11/28/2018: Zebra Girl,Volume 5: Heaven on Earth is now available to order in the online store! The final storyline of this long-running online fantasy is finally ready for you to hold in your hands.

I'd like to thank you all for your patience and support. To celebrate the occasion, I'm also putting on a special sale! While supplies last, copies of the original printing of Volume 1 are in the store as well, available to purchase at a discount. These are from my first foray into professional printing, and they're a fairly no-frills affair compared to the current run. I originally stopped selling them when I began printing more polished books with Ka-Blam, but I still have quite a few left over, and I frankly should have made this sale a long time ago.

Anyway, thanks again, everyone. You're the ones who got us here. Now I hope to turn my eyes towards an omnibus of some sort, a grand project which will surely be the work of many days to come. And then... who knows?

We'll see!

-Joe

10/31/2018: The Vorpal Pook tend to conceal themselves beneath a veneer of respectability. Ever the exhibitionist, Black Betty sometimes uses Halloween as an opportunity to buck propriety and let down her hair.

Just a little.

-Joe

9/26/2018: Hello all! Volume Five is experiencing preliminary printing, and soon (well, in a matter of weeks, likely) you'll be able to order it from the store just like the others! I felt this deserved an announcement on the front page, since not everyone subscribes to the Facebook group or Patreon. Though I'll suggest you keep an eye on them if you want to make sure not to miss the release! I know how easy it is to overlook these news posts.

This is a noteworthy volume, and not just because it's the last of its kind. The cover was specially made, rather than being assembled from previous artwork like the others. It will also be the biggest book to boot, with 213 pages of comics, the entirety of the Heaven on Earth arc and the Epilogue!

Oh, I'm happy for this to be made. I do intend to create a larger Omnibus collecting all the volumes at some point, but like I said in the other posts, it's still a special feeling to finish a book.

I'll probably put the general cover image back up eventually, but I wanted to show off that cover. Do you like the movie poster look? A wordless version will be in my corner of DeviantArt. I'm proud of it. I'm proud of everything here. Ooh, maybe now I can find time to finish the fan art gallery! And the fan fiction section! And the guest comics in the archives! There's so much here that I want to come back to again and again.

Thanks again, you guys.

-Joe


6/15/2018: I felt obliged to create a cover for any new readers that may ever find their way here. Welcome to the show! Zebra Girl began in the early days of the millennium, and I encourage you to begin at the beginning and see what eighteen years can do to the story of a young woman who lost and found herself through a supernatural condition.

For those of you who've seen the story through to its end, all I can do is reiterate my gratitude to every member of this crowd, and not just for reading! So many of you took the time to describe your feelings upon the comic's completion that I couldn't yet respond to you each as you deserved. So hear this! I hear you! You're great, and it fills my heart to know that my work has meant something to you. Zebra Girl is only what it became because of its audience!

As for future plans, I'll announce any new developments here, and on Facebook, Patreon, Twitter, Tumblr, DeviantArt, Pinterest, and a couple other places that are probably irrelevant. In time I'll put the last storyline into print, and then, hopefully, I'll collect all five volumes into an omnibus. And if there ever comes a sequel to Zebra Girl, or some other project along those lines, it won't be a secret!

Speaking of secrets... I did leave a few, didn't I? If you absolutely must have definitive answers to any lingering questions, contact me directly and maybe I'll spill a bean. I would offer to do it here, in the comments section, but... well, spoilers.

There's always a chance for fresh eyes.

-Joe

Hat's off to you Joe... And to anyone new that happens to stumble onto this page, I hope you enjoy the comic before you.

Nice cover page. Very classy. And very you.

Nice cover! Can’t believe that it’s over now after all these years

To whomever happens upon this at the beginning and the last page, welcome to the story! Or is that goodbye? Aloha, regardless, and remember that sometimes The End doesn't mean what it says. Sometimes it simply means that this is where we leave the story.

Thanks Joe, a decade and a half worth of thanks from me.

And so ends Zebra Girl... With a cover page worthy of its long, long history. For a webcomic, anyways.
Thank you, Joe!

Here's hoping *this* book isn't slammed shut when it's put down... ;)

~It`s over, isn't it? It's over isn't it?~

Gotta say, there are a bunch of webcomics that have recently ended or are heading to the climax. But... this is the one that's gonna stick with me the longest. Thank you, Joe

Awesome artwork.

I hardly have anything to add, to what was already said by so many.

Please, just let us know what you are going to do next - I would never miss it! ;-)

It's a hell of a thing you've made here Joe. A full story woven to a true completion. Most story-tellers who try to walk so long a road don't make it to this end. I am pleased that somewhere deep in the archives a guest comic I made for you sits as its own little pebble by that road.

Thank you... I will miss you and this comic, I wish you all the best :)

Been reading this comic for years -- not quite from the very beginning but definitely from earlier times -- and it's been an awesome ride. I love seeing how both the art and story have evolved. Bravo.

This cover is beautiful. And I clicked to it while I was listening to this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCet4yrfp4o&list=WL&index=13&t=0s
it felt super-appropriate, what do you think?

.. time to go back to page one then!

The good thing about endings is really being able to binge the whole thing!

Thanks for the run Joe it was great. Truly.

Hey, Joe! Long-time fan and patron when funds allow. Been reading and loving it since the beginning. Can't wait to see what you do next!

I cannot remember when I found your comic, but I was glad I did, such a wonderful story and world you've created all these years. And as such you are one of my inspirations, in the near future I will be embarking on my own comic journey of a world I created, though I don't think it will run for as long as yours has, I do think it's a story worth sharing, and if you ever happen upon it, I do hope my story grips your interest just as yours had mine.

Thanks for the memories.

Thank you for the story I really enjoyed it.

Congratulations to the first webcomic I ever started reading

So that's it. Wow.

So. Zebra Girl isn't the first webcomic I started reading. It might be the one I've read the longest, it might not be. Couldn't say for sure.

But I started reading it at some point when I was in High School, wanna say ~2002, 2003. Now I'm in my thirties with a job and a mortgage and a long-term relationship.

I love the characters. I love the art. I love the way a webcomic, maybe more than any other medium, lets me see an artist develop their style and their voice, week by week.

I'm doing a re-read of the archives, from the first page to the last, and I'm noticing bits and concepts and details that I... took influence from (stole) in RPG characters and short fiction and that big unfinished mess on my hard drive that might someday be a novel.

Thanks for this, Joe. I'll keep an eye on what you come out with, and I want to say, sincerely, thank you.

.... bye

...

...for now?

Wooooo~!!!

*Throws confetti!*

I've been reading since the early aughts and although I'm sad it's ending I'm relieved you didn't try to extend it past it's end, those get painful. A beautiful ending and I couldn't possibly imagine a better one, such an imaginative story that has always kept me on my toes. I'm looking forward to that omnibus. Best of luck to you in future projects!

Thank you so much for Zebra Girl, and for letting us watch you develop as an artist and writer. I feel incredibly blessed to have ridden along with you on your journey! A lot of long-running webcomics have early art very different from the later art, usually starting out shoddy and ending up competent, but in your case you started out competent and ended as one of the best comics artists working today. Enjoy being finished, and I hope you decide to begin a new story soon!

*Vigorous Applause*
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for an amazing story, Joe.

My new favorite book mark

Thank you again for creating and sharing this story. ^_^

Personally, I'd love to see some of the early pages redrawn in the new style!
Anyhow, CONGRATULATIONS!

See You, Space Cowboy.

A nice ending to the excellent webcomic.

I've been reading it since 2005, and - to be honest - sometimes I was afraid that it would be abandoned like many webcomics from that time. I'm glad that I was wrong.

Thanks for the story, Joe!

Thank you for the incredible journey.

Started reading at strip 26. So, nearly from the start. To be honest, I've always come here for the art. Story... well, it has never been my biggest draw, but it always had enough unique elements to help. My favorite character is the demonic bunny Black Betty. Best story arc, for me, was the loss of all the wizards. Most enjoyable part was the girlfriend as a bunny dressed in a dinner dress with other women gleefully looking on. The background stuff was always great. Best 4th wall breaking / chekhov's gun is probably the mystery of the growing boobs. Honestly I never noticed, but I guess that was the point? I have followed very few web comics and luckily the ones I find tend to run for years and years. Good job!

Joe,

Since 2002, when I discovered Keenspot, Zebra-girl has been a part of my life. It outlasted a lot of other web-comics. Some ended, some I drifted away from, but only Zebra Girl hooked me from the moment I read it, until its end.

The last year has been very difficult for me, and the struggles Zandra and her friends went through often reflected my traumas and troubles. Your comic has always been a source of inspiration in my life.

And now it's over.

I was always a lurker here. I never really joined any of your other posters, or felt the need to post. I enjoyed your work, and I swore that one day, the minute I can, I will support it however I can. That day has not come yet, and here my favorite comic is over.

So as someone who has read Zebra Girl from near the beginning, just let me say; thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for the wonderful work you did, the great art you produced. I will -never- forget the impact your story had on my life. It will be with me until I die.

I wish you all the success in the world in your future endeavors, and if I am ever in a position to help you in the future, I will. I wish it could be now, as often the immediate is what we are concerned with. But you have a fan for life.

Wishing you the very best.

Argent Fox

Thank you for the amazing and wonderful story. I’ll never forget the Magic you have woven.

Another long time follower (2002 I think?), thank you and congratulations for concluding this tale.


Please make that omnibus... I'd buy it for sure.

Warning: Long rambling tale ahead. It's just the release of everything I wanted to say about Zebra Girl.

I only found Zebra Girl a few days ago.
I was randomly browsing TV Tropes, of all things, bored and listless. By chance, I found a link to Zebra Girl, and for once wasn't a moron and clicked the link before reading every damn spoiler.
I didn't think much of this at first. The art was kind of crappy IMO, the text was harder to read than I felt it should have been, and the story seemed to be going alternately too slowly and too quickly, without any thought.
I thought it wasn't that bad of a timesink, though, so I kept reading.
I started enjoying it when Sandra and Crystal first entered Sam's reality.
After that, I finished the entire thing in only a few days. That's all it took. I neglected my work almost entirely, my sleep pretty much entirely, and...well, everything else, just so I could read more Zebra Girl. I'd been hooked, thoroughly and utterly. And I've got to say...
It was absolutely worth it. By the end, I loved them all - Sandra, Jack, Crystal, Sam, Wally, Viv, and everyone else too numerous to name.
By the end, I may or may not have been crying softly.
Because such a wonderful thing had come into existence in the first place, and finding it was like a miracle. Never before has anything quite like Zebra Girl been done, and nothing again will ever impact me quite like it has.
Because my heart ached for S/Zandra and her suffering.
Because this is one of the best stories I've ever had the fortune to encounter.
Possibly a part of the tears was that I was slightly jealous. But never mind that.
I can't say I've experienced the story as it was meant to be consumed - I binged 814 pages in less than a week. But I can say that even so, this has been a profoundly affecting and wonderful work, both artistically and narratively (shut up that's a word now). I plan to read it again and again over the years, despite the heartache it will inevitably bring, because it'll be worth it. I'm willing to bet I'll enjoy pages 1-150 a heck of a lot more now.
So...I've rambled on for far too long, trying to say what could've been said in a few simple words. I want to say thank you, Joe England. If I was given one wish right now, it would be to read this comic with totally fresh eyes, to experience this awesome journey for the first time again.
Of course, then I'd be sobbing over the epilogue again, but who says that's a bad thing?
Here's hoping the tale isn't truly over for us. Stories don't vanish when they're done, and I think this is enough for now, but...
Well, sometimes it's better to just hope. And I can't recall Viv ever getting her reunion?

I'm torn on whether this should be a long comment or a short one. I came to Zebragirl way early in the run, though I couldn't tell you where exactly. Hooked while I was in grad school and it fed my growing obsessive webcomics habit at the time. (At its height, I was following over 120 of them daily. Deep dissatisfaction with a thesis leads to toxic procrastinative habits.) I became a tangential part of the community here and briefly visited the message board for a while... even tossed a $50 into the donation bin once, IIRC, neither of which I ever did for the other comics I followed.

And then I fell off. Graduated, got a job, met a girl, got another job, moved, got married, had a kid. Somewhere in there, the webcomics addiction had to go, there just isn't time enough in the day, and I was probably better for it.

Except this one kept creeping back in. My obsessive (and frankly a little self-destructive) tendency towards nostalgia and completism led me to make up an excel with all my old webcomic links with the ridiculous idea of "getting caught up." That file lies fallow now, dates scattered from here to 2015, but I never needed it for this comic. Any time I thought "webcomic" this was the first one I'd check.

It was definitely the art. And the story. And especially the characters and worldbuilding. I have a bricked laptop with the Crystal "perv" shirt wallpaper permanently installed. The absurd concepts... all frivolity and humor with a surprisingly deep well of meaning beneath. Jack's unending resilience, Crystal's surprising-but-not-when-you-think-about-it conversion to a goth persona, Sandra's wavering relationship with humanity, Sam's hard-bitten fish-out-of-water nature. There was some deep, undirected exploration of a person's humanity going on in each of them. Not preaching, but the very human fumbling-through-life that felt very real. Returning from the irrevocable. Even the little details were genius. A "flower-child" displaced vampire. Behemoth-sized werewolf transformations. (Those guys made it into my only attempt at running a new-world D&D.)

I didn't agree with everywhere it went. I don't like how Mike ended up. The whole show wrapped up a touch more utopic than I would've liked. I wanted a little more (but not much) explanation behind Chalk, and I could've done with a whole 'nother arc of Jack, especially involving Tomie. I worry that the more formalization of the art, the more cemented in real form and structure of the human body, for example, the more it lost a little of the playfulness and stylization of the mid-run work.

But it's not my work. It's Joe's. We're playing in his realm, and that's the most important aspect. (Which is why I refrained from commenting when I didn't like something: I haven't the ego to tell someone that I think I could do their imagination better.) It may be the cynic in me, but a part of me is relieved that the whole story is done. Zebragirl is complete. It isn't joining so many of the other webcomics on my list that petered out, with longer and longer hiatuses, drizzling out into nothingness as the author and audience couldn't be bothered any more, or continuing indefinitely into mediocrity like a movie series grasping after those dwindling dollars or an anime or comic carried beyond its natural ending by momentum.

Zebra Girl is complete. And it's all good.

P.S. I guess it was a long comment. Sorry about that.

P.P.S. I would totally buy the omnibus.

Thanks for all the years of great comics.

Around 15 years since I joined this ride.
Thanks for everything.

Wow. Has it really been that long? God, I was still a teenager when I first stumbled on this. I think I ended up finding first finding this through a WEB RING, for God's sake! Remember those?

What an impressive, monumental undertaking. Thanks for sharing it, and happy trails.

If you get the omnibus out this year, I think it'll be eligible for a Hugo next year. I for one will buy it, nominate it, and vote for it. And, who knows...

been reading off and on since 2002-2003, thought you should know that i've enjoyed your comic immensely

looking forward to any future projects you may have.

So when do we get our Zebra Girl Netflix series? WELL??

I hesitated to post anything here. I guess maybe I was hoping that if I didn't post, you might change your mind. Zebragirl entered my reading list around 10 years ago and its the first I checked and read before starting another hum-drum day. I just wanted to say your comic has meant a lot to me and will be sorely missed. So I guess I just came to say goodbye to Zandra, Jack, Crystal, Sam, Tomie & Wally. Looking forward to your next project Joe and Good Luck. -R

I've been reading since (like a lot of people, it seems) since the early to mid noughties. Zebra girl has been with me since high school, and it's been continually rewarding; the art style, the characters, the story... All have steadily improved (not that they were bad to begin with). I'm very impressed, thank you Joe!

Long-time reader. Really long-time. Since dial-up long-time. Hell of a ride.

Wow.. read this since the beginning. I just can say wow.

It's been a long time since i read about a lady get turned into a demon thanks to a perv roommate as a gag, and i gotta admit the comic handled the years better that i have!

Good on you for seeing your work through to the end, i hope it's as satisfying from the writer's desk as it is from here! If nothing else, you never have to draw all those stripes on a deadline again!

Always loved this comic, and I'm glad it got a solid ending. May you have many awesome projects (or even just a few long-running and awesome projects!) in the future. Also, Joe, I'm not sure if you're aware of this (you probably are) but that three circles logo you have on the cover page title next to girl, presumably to represent her three eyes, is also a symbol from the discipline of symbolic logic meaning "therefore". Even though I haven't studied symbolic logic in over a decade, I still use its notations to save fingers when I'm taking notes in hardcopy rather than digital format.

It brought tears to my eyes to finally read the end of your and Zandra's story.
Thanks for all of it, I loved it.

Am I the only one, who even now, still comes here, almost by reflex to see an update? Despite knowing that the end came?

I miss it. At least it had a good ending, unlike so many other things I've enjoyed. Twas a weekly part of my life for years.

Yes, this is my first, and potentially, only comment.

In other news, Joe, if you see this, I would like to comment: In chapter 814, you finally got out of that chair you were in in chapter 1. You really should have been out and about sooner! Sitting down that long is simply not healthy!

I found this comic a mere year and a half ago (before it ended) and it was exactly what I was looking for. (Well, after the first few pages that broke the fourth wall.)
I love the story, the characters and the world. You have been an inspiration and a model of success for me. I rarely buy real hard copies of comics but I hope that you are selling these long enough for me to wrangle up the money for them.
Also, that cover art is beautiful. I love the sense of horror it brings to the transformation.

Yes! Omnibus please! I'd love to have a physical copy of all this gorgeous story to enjoy and share with my son.

You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.

Any news about the last volume release?

Thank you very much. A well told tale. Sorry to see the end, Glad of the ending. Please tell more tales.

I was just wondering, do you have any plans for doing another comic? If you do, do you have any idea when it might come out? I miss seeing new work by you, especially since your art and storytelling skills have matured so much on this comic.

Honestly, I would not be surprised to learn that some exec somewhere was considering putting forth communication with Joe about turning this brilliant piece of work into a movie/series.

I can't compliment enough on how much of an amazing ride it's been.

Say... If you're thinking of something special yet quick 'n' easy for this first post-Zebra Halloween, how about digging up that old grave-robber one-off, for those who missed it? (Y'know, "S'all right" ?) I assume it's not already posted in the archives somewhere.

Man I have discovered this comic in 2005? and have been reading it since. It have been a great run.

I see a lot of potential stories in conclusion. Or maybe entirely different people.

In any case, I hope to see you working on new stories someday! :) Thanks for finishing this one. I have seen bunch of webcomics try to push stories to breaking point then die without finishing story. So sad when it happens. My "Dead comics" list is very long, and nearly all of em is dead due to this.

I've been around awhile, and I must say, this is probably the best web comic out there that's finished(one of the few that are finished and good). I found this after a friend told me about it, in 2006. It just kept getting better and better.

I've really like the overall plot. Although in the beginning it was a little slow, it picked up pace. I also liked that the plot was a little more out there, using the mystery of the supernatural world to make it a grand ride.

I've also identified with the characters. Sandra, or should I say KhaZandra? Well, anyhow, after being turned into a monster felt no connection to the outside world, and since I was a child, most have treated me like the plague or a monster in my own right, and in the middle where she accepts she's a monster, but pushes everyone away, I did that in my teenage years.
This comic has many things I love, and it just sucked me in like the toilet portal. I still come back and read it when I have little else to do or am in a wretched mood.

Joe, keep writing man, cause with this alone, you've gone far. Like my father told me this quote, and it goes for anyone, even someone who's done well already; "Shoot for the moon, and you'll land amoungst the stars. Then there's nothing you can't do."

"Do you have anything to declare?"
"Da ****?"

Happy Halloween Joe

Niiiiiice :D

Weeeeelllllll... Volume 5 arrived today.
It’s so smooth and shiny! And there’s no loading times and I can flip back and forth all I like!
Highly recommended. 5 stars.

Thank you for giving the world this amazing story and these incredible characters. Can’t wait to see what’s next! (But I will wait, because as someone whose been reading Zebragirl for years now, I’m accustomed to waiting for the good stuff).