The Tales of the Vine-Gar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Tales of the Vine-Gar | |
|---|---|
 The official logo, parodying the "Lord of the Rings" movie logo. |
|
| Author(s) | Randy Duke, Andrew Arnold |
| Website | http://www.vine-gar.tk/ |
| Current status | Five-comic updates every Thursday |
| Syndicate(s) | Garagemonkey Productions |
| Launch date | October 4, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Comedy |
The Tales of the Vine-Gar (alternately referred to as The Stories of the Vine-Gar, or simply The Vine-Gar) is a pencil-and-paper comic strip. It features crude drawings, predominantly stick figures, along with semi-sophisticated humor and plot. It was created in late 2004 by Randy Duke and Andrew Arnold, who still draw it today, along with the occasional input of friend Dave Ruth. The true origins of the Vine-Gar character are based on an in-joke involving biology-class experiments with vinegar.
A new strip (called a "part") is written every few days, intermittently, with breaks during the summer months and holiday breaks. In late 2006, the website was launched to commemorate the second anniversary of the first strip. Thanks to the site, the strip is shown to have readers worldwide, from the United Kingdom to Australia. Since the site's redesign in February 2007, the site has been making regular weekly updates.
Contents |
[edit] Style
The storylines incorporate mostly parody, satire, surreal humor, and inherently funny words, while occasionally adding a bit of (usually random) slapstick and irony. The humor also often lies in the drawing style itself. It is exclusively drawn on standard 8"×10.5" notebook paper with mechanical pencil. Due to the lack of artistic ability possessed by the majority of the writing staff, most drawings are simple and crude, depicting stickpeople manipulating basic, almost childlike objects and environments (when there are environments at all). The occasional appearance of a well-drawn, complex element (usually something appearing only once) self-parodies the drawing style, as does the Vine-Gar itself—the only complex character in the strip.
The strips are broken down into different storylines, consisting of anywhere from a dozen to thirty or forty individual parts. Most storylines center around one single character on a "quest" to perform some task or gain some kind of information; however, some use several characters as the "main" character. Each part often culminates in a cliffhanger that complicates the storyline.
Most locations in the Tales of the Vine-Gar are inherently funny because of their very nature. For instance, all buildings—regardless of their use—are thatched-roof cottages of various sizes (with the exception of the castle in Bae). Additionally, the strip makes excessive use of "Secret Underground Lairs", which are not only common but are also usually extremely conspicuous.
[edit] Major Characters
Most characters in the Tales of the Vine-Gar are one-dimensional (both visually and personality-wise), and their names are often derived from their appearance, as it is a "rule" of sorts to name any new character based on what he/she is first called.
[edit] The Vine-Gar
The Vine-Gar has been mostly described as a sort of monster. It has a round body, a dual pair of horns, large alien-esque eyes, three mouths (one of which is vertically placed), two "pincer"-like appendages of unknown origin or use, three tails, and arms varying in count (usually six, but sometimes lower or higher). Since it has no legs, it always hangs from at least two vines, which are always with the Vine-Gar no matter what environment or location it happens to be in. Above all, however, the Vine-Gar is emphasized to not be a fish, even though "gar" is a kind of fish. Instead of normal blood, the Vine-Gar has vinegar running in his veins, which he uses to make pickles with. He was killed in the second part (part 1½) by One-Without-Hair, who inadvertently made pickles himself. After the first storyline, he has come back not as a ghost or angel without any explanation. Despite being the title character, he is never a main character, nor does he make frequent appearances, solely based on his difficulty to draw in comparison to other characters. It is unknown whether there are more Vine-Gars in existence; however, other gars called the Wine-Gar and Pine-Gar are shown in the first part.
[edit] One-Without-Hair
Also referred to as OWH. A basic stickperson in appearance, and is the main character overall and in most of the storylines. His personality is erratic and unpredictable, although he seems to be somewhat ADD and easily agitated. His name comes from the fact that he is bald, contrasting with his wife, the other original character.
[edit] The Kultists
The Kultists (of which there are two) worship the Vine-Gar as a deity, even though it is apparent that the Vine-Gar is not at all a god. In the first storyline, they fought against One-Without-Hair because he killed the Vine-Gar; however they have since become allies in other storylines. They wear robes with pointed hoods. This, along with the constant use of the letter 'k' replacing hard 'c's in most of their speech and writing that refers to them, may correlate them with the KKK; however, no such relation was intended, except for a one-time parody that happened to stick and carry on throughout.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
Arnold, Andrew, & Duke, Randy. (2005). The Tales of the Vine-Gar. North Canton: Garage Monkey Productions.
