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User Friendly 1.0
Greetings Cave Dwellers
Arguably one of the most successful and popular online comics is User Friendly. With three full-length books in print, a community of dedicated readers, and merchandise that has been featured on major computer celebrities globally, one would have a hard time disputing the popularity and the success of User Friendly. Over the past four years, User Friendly has grown from a small inter-office comic into an internet destination and a community of loyal readers. User Friendly 1.0 collects not only the comics that have not been published before (O'Reilly didn't include them in the previous books because of layout and other considerations), but also various essays, thoughts, illustrations, and other comics not necessarily related to User Friendly.
It All Began Here
The first section of the book contains the comics that didn't make it in the first User Friendly book (User Friendly, published by O'Reilly and Associates). These are the comics that introduce the crew of Columbia Internet (the friendliest, hardest-working and most neurotic little internet service provider), and births Dust Puppy (from a server that hasn't been upgraded in a year). The drawings are more primitive, with four frames of story rather than the three we enjoy today, but don't let that detract you from the humor and the sheer fun of the comics. Sure, they're not the same as what you're expecting from the current dailies, but they have a certain charm all their own.
Introduce Yourself / Essay Contest
The latter half of the book introduces the characters of User Friendly and their real-world analogues. Yes folks, the secret is out and revealed for the first time; User Friendly is based on real-people, although Illiad is quick to point out the people the characters are based on aren't QUITE as neurotic as their cartoon counterparts. Illiad also takes the latter part of the book to talk about his views on art, drawing women, community schisms, and the practical joke of 1999 and its aftermath. These essays show Illiad as a cartoonist who is not only humbled and flattered by the acceptance of his work, but also an artist who appreciates the community that has evolved from that work. Illiad appreciates his fans, and it's that appreciation of the fans that makes a book like User Friendly 1.0 not only possible, but also readable.
Bonus
As an added bonus, User Friendly 1.0 also features several SuSE Friendly comics (strips done for SuSE) and the crossover between User Friendly and Sluggy Freelance (in case you missed it). The strips are a nice treat for the fans and I have User Friendly to thank for my Sluggy Freelance addiction. :)
For the fans
If you don't like User Friendly, you've already skipped this review, and won't buy this book. That's quite all right, as this book isn't meant for you anyway. For the people who are fans of the comic, or who have a passing interest in the behind the scenes thoughts and ideas of User Friendly (or who want to see the early comics and the crossover appearances), this book is a no-brainer purchase. The writing is genuine, and having the rest of the comics in print is a bonus. User Friendly 1.0 is a labor of love for the community, and the community won't be disappointed.
You can purchase User Friendly 1.0 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
What is that fuzzy thing with feet?
-- Eric
if you appreciate the "humor" of UF, you'll love this
Who dislikes User Friendly? I love web-comics like Penny-Arcade, Megatokyo, PvP, Diesel Sweeties, etc. I just don't find UF funny OR interesting in any way. Some of the early stuff was pretty good, but there are a lot of better comics to read online or otherwise.
Remember this is just my opinion, I'm not trolling you if you happen to like UF.
crazy dynamite monkey
It just seems to play off off whatever the current geek topic is.. It's sort of like a poorly done dilbert.
But hay, We have "artists" local to daytona making money off of the crap they produce too. Someone must think it's funny, or artistic, or somehow homoerotic or something.
Fish! LipHo
UF is not as amusing as it has been, but it's generally nice, intelligent and witty. What more do you need?
One of the best strips was from September last year
Tom.
Oh arse
I'd love to know what illiad and other "known" artist/toonists/etc. think about drawing women... in specific, how to deal with the women around them who feel the need to comment and critique they way you draw the female figure (in all it's forms, of course... this was added to destroy the inevitable "female figure? there's not just one!" replies).
Heck, maybe it's just bad memories of 6th grad art class when you are forced to draw sketches of your classmates, and you felt obligated to draw in a turtleneck sweater and jacket just so you could avoid the topic of their breasts altogether. However, I imagine that most comic artists and 3d-modelers for modern video games have to put up with a fair ammount of ribbing about how large or small they create figures for their characters.
I bought the first book (the O'Reilly one), but that's pretty much all I could take. I *wanted* to like it, but it just doesn't work for me. When I stumbled across Sluggy Freelance, I traded.
Can someone explain the attraction to UF? I just don't get it.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I've tried to like this strip more, since I understand all of the material that makes this the kind of strip that needs to be online and not in the newspaper. Unfortunately, most of the time recognizing the industry humor is the only feeling I have coming away from it -- in other words, not much.
I grew up wanting to be a cartoonist and was a huge fan of strips like Peanuts, Bloom County, and even Doonesbury. I've laughed many times at those and others you'd find in the paper, and I find that I prefer humor with a broader appeal than stuff that's supposed to be funny only because it's an inside joke.
- DDT
So long, michael. Don't let the door hit you...
(Disclaimer, I've been clean for about a year or two now)
/real/ artist and have a story arc" phase and begins to produce teh funny again) GPF Comics
UF used to be part of my daily Webcomic reading habit, I remember spending close to an entire day reading the archives when I first read it. Then, about a year or two ago, it just stopped being funny. The storylines really just started getting into childish "Windows Sucks! Ha!". Honestly, I don't see how people can still read it.
I have the first book, because there are some good storylines from the first few years, but after that it really started to go downhill. Now I read Sluggy Freelance and I feel much cleaner.
For those who like Computer Comics I recomend Angst Technology and (whenever Jeff gets out of his "I want to be a
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
All the comments here about how unfunny UF is are even less funny than UF itself. So I go over to read UF to see how unfunny it is, and it looks like a feast of Oscar Wildean wit by comparison.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Umm, Pitr's native language ISN'T Russian. He is a poser. Go back through the archives. He started out as just a normal English speaking Canadian. Then he got the Evil Geniuses for Dummies book and decided he wanted to be an evil genius and adopted a psuedo Russian accent. The comic actually referenced that when Pitr went up in space in a Russian rocket and annoyed the real Russian with his fake accent.
The deal with Pitr is hardly racist. He is a perfect fit among the cast, except for the fact that his native language is russian.
No it isn't - Pitr is a native english speaker who thinks that to become an evil overlord, one must speak with a russian accent. He doesn't understand russian at all. (oh gawd, not that strip...)
Cthulhu fhtagn!
Like anything else, it's ok in small doses.
Lots of posters are posting links to their favorite web comics. Almost all of them are coming up as followed links in my browser.
I gotta get a life
the AC
[oooohhh, shiny. A couple of fresh links I haven't seen before...^D]
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Admittedly, Bob's more into giant robots and suchlike than computers and software, but hey - don't let that spoil your reading pleasure.
(Oh, and he can punctuate, too!)
--
What short sigs we have -
One hundred and twenty chars!
Too short for haiku.
The creation of the Dust Bunny character was original and showed some flash of promise, but since then it's just been a long, slow circle into more and more repetetive jokes.
Now, Illiad has a web comic and I don't, so take my opinion for what it's worth, right? But I just can't stand UF anymore.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
And its not sluggy-bastard-freelance, either. Try PhD, although I'd imagine the recognition factor of the comedy requires you to have done at least a few months in graduate school.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
- $50: All Night Tech Support
- PvP+PA
- Illiad: Not Funny
Tell it like it is, Gabe & Tycho, yeah!- SMJ - (It's not just a name: it's a bad aftertaste.)
Actually, I think he's from California.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If. You. Don't. Like. User. Friendly. Then. Don't. Read. It.
Simple enough for you?
Some of us like it, through Illiad's strong and weak days.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Yeah its a special order item from Amazon too, though they do stock the original book and the sequals The Root of All Evil and Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell.
In fact I used ISBN.nu to do Internet-wide search of online book stores, and they only list the Amazon special order as far as availability. Even Amazon Canada (User Friendly being a Canadian strip) doesn't have it in their database.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
User Friendly, for as long as I've been aware of it, hasn't been funny. Obviousy I'm not the only one here with these sentiments. But why?
I believe it has something to do with the co-opting of geek culture. There's precious little difference between your average UF strip and any of the mediocre dead tree comics who made uninformed jokes about how much computers crash in your local paper's comics page. Most of their jokes aren't really that geeky - it seems like they simply pander to the wannabes, and there's nothing sadder than a wannabe geek. If you want some really geeky jokes, see the always-offensive Jerkcity for superb strips like this or this or even some of this.
Typical computer/office humor gets old real fast, just like Dilbert did. But from what I can see, UF never even had the biting humor and that Dilbert's heydays can claim.
I don't like most of the geek comics you list, I think because I feel like their brand of humor consists of merely mentioning things that geeks get excited about, like final fantasy and anime and japanese ^_^ smiley faces. Basically, I feel like these comics are underinspired comics that happen to be "geek" comics, but somehow that passes. (For the record, mixing in robots and indie rock does it for me with Diesel Sweeties, so I'm just as guilty...) But I'll definitely agree that User Friendly is the most tepid of them all; it just takes the most tired cheap-shots at Microsoft, or AOL, or people who don't know how to use computers, and the clip art isn't even fun to look at.
No. Simply being reminded that it exists makes me cringe. I will not rest until every last trace of it has been eradicated. Even after that, I'm going to need some intensive therapy to get over my memories of the time before I freed the world from the tyranny of that vile comic strip.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Those are the severed hands of a Microsoft Programmer.
Actually, a couple of years ago at Comdex Toronto, some Linux booth had some guy dressed in an actual Dustbunny costume as a promotional tool. ("Tool" being the key word.)
I thought to myself "It just might be worth being barred from Comdex for life just to go over there and kick the tar out of him..."
But then my train of thought was derailed by another booth giving away free squishy toys.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
I agree - its much less humourous lately. I find a lot of webcomic authors do that - exploitation now, everything jake, mega tokyo. They all start out as "funny" then they get more and more stories - and the stories start getting serious.
Megatokyo moves too slowly for its serious story, ditto EN. EJake has a bad tendancy to just give up and go written or half-assed for large comics, which is why I gave it up a year back.
Sluggy is actually the only one where I *don't* mind when it gets dramatic. If its dramatic, Pete pulls out the stops and works his ass off to get the extra panels in at decent quality so he can properly tell the story at a good pace. But still, drama has killed a lot of good comics - remember when For Better or For Worse used to be funny? Sluggy still tells a joke once in a while - sometimes for a few panels even. It looks like they're getting back to jokes for a bit right now actually.
Unlike you, sir, at least I have a personality.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
As most people agree, UF is poorly drawn, unoriginal, and unfunny garbage. So how come anybody reads it? Simple: Illiad chose a underrepresented market segment --- techie types --- figured out a list of topics they like to see, and proceeded to pander to them as much as possible. Marketing-oriented business at its finest, in the tradition of Harlequin romance novels. But I don't think Illiad is even aware of his hypocrisy.
Thanks mostly to range of topics covered by the comic strip the base of UserFriendly regulars stretches across almost every profession (mostly white collar) to almost every skill level. This introduces quite a range of topics. Granted technology is usually right on top, but people from medical, political, legal, and about every other camp are present as well.
/. and the Register for all types of technology news, I browse the Cruel Site of the Day to feel synacal and feed my twisted side, and I hang out on UserFriendly because the wide range of people there bring me to interesting stories that I would have never found sticking to boards that were only focused on one subject. Some people aren't intersted in news outside of their area of focus, personally I'm curious about just about everything and UserFriendly feeds that curiousity. I like the way /. has pictures next to the headline to denote which part of the tech industry each TLP covers, that concept wont work on UserFriendly, we could never come up with enough pictures to cover all the subjects we cross, but yes if we tried personal mushy stuff and hugs would be amoung the first subjects with pictures.
/. since CNN wasn't going to happen. I'm glad I did, I found out what was going on a lot easier that way since I didn't have access to a radio or TV while I was at work and the bandwidth was killed by everyone else trying to get webcast.
This doesn't set well with some people, especially those looking for a specialized group. I personally like the diversity of the boards. Where else can someone ask an HTML question and get five friendly answers telling them five different ways to solve their problem without getting flamed for not having bought a book or knowing a particular basic in one thread, while a conversation about the Bill of Rights being ignored is going on in another? This "Lack of focus" is hard for some people but to me it builds a warmer atmosphere.
I'm not going to say my boards better than your board, it's not. I like my board better than I like your board but that doesn't mean it's better. Everyone has a different opinion of what they like. I like to browse
As others have said if you don't like it don't fscking read it. I'm not going to say that, I'm going to say drop in and check it out when you feel like it. If you've got a question about anything and don't know where to post it try us, if we can't help we can probably tell you who can. I read the comic for a couple of years before I ever posted, the only reason I started reading the boards was the extream slowdown news sites experienced during 9/11 and I wanted to try to stay up on the news. I knew enough about the boards to know it had a global community so I started watching UF and
Just my brain dump, not trying to change your opinion about the board, but please don't think of us as a bunch of uneducated clowns.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Ah well, that's different then! Carry on.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
I used to like it. It was the first online comic I ever read, and I'm glad it was there because it introduced me to a whole new creative world. But over the past couple of years it's gotten really stale and there are many, many other webcomics I read that are a lot funnier. Maybe we should be trying to figure out when it jumped the shark.
And the brethren went away edified.
That's really charming. People like you need their cerebral matter reprogrammed with a softball bat.
And yeah, I ain't posting this as Anonymous Coward.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
Which, when you get right down to it, says that it really is it's own strip. And it's still more fun then a conference call or a Friday 4:00 PM meeting. I've been an avid comic strip fan since about 8 (Started on Walt Kelly's Pogo, nothing has since compared and it's been a long wait...) and I'm 42 now.
UF was a regular read when I wasn't so addicted to other sites, which I check in the morning, afternoon and evening. I just popped back in and read back a month and still find it an amusing strip, well worth the time it takes to read it.
I used to be a regular on rec...something...comics where epic battles were waged on the evils of Cathy and Garfield. Net: Cathy and Garfield are still in the papers, though the San Jose Murky has dropped Cathy from the Sunday section, good riddance, but I can't take any credit for that. Illiad does strike me as someone who is actually getting better. Banal? Naw, the problem is some people have higher expectations. Take them to greener pastures, leave UF to those who enjoy. It strikes me as a somewhat self-indulgent, coy, smug, at times, but still worth a regular read.
That said, I do find Penny Arcade pretty damn funny at times, but it's mutch edgier, and for that does have further to fall when the gag is flat. Much as I enjoy PA, I don't read it very often either.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar