Internet comics are a lot like regular comics. Some of them are amazing and transcend the medium of comics to create something brilliant and sometimes even inspiring. Others were atrocities created by people who will be known as history's greatest monsters.
Thus, I give you “Law for Kids.” One of the earlier webcomics to grace the internet.
In 1997 Arizona, a foundation known as the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education needed to connect with the youth in order to teach them law. What better way to patronize kids than with comics? Let's see what they came up.
...Huh.
I guess the moral is that even if you yourself are not physically a
motorized vehicle you are still susceptible to the law. If you have
wheels, the law will find you. I think I get it. Maybe this comic
takes place in a world where people who have access to vehicles are
oppressed by authority, no matter how feeble. Yeah, that sounds about
right. Let's look at another.
Now this just doesn't make sense. What the hell is an MVD? At least they added a sixth panel this time instead of leaving the space blank.
Oh, wait, I get it now!
This is a story of materialism! We open on a young man, facing away from the viewer giving him a faceless appearance. He is nobody, no identity whatsoever. After fifteen years and seven months of traveling he can finally earn his permit, effectively giving him purpose in his life. Now he can start selling cars with the name of his business marked on each car he sells: “Student Driver.” But as can be seen in the third panel, capitalism does not bring him happiness. So he starts again from square one, walking back to the mystical MVD in order to trade in his permit (representing his identity) for something else that will make him happy. He writes off his new car as an occupancy expense and has enough money to buy a completely new social class and license to do as he pleases. What looks like a happy ending is soiled when the protagonist's face in the final panel mirrors his face from the second panel, showing the cyclical pattern of consumerism. Brilliant. I can't wait to see the next.
Um... I'm not sure there's much story here. Maybe this one takes place in a post-apocalyptic society where peasants are forced to fight to the death at the whims of the upper class. Look at all the debris in the background of first three panels. It's like Mad Max- one must enter and one must leave. If the fight ends with neither combatant dead the high emperor casts them out into the wastes to die. Man, this is getting intense.
Oh, these are just a bunch of crapfully pieced together comics, aren't they? There's nothing to be gained here. They didn't even get a real artist to draw them.
Someone actually thought people would take these seriously.
There were a few more comics. And an animated flash cartoon done in a similarly half-assed style. In 2003, i-Mockery made them popular and the comic became known as “Lawl for Kids.” People edited the comics and... well, these are only some of the results. You can find a lot more with a google search. Enjoy, and God bless the internet.
