In the wake of recent discussion I think it's time to (re)read El Goonish Shive; the internet's most squeaky clean fetish webcomic
I kept up with it for a number of years before it slipped away from me, and I suspect a few other anons are the same
But even if you're a new reader feel free to join in as we relive decades worth of comic material one chunk at a time

We start with I don't even know what this is, some manner of introduction I guess

Okay story actually starts here

Early Elliot is a lot scrawnier

And for the first little bit we get a colour strip on Sundays

Early Tedd is very different as well

Dan's chuuni levels were pretty high in the early aughts

>>149524831 (OP)
Please go slow, I'm still trying to finish the wotch storytime

>>149525260
Can do, this will not be the same speed The Wotch went at

Jeremy!

>>149524831 (OP)
>I kept up with it for a number of years before it slipped away from me, and I suspect a few other anons are the same

That fucking sleepover storyline did me in, and probably a few others too

>>149525476
The sleepover is something for sure
But that's so early in the story

>>149524831 (OP)
Thanks for your services.

>>149524854
Foreshadowing?

>>149524899
Yeah squeaky clean eh?

>>149525137
all these sfw fetish comics just wanted to be action comics back then

>>149525685
It was the style at the time

>>149525685
I think its more accurate to say they wanted to create something like their favorite animes, while also finding out they could inject their magical realm

>>149524844
>ted's a guy
Poetic irony so thick it coats a spoon

LORE

>>149525768
>inject their magical realm
I remember stumbling on Carnivores at the same time as EGS and holy shit one of those magical realms was too much for me

We're a few years early for the word glomp to be in circulation yet

LET ME TELL YOU MY PROBLEM WITH EGS

Way too much exposition, I stopped reading because it was 15 or so strips of exposition, then picked it back months later, and it was the same exposition scene.

Aso they broke up a bunch of relationships I liked, and made almost every single female character lesbian.

So the comic became just that, lesbians and exposition.

Two new and important characters

>>149525084
Special guess silent bob

>>149525685
God bless this weebs, makes sense even Dragon Ball had that pig turning into a hot chick once or twice.

Strange activity for a lesbian to be doing

>>149525298
Now that I think about what does Goonish Shive even mean?

It be like that sometimes

>>149526405
This was before almost the entire cast is out.

>>149525412
humble beginnings

>>149524831 (OP)
It's been really, really bad for a long time now. Not in terms of stupid plot twists or something but more in that nothing ever happens. The pacing has long become atrocious and makes most modern decompressed comics read like they're hypercompressed.

Although yeah, like every character is gay or nonbinary or just into TF stuff. I wouldn't even say it's fetishy anymore though, it's just lots o characters sitting around and endlessly rambling on about how various systems (magic, etc.) work and what story there is advances at a pace so slow that glacial would be an upgrade.

>>149526539
>making out in the back seat of a car
>not romantic
Bros... blackpilled again...

>>149526557
Wasn't expecting somebody to back me up but lol yeah

>>149526432
Nothing, it was just a bunch of random words. He made a comic adressing that.

It took us 100 pages to get here, to have the TF gun on screen

>>149526432
Well I doubt there’s this much thought into it but the goon shivs. It’s almost like a bad joke at stating what a goon is told to do. I doubt there was any thought into it though.

>>149526585
>Wasn't expecting somebody to back me up but lol yeah
All it really has going for it is that he draws nice looking girls; Lucy the giant tittied amazon is probably the hottest in the comic.

As far as actual writing/plots go I'm going to be annoyed if he keeps teasing the stupid throuple shit with Tedd, Grace and Sarah instead of having Sarah and Hope (Nu-Pandora) clam slamming. But I think he shut the door on that like a faggot by claiming that Hope "looks like a middle schooler" even though she doesn't look any younger than any of the other characters.

Thank you, storytimer.

Love to check out a webcomic longterm to see how art and narrative evolve.

>>149525862
That is a great face, I'm not talking about the school, Also why does this look amlost exactly like the wotch? Same eyes, same" hands"

And we'll be stopping it here for today
We've introduced all of our major characters for the time being and tomorrow we can meet an antagonist

>>149524831 (OP)
Dude you will be here ages 15-20 threads minimum. That without the side comic, which is another 5 at least

>>149526898
I'm projecting somewhere in the realm of 30-40

>>149524831 (OP)
Is Elliot still a guy while having a female clone or did he eventually TF also?

>>149526965

>>149525913
Eliot was almost sinister in the beginning
it did not take long for him to turn into the comic's answer to Superman

>>149527069
That’s underselling it a bit, captain marvel they guy Superman consider to much of a goodie, would look at modern Eliot, and thing that guy is to sweet.

Eliot’s reached the point where to relax he has to mind control himself, to relax as he’s incapable of it normally.

>>149526965
For now. His fragile masculinity is being slowly eroded by the will of magic and his gooner asian gf

I'm not looking forward to how long this is going to take, but I think it'll be fun to read through it again with everyone. I probably won't have too much to say though.

>>149527412
I really don't like Ashley. I feel like she only exists because Dan unintentionally gave Elliot and Susan chemistry and he felt he needed to walk them back.

And because he's too much of a coward to ever pull the trigger on Elliot/Tedd for real even though it's clearly his actual favorite couple to write and draw.

>>149527412
He literally spends more time as a girl then a guy now, to the point he cannot even sleep as a guy, not having breasts being to much of an an annoyance to sleep anymore.

>>149527527
Elliot and Susan was top. Man this comic went downhill for no reason.

>>149527547
>not having breasts being to much of an an annoyance to sleep
I could swear I've heard women say that big boobs can actually make sleeping uncomfortable.

>>149526468
>almost the entire cast
Pretty sure the writer has said in commentary that none of the main cast is cishet.

>>149527547
>He literally spends more time as a girl then a guy now, to the point he cannot even sleep as a guy, not having breasts being to much of an an annoyance to sleep anymore
This thing that these TF comics do feel so sad man.

It's kind of depressing to see a bunch of characters that see 0 value on being men, and spent most of their time trying to escape into being women.

No wonder he is so obsessed with lesbians.

>>149527611
And yet weighted blankets are all the craze these days, so who knows

>>149527679
I'm not going to be digging up the commentaries for every comic

>>149526713
>Also why does this look amlost exactly like the wotch?
Crude early 2000s anime wannabe art. They actually started at roughly the same time, EGS in early 2002 and Wotch in late 2002 so if anything I'd assume that Wotch cribbed Dan's art style.

>>149526898
I've done longer dailies. The key is just picking a general time for when you're going to upload every day and for me keeping the length (if you're doing something with a ton of comics/pages) manageable like in the 60-90 minute range.

Honestly, considering Magiser's also the "storytiming every Spider-Man comic in order" guy and has been doing that one for literal years this is practically a small undertaking I'd bet.

>>149527689
Welcome to the world of TF comics. There's a reason most of them feature mtf lesbos scissoring each other and rarely ever acknowledge the existence of ftm. Like I totally get what the fantasy is, but it's still bordering on the edge of a madonna complex how much emphasis is focused on how much better being a girl feels in a chunk of thhese stories.

>>149526965
>Is Elliot still a guy while having a female clone or did he eventually TF also?
They have 3 female alternate personalities and Elliot-prime is agender.

>>149527527
He keeps avoiding any of the good ships in favor of setting up these dumb ones, usually with newer characters shoehorned in. Elliot/Susan derailed first by Elliot getting with Ashley (a cute Asian girl whose defining characteristic is having a TF fetish; wow how convenient) and now Susan getting hooked up with... I can't even remember the chick's name but she fucking sucks. Sarah/Pandora fucked up with the Tedd/Grace/Sarah throuple and also putting Sarah in an actual relationship with a pooner. And... uh, that's really it because every other character is irrelevant mostly because Dan spends so much time autistically exhausting conversations that he'll spend literally months on a single scene. I think that Not-MTG arc took at least a year to get through a few hours, it's unbearable.

The only other character still relevant is Diane who's been stripped of every bit of characterization that made her enjoyable to be Generic Nice GIrl now. Like you can make her nice but still keep the bitchy alpha girl thing, like heroic Emma Frost. You'd think Diana and Lucy getting together would at least be hot but Lucy is still irrelevant and barely shows up anyway. Nobody even fucking transforms anymore.

>>149527527
Yeah, susan would have been ideal. He gets a girl who isnt going to stress him out by being an emotionally dependent liability, and she gets a buff dude who will do whatever she says and can be left alone for a few days without melting down. Shame she's... a lesbian now? I dont remember any more. Ashley's not bad, she's just not really a good match for him. He desperately needs to escape from magic and responsibility, and she desperately needs someone to hold her hand as she dives in headfirst. Its a recipie for disaster

Elliot and ted obviously SHOULD be together, its just a shame elliot is condemned to suffer an eternity of muted and unfulfilling straight romances. Someone needs to make a "be bisexual" gun and put the poor guy out of his misery. Authough, i like grace. She doesnt deserve to get cucked like that

>>149527547
Haha oof. Poor "guy" is doomed...

>>149527689
Dan came out as trans a few months ago, but we've all read the comic so its not exactly a suprise right? Actually its one of those sad cases where they're through the repressing stage but too old to do anything about it

>>149528542
>Dan came out as trans a few months ago,
Honestly reading the comics, it seems more like he gaslighted himself into going tranny. Spending all your time mentalizing that being a girl is so much better than being a man probably fucks up your brain. Lesser stuff are know to have an impact on the brain.

>>149528542
>Dan came out as trans a few months ago
Really? I thought he'd been saying he was agender or genderfluid or something for years. It just seems kind of weird to pick one all of a sudden.

This talk actually made me want to not read this storytime. This is just sad.

>>149528757
I don't remember him ever saying he was trans. He skirts around the subject a lot without ever really saying he's trans. I mean, he TOTALLY is, he is after all a webcomic artist, but I don't think he's ever admitted it.

I actually meet a guy that was a classmate of Shive on university.

The general impression was that he was sort of a weird socially awkward loner type that never hang around with anyone.

>>149525093
I totally forgot the Principal was a Hitler joke.

>>149528711
A lot of people who make TG fetish art end up surrounded by trannies who, as trannies do, insist on talking about their transness and making jokes about HRT and generally doing whatever they can to seek validation, usually by getting other people to troon out too, because if more people do it, that means it's a smart and okay and not at all psychotic thing to do.

I'm surprised he lasted this long, but I feel sorry for the middle aged man who thinks he's finally going to become a cute anime girl for real because another middle aged man on discord told him how magic "titty skittles" are.

>>149528763
Even the people who like this comic will admit it has a lot of problems.

Oftentimes, I feel like it tries to tip-toe around how fetishistic the subject matter is, which sometimes makes it come across as creepier in a way.

>>149527826
That sounds cursed.

>>149528853
Does anyone like the comic? I have some nostalgic fondness for it, but more as something that was uniquely terrible in a way that only the early 00s could produce. It's a relic of a bygone age, not something that is rough, but close to being good for what it is. It was just bad and it's still pretty bad now.

If I want barely disguised old fetish comics I've read Stephanie Cherrywell's stuff, somehow less cringe

>>149528763
I now have greater appreciation for the Wotch for just being blatant about its TF nature hearing all of this. I guess representing it doesn't help and working with it is a better angle.

>>149528891
I don't dislike it, but I will admit to mostly reading it out of habit and getting a lot more enjoyment out of the newspaper side comic stuff.

>>149528910
*REPRESSING it doesn't help, my bad

>>149528891
You know the phrase "It was a product of its time"? Very much applies here. It's like how Penny Arcade and Megatokyo used to be beloved, but now are shambling zombies of their former glory in different ways.

>>149528891
The early stuff can be funny, but Shive can't commit to the bit so to speak.

Honestly EGS fell into the Homestuck trap of "all my characters are gay now because that's what the new audience which I've gaslit myself into being the better audience wants" pretty hard

>>149528926
They were popular, but none of them were ever good. Like many of the popular e-celebs of the past 25 years, it had more to do with them just being there first and not quitting after the first months and years when no one cared and there was no reward for making mediocre webcomics or youtube videos.

>>149528891
Some time after the whole Damien arc Dan just noped out on violence, death, and any real stakes generally. So all that left him with was autistic world building.

>>149528941
It has too many fucking characters, it should've just stuck to four.

>>149528951
Not disagreeing with you, but I'm still going to call Bob & George and 8-Bit Theater masterpieces. Well, masterpieces as far as webcomics go, which translates to "amusing but not revolutionary".

Shit, now this just makes me remember Dominic Deegan used to be a thing. Time really fucking flies.

>>149528910
Dan never repressed the fetish stuff. He just started taking things too seriously, and got too caught up in worldbuilding to the point that he forgot to actually have THINGS happen on the story.

Also his way to handle shipping is bizarre, where he never pairs the characters with chemistry.

>>149528891
There was a point where I liked the characters, but even then I could recognize that the entire thing is very corny.

>>149528910
The Wotch and EGS are on opposite ends of a spectrum.

The Wotch was always held back by its art, and died an early death after it set up a bunch of neat ideas but before it could pay off the story it clearly wanted to tell. Thus, we can always look back on it and mourn what might have been, remembering fondly and imagining more.

EGS never ended. Indeed, The greatest sin of EGS might be that its still going. It has a very regularly update schedule between EGS and NP, updating 5 days a week, but nothing *happens* in it. The comic is a cursed mockery of life, where it takes about half a step forward every year but never manages to accomplish anything. Its still introducing NEW plotlines and side characters, instead of having resolved... basically anything.
On top of that, whatever grit or edge Dan might have had at the start from copying anime is long exhausted. The more years he puts between his actual age and those of the characters, the more uncomfortable he becomes with admitting that anyone who builds a raygun to turn people into huge-breasted bisexual women might be attracted to... anything. Not just attracted to tg stuff specifically, but would ever admit to having thoughts of a sexual nature under any circumstances. He cannot admit that the transformation fetish comic is dedicated to a fetish, leaving everything in this perpetual limbo where everything revolves around fetishized transformations but also desperately pretending that that is in no way lewd. It's like his mom reads his comic or something and he's still afraid of her discovering what his kinks are.

>>149526153
>>149526168
Lazy bastard only has to draw three panels and still goes for cheap measures.

>>149526225
>>149526195
>Anime style martial arts.
kek

The thing that always frustrated me with later EGS (i.e. post Sister II) was that if you saw someone's thought process or motivations being explained, they couldn't be a villain. There can be no nuance to anything, and anything that could be interpreted as villainous (i.e. anything Pandora did) would be retconned out anyway. The only characters that are allowed to be evil are entities that you aren't supposed to think about before or after they are defeated. 'Cause why would anyone like a character who does bad things??? They're not even one dimensional, since that implies a gradient. Every villian after Damian are either not villains at all or are just pure nothing

>>149528862
It's fine. Elliot-prime controls when his alts get control.

>>149528711
>Spending all your time mentalizing that being a girl is so much better than being a man
I hate to say it but cis people dont do that. If you're genuinely upset that you dont get to be a girl physically, socially or sexually, it might pay to do some soul-searching

>>149528757
>>149528786
Honestly i might be misremembering. Every webcomic is made by a transgenderous furry these days, it all blurs together

>>149528891
I like it. Admittedly there are times when it's been months of nothing filler, but at least the ball is kind of rolling now and he updates regularly

What is it with this board's obsession with absolute horseshit?

>>149529137
It's a break from the endless bitching about capeshit comics, social justice wanking, /pol/ shit, and ai threads.

>>149528970
I just flipped through the most recent updates, which appear to have introduced at least half a dozen more new characters, many of whom are nearly indistinguishable from other characters because Dan's art is still extremely mediocre.

>>149529135
>If you're genuinely upset that you dont get to be a girl physically, socially or sexually, it might pay to do some soul-searching

Who are you addressing?

Barnacles! What could be worse than a poorly disguised 2000s webcomic?

Oh I know...

>webcomic
>full of magical sex changes
>and furries

How in the FUCK did Dan Shive not transition?!

>>149529135
>I hate to say it but cis people dont do that. If you're genuinely upset that you dont get to be a girl physically, socially or sexually, it might pay to do some soul-searching
I think you are wrong. I'm being on the TF and around fetish communities enough to see that people seek escapism throuth all sort of things, imagining that they are the other gender, imagining that they are so stupid that they don't notice the bad things in their lives, imagining that they are babies shitting their diapers, imagining that they are a sparkle dog. Literally all these things are as odd, if not more odd than that, so I don't see how this one thing is different from those. Your issue is that you simply doesn't accept the premise that someone can be gaslighted into this sort of thing, because accepting that has implications that you dislike. (many people who stopped being trans also confirmed these things too).

>>149529328
ah nevermind
>>149528542

>>149528542
>She doesnt deserve to get cucked like that
Isn't Grace polyamorous? I'm genuinely surprised the comic doesn't have a polycule going yet. It almost did for like a nanosecond obviously.

>>149529159
The audience

>>149529328
It was 2010, its not like you could get a year's supply of brazillian grey market estrogen shipped internationally for $50 like you can today. Plus, how would they have found out? From the gigahons at susan's place?

>>149529179
Who's the better author? Dan 'Dana' Shive or Stephanie 'Sakurai' Cherrywell?

(lot's of recent storytimes for the latter and now the former's having their turn)

>>149529179
Why wouldn't you use your webcomic to broadcast your kinks? The more shameless the better.

>>149529398
Actually I guess, Elliot+Ashley kinda counts as one cause of the whole multiple personalities thing.

Do you niggas even have evidence of him going tranny.

>>149526748
>>149526758
Oh this is going to come back later... much much much later

>>149526775
Thanks anon, its going to be fun reading this

Honestly I'd rather have OP post the CHEERS comic. Writing unironically better, and less material to post too. Also both never are going to get finished anyway.

>>149529430
They've identified as agender for fucking years and still do according to their socials. No idea where people got the idea that they're trans other than some anonymous poster in this thread.

>>149527679
this is before the brainrot

Off to a good start, huh?

>>149527689
I recon people who enjoy TF content at some level or another are not entirely happy with themselves and see it as escapism, Now grounded people would go and improve their lives and become better versions of themselves. Others allow the fiction to swallow them up.

>>149527755
>They actually started at roughly the same time, EGS in early 2002 and Wotch in late 2002 so if anything I'd assume that Wotch cribbed Dan's art style.
Man, I'm shocked to realise EGS might be older than me, that's way too long for a web comic

>>149529366
It is not only possible, but wholly necessary, for TF fetishists of all kind to recognize that their fetish is just a fetish, not a lifestyle, and that the promises made by troons about how great it is to troon out are hollow and wholly based on lies. Liking transformation does not mean you have to glorify cult-like medical malpractice.

>>149529179
Hey the Wotch storytime is still in active so is actually three poorly disguised 2000s webcomics.

>>149527826
Why does it feels like I'm going to need a crazy people cork-board to keep tabs of all the characters?

>>149529423
IntraGalactic is actually pretty subdued compared to Muertitos or Gorgeous Princess Creamy Beamy

>>149528905
Who?, what works of her ar you talking about?

>>149529577
Don't forget OOPs and QC

>>149529430
Literally renamed themselves to Dana

>>149529604
>>149529179
The one being joked about in this post we are both on the same /co/ page rn. There's also Wotch I guess, busy day

>>149529577
>Why does it feels like I'm going to need a crazy people cork-board to keep tabs of all the characters?
It's not that bad. You can get by with just a .txt. I have seen much much worse. Shit's manageable until you're introduced to Nanase's identical cousin's sister's friends.

>>149529577
>Why does it feels like I'm going to need a crazy people cork-board to keep tabs of all the characters?
It's not that bad. You can get by with just a .txt. I have seen much much worse. Shit's manageable until you're introduced to Susan's identical cousin's sister's friends.

>>149529464
I said I was going to do that, I just want the Wotch thread to get near its limit to start the spin off

>>149529638
>agender
>Dan Dana
Seems more like he is a fence sitter than a mtf troon.

>>149528891
I remember liking it when I first read it, sort of lost intersted and tried and failed to read it again from tie to time, people here are right when they say the pacing is harsh.

I hate this

>>149529771
>this is the guy
>his mother >>149529009 probably DO read this stuff
>his entire family probably knows that he draws this

Holly shit man. I'd never use my real name or attach my real face to a fetish comic. You can go wild and true to yourself as much as you want, but there are certain things that are better to not share with everyone on the internet.

>>149529009
I haven't actually read EGS in ages. Its just one of those webcomics from Ye Olden days of the early internet, where they were almost always about two things: Two guys on a couch talking about video games, or anime-esque massive adventures with some not-so-thinly veiled fetishes and kinks sprinkled throughout.

People keep talking about the "sleepover," and I am guessing that's the massive part that went on forever, because I remember not reading EGS for like a decade, and after all that time, like, an hour had passed in-universe.

And I never felt like the fetishes and kinks in EGS were hidden. It just felt ever-so-slightly more innocent because of its somewhat cutesy style. Like a hybrid of anime and Sunday funny pages comics. But make no mistake, it felt pretty obvious how steeped it was int the fetish stuff since everyone had like, furry forms, and gender-swapped forms, and like the vast majority of the cast wasn't straight.

>>149526231
This is an Unknown Armies backstory. In fact, Greg would make for a pretty solid Videomancer.

>>149529638
So why's the most recent page credited as Dan?

>>149528843
Given that I've been into TG/TSF fetish stuff for so long and have even been involved in communities and being a sperg, it's a wonder I managed to avoid ever trooning out and just maintain my interest to whacking it.

>>149528891
I liked it originally as it was the first comic related to my fetishes I could find... some of them anyway. I don't care for the furry or straight on genderbending stuff (I like tasha henshin aka turning into other people). I fell off during Grace's unending birthday party but came back afterwards. It seemed like it was going somewhere for a while but since the whole magic reset and death of Pandora (far and away the best character in the comic) it's dropped off a cliff. The problem, as said earlier, is the comic is now just an endless series of autistic tracts about how magic works, how immortals work, how the aliens work, how everything works explained in mind numbing detail. When it's not that, it's every character having every bit of rough edge sanded off to be wholesome heckin' LGBT sweeties. And when it's not that, it's sperging out about fucking Magic the Gathering or some shit. And it's been like this for like 5 or 6 years now at least.

>>149528891
I liked it. Then got bored. Then the magic reveal arc happened and I was excited to see what impact that would have on the world. But nothing really interesting happened with it. I still check in every now and then.

The party sister arc was fun.

>>149529009
I think it's more that his fanbase, the people he likely hangs around with and the times means that because the characters are high schoolers/underage (I think?), he can't really admit that there's a sexual element to an obviously fetishistic comic because otherwise he risks getting cancelled.

>>149531506
>he can't really admit that there's a sexual element to an obviously fetishistic comic
I think he's never really shied away from that shit. Also might be why he flash forwarded everyone to seniors over a decade ago.

Also, let's be fucking real here, nobody's going to cancel a comic not based on real people and not depicting real people for depicting high school seniors as horny. The amount of shit you would have to get through before being able to say with a straight face that anyone should give a shit about an unapologetic fetish comic for being "problematic" would be massive. I mean that'd basically be all of anime, all of YA fiction, and more than a few live action shows on network television.

It would be one thing if he objectifies his characters, but he really doesn't. The comic is an ungodly amount of talking about feelings.

>>149530724
Only did it on his twitter

>>149531670
>I think he's never really shied away from that shit.
On fact he was ready to go full NSFW on tumblr but tumblr imploded right after the first full nude he put there, and that scared him off NSFW for years

>>149529366
M8 im not making any broad aspersions. I get off to amputee porn, that doesnt mean i want to actually get my arms and legs chopped off once the tabs are closed.

But

If i close the tabs and still daily find myself thinking "god If only a truck would hit me and mangle my arms and legs forever it would all be worth it" then something might be up. Sparkle dog is one thing, but if not being a sparkle dog is psychologically distressing, then you diagnosably have a dismorphia.

You're sticking to the "its just a fetish" line and thats fine, but how far are you really from whackos like >>149529533 who think all gender affirming care is some kind of morally evil conspiracy? And i say that not to imply you're wrong by association, but to make you ask if your self-assessment is biased by a moral judgement. Bad though being a tranny may be, i can garuantee you being a repressing self-hating schitzo or john-50 is worse

>>149526173
He's a bit better at it now, but schedule breaks still happen

Out of all of them EGS is still my #1

>>149526303
>>149526323
Neither of them has done this since. Someone should tweet this at Dan I'll bet he ends up working it back in

>>149524921
Since I'll never get another chance to ask: does anyone have the Pikachu strips that he deleted from canon?

>>149526557
Yeah... I don't know if he's just getting older or what but I have hope it will pick up eventually. Either way I still enjoy it

I will say that while it's painful reading it in real time when you take a long break them come back and binge it everything clips hy much more nicely (though you catch up incredibly fast with how often he takes long breaks) but it's definitely a far cry from the early years like this where stuff just kept happening.

I think the last time I had a big exciting moment with it was either during the biar hunting arc or the one where the Whale appears in Ted's house. Honestly, I think the last time there was something actiony was during the zombie college party and all of those things were like 10 or more years ago.

>>149526572
The sparring matches ending with making out is romantic. Honestly, I hate to phrase it this way, but I think Dan's just never done anything like that with anyone before so his view is a little skewed.

>>149526655
You really think he's been teasing a throuple? I haven't gotten that at all, though I didn't read the NP issues (I should, though) it would be kind of cool but I like Ted and Grace as is. I think he'd just have Hope shape shit if it became an issue, possibly as a form of character development. Honestly, I could see him hiking them up and not even thinking about it until people point out out then doing an awkward the month arc about the characters addressing it

>>149526709
All these years letter I finally understand this is a Spike Lee reference kek

>>149526735
He would never do this nowadays

>>149526775
Oh, nice. I might actually do a read through then and comment on things lol I figured this would be an endless thread with how long it is.

Thanks Anon. I'm actually really into this series and looking forward to discussing it with everyone. Are you doing this daily or do you have any kind of schedule in mind?

Also, I think some issues of EGS NP are canon to the storyline? Will those be included? (No worries if nit but just figured I'd mention it niw before we get too far in.)

>>149527527
I honestly figured he was just indulging an Asian fetish with her. Now that you mention it, I forgot about their chemistry. He really should have hooked them up, they would've been a good couple. Also, come to think of it Ellen and Nanase have been basically non-existent for a while now. He should just ditch the Rodha, Catarina, and all the spares and focus on the core cast. I normally wouldn't say that, but Dan has a lot of trouble progressing a story in the first place he should just keep the cast small. Now with this Voltaire nonsense going on we've got over a dozen characters he's juggling.

>>149526775
>still in 2002 at the end of thread 1
This is going to be a long ride...

>>149527700
Breasts are tender and sensitive, kind of like being swollen. They make sleeping on your stomach and in certain positions uncomfortable.

>>149531943
Its hot and flirty, maybe not romantic though. That said, his take on relationships is definitely... distant...

>>149528853
I think it's mostly him trying to keep it appropriate for all audiences and reigning in his horniness. There's a lot of strips from the early days he ended up editing because they were too pervy (like Sarah and Elliot wanting to fuck Ted the first time he TF's)

He has his porn account where he draws lewds of all the characters, so it's not like he doesn't go there. He just puts it in a section with an appropriate disclaimer.

>>149531970
He wouldn't because I completely forgot that old Grace wasn't a fucking retarded child. I'm struck by just how babyish the characters have become in their behavior and outlook.

>>149528891
Yeah I still love it.

>>149532006
The actual missed opportunity is putting Elliot with Liz (the goth chick) since she might actually give pushback on things.

>>149531877
Detrans Anon here. Don't listen to them, it's just a recruitment tactic.

>>149530724
His only statement on it was: "a bunch of people asked me if I'm trans since I write this comic, and since I'm autistic I thought about it way too much and now I just don't really want to identify as anything so feel free to use whatever pronouns for me though she/her might be fun." Then he did that for a few years and seems to have quietly walked it back a bit though he still uses female furry avatars at the moment.

>>149531710
Doesn't use Twitter anymore, and the Bluesky account says 'Dan Shive'. As does today's strip.

I'm still honestly more surprised that Dan Shive hasn't gone Trans yet then I would be if he actually goes.

>>149531506
Perhaps, though they're supposed to be going to college soon (we'll see) so maybe he'll cut lose there?

>>149532085
I think its only fair you prove your claim by posting HRTitties

>>149532120
I would if I was still skinny but it also made me really fat so they just look like man boobs.

>>149532051
I concur. He really did babyfie them. I kind of get it, though. I went through a phase where I was a super NEET hikkimori shit in and I had that kind of mindset, too. I think it just comes from being deprived of positive in person human contact. I don't really know anything about Dan's life but I just kind of assume he's like that based on his personality.
>>149532077
I forgot Liz existed. Im almost certain Dan did, too, because he could've just paired her with Susan instead of Jay since they're essentially the same character and Liz already knows Elliot, Ellen, and Ashley.

>>149532135
Send mooba

>>149526735
Despite the amateurish art, I like what he does this both to show is dark and have a nice intimate moment of character development.

>>149531982
>Are you doing this daily
Daily is the plan
Whether or not I start a new thread remains to be seen

>Will EGS NP be included?
It will!

>>149530327
>People keep talking about the "sleepover," and I am guessing that's the massive part that went on forever, because I remember not reading EGS for like a decade, and after all that time, like, an hour had passed in-universe.
It was. Back in the day, people asking "are they still at the sleepover" was the webcomic equivalent to /a/ asking if everyone was still on Namek

>>149532100
>Doesn't use Twitter anymore
Last post is yesterday, last retweet today. Why do you feel the need to lie?

>>149526473
>>149526493
Is it weird this comic went from "we have nothing and joke about it" to heavy relationship drama in relatively little time?

>>149533585
Far too many webcomics do that for it to be weird anymore

>>149531877
>Sparkle dog is one thing, but if not being a sparkle dog is psychologically distressing, then you diagnosably have a dismorphia.
The issue is that you are going with the premise that surrounding yourself with this kind of stuff can't make you develop that. We all know that people who want to be sparkledogs or babies exist, and there is no reason for those to be inborn evolved traits, so why going trans isn't in the same boat? All you need is to reinforce over and over a person that is already mentally ill and self hating, add to it that said person gets sexual gratification from this escapism and I don't see why not it wouldn't happen.

>>149533653
I don't mean going to gags to heavy drama, just how quick it went from one to the other, even Crtl-Alt-Del took its tome time to get to Loss.

>>149533798
Oh, I know what you meant, good sir. And you'd be surprised how many long-dead ones essentially flipped the drama switch and change the tone ridiculously fast.

>>149529151
So you're incapable of discussing good art?

>>149533716
>surrounding yourself with this kind of stuff can't make you develop that
Because theres strong evidence to the contrary. You cant turn someone gay by surrounding them with gay porn any more than you can turn someone straight by the same mechanism (which has been tested exhaustively and failed in every case). But if you find someone surrounded by gay porn then you might have some questions, no?

The idea that being trans isnt innate is just conjecture and theres evidence from brain scans that implies it is innate, but even if we take that assumption as true what changes in the assessment?

Theres an observable gender dismorphia which makes you trans by definition, and the only proven treatment is still transition, the desistance rates are still near-zero, and the barrier to entry is still at minimum multiple months of hormones before you see any result. Even if you achieved the minimum of pushing some fence-sitter over the edge, what has changed in our assessment and treatment of that person?

And to top it off, fence sitters do get pushed over the edge; by ageing and masculinizing over time. Its better to see where you're going and know if you need to start building a ladder early than to put your head down and charge into a brick wall

>>149534361
Id put EGS above some modern comics even with its problems

>>149534361
Post some sometime and maybe, just maybe, I'll talk about it

>>149535067
>Because theres strong evidence to the contrary.
Actually not, rapid onset genfer dysphoria is a thing. Your problem s that you reject the premise that one can be gaslighted into it to begin with, so everytime this happens you just say that they "discovered themseves" because you don't allow any other alternative. Also that IS observed in all other fetish groups, why would this be different?

>You cant turn someone gay by surrounding them with gay porn any more than you can turn someone straight by the same mechanism
Modern science considers that social enviroments take part in shaping sexuality, the idea that you are born something and thats just it is really only a simplificated narrative (see pic). This is made evident just by looking at history, like how some societies have institutionalized homossexual behavior (greek pederasts for example or some guinean tribes that have teenage boys performing fellatio as part of rituals).

Also, many people that did detransition say that this gaslighting is real.

>The idea that being trans isnt innate is just conjecture
The entire argument makes no sense. Someone who is "gender fluid" can just flip flop his gender at will, thus making it not innate.

>>149535067
>gender dismorphia which makes you trans by definition, and the only proven treatment is still transition the desistance rates are still near-zero

Studies which give low estimates have been criticised for their "serious limitations", such as short follow-up, high or unclear rates of loss to follow up, reliance on individuals returning to secondary care clinics reporting transition regret or seeking reversal procedures, (a study of 100 detransitioners found that only 24% of respondents informed their clinicians that they had detransitioned).

Studies have reported higher rates of desistance among prepubertal children. A 2016 review of 10 prospective follow-up studies from childhood to adolescence found desistance rates ranging from 61% to 98%, with evidence suggesting that they might be less than 85% more generally.

A 2019 clinical assessment found that 9.4% of patients with adolescent-emerging gender dysphoria either ceased wishing to pursue medical interventions or no longer felt that their gender identity was incongruent with their assigned sex at birth within an eighteen-month period.

Another study from a UK primary care practice found that 12.2% of those who had started hormonal treatments either detransitioned or documented regret, while a total of 20% stopped the treatments for a wider range of reasons. An April 2022 study found that 284 individuals out of a total of 952 (29.8%) had stopped hormone therapy treatments.

Studies of detransition in different populations have found different (average or median) elapsed times before these occurred: a 2018 study found 10 years and 10 months on average to regret (but not necessarily detransition) from start of hormonal therapy, and a 2014 study of those who had surgery found a median lag of 8 years before requesting a reversal of legal gender status. A UK study found evidence that supports detransitioning occurring on average 4–8 years after transitioning.

Not that this isn't a riveting tangent, but would you at all mind sticking to discussing the comic?

>>149535967
Considering how EGS will dive headfirst in all of that, it will become inevitable. Which is why I don't think its a good comic to storytime too (no way people reading and OP will stand the 40 pages of nonstop exposition).

>>149535967
Sorry to say bro but tf comics invite a lot of that talk. Especially the ones that focus on mtf like EGS.

>>149535967
Yeah, I think that'll be hard to do given the plots of the comic encourages this kind of discussion.
That said this discussion has been quite more polite and respectful than any other I've had the displeasure of seeing, good points to the anons here for not being crazy assholes

I was looking for new comics like Wotch. Anyone read Addictive Science it's furry if that bothers you

>>149535967
Ok, lets talk about the comic so far, it has a pretty good start with that lab accident battle, for a comic that became infamous for too much exposition it dives right in into the action in the first story.

>>149537699
It already has a lot of exposition, the characters just talk about the things that happened or that would happen instead of doing anything

>>149532585
And now Sleepover tier stories that take like a year to finish but only take place over a few hours are the norm. I think the sleepover also had him just abandoning the comic for a long time whereas now his breaks are usually like a week.

>>149537699
I like how the plan wasn't to burn it and then they beat it by burning it

>>149529009
Even as a kid, and now at an adult, the Wotch has never read as fetish comic, just a bunch of adventures. While EGS always has clearly been just Dan's personal fantasy world.

Wotch is an bunch of adventures that happen to feature transformation. It ultimately a story first comic. And actually has stuff happening, that advance the characters

EGS, is a Dan's personal wetdream to the point Dan cannot even consider having any mystery, as any mystery could cause problems that interfere with the fantasy. To the point they are even now, constantly explaining, and reassuring each other that the last big event in 2016, was not a big deal.

>>149537897
I like the sprikler joke.

>>149538035
>Wotch has never read as fetish comic.
Can you elaborate? Be there isn't a single issue where someone doesn't transform in a sexy something.

>>149538035
>Even as a kid, and now at an adult, the Wotch has never read as fetish comic
I think you're delusional, the wotch is pretty clearly a fetish comic, the only difference is that it has a plot that allows to show the kinks but doesn't depend on them.
And also the wotch knows how to keep it's characters interesting

>>149538782
That anon is crazy but they bring up a interesting point, what exactly makes a fetish comic a fetish comic. Is it the content? The execution? The authorial intent?

Is Ranma 1/2 a fetish comic for having tons of gender and animal transformations? Is OnePiece a fetish comic for having a lot of transformations? How about Archie the most safe horny comic book ever? How about 90s cheesecake comics witb less story that EGS or Wotch are those more of a fetish comic?

>>149539359
Basically the ratio of sexy transformations to normal/ugly/inhuman ones in the case of TF. Consider how many characters in Ranma 1/2 end up looking like some dumb animal or beast and the only cute girl is Ranma basically, while everyone ends up drop dead sexy in The Wotch. Even the trees end up looking fuckable

>>149539359
> what exactly makes a fetish comic a fetish comic. Is it the content? The execution? The authorial intent?

Combination of intent and execution. If the transformation is included to titillate the reader, then it is being presented in a fetish context. But the same transformation being treated 'seriously' by the story as a powerup or an obstacle or something has purpose beyond the fetish for its inclusion.

Note that this pertains solely to how it is used by the author in the work, regardless of whether that thing is the author's fetish in general. For example, lets consider Out of Placers. We KNOW that the author of that comic has a transformation fetish, but the transformation of the main character of that comic is never actually TREATED as fetish material in the comic itself. It is only ever presented as the existentially horrifying and unfair challenge that they are forced to deal with, occasionally played for comedy but much more often played seriously. Kass's transformation into a female yinglet is never sexualized or treated as something that we should find attractive, as opposed to The Wotch or EGS which both frequently drew attention to the sexy ladies that the dudes have been turned into.

>>149539359
>content, intention, execution
All three? If I make a webcomic about Cliff the cliffhanger and that's a fetish for 10 freaks, do I need to rate it as adult? If it is a fetish comic by intention, but no nudity, is a warning enough or is it treated the same as a nude sex webcomic? How do you rate the webcomic about floor tiles if 1 anon gets off to floor tiles? If I get off to floor tiles and no one else did, what standards do you rate it if nothing else calls for an adult rating?

>>149539658
That is subjective, John Caroenter the thing is by no metric suppose to be arousing but I've seen porn on the internet that tells me there is a group of people who fap to it.

>>149539906
Dunno anon, seems pretty easy to notice when the amount of times characters in One Piece or Ranma 1/2 turn specifically into gorgeous women can be counted on maybe two hands each compared to The Wotch or EGS which are probably into the triple digits by now

>>149539658
Ranma is a case because if you took out all the transformation you'd still have a wacky martial arts harem comedy
A SHIT LOAD more generic but there's still enough to make a story

>>149540037
>compared to The Wotch or EGS which are probably into the triple digits by now

>This is just counting scenes with a transformation occurring
>>>149531132

>>149538782
In Wotch is a guy turns into a girl, and goes shopping with another girl it because they will have more fun as a girl.

In EGS when a guy turns into a girl to go shopping with another girl, it because they get off on being a girl.

It actually worse on EGS side, since transformation do not have a mental component innately, that their true personality choosing to pose and dress up sexily.

So has it hit 100% yet?

>>149540241
Are talking about Animals or sexy animals?

>>149540376
Humanoid animals

>>149535967
You're right, Magister, but the comic is steered behind the scenes by transpeople and their insanity. Dan does what he can, but one of the reasons that he spends an excessive amount of time of social media (twitter, reddit, etc) is the conflicting transers and the things he has to do to play them off against each other to make them keep coming back. The comic is totally funded by his patreon. Trans like to ban normal people from the reddit, too.
Good on Dan for not having all the characters be having "my feelings are mixed up so do something drastic"-caused gender change surgery by now. Many characters, even Grace, have had declining amounts of screentime in favour of "I'm lost and frightened" story arcs like Hope.

Dump starting again soon
And for my own autism I'm going to start it in a second thread

>>149540420
That's what I thought, you know is curious, reading the storytime is not until the last stretch when the artist change that we see anyone turning into a normal ass animal.

>>149541099
Should we let this one dies then?

>>149541338
Yeah

Remember, sage goes in all fields

S'pose I could link the next thread while I'm at it
>>149541443
>>149541443

>>149541463
>EGS has never done a Sage Tail joke.

>>149535550
I remember that quote. Its not from a scientific paper, its from something an activist wrote about creating a narrative in the 90s.
Im not going to adress ROGD because im not familliar with it. I could make assumptions and argue around it but ive always ignored it because im pretty sure its just some bullshit trannies on /lgbt/ made up, ive never seen it used in any legitimate or mentally well context
Either way, "they discovered themselves" works. its not like we have higher desistence rates for "rogd", and we havent got any documented cases of causing rogd to validate the conditioning theory, so what's left?
>Modern science considers shaping sexuality
Yes, obviously? Anal has trippled in popularity since the 70s because its become part of the social context. But that means people who could like anal now have the circumstances to do so, not that you can inject it into someone with no predisposition for it. Again, conversion therapy tried exhaustively to reverse preferences and failed every time.
>many people that did detransition
Its not like hugboxes or shitty discords dont exist, but if you want to apply some scepticism thats the place to start. Every few months we get some new
>she couldnt consent to transition she was only 25 you sick fucks!
Article from the daily mail. The vast majority of """detransitioners""" are cis teenage girls getting misdiagnosed because they say any bullshit for attention. The majority of the remainer are either self-hating or are detransing socially because their transition is hopeless and they'll never pass, but those two groups tend to keep taking hormones even after detransitioning. So its not like they stopped being trannies, is it? The mental illness is still there.
Ive never seen a case of curing disphoria through therapy or otherwise. And again, conversion therapy has been tried exhaustively and never worked.

Also gender fluid isnt real

>>149539359
>Is Ranma 1/2 a fetish comic
Yes. Obviously.

>>149535075
What does that have to do with what I said?
>>149535295
I do it all the time. My threads always die with few replies.