An Eisner-award winning one shot comic book by
Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. Adapted into a pilot episode for The
SciFi Channel by Bryan Fuller, creator of
Dead Like Me,
Wonderfalls and
Pushing Daisies with Paul Giamatti as the title character.
Both feature a Victorian robot who works as a secret agent for President
Abraham Lincoln, who has the ability to place his head onto different robot bodies for whatever occasion suits him.
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This comic/tv pilot contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The TV Pilot gives much more detailed back story
- Affably Evil: Emperor Zombie
- Alternate History
- Ambiguously Gay: David Hyde Pierce as Emperor Zombie
Zombie: I hear you're a demigod. That must be fantastic for you.
Demigod: I don't know about fantastic...
Zombie: I do!
- Animated Adaptation: Contrary to most animated adaptations of Mignola's work, this one retains Mignola's own art style, with a lot of blacks. It is awesome.
- Battle Butler: Mr. Groin.
- Arguably Emperor Zombie as well (Or Mr. Zombie, as he is called when the demigod shows up).
- Emperor Zombie twice, actually. He was the Amazing Screw-on Head's original butler.
- Better Than It Sounds: A robotic head of the Civil-War era fights a former butler-turned Zombie, his former lover turned vampire, their henchmen, consisting of two paranormal old women and a monkey to stop them from unleashing a demon from a melon sized jewel with the help of his butler and stuffed sentient dog.
- And substantially more humorous than you'd think it would be thanks to Fuller's trademark dark themes with equally dark comedy.
- Black Comedy
- Eagleland
Head: America is counting on me Mr. President, and by America, I mean The World.
- Chiaroscuro: Mignola's trademark style.
- Everything's Better With Monkeys: Ricky
- Everything's Deader With Zombies: Emperor Zombie!
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Subverted. Gung the Magnificent tries to tell Zombie the Demigod is too dangerous to summon, when it shows up, it's really kind of shy, and gladly accepts Zombie as its second in command.
- Evil Is Petty: Emperor Zombie has a self-described "petty vengeance fetish" against Screw-on Head's butlers.
- Evil Laugh: Zombie unleashes one when he becomes able to read the Scroll Of Gung - but ends up giggling uncontrollably.
Emperor Zombie: There... there's actually a little joke in here - Gung was funny!
- Evil Tastes Good:
Emperor Zombie: You let me down. You went on and on about how sweet the candy was, then told me not to put it in my mouth and got mad at me when I did.
Screw-On Head: If by 'candy' you mean 'ancient forbidden evil' then, yes, I told you not to put it in your mouth.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Museum of Dangerous Books and Papers.
- Geeky Turn-On: Zombie gives us a villain variation with Patience.
- High Turnover Rate: Head's Manservants.
- Historical In-Joke: The Homestead Act.
- Hurricane of Puns:
Lincoln: Groin's just looking out for your behind, Head, you can't keep him at arm's length!
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce (aka Abe Sapien in the first Hellboy movie), Patton Oswald.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: When Emperor Zombie discovers the legendary jewel he's been seeking is actually a mouldy old turnip.
- Losing Your Head: The main character lives in this trope.
- Mood Whiplash:
Emperor Zombie:
[Dramatically] Here it is! Bangang Pagro-Esh... the Left Eye of Nog... the jewel worshipped by the wizards of Mu and the black priests of Atlantis, finally passed down to Gung the Magnificent who was chosen by the
GODS to conquer the world with it! And now, it's mi...
[Suddenly notices what he's holding]
Emperor Zombie: Ew! It's not a jewel, it's a dirty old piece of crap!
- Nigh Invulnerability: Mr. Dog!
- Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot: The entire premise.
- One Episode Wonder
- Quirky Mini Boss Squad: The werewolf old woman and her cannibal partner. And a monkey.
- Really 700 Years Old: Patience
- Role Association
- Sealed Evil In A
Can Turnip - Skyward Scream: Head attempts one of these when Zombie abducts Patience.
Screw-On Head: DAMN YOU, MR. MANIFO — excuse me. DAMN YOU, EMPEROR ZOMBIE!
- Steam Punk
- Too Good to Last: The pilot, despite being awesome, was never picked up by the Sci-Fi network.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?: The show can be summed up as this.
- Wolf Women
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