Sinfest

Sinfest is a webcomic written and drawn by Japanese-American comic strip artist Tatsuya Ishida. The first strip appeared on January 17, 2000. A new strip is published often (not always daily) on the Sinfest website.

Sinfest in Print

According to the "Futility Watch" on the website, Sinfest has been rejected by syndicates eleven times as of June 3, 2005. This is due to Ishida's refusal to cater to a broad audience: he uses profanity and broaches controversial topics such as religion and sexuality frequently and with few restrictions. (The great visual similarity between the main character and Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes fame is also likely a factor.) Despite this, the strip is not immature: the characters often have interesting insights on the issues they approach. Sinfest has appeared in print recently in the form of anthology books, entitled "Sinfest" and "Life is My Bitch".

In Norway, it is surprisingly enough published in a commercial magazine, Nemi. Unlike the web version it is colored before printing (in addition to being translated)- and the daily "slogan" is cropped.

Features

Humor

The humor ranges from clean and pure (Pooch and Percival strips) to crude and vulgar (usually whenever Squigley the pig is involved). Sometimes the strip takes on a more contemplative and thoughtful tone, where the characters involved are usually God and the Devil. The punchlines are always natural, consistent with the characters' personalities. There is not always a punchline, however, when Ishida wishes to convey a deeper message or make the reader stop and think. It is a mark of Sinfest's quality that the characters are well enough developed that Ishida can do this without deterring his audience.

Epitaph

In each strip, a small phrase appears above Ishida's name at the top. This phrase is different every day, and occasionally has something to do with the strip. They are usually phrases from everyday speech that Ishida applies to himself, for example: "Da Bomb", "Patent Pending", "Some Assembly Required", and "Man on a Mission". These phrases are also used to catalog the individual comics within the archive section.

Drawing style

Ishida's Japanese roots show clearly in the drawing style, which is similar to the style used by manga artists. Sinfest is hand-drawn, and no color is added. One of the features that make this strip distinctive is the blending of Western-style humor with Japanese-style drawing, similar to a few other webcomics such as Megatokyo. Ishida is not limited to this style, however - in a few strips he imitates the drawing styles of other famous cartoonists so well that the imitations are almost indistinguishable from the original cartoons (examples: [1], [2], [3], [4]).

Note that the depth of the characters is similar to the level of detail in their drawings: while Slick and Monique are very detailed, Seymour has little more than a circle for a head and lacks detail. From this, we can categorize the characters by level of detail:

Very detailed: Slick, Monique, the Dragon
Quite detailed: Criminy, the Devil, the Devil's fanboy
Moderately detailed: Ezekiel and Ariel, Squigley
Very simple: Seymour, Pooch and Percival

One character is missing from this listing: God. This is because God is a fairly detailed character, but not enough of Him is shown to judge the level of detail in His drawing. His thumb puppets are shown often, but their level of detail varies from very simple (the Devil) to quite detailed (the psychoanalyst), probably depending on God's opinion of the characters He portrays with the puppets.

Subject matter

The strip often makes fun of popular culture, society, religion or human nature, with some political commentary recently. It always does this lightly, without ever aiming to hurt, only to amuse. To this end, there are some recurring types of strip, such as "You Had to Be There" (where the characters laugh hysterically about something the reader never finds out about), "Japanese Calligraphy" (where a normal drawing transforms, over four panels, into a kanji character), and "Ninja Theatre" (where the normal characters take on the roles of characters that would appear in traditional Japanese theatre, in a parody thereof). One memorable strip is one where Ishida makes fun of the "chicken or the egg" debate. It appeared on the 19th of May, 2000 [5].

Characters

Slick

Slick is an inept womanizer, self-proclaimed pimp, and slacker. He takes on other roles sometimes, such as Uranus the Beat Poet, and Wasabi the Pimp Ninja. Ishida admits that his appearance is based on Calvin from Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes. He has the same spiky blond hair and diminutive stature, but he is always wearing shades. He is aged "between 14 and 21". In the first strips, he applies to the Devil to sell his soul, and his application has been pending (It was accepted, and yet rejected recently). He often purports to be God's gift to women, but only on three instances as of July 6, 2004, has he ever managed to attract a woman. All three instances were failures: one turned out to be a boy band obsessee, one was alienated by Monique and one told Slick that he "had game", and he was surprised enough by his success that he lost his chance.

Slick seems to embody the human qualities of laziness and conceit. He is convinced that he can have any woman he wants, whenever he wants, but he never succeeds (not for lack of trying). He seems to be Ishida's way of portraying the American Dream and mocking it. Though it seems that Slick would be a negative character, he is, for the most part, quite likable.

Monique

Monique is a 16-year-old who has "many tramp-like qualities, but deep down inside she's still a tramp". She seems to be an exaggeration of stereotypical adolescent girls of the modern day, although she is surprisingly pensive at times. She has low fidelity and a rampant interest in men. She remains single, however. The only man she never shows a real romantic interest in is Slick, except in jest. It is difficult to pin down the relationship between Slick and Monique; they remain friends although Slick continually says and does things with overtly sexual motives. Nevertheless, they are capable of having meaningful discussion, and it is through their conversations that many of the strip's sharpest insights are delivered. During these conversations, it is often easy to forget how young Monique and Slick are. Monique, like Slick, has a variety of alter egos that include Yellow Tail the Geisha Slut Villainess, and Spoken-Word Star It-Girl. Her nicknames (used by herself, Slick and Squigley, mainly) include 'Nique and Money.

Criminy

Criminy is Slick's sidekick. His nicknames include Crim and Short Stuff. He is very booksmart, but innocent and naïve, and is a great breakdancer (though the other characters don't seem to know this). For example, there is a sequence of strips in which a woman approaches Criminy while he is in a bar with Slick and gives him her phone number. He sits at home wondering what might happen when he and the woman go on a date. When he considers the possibility of a goodnight kiss, he berates himself for having a dirty mind.

Criminy often acts as the sensible, reasonable foil to Slick's irrational, wild ideas. He is always very polite and considerate (he addresses Monique as "Ms. Monique"). He is never seen to live wildly. He is always well-dressed and well-groomed. He seems to represent the proper, serious, law-abiding and civilized portion of society. However, since he is often portrayed in opposition to Slick, we tend to see Criminy mainly as a fun-spoiler. This may be Ishida's way of saying that one has to be wild at times in order to live a full life; Criminy is never shown to be obviously having fun.

Squigley

In direct contrast to Criminy is Squigley (often shortened to "Squig"). He is a male chauvinist pig (he is literally a pig) and his main interests are beer and pornography. He exemplifies the stereotypical crude, vulgar, shallow, lewd and lecherous male, so much that he is almost a caricature. He is incurably lazy and belittles women shamelessly: "Naw, they're trophies, man, trophies. They're objects! Show ponies! Slabs o' meat! SEX TOYS!"

He and Slick often muse over the workings of women's minds together. Neither of them ever have any success with women, and the times after their numerous failures are the times when most of the strip's insights on the relationship between men and women are offered. Squig is also used as a way to make fun of the type of man of whom he is a stereotype. Squig's alter egos (not often used) include Notorious P.I.G. and Tonkatsu the Pig Ninja (used in Ninja Theatre).

One point to note is that in the "Cartoon Reality Show" Drawn Together, there is a character called Spanky Ham, who holds a lot in common with Squigley, as both are crude and vulgar, and both are internet cartoons. Some people think that Spanky may have been inspired by Squigley.

God

Despite its willingness to say almost anything, God's face is never shown; only His hand. This is probably because Ishida does not want to cheapen the idea of God by portraying Him fully, which would make Him risible. God often uses a thumb (or finger) puppet to portray other characters, most often the Devil. His "Devil" puppet looks intentionally ridiculous: it has large eyes pointing in different directions, and one of its front teeth is missing. It wears a perpetual vacant smile and a shirt with an encircled "D" on the front.

God's speech is written in gothic letters, but only when He is speaking directly. When He is speaking as one of His thumb puppets, normal letters are used. His speech bubbles usually come from between two large cumulus clouds above some hills, upon which the strip's other characters usually sit or stand to talk to Him. His manner of speaking is no different from that of any other character: "All right, no more Mr. Nice God. Yer goin' down, reptile." This makes Him a more human, honest character, as well as keeping an element of divinity by never showing His face. When Ishida wishes to make a direct, undisguised comment about something, he most often uses the voice of God to make it, usually at the end of a short conversation with Slick, Monique, Criminy or Seymour.

The Devil

Unlike God, the Devil is portrayed as a human-sized being. He has the requisite horns, pointed beard and tail. He is usually dressed in a suit, but recently there was a sequence of strips where he went on holiday and was seen at the beach wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Like God, his manner of speech is no different from anyone else's. When he sees God making fun of him with His "Devil" thumb puppet, the Devil responds with "Hey yo that shit ain't funny." The Devil walks the Earth like any human, conversing with people normally. While said people often ask the Devil theological questions, the Devil rarely gives a straight answer. However, he is not often seen being actively evil. Instead he engages in monologues in which he expounds on all the evil deeds he has done.

God and the Devil are rivals, naturally, but in Sinfest their rivalry seems to be a vehicle for insights on religion. There is never much all-out humor associated with the Devil (or God for that matter), but mainly light humor with deeper meaning behind it.

The Devil's Fanboy (Lil' Evil)

Perhaps in order to associate a bit of humor with the character of the Devil, Ishida introduced the Devil's fanboy (which was later identified as Lil' Evil) fairly recently in the strip's history (his first appearance was on July 24, 2002). The fanboy is a miniature (he is about Slick's height) copy of the Devil himself, except that the fanboy lacks a tail, a beard and supernatural powers. It seems that he is a normal human dressed up as the Devil. He always wears a suit, like his idol, and he has horns. His imitation of the Devil is rather amusing. On the strip where he first appears, he lies in bed, saying, "A good person would get up, get dressed, brush his teeth… but not me. 'Cuz I'm EVIL! Mwa ha ha ha ha..." He plans to commit several minor offenses (returning the rental video without rewinding it, for example) because he is evil. Also, in one comic, he showed "A Look at Evil." Genocide: Lil' Evil is jumping on an anthill, while shouting "Die ants! Die!" Blasphemy: Lil' Evil is staring at the clouds and says "Bite me." Sloth: Lil' Evil is slouching in a chair, watching a television, shouting, "'Cuz I'm evil!"

The fanboy does meet his idol in person, but the Devil is annoyed. The fanboy is not deterred by this, or even by God's or the Dragon's put-downs. When the fanboy yells out to the sky, "You're just a figment of my imagination!", God replies, "No. You're a figment of Mine." The fanboy continues his devout worshiping of the Devil just the same, even when the Devil goes on holiday.

There are few serious strips involving the fanboy. One example is when he walks along a street and sees graffiti, strip joints and homeless people. His comment is, "Actually, there isn't much left for me to do."

The Devil's fanboy may be a way for Ishida to make fun of Goths and Devil-worshiping people, whose delusions of evil are dwarfed by the real forces of good and evil, whatever those may be. Or, he may simply be a laughing-stock.

Seymour

Seymour is an unflattering portrayal of Christian fundamentalists. His face and head are like those of a stick figure, and he wears a white robe. He has a halo, but it is not a true halo: there is a support visible. He is often seen praying, preaching, or sitting quietly reading his Bible. He is a constant annoyance or laughing-stock to all of the other characters, except God (though even God has made fun of him once behind his back), especially the Devil and his fanboy. He incessantly criticizes anyone who is not as pious as he, and is never deterred when the response to his criticism and preaching is negative, as it always is. Despite his extreme piety, Seymour can be seen being remarkably interested in "God merchandise".

Seymour's life is dominated by all things related to Christianity. However, even this does not prevent his manner of speech from being as "street" as any of the other characters'. Even he is not averse to a bit of profanity. In fact, some of the humor of Seymour is generated by his mixing of religious terms and archaic diction with street-speak. For example: "VERILY! C'mon, heathen punk, let's dance!" and later: "Gonna get my tussle on and smite thee from here to rapture! By faith, thou art toast!" when Monique tells Criminy to "kick his ass" after a little preaching session.

In the Ninja Theatre strips, Seymour assumes the role of a preachy, obnoxious Buddhist monk.

Seymour is Ishida's undisguised attempt at ridiculing religious zealots and fundamentalists. Ishida makes Seymour risible and thus injects some humor into the touchy subject of fundamentalism.

Ezekiel and Ariel

Ezekiel and Ariel are angels. They are always together, and always bright and cheery. Sometimes they look like angels, as they have wings and halos (true halos, unlike Seymour's) and fly around in the clouds. Other times, they are dressed smartly in suits and walk the earth proselytizing people. On one occasion they even tried to convert the Devil away from a life of evil.

In keeping with their angelic status, they always behave perfectly. Unlike Seymour, they are seen to be planning good deeds. Their only misbehavior is mocking the Devil, who occasionally goes out "angel-hunting". In these stories, the Devil is invariably shown crouching among some reeds, in full hunting apparel, while the two angels hover above his head giggling.

Ezekiel and Ariel are clearly meant to be sickeningly good and wholesome. Despite this, like all the other characters, they are not above the occasional profanity or heathen-taunting. (They make fun of Slick and Monique during their first appearance: Ezekiel: "Ariel my dove, let's adjourn to our boudoir in the clouds forthwith and make sweet procreational whoopie!" Ariel: "Oh Ezekiel! You are so PG-13!" Both: "But we're not gonna, cuz we're not filthy slut whores!") They have also been known to sing slightly unorthodox Christmas carols ("Jingle bells, Satan smells, Jesus is the way!") Ezekiel and Ariel seem to be a way for Ishida to mock all the characters from a religious perspective. The angels do this in a different way from God, who seems to be "tight" even with sinful characters such as Slick and Monique. The angels are the supreme embodiment of good in Sinfest, and as such, seem to be out of place in their perfect morality.

The Dragon

Just as Judeo-Christian religion is represented by God and the Devil, Oriental religion and worldviews are represented by the Dragon. He puts in comparatively rare appearances. His goals in life are harmony, oneness and nirvana. According to Ishida, he is "possibly the only being who's got God's number." He was once seen dueling with God.

The Dragon seems to be a supernatural being, although he is seen to come down to Earth and talk face-to-face with the Earth-bound characters. His speech is written in spiked, curved, oriental-style letters. His manner of speech is just like that of any of the other characters. (Inviting God to fight: "Let's throw, G.") The clouds that he often appears among are drawn in a different style to usual clouds in Sinfest: they are reminiscent of Oriental art.

Like dragons of legend, the Dragon looks snakelike, can fly, and breathes fire. Additionally, he can control the weather.

He is rarely seen to display any strong emotion, similar to God. The Dragon may be another way for Ishida to make undisguised comments about something, but from the perspective of a devotee of an Oriental religion instead of from that of the Christian God. The Dragon's sense of humor can be quite caustic and biting at times. He alternates between sarcasm and candor, even when he is speaking to God. He is usually smiling, however, implying that he is close to achieving his goal.

Pooch and Percival

Completely separate from the world of the characters above is the world of Pooch and Percival (usually called Percy), a dog and cat, respectively; Pooch and Percival is essentially a comic within a comic, and very reminiscent of Mutts. None of the main comic characters had ever appeared with Pooch and Percy until recently when Pooch and his master passed by Slick and Monique while on a walk.

Pooch and Percy strips have clean humor that is more like what one would expect from a "family" comic. The humor revolves around the nature of cats and dogs, their relationships with each other and with nature. There is never any vulgar or suggestive humor. However, the profanity and speaking style from the usual strips remains, but only with Percy, the cat.

Pooch and Percy live in the same household, with an owner (called "master") who is heard and, now recently, seen. It is possible that the "master" is supposed to be Tatsuya Ishida himself, based on a recent comic where a drawing board with a four-panelled paper strip on it is seen inside the house. For the most part, however, the two animals seem to be alone in the house.

Pooch is a stereotypical dog: unquestioningly adoring of his master, endlessly cheerful, and easily pleased. He celebrates at every meal ("Dog food! AGAIN! I am so LOVED!"). He has a ball that he calls "Bally" and loves to play with. Percy always disdains Pooch when he plays with Bally, but Percy has been seen playing with Bally while Pooch is not there. Pooch loves to go outside (both animals are allowed to roam freely outside, unaccompanied) and commune with nature by frolicking in fallen leaves and watching birds and squirrels.

Percy is a stereotypical cat: very cynical, disdainful, solitary and mistrustful. He tolerates Pooch (barely), but no one else. He is rarely seen to be cheerful, though he often smiles sarcastically. He has a ball of yarn, called "Yarny", that he plays with, thinking he is a ferocious hunter. However, Yarny usually comes unraveled and Percy becomes hopelessly tangled. Percy often stalks birds, but always fails to catch them. He does kill flies, which puts him in a good mood for some time.

Pooch and Percival strips are fairly frequent, but by no means represent the majority of Sinfest strips. They seem to be a way for Ishida to take a break from his regular characters and their lives, and to focus on something more down-to-earth and clean.

First appearances (chronological order)

Slick and the Devil: January 17, 2000 (first strip)
God: January 21, 2000
Criminy: January 23, 2000
Squigley: January 25, 2000
Pooch and Percival: January 30, 2000
Monique: February 2, 2000
Seymour: April 27, 2000
Ezekiel and Ariel: May 1, 2000
The Dragon: June 1, 2000
The Devil's Fanboy (Lil' Evil): July 24, 2002

External link

Sinfest.net
http://sinfest.net/d/20000324.html Sinfest comments on its debt to Calvin and Hobbes