Animal Shave Problem Stoo

I've discovered a new webcomic that I intend to frequent: Animals Have Problems Too. I stumbled across the comic when asked to do a comparison of it and some other thing I didn't think was funny. (How did I get to the comparison site? From Evil Inc.)

This webcomic is my kind of humour. I like it. A lot. Animals Have Problems Too is slightly absurb, very dry, and frequently intelligent. Very few comics (web or otherwise) make me want to laugh out loud. Of the 150+ pieces I've viewed from this comic, I actually did laugh out loud (or otherwise reacted very strongly in a favourable manner) to a bunch of 'em. I even went so far as to forward a link to one of the comics to a friend -- and I never do that. I started at the most recent, went back a few, and by the time I'd viewed a handful, I wanted to read them all.

So, I went back to the beginning of the archive, and checked out the first 150. Admittedly, I was underwhelmed by the earliest few -- but what can you expect, the creator was just starting out. The comic picked up pretty quickly though, when Zach hit his groove, and never really disappointed me after that.

The art is deliberately mediocre, hand-drawn and scanned, and the lettering is deliberately atrocious. The experience, however, is distinctly positive, and the tooltips for the images when you hover over them are filled with extra Easter-eggy context. (Like this one.)

Interestingly, while in the early set, there is very little in the way of political cartoons (this one being a notable exception), the new stuff I sampled had large doses of politically motivated sarcasm. I'll be curious to see, as I peruse the rest of the archives, where in the comic's evolution the political overtones started to come out.

Out of the first 150, here are some of the standouts:

• Rageaholic Dove -- The contrast in this one is astounding.


• T-Rex Only Marginally Liked By His Friends -- Excellent pop-culture reference


• Chameleon That Can't Get A Date -- Geekiest-lookin' lizard I've ever seen.


• Quantity Is The New Quality (With Sheep) -- A flock-load of jokes, including one that made me laugh out loud. (See if you can find it. It's like Where's Waldo, with undefinable parameters. And Waldo's not in it. Oh, wait. That's a parameter, kinda.)


• Goldfish With Long Term Memory -- Sarcastic ennui


• Dodo Bird That Hates Cliffhangers -- And look at that! There's even one that's related to my last post!

And finally: an incredibly sage observation.

(I wonder if it applies to me....)

Hg