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Out of the Gene Pool was an American comic strip drawn by Matt Janz that appeared daily in newspapers nationwide. from December 31, 2001 until June 22, 2008. The strip grew from a much earlier strip Janz had drawn called "critters" (spelled in all lowercase), where a bunch of odd-looking creatures overran a small town to the disgust of its residents. The Washington Post Writers Group, which syndicated ''Out of the Gene Pool'', helped Janz develop the strip into what eventually became the final product. For the final eleven months of the strip's run, Janz changed the name to Single and Looking and completely refocused the strip, cutting out many of its characters. Janz hoped that this would get more newspapers to pick up the strip, but the change did not help and Janz announced that he would stop drawing ''Single and Looking'' after the June 22, 2008 strip. In doing so, he said that while he enjoyed his time on the comics page he wanted to give his space in newspapers to comics with "actual growth potential". Since Janz decided to end the strip, ''Out of the Gene Pool'' has continued in reruns on GoComics.com. Janz also has put out what he said will be the only collection of strips, "Big, Hairy Noses and other comical flaws"; this collection consists of what he believes are the "greatest hits" of the series. ==Characters== When ''Out of the Gene Pool'' debuted, the focus was originally around a man named Rufus, a rather large man with hair all over his body, and his family and life in a generic town called Middletown (the state where it was located never revealed). Rufus was married to a woman named Andy (short for Andrea) and had a son named Miller, who resembled his father. Rufus and Andy were friends with a divorced African-American mother named Jackie Jerzy (who was the only character to have a known last name), who lived next door and had a son named Travis who was best friends with Miller and who tried to reunite his parents at all costs. Andy and Jackie worked together in an office building as well as holding jobs as seasonal cashiers at "Z-Mart", a local discount chain. In 2004, Janz introduced a new character, Andy's brother Sam, who had moved to Middletown in search of a job. Rufus found him a job at the factory where he worked, but the company that owned the factory shut it down and left everyone out of work. Sam's roommate Zoogie, a small furry being of indeterminate species, moved with him to Middletown and tried to relive his college days, but was unable to. Another main character was Madame Red, an older, cranky woman with a clown-like appearance and a hostile demeanor. She worked several part-time jobs in the town (including flipping burgers at a local chain and writing an advice column called "Dear Kitty" for the local paper) and was married to a man named Herbert, who was never seen and who she always seemed to yell at on a regular basis. Other characters included Puff Maghee, the star of the local baseball team who took massive amounts of steroids; his girlfriend Bridgett, a spoiled-brat teen pop singing sensation that called Middletown home; Blizzy, a snowman Travis built that came to life every winter but melted every spring; and Alison McDermitt, Zoogie's folk singer ex-girlfriend who reappeared on several occasions, moving to Zimbabwe following her last appearance. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Out of the Gene Pool」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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