Two Guys and Guy

American comic books are dominated by superhero fiction. I believe this stems from a combination of a lot of popular genres back in early comic namely westerns, science fiction, and mystery. Webcomics followed a different path. I may talk more about this when I get to Roomies later this month(I haven't decided yet), but for now I'll just say webcomics have more of an inspiration from comic strips found in newspapers. This means their is more of a focus on comedy then drama, and updates tend to be smaller (Comic books tend to have about 21 pages. When a webcomic updates it ranges from a panel to a page). Their maybe better examples of this but 'Two Guys and Guy' fits the description perfectly.

'Two Guys and Guy' is a webcomic that fallows the life of the lazy pathetic man Wayne, the emotionally detached mad scientist Frank, and the sarcastic pain seeking(for others) Guy. These unlikely group of friends don't actually go through any really development or change. This is very much a status quo comic that focuses on character inaction and situation humor. This works well given that the character work off each other really well. 

Something this webcomic does that I love is that it limits itself. The comic is always three panels long. No more no less. I've always loved this idea because when limits are imposed the greatest creativity spring out from it. It also makes the structure of the joke very fast past with each panel serving a purpose to the joke. Panel 1 is the establishment of the situation that the characters are in. Panel 2 is the build up to the climax of the scene. And Panel 3 is the punchline where everything comes together. 

This structure does have its problems. At times the comic can feel really thick and wordy. Their is just to much text on the screen and when it's only in three panels it can look really slow, and it can be hard to get to. 

It's not that it can't be funny; it's that it feels like it's just to much of the first and second panel that a read may just want to skim over it. The good news is that the cartoonist Rickard Jonasson(only just realized I've never said his name) does this very rarely. The example I showed isn't even that bad. It was just the best I could find without going through every one of the comics again, so good on Jonasson. 

I'll talk more about artwork with future posts mainly because their isn't much to relate it to for this comic. Their isn't really anything overly interesting or bad about it. Their is no great shift in the art style save for the gradual change in character models. Jonasson is simply a good artist who knows how to draw a clear and colorful image. 

If I could give this one large complete it is that the website has no random button. This doesn't effect the quality of the comic, but with this being a gag-a-day comic a random button would make traveling through the back logs a lot easier if someone just wants a laugh. 

Over all Two Guys and Guy is a fun read with a really interesting structure. If you are interested in reading the comic you can click here or if you want to start at the beginning click here. Either is fine, but a few of the strips do make call backs to older strips so for that reason you may want to start at the beginning, but it really doesn't matter. 

That's it for today. See you tomorrow when I'll talk about another webcomic. Which? I have not pick yet.