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Finally, after (EDIT) one year and (/EDIT) eight months, I have finished my archive binge of the (as of this post) 4,773 pages in the web comic Questionable Content. I like it, and I'll definitely add it to my list of comics I regularly read (which hasn't changed significantly since the last time I posted about it), but it's not my new most favorite or anything (as that spot is still held by El Goonish Shive).
It's pretty much entirely a "slice of life" comic, originally focused on a guy named Marten, his "anthroPC" companion Pintsize, his soon-to-be roommate Faye, and their ever-growing circle of friends, and... I guess now that I'm caught up I should say that it's still basically that same premise now, only with way more robot/android/AI characters who have all but completely taken over the comic. Which is fine, because I like most of them. For the most part, they're pretty much the same as the human characters as far as how they act and such, just with non-human-standard skin/hair color and the occasional quirk to remind us that, hey, they're actually not human characters. Well, aside from the ones that are definitely not humanoid.
If I had to find something to nitpick about the comic (which I don't, but I'm going to do so anyway), I would say that my main problem with Questionable Content is its tendency to just... forget about characters. It's bad enough that the comic itself even lampshades it. Some examples are Steve, who first appeared in the role of Marten's best friend. He fades in and out of the comic constantly, and after particularly long absences, jokes are made about how long it's been since he was last seen. And then there's Raven, who was a mainstay in the comic for like the first 1500 pages or so, but then left to go back to school... but then she came back again out of the blue... and then, after her last appearance or even mention in the comic, she just disappeared without a trace. Same with Penelope, whose entire reason for existing in the comic, at least at first, was due to her resemblance to fringe joke character Pizza Girl. There was an earlier period where she kind of faded out of the comic but was then described as having been there all along, just off panel the whole time. But then, she was promoted to assistant manager at Coffee of Doom, which one would think would mean that she's going to be an at least somewhat more important character after that, but then came her final appearance, less than 100 pages later, and she hasn't been seen or mentioned since. Oh, and Cosette, same deal, who is now only seen very rarely, usually in conjunction with Steve doing something stupid or eating cereal or whatever (which is still marginally better than the treatment of Raven and Penelope). I mean, it's like, I don't mind if a million new characters are introduced and older characters leave the comic or whatever, so long as the old characters are actually given reasons to not be there anymore, as was the case with Angus and Padma and (at least at first) Raven and (thankfully temporarily) Hannelore, even if it's just "went back to school" or "moved to New York" or "left to travel the world on a quest to find themselves" or "eaten by an allosaurus" or whatever, rather than simply disappearing into the ether for no reason like Chuck Cunningham or Judy Winslow or whoever.
Anyway, that mini-rant went longer and into more minutia than I had originally intended, so I'll just end with saying that my favorite characters are Hannelore (EDIT who, based on later [imo better] characterization, is acting quite out of character in those early pages there /EDIT), Marigold, and Brun.
It's pretty much entirely a "slice of life" comic, originally focused on a guy named Marten, his "anthroPC" companion Pintsize, his soon-to-be roommate Faye, and their ever-growing circle of friends, and... I guess now that I'm caught up I should say that it's still basically that same premise now, only with way more robot/android/AI characters who have all but completely taken over the comic. Which is fine, because I like most of them. For the most part, they're pretty much the same as the human characters as far as how they act and such, just with non-human-standard skin/hair color and the occasional quirk to remind us that, hey, they're actually not human characters. Well, aside from the ones that are definitely not humanoid.
If I had to find something to nitpick about the comic (which I don't, but I'm going to do so anyway), I would say that my main problem with Questionable Content is its tendency to just... forget about characters. It's bad enough that the comic itself even lampshades it. Some examples are Steve, who first appeared in the role of Marten's best friend. He fades in and out of the comic constantly, and after particularly long absences, jokes are made about how long it's been since he was last seen. And then there's Raven, who was a mainstay in the comic for like the first 1500 pages or so, but then left to go back to school... but then she came back again out of the blue... and then, after her last appearance or even mention in the comic, she just disappeared without a trace. Same with Penelope, whose entire reason for existing in the comic, at least at first, was due to her resemblance to fringe joke character Pizza Girl. There was an earlier period where she kind of faded out of the comic but was then described as having been there all along, just off panel the whole time. But then, she was promoted to assistant manager at Coffee of Doom, which one would think would mean that she's going to be an at least somewhat more important character after that, but then came her final appearance, less than 100 pages later, and she hasn't been seen or mentioned since. Oh, and Cosette, same deal, who is now only seen very rarely, usually in conjunction with Steve doing something stupid or eating cereal or whatever (which is still marginally better than the treatment of Raven and Penelope). I mean, it's like, I don't mind if a million new characters are introduced and older characters leave the comic or whatever, so long as the old characters are actually given reasons to not be there anymore, as was the case with Angus and Padma and (at least at first) Raven and (thankfully temporarily) Hannelore, even if it's just "went back to school" or "moved to New York" or "left to travel the world on a quest to find themselves" or "eaten by an allosaurus" or whatever, rather than simply disappearing into the ether for no reason like Chuck Cunningham or Judy Winslow or whoever.
Anyway, that mini-rant went longer and into more minutia than I had originally intended, so I'll just end with saying that my favorite characters are Hannelore (EDIT who, based on later [imo better] characterization, is acting quite out of character in those early pages there /EDIT), Marigold, and Brun.
