i.s.o. is an unfinished gay-themed anthropomorphic comedy comic book series by Vince Suzukawa. Like his earlier series The Class Menagerie, i.s.o. takes place at fictional DeMontfort University in California, and much of the story is set in Richter Hall, a fictional three-storey dormitory building. Whereas TCM took place on the remains of the dorm's third floor, i.s.o. takes place on the first floor. Also unlike TCM, the cast of i.s.o. is predominantly made up of LGBT characters.

The title i.s.o. is an acronym commonly used in personal ads, meaning "In Search Of", reflecting Cody's infatuation with a certain man. It also refers to the Greek prefix iso-, meaning "equal" or "normal", reflecting the lifelong desire of the main character, Cody Frost, to always appear as normal as possible, despite the fact he is gay.

i.s.o. Draft

One of the most notable things about i.s.o. is that as an unfinished comic series, only a 50-page tentative draft of the first chapter has been written and published online, and yet i.s.o. already has a growing fandom with fanart and fanfiction, despite the fact that the character designs and story have not yet been finalized.

Characters

• Cody Frost is 19-year-old male tiger morph, and the main character of i.s.o.. Cody is a large and muscular young man with a personality of machismo, arrogance and anti-social behavior. But Cody has carefully crafted his mannerisms to hide the fact that he has also spent his entire life completely in the closet, paranoid of stigma and stereotype if anyone found out he is gay. Cody is roommates with Jake at Richter Hall, works as a bouncer at Tyrone's bar, and is hopelessly infatuated with Doug, his waiter co-worker.

• Jake Packard is a male wolf morph, native to Australia. A flirtatious, sexy and flamboyantly bisexual young man, Jake also speaks with a heavy Australian accent that makes him sound stereotypically like Steve Irwin of Crocodile Hunter fame. Jake was recently pressured into an international foreign student exchange program at his previous college in Australia, immediately after it was discovered that he was sleeping with the dean's son Billy. At DeMontfort University, Jake took an academic major in dance. On campus, Jake quickly became good friends with Zach, a dorm neighbor. Cody and Jake are forced to be roommates, much to Cody's irritation, but it soon becomes apparently that Jake, although a flighty clueless young man, is not uncaring about Cody's welfare.

• Zach Hastings is a male skunk morph, native to the Los Angeles Basin. Like Jake—with whom he is good friends—Zach is a flamboyant and outgoing bisexual, but talks with a heavy L.A. Basin accent. Zach is very athletic, heavily involved in sports, and always wears a halfshirt around campus.

• Duncan "Drake" Braeburn is a male dragon morph, and is the campus groundskeeper. An ethnic Scot, Drake is aggressively protective of the welfare of the plants on campus, going as far as coddling every single flower. He is heterosexual. His character is a parody of Groundskeeper Willy from The Simpsons.

• Jeff Cornwallis is a male goat morph, a young painter who frequents Richter Hall, regularly involved in the building's maintenance. He quickly develops a rapport with Cody, becoming one of the only people Cody can talk to about the events of each day. Unbeknownst to Cody, Jeff is very gay, and thinks Cody is sexy.

• Jerry is a male cougar morph, and has been Cody's friend since child, the only one also attending DeMontfort with him. Jerry has known Cody for years, but doesn't know he is gay. In an attempt to help adjust to college life, Cody comes out to Jerry. A straight man, Jerry is initially supportive, but cracks in their friendship form as Cody's paranoid fear of stigma and stereotype spark a heated argument between the two friends, who thereafter become alienated.

• Tyrone Beltran is a male bat morph, working as a bartender at a bar where he is proprietor and employer. Despite the fact that Cody is underage (the minimum legal drinking age in the U.S. is 21), Tyrone hires Cody as the bar's bouncer, replacing the waiter Doug in that role. Tyrone has an unusual talent of mixing and serving drinks while hanging upside down from a beam suspected above the counter.

• Samantha Hill ("Sam") is a female cougar morph, working for Tyrone as a waitress. A short and busty woman, she is very protective of her shy younger brother Doug.

• Doug Hill is a male cougar morph, and Sam's younger brother. Doug is a large hulking man, employed by Tyrone as a waiter. Doug was also previously the bar's unofficial bouncer, because of his large and intimidating appearance. However, he's also shy, polite and gentle-natured, and functioned as a bouncer only in frightening customers to behave. But Doug has poor vision, and recently got eyeglasses for vision correction, which unfortunately had the effect of making him appear less intimidating, destroying his bouncer image. Tyrone then hires Cody as a real bouncer, but Cody very quickly becomes infatuated with Doug. Initially unbeknownst to Cody, Doug is also gay, and also thinks Cody is cute. Cody and Doug are considered the principle love pursuits of the story.

Future

Vince Suzukawa has announced plans to publish a final version of i.s.o. in serialized comic book format. In it will be an adjusted version of the story and modified character designs. The character Drake is planned to be excluded from the final story.

External links

• i.s.o. comic - current homepage
• Vince's Art - author/artist's blog