THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: BenRG on 19 Apr 2016, 02:01
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Jeph is being a dreadful tease on Twitter today! Take a look at these Tweets:
https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/722223303943958528 (https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/722223303943958528)
https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/722221362346074113 (https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/722221362346074113)
https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/722212177445306374 (https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/722212177445306374)
https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/722211876470464512 (https://twitter.com/jephjacques/status/722211876470464512)
Jeph says that "I don’t know who these buddies are (actually yes I do, it’s a secret)". There are basically two options that I can think of:
- They're sketches of his various friends, possibly made at the weekly D&D night, and Jeph is simply honouring their right not to have their names spread all over the Blogsphere;
- They're initial concept sketches for characters in a new comic.
So, what am I saying? Am I saying that QC may be coming to an end? No, I'm not. What I'm saying is that Jeph is in the process of wrapping up the major plot arcs in QC. After that, we're about to have the mother of all time-skips and that these are the initial concept sketches for the characters in Questionable Content - The Next Generation!
So, am I crazy? Would you like to see such a development in QC and what characters would you like to see?
Just to get the ball rolling:
The girl with floofy hair and big eyebrows is nearly 18-year-old Charlotte 'Charley' Reed, Marten and Claire's daughter (Hanners' dad was working on that technology). Much like many primary characters in slice-of-life stories, she is frequently left a perpetually-astonished observer of events, getting that from her dad. She tries to make out she is detached, hence her catch-phrase of "Balls!" (at least some of that is probably due to her spending a bit too much time with her Auntie Faye but it is mostly due to her desire to impress Moira who really is that cool). It would probably be a bit more plausible if she were not so easily aggravated (like her mum), as well as hyper and enthusiastic about just about every new thing.
In the third picture in the list, the three full-bodies are (right to left):
- Charley;
- 35-year-old doctor of herpetology Samantha Bean, Charley's long-term babysitter and, if schoolyard gossip is to believed, the mysterious vigilante and protector of Boston known only as The Skullmistress!
- Charley's bad-girl best friend Moira Bianchi-Hubburt;
- The two portraits in this picture are Charley and Josh (see below).
In the bottom picture, next to the portraits of Charley and Moira is a full-body study of another of Charley's friends, college sophomore Josh LaCrosse, Marigold and Dale's son and (or so Faye, Dora and Claire like teasing) Charley's crush. He's gangly like his dad, awkward like his mum and feels seriously intimidated by Charley and Moira's outward show of confident indifference to the world. In other words he is the occupier of Marten's old 'nice, skinny hetro guy' pigeon-hole.
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I.... I think you're over-reacting.
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BenRG, you really really, really need to start your own web comic.
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Alternatively, go take a nap for a while.
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Okay, as you all seem to think that my idea is [scatological expletive deleted], what do you think that Jeph's sketches are about? That is, after all, what this thread is meant to be about.
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I think they're whatever Jeph says they are. Absent that, they're what he eventually shows us they are.
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New characters for either of his existing comics. On account of having two existing comics that fit the drawing style.
Ockham's razor. Please use it more often.
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BenRG, you really really, really need to start your own web comic.
I'd read it.
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I don't think there's any call to rain on BenRG, thoigh I'm serious about starting his (I'm assuming he) own comic, or whatever form of fictive world. We've all done our share of speculation and hopes for the direction of the comic, evidently to Jeph's irritation. Hell, some of us in this thread alone collaborated on a guest comic.
I get the irritation on Jeph's part, having been on the receiving end of "hey, you oughta do a cartoon about ..." including from someone who (mistakenly) thought he was my boss in that regard. And though we all speculate, hope and even ship, BenRG, you put a level of effort and detail into yours that amount almost to instructions for Jeph, though I assume you don't mean them that way. I'm saying -- and I admit it started out as snark but I'm serious now -- if I were to put that much thought into a fictive universe, I'd want it to be my own and not someone else's.
Unless Jeph opens up his 'verses to franchise, a la Trek, Wars, Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars, Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime or Isaac Asimov's Robots and/or Foundation, in which case never mind anything I said.
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To be honest, I'm just going for one simple theory:
They're new upcoming characters, quite possibly new interns at the library. Emily, Claire and Gabby have finished up at the library, so presumably there's another group of interns coming in. Alternatively, they're students at Sam's school, considering that Sam is getting more "air time", so to speak.
I just can't see Jeph starting a new comic just yet. Seven comics a week, on top of his music, as well as the number of Cons and talks he's does, means that a third comic might be a little much.
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Jeph's always done random sketches; it's part of his practice.
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Jeph posted sketches of Claire for quite some time before she showed up in the comic. And apparently he didn't have much of a clue what do to with her at first - and certainly not that she would be trans. I guess it's likely the new sketches will become characters in the comic, but when and in what capacity? We'll just have to wait and see. It is of course possible that Jeph is planning a new comic, or some major shakeup of QC, but we have yet to see any evidence to that effect.
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Ease up on Ben there folks, it's only speculation on his part, something we've all done from time to time here. It's very good and well thought out speculation, but only that.
Whether these 'Characters' turn up at any stage in either QC or Alice Grove or not, or whether Jeph decides to go with another comic is, in the end, entirely up to Jeph
Having fun speculating and guessing is all part of the fun.
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Mad speculation is a cromulent part of the game here.
Somewhere there's a quote from Jeph about how the overanalysis is 90% wrong, but that it's kind of what a forum is for.
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The only reason speculation is (over) 90% wrong is that speculation can (and often does) go in any and every direction; Reality can only go in one.
And yes, I know about the alternate realities theory, but we're all stuck together (metaphorically) in one of them, so... it's moot.
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Speak for yourself
*Changes Airships course*
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Ok, so now, weeks later, we know the girl that appears in all the pictures Jeph tweeted is the as-of-now-still-unnamed Bartender Girl.
What about the others? Other designs for her or characters we are meeting soon?
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Speak for yourself
*Changes Airships course*
A Long Earth reference? I would dig that, if it wasn't for the fact that I don't really like that universe all that much.