''Cow and Boy'' is a

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be c ...

created by Mark Leiknes.

Publication history

''Cow and Boy'' was distributed as a print comic by

United Feature Syndicate United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along ...

(UFS), running from January 2, 2006, to December 31, 2012. (While branded with UFS, it was offered as part of the

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news ...

EApackage;"Syndicates," United Media website. Accessed Jan. 19, 2010
Archived at the WayBack Machine
the NEA was part of United Media
, UFS' parent company.) The strip then moved to CowAndBoy.com as a self-published webcomic supported by voluntary $12/year contributions from readers. Following an announcement from Leiknes, the web version ended on December 31, 2013.

Story and characters

The strip centers on an eight-year-old boy named Billy and his best friend Cow, who live on Billy's family's farm. Other characters include Billy's father, his friend Martin, and his tutor Smart Billy. Billy's mother and sister have also appeared in previous runs of the strip. The strip often employs

surreal humor Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical. Portrayals of surrea ...

, with bizarre

recurring gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not ...

s such as "cat-copters" (cats which dive out of the sky and knock people unconscious). Ongoing themes include: *Billy's family's concern about his close friendship with Cow and his need for more human contact. *Billy and Cow creating

fantastic The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, charac ...

moments. *Billy and Cow enjoying doing nothing at all. *Billy's sister and her

annoyance Annoyance is an unpleasant mental state that is characterized by irritation and distraction from one's conscious thinking. It can lead to emotions such as frustration and anger. The property of being easily annoyed is called irritability. ...

with Billy and Cow. *Cow bringing an outsider's perspective to Billy and Martin's games. *Billy's concern over the state of the world.

References

External links

Mark Leiknes's biography from Comics.com
Gag-a-day comics Fictional cattle Fictional farms Comics about animals Surreal comedy 2006 webcomic debuts 2013 webcomic endings {{comic-strip-stub