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Day by Day (webcomic)
Encyclopedia
Day by Day is an American
political webcomic
by Chris Muir
. The humor usually centers on four principal characters who had initially been presented as coworkers at an unspecified firm until the firm went out of business on December 25, 2007. Romantic relationships among the principals resulted in marriages and children, with one of the couples opening a small bar in the Florida
Gulf coast town in which the strip is principally set. These characters (and their friends and family) remain center stage even though some strips focus on public figures and feature none of the main cast, in a manner similar to Doonesbury
. The strip has a conservative
/libertarian
viewpoint, and often makes reference to political weblogs. It is a Yahoo!
Pick in the "Comics and Animation" category.
Muir has stated in interviews that by crafting the cartoons digitally, and using previously drawn faces, expressions, and body postures, he can react to breaking news by crafting a relevant comic and putting it up the next day, breaking or delaying the storyline.
Generally, the strip features a running commentary on political events with the characters interacting in a vaguely seen office setting. In addition, the author often shows a "Doonesbury-esque" White House
strip with an unseen President talking to his staff. Muir has often used the same treatment to show goings-on at the United Nations
and the New York Times.
The home URL was written vertically on the leftmost edge of the strip, beginning on May 2, 2003, running until the site's redesign in 2006. The comic itself has run since November 1, 2002, with a hiatus from September 12, 2004 to November 30, 2004. The large-format Sunday strips started in 2005.
, Amazon
and other payment vehicles), banner advertising, and merchandise. In 2005, the strip became available for print newspaper syndication
and was carried by the Hemingford
Ledger, the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the North County Times
and The San Diego Union-Tribune
. In October 2007, Day by Day Cartoon discontinued service to newspapers. Also in October 2007, eBook compilations of Day by Day Cartoon became available for free.WOWIO: eBooks, Comics and Graphic Novels | Books Evolved
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
by Chris Muir
Chris Muir
Chris Muir is a U.S. cartoonist who draws the daily web comic Day by Day. Prior to that, he drew a single-panel comic called Altered States for about 5 years for Florida Today ....
. The humor usually centers on four principal characters who had initially been presented as coworkers at an unspecified firm until the firm went out of business on December 25, 2007. Romantic relationships among the principals resulted in marriages and children, with one of the couples opening a small bar in the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
Gulf coast town in which the strip is principally set. These characters (and their friends and family) remain center stage even though some strips focus on public figures and feature none of the main cast, in a manner similar to Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
. The strip has a conservative
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
/libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
viewpoint, and often makes reference to political weblogs. It is a Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
Pick in the "Comics and Animation" category.
Format
The strip is updated daily, including weekends. It usually follows a loose "strip story arc" throughout a given week. Except on Sundays, the strip is usually three colorized panels, comprising a combination of newly drawn art and a library of hand drawn elements that Muir has digitized and reuses. As with many newspaper comics, the strips for Sundays are larger and have more panels. Muir often depicts his female characters in sensual poses.Muir has stated in interviews that by crafting the cartoons digitally, and using previously drawn faces, expressions, and body postures, he can react to breaking news by crafting a relevant comic and putting it up the next day, breaking or delaying the storyline.
Generally, the strip features a running commentary on political events with the characters interacting in a vaguely seen office setting. In addition, the author often shows a "Doonesbury-esque" White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
strip with an unseen President talking to his staff. Muir has often used the same treatment to show goings-on at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and the New York Times.
The home URL was written vertically on the leftmost edge of the strip, beginning on May 2, 2003, running until the site's redesign in 2006. The comic itself has run since November 1, 2002, with a hiatus from September 12, 2004 to November 30, 2004. The large-format Sunday strips started in 2005.
Financial Model
Like many other web comics, Day by Day Cartoon is supported by a combination of contributions from readers (via PayPalPayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
, Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
and other payment vehicles), banner advertising, and merchandise. In 2005, the strip became available for print newspaper syndication
Print syndication
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
and was carried by the Hemingford
Hemingford, Nebraska
Hemingford is a village in Box Butte County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 993 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Hemingford is located at ....
Ledger, the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the North County Times
North County Times
The North County Times is a local newspaper in north San Diego County, California owned by Lee Enterprises. It is headquartered in Escondido. The current publisher is Peter York....
and The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
-Predecessors:The predecessor newspapers of the Union-Tribune were:* San Diego Sun, founded 1861 and merged with the Evening Tribune in 1939.* San Diego Union, founded October 10, 1868.* Evening Tribune, founded December 2, 1895.-Ownership:...
. In October 2007, Day by Day Cartoon discontinued service to newspapers. Also in October 2007, eBook compilations of Day by Day Cartoon became available for free.WOWIO: eBooks, Comics and Graphic Novels | Books Evolved
Characters
- Zedediah "Zed" Owens is a laconic, goateeGoateeGoatee refers to a style of facial hair incorporating hair on a man’s chin. The exact nature of the style has varied according to time and culture.Traditionally, goatee refers solely to a beard formed by a tuft of hair on the chin...
d product designer who is frequently worried that he may be over the hillOld ageOld age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle...
. It has been revealed that he is a former Special Operations sniperSniperA sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
, who has since been recalled back to duty in Iraq, where, as one strip revealed, he was actively hunting insurgents as a sniper once again. He proposed to Sam, and they married in Las Vegas. - Samantha "Sam" Owens (formerly Samantha Flanagan) is a red-headed, cautious engineer, married to Zed. In 2006, it was revealed that her father is IrishIrish peopleThe Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
and her mother (Kimiko Flanagan) is JapaneseJapanese peopleThe are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
. She gave birth to twin daughters. While Zed and Sam are supposed to be centrist, they more often than not side with Damon, and both carry concealed handgunHandgunA handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
s. Strips often centre about the generational aspects between the forty-something Zed and Sam and the twenty-something Damon and Jan.- Caroline Owens & Catherine Owens are Zed & Sam's twin daughters. Sam was recently pregnant again, but suffered a spontaneous abortion possibly brought on by the shock of seeing a severely wounded Zed in the hospital.
- Damon Thomas is an African-American conservative and a self-taught programmer. He has explicitly stated in the past that he was orphanOrphanAn orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
ed in early childhood. He frequently accuses the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party (United States)The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
as a whole of being racistRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. When his beachfront home was razed by the town (in a commentary on Kelo v. New London), he began living with, and is now married to, Jan. They have one son. - Jan Portago is an ardent liberalLiberalismLiberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
marketing director, who does not seem to understand how Damon can be both black and conservative. At some point after Damon moved in with her after losing his house, they began a romantic relationship, and have since been married. Prior to the beginning of their romance, Jan secretly went out of her way to prevent him from leaving their company.- Javier Luciano Thomas is Damon and Jan's son.
- M. Luciano de la Portago y Verrillo is Jan's father and an entrepreneur. When Damon took offense at the politics of the company's majority shareholderShareholderA shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
, he, at Jan's request, persuaded them to sell their stockStockThe capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
so that Damon would not resign. - Skye Flanagan is Sam's younger sister, introduced to the strip in June 2006. She is as liberal as Jan, if not more so. Facially, she resembles Sam, but she has brown hair rather than Sam's flaming red, and has a number of piercings and tattooTattooA tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
s. She is happy for Sam and Zed, despite the fact that he's "some conservative guy". - Suzi was a young intern who was openly attracted to Zed, despite the large age gap between them. (Zed did not reciprocate.) She left the company off-panel at some point in 2006.
- Naomi Rivka Levy is a private military contractor working in Iraq, who had previously served as Zed's spotter during his time as a sniper. It is revealed that Jan's father has hired her to keep an eye on his daughter while she is in Iraq, but Jan's obvious and undisguised disdain of her and mercenaries in general complicates matters. She is Israeli, as Jan seems somewhat shocked to note.
- Lieutenant Markos Anderson is a U.S. Army Infantry Officer in Iraq whose platoon Jan is embedded with. He is dedicated and takes his work seriously, reprimanding his troops for ogling Jan on numerous occasions, but also demonstrates a wry sense of humor when Jan's preconceptions about Iraq and the American military are made known.