Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
QC: Behind the Scenes
jwhouk:
Raven Representative Raven Pritchard (D-Temple) lost her re-election bid in the 31st congressional district of Texas in 2010 to Republican John Carter. Pritchard took over the seat held by her grandfather, Samuel Pritchard, after he passed away in mid-2008 right after he had run unopposed for the seat. Governor Rick Perry appointed her to the seat after pressure from her parents both whom had not only contributed to his re-election campaign, but also had been significant contributors for Texans For McCain that year. Raven had never even lived in Temple, Texas prior to then; she had left for Massachusetts and MIT in 2003, the year the strip made its debut. After trying out for a walk-on role as a goth girl, she managed to make it as a full cast member by the time of "The Talk" storyline. Unfortunately, her parents still thought she was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. Then she started to befriend Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the 111th Congress, and ran for re-election as a Democrat. Carter trounced her, dredging up her work in the strip (One of the attack ads had the tagline: "Questionable Content? Questionable Pritchard.") Her parents are no longer on speaking terms with her which forced her to return to the strip.
Elliot (Secret Bakery) Fans of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL got a huge surprise when they saw their star Defensive Tackle Elliot MacKenzie show up in the comic during the first scene at The Secret Bakery. MacKenzie, who stated after the appearance that he had been planning already for life after football, wasn't able to spend long periods of time on the set, due to his commitments to the team. MacKenzie is in the final year of his contract with the Ti-Cats in 2012, but plans on making at least one more appearance in the strip, possibly after the Grey Cup playoffs are over.
Amanda Whitaker Don't let this get out, because it didn't appear like it at the time, but the role of Amanda was actually played by two separate actresses. The "first" Amanda was a random walk-on whose style Jeph liked when she appeared and the fact that she was a fan of Diesel Sweeties helped. Unfortunately, that Amanda never returned as she instead chose to move to Alaska, where she took up a walk-on role in the semi-Furry paintball comic The Whiteboard as Pirta the Snow Leopard. After "The Talk" storyline, Jeph decided to go with Faye's real-life sister who is actually named Fiona. Fiona, who is a worship leader for the SunRidge Church in Savannah, took to the role as the "on-screen" lesbian sister. She hasn't had much desire to reprise the role on the strip, since releasing a contemporary Christian music album in 2011, under her given name Fiona Towson.
Oh, I forgot:
Faye Southern Baptist who actually likes Country Music. Tee-totaler who's married to a man named David Whitaker (how's that for irony?) and has a son, Jeffrey (who was born during the Space arc this year). Insider joke: the name "DOWSON" on the gravestones next to his was actually Faye's real parents James and Julia Dowson, which is her real last name. Her parents, by the way, aren't dead.
jwhouk:
I actually did a TON of these last night:
Cosette The real reason why Cosette went so long between appearances in the strip (and where the clumsiness came in) was because Ms. Beauvais is a member of the US National Motocross Association. She has had several incidents in competitions which prevented her from appearing in the strip though her whole neck brace, crutches, cast and red-eye issue was for-real. (She really didn't pop her neck during the ensuing scene after the fire drill, however.)
Lydia (Sven's intern) and Meena (Steve's ex) If Lydia and Meena seemed to look alike at times, it was because they were actually sisters though fraternal. Lydia and Meena Corron were both college students at the real-life Smith College in Northampton who completely indepent of each other tried out for walk-on roles on the strip. Both have since graduated from Smith, with each getting their degrees in music theory and forensic science, respectively.
Spacestation (And Avatar) and Spaceship (And Avatar) Both Station and Spaceship's avatars are CGI "holograms". The technology was paid for by Lenovo, who provided Topatoco Studios with the hardware to develop them. The two avatars are actually voiced by twin English vocal professionals Peter and Paul Hodgkins.
Emily A young Australian won the walk-on role on the strip when, while Jeph was touring the Land Down Under as part of a convention tour, he met the tall Chinese-native girl at a coffee shop in Sydney. She was a big fan of the strip, and he was immediately impressed by her. It took Jeph and Topatoco Productions a year to get her visa cleared, but her recent appearance has made everyone in the forums thrilled.
Dr Bernadette Case (space) Even the large amount of makeup and the glasses couldn't hide Oprah Winfrey's walk-on role during the Space storyline. Winfrey, who admitted to being a secret fan of the strip, played down her role as the "ship's doctor", only relishing in the fact that she helped contribute to some of the background of Hannelore's beloved character.
Dora Is actually married to Sven; Jeph wanted the "Dora chases Marten", ex-goth stuff, but after he decided to have her brother appear well, off-screen the two just clicked and got married at about the same time as "The Talk" storyline. Hates cats. Has some insecurity issues that she says "actually creep into her character." Oh, and she really doesn't have a flame tattoo on her back; it was "drawn on" for the times it needed to appear on-screen.
Hannelore She's not as OCD in real life as she portrays, but she has her on-screen mother's demeanor. Has it written into her contract that she MUST appear in at least 30% of all strips or her salary triples. She has a interesting collection of African tribal masks and spears in her home outside Cambridge.
Marigold She had to stretch it a bit to make the tech-nerd role of Marigold, but this gal who played the Ally Sheedy character in a stage production of The Breakfast Club took to playing WOW after a few false starts. She's also not a big fan of anime, but did have a bit recurring part in the Foglio studios "epic" Girl Genius as one of the Geisterdaimen. She had to bow out after the Sturmhalten storyline due to her increased role on QC.
Steve Mister suave and debonair was actually your typical actor working in a restaurant when casting calls came out for the strip. He did actually have to go to re-hab a few times during the early part of the strip, which explained his long absences after the Ellen breakup storyline. Has been sober since the DOKYA return and the woman who played Tortura is his now-real-life wife (named Tatyana).
Sven Answered a casting call for the webcomic; first day on the job met Dora and immediately fell in love. Got to be a bit difficult to work with her over time, but anger that Dora felt towards Faye during the "YOU SLEPT WITH HIM?" arc and the Gina Riversmith arc? Completely and totally unrehearsed. He was actually a practicing Jehovah's Witness until he met Dora; they now both are essentially agnostic (and were married right before the "She Kisses The Boy" storyline which made things tough for him). Oh, and all the sex scenes with Faye and Sven, and Marten and Dora? They were all completely clothed underneath.
Carl-E:
--- Quote from: jwhouk on 24 Jun 2012, 06:18 ---Oh, and all the sex scenes with Faye and Sven, and Marten and Dora? They were all completely clothed underneath.
--- End quote ---
Awww, you had to go and ruin it for the rest of us...
WAYF:
Group discussion, on the subject of fanfiction and shipping:
SVEN: I think I should be a little disturbed at how pleased the fandom was when they discovered that Dora and I aren't actually related...
DORA: No, none of us are actually related. Having said that, we all think of Veronica Vance as our mum anyway, cause otherwise it just gets weird. Even Tai doesn't like thinking about all the, uh... bondage gear.
TAI: Seriously, I could only do my punchline when I was meeting Veronica Vance out of sheer force of will, and from the small comfort that Marten was about to receive a humiliating verbal smackdown. It was that awkward. I literally had to throw myself into it.
DORA: Other than that, though, we're all pretty comfortable thinking about each other in a romantic capacity. We have to be, because who knows who Jeph is going to pair us up with next...
FAYE: Not to mention the huge amount of shipping in the fandom. You have to be prepared not to vomit at the thought of, say, Hannelore and Marigold getting it on. Cause there's plenty of that going around. Same goes with Marten and Steve. After a while you kind of get acclimatized to it and when you see Hannelore/Winslow you just sort of shrug your shoulders and say "crazy, crazy internet..." Mind you, we do have our limits. Like shipping which isn't even based on our characters in the comic, just straight up real-person fanfiction.
HANNELORE: Oh, god no... don't get me started.
DORA: Why not? Go right ahead. I think we'd all like to complain about it to some extent.
HANNELORE: Okay, do you remember that one time I went to the San Diego Comic Con to promote the webcomic, and there was this one man who snuck past all the security and tried to take some up-skirt photos of me? Do you remember how I found him and his actions so attractive and appealing that I later cornered him in the bathroom and started having sex with him? OF COURSE NOT, because that never happened and I would never do such a thing!
TAI: Yeah, and remember the time where I turned bi for a man just in time to have a threesome with him and another girl? Do you remember how it turned out that all a guy needed to do to turn me bi was be average-looking, self-deprecating and complimentary, instead of a Greek God with superlative social graces as was previously assumed?
SVEN: Not to mention all those times I spent teaching lonely virgin girls how to have sex.
DORA: And all those times I've spent dressed up in a dominatrix outfit just because I feel like it?
FAYE: Really? And you're sure these stories were actually based on you, the people, instead of the characters?
SVEN and DORA: Positive.
FAYE: Wow, I got off light then.
TAI: So of course, I don't actually write fanfiction. Jeph does on my behalf, and I'm pretty sure he makes it bad on purpose.
FAYE: Guess who actually does write fanfiction though. In the cast, I mean.
TAI: Really? Who?
FAYE and HANNELORE: Penelope.
TAI: No way!
HANNELORE: Yeah, only it's actually serious stuff. Some of it's actually really good!
DORA: Yeah! I heard that Jeph lifted a lot of the elements of the Space Arc from her work!
TAI: Woah, really? You mean like the scene where Marigold makes out with the science man in Zero-G?
HANNELORE, DORA, FAYE: No!
HANNELORE: ... well, maybe.
jwhouk:
/END_THREAD
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