7-03-08 ...

[LuckyMan]

Marvellous comic.
This time I even had to register to forum this time (I read a bunch of webcomics but it's limited to just reading them) to tell how great this is.

Also I'd like to say (yep me too) that Gary's case in the last strip is very plausible (as others have already noted). I'm a living example of that type of person too. Well, except that I'm 22, but it's 7 more years =D.

Anyway, I have to say that this is the best webcomic I've read ^^.

[midgetshrimp]

"Gentlemanly" doesn't help the sex life much. Neither do morals. I've actually turned down direct offers from at least two people that I find attractive (and a few more from people I don't find attractive...) because I knew a "real" relationship with them wouldn't work. I'm one of those people who won't compromise his morals for anyone, but won't force them on others. I'm not a "geek" or a "nerd" in the stereotypical sense. I mean, I'm an all-star caliber soccer player who plays the clarinet and just started learning guitar this week, with several stalkers. And I look like a hippie (long hair, pretty carefree attitude), but I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. Social life nearly nonexistent, both because of my two jobs and the fact that I enjoy solitude just as much as most people's company. So the fact that Gary is a comic book "geek", draws, etc. has little to do with his being a virgin. Through circumstance, choice, and/or just romantic apathy, he just hasn't gotten the home run. If he made an effort to get into a relationship, I'm sure it would happen, and things would escalate from there. Of course, it wouldn't be as easy as getting his new roomies was, it would take a while and a most likely unfamiliar social level to achieve.

So, I guess, I'm not surprised at his position at all. I would be surprised to see it change anytime soon. I see it taking a while, even with the prodding and "help" from Zii.

Oh, and on the second frame: probably the most seductive webcomic shot I've ever seen. Beautifully done.

[dayriff]

I don't find it unlikely. Start with one part shyness. Mix in not liking talking to people all that much anyway. Stir in quiet anxiety and let simmer. It's surprisingly easy to get to your early twenties or so without any experience in dating or sex. And from there it gets worse because everybody else in your age group has experience and aren't trying to awkwardly puzzle things out. From early twenties onwards, a guy admitting to being a virgin and never having dated invites the question, "What's wrong with this guy that no one else wanted him?"

Gary is probably a little better-looking than most such guys (insofar as I can tell from cartoon art), but that's about the only unusual thing. I bet he masturbates multiple times per day.

[Pneumonica]

I don't find it unlikely. Start with one part shyness. Mix in not liking talking to people all that much anyway. Stir in quiet anxiety and let simmer. It's surprisingly easy to get to your early twenties or so without any experience in dating or sex. And from there it gets worse because everybody else in your age group has experience and aren't trying to awkwardly puzzle things out. From early twenties onwards, a guy admitting to being a virgin and never having dated invites the question, "What's wrong with this guy that no one else wanted him?"

Actually, to make it to 29 is unlikely, but for reasons that might be rather endearing to Gary. When you break into the 20's without any real sexual experience (or just a general relationship inexperience), you gain a set of invisible target reticules that only people (and this happens to both men and to women, though I know more about the men since it happened to me) who think they can get something from you (ego boost, willing service, gifts, arm-decoration, etc.) can see. Typically, even the wise ones are sufficiently blind-sided by it that they usually get physically intimate before realizing how much of a mistake it is. And it almost always is a total mistake - usually, such people are sufficiently self-centered that they're no good for anybody else in any way, personally, emotionally, or sexually.

[midgetshrimp]

"What's wrong with this guy that no one else wanted him?"

Considering my one ex-girlfriend turned out to be insane (not metaphorically, she was the first of my three stalkers so far), and that I seem to attract the overly crazy women (again, see:stalkers), whenever I notice that someone has an interest in me, I have to ask myself what the hell is wrong with them. It's just my reaction to intimacy now. Being attracted to me makes you defective until proven otherwise. And so far, there's been no proof otherwise.

[Dirty n Evil]

Considering my one ex-girlfriend turned out to be insane (not metaphorically, she was the first of my three stalkers so far), and that I seem to attract the overly crazy women (again, see:stalkers), whenever I notice that someone has an interest in me, I have to ask myself what the hell is wrong with them. It's just my reaction to intimacy now. Being attracted to me makes you defective until proven otherwise. And so far, there's been no proof otherwise.

I've been there - the running joke was that I waited outside the psych ward for the outpatients and it was like my place to be picked up by girls. But just watch out, because your last comment sounds suspiciously a lot like Groucho Marx. The old, I'd never want to be part of a club that would have me as a member?

... but I'm starting to wonder if crazy ex-girlfriends in the past = evil me in the present. :shock:

[Singravitas]

This is what pity sex was invented for.

[Singravitas]

Considering my one ex-girlfriend turned out to be insane (not metaphorically, she was the first of my three stalkers so far), and that I seem to attract the overly crazy women (again, see:stalkers), whenever I notice that someone has an interest in me, I have to ask myself what the hell is wrong with them. It's just my reaction to intimacy now. Being attracted to me makes you defective until proven otherwise. And so far, there's been no proof otherwise.

I've been there - the running joke was that I waited outside the psych ward for the outpatients and it was like my place to be picked up by girls. But just watch out, because your last comment sounds suspiciously a lot like Groucho Marx. The old, I'd never want to be part of a club that would have me as a member?

... but I'm starting to wonder if crazy ex-girlfriends in the past = evil me in the present. :shock:

I think you have the same problems I have. I'm such a good lover, just one roll in the hay drives them irrevicably insane. Of my 4 ex-girlfriends, one's institutionalized, 2 commited suicide and the fourth got arrested for duct taping her kids (from a previous relationship) to their beds rather then hiring a baby sitter when she went to work.

[midgetshrimp]

I think you have the same problems I have. I'm such a good lover, just one roll in the hay drives them irrevicably insane. Of my 4 ex-girlfriends, one's institutionalized, 2 commited suicide and the fourth got arrested for duct taping her kids (from a previous relationship) to their beds rather then hiring a baby sitter when she went to work.

Hm. Suddenly my position looks pretty good. Or, in a more appropriate tense, "Aaand just like that, I'm over it...".

[Tibby]

Hehe, I've personally never dated, although not for lack of trying. It seems that for the moment, I'm just not very attractive. Luckily, that hasn't keep me depressed or anything like that.