Hot damn! Oh Joy Sex Toy turns 11 this year on April 26th! An insane age for a project we started for funsies-! That’s 572 comics clocking in at roughly 2,860 pages of creator-owned sex-positivity. To celebrate, we’ve got a month of bonus comics exclusively releasing on:
patreon.com/OhJoySexToy
(Patrons pay per weekly comic)
If you prefer a flat monthly or annual pledge, you can sign up for Erika’s Art Patreon, which does also fund OJST)
Speaking personally, this is a project that fills me with pride, gives my life purpose and I’m honored to be doing it with such an amazing team. Through thick and thin, I can’t imagine a better thing to be doing with my life.
OJST commissions 52 comics a year, paying dozens of diverse cartoonists to make unique stories that they own. When you become a patron, not only are you directly responsible for cartoonists getting paid for their work, but you also get exclusive content shared only on Patreon– including the ten years’ worth of locked comics, essays, podcasts, videos, art, and whatever else we’ve hidden away in our Patreon Archive.
And heck, if any body would like to reach out and make a larger donation please just reach out! My email is at the bottom of that page and we’re down to collaborate, do a dollar-for-dollar matching thing for this pledge drive, or whatevs! The dream? Getting enough support that the business is safe and we can give our artists a much-deserved raise.
Thank you to our team who works with us tirelessly behind the scenes. Thank you to the artists who share their work with us. And thank you to our readers who show up week after week. Thank you so, so much for making the last eleven years such a success. We couldn’t have done this without you.
↓ Comic Transcript
Today's comic is drawn by Erika Moen and contains depictions of herself and her husband, Matthew Nolan. Erika is a white, Cis woman with she/her pronouns. She’s drawn in a fairy costume with short brown hair and pom-poms on her flat pumps in today's comic. Matthew is a cis white male who goes by he/him pronouns. He has green hair, cool, bright shoes, and a plain T-shirt and trousers combo.
Page 1
Erika sweeps across the page dressed as a fairy, she’s tied to the ceiling by a thick rope. Behind her is Matthew on the ladder tying up celebratory flags that say Happy Birthday Oh Joy Sex Toy.
As she sweeps, Erika announces - ‘Greetings, gentle wanderer! I-’
Matthew interrupts - ‘Erika?! Why are you dressed up like Tinker Bell?’
Erika gets close and squishes Matthew’s mouth in a loving but comedic way, interrupting him by putting her fingers in his mouth and smushing it.
Erika - ‘Chht ! Matthew! I am not a gorgeous wife, who you once created Oh Joy Sex Toy with! No – I am… The Internet fairy!’
She swoops away, floating in the air
The camera pans back and we see a huge birthday cake and presents, next to Matthew who’s still on his ladder.
Matthew - ‘Is this for the anniversary comic? Because I thought we agreed to a birthday thing for it again this year? I already paid for all the set dressing …’
Page 2
Erika floats in from above and over a huge panel. Her dress flops over as she’s hanging upside down. Behind her is a puzzle piece board filling the background, on top of each puzzle piece is a throwback to the Internet from 2010’s. Little sentences such as ‘I has cheeseburger’, ‘Asking Jeeves for the meaning of life’, ‘Deconstructive, cishetronomativity, and sharing porn’, fill this board.
As Erika hangs, she talks and Matthew adds commentary from the side.
Erika - ‘It’s a retrospective comic! Roll with it Nolan! Welcome to the 2010s when the Internet had a lot more space for… ‘
Matthew - ‘Goofing with your friends in 140 characters brackets (Twitter)’
Erika - ‘Tattooed and pierced pinup girl communities… (suicide girls)’
Matthew - ‘Doing it for the vine …’
Erika - ‘Writing academic feminist, theory, and posting hipster porn… (Tumblr)’
Matthew - ‘Cake farts! Oh, such farts.’
Erika - ‘But one piece is missing. The perfect space for…
A title appears in a banner!
Sex-positive Comics
Subtitle
Comics that explore and celebrate the world of sex, sexuality, gender, relationships, identity, and being human.
Floating around this are other words
Sex toy reviews, Autobio, Instructional, Education, Humor, Good ol’-fashioned smut, History, Nonfiction.
Page 3.
We are shown a panel of Erika in Matt from the past, leaping in the air with comic making paraphernalia floating around them.
Erika - ‘And so, Oh Joy Sex Toy debutted 11 years ago.’
Matthew - ‘What started as a two person boner-jokes funsies project…’
The next panel has as an abstraction of the Earth on it around. It contains the rest of the Oh Joy Sex Toy team members. An Anonymous vampire. Ripley, a disheveled, anarchist bad ass. Ziggy a dog holding boss. Hein, a big, lovable bear. Jey a grinning happy, go lucky creative. Danny our transcriber guru!
On top of the illustration the narration continues
Narration - ‘...grew into dozens of contributors in a dedicated team around the world.’
Erika - ‘Who continue to make some of the best positive comics around!‘
Erika swings through on her rope, beneath her is a jungle that quickly becomes a desert, and on top of that are a bunch of gravestones belonging to different publications that have since closed, the jungle is labled as 2010’s publishing and the desert, 2020’s publishing.
Erika - ‘The landscape of online publishing has changed a lot over the last decade…’
Matthew pours a bottle of liquid over The Nib’s gravestone, holding a hat in on his chest.
Matthew - ‘Algorithms, restrictions, politics. Rest in printouts…’
Erika continues ‘… and we’re watching as much larger publishers with much deeper pockets are downsizing or finally closing up shop.’
A little meme’y ‘Press F to Pay Respects’ floats over the scene.
Page 4
Narration - ‘Which brings us to…’
Big title
Oh Joy Sex Toy’s Pledge Drive!
patreon.com/OhJoySexToy
Narration - ‘A site like this lives on its patron support and so over our birthday month, we’re asking loud and proud for sign ups.’
We’re shown a big panel of an arrow directed circular point-to-point loop.
Subtitle - ‘How does this work?’
A little marshmallow person Clicks on a laptop - ‘You read comic’
We are shown a big coffee cup with a dollar sign on it - ‘You support on Patreon’
Coffee cup goes into the hand of an artist - ‘We hire artist’
The artist now starts work on a comic - ‘Artist makes comic’
‘The comic appears on Oh Joy Sex Toy’
The final arrow points back to ‘You read comic’, closing the loop!
In the middle of this Loop is some narration text - ‘Oh Joy Sex Toy is artist-owned and Patreon supported. We pay artists with this income to make comics that they own and we get to share it with you on Oh Joy Sex Toy for free. No annoying pop-up ads, no paywalls, just comics.’
Erika does a fly by swoop with the sound effect ‘fwip!’
Erika - ‘Committing to one buck per comic – about a coffee per month – keeps us going. Several bucks per comic? Keeps us thriving. Let’s talk about rewards!’
Beneath her is a title surrounded by presents, and around those presents are little subtitles.
Title - Pledge Drive Exclusives, Only on the Patreon
Subtitles - Essays, comics, Seacrest, podcast, interviews, behind-the-scenes stuff.
Page 5.
Narration - ‘In addition to the rest of the decades worth of bonus content, that patrons already have, we’ve got… All NEW exclusive, comics to share! We encouraged the team to explore topics important to them outside of the world of sex, and what they have made is just so powerful.’
We see a big wide panel of a bowl of Noodle Soup. It’s rendered extravagantly and above it is Hien Pham's lovely face.
Title - ‘Hien Pham comics about noodle soup in a heartfelt homage to family.’
The next big wide panel is of Jey Pawlik's exclusive comic, we are shown as Jay takes a selfie using a instant camera with their grandpa.
Title - ‘Jey Pawlik is back with a touching piece on the intimacy of instant photography.’
The third full wide panel is of a noisy club, we watch as Ripley LaCross heads towards the dance floor and takes off his glasses.
Title - ‘Ripley LaCross invites us to jump into the mosh pit in this cleansing high-octane piece!’
We finally see Erika again she’s swinging past with hr arms behind her head and saying - ‘… And maybe a little something something for me.’
Page 6 Is just one big panel.
It shows Matthew catching Erika as she sweeps by. Behind them, both is the birthday cake from page 1 and the presents. They’re looking at us, the reader as they talk.
Erika - ‘From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so, so much to all of you, from our contributors, supporters, and readers.’
Matthew - ‘You’ve kept this site going for all its 11 years.’
---
Today's lovely comic was made by Erika and Matt, who desperately need support to keep doing this weekly comic! https://www.patreon.com/OhJoySexToy
It was then transcribed by Matthew Nolan on 03/01/24.
Page 1
Erika sweeps across the page dressed as a fairy, she’s tied to the ceiling by a thick rope. Behind her is Matthew on the ladder tying up celebratory flags that say Happy Birthday Oh Joy Sex Toy.
As she sweeps, Erika announces - ‘Greetings, gentle wanderer! I-’
Matthew interrupts - ‘Erika?! Why are you dressed up like Tinker Bell?’
Erika gets close and squishes Matthew’s mouth in a loving but comedic way, interrupting him by putting her fingers in his mouth and smushing it.
Erika - ‘Chht ! Matthew! I am not a gorgeous wife, who you once created Oh Joy Sex Toy with! No – I am… The Internet fairy!’
She swoops away, floating in the air
The camera pans back and we see a huge birthday cake and presents, next to Matthew who’s still on his ladder.
Matthew - ‘Is this for the anniversary comic? Because I thought we agreed to a birthday thing for it again this year? I already paid for all the set dressing …’
Page 2
Erika floats in from above and over a huge panel. Her dress flops over as she’s hanging upside down. Behind her is a puzzle piece board filling the background, on top of each puzzle piece is a throwback to the Internet from 2010’s. Little sentences such as ‘I has cheeseburger’, ‘Asking Jeeves for the meaning of life’, ‘Deconstructive, cishetronomativity, and sharing porn’, fill this board.
As Erika hangs, she talks and Matthew adds commentary from the side.
Erika - ‘It’s a retrospective comic! Roll with it Nolan! Welcome to the 2010s when the Internet had a lot more space for… ‘
Matthew - ‘Goofing with your friends in 140 characters brackets (Twitter)’
Erika - ‘Tattooed and pierced pinup girl communities… (suicide girls)’
Matthew - ‘Doing it for the vine …’
Erika - ‘Writing academic feminist, theory, and posting hipster porn… (Tumblr)’
Matthew - ‘Cake farts! Oh, such farts.’
Erika - ‘But one piece is missing. The perfect space for…
A title appears in a banner!
Sex-positive Comics
Subtitle
Comics that explore and celebrate the world of sex, sexuality, gender, relationships, identity, and being human.
Floating around this are other words
Sex toy reviews, Autobio, Instructional, Education, Humor, Good ol’-fashioned smut, History, Nonfiction.
Page 3.
We are shown a panel of Erika in Matt from the past, leaping in the air with comic making paraphernalia floating around them.
Erika - ‘And so, Oh Joy Sex Toy debutted 11 years ago.’
Matthew - ‘What started as a two person boner-jokes funsies project…’
The next panel has as an abstraction of the Earth on it around. It contains the rest of the Oh Joy Sex Toy team members. An Anonymous vampire. Ripley, a disheveled, anarchist bad ass. Ziggy a dog holding boss. Hein, a big, lovable bear. Jey a grinning happy, go lucky creative. Danny our transcriber guru!
On top of the illustration the narration continues
Narration - ‘...grew into dozens of contributors in a dedicated team around the world.’
Erika - ‘Who continue to make some of the best positive comics around!‘
Erika swings through on her rope, beneath her is a jungle that quickly becomes a desert, and on top of that are a bunch of gravestones belonging to different publications that have since closed, the jungle is labled as 2010’s publishing and the desert, 2020’s publishing.
Erika - ‘The landscape of online publishing has changed a lot over the last decade…’
Matthew pours a bottle of liquid over The Nib’s gravestone, holding a hat in on his chest.
Matthew - ‘Algorithms, restrictions, politics. Rest in printouts…’
Erika continues ‘… and we’re watching as much larger publishers with much deeper pockets are downsizing or finally closing up shop.’
A little meme’y ‘Press F to Pay Respects’ floats over the scene.
Page 4
Narration - ‘Which brings us to…’
Big title
Oh Joy Sex Toy’s Pledge Drive!
patreon.com/OhJoySexToy
Narration - ‘A site like this lives on its patron support and so over our birthday month, we’re asking loud and proud for sign ups.’
We’re shown a big panel of an arrow directed circular point-to-point loop.
Subtitle - ‘How does this work?’
A little marshmallow person Clicks on a laptop - ‘You read comic’
We are shown a big coffee cup with a dollar sign on it - ‘You support on Patreon’
Coffee cup goes into the hand of an artist - ‘We hire artist’
The artist now starts work on a comic - ‘Artist makes comic’
‘The comic appears on Oh Joy Sex Toy’
The final arrow points back to ‘You read comic’, closing the loop!
In the middle of this Loop is some narration text - ‘Oh Joy Sex Toy is artist-owned and Patreon supported. We pay artists with this income to make comics that they own and we get to share it with you on Oh Joy Sex Toy for free. No annoying pop-up ads, no paywalls, just comics.’
Erika does a fly by swoop with the sound effect ‘fwip!’
Erika - ‘Committing to one buck per comic – about a coffee per month – keeps us going. Several bucks per comic? Keeps us thriving. Let’s talk about rewards!’
Beneath her is a title surrounded by presents, and around those presents are little subtitles.
Title - Pledge Drive Exclusives, Only on the Patreon
Subtitles - Essays, comics, Seacrest, podcast, interviews, behind-the-scenes stuff.
Page 5.
Narration - ‘In addition to the rest of the decades worth of bonus content, that patrons already have, we’ve got… All NEW exclusive, comics to share! We encouraged the team to explore topics important to them outside of the world of sex, and what they have made is just so powerful.’
We see a big wide panel of a bowl of Noodle Soup. It’s rendered extravagantly and above it is Hien Pham's lovely face.
Title - ‘Hien Pham comics about noodle soup in a heartfelt homage to family.’
The next big wide panel is of Jey Pawlik's exclusive comic, we are shown as Jay takes a selfie using a instant camera with their grandpa.
Title - ‘Jey Pawlik is back with a touching piece on the intimacy of instant photography.’
The third full wide panel is of a noisy club, we watch as Ripley LaCross heads towards the dance floor and takes off his glasses.
Title - ‘Ripley LaCross invites us to jump into the mosh pit in this cleansing high-octane piece!’
We finally see Erika again she’s swinging past with hr arms behind her head and saying - ‘… And maybe a little something something for me.’
Page 6 Is just one big panel.
It shows Matthew catching Erika as she sweeps by. Behind them, both is the birthday cake from page 1 and the presents. They’re looking at us, the reader as they talk.
Erika - ‘From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so, so much to all of you, from our contributors, supporters, and readers.’
Matthew - ‘You’ve kept this site going for all its 11 years.’
---
Today's lovely comic was made by Erika and Matt, who desperately need support to keep doing this weekly comic! https://www.patreon.com/OhJoySexToy
It was then transcribed by Matthew Nolan on 03/01/24.
