The Brads - Fail Whale
February 15th, 2010
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Brad Colbow is an independent web designer and illustrator living in Cleveland Ohio. He is the owner of Colbow Design and creator of the web comic, The Brads. If you’re looking for fun and practical website design Contact Me.
Website © 2010 Brad Colbow. The Brads is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License
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Jan
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmSo true. All you ever hear about is all those amazing backend developer guys. Often the frontend work is unfairly being neglected. (I’m looking madly at you frontpage!)
Dana Kashubeck
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmI really love every comic you do, but I think I laughed the hardest at this. Just the sense of drama for poor Brad . . . the poor whale’s face . . . It is just hilarious! You are truly gifted!!
I agree with Beth; maybe you could expand this into a story line with people trying to tweet about what happened, and how they get the poor whale back up off the ground.
Taylor Durham
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis one is hilarious! I love the panel layouts in this one as well! keep them coming!
Jµ
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmSo damn hilarious !!!
Design Informer
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmAWESOME! Love everything about the comic, even the unintended front/back end plot. Great job Brad! Like I said, I can’t wait until you can do this full-time.
Joe Fiorini
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmVery nice work. I choked on my Subway sandwich I was laughing so hard. I love seeing you gradually get more intricate and involved with your comics. The city scene was very well done. Best yet!
Josh Walsh
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmThe artwork in this is fantastic. You’re really in your element now.
Hilarious.
CraigC
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmDear Brad, Always pretend you “meant to do that”. Great Job.
kyle steed
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmlove it.
RLephew
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmBy far the best one yet! Visually otherwise. There may be hope for you yet in this industry. Keep it up, one day you’ll make it.
holeycoww
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmI LOVE this comic! Probably my favorite one out of all ‘the brads’ to date. Excellent work!
Aaron Calderon
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pm@Jan
Interesting deduction…
Brad C
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pm@Jan, oh wow, I didn’t think of the comic that way (frontend/backend) that’s kinda cool. I just was daydreaming about what happens before twitter shows the birds carrying off the Fail Whale.
If anything it should probably be the other way around because frontend designers tend to take development for granted when we use things like Wordpress and Drupal.
Doug Neiner
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmHey Brad… I love this comic! Its your ability to see more than the average person that makes your comics both funny an entertaining to read. I love how the whale looks as surprised as the person. Love it!
Jolt
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pm@brad C : While the back end may be “heavier” the front end can be more difficult. Being that the back end is coding, you know what it needs to look like in order to reach the required functionality, and you just do it. but the design has to be dynamic and look good for the end user and has to change from project to project.
Beth
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmYou need another panel where the entire city is freaking out because Twitter is down hahaha.
Brad C
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pm@ Doug, thanks man, really appreciate that.
@Jolt, I don’t think I want to get into a debate about who’s job is harder front or back-end but I know this: I love being on the front end, it’s exciting and there is always something new and interesting to work on and that trumps any difficulties I may run into.
@Beth, some comics are really hard to end because there are 6 different and funny ways to do it, this was one of those comics.
Kyle
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis is awesome, love the double entendre. You’re a very talented dude.
Jundooz
February 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmI just discovered this blog and I find it brillant! Really like the website interface too, can tell you’re a great webdesigner. How long does it take you to do a comic strip?
Brad C
February 16, 2010 at 1:00 pm@Aaron, don’t feel bad Aaron, it’s my blog and I can’t come up with good follow up comments. Thanks for coming by and glad you like the comics
Aaron Calderon
February 16, 2010 at 1:00 pm@ All
Not fair…
Everyone posted better comments than me. Better structured, simple, easy to read, funny… I just typed two words and three dots. I need to work on my creativity and creative writing.
At least I was one of the first to post. :D
I have spent the last two days going through the archives and I love them all.
I even learned a thing or two, like “No!, That is Spec Work!”
I’m telling everyone I know about your site.
Chris Thurman
February 16, 2010 at 1:00 pmOne word: BRILLIANT!
Stomme poes
February 16, 2010 at 1:00 pmWHITE
WHALE
I see Ahab on the billboard… jawsome.
Wasn’t Fail Whale blamed on Ruby initially? (I guess it actually ended up being architecture rather than language choice but that’s how rumours begin).
I’m surprised the little twits are brown.
jahoo
February 17, 2010 at 1:00 pmGreat comics, very funny!!
DesignLovr
February 18, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis one is hilarious :D
Really love the idea and it’s also beautifully executed (=illustrated)
Ravikumar V.
February 22, 2010 at 1:00 pmlove it
Jµ
February 23, 2010 at 1:00 pmStill laughing… My favorite so far !
Maverick
March 2, 2010 at 1:00 pmseeing the first frame i thought the cartoon strip was about the 9/11 incident.
this cartoon was really cool. well done.
David Perel
March 2, 2010 at 1:00 pmOh my I haven’t laughed like that in a looong time! Excellent work Brad
Fee
March 9, 2010 at 1:00 pmNice (Y), poor tweeters, with the weight of the fail they carry with them. (ahem)
Chris Hattery
March 10, 2010 at 1:00 pmHaha, this is clever.
cheth
March 10, 2010 at 1:00 pmnice one
Chris Ota
March 10, 2010 at 1:00 pmI loved the comic and the first comment by Jan.
Fenson Jeremy
March 10, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis is both hilarious and enlightening. Thanks Brad.
tlamomi
March 10, 2010 at 1:00 pmits good men ... i like it.
Atrimpi
March 12, 2010 at 1:00 pmHave you read the classic story by Harlan Ellison about the day a Pteranodon fell into a busy intersection?
——-
Elliott
May 6, 2010 at 3:10 pmHahahahaha - very, very funny!
Delana Falso
June 8, 2010 at 9:08 pmNice review.
Another thing, loving your blog layout. I used to have a similar blog to yours before I sold it on at the beginning of last year.