White Ninja... one of the most random webcomics out there, without any cohesive story, narrative or characters and a grade-school level art style. These comics seem like they were done in about ten minutes in a fit of pot combined with ADD.
And I like it.
One thing that must be considered when reading this comic is that there is no higher artistic motive involved in the making or reading of these comics. at least one of the authors actually does have ADD, and they're not trying to make anything deep here. It's amazing then that these guys can crank out a good number of very funny jokes simply through cognitave dissonance!
The art style is very simple, showing the lowest level of detail necessary in the characters, objects and backgrounds. Some things are so poorly-defined that they need labels to be identified. White Ninja's physiology is even pretty vague. He has no fingers or toes; his belt is te only defining piece of clothing he has; it's even hard to tell how his suit works, as he seems to have an opening for his eyes, but his mouth seems to be part of the suit itself. Other characters have varying levels of detail, sometimes looking like just an everyday joe, other times having a surprisingly realistic look to them. This seems to indicate that the artist can draw better, he just doesn't want to.
As for the jokes, the randomness of the strip makes it so it's hard to determine what the punchline is going to be. The strips themselves can be read in less than five seconds, so any humor has be incredibly to the point. Sometimes the humor comes from an unexpected turn in conversation. Other times the humor is physical. More often it's simply the bizarreness of the whole situation. Some times the comics are just... there. There are rare instances, though, when a strip just is funny on so many levels while being incredibly simple. This comic made me laugh harder than any other, just because it has several layers of real-world irony in it and it's still unexpected.
Then again, I laugh at almost anything strange, so my opinion of this might be a little biased.
There's also the question of White Ninja himself. He does not really have any defined character, personality or background. Sometimes he's the voice of reason; sometimes he's mind-numbingly stupid; sometimes he's incredibly violent; sometimes he's just inconsiderate. It's not even clear that he's a ninja, as he's not always a mammal and while he has gotten himself into a few scrapes, he doesn't fight all the time. He has flipped out and killed people, but it doesn't seem to be his purpose. He clearly does not have the Real Ultimate Power. In one comic, the roles of the office worker and White Ninja could easily be reversed and it would still be just as funny.
In conclusion, White Ninja is easy to read and often funny simply due to all of the strange stuff that happens. You won't feel particularly rewarded for reading through it, but you might pick up on a few things to say the next time you get some drive-thru. |
