Nothing Special is a comic strip published by Katie Cook on Webtoon. It is the story of Callie Benson, who, as Katie describes it, "thinks that in the grand scheme of the worlds at large, she's nothing special. With the unexpected addition of friendship and adventure into her life, she's about to find out that she was very, very wrong."
Comic creation[]
Nothing Special is formatted vertically for continuous reading, rather than the typical horizontal layout for daily newspaper comics, or the layout used in comic books. Continuous artwork often links multiple panels together. Comics were released on Tuesdays almost every week of the year, and is considered a "chapter" within an overall "book". Each book comprises approximately one year of time. On Webtoon and sometimes by Katie Cook herself, the books are referred to as "seasons". To conform with the naming of the comics on Webtoon, this wiki uses seasons and chapters to name pages.
"Ask Radish" Q&A comics are released approximately every ten chapters, where Katie, Callie, Declan, Radish, Lasser, and other characters provide background information on the comic and answer reader questions.
Katie uses Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq to draw and ink the comic. But prior to this, she has already written out a full script for every chapter in a season and drawn thumbnail sketches for each chapter. Drawing a chapter takes 4-7 days, with 5 days being average, and then a second week is spent by the coloring team and lettering by Nathan Pride before it is finalized for publication. With this schedule, two chapters are in progress at any time.
Artistic style[]
Nothing Special is drawn in a traditional style with characters shifting into a Chibi style to fit the mood of a particular scene. In addition, sound effects are incorporated as motion words such as "sudden shriek and rumble" being drawn in large letters with vibration lines around them or "jump" drawn in a vertical format with the J being drawn as part of Callie's hair.
Sharp-eyed readers will spot frequent Easter Eggs and other pop culture references, such as the "Will trade for Hamilton tickets" sign in Benson and Benson Antiques and Oddities.
Season/book list[]
Note: Season 3 went on hiatus in 2022. Plans are for it to resume around Summer of 2024.