Pictures for Sad Children

Pictures for Sad Children is a webcomic by John Campbell which began in 2007. The comic, first focusing on the adventures of Paul, "who is a ghost,"^[1] has since branched out to introduce other characters, such as Gary, whom Paul is forced to train at a call center after Paul initially lost his job because he was dead.^[2][3] Gary then became the main character and other characters were introduced including Gary's cousin Sara, her husband Afsheen, and their daughter Maddy. The Gary storyline was abandoned after strip 226 and the comic now primarily deals with stand-alone strips.^[4] Pictures for Sad Children also was a finalist in the 2008 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards (WCCA) as an Outstanding Newcomer.^[5] Campbell's LiveJournal page, http://stereotypist.livejournal.com, was featured in their Spotlight section at the end of September 2007.

Style of humor

The style of humor in Pictures for Sad Children is mostly dark, incorporating elements of magic realism. The strip is largely story-driven, with most comics lacking a punchline—and, when a punchline is present, it is not usually a joke in the strictest sense. Each comic also has alt-text, which serves as each individual comic's title and, typically, an alternate punchline.

Characters

• Gary, was the main character and protagonist. He works at an office that takes call center overflow. He has very low self-esteem and possibly a social anxiety disorder.^[6]
• Paul Cho^[7], a ghost who was hit by a car running a red light.^[1] He formerly worked in accounting, but was made an employee intake coordinator after his death. He ended up training Gary and (somewhat) befriending him, but left the strip briefly after repossessing his twenty thousand dollar computer and destroying it.^[7] He was seen occasionally returning for brief periods before finally ending his year of haunting on earth.^[8] After residing in a hotel room serving as Hell, he found a way into Gary's deceased flatmate, Jeremy, and is currently using Jeremy's body.^[9] Sara, Afsheen, and Maddy live in his old house.^[7] He is half-Asian.^[10] Paul only appeared as a traditional ghost because he wore a sheet over his head in an attempt to look ghostly.^[11]
• Jeremy, Gary's hermitic roommate. He avoided direct contact with Gary (and, presumably, all people) at all costs, though he still talked to Gary through closed doors. He recently died ^[12] and spent some time as Paul's roommate in hell until Paul inhabited Jeremy's corpse.^[13]
• Sara, Gary's cousin. She suffers from hallucinations and once ate a dead man's entire weight in candy, after which she regurgitated the man, now alive. She once worked at a testing facility which made her dead for a few hours, after which she would have to fill out extensive paperwork. She sometimes does not take her medicine.
• Afsheen, Sara's husband, whom she met at an allergy convention. He works two jobs, both of which he hates terribly, to help support his wife and daughter.
• Maddy, Sara and Afsheen's daughter, who is extremely sensitive to sunlight, possibly because her parents met at an allergy convention. She wears a pillowcase around whenever possible and is angered when she cannot. She acts much older than she actually is, and holds a low opinion of the Internet and the people on it, an opinion that was influenced by Paul.
• Mariana, Gary's coworker and ex-girlfriend.
• Simon, Mariana's ex-boyfriend, who is jealous of Gary and Mariana's relationship.

The author

John Campbell began publishing Pictures for Sad Children while living in Zacatecas, Mexico, but he has since moved to Chicago. He holds a close relationship with Ryan North, author of Dinosaur Comics, to the point where he has made an unnamed cameo and a guest comic, as well as a fan comic.^[14] The authors of A Softer World, Hark! A Vagrant and Dresden Codak have also made guest comics^[15]. He has a links page which includes single-panel interpretations of his favorite comics (with a link to the comic in particular) in his personal art style.

On September 30, 2009, several weeks after abandoning the main story arc of the comic, he announced that he had published his first book. The book itself is soft cover and features the first 200 comics of http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com/, which follows the storyline of Gary.

References