Ctrl Alt Del

Ctrl+Alt+Del (CAD) is a gaming-related webcomic and animated series written by Tim Buckley, known online as Absath. The name of the comic refers to computing's most common three-finger salute, which on Windows systems is Control-Alt-Delete. CAD's tagline is "Tragically l337", a nod to The Tragically Hip. It premiered on October 23 2002, and is currently updated every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The strip features a pair of gamers, Ethan and Lucas, as the main characters; as well as a Linux user, Scott, and a female gamer, Lilah. Most of the humor in the comic concerns video games, but some is also bred of violence, with more still coming from the strip's randomness. As the comic has progressed, the comic has focused a lot more on long story arcs, which serve to add a sense of continuity and introduce new plot elements, instead of smaller one-comic gags (which still appear regularly, but generally aren't related to the main characters).

There are several in-jokes, the most notable concerning arrows. There are several strips in which Ethan is killed (or at least gravely injured) by arrows shot from out of frame, a gag taken from The Kentucky Fried Movie. Another strip shows Ethan as he is catching the arrow, and having an elephant fall on him. Ironically, the February 28 2003 strip turned the tables, with Ethan shooting an arrow at and killing Buckley, who was present in the comic to discuss the fact that he had drawn 100 Ctrl+Alt+Del strips.

Ctrl+Alt+Del also features a self-created post-New Year's holiday dubbed "Winter-een-mas". Buckley has detailed the holiday: the season lasts all of January, much like the Christmas season, but the actual holiday itself is January 25 to January 31. It was created as a holiday for all things concerning gamers or gaming. Little is told about its traditions, however there are several spirits which represent the different genres of gaming (such as fighting or real-time strategy) who fly around the world on Winter-een-mas Eve in a giant ethereal gamepad. Every year at Winter-een-mas, Ethan had donned a crown and proclaimed himself king.

Ethan MacManus (2002-present)


A 21-year-old of Irish descent, somewhat insane game fanatic, amateur artist and sometime alcoholic. His antics are the focus of the strip, and have resulted in many a story arc. He is engaged to Lilah, after proposing to her on Valentine's Day in 2006. He also works as a sales clerk at Game Haven. Various antics of his have included trying to create a device to stop time using butter, creating a sentient robot out of his Xbox (See the |"X-Bot"'s First Appearance), attempting to remember tests better with a PlayStation memory card, getting amnesia and becoming part of a violent, pro-Macintosh terrorist cell, attempting to improve his computer often doing more harm than good, trying to squeeze as much gaming time into his life as possible (e.g., game system in the shower stall), an addiction that is related to Fallout of which his roommate has removed any and all items relating to Fallout from their domicile and warned numerous individuals from mentioning the game in front of Ethan.When Ethan learned that a new Fallout level editor was going to be offered he went onto a bender and had to be found and rescued by his friends,. In addition, he harbors a grudge against Nintendo, and when they released the GameCube, he called the Vatican and told them he had found the devil. He did however buy a Gamecube, saying it was a sin. His past remains largely a mystery, but from his point of view had an abusive upbringing. He maintains that his brain damage is attributed to eating "poison fungi" breakfast cereal.

Lucas Davidowicz (2002-present)
At 22 years of age, Lucas is more level-headed and down to earth than Ethan. He is something of a slacker, prepared to enjoy a good video game over actual work. Cynical and sarcastic, Lucas is a programmer, and has worked Customer Service at two computer stores. At Lucas's current job his boss, Mickey, shares his distaste for ignorant people. He only plays video games on the Xbox console and the PC, and is responsible for keeping Ethan out of trouble (although he often fails at it). He usually has a habit of calling 9-1-1 in advance, usually before Ethan does anything. He is slightly jaded towards the concept of romance, mostly because his most recent ex-girlfriend tried to kill him and Ethan for money - which neither had, and the one before became obsessed with him, resulting in him taking out a restraining order. Lucas' last name was revealed in a comic in July 2006. 

Lilah Monroe (2003-present)
Smart and attractive, Lilah smashed Ethan's preconception that girls (or at least, pretty ones) don't play video games, after which they began dating. Lilah is twenty-one and she works as a secretary. Though calm and responsible, she finds herself strangely drawn to Ethan's character. Online, she is known as "Black-Widow". She is currently engaged to Ethan. Although admitting that Ethan is a buffoon, Lilah's father clearly sees that Ethan loves her. Lilah's last name was revealed in a comic strip in 2006, the manner of which was strange, as it was in a comic in which she did not make an appearance.

Scott (2002-present)
- A 23-year-old web designer and Linux user, Scott firmly believes that Microsoft is evil and that Linux will someday come into its glory; this is in stark contrast to Ethan, who worships Microsoft. For some bizarre reason he keeps a pet penguin, Ted (See below), Probably a reference to the Linux mascot, Tux. He is quiet, intelligent, and introspective, and a devout practitioner of meditation. He's also referred as a hippie from time to time, including when Ethan asked Scott for protesting advice. Interestingly, although Lilah has been mentioned several times around him, Scott has never actually met (or been directly told about) Lilah, even though he now lives in the same house as her. In a running joke, he'll ask "Who's Lilah?" every time she's mentioned, only to be ignored. 

He appears to be working on some project in his room, and at one point had to distract Ethan with desserts to keep it secret. He currently resides in his bedroom (which mysteriously has a big metal door ). This door has been equipped to shock eavesdroppers, such as Ethan.

He recently took his project outside of his bedroom, installing a satellite dish on the roof. When Zeke followed him to the roof, Scott pushed him off. It is currently unknown what the purpose of the dish is.

Not much is known about the project at hand, but it was once written on the Ctrl+Alt+Del biography page, that Scott is attempting to overthrow Microsoft and put Linux into power.

Zeke (2003-present)
Zeke, formerly known as the "Xbot", is a creation of Ethan's, an anthropomorphic Xbox console. It walks, talks, thinks, plays computer games (it was very good at Halo until Ethan handicapped its skills), had a strange crush on Ethan's GameCube (in one comic Lucas and Ethan walked in on him talking to GameCube after he had attached it to a cardboard cut out of a bikini model, and demanded Ethan to make a sentinent robot out of the GameCube, but Ethan bribed him to forget about it with a copy of "Brothers in Arms" and subsequently threatening him in the process,) and was shown in one comic "eating" bandwidth.

It has previously embarked upon an unsuccessful quest for humanity; but after some bad experiences, Zeke decided it didn't want to be human after all. Ethan, in a bout of pity, named the robot "Zeke" due to the name Ezekiel spray-painted on its "posterior" by one of the humans who beat him, and informed it that he had installed a humanity program in it, though what he had actually installed was a ball of lint (which, in the manner of The Wizard of Oz made him feel warm and fuzzy inside.)

Zeke went haywire when Ethan accidentally struck him with a water balloon. This resulted in Zeke attempting to kill the entire cast, and then burn down their apartment. Just as Zeke attempted to kill Ethan, he was returned to his senses by a falling bit of burning debris, and then saved Ethan by pushing him out of the way of the collapsing roof, which unfortunately crushed him. Ethan was able to save his hard drive and rebuild him, this time with a remote control 'off' switch.

Zeke's internal computer has been upgraded with Xbox 360 hardware. However, only his left arm was upgraded to be reminiscent of the 360. The rest of his body is still Xbox casing, as the 360 is smaller than its predecessor, and Ethan cannot buy another one of the consoles at this early stage of the console's retail. That being the case, Zeke spray-painted his arm black again in order to match the rest of his body. Lately, Zeke appears to be plotting world domination. His first recruit was a blender. Zeke is currently broken, after being pushed off the roof by Scott once he heard that Zeke would tell the others about his satellite dish. 

Supporting

 * Ted is a penguin, in an apparent homage to the Linux mascot, a penguin named Tux. He moved in along with Scott. He enjoys fish and the cold and seems to be sleeping in the fridge. Ethan and Ted have a deep relationship consisting primarily of mutual hatred, although it is mainly derived from Ethan.
 * Barry is 26, and manages the Game Haven where Ethan works. Though goal-driven, he is very easy-going. He is perpetually in a good mood, because he is living his lifelong dream of running a video game store.
 * Rob is a 19-year-old Counter-Strike enthusiast. Ethan, Lucas, Lilah, and even Barry to some extent despise him because all he does is talk about Counter-Strike, with constant "you-had-to-be-there" tales. They are also greatly annoyed by Rob's constant use of "Dude" and "Guy" during his stories and during his everyday small talk. Other characters lament that Rob has not realized that he is an annoyance, despite having been told so on several occasions. He once forced a customer to buy Counter-Strike rather than Ghost Recon. He is an excellent modeller, having done several for Counter-Strike.
 * Chef Brian represents the surreal side of the comic. With no backstory, his appearances consist of nonsensical ramblings over separate subjects. Chef Brian was the end result (as Buckley explains in Insert Coin: Ctrl+Alt+Del Volume One) of too much alcohol and a deadline, though some sources state that the character is based on Brian Carroll, author of the webcomic Instant Classic, or Brian Clevinger, author of 8-Bit Theater and friend of Tim Buckley. His biography on the Ctrl+Alt+Del website lists his occupation as "Beef Potato Wheelman".
 * Players 1, 2 and 3...and maybe 4 &mdash; A subcomic which focuses on three generic gamers (colored blue, red, and yellow, respectively), and related gamer and gaming ettiquette, typically ending with the gruesome demise of one of the Players.  Player 4 has yet to appear in the comic, but he is green.
 * Mickey &mdash; Lucas' boss. He is described by Lucas as "an Elitist Bastard" and doesn't deny it. In fact, he's proud of it. He hates Macs, AOL, and stupid people and encourages the rude treatment of ignorant customers.
 * Tim The author of the webcomic has drawn himself in on a number of occasions, though he does not normally interact with Ethan or the other main characters in the foreground. He did kill Ethan a couple of times from the background ghost, but Ethan found out and killed him.

Characters who no longer appear in the strip

 * Sara  &mdash; dated Ethan in the early strips for an undisclosed amount of time. Beat Ethan after he cancelled a date to watch a Vision of Escaflowne marathon with Lucas. Tried to get him off video games    but finally dumped him
 * Vodka Bottle &mdash; Flying bottle of vodka. This is Ethan's best friend in alcohol-related times. The vodka bottle flies beside the drunken Ethan and reminds him of the reasons he's drinking, often taunting him to drink a bit more. This character made many appearances in the earlier strips, after Ethan and Sara split up.
 * Christian was Lilah's boyfriend before Ethan. This is odd because he's the exact opposite of Ethan. He is extremely wealthy and thinks he's the best there is because of it. He considers videogames to be silly and thinks that the people who play them are simpletons. He isn't that smart either as he told Lilah about him offering Ethan $5,000 to leave them to restart their relationship, which Ethan refused by punching Christian. He smiles almost all the time.
 * Ashley &mdash; Dated Lucas after hitting him with her car.  Became obsessive and stalked him.  Lucas filed a restraining order against her and she hasn't been seen since.
 * Josh &mdash; An impostor king of Winter-een-mas. When Ethan heard about Josh he went into a rage, snuck into the TV studio where Josh was being interviewed and promptly defeated him, proving once and for all on national TV that Ethan is the true king of Winter-een-mas.
 * Emma &mdash; A serial killer/robber who dated Lucas. Was fired from her job at a stereotypical electronics store, with the resemblance of Best Buy, after refusing to help Ethan. Conspired to kill Lucas when she thought he had inherited money from his dead uncle, which he doesn't have. Currently in jail.
 * Ace Conklin &mdash; Emma's real boyfriend, and partner in crime. He paraded as a sky diving instructor in one of many attempts to kill Lucas. He is now in jail along with Emma.
 * Faceless CEO is head of a generic video game company, and is hell-bent on taking control of Winter-een-mas from Ethan and merchandising it. In 2005, he sent Josh to usurp the position of "King of Winter-een-mas." In 2006, he kidnapped Lilah, and held her for ransom. Both times, he was thwarted by Ethan.
 * Richard Monroe is Lilah's father. Despite thinking that Lilah's fiance Ethan is a buffoon, he understands that they love each other and gives them his blessing.
 * Mrs. Monroe is Lilah's mother.

CAD Premium
In late 2005, CAD Premium was announced. For a monthly or yearly fee, fans are able to access exclusive "members only" content, such as wallpapers and strips, as well as the flagship of CAD Premium; Ctrl+Alt+Del: The Animated Series, which made its debut on February 2006.

While CAD Premium will be a subscription-based service, Buckley has made it clear that the comic will remain free, and that although the episodes will come to High Definition DVD, they will be offered at a discount to subscribers..

Ctrl+Alt+Del: The Animated Series
An animated series based on the comic strip was announced to the public in November 2005 and aired its first episode on February 1 2006. It is produced and distributed by Blind Ferret Entertainment. Rather than animating existing strips, Buckley has opted to create new storylines for the animated series. This means that the comic strip and comic episodes will not have intersecting storylines, so a viewer will not need to see the animation to understand the comic's plot. Viewers are required to pay a fee to join "CAD Premium" to be able to view these cartoons. It costs $29.95 a year or $2.95 per month.

Episodes will be released at the beginning of each month.

Collections

 * The 460 pre-order Collector's Editions Hard Cover Volumes 1 and 2 sold out within 24 hours after technical difficulties with Canada Post.

Insert Coin: Ctrl+Alt+Del Volume One

 * In early 2004, Buckley announced plans for a collection book of approximately the first year of strips from CAD. The book, which contains the first 150 strips, features added commentary below every comic, along with several pages of bonus material exclusive to the book.
 * ISBN 0976467801

Press Start: Ctrl+Alt+Del Volume Two

 * In June 2005, pre-orders for volume two were announced.
 * It is a collection book with 150 CAD strips continuing where Volume One (see above) left off, also including commentary below every comic and bonus material exclusive to the book.
 * ISBN 097646781X