117

Buds
Posted on December 31, 2018 by David M Willis

117 thoughts on “Buds”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    and she has JUST the outfit ready

    1. Narx

      That is such a great follow-up that after clicking the link, I forgot I was reading older comics.
      I got to the electric nose picker before I even started realizing.

  2. Doctor_Who

    I now want two things out of life.

    1) To see Sal in a sweatervest (Joyce’s next shenanigan should be replacing all her clothes with them).

    2) To see Carla’s reaction when Joyce shows up in the Rutten jacket.

    1. Stu

      Primo opportunity for that would be during the next parental visit.

    2. Opus the Poet

      Well I wanna see Sal in a sweatervest too. Done right they can be sexy, but that’s not how Joyce does them.

    3. auroki

      We need Freaky Friday outfit Joyce and Sal now!

      1. LookingIn

        sunglasses and gloves too or just t-shirt, jeans, and jacket?

    4. Freemage

      I suspect that Sal’s reaction to finding all of her tops have been replaced with sweater-vests would be to walk to Joyce’s room topless and dump them on her bed, then find her clothing and get dressed….

      1. Doctor_Who

        I don’t know about Sal, but I’m usually so out of it in the morning that it barely registers what I’m putting on.

        You could probably get me to go to work in a gorilla costume if you hung it in the right part of my closet.

  3. Cattleprod

    Borrow her pants, not like she’s using them.

  4. shadowcell

    Dumbing of Age Book 9: That’s Neato, Buddy

    1. Tan

      Dumbing of Age Book 9: Holy Mother of That’s Neato, Buddy

      1. Chris Phoenix

        DoA Book 9: Buddy Neato II: Neato Buddier.

    2. Keulen

      Dumbing of Age Book 9: You Can Always Wear One of My Sweatervests

    3. foamy

      I read that line in Dante Bosco’s voice and I make no apologies for it

      1. Keulen

        Same here.

    4. Khyrin

      Dumbing of Age 9: My first Pal Became the Moon.

  5. Synnerman

    I bet when Sal’s parents come to school it will be sweater vest time!

    1. DailyBrad

      You know what, maybe. It might go over as more organic to when she just wore her school uniform.

      1. Nono

        Depends, are the sweater vests made from organically sourced wool?

        1. Tacos

          No. Just organs.

  6. ValdVin

    Do all of Sal’s clothes come with the odor of cool which never washes out (per.Sarah’s phrasing)?

    1. Needfuldoer

      We can only assume so, tobacco smoke gets into everything.

      I hope we see Sal at least try to quit, if only because it seems like she picked the habit up during the misguided, post-Marcie-injury delinquent phase she’s now trying to put behind her.

      1. BBCC

        The only thing Sal’s trying to put behind her is the punching game and all the mixed up emotions she’s got towards the robbery. Smoking isn’t morally wrong (unless you’re an asshole and smoke near a door or inside someone else’s house or whatever) and I don’t think there’s any indication Sal thinks it is.

        It does make me sad she was smoking around 13 years old though. Like, that is sad no matter how you slice it. I DO however, wholeheartedly approve of Sal throwing in her mom’s face just whose influence that was (“MARCIE doesn’t smoke. YOU do.”) because Linda can fuck off thinking everyone else is a bad influence except her and her husband.

        1. Needfuldoer

          Yeah it’s not the smoking itself, it’s that the circumstances she picked the habit up from could be regrettable.

        2. thejeff

          It’s not morally wrong, but it ain’t good for you, to vastly understate things.

          It’s also a stereotypically cool biker rebel thing, so it might be nice to see her shed some of the pose part of it.

        3. Needfuldoer

          Exactly!

  7. lilyliv

    Awwww~

    (See? I’m capable of leaving short, not-oversharey comments too. ^-^)

    1. DailyBrad

      Not that it was a problem or anything 🙂

      1. lilyliv

        Thanks 🙂

  8. Stephen Bierce

    *plays a “This Bud’s For You” jingle on the hacked Muzak*

    1. saltchocolate

      “I love you, man . . . “

      1. Stephen Bierce

        “–but beware of the penguins.”

    2. Clif

      This Chums for You.

      1. thejeff

        No. Chum’s for the sharks.

  9. Shiro

    Now Joyce gets to wear the Carla jacket

    1. Needfuldoer

      Or the brown one, she just has to bring it to a tailor and have them fix the seam that let go.

  10. Questionor

    holy mother of cr? my brain is tired, what’s the rest?

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Crap

    2. BBCC

      Crap.

      1. Kyrik Michalowski

        Jinx. 😛

        1. BBCC

          Does this mean I owe you a pop if I talk until you say my name 3 times? 😛

        2. Kyrik Michalowski

          Sure? I have always been very unclear on the rules behind that, it seems to vary from place to place.

        3. Doctor_Who

          I my neck of the woods you were allowed to smack the person you’d jinxed.

        4. BBCC

          I mean, it’s irrelevant because you don’t know my name and I’m not speaking when I type, but yeah, those were the rules around here when I was a kid.

        5. Freemage

          For us, it was, “Jinx! You owe me a can of pop!” If both people said it at the same time, however, then the first one to slug the other in the arm won the contest.

    3. Questionor

      ok that’s one I’ve never heard. I’m used to christ or god after holy mother of.
      thx

      1. saltchocolate

        Yep. Crap is a Christ-substitute.

        1. DahliaRose

          What a weird sounding church. 😛

        2. saltchocolate

          Heh.

        3. Clif

          Not the strangest though.

    4. BarerMender

      Crinoline. Holy mother of Crinoline.

      1. Tacos

        Creosote.

        1. Questionor

          lol those are better than what google comes up.
          https://imgur.com/onf2t2q

  11. DailyBrad

    I love these two.

  12. Spack

    T’sa difference between “can” and would ever”, Joyce, ole chum

  13. BBCC

    One of Joyce’s most appealing traits to me is how she makes other girls her sisters. It’s the sweetest. <3

    And yeah, no, sorry Joyce, Sal likes her look. The only way we're getting her in a sweater vest is if her dickhole parents visit.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      That might be a time that she actually needs a sweater vest from Joyce. That way she can have ones available to choose from but doesn’t actually have to own them. It would be very convenient for those rare visits.

    2. lilyliv

      Same. Despite being raised in a culture, if church = a culture, that can often drill misogyny into impressionable kids’ heads (regardless of their gender)–and don’t get me wrong, Joyce does show some moments where those ideas affect her–she really does care a lot for other girls. It’s so sweet and adorable.

      And yeah, while Sal in a sweater vest would definitely make me laugh (or alternatively, make me super sad if it was in context of her wanting to make her parents like her more even though it’s not something she feels comfortable wearing), Sal’s look is A++ and I don’t think she’s gonna change it that drastically, Joyce. (Though the offer is, again, so endearing.)

      1. BBCC

        I mean, she has a few non-uniform clothes. Her blouse today could easily be buttoned up and that bra strap covered, and we saw her going through her clothes on Family Weekend and she had a blazer she didn’t wear but looked appropriate. Throw those on with a pair of jeans and she should be okay.

        But I mean, if she put on her uniform and hid her hand behind her back the whole time she saw her parents to try to make them happy, I can definitely buy her borrowing something from Joyce. And probably not the pink and orange shirt she borrowed from Joyce before, which is too bad because she looked really cute.

        1. BBCC

          *Non-uniform but should be parent-approved clothes.

      2. Geneseepaws

        Yuh, the Joyce Dynamic with the women on her floor is cute, it cool, in a Joyce energetic way. I get the feeling from the family dynamics that Becky was The closest thing to a sister that Joyce had back home. It seems the boys back home had different parental expectations, and now Joyce is making the whole floor her sisters! Yay ?!

  14. J. A. J.

    Aw, what a nice comic to end the year with. Thanks, David! <3

  15. ARoseJess

    That offer really sucks when you’re just over 6′ and even their shoes don’t fit you…but your tops make cute dresses on them. 🙂

  16. AnvilPro

    It’s comics like this one that remind me why DoA is one of my favorite webcomics

  17. TrueVCU

    This river only flows one way, buddy

  18. BarerMender

    No, Karen. Keep your bland-ass sweater-vest to yourself.

  19. Tacos

    And now we want to see Sal in a sweatervest and Joyce in a leather biker jacket.

  20. saltchocolate

    Can even Joyce get away with “neato” and “buddy” in the same sentence? In 201_???

    1. BenRG

      Yes, because she’s Joyce and, for her, uncool is cool.

  21. Nikol Geier

    And in Panel 4, we see an appearance of the rare and elusive “positive Joyce freakout face”.

  22. foducool

    would probably rather be caught dead than wear one ahah

  23. Derek

    @Fartcaptor re: ghost comment from yesterday. Wow Joyce understands a lot more nuance from that one sentence because that’s not what I got at all

    1. Fart Captor

      Well, Joyce’s use of the word objectify doesn’t work quite as well to describe what Sal’s experienced, but that’s the thing that had been recently happening to Joyce that Sal’s description must’ve reminded her of.

      She had that whole big speech she had to give Joe to convince him he needed to start treating women like actual people

      So Sal complaining about people sticking her in a box and basically treating her a certain way she didn’t like because of how they perceived her was something Joyce recognized because it was a feeling she could relate to.

      Plus, she’s a pretty bright kid despite her massive blind spots and sometimes poor judgement

  24. Catman

    Can’t help but notice that there was no there was an H missing from between the C and the R. This means that Joyce was likely about to say “Holy Mother of Crap”

    I know pointing this out goes against the whole point of the last strip, but it shows a tremendous change in Joyce’s previous Holy fear mentality

    1. Yumi

      I actually thought it was sort of the reverse of that. Like, using, or starting to use, something that invoked Christ as a swear seems a step farther than “holy mother of crap” as there’s some deniability that it’s THAT “holy mother.” Yes, “holy” is still a part of it, but, like, Joyce has probably also said, “holy moley” at some point in her life, which is already invoking holiness (and Mary too, technically).

      (Anyone have experience getting in trouble for saying “holy moley”? It seems so tame, but I could see fundamentalist groups having a problem with it.)

      1. BBCC

        Eh, her dad says ‘holy lord’ when he says her room has nice loft beds. Apparently her church only considers ‘goddamn’ to be taking the lord’s name in vain.

        1. ScarvesandCelery

          I’ve known Christians who object to using replacement swear words like “sugar” or “frick” and replacement blasphemy words like “Holy Moley” because they think the intent is the same. I was practically blase with swear words in the church I went to, and most secular people are surprised when I swear, because I swear so rarely they think I object to swearing (I don’t, for the record).

        2. Needfuldoer

          Hank says “goddamn” in one of the bonus strips, over a relatively minor issue. (Back of book 7, or July ’17.) We can only assume Carol wasn’t around at the time.

        3. BBCC

          Yeeeep.

  25. Meta

    yyyreeeeeeeeeEeeessss

    Joyce and Sal friends

    Joyce in Sal’s clothes

    New Joyce face

  26. Teddae

    Yaaaaasssss theyre equals now

  27. BenRG

    I thought that Joyce would end up adopting Sal’s torn leather jacket!

    Sal, on the other hand, is ready to make great changes in her life. One thing she isn’t ready to do is dress up like Joyce, although the two of them may yet do it as some kind of prank at some point.

    1. OBBWG

      Sal’s Halloween costume.

  28. abysswatcher1993

    One of these days you are going to wear a sweater, Sal. A niece of nephew may ask you to wear a sweater they made for you with their tears and sweat.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Ew, dude.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Well why do you think they’re called “sweaters”?

  29. Bagge

    Awww, come on, Sal. You could make the sweater vest work

    1. woobie

      Sal would make it cool.

  30. Delicious Taffy

    Just gals bein’ pals?

    1. JediMB

      If this comment weren’t already here, it’s basically the one I would be typing right now.

  31. Reltzik

    Sorry, Sal. Friend Joyce, friend Joyce’s sweatervests.

  32. rachel

    sal’s character growth is astounding. I mean, she’s always been more mature, and I think she’s figuring out how to not be a dingdong reactive bingbong!!

  33. Bagge

    Score

    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/hangover/

  34. Keulen

    Cutest smile on Sal ever in panel 2.

    1. Meta

      <3 <3 so cute

  35. jeffepp

    Sweater Vests won’t work, as they have no sleeves to rip off.

    Also, proof that Joyce is one slip away from a Dot Warner moment.

  36. David Doty

    I’m very hot natured, and I very rarely wear a jacket, and pretty much never a coat. When I do, EVERYONE comments and makes a big deal about it. Despite that my old job required spending a fair amount of time outdoors, I lost track of how often I would walk around shivering in the subfreezing temperatures just to avoid the unwanted attention.

  37. fire_daws

    Holy crap the triangle smile. It blinds me (well, in one eye, the other is already fucked).

  38. Nobody

    “B-But I have so many to get rid o-“
    “No.”

  39. Arianod

    Just because she can, doesn’t mean she should.

  40. BenRG

    I think that the most important lesson that Sal needs to teach Joyce is that Joyce doesn’t want to be her. Also, I’m not sure if she has the right mental attitude to pull of Sal’s aesthetic without it seemingly like a subtle kind of irony or parody.

  41. DarkoNeko

    Aw come on Sal, you’d rule the Xmas sweater *get punched*

    1. BenRG

      Am I the only one who’d love to see Joyce and Sal swap clothes and aesthetics for the day, just to play with everyone else’s minds?

      1. Vulcanodon

        Narrator’s voice: “She was not.”

  42. acher4

    Such a wonderful New Year’s gift
    Joyce and Sal as pals. :DDD

  43. Bagge

    I’m afraid Joyce in the fourth panel has caught whatever Danny has.

    Just keep her away from ukuleles.

  44. ValdVin

    The use of the dorm room and the darkened half bath in these last few strips for “emotional lighting” (is that a term?) really adds to things.

    1. Ainara

      “Mood lighting”?

  45. keithcurtis

    Look at Joyce all bravely sneaking her hand out of frame in panel one, breaking boundaries.

  46. Ziggy

    Oh, c’mon, Sal, you know what they say, “once you go sweater, nothing is better”.

    1. Tisroero

      They don’t say that.

      (but they should)

    2. Yumi

      And you know what they say about striped sweaters specifically:

      The best time to wear a striped sweater…is all the time.

    3. Bagge

      A sweater vest is just the best!

  47. Cannonshop

    dunno, Sal might be able to pull off ‘Adorable’ in a sweatervest.

  48. kilgaen

    The chapter ends with Sal wearing a sweatervest. No, I don’t know how we get there either.

    1. Ziggy

      And you know what will make this hilarious? Neither will Sal. We see Sal leaving her room, to go to class, but all we have is a head shot. Next she looks down, and gasps, in shock, and confusion. The last panel zooms out, to see Sal wearing a sweater vest, and screaming, “what the fffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh!”

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.