6x9 College -- About - Why do you mock me, radio?!

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10er Bradley

Oh, hello. Welcome to…umm…the "About" page. I live in New Hampshire. I don't know what anyone would find interesting about me. I graduated from UNH in May 2006, I wear socks, and I eat occasionally. That's about all there is to it. What, you want more? Okay, okay. But I don't know what you're expecting. I'm not that special.

I'm just an ordinary guy.
Trying to save the world. top

Amber

Amber Marshall

Hi there! I'm Amber, the writer of (most of) the strips. Lily is based on me. I am a 2005 graduate of UNH, where I earned a B.A. in English. I enjoy reading fantasy, playing video games (rpgs), writing, drawing things, sleeping, eating, stuff like that. I hope to someday write lots and lots of bestselling novels.

Ah yes, I also have a blog where I post my writings, as well as another ranty blog called Epiphination, so please go check those out!
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About 6x9 College

6x9 College is a comic strip (hopefully at least twice a week, if we can get some comics drawn) about funny things that happen at college. It is loosely based on the things we saw happening at our college, UNH. Although it is definitely not factual, most of the funnier things are things that actually happened, in some form. It just seems to work out that way.

The main characters are younger versions of characters that 10er and his brother Travis are using in another comic project, called "6x9" (for explanation of this project, and the title, see 10er's writeup below). Lily is based on me, Jack is based on 10er. For the rest of the who's-who, see the cast page.

This project started with me feeling stuck as a writer. 10er suggested I write about the funny happenings at our college that we always talk about. The idea snowballed into a comic strip, with me suggesting the webcomic format, since we're addicted to webcomics. Since then, I have written 95 scripts, and 10er has drawn 1 comic, and a great deal of other related and unrelated stuff.

The first storyline is fairly long, as it deals with the start of freshman year. Unfortunately, there isn't much material from first semester besides this, since we started this project Spring 2002 and our memories are spotty, except for the undoubtedly memorable events of the first few months. We didn't do any comics about current events of that time (like Sept. 11) because by the time we got them out, they would be hopelessly dated.

A note to the easily offended: please don't sue us/flame us! In particular storylines it seems like we're picking on certain groups (namely, vegans and protesters) but we're just trying to get a laugh, and we write about funny things that we see going on. Our school happened to be pretty activism-charged the past semester, so that's what we ended up coming back to at times. In any case, keep your sense of humor, and enjoy 6x9 College! --Amber
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Settings

Lily, Jack and company attend (and live on-campus at) UGH, or the University of Granite Heights. We wanted the name to be a gutteral-sounding acronym, much as UNH is (any comic reader will attest to the frequency of the exclamation "unh!" appearing when someone is hit/exasperated/grunting), so we came up with UGH first, then what it stands for. It's a mid-to-large university in an undisclosed part of America (although the name sounds distinctly New Hampshire-ish) in an undisclosed small town. The following list details some of the settings in the comic.

The PUB: Not actually a pub, but an acronym for "Public Union Building." It corresponds to UNH's MUB (Memorial Union Building). It contains the offices for student organizations, a food court, a few vendors, reception rooms, entertainment rooms, and other miscellaneous stuff. It's also where the school holds many of the indoor events.
Phillings: The dining hall closest to Lily and Jack's residence halls (the other one, Stillbrook, being across campus). Any fellow UNHers will notice the name perversion right away. This is the setting for many dining service-related comics, especially ones about vegans or the usually inedible food.
Carlson Hall: Jack's residence hall. It's an all-freshman hall, with single-sex floors. The male floors can be easily identified by the level of sheer destruction present.
Lawrence Hall: Lily and Luci's residence hall. It's the scholar hall, but that doesn't mean that it's any less crazy. Okay, it's less crazy than the freshman halls, but that goes without saying. At least here, one can sleep most nights.
Health Services: It is a clean, seemingly normal medical facility, but beware: endless lab tests and followup visits await. It is uncertain how many of the horrible legends are true, but it pays to be careful.
Evil Administration Office: The shadowy, smoke-filled room in which the evil administrators plot their wicked schemes.

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History

Six By Nine was originally a project Travis and I had started working on way before I went to college. Travis was supposed to write a story based around the characters I had created (You can find concept pics for the characters on the “Art” page). Unfortunately, we’re both EXTREMELY LAZY (Am's note: No kidding!) and never really got around to doing much of anything, although the Prologue and Chapter One of the story are done, and I did draw a concept “First Comic”.

Anyhoo, I went to UNH and found Am, and since we’re both webcomic junkies and she knew how to write comic scripts, I figured we could adapt the characters I had already made up. We found quite a bit of humor in our newfound residence, and needed an outlet. You write what you know, you know? Although it’s funny: when I was making up the original characters, Jack was representative of me and Phineas of Travis (and of course Satan was, well, Satan), but I had no idea who Lily would be representative of. Then I met Amber, and it was like I had created her before I even knew her. Amber was Lily to a “T” (whatever that means): a gothy vampire chick who is, in most respects, a casual and cynical observer of the human psyche. Except Am’s not a vampire. Well, I’m pretty sure she isn’t. Otherwise, we need to talk…

I’m pretty sure Six By Nine College will eventually be a sort of “College Edition” add-on to Six By Nine. I do plan to draw and write more of Six By Nine, and I kind of expect there to be only a finite number of college-edition strips, but in the meantime, enjoy the comic!

Oh yes, the name. Where did we come up with “Six By Nine”? Well, think about this: What do you get if you multiply six by nine? The answer may not be as plain or simple as you think. For those of you who recognize this particular brand of irony, Bravo! For those of you who do not (most likely the majority of our readers), I recommend that you read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and all the books in that series. In fact, read all of Douglas Adams’ books. He was a great guy. --10er
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