Surfman in the "NO" Race

Surfman in the "NO" Race
Surfman in the "NO" Race
	The first page of the comic, scanned in 2018
Author(s)	Darien Brice Dickinson; (Studio RGB-Newt)
Illustrator(s)	Joshua James Dickinson (some pages)
Website	neonwabbit.the-comic.org (partial 2012 remake only)
Current status/schedule	Published
Launch date	January 1, 2004
End date	January 8, 2004
Alternate name(s)	Surfman
Publisher(s)	The Fishal Project
Genre(s)	Action; Comedy;
Original language	English
Rating(s)	General audiences

Surfman in the "NO" Race is an eight page-long stick figure comic written and illustrated by Darien Brice Dickinson and his brother Joshua James Dickinson under the Darien Enterprises Co. brand (now Studio RGB-Newt / The Fishal Project), with a single page drawn each day and shared with family and friends, at some point in 2004 (defaulting to January 1–8, due to the actual date being forgotten), the year when Darien turned 8 years old. The original version of the comic, drawn on lined sheets ripped out of a school notebook, is the only surviving story that still exists out of a larger compilation of comics also made by Darien that year.

Other "Surfman" comics from this compilation, which were thrown out at some point (making them permanently lost media), spawned an semi-antagonist, anti-hero character: a man infected by a parasite in the form of a long-eared alien cat mask, whose later designs became the rabbit character Neon Mascot, as the art style evolved over the years, inadvertently making the ears longer.

Efforts to recreate Surfman in the "NO" Race, in the same or similar art style for legacy reasons, have occurred multiple times in the years since. First, the comic was recreated in Microsoft PowerPoint, with each panel now a slide in a slideshow. One other effort to recreate the comic for its 10th anniversary in 2014, started and ended in 2012, with only half of the comic being completed^[1]. Another effort to recreate the comic as an animation began in 2018, and is set to release on the comic's 20th anniversary year in 2024, albeit probably not in January.

Plot and setting

Characters

Production

Concept

Development

Reception

Dickinson was encouraged to continue creating "Surfman" and other comics after positive reception from family and friends. "Surfman" and all other related characters from the early-2000s era were discontinued a few years later, with the exception of only Neon Mascot, who still remains a legacy character to this day, due to audiences taking a liking to their antics in the now missing "Surfman" comics.