Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: poison mushroom edition
by Ross Miller 
{ Mar 3rd 2007 at 4:20PM }
Last week we got a little bit bloated and decided to sign up for a crash diet. We now welcome you to the smaller, most lightweight webcomic wrapup!For those who did not make the wrapup today, especially the avid supporters who are continuously letting us know of their comic updates, know that we still love you as we love all of our children, but that this week we wanted to go from one extreme to the other in search of that happy medium. It's nothing personal and you don't look fat in that dress.
Here are our picks, however few, for the week's best webcomic, be sure to vote for your favorite!
* Note: followers of the wrapup might find this strip familiar to a Fanboys Online strip from some time back. It's not plagiarism, it's just a broad and easy-to-satire subject matter. [Update: Fanboys Online Scott has written a great piece defending VG Cats Scott in the comments below. Also, take note of Level 99's similar joke and VG Cats' own public admittance of the coincidence, as well as an explanation as to why this week's comic replaced the Lost Planet gag.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Aex @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:30PM
Aww, I miss the multiple choice version :(
Aex @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:33PM
BTW, the RPG-TV is kinda funny since it came out just days before the Immersion-Sony news.
Fatass of Kickassness @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:34PM
Amazing, simply amazing. Even when the joke isn't that well executed, even when the same jokes been said multiple times, VGcats still takes the win.
NintendoFanbot @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:38PM
Johnny Turbo shall be enshrined in my Hall of Heroes.
trickfred @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:44PM
Uh... the Fanboys Online strip was referring to actual smoking, while the VGCats strip was using 'smoking' as euphemism for... oh, nevermind.
OhJustSomeRandomGuy @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:47PM
See, this is exactly how it should work.
You've got the big guys battling it out, and then the little guys can bring their A-Game get a shout out. It's like March Madness. Every once in a while, someone plucky upstart pulls out all the stops and wins.
This week, I vote for Slackerz! The Johnny Turbo throwback was excellent AND in a week of slow news, the guys knew enough to not mine something from 2-6 months ago, something we'd be tired of hearing about.
Tim Harding @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:49PM
Slackerz is the only one that really made me laugh. Their comic is consistently funny in its ridiculous execution.
http://www.2pstart.com/
Mr Khan @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:57PM
lol @ Johnny Turbo
Now i know where Sega came up with the idea for "Segata Sanshiro" and where Nintendo got the idea to make "President Reginald Fils-Aime"
meist3r @ Mar 3rd 2007 5:51PM
Is it just me or is the "guest strip" on the F@NB0Y$ page linked to the wrong (main) site? I only get a few blog/news entry about some guy named Paul having a new job. No comic and no stripping either ;)
Ironhide @ Mar 3rd 2007 6:13PM
Oh man I remember those Jonny Turbo comics. They were the worst ad campaigns I've ever seen, and that's including Polygon Man from Sony.
SergeXIII @ Mar 3rd 2007 6:26PM
This week's G'nerds2000 is about Ocarina of Time.
SergeXIII @ Mar 3rd 2007 6:27PM
Forgot the URL: http://gnerds.comicgenesis.com
Poisoned Al @ Mar 3rd 2007 7:29PM
Lets face it, VG Cats has it again, but I liked Extra Life's effort.
Huricos @ Mar 3rd 2007 8:07PM
PA!'s Joy, And Joy Unrelenting is just fucking brilliant. Every text balloon is a punchline and the actual punchline is like an uber-punchline!
chenry @ Mar 3rd 2007 9:37PM
"Procured Spoon" was pretty funny.
quazi @ Mar 3rd 2007 9:43PM
PA was great but i had to give it to vgcats thats just award winning
Marlos Hill @ Mar 3rd 2007 10:04PM
yeah VGCats had me cracking up at work. PA was good tho, very good...almost too real tho. *tear*
Martez @ Mar 3rd 2007 10:18PM
That Johnny Turbo strip is awesome.
Capt. Castellanos @ Mar 3rd 2007 10:46PM
wow!
this is the first time i've been to a joystiq webcomic thing and no ones saying,
"blah blah blah they sucked blah blah blah"
groovy!
its also the first time i've heard someone making fun of wily always begging.
hahaha
good stuff.
Phiroth @ Mar 4th 2007 12:16AM
I liked how Level99 did almost the same joke as Ramsoomair a couple weeks ago and everybody looks at it like Scott stole it from fanboys...
http://www.level99comic.com/comic.php?&offset=1
dxprog @ Mar 4th 2007 1:02AM
@19 - VG Cats sucks for winning and being a total ripm off at that. Sorry I had to burst your bubble :-D
Scott @ Mar 4th 2007 2:08AM
@ 20, and 21:
Scott Ramsoomair cleared things up about that strip he supposedly ripped off of me. So let's kill this off before he get's labeled as some thief that he isn't. I'd hate to feel guilty for something he doesn't deserve.
Gaming comics tend to share the same subject matter in jokes from time to time. Kay? We're not all Penny Arcade that can find out how to work in "the spreader" into a Splinter Cell joke. GTA has a bazillion wanted level jokes, Mario has the mushrooms, and there's more Jack Thompson spoofs than I'd care to know about. This one is labeled as him stealing my joke. Why?
For one reason, the smoking subject matter. I used cigarettes and he used some vgcats fashioned inuendo, but we both shared the same word with different variations. Another reason is probably our constant appearance at Joystiq which was something that sent up a flag for me. But you know what? There's a whole lot more to webcomics than this site and as big as people think I am, (I'm not BTW) I'm still just some dumb kid that runs some obscure webcomic that most of the internet has never heard of, and the same goes with level 99. If it were something Penny Arcade, or PVP, or CAD had done 5 weeks beforehand, then yeah, he's a theiving little jerk. But it wasn't. It was written by me, and most of you don't know who "me" is.
Scott Ramsoomair says it was coincedence and was nice enough to say that publically when he could have just as easily said "I don't need to deal with this crap" and brushed it off like bad dandruff like others might have done and I thank him for that.
So let's nix the theory of that being a stolen joke. There were three coincedences of that same joke, and I'd wager that there are probably more than that that we haven't seen that are more obscure than Fanboys or Level 99.
Please? He doesn't need this crap.
Sonojinshi @ Mar 4th 2007 3:57AM
It's plainly ridiculous to claim plagiarism on something like that.
Meggsy @ Mar 4th 2007 9:07AM
Wait...how can VGCats strip 227 be in the running again? The Wario Ware strip was runner-up last time! How is it fair to run the same strip twice?
Grey Acumen @ Mar 4th 2007 9:49AM
I have to admit, I think Fanboy Online Pulled the effect off better. VGCats was more disturbing, but I think Faboys did a better job of taking the smoking joke to its fullest, not only spoofing Wario Ware, but the Anti-smoking commercials at the same time.
I personally went for the Aquired Spoon one. It perhaps wasn't the funniest, but it was really executed well.
Anonymous @ Mar 4th 2007 12:36PM
SHERLOCK HOLMES!
Defenestrator2.0 @ Mar 4th 2007 1:06PM
Tim Harding, your comics never cease to make me laugh (even though there are only three so far, you get the point). I like comics that don't have the same old straight-forward fart jokes, and that's why I like yours. I had to think that one over for a minute. Very well done site, by the way. Great layout. You have now gained a reader, and I await more!
I personally voted for "Analyze this," because I'm just plain sick of all these so called "predictions," when Fanboys also hit it on the head. A while ago, in fact.
http://fanboys-online.com/comic.php?cid=55
Both are very true. Anybody can call themselves an analyst nowadays. Oh, and by the way, I'm an analyst that analyzes analysts for a living.
Nmaster @ Mar 4th 2007 4:14PM
Oh god, the "stolen comic" debate spilled over here? Well at least I'm glad Scott chimed in, he laid it down pretty well. I'm sure it was all just a coincidence.
And who the hell cares? The Penny-Arcades this week are leagues funnier than any of the WarioWare jokes! An anti-Sony comic with a perfectly executed Jesus joke at the end is the purest form of win obtainable...
plufim @ Mar 5th 2007 6:57PM
Didn't think my comic would do too well this week (analyze this). Hopefully I can find a better topic this week!
dbeech @ Mar 5th 2007 8:28AM
Blah blah blah.... Am I the only one that thinks most of them sucked this week?
Gamer Pals wins for resonating with me and Slackerz gets a special mention for sheer enthusiasm.
And for god sakes, why aren't we over the whole 'what if your favourite video game character behaved slightly different than you expected him to' jokes yet? I can't read one of those strips without thinking it was entirely devised to win this poll....