Bristled is a webcomic by Stephanie Mebius centered around the lives of three female roommates.

Started unofficially on deviantART in the summer of 2006, Bristled was given its own domain and website on 30 November. The comic was initially drawn in digital format consisting of black-and-white line art, with an occasional full-color comic. Due to the popularity of the colored version, it was then produced in full-color on a consistent basis. It is created entirely in , using a Intuos 9"x12" .

Characters

The characters of Bristled are animals of varying species, living together in a society that mimics real life. Though the anthropomorphism is evident in every facet of the comic, some instinctive behaviors still control their lives.

Azraelle Wormser

Often going by shortened names such as Az or Azzy, Azraelle is a common raccoon. Her fur is medium grey with a darker band of fur across the face, as is characteristic of raccoons in general. She wears a light blue shirt and jeans, and a gold bracelet on each wrist. Despite never being able to see her eye color in the comic itself, her right eye is brown and her left eye is blue. Her hair is also a dark blue; it is generally considered to be dyed this color.

Azraelle is known to be somewhat flippant regarding the "real world," and will often ignore facts and logical discussion that she does not consider fun. She is approximately 28 years old, has held intermittent temporary positions in data entry, but does not hold any sort of degree or higher education. Azraelle is notorious for eating large quantities of food amazingly fast, often to the chagrin of her roommate. She claims to have invented several "sure-fire" money-making schemes; her most famous is the "Sock Experience" that supposedly lets customers feel what it is like to be laundry. Azraelle is also addicted to the high-speed Internet connection that was active in the apartment until Beth had it shut off in order to reduce the monthly bill overhead.

If ever needed, Azraelle chooses to arm herself against threats with a garden shovel.

Bethany Morrison

Usually seen relaxing in the apartment wearing her signature pink ringer midriff shirt and grey sweatshorts, Beth is a blonde albino rabbit with oversized front teeth. She also typically wears gold hoop earrings. Though never seen in the comic, her eyes are red. She almost always keeps her hair tied back in a ponytail.

Beth is a vegetarian, enjoys meditating (presumably to relieve the stress that her roommate Az causes her), and currently works for the . Though being a very active exerciser, Beth will also sit and watch her favorite television shows when her roommate isn't bugging her. She also enjoys reading and considers herself well-versed in literary history. She usually puts up an intelligent defense against Azraelle's mindless rants and annoyances. In response to Azraelle's carefree view of life, she sometimes feels she must take on the role of the "responsible one." This leads her to often act similar to Az's mother.

Despite her fit and healthy physique, Beth was very obese during junior and senior high school, earning the degrading nickname "Behemoth" by her hip, trend-following peers.

Ruac Lycia

The newest tenant in the apartment previously shared only between Azraelle and Bethany, Ruac (or simply Ru) responded to an ad placed on a telephone pole (presumably placed by Azraelle). At first, Ru was tricked by Az into thinking that they needed another roommate in order to relieve financial stress caused by having a loved one on life support. In reality, it was simply an attempt by Az to keep high-speed Internet access. Despite this, Ru has agreed to stay in the apartment.

Ruac is a cheetah with dark grey hair and blond highlights. Her eye color is red, though it can't be directly seen in the comic. She has a few eccentricities in her speech, often saying "yush" instead of "yes". She has mentioned that she has a large sum of money at her disposal, though exactly how she obtained it has not been revealed.

Though there are currently three tenants sharing the apartment, the apartment itself only had two bedrooms. Ruac currently sleeps in Azraelle's bedroom, whereas Azraelle has volunteered to sleep on the couch. Since the apartment is inhabited by all females, Ru often feels it unnecessary to cover herself up after showering or bathing. The first time Beth saw her, Ruac was wearing only a purple towel on her head.

Other characters

Though other characters have been introduced in the comic, most have been on a one-time basis. The only other character to have a name at this point in the comic is Doug, one of Azraelle's canine co-workers whose cubicle she had to use on her first day of work. Later, Doug introduces himself to Az by using a gag hand. This prompts Azraelle to invent a linear scale by which to rank "lame" jokes, and naming the scale after Doug. (The false-hand gag was initially rated a 23, which she almost immediately raised to 24.5 after it was found that the gag hand wouldn't let go.)

Other characters that have been seen include Azraelle's boss, a short koala; another co-worker, a Red Fox; Bethany's interviewer, a dull-reddish fox in a grey business suit and sunglasses, bearing a striking similarity to in the films; a bear couple occupying the apartment directly below; and the voice of a cashier working at Computer World.

Story and style

Bristled is usually shown using a typical four-panel layout, though in several episodes the layout has been increased to six panels, and in one case a total of twelve panels are used in a single episode. The characters are drawn in simplified forms, with strong lines and vivid colors. Speech appears over their heads in the typical comic-strip format, with the occasional narration in yellow rectangles.

The comic is set in the apartment that the three rent, but sometimes shows their various places of work. The time and place is a modern-day anthropomorphic USA; the locale is unspecified, but is generally considered to be an urban environment.

Though many of the episodes are self-contained "quickies," a few story arcs have also developed.

The first story arc involved Azraelle's first day at her temp job, where she is required to use a co-worker's cubicle until one can be made ready for her. Later she rushes home during her lunch break to get her time card and finds herself distracted by snacks and an overwhelming urge to surf the Internet.

In a later story, Beth confronts Azraelle about the lack of finances and suggests that they sacrifice the high-speed Internet access until they start pulling in more income. This causes Azraelle to object and suggest an alternate course of action: getting another roommate in order to relieve the strain caused by the rent money instead. As Beth is out applying for a job at the Post Office, Az interviews and agrees to let Ruac become the third roommate. When Beth comes home to find a naked Ruac in the apartment and Azraelle nowhere to be found, she calls Azraelle on her cell phone to find that she's out buying an online game ([[Wikipedia:EverQuest II|EverQuest II). After Beth finds out that Az tricked Ruac, she turns the tables on Az by having the high-speed Internet connection shut off anyway.

In the Spring 2007 arc, Az finds Beth the next morning apparently suffering from extreme lack of sleep, mumbling about "the eyes." Taking her bed for the night, Az emerges a few hours later to find Beth terrorized by a strange figure in black. After whacking it with her trademark shovel, the creature takes the form of Ruac - unfortunately, the real Ruac turns up to spoil the fun. She appears to have power over the being, who she sends back to another dimension to "think about what it has done."

Trivia

The first episode of Bristled is actually number fourteen. There are a total of thirteen unpublished episodes that the author had created before renaming the comic to "Bristled," and two since. She has hinted that they may be completed and published at a later date.

The apartment where Az, Beth, and Ru live is number '73.'

The characters Azraelle Wormser and Ruac Lycia are actually the names of two player characters used in the online game Second Life. The character of Azraelle belongs to the author herself, while Ruac Lycia is a friend; Bethany Morrison is the only main character that was created solely for the Bristled webcomic.

The name Azraelle is a faux-feminization of the name , most commonly known as the Angel of Death. Rumor is that the author started using the name as an homage to a cat that she used to own, having the feminized name.

In the episode "On Your Toes" Beth is seen in a fantasy sequence riding a motorcycle that is based on a Suzuki SV-650s.

External links

[http://www.bristled-comic.com Bristled]