''Doctor Fun'' is a single-panel,

gag A gag is usually an item or device designed to prevent speech, often as a restraint device to stop the subject from calling for help and keep its wearer silent. This is usually done by blocking the mouth, partially or completely, or attemptin ...

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 co ...

by David Farley. It began in September 1993, making it one of the earliest webcomics, and ran until June 2006. ''Doctor Fun'' was part of

United Media United Media was a large Column (periodical), editorial column and comic strip newspaper print syndication, syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comi ...

's website from 1995, but had parted ways by 2003. The comic may have been the longest-running webcomic before it concluded, having run for nearly thirteen years with over 2,600 strips. The webcomic has been compared to ''

The Far Side ''The Far Side'' is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealist ...

''.

History

''Doctor Fun'' began on September 24, 1993,What's New: September, 1993
Mosaic Communications Corporation. and has been called "first comic published on the Web". It was not the first comic series published through the Internet – '' Witches and Stitches'' was distributed through

CompuServe CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...

in 1985, and ''

Where the Buffalo Roam ''Where the Buffalo Roam'' is a 1980 American semi-biographical comedy film which loosely depicts author Hunter S. Thompson's rise to fame in the 1970s and his relationship with Chicano attorney and activist Oscar "Zeta" Acosta. The film was p ...

'' which was distributed though

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...

in 1991 – but it published through the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

, meaning it appeared on it own webpage rather than being sent out just by mailing lists or other earlier Internet technology.HTML is only one method of electronic distribution. "Readers know how to find "Fun"". '' Chapel Hill Herald''. December 17, 2000. Pg. 9. "We thought that 'Doctor Fun' might have been the first Web cartoon as well, but Farley pointed out that the honor of being first goes to a cartoon called 'Where the Buffalo Roam' by Hans Bjordahl." Its creator, Dave Farley, started uploading ''Doctor Fun'' while working as a computer technician for the library system at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. In 1995, David Farley was signed by newspaper

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

service

; under the deal, ''Doctor Fun'' appeared on United Media's website.Astor, David. "Web site cartoonist is signed by United". ''

Editor & Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the newspaper industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry." Originally based in New York City, ...

''. July 8, 1995. Pg. 33. Full text available at https://archive.org/stream/sim_editor-publisher_1995-07-08_128_27/sim_editor-publisher_1995-07-08_128_27_djvu.txt By 2003, Farley's contract with United Media had "fallen through."Dyrness, Christina. "The wide, WILD world of IBIBLIO". ''

The News & Observer ''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the '' Charlotte Observer''). The paper has be ...

''. March 13, 2003. Pg. F1. Full text archived at https://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/ibiblio/dyrness-story.html A book collection was published by

Plan Nine Publishing Plan Nine Publishing was a small press book publisher known for publishing webcomics in printed form. The first series published, and perhaps its most famous, was ''Kevin and Kell''. History Plan Nine Publishing was named after the Ed Wood film ' ...

in 2004. In 2003, Farley said to

that ''Doctor Fun'' was the longest-running webcomic. (This is no longer the case, with longer-running comics such as

Kevin and Kell ''Kevin and Kell'' is a furry comedy webcomic strip by syndicated cartoonist Bill Holbrook. The strip began on September 3, 1995, and is one of the oldest continuously running webcomics. The comic's website states it is "The World's Longest R ...

and

Sluggy Freelance ''Sluggy Freelance'' is a long-running webcomic written and drawn by Pete Abrams. Starting in 1997, it is one of the oldest successful webcomics, and as of 2012 had hundreds of thousands of readers. Abrams was one of the first comic artists succ ...

.) Farley said in 2005 that he hoped to keep doing ''Doctor Fun'' for at least ten years in total, or 520 weeks. On June 9, 2006, after posting the final page of his 520th week of strips, he announced that his series was concluded. According to a mirror archive, the comic ran every weekday with some weeks off through the years, for nearly thirteen years. Farley produced over 2,600 ''Doctor Fun'' strips during its run. ''Doctor Fun'' was hosted on

Ibiblio ibiblio (formerly SunSITE.unc.edu and MetaLab.unc.edu) is a "collection of collections", and hosts a diverse range of publicly available information and open source content, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politic ...

. The Ibiblio page is no longer live on the Internet, but archives exist.

Content

Each ''Doctor Fun'' comic is a single-panel gag. Subjects include

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * Pop (Gas al ...

, and "outright weirdness". Farley said in 1994 that he drew the comics "in batches" and that it took about an evening to finish each color cartoon. He drew the comics on paper and scanned them.

Reception

A writer for the

National Center for Supercomputing Applications The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is a state-federal partnership to develop and deploy national-scale computer infrastructure that advances research, science and engineering based in the United States. NCSA operates as a ...

said in the comic's first month that the creation of the strip was "a major breakthrough for the Web". A columnist for the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

'' discussed ''Doctor Fun'' in 1994 in an article on webcomics, or "net.toons" as they called them. The columnist called ''Doctor Fun'' "a

Far Side ''The Far Side'' is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealis ...

clone", describing it as a "one-panel, full-color net.toon with a decidedly twisted outlook" and saying, "Farley's appeal is universal". A brief article in

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

in 2000 recommended ''Doctor Fun.'' Farley said in 2003 that ''Doctor Fun'' received close to 50,000 hits per day.

References

External links

* , archived using the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

(incomplete)
Complete archive of Doctor Fun
written by the author in 2005 *
Docteur Fun
' {{Early webcomics Webcomics in print American comedy webcomics 1990s webcomics 2000s webcomics