Monty and the Former Star of the Strip
Monty (formerly Robotman and then Robotman and Monty) is a comic strip by Jim Meddick that was started in 1985 and is still running to this day.
In the beginning it starred Robotman, a robot who believed he was from another planet, living with the Milde family until he found his geeky creator Monty, who had given him false memories of being an alien, though he did have to leave Earth when aliens showed up to abduct him, leaving Monty as the star of the show.
The latest strip can be read here
.
The comic provides examples of the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Whatever happened to all this about Monty actually being from space??
- Adorkable: Monty.
- Art Evolution. Especially during the Robotman phase.
- Aside Glance: Lots and lots.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Most characters are aware this is a comic.
- Some strips indicate No Fourth Wall.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Notably, this happened to the entire original cast (first the Milde family, then Robotman himself) of the strip.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Monty when he brings out his puppet, Mr. Blinky.
- Cool Shades: Gary Milde and Moondog.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pilsner, the speaking parrot.
- ANY of Monty's girlfriends.
- Demoted to Extra: Robotman, before Jim Meddick was requested to scrap him altogether.
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: In this comic strip, Monty is having an encounter with The Grim Reaper while shopping at Walmart. Turns out that the Reaper only wanted to buy hoodies for "Casual Fridays".
- Doppelgänger: Robotman's evil twin Bruce.
- Face Palm: Normally the way other characters react to Monty screwing something up.
- Fan Disservice: Whenever Monty's naked, but this depends on the reader of course.
- Fanservice: Meddick has drawn some very hot women.
- Fish out of Water: Robotman was this during the earliest strips.
- Five-Man Band: Shortly after Robotman's departure:
- Monty: The Hero.
- Chimpy: The Lancer. (Later EB3, a little cyborg.)
- Mr. Pi (Dave): The Smart Guy. (Later Doc, an elderly time-traveler.)
- Moondog: The Big Guy.
- Loco: The Chick (Or ANY of Monty's girls, really.)
- Fleshy: Team Pet.
- Housewife: Mrs. Milde.
- Invisibility: One of the many scientific experiments Monty goes through.
- Joisey: The arc focusing on Monty's house being haunted has someone mention the house is in New Jersey.
- Mouthful of Pi: The true name of the Rigelian Mr. Pi (aka Dave).
- Nerd Glasses: Monty and Dwayne.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Dwayne, a nerdy vampire, only eats animal blood and ketchup.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Subverted in Robotman since he's noticeably different from anyone appearing in the strip (before Monty appeared) but he pretty much blended in.
- Religious Robot: Robotman once confused a burger joint's take-out plastic microphone in the shape of a clown head, believing it was some sort of deity.
- Robot Buddy: Originally Robotman was Oscar's best friend.
- Shout-Out: There are several!
- Guess who Loco Ohno is a parody of?
- Plenty to Star Trek and Star Wars.
- Monty was told at one point that the comic world is not real, but a fictional realm, referred to as The Comix.
- Monty was once bitten by a radioactive Ladybug.
- There's been a two-week parody of Lost that revealed "The Others" to be the cast of Gilligan's Island.
- There was also an Apocalypse Now reference in there.
- The three-week story Lord Of The Thing.
- Fleshy resembles The Pink Panther somewhat.
- The Shining was spoofed once.
- Apparently the title is a tribute to Monty Python.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Monty's role started growing more and more after he was introduced, making Robotman himself Demoted to Extra.
- Spotlight-Stealing Title: Robotman became Robotman and Monty, then finally just Monty, reflecting the above.
- Take That!: Again, too many to name.
- Talking Animal: Pilsner, Chimpy and, way back, Mr. Giggles.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Chimpy and Dave disappear some time after Doc is introduced.
