Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt

[BRC]

...This "everyone looks different every time Jeph draws them" joke is kinda getting old.

Unless you literally cannot recognise Sven, in which case I'm pretty worried for you.

Jeph's characters are usually distinct enough that you can identify who a given character is among the cast.

The bigger problem is that the cast is so big, and the plot wanders so much, that it can be hard to recognize a given character, just because it's been a while since you've seen them, and you suddenly have to remember which character fits best in this context.

Like, this is Sven, but it took me a while to remember, first of all, that there IS a brown-haired glasses-wearing man who knows Momo and May, has a prior relationship with May that would call for her to call out her new, accurate anatomy, and didn't know about May's new body.

[Traab]

I thought it was intended to be Clinton until somebody pointed out the hand.

Same here. I figured may was just in her "Im sexy and I know it" phase and teasing clinton a bit. Seriously, they look a lot alike.

[John Cribati]

This discussion is heavily ironic in the context of the comic, given that there was a point at which May didn't know that Sven was the "Sven" that Momo had a crush on.

I was wondering if Clinton had dyed his hair offscreen while drunk, but then understood when May called him "clownboy"

[tyckspoon]

I thought it was intended to be Clinton until somebody pointed out the hand.

I can get not recognizing Sven, he got.. kinda generic after his haircut and moving to the more rounded face instead of the much sharper angles he and Dora used to have. But confusing him for Clinton? Different hair color, no hand cover, doesn't have the electric-socket tattoo from Clinton's Wild Night Out..

[Willie the Duck]

Yeah. My initial reaction was pretty much "okay now who is this guyyyohit'sSven (by context). Sven doesn't look like Sven, but he also doesn't look like anyone else specifically.

[Max_Killjoy]

Dora, Raven and Emily don't, that's the problem! *rimshot*

Seriously though, I was being facetious. The only person who comes close to looking like Sven is *maybe* Wil, who dresses in tweed and has a moustache. If someone can't remember a character just because you haven't seen them for a month, I don't know what to say except that I wonder how they make it through real life when one of their friend gets anew haircut or puts on a new t-shirt

The problem is when the character we haven't seen for a month now looks less like that character and more like "insert chibi-looking character here".

[Rodin]

I'm surprised everyone's ragging on this drawing of Sven. To me, he looks a lot more like Sven than he has done in a while. The last time we saw him he was channeling Marten.. Or possibly Angus.

Here, he at least has the proper body shape and glasses. It's a distinct improvement, and I recognized him instantly.

When I get confused about which characters are which, it isn't a joke. I genuinely cannot tell who some of the characters are sometimes. I mostly use context to separate Dora and Emily these days. Sven is usually identifiable by long brown hair + glasses. In my example above he had Marten's face, no glasses, and Angus's hair. The only identifier was Hannelore addressing him by name.

What I find weirdest about it is that other cartoonists don't have this problem. They tend to evolve their art style for the first several years, then settle in to a "signature look" for their characters. The art style will evolve a bit over time, but the changes will be subtle and you can only see the difference if you compare two pages from several years apart. Jeph experiments with art styles like crazy. He lets the look one character pollute another, like Hannelore's "big anime eyes" phase when she was hanging out with Marigold a lot. And as mentioned, he straight up forgets how to draw a character that has been absent.

[dps]

Yeah. My initial reaction was pretty much "okay now who is this guyyyohit'sSven (by context). Sven doesn't look like Sven, but he also doesn't look like anyone else specifically.

Yeah, as I said, I figured out by the content that it was probably Sven, but when I had just seen the first panel, I thought at first that it was Will, and then I wondered for a moment if Angus was back (and was trying to remember if Angus even knew Momo, especially in her new chassis).

[Keltest]

I can get not recognizing Sven, he got.. kinda generic after his haircut and moving to the more rounded face instead of the much sharper angles he and Dora used to have. But confusing him for Clinton? Different hair color, no hand cover, doesn't have the electric-socket tattoo from Clinton's Wild Night Out..

Im red-green colorblind, so the hair colors are basically indistinguishable to me. And the hands are small enough details that unless im specifically looking for them, i dont notice them. As the comic was just focusing on Clinton, i assumed it was continuing to follow him. It also makes sense that he would be talking to Momo and May because AI relations and experiences is one of his interests. I can tell them apart now that ive been pointed to the other details, but the facial structure is the same, as is the general hair shape, and Jeph's character design is inconsistent enough that i genuinely thought it was Clinton just being drawn weirdly.

[VoxRationis]

This represents a good test of the earnestness of the terms of Sven and May's relationship, as if they are both being forthright, there should be no issue with Sven saying something to the tune of, "You know, Momo, that's not off the table as things stand."

Though truthfully, I think Sven is probably concerned with more salient novelties at present.

[Mechalich]

In related art-inconsistency weirdness in the comic, the eyebrows on May's new body are freaking growing from one scene to the next.

[Wraith]

Mostly I think he's just weirded out. His cute robot sex-buddy has suddenly become a 6ft Amazon out of nowhere, and the pink-haired adolescent-presenting girl with her has just started frantically ranting a list of euphemisms at him.

Even by QC standards, that's pretty unsettling for something that doesn't involve a reindeer.

[Gnoman]

Today's strip clarifies a lot. He's disturbed because he helped pay for the body and is having an ethical conflict.

[theangelJean]

With regard to characters changing and being unrecognisable, I feel like while the art style changes quite a bit, the characters tend to have characteristic expressions (or facial postures) that make them easy enough for me to recognise. I dunno what that says about the emotional range of the characters themselves though. And I say this as someone who has trouble with individual faces IRL - I tend to rely on hair, body shape and posture, gait and movement, voice etc. Maybe body posture has something to do with it in QC too?

[Traab]

Today's strip clarifies a lot. He's disturbed because he helped pay for the body and is having an ethical conflict.

I think the ethical conflict only counts if he feels he is owed sex for his donation, or if SHE feels she "owes" him sex. Considering how much she enjoyed sex with him before he ever did anything for her and how she is probably eager to try out her new form, I imagine the idea never entered her head until he put it there. So there isnt really an issue unless now they both get self conscious about it.

[John Cribati]

Which it seems like she has. Still cant fault Sven for being honest about something that was bothering him.

[Max_Killjoy]

Did she steal those eyebrows off the set of FLCL?

[Willie the Duck]

Well, yet another potential pairing bites the dust (at least for the foreseeable future). Wonder if this means Momo gets another shot (and if she still want it).

[Traab]

This seemed like a really abrupt way of jeph ending a potential relationship.

[Max_Killjoy]

One person does something kind and generous for another, so any potential relationship would be strange.

OK...

[Keltest]

Wasnt Sven specifically concerned about exactly this kind of awkwardness when he considered contributing?

[John Cribati]

One person does something kind and generous for another, so any potential relationship would be strange.

OK...

It tends to be rather difficult for people to separate feelings from sex, and a sexual relationship where one party has a pervasive feeling of "I owe this person a great deal" and the other person has the pervasive feeling of "I made a not-insignificant contribution to the purchase of this body- what exactly does that say about the person inside of it?" can feel a little awkward.

[Wraith]

Just as equally, Sven doesn't know how to have a relationship. He's brought it up before, he was more of a Hook Up And Done kind of guy before Faye, and since has taken time off to consider his attitude and grow a little bit more mature. And May is just generally a misanthrope whose heart may or may not have grown 3 sizes since she became Dale's unofficial robo-buddy, so her experience in the area is similarly limited.

Gain points for him for recognising that his power dynamic with May might be weird; Lose points for not realising it's something they can just discuss and come to a non-awkward agreement over. Relationship drama is the only Status Quo in QC.

Did she steal those eyebrows off the set of FLCL?

Evidently she swapped them for the text on her panel 5 T-Shirt.

[Willie the Duck]

It tends to be rather difficult for people to separate feelings from sex, and a sexual relationship where one party has a pervasive feeling of "I owe this person a great deal" and the other person has the pervasive feeling of "I made a not-insignificant contribution to the purchase of this body- what exactly does that say about the person inside of it?" can feel a little awkward.

Even if there's no reason to think that Sven is one of those guys who might '[do] something kind and generous for another' and then there being an overhanging expectation or the like, there's no way May would not be aware of that scenario, and it can feed her boundaries of what is acceptable.

Wasnt Sven specifically concerned about exactly this kind of awkwardness when he considered contributing?

Oh yes, he saw a potential hazard coming down the pike, watched it get nearer, and then ran right into it. It wouldn't be a sitcom if people didn't cause themselves problems that could have easily been solved with an earnest conversation or the like.

[Keltest]

Oh man, a reference to something that happened more than 30 strips ago! How odd.

[Wraith]

Oh man, a reference to something that happened more than 30 strips ago! How odd.

Wait a minute, waitaminute.... Dora is getting married!?! Did she propose or did Marten!?!

[Mith]

Spoiler

Show

All I can think of with this new strip is "an unusual number of watermelons with holes drilled out of them."

[Max_Killjoy]

QC appears to be down right now, with some sketch thing about cloudflare offering a memcached version.

[Wildstag]

Gain points for him for recognising that his power dynamic with May might be weird; Lose points for not realising it's something they can just discuss and come to a non-awkward agreement over. Relationship drama is the only Status Quo in QC.

Kinda less-so right now. The people actually in a committed relationship are all in stable relationships right now. The drama is from the people not yet in a relationship but that are clearly trying. Hook-up drama is definitely the status-quo in QC though. Ever since Marten and Faye got back on the market (so to speak), their group's relationships have reached stability.

[Morquard]

Dora (soon): "So why was he worried a false word would get me to call of my wedding? Does he know something that I don't? And knows that if he reveals it, I would call it off? But if it's so bad, why would he not tell me? Is he involved? Is it related to the girl he just broke up with? Is it Tai? Did he sleep with Tai? How long has that been going on? It must have been a long time if he considered it "seeing each other"! OMG I'm such a fool, I'll call off the wedding right now!"