms are only soundproof to each other and that Sayid can hear every moan and groan without the ability to leave until his shift is over…so yeah, they actually might.
Decidedly Orthogonal
That… doesn’t slow a lot of people down. Some, but far from all.
The Wellerman
Damn it now I want Danny to make me a sandwich ? ?
Dara
This is actually pretty adorable, ngl
Regalli
I’m so glad they’re so cute in this universe.
(Also, lolling at the person yesterday who I only saw now who was surprised and appalled that grown adults care so much about Pokemon. Honestly I wasn’t even trying to argue so much as I saw an excuse to spout Pokemon Facts and did so while admitting it was pedantic of me. Yes, I am that kind of autistic adult who devotes 40% of her brain space to Pokemon. You can’t actually make me feel ashamed for that, I’m immune to it and have nothing to prove to your judgmental ass. My disastrously misassembled physical form takes so much time and energy to maintain and figure out what the fuck’s wrong with it, I’ll take the uncomplicated sources of joy where I find them.)
You wanna see fighting over children’s video game franchises, ask me about how much I liked Kingdom Hearts III. (It’s flawed as hell and obviously the Disney worlds are irrelevant and the banter isn’t even good in half of them, but search your heart, the Disney worlds haven’t been relevant since the first game. The nebulous goal they were looking for to visit the Disney worlds this time was just a lot less convincing than usual. The character beats for characters I was invested in killed it, I wish Nomura would treat the girls better but have by this point lowered my expectations there, and Donald Duck using a spell so exponentially powerful that the ONLY OTHER CHARACTER IN THE FINAL FANTASY EXTENDED CANON to do it was an endboss in Bravely Default empowered by the evil god they serve and countless universes destroyed in his name, and that’s not even the thing that kills him, is so absolutely HILARIOUS it makes up for the time travel getting involved. No, seriously, not even Bahamut destroying FFXIV into A Realm Reborn was a Flare that strong. IT’S JUST DONALD, and the penultimate boss fight of Bravely Default.)
BarerMender
I’ve never heard of Kingdom Hearts, III or otherwise.
Taffy
If Donald Duck had been there on Carteneau, Louisoix wouldn’t have even had to fight Bahamut cuz it’d be OVER.
thakoru
Controversial opinion: The only Kingdom Hearts game I enjoyed was 365/2 Days. (Though I do really enjoy doing deep dives into the lore – to quote HBomberguy talking about something else, it’s a great series to read about on a Wiki.)
thakoru
I realize that I undercut my point somewhat by getting the title wrong, you don’t have to say it.
Awaiting Moderation
I can respect that opinion. Days has a much more reserved story that puts aside the series’ tendency to get absolutely mental with lore in favor of a smaller character drama and it does a very good job at it. None of the weird confusing shit, just three friends who are having a real tough time coordinating their ice cream breaks because their boss wants to destroy the universe.
thakoru
See, this is why I love stirring the pot on Kingdom Hearts discussions. Nothing in the actual games is more entertaining that listening to people who like them try to describe them.
Regalli
Days is a favorite of mine, in no small part because of how it nails the tragedies of the core trio.
The fact that one of those tragedies is a trans girl asserting her identity in the face of constant misgendering, dehumanizing, and the authority figures in her life trying to shove her into their preconceived path for her, and that story is both deeply sympathetically-depicted and ASTONISHINGLY textually trans for a game released in 2009 and published by Disney of all people is just the capper on it.
The Wellerman
Stick it to ’em, Regs!!! Wooooooooooooo!!!!
??? ?
*plays “Pokémon Theme Song” on hacked muzak*
Keulen
I see nothing wrong with adults enjoying fictional games and TV shows and whatever that’s supposedly for children. I got into MLP:FiM a decade ago when I was in my 20s, and I first played a Pokemon game last year, when I was 32. But then, I’m also autistic and I don’t really get why some folks think that only children should be allowed to enjoy cartoons and video games and other stuff.
Clif
I am 73, not autistic (as far as I know, though you could probably make a case for attention deficit disorder) and I too don’t really get why some folks think that only children should be allowed to enjoy cartoons and suchlike.
Plain Marie
Amen!
Hof1991
I resemble this remark. But I’m a youthful 68 so I bow to your greater experience.
Plain Marie
I think some of these comment thread are pulling us oldsters out of the woodwork. Youngster oldsters? Older oldsters? I’m just happy to know I’m not the only one.
eh, whatever