I Like It When People Are Nicknamed “Sparky”
Saw a link recently on Jennie Breeden’s site, leading me to a new-ish comic called A Girl And Her Fed. Interesting premise — the Girl (no name given) is a target of surveillance by the Fed (likewise) for being a bit noise-ity. The Fed’s a decent kind of guy, though, and he and the Girl decide that they probably have more in common with each other than with their respective colleagues (his) and lack-of-friends (hers).
Add to the fact that the Girl’s hallucination of Ben Franklin (an old recurring acid flashback, or something else?) is also visible to the Fed, and the Fed’s in-head mind-control chip interface (which looks like Dubya) crashes when around Ben, allowing the Fed to keep his thoughts private … oh, did I forget to mention the Pocket President™? Yeah, it seems most of the federal agents who had them implanted have wound up eating their guns, and the Girl and the Fed decide to get to the bottom of what may be a fairly nasty conspiracy. Also, very, very drunk.
The art is ultra-simplistic, by choice of creator (a lady by the name of Otter); with few distinguishing characteristics, or even names, the Girl and the Fed could be stand-ins for anybody. Fortunately, the writing is clever enough to keep the reader’s interest while getting used to it. And I wonder if there’s a reason that Pocket President™ Bush is the only character with visible eyes? The various Feds naturally all have dark glasses, Ben has his spectacles, and everybody else (even the dogs) has eyebrows without eyes. It’s curiously effective at providing facial expressions.
All in all, a strip with some interesting story potential (Otter is particularly not making the Fed, or even the government he works for, a black-and-white villian … he’s a decent guy doing a job he doesn’t particularly like). It’s worth keeping an eye on, if only because the Girl and the Fed desperately need all the eyes they can get.
Charles Schultz was nicknamed Sparky.
By Lucas TdS on 08.17.06 2:16 pm
This is crazy, because Otter was totally a friend of mine back in college! She’s way rad.
Other webcomics folk I went to school with: Death to the Extremist, One Man Knife Fight (currently on hiatus)
By j.jacques on 08.18.06 2:27 am
We nicknamed the dog Sparky.
By Jeff Lowrey on 08.18.06 5:24 am
This was a good find. I think it might be tossed onto my comics reading list.
By Matt Buchwald on 08.18.06 7:46 am
Jeph, where the hell did you go to school? Crazy Webcomics College?
By Jon on 08.18.06 10:08 am
Crazy Webcomics College?
That makes sense. “Hampshire” comes from the Old English “Hamtunscir”, and refers to an English breed of sheep or a U.S. breed of pig.
So yes, the connection seems clear.
By Michael Kinyon on 08.18.06 12:03 pm
This is a very cool webcomic, it is nice to see that you found it too.
By SSG Geezer on 08.18.06 4:05 pm
[…] Speaking of politics, not many webcomics do; oh, sure, there will be the occasional injection of such, but a full-bore, long-term, story-oriented (as opposed to what’s happening in the world today?) approach, not so much. One webcomic that devotes itself pretty much exclusively to political ideas is A Girl And Her Fed, of which we’ve spoken previously. […]
By Fleen: Written by bitter, haggard wordbeasts » She’s A Good Gal, ‘Cause She Always Does What She Otter! Ah, I Got A Million Of ‘Em! on 11.15.06 2:42 pm
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