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Least I Could Do (LICD) is a humour webcomic by Ryan Sohmer and Lar Desouza, which debuted on February 10, 2003. Although Lar Desouza is the current artist, the comic had been previously drawn by Chad WM. Porter, for two years, and before that, Trevor Adams. The primary theme of the strip is sexuality, especially the promiscuity of the primary character, Rayne Summers. The strip updates every day but Sunday. Stories tend to last for only a few strips, but some have gone several weeks. The strip has done a fairly long parody of The Lord Of The Rings, having Rayne being placed as Aragon, in several intervals occurring whenever Rayne is struck unconscious.

In late 2004, I Have My Moments was released, a full colour book featuring the first year of LICD with Chad as the artist. The original artist for the strip was Trevor, who drew the strip from its debut until July 18, 2003. Chad took over on July 28 of that year. Though many of the fans were hesitant at first of the new artist, especially his early 'pupiless' eyes, they quickly came to embrace his style, (after he got rid of those eyes). Chad has been noted as one of the best webcomic artists when it comes to drawing women.

In early 2005, the strip underwent a major change when Rayne's friend Noel arrived. Noel was often given roles that previously would have gone to the character John Gold, whose frequency in the strip was somewhat reduced. Soon after, Rayne became an executive assistant on falsified credentials, with the intent of sleeping with the CEO.

Least I Could Do "3.0" launched on August 15, 2005 with the departure of Chad as the artist. Lar deSouza, a long time friend of Ryan Sohmer, and his artistic partner on the daily comic In Other News, has taken over the reins as the artist for Least I Could Do. The comic and website has been undergoing some major changes as a result. At first, some people in the community were a little hesitant of the new style of the artist, but they have come to love Lar's drawing style, and the new direction that the comic has been taking.

Though the primary character is Rayne, a growing supporting cast has LICD being compared at times to the Simpsons, as it will sometimes go up to a week without a strip featuring Rayne. These usually involve large story arcs involving the other characters, though Sohmer still specializes in the one strip joke.

Main Characters

• Rayne Summers is the primary character. He is an attractive and extremely promiscuous man, having slept with fifty women at the strip's opening, and many more women (and one man, in exchange for protection in prison) over the course of the strip. As of 2005, the highest total that has been given is five hundred. He briefly had a serious relationship with Cyndi, but he could not gain the respect of her parents. He currently has a casual relationship with Marcy, despite their business relationship, though it appears that he still sleeps with other women. Previously, he was a columnist, but he became Marcy's assistant (by having Mick lie to inflate his importance), hoping to sleep with her. He invented the term "vagoo" for the vagina, considering the normal term too clinical - other characters have used the word since.
• Noel is Rayne's best friend, a later addition to the strip, first appearing on January 10, 2005. His appearance greatly reduced John Gold's importance. He usually plays Rayne's wingman, and is markedly less critical of his lifestyle than John.
• John Gold is Rayne's roommate, who often acts as a foil. He expresses a resigned discontent with Rayne's promiscuity; he himself is looking for a wife. He is a grade school teacher, and has made several abortive attempts to romance a single mother whose child is in his class. His temptations are represented by a small Darth Vader, in a parody of the shoulder devil cliché
• Melissa "Issa" Alie is a friend of Rayne's. Rayne continually makes sexual advances on her, which she rejects. Despite this, it sometimes seems as though she has a crush on him. She works as a clerk at a gas station. Filler strips frequently involve her in revealing clothing, or jokes about readers' attraction to her.
• Mick Alfa is an unattractive and awkward friend of Rayne's, whom he often uses as a wingman. Sometimes, to make himself look even better by comparison, Rayne has Mick pretend to be retarded. Despite this, Mick is actually fairly smart, and managed to secure Rayne his job. Mick himself is a TV program director.
• Rob Penfield is Rayne and John's neighbour. He lives with his girlfriend, Beth, who is never seen. His friends frequently accuse him of being "whipped." He works in marketing.

Supporting Characters

• Cyndi is Rayne's ex-girlfriend. She met him while working as a waitress at a Chinese restaurant, they went horseback riding once after Rayne convinced her that he was an "expert" equestrian. Rayne almost wrecked the date by trying to pay a prostitute to give his horse Wild Rage oral sex, but saved it with a picnic. This strip provided the title of the year one book, "I Have My Moments". After this they began dating. However, he lost her parents' approval by describing his sexual plans for her. She later helped Rayne and John to assemble a rock garden. She also told Rayne she wanted to remain "friends", which he translates as "I will NEVER sleep with you". Rayne is still crying inside.
• Harry is a homeless artist. After being offended by John's condescension, he set up shop outside his apartment building. He bears a strange resemblance to Lars deSouza, Ryan's friend and artist from "In Other News".
• Dr. Wilcott is Rayne's internist. Trying to strike up conversation, Rayne found out he was gay. Initially homophobic, Rayne later defended the doctor from a woman in the waiting room. Used as a vehicle to express Ryan Sohmer's deep objection to homophobia.
• The "Suck For a Buck Lady" is a prostitute who often appears (but never speaks), usually for a one-strip gag.
• Phil the Pharmacist Rayne's pharmacist. Sells Rayne condoms by the caseload. Even has a boat named the SS Rayne. Almost had a nervous breakdown when Rayne threatened to stop buying condoms from him, since he was sick of using them.
• Little Vader John's evil concience. We've never seen the good concience, but can only guess that Little Vader is holding him in a Force Choke. Comes to John's aid when he needs help going after his student's mothers.
• Braman is Rayne's alter ego. When evil attacks the good, when darkness threatens the light, when 2 bottle of tequila are emptied, Braman will be there. Hey, Real Life has Shirt-Ninja and VG-Cats has Pantsman. LICD has ... Braman.
• Marcy McKean is the CEO of IDS Enterprises, a self-made multi-millionaire. Rayne used false credentials to secure a job as her assistant, hoping to sleep with her. He ultimately succeeded, although Marcy is still unaware of the fraud, as well as the fact that this was his primary goal.
• Nancy is Marcy's receptionist. Before Rayne's interview, another man had shown up with the same goal, but Marcy realised the ploy, and threatened to fire Nancy if it ever happened again. Although Marcy has not yet realised Rayne's intentions, this has caused Rayne some guilt, especially because Nancy was pregnant at the time. She has since given birth; despite circumstances forcing Rayne to act as midwife, the child had no obvious problems. Rayne was given the honor of naming Nancy's son, and quickly chose Aragorn. Marcy promised to give him a good middle-name.
• Eric Summers is Rayne's brother. They have similar views of the opposite sex and a similar sense of humour. Eric is a doctor. He constantly brings up this fact to taunt Rayne, since he is a doctor and Rayne ... well, he isn't. This is a constant source of annoyance for Rayne. It recently came to a front when Rayne challenged Eric to a "Who can get the most girls" challenge. In the end, Rayne was victorious.

Neologism

The word Vagoo - a human vagina, was created by Ryan Sohmer, first appearing on 23 February 2005. Rayne states that the word vagina is "cold, sterile and doesn't do the female anatomy any justice. Other synonyms don't do any better either. Just not good descriptions of something warm and inviting." It has since been frequently used in the comic. A t-shirt designed by the Least I Could Do team also featured the word.

See also

• List of webcomics
• Webcomics Wikiproject

External link

• Least I Could Do
• In Other News