September 4, 2002

10:26 PM

David Gonterman is "the Ed Wood of internet cartooning", according to some. He is a frustrated but relentless artist whose "passion far exceeds his aptitude", and who seems destined for mediocrity and ridicule everywhere but in the panels of his own comics, where he treads the earth like a living god -- a misogynistic, racist, and ultimately unintelligible god, yes, but man, he sure can dance.
posted by Hildago (10 comments total)

One more thing. The Gonterman Shrine's FAQ page pleads with users not to e-mail Gonterman about the page, as there was some worry that he might get take it the wrong way, get angry, and remove some of his material off the web in a fit of rage, or perhaps roboticize the persons responsible. I stumbled on the site by accident and found it (and David Gonterman himself) fascinating, so I asked the author if it would be ok to post it on Metafilter. He responded in e-mail, saying that Gonterman had found out about the site anyway, and that "after some quick talking, saw the good aspects of it," so I guess all's well that ends well.

This is all really weird stuff, though.
posted by Hildago at 10:27 PM on September 4, 2002

Man, there's some strange shit out there on the web. Valuable brain space has just been taken up by viewing that and it's been deemed not worthy!
posted by Jubey at 10:46 PM on September 4, 2002

Here I go, down the memory hole...another 45 minutes of my workday gone completely, with little to show for them but dried tears of laughter at the corner of my eyes.

I don't know why, but I find Gontermania absolutely compelling. Thanks for...uh...exposing me to it.
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:58 PM on September 4, 2002

This is one of the best posts I've ever read on MeFi. The guy is 32 years old! After I'd read Nitro, I thought he was maybe 15-16, and pretty messed up. Jesus. Tragicomic indeed, boom boom.
posted by RokkitNite at 8:08 AM on September 5, 2002

Well, this ate an hour of my life. The GonterQuote generator makes that page worth reloading again and again. Thre's something oddly beautiful about the fact that this sentence was actually written by a person, whose first language is presumably English:

"I flat out want to see that blue bastard roboticized very slowly with the controls slammed by my own fist."
posted by Prospero at 10:00 AM on September 5, 2002

Cripes. This reaffirms my belief that, while not physically dangerous, fanfic writers are some of the most terrifying folks in the universe. Thanks for the horror.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:33 AM on September 5, 2002

I just love that the lines between reality and video-game reality have blurred for him to the point where roboticization is a viable form of revenge.
posted by Hildago at 10:51 AM on September 5, 2002

Hildago, you are as a God unto me.
Thank you. Thank you for this bounty. I have nothing of any substance to contribute, just... thank you.
posted by kavasa at 12:19 PM on September 5, 2002

Wow. Thanks. Yeesh.
posted by poseur at 12:59 PM on September 5, 2002

Hours of my life have now been poured into reading his truly abysmal works. I feel like I've been struck in the forehead with a coal shovel.
posted by RokkitNite at 1:38 PM on September 5, 2002