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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.^[1]

Contents 1 History of Girly 2 Girly's style 3 Critical response 4 Main characters 5 Secondary characters 6 Books 7 References 8 External links

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^[2]. However, Lesnick became enamored with the characters, and as of February 23, 2007 the comic had reached over 482 strips in length.^[3]

Girly is Lesnick's longest running comic in terms of panels completed, as well as his most popular with more than 10,000 more regular readers than his previous popular work Wendy had at its peak, and around 16,500 unique hits per update^[4]. This readership has allowed him to become one of the few professional webcartoonists.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[7]

Girly's style

Girly's style is line-based and monochrome, using a vertical format. The line drawing is akin to a manga-style but with more abstractions, giving it a sketched, freehand sort of look.

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. ^[8]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.

Critical response

Girly has long been particularly respected among webcomics, having been reviewed positively in both Comixpedia ^[9]and Websnark.^[10] It was also nominated for a 2005 Web Cartoonist's Choice Award in layout.^[11]

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 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.^{[citation needed]} 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. First appeared in Strip 36.

Secondary characters

• "Officer Policeguy" - An officer of Cute P.D. He is constantly trying to find women who will date him, often unsuccessfully. He tends to vent his frustration in his job, which has led him to considerable success as a police officer. At the moment, he seems to have an ongoing relationship with Officer Hipbone.
• "El Chupacabre" - 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 himself irresistable to women; at first, he mistook it as "the women need love, and only El Chupacabre can give it to them." As such, throughout the beginning, where Chupacabre went, he left a trail of satisfied naked women behind. At one point, El Chupacabre traumatized Policeguy, mistaking him for a girl. Policeguy cut his hair much shorter soon after. 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, immmune, but merely resisted to protect Otra.) El Chupacabre has since been trying to avoid women, until recently, where he developed an internet relationship with Autumn.
• "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. Several years later, they're in college, and, while on the library computer, she runs into funnybunnyfan4531 (el Chupacabre.) Eventually, she tells Chupacabre that she wants to meet with him, at which point he discloses his identity. She was just about to tell him she wanted to meet anyway, when a giant mouse ate her computer. Chupacabre thought she had logged off on learning who he was, so she spent day and night waiting for him to log back on. Eventually, they got back into contact, and met accidentally in a cafe. Chupacabre, afraid to ruin the less physical relationship that they had, ran, and she gave chase. Eventually, she caught up to him, had sex with him, and their relationship wasn't ruined. Autumn is still the only person able to actually pull herself away from Chupacabre long enough to introduce herself.

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.^[12]

• 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)

References

1. ^ The Radio Comix Store
2. ^ Mia MacHatton, Slippery, Shiny, and Definitely Sexy: Josh Lesnick, Sequential Tart vol 7 no. 3, March 2004
3. ^ More than 450 strips
4. ^ Girly FAQ
5. ^ LiveJournal community profile page
6. ^ LiveJournal syndicated feeds list
7. ^ Another webcomic (Girly) reaches a $$$ goal, Comixpedia, Thursday August 24, 2006
8. ^ Overhead view of Cute-Town resembling Dallas, Texas.
9. ^ Josh Lesnick's girly, reviewed by Wednesday White, Comixpedia, November 22, 2006
10. ^ Eric Burns, This has nothing to do with the essay, but next year I want someone to videotape Josh Lesnick and Howard Tayler dancing in the aisles at ComiCon. Because that would be the most awesome thing ever., Websnark, July 31, 2006
11. ^ The 2005 Cartoonists' Choice Awards, winner's list
12. ^ The Girly Store. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.

External links

• girly (official site)
• Guapa Design (official girly online store)
• girly (Italian translation)
• girly (Spanish translation)
• girly LiveJournal community
• Comixpedia entry on Girly