Every so often a comic comes along that just blurs the lines of reality and insanity. Framed!!! was quite good at this, with its story sneaking up on the reader and then pouncing like a big slobbering puppy dog all happy to meet you. Alice also worked well with this, merging the innocent fantasies of a 13 year old girl with the mundane and boring world around her. Narbonic walked down the path of science and turned it crazy and sexy with Helen Narbon and her zany crew. And then… there is Girly.

Girly is sort of a sequel to Cute Wendy by Josh L., concerning Winter, the daughter of Wendy and her (female) sidekick, and her own adventures in finding a sidekick of her own (Otra) as well as a wide diverse community, each even more insane than the last. Whether it is Officer Policeguy (his actual name) or El Chupacabre who’s very gaze can drive any woman insane with lust, each has their own story, which merges with Winter and Otra’s, and enhances the whole. And it works! This world is insane! We have a kitty going on a drug trip caused by really bad cooking who meets the God of Hats… and you think “sure, that makes sense, he’s having a drug trip, he’s just hallucinating.” And then the God of Hats shows up before Otra and gives her a hat as well! Insane, as I said. Which brings us to tonight’s comic. Bringing a catatonic kitty to the Cute-Town Animal Clinic… and diagnosing his condition by the fact his eyes went from swirly to stars… and a fat fish wanting lyposuction… you sit back and go “What the hell is going on here, and where can I get some of what Josh is having?”

As I said, it works. That’s the scary and delightful thing. It works. You want to learn more of Otra and Winter’s stories. You want to find out what happened to Winter’s parents. You want to see Mr. Policeguy hook up with someone (but not Otra or Winter, they’re in love and nothing can get in the way of that). Its wacky and cartoony art (which still manages to have the women look cute and sexy even as they’re cartoony) helps reinforce the feeling of insanity here. Girly helps show that sometimes you can have an ongoing and interesting story without giving up any of the humor. In the meanwhile, I’ll anxiously wait for our poor marshmallow kitty to recover from really bad cooking (the good cooking speaks in german and has happy faces!) and Otra to continue with her creator’s block… and wait for her and Winter to be reunited in time for their next wild and delightful adventure.