Jessi is the original girlfiend--the first character created for the comic strip. Jessi's life revolves around sex and good times--she's completely amoral and apolitical. Having escaped her small hometown and conservative upbringing, Jessi is now a perpetual college student who spends all her time drinking, watching porn, and strenuously avoiding any form of work. This is her very first appearance, in a microcomic from 2000:

Jessi began as a swinging single, and her constant companion was a sarcastic lizard named Reagan. Reagan delights in pushing Jessi's buttons. (And Jessi has a lot of buttons.)



After suffering alone through most of a 60-page graphic novel, Jessi finally met true love Janice. (Reagan found a wife, too.) And they all lived happily ever after. In classic odd couple fashion, Jessi and Janice argue all the time but are also crazy in love.




Jessi was the heart and soul of Girlfiend Comics for years. She's been on the cover of every book I've made so far, and starred in most of the Girl Trouble strips. She embodies the escapist fun and unashamed sexuality that Girlfiend Comics is about. But in the last couple of years, I've found it harder to stick to writing Jessi stories. I don't want to be Garfield, telling variations on the same lasagna joke for 25 years. I don't personally relate to the character as much as I used to, and she's not a character who can really grow or change with me. (Jessi is pure id--maturity would kill her.) Also, she's basically monogamous with Janice--not that there's anything wrong with that--it's just hard to write all your sex stories around a monogamous main character. I've painted myself into a corner, and it's useless trying to sketch my way out.

All this is to say that Jessi is no longer the main queeracter here at Girlfiend Comics. More like a mascot. There will still be new material for her, when it fits her personality, and of course she'll always be my first.