When Did Girls With Slingshots Start Again

Girls With Slingshots

Danielle Corsetto (W & A)
girlswithslingshots.com

I woke upwardly 1 morning a few weeks ago knowing that I had a deadline to meet, piece of work to prepare for, a weekend trip to pack for, and non enough time. So, I did what anyone would practise: I started rereading one of my favorite webcomics, knowing that I wouldn't be able to stop.

Danielle Corsetto's Girls With Slingshots (GWS) has been running for over ten years, and on March 13th it came to an terminate. While this was heartbreaking news, I was excited to hear that a writer and artist I dearest would be working on new projects. Bizarrely, now is too a skillful time for new readers to jump onto the GWS train, because Corsetto is re-running the old strips equally her colorist, Laeluu, re-colors them, starting with strip #1!

Fifty-fifty with the opportunity to see the old stuff in colour, I needed a practiced, cathartic moment with GWS where I reflected on its glory and and then allowed myself to allow it go. Then, instead of packing or being responsible, I reread the entire comic. If Corsetto's work has been brightening your life for a while, I promise yous bask this walk through some of her strip's greatest moments. Nevertheless, if you've never read GWS, get ready for some serious disarming.

If you're a new reader you'd probably like to know what you lot're getting into, and then hither'due south a quick summary: Girls With Slingshots is a slice-of-life, comedy webcomic that follows the shenanigans of a quirky group of friends. Our protagonists are Hazel, an oft-unemployed journalist who loves alcohol and irresponsibility, and Jamie, a photographer/florist who is responsible and caring, but still loves booze. Hazel and Jamie's friend group grows throughout the strip, and includes Clarice, a porn shop employee who really wants to be a librarian, Jameson, a barista who'due south always there to listen, Maureen, an introverted blogger with a love of cardigans, Thea, a writer/editor who's unlucky in dearest, and McPedro, a talking cactus (nosotros'll get to that later.) Don't be fooled! At that place are no stereotypes in GWS, only real, complicated people who you'll apace come up to admire.

When I first stepped away from current-era GWS and jumped back into its origins, I found myself thinking of Boob tube shows like Girls and Broad City, which are centered on complicated only intimate friendships between women. While the GWS cast has grown during its run, the heart of the comic has always been Hazel and Jamie's delightful friendship. Their closeness is sometimes inexplicable: Hazel is often inconsiderate and small-minded, while Jamie is incredibly open-minded and always supportive. Withal, the strip is littered with modest moments which arrive clear that these two are made for each other, like when Jamie lets Hazel into her vibrator battery vault. The friend-chemistry between these two is palpable.

While their human relationship is unique, Hazel and Jamie are non the only ladies whose camaraderie lights up the strip. Each of the other female characters is speedily pulled into their vortex of love and support. For example, in ane of the earliest Halloween storylines all the women apparel up equally each other and end up maxim some pretty nasty stuff about each other. Yet, in true GWS fashion the political party ends with loving apologies, and inspires Jamie to outset a club defended toward boosting each lady's self-confidence. How many friend fights in romantic comedies turn out like that?

In addition to gifting us some wonderful, non-competitive lady friendships, GWS has never shied away from addressing serious problems. For example, this strip quickly and effortlessly acknowledges that men tin can be raped, and that it is an issue that people ofttimes don't take seriously because of machismo culture. While there is a punch line at the end of the strip, the joke is not nigh rape. The joke is that Jameson screws upwards and reacts badly, and in the next strip he apologizes and they handle the conversation as information technology should be handled: by caring for a friend, and making sure he'due south all right. It'due south a brilliant moment.

Corsetto has also gifted the states a series of unique, stereotype-defying relationships. (A quick annotation to new readers: I'1000 virtually to get into some spoilers. If you're already feeling excited about the glory that is GWS, you might want to skip these two paragraphs and come back to this later on. Just skim down to the word "heterosexual" and the spoilers will get less spoilery!) The all-time case of this is Jamie's relationship with Erin. While Jamie is far from the but queer graphic symbol in the strip – GWS is besides home to a gay male person drag queen and several lesbians – Jamie is the character whose sexuality evolves the most, thus we go to learn aslope her.

Early on in the strip, a drunken incident causes Jamie to question her sexuality, simply she has a hard time assertive she could be a lesbian partially considering she – and Hazel – buy into some ridiculous stereotypes. Just when she settles into not identifying as a lesbian, but not exactly identifying equally directly, the universe throws Jamie a curveball: she falls in love with Erin, an asexual woman. Jamie's friends pressure her to define herself, but there are no labels that make sense. Despite existence happy and in dearest, she likewise feels dislocated, and fifty-fifty a little isolated from her friends. As a queer woman who spent some time existence dislocated by stereotypes and feeling frustrated over not beingness in the lexicon, this was a wonderful and very personal storyline to read. I appreciated Corsetto's selection to requite her characters complicated sexual identities, and I will never stop cooing over the cute overload that is Erin and Jamie's relationship.

Like the queer couples, the heterosexual couples in the strip consistently fail to autumn into neat, pre-prescribed gender roles, and instead interact like authentic, complicated humans. Incredibly, Corsetto often uses the iv-panel strip/punch line-at-the-end format to showcase these moments of gender role disobedience.  For example, when Hazel and Zack are fighting over Zack's determination to wait to take sex, the joke isn't that Zack should be the ane who wants sex considering he's the man, but rather that both of them are unable to see how their preconceived notions about gender are affecting their relationship. Afterward on, when a certain hetero couple is getting married (SPOILER Alert, don't click the following link if you don't want to know who gets married!) Corsetto again flips the stereotypical roles and has the man excited about planning the wedding instead of the lady. Fifty-fifty afterward ten years, Corsetto was notwithstanding creatively using the comic's simple format to subvert stereotypes.

This talent for manipulating the paper strip-style format too extends to the fine art of GWS. In this strip, for example, Hazel is literally able to eat her words before she says something she'll regret. Later on on, Thea proves her worth as an editor by again taking action against a word chimera. The innovative ways in which Corsetto pushed the boundaries of the comic strip makes information technology heady to think of what she'll exercise one time GWS has ended. While she has mentioned on her podcast, Coffee and Cider, that the limits of the comic strip push her to be more resourceful with her art, I tin can only imagine how incredible and creative her future work will exist with or without those limits.

One aspect of the comic that I hope Corsetto doesn't totally carelessness is her use of magical realism. When I think of magical realism, my mind e'er goes to Guillermo del Toro movies similar Pan's Labyrinth. Corsetto gives us a different kind of magical realism, ane that involves talking cacti, ghost cats, and English degrees that lead to dream jobs. The moments when GWS dips its toes into the fantasy realm are always delightful, and Corsetto often uses the more than comedic and fantastic storylines – like when McPedro, the talking cactus, loses his mustache because information technology wants to travel the world – to intermission upwards discussions of more series topics. Her utilise of magical realism adds a slap-up balance to the strip.

All of these brilliant pieces of the GWS puzzle are great reasons to read it if you haven't already, but here'southward the #ane: if yous read this comic, you will experience loved. Seriously. This is a comic that is conspicuously written by an author/artist who loves what she does, and loves her readers. Yeah, there are times when characters will have a crude go of it, and no, this strip is not filled with fan service. However, having read GWS every twenty-four hour period for several years now, I tin promise yous that you lot'll finish each strip feeling a little bit loved, and knowing that Danielle Corsetto wanted to brighten your day. If yous learn something from reading the strip – and y'all will – the learning process will be gentle, and full of sense of humour.

By rereading this comic, I do feel like I've reached my moment of catharsis. Corsetto end the strip and then that she can take a step back, work on her fine art, and render ready to create more intelligent, innovative and well-crafted comics. I can't think of a better mode to end something every bit wonderful and epic as Girls with Slingshots.

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Source: https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2015/03/farewell-girls-with-slingshots/

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