Pandora-monium! Character change in El Goonish Shive

Steve and Jason’s Webcomic Colonic this week got me thinking about the way webcomics change over time – like Steve says, the webcomic you’re reading today might not be the one you signed on for when you first started reading. The longer a comic runs, the more fundamental these changes can get.

Now, as I mentioned back in May, I’m a bit of a fan of Dan Shive’s El Goonish Shive. There’s a lot about the comic to recommend it – the (current) art style, the excellent writing and story structure, the themes it deals with regarding gender issues and the diversity of its cast. Recently, the comic has been expanding the history and role of character Pandora (Chaos) Raven – Immortal being of immense power and (until this examination began?) one of the primary antagonists of the comic. So do the recent changes to the Pandora character in El Goonish Shive suggest a fundamental change to the comic itself? Or is it, as Jason puts it, the privilege of watching the writer’s perspective change over time? Continue reading

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Digital Strips Episode 485: Webcomic Colonic II: The Cleansing

Clean. Out. The. Fridg. E.The ol’ daily feeds are getting too big again, so it’s time to clean things up with another Webcomic Colonic. Listen in for some fantastic webcomics that Jason and Steve won’t be keeping up with anymore, including: Banquet, Tove, Never Satisfied, Sinfest, Parallax, and Life, Love, and Video Games.

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Episode 417: Clean It Out With A Webcomic Colonic ~OR~ It’s Not You, It’s Me

Zangief sitting on a park benchWho would you approach at a party: hot, big-breasted girl or bear-wrestling, nearly-naked guy? Your choice will reveal much about your character. While you ponder that noodler, the guys are cleaning out their closets. That sounds much cleaner than what they liken it to. Webcomics involve relationships between the reader and the creator, and sometimes you just have to say “It’s Not You, It’s Me,” and break it off. Steve and Jason share their painful break-up stories in this installment.

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