Sabrina Online

Infobox Webcomic
title = Sabrina Online


caption =
author = Eric W. Schwartz
url = http://www.sabrina-online.com/
status = Monthly, with 3 to 5 strips
began = September 1996
ended =
genre = Furry
ratings =

"Sabrina Online" is a furry slice-of-life webcomic featuring the life of Sabrina the Skunk and the people around her. The comic was started by Eric W. Schwartz in 1996 and runs to over 400 individual strips (as of September 2006). It is one of the oldest continually published webcomics. "Sabrina" was published in the "Amiga Format" magazine. ["Amiga Format" issues 104–124 and possibly later, listed in the tables of contents at http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/aformat.html.] The comic is also being sold in books, with one book for each year of strips. It has been criticized for its slow rate of updates, with a mere 3 to 5 three-panel strips produced a month. Schwartz explains that if he kept to a more productive pace, the resulting time demand would dampen his enthusiasm for the strip and endanger its continuation.

"Sabrina" received the Web Cartoonist’s Choice Award for "Best Romantic Comic" in 2001, [ [http://www.ccawards.com/2001.htm 2001 Winners and Nominees] ] and was nominated for "Best Anthropomorphic Comic" in 2002, [ [http://www.ccawards.com/2002.htm 2002 Winners and Nominees] ] "Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic" and "Outstanding Romantic Comic" in 2003 [ [http://www.ccawards.com/2003.htm 2003 Ceremony] ] and "Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic" in 2004. [ [http://www.ccawards.com/2004.htm 2004 Results] ]

Main characters

abrina

:Female striped skunk, short white hair, wears glasses. Sabrina is shy and easily embarrassed, and enjoys collecting Transformers and computers, particularly the Amiga brand. An arts school graduate, now working as web designer at an adult movie studio and still not quite accustomed to the idea although she has considerably loosened up sexually. Although her boss has offered her roles, she does not actually participate in any of the films.

Richard Conrad (R.C.)

:Male gray raccoon, thin. Sabrina's boyfriend. Shy and often unsure of himself. R.C. and Sabrina originally met each other in an IRC chat. He is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and his love for all things Microsoft caused some mild tension early in his relationship with Sabrina (this has not been an issue since then).

Amy the Squirrel

:Female red squirrel, blond hair. Amy the Squirrel is intelligent, independent, and very protective of her loved ones, like her son Timothy. She too has been approached by Sabrina's employer to appear in her films. Her job is unknown, but a video by Eric implied she worked at a hospital as a nurse.

Thomas Woolfe

:Male gray wolf (though he is really a wolf/fox hybrid). Amy's husband, father of Timothy. Character originally created by Michael Higgs, and is used with permission.

Tabitha

:Female striped skunk, white hair with pigtails, Sabrina's much younger sister-they have an age difference of 20 years. Tabitha is a precocious young child, and acts accordingly. Despite her exuberant and extroverted personality, she has shown herself able to give advice both wise and profound.

Timothy Squirrel-Woolfe

:Male tan wolf/squirrel hybrid. Toddler, born January, 2000 ( [http://www.sabrina-online.com/strips/SO_sm121.gifstrip no. 121] ). Timothy is a reasonably well behaved baby, but is fond of hunting cockroaches and destroying Sabrina's collection of Transformers. He constantly speaks in baby gibberish which is partially understandable. He also has a very acute memory, and seems to have a sense for the value of Transformers.

Zig Zag

:Female skunk/white tiger hybrid (her grandfather was a white tiger). Employer of Sabrina and head of Z.Z. Studios, producer of high-quality pornographic movies. A good friend to Sabrina, Zig Zag would love to be her lover (being bisexual), but her advances are always rebuffed - in one case, quite forcefully. Over time, Zig Zag has found that she needs Sabrina as a friend even more than she does as a lover. Character originally created by Malcolm Earle, better known as Max Blackrabbit, used with permission.

upporting characters

Max Blackrabbit (AKA 'Bunnyman' to Tabitha)

:Rabbit, all-over black in color. Had a crush on Sabrina, but Sabrina was never aware of this and he eventually gave up pursuing her. Although he is a canon character, he is also the furry persona of Zig Zag's creator. Also in the May 2002 strip, panel 3 "Welcome to Bizzaro-world", Max confesses to Sabrina that he had a crush on her for a long time. Then he tells her that he's found someone else and promises never to bother her again. As shown in the last pic, he's seen walking away with what looks like a reverse-patterned skunk as his brand new girlfriend (hence the "Bizzaro-world" title of the strip. Though she's hasn't been seen in the comic since, Eric reportedly claimed her name was "Anirbas, which is Sabrina spelled backwards).

Carli Chinchilla

:Female violet-gray chinchilla, short hair and ponytail, glasses. Carli is fun-loving and fast-talking, and possessive of her husband Spike. (Named after Carly/Carli, a human character in the original U.S. "Transformers" cartoon series, also married; see below.)

pike

:Male gray wolf, very tall and muscular. Spike is large and strong, but doesn't talk often, preferring actions to words. Because of his height, when he stands up his head disappears off the top of the frame. When his wife Carli says too much about their personal life, he puts his hand around her head in a fist. (Named after Spike Witwicky, a human character in the original U.S. "Transformers" cartoon series)

Eric Squirrel

:Male squirrel, brown and light brown, overweight. Eric Squirrel is the visual representative of Eric Schwartz. Only rarely seen in the comic, and interacts little with the other characters except in non-canon strips that break the fourth wall.

Transformers

:Sabrina's collection of transformable toys who inexplicably have come to life with self-awareness and meta-knowledge of the "Transformer" universe (such as multiple names for the same Transformer depending on which series he's featured). They are led by Grimlock, due to him winning the election between them (despite or because of the presence of twelve different Optimus Primes). The Transformers are usually featured as trying to protect themselves from Timothy, as he enjoys chewing on them. In a "Toy Story"-esque scenario, they usually remain motionless. Only Sabrina, Zig Zag, and Timothy have seen them moving. Apart from evading Timothy, the Transformers also attempt to help Sabrina out in various ways, such as getting revenge on her boss Zig Zag. They also have little knowledge of sexuality, and most of them think that such interaction is an ineffective data interface.

Minor characters

Conrad

R.C.'s dad, he repairs then sells people's garbage on eBay.

Rainflower

R.C.'s mom, who sells her handmade crafts on a website R.C. helped create.

Endora

Sabrina's dumpy, overweight mom, who is very protective of her daughter and who has her doubts about R.C.

Warren

Sabrina's dad; somewhat more open minded and tolerant than Endora.

References