Shortpacked!

Shortpacked! is the fourth and final Walkyverse comic by David Willis. The comic alternates between following the lives of the employees of the titular Shortpacked! store, and standalone comics about popular culture with a strong emphasis on toys. The strip ran from January 17, 2005 to January 17, 2015. Willis has occasionally updated the strip since, usually for one-off April Fools' Day strips, but occasionally in other months.

Characters[]

Ethan Siegal - Just your standard-issue toy-obsessed gay Jewish nerd/standup comedian.
Amber O'Malley - Ethan's best friend. Carries some serious baggage.
Mike Warner - Still an asshole.
Robin DeSanto - Borderline ADD SEMME veteran turned retail employee.
Leslie Bean - Robin's long-suffering "Lesbian".
Galasso - A supervillain running a failing toy store.
Ultra Car - Sentient, human-loathing car turned sentient, human-loathing fembot.
Jacob Warner - Recovering sex addict.
Malaya Eugenio - Queen of the Misanthropes.
Lucy - An optimistic, energetic new hire.
Ken - Eh.
Faz - Creepy, perpetually squinty toady.
Ronald Reagan - Yes, that Ronald Reagan.
Jeshua Ben Joseph - You know, Jesus. Yes, that Jesus.
Roz DeSanto - Robin's extremely sex-positive sister.
Joseph Rosenthal - Has made the transition from genius engineer horndog to genius millionaire horndog more or less intact.
Sydney Yus - Seasonal hire turned store archnemesis.
Head Alien II - Still as villainous as ever.
Blaine O'Malley - The reason daddy issues exist.
Ninja Rick - May not actually be a ninja.

Storylines[]

For more detail on individual plots, see the Shortpacked! storylines page.

Shortpacked! 1.0[]

Shortpacked! began life as a gag-a-week comic revolving around David Willis' life and whatever toy jokes he could come up with. After the end of It's Walky!, Shortpacked! was rebooted and its archives deleted when it moved its hosting from Keenspot to Willis' own Blank Label comics imprint. It ran from January 26, 2003 to April 15, 2004. It is currently only available in the print version of Shortpacked! Book One.

Shortpacked! on TNI[]

Exclusive new Shortpacked! strips also ran on Sunday on Toy News International from August 20th, 2006 to July 31st, 2011. Unlike the "main" Shortpacked! comics, the TNI strips are gag-oriented standalones. With the exception of TNI Shortpacked! #178, all of the TNI strips can still be found on the TNI page, although David Willis has since posted #178 to his twitter.

Shortpacked! Pornographiques[]

In 2014, David Willis began releasing X-rated - and canon! - Shortpacked! comics featuring various established couples through adult comics portal Slipshine. To date, two "Pornographiques" have been published:

"My Lesbian", or "Once We Hit 88mph We’re Going to See Some Serious Clit" (Leslie/Robin)
Mike and Amber Pound Each Other in the Most Epic of Hatefucks (Mike/Amber, surprisingly)

Accessing these comics requires a Slipshine subscription.

Non-canon strips[]

A number of Shortpacked! comics are not related to the ongoing narrative. While there are several fourth-wall breaking strips in which David Willis appears, the most notable strips, especially in TNI, are parodies of popular culture, particularly properties in which Willis is a fan. These include the Transformers franchise (whose official fan club has published material written by Willis), Batman (occasionally expanding into the rest of the DC Universe), G.I. Joe, Mario, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. On several occasions, the external property gags fold in to the story as jokes made by Ethan and his co-workers. There were two Shortpacked! storylines set mostly in the world of Transformers, one a fan fiction telling the story of Ultra Mammoth's involvement in the Beast Wars, and the other being an account of Shattered Glass Ravage's trans-dimensional visit to BotCon. In the final storyline of the strip, these strips are brought together with the main narrative as the Soggies invade every fictional universe ever, blending reality and fantasy.

Print Collections[]

Five printed volumes of Shortpacked! comics have been released to date.

Shortpacked! Brings Back the '80s (Purchase)
Shortpacked! Pulls the Drama Tag (Purchase)
Shortpacked! Is Totally Gay (Purchase)
Shortpacked! and the Tome of the Ages (Purchase)
Shortpacked! Begins (Purchase)

Merchandise[]

In addition to print collections, David Willis has also produced various Shortpacked! merchandise, including posters, t-shirts, limited prints, and statues. However, these are no longer available for purchase.