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Questionable Content (abbreviated QC) is a slice-of-life webcomic written and drawn by Jeph Jacques. Jacques currently makes his living exclusively from QC merchandising and advertising, making QC one of the few self-sufficient webcomics. The artistic style has notably changed over the lifetime of the comic, as Jacques has been constantly refining his drawing methods. Whereas earlier strips were focused at a niche audience of indie music fans, the comic has since become more story- and character-driven. Jacques stated that of the webcomics he read, "I've always been really interested in music, and indie rock specifically, and I never saw any other comics that dealt with that aspect of our culture. Publication Originally, Questionable Content was updated twice a week, and later bumped to three strips a week. Unlike many other webcomic artists supported by their work, Jacques has not expanded his business outside of the comic and related merchandise. According to Jacques, at one point he would have sought newspaper syndication for Questionable Content, but the thought no longer appeals to him because he does not want to surrender editorial freedom. Instead, Jacques is planning a Questionable Content book. Originally, Jacques intended the strip to be about "a depressed lonely guy and his robot", but the introduction of the female character Faye led to an increase in Jacques' ideas for the strip. While QC is still seen as one of the main rock comic strips, the story has come to focus more on the character development and humor of the strip. Jacques informed interviewers that he makes sure every individual QC strip "has at least one thing in it that someone who does not know anything about obscure band x would find funny." Jacques spoke on the evolution of his art in an interview at ComixTalk:
Jacques uses a Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet (previously a Wacom Intuos) to draw his strips and Adobe Photoshop to color them. frequent settings include an apartment shared by Marten, Faye and Dora; Coffee of Doom, Dora's coffee shop, where Faye works; The main library at Smith is Neilson.) The comic is mostly realistic (with occasional bouts of absurdity), and action primarily focuses on banter between the characters, with slowly-progressing plot developments. Due to the emphasis on inter-character dialogue, Jacques rarely uses thought bubbles in the comic. The comic appears to be set in modern times, though the presence of anthropomorphic robots with individual personalities (called "AnthroPCs" within the comic) implies some sort of futuristic technology. However all music and band references in the comic are current at the time of each individual strip's publishing. Jacques remarked of the setting:
The internal chronology of the strip is somewhat ambiguous; on January 13, 2006, Jeph Jacques stated on a LiveJournal fan community that he has "never sat down and exactly tabulated," but he suspects the total amount of elapsed QC time at that point was "no more than six months." Jacques also estimated that by the 1,400th comic, the elapsed time will have been "greater than six months and less than two years." Characters
Recognition Questionable Content was used along with Penny Arcade, Fetus-X and American Elf as an example of comics using the web to create "an explosion of diverse genres and styles" in Scott McCloud's 2006 book Making Comics. The comic has been used in the Create a Comic Project, a New Haven, Connecticut youth literacy program sponsored in part by Yale University. Questionable Content has been recognized several times by the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards:
Jeph Jacques, creator of Questionable Content, makes his living off the comic and related merchandise
The art is constantly changing, as anybody who reads the comic for more than two weeks could probably tell you. It's basically survival of the fittest- changes that I think fit in with the overall look I'm going for stick around and get refined, and changes that do not fit in get phased out, sometimes in the course of three or four strips, sometimes over a much longer span of time.
Marten Reed is QC's main character, and the first character to be introduced at the strip's beginning. Marten lives with Faye, whom he was romantically interested in for many months, but he is now dating Dora, who has since moved in with him and Faye. Her first appearance was in comic number three. Dora first appeared in comic 75. Hannelore first appeared in comic 515.. She is also the newest employee at Coffee of Doom, as of comic 1708.
Pintsize is Marten's AnthroPC, and was the second character introduced in the comic's first strip. He is a companion to Marten and frequently used for comic relief, throw-away gags or to add punchlines to a strip. Comic 1509 revealed that Raven is pursuing a doctorate in physics. Raven was first shown as an unnamed character in comic 46, and her first appearance as a regular character was in comic 102. Steve first appeared in comic 3. Sven first appeared in comic 328. Penelope first appeared in comic 698. Tai first appeared in comic 691. Winslow first appeared in comic 527. Angus first appeared in comic 710. Marigold first appeared in comic 1413.
Dinosaur Comics The Adventures of Dr. McNinja Girly Little Gamers Questionable Content Sam and Fuzzy White Ninja
(A phrase such as this could, theoretically, also be viewed not merely as a request but as an observation of the other person's desire to comply with the request given.)
Varieties of questions Questions have a number of uses. McKenzie lists 17 types of questions in his "Questioning Toolkit" and suggests that thinkers must orchestrate and combine these types in his article "Punchy Question Combinations". Some syntactic devices used by languages for marking questions include:
Combinations of any of the above are possible, as well as alternative patterns for different types of questions. For example, English employs the syntactic approach (word order change) and the tonal pattern for common questions, but resorts to just raising the tone while leaving the word order as it is for focused (emphatic) questions such as "You did what?". Types
Questions and answers The simplest questions implicitly or explicitly request information from a range (finite or infinite) of alternatives. Students of all ages use questions in their learning of topics, and the skill of having learners creating "investigatable" questions is a central part of inquiry education. Philosophical Questions The philosophical questions are conceptual, not factual questions. The questions just listed, for example, may prompt more general philosophical questions about the circumstances under which it may be morally justifiable to take a life, or about the extent to which the state may restrict the liberty of the individual. Some fascinating, 'classic', questions of Philosophy are speculative and theoretical and concern the nature of knowledge, reality and human existence: for example, 'What, if anything, can be known with certainty?', 'Is the mind essentially non-physical?', 'Are values absolute or relative?', 'Does the universe need explanation in terms of a Supreme Intelligence?', 'What, if anything, is the meaning or purpose of human existence?' Finally, the philosophical questions are typically about conceptual issues; Kanzi, Washoe, Sarah and a few other enculturated apes, who underwent extensive language training programs (with the use of gestures and other visual forms of communications) successfully learned to answer quite complex questions and requests (including question words "who" what", "where"), although so far they failed to learn how to ask questions themselves. For example, David and Anne Premack wrote: "Though she understood the question, she did not herself ask any questions -- unlike the child who asks interminable questions, such as What that?
Descriptive question, used primarily to describe the existence of some thing or process. filter questions, or contingency questions) These types of questions are designed to determine if the individual answering the question needs to continue on to answer subsequential questions. "you want what?")
A different intonation pattern (often a raised pitch near the end of the sentence) - see Intonation (linguistics)