Sequential Art (webcomic)
Encyclopedia
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. It has a cast of human and Anthropomorphic characters, and makes frequent references to video and computer game pop culture. It focuses on providing narrative through humour, either with imagery or dialogue. Each strip is commonly 3 or 4 panels in structure.
The series focuses around four characters - Art (Arthur), a human
illustrator and cartoonist; Kat (Kathleen) Vance, a female, Anthropomorphic cat
photographer who wishes to become a professional; Pip McGraw, a male anthropomorphic penguin embodying many of the stereotypes of fanboy/geekdom, who makes a living buying and selling via EBuy
; and Scarlet, a naive female anthropomorphic Squirrel
, whose short attention span hides an exceptional 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.
Kathleen "Kat" Vance
Pip McGraw
Scarlet
Leonard
First appearance: #399 (Picture on book), #401 (Main appearance)
Kat's best friend from college and a novelist of gothic vampire fiction. She invites Kat to take photos of Whitby
for her latest book, but seems to be camera shy herself. She is seemingly able to talk to the ghost of Bram Stoker.
Hilary Locke
First appearance: #32
Hilary is Kat's longtime 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 blackmail
ed her with (questionable and unseen) images of her from the Internet. Her alias, Gabrielle Goodtime, strongly implies she may once have been involved in pornography.
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. Afraid of Timmy, Art adopts extreme ways to withstand his snowball attacks but still fails miserably.
Strinpit
First appearance: #239
10 years after leaving school, Kat is hired by her former teacher, Miss Strinpit, who often bullied her in class. Taking Ann with her, Kat finds Strinpet to be shorter than she is rather than towering as she remembered, but no less horrifying. Strinpet dies from a heart attack after being subjected to Kat's revenge outburst; the result of being bullied by Strinpet throughout her school years, and her death is celebrated by some students.
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. When a a man named Jolly Jackovich was hung from the gallows his body cast no shadow, years later all the towns shadows attacked leading the town to be destroyed. Jack 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. In a recent one-off by Jackson, it shows an OzBasic Camera with Jack on top of it. The title of the drawing is "Still Alive", both a reference to Portal, and an implication that Jack is alive and will join forces with Oz in a later issue.
It's been stated that Jack is broken; what appears to be an evil grin on his face is, in fact, a crack through his head.
Phillip. M. Jackson
First appearance: #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, the very reason he decided to be a hamster in the first place. 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 an attractive. 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 (5C4RL37) was the fourth member who disappeared after OZ tried to kill her. When they meet Kat and she mentions Scarlet, they become excited. They then team up with Scarlet, Pip, and Art to stop the renegade OZ Basic.
The Think Tank Squirrels speak in unison when together. They are skilled at analysing computer codes when in virtual reality and are dressed in identical matching bodysuits. They were also "programmed" with a fear of large open spaces. After OZ basic, their computer is stopped and they are transported (by being forced into a wheely bin) to the house and live in its underground tunnel ways.
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. He bares a striking resemblance to Crazy Sven and speaks with a similar accent.
Chloe
First appearance: N/A
An anthropomorphic female skunk from a privileged background. She is very wealthy, being the CEO of Sinclair Global. She lives on a private chain of islands known as Bacus Atol, tended to by her butler Desmond Pride, and is often seen with her associates/friends with benefits, The Eclaire Twins. Known to have a high sex drive, she seems not to discriminate between gender or species. She also has a bizarre habit of deliberatly wearing clothing she can shred on her voluptuous figure.
Desmond Pride
Chloe's butler who she hires to attend to her needs. He is one of the few men she doesn't take any carnal interest in.
The Eclaire Twins
Chloe's business associates who are also her bed buddies.
Maxi
An athopomorphic cat who works in Sinclair Global's R&D science department.
Sky
A catgirl adventurer who is associated with Chloe somehow. An Indiana Jones like character, she has a habit of getting into tricky situations.
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
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....
written and illustrated by Phillip M. Jackson. The series is a daily webcomic that tells a slice of life story. It has a cast of human and Anthropomorphic characters, and makes frequent references to video and computer game pop culture. It focuses on providing narrative through humour, either with imagery or dialogue. Each strip is commonly 3 or 4 panels in structure.
The series focuses around four characters - Art (Arthur), a human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
illustrator and cartoonist; Kat (Kathleen) Vance, a female, Anthropomorphic cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
photographer who wishes to become a professional; Pip McGraw, a male anthropomorphic penguin embodying many of the stereotypes of fanboy/geekdom, who makes a living buying and selling via EBuy
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
; and Scarlet, a naive female anthropomorphic Squirrel
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...
, whose short attention span hides an exceptional 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
Arthur, a.k.a. Art- A human concept and graphic artist who works for Wiquid Design. He has thick and highly expressive eyebrows that are described as WeetabixWeetabixWeetabix is a whole grain wheat breakfast cereal produced by Weetabix Limited of the United Kingdom. It comes in the form of palm-sized biscuits. Variants include organic and Weetabix Minis versions. The UK cereal is manufactured in Burton Latimer, Kettering, United Kingdom and in Canada and...
, and rides and frequently crashes a temperamental scooter. Art functions as the straight manStraight manStraight man may refer to:* Straight Man, a novel by Richard Russo* A member of a double act who plays a stooge, feed, or comic foil in theatrical comedy...
. He has an adversarial relationship with children at large. As an artist, he emits an "anti-technology" energy field that causes technological devices around him to malfunction. The supposed cure of installing a suppressor chip at the base of his neck dampened this "anti-technology" field. He later uses this field to destroy the Quintin supercomputer, OZ. - A running gag through the strip is that when Art tries to alert the authorities about mishaps involving anthropomorphic characters, they believe he is crazy, despite anthropomorphism being seemingly commonplace. Throughout the comic series, it is hinted that he may have feelings for Kat.
Kathleen "Kat" Vance
- 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 the rival of Hilary Locke since school, which shows no sign of dying down. She shows 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 when she's hung over. It is hinted that she is crushed on by Art, often times being in "situations" with him; she seems to return the feeling, even being jealous as she looks at blackmail photos of Hilary with him. (Reason being that Hilary looked 'hot' in the photos.)
Pip McGraw
- Pip is the long time college buddy of Art, and lives with him and Kat. He is an anthropomorphic penguin. 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 LorecraftWorld of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
where he is a level 63 knight called "Killaman Slaughtermaster"
Scarlet
- 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 originally depicted as entirely naked, using random items to cover herself until she received a jumper as a Christmas present. Naïve to a fault, Scarlet boasts a huge amount of energy to the point of hyperactivity, is extremely curious, and has a childlike 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 and an inability to focus most of the time. She has been shown capable of building a working ray gun and analyzing the contents of a snowflake simply by licking it. Her past is at first obscure; over the course of the strip, it is revealed that she was a member of a "think tank", consisting of three other anthropomorphic squirrels joined in a hive mind at a research facility. She escaped after the facility's AI attempted to incinerate her when she discovered something wrong with its programming, away from the hive mind she quickly reduced to her hyperactive and easily ditracted nature.
- After OZ is halted, Scarlet brings the rest of the 'think tank' to live in the tunnels under the house.
Leonard
- 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; unlike real platypi, who have small barbs on their hind legs, Leonard's is a giant, jagged spike that springs from his back. He is clumsy and unlucky.
Minor and related characters
Vanity ThornFirst appearance: #399 (Picture on book), #401 (Main appearance)
Kat's best friend from college and a novelist of gothic vampire fiction. She invites Kat to take photos of Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
for her latest book, but seems to be camera shy herself. She is seemingly able to talk to the ghost of Bram Stoker.
Hilary Locke
First appearance: #32
Hilary is Kat's longtime rival and the two have never seen eye-to-eye. A member of Ann Winters
Ann Summers
Ann Summers is a United Kingdom-based retailer specialising in sex toys and lingerie, with over 140 high street stores in the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Spain. In 2000, Ann Summers acquired the Knickerbox brand, a label with an emphasis on more comfortable and feminine underwear, while...
, she was a client of Art, and discredited his work to spite Kat, but was put in her place after Art blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ed her with (questionable and unseen) images of her from the Internet. Her alias, Gabrielle Goodtime, strongly implies she may once have been involved in pornography.
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. Afraid of Timmy, Art adopts extreme ways to withstand his snowball attacks but still fails miserably.
Strinpit
First appearance: #239
10 years after leaving school, Kat is hired by her former teacher, Miss Strinpit, who often bullied her in class. Taking Ann with her, Kat finds Strinpet to be shorter than she is rather than towering as she remembered, but no less horrifying. Strinpet dies from a heart attack after being subjected to Kat's revenge outburst; the result of being bullied by Strinpet throughout her school years, and her death is celebrated by some students.
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. When a a man named Jolly Jackovich was hung from the gallows his body cast no shadow, years later all the towns shadows attacked leading the town to be destroyed. Jack 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. In a recent one-off by Jackson, it shows an OzBasic Camera with Jack on top of it. The title of the drawing is "Still Alive", both a reference to Portal, and an implication that Jack is alive and will join forces with Oz in a later issue.
It's been stated that Jack is broken; what appears to be an evil grin on his face is, in fact, a crack through his head.
Phillip. M. Jackson
First appearance: #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, the very reason he decided to be a hamster in the first place. 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 an attractive. 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 (5C4RL37) was the fourth member who disappeared after OZ tried to kill her. When they meet Kat and she mentions Scarlet, they become excited. They then team up with Scarlet, Pip, and Art to stop the renegade OZ Basic.
The Think Tank Squirrels speak in unison when together. They are skilled at analysing computer codes when in virtual reality and are dressed in identical matching bodysuits. They were also "programmed" with a fear of large open spaces. After OZ basic, their computer is stopped and they are transported (by being forced into a wheely bin) to the house and live in its underground tunnel ways.
Crazy Sven
First appearance: #18
After Art is stranded in what bears a resemblance to the fictional town Royston Vasey
Royston Vasey
Royston Vasey is a small fictional town in the north of England, and the setting of the BBC television comedy series The League of Gentlemen. It has made famous the comedic phrase "a Local Shop for Local People". Royston Vasey is the real name of british stand-up comedian Roy 'Chubby' Brown, who...
, 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. He bares a striking resemblance to Crazy Sven and speaks with a similar accent.
Non-canon/Collected Curios related characters
These characters have either appeared in pictures with characters from Sequential or possibly live in the same canonChloe
First appearance: N/A
An anthropomorphic female skunk from a privileged background. She is very wealthy, being the CEO of Sinclair Global. She lives on a private chain of islands known as Bacus Atol, tended to by her butler Desmond Pride, and is often seen with her associates/friends with benefits, The Eclaire Twins. Known to have a high sex drive, she seems not to discriminate between gender or species. She also has a bizarre habit of deliberatly wearing clothing she can shred on her voluptuous figure.
Desmond Pride
Chloe's butler who she hires to attend to her needs. He is one of the few men she doesn't take any carnal interest in.
The Eclaire Twins
Chloe's business associates who are also her bed buddies.
Maxi
An athopomorphic cat who works in Sinclair Global's R&D science department.
Sky
A catgirl adventurer who is associated with Chloe somehow. An Indiana Jones like character, she has a habit of getting into tricky situations.
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
External links
- Collectedcurios.com, Phillip M. Jackson's personal page and Sequential Art host site
- Interview with Phillip Jackson An Interview with Phillip Jackson at Silver Bullet Comics
- Interview with Phillip Jackson Additional Interview with Phillip Jackson on underspray.com
- Quick Fire Review Mini-Review of Sequential Art @ 4/5ths way down.
- Sequential Art main site
- Sequential Art in Russian