Dumbing of Age

[BiblioRook]

First, there was Roomies, your usual tale about life in college. But then some of the titular college students got abducted by aliens an initiated into a top secret government force, and It's Walky was born (the students left behind continued with normal college adventures however, not alien related ones). Eventually though, alien invasions have a way of being thwarted and we are left to reflect on life of two of the stars from the previous strip with Joyce and Walky (Some sort of spin-off was also created, something involving working at a toy store).

Think that sounds a bit convoluted? You might think you yourself how nice it would be to go back to simpler times. Well, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can!
Dumbing of Age revisits the original premise about life in college, only this time with the added bonus of every character from every comic mentioned above all rolled into one! And I do mean every character (even the Head Alien and his giant robot ape have shown up thus far).

[BiblioRook]

Likewise with the other one, I just wonder if I'm just bad at making threads <.<

In recent comic: College Drama = Watergate?
Alternatively: What do you do when your secret crush is hiding in your room?

[Flickerdart]

I've been following the comic, but it's a little confusing with so many characters, especially when so many of them look very similar.

[BiblioRook]

Have you've read all the other comics before it? Three comics worth of characters is a lot of characters. I'm not sure if Willus intended it to be easy for new readers to keep up with, but knowing the (alternate) history of everyone certainly helps.

[Mewtarthio]

Have you've read all the other comics before it? Three comics worth of characters is a lot of characters. I'm not sure if Willus intended it to be easy for new readers to keep up with, but knowing the (alternate) history of everyone certainly helps.

It's a completely different continuity, so you shouldn't have to read the thirteen years' worth of Walkyverse comics to understand DoA. It wouldn't help that much anyway, since only the most basic character traits got moved over. For instance, knowing Joyce's character arc through Roomies!, It's Walky!, and Joyce and Walky won't help you understand her character in Dumbing of Age.

Besides, there's no guarantee that someone interested in DoA would be interested in any of Willis's other works. DoA is a lighthearted college comedy. IW is a convoluted sci-fi soap opera. I've never read J&W, what with it being premium content, but I believe it's just an expansion of IW. SP is probably the closest to DoA, since they're both sitcom-ish, but SP is far less restrained with its wackiness.

[BiblioRook]

I didn't say it was necessary, just that I think it helps. But other then that, I disagree how much you can glean from keeping the original versions of the characters in mind. Yes, the continuity might have changed, but good deal has actually stayed the same. As you mentioned, basic character traits being one of them. Just knowing that alone can give you some pretty big insights on how a character might act or respond in a certain situation right from their first DoA appearance. Though the real fun (for me anyways) is seeing the stuff that doesn't go the way you expect, such as when the ShortPacked characters start interacting with the Roomies/It's Walky characters or how the various relationships are shaping up (I hope someone out there is making a diagram, it would be interesting to see).

Just to be clear though, it's not like I put all those links up as some way to get people to read Willis' other comics before hand or even at all. It's more just the fact he's doing this comic the way he is (ie: reusing all his older characters in subtlety different ways) and I thought warrant to illustrate what was going on (as compared to it just being a stand-alone comic about college life)