Wally and Osborne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Wally and Osborne
(formerly On the Rocks)
Author(s) Tyler Martin
Website http://wallyandosborne.com/
Current status Weekdays
Launch date July 4, 2005
Genre(s) Talking animal, humor

Wally and Osborne, formerly titled On the Rocks [1], is a humorous webcomic by Tyler Martin. It was launched on July 4, 2005. The first strip is dated June 27 because Martin launched the site with a week's backlog of strips.

The setting is Antarctica, where Wallace "Wally" Fitzgerald McGillicutty [2], the displaced polar bear, and his long-suffering friend Osborne, an adelie penguin (the spelling was later changed to Osborne from Osbourne, as reflected in the new title), have lots of comic misadventures.

It is not clear how or why Wally, an Arctic polar bear, ended up in Antarctica, although Osborne suggested it might be due to bipolar disorder [3].

Wally is genial, upbeat and easygoing and can be identified by his orange scarf. He is also incredibly stupid. Osborne is less optimistic and more intelligent, but only by comparison. The characters have sometimes been compared with Laurel and Hardy. Another obvious influence is Calvin and Hobbes, which Martin has acknowledged with a number of homages.

The comic uses a newspaper-style format with occasional bigger "Sunday strips". It is in color but uses a deliberately limited palette consisting of flat areas of black, white, blue and orange. This color scheme was followed through in the original website design. The limited palette combined with the characters' bold, simple designs, give the comic a distinctive look.

Martin accompanies the strip with short text pieces and photos explaining the real-life aspects of Antarctic life that inspire the strip. Another notable feature of the website is the box giving real-life weather updates for the Antarctic Peninsula.

On July 3, 2006, to mark the strip's first anniversary, Martin relaunched the site with a new URL, design and title, Wally and Osborne [4], on the grounds that On the Rocks was too generic a phrase. The site's original design, including the original title logo, is still available on the site as an alternative theme.

The original title temporarily continued to appear on the comic's syndicated appearances (see below).

Contents

[edit] Characters

  • Wallace "Wally" Fitzgerald McGillicutty [5] is a polar bear who always wears an orange scarf. Wally is upbeat, easygoing, and unintelligent. Wally wears a pair of gray briefs that can only be seen when he removes his scarf [6].
  • Osborne (formerly Osbourne) is an adelie penguin who is more intelligent and less optimistic than Wally. Osborne usually ruins other character's enjoyable moments; when Osborne himself encounters an enjoyable moment, Wally ruins the entire experience.

[edit] Minor Characters

  • unnamed poor penguin is seen in several strips and is probably the most popular minor character.
  • Max is a large, prehistoric penguin Wally and Osborne found frozen in the caves. Once unfrozen Max took a liking to Wally and Wally adopted him. He then ran away and became star for a t.v. show.
  • "Penguin Juvies" are small penguins who sell worthless items trying to scam Osborne. Osborne always seems to fall for the tricks used by the "Penguin Juvies".

[edit] Syndication

On November 23, 2005, the strip began running on Funbrain [7], a children's edutainment site, along with new notes by Martin on each strip. Then starting April 7, 2006, On the Rocks began to appear along with For Better Or For Worse and Cathy at FamilyEducation's new "Mom's Coffee Break" feature [8]. In addition to syndication at these sites, TeacherVision, an online resource for teachers, also features some On the Rocks strips as lesson plans for students to explore comic strips and further creativity [9].

Funbrain, FamilyEducation and TeacherVision are properties of Pearson Education (part of Pearson PLC).

[edit] Lunchbox Funnies

On January 15, 2007 Martin launched Lunchbox Funnies, a portal site linking together several "all-ages" webcomics including Wally and Osborne. According to the site's introductory message:

“ The term “all-ages” has become something of a mantra for our creators. We’ve each been working towards creating highly entertaining comics that can be enjoyed by beginning readers, teenagers, and adults alike. We’re convinced that “all-ages” doesn’t mean “just for kids,” but rather it’s a label that should apply to entertainment that allows for shared experiences across generational lines. Our creators benefited greatly from quality all-ages entertainment growing up, but these days stories that can be enjoyed by children and adults seem incredibly rare. Lunchbox Funnies wants to change that. ”

The complete launch line-up comprises:

  • Aki Alliance by Ryan Estrada
  • Astronaut Elementary by Dave Roman
  • Butterfly by Dean Trippe
  • Cow & Buffalo by Mike Maihack
  • Lunchbox by Ovi Nedelcu
  • Silent Kimbly by Ryan Sias
  • Wally & Osborne by Tyler Martin
  • Zip and Li’l Bit by Trade Loeffler

[edit] External links


This page was originally based on an entry from Comixpedia and is used under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/a/l/Wally_and_Osborne_fe87.html"
In other languages