Webcomic Touchdown: Unwinder’s Tall Comics

Unwinder’s Tall Comics is something I’ve written about before but due to Wilson losing his backlog of journal posts I feel oddly obligated, nay, dickishly obligated to write a new review about what stands as on of my all time favorite webcomics – Unwinder’s Tall Comics by Wilson Parker.

Unwinder's Business Card

Unwinder is what I would expect Max Huffman to be if he lived in a smaller community – a weird kid making comics and messing with various people on the internet to a greater deal than he already is. Perhaps this is more of the Huffman who would have developed 5 years earlier without the easy connections to social media (which except for the future of social media that is Team Realtree Outdoor Energy has not be covered) would developed. He is a dementedly creative kid obsessed with making something of himself but without the ultimate resolve required to do so beyond giving something a few tries.

Interspersed throughout the series are a bevy of parodies, stand-ins, alternate fictions and even callbacks to other work by Parker building this complex and frequently referred to world of sexy zombie basketball players, incredibly boring and mathematical science fiction and an anime about a guy with a blade made out of bullets.

The series art is not always the strongest part except for a few guest pieces such as the Gary Rastov covers but the art serves the purpose of getting the ideas across and unfortunately I fear that if the characters were rendered in anything beyond the somewhat simplistic scribbles, it would serve to terribly unhumanize the characters to a greater degree, despite the sometimes nightmare inducing designs for characters.

The writing though is still the standout of the piece and while metafictional references and a sometimes painfully obtuse view of the world might not be for everyone, it is rather perfect for me.
9/10