Woody Hearn - owner/writer/artist

Scott "Raphael" Straub - lead moderator/content manager (forums)
Captain Faboo - moderator/content manager (forums)
Evil Pet Rock - moderator/content manager (forums)
Mr. Binkybear - moderator/content manager (forums)

Breandan - wikipedia content manager

Colter "Loxatl" Begin - GU's Official "Biggest Fan"

[ For the sake of personal privacy some staff members have asked to be indentified only by their forum name. ]

GU Comics was first released to a small group of friends on July 10th, 2000. Then known as "/gu ...", the original comics were set inside the MMOG fantasy world of Everquest and centered around the in-game antics of the artist and members of his guild (Purifying Light on Vallon Zek). Intended only as a hobby, the comic's link was passed around to various Everquest related community sites (Evercrest.Com being chief among them). On July 25 2000, GU was contacted by the GameFan/Game Answer Network with an offer of affiliation and a proposal to go "live". Now hosted on the GameFan/Game Answer Network, GU was released for wide public consumption August 15th, 2000. The response was swift and significant. Since its inception GU has been forced to change hosts for various reasons. February 4, 2003, GU moved to its current home: the Safehouse.

On February 5th, 2003, signifying the move to the Safehouse and a shift in interest to the wider gaming world rather than focussing specifically on Everquest, the slash and ellipses were officially dropped from the GU logo. As of April 9th, 2007 the format of the comic was shifted from 300x465 to 600x450. Along with the format shift the logo, and comic type sub- text was removed from the strip.

GU is not a long-term storyline-based comic, instead featuring single, stand-alone comics or short, three-to-four-comic storylines. However, there are several characters that do make frequent appearances in the comic. These characters include:

Woody - a fictionalized version of Woody Hearn himself, almost always drawn with his characteristic orange ballcap. (introduced: September 1, 2000)

Ted Prescott - The fictional roommate of Woody who has often been described as Woody’s id given form. He is notorious for his obsession with all things game-related, as well as his conflicts with a sleep-deprivation-created hallucinatory monkey that he swears is real. (introduced: September 1, 2000)

The Zapper - While not a character in the traditional sense, the Zapper is the central figure in a series of comics which feature failed games and even entire development companies, flying into a giant bug zapper in the form of insects. (introduced: August 31, 2004)

Iggy McStickson - The stick figure character which replaces a standard comic in times of technical difficulty, sickness, or other such problems. (introduced: October 1, 2000)


Supporting Characters

GU is hand drawn on 110 lbs. bright white card stock using a 5x7 inch template. The sketch is inked with Sakura Pigma Micron pens using an 02 nib for details and an 05 nib for emphasis lines. The inked image is scanned in at 1200 dpi for the purpose of cleaning up linework. The images are then resized to 300 dpi and colored using Adobe Photoshop CS on a Wacom Cintiq 21UX. The comic is then resized to internet resolution, where backgrounds, text, lighting and copyright info are added. Once the comic is published, a writeup, citing relevant news sources when needed, is associated with the comic and linked from the front page and archives.

The direction of the art in the comic has changed constantly throughout GU's history. Earlier strips were intentionally simplified and used a 2-color gradient as the background. The current work is a mix of complex detail, colored in a hard edge anime style, offset by a cartoon-like exaggeration of proportion and anatomy. The characters and text are set upon highly distorted backgrounds relevant to the theme of the comic, and use soft, but intense, light sources that serve as a counterpoint to the hard-edged coloring style. Text bubbles and font choices have remained relatively unchanged since GU's inception. GU primarily uses fonts licensed from Blambot.

Woody Hearn is a 17 year veteran of professional illustration, design and production artwork. His current endeavor is the gaming comic semi-hit GU Comics. Born of the MMOG community, GU has, of late, branched out to address more of the gaming world.

Woody attended John S. Davidson School of Fine Arts, a school nationally acclaimed for both it's Academic and Fine Art excellence; and, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Valdosta State University, with emphases on Graphic Design and Illustration.

Woody's artwork has become part of part of well over 300 small/private art collections, including that of both his alma maters John S. Davidson and Valdosta State University. He's even managed to get stuff displayed in several museums around the south including the High Museum in Atlanta. His work as a scenic artist can be seen in the independent film 'Ripe' by Mo Ogradnik (he makes no excuses for the movie's quality, watch at your own risk). Some of his comics and illustration work can be seen in the documentary film 'Avatar's Offline' by Daniel Liatowisch. Woody has won awards for both illustration and scenic design. And, he's received attention for banner design in the book 'Just a Click Away: Advertising on the Internet' by Dr. Barbara Kaye and Dr. Norman Medoff.