Heyyy, new comic for you, sorry for the wait. Not safe for work i guess, unless you work somewhere, uh, Hip. Took a while longer than i thought, but then they all pretty much take longer than i think they will, so maybe i’ll just go ahead and give that excuse a rest in the future. The comix don’t typically exist on a single sheet of paper, but this one does, which is nice, so here’s a picture of it trying to look cool next to a record.
yeah,
wr
MORE!
Additional mentionings/miscellanea/whatever for y’alls:
-One of the Heroes out there has sent in a drawing of the sphynx! Wicked, man. I love it, thanks x10 to Rachel.
-There’s this “Influence Map” thing going around where an artist fills out this template with all the artists who’ve influenced them, ending up with something like this. Kind of neat. Not being one to miss out on things, i spent an afternoon meticulously assembling one of my own, which you may pore over here…
-I don’t know why i’m mentioning this, but in a Purely cash-motivated move i recently achieved my goal of having some comix rejected by the new yorker, so here’s what it looks like when i attempt to sell the fuck out (A chilling vision of another dimension. A grim little grayscale dimension with no text in it). Purely, 150%, a grab for cash (an unsuccessful one, that is), because one needs to pursue one’s avenues i guess and i heard they pay well. I debated whether to write about this because i probably just sound like a bitter fuck who didn’t get a payday, but, uh, oh well. Full disclosure i guess.
LINK OF THE MOMENT!
-In case anyone hasn’t heard about it, let me be the 5000th person to enthusiastically link to the It Gets Better project, which is an endeavor started by everyone’s favorite wise dude Dan Savage to, via the internet, talk to kids in high school who might be having a deeply shitty time because they’re getting harassed for being gay (or otherwise Different). Maybe you’re one of these kids, in which case you should definitely check it out. High school just full-on Sucks for a lot of people, but guess what? It gets better, so don’t give in. I’m not in any minority groups (unless being Strange And Insane counts), and I’m not gonna pretend i had a deeply nightmarish time in school or anything, but tons of people do have an awful go of it, and there are way too many news items about harassed kids killing themselves recently, and this project is an attempt to change that, and is thus The Best Project Ever, so have a look.
that’s it for me! Check you later,
wr
Virus Comix News 
September 30, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Like the walls of text a whole lot (tho’ don’t look now, there’s a typo in this one…) but some of those sell-out cartoons are great too. In particular the caveman and the zoo.
September 30, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Amazing to see the real life comic in all it’s glory and this newest installment was awesome as always. I’m taking your character’s word for it that there are different parts to hell, because it’s reassuring 🙂 Particularly like the caveman drawing in the sellout gallery 😀 keep up the great work dude
September 30, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Also like the New Yorker ones – they remind me of early Gary Larson.
And as usual, Subnormality is excellent.
September 30, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Interesting topic, it sorta’ matches with the monkeysphere thing I read on Cracked today. Actually your links got me into that site 😀
The District 9 reference is a nice touch 😀 My brother has the original sign on his room’s door.
By the way… can you tell me the text on the shirt. I know it’s a parody on some old anti-drug campaign (I seen on YT) but I can’t read the description, it’s just too small
October 7, 2010 at 3:44 am
The shirt says: [EGG] This is your brain. [HATCHING EGG] This is your brain on a vegetarian diet.
September 30, 2010 at 5:27 pm
About the NewYorker strips: I absolutely love the 3rd one, about law & pole-dancing school. Head one, what a beautiful world!
*groan* @ “it’s a seductive concept”! Nifty strip though, as always.
September 30, 2010 at 6:02 pm
i love it how the punchline is in the second-to-last frame. or maybe that’s just how i see it.
September 30, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Thanks for the hot lesbian action, I love it 😉 It’s also frustrating, because I can understand why they’re both upset, but I still want them to get it on.
And thank you for linking to It Gets Better. If any bullied high-school kid is reading this, I can assure you, it really does get better when you can freely choose the people you hang out with. High school is NOT the best time of your life.
When I saw those videos of gay people who were happy being themselves, I wished I had been bullied more in high school. I mean, I wish I hadn’t been so careful to avoid being called gay.
The Maginot Line reminded me of this postmodern novel where a second-hand shop had segments of a trout stream lying in the backyard. That must have been Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan, I guess.
September 30, 2010 at 6:46 pm
You probably hear it enough, but awesome comic! More comics need sexy bi-sexual demons. It would sure improve Family Circus and Ziggy an awful lot.
I feel so bad for those poor kids that get bullied because of their sexual preferences. Nobody should have to go through crap like that. And teachers aren’t allowed to talk to them about it either in most states, it’s total bullshit.
America seems to have the mentality of “You have the right to the pursuit of happiness…unless you’re gay.” I think things are changing, but it’s a very slow process.
Also, those New Yorker cartoons are too good for The New Yorker. 🙂
September 30, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Thanks for the saucy new comic! And I’m sure there are people who work in places where cartoons in underwear are NS, but it wasn’t nearly as dirty as the warning led me to expect.
And thanks for posting the image of the actual page! I would be really curious to see more process photos from you. I am a not-very-good cartoonist, and I can never understand how other people (especially you) put such excellent pages together.
September 30, 2010 at 6:57 pm
I’ve never been hugely fond of the concept of hell, eternal damnation seems out of balance with any finite evilness. Secondly, the traditional fire and brimstone presentation seems to be a pretty unsophisticated manner of payback, revenge more than anything else.
If I were a deity, deciding on an afterlife, I’d hit everyone with full and complete understanding of their actions, and how they fitter into the wider scheme of things. They’d understand intimately and emphatically the pain they caused others, and the repercussions of this. They’d understand how these actions interlocked with the world around them. Building up artificial defences and excuses would be impossible, as you’d instantly know how false they were. You’d have no choice but to confront your actions, and truly understand them. Perhaps I’m too optimistic, but I’d hope that confronted with this knowledge, people would hold themselves accountable for their actions. I’m not proposing that I replace pitchforks with mind crushing guilt, but rather something a bit deeper, a catalysts for rebuilding oneself in that understanding.
However, I am not a deity, and indeed don’t generally believe in such things; nor do I believe in an afterlife. Instead, we die, and both our body and actions diffuse and are lost, like a jet of urine in the ocean. We may forever change the composition of that ocean, and the patterns of its currents, but we ourselves our gone, held only accountable by the equally vaporous and transient people who swim in the ocean around us, and by whatever thoughts governed ourselves before we broke apart on the waves.
September 30, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Most of your New Yorker strips (the cavemen! The zoo! Law!) are orders of magnitude better than what they usually print, so that’s their loss. Do you sell prints?
September 30, 2010 at 7:19 pm
There’s actually a standard for New Yorker cartoons that someone noted to me and now I can’t NOT see it. Basically, the caption of all New Yorker cartoons must be able to be replaced by the words “Christ, what an asshole!” and be funnier than the original caption. I don’t know why it works, but it does. Every. Single. Time.
September 30, 2010 at 8:13 pm
You didn’t write this.
“Theatres” / “Moustaches” and the stuttered lurch of the “han-
-ds-
-on”
line break kind of looks like an artist at one remove from a distanced mind that was the originator of Subnormality. Granted I’m trashed and haven’t followed the links in your intro and don’t know you, but this has ‘you didn’t write this’ all over it.
Wonderful faces though.
September 30, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Man, you don’t have enough evidence to say stuff like that. I smell TROLL.
October 1, 2010 at 2:44 am
It’s alright, i know ‘im, and he was just being facetious. Point taken though, bad line breaks.
October 3, 2010 at 7:15 pm
I used the wrong brain to read this, somehow; thank you for indulging my asshattery – it wasn’t an attack or meant to sound like one: “you didn’t write this” is clearly “I didn’t read this.” Sorry for staining the comments.
On the comic’s subject matter, I think there will always be a Hell as long as people have varying degrees of Nothing between their ears.
September 30, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Okay sorry for posting twice. “I’m not in any minority group” must’ve stung for you to write as a representative of a global minority whose voice is only marginally louder than a mumble in any given situation.
Did the New Yorker diss you from lack of caps in your kowtow to them, or was it your realisation that any wide-screen thinkers in their audience can come here directly and read a one-liner in the full-panel(l)ed W.O.T your artistry’s fundament’s so good at?
Thank you for the insight into your trying to shoehorn a story into a comma. They didn’t work. Thank fuck. They didn’t work.
September 30, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Love the “New Yorker” cartoons. I’d actually like to see more of them in the future. That being said I know that “Subnormality” is very time consuming and understand if you can’t. Either way, great work as always. You’re spoiling me with these frequent updates.
October 1, 2010 at 2:50 am
Yeah, that’s gonna be it for new yorker comics, it was very much a one time deal. I don’t have time to submit 170 cartoons a week for 8 years until they say “okay, we’ll buy one.” What i do have time for is subnormality.
September 30, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Yes!, had a lot of fun reading this. But if that hell really existed and would be known to all, people would be really hypocritical about being good. I dunno, I kinda love the mystery to this death thing.
Cheers!
October 1, 2010 at 5:59 am
The UK mini series called ‘The second coming’ made a similar point. Jesus returns and this time his sacrifice leads to no afterlife and no more God or the Devil.I have to say your wall of text does it a lot lot better.
October 1, 2010 at 6:03 am
Cool comic… the “sellouts” were very nice, too!
October 1, 2010 at 7:56 am
Present the idea that without an afterlife humans would have more inclination to improve their wordly existence… It still all comes down to belief, so is the idea to imagine a world where humans are less imaginative (and thus do not concoct strange notions of a “a life beyond this one”) or where the metaphysical does not exist (with no afterlife and no souls to populate them) and concrete proof to that end? Scientifically it’s impossible to proof a negative- so without the idea of eternal reward/punishment are you saying humans are basically good? A universe without a metaphysical component wallows in predestination and machinism, where every possible future is predictable based on assigned input and behavior variables. A universe that does not reward compassion or punish killing would lack a defined sense of moral right and wrong, and be more in line with Nietzsche’s Will to Power. Or would you say humans define their own right and wrong, and that we can judge ourselves on socially constructed abstracts?
This is why I love your comics, dude- they get me thinking.
October 3, 2010 at 6:28 am
About this:
“A universe without a metaphysical component wallows in predestination and machinism, where every possible future is predictable based on assigned input and behavior variables.”
…quantum mechanics says you’re wrong 😉
October 3, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Perhaps.
But there is also no mathematical model for fluid turbulance, despite the fact we have predictions for the Higgs boson (and an alternate model without one) as part of a speculative unified field theorem.
May I submit that quantum mechanics are merely the iceberg tip of a much more complex plethora of formulae, buried in the eleven spatial dimensions of superstring theory? After all, I didn’t specify exactly how many input variables it would take to predict an outcome of given arbitrarity.
“Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded.”
October 1, 2010 at 8:00 am
Yeah man, you had me worried with the New Yorker paragraph, but those comics are class! That caveman drawing especially slayed me. Surprising that they got rejected, they would fit in well there. Maybe the artwork was a bit too quality for them haha.
I can see the New Yorkerish quality you were going for there, but I don’t really see that as selling out. Each panel was still distinctly WR in my eyes, and I bet if any of us devotees had unknowingly read them there one day we’d instantly know it was you. If anything its a testament to your extraordinary ability to be able to meet them halfway but still remain your own uniquely creative artist.
At any rate, thanks for the early morning humor, I needed that today.
October 1, 2010 at 8:59 am
Long time reader, first time poster. Loved the influence thingy. I just wanted to tell you that I usually don’t like comics (especially syndicated ones. Fuck Garfield.), but I have read like 95% of all of the Calvin and Hobbes strips far more than once. Coincidentally, I’ve read all of your subnormality work and much of the other stuff on this site. Bill Watterson’s a genius, but you’re pretty fucking smart yourself. Keep it up.
October 2, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I feel the exact same way about comics. Calvin & Hobbes is the only reason i do what i do, because it’s the only comic strip that’s really showed the potential of the medium (in the modern era, that is, and one needs recent influences). If it didn’t exist, what evidence would there be that modern comics strips can be an important art form? Scary thought there.
October 1, 2010 at 3:09 pm
On Bill Watterson… Calvin & Hobbes was the best comic of all time. You could do far, far, far worse for influences. Just another reason to love Subnormality!
Great strip too, BTW. I like how neither was a conventional beauty.
October 1, 2010 at 4:28 pm
You’re a good man, Mr Rowntree.
As for the N.Y., I believe there was something going around like a year ago by someone who was trying to pin down the oddly specific variety of fucking horrible that the New Yorker likes.
October 1, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Bisexual demons and discussing metaphysics during foreplay? You, sir, are a god wrapped in mortal visage.
And in regards to the “It gets better” project. Yes, I’ve seen it all over the internet, and yes it still needs to be re-posted. So thanks.
October 1, 2010 at 9:18 pm
I remember on Sept 1 you put a picture of a tintin strip with writing over the top of it.
I’m a tintin fan so I was curious, was that your way of saying he didn’t use the comic visual medium properly or were you on herge’s side because basically Herge used walls of text as well, same way you do
October 1, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Hergé didn’t use walls-o-text. Michel Greg did, he was the master.
Nice to see Demon Girl getting some hugs. Well, was about to before the mood got spoiled. 🙂
That’s another thing I love about this comic. Even the ‘cool’ or ‘powerful’ characters are working-class and go through little human failures and dramas like the rest of us slobs.
Thank you Mr Rowntree for another great comic.
October 2, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Definitely on Herge’s side, the picture in question was just to show that, yeah, look who else was using walls of text (not that i’m in his league at all).
October 1, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I was just wondering about something that bothered me in the comic:
In the fourth last panel the woman says that without Hell you would just cheat the system by doing something so evil that no earthly punishment is big enough.
Then she says in the second last panel that maybe if there was no Heaven or Hell then people would work to make the world better.
Is it just me or is she contradicting herself?
October 2, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Well, i think the assumption presented is that there will always be a group of people who are Bad, and the societal context in which they live determines how much they can get away with. Thus, what she’s saying is that religion works in bad people’s favor, despite what consolation it may offer to non-bad people. I reckon.
October 1, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Awesomeness addenum : gotta love the girl’s vegetarian T-shit. That should be sold.
And thumbs up on Demon’s coat lying in prowl. Is there anything of hers that couldn’t eat a dude’s face off? 🙂
October 2, 2010 at 8:51 am
Doesn’t that kinda make a mutual exclusion? The demon girl’s wearing something that either used to or still is part of a living thing, like a fur or leather. Vegetarians don’t eat meat because they don’t want to hurt animals. I guess if the thing’s still alive and unhurt, it’s OK- vegans go the extra step for not “oppressing” animals.
TBH, I would let the egg hatch anyway. I like fried chicken more than I like eggs.
Sometimes I wonder if Win puts these easter eggs in the comic just to make us scratch our heads and look for odd connections. It’s like reading early Outland comics sometimes.
October 1, 2010 at 10:29 pm
James G,yYou’d probably like the short story by Neil Gaiman, “Other People”. It’s almost exactly what you’re talking about.
October 2, 2010 at 1:31 am
This site is starting to give me a fetish for demon girls, wtf.
October 2, 2010 at 3:28 am
I love the rocket-ship panties. Thanks for another fine piece of work, Mr. Rowntree. I promise I’m going to hit you up for that cup of coffee when I visit wherever it is in Canada you reside.
October 2, 2010 at 9:50 am
Oh, man, how could you cover the demon’s body in the last panel????
October 2, 2010 at 8:34 pm
“Above us only sky”?
😉
October 2, 2010 at 9:33 pm
DOH!! Guess you were right about Hergé. Forgot about the Unicorn’s Treasure (side note : that movie better not suck, Mr Spielberg, my childhood thanks you).
What’s that, my dear mob? You desire more Citadels of Verbosity? Here :
October 3, 2010 at 1:36 am
“Ms. Benes, cartoons are like gossamer, and one doesn’t dissect gossamer.”
October 3, 2010 at 5:57 am
If we knew definitively there was no afterlife, that would crush a lot of people. Besides, anyone who thinks that the world would be better off if there was no afterlife already doesn’t believe in an afterlife, and anyone else who would here that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, there is no afterlife would just be crushed.
Aside from philosophical differences, the usual problems apply here. You bury the art in pointless text when the story doesn’t need it. Most egregiously you keep writing extraneous remarks into your text that, rather than coming across as more engrossing, just kills the momentum, punchline, and humanity of the story. The amount of pointless uses of the words “yeah” and “hey,” not to mention several extraneous “no’s,” sure, people talk like that in real life, but the way a lot of people talk is really fucking ugly to write down and read.
Not to mention that you still put three to four panels worth of text in a single panel, even though the establishing shot that you use for, in example, the second panel, could allow you to just draw your establishing shot, two panel of the human girl in a close up so she can say the next parts of her statement, then the two more close up shot panels of the devil girl saying what she needs to say.
Though, seeing as how every panel except number 5, 9, 11, and 13 is overcrowded, it’s probably just best to cut back.
Believe it or not, I’m a fan of you. Your “Monstrous Discrepancies”, “Tetris”, “Constellations of Trolls”, and “Bosstraviganza” comics all show a man capable of great drawing, great humor, and most important of all, restraint.
Think of Bill Watterson’s best comics, many of them had very few words, less than a paragraphs worth, and at times, not any at all, but they spoke a hell of a lot more than that because of the drawings power, and the drawings and words mixing together in proper proportions.
If I didn’t think you could be great, I wouldn’t even bother to try and help you. I’d be editing your dramatic comments in hilarious ways, and unleashing Zalgo on the unsuspecting masses. I think you have the potential to be a great cartoonist, but you’ve become content with your own flaws. That’s not the sign of a great anything, that’s the sign of someone who’s resigned themselves rather than take action and make things better. So do something, and show that you can be great.
October 3, 2010 at 8:59 am
I disagree. Yes, there’s a place in art where pictures speak louder than words, but I don’t think it’s here. Winston’s stuff like Monstrous Discrepancies is simple and doesn’t need many words because of the simplicity of its concept. It’s just comparing things. On the other hand, this comic needs the dialogue to address the issue in depth. I can’t imagine any way of getting across the same depth of discussion that WR does with a fewer number of words. It makes the characters more believable.
October 3, 2010 at 3:43 pm
The word count isn’t the biggest problem, it’s how cluttered everything is. He could have the same number of words, but there aren’t enough panels in this comic to spread out the words at a good pace.
Winston has demonstrated a complete disregard for mixing close up panels with establishing panels.
If he wanted this comic to be a good comic rather than an overwritten mess, he would’ve used those close up shots to complete the conversation instead of just putting it all in one panel, the comic would be better. There’s not an argument you can make that would show that by doing the following, the comic wouldn’t improve:
1. Removing all the unnecessary adverbs and adjectives from the comic. This is a rule of writing in general, so I have no idea why it’s being used so poorly here.
2. Clearing up the writing in general. In panel two alone, the human girls speech bubble can be reduced to “I’m curious about that too. I’ve been trying to meet someone for awhile, and every “bisexual” person I contact ends up being a total faker. ‘Oh, uh, I’m just looking for guys right now,’ yeah, I’m sure you are. Sorry for killing the mood.”
2. Take panel one, remove devil girl’s speech bubble, draw it in a separate close up shot of devil girl.
3. Take panel two, keep the first sentence of the human girl’s speech bubble, add two closeups for the human girl, and two for the devil girl, and divide their speeches accordingly.
4. Take panel three, keep the first sentence of the speech bubble, give the human girl two closeups, divide the speech accordingly.
5. Take panel four, keep the first two sentences, give devil girl two closeups, divide her speech accordingly.
6. Panel five almost works, but the human girls text is completely unnecessary, and doesn’t need to be there. So cut it.
7. Take panel six, remove everything but the first sentence, give the devil girl three closeup shots, divide her speech accordingly.
8. Take panel seven, eliminate everything but the human girls first sentence, give the human girl two closeups, and give the devil girl two closeups, and divide accordingly.
9. Take panel eight, eliminate everything but the human girls first sentence, give her three closeups, and divide accordingly.
10. Panel nine is perfect.
11. Take panel ten, eliminate the last sentence, and if you want to keep it, give human girl a closeup shot, and put it there.
12. Panel eleven is fine.
13. Divide panel twelve into two shots, and fit each sentence there.
14. Panel thirteen is fine, except there’s something wrong with the human girls face, so fix it.
There’s no doubt that this would be a much better comic. Just as many words, much better pace and spacing, much less cluttered, and with fewer clunky adverbs and adjectives. Those are the recipes for a good comic, no matter what your philosophy is.
October 3, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Might be just me, but too many close ups ruin the whole setting of a comic for me. While it’s cluttered and perhaps not the best way to present such a wall of speech it does emphasise the physical action carried out during their conversation, while each close up would disrupt the overview of their surrounding.
Some comics extensivly using close ups just ruin their whole atmosphere of being a visual medium through that – And even with these walls the drawings clearly show this as a comic and not a couple nice scenery shots with a more or less related conversation between two generic heads.
October 3, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Is wondering if you missed the big banner at the top of the page? 0_o
October 4, 2010 at 12:34 am
As a writer (and a rather punctilious one at that), I can’t help but agree with you that WR’s speech bubble’s are superfluously obese.
HOWEVER, his style of dialogue is some of the most real I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. The fact is that most people don’t speak with the same attention to detail they might use in an academic paper. People, and especially the people WR writes, tend to ramble.
October 4, 2010 at 3:36 am
@YK
Even if you want the reality of the speech, you’d have to admit that the reduction in the size of the speech bubbles by spreading the words out would improve the story.
As for me, reality is fun to live in, but it’s clunky and obtuse to watch. If I had to read a book that has as many unnecessary adverbs, stutters, and adjectives as people typically use, I’d find it sloppy, and in need of a fix. Though that’s obviously my idea, it still doesn’t stop it from being more professional, and easier to digest, particularly when topics such as the afterlife, human diversity, and sex are concerned.
October 5, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Sounds like George = Movie Critic
Time for you to go give creation a try sometime, bucko. Then we can criticize the hell out of it and fillet you to ribbons on your comments page (if you’re brave enough to have one.). Fighting the entropy by the act of creation is a lot harder than Rowntree makes it look.
October 5, 2010 at 12:53 pm
I couldn’t disagree more with you gorge. I understand that comic book fans are stupidly picky and don’t like anything unfamiliar and different (probably including other humans) but must you all make EVERY comic writer follow the same fucking rules?
Imagine EVERY musician played the same genre. Imagine EVERY artist never drew outside the lines.
Its the people like Winston who do it different, and get called out on it, who change minds and the world.
Personally I tend to get lost in the comics and i forget that I’m reading because of the spoken style. Immersion is always good. Believable characters also very good.
Im gonna take it that you are an award winning writer and/or artist seeing that you wrote so much and in extreme detail about how to improve this comic, but art is subjective, and maybe others prefer his style (like me for instance). Im not a straight forward dude, and neither are these comics. I
Im a musician, so I understand the value of constructive criticism but you can’t just say ‘i don’t like it this way, do it the proper way’. I hate lady gaga but i aint trying to tell her to cut the shit. I mean, when a comic can’t escape the strict anal-ness of an english class.. what can? what kind of world has this become?!?!
Anyways, you pointed out articles where he does it your preferred way so i don’t see what the problem is. You got yours and i got mine. u know?
October 5, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Thomas Jefferson said, “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
On the other hand, Subnormality is the product of a willingness to sacrifice concise wit to portray imperfect people in an immensely imperfect world. Could that be done in a more elegant manner? Perhaps.
Do I think the comic should change? Not necessarily. I love it as is, in spite of (and sometimes because of) the wordiness. Unfortunately, I feel that Subnormality is likely to remain a very niche comic… for good or bad. I’ve seen a lot of talented artists burn out due to lack of recognition (in spite of hard work), and I certainly don’t want that happening here. (But then, it’s far from certain that such is craved.)
Anyhow. Speculation aside, the only actual complaint I have is that sometimes Rowntree tends to Marvel. Remember those comics where, in the middle of a pitched battle where every second counts, the combatants would do long speeches? From time to time, I see that happen in Subnormality. Sometimes I do wonder why a given character would wait for the other to finish his/her tirade before reacting. Often it makes sense, but not always.
@otropod: Comics straddle two mediums, and it’s natural that both fields are the subject of criticism. It’s the same way a video, or music video, needs to excel in both visuals and audio.
October 6, 2010 at 1:31 pm
A few points.
1. This is his style. It may change, but it will be at his discretion and his pace, not yours, a single fan. You’re welcome to suggest ways that you think he could improve, but your high-and-mighty tone isn’t needed here.
2. He makes the comic for himself, not you. If mainstream commercial success is a measure of true achievement, then perhaps you can shout “I told you so!!” when he doesn’t show up in your daily paper, but far stranger things have found an audience, so I think Winston will do just fine.
3. Winston is not Bill Watterson. Bill Watterson excelled at what he did. According to some of us, Winston excels in his niche as well. I look forward to every comic and have no complaints.
Stop yelling high-handed abuse at the man in the arena and let him get on with his work.
October 6, 2010 at 5:10 pm
George…..uh, how about you make that comic and it’ll be perfect and genius (much like yourself) and we’ll just watch Winston draw and write however the fuck he may do because, oh, its his fucking comic, mkay? Thanks.
October 16, 2010 at 12:34 am
Jeremy,
There is a difference between criticism and creation. We don’t discount movie reviewers who have never made a movie, or ignore literary critics who have never been bestselling authors. Similarly, to demand that George make a comic before you take his critique seriously is unfair.
I like Subnormality just the way it is, but George’s point is valid.
October 3, 2010 at 5:39 pm
the face in panels 2 and 4 shall haunt my dreams
and that apartment is far too messy I think we all know the REAL reason she lost the mood
October 5, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Nah. It’s messy, but it’s not a sty. There is a cup and a glass out, a couple of books (and an empty ashtray) on one table, and she doesn’t make her bed.
The devil girl doesn’t seem to be much better, considering she threw her coat and boots on her living room floor.
October 3, 2010 at 6:14 pm
This has been a hell of a week. Humanoid girls everywhere. Personally I prefer the Sinfest-type ones -even though tailed- before this green one. At least they are to the right of uncanny valley.
Clangoo, to the left.
*Sigh*
October 3, 2010 at 10:35 pm
huge analyses! more bothersome than huge walls of text!
this is sexxxy. I love the legs.
October 4, 2010 at 12:53 am
Incidentally, WR, I just noticed the rocket underpants. Nice.
October 4, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I really enjoyed the comic, but I was so disappointed that Demon Girl and her fake-bi-fatigued date didn’t wind up getting any lovin’. Demon Girl is hot, and I loved how her tail was participating – taking the shirt, pulling her date in closer.
Also, I loooved the first one of your attempted sellout cartoons. May I suggest sending the first cartoon to Analog or Asimov’s? I remember them printing the occasional cartoon, although they certainly won’t pay sellout-sized money, and I think their readers would enjoy your first cartoon as much as I did.
BTW, your attempted-sellout style reminds me a little bit of Gahan Wilson’s single-panel cartoons, which sometimes appeared in the New Yorker – playing, no doubt, an understated but vital role as the only good cartoons in that issue.
October 4, 2010 at 6:55 pm
lol @ people trying to make their complaints about “too much text” eloquent.
October 5, 2010 at 3:49 am
BAH! Forget the New Yawker. Their concept of humor is my concept of finger banging a dead cat. And their concept of finger banging a dead cat is also their concept for humor. So, I guess their concept of humor is finger banging a dead cat. Yeah. Forget the New Yawker. bah
October 6, 2010 at 1:14 pm
It’s always interesting to see people sort of ‘learnedly’ fighting about comics in your comments…every community gains an orthodoxy, although they never think of themselves that way, of course, and people want to be seen as an expert in something, even if it’s something so widely valued as little drawings…
October 6, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I’ve never understood why people think the New Yawker is the be-all end-all of comic genius.
I guess they’re either not funny ever or I’m simply not smart enough to understand their concept of humour.
As for the girl, oh jeez, I suppose she’s very human. Very unusual to see an unattractive person in a comic or a movie just because the author can. You really went out of your way to make her unattractive, so I absolutely applaud your attention to her detail. The stubbly legs, the underwear, the expressions, the face in general, the hair style and condition….such an impressive observational eye you have.
Her semi-messy regular human apartment is top notch, and the entire way up to the apartment is very, very nice.
Also: Devil Girl’s coat is quite genius.
October 6, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Also, a successful comics artist friend of mine does NY’er submissions too and even the ones they take are never fucking funny and they ALLLLL LOOOK THE SAAAAAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEEE.
Your NY’er submissions made me giggle, little worlds onto themselves, and I think they would make a refreshing approach to the usual unfunny drivel.
October 6, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Too much critiquing. Boo. Create your own then.
I like the 13 and 6 in the comic. Nice touches.
October 7, 2010 at 4:17 am
Yeah, so yo Winston – I just wanna say – because I know there are people who complain about the walls of text.. the spacing of the words…the FORMAT…and all the improvements-you-are-missing-out-on-if-you’d-just-take-their-advice etc etc etc. Not just here but on cracked too, I’ve seen a few people with those comments.
I just wanna say – I LIKE the text and the format. When I check back at your site for a new comic and I find a new one I am HAPPY and I CLEAR MY SCHEDULE for the next ten minutes, light up a CIGARETTE, and DIGEST the whole dam thing. When your text is spot on, and I don’t know when this is but I just know when I’m really digging it, I find myself going back months later and RE-READING some them. Like a good excerpt from a book I like you know? I also like to really look over each panel because I know you put a lot of details in the artwork and they are INTERESTING details.
Just wanted to say that. And to all the people complaining about the format and what-not, that’s how I read the comics and that’s how I get a lot of pleasure out of them. Maybe TRY IT OUT?
BEST,
j
October 7, 2010 at 12:19 pm
I didn’t love this as much as I usually do. It was pretty good but the dialogue didn’t feel very realistic. It just didn’t seem like the sort of thing people talk about during foreplay. Also, there wasn’t really much of a punchline, which isn’t usually something I object to in Subnormality, but only because the plot or dialogue or ideas portrayed (or all of the above, as is usually the case)are usually brilliant. This just felt a little rushed.
October 10, 2010 at 11:08 pm
I’m really enjoying the comic, it’s original! I got onto it via cracked.com and there’s some really fun concepts and hilarious punch lines or often… punch paragraphs! And I’m not a super fast reader kinda feels like I have to work for it! 😛 and that makes it all the more worth it. Nice work. I’m looking forward to reading it properly beginning to end soon.
On a more strange note, there have been two comics now that I have read that feature that green devil girl, and she really turns me on. There is something so alluring about her, I would love to see more of her.
Oh and the more text the merrier! never too much 😀
October 11, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Jeff…..hear hear.
October 12, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Seconded. Motion carried.
October 11, 2010 at 2:39 pm
I stumbled onto your site a few months ago and now I am a committed reader. I like the concept that there is bureaucracy in hell. Of course there is! They invented it.
As to the New Yorker cartoons, I especially liked the “Maginot Line” one – surreality in the commonplace. (“Not Working,” fnarr, fnarr) Reminds me somewhat of Gahan Wilson. The cartoons are funny, but the line quality is wrong for the N.Y. Their style is (generally) either simpler and more distorted, like Thurber, or sketchier and more artsy. Go more unrealistic or more realistic and you might get a hit.
Meanwhile, continue to dominate online.
October 16, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Kind’ave a longer way to give the argument against belief in divine morality from us nonbelievers, secular humanism for the win!
November 3, 2010 at 5:24 pm
You clearly are artistically talented, but your messages are often pretentious and usually pedantic and lack true humor.
I guess these might be interesting to someone who has led a very sheltered life attending an Introduction to Psychology class.
Let someone else come up with the ideas and wording, you do the art.
November 24, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Wee bit transparent, there.
July 11, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Who says trolls are unevolved? For a nanosecond there you were almost clever. Almost.
February 21, 2011 at 3:44 pm
I agree with just about everything you say James above but I do disagree about the female human in the story. I find her not only attractive but lovely.
June 18, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Man I just found this site, your work is absolutely beautiful and completely unique.
Keep doing what your doing
Alex
November 22, 2011 at 5:19 pm
These cartoons are powerful and thought provoking. Thanks for being there
October 12, 2012 at 2:29 am
Aw, man, I kind of wanted her to go on about attention seekers pretending to be bi, when they really aren’t. lol XD
October 10, 2013 at 1:38 pm
Great Comics 🙂 Thanks