Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book was a Comic Book series in the Bill & Ted franchise, published by Marvel Comics. It began as a standard Comic-Book Adaptation of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, then was followed by the ongoing title, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book". The ongoing series was written and drawn by Evan Dorkin; it ran for twelve issues (December 1991 to November 1992) and was nominated for an Eisner Award.
The entire run (except for issue #8, which was not done by Evan Dorkin) was finally collected in two trade paperbacks by Slave Labor Press in 2005.
This comic provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Death. Due to his drinking on the job in issue #1, Death Takes a Holiday.
- Aliens Steal Cable: The Dimension of Utter Boredom managed to pick up a transmission of the Battle of The Bands. They kidnapped the duo's wives and children in order to get Bill and Ted's attention and persuade them to play a gig.
- Alternate Self: Dozens of alternate Bills and Ted's from other universes gatecrash the anniversary party. Notable in that they aren't all human and they aren't really Bills or Teds. They just imitate the boys after their sons preached about Wyld Stallyns when travelling the multiverse.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: As well as Death, we meet; War, Nature and Fate. A time personification called Chronos is mentioned.
- Arson Murder And Jay Walking: The last of Dr Nomolos' Legion of Doom is "Alan— The most insane person ever!" Murderer, thief, arsonist and pillow tag tearer!
- Back for the Finale: Most of the characters from the series attend the anniversary party in the final issue.
- Bad Future: Stopping Abraham Lincoln from being assassinated, turns America into a polluted police state where Bill and Ted were never born and Earth is at war with Mars.
- Beard of Sorrow: Bill's dad has been growing a huge one since Missy left him.
- Bowdlerise: One of the fan letters asks why De Nomolos was arrested in the movie but killed in the comic. Chuck himself replies that the movie people softened up his terrible fate for "immature, impressionable cretins, such as yourself!".
- Brain Monster: De Nomolos recruits Walter 23, a "Glow-Brain" from Saturn, while in Hell.
- Continuity Snarl: Because Evan Dorkin never saw the first movie, and was working off an early draft of the script when adapting the second movie, there are a few notable changes to the canon in the series, making this a subtle Alternate Continuity. In the letters column of the comic, each month answered by a different character from the comic (such as Death, Missy and De Nomolos), the characters would explain the differences being a result of
Executive Meddling — the comics portrayed events as they how actually happened, but Hollywood executives had changed around a few details:- Socrates was perfectly friendly with Bill and Ted in the movie, and even one of the more enthusiastic time-travelers. In the comic series, he's uneasy with both Bill and Ted and the entire time travel thing, and even ends up voluntarily drinking the hemlock that ends his life, rather than accept rescue by Plato, because at least this'll get him away from Bill and Ted.
- De Nomolos dies in the Bogus Journey adaptation despite living in the movie, and the ongoing comic treats him as dead, occasionally showing him in Hell.
- Bill and Ted's sons had their names swapped — in the movie, Bill's son was "Little Ted" while Ted's son was "Little Bill." In the comic, they're both named after their fathers. This was corrected in the reprint trade.
- Joanna and Elizabeth's original fiancees are completely different. In the first movie, they are presented as older, rather stuffy noblemen (who don't even get a spoken line), while in the comic they are closer to the girls' age and are basically murderous villains.
- The end of the second movie set Death and Station up as members of Wyld Stallyns, but in the comic they're not part of the band at all (though they still have large roles, and Death ends up as the band's manager).
- Cool Shades: Several characters wear them; most notably Rufus, Evil Robot Bill and Ted (probably to visually differentiate them from the real Bill and Ted) and Phil.
- The Day the Dinosaurs Died: Bill and Ted track Death to the Cretaceous period and persuade him to leave seconds before the asteroid hits.
- Dem Bones:
- Death is now a skeleton because Evan Dorkin didn't see any stills from the movie until he was a third of the way through the comic and it was too late to redraw.
- Morty also.
- Disney Death: Being a world that parodies superhero tropes, Hyper-World's denizens don't stay dead long.
- Played straight when De Nomolos and nooks get released from Hell but they get sent back again.
- Divine Date: Bill's dad starts dating Nature.
- Earth All Along: The boys assume that the timebooth accidentally deposited them in a Crapsack World Alternate Universe but are horrified when Death tells them that's it's their own universe that they changed by saving Lincoln.
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Rufus's superiors are referred to as "The Three Most Important People In The Universe".
- Everyone Is a Super: Everyone on Hyper-World has superpowers.
- Expanded Universe: The comic book series downplayed the time-travelling aspect of the movies and turned its attention to zombies, aliens, assassins, super-heroes, theme parks, and record industry executives.
- Fantastic Legal Weirdness: The Chronological Order putting Bill and Ted on trial for damaging the timeline and Time Thumb defending them.
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: The duo are broke again due to spending their Battle of The Bands winnings on parts for Station to build a theme park in their back garden.
- Foreshadowing: During and after the wedding party, Lincoln mentions that he needs to get back to the past due to he and his wife having theater tickets.
- Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: The letter column was answered by a different character each issue. Bill and Ted themselves never answered any of the letters, but characters like Death, Missy, De Nomolos and even Station did — the latter replying to every letter with the word "Station!" while the editors tried to translate what he was saying (though they ended up spending more time arguing over how much sense it made to have a scientist who could only say his own name — "I mean, c'mon, you've got the most brilliants scientists who ever lived, and they can't even say 'eight'?! Let's be real...").
- Frozen Dinner of Loneliness: Bill's dad has been living in an apartment full of these since his wife left him. He even brings one as a present to Bill and Ted's anniversary party.
- Humanoid Abomination: Nature is a woman with a flower growing where her head should be and a Personal Raincloud hovering above her.
- Humans Are Psychic in the Future: Rufus has a huge-forheaded guest professor from the 38th century come to discuss telekinetic drum solos with his class.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Geoffrey and Linus admit defeat during their fight with Bill and Ted when Billy the Kid fires a gun into the air and orders Geoffrey and Linus to scram. But when Bill and Ted finally marry the princesses, it becomes too much for Geoffrey and Linus to bear and they try to kill them all, only to finally meet their end for good when they accidentally stab the robot decoys of the two heroes and are electrocuted to death.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: Time machines can be used to travel to other dimensions, including the afterlife.
- Kid from the Future: Done in the final issue, where the two main characters are visited by their grown-up children from the future.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: A resurrected De Nomolos when a robot head explodes in his hand.
- Morty vanishes in a puff of flames halfway through explaining that only God can fire him from being the Grim Reaper.
- Geoffrey and Linus meet their end when they try to attack Bill and Ted with their swords, only to stab their robot duplicates and are electrocuted. As this happens, their final words are "DIE, BILL AND T—"
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Done in issue #11, when the boys finally find out that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Hilarity Ensues when they rescue him, then again when they try to send Abe back...
- Legacy Character: The anthropomorphic personifications. Death is the only one who was there from the start.
- Legion of Doom: In Hell, De Nomolos recruits the princesses' fiancée's, Benedict Arnold, Al Capone and some aliens.
- Mattress-Tag Gag: Tearing tags off pillows is one of Alan's crimes alongside arson and murder.
- May–December Romance: In a play on the original from the first movie, in the comic book Bill's father (originally the "December" part) marries Mother Nature.
- Nature Spirit: Nature.
- Personal Raincloud: Nature has one.
- Planet of Hats: The other dimensions the guys visit;The world of incompetent stuntmen, Tourist World, Gap of Pretentious Artists and Hyper-World populated by superheroes and villains.
- Plant Person: Nature has a flower instead of a head.
- Prehensile Hair: One of Dr. Braino's plans is to cultivate prehensile armpit hair.
- Put on a Bus: Station get sent back to Mars after suddenly realized they're allergic to oxygen.
- Race Lift: Likely for the same reasons that Death is now a skeleton, Ms. Wardroe went from black to white.
- Remember the New Guy?: Morty implies that he's been waiting centuries for Death's job but there was no mention of him when Death retired in an earlier issue.
- Ret-Gone: Happens in one issue but is inconsistent. When the boys go back and save Abraham Lincoln, the present is rewritten into a Bad Future where the boys were never born though they don't fade from existence. When they go back and stop themselves from saving Abe, the older duo fade out of existence and the comic then focuses on the younger pair.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: When the guys go back and stop Abraham Lincoln being killed, Death can remember both timelines.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In one of the comics, the duo go back and stop Abraham Lincoln being shot. This leads to the present becoming a Crapsack World where none of the characters were born so Bill and Ted have to go back and stop themselves saving Abe.
- Show Within a Show: We see some of Bill and Ted's favourite superhero comics, Fight Dude and Major Violence.
- Stylistic Suck: Death's attempt at writing/drawing a comic called "Major Violence."
- Subbing for Santa: The Grim Reaper is forced into retirement (the reason given being that he's been neglecting his duty and getting too occupied with earthly matters) and replaced in issue #9. His replacement, Morty, is an in-universe Replacement Scrappy; a midget skeleton with "attitude." He doesn't last for long.
- It's revealed that Death is the only anthropomorphic personification who never voluntarily went into retirement; all the others — such as War, Fate, Mother Nature — have long since retired and been replaced by new people. Death is simply too proud (and too bad at doing anything else) to quit.
- Superhero Episode: Bill and Ted get stranded on Hyper-World, an Alternate Universe populated by constantly fighting superheroes and villains. They get drafted into the Bright, Upstanding Guys to find their stolen time machine from Dr. Braino.
- Time Crash: Occurs in issues #5-7.
- Time Police: The Chronological Order and Time Thumb.
- The final issue reveals that Bill and Ted's future teenage sons travel through time fixing Bill and Ted's mistakes.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Played with;
- The Chronological Order want to punish Bill and Ted for altering the timeline but Time Thumb argues that the duo's time travelling was always supposed to happen and that more damage would be done to the timeline if Bill and Ted were stopped.
- The boys wreck the present by going back and stopping Lincoln getting shot. They then go back again and stop themselves doing it. The Bill and Ted we've been following fade out of existence and the other duo go back to the unaltered present.
- The last issue says that Little Bill and Little Ted travel all over fixing the timeline where their fathers have damaged it.
- Token Black Friend: Phil "B.G.", the Wild Stallyns bass player, who is hired in issue #3 and is more or less a black, more laid-back and more intelligent version of Bill and Ted, pretty much slips into this role for Bill and Ted (though he tends to get moved Out of Focus increasingly often as the comic goes on).
- Took a Level in Badass: Joanna and Elizabeth, compared to their movie selves, are a lot tougher and capable of taking control even in the wildest, most surreal situations.
- War God: War, obviously. His body is covered in bullet holes, stitched scars and has several weapons sticking out of him.
