So, all in all, read our article to find out more about this underrated but really funny webcomic. Discover the style, content, and our absolute favorite issues of theWAREHOUSE here.

The Webcomic Creator

Let’s start this article about theWAREHOUSE by talking more about its creator, Carl Huber. Huber was born and raised in New York and he still lives there in Penfield, NY, noting the hidden beauty of his home state. He comes from a family of artists and engineers, so one could say that he was destined to follow in their footsteps.

Just like other famous webcomic creators, Huber went to art school and graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Fine Art. Although he excelled in his program and learned a lot of things, he shared that many of the art skills he uses today are self-taught.

After college, Huber went straight to professional marketing and branding. He has been working in the business for more than 20 years now. He specializes in product branding and packaging, but he also does web design, illustration and whatnot. He’s a truly accomplished professional in his sphere.

Apart from his professional credits, Huber is also known for creating his own illustrations and designs. As a self-proclaimed nerd, Huber created Natural 20 Shirts, a company making cool T-shirts based on famous tabletop games, video games, and other pop-cultural phenomena. Apparently, Daniel Radcliff, aka Harry Potter, was even spotted wearing one of Huber’s Rick and Morty’s T-shirts!

theWAREHOUSE

Huber first started drawing what would then become theWAREHOUSE on his personal blog. He says that back in the early 2010’s, there were many similar blogs that used to experiment by creating various projects that often caught the attention of people.

Still, this Internet trend began dying out, so he decided to move his webcomic, which had a devoted fan base even then, to another website that is dedicated to it. Thus, the webcomic which started off as random ideas Huber had, managed to reach more people.

The reason why Huber called his webcomic theWAREHOUSE is because he didn’t quite have an idea as to what the comic would be about it. He said he pictured a massive warehouse where every crate is a different idea he had. Other webcomics are usually more specific, but we actually dig the chaotic energy of theWAREHOUSE.

It’s really difficult to describe the focus of the webcomic. I mean, not even its creator could. You can certainly see the so-called nerdy influences, as well as the existential dread that has been a hot topic for webcomics in the past ten years. After all, we all experience, so what’s more relatable than it?

Between the random bits, however, you can find some real-world issues that Huber was exploring at the time. Some of the comics he created are visibly political, and he said himself that he wanted to create social justice design as well around the time that Trump was voted into office.

Huber is still active on various social media platforms and continues to work in marketing and branding, and he still creates his imaginative T-shirts. Unfortunately for all fans of theWAREHOUSE though, Huber appears to have abandoned the project. The last published comic was on September 10, 2019, and that seems to be the end of it.

Huber had a long hiatus between May 2017 and August 2019, with no comics published around that time. Just as he announced his return and brought us some new stuff though, he soon stopped updating and the webcomic’s site went dark. Huber hasn’t given any newer interviews, so neither we nor other fans of his work know why he decided to stop publishing his webcomic. We still hope that he might change his mind and give us yet another revival, but it seems like that’s not happening soon if it happens at all.

We did, however, got many fantastic years of funny comics and we thank him for that. Cheers, Carl Huber!

Best Bits of theWAREHOUSE

As we are reminiscing about the old days when we got frequent updates about the lives of our favorite Internet stick figures, take a look at some of the best works of theWAREHOUSE.

1. Drugs R Bad

This is one of the first comics published by Huber in 2012. You can see that theWAREHOUSE relies on witty puns and pop-cultural references, in this case “catch a cold” and the film Scarface.

2. Geneva

This is one of the later comics where one could see that Huber began changing his artistic style. You can also notice the designer pun in this one, paying homage to Huber’s career.

3. It’s a Latte to Handle

By 2016 when this comic was published, Huber had already refined the art and found his desired style. In comparison to his earlier stuff, this comic is quite political and not as light-hearted, although it still made us chuckle.

4. Revival

“Revival” is one of the last theWAREHOUSE comics that gave us hope we would continue to enjoy the presence of our favorite characters. Huber uses it to thank his fans for the support, while delivering some of his witty jokes.

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Beginnings

Sarah’s Scribbles is the brain-child of author and artist Sarah Andersen who is now based in Portland, Oregon. Sarah was studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) when she began creating the webcomic series Sarah’s Scribbles (then called Doodle Time) in 2011 as a hobby.

She first started posting her webcomic on Tumblr, which was a haven for millennial artists back in the day. Initially, she used MS Paint and just decided to have a little fun and share it with the people there.

Once the comics were picked up by bigger blogs on the platform, Sarah noticed that many people found them relatable and she realized that her hobby might actually turn into something serious.

In 2014, she graduated from MICA and decided to pursue her new venture full time. She shares that her experience taught her many valuable skills such as work ethic and how to navigate the business side of the art world.

Inspiration, Content, Style

Sarah’s Scribbles is described by its creator as semi-biographical and the main character that we all grew to love is a stand-in for Sarah, but Andersen didn’t want to name her, so she could retain her relatability; all of her readers are Sarah.

This is a really important thing to note about the webcomic. It’s so successful because it’s so relatable. Some people have pointed out that the webcomics read like shower thoughts or random things we all think about when we are alone. Not surprisingly, Sarah actually said that she likes to think of new comics when she is having a shower or riding the subway.

Another important characteristic of the comic is that it mainly depicts the millennial viewpoint. As someone born in the early 1990’s, Sarah wanted to create something that could speak to her generation in a genuine matter. She describes her own experiences and that of her friends to people who, considering her readership, experience the same.

The main character is a wire-haired girl that struggles to “adult” and prefers lying in bed and playing with her cats instead. Sarah notes that millennials often use self-deprecating humor to describe their lives, so she replicates this in Sarah’s Scribbles.

Let’s now talk about the art style. The comics are in black and white and the characters are usually not very detailed, but simplistic, and always cute. What they all share are their wide eyes which are sometimes the pun in the comic. Their bodies also move in ways that science would not approve of, which is another trait of the art style. Oh, and forget about noses.

In terms of the paneling, Sarah initially used a five-panel structure to accommodate to the first platform she shared them on, Tumblr, due to its scrolling feature. Nowadays, however, you can most often see her utilize the four-panel structure, and sometimes the two-panel one.

The lettering is always done on hand, including in the authorized translation of Sarah’s works by other artists.

Favorite Scribbles

We think it’s finally time to appreciate some of Sarah’s most famous comics and some of our personal favorites.

1. If Dogs come from Heaven, then cats…

This is a classic example of Sarah’s “complicated” relationship with cats. Cats are all cute and snuggly until they lash out and you end up with scratches all over yourself. What we also like about this particular comic is that its message is very simple and doesn’t even require words to deliver the punchline.

2. I’m baby, we’re babies

This one is even more minimalistic in terms of spoken speech, featuring only a title and a sound effect. Our titular character, a woman in her 20’s, who’s supposed to be a full-fledged adult is revealed to be a robot controlled by a crying baby. We can all relate to that experience, and unfortunately, being an adult doesn’t come with instructions.

3. Maybe being an adult is not so bad?

Yet another one of Sarah’s “adulting” comics. This one, however, views it in a more positive light than her usual pessimistic tone. Again, this is highly relatable and we don’t have to tell you why, you can just feel it.

4. Whoopsie!

This is for all the perfectionists out there. We love how Sarah innocently describes the problem of attaching your self-worth to the works you create and how this is an unhealthy way to live, yet she and many others still do it.

5. Yep, we’re getting old

We knew this day would come, the day when the titular is not the youngster that struggles with adulting, but the adult that struggles to stay relevant. We can’t imagine her not being relevant, but her humor and antics are “old” by Gen-Z standards. Finally, the Tumblr artist faces the TikTok dancer. We know who we’re rooting for.

Conclusion

We hope you liked this article about Sarah’s Scribbles and you that you had fin reading the comics we picked. To see more from her, you can follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

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Enter Fran Krause

Fran Krause is the man behind this successful webcomic series. Krause doesn’t have a background in comics and his Deep Dark Fears was in fact him testing the waters of the comics world. If you ask us, he hardly looks like an amateur.

Krause was born in Utica, New York, and he has had a passion for art ever since he was a little boy. He recollects taking art classes in school, as well as extra night classes at a local college.

Krause graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BA in animation. One of his projects at college was an animated short called Mister Smile (1999), which was a fan favorite at the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival that also received critical acclaim and managed to win first place in its category.

Krause later also got an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.

In-between these prestigious degrees, Krause worked as an animator and story artist for Blue’s Clues, Little Einsteins, Saturday Night Live, and Superjail. Apart from that, he has created two pilots for Cartoon Network, Utica Cartoon, and Upstate Four.

Deep Dark Fears

With such a rich portfolio, Krause was destined to succeed in his new venture – webcomics. He first got the idea when he worked with James Kochalka. Kochalka is a famous artist and comics creator, who, with the help of Krause, wanted to adapt some of his works into animation.

Krause was impressed by the medium of comics and how they allowed you to tell a story in a few panels. He also liked the fact that comics leave a bit to the reader’s imagination in comparison to animation. It’s no wonder why Marshall McLuhan called comics “a cold medium”.

Krause, who was teaching art at the time, noticed that his students were using Tumblr and decided to give it a go. He found out that Tumblr was a positive place where artists could share their creations, so he found his platform and now he only needed to find his topic.

Krause shares that he has a lot of irrational fears and thought he might turn them into comics. He sat down and wrote 30 of them on a piece of paper and then began drawing them, hoping to produce a weekly series.

Krause quickly gained followers, but he was a bit concerned that his fears, no matter how many, would eventually run out. Luckily for him, fans started sharing their own fears, perhaps thinking the material was submission-based.

Krause then began drawing his fans’ irrational fears and apparently had enough to last him years. He still does it to this day, which is incredibly cool, and if you want to see your deepest darkest fears drawn beautifully by Krause, you can submit them here.

Krause has also published two collections of Deep Dark Fears so far. The titular one, called Deep Dark Fears, in 2015, and the second one called The Creeps in 2017.

What Makes the Webcomic Successful

Initially, Krause just wanted to have some fun, while exploring a new artistic medium. He thought his fears were funny and obscure, but he found out he thought wrong. People found them not only entertaining to read, but also very relatable. Krause was pleasantly surprised and he kept discovering new relatable fears once he began drawing submissions.

Even if you don’t share a specific fear on Deep Dark Fears, you can’t help but feel a sense of relatability. It’s probably because we all have our secret fears, thing we can’t even describe as fears, but thoughts we have daily, so we feel empathetic to other people’s phobias and by association, to our own.

Krause utilizes the four-panel structure, which is highly effective in getting his point across. The fear is explored in the simplest of terms and it usually leaves a bitter taste in one’s mouth that doesn’t leave you for some time. The dreamy quality of the comics is reinforced by the lovely watercolor illustrations that resemble our favorite picture books as children.

Favorite Fears

In this section, we will post some of our favorite Deep Dark Fears comics. In order to keep up with the topic of oddly relatable fears, we will pick the ones that we personally relate to the most. Please don’t use them against us!

1. Ringtones when you’re all alone.

I feel like we can all relate to that. Perhaps we should try to be better friends?

2. Is that you?

A comic straight from nightmare factory that we have probably experienced as children.

3. Crossing the same river twice

And let’s end this article with a big cup of existential dread. Thank you for reading!

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You probably share our passion for webcomics, otherwise why would you be here? The question is, are you a casual enjoyer of webcomics or are you a nerd like us who can pull out some crazy facts about them? If you’re from the former, but want to learn more like the latter, we got you covered!

We will give you all sorts of interesting information about a specific webcomic in our articles, and we will use this space to tell you some cool facts about webcomics in general. Enjoy reading and discovering!

Early History of Webcomics

Some might think that webcomics are a somewhat recent trend, but they’d be terribly wrong. In fact, the first webcomic actually predates the World Wide Web. Witches in Stitches, an unauthorized parody of The Wizard of Oz, was published in CompuServe all the way back in 1985 when the author, Eric Millikin, was still in elementary school.

A few years later, in 1991, Hans Bjordahl’s Where the Buffalo Roam became the first serialized webcomic, published through Usenet. Then, in 1993, Doctor Fun by David Farley became the first webcomic on the World Wide Web.

If you didn’t live in that era, as we personally weren’t born yet, you probably don’t know the technology behind accessing these comics. Unlike our time, the Internet wasn’t readily available and webcomics had to be shared through mailing lists or emails or by being in certain net-groups. The humanity!

Once the WWW took over in the mid-1990’s though, everything changed. Cartoonists were eager to try out that new medium and finally share their art without the constraints of print publishing. Although this period was certainly sensational, not that many artists used the webcomic format.

It was still very much a niche interest, so the result was webcomics exploring topics like technology and geeky references. The audience was also limited, but the people who had access to the Internet back then had similar interests to the content creators, so all was fine.

In the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s webcomics started branching out and covering more bases in terms of topics and style. The craft also experienced its first formalization attempt with the publication of comics theorist Scott McCloud book Reinventing Comics. People thus began to realize the potential of webcomics.

Soon enough, the craze began. Serialized comics and whole graphic novels were published online to much interest. Still, the nerdy, game-related comics were the most sought after, along with highly specific comics that are only relatable to certain niche groups.

Not only did the number of webcomics increased, but artists started winning money from them. Mostly, they did so through merchandise such as selling T-shirts based on their creations.

However, times changed and webcomics with dedicated websites experienced a decline of interest once social media platforms like Tumblr and Facebook gained prominence. On the other hand, Tumblr was the perfect place for new artists to publish their comics and enjoy a much larger audience. A lot of the artists we will talk about on the blog started with Tumblr.

Arguably, this is the time when webcomics transformed from niche-oriented works to highly relatable strips in order to accommodate social media platforms. Moreover, new businesses such as Patreon and Kickstarter also allowed creators to receive donations from their fan base, which allowed them to pretty much turn their hobby into a profitable career.

Despite the fact that the webcomics craze is now over, there haven’t been more webcomics online than now, so try to think of that when you long after the early 2000’s. You can find everything from relatable webcomics to extremely obscure ones with one Google search, and we just love that.

Thank You

Thank you for reading our welcome post and thank you for supporting our blog!

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