theWAREHOUSE: A Review

You might not have heard about this webcomic, but we want to change that, because theWAREHOUSE is a fantastic read. If you want to look at cute little stick figures exploring real-life issues in a funny, yet highly existential tone, then you’re in for a treat.

So, all in all, read our article to find out more about this underrated but really funny webcomic. Discover the style, content, and our absolute favorite issues of theWAREHOUSE here.

The Webcomic Creator

Let’s start this article about theWAREHOUSE by talking more about its creator, Carl Huber. Huber was born and raised in New York and he still lives there in Penfield, NY, noting the hidden beauty of his home state. He comes from a family of artists and engineers, so one could say that he was destined to follow in their footsteps.

Just like other famous webcomic creators, Huber went to art school and graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Fine Art. Although he excelled in his program and learned a lot of things, he shared that many of the art skills he uses today are self-taught.

After college, Huber went straight to professional marketing and branding. He has been working in the business for more than 20 years now. He specializes in product branding and packaging, but he also does web design, illustration and whatnot. He’s a truly accomplished professional in his sphere.

Apart from his professional credits, Huber is also known for creating his own illustrations and designs. As a self-proclaimed nerd, Huber created Natural 20 Shirts, a company making cool T-shirts based on famous tabletop games, video games, and other pop-cultural phenomena. Apparently, Daniel Radcliff, aka Harry Potter, was even spotted wearing one of Huber’s Rick and Morty’s T-shirts!

theWAREHOUSE

Huber first started drawing what would then become theWAREHOUSE on his personal blog. He says that back in the early 2010’s, there were many similar blogs that used to experiment by creating various projects that often caught the attention of people.

Still, this Internet trend began dying out, so he decided to move his webcomic, which had a devoted fan base even then, to another website that is dedicated to it. Thus, the webcomic which started off as random ideas Huber had, managed to reach more people.

The reason why Huber called his webcomic theWAREHOUSE is because he didn’t quite have an idea as to what the comic would be about it. He said he pictured a massive warehouse where every crate is a different idea he had. Other webcomics are usually more specific, but we actually dig the chaotic energy of theWAREHOUSE.

It’s really difficult to describe the focus of the webcomic. I mean, not even its creator could. You can certainly see the so-called nerdy influences, as well as the existential dread that has been a hot topic for webcomics in the past ten years. After all, we all experience, so what’s more relatable than it?

Between the random bits, however, you can find some real-world issues that Huber was exploring at the time. Some of the comics he created are visibly political, and he said himself that he wanted to create social justice design as well around the time that Trump was voted into office.

Huber is still active on various social media platforms and continues to work in marketing and branding, and he still creates his imaginative T-shirts. Unfortunately for all fans of theWAREHOUSE though, Huber appears to have abandoned the project. The last published comic was on September 10, 2019, and that seems to be the end of it.

Huber had a long hiatus between May 2017 and August 2019, with no comics published around that time. Just as he announced his return and brought us some new stuff though, he soon stopped updating and the webcomic’s site went dark. Huber hasn’t given any newer interviews, so neither we nor other fans of his work know why he decided to stop publishing his webcomic. We still hope that he might change his mind and give us yet another revival, but it seems like that’s not happening soon if it happens at all.

We did, however, got many fantastic years of funny comics and we thank him for that. Cheers, Carl Huber!

Best Bits of theWAREHOUSE

As we are reminiscing about the old days when we got frequent updates about the lives of our favorite Internet stick figures, take a look at some of the best works of theWAREHOUSE.

1. Drugs R Bad

This is one of the first comics published by Huber in 2012. You can see that theWAREHOUSE relies on witty puns and pop-cultural references, in this case “catch a cold” and the film Scarface.

2. Geneva

This is one of the later comics where one could see that Huber began changing his artistic style. You can also notice the designer pun in this one, paying homage to Huber’s career.

3. It’s a Latte to Handle

By 2016 when this comic was published, Huber had already refined the art and found his desired style. In comparison to his earlier stuff, this comic is quite political and not as light-hearted, although it still made us chuckle.

4. Revival

“Revival” is one of the last theWAREHOUSE comics that gave us hope we would continue to enjoy the presence of our favorite characters. Huber uses it to thank his fans for the support, while delivering some of his witty jokes.