The Polymer City Chronicles (aka PCC) is a

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

written and drawn by Chris Morrison. PCC began publishing online in March 1995 as the first

video gaming Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback m ...

on the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

,Dr. Otto's Do-It-Yourself Bomb Disposal!
Game Zero magazine although the strip has been in print since 1992. Artistically, PCC's most distinctive trait is its collection of large (often termed "

amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

sized"), well-proportioned females (many of which sport oversized bosoms coupled with detailed musculature development). The strip started out as a video game gag comic, but quickly changed focus into a strongly plot-driven comic due to "running out of video game material". The artist has often said that he's trying to create an animated film appearance, and has noted that the primary story arc is a part of a script he is developing for a feature-length

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

. Often weaving in subtexts of real-world events and issues such as

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

into the frequently text-heavy stories, PCC continues to have a strong fanbase on the web. In February 2007, Morrison announced that he intended for the strip "to evolve again in a way that's a bit more drastic than before," "ceasing the webcomic format altogether in favor of illustrated fiction, wherein the story will be delivered in small chapters, each with an accompanying illustration." However, he reversed this decision in May, citing financial problems, the continuity of the present storyline, and reader concerns, and plans a return to the twice-a-week strip format.Polymer City Chronicles news post, "We'Re Back... So What Happened?"
accessed 5 May 2007. No strips have been posted since 31 October 2007; however, in the only update since then, a one-line blog entry on 4 January 2009, Morrison implies that PCC may return.

Summary

The strip presents the (mis)adventures of Dr. Otto and his space-alien wife Andrah (a favorite among fans of female muscle growth themed artwork). In an interview in 2001 with former online magazine "The Mushroom", the author provided a description which is still relevant today: "Dr.Otto is pretty much a scientific everyman; he was originally conceived as a satire of Egon Spengler (

Ghostbusters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, thr ...

) only with a hair-trigger. Andrah was loosely based on an ex-girlfriend of mine from years ago who was an amateur female

bodybuilder Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses o ...

; she was around 6 ft 2 in and 200 lb (91 kg) or so, and Andrah carries a lot of her personality. Mistress Laura was initially a Lady Death parody, but when I introduced her shadowdrake sidekicks Flint and Locke, she really developed into her own character. Lynn Deanna Jones is an obvious

Lara Croft Lara Croft is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game franchise ''Tomb Raider''. She is presented as a highly intelligent and athletic British archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and hazardous ruins around th ...

satire, but I'm also one of the world's biggest

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...

fans, so I yoinked some elements from him as well. Sheeri I created mostly out of a need to exploit

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...

... it seems you can't have a cool online comic these days without some anime or

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese influences, and she's a blatantly deliberate self-mocking attempt to capitalize on that aspect. Grey is the most recent addition to the roster, and it's just cuz

aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...

are cool. Most of the cast is alien, and that's intentional since I'm trying to put extraordinary individuals into ordinary situations."

Additional Characters

*Pierce - A

goth A Goth is a member of the Goths, a group of East Germanic tribes. Two major political entities of the Goths were: *Visigoths, prominent in Spanish history *Ostrogoths, prominent in Italian history Goth or Goths may also refer to: * Goth (surname) ...

who speaks with a fake

Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...

accent. She's a crew member aboard Lynn's ship. *Six - From the same alien race as Andrah, but only about six inches tall. *Buaa - An eggplant alien, who, in one comic, falls in love with a real eggplant. *Mistress Laura - A

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...

while alive, she's become a ruler over the land of the dead. She's accompanied by her shadow dragons, Flint and Locke (named as a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

on the word

flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...

). *Vhaldis - A Urusai

necromancer Necromancy () is the practice of magic or black magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions, or by resurrection for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future events ...

who is currently working to regain his full power. A typical "take over the world, laugh like a maniac" sort of guy. *Ded, Dedd, n Deddy - Ghostly parodies of

Ed, Edd n Eddy '' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' is a Canadian animated comedy television series created by Danny Antonucci for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series revolves around three friends named Ed, Edd (called "Double D" ...

who served Mistress Laura. *Gangster Pikachu - Clearly making fun of

Pikachu is a fictional species in the ''Pokémon'' media franchise. Designed by Atsuko Nishida and Ken Sugimori, Pikachu first appeared in the 1996 Japanese video games ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Green'' created by Game Freak and Nintendo, which were ...

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

fame, this leader of the "Pokemob" showed up more often in the earlier, humor-based strips. The mobster mouse frequently tries to see to it that

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

isn't made fun of too much in the strip, even if he has to make the PCC crew an offer that they can't refuse...

Basic Chronology

*1992 to 1994 as "Behind the Screens with Dr. Otto": Published in print as a b/w one-panel strip for Game Zero magazine's Comics page (published bi-monthly). A majority of the strips were later colorized in preparation of moving to the WWW at the end of 1994. *1995 to 1996 as "The Plastic Valley Report": Published full-color, regularly on the WWW and additionally for six months as part of Game Zero's CD-ROM newsstand edition with a print circulation of 150,000. *2000 to current as "The Polymer-City Chronicles": Initially re-launched in b/w on the Game Zero magazine web archive, it lived for a brief stint under the gaming websit
mpog.com
Next it moved to its own server under the domai
polymer-city.com
which was subsequently hijacked a year later. Finally the site settled down in mid-2002 at its current home. During this time the strip moved from one-shot gags over to a large story arc, and transitioned into color.

References

External links

Polymer City Chronicles
The comic's main site.
PCC Archive
- Links to PCC comics from pre-2000. {{Early webcomics Science fiction webcomics Parody webcomics Long-form webcomics 1990s webcomics 2000s webcomics 1995 webcomic debuts