Well, this was it. The moment I was building up to since Roomies!. I wanted Sal and Danny to separate, and then reunite only after Sal had gone off and joined a super alien-fighting team, and then for Danny to go whooaaaa or whatever. I’d added a lot more wrinkles along the way. Like, say, Billie. Billie’s a huge-ass wrinkle. And I don’t think I’d planned on Sal having gone quite this far down the Yikes path, but I think it made it a better moment than it would have been otherwise.
There’s some lingering Roomies! mindset here, though it’s starting to be deconstructed. Danny, to Sal, was perfect. He was an avatar of innocence and righteousness, and for him she put on this mask of goofiness. He was a perfect thing she could never honestly have. And so of course, when he’s returned to her, he’s unable to be touched by the yellow energies Sal has projected everywhere. Danny is her blind spot. He’s on a pedestal. And she can never direct fury at him, because she sees him as perfection personified. So much of what Sal has been pursuing has been moral consistency to extremes, to the point of false equivalences, partly so she can match what she saw as Danny’s moral righteousness. But when she sees the visual metaphor of her own moral inconsistency — she’s unable to yellow him up like everything else — everything falls apart.
(You don’t have to agree with Sal on how great Danny is. As you’ve noticed, Sal is wrong about a few things.)
Originally posted:
July 15, 2002
Also,
–
One Day, Part 2, page 5
Pesky Inner Feelings
One of our better landings
Howard’s in there.
Cat person
–
About ti–
Black hoodie
Moolah
Phantom Menace
Breasts
the foley for this page:
AAAAAAA!
KRAASH!
A real American hero
Juice
VROOM
even better!…?
Subtle Hostilities
Wait, hold on.
Danny at home for Christmas
Ditch her
I can’t sleep, Daniel
These socks
I give up
HONK!
Quiet, Joyce
One incentive
JOE!!
Hey, there’s Walky.
Hey, Mister
I know.
Quiet, Joyce
just a normal day at SEMME
Well, kids, what’d we learn today?
Please answer me
January
Call me David.
So how’ve you been?
The first two of these could have led directly after this page.
Ultimately, whether Sal is correct to view Danny the way she does is irrelevant to this character moment. What’s important is that his appearance creates the cognitive dissonance necessary to make her stop being all “UNLIMITED POWER!”
Panel one has a… weird thing halfway between a question mark and an exclamation point?
There’s actually a punctuation mark that fits that description called an interobang. It doesn’t look like the weird question mark that David drew though
I’m familiar with the interrobang! This isn’t that, it’s just messed up looking.
It’s the kind of punctuation you use when you want to look happy to see someone but you’re also worried they might think you’re a genocidal maniac.
Ah, so that’s why Danny wasn’t yellow like everyone else. I remembered that Sal and Danny were together, but I didn’t realize that she thought that highly of him.
I remember this, and it still delivers an avalanche of impact.
somebody hug sal
Don’t worry Willis, we know how amazing Danny is at Danning it up.
I love how Joyce is even more WTF than Danny.
She is either suprised that Danny managed to stop Sal or she remembered who Danny is. So far when others talked about Danny she thought they were talking about her dog, who she named after him.
Six months later:
College Ho!, page 5
Space
Joyce, I’m sorry
How long is this moment of silence lasting?
So the orange light around Sal. Is that a short term after effect of using the power booster rod so much, the yellow still closing in towards it source, or just the lighting in the room she’s in?
Her immediate surroundings became superheated from all the energy, now the floor is lava.
Doesn’t she know that when the floor is lava, you’re supposed to stand on the furniture?
1. Billie’s big ass has a wrinkle?
2. Sal has two eyes?
I love that panel. Just the original Roomies plus Walky.
Good thing she didn’t know about Ruth, or she might have just added him to the kill list.
Oh thats the tree! I thought a small explosion went off next to Sal. But, then I was wondering why people were so chill about it
Cool people don’t look at explosions.
Kinda nice how ‘Dannying’ isn’t in much use anymore.
Joyce is shocked because someone cut off Danny’s fingers.
So here’s how we find Sal.
Already married!
Sal’s gone, Danny
Bloomington 90210
KRAASH!
That… actually sort of works.
(Also, Billie’s a huge ass-wrinkle?)
Well, there you have it, folks. This is my favorite page of the entire comic.
…and we’ve reached the point where Ruth living instead of Danny would have broken reality.
okay fine i accept you living danny god dammit
In all seriousness, though, this is really effective.