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Thomas, Abigail, and Janie
Original Life is a comedy webcomic written by Jay Naylor. The strip began on June 1, 2009, right after Naylor finished up its predecessor, Better Days. It details the life and times of Fisk and Elizabeth and their children - Abigail, Thomas and Janie - as well as the lives of other Better Days cast members and their children.
Unlike Better Days, Original Life features a lighter and more humorous plot, with minor segments of dramatic moments interspersed throughout. Also, rather than following Fisk and Lucy as they progress through life as in Better Days, the characters of Original Life do not age; the comic is also set in modern times, as opposed to the gradual timescale of Better Days. These changes are mainly due to Naylor opting to "just keep it fun," stating that he enjoyed the lighter chapters of Better Days far more than the somber ones.
Tropes associated with Original Life include:[]
- Aborted Arc: The love letter. Maybe. Just when you least expect it, it pops up again.
- Ascended Meme: Maybe. Could be nothing more than a coincidence, though.
- Author's Saving Throw: Inverted. One of the few honestly human and good things Fisk did in the entire run of Better Days was refusing to help his friend Carlos commit suicide. A recent Original Life strip reveals that Fisk did this not out of friendship or respect for the sanctity of life, but purely for his own sake, stating the incident was all about him and how he'd feel if he'd assisted in the suicide. It's actually managed to strip what little empathy Fisk had out of him.
- Bare Your Midriff: Janie, making Elizabeth's refusal to buy her a two-piece bathing suit pretty ridiculous.
- Deep-Immersion Gaming:
- Thomas plays Gears of War in one of the first comics... with the badass protagonist coincidentally drawn like his father.
- Semi-justified with Mass Effect, as Shepard's appearance is customizable.
- Disappeared Dad: Fisk, since his job keeps him on the road. It's been argued that he just drops by occasionally to enjoy the parts of fatherhood he likes, while skipping out on most of that messy parenting stuff.
- Girls Have Cooties: This storyline.
- Hatedom: Since this is a Jay Naylor creation, and Naylor has a huge Hatedom built up from Better Days... yeah.
- Hollywood Atheist: Played straight by Janie when she starts looking into religion, she decides they're all full of it. However, Naylor actually intends her to be viewed positively for her insulting manner and dismissive attitude, so it's a little muddied.
- Lighter and Softer: Naylor himself said that he wants to "keep it fun".
- Little-Known Facts
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Janie: Daddy, where does the baby in Mummy's tummy come from? |
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- Mr. Imagination: Or Ms in Abigail's case.
- Put on a Bus: Naylor got in an argument with Bonk, and thus the recently-redesigned plushie disappeared without explanation. This has happened before with more than one character, so you'd think Naylor would learn his lesson.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Bonk redesigned his character, so we get a couple comics dealing with Bonk's redesign in-universe.
- Shout-Out:
- Abby reenacts scenes from The Fly and Darkman. She also quotes random bits of Yoda and Patton.
- Thomas wanted Abigail to train him, like Cato did for Inspector Clouseau
- Abby's stuffed animal is a representation of Naylor's fellow artist friend Bonk.
- Abby builds some autoturrets from Portal (series) in a rather gratuitous (and past-its-date) reference.
- Blalock, you magnificent bastard...I read your book!
- This strip features an appearance by singer Grace Jones. This was an In Joke that also occurs in Better Days.
- Slice of Life: The comic shows the daily life of Fisk and Elizabeth and their children.
- Strawman Political: Angelica, the bunny girl mentioned above and one of Janie's friends, seems to have this as her entire character purpose. She stands for and likes many things that Naylor dislikes, like belief in anthropogenic global warming, philosophical skepticism, new age spiritualism, and Justin Bieber.