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fandomhigh_ooc2007-03-04 02:41 am
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Spotlight on Fandoms: Questionable Content
Questionable Content is a wonderful, cracky little sitcom-style webcomic. It started in 2003, and is still going strong. And as it's a webcomic, it's free for all of you to go read right now. It's only 830 strips. I read it all in a matter of days, thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bugofjustice pimping it and getting me hooked. It's a quick read! Go!
Seriously. Go.
...okay, fine, listen to me talk about it first.
The Characters
Marten Reed: Marten is, I suppose, the main character. He's the glue holding everything together. He's in his mid-twenties (I'm not certain, but I believe there was a reference to him being twenty-four in one of the strips), enjoys indie rock to an unhealthy degree, and recently left his office-drone job to play in a band, blog, and work in the local college library full time. You can see why I like this boy. He's currently dating Dora, living with Faye and Pintsize, and in the apartment below Hannelore and Winslow.
Faye Whitaker: Faye's got sass. Snark. Spunk. Whatever your term might be, she's kind of a bitch. Truth be told, she has some severe psychological issues stemming from a traumatic childhood experience (full story is told from strip #500 onwards, but don't say I spoiled you.) She's fiercely loyal to her friends, but has an acid wit on her and isn't afraid to get a little violent. Faye lives with Marten and Pintsize below Hannelore and Winslow, works at Dora's coffee shop with Raven and Penelope, and is originally from Savannah, Georgia. You don't hear the accent unless she's drunk, though. Usually.
Dora Bianchi: Dora is Faye's boss at Coffee of Doom, the snarkiest coffee shop in whatever fictional town in Massachusetts in which these characters live. She's a reformed goth who retains her love of angry music and dark clothes. She's just as snarky as Faye, but less violent, and is often too nice for her own good. Dora lives with her cat Mieville, is dating Marten and is Faye's Raven's and Penelope's boss.
Pintsize: Pintsize is an AnthroPC - a PC version of Winslow, Hannelore's AnthroMac. He is quite the destructive little robot. He has a yen for cake batter, and thusly should never be allowed to have any. Ever. He's violent, chaotic, and...oh, about knee-height, if that. He's both adorable and a menace, but his humans love him anyway. He lives with Marten and Faye, below Hannelore and Winslow, and has been threatened on several occasions by Hannelore's Roomba.
Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham: Hanners! Hanners is OCD like a big OCD thing. She was raised on a space station by her father, and moved to Earth for the therapy. She met Marten and Faye because she was stalking them. She is cah-raaaaazy. But in a fun, harmless way. She's also a chain-smoker and has a wicked sense of humor on her, when she remembers not to take everything so seriously. She lives with Winslow above Marten and Faye
Winslow: Winslow is Hannelore's AnthroMac! He is very sweet-natured and naîve, though he can be coerced into things by Pintsize. Mostly, though, he keeps Hannelore sane. He lives with Hannelore above Marten and Faye.
Raven: Raven is an old friend of Dora's from the goth days. She's gone hardcore indie now. Raven's sort of...well, dim. She's optimistic and cheerful and she means every word of it, but I kind of get the feeling that if you shook her head, it'd make a rattling sound. She works at Coffee of Doom with Dora, Faye and Penelope. Oh, and she has a crush on Dora's brother, Sven.
Other Characters:
Penelope Gaines: Penelope just started working at Coffee of Doom with Dora, Faye and Raven. She's more reserved than the other girls, and just a smidge on the bitter side. She may or may not be Pizza Girl.
Steve: Steve is Marten's best male friend. He's very much an average twenty-odd year-old guy, and much better with teh ladiez than Marten. He used to date Ellen, but doesn't anymore.
Tai: Marten's boss at the Smif library, she's a lesbian and quite happy with (1) polyamory and (2) TMI. Marten talks to her to make his own love life seem a lot less complicated.
Sven Bianchi: Sven is Dora's older brother. He makes his living writing awful songs for country singers. Sven is also something of a ladies' man, though he's trying to reform.
Ellen: The weetiniest member of the QC cast, she's eighteen - barely. She used to date Steve, and is double-majoring in marine biology and philosophy. She reads Kierkegaard to dolphins. No, seriously.
Natasha and Amir: Ellen's...um, creatively hygienic roommate and her boyfriend, these two make up the other two thirds of Deathmöle, Marten's band.
Pizza Girl: Is she just a normal pizza delivery girl, or does she have POWERS pertaining to pizza? No one knows, but Faye is pretty convinced that she's actually Penelope. She may well be, for all we know.
The Premise
Marten is an emo indie hipster boy who's living alone with his AnthroPC and working as a cubicle junkie when he stumbles across Faye, who's homeless thanks to accidentally burning down her apartment. She lives on his couch for awhile before they become official, and yes, the UST runs strong with these two.
It's not nearly as soapy as it sounds. There are robots and random girls on Vespas and lots of indie references and sarcasm and snark and coffee!
A Handy Q & A
Q: Who is the strip by?
A: First of all, don't end your sentences with prepositions. Anyway, it's by Jeph Jacques, who did not die this year no matter what Wiki says. They report his death like, every six months. I have no idea why.
Q: When does it update?
A: Five times a week - Monday through Friday. Jeph usually gets the comic up by midnight.
Q: How does he draw it?
A: I'm just going to copy this from the site, since it's all kinds of technical and scary-looking. "Questionable Content is drawn by hand on a Wacom 9x12 drawing tablet in Adobe Photoshop CS2, running on a Dual 1.8-ghz Apple G5. It is hosted by the wonderful Nihilist. The code for the site was written by Jeph's friend HeatherD, with the actual design of the site done by Jeph himself using CSS with additional assistance from his friend, the mysterious MangoDuck."
Q: Aaaaaaaaaaaah, there are 830 strips! Should I start at the beginning, or will it matter?
A: It absolutely matters. There are some serious spoilers throughout the comic (and, hell, this post) but if you want to truly follow it, I'd highly recommend picking it up from the beginning.
Q: Okay, I started at the beginning - WTF is with the artwork?
A: Jeph experimented. It's fun to watch the strip evolve. I promise, the art gets a lot better.
Q: I don't like indie rock.
A: Neither do I, really. And neither does Dora, Hannelore, Steve, Penelope, or...most of the characters. It's just that Marten and Faye do, so it permeates the strip. But trust me - if I can follow it, the indie references aren't that obscure.
(also PS that wasn't a question.)
Q: What's your favorite strip?
A: Aww, thank you for asking, hypothetical person. I have three. La, la, and la. The last one mainly because...LOOK AT WINSLOW. Poor baby.
Any questions? Comments? Cake batter?
bugofjustice pimping it and getting me hooked. It's a quick read! Go!Seriously. Go.
...okay, fine, listen to me talk about it first.
Marten Reed: Marten is, I suppose, the main character. He's the glue holding everything together. He's in his mid-twenties (I'm not certain, but I believe there was a reference to him being twenty-four in one of the strips), enjoys indie rock to an unhealthy degree, and recently left his office-drone job to play in a band, blog, and work in the local college library full time. You can see why I like this boy. He's currently dating Dora, living with Faye and Pintsize, and in the apartment below Hannelore and Winslow.
Faye Whitaker: Faye's got sass. Snark. Spunk. Whatever your term might be, she's kind of a bitch. Truth be told, she has some severe psychological issues stemming from a traumatic childhood experience (full story is told from strip #500 onwards, but don't say I spoiled you.) She's fiercely loyal to her friends, but has an acid wit on her and isn't afraid to get a little violent. Faye lives with Marten and Pintsize below Hannelore and Winslow, works at Dora's coffee shop with Raven and Penelope, and is originally from Savannah, Georgia. You don't hear the accent unless she's drunk, though. Usually.
Dora Bianchi: Dora is Faye's boss at Coffee of Doom, the snarkiest coffee shop in whatever fictional town in Massachusetts in which these characters live. She's a reformed goth who retains her love of angry music and dark clothes. She's just as snarky as Faye, but less violent, and is often too nice for her own good. Dora lives with her cat Mieville, is dating Marten and is Faye's Raven's and Penelope's boss.
Pintsize: Pintsize is an AnthroPC - a PC version of Winslow, Hannelore's AnthroMac. He is quite the destructive little robot. He has a yen for cake batter, and thusly should never be allowed to have any. Ever. He's violent, chaotic, and...oh, about knee-height, if that. He's both adorable and a menace, but his humans love him anyway. He lives with Marten and Faye, below Hannelore and Winslow, and has been threatened on several occasions by Hannelore's Roomba.
Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham: Hanners! Hanners is OCD like a big OCD thing. She was raised on a space station by her father, and moved to Earth for the therapy. She met Marten and Faye because she was stalking them. She is cah-raaaaazy. But in a fun, harmless way. She's also a chain-smoker and has a wicked sense of humor on her, when she remembers not to take everything so seriously. She lives with Winslow above Marten and Faye
Winslow: Winslow is Hannelore's AnthroMac! He is very sweet-natured and naîve, though he can be coerced into things by Pintsize. Mostly, though, he keeps Hannelore sane. He lives with Hannelore above Marten and Faye.
Raven: Raven is an old friend of Dora's from the goth days. She's gone hardcore indie now. Raven's sort of...well, dim. She's optimistic and cheerful and she means every word of it, but I kind of get the feeling that if you shook her head, it'd make a rattling sound. She works at Coffee of Doom with Dora, Faye and Penelope. Oh, and she has a crush on Dora's brother, Sven.
Other Characters:
Penelope Gaines: Penelope just started working at Coffee of Doom with Dora, Faye and Raven. She's more reserved than the other girls, and just a smidge on the bitter side. She may or may not be Pizza Girl.
Steve: Steve is Marten's best male friend. He's very much an average twenty-odd year-old guy, and much better with teh ladiez than Marten. He used to date Ellen, but doesn't anymore.
Tai: Marten's boss at the Smif library, she's a lesbian and quite happy with (1) polyamory and (2) TMI. Marten talks to her to make his own love life seem a lot less complicated.
Sven Bianchi: Sven is Dora's older brother. He makes his living writing awful songs for country singers. Sven is also something of a ladies' man, though he's trying to reform.
Ellen: The weetiniest member of the QC cast, she's eighteen - barely. She used to date Steve, and is double-majoring in marine biology and philosophy. She reads Kierkegaard to dolphins. No, seriously.
Natasha and Amir: Ellen's...um, creatively hygienic roommate and her boyfriend, these two make up the other two thirds of Deathmöle, Marten's band.
Pizza Girl: Is she just a normal pizza delivery girl, or does she have POWERS pertaining to pizza? No one knows, but Faye is pretty convinced that she's actually Penelope. She may well be, for all we know.
Marten is an emo indie hipster boy who's living alone with his AnthroPC and working as a cubicle junkie when he stumbles across Faye, who's homeless thanks to accidentally burning down her apartment. She lives on his couch for awhile before they become official, and yes, the UST runs strong with these two.
It's not nearly as soapy as it sounds. There are robots and random girls on Vespas and lots of indie references and sarcasm and snark and coffee!
Q: Who is the strip by?
A: First of all, don't end your sentences with prepositions. Anyway, it's by Jeph Jacques, who did not die this year no matter what Wiki says. They report his death like, every six months. I have no idea why.
Q: When does it update?
A: Five times a week - Monday through Friday. Jeph usually gets the comic up by midnight.
Q: How does he draw it?
A: I'm just going to copy this from the site, since it's all kinds of technical and scary-looking. "Questionable Content is drawn by hand on a Wacom 9x12 drawing tablet in Adobe Photoshop CS2, running on a Dual 1.8-ghz Apple G5. It is hosted by the wonderful Nihilist. The code for the site was written by Jeph's friend HeatherD, with the actual design of the site done by Jeph himself using CSS with additional assistance from his friend, the mysterious MangoDuck."
Q: Aaaaaaaaaaaah, there are 830 strips! Should I start at the beginning, or will it matter?
A: It absolutely matters. There are some serious spoilers throughout the comic (and, hell, this post) but if you want to truly follow it, I'd highly recommend picking it up from the beginning.
Q: Okay, I started at the beginning - WTF is with the artwork?
A: Jeph experimented. It's fun to watch the strip evolve. I promise, the art gets a lot better.
Q: I don't like indie rock.
A: Neither do I, really. And neither does Dora, Hannelore, Steve, Penelope, or...most of the characters. It's just that Marten and Faye do, so it permeates the strip. But trust me - if I can follow it, the indie references aren't that obscure.
(also PS that wasn't a question.)
Q: What's your favorite strip?
A: Aww, thank you for asking, hypothetical person. I have three. La, la, and la. The last one mainly because...LOOK AT WINSLOW. Poor baby.
Any questions? Comments? Cake batter?