Boy on a Stick and Slither (sometimes abbreviated as BOASAS) is a webcomic by Steven L. Cloud. Strips usually feature a short, pithy and sometimes surreal exchange between the title characters. The strip is characterized by dry and cynical humor.
History
Boy on a Stick and Slither was first uploaded in 1999 and was originally a member of webcomics collective Dumbrella. Though Boy on a Stick and Slither primarily exists on the web, it has also been published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and in Esquire magazine. In April 2007, the webcomic was picked up by United Media, which syndicated the webcomic online at Comics.com until February 2009. Boy on a Stick and Slither has since been hosted on its own website.
Style
Tym Godek of The Webcomics Examiner described Boy on a Stick and Slither as with saying "Nothing in BOASAS stands still. Jittering characters, constantly shifting backgrounds and frequent non-sequiturs proliferate through the webcomic." Cloud breaks the mold in composition, frequently experimenting with backgrounds and panel layouts. Cloud noted in an interview that color is very important to him, and he described picking colors for any given strip as "probably my favorite thing to do." For print publications, Cloud draws alternate black-and-white versions of his strips. Godek of The Webcomics Examiner described Boy on a Stick as "the voice of innocence and possibility" who is paired with Slither, "the voice of cynicism and negation." However, Godek also described both characters is inherently nihilistic, though the Boy in a more cheerful manner. Whitney of Comixtalk, meanwhile, described the two characters as "icons or stand-ins for any two people."