History Comicbook / ROCKY

* AuthorAvatar: Rocky is a fictional version of strip creator Martin Kellerman, [[LifeEmbellished though not everything in the strip has happened for real]]. Rocky is also a fairly [[SelfDeprecation self-deprecating]] example, with him often being the butt of the joke, as the strips frequently depicts him engaging in short-sighted, selfish, and outright stupid behavior, then suffering the consequences.

* AuthorAvatar: Rocky is a fictional version of strip creator Martin Kellerman, [[LifeEmbellished though not everything in the strip has happened for real]]. Rocky is also a fairly [[SelfDepredication self-deprecating]] example, with him often being the butt of the joke, as the strips frequently depicts him engaging in short-sighted, selfish, and outright stupid behavior, then suffering the consequences.

* AuthorAvatar: Rocky is a fictional version of strip creator Martin Kellerman, though not everything in the strip has happened for real.

* LifeEmbellished: The comic is biographical, but often fictionalized for laughs.

** When Rocky decides to self-publish his comic, he mentions that the Music/BeastieBoys started out as a punk band, and now own their own record label. Today, however, this is no longer true, as Grand Royal Records folded in 2001. Tommy is also quick to point out that the Beastie Boys werent exactly underground when they started out either.

* AnythingThatMoves: None of the characters were particularly choosy in their younger years, but this trope was a particular RunningGag with Klasse.
* ArtEvolution

* BuxomIsBetter: Rocky and Manny have a discussion on the topic, when judging the relative attractiveness of Emily and her sister.
--> '''Rocky:''' I mean, I like Emily, but her sister has a certain... ''je ne sais quoi...''
--> '''Manny:''' [[EuphemismBuster Is "je ne sais quoi" French for "huge, bouncy tits" or something?]]

** When it was released in English-speaking countries, the translator changed some Swede-specific references to make certain jokes more accessible to English-speaking audiences, and deleted other strips that English speaking audiences would find incomprehensible. Luckily, since the comic already included references to a number of things English audiences are already familiar with, many of the references made in the English translation were already in the comic to begin with. According to the publisher, the changes were made with Kellerman's approval.

* AllMenArePerverts: Oh yes, though AllWomenAreLustful too, theyre just less obvious about it.

* AuthorAvatar: Rocky.

--> '''Rocky:''' I mean, I like Emily, but her sister has a certain... ''[[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench je ne sais quoi...]]''

** When it was released in English-speaking countries, the translator changed some Swede-specific references to make certain jokes more accessible to English-speaking audiences (example below), and deleted other comics that English speaking audiences would find incomprehensible. Luckily, since the comic already included references to a number of things English audiences are already familiar with (see the ShoutOut section), many of the references made in the English translation were already in the comic to begin with. According to the publisher, the changes were made with Kellerman's approval.

** A usual strip is just four panels retelling something that happened to Rocky. Usually a funny conversation. But in early strips, the first three panels would retell a real event while the last one was completely and obviously fictional.
** Another set of strips printed in 98 were designed to advertise the Rocky Calendar for 1999, and so only had three panels, with the fourth being an ad.

* {{Expy}}: A publisher rejects Rocky's comic claiming that the main character is an expy of ComicBook/FritzTheCat. In another strip, Rocky says that the main character in ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_(comic_strip) Elvis]]'', a Swedish comic which premiered two years after ''Rocky'', is an expy of his own comics character (see below).

* FurryLens: All of the characters are blatantly humans, and are treated by the narrative themselves. Kellerman has explained draws everyone with Furry heads because he believes that the situations he depicts would be embarrassing rather than funny if he drew the characters as full-on humans.

* TheSlacker: Much of the cast.
* TheStoner: Faced between the choice of talking to an ugly one-night stand or smoking questionable pot with the local Stoners, Rocky takes the latter route. He ultimately regrets this decision when his buddies decide to mess with him after he's passed out; he thinks that if Bob Marley's friends were as immature as his, Marley probably wouldn't have been so keen on the 'erb.

* TestosteronePoisoning: One strip has Rocky arm-wrestling Manny. If it weren't enough that the two are in a figurative dick-measuring contest here, the competition eventually boils down to a ''literal'' dick-measuring contest. Manny wins, but Rocky claims its only because his shower didnt have any hot water that morning.

Kellerman created the comic after his then-girlfriend broke up with him and he got fired from a pornographic magazine for [[DudeNotFunny going too far]]. Initially drawn for the amusement of himself and his fans the comic was so successful in Sweden that it was eventually translated by Fantagraphics Books, who published two volumes of translated comics, and it was briefly published in the American version of ''Metro'', the Swedish free newspaper that typically published ''Rocky'' in its country of origin. But, as in Sweden, it got canned for GettingCrapPastTheRadar. In direct contrast to the sometimes controversial reaction ''Rocky'' received from newspaper readers, some underground cartoonists considered ''Rocky'' to be too mainstream.

* WriteWhoYouKnow: As noted above.

* {{Expy}}: A publisher rejects Rocky's comic claiming that the main character is an expy of ComicBook/FritzTheCat. In another strip, Rocky says that the main character in ''[[http://www.elvisthecomic.com/ Elvis]]'', a Swedish comic which premiered two years after ''Rocky'', is an expy of his own comics character (see below).

* HiddenDepths: Klasse, the laziest, most hedonistic and slackeriest of Rocky's lazy, hedonistic slacker friends, turns out to not only be the only one to have served in the military, but to have served as a diver in Navy special forces.

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Rocky is frequently shown to be this. But since his friends are almost as ignorant, and most of their conversations are [[SeinfeldianConversation pointless]] anyway, he is rarely corrected.

%%* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Rocky frequently shows himself to be this. But since his friends are almost as ignorant, and most of their conversations are [[SeinfeldianConversation Seinfeldian]] anyway, he is rarely corrected.

* PettingZooPeople: The characters' animal characteristics are limited to their heads. For the most part, the characters lack animal characteristics otherwise (although Rocky is portrayed with "dog paw" feet in some early comics).

* HipHop: The culture is a reoccurring topic. This is Rocky (and Kellerman)'s sole music of choice. This comes back to bite Rocky on occasion, as the comic likes to poke fun at the idea of a white middle class Swede being so heavily into hiphop.

** Rocky's girlfriend Emily compares him to the protagonist of ''Film/OnceWereWarriors'', to which he replies that he is more like NapoleonDynamite.

* TheStoner: Faced between the choice of talking to an ugly one-night stand or smoking questionable pot with the local Stoners, Rocky takes the later route. He ultimately regrets this decision when his buddies decide to mess with him after he's passed out; he thinks that if Bob Marley's friends were as immature as his, Marley probably wouldn't have been so keen on the 'erb.