Real Life (comic)
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Real Life is a web comic drawn and authored by Greg Dean. Begun on November 15 1999 and published on weekdays, the comic is loosely based around the real lives of Greg and his friends (hence the name).
'Loosely' ranges from verbatim quotes to completely ludicrous events including time travel and mecha combat. Unsurprisingly, the characters tend to be rather heavily exaggerated versions of their actual selves. Real Life focuses on humor related to video games, science fiction, and other such "nerd humor", and the spreader of various memes such as "Fuego" and "ShirtNinja".
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Characters
Major characters
- Greg - The main character of the strip, and a fictional representation of the author of the comic. Tends to be a bit of a dingbat at times, and tends to act before he thinks things through. However, it's more of a product of a naïveté than anything else. Greg seems to constantly switch roles between being the voice of reason and the one in need of one. He also very fond of Pepsi cola, to the point of it being an addiction. From time to time, Greg will appear as his not-so-secret alter ego the Shirt Ninja.
- Tony - The comic's resident wannabe evil overlord. Has made many attempts over the course of the comic's existence to take over the world, and has even succeeded a couple of times. Think of any technological achievement made in the past two years, and Tony did it 5 years ago, and made it out of bubble gum, spare hard drive parts, and a DivX player. He's almost like a cross between MacGyver and Dr. Evil. Tony is often the fulcrum on which most of Real Life's more farfetched story lines revolve. His character is presented in such a way so that the readers start to believe that the real life Tony might just have a dimension-hopping TV remote or a cloning machine lying around the house. Has a not-so-secret identity counterpoint to Greg's Shirt Ninja called the Black Pants Samurai, only seen once.
- Dave - Resident powergamer and supernerd. Play him in Quake 3 and he'll own you, no questions asked. While the person he's based on is currently in the Navy, that doesn't stop Dave from showing up and adding some of his cynical, nerdy point of view to a strip. Dave rivals Tony in technical ability. However, whereas Tony seems to be a genius in all subjects, Dave's genius seems to lie mostly in computers. In one of the earlier comic strips, Dave upgraded his computer into a sentient being. The computer went on to become a minor character in the strip, and was joined over time by several other technologically improved computers and consoles.
- Crystal - Greg's girlfriend when the strip started, but they broke up in 2000. She is no longer mentioned or appears in the strip, but was an integral part of the first year of the strip. She ended up with a supercomputer that was infected by an evil AI version of Tony.
- Liz - Greg's wife, and an avid cosplayer. Has a fizzy, bubbly personality, and tends to be the only one in the strip with a level head. She was engaged, and later married, to Greg in early 2005.
- The Cartoonist - Cartoonist Greg doesn't appear all that often, but when he does, he's usually an omnipotent force screwing with the lives of his cartoon creations. He also occasionally appears in the strip himself, to either make an announcement or to complain about a lack of ideas for the strip, usually blaming it on a robot malfunctioning.
Minor characters
Some characters have not shown up more than a few times in the comic, whether it be that Greg never knew the person long enough for them to be in the comic for long, or that he never found a place for them to be in the comic. Ben, Cliff, and Lena, additions to the cast made in early 2004, are listed in here, and while they are still used from time to time, they are not as established as the above characters.
- Cliff - Clothed in his alien smiley-face T-shirt, Cliff is probably the closest to being a regular character of any of the new additions. He currently lives with Greg and Liz, and is probably the least nerdy of all the characters.
- Ben - Has appeared less than five times, but is notable in that his first appearance, he was punched in the face by Greg, much to the delight of many of the forum regulars. Whenever he's been shown in the strip, he's been portrayed as a bit of a jerk.
- Lena - Ben's girlfriend, and a big anime nut. Provides a lot of anime for Greg. Has only appeared in a few strips as well.
- Adam - Ask Adam for a program, and he'll give you that program along with a few older versions of it for kicks. Suffered a hard drive format when Greg asked him to hack Jack in the Box's corporate headquarters. In addition he appears to be Greg's sparring partner when it comes to the Magic card game.
- Alan Extra - Any time there is a need for a character in the background or a random person in the comic, Alan is there. He's been in quite a few comics. A brief story arc went into his origins however Alan remains, for the most part, a versatile character who can be put into any role.
- Lizzy - Was introduced into the comic by means of character audition. Coincidentally, she was rarely seen afterwards.
- PAL - Dave's computer. Pal was upgraded and became sentient early on in the comic. He has relatively little character development and serves more often as a plot device in a story arc. Early on in the strip Pal was connected together with a Dreamcast gaming system. PAL upgraded the system and it too became aware. Since then the two have been partners. However their relation is rather odd. PAL being extremely intelligent and for the most part serious while the Dreamcast is more naïve. This makes the two of them seem similar to Pinky and the Brain or Pooch and Percival of Sinfest.
External links
- Real Life - The Online Comic (http://www.reallifecomics.com/)
- Real Life Forums (http://www.reallifeforums.com/)