Tommy and PJ
Tommy and PJ is a webcomic created by Oren Otter and part of his Intense Universe. In the early stories of its current format, Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes was apparently a major influence. The strip began in a rough, hand-drawn format whose story differed from the canon of the second format, which was created for the internet.
More Information on Tommy and PJ in the author's own words may be found here.
Plot[edit]
The story takes place in the middle of the 21st century. Man has achieved the stars, made alliances with alien races, and begun colonizing other worlds. Tommio Tomias and his parents are of a plant-like humanoid species called vegetalien--ultimately descended from humans. They recently moved to the planet Procyon 4 to aid the colonization effort while Venus is being terraformed.
Tommy and PJ is a spinoff of The Chronicles of Procyon, an unreleased series of stories by Oren Otter set in the Intense Universe.
Characters[edit]
Tommy is the young, adventurous, and headstrong son of Xanthus and Daphne Tomias. He has a wild imagination and is prone to attempting wild stunts based on ideas as they pop into his mind, without thinking them through first.
PJ began life as a plush toy womprat who was Tommy's imaginary friend. He is a lot more level-headed than Tommy, but still willing to follow Tommy enthusiastically on his adventures. In short, he and Tommy are inseparable. As time went on, PJ's personality became so well-developed that he was "brought to life" in a story arc which introduced the self-aware robot characters Vocalizer and Magneta. This was, in fact, a throwback to PJ's character as introduced in the earlier format of the comic strip, mentioned above.
Zuni is a horse-like cavalier, the daughter of Tommy's next-door neighbors. She has a somewhat domineering personality and a rather short temper, but has nonetheless enjoyed Tommy's company since they met.
Paul was introduced as "the boy with bionic feet". Little is known about him, except that he has had the prosthetics for as long as he can remember (they were recently upgraded). Upon meeting Tommy, PJ, and Zuni, he became fast friends and has since joined the gang on nearly all of their exploits. He is a more sensitive character than Zuni, possibly owing to his physical difference.
Stories[edit]
Some of the most memorable storylines include the Christmas adventure, in which the kids try to deliver letters to their respective "Santas" (and discover the planet Procyon is serviced by a pangolin), and the recent storyline in which Tommy and Zuni's friendship is strained by a disagreement.
Recent developments[edit]
Since pencilling duties were taken up by Ashen Fox in September of 2004, Oren began evolving the characters in a more mature direction, giving them new and different experiences as they actually grow older.
Ashen, in the course of his tenure as artist, has become sufficiently confident in his drawing skill that in October 2005 he decided to begin inking the strip by hand and coloring it digitally, returning the strip to full color.
The strip has not been updated since 2010.