Sibling Rivalries is a GTA Nerd Comic Productions series. The first one to be grounded in reality, SR centers around the adventures of the McReary-Wilson family in the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Borrowing some character names from the 2008 Rockstar Games title Grand Theft Auto IV, the series is not at all intended to be set within its continuity nor in a parallel universe; SR has its own established canon with the names being nothing more than references.
| GTA Nerd Comic Productions |
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| MWEC Universe |
| CC Universe |
| C Universe |
| SR Universe |
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Series History[]
Pre-Series (Prior To July 2013)[]
While playing his new favorite game, Grand Theft Auto IV, young GTA Nerd had decided his favorite characters were the five siblings of the McReary Family. He wanted to make a comic series with characters named after the family. He had several different ideas on how to make the comic, such as a Cletus Comics special named "Meet The McRearys".
Eventually, this comic was scrapped, and later GTA Nerd tried making them teenage humans in a new series resembling That '70s Show. Their ages were then lowered to children (although eldest brother Francis remains 14), and the final idea was a comic series titled "Sibling Rivalries".
2013[]
The first season of the series debuted with "Hello, Wisconsin!" on July 8 this year. Beginning of the series was like love at first sight for GTA Nerd, who would continue to work on the series at the cost of forgetting about his previous flagship series Cletus Comics. Throughout the first season, the characters took their first adventures, such as attending their new school and telling scary stories around a campfire.
A few supporting characters debuted alongside the siblings in Season 1, from the main antagonist Joel Gonzales, to a best friend figure to Packie named Angel Chacon. "San Salvador", a popular teenage character, was also created as an older friend to the siblings, but played a minor role at first. The season concluded in November 2013.
Like with the first season of any other show, adult GTA Nerd doesn't consider the first season to be amazing. Typically, series' get on track with their second season, but he does not feel this is the case for SR's second season, which he now sees as much worse. The second season expanded on one of the characters introduced at the end of Season 1, Salvador Rosales who becomes a friend to the McRearys straight away (at the cost of outshining the previously introduced friends). With Salvador came the inclusion of his own gang of friends, of which he introduces to the McRearys: Eduardo Tena, Claude Tena, Pablo Torres, Pablo's sister Zoe Torres, David Colin, Joshua Jackson, and Eric Gray.
Admittedly, the introduction of so many characters at once may have contributed to poor quality comics that didn't even keep the McReary family at the forefront. GTA Nerd admits as a kid, he thought adding new characters was fun, but didn't know such characters had to be gradually introduced after others were already expanded on. Ultimately, 2013 certainly ended pretty rough for the series.
2014[]
The second year of the series was also quite bland. Many comics had plots that did not reach their full potential, and some siblings were already flanderized.
This year, Season 2 ended and Season 3 began immediately after. Some highlights of the year include an argument with Francis, Gerry, and Derrick to see which brother Packie loves more, a non-canon crossover special with Cletus Comics titled "Meet The Robots!", and Packie running for school president.
After "Patrick McReary: School President" in September, the series took a hiatus until 2015. During that hiatus, work on the series' first prequel, Sibling Rivalries: Vancouver Vultures, was completed in October. Adult GTA Nerd would later rewrite VV in March 2022, feeling that the original story was poorly executed like other comics during this era.
2014 wasn't the strongest year for the series either, but it continued to build itself up to be a formidable rival to Cletus Comics.
2015[]
GTA Nerd considers 2015 to be the first good year of the series. In this year, Season 3 was concluded, as was the entirety of Season 4 and the debut of Season 5. The year actually didn't start off so great: The first comic, "House Party", was completed in early January, but the problem came from personal issues caused GTA Nerd to take a five-year hiatus. What was worse was how the series was already inactive since September 2014; not counting Vancouver Vultures or "House Party", this was a 9-month period without comics. The second comic of the year, "The Pool Date", was completed in July and brought the series back to a regular schedule.
The series' second special comic, "Like Father, Like Sons (And Daughter), was completed at the end of July 2015. The comic introduced a new main character: Hector Wilson, the love interest and eventually the second husband of Maureen McReary. Hector would become the new father of the five McReary siblings since the death of their biological father in July 2006 - his introduction marked a turning point for the better, where plots were more focused on the family themselves, while some of the friends finally took a backseat. Later in 2015, the siblings would gain a new baby half-brother from Maureen and Hector, named Aiden Wilson. However, Aiden was later retconned and was not continued after Season 5.
Memorable comics include the aforementioned "Like Father, Like Sons (And Daughter)", "Portrait of a Football Player" (although the revelation of Maureen being pregnant at the end of the comic is now non-canon) and "One Tough Break-Up" from Season 4, and a heartwarming Christmas special in Season 5. The series finally found its groove for the time, even if GTA Nerd now realizes some of its imperfections: some plots still did not make the most of their potential, although the characters remained likable.
With only three comics of its own this year, Cletus Comics was finally cancelled by December.
2016: End of Original Era[]
2016 saw the end of Season 5, which GTA Nerd still considers one of his favorites, including the third and fourth specials "Straight Outta Green Bay" and "Satellite Screw-Up" (the former being the longest and focusing on a McReary family vacation). The series hit its peak in quality in 2016, but when the last season comic ("ApRiL fOoLs DaY: wIsCoNsIn StYlE!") was completed in April, the series was left in a weird place.
No other comics were released for the rest of the year, due to GTA Nerd undergoing further personal issues. This year hit him hard, and SR was sadly forgotten about, just as the series was at the top of its game.
2017: First Cancellation Confirmed and Sequel Series[]
The series was officially cancelled for the first time, but was continued as a sequel series titled Sibling Rivalries: The Next Chapter in July 2017. This series saw the characters aged up by four years (now matching their present day ages as of August 2016). The series focuses on Packie (aged 14) and his adventures as a freshman through high school. Rather than featuring only the McReary siblings, this new series tried to feature two sets of main casts: the original siblings, and Packie's group of new high school friends. However, the other McReary siblings were reduced to the smallest cameos ever, and GTA Nerd realized this series wasn't a good idea. It would take two more tries later down the road to finally learn that the series works best when all family members are together.
TNC only ran for six months from July 13 to November 21 and only saw nine comics. The ninth comic was supposed to begin a second season, but after the series was cancelled, all comics made up the first and only season.
2018: First Revival Era[]
TNC was confirmed to be cancelled by March 2018, and around the same time, GTA Nerd was ready to revive the original series. The first comic of the sixth season, "Great Balls of Paint", was completed in June.
It had been over two years since GTA Nerd worked on a regular SR comic, but he felt like Season 6 was a decent return to form (again, at the time). Improved drawings and storytelling breathed life back into the series, but it could be considered a downgrade to Season 5 due to a certain lack of charm possessed by the previous season (not to mention more violence in some instances). The last two comics of the season, "Wisconsin's Greatest Hero" and "Brothers For Life", were the worst of the series in his eyes. The story of Francis saving Packie from a car accident, Francis getting injured, and Packie using that to get famous as the "brother of Wisconsin's greatest hero", is very depressing and character-damaging to Packie. GTA Nerd later declared these comics non-canon.
Following the conclusion from the sixth season, GTA Nerd had abandoned the series again. Before being deemed non-canon, "Brothers For Life" was deemed the series finale.
2020-Present: Second Revival Era[]
Nearly two years later, SR made its second revival in March 2020. In fact, 2020 may be the most successful year yet: Seasons 7 - 9 were fully completed, and Season 10 began. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be an unfortunate issue in today's world, but the lockdown has led to GTA Nerd making comics faster than ever.
The series continues to thrive in this second revival era, with not only better drawings, but stronger stories that elicit more emotion and heart than anything from the original era.
The ninth season introduces a significant new character named Zachary Marshall, being the son of Hector Wilson that he abandoned long ago. Their reunion was rocky at first, but eventually they accept each other back into their lives and Zack becomes a main character. In some ways, Zack could be seen as a replacement to Aiden Wilson's character from 2015.
This second revival era saw the release of two prequels, with one of them being the aforementioned rewritten version of Sibling Rivalries: Vancouver Vultures - The Definitive Edition in March 2022. The comic's original 2014 version came from a time when GTA Nerd had poor storytelling and use of characters, and this version rectifies virtually everything. The other prequel Zachary was completed in August 2021, expanding on the past of Hector Wilson when he first realized he accidentally made a girl pregnant.
Following the completion of Zachary, the series began to embrace some more mature themes and tones; such a shift has warranted the beginning of a new "sub-era" of sorts. Issues such as pedophilia, child neglect, drug use, and suicide have been explored. GTA Nerd has enjoyed writing more serious plots but, after feeling that Season 13 has lost a lot of the series' youthful charm, he has been focused on finding a proper balance between serious and light-hearted stories since Season 14.
By the thirteenth season in October 2022, the series celebrated its 100th comic, and then hit another milestone with its 101st comic, surpassing the 100 comics of Cletus Comics and making SR the author's longest-running series.
In the fourteenth season in July 2023, the series also celebrated its tenth anniversary with a brief special that also pays homage to the author's previous series'.
Main Cast[]
The series consists of eight active primary cast characters. There are six initial main characters, three added as the series continued, and one discontinued character.
Note: S stands for "season" and C stands for "comic".
| Character | Season Appearances | First Appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick "Packie" McReary | Season 1 - Present | "Hello, Wisconsin!" (S1C1) | The main protagonist of the series, being the second oldest sibling with a huge love for video games and hip-hop/rap music. |
| Francis McReary | Season 1 - Present | "Hello, Wisconsin!" (S1C1) | The main deuteragonist and oldest sibling. He is Packie's best friend who shares his interests in video games and music; as the series goes on, his interests primarily involve music, especially for classic rock which distinguishes him from Packie. |
| Gerald "Gerry" McReary | Season 1 - Present | "Hello, Wisconsin!" (S1C1) | The middle sibling who loves football with every fiber of his being. |
| Derrick McReary | Season 1 - Present | "Hello, Wisconsin!" (S1C1) | The youngest brother who is often portrayed as a "child genius" (although continues to be adjusted over time as to not be the series' equivalent to "Young Sheldon"). He simply enjoys learning new facts and sharing them with others, without ever feeling like he is too good for his family and peers. |
| Kate McReary | Season 1 - Present | "Hello, Wisconsin!" (S1C1) | The youngest sibling and only sister; she can be quite sassy and also loves the concept of "love"; despite only being in second grade, she has already found her soulmate in fellow classmate Mark Sanders. Often times, she also expresses her annoyance at being the only sister. |
| Maureen McReary-Wilson | Season 1 - Present | "Hello, Wisconsin!" (S1C1) | The mother of the five siblings, raising them as a widow after her first husband passed away. She overcame the challenges of being a single mother, and has since found love again in Hector. |
| Hector Wilson | Season 3 - Present | "Like Father, Like Sons (And Daughter)" (S3C7)
"The Step-Cousins Wilson" (S4C1, as main character) |
Maureen's second husband, providing a fatherly figure that her children have really missed. He is still learning to overcome the mistakes of his troublesome youth. |
| Aiden Wilson | Season 4 - Season 5; Season 11 | "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" (S4C4) | Maureen and Hector's child, and a half-brother to the siblings. He has since been retconned out of the series, not to mention he wasn't being used to his fullest potential anyway. In general, it seems to be a commonly accepted fact that babies don't always make good additions to a show's main cast, as seen by the mixed reactions from characters like Dil Pickles and Poof to Rugrats and The Fairly OddParents, respectively. |
| Zachary "Zack" Marshall | Season 9 - Present | "The Forgotten Son" (S9C5) | Hector's son from a previous fling, who is quite introverted and learns to come out of his shell. |
The five McReary siblings are the only characters in the franchise to appear in every comic. Among this, Packie and Gerry are the only siblings to have a speaking role in every comic.
Character Designs[]
An example of the modern appearance of a character, in this case, Joel Gonzales
The same character, Joel, as he appeared in 2013-2014
Sibling Rivalries features an entire human cast, because of the author eventually learning how to draw humans in his comics. Although humans appeared in earlier GTA Nerd-written stories and comics, their designs were improved for this series.
As with GTA Nerd's other series', everything is drawn by hand. To keep characters simple to draw (but also because GTA Nerd wasn't ever the best at drawing), all humans have the same body layout, with clothing and hair being the only ways to tell a character apart. Each human has their own set of trademark clothes that they wear in mostly every comic that they appear in (with the only exception being Salvador Martinez, who is seen with a different outfit in each of his appearances). Tony Gonzales is unique for always being depicted with crutches, which became hard to draw at first but GTA Nerd can now draw pretty quick.
While the series is relatively close to a cartoon in feeling, SR characters have five fingers as opposed to the usual four, because the characters' hands are not difficult to draw.
Timeframe[]
See Sibling Rivalries/Floating Timeline
Despite the series being born in July 2013, the timeline of the series begins in October 2013, after Gerry's 10th birthday as the family moves to Green Bay. Comics progress in real life time and always set in the same year, sometimes around the release date of the comic. Years go by as they do in real life, but despite this, characters never age, and their ages are frozen to 2013 when the series began. This is similar to how long-running shows like The Simpsons also have years go by, as seen by new technology appearing or mentioned, yet characters never aged. The Simpsons does get around keeping characters' ages static to how old they were in 1989 (when the series began) yet true with the present time by changing birth years of the characters; for example, Maggie Simpson was one year old in 1989 thus she was born in 1988; however, while the series is currently set in 2022, her birth year may be changed to 2021 as the writers wish, although there has been over 30 years since the birth of the series. Birthdays are seen several times although the ages of characters don't actually change.
As for SR, characters never age, nor are birthdays ever mentioned (except for non-canon comics) although years go by as normal, and elements stay more or less the same except for modern technology coming up.
Trivia[]
- The series is given its title because originaly, the siblings were intended to not get along with each other. Right from the first few comics, there is more name-calling, mockery, and tattling. However, this was quickly dropped and the title became rather ironic. In practically every season since the fourth, the series is focused on presenting a loving family with its interesting dynamics that impact one another. Of course, relationships can't always be perfect: comics like "Fightin' Irish" and "McReary TV" depict feuds occurring between siblings.
- Additionally, recent comics often see siblings butting heads with Kate, and vice versa.
- Although times and dates still go by like they do in real life, none of the characters will ever age, and will stay the same age they were in 2013 for the rest of the series.
- This is the second series from the GTA Nerd Comic Universe to not feature anthropomorphic animals outside of crossovers after Carlos. It is also currently the only series to not have an appearance or mention by Chiquita, although she has a counterpart sharing the same name.
- Unlike its prequels or other stories within its shared universe (such as Her Touchdown Tale or Strugglers In Arms, the series has never included any swears, not even mild ones like "crap" or within comics that tackle mature themes. Extreme instances of swearing are censored by symbols, which is a standard in most comic strips.
See Also[]
- Sibling Rivalries/The Next Chapter (cancelled attempts at sequel series)
- Sibling Rivalries/List of Cancelled Comics
- Sibling Rivalries/List of Fictional Brands