Dumbing of Age

Dumbing of Age is a dramatic webcomic about college life at Indiana University by cartoonist David Willis. The series is a reboot using the characters from the previous comics in a new universe.[1][2] While It's Walky! was based on the characters living in a science-fiction universe and having action-adventure storylines, Dumbing of Age has no fantasy elements, and is more slice-of-life than the previous comics. The comic is not set in any particular year due to the extremely slow pace (Every in-universe day takes around 1-2 months of daily comics) but current technologies are depicted in-comic anachronistically as Willis didn't want the comic to be a period piece.[3] As of March 2015, Dumbing of Age is Willis's most popular webcomic, with a readership that is around three times that of Shortpacked! at around 220,000 page views a day, according to Google Analytics.[4]

Dumbing of Age
Author(s)David Willis
WebsiteWordPress
Current status/scheduleUpdates daily
Launch dateSeptember 10, 2010
Publisher(s)WordPress
Genre(s)Drama
Slice of life

Dumbing of Age, while not connected to the It's Walky! universe in any way, it does feature two of its alien characters as characters in an independent comic and cable series of which the characters Walky, Dorothy, and Joyce are fans.[5]

Plot and themes

The story follows college first-years in the girls wing of a Indiana University co-ed dorm, learning about themselves and everything involved in life, including a Christian girl who was homeschooled, an atheist who is her best friend, a cheerleader who has been disgraced, and many other characters.[3] 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.

Major characters

The following characters are central to plot lines in the comic[lower-alpha 1] and make regular appearances:

  • Jennifer "Billie" Billingsworth was once head of the cheerleader squad at high school and queen of her prom, but now she is an alcoholic.[lower-alpha 2][7] She had an affair with her R.A., Ruth, is the roommate of Lucy, and is in a relationship with Asher.
  • Amber O'Malley comes from a disruptive home life with an abusive father, growing up with Ethan, her best friend, dating him until he came out as gay at her prom, and Joe is her stepbrother.[lower-alpha 4] She later becomes Amazi-Girl, who starts dating Danny at one point,[6] and has been described as "superhero in an otherwise normal setting."[9]
  • Dorothy Keener is very ambitious and an atheist who is friends with Joyce, somehow.[lower-alpha 5][8] She is also the girlfriend of Walky and Becky is her roommate, while Sierra was a former roommate and Danny was her forrmer boyfriend.[7]
  • Sarah Clinton is a misanthrope who likes to study and isn't very social with other people, later ratting out her roommate, Dana,[6] her first year who was using drugs, leading her to become "a social pariah."[lower-alpha 7]
  • David “Walky” Walkerton is a favorite child of his parents, who is intelligent and gets good grades, seeing the university as a place with "no parents, no structure [or] order."[lower-alpha 8] He is also the twin brother of Sal, is the boyfriend of Dorothy, and is ignored by Billie.[7]

Secondary characters

The following characters are secondary to plot lines in the comic[lower-alpha 9] and make occasional appearances:

  • Becky MacIntyre is the former best friend of Joyce who went to a Christian university at first because her dad thought a secular institution would "corrupt" her mind, later moved to the same university as Joyce.[lower-alpha 10] Presently she is dating Dina and is Dorothy's roommate.
  • Danny Wilcox is an idealist, romantic, and trusting person, with Joe as his best friend, who is his roommate.[lower-alpha 12] On the first day of college, Dorothy, his girlfriend from high school, dumped him,[7] and he hasn't had luck at getting a boyfriend or girlfriend since.
  • Dina Saruyama is a small and quiet person who likes to observe rather than talk, comfortable talking about science, especially dinosaurs.[lower-alpha 13] She is the roommate of Amber, and the "velociraptor" of Becky.
  • Ethan Siegal is a gay man who is "handsome, dashing, protective, understanding, and self-sacrificing," coming out to his girlfriend, and best friend, Amber, at his high school prom.[lower-alpha 14] He is the roommate of Jacob, may have a crush on Danny, remains friends with Amber.[6] and bonds with Joyce over Transformer cartoons.[6]
  • Joe Rosenthal is a best friend, and roommate, of Danny, and he went on a failed date with Joyce.[lower-alpha 15]
  • Carla Rutten, who lives in a single room, wants people to acknowledge her and seemed to style herself after "an obscure cartoon character from her childhood."[lower-alpha 16]
  • Jacob Williams is a gorgeous man who is friendly, outgoing, and doesn't like being distracted from his studying.[lower-alpha 18] He is the roommate of Ethan, and an object of lust from Sarah.
  • Lucy Glenn is a cheerful person with good intentions who was formerly Malaya's roommate but is now Billie's roommate.[lower-alpha 21] She has unrequited feelings for Walky and both are close friends.

Publication

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.[10][11] 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."[12]

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.[13]

Influences

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.

Reception

The comic has been received positively. Some said that the "sharp changes between humour and seriousness" are a trademark for the comic,[14] while others called it "interesting" and enjoyable, even if it is frustrating to see "his characters in a different setting."[15] 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."[16] 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."[17] 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.

Notes
  1. The about page of the comic lists these six characters, so I am listing them here.
  2. This is also noted on her official profile
  3. Her official profile makes this clear
  4. These facts are explicated on her official profile
  5. This is further noted on her official profile
  6. All of these aspects are noted on her official profile
  7. This is pointed out on her official profile
  8. This is noted in his official profile
  9. These characters are listed on the cast page, but not the about page, so they can't be main characters as a result
  10. These facts are pointed out in her official profile
  11. These facts are stated in her official profile
  12. These characteristics are pointed out in his official profile
  13. This is stated in her official profile
  14. All these aspects are mentioned in his official profile
  15. This is explained in his official profile
  16. This and more is noted in her official profile
  17. These aspects are outlined in her official profile
  18. These characteristics are noted in his official profile as well
  19. This is originally explained on her official profile
  20. These parts of their character are noted in their official profile
  21. Her official profile shows this to be true
  22. More of her characteristics are noted on her official profile
  23. This is further noted in her official profile

References
  1. Inglis-Arkell, Esther (September 20, 2010). "'Roomies' Webcomic Creator Heads Back to College in 'Dumbing of Age'". ComicsAlliance. Archived from the original on January 24, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  2. Hanson, Ralph E. (2016). Mass Communication: Living in a Media World (Sixth ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. p. 556. ISBN 9781506358567.
  3. Willis, David (2020). "About". Official website of Dumbing of Age. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  4. Willis, David (March 17, 2015). "How popular (in terms of pageviews) have each of your webcomics been?". Tumblr. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  5. Willis, David (March 18, 2013). "At the beginning of Dumbing of Age I did a very..." Tumblr. Archived from the original on March 13, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  6. Dunstan, Elliott (March 24, 2017). "Review: 'Dumbing of Age' Book One: This Campus Is A Friggin' Escher Print". Monkeys Fighting Robots. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  7. Dunstan, Elliott (March 30, 2017). "Review: 'Dumbing of Age' Book Two: The Cragged Shame Pits of the Lustwolves". Monkeys Fighting Robots. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  8. Sando, Joe (August 12, 2014). "A Deadshirt Webcomics Field Guide to: David Willis' Dumbing of Age". Deadshirt.net. Archived from the original on November 27, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  9. Willis, David (November 4, 2015). "Webcomic Spotlight: An Interview with David Willis, Creator of Dumbing of Age and Shortpacked". The Mary Sue (Interview). Interviewed by Alex Townsend. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  10. DeLuna, John (2010). "Shortpacked! Panel - AnimeFest 2010". Vimeo. Archived from the original on September 24, 2010. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  11. Willis, David (2020). "Dumbing of Age - A college webcomic by David Willis". Official website of Dumbing of Age. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  12. Kleefeld, Sean (2020). Webcomics. London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 159–160. ISBN 1350028193.
  13. Willis, David (September 18, 2020). "Story". Official website of Dumbing of Age. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  14. Dunstan, Elliott (April 28, 2017). "Review: 'Dumbing of Age' Book Four: Amazi-Girl is Always Prepared For Anything". Monkeys Fighting Robots. Archived from the original on January 5, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  15. Baden, Robert J. (November 28, 2012). "World of Webcomics: 'Dumbing of Age'". Fanbase Press. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  16. Vicknair, Maggie (November 30, 2016). "Webcomics in Review: Dumbing of Age – Changing for the Better". Comics Beat. Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  17. Speelman, Tom (March 10, 2016). "College, Everyone: Should You Be Reading 'Dumbing of Age'?". ComicsAlliance. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
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