
Jeffrey J. Rowland (born May 22, 1974) is the author and artist responsible for ''
Wigu'' and ''
Overcompensating'', two popular
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be ...
s. Originally from
Locust Grove,
Oklahoma, Rowland now lives in
Easthampton, Massachusetts
Easthampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The city is on the southeastern edge of the Pioneer Valley near the five colleges in the college towns of Northampton and Amherst. The population was 16,211 at the 2020 ce ...
, where he continues to work on the two projects, while running TopatoCo, a company which sells merchandise based on his and other artists' comics.
Jeffrey Rowland's comics are part of the TopatoCo network, along with comics such as ''
Dinosaur Comics
''Dinosaur Comics'' is a constrained webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. It is also known as "Qwantz", after the site's domain name, "qwantz.com". The first comic was posted on February 1, 2003, although there were earlier prototypes. ''Di ...
'' and ''
MS Paint Adventures
''MS Paint Adventures'', abbreviated ''MSPAdventures'' or ''MSPA'', was a website and collection of webcomics written and illustrated by Andrew Hussie. According to some estimates, ''MS Paint Adventures'' was the largest collection of comics on ...
''. Rowland can be considered one of the small number of
professional webcartoonists, as running ''Overcompensating'' and ''Wigu'', in addition to his merchandise company TopatoCo, is his full-time job and source of income.
Comics
Rowland's comics were used along with ''
Penny Arcade
''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have estab ...
'', ''
Fetus-X
''Fetus-X'' was a weekly romantic horror comic written and drawn by Eric Millikin and Casey Sorrow. Millikin is an American artist and former human anatomy lab embalmer and dissectionist.Zabel, Joe (June 14, 2004).Cutting Up The Dead: An interv ...
'' and ''
Questionable Content
''Questionable Content'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''QC'') is a slice-of-life webcomic written and illustrated by Jeph Jacques. It was launched in August 2003 and reached its 4,500th comic in April 2021. The plot originally centered on Marten ...
'' as an example of comics using the web to create "an explosion of diverse genres and styles" in
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), ''Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and '' Making Comics'' (200 ...
's 2006 book ''
Making Comics
''Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels'' is a book by comic book writer and artist Scott McCloud, published by William Morrow Paperbacks in 2006. A study of methods of constructing comics, it is a thematic seq ...
''
[McCloud, Scott (2006). ''Making Comics'', New York: Harper Collins Publishers. . p. 227]
''When I Grow Up''
''When I Grow Up'' is a webcomic written by Rowland, which ran from June 14, 1999 until January 1, 2002. It takes place in the fictional town of Shallow Brook,
Oklahoma. The main characters were Neal, a young
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
scientist
A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...
working for the U.S. government; Roger, an unemployed
slacker
A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic.
Origin
According to different sources, the term ''slacker'' dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the earl ...
; Zoe, a selfish, bitter
newscaster
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on television show, TV, radio or ...
; and Gina, a college student and part-time employee of a video store.
The structure of ''When I Grow Up'' is very similar that of Rowland's second comic, ''Wigu''. It includes five different story arcs, which are often interrupted by short stories or single strips.
''When I Grow Up'' was hosted on
Keenspot for some time, but Rowland eventually moved it to his own server.
''Wigu''
''Wigu'' was a
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be ...
created by Jeffrey Rowland. It was publicly launched on January 7, 2002 and was also part of the
Dumbrella bulletin board.
''Wigu'' is the successor to ''When I Grow Up'' and derives its name from the earlier strip's initials. There have been some guest appearances from ''When I Grow Up'', but ''Wigu'' is otherwise a different comic with a new set of characters.
The comic is centered on the adventures of a little boy named Wigu Tinkle and his family.
Each chapter of the comic represents one day in Wigu's life. Wigu is an intelligent child with an active imagination who uses much of his free time to watch
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
and play
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
s, where he encounters the beings of ''Butter Dimension³'', primarily the intergalactic heroes Topato (a flying
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Un ...
whose
catchphrase
A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recogni ...
is "Spring into action!" and whose primary defense mechanism consists of being made entirely of
poison
Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...
) and Sheriff Pony (an eloquent Space Pony who, as the storyline reveals, excretes
vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia'').
Pollination is required to make the p ...
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...
instead of fecal waste. Topato excretes sour cream, which he also uses to shave).
Wigu was nominated for the
2004 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards categories Outstanding Short Form Comic and Outstanding Story Concept. ''Wigu'' was originally intended to end on December 31, 2004, but resumed on April 18, 2005. The webcomic ended again on December 31, 2005
so that Rowland could continue the title as a series of printed books. It was intended that there be a new book every month, but due to various delays, only three have been published, and ''Wigu'' returned to its original online format on November 22, 2006.
''Overcompensating''
On September 19, 2004, Rowland began another comic, ''Overcompensating'', a journal/daily
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
comic about his life. ''Overcompensating'', though clearly fictitious, does appear to have some reality in it. Caricatures of real life people such as
Richard Stevens,
John Allison and
Vera Brosgol
Vera Brosgol, also known as the Verabee (born August 2, 1984, in Moscow), is an Eisner Award and Harvey Award winning cartoonist and a graduate in Classical Animation of Sheridan College in Canada. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon. She wor ...
[The Underpants Candidate]
Overcompensating, May 06, 2005 make appearances, while other characters, such as Baby, do not exist.
- "Down in the West Texas Town of El Paso" In April 2005, Rowland predicted and then 'faked' his death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
by having Weedmaster P, a character in the strip, update the comic, posting that Rowland had died.
TopatoCo
Rowland is the owner and operator of the web merchant TopatoCo
The Topato Corporation (styled as TopatoCo) is a widely recognized online retailer of webcomics and related merchandise. It was established around 2004 by artist Jeffrey Rowland.
History
The company was started in Oklahoma in "about 2004" by ...
, which sells T-shirts, stickers, magnets, comics, hoodies, tote bags, and other items for a number of webcomics. As of May 2012, TopatoCo sells merchandise for over 40 different comics. Comics that TopatoCo represents include ''Questionable Content
''Questionable Content'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''QC'') is a slice-of-life webcomic written and illustrated by Jeph Jacques. It was launched in August 2003 and reached its 4,500th comic in April 2021. The plot originally centered on Marten ...
'', ''Dinosaur Comics
''Dinosaur Comics'' is a constrained webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. It is also known as "Qwantz", after the site's domain name, "qwantz.com". The first comic was posted on February 1, 2003, although there were earlier prototypes. ''Di ...
'', ''MS Paint Adventures
''MS Paint Adventures'', abbreviated ''MSPAdventures'' or ''MSPA'', was a website and collection of webcomics written and illustrated by Andrew Hussie. According to some estimates, ''MS Paint Adventures'' was the largest collection of comics on ...
'', ''Wondermark
''Wondermark'' is a webcomic created by David Malki which was syndicated to '' Flak Magazine'' and appeared in ''The Onion'' print edition from 2006 to 2008. It features 19th-century illustrations that have been recontextualized to create humorous ...
'', and ''Sam and Fuzzy''. Rowland currently operates TopatoCo out of a large warehouse in Easthampton, Massachusetts
Easthampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The city is on the southeastern edge of the Pioneer Valley near the five colleges in the college towns of Northampton and Amherst. The population was 16,211 at the 2020 ce ...
. The various cardboard box-related adventures of running the business play a large part in Rowland's comic ''Overcompensating''.
References
External links
''Wigu''
''Overcompensating''
''When I Grow Up'' (Archives)
TopatoCo
Interview with Jeff Rowland
from ''The Weekly Geek''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowland, Jeff
1974 births
Living people
People from Locust Grove, Oklahoma
People from Easthampton, Massachusetts
American webcomic creators