The Polymer City Chronicles
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Copyright 1994-2007 C.Morrison

The Polymer City Chronicles FAQ

This FAQ will answer a few questions that routinely pop up with new readers, but it's by no means complete, and more questions will be added as they're asked.

Q: Ok, dude...seriously, what's the deal with all the buff chicks?
A: This goes back to when I first started doing webcomics back in 1995. At the time, I was still reading a decent amount of comic books (which I stopped reading in 1996). I was looking for an angle that would separate my art from the countless other spandex-stuffers out there, and the angle I chose was women with muscle...I figured that if these women were gonna be heroic, they should at least look that way. I also wanted to create characters that played against type; typically, muscular women in comics (and in everyday life) are too often depicted as brutish, masculine thugs. What I wanted to do is not create characters that were muscular for muscularity's sake, but rather everyday people that just happened to have problems buying off-the-rack clothing. These are characters that are less likely to use their strength for fear of permanently damaging someone as opposed to just smacking someone over the head with a telephone pole just because they said something rude. Back on topic, PCC's roster is full of women of a wide variety of shapes and body types, and with more characters on the way this assortment will become even more varied.
Q: What made you decide to ditch the gag-a-day format to go with a serial story?
A: This happened entirely by accident. At first, when PCC was a video-game-humor-based comic, the characters weren't much more than an odd bunch of placeholders for the gags to bounce off of. But as the months passed, more and more fan mail came in asking questions about the characters and their cultures and histories, so as I rapidly found myself running out of video game material (you can really only tell the same three jokes so may ways), I decided to change the strip's focus and try to create something that would be just as relevant 20 years from now as it might be today. The first serial story was colloquially known as 'The Urusa Storyline' and began on July 2nd, 2001.
Q: So what the hell happened? Why did you work on a storyline for over a year and then suddenly pull the plug?
A: Most of this is explained during the course of the strip, but truthfully, nobody was more disappointed than I was. The bottom line is that times were tough, money was scarce, and I had to take on a second job. I was faced with the prospect of killing the strip entirely or shifting gears to accomodate my then 60-hour work week. With each strip taking around 8 hours to complete, I was working the equivalent of two full-time jobs, and I wasn't able to keep up with the demands of the storyline, so on October 24th, 2002, I went back to the gag-a-day format and scaled back updates from three times a week to two. It was a regrettable decision, but one that couldn't have been avoided. Still, the groundwork for some of the PCC universe was laid down in that unfinished storyline, and currently is being built upon.
Q: So, what exactly happenend to Urusa, then?
A: Find me a movie studio willing to back the project and you'll find out. :)
Q: Explain why Master Eldion looks exactly like Ahrpigi?
A: The Urusa storyline was essentially a 'movie set' with the characters playing roles and re-enacting events that had past. Master Eldion was cast as Ahrpigi, a role that meant a lot to him.
Q: So now you're doing ANOTHER story?
A: Yes, though it's far smaller in scope than the Urusa storyline.
Q: Ok, big is big, but you gotta admit...Lindy's chest is INSANE.
A: No arguments there. Lindy has a mild case of Body Dimorphic Disorder (BDD), more commonly referred to as an addiction to plastic surgery. Used to being in the spotlight, she's willing to do a lot to stay there, even to the point of excessive cosmetic alteration.
Q: What's the deal with Mistress Laura, Flint, and Locke?
A: After Laura's sudden and rather tragic death (she was run down by HARV), her psyche split into the three base parts: id, ego, and superego. Flint and Locke are twin shadowdragons that manifested from a pair of matching tattoos on her shoulders, hence they are quite literally her right (and left) hand men. Though the three are indeed part of the same consciousness, as spectral manifestations of Laura's psyche they each have their own identity, and Laura often sends Flint and Locke to do her gruntwork. Flint is silent and unspeaking, assuming the role of id: whatever Laura wants, he expedites in whatever fashion he can. Locke plays the role of superego, the voice of caution and conscience, often weighing the potential outcome of Laura's machinations far before she sets her plans into motion. Laura herself acts as the ego, the core personality that maintains the balance between the bickering id and superego, bringing the whole of the three into a unified focus whenever possible. Usually that focus is creating problems for the mortal world.
Q: Are the Urusai cat people or what?
A: They're more caprine (goat) than anything, though they do have some feline aesthetics about them, mostly in the facial features. Male Urusai are rams, females are ewes, and children are kids, fittingly enough.
Q: So PCC is a 'furry' strip?
A: If you want to classify it that way, sure. I've discovered that PCC's been classified as a great many things by different fan groups, and that's fine by me; I'll take any fans I can get.
Q: What time period does Polymer City exist in?
A: The near-future. Exactly how near is up to the reader.
Q: Who were you influenced by, artistically?
A: I was heavily influenced by 80's animation houses like DIC and Filmation, but if I were to point to one individual who was responsible for my style as it is today, that person would be Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, An American Tail, Titan AE). A lot of what I learned about figure drawing was based on character sketches of Dirk the Daring, and reference to his works and style can be found in various points during the course of the strip. Of course, anime has had some small influence on my visual design insofar as certain characters are concerned, and my color theory was influenced in large part by the Unreal Tournament series of games.
Q: Will PCC have a definite end?
A: Maybe, but not anytime soon. I have enough stories to last me 30 years at the current twice-a-week-update schedule, and plenty more that may never be told.

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