About a year ago, a friend turned me on to a webcomic called Questionable Content. I ended up staying awake half the night and reading through the archives as fast as my computer could load the strips to catch up on the storylines (and that's no small feat!). Ever since, checking the QC website for the newest update has become part of my morning routine. My day is just not right without my QC fix.
Drawn by 27-year-old Jeph Jacques, the comic focuses on Marten, a twenty-something guy trying to eke out a place for himself in the world, as well as his ever-increasing and ever-bizarre group of friends. Marten lives with Pintsize, an Anthro-PC (it's like a Mac, but with a personality) whose inappropriate comments and actions could carry the comic on their own. In addition to Pintsize, Marten's social circle includes Faye, a charming indie girl cursed with complex on top of complex; Dora, a shameless semi-goth chick who runs the local coffee joint (appropriately dubbed "Coffee of Doom"); Jimbo, a mechanic-by-day, romance-novelist-by-night; as well as an impressive and extensive host of other characters ranging from the clever to the ridiculous.
QC's humor is very situational, with a lot of witty banter and unexpected directions. Sometimes the humor is more subtle and steadily developed, but sometimes it jumps out at you like... like an underwear-masked Anthro-PC, I suppose. It's very much the thinking man's comic, occasionally veering into the philosophic and liberally tossing around SAT-type words that may leave less word-hungry readers a bit stymied. On the flip side, Jeph makes liberal use of sight gags and physical humor, as exhibited by Faye's habit of punching people when teased and Pintsize's stint as the Underwear Ninja.
Despite its off-the-wall content, QC is very universal. It deals with issues most everyone has dealt with at some point in their lives, as well as some issues no one should ever, ever have to deal with if they are lucky.
The art style is very simplistic in the first few strips, but Jeph clearly loves perfecting his art — the comic is nearly 1,000 strips strong, and his art style has evolved and improved very steadily over time, fleshing out the characters physically as well as emotionally.
Article comments
1 - Anna Creech
*squee*
QC is one of my daily must-reads. Thanks for the review!
2 - joe
just recently i spent three nights in a row reading this comic, just amazing
3 - Jayson
I enjoy reading QC, but I have a problems with it. How is it that just about all the girls in the comic end up having a thing for Marten? Sure he's a "nice" guy, but he has ZERO personality. He is a complete bore with seemingly no interests outside of "indie rock" music. Oh and the bands that he favors are just terrible! Slint? Xiu Xiu? Sigur Rós? I rest my case. Marten also makes jokes that seem to be forced, or just not funny in the least. There are also times where I'm not sure if the characters were written to be true to life hipsters, or if they're supposed to be making fun of hipsters. I only say this because no hipster would ever refer to themselves as such... and they mention being hipsters often. Also, no hipster would refer to things as being "indie". Before I stop jawing on, how about drawing girls without short haircuts? They do exist. I mean every girl in the comic has short hair? Wait, I like this comic? haha No I truly do. Long live Pintsize and Faye!