Jeph Jacques's Questionable Content was the first webcomic I ever loved. At a time when I was eagerly approaching both comics and music, it was a welcome mixture of form and content, and it had a main character, Marten, who felt like the kind of person I wanted to be. Although my goals have changed slightly since then, I've been reading the comic, which celebrates its tenth birthday in August, steadily for almost eight years now.
Comics that run so long tend to go through phases of life, sort of like people, and Jacques's is no exception. Starting as an aloof and wistful sort of daily gag strip, QC become a soap opera and then transformed into something different entirely, much more complex, but retaining elements of both. For about a year now, long past that last transition, he's been busy expanding the cast to include a bunch of entry level interns at Marten's job in the Smif (yes, Smif) College library and letting his comic breathe. QC is as good now as its ever been, maybe even better.
Last week, Jacques's latest arc, the wedding of his Marten's father, Henry, climaxed with a simple but very important panel:
I think that Claire, one of those interns mentioned above, is probably referring to the length of the wedding (Jacques's commentary on the strip, "a quick wedding is a good wedding," back this up), but I think that it's more important than that: I think this is what the future looks like. Marten's father is married to a man he loves, no big publicity campaign from the comic's author, no bolded message to USA TODAY. Marten's father is married to the man he loves. And that's it.
Comics that run so long tend to go through phases of life, sort of like people, and Jacques's is no exception. Starting as an aloof and wistful sort of daily gag strip, QC become a soap opera and then transformed into something different entirely, much more complex, but retaining elements of both. For about a year now, long past that last transition, he's been busy expanding the cast to include a bunch of entry level interns at Marten's job in the Smif (yes, Smif) College library and letting his comic breathe. QC is as good now as its ever been, maybe even better.
Last week, Jacques's latest arc, the wedding of his Marten's father, Henry, climaxed with a simple but very important panel:
I think that Claire, one of those interns mentioned above, is probably referring to the length of the wedding (Jacques's commentary on the strip, "a quick wedding is a good wedding," back this up), but I think that it's more important than that: I think this is what the future looks like. Marten's father is married to a man he loves, no big publicity campaign from the comic's author, no bolded message to USA TODAY. Marten's father is married to the man he loves. And that's it.
