{{Infobox webcomic| | title = The New Adventures of Queen Victoria | image = [[Image:Tnaoqv-vic.jpg]] | caption = Queen Victoria as seen in ''The New Adventures of Queen Victoria'' | author = [[Pab Sungenis]] | url = http://www.newadventuresofqueenvictoria.com | rss = http://www.newadventuresofqueenvictoria.com/tnaoqv.xml | status = Daily | began = February 8, 2006 (uClick launch on May 21, 2007) | ended = | genre = | format = | publisher = GoComics.com | cost = | ratings = }} '''''The New Adventures of Queen Victoria''''' is a [[webcomic]] created by [[Pab Sungenis]]. It uses the photo-manipulation technique popularized by [[Adobe Photoshop]] and other image editing programs to insert actual photographs and paintings of the characters into situations, instead of more conventional methods. The strip was first posted by the author on his own [[LiveJournal]] [[blog]], then moved to a journal of its own shortly afterward. On April 5, 2006, the strip joined the [[Comics Sherpa]] online comics service. On April 3, 2007, it was announced that 'Queen Victoria' had been picked up by uClick, for inclusion on its GoComics.com and MyComicsPage.com services, and began running on those services on Monday, May 21st, 2007."'Queen Victoria' Strip Moves to GoComics.com," ''Editor and Publisher,'' May 24, 2007 [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/syndicates/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003590102] ==Cast== Main Characters: * [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]], Queen of the [[United Kingdom|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland]], [[Emperor of India|Empress of India]], and thoroughly modern monarch. * [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|Edward]], her son and future king. Secondary Characters: * [[Elizabeth I of England|Liz]], a former queen, and Victoria's best friend. * [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]], Victoria's friend and spiritual guide. * '''Maurice,''' a [[clipart]] image, who serves as Victoria's handyman. * '''Mrs. Clipart,''' another clipart image, who is principal of Edward's school. * [[George III of the United Kingdom|Grandpa]], Victoria's grandfather, who is quite mad. * [[Anne Boleyn|Anne]], Liz's mother. * [[Osama bin Laden|Osama]], a master of disguise and Victoria's self-appointed nemesis. Extremely incompetent. ==Themes and subject matter== [[Image:Naqv090217.gif|right|frame|Queen Vic and Edward speak their minds about Wikipedia in the February 17, 2009, installment of ''The New Adventures Of Queen Victoria.'' Image Copyright 2009, 2,000 Monkeys With Typewriters, LLC, used with permission]]Mainly due to its juxtaposition of historical figures into modern society and current events, the overall style of the strip tends toward [[absurdism]], with occasional forays into [[postmodernism]] and [[satire]]. As a quintessential 19th century figure thrown into modern society, Victoria becomes an [[everyman]], commenting on modern pop culture."Victoria Puts On A Royal Show," ''Rockford Register-Star'', May 17, 2007 [http://www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070517/GO13/105170037/1195/GO] Television, movies, current celebrities, and other aspects of modern culture have been commented on and criticized in the strip. Often, the strip comments about the comics industry itself; such as during mid-late June, 2007 when the strip commented about shrinking page sizes of newspapers and the proliferation of "reruns" of comics no longer drawn such as [[Peanuts]]. [[Peanuts]] was parodied again in late October, 2007, when instead of the normal strip characters an entire week of strips was devoted to an "interview" with what a middle-aged [[Charlie Brown]] might look like, discussing [[David Michaelis]]' controversial biography ''Schulz and Peanuts.'' Part of the parody has him married to [[Lucy]], who henpecks him. ==Politics and controversy== [[Image:Qv060217sm.jpg|right|frame|The February 17, 2006, installment of ''The New Adventures Of Queen Victoria,'' featuring Mary and Victoria. Image Copyright 2006, 2,000 Monkeys With Typewriters, LLC, used with permission]]The strip has occasionally wandered into what could be considered [[politics|political]] material. When [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Dick Cheney]] accidentally [[Dick Cheney hunting incident|shot a man]] during a hunting trip, Victoria went hunting with him shortly afterward. When twenty students were suspended from a [[California]] school for viewing postings on [[MySpace]], Edward found himself expelled for creating his own page.[http://www.myspace.com/edwardvii]. In July 2007, in response to the Supreme Court's overturning of anti-segregation laws in [[Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1]], which Sungenis compared to overturning [[Brown v. Board of Education]], the strip "segregated" itself into two separate stips -- a "white" strip above a "black" one which was represented by showing characters and text in photo-negative on a black background. In support of the [[2007 Writers Guild of America strike]], Pab spent a week "on strike" in November, 2007, replacing the strip's dialogue with that of classic comic strips from the late 19th and early 20th centuries like [[Happy Hooligan]], [[Abie the Agent]], and [[Buster Brown]], which had fallen into the public domain. In December, 2007, the strip ran a week-long storyline criticizing the [[Beloit Daily News]] of [[Beloit]], [[Wisconsin]] for dropping the comic strip [[Non Sequitur (Comic Strip)|Non Sequitur]] over a strip that mocked the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Publicity arising from ''Queen Victoria's'' mockery of the paper was one of the reasons cited by the paper's editor for the decision to return ''Non Sequitur'' to its comic pages."About Non Sequitur, Part Two" ''Beloit Daily News'', Dec 19, 2007 [http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/2007/12/18/editorials/edit02.txt] Perhaps most controversially, in response to the controversy over the [[Jyllands-Posten]] cartoons depicting the prophet [[Muhammad]], a new character was introduced into the strip based on the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]]. Although the depiction of the character of Mary caused some backlash against the strip (one reader called it "Sacrilegious and unfunny"), Mary has since become a regular cast member. ==Style and influences== The graphic style of the strip has been compared to the [[animation]]s of [[Terry Gilliam]] as seen on the [[television]] show [[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]."Riding Low With Baldo," ''Comics Coast To Coast'' Episode 8, July 13, 2007 [http://comicscoasttocoast.com/images/podcast/cccep8.mp3] Like Gilliam's creations, the strip uses cut-out photographs and other images for its characters and settings. This same technique was used to a limited degree by [[Berkeley Breathed]] in his comic strip [[Bloom County]], to add photographs and images of famous people to the background of the strip. ==Collected editions== Three paperback collections of the strip have been published by [[Lulu Publishing]]. * ''We Are Not Amusing'' ISBN 978-0-557-03054-5, published 2006. * ''I Can Has Empire?'' ISBN 978-1-4357-0847-1, published 2007. * ''Norton Hears A Who, And Other Stories'' ISBN 978-0-557-03043-9, published 2008. ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * [http://www.comicssherpa.com The Comics Sherpa website] * [http://www.gocomics.com GoComics website] * [http://www.newadventuresofqueenvictoria.com ''The New Adventures of Queen Victoria''] [[Category:2000s webcomics]] [[Category:Historical webcomics]] [[Category:Short form webcomics]]