If you’re a nerd like me you know about Questionable Content. No, not THAT kind of content, you pervert. I’m talking about Jeph Jacque’s hilarious webcomic Questionable Content, featuring the misadventures, dating phenomena, and robo-nomics surrounding protagonist Marten, his roommate Faye, girlfriend Dora, robot Pintsize, and an ever-expanding cast that has caused QC to become both one of mine and others’ all-time favorite webcomics. Jeph was nice enough to take time to answer a few questions for me.

So how long has Questionable Content been going?
Jeph: QC started on 8/1/03, so a little under 4 1/2 years now. Which is insane for me to think about. It feels like I only started two weeks ago.

What inspired you to start doing a webcomic? Especially one that’s mostly based on indie music, jokes about hipsters, and pervy robots with delusions of world conquest?
Jeph: Back when I had a real job, I was reading a lot of other webcomics in my spare time at work and listening to tons of indie rock when I was home. I remember seeing some of the pictures the Dumbrella guys took of their table at San Diego Comic Con and thinking “wow, that seems like a lot of fun. I used to draw comics a lot, maybe I could do that too!” From there I spent about three months brainstorming about what I thought would be fun to write and doable as far as my limited art skills went. The indie focus was pretty much a given because there weren’t many strips around back in 2003 that focused on that subculture. I threw in Pintsize because robots are inherently funny and I thought he’d be fun to write. All the crazy romance and interpersonal relationship stuff that the comic has evolved into didn’t happen until later.

Keep reading on after the jump for more of the interview.

You have to admit, Pintsize (Marten’s robot) has sort of become a bit of a star. Where’d the idea for him originate?
Jeph: I was just thinking, “hey, it’d be cool to have a robot in the comic,” and trying to imagine what a consumer-grade personal robot would look like if they actually existed. MK 1 Pintsize was literally the first sketch I drew. It took a hundred comics or so before I realized his design wasn’t exactly articulate, so I redesigned him and worked that into the story, and he’s been the same since.

Is QC your first attempt at a webcomic? Have you ever done any others, or other art work in general that would, for lack of a better term, be “indie”, like zines or album art?
Jeph: I did a whole bunch of comic strips in high school that were, in hindsight, precursors to QC, but QC is the first thing to ever see the light of day on the internet. If you look at the earlier strips it’s pretty obvious I was re-learning how to draw as I went. I’m still doing that today, actually. I’ve never really done ‘zines or album art, although I suppose if someone approached me with an interesting offer I might do it.

Your characters have come a long way since the first QC strip, not only art-wise, but also character-wise. Have they turned out how you anticipated from the start, or did you work more “off the cuff” and sort of let the characters evolve naturally?
Jeph: The comic was originally much smaller in scale than it is now. It was originally just going to focus on Marten and Pintsize, but it very quickly got out of hand. The way I see it, there have been three distinct phases to QC thus far. The early “angsty dude and his robot” stage, which is what I had initially imagined the comic to be, lasted about, what, five strips? Maybe? Haha. The second stage is when Faye came in and it turned into a Moonlighting-style “when are they gonna hook up” romance. This lasted until about #500, at which point I basically said “fuck it, I need to change things up if I’m going to keep this interesting.” Since then the cast has increased dramatically and QC has turned into more of an ensemble comedy. It could be completely different tomorrow.

People are definitely attached to the characters, to Marten, Faye, etc. Probably as much or more than people are to other literary and conventional comic characters. What do you think about that?
Jeph: It used to bother me a lot, because people get so heavily invested in the strip that it sometimes conflicts with what I personally want to do. But lately I’ve tried to adopt a more Zen approach, where my expectations are totally unrelated to anyone else’s expectations of the comic. It’s also an issue of experience. I’ve been doing this for four years now, so I know that when I get two emails saying “[Character] would NEVER do that!,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ve totally fucked up the story.

Technically speaking, what’s your style? I know you draw entirely on the computer, right?
Jeph: Yeah, I do everything in Photoshop, except for the text and speech bubbles, which I do in Illustrator. I used to use a Wacom graphics tablet but I recently upgraded to one of their fancy Cintiq displays. It’s a pretty big change, and I like it a lot so far. Artistically speaking, my three biggest influences are probably the webcomics Sam and Fuzzy and Scary Go Round and the manga and/or anime Azumanga Daioh. I am a huge nerd.

A really interesting thing about QC, which is pretty rare and an indication of just how popular it really is I think, is that you make a living from the strip, right? How’d that come about?
Jeph: It kind of started out of necessity! Back in August of 2004 I was informed by my then-employer that they would no longer have a position for me in September. The comic had something like 30,000 daily readers at that point, so I figured “hey, I bet if I sell t-shirts I can make enough money to live for a few weeks while I look for a new job.” A few weeks turned into a couple months, which turned into six months, which turned into a year, and here I am today. In hindsight I should’ve quit that shitty fuckin’ office job six months earlier, but what can you do. I’m really lucky that it panned out, and just about all the credit for QC as a business goes to Cristi, my fiance and business manager. She does all the stuff I’m bad at, which coincidentally is all the stuff that involves actually making money instead of just putting funny drawings up on the internet. If you’ve ever bought a QC t-shirt or poster it has definitely touched her hands.

What are you listening to these days? Any chance they’ll get worked into the strip at all?
Jeph: Lately I have been all about the weird European techno. Specifically guys like Gui Boratto, Justice, Apparat. I’m kind of in a non-indie-rock stage right now, even though I really love the recent albums by Spoon and the Hold Steady. I pretty much just put on that Daft Punk live album and rock the fuck out while I’m working. Seriously, that Daft Punk record destroys.

One of your “signature” things, so to speak, are the posters that appear in the backgrounds, usually band-related. What determines them? Are they there just in case you forget to throw an Arcade Fire or Man Man joke in there? Or are you just flexing your artistic muscles, so to speak?
Jeph: They’re mainly just background dressing. I mean, obviously they’re bands I like, otherwise why would I bother putting them in the comic, right? But yeah, there’s no real significance other than “hey, I like this band, maybe if I draw a poster of them on Marten’s wall some people will Google them and find out more.” Speaking ofThe Arcade Fire, I hadn’t listened to Neon Bible since literally the week before it came out, and the other day I was in a bar in Northampton and they were playing it. I was like “wow, this is a lot better than I remember!” Talk about a record that ages well. I can’t wait to see what those dudes and ladies do next.

You got any advice for the fledgling artists out there?
Jeph: Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Thanks a lot. Any parting words?
Jeph: Read my comic! Buy my t-shirts if you find them aesthetically appealing! I guess that’s it.

All pictures courtesy of Jeph Jacques and Questionable Content

Tags: Interview, News, Questionable Content, art, webcomics //