Orneryboy

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Orneryboy
Author(s) Michael Lalonde
Website http://www.orneryboy.com/ RSS
Launch date July 22, 2002 [1]

Orneryboy is a humorous, albeit morbid, webcomic created by Michael Lalonde. Although many artists allow their styles to evolve continuously, Lalonde has maintained a consistent style since the comic's birth in 2002. This is due to his use of Macromedia Flash symbols for all of the objects in the comic. His style is particularly distinguished by the use of halftones, mostly in the backgrounds. He recently began animating portions of the strips for effect.

Orneryboy chronicles the life of a disgruntled boy named Orneryboy and a dirty (as in messy) girl named Dirtygirl, who are based roughly on Lalonde and his fiancée. Brian is their pet zombie who aspires to be an undead MC; his admirable rhyming skills can be witnessed in comic #139 "Insane in the Brain." Orneryboy has a vast and colorful cast of characters, many of whom die horrible deaths immediately after their debut appearances.

Lalonde has another comic called Odd Stars, which is published in a Canadian childrens magazine. He also designs merchandise for Sick On Sin, his fiancée's online clothing and accessories store.

[edit] Characters

Orneryboy: Main character of the comic who always dresses in black clothing that are identical. Like many webcomic characters he is a major game addict (Presumably GameCube according to the controller). He is quite easily angered and has been prone to very violent behavior. He loathes practically everyone he sees with the exception to Dirtygirl and possibly Brian. He is a fan of industrial music. He also seems to constantly consume alcohol, coffee, and sugar to an extreme degree (even all at the same time) claiming that it is the only thing that makes him happy. He possesses the book of the dead, the Necronomicon, which often sparks the zombie related story line. He drives what is presumably a black Original Volkswagen Beetle. Recently it has been shown that he owns a revolver in one of his hollow books. He was fired from his job as a graphic designer and is now a mascot called Cute'thulhu (parody of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu character/unholy deity)for a gothic coffee house. It is now revealed that he has another addiction involving World of Warcraft.

Dirtygirl: Orneryboy's polar opposite and lover. A believer that all life is sacred (and unlife, as her love for Brian shows), she is vegetarian or possibly a vegan, as she is shown in one installment not to drink milk. She is opposed to the violent behavior of Orneryboy and encourages good behavior on his part. She often tries to make Orneryboy more sociable by dragging him into social gatherings like parties, high school reunions, and coffee houses, despite his hatred of such things. The only person she has ever hit in the comic is Orneryboy. Despite their differences in attitude she dresses similar to Orneryboy and seems to like many of the things he does. She is also a hardcore chocoholic.

Brian: Brian is a zombie that invaded Orneryboy's house out of the blue and tried to consume his brain. Brian lost his eye during the fight despite showing quite a skill in fighting. Brian's unzombie-like fighting skills will be also the highlight of his adventures. Despite being a zombie he seems to have a personality of a gentle soul that is almost child like. He secretly watches Gilmore Girls when his owners/roommates are out of the house. His bite to the head causes other people to become zombies (even making Orneryboy undead upon their first meeting) and this could often get out of hand. He made attempts to eat the family cat but after the cat ripped through his chest and came out he gave up. He is a wannabe MC who is unfortunately hindered by his inability to speak proper words. He often fantasizes about being a MC in front of his zombie fans thus his lyrics usually involve consumption of human flesh. Lately he's been sporting a Speak & Spell around his neck (in the fashion of Flavor Flav's clock) to bridge the language gap, though Orneryboy recently broke it.

[edit] Violence and gore

Orneryboy features a level of violence (almost ultraviolence) and gore far above and beyond that in almost all other mainstream webcomics, including zombie attacks, spontaneous combustion, the disposal of corpses in a woodchipper, disembowelment, stabbing, mutilation, brutal beatings and attacks by ravenous flesh-eating crows. Such incidents are often contrasted with the comic's somewhat bright, cute style to comic effect. Even the main characters aren't exempt from gruesome violence, as in recent comics Ornery lost his right eye (to Soy Sauce, a pet cat that has been apparently zombified), suffered a possible cuncussion, and lost several teeth.

[edit] External links

Look up ornery in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.