George

From Comixpedia

George
Creator(s)	John R. Norton
Website(s)	http://www.george-comics.com/
Update Schedule	Hiatus
Launch Date	January 27, 2005[1]
Genre	Quirky/Geek

George is a webcomic written and illustrated by John R. Norton. The strip has been in existence for several years, making its first appearance on the web in early 2001. The current George website [2] was established in January 2005, using a strip from the old site to make its debut. Since then, however, all content has been entirely new. New comic strips are posted every Monday and Thursday.

The strip is centered around a fairly normal freelance cartoonist, George, and his circle of friends. The strip often deals with computers and technology, though a myriad of light-hearted subjects are commonly explored. There is also a George Blog [3] where Norton usually posts a few words about current strips.

The strip takes place in the fairly small, fictional town of Perkton, located in the heart of California. Although there is a large city relatively nearby, it is not particularly close to well-known California cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is not in line with the stereotypical view of California.

Though the exact ages of the strip's characters are unknown, they are all at least a couple of years past the age of college graduation, although some characters never did go to college.

[edit] Characters

George Armstrong [4]: The main character of the strip, George was employed as a radio DJ before the strip's inception and now works as a freelance cartoonist, although the nature of his employment rarely surfaces in the strip. He owns his own house, which is often a gathering point of sorts for his friends.

Amanda Forsythe [5]: Amanda is George's girlfriend. They've been dating since sometime during her freshman year of college. Though she does not actually live with George, she spends a lot of time at his house. Recently she started wearing her hair down after years of having it in a ponytail. Amanda works at a marketing company where she interned during college.

Dave [6]: Nobody is exactly sure of Dave's last name, at least not anymore. The same goes for his age. George believes that Dave's birth certificate is somewhere in his garage, but he hasn't seen it in at least a couple years. It is known that Dave is George's cousin, though probably not a very close one. Dave has lived in George's spare bedroom ever since George bought his house. Dave is unemployed and makes money by occasionally selling his inventions.

Greg Douglas [7]: Greg is a computer programmer at a small company--so small, in fact, that he is their lone programmer and is often wrangled into doing tech support. He is possibly the strip's biggest technogeek, spending virtually all of his day on the compter or possibly playing video games on the couch. Greg and George have known each other since grade school, so although their respective lives have taken different paths they remain good friends.

Rob McDougal [8]: Rob is a relative newcomer to George's circle of friends, having moved in next door to George in early February 2005. He found a place with George and his friends, especially Greg, fairly easily. Rob is an independent website designer with aspirations of owning a computer supply store. As such, he has much in common with Greg, and the two hang out regularly.

Colleen Hutchinson [9]: Colleen is a coworker and friend of Amanda's. She works in the IT department of the marketing company she and Amanda work at. As much of a computer geek as Greg and Rob are, she is much more mature about her technological interest and doesn't call attention to it very much. Still, she is the object of Greg and Rob's desire, even if she doesn't necessarily return the sentiment.

Chain-link Jefferson [10]: Chain-link spends all day at the park on a bench with his guitar, playing and singing the blues. Born and raised in Alabama, he moved to Chicago in the 60s to take advantage of the city's burgeoning blues scene. Unable to secure a worthwhile record deal, he moved to California in 1976 and has been playing the blues in Perkton ever since. He sometimes tells George and his friends stories or imparts wisdom upon them.

Sirloin [11]: "Sirloin" is almost certainly not his real name, but nobody knows what else to call him. He was on Perkton's community softball team before George and his friends joined. He doesn't hang out with the group all that often, so nobody's terribly sure of his profession or background. His closest friend in the strip is Dave, as he has more in common with him than anyone else.

Randy Demurson [12]: Better known as "Coach Demurson," he is characterized by his constant presence of old-school Oakley Blade sunglasses. He is the coach for seemingly every community sports league in Perkton, but prefers softball the most. A former minor-leage baseball player in the late 80s, he's not really part of George's group of friends; he usually only appears as the coach of Perkton's sports teams.

Chiwawa [13]: Amanda's dog, which is a chihuahua--fittingly named Chiwawa.

Badabing [14]: Badabing, George's cat, was originally found in a shed in George's back yard when he was a kitten. George took care of Badabing and decided to keep him. Unfortunately for Chiwawa, Badabing doesn't exactly play nice with small dogs.