Nick Carter is a comic strip from Italy, created in 1972 as a semi-animated cartoon for the then-popular TV show Gulp!, authored by Guido De Maria and drawn by Franco Bonvicini, alias Bonvi, father of the Sturmtruppen, it is essentially a parody of the literary character of the same name.
Nick Carter is the short but smart old-school detective, often hired by the police and private party to solve crimes and mysteries alongside his two partners, the gigantic and not-too bright Patsy and the diminutive, Koan-speaking Ten. The stories usually parody famous movies and novels, as well as sometimes dabbing in the science-fiction, horror and political genre as the trio travels around the world to solve problems, often running into Nick's archnemesis, the dreaded Russian master of disguise Stanislao Moulinsky.
Do not confuse with the singer.
This Comic provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer:
- The King Kong parody has the giant female gorilla falling in love with Nick Carter, much to his dismay.
- "The Sewer Monster": the heroes disguise Patsy as a female sewer monster in an attempt to lure out the real one, but he's so scared by the effect that he runs away and knock himself out cold.
- In an episode set in Australia, the female kangaroo worshipped by the natives falls for Patsy and keeps hugging him, much to his annoyance. It makes the natives furious, as they think the white man has ensorcered their holy kangaroo, but she also knocks out the villain in the climax to save Patsy.
- Aerith and Bob: Parodied with Ten's uncle Giuseppe, a kamikaze.
- Affectionate Parody: Of detective stories, but also many other genres and movies.
- All for Nothing:
- "October": the trio's trip to Moscow to protect their target ends in failure, as the client decides to simply run away from the Red Revolution and thus doesn't need protection.
- The story with the mexican rebels has the trio travel to Mexico to recover the spoiled daughter of a rich man who went to join the Revolution: at the very end of the story they find out that she never went to Mexico because her car ran out of gas and returned home on her own.
- Beware the Silly Ones: The trio look goofy, incompetent and harmless... but they can whip out enough firearm to stall even whole bands of gangsters!
- The Cameo: In a story that takes place in the harbor, the group meets Corto Maltese, who is arrested by the group.
- Catchphrase:
- Patsy has: "And the last one [action pertinent to the story].", usually said at the end of the story.
- Ten introduces his Koans with "As the wise man said:"
- The iconic exchange between Nick Carter and his archnemesis: "Hold on, this is not X, but Stanilsao Moulinsky in one of his best disguises!" "Well yes, damned Carter, you foiled me again!"
- Darkest Africa: Mercilessly parodied in the parody of Doctor Livingstone: the heroes trek through the wild savannah and ancient villages still untouched by the civilization... but is actually a gigantic sham, the "village chief" asks for massive amounts of money and the "natives" are actually well civilized and live in comfortable, luxurious homes, using the "disappearence" of the doctor to milk money out of tourists and search teams while the actual doctor is relaxing in a hotel.
- Disguised in Drag: More often than not, poor Patsy has to go in drag for the ploy of the story.
- Dumb Muscle: Patsy enormous and very strong, but also dimwitted. (Though occasionally he dabs into Too Dumb to Fool).
- Entertainingly Wrong: In one episode, the trio finds a corpse in front of a well-surveilled safe and three clues: the intact laser beams with a gap of 25 cm's from each other, footprints of a size 42 shoe and hair from an Himalayan goat. Nick asks Patsy to use logic to determine what happened there... and Patsy claims that the culprit must be a 25cm-tall midget with size 42 shoes and an Himalayan goat on a leash. Just as Nick gets mad at him for getting to such an idiotic solution, Ten looks out of the window and shows them a 25cm-tall midget with size 42 shoes with an Himalayan goat on a leash!
- The Fair Folk: A story features the "Little People" living hidden in a castle and helping Nick arrest the villain without being noticed, except by Patsy at the very end. They all appear as tiny gnomes.
- Fake Nationality: In-Universe, "Baron Ramirez", despite the name, is actually a russian jeweller. When he's unmasked as Stanislao's latest disguise, Carter mixes things up: "This is not Baron Ramirez, russian jeweller, but Stanislao Moulinsky, spanish criminal!"
- Female Monster Surprise: The giant King-Kong lookalike is actually a Queen Kong.
- Flesh Golem: A story has a Mad Scientist crafting a Frankenstein Monster out of body parts... fortunately it doesn't harm anyone and even has lack as a rock singer.
- From No Body To Nightmare: In "October", while on their way to Russia, the group travels on a train where they briefly talk to an unseen man in a jail wagon who tells them that soon everyone will hear of him. His name? Vladimir Il'ič Ul'janov, aka Lenin!
- Historical Domain Character: One story features an unseen Lenin, another one has Jack London as a co protagonist, though he's drawn to resemble Bonvi.
- Horrifying the Horror: In "The Haunted House", the trio barges into the titular mansion, believing it to be a cover for criminals rather than a genuine ghost house: they proceed to manhandle and subject the various ghosts and ghouls they meet to a Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique and eventually destroy the place, forcing the ghosts to leave, dispirited.
- Hypno Fool: The Magician Mephisto can use his hypnotic gaze to get away with his crimes, but he's Hoist by His Own Petard when Nick Carter uses a mirror at the last second, causing Mephisto to hypnotize himself.
- I Am a Humanitarian: A story with the hunt for a professor lost in a remote island reveals that he has gone native and became the leader of a tribe of cannibals, who try to eat the heroes. At the very end of the story he's seen pouring salt on a worried colleague with a maniac expression.
- Ice-Cream Koan: Pretty much all of Ten's dialogue is a parody of zen wisdom.
- Latex Perfection: Stanislao Moulinsky: he can take the appearence of any man and woman, as well as disguising himself as more outlandish things such a sewer monster, a phone booth, a tree, a train and a blimp. At one point his cell is shown as seemingly empty except for a sitting stool... which is actually Stanislao!
- Once per Episode: Patsy usually ends the episode by saying: "And the last one [an action important to the episode]".
- Perma-Stubble: Stanislaou Moulinsky is a crime genius who always sports a moustache and unshaven chin which makes him look a lot more untrustworthy.
- Police Are Useless: The very first story opens with the policemen looking at a cadaver with several bullet holes and a noose around the neck and state: "Maybe it's a suicide?"
- Precision F-Strike: At the end of one story, the group realize that they have braved through whole armies of bad guys across planes, ships and a train to deliver a vital piece of information... only to discover that said information was the recipe for a cake that the wife of the local ambassador needed for a fancy dinner. Cue to Ten saying: "As the wise man said: Censored"
- Rhymes on a Dime: Ten always speaks in rhymes, with sparse exceptions.
- Running Gag: Stanislao Moulinsky and his more and more audacious disguises.
- Shout-Out: Given the nature of the strip, it has parodied countless movies and books, notable ones include The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, Lawrence of Arabia and others.
- Ungrateful Bastard: A parody of Lawrence of Arabia has the heroes helping the local Bedouin fight against the invading European forces to claim the oil pits for themselves: after hailing Nick Carter as a saviour, they promptly turn on him once they have won.
"Hold on! This is not a TV Tropes page, this is Stanislao Moulinsky in one of his best disguises!."
"And the last one remembers not to spend too much time here!."
