Author: What Happened To Tristan Farnon, Did He Go To War? Let's Investigate

Tristan Alexander Farnon, known simply as Tristan A. Farnon, is an American webcomic author known for his work online. 

He is best known for his comic strip Leisure Town, being a part of the Silent Key podcast, and Spigot in Jerkcity.

He is also one of the founding creators of the Microsoft Comic Chat-based webcomic Bonequest, which used to be called Jerkcity.

Farnon is one of the seminal figures of early Internet culture and an early proponent of webcomics.

Webcomics are comics published online either on a website or mobile app. What separates them from other comics is that they are published exclusively on the web.

However, in recent years, after a webcomic gains a significant following, they are published in magazines, newspapers, and even comic books.

Webcomics are often self-published, and it is through the self-publishing method that Tristan A. Farnon became the online comic juggernaut that he is.

Here Are Some Facts About Tristan Farnon:

Age:52
Net Worth:$1-$5 million
Profession:Webcomic Artist
Nationality:American
Date of Birth:April 20, 1970
Place of Birth:America
Known for:Leisure Town
Years Active:1997 - Present

What Happened To Tristan Farnon?

Tristan A. Farnon has never been in any war, nor does he plan on going to or becoming a part of one.

This misconception about Farnon came about due to the 2020 television series All Creat great and Small.

More specifically, this misconception came about because there is a character also named Tristan Farnon on the show.

The television series, set in 1937 is based on a book series about a veterinarian from Yorkshire written by James Herriot, the pseudonym of James Alfred Wright.

The series has been running for three seasons now and is produced by the United Kingdom's Channel 5's Playground Entertainment, and the United States PBS.

The show largely revolves around three veterinary surgeons working in the Yorkshire Dales starting in 1937. The three veterinary surgeons are:

  • James Herriot, a veterinary surgeon played by Nicholas Ralph
  • Siegfried Farnon, a veterinary surgeon, and owner of the Skeldale House played by Samuel West, and
  • Tristan Farnon, Siegfried's younger brother played by Callum Woodhouse

People on the internet seem to have mistaken this fictional Tristan Farnon for the real-life author and webcomic artist.

The war connection came about as one of the biggest plot points of season 3, and the upcoming season 4 is whether Tristan Farnon will go to war or not.

Another reason why the war connection has been so prevalent is that this fictional Tristan Farnon is based on a real-life person who did end up going to war.

As stated above, the show All Creatures Great and Small is based on a series of eight books of the same name set in the 1930s-1950s Yorkshire Dales.

Farnon's inspiration was Wallace Brian Vaughan Sinclair, a British veterinary surgeon who was the younger brother of James Alfred Wright's partner Donald Sinclair.

James Alfred Wright, Donald Sinclair, and Brian Sinclair were the real-life inspiration for James Herriot, Siegfried Farnon, and Tristan Farnon respectively.

Brian Sinclair was born on September 27, 1915. The earliest known information about the man is that he worked for his brother while studying veterinary medicine.

He studied at the Royal Veterinary College in Edinburgh in 1943, and then joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in India.

After demobilization Farnon joined the Sterility Advisory unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, eventually rising to become the head of the Veterinary Investigation Centre in Leeds.

Sinclair loved his portrayal as Tristan Farnon and is said to have been pleased with the fact that the character was a charming rogue.

Though the character constantly had to re-take examinations because of his lack of application, often choosing to be in the pub instead, Sinclair was delighted to be captured as Tristan and remained enthusiastic about all of Wright's books.

The veterinary surgeon loved being a celebrity and frequently appeared on television, which he did while lecturing at Veterinary schools all over the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

In 2017, James Alfred Wright's son, Jim Wright, appeared in an interview where he discussed his father's franchise.

According to Jim, Brian Sinclair was portrayed accurately in the books as he was a man whose aim in life was to work as little as possible and have as good a time as he could.

Due to this aspect of his personality, the Sinclair brother's often clashed and had a love-hate relationship.

Brian Sinclair married Sheila Rose Seaton in 1944 and had three daughters. He passed away in 1988.

Read More About Online Personalities Here: Why Was Emmanuel The Emu's Owner Taylor Blake Cancelled On TikTok? Controversy

Who Is Tristan Farnon, The Webcomic Author?

Unlike the fictional veterinary surgeon, Tristan Farnon is a simple webcomic author, known for his zany online works.

Farnon was born on April 20, 1970, and became one of the story-writing heroes of the Bay Area BBS scene.

The author was one of the first webcomic artists to adapt to the rise of the Internet. He did so by quietly becoming one of the Internet's most prolific and widely read authors.

Farnon lived the first twenty or so years of his life in limbo. He was adopted into a confusing family with a single mom, whose husband had passed away early on, and four other adopted kids from Korea, each with behavioral disorders.

The webcomic artist has stated that he learned to tune out family and home problems early on. 

Though still uncomfortable with the idea of a family, Farnon is a firm believer that people with bad backgrounds are not slated for failure. 

Farnon started his journey to become the Farnon that most people know and love in high school.

The author has stated that he was the only non-Mormon kid at his private school and that he lived four years of his life there like some sort of invisible man.

This perceived invisibility gave him the ability to do things like steal pads of school stationery and type out fake letters to students' parents or even print poster-sized copies of terrible pictures of various staff members and Warhol-esque grids on the walls.

Read More About Online Personalities Here: Has Acookiegod Done A Face Reveal? Here's How He Looks Like

How Much Is Tristan Farnon's Net Worth?

Tristan Farnon's net worth is not available to the public but various sources have surmised it to be between $1-$5 million.

Farnon has amassed most of his wealth and fame through his most popular project, Leisure Town. 

The webcomic is a sort of photo comic featuring photographs of bendable toy figures digitally superimposed onto separately photographed backgrounds to create each frame.

It has often been called one of the best online webcomics that the Internet has ever seen.

The characters of the webcomic are children's toys, but the comics explore mature themes. 

Although these bendy plastic figurines' expressions never change, Farnon has managed to bring an amazing amount of life into them.

Throughout the hundreds of pages of the webcomic, the reader comes face to face with weird and disturbing stories about corporate serial slayers, pigs that pleasure themselves into oblivion, and much more. 

The stories have often been described as an emotional gamut.

The strip ran from 1997 to 2003, and out of those years, 2001 to 2003 featured a reduced format.

Though the series has largely been defunct since then, some limited additional content was published in a one-time event in 2005.

Though the series is available on the internet freely, no new content has been created since 2005.

As far as anyone knows Tristan Farnon is solely responsible for Leisure Town. 

According to the author himself, he sacrificed two jobs, a nice house, several girlfriends, and a dog to create Leisure Town, and that too before things like contact information, or an email address on the page became available. 

The fact that Farnon was struggling alone, in the total absence of feedback, unemployed, and not even resorting to banner ads, has given Leisure Town a sort of mystique and granular respect that is hard to come by for other webcomics.

The series first started gaining some notoriety soon after it was created after Farnon scanned strips from the famous comic strip Dilbert but changed the dialogues to profanity.

His story was that of a giraffe who became irate in his office job and started creating the strips.

Dilbert's lawyers came calling and the webcomic artist changed the characters into stick figures, but Farnon reverted to Dilbert characters until the lawyers came calling again.

Farnon's biggest brush with mainstream fame came in 2002 when CNN invited him to come on their show.

He discussed Leisure Town on CNN's NEXT@CNN show, where CNN described Leisure Town as a quirky but somewhat twisted photo comic that has been nominated for a Webby Award and developed a cult following.

In the interview, Farnon described the financial difficulties of creating webcomics, equating creating them to creating paper airplanes and sailing them out of the window.

Aside from Leisure Town, Farnon is also known for his Silent Key podcast.

The Silent Key podcast is an irregularly published podcast that consists of modern ham radio recordings of varying lengths.

These recordings are presented without interruption or commentary.

Farnon has described them as possessing incalculable sadness and substantial humor in equal measure. 

He is also known for another webcomic called Jerkcity. Jerkscity is composed of a bunch of Microsoft Chat panels slapped together, and can be described as the bizarre product of the late-night chat logs of Farnon and his three friends.

The webcomic is starkly different than Leisure Town because, in this one, Tristan is one of the creators rather than the sole character.

The characters in the webcomic are:

  • Rand, the founder of the site, represented by a sleazy grey alien
  • Pants, a nine eyed skirt wearing monster with a single huge nipple
  • Spigot, Farnon's character, a goatee-sporting beatnik type
  • Deuce, a nondescript character in a gigantic Polynesian war mask

The webcomic doesn't have a story or theme but can largely be described as the main characters throwing insults at each other in various phallic manners.

All in all, Tristan Farnon is a relic of the early ages of the internet and online webcomics, but more so a relic to be preserved, revered, and analyzed, rather than simply laugh away at.

He was and still is an important icon.

Read More About Online Personalities Here: Here Be Barr: 10 Facts To Know About The YouTuber

Some FAQs

Did Tristan Farnon Go To War?

No, the author Tristan Farnon was mistaken for the fictional character Tristan Farnon who may go to war

How Old Is Tristan Farnon?

Tristan Farnon is 52 years old and was born on April 20, 1970

What Is Tristan Farnon Famous For?

He is famous for making the webcomic Leisure Town

ncG1vNJzZmirmKTEo7XZnKarppWne6S7zGiYrqyYpL9uw8eaq2agkaW9prrEnWStp12pv6q%2F05qlZp6Rp7uwuoydoJ1lmJp6qLuMraZmr5Gn