Girly

Haukur Halldórsson
Author(s)	Josh Lesnick
Website	http://go-girly.com/
Current status/schedule	Updating every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Launch date	2003 April 6
Genre(s)	Romantic Comedy

Girly is a webcomic created by Josh Lesnick which generally centers around the romantic relationship between two girls named Otra and Winter, as well as other citizens of the city of Cute-Town.

On October 15, 2005 Girly became a part of the Dayfree Press collective, and on June 28, 2006 the first Girly print collection was published via Radio Comix.

History of Girly

Girly launched in April 2003, originally intended as a sequel/retelling of one of Lesnick's previous works called CuteWendy, and originally was not intended to run for more than 50 strips. However, Lesnick became enamored with the characters, and as of May 1, 2007 the comic has reached over 500 strips in length.

Girly is Lesnick's longest running comic in terms of panels completed, as well as his most popular, with over 10,000 more regular readers than his previous popular work, Wendy, had at its peak, and around 16,500 unique hits per update. This readership has allowed him to become one of the few professional webcartoonists.

Lesnick originally hosted Girly on KeenSpot. In November 2004, he moved Girly over to wendy.dreamhost.com, where it has remained since. On October 15, 2005, Girly became part of the Dayfree Press collective of webcomics which includes such other strips as Dinosaur Comics and Questionable Content.

On May 16, 2004, Lesnick created a LiveJournal community for the comic, and as of September 2006 it has over 600 members and 525 watchers. On November 10, 2004, a LiveJournal feed was created for the strip (link), and is currently one of the most popular feeds on the LiveJournal site, ranked within the Top 50 for number of subscribers.

On June 28, 2006, the very first print collection of Girly strips was published by Radio Comix and is available via Amazon.com and selected comic stores.

On August 23, 2006, Lesnick announced that fundraising efforts for the comic had been successful that he would attempt to support himself wholly via the comic.

Most recently in March, 2008 Lesnick announced that for every one hundred dollars donated he would do an extra page, as an attempt for fund raising.

Girly's style

Girly's style is line-based and monochrome, using a vertical format. The original style of line drawing is akin to a manga-style but with more abstractions, giving it a sketched, freehand sort of look. The line art has evolved a great deal as time has passed, and no longer bears a great resemblance to most manga, however; recent works are somewhat reminiscent of some of John Kricfalusi's work. The art of the strip has shown a steady trend away from thin, pencil-like lines towards a much more variable, ink-brush look.

After a short hiatus, on August 4, 2007, in Girly #504, the art of the strip transitioned to a much more prominent use of color.

Along with absurdity and playing with stereotypes, Girly has a strong vein of sexual humor.

Various overhead shots show that Cute-Town has a skyline very similar to Dallas, Texas. In comic #398, the Alt Text to the comic said the author took the skyline of Dallas, and added smiley faces and a kitten. However, the interior of Cute-Town is said by the author to resemble Austin, Texas.

Main characters

Girly revolves around the main characters Otra and Winter (and often the cat as well). Occasionally the story will move to a small sub-story centered around one of the secondary characters but will eventually be tied back into one of the main characters again.

• Otra - Otra is the main character of Girly. She is 25 years old and is currently self-employed as a freelance fashion designer for the company Guapa. Not much is known about Otra (her name wasn't fully revealed until well into the comic) except that she hasn't had too hard of a life; she's just constantly disappointed/sad about mostly everything. Her main hobby is roaming through the city and observing life. Before she met Winter, she would deal with the annoying people in her life by cramming them into or tying them to small rockets and launching them into space. Winter's sudden appearance in her life has changed her a little day by day. Otra first appeared in Strip 1. Her name is Spanish for "other one" - a reference to CuteWendy's sidekick, known only as the Other Girl.
• Winter - Winter is Otra's girlfriend. She is 18 years old, has no job or home and has declared Otra to be her sidekick early in the comic. She has since looked out for Otra devotedly, helping her with work and even occasionally saving her life as well. Not much is known about Winter except that she is the daughter of CuteWendy and her sidekick Other Girl from Girly's predecessor CuteWendy (as revealed early on). She's free-spirited, with an attitude that's both serious and yet silly. First appeared in Strip 1.
• Marshmallow Kitty - A cat that was originally homeless and wandered the downtown area living off scraps and donations of food. After meeting Winter and Otra, it took a liking to them and followed Otra home. It soon became Otra's cat. Although the cat was intended to stay a secondary character or mascot, it became a primary character through its popularity. Its early appearances made it appear slightly perverted, but that has since stopped. The cat is too pudgy to roll itself over when it's on its back, and is totally indestructible. Recently it has given birth to several kittens, much to Winter and Otra's distress, and is now officially designated as female. In Strip 504 it was shown that Marshmallow Kitty was part of a scientific project to create the world's greatest cat, however this experiment resulted in the destruction of the laboratory along with everyone inside of it excluding Marshmallow Kitty. First appeared in Strip 36.

Secondary characters

• Danforth Policeguy - An officer of Cute P.D. He is constantly trying to find women who will date him, often without success. He tends to vent his frustration in his job, which has led him to considerable success as a police officer. He became frustrated with his job and quit the force, becoming a private detective and allowing him to form a relationship with Officer Hipbone (whom he had not been able to date before because they were co-workers). As of Comic 512 Comic 512, he has been temporarily written out of the strip
• El Chupacabre (Chuy) - A comical fellow, first introduced with a ponytail, a flowing cape (not much else in the way of clothing,) and a long, thin, handlebar mustache. His body emits an aura, making him irresistible to women; at first, he believed that "the women need love, and only El Chupacabre can give it to them." As such, throughout the exposition, wherever Chupacabre went, he left a trail of satisfied naked women behind. At one point, El Chupacabre traumatized Policeguy, mistaking him for a girl. Policeguy then cut his hair in order to appear more masculine. Winter, who seemed at first unaffected by his advances, managed to show him that haphazard sex can be damaging to existing relationships (although it was revealed later that she was not, in fact, immune, but her love for Otra allowed her to resist him.) El Chupacabre tried to avoid women for a time, and developed and internet relationship with Autumn. As of comic 508, they married. Comic 508
• Collete - Winter's half-cutpaste half-sister, an introverted girl with an affinity for videogames. She doesn't get along with her sister particularly well, although she means well. She seems to have a crush on El Chupacabre, or "Chuy" (whom she once had sex with) and is often irritated by his and Autumn's relationship, which, recently, led to a slight state of depression, causing a noticeable gain in weight. She currently attends Cutetown University.
• Autumn - Somewhat of a nerd, Autumn was always picked on in school. After a rather mean prank involving a fish from the popular crowd, a few kids decided to be her friends, and they cut school together. When they are introduced into the storyline, they are students at Cutetown University. While on the library computer, she runs into funnybunnyfan4531 (El Chupacabre's screen name). Eventually, she tells Chupacabre that she wants to meet with him, at which point he discloses his identity. As she is preparing to tell him that she is still interested, a giant mouse eats her computer. Chupacabre thought she had logged off purposefully. Autumn, in a panic, purchases a new computer and waits for an entire day for Chupacabre to log back on. Eventually, they make contact once again, (ironically it is Collete who sets them up) meeting accidentally in a cafe. Chupacabre, afraid of ruining their relationship, runs, and she gives chase. Eventually, she catches up to him and they engage in sexual intercourse. As of comic 508, they are married.

Books

Thus far, there are three books available in the Girly series. The books are currently being published through Josh's independent company Studio Zoe.

• Cutewendy: Collection of Perfection (Precursor to Girly) 1st ed. by Keenspot Entertainment ISBN 0-9722350-1-9 (published August 1 2002)
• Cutewendy, 2nd ed. by Studio Zoe ISBN 0-9791417-0-2 (published July 4 2007)
• Girly Volume 1 by Studio Zoe and Radio Comix ISBN 0-9786385-0-6 (published June 28 2006)
• Girly Volume 2 by Studio Zoe ISBN 0-9791417-1-0 (published July 4 2007)

External links

• girly (official site)
• Guapa Design (official girly online store)
• girly (Italian translation)
• girly (Spanish translation)
• girly LiveJournal community