User Friendly 1.0

Craig Maloney writes with the review below of the latest release from User Friendly, laughware which finally hit 1.0 earlier this year. Read on for Craig's impressions of the book, which is loaded with more than just reprints of the UF comics you've seen on the web. User Friendly 1.0 author J.D. "Illiad" frazer pages 112 publisher Plan Nine Publishing rating 9/10 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1929462395 summary An �autobiographical� look at the thoughts and ideas that make up the User Friendly comic strip and community.

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.

Comments

Ha-ha

[kraf]

if you appreciate the "humor" of UF, you'll love this

Re:Ha-ha

[Lord Omlette]

thanks asshole, now I have to read through over a year's worth of archives when I should be doing work. Great job.

I like how the Penguins just don't talk, LOL

Re:Ha-ha

[ckedge]

thanks assholes, now they're slashdotted and I have to wait until tomorrow to read the archives. Great job.

Interesting cartoon, LOL

Re:Fuzzy Thing

[kylus]

It's the 'Dust Puppy,' born from the dust and bits of other things that were inside of a server. :)
Check this comic for his birth.

Re:Fuzzy Thing

[Stuart Gibson]

A Dust PUPPY.

And the dirty thing with feet is Crud Puppy.

Am I the only one?

[decipher_saint]

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.

I never really liked this cartoon

[cruise]

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.

Re:I never really liked this cartoon

[tomknight]

It just seems to play off off whatever the current geek topic is..
...and there's something wrong with being topical?

It's sort of like a poorly done dilbert.
...only Dilbert rarely manages to relate to anything that's actually happening (except for w.r.t. my office politics, where it's scarily accurate!).

Tom.

The Archive

[tomknight]

I recently re-read the series, from the beginning (up to May this year, when it all started to get too close to today). Here's the link to the archive - but beware - this can really screw up your productivity!

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.

On drawing women...

[Rahga]

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.

UF is too banal

[Skyshadow]

UF, by and large, sticks to the obvious jokes that we (as geeks) were making ten years ago. I'm sorry, but it was funny when I was 15 and it was new, but now I just don't see why people like it so much. MS jokes, D&D jokes, geek social jokes, but none of it at all original.

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.

No, there are others

[doc_traig]

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

UF used to be funny

[Your_Mom]

(Disclaimer, I've been clean for about a year or two now)

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 /real/ artist and have a story arc" phase and begins to produce teh funny again) GPF Comics

Re:Am I the only one ..

[filth grinder]

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.

Re:Am I the only one ..

[yuggoth]

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...)

Bob the Angry Flower

[Mirk]

ADVERT. You should be reading Bob the Angry Flower, a weekly strip so utterly wonderful that I can't begin to do it justice.

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!)

Superfluous recommendation of other comic strip

[gowen]

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.

Hey you distractors: Find something else to do!!!

[swordgeek]

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.