Multiplex (webcomic)

Author(s)	Gordon McAlpin
Website	http://www.multiplexcomic.com
Current status / schedule	Updates every Monday and Thursday Frequent additional updates also occur
Launch date	July 10, 2005 [1]
Genre(s)	Comedy, Film Commentary, Film Criticism

Multiplex is a humor webcomic written and drawn by Gordon McAlpin which first debuted on July 10, 2005. The comic focuses on the lives of the staff of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas and the movies that play there.

Synopsis

Multiplex is about the many unique employees and customers of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas located in a fictional suburb of Chicago. The Multiplex 10 employs a large number of young adults and has a wide variety of customers. Many of the strips revolve around how the staff interacts with their customers, while others deal with what happens with the staff after the cinema has closed.

Unlike traditional comic strips, Multiplex has no set format when it comes to the number of panels or the length of each strip. Although the strips usually do not follow story arcs, they can often show a canonical connectivity. Multiplex officially updates every Monday and Thursday, but McAlpin has been known to put in extra strips during the week when he has extra time or wants to finish a strip that was too large to put together in a week's time.

Style

Multiplex is illustrated digitally using Adobe Illustrator, in a style often compared to John Allison's early Scary Go Round (Scary Go Round was later drawn by hand) and the South Park TV series.

The storytelling style is much like a sitcom with storylines being generally realistic, although centered around humorous events relating to the film and cinema industry.

Characters

The cast of Multiplex consists mainly of the staff of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas and each of the major characters has been given their own biography page. Many of the customers also have recurring roles throughout the comic, though mostly only as background characters.

Main Staff

Name	First Strip	Summary
Kurt Bollinger	#1	Kurt is at once the most immature and mature employee at the Multiplex 10, as he is often seen filling in for the largely absent managers when he's not behind a register, in booth, or concession. But when business has been taken care of, Kurt likes to make up games (in which he is often the only one willingly playing) to entertain himself and has been shown to be quite dangerous with a broomstick. He has been working at the Multiplex since he was 16.
Jason Atwood	#3	Jason is a sharp tongued and aggressive half Filipino who does not hesitate to speak his mind, even to customers. Jason’s top five movies are The Incredibles, M, Throne of Blood, Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? at the Internet Movie Database and the restored cut of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.
Becky	#5	Becky is shy, intelligent, and slightly nerdy. One of the most versatile staff members, she, like Jason, is known to work as a cashier, usher, concessionist, and projectionist. She has a crush on Jason, although no one besides her seems to know.
Melissa Recar	#19	Melissa is a clever, worldly brunette who has seen in booth, working concession, and ushering. A recurring character known as Stalker Boy has a particular fondness for Melissa, even going so far as to live in denial of her long-standing relationship with Kurt. Her radio "callsign" is "Racer Asylum," which is (sort of) her name backwards.
Franklin Onassis	#21	Franklin is probably the most sane staff member at the Multiplex 10. He shares his name with the character from Peanuts and is often called in to cleanup very messy situations. His radio callsign is Black Panther, after the Marvel super-hero.

Recurring Customers

The Blogger is the proprietor of "MovieMake-Out.com". He is an obese white middle-aged man, not unlike the Comic Book Guy. He has a running "feud" with Jason, who has been seen to rebuff his attempts at getting free entry into screenings. He later received a distributor's permission to enter one private screening, much to Jason's chagrin.

Creepy Loser once applied for a staff position at the Multiplex hoping to be able to meet some of the theater's (young) female staff workers. He can occasionally be found in the backgrounds, ogling various women.

Stalker Boy is a strange guy with an obsession for Melissa and can be occasionally seen in the background looking for her.

Miscellanea

• Joe Dunn of Joe Loves Crappy Movies included Jason and Franklin in his April 18, 2006 webcomic for the film Lucky Number Slevin, citing: "The official reason that members of the Multiplex crew are in today’s strip is that we here at JLCM are huge fans of Multiplex and have fallen in love with these guys so much that we couldn’t picture anyone else in the role of theater worker."

• Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin's success with the comic has allowed him to provide guest comics for various different webcomics such as PvP and Joe And Monkey.

• Jason and Becky presented the 2006 Webcartoonist's Choice Award for Outstanding Artist [2].

External links

• The Official Multiplex Site
• ComixTalk Interview "Inside the Webcomic Studio with Gordon McAlpin" from October 13, 2008 by Xaviar Xerexes
• Newsarama Interview - "Gordon McAlpin on Multiplex" from December 7, 2007 by Chris Arrant.
• Spokesman-Review Interview - "Multiplex geek-out rules the strip mall" from October 17, 2007 by Dan Webster.
• Chicago City Arts Interview - Article with a short interview with Gordon McAlpin and a comic strip about McAlpin's creative process by Matt McDermott.
• ComixTalk Interview - "An Interview with Multiplex's Gordon McAlpin" from May 2006 by Al Schroeder.
• The Triple Feature - A weekly movie-themed podcast hosted by Tom Brazelton of Theater Hopper, Joe Dunn of Joe Loves Crappy Movies, and Gordon McAlpin.