I'm beginning to like EGS again.

[Zilla]

El Goonish Shive has been on an upswing lately, in my opinion. It seems like he's finally getting back to the essence of the earlier comics that made them so fun and interesting, while keeping the much better art style.

Or maybe it's because Tedd is finally getting ample screen time and the story has been out of dramapants mode for a while. Not that the drama is bad, but... That's not the hook of EGS. It's starting to not be scared to take risks again! It's starting to have that youthful energy and imagination that I adored about the early stages!

I just hope the train continues on these tracks for a while.

It seems like EGS has this kind of history with me. There was a time when Dan was experimenting with his art, and it started to get really uncanny, but then he settled into a style that is very good while being very unique. During the uncanny time, I would look at the art and wonder to myself, "Isn't it better the way it used to be? It was a bit flatter, but it was more expressive!" But now that it has found its groove, I like it.

I think he's now getting the hang of writing in the same way. For a very, very long time, it seemed to lose the charm it had when the comic started, up through about Grace's Birthday Party or so. I think it was when they introduced Raven that the pacing took a nosedive, and things seemed way to mundane and drama-laden. The last few arcs have been crawling back up, and now we have a Tedd-ful arc that I'm enjoying a lot.

I could rant for hours about how much I like Tedd. I was worried for a while that he'd lost his character, since he'd been out of the comic for an eternity, and some of his brief cameos seemed too responsible and out of character for the mad-scientist type that he had been before. I really enjoyed how he was during the time right after turning Elliot into a girl, and how he kinda had to help Elliot out socially in his geeky way.

But now, Tedd's back to being a mad scientist goofball, and I love it

[Blaze]

That's why I could never give up on EGS, even when it started to plod. Dan actually recognizes his failings as a writer and artist and tries to improve them

THough then again, I tend to never stop keeping up with webcomics, even when they really plod. Still have Megatokyo bookmarked! @___@

[Kris_Roth]

My favorite webcomics are:

Spinnerette
Eerie Cuties
Magick Chicks
Vampire Cheerleaders
Paranormal Mystery Squad
Sailorsun.org
I Dream of a Jeannie Bottle
EGS
The Wotch (with new artist, Ian Samson)
School Bites

School Bites is about a vampire named Cherri Creeper and her adventures at the Shadow Academy, run by Professor Moonfire. Cherri is introduced to a vampire catgirl namd Fujiko, Cleobatra, daughter of Lillith and a male musician, and other vampire themed characters. The Friday comics are from the life story of the web artist and her cat, Pangur.

Vampire Cheerleaders-The Bakertown Bats varsity cheerleading squad have a secret: They are all vampires! Lori Thurson, team captain, annouces the squad will hold auditions for their squad to fill their ranks when Candace, the former vampire cheerleader member, gets staked while trying to seduce a male college student. Heather Heartily, a member of the B Squad (Junior varsity) wins her audition and is promoted to the Varsity squad to join Lori, Leslie, Suki, and Zoe..all that remains is the "initiation". Heather is attacked by Lori and is converted into a vampire in the girl's locker room. Heather, a former goody-two-shoes, is now walking the wild side of life, reveling in her new vampirism, but the other girls must help Heather learn how to control her bloodlust. The first chapter, called Fang Service, deals with Heather learning from Lori and her friends how to control her bloodlust, glamour people, and keep a low profile while at school. The second chapter deals with the Baketown Cheerleading squads being invited to a cheerleading competition in Las Vegas. Lori is kidnapped and almost consumed by Bianca, a Gorgon, but Lori turns the tables on the Gorgon, killing Bianca.

Eerie Cuties is about Nina Delacroix, a 14 year old vampire born on Easter. Her elder sister, Layla, also a vampire, enjoys drinking blood while Nina enjoys chocolate milk and anything chocolately. Nina's first day at her new school, Charybdis High, introduces her to several colorful characters, including Chloe Love, a Succubus, Brooke, a Melusine (Snake person), and Ace Wolfheart, a werewolf, as well as Kade Whiteclaw, a werecat. There is a possessed doll of Nina's named Blair, who has a male soul trapped in a female dolly, a strange owl/hunchback employed by the Delacroix family named Eleanor, and of course, Brooke's snake mother, Maria Delacroix, Layla and Nina's mother, and Diordre, Layla's new boyfriend who had transferred to Layla's school. The staff of the school includes a history teacher who is a Japanese demon called a Futabuchi-onna (her name is Miss Futabuchi), and Mr. Pervus, Layla's French teacher, who has a possessed hand. The kids had to deal with a cursed mirror, Chloe's succubus powers running amok, and the Tiersias Orb fiasco that got Melissa Hellrune and her witchy coven transferred to the Artemis Academy, the school in Magick Chicks. Gisele, a guest artist for Archie Comics, is the head artist for Magick Chicks and Eerie Cuties.

[Zilla]

Heh, I... gave up on quite a few webcomics. MegaTokyo was one of them. I'm actually friends with someone who works on the site. He opened up the MegaTokyo homepage in Firefox, hit "view source" and showed me his name was in the credits on the page. and I was like.... "How'd you get that in there? Did you hack the site?" and he was like "No, I just put it together."

So, that was a bit wild.

I also gave up on Misfile, mostly due to pacing, and also because... the main story seemed to stall pretty heavily and it got mired in side stories I didn't particularly care about. It was a good premise, but... I couldn't stick through the dark spots on that one either.

Still..... I stuck with EGS. I did drop it for a while, but I eventually caught back up. That Raven part was.... so hard to get through. So hard. And I do still miss the earlier days, where things weren't so heavily researched and painstakingly explained. If you read up through the Goo fight, you start to see that energy really shining.

Maybe it just reminded me of the energy my own high school comic had, back in the day (well, I do think I made more of them in Jr. High than High School, but close enough).

[Kris_Roth]

I like the introduction of Ellen, Elliot's sister to the cast. Her origin story and how they were able to assimilate her into the Dunkel family, and have her enroll at Moperville South with Grace was ingenious. I also liked the Jumanji inspired game parody that started when Tedd purchased a cheap copy of the Jumanji game from a strange lady at the mall, and got the rest of the cast to play the game. There was a body swap and some gender bent shenanigans involved.

That Catalina Bobcat character seems like she may be a half-catgirl. She has some feline features, minus cat ears and a tail.

The whole Elliot changing into a girl thing kinda wondered how that Dewitchery Diamond thing (which created Ellen and gave both Dunkel siblings powers) worked. The immortals are also an interesting character group.

[Zilla]

They have a lot of potential with the Elliot turning into a girl thing, that I feel like is being wasted by having it so safely dealt with. There's all this room for shenanigans and excitement, but they're making it a very tame "he changes at night to let off steam" thing, mitigating all the fun and intrigue that it could lead to.