186

Twenty-five
Posted on September 10, 2022 by David M Willis
I've now been doing webcomics for 25 years!  Should I say something?  I should say something.  I'm not gonna say something. i've got a limited poster though

186 thoughts on “Twenty-five”

  1. The Wellerman

    ? Happy 25th Anniversary to Willis’s comics!!!! ?

    ??? ???

    ? Woah, I can’t believe it’s already been 25 years since this all started!

    What are you all doing to celebrate?

    1. The Wellerman

      As a gift to everyone, here’s my newly updated collection of all the site anniversary banners! ?

      https://twitter.com/NGtheWelllerman/status/1568445198220554240

      1. Freezer

        Shouldn’t Dina’s banner have a blank spot, roughly middle left?

        1. Opus the Poet

          Why? Because she was blown up during Roomies?

        2. Needfuldoer

          She came back in Shortpacked!‘s final arc though.

      2. ValdVin

        Boffo stuff!

      3. Tegan

        Cool. He really needs to acknowledge his earlier work more often. Everytime he does it, it all but compels me to go back and read through the archives again. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

    2. powerpowerpow

      That Mike one with the blank space at the end feels straight up eerie. I was expecting Ghost Mike at the end there, in all his shadowless glory, but his absence hits harder than I expected.

      1. The Wellerman

        Here is is updated again with the Lucy and AG banners! ?

        https://twitter.com/NGtheWelllerman/status/1568461402469462016/photo/1

        Hopefully not too many others will be added — that’ll leave me more time to work on the fan game!

        1. RassilonTDavros

          FYI, there’s a Malaya one now.

        2. The Wellerman

          Goddammit Malaya now I have to update my collection again!

        3. MacareuxMoine

          I’m a bit disappointed that the AG-Banner does not include the Lucy-AG 😉

      2. Leorale

        @powerpowerpow Agreed. Really great use of that blank space. The banner doesn’t contain any spoilers if somebody hasn’t read the comic, or if the person just sees the Mike banner by itself. But if you’ve read it, and if you’ve seen the other banners… dang.
        I love it.

      3. Ron

        Same here. When I saw Mike, I knew something would be different…
        I thought the one before last missed shading though.

        1. Hilen

          These banners are amazing
          (Carla used to be a literal talking car?? …That explains a lot, actually.)
          (Did Joe’s dad sneak in on his banner? I didn’t remember he wore such a dense beard in the comic)
          (They’re all pretty darn cute)

        2. thejeff

          Both of those from Shortpacked!

        3. Hilen

          I see! Thank you for the info! I started following with Dumbing of Age, so I only mostly know the other universes through the comment section! (Like the Walkiverse ans such) Maybe now’s a good chance to go back and read some more!

        4. Decidedly Orthogonal

          Isn’t unshaded Mike, Amber’s “Mike Delusion(TM)”?

    3. Twitcher

      Willis started when I was 15. I read Shortpacked first, and then the previous comics, so I was impressed at Willis’s growth. Reading the previous comics was spurred on by a critique he made of his old work regarding the nature of Ruth’s suicide. I may have to read them again, though. I forgot a lot of stuff. I hate to say this, but I was hardly impressed at the beginning of his work. It felt fanficcy in a bad way. I was, and still am, an extremely sheltered and naive woman, and I couldn’t believe someone like Joyce could be that ignorant. I had similar problems with my mother as Willis did (though much less so, and she did apologize to me near the end of her life) but one thing my family could not stand was not knowing things. Books, books, books. If you asked my parents for a book, they’d go out and buy it. So I was initially baffled at the weirdness of Joyce’s upbringing, particularly the part where Joyce’s parents just kind of punt the football about Joyce’s sex life. After all that to-do, they just kind of say, “we were waiting for you to find the right boy?” (I can’t quite recall the actual line, but that was the gist, I think.) It felt like the “right” thing to for a fundie family to say if Joyce were a boy.

    4. The Wellerman

      Here’s the complete collection!!! ???

      https://twitter.com/NGtheWelllerman/status/1568706584758603776

      Now in ANIMATED GIF form!!!

      https://twitter.com/NGtheWelllerman/status/1568713880863645697

    5. cute carla

      Gosh! I only learnt about this webcomic in 2015… which means I’ve had this tab opened in my browser for 7 years

  2. Ana Chronistic

    Congratulations on another iteration, Willis! At this rate, you’ll recreate Dinosaur Comics but with your own characters and strip layout (other than the Shortpacked! April Fool’s strips)

    [which are here: https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/april-fools ]

    1. jeffepp

      Sal as a catgirl… Sal as Catwoman…

      1. Proxiehunter

        Sal as Catwoman as a catgirl.

    2. brionl

      ooh, we recent current events he can recycle this one too:
      https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/whatever-happened-to-the-pope-of-tomorrow

  3. Ty34er

    I am oddly worried that Danny’s parents don’t believe him and that Sal is worried.

    1. Bruceski

      First time being called his girlfriend.

  4. Nova

    It’s official, the Indiana Window Crawler is a cryptid.

    In other news – Congrats on 25 years, Willis. Honestly kind of shook at how many comics that is. You’re amazing!

    1. anon

      someone def should make some scp article/parody of it haha

  5. Jonah Sanville

    Omg congrats on 25 years of making webcomics!! I feel very young now at 26

    1. anon

      who knows, maybe if you have/adopt a kid or so, they’ll be reading this after a decade or so as well

  6. Rainhat

    This is adorable.

    1. Rainhat

      And congratulations!

  7. Raja

    I’d love to date a cryptid

    also congrats Willis!!! SO MANY COMIC

    1. Nova

      Mothman would like to know your location.

      1. Taffy

        Nowhere near a bridge, I’ll tell ya that much for free.

    2. The Wellerman

      Well there’s tons of choices, to say the least ?

      https://abookofcreatures.com/

    3. Keulen

      I would also be fine with dating a cryptid.

  8. anon

    lol will we see danny’s parents again? Despite sal’s past , she’s not the worst person to meet the parents lol

    1. Thag Simmons

      The concern is that Danny’s parents are the people who taught Danny how to Dan things up.

      1. anon

        well hopefully it’ll be easier to go against his upbringing versus joyce, i dont think he would’ve had any religious hangups or so lol

  9. RassilonTDavros

    HAPPY 25TH ANNIVERSARY!

    I’ve been here for the last… year and a half-ish of that, I guess? But damn, have I had a hell of a ride in that time alone, and I can’t wait to see what the next 25 bring. I dunno, I seem to get into things not long before they hit major anniversaries for some reason.

    God, Danny’s parents are awful. And Sal’s expression in that third panel is heartbreaking.

    1. True Survivor

      I second this motion.

      1. The Wellerman

        Me too!

        1. True Survivor

          Good. Good. Now we can pass it on to committee.

  10. Icalasari

    “I didn’t even Dan it up this time! My MOM did!”
    “Dan… Dude… That’s even worse”
    “…I know”

    1. RassilonTDavros

      (Ethan enters the room)

      “Your MOM Danned it up.”

      (Ethan exits the room, his duty to Mike’s memory complete)

      1. Regalli

        You know, if the ghost of Mike stuck around exclusively for moments like this, I think that would be the best possible use of his afterlife and his Pure Mike Energy. Either way it’s certainly not the WORST duty to Mike’s memory Ethan and Amber could keep.

        (If another opportunity for a tactical “Hail Satan” phone answering comes up then that is also covered under this clause, that was also pretty Peak Mike, But In A Good Way.)

    2. Needfuldoer

      He had to get it from somewhere.

  11. Johan

    Has Sal had a boyfriend before? I’m not saying she hasn’t dated I mean relationship.

    1. Thag Simmons

      Jason* and maybe Asher.

      1. RassilonTDavros

        I’m not sure Jason really counts as a boyfriend, though. He and Sal hooked up a few times, but that was pretty much it.

        1. Thag Simmons

          Hence the *

    2. Viktoria

      There was Jason. Before that she was at an all-girls Catholic school in Tennessee.

      So it’s very likely that she dated a trans dude, a lesbian, or snuck out to date some guy who lived nearby, but none of that’s confirmed, IIRC.

      So canon, Danny’s the first serious dating she’s done that we know about, but there’s space in her backstory if Willis wants to use it.

      1. thejeff

        We know lost her virginity to a game of Apples to Apples back in boarding school, but I doubt that was a real relationship.

    3. BBCC

      Doubt it, or at least not any good ones.

      She obviously had her thing with Jason but that was a mess and not dating. They fucked twice.

      Walky also thinks she had a middle school ‘thing’ with Asher.

      And she once told Marcie that the two of them had picked ‘the worst damn people’ besides each other.

      So, whatever history, I’m guessing being called girlfriend and having a relationship mentioned as ‘Real’ probably got to her.

      My baby is emotional <3

      1. Needfuldoer

        “Shields up! Red alert!” yells the little Captain Sal in her head.

  12. Suet

    Gosh, you can now rent an Airbnb with that age.

    Here’s to 25 more?

    1. True Survivor

      We might get 25 more – Hagar the Horrible just kept going and going. The original artist’s son took up the work after his father passed. Also, Willis is a highly prolific comic artist just like Scott Adams, but without the thinly veiled right-wing conspiracy theories bubbling under the surface.

      1. AbacusWizard

        Blondie has been in constant publication since 1930—and heck, Gasoline Alley and Barney Google have passed the century mark by now.

        1. Ed Callahan

          Dick Tracey still is around, I believe.

  13. Sirksome

    Notice how you never see Sal and Bigfoot at the same time or in focus.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      But wait, that can only mean… Bigfoot is Spider-Car!

  14. Kyrik Michalowski

    As someone who also does not like having their picture taken, the window seems like a viable strategy for escape. Or she’s running because he said she was his girlfriend and she doesn’t know how to process it.

    Happy 25th anniversary Willis, and I’m curious, do you have a favorite strip from the last 25 years?

    1. brionl

      Yeah, has Sal admitted, even to herself that she and Danny have a “relationship”?
      Maybe they’re just chillaxin’ near each other?

      1. AbacusWizard

        netflaxin’ and chillaxin’?

      2. brionl

        Seems to me panel 3 is more of a “blink, blink. ?Girlfriend?” face than a No Photos face.

        1. Needfuldoer

          That was my read too.

          Danny surprised Sal with the G-word. She’s (hopefully) not rejecting that, but it did set off her “waiting for the other shoe to drop” red alert.

        2. ValdVin

          In HS i went on a double date, the others being my GF with her good friend and her guy. I dressed up a bit, which was a big thing for me then.

          At some point the women went to the WC and I asked Greg, “So, how long have you been going out with Charlene?

          “We’re not ‘going out, we’re just ‘seeing each other’.”

          I’d made a fox paw without even knowing. I was in a BG/GF relationship at that time, but failed to ask my GF the details on the other two.

          I had no idea there was a carefully named ascendancy of seriousness and I jumped Greg and Charlene right past “seeing each other” all the way to “going out”.

          After my moment of mortification, everything was cool. I think they did progess to BF/GF later that year. But I recognize Sal here, yeah.

        3. Mark

          Is there an official list of this ascendancy somewhere? Because I always thought those two terms were equivalent.

        4. ValdVin

          1) I have yet to discover one.

          2) Once upon a time so did I! Then again, I’ve got a grandniece now so the unspoken rules may have changed since then.

        5. Tan

          There is no universal list. For some, those two terms are equivalent. For others they may rankle at one but not the other, or rankle at both. Best thing to do is stcik to terminology that the participants use, or that you have heard others use that they haven’t objected to. If completely unknown, you could ask “How long have you two known each other?” and let them fill in the terms of how ‘knowing’ has progressed

        6. Needfuldoer

          We can work the baseball metaphor backwards…

          “Walking to first”?
          “At bat”?
          “In the dugout”?

        7. merbrat

          I thought it was ‘sparkle-eyes’, and she self-defenestrated so she can re-enter thru the door, like a proper girlfriend.

  15. Axel

    can’t wait for the next page, where we find out whether she actually did or if she just gave him a definitely-no look

  16. Reltzik

    …. huh.

    I mean, I know some people do something besides school after graduating. Work, or backpack across Europe, or whatever.

    But I didn’t think that was the case with Danny and Joe.

    So why are they freshmen when they’re 25 years old?

    1. Regalli

      Unpulled drama tag, maybe?

      1. The Wellerman

        Huh. Where was the drama tag since last time we’ve seen it anyway? ?

  17. P!enapple

    Congrats on 25 years!!!!

    1. Needfuldoer

      Congratulations!

      That’s a lot of comics.

  18. newlland(Henryvolt)

    From what I remembered Dan’s parents are hard for him to empress despite them having low expectations of him.

    Which is something I think Sal could relate too because she always had to do the most just to not be the black sheep of the family.

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Also hey 25 years, not bad being a pioneer of the webcomic game.

      1. The Wellerman

        Webcomic game…

        I sure hope it still counts as an anniversary gift if it’s several weeks belated.

  19. Steve

    25 years! I didn’t read it in the Indiana Daily Student (seeing as I was going to Purdue at the time) but I’ve been reading since Roomies started online. I expect it’ll be a daily habit for at least 25 more!

  20. Thag Simmons

    That’s a hell of an anniversary, congratulations!

  21. Viktoria

    Sal climbed out a window because she was nervous about meeting the parents even over the phone. She and Danny are honestly a great fit for each other.

  22. True Survivor

    To Willis, dripping feeding the world joy (a little bit of his shining soul) since 1997!!

  23. BBCC

    Huzzah for 25 years of comics, Willis! It’s weird I’m only a year older than the Walkyverse but hey, I’ll take it.

    Now back to Sal related matters – DAMN YOU MAMA WILCOX.

    1. Schpoonman

      She’s one of the worst.

    2. Kyrik Michalowski

      Danny needs to find new parents, like Piccolo. Piccolo is a great father figure and mentor.

  24. Bagge

    good call, sal

  25. StClair

    and now they’re too old for Leo DiCaprio to date.

  26. epitome of incomprehensibility

    Congratulations on the comic-drawing anniversary! Also, I learned a new word today (cryptid).

    1. The Wellerman

      So many cryptids, from the Chupacabra to the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot to the Jersey Devil.

      Internet Rabbit Hole about them if you’re interested ?

      https://abookofcreatures.com/

    2. Amós Batista

      That’s why I love english: it works hard to have a word for everthing.

      1. Opus the Poet

        Still missing that word for working to death the Japanese have: Karoshi

        1. Hof1991

          We just call that work.

  27. brionl

    I had been single for, well let’s just say quite a while. So when I started dating just before the Year of the Plague hit none of my nieces and/or nephews had met my girlfriend (now wife) yet. But they were facebook “friends” with her and she was posting pictures of us a lot.
    When it finally let up a bit we all made plans to meet up with my sister, her husband, all the kids (grownups, really) and have a Big Birthday Party for Everybody Who Missed their Birthday Party for the last Year and a Half.
    On the day of the party I texted everybody and said she couldn’t come, because she had a family emergency and had to go “back to Canada” for the weekend.
    When we actually did show up, my sister was pissed off because “my brother is a big fat liar!” (but she already knew that). The not-so young ‘uns weren’t quite sure if I’d been feeding them the apocryphal “Canadian Girlfriend” bit or not.
    Then when we went over again later I told everybody that “My girlfriend couldn’t make it this time.
    So I brought my fiance instead.”

    1. AGV

      That’s wholesome

    2. jpnr

      aww

  28. Reed

    Cue the sadness from everyone expecting towel Danny fresh from the shower.

    In other news 25 years is pretty impressive. Maybe I’ll accomplish something myself in the next 25. lol

    1. Madock345

      Having him in full sweater vest and even hat almost feels like trolling. What kind of man brings his beret into the showers I swear.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Did he wash and dry it, or did he wear a shower cap over it?

        1. Reed

          He lovingly shampooed and conditioned it before drying it under one of those automatic hand dryer machines.

  29. AbacusWizard

    I feel like I’ve seen this narrative structure somewhere before…
    http://www.itswalky.com/comic/and-now/

    (Happy comics-aversary, Willis!)

  30. Regalli

    It took until right now for me to realize it was Roomies Day.

    Happy Roomies Day! I first caught up with Shortpacked and started reading live sometime around the Malaya date/breakup, I believe. (I was going to say Death of Snkrs, and I think that was the current arc when I started reading, but it took me long enough to archive binge into Shortpacked that by the time I was reading live, I’m pretty sure that arc had wrapped.) My first anniversary strip was the Mike-Amber wedding, and by that point I’d also archive binged the Willis strips to that point to have all the context of who these cameos showing up in my comic about a toy store are. … Well, mostly. I still hadn’t read the paid J&W! strips at the time, and wouldn’t for a few months yet. This means it’s also been ten years since I, personally, started reading your work. … Or rather it hit ten years sometime back between eleven and nine months ago, and yes of COURSE I went back to Shortpacked and started looking up relative dates of storylines to check at 1 AM, it is ME we’re talking about here. I didn’t make the jump to DoA right away – I was pretty attached to those nerds from the toy store, more than I was to Joyce and Walky and the rest of the SEMME crew. But eventually the promise of updates every weekday drew me in, and soon Joyce was a favorite too, and Amber FINALLY got to punch her dad in the face. … And I regretted enjoying the catharsis from THAT moment about, what, three weeks later, wasn’t it? (Whatever, Amber, your PTSD and Mike’s abuse might have made you think enjoying it guaranteed you were a bad person, but I still maintain a punch to shut him up and stop it from being an all-day closed-door abusefest was justified and everything else you did in that scene was great de-escalation.)

    Shortpacked is still my Leslie and Robin. I’m not sure it’ll ever stop being my Leslie, because I think we all have to admit that giving a Reason You Suck speech to a Head Alien on godlike powers and THAT’S why, logic be damned, she couldn’t die a failure is a pretty high bar to clear, and Robin’s got a modern Republican Party-sized obstacle to surmount before she’ll ever get to the highs her Walkyverse counterpart managed. (“You make me not want to run anymore” and “You make family wherever you go, and I want in” are STILL some of my favorite ship moments across this entire multiversal jaunt, along with those final panels of Same Planet Different Dementia that I STILL feel like not spoiling. For the record, folks, the three penultimate arcs on the Joyce and Walky reread site collect that particular storyline and I highly recommend it! Still loved it when we revisited!) But I also wasn’t sure you’d ever write an Amber moment that surpassed telling her dad to fuck himself one last time for me, and you delivered THERE in their final on-screen interaction. Even in a ‘more grounded’ comic, for given values of grounded, there’s still something truly enjoyable at seeing those old superhero roots come back out and a good action sequence as characterization.

    (And as ever: Hey, don’t threaten to someday plop a Head Alien in the Dumbingverse so you can write that sweet sweet villainous monologue and not deliver eventually. I wanna see him get his shit wrecked by a bunch of people he’s never even heard of while he’s expecting Walky and Joe to hero up like always. Yeah, Dina and Becky are favorites now over here without ever meeting him, and this is the comic where I started to love the It’s Walky crew as more than ‘characters I liked fine on the way to a toy store in San Francisco but read it all in a bit of a haze,’ but that just means it’ll be even more fun seeing them deck a Dexter.)

    And of course along the way it’s hit its own highs where Shortpacked wouldn’t have aimed. Ten years on, this is still the first comic I come to when I realize it’s past midnight, and still the only one I’m consistently wrecking my sleep schedule to write novels on.

    Here’s to 25 years, Willis. Can’t wait to see how far you blow my expectations out of the water ten years from now.

    1. The Wellerman

      Isn’t Willis amazing?!?! ?

      BTW great as always to see you around here Regalli. I miss your mega-paragraphs. Really.

  31. Dean

    She only asks because Danny’s prom date was the Jersey Devil.

    1. Opus the Poet

      Flagged for excessive humor and awesomeness. (No I didn’t flag it, but if there was a way to recognize it for humor etc. I would have)

  32. v.gay.person

    The call back is amazing
    http://www.itswalky.com/comic/college-is-fine/

    1. Clif

      Has been every time he’s done it.

  33. huehuetotl

    I may have read Roomies for a while when it was first written. I read something like it, and it was so long ago I might have mixed up the memories of the other webcomic with when I binged walkyverse a couple of years ago.
    But the style was kind of the same, and there was a depressing story arch and a character died and I was just “jeez, I hope this guy’s ok.”
    Glad you’re doing ok and/or I hope that other guys doing ok.

  34. Taffy

    Literally afraid to have an opinion on this one because the fucking hyphen will just keep up their targeted harassment.

    1. The Wellerman

      ? Oh, that guy. Hopefully Willis will spam him soon.

      Hopefully hyphen doesn’t deem excitement over the anniversary an incorrect opinion.

      1. The Oracle

        And don’t think anyone hasn’t noticed that the people being targeted are visibly neurodivergent and/or gender nonconforming. It’s so fucking obvious what they’re doing.

        1. The Wellerman

          I haven’t paid that much attention here the past few days. Who else have they targeted besides me and Taffy?

        2. The Oracle

          I’m not sure which real people, but their treatment of Joyce’s recent behavior reads like a trend to me.

          And besides that, isn’t two enough? One is too many. It’s very obvious that – has some sort of fixation, and it’s gross. On top of that, sometimes when a new comic goes up, I’ll re-read the previous strip’s comments to see if there’s any juicy conversations I missed while I was at work/sleeping, and more than a few times I’ve spotted – responding to things people (especially Taffy) have said in a really nasty way, long after that prior strip’s conversations have petered out in favor of the most recent one.

      2. Taffy

        They deem “existing while autistic” an incorrect opinion. It’s disgusting.

        1. The Oracle

          It’s probably best if you don’t feed the troll anymore. Nothing they say is valid anyway, so why humor them? They seem to think (or pretend to think) you’re a troll yourself, and there’s no response you could have that would prevent it. The blatant and deliberate misgendering, the ableism… I get that it’s hard not to wanna respond to that, but what they want is a reaction. Or your death, if I’m reading between the lines correctly, which you definitely shouldn’t give them.

        2. The Wellerman

          Need I remind you the flag button also exists?

        3. The Oracle

          It does, yeah. And rest assured I absolutely have been flagging like crazy. I do wish it hid the offending comments, but I also understand that Willis can only do so much with the feature and I don’t wanna come across as demanding.

        4. The Wellerman

          Shouldn’t be too much trouble, but yet I haven’t used WordPress in years, so what do I know?

        5. Taffy

          Enough people have to have a problem with the posts to have them flagged away. Clearly they don’t and it’s not considered an actual problem.

    2. Sajuuk-Khar

      Completely fuck that dipshit. Like, I have not at all been on Team Joyce the last couple of strips but going back and looking at hyphen comments yesterday made me fuckin’ see red. Christ.

      1. Taffy

        Honestly with the way they act and the way it’s tolerated, I’ll probably have to just stop coming here before I wind up dead.

        1. Taffy

          Oops, thumb slipped and that posted before I was done. To finish:

          …And that’s not any sort of threat/indicator that I’m like, imminently in danger of making another attempt. I just think it’s telling that I’ve been vocal about my suicidal ideation in the past and they keep ducking pushing. They want it to happen. They need it to happen. I like most of the conversations here, but it’s literally becoming outright unsafe to join in and I think it’s intentional on their end.

        2. The Oracle

          I know you just said you’re not in imminent danger of it, but hey please don’t do that. If you do, they win, and I don’t know you much but you come across as spiteful enough to stay alive just to rub it in some asshole bigot’s face. So do that instead.

        3. Sajuuk-Khar

          Ugh. I hope you don’t have to leave the conversation, like, you have consistently been a rad voice to have around, but obviously you got to if it’s a matter of safety. :/

        4. Taffy

          The really annoying part is, this is already more attention than I ever intended to give the creep.

    3. BBCC

      I just saw their comments and holy fuckberries and cream.

      I’m sorry you had to deal with them.

      1. Taffy

        Had to, will have to, it’s all the same. There’s always going to be somebody like that no matter where I go, so I may as well stop giving them the luxury of attention. Not like they give people the courtesy of treating them like people.

        1. TulipKitten

          If it helps, next time I see the hyphen comment, I’ll troll them back, and I’m fucking vicious, mean, and a woman from the South (all synonyms, I know). I think their worse comments got removed, but the fucker annoys me even with the JAQing off ones.

          I’m more of a lurker than a commenter here, though. Just want to let you know, more people are on your side than you may think.

  35. Techhead

    Now I want my partner to describe me as “kind of like a cryptid”, I gotta step up my game.

    1. Taffy

      Once you reach that milestone in your relationship, it’s gonna feel great. Take it from a reliable source.

  36. Schpoonman

    Is Batman a cryptid? Maybe one of his rogues qualifies.

    1. Eldritchy

      He probably was early on, maintaining this mysterious and spooky reputation to drive fear into the hearts of criminals.

      1. Taffy

        There’s a reason he’s frequently called “The” Batman, after all.

  37. Needfuldoer

    Aww, Sal… 🙁

  38. Grayfinity

    Side A: Sal couldn’t handle Danny calling her his girlfriend.
    Side B: Danny’s mother not taking him at his word has gotten Sal feeling a certain way.
    Side C: (This is a stretch!) Sal realized she stole Danny from Amazi-Amber.

    Pick one.

    1. The Wellerman

      Side Z: don’t care that much in light of Willis’s anniversary. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    2. GUIGUI

      I wonder if she has been mentioned as girlfriend by Danny off-screen beforehand.

    3. Rabisch

      Side… Another. Sal is afraid od dealing with parents when they are not a menace and they could judge her.

    4. Suitora

      Side D: Sal hasn’t been in a real relationship. She’s used to being a dirty little secret, and Dan not wanting to take a picture of her made her feel some way. However, Danny was probably trying to be a good boyfriend and respect her boundaries.

  39. Amós Batista

    It’s a 1/4 century, Willis! Like, there’s a lot of bands that didn’t endure this time.
    25 years is not an adolescent anymore. (Peharps Generation Z, or whathever).
    25 years ago, Titanic is premier’ed and Camila Cabello is born.

    Lot of work didn’t endure these years, and never keep the same quality.

    Dare to say, Doa is best webcomic I’ve read for a while.

  40. darkoneko

    uh oh.

  41. Rabisch

    Is’t just me or Sal’s coolness, character and personality disappear when parents are involved in a normal/official way and not as a danger? She seems scared just by the idea of Danny’s mother seeing a picture of her and we all remember how she changed to try to impress her own parents. Maybe the idea of meeting Danny’s parents is worse for her than seeing her own. Luckily Danny refused to send them a picture of Sal, he probably knows it’s a problem for her. This is VERY sad and kinda adorable at the same time! Anyway, 25 years is a fantastic milestone ♡.

  42. Reaver

    Aw her face in Panel 2! Sal got freaked ouuut.

  43. Acher4

    25! OMG!!

    Congrats!!!

    On to 125! 😉

  44. Daibhid C

    Congrats on the big quarter century!

    Hmm… Danny in the dorm on the phone to his mother, discussion of girls, someone climbs out a window… there’s something strangely familiar about all this, but I just can’t place it…

    1. Daibhid C

      Come to think of it, has the entire thing about Sal climbing through windows been in aid of setting up the call-backthe whole time?

  45. Nicoleandmaggie

    In my head cannon Danny’s mom reads a lot of Seanan McGuire.

  46. ButWhyASpoon

    Taffy, I sent you a Discord Friend Request. Wellerman is building a support army and I was the first recruit, lol. I think it best that we focus on topics other than he who must not be named. Happy 25’th, Willis!

    1. Opus the Poet

      I hope this works out better than Willis’ Army of Unkillable Badasses, I’m still waiting for another member than myself. Also, can I join the ND support group? I have a TBI from getting hit by the truck (among other things, but I think the TBI is the only thing that will get me in the ND group, unless you want to count almost 50 years of PTSD)

      1. ButWhyASpoon

        Friend me on Discord: Razus#4777 (also anyone else who had the inclination to do so)

    2. Taffy

      If you sent someone with Taffy in their name a request, I doubt it was me unless we’re already in a server together. I don’t give my handle out publicly.

  47. Pylgrim

    Congrats, W. I’ve been around since very early IW.

    I plan to stay around to see what are you up to in the next 25.

  48. Lan

    Happy 25th anniversary, Willis!

  49. ValdVin

    Here’s a little reinterpretation of Joyce at the Clinic:

    https://valdvin.tumblr.com/post/694791156599603200

  50. Cerusee

    Sal’s reaction to Danny’s mother is objectively the correct reaction.

    1. Cerusee

      Oh wait I’m thinking of Ethan’s mother. Danny’s parents seem fine in the parents’ day visit back in book 2, just kind of hilariously skeptical about Danny’s new girlfriend who totally exists that he can’t introduce them to for mysterious reasons.

      (No wonder Sharon wants photographic proof!)

      1. NickG

        Danny’s parents seemed to spend all their time belittling him during their visit, they acted as if dating Dorothy was the only good thing he’d ever done.

        1. Cerusee

          Yeah, thinking back on it, they weren’t great. Just comparatively less awful than Ethan’s extraordinarily homophobic mother and Amber’s abusive mob stooge father.

        2. thejeff

          The thing I find interesting about Danny’s parents is their attitude seems to echo a lot of traditional attitudes towards women. Their basic theory is that he needs to find a good woman to attach himself to.

        3. Cerusee

          It’s funny as gender expectation subversion; it’s less funny if you’re approaching Danny as a character who deserves to be taken as seriously as everyone around him. (Which, to be fair, I think is probably an element in how Danny is narratively treated in DOA. Danny-the-character has been on a whole journey over the course of the Walkyverse and now the Dumbiverse in terms of what he represents.)

  51. Adept

    Sal noped out of there.

  52. buddy

    1. congratulations on 25 years! you’ve been doing webcomics longer than i’ve been existing!

    2. the reason we never see sal actually climbing out a window is because willis would be legally obligated to post a link to a slide whistle sound effect every time she does

  53. cmd1095

    Congrats on the 25 years!

  54. Violet

    Funny that Danny brings his hat and clothes with him when he goes for a shower. Either that means he changes into the same dirty clothes he was already wearing pre-shower, or he walks to the shower in a towel but with a set of replacement clothes to change into in the shower room and not just to return to the bedroom in a towel and change there.

    25 years!;

  55. Stephen Nedland

    Why would Sal not want Danny to take a picture of her, so that he can prove to his mom, that he is dating a real person?

    1. Needfuldoer

      I think it’s more that she’s touched he called her his girlfriend, and terrified of giving their relationship a title like that because Linda taught her that love is conditional and anything good in a relationship comes with strings attached.

      See also: the arc where Danny got her the bicycle and flowers.

  56. Wendy

    Congrats on 25 years, Willis! Hard to believe I’ve been following this comic since I was the same age as these kids are now.

    I have massive respect and admiration for how you’ve chugged on through every single day I’ve been following DoA, since way back then. Including through my own recent leaving of an evangelical doomsday cult. Joyce was always relatable, but became even more so after that, and having DoA in the background was actually a big help in processing it all.

    Reading this comic has become one of the few daily things that have stayed consistent in my life through all these years, and I’m grateful for you and your work always being there.

    1. Laura

      Congratulations, Wendy!

    2. The Wellerman

      Woah that must have been tough. JWs are one of the most egregious cults in the world, so relieved you made it out of there.

  57. Caro

    I like the cycling banners. It’s a sneaky way to get us to refresh the page and make more ad revenue lolol

  58. DudeMyDadOwnsADealership

    Don’t feel too bad, Sal. His mom’s kind of a dingus. Kinda where he gets at least half of his less endearing traits from…

  59. Ryek Hvek

    Put in another 25 years of webcomicking, and Our Author can assume the status given to Einbinder’s Flypaper, the name you have gradually grown to trust, over the course of three generations.”

  60. Dr. T

    I don’t recall the parents of all the cast that well, but weren’t Danny’s not all that great? Not as bad as, for example, Ethan, but problematic all the same. Am I wrong?

    What about in the Walkyverse? Did they have a problem with Danny being with either Sal or Billie? That’s not going to be an issue, is it?

    I must say, however, that I’m pleased that Willis changed his mind regarding pairing former Walkyverse pairs, though I suppose this pairing of Sal and Danny is completely different. The Walkyverse pair was unhealthy. This pairing works, I think, even though they would not have in the first semester. Danny developed his own strength while Sal’s edges softened. It’s nice to see, especially in the middle of all of the chaotic relationships on hand.

    1. Romanticide

      In DOA they have a tendency of being dismisive of him when they probably should be suportive. One thing is when the readers think his love interest is too good for him, other is for the parents to be reminding him…

  61. Raptorofwar

    CRYPTID GIRLFRIEND.

  62. zee

    Yo like i know they were just talking about how bad he dresses but Danny’s kinda dripped out today. That is a very nice sweater. Boy lookin real handsome

    1. Deadjolras

      I can’t believe I had to scroll down this far to see someone complimenting Danny’s cozy sweater! He’s looking good today.

  63. Kazuma Taichi

    Dang, you’ve been making webcomics for 2.5 decades, and I’ve only been reading them for a little over 1. That’s wild. Wilder still I’ve only been around for 3 so you started when I was 5. I didn’t even know webcomics existed that early. Major congratz on being one of the earliest and keeping at it for this long

  64. bcb

    And I’ve been reading your comics for five years!

  65. Well_Played

    Grats on the 25 years!!!

  66. ADLegend21

    Sal being a cryptid somehow makes her even hotter.

  67. Roborat

    I will jump on the deluge of congratulations. It is a significant achievement making it to 25 years, Sir Willis; you are in very rarified company now, one of the webcomic old ones. I honestly can’t remember when I started reading, but it was one of the first webcomics I discovered in the before times, so likely within 3-5 years of it starting. Man I feel old now. And one of the best parts of my discovering the wonders of Willis was the other webcomics it led me to, like Melonpool, Avalon, Multiplex, Fans, and some others I am probably forgetting.

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