Okay, some text for you. I swear to god there’s a typo in there that i lost track of between the inking and the photoshopping and can’t goddamn find now, so please point it out if you see it so i can chase it through the park with a flamethrower, cornering it by the ice cream stand and finishing the job. (update: It has been found and eliminated, thanks to one of the Heroes out there)
AND
And that marks the 2nd anniversary of this goddamn comic strip. I celebrated by doing another overly-long comic that i was petrified to publish once i’d finished it, but since i’ve gone through this every week for two years i’m just ignoring my fears at this point. Ah yes, the glories of an anniversary. To look back upon the scorched, barren earth of your life stretching off behind you and ask yourself “what now?” A year ago i moaned in despair that the success of year two would determine whether there would be a year three, but then a year ago i had literally seven readers and could not predict the surprising fact that a bunch of people would show up and say “hey, this sucks less than some other stuff, see you next week.”
THANKS
So, thanks for showing up every week and for reading and for leaving comments and for emailing in to say “believe it or not i enjoy your comics” and for sending beyond-beyond-generous donations and for just being beautiful in general. And i’ll leave it at that. Just did the 100th comic a couple months ago, so i don’t wanna get into anniversary overkill here.
ANYWAY
Moving on then. As for me, i can be found in a couple other places worth mentioning. Doing an interview exchange with a colleague of mine who does some nice drawings here on the world wide internet. My interview of him, during which i am attacked by a variety of wild animals and hired assassins, can be found here, and then he’ll be asking me some similarly confusing and uninformative questions some time in the future. Also, i’m doing another weekly comic over at Cracked, which is a humor website for those unfamiliar. They were all like “Yo,” and i was all like “S’up,” and then we agreed on some new comics, so now you can read said new comics over at their place. The strip should run every Monday, and, uh, that’s pretty much it. Look, i’m not a salesman, alright! I went to the Bill Watterson School of Marketing, where the only way to graduate is to not show up.
ANYHOW
Stay beautiful, handshakes all around,
WR
February 16, 2009 at 5:32 am
That was beautiful.
February 16, 2009 at 5:32 am
First, congratulations on Subnormality’s 2nd anniversary. Too Many Words FOREVER!
Good campfire story there. Though I have to say I find the prospect of Alanis Morisette performed by a one-person band far more frightening.
February 16, 2009 at 5:54 am
The comic was hilarious. I read the interview You’re clearly a literary genius.
February 16, 2009 at 6:12 am
Awesome, can’t wait to continue reading for the next year. This is one of my favorite webcomics (:
February 16, 2009 at 6:26 am
Haha, wow, that was beyond rad. I love the comparison, and the story was actually really engaging (…I. I want to know the end. DAMN YOU AND YOUR PREMATURE FREAK-OUT, RENTING GUY
(()
Congrats on the second year. ^_^
February 16, 2009 at 6:35 am
Fantastic. I love your comics.
February 16, 2009 at 6:39 am
That story was fantastic; scared the crap out of me.
February 16, 2009 at 6:45 am
Hah, spectacular. I was latched to my screen.
February 16, 2009 at 6:46 am
Keep up the good work!
February 16, 2009 at 7:07 am
Greetings from Romania.
Your comic strips are briliiant . Keep up the good work.
February 16, 2009 at 7:29 am
It certainly does suck less than most things on the internet. Here’s to another year. Also, I found the typo. It’s at the bottom of the big wall o text. ‘Now it moves around the to west…’ I can’t believe that you do all of the characters by hand? Very impressive.
February 16, 2009 at 7:46 am
argh! textboxman strikes again!
February 16, 2009 at 7:59 am
Happy second anniversary, I’m from the mean people who reads webcomic but never says hi to creators
Anyways, I’m with the guy who said that the one man band alanis morrisette gives the creeps.
February 16, 2009 at 8:15 am
Well done, and an awesomely good comic. I know this is pretty lame, but I’m going to take a shot at guessing the identity of the mysterious whistler.
Was it just a bird, and the man had never heard it before or had forgotten how it sounded in all that time in silence?
February 16, 2009 at 8:37 am
Outstanding!
There is no such thing as too much text, only a lack of patience. Seeing as how I am drawing upon an infinite pool of patience, keep it coming.
It’s a big pool.
February 16, 2009 at 8:39 am
ha….brilliant….
http://jjutol.blogspot.com/
February 16, 2009 at 8:50 am
I…I need to know the end! I NEED TO KNOW!! *breaks down into uncontrollable sobs* lol
February 16, 2009 at 9:19 am
I like this one. I felt like anything could happen. That’s a rare achievement.
If you can, get ahold of “The Whore of Mensa” by Woody Allen. It’s more than the “same thing only different.” Just similar in enough ways to give you a few laughs. Great minds and all.
February 16, 2009 at 10:04 am
Fantastic. My favourite yet.
February 16, 2009 at 10:26 am
Just…beautiful…
February 16, 2009 at 10:32 am
Two years! Woooo! Thankya man!
Sphinxieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
February 16, 2009 at 10:52 am
Brilliant! 2 years!? Good to hear. Keep up the great work dude. Love it.
February 16, 2009 at 11:01 am
I bookmarked this place right when it first started, but the Walls and my school schedule didn’t mingle well. So thought I wanted more, I pushed it aside.
School & Webcomics still don’t mix, but I sat down a few days ago and went through every strip.
Thanks.
Happy 2 year! I’ll be around for the rest.
February 16, 2009 at 11:15 am
I’m pretty sure the whistling came from the Sphinx!
Thanks for another amazing comic.
February 16, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Been reading this webcomic for awhile now.
Know that somewhere in Canada you are truly appreciated for your work! I look forward to another year of literary ingenuity!
Keep up the good work eh!
February 16, 2009 at 12:27 pm
congratulations! and thanks for all the wonderful comic strips
February 16, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Wonderful. I can’t find another word, really.
If you were a webcomic prostitute, I’d hire you all the time!
February 16, 2009 at 2:58 pm
well worth the wait.
you’re in top form, sir!
February 16, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Happy Second Anniversary! It’s strips like today’s that keep me coming back.
There but for the grace of well-you-know… I’ve had a couple of “enablers” who allowed me to slide and keep up my habit. I’m sure without them, Ethel and I might have a throw-down for that corner as well. Of all the “Why am I a writer anyway?” pieces I’ve seen, this has to be one of the best!
Thanks again for two years of SUBNORMALITY!
February 16, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Erik: Thank you! I could not for the life of me find that goddamn typo. It is now fixed.
Questo’s Dad: Well said. Best wishes to the pool, may it be well-lifeguarded.
topopardo: Ha, i never thought of that. She doesn’t use the door though, so maybe not.
Everyone else: Thank you so much for the nice comments! Up next: Year Three.
February 16, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Winston: this is fantastic stuff. The combination of the art and the story was terrific and it’s also a deft send-up of “women of the night”. You have a Gift, no question, and I encourage you to continue to explore your subject matter with insight, humour and all-too-apparent glee. I’m very impressed…
February 16, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Congrats on Year 2 of X. Funny thing is, that my mom (who has a bent sense of humour) always said that she’d sooner say I was a drug pusher than the software developer I actually am.
So I imagine my work to be dirty, demeaning, and not spoken about in polite society.
And I work for cash.
February 16, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Big fan of your work. I enjoyed this little slice of the surreal life and the campfire story within. I tip my hat to you sir and to your literary prowess. Congrats on coming to the end of your 2nd year.
February 16, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I curious. Is this just a funny little tale of a Jasper Fforde-style alternative universe, or (as we could assume based on past strips) a thinly-veiled comment on the state of art and money.
Creatives of any medium who can’t sell, are sometimes jealous of those who can. Selling out is a matter of context and perspective.
Well, every one’s a prostitute, it’s just a matter of the amount and form of payment.
February 16, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Holy buckets! Two years, eh? Well good on you. I have great admiration for your comics– both the illustration and the subject matter you choose. Based on some of the strips you’ve done I gather that you’ve had to slog your way through more than one crummy day job. So I hope doing the comic is a sort of balm for the soreness of working (unless you are supporting yourself by drawing, which would be even better.) If you haven’t read Murakami’s “Dance Dance Dance” I would recommend it, if only for the “shoveling snow” conversation.
February 16, 2009 at 5:13 pm
That was awesome! It was very engaging and I was hooked into the story. I wish we’d found out what had happened, although I don’t blame the guy for bugging out.
February 16, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Woo!! Happy anniversary!! Great comic, and i hope there’s many more to come!!
February 16, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Reminded me of the $12 Million Stuffed Shark, which I’ve just finished reading and recommend highly.
Winston Rowntree, this is the moment when I *knew* you were goung to be HUGE!
February 16, 2009 at 5:45 pm
“TOO MANY WORDS? CALL JIM DAVIS”
I love the little details in your comics, like the “Instruments of Destruction” store and the billboard split between the first and last panels. You really have impressive talent, I hope you keep at it. Congrats on the second anniversary of your comic!
February 16, 2009 at 6:08 pm
That was quite a comic…
It was like an onion; lots of layers. ^_^
The creepy story in itself, which I found genuinely creepy, though not on the same level as the ‘client’.
The simile of authors to prostitutes and publishers/pimps as well as addiction – both very funny and quite disturbing.
The little art cues with ‘Instruments of destruction’ and ‘The Rob Liefield School of Art next 3 exits’ and the ‘Too many words?’ note of the fence.
And let’s not forget the characters themselves; quite interesting, both in the similarity and difference to a client and prostitute selling sex.
Oh sorry, that should be ‘lady of negotiable affection’.
Congratulations of 2 years with Subnormality!
February 16, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Awesome.
February 16, 2009 at 7:19 pm
There’s something really good going on with this comic – the metaphor works perfectly. With my screen resolution I thought at first the comic ended with the group of panels and I stopped before the last of them and said “okay, she’s not a whore, just something silly…” and then, well, there was ever so much more.
Maybe it’s just because I’m absorbing more than I want to in this grad program but I immediately wondered if the story in the comic is the author inserting his own work, or the author writing from the part of this woman who wants to write but is reduced to prostituting herself. It struck me as (purposely) overwrought…and the adverb buildup as the tension grew was funny.
Anyway, two years is awesome, so don’t stop!
February 16, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Dude, I want those 5 minutes I’ve spent reading that story back! Or I at least demand an ending!!1!elven
*shakes fist*
Oh, and keep doing what you’re doing however you’re doing it…
np: Distance – Magnesium (Repercussions)
February 16, 2009 at 7:38 pm
It’s a treat to read every week, man. Happy anniversary, and here’s to more walls of text and man-eating mythological characters.
February 16, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Happy anniversary!
And this comic was certainly epic, definitely worth the wait!
February 16, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I figure that anniversary time is the right time to finally make a comment: Been reading for a while. Read a lot of the things you have other than Subnormality. It’s all indescribably awesome. And in some cases incredibly disturbing. Which may or may not be the same thing in some cases.
Keep on with the doing stuff.
February 16, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I quite liked this one — and just about laughed my head off at the alanis.
I’m very glad you aren’t letting the idiots who are afraid of text dictate what you do.
Many more years!
PS The bright part of a crescent moon goes on the bottom because the sun’s below the horizon.
February 16, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Great concept, beautifully executed, love the background jokes.
One annoyance: It took me a while to figure out that the little skull was a zoom in of the john’s pupil.
February 16, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I was disappointed that there was no comic last week, but boy, this one more than makes up for that! Wonderful, wonderfully surreal stuff.
I am eagerly looking forward to many more years of Subnormality! Congratulations on an excellent comic.
February 17, 2009 at 12:28 am
Is there any chance you will start updating twice a week?You know, ´coz we want to suck you dry.
February 17, 2009 at 1:34 am
Fucking genius. I fell upon your website by accident..I surely wasn’t looking for a web comic to read…and since, I’ve devoured everything you’ve written that I can find.
This one may have been my favorite. I don’t know; I guess I have to re-read everything to decide.
Thanks.
Sean
February 17, 2009 at 3:18 am
YOU’RE FREAKING AWESOME.
I’ve shown your comics to a few people and they all enjoy it.
February 17, 2009 at 3:25 am
All right, there’s now officially *no limit* to how big a wall of text Winston can throw at us. And we all need to stop mentioning it (lauding or bitching, both), cuz we’ll just make him determined to do it even *bigger* next anniversary.
By the way, an all-nite screen door shop? How do you come up with this stuff? Wow.
February 17, 2009 at 3:25 am
@ J McCabe
Next time you are looking for something other than a comic, visit mine and tell me honestly whether you see commonalities with Subnormality. I’m not looking for charity readers, or for anyone to commit hours of time, but you sound like a smart,no-nonsense bunch and I would find comparative reactions of interest.
Mine is about Cold War Russian politics, as told my demons and talking cats. http://www.lilnyet.com
If no one bites, thanks for listening to my invite anyway. Subnormality is slack.
February 17, 2009 at 3:52 am
happy anniversary Winston. as someone who was similarly infiltrated by the the writing/ creative bug, I must say that this particular comic strip is depressing in many ways, but its execution is so perfect that I’m able to laugh rather than cry. I feel that way about a lot of stuff you write, so I thought I’d finally take the time to comment, and let you know that what you do is appreciated. here’s to another year of weekly updates featuring walls of texts, nefarious nazis, and mythical beasts.
-oranges&sardines
February 17, 2009 at 7:42 am
Third year, third year! Yay
February 17, 2009 at 9:22 am
Great work.
February 17, 2009 at 9:28 am
Now that PBF is gone, you and Achwood are the only two that I read. Thanks for great art and hip-deep irony! Randy
February 17, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Here’s to the next two years!
Wooh!
February 17, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Cliff Burns(!): Wow, thank you very much!
Chris: Regarding the moon, so noted.
Again, thanks all for the kind remarks. Back at you.
February 17, 2009 at 9:23 pm
That must have been the most awesome and too-muchest worded comic of your serie ever.
You can know, that you will hardly write something that good again.
Mwuahahahaha!
February 18, 2009 at 12:01 am
Wow, nice story there. The only trouble was I kept thinking there would be some sort jab at a musician, but there never was.
February 18, 2009 at 3:32 am
I think that this comic, or possibly “Some People Like Them” are perfect examples of what Subnormality is. Also, this one was particularly funny to me, as I spent 38 hours awake, doing little but writing.
@Nate: You mean that last panel wasn’t?
February 18, 2009 at 5:05 am
GREAT comic. You’ve gained a new regular reader
February 18, 2009 at 6:00 am
Awesome comic as usual, but one thing that really makes me rage since iam a graphic designfag: why did you use papyrus in the title panel?? You could of used a better font like celtic garamond or even poetica.
February 18, 2009 at 1:59 pm
From one art-whore to another, Bravo!
February 18, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I’m deeply impressed. You’ve got a new regular.
February 19, 2009 at 1:02 am
Wow! It’s times like these the walls text are worth it. That was a great story but what was making that whistling sound?
February 19, 2009 at 1:15 am
Even though i just found this page, i can tell you you have a very original drawing style, very detailed. Ans even more impressive scripts. Yay for you
(If i fail to describe actual admiration please excuse me, im not good at writing ^_^)
February 19, 2009 at 8:40 am
I’ve been following the comic for a while now, but haven’t really had reason to leave a comment… until now.
>< How does that story end?
February 20, 2009 at 6:23 am
Hehe, I’ve got to say, I scrolled down a little when I anticipated how much text there was to go through. I thought of skipping past the whole comic, going to the comments and asking “Hey y’all, those of you who’ve read the text…is it worth it?” and waiting for a response before embarking on such an endeavor.
But nah, I said, who needs sleep? I read it. And in retrospect, I really don’t know that I needed to. That “fiction stranger than fiction” Panzertext? That was good. Felt underwhelmed by this’un.
Winston, my thought is that words shouldn’t be there just for words’ sake. Did that sub-story advance the mini-plot of your larger one-page story? Did it inform? Did it comment? I think you could’ve plagiarized several paragraphs of any Steven King novel and it wouldn’t really matter in this case.
Granted, this *is* the “too-many-words” comic. However, just because I intend on reading your comic next week and the week after, etc., don’t mean I’m gonna let you off the hook.
February 20, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Been following the comments, and I think that just because millions of people do an effort vs. value calculation before tackling a block of text doesn’t mean it should influence your strategy one bit. If you were a poor editor, it would be a different matter.
February 20, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Nice. Thanks.
February 20, 2009 at 9:24 pm
congratulations on getting to two years, Winston… if that IS your REAL name.
(we all know you’re the secret Identity of Dr Who)
February 20, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Inspired!
February 21, 2009 at 2:04 am
This was incredible. Congrats on two years, and I look forward to much more in the future. I have so much respect for your originality and creativity!
February 21, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Somebody’s been reading Lovecraft lately, no? Nice work.
February 22, 2009 at 8:18 pm
I have to say this is one of my favorites, well worth the wait. Silly as it sounds, I think I’m now going to hammer out one of my creepy short story ideas…
February 23, 2009 at 1:06 am
Thought I should let you know that the bottom half of this comic isn’t rendering properly in chrome. I have no idea why. Anyway, keep up the fantastic work; here’s to at least 2 more years!
April 10, 2009 at 8:53 am
This is the best comic of anything, ever. Thank you.
April 21, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Baaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING.
May 5, 2009 at 11:02 am
that is the best fucking punchline ever. EVER.
July 6, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Ha-ha! I always wondered what happened to Alanis… no, wait, that was somebody else. Never mind.
July 26, 2009 at 7:10 am
Hell yeah, that is the most awesome comic ever. Love it.
Just started reading through your archives, this is some amazing stuff. Keep up the great work!
August 27, 2009 at 6:07 pm
A book of this would be great
this was the greatest thing I ever read
October 29, 2009 at 12:26 am
These just keep getting better. (I say as I make my way through the archive.) This one seems to have definite strongly recognizable hints of E.C. art in it and now I’m thinking I should check how much of that I can see in your other cartoons.
November 15, 2009 at 3:32 am
Hey, have you ever read Daniel Clowes? I think you’d like his stuff
November 18, 2009 at 4:13 am
Story.of.my.life.