This Is Not Fiction



THIS IS NOT FICTION is a webcomic chronicling a high-schooler's quest to profess his love to an anonymous romance novelist. It was originally published in 2007 and eventually Orphaned Series, but one of the creators rebooted the comic at the end of 2010, to the great pleasure of fans.

TINF stars Julian Drees, a diminutive 17-year-old who has developed an obsession with Sydney Morgan after reading her novel This Is Not Fiction. Witnessing his disappointment at not being able to meet her at a book signing, Julian's best friend Isaiah takes him to the Godfather of Highschool to ask for help in determining the author's true identity. But to Julian's dismay, the Godfather is none other than his own next-door neighbour and arch-enemy Landon!

The comic is available in Spanish as well, and TINF also has a Formspring. What exists of the original comic can still be read on deviantArt.


 * Accidental Innuendo: In-universe; Julian's quite innocent in describing how he feels about waiting around for Landon to finish writing a song ("This is awkward", "He won't go faster"), but his desperate texts are vague enough for Isaiah to assume otherwise ("Just ask him to be gentle").
 * Ambiguous Gender: While Julian is positively convinced that Sydney Morgan is a woman, Landon and Isaiah are quick to point out that she could possibly be a man.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Landon makes an awful lot of passes at Julian, but they're generally played off as him trying to get under his skin. But then there was that time when he dressed Julian up as his "wife", complete with a moustache...
 * Artifact Title: The 2007 incarnation of the comic goes into detail about how This Is Not Fiction by Sydney Morgan is Julian's favourite book. In the reboot the book is much less important, only serving to make him fall in love with the author, and the title is never given.
 * Art Shift: The first chapter is in black-and-white, but the rest of the comic is in colour.
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: Landon mistook Julian for a very pretty girl when they first met.
 * Embarrassing Nickname: Julie.
 * Failed a Spot Check: While stalking her in a restaurant, Julian quickly assumed that the man Sydney Morgan was with was her date, leading to several misadventures in the attempt to deduce whether or not she was married. What he didn't notice was that the man was wearing stereotypical bodyguard attire and that he wasn't actually dining with her, and he doesn't respond to Mitch and Isaiah pointing this out to him.
 * Fan Girl: Leslie, for Sydney Morgan. Julian would be too.
 * Friendly Enemy: Julian often declares his distaste for Landon and that he is his "enemy", yet they are on quite good terms.
 * Full-Name Basis: Sydney Morgan is always Sydney Morgan.
 * Gender Blender Name: Sydney Morgan, to fit her Ambiguous Gender.
 * Happily Adopted: Landon was adopted, though since his adoptive father is "too old", he refers to him as Grandpa.
 * Kindhearted Cat Lover: Julian is constantly wearing cat-print clothes.
 * Medium Blending: The comic itself is drawn digitally in SAI, but the chapter covers are all photographs using paper cut-outs of the characters.
 * Mythology Gag: The poem Landon wrote in the original comic makes a reappearance in the current version as the song he writes for Julian.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: There's nothing suspicious about this family...
 * Reclusive Artist: Sydney Morgan, to the point of using a gay bar as her fake address.
 * Selective Obliviousness: Mrs Drees is so excited by the prospect of Julian having a friend that she simply ignores all of Landon's bullying behaviour and Julian's objections.
 * Shipper On Deck: Isaiah for Landon and Julian.
 * Stalker With a Crush: If Julian wasn't this, there wouldn't be much of a plot.
 * Tender Tears: Julian is brought to tears quite easily.
 * Unsound Effect: Many. "NAKED", "HACKED", and "CRIMINAL" are among the straight examples, but even the regular sound effects are normally just verbs with letters removed ("SMK" [smack], "WBBLE" [wobble], "GRB" [grab]).
 * Unusual Eyebrows: Landon has Big Ol' Eyebrows with an eyebrow piercing, and Isaiah's single eyebrow is a family-wide trait.