Wally Darling

About

Wally Darling is the main character of the horror alternate reality game Welcome Home ARG, depicted as a yellow humanoid puppet and artist with blue Elvis-like hair. According to the game's website, Wally was the main character of a fictional '70s children's puppet TV show and piece of lost media "Welcome Home," which is the focus of the game. He was created by artist Clow Illustrations as early as 2018. Following the virality of the ARG in March 2023, Wally Darling became the subject of fan art, memes and other content online.

Origin

One of the earliest known pieces of artwork depicting Wally Darling was posted by Twitter^[1] user and artist @_PartyCoffin_ on June 16th, 2018, although may have been unnamed at the time. In March 2023, the ARG game Welcome Home, played through clownillustration.com,^[2] then became popularized online. Wally Darling is the main character of the ARG and the fictional lost media puppet show "Welcome Home" that the ARG is based on. The game's home page features an image of him sitting next to the show's logo (shown below).

"Wally Darling is the friendliest neighbor in Welcome Home, perhaps even the best painter too. With a smile like his it’s hard to disagree! Always eager to make new friends and show them around the neighborhood, Wally is happy to lend a helping hand. But you knew that already, didn’t you?”

Spread

As Welcome Home ARG became increasingly popularized throughout March and April 2023, the character Wally Darling became the subject of fan art, animations and memes online on sites including Tumblr,^[6] Twitter^[7] and DeviantArt.^[8] For example, on April 1st, 2023, Twitter^[3][4] users @DonnyisTired and @sealemoons posted pieces of artwork that gained over 17,000 and 14,000 likes, respectively, in four days (shown below, left and right).

Animations and animatics of Wally Darling also became prevalent on TikTok. For example, on April 4th, TikToker^[5] @zombie.lemonn posted an animatic that gained over 300,000 views in under 24 hours (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References