Questionable Content

From Comixpedia

Questionable Content is a comedic slice-of-life webcomic drawn by Jeph Jacques. The plot centers around Marten, an average frustrated 20-something indie rock dork, his anthropomorphic PC (AnthroPC) named Pintsize, and his somewhat mysterious and frequently moody roommate Faye. Lately Marten's friend Steve, Steve's (now ex-)girlfriend Ellen, and Faye's boss (and Marten's girlfriend) Dora have appeared more often in the story.

The comic's style ranges between romantic melodrama, humor about indie rock music, and sexual or scatological humor. Frequent settings are the apartment shared by Marten and Faye, and the coffee shop where Faye, Dora and Raven work.

Questionable Content was first posted in 2003, and has scheduled updates every weekday. The site has an active, if small, community that take a strong interest in Jacques' life. In early 2004, the comic enjoyed a surge of new popularity thanks in part to the continuing refinement of Jacques' artistic ability: the comic reached 2nd on the webcomic rankings of BuzzComix.net in the month of April. At that time Jacques converted the strip to the widepanel format that is growing in popularity, and was accepted into the Dayfree Press. Offering an extra comic as incentive, and following a visual layout redesign, the strip later attained the first place rank on BuzzComix on June 2, 2004. It held that rank consistently until August 31, 2004, when it was given a place in the BuzzComix.net 'Hall of Fame'.

The comic is accompanied by blog-like entries which are often supportive of other comics and offer insight behind the strips. The creator is a self-described hipster and tries to keep the content focused on Indie style, including many references to bands, critique of Indie conformity, ridicule of emo, humour at Hot Topic's expense, and the "Theory of Hipster Relativity" (M = (BN²)^-1) "music equals the inverse of Band multiplied by band's Notoriety squared"). Many comical statements are written into the background, on t-shirts or barely legible signs including "Tip Me Or I Will Kill Again" where Faye waitresses and "Work Harder Or We Will Fly You Into The Sun!" on an inspirational poster at Marten's office.

[edit] Main characters

• Marten Reed - Marten is a mopey introvert with a surprising sense of humor when he's not feeling sorry for himself. A potential poster child for "nice guy syndrome", Marten has been single since the strip began and is concerned about his current lack of a girlfriend. At times, even the slightest display of attention from a girl can cause Marten to become tongue-tied. His obsession with his roommate Faye, and obliviousness to the advances of coffee-shop owner Dora, create a romantic tension integral to the plot. Marten's favorite band is Mogwai. He is a college graduate, but nonetheless is quite literally the Office Bitch; that's what it says on his business card. Marten was fired from his job when his company decided to downsize most of the labor force in order to give upper management a raise. He took a job at an all-girls college library. As soon as Faye came clean about having too many psychological issues to even think about a relationship with Marten, he went drinking. More importantly, he got together with Dora, whom he's only been putting off because he wanted to find out where his relationship with Faye would go.
• Pintsize - Pintsize is an AnthroPC (imagine a cross between HAL 9000 and a toddler and you get the idea) owned by Marten. He (Pintsize is apparently male) is used for comic relief and is the least "serious" character of the comic, frequently being used for throw-away gags or to add punchlines to a strip. His eccentricities include a strange addiction to cake mix, which led to a previous accident and in a round-about way, to his elbows. It is a point of some distress to Marten that his computer has a more active love life than himself, as Pintsize recently succesfully dated another AnthroPC, and achieved whatever the robot equivalent is of getting laid. Since then, Pintsize has discovered that his date's pink colour scheme was misleading, and that the anthroPC in question was, in fact, male. Pintsize is, to Faye's great amusement, easily subdued through the use of duct tape.
• Faye Whitaker - Faye is a smartass with a vicious shoulder-punch that she is not afraid to use. She moved to the area (from Savannah, Georgia) to put some distance between her and her emotional issues, which surfaced from watching her father kill himself. She suffered a nervous breakdown and got into a car crash (which resulted in a scar above her right breast). She moved in with Marten after burning her apartment building down trying to make toast. Originally, Faye rarely used contractions, except when drunk, when both her contractions and original Southern accent emerge. More recently she has begun to loosen up and use contractions more liberally. Her favourite drink is a super-strong beverage known as "Midnight Hobo", which appears to be a kind of legal moonshine, brewed from pretty much anything that can be encouraged to ferment. Once she felt comfortable enough with Dora and Marten to tell them her story, she began seeking therapy, and now regularly sees her psychiatrist.
• Dora Bianchi - Dora is an ex-goth who runs "Coffee of Doom", the coffee shop where Faye works. She does graphic and web design in her spare time and is probably a lot nerdier than she initially lets on. She enjoys teasing Faye, particularly about Marten, whom Dora also appears to have a crush on. She recently went out with Marten as part of a double-date, but nothing happened, which she regretted immediately afterwards. She is also bisexual. Two days after Faye told Marten she couldn't be with him, Dora went out with him, and the two are now a couple. Dora feels guilty about going after Marten so soon after the two "sort-of" broke up, and Faye feels moderately perturbed, but Faye goes out of her way to make sure that Marten and Dora's relationship isn't spoiled by her own psychological issues.
• Steve - Steve is Marten's drinking buddy and an all-around nice guy. Unlike Marten, he doesn't always suffer a brainfreeze around females. He has found a girlfriend in Ellen, a young waitress and student, after overcoming his initial reservations about the age difference between them. Steve and Ellen had a bad falling out when she decided to move away and broke up with him. Steve took the break up badly, and didn't have any interest in women for several weeks. In the current story arc, Steve meets a girl that he is attracted to, but is plagued by worry when she makes him give her his phone number with no guarantee of communication.
• Raven - A ex-goth friend of Dora, works as a junior employee with Dora and Faye. Her jobs include cleaning the "Cave of 40 Asses" (AKA the toilet) and greeting customers. Refers to herself as an "Emo cutie" and has 7 piercings. Has trouble differentiating between hair products and intimate lubricants. She dislikes her given name, Blodwyn (which is Welsh for flower). She goes by Raven, her middle name.
• Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham - Hannelore lives upstairs from Marten and Faye, and is plagued by OCD, as well as extreme shyness, which led to an interesting first meeting between Marten and Hannelore. Marten, Faye and Dora often invite Hannelore to come out shopping or drinking with them, if only to help her overcome her obsession with cleaning. She owns an Apple AnthroPC named Winslow. Hannelore was apparantly born in space (literally). She has extremely rich parents, and lived through her childhood on a space station.
• Penelope Gaines - Penelope entered Coffee of Doom one day, seeking coffee. Faye and Dora immediately notice a distinct likeness to Pizza Girl. The pair's pestering of Penelope puts her into a bad enough mood that she sass' off at her boss in the bookstore that she works at and gets fired. Dora immediately hires her (without her permission). Penelope recently became attracted to Steve, although his obliviousness to her flirtations has, at least as far as anyone knows, prevented anything from happening from it.

[edit] Secondary Characters

• Tai - Marten's current boss at an all-girl college library. Tai is extremely intelligent, going so far as to include a fairly intellectual entrance exam into the position that Marten passes with flying colors. Despite her intelligence, she is an active member in an ongoing love pentagram that occurs between many of the girls in her dorm. An avid reader, she finds Jimbo's porn books so well written that Marten set up a meeting between the two.
• Winslow - Hannelore's Apple AnthroPC. Winslow resembles an Ipod.
• Ellen - Ellen is a teenage marine biology major who works as a waitress and got into college early. She has been dating Steve ever since he overcame his initial reservations over their six-year age difference. She has also recently befriended Dora and Faye, who seem committed to making sure she doesn't mess things up with Steve too badly. Although, when first encountered, Ellen was seventeen years old, she has since passed her eighteenth birthday. Soon after her breakup with Steve, Marten catches her with a new boyfriend.
• Scott - Marten's former boss. Takes a relaxed attitude towards the office dress code, keeps the company therapist (AKA a bottle of bourbon) in his desk, and is apparently gay.
• Sara - Sara was first introduced as a barista, coincidentally in the same coffee shop as Faye, who harbored a crush for Marten. She later rejected dating him following the epiphany that she was only attracted to him as a "Cute Indie Boy," not as a person. Sara briefly dated Steve, but the relationship ended due to awkwardness in the bedroom, which was likened to a cubist painting like Guernica. She has not been seen since, and is still at large. It has been suggested that Sara's extended hiatus from the strip was caused by her being eaten by an Allosaurus. Jacques, however, claims that he quit drawing her because she was "boring."
• Alan Turing - Alan works as a Special Agent with the Robotics Defense Agency. He recently tried to confiscate Pintsize, whose chassis, complete with laser, was apparently government property, but was foiled by Dora. (Reference to famous British mathematician, Alan Turing.)
• Amanda Whitaker - Amanda is Faye's younger sister who recently announced that she was failing all of her college classes, switching majors, and a lesbian. This caused some conflict with her mother, so Amanda used her mother's credit card to fly up to see Faye for some advice and consolation. Her former lover was Lil Sis from Diesel Sweeties.
• Natasha - Roommate of Ellen. Has many tattoos, favours black clothing and piercings, and believes that neglecting her personal hygeine is "way hardcore".
• Sven Bianchi - Dora's older brother. Some claim he is powered by a black hole. Raven has a crush on him due to the fact he is the tallest character in the comic. He is apparently famous in the world of country music, although he says that he is not proud of what he has done.
• Amir Afridi - New boyfriend (or something) of Natasha. Not much is known about him at this point beyond the fact that he waits tables at a restaurant. He also has Macho hairy forearms.
• Pizza Girl - Anonymous bearer of delicious goodness, wearer of traditional superhero garb. Jacques has repeatedly stated that Pizza Girl is not Penelope, although they do seem to share a similar hair color.
• Pretentious Record Store Dude - as he is known to Marten, or Nappy McTurtleneck, as dubbed by Faye, is the obnoxious record store employee we all know, bearing a level of self importance and surliness outstripping even that of most baristas; possibly why Faye cannot stand him.
• Jimbo - A former construction worker aquaintance of Marten's from the local dive bar "The Weeping Demon." Jimbo currently writes elaborately worded, though filthy, romance novels.

[edit] 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. QC was also used as part of the Create a Comic Project activity for kids at the New Haven public library in Connecticut. [1]