About the comic

Sandra and Woo is a comedy webcomic featuring the girl Sandra North and her pet raccoon Woo. While most strips are just supposed to be funny or tell an interesting story, some also deal with more serious topics such as the destruction of the environment. We also want to show what growing up means for Sandra and her best friends in middle school, Cloud and Larisa. Another regular feature of the comic are Woo’s trips to the forest to meet his furry friends Shadow (a fox) and Sid (a squirrel) and his love interest Lily. Since fall 2009, a significant number of strips features Cloud and Larisa as main characters.

Contact information

Writer, webmaster and forum administrator:

• Oliver Knörzer (Novil)
• Mayenner Straße 48
• 71332 Waiblingen, Germany
• novil@gmx.de (If you have general questions about Sandra and Woo, you should rather write a mail to me instead of Powree.)

Artist:

• Puri Andini (Powree)
• Bandung, Indonesia
• Powree’s DeviantArt gallery
• powree@yahoo.com

• Former colorist: Lisa Moore (Hueville)

Editors:

• Charles Wang (DerelictJet in our forum)

• Chris (the_antichris in our forum)

• C. Wray (guyy in our forum)
• guyy’s Pixel Gravity simulation software

• Sarah Dunphy (Neveko in our forum)
• Neveko’s stories at DeviantArt

Legal stuff

This website and all of its content is published according to German law. The exclusion of liability contains additional information about copyright, privacy and responsibilities of the website owner. / Die Veröffentlichung dieser Website und aller auf ihr zu findenden Inhalte erfolgt gemäß deutschem Recht. Der Haftungsausschluss enthält weitere Informationen über Urheberrechte, Datenschutz und Pflichten des Website-Betreibers.

See also our privacy policy.

Sandra and Woo is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

This means you are free to share the comic strips, that means to copy, distribute and transmit them under the following conditions:

• Attribution: You must attribute the creators and the source of the comic strip. This means you aren’t allowed to remove the creator names and the website url at the bottom of the comic strip. If you want to use a cropped piece of a comic strip, the same information has to be found in text format next to the image. An additional link to http://www.sandraandwoo.com/ must be provided for online publications.
• Noncommercial: You may not use the comic strip for commercial purposes.
• No derivative works: You may not alter, transform, or build upon the comic strip.

“Noncommercial” means that only an insignificant amount of money is made, e.g. with ads on the website. Up to three comic strips can be posted on commercial websites without monetary compensation as well if it’s a webcomic website or if the comic strips are posted as part of a review of Sandra and Woo.

This free license only applies to all the comic strips in the main comic archive written by Oliver Knörzer (Novil) and drawn by Puri Andini (Powree). It doesn’t apply to all other pieces of artwork found on our websites.

Awards and reviews

Awards

• Sandra and Woo was given a Webcomic Beaky Award as one of the three best new webcomics of 2008 by the jury of the Webcomic Beacon podcast.
• Sandra and Woo was nominated as one of three comics for the category “Best Black and White Art” at the Wecomic List Awards 2010.
• Sandra and Woo was nominated as one of five comics for the category “Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip” at the Ursa Major Awards 2010.
• Sandra and Woo was nominated as one of five comics for the category “Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip” at the Ursa Major Awards 2011.

Reviews

• Review by Coyote Trax, the author of Coyote Trax’s WebComics Critique:
  • “So if you’re into Calvin and Hobbes, you will like this strip. It’s full of the witty and inspirational observations!”
• Review by Eric Mesa, the author of I’m Not Mad:
  • “I just finished reading through the Sandra and Woo archives and all I could think was, “Why can’t this be one of those comics that has thousands of strips in its archives?”
• Review by Luprand, the author of Luprand’s Webcomic Musings:
  • “So in the end, has Calvin and Hobbes found a weekly successor? You’ll have to answer for yourself, but this pun tips the scales for me.”
• Review by Mint, the author of Minty Musings:
  • “Thankfully, these [the characters] are balanced extremely well, with all of the characters being entertaining in their own way.”
• Review by Onyx, the author of Haphazard:
  • “But on the whole, this is a well written, quirky and quaint humor comic that thus far has prooven entertaining.”
• Review by Robert A. Howard, the author of Tangents:
  • “[…] and the result is a comic I highly recommend for the young at heart and those who are looking for comics that are more positive and uplifting to read.”
• [Spanish] Review by Arriba de la Red, the author of Arriba de la red

Short reviews and opinions

• Review by Andy, the author of Tisdel’s Tirades:
  • “I enjoy watching Woo and his animal friends more than I do the humans in the comic, but the humans are still interesting and generally well-drawn.”
• Review by Anna Jorgensen, author at Wandering Librarians:
  • “This webcomic is ridiculously cute and hilarious. I’m not sure if you understand how much I liked it.”
• Review by Arrowstorm, the author of Arrowstorm’s Weekend Webcomics:
  • “[Sandra and Woo is] generally a cute, funny, and sometimes downright adorable, comic with good art and writing behind it.”
• Review by Brigid Alverson, author at Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources:
  • “Sandra and Woo is closer to PG than all ages, […], but the cute animals and the clean artwork have plenty of kid-appeal.”
• Review by Catalyst, the author of Archive Crawl:
  • “It is hard to make a point and still be entertaining, but Sandra and Woo pulls it off.”
• Review by Christopher Schultz at WebcomicZ:
  • “The comics are original, funny and clever. And, the comic is also wonderfully drawn as well.”
• Review by Cobrateen at DeviantArt:
  • “The comic seems to pride itself on realism when it comes to nature and animals, or at least comic-world realism, so you’ll learn a few things, mostly about raccoons.”
• Review by Ed Power [offline, mirror], the writer of the syndicated newspaper comic strip My Cage:
  • “The art is amazing also, combining the best of manga and Walt Kelly’s Pogo.”
• Review by Jaron Hataway, the author of the Pop Culture Blog at Dallasnews.com:
  • “Sandra and Woo is one of my favorite things to read at the end of my day. The characters are wonderfully crafted and the art is delightful.”
• Review by Josh McCombs and Jess Lamarche, the authors of Halfway Between Here and There:
  • “The characters are fairly deep and well thought out, and the art work is a perfect for the comic; […]”
• Review by Rhonda Drummond, author at Musings From Us:
  • “Sandra and Woo is so much fun you want to check them for every update, […]”
• Review by Skyler Martin [offline, mirror], the author of The Official Skyler Martin Blog:
  • “And the illustration is fantastic–courtesy of internet artist Powree.”
• Review by TacoMagic, the author of TacoMagic’s Random Insanity:
  • “But, where the comic shines is the character development and interactions I mentioned earlier.”
• Review by Totemic Hero at TVTropes:
  • “Overall, it’s a fairly lighthearted yet intelligent webcomic, one well worth checking out.”
• Review by Victoria Jenkins, author at Authspot:
  • “In summary, this is just a sweet, playful comic that I devoured when I first discovered it”
• Audio review by animerocker17 [offline] at YouTube:
  • “It’s a really nice breath of fresh air, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.”
• Video review by Tyas, the author of Tyas Looks At…:
  • “…”
• [Bahasa Indonesia] Review by Archie The RedCat, the author of Cats Corner
• [Russian] Review in the Russian game magazine Game Land 06/2010

Other

• Mention by Brian, the webmaster of Kidjutsu
• Mention by D. Long [offline], the creator of the webcomic Edmund Finney’s Quest to Find the Meaning of Life:
  • “I’m a big fan of Sandra and Woo, […] Click below to see the great artwork and engaging storyline!”
• Mention by Sean Kleefeld, the author of Kleefeld on Webcomics at MTV Geek
• [German] Mention in Comixene 106, a German comic magazine

FAQ

How old are the characters?

12 (11 at the start of the comic).

How did you come up with the idea for Sandra and Woo?

Sandra and Woo was my [Novil’s] idea. In summer 2008, I came up with some ideas for a comic strip featuring a girl and her pet raccoon. The script for the strip that eventually became Love at First Sight was among the first three scripts put to paper. Like many scripts, this one was re-written several times before publishing. The other two scripts will most likely remain unpublished because they are just not very good. I then started to work on the comic strip by writing more scripts and introducing additional characters. While Shadow and Sid were originally supposed to play a larger role, Cloud and Larisa were supposed to be rather minor characters, just some random friends of Sandra.

How did Novil and Powree start to work together?

After writing two dozen scripts for Sandra and Woo, I [Novil] posted a job offer in the ConceptArt.org and DigitalWebbing.com forums in October 2008. I got over 60 replies and Powree, who read my offer at DigitalWebbing.com, was my first choice. Just one week later, we published the first Sandra and Woo strip on our website.

What’s your process when creating a strip?

Our process is like this:

1. The Work on a new strip starts with Novil having an idea for an interesting scenario or a funny dialog line. Usually, but not always, he then makes a note of it in a Word document.
2. At least a month before publishing, Novil sits down and writes the full script based on this idea. This involves re-writing the dialog so that it’s shorter or sounds more natural. The full script also includes a detailed description of the environment and the poses and facial expressions of the characters.
3. At least two weeks before publishing, Powree draws a sketch (the ones that you can see as voting incentives on TopWebcomics) with her Wacom tablet and Manga Studio and shows it to Novil.
4. After having a look at the sketch, Novil often requests a few minor changes. This often involves changing the facial expression of a character in one panel which just doesn’t look right in his eyes yet. Major changes to the layout of a strip are almost never necessary.
5. At least one week before publishing, Powree draws the final strip with Manga Studio, including the word bubbles, and sends it to Novil.
6. Sometimes, Novil is of the opinion that some late changes are necessary, for example if one word bubble turned out too small. He is usually able to do these minor changes himself using PhotoImpact.
7. When the artwork is completed, Novil puts the dialog into the word bubbles using Photoshop.
8. Novil then makes the strip ready for publication using PhotoImpact and IfranView and posts it on the website.

Can I post a Sandra and Woo strip on my website / blog / forum?

Yes, you can, as long as it’s noncommercial. Sandra and Woo is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. See the Legal stuff chapter for details.

Can I translate Sandra and Woo into another language?

No, you aren’t allowed to change the English or German text of the strips! We had a bad experience with a fan-made Spanish translation since its quality didn’t meet our standard. There’s also the chance that a translator misses some subtleties of the dialog which will become important sometime later in the story. It’s also the rule rather than the exception that webcomic translators lose interest after a while, leaving behind just a few dozen translated comics. If you want to post a Sandra and Woo strip on a website (see above), you should provide the translation beneath the strip.

Do you do link exchanges?

No. Each comic listed on our link page is there because we believe that it’s a good comic that our readers might enjoy, not because we had to put it there in exchange for a backlink.

Can you draw a comic/illustration for me that I need for…?

No matter what you need the comic/illustration for, the answer to that question is most likely “No.” It’s already a lot of work to maintain our regular update schedule, so we have basically no time to do other things on top of that. At least not for free.

Is Sandra and Woo suitable for children?

Sandra and Woo contains swearing, serious topics and adult oriented jokes, but nothing explicit that might traumatize children.

Why is the size of the word bubbles inconsistent?

The word bubbles are drawn by Powree and the text is added afterwards by Novil. It is therefore possible that some word bubbles are a bit too big or small. But that’s by far not as important as the fact that all Sandra and Woo strips are published in German and English. German sentences can be twice as long as their English equivalent. Because of this, some word bubbles may appear unnecessarily large in the English version although they’re just right for the German translation.

Why do you have so many editors?

We have so many editors because it’s very important to us to publish comics without any grammatical errors or weird phrases.

• Review by Rhonda Drummond, the author of Musings From Us:
  • “Sandra and Woo is so much fun you want to check them for every update, […]”