Alistair Toth is a stiff . The high school day - aged horror devotee does n’t just ostracize alcohol and plenty ; he also insists that he possesses no romantic or intimate urges — at least until he develops a crush on the Modern girl in his school . But after a tear of self - hypnosis , Alistair get down discover strange changes in his body , ones that could interfere with his amatory desire — and his full life .
Jason Thompson’sThe Stiffis a webcomic that has been weighing on my brain for more than ten years . I first stumble across it in college , when it was hosted on the Girlamatic website , and I apace fell for its vibrants characters and creepy-crawly smell .
It aid that I ’ve known hoi polloi like Alistair Toth , the sorts of people who , when need their view on abortion , say that they ’re “ pro - death ” or claim that a vow of sexual abstention is the only way to respect women . There ’s a sense that he ’s not rightfully asexual and will one day outgrow his ostentatious attitudes , but that he has invested so much in the person he holds himself out to be that it ’s difficult for him to be rightfully honorable with himself and his champion .
Outwardly , Alistair seems focused on his career as a author . He ’s wholly preoccupied with the horror musical style , especially zombie movies . His love of writing help him forge his most significant , but hard family relationship with Jamie Etchison , a girl who expend her soph and junior years learning about her sex even as Alistair has inhibit his . But when Alice Hoffman transport to their high school during senior class , Alistair find himself , for the first time , concerned in romantically pursuing a girl , through fantasies of being the white horse who come to her rescue or the last two survivors of a zombie outbreak .
“ I like ramp up up tensity , ” Alistair tell of his own writing , and it ’s clear that Thompson feels the same way . What could be a high school amatory comedy takes on an unsettling tone through Thompson ’s fine art , where background characters look like zombies , dogs have empty eyes , and even Alistair ’s parents look like they belong in a mediaeval mansion . It also avail that some of the character and blank space have repulsion names ; Alistair go to Larkspur High and is supporter with a Shirley Jackson , while Jamie once attended Monkshood with a Daria Argento . Alistair Toth may love repugnance , but he does n’t recognise that he ’s living smack - splash in the middle of a horror world .
So it ’s probably ill - advised when , one dark , after stomach from a tight influenza and contemplating the nature of death , Alistair decide to hypnotize himself . He ’s certain that his will is superhuman , but he ca n’t be prepared for the consequence of his experiment . Nor does he understand his sudden attractiveness to Alice Hoffman , which is far foreign than he realizes . Thompson ’s character are perfectly real , suffer an adolescence that is no more or less exciting than the real thing , filled with rumourmonger and stumbles and half - baked ideas about the mode the world work , but there is something unnatural crawl into their populace , and Thompson is slow to pull back the drape , preferring to focus on characters and atmosphere .
The Stiff go away from the Internet before it completed its run , and its juicy closed book were all left hanging . So I was delirious when Thompson decided to rerelease the original pages online and is planning on last complete the story . That entail that the pages he has released so far a bit rocky around the edges than Thompson ’s more recent work ( although still marvellously detailed ) , but we ’ll also eventually get to see Alistair and his macrocosm rendered by Thompson ’s more proficient hand .
[ The Stiff ]
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