The Slash Pile

Title: Death is Only a Theoretical Concept
Author: S.K. Een
Format: Novella
Published/Free: Free
Length: 91 pages
Status: Complete
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Sex and violent acts are both mentioned, fantasy- and reality-based racism
Link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/470818
Summary: Steve has been bitten by a zombie; when he dies, he will become either a shambling, mindless corpse or one of a handful of sentient undead. Abe is a vampire whose sire/Aunt doesn’t approve of relationships with “breathers.” They meet when Steve friends dare him to seduce a vampire.

Review: This story has zombies, vampires, fishermen, and friends who have a really odd concept of a gentle nudge. Port Carmilla, Australia, where all of this takes place, is an interesting bit of world-building. Een has more stories from Port Carmilla at their WordPress page. They also have a Tumblr account full of hilarious texts between the characters. Both are linked on the Smashwords author bio page.

[Original Post]

Title: El Goonish Shive
Author: Dan Shive
Format: Webcomic
Length: 109 chapters so far
Status: Wip
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Bullying, homophobia, forced outing of a gay character, sexism (all mainly on the part of minor characters and/or condemned by the story)
Link: http://egscomics.com/
Summary: A comic about a group of teenagers and the bizarre, often supernatural, situations that they face. Has a lot of focus on both the interpersonal relationships of the characters and on the supernatural abilities and troubles of themselves and those around them (with shapeshifting and “genderbends”/temporary physical sex transformations being two that receive a lot of focus, especially in earlier storylines).

Review: El Goonish Shive is a bit of an odd duck, and many readers may be put off by its extremely rough beginning. Not only is the comic short and poorly drawn at the beginning of the story, its storylines and characters (and the overall quality of the writing) leave much to be desired, and even once the story itself begins to evolve, the LGBTQ characters’ identities might not seem obvious at first, and the early focus on transformations may put some off.

However, if one can suffer through the story’s growing pains, they’ll be rewarded with a surprisingly complex modern fantasy-sci fi blend with a likeable and similarly complex cast of characters. These characters are teenagers, and not only do they have to deal with the relationship drama and struggles with identity that are characteristic of that age, they also have to deal with meddling immortals, developing powers, and misguided magic users, and the two often intersect in surprising ways.

[Original Post]

Title: Tied in Red
Author: Torakodragon
Format: Webcomic
Length: 83 pages so far
Status: Wip
Rating: Teen
Warnings: None
Link: http://tied-in-red.smackjeeves.com/
Summary: Ned’s a normal guy. All he wants is a normal life, with a normal job, and a normal wife, in the normal universe where those with soul mates are born with a red string.

Review: [Rec’d on Western Yaoi forum] Tied in Red by Torakodragon is a relatively young comic; it just started this summer. So far, though, it has been a very sweet story. Ned and Doug live in a universe where everyone who has a soul mate is born with a red string tied to his-or-her finger. Eventually this string will simply join with its mate, and the two people attached to those strings will become attached to each other for one week. There is even a government agency tasked with assisting the tied.

The author insists that it is “horribly drawn,” but the art — while not fancy — is pleasant and attractive. The characters, even the secondary ones, are interesting and likable. As a whole, the comic just makes me smile.

Updates sporadically.

Title: Incubus Tales
Author: Hushicho
Format: Webcomic
Length: 20+ chapters
Status: Wip
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Explicit sex
Link: http://www.incubustales.com
Summary: The adventures of an Incubus shopkeeper named Dhiar and his fabulous shop Phantasies, which can travel anywhere. Plenty of satire and plenty of sexy fun.

Review: Review not provided.

(Original Post)

Title: Concession
Author: Immelmann
Format: Webcomic
Length: 21 chapters/ ~376 pgs
Status: Complete
Rating: Ultra Mature. Very, very ultra mature.
Warnings: Read at your own risk. The list of what Concession DOESN’T need a warning for is probably easier come up with… But I can’t come up with anything on it right now. For the basic warnings, we’ll go with sex (of all kinds), violence (in all its forms), controversial concepts and inappropriate subject matter. And rape, because that warning does always need to be typed out.
Link: http://concessioncomic.com/
Summary: Concession is a furry webcomic for mature audiences. It is a crazy and insane collection of sexy, dramatic, and humerous adventures of the crew of a move theatre. It won the 2009 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story. It’s contents focus on sexuality (most of the characters are bisexual or homosexual) and dark themes of violence.

Review: Concession is a fun romp, starting with a gag a day comic format with some good, but rough, artwork. The art improves significantly after Immy starts using a tablet, and improves gradually over time, as most webcomics do. The gag a day format evolves rather quickly into serious drama and angst, and the comic transforms into something spectacular. Immy does a great job following all of his characters lives, which is seriously impressive considering the sheer number of recurring characters in the comic. This is one of a very few number of webcomics I’ve ever run across that attempts world building to this level, and Immy is a master at it.

1. Concession is touted by Immelmann as a furry webcomic. It comes across to me (not a furry) as no different from any other work involving anthro characters (think Two Kinds or Slightly Damned) You don’t have to understand flurries to enjoy this comic.
2. This is mostly m/m, but not restricted to m/m. I’d call it ‘various’, and bear in mind that the characters aren’t drawn with genitalia other than breasts, usually, so even when sex is depicted, you probably can’t see the naughty bits.

(Original Post)