Questionable Content
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| Questionable Content | |
|---|---|
| A recent Questionable Content strip. A sample QC strip | |
| Author(s) | Jeph Jacques |
| Website | http://questionablecontent.net/ |
| Current status/schedule | Updates every weekday |
| Launch date | August 1, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Humor/Slice-of-Life |
Questionable Content (abbreviated QC or Q.C.) is a slice-of-life webcomic written and drawn by Jeph Jacques. The plot centers on Marten Reed, an indie rock aficionado, his anthropomorphic PC (AnthroPC) named Pintsize, and his somewhat troubled and mysterious roommate Faye. Other characters include Marten's friend Steve, Faye's ex-goth boss (and Marten's girlfriend) Dora and her vacuous co-worker Raven.
The comic began in 2003, originally updating two times a week. At issue #16, Jacques announced that he would start updating Questionable Content three times a week.[1] In September 2004, Jacques left his day job to begin updating Monday through Friday,[2] and kept this schedule even after a knife accident that sliced an artery in his drawing hand in 2005.[3] He currently makes his living exclusively from QC merchandising and advertising,[4] making QC one of the few self sufficient webcomics. The comic now has over 800 comics available through the archives.
The storytelling style ranges between romantic melodrama, sitcom, humor about indie rock music, and sexual or scatological humor. The artistic style has notably changed over the course of the comic due to Jacques constantly refining and improving his drawing methods.[5]
Each individual strip is usually accompanied by blog-like entries from Jeph Jacques touching on various topics, including: explanations of inspirations for the accompanying strip, updates on Jacques' life, developments in merchandising and shipment progression, up and coming appearances at conventions, and brief reviews of new music albums or video games, among other things.
Setting
Questionable Content takes place in Northampton, Massachusetts; the frequent setting locales include Marten and Faye's shared apartment, Coffee of Doom (the fictional coffeeshop Dora owns), and (more recently) the Smith College library, where Marten is employed. The comic is mostly realistic, and action primarily focuses on banter between the characters, with slowly-progressing plot developments. Due to the emphasis on inter-character dialogue, Jacques rarely uses thought bubbles in the comic.
The comic appears to be set in modern times, though the presence of anthropomorphic robots with individual personalities (called "AnthroPC's" within the comic)[6] implies some sort of futuristic technology. How far into the future QC is placed (if it is set in the future at all) has never been explicitly stated. The AnthroPCs are the only consistent signs of advanced technology in the series, save for Deathbot 9000[7]. Major advances in the International Space Station and defense technology are also implied in strip 665 when Hannelore revealed that she was born and raised on a space station and has held conversations with orbital defense satellites. QC's author Jeph Jacques remarked,
- Something people do not often realize is that the world in which QC takes place is considerably stranger than our own. You'd think that with all the little talking robots running around everywhere that this would be obvious, but I am consistently surprised at how often people take it for granted.[8]
The duration of the strip is somewhat ambiguous; on January 13, 2006, Jeph Jacques stated on a QC fan community on Livejournal that he has "never sat down and exactly tabulated," but he suspects the total amount of elapsed QC time at that point was "no more than six months."[9] It is possible to track individual days within the QC strips, but frequent off-panel (and often indeterminable) lapses in QC time between strips make the entire history of QC difficult to gauge.
Jacques occasionally invites other webcomic creators to do stand-alone strips for QC. The guest comics count towards the total amount of strips on the QC website, but do not seem to be considered canonical, since none of the events in the guest strips are ever referred to again when Jacques resumes authorship. Jacques also breaks from normal continuity every Thanksgiving with an "OMG Turkeys" strip, featuring pictures of turkeys commenting on the current events of the strip.
Storytelling and artistic style
Both the methods of storytelling and the artistic style of the strip have changed considerably since its inception. At the beginning, the strip was seen mainly as a rock and roll or indie music strip, with Faye and Marten "dropping indie buzzwords left and right."[10] While QC is still seen as one of the main rock comic strips,[11] the story has come to focus more on the character development and humor of the strip.[4] Jacques informed interviewers that he makes sure every individual QC strip "has at least one thing in it that someone who doesn't know anything about (obscure band x) ... would find funny."[12] The one consistent aspect of QC's storytelling from the beginning of the comic up to the present day is Jacques' use of the third-person objective perspective of narration.
The strip's art was initially seen as mediocre for a webcomic, but as the strip developed, Jeph Jacques has come to be seen as one of the better webcomic artists working today, though the writing is still more of the focus of the strip.[13] The majority of QC strips are four panels in length and arranged in a column, one on top of another. Jacques rarely deviates from this pattern. Jacques spoke on the evolution of his art in an interview at Comixpedia:
The art is constantly changing, as anybody who reads the comic for more than two weeks could probably tell you. I'm always trying different things with the artwork- it's been a goal from day one to continually improve my drawing ability, and I think it's finally beginning to get to the point where I'm halfway decent at it. It's basically survival of the fittest- changes that I think fit in with the overall look I'm going for stick around and get refined, and changes that don't fit in get phased out, sometimes in the course of three or four strips, sometimes over a much longer span of time. I'm trying to get better at using different "camera angles" in each panel and doing more involved backgrounds, both of which are really just a matter of being patient and taking my time with the artwork. There's still tons of room for improvement, and always will be, but I think I'm at least making progress.[12]
Jacques uses a Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet to draw and Photoshop to color his strips. He cites Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes and the webcomic Scary Go Round as his main influences.[4]
Online community
The webcomic boasts a rather large online community, with communication between users on many fronts, including an online forum, an IRC server, and heavy use of the Gabbly chat client. The community has also created a wiki based on the happenings of these communications (see The Quiki).
Main characters
- Marten Reed is an indie rock fan and musician originally from California[14], where he also went to college. He has been living with Faye, whom he was romantically interested in for many months, and is now in a romantic relationship with Dora.[15] Marten is in a band named Deathmøle with friends Amir and Natasha.[16] He works in the Smith College library.[17]
Faye Whitaker works at Coffee of Doom with Dora and lives with Marten. Faye rarely used contractions in her speech, except when drunk, when her Southern accent would emerge.[18] She moved up to Northampton from Savannah, Georgia two years after a mental breakdown resultant from witnessing her father's suicide.[19] She moved in with Marten after she burned her apartment down while making toast.[20] She has resumed therapy since moving to Northampton.[21] She is known for a quick wit and a sharp tongue, usually used in affection.[22]
Dora Bianchi is an ex-goth who owns and operates Coffee of Doom, the coffee shop where Faye, Raven and Penelope work and where Marten spends most of his time. She is in a romantic relationship with Marten. Unlike most of the main characters, she prefers metal to indie rock.[23] Dora does graphic and web design in her spare time, and she has a pet cat named Mieville who becomes jealous of most other males in her life (except Marten).[24]
Pintsize is an AnthroPC (an anthropomorphic PC) owned by Marten. He is essentially a small robot and companion to Marten. Pintsize is frequently used for comic relief, throw-away gags or to add punchlines to a strip. His eccentricities include a strange addiction to cake mix,[25] parties with other AnthroPCs,[26] gluing other people's hair to his face[27] and poorly played pranks. At one point, he was almost taken by the government because of a highly-powered laser in his torso. [28] [29]
Raven Pritchard is ex-goth friend of Dora's, and is a junior employee at Coffee of Doom. Despite her current status as the cute, hyper, ditzy one, she was 20 pounds heavier back in college and was very depressed.[30] She dislikes her given name, Blodwyn (Welsh for 'White flower'), and prefers to be called Raven, her middle name.[31]
Steve - Steve is Marten's best male friend. He dated Ellen on-and-off for a long period of time before being dumped. Steve leaned on Marten for emotional support after the breakup, and is currently starting to look for a new romantic interest.[32]
Secondary Characters
Penelope Gaines is the fourth and newest employee of Coffee of Doom. She is frequently compared to, and accused of being, another minor character, Pizza Girl, the mysterious pizza delivery girl from the local pizza joint.[33] Angus McPhee, called "Argument Guy" by Coffee of Doom employees, is a regular customer at the coffeeshop; he comes in for the sole purpose of arguing and bickering with Faye.
Tai is Marten's boss at the Smith Library. She is a student at Smith and a lesbian with a very active love life. She is a great fan of the romance novels of Jimbo, a former construction worker and one of Marten's drinking buddies. Tai's former employee is Marten's current Deathmøle bandmate Natasha, who was fired after passing out topless on a library copying machine. Natasha dates Amir Afridi, the third and final member of Deathmøle.
Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham is Marten and Faye's upstairs neighbor. She has a rather severe case of OCD, and is also an insomniac. She also owns a Macintosh anthropomorphic PC named Winslow, who has befriended Pintsize. Ellen, Steve's ex-girlfriend, also lives in the same building as Marten and Faye. She rooms with Natasha and both attend Smith College with Tai.
Sven Bianchi is Dora's tall, skinny older brother. He is a musician/songwriter, and has written several songs for country music artists, despite his expressed interest in indie rock. Sven had a very active love life and libido, though he claims to have calmed down,[34] despite Raven's advances.
Amanda Whitaker is Faye's lesbian younger sister. She recently dropped out of college and after a brief stay in Northampton with Faye, Amanda flew back to Savannah and moved in with her mother. Mrs. Whitaker is Faye and Amanda's mother. A widow since David Whitaker's suicide, she is very protective of both of her daughters. She has an affinity for sweet tea.
Veronica Reed is Marten's mother. She is divorced from Marten's father, who subsequently revealed himself to be homosexual. Ms. Reed was once a famous fetish model, and now works as a professional dominatrix. As a side job, Miss Reed works on a website, making "erotic films" of herself stomping on fruit in high heels. Her Vance persona was something of an idol of Dora's.
Criticism and analysis
Questionable Content was used along with Penny Arcade, Fetus-X and American Elf as an example of comics using the web to create "an explosion of diverse genres and styles" in Scott McCloud's 2006 book Making Comics [35] QC was also used as part of a "create a comic" activity for kids at the New Haven public library in Connecticut. [36]
References
- ^ "Strip #16 News Blog".
- ^ Newspost on comic 178
- ^ "Newspost for Strip 731".
- ^ a b c "Pioneer Valley comic artist uses the web to reach readers from the Massachusetts Daily Collegian 3-16-2007 accessed on 3-22-2007".
- ^ "Interview With Jeph Jacques at Comixpedia".
- ^ "Strip 428".
- ^ "Strip 642".
- ^ "Strip 399 Blog Entry".
- ^ "QC Fan Community".
- ^ "Pitchfork: Belle and Sebastian become comics, compile mix CD 2-01-06 accessed on 3-22-2007".
- ^ "The Stranger: Toilet Humor: Rock 'n' Roll Comics Come to the Club 3-06-07 accessed on 3-22-2007".
- ^ a b "Interview with Jeph Jacques at Comixpedia". Cite error: The named reference "comixinterview" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "Digital Strips Podcast Review of Questionable Content accessed on 3-22-2007".
- ^ "Strip 253".
- ^ "Strip 565".
- ^ "Strip 554".
- ^ "Strip 691".
- ^ "Strip 130".
- ^ "Strip 504".
- ^ "Strip 22".
- ^ "Strip 691".
- ^ "Strip 751".
- ^ "Strip 116".
- ^ "Strip 538".
- ^ "Strip 145".
- ^ "Strip 739".
- ^ "Strip 832".
- ^ "Strip 147".
- ^ "Strip 61".
- ^ "Strip 562".
- ^ "Strip 376".
- ^ "Strip 826".
- ^ "Strip 813".
- ^ "Strip 797".
- ^ McCloud, Scott (2006). Making Comics, New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-078094-0. Pg. 227
- ^ McLoughlin, Pamela (2007-03-19). "Cartoons propel creative process". New Haven Register. Retrieved 2007-03-22.
External links
- Questionable Content
- The Questionable Content Forum
- IndieTits
- The AnthroPC Handbook
- Questionable Content LJ community
- Random Jeph Drawings
- Marten's Blog - has not been updated Since 19 February, 2006.