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Twenty
Posted on September 10, 2017 by David M Willis
Today, September 10, 2017, is a very special day, because it means it's been twenty years since September 10, 1997, when a young Young Earth Creationist named David Willis was publishing his very first webcomic.   They were simultaneously published on real newsprint by the Indiana Daily Student while I threw them up online on some site called... Tripod?  Is that right?  Does anyone remember Tripod?  Tripod is one of those things from the beforetimes when companies tried to give you free website space (2 megs storage!!!!) instead of free Tumblrs.  It was a primitive time.  And since Roomies! (1997-1999), I've done crap like It's Walky! (1999-2004), Shortpacked! (2005-2015), and ... I dunno, probably other shit.  I'm old. Today is also the seventh anniversary of the beginning of Dumbing of Age on September 10, 2010. Anyway, I thought I'd do a limited print like in the old It's Walky! days and you can find it in my primary webstore.  "Twenty" is 11"x17", printed on cardstock gloss, and I'm doing 45 of them, numbered and signed.  The art centers around modern Dumbing of Age versions of the original Roomies! cast, plus some other folks who may have been important along the way thrown into the back as spooooky ghosts.  Look, for the 15th Anniversary I already drew "every character ever" and now I have two toddlers and I don't got time for that kind of shit anymore.  YOU WILL ENJOY YOUR REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE. I've also uploaded the graphic to my TeePublic site in case you want to capitalism this milestone in t-shirt form.   There will likely be a wallpaper-sized version available through my Patreon.  And if you're like "eff material goods," that's cool, too, because you can still look at it at a reasonable resolution right over there.  I am accommodating. Here's to twenty more years!  If there's not twenty more years, something has gone dreadfully wrong.

230 thoughts on “Twenty”

  1. Doctor_Who

    This comic is going to be very dated in a month when Super Mario Odyssey comes out and its new ass-slapping mechanic is revealed.

    1. DrWattson

      I’m kind of surprised that isn’t a thing in the new Mario/Rabbids crossover.

      1. Regalli

        I mean certainly the Rabbids would. (If we need a No Prize: he is, they just don’t believe it.)

  2. Wack'd

    Let’s go in the garden
    You’ll find something waiting
    Right there where you left it
    Lying upside down

    When you finally find it
    You’ll see how it’s faded
    The underside is lighter
    When you turn it around

    Everything stays
    Right where you left it
    Everything stays
    But it still changes

    Ever so slightly
    Daily and nightly
    In little ways
    When everything stays

    1. Br44n5m

      Is Mario in the garden, slightly changed?

  3. Ana Chronistic

    go big or go home, Joyce

    …Presbyterian

    1. Ana Chronistic

      also happy Dumbiversary!

    2. Maveric1984

      Nope, gotta go old school. Pre-Martin Luther old school!

      Go to a Catholic Church.

      1. Pablo360

        No, she should go to a neo-pagan revivalist festival focusing on mesopotamian bronze-age pantheons.

        1. Dusk Rain

          As a neo-pagan I support this message.

        2. StClair

          “… and that’s good enough for me!”

        3. Marsh Maryrose

          We will worship with the druids,
          Drinking strange fermented fluids,
          Running naked through the woo-ids!

          (Also, I’m a Zarathustra booster.)

        4. Briny

          P is for Pagan/ That’s good enough for meeee

      2. Marsh Maryrose

        The Moravian Church is also pre-Martin Luther old school. And if Wikipedia is to be believed, Waldensians may still be around.

        1. Unusually Angry Hippie

          Pffft, pre-schism Ethiopian Miaphisite Christianity is where it’s at. They don’t even have a new testament, it’s just the Torah with a ‘jesus was pretty alright’ sticky note in the back.

    3. Rukdug

      Please, Calvinist Churches are some of the least hated churches by the Born-Agains. If she really wants to make at least her mother mad, she has to go to the ultimate hate sink of accused vice, immorality, blasphemy, and cultish heresy that American “born again” fundamentalist Christian knows. She has to go to a Catholic Mass. Preformed by a Jesuit Priest.
      …
      It would make Carol’s head explode!

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Catholic Mass is fucking boring and tedious. There, I said it.

        1. Deathjavu

          All services of any denomination are.

          If I wanted to waste an hour being told things that didn’t happen, I’d listen to Trump. At least that’s horrifyingly relevant.

        2. Socks

          Counterpoint: jews have a legit religious holiday centered around wearing costumes and getting super drunk and sexy. I mean, I haven’t celebrated it since I was a kid at a watered-down kid version that sucked, but it’s got the ingredients there to not be boring. I hear there’s people who do it right.

          We are also religiously obligated to drink four+ glasses of wine in a ceremony that, at my boyfriend’s family’s last passover, was abridged to take half an hour, so, that was pretty entertaining. And you CAN use the little shotglass sized wine glasses, but you’ll need the full glasses in order to make it through the evening with crazy aunt Sasha and grandma Marilyn anyway. Again, this was always a LOT less fun as a kid, but, you know, booze.

          So basically what all you other religions need is more wine. Just, more wine. Go get some wine, make up a reason you’re supposed to drink all of the wine, and then drink all of the wine. Get drunk with Marilyn. Hear stories about the time Leonard ran a grocery store for the Russian mafia, and had stag parties at the temple. 300% better than catholic mass.

          But yeah all the other services do suck ass. Maybe the one where you have to sleep in a treehouse, I’m not sure, I lived in a condo as a kid so we never got to do that one.

        3. Socks

          Oh oh and the Passover wine happens before you’re technically allowed to eat any of the actual dinner food! So you’re running off of some salty parsley and a piece of stale cardboard covered in horseradish and fruit paste with MORE WINE IN IT, as you down your four glasses and pretend not to be sloppy drunk in front of your boyfriend’s parents even though his dad’s probably already drinking out of a bottle anyway and the facade is only going to last until his aunts start asking about your family traditions and you have to pretend to be from a functional jewish household ANYWAY.

          Although when you’re a kid your rich relatives give you cash for playing hide and seek with the stale cardboard so that part I guess was neat.

        4. Br44n5m

          You drink the wine while somebody eats all the matzoh, cause for some reason if it’s made properly nobody shares!

        5. The Other Mike

          So what you’re saying is, to be a practicing Jew is to drink religiously.

        6. Rukdug

          Well back before someone insisted that we get centralized and hierarchical, Christian masses were essentially community sized dinner parties or potlucks with a lot of wine (Thanks a lot Constantine). So if we ever go back to our roots… Christmas and Easter Mass would end up being so much more fun.

        7. vlademir1

          I would concur if you indicated it was the Tridentine Mass or the Pauline Mass in Latin.
          That said, I may not be the best respondent to that comment, seeing as I’m a heretic by the standard view of the Church yet also not really compatible with the Protestant nor Orthodox churches and haven’t attended Mass in years, though I understand it better now than I ever did then.

        8. Rukdug

          Ooowww. I wouldn’t wish a Pauline Latin Mass on Joyce, that would just be torture. Depending on the currently level of acceptance for liberation theolovy in the Vatican, I’m probably a heretic as well. Have you perhaps looked at Fraticelli, Hussite, Waldensian, Cathar, Lollard, or Pelagian heresy’s at all?

        9. vlademir1

          Yeah, it would be. In my consideration one of the most important elements to come from the Second Vatican Council, at least for us of the laity, was the acceptance of the use of vernacular languages for Mass. which mirrored the reasons for the early Church switch from Greek to Latin in the first place. If you don’t understand the language well, it’s hard to impossible to really grasp the significance of what’s going on and why.
          I’ve read on each of those heresies at some point or another, and myriad other besides. I don’t want to go deep here on where my beliefs depart from those of the Church as I could write a book if I did, but Pelagius and Arius both held beliefs that run parallel to my own for example.

        10. Rukdug

          Why do you think we have all that standing and kneeling? It’s too make sure we stay awake.
          …
          In all seriousness, it all depends on whether the priest can make the sermon interesting or not.

        11. Z

          I’m only there for the music. At least thirteen pieces of music I have to sing in a regular mass at my church. The rest of the time I’m either daydreaming or on my phone if I can get away with it, especially if I can hide behind the grand piano. Haha

        12. Ed Rhodes

          My wife was raised going to a Black Baptist Church. When we married, she started going to my Catholic Church and found the tedium actually soothing.

      2. Marsh Maryrose

        OOOOH! A new game!

        Out of all churches nominally within the Christian tradition, which ones would Carol most be freaked out by Joyce’s attending them?

        (I am excluding non-Christian religions because I assume that Carol would be equally freaked out beyond measure if Joyce went to Muslim or Hindu or Sikh or Yoruba services/ceremonies.)

        I’m not ranking these, but some of the the contenders I can think of off the top of my head: Catholic, Mormon, High Church Episcopalian, Quaker, AME, Unitarian. Others?

        1. vlademir1

          Can’t think of any others that are generally accepted by the Christian community, though there are plenty of unrecognized and unnamed single location denominations that are much more divergent from the kind of view Carol would accept than those.

        2. JohnF

          I suspect Mum might not approve of Metropolitan Community Churches. I attend MCC Brisbane, and the Pastor and his husband are lovely.

        3. Durandal_1707

          Universal Church of Christ?

        4. butting

          Denominations would be tricky because of how regional differences apply, but with Carol I’d wager: any church with a gay minister.

          (eg: wherever my stepmum’s preaching on any given Sunday)

        5. Arian

          She’d hate the Uniting Church in Australia. I think the closest equivalent in the USA is called United Methodists? The Australian version was a union of the Methodists, the Congregationalists and the progressive half of the Presbyterians.

        6. Arian

          Damn, forgot to edit my email on this device. Go *away*, Malaya.

        7. foamy

          What about the Church of England, specifically created to allow the King to divorce?

      3. Ana Chronistic

        (I don’t actually know shit about the Christian denominations)

      4. Knayt

        Nah, just going to a Catholic church is half assing it. I have two words for you: Greek Orthodox.

        1. merbrat

          Christian Science? (stopped attending when I was 15)

        2. Rukdug

          Why stop there? How about Armenian Apostolic or Coptic?

        3. Knayt

          Mostly because it seems like there’s at least a decent chance that one of those is around in Indiana.

      5. Andrew_C

        Yeah, wasn’t it Calvin who largely responsible for a lot of the predestination style bullshit a lot of evangelicals use as a Get Out Of Jail Free card?

        1. Kim Chee

          No, his was different. Calvinist predestination basically makes evangelism worthless because who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell is determined long before you were born, so preaching to the ‘heretics’ about fire and brimstone isn’t worth doing because if they were going to heaven they’d be Christian already, and those who are consigned to hell are not capable of becoming Christian anyway, and if they did it wouldn’t make a difference because ‘choosing’ to follow god is a good work, and good works alone don’t get you into heaven.

    4. Mollyscribbles

      despite having been raised Presbyterian, I realize I have very little concept of the differences between different denominations and don’t know what she’d be freaked out by.

      Probably the bit where I stopped attending services years ago has something to do with it. Um . . . the communion involves squares of white bread and shots of grape juice?

    5. Emily

      I was going to go with catholic

  4. AnvilPro

    Why didn’t we get comics of Joe and Danny playing games for 10 hours straight?

  5. King Daniel

    But is Mario making a duckface while he’s doing so

  6. Nono

    Is it truly sleep deprivation, or did they’d watch wander obto google image search?

    1. Durandal_1707

      I think the real question is: How sleep deprived were you when you wrote this post?

      1. Needfuldoer

        I usually have to get three sleep deprived before hitting that point.

  7. Bristingr

    Clever marketing of the Joycons and Nintendo Switch.

    1. Jed!

      Is that what they are? I wasn’t sure if I was too young or too old to recognize the controllers.

      1. Bristingr

        Yeah, the red and blue tiny controllers are a dead giveaway, plus Mario… so I assume they’re either playing Mario Kart 8 or Rabbids x Mario 😛

        1. Socks

          Nah, I bet it’s Odyssey, because willis knows that by the time we check back in with them after Joyce finishes church, the game will have been out for months anyway.

  8. ValdVin

    That’s “hippie church” to you. Okay, maybe not you.

  9. A lone shoggie

    I remember Tripod!

    1. Jamie

      I think my website for a high school club was on there. Or was it Angelfire? I can’t remember.

      1. Unusually Angry Hippie

        Believe it or not, Angelfire domains STILL EXIST. All of that shit, bad web design and opressive ’90’s angst and all, can still be find if your willing to do the searching.

        1. David M Willis

          http://www.angelfire.com/pa/infrarred/

    2. Needfuldoer

      Tripod, Angelfire, Geoshitties, AOL Homepage, Newgrounds, YTMND, phpbb, vBulletin… The late 90s/early 2000s were a magical time on the Internet.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Most of the artists I follow built their popularity on Newgrounds. It’s still going strong today.

    3. hof1991

      my Geocities site lives on at the Internet Archive. But I’m older than DYW. I used the Net when it was command line driven on a 1200 baud modem. Archie and Veronica lived there. God, I’m not only older than DYW, I’m sure there a lot of dirt younger than me.

      1. thejeff

        Gopher. And Usenet access through a local BBS before that. 1200 baud was painful. Even 2400. I can read text faster than that.

        Hopefully us old farts make Willis feel better. I was years out of college before he started Roomies!

        (What’s the proper punctuation usage when you end a sentence with a proper name that ends in an exclamation mark? I’m not yelling, so should I add a period?)

        1. Mephron

          It’s a proper name with the exclamation point, so yes, put a period after it. So you would write:

          I was years out of college before he started Roomies!.

  10. Yumi

    In my experience of sleep deprivation, the 52nd hour is when it really peaks.

  11. Shiro

    I was so excited when I realized I was out of high school and could pull all-nighters without parental consequences. I did not realize that there would be other, more biological consequences. All nighters: not as fun as you thought they’d be.

  12. Socks

    Aww, Joe and Danny being broooooooooooossss

    bros bros bros bros bros

    1. Socks

      WAIT danny where is your hat, you were such a good egg with it, I don’t know if you can sustain that good egg status on your own

      1. DrWattson

        He’s sleep deprived, he’s clearly not thinking straight.

        1. Yumi

          He never is.

        2. Koms

          A-Ha!

        3. Roborat

          Wham!

        4. tyersome

          I thought it was pretty clear he hasn’t been thinking straight for quite a while now …

      2. Briny

        Well, he’s home. (If you define dorm-rooms as opposed to dorms in general as “home”). Wearing a hat around your home (maybe excepting ballcaps) is not Good Egg behavior. 😉

  13. Tacos

    Honestly, I would like to see a comic from the sleep-deprived point of views of Joe and Danny.

    1. Screwball

      That would be funny as Heck… ?

    2. Mephron

      Joyce looks like a puffy cloud with a shining sun coming up from behind it, and the room looks like a mansion.

  14. BBCC

    I believe this calls for internet champagne! Or other booze! Or non alcoholic drinks for those choosing to abstain!

    1. pjeseb

      Orangettes for me.

      1. BBCC

        You got it!

    2. Delicious Taffy

      I’m a Bacardi guy, myself. It doesn’t seem like an anniversary celebration sort of drink, though. Is champagne particularly strong?

      1. BBCC

        Eh, at a celebration, everyone should drink what they like.

        So, I guess I’m drinking milk then.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          [Skyrim Joke]

    3. Screwball

      I’ll take some Cybertronian “Nightmare Fuel”, only a few drops tho. That stuff is strong enough to take out a full sized Cybertronian, let alone a mini Minicon like me… ?

      1. BBCC

        You asked for it.

    4. adjudicus

      I’ll have a weak energon spritzer

    5. Rukdug

      Naval Grog, a pint of Bavarian dunkel, or a wine skin filled with mead.

  15. Stephen Bierce

    *plays “Happy Anniversary Baby” on the hacked Muzak*
    http://68.media.tumblr.com/47ba811245d5735210f7cb7b37923268/tumblr_nbowi0SPES1qkinreo1_1280.png <-Delivering the Real PSL since 1997.

    1. Stephen Bierce

      Is it right or wrong–or BOTH?

    2. ValdVin

      Now I want to celebrate the Walkyversary and Dumbiversary with a Diamantina Cocktail.

  16. DrWattson

    Happy anniversary everyone; since it’s the 20th anniversary of the Walky-verse, would that make this a Walkyversary?

  17. Sporky

    CONSEQUENCES! Take a shot

    1. Wack'd

      …I mean, it’s Sunday, which means that they could probably pass out whenever and everything’d be fine.

      Unless they’re in, like, previously unmentioned clubs, or have assignments due Monday they haven’t started, I guess.

      (Walky aside these kids deal with their workloads way better than I did as a freshman, jesus)

      1. Sporky

        You’re kinda right, I just meant yknow… because of the Thing… the Roomies Thingy… that they say, sometimes…

        1. Wack'd

          who is this roomies to speak of, for i have never heard of such a man

          😛

      2. tyersome

        When you were a freshman Jesus, were you of street corner variety?

  18. Quartz Falcon

    I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to learn Rabbid Mario does, in fact, spank his own ass.

  19. Seeker861

    Another great birthday comic. It’s kinda crazy that I was 3 when these comics started and now I’m staying up all night playing video games in college.

  20. Volt790

    Mario on a Switch? Surprised there was no Rabbid commentary… then again, there’s ass-slapping.
    Its not the Real Mario, Dan!

  21. Passchendaele

    Twenty hoorays for the 20th Anniversary/Walkyversary/Dumbiversary! These webcomics, collectively, are older than me, which still blows my fragile little mind. For that amount of dedication, I say yaaaaaay!

  22. Volt790

    Also, to bring up Anniversary Arts again: I’m still suspicious with how Sal & The Head Alien are smack in the middle of the tear in the 15th Anniversary.
    ALMOST like they’re actually the same person… nah, can’t be, right?
    (SAVING THIS TO POSSIBLY SAY I CALLED IT)

  23. Marsh Maryrose

    Welcome to Old Fartdom, David Willis.

    Mind you, it’s hard for me to take seriously the fact that someone who wasn’t even walking when Reagan was elected considers himself old. Then again, when I was your age, I thought I was old…no further comment.

    But I am putting in a request for the Hacked Music Deejay to put on the soundtrack from The Fantasticks.

    Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
    Although you know the snow will follow.
    Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
    Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
    Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
    The fire of September that made us mellow.
    Deep in December, our hearts should remember
    And follow.

    1. StClair

      (*bows head for Jerry Orbach*)

      1. ValdVin

        I loved him in many things, not the least of which was the sly joke casting a genuine Broadway leading man as “stern anti-dancing Dad” in Dirty Dancing.

    2. Marsh Maryrose

      Already regretting invoking that musical. “Try to Remember” is a beautiful song, but pretty much everything else in The Fantasticks is really fucked up. It would take a Lindsey Ellis or an Anita Sarkeesian to get into the details of just how toxic its world view is, but both of them already have their hands full with current stuff.

      1. CJ

        Having read the wikipedia article on it (because a character in a crime story I once read had acted in “the fantastically” and you reminded me of it – read that one pre-internet) it sounds like the story is heavy on stay-at-home ideology. And about as subtle about its point as ‘the circle’.

        1. Mephron

          Having seen it off-Broadway (the joys of living in the NYC area and being and elderly fart), I can assure you that it’s even less subtle than that.

  24. Rukdug

    Also, while I think it’s really “D’aawww” worthy that Joe and Danny spent all night hanging out gaming together, dear lord fellas get some sleep!! The human body is not meant to function properly for more than 24 hours at a time!!!

    1. Yumi

      lol

    2. Socks

      It is when you’re 18! Kind of.

      1. DrWattson

        I don’t understand how anyone can pull all-nighters like that. I’m only a couple years older than the characters in the comic, and I can barely get past 4 AM before I’m ready to just pass out.

        1. Yumi

          Honestly those couple of years make a hell of a difference, at least in my experience. I pulled a couple all nighters my first couple years of college (thanks, procrastination) and then a bunch of them during my third year (thatnks, depression). After I got through that and was more responsible about sleep for a while, I found all nighters impossible just a year later.

          I have done a couple of all nighters since then, but it helped that I was nowhere near a bed and was still much harder than it used to be.

        2. Deathjavu

          Same…I went from pulling all nighters for fun freshman year, to pulling all nighters to fix my weird 26-28 hour sleep cycle my brain had produced junior year, to post-college dragging myself to bed at 10 PM and using a fan to block out the noise of people who are still awake.

          I’m 27 and I need a cane to shake at young people. And a lawn to sit on.

        3. Socks

          Yeah my ability to stay up has just deteriorated SO RAPIDLY since high school. I basically just didn’t sleep at all when I was 17, but by the time I graduated college I was lucky to get an hour or two past my bedtime. Now, if I’m not in bed within a half hour of my usual time, I’m SO GRUMPY. I’m useless all day with less than 6 hours of sleep, too, and I’ve snarled in eldritch tongues at people more than once for trying to wake me up from naps. Where the fuck are my invulnerable early twenties all the old people keep talking about, did I miss that, or, where, where did they go??

        4. Needfuldoer

          Up through my first couple years of college, I could pull an all-nighter and be mostly okay. I’d regularly stay up until 3 in the morning playing video games or surfing the web.

          Things change fast once you pass your mid-to-late twenties.

          Now I have a wicked early shift so I get 4 or 5 hours of sleep on most nights. (Check the timestamps on most of my posts. That’s waking up, not staying up!) Most of the time I’m okay, but don’t get between me and my coffee! I need to take evening naps on some days. This past year I’ve had to pull a couple overnights at work, and they were caffeine benders fueled by coffee and diet Mountain Dew. After about 40 hours I start getting hazy and shouldn’t be around power tools anymore.

        5. Carms

          I have pulled a few all nighters for uni homework, at which time I learnt that MOST people, when they said ‘all nighter’, meant ‘until 4am’ or’until dawn’. wereas *I* meant ‘didn’t at all then drove to uni’.

        6. Yumi

          Yeah, I was a bit of an all-nighter snob at one point. “If you haven’t been up for at least 24 hours, you haven’t really pulled an all-nighter.”

        7. Mephron

          My thought was always “If you haven’t been up for 24 hours and consumed at least a two-liter of Jolt! Cola, it’s not a real all-nighter.” And then I’d need to walk to 7-11 for at least one more two-liter of Jolt! and some Tastykake cupcakes, and maybe some chips and dip.

          This should tell you two things:
          1) I’m actually old, in that I remember when Jolt! came in two-liter bottles
          2) It’s kind of a miracle that I have a cardiovascular system that’s not practically a solid.

  25. Carms

    aw man, this interaction is the best. is cute. is nice. is happy.

  26. Cerberus

    Congratulations, Willis on the 20th Comics Anniversary!

  27. Beachfox

    Cooooonsequences!

    Act with Integrity!

    No Regrets!

    20 Years!

  28. Smooti

    So, didja line up strips so that we’d be getting Danny, Joe, and Joyce all in one strip on the 20th anniversary, or was it a lucky coinkidink?

    Also I find the idea that Joyce would walk into two boys’ dorms unprompted to be… kinda weird. But also totally in character for Joyce to not even think about why that’d be seen as weird.

    1. Wack'd

      Given that Joe and Joyce are in their Roomies! outfits, Danny’s classic blue hoodie is visible in the closet, we’ve got the return of the Batman and Rebecca St James posters, and “consequences” get mentioned…

      …I’m gonna say yeah, probably a coincidence. 😛

      1. David M Willis

        technically danny’s first roomies! outfit was the red hoodie, but that changed to blue in my mind before color strips were a thing

        you can distinguish the red hoodie from the blue hoodie in black and white lineart by the IU logo on the front, which was present in the earliest strips

        1. Wack'd

          I learned a thing!

    2. merbrat

      Their door may have been already open, or even partially.

    3. Doki

      I totally came here to say something about that OMG 😀

  29. Ivy

    I’m so proud of Joyce

    1. Ivy

      Also you, Willis, thank you for the comics

  30. Cephalo the Pod

    “Here’s to twenty more years!” Let’s hope for twelve at least; you’ve got a Martian return to cover.

    1. Durandal_1707

      SRAEY EVIF-YTNEWT NI UOY EES L’II

  31. Delicious Taffy

    Rebel without a cross? Eh, I’ll workshop it.

    1. tyersome

      I thought Joyce had an unforgettable cross … or maybe that was more of a roundhouse?

    2. Delicious Taffy

      BTW, I love ribbed turtlenecks.

  32. Bunk

    I actually think that it’s a sweet ending that after a day of Danny and Joe trying to sorta rectify Joe’s mistakes they unwound with a night of playing Mario.

  33. UltraKyrie

    ultra car and carla flipping each other off <3

  34. MapleAmber

    Is anyone else unable to view the comic without the page scrolling itself down to an ad every two seconds? Driving me crazy!

    Also, Joyce looks awesome in that sweater <3

    1. MapleAmber

      Also, yay, Willis! Thank you for a great comic that gives me all the feels.

  35. Gaia

    Congratz on 20 years! :3

  36. Alice Macher

    Congratulations on twenty years of webcomickry!

    Also, congratulations on twenty years of continually sharpening your writing and drawing skills, surviving anxiety and depression, charting your own course away from religious fundamentalism, finding love and starting a family. Special congratulations for using Shortpacked! and Dumbing of Age not only to entertain but to raise awareness of sexism, heteronormativity and racism in their obvious and subtle forms.

    1. StClair

      What she said.

  37. Smiling Cat

    Hallucinations after only one all nighter? Once again, Danny, you shame yourself and your ancestors.

  38. Keulen

    Happy Anniversary! And I’m pretty sure the only times I stayed up all night in college was playing video games with my friends as well.

  39. Wack'd

    …y’know, it’s weird.

    The relationship between Danny, Joe, and Joyce in the original continuity has this weird stutter in the middle of it. Joe does warm up to Joyce, but once she’s gone, there’s no real regret by Joe for how he treated her, and when they meet again, it’s as old friends, even though Joe is meeting a Joyce who knows better. Joe and Joyce develop, but Danny never really remarks upon this when he sees them again; like with Joe and Joyce, he takes it as a given that he’ll enjoy their company. The fact that, in their college days, these people were all kinda awful to each other? Doesn’t matter. It’s a quick gag at best.

    “The Do List” is in a lot of ways long-awaited. Joe has repaired things with Danny and Joyce in ways the old Joe never did. We finally see Danny and Joe actually enjoying each other’s company, on terms both find agreeable (if unhealthy.) Joyce can walk into their dorm without fear of abuse.

    Yes, sure, the problems between Danny and Joyce never existed here. But before they could start a friendship–and they’re still just on the cusp of knowing each other–both had to transend their worst faults and foibles. Danny will never know a Joyce who’s as thoughtlessly romantic as the one that existed in August; likewise, Joyce will never know a Danny who feels so much while doing so little.

    The surge of joy I felt when, in an August 2002 storyline, Danny, Joe, and Joyce hung out for the first time in about two and a half years of comics–it was the product of a continuity fetishism I’ll probably never shake. The happiness I felt reading this strip is…different. It’s the happiness of seeing, after twenty years of bumpy roads and false starts, the actual beginning of a friendship that has the potential to be beautiful.

    I dunno what twists and turns these three will take in the next seven, or next twenty, years. But I can’t wait to find out.

    1. Wack'd

      I don’t like how I phrased some of this but I wanted to make sure I finished it while Willis is still checking the moderation filter

  40. Fart Captor

    I am extremely here for twenty more years of these kids <3

  41. Dara

    Happy anniversary! I came in with Shortpacked and have been reading since.

    The only times I’ve stayed up overnight were meteor shower watching camping out at Olympic hot springs (the Perseids are the best show), a couple of times for art school final projects. Oh. And the Longestnight holidays of course. That’s a thing.

  42. Lingo

    Oh man, the videogame-induced sleep deprivation hallucinations … I remember them well.

    1. Lingo

      And it’s just now occurring to me that I have possibly been reading your comics for over half of those 20 years, since I came onboard sometime during Shortpacked! and well before DOA started. … Cool!

  43. AgentKeen

    Dang, even Danny and Joe managed to get a Switch.

  44. Bagge

    REBELS go to non-approved churches while wearing bloodstain sweaters…

    Yeah, that’s not really a joke. Joyce IS a rebel completely fair and square at this point. She followed Sal’s advice to a tee
    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/fudge/

    Only, the core identity she owns the FUDGE out of has less to do with sweater vests and being obnoxiously sunny (even if that’s part of it as well), and more with being a moral person. The church and her parents may throw a kid to a gun-toting maniac because they don’t like who she wants to snogg. Joyce doesn’t. She is a better person than that. She is a better christian than that.

    And I LOVE to see how she has started to take pride in her independence. Joyce is awesome and she should feel awesome.

  45. Romanticide

    While till this day I have problems to sleep early and healthy sleep schedule seems so difficult for me to achieve. I never got the atraction of playing a game all night long… I just don’t have it me.

    1. Durandal_1707

      I remember it happening a lot the first time I discovered Chrono Trigger.

  46. maxyai

    Bros before hos!

  47. Bagge

    Awesome piece of friendship for Joe and Danny. FINALLY Danny got the interaction with Joe he has wanted this entire time. Heh, most likely as a conscious reward from Joe.

  48. Bagge

    Oh, and thanks for twenty years of laughs, feels and drama! Here’s for your kids not pooping on you today!

    1. Emperor Norton II

      Perish the thought!

  49. brasca1

    Congratulations!! Wow 20 years ago I was starting my freshman year of college and only just discovering the full potential of the internet. It would take a few more years before I’d discover the fantastic world of webcomics. I can’t recall how I first found Dumbing of Age. I think I saw an ad for it in Penny & Aggie and linked over to it.

    1. brasca1

      Correction. It was Shortpacked not Dumbing of Age.

  50. adjudicus

    Congrats on 20 years of webcomics, and congrats on 7 years of Dumbing of Age! I’ve only been reading this since christmas, and I’d like to say thank you for all the important issues you’ve brought up in your comics, for the distraction it provided from the stresses of life, and for allowing me to see the worst things about myself.

  51. Josh Spicer

    Embrace the ass slapping Danny. Make it part of you. Only then can you truly power through it.

    Also yay for more Joyce and Joe interaction.

  52. Lawzlo

    I kinda hope that the rest of this storyline is drawn in Danny sleep-deprived hallucination vision (or at least scenes where he appears).

  53. Pan

    Took me three reads to realize they are playing a Switch

  54. PapayaPunkPixie

    Congrats on the milestone Willis!
    You’ve been making comics since I was 3. What the hell.

    1. King Daniel

      I was still over a month from my first birthday when Roomies! started.

  55. Badgermole

    What was she going to ask in the first panel? “Can I” what???Just woke up after going to sleep at 5 am so I really feel Danny right now.

    Congratulations on the vicennial, old man Willis. The consistency and care with which you’ve expanded your college comic strip into a multiverse is mind-boggling. We’re all very proud of you, and grateful.

    1. BenRG

      She probably wanted to try out her plea for Jacob to dump Raidah for Sarah with him. After all, he’s far more experienced than her in this area and should have some pointers!

  56. Synnerman

    Wow! 20 years. Congratulations Willis!!

  57. Danni

    POWER THROUGH IT, DANNY!

  58. BenRG

    What…? Darn it, Joyce! Will you stop being so cute and adorable in every possible context? Even when you’re being Team Mom, you still come across as the little sister that I desperately need to hug!

    Joe, she isn’t talking about not doing stuff that would annoy your parents (although I can’t see your dad caring about you staying up all night). She’s talking about stuff that is genuinely unhealthy. You’re listening to a guy who has done his share of all-nighters and I always regretted it.

    So, what do call this anyway, Willis? Your Webiversary?

  59. BenRG

    Hey! It suddenly occurred to me that this is actually a Roomies! strip disguised as a DoA!

    1. StClair

      Can’t be. It’s got backgrounds.

  60. Nenja

    Congratulations on your 20 years of comics!

  61. acher4

    I kind of like that those three are the ones that appear on the 20th anniversary comic.

    Congratulations! 😀
    Up to 100 more 😛

  62. Eldritch Gentleman

    I swear that Panel 3 Joyce is channelling some SERIOUS Mom Power.

    1. BenRG

      If there was anyone in the main cast group who would be likely to become Team Mom, it’s her.

      1. ValdVin

        But it’s proven that Dorothy is two of her own moms!

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

  63. Remmington Steele

    Bowie’s “Oh you pretty things” is playing on the semi-ironic hacked muzak.

  64. 4,000 spiders

    holy shit, twenty years. this feels like a good moment to comment for the first time and mention that that’s longer than i’ve been a person. and i felt like i’d been reading for a long time.

    …although that’s probably just because i had one of those prolonged Big Life Realizations (wow turns out i’m gay) during the years that i’ve been reading this comic and that just seems to stretch time somewhat. i dunno time is fake. anyways congratulations!

    1. Kathleen

      Hey congrats on figuring it out! I hope all 4,000 of you find loving partners someday. 🙂

  65. CianM1301

    Congrats on the 20 years, man!

  66. Meta

    I wasn’t born yet when your comics started and I’m college-aged now

    1. Meta

      (Congratulations on 20 amazing years)

  67. Zaidyer

    Happy 20!

  68. Guest42

    So Joyce met Danny without falling in crush.

    Roomies is over.

    I didn’t start reading your comics 20 years ago… but roomies was still going on when I started. Was like just before Ruth went for a crazy ride and after you did that Halloween crossover with Sluggy Freelance.

    Thank you for that.

  69. Dariu55

    Happy 20th year of posting lul pictures in a defined format on the internets!

    Also, with newer games, it’s harder to tell what is a sleep-deprived hallucination, and what’s actually happening. o.O

  70. Hoodiecrow

    Congratulations!

    I’ve been around for circa 15 of those 20 years. It has been mainly joyful, except perhaps for the horrors of the 2005 LiveJournal Foolsday Mindfuck.

    I have watched the unfolding work of someone who is continually trying to improve himself as an artist and as a person.

    I have seen many strong characters brought to life, likable or unlikable, bland or weird, woke or naive, and I have seen the artist bring off the great truth that everyone is the central character in their own story, even when they wish they weren’t.

    If I get 20 more years and a Willis comic of some sort is still running by then, I believe I will be reading it.

  71. JBento

    Happy artist birthday, Willis!

  72. Jonathan D Moore

    “Don’t you ever think of consequences?” Nice throwback! http://www.joyceandwalky.com/d/19970909.html

    Congratulations on the anniversary! I love your work!

  73. L!ghtn!ng

    Congratulations on 20 awesome years! Here’s to 20 more.

    1. maarvarq

      My sentiments exactly, but slightly scary coming from a Mary avatar.

  74. Spencer

    Dumbing of Age has had a positive impact on my life. I don’t think it’s wrong to say that if it weren’t for this place I would have been umming and erring on a lot on the whole coming out thing. I was given a safe place to shout out loud that I was bi, and I’m so thankful for that.

    So thanks for the 20 years of great comics (and roomies), and here’s to twenty more.

  75. Benjy

    Power Trio

  76. Oruncrest

    Joyce, you only just taught Joe what consequences are YESTERDAY. It’s gonna tqke him awhile to figure out that such things can apply to more than just girls.

  77. Arioch

    Congrats on 20 years of comics! Here’s to 20 more! And may you find plenty of hilarious ways to make us say “Damn you, Willis!” because it shows the love.

  78. hof1991

    Seriously, 20 years is a long time with the same character set, even if they have been rebooted. Sue Grafton. Patrick O’Brian. Long term comic book characters have been through dozens of writers in that time frame.

    It works because DYW has changed so much and continues to grow. And he shares that with us. Great work. I read a lot of webcomics and I save the best for last, ending my morning here.

  79. Vulcanodon

    Willis, Thank You for the work you do. As a former minister raised on toxic masculinity DOA speaks to me in so many important ways. You will never know all the good that you do because its reach is so great.

  80. Vulcanodon

    I can’t wait for Joyce to interact with a ‘hippie church’. So much possibility there.

  81. DinaWho

    I remember discovering Dumbing of Age in my first semester of college. These characters accompanied me through college and points beyond. Here’s to more years!

  82. J. A. J.

    Dumbing of Age has genuinely shaped me into a better ally over the years, one who better understands the importance of women’s and LGBTQIA+ people’s rights/representation in media. Really comes to show the power that good art can have.

    THANK YOU, David Willis, and may you enjoy another 20 bongoin’ years!

  83. Benwhoski

    I so miss my younger days when I could actually pull off gaming all-nighters.

    Oh, I’ll _say_ I’m going to play video games all night. But I rarely make it past midnight anymore.

  84. Eli

    These comics are older than I am, but I’ve found them, especially dumbing of age, to be an incredibly influential part of my life the last couple years, and having just started college, i feel like it will be for at least a few more years. Happy 20 years!

  85. ValdVin

    After seven years is this the first time Willis has drawn the microwave and minifridge in the dorm?

  86. Deanatay

    Willis, you say, “Welp, I’ve now been drawing webcomics for 20 years”, like you are NOT living the dream!

    YOU. SAY. THAT. WITH. PRIDE!!!

  87. Geno

    Y’know I’m really happy it’s these three for this comic. Roomies throwback

  88. Emperor Norton II

    So, now we know what Danny was really doing last night, at the very end of the chapter/book.

    He was not setting up to make a ukulele selfie. He was not checking how to play certain chords.

    He was checking to see if there were any late-night stores open that actually had the Switch in stock for once. Then he and Joe went out and bought it.

    And I’m assuming he bought the Mario/Rabbids game as well, since that is a game where I assume (because I’ve played a couple of the Rabbids games) there is in fact a possibility of asses being spanked.

    And if this what “being bros” should really be about, instead of what it is. This should be known as two bros doing something mildly irresponsible (hey, they’re young enough that their bodies can take it) together; and truly with no harm coming to anyone else as a result*.

    *Parents getting upset doesn’t count.

  89. Pintsize

    Who’s that gal left of Ruth in the poster? I recall seeing that face before, but I really can’t put a name on it.

    1. Lingo

      It’s Alex … Amber and Danny’s computer science teacher.

      1. Pintsize

        Thanks! So I was right in thinking she was one of the higher-ups.

  90. Damned

    5 days after you published your first webcomic, I was born. Neato.

  91. Kernanator

    I was 4 when you first started posting webcomics. I was in middle school when I started reading them. I started university when you began DoA. And I graduated just last year.

  92. BL

    Is nobody gonna say anything about the brilliant smug Joyce in Panel 4?

  93. Andy4Hire

    Congratulations and happy anniversary, Mr. Willis! Thank you for 20 years (and counting) of great comics!

  94. tekjr

    I like it when Joe and Danny act like actual friends. Like, their back-and-forth is funny, but they gotta be friends, too.

  95. Tenn

    [Willis travels back in time to visit his younger self.]

    2017!Willis: “This is what your comics will look like in 20 years!” *shows today’s strip*
    1997!Willis: “Whoa! I can do this for a living?”
    2017!Willis: “Uh, yeah. And this… is the porn you’ll be drawing in 20 years.” *shows Slipshine archives*
    1997!Willis: *has a heart attack* *dies*

    And so, Willis created a time paradox that destroyed the universe.

    Happy anniversary! ^_^

  96. LightPunster

    My OTP is Joyce x Sweater-w/-Rolled-Up-Sleaves x Nagging-Joe

  97. FortyTwo

    I started reading in the middle of “It’s Walky!” (I came to webcomics in general in 2002), so there’s a part of me that still thinks of Robin as a latecomer and can’t fathom that “Shortpacked!” lasted a decade (seriously, it was only, like, three years, right? No way it was longer than “IW!”).

    Congratulations on twenty years of consistent updates! Even more than that, congratulations on creating art and finding an audience that grew along with you. It’s fascinating to watch your comics become more woke. 😉

    1. thejeff

      Yeah, I feel the same way. Maybe because a good chunk of SP!, especially early on was disconnected industry jokes? It feels like IW! had more story.

      1. ValdVin

        I have almost nil interest in the bricabrac, comic books, games, superhero movies, toys and such sold at a store like Shortpacked. However I gobbled it up for the character arcs once I started to read DofA.

        IW is more.to my taste but getting a person to read something which lives and breathes things which aren’t on their radar is a feat.

  98. Orion Fury

    I…I don’t recognize the blonde on the far left in the front row. Also, is that both ‘verses Carlas on the far right?

    1. BBCC

      Alex, Amber’s computer teacher. She was a main in Roomies (though the person who inspired the character wasn’t yet out at the time).

  99. Mo

    HAPPY ANNIVERSARY. I have only been reading since about a year into Shortpacked! But I will continue to follow, and gladly.

    Hey, if the TeePublic site is working out, think we could get the Butt-Taco on a dark shirt now?

    1. Mo

      Just for the record, I love my Amazi-Girl shirt. It’s soft and comfortable and makes me immune to criticism.

  100. Yumi

    I asked someone out and she’s not responding lol fucking murder me oh shit she responded and now I have to read her response can we go back to when she hadn’t responded oh shit I’m so bad at this

  101. Jhon

    It’s been entertaining -and- educational here.
    So Bravo!

  102. Joe Covenant

    Happy Anniversary!

  103. elinoria

    Happy anniversary- but also, this happened to me, a college student, not even a week ago. Kudos for very spot-on and relevant to my life events.

  104. sarpiedon

    7 years of DOA and they are still in like first semester of College

  105. Roborat

    Congratulations on making it to the 20 year webcomic milestone. You are now part of the elite; the webcomic dinosaurs. I was lucky enough to stumble across your webcomic fairly early in your run and you quickly became one of my favourites. I have enjoyed watching your drawing style evolve and storytelling become ever more powerful over the years (decades), and getting to talk to you at the Calgary Comic Con was a highlight for me.

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