Transgenderism, also known as gender identity disorder, is a real psychological condition with its very own code in the DSM-IV. You would not know this if you read webcomics, because to you 'transgender' would be a word like 'furry' or 'gaming'. That is, just another category of terrible webcomics. Now how this came to be I have no fucking idea. I mean, I know a lot of people like video games, but I never imagined that a lot of people would be getting excited over the concept of a guy magically turning into a girl. It's not even an obscure category, either, as names like Misfile and El Goonish Shive are at least moderately well-known in webcomics.
But still, I wouldn't be surprised if you were fortunate enough to not know about this particular section of the webcomics world. It is pretty insular, tending to link to and only be linked by others of their kind. Well allow me to end your run of good luck by reviewing the only transgender fetish webcomic you need to know about to pass judgment on the entire genre. No gender-changing magical supervillians or gender-changing alien space rays or gender-changing thousand-year-old genies to get in the way. Just the base elements, so that it becomes the purest of terrible gender-changing webcomics. Like rainwater distilled through a ten thousand year-old glacier. Yes, there is such a beast to study, and its name is Abstract Gender.
As you can see, even the name screams purity. Abstract Gender. It's like if I started an ore extraction firm and called it 'Mining Inc.' It makes no bones about it and puts it right up front for all to see and proclaims: This is a comic about dudes who get changed into girls, and that's it! That's all! We can expect great things from this work, and by great things I mean terrible things, but terrible in a way that we can study this phenomenon known as gender-switching webcomics. I'm going to go through the entire archives from page 1 to page 276, commenting all along. No, really. This will also make this review rather longer than the average one, as I will not just be commenting on this comic, but speculating on the trends and the motivations of this alien world of transgender fetish webcomics as well.
So let's go to the first page. Here we can see the two main characters of the strip: Ryan and Brian, whose character designs are so inspired that you can only tell them apart by the color of shirt they wear. You see, just as the typical terrible gaming webcomic will feature two guys with contrasting one-word personalities sitting on a couch playing video games as its main characters, the typical terrible gender-changing webcomic also has two guys with contrasting one-word personalities, only instead of delivering scathing reviews of the PS3 they turn into girls. Or maybe only one of them turns into a girl. Or maybe both of them turn into girls but can turn back into guys at their leisure. As you can see, the possibilities are endless!
By the way, the first artist for this comic lasts all but six updates, and we see a new one by the seventh.
If you are reading along with me, you might notice that there haven't even been any mentions of gender-changing, and the comic so far has just been a shitty, boring story about two guys and their female friend, Katie, at a mall. But don't worry, what's been going on so far has been character-building, except it really hasn't been character-building because fifteen comics in and I still can't tell the two main characters apart. But God bless 'em, they're trying. And before you know it, the mechanism for the gender change so juicily promised in the title of the comic is revealed, and surprise surprise, it's unbelievably stupid! Apparently a flatly characterized nemesis of the one in the black shirt offhandedly mentions a treasure in a mysterious mansion, and so for no reason at all our two protagonists decide to explore in search of it! Of course there's still time to make wacky penguin jokes and solidify their one-word characterizations. And it turns out that the long-awaited transformation comes by our two protagonists being knocked out and operated on in a basement lab by MYSTERIOUS SCIENTISTS. Which is, as promised, fucking stupid. Though honestly I couldn't think of a plausible way for two young boys to be instantaneously transformed into two young girls with no side effects in a normal, modern-day setting if I tried, and I'm not going to think very hard about it either as it's not like I'm going to start my own gender-bending comic. And it is for this reason that most of these gender-changing comics rely on magic or science fiction to make the guilt-free change.
And is it a coincidence that the revelation of our two protagonists in their new female form is lovingly rendered in a detailed close-up unlike anything seen in the comic so far? Of course, such a noticable transition does not happen in many gender-changing webcomics for one of two possible reasons: the first being that for many any attempted close-ups will result in what looks like a sloppy rasterbation, because that is what it is, because the art in the comic is not so much 'art' but 'shit that would be failed from a third grade art class'; and the second being that many of these webcomics start with the change right off, or very close to, the bat, so the artist will have from page one a cornucopia of female curves to illustrate with his left hand. In Abstract Gender, instead we get to read through three months of boring, terribly written shit before the comic is distinguished from being just a regular ol' boring, terribly written, shit slice-of-life webcomic by becoming a boring, terribly written, shit gender-changing-fetish webcomic. And knowing the depths of the precipice this comic is about to fall into, to be honest I would have preferred to read the Mall Adventures of Ryan and Brian for just a little while longer.
But we can't always get what we want, and the trainwreck continues with a second art change. You don't have to be a terrible webcomic connoisseur to detect the changes in this one. Though it has tried to copy the previous art style to the best of its ability it ends up looking stiffer than the erections of the comic's intended audience as they read it. That is, the art has gotten worse, and it doesn't help that the comic is hitting another station in the train ride through the land of Plato's Ideal Transgender Fetish Webcomic. After all, isn't it normal for, you know, if you're a perfectly normal normal guy and all, and you just, oh I don't know, happen to wake up one day and you just happen to inexplicably be in the body of a woman, wouldn't it be, you know, normal to start, oh you know, touching yourself in places? No. No it's not. The normal response would be to freak the fuck out because to a normal person suddenly waking up the opposite gender is NOT the culmination of one's adolescent fantasies. And speaking of adolescent fantasies, you can see that from the myriad of choices for the configuration of the two protagonists I outlined four paragraphs ago, the writer has chosen to gone with one being stuck as a girl, and one being able to change back and forth at will. Which is, really, the best of both worlds for the audience because you can get stupid drama from the stuck one and guilt-free whacking it to the carefree one, whose tits are bigger anyway!
And of course the reaction of the main girl character upon discovery of this chromosome-swapping affair (after checking that they're real, of course!) is not to take the two of them to some medical professionals, but rather to take them shopping! I assume that later she also teaches them how to bake pies and fold laundry and submit to their husbands, for the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church. Though seriously, in your average genderswapping comic you're pretty likely to come across a shopping scene, because logically your men-newly-turned-women will not happen to have women's clothes simply lying around and will have to obtain them somehow. This is almost a bone thrown by the writers. A bone of consequences-for-actions that is all too rare in terrible webcomics. Because it makes sense, right? Guys turn into girls, they have no girl-clothes. So of course they go shopping for some because their first reaction is to figure out how to fit into everyday society in their new female bodies and not to figure out what happened to them and if it is possible to reverse it or anything. Wait, damn! I was proven wrong again by myself! How does this keep happening?
And really, the obligatory female love interest for the former male and the unwitting guy interested in the newly-minted woman feels like the comic is just going through the fucking motions. Of course that vibe could just be coming from the utterly lifeless and terrible art, and the equally utterly lifeless and terrible writing, so there's no way to know. The writer and the artist could have been creaming their pants as they wrote/drew those pages, and not barely managing to keep themselves awake like I'm imagining. Of course, in the very hypothetical competently-written (pfft) gender-changing webcomic these subplots might also come into play, except that they wouldn't be written so fucking ham-handedly.
After all, there's nothing inherently terrible about a story where a man turns into a woman. The concept has been with us since the story of Tiresias in Greek mythology. It's just that these writers, well, are generally terrible and lazy at writing, and elevate this gender-changing concept onto some sort of strange pedestal to the point where it's almost a fetish, if it isn't one already to them. This, combined with the lazy writing, leads to patterns like when those closest to the character discover the change, they're always perfectly fine with it to an unbelievable degree. And the general public can never know of the change, so there must be a way to handle the effective disappearing of a man and replacement of the same with a woman who looks and acts a lot like him. But instead of sitting down and thinking up a good way to resolve that, instead many of these bad writers use a Deus Ex Machina (the number one tool in the bad writer's toolbox), or a dumbfuck convoluted explanation that no sane person would believe. But since Abstract Gender's dumbfuck convoluted explanation hinges on a very coincidental earthquake, which is a D.E.M. by itself, it seems that the comic once more tops its own genre and goes for both.
And so at long last, we arrive at this point. The two-dimensional characters are established. The cause of the change which should have been the overarching plot, the MYSTERIOUS HAPPENINGS in the MYSTERIOUS MANSION, can safely be ignored for now. Everything is ready to get on with what the show is really intended to be about: Ryan adjusting to his new life as Rachel, a person of the female gender! And would you be surprised that the writer is not good at writing this either? I mean first of all, he is starting his new life as a woman by going back to school on the very next day, and his mother, who ostensibly cares for his mental well-being, is the one insisting on this! And the very first thing he does on his very first day is to join the volleyball team, an event that is celebrated by showing just how stiff the terrible art can get. And when someone says 'this chapter of my comic is about a school day' I expect it to hit just the salient points of the day's experience and not actually go
through every class. Not that such a thing couldn't work, as going through a full day of someone's life would be an excellent way to build some subtle characterization. Things like this, however, is not very good subtle characterization. And while it could be that the stilted art is coloring my judgment, the writer does not seem to be very good at pacing and flow either, especially when he feels he needs to detail the minutae of the formation of a girls' volleyball team.
The next seventy pages consist of such shining examples of character development, and the plot moving forward once more with Ryan finally going back to that MYSTERIOUS MANSION in search of clues. But what drives this is not the whole stuck-as-a-girl thing, but instead Brian-sometimes-Brittany getting a part-time job as a model, and starting to date Katie. Really. This is fucking stupid. The door to the mansion is unlocked, and he runs around until he literally steps on a piece of evidence, a manila folder with his name on it. This is really fucking stupid. And upon opening the file, it turns out that the change was apparently authorized by one Brian Parker, a seventeen-year-old who has been characterized so far as being dumber than a bag of rocks and having the foresight of the same. This is absolutely fucking stupid. I doubt even Alan Moore could pull off a good resolution given something this fucking stupid, so I have little faith in the writer of this comic.
And now we get to the third artist change. The latest one's impairment, a terrible anime-copying 'style' and the resultant poor grasp of anatomy, is apparent from her introduction. Which just shows how this comic continues to be the perfect representation of its genre, as pretty much every one of those comics are either drawn in that terrible MSPaint fashion or in that terrible shortcut abusing, every-character-the-same faux-manga fashion, and this comic has managed to have both! The coloring's terrible as well initially, but later another fellow anime-copier signs on as the colorist, making a total of five artists that this terrible comic has gone through. That has to be some kind of record, though at least I can't say that any talent has been wasted.
But back to the terrible story, in which the parents of Brian, the one who can switch between genders at will, discover their son's newfound ability, and not only accept it but also do not question it or do anything that would indicate that such a thing is not an everyday occurrence. Strike another one for team 'completely fine with it la dee dah'! Of course in these webcomics not everyone needs to be kept in the dark or fine with it. As long as they're an antagonist and completely incompetent. That way you get to have a one-dimensional foil you can trot out every once in a while for comic relief, as well as to show that not everyone has been buying that nonsensical story, which according to the comic has been going on for months! Yes, Ryan has apparently been a girl for months, a state that he does not desire to be in, and in that time he has gone searching for answers only once, and upon getting a strong lead has not done anything about it, because to do so would be to talk to his friend which he does not want to do because his friend is somehow reaping benefits from this whole affair? That's fucking stupid. That's really fucking stupid. A normal explanation for this would be that maybe the writer has written himself into a corner with that 'plot twist', but considering the genre it is more likely that the writer thinks his resolution of that twist is the greatest thing since sliced bread and is only delaying it so that we could have more of the Everyday Adventures of the Amazing Man-in-a-Woman's-Body.
And it's no surprise why he would want that as we hit another mile marker. Lesbians! Even if you are fortunate enough to have never heard of this entire category of webcomics before reading this review you should have seen this coming from a fucking mile away. It's like mathematics. The appearance of lesbians can be derived from the very axioms of transgender fetish comics, and I bet if I cared enough I could write a fucking formula for the page that lesbianism will first appear on given certain parameters. And I would bet that a sizeable percentage of both the readership and the authorship of this fine category of webcomics stick around mainly for the lesbian angle. The draw for the readers is obvious, and goes without saying, as most of them are undoubtedly males of the high school age. The draw for the writers, mostly males in their twenties, is obvious too, but I conjecture that they choose to write their story in this genre because they realize that they cannot write actual lesbians as they do not know any actual lesbians in real life or perhaps not even any females in general. But perhaps they reason that what they can write is a man stuck in a woman's body. Well as we've seen they really can't write that either, but they think they can. And of course nothing comes of it, as the whole thing is just a hint! A tease! To keep the readers reading and to keep from I don't know having to write an actual lesbian relationship or something. Of course going either way would have resulted in terribleness because at this point I think it's established that the writing here and in all this sort of comics is terrible.
Oh and of course thanks to the new art style the girls look twelve now, but I'm pretty sure zippers are being undone in basements across the nation all the same. And the estranged father of Ryan, who left his wife because apparently having two children is enough to be considered an unrestrainable baby factory, looks fourteen. He is, of course, the left in the dark variety of family member. And of course between that angle, a possible reconciliation, and the unwitting guy attracted to the new girl, we're slowly building up enough drama to whip up a drama soufflé! Or at least a drama burnt omelette. Though there's enough time between all that to have some more pandering, both to the furry crowd by that thing again and to the rest of the readership by taking the girls' volleyball team to a spa. But no drama burnt omelette is complete without the green onion that is death! Is it using dramatic events as a crutch for storytelling? Why, yes it is! And that's the comic so far but I can already tell you that this terribly-written drama omelette will make up the entirety of the remainder of its existence. Not that I'd find out, as this is hopefully the last I will ever see of it. Of course, it might be amusing to see just what the whole happenings in the MYSTERIOUS MANSION was supposed to be, as by now it has to be something ridiculously complicated and hilariously bad, but seeing as how the very goal of this author and transgender fetish comic authors everywhere is to delay the resolution of that plot as long as possible, I doubt it will ever be revealed.
And as a bonus, the comic is heavily tied with a transgender fetish comic that is actually a thousand times worse than this one: The Wotch. Not just in the sense of having guest comics from it and its much less terrible spinoff, Cheer!, and not just its boards being hosted on their community, but also the cameos of the main characters of The Wotch, two of its secondary characters as the opposing volleyball team, its cheerleaders (rendered in a way that is making me nauseous, continuing that trend), and this guy, who also wrestled a girl on The Wotch, but lost that one. As I said the world of transgender fetish comics is pretty insular, though with the most recent artist change Abstract Gender is branching out to attract DeviantArt animus as well.
So there you are. If you are wondering if there is any worth to this whole gender-bending webcomic genre, just read Abstract Gender and that will be all you need to know, as every quality common to the genre, both bad and bad, appears in that webcomic. If you still are wondering after that, then you are an idiot.
But still, I wouldn't be surprised if you were fortunate enough to not know about this particular section of the webcomics world. It is pretty insular, tending to link to and only be linked by others of their kind. Well allow me to end your run of good luck by reviewing the only transgender fetish webcomic you need to know about to pass judgment on the entire genre. No gender-changing magical supervillians or gender-changing alien space rays or gender-changing thousand-year-old genies to get in the way. Just the base elements, so that it becomes the purest of terrible gender-changing webcomics. Like rainwater distilled through a ten thousand year-old glacier. Yes, there is such a beast to study, and its name is Abstract Gender.
As you can see, even the name screams purity. Abstract Gender. It's like if I started an ore extraction firm and called it 'Mining Inc.' It makes no bones about it and puts it right up front for all to see and proclaims: This is a comic about dudes who get changed into girls, and that's it! That's all! We can expect great things from this work, and by great things I mean terrible things, but terrible in a way that we can study this phenomenon known as gender-switching webcomics. I'm going to go through the entire archives from page 1 to page 276, commenting all along. No, really. This will also make this review rather longer than the average one, as I will not just be commenting on this comic, but speculating on the trends and the motivations of this alien world of transgender fetish webcomics as well.
So let's go to the first page. Here we can see the two main characters of the strip: Ryan and Brian, whose character designs are so inspired that you can only tell them apart by the color of shirt they wear. You see, just as the typical terrible gaming webcomic will feature two guys with contrasting one-word personalities sitting on a couch playing video games as its main characters, the typical terrible gender-changing webcomic also has two guys with contrasting one-word personalities, only instead of delivering scathing reviews of the PS3 they turn into girls. Or maybe only one of them turns into a girl. Or maybe both of them turn into girls but can turn back into guys at their leisure. As you can see, the possibilities are endless!
By the way, the first artist for this comic lasts all but six updates, and we see a new one by the seventh.
If you are reading along with me, you might notice that there haven't even been any mentions of gender-changing, and the comic so far has just been a shitty, boring story about two guys and their female friend, Katie, at a mall. But don't worry, what's been going on so far has been character-building, except it really hasn't been character-building because fifteen comics in and I still can't tell the two main characters apart. But God bless 'em, they're trying. And before you know it, the mechanism for the gender change so juicily promised in the title of the comic is revealed, and surprise surprise, it's unbelievably stupid! Apparently a flatly characterized nemesis of the one in the black shirt offhandedly mentions a treasure in a mysterious mansion, and so for no reason at all our two protagonists decide to explore in search of it! Of course there's still time to make wacky penguin jokes and solidify their one-word characterizations. And it turns out that the long-awaited transformation comes by our two protagonists being knocked out and operated on in a basement lab by MYSTERIOUS SCIENTISTS. Which is, as promised, fucking stupid. Though honestly I couldn't think of a plausible way for two young boys to be instantaneously transformed into two young girls with no side effects in a normal, modern-day setting if I tried, and I'm not going to think very hard about it either as it's not like I'm going to start my own gender-bending comic. And it is for this reason that most of these gender-changing comics rely on magic or science fiction to make the guilt-free change.
And is it a coincidence that the revelation of our two protagonists in their new female form is lovingly rendered in a detailed close-up unlike anything seen in the comic so far? Of course, such a noticable transition does not happen in many gender-changing webcomics for one of two possible reasons: the first being that for many any attempted close-ups will result in what looks like a sloppy rasterbation, because that is what it is, because the art in the comic is not so much 'art' but 'shit that would be failed from a third grade art class'; and the second being that many of these webcomics start with the change right off, or very close to, the bat, so the artist will have from page one a cornucopia of female curves to illustrate with his left hand. In Abstract Gender, instead we get to read through three months of boring, terribly written shit before the comic is distinguished from being just a regular ol' boring, terribly written, shit slice-of-life webcomic by becoming a boring, terribly written, shit gender-changing-fetish webcomic. And knowing the depths of the precipice this comic is about to fall into, to be honest I would have preferred to read the Mall Adventures of Ryan and Brian for just a little while longer.
But we can't always get what we want, and the trainwreck continues with a second art change. You don't have to be a terrible webcomic connoisseur to detect the changes in this one. Though it has tried to copy the previous art style to the best of its ability it ends up looking stiffer than the erections of the comic's intended audience as they read it. That is, the art has gotten worse, and it doesn't help that the comic is hitting another station in the train ride through the land of Plato's Ideal Transgender Fetish Webcomic. After all, isn't it normal for, you know, if you're a perfectly normal normal guy and all, and you just, oh I don't know, happen to wake up one day and you just happen to inexplicably be in the body of a woman, wouldn't it be, you know, normal to start, oh you know, touching yourself in places? No. No it's not. The normal response would be to freak the fuck out because to a normal person suddenly waking up the opposite gender is NOT the culmination of one's adolescent fantasies. And speaking of adolescent fantasies, you can see that from the myriad of choices for the configuration of the two protagonists I outlined four paragraphs ago, the writer has chosen to gone with one being stuck as a girl, and one being able to change back and forth at will. Which is, really, the best of both worlds for the audience because you can get stupid drama from the stuck one and guilt-free whacking it to the carefree one, whose tits are bigger anyway!
And of course the reaction of the main girl character upon discovery of this chromosome-swapping affair (after checking that they're real, of course!) is not to take the two of them to some medical professionals, but rather to take them shopping! I assume that later she also teaches them how to bake pies and fold laundry and submit to their husbands, for the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church. Though seriously, in your average genderswapping comic you're pretty likely to come across a shopping scene, because logically your men-newly-turned-women will not happen to have women's clothes simply lying around and will have to obtain them somehow. This is almost a bone thrown by the writers. A bone of consequences-for-actions that is all too rare in terrible webcomics. Because it makes sense, right? Guys turn into girls, they have no girl-clothes. So of course they go shopping for some because their first reaction is to figure out how to fit into everyday society in their new female bodies and not to figure out what happened to them and if it is possible to reverse it or anything. Wait, damn! I was proven wrong again by myself! How does this keep happening?
And really, the obligatory female love interest for the former male and the unwitting guy interested in the newly-minted woman feels like the comic is just going through the fucking motions. Of course that vibe could just be coming from the utterly lifeless and terrible art, and the equally utterly lifeless and terrible writing, so there's no way to know. The writer and the artist could have been creaming their pants as they wrote/drew those pages, and not barely managing to keep themselves awake like I'm imagining. Of course, in the very hypothetical competently-written (pfft) gender-changing webcomic these subplots might also come into play, except that they wouldn't be written so fucking ham-handedly.
After all, there's nothing inherently terrible about a story where a man turns into a woman. The concept has been with us since the story of Tiresias in Greek mythology. It's just that these writers, well, are generally terrible and lazy at writing, and elevate this gender-changing concept onto some sort of strange pedestal to the point where it's almost a fetish, if it isn't one already to them. This, combined with the lazy writing, leads to patterns like when those closest to the character discover the change, they're always perfectly fine with it to an unbelievable degree. And the general public can never know of the change, so there must be a way to handle the effective disappearing of a man and replacement of the same with a woman who looks and acts a lot like him. But instead of sitting down and thinking up a good way to resolve that, instead many of these bad writers use a Deus Ex Machina (the number one tool in the bad writer's toolbox), or a dumbfuck convoluted explanation that no sane person would believe. But since Abstract Gender's dumbfuck convoluted explanation hinges on a very coincidental earthquake, which is a D.E.M. by itself, it seems that the comic once more tops its own genre and goes for both.
And so at long last, we arrive at this point. The two-dimensional characters are established. The cause of the change which should have been the overarching plot, the MYSTERIOUS HAPPENINGS in the MYSTERIOUS MANSION, can safely be ignored for now. Everything is ready to get on with what the show is really intended to be about: Ryan adjusting to his new life as Rachel, a person of the female gender! And would you be surprised that the writer is not good at writing this either? I mean first of all, he is starting his new life as a woman by going back to school on the very next day, and his mother, who ostensibly cares for his mental well-being, is the one insisting on this! And the very first thing he does on his very first day is to join the volleyball team, an event that is celebrated by showing just how stiff the terrible art can get. And when someone says 'this chapter of my comic is about a school day' I expect it to hit just the salient points of the day's experience and not actually go
through every class. Not that such a thing couldn't work, as going through a full day of someone's life would be an excellent way to build some subtle characterization. Things like this, however, is not very good subtle characterization. And while it could be that the stilted art is coloring my judgment, the writer does not seem to be very good at pacing and flow either, especially when he feels he needs to detail the minutae of the formation of a girls' volleyball team.
The next seventy pages consist of such shining examples of character development, and the plot moving forward once more with Ryan finally going back to that MYSTERIOUS MANSION in search of clues. But what drives this is not the whole stuck-as-a-girl thing, but instead Brian-sometimes-Brittany getting a part-time job as a model, and starting to date Katie. Really. This is fucking stupid. The door to the mansion is unlocked, and he runs around until he literally steps on a piece of evidence, a manila folder with his name on it. This is really fucking stupid. And upon opening the file, it turns out that the change was apparently authorized by one Brian Parker, a seventeen-year-old who has been characterized so far as being dumber than a bag of rocks and having the foresight of the same. This is absolutely fucking stupid. I doubt even Alan Moore could pull off a good resolution given something this fucking stupid, so I have little faith in the writer of this comic.
And now we get to the third artist change. The latest one's impairment, a terrible anime-copying 'style' and the resultant poor grasp of anatomy, is apparent from her introduction. Which just shows how this comic continues to be the perfect representation of its genre, as pretty much every one of those comics are either drawn in that terrible MSPaint fashion or in that terrible shortcut abusing, every-character-the-same faux-manga fashion, and this comic has managed to have both! The coloring's terrible as well initially, but later another fellow anime-copier signs on as the colorist, making a total of five artists that this terrible comic has gone through. That has to be some kind of record, though at least I can't say that any talent has been wasted.
But back to the terrible story, in which the parents of Brian, the one who can switch between genders at will, discover their son's newfound ability, and not only accept it but also do not question it or do anything that would indicate that such a thing is not an everyday occurrence. Strike another one for team 'completely fine with it la dee dah'! Of course in these webcomics not everyone needs to be kept in the dark or fine with it. As long as they're an antagonist and completely incompetent. That way you get to have a one-dimensional foil you can trot out every once in a while for comic relief, as well as to show that not everyone has been buying that nonsensical story, which according to the comic has been going on for months! Yes, Ryan has apparently been a girl for months, a state that he does not desire to be in, and in that time he has gone searching for answers only once, and upon getting a strong lead has not done anything about it, because to do so would be to talk to his friend which he does not want to do because his friend is somehow reaping benefits from this whole affair? That's fucking stupid. That's really fucking stupid. A normal explanation for this would be that maybe the writer has written himself into a corner with that 'plot twist', but considering the genre it is more likely that the writer thinks his resolution of that twist is the greatest thing since sliced bread and is only delaying it so that we could have more of the Everyday Adventures of the Amazing Man-in-a-Woman's-Body.
And it's no surprise why he would want that as we hit another mile marker. Lesbians! Even if you are fortunate enough to have never heard of this entire category of webcomics before reading this review you should have seen this coming from a fucking mile away. It's like mathematics. The appearance of lesbians can be derived from the very axioms of transgender fetish comics, and I bet if I cared enough I could write a fucking formula for the page that lesbianism will first appear on given certain parameters. And I would bet that a sizeable percentage of both the readership and the authorship of this fine category of webcomics stick around mainly for the lesbian angle. The draw for the readers is obvious, and goes without saying, as most of them are undoubtedly males of the high school age. The draw for the writers, mostly males in their twenties, is obvious too, but I conjecture that they choose to write their story in this genre because they realize that they cannot write actual lesbians as they do not know any actual lesbians in real life or perhaps not even any females in general. But perhaps they reason that what they can write is a man stuck in a woman's body. Well as we've seen they really can't write that either, but they think they can. And of course nothing comes of it, as the whole thing is just a hint! A tease! To keep the readers reading and to keep from I don't know having to write an actual lesbian relationship or something. Of course going either way would have resulted in terribleness because at this point I think it's established that the writing here and in all this sort of comics is terrible.
Oh and of course thanks to the new art style the girls look twelve now, but I'm pretty sure zippers are being undone in basements across the nation all the same. And the estranged father of Ryan, who left his wife because apparently having two children is enough to be considered an unrestrainable baby factory, looks fourteen. He is, of course, the left in the dark variety of family member. And of course between that angle, a possible reconciliation, and the unwitting guy attracted to the new girl, we're slowly building up enough drama to whip up a drama soufflé! Or at least a drama burnt omelette. Though there's enough time between all that to have some more pandering, both to the furry crowd by that thing again and to the rest of the readership by taking the girls' volleyball team to a spa. But no drama burnt omelette is complete without the green onion that is death! Is it using dramatic events as a crutch for storytelling? Why, yes it is! And that's the comic so far but I can already tell you that this terribly-written drama omelette will make up the entirety of the remainder of its existence. Not that I'd find out, as this is hopefully the last I will ever see of it. Of course, it might be amusing to see just what the whole happenings in the MYSTERIOUS MANSION was supposed to be, as by now it has to be something ridiculously complicated and hilariously bad, but seeing as how the very goal of this author and transgender fetish comic authors everywhere is to delay the resolution of that plot as long as possible, I doubt it will ever be revealed.
And as a bonus, the comic is heavily tied with a transgender fetish comic that is actually a thousand times worse than this one: The Wotch. Not just in the sense of having guest comics from it and its much less terrible spinoff, Cheer!, and not just its boards being hosted on their community, but also the cameos of the main characters of The Wotch, two of its secondary characters as the opposing volleyball team, its cheerleaders (rendered in a way that is making me nauseous, continuing that trend), and this guy, who also wrestled a girl on The Wotch, but lost that one. As I said the world of transgender fetish comics is pretty insular, though with the most recent artist change Abstract Gender is branching out to attract DeviantArt animus as well.
So there you are. If you are wondering if there is any worth to this whole gender-bending webcomic genre, just read Abstract Gender and that will be all you need to know, as every quality common to the genre, both bad and bad, appears in that webcomic. If you still are wondering after that, then you are an idiot.
405 comments:
1 – 200 of 405 Newer› Newest»- How the hell do you bring yourself to read enough of this shit to review it in depth? Just clicking on random examples you linked to led to made me feel queasy. Not CAD-level (that would mean vomiting), but bad enough. There seems to be a link between the quality of these fetish comics and the crappiness of regular mainstream porn. I think people feel that if they're making spank material, they don't have to put any effort into making it good; they'll get an audience anyways. A horny audience with no taste, but an audience.
- Ewww, how about some bad gaming comics again? These sexual deviant ones make me feel nauseus just reading the reviews. How about GodMode? Is that train wreck still going on?
- Need more shitty gaming comics to review? No worries.
- MY biggest question what was with all those diagonal shots the second artist liked to use? They made me nausous.
- I seriously pity you for having to read this one, Ted. My goodness, the text density on one of these things could drop an insomniac. To have the stomach to trawl through something disgusting but light on text (say, Shredded Moose) is bad enough, I would think, but this ranks up there with PDH in terms of tediousness and plot.
- Another crappie review ... congrats
- This review lacks some "bite".
- You could bash this shitty art a bit more, but I guess reviewing the story in such detail killed something inside you.
- This review just goes on and on. I want the sharp, scathing review only Soloman can bring.
- Yes, but to discover these horrible qualities, we'd actually have to sit and READ the damn thing. You should do some furry comics, btw. That'd be a fetish goldmine of horror.
- What an atrocious mess. I believe I've made dumps that took more creativity than this comic. I want someone to make a good transgendered comic. Not because I want to read it, but just so someone can go "There! That's how it's done!" Plots and characters that are sensible and engaging, with natural human reactions to such a disaster (yes, having your gendered changed against your will is a disaster). Jokes that aren't centered around the secondary female characters and main "male" characters checking out the new tits to see if it's real. But I don't think that will ever happen. All of these comics are made by people who are, or wish to be, a tranny and they make the comics as how they see it. Where, despite being gender-raped, everyone is understanding and excited about it.
- Another crappie review ... congrats TG webcomics fan found!
- Another crappie review ... congrats TG webcomics fan found! Good one, Josh!
- I don't know if it's because of the comic you were reviewing or because you're losing your touch, but this review sucked. I skimmed it because it was putting me to sleep. Damn it man, I come here to be entertained, not to cure my insomnia!
- This was equally better and worse than a Soloman review. It wasn't as entertaining to read but it did accurately reflect the tedium of the comic.
- Why are people bashing this review, this poor man had to sit through piles of awful artwork, awful story lines and mind-bogglingly shoddy character building for your amusement. I'd say good job Ted, but I think a good mind wash would probably be better consolation after the horror of Abstract Gender.
- There's nothing wrong with baking pies and folding laundry. It doesn't have to be a Christian thing. Get with it.
- The artwork is actually better than other crap that's been reviewed before in the past. I can't say anything for the story though, the review puts that across quite accurately.
- ... that is to say for the later artists.
- What I want to know is how people like this can find not one, but two artists to bring their Transgender fantasies to life?
- That Death comic was dumb as hell. If you are going to mug someone, just threaten them with the gun FIRST.
- I want someone to make a good transgendered comic. Not because I want to read it, but just so someone can go "There! That's how it's done!" Plots and characters that are sensible and engaging, with natural human reactions to such a disaster Or better yet, how about a realistic webcomic that follows someone going through the painful, complex process of discovering their transgendered nature, undergoing psychotherapy, taking hormones, undergoing the surgery, and adjusting to life as their preferred gender, while showing realistically how others in their life might adjust (or not). No magic spells, no mad scientists, no switching genders back and forth, no "Ooh! I have breasts now! Kinky!" or any of that bullshit. Then again, there have been quality examples of SF/fantasy stories, involving transgenderism, in other media. Ursula K. LeGuin's novel The Left Hand of Darkness comes to mind. Which goes to show that there are no bad themes in fiction, just bad writers (and artists).
- "Or better yet, how about a realistic webcomic that follows someone going through the painful, complex process of discovering their transgendered nature, undergoing psychotherapy, taking hormones, undergoing the surgery, and adjusting to life as their preferred gender, while showing realistically how others in their life might adjust (or not). No magic spells, no mad scientists, no switching genders back and forth, no "Ooh! I have breasts now! Kinky!" or any of that bullshit." Or something where the process goes horribly wrong, leaving them permanently disfigured, struggling to cope with what they've become.
- I blame people's "influence" from Ranma ½ for all of these types of comics.
- damn, I meant "influenced"
- Ah, nothing like a story that drags on, and on, and fucking on until it gets to the main point. How can readers--or even the writers of this piece of fetid cheese--hang on for that long? I wonder if there's any writer/artist out there who can successfully do a story on gender-transformation without having to resort to a masturbation fest? How about exploring the psychological aspects of having one's gender changed? Oh, wait. Ranma 1/2 was pretty successful, but that was a comedy, and at times it seemed that the writer (a female, mind you) went overboard on the T&A. Then again, I think it's a requirement of most manga and anime. This dreck kind of reminds me of Wapsi Square, in that the writer just doesn't want to move on to one of the most important points of the story: when the protagonist will actually find the mysterious clock or whatever it is that she needs to find. Just have the characters flutz around in the city for a few years while they're being painstakingly developed--oh, and throw in a just a few morsels of "hey, I found some more information on this clock!" so that the readers don't think that the writer totally forgot about it.
- as someone with an actual interest in the whole guys-turning-into-girls type of thing I'd just like to say how deeply it pains me that any and all webcomics dealing with the subject are complete shit. :< (okay, some of them are only MOSTLY shit.)
- What about the comic, "Slade the changing man." I heard it was pretty good. It deals with TG but in a different light.
- Dumb Ass John Solomon said... Another crappie review ... congrats TG webcomics fan found! Curious, is this a Tangents reference ? If so, know that I've been hating you since your Dominic Durgan days...
- This dreck kind of reminds me of Wapsi Square, in that the writer just doesn't want to move on to one of the most important points of the story: when the protagonist will actually find the mysterious clock or whatever it is that she needs to find. Is that what Wapsi Square is about? I thought it was about a girl with GIGANTIC TITS who does nothing more than complain about her GIGANTIC TITS while men ogle her GIGANTIC TITS.
- Curious, is this a Tangents reference ? If so, know that I've been hating you since your Dominic Durgan days... OR it could be talking about Transgender comics. Which this post was about. just a hunch.
- There's only one possible reason that these things have becoming so popular ( at least, that I think ) and it's that people seek to understand the disorder. I, for example, have a friend who is FTM. I knew him as a girl for many years before he confided this to me; I know all about the realty and the pain of the situation. But in trying to understand it I came across Misfile, The Wotch, Abstract Gender, etc. And read them only because I wanted to understand. Does it make these comics good? Hell know. In fact, it infuriates me to see them now that I have a better grasp on the situation; they trivialize issues that cause serious emotional pain. The only one that comes close to really touching on that is Misfile, and even there the main character is 'okay' with it because he feels he'll be turned back. I don't know, I'm sure I'm shoving my own taste and personal opinion and the such out here, but these comics... It'd be like making a comic about about someone who's gay and that's it, that's the plot, because being gay is such a strange foreign concept.
- "Dumb Ass John Solomon said..." Lol! You see, it's humorous because he not only elaborated who made the comment in question, he also implied that the aforementioned commentor, one John Solomon, was, in fact, a "Dumb Ass"! Hilarity!
- "Dumb Ass John Solomon said..." Lol! You see, it's humorous because he not only elaborated who made the comment in question, he also implied that the aforementioned commentor, one John Solomon, was, in fact, a "Dumb Ass"! Hilarity! Thank you, I cater to the lower common denominator...
- but do you comment on the lowest denominator of all?
- but do you comment on the lowest denominator of all? He's not so gauche as to do this for himself, you know.
- p.s. guys how's the campaign to shut me down by giving me more money
- p.s. guys how's the campaign to shut me down by giving me more money Wouldn't know since I'm not clicking your links ... instead I've been going directly to the google ads site.
- Thank you, I cater to the lower common denominator... hmm ... you're right ... it is better to refer to you as the lowest common denominator, instead. Thanks.
- All those artists, for such a terrible writer? Beyond the utterly generic plot, insipid characterization, weak storytelling crutches, and all the rest; the hack is no better at dialogue than at story. If you choose a comic format, you have to learn some of the constraints that come with it, at least if you want to make even a pretense at quality. How much text can be comfortably fitted into a single panel. Jamming entire paragraphs and more into a panel is clumsy and demonstrates that you don't understand the format. Let us not get into the topic of writing dialogue that is even remotely plausible for the character, or even sounds somewhat natural.
- But see, John Solomon, although you touch on the depths of why this comic is truly terrible... you forgot one, tiny, miniscule detail. That is the amount of money in the donation bar at the bottom of the page. It makes me want to create the some goddamn big-eyed with huge tits furry transgender gaming comic just because what the hell, people will pay for this shit? Fuck the stockmarket, I'm going into webcomics.
- Solomon didn't write this review, Ted David did. It says so right at the end.
- 1) Ranma 1/2 was actually good. Sure, it got extraordinarily silly at the end, but it exactly avoids all the traps that AG hit. It's like this guy took Ranma and figured out how to do exactly the opposite. 2) The art sees some small flashes of being good. The artist(s) draw like they're attached to a digital camera, just shooting everything around them. Every once in a while, a good picture comes up, but most of it is just shit pie. 3) @Tavi -- I actually liked Wapsi Square better when it was just about a museum curator and her friends. The characterization was strong enough without throwing in some random crap about ancient monsters and demons.
- Is that what Wapsi Square is about? I thought it was about a girl with GIGANTIC TITS who does nothing more than complain about her GIGANTIC TITS while men ogle her GIGANTIC TITS. Come to think of it, sometimes he does focus a bit too much on women's bodies. There was even a storyline where two characters went to a lingerie shop to get custom-made bras. Seems as though the writer is trying to say, "I know I'm a male, but I totally understand how a woman feels!" You know, I can appreciate men who say, "I wish women didn't have to [insert some sort of uniquely female experience forced upon us by nature]." But this guy... jeez.
- "But see, John Solomon, although you touch on the depths of why this comic is truly terrible... you forgot one, tiny, miniscule detail. That is the amount of money in the donation bar at the bottom of the page. It makes me want to create the some goddamn big-eyed with huge tits furry transgender gaming comic just because what the hell, people will pay for this shit? Fuck the stockmarket, I'm going into webcomics." Total, I've been saying that for a while now on this blog. Can you draw like shit? I can write like shit. Together, we can make an unstoppable juggernaught of a bad webcomic that pays all our bills!
- @cyclist at large: Yeah, WS was definitely cuter then. The god of alcohol was a bit of zany fun, and he actually fit in with the cast (but that's just a personal opinion; I enjoy oddball characters who mingle with normal people). But the demon drama had to kick in and throw everything out of whack. Sometimes, I wish these writers would outline their stories before taking the pencil to paper. But most webcomics are made up as they go along, which usually results in warped plot and sketchy characters.
- Anonymous said... This review lacks some "bite". I agree, Ted. It's as if you're trying to say that you can review a crappy webcomic without spewing dozens of cusswords and scathing personal insults! That it's possible to logically and methodically point out what's wrong with the webcomic and let that be the crux of the review! Oh YWiBaYSFB, where is thy sting?
- Venus Envy is about the only TG comic I know of that paints a realistic and decently written picture of changing sex (it's written by an MTF, so he/she knows all about it). Unfortunately, the creator recently got married, so the comic has been on indefinite hiatus. How about hitting up "Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki" sometime? If you hate TG being played for fanservice, that one is almost nothing but (the main character wears a THONG most of the time and a new female character has breasts bigger than her head). It also has the "everyone is fine with the change" cliche.
- Impeccable criticsm as usual, Solomon. This comic is a gigantic piece of shit. I think you coulda been even harsher on the art and the abysmal lack of plot or character. And yet there is something you might have missed. Have you ever heard of "Ranma 1/2" ? If you have not, Ranma 1/2 is the hairy, gaping anus that corresponds to the pile of shit that is transgender fetish webcomics. When I was like 15, I liked Ranma 1/2. From the first episode it's "GRABBING TITS LOL!" Then we get "SORTA LESBIAN BUT DON'T WORRY, NOT REALLY LOL!" I didn't realize it soon enough, but eventually I saw the light. Solomon, I think you were sent by God to reveal shit for the shit that it is. Thanks again. Charles Frederick
- Wouldn't know since I'm not clicking your links ... instead I've been going directly to the google ads site. Oh no, your inept plan to cheat me out of one cent per day may not be quite the dismal failure it was going to be! Seriously, that's your plan? How does that even work?
- If you're linked something with the line 'John Solomon is an asshole and you should read what he wrote!,' you're probably going to assume John Solomon is writing whatever the fuck you're linked to. You sure did put me in my place though! Boy. My ass smarts from the pounding you gave it. My apologies to the writer, though.
- I want someone to make a good transgendered comic. Not because I want to read it, but just so someone can go "There! That's how it's done!" Plots and characters that are sensible and engaging, with natural human reactions to such a disaster (yes, having your gendered changed against your will is a disaster). Jokes that aren't centered around the secondary female characters and main "male" characters checking out the new tits to see if it's real. I was thinking of doing something like that, way down the line, when I'm comfortable with my art and writing. Except it'd be about a girl turned into a guy. I'd probably make up a good reason for the sudden change. It might be fun.
- Oh, and Mike: I sure can draw like shit. Let's do it; it'll be the best part-time job we never had.
- Impeccable criticsm as usual, Solomon. That's it, I'm installing the seizure gifs showing writer credit tomorrow.
- We know your true identity John Solomon. I would recommend that Josh Lesnick not goto any anime or comic conventions in the future.
- I was thinking of doing something like that, way down the line, when I'm comfortable with my art and writing. Except it'd be about a girl turned into a guy. I'd probably make up a good reason for the sudden change. It might be fun. NO DON'T
- We know your true identity John Solomon. I would recommend that Josh Lesnick not goto any anime or comic conventions in the future. As baffling as this is, this just cracks me up.
- DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS.
- Simple solution ... some one find and kill Josh Lesnick, if John Solomon suddenly stops posting you know you have your man... Really, here hoping that Josh Lesnick really is John Solomon.
- Whoops, Ted David. We know your true identity John Solomon. I would recommend that Josh Lesnick not goto any anime or comic conventions in the future. You know why this is hilarious? Because I don't recommend ANYONE go to any anime or comic conventions. Me & nearly everyone I know who used to be a weeaboo first saw the ugly-ass truth at these places. Charles Frederick
- Simple solution ... some one find and kill Josh Lesnick, if John Solomon suddenly stops posting you know you have your man... This is the 21st century where if someone says you shouldn't make art out of your sex fetish, you go to their house and kill them. Charles Frederick
- If you actually did that, you fool, then Josh Lesnick would just become our Webcomic Jesus who died for your sick-ass webcomic sins.
- Your blog is a pleasant read with some reasoned and vitriolic criticism. I quite like it. Would anyone involved with it be willing to be interviewed for a radio segment? If any of you speak as well as you write it promises to be interesting. If no one is able to make it to studio the interview could be conducted over the phone or via skype. If any of you are interested please contact me ben.mmn@gmail.com Thank you
- I'm absolutely amazed that you read all that. The only comics I read all the words in was the death one and the silly scientist one, because every other one just droned on and on without any particular direction. Seriously, less than halfway through the review I'd read maybe half the first panel then just look at how bad the art was. When the art got a little better, I'd read a bit more, just to make sure the comic was still just as bad. As if I ever should have doubted. I don't often directly compliment these reviews, but just for surviving that: Great job, TED DAVID TED DAVID TED DAVID JOHN SOLOMON JUST KIDDING TED DAVID. Maybe that'll help.
- Your blog is a pleasant read with some reasoned and vitriolic criticism. I quite like it. Would anyone involved with it be willing to be interviewed for a radio segment? If any of you speak as well as you write it promises to be interesting. If no one is able to make it to studio the interview could be conducted over the phone or via skype. If any of you are interested please contact me ben.mmn@gmail.com Thank you Make it to the studio? For some reason I have this mental image of JDR emerging from the shadows, screeching like a banshee, and then BAM! I get a Louisville slugger to my jaw and three days later the cops fish my body out of the river and I have to be indentified by dental records. It probably won't happen like that, but why on Earth would any actual radio programme want to interview a bunch of people who review shitty webcomics? It just doesn't seem credible to me.
- There's been a lot of talk of blaming Ranma 1/2 for this mess, and there shouldn't be. It had the TG thing, but it wasn't a fetish, as also various other characters changed into different animals, and not in a sexualized furry way, but in, "Oh hey fuck I'm a panda now." Not to mention, Ranma was never really okay with being able to change into a girl, and few, if any, characters liked their transformations either. Most saw them as a hindrance, and as a disaster, unlike the people in these webcomics, where it's the fulfillment of their weird fantasies or whatever. Not to mention Ranma 1/2 was purposefully pointless and stupid, while these webcomic are pointless and stupid for entirely different reasons.
- God, I remember trying to read Abstract Gender a few years ago. It was complete shit. Thanks for showing me how much worse it got, John I MEAN TED. At least it isn't Transe Generation. What a steaming load of bad transsexual jokes. D: But it still creeps me out that the "major" tranny porn webcomics have ties to The Wotch; the only webcomic in the world that can GENERATE DONATIONS OF $600+ WITHOUT THEIR PRIZED DONATION IMAGE. WHAT THE SHIT.
- It's also worth pointing out that Ranma 1/2 was clever and frequently very funny, and these other comics are... not so much.
- Wait a minnit. Isn't Josh Lesnick from Texas? And isn't, like, John Solomon not American or something? Most likely British? Lulz at incorrect stalkers who think they've found the TROOF.
- The alter egos of John Solomon: Ted David: The unfunny Solomon Lilith Ester: "EVERYTHING BAD THAT HAPPENS TO A WOMAN INCLUDING SNEEZING AND THE HICCUPS=Misogyny" Solomon. Mike Saul: Who?
- Apparently, AG also has some of the most god-awful, hard-to-follow text bubble placement in the webcomics world. Though considering the quality of the writing, perhaps we should consider that a blessing.
- You are all a bunch of fuckers. I know the true identity of John Solomon. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Solomon
- Ryan is the self-insert.
- For the most part I think this review is accurate, but I think you were unfair in your assessment of the fourth artist. Despite using that terrible animu style (with all that implies), I can see some real talent hidden underneath. I think that in her case, yes, talent is definitely being wasted here.
- Or better yet, how about a realistic webcomic that follows someone going through the painful, complex process of discovering their transgendered nature, undergoing psychotherapy, taking hormones, undergoing the surgery, and adjusting to life as their preferred gender, while showing realistically how others in their life might adjust (or not). No magic spells, no mad scientists, no switching genders back and forth, no "Ooh! I have breasts now! Kinky!" or any of that bullshit. Because that would involve seeing a tranny as a human being, not some fetishy thing to jerk off to. It's kinda like why the Shredded Moose or Lowroads guys will never write a complex female character.
- You are all a bunch of fuckers. I know the true identity of John Solomon. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Solomon Curses, found out!
- The alter egos of John Solomon: Ted David: The unfunny Solomon Lilith Ester: "EVERYTHING BAD THAT HAPPENS TO A WOMAN INCLUDING SNEEZING AND THE HICCUPS=Misogyny" Solomon. Mike Saul: Who? Shredded Moose fan found.
- I know that saying this doesn't really matter in the end, since people just like having something to complain about. Forget that you're getting quality entertainment for free... or, if you dislike said entertainment then DON'T FUCKING READ IT NO ONE'S FORCING YOU. No! Gotta complain about sumthin'. Anyway, it amuses me to see the small but vocal contigent that has, in the past, complained on and on and one about how VITRIOLIC Solomon is, how RUDE, can't he just review a comic based on its art and writing and stay away from BASELESS and MEAN statements directed at the artists a-bloo bloo bloo. Then we get a reviewer that does just that--reviews a horrible comic based merely on the elements that make it horrible and doesn't touch any personal aspect of the artists, and then we get a whole new group of complainers, a-bloo bloo bloo. Man, you're not VITRIOLIC enough... You people suck. All of you, on both sides. You could either take the high road and say, well there's more than one contributor to this blog so I'll see what reporting style I like best and then just read their postings and ignore the others, or you could just shut the hell up and read something else. The only thing you've invested in this blog is your time, and if you feel that it's been wasted then it's your own bloody fault.
- "Rasterbation?" Very nice! Truly, a neologism worthy of Jerry Holkins.
- its me i am the unfunny solomon
- Wow, this is like going to the 5th Grade talent show and shouting out "BOO!" At the little kids.
- Wow, this is like going to the 5th Grade talent show and shouting out "BOO!" At the little kids. I swear to God, half the time I have no idea what you people complain about or even who you're complaining about.
- Wow, this is like going to the 5th Grade talent show and shouting out "BOO!" At the little kids. Kids at a 5th grade talent show aren't adults in their twenties who earn hundreds of dollars a month off their work.
- Vitriolic is the SAT word of the day.
- for those who want a GOOD TG comic, according to wikipedia, peter milligan and brendan mccarthy's vertigo comic Shade the Changing Man had the following happen: "Shade was eventually killed, but his spirit wasn't able to pass on and he ended up inhabiting the body of a recently murdered red-headed woman. [1] Shade attempted to force his old, male form on her body but what remained of the woman's personality resisted because her murder had gone unsolved. Shade, Kathy and Lenny investigated and found out the horrific circumstances of the woman's death, but not before Shade experienced sex as a female and endured the onset of his first period. Once at peace, the woman was able to pass on and Shade was able to shape the body to resemble his original form" Examples: http://www.tgfa.org/comics/shade/shade.htm there is also alan moore's promethea, etc
- is there no subject alan moore hasn't tackled?
- The crew that make up this blog site have actually taken the initiative of voicing at various levels the thoughts about this type of entertainment many of us have been formulating over the years. Being one who loves Solomon and Mike's agressive style I cannot find no fault in Ted David's way of carrying on a review,he effectively proves us that defining utter lack of quality can also be done in a more civil manner... All I can say is,carry on! (Though I am quite anxious to behold the kingdom come smiting of mega Tokyo)
- What's sad is that making fun of comics is getting the gang responsible for this blog ACTUAL THREATS. What kind of low self esteem, self absorbed pansy do you have to be to threaten folks for writing their opinion on the internet? Oh wait, this is the modern age, where everyone must be PRAISED unless they don't fit in to whatever shitty community they upset where they are to be DEMONIZED. There is no other form of discussion permitted online. No agree to disagree, no "well if you think that way. I think you are full of shit, but so be it". Just I WUB JOO!! OR UR A GAY [racist slur] [homophobic slur] [antisemitic slur optional] !! Of course I have been told I shouldn't care what other people think, then the person that tells me that yells at me for being negative, so hypocracy is a big part of the net too... Fuck it.
- Wanna know how messed up these anime people are? A girl in my Physics class bragged about going to one dressed as a guy disguised as a girl. Do I even want to KNOW how deep this shit goes?
- So are all future reviews of terrible TG webcomics exclusively in ted david's domain? If this be the case, then you're a braver man than I, sir.
- Ted David knows trans genders intimately well...
- is there no subject alan moore hasn't tackled? The subject of shaving.
- Hmmm, yes I can see that there are good reasons and bad reasons here, but nobody seems to be really pursuing them. This is a bad webcomic, but it's also a webcomic that doesn't show us why to care. It tries to tell us what to care about, but it doesn't pause long enough to give us a reason. This is what I hate about so many webcomics that say so many things. Can't they just leave well enough alone? Is there even a real way to respond to this? I can't see where these comics begin and end, and I don't want to.
- Solomon didn't write this review, Ted David did. It says so right at the end. Number Three sign your weblog is bad and you should feel bad: posts are bottom-signed, and the word "I" appears in the first paragraph. (Number Four sign your weblog is bad and you should feel bad: posts are bottom-signed. Number Two sign: comments are bottom-signed. Number One sign: you have horizontal rules between comments and the names, instead of between the comments. #2 and #1 do not apply here.)
- If I could be bothered to change the template, I would. I'd rather than you people read the fucking articles, though.
- Number Three sign your weblog is bad and you should feel bad: posts are bottom-signed, and the word "I" appears in the first paragraph. (Number Four sign your weblog is bad and you should feel bad: posts are bottom-signed. I can see why you would say that, because there have been some talks of that around here lately. Just on the periphery. Nothing really serious. I have some ideas that could really clean things up, but I don't know how to articulate them. It's like how they knew Kennedy was going to be assassinated, but there's no reason to think there was a conspiracy.
- Holy macaroni! This webcomic is truly bad. I mean - there were comics that you reviewed that were worse, I suppose, but this one has to have like the worst art I've seen so far (except for the JDR stuff... And maybe Dominic Deegan... Ah, fuck it.). They (i.e. mutant zombies from mars) really should be giving out medals for reading shit like this. You're my hero, Ted.
- Almost every time I clicked next or previous it was filler art. I can't imagine how much filler stuff is actually there.
- I'd rather than you people read the fucking articles, though. I do read them, and I'd rather you write more of them than fix the template. But it's fucking disrespectful of your audience to expect everybody to scroll some huge random-ass amount down the page to figure out what the word "I" in the very first paragraph means when they start reading. If we're not supposed to know what it means, stop using it.
- Well maybe you should read the article and then when you reach the end you'll know who wrote it.
- Maybe this will be clearer... Pronouns! They're awesome... if they have referents! Why does that need explaining to a professional writer?
- Good god, if I had a choice between reading more of that webcomic or ingesting arsenic, I would go with the arsenic. Not even the art could save grace(or lack thereof) of this... thing. Especially the more recent incarnation of that god awful animu style. Nothing more needs to be said. Also, John I believe you may need to render your names in size 72 text with Impact font because people just can't seem discern who's who. Perhaps you should throw them a bone.
- Pronouns! They're awesome... if they have referents! Which are... always at the bottom of the articles! When Soloman stopped being the sole writer of this blog, I always made sure to scroll down first and check out who the author of the next post was. How fucking hard is that?
- "Well maybe you should read the article and then when you reach the end you'll know who wrote it." Normally I'd agree, but this article was really difficult to read. First time I've found the comic's glaring badness more funny than the review.
- By the end of the review, I was actually starting to miss the 'Bad-Azumanga-Daioh-Fan-Art' style that the comic had near the beginning.
- Anybody see today's Shortpacked? "Take me...Take all of me...My protector...Oh God..." Bleeetch. What is it with David Willis and retarded/creepy sex? (I figure J&W's super-duper drawn out ''will they or won't fucking FUCK already' as legitimately retarded.)
- When Soloman stopped being the sole writer of this blog, I always made sure to scroll down first and check out who the author of the next post was. How fucking hard is that? Does who wrote it even matter until you need to comment, by which time you have reached the end of the article and have seen the writer credit? Answer: no.
- Alan Moore Sucks. Not to mention the man himself is batshit crazy.
- Ted, no offense, but, yeah, you do seem to lack some of the go for the jugular viciousness that runs on this page. It's not the profanity so much as a genuine sense of wanting to track these people down and rip them to shreds that sells this... The review itself is solid though. To the previous poster, and maybe to John: Yeah, SGVY would be a good one to nail while running through the TG comics.
- That second artist wasn't all that bad. Or maybe it was the third. I can't remember. Too bad the writing was so boring I can't be bothered to go back and find which strip looked okay.
- I have to say that this one isn't all that annoying. It's boring and crappy, but it doesn't get even close to shredded moose or dominic deegan shitty. But really, the whole gender switching thing was done to death with Ranma 1/2, the world doesn't need more.
- Do go on, murphychacho!
- "But really, the whole gender switching thing was done to death with Ranma 1/2, the world doesn't need more." It might not need more, but people want it. The problem I think is with supply. There's not all that much TG fetish material on the internet (at least, there's not all that much that doesn't make you cry blood to look at) and so desperate, perverted nerds turn to shit like Abstract Gender and The Wotch even though they have no redeeming qualities at all. I generally prefer my bizarre fetish material to be unashamedly pornographic and preferably not totally misogynistic (rare as this is, sadly), but there you go.
- First panel of this strip was fucking hilarious:- http://abstractgender.com/?comic=200 Unintentional self-reference a-go-go! Or maybe it was intentional? The author would gain a good few "respect points" if it was...
- Pronouns! They're awesome... if they have referents! Really? So if I say, "Hey you! Shut the fuck up!" - you're saying that's bad 'cause I haven't specified who "you" is?
- Your Pronouns are Bad and You Should Feel Bad! More than a week of bad webcomic blueballs, and this is what y'all are choosing to harp on? Damn. These comments used to be entertaining. What happened?
- Anybody see today's Shortpacked? "Take me...Take all of me...My protector...Oh God..." It's a joke strip. She wrecks his poster.
- I will go on. You know what else sucked? The comic version of 'V for Vendetta'.
- I will go on. You know what else sucked? The comic version of 'V for Vendetta'. It's cool man I think you've already proven your stupidity beyond a shadow of a doubt.
- I don't know if I've become jaded, lord knows I probably have, but this comic strikes me more as passable than awful. I think the problem is that I'm out there on the frontlines reviewing the TRULY awful webcomics. My name is TheDoctor, and I'm a #drunkduck chat op.
- here's the secret: you can make a great transgender comedy comic, and you can make a great transgender drama comic. but if you try to have it both ways in the same comic, there is no way it won't turn out a giant fucking stupid flaming plane crash. especially if, like the creator of Abstract Gender, you can't write worth shit. (the even better third option is to make a great transgender porno comic. if you're really just going to make wank material anyway, why not just be honest about it?)
- yeah, the frontlines. I guess the Doctor is the real man here, only reviewing the REAL bad ones. we should all go to his website instead because I only want to read how bad the REAL bad ones are. My name is anonymous and you can suck my dick
- BAD COMIC ON MY INTERWEBS? MOCKING THE BAD ART AND BAD PLOT? MOCKING THE WRITER AND ARTIST? Oh sir, this blog is both witty and original! Never in my days have I found a more entertaining source of unique and hilarious ideas! "We can expect great things from this work, and by great things I mean terrible things, but terrible in a way that we can study this phenomenon known as gender-switching webcomics." My word, sir, how do you come up with such material? Honestly, using the word great then promptly replacing it with another with an opposite connotation. You are brilliant, really.
- yeah man I agree, all fucking trannies, fags, homos, dykes (unless they're hot dykes not those fucking man looking bull dykes, and will fuck me) all need to be dragged out into the street and be fucking beat to death!
- "Abstract Gender" sounds like the name of a scholarly journal about Queer Studies, which is appropriate, because Abstract Gender is boring as hell. I feel bad for saying that, because in a way I think being boring is worse then being terrible, but I just can't deny it. The writing in this one moves at the breakneck pace of a newspaper soap strip, and those guys will spend a week of strips having somebody wait in line at the DMV. Hell, even Mary Worth might move faster. It's a close race, in any case. As for the art... I don't get why some of these strips NEED two people. It'd take two weeks, tops, to learn to draw like this, so why didn't the author just do it himself? What did Kiey bring to the party? This latest artist is at least good enough that not EVERYBODY could draw like her, but she still needs work. She, like so many of us, is afflicted with Rob Liefield Disease, a terrible affliction that causes an artist to focus so hard on what Scott McCloud called the "surface" of art that they completely neglect to learn basics like anatomy. If the suffering artist's trying for an anime style, one of the big symptoms they're likely to show is giving everybody the exact same head and body (See also: Megatokyo and Lowroad). It's like the characters are Lego men; generic and undifferentiated aside from the way their torsos are painted and what Lego piece you put on top of their head. This, incidentally, is a good response to that occasional complaint "But I'm doing cartoons! Cartoons aren't realistic, so why does it matter if I can draw real people?" Well, if you can draw real people, then you know all the different ways in which they vary, and can then bring that knowledge back to make your cartoon characters easier to identify and more interesting to look at. This actually puts Ms. Asuka in what to me would be a slightly awkward position; These characters have been around for hundreds of strips, and were created and, uh, refined by two different artists. And yet if she's still drawing them when she really learns how to draw well, then she's going to be the one who actually decides what these characters look like. I dunno, maybe it's no big deal, but I'd feel like I was stepping on some toes if I did that, but at the same time I wouldn't want to keep drawing everybody with dreidel-shaped heads, either.
- Disregarding the fetish, what I find most disturbing is how the mother's death seems so casual. The woman's died and the two main characters are having this heart to heart; one of 'em, I can't keep the fuckin' names straight for the life of me, actually says "I'm glad we're friends again." Personally if my mother had just died I wouldn't be having some kind of weird heart-to-heart (and then having the next chick make that weird 'boobs are bigger than mine' comment on the next page). There's something extremely unsettling about it.
- Reading Abstract Gender alongside this review was more or less like slowly walking into the ocean. It starts out nice and simple as the waves lap lightly at your ankles, which you could compare to just stepping into this comic and its somewhat bizarre but otherwise bland setup. But after the part with the treasure and the completely ridiculous surgery you're starting to head into the deeper waters, and it becomes just that harder to push through the archives because every so often you're hit by a wave. In this case, the waves are those horrible leaps in logic to make it okay for everyone privy to the main characters' switch to be understanding of it. I'd keep going with the shitty analogy but honestly after those pages I just read the rest of the review without clicking any of links to the terrible comic pages. Is it too hard to show that in a realistic world people are more or less freaked the fuck out by transgenders? I don't mean this in a "that's how it should be" way, I mean it literally that most people are freaked the fuck out by it. They could send a positive message by having their characters overcome the prejudice (by becoming kick-boxing champions or something I guess) but instead it's showers of badly written shenanigans and an overwhelming wish that it was japanese. They might as well make every panel a boob-poke joke, they'd still get showered in ridiculous amounts of money for it. Thinking about it, the ocean wading analogy fails for one simple reason. This comic is far too shallow to ever get up to your waist.
- "My word, sir, how do you come up with such material? Honestly, using the word great then promptly replacing it with another with an opposite connotation. You are brilliant, really." It's Ted David.
- damn right Roboky NORMAL people (like me)know that trannies are all sick fucks and need to be fucking beaten to death, doesn't matter how much chink kickboxing they take, I'll still beat their asses down
- Some things: = = = = = = = = = = 1. Ted david, you need to respond more, solomon has posted here much more than you 2. There is an elephant in the room here, it's Ranma 1/2, please address how bad it sucks Ted 3. Ted, you got a freakin' death threat, even solomon has got only 1 of those last I counted, Respond already!!
- Who the crap is Ted David?
- This post has been removed by the author.
- TheDoctor: If you are implying that you review the worst of the comics on DrunkDuck, then you truly have my respect. It's understandable that this comic wouldn't seem so bad to you. Hell, it's actually one of the better gender-changing comics out there, and certainly better than the likes of The Wotch! And the fact that it's still shit just damns the entire genre even more. christopher: That's a damned good summary of what's wrong with the latest artist's art. While it may look like there is potential on the surface, there really is none when you go deeper, as she is stuck deep in that mindset where having your art look like your favorite anime is your ultimate goal, to the detriment of developing actual skill. And it really looks like Megatokyo sometimes. 10:06 Anonymous: Maybe I haven't been reading the comments closely enough but I see no death threats. And I think the last time I watched Ranma was when I was eight or so so I really can't say anything about it.
- I will go on. You know what else sucked? The comic version of 'V for Vendetta'. Holy hell. Someone actually said they thought the -original- comic form of 'V for Vendetta' was bad while excluding the dumbed-down movie version? WOW. Sure, the movie was fun to watch, but it was hardly anything special. All of the style that made it stand out came from the comic, and the comic had the added advantage of really getting into the characters and world while still leaving the question of who was right and who was wrong to the reader. V was a terrorist not to mention quite possibly insane, and Norsefire had saved England. Still, Norsefire was corrupt and the leader was more than a bit unhinged. Meh...I could probably go on for a while...I actually studied the comic in a class, but I'll not go on. I would like to see the opinions of this blog on Misfile however, considering that while it does hinge on a character being transgendered, it does deal with the pyschological consequences. (if not to a truly realistic level...likely to let the comic appeal to a larger group) It's also, in my opinion, better written than the afore-reviewed crap, and the art is competent. I tend to look more at the good than the bad in any particular work, which makes reading this blog somewhat of a balancing act for me, even if the attacks do sometimes get a bit personal for my tastes. (Not Shredded Moose, though. That Brew ass deserved every insult flung his way and more.) Carry on the good fight YWiBaYSFB!
- Ted David: Oh, I don't know, the Wotch was a special kind of suck. Somehow it actually filled me with a rage just reading the comics linked here in its review. That comic is literally infuriatingly bad. The comics on DD escape reason in their awfulness. I think with Abstract Gender, one of the main characters still hates the fact that his gender has changed, instead of the "Everyone secretly wishses they were another gender shitbarn most other comics seem to imply. Honestly though, there are comics on DD that are a million shades of awful to the point where they're just incomprehensible. This blog is great for the big comics like its been reviewing, where they can lull you into a false sense of security, but on drunkduck, its different. There you just kinda go "Oh boy, here we go." and hope you don't end up crying reading the archives. Eventually I'm going to have to register and account here so I won't be posting anonymously.
- How can this shit even be called "artwork"?
- I want someone to make a good transgendered comic. Not because I want to read it, but just so someone can go "There! That's how it's done!" I think a decent print comic about transgenders/genderbending is Hourou Musuko by Takako Shimura. The main character is a boy, in 5th grade at the beginning of the series, who quietly wants to be a girl, while one of his friends is a girl who wishes she were a boy. It's not perfect, nor is it entirely realistic, being written more as a light slice-of-life drama series than as a wholly serious and informative look at transgenderism. But at the same time, there's no magic or random scientists involved; the pair simply end up riding the train to the end of the line on the weekend so that they can go out as their preferred gender, eventually meeting and befriending a transsexual and her boyfriend. Interestingly enough, it does eventually fall into the same common plot devices as AG of "boy dressed as girl has another boy get a crush on him", and "boy signed onto (kid's) model agency" -- but it manages to pull them off better by having more restrained storytelling, more nuanced characters, and the presence of classmates who aren't understanding of the protagonists without becoming caricatures. And it doesn't pull out big drama guns by throwing in any deaths, muggings, abuse, or illnesses, but has the sense to realize that a mental disconnection from one's physical body while growing up is difficult enough.
- Disregarding the fetish, what I find most disturbing is how the mother's death seems so casual. Well, probably the most painful thing about the plot is the apathy everyone has. Well, disregarding bad science and everything. Turned into a girl? Whatever. My son turned into a girl? Whatever. An entirely unbelievable story about two boys disappearing from the school? Whatever. Manila folder? Whatever. Lesbian kiss? Whatever. Everything that could add a little conflict or change the status quo of the comic is simply shrugged off as it keeps going wherever it's trying to go at glacial speed. Or, more likely, as the comic keeps trying to go on indefinitely to gain money off the poor people who actually donate to it. Now, I imagine some of these are supposed to have lasting effects that eventually come back up, but it's kinda hard to believe that when they don't even have clear temporary effects. Whatever.
- Well, probably the most painful thing about the plot is the apathy everyone has. Well, disregarding bad science and everything. You know, you're right - I look back on it today and the only reason the death was so unsettling is the fact that it's the most glaring representation of the absolute lack of plot and emotion in the comic (besides the whole HAY I HAVE BEWBS NOW bit). There's no typical plot arc in AG. But the apathy can scrape by when the fans, if one peruses the forums, have such gems to say as "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll come back as a zombie" and "Or as a robot with her brain in it". They're pretty innocent comments but they're joking about a topic that is supposed to be presented as tough but comes through as paltry. And the one guy who says the comments are disgusting is shot down. It's weird.
- but I conjecture that they choose to write their story in this genre because they realize that they cannot write actual lesbians as they do not know any actual lesbians in real life or perhaps not even any females in general. While that's certainly true of this webcomic, I think that's also pretty accurate for every single male webcomic creater whose comic has been criticized on this site. Good review though, Ted. I don't know how you managed to stay awake to look through the archives though.
- What I find interesting about the fourth artist, as opposed to the first three, is how badly she seems to be trying to make the character poses and expressions really dynamic and how badly it fails. The reason that this interests me is that I can't tell if it's because the writing is so very tepid that the decently drawn expressions feel out of place (and therefore the writer's fault), or if it's a case where the art could actually work well with the writing through the use of more subtle expressions and poses and she simply doesn't know how to do them. If it's the latter, it goes along with what christopher said (very eloquently, I might add). The expressions are just another lego block she slaps on, seemingly at random, with very little thought behind them. It is just more lazy and irresponsible cartooning, hiding under the veneer of "good art." Ted, I liked the review. Why bother having four contributers if they all review in the same style? I say 'hooray for variety.'
- "It's cool man I think you've already proven your stupidity beyond a shadow of a doubt." Meh. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. As for the review, I had the misfortune of coming across this turd of a comic before. Everything said in this review is absolutely true: it is an example of some of the most lazy and bland storytelling and artwork on the internet. While the review is very well written and brings up many of the flaws, I still prefer Mr. Solomon's brand of venomous criticism. I find it far more entertaining.
- For some reason I have this mental image of JDR emerging from the shadows, screeching like a banshee a manshee
- Considering the subject matter is supposed to be fetish-y and ridiculous, this is perhaps the most stunningly banal webcomic I've ever seen. People here change genders and manage to be more boring than other characters preparing a bowl of cereal. There's nothing terribly horrible about it (except the lousy handling of gender-change) but it also has few redeeming qualities. It just...exists. I don't know how anyone could possibly get off on this stuff, even if they were the most hard-core transgender fetishist out there. Even The Wotch has some idiotic emotion to it...this has nothing worthy of emotion except for apathy. Also: why are furry and transgender fetishes so well-represented in webcomics, but not other, more mainstream fetishes? I would hazard to guess that there are way more people into feet and bondage (as well as many others) than there are people into furry sex and men changing into females, but they are underrepresented in the webcomic world. Perhaps this is still an untapped market, waiting for someone with no grasp of story or art to fill so they can donate gobs of money for no good reason. Or perhaps it is because you can find millions of pictures of feet and people tied up, but not so many pictures of transgendered people or furries that aren't revolting. I don't know.
- Also: why are furry and transgender fetishes so well-represented in webcomics, but not other, more mainstream fetishes? I hazard a guess that it's because these fetishes are "mainstream" that there aren't more webcomics about them. (Although, I think "mainstream fetish" may technically be a contradiction in terms.) I mean, if you're into bondage, it's probably pretty easy to find stuff in the print media sector that will give you what you want, and even if you're a 15-year-old kid just learning that that kind of thing gives you a boner, you've probably at least heard about it and know that polite society looks down on that kind of thing. The internet, on the other hand, somewhat naturally becomes a haven for all the stuff not prolific enough to have a real mainstream presence. Its userbase skews young, meaning that you're going to get a lot of people who are just getting to that stage and experimenting with the things that make them feel tingly in their trousers. So these people go online, find small communities of like-minded people out there, and start deluding themselves into thinking that their feelings are common, and that loud, public expressions of these feelings will be perceived as whimsical and harmless by all. In addition, the actual number of people who enjoys said fetish will be low enough that no matter how crappy your product, you'll receive instant adulation (and major $$$) for it from people who simply have no basis for comparison. In conclusion: add all of these factors together, and it's basically a perfect storm for the creation of webcomics.
- If crap like this is what fetishists regularly produce, why haven't we locked them all up, if not for art's sake, than for their own? Certainly, there is the possibility that not all fetishists are like this, but the possibility is so incredibly remote it shouldn't even be taken into account. Why do we allow this one mental illness freedom to roam without the treatment its sufferers so desperately need?
- I feel it is important to lock up deviants forever
- I honestly think it's getting to the point where there's enough stuff out there than even us weirdo fetishists can see these comics for the unredeemable piles of shit they are (or maybe it's just me, I don't know). Probably sounds weird to say this, but TG fetishism is having a real er... renaissance of sorts at the moment. Used to be that most of the stuff around was from the distant past of 2002, and the only thing that updated were the webcomics and tiny insular communities that no one could ever hope to find. There's a lot of hub sites and fresh material cropping up at the moment though, I'd like to hope it'll be enough to make it that no one wants to donate to the wotch or read abstract gender anymore.
- That's possibly the worst thing that could happen to a community of fetishists. It creates the idea that their attraction is acceptable, when in reality it is a mental illness.
- may thanks i have quite literally laughed my cock off at all these mirthless, talentless cunts. keep up the commendable work
- "Community" is a misnomer I think, because there really isn't any. There are forums, but they're really either just vast repositories of links, people desperately pretending the forum is about something else, or completely anonymous and furtive. Even if these people do come to view the fetish as "acceptable", which I find unlikely, what's the problem? Most other fetishes have some sort of physical expression to them, even furries can dress up in those ridiculous suits. TG fetishism is, for the most part, purely based on fantasy (well... not necessarily the forced feminization guys, but they're weird even by our standards). Even if they get the contented glow of community spirit about them, your average TG fetishist isn't going to operate any differently to how they were before.
- Why does the one, Ryan I think, not just get a haircut, bind her breats and go on with life and try to figure out what the heck to do in the meantime? Also, I'm glad that you read the whole of it and take the time to figure out why it's bad. Most of the time when I run into ones that arn't good I don't know why.
- "a manshee" Okay, I started laughing really hard at that.
- for those who want a GOOD TG comic, according to wikipedia, peter milligan and brendan mccarthy's vertigo comic Shade the Changing Man had the following happen Not to split hairs, but I wouldn't call Shade a transgender comic, simply because transgenderism was only a story element the series dealt with (and ended), not the focal point of the series as a whole. Though I would say anyone looking for a good comic/graphic story of any kind should certainly look into Shade, The Changing Man. Too bad only the first six issues have been collected in trade paperback so far, but eBay's usually got the rest of the series for dirt cheap.
- As long as they stop reading and supporting Wotch-like comics I don't really care what they do. But I doubt the actual fetishists who are readers of these comics only because it's the best they've got are anything more than a tiny minority. Most of the readers are just plain morons, who honestly believe that these stories are 'deep' and 'emotional' and 'funny', and nothing will shift them. I don't think anything ever will considering that Cheer!, the spinoff of The Wotch, is a much better webcomic but is nowhere close to draining away all of its readers and donators, despite being in the perfect position to do so. So basically these comics will be around draining money from idiots forever.
- Bravo, Ted. This has been, so far, the most interesting review. This is gonna sound a little weeaboo, but take my word for it. Anything remotely bad about TG-related media is amplified about a thousand times when I see the shit people buy in Japan. And while downright horrifying, this experience has left me much wiser... ... Words of advice: Never stray towards the Taito ward, even if The University of Fine Arts & Music and the most bitching park are there. I can't remember how much time had passed since I wanted to Un-see something.
- I've been out of the loop here for a while, but far be it from me to pass up a chance to piss on Wapsi Square: There was even a storyline where two characters went to a lingerie shop to get custom-made bras. Seems as though the writer is trying to say, "I know I'm a male, but I totally understand how a woman feels!" God, this. Taylor waves his self-imagined SNAG credentials around like a fucking flag, as is also reflected by his unfortunate reliance on shallow, mealy-mouthed platitudes that always read the fucking same no matter which character delivers them. Dude seems to think he's the Oprah of webcomics, which just makes his flat and flavorless writing style all the more insufferable. Given the glacial pace at which WS usually drags along, though, a visit to the bra shoppe counts as High Drama on the Pablo Taylor Snooze-O-Meter
- If you guys are gonna pan bad fetish comics (which this one is, I don't disagree), you ought to just go for the holy grail and do Sexy Losers. I want to see someone do something other than suck on this comic's worn out teat.
- Mister Solomon, I think you will like today's Dominic Deegan update.
- If crap like this is what fetishists regularly produce, why haven't we locked them all up, if not for art's sake, than for their own? Repeat after me, kiddies, "webcomics are serious, serious business". Let us lock these people up, for the comics they produce are just awful! This would not be extreme hyperbole at all!
- Mister Solomon, I think you will like today's Dominic Deegan update. Oh boy, we're two steps away from full-blown furry porn.
- By the way, apologies if someone already pointed it out, but it seems the author erased all the comics.
- I doubt that they've closed down for good; I bet that they just ran out of bandwidth!
- "Reviews" Imply that the "Review" Is written without or with little personal opinion. Your "Reviews" are not. Please change your tag to "A new OPINION of a shamelessly webcomic every Friday."
- Wow. I've never seen a person so angry. Let me guess; your "webcomic" didn't bounce; so now as a angry old man you feel the need to take it out on everybody else? Oh oh!; maybe ya can't draw? Your penis is two sizes to small? Tell me when I'm getting close >3
- You were pretty far off when you began. This is pretty much the least angry review on this site.
- It is a little bit angry, but if this is the angriest you've ever seen a person, you must live a pretty sheltered life.
- I would hazard to guess that there are way more people into feet and bondage (as well as many others) than there are people into furry sex and men changing into females, but they are underrepresented in the webcomic world. I'd say that people into more "common" fetishes are fully aware that said fetishes don't endear them to the general public and they're something to be kept in the bedroom (or within a community of like-minded individuals). If anybody I know offline found out that I'm into BDSM, I'd change my name and move to Alaska. For Internet-specific fetishes, people usually lose sight of the fact that it's not accepted in the mainstream and therefore shout from the rooftops about it. Which is, frankly, embarrassing for everyone. (Damn, beaten to this one, but I'll be damned if I don't stick my two cents in here somewhere!) That's possibly the worst thing that could happen to a community of fetishists. It creates the idea that their attraction is acceptable, when in reality it is a mental illness. Whether or not a fetish is a "mental illness" depends on the fetish in question.
- "'Reviews' Imply that the 'Review' Is written without or with little personal opinion. Your 'Reviews' are not. Please change your tag to 'A new OPINION of a shamelessly webcomic every Friday.'" Wow, you sure told him. I can only hope to one day be as witty as you. Also, shamelessly webcomic!
- Sunday @ 12:42 +1.00 Trying to reach abstractgender.com results in a blank page in firefox. After checking if I was being rerouted by the big Fascist Italian Firewall (no, it was not the case) I tried first a search on samspade, then to telnet www.abstractgender.com 80 just in case. The answer from the telnet bot on the other side after a GET / is: Services for this domain have been discontinued Ouch. Ted, John, It seems that your prayers have been answered!
- Looks alive to me. Don't think I'm happy about it though.
- "'Reviews' Imply that the 'Review' Is written without or with little personal opinion. Every review, no matter how hard it tries to be objective, is a personal opinion. Please change your nickname to moron.
- By the way: Wow. I've never seen a person so angry. Let me guess; your "webcomic" didn't bounce; so now as a angry old man you feel the need to take it out on everybody else? Oh oh!; maybe ya can't draw? Your penis is two sizes to small? Tell me when I'm getting close >3 Ehm - BINGO? :-D
- I hope I don't have to add "small penis lmao" to the bingo board.
- Wow. I've never seen a person so angry. Let me guess; your "webcomic" didn't bounce; so now as a angry old man you feel the need to take it out on everybody else? Oh oh!; maybe ya can't draw? Your penis is two sizes to small? Tell me when I'm getting close >3 I actually got the job as writer for this blog by clicking one of those "NATURALY ENLARGE YOU PENIS, SATISFY HER ALL NIGHT" e-mails. It really works, too! Ever since I wrote that review of dueling analogs, I have to tape it to my leg every morning to avoid injuries. Also, how could a failed webcomic author possibly be a bitter old man? Webcomics aren't even 20 years old.
- Also, how could a failed webcomic author possibly be a bitter old man? Webcomics aren't even 20 years old. Well - technically it's possible. E.g. if you started drawing your webcomic twenty years ago when you were sixty and now you're bitching about OTHER webcomics. That's almost* a plausible explanation just like all the comments by comic-fanboys are almost* smart. *in this case "almost" assumes the rare meaning of "not"
- I'm curious; is there any webcomics you DO like? I seems silly; and even stupid to critique something you don't seem to enjoy. This may be pure bull; but I assume that food critics at least enjoy food a little bit more than the average joe. or a news reporter; being that she or he has likely spent the time going to school (usually anyways)for such a job; enjoys the news some. So What are some "Webcomics" you enjoy; or do you hate them all equally?
- Hah, like we haven't been asked that time and time again ... We won't talk about comics that we like here, because that defeats the point of the blog. It's pointless to mention good comics here and sully them by association with the crap on display.
- Nah; I'm still curious of a awnser. and plan on leaving a message or two or three on every new review till I get a awnser
- And yes; I am aware I am giving everybody a free "What comics do you like" on the bingo card and will be forevermore doing so
- You'll just make bingo all the easier for us, then.
- Forgot to take your pills again, Anonymous?
- Gunnerkrigg Court is a webcomic that John Solomon has admitted to liking. And it's very good.
- There is not a person on this Earth who dislikes Gunnerkrigg Court. It's wonderful. And that's as much as you plebs are getting from me. Ha!
- Wow. I've never seen a person so angry. Let me guess; your "webcomic" didn't bounce; so now as a angry old man you feel the need to take it out on everybody else? Oh oh!; maybe ya can't draw? Your penis is two sizes to small? Tell me when I'm getting close >3 Hello current-artist-of-AG.com
- People, read this comic: http://www.danspulpit.com/monkeys_cuz.html
- http://www.danspulpit.com/monkeys_cuz.html It's just heavy-handed Creationist zeal accompanied by bland drawings and an unfounded sense of superiority. Even in the world of bad webcomics, this is nothing new.
- As a repentant TG-fetishist I say, without question, Abstract Gender is the worst TG-webcomic I've ever read. Worse than The Wotch or El Goonish Shive. I not only read it, I tried to like it, so I experienced the depths of ugliness and bad writing it descended to only recently. To me, it shall forever be the Daikatana of transgender webcomics. The only TG-comics I can even say in the same sentance as 'good' are Cheer, which adroitly sidesteps the 'character grossly underreacts to the change' dilemma by using the plot device of magic that alters the characters mind as well as their body, and has pretty decent art and writing besides. SGVY (or Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuukie) is not a good webcomic by any definition of the word. However, I think it represents the best feasible archetype for a TG-fetish webcomic. The art is passable, usual throwaway manga style but with at least some stylization to differentiate it from the legions of others. The story, however, is simultaneously it's worst and best element. Namely, SGVY makes no bones about being porn; almost every page has some element of fanservice, the entire list of TG-fetish tropes are hit quickly and efficiently, and the actual plot doesn't take itself too seriously and always comes after the comic's primary purpose of transgendered cheesecake. In many ways, it succeeds in emulating the style of Mangas. That's not necessarily a good thing, but compared to revolting shit like Abstract Gender it's the best this particular fetish community can hope for.
- Wow. You killed their webcomic. Way to go Mr. David!
- >Whether or not a fetish is a "mental illness" depends on the fetish in question. So which fetishes are flat-out mental illness and which ones are just quirks? What basis do you judge off? I doubt there is a clear basis you can judge off, so it is better and more convenient for us to just label the whole lot as illness and be done with the fact.
- So which fetishes are flat-out mental illness and which ones are just quirks? What basis do you judge off? I doubt there is a clear basis you can judge off, so it is better and more convenient for us to just label the whole lot as illness and be done with the fact. Labeling all fetishists as mentally ill is as retarded as pretending that they're perfectly normal. Not only is it stupid, but it causes genuine harm, because it prevents society from focusing its efforts on people who genuinely need help. Of course if you're just saying that so you can point and laugh, by all means continue. Just don't pretend you're doing anything else.
- Also....abstract gender is BAED.
- So which fetishes are flat-out mental illness and which ones are just quirks? As far as institutionalization goes, the criteria is "Are you a danger to yourself or others?" So, my guess is: rape-fetishists, pedophiles, serial killers with a psychosexual angle, auto-erotic asphyxiation fetishists, that sort of thing. (BDSM is a finer line, as you will certainly get people who will practice only with willing partners and keep it safe, and those people are okay.) Unless your TG fetishists are running around trying to perform unnecessary surgery on their friends to get them to live out their man-to-woman fantasies, they're not actually hurting anyone, including themselves. (Damn, beaten to this one, but I'll be damned if I don't stick my two cents in here somewhere!) It's okay, I always get beaten to the first points about bad art nowadays. Stupid having a life. So, have you guys considered (I swear, this will be my only post like this) writing commentary just on general webcomic trends? Or do you prefer to keep that in the context of individual reviews?
- I would like to see a review of Bleedman's work. He needs to be brought down a couple of pegs for his unoriginality.
- As of 6:48PM, Sunday, September 23, there is no webpage where Abstract Gender used to be? A sign of God's merciful providence?
- A lot of people have been bringing up SGVY in this post, and I think that it'd be a little more fair to point out that it seems to lean at least a little towards parody and satire than taking itself seriously. It does carry its characters and plot, for sure, but the blatant stereotypes (magical girl genre) and overused devices (talking animals, etc;) seem to be purposefully manipulated to make a carefully thought-out joke. At least, that's my interpretation.
- I'm still seeing the comic as existing. No idea what everyone else is talking about.
- A lot of people have been bringing up SGVY in this post, and I think that it'd be a little more fair to point out that it seems to lean at least a little towards parody and satire than taking itself seriously. It does carry its characters and plot, for sure, but the blatant stereotypes (magical girl genre) and overused devices (talking animals, etc;) seem to be purposefully manipulated to make a carefully thought-out joke. At least, that's my interpretation. I agree. I really don't see Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki as a TG fetish comic (although I'm sure it would be popular amongst TG fetishists). Sure, it has TG, but it uses the TG as a comedic plot device, rather than as brainless wank fodder. Plus, and I think this bit may be important, the writer/artist is female. Now, I don't profess to have an intimate understanding of TG fetishism, but isn't MTF TG more of a guy thing? And while I'm here, anyone actually like SGVY? I've only read a bit, but I've liked what I've read. I know it has its problems, and I know it's animu, but I can't help but feel a certain charm to it. I certainly wouldn't flip out over someone saying it stinks, but I quite like it myself. Well, so far.
- As far as institutionalization goes, the criteria is "Are you a danger to yourself or others?" So, my guess is: rape-fetishists, pedophiles, serial killers with a psychosexual angle, auto-erotic asphyxiation fetishists, that sort of thing. (BDSM is a finer line, as you will certainly get people who will practice only with willing partners and keep it safe, and those people are okay.) I feel the need to point out that none of these things listed are fetishes at all. A fetish is an obsession with an OBJECT. A person who needs an object, a piece of clothing like leather or latex moreso than anything else. A fetish isn't always sexual either. The word "fetish" has been abused in our lexicon to mean "anything that gets someone off, a turn-on" What you listed are different psychological issues, usually something to do with the person having control issues. They don't have control so they abuse other people to get it. Calling it a fetish is like saying anorexia is a fetish, it's just not correct. To get back on topic, I don't think comics like Abstract Gender are necessarily "fetish" comics, since they don't focus on a single object (unless you think people are objects, shame on you). It's a shoddy way of a author trying to understand women by making the protagonists male first. A male view of the female world. It turns into something idealized and stupid. Where little conflict exists and everyone is happy. "Everything is better now that I'm a girl!" It's been pointed out already, but comics like this would be much better if there were some CONFLICT. Right now it's just the writers male to female fantasy. He's jacking off about what it would be like, in his ideal scenario, to be a woman, and everyone else joins. The regular readers don't want to think about consequence, they just want to partake in the fantasy and get away from it all too. The rest of us who don't care to share in this delusion and want a little more meat to our story can't get that here. We realize that this is one giant circle jerk, this story isn't for us. And that's the problem with the majority of webcomics that deal with transgenderism.
- Ugh, I found this webcomic on one of my hunts for more webcomics to add to my lists (close to 115 at last count, I have no life, and I'm not really all that picky, I have 4-5 from this blog that I still read for some odd reason, probably habit), and read it all for some odd reason. There's nothing more to add other than what was said in the review. My opinion of SGVY is that it's obviously a parody, but it's still too creepy to find all that entertaining. It's just a bit too accurate in its emulation of fetishy manga. I've tried to read it, and it certainly wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. And again, just creepy.
