El Goonish Shive starts out terribly. The writing is the typically cringey "bad but self-aware of it" that you see in a lot of "comedy" webcomics, the art is mediocre at best, and the first "storyline" is the two male main characters trying to get the main female character to wear a bikini in the hopes that cheesecake will attract readers. It took me four or five tries to get into the comic because the beginning was awful, and yet I kept hearing raving about how good it was.
After a while, though, the quality starts to improve. Coherent storylines start actually going places, characterization is less one-dimensional, and Shive actually sets up some decent worldbuilding for an intriguing urban fantasy setting. The humor is actually funny, and balanced well with the more serious stories.
Unfortunately, things have started backsliding in that regard recently. The humor seems forced on the rare occasion that it appears, and lots of unresolved plotlines seem to have been completely abandoned. Of course, that's to be expected given how complicated the story has become. Much like the Lernean Hydra, whenever one loose thread gets tied up, two more spring up in its place.
Then there's the LGBT content. While I can't say that representing sexual minorities is a bad thing, it can get taken too far. As an example, one of the more recent subplots involved Elliot having to effectively brainwash himself into identifying as female, because that's the only way magic would stop giving him spells that are humiliating to cast. There's also the fact that a lot of it was played pretty fetishisticly earlier on, so some of it, notably Tedd being revealed as genderfluid, feels kind of retcon-y.
Overall, if you're a fan of incredibly complex storylines, gender politics, and urban fantasy, you'll probably like EGS.
For me, it falls firmly into "I can see why people like this, but I'm not a fan."
Not bad, but not my bag, baby
Warning: Contains unmarked spoilers.
El Goonish Shive starts out terribly. The writing is the typically cringey "bad but self-aware of it" that you see in a lot of "comedy" webcomics, the art is mediocre at best, and the first "storyline" is the two male main characters trying to get the main female character to wear a bikini in the hopes that cheesecake will attract readers. It took me four or five tries to get into the comic because the beginning was awful, and yet I kept hearing raving about how good it was.
After a while, though, the quality starts to improve. Coherent storylines start actually going places, characterization is less one-dimensional, and Shive actually sets up some decent worldbuilding for an intriguing urban fantasy setting. The humor is actually funny, and balanced well with the more serious stories.
Unfortunately, things have started backsliding in that regard recently. The humor seems forced on the rare occasion that it appears, and lots of unresolved plotlines seem to have been completely abandoned. Of course, that's to be expected given how complicated the story has become. Much like the Lernean Hydra, whenever one loose thread gets tied up, two more spring up in its place.
Then there's the LGBT content. While I can't say that representing sexual minorities is a bad thing, it can get taken too far. As an example, one of the more recent subplots involved Elliot having to effectively brainwash himself into identifying as female, because that's the only way magic would stop giving him spells that are humiliating to cast. There's also the fact that a lot of it was played pretty fetishisticly earlier on, so some of it, notably Tedd being revealed as genderfluid, feels kind of retcon-y.
Overall, if you're a fan of incredibly complex storylines, gender politics, and urban fantasy, you'll probably like EGS. For me, it falls firmly into "I can see why people like this, but I'm not a fan."