A recent addition to Blizzard's fan art page shows a dramatic cast of characters for a new online comic entitled Messy Cow, by a talented illustrator named Weng Chen. I always love to see new webcomics, especially WoW-related ones, so naturally I headed over to messycow.com to check it out, and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. Weng Chen (who also goes by the internet nickname "Wonn") has been drawing manga (an Asian style of comics) since she was 14, and recently been introduced to MMO gaming through WoW. She taps into a huge fanbase with a comic about WoW, too, and has gotten a good start on translating the comics from Chinese to English with the help of some native speakers. Messy Cow has 8 pages of comics in English at the time of this posting, with many many more in Chinese, and she seems to be translating them very quickly. So far, the English comics give a good sense of what it's like to be a new WoW player, finding lots of cute humor in the situations a new player faces, as well as highlighting some of the most important things a new player has to learn as he or she gets into the game, from how she chose her character, to how she learned about loot rules, to how she first got into PvP . If you have a friend who is new to the game or wondering what playing is like, this comic could be a great way to get her interested and comfortable with it.
In addition, Messy Cow shows just how much of the WoW experience is the same, whether you are in the East or the West. Both sides of the world love this game, and deal with a lot of the same issues when entering into it for the first time. When people talk about WoW, anywhere in the world, it is a set of common experiences we share, a common culture that overlaps whatever differences there are between us.
It may seem too idealistic to some, but in an era when there are wars and rumors of wars on the lips of people all over the world, mounted on top of so much fear and misunderstanding between cultures who really ought to have nothing to fight about, it's encouraging to see more evidence of the World of Warcraft bridging the gap -- one of many forms of media and culture that build common ground all around the world. In Azeroth, we relish the war, but on earth WoW fosters peace and shared identity.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-27-2007 @ 6:27PM
uncaringbear said...
Very cute and well done. I'd much rather see quality content like this from the WoW Community than racist crap like the "Ni Hao (A Gold Farmers Story)" video. Unfortunately, the latter generates more comments and page views, so we're stuck with both on WoW Insider.
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8-27-2007 @ 6:28PM
PDKM said...
I can see it now: The day when all the worlds wars are fought in a wow battleground! Take that Bin Laden! My 19 rogue twink will kick your ass!
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8-27-2007 @ 6:48PM
Nana said...
The time between the PvP comic (#6) and the current two (#7, 8) was about 17 months, so... not exactly "updated frequently." Glad it's back, though!
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8-27-2007 @ 10:10PM
daniel.roy said...
I know Weng Chen from working with her in Shanghai (she lives in the US now.) She's a wonderfully gifted artist. And yes - WoW does bridge cultures wonderfully over there. :)
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8-27-2007 @ 11:26PM
Sylythn said...
I recall coming across Messy Cow ages ago, and it seemed like it never got updated - glad to see it might have some new life breathed into it.
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8-27-2007 @ 11:46PM
Gurei said...
Very nice comic,il remember to chek it periodically .
Definetly a needed flavor for wow fancomics and amazing art IMO.
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8-28-2007 @ 1:05AM
Markymark said...
@1 Ni Hao is not racist. I'm tired of people saying that. It's a damn video making fun of gold farmers. If you find the video racist you must sympathize with gold farmers i would assume.
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8-28-2007 @ 9:12AM
ThorinII said...
Everybody Weng Chen tonight! Very nicely done.
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8-28-2007 @ 9:52AM
dotorion said...
Actually, considering Weng Chen is Chinese, the art style would be called Mànhuà, as 'manga' should only be used to refer to the original Japanese art style.
Other names have been made to use for similar Asian drawing styles, such as Manhwa for Korean comics and Mànhuà for Chinese comics resembling (traditionally )Japanese manga drawing styles.
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8-28-2007 @ 2:46PM
uberartist said...
@9 To be fully correct, the Chinese and Korean names for manga are only different so they can be "nicely" translated into the local language. You could technically get closer in Chinese, but "hua" means "paint" so it's used instead.
I think to say that manga is exclusively Japanese is not correct. In english, they are all manga, and if you want to get more specific then you can say Japanese manga, or Chinese manga, but it should be used the same way as you use the word "comic". You can say American comic or European comic, but in the end they are all comics. Just as all manga is manga, in it's pure definition. It is not bound to a specific nationality, even if it originated there.
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