General Protection Fault (webcomic)

General Protection Fault (GPF) is a webcomic created by Jeffrey T. Darlington. It centers on the employees of a small software company called GPF Software and their misadventures. Launched on the internet on November 2, 1998, the comic was hosted on Keenspot between May 2000 and March 2008 and was consistently one of its most popular titles during this time. It is now once again independently hosted.
GPF mostly consists of traditional newspaper-style comic strips with occasional double-sized full-color "Sunday" comics. It updated daily up until July 2006 (7.75 years, a significant duration for a webcomic), when events surrounding the birth of Darlington's son forced its schedule to become more erratic. The comic is updated three times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Throughout the duration of its run, the comic has shifted between black and white and full color strips; it is updated only black and white.
Characters.
Nicholas "Nick" Wellington.
Nick is the protagonist of the comic strip, a programmer at GPF Software. He's fairly short, quiet, and a bit nerdy. He was introduced in the first GPF strip, which was about his job interview. He has an insatiable imagination and is usually innately optimistic and trusting. However, that has changed since Trudy's betrayal of his trust, and his noticing Bad Trish's odd behavior. He married Ki Oshiro, one of his coworkers.
He has developed the "Inventor's Gene," which allows him to create crackpot inventions and compels him to finish them. His first invention is a remote control that fires a laser. Other inventions include "Project Velociraptor," a 'free energy device' that really taps into other dimensions; the MUTEX, a virtual reality machine; an automatic gun cleaner for his father; and a gift for his uncle, the famous Doctor Otto Wisebottom, though neither of them knows what this does.
During Trudy's plot to take over the world, she used Nick to meet her goals. He apparently developed some feelings for Trudy, but when he was clued in to her evil intentions by Ki and Todd's efforts, he renounced her.
His parents are Charles and Linda Wellington. His father is a police officer (who used to teach secondary school Language Arts), and his mother is a biology teacher. He has a sister, Lori, who is a graduate student. Nick's parents both like Ki, and believe she fits right in with the family. His uncle, Dr. Wisebottom, also has the Inventor's Gene.
Nick prided himself on saving his virginity for marriage, one of the things that ultimately helped to attract like-minded Ki to him.
Ki Wellington (Née Oshiro).
Ki is another programmer at GPF Software, as well as their primary DBA. Ki can often appear gruff, sarcastic, and irreverent, but she has a sweet and loving heart and at times can be a bit of a romantic. She is typically pessimistic and suspicious in nature, usually in regard to Trudy. She often rails on the fact that she is so short, and has difficulty buying clothes that fit. She is married to Nicholas "Nick" Wellington, one of her coworkers. She was once engaged to a football player in college, Sam, but dumped him after he tried to rape her.
Ki took pride in saving her virginity for marriage, but almost gave up on it to try and save her relationship with Sam, leading directly to the rape attempt. In a more light-hearted episode in 2001 during the pregnancy of their boss's wife, she had a moment of weakness and, in a fit of passion, forced herself on Nick briefly before coming to her senses.
She is Asian; her father was born in Tokyo and her mother in Hong Kong. Ki also has a little brother, Yoshi, with whom she and Nick get along poorly.
Jason "Fooker" Barker.
Fooker was GPF Software's system administrator in the beginning. He is a bit crazy and very unhygienic; his apartment has been condemned by the EPA. (See the Slime Molds below.) He was well established as a Linux zealot but has since tempered his OS elitism with the aid of his friends. The origins of his nickname are a bit uncertain, but most likely have to do with switching the metasyntactic variable "bar" with "foo" in his last name. Some characters, however, mistake his name for a similar-sounding expletive.
During his college days, Fooker took far longer than the usual time to graduate (he says that Ki arrived in the "second year of [his] senior year"), partly due to having a problem with drinking excessively. He also got along poorly with Ki during that time, but convinced her to help him quit drinking by offering to get her a part-time job at GPF and throw out her disk quota. Soon after, they became friends, and Fooker quit smoking as well.
Fooker eventually was revealed to be a secret agent for the Undisclosed Government Agency (UGA) and apparently the organization's best agent. His brother, Justin, was groomed for the job, but Fooker was accidentally abducted instead, and won the job after managing to get the highest scores ever, alienating Justin for a long time. His agent number was 6, and his codename was "James Baud." Fooker was forced to go on full-time active duty when his cover was blown and he was framed for murder as part of Trudy's plans. Subsequently cleared of charges, he has since retired from the service, allowing Justin to finally take the job that was meant for him (since they looked similar, Justin also took the James Baud alias, and even kept Fooker's hairstyle for a few months).
Although Fooker returned to his friends, he did not return immediately to his old job. Dwayne did not think it right to fire Sharon just because Fooker had returned, so he instead put in a good word for Fooker at Regional Telecom. That company hired Fooker as sysadmin. Ultimately GPF bought out Regional Telecom, hired several of its workers, and rehired Fooker, placing him directly over Sharon in the hierarchy.
Fooker has also resumed his relationship with Sharon. However, it is unclear when, and if, they will get married, as Fooker has had bad experiences with failed marriage, including his parents'. Sharon, hearing about this from him, has promised to allow him to decide when he is ready to propose.
His mother is deceased, having died some time after Fooker joined the UGA. His father is a military officer who had been involved in the UGA, but abandoned his sons shortly after his wife's death.
Dwayne Duncan.
Dwayne is the founder, president, and lead software engineer for GPF Software. He is a tall, athletic African-American man with a strong work ethic and boundless enthusiasm. He is one of the more sane GPF Software employees, and is rarely involved in the other characters' stranger adventures. During Trudy's grab at world domination, he was framed for torching GPF Software headquarters, and sent to prison convicted of arson. He was exonerated shortly after the plot was foiled, and has rebuilt the company.
He is married to Mrs Nicole Duncan, who is an attorney. Together, they have a daughter, Sydney Nicole Duncan, who was born during a major flood on August 17, 2001.
Trudy Trueheart (Moonbeam Gertrude Glowerhausen).
Trudy started as GPF Software's director of marketing. It was quickly revealed that she was an evil mastermind, silently scheming and plotting ill will for her coworkers at the company. Eventually, it was learned that her schemes were far more ambitious when she launched an attempt to conquer the world through a criminal secret society known as CRUDE (the Commune of Really Unscrupulous and Diabolical Evildoers). She used Nick to this end, and developed a fondness for him while working toward her goals, building on feelings that may have been present since the beginning. After her "Surreptitious Machinations" were foiled and Nick renounced her, Trudy went into hiding.
Her parents are divorced, having met and quickly married as hippies. After inheriting a small fortune, Trudy's mother became a shady businesswoman. Her father secretly joined the FBI over 20 years ago, and kept up his hippie guise to keep tabs on his now-ex-wife. She is now on the lam as well. Trudy thus learned not to rely on anyone but herself, shaping her selfish personality. She also has a younger sister, given up for adoption, who is in fact Sharon Murphy.
Trudy has been revealed as "s1r3n," someone that Ki's little brother, genius programmer Yoshi Oshiro, had been in correspondence with. He was building Project Velociraptor for her, but after secretly witnessing Nick's proposal to Ki while visiting him, she ordered him to destroy the device and assumedly left his life forever, going on the run once more. She was once wounded during her flight during a fistfight with Agent #18, and Dr. Akhilesh Seghal cared for her. He forgave her when he found out what she had done, and allowed her to continue running if she took his Bible with her, which she did.
Trudy has returned, appearing at the site of Ki and Nick's would-be wedding. She turned herself in to the UGA a few days before, supposedly to be punished for her crimes. She accompanies the team with the GPF employees and her counterpart to the resistance base, in order to give her counterpart a way to atone for her crimes. To this end, she asks to stay behind and allow her counterpart to return in her stead to begin a life with a new identity. However, she has been knocked unconscious, and her counterpart (who was previously unconscious) has taken the pin that she wears to identify herself as the Trudy of the primary universe, to switch places with her and stay behind instead. Trudy has returned to her universe, and to her job at GPF, but is struggling with the ramifications of the fact that the others think that she is 'Nega' Trudy.
Trudy also seems to be the only member of the main cast who can see extradimensional entities. However, she seems to dismiss her visions as hallucinations, as they began during her mental breakdown.
The character of Trudy is also the cousin of Pete Abram's character Gywnn in the comic Sluggy Freelance; according to her, Gwynn, despite her flaws, is the "white sheep of the family." However, it is not revealed how closely they are related, and Gwynn's relatives apparently want nothing to do with her.
Alternate future.
In the alternate future, which never took place because of Todd and the GPF crew's efforts, Trudy succeeded in taking over the world, and betrayed and killed her former allies in CRUDE when they attempted to eliminate her. She then establishes her dictatorship, but faces resistance from her former co-workers, who recruit Nick to help them. Empress Trudy's troops capture Nick, and despite being offered money and power to betray them, he apparently rejects her offer and denounces her, although Todd does not know what he said. Trudy then shoots him in the head and kills him, the first time she killed anyone in cold blood. As a result, she grieves for Nick, and, losing her sanity, becomes determined to destroy the rebels to avenge him, believing them to be responsible for his death. She succeeds, but Todd goes back in time shortly before the rebellion's final defeat, and despite her efforts, she fails to prevent him and the GPF crew from changing the future. As she could never have taken power and become who she is, she begins to fade away, but presumably uses her time remote to jump time periods at the exact moment of her doing so. She has been seen fighting with Todd on one occasion, but her current plans are unknown.
Fredrick "Fred" and Persephone Physarum, the Slime Molds.
Fredrick the slime mold supposedly gained sentience from living in the squalor of Fooker's cesspool of an apartment. Fred learned to speak by watching PBS and tends to have an intellectual slant (his IQ is tested as 139, but Fred thought it should be 209). Fredrick briefly served as a literature professor for an undisclosed major online university until it was revealed that he (Fred technically has no gender, but answers to male identifiers) had no teaching credentials. He was eventually hired by Dwayne as GPF Software's customer support operative.
Persephone is another slime mold that sprang into existence when Fred reproduced by mitosis, one who considers herself a female. Although she should be genetically identical to Fred, she is a different color (yellow as opposed to Fred's green) and has a very different personality. They can alter their colors at will, and there have been hints of other, different colored slime molds (possibly from another time line). Persephone often seems quite naive, but has shown the occasional hint that she is far more intelligent than she lets on.
Fred (and Persephone by association), thrives in a filthy environment, which is no problem with Fooker, but Nick and Sharon, who have allergies, require clean environments, leading to conflict with the molds. Both molds also gain nutrients from eating decomposing food, can be destroyed by cleaning products such as bleach, and, like humans, require sleep. Fred has learned that he has the ability to control people's bodies by planting pseudopods on them, and used this ability to force Trent to perform various embarrassing and illegal acts (culminating with running round the GPF offices clad only in a cape and screaming that he was 'Willy Wombat, walloper of the wicked and warden of the weak'. It is implied that Persephone can also do this, although she has never done so (Fred wanted her to help him possess Sharon and Fooker so that they could have sex, but Sharon disapproved).
Fred is manning Nick's MUTEX console in the home universe, but has mysteriously been prevented from communicating with Nick, presumably because of Pandemonium's influence.
It is thought that the slime molds in the third universe are agents for the aliens that attack the city, as two characters are seen under control of something that acts much like Fred when he takes over someone. In addition, when the two characters are knocked unconscious, two objects detach from their heads and enter a grate, leaving behind a trail of slime. Also, when the Evil Nick shows the good Nick around his base, he takes him to a room where medical help is being given to a man with blue slime dripping from his head and neck, which Fred and Persephone regularly excrete when they come in contact with something. Finally, Fooker points his gun at Persephone during the alien attack and orders her to return to Ki's purse, possibly fearing that she will be mistaken for an enemy and killed.
Sharon Murphy.
Sharon is recently married to Fooker and is GPF Software's system administrator. She became GPF's sys admin when Fooker was called to active duty as a secret agent. Before that, she was their account administrator at their ISP, Quantum-Net. Sharon is a fiery red-head with a violent temper, but more often than not is very pleasant and cheerful. She is diabetic and reportedly lost a great deal of weight to improve her health. She is also a Mac-ophile, which is rare among GPF Software's PC-centric Windows and Linux environment. She usually wears custom contact lenses, and is allergic to dust, pollen, chocolate and COBOL programs.
Sharon typically gives people such as Trent and Trudy the benefit of the doubt, initially defending them while others express their doubts about them, but often comes to dislike such individuals. She is best friends with Ki, and gets along well with most of the rest of the GPF crew, except for Trent, who supposedly sexually harassed her on one occasion, and introduced a wireless internet access point to the office without asking her.
Sharon is adopted by an inter-racial couple, and is in fact the lost (by adoption) biological sister of Trudy Trueheart. She is extremely distressed to hear this, possibly because of her sister's crimes.
Dexter J. Smith.
Dexter was briefly an external contractor during a major Y2K-compliance project. He was brought back as a contractor when GPF Software was rebuilt after Trudy's plot for world domination, and was later hired by Dwayne to become a full-time employee. He is a large, grossly overweight man with an unhealthy obsession for science fiction in general and Star Trek in particular. He has a tendency to be selfish, self-centered and occasionally lost in some fantasy world, he has opened up and become friends with most of his coworkers.
Dexter is single, but has dated both Ki and Sharon in the past. He tended to be smothering and possessive in both relationships. Ki breaks up with him after he redecorates her office against her will, and Sharon breaks up with him some time between Fooker's trial and Fooker calling her on the run. Since then he has mellowed out, but he has very little social luck. He originally hated Nick because Nick has been condescending of him in the past. Still, Dexter helped Nick save some stranded children during a major flood at his request, then pulled Nick from the flood when he nearly drowned, allowing Ki to give him CPR and save his life. Since Dexter permanently joined GPF Software, he and Nick appear to have made up; Nick explains that he had been cast as a villain in his comic books because they weren't friends at the time. Despite initially being offended at how he was cast, Dexter is interested in finding out how evil his character was.
Despite apparent morbid obesity, he proved to have extraordinary physical prowess during Trudy's power grab in 2002, defeating a large, muscular C.R.U.D.E. henchman in hand-to-hand combat. He is also a skilled and active bowling enthusiast.
Trenton "Trent" Naomi Terrell.
Trent is a marketing guru and from after "Surreptitious Machinations" until recently acted as GPF Software's director of marketing. In fact, he attended college with Trudy Trueheart and the two were briefly engaged to be married... until Trent stole Trudy's submission for a job and passed it off as his own. Trudy found out what he did, and not only secured her job, but had him sent to prison as revenge. Trent was eventually sent to prison for dropping safes on the heads of several of GPF's competitors (acts actually committed by Trudy, although Trent actually attempted to drop a safe on Dwayne to frame Trudy), but was later pardoned for his part in helping prevent Trudy from taking over the world (although he knows he did next to nothing in the struggle, and later forgot his role). Conceited and arrogant, Trent works for GPF only to help build up the company Trudy once worked to destroy as an act of revenge against his former lover.
After a series of escalating arguments between Fred and himself, Trent attempted to sue Fred for libel but was in the end unsuccessful and was fired by Dwayne soon after the case was closed for shooting bleach (which Trent knew would destroy slime molds) at Fred.
Minor characters.
The Negas.
The Negas are counterparts to the characters of GPF from an alternate universe in the Year 8 megastory "To Thine Own Self..." (see Major Storylines below), that are "different parts of the same whole" in relation to the GPF cast. For example, while Trudy and Nega-Trudy both grew up spoiled and selfish, Trudy became even more so after her father left her, but Nega-Trudy began thinking of others when her mother fell ill and begged her to find her sister.
Major Storylines.
Surreptitious Machinations.
Surreptitious Machinations is a massive storyline that took up the entire fourth year of the comic's run, from November 4, 2001, to November 2, 2002. It was published as a graphic novel in 2005. It involves the meddling of a Trudy from the future, travelling back in time to ensure her world domination. Todd Wellington, the son of Nick Wellington and Ki Oshiro in this timeline, also travels back to stop her and change history in his world.
To Thine Own Self....
To Thine Own Self... was GPF's second major storyline, or "mega-arc". It began on November 20, 2005; originally scheduled to finish in October 2006, it was extended due to the hiatus in Fall of 2006. The story concerns Nick and Ki's wedding, and the attempts by Emperor Nicholas the Puissant, who is from a parallel dimension, to steal Project Velociraptor. On the night of his wedding, Duchess Ki, one of the Emperor's agents, kidnaps Nick and forces him to work on Project Velociraptor. His friends, however, joined a resistance movement in Emperor Nicholas's dimension, but while they succeeded in finding Nick and capturing Emperor Nicholas, they were faced with an alien invasion that threatened the alternate Earth.
The storyline included the tying of loose ends from "Surreptitious Machinations", as well as plotlines from Years 5–7, and, like Surreptitious Machinations, introduced new developments in the story, such as what may be the elimination of The Gamester and Mischief by Pandemonium.
To Thine Own Self... officially ended on March 4, 2008, concurrent with GPF's break from Keenspot, and immediately preceding the beginning of the comic's Year Nine.
Scylla and Charybdis.
Scylla and Charybdis was the third major storyline. It began on November 4, 2013 and ended on October 30, 2015, lasting for entire Years 15 and 16.
Crossovers.
General Protection Fault has taken part in several fictional crossovers with other online comics.
Bibliography.
Four initial compilation books were published by Plan Nine Publishing. These books are out of print, but used copies can be found at various online retailers.
A new line of books has started through Moonbase Press, beginning with the "fifth" book in the series. The artist eventually plans to re-release the previous books in another format and possibly under different titles to avoid confusion with the previous editions.