I’ve never been to Northampton, MA, so I don’t know if Jeph Jacques’s long running comic Questionable Content is an accurate look at its indie rock culture. And with its bizarre technology and all of the smart mouthed robots running around, I’m guessing I may have answered my own question. What it is, though, is a damn good soap opera for people who normally wouldn’t like soaps.
The cast is fairly large, and over the course of its decade-plus run most of the characters have received a good amount of development. There isn’t that one I can pinpoint as the undisputed voice of reason, almost everyone gets at least one moment to either make a mistake and/or look like a complete fool. And most of them will try to at least amend for it somehow, which keeps everything flowing. You want to see these people wind up happy in the end.
QC follows the love life and random misadventures of librarian and part time musician Marten Reed, the passive straight man to his circle of snarky and self aware friends. He has a platonic relationship with his roommate Faye Whitaker, who puts up a defensive front in her daily interactions that stems from the death of her father. While it’s poignantly handled for the most part, it does lead to her punching a lot of people for comedic effect.
Faye works at the aptly named shop Coffee Of Doom with Marten’s love interest Dora, an extroverted goth for the most part. She nevertheless has some issues of her own, along with a shallow womanizer brother in the form of Sven (not to be confused with the Frozen reindeer).
Rounding out the cast are Faye’s activist flame Angus, his anime geek roomie Marigold, and Hannelore, a hyperactive blonde girl who sort of reminds me of Tweek from South Park, only with the gender swapped. (Her backstory is hilarious.)
Marten shares- or endures- his apartment with the porn and mischief loving Pintsize, one of a number of goofy cybernetic sidekicks featured here. Their job is to provide the comedy relief, but I felt the razor wit of the cast accomplished that more than enough. Jacques has a great knack for cutting dramatic and romantic tension with hip quips, and in comparison I thought some of the robot stuff was kinda hit or miss. Pintsize gets in some laughs here and there, Momo is cute and everything involving Station is just golden, but I thought AI companion May was a tad grating at times. Dale, you’re a stronger man than I.
Questionable Content‘s artwork improves quickly, going from a simplistic, crude style to a much more detailed and expressive look for the characters, along with big improvements in anatomy and perspective. Jacques’s mantra is “don’t suck”, which extends to almost all areas of the comic.
While I think it handles its human drama element better than other aspects, I’d still recommend it if you’re looking for a good slice-of-life comic about self conscious twenty somethings- that just so happens to have a few trouble making smart devices. Click here to get washed away in a sea of sarcasm.