Dumbing of Age | |
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Author(s) | David Willis |
Website | dumbingofage.com |
Current status/schedule | Updates daily |
Launch date | September 10, 2010 |
Genre(s) |
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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 Christian girl who was homeschooled, an atheist who is her best friend, a cheerleader who has been disgraced, and many other characters. [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.
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.
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