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. 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. 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.
"Dumbing of Age", while not connected to the "It's Walky!" universe in any way, 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.
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. There are themes of parental abuse, depression, attempted suicide, sexual assault, 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 and make regular appearances:
Secondary characters.
The following characters are secondary to plot lines in the comic and make occasional appearances:
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". 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."
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.
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." 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 somewhat positively. Some said that the "sharp changes between humour and seriousness" are a trademark for the comic, while others have called it interesting and enjoyable, even if it is a source of frustration to see "characters in a different setting." 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." 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." 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".