Girly

Girly is a webcomic created by Jackie Lesnick which follows the romantic relationship between two girls named Otra and Winter, as well as other citizens of the city of Cute-Town. It ran from 2003 until 2010.
Plot summary.
The webcomic is a sequel to Lesnick's previous work, "CuteWendy". The initial plotline describes Winter making Otra her sidekick, with the two then becoming friends and later lovers. The first chapter also describes the downfall of the character El Chubacabre, who reviewer Kate Ditzler said "is described as a lover, pleasurer, eater, and penetrater of women."
History.
Girly launched in April 2003. It was an offshoot / sequel to Lesnick's previous work", CuteWendy" and was originally intended to run for no more than 50 strips. However, Lesnick became enamored with the characters.
"Girly" was hosted on Keenspot, but in November 2004, "Girly" moved to its own server. In October 2005, "Girly" became a part of the Dayfree Press collective, a collective of webcomics which included strips such as Dinosaur Comics and Questionable Content.
in August 2006, Lesnick announced that a sales and donation drive had raised $5,000 and while she could not live solely from "Girly", it meant she "could officially concentrate on comics for the rest of the year and not worry too much about making ends meet."
"Girly" ended in September 2010, after 764 strips.
Printing and collections.
In July 2006, the first print collection of "Girly" was published by Radio Comix, in black and white on newsprint. On May 2, 2007, volume 2 became available. Lesnick also ran a successful Kickstarter to print a single collection of all of "Girly" in four books in one slipcover. There have also been book printings of the prequel comic, "CuteWendy".
In 2017, "Girly" was included in the first set of 39 webcomics archived by the Library of Congress.
While the original website for "Girly" is no longer available, the comics are hosted on Lesnick's current website, SuperHappyJackie.
Style.
Girly's style is line-based and monochrome, using a vertical format. The original style of line drawing is akin to a manga-style but with more abstractions, giving it a sketched, freehand sort of look. The line art has evolved a great deal as time has passed, and no longer bears a great resemblance to most manga, however; recent works are somewhat reminiscent of some of John Kricfalusi's work. The art of the strip has shown a steady trend away from thin, pencil-like lines towards a much more variable, ink-brush look.
After a short hiatus, on August 4, 2007, in Girly #504, the art of the strip transitioned to a much more prominent use of color.
Along with absurdity, playing with stereotypes and frequent pop culture references, Girly has a strong vein of sexual humor.
In one strip showing Cute-Town's skyline, Lesnick comments that it "[took] the skyline of Dallas [Texas], add[ing] smiley faces and kittens". However, the interior of Cute-Town is said by the author to resemble Austin, Texas.
Writing at Fleen, webcomics commentator Gary Tyrell described "Girly" as a comic which "quickly became a plot-heavy, continuity-driven strip".
Main characters.
Girly revolves around the main characters Otra and Winter (and often the cat as well). Occasionally the story will move to a small sub-story centered around one of the secondary characters but will eventually be tied back into one of the main characters again.
Reviews.
A writer for Sequential Tart, talking about Lesnick's work in general as of 2004, described her as "ha[ving] a thing for shiny, slippery bodies" and "tend[ing] to have a wacky sense of humor". They continued: "Combine these elements, and you get some of the most entertaining, ridiculous, and sexiest comics on the Internet."
Also in 2004, Wednesday White wrote for Comix Talk that "at the heart, "Girly" is a gentle story that doesn’t want you to know that it’s a gentle story. It’s lovingly crafted, occasionally poignant, and just a little bit removed from itself. It’s also young, bearing the illusion of greater length by dint of loose sequelhood, and still getting a feel for itself. When it’s done kicking chin-heavy law enforcement into reader space to avoid dealing with itself, it’ll be fantastic. Right now, it’s engaging and sweet; that, in and of itself, is no mean feat."
Writing for Websnark, Eric Burns-White said in 2006 that Lesnick was "one of those webcartoonists all the other webcartoonists read. [She] has had tremendous influence over the form [of webcomics]. [Her] development of Slipshine rewrote the book on NC-17 webcomics." Burns-White called "Girly" "Lesnick's finest work to date, and a strip that has tremendous critical acclaim", said that "Girly" was "a strip that works like jazz music" where "the absurdity carries humor with it", and said that Lesnick knew how smartly write stupid people.
In a 2006 article for Fleen, Kate Ditzler said that "Girly" made her uneasy and angry and criticised the strip's use of sexual harassment as a joke. She discussed a set of six strips in which "the woman was grabbed, and for all her scream of surprise or terror (most likely terror) turned into pleasure, as indicated by the hearts around the sound effect, it was rape." On the man who grabs the women, Ditzler said "Winter says he's been doing the right thing, in the wrong way. She proclaims that he has been practicing sexuality haphazardly, leading to guilt and resentment. But what about the common feeling of violation? Of shame? Of disbelief? Of fear and self-blame?... Chupacabre ... was irresistible, and so they just submitted. Does this excuse him? Consider real life attacks: could a rapist claim that they just submitted? Could it be true? Would it make it any better? Chupacabre was finally driven out of town by Winter and Otra. And I stopped reading... The entire first part of this comic is a giant thumbs up to sexual harassment and rape. Joking about rape makes the act of rape a joke."
"Girly" was nominated for a Web Cartoonists' Choice Award in 2005 for "Outstanding Layout".
Author.
"Girly" was created by Jackie Lesnick (writing at the time under her birthname Josh Lesnick) She is also the creator of the comics "Cutewendy", and "Wendy," and has been the editor and main artist of Slipshine, a subscription site featuring pornographic comics by over a dozen artists. According to her website, she was born in 1977 and is a trans woman.