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 cartoonist Reza Farazmand. It features mostly standalone comic strips that range from just one frame to many, most of which are satirical or absurdist in tone. The topic of each strip varies, with recurring themes including space travel, supernatural occurrences, science fiction, friendship, and existentialism. Most strips are conclusive and able to be read without any previous knowledge of storyline; however, the comic also contains some ongoing story arcs, along with recurring characters such as Ernesto, a green bear who lives in outer space.
History
Farazmand began making comic strips in high school, and created Poorly Drawn Lines while he was a freshman at
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
. The strip first appeared in UCSD's college newspaper, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. Farazmand has drawn the comic full-time since 2013, posting new strips every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
In 2014, several Poorly Drawn Lines strips were adapted for five episodes of the
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
animated series TripTank.
Since 2013, Poorly Drawn Lines has been signed with
GoComics
GoComics is a website launched in 2005 by the digital entertainment provider Uclick. It was originally created as a distribution portal for comic strips on mobile phones, but in 2006, the site was redesigned and expanded to include online strips ...
.
Farazmand's first book, ''Poorly Drawn Lines: Good Ideas and Amazing Stories'' was published by
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. It was ranked no. 5 on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller List for the week of October 25, 2015.
In 2021, it was announced that an animated ''Poorly Drawn Lines'' cartoon was to be part of the fifth season of FXX's '' Cake'' which aired on September 30, 2021.
Merchandise
The author is partly funded by the sale of products such as prints, greeting cards, and T-shirts.