Wally and Osborne
Encyclopedia
Wally and Osborne, formerly titled On the Rocks, is a humor 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, 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
.
The comic uses a newspaper-style format with occasional bigger "Sunday strips". It is in color with a limited palette consisting of flat areas of black, white, blue and orange. This color scheme was followed through in the original website design.
Martin accompanies the strip with short text pieces and photos explaining the real-life aspects of Antarctic life that inspire the strip. The box gives 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, 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).
As of now, the comic on the website has come to a halt. Martin has released few details as of to why.
, 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. 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.
Funbrain, FamilyEducation and TeacherVision are properties of Pearson Education
(part of Pearson PLC
).
site linking together several "all-ages" webcomics including Wally and Osborne. According to the site's introductory message:
The complete launch line-up comprises:
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Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
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, the displaced polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
, and his long-suffering friend Osborne, an adelie penguin
Adelie Penguin
The Adélie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, is a species of penguin common along the entire Antarctic coast. They are among the most southerly distributed of all seabirds, as are the Emperor Penguin, the South Polar Skua, the Wilson's Storm Petrel, the Snow Petrel, and the Antarctic Petrel...
(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
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
polar bear, ended up in Antarctica, although Osborne suggested it might be due to bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
.
The comic uses a newspaper-style format with occasional bigger "Sunday strips". It is in color with a limited palette consisting of flat areas of black, white, blue and orange. This color scheme was followed through in the original website design.
Martin accompanies the strip with short text pieces and photos explaining the real-life aspects of Antarctic life that inspire the strip. The box gives 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, 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
Theme (computing)
In computing, a theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the look and feel of an operating system, widget set or window manager....
.
The original title temporarily continued to appear on the comic's syndicated appearances (see below).
As of now, the comic on the website has come to a halt. Martin has released few details as of to why.
Characters
- Wallace "Wally" Fitzgerald McGillicutty is a polar bearPolar BearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
who always wears an orange scarfScarfA scarf is a piece of fabric worn around the neck, or near the head or around the waist for warmth, cleanliness, fashion or for religious reasons. They can come in a variety of different colours.-History:...
. Wally is upbeat, easygoing, and unintelligent. Wally wears a pair of gray briefsBriefsBriefs are a type of short, tight underwear and swimwear, as opposed to styles where the material extends down the legs.In the case of men's underwear, briefs, unlike boxer shorts, hold the wearer's genitals in a relatively fixed position, which make briefs a popular underwear choice for men who...
that can only be seen when he removes his scarf. Wally has a "superhero" costume called "Super Wally," consisting of his underwear and a potato sack used as a cape. Martin revealed Wally's full name, including his full given nameGiven nameA given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
and family nameFamily nameA family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
on February 14, 2007 after posting the "These Boots Are Made For Climbing" chapter. - Osborne (formerly Osbourne) is an adelie penguinAdelie PenguinThe Adélie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, is a species of penguin common along the entire Antarctic coast. They are among the most southerly distributed of all seabirds, as are the Emperor Penguin, the South Polar Skua, the Wilson's Storm Petrel, the Snow Petrel, and the Antarctic Petrel...
who is more intelligent and less optimistic than Wally. Osborne is seen to love orange juice as seen in a story line where Wally finds a washed up crate of orange juice. Osborne usually ruins other character's enjoyable moments; when Osborne himself encounters an enjoyable moment, Wally ruins the entire experience.
Minor characters
- Penguinus Maximus, nicknamed "Max" by Wally, is a large, prehistoric penguin Wally and Osborne found frozen in the caves. Once unfrozen Max takes a liking to Wally, Wally adopts him. Max runs away and becomes the star of an ArgentineArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
television show named "Pinguino y los Niños de Nieve," known in EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as "Pinguino & the Snow Kids." The show becomes a success and is dubbed into 27 languages from its original SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. - Unnamed poor penguin is seen in several strips and is probably the most popular minor character.
- "Penguin Juvies" are small penguins (juvenilesJuvenile (organism)A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form, sexual maturity or size. Juveniles sometimes look very different from the adult form, particularly in terms of their colour...
) who sell worthless items trying to scam Osborne. Osborne always seems to fall for the tricks used by the "Penguin Juvies". - "Thomas" is another young penguin, involved with the Penguin Juvies mentioned above. He is their hired muscle, and features in a strip where the Penguin Juvies are selling air with their sales pitch being "If you don't buy it, then Thomas here will squeeze it out of you." He is also featured in the "Jury Duty" storyline, where he is charged with theft of a candy bar.
Quest for the Beak arc
- The Petrel King – The giant petrelGiant petrelGiant petrels is a genus, Macronectes, from the family Procellariidae and consist of two species. They are the largest birds from this family...
and main antagonist of the "Quest for the Beak" arc holds Osborne's beak captive. - Ralph – Ralph, one of The Petrel King's accomplices, steals Osborne's beak and brags about his act to his peers. Ralph is a skuaSkuaThe skuas are a group of seabirds with about seven species forming the family Stercorariidae and the genus Stercorarius. The three smaller skuas are called jaegers in North America....
. Also, two skuas, one named Glen, try to impede Wally's quest to return Osborne's beak to its rightful owner. The skuas attack Wally as the protagonist is scaling a wall of ice. The two force Wally to drop his ice picks. Wally uses the skuas as replacement picks in order to scale the mountain and lets the skuas go once he reaches the top. - Howie – Howie is a smaller snow petrelSnow PetrelThe Snow Petrel is the only member of the genus Pagodroma. It is one of only three birds that breed exclusively in Antarctica and has been seen at the South Pole. It has the most southerly breeding distribution of any bird.-Taxonomy:...
that inspires Wally to continue on his quest to rescue Osborne's beak.
Syndication
On November 23, 2005, the strip began running on FunbrainFunBrain.com
FunBrain.com is an educational browser game website for children and adults. The website was founded in May 1992 and is owned by Family Education Network, a division of Pearson Education. The current publisher is Jess Brallier...
, a children's edutainment
Edutainment
Edutainment is a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse.-Overview:...
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
For Better or For Worse
For Better or For Worse is a comic strip by Lynn Johnston that ran for 30 years, chronicling the lives of a Canadian family, The Pattersons, and their friends. The story is set in the fictitious Toronto-area suburban town of Milborough, Ontario. Johnston's strip began in September 1979, and ended...
and Cathy
Cathy (comic strip)
Cathy was a comic strip drawn by Cathy Guisewite. It featured a woman who struggled through the "four basic guilt groups" of life — food, love, mom, and work — the strip gently poked fun at the lives and foibles of modern women. Cathy's characteristics and issues both made fun of and...
at FamilyEducation's new "Mom's Coffee Break" feature. 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.
Funbrain, FamilyEducation and TeacherVision are properties of Pearson Education
Pearson Education
Pearson Education is an international educational publishing and technology company providing textbooks and other educational material, such as multimedia learning tools...
(part of Pearson PLC
Pearson PLC
Pearson plc is a global media and education company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, with consumer imprints including Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird...
).
Lunchbox Funnies
On January 15, 2007 Martin launched Lunchbox Funnies, a portalWeb portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
site linking together several "all-ages" webcomics including Wally and Osborne. According to the site's introductory message:
The complete launch line-up comprises:
- Aki Alliance by Ryan Estrada
- Astronaut Elementary by Dave Roman
- Butterfly by Dean TrippeDean TrippeDean Trippe is a United States-based comic book artist and illustrator. Trippe graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a B.F.A...
- 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
External links
- Wally and Osborne Website
- Discussion Forum
- Syndicated at Funbrain.com as On the Rocks
- Syndicated at FamilyEducation.com as On the Rocks
- Lesson Plans at TeacherVision.com as On the Rocks
- Publishers Weekly article about Funbrain's Web book publishing and plans with On the Rocks
- Comixpedia Interview With Tyler Martin
- Newsarama Reviews Wally and Osborne
- The Webcomics Examiner Reviews Wally and Osborne (As On the Rocks)
- The Webcomicker Reviews Wally and Osborne (As On the Rocks)
- Lunchbox Funnies homepage
- Newsarama Announces the Launch of Lunchbox Funnies
- Publishers Weekly's Comics Week Announces Lunchbox Funnies
- Digital Strips Discusses Lunchbox Funnies
- One Diverse Comic Book Nation Discusses Lunchbox Funnies
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