So here we are again. It is another month, so it is time for us to start discussing another webcomic. This month, I present to you Questionable Content.
Oh Hannelore, how much we love your crazy. Jeph Jacques
Updates Monday - Friday
Questionable Content starts out as a story of a Marten Reed, a recent college grad, who has moved to the East Coast in order to be with his girlfriend and find a new job. Once he gets settled, his girlfriend promptly breaks up with him and he is stuck at a job he hates. Away from home and his only roommate being an Anthro PC, named Pintsize, Marten navigates his way through life and comes across some very interesting people in the process.
I'm sure if she hit the floor, she wouldn't notice.There is so much to like about this strip, I am not entirely sure where to start.
I love how relate-able each of the characters in the story is.
Jacques has an uncanny way of making you see your own personal world in the world that he has created for Questionable Content. Either you know someone like the characters you are reading, or you see yourself in them while following along with the story. Being able to connect with the comic in that way was what drew me into this strip and kept me there after reading the entire archive. The jokes are funnier, the situations feel more real, and the reader is more invested in the story, because it is something they can internalize easily.
Jacques has succeeded in making a cast of characters where you can easily pick one that is your favorite. While it seems that the face of Questionable Content has become Hannelore, Marten's OCD upstairs neighbor, I have to say my personal favorite character is Marten. He is that overly nice, lanky, overlooked, indie-nerd that was everyone's friend but never had the stones to become more than that. Dark haired, blue eyed, easily flustered, Marten is the kind of guy I would play a prank on and then treat him to ice cream afterwards. Marten is my favorite because he encapsulates some of my best guy friends from college. And this further drives home the point that Jacques does a great job of making the cast of Questionable Content believable. From ex-goth girls to introverted gamers, there is someone that you, as a reader, are bound to connect with.
The pacing of the story is what Jacques has described himself as "glacially slow". One day in the story can last for several strips. Personally, I am not at all bothered by that. The story moves at a good pace. Not so slow that I forget to read it and not so fast that information was sacrificed in order to move the story along.
Jacques' scripts are fun and have a lot of light hearted whimsy, whether he is using Marten's awkwardness, Faye's sass, or Hannelore's OCD behavior, it all pans out in good humor and memorable storylines. There are a few story arcs that have a more serious tone to them, but not many.
Jacques adds just enough seriousness to make the characters feel real and not simply cardboard cut out stereotypes needed to set the stage for the next punch line.
Even the filler strips that
Jacques puts up are great reads. Yelling Bird, Sweet Tits, Randy the Bandicoot, and now Shelby the...I'm not sure what type of dog Shelby is. She is huge, fluffy and white. Most of
Jacques' readers have agreed she is a polar bear. When questioned about this, Shelby gave no comment. That is all that needs to be known about Shelby. These strips are what
Jacques puts up when he isn't able to get the regular strip out. These fillers are hilarious. Yelling Bird has to be my favorite, since he is the vocalization of every angry and perverse cell in Jacques' body (I'm just guessing on this.). I have no idea how
Jacques strings so many perverse words together into insults I could not even dream about creating. It is an art, a very uncomfortable and scary art.
What I dislike about this strip?There are times when I get lost in the punchline of the strip, because I don't have the background knowledge needed in order to make the joke funny. Usually it is a sarcastic quip about music, since
Jacques is very much into lots of different types of music. But, since I am not familiar with the bands or the music styles that are being used to set up the joke, the whole thing goes over my head.
Got to be careful with those Saiyan Roombas. The Japanese don't play.Questionable Content is a gem among gems. I can't say enough good things about it. Head over there, read it and fall in love with it. QC does have drinking, partial nudity (though not too often) and some happy sexy times. So it get's the PG-13 stamp.
Internet Extras!Jeph Jacques twitter is @jephjacques and he has also created twitter accounts for all of his main characters. The list can be found in its entirety at
www.twitter.com/jephjacques/qccast Though I will warn you that anything posted by Yelling Bird and Pintsize are NSFW.
He also Ustreams all of his strips. He doesn't talk to the chat, but he does play some pretty awesome music. So whether you tune in to watch him draw or just to use it as a late night radio station, it is a good time regardless. He doesn't have a set time when he streams, however it is usually very late at night. You can either check Jacques twitter feed or just log in and wait. The thing that is different about this particular Ustream chat room is that people are in there chatting even when Jacques isn't there. He can be found at
www.ustream.tv/channel/ qc-show.
Jeph does record some of his guitar music and actually plays music for the band, Deathmøle, a post metal band that started up in 2005 (in the comic). "They" have 4 albums out so far and the tracks can be heard and downloaded from Last.Fm
Hope you enjoyed this latest article. Love to hear your comments and/or questions. That is all from me for now. Happy Reading!
