Possibly the best, diffidently the most famous of Willis' work Shortpacked! is the longest running series he has made. In ran for ten years and was in real time. So if a comic came out in 2007 the year in universe was 2007. Anyway Shortpacked! is the story of a toy store by the same name. Now their isn't really an overall plot to Shortpacked!. It is just the humorous lives of the people who work their. That's not to say things are static. Things are constantly changing in the story, but it's all character stuff.
Similar to Joyce and Walky, Shortpacked can be broken up into two section. The first section is purely humor. Now the humor is a mix between the character interaction, toy humor, and pop culture. I find most of this very funny except for the toy humor. I never really knew this about Willis until I read Shortpacked!, but he is a bug transformers nerd. I am no a big Transformers nerd. As such I don't get a lot of those joke. With that in mind you may not enjoy his other aspects. I really feel if you get the joke you will find it fun, and if not then you won't. That may sound very obvious, but it's the only way to describe it. Now on to the big strength of Shortpacked! The characters.
Ethan Siegal
Ethan has been working retail for years after his hopes as a comedian failed. He hates quiet a lot of it, but he still has hope to one day actually help someone at the toy store. One of the big things for Ethan is going through and excepting change like how he learned and excepted the fact that he is gay. That was more of an acceptance then anything else. An instance where he fights change is when he takes over the store by force and tries to make things the same as before. Once he finally does let go of that need for regularity he ends up having a better life because of it. By the end of the webcomic's run Ethan has quit the store and gone to do stand-up again.
Amber O'Malley
Amber had zero confidence in herself at the start. She only really started working at Shortpacked! because she needed a job when she moved to town and her only friend, Ethan, worked their. The reason for this lack of self worth is because of her father. He verbally abused Amber, and he once even physically assaulted her. Over time she does develop more self worth and confidence thanks to her interactions with Ethan and Robin. Amber eventually becomes the assistant manager of the store before she starts running her own. She even gets married in the series and has a kid.
Robin DeSanto
Before she was just an energetic piece of comic relief. Now she's an energetic piece of comic relief who is also a congresswomen. After It's Walky Robin wanted a break from serious so she picked a toy store to work at. She only ended up working for congress by accident, but she kept the job as a hobby. Robin really wants a world of no drama, but the world won't let that happen. It takes a while but she does learn that all this change was for the best. If the drama never happened she never would have met her wife. Speaking of her love life she spends a lot of early Shortpacked! fawning over Ethan before and after she learned he was gay. In Shortpacked! we actually learned about Robin's backstory. She was the oldest of a lot children in a dysfunctional family. She ways not abducted by aliens, she actually volunteered. She did it so she could be fast. Fast enough to one day run away from all of her problem. That mentality explains why she is so dead set on no drama happening. She doesn't want to deal with that again.
Mike Warner
He is still an asshole. Why is he an asshole? Well because he's a dick to people. Why is he a dick to people? Because he's an asshole. I think I just cleared this up. Seriously though, Mike has no reason for why he is the way he is. His parents are very nice, nothing really tragic has ever happened to him. He just makes others suffer. He does get blackmailed by Amber into dating her, but over time he really does begin to care for her. They do get married and together they make a baby. Seeing his new born daughter is also the only time I have ever seen Mike feel a genuine emotion.
Leslie Bean
Les started out as a joke. Her name is Les Bean. She is a lesbian. She was originally introduced for Robin to prove to Ethan that she was over him and now a lesbian(neither of which were true). Despite this Les was still a big fan of Robin, and would try to get together with Robin despite the heterosexuality Robin has. After much conflict love does win out with Leslie and Robin getting married and having triplets. Les' story is also the one of a lot of homosexuals. She was in denial for a while. She was even married to a man. When she did come out her family abandoned her. That's one of the reason she really feel for someone as warm and fun loving as Robin. It would have really made her let go of a lot of her worries.
Shortpacked! has a lot more character to it, but these are all of the characters I really wanted to talk about. Shortpacked is honestly a story with a lot of diversity in it. The cast has no strait white males in it which is wonderful. I have to say this is indeed one of the best webcomics I've ever read. It's full of great humor, excellent character, and wonderful writing. To help prove this even more I reread some of the Amber backstory to help me write this. Now I want to finish this so I can keep reading. I love it that much. So here is your link. Start reading now.
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