Comic:Life on the Fourth Floor

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Life on the Fourth Floor
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Artist:	Alex Episkopos
Writer:	David J. Bishop
Characters:	Michael Benedict, Jack Finnigan, Charlotte Lloyd, Shivani Nayak, Amy Ravenscropt, Bob Skinner
Updates:	Wednesdays and Saturdays
Began:	July 23 2005
Ended:
Art style:	Cartoon
Rating:	Web-14
Website	Website

Life on the Fourth Floor is a webcomic written by David Bishop and illustrated by Alex Episkopos. It uses a mixture of both character-based comedy and referential humour which includes references to video games, English literature and even other webcomics. It debuted on July 23rd 2005 and new strips are usually posted every Wednesday and Saturday.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Main characters 3 Minor characters 4 Links

Overview

The comic follows Michael, Jack, Charlotte, Shivani, Amy and Bob, six people in their twenties who live together on the fourth floor of an apartment block. The comic's main focus is on their personal relationships both with each other and with those outside the group as well as their creative lives and recreational pastimes. It employs a combination of single-comic jokes and longer storylines which draw upon the strip's continuity.

Main characters

Michael Benedict

Michael is a cartoonist who writes and illustrates a webcomic about ducks which nobody else gets. The critical reception of his strip is the subject of much anxiety for the character. Whilst he has a very close, supportive relationship with his best friend Charlotte, his relationship with Jack seems to alternate between encouragement and mild antagonism, usually in the form of practical jokes and mutual mockery. He often calls Jack an idiot, although in fairness he has on multiple occasions received a number of head wounds as a result of Jack's actions. For the most part, he tries to push Jack to improve his life, especially in Jack's interactions with Amy, despite his conflicting personal feelings about the situation. He is both more cynical and more rational than Jack but an ultimately hopeful and sensitive person.

Jack T. Finnigan

Jack T. Finnigan is a writer of gothic fantasy novels who lives with Michael. He is in love with Amy, even though they rarely speak to one another and she thinks his name is John. Whilst initially content to worship her from afar, he has repeatedly mustered the courage to ask her out but has been thwarted by her perpetual commitment to other men and her utter indifference towards him.

Jack is idealistic, which leads him to misperceive situations and draw wildly erroneous conclusions. Never is this more evident than in Jack's repeated assertions that Amy is a wonderful person.

Despite his outgoingness, he is emotionally withdrawn and reluctant to discuss his feelings. He is also prone to irrational and compulsive behaviour. He is half-Irish on his father's side. He is seldom seen without his Hawaiian shirt. He once suffered from a hernia. Jack uses the word 'ass' as an adjective to mean 'cool', much to the chagrin of those around him.

In addition to his writing Jack is an amateur puppeteer and part-time video blogger. He also enjoys tinkering with things, having once rebuilt the toaster (albeit with disastrous consequences). He likes Jaffa cakes. He is scared of spiders. His favourite cereal is Lion-os.

Charlotte Lloyd

Charlotte lives across the hall from Jack and Michael with Amy. She and Michael have been best friends since they were in high school and they are always there to tell the other what they need to hear, although Charlotte's sentiments are often more ironic or playfully mocking. She is a generally sarcastic person but also perceptive and sympathetic. She considers her biggest flaw is making her self-esteem dependent upon the opinions of others.

She openly dislikes her flat-mate Amy, who constantly attempts to destroy her self-esteem. As a form of revenge, Charlotte is defrauding Amy so that she pays most of the rent. She has a violent side, accidentally smashing Michael in the face with a saucepan on one occasion, and on another putting a shoe through her computer screen.

She has expressed anxiety about her sex life but this is largely because she refuses to have sex outside a loving relationship and therefore must wait until she has found a suitable boyfriend.

Shivani Nayak

Shivani is Charlotte's friend and confidant. She lives down the hall from the rest of the group. She is both competitive and aggressive but largely positive. She is a professional photographer. She once punched Rob Schneider, as retribution for the entirety of his filmography. She considers herself a Hindu, which has resulted in some confusion as to what this entails amongst the others. Shivani is difficult to please. She had a boyfriend for a short while but found the relationship ultimately dissatisfying, even though he was literally perfect. Shivani's complaint was that he was 'too perfect'.

Amy Ravenscropt

Amy is self-serving and vain. She is perky first thing in the morning and a terrible cook. She has little regard for the feelings of others, at times highlighting their anxieties in a mock-sympathetic tone and at other times openly insulting them. Whilst she has a very active sex life, she does not consider herself promiscuous but rather enjoys a series of very short long-term relationships which tend to fall apart after the moment of sex. Apparently to prove that these encounters are not one-night stands, she always breaks up with her partners face-to-face, sometimes even arranging for a second date in order to do so.

She spends the majority of her time annoying Charlotte. She belittles her relatively inactive sex life, continually implies she has a weight problem and tells people she meets that Charlotte is a transvestite. She also attempts to play members of the group off each other. Whilst she enjoys shopping for herself, she is easily bored whilst shopping for others. She considers 'being too nice' to be her greatest flaw.

Bob Skinner

Bob lives with Michael and Jack. He has not got up since they moved in, to the extent that he moves around on his desk chair with the aid of a broom to avoid walking. He is also something of a slob. He has a tendency to say the least helpful thing in a moment of personal crisis, although probably not deliberately. He loves sandwiches and is a fan of video games such as Grim Fandango and the Final Fantasy series. Has on numerous occasions been found singing songs composed by Nobuo Uematsu, whom he considers the greatest classical composer of all time. His love of all things Japanese led to him ordering a Japanese internet bride but instead he received a strange purple cat which he called Kingyo because it was written on the side of the box.

Minor characters

Kingyo

Kingyo is a michievous purple cat. He and Bob are technically married. Kingyo likes having his stomach rubbed and stealing things. He may or may not be able to fly.

Lone Warrior

The unnecessarily nameless protagonist of Jack's novel. He bears a close resemblance to Jack, only with a double chin and blue hair worn in a ponytail. Although the book is set in the present day, he spends his time exterminating the un-dead with a sword. He was temporarily brought to life as an autonomous hologram by the toaster, which he took as an opportunity to criticise Jack's writing.

Nerdy Sidekick

An equally nameless character from Jack's novel, clearly resembling Michael but wearing tweed and spectacles. He was also brought to life by the toaster, which led to much confusion as to which was which.

The Toaster

After it malfunctioned and exploded, the toaster was rebuilt by Jack using old computer parts. In its new form the toaster was five times bigger than before and featured a generator, broadband internet connection and (unbeknownst to Jack) artificial intelligence. It continued to redesign itself and grow in size, gaining the ability to speak, electrocute people and create tangible holograms akin to those featured in Star Trek. Although Jack, Michael and Bob initially enjoyed using the toaster to live out their fantasies, when it became apparent the toaster's intentions were ultimately malevolent, they teamed up with Charlotte to destroy it. The toaster fought back using the same holograms as before but was finally shot to pieces by Jack using a holographic semi-automatic. The characters have yet to buy a new one.

Future Jack

Future Jack has only appeared once. He wears a time machine on his back and an eye-patch on his face. He also differs from Jack in that he smokes cigars and has a shaved head. He appeared to Bob to deliver a stark warning about the future.

Matthew

Matthew is a gorgeous doctor and all round great guy. He possesses almost supernatural ability to make women feel good about themselves, to the extent that they feel their boobs are bigger. Regardless of the situation, he always says the most complimentary thing or takes the most favourable course of action, essentially eliminating unhappiness and disappointment for those around him. He is uncannily adept at fixing things, going as far as to cure Jack's hernia.

Matthew dated Shivani for a short while and whilst he made an understandably excellent first impression, Shivani eventually found his flawless behaviour irksome and their relationship came to an amicable end. Matthew took the news so well he conducted the entire break-up conversation by himself.

David Bishop

On the few occasions he has appeared in his own strip, David has presented himself as a wealthy polygamist deeply involved in organised crime. When he is not writing comics he spends his time "snorting blow and beating up hookers". He also enjoys golf.

Alex Episkopos

David's creative partner who draws the strip. His duties as cartoonist force him to draw with both hands in exchange for food. Anything he draws that does not meet David's exacting standards is ritualistically burnt. He apparently plagiarised the Fourth Floor characters from an existing comic called Gimby. When his quota is fulfilled he relaxes with a barefoot massage.

Links

http://fourthfloorcomics.com/