Dumbing of Age | |
---|---|
Author(s) | David Willis |
Website | dumbingofage.com |
Current status/schedule | Updates daily |
Launch date | September 10, 2010 |
Genre(s) |
|
Dumbing of Age is a webcomic about college life at Indiana University by cartoonist David Willis with themes involving drama or comedy, occasionally with a mixture of both. The series itself is a reboot reusing characters from Willis' previous comics (Roomies!, It's Walky!, Joyce and Walky!, and Shortpacked!). [1] [2] While Willis' previous webcomics shared a science-fiction universe, Dumbing of Age is independent of these, reflecting more slice-of-life than the previous works. [3] The comic is generally set in the present day, yet not set in any particular year due to the glacial pacing (Every in-universe day takes around 1-2 months of daily comics), current technologies are depicted in-comic anachronistically so the comic is not a period piece. [4] Willis has reported Dumbing of Age to be his most popular webcomic, with a readership that around three times that of Shortpacked!. [5]
The story follows a large ensemble cast, most of which are Indiana University first-years living in the same co-ed dorm. Major characters including a home-schooled Christian girl, her atheist best friend, and a disgraced cheerleader. [4] There are themes of parental abuse, depression, attempted suicide, sexual assault, [6] and some instance of homophobic and transphobic sayings, along with other mature themes.
David Willis announced at AnimeFest 2010 that his newest project is titled Dumbing of Age, a return to the setting of the original Roomies! comic, Indiana University, with both old characters from Roomies!, It's Walky!, and Shortpacked! as well as new characters created for Dumbing of Age. [11] [12] Writer and researcher Sean Kleefeld later noted that Willis set the comic in college so he could "work out his personal demons" and to connect with a bigger audience, even though, as Kleefeld puts it, "the characters remained fundamentally the same." [13]
On September 18, 2020, Willis announced that he would be drawing a Patreon-only comic based on the in-universe Dexter and the Monkey Master comics. [14]
In an interview with The Mary Sue , Willis said that he based Joyce and her family on his own upbringing, with his parents reading the "early 1980s equivalent of Fox News ," removing everything that she thought would "corrupt" him, like Scooby-Doo , Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears , Care Bears, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood , and The Simpsons , with his family attending a "nondenominational fundamentalist Protestant church." [9] Apart from that, he stated that he passively listened to others, following "wonderful people" on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook, hearing what they have to say, and trying to find empathy with others, even if he makes himself "a little uncomfortable" and confronts his white privilege, even revising "false information" at times. [9]
The comic has been received somewhat positively. Some said that the "sharp changes between humour and seriousness" are a trademark for the comic, [15] while others have called it interesting and enjoyable, even if it is a source of frustration to see "characters in a different setting." [16] Maggie Vicknair of Comics Beat stated while it would not be possible to accurately summarize every plot moment in the comic, each chapter "revolves around one day and jumps between different characters’ adjacent plot lines," with stories range in their subject and tone, even as they are all in the same universe, along with many "interconnected romance plots." [17] Tom Speelman of ComicsAlliance called it one of "the best original ongoing comics being published today," with the characters learning about "life's ups and downs and that adulthood isn't easy," and called it Willis' magnum opus, saying it has "emotionally true storytelling." [18] He further said that the comic has a "crack sense of humor" and said that anyone coming into college, in college, or in high school should read it, along with those who like his previous works or other webcomics like Questionable Content , Girls With Slingshots or R. K. Milholland's Something Positive.
8-Bit Theater is a sprite comic, meaning the art is mainly taken from pre-existing video game assets, created by Brian Clevinger that ran from 2001 to 2010 and consisting of 1,225 pages. The webcomic was, at times, one of the most popular webcomics, and the most popular sprite comic.
Dinosaur Comics is a constrained webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. It is also known as "Qwantz", after the site's domain name, "qwantz.com". The first comic was posted on February 1, 2003, although there were earlier prototypes. Dinosaur Comics has also been printed in three collections and in a number of newspapers. The comic centers on three main characters, T-Rex, Utahraptor and Dromiceiomimus.
Sinfest is a long-running American webcomic by Tatsuya Ishida. Updating daily, Sinfest started as a black comedy strip in January 2000. It has featured a wide range of perspectives over its long history, including on American politics, organized religion, and radical feminism. Shaenon Garrity's 2012 review in The Comics Journal observed that "raunchy strips about strippers are followed by cute cat-and-dog gags are followed by religious humor are followed by autobio strips are followed by shit-stirring political cartoons are followed by spoken-word poetry are followed by lessons in drawing Japanese kanji, one of Sinfest’s signature running features", and that "Sinfest is always, first and foremost, about what Ishida wants to cartoon at any given moment."
Questionable Content is a slice-of-life webcomic written and illustrated by Jeph Jacques. It was launched in August 2003 and reached its 5,000th comic in March 2023. The plot originally centered on Marten Reed, an indie rock fan; his anthropomorphized personal computer Pintsize; and his roommate, Faye Whitaker. Over time Jacques has added a supporting cast of characters that includes employees of the local coffee shop, neighbors, and androids. QC's storytelling style combines romantic melodrama, situational comedy, and sexual humor, while considering questions of relationships, sexuality, dealing with emotional trauma, and artificial intelligence and futurism.
Derek Kirk Kim is a Korean-American comics artist and filmmaker.
Miss America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Gabriele, the character first appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics #49 in the Golden Age of Comic Books. Madeline Joyce is the first incarnation of Miss America. The character has also been a member of the Invaders, Liberty Legion, and All-Winners Squad at various points in her history.
Brad Guigar is an American cartoonist who is best known for his daily webcomic Greystone Inn and its sequel Evil Inc.
Chris Crosby is a co-founder and the chief executive officer of Keenspot, a company providing a platform and network for webcomics. They are also a comics writer and artist, with works including Superosity, Sore Thumbs, and Snap The Punk Turtle.
Erma is a comedy horror webtoon created by Mexican artist Brandon J. Santiago. It follows the adventures and misadventures of the titular eight-year-old Erma Williams' experiences as a half-human, half-yōkai/ghost, tending to use her haunting abilities for everyday antics, whether for better or for worse, focusing on themes such as friendship and acceptance. Santiago initially published the webcomic on DeviantArt and Tumblr in May 2014, but has since released it on various services from January 2016, such as Tapas and WEBTOON. It is available in two languages, English and Spanish. In January 2020, Comics Beat reported that with 64.5 million views and 74.9 thousand subscribers, Erma was the most-viewed webcomic on the Tapas syndicate in 2019.
David M Willis is an American web cartoonist currently living in Columbus, Ohio. He is best known for his interconnected series of webcomics Roomies!, It's Walky!, Shortpacked!, and Dumbing of Age. Willis is also known online for his chatrooms and forums including "ItsWalky". KUTV in Salt Lake City calls him a satirist who is "a little bit edgy."
Watch Your Head is a webcomic and former daily syndicated comic strip written and illustrated by Cory Thomas, focusing on the lives of six students at a fictional historically black university. Based upon Thomas' experiences as a student at Howard University, Watch Your Head was first published in Howard's newspaper, The Hilltop.
Sluggy Freelance is a long-running webcomic written and drawn by Pete Abrams. Starting in 1997, it is one of the oldest successful webcomics, and as of 2012 had hundreds of thousands of readers. Abrams was one of the first comic artists successful enough to make a living from a webcomic.
Ménage à 3 is a webcomic by Gisèle Lagacé and David Lumsdon. The comic ran from 2008 to 2019.
Notable events of 2004 in webcomics.
Notable events of 2005 in webcomics.
Assigned Male is a webcomic illustrated and written by Sophie Labelle. It draws upon her experiences as a trans girl and woman. The comic, and series of zines, address issues of gender norms and privilege. It began in October 2014 and is ongoing, published in English and French. The webcomic is released in printed anthologies on Labelle's online store.
Giant Days is a comedic comic book written by John Allison, with art by Max Sarin and Lissa Treiman. The series follows three young women – Esther de Groot, Susan Ptolemy and Daisy Wooton – who share a hall of residence at university. Originally created as a webcomic spin-off from his previous series Scary Go Round, and then self-published as a series of small press comics, Giant Days was subsequently picked up by Boom! Studios first as a six-issue miniseries and then as a monthly ongoing series. In 2016 Giant Days was nominated for two Eisner Awards and four Harvey Awards. In 2019, it won two Eisner awards, for Best Continuing Series and Best Humor Publication.
Notable events of the late 1990s in webcomics.
Venus Envy is a webcomic written and designed by a trans woman, and artist, named Crystal Frasier. It was first released in 2001. In addition to dealing with the themes of transgender people and gender transition, the strip also deals with other themes such as adolescence in general, William Shakespeare and women's soccer.