Everyone needs to start out somewhere, and that includes the amazing cartoonists David Willis. While I haven't been a big fan of him for long his work has really effected me, so Monday thru Friday I will be talking about every one of David Willis works. Starting off today is Willis first comic he made back in College for his school paper. I give you Roomies.
Roomies is the story of the college student Danny as he and his best friend from high school now roommate Joe go through the "wonders" of college life. To put it simply Roomies it not very good. The art work is so bad that at times I can't really tell what I'm looking at. The humor mostly in the same bag of bad with only a few genuinely funny strips in this comedic series. Even Willis thinks this is bad. Now you know me I love me some characters, and Willis likes to carry over characters from comic to comic. With that in mind I feel these posts should be more character analyses then anything else so that is really what the rest of this post will be. And for those of you who have read the works of Willis I will be only not be talking about any backstory or retcons that happened after the original Roomies run. I will talk about those when they some up, but not today.
Danny Wilcox
Danny is the main character. Danny starts out happy and full of life. He then becomes a spiral of misery and angst. Gets a little better. Then everything is rapped up in a nice bow at the end for him. Danny is a very boring character who is supposed to be an every-man, but comes of as having no real characteristics. He tends to just reflect his surroundings. He always does and says the right things(the right things to the eyes of the college student writing him). He is honestly just a boring character. The most interesting thing he does involves a major death he accidentally caused, and having to deal with the consensuses of it.This is where some of his indecisiveness comes in. He wants to please everyone, so when something genuinely challenging does up from that he doesn't really no how to respond.
Joe Rosenthal
Joe and Danny have been best friends for years and now that he's in college he's now roomies with Danny. Joe has one thing on his mind and that is women. He adores them and will do a lot of stuff to get in their pants. Joe can be unlikable from time to time, but what he really needs is some guidance. He doesn't know what to do with his life. At the beginning he's just a womanizing closet nerd who is happy where he is, but when he does get some much needed guidance(actually getting a major) he becomes more compassionate. As a side plot he has been kidnapped by aliens, but that probably won't be important.
Joyce Brown
Joyce met Danny in class one day, and on that day she decided that Danny was her soulmate and the would be married soon. Joyce is hyper and pron to mood swings. She has it big for Danny, but the feeling are not mutual. She doesn't really understand that last part. Joyce also is very pure being 18 and never really learning about the adult world. She and Joe also hate each other to no end. Like Joe, Joyce was kiddnapped by aliens, but unlike Joe this proteins more to the story. She ends up getting her mid completly erased half way through Roomies. After that she was taken to the government agency SEMME to be retaught and turned into a weapon to fight aliens.
Sal Walters
Sal was Danny's girlfriends in highschool. She had to move, but she had to leave so she broke up with him. On the outside Sal seems really bubbly and impulsive. In actuality she is full of angst running away from home instead of moving like she told Danny. She is also being hunted by the aliens. She ends up being rescued by and joining SEMME.
Ruth Lesse
Ruth is the older sister of Howard(who I'll talk about after this). She has had a hard life and is now living off campus, but don't actually go to college. She is very world wise being the one to give Joe his idea for a major. She is also very pessimistic. Her influence is what puts Danny on the angst train, and actually got him to start drinking. Which then cause him to start drunk driving. Which in turn cause Ruth to go after his. Which followed by his about to be hit by a truck. Which made Ruth dame her car into his pushing him out of the way of they truck, but she didn't get out of the way. And that is how Ruth died.
Howard Lesse
Howard was introduced as a freshman that Danny meets his sophomore year. He's nerd and loves Star Trek. He's very week, but somehow remains in high spirits. That is until his older sister dies. He understandably blames Danny for her death and refused to even talk to Danny for long time. But over time he makes amend es with him, and gets back to his old Star Trek loving self.
Jennifer "Billie" Billingworth
Billie was ho stuff back in highschool, but now she's not thanks to alcohol. She was one of Ruth's roommates and was introduced around her death. Billie and Danny really didn't care for each other at first, but over time the end up together at the end. Billie is full of pride for herself. She is also fairly dominating which works well with Danny's more passive nature.
That's all of the people I care to talk about. Yes I could have talked about Sarah or Alex, but it's late and I have work in the morning. Once again this comic is bad, but if you still want to read it you can find it here.
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