Real Life (webcomic)

Real Life is a webcomic drawn and authored by Greg Dean. Begun on November 15, 1999 and currently published on an irregular schedule (though historically on weekdays), the comic is loosely based around the real lives of Dean 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 memes such as "Fuego", "Shirt Ninja" 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.^[1] The Real Life website is currently self-hosted by Mr. Dean.

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.

Characters

Major characters

• Greg (Gregory David Dean^[2]) - 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 Pepsi 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 CA, but moved to San Francisco - and moved again to Lockhart, TX,^[3] 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 cosplayer; most of the strips have her acting as straight man in contrast to Greg's antics. 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. Liz and Greg married in March 2005 and their daughter Harper was born in 2011. Baby Harper has since become a recurring character and a frequent reason for delayed updates from the cartoonist.
• 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 DivX player too. He's almost like a cross between MacGyver and Dr. Evil. 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. Since returning to Earth Tony has built an underground lair beneath Greg's home where he once again devotes full-time to inventions, having produced a working replica TARDIS and hopes to complete a fully functional USS Enterprise in the not-too-distant future.
• Dave Reynolds - Resident powergamer and supernerd. Play him in Quake III Arena and he'll own you, no questions asked. While the real Dave's currently in the Navy, 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 iPod apparently holds every 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 AI 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.
• Harper Dean - a daughter of Greg and Liz. Born in July 29, 2011.

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 Box'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 webcomic, 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) 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 Cry, 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 Brain or Pooch and Percival of Sinfest. On February 22, 2007 PAL was integrated into Tony's space station as the central tasking unit. Pal has a habit of giving sentience to any computer on the network, including game consoles. After he was integrated into Tony's space station, he also turned their PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and iPods 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 cords into making dial-up modem like sounds into the system's 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.

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Awards

• Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards:
  • 2001: Won for Best Reality Comic.
  • 2003: Tied for Best Reality Comic with Nowhere Girl.
    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 Panties.

Collected editions

• Real Life: The Year One Collection. Starline Multimedia Inc. 2004-08-25. ISBN 0-9746966-2-5 ISBN 978-0974696621
• Real Life: The Greg's Notes Edition. Lulu. 2008

References

External sources

• Real Life - The Online Comic