Doodle Diaries


 * **Original review author:** || Lesbot ||
 * **Webcomic name:** || Doodle Diaries ||
 * **Author:** || Zelda, Orpheus and Nate ||
 * **Start Date** || June 1, 2008 ||
 * **Defining Flaw** || Who actually cares what three people do with their day? Just get a livejournal seriously. ||
 * **Things that are fucking terrible about this webcomic:** || Poor page layout, terrible art, and oh yes, //no one gives a shit about your board games.// ||
 * **Things that aren't terrible but could use some improvement:** || It's lighthearted and clearly not meant to be taken seriously, so it's not like it's as big a tragedy as something like, say, Ctrl-Alt-Del. ||
 * **Summary:** || Zelda: "I have an idea, guys! Let's combine our crappy writing, drawing and web design skills and make something //mediocre!//" Orpheus & Nate: "OKAYYYY!!! :D :D :D" ||

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 * Ratings summary:** [[collapsible show=">> Click here for ratings summary:


 * Art: || image http://badwebcomics.wdfiles.com/local--files/start/bww-seal%281%29.png One would think that three toddlers drew this strip! ||
 * Storyline: || image http://badwebcomics.wdfiles.com/local--files/start/bww-seal%281%29.png The real life diaries of three uninteresting people. ||
 * Characters: || Not applicable, as they are real-life people. ||
 * Miscellaneous Details: || image http://badwebcomics.wdfiles.com/local--files/start/bww-seal%281%29.png What did these three people have in mind when they started this? ||
 * Overall: || image http://badwebcomics.wdfiles.com/local--files/start/bww-seal%281%29.png They could have done just as well with a Livejournal or something similar. ||

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toc

++ Background

Gather around children, and I shall tell you an //exciting// tale.

div style="float:right; margin:0em 2.5em 0.1em 1em; width:250px; border:1em" /divOnce upon a time, a particularly unimaginative young lady on the internet called herself 'Zelda' and decided the rest of the internet needed to know what she was doing, all the time. Of course, a live 24-hour video from her bedroom would have been //dirty//, so she decided the next best option was to just draw what she was doing in mspaint. That way people all over the world could admire her //all the time//, and she didn't need to feel like a whore.
 * = image DD3.jpg width="250px" style="border:1em" alt="WOMEN"||
 * ^^With a face like that how could she //not// be.^^ ||

However, making and maintaining a comic all by yourself can be ever so tiring, and Zelda knew that a comic just wasn't a comic without some hot mano-a-mano //action//. So using her feminine wiles she swiftly recruited two boys who could not draw quite as pretty as she could and demanded they contribute, so as to make her own art appear more dazzling in comparison. You know, like putting a dead spider plant next to a glittering rose that has been grown in unicorn soil and watered with elf tears.

Yup, it's the return of that old //"the internet needs to know what me and my wacky friends are doing today, oh us nutty guys"// comic format! OH BOY I WONDER WHEN THEY WILL TELL US THEIR FAVOURITE VIDEOGAMES.

++ Story and plot

To be honest, the plot was basically summed up entirely in the introduction. This is a comic about //people// doing //stuff//. Now I know --all-- most webcomics follow that particular look-at-us-be-interesting route, but at least the other ones try to fit in some goddamn jokes.

I guess it would be difficult to keep a constant story going, since the comic is run by three //wacky// individuals that clearly have different ideas about what could be considered entertainment. Zelda knows her drawings are the prettiest so she gets to sit around and angst about a lack of --focus on herself-- plot. Zelda is the //girl//, see, so she needs to have girl angst. Nate's art is so bad it almost does a full-circle and ends up being so hideous it becomes entertaining. Orpheus describes his relationship to the viewer with an almost endearing innocence that I can't quite bring myself to mock; maybe it's just nice to see a gay character that isn't strutting around in leather straps and demanding to rub up against all the other boys.

div style="float:right; margin:0em 2.5em 0.1em 1em; width:300px; border:1em" /divThe grouping together of an affectionate couple and some girl they know sometimes gives the comic a kind of awkward atmosphere; like Zelda considers Nate and Orpheus her cuddly pets, to giggle and coo at while they cuddle and groom eachother, but if they forget to acknowledge she is there with them she will give them a sharp poke in the ribs until they remember and worship her accordingly. When our loveable trio are not doing //crazy things// like playing //board games// and //sleeping//, they will take a break from 'plot' to cry (be it in misery or joy) about how insignificant and/or loved their comic is.
 * = image DD1.png width="295px" style="border:1em" alt="lolololol I got ur tail!!"||
 * ^^And that's why Zelda hates kids.^^ ||

++ Art review

As there are three artists contributing to this comic, there are three different art styles contained therein. Notice that I did not say that any of them were very //good//, I just said they were different.

Zelda is probably the better artist of the three; her proportions are okay, but her style reeks of animu. She can only draw from three angles: straight-on, 45 degree angle and side. Detail is lacking and all of her characters wear mascara when she draws them.

Nate's doodles are the //cornerstone// of the comic. His "smiley face" //thing// is on every single fucking piece of merchandise available in the store. (No really, a store.)

Orpheus... can only be described by looking at. Words cannot capture the amount of heroin required to make his shit look sane. I guess you could always consider it in that kind of ironic way that some people do, ignoring the words and just chuckling at the sheer mspaint //mastery// on show.

It almost seems unfair to poke fun at the art in this comic, since it's pretty clear that Zelda is making a genuine effort. I've seen webcomic artists capable of more do shit art just out of pure laziness. If she actually put in some practice and stopped drawing herself as a stroppy gawth she might actually get somewhere, maybe. I think Nate and Orpheus would be content to leave the comic for a ham sandwich.

++ Writing review

It would not really be considered unfair to say that the writing in 'Doodle Diaries' is pretty fucking abysmal. What do you //expect?// It's basically a mary-sue comic without the fun of making yourself into an all-knowing all-powerful mary-sue. It is a blog with pictures. //It is nothing but those who create it, in mspaint form//.

I am going to admit right now, I lauged at some of them. I am not ashamed, because I genuinely find some of them funny for all the wrong reasons, like watching a frustrated friend try to work machinery. The humour lies in the ineptitude of the creators.

Asking a lot from the writing of this comic is like asking someone's Livejournal to be a dramatic novel. Don't be so silly.

++ Downfall

The quality of this comic never really fluctuated. It started off dull and just stayed dull. With no structure or plot to speak of it basically just lies on the internet, taking up space like a comatose bear.
 * = image DD2.png width="600px" style="border:0em" alt="HAY GUIZE"||

++ Author biography

It is difficult to think that there is anything to these people beyond what is shown in the comic. They talk about school. They talk about boys. They play board games. If you were looking for dramatic emo furries or self-righteous gamers you're //oh so very much// in the wrong article because I genuinely doubt these people have any internet presence outside of Myspace and possibly Facebook. This is because they are busy talking about boys and playing board games.

Zelda pretty much threw //Doodle Diaries// together one lazy afternoon, and the three of them will probably continue to get a giggle out of it until they all leave high school and all move away to different locations and live full lives.

++ Conclusion

Here is a quote from the FAQ page of the site:

//**So...you make a comic...about... what exactly?**//

//Pretty much anything interesting that happend to us that day. No matter how trivial and boring it is, We always just sort of assume that someone on the internet will think it's the most hilarious thing ever.//

++ Links


 * Doodle Diaries on the ComicGen Wiki. Heartily described as //"a yaoi/man-sex related stub."//