A thing I love
I have no idea what reputation Winston Rowntree has on the larger internet, but I’ve been reading Subnormality for years and years. And I just want to gush about how much I love them. They all have just an unreasonable amount of reading to them, few of the characters are even named, the plots basically boil down to “shit happens to people who probably don’t deserve it but think they do,” unless it’s a stunningly concise and interesting short story that happens in one comic that still takes a goddamn eon to load because he’s the only one who took Scott McCloud’s “infinite canvas” thing seriously.
*gasp*
My very favorite one is titled “Subnormality Tells The Truth”
It incorporates most of the main characters from the comics while still being fairly legible to people who haven’t followed them through their arcs and growth. It has at least four “Fuck yeah!” moments, at least three “...oh fuck” moments, and a dozen or so “awwww!” moments. I have at least three panels specifically clipped on my phone to look at sometimes. It’s just great.
Thing is, I doubt anyone else will read this, because I have wacky taste. It’s so good, and I highly advocate for people to go back to the beginning and read the whole comic (there’s like 230 which is real small for a comic that’s been going on so long), but I also know that some of those strips can take like a half hour to read at least. Hell the one I mentioned probably takes about an hour. And not everyone is down for confessional/slice of life/bizarre humor.
So you should also check out People Watching which is an animated series he did with Cracked right before they went under that incorporates a different set of characters but has background references to the comic and has a very similar “way too personal confessions along with a dose of social commentary” tone to it. I adore every episode.
Anyway, these things are real special to me, and I just wanted to talk about them for a second, thanks for tuning in.
