Time To Update The Bookmarks
We’re down to the final week of original strips in the Exclamation Universe. While Walkyverse has its adherents, I prefer to note that David “Walky” Walkerton does not appear (prominently or even at all) in all the related strips, each of them is titled with an Exclamation: Roomies!, It’s Walky! Joyce and Walky!, and Shortpacked!, which wraps up this week.
So naturally David “Damn You” Willis decides to spend his last plot not on his best, most well-handled themes (toxic masculinity in popular culture and Batman), swerving away from an arc that started on the theme of diversity and suddenly found itself staring down an interdimensional rupture because why not? Over the weekend I wondered if the sudden appearance of Exclamationverse Dina (as opposed to her counterpart in the exclamationless Dumbing of Age, where she is also appearing right nowby an amazing coincidence) was merely a sight gag, not to be followed up on.
Nope; she’s there and interacting with the rest of the cast today which is a neat trick, since the Dina Sarazu with this character design and from this continuity [spoiler alert for a plot point that’s literally a dozen years old] died back in 2003¹. If memory serves, Dina’s death in It’s Walky! was a sore point for many of his fans, and he’s used parallel-dimensional handwaving to bring back other charactres in the Shortpacked! era¹, so giving her a happy ending before shutting the door on that version of the characters — a continuous storytelling endeavour that is old enough to drive in all 50 states — would be a kindness. Just as long as he incorporates Batman, or maybe some webcomics bloggers/psuedojournalists³.
In the meantime, come Friday I’ll be updating the blogroll over to the right there to indicated that Shortpacked! is [finished], and I’ll be updating my RSS subscriptions to grab the feed from Dumbing of Age (I’ve always just clicked through to DoA from SP! … I’ve done this for more than four years, rather than click one to directly subscribe because I am a lazy, lazy man), and something that I’ve read 3 – 5 times a week for a decade will be something that’s done.
You’ve still got time to power-read all 2200 or so Shortpacked! strips if you start now. Me, I’m pouring out a blind-box assortment of Transformers (I have no idea if that’s a thing, just work with me) on the sidewalk in honor of what Willis built. To toys, and frustrations, and the eternal thwarting of Soggies — thanks, David.
PS: Damn you.
Spam of the day:
The seductive, alluring girls of Japan, Thailand, China and Korea are online now searching for U.S. men like you.
Why yes, I am very gullible and will click on your links, seductive, alluring girls.
_______________
¹ No presently-linkable example of that strip exists in Willis’s archives right now; there are a good three years of story between today’s historical rerun.
² Which, for reference, goes back just about exactly 10 years, starting a full 11 months before this here blogging enterprise.
³ As god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly didn’t know this strip existed (or if I ever did, I’d forgotten it); I found it while searching the Batman tag. Kudos to Willis for the prime depiction of moustachery, and also for spelling my name correctly.
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