“Blobby And Friends”: 35 Comics That Masterfully Address The Social Injustice Ingrained In Everyday Life
Blobby looks a little weird, but who cares about the outside? They're really cool on the inside and that's what matters. This little creature is trustworthy, supportive, and refuses to put up with BS. No wonder 465k people follow them.
But if you still haven't heard about this adorable mush, we can introduce the two of you. They're a fictional character who stars in their own comic series called Blobby and Friends.
It's a project that focuses not only on wholesome everyday life but important social issues, like homelessness and racism as well. What's even more impressive, the stories also manage to squeeze a chuckle out of readers.
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To learn more about Blobby and Friends, Bored Panda had a chat with Zack, a member of the team behind the comics. "I personally started with toy design and puppets, but was looking for an outlet to let me talk about things I care about," he told us. "To be honest, we didn't expect things to go the way they did and I am full of love and gratitude towards our audience."
Zack describes Blobby as "the magical best friend you always wished you had."
Do whatever the hell you want and just be yourself as long as your not hurting anyone
"[Other folks] who appear in the comics are Lily, their human friend (and I really relate to her character a lot, I'm not sure why), Ashley, who is Lily's crush, and Charlie / Punk Kid who can come off as intimidating but is really the most soft and wholesome character we've ever come up with. That's why Charlie is modeling our underwear," Zack said, laughing.
Quote from the American Psychological Association: "Research has shown that 3-month-old babies prefer faces from certain racial groups, 9-month-olds use race to categorize faces, and 3-year-old children in the U.S. associate some racial groups with negative traits. By age 4, children in the U.S. associate whites with wealth and higher status, and race-based discrimination is already widespread when children start elementary school." Anyone who argues young children can't understand race or shouldn't be taught about race is grossly uninformed. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/08/children-notice-race
Many online comics stay away from difficult topics. A little pun here, a corny line there, and that's it. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this concept. There's certainly an audience for it. I just mean that Blobby and Friends stands out from its competitors. Even though the series looked a lot like that in the beginning, too.
"I don't know if there's one thing that inspired me to start the comics in the way that it exists today. We actually started with something really simple, with funny and cute gags that were more at the surface level. As the account grew, we realized we had an opportunity to use Blobby to speak up about more serious topics," Zack explained.
"Listening to the reactions from our followers also made a huge difference for us. I can speak only for myself but I really feel like I’ve personally grown with this world we've created."
More directly, it's your tax dollars funding architecture to exclude and torment people. Are you really okay with this? If not, reach out to your city planners, city governments, and city parks departments and let them know.
It takes courage and skill to drift away from the classic feel-good vibe and still produce compelling strips. However, Zack and the rest of the team manage to consistently pull it off. And that's because of luck. Rather, dedication to the process. "We always stop to think about what kind of message we're putting out there. Whether people can feel represented or understood or can find joy in our stories," he said.
Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Ireland, West Indies, Jamaica, Poland, Slovakia ... all had migrants and refugees come to the UK and all were treated with equal contempt. When my family first came to England, I was too young to understand, but the most common sign you'd see read 'No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs' (Some were worse and said dogs welcome). Xenophobia doesn't care about your skin colour, It doesn't care if home was destroyed, it doesn't care if you were asked to come and work on the infrastructure.
"We try to do that without being overly wordy or coming off too flippant about it. And it's not easy! Partly because we have only four panels to work with, but also because we feel a lot of responsibility towards our audience."
"I feel that at the end of the day, we are all very emotionally invested in this," Zack added. "Some people find that surprising but it’s true. We have a lot of love for our characters, and I hope we’re able to bring people together through that."
This! I had someone try to argue with me this week that hard work is all that matters because millionaires who responded to a survey said they made their fortunes through hard work. *facepalm* OF COURSE, they would say that. That doesn't make it true.
Of course all lives matter but using that slogan meant to replace black lives matter isn't right. That is the campaign we are using to help that minority, so we shouldn't belittle it for not helping everyone. There are many campaigns for stop brown hate and women's rights and LGBTQ. This is just the one for black people
If you cannot finish the drink (and have no people around you trust), it may be best to get a fresh one after the restroom break. No drink is worth the however remote possibility of it being spiked.
If you think you're not like other girls, ask yourself where you picked up and internalized misogyny.
Ugh. Tbh, this is still annoying. "Cute couple" is great! When someone tells my partner and I that we have "courage" though, that's weird. It's a definite reminder we stick out.
Psst: It's really cool when you nerd out about something. If you've found anything at all that you're passionate about, talk about it! Life isn't a competition. It's fun to talk to people who are excited about something.
"My nose is so big so I can smell all the BS coming from people like you." Could be an appropriate reply to any stupid comments.
I love ever single one of these but... the standard image of a blob fish is actually its corpse. They live in the depths of the ocean where it's very high pressure and when they float to the surface and it's a lower pressure... they kinda... explode...
I agree. I find it ironic that the blob is actually a depressurized deep water fish exploding in pain and being used to represent a wise propaganda laced pet. (I don't disagree with the sentiments but racism and sexism issues only get stronger by making special groups of particular races/gender types rather than just accepting they are ALL human but like different things).
Load More Replies...I love ever single one of these but... the standard image of a blob fish is actually its corpse. They live in the depths of the ocean where it's very high pressure and when they float to the surface and it's a lower pressure... they kinda... explode...
I agree. I find it ironic that the blob is actually a depressurized deep water fish exploding in pain and being used to represent a wise propaganda laced pet. (I don't disagree with the sentiments but racism and sexism issues only get stronger by making special groups of particular races/gender types rather than just accepting they are ALL human but like different things).
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