658: Shipping

|< < Prev Comic #658 (March 08, 2011)

Shipping

Made by: Thompkins

Explanation

Shipping, in the context of a fandom, is the preference of a fan for (usually) a couple of characters within a body of work to be in a relationship, i.e., dating, married, that sort of thing. This is often without regard for canon; two characters may be shipped by fans even if they have explicitly rejected each other, would never have even considered each other (due to sexual orientation, incest concerns, etc.), have never met, could never meet (outside of dimension-hopping, time travel, or imagination manifestation, which may or may not be a thing in the work), and so on.

OTP, in the context of shipping, stands for One True Pairing, which is the pair of such characters that a fan believes to be preferable to all others. Pairings are often signified with an "×" or "x" between them (oddly enough, asterisks are rarely if ever used), or nothing at all, or even smashed together so hard that some of the letters are removed.

In this edit of the latter of two strips, the revelation that Kimmy was raised by wolves, rather than repulsing Jon as in the original strip, turns out to be a turn-on for him, as evidenced by the reuse of his leering smile afterward, lifted from two strips earlier in the date.

The author writes:

Forget Liz. Jon×Kimmy OTP.

Original strips: 1990-11-26, 1990-11-28.

Transcript

Kimmy: By the way, Jon, did I tell you I was raised by wolves?
Jon: You're kidding.
{Kimmy scratches her ear with her leg.}
SFX: SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH
{Jon looks shocked.}
{Loose hairs fall from Kimmy's head.}
Kimmy: No, really.
{Jon has a leering smile.}