Subnormality

Last updated
Subnormality
Author(s) Winston Rowntree
Website viruscomix.com
Current status/scheduleUpdating infrequently
Launch date2007 (2007)
Genre(s) Humor, Politics, Satire, Absurd

Subnormality is a satirical and often absurdist webcomic by a cartoonist who uses the pseudonym Winston Rowntree. Rowntree is a former resident of Regina, Saskatchewan who now lives in Toronto, Ontario. The strip appears at Rowntree's own website and occasionally at Cracked, where Rowntree also publishes the related webcomic Abnormality and created the animated web series peopleWatching .

Contents

Style and development

Subnormality makes heavy use of written language; it is frequently verbose, often featuring large portions of text in the form of lengthy monologues and dialogues, narrative boxes, or thought balloons. Occasionally, as in the strip "The Line", it will heavily integrate text within the image and/or consist almost entirely of text. This heavy use of text is acknowledged by the comic's slogan, "Comix with too many words since 2007". [1] [2] When asked in an interview about his use of words, Rowntree said: "In terms of the amount of text in a given comic, I make absolutely no efforts whatsoever to limit that. If what I want to say is 2000 words then that’s how much text is gonna be in there. I would write a book, but I am not a skilled writer or thinker." [3]

In tone and content, strips are occasionally just absurd or parody, and are often comedic; however, some, such as "The Line", are not humorous in tone and even many of the comedic strips often make comments on human nature (often misanthropic or deconstructive in nature) or current politics (often left-leaning).

In an interview with Observer , Rowntree stated that he hopes to keep Subnormality alive for as long as possible. [4]

Characters

The names of the characters are generally left unspecified, and there are a large number of them, varying unpredictably. These are some of the recurring characters:

Reception

In 2013, Subnormality was nominated for a Slate Magazine "Cartoonist Studio Prize" in the webcomics category, [9] and won the same category in 2015 for a page titled "Watching". [10] Tris McCall of Inside Jersey listed Subnormality among the "best webcomics" of 2013, praising its large scale despite its imperfect visual quality. [11]

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References

  1. Jeremy Nisen (March 7, 2011). "Webcomics Spotlight: Winston Rowntree of Subnormality". Under the Radar .
  2. "Subnormality–The Webcomic That Demands Your Reading". Pro Hack. November 2011.
  3. "Curious Joe recommends… Subnormality". Curious Joe. April 22, 2011.
  4. Dale, Bradly (November 15, 2015). "The Webcomics Business Is Moving on From Webcomics". Observer .
  5. "Subnormality".
  6. "Subnormality".
  7. "Subnormality".
  8. "Subnormality".
  9. The Cartoonist Studio Prize: The Shortlists, Slate, February 1, 2013
  10. "The Winners of the Cartoonist Studio Prize". Slate. April 10, 2015. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved October 20, 2019.
  11. McCall, Tris (December 15, 2013). "The best webcomics of 2013". Inside Jersey.