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Real Life (webcomic)
Encyclopedia
Real Life is a webcomic
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. 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 "geek humor", although in recent times Dean has been finding less time for video games and as such has been directing his comic slightly away from that. Though by name it claims to be based on real life, the characters live lives very much of their own and are best known for breaking the fourth wall. Real Life is also a major spreader of various meme
s such as "Fuego", "ShirtNinja" and "The Game
".
Real Life was originally part of Keenspot
. After venturing out on its own Real Life joined Blank Label Comics
collective on June 22, 2005, but due to lack of involvement with the group, went solo again on February 8, 2010. The Real Life website is currently hosted by Phillip Karlsson's Dumbrella
Hosting service.
The comic is in English, but there also exists a German translation for parts of the archive.
Year one of Real Life is available on paperback ISBN 0-9746966-2-5.
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....
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
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
and mecha
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
combat. The characters tend to be rather heavily exaggerated versions of their actual selves. Real Life focuses on humor related to video games, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, and other such "geek humor", although in recent times Dean has been finding less time for video games and as such has been directing his comic slightly away from that. Though by name it claims to be based on real life, the characters live lives very much of their own and are best known for breaking the fourth wall. Real Life is also a major spreader of various meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
s such as "Fuego", "ShirtNinja" and "The Game
The Game (mind game)
The Game is a mental game where the objective is to avoid thinking about The Game itself. Thinking about The Game constitutes a loss, which, according to the rules of The Game, must be announced each time it occurs. It is impossible to win most versions of The Game; players can only attempt to...
".
Real Life was originally part of Keenspot
Keenspot
Keenspot is a webcomics portal founded in March 2000 by cartoonist Chris Crosby , Crosby's mother Teri, cartoonist Darren Bleuel , and Nathan Stone.-History:...
. After venturing out on its own Real Life joined Blank Label Comics
Blank Label Comics
Blank Label Comics is a collective of web comics whose creators have banded together for mutual assistance and promotion. The Blank Label Comics website officially went online on May 23, 2005.All of the comics had previously been hosted on Keenspot...
collective on June 22, 2005, but due to lack of involvement with the group, went solo again on February 8, 2010. The Real Life website is currently hosted by Phillip Karlsson's Dumbrella
Dumbrella
Dumbrella is an alliance of webcomic artists who promote one another's sites, travel to conventions, and sell merchandise together. It is also the name of the website of that alliance, which serves as a shared weblog and an active forum community with over 10,000 registered users .The current...
Hosting service.
The comic is in English, but there also exists a German translation for parts of the archive.
Year one of Real Life is available on paperback ISBN 0-9746966-2-5.
Major characters
- Greg (Gregory David Dean) - The main character of the strip, and a fictional representation of the author of the comic. Tends to be a bit of a wingnut at times, and tends to act before he thinks things through; however, his actions are primarily a product of a naïveté. Greg seems to constantly switch roles between being the voice of reason and the voice in need of reason. He is also very fond of PepsiPepsiPepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
cola, to the point of addiction, going so far as to import Mexican Pepsi because it contains real sugar instead of corn syrup. Greg sometimes appears as his not-so-secret alter ego the Shirt Ninja, speaking in Japanese and carrying his own subtitles. He used to work as a fuel jock at a small airport, but has recently graduated from culinary school. He previously lived in Sacramento and Rancho Cordova, both CACaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, but moved to San Francisco - and moved again to Lockhart, TX, but recently moved back to the California Area, where he is once again roommates with Dave and Tony. - Elizabeth "Liz" Dean (née Van Buskirk) - Greg's wife, and an avid cosplayCosplay, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
er. She started out as "Lizzy" to avoid confusion between the "Liz" he had already put in the comic and this new Liz. Eventually, the old Liz was phased out and now the new one is called Liz. She 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 comic mainly features Greg and/or Liz these days. - Tony Flansaas - The comic's resident 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 even a number that won't come around for decades yet—Tony did it 5 years ago, and made it out of bubblegum, spare hard drive parts, and a DivXDivXDivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the...
player too. He's almost like a cross between MacGyverMacGyverMacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
and Dr. EvilDr. EvilDr. Evil is a fictional character, played by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers film series. He is the antagonist of the movies, and Austin Powers' nemesis. He is a parody of James Bond villains, primarily Donald Pleasence's Ernst Stavro Blofeld . Dr...
. Tony is often the fulcrum on which most of Real Life's more far-fetched 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 BattleMech, dimension-hopping TV remote or a cloning machine lying around the house. His most recent achievement was a space station called "DS-1", which stands for Death Station 1 however, this station was destroyed in late 2008. He has a not-so-secret identity counterpoint to Greg's Shirt Ninja called the Black Pants SamuraiSamuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, only seen in one storyline thus far: he speaks via bad voice acting (and presumably atrocious lip-synching). - Dave Reynolds - Resident powergamer and supernerd. Play him in Quake III ArenaQuake III ArenaQuake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
and he'll pwn you, no questions asked. While the real Dave's currently in the NavyUnited States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, that doesn't stop him 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, PAL, went on to become a minor character in the strip, and was joined over time by several other technologically improved computers and consoles. His iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
apparently holds every Backstreet BoysBackstreet BoysThe Backstreet Boys are an American vocal group, formed in Orlando, Florida in 1993. The band originally consisted of A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson. They rose to fame with their debut international album, Backstreet Boys...
album made. - Crystal - Greg's girlfriend when the strip started, but they broke up in 2001. 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 AIArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
version of Tony. - 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 appears in the strip to make an announcement, to answer questions that readers occasionally send him or to complain about a possible lack of ideas for the strip. His appearance is differentiated from Comic Greg by a change of colours (light brown overshirt, black tee with white stripes), and slightly shaggy hair. He sometimes appears with a goatee. On September 22, 2006, The Cartoonist appeared during a series of comics taking place in the "real" world. During this time, his appearance was that of the author, Greg Dean or Real Greg as he is referred by the comic fans, using a combination of digital pictures and drawn comic characters. This storyline also led to the change of character wardrobe; as Cartoonist Greg was wearing a red sweater and blue shirt when Tony 'visited' him, that's what Real Life Greg wore for a time before the move to Lockhart - a sweater/shirt combo didn't go down too well in the searing Texan heat, so he's switched back to his open shirt/tee and shorts get-up.
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.- Adam Compton - 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 BoxJack in the BoxJack in the Box is an American fast-food restaurant founded by Robert O. Peterson in 1951 in San Diego, California, where it is still headquartered today. In total, the chain has 2,200 locations, primarily serving the West Coast of the United States...
's corporate headquarters. In addition he appears to be Greg's sparring partner in the Magic the Gathering 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 even went into his origins. All the same, Alan remains, for the most part, a versatile character who can be put into any role. An introspective into his RL career in the comic showed that his contract bears a salary of precisely zero dollars. He held out for a raise at one point, and accepted an increase of 200% - effectively tripling his wage to precisely zero dollars. Has appeared with so many hair colours over the years, it's a wonder his scalp hasn't disintegrated from all the dyes.
- 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.
- Cliff Hicks - Clothed in his alien three-eyed smiley-face T-shirt (a reference to the comic Transmetropolitan), Cliff is probably the closest to being a regular character of any of the new additions. Cliff also has his own webcomicWebcomicWebcomics, 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....
, Dr. Devious vs. Lincoln High. He often acts as their dungeon master for RPGs, usually resulting in success in rolling for an extremely unlikely event, such as killing a dragon with a kick or intimidating a djinn. - Debbie - Tony's partner. Just as evil, but keeps it well hidden by being cute. Has an Evangelion (mecha)Evangelion (mecha)In the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise, , are the fictional mecha piloted by the Children chosen by the Marduk Institute . The Evas were created by Nerv. Their principal purpose is defending Tokyo-3 from the Angels...
unit under the house, and would have kicked Tony's BattleMech all over if she's had a longer extension cable. Appeared in the strip in a puff of smoke when Cartoonist Greg couldn't be bothered to write an introductory plot. - 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.
- Elizabeth "Liz" - Not to be confused with other Liz, Greg's wife. It was coincidental that the two girls he introduced into the comic after Crystal were both named Liz. (The latter of course, is based on the cartoonist's wife.) Liz was introduced into the comic by means of character audition; ironically, she got the gig because she was late, as a result of playing the (at the time) newly-released Devil May CryDevil May Cryis an action game developed and published by Capcom, released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2. Although it is the first game in the series of the same name, the events in Devil May Cry are second in the series storyline's chronological order, taking place after Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and...
, and getting sidetracked. As of January 24, 2002 Liz became the current ruler of the world after replacing Tony, who got bored with all of the bureaucracy involved with the job. Coincidentally, she was rarely seen afterward. Today Liz is attending school majoring in World Studies and Domination. Her graduation is consistently delayed by classes being routinely overthrown. - 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 BrainPinky and the BrainPinky and the Brain is an American animated television series.The characters Pinky and the Brain first appeared in 1993 as a recurring segment on the show Animaniacs...
or Pooch and Percival of SinfestSinfestSinfest is a webcomic written and drawn by Japanese-American comic strip artist Tatsuya Ishida. The first strip as a webcomic appeared on January 17, 2000, although the very first strip appeared in print on October 16, 1991 in the UCLA newspaper, Daily Bruin, while Ishida attended UCLA. A new strip...
. On February 22, 2007 PAL was integrated into Tony's space station as the central tasking unit. Pal has a habit of giving sentienceSentienceSentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
to any computer on the network, including game consoles. After he was integrated into Tony's space station, he also turned their PlayStation 3PlayStation 3The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, WiiWiiThe Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
s sentient, just like the Dreamcast. Following the destruction of the Tony's space station, PAL downloaded himself into Dave's brain, and later uploaded himself onto a new computer system by controlling Dave's vocal chords into making dial-up modem like sounds into the systems microphone. - C.I.A Agent - The CIA agent has appeared on a few occasions, every time he has had a vendetta against Tony, He first appeared around the time of Greg's wedding to arrest Tony, Dean and Greg for the evil Tony had caused, and almost brought the whole wedding event to a standstill. There have been a few story arcs based around this C.I.A agent trying to catch Tony. The most recent was when the Agent was on his way to infiltrate Tony's Space Station, which resulted in him destroying the station, and presumably dying in the explosion.
Awards
- Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards:
- 2001: Won for Best Reality Comic.
- 2003: Tied for Best Reality Comic with Nowhere GirlNowhere GirlNowhere Girl is an adult fiction webcomic by Justine Shaw, named after a song written by British futurist band B-Movie in 1982. The comic was originally planned to be in five parts, but only two of them have been completed thus far; plans to complete the comic have been shelved by the author,...
.
Nominated for Best Technical Achievement, Best Original Digital Art, Best Gaming Comic and Best Gag Comic. - 2004: Won for Best Reality Comic.
- 2005: Tied for Best Reality Comic with The Devil's PantiesThe Devil's PantiesThe Devil's Panties is a webcomic created by Jennie Breeden.-Overview:It is based widely on her own life experiences and interactions with other people...
.
Collected editions
- Real Life: The Year One Collection. Starline Multimedia Inc. 2004-08-25. ISBN 0974696625 ISBN 978-0974696621
- Real Life: The Greg's Notes Edition. Lulu. 2008