Slipshine review: the erotic webcomics members site

What Slipshine is

Slipshine calls itself an erotic webcomics publisher. It is operated by Slipshine Studio, LLC, and its About page dates it precisely: Slipshine first opened its digital doors on December 15, 2001. The model is a publisher's, not an open upload site. The About page describes the job as Find great comic artists and pay them to make the hottest smut they want to make.

The public site at www.slipshine.net carries the free comics, the sampler and the join links; paid reading happens on members.slipshine.net. One thing to know before you type the address: slipshine.net without the "www" redirects to a different domain, orgymania.net. Use www.slipshine.net to reach Slipshine itself.

Who it suits

Slipshine suits readers who want a large archive of original erotic webcomics from many artists, with a sex-positive and LGBTQ-friendly slant, and who are happy to read in a browser. It suits less well anyone who wants to try a single month cheaply, since the first month is the expensive one, or anyone who pays with PayPal.

The Slipshine archive

The FAQ says members get continuous access to the archives of our comics, currently at more than 23512 pages, and the home page rounds that to an archive of 23,000 pages and over 100 unique series. Those are Slipshine's own figures. On frequency, the home page says New pages are posted every single day of the week.

The home page describes the catalog as unique, diverse, sex-positive LGBTQI+ comics. Everything is original western webcomics in English, with no manga, webtoons or doujinshi. The public series page lists titles only, with no genre or tag menu, and the members area (with whatever search and filters it has) is not visible without an account. That makes the free comics the best preview of the house style.

Slipshine's 18+ characters statement

Slipshine puts its rule on character ages in two places. The entry gate says:

Every character represented in our comics is of legal age

The site footer repeats it, with the wording tightened to the people in the sex scenes:

All characters who take part in sexual arts in our stories are designed to be at least 18 years of age.

None of the other western studio and publisher sites we review next to it (Kirtu, Affect3D, Iron Circus Comics and Filthy Figments) publishes a statement like this one.

What is free on Slipshine

Two things. A public Sampler collects pages from the members archive. Separately, Slipshine lists several complete webcomics as "Free to Read", each on its own subdomain. The best known is The Rock Cocks by Leslie and Brad Brown, an erotic road comedy about a punk duo, running since November 14, 2014 with 18 chapters and more than 1,000 pages, updated Mondays and Fridays. Its creators also take support on Patreon and SubscribeStar.

The free comics are full stories, not teasers, so a reader can spend a long time on Slipshine without paying. The archive itself needs a membership. Other places to read adult comics at no cost are on the free porn comics sites list.

How much Slipshine costs

The join form, hosted by CCBill, lists two options in US dollars:

• monthFirst 30 days, then monthly$29.00first 30 days $29.00, then $11.57 every 30 days↗
• once30 days, non-recurring$29.0030 days of access, no renewal↗

Source: api.ccbill.com. Prices change with region, promotions and the store you buy through.

The recurring option reads $29.00(USD) for 30 days then $11.57(USD) recurring every 30 days; the other reads $29.00(USD) for 30 days (non-recurring). There is no free trial. The FAQ explains the higher first month by the size of the archive and the fact that the artists are paid for their work.

The first month costs about 2.5 times a renewal. Over the first 360 days (twelve 30-day periods), the recurring plan comes to $29.00 plus eleven renewals of $11.57, or $156.27. After that it is $11.57 every 30 days, a little under the $12.99 monthly price at Filthy Figments. Buying the non-recurring option twice costs $58.00 for 60 days, against $40.57 on the recurring plan, so the one-off only makes sense for a single month.

Which option to pick

If you want one binge through the archive and then out, the non-recurring $29.00 is the same price as the first recurring month and needs no cancelling. If you expect to stay longer than two months, the recurring plan is the cheaper route, and you will want to note the renewal date.

Paying, billing and cancelling

Slipshine takes cards only; the FAQ says We are not able to accept Paypal. Card statements show CCBill.com *Slipshine Studio. That descriptor names the studio, so it is less anonymous than descriptors that show only the billing company, though it does not say "erotic" anywhere.

Cancelling has no button in a members account. The FAQ says You will need to go through CCBill's support page, and adds that you can also email Slipshine support. The general steps for CCBill and similar processors are in our guide to cancelling a comic subscription.

On data, the entry gate says that by entering you agree to data collection in the form of client-sided data (e.g. "cookies") and IP address-logging, and adds No billing or contact information is transferred from CCBill to Slipshine. CCBill keeps your card details; Slipshine does not see them.

The age check

The free site uses a click-through gate that sets a cookie. For the members site, Slipshine relies on the card: Access to the members site requires a credit card, which is traditionally enough to verify that someone is legally able to access adult-oriented entertainment. For UK visitors it says Subscribing with a credit card is sufficient under the UK's rules. The gate also warns that US state ID laws mean access to the free site may be censored or blocked in some places.

Reading on a phone or tablet

Slipshine has no app for iPhone or Android. Members use the website in a mobile or desktop browser. Slipshine says nothing on its public pages about downloads or offline reading, so plan on reading online.

For artists

Slipshine commissions and pays its artists. The FAQ says We also pay our individual artists a fair market value for their work, without publishing rates. Submissions open only from time to time: We will let you know through our home page and social media if we are accepting open submissions for new comics. Artists who want to publish on their own terms meanwhile can compare membership platforms on the best platforms for adult comic creators.

Pros and cons

Alternatives to Slipshine

• Filthy Figments is the closest match: a members archive of original erotic comics since 2010, 200-plus titles by its own count, focused on queer and women's perspectives. It charges $12.99 a month or $99.95 a year on sale, and you cancel from your own account page.
• Iron Circus Comics sells erotic graphic novels and the Smut Peddler anthologies as DRM-free PDFs, so you buy books instead of renting an archive.
• Patreon is where creators such as The Rock Cocks team sell early pages, bonus comics and PDFs to supporters, one creator at a time.

The wider picture of erotic comics and where to buy them is on the erotic comics page, with a ranked list at best porn comics sites. Every service we cover is listed on the adult comics platforms index.

Final verdict