COMMISSIONED is a
webcomic drawn by Obsidian, otherwise known as O.
The comic loosely based on his own life and experiences while drawing art, talking with friends, struggling with his constantly-broken car, and playing tabletop
roleplaying games (not the video-game variety).
The comic began on
September 10,
2004 and is updated on a regular basis.
There are over 400 comics in its archives.
Like many webcomics, each strip in COMMISSIONED is accompanied by a blog-like essay written by the author.
The essays accompanying each COMMISSIONED strip are frequently long, and usually describe the action taking place in the strip and provide detail about the way that the action relates to the author's personal life.
The strip takes place in two alternate universes: the real life universe inhabited by O and his friends, and the RPG universe inhabited by the RPG
avatars of the cast members.
The Cast - Real Life
Because COMMISSIONED is based on O's personal life, all the characters are cartoon-versions of people that O knows.
Most of these people are actually also readers of COMMISSIONED, with the exception of "Cousin Al."
O has mentioned in a below-strip blog entry that Cousin Al has never actually followed the comic.
O
O, or
Obsidian, is COMMISSIONED's protagonist.
He has a bald head, which is smooth and shiny.
O shaves his head each morning as part of a daily ritual.
According to his website, he has not recently spent more than two days without a freshly shaven head.
O is a confident character, but not to the point of being egotistical.
He is constantly frustrated by the failings of things around him.
He is an artist who has a constantly-breaking set of drawing supplies, a commuter with a failing set of wheels (of both the car and bicycle variety), and an RPG game-master with a silly set of friends to play with.
Carlos
Carlos is a lady's man... or rather, he likes to think that he is.
Never seen without a swagger, Carlos is a man who likes to get in the last word.
Carlos plays 'Elf' in O's D&D Campaign.
Batey
In the comic,
Batey often plays sidekick to the comic's protagonist, accompanying him on his various misadventures.
Batey plays Dwarf in O's D&D Campaign
1Cousin Al
Cousin Al is a character who is usually the odd-one-out.
Many of the comic's jokes are made at his expense.
He plays the accident prone Were-tiger in O's D&D Campaign.
2 3China Doll
China Doll is one of O's closest friends.
She is a rather attractive and playful character.
O often writes about the way he uses China Doll as the comic's editor: she reads each comic before it goes up, and frequently appears as O's critic in the comic itself
4.
China Doll is also interesting in that she remains purely in the 'real world' section of the comic, indulging in Gaming, but not pen and paper roleplay.
CJ
CJ is a quieter character than most of the others, more sensible than Batey and Carlos, but less caustic than China Doll can sometimes be, she never the less remains a pillar of stability in the comic.
Like China Doll, she refuses to be drawn into O's pen and Paper rollplay sessions as far as we know.
Erasure
Erasure constantly appears in the comic.
Usually, this character is limited to non-speaking roles, and appears as a small icon in the corner of a panel.
Sentient and surly, it occasionally runs away.
In a few strips it dons
ninja or
samurai gear.
It once attacked O with a marking pen, though this may have been a
delusion brought on by overwork and lack of
sleep (as well as an allegory for the annoyance of misplacing
erasers).
The Cast - RPGs
As mentioned before, half of COMMISSIONED takes places within the Role Playing Games (RPGs) that O and his companions play, where each have individual characters with their own quirks.
Dwarf (Batey)
Played by Batey in the Dungeons and Dragons RPG, Dwarf is in fact a dwarf, and a serious warrior, his only flaw appears to be a major desire to compensate for his height
[1001].
Elf (Carlos)
Generally more sensible than his real world player, elf is a wizard with a serious tendency to screw the DM's plans
[1002].
Possibly the most sensible character in the campaign, he none the less manages to loose all sense of control when faced with 'sultry drow chicks'
[1003].
Weretiger (Cousin Al)
O's D&D campaign just wouldn't be the same without Al's character the Weretiger.
Probably the most annoying and useless character of the group that he's more often viewed as an Attache.
This has nothing to do with character design, it's mostly a result of excitable character play and spending more time in negative hitpoints than positive.
Weretiger lost an
eye in a campaign after leaping into a pit, being smashed to a pulp, and then having Elf step on it--all because of Al's ignorance that
cats, though having a light
bone structure and being quite nimble, can still get hurt in falls.
He now wears an eyepatch.
Kaleb Flesh-Hunter
The
villain of the piece, a ruggedly handsome
blue-hued half-
demon who serves a great
dragon queen.
Though he is unbeliveably evil and cruel, Perky slavers over him.
The Perky Mistress
A gorgeous
tavern wench/adventurer.
The RPG cast are immune to her charms however as they are put off by the fact that O is the one roleplaying her (as an
NPC) in real life.
[1004]The Art
COMMISSIONED is drawn by hand using professional art equipment and utilizing thick, distinctive lines.
The comic is in full-colour and runs in limitless, vertically-stacked panels (although the earliest strips are in a more limited, horizontal format).
External links
COMMISSIONED
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