Camp Weedonwantcha: Parental neglect has never been this fun!

Camp Weedonwantcha is a comic about the titular camp, where unwanted children are left by their parents to fend for themselves, alone in the middle of the woods without parental supervision and nothing to eat but the occasional airdropped crate of thrown-away food. Tons of black comedy ensues. The comic focuses on Malachi and his friends Brian and Seventeen, but there's tons of recurring minor characters, each with their own (often dysfunctional) personality. The comic flows pretty seamlessly between gag-a-day strips and longer storylines, the latter of which can get pretty sad at times considering how every single character appearing outside of flashbacks has a tragic backstory.

There's also an easter egg where a crate full of feral cats gets dropped into the camp early on and every single strip afterwards features a cat somewhere, sometimes in plain sight and sometimes extremely well hidden.

The bare-bones trope page is here. The comic was first created as the winning entry in a contest hosted by Penny Arcade to find a new comic for their site. Penny Arcade has a link to the comic on their front page, but it's hosted on a site of its own.

Oh hey, I love this comic! Shame this thread doesn't have more posts

edited 2nd Aug '17 5:27:39 PM by Cailleach

Same. I wonder where this arc (Linus and Malachi going into the Deep Woods) is going.

Me too! I got so excited when I saw Malachi about to finally discover the long-anticipated Main Office

I also just submitted a story to Campfire Stories the other day. I went to camp for 14 years so I have more than a few funny/exciting/sweet camp stories

edited 2nd Aug '17 7:35:58 PM by Cailleach

Indeed. Can't wait to see the next strip.

Interesting. I've never been to a camp myself. What is it like? Not like Weedonwantcha, I hope.

I loved camp. That's why I kept going back for 14 years (and became a counselor-in-training at 13 and a counselor at 16) Summer camps get a bad rap because of how prevalent the Summer Campy trope is, but they really are a blast if you're an outdoorsy person who enjoys spending time with other people. Camp is where I made some of my best friends and learned a lot of my most valuable life skills.

One of the reasons I like this comic so much is because of all the relatable camp moments. Like putting on a spontaneous talent show or forming your own organization like the Animal Protection Society and trying to give it a pretend power structure but then getting into fights over titles (you leave a group of kids to their own devices and that's what happens )

edited 3rd Aug '17 10:56:26 AM by Cailleach

I remember briefly following this via Penny Arcade, but I guess I lost interest at some point. Probably because I'm not a big fan of parental neglect...

That said, if a form of comeuppance for all the kids' parents is to happen in the future, I'd probably have more incentive to read this comic, if only for just that scenario.

Especially if it plays out like this :

I read it for a bit, but a) it was depressing as all get-out and b) I kept getting hit with Lord of the Flies-level Fridge Horror about what the older stronger kids might be up to.

Pretty sure the Ropes Course kids would fall under that umbrella.

Some thread necromancy for something fans might be interested in from Katie Rice's Twitter:

Whoa, nice!

Hey, quick question: Is this one of those cases of a really good but dead comic? Because I had a blast reading through it, but it looks like there hasn't been an update since January. Did it end, did it just stop, or is there merit in waiting for more still?

edited 25th Apr '18 1:55:03 PM by TheLovecraftian

I was wondering the same thing. I skipped to the most recent and it has a finale like feel to it but I haven't done any backtracking yet

It feels like a finale, but an arc finale, not one for the whole thing. Then again, there doesn't seem to be a word either way, so we can only wonder.

There are some details about the reasons in the comments on that last comic, but the short form is "Done for now, maybe they will come back at some point in the future".

Goddammit, why do I keep finding good comics only after they end? Still, that's good to know. At least it ended on a high note, storywise.

Also, holy shit, there was a good reason to stop. Really sad, honestly, but also good to see such an example of bravery in times like these.

edited 25th Apr '18 8:59:23 PM by TheLovecraftian

The comments on the comic wouldn't load for me so I didn't see what it was about. I just figured it was either completed or dropped for whatever reason

Use this alternate access to the comments : https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/217145/camp-comic-friday-january-19-2018-why-we-re-here

Suddenly a cartoon pilot!

For one very hopeful second, I saw that someone had posted here and thought the comic had returned. Still, a short. Nothing to scoff at. I'll have to take a look.

EDIT:Yeah, ok, that was pretty nice. A good little concentration of the stuff that makes the comic good. It's a pity Nickelodeon didn't take it.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Aug 18th 2018 at 8:55:36 AM