Angry Wall began in 2010, primarily as a way to motivate myself to draw more, to improve as a cartoonist, and to entertain myself. I figured if I managed to amuse anyone else in the process, so much the better.
The main feature that runs on this site is “Still Life with Supervillains.” High–concept: a destructive, amoral, but oh-so-perky megalomaniac and the hapless dude who lives with her deal with college, insane friends, and a variety of wacky predicaments. Or something like that.
Occasionally I’ll take a break from that and run something that was just funny or fun to make but doesn’t really tie in with the main feature. And a few times I’ve just run with some DCU fan art. Given that people still come to this site looking specifically for that one Birds of Prey comic I made, it seems a proven concept.
While I don’t receive many questions, the following have been asked of me:
Why “Angry Wall”?
-Everyone has a favorite Japanese monster. Mine is the Nurikabe—the very irritating, but generally benign, living wall of Japanese myth. After playing Okami, I started doodling it with arms and squinty eyes, which is how I got the Wall character. It also amuses me to have a cute personification of creative block, and one with a known secret for defeating, to boot.
But your comic has nothing to do with the Wall?
-Nope. Although it’ll show up occasionally in a self-indulgent Wall Comic, it’s just a mascot.
So when exactly do you update?
-Given my current schedule, new comics or comics-like-posts tend to go up on Mondays or Thursdays, though that’s subject to change based on real-life pressures. Still, now that I’m done with classes for the time being, we’re aiming for two updates a week.
Why no color?
-Because competent, let alone good, coloring is a difficult and time consuming task that requires a great deal of experience and skill. There are, sadly, limits on my time. When and where necessary (and easy to apply), I’ll sometimes apply grey tones in Photoshop to make a comic pop better. Unfortunately, since my scanner leaves a lot to be desired, my earlier experiments with washes and coptic markers have largely been abandoned for making comics for the site–though they’ll still pop up occasionally. As the only relatively optional element of the comic, it will remain mostly absent for the foreseeable future.
Hey, you got this math/science/whatever fact wrong right here.
-In the words of Fishy Joe, “Good point. Not interested.” Or more politely, “Thank you for pointing that out, and I will endeavor to do better next time. But it’s a secondary or tertiary concern.” It’s superhero-style science–just be glad I haven’t made up 300 extra elements.
Thank you for pointing out spelling errors. If I’m in a good mood, I might even crack the files back open and fix them.
Why California?
-I lived there for 21 years, making it easier to fudge the details in a plausible fashion.
Wait a minute, there is no CSU Santa Catalina!
-Correct. In real life, Santa Catalina, California, is a sparsely inhabited little island with beach resort and bison ranch. But I needed a fictional, not overly specific, California setting for my story, and I’ve always been partial to Catherine of Alexandria.
Is your comic based on real life?
-Inspired by real life, at times, but unless otherwise noted, no, not really. The characters, situations, and other specific details are entirely fictional. The characters in particular are not based off of any specific friends or acquaintances, which I gather some webcartoonists like to do. No resemblance to anyone living or dead, yada, yada…
Although I will admit that Ben and Sandra’s town house has a floor plan suspiciously similar to one I used to live in.
Why does Jane looks exactly like Cassandra Cain/Batgirl?
-Because I can only draw one type of young Asian woman, and made the mistake of giving them the same hairstyle. Many apologies.
And some other relevant info I should mention at this point:
All site content by me, MC Alcock, except for the lettering fonts by Blambot.
Feel free to comment, as long as you keep it civil, and I prefer if you identify yourself in some way. If you need to contact me, shoot an email to admin@angrywall.com.