Real Life | |
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Strip from 2005-08-01
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Author(s) | Maelyn Dean |
Website | reallifecomics |
Current status/schedule | Semi-active |
Launch date | 1999-11-15[1] |
Genre(s) | Exaggerated reality |
Real Life is an American webcomic drawn and authored by Maelyn Dean.[2] It began on November 15, 1999, and is still updated, after breaks from December 10, 2015, to September 10, 2018, and again from July 16, 2019, to June 15, 2020, from December 6, 2022 to February 26th, 2024, and most recently, from April 9, 2024, to present. The comic is loosely based around the lives of fictionalized versions of Dean and her friends, including verbatim conversations, as well as fictional aspects including time travel and mecha combat.[3] Characters regularly break the fourth wall. Real Life focuses on humor related to video games and science fiction, and references internet memes.[4]
Real Life launched in 1999 and became part of Keenspot shortly after. Dean switched to the Blank Label Comics collective in 2005[5] before going solo again in February 2010.[6] The Real Life website is currently self-hosted by Dean.
Year one of Real Life was published as a paperbackbyStarline Multimedia Inc. in 2004,[7] and a second book published by Lulu was released in 2008. A German translation of some portions of the webcomic has been made available on the website's archive.
Maelyn Dean won the "Outstanding Reality Comic" category of the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards four times: in 2001,[11] 2003 (when her webcomic tied with Nowhere Girl),[12] 2004,[13] and 2005 (when her webcomic tied with The Devil's Panties).[14]
One popular autobiographical webcomic is the appropriately named Real Life, by Maelyn Dean.
I have officially tendered my resignation from Blank Label Comics.