Jeremy Herrman's T-shirt is the epitome of nerd humor, featuring a cartoon of a CTRL key donning a police hat, brandishing a baton and chasing an ESC key.

It's also particularly appropriate given the tech startup he and two partners, Alex Moore and Jim Keener, launched last year.

Chogger (www.chogger.com) is a Web site that allows users to view, draw and share their own comics. Though the concept might conjure images of costumed heroes or Sunday newspapers, the trio believes comics have the potential to be much more.

"Comics are definitely a major cultural force that isn't going away," said Mr. Herrman. "It's the next major social medium."

Four years ago, Mr. Herrman -- then a computer science major at the University of Pittsburgh -- discovered Web comics like "xkcd" and "Penny Arcade," which endeared him with their nerdy humor and simple illustrations.

After realizing that anyone could create such illustrations, he began designing a Web site to allow just that. But the result was underwhelming, and the project fell soon by the wayside.

It wasn't until January 2008, when he heard about AlphaLab, a seed-stage company incubator based in the South Side that was offering funding to software related startups, that the idea came off the back burner.

Mr. Herrman recruited two fellow Pitt alumni -- Mr. Moore, an English major with experience in Web design, and Mr. Keener, a computer science and chemistry major -- to join him in the venture. Within a month, the three had whipped up a quick prototype and submitted an application for funding.

Their presentation "made a compelling argument that, similar to user-generated content like videos and blogs, Web comics were one more form of user-generated content that had the potential to be very popular," said Matt Harbaugh, the chief investment officer of Innovation Works, AlphaLab's parent organization.

It was compelling enough to get the three men chosen out of a pool of 50 applicants. With AlphaLab's award -- including a $25,000 investment; free office space for six months in the South Side; access to advisers, mentors and industry experts; and guidance on business strategy -- Chogger finally came to fruition last September.

Today, Chogger features a library of more than 1,000 user-created comics that span the serious, humorous and mundane.

The focal point of the site, however, is the Build Your Own Comic tool, which begins as three empty frames. On each frame, users can add characters, scenes and props, draw lines, add text boxes and color, all of which can be saved at the press of a "Chog it!" button.

"A lot of people out there have ideas for Web comics but don't have the time or don't know how to put them online," said Mr. Herrman. "We wanted to bridge that gap and set up the infrastructure."

The site has 1,200 users or "Choglodytes" and many more people who simply lurk, browsing the comic library or toying around with the comic creator, said Mr. Keener.

Though the audience for comics might seem like more of a niche group than, say, the audience for videos, the partners think they themselves are evidence to the contrary.

None of them -- save for collecting trading cards as kids -- frequent comic book stores or read comics in newspapers.

Just as an obsession with comics isn't needed to appreciate Chogger, drawing ability isn't a requisite, either.

"None of us have any drawing abilities whatsoever," said Mr. Keener. One of his comics, "The Beginnings," features three stick figures meant to depict the three founders. Though the figures are mainly crude scribbles, the charmingly simple comic is one of the top-rated on the site.

Chogger isn't the first Web comic creator, but "as far as I know, it's the only one that lets you construct everything on your own," said Jeffrey Yandora, owner of Phantom of the Attic, a comic store in Oakland.

Most other Web sites restrict the user to preset characters or designs. What often results, Mr. Herrman says, is a disjunction between the topic of the comic and the way it looks. "Imagine trying to create a serious comic using characters from 'The Simpsons.' It would look ridiculous."

With Chogger, the aim is to give users freedom, not restrictions.

Users can build comics using shapes or by drawing freehand, upload pictures or take a screenshot. Once finished, the cartoons can be embedded on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or blogs.

A quick glance at the top-rated comics shows users have made good use of the lack of limits.

There's anime-style drawings, circle-blobs, scribbles, stick figures, and photographs. There's political comics featuring President Obama, comics that obsess over tacos and ice cream and lighthearted comics about everyday events.

The three just unveiled a beta version with improved features in March, but are already concocting ideas for the next generation of Chogger.

In response to user feedback, they plan to add speech balloons, narration boxes, and comic editing. Eventually, they want to enable users to use photos from Facebook, collaborate on comics, create their own fonts and group comics into series.

Though the site is succeeding in making comics more accessible, sustainability is another issue.

"We've definitely thought about that," Mr. Herrman said. "It's a big concern."

Ever since the initial award from AlphaLab ended last year, the group has been having trouble wooing investors, particularly during the recession.

"It's tough for some people to take comics seriously," said Mr. Herrman. At the end of AlphaLab, the trio presented in front of a group of angel fund investors, but no one took the bait.

The biggest impediment to Chogger, however, is time, not money.

So far, the three men have only been able to work on Chogger in their spare time, since each also has a full-time job.

Mr. Herrman works as a software engineer at Carnegie Mellon University, Mr. Moore is an Web site developer at Elliance, a Web marketing company on the North Side, and Mr. Keener is a research assistant at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center in Oakland.

Though their jobs take time away from Chogger, their incomes have allowed them to ride out the costs associated with running the Web site without outside help.

"It's hard to balance, but we really enjoy this site. We're going to work on it whether people are paying us or not," said Mr. Herrman.