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Candy bar
Posted on April 8, 2024 by David M Willis
The Dumbing of Age Book 13 Kickstarter is LIVE! This book has 218 full-color pages and includes all five chapters of Year 13! 24 bonus strips! Strip commentary! Character models! Unused/rejected strips!  Add a magnet or two to your pledge! Our inaugural set includes CARLA and CHARLIE! You can get either or both as a set along with your book. Everyone gets a free LUCY magnet when we get to $35k!

92 thoughts on “Candy bar”

  1. NGPZ

    Mutual asociality!!! ^^

  2. Ana Chronistic

    CLOSE CALL

  3. Sirksome

    They both human’d for a few sentences! Good for them!

    1. Jeremiah

      Sarah: It was awful I’m never doing that again!

      Ethan: Same.

  4. darkoneko

    Yeah.

  5. Mr D phone posting

    Baby straps Sarah. Baby steps.

    1. Lumino

      Sarah is really trying, and I appreciate it.

    2. JA

      Baby…straps?

      1. Weatherheight

        You use them to keep your babies hitched to the conestoga wagon – otherwise they just crawl off and leave the wagon behind.

        Man, autocorrect is really out of control.

        1. John Campbell

          Autocorrupt is totally babies.

        2. clif

          Mm.

        3. Gigafreak

          …cIntyre

        4. Makkabee

          Somebody babied McIntyre!

          (MC-INTYRE!!)

        5. StClair

          now that’s a name song I’ve not heard in a long time…

        6. Librain

          Autocarrot is a constant throne in my side.

      2. Firseal

        Not just baby straps. Baby straps Sarah. In baby steps.

        (This is not to mock the typo, this is to embrace it because, as all excellent typos do, it has elevated the statement to something weirdly, absurdly glorious)

      3. jflb96

        You’ve got to work up to the bigger ones

  6. IntangibleMatter

    Grief fucks you up. I but that he’s doing better but… jesus, man. I hope you get to start really opening up to people soon. Helps a lot.

    On your own time tho. Be emo for as long as you need.

  7. Rose by Any Other Name

    Pledged to the Kickstarter.
    Here’s to another year. Hazzah!

    1. MacareuxMoine

      Yeah, finally it’s time for me to go for another envelope full of books!

  8. Armadillo

    Wow, she actually asked. She reached out to somebody out of genuine concern. Kinda weird to see next to the absolute joke of social interaction that is… whatever this candy bar thing was supposed to be.

    1. Thag Simmons

      I mean, I think it was a pretext to have a brief talk?

      Alternatively she’s taking her cues for ‘how to be friends with someone’ from life-sim games, which I feel is historically not the greatest strategy?

      1. Anon A Mouse

        It’s obvious she wasn’t planning to interact with anyone but Jacob. She took a random opportunity to interact with someone, particularly someone she shared an emotional moment with. It’s a surprising step forward for her.

    2. Mturtle7

      Personally, I can see two possibilities here, each equally likely to my mind:
      1) She came with no plan whatsoever besides “have a conversation with Jacob where I’m a normal human being with empathy”, because she assumed the proper way to behave would just come to her in the moment. Then, when she was instead asked to leave a message for Jacob, she frantically searched for a way to remotely convey empathy, landed on “leave a gift”, and then pratfalled from there into “leave a candy bar” because that’s what she had in her pocket. From there, it was only natural to just keep trying more and more improvised demonstrations of empathy.
      2) Her original plan was to show up at Jacob’s door and immediately thrust a a candy bar into his face as a gift. He would then surely be in awe at her flawless demonstration of normal human empathy, and sloppy makeouts would commence. When that plan was cut off at the knees, she tried to leave it with Ethan, realized that surely wouldn’t be enough to convince Jacob, and then committed to keep trying more stuff to demonstrate her empathy in a way that would theoretically satisfy him.

  9. Taffy

    These two should fistfight each other. Like a regular ol’ slugfest, just to work out their various grievances in a healthy, harmless way.

    1. Thag Simmons

      Eh, untrained people are bad at pulling punches. I recommend swordfighting instead, with the right defensive equipment you get all the positive emotional benefits of committing violence against someone without any of the actual physical arm.

      1. Kimi

        Punching dummies while the other one supports the target?

      2. Taffy

        It’s fine if they don’t pull the punches. That was never part of the formula to begin with.

        1. Thag Simmons

          If they aren’t pulling punches and it’s still healthy and harmless then they have frighteningly weak punches

        2. Taffy

          Physical health isn’t the only one that matters. Emotionally, they’ll be fine.

        3. Daibhid C

          Not the only one that matters, but still one that matters.

          I would, from personal experience, strongly recommend not being punched. It hurts.

        4. Taffy

          At this stage, I’m gonna just assume y’all are missing the point on purpose.

          Sarah. Ethan. Duking it out like they mean it, except with no animosity toward each other, purely for the purpose of working out all of their excess punchy feelings on someone who’s willing to take it.

        5. HueSatLight

          They punch each other because they cannot punch themselves.

        6. Decidedly Orthogonal

          You can totally punch yourself. And it can be seductively cathartic. But self harm is not a safe or healthy way of addressing feelings, even if it feels better in the short term.

        7. Taffy

          It’s true, don’t do that one. My autistic ass did way too much of it as a kid and now my left eye has a twitch.

      3. Aura

        I thought ‘without any of the actual physical arm’ was what happened when you tried swordfighting without the safety equipment? 😛

        1. John Campbell

          One time when I was 13 or so, a friend and I decided it would be a good idea to spar with sharp katanas.

          I can parry a katana with my empty hand without losing any fingers… at least once. I don’t want to ever have to prove I can do it twice.

      4. Firseal

        … gotta say, guys.

        If there was EVER a justifiable reason for pillow fighting, its to work out aggression with a remarkably undangerous weapon. (yes, yes, followed by a half dozen posts on how in the right circumstances pillows are exceptionally dangerous. I know, I know, I’ve seen I Claudius.)

        1. Taffy

          My grandmother died in a pillow fight, you insensitive churl ?️??️

        2. John Campbell

          I got concussed in a pillow fight one time. Armored combat is way safer.

    2. Needfuldoer

      [Eye of the Tiger intensifies]

    3. Dday

      Sure, it sounds good at first. But eventually they are going to start making bootleg upscale soap bars from stolen liposuctions and in the end it will turn out that only one of them was real.

      1. Taffy

        I’m like 40% sure this is a reference to something I haven’t watched/read/played.

        1. Jeremiah

          Hasn’t watched it either but know through cultural osmosis it is a fight club reference.

  10. Nono

    Sarah showing concern for someone that isn’t Joyce or Liz or Dina, dang.

    She’s really trying.

  11. Jeremiah

    Hey, progress is progress.

  12. Blume

    I’m proud of her ? you can do it, Sarah!

    1. anon

      lol well, maybe they can ‘bond’ over wanting to be left alone. or able to sit in silence/tolerate being in the same room casually or so without forcing things

  13. DailyBrad

    It would be fun if this became an additional friendship for her, but we’ll see.

  14. Anon A Mouse

    This feels a lot more significant for Sarah than Ethan in a lot of ways. Sarah’s face and dialogue actually made me pause for a second and think “Wow…” because it’s not something I expected from her. They shared an important moment and it would seem they didn’t interact any time after that.

  15. sakamism

    Character growth!

  16. The Jighole Man

    nice to see someone checking on ethan. he’s been left alone to sit and fester for too long.

  17. Dara

    “We both want the same thing here,” that being Jacob.

  18. Pocky

    I need help; but you need it more.

  19. HueSatLight

    good luck on weather, everyone in the eclipse path.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Along the path of totality, Indianapolis, northern New Hampshire, and most of Maine have the best chance of having a clear sky.

      1. clif

        Northeast Dallas has about a 10% chance of seeing the sun at the correct time per the latest forecast.

      2. David DeLaney

        Cleveland OH had high thin haze. It stopped the 100% full glorious Corona Against Dark Sky effect but was at least 93% of Full Eclipse Life-changing Experience. Two planets, TWO, ah ah ah! were also visible during, plus I am SURE everyone’s already talking about the ginormous (comparatively) solar FLARE visible right at the bottom of the corona. last time I saw one that wasn’t present.

    2. Taffy

      Was indeed quite lucky with the weather. Unfortunately, I didn’t have glasses to watch the before/after part, but the actual coverage is the main show anyway.

      1. Needfuldoer

        It didn’t get completely dark here (I’m too far away from the path of totality), but it looked like an old TV show shot day-for-night, or like an especially strong full moon.

      2. HueSatLight

        Is that your photo? I mine is just a streak because after 7 years I didn’t get around to preparing.

        1. Taffy

          It’s a buddy’s photo. All of mine look like a luminous anus, for some reason. I’d commit provable murder for a camera that can take proper photos of things like this.

  20. BBCC

    This is a really big step for Sarah and I love it.

  21. EmTaya

    I’m proud I think

  22. Steelbright

    My favorite thing about this is Sarah of a few pages ago vehemently denying she needed to change, then immediately going and trying to do something about it.IMO lots of deliberate personal change happens this way. You gotta deny it first, then feel bad and follow up. Or is that just me oops

    1. Makkabee

      Yeah, but in comic time that was five, maybe six seconds ago.

    2. John Campbell

      Admitting to yourself that you’re wrong, that’s one thing. Admitting to the person that you’re arguing with that you’re wrong… this is the Internet; we don’t go there.

  23. Needfuldoer

    Oh hey, it’s book Kickstarter time.

    I’m doing my part!

    1. Taffy

      Awful convenient how the space between the little Joyce and Dorothy pictures is obscured by the title.

      Speaking of which, “smoochy chart”? Wouldn’t have been my first pick, but I guess if the books end up in a library you probably don’t want ’em to have the fuck-word in the title.

      1. Tan

        It is an accurate quote of the strip reference.

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/deserves-3/

        1. Taffy

          Yes, I am aware. No confusion was expressed regarding that fact.

        2. clif

          Follows the link to scan the comment section to see if anyone called it.

        3. clif

          *SPOILERS* Apparently Willis did in the EX-feed.

      2. Masumi

        Also what does that Sarah – > Jacob arrow tell us? Did she secretly smooch him?

        1. Taffy

          She killed him. That’s why he hasn’t appeared in the past 3 books.

      3. thejeff

        There are more links in a smoochy chart than in a fuck chart, so it gets more complicated and thus better.

        1. Taffy

          I was saying I’d have gone with a different quote, not taking issue with the variety of chart. I’d have gone with something you probably couldn’t put on a library shelf.

  24. Lysbeth

    Dumbing of Age book 14: When Jacob Gets Back In I’ll Tell Him You Came By And Tried To Leave A Candy Bar

    1. David M Willis

      Winner

  25. Amós Batista

    That’s the most farstest caring Sarah has gone with anyone. Without weapons involved.

  26. Yeet

    Sarah is trying so hard

  27. ValdVin

    New DofA-related post in my Tumblr for those wondering about makeup-assocated hijinks.

  28. Zaxares

    A+ for effort and intent though, Sarah. Sincerely. 🙂

  29. Hof1991

    Though he’s Jacob’s roommate, Ethan will never be the other-Jacob. At least not for Sarah.

  30. HueSatLight

    I hear it’s better to offer something specific, not “anything you need”. More like, “I can drop off some food” or “if you need to talk” or in this case, “if you need to sit in the general vicinity of someone and not talk or even look meaningfully at each other”.
    Not only is the last one something Sarah can handle, it’s something she’s better at than most other characters. And it’s something Ethan might want.

  31. Steamweed

    Sarah, having a normal social human interaction for one panel! Look at her go! 🙂

  32. poyo

    lmao i applaud Sarahs effort. its tough reteaching yourself to be sociable ??

  33. BorkBorkBork

    I’m pretty sure that Sarah showing concern for another person, unprompted, which doesn’t also involve her showing up with a baseball bat to beat the shit out of someone, is one of the signs of the apocalypse. Right between “human sacrifice” and “dogs and cats living together.”

    I’m proud of her for this big step, even though she’s doomed us all.

  34. Chronos

    Welp, you tried?

    1. anon

      i half expected ethan to troll sarah with some unreasonable demand lol

  35. Pylgrim

    Aww Sarah, it is okay. I know you are trying but it’s okay to be your own kind of friend. Some friends are the kind that can offer a shoulder to cry, who listen and console wisely. Others, are the kind that smoosh their friend’s abuser into a stain on the ground with a baseball bat.

  36. David DeLaney

    awkward random college hookup: AVERTED

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