General Protection Fault

Overall score:

by Jeffrey T. Darlington
http://www.gpf-comics.com

One Sentence Synopsis: A geek-based comic that doesn't require you to be a geek to enjoy.

Art:
Category: Traditional Comic Strip
The art in GPF looks very much like your traditional newspaper comic strip. In fact, the whole look of comic practically screams out "Put me in print!" The black-and-white daily strips are easily as good as any major newspaper comic, and when GPF eventually gets to full-color Sundays, it definitely beats out anything in the Sunday newspaper.

Story:
Category: Continuous
For the first couple of years, the GPF story seems to meander pleasantly. The storylines all go for one or two weeks, then move on to some other joke. However, in late 2001, you find out that all the strange happenings and amusing characters are actually part of one dramatic story. Well, okay, probably Jeff just found a way to work in all the quirky stuff and tie it together, but we can still pretend. By the start of 2002, GPF nearly abandons all joke-a-day pretenses and hits the character drama hard. Fortunately, it manages to find other ways to make you smile.

Humor:
Category: Situational
The humor is one of the most unique things about GPF. Right from Day 1 of the archives, you think you're going to get a comic about geek culture, since the main characters are uber-geek hacker/programmers. Those jokes do pop up, naturally, but I was suprised to discover that the real humor of the comic is all character-driven. In fact, my favorite part of the archives is still the subtly entertaining sexual tension between two of the main characters. It was far better than anything the writers of "Friends" ever came up with, and far more satisfying when it was finally resolved.

The only shortcoming of the comic's humor is that it's never laugh-out-loud hilarious. While the jokes range from clever wordplays to absurd alien abductions, nothing ever made me just stop and laugh. Where some webcomics are like watching a stand-up comedian, GPF is more like sitting at home with an old friend, sharing anecdotes you thought you'd forgotten.

Frequency: For the first year or two, it's 6 days a week, like clockwork. Eventually he adds full-color Sundays, too.

Website/extras: There's loads of stuff on the website. Community sections, dowloads, cast profiles, "Behind the Scenes," and a whole slew of extra goodies. Definitely enough to feed a rabid fanbase.

Overall:

Content: PG. Mostly. I think. There's some innuendo and occasional foreplay, but nothing crude. The sparse violence is never graphic or excessive. Swear words are few and far between.

3 reasons to read General Protection Fault:
1) You like comics with geeky characters, an interesting story, and romantic humor.
2) You think other webcomics are too weird, but the newspaper comics are too dull.
3) You're fascinated by talking slime molds.

3 reasons not to read General Protection Fault:
1) You only like webcomics that are edgy or feature really bizarre humor.
2) You need laugh hysterically at each strip or you aren't satisfied.
3) You don't like comics that change from humor-driven to dramatic storylines.

As I mentioned when talking about the humor, GPF is a very mellow sort of silly. Perhaps that's only compared to other webcomics, though; when compared to mainstream newspaper comics, GPF can get nonsensical with the best of them. Mold that becomes sentient (and starts teaching online college courses), or a talking, poetry-spouting bear are some good examples. But goofiness aside, the thing that really drew me in to GPF was the fantastic character interaction. I talked a little about the sexual tension between Nick, the main character, and Ki, a female coworker. Talking about it just doesn't do it justice, however. Maybe it's just that I can relate to nerds feeling romantic hesitation, but their communicational near-misses always kept me itching for more. I was afraid that when Nick and Ki finally hooked up, the comic would lose its relationship interest. Much to my delight, Jeff managed to make it even better. Of course, right around that time when Nick and Ki are happy together and everything is resolved with all the characters, the Supreme Evil tries to take over the world.

One thing I couldn't help but notice was the number of crossovers GPF did. Sure, most webcomics do an occasional crossover with another comic, and everyone has at least one guest week; but GPF just seems to have a LOT of crossovers. I get the feeling Jeff must be a really friendly guy online, because I can't imagine he knows all those webcomic artists in real life. Or maybe he does, and he's just a really friendly guy all-around. Either way, I have to admit I found most of the crossovers to be fairly annoying, especially when trying to read through the archives. Not knowing the characters from these other comics, I found that I didn't get most of the jokes, and I had to flip to the other comic to read the other half of the story.

Other than the gratuitous crossovers, there's nothing I don't like about GPF. This is one of the few webcomics where the main characters all show growth over the various story arcs. The characters all go from simple sketches to humanized, charismatic personalities that the audience can easily care for. The early years are full of great humor, and when the story takes a dramatic turn, Jeff doesn't forget to keep making you smile.


Sample strips:

Code-a-holics

Fred the slime mold

The camping trip (read the whole story for the talking bear)

Not your average alien abduction

Written by Tage on September 10th, 2002