« Bottom Ad Buttons, Take #2 | Main | Also, that's a kickass rucksack she's got on her back. »
Eric: Also, she has an invisible blimp! An *invisible* *blimp.*
(From The Non-Adventures of Wonderella! Click on the thumbnail for full sized girl who can jump HELLA high!)
Are you following Wonderella? Are you? Punk?
If not, I envy you, because you get to go back to the first strip and read forward to the end -- which at this point is only like thirty strips, so it won't take you long. You get to learn what happens in the down times of Dana Price. You get to meet Hitlerella and Wonderita and the Golden Age Wonderella and the stifling and confining nature of Arson Night.
Justin Pierce has, in relatively short order, created one of the best things to hit webcomics in a while. Wonderella is unremittingly hilarious, invoking the absurd underside of comic books (especially but hardly limited to Wonder Woman) with exactly the right touch of joyousness. And as it's one of the Graphic Smash comics to come in after the advent of Totally Free Graphic Smash comics, it's something you can read beginning to end without impediment.
As for why this is such joy... well, it's a little of everything. The writing is totally awesome. But it's perfectly complemented by its art style. And through everything there's an overall sense of joy (even savage, hideous joy sometimes) coupled with an attention to detail that borders on the psychotic.
Seriously. This is the really good crack. Smoke it well, my friends. Smoke it well.
Posted by Eric Burns at March 8, 2007 7:59 AM
Comments
Comment from: Ford Dent ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.websnark.com/nav-commenters.gif)
posted at March 8, 2007 9:15 AM
I just started smoking this crack a week ago. I am not surprised to see that it has merited your attention, because it is, in fact, delicious crack.
Comment from: LurkerWithout posted at March 8, 2007 9:33 AM
Am I following Wonderella? Ummm. Maybe?
Comment from: madbaker posted at March 8, 2007 10:41 AM
Damn you, Mr. Burns! Damn you to hell!
Because I did *not* need another strip to put in my daily list. And now I have to.
Comment from: Meelar posted at March 8, 2007 10:49 AM
Awesome, thanks for letting me know about this--I'm definitely going to start reading it. But still no Oots snark? Please...I'm MELLLLTTTTINNNNNGG!
Comment from: aaronbourque posted at March 8, 2007 11:16 AM
Yay, you're talking about webcomics again!
Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at March 8, 2007 11:24 AM
As entertained as I am by Wonderella, I can't help but think that stuff like this is partly the reason for events like Captain America's death.
I mean, it's really easy to make fun of Golden Age-style comics. But not everyone can handle that teasing, even if it's made in homage to the source (such as this). So the response is instead of making a hero that could be parodied in such a manner, they create the "gritty" and "dark" comics that seem to dominate Marvel and DC's offerings.
I wonder if there are better parodies of current comic books, we'll start seeing people move a bit more away from things like killing one of the most recognizable comic characters as a ratings ploy.
Comment from: LurkerWithout posted at March 8, 2007 12:15 PM
Wonderella doesn't mock the Golden and Silver Age goofyness, it embraces them. And it has the amazing thing sorely lacking from most attempts to create "realistic" comics. Fun. I look forward to Wonderella every week. Same as I do for every issue of Aaron Williams' ps238. Or daily posts from Chris' Invincible Super-Blog. Stuff that looks at Silver and Golden Age and embraces every goofy, ridiculous, wonderous aspect of it...
Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at March 8, 2007 12:33 PM
Yeah, I know it embraces them. But some people still take that light-hearted, silly kind of tribute to be insulting. Especially the "serious artistes" that want to be taken seriously, who want their work to matter!
You know the kind of artists I'm talking about. The ones that always try to make things more grandiose than perhaps they should. The ones that, if forced to do something lighter, look to undergo Cerberus Syndrome at the first chance they get. The ones that see something like this and declare it anathema, or the reason they refuse to do Golden Age-style comics (because all they do is get mocked).
The tone or purpose behind the tone isn't what pushes creators like Joey Q away. It's how they perceive it.
Comment from: Ununnilium posted at March 8, 2007 1:38 PM
I think that's silly. Nobody's going to go from light and silly to dark and gritty because it's harder to make fun of. Especially because it *isn't* harder to make fun of - see, for example, this Wonderella strip: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/justinpie/wonderella/series.php?view=archive&chapter=14478
Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at March 8, 2007 2:21 PM
You know, I think I might make my point clearer if I simplify this conversation a bunch.
I'm saying this kind of comic might drive creators away from Golden Age-style comics for reasons X, Y, and Z.
The counter to that is that a creator would have to be a complete moron to do that.
My riposte is that based on the comics being written, we are dealing with complete morons.
I'll agree that with logical, rational, and intelligent people, this would all be moot. But we're not dealing with such people.
Comment from: aaronbourque posted at March 8, 2007 3:28 PM
32, if comic book geeks can't take a joke about what they love so much, then they need to read them some fandom_wank.
And also? Get over themselves.
Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at March 8, 2007 3:39 PM
Eliminate the conditionals in that sentence, Aaron, and you've got my complete agreement.
Comment from: Egarwaen posted at March 8, 2007 4:46 PM
I think this may be the funniest thing I've read in a while.
Mostly because I've read bits and pieces of Golden Age Wonder Woman, so I get about half the jokes.
Comment from: HydrogenGuy posted at March 8, 2007 5:45 PM
Wonderella is hellaciously awesome. Thank you, Eric. Thank you for mentioning it.
You know the kind of artists I'm talking about. The ones that always try to make things more grandiose than perhaps they should. The ones that, if forced to do something lighter, look to undergo Cerberus Syndrome at the first chance they get. The ones that see something like this and declare it anathema, or the reason they refuse to do Golden Age-style comics (because all they do is get mocked).
32, those dudes have their Jimmy Corrigans and Ed the Clowns and whatever if they want to make comics and be gritty and dark and real. The rest of us want to see Batman chucking at car battery at some dude, or Wonderella rocking harder than 500 bears, or Water Behemoths thowing down on the Ambassatron.
Which for the moment means we have to look elsewhere than post-Civil War, Mr. Quesidilla.
gawd!
Comment from: timdemeter posted at March 8, 2007 5:57 PM
Justin Pierce killed Captain America!
YOU BASTARD!
Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at March 8, 2007 8:16 PM
Hm, I can't get it to load now. Did Websnark overwhelm the server?
Comment from: Alexandra Erin posted at March 8, 2007 9:08 PM
Why yes, I AM a bad enough dude to save the president!
:P
Wonderella has been one of my top picks since it first showed up in my PW ads... the only thing I don't like about is the update schedule. Several times a week I think, "Hey, did I check it this week?" and I go look at it and go, "Oh, yeah. Hee."
I think it's rather superficial to say that Wonderella is mocking golden and silver age goofiness. The goofiness is distinctly modern goofiness, just with a hellaciously transparent top coat of golden age trappings... trappings which are treated rather fondly, if irreverently
The character's look, powers, etc., are clearly modeled after older incarnations of Wonder Woman (doy!), but they aren't the jokes.
It's the juxtaposition of the wholesome hero icons with the Generation Z++ slacker that is the source of the humor here. Anybody might get a sort-of-chuckle out of the line "playing a little Hello Kitty the home game", but real humor depends (according to one definition) upon a conflict between expectations and reality... you have to appreciate the golden age stuff to have the right mindset for that strip to strike you as hilarious.
In the final analysis, linking this sort of humor to the darkening trend of comics and the jettisoning of older characters and values is kind of like the episode of The Simpsons, where the Navy canceled its successful boy band/brainwashing scheme because MAD Magazine had a parody planned: "When this hits the stands, we're finished!"
The fact that there's an audience to "get" the parody shows the relevance and appeal of the thing being parodied. If there were more parodies of the dark 'n' gritty style, that would do nothing but prove that there's still a wide enough market for that style...
Comment from: Nate posted at March 8, 2007 9:28 PM
I think some of Wonderella's internal monologues are inspired by Justin's own. I don't know which ones though.
Comment from: Joshua Macy posted at March 9, 2007 12:21 AM
I'm pretty sure that complete morons won't write good comics no matter what the likes of Justin Pierce write, but just in case maybe he could put a disclaimer on the site: "Do not read these if you are a complete moron and work for Marvel or DC. K, Thx!"
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)