Friday, February 04, 2005

I don't remember the first time I spotted the dinosaur comics at Qwantz.com, but, being the discerning comic-reader that I am, I dismissed it the first time because I didn't like the art-work. If you flip through the comics, you'll see that all of them employ the same six frames, only with different dialogues. An interesting concept, but one which would be short-lived if the material wasn't good. But, as it turns out, the material is downright brilliant. A little while ago, I came across the site again, and actually found myself laughing out loud at one of the strips. Of all the webcomics that I read (which aren't a lot), this is the first time in a long time that I've actually laughed at something - I've smirked, chuckled and groaned before at some of the humour, but the style here is quite different and very, very funny. It's easily funnier than any comic I've seen printed in the papers, and for that matter, most web-comics I've heard rave reviews about. For instance, look at this one (I want to print out and hang the last frame on my wall, seriously):




or even the "talking Devil" bits like this:



and this, where again the last frame deserves to be a poster on my wall:



Funnier than the entire archives of some other popular webcomics (no name-dropping, I'm going to give some of them a second chance!).

Ah, I've noticed that the images I've posted are far too small for you to be able to read the comics, gentle reader. I guess you'll just have to follow the link and read them on the main site!

7 comments:

Jenny said...

teehee, the devil sounds quite friendly and innocent. couldn't t-rex eat him if he wanted to?

are web comics very popular? I remember reading some that feng directed me to but they usually seemed to be parodies of real shows and so forth. are they like blogs (written by peoples out there somewhere for the sake of being written)?

oh dear gods I smell so much like cat droppings, I'd better stop typing lest the smell transport itself through my keyboard into the computer, through my modem and onto your blog, and thus out into the world wide web of those who read it o.o!

*smellyly runs away*

AKM said...

Web-comics are fairly popular, there seems to be a whole web-comic subculture as a matter of fact. I haven't found too many that are of good quality - even the ones which everyone praises to the sky are able to elicit, at best, a chuckle. Qwantz is a rare exception, for there seem to be endless supplies of strips I can nominate as being just too funny. For instance, this, and this are nothing short of side-splitting.

I don't know what you mean when you ask if they are written "for the sake of being written", there definitely are many comics that are just parodies (e.g. I remember a parody of RPG games, in particular FF7 that I used to read), but there are some which are just like real comics you'd find in the newspaper, updated almost daily. I guess they are something like blogs, quite a few of them have little notes from the author everytime there's an update.

I take it you've got a kitten!? :o

Jenny said...

Qwantz is a rare exception, for there seem to be endless supplies of strips I can nominate as being just too funny. For instance, this, and this are nothing short of side-splitting.

heh, I really like the first one, but that might be because I think the ideals which started feminism have been lost amongst some sort of stupid power struggle. it sure is cool how each comic has the same frames; I'd be scared to take up a challenge like that! (I'm just not funny. *pie hits jenny* <-- demonstration of notfunnyness)

there definitely are many comics that are just parodies (e.g. I remember a parody of RPG games, in particular FF7 that I used to read), but there are some which are just like real comics you'd find in the newspaper, updated almost daily.

o.o! it's a whole medium that I feel I know almost nothing about T__T in high school my english teacher showed our class some comics and they were so so so ..*cough* 'poetic'.. o.O or maybe everything is to me.. *cackles*

I take it you've got a kitten!? :o

and WHAT a kitten! :D I caught him trying to jump onto the kitchen counter (we have a fish on a plate there next to a chopping board) and rushed over so the fish would be safe and it turned out he had wanted to lick the chopping board T__T

[/pointless kitten story]

Jenny said...

Qwantz is a rare exception, for there seem to be endless supplies of strips I can nominate as being just too funny. For instance, this, and this are nothing short of side-splitting.

heh, I really like the first one, but that might be because I think the ideals which started feminism have been lost amongst some sort of stupid power struggle. it sure is cool how each comic has the same frames; I'd be scared to take up a challenge like that! (I'm just not funny. *pie hits jenny* <-- demonstration of notfunnyness)

there definitely are many comics that are just parodies (e.g. I remember a parody of RPG games, in particular FF7 that I used to read), but there are some which are just like real comics you'd find in the newspaper, updated almost daily.

o.o! it's a whole medium that I feel I know almost nothing about T__T in high school my english teacher showed our class some comics and they were so so so ..*cough* 'poetic'.. o.O or maybe everything is to me.. *cackles*

I take it you've got a kitten!? :o

and WHAT a kitten! :D I caught him trying to jump onto the kitchen counter (we have a fish on a plate there next to a chopping board) and rushed over so the fish would be safe and it turned out he had wanted to lick the chopping board T__T

[/pointless kitten story]

Jenny said...

T__T I'm so impatient *points to repeated thingo* *toddles off to cook a 4 hour soup in the microwave*

AKM said...

"o.o! it's a whole medium that I feel I know almost nothing about T__T"

It would be worth asking first whether or not that is a great loss :) From my limited exposure to web-comics, I think there is a lot of junk, but there is also a fair bit of interesting stuff that really makes a case for the medium to be considered artistic. By which I mean the story is very serious, the drawings themselves are instantly recognizable and have a very unique feel, etc. However, I've never really taken a shining to any of these comics. In fact, I usually find the silly ones the easiest to digest, so I end up reading them instead.

"they were so so so ..*cough* 'poetic'.. o.O or maybe everything is to me.. *cackles*"

Most things are poetic to me, so you're not alone in that regard!

Jenny said...

whoa this commenting page has changed! *pause*

teehee, there's no question that it would be a great loss not to know much about such a cool medium; it's enough to cause one to exclaim so ^o^ I remember being fascinated by the attention to detail cartoonists can place into their comments just by drawing X to the left of Y or some sort of symbolic object/background etc to add really really cool subtle shades of meaning to ..*pause*

why did everyone fall asleep? *sigh* *shrug* whee!

o.o I'm still oggling at this comment page..