Guest Review by Brittany DeSalvo
At 2,505 comics and counting, Questionable Content (QC) http://www.questionablecontent.net is a popular “slice of life” webcomic written by Jeph Jacques that has been going strong since August 1, 2003. (QC’s 10 year anniversary was actually August 1st of this year.) It’s a semi-complicated storyline, so if you’re planning on reading the comic, which you should, make sure you start at the beginning. It may take a while, but it’s well worth the read because it is hilarious. I laugh, I cry, I laugh some more, and I then wish he could update every day of the week.
The comic follows the life of Marten, a music-obsessed 20-something trying to muddle his way through jobs, relationships, and life in general. He lives with a crude anthropomorphic sidekick named Pintsize, who happens to be a tiny robot, and a slew of other roommates throughout the comic. The other main characters are Faye, the aerodynamically curvaceous and snarky love interest; Dora, the dark and skinny coffee shop owner; and Hannelore, the OCD and slightly stalkerish neighbor. Other characters come and go, but they’re each well-developed and interesting. As there have been many story arcs throughout the life of the comic so far, it’s hard to accurately describe the plot. It’s a very fluid comic, but after going off on a random tangent arc for a while, it always comes back to the main, ongoing story line.
There is a definite undertone of indie rock music references that may throw you off if you don’t follow indie rock, but other than that, the comic is easily understood by all. The art style changes minutely in the first fifty comics, and then remains the same until around comic number 200, when the characters become full-sized and a little more detailed. It slowly morphs into the current style, which isn’t visible until the early 1,000s, then remains pretty much the same. The early style is a little rough, as is the case with most webcomics, but the current style is well-developed and shows how far the artist has come since starting the comic.
As of this past March, the archive of comics is accessible by left and right arrows. As Jeph says: “Welcome to the future.” If you just read all of the available comics and want to know when you can read more, QC updates Monday through Friday around midnight. If you’re already a die-hard fan, you’ll know QC merch is available on TopatoCo. As of recently, Coffee of Doom, Dora’s coffee shop, has an official logo now that is available on mugs and t-shirts! If you can’t wait until the next comic comes out, entertain yourself by checking out some of the other awesome comics suggested by Jeph on his website; follow the QC character Twitter feed (like here); or check out the QC forums. You can also occasionally see Jeph at conventions, mostly in the New England region.
About the Author: Brittany DeSalvo is a freelance writer and editor for the start-up nerd site TheNerdyBomb. Her author page is accessible at http://thenerdybomb.com/author/brittany-desalvo/.
QC used to be good, with every characters subplots being explored and expanded, but gradually started shutting them out but by bit til its not just focusing on Martin and claire, while barely remembering other characters exist, but recently the artist has started yet ANOTHER ‘dUdE wEdD’ subplot to cover his imagination running dry but still cranking out art to keep the copyright