Wumo
| Wulffmorgenthaler | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Mikael Wulff Anders Morgenthaler |
| Website | http://www.wulffmorgenthaler.com |
| Current status/schedule | Daily |
Wulffmorgenthaler is a webcomic created by Danish writer/artist duo Mikael Wulff and Anders Morgenthaler. The name of the comic is a kind of portmanteau created from the pair's surnames. The website claims that Wulffmorgenthaler is a daily publication, although new comics are, at times, far and few between.
History & creators
Wulffmorgenthaler got its start on the "design portal" k10k.net, and then quickly moved to its own website after garnering extensive positive attention and a great fan following. The comic has upwards of 600 strips to date, and the website receives more than 10,000 visitors a day.
Mikael Wulff (b. 1972) is a comedian and writer. He performs live comedy and does television work in Scandinavia.
Anders Morgenthaler (b. 1972) is an illustrator, graphic designer and director of animation who also does live action filmmaking. He has completed several short films and music videos, and runs an animation production company called TV-animation, which is located in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Style & content
The comic has a very distinct style, featuring shaky line drawings and coloring that appears to be computer-generated. Each installment is delivered a single frame, avoiding the more traditional format of boxed divisions to signify progress or movement in time. The characters and situations vary from strip to strip, but there are several recurring characters, such as the Toucan Kid (a grotesque hybrid of man and 28% toucan) and the so-called Fucked-up Crazy-Ass Weirdo Beaver (a seemingly innocent creature who consistently pulls off unimaginably weird feats). Also of note are the characters Dick Bird (a greasy-haired entrepreneur whose product-for-sale changes from strip to strip) and Werner (the hapless yet happy antihero). Recurring characters in Wulffmorgenthaler tend to be more of a running joke than a legitimate continuing narrative.
Generally, humans portrayed in the comic wear no clothes: according to the comic's website, Morgenthaler "was fed up with the tiresome meticulousness of drawing clothes on people so he just stopped doing it." Sometimes, when the situation calls for a specific outfit to denote a specific role, humans will appear clothed.
Content ranges from sideways political statements to complete non-sequitur, and relies on both intelligent humor and bathroom humor, as well as an abundance of blood, sexual references and grotesque imagery, to get its point across. Reading Wulffmorgenthaler is often an exercise of the imagination, as it has a habit of juxtaposing supremely ordinary characters in supremely unusual situations, or vice versa. "Punchlines" are delivered by way of dialogue or with one-liners written in a caption below the image. Because the comic is drawn in a non-serial format, delivery and timing are especially important (and difficult to maneuver), and as a result most of the humor in Wulffmorgenthaler relies on the quality of the writing itself rather than the element of surprise that usually lends itself to the traditional comic-strip punchline. No subject is taboo in the world of Wulffmorgenthaler, with recent topics including the Pope, illegitimate sex, and the consumption of aborted fetuses for dinner.
Wulffmorgenthaler also released a television series in Denmark, where Wulff, Morgenthaler and their pantomime friends Dolph the facist hippo and Margit the female squirrel introduce various short movies. The only recurring character from the comic is the Toucan Kid.