The Humanthro Condition

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Rating Summary

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Background
This webcomic is described by the author as a sequel to Stubble Trouble, and we at BWW decided it was appropriate to make a separate review for it.

Downfall
The webcomic always sucked.

Story and Plot
The very first strip (sorry, the website does not allow links to individual strips) has Jeremy, a blonde man with long hair and a goatee, and Rosie, an anthropomorphic Scottish Rottweiler, getting married and consummating their relationship. Admittedly an energetic beginning, but no explanation is provided as to how they met, why they decided to marry, and such. But I suppose it doesn't matter in a story full of gimmicks.

Jeremy is a Jew, and a practicing one at that. He and Rosie have a pet Coelophysis (a small dinosaur) named Monica. Rosie is an auto mechanic, and the concept of a female auto mechanic freaks out one customer. Jeremy gets promoted to assistant manager at a movie theater. Jeremy complains about certain movies. There is a lion who serves as Jeremy's rabbi. There is also a female giraffe named Stephanie who has a detached head she has to carry around with her. (Later in the webcomic it is revealed that Stephanie fell afoul of a Gypsy woman and received that condition as her curse.) Rasputin (yes, the historical one) occasionally appears and tries to repair things, only to make matters even worse. And of course Jeremy has a penchant for shaving Rosie's fur off, but he doesn't want her to return the favor. (What, you thought that was forgotten? In fact, the characters refer to their having been in Stubble Trouble.)  The fourth wall is repeatedly broken, and the characters know they are in a webcomic. Big monsters appear for real. Dinosaurs still exist. Other animal characters besides Stephanie have detachable heads, and some can even disassemble themselves completely. Also, Jeremy and Rosie compare themselves to ponies, as in the My Little Pony series. More people and anthropomorphic animals later appear. Beyond that, there is not much else.

Art review
The artwork in this webcomic is unchanged from that of Stubble Trouble:



And it does not change in the course of this webcomic. But how to describe it, besides that it sucks?

Basically, everything is flat, stiff, inconsistent, and poorly-proportioned. Characters often have side mouths, sometimes too big for the faces, and the drawings are not adjusted to fit them. Worse yet, hair on humans and fur on animals lack texture, not even hairs out of place. But worst of all is the fact that the humans have unnatural polygon-shaped lower faces, which really look terrible. This looks worse than even the animu of other furry webcomics reviewed on the BWW such as Concession and Namir Deiter.

Colors range from muted to overly bright and jarring a la 21st Century Fox, and this webcomic also resorts to using repeated pictures a la Stalag '99 (though fortunately to a much lesser extent). Presumably the author is too lazy or indifferent to consider improving his artwork.

Writing review
Basically the webcomic is a stew of weird elements, presumably meant as a comedy, except the jokes are hardly funny to begin with and keep getting recycled. How many times can you see Rasputin come and try to repair things only to fail miserably, and still find it amusing? (And what is behind the idea of the historical figure Rasputin trying and failing to make mechanical repairs to begin with? It's like depicting Hitler doing BMX biking-preposterous without actually being funny.)  And how many funny jokes can you make about anthropomorphic animals with detachable body parts? And what's this about dinosaurs (at least some types) still existing? Presumably the author is springing for humorous weirdness a la Charles Addams or Gary Larson, but unfortunately he does not have the cleverness of either of them.



The Humanthro Condition Versus Tina's Story
Both webcomics have one major common element-namely a human man marrying a female dog. Ironically, Tina's Story does the whole concept in a far more honest way.

In Tina's Story, there is at least a backstory in how Tina and Ray meet. Okay, the concept of Tina falling in love with Ray after seeing his wonderful art, as described in the review of that webcomic, is hokey, but at least it is a backstory. This webcomic simply starts with Jeremy and Rosie getting married with no explanation as to how it came about. It might have been explained in Stubble Trouble, but that is a separate webcomic and the readers here deserve some sort of recap. Also, when Tina and Ray marry, it isn't all a rose garden in that story, certainly not initially. Neither Ray's nor Tina's families are happy with their getting married, but eventually everybody reconciles-also in a hokey manner, but the problems with the interspecies marriage are at least not ignored. But in this webcomic, Jeremy and Rosie marry, and where are their families? You would they they would be around to approve or disapprove, but they are not even mentioned.

One other ironic note: the author of Tina's Story is, or was, an actual politician belonging to the Democratic party, and his furry interests were at least a contributing factor in forcing him to resign from political office. (The full story is described in the Tina's Story review if you're interested.) The author of The Humanthro Condition is actually a Republican, at least in political sympathies.



A Republican marrying a dog? Well, evidently in this universe this is not a problem.

Author biography
What the author says on his website.

Conclusion
Another addition to our listings of poorly-drawn and unfunny webcomics such as Animaltown, Ballerina Mafia, Eyre Toons, One Frame Gags, Press Start To Play, and whatever else I have not thought of. What distinguishes this one are the weird gimmicks described above, but bad artwork is still bad artwork and unfunny comedy is still unfunny comedy. It's the lame sequel to another lame webcomic.

Other webcomics by this person reviewed on this site

 * Stubble Trouble

Links

 * Powell's DeviantArt account.
 * Believe it or not, the author has actually published his webcomic in book form. I won't expect it to be a best seller.
 * Contra Farce Online, another one of his webcomics, but not worth a separate review.