Nowhere Girl is an adult fiction 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 Justine Shaw, named after a song written by British futurist band B-Movie

B-Movie (band)

B-Movie were a futurist band from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England, active in the first half of the 1980s. They were signed to the Some Bizzare record label, and had a track "Moles" featured on the original Some Bizzare Album.-Background:...

 in 1982. The comic was originally planned to be in five parts, but only two of them have been completed thus far; plans to complete the comic have been shelved by the author, according to her website.

The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

has described the webcomic as "a graphic novel

Graphic novel

A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

 that appeals to the clove

Clove

Cloves are the aromatic dried flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae. Cloves are native to the Maluku islands in Indonesia and used as a spice in cuisines all over the world...

-smoking, Nick Drake

Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...

-loving art student in all of us." In 2003, Nowhere Girl received a nomination for an Eisner award

Eisner Award

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...

 in the "best new series" category, making it the first nomination of a Web comic. Shaw was nominated for "talent deserving of wider recognition". Also in 2003, Nowhere Girl was nominated for several categories in the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards, eventually winning "Outstanding Comic", "Outstanding Website Design", "Outstanding Dramatic Comic" and "Outstanding Reality Comic"; "Outstanding Long Form Comic" was the only category in which the comic was nominated and did not win.

Inspirations include Love and Rockets

Love and Rockets (comics)

Love and Rockets is a black and white comic book series by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez, sometimes cited jointly as Los Bros Hernandez. Their brother Mario Hernandez is an occasional contributor...

by the Hernandez brothers, and John Hughes films, especially The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American teen drama film written and directed by John Hughes. The storyline follows five teenagers as they spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes.-Plot:The plot follows five students at...

. Additional influences include pop music singer Morrissey

Morrissey

Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...

 and music groups The Smiths

The Smiths

The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...

 (which was fronted by Morrisey) and Elastica

Elastica

Elastica were an English alternative rock band that played punk rock-influenced music. They were best known for their 1995 album Elastica, which produced singles that charted in the US and the UK.-History:...

. Although the comic is not autobiographical, issue two draws some material from the author's time spent working for an Internet start-up in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

 during the boom years, circa 1997-1999.

Shaw has also contributed artwork to the Star Wars Origins website, which documents possible inspirations George Lucas

George Lucas

George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...

 drew from to create the Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

films.

External links

• nowheregirl.com
• Nowhere Girl page at the official Adventures Into Digital Comics website