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[Aziraphale]

I've been reading QC for a little more than a year now, after the first of many archive binges. The funny thing is, I'd come across the strip a few times before then, and for some reason I'd read the first five strips or so, but it never quite clicked. Well, I was bored one night, so I figured I'd read 100 strips and either be bored out of my skull or end up liking it, but I would've at least given it a fair shot.

So that brings me, in a roundabout sorta way, to a question: who else had a few false starts with the strip? Or am I in the minority in taking a few tries to get hooked?

[MooskiNet]

Dunno if you're the minority, but I had the good fortune to find the strip during an interesting time - I think it was toward the end of Marten and Dora's relationship.  The comic that hooked me was this one, and I still grin every time I see the last panel.

[Aziraphale]

I don't remember exactly where I came in, but I'm in the habit of starting from the beginning, 'cause I figure things will make a lot more sense later on that might not otherwise.

[stinson6016]

I don't know when I read it the first time, but like you I liked it but didn't stick around long due to what ever reason. I know years ago I was working such long hours I'd get home from work, take a shower, and crash and burn. On my days off I'd have to spend time with my at the time girl friend-who became my wife that I never had the energy.  a couple of years ago while still married I ran across this strip again, I think I was looking for something to read and say the link on xkcd and it seemed familiar.
I've also re-read the archive several times (just this year alone). when Claire came out as trans my brother did the week before to me. I've spent so much of the past couple of years reading and re-reading this comic but it did have a false start of two for me too. It's weird to think about not caring about it at first with as much as I read it now you know?

[Aziraphale]

I don't know when I read it the first time, but like you I liked it but didn't stick around long due to what ever reason. I know years ago I was working such long hours I'd get home from work, take a shower, and crash and burn. On my days off I'd have to spend time with my at the time girl friend-who became my wife that I never had the energy.  a couple of years ago while still married I ran across this strip again, I think I was looking for something to read and say the link on xkcd and it seemed familiar.
I've also re-read the archive several times (just this year alone). when Claire came out as trans my brother did the week before to me. I've spent so much of the past couple of years reading and re-reading this comic but it did have a false start of two for me too. It's weird to think about not caring about it at first with as much as I read it now you know?

Thanks for clearing something up for me, by the way. I couldn't figure out how I found QC in the first place, and realized that it was probably XKCD. That and PBF were the only webcomics I read regularly for the longest time.

[valkygrrl]

Can't speak for others of course but I started when Marigold tried to kiss Angus, did an archive binge and got hooked right away.

[osaka]

I got here from xkcd, as some other have. And I distinctly remember that the first thing I saw was comic 2110 (F*ck yeah lens flare) and, probably posessed by the spirit of JJ Abrams, I binged the archive just to see what brought on that lens flare. So no false starts for me. Obviously, after 2115 strips you're already pretty much addicted to the story.

[Detachable Felix]

I was directed here from XKCD back in 2009. First strip I saw was #1500, and I was hooked from that. Read a couple of strips back from it, then went back to the start and archive-binged over the next day.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

I can't say I did. I picked up QC at the double date.

Somewhere around 200. (insert Hipsterism)

My first impression of Dora was as a take charge, sly, yet honorable business owner who doesn't take any crap. And terribly adorable. I pretty much started reading the comic for her. I had to make some hard adjustments when it became clear that Dora wasn't quite the badass she'd have one believe. I was fairly pissed about the breakup, because it was all her fault. Marten didn't pull a jerk move until after it fell down ("It was mutual. We're both tired of her shit." The ultimate in passive aggression).

I probably read the strip for a couple of weeks before I decided to actually see what the hell was going on by reading the archives. That didn't take long at all.

[DSL]

Not sure how I got, there, but I first stumbled across QC just after Raven was hired at Cod and was judged odd for being friendly and helpful toward the customers. "A Friends storyline at a coffee shop," said I to myself, and forgot about it. Much later, again I don't remember from where but probably following a link from Girls with Slingshots, I stumbled across Faye's post-Angus-date anxiety attack. Not realizing the Velma-looking gal and the skinny guy were apartment-mates and not neighbors, I wondered why Velma-Logue was in the hallway in her underpants. At some point I started toggling back and forth in the archives (again, can't remember the intervening connection) and got hooked ... probably after reading the Faye-Angus First Date conversation, as it resonated with something (not) going on in my life at the time. Was mildly surprised to realize it was all the same strip.

[DrBear]

I find it interesting that the samples that have been given are ones that really make no sense to me unless you know the characters (huge thumbs? A sword in a coffee shop?) I don't really remember where/when I started, but it has been a while (registered for the forum in March 2012, had been reading for a while before that, probably lured over from David Willis-land. Read a few, got hooked, and went on the inevitable archive binge.

[Aziraphale]

I find it interesting that the samples that have been given are ones that really make no sense to me unless you know the characters (huge thumbs? A sword in a coffee shop?)

I think that was part of it for me, too. I'd come in on a guest strip, or something that needed more context, go to the beginning, and stall out. It wasn't until I got past that first handful of strips that things started to gel for me.

[stinson6016]

the inside jokes are inside jokes, jokes within jokes within jokes? the puns must flow?

[ASB84]

Can't speak for others of course but I started when Marigold tried to kiss Angus, did an archive binge and got hooked right away.

Similar situation with me. I discovered the strip via TV Tropes; I can't remember which strip I read first, and which trope it was listed as an example of, but I checked it out, read a few more strips, then binged the archive and subsequently became a fan.

[Rimwolf]

I followed a link to QC from John Allison's ScaryGoRound. That must have been around #74, as Jeph mentions the link there. It was pretty easy to binge the archives then, and I've been a faithful reader ever since.

I registered to this forum in June 2004, but as you can tell from my post count haven't had a lot to say in the forums.

[Natswash]

Think I followed a link off XKCD, my first strip was the Flying Roomba

[AprilArcus]

I read a few strips here and there before 2323 turned me into a regular reader. I tried reading from #1 and just could not handle the early strips - the terrible art, overwritten dialogue, Faye's casual violence. I made it to about #400 before giving up, and didn't read the rest of the archives until I started my timeline project, in two big bursts (1800-2300 and then 1300-1800). There are still substantial chunks of the archives that I have yet to tackle.

[HauntingPoem]

I remember the first strip I read was #984 years ago. Binged the archive and was hooked. Didn't forum up for years though.

[hakko504]

I came here after reading a few strips on Google Reader (sorely missed, I've moved to feedly but it's lacking a few things from GR, including the ability to find new feeds). The first was the field trip with Padme & Marten, which I thought was so-so because I didn't know the backstory, tried to go back through the archives, read the Momo gets a new body arc, liked it, moved more back, to the Dora&Jim date, which was thoroughly confusing when read in the wrong order, decided to do an archive binge (which took 3 days) and here I am, some 3+ years later.

[BenRG]

I followed a link to QC from a totally different strip with a totally different theme. I don't recall the first strip I saw (it was about 2 years back). However, it interested me enough that I went back to the first and read it from there.

[Lubricus]

I started reading QC very early, and liked it pretty much right away. If I remember correctly, it was during a time when I was desperate for new, good webcomics to read, so that might have had an influence.

[Thrillho]

Pretty sure I signed up here not long after I first started reading, so we're talking close to a decade.

[Krald]

I actually cannot remember when i started reading and it has been driving me crazy, i just remember a Dune reference around the chunk of strips was what got me

[Lubricus]

I can't pinpoint exactly where I started reading, but it was definitely before #100. It feels weird not to remember, for some reason.

[osaka]

If I were to pinpoint one exact cause that got me (beause the reason I archive binged was more to kill time and I had fun doing it), it's that Faye is pretty much my sister with added traumas.

[Pilchard123]

I actually cannot remember when i started reading and it has been driving me crazy, i just remember a Dune reference around the chunk of strips was what got me

So anywhere from about #1 to #2823 then?

[Neko_Ali]

I can't remember when exactly I started reading or why. It was sometime before the Vespa Avenger story, so really early on. The AI storylines I think were what really kept me coming back at first. It was Claire's coming out to Marten that started me reading the forums, and the wonderful reactions to it that made me decide to join in here. Where I have been stuck ever since.

[celticgeek]

I started reading about the time Marten got the job at the library.  I got here from "Unshelved", who made a comment about it. 

Went through the archives pretty quickly after that.

[Blackbird]

I started reading QC in high school, around strip 200, archive binged, and read it for a couple months.  I liked the indie rock references but the characterization was a little bland, so eventually I stopped reading.

Fast forward the better part of a decade and I started reading from the time Henry and Maurice came to visit and got engaged (I got here through TV Tropes of all places) and read all the way through to the then-current comic (the first page of the original May arc).  After that, I decided to archive binge the first half of the comic that I had skipped and about 20 strips in I was like, "Wait, I've read this.  This is THAT comic?  That girl is supposed to be Faye?  WTF?"  It's really like a different comic at the beginning. 

[Kugai]

I actually joined on my Birthday in 2006, (May 9th) but can't remember offhand what Comic was up that day.  I had actually begun reading the Comic around six to eight months beforehand.

[NemoX]

I can't remember the exact strip I came in, but I do believe it was just a little after "the talk". Then my obsessive nature kicked in and I HAD to read from the begining, so never really had a false start. Even if I had not liked it  Iwould have continued cause that's just how I roll. but I did so no worries

[Pilchard123]

This is where I came in.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

This is where I came in.

This video is not available in your country.

[Pilchard123]

This is not as good, but almost the same

As for me, I've seen the story. I've read it over once or twice.

[Half Empty Coffee Cup]

Not sure exactly when I started anymore. I'd been linked to it by someone I knew through a cousin of mine. At the time, I read through it in one go and I think it was around the start of the Marten-Dora relationship? Maybe?

I dunno. It's just been a while.

[Mr_Rose]

I was first pointed to QC back when it was a tri-weekly with the same art as the first strip, but the small archive and (at the time) unengaging plot put me off until someone pointed me at The Talk which had just happened (the current strip was still in the mid-500's) and that got me.

[Carl-E]

I'm another XKCD referral, but it took a few tries.  I'd follow the link, and insist on starting at the beginning each time, and then would recognize it, and was put off by the indie references I didn't know, so I never got past the first 20 or so strips - about four ot five times, with enough time in between to forget that I'd tried it already. 

So I tried again one afternoon, and saw the exultation of the beer sledding. 

I went backwards from there, probably a few hundred strips or so, then went to the beginning and worked forward (and had the "WTF?  That comic?" experience), reading both ways until they met up. 

At the talk. 

It was weird. 

Than I found the forum, and it was weirder! 

[cesium133]

So this'll probably sound pretty stupid, but...

I was linked here from XKCD, like a lot of you. The first couple times I started reading QC, I never got interested in it. My dad died in 2011, and shortly afterward, I clicked on the link from XKCD again. It was during the storyline where Momo gets her new chassis. For some reason I clicked "Random", and it went to Faye talking to her therapist about her father's death. That resonated with me at the time and I ended up reading the whole comic. Then later I joined the forum and then it's now.

Incidentally, the idea of starting a comic of my own was partially inspired by seeing the improvement in QC between the beginning and the present. The thought was, hey, if practice can improve someone that much, I can give it a shot as well.

[SubaruStephen]

First QC I saw was one where Hanners was serving coffee and didn't realise that the customer was flirting with her. Read several of the following comics, liked them and decided to start from the beginning.

That was like getting punched in the retinas, (Jeph's drawing skills have come a loooooong way).

[Carl-E]

The thought was, hey, if practice can improve someone that much, I can give it a shot as well.

10,000 hours! 

[Nepiophage]

i first came to QC via a link from Girls with Slingshots -- the Wrong your strip which was used to illustrate an article about grammar.  It was at the start of the space station arc in January 2012. Then I read the archives twice, mostly at work (very boring job at the time) until my boss caught me.

[swapna]

First comic I read was this one :
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1201

An acquaintance linked it with the comment 'Women, right? No matter WHAT you say...' Which was more or less an answer to a previous discussion, but I read the comic out of curiosity (and boredom... oh god, those classes were boring), but I got hooked pretty fast

[jwhouk]

I came in during the introduction of Cosette. I'd heard about the Theory of Hipster Relativity, but hadn't really invested my time in the comic until the whole Cosette arc.

I binged to bring me up to speed, and was impressed both by the great improvement in Jeph's artistry and the storyline. And then I found these forums.

The rest, as they say, is history. 


EDIT - In case you couldn't read the equation:

M = (BN²)^-1

[Undrneath]

I have no idea what the first comic read was but it was in the last year or so. I found out about QC from dailyfail of all places and I binged and read the entire archive in a couple of days and now I check for updates even when I know there won't be one because my obsession with this world has become consuming.

[Jab]

This actually happened to me- I picked up a link while reading Something Positive's Archives, and managed to hit the strip where Dora punches Faye for "stringing Marten along" (pretty much RIGHT AFTER "The Talk"). I loved the art and the way the characters interacted, and promised to keep reading... then of course forgot the name of the strip.

It was ANOTHER Archive Crawl through S*P later before I hit that exact same link, and endeavored to do a real Archive Crawl on QC. This was probably around Strip 700-800 or so, so I think I only missed a year. But it was funny seeing the link and going "OMG THERE'S THAT ART STYLE!!"

[Kugai]

I can't remember when I actually started reading the Comic, but I do remember it was a bout a year before I finally joined the Forum in '06 (on my birthday of all things).  I think I came here via a link in one of the other comics I was reading at the time, either The Lounge or Alpha Shade if memory serves.

It took me about a week to go through them all at that time, and I was hooked,

[Aziraphale]

The first week or so after my first archive binge was brutal. It's tough to switch gears between reading something in large chunks like that  and then having to wait for it to update once a day (actually, longer at first 'cause I finished binge-ing on a Thursday night).

[hedgie]

Oh yeah.  It happens with every comic I read (many of which were linked off of the QC page).  I don't really bother for non-sequential comics, but for the sequential ones, I have to go through the archives, and it gets painful to wait, especially when there's a break, for a new one.  I usually only read AG every couple of weeks or so, just because of the slow update cycle.

[Gladstone]

Yeah, I recently ran into that same problem with Dumbing of Age.  Zoomed through the archives in a week, realized my mistake, read through it again, and finally resigned myself to waiting for daily updates like everyone else.  Didn't realize how glacial the pace was when I was reading a chapter at a time, but it's nice that it is organized into chapters, so I can revisit a favorite storyline when I want to. 

I bookmarked Girls With Slingshots recently, and was planning to archive-binge that next...but it looks like I won't have the same problem when I catch up this time.

[Jab]

The first week or so after my first archive binge was brutal. It's tough to switch gears between reading something in large chunks like that  and then having to wait for it to update once a day (actually, longer at first 'cause I finished binge-ing on a Thursday night).

Oh man, tell me about it. I Archive-Binged Achewood for MONTHS right at the same time when Onstadt stopped updating it regularly. Went from 20-30 giant, fascinating strips per day to nothing for MONTHS, and then he did a weak stop & start thing and then stopped AGAIN.

I've always meant to read Girls With Slingshots- now that it's ending, it might be the time.