I have noticed that I tend to have a love-hate relationship with the comic El Goonish Shive. At times I hold cartoonist Dan Shive to a higher standard than newer comics. One reason for this undoubtedly is because I’ve been reading EGS for a while, but for the most part it is because Dan has talent as a storyteller, and I expect more out of him than out of some new cartoonist just starting down this path. And while Dan tends to avoid darker, more dramatic storylines than many of the storyline comics I read, when he does start down the more dramatic path I’m left both anticipating what should be an interesting story and dreading the inevitable backflips the comic will do to avoid any lasting harm to its cast.

Let’s face it. Most cartoonists care a great deal for their characters, and it can be quite difficult putting them through events that leave lasting scars on their psyches. If Dan has a problem, it’s that he loves his characters too much, especially Grace (who I suspect Dan looks at almost like a daughter, which may also explain her descent into personality-nerfing innocence compared to earlier scenes of Grace which hinted at a playful knowledge of what sleeping with Tedd could construe among other things). But while I may be less-than-happy about Grace’s devolution into a flat caricature who shows no lasting harm from the events she’s gone through, the recent storyline with antagonists Magus, “Chaos,” and Abraham have proven more interesting.

Abraham’s story (and his quest to find and kill Ellen) has taken much of this year to tell. Indeed, from mid-June EGS has been embroiled in several fights, starting with Abraham’s fight with Ellen’s history teacher (who’s been hiding the fact he’s a half-elven wizard, but hey, no one’s normal in EGS). Dan managed to successfully juggle a fight scene since mid-June with Nanase trying to reach Ellen and then later to save her from Abraham after the wizard took out the half-elven history teacher. And while the final fight (with Nanase having been granted some sort of “Guardian Angel” spell with which she finally forces Abraham to surrender) was perhaps rushed and a tad anti-climactic, the resulting twist with Magus, Tedd’s father, and “Chaos” has more than made up for it.

It was surprising to see Mr. Verres appear on the scene and take out Abraham, and perhaps a bit dark for Dan’s normal tendencies in storytelling. While Mr. Verres hasn’t had anywhere near the screen-time of the majority of the cast, the few times we’ve seen him he’s appeared almost a whimsical trickster, hiding such things as aliens and magical beings through deceptions that seem so laughable they shouldn’t work at all. But despite that, few people believed that Dan would walk down that dark path and have Mr. Verres kill a helpless Abraham, even under the influence of “Chaos” and Magus.

One problem cartoonists occasionally struggle with is predictability in their comic. It is human nature for cartoonists to want to surprise their readers with unexpected plot twists. Unfortunately, unless a cartoonist is especially sneaky (such as the creative duo for Footloose, who managed to avoid leaking any significant hints that one of their main characters was really a girl), some smart reader will manage to put together enough pieces of the comic to anticipate the surprise, and then convinces enough other readers of the twist (through forums or other social networking media) that the cat is out of the bag before the twist occurs.

At that point, cartoonists have three choices. First, they can rewrite the storyline and create a different twist. The problem with this approach is that these rewrites often suck and make minimal sense. It’s literally the cartoonist pulling a last-minute shift out of a petty need to not be anticipated (and even worse, sometimes this second twist is likewise anticipated and the cartoonist either has to try and salvage yet another twist or swallow their pride). The cartoonist can also try to do a minor rewrite, sticking with the main twist but adding something unexpected that helps keep things fresh. Finally, the cartoonist can just keep things as-is, and trust to the story.

Ultimately, what is important is the story itself. While a writer or cartoonist may feel disappointed that their hard-wrought plans were discovered prematurely, in many ways this is a sign of good storytelling. While it can be easy to avoid leaking any hints, this can leave the story as damaged as changing the plot mid-stream. For that matter, even the most obvious of twists can work, so long as the characters remain true to themselves and grow in the telling.

It was obvious to me that Magus would not amplify Mr. Verres’s anger and cause Mr. Verres to murder a helpless man, even at the proddings of “Chaos.” While Magus seems desperate to be released from his prison between worlds, the few glimpses we had of him did not suggest he was evil. Instead, he’s yet another tragic figure who will inevitably achieve some form of redemption in the ultimately happy world that Dan Shive has created. Yet in doing so, Dan has remained true to Magus. The twist was obvious… and yet expanded the character and allowed him to grow.

I’ve been critical of Dan in the past, especially when it comes to Grace (who Dan needs to allow to grow up… while the loss of her “innocence” may not be what Dan wants, it’s what the character needs to stop being a shallow caricature and become a person, warts and all). With Magus, he’s avoided those pitfalls. Perhaps it’s because he’s not as close to Magus as he is to his favorites… but it’s a lesson Dan needs to take to heart so that the rest of his characters can fulfill their own potentials.