They took the blue from the skies
And a pretty girl’s eyes
And a touch of Old Glory’s hue,
And gave it to the men who proudly wear
The U. S. Air Force Blue…
Tawdry Quirks
That’s just the default class that all Air Force ROTC cadets have to take, along with ‘Leadership Lab’. It’s more of a “how to do things the Air Force way” class. There might be a bit of the basics of how airplanes work, but it’s nowhere close to majoring in aerospace engineering.
thejeff
True, but Julia Gray’s a pilot not an engineer, so it still works.
well, that is how a lot of ppl see him but ‘being himself’ outside of the horniness part seems to work well so far and he only needs that when joyce is ready
As a writer and aspiring comic artist, this is precious and I would be so won over by just that last panel alone. Joe and Joyce are my favorite and I live in constant fear for them.
I think Danny’s point in panel two might hold a little more if he emphasized the “for somebody else” part. I think seeking change in oneself is fine– great, even!– but I often think it’s best when you do it for you.
That said, sometimes we do change ourselves for others! And sometimes that is also fine!
What if you wanna change for yourself because you want other people to like you. Like you don’t like yourself cuz nobody likes you. And as a human you don’t live in a vacuum. All of your choices end up filtered by how everyone view you.
I can understand the impulse but I’d say be careful what you change and how. Not liking yourself because you’re not being yourself won’t help either.
Wizard
In this case, I think Joe has realized that there are things about himself that he doesn’t like very much. Trying to change those things strikes me as a perfectly legit goal. Maybe he can be a little more comfortable with himself, and if other people like him more that’s just a bonus.
Yeah, like… in my opinion, this doesn’t help self-esteem wise. You can say, “Nobody likes who I am. I will change myself so that people like me.” But like BBCC said, it depends on the change and how you go about it. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of acting a certain way or curating a certain persona to get people to like you, but it doesn’t feel authentic to you. So then you can still end up thinking something like, “They don’t actually like me; they like the person I pretend to be. I am still unlikeable.”
I think that’s still very much changing yourself for other people, and it’s not a very effective practice. It’d be filtering yourself through 3 filters: how you think you present yourself to others, how other people perceive how you present yourself, and how you think/perceive other people perceive how you think you present yourself. (Fingers crossed that makes sense). There’s a lot you’re assuming and a lot of room for error. Like, you might think you present yourself as shy and that people don’t like you because they think you’re unsociable and boring, so that’s what you think you want to change, but they might not like you because they’re homophobic twats or they don’t vibe with your interests. Or maybe they do like you and have resting bongo face.
Like, I sometimes think people don’t like me because I come across as a know-it-all and can’t judge the appropriate time to speak in a conversation. Turns out a lot of people do like that I have a lot to say on certain subjects and feel challenged to think about things differently. I still try to change how/when I speak so that I can benefit from others’ perspectives and because it’s important to me to be considerate, but that change is for me.
“What other people think of me is none of my business”
@Yoto: sure, why not, of course you will only be able to change if you yourself enjoy the process of changing.
Also, our self-worth is impacted by others, sure, but it’s dangerous and brittle if it’s only dependent on others. You also need you to like you. Practice self-love. For many of us it’s a struggle, but i can’t describe the relief, the lightness of no longer hating yourself all day, everyday. It makes life easier.
I would say that everyone has attractive and unattractive characteristics. Maybe the first question to answer is, “what do I like about myself?” Because there must be someone else who likes that too. Then you have an idea for how to become more yourself. It’s hard to become someone else, and exhausting to maintain that, but to play to your strengths and bolster your weaknesses should be easier to start and to grow into.
as long as it’s for teh better, but i think relationships change a lot of ppl unintentionally but at least there’ll hopefully be compromising as opposed to one person stubbornly refusing to adapt
Of course, there’s also the issue that change is hard. Especially for Joe. It’s a reasonable question about whether or not he actually is truly capable of change when faced with temptation, at least right now.
I think I love this more than any strip before it. Not only is Dan being his delightfully oblivious self, but Joe shows us he has taken enough of an interest in Joyce’s comic to come up with that reply. I don’t think I can survive such adorableness.
“Hey, I dunno what her major is, she just said she was taking a thermodynamics class. So…mechanical engineering?”
Fun fact, I passed up a mech engineering major because I was working for a painter at the time who suggested it was full of intricate formulas and codes, and civil engineering was easier to wrap your head around. So I did civil instead.
And then I found myself two months into my first full-time civil-eng. job diddling around on a “practice” drainage project, having no instructions or input beyond “You doing okay over there?” And still getting paid day in and day out. Then one day the boss calls me on the office phone to say “You not moving as fast as we expected :/”
Oo ooo okay here’s a thought: Danny is hanging out with Sal later and saying stuff like Joe really wants to change himself and become a better person for a girl, I can’t believe it. Sal’s all dismissive, sounds like a trap. Dan’s like no no I think he’s being sincere. I gotta meet the girl who did this. Do you know a Julia Gray? And Sal flashbacks to Halloween and goes aw hell no. Cue shenanigans.
Sal doesn’t need to flash all the way back to Halloween, just to yesterday morning, when Joyce was all “Look at my semi-autobiographical comic strip, because I am a published author!” and she said that if a character based on her showed up, Joyce wasn’t allowed to do the accent.
What I’m getting at here is that the strip is out and most people in the group know about it, so “My crush is Joyce’s self-insert character” is nowhere near the cunning ruse Joe seems to think.
i mean, seems like it’d be a good thing as opposed to ‘doubling down’ on his ‘horndog’ persona like, “i banged 20 ppl in a week to ‘get it out of my system’/be my least horny self”
99 thoughts on “Boyfriend”
Ana Chronistic
Joe subtlely changes his name to Blake
Ana Chronistic
it is *12:09* SERVER
Ana Chronistic
(also, alt-text, there is an Aerospace Studies for Air Force ROTC? idk)
Stephen Bierce
They took the blue from the skies
And a pretty girl’s eyes
And a touch of Old Glory’s hue,
And gave it to the men who proudly wear
The U. S. Air Force Blue…
Tawdry Quirks
That’s just the default class that all Air Force ROTC cadets have to take, along with ‘Leadership Lab’. It’s more of a “how to do things the Air Force way” class. There might be a bit of the basics of how airplanes work, but it’s nowhere close to majoring in aerospace engineering.
thejeff
True, but Julia Gray’s a pilot not an engineer, so it still works.
sultryglebe
Joe becomes ever more endearing.
DarkoNeko
I see Joe is an avid reader and fan 😀
Sajuuk-Khar
“She’s seriously out of my league, Dan! I need to make big changes! I need to become…a space vampire!”
Thag Simmons
Isn’t the Joe character a Werewolf?
Sajuuk-Khar
I thought there was only a Jacob expy, I don’t remember a Joe. I’m behind on my Julia Grey deep lore. D:
Ana Chronistic
Moe RothenbergJOB ROSENTHABYotomoe
Joe, I only feel like I have enough time in my day to help you with one of those 2 things.
Amós Batista
“Dirtybag playboy”
haha ouch
anon
well, that is how a lot of ppl see him but ‘being himself’ outside of the horniness part seems to work well so far and he only needs that when joyce is ready
Bittersweet
As a writer and aspiring comic artist, this is precious and I would be so won over by just that last panel alone. Joe and Joyce are my favorite and I live in constant fear for them.
StClair
Same.
Cattleprod
You know what, I now ship Julia Gray with Josh Boyfriend, the self-insert from Thundercracker’s screenplay.
anonymsly
Does the quality Joe and Danny time I crave start here? I hope so!
Joe is asking the right person for advice, anyway. Danny’s a good egg.
Yotomoe
Yeah I like Danny. Except when he’s telling people it’s a good thing their mean friends died.
Kyrik Michalowski
He wasn’t wrong; he just had poor timing.
june gloom
And he kinda said the quiet part out loud mostly by accident out of frustration.
Yotomoe
Uh…naw there’s not a good time to say what he said.
Kyrik Michalowski
I suppose that is true. I can’t imagine how long they would have to know each other before Ethan would let that comment slide, if ever.
Illjwamh
And he’s giving Joe genuinely good advice. But then, I’d expect no less from the guy who essentially became Sal’s boyfriend by accident.
Wizard
I love the role reversal of nervous, unsure Joe and relatively smooth and confident Danny.
Regalli
This. This is beautiful.
Yumi
I think Danny’s point in panel two might hold a little more if he emphasized the “for somebody else” part. I think seeking change in oneself is fine– great, even!– but I often think it’s best when you do it for you.
That said, sometimes we do change ourselves for others! And sometimes that is also fine!
eh, whatever
At least if you can be Batman.
Proxiehunter
Check with your parents before deciding to become Batman, they may not be okay with certain prerequisite factors.
Yotomoe
What if you wanna change for yourself because you want other people to like you. Like you don’t like yourself cuz nobody likes you. And as a human you don’t live in a vacuum. All of your choices end up filtered by how everyone view you.
BBCC
I can understand the impulse but I’d say be careful what you change and how. Not liking yourself because you’re not being yourself won’t help either.
Wizard
In this case, I think Joe has realized that there are things about himself that he doesn’t like very much. Trying to change those things strikes me as a perfectly legit goal. Maybe he can be a little more comfortable with himself, and if other people like him more that’s just a bonus.
Yumi
Yeah, like… in my opinion, this doesn’t help self-esteem wise. You can say, “Nobody likes who I am. I will change myself so that people like me.” But like BBCC said, it depends on the change and how you go about it. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of acting a certain way or curating a certain persona to get people to like you, but it doesn’t feel authentic to you. So then you can still end up thinking something like, “They don’t actually like me; they like the person I pretend to be. I am still unlikeable.”
Bogeywoman
I think that’s still very much changing yourself for other people, and it’s not a very effective practice. It’d be filtering yourself through 3 filters: how you think you present yourself to others, how other people perceive how you present yourself, and how you think/perceive other people perceive how you think you present yourself. (Fingers crossed that makes sense). There’s a lot you’re assuming and a lot of room for error. Like, you might think you present yourself as shy and that people don’t like you because they think you’re unsociable and boring, so that’s what you think you want to change, but they might not like you because they’re homophobic twats or they don’t vibe with your interests. Or maybe they do like you and have resting bongo face.
Like, I sometimes think people don’t like me because I come across as a know-it-all and can’t judge the appropriate time to speak in a conversation. Turns out a lot of people do like that I have a lot to say on certain subjects and feel challenged to think about things differently. I still try to change how/when I speak so that I can benefit from others’ perspectives and because it’s important to me to be considerate, but that change is for me.
“What other people think of me is none of my business”
milu
@Yoto: sure, why not, of course you will only be able to change if you yourself enjoy the process of changing.
Also, our self-worth is impacted by others, sure, but it’s dangerous and brittle if it’s only dependent on others. You also need you to like you. Practice self-love. For many of us it’s a struggle, but i can’t describe the relief, the lightness of no longer hating yourself all day, everyday. It makes life easier.
Mark
I would say that everyone has attractive and unattractive characteristics. Maybe the first question to answer is, “what do I like about myself?” Because there must be someone else who likes that too. Then you have an idea for how to become more yourself. It’s hard to become someone else, and exhausting to maintain that, but to play to your strengths and bolster your weaknesses should be easier to start and to grow into.
anon
as long as it’s for teh better, but i think relationships change a lot of ppl unintentionally but at least there’ll hopefully be compromising as opposed to one person stubbornly refusing to adapt
Yeet
well, we can’t expect his joementum to change unless acted on by an outside force
with out that, a joe at rest would tend to remain at rest
anonymsly
That’s physics, as everyone knows!
Freemage
Of course, there’s also the issue that change is hard. Especially for Joe. It’s a reasonable question about whether or not he actually is truly capable of change when faced with temptation, at least right now.
Nono
Is that the first time Joe’s worn a shirt with a collar?
OBBWG
Looking at your Gravatar, I think the answer is no.
BBCC
IIRC the shirt in that gravatar is a hoodie.
OBBWG
You are right. But here is a case of a Joe in collared shirt:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-12/02-ill-leave-you-a-phantom/objects/
DailyBrad
Yup, plus the purple shirt he wore to the art class also has a collar.
RassilonTDavros
…yes. This is going to be my favorite new plotline going forward, isn’t it.
Yotomoe
I love Danny and Joe as friends. I’ve loved it since Roomies. The truest friendship that’s lasted longer than I’ve been alive.
anon
we all need a danny in ourli ves
ValdVin
If you liked Roomies, you’ll love Joe’s flashback “wandering (not what it sounds like) (seriously, you couldn’t be more wrong) eyes” in panel six.
Chaucer59
Clever, Joe. Very clever.
Dandi Andi
I think I love this more than any strip before it. Not only is Dan being his delightfully oblivious self, but Joe shows us he has taken enough of an interest in Joyce’s comic to come up with that reply. I don’t think I can survive such adorableness.
mrnoidea
“Hey, I dunno what her major is, she just said she was taking a thermodynamics class. So…mechanical engineering?”
Fun fact, I passed up a mech engineering major because I was working for a painter at the time who suggested it was full of intricate formulas and codes, and civil engineering was easier to wrap your head around. So I did civil instead.
And then I found myself two months into my first full-time civil-eng. job diddling around on a “practice” drainage project, having no instructions or input beyond “You doing okay over there?” And still getting paid day in and day out. Then one day the boss calls me on the office phone to say “You not moving as fast as we expected :/”
I HAD NOTHING ELSE TO DO
Anyway aeronautics sounds neat
BBCC
Awwwwww, Joe’s being super adorable here. Danny’s pretty good to ask for advice these days.
k
Oo ooo okay here’s a thought: Danny is hanging out with Sal later and saying stuff like Joe really wants to change himself and become a better person for a girl, I can’t believe it. Sal’s all dismissive, sounds like a trap. Dan’s like no no I think he’s being sincere. I gotta meet the girl who did this. Do you know a Julia Gray? And Sal flashbacks to Halloween and goes aw hell no. Cue shenanigans.
anon
depends on how much time they have to talk about roommate updates compared to what they were planning to do on a date/choir practice or so
Daibhid C
Sal doesn’t need to flash all the way back to Halloween, just to yesterday morning, when Joyce was all “Look at my semi-autobiographical comic strip, because I am a published author!” and she said that if a character based on her showed up, Joyce wasn’t allowed to do the accent.
Daibhid C
What I’m getting at here is that the strip is out and most people in the group know about it, so “My crush is Joyce’s self-insert character” is nowhere near the cunning ruse Joe seems to think.
RacingTurtle
This is so dang cute. I’m ready for the Joementum
Jenniffniff
Samesies, just in time for spring! ?
k
Me: when is the joe plotline coming up in the joementum storyline
Also me: *is genuinely and pleasantly surprised when a joe plot is revealed*
C.T. Phipps
Dorothy will DESTROY Joe for this.
anon
i mean, seems like it’d be a good thing as opposed to ‘doubling down’ on his ‘horndog’ persona like, “i banged 20 ppl in a week to ‘get it out of my system’/be my least horny self”
Needfuldoer
Any progress he makes toward being better will be met with Dorothy skepticism.
thejeff
Which is fair. She’s got no reason to trust him and lots of reasons not to.
Suet
Short answer: IU doesn’t, but Purdue does! I am so dismissing them this March Madness!
“Sounds familiar”? This arc might be why.
Kim
Weeeee!:D
anon
So, what pride flag is joe wearing ? ;P /j
Net-Zero Joeyce Shipper (no engine, slowly following the current)
boyfriend pride flag
Plain Marie
Ha! Excellent!
Bogeywoman