El Goonish Shive 1: initial thoughts.
I cautiously dip my toe into the internet’s most famous gender-transformation comic.
The classic TF comic, rocky start or no. El Goonish Shive slowly became an intensely personal exploration of gender through indulgently complex magic systems. In Summer 2016, I read it for the first time - and had a lot of feelings.
El Goonish Shive 2: early pains
I struggle with the early comic.
El Goonish Shive 3: abruptly, gender
One of the characters starts displaying obvious trans feels and suddenly the comic gets a whole lot more interesting.
El Goonish Shive 4: people grow
An immature Dan Shive attempts political commentary of various kinds, and a decade-older Dan Shive looks on it with regret. I have reservations about both, but the comic is showing signs of being something more.
El Goonish Shive: heavy trans feelings
We get the first forced-fem narrative in EGS, causing me to reflect on trans childhoods and process some feelings about how my own relates.
El Goonish Shive 6: the trans woman subject-position
The comic provokes a number of thoughts on the construction of gender and sexuality, and the ‘deceptive trans woman’ cultural narrative. Content note: discussion of transmisogynist violence.
El Goonish Shive 7: straw feminism
Dan Shive had a lot to learn.
El Goonish Shive 8: readability
Mostly, minor comments on formatting, but with some gender stuff at the end.
El Goonish Shive 9: Ellen arrives
A character splits in two, leading to a discussion of sports and hormones.
El Goonish Shive 10: the ball is rolling
I begin to give in to the tendency to narrate and give reactions to relatively minor events. Things get rather shonen once more.
El Goonish Shive 11: What's even happening anymore?
Reading this back in August 2017, past me seems to be getting rather burned out.
El Goonish Shive 12: the shadow of the geek
The character writing is improving, at least. Justin returns, and we meet the comic book shop.
El Goonish Shive 13: a lady, who is mysterious
Notably, the first use of the word ‘transgender’ in the comic.
El Goonish Shive 17: some parallels
The secret is that you can compare anything to Homestuck if you try hard enough.
El Goonish Shive 14: forget subtext
Tedd more or less comes out as trans. That’s the big news.
El Goonish Shive 15: narration
I gave into the urge to more or less list everything that happens in the comic. I’m sorry.
El Goonish Shive 16: close encounters with exposition
Aliens are real, and they love to infodump.
El Goonish Shive 18: more trans Tedd
A short one. At the time, news of the Pulse nightclub shooting was still raw.
El Goonish Shive 19: character recap
A recap of the major characters and their stories so far, on page 430 of El Goonish Shive.
El Goonish Shive 20: buying black paint
Characters are moved into place for a story about Grace.
El Goonish Shive 21: the Painted Black arc, parts 1-2
Strap in. It’s time for an enormous shonen furry epic.
El Goonish Shive 21: the Painted Black arc, parts 3-5
We learn everything there is to know about grace from our Generic Bad Man.
El Goonish Shive 23: the Painted Black arc, parts 6-8 (+extras)
The inevitable grand showdown to finish the Painted Black arc, and redemption for furries.
El Goonish Shive 24: Shadows After Dark arc
A bunch of character moments, conveyed by dream sequences.
El Goonish Shive 25: Before the Party [first few pages]
One may infer there is going to be a party. But first, a detour.
El Goonish Shive 26: EGS:NP part 1
El Goonish Shive has a side comic, and it turns out we need to catch up on it.
El Goonish Shive 27: Before the Party
A long arc that sets the stage for some truly artful gender shenanigans.
El Goonish Shive 28: Grace’s Birthday Party
Ships sail, and ships are sunk. The comic returns to the character interactions that are its strength.
El Goonish Shive 29: Grace’s Birthday Party [cont.]
The party continues with more emotional heavy lifting, and finally, the lesbian happiness we’ve been waiting for.
El Goonish Shive 30: Hidden Genesis & The After Party
Did you enjoy all that soap operatic character stuff? Me too! Unfortunately, the shonen is back. (Features a lengthy interlude on student labour organising.)
El Goonish Shive 31: Sister II: Awakenings part 1
The start of a truly enormous arc, in colour. Feminist struggle.
El Goonish Shive 32: Sister II: Awakenings [cont.]
I summarise an entire enormous arc, involving immortals battling in a school. CW: various kinds of abuse.
El Goonish Shive 33: Bringing Silly Back
Dan Shive starts to think he’s gone too far to the side of drama, and attempts a return to zany antics.
El Goonish Shive 34: EGS:NP part 2
We go over a series of short comics. Relatively little of consequence.
El Goonish Shive 35: New and Old Flames
Do you like Gender? Because this chapter has a lot of Gender. It’s safe to say ‘Bringing Silly Back’ was a misnomer.
El Goonish Shive 36: 9001% Serious
Shenanigans is probably the best term to describe this arc.
El Goonish Shive 37: 9001% Serious: What Is Love
Do we choose to be gay? What does ‘choice’ actually mean in this context? Well, here’s an essay.
El Goonish Shive 38: Summer
A series of short, light-hearted storylines focussing on character over magic.
El Goonish Shive 39: The Dawn
Dan Shive retcons complexity into an early relationship with surprising skill, but then takes us to some uncomfortable places (cw: discussion of rape).
El Goonish Shive 40: The Dawn cont.
Lots of relationship drama, but it’s gay relationship drama, so I like it.
El Goonish Shive 41: Pandora’s Box
Tedd finally learns that trans identity is a thing!!!! I’m so happy. (Also: Magic. Also: magic.)
El Goonish Shive 42: Pandora’s Box: Squirrel Prophet cont.
We read a whole lot about magic mechanics. More importantly, trans experiences are increasingly foregrounded and well-handled.
El Goonish Shive 43: Pandora’s Box: So A Date At The Mall
The remainder of Pandora’s Box. More superhero antics than romance, it turns out.
El Goonish Shive 44: the rest of EGS:NP
As we approach catching up with the comic, we go through the remaining side comics. These ones add a surprising amount of lore.