Now Let's Go Commit Something Mildly Subversive Which, at Worst, Will Serve as a Humanizing Anecdote and Not as Anything Truly Threatening to the Power Structures at Hand, aka Dumbing of Age Book 9 is now up for Kickstartering!
Book 9 is 216 pages! It's got the usual strip commentary! It's got bonus art and rejected strips! It's got 24 Patreon-only strips! It's got a foreword by Dork Tower's John Kovalic!!! Rraarrrrrr
Now Let's Go Commit Something Mildly Subversive Which, at Worst, Will Serve as a Humanizing Anecdote and Not as Anything Truly Threatening to the Power Structures at Hand, aka Dumbing of Age Book 9 is now up for Kickstartering!
Book 9 is 216 pages! It's got the usual strip commentary! It's got bonus art and rejected strips! It's got 24 Patreon-only strips! It's got a foreword by Dork Tower's John Kovalic!!!
298 thoughts on “Rraarrrrrr”
Ana Chronistic
Blaine wrote a check his ass couldn’t cash
“what’s a check”
…DAMN IT
clif
His ass-sits were deficient.
Lokitsu
Blaine maxxed out his ASStercard.
clif
You checked?
Yet One More Idiot
Yeah, I bet Blaine didn’t bank on Joyce attacking him next!
NinjaNick
Another charge of assault to his ongoing list of charges. He’s so dead either way.
Needfuldoer
Oh shit, that’s her dad-punchin’ wrist too. We remember what it did to Toedead, and he had more leftover HP at the time than Blaine has now.
DailyBrad
Fuck him up, fuck him up!
Kensou
Make him swallow his teeth, Joyce!
Van Jealous
The ones he still has, anyway….
Aragem
She’s probably gonna have to get a brace on that hand again, but soooooo worth it!
Commander Clash
She also won’t be feeling the pain for a while. At least until the adrenaline rush wears off
Agemegos
Skillet!
clif
Getting a skillet on that hand would probably work as well.
NinjaNick
I call for Dorothy to help out and give Blaine some more brain trauma.
Yet One More Idiot
Yeah – hit him ’til he’s Blaine-dead!
…I regret nothing.
Roborat
That was brilliant.
Dibullba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5WQu6R_jdM
Sirksome
…..Everyone did hate Ross though. Pretty sure most of them still do.
Sirksome
Actually no that’s wrong. I do think some people in the church liked Ross. Carol…Carol probably liked Ross.
Jamie
I appreciate that you agree with the supervillain.
Kyrik Michalowski
Everyone we care about hated Ross, or hated what he stood for.
woobie
Ross didn’t rate the death penalty, though.
clif
As you sow, so shall you reap.
Unless, of course, you steal the other guy’s produce.
Agemegos
“The rain, it falleth on the just
“And also on the unjust fella.
“But more upon the just, because
“The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.”
A.H. Clough
Plain Marie
Yay! Someone else knows that little ditty.
Chris
I thought the last line was “the unjust hath the just’s umbrella.”
Agemegos
It could well be. I’m going by a memory from more than forty years ago.
Regalli
Feelings, as Dina says, are complicated. Joyce and Becky knew him for years as the guy who (in Joyce’s eyes) was Becky’s dad, and a grownup, and grownups are always right (provided they’re part of the church), and (in Becky’s eyes) as someone who was incredibly strict and constraining, but as far as she thought did genuinely love her. They’ve both got some good memories there, I’m certain.
You can be an UNSPEAKABLY shitty parent and your kid is still likely to have at least vaguely complex emotions about you, especially after your death. Becky, as far as we know, is still downstairs mourning Ross because he never actually saw her, died because he couldn’t wrap his head around the daughter he had, and now she will never have a chance for that relationship to improve at all. (By, you know, him getting his head out of his ass, apologizing profusely, and trying to make amends, say.)
The fact that this arc was clearly conceived and written after the death of Willis’s own mother is probably also a factor. Speaking of complicated emotions.
NinjaNick
True, but Blaine is making sure he’ll always be DOA’s most-hated character EVER.
Keulen
I never liked Ross, but I also didn’t think he deserved to die.
Sam
As Dina said: it’s more complicated than that.
They might have hated him, doesn’t mean they wished death on him or that losing him wasn’t sad considering he was murdered rather than say struck by lightning. If it had been an unpreventable occurrence they might not be sad at all, but a murder? You can think someone would deserve to die but still not think they should be murdered.
And Becky and Joyce at least have a cocktail of mixed feelings because they used to love and adore him as a trusted adult figure. Even as hatred won out, that doesn’t mean the love was gone either, the love for the good memories, for the care and kindness he gave, for the love he had shown in good ways… even if there is also so much hatred for the bad memories, for the cruelty, for the ‘love’ he showed in criminal acts and behaviours and justified to himself in twisted ways. The anger and hatred don’t mean there isn’t also sadness and love and a wish that he could have been the type of reliable adult they needed him to be, not the one that unfortunately he was.
TheKelliestKelly
Obviously Faz helped out but I wonder if he came with Blaine willingly. Do we add kidnapping to the masked man’s list of charges? Or just child endangerment?
Dunedon
From previous comics is pretty obvious he’s as guilty as Blaine.
Sirksome
I don’t know how much guilt you can actually put on Faz here. He did something bad but he’s also a minor with Blaine as his father who is still very abusive. He shouldn’t even be there and the fact Blaine brought him along kind of makes him another victim. Do you really think he’s there by choice? That Blaine didn’t threaten him in some way to cooperate?
King Daniel
Or lie to him – remember, Amber is Faz’s favorite family member, and someone else has already hypothesized that Blaine may have convinced Faz that this would let him be with her more.
sharktrs
Yeah, the dude’s definitely got a case for being coerced into it
With him being a minor and all, he can probably manage to get off easy
segnosaur
Correction… Faz CLAIMED That Amber is his favorite family member. But, he still willingly acted to steal information from her computer. That doesn’t sound like something you would do to someone you liked.
Plus, if he were really ‘forced’ into things, why did he help Blaine escape? Just leave him tied up and let the police take care of him. Faz wouldn’t be forced any more if Blaine is in prison.
King Daniel
He claimed that to Joyce when the two were alone – why would he have any reason to lie in that situation? I also strongly doubt that the idea to steal the flash drive was Faz’s, or that he did it without some sort of compulsion from Yuri/Blaine.
Regalli
Yeah, the 15-year-old living in Blaine’s household can’t exactly say no. And Faz is still desperate for Blaine’s approval and acknowledgement because, well… he’s a teenager. People need acknowledgement and affection, especially kids. (Like, physiologically.) None of this makes him a particularly willing participant so much as ‘really exploited by an adult he should have been able to trust’.
SuperZero
That’s… not how abuse works.
SuperZero
He, um, he definitely did some kidnapping.
Reltzik
Blaine’s already got several counts of kidnapping on his list of charges, on top of felony murder. MAYBE this is child endangerment. It’s DEFINITELY contributing the delinquency of a minor… and likely a much more extreme version of that charge… but that’s peanuts compared to six counts of kidnapping and felony murder.
Agemegos
Blaine is guilty of actual murder. It is the bozo boys who face the felony-murder charges.
Reltzik
A conviction for good-old-fashioned murder requires an intent to kill. Otherwise it’s manslaughter. Whether Blaine acted with intent to kill Ross, rather than just lashing out at him in aimless rage that resulted in Ross’s unintended death, is something that a prosecutor would have a hard time proving in court. For that matter, I don’t think WE know if he actually had intent to kill, rather than just lashing out in fury.
But manslaughter or, in this case, felony murder would be EASY to prove…
….
*checks Indiana penal code*
…..
…. my bad. Indiana doesn’t distinguish between normal murder and felony murder. It’s all just murder.
So, yes, he’s guilty of actual murder.
Agemegos
I think you ought to check what the felony-murder rule is. In some cases “felony X” is a more serious form of X that is a felony whereas X is usually a misdemeanour, but there is no such thing as “misdemeanour murder”. Murder is always a felony in jurisdictions that distinguish felonies.
Indiana does not distinguish between different degree of murder, but it does have the felony-murder rule. Blaine actually killed Ross, so he’s guilty of murder. The Bozo boys took part in a felony that involved violence and resulted in a death, so they are included in Baline’s crime under the felony-murder rule.
Agemegos
Sorry, Reltznik. I ought to have read your post more carefully.
SuperZero
Manslaughter is an accidental death where you did something reckless or dangerous enough that you’re still considered partially responsible. Beating someone to death in a fit of rage isn’t premeditated, but it’s still murder.
Reltzik
Only if you had intent to kill. If you just meant to beat them up, it’s manslaughter. Except the kidnapping makes it felony murder in this case.
*Checks Indiana Code again*
Yeah. A heat-of-the-moment (or “acting under sudden heat”, as the law puts it) killing is called Voluntary Manslaughter under the Indiana Code (Level 2 felony). Even that requires intent to kill. If Blaine didn’t intend to kill Ross, but just meant to commit battery, then it’s Involuntary Manslaughter (Level 5 Felony) instead.
Involuntary manslaughter also covers other killings like you describe, where it’s the result of you doing something reckless or dangerous… provided that the reckless or dangerous thing was either a Class A Misdemeanor or a Level 5 or 6 felony. Or it could be felony murder, like in this case. But otherwise, if it’s just death as a result of recklessness that wouldn’t otherwise be a serious crime, then that’s called Reckless Homicide… which is also a Level 5 Felony, so I’m not sure why they bother distinguishing between them.
At least, that’s how Indiana does it.
Agemegos
If you get angry at somebody, shout an insult, and then hit them on the head with a hammer, then maybe a prosecutor or jury might not be convinced that you meant to kill them. But if six witnesses then see you express astonishment that they weren’t killed by the first blow and then hit them again, and then express astonishment at how thick their skull is and then hit then again, and them get into a fight with them and beat them to death, people are going to ask what you did intend on the second, third, and fatal blows. And they are going to be skeptical about your answer if it’s not “No, you got me. I meant to kill the son-of-a-drum”.
Lokitsu
Faz is a minor so, I think there’s a ‘corrupting a minor’ charge maybe.
Agemegos
He kidnapped Dorothy, Sarah, Ethan, Walky, Amber, and Joyce. And he intended to use them as hostages, which makes those kidnappings Level 2 felonies under Indiana Code Title 35 § 2 b (3) (D).
BarerMender
He also contemplated murdering them all, and couldn’t think of any reason not to. Also, hitting a man in the head with a hammer has to show intent.
Agemegos
Indeed. That Blaine is guilty of murder seems plain enough. I was responding to Reltznik’s suggestion that his treatment of Faz might add kidnapping to the list of charges against him.
NotPiffany
I think the question was if he’d get yet another kidnapping charge for bringing Faz along, and I think the answer will depend on whatever lawyer Yuri hires after all of this is done.
Commander Clash
Well, if he struck more than once then yes that’s intent,once might be only 2nd degree murder. I’d prefer him to be carried by six instead of tried by twelve.
Agemegos
The law in Indiana doesn’t distinguish different degrees of murder.
Commander Clash
Thank you. My knowledge of different facets ot the American justice system is somewhat lacking obviousl. Then again I’m Canadian.
Regalli
American law is a complicated web of different jurisdictions. We basically have different legal systems for every single state and then also the federal courts. There’s a couple universal rules from the federal government (like the Fourth Amendment’s requirements about search and seizure,) but even those can be interpreted differently by different states unless and until the Supreme Court says ‘nope, THIS is how we’re reading this.’
To my knowledge Indiana’s the outlier for not distinguishing between degrees of murder and using the ‘malice aforethought’ standard as its primary one. But also, I do not concern myself with the details of criminal law in every single state, because I will NEVER use them all. (No lawyer is going to be considered competent and licensed to practice law in all state courts. You’ll sometimes have ‘their primary state, and a couple bordering ones,’ but that’s not a given by any means.)
Regalli
In other words: No worries, even Americans with a little legal knowledge here don’t know all that much about this situatio unless they also live in or very near Indiana.
clif
You got it.
clif
There’s a certain similarity though, because they all descend from English Common Law. Well, except for Louisiana, the odd one out that descends from the Napoleonic Code.
Bicycle Bill
I’d settle for him being carried by two. There’s only two handles on a trash can.
Geneseepaws
At least Twice!
Opus the Poet
Faz is his kid so probably not kidnapping. Endangerment I can see.
OtterBoy1
Dina fucking snapped…
…hell yeah
segnosaur
Yeah, but now she has just been hit by Blaine, and may be injured.
Hopefully he connected with his hand and not the hammer.
Reltzik
I expected more from a raptor than gnawing on his outfit.
But I guess this was the best she coul- *vaudeville hook*
Mopey
A similar scene played out in Ross’ assault on the school:
– Villan is distracted
– Dina attacks like a raptor from the side
– Comment section cheers
– The fact that Dina is a diminutive girl in unarmed combat with men twice her size sets in and she gets swatted away after creating a distraction.
BBCC
Good call Walky. This is about to get ugly.
clif
I said Walky was smart.
Bunny
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
adam Black