Name: Neko
Occupation: Unemployed
Date of Birth: March 9, 1999

One of a litter of five kittens, Neko was adopted by Alice from an animal shelter. Hobbies include eating and sleeping.
Neko's name is derived from two japanese words. It is spelled the same as the English spelling of the japanese word for 'cat' -'Neko,' and pronounced like the japanese word for 'smile' -Niko (nee-ko). The stripe on his tail became a design feature when, in an early sketch in the margin of a notebook, I drew the tail too short. Twice. His personality is based on my old cat, Garfield, who had been with the family since I was two years old, and died of old age when I was twenty.

Name: Alice Cooper
Occupation: Student
Date of Birth: December 28, 1982

Alice has been taking care of Neko since 1999, despite the fact that pets aren't allowed in on-campus accommodation. Her appearance is based in part on a girl I had a crush on when I started drawing the strip, and in part on my inability to draw people properly. She takes her name from an early goth singer who, as it happens, also appeared on 'The Muppet Show'. I think it suits the character.

Name: Gar Molloy
Occupation: Student / Cartoonist (amateur)
Date of Birth: February 13, 1982

This is me. Originally I introduced this character as a sort of narrator, but I liked the way he was drawn and so added him to the cast as a character who has the same name, personality, and appearance as me. This is good because it makes him very easy to write.

Name: Jeff Riverside
Occupation: Student / Video stor clerk (part-time)
Date of Birth: June 06, 1981

A friend of Gar's since their freshman year at Beckett University, Jeff started seeing Alice after she broke up with her previous boyfriend for crapping in her bed one drunken night. Though it started as a rebound relationship, they actually work well as a couple, which irritates Gar greatly. Jeff is based on two separate friends of mine from college, neither one of which is dating any of the girls Alice is based on. He's named after a book on my English Literature course, 'The Riverside Chaucer.'

Name: Ellen Brickley
Occupation: Student / Freelance Journalist
Date of Birth: February 06, 1983

Alice's room-mate and self-proclaimed bitch, Ellen is a mighty force of cynicism and permanent boredom. She does, however, make excellent soup. She's named after a girl in college that I know, who was also the first person to send me e-mail in praise of Neko. The real Ellen's a year younger.

Name: Maisy
Occupation: Unemployed
Date of Birth: August 27, 1998

Maisy lives with Alice's neighbour, Sarah. She's more curious and adventurous than Neko, and this can get her into trouble sometimes. It can also make her catch fire.

Name: Sarah Barrett
Occupation: Student / Software Pirate
Date of Birth: October 22, 1983

Alice's neighbour is in general the most cheerful person in any given situation. This has led many people to consider her naive, or at least terminally stupid, whereas she is in fact merely on antidepressants.
Sarah is intended to be more cartoonish than the other characters, and to provide a foil for the predominantly cynical main cast. She's named after the first person ever to send me fan art.

Names: Square and Circle
Occupation: Geometric shapes
Date of Birth: ???

Whenever I don't feel like drawing, I put up filler material with everyone's favourite degenerate geometric forms. Essentially they're shirt Guy strips, although there aren't any shirts and I do them myself. I basically write Square and Circle automatically, which leads to its non-sequitor style as the stream of consciousness unneccessarily goes over a bunch of rocks the wrong way. Sprie comics were never this lazy.