The Pokemorph Stories (Thanks, SourBlossom!)

Discerning webcomic aficionados will be thoroughly unsurprised to learn The Pokemorph Stories started on DeviantArt.

There's a severe dearth of webcomics about games these days, so The Pokemorph Stories is a real breath of fresh air! Here's the origin tale: After a mysterious encounter with something called the Hope Prysm [sic], Charlie, Todd, Alexander, and Chelsey awaken to find they've morphed into Pokemon. These four friends, now known as the Pokemorphs, end up in Juniper Village, a Pokemon-filled wonderland that mostly resembles grass and sand textures from Photoshop. The art quality takes a huge dip whenever the artist (who's apparently a sheep?) has to draw characters that aren't part of a copyrighted franchise, such as the Pokemorphs in their original human form.

The Pokemorph Stories delivers panel after panel of a charmander looking sad. When she nearly dies in a recent plotline, the comic shifts its focus to the other characters looking sad.

Charlie, now a charmander, uses the opportunity to rebrand himself as a girl Pokemon named Charlene, because there's no better time to make that sort of life-changing transition than minutes after you've become a reptile that's perpetually on fire. Might as well, y'know?

Alexander's reputation as the comic's resident badass was cemented when he refused to say his name. After that, he just kind of silently lurked around until (spoiler alert!) he and Charlene kiss after zero buildup whatsover. The nonexistent sexual tension was killing me!

Todd, the wacky one of the bunch who's now a foxy eevee, gets a job at a clothing store that apparently needed a second employee even though no one in the village wears clothes or uses currency (I can only assume Juniper Valley's inevitable economic collapse is being saved for a future storyline). There are several interludes where Todd makes dresses for Charlene, which she sees as a huge affront to her newfound gender. (For shame, Todd. Looks like not even Pokemon can evolve beyond the gender binary.) To get back at him, Charlene slips him secret berries that change his sex without his consent and later sets him on fire.

Chelsey turned into a squirtle and has yet to have any plot relevance.

– Adam "rubber cat" Jameson (@robbercat)