Sinfest

New comic:

http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2015-04-28

Well, the storyline of "Seymour vs. witches" is still going. No clue if it'll be another story of why Tats hates guys...

Another plot line. Yaaay.

This comic hurts. It really, really hurts. This is the sort of thing classic Sinfest used to do, and we'd love it. Now, I'm pretty certain Tats is going to use this to try and shame men for the witch hunts, because that's what he does now.

Screw it. I just got my copy of Body Bags in the mail today. Imma enjoy myself.

I think that it's probably more likely this will just end up being a quick, one-or-two-off gag.

I still think that Seymour's hilarious, though, so I don't really mind the diversion from the Sisterhood.

http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2015-04-29

Yeah. Fuck it. No denying it, Nique's a lesbian now. Before the retool she showed absolutely no interest in women, and plenty in men, but fuck it. The Penis is evil and the Vagina is holy and pure.

Goddamnit.

Well, there was that one strip pre-feminism, but that was probably just playful teasing rather than actual interest in women.

In all seriousness though, we all pretty much saw this coming. Men are evil, therefore having desire for men must be evil. Of course, women are pure as the driven snow, so they cannot have desire for men. Let's ignore the fact that this is yet another epic ass-pull out of Tat's rear end, which is increasingly resembling a magician's hat. I keep expecting a rabbit to appear in the comic one of these days.

...could someone PLEASE slap the stupid out of Ishida? I mean, this isn't even an attempt at funny, he's simply having Monique spout trite one-liners that would have ANY club-goer wearing his drink. Heck, what happenned to the 'nique who skipped around happily after learning that, for all his macho posturing, Slick actually truly loved her BEYOND the "get laid" line?

"ANY club-goer wearing his drink." And therein lies the key. Clearly a male saying those lines is only interested in the woman's body and wants to subjugate her under the tyranny of the patriarchy, whilst a woman saying those lines is clearly pure and true in her intentions and wishes to pursue a loving relationship where both partners are completely equal. Sarcasm.

I am almost ashamed of the fact that Tat and I share an alma mater. Except he most definitely didn't get infected with that shit there, unless it was mostly stamped out by the time I attended.

Has anyone seen his work while at UCLA? While I've heard that Sinfest started out as a comic in the campus newspaper, I don't think I've seen any of his works from the period.

I'm finding Lesbinique to be one of the most grating changes Tats has made in Sinfest, if only because he threw eleven years of character development out the window for it.

And of course because making your characters gay is the cheapest and most pandering way to score points with your new SJW Tumblr audience.

Is it possible to make a character that is gay without pandering? Of course! I would love to see more representation in fiction.

But Tatsuyda is a poor writer so Monique is now just a one dimensional character whose being gay just feels tacked on to say "Progressive" and then forgot about.

That and she still put Abby's job at risk because Monique is a moron.

As jokes at the expense of Slick. At least that's how I interpreted them at the time.

Yet I'm getting more and more the feeling that Tats always was 100% serious in the way he showed things and we as his audience just fucked up by assuming he was making jokes.

Both times we had jokes.

First is "attention whore mode", second is "Monique trying a role".

But yeah, this is just stupid.

Oh for the love of fuck Tats.

Anyone else think that some part of Tats wants to draw Nique/Abby action but doesn't want to commit the HORRIBLE SIN of porn, hence this type of shit?

I'm kinda surprised that no one's told them to "Get a Room!" by now.

edited 29th Apr '15 6:25:16 AM by TargetmasterJoe

Yeah, the earliest strips of Sinfest are pretty much what he did for the UCLA newspaper, with perhaps blatant racism and stuff toned down. Sad, really. He showed such promise.

So, there's something that just occurred to me after reading today's strip, and I wanted to get a second opinion...

Does anyone else get the impression that Tats is, intentionally or not, rehashing the Criminy/Fuschia storyline? I mean, we have a devil girl and a human developing an attraction to each other, with one being flirtatious and the other extremely innocent (though the roles are reversed this time around), and the human giving the devil girl a "You Are Better Than You Think You Are" speech.

It's just that this one feels, I don't know, kind of hollow. Monique has little characterization or depth nowadays, Absinthe's self-esteem issues are barely discussed anymore (making her seem a bit flat), and the entire thing feels like it's spinning out of the Sisterhood's influence and Monique completely cutting Slick out of her life.

BWW came up with a similar theory that all of what the fanbase thought was Monique being a strong independent black woman was in fact Ishida exploiting her sexuality for fanservice, hence why a lot of this radical feminism feels so kneejerk and desperately apologetic. If true, I have to wonder just what kind of person Ishida is that he tried to make spank material and somehow accidentally came out with character development.

edited 29th Apr '15 12:55:01 PM by Watchtower

An equally good question would be how egotistical is Tats that he thinks people would use his comics for spank material.

I mean, it's the internet for Shiva's sake, and nothing Tats has ever provided as fanservice in this comic hasn't been done better elsewhere!

The big problem is that this seems to be how Tats himself sees it. I think he was genuinely trying to make Monique an interesting, well-rounded character; it's just that, when he began advocating for radical feminism, he became convinced that his entire approach was morally wrong.

It's weird, though, because both of Monique's characterizations come across as two radically different interpretations of a "strong female protagonist." Pre-Sisterhood Monique was comfortable in her sexuality and had no problem expressing it; post-Sisterhood Monique tries to downplay it as much as possible and sees her past behavior as a bad thing.

People have noted this before, but there's this odd undercurrent of shame in Tats's turn towards radical feminism. He seems convinced that he was morally in the wrong, and that everything that's followed is some sort of attempt at penance.

New comic:

http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2015-04-30

But it's not for you, silly girl! It's for the even sillier fembot!

Well, at least now we know what is most probably going to happen if Lil'E ingests it.

But how on earth is it supposed to be applied on a robot with no digestive system?

Okay, I'll give Tats credit. He actually gave a legitimate reason as to why the Sisterhood don't just pour that stuff into the water supply and cripple The Devil's manpower.

Still doesn't explain why they never gave any to Slick who REALLY could've used it rather than that useless Jedi-speak, but Tats has earned his cookie.

edited 29th Apr '15 9:20:33 PM by Metalix

Slick is male. Males are evil and must be exterminate, unless they become subservient to females.

Really, isn't this just common logic?