Elwood

Someone (either the creator or the hosting service) pulled the plug on this webcomic. The links in this review are dead. If you want to see more of this webcomic for some insane reason, the Wayback Machine is your best bet. And even that's a long shot.

Original review author:	Long Tom
Webcomic name:	Elwood
Author:	Mark Haldane (His own website, or what remains of it.)
Start Date:	July 16, 2004
End Date:	August 12, 2013
Genre:	Non-anthropomorphic animals and humans
Defining Flaw:	Uncharming characters and mostly unfunny jokes.

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Rating Summary

Art:	Decent cartoony art.
Storyline:	Not applicable, as it is a series of gags.
Characters:	None of them particularly likable or interesting.
Miscellaneous Details:	The website did offer a cute animated dog at the top of the page.
Overall:	The webcomic equivalent of messing up a hot dog. The author takes a scenario that could easily be made cute and hilarious and instead makes it unfunny and random.

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Background

Elwood was in the to-be-reviewed section of the BWW forum. Easy to see why.

Downfall

This webcomic always sucked.

Story and Plot

Not applicable, as it is a series of gags with occasional story arcs.

Art review

Simplified toony drawings, mostly in black-and-white but sometimes in color, with minimal backgrounds and detailing and little to no shading. The style has stayed the same throughout the webcomic's run.

Writing review

Unfortunately the site doesn't allow direct links to individual strips, so I must post copies of them here:

The first strip. Unfortunately, the jokes don't get much better.

The scenario is as follows. Elwood and Meche are two dogs who are the pets of a faceless man they refer to as "The Master" or "The Chief":

I guess the animals can talk to each other but not to humans.

And like many cartoon characters, Elwood has a shoulder-angel and a shoulder-devil, but unique to him, he has a sort of intermediate character as well:

But evidently, none of them are aware that chocolate is toxic to dogs.

But wait, there's more! In one strip, Elwood befriends a wild fox whom he catches digging through some garbage:

Presumably, Elwood isn't afraid of getting rabies.

Said fox has a brother:

Well, for Garfield the cat, Mondays always go wrong for him.

Other characters include a duck named Elle:

Probably the least likable character in this story.

And a second duck named Ruffy:

And probably the least intelligent character in this story.

As indicated by the strips shown, the comic is mostly gags:

A rare strip that is actually funny.

Well, there is at least one storyline strip, about a war between cats and dogs:

How the war starts.

Everyone gets ready...

...on both sides...

...and commence fighting!

Wait! What's this?

Talk about an anticlimax.

Well, so ends the war.

Some might claim that the above storyline is a satire on the then-current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; I prefer to believe that it was simply a failed attempt at silly humor.

Author biography

Mark Haldane describes himself on his website. No longer there.

Conclusion

Elwood isn't offensively bad, but it isn't good either. The characters are hardly likable, and the jokes are hit-and-(mostly) miss. Certainly, a webcomic about house pets and the animals and people around them has a great potential for humor and charm, but this webcomic is surprisingly lacking in either. It is telling that the author originally updated this webcomic regularly but slacked off toward the end-which is the case with many webcomics that wind up being listed here.

UPDATE: The website is gone completely.