To be honest, it ended back in 2011, when I finally drew the strip for a public audience. The script and layouts had been done years earlier still. I remember sitting down in 2005 and writing all the dialogue, the jokes and sketching the layouts. Earlier still, I was planting all the details throughout the series to ensure that the conclusion which I planned made sense. This was a long time coming.
I don’t really want to get into the details of why it took so long. Suffice to say I had planned it all so well that I couldn’t draw it to my expectations. I have in my archives many false starts, half-completed strips where I would get so frustrated I would just start again from scratch. I knew it had to be perfect, and I couldn’t match the images I had in my head with what I could draw.
But I knew that for as long as this particular series was incomplete, Sexy Losers was incomplete too. What made me not give it up completely and return occasionally for a few strips was this particular story. I couldn’t abandon it knowing it wasn’t finished. But I didn’t have the confidence to do justice to the strip. So I was caught between a desire to do the strip and my belief I couldn’t.
I considered that perhaps I was building it up too much and needed to strip down what I was doing to make it more manageable. In 2011, inspired by what Josh Lesnick was doing, I was going to do a Tumblr called the THIN H LINE that was going to bring it back to its roots: smaller and completely hand drawn, just like I started doing it in 1999. About 20 new strips came about, plus the completion of the Shuinji thread. Unfortunately very few people actually read it, and I shelved the THIN H LINE as depression comix was becoming more important to me.
However, it always felt uncomfortable that the completion of the story was at a different website than where the majority of the strip resided. I didn’t know what to do about this – when I first built the Sexy Losers site it wasn’t designed to handle a new series of strips and when I tried to reprogram it the site crashed, and it was too complicated for me to fix. I knew I had to restart the site from scratch, and I really didn’t have the time to do that.
In 2013, I bought a new phone – a Galaxy Note. It had a pressure sensitive pen with it. I decided it would be cool to recolor those THIN H LINE strips and rebrand them as Sexy Losers strips, to be added to the archive. I did a number of those strips, probably the best ones to be honest, and in 2015 I finally redid the Sexy Losers site from scratch. Most of the Shiunji strips were recolored and posted, except the last one.
I have to admit I was unhappy with the strip as it appeared in the THIN H LINE. The last panel wasn’t drawn that well, and it’s not clear that the reanimated corpse in the last panel was the dead wife of Mr. Watanabe. This strip needed to be redrawn. (You can see the original strip below the new one and make the comparison for yourself)
Now, the strip is part of the archive, and you can now read the entire story of Shiunji and the Suicide Girl on Sexy Losers.
It took a long time to finish this story, and it took longer to put it all in one place. If you’re reading this, I deeply admire your patience.
But it’s not the last Sexy Losers strip. It might not even be the last one with Shiunji and Tomoe.
mc says
Woot! Another SexyLoosers!
And here I was, thinking I’d have to live with the loose ends…
clay says
I was going to rename the strip “Sexy Loose Ends” but decided against it.
M says
A spin-off starring Kevin Lee!
Nonsexy Loser says
Yeahhhhh! I missed you sexy losers.
clay says
It missed you too. There’s more on the way!
Marc Dacey says
Well, isn’t this a nice surprise, as I’m surprised I’m using the word “nice”, but it fits.
John Anon says
Where? It’s 2018, come on man get it together!
clay says
“Where?” Six more strips followed this one. You can see them on the front page.
Ashley Langdon (@Ardarakaminskya) says
The fairy needs to give up XD
clay says
Oh, she’ll be back in about 5-6 strips.
NecroWolf says
I love the remakes and anything you add to these! Some that are easier to see because of the larger panels and how much better your art is these years later are just a big bonus! (like Invisible Clothes!).
If only you had a robot to help you re-ink or color! But you are in the best country for that to be possible!
I hope I can visit one day! Not you… but then, sure, why not you! When is a good year? 😉
clay says
Yup, I’ve gotten a lot better at drawing invisible clothes!
In fact, my next comic will be a super sexy strip called The Invisibles, about a orgy adventures of invisible people! It will be the apex of my drawing skills.
leo says
hello :`)
clay says
Hello yourself!
ColdFusion says
between this and samurai jack coming back, I can’t hold it all in!
Marccrazy says
I am ecstatic to see updates. love your work, love your humor, and have been a fan for half of my life. I read your commentaries sometimes when you think a joke wasn’t as funny as you would’ve liked… But really I find all of SL to be quite genius. Excited for more!
clay says
Thanks for your kind words. I hope to be less self-flagellating with these updates.
MidoriBird says
Bahahaha! Checked in at the right time! Been a fan of SL since 2003; I remember seeing the original version of this on your blog. I do hope you keep updating every now and then…
clay says
The next update is the 23rd. It’s already finished, it’s a Kenta’s Horny Mom strip.
MidoriBird says
All right!
Kat says
Omg I actually yelped with happiness at seeing another update! I used to read it over a decade ago and randomly checked on here a couple months ago. Been checking a few times a week since to keep an eye out for more. Thank you!
clay says
There is an option to have the new strips E-mailed to you, check out the link in the left sidebar.
Kat says
Thanks for the tip. If I wasn’t totally hopeless and actually checked my emails I probably would do that. For now I’ll keep visiting periodically to check. Thanks though
Tobias Holmberg says
sexy losers has been in my favorites list for 15 years since i got my first proper computer, and its nice that there is no reason to remove it yet.
Max Festersen Hansen says
Haha, i love it 🙂
Great to see it’s back!
Captain Hero says
Wait! Is this the end of Shiunji and the Suicide Girl? I hope not because I want to now how the story will go on with Mrs. Watanabe as the main antagonist.
clay says
Probably very similarly.
Captain Hero says
So you will do a second story with it? Or not? Because like you said it would be very similar.
clay says
I think it ends best on this note.
panchoman36 says
I cnt believe it! You be back and as good as or better then ever!!! Lots of love!
clay says
Thank you! Lots of love to you too!
Shanthi says
I’m so glad to see this strip back. I happened across it back in…2000, I think! I followed it religiously til it seemed to end. One of the great web comics the Internet has ever birthed. ?
I hope that you’ll still use Shiunji, even though this story arc is wrapped up. He’s such a unique character and the jokes involving him are so dark and hilarious.
Faust says
This was a great and funny story. I loved Shiuji’s jokes and personality besides the dark side he had he was a lovely character. Glad to see that he survived, at least by now.
SpiegelGeist says
A Great End To A Great Story! 🙂
Suprafockar says
Nice! I started reading Shiunji’s comics after you finished the series! Awesome!!
Meiko says
Wow I have been follows you since the beginning and just thought ‘what happened to Suicide Girl?” Randomly and you’ve ended the strip.
Thanks!
M says
Coming back to this after 10(4?) years. I guess the series is now cold enough that Shiunji would want to fuck it too.
Lisa Stone says
talentedly! waiting for new posts!
Blobcha says
The mother is hot and all, but her hairstyle looks like a poor dye job and as if someone just slapped a fuzz ball on her head. I wouldn’t be surprised if the father is responsible for that.
Loved the twists and humor. Thank you for this very interesting series.
Erik says
This was my favorite story but I feel like it would have been better if Yuki realized he loved her and she killed herself so they could be together again. All the revenge stuff was too kill Bill and she wasn’t as cute
clay says
I haven’t seen kill bill so I can’t comment on that, but even if yuki killed herself again she wouldn’t be with shiunji, she’d be watching him defile her body from heaven again. Even tomoe didn’t go that far, she knew that *she* wanted to be with shiunji, not her rotting empty corpse. Sorry, not seeing the logic in this.
Swiss Chorizo says
Will we see Yuko Ishida again ?
KingPhil says
Probably not as a person. Maybe as a ghost if we’re lucky.
Streetplosion says
Goddamn this was so funny to read. Literally just learned of this today.
John says
Damn, sorta hoped Yuko would win somehow even if I don’t know how exactly that could have ended up as any sort of funny punchline.
clay says
No one won in this, that’s why this strip isn’t called Sexy Winners
John says
Understandable, lol. Though I’d say Shiunji did kinda end off without any comeuppance which I guess is more so my thought process.
Παναγιώτης Μυλωνάς says
Damn. I discovered this webcomic series from a YouTube VA video, tonight at Wednesday October 26, 2022 00:15 AM (GMT+3) I thought it would be just one paneled strip. Little did I know that there would be a rabbit hole of a plot advanced webcomic series that had a creation span of nearly 17 years… That was one of the best moments that I had in 2022; the 1 hour that i spent binge reading “Shiunji and the Suicide Girl”. I’ll make sure to check the rest of Sexy Losers, and thanks for the laughs.
clay says
Do you have the link for the YouTube video? Id be interested to see it.
Casually Cultured says
Oh yeah I also watched a video and I binge read up to this point from volume 1. It was a really funny journey and it’s cool that you’re back. I didn’t think he was actually serious though and I thought he was just saying it to deter Ishida from jumping. Here’s the vid:
https://youtu.be/Epnxfo0YbEg