Why I Read: Brawl In The Family

Hey, melaredblu again, here to gush shamelessly some more about another webcomic I’m been a fan of for years, a delightful little gaming/gag-a-day strip called Brawl in the Family.

Synopsis:

Being a gag-a-day comic, there’s not much in the way of an overarching plot, though there are tons of callbacks to previous strips and the source games, as well as some general continuity in how the characters interact. A few intersecting story arcs have also cropped up now and then. For the most part, however, it’s just a light-hearted little comedy cracking jokes about beloved Nintendo mascots, mostly from the Kirby series.
How I Found It:

I first saw it way back in 2008 when I was just learning to browse the internet for entertainment—before that, we had dial-up, which I only deigned to use if I needed it for a school assignment. A friend emailed me a link to Brawl in the Family, which still a very new strip at the time. It was the first time I had ever seen a webcomic and I kept on following it since then, because there are just some days when you need to go online and see something like this.

Why I Like It:

There’s the obvious nostalgia factor, both from it being the first webcomic I encountered and also because it relates to the games I grew up playing, but I do honestly think it’s a good webcomic even without those advantages. It has a surprising variety of comedic material and knows its audience and medium very well, giving readers what they want while still finding ways to do the unexpected. The strips are generally family-friendly and have a cute, cuddly appeal, but that doesn’t mean it’s just weak fluff; like Kirby himself, Brawl in the Family is cute and versatile. The jokes are full of surprises and draw deeply from the well of Nintendo lore. Even the running gags gradually become more creative over time, building on earlier strips like a Rube Goldberg machine of running gags. Remember the above strip related to Kirby’s Copy ability? The creator gets a lot of mileage out of that one.

Sometimes the comic goes straight-up experimental, playing off some surreal and even outright freaky imagery, and sometimes it delves into a full-blown, (semi) serious story arc. Sometimes the creator waxes lyrical and produces a musical or even animated comic. That was the great thing about this webcomic; you knew what kind of content it would deliver, but never what you would get on any given day. Even the art style sometimes changes to fit the joke.

Probably the most touching moment, however, is the final story arc. After 600 strips, the comic finally ended with a very heartwarming nod to every last fan and content-creator of all things gaming. I don’t think there’s a nicer note you could possibly leave a gag-a-day comic on and even in all the sentimentality, it never lost its cute playfulness and occasionally wry humor.

Things I Think Could Be Better:

As much as I enjoy the humor and overall creativity with the material, the art isn’t spectacular. It definitely improves over time, but aside from some pretty comical expressions, it’s never anything remarkable. Most of all, I wish a commenting system would have been available at some point. The closest Brawl in the Family has to that is the forums, which is a system I’ve never been fond of when it comes to leaving comments on a webcomic. Because of that, I never left a single comment and I sort of regret that now.

Closing Thoughts:

Normally, I would want to draw attention to a comic in progress that deserves more notice, rather than a fairly popular comic that’s already closed shop. While the creator is still active in other projects, Brawl in the Family is over now and all that’s left is a set of archives for readers to binge at their leisure.

But that’s just it—I do read these strips, even now after the comic is over. So why do I read this? I still read it because it admittedly has a special place in my heart, but it only got that way because the comic was genuinely enjoyable from the start. If you have some time to kill and fond memories of Nintendo games, visit the site and see it for yourself. There’s a lot to like about Brawl in the Family even after all is said and done.