Shortpacked! by David Willis
Toys are serious business.
Convention appearances:
Calgary Expo Calgary, AB: April 26-28
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Multiplex
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
Tags
amber
animated
batman
botcon
conquest
conventions
dark of the moon
david willis
dinobot
drew
duncan
ethan
faz
galasso
generations
gijoe
guest strip
hamsters
homosexuality
jacob
jesus
joe
justice league
ken
leslie
malaya
megatron
merch
mike
ninja rick
nipple
optimus prime
politics
religion
robin desanto
ronald reagan
roz
sdcc
sg ravage
shattered glass
star wars
tni strips
transformers
transformers prime
ultra car
©2005-2013 David Willis | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑
Wow… just wow.
I hadn’t heard about this, and just googled it…
Again: Wow…
You missed “Being caught going down on your girlfriend.” Although if everyone is open minded, the former boyfriend can sit there and watch.
What if it’s your mother?
What if it’s your mother… for a nickel?
Wow, I didn’t even realize that was Leslie in the first panel until I read the tags.
That’s the first time we’ve seen her ex-husband, right?
Hopefully not the last. I dunno… it would be kinda funny to see the man she married and dumped for girl-loving, to re-enter her life in some manner.
Ha ha, enter.
Heh heh heh. You said “enter”. C’mon Beavis, let’s get out of here. Heh. “Enter”.
Wow, yeah, I just checked a CNN interview of that guy, and he’s practically OOZING with gayness.
Seriously, when’s he start carrying a sign that has his phone number on it and a note that says “call me”?
… Is that what gay people do? I think I must have missed a memo.
the sort that dedicate a good chunk of their life stalking young twinks do that. Trust me, you weren’t on their mailing list
Well, no, but Shirvell seems like he’s ready to do it to get the kid’s attention.
I dunno. If my surname were
ShrivelShirvell I might delay my entrance into the out gay male community as long as humanly possible…::applause::
Way #5: Be ANY character in a Willis comic. Literally. Any and all of them.
6: Using the stress as an excuse as to why you almost failed your classes that quarter.
Though on the upside, I did escape punishment.
That’s not completely fair. Before (modern, Ethan/Amber/Robin) Shortpacked!, it was just… Daisy, all of Squad 48… Ruth, Billie (not technically revealed until Shortpacked! had started, but come on, have you ever known of a four-person social circle that was one couple and two friends)… and that’s it.
But he had a lot more characters in those days, so that’s not too many.
Oh, and Robin and Mike. But they arbitrarily don’t count.
I thought the Ruth/Billie thing was just a joke/not canon to the original story type thing.
Nah, Ruth/Billie is totally canon. Also totally HOT.
Squad 48 was completely bisexual. One of their first appearances was a massive orgy with Joe.
Sure make some folks uncomfortable for some reason when there’s more than one gay person in something.
OK, I feel silly feeling compelled to point this out (this is the fourth time across various webplaces), but Shirvell isn’t a high-ranking official, despite being an “assistant attorney general”; when 200 other people in the state government have the same job title as you, you’re a mid-level official. Not trying to minimize; it’s still completely shameful and ridiculous what he’s done.
Fixed!
You rock, sir.
Political commentary aside, I never did like how Robin’s sexuality-turn was handled. It never rang true to me.
I always thought she just decided she was willing to give it a try rather than a sudden complete turnaround.
Agreed.
This is also how I interpreted it. She started saying things about Jacob before reminding herself of Leslie. There was that time she intercepted Ethan to ask him what it’s like to have sex with a dude. And she had to be talked into doing actual lesbian activities by her sister. I don’t think she’s completely lesbian, just in a happy lesbian relationship.
And hey, it’s worked out fine so far.
To be fair, I’m fairly certain that she is not being portrayed as lesbian in the classical (and inaccurate) binary sense. Fairly certain she’d still be open to sex with men… Huh. Pun there, excuse me. Anyway, if you accept the Kinsey scale as valid (it’s a tad simplistic, but a lot less so than the classic “Gay, Straight or Bi” trinity) Robin is probably around a 2.
Well she made out with conquest by own initiative even if the objetive was to get Ethan’s attention, and she was one the who went looking for a lesbian for the same reason. Also she started working at shortpacked because she had a crush on Amber. Robin seems to be the kind of person who starts doing something for and end, then forgets the end.
Aw come on, Robin’s not gay! I don’t know what she is besides ADHD, but how can you be gay if A) you want to bone men, B) you don’t know your supposed significant other’s name until really far into the relationship, and C) said significant other has to guilt-trip you into homoerotic physical intimacy?
She claimed to want to bone men, but doesn’t it strike you as strange when a girl who’s good looking and loud about her desire for casual sex turns out to be a virgin?
…I mean, really.
In a comedy series? Not really. The good-looking, sexually frustrated character is practically a staple. Besides, Robin’s personality tends to turn off the kinds of guys she goes after. If she had no standards, then sure.
Well isn’t that exactly it? She was kind of “talked into” being in a Lesbian relationship. Which is contrary to notion of people being born Gay or Straight, which Shortpacked had previously supported.
Really it’s just an issue of I don’t think it’s been explored enough. On one page we have Robin philosophically dealing with whether or not she should or COULD be with Leslie, then the comic just went on with them being a Lesbian couple. There’s never been any real emotional follow-up.
It seemed that she thought “Eh, I can’t get with a guy, so I guess I’ll settle for Leslie.” Who she still refers to as “My Lesbian,” by the way. I wonder what Willis has planned for the future – he did say that like-minded congressman (that smelled like skittles) will one day come into play.
You’d never consider switching sides for a specific person? If George Takei or Scott McNeil were to ask, they could have my body RIGHT NOW
You forgot the bisexual possibility.
There’s also this thing called “bisexuality”.
Erika Moen is a webcomics lesbian who married a dude. It happens. Human sexuality is such a complex construct that it’s pretty ridiculous to try to hammer it into a discreet series of yes/no answers on a Scantron form; even the Kinsey Scale is woefully inadequate. Robin probably won’t shack up with another chick if/when she and Leslie are no longer an item.
Women in general tend to have a lot fewer hangups/freakouts about crossing the city limits into Funkytown, largely because men have a lot more of their societally-approved gender identities bound up in stupid testosterotarded macho bullshit. It’s part of why out gay men are more likely to be FABULOUSSS; they aren’t necessarily any more flamboyant than anyone else, they’ve just stopped caring about pointless macho gender identifiers.
Ohhh.
I always thought, like Ronnie said, that it was “there all along.” After all, her inner monologue cops to a previous crush on Amber – it’s not that Leslie was the only woman she ever had a thing for, just that she lucked out. (It would have been luckier if Robin had copped to it faster, but that’s life.)
Ethan, Leslie, and Thad were born gay. Amber, Jacob, and Joe were born straight. Robin, Mike, Dwight, and Ninja Rick were neither. Is that so hard to understand?
(The jury’s still out on Galasso, Conquest, Roz, Faz, and Ronnie.)
Ultra Car was Born Free. As free as the wind blows.
(also: describing someone as a “webcomics lesbian” is pretty remarkable.)
That’s basically what she called herself.
Poor Leslie. That must have been a fun night.
Unless, ironically, her now ex-husband then asks her if her male cousin is single…
Well thank goodness someone else feels the same way,when I first stumbled across the antics of said mid-level official,and read that he was stalking the poor boy,I too thought “in your closet much?” =p
You know, I bet a lot of gay kids from the 80′s get asked by their parents if the He-Man toy they got them, made them gay. You can’t exactly blame the parent of a newly outed gay son for wondering that if only for a moment.
The guy looks like a Swedish Porn Star at Folsom Street Fair after all.
Well, there’s “made me gay” and there’s “made me aware of certain feelings”…
He-man did not make me gay Mom! Ram-man did! hehehehe.
But seriously, no toy, no cartoon, no comic made me gay.
And why is everyone saying that Robin isn’t really gay ad was just “talked into it”. The way I see it Ronnie just helped her to see through the “gays are bad” BS that we had been brought up with and to finally accept herself for who she truly was. IMHO.
Never liked He-man. Mind you, the Gundam Wing Pilots made me realize a few things…
I read about that guy on Encyclopedia Dramatica. I had to laugh at how pathetic that guy was.
Know who else I think is gay? Fred Phelps. The American flag suits? Clearly he’s trying to let everyone know he’s out and proud!
After all these scandals of anti-gay people turning out to be gay themselves, it’s pretty obvious that your chance of being a closet gay is directly proportional to your opposition to homosexuality.
Someone who just thinks “meh, I don’t think they should get married, but if they wanna fuck each other in the ass I guess that’s okay”? Probably straight.
Someone who dedicates their life to wiping the homosexual menace of the face of the earth? Gaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…
You know, there have been some high-profile exceptions, but from my experience of having lived in pretty conservative territory most of my childhood, most homophobes aren’t repressed gays. They’re just assholes.
And I think it’s kind of insulting to gay people to imply that obsessive homophobia is a gay mental problem instead of being something that straight people can have.
I’m a self admitted homophobe, but I don’t really care what they do to each other as long as the following three things are covered.
One: They do it as far away from me as possible, or convenient I don’t really care as long as I don’t have to hear about it or see it, but hey I’m the same way about hetrosexual relationships as well. I don’t want to hear or see that stuff either.
Two: They Leave Boy Scouts alone. Seriously it’s a PRIVATE ORGINIZATION, We can discriminate as much as we want, I mean we don’t let GIRLS in; heck some troops don’t let people who are not members of their church in. Do you see girls suing and throwing fits to get in? I sure don’t, SO STOP SUING ALREADY!
Three: I’m not gay, I don’t want to be hit on, and I’m liable to toss you if you touch me as well. (But hey I reflexively toss people who touch me when I’m not sure who it is.)
Other than those three things I don’t really care about if your gay or not.
Oh no, the gay panic! GAYYYYYY PANIIIIIC!
I’m okay with black people so long as they live as far away from me as possible and I don’t have to see them. In fairness, I’m mostly the same with white people too, but to their credit white people don’t bother me when they try to join the Boy Scouts.
You sound kinda gay.
I am female, and I am a member of the Boy Scouts of America. I even have a fancy official card that says so. Being a part of that organization, however, does not blind me to its faults: I take great issue with the fact that the “morally straight” line is interpreted to mean “sexually straight.”
So if I, a girl, can be in the Boy Scouts, why can’t a gay boy be?
1. Gee, I hope that my replying to your comment doesn’t make you uncomfortable, what with my being bi and in a same-sex relationship. I’ll try not to get any on you, or accidentally zap you with my “gay ray”, or whatever. Your life must be really hard if you genuinely feel so threatened by the existence of people who are different from you.
2. a. My mother was a Boy Scout during the 1950s and 60s.
b. Plenty of girls still want to join, and many of them do.
c. Sexuality is very, very different from gender.
d. Demanding equal treatment is very, very different from “throwing fits”.
3. You’re an equal-opportunity tosser. Got it.
Also, if you are this charming in person, I’m pretty sure you won’t have to worry about anyone hitting on you.
NoOne,
Did you know that there WAS a girl who tried to remain part of a Boy Scout troop, on account of the fact that the only local Girl Scouts had suckitude activities compared to what the Boy Scouts were doing and she wanted to be able to do those things? There was a case there. So yes, you do see girls sometimes wanting entry. I can’t be sure, but I think they tried to broaden what “Girl Scouts” do somewhat after that to lessen the incentive to want in to the Boy Scouts.
Also, Boy Scouts is an ancient institution that has let up on other restrictions in the past. The extent to which I think they should be restrictive involves age (Boy Scouts) and gender (on the assumption that Girl Scouts offers all the same cool things so that Boy and Girl Scouts can be a shared idea where you can have socialization with your peer group.
Huh? Do boy scouts in the USA don’t let girls in? That’s odd, over here in Mexico we have boy and girl scouts groups, and even go in camps together and have joint activities O.o
It’s called “internalized homophobia”. Gays are, for some reason or another, ashamed of who they want to fuck and begin to hate homosexuals. High profile, popular, usually right-leaning politicians do it because their supporters are often the same ones who say things like “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!” and “If they can marry each other, next we’ll be able to marry horses! I ruins the sanctity of marriage!” (the 2nd one is usually uttered by people who’ve been divorced). Being openly gay would ruin their chances of getting elected.
Wait a minute.
I’ve seen that guy before.
Shit.
I’d successfully purged that awful comic from my memory, thank you very much.
Oh my god! How could I have forgotten about that perfectly spherical head?
I was reading calmly and quietly until I got to panel 4, at which point a single ridiculously loud “HA!” escaped my mouth. That guy is the definition of a creeper.
I’ve always read Robin as just being mostly flaky. She “turned” lesbian b/c it seemed like something to do. That’s not to say she doesn’t believe she’s sincere now, but she also gets bored easily and would be completely in-character to decide she’s not “lesbian” anymore at some point down the road. I say that only b/c I’ve known a couple people like that over the years.
Eh, I dunno about that. After the first arc with Ros, I did some rereading. A lot of Robin’s pre-relationship behavior makes sense if you buy into Ros’s belief that Robin is seriously attracted to Leslie and was for a while before she got comfortable enough to admit it.
Consider all the gifts (the Falcon, the house, the pony). Robin felt affection towards (or love for?) Leslie and wanted to reciprocate Leslie’s crush, but wasn’t able to admit (to herself or others) that she wanted to do so with sexy lesbian sex. The presents were platonic displacement for those romantic feelings.
Also, she read Leslie’s addition to the proposition, but didn’t do anything about it. When that risk-free option for being “forced” to make out with her hot roommate was shut down, everything boiled over and she kissed Leslie and covered with a lame excuse.
oh my god I’ve spent like fifteen minutes writing this what the hell is wrong with me
An old professor of mine shared this guy’s story with me the other day. I immediately asked how long she thought it would be until he was photographed and/or filmed in the company of a gay prostitute.
I don’t know what all the discussion about Robin is about.
The panel says “admission”. Made her admit to self.
And she’s obviously bi, in light of her still liking dudes, too.
I hadn’t heard about this guy, and… oh wow. XD
Same here. Although after watching the Anderson Cooper interview, I’m not getting a “closeted gay” vibe so much as a “mentally ill” one. That combination of paranoia and obsession honestly makes me kind of nervous. Does the kid have a restraining order against him yet?
#5
Join the Republican Party
1a. 7 YEARS after you get married
*sighs*
Ouch. Sorry. That’s gotta hurt.
Well I was the one in Leslie’s position, but it’s not much easier from that side
Actually, I wasn’t assuming you were on either side. That can’t be easy whichever partner you are.
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/newgaystereotype.gif This seems relevant.
I gotta admit, Willis… Your comics inspire more discussion than actual news.
ahahaha, this Shirvell stuff is the funniest story in a while.
You really need a “Share on Facebook” button.
Nevermind, I found it, under the button that I always thought was just for email.
I think having Reagan convince you to come out of the closet would be totally awesome, and patriotic to boot.
I gotta admit, when I first read this I thought the last panel was a reference to something recent from sore thumbs.
Could someone explain to me how obtaining co-ed dorms (ie gender neutral housing) would be a part of a radical homosexual agenda?
“Right now we have men living in dorms together, the way GOD intended. Now these radical homosexuals come along and want men and women living together. Obviously this can only lead to man on man love.”
“They were created by man. They evolved. They rebelled. There are many copies. And they have a plan.”
As for what the agenda is, I don’t know. Being newly “out”, I guess they don’t trust me enough to be a part of the super secret organization. But whatever our agenda is, you know it will be fabulous.
As a former conservative and christian I always loved it when people talk about “the homosexual agenda”. I’ve always imagined some dark foggy warehouse, pier, or wharf area where darkly dressed hooded men and women would slip into one of the buildings and be revealed as all the great homosexual leaders of the time. There they would sit around a table and plot the downfall of heterosexuals, before of course, engaging in a mass fornication which is immediately followed by bible burning, witchcraft, and swearing allegiance to the devil.
Pfft. The Homosexual Cabal is much classier than that. Foggy warehouses are terribly unstylish.
you forgot baby eating. it is an all you can eat buffet.
and the warehouse was turned into attractive lofts.
Coming out can be like a mine field. Thank you for injecting some humor into it.