Indie Rock and Robots
No, it’s not the new MGMT or Animal Collective album, it isn’t some quirky art-house blog, and it sure-as-shoot is NOT some pompous venue in Williamsburg.
It is Jeph Jacques’ Questionable Content and it is one of the funniest damn webcomics on the internet. Begun in 2003, QC is certainly one of the best known and most loved webcomics out there, and is at least partly responsible for the success of webcomics over the last 5 years.
Marten Reed is your stereotypical sensitive, scrawny indie-rock twenty-something living in Northampton, Massachusetts. His mundane life is injected with some salacious Southern attitude when the sassy Faye Whitaker stumbles into his life, and ends up moving in with Marten and his Machiavellian AnthroPC, Pintsize. Marten and Faye’s obvious chemistry is the primary focus for the first third of the archives, until Marten begins dating Faye’s boss, Dora and a slew of new characters are introduced, including Marten’s crazy but endearing neighbor, Hannelore, Dora’s smarmy brother, Sven, and local flirt Angus McPhee.
While relationship drama certainly plays a part in this series, the real focus is on the banter between these rich and very real characters. Marten and Dora are quick, clever, and dry, whereas Faye often comes across as over-the-top and abrasive. Hannelore’s neuroses are often the butt of jokes and tricks played by Pintsize and Winslow (Hannelore’s AnthroPC). Throughout the history of the comic, the dialog and writing has been the strongest aspect, with the art only recently (the last 300 strips or so) developing to the same level. In fact, Jacques has won several Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards for Outstanding Romantic Comic, Outstanding Character Writing, Outstanding Dramatic Comic, and Outstanding Slice-of-Life Comic.
While the human characters and their indie rock puns provide the meat of the story, the two AnthroPC's, Pintzise and Winslow, provide for most of the comic relief. Here is where Jacques' comedic writing is showcased best. His referential and situational humor as well as his timing and pacing really do help the strip to feel more like a cartoon than a simple strip. Besides, any robot who's revels in pyromania, fetish porn, and bad Schwarzenegger movie references is ok in my book.
So if you have four or five days to kill, head over to the Questionable Content archives and start catching up. I promise a funny ratio of at least 2.6 laughs per strip. That's right, I just quantified humor. Deal with it.
Questionable Content is (c) 2003-2009 by Jeph Jacques
I just spent the last day sick in bed, and got through the first 1000 or so strips before I realized it was time to go to sleep. Having never read these before, I think it's safe to say I'm hooked.
And honestly, if you read from the beginning and DON'T cheer a bit with number 564, then you have no soul.
There, I said it.