Nothing Nice To Say
Encyclopedia
Nothing Nice to Say is a webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....

, touted as "The world's FIRST online punk comic", created by artist Mitch Clem
Mitch Clem
Mitch Andrew Clem is an American cartoonist best known for his web comics Nothing Nice To Say, San Antonio Rock City, and My Stupid Life.- Early life:...

. It is sometimes abbreviated as Nothing Nice, NNTS or NN2S.

Synopsis

First launched online in February, 2002, Nothing Nice To Say follows roommates Blake and Fletcher, while living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as they make fun of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, punk rock fans, and just about everything relating to the punk subculture
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...

, including themselves. Although it follows the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

 3-panel webcomic setup of two roommates with one being slightly off-the-wall, it is unique in placing them in a punk setting.

History

During much of the comic's existence, Mitch used the space under the comic as his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

. Now his blog can be found at his LiveJournal
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....

 (See Link Below).

Clem's blogs began to show that he was likely suffering bouts of depression. Because of this he was mocked on the comic's own discussion forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...

; the internet traffic
Internet traffic
-Historical Internet Traffic Growth:Because of the distributed nature of the Internet, there is no single point of measurement for total Internet traffic...

 for which had rapidly outgrown the traffic for the comic strip. This is allegedly one of the reasons that Mitch- somewhat unceremoniously - ended the comic in 2004. At this time, Mitch told fans he would be collaborating on a strip called Joe and Monkey
Joe and Monkey
Joe and Monkey is a webcomic written and illustrated by Zach Miller. It debuted on July 27, 2004. New comic strips were posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. However, the comic has not updated regularly since mid-2008...

with fellow webcomic artist Zach Miller
Zach Miller
Zachary Joseph Miller is an American football tight end for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. He was drafted in the second round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders. He played college football at Arizona State.-Early years:Miller Attended Desert Vista High School in...

.

Clem left Joe and Monkey before the series even launched, but did return to take over writing and illustration duties for the entire month of January 2005, at which point Mitch announced he would resurrect Nothing Nice in what would become the now familiar black and white format, as opposed to the original run, which was in color.

Updates slowed sometime after January 2006, when Clem began focusing his energy on a new autobiographical strip called San Antonio Rock City. Eventually, Nothing Nice was put on indefinite hiatus and SARC became Clem's main focus.

Mitch Clem stated that he was unopposed to bringing back Nothing Nice (though perhaps at a less frequent schedule), and stayed true to this statement when he brought it back on a weekly schedule on August 28, 2006. Updates ranged from sporadic to nonexistent for a while as the focus shifted from SARC to NN2S and back. Clem eventually quit San Antonio Rock City after breaking up with his then-girlfriend who served as the series' co-star, and turned his focus back to Nothing Nice, where it continued to update on a mostly regular thrice weekly schedule. Nothing Nice went back on temporary hiatus as Clem began work on another autobiographical strip, My Stupid Life. Nothing Nice to Say resumed on September 15, 2008, then was placed on hiatus since December 23, 2008, and resumed again on September 5, 2011 with a new co-writer, Joe Briggs.

Blake

One of the comic's main characters. He is named after Blake Schwarzenbach
Blake Schwarzenbach
Alexander Blake Schwarzenbach is an American musician. He was the singer and left-handed guitarist of Jawbreaker , Jets to Brazil , The Thorns of Life , and forgetters -Education:...

 of Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker (band)
Jawbreaker was an American punk rock band active from 1986 to 1996 and considered one of the most influential acts of the early-1990s emo movement...

 and Jets to Brazil
Jets to Brazil
Jets to Brazil was an American rock band formed in 1997. It was founded by Blake Schwarzenbach, former frontman of Jawbreaker. When Schwarzenbach relocated to Brooklyn, New York, after Jawbreaker had disbanded, he reunited with friend Jeremy Chatelain and the two began working on four-track...

 fame (also has an obvious resemblance to Jawbreaker-era Schwarzenbach), and is a great fan of both bands. Tends to be the voice of reason of the two main characters. Besides Schwarzenbach bands, he is also a fan of pop-punk bands and even some indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 bands. Played guitar in a band with Fletcher, called The Negative Adjectives. He has a shrine to Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....

 in his bedroom, something Fletcher was unaware of until September 13, 2006. Blake is considered by many fans to represent a sort of "parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

 Mitch", or is at least modelled on the comic's author; the parallels between certain of their life events and their shared tastes and opinions are used as evidence for this.

Fletcher

Blake's bald-headed roommate. Did not originally have a name; instead he was named through a reader contest. Tends to come up with some fairly crazy and somewhat anti-social ideas, sometimes resulting in litigation. He is also sometimes attracted to irritating behaviors and habits simply for their ability to anger others, such as his taking up smoking. Often wears a band shirt that reads "BAND". Is a fan of 1980s hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...

. Played drums for The Negative Adjectives. Recently contracted a case of "pop punk
Pop punk
Pop punk is a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Allmusic describes the genre as a strand of alternative rock, which typically merges pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and loud guitars...

" at a show. He is often a comic foil to Blake's role as straightman and the two most often provide the main thrust of the series' plotlines.

Phillip

Originally a ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

 fan, he now listens to emo
Emo (music)
Emo is a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, D.C., where it was known as "emotional hardcore" or "emocore" and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace...

 and vehemently denies having ever liked ska at all; this is plotted by the author to make fun of what he perceives to be the trend-hopping nature of most modern-day emo fans. Blames the female gender for most of his problems, even though they actually tend to be self-inflicted. Also seems to exude "whiny bitch pheromones" which make it impossible to stay around him for any longer time without resorting to physical violence. He started out 2007 by renouncing emo in favor of what he felt was less depressing pop-punk, but after buying the newest pop punk album (implied to be the album "Hospitals" by Off With Their Heads
Off With Their Heads (band)
Off with Their Heads is a punk rock band formed in 2002 from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since their formation, they have often featured a rotating line-up of tour players, due to their members' other commitments and Off With Their Head's own full-time touring schedule...

), he hanged himself
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 in his apartment. His name is an obvious tongue-in-cheek reference to the comedian Emo Philips
Emo Philips
Emo Philips is an American entertainer and comedian born in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove. Much of his standup comedy stems from the use of paraprosdokians and garden path sentences spoken in a wandering falsetto tone of voice and a confused, childlike delivery of his material to produce the...


Cecil

An anthropomorphic gopher
Gopher (animal)
The term gopher as it is commonly used does not relate to any one species, but is a generic term used to describe any of several small burrowing rodents endemic to North America, including the pocket gopher , also called true gophers, and the ground squirrel , including Richardson's ground squirrel...

 (refential to the strip's setting of the Twin Cities of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

.) Very sarcastic, and at one time insulted people for spare change. According to the comic, has played bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 for Screeching Weasel
Screeching Weasel
Screeching Weasel is an American punk rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1986 by Ben Weasel and John Jughead.Since their formation, Screeching Weasel have broken up and reformed numerous times with numerous line-up changes. Ben Weasel has been the only constant...

, roadied
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...

 for Fifteen
Fifteen (band)
Fifteen was a punk rock band formed by Jeff Ott. Ott was the group's main songwriter and only consistent member. According to Ott, the band had a total of fifteen members by the time it finally disbanded in 2000: Jack Curran, Mikey Mischief, Mark Moreno, Jean Repetto, Lucky Dog, Chris Flanagan,...

 and secretly written
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...

 songs for The Donnas
The Donnas
The Donnas are an American all-female rock band from Palo Alto, California. They draw inspiration from The Ramones, The Runaways, AC/DC, Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Kiss. Rolling Stone has stated that "the Donnas offer a guileless take on adolescent alienation; they traffic in kicks, not...

. Played bass for The Negative Adjectives before he quit right before their first show. Cecil has apparently rejoined the band since Joe Banks (see below) joined. Usually seen wearing a Quincy Punx shirt.

Charlie/Chris

A vegan, hardcore
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...

-crust punk
Crust punk
Crust punk is a form of music influenced by anarcho-punk, hardcore punk and extreme metal. The style, which evolved in the mid-1980s in England, often has songs with dark and pessimistic lyrics that linger on political and social ills...

. The rest of the cast tends to walk on egg shells around him due to his veganism
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...

, as they're afraid they might upset him if he so much as touches an object that has been in contact with dairy products. He has been referred to as both "Charlie" and "Chris," an error that Clem has jokingly acknowledged.

Karen

A radical feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

 (riot grrl). Spends a lot of her time getting upset at Blake and Fletcher for allegedly objectifying female punk rock band members, yet started dating Alice only because a "strong lesbian stance" would improve her image as a feminist.

Joe

The comic's youngest character. He's a skater
Skater
Skater may refer to:*Skating , various activities:** Skater or skateboarder - someone who practices skateboarding, i.e. someone who rides a skateboard** Skater - someone who rides with rollerskates...

 and tends to get made fun of by Blake and Fletcher, as they see most skaters as "corporate whores". He confused buttons of fashion companies with wearing "cool" buttons of punk bands.

Joe Banks

In 2005, Nothing Nice To Say and Joe and Monkey
Joe and Monkey
Joe and Monkey is a webcomic written and illustrated by Zach Miller. It debuted on July 27, 2004. New comic strips were posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. However, the comic has not updated regularly since mid-2008...

 had a crossover, featuring Joe, the titular hero of the latter, auditioning for Blake and Fletcher's band, The Negative Adjectives (after seeing a poster written by Fletcher proclaiming that the band needed no new members). Ironically, Banks was accepted as the band's new singer and second guitarist and has since been featured in strips featuring the band performing.

Bort

Was originally straight edge
Straight edge
Straight edge is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs. It was a direct reaction to the sexual revolution, hedonism, and excess associated with punk rock. For some, this extends to not engaging in promiscuous sex, following a...

, but has since broke his edge and started drinking as well as smoking. Has straight edge X's tattooed on the back of his hands, and is prone to violence when one points out the irony in having them and consuming alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

 and tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

.

The Hippie Chick

Also known as That Hippie Chick Who Works At The Coffee Shop is hinted at having dated Alice. Not much else is known about her, other than that she is in fact a hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...

 and likes the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

 and Phish
Phish
Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...

.

Cthulhu

Originally from the H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

 stories. He's lived in Blake and Fletcher's closet for, presumably, the entire series, though he has only shown up a couple of times. Most recently, Cthulhu was turned into a kitten, though his subsequent trip to the sewers, where he raised a C.H.U.D.
C.H.U.D.
C.H.U.D. is a 1984 American horror film produced by Andrew Bonime, and directed by Douglas Cheek with Peter Stein as the director of photography and William Bilowit as production designer. The cast includes Daniel Stern and John Heard. It was followed in 1989 by C.H.U.D. II: Bud the...

 to eat the person who turned him into a kitten, suggests he still has his powers.

Zach Miller

Has appeared in some NN2S comics. Creator of Joe and Monkey
Joe and Monkey
Joe and Monkey is a webcomic written and illustrated by Zach Miller. It debuted on July 27, 2004. New comic strips were posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. However, the comic has not updated regularly since mid-2008...

 and the late No Pants Tuesday.

Mitch Clem

Mitch often appears in his own comics, often arguing with Blake & Fletcher via intercom, and was once sighted drawing the comic at a coffee shop.

San Antonio Rock City

San Antonio Rock City, or SARC, was an autobiographical webcomic about Mitch and his weekly exploits with then-girlfriend Victoria. This comic was updated consistently several times each week, eventually going daily, for approx 6 months, and featured several references to Nothing Nice, including a strip with cameos of Blake, Fletcher, Cecil, Joe Banks, and the Anarchist Fan. Mitch quit the series permanently after he and Victoria broke up in early 2007.

The Coffee Achievers

The Coffee Achievers originally started out as Nothing Nice story arc, but later turned into its own comic as a collaboration with Joe Dunn, from Joe Loves Crappy Movies. The cast is mostly the same as that of Nothing Nice, but with small alterations, and is not considered to take place in the same universe as Nothing Nice To Say.

The Coffee Achievers began a working relationship between Clem and Joe Dunn that has now developed into a partnership, with Dunn serving as Clem's go-to colorist for his prolific work creating concert fliers and album art. The two have also expressed plans to eventually team up again for Clem's long-planned post-apocalyptic saga "The Rain Dogs".

Publications

On February 19, 2008 Mitch announced on his MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 blog and his Livejournal
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....

 that Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

 would be publishing the long-awaited NN2S book. The book would contain :
  • All Nothing Nice to Say comics from 2006-2007.
  • Over 40 pages of guest strips Mitch has done for other comics (including his month-long stint for Joe and Monkey
    Joe and Monkey
    Joe and Monkey is a webcomic written and illustrated by Zach Miller. It debuted on July 27, 2004. New comic strips were posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. However, the comic has not updated regularly since mid-2008...

    ).
  • Redrawn strips from the early years of NN2S to introduce new readers to the characters.
  • Illustrations separating the different sections of the book.

The book was released in October 2008.
Mitch has also created original Nothing Nice comics for Razorcake
Razorcake
Razorcake is a 501 non-profit organization that publishes the Razorcake fanzine, a DIY punk rock fanzine published bi-monthly out of Los Angeles, California...

 Magazine, and for MySpace Dark Horse Presents, while strips from the web have been reprinted in countless fanzines.

Criticism and analysis

Nothing Nice To Say was used along with Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade (webcomic)
Penny Arcade is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic...

and American Elf
American Elf
American Elf is an online comic strip diary created by award-winning cartoonist James Kochalka.Many critics consider these strips to be Kochalka's most significant work. American Elf has won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic Series and Outstanding Online Comic.-Style:Each strip usually...

as an example of comics using the web to create "an explosion of diverse genres and styles" in Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium...

's book Making Comics

External links

  • The Coffee Achievers
  • Mitch Clem's website
  • Mitch Clem on Livejournal
    LiveJournal
    LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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