How is Company Lunch drawn?
Company Lunch is illustrated digitally using GIMP, which is like an open-source version of Photoshop. When I first started the comic, I hand-drew everything and only colored and added backgrounds using GIMP. Then I realized how much easier it was to create templates of the characters I could just cut and paste and use over and over again. The first comic switched to exclusively character templates was #6: Animal Nudity Logic. Of course many of the alterations and new poses are still digitally hand-drawn.
How often does a new comic come out?
I strive to post a new comic every Monday morning, as well as on my Facebook page at 10am PST, and Twitter if I remember, haha. I was good about it for the first couple years, then when I started my baking business Powered Sugar Bake Shoppe, it was moved to the back burner and I could only post a comic whenever I was able. I'm still aiming towards every Monday, or at least every-other Monday, depending on my orders...my apologies if I lag. =P
How did you come up with the idea for Company Lunch ?
Company Lunch started in mid-2013, when Austin and I still worked together (Austin went back to his home office in Maryland later in 2013, and I kept it going). The comic was based on the office where Austin and I worked, at [unnamed company]. We worked with some very interesting characters and many interesting things happened. We had dabbled in the idea of making a webcomic and decided that by basing it on our office, the comic pretty much wrote itself.
Are the situations in Company Lunch based on real-life?
The comic is a good mixture of real situations and conversations, loosely-based on real situations, and stuff I make up as I go along. You'll probably never be able to tell the difference unless you were actually there. Yes, some of the outrageous and ridiculous things really happened, but not everything really happened!
Are the characters based on real people?
The characters are based on real people to some degree. Some characters are based on a single person, and some are a mix of several different people. Raq is based off of me, for example, but Barb is a mix of three former female colleagues of mine whom I sat next to as she's a representation of whichever cube mate happened to be nearby during a particular situation.
Why does Office Bear look different?
Office Bear was the only character who underwent a makeover. He started off as kind of a gimmick and a representation of several of the larger older-middle-aged men in the office. His character wasn't utilized enough in that role, so later on I changed him to resemble a younger colleague who interacted with us more often; Office Bear therefore started hanging out more as a result.
More questions? Contact me!