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I've occasionally mentioned The Stiff; horror webcomic, kayfabe'd to be an adaptation of a 7th century "cautionary tale possibly related to the teachings of the Indian tantric master Padmasambhava" unearthed by archaeologists in 1997. Since that doesn't sell, the comic adaptation of the story was reworked a little, which is why it's set in a modern high school.
The main character (and only human shown in today's strip) is Alistair Toth. He's... odd. He's a horror fan, he writes, and he has an absolute abhorrence of... well... gooshy stuff. Sex. Body fluids. Reminders of the organic. This isn't slowing down his crush any, but it does mean he's a lot weird about admitting it.
Early on in the story, he was playing around with hypnotizing himself while he had a fever and gave himself the instruction to never change. Since then, things have gotten weirder. He tore his hand open on his locker door and didn't really seem to notice it. He seems touchier, and stronger, and generally more distant. And then there's the transfer student who looks like a female version of him...
My personal favourite theory is that he died of his fever, and hasn't lain down yet.
And, as can be noted in today's strip, his dog just attacked him.
(The dog's name is Sredni Vashtar, by the way. It's not a bad story--it's by Saki, who I always think of as a kind of understated O. Henry--and fits really well with both the generally understated nature of the story and Alistair's own love of horror. Thompson puts in a ton of references, and is quite open about it. I like it, personally.)
The subscription is $2.99/month, and quite honestly, it is perfectly possible to buy the subscription for a month, catch up on the entire backstory, and then cancel the subscription and just keep up with the (now, sadly) weekly updates.
On another note, Chad Michael Ward does a lot of art. I'm not usually a fan of reworked photographs, especially for horror, but I kind of like his stuff. Not work-safe.
The main character (and only human shown in today's strip) is Alistair Toth. He's... odd. He's a horror fan, he writes, and he has an absolute abhorrence of... well... gooshy stuff. Sex. Body fluids. Reminders of the organic. This isn't slowing down his crush any, but it does mean he's a lot weird about admitting it.
Early on in the story, he was playing around with hypnotizing himself while he had a fever and gave himself the instruction to never change. Since then, things have gotten weirder. He tore his hand open on his locker door and didn't really seem to notice it. He seems touchier, and stronger, and generally more distant. And then there's the transfer student who looks like a female version of him...
My personal favourite theory is that he died of his fever, and hasn't lain down yet.
And, as can be noted in today's strip, his dog just attacked him.
(The dog's name is Sredni Vashtar, by the way. It's not a bad story--it's by Saki, who I always think of as a kind of understated O. Henry--and fits really well with both the generally understated nature of the story and Alistair's own love of horror. Thompson puts in a ton of references, and is quite open about it. I like it, personally.)
The subscription is $2.99/month, and quite honestly, it is perfectly possible to buy the subscription for a month, catch up on the entire backstory, and then cancel the subscription and just keep up with the (now, sadly) weekly updates.
On another note, Chad Michael Ward does a lot of art. I'm not usually a fan of reworked photographs, especially for horror, but I kind of like his stuff. Not work-safe.