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Dry Ice: The Snowman-Based Comic
From Comixpedia
| Dry Ice | |
 A simplified version of a Dry Ice Comic | |
| Creator(s) | Lynnea Dally |
| Website(s) | http://dryicesnowmen.com/index.html |
| Update Schedule | Monday, Wednesday, Friday plus separate bonus comics on the weekends |
| Launch Date | January 6, 2007 |
| Genre | Humor |
| Rating(s) | PG for Dry Ice, PG-13 for bonus comics |
Dry Ice is a webcomic about snowpeople and their misadventures and varied lives. It tackles dark humor, puns, and makes jabs at environmental issues as well as occasional SciFi/Fantasy allusions. Some comics make complex and satirical jokes, while others feature no more than a ridiculous pun or sight gag. Each cartoon is entirely self-contained and most are only one panel, similar to The Far Side or In The Bleachers.
Contents |
[edit] Art
Dry Ice is drawn on the computer using a drawing tablet almost exclusively with color. The comics used to be drawn with black ink and paper, scanned in and then edited. After the transition to color, the older comics were all redrawn to be in color instead of black-and-white[1].
[edit] Themes
Some of the bigger themes include the fear and avoidance of melting. One of the ways snowpeople have been trying to eliminate melting and create a utopian earth is by conspiring to instigate a nuclear winter. Snowpeople also elude death by moving to the poles or other, colder planets.
Another theme is cannibalism and the fear of being eaten, either by another snowperson or by people. Snowpeople are also understandably afraid of fires and warmpth.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Snowpeople
Dry Ice does not have recurring major snowpeople characters, as each comic is self-contained and does not contain a recurring plot. The snowpeople all do share similarities, however. They all have self-consciousness and intelligence and a heightened fear of death and heat. Most of their weaknesses revolve around their anatomy and normally short-lived lives. The snowpeople have varying forms of society from religious to scientific to media to parenting to economic. Some snowcultures are incredibly scientifically advanced, presumably the lucky few who have lived for centuries in colder climates that allow them to perfect their advancements.
[edit] Humans
[edit] Penguins
The Penguin occurs in a few comics as well as on the banner and on the navigation buttons. Penguins are one form of snowperson pets, as they are similar to cats[2].
[edit] Christmas Elves
Christmas elves are in a few comics. Their main interaction with snowmen is obtaining their coal buttons, eyes and mouth, presumably to amass coals for Santa's naughty list. Christmas elves almost always try to get coal with underhanded methods.
[edit] Rabbits
[edit] Abominable Snowmen
The abominable snowmen are a different race of snowpeople. Their design is based on the VGA Microsoft Skifree abominable snowman[3] who would eat the player if they went too far out of bounds.
[edit] Equality
The author makes a conscious effort to promote egalitarian views in the comics.
Snowwomen, portrayed with two eyelash hashes, occur about as frequently in the comics as men. Both snowmen and snowwomen share a range of values and behaviors ranging from what would be considered stereotypes to the advant garde. The author claims this is to prevent all forms of gender pigeonholing[citation needed].
Non-heterosexual snowpeople are often portrayed as well, including a gay couple[5] and a lesbian wedding[6] in addition to heterosexual couples[7]. While there are more non-heterosexual snowpeople, as well as transgendered snowpeople, in the comics they are not always pointed out because the author treats them like normal snowpeople.
[edit] Bonus Comics
The artist also makes bonus comics on the weekends that do not have to do with snowmen. These comics feature images pulled from the internet with captions added and are indexed on a separate system from the Dry Ice comics[8].
The bonus comics are darker than the Dry Ice comics and sometimes contain harsher language, prompting the author to post a warning on the main page for the bonus comics[9]. Common themes include making fun of death, strange (inanimate) subjects of photos, models, children and pets.
[edit] Other
The author also made a lengthy, indepth "Scathing Game Review of "one of the worst games [she's] ever played"[13].
