Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
QC: Behind the Scenes
Is it cold in here?:
If I had your job I would devote as much thought as I could to my hobbies.
jwhouk:
Bingo.
Silentbanksy:
So um, it's Marten? Right?
Honey, please, i'm off the clock. Call me Mary.
jwhouk:
Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham (Hannelore Chatham)
JEPH: "The one person I get the most questions about, whether it's at cons, or interviews, or anywhere I make an appearance, is, of course, Hannelore."
Jeph admits freely that the idea of Hannelore's character was never part of the plot of QC from the beginning, but he did realize after the "Talk" storyline that he needed to expand the strip outward from it just being about the five main characters (Marten, Faye, Dora, Steve and Pintsize).
JEPH: "I thought about Marten having this creepy stalker-like girl who followed him everywhere – a little like that gal who followed Charlie Sheen's character around on Two and a Half Men. But I didn't want her to be an eventual love interest for Marten – or for anyone else in the cast. And one day, I came up with the idea – give her OCD."
HANNELORE: "When I read for the part, I just knew that this was going to be huge. And I loved the concept of the creepy stalker girl with OCD. We read that whole Scrabble game scene (with Marten) and it was just perfect."
JEPH: "The explanation has always been that, as her character developed, she was just originally on some pretty heavy medications at the start. (looks skyward) I admit it – I had absolutely no idea where to go with her character. That's kinda why she got so much control of her character."
CRISTI: "A little bit too much control, if you ask some of the others around here." (pause) "Of course, not within hearing distance."
MARTEN: "She got to be so popular, especially after the whole Faye-Sven hookup arc, that she was perceived as having taken over the entire strip."
HANNELORE: "Yes, I'm aware of the Joan Crawford whispers. To those people, I say – GET A LIFE. I'm not this big, scary person like I portray in the strip. I'm also not really OCD – though the character's quirks have made me start washing my hands three times after using the bathroom and such."
FAYE: "Hanners got made out to be like her on-screen mother's 'James Bond villainess'. Truth is, she had all these great ideas, and it was working every time she suggested something. Jeph basically agreed to the 30% stipulation, just out of sheer thankfulness."
HANNELORE: "I haven't used the clause, of course. Jeph's made sure I'm in at least 80 strips a year. I just asked him to do it because – well, I couldn't always rely on my trust fund and my physics degree."
RAVEN: "Yep, I used to think I had the highest IQ among the cast. Then she came around and we started having arguments about the Higgs Boson and whether or not the Large Hadron Collider could actually find it." (smiling) "That was one of the things I missed about the strip when I left for congress."
While she does mention that she dislikes all of the fanfic and fawning over her character – which has sometimes made convention appearances difficult to take – she brushes it all off as being part of the job. Of course, she points out, "I do have that collection of African tribal spears and shields on display in my home (in Cambridge, Massachusetts). And the leaders of the Mokawi tribe of East Sudan showed me how to use that blow tube dart to disable an enemy from a thousand yards."
jwhouk:
Amir Afridi (Draegan Delmar) and Natasha (Natasha Willington)
The old story about out-of-work actors who are part-time waiters? It happened with the role of Amir. Draegan really was working at Tapas Nu Kegas in Northampton when Jeph realized he'd seen him play for a neo-punk metal band.
JEPH: "Amir was the driving force for the creation of Deathmøle. He really wanted to get a band together, and I really wanted to make music – but I was scared to death of actually getting out in front of a crowd and performing."
Draegan was not available for interviews at the time of the special, as he is touring in Japan and performing his own music. However, he has credited Jeph in earlier interviews as being the driving force behind his music career.
Shortly after the introduction of Deathmøle, Draegan proposed to Jeph that he and Natasha could go on a tour, performing Jeph's music with the help of some session players, under the name "Deathmøle". Jeph loved the idea, and managed to write around the two appearing in the strip with the idea of Marten getting hired to work in the Smif library. The pair toured for several months to sold-out shows – pausing only to return to Northampton for Ellen's funeral.
After completing the tour, Natasha was reluctant to continue in her role as Ellen's roommate. However, she was enjoying working with Draegan as they toured as Deathmøle. The pair continued the world-wide tour, taking Jeph's music as far as Australia before returning to do some strips where Nat clumsily played her guitar.
Right around the end of the Faye/Sven hookup arc, Nat and Drae had a bit of a falling out over further touring as a band. Drae wanted to do a European tour, while Nat wanted to get back to school and finish her degree. The disagreement led to an off-screen argument that ended up in Jeph writing Nat out of the band – something she agreed to willingly. (By the way, the "But it's heavy!" comment was all her.)
Drae went on to do his European tour – but under his own "name" ("Amir Afridi of Deathmøle"). When he finally returned after the Marten-Dora breakup, he made a brief return, helping Jeph do some more recording. As mentioned previously, he is out on tour playing both Jeph's stuff and his own stuff under the Amir Afridi pseudonym.
Beatrice Chatham (Martha Stewart)
FAYE: "We had always joked that there was only one person who could possibly play Hannelore's mom."
MARTEN: "Martha Stewart."
DORA: "Martha Stewart."
HANNELORE: "Yeah, but she wasn't exactly beating down our door to work with us."
MARTEN: "That was all on Jeph. He had Pintsize make that comment right after Faye and I had moved into the apartment. I think we all figured we'd never actually see Hanner's parents – or we'd find out that she had been lying about the whole thing."
FAYE: "That was what I'd thought, too. Even said that in the strip."
DORA: "So we're all reeling a bit from what had happened to Ellen; Steve's trying to keep from going over the edge with this gal he met at Smif (Meena); and Natasha's hurrying back with Drae from their touring as Deathmøle."
MARTEN: "THAT was where the weirdness started."
FAYE: "Turns out that Ellen's mom is Martha's sister-in-law. There were some uncomfortable moments at the funeral, but Hannelore broke the ice and talked to her about the role."
HANNELORE: "She was a little reluctant at first."
DORA: "Try more like 'screaming there was no way in HELL she was going to do it.'"
HANNELORE: "I convinced her, though, that she would be able to make fun of all of those stereotypes of being an Evil Overlord villainess. That and the agreement that the character wouldn't look anything like her."
MARTEN: "The short hair and the black pantsuit helped. The whole time, I actually saw her as Beatrice and not Martha Stewart."
FAYE: "She was fantastic to work with. A real pro. She even got a nomination for best guest appearance in a webcomic at the Copper Comic Awards for that arc."
HANNELORE: "I don't think we'll see her play the role again, though. She lost out to that one gal who played a sniper on Schlock Mercenary." (shrugs) "Maybe we can get Oprah to convince her to come back to do the role again."
DORA: "Oprah???"
FAYE: "Long story."
---
Okay, I'm done for a while. I have a compilation of all these, including the Penelope one WAYF put up and a few other "edited" versions of other posts. If I get a bit, I'll see about putting them up on Scribd.
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