Apple Geeks

Long before the "I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" commercials came out (it's been running since 2003), Applegeeks was promoting the agenda of switching to Mac. A college-based Slice of Life comic with a few surreal elements, it's utterly filled with Product Placement -- and Apple isn't paying a thing for all the advertising. Its co-creators are writer Ananth Panagariya and artist Mohammad F. Haque.

It can be found here.

As of October 25, 2010, Haque has placed the comic on indefinite hiatus.


 * Art Evolution: This is #195, and the style of any non-guest comic before it. This is #196. It then gets even Darker and Edgier just a few comics later before reverting to something similar to the second style as of #219, only to change styles again later--right around #300 or so. Also, starting with #380, Yuko Ota became part-time artist, causing yet another Art Shift. Officially, his her name is only on #380-382, #485, and #493-496 (current), although shortly after the first guest appearance, the difference between Haque's style and Ota's narrowed quite a bit, for one final art shift (thus far).
 * Heck, even the character's skin tones have shifted (most evident in Hawk, who now looks much more like Haque, on whom he's based).
 * Author Avatar: Hawk/Haque
 * B-Side Comics: AG Lite, a newspaper-style comic updating three times a week, in contrast to the full-color, continuity-based main comic.
 * Crossover: A few times, both with Ctrl+Alt+Del (Hawk beats down Buckley with his laptop) and Megatokyo (Piro just...pops up out of nowhere, but doesn't directly interact with Hawk)
 * Face Heel Turn: Frost - after being absent from the comic for over 150 issues.
 * Funny Background Event: Twice, one when Hawk begins work on Eve (before she got a human body) and when Hawk returned home to eat a bunch of donuts.
 * Lampshade Hanging: On the rampant Product Placement
 * Masquerade: Pushed to breaking point with Eve - She largely avoids attention despite her bright blue hair, glowing parts, energy blades, facial markings and body armor as people believe her to be a cosplayer. Who exactly they think she's cosplaying as is never mentioned. This gets played with in #497 where Gina's friend thinks Eve is in costume, and, when Eve says she's actually a robot, doesn't believe her.
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping - Gina originally had a fairly Narmy irish accent, but this was quickly dropped after a couple of issues.
 * Orphaned Series: In the middle of a time travel arc, no less.
 * Product Placement
 * Robot Girl: who, of course, is built using apple hardware
 * Schedule Slip: AG Lite updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday without fail (though it was only Wednesdays and Fridays at first, the first Monday comic being #49). The main AppleGeeks, however, updates erratically at best - and has been recently reduced to only a single issue per week. As a result, despite AG Lite beginning in 2006, three years after the main comic, the thousandth overall comic was AG Lite 476 (Wednesday, June 24, 2009)--almost half of the overall output. In fairness, a black-and-white comic strip is considerably easier to make than a full-color, full-page comic.
 * It Got Worse. In late 2010, updates started to become sporadic at best until Haque finally put the comic on hiatus.
 * Ship Tease: Gina/Hawk looked like it was going to happen for awhile, but that's changed. Also occurred earlier with Naku/Hawk, though this subplot abruptly vanished along with both Naku and her real-life counterpart.
 * Show Some Leg: Gina distracts her foe by flashing...her.
 * "Shut Up" Kiss: Issue 496.
 * Talking Animal: It's actually just a figment of Hawk's imagination.
 * Token Minority: Hawk may or may not qualify as a Twofer Token Minority, as he is black and Muslim (as evidenced by his honoring Ramadan); but the "Token" part is misleading as he is modeled after the original artist.
 * The Verse: Part of a pseudo-canonical "Macverse" comprised of it, Megatokyo, Mac Hall
 * Victorious Childhood Friend: After a lot of "Will They or Won't They?", Jayce and Alice are finally dating.
 * Webcomics Multiverses: Takes place in the same multiverse as Megatokyo, Ctrl+Alt+Del and Comedity.