It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. And it was the end of times.

TSF Showcase 2024-50
The Wotch (Season 3) by Anne Onymous and Robin Ericson

Hello and welcome to the final part in my three-part series covering the classic transformation webcomic The Wotch. The first two parts were familiar ground, but here? We’re going in deep! There are roughly 400 pages to cover, spanning works released from November 28, 2006 to July 20, 2020. It’s a lot to cover, but it’s not quite as intimidating as it seems.

If you need a refresher on the series, check out my showcase on season 1 and season 2. Once you’re properly prepped, come back and see how it all ended. How this comic rose to brave new heights, how it crumbled away, and how it is currently wallowing in where it is. But before I can get into the story, the development here is so messy that it warrants a timeline of the delays and key events.

Table of Contents:

The History of The Wotch Season 3

The Wotch is no stranger to prolonged hiatuses or delays. I already talked about the six month hiatus between seasons 1 and 2 and the three month hiatus during part 11 of the comic. However, this is where the delays become serious and start cropping up far more often. As a quick note, most of this information is not included on the current The Wotch website, nor is there any fan wiki keeping tabs on this. So I am getting my information using The WayBack Machine and the news archives, while being mindful of the changes to the website done in 2011 and 2016. Also, some of the dates used in the current incarnation of TheWotch.com do not match what is in the WayBack Machine (WBM), and I trust the WBM more than what is on the current site.

Season 2 of The Wotch ended with the comic in a pretty healthy state. Comics were coming out regularly, donations were keeping the site alive and keeping Onymous employed. The series had some momentum behind it, with a quality season 2 finale, and the creators had a month of ‘one shot specials’ to pad things for November 2006 while they worked on what season 3 would be. But already we can tell something was off with the covers.

**As someone who has created novel covers, the inconsistent aspect ration BUGS me!**

The cover for season 2 was jam-packed full of ideas and imagery that would later be seen in subsequent storylines, some planned two years in advance. But season 3’s cover is very plain. Anne facing off against Xaos, Miranda and the first Wotch in the background, and a cluster of Robin, Jason, and Sonja on the top. Does this mean this is meant to be the final season, where all is revealed? No clue! But even then, why lead with such a generic hero versus villain cover?

Also, the cover for part 19, which is probably one of the best covers in the entire series, was delayed for 20 days, because Onymous could not think of a cover design. Which is just… strange. As for the comic pages themselves, five pages were released from November 29, 2006 to December 25, 2006.

On December 29, 2006, unspecified “major, major personal issues” experienced by Onymous brought the comic to a two month hiatus and this time was filled with a bevy of guest comics. Comics that, you guessed it, were never brought over to the current site, and were not archived by the WBM. This hiatus lasted until the comic resumed on February 26, 2007. Updates during this period were spotty, sometimes coming in three times a week, other times only once a week, and sometimes skipping weeks entirely. In saying this, I am ignoring the largely unarchived ‘Sunday Specials’ by guest artists. Ultimately, they concluded part 19 on June 15, 2007.

Part 20 began on July 18, 2007, following a month of one shots and guest comics, but the schedule only got worse as time went on and Onymous had to return to school. This led her to release a lengthy update that you can read here, just scroll down to the news section and expand the September 17, 2007 entry. In short, Onymous switched the comic over to weekly updates, every Tuesday, but even that proved to be a bit too difficult. The fifth anniversary update was just a drawing and congratulation from the comic artist Todd Nauck of Young Justice fame. Not a personal thank you, likely just a commission from Robin and site webmaster Thom. The Tuesday date also fluttered around, but they were able to finish part 20 on February 19, 2008.

Part 21 started a week later on February 26, 2008. With this one Onymous wanted to try going back to a biweekly schedule, and kinda kept up with it. Both Ericson and Onymous had family obligations. Onymous was packing up for a big move. So some missed updates of half-page releases are understandable. The part ended on the respectable date of August 5, 2008. Which is about what you would expect for a biweekly 38 page comic.

One shots filled in the next month. This included the otherworld adventures of ‘Soldiers and Pirates and Demons… Oh My!’, which was just more antics with the resistance fighters showcased in part 12. Along with the highly important interlude, The Originals, which will get its own section. Also, around this time, on September 21, 2008, The Wotch saw its first printed book release with Wotch: Beginner, compiling the first five parts in physical media. This is something I have zero memory of, and it does not exist as far as search engines are concerned. Same with pretty much all the merch made for this series, like the pens and the Wotch watch.

Part 22 kicked off on September 16, 2008, and had a largely stable release history, a few missed updates, but the holidays delayed things after the December 23, 2008 penultimate page, leaving the final page for January 9, 2009. One shots then kicked off, adding more context and insights to the world and the assorted cast.

Part 23 is where things just utterly collapse, with delays so severe that they would spell the end for most webcomics. The part began on February 3, 2009, but four pages in, everything screeched to a halt. On February 22, 2009, it was announced that Onymous fell on some ice and dislocated her right shoulder. This gave way to three months of assorted filler, but most notably Juju, a 12 page arc from Ian Samson. The artist behind the animated The Wotch trailer, various filler comics in the past, and the eventual artist of The Wotch. Juju is not preserved on WBM and the fact that it is not included as part of the current site is, quite simply, moronic.

Onymous finally returned to her artistic duties on May 19, 2009, but the pages were routinely published without color, due to Ericson’s busy schedule and a “glandular issue” he developed from an infection in early 2009. Onymous was also still busy with real-life circumstances, so updates were either weekly-ish or twice a week until July 10, 2009. The following page was published on August 4, 2009, and the final main page of The Wotch drawn by Onymous was published on August 21, 2009.

Onymous provided a statement regarding this delay on November 10, 2009, which I will provide verbatim:

Well…What can I say, really?

I’ve been told in the past that I have avoidance issues. When times of stress or problems arise, I just kinda back away or, well, avoid them. Trust me, it’s not fun, and the worst part is that even knowing it’s a problem, it doesn’t make it easier to fix.

It’s been a long time since the last update. Circumstances on both mine and Robin’s sides, time constraints, stress from work…All of these played parts in putting off the update for a bit. Add to that frustration I was experiencing in the writing and the art, and that pushed it off even more. Top it all off with avoidance issues, and it’s been what you’ve seen (or not seen, really).

I’ve not been to the forums in forever; my e-mail goes unchecked; I’ve not drawn; I’m sick of re-writes. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if I can come back from this or not. The longer that goes by, the more I know I’m disappointing people, and the more that happens, the more I draw back. It sucks.

And that leads me to the worst part of this update: I still don’t know when there will be something worthwhile to post. Robin’s feeling better physically, which was a big hang-up with the coloring earlier. But I’m still having lots of problems that I feel like I should have overcome by now.

If you’re reading this, thanks for sticking around. I wish I had better news for you.

I suppose the one bit of hope is that I’ve been pondering how to adjust things to be more workable. Brainstormed ideas include a change in the art style, lessening the amount of panels per page, even changing up character designs for some variety. People who have contacted me have been very encouraging, and I feel very guilty for not having jack to show for it.

Perhaps this is a sign I’ve finally bitten off more than I can chew, or perhaps this is just a looooong, unexpected break that needed to happen. 2009 has not been kind to The Wotch–or maybe that’s the other way around, really.

I’m sorry for the massive, unprompted, and inexcusable delay. If we’ve lost your readership, that is our own fault. Perhaps someday we can get it back.

EDIT: Oh, heh, I forgot to mention my broken scanner. Well, granted, that’s a big technological impediment, but from my perspective it’s kinda the least of the problems. :P

It seemed very possible that after nearly 7 years, The Wotch was just outright done. However, it attracted a very strong fanbase over the years, and two of them were Peter Prellwitz and Lily Mountjoy, the creators behind Angel of St. Thomas, another comic under the CMX banner. With The Wotch stuck in a prolonged hiatus, the two took it upon themselves to tell a story centering on Katie McBride and Samantha Wolfie, dubbed Blue Moon Reflection. This guest arc was published from December 22, 2009 to March 9, 2010, with two epilogue pages being published a few weeks later. Unlike every other guest arc, this one is present on the current site.

…I know I sound like a broken record, but can you imagine getting possibly hundreds of comics drawn by fans of your work only to allow them to disappear? This is not independently published fan art— which The Wotch actively supported, calling it fAnne art. This is something featured on the main page, made by friends and colleagues.

Almost a year later, on April 5, 2010, the comic saw its next update with a weekly 10 page guest arc created by David P. Ragan. It was a Star Trek parody and I will not be covering it, but you can read it on the WBM if you are so inclined. And yes, WBM saved these, when the site was relatively dead, but not most of the guest arcs from when it was more popular.

In August 2011, TheWotch.com underwent a significant redesign that compartmentalized the series into the main comic, filler, and special guest arcs, and changed the background to a pleasant purple. And after over a year-long hiatus since the last update, comics resumed on August 8, 2011. Now, you might be thinking I’m off by a week if you look at the current TheWotch.com. And You want to know why? Because Onymous and Ericson did not include a seven-page recap created by Ian Samson. Which hurts, because it’s absolutely fantastic!

On August 15, 2011, Samson resumed part 23 where Onymous left off, and the comic adopted a weekly schedule, releasing a new page each Monday. …Except for delays caused by Onymous and Ericson, who were working as the writer and colorer, respectively. I really do not want to be rude to Onymous here, but how the HELL do you get behind on writing for a weekly webcomic? Furthermore, why would you not just write the entire thing in advance, like a print comic writer? Whatever. Barring these delays, part 23 finally reached its conclusion on April 2, 2012. Ending this part after over three years.

Part 24 began publication a month and a half later on May 21, 2012 and continued a weekly schedule until August 27, 2012. Delays from Onymous, pertaining to her career, left Samson without any comic to make, but he did produce two fillers that are not available on the current site. (Again, WHY?) He resumed on September 24, 2012 and brought the arc to an end on February 18, 2013. This was also around the time when the site emphasized donations again. …Which they launched right before the series went on a several month mini hiatus, with Samson drawing periodic filler. And this filler, because it is newer, is on the current site. Donation images aren’t though. And I don’t think they’re on the Patreon either so…

Part 24.5 is my unofficial denomination for the Swap Filler or Mass Swap Mayhem chapter, and it was a unique animal, being updated newspaper strip format 5 days a week from May 20, 2013 to June 14, 2013. I believe it was fully created by Samson, so the lack of delays makes sense. And if you think that is being uncharitable, on September 25, 2013, Ericson said he and Onymous were still planning the next arc. After seven months.

Part 25 is a 13 page side chapter, rather than a full arc, and its publication history is very simple. It started on December 16, 2013 came out weekly, twice a week in some instances, and finished on March 3, 2014. It also marked the end of Samson’s time as the artist of the series, and I do not blame him. Based on the updates from this time, it sounds like he was ready and willing to do art for the series, but the writers waited way too long to give him anything to do. (God, can you imagine having an artist as brilliant as Ian Samson and not giving him anything to do?)

Two filler comics came out in December 2014, and neither of them are on the current site, because… I guess the moonlight did not shimmer on them at the right altitude?

Part 26, the final part of The Wotch, began on December 5, 2014, and it requires some preamble. While I have discussed Onymous and Ericson much in the past, I have barely said anything about Thomas ‘Thom’ Revor. That is because he does not present himself in the news or commentary of the comic, but he has been part of the project since early on, mostly with regards to the website. Much of this information would likely be in the old CMX forums, which I have not even attempted to sift through. This is due to how challenging it can be to understand even active forum history, let alone incomplete archives of a forum.

**I LOVE HORSES! BEST OF ALL THE ANIMALS!**

However, Revor takes over the writing duties in this part, which I think means Onymous is largely uninvolved with the comic going forward. Ericson, however, is still in charge of coloring, at least in some instances. Him taking over the writing duties is strange, but at least it makes some sense, as he is a legacy part of the series.

In addition, part 26 introduces a new artist with Andy Santos. Choosing him as the next artist was questionable for several reasons, chief among them being the fact that his wife had a baby in December 2014, when this arc started. This meant that Santos was only able to produce three pages for the series— really, more like two pages and one panel— before another hiatus began on December 24, 2014.

Four pieces of filler percolated 2015, including one piece of fan art by Onymous, but the main comic did not resume until February 22, 2016. …Which was right before the second incarnation of TheWotch.com came under fire and the site had to move to its new home on WordPress. Despite this thought, Revor and Santos still were able to put out 8 pages through May 23, 2016, bringing the total for this arc to 11.

After this, Santos experienced an arm injury and ultimately decided to part ways with The Wotch. This meant the comic was out of an artist, again. I would ask why Onymous couldn’t just come back, and I think the answer is that she was not happy with her artwork, not happy with drawing digital, and struggled to find the same spark she once had. In fact, the piece she prepared for The Wotch appears to be for the October 23, 2016 announcement that The Wotch was opening a Patreon. Which may or may not be recycled bonus art. I don’t know.

Onymous wasn’t planning on coming back, so The Wotch became a Patreon funded comic on October 23, 2016. Per Graphtreon, the Patreon peaked at 52 paid members, generating $551 per month in January 2017, but that figure rapidly declined throughout the years. It was only $200 by the end of 2017, slipped below $100 at the start of 2020, and is currently making a mere $38 per month from 13 paid members. Those people are the real diehards.

So, what did The Wotch do for a new artist? Well, they went with Shieltar, a transformation and furry artist with roots in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom. And he would serve as the final artist for The Wotch. Following some sketches and a bizarre 12th anniversary comic preview, the comic resumed on January 9, 2017. Where the schedule was semi-regular but mostly random. Pages were coming out, weekly at best and often only two a month throughout 2017.

What is weird about the Shieltar pages is that they do not list the writer for the comic from January 9, 2017 to October 23, 2017. Just that Ericson did the colors and Shieltar did the art. Then, on October 30, 2017 and November 6, 2017, the writer is listed as Andy F, before the writer switches to Omega on November 13, 2017. Omega, also known as Omega Greyfox, or Omega-Warrior, is another furry transformation artist, and I have no idea why he is in charge of writing now. His arrival was not announced on the website. He’s just there now.

Also, per some link hopping, I figured out that Andy F stands for Andrew Finney, and he used to work on a long-abandoned webcomic called Life Goes On. For the record, this comic was not part of the list of links to other webcomics featured on older versions of the website. Maybe Omega is just a long-term Wotch fan? I don’t know. Did he start writing the series when Shieltar took over the art duties? Again, no clue!

Together, the trio of Omega, Shieltar, and Ericson were able to keep the comic going at a slow pace for almost two years. Updates staggered, becoming monthly, but they kept it going until July 8, 2019, when the series saw a year-long delay. The site moved to a new webhost in September 2019, but then it remained dormant until a gorgeous Ian Samson filler page went up on July 8, 2020, with commentary bemoaning the additional stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was then followed by the final main story comic, uploaded on July 20, 2020. A full year later, for just one page.

After this, only filler was released from assorted artists and random intervals until reaching what has been on the front page of The Wotch since June 2, 2023. An AI generated image of Anne as a naga sea captain, generated by Ericson and Shieltar. While The Wotch has had many prolonged delays, this one image has remained on the front page longer than any other image in the comic’s history.

After 2020, the writer, Omega, has seemingly left The Wotch, having not posted any messages in the Discord in four years and lacking any admin role. From 2021 to 2023, Shieltar has produced three small comics based on The Wotch. Bad Ending (Book 2), Wotch Holiday of Legend, and What Djinn You Mean. None of these have been uploaded to TheWotch.com, but DeviantArt was okay, I guess. And The Wotch’s Discord is largely a hangout spot for a couple dozen people, with relatively little discussion pertaining to the comic it’s named after .

And that… about covers the development. I was not expecting that to go on so long, but this development was so hectic and spotty that I felt it was necessary to grant it its own section. And now that I am done with that, it’s time to finally begin assessing The Wotch as a comic once again. And buckle up, because it’s about to get bumpy!

Part 19: Something Wicked This Way Comes…

Released from November 29, 2006 to June 15, 2007.

Before I actually start with part 19, I need to first address its main antagonist, Sykos. An edgy Sephiroth-looking man from the world of Xaos introduced in the final page of part 14 as a potential ally of the resistance, being a neutral third party up until this point. And his neutrality is immediately demonstrated as he turns one of his slave women into a statue for making his eggs wrong… before commenting they were delicious. Talk about mixed messages.

He later showed up in the Minds of Monsters interlude, meeting with the resistance and showing himself in a far more… irreverent light. Exceedingly playful, more than confident in his abilities, and unwilling to take any matter seriously. Also, he has a slime girl maid named Myrrh. Which is more of a sound effect than a name, but whatever. It’s his sovereign nation.

Quite simply, I think Sykos is a perfect type of character for a series like The Wotch. Someone who knows what type of comic he is in, and is devoted to making every scene he’s in funny, memorable, or otherwise entertaining. The type of wild card anti-hero who would work brilliantly as a recurring character if introduced earlier, and the kind practically engineered to be a fan favorite. Silly enough to be a clown, competent enough to be cunning, and powerful enough to be a threat.

This is perfectly captured when he begins this part by explaining how he figured out transdimensional travel and plans to secure the Wotch for himself as a bargaining chip. …While talking to a woman-turned-statue and turning her into a fountain for listening. He then sends a note to announce his arrival, where it lands in the hands of… a janitor? Well, no, it’s actually Mr. Jon Suroto! Remember!? The band teacher, who I think was last seen in part 4, nearly three years ago? Well, he’s still around, setting up the gym because Tandy Garden’s High’s janitor was probably turned into a goat at some point.

Miranda, having access to tomes of prophecy, is able to foresee Sykos’s arrival and forces Anne out of school to meditate all day. Except that doesn’t work, because Anne’s 15-years-old, and what teenager likes to meditate? Miranda eventually lets her free to go out on a mall trip with Robin and Jason, or rather Robyn and Sonja. It’s a largely incidental trip beyond an encounter with Stephen. He’s a school jock, but one that seems to have retained some of his conditioning from his D.O.L.L.Y. indoctrination. Namely, be nice to women, and don’t treat them like things.

Cassie sees this play out, decides that this is the perfect opportunity to free Robin from Anne’s clutches, and tries her hand at a persuasion potion, mixing it with a mini bottle of cola. Through much exertion, she finally gets Anne to drink the soda, but even when she does, the potion does not affect her. Not because Anne is just that powerful, but because this potion doesn’t work in a caffeinated beverage. If only Cassie learned how to read.

As this is playing out, Sykos makes his grand entrance into Tandy Gardens and an audience of one Mr. Suroto. He does not believe Sykos, at all, and thinks he’s just some LARP kid, but Sykos makes him a believer by ka-girling Suroto into a young perky blonde woman. Suroto is stunned after this transformation… and five seconds later, they are completely on board with this. With their new life as Sykos’s maiden, new body, new identity as Aimee, and the new adventures before them.

This is an odd reaction for sure, and initially it is implied to be some sort of mental alteration— that Skyos turned Suroto into an easygoing bimbo GF. But no. Aimee is either that elated to be like this, or just playing the long game for her own benefit. Maybe she was just that miserable as a school teacher that she would take any escape presented to her. Maybe she just broke with the introduction of magic into her life, and accepted his life as a mighty wizard’s right hand woman. Because Aimee outright tells Anne not to “ruin this for me,” when she tries to turn them back to normal. I do not think any mental alterations happened— it’s not implied anywhere— but boy do I wonder what makes her tick.

With one maiden in tow, Sykos prances down the streets as he makes his way to Anne, turning random passersby into women, and womanly beastfolks, to join his parade. He even rides on a centaur woman, which I always thought was a centaur hate crime or akin to dry humping somebody, but I guess it depends on the lore. He eventually arrives and engages Anne in combat, letting his maidens watch as he does his “zapping.” Well, except for one. Skyos sends them to grab him a taco. He doesn’t know what it is, but he wants one. Which is the most late ‘2000s lol so random’ line I’ve read in a hot minute.

The ensuing fight scene here is noteworthy for being the closest thing we ever get to an Anne vs Cassie battle. Sykos uses magical strings to turn Cassie into a flame-fisted doll, complete with joint marks, and puppets her as she battles Anne, who still thinks Cassie is incapable of any magic. Cassie’s power and movement are amplified by Sykos, spiralling about and acrobatically flinging between Anne’s strikes as she is put on the defensive, using a lot of shields and deflection spells before being grabbed. Anne narrowly escapes by becoming a mouse, Aimee misdirects Sykos of her location, because “unpredictability is hot”, and Anne uses this opportunity to sever the strings controlling Cassie.

This switches the fight into the next phase, and Sykos agrees to put his innocent victims away and test which one of them is the most powerful chaos magic user around! …Before Sykos gets klonked in the head with a bowling ball dropped by Lily from the second floor. A bit of an anti-climax, but this battle had lasted for a month at this point.

Anne uses this opportunity to magically imprison Sykos, have him undo his transformations, and turn everybody back to normal. Well, except for Aimee and the ‘maiden’ he sent out to get tacos. They’re just stuck like this now! But it’s cool. This unnamed character is actually based on a friend of The Wotch, Darin Brown, also known as Dorin Naga, who has been doing TF art for, like, two decades at this point. Neat!

Sykos then explains things to Anne. How the resistance and Xaos are both interested in her. How the resistance thinks she is an ally of Xaos. And how Xaos would never agree with Anne’s nonlethal approach to combat, so they cannot be allies. Before they can continue with the interrogation though, Miranda shows up and calls Anne up to her bedroom… where a trap is sprung, sending Anne to a white void. Presumably the same place she sent Uricarn back in part 6.

**The joke is that the readers of The Wotch were called Wotchers. Which is low-key one of the best fandom terms I’ve heard. All you folks do is WATCH!**

Okay, but who planted this trap? Well, earlier in this part, a bit character was introduced in Lucy, a friend of Lily and Jennie who was presented as just another face in the crowd. Yet here, apropos of nothing, it is revealed that they are actually a new minion of Xaos, Lucineax, a gray-skinned ninja elf with a backpack of spider-like legs. She only appears in this chapter and a one shot shortly thereafter.

In this white void, Anne is greeted by Uricarn once more, introduced to Kohain for the first time, and is greeted by the shadowy phantom of Xaos. Xaos is the center of attention here and he explains that their battle is inevitable, prophesied in writings as old as the written world in any dimension. And to accelerate this process, he has been amplifying her powers, all so that he can achieve his ultimate goal. “To bring about the annihilation of all worlds.” To which Anne laughs, thinking this is a silly end goal, because it is. …And I just realized I’ve literally written novels, plural, about how dumb of a goal it is.

Still, Xaos is sure that he has already won, sealed her fate, and all that malarkey, all because of prophecy brouhaha. He leaves Anne with his minions, and as she is forced into a three-on-one with depleted power reserves, her friends back home start devising a way to bring her back. They use Cassie as a magical medium to open a portal so Evan can rush in and save her… only for Anne to just get tossed back to her world. Meaning she needs to rush back in to save Evan from Xaos’s cronies. That was very necessary.

With the conflict dealt with, the main characters all sit down and exchange information regarding Xaos and his prophecy, leading Canne to intuit that the true power of the Wotch is based on chaos. That the Wotch is the master of chaos magic, she is chaos personified. While the Worlock, i.e.Xaos, is the master of order magic, and is order personified.

Which in turn means that Xaos’s name is not ‘Xtreme Chaos.’ Nor is it meant to be χaos, using chi, a symbol short for Christ, which would make him The Christ of Chaos, and make his name be pronounced as kai-aos. Which sucks, because I planned on making that a running gag! Instead, Xaos means X-chaos, or X the chaos, with X meaning against or anti. Just like XTheMusic or XItsTyler! (If you know, you know. If not, you’re too late.) Part of me wants to call him XTheChaos for the rest of this showcase, but I think that would be crossing a line.

The comic then ends with Sykos returning to his castle and freeing all of his slave women from their clutches, because Aimee is the ultimate ditzy bimbo waifu and all he needs. While Ming, who showed up to Anne’s house for the sake of showing up, accidentally steps on some suspicious green goop that looks a lot like Sykos’s slime maid.

Part 19 establishes that season 3 will be a bigger and more intense story than what came before it. One featuring more otherworldly encounters, and greater progression toward the inevitable encounter with Anne and Xaos. By no means it is presenting itself as the final chapter, but it gives the characters a more pressing end goal with a vague but omnipresent countdown. Though, that’s not really what the rest of the season is. It’s pretty much as silly and lighthearted as the other two, and things do not get serious again until part 23… and then part 26.

Still, as its own part, I think this is great. A bit questionably paced and a bit too many big blocks of dialogue to explain things. Yet it introduces a riot of a villain, has a great sense of humor about everything, and offers some juicy progression regarding Xaos and the role of the Wotch.

As per semi-usual, this ending was followed by various one shots that expanded on characters in bite sized scenarios. A return of Glock and Ti’el, a sex switching trip to the mall for Katie and Wolfie after they learn that Jason likes going to the mall as Sonja. A cute mental crisis from Irene as she thinks about her time as James and how while she’s fine with a girl, she also really wants to be a boy again. …Only to bail when approached by Anne. Somebody really needs to give these two some yin-yang necklaces, or a trip to Jusenkyo.

Part 20: A Girl and Her Blob

Released from July 18, 2007 to February 19, 2008.

You know who hasn’t really gotten a spotlight episode since her big transformation? Ming! And you know who is a fan favorite character, and my favorite character? Ming! So it only makes sense that the series would try to do something with Ming, but… what is there to do with her? She is a smartie, mature, and is part of the cheer squad now, but she doesn’t really have much of a story to tell beyond winning at life. Let alone a magic power to call her own like the Were girls. So, what do the creators do? Give her a lovable blob creature from Blobolonia who loves jelly beans and will be her companion in this mad, mad world? Almost!

The start of the arc is devoted to establishing what is normal for Ming as she goes through her school days, including regular magical run-ins courtesy of Anne, and covering for her friends. But as she does so, she keeps running into slightly strange happenings regarding a slimy green figure, stealing food from others as the creature grows and expands. All before shlooping its way onto her bedroom fan and flinging itself onto Ming’s face, where it paralyzes her, impregnating her with a parasitic abomination that will— wait, no. I just made one of these jokes!

The slime reveals herself to be Myrrh, the slime maid from Lord Sykos’s castle. She explains that she used to be a regular maid that merged with a slime experiment created by her master, but she lost the battle, merging with the slime and ultimately finding it to be a beneficial transformation. It gave her the powers to shift in size, shrink into small places, and removed her pesky human limitations. In part 17, I said that I know a lot of people who would agree to become an eternal slave if they could become an immortal and pretty maid. And while I don’t know of as many people who would become seemingly immortal slime girl maids, I know of more than a few.

However, Myrrh wanted freedom, to escape the clutches of Skyko’s lair, and flee this doomed world. So she condensed her “core cells” into a vital and went dimension hopping with Sykos. She didn’t really have much of a plan when arriving here, but apparently developed the power to form a mental bond with people, and Ming seemed nice enough. So they are now girl and slime girl, mind-bonded sisters. That would be plenty exciting on its own… but Tandy is having yet another crisis.

Jameston is a fancily dressed old man who is first seen accosting Milo in his magic shop and appears a few pages later as a grand master behind a plot to summon Weres from across nearby regions and activate their bestial powers even outside of the full moon. His plan, as it were, is to channel the latent power of moons across dimensions and use it to become a demigod, even if it means destroying the fabric of dimensions. A bit much for a one-off antagonist, but his goals and eventual battle with Anne are firmly the B-plot. With the A-plot centering around Ming as she feeds Myrrh a few jelly beans during a werewolf vs werecat battle at a candy store.

These do nothing initially, as Myrrh’s body takes some time to digest her food, but when she does, her body bursts into excess slime and grows exponentially. She knows this is dangerous… but they taste so good that she cannot help it! I’d make a drug joke, but in the spirit with The Wotch, I’m trying to keep things PG.

Myrrh then begins her rampage over Tandy, gobbling up whoever she comes across, sucking up jelly beans— and presumably other candies— at the candy store, and growing giant in the process. She slurps up a party in the woods hosted by the girls from Cheer, grows to OG King Kong size, and when she finally reunites with Ming, Ming thrusts herself into Myrrh’s goopy body, entering into her mindspace.

Here, she sees that the two components of Myrrh— the slime and the maid— have separated into two battling entities, vying for control of this body. Ming has enough experience to know that combat among mental facets is never going to amount to anything, and that the solution to these conflicts is to become an amalgam like her. Both parties need to accept that they are not who they used to be. They are one singular entity who can and should exist in harmony. Together, they are Myrrh. It’s an expedited resolution, but it makes sense considering the time constraints, and echoes the conclusion Mind reached back in part 15, when she merged with Sorgaz.

As this is all happening, Jameston is at the brink of breaking the fabric of all dimensions, before he is abruptly stopped by Xaos. He is disappointed in Anne for letting this happen, calling this a waste of his time— which is rich from a man who slept for like 1,900 years— and saying now is not the time to destroy all worlds. He uses his powers of anti-chaos to bring a stop to Jameston’s plan, and then casts a spell to turn him into a raging electric werewolf. …Who Anne beats off screen through unspecified means. Because the means do not always matter in a B-plot, the ends do, and this is a way for lazy writers to avoid writing a definitive solution. It’s cool, I’ve done the same darn thing in the past.

With the big bad defeated and everybody tired, they go to Miranda’s for teatime. They agree to never let word about this incident slip and, more importantly, let Ming maintain custody of Myrrh, as if you get in the way between a girl and her slime, you’re gonna get gooped!

While I have previously commended The Wotch for juggling multiple plotlines at once, here there is a clear favoritism among the creators and the story they deliver feels… a bit all over the place. It’s not too surprising— I can only imagine the rewrites it went through across seven months of development. However, it’s also a storyline where I’m not quite sure what the overall vision was.

Is this the story of Ming becoming a hero? The story of a slime girl kaiju reigning terror on Tandy Gardens? The story of Anne and Miranda fighting off against an S-tier foe who nearly succeeds at ending the fabric of all dimensions? A kid and alien bonding story? It’s a lot of things, and while it does work, it does not feel like it was executed by people who were fully focused on the story they were telling, the narrative shifting as fascinations mutated. I still like it. I vastly prefer the direction they take Ming as someone trying to be a normal American high school girl, rather than a walking stereotype. I enjoy the chaos that fills its later portions. But the vision just isn’t quite where it needs to be.

Part 21: Now You See Her…

Released from February 26, 2008 to August 5, 2008.

After a chapter of cross-dimensional chaos and the near destruction of reality, part 21 scales things back and begins with the characters attending a magic show. Anne is going out with Stephen, the school jock I told you to remember in part 19, and because Robin is the jealous sort, he is going to the show with Jason to spy on him. You know, like a totally normal friend and not someone who has been harboring a crush for half a year or however long it’s been.

The magic show, hosted by Faustus the Great, is surprisingly elaborate and impressive, captivating Anne and Jason while leaving Robin to rethink his actions and leave the show. …Right before Faustus reveals his true intentions, calling Anne up onto stage, disappearing her, and mind-wiping the audience to think she was never at this performance. Yep, it turns out that this stage magician is actually a real magician, and because everybody wants Anne for their own purposes, his motives could be just about anything.

The following day, Robin contacts Jason about last night and quickly notices a discrepancy in Jason’s recollection, leading the two to investigate Anne’s house. …Only for Cassie to run in right as things get started and tell them that she knows who Faustus is from “the chat rooms [she goes] to.” They investigate and realize that not only is Faustus still at the venue he performed at, along with Anne, no worse for wear.

Faustus explains that he had a run-in with a fellow magic user by the alias of Mr. Sinn, who wanted to work with Faustus on something nefarious. He said no, and the next day one of his assistants went missing. Faustus put two and two together, but rather than go after Sinn himself, he wanted to recruit Anne to help him out. …And the best way he could think to do that was kidnapping her. As for how he learned about Anne, the answer is simple. He surfed the Maginet, a mystical plane where magic users can mingle and communicate. …What? Are you surprised? ‘Cos you shouldn’t be!

Unfortunately, Sinn is an elusive figure who they cannot just approach, so they devise a harebrained scheme to have Robin host a magic show, with Anne and Sonja as his bunnygirl assistants. If that sounds like it comes out of nowhere, that’s because the characters come up with this plan in all of three panels, which are obscured by Cassie’s thought balloons. She wasn’t paying attention. Anne gets into it, playing the role of the secret magician well. Robin’s a bit of a clutz at first, but eventually relishes in the sense of grandeur and power he has as a magician. While Jason/Sonja is just annoyed about the whole thing. Sure, he might like being in skimpy outfits when alone, but this is completely different.

His performance attracts the attention of Sinn and, just like that, the two schedule a meeting for later tonight… only for Robin to find that Jason/Sonja went missing. They connect the dots, make a battle plan, and with the power of shrinking and a hat of exponential holding, all arrive at Sinn’s home. Or rather, his bizarre plane of existence that looks more like a dreamscape than any actual building.

Robin quickly cuts to the chase and asks about where Sonja is, only for Sinn to claim he has no idea what he is talking about, leading Faustus and Anne to fight him anyway. It’s a brief encounter, peppered with a mind control over Anne and some magicking from Cassie, but it all ends when Robin does a high kick right into Sinn’s face. Sinn gets handcuffed, Glock and Ti’el and some other secret agents arrest him, and just as they are about to begin investigating where he put the other assistants, they realize another assistant went missing. One who shrank herself down and hid in Fautus’s hat.

To investigate, they hop into Faustus’s hat space and discover a hole in it leading to a room full of petrified women… and a giant crazed anthropomorphic rabbit. One that’s attracted to magical residue and has claws that turn people into stone.

…Yeah, this reveal kind of sucks. I like how the secret was under the protagonists’ noses this whole time, and there is something pertinent to the imagery of so many people turned into stone statues. However… why make the culprit of this act a crazed monster that only speaks in shouts and is driven by a hunger for magic? I get it, it’s a rabbit in a hat, and their backstory is that they are Faustus’s lost and magically mutated rabbit. But that also means they are just an innocent animal that Faustus allowed to become a monster.

It’s an unexpected twist, yet a twist without much point or intention behind it. Why a giant rabbit? Why would they turn people into stone? How does this rabbit even pull people into their domain? Why do they only pull women into their domain and never touch Faustus, who is wearing the hat for hours every day?

Regardless, this is enough to warrant an ending, but this is not one of the two big takeaways from this chapter. The first is the idle conversations shared between Cassie and Robin as they work together here, with Robin gravitating more toward her while she reaches out to him. It’s nothing overtly romantic, more friendly than anything, and it’s not like he’s snubbing Anne, but the two are getting closer. While the second is the resolution to Ivan’s subplot.

Remember how in part 16 Ivan had finally realized that the root of the magical happenings at Tandy centered around Anne, Robin, and Jason? Well, he finally followed through on this— only took him two and a half years— by stalking his way to Miranda’s house and breaking into it while she was away. He finds little of note, viewing it as mundane and bereft of secrets… before uncovering her secret lair hidden in her broom closet. The domain where she keeps her many artifacts and her book on the Wotch.

Ivan read through it, uncovering secrets after secret as the history unfolds before his eyes… only for Miranda to appear behind him, pissed as all hell. She chides herself for her own carelessness, deliberates on what to do with Ivan. Normally, she would just treat him like Dahlet, but he is “friends with Anne”, and she does not want to simply erase him. She allows Ivan to retain his memories, but places a curse on him. A curse that will spread to anyone he tells about what he has seen here today.

It’s very telling about the type of woman Miranda is, as if her more malicious tendencies hadn’t been established, and manages to give Ivan something to do after his character kind of faded into the background following part 15. I’d talk about the way this curse works… but it’s The Wotch, you already know what it is!

Intermission: The Originals

Released from August 22, 2008 to September 2, 2008.

The Originals is a four page interlude released between chapters set “somewhere, somewhen” that offers a much appreciated glimpse into The First Wotch and Melleck the Worlock back during their prime. Starting with a heroic rescue by the two as they break into a demon king’s lair, turning him into stone, before saving a princess from capture. A princess who begs The First to become a man to carry on her father’s legacy, to which she does, albeit with a groan. And hey, it’s a rare example of an FTM transformation in The Wotch, where the character becomes a buff dude. You don’t see that every arc.

Afterwards, The First and Melleck then rest by a campfire, and recount how they met each other, offering a deluge of pertinent insights. The First was originally a man and considers themself to be a man, despite having a female body. Melleck saved The First from a group of slavers, leading the two to become lifelong friends. Though, how The First became The Wotch is left vague. Melleck is someone who believes that drastic action should be taken to restore balance to the world, rather than just address magic related turmoil. The two are guided by an unnamed mentor figure who stresses the importance of keeping their thoughts and actions clear. And the two, despite being great friends, will eventually duel each other in deadly combat.

It’s all rather brief, and a bit truncated, but it’s been three years since part 12 shined a light on these two, so it’s great to learn more of their backstory and how The First and Melleck functioned as partners. Though, at the risk of spoiling what is or isn’t to come, this is sadly the last snippet of their background we get. The foundation is more stable, yet there are still too many gaps for the story to feel complete.

Tangent: An Artistic Shift

Before beginning the next part, I want to talk about something I’ve been ignoring for quite some time. The artwork of The Wotch. It’s remained fairly consistent throughout the years. Onymous found her style and while it’s basic and limited, she has been able to put out things that look good enough, especially if you have a soft spot for skrunky and scribbly little doodads and guys.

However, around Part 22, the art style begins to change, and I’m not sure what the cause is. It’s subtle at first, but as this chapter goes on and part 23 begins, there is a notable shift in how human characters are drawn. It looks like Onymous is trying to give characters more realistic proportions, despite still having big expressive heads, and introduce more dynamic angles. I appreciate the effort and desire to change, introducing more defined jaws and necks, but it just looks wrong after the art style has been so stable for so long.

**From January 16, 2009**. **Compare Robin’s head design. to the previous image.**

Since the start of The Wotch, characters’ eyes have always been drawn in a specific way. They are about half as large as a character’s face and only the tops and outer sections of the eyes have a dark outline. There are plenty of exceptions, including Asian characters, who have slanted pointed eyes, but it works. Eyes are a particularly tricky thing in the world of cartooning, as there are so many ways to make them look good, but far more ways to make them look unsightly. Just changing one thing can ruin the illusion. And that’s what happened here. Smaller eyes, encased in black circles, on heads that are far more realistic in proportion, yet less endearing in shape.

What makes all of this worse is how inconsistent this stylistic shift is. It bounces back and forth depending on the page, sometimes even the panel. Its made all the worse thanks to the ‘canvas size issue’ I mentioned in season 1 showcase that it looked like Onymous was drawing on too small of a canvas. Fingers, hands, small details, all of those have been crushed to blobs of lines throughout the years, but here, they just look worse.

**From June 26, 2009 – One of the last comics drawn by Onymous. Look at the NECKS!**

Despite this though, Ericson actually tries to enhance the artwork with shading in part 23. Instead of just doing flats, for five of the six final pages Onymous drew for The Wotch, he gave the art some extra life and oomph, and it’s appreciated. It does look better. …But it also looks weird next to the boring Photoshop gradient effects present in the messy, scribbly, low detail backgrounds.

The prior few years of pages weren’t great, but they felt like they had an artistic vision, a consistency, and a style that these latter pages simply lack.

Part 22: Days of Their Lives

Released from September 16, 2008 to January 9, 2009.

Days in Their Lives is effectively four stories in one, all told with little connective tissue, so rather than hop back and forth, I’m just going to tackle them individually.

After running into so many world-ending threats, Miranda has assigned Anne to take care of another imbalance in the world with a trip that will last a few weeks. …Or maybe just a few days. Time moves weirdly in comics in general, and The Wotch is no exception. It’s mostly an excuse for Anne to run into some zany magical brouhaha. Like turning herself into a tree without a way to change back. And running into a nature spirit called Galiadrea, who’s a playful pixie-brained sort of girl. But before they can really get started with things, she gets kidnapped by a dragon… or jabberwocky.

Anne and Miranda spend what I think is meant to be a full day, or several days, fighting these creatures before realizing that they are creatures of chaos. Meaning they will respect and obey the Wotch, the avatar of chaos. This leads them to complete the balancing ritual with Galiadrea and end what really feels like one night and one day storyline. I know it sounds like I’m skipping something, but that’s really all that happens.

Next is another Robin X Cassie storyline, something that the creators were laying the groundwork for in the previous part. A lot of which is just the two hanging out and doing couple things together. Getting ice cream, playing Mario Kart Wii, visiting Cassie’s magic shop at the mall— which is better than Milo’s because they have pudding! Visiting the movie theater together, wandering around the mall because this was still the start of the recession, and attending a concert together.

It’s all little things, but sometimes that’s all you need. Characters doing a lot of little things, montage style, or spread out via snippets across a few pages, peppered with small conversations, to show that they really like each other’s company. It’s effective storytelling that builds on the years of interactions these two have shared and makes them feel good friends, or even boyfriend and girlfriend.

Naturally, there needs to be some form of conflict though, and that’s where Marcus comes in. He’s a skeleton-faced teenager, son of Professor Madison, and thinks he has a shot with Cassie. Which is laughable, as Cassie is a platonic ideal who could probably get anybody she wanted, boy or girl, and Marcus talks like a Martian. He’s also a warlock in training who hits the books in search of a spell of vengeance on these two, but it fails… until the night of the concert, when he conjures up a lightning storm. Not one directed at anybody, just lightning for the sake of ruining their night and possibly setting a band’s equipment on fire.

Cassie promptly catches Marcus in the act, has a revelation about how she has been acting with her portions of manipulation, and begins trying to stop this lightning storm… only for it to just stop. She breathes a sigh of relief, her magic kept a secret for just a little while longer, only for Robin to watch as she magics a pen off the ground. Despite this, Cassie is adamant about keeping her magic a secret to everyone else, mostly to protect her own ego. She has seen Anne do amazing things since she met her, and feels inadequate next to her. She probably knows that Anne is too kind to actually hurt her, but she’s an insecure 15-year-old who wants to do something herself.

Though, that is not the end of Cassie’s side of this story, as there’s one final scene where her untrained powers cause her to slam a glass of orange juice into a wall. As this happens, a woman in purple robes looks from the distance. Her name is Kory, and she will be important in part 24.

With his two friends busy, Jason decides to start a campaign with the D&D nerds from that one page in part 15. A bit of an odd reach, but I get the intention, and to make matters extra awkward, Larry, Jason’s date from part 14 also joins the game. Jason takes on the role of a female redheaded archer, because of course he does, and it’s your typical ‘guys playing D&D’ storyline. One gets into it too much, another hams up the dialogue in an attempt at acting, and the DM has some harsh opinions about things, namely the inherent evilness of djinn.

This ideological disagreement over djinns is spun off into Jason’s character having a romantic relationship with a djinn, which is played for dramatic tension during an encounter with not-Kali. Either Jason can save his party members, or he can save a character symbolically representative of Angie. This leads into what is arguably another Angie appearance as Jason imagines her telling him this is all a game, and he has nothing to feel guilty about. Which is absolutely true, as Angie told him to leave, and he couldn’t solve a race war.

Through some careful planning, Jason frees one of his party members who backstabs not-Kali and ultimately saves both his party members and the Angie proxy. Except because these D&D nerds are heteronormative, the Angie proxy is a guy, much to Jason’s irritation. It’s nice that there is some Angie acknowledgement after a 4 year absence in the main storyline, but this just makes the absolute lack of a resolution to the djinn storyline sting all the harder.

However, the most unique and interesting storyline to me is one not featured on the cover, and it’s the story of Ivan as he deals with the curse placed on him. His newspaper mates, Scott and Julie, inform us that he has been hiding from them for weeks, and they are both determined to find out what’s wrong with him. However, Ivan knows that he cannot tell either of them, or else the curse will spread. So, Ivan, in a desperate move, tries writing the truth on a piece of paper and sharing it with them that way. What… a… dumb-dumb!

This quite literally blows up in Scott and Julie’s face, erasing their memories of the note’s contents. They leave Ivan behind, not wanting any part in whatever he’s looking into. Unfortunately… the deed’s already been done. By sharing the truth, Ivan’s true curse not only activated, but it spread. Both Ivan and Scott’s hair grew a full foot overnight, and as any TSF fan knows, that’s the first part of becoming a girl!

The changes compound over time. Ivan’s form starts to become more shapley. Julie’s hair starts to disappear. and before too long, the changes become impossible to ignore. Ivan’s closet becomes full of clothes that appeared in his closet overnight, his breasts develop more every passing day, and his social status worsens. Scott and Julie have abandoned him. Boys start hitting on him for being a ‘quiet nerdy type’ and girls start picking on him for being insufficiently chic. He is lonely, isolated, and whenever he looks in the mirror, he doesn’t see himself. He just sees some girl who’s all alone in this world. However, he will not be discouraged. …Even as everybody around him acts like he has always been Yvonne.

Ivan returns to Miranda’s home to plead with her, and she offers him no kindness, simply warning him that any further meddling will result in his death. So, all he can do is search for some way to get out the truth, to spread it to the people, no matter what.

**For just a single page… this goes HARD.**

As for Scott and Julie, they are disorientated, confused, and every day is a new learning experience for them. Despite this… they feel they can get through this. Because while the world might not understand them or what it’s like for them, they will always have someone who knows the truth. Someone who will help them through this. Each other.

…Admittedly, most of the Ivan, Scott, and Julie stuff happens in one shots affixed to the end of part 22, but they are basically epilogue pages, and legitimately some of my favorite parts of this comic. While I try to keep an open mind to all forms of TSF, I always appreciate attempts at long-term storytelling, showing people live with their transformation, and what comes with it. The things they need to learn, unlearn, and the struggle of being someone who they are not, or accept the fact they are someone they wanted to be for so long. It does a lot with so little, and serves as a strong reminder that even this late into the original run, the creators had some real love for the subject matter and telling human stories.

So… yeah. A bit oddly balanced in trying to find a narrative through line for everybody, but this is another darn good chapter!

Part 23: The MOST Most Dangerous Game – Part 1

Released from February 3, 2009 to August 21, 2009.

Ooooh! So that’s where I got the idea that The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell would make for a good TF story idea. Really do need to get around to reading that sometime, but I’m too busy reading finer literary classics like The Wotch. (Am I being sarcastic with that line? Who knows? Not me!)

Following a game of forest dodgeball— because foreshadowing— Anne, Robin, Katie, Wolfie, Ming, and Myrrh are lounging around at Katie’s house for drinks, turning Robin into Robyn for yucks. When suddenly Anne and Robin get swept away to another dimension as their bodies are condensed into noodles. The supporting crew rushes into action and goes to grab Miranda, because the most they can deal with is street level threats, while Anne and Robin find themselves in a mansion, attending a lavish dinner.

This dinner is attended by warriors of myriad origins and unknown powers and hosted by a duo dressed in sports hunting outfits. Lucias Allen and his companion Maggie. A pair of weapons wielding hunters who, while not magic users per se, use magic to draw warriors from other dimensions with the goal of hunting them. For sport, trophy, and to inflate their own egos and supposed indisputable might. A hunt they dub.. The Hunt. …They couldn’t even pull a Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and call it Die Jagd?

The rules are simple. Those who survive for 48 hours shall be returned to their worlds with riches aplenty, and those who perish shall become fixtures in their trophy room. It’s a rigged competition where they have the home field advantage, traps, and are forcing people to participate, but what would you expect from people who own their own mansion… and dimension?

While the details are being dished out, Miranda makes Katie’s living room her base of operations, schmoozing over Katie’s parents when she meets them. She works best alone though, so Katie and company go to Cassie for additional help. Sure, they have never seen her use magic… unless you count when she summoned Uricarn, yet desperate times call for desperate measures, and Cassie fully throws herself into this task. She digs through her book, chants spells… and achieves nothing more than a headache after 20 minutes of trying. Her potential magical power is great, but it is also inconsistent.

Back in the woods, Anne and Robin only go a few minutes before they get ambushed by fellow prey— a staff-wielding bird man— who is using this as an opportunity to test his skills. He’s proficient in combat, sending both of them on the run, before this scuffle is stopped by none other than… Tigerclaw!

If it seems like it’s been forever since her and the resistance have been brought up, that’s partially my fault. There have been semi-regular snippets of them across various one shots released over the years. Just nothing that rose to the level of materiality. But now, she’s finally here, in a main story, and interacting with Anne. Of course, she doesn’t know who Anne is, as she never got a face or a name that went along with the Wotch, so she quickly takes to her as a temporary ally.

Right as they meet, Lucias shows up to rack up some easy kills, but the bird man eagerly rushes in to take him down… only to promptly get killed. Through his death, he gave Anne, Robin, and Tigerclaw enough leeway to escape elsewhere into the woods, where they hold up for the night and begin exchanging information. …And that’s where the comic ends.

Yep, right in the middle of a storyline, during a meeting between the protagonist and a long-standing secondary character, set in another world.

Admittedly, the following comics in part 23 pick up immediately from here, with no gap or break in the story, which is impressive in and of itself. However, it feels wrong to just pretend that this mega-hiatus didn’t happen, especially when the official website pauses things to jump over to the guest arc Blue Moon Reflection.

Part Extra: Blue Moon Reflections

Released from December 22, 2009 to April 6, 2010.

As mentioned in the background section at the start of this article, Blue Moon Reflections was a guest arc created by the duo of Peter Prellwitz and Lily Mountjoy, the creators behind Angel of St. Thomas. They are… a sci-fi novelist and a deaf artist who collaborated on a story originally fixated on a Black Caribbean family before a White blonde pirate lady with blue eyes took over the comic. At least that’s what I gathered from five minutes of jumping around in the WayBack Machine. I don’t know what kind of discussions brought this guest arc into existence, but it’s the only one the folks running TheWotch.com feel like preserving. So I’m obligated to give it the same coverage as everything else.

The arc follows Katie and Wolfie as they visit Wolfie’s extended family, the Lupoms for Christmas at the tiny ski lodge town of… Werewolf Mountain. It’s mostly an isolated character piece that exists to expand upon the two central characters, Wolfie’s family, and the mythos of how Weres work in The Wotch. It’s exactly the type of supplemental addition that is perfect for a guest arc in a comic like this, and if I were able to read the other ones released during the series’ run, I’m sure I’d say much the same.

The story begins by highlighting the teenage angst that Katie normally keeps reserved. It’s a mixture of standard teenage girl problems, like dealing with an overbearing boy with a crush on her, and more physiological problems that arise from being a werecat. In reading the main comic, it seems like she’s just a normal girl outside of a full moon, but Blue Moon Reflections adds some important context. That her appetite and metabolism are more potent, causing her to binge eat, though not in a destructive manner. Her sense of smell is enhanced. Her body is stronger than she is used to, despite not looking like it. And the need to avoid human contact when menstruating has been compounded during her transformation, leading her to become quite… irritable.

For as much as The Wotch is a story about teenagers, and its cast is driven by teenage emotions and impulses, it really does not touch upon adolescence or puberty like this. The emotional and physical discomforts that come with growing up and what it is like to lose the simplicity and consistency of childhood. The concerns of an uncertain yet inevitable future. And the pressure to achieve ideals while life just keeps throwing curveballs their way.

Following this uncertainty, Katie and Wolfie board a steam train to visit Wolfie’s family, the Lupoms for Christmas, where Katie is immediately treated like family. Wolfie’s grandparents have her call them Grandpa and Gramma, give them a cozy room at the fireplace to stay in, bake them meat pies for dinner, and give them the opportunity to relax and get away from it all. …And then comes the lore dumps!

First is that there are three different types of werewolves in The Wotch. Those who become bitten by a Were during a full moon. Those who are turned into one by magic and turn those they bite into Weres, yet can be dispelled by the magic user. And those who are bitten on the winter solstice. These Weres develop a hereditary condition that is passed on as they procreate. Wolfie is an example of the latter, and the entire Lupom family, aside from those who married into it, are werewolves.

Second, we learn that the origins of the Lupom werewolf bloodline actually began way back in 1157. Their ancestor, Grigori Lupom, was nearly killed by the Wotch of that era, only for Grigori’s wife to plead for mercy. This act of compassion caused the Wotch to relent, knowing that killing Grigori would only bring pain to others. As a solution, she created a magical emerald amulet, similar to the one introduced in part 11. And whenever a new child was born into the Lupom bloodline, the Wotch would create an amulet to protect them from their hereditary curse.

The Wotches carried out this tradition until the 1800s, when the magic of the amulet merged with their bloodlines. Though this meant the end of their distribution of these amulets, the Lupoms still value them as heirlooms and a reminder of the power of mercy. For it was only through the Wotch’s mercy 850 years ago that any of them are alive today.

And third, the Lupom has a tradition of ‘dressing up’ like werewolves every full moon, making a game of it and leading tourists to believe they are just really dedicated to their makeup. …Even as dozens of them gather together for a family reunion and run out into the snow, dressed in T-shirts and jeans, with even babies all furred up. The Wotch is a silly webcomic and I love it for little eccentricities like this.

Beyond this, the rest of the comic is mostly just Katie being allowed to join in on the Lupom family traditions. Taking the ski lift up to the top of the mountain, running to the peak as she freely embraces her Were strengths and instincts, and howling at the peak. But when that is all said and done, they make her an honorary part of the Lupom family. They understand her condition, what she means to Wolfie, and while she might be a werecat instead of a werewolf, they’re not ones to judge. A Were’s a Were, no matter the color of their fur.

Wolfie pulls Katie aside after this, and tells her something about the… circumstance of her condition. After she was bitten by Curiosity the werekitty, Katie was the first type of Were, one who would simply spread their curse via biting. Only she would be affected by this curse, and not her hypothetical children. However, when Wolfie placed the amulet around Katie’s neck, she became a solstice Were. Meaning her werecat-ism will now affect her future children. Wolfie did not know this at first, had no way of knowing it, and feels awful about this, but Katie does not blame her. She knows she was a wild animal back then, and says that this doesn’t need to be a curse, so long as she has family to help her out. And now, as an honorary member of the Lupoms, she has just that.

Also, Wolfie asks Katie to call her Sam going forward… except she has been doing that since the start of the chapter. Weird inconsistency.

With the truth revealed, Katie and Wolfie then celebrate the winter solstice by shredding down the mountain on their snowboards. Ending this part on the triumphant line of “it’s time to stop worrying… and be who I want to be.”

…And then an epilogue sees two scenes. One where Orlando Bloom shows up at the end to give Katie a hug, as he is a member of the Lupom family. Which… what? And another where Katie gives birth to a child some years later, and Anne continues the nearly millennium long tradition by giving Katie’s child their own amulet.At least one of these is canon, and I’m just going to assume it’s the latter. There’d be less legal complications, and this confirms that Anne doesn’t die in the end!

As a whole, Blue Moon Reflections is a sweet, meaningful addition to The Wotch that adds pathos to its characters and depth to its background. You can tell it is being handled by a different creative team, and it is far more sentimental than the main comic, but it captures the spirit of the main comic well, and nicely fits into the broader storyline. …Except for the fact that The Wotch largely exists in a season agnostic world.

Tangent: I Love Ian Samson

**Ranma Returns by Ian Samson – June 29, 2024**

Before resuming the main storyline with part 23 – part 2, I feel the need to preemptively discuss the artwork of The Wotch’s second artist, Ian Samson, who takes on the artistic duties until part 26.

Ian Samson is my favorite artist. He is not the best artist I have ever seen. He is not the most prolific or regular artist on my wide radar, and he is most certainly not the best when it comes to preserving his work. His old portfolio site has been down for years, as is his first ongoing webcomic, City of Reality, and that is an extraordinary shame. However, when I was just getting into TSF back in 2008, his works were always a bastion of quality and creativity.

This has been such a given for me that I’m not even sure where to begin or how to describe it without just showing you a collection of his work. The personality he imbues into his characters, the way he commits and dedicates himself in telling a fulfilling story within just a few pictures or pages. The way his works can shift from something light and cozy to something warped and deranged. And the fact that his artwork and drawing skills are just… really bloody good, and have been since, like, 2007. In the past 17 years, he’s honed them a lot, particularly when he started introducing shading into more of his works, giving each illustration another dimension of life.

Hell, Samson would be in the TSF hall of fame just for making Free Will. (There are loads of flash players out there to play SWF, but I just used Swivel.) A basic flash project positioned as a game about someone waking up in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar body and having the option to escape or examine the messy room they are in. But no matter what choices they make, no matter the illusion, there truly is no free will.

Is it basic? Sure. However, you need to remember the context of TF 15 years ago. If you wanted depth, you had to turn to writing, where the best stuff was often just caked with sexual content. Most artwork was mediocre and what good stuff was there was often lacking in depth or complexity. And while TSF manga was a thing, fan translations were far less common and less consistent.

Ian Samson was a bastion of quality to me in these early years, and even today, I always perk up when I see a new piece of art from him, and hasn’t disappointed me once in all these years.

**There are so many great oldies like this that just are not on his DeviantArt or Tumblr…**

Also, and I cannot stress this enough, but Ian Samson truly was the perfect person to take up the artistic duties for The Wotch. He had been a part of the community for years, done guest arcs, done filler comics, and done animations that helped sell the series to new fans. His love for transformation and turning boys into girls was nearly mirrored in The Wotch, and across the fan art he has done for the series, his love for it goes without question.

This love is carried over in his 100–ish page run on the series, but before talking about that, I need to talk about his introduction to the series. A seven page recap that highlights the events that happened across the first 22 parts of The Wotch, presenting many pivotal or important scenes and showing how these characters look in Samson’s art style. And, as I said earlier, they are fantastic.

I’m not exaggerating when I say this, but I cried when I discovered and re-read these comics. They succinctly capture everything The Wotch was up until this point, and render every single facet of it with a level of love and adoration. For all the jankiness, for all the doodly artwork, the original run of The Wotch had something goddamn magical to it, and Samson not only flawlessly captures that, but he enhances it. There is so much adoration and reverence crammed into each panel, so much personality and liveliness, that it manages to successfully answer a question that has been looming over my head since I committed to this showcase. Was The Wotch any good? Yes. Yes it was, and yes it is!

Back when these were first published, they did so much to inspire hope within me for the future of this comic. To rekindle my memories of how creative and fun the prior parts were. And it showed me how great it will be going forward. And even now, a decade removed, it still manages to do just that. …So the fact that these pages are not present on the current site is baffling at best and woefully disrespectful at worst.

Part 23: The MOST Most Dangerous Game – Part 2

Released from August 15, 2011 to April 2, 2012.

After nearly a two year hiatus, things resume with Anne, Robin, and Tigerclaw at the campfire, devising a plan to return to the mansion to destroy the magic crystal facilitating The Hunt. But first they need to deal with the other prey. Through some minor character introductions, and vine-based tentacle troubles, Tigerclaw gets mind controlled by a telepath named Kent and has her obligatory battle with Anne. It’s an encounter that was slightly teased for years at this point, but Anne simply cannot put her heart into it, not wanting to hurt an ally. She even dons a suit of magical armor to protect herself, which seems like something she should do more often.

Needing some way to free her, Robin suggests Anne uses the personality splitting spell all the way from part 4, calling it “the schizo spell.” Which is… not a great name for it, as schizo can be seen as a derogatory term for people with schizophrenia, not unlike how spaz can be for people with various disabilities. This splits Tigerclaw into four facets— joy, anger, apathy, and standard— and breaks the mind control due to the strain of controlling four people over one. This quick thinking gives the crew the opportunity to flee while Kent proudly prepares to fight the hunters, as he thinks he’s hot stuff. When he’ll probably get TFed into a decorative spoon collection in five minutes flat.

With the heroes on the run again, things cut back to Tandy. Miranda is tirelessly working to figure out where Anne went, while constantly mind wiping Katie’s parents. …Even though she greeted them and shook their hands when she met them earlier in this arc. Yet here they act like they’ve never seen her before. Very odd continuity flub.

However, Miranda has determined who is responsible for Anne’s capture, providing a book detailing the exploits of Lucias and Maggie, dating all the way back to the 1800s. Their life goal is to prove the merit and effectiveness of their non-magic skills over others. They have no strict allegiances. And despite the centuries of information on them, there is no record of them ever losing a battle. They always win. Nobody knows where they came from. And nobody knows where their pocket dimension is located. …But, as pointed out by Wolfie, it has to be close if they were able to snag Anne.

After reconvening and merging Tigerclaw back together, the heroes finally make it to the mansion and begin formulating a game plan to get in and destroy the crystal. …Only for the two hunters to conveniently reappear. They congratulate Anne, Robin, and Tigerclaw for making it this far, displaying their fellow prey as a flex of their might, before rushing forward and beginning the final battle.

Given how much Lucias and Maggie were hyped up, it’s no surprise that they swiftly sweep the trio, knocking them all down with nary a scratch before going in for the kill. They throw their three blades, which begin petrifying both Anne and Tigerclaw on contact. Robin however… is not so lucky. His lack of magical power prevents the effect from activating, so the sword… acts like a sword, lodged squarely in his gut, blood soaking his torn shirt.

Anne, her body petrified from beneath her head, watches Robin as he falls, as his consciousness slowly fades away, as his vision grows dark. Anne has experienced a lot of danger, but… nothing like this. Nothing like the potential death of one of her dearest friends. And at this sight… SHE GETS PISSED!

Anne breaks the petrification spell, unleashes a pulse of power that shakes the fabric of all dimensions, and ravages this one. The mansion floats into the sky and explodes, the trophy curse applied to everyone fades, and the very earth beneath their feet shatters. This dimension is undergoing a cataclysmic event, Anne is unable to control her fury, and those with means begin fleeing in droves. One contestant even comments that her power is so great that “the future is literally broken.” Meaning Anne’s chaos powers are so great she can destroy time!

Even through havoc, Robin’s heart still beats, but with a stab wound in his gut, he is barely hanging on. He needs help, Anne needs help, and the only ones who can do this are a dimension away. Miranda and Cassie both sense that things are dire, with storms looming in from this pandimensional friction, and as they reach a breaking point, Cassie summons a geyser of magical power. It blows off her roof and slam into Miranda, giving her the strength to open a vortex to the nearly eviscerated realm of The Hunt.

Miranda, Katie, and Wolfie venture into this realm as the walls of this dimension begin to crack, pulling away Lucias and Maggie into parts unknown. Miranda rushes to Robin and enhances Tigerclaw’s powers, allowing her to bring him back from the brink of death. …Though, it seems as if things are too far gone. Lightning storms and tornados have begun ravaging across The Wotch and friends multiverse.

Specifically, into the realms of Accidental Centaurs— RIP John Lotshaw. Spinnerette, which I read for a few years and liked, but stopped for… reasons I cannot recall. City of Reality— lemme read it again, Samson! Murry and Lewy, which… holy potatoes, that TSF comic is still ongoing? Zebra Girl, the rare webcomic that actually ended. El Goonish Shive, the offer still stands. And Kevin and Kell, the longest running daily webcomic, legit enough to have its own Wikipedia page.

As Robin sees how much destruction has been wrought, he turns to Anne and implores her to pull herself together. He reminds her that she is strong enough to get through this. That she has kept this power in control every day. It’s a long shot, but the words of a friend are enough for Anne to pull through this, falling down into Robin’s arms before everyone escapes into Katie’s living room.

Tigerclaw leaves shortly after arriving here, saying goodbye and thank you to Anne and Robin, while Anne lets it slip that she’s “got the Wotch as [her] ally” right as the portal closes behind her. Anne’s power surge also gave her longer hair, a feature she will maintain for the rest of the series to show the growth of her power and… it looks good on her. Especially with her almost signature purple beret hat thing. Cassie’s home was totaled from her magical eruption, leaving her unharmed but greatly fatigued from the experience. And as a new day rises for the characters, they are ready to return to normality, at least for a little while.

In the epilogue, Xaos is seen stating that Anne is almost ready, that this was a successful test run, and how this ultimate end and ultimate beginning are nearly here. Typical villain stuff, but at least it’s a hint that the series intended on wrapping up soonish. And while Tigerclaw has returned to the resistance, she is left unable to tell them what she saw. Wanting to believe in Anne, but also terrified of her powers and what Xaos could do with them.

And thus, after over three years, this storyline finally comes to an end. Taking it all in… it’s good! A lot of the finer details are made murky by the hiatus and artistic shift, but considering the actual content of the story and what it is trying to do, I would say it succeeded with only some asterisks. The concept of The Hunt provides an escalation for Anne and builds upon the higher stakes introduced in part 19 and 20. It is a great concept for a magic and TF fixated story like this, as it gives the creators ample opportunities to introduce oddball one-off characters, and more bizarre transformations. All while throwing Anne into a different type of danger than the standard battles she’s fought over the years.

I think the alliance between Tigerclaw and Anne is a great way to progress the story and plant seeds for Anne’s potential run-in with the resistance, and the two have a few cute moments together. Robin may be a third wheel for much of the story, though his role as a voice of reason and the catalyst for Anne’s escape does, in a roundabout way, make him a valuable ally. …Even though Robin really needs to attend Greg’s anime martial arts place over in the El Goonish Shive universe. And for Anne, this is a major character defining moment as she unlocks latent powers. She may not be able to control them, but if she can, she may very well be unstoppable. …For better or for worse.

It progresses the overarching plot nicely, has a unique premise, and advances the central characters. It might not be ‘worth’ the three years it took to get here. But now it’s done, it’s over, and the story can move onto something new!

Part 24: Dancing Queen

Released from May 21, 2012 to February 18, 2013.

In typical The Wotch fashion, a high concept adventure story is followed up with a more down-to-Earth about the teens going about their ordinary high schooler lives, but with a magical twist. And this time it’s Tandy Gardens’ own Sadie Hawkins dance! …Wait, do schools even do those nowadays? I know they never had them in my high school, but that does not mean much. However, the initial premise of the dance doesn’t really matter, as the students of Tandy Gardens High quickly co-opt the dance into a 70s dance party. Which I just think is a funny decade to highlight. Because why the heck would a bunch of highschoolers in 2002 to 2012 be nostalgic for the 70s?

The 70s were a decade of political corruption and disenfranchisement after a combination of Nixton and the Vietnam War. While the Civil Rights movement was still fresh in people’s memories, this only served to further embolden and radicalize racists. Stonewall just happened, putting gay people in the center of a lot of political discourse, but gay rights would not come for decades after that, and bullcrap laws were used to bar them from public life. Second wave feminism was making waves as women bucked the toxic relationships they were thrown into during the 50s and 60s, and White Baby Boomer women decided they wanted to work. (Women of every other color? They always worked.) Violent crime was on the rise, though it was far from its peak in 1991. Nightclubs and dance halls were growing in prominence and you better believe people were doing all sorts of drugs.

Inflation ran absolutely wild as the economy stagnated— due to the boom and bust nature of capitalism and the energy crisis due to oil embargos. The Boomers came into their own and were bitter emboldened young people who would eventually mostly go on to vote for Reagan in the following few years. Cults were popping up like weeds, as faith in religious institutions waned, and people were eager to drink the poison Flavor Aid because the world seemed that hopeless. Disco was popping, but ~~racist~~ White people didn’t want any of that dirty Black music infecting their American culture so they tried to culturally murder it. And fashion underwent a revolution thanks to Black people, gay people, national brands, and myriad advancements.

Those who lived through it might have rose-tinted glasses pertaining to this decade— like my mother, who used to sleep on the streets of Chicago after a concert, because screw paying for a hotel. But the 70s were just a rough time financially. Two decades of non-existent environmental protections left America a dump, and everything literally stunk. If you want a good decade to get nostalgic over, try the 80s and 90s, when the economy was mostly alright, and things were ultimately getting better. All before Florida’s government committed election fraud, presidential incompetence led to 9/11, and racism/fascism became Patriotic again.

…Sorry, what am I talking about now? Oh, right, The Wotch!

While all the younguns these days are hyped to dress up in 70s duds, this is a sore spot for Ming, who grew up in the 70s as a tiny nerdy boy and wants to put that decade behind her. The fashion, the music, the iconic pop cultural hallmarks, they’re all sore spots for the Sorgaz parts of her, and she wishes that they went with literally any other theme. At home, Myrrh, her slime girl friend, comforts her, reminding her that while she might have hated the decade at first and the atmosphere of school dances, things are different now. She’s a new person, has a new perspective, and will be attending a school dance as a Japanese cheerleader.

Meanwhile, Robin and Cassie are still a couple of lovebirds. Even after Robin’s near death struck Anne with such despair she almost destroyed reality, which should have been a hint. Oh well. He’s 15, he’ll learn one of these days. He asks her out to the school dance, she agrees, but rather than just hang out with her on the couch, Robin’s a bit too shaken up from his near-death experience to lounge. So he goes running, jumps into games with other people, spends more time at the dojo, and tries to better himself ahead of the next battle.

Cassie, meanwhile, has the same magic struggles she’s had for quite some time. One minute, she’ll be straining herself to get a cup to levitate and the next, the cup will go flying across the street to another house, where it stains the brickwork. She tries getting help from Milo at his shop, but when he starts bringing up Anne and Miranda, Cassie storms off, pumping into… Kory from part 22. Now looking more welcoming with her slight redesign.

Kory’s role and true intentions are masked in mystery, but she ultimately leads Cassie to a ritualistic stone circle in the woods to begin imparting her teachings onto her. She explains how magic is varied and different, yet the unspecified type Cassie has access to is the hardest to control. To master it, she must learn how to tap into her emotions, and her strongest emotion is, unsurprisingly, anger.

Anne is being bombarded with intensive training from Miranda, who viewed Anne’s near death as another cause to crank up the intensity at another point. Which just adds to my perspective that Miranda is a bad teacher who does not treat Anne with the kindness she’d be more receptive to. Unfortunately for Miranda, Anne is already determined to enjoy the dance, and is going out with Jason. Not in a romantic way. There’s really no basis for Annason or Jasanne shipping.

Come the night of the dance, people are in high spirits, all decked out in period appropriate clothing that Samson probably had a blast drawing and researching. And I have to say… he has some good tastes. However, Cassie is not in the mood to go out to Robin, and won’t elaborate on why she’s been so distant lately. Both get angry, say things they probably shouldn’t have, and with tensions high, Robin just heads to the dance himself, while Cassie heads to meet with Kory, to quell some of her billowing rage.

From here, the story splits into three scenes simultaneously. Miranda barges in uninvited to pull Anne away for ignoring her practice time for several days. Ming takes the stage to announce a special surprise for everybody in attendance. And Cassie is channeling her rage toward the school dance. All three of these events coalesce simultaneously and, with a burst of magical energy, the gym of Tandy Gardens lights up, ka-girling all the boys and ka-boying all the girls.

Mingwei becomes a boy and is a stuttering mess, unable to explain the situation while thinking she’s the center of attention. Robyn and Sonja make their return, looking flyer than ever, and there is a veritable smorgasbord of new fits and designs, all looking fly in 70s duds. James and Irene get sex swapped instead of body swapped. The TG’d cheerleaders are now preppy boys instead of football players, which is… unexpected. Male Katie and Wolfie come back after their introduction in a three page one shot. Prof Madison is a busty blonde yet again, Coach Ratke gets in on the fun, and Ivan is… a boy again!

**This post has over 100 images. This collage the most effort you’re getting from me this time.**

Yes, after Miranda cursed him into becoming Yvonne, Ivan is back to his old self… more or less. His hair’s a bit shorter and his outfit is different, when he wasn’t even dressed up in the first place. He is left shaken by these events, presented with an opportunity he doubted he would ever get, while every other party-goer goes with the flow. Nobody gets mad. This is a party, and they assume that this is all a temporary shift. But as Miranda and Anne survey the situation, casting magic to look like men, they realize this transformation will be permanent if even one person is missing. So they must ensure that nobody leaves.

Ming then massages this for the audience. Thanking them for taking this well while reassuring them that this transformation is temporary and that they should all remain here while “forces of good” do their thing. Hearing these words causes Ivan to hesitate, looking at the door as he thinks over his actions and what this would mean for everyone attending this dance. He knows what it is like to be trapped in a body that he feels is not his own. So when faced with the fact that dozens of people could wind up just like him, he cannot bear it, and returns to the main gym as the transformation is undone. But not by Anne and Miranda. By Cassie.

With the help of Kory, Cassie was able to undo the transformation faster than Anne and Miranda combined. Robin quickly pieces this together and runs after Cassie, asking her to explain what is going on, wanting to tell Anne and Miranda so they can finally start working together. He’s speaking from a place of care and concern for her, as a friend and as someone who loves her in many ways. But as Kory sees what’s happening, she erases all of Robin’s memories of Cassie’s magical power. Meaning that the only person who knows of Cassie’s true powers… is Kory. She has become her only support, her only pillar. And as her mentor, she is now wholly dependent on her.

…And now, because this is the last time Kory shows up, I would like to share some observations and theories. Kory and Kohain’s names start with the same syllable, have the hair/clothes/jewelry color scheme, and both have large pointy noses. They look similar, almost like Kory could be an idealized, younger female Kohain, and while neither appear again, I think it’s an interesting theory.

That Xaos and Kohain wanted to use Cassie as part of their goals, so Kohain took on the guise of a mentor for Cassie. Also, we never actually see what order magic is really like, and order would be harder to maintain than chaos, so… maybe Cassie was meant to be an order mage. …Maybe she was even meant to be a Worlock! Xaos could not have remained the Worlock during his slumber. The title had to pass down to someone, just like the title of the Wotch, and… who would be a better Worlock than Cassie?

Again, this is just speculation, just a fan theory, but it works too well for me to not mention it.

Back at the dance, they end off the night with a fireworks display, Ming’s intended surprise, a vibrant display of fireworks to cap off this night with… a bunch of bangs! Afterwards, Anne is left feeling refreshed enough to return to training after doing some much needed venting. Ivan reunites with Scott and Julie at the coffee place the following day to admit to his mistake, and asks for forgiveness. Which, surprisingly, the two reciprocate. This is a bit of a stretch given how hard they took their forced transition earlier, but I can understand why they would want to confide in someone who was a friend, and someone who knows the truth about them. They know Ivan is not a cruel person and while he screwed up, he truly did not know the consequences of his actions. …And besides, what happened to them is better than becoming a gorgon or mannequin.

It took a while, due to the weekly release structure of the series at this time, but part 24 is another very strong part. More character progression, a major shift in Robin and Cassie’s relationship, and a fun premise that keeps the scope contained, but delivers both artistically and with small bits of fan service. It is a magically infused high school journey that respects everything that came before but is not afraid to shake things up at least a little bit.

It puts the series in a good spot for another grander story arc with higher stakes to keep this tonal rally going… but we didn’t quite get that. Why? Well, I am doing some educated speculation here, but I think this was an issue with the writers, Onymous and Ericson. They had issues getting scripts ready for Samson before, and I would not be surprised if that was still an issue. So next up, Ian Samson took it on himself to make a Wotch comic strip for about a month. The official website calls it a filler, but I call it part 24.5!

Part 24.5: Mind Swap Mayhem

Released from May 20, 2013 to June 14, 2013.

Mind Swap Mayhem— Or Mind Swap Meyhem as the file names call it, sees Anne contact a great otherworldly tentacle monster to swap the bodies of Robin and Jason. It’s a bit needless, but this is Anne’s way of practicing different magical branches, and I guess there would be a ‘summoning eldritch horrors’ branch. Jason, in Robin’s body, is unperturbed by this, while Robin, in Jason’s body is more shaken up by the whole thing, and asks if it would be possible for him and Anne to swap bodies. To which Anne says it is not possible without “immeasurable skill” due to how her form is protected by a natural resistance. …And then Cassie just casually swaps the bodies of every human, and also animal, in Tandy Gardens.

Side note, but some might have taken umbrage with how I have been calling the town “Tandy Gardens” rather than just Tandy, thinking that Tandy Gardens is just the name of the high school. Well, it is true that the town is normally just called Tandy, there are a few times, such as this one panel, the town itself is called Tandy Gardens. This is either a mistake… or they just shorten Tandy Gardens to Tandy, because there isn’t another Tandy to get it confused with.

**Side note, but spelling body swap as *bodyswap* is *heresy* as far as I’m concerned.**

And to add a second side note, I want to point out the artistic shift seen in this chapter. Previously, Ericson colored Samson’s artwork, imitating his style of mostly flat coloring while retaining the established color palette. With MSM though, Samson has taken up the coloring duties and offered his own shading, and I have to say it looks wonderful. Like I said earlier, it gives another dimension of detail to everything, something you simply cannot do with flats. Ericson did an admirable job throughout the entire run of the comic, making very few mistakes, but Samson is a trained artist.

Anyway, the mass body swap has resulted in Robin landing in Jason’s body, Anne landing in Robin’s, and Jason landing in Anne’s. Which Samson chooses to represent in a curious way. He uses the colors of the characters to represent who is who, relying on their body shapes and outfits to be distinct enough characteristics to answer the ‘who is who’ question. So Anne in Robin’s body has red hair, green eyes, and wears pink and purple While Jason in Anne’s body has blonde hair, blue eyes, a blue shirt and a… black hat for some reason. It’s a cute idea, and works well enough here, but I’m generally not a huge fan of this. If one is going to swap colors around, I’d rather it be kept to their eye color. Otherwise, it can be mistaken for twinning.

With Anne in a different body, she no longer has access to her usual magical repertoire, meaning Jason would need to cast the spells. Except Jason’s a slacker, so Anne visits who she thinks is Miranda, but is actually just Lily in Miranda’s body, who demands copious amounts of cookies and candy. Because Anne’s used to Miranda being a hardass, she complies, while Miranda in Lily just stews in a tea party with Jennie, who’s still herself. She’s weirdly introspective at this point, going on about how she “had the world in peril from mass body-swapping once.” and regretting how she feels she cannot help Anne at this pivotal juncture. Even though, you know, Anne is still a literal child. Do your job, Mira!

In trying to get things done, Anne, still in Robin’s body, runs in with Cassie, who is oblivious as to what’s going on, and takes this opportunity to… kiss her on the lips. This is something the two have not done yet, and causes Anne to run away in panic. Except she doe snot want to ruin Robin’s relationship, so she goes back to let her down and winds up going on a full on date with her. She eventually leaves to “save the world”, navigating around a deluge of chaos as people are swapping bodies with animals— you don’t see that every day. Though her ultimate conclusion from this excursion is to just grab Jason and teach him how to cast the spell. Something she probably should have done, but then we wouldn’t have all this mayhem!

This teaching scene could lead to a more serious examination of how magic works for the Wotch, but before Jason can do his part and become a hero… the story deus ex machinas itself. Anne gets sent to this hazy purple void where a cat with black eyes tells her that no matter what body or incarnation, she is the Wotch and has the power, leading her to swap everybody back to normal. Robin and Jason are spent after this body swapping chaos. Xaos gives his trademark SOON™ comment, and we see that James and Irene missed out on all the fun. Oh well. At least they got to make out at the TG party last chapter.

Also, a piece of filler art published 10 days after this arc implies that Xaos was the cat who reached out to Anne… which makes sense, but is also a weird choice. Then again, this whole thing is a rather weird chapter. It’s fun, funny, and has a rapid pace and energy all its own, feeling faithful yet different all the same. As a fan of contained scale body swaps like this, I would always like to see more depth and detail, but for a frantic comedic mini arc, this works nicely. It’s clear to me that Samson was having a ball from start to finish.

Though, there are a few too many confusing things about it for me to fully love it. The colors equals mind/soul approach works, but it’s a non-diegetic part of the story and looks more like characters have been transformed into others. The fact that this swap is happening periodically and almost randomly is not explained super well, especially with the massive explosion Cassie caused. Characters both are panicking and are not panicking depending on the page. Humans and animals are swapping bodies, which always warrants some explanation. And the magically immune Milo being thrown into the body of a random woman while still recognizing Anne just raises so, so many questions.

It has good creative energy, but if I wanted to, I could probably double the length of the section by ‘um, actually-ing’ the whole thing.

Part 25: Neighborhood Wotch

Released from December 16, 2013 to March 3, 2014.

Neighborhood Wotch is the end of an era for the series, and like Mind Swap Mayhem before it, it’s spiritually closer to a guest arc than a proper continuation, being only a 13 page mini-episode. The sort of thing that could easily be adapted into an 11 minute segment if this were a cartoon.

The story begins with the main three playing a version of that Zelda game from Nintendo Land (2012) for Wii U before Anne, frustrated, turns Robin into a princess doll, complete in box. She and Jason then go out to get ice cream and hear about a thief running around Tandy. A thief who snags Anne’s wallet, uses her ID to find her address, and promptly raids her home. Anne and Jason then return before their ice cream melts— so a few minutes later— and see that her house was sloppily broken into. With the door open, cushions thrown over the place, things obviously disheveled, but at least the thief didn’t steal the princess Robin doll.

Robin explains that the thief took an amulet that Anne embedded with magic as a backup plan. Meaning that this thief has access to magic, specifically transformation magic, which he has been using to more efficiently burglarize people. Barging into their homes, TF-ing them into random doodads, before snatching all their valuables. The main three chase after him, but remain one step behind, unable to figure out a pattern until Jason deduces that the thief is after beautiful things. Specifically, those belonging or related to beautiful women. So they need to lay a trap full of beautiful things for them. This leads them to turn Milo’s shop, The Magic Touch, into an art exhibit, where every exhibit is a transformed friend of hers.

The thief falls for this, heading in after closing and turning Jason, or rather Sonja, into a golden idol, only for the art exhibits to come to life as Anne ominously says that it is time for them to pay. She zaps the amulet off them, they get spooked by Wolfie and Robyn, surrender, almost get turned into an inanimate object by Anne, and promptly flee, promising to turn themself in. I would love to see how the Tandy police reacted to that. Would they just charge him with serial burglary? Would they classify TF-ing people into objects as a form of assault?

The next day, Anne congratulates herself on a job well done, saying that going after a common crook is a nice change of pace from the world-shattering craziness. …And then she casually plops the amulet on her head, turning herself into a golden idol. Robin and Jason look at themself in this situation and decide to go grab ice cream, leaving Anne lying there on the floor, trapped as an armless, but deeply valuable, statue. Dae ende!

I do appreciate the lighthearted and TF-riddled fun of this arc, though that’s kind of all it has. It lacks the forward progression of the characters, does not ever reveal who this thief is, and feels more like a zany season 1 storyline than a season 3 storyline in terms of tone and subject matter. In retrospect, it’s easy to view this as a goodbye present from Samson as he left The Wotch. A final adventure for the characters, not necessarily a conclusion, but a way to cap things off on a happy note.

However, this was not the end. This was just the final story arc that was completed. …And the last one that I would recommend. Because in part 26, things go downhill.

Part 26: Everything Old is Now Again

Released from December 5, 2014 to July 20, 2020.

Everything Old is Now Again, or EOiNA, is an incomplete story that, as detailed in the first section of this article, underwent a positively turbulent development schedule. And not rocky like part 23. This schedule would hurt any story, and EOiNA is no exception. I have called it the worst arc in The Wotch in previous parts, and this is one of the core reason why. With another being the fact that this story is… just out of left field.

The story centers around Loki and Hermes— the Norse and Greek gods— meeting up in a bar where they decide to create a ‘chaos storm’ that will transform Earth and restore their long diminished powers. In order to enact a chaos storm, they first need to transform people into mythical creatures and send the minds of other gods into moral bodies, which they will transform into their own image. This leaves Anne to fight against the trickster god Loki and his ample chaos magic in an effort to save both Tandy Gardens and the broader world.

It’s a fine, if familiar, concept that blends the ideas of the Mythos Virus and any of the otherworldly villains who have appeared over the decade of stories. But it also… lacks a certain punch or sense of importance. Anne has already battled against the forces of chaos, and this is just throwing in a new one yanked from another mythology. I am by no means surprised that Greek and Norse mythology, or any mythology, are real in The Wotch, but it is odd to introduce them with such casualness and familiarity. And, again… for what? What does this advance in the overarching narrative? Well… let me walk through things and try to explain what happens.

The first 12 pages of this comic are mostly set up for Loki and Hermes, along with this confusing fantasy battle staged by Anne, Robin, Jason, Katie, and Wolfie. It’s actually just a representation of the characters playing an MMO together, all rendered with artwork provided by Andy Santos. Which is… a departure from what I would respect. And it starts out… ugly.

The first three pages are full of weird faces, angles, and proportions that make these pages look like they are from a completely different comic. Then, following a year-long hiatus, the comic resumes with this realistic style that is leagues better, but such a departure from The Wotch that it looks genuinely unrecognizable. It’s perfectly comic art, even if the characters’ lips and skin scuff make them look a bit like plastic dolls, rather than cartoon characters.

None of these characters look as they should on about any level. Everybody looks like they are in their mid-20s rather than teenagers. The clothing redesigns look off, with Robin’s hoodie with a minimalistic knight helmet instead of the more traditional one he usually has. Anne is wearing a cardigan and jeans that accentuate her succulent 15-year-old ass. It simply is not a good fit for The Wotch, and I do not appreciate this new interpretation. Especially when the art style keeps mutating with every page. Particularly with the shading, like the artist was testing different techniques with each page to find the right look.

**This is one page, cropped and rearranged. Remember when this comic used to have 12 panels per page?**

It is such a departure that going to Shieltar’s artwork is almost refreshing. His cartoonish style is a better fit for The Wotch, and he adheres closer to the designs made by Onymous and iterated on by Samson. However… something about Shieltar’s work just bugs me. There’s no problem with his work, he is a skilled artist who has a style he has refined and iterated over the years. And you can see his evolution in the pages he drew for The Wotch over roughly three years. There’s just something about the way he draws faces, particularly mouths, that does not look right for me.

I think it’s the shapes that he used to define mouths, his tendency to draw the bottom half of a mouth as a straight line, the curving of the upper lip, and whenever the mouth becomes triangular. Characters are expressive and have clear visual personalities, but they never look quite right to me. They’re either too exaggerated or moving their facial features in a way that seems off. That being said, the ponies he draws look fine, and he does improve over time. With the mini comics he did from 2021 to 2023 being the best looking Wotch artwork he produced.

**Bad ending (book 2) 004 by Shieltar – July 8, 2021**

Going back to the story, things really kick off when Miranda appears at Anne’s house, in the form of a centaur and dressed in armor. She is acting odd, throwing sticks at Anne, Robin, and Jason, while positioning herself as a teacher. But as Anne tries to speak with her, Miranda clarifies that she is actually Chiron, ‘the wisest and justest of all the centaurs’ from Greek mythology.

As Jason provides a history lesson to his friends, Chiron experiences a headache as he remembers how he died, allowing the three to leave the home behind, where they run into Cassie. Seemingly ignoring the events of part 24, she is full lovey dovey toward Robin… and also a naga. Before any questions can be asked, Cassie’s eyes glow, she floats into the sky, and declares that the tricker’s game has begun, but through deliberately vague rhymes.

With some clues on what is going on, Anne casts her tracking spell to find something related to their new target. Before she can get far, Loki and Hermes— who went two years and four months without an appearance— strike the trio with magic. This causes Jason to become possessed by Freya, the Norse god of love and war, who believes that Anne is the latest incarnation of Loki due to her proficiency with chaos magic. While Robin becomes possessed by Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love.

Freya chases Anne to a bridge with the intention to kill her, but before she can lower her sword, Anne is saved by Wolfie, whose body, but not her mind, has been transformed into the image of Lycos. I believe Lycos is an alternate spelling of Lycus, which is a name used for a dozen or so characters in Greek mythology, and I do not know which one is being referenced here. Just that this was chosen because lukos is ancient Greek for wolf. Point is, Wolfie is now a strong man with silver and red hair, dressed in only jeans in a cape, and has somehow resisted the change.

Anne does a poor job of explaining why, but it’s because Wolfie has a biological resistance to having her mind altered. Which due to centuries of hereditary exposure to the green amulets whose origins were detailed in Blue Moon Reflections. I thought it was just a resistance to becoming a werewolf, but I guess not!

Wolfie then takes Anne over to meet Katie, who is a sphinx. Except not actually a sphinx, at all. She is basically a centaur with bird wings on her back, while a sphinx is basically a lion with a human head and big bird wings on their back. This had to be an intentional design decision, but it’s weird. Just like how Katie is compelled to speak in riddles, but makes them deliberately easy. When… shouldn’t her shamrock amulet prevent that, since Wolfie is immune to these effects?

Confusing mythos aside, the two brief Anne on what they discovered in Wolfie’s ‘man cave’, that this was caused by chaos magic, and the source of this magic is “Dionysus’ Bar”. After making a flimsy game plan, Wolfie shapeshifts into a werewolf to beat the mini-minotaur bouncers, and enters… a dance hall? I thought this was a traditional bar, but I guess this is a more visually interesting place for a battle.

As an aside, EOiNA page 43 is uncolored for some reason, which is shocking, as this is the only uncolored page in the main comic. Ericson had been good about coloring comics even if he was later getting around to them, but I guess he just forgot about this one.

Anyway, Loki comes out onto the stage of the dance hall and announces the existence of the Wotch to the party-goers, explaining that she is the one responsible for all the magic hoopla that’s happened to them. That Anne has been the source of a lot of chaos hitting Tandy, while positioning himself as the hero instead.

It’s an interesting turn of events, as there is merit in this argument. Anne has caused untold damages and chaos throughout Tandy, and there are reasons why people would hate her or want her to leave. …But the idea of them turning against Anne does not feel right. The people of Tandy are oblivious to a fault, and that is kind of their charm. They are not cynical, judgmental, or mean-spirited. They are forgetful, forgiving, and seem to relish in the excitement of chaos injected into their lives. Sure, that might not be rational, but that is how this cartoonish world works.

However, this whole thread is forgotten in three pages. Loki does not really have any defense for his criticisms, and when Anne asks what she’s supposed to do about being the Wotch, Loki announces who he is, calling himself the true master of chaos. A declaration that causes everybody in the club to run away.

Before the two can get to fighting though, things cut away to Freya, who must solve Katie’s riddle if she wants to join in the battle. When she tries to think it through, she… appears in a mental void with Jason. Freya is confused by his presence, explaining that this is not Jason’s body, that she took over the body of Sonja, and did so because she viewed Sonja as a shadow of a person. From her perspective, she was taking an un-person and replacing her with herself, with someone strong and full of life. To which Jason explains that Sonja is a part of him, and has just as much of a right to Jason’s body as he does. Which is… all rather confusing.

Sonja was never presented as a separate identity. She was just another name that Jason went by, a different persona he adopted and wore when his body was transformed. But in his mind, he was always still Jason. So, is this saying Jason has developed a distinct feminine identity? How could Freya possess that identity and overpower it without affecting a related one? Why would you complicate something like this if the idea only lasts for all of two pages?

Anyway, Jason gives Freya an old Thor comic. She claims it is “highly entertaining” twice, and promptly realizes that Loki is actually behind this whole sordid affair. Freya answers the riddle and barges into the bar. A very curiously structured fight scene plays out. Loki and Hermes take the time to grab their instruments of chaos. Tools to usher in a world transforming chaos storm. Freya tells Anne to stand by while she fights these two, but Anne’s not one to just sit out of a battle, so she muses on the phrase used by Freya. Instrument of chaos magic. And hey, Anne has one of those! Her flute!

…Okay, I will admit, this is a really good idea and a great continuity nod. Anne’s magic flute has been ignored for so long, yet it was the source of her powers and is, by definition, an instrument of chaos. Anne holds her flute high, declaring that she has the power, and gets her very own magical girl uniform.

This should be an iconic and influential moment. Anne just unlocked new power, has returned to a long-forgotten relic that related to her character, and is wielding powers comparable to a god. This is the introduction of her super form. But it just does not feel right. There is no big reveal of her new outfit in full. She gets this power just by using the same thing that gave her these powers in the first place, and it’s not like she lost it. It was in her damn house! And immediately after she transforms, she doesn’t express her new might. Nah. Hermes starts blasting her off her feet.

What are you trying to say here, Shieltar and Omega?

Are you trying to show Anne gain an all new power that lets her take on imposing threats? Well, no, because she does not even beat Hermes. Anne needs help from Wolfie, who steals Hermes’s winged helmet and bashes him in the head with a steel beam. This causes Hermes’s mind to start leaving his host’s body, and there is no way this host could survive this close to the chaos storm. So Anne throws this guy 20 feet high, over a wall, where he lands on his ribcage. He should be in immense pain after this, but instead he’s just fine. Oh, and Aphrodite is where to give him some ice cream from her ice cream bike cart.

I feel insane having to write those last two sentences, because they’re just nonsense. Yes, I skipped how Aphrodite has been eating ice cream before now, but why is she here and just handing out ice cream cones to people, right outside the stage of the final battle? What is… no, no, I’m almost done. So let me just power through this.

Loki knocks back both Wolfie and Freya, and announces that he cannot be stopped now. Unfortunately, he can, and quite easily, as Anne already grabbed Pandora’s box, or rather jar, which was Loki’s instrument of destruction. With her magical power, she is able to open the jar and use it to suck up all the chaos storm, and any lingering chaotic energy. …Including the souls of the gods and mythical creatures… Except for Loki. She gloats over him, says that the world needs heroes, not gods, and says that while violence is a solution, she prefers taking the nicer option. Which involves letting Loki… phase away and unpossess the guy whose body he stole off screen.

While Anne is comforting Loki’s former host, Miranda barges in and complains to Anne, leading to a tense verbal disagreement that… I don’t really understand.

Miranda criticizes Anne for not having dealt with the guy who Loki possessed. Anne says that she dealt with things in her own way, and then goes on a rant about how Miranda has been keeping secrets from her. She brings up Allison, Ming, the cheerleaders— all things that happened before they met— and accuses Miranda of never trusting anyone. This upsets Miranda, who says that she does not give Anne everything all at once, because she will overlook things. Like how Freya is, somehow, still possessing Jason’s body.

…And that’s the end!

No, really, that is the last comic in this storyline, and last non filler comic released for this series since July 20, 2020. Which means… I did it!

I finally got through the entirety of The Wotch, and with it EOiNA.

EOiNA… does not feel like The Wotch. It lacks the same creative energy, the same spark, and is just… long-winded and directionless. It takes 72 pages to tell a story without ever feeling like it has a true identity. Every character aside from Anne, Wolfie, and Katie spend the bulk of the story either mind controlled or incapacitated, preventing any character growth for them. And despite things happening to the three of them, there really are no perceptible signs of growth.

The use of gods from various mythologies is just a bizarre pull given how The Wotch never aligned itself with one mythology over the other. Loki is a poor man’s Sykos and just not as charismatic as he is made out to be. While Hermes is… angry, I guess? He’s there, presents himself as a businessman, and then goes out like an absolute jobber.

Despite being an Anne story, she never really gets to learn anything. The climax has some of the elements needed to feel epic. Yet, rather than let Anne stand up to a god on her own, fighting chaos magic with chaos magic, other characters do the fighting for her.

The overall writing and characterization are simply off, and this starts pretty early on. I’m not sure when exactly writing duties switched over from Revor to Omega, but the longer this comic went on, the less these characters felt like the people they were in past episodes. There’s a subtle something missing from the way they talk or conduct themselves, and this is made no better with the new artists.

EOiNA is the result of a different creative team trying to continue something that they did not start, building upon nearly a decade of continuity and evolution. There is, without question, some serious effort here, but whether it be through fading interest caused by the terribly slow release history or just a lack of innate understanding, it simply fails to capture the right character and personality. It’s not silly fun. It lacks engaging characters, let alone character growth. Its core idea… is not as interesting as it thinks it is. And every interesting idea it has is thrown out the window a few pages later.

It is not good, but I do not really blame anyone for how it turned out. The series lost its creative bedrock, Onymous was gone, Ericson just did the colors, and with a release schedule like this, even the best storytellers would struggle. Its flaws are neither unique nor interesting, and I completely understand why someone would want to ignore this and pretend that the series ended with Neighborhood Wotch.

Tangent: Former Creators

**Filler comic by CDRudd of SailorSun acclaim. It is NOT in the Internet Archive, but I found it on *The Wotch* Discord.**

In writing the upcoming ending, I covered the three main things I wanted to, but there’s something about that conclusion that just… does not make sense to me. Something that just has not made sense to me for 15 years— half my life— at this point. The fact that The Wotch ended and its creators, seemingly, did not move onto other creative ventures. Both Anne Onymous and Robin Ericson having seemingly given up their creative pursuits as their lives became too busy and the workload became too much. I have never spoken to either of them, I do not know them on any significant level, but I just view this whole situation as… a terribly sad thing.

Speaking personally, the idea of losing my creative spark, of no longer creating things for the internet, is something that I deeply fear. Because I view the act of creating something, of telling a story, of building something greater than myself, as being one of the greatest joys someone can experience. While I have not been creating for very long, only about 12 years, and most of my early stuff was trash, the idea of just stopping what I do, would be like losing a part of myself.

**Neighborhood Wotch BadEnd 04 by Ian Samson – June 26, 2014**

However, going through The Wotch again, I think I do understand why some people just stop. Sometimes the act of creation can become a burden, one’s confidence in their own work can crumble away, and even though they might want to keep going, want to deliver upon their ideas, they might become too big. Too immense. They might become, in effect, impossible to achieve as expectations rise and they become unable to deliver on this while being bombarded by stressors in their life.

It is one thing to just finish an art piece, or a novel, but what Onymous and Ericson were creating here was far beyond that. A comic spanning hundreds of pages, developed across a decade. How can one go back to that after so long, after so many people tuned out, and after they… stop being the same person who created it? The pressure, the fear of failure, of doing things wrong, can push someone away from ever seeking closure. From what I can see, that’s pretty much what happened, and that… fills me with deep sorrow.

**March 2013 Bonus Artwork. I think it’s *cute*. Also from *The Wotch* Discord**

Because I can see the intention, the desire, and the effort that Onymous and Ericson put into making this comic during its original run, and the effort they put in trying to keep this comic going. Yet, after so many years of a spotty track record, after the comic’s releases slowed to a crawl, it… became too large of a burden.

I cannot blame them for this and I bear them no ill will for what has happened. Life is hard and complicated, and I only know snippets of what they had going on. However, seeing this happen has made me reflect on my own creative ventures and how… terrified I truly am of losing the creative spark I’ve developed over the years. I keep throwing myself into creative ventures, forcing myself to adhere to rigid schedules, because part of me is terrified of being in a similar position. Of letting my creativity fade, of letting my tiny readership down, and, most of all, letting myself down. Because I am the only one who can make the things I can and want to make. …Just like how Onymous and Ericson were the only ones who could make The Wotch.

The Conclusion

At this point, I have written over 45,000 words of summary and analysis of The Wotch, and overall… I love this comic. The Wotch is home to a positively infectious creativity. It’s playful, it’s fun, it has grand ambitions that it rushes toward while never fully knowing what’s coming next, and it is driven by a palpable passion. It’s one of the many works that inspired me to go on my own creative ventures, and one that carries with it many of the same values that I carry with me to this day.

Going back to The Wotch, I find an important early point of inspiration for countless TF artists and creatives, and even this many years removed from its prime, I still find things to be inspired by. From minor throwaway details or gags to its lengthy and deliberate storylines. It may not be a deep or heady work when it comes to how it approaches its transformations, but it both succeeds and thrives in what it does. I view it as a vital piece in understanding the growth and development of both TF and TSF as a genre throughout the 2000s. I am deeply glad that I decided to revisit it. But, above all else, I would like to thank Ann Onymous, Robin Ericson, Thom Revor, Ian Samson, and everyone else involved in its creation, for making this comic a reality.

However… this conclusion is, of course, bittersweet. Rather than ending with a bang, The Wotch ended with a slow decline, and though it may be uncouth to say it will never be continued, it has been four years since the last main comic. I have learned to take solace in non-endings, and I by no means think that the lack of one cheapens or invalidates the robust experience The Wotch delivers. However, there is something to be said about leaving the comic in its abandoned state, without any final word of closure. A simple announcement, farewell page, or better yet, a summary of how the creators wanted the story to go. Really… anything would be better than the AI generated slop that has served as the most recent page for the last year and a half.

An ending or note of finality would be appreciated but, more than that, I would like to see Onymous, Ericson, and whoever else is running the site these days to actually complete the archives. I know I keep harping on this, but there is no good reason why old filler comics, guest arcs, and bonus art are not hosted on the current version of TheWotch.com. I understand that this would be a good amount of work, but they have had eight years to get this done. I believe they owe it to themselves, to the people who made the filler arcs, and to their readers to properly preserve The Wotch, and not just the ‘most important parts’.

I understand that some things may simply be lost due to destroyed hard drives. Like what happened to the old CMX forums. But not everything was destroyed, and not everything is lost. The past is important, the past is beautiful, and for ourselves, for those around us, for those who have yet to be born, we should preserve it. Even if you think nobody will care… it’s better to try than to let things die.

This Post Has 8 Comments

Ouran Nakagawa 12/24/2024 Reply

Ian’s work is so nostalgic. 😭 my favorite of his has got to be the Young Justice bodyswap comic. Seen that too?
1. Natalie Neumann 12/24/2024 Reply
  
  Young Justice body swap comic? Hold on… YES! I have it in my archives! And that one’s on DeviantArt This one was back in 2015, meaning it’s basically a decade year old at this point. I was never as into the current state of DC Comics as I should have been, comics are expensive, but I really do love the mass swap concepts and how Samson used them here. If I were to just go through my archive of Samson’s work, I would just be awash with nostalgia.
rain 12/24/2024 Reply

something megazone23 has said on stream is that having your art inspire another artist is how your art will metaphorically not die
1. Natalie Neumann 12/24/2024 Reply
  
  Hmm… that is true, but I would say it is also important to try and archive your work. Because if a work is only available for a short while, then it can only inspire those who find it in that time. If you preserve it and keep it around in an accessible archive, then it can inspire people for decades upon decades. Archive.org, DeviantArt, there are platforms where you can host the comic and allow people, like me, to rediscover and reconnect with it, to further inspire people. Because while I remembered bits of The Wotch, and it had inspired me, revisiting it has allowed it to re-inspire me. :P
  1. rain 12/24/2024 Reply
    
    i was more referring to the artists losing their steam, not the lack of archival
    1. Natalie Neumann 12/24/2024
      
      Ah. Yeah, even though Onymous has stepped back from the series, and from doing art in general, she still influenced and inspired a generation of TF artists who will keep some of the essence of her work alive for decades to come.
teenoeff 12/26/2024 Reply

Very sad that (as far as I know) some of the kdingo archive just wasn’t archived (a lot of QT3.14 comes to mind?)
1. Natalie Neumann 12/27/2024 Reply
  
  It is indeed sad, and makes me wish that I had saved ALL his work, rather than just a decent chunk of it. I also wish that Samson was more diligent about recreating his archives, as it has been YEARS since he lost Kdingo…

TSF Showcase 2024-50: The Wotch (Season 3)

TSF Showcase 2024-50
The Wotch (Season 3) by Anne Onymous and Robin Ericson

The History of The Wotch Season 3

Part 19: Something Wicked This Way Comes…

Part 20: A Girl and Her Blob

Part 21: Now You See Her…

Intermission: The Originals

Tangent: An Artistic Shift

Part 22: Days of Their Lives

Part 23: The MOST Most Dangerous Game – Part 1

Part Extra: Blue Moon Reflections

Tangent: I Love Ian Samson

Part 23: The MOST Most Dangerous Game – Part 2

Part 24: Dancing Queen

Part 24.5: Mind Swap Mayhem

Part 25: Neighborhood Wotch

Part 26: Everything Old is Now Again

Tangent: Former Creators

The Conclusion

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This Post Has 8 Comments

TSF Showcase 2024-50The Wotch (Season 3) by Anne Onymous and Robin Ericson

The History of The Wotch Season 3

Part 19: Something Wicked This Way Comes…

Part 20: A Girl and Her Blob

Part 21: Now You See Her…

Intermission: The Originals

Tangent: An Artistic Shift

Part 22: Days of Their Lives

Part 23: The MOST Most Dangerous Game – Part 1

Part Extra: Blue Moon Reflections

Tangent: I Love Ian Samson

Part 23: The MOST Most Dangerous Game – Part 2

Part 24: Dancing Queen

Part 24.5: Mind Swap Mayhem

Part 25: Neighborhood Wotch

Part 26: Everything Old is Now Again

Tangent: Former Creators

The Conclusion

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TSF Showcase 2024-50
The Wotch (Season 3) by Anne Onymous and Robin Ericson