Post "Welcome To Director Commentary Month" by "jephjacques" from patreon

Liz Heness

I remember seeing the TEH shirt years ago!💚

KageKro

Seeing this made me realize I had to get a new TEH shirt lol, had one years ago and have no clue what happened to it, oh well got a new one on the way now.

Joseph Chang

Omg. Its been so long

enchantedsleeper

https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=168 *squints* the green owl... on the poster... is that DUO? (Yes, this was ~7 years before Duolingo was founded, but the resemblance is too uncanny. Do I doubt that Duo could time travel and place itself into a comic strip from 2004? I do not)

Donna Flint

I have done complete rereads twice, both times when I have been away from QC for more than a year. It is always a fun adventure to go on, knowing what is coming in broad strokes but having forgotten the details. And experiencing again the evolution of the art? Amazing.

Jonathan Bastow

... I thought the speech bubble lines were part of the wall texture.

Ryan DeWeerd

Oh, that's right! Completely forgot about the attempted semi-truck procreation that resulted in him getting that particular chassis.

Renee Wanger

Oooh I'm so excited for this!

Lucas Werkmeister

It probably helps that he has at least three of them. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2614

Ronald Stimbert

I first saw this comic sometime in 2007, and your evolution as an artist never ceased to amaze me. It has been a great time and I'm really looking forward to these Director's Cuts.

Comics Ladybird

As he writes (in the last panel) “The fact that, at this moment, I am not stupidly smashed in a George V suite with my Gibson and a dozen of naked Scandinavian groupes, but am instead sensibly drawing in my art studio, is all thanks to Gotlib.”

Comics Ladybird

Fun story, in that it parallels Zep’s (creator of Titeuf), as he recounts in his memorial tribute to Marcel Gotlib https://www.lemonde.fr/blog/zepworld/2016/12/09/gotlib-in-the-sky-with-diamonds/ (Zep’s musical reference was more Led Zeppelin, I suppose it’s a matter of generation)

enchantedsleeper

https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=164 Wow, I hadn't remembered that we saw Faye's sister so early xD I feel like she and Ayo would hit it off...

enchantedsleeper

Paging back a couple of strips, I also have no recollection of Dora being a whiz with computers. That didn't really come up again after Marigold was introduced xD

enchantedsleeper

I expect he does, but who knows if we'll hear anything about it ^^; To be fair, I wonder if he and Marigold are still in touch. Unrequited feelings aside, they were good friends, and it would be cool if they kept up with each other.

enchantedsleeper

Holy shit, I have NO memory of this comic. That's such an amazing piece of AI lore 😂

Paige Borrelli

doing a QC reread in honor of the break and its like opening a time capsule lol

Mark Eichin

yay behind-the-scenes! unrelated: engineering is catching up with Emily: https://techxplore.com/news/2024-11-blanket-sophisticated-radio-frequency-antennas.html textile metasurface antennas knit like sweaters

Chris

happy to have been on the ride this whole time 🥲

Anton

I am so excited for this director commentary! I love, love hearing about the weird little things behind stuff.

Harsh and Joan

The dark blue wall era, good times

Metal Babette

I started reading in 2007 when my freshmen year roommate introduced it to me. I remember sitting on my bed with a laptop that had a F*d screen and getting the correct angle to keep reading because I refused to take my computer in to get fixed until I had read everything. I also remember the poll you did asking how often we read the comic. I was too embarrassed to answer truthfully. I would like to formally resubmit my answer to I click on the page multiple times a day obsessively hoping you loaded a another one I hadn't already read.

Corvus Cardia

The first strip posted (per Bookbeard’s impeccable commentary) 6 days after my first child was born. Sometime in that first, difficult year I had a bookmarked list of webcomics I followed, and I believe that xkcd was where I found QC. I was always sad when life took other artists away from the (usually unpaid, under appreciated) joy they created. I didn’t just follow an amazing comic here, but the glimpses Jeph gave us to his personal journey, which I resonated with in many ways. The -human- side, the vulnerability and resilience and falls and pushing through that we all got/get to experience here makes this a story I support without reservation. Sorry, stepping down from my soap box now lol 💕

Ingrid Nordbø

I remember my husband, then boyfriend, introducing me to "this really cool webcomic" back in 2006/2007. The first strip I read was the one where Marten and Dora banters about necrophilia, and I was immediately hooked.

Graydon Armstrong

I hope you're knocking a month of these commentaries out in a day or two so you can actually take the month totally off. Just not doing comics isn't quite true vacation, you shouldn't be doing any work! Also, if you do them all at once, you can put the random selections in order, which will probably make the month go a little smoother for readers.

Holly Nelson

Walking down memory lane of the 1800s (Marten and Dora breakup) and there’s Angus! I know QC time is real slow, but shouldn’t he have his TV show up and running by now?

BookBeard

He got it at Best Buy actually. It was there due to an incident wherein a prototype AI military transport banged a semi truck. Even in the early days "horny robot shenanigans" was a strong theme. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=147

Slight Hiccup

I think I started in 2004-2005, I do remember strip 500 ticking over and noting how much the art had improved in such a short time (but so many comics). I wish time moved for me like it does for them.

Mish L.

I started reading QC in 2009. I can't believe it's been so long. I still look forward to a new strip everyday.

Boter Bug

I forget when I started QC... but it was very early. I remember reading the 500 comic arc in real time. Now we're on almost 11 times that. Absolutely wild. And no proper vacation in all thst time? I hope you enjoy it! (I miss AnthroPCs; now all of them are just robots.)

Olivier Laroche

I distinctively remember starting the comic at 1835 because Martin Tiberius Reed was an WILD name! I think I started because xkcd had a banner with his favorite comics.

enchantedsleeper

Wow, I'd forgotten it wasn't technically his original chassis :O (I thought Jeph just changed the way he drew it) I wonder where Marten got that one... Internet Jerry?

Someonelse

Clearly you had been visited by the QC fairy. Or maybe Yay was sending you a mention.

enchantedsleeper

Even after all this time, that's something I still haven't got around to 🤔

enchantedsleeper

Lol, sob

enchantedsleeper

Pintsize is admittedly a bit less goblin (or gremlin, I would say) in these very early strips and a bit more cute. That didn't last for very long though xD

enchantedsleeper

My best friend introduced me to QC, I think it was around 2006 or so? I remember she linked me on MSN to one of the early strips with Marten and Pintsize and then I started reading from the beginning. I think we both followed a few webcomics at the time; Octopus Pie was one of the early ones I read (though didn't stick with), and Girls With Slingshots, though it might have come after QC. There was a pretty good backlog of strips already when I started reading and I remember that I just wanted to read this and a couple of other webcomics all day instead of doing my coursework/exam revision xD So I set up one of those website blockers that would stop me from going on various webcomic sites between certain hours of the day.

Boots McGoot

Aw i'm delighted that you've decided to do this. i hope you've queued them all up, rather than working through your vacation!

Mitsuki Ayane

imagine 10k people rading QC :) ~<3

David Paul

I was introduced to QC through XKCD... which I forget how I got introduced to that, but I think was through a classmate when I was in TAFE (Australian equivalent of community college, I guess). I remember I started after The Breakup, and the forums were still recovering from the purge that you and the mods had to initiate due to all the vitriol that surrounded it. I could tell even then that you hosted a caring community, but didn't take no shit from any asshole.

Lisa

I found QC my senior year of college. I was dating someone who lived in a different dorm, and his floormates kept talking about "QC." I guess they all read it? I didn't want to be the ignorant one, so I googled it, and here I am almost 15 years later still enjoying it very much. I think I started reading during a scene featuring Marigold, somewhere around here: https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1684. She's still one of my favorite characters. The director's commentary is delightful, but Jeph, if you want to take an actual complete break and not post anything at all for a little while, I would support that too! You have more than earned it.

Rodrigo Ourcilleon

The way I discovered QC is very, very odd. I wasn’t reading any webcomic at the time. And QC is the only one that has stood the test of time. So anyway. I was searching for info of one of my favorite black metal bands at the time, Deathspell Omega. And while going through the google images I found this: https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1084 After the initial ”wait wtf?” I just started reading from comic one and my curiosity just told me to keep going. Loved the story and the characters. I’m a metalhead at heart and most of the indie music commentary went right over my head for some years. I still kept reading and enjoying it. So glad I did!

Niamh Feeney

Back in 2003-2005, I had about 30 webcomics that I was reading daily, and a few more that I was reading the archive of. Even then QC stuck out. And I'm glad that it's one of the ones that stuck around, and that I'm still reading now.

BookBeard

August 1st, 2003

Jessica Kotarski

I don’t remember exactly when I found QC, but I’m sure it was around 2008, give or take a year. I did a reread of a decent couple of chunks recently (just a few thousand strips…), and I am still struck by what a master of romantic tension Jeph has become; the Faye/Bubbles and Clinton/Elliot romances are some of my favourite parts of the comic. As someone who used to consider myself a bi guy, it was nice to see Clinton’s journey, even though he does Clinton it up pretty hard during it. Claire also continues to be my favourite redheaded and bespectacled trans woman in a long running webcomic (sorry Carla from Dumbing of Age, I love you too).

Anders Rapp

Jeph! Can we get a date please? When was the first episode published? Anyway I have no idea how I ended up on QC. Might have been via xkcd or similar. Oh and one more question. Can you give some links for other comics you enjoy? I just finished Rice-boy which you mentioned in some strip. It was pretty awesome!

Andrew Meyer

Around 2009 I woke up my computer and someone had left QC in a tab. Good thing I didn’t lock my computer with a password! Decided to start reading it from the beginning and was sucked in immediately.

RaptorShadow

I can't remember when I found QC, but it must have been early because I remember when "the Talk" was a big fuckin' deal.

Atramors

I discovered QC back during quarantine and have caught up and started over several times before finally biting the bullet and subscribing to the patreon, now I get notifications when there's an update to my favorite comic! I still read on the website and am about to start over from the very beginning again so seeing you start Director commentary month with #1 feels very appropriate!

Julie Chan

I have reread the entire thing so many times there's no way I can remember exactly where I started, but it was definitely around 2005 or so. This is the only comic I still read. I love it so much

Mikko Parviainen

I think I started reading QC because it was mentioned in Eric Burns-White’s Websnark. I probably could crawl through web archives to find an approximate date, but, uh, that was a long time ago. Maybe it was around the time Faye got that lemon-coloured dress? Not sure.

BookBeard

It's always January somewhere.

Mandy Hoskins

I found QC in a WILD way - there was a day in ~2008/2009? where Randall Munroe redid the XKCD site to look like a Geocities website - I think it was the day that Geocities shut down? And while I was perusing everything on that wonky-looking webpage, I noticed the links down at the bottom that he had directing to other comics he recommended - which despite having been an xkcd reader for a year or so at that point, I had never actually noticed! One of those comics was Questionable Content! The first ever page I read was the one where Marten's dad's partner proposed to him, which I feel like is a really strange place to step in, haha. But I was curious about the characters, so I read through the whole catalog, and the rest is history!

Chelsea

A friend introduced me to QC in 2009. I was hooked immediately and went back to read it from the beginning. A fond early QC memory: at one point in 2010, I was traveling for a few months. At one point a couple months in, I was having a hard day, so I went to an internet cafe (no globally competent smartphones then, or at least I didn't have one) and paid to sit there for a couple hours and read all the QC strips I had missed for 8 weeks. It improved my day a lot :)

Allan Widner

I started reading when something brought my attention to the "spider coffee" one. I found it so funny ("Stop giving away company secrets! Now all the cafes will be serving spider coffee!" from off-screen Dora just tickled me) that i spent hours reading from the beginning instead of playing WoW for a while.

Veronica Jane

Everyone is talking about how they found the comic and I don't remember exactly but I know with 100% certainty it was through one of those littlittle recommendations lists that webcomics used to have on their front pages. Also: remember when webcomics had websites and didn't just exist on aggregate services or WebToon?

Carl Fink

We're always hiring. Literally.

BookBeard

Combine it with the other holiday traditions and have Bembo and the OMG Turkeys doing commentary on old comics, MST3K style.

Sorastro

Pretty sure I found out because of Something Positive. Directly or indirectly, I don't know.

BookBeard

Okay, nobody tell Marie that Marten and Steve are secretly the same person, Faye was a ghost the whole time and Pintsize killed Dumbledore.

Anastasia Bogdanovski

First found QC on stumbleupon in college over ten years ago. Haven’t missed a day. It’s been the only thing in my life that has been consistent since then.

BookBeard

I still hold out hope that one day we will get more books...

Thomas Halpin

It has been so long that I cannot remember when or why I started reading QC. I do remember that I have never had cause to regret that choice, and that I still look forward to every update. I think it was the Bubbles Memory saga that finally got me to join the patreon, when the suspense was just too much and I couldn't wait for "tomorrow."

James Redekop

I have t-shirts that are older than the comic...

BookBeard

"Oh for Iluvatar's sake, Elrond is talking about that weird comic thing again. Where did I put my pipe weed..."

Two Wheels

A friend pointed me to QC around the time Marten and Claire started dating. It was described as a well written, pro-LGBTQ comic. I started following and found I was eagerly awaiting the next drop. Somewhere along the way, I went back and read from the beginning. It continues to be a consistent highlight of my day.

BookBeard

He got the military chassis with the laser at strip #60 after his original sustained fatal motherboard damage from eating cake batter. https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=60

BookBeard

But is it still the *same* TEH shirt? We know he has at least two, who knows how many more? https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2614

Nessi505

I found it linked at the bottom of the page of XKCD in 2006. Good times!

Pejo

I bought my Teh shirt pretty early on & it's still in pretty good shape 😁

Drazi

I don't remember where I learned of QC. Was it Willis? QoW? Who knows. I'm glad I did though.

Carol Metzger

A friend told me about QC several years ago. Read it, loved it, went all the way back and read from the beginning. Still here. Still wanting to see what comes next in each story arc. You got me, Jeph; I'm irredeemably hooked.

Joseph Loder

I'm looking forward to the flashbacks that will come with Director's Commentary Month, honestly. It's been a long time since I wandered around the archives so I wonder how many of the strips will turn out to be lodged deep in my long term memory just waiting to be triggered.

Taigan

Maybe? One thing about this strip is it’s very unclear how much time has passed in-universe.

Joseph Loder

Honestly at this point that shirt should be full of holes and be bone white. :-P

Cas Wanden

Very genuinely this. I would accept one (1) sidebar Christmas comic, but otherwise I want nothing but COMMENTARY. Give me directember or give me death(møle).

William Cole

Ah, the halcyon days of youth. I wasn't there for QC1, but I hopped on soon after. When the art was still in this early style in any case. It was Jeph's writing that hooked me. Even here at the beginning, characters had their voice. Pintsize is a sex-obsessed chaos goblin. Marten is chill but snarky. It's great that they've been able to develop but to retain their core selves.

GearaDoga

Wow, is it January already??

Halloween Jack

That font reminds me of when the Macintosh came out and I took any and every excuse to use San Francisco, aka the "ransom note" font.

Czarzhan

If I write more than a hundred words in a day, I will transpose the H and E in "the" at least once.

Taigan

Fans who have been around since the beginning: “oh, was Jeph into music? I had no idea!” 🤪

Timothy Roller

That's medical. The fact there isn't a unified documentation system for it says plenty. I see a lot of contract edits that purposefully remove faces as an option for notice.

Not that Patrick Foltz

I work with medical and legal paperwork, I sent a fax yesterday.

Argus

I would love this. Take a break and ramble at me as a creator, please!

Not that Patrick Foltz

I love my 8hrs a day sending emails and applying shipping labels!

Not that Patrick Foltz

Using a pay phone to call a taxi

ValdVin

So, the TEH shirt is the one thing from this which is drawn in the same form?

ValdVin

Running down to the Western Union office?

Calista Jarratt

Wouldn't have missed a panel.

Silver-OPs

gods, i go back and reread the whole comic every couple of years, and it's always so strange but exciting to see how much it changes!

Brian

I never realized when I first read it that you stopped doing the offset panels. I was just so engrossed in the comic I breezed right past that.

David Durant

You mean like Gerard Way 😊

Olaf

I think I will enjoy director's month.

Timothy Roller

Also, LOL sending faxes aged well.

Timothy Roller

I was there, Gandalf. When the first strip was posted, I was there.

Amos Catto

i dare you to do directember every year until you get sick of it (yes instead of comics)

Cozy

🙌💙

Rob Vary

Hmm, I can't quite remember exactly when I started reading. I know it was at least relatively early in Marten and Dora's relationship, so I wanna say circa 2005-2006?

Mad Marie

@Bill: Marten and Dora WHaaa?! No spoilers please! ;-)

Peter McDevitt

QC is so old now it remembers an era when 8 hours inside at a desk was considered a lousy job.

Veronica Jane

As someone who's only ever worked in retail I would *love* to have one of those generic office jobs characters in media all have

Captain Button

A laser capable of emitting a beam of pure antimatter?

Joseph Martinez

I discovered you in 2011, right before I graduated high school. Not trying to make you feel old, but ever since then this has been a staple of my day to day basically ever since. As someone who didn't have access the net outside a library, your comic opened me up to an ecosystem of comic media I never would have encountered otherwise. Thank you for many years of Arting!!!

Not that Patrick Foltz

You could buy the books, it's not all the strips but...

Bill Silvia

I know I started about 10 years into the run and I believe Marten and Dora broke up right around the time I caught up to the present day.

Neil Fairweather

The vertical format just seemed a natural adaptation to the medium. I accepted it with John Allison's comics and wouldn't have raised an eyebrow with it here... and yes, I found this comic about a month after it started. I'm a year younger tblhan you, and in a few months, I will have been reading this comic for half my life.

Mollie M

Also, I’m sure this is not what Jeph wants to spend his precious time doing but I would *absolutely* buy a directors commentary version of the whole dang run. Maybe one day when he’s happily retired ❤️

Not that Patrick Foltz

No laser in that chassis

Not that Patrick Foltz

Sending Faxes? Licking envelopes? What is this, 2003?

Cancertopia

I like to go back to the first comic sometimes to compare to the art now and everytime it both blows my mind to have watched your art progress and also fills me with nostalgia for the first time I read the comic. The talent was always there. Your skill upgrades over the years have been a real pleasure to watch in real time

Daryl Sawyer

I wish I could remember what section I started with. I haven't been here since the beginning, but I've definitely been here a while.

Mollie M

This is not criticism, this is just a comment: wow, that font. At first I thought marten said Idoitie people and it took me a second…

ol' Alex J

Rock star cartoonist, pretty cool niche imo

Ryan DeWeerd

Watch out for his laser!

pseudoclever

Enjoying these extra because they mean Jeph is resting

Zack Hoffman

It's been fun! I still need to go back and finish rereading all the early comics from before the late aughts when I started reading. And I'm not going anywhere, can't wait to see the new stuff in the new year.

Ryan DeWeerd

One of the few webcomics that I've been reading since the beginning that's still around. Hope you enjoy this well deserved break and looking forward to seeing what random comics come up next for commentary!

Luis Rebelo

Awww memories...

Shawn K. Younkin

Soooo happy for you Jeph! I started reading around the time Claire was introduced and I think I saw the comic where she got naked in front of Martin for the first time on 9gag. Then I read the whole series a few times and here I am today!