Narbonic

Rating:
Summary: Evil!
Review: Beware! Narbonic will suck you in, make you laugh, make you cry...and meanwhile, perform subtle but lasting scientific experiments on your mind. By the time Shaenon Garrity is through with you, you'll be a devoted slave.

This is the first major print collection for Narbonic, a daily webcomic that's been around since mid 2000. This book represents roughly its first year. Meet the main characters: Helen Narbon, a mad scientist plotting to take over the world; Mell Kelly, her Evil Intern; Dave Davenport, the Henchman; and Artie, the superintelligent Gerbil.

The strips are funny. The stories are smart. The characters are full-fleshed, with a definite arc. This is one of the very few comic strips I read, and the only one I make sure I never miss. (I'm telling you--scientific experiments = devoted slave.)

Rating:
Summary: In the top 10 funniest books that I have ever read!
Review: Imagine that Nikola Tesla and Jerry Seinfield wrote a comic together. It would be very similar to Narbonic. Garrity's humor is on equal to that Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. On top of that, the art is quite cute.

Helen Narbon is a young mad scientist who creates things such as 300 lb. gerbils and cellular destabilizers. Along with her slacker geek henchman and homicidal intern, Helen tries to take her lab to new levels of infamy. As you can guess, things do not go smoothly.

In most works, mad scientists are two dimensional villains who are nothing more than opponents for muscle bound main characters. Narbonic documents the day to day experiences of a mad scientist's lab and portrays the characters as real people with their own insane desires and lifestyles. It is not an easy path they follow; doomsday devices don't make themselves.

This is the funniest comic that I have ever read!

Rating:
Summary: In the top 10 funniest books that I have ever read!
Review: Imagine that Nikola Tesla and Jerry Seinfield wrote a comic together. It would be very similar to Narbonic. Garrity's humor is on equal to that Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. On top of that, the art is quite cute.

Helen Narbon is a young mad scientist who creates things such as 300 lb. gerbils and cellular destabilizers. Along with her slacker geek henchman and homicidal intern, Helen tries to take her lab to new levels of infamy. As you can guess, things do not go smoothly.

In most works, mad scientists are two dimensional villains who are nothing more than opponents for muscle bound main characters. Narbonic documents the day to day experiences of a mad scientist's lab and portrays the characters as real people with their own insane desires and lifestyles. It is not an easy path they follow; doomsday devices don't make themselves.

This is the funniest comic that I have ever read!

Rating:
Summary: Narbonic by Shaenon Garrity
Review: Narbonic is the self-titled book edition of the most creative and consistently funny comic strip to come along since THE FARSIDE and CALVIN & HOBBES. It has a unique, offbeat sense of humor that will grow on you like the culture in a petri dish. Narbonic shows the inner day-to-day workings of a mad science lab. Where an insane geneticist has to simultaneously hire a new employee, battle a hero, and get the doomsday machine working, all without getting evicted by the landlord.

One of Narbonic's strongest points is its incredible cast of interesting characters. Helen B. Narbon is the young mad scientist trying to run a profitable mad science laboratory, and make a name for herself, to prove she's not just a chip off her even more evil mother, Dr. Narbon. Dave Davenport is Helen's computer technician, who hates working for the forces of evil, but finds it preferable to working for Microsoft. Mell Kelly is Helen's evil intern, who's fascination with guns and explosives, keeps the other employees on their toes. RT-5478, (Artie) is a super intelligent gerbil Helen created, who considers himself the sane, rational one of the group, but is not above amusing himself by conducting unauthorized experiments on other lab animals or members of the staff. And no mad science comic would be complete without an arch rival, Professor Lupin Madblood, who Helen has a not so secret crush on.

Narbonic is mostly presented as long complex story arcs, and often reads more like a novel than a comic strip. Shaenon Garrity sketches her story lines well in advance, allowing for much richer development than you'll find most other comics.

Narbonic isn't for everyone. It requires some thought by the reader to understand the science, both real and imagined, that the artist often adds to the strip. The humor is mostly personality driven, so a good familiarity with each character is needed to get the more subtle jokes. But if you're looking for a comic strip that panders to the above mean IQ, and if you've ever wondered what REALLY happens in a mad science lab, Narbonic is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Narbonic by Shaenon Garrity
Review: Narbonic is the self-titled book edition of the most creative and consistently funny comic strip to come along since THE FARSIDE and CALVIN & HOBBES. It has a unique, offbeat sense of humor that will grow on you like the culture in a petri dish. Narbonic shows the inner day-to-day workings of a mad science lab. Where an insane geneticist has to simultaneously hire a new employee, battle a hero, and get the doomsday machine working, all without getting evicted by the landlord.

One of Narbonic's strongest points is its incredible cast of interesting characters. Helen B. Narbon is the young mad scientist trying to run a profitable mad science laboratory, and make a name for herself, to prove she's not just a chip off her even more evil mother, Dr. Narbon. Dave Davenport is Helen's computer technician, who hates working for the forces of evil, but finds it preferable to working for Microsoft. Mell Kelly is Helen's evil intern, who's fascination with guns and explosives, keeps the other employees on their toes. RT-5478, (Artie) is a super intelligent gerbil Helen created, who considers himself the sane, rational one of the group, but is not above amusing himself by conducting unauthorized experiments on other lab animals or members of the staff. And no mad science comic would be complete without an arch rival, Professor Lupin Madblood, who Helen has a not so secret crush on.

Narbonic is mostly presented as long complex story arcs, and often reads more like a novel than a comic strip. Shaenon Garrity sketches her story lines well in advance, allowing for much richer development than you'll find most other comics.

Narbonic isn't for everyone. It requires some thought by the reader to understand the science, both real and imagined, that the artist often adds to the strip. The humor is mostly personality driven, so a good familiarity with each character is needed to get the more subtle jokes. But if you're looking for a comic strip that panders to the above mean IQ, and if you've ever wondered what REALLY happens in a mad science lab, Narbonic is for you.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best comic writers!
Review: Narbonic was my first webcomic and is still my favorite. Even those who shy away from comics will love Narbonic. It's hilarious and the storylines are always gripping and suspenseful.

Rating:
Summary: It's funny, it's satire, and it's EVIL
Review: Narbonic, by Shaenon Garrity, is a highly amusing and brilliant online comic about the adventures and mishaps of a young evil scientist, Helen Narbon, and her two henchmen, Mell, the evil intern, and Dave, the computer geek. The complete run of this comic strip is available online by subscription, and this first volume of Narbonic in print offers a more economic alternative to internet-reading, as well as containing a never-before-seen 10-page bonus story.

This strip offers the same spark as comics like Calvin and Hobbs and Bloom County: the combination of comic humor with satire. Make no mistake, Narbonic is delightfully funny. Garrity has chosen a deep creative well to draw upon in the lives of evil scientists, and we see many exploits involving death rays, brain transplants, and raising the dead, all tried and true B-sci-fi movie tactics. But she's also added more modern "evil science", like cloning, genetic mapping, and microcomputer technology. In this way the strip explores, while making us laugh, a wide range of current topics. For example, when Dave and Helen swap genders via the surreptitious experiments of their genetically-enhanced genius gerbil (don't you just HAVE to read this?), the strip ends up with some very telling moments of the treatment of women in American geek culture. Such antics also throw the characters' sexuality into diverse loops, and I imagine many cultural studies scholars could have a field day with this material. Another fine moment for satire is seen in the constant underlying element of "evil" in the computer industry and corporate culture. Don't worry; the parallels are not in the reader's face, and Garrity is certainly not preaching here. But when Dave considers first working for Helen, having just graduated from college in computer science, you can see him thinking, "Work for an evil scientist, or for Microsoft? Which is more evil?" In this way Narbonic is carrying on a great tradition: amusing us and slightly terrifying us at the same time. Buy this book.