September 30th

Today marks one of the countless grim anniversaries we so easily forget. Read about it here.

New Subnormality Posted

This week’s strip has been posted. For the purposes of novelty, you can view the pre-Paint Shop version by clicking the image above. Gather the kids around and compare and contrast until you’re blue in the face! Or go watch TV. That is all.

New Subnormality Posted

New comic posted. Close up of books above.  My computer keeps fucking me over. Almost lost the entire website. Too tired to write more.

New Subnormality posted

For readers new to Subnormality, the Sphynx is a recurring character previously seen here and here. Also pictured in this week’s strip: Medusa, The Minotaur, a Chimera, The Deadly Manticore, either a Cockatrice or a Basilisk, and a Griffin. No points for guessing what inspired the main panel.

–Rowntree

Review: “Subnormality”

 Recently this was said about Subnormality on some online forum or other:

Ugh.

What is this crap.

Memo to aspiring webcomic artists: just because you can draw competently doesn’t mean you can write.

Seriously, you’ll probably get a good first impression from the tolerable artwork and relatively funny current comic, but read back through those archives: there’s huge overdrawn walls of text every other comic, some of them have “I HATE BUSH/NICKELBACK/*pop culture reference*” in lieu of a punchline, the rest of the time it’s “I’M SO GOD drat WACKY” random-style “humor”.

I only bring it up because for this whole thread we’ve been yapping on about art, lettering, panel ordering, website design, inking, etc. Except that this thing manages to do all of those competently, yet it still makes me want to tear out my eyes. It’s BORING. It’s unfunny, unoriginal, and has no sense of comedic timing. It’s like this guy is a big fan of comics with random punchlines, but doesn’t understand that non-sequiturs don’t equal comedy. This guy is probably the guy who messes up telling a joke at a party while everyone looks around uncomfortably.

What makes me mad is that some people will give this guy a free pass just because his comic doesn’t look like [crap]. It’s still a piece of poo poo. He draws very competently, but he can’t tell a story for crap. It’s not even a matter of writing good dialogue or whatever: he can’t even bring himself to let his loving art tell the story. You can draw! Why the hell is there a giant wall of text in your comic? Show me, don’t tell me! Play to your strengths! Do you even know what your strengths are?

I’m intruigued about this “Free Pass” he mentions… Will it get me backstage at Lollapalooza so I can throw rotten vegetables at Perry Farrell?? I can only hope. Anyway, among the carelessly misapplied adages (ie: Show me, don’t tell me) and strange objections to text are a few grains of truth.  He’s right about the pop culture (or, “Culture,” as we might as well call it) references, and they’ll be less of a feature in the strip as time goes on. I certainly don’t regret putting that stuff in though. I did feel it was important to go on record as being a certain kind of person–ie: the kind of person who hates Bush and Nickelback and Hummers and all that other crap that thoughtless people embrace. This strip ain’t for them–it’s for the rest of us.  He’s also right that I draw competently! Beyond that though, there’s really not much to take away from here. Even posting this thing here is more than it deserves, so transparently dishonest is it. Besides, how seriously can you take someone who uses words like “poo poo,” and who refuses to read “giant wall(s)” of text. It’s true: people who don’t like reading (ie: The Illiterate, babies, etc.) aren’t gonna like my comic. I suppose he thinks books have “too many words” as well.

–Rowntree