Jenny Everywhere

Jenny Everywhere
Jenny Everywhere as envisioned by Diana Nock
Author(s)	Multiple Depends on author.
Website	http://TheShifterArchive.com
Launch date	Early 2002
Genre(s)	Science Fiction, Super Hero

Jenny Everywhere aka "The Shifter" is an open source, public domain character, originally created by Canadian comic book artist Steven Wintle. The character was co-developed by members of the Barbelith online community.

Jenny Everywhere was specifically created when her creators could not find any other truly open source, public domain characters. She is described both as existing in every reality and being able to shift between realities. This gives the character the ability to be inserted into the continuity of any existing or new work, such as various comics or webcomics. The concept may be extended to other media as well.

Description

The original sketched image of "The Shifter", released into Public Domain by Steven Wintle.

On creating the character, Steven Wintle described her by saying:

She has short, dark hair. She usually wears aviation goggles on top of her head and a scarf around her neck. Otherwise, she dresses in comfortable clothes. She is average size and has a good body image. She has loads of confidence and charisma. She appears to be Asian or Native American. She has a ready smile.

He went on to describe her as "if Tintin listened to Le Tigre and joined the Fantastic Four. She's excitable, passionate, attentive, curious, and caring. Like Captain Marvel, she's just a really powerful kid."

Licensing

The creators of the character insist that any work involving her must include the following text: "The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed." This does not mean everything with Jenny Everywhere is free-use and uncopyrighted, and people may still maintain copyrights on their own unique characters and character styling, story, artwork, and title.

The name, the character herself, and the idea of the character is uncopyrightable, because she already belongs to everyone. That is what is meant by the "All Rights Reversed" portion.

Being that Jenny Everywhere is a free culture character with no official site or publication, it is up to the creators of any story involving The Shifter to decide if they want to link to the continuity of other peoples' work or not. For example; in Alex Hernandez's story Soulless Mate, a prominent character is one of Jenny's boyfriends from the My Bloody Valentine story. In another writer's story, this connection may not have happened.

Stories and appearances

Most of the stories for Jenny Everywhere exist strictly as webcomics, and many had a science fiction or superhero theme. In 2003, Nelson Evergreen and Joe Macaré had made a limited 50-unit self-publication of their stories, Name's Not Down and Damn Fine Hostile Takeover. The character of Jenny Everywhere has not been limited to independent stories, and she has appeared in a number of existing webcomics as cameos and crossovers.

Jenny appeared as a presenter for the 2008 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards, presenting the category for Outstanding Character Rendering.

Supporting Characters

(all three of which have also been released to the public domain)

Jenny Nowehere was created by Nelson Evergreen and Joe Macré in 2007 as a prime antagonist for Jenny Everywhere. In her bio, they stated that the name “Jenny Nowhere” should be available for anyone to use in any way they see fit… but the character herself is a blank slate. How she looks, how she dresses, her character quirks, what her agenda might be – it’s all up to the individual who wants to do something with the name. Anyone can create their own Jenny Nowhere from the ground up.

They continued by stating they'd imagine that she functions in some way as a “prime antagonist” to Jenny Everywhere. Yin to the yang, and that. Which can work in all sorts of ways. They liked the idea that in each universe there’s a Jenny Everywhere who’s recognizably Jenny Everywhere in name, character and appearance… and somewhere in each universe there’s a Jenny Nowhere who’s recognizably Jenny Nowhere in name only.

Creators should be encouraged to come up with a Jenny Nowhere that actively avoids comparisons with existing versions of the character… to go out on a limb and make up something totally unique.

But in a nutshell: one can use the name, make up the rest. Of course, one is not required to follow the “Jenny Nowhere” name and scheme, but could be a fun idea that people can play with.

Jenny Somewhere was created by Adam Smithee in 2008 and is an imperfect clone created from a tissue sample obtained from the real Jenny Everywhere, accelerated to maturity artificially in an attempt to study and perhaps harness her ‘shifting’ powers. Though, who did this and why matters little, in terms of the character herself. She does have powers similar to Jenny Everywhere, but absolutely no control over them.

In essence, she can travel anywhere but, can't choose where to go. She simply ends up where she ends up.

She has short, dark hair. She usually wears aviation goggles on top of her head and a scarf around her neck. Otherwise, she dresses in comfortable clothes. She is average size and has a good body image. She has loads of confidence and charisma. She appears to be Asian or Native American. She has a ready smile.

Jimmy Wherever was created by Carter-Ethan Rankin in 2013 and serves as the principal love interest of Jenny Everywhere.

Code-named "The Shiftee," he himself is non-powered but, may shift wherever Jenny is headed by simply holding her hand. Thus, he can easily be "wherever" Jenny Everywhere is. Being a top journalism student, he has excellent detective skills.

He is Canadian with blonde hair and blue eyes and an athletic build. Where he came from or what his up-bringing was like is, as yet, unknown.

In contrast to Jenny Everywhere's favourite food being toast, Jimmy's favourite food is bread... un-toasted.

Contests

There have been several one-time, single strips as well that have appeared as entries to Strip Fight contests. Strip Fight is a website that host bi-monthly contests in which people are invited to create a single comic strip, based on a given theme. Jenny Everywhere has been the subject of two different Strip Fight contests in 2004 and 2007.

In 2008, The Shifter Archive and WAGON Webcomic Battle ran a drawing contest on the subject of Jenny Everywhere. Entrants were to compete for one of three official Jenny Everywhere game cards to be used in the WAGON Webcomic Battle Trading Card Game. Third Place was awarded to Zack Holmes, whose card was place with the Beta Deck. Second Place was awarded to Jacob Burrows, whise card was placed in the Alpha Deck. First place was awarded to Benj Christensen, whose card was deemed a Rare and Promotional Card. These cards have been put into print in November 2008.

Critical response

After several complete webcomics and the original launch of jennyeverywhere.com, The Shifter received much praise in niche online communities. The character was recognized in the September 2003 issue of the Canadian publication of Exclaim!, which described the character as being "born in a colossal explosion of energy like many of her copyrighted cousins, but unlike Superman or the Hulk, she belongs wholly to the people".

External links

• Official site mirror on archive.org, from May 2007
• The Barbelith forum thread where Jenny was created
• The Late Shift, a comic introduction to The Shifter.
• The Shifter Archive Project, a comprehensive archive of Jenny Everywhere appearances
• Infinite Worlds GURPS Character Sheet