Trivia / Dumbing of Age

• Bonus Material: Of two types:
  • Patreon-only strips that showcase people not directly related to the current storyline (some voted in by fans).
  • Erotic comics posted on Slipshine and Erotic pin-ups of the characters in another Patreon.
• Defictionalization: After a number of fans asked for a real life version of Dina's dinosaur hat, Willis got some felt and a sewing kit together and started making them.
• Diagnosis of God: Dina Saruyama from Dumbing of Age was retconned as having undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome in a blog post by the comic's author, David Willis. According to Willis, he didn't intentionally design Dina as autistic at first, but based her heavily on himself; after learning that he likely had undiagnosed Asperger's, he decided that Dina was the same way. It was later stated on-panel that attempts to diagnose Dina didn't go anywhere because the doctors assumed she's just speaking English as a second language... even though she's American and so are her parents.
• Fandom Nod: Walky's theory that Mike didn't die and was put in witness protection instead, despite being published after a long period of the fandom speculating the exact same thing, isn't an example — according to Willis' comment on Patreon it was planned since before the timeskip, before Mike's death was confirmed.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": The youngest DeSanto sister, Riley, premiered as a twelve-year-old in this comic before appearing as an adult in Shortpacked.
• Shrug of God: Is the new Alex the same person as old Alex post-transition? Willis notes that it's a popular head-canon and will not weigh in definitively. (New Alex is trans, though.)
• Teasing Creator:
  • Assisted by the months-long buffer.
  • In a point of the story where Mike's fate was left ambiguous and he was last seen tackling a villain off a balcony, Willis linked to a Something*Positive strip offhandedly alluding to this. It can be found here, if you don't mind the above spoiler.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally Dorothy was not going to have a role bigger than "Danny's Ex."
  • Willis has posted some strips on his Patreon that for one reason or another he rejected from 'canon'.
• Write Who You Know: This applies to a bunch of characters.
  • Most of all it applies to Joyce and her amazingly sheltered views. In Willis' own words, he used to be her.
  • Joyce's mother is based on Willis' own mother.

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