Mike (full title: "Mike, der Taschengeldexperte" - "Mike, the pocket money expert") was a German comic that was distributed to kids for free, by the Volksbank / Raiffeisenbank. It's about the various mishaps of the hamster Mike, who tries (mostly unsuccessfully) to augment his pocket money with various odd jobs.
Other important characters:
- Alfred, Mike's father
- Dr. Karl Höhn, Mike's friend, a mixture of bird and mouse
- Birne: A living, talking lightbulb from Hongkong who speaks all the R's as L's and looks much like Chinese people in older, un-PC works. Then again, Birne isn't a human, not even a living being... er... you know what we mean.
- Gierschlund Wolf, the recurring villain of the strip
Examples:
- All Trolls Are Different
- Ambiguous Species: Dr. Karl Höhn.
- Asian Speekee Engrish: Birne, at least for most of the run of the comic.
- Catchphrase: "Oh-oh-oh" for Dr. Karl Höhn.
- Genre Shift: Pretty egregious. Mostly, it's about Mike various mishaps in various jobs; but then there was the Zwergenwald arc where the friends met dwarves and other fantasy beings hidden in the city's forest and had to fight an evil sorcerer.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Hero Stole My Harpoon: When Mike learned to be a lifeguard.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: In the Zwergenwald arc.
- Retcon: When Birne forgot how to pronounce an "R" again.
- Savage Wolves: Gierschlund Wolf.
- Species Surname: Mike Hamsterbacke (Backe = cheek), Gierschlund Wolf.
- Standard '50s Father: Mike's. The comic is newer, but in small cities in Germany, this trope is close enough to Truth in Television to play it straight.
