I've been meaning to say, I'm glad I got into the web comic Questionable Content (which hit its 1000th comic strip last week; woo hoo! Rockin' the milestone!) I like this world and these people Jeph Jacques has been writing and drawing about. They're all people I'd like to hang out with, with the possible exception of VespAvenger (holy crap, there really is a website!); they have what seems like effortless sex appeal (as I've said, I'm particularly fond of Dora and the librarian Tai: "Dewey Decimal System? Do we ever!"); and the writing handles issues with gentle humor. The dramatic beats are not obvious, even when the strip's gotten heavy (longtime readers will know the particular heaviness I'm talking about).
Take Faye's issues with her drinking too much. QC ain't likely to go the route of "DRINKING ALWAYS LEADS TO STUPIDITY AND HUGE MISTAKES AND CAR ACCIDENTS AND DEATH OH MY GOD," but instead it's gone the route of Faye not ignoring the problem. When her friend Marten got fed up and made his crack about her using "your alcoholic's ingenuity," we saw over the next several strips her reacting to his reaction, and processing that reaction, and recognizing the truth of what he said. She's aware of it, and she's trying to correct it, whether it's in her intense exercising (and her self-conscious concerns about that) or in her joking in today's strip. I'm rooting for Faye; I want her to be comfortable in her own body. Her "aerodynamically curvaceous" body.
And on a lighter note, watching the relationship between Dora and Marten feels like a real love relationship, with two people growing into each other. I like that they have uncertainty, and that they work past that uncertainty with honesty and concern for each other (example: yesterday's strip). And I like that the two of them are kind of goofy in bed (I tried to find a particular strip illustrating this, but I haven't unearthed it yet. It'll wait). Hmm. Should Marten be my relationship role model? Maybe not a bad idea...