Eon is a Norwegian comic strip written and drawn by Lars Lauvik. The strip originated in the Ernie magazine before advancing to Pondus. The plotlines revolve around Tetra the ant-eater and his friends, or Vitriolic Best Buds, or whatever. The strip mix the Funny Animal with normal humans, and sometimes Real Life people as well. Politicians of different flavors have it coming big time. Surreal Humor is a staple here.
Tetra is usually the main character, and was the first to be introduced. He is an ant-eater, and is accompanied by Freddy, a weasel, and God, who is retired (he has left the day-to-day running of things over to Jesus). Sulle, a rabbit, was also in from the start, later Put on a Bus, to be replaced by the Cloud Cuckoolander Gonzales, another rabbit. Rosa, a girl, fills in as the Only Sane Man, while the antagonist usually is a "mrs Pepperpot", who runs the local congregation. Tetra is actually killed off at least once (being executed), but was kicked out of Heaven for playing too loud. The confusion is even more complete when you add the alien Arcatus, and his daughter, who eats babies alive. Lauvik himself also stars in a number of strips, usually to explain to the editor, and the readers, what is going on.
Tropes:
- Anthropomorphic Food: The food in Tetra's fridge is alive, and torments him with "Rotten Truths from the Refrigerator". They're sometimes a bit slow, though, as one of them tried to shock Tetra by telling the truth about Milli Vanilli.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Occasionally personifications of abstract concepts and emotions will appear, mostly to torment Tetra. The most common was the Deadline Ghost, but since Tetra quit his job as a writer he hasn't been seen.
- Taken to the logical extreme in the hungover arc, in which Gonzales, Freddy and God are plagued by various types of anxiety after a very drunk night: Fylleangst (Drunk anxiety), who gives terrible but vague reminders of what God did last night, Panikkangsten (panic anxiety), who just runs around screaming, and Dødsangst (Death Anxiety).
Gonzales: I'm dying.Death Anxiety: You probably are. - Back from the Dead: Tetra was kicked out of heaven for playing too loud. Kjell Magne Bondevik has also been killed off occasionally, but returns later on.
- Black Comedy Rape: The way Sulle was Put on a Bus was by Tetra accidentally hypnotize Freddy into raping him. Tetra himself is also raped by a moose when he gets stuck with his Tongue on the Flagpole.
- Butt-Monkey: Tetra. If someone has it coming, it is almost always him. Because God is in the area, he is also a literal Cosmic Plaything. Most of the Norwegian politicians who cameo in the strip also qualifies on this.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Gonzales, Tetra, even God qualifies.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Tetra was executed by the means of forced reruns of the Norwegian soap Hotel Caesar to the point where he couldn´t take anymore.
- Creepy Doll: Rosa has a massive collection of dolls and plushies. Tetra and Gonzales have both gone on separate rampages tearing them apart, with Tetra even flaying a plushie of Eeyore and wearing his skin.
- God and Satan Are Both Jerks: God need no further elaboration, but the Gammel Erik himself appear occasionally, and is generally a jerk.
- God Is Evil: Downplayed; God is a Jerkass.
- Hated by All: After getting anonymous death threats (later revealed to be from former prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, a recurring target for mockery in the strip) Tetra, along with Freddy, decide to do the elimination method by looking through a phone book to find out who would want him dead. The next panel shows him bemoaning that everyone on Q also wants him dead.
- Idiot Ball: Tetra has it a lot of times, but Gonzales has a good number two on this one.
- Interspecies Romance: Tetra actually manages to get into a somewhat stable relationship with a human woman later in the series, a veterinarian named Fiola.
- Arcatus got a certain Norwegian politician pregnant.
- Jerkass: Quite a lot of them, in fact. One of the straightest examples is probably Smoochie, Rosa's sentient teddy bear.
- Killed Off for Real: Mrs Pepperpot was eventually eaten by a shark, in a hilarious take on both Baywatch and Jaws.
- Living Toy: Smoochie.
- Medium Awareness: Much of the humor is quite meta, to the point where a character (usually Tetra) discusses the format with his author. This developed gradually, until both the cartoonist and the editor had cameos in the strip.
- Mister Seahorse: The... Other parent of Arcatus' kid is former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. He'd prefer to remain anonymous.
- Only Sane Man: Rosa full stop.
- Pun: Lars Lauvik is a huge fan of puns and wordplay. Several strips feature the editor for the strip yelling at Lars for using another lame pun.
- Shout-Out: To a lot of movie franchises and other pop-cultural phenomena. One story arc had Tetra being taken by aliens, another by poltergeists, and so on, and so on...
- Retired Badass: Even after his retirement, God retains a few of his powers. Among other things he moonwalks on water, splits the ocean and transforms Tetra into a monkey.
- Take That!: Everything and everyone. Norwegian politicians are a common goal for harassment, to the point where the characters do what they possiby can to humiliate them.
- That Came Out Wrong: "WELL I LIKE SPERM, OK?!" (Context: Tetra was referring to the word itself, as he thinks the Norwegian word for it, sæd, is one of the worst words ever)
- The Antagonist: Mrs Pepperpot, leader of the local congregation house.
- The Fundamentalist: Mrs. Pepperpot. And she's not even the worst religious fundamentalist in her congregation, she's just the most prominent one.
- The Show Must Go Wrong: At one point the gang (sans God) do a play of the Birth of Jesus for the local congregation. Even if Tetra, Gonzales and Freddy HADN'T started fighting (in ninja and The Bride costumes, and with Pikachu making a surprise appearance no less) the play featured Herod as a drunk Sami, the Holy Spirit as the Ghost Who Walks and Nazareth as the band of the same name.
- Zany Scheme: Tetra, but also God. Sometimes all of the core gang are in on it.
