Sequential Art (webcomic)

infobox comic strip
title = Sequential Art
author = Phillip M. Jackson
url = [http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.html Sequential Art]
status = Daily
first = 2006
genre = Geek humor
Furry Fandom

"Sequential Art" is a webcomic written and illustrated by Phillip M. Jackson. The series is a daily webcomic that tells a slice of life story with its cast of characters being either Anthropomorphic ( three of the main characters, along with several others, are Anthropomorphic) or human characters, and makes frequent pop culture references often around video or computer games. It focuses on providing narrative through humour, either with imagery or dialogue. Each strip is usually 3 or 4 panels in structure but may deviate to emphasize or aid particular plot lines or jokes.

The series focuses around four characters - Art, a human illustrator and cartoonist; Kat (Kathleen) Vance, a female Anthropomorphic cat photographer stuck in a 'dead-end' job who wants to break away and become a professional; Pip McGraw, a fanboy/nerd/geek male penguin and college-buddy of Art who makes a living buying and selling stuff via EBuy; and Scarlet, a naive female Squirrel whose short attention span seems to disguise a rather incredible intellect.

A book of collected strips, "Sequential Art Volume 1", was released through Lulu in October 2007. Many of Sequential Art's characters have also appeared in one-shot sketches and pinups that may or may not be connected to the main SA canon.

Main Characters

Art

First appearance: #1

A human concept and graphic artist who works for Wiquid Design. He has distinguishably thick and highly expressive eyebrows that are described as Weetabix and rides a scooter that is temperamental. He is also prone to hysterics when things that are unexpected happen. It is likely that he was bullied frequently as a child, as he has an adversarial relationship with children at large. A running gag through many of the strips is that when Art tries to alert the authorities or anyone else over the phone about mishaps involving anthromorphic characters, they believe he is crazy, despite several other characters being anthromorphic.

Kat

First appearance: #2

Kat Vance is an anthropomorphic cat who excels in photography. Her ambition is to break into professional photography, shooting National Geographic quality material. She is sometimes intolerant of some of the guys' antics in the house, but remains on good terms with them. She has also been the rival of Hilary Locke since school, which shows no sign of dying down. She seems to show an obsession with cream, catnip (which in some one-off sketches puts her into a hallucinogenic state) and string. Kat has a habit of drinking heavily on the holidays; her roommates are often seen tormenting her whilst she's hung over.

Pip

First appearance: #3

Pip McGraw is the long time college buddy of Art, and lives with Art and Kat. Originally the 3rd and final member of the household, he discovers Scarlet in the loft. He is mildly perverted and has an extensive comic book collection which he obsesses over. He makes his money from buying and selling via online auctions. Pip is also an avid enthusiast of the online game Realm of Lorecraft where he is a level 63 knight called "Killaman Slaughtermaster"

Scarlet

First appearance: #43

Scarlet claims to be a scientist and has the IQ to match it. But she is easily distracted. The comic relief character of the series, she was depicted as entirely naked, using random items to cover herself until she received a jumper as a Christmas present. Naive, almost to a fault, Scarlet boasts a huge amount of energy to the point of hyperactivity, is extremely curious, and has a unique style of speech. She will often take any opportunity to acquire food, even if it means raiding and clearing out the fridge or stealing Leonard's treats.

Scarlet is highly intelligent, though this is easily masked by her childish mentality. She has, however, been shown to have built a working ray gun and analyzed the contents of a snowflake simply by licking it. Her past is somewhat obscure; she was a member of a "think tank" at the Quinten research facility and escaped when the facilities computer, OZ attempted to incinerate her when she discovered something wrong with it.

Leonard

First appearance: #147

Leonard is a non-anthropomorphic platypus and household pet. Kat won Leonard from an online auction "Mystery box". He has a poisonous barb that he extends when threatened or duped by Scarlet's thieving; unlike real platypi, whom have the barb on their hind legs, Leonard's is a giant, jagged thing that springs from his back, an is easily as long as his standing height by itself. Leonard is lovable, clumsy, and amazingly unlucky.

Minor and related characters

Vanity Thorn

First appearance: #339 (Picture on book), #401 (Main appearance)

Kat's best friend from college. A gothic vampire novelist, she states that she was a sterotypical goth until Kat introduced her to triple espressos. She invites Kat to take photos of Whitby for her latest book, but seems to be camera shy herself. She is shown to be able to talk to the ghost of Bram Stoker.

Hilary Locke

First appearance: #32

Hilary is Kat's longtime (unfriendly) rival and the two have never seen eye-to-eye. A member of Ann Winters, she was a client of Art, and discredited his work to spite Kat, but was put in her place after Art blackmailed her with (questionable and unshown) images of her from the Internet. The fact she is also known as Gabrielle Goodtime implies she may once have been involved in porn.

Ann

First appearance: #240

Kat's boss and Timmy's mother. She is very sympathetic to Kat and lets her borrow her camera cleaning equipment. When Kat is hired to school photos by her bullish ex school teacher, Strimpet, she agrees to accompany her.

Timmy

First appearance: #229 (Off page)

Ann's son, and a friend of Kats. She tells him she will return Ann's camera cleaning kit. Art seems to be afraid Timmy and looks for ways to overcome his snowball attacks, but fails miserably each time.

Strimpit

First appearance: #239

10 years after leaving school, Kat is hired by her former teacher, Miss Strimpit, who often bullied her in class. Taking Ann with her, Kat finds Strimpet to be shorter than she is, but no less horrifying. Whe she pushed Kat too far, Kat snaps and Strimpit dies from a heart attack brought on by her former victims sudden outburst.

Jack and the Denizens

First appearance: #20

A small and megalomaniac resident of Pipingrad, a European country that was destroyed in the early 20th century. He was able to control and influence his "comrades", the Denizens into an invasion, but is stopped and seemingly killed when a laser satellite shoots him after his plans backfire from Art's sabotage.

Jack has been shown as resourceful with any weapon. He raids a hardware store and has been shown to wield a knife, chainsaw and even ride a military tank in his final appearance. The Denizens themselves appear to have no real goal in life, and were easily influenced by Jack into assisting his tyrannical plans. They are not evil like Jack, however - just easily influenced. Since his demise, the Denizens have done relatively little but bumble about the house and try, in their own simple, misguided way, to help Art and the others. Unfortunately, their attempts often come off as creepy and disturbing. Jackson has a rarely-updated series, known as Freakshow, showing much, much more malevolent Denizens.

Phillip. M. Jackson

First appearnce: #193

Mr Jackson portrays himself in Sequential Art as a Hamster who is tended to by his P.A., Helga.

Helga

First appearance: #194

An exceptionally busty, and deadly, Amazonian woman who is Mr Jackson's personal assistant. She also carries him in her bosom. Helga has yet to deliver a single spoken line.

Fern

First appearance: #256

After Pip plays Realm of Lorecraft he meets "Fern" who is shown as a busty Gazelle like woman. They team up and travel through the game to defeat "Pickles" a powerful boss character. They grow close as they adventure. After destroying the boss, Art suggests that "Fern" might not be who she seems and Pip leaves the game, despite the real Fern actually being a gamer girl. She has not been seen in the comic since.

4MB3R, V1OL37 and J4D3

First appearances: #470

Three Squirrels, Amber(4MB3R), Violet (V1OL37) and Jade (J4D3) are members of Quinten's "Think Tank". They analyse OZ Basic's code in a virtual reality like state when resting inside stasis tanks. Scarlet (SC4L37) was the forth member who dissapeared after OZ tried to kill her.

Crazy Sven

First appearance: #18

After Art is stranded in what bears a resemblance to the fictional town Royston Vasey, Crazy Sven is sent to pick him up. He takes pay in cash or meat only.

Crazy Boris

First appearance: #387

To rid the house of the Denizens, Art and Kat decide to wall the basement hallway they come from. Crazy Boris is called to build said wall, which he does by taking the needed bricks from the house's foundations. His looks are also remarkably similar to Crazy Sven's.

Chloe

First appearance: N/A

An anthromorphic female skunk from a privileged background. She is very wealthy, being the CEO of Sinclair Global. She has not appeared in the main strips, but only crosses over into the Sequential art world via a series of one-off pictures alogside Pip, Kat, Scarlet and Helga. She is a busty and highly oversexed, and is not picky about who she tries to seduce.

Nurse Sally

First appearance: Nurse Sally vs The Mutants (Non-Canon)

A non canon character who appears in "Nurse Sally Vs the Mutants", that on one panel is shown to be drawn by Art. She is endowed with "powers of the Lemur" much to the surprise of Pip, to escape some of the mutants. She is a busty nurse who has a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, first in an underground complex that resembles the Black Mesa facilities from the computer game, "Half-Life", and later at an outpost that resembles the setting of John Carpenter's "The Thing"

References

* [http://www.comicdom.gr/stripshow_archive.php?id=460 Comicdom.gr,] a Greek comic review site takes a closer look to "Sequential.
* [http://www.digitalstrips.com/2006/05/podcast-digital-strips-show-74.html Digitalstrips.com's] Podcast #74 reviews "Sequential Art".

External links

* [http://www.collectedcurios.com/ Collectedcurios.com] , Phillip M. Jackson's personal page and "Sequential Art" host site
* [http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=3786 Interview with Phillip Jackson] An Interview with Phillip Jackson at Silver Bullet Comics
* [http://www.underspray.com/jackson.html Interview with Phillip Jackson] Additional Interview with Phillip Jackson on underspray.com
* [http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=4264 Quick Fire Review] Mini-Review of Sequential Art @ 4/5ths way down.
* [http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.html Sequential Art main site]