Jerkcity

From Comixpedia

Jerkcity is a webcomic that started on August 17, 1998. It was created by Rands and continues to this day as a group effort. Jerkcity is updated daily and there are over 3,000 archived strips.

The strip has no semblance of plot, character development or storyline. The strip has several primary themes, including drinking, drug abuse, homosexual/homophobic activities, rants on internet culture and programming codes, and dick jokes. At times, subtle plots arise, such as the Big Faggoty Dick series [1][2][3], weeks in which the panels change colours each day and an instance in the autumn months of 2000 in which the characters went on strike. Once or twice a year, comics are substituted with photographs without explanation. A handful of strips tangent current events, such as the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and the Terri Schiavo case.

Jerkcity focuses on the four principal characters (Rands, Deuce, Pants and Spigot) and their exploits. There are several minor characters which show up infrequently, including Harriet, who appears in 'Only The Lonely' and 'Grrlz' among others, a housecoat-wearing cat named Bung and an Unknown Comic-type character named Hanford who produces Jerkcity. The characters also reference the antics of a bumbling frenchman named Jean-Charles although he has never been seen in strip form. One-time characters have included John Ashcroft and Adolf Hitler. Sometimes the players act out scenes from an invented T.J. Hooker-like cop drama called Spigot The Bear. The comic is created using Microsoft Comic Chat, an old application for Microsoft Windows featuring the artwork of Jim Woodring.

In November of 2004, some cast members went to Disneyland and left contact information for Jerkcity fans to send messages while in the park. Staff replied to many of these messages with pictures taken from a cellular phone's built-in camera.

The site also contains an official glossary, which helps to explain language used in strips, like "HUGLAGHALGHALGHAL|HUGLAGHALGHALGHAL" (the sound that "dicklicking" makes) and "T" (chat lingo meaning "Tell", followed by the person's name.) Also big hard cocks.

[edit] Primary Cast of Characters

It should be noted that when discussing the cast of Jerkcity, character distinctions become almost arbitrary, as all are prone to the exact same style of absurdist humor, so when a character is noted as being the "most X" of any other character, it's often in a very subtle manner.

[edit] Rands

Rands is perhaps the most "normal/serious" member of the Jerkcity cast. He's prone to making more tech-savvy jokes than much of the rest of the cast, and often functions as a relative straight-man in ensemble comics. In addition, he has tried (and failed) to give overviews of what Jerkcity is about, and has curated the "For Fags" series of "self-help" comics.

Rands is known to have a real-life counterpart in blogger Michael Lopp.

[edit] Pants

Pants is one of the most nonsensical characters of the bunch, the most prone to making very bizarre non-sequiturs and absurd jokes. His appearance is equally outlandish, as he is a large, nine-eyed creature with a huge mouth wearing only a hula skirt. As his head/eyes come roughly to a point at the top of him, he's been described as being a "Christmas Tree Monster." Pants is one of the most popular/iconic Jerkcity characters, and has made cameo appearances in a few places, such as the logo of the Rotten News site and on a poster in the kitchen of Questionable Content's Marten Reed.

It's disputed whether Pants has a real-life counterpart or not. While posts in comment threads in his name have been made on Rands' blog Rands in Repose, his personal page on the Jerkcity website seems to imply that Pants is strictly fictional.

[edit] Spigot

Spigot is portrayed as the leading ranter of the main cast. He seems to have the purpose of making fun of most self-serious individuals, as at the end of many of his rants Spigot usually has violence done to him. His appearance leads well to this interpretation, as he is dressed in classic beatnik attire; black jeans, black turtleneck, black beret, sunglasses, and sandals.

Spigot's real-life counterpart is web cartoonist Tristan A. Farnon, whose own comic Leisure Town was very decidedly Jerkcity/Spigot-like in much of its tone.

[edit] Deuce

Deuce is the most blunt of the four. In appareance, he seems to be a normal person with a giant tiki mask for a face. He comes across as being the most uncooperative of the main cast as he generally doesn't play along with the others, even to the point of being openly violent.

It is unknown whether Deuce has a real-life counterpart or if he's strictly fictional.

[edit] Secondary Cast

In addition to the primary four, many secondary characters have made appearance or have been referenced over the years. Many of these characters have not made enough appearances to make unique traits notable, but a few have stood out.

[edit] Atandt

Perhaps the most likely candidate for the 5th main character, Atandt has been the most prominent of the secondary cast. In apperance, he looks like a mole or similar rodent in bellboy-style attire complete with a fez. He's most notable for working as a scab when most of the rest of the cast went on strike.

[edit] Hanford

A very mysterious gentleman with a bag over his head. He appears to be the "producer" of the comic and rarely steps into the comic, except when to give very infrequent commercial breaks, give stage directions, or settle disputes.

[edit] Other characters

• Bung
• Dick
• Effigy
• Harriet
• Jean-Charles
• Net
• Ozone
• Renaissance Man
• Inebriated Crustacean (not 'lobster thingy')

[edit] Trivia

• Rands's last name is Pantalones.
• The book The Big Book Of Jerkcity was released on April 20, 2003 and is no longer available via Amazon. This is the origin of the glossary included on the site.
• Rotten News has a hidden Pants in their masthead (look carefully)
• Strips have included OpenBSD bug reports, and corrections to Wikipedia entries.

[edit] External links

• jerkcity.com
• Rotten Library article on Jerkcity
• Rands In Repose
• Friends of Jerkcity on NNDB
• LiveJournal/Jerkcity community
• Interview in Pigdog Journal
• Jerkcity goes to Disneyland

See also: Leisure Town.

[edit] Credit