You cannot escape the CUSS JAR!
Perfect present for Jeph Jacques
Can someone PLEASE buy an anatomy book or “how to cartoon” book for the creator of Questionable Content? Look at those freakin’ forearms! Sweet lord… if your plane crashed in an icy wilderness, those characters would be the first to die, because you could live off their forearms alone for like 3 months a pop…. if you were a cannibal. Seriously though, if people are going to keep linking this or talking about it, someone send him a Chris Hart book or something…. those forearms are “questionable”.
YOU MUST OBEY!
Ok, you can’t escape the cuss jar, and it KNOWS that you owe it, so you should just give in and pay up now. It’s for a worthy cause. Yeah, I’m looking at you! You know who you are!
Alright, I’m sick of thinking about “best of” lists, and webcomic drama for the week. It’s really senseless. I think I may just leave it alone all together and just focus on my work. But you see… I get bored. Especially when I get ahead on strips, then suddenly I find myself tweeking the site, tweeking google ad colors or placements and ultimately visiting other people’s sites and finding things i disagree with. It’s almost like a hobby….. sheesh!
CUT AND PASTE JOB What’s up with all the cutting and pasting going on? It’s lazy people… OH…. woops, I totally have been doing it too. And I’ve drawn the ire of other cartoonists in doing so. I’m looking at YOU, Zach Miller! 
— Let me explain something… it bothers me too. I hope it doesn’t bother many readers. But the situation is this…. when I sit down to write out a strip, and if there’s not much action needed or change in environment, you’re in the same exact scene.. it’s a waste of stinking time for me to draw the same thing that was in the last panel. — In my defense, even saying that I don’t like to do it, I don’t just slap it in there. I end up redrawing faces, hands, whatever, and I also color each friggin panel one by one— which is probably defeating the purpose of a cut and paste. I just use cut and paste as a tool, instead of busting out the lightbox. Is it faster? Yes. Do I do it all the time? Naw. I think it’s a shortcut, and I shouldn’t use it as a crutch— LIKE OTHER WEBCOMICS DO! You know who you are, you fat lazy fuuckers!
At least I can draw forearms, and functioning cartoon anatomy.
WOOPS! Buck in the tip jar for me…
I am not immune. I must follow the rule of the cuss jar……. FOR NOW!
Have a good weekend everyone.
December 9th, 2005 at 6:47 am
There are only a couple things in JaM that have been copy/pasted. And none of them are characters. BAM!
I rule, you drool.
December 9th, 2005 at 7:46 am
For cut and paste, www.qwantz.com can’t be beat!
December 9th, 2005 at 9:11 am
I’m pretty proud of the fact that I’ve never cut and pasted anything in a comic strip. Even if the next panel is the same characters in the same position, I consider it a challenge to make it interesting by changing their body language and facial expressions.
Then again, I guess I’m not a LAZY HACK CON ARTIST HOMOSEXUAL WALKING GLORY HOLE LIKE DJ COFFMAN.
December 9th, 2005 at 9:48 am
Hey, at least I’m honest….
You fucking liar!
Whoops– another buck.
December 9th, 2005 at 9:55 am
Hey man, I dare you to go trolling through my archives, douchenozzle. In fact, I dare ALL of you to do exactly that, and make sure to click the ads on every page
Prove me wrong, people. PROVE ME WRONG.
December 9th, 2005 at 10:01 am
Your comic is a beatiful thing to look at Paul, honestly.
I wasn’t implying that you cut and paste… I was implying that you are a goddamn LIAR! You LIAR!
Go on, say you’re not… you’d be lying! Ya Liar.
December 9th, 2005 at 10:25 am
Ha, thanks man, I’m just instigating. Honestly though, I can’t remember a time when I’ve cut and pasted. The biggest cheat I engage in is using a font, and I do that for sanity’s sake. And because it looks pretty!
I do lie about other things though, so I guess technically you’re right.
December 9th, 2005 at 11:03 am
I don’t think cut and paste is such a bad thing if used in moderation. Sometimes it can be a very useful tool in terms of pacing. Like if a character says something dumb and the statement is just hanging out there waiting for a reaction. If the characters moved from panel to panel, it would spoil the pacing.
That, plus I don’t trust myself to draw my characters the exact same way every time!…
December 9th, 2005 at 11:10 am
What a strange coincidence. I just had a little discovery on the subject myself. I too was feeling ambivalent about whether cutting and pasting was at all “leigitmate” — I mean, how can I call myself a cartoonist if I’m too lazy to draw the exact same thing several times? Certainly no one I respect would do that! Then I found this:
I was stunned. And felt a lot better. So the hell with it! Keep pasting!
December 9th, 2005 at 11:11 am
OK, so perhaps you can’t put HTML code in Wordpress comments. I found the picture that’s referenced here: http://www.monkeylaw.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1102
December 9th, 2005 at 11:57 am
Berke would literally cut and paste on occassion. Using a xerox machine, photo copy, then cut out and pasted in with gluestick. At least, that’s what I think he said once when asked about it.
Actually, this is a really common thing among “daily” comic artists. Some use Lightboxes, like I do– but then photoshop DOES kinda make that obsolete now. Some still actually use overlays and literal cut and paste like in the 80s — I dont think it’s bad at all unless you do it ALL the time. Just make the comic fun to look at and read, and no one will really notice accept other cartoonists calling you to the carpet.
December 9th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
Well I’m glad YOU counted your swears DJ. Once was enough for me.
And if you want to bug Southworth, mention typos! They’re his nemesis!
December 9th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
Hey, DJ… what kind of paper do you use? I use Bristol board, and I can’t imagine a light box would work too well.
I bought some tracing paper, thinking that might help with the repetitive tasks… but it’s too flimsy to work with and it doesn’t hold lines so well.
December 9th, 2005 at 2:04 pm
From an outsiders perspective, I rarely notice cut and pasted comics. Maybe I will now! But it has never had an effect on whether I enjoy a comic or not. Tom Brazleton is right about the pacing thing, too.
Anyway, cut and paste away for all I care!
December 9th, 2005 at 2:12 pm
I use Strathmore 300 smooth bristol– and it works on a lightboard just fine. I have one of those little portable lightboxes — it does the trick. It’s a pain to keep using though for me.
December 9th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
I *heart* my lightbox. But I don’t use it for drawing. I’ve had it for something like 10 years now. It’s all industrial and old school because I got it at a school district auction for like $25. One of the best buys I ever made.
December 9th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
I have long noted the absurdly swollen arms of QC characters and wondered if we were all supposed to assume that they were part of some sort of elephantitis club behind the scenes. I think it is because Mr. Jacques focuses on his characters’ faces and upper bodies (particularly the ladies’). Good for him, I say–to each his own, even if your characters are hideous mutant human beings.
Let us hope, however, that QC fans (like myself) do not take up pitchforks and torches and come for you. The cuss jars would likely fill up rather quickly.
December 9th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
Wait… wait…. he focuses on the faces??? YOu mean the faces without ANY EMOTION WHATSOEVER!? Hahahahha…
Seriously though, I mean, it’s not my bag of chips, but I respect that people can like it and that, and even like it AND my hateful strip.
December 9th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
What I want to know is who put in the $0.42 in the cuss jar yesterday…
What did they do, halfway swear?
December 9th, 2005 at 3:53 pm
Paypal takes a fee, so I’m just tallying up the totals donated after they take their cut.
December 9th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
WOOT– got the first hate mail from a QC fan, i take it — Just “THOMAS” wrote:
“Wow, it must really suck to have people all over the place discussing some
other webcomic creator’s actual content, when all you can manage is a sort
of watery notoriety as a loudmouth. Nice valid problem you came up with
too, if you’re overly concerned about forearms.
Well done, sir!”
I told him- no, I don’t think it sucks at all. I just want someone to please send him a drawing course of some kind.. you know? Maybe one of those pirate art tests??
December 9th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
Ohhh!
The guy in those commercials used to scare the crap out of me when I was little.
December 9th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
I think the thing with QC’s forearms was a little much. Stretching it, even. Even if it was supposed to be a funny. It was kind of a tacked-on funny. :\
December 9th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
What, that guy with the suit and the white hair? I swear he’s an android!
December 9th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
Hey man, take it easy on Coffman. He’s just trying to “jerk” up some more traffic! Keep reaching for that golden rainbow, DJ!
December 9th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
Yea…ok QC fans. Heres the thing…I’m diving through the archives currently in another tab.
Let me first say that I am enjoying it immensely. The occasional music reference is dead on without being too elitist and I think the characters are engaging, storyline well done, and the dialogue is fairly natural.
But DJ is absofuckinglutely right about the art. The forearms are way out of wack. And this dates all the way back to the first comic.
In fact, all of the bodies in the comic are generally bulgy and jacked up. While the facial structure is good…DJ is once again right about expressions. Of which, well, there are none.
Now, according to the little comic counter QC is on its 509th comic. Again, commendable. But obviously, making weird body shapes and expressionless faces are an artist’s choice after all this time and not due to a lack of skill or talent. As far as I read, DJ never said that J. Jaques lacked in either of these departments.
He simply made a very valid statement about the art.
P.S. My cuss word does not count because it was hidden.
December 9th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Look– I’m just saying.. I TRIED to read it, and I’m thinking— “Wait, this is suppossed to be a deep moment, right?” but the faces STAY THE FRIGGIN SAME! It makes it hard to follow for me. I mean, if your just skimming it for the writing, yeah, it’s very “conversational” in tone, which is cool. It’s not BADLY written at all.
But yeah… the art is REALLY throwing me off man. Just my opinion. And, is it JUST me or do the forearm sizes actually fluctuate in sizes? It’s just weird to me.
PAUL: TASTE THE RAINBOW!
December 9th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
Bah, you don’t really hate copy-and-pasters! You were just using that as an excuse to shill Zach Miller’s (awesome) comic. I am on to you.
By the way I am not the Thomas that supports Questionable Content. that stuff is just not my cup of tea (yup, I am British. We British people despise Questionable Content for it’s large forearms make our feeble manipulative rods look feeble in comparison).
December 9th, 2005 at 11:21 pm
I don’t find the forearms all that large. I mean, If I can drudge through your “art” and still enjoy it, I think I can handle QCs forearms being .05 larger in proportion to the rest of thier bodies. Not that big of a beal. Unlike that hellspawn Elmur Fudd. Not only is he shorter than a freakin’ bunny, but in the name of Jesus H. Chirst, did you see his head? Its three time what it should be. AT LEAST. Some one should help the guy that drew him out in the proportion department too.
PS: On a COMPLETELY unrelated note I often employ sarcasm in my statements. Just saying.
December 10th, 2005 at 12:18 am
I think the larger problem with QC is that it just sucks entirely. I read through the archives a while ago and found myself unable to finish. I’m not saying it’s poorly written, just that I find the writing to be boring, long-winded, and repetitive. Oh and let’s not forget the favorite tool of cartoonists everywhere: some cute little thing to act as a catalyst for mischief and say random funny things! Let’s go over a generic conversation in QC:
Marten: Yes, Faye beat me up so hard yesterday I was more bruise than pale scenester
Faye: Maybe if you hadn’t touched my boob! (she smirks, or at least it’s supposed to look like that)
Dora: She is a feisty one! (grabs Faye’s ass)
Faye: Hey! (smacks her)
Pintsize: I like potatoes!
Maybe it’s that I hate scene/indie people anyway. I can’t help it, they draw ire from me to the same degree that emo kids do.
December 10th, 2005 at 12:26 am
Can someone PLEASE buy an anatomy book or “how to cartoon” book for the creator of Yirmumah? Look at that freakin’ main character’s head! Sweet lord… if your plane crashed in an icy wilderness, that character would be the first to die, because you could use his tube-like head to build a cannon, MacGyver-style, and fire up brightly colored underwear tied into small parachutes to act as beacons to search crews… if you were MacGyver. Seriously though, if people are going to keep linking this or talking about it, someone send him a Chris Hart book or something…. that head is straight out of a “Yo momma” joke.
December 10th, 2005 at 12:45 am
Oh MR P you are soooo clever!
December 10th, 2005 at 1:09 am
DJ, you’re not convincing me that QC has bad forearms. His art is all over the place — he’s still establishing a style — but forearms are not the problem.
I would guess that you’re just talking trash because it’s a major skill of yours. You seem to use it for many purposes — becoming famous as a bad boy of webcomics, coming up with humor, inflating your ego at the expense of J.Jacques, etc.
What IMHO is questionable about J.Jacques is his writing. I think you should write some snappier gags for him. He can do a soap-opera plot, but he needs to make with the funny.
Whereas the notion of a Drama Llama — that’s surreal humor of which we need more. We no longer have Peanuts and the Far Side, but surreal humor lives! Especially at Perry Bible Fellowship and Red Meat and comics of their all-too-rare ilk.
December 10th, 2005 at 3:37 am
i love QC and really enjoy reading it. but i totally noticed the forearm thing too. especially in number 507! i remember thinking that faye looked like some hulking gorilla that would drag her knuckles along the ground.
but again, i enjoy QC.
December 10th, 2005 at 6:09 am
they both rock.
December 10th, 2005 at 9:03 am
Aye, im a big QC fan aswell. Mainly because it is a sort of soap opera, those things are addictive when you get into them, if he just stopped making them i’d probably become obsessive about it, kind of like when life of riley stopped mid arc. That right, i read LoR and im no afraid to admit i loved it
As for the drawings, guys, its a comic. Find a real person with the weird arms and i’ll laugh like a girl, not to his face obviously, he’d have the advantage in a fight.
Now if you dont mind me, im going to dive into ‘room mates from hell’, feel free to take a look at the early stuff and you’ll be thinking Jacques forearms are almost photo realistic by comparison, sitll funny as fuck though (i’ll add the swear jar when i hit $10)
December 10th, 2005 at 10:07 am
I heard from Jeph last night actually– he took it as constructive criticism, and I was glad. Seems like an ok fella to me. I’d note again, I didn’t say QC was horrible or sucked bad or anything like that.
Now, while Jeph seems cool…. ladies and gentlemen, I give you another e-mail from a QC sycophant, merely for you enjoyment….:
……………………………………………..
“Mr. Drew Fuckbag
Yeah, I got a fuckin’ bone to pick with you numbnuts. Why did you go and dis Jeph Jacques like that? That isn’t cool. If you’ve seen his past art, like, from the beginning and compared to his style now, there has been quite a change, and for the good. And so what if he draw his arms a little big, that’s his style and it works. So how about you plug that artist bashing mouth with your wifes fat cock you fucking asswipe?!
~Necrucifer
PS: YOU SUCK! ”
……………………………….
December 10th, 2005 at 10:41 am
Yay for public humiliation!
December 10th, 2005 at 10:42 am
People like that “necrucifer” piss me off; he didn’t have any damn right to go off on you like that, especially since you were in no way saying QC was a bad comic.
December 10th, 2005 at 10:54 am
Heh, well, shit happens at one in the morning and you’re stoned off you ass and you feel like ranting.
December 10th, 2005 at 10:54 am
Akbar… put the knife down…. he totally has a right to tell me anything he wants to say. Heh….
NEW ENTRY POSTED ON THE MAIN PAGE ABOUT ANGRY QC FANS!
December 10th, 2005 at 10:56 am
Yes, you’re right Drew, I can say what I wish. And I wish to apologize ad well ad bringing you soothing oral delight.
Oh, and, like, this isn’t some bitch pretending to be Necrucifer, it, really is me.