(Note: I’ve saved the image for the middle of the review rather than the beginning.)
This request comes from testobject at Extra Curricular.
Title: Subnormality
Author: Winston Rowntree
Start Date: 2007
Genre: Comedy
Update Schedule: Whenever
Website: http://www.viruscomix.com/subnormality.html
Synopsis:
Subnormality is a gag-a-day strip, so it doesn’t really have any plot. It does, however, have a few central characters, a setting, and a running gag that makes the strip rather infamous.
The comic (mostly) takes place in a quirky metropolitan city where occasional fantasy and science fiction elements occur in it.
The two central characters are the Sphinx from the Oedipus mythology (although in this comic, her name is spelled “Sphynx”) and an unnamed girl with pink hair who tries desperately to make it through her miserable life under terrible working conditions and substandard wages–the closest thing this comic has to anything resembling a plot.
Other recurring characters include two neo-Nazis who travel through time, a woman named Justine (the author never states it; you had to actually READ THE FILENAME just to find out) whose interests in male activities disrupts the laws of physics and reality, a female demon from Hell who’s VERY interested in humans (if you know what I mean ;)), and many, many others who would probably make this post last way longer than it should be.
The running gag I mentioned above would be better explained in the strengths and weaknesses.
Recommended Age Group: 15 and up. There’s a LOT of swearing in this strip.
Strengths:
I think I’ll let the below image demonstrate what makes this strip so infamous.
The running gag is that you’d have to read walls of text in every strip. The above image provided is actually one of the SHORTEST strips in the entire archive. (You’re welcome.)
Rowntree is actually a pretty smart writer. He can manage to write extensive amounts of dialogue in each strip, then bring in an amusing punchline at the end of the strip that ties everything together. The style of humor is like watching a standup comedian or listening to someone have their own creative variation on “The Aristocrats” (sans the gruesome descriptions). The payoff is well worth the wait.
Weaknesses:
Obviously, the comic’s main feature is also its own downfall. The strip still has yet to reach 200 strips (there are only 193 as of this writing), and it’s mentally torturous to try to read through the whole archive in one sitting. To put this into perspective, 200 strips is typically a very quick read for a webcomic–you might breeze through it in an hour or two. In Subnormality‘s case, you might need more than a day just to get through this tiny archive. It takes several minutes just to read one strip alone.
Verdict:
I give this comic a halfhearted recommendation. You’ll either consider it one of the most brilliant endurance tests ever created, or toss it aside and forget it. If you plan to read through the whole thing, I’d recommend reading it with friends or playing a game to relieve the stress of going it alone. Have a stopwatch ready and see who can read the longest strips in the shortest amount of time, or see how many strips you can read in a set amount of time. Have fun!