About No Apparent Reason
In a purple world, the fedora-ed creator of NAR explains sporks to his pet penguin.
No Apparent Reason is a silly, often-amusing, classic webcomic. It was begun in February of 2006 by Raphael, a truly weird guy who goes to school in Australia. Since then, passing many difficulties and many complications, it has been the sole creation of Raphael which has not failed. In fact, it's just gone on and on. Clearly, a webcomic was exactly the sort of thing he needed to work on.
Raphael can't draw. This should be pretty evident. However, he is pretty good at talking about himself in the third person. Also, he seems to possess some vague sense of humour. Since he can't draw, he illustrates NAR with stick figures and objects which he can draw alright, like zeppelins. He is obsessed with zeppelins as much as he is obsessed with penguins. One day, he says, he will live in a zeppelin (probably with an army of penguins).
There is no apparent reason for naming No Apparent Reason No Apparent Reason. (Hehe.) A few months before NAR started, Raphael and his friends had an IRC channel. It needed a name and they were in a hurry, so they called it #nar, No Apparent Reason. When Raphael asked his friend James (who would later become his plot author) what to call this new comic he had come up with, James suggested No Apparent Reason. And so it was.
As for James becoming Raphael's plot author, that's because Raphael can't come up with decent plotlines. The first iNinja storyline was all his, he wishes to point out. Most of the other ones were partially worked on by James, either after 'James, I need a storyline. Chop chop' or 'James, hurry up and help me, I've tried writing my own storyline and painted myself into a corner' on MSN.
Raphael now feels that if he doesn't mention all the other help he got for NAR, his helpers are going to murder him in the night. Indeed, many of the jokes in NAR are based on things which happen in Raphael's life (yes, he has a life away from the internet, it's actually pretty cool) - and so, he has a habit of stealing the jokes other people made and putting them in NAR. 'That's going in NAR' has become a catchphrase of his. Thank you everyone from the Arches (you know who you are), thank you to the sraffies (as do you), thank you to people in TSR who are not in the Arches (ditto) and hnargle zhe palaslosh jing glubble glubble weeeeeeee (you have no idea what or who you are but belive me, the time will come!) He records ideas and plans storylines in his Little Black Book, of which he is very fond. The Book is a small notepad which, when closed, makes a particular, comforting, thuddypaperlike sound. He spent half an hour in a newsagency closing notebooks until he found the right sound.
For plenty more on Raphael, check out his home page. He also tries to reply to emails, email him at ralphiekabo AT gmail DOT com. And now, begone with ye! Back to the comic!