Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
QC: Behind the Scenes
jwhouk:
MARTEN: "Back in the early days of the strip, Jeph wanted to work on developing my character – mostly, answering why and how an "indie boy" like me was in Northampton. And his backstory was that I had come cross-country from California to chase after a girlfriend, who ended up dumping me."
DORA: "The problem was, Jeph really didn't have the money for extras in the cast. He explained it away by saying he didn't like drawing stuff in the background, but he knew he'd have to start doing it eventually."
MARTEN: "So when we talked about who we'd get to play this 'Vicki' character – the name was all on me, by the way – he really didn't have anyone who could step in and play it, especially not for the flashback scenes."
FAYE: "After a few strips where we'd riffed a bit on music or something, he finally found a gal to come in and do the whole flashback story. We never knew who she was, and I definitely didn't know who she was until after I did the whole milk-splash thing on her."
JEPH: "Yeah, I guess I should have told Cristi that when I asked her to just step in and play the part. She dyed her hair and everything, but she just went ballistic after Faye dumped that milk all over her. Let's just say I had to pay her back big-time for doing that to her." (looks at camera) "At least she got her revenge in the blooper reel we did for the DVD of the first season."
CRISTI: "That was one of the scenes that ol' doofus had forgotten to save to his hard drive. I was not going to get milk thrown at me again without getting something out of it. So we did a couple of takes, and on the second take, instead of letting Faye throw the milk on me, I unloaded on her with a super soaker." (smiling) "The entire cast pulled out their own super soakers and we had a full-on water fight on the set for a good 10 minutes. Fun times."
jwhouk:
Padma (Padma Pahtishi)
Padma's character came about quickly after "the breakup" arc, as the assitant writers for Jeph came up with the idea of a "mirror universe Coffee of Doom".
Padma was originally supposed to be just a complete mirror opposite of Dora – but one that Marten wasn't supposed to fall for. However, the interaction between the semi-clueless Padma and indie-boy Marten was too much for Jeph to pass up.
The truth was that Miss Pahtishi – who had come to America a few years prior on a scholarship to Julliard – was not going to be able to remain in the strip long-term. Though her accent was never noticeable while she was "on camera", Padma was of Indian/Kenyan descent. She had done acting work as a teenager in some Bollywood films – even having a bit-part in Slumdog Millionaire – but her first love was dance. She intended to return to India in 2012 to work with the Praheep Nuhtekgani Touring Ballet Company, but had literally put off ending her role on the strip until practically the last minute.
Padma doesn't intend to reappear in the strip anytime soon, saying in a statement, "Though I enjoyed my time working with Jeph and the cast, I am doing what I truly love here in the Indian ballet culture. I wish Jeph, Cristi, Marten, Faye and the rest of the cast well in their future."
jwhouk:
Cosette Hurlbut (Cosette Beauvais- Hurlbut)
The real reason why Cosette went so long between appearances in the strip (and where the clumsiness came in) was because Ms. Beauvais-Hurlbut 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.)
She gets chided at conventions and meet-and-greets about her characters "name change" – when she was first named in the strip, Jeph called her "Cosette Beauvais", but she later was named "Cosette Hurlbut" when Jeph began using Twitter as an alternative way to promote the strip among social media users. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten the older name – but for good reason.
After her initial appearance in the strip, Cosette had gotten married to the WCW wrestler known as "Dee Hurt" (real name: Deegan Hurlbut).
jwhouk:
Jim and Samantha (James Whitaker and Samantha Forrester)
Jeph has gotten lucky at times when it comes to casting characters for the strip. When the idea for The Secret Bakery came about, Jeph initially wanted Padma to be the owner of the shop – then, realizing that would be too much like a Coffee of Doom "clone", he thought about having Elliot become the owner. Unfortuantely, Elliot had two more years on his contract with the Tiger-Cats, and couldn't appear in the required strips.
So, Jeph decided to write in a new character as the owner – and, interestingly, one that had never appeared in the strip before: a slightly-older, single (divorced) male with a kid. The only problem? Jeph had no idea who could play the person.
Fortunately, Faye happened to have two of her in-laws in town – her brother-in-law, James Whitaker, and her niece-in-law, Samantha Forrester (her sister's oldest daughter). Samantha had done some acting bits in the past – she had appeared in a few scenes as a classmate of Oscar in the webcomic Evil Inc. Jim had been an avid follower of QC since Faye had recommended it after the first season of the strip was over. Both jumped at the idea of appearing as the divorced owner of TSB and his pre-teen daughter.
WAYF:
JEPH: Alrighty, here we are, and each one of the cast is going to very quickly and succinctly tell us one of their deepest darkest secrets, and hope that nobody judges them too harshly. Ok, go!
CRISTI: Sometimes I have to fill in on the writing duties instead of Jeph.
CAST: GASP!
CRISTI: Yeah, it's true. Usually you can tell them apart because the punchlines are less funny... you've noticed right?
CAST: (various mumbling) Who? Us? No, I certainly didn't notice any inferior punchlines! No, it's always been great, fantastic even! Don't know what you're talking about!
TAI: I listen to Baroque music.
CAST: ...
TAI: ...What?
MARTEN: Tai, that is so insanely retro that I think even hipsters have forgotten it exists.
TAI: Well, whatever. YOU listen to the Black Eyed Peas!
MARTEN: H-hey! That was supposed to be MY thing!
CAST: (horrified)
FAYE: Please tell me you don't actually like The Time (Dirty Bit).
MARTEN: Good lord no, just, you know, some of their early work.
CAST: (Marten-shaming)
JEPH: Alright, alright, Faye's turn.
FAYE: ... I don't like ice cream.
MARTEN: WHAT??
FAYE: I know, I know! I just don't like things that are cold! And ice cream is one of the coldest things you can eat!
MARIGOLD: How can you even...
SVEN: I have actually tried my hand at writing Country music during my tenure in this comic. And it is completely awful.
MARTEN: Oh go on, give us a listen.
DORA: Yeah, Sven, show us your work!
SVEN: I was afraid you'd say that.
HANNELORE: Oh, go on. It can't be THAT bad!
(One excruciating Extended Play later)
HANNELORE: I stand thoroughly corrected.
DORA: I watch My Little Pony...
TAI: Ah, c'mon, everyone does that nowadays!
DORA: ... the original series.
TAI: ...Ah. Oh.
MARIGOLD: (indicating certain body parts) Well, uh... these... they aren't entirely real.
MARTEN: Oh yeah, we know that.
TAI: Known that for ages.
FAYE: Kind of obvious really, once you think about it.
MARIGOLD: What?? How did you already know?!
HANNELORE: Uh, well... that might have something to do with my embarrassing secret...
:evil:
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version