A little backstory: this entire STI testing arc was created because a LOT of my friends found out they had herpes back in... looks like 2010, and I wanted to write something that was open about the fact that a LOT of people in general have herpes, and stomp down the stigma a little bit.

I did a lot of research on herpes back then, but much of it was contradicting or vague information. By the end of my hunt for legit facts, I didn't feel right giving my own take (or advice) on herpes, because I wasn't really sure what was correct. (Can you get it through oral sex? Yes/no/kind of/rarely. Can you get tested for it? Yes, but it's mostly misleading. WTF.)

I still deal with this issue when writing for BOO! It's Sex (an actual for-real sex ed comic that I do with Monica Gallagher), but I'm happy to confirm that most of the information out there is at least LESS confusing than it was eight years ago.

It's still a LOT of work.

Here's the old strip!