This is, for all intents and purposes, your main cast. If there was such a thing as an oscar for moderately humorous webcomics, these four would be able to win Best Character without "Supporting" stuck in the middle. If you're a regular reader, you know them - they're here pretty much every day. If you're not a regular reader... well, get started. And then you'll get to know them. :)

Mae Dean - This is our protagonist. She's based on yours truly, the author. She's impulsive, drinks Pepsi with reckless abandon, and finds herself unable to resist anything with the words "Final Fantasy" on it. She alternates between boneheaded stupidity to moments of... well, brilliance is probably going a step too far, so let's just say moments of coherence and lucidity. She has an addictive personality, and is an incurable packrat. She and Liz were married in 2005, and are now living in Rancho Murieta, CA after a stint in San Francisco, CA and Lockhart, TX... in that order. What more can I say? It's incredibly difficult to summarize yourself in a paragraph, after all. :) (Author's note: You might see this character being called "Greg" in the archives, especially before 6/29/2020. You'll figure it out as you you go along.)

Liz Dean - Liz is Mae's better half. More often than not, she winds up playing the straight man in the strip, watching the lunacy occur all around her - but don't let her demeanor fool you... she's just as geeky and impulsive as the rest of us. Liz is an avid cosplayer, and is a master of getting the better of any situation she find herself in. And hell... she deserves an award just for putting up with Mae for as long as she has.

Tony Flansaas - Make no mistake... Tony is evil. He might seem like a good-hearted guy on the outside, but that's just because we're his friends. Everyone else has to feel his wrath. Tony would be your average genius supervillian, except his plans rarely fail. He's sort of like Ernst Blofeld and MacGuyver in one. There's very little he is incapable of - and won't hesitate to let you know it.

Dave Reynolds - You know the friend you call whenever your computer breaks down beyond all repair, because they know way more about computers than you do? Dave is that guy. On steroids. Well, not literally... physically, he's skinny and weak, but he makes overclocking into an art form. He's also basically Tony's sidekick for all intents and purposes, though he has his own evil ambitions.

These guys might not be in the comic as much as the guys above them, but they're just as important to the plot. Some of them might appear more than others, but either way, get to know their names and faces, because odds are good you'll be seeing them at some point. And you don't want to be in one of those ackward positions where they introduce themselves to you, and you have to try to introduce them to your significant other with that big, long, weird pause. 'Cause that's just embarrassing.

Cliff Hicks - Cliff is the guy who knows everything. Not a know-it-all, mind you - they only like to know more than you. Cliff actually knows it all. He lived with Mae and Liz for most of 2005, before they were married and moved to the apartment in downtown Sacramento. He's also generally the de-facto DM of the group, an honor which originally belonged to Tony.

Adam Compton - Adam's shown up quite a number of times in the comic, though he still remains a relatively "minor" character. Adam is basically the software acquisition master of the group. He could get you anything you needed, and wouldn't shy away from hacking into someone else's machine to get it for you. He's also something of a hardware geek - though while Dave's interests run into the territory of overclocking, Adam prefers the eccentric - like building a computer into an NES case.

Eric Hall - We met Eric through the Real Life Forums, and have been to many a RLF Gathering with him. (Those would be the comics taking place in North Carolina) He lives in San Antonio, Texas, and introduced us to Texas culture before we moved, easing the shock. He's outspoken, and fiercely proud of his home state.

Ben Comroe - Ben might have only appeared a few times in the comic so far, but he came in with a bang - being punched in the face in his very first appearance. (Much to the delight of everyone in the forum) We met Ben through the Real Life Forums, and he went on to become a great friend of ours. All this despite the fact that he's a raging (self-titled) asshole. Ben can't help it. It's who he is.

Debbie Green - Debbie is Tony's girlfriend, and though she's been in precious few strips, she still played a big part in one of the better battles the comic has ever seen. She's a relatively minor character as far as the comic goes, but that's due only to the fact that I could never really figure out her character in the long run.

PAL 4200 - PAL was Dave's creation very early on in the comic, and was so powerful, it actually gained sentience on its own. Named after HAL 9000, PAL has a habit of bestowing sentience on any number of gadgets, from Dreamcasts to iPods. It's sort of his hobby. Ironically, his hardware has never changed since its inception, but due to his self-awareness, he was able to optimize his own internal pathways to the point where he was the ideal computer core for the DS-1. With the destruction of the DS-1, PAL escaped via Dave's brain, and has now been uploaded back into his own meager computer case once more.

Alan Extra - Alan's not a friend of ours, exactly... hell, he's not even based on a real person, but he's a big part of the cast, regardless. Alan's the everyman - literally. He plays every part other than ourselves, with the occasional help of his friend, John Generic. For more insight into Alan's background, read the series of comics beginning on July 7, 2003.

Sadly, these characters just won't be showing up anymore. Be they ex-girlfriends, people I no longer see, or characters that I could just never find a place for, they just don't fit in with the comic, really. That said, they're a big part of the comic's past, and you should definately know who they are.

Crystal Hoff - Crystal was part of the comic for the first two years, and she and Mae were dating at the time. We've since parted ways, but she remains a big part of what the comic was at the time. In addition to playing the part of Mae's "handler", she also had a bout with computer overclocking to the extreme - a la Serial Experiments : Lain.

Liz Mosely - Liz was brought into the comic in 2001, right after Crystal was officially retired from active duty. She went on to battle Tony for the title of world ruler, and in the end, won it. As far as I know, she's still the ruler of the world. She stopped appearing when we lost touch, basically.

Danny Chen - Danny was a good friend of mine back in high school, and was one of those guys who is WAY into Linux. You know those guys. Sadly, I was just never able to find the appropriate niche for him to fit into, and he just fell into disuse. At least, that's the official explanation. Unofficially, he read User Friendly on a daily basis, and I just can't abide that.