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Arkas (Greek: Αρκάς) is the pen name of a Greek comics artist that started his work in early 1981. Each volume of his comics has individual strips which mostly feature two main characters: One is the rational, skeptical and questioning figure, while the other is a rude, vulgar or just dumb character who has most of the funny punchlines. The stories take place in a variety of different locations/situations and the protagonists can be humans, animals or even videogame characters.

Works created by Arkas:

  • The Rooster
  • Show Business
  • You Bring out the Animal in Me
  • After the Destruction
  • Eat the Cherry
  • Pantelis and the Lion
  • Incongruous Love
  • The Lifer
  • Flying Starts
  • Castrato
  • Lab Animals
  • The Big Good Wolf
  • The Afterlife
  • The Peers
  • Informed Beasts
  • The Small and the Big
  • The Prophet
  • Dangerous Waters
  • The Colony
  • Rosa
  • The Inquisitor


Tropes:

  • Aside Glance: Strips often end with a character staring at the reader as a reaction to the punchline.
  • Ass in a Lion Skin: Junior in "Flying Starts" hates being a sparrow so much, he passes himself off as other birds, like flamingos, but obviously fails to persuade others, especially his father.
  • Bait-and-Switch Comparison:
    • In one of the books, one character complains about people saying the Greek government is a circus, pointing out that one is a cheap troupe of acrobatsnote , clowns and animals, while the other is a popular spectacle loved by children.
    • Similarly, comparing all the politicians to criminals in another strip offends a criminal.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Cornelius the fish in "Dangerous Waters" hates being the shark's sidekick and often gives sarcastic remarks to him.
  • Butt-Monkey: The main characters who aren't assholes, like Junior's dad in Flying Starts, the titular Lifer and Apostolis from 'Rosa'.
  • Cats Are Mean: Lucretia the cat in "Castrato" is a perverted alley cat who's mean to everyone, especially Castrato and her mistress.
  • Crapsack World: Most of the characters, if not all of them, are either morons, perverts, Jerkasses, racists, sexists, sarcastic, greedy, violent, morally corrupt, or some combination of the above. Those who aren't often fall victims to the jerks.
  • Cruel Mercy: Poachers capture Junior offscreen, but release him because he doesn't have beautiful voice or wings. This is one of the few times Junior feels humility even before his adulthood.
  • Deadly Euphemism: As Noah tells the centaurs they don't belong in his ark, his answer to them asking to see the manager is for them to wait, because they'd see Him soon, since they were staying out.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Many of the characters make sarcastic comments to anything that happens.
  • Decoy Protagonist: While Rosa starts as the protagonist in her own series, she quickly gets sidelined for Apostolis, Thanasis and Spyros.
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: Some characters do this for comedy. For example, the hare in "The Big Good Wolf" is called out for his laziness and the wolf tells him "you wake up last in the forest". His rebuttal? "Yes, but I go to sleep first."
  • Dirty Commies: The ants in The Colony are pretty much like the Soviet Union.
  • The Ditz:
    • The deer in The Big Good Wolf struggles to understand anything. He gives a love letter from the wolf destined for the sheep to the dog, for example. Note that the dog despises the wolf and beats him up every time he shows up.
    • Jenny from Rosa. She can't think of anything but her phone, is incredibly shallow and thinks Athanasios Diakos (a hero from the Greek Revolution of 1821) is an ancient Greek.
    • Subverted with Junior's dad. Junior does make him the butt of insults related to stupidity and thinks his dad is a fool, but the father is actually smarter than his son.
  • Enfant Terrible:
    • Junior in "Flying Starts" is a Jerkass to everyone, especially his father. Whom he thought of killing several times with no provocation.
    • Downplayed with Thanasis in the Rosa series. He is not as bad as Junior, but does try to use others for his own gain, will harrass others when he knows someone else will pay the price and his love for Sissy is very, very unhealthy. However, while Junior is the biggest jerk in his series by far, Thanasis isn't and gets some sympathy for opposing Rosa. And with Chrysanthi entering the comic, even his obsession with someone else is no longer the worst in his own series.
  • Feathered Fiend: Junior in "Flying Starts" is often a very troublesome young sparrow, to the point that he had to be taken to a psychologist. The psychologist had trouble with Junior.
  • Gag Nose: Most of the characters are drawn with giant noses.
  • Girls with Moustaches: Thekla in "Show Business" has a moustache, which is her marketing gig.
  • Hated by All:
    • The rooster in "The Rooster" is hated by everybody in the farm, excluding the worm and the pig.
    • Nobody likes the shark in 'Dangerous Waters' either, not even his pilot fish, but they have the very good reason of the shark being a bastard even for his species.
    • Junior is also very unpopular due to his troublesome behavior. At one point, the birds made a queue just to strangle him.
  • Hate Sink: Arkas makes most of his jerks sharp-witted and entertaining, but there are a few that are just plain loathsome:
    • The titular Rosa acts as if she defends the oppressed, but she is a thin-skinned bully in practice.
    • The shark from Dangerous Waters is a brute who enjoys eating (sapient) fish way too much, and also is the target of the resident sharp-witted jerk's mockery.
    • The titular Inquisitor is similar to the shark, being an unpopular sadist, and his main underling makes faces behind his back. Except he is also a pervert that violates his oath.
    • The guard from The Lifer hasn't got Montechristo's humor, he only has sadism that is barely over the top.
  • Heel–Face Turn: In the epilogue of "Flying Starts", Junior as an adult. He has become a family man who regrets his past actions.
  • Hypocrite:
    • Rosa thinks she fights against bullying, yet she is the most abusive character in her series.
    • Rita mocks Asomatos all the time for his lack of arms and legs. She is a snake, so her ableist jokes are also at her own expense.
    • The Inquisitor won't shut up about his holiness, but he is a Covert Pervert.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • In one "Waiting for the Rain" strip, Noah finds the pegasi outside his ark:
      Noah: Sorry, but I can't let you in! You are mythological beings, creatures of imagination!
      Male Unicorn: Says the historically proven person!
    • A "Rosa" strip goes like this:
      Rosa: I'm so glad I was born a girl!
      Apostolis: And I'm so glad I was born a boy!
      Rosa: REALLY? You filthy phallocrat!
  • Jerkass: Many of the characters are rude to other characters in the comic.
  • Jerkass Gods: If God is shown, chances are He'll be this. The "Waiting for the Rain" series' portrayal of Him, for example, trolls Noah by changing the weather to snow or sun, and even cancelling the storm in the final strip.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: Sometimes the Jerkasses don't get the last laugh.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: Sometimes the jerks who mock everyone are actually better than their targets. Cornelius is the prime example, as he is just a snarky jerk, while the shark he insults is a sadistic brute. Another example is Thanasis from Rosa, who might be a jerk with a creepy idea of love, but he is a better person than the self-righteous Rosa he mocks, and Chrysanthi surpasses him in terms of unhealthy obsession with someone.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: When some paint Junior used to make himself a flamingo failed, he said he planned to say he's half-sparrow, half-flamingo, or in his own words, a "mulatto".
  • Nice Mice: Averted with Montecristo the mouse in "The Lifer", who's an arrogant, selfish, nasty Jerkass. Played with with Bakilus from Lab Animals, as he only is a jerk with nasty humor to survive what he and the other animals are going through.
  • Noah's Story Arc: One of Arkas' comic series, "Waiting for the Rain", has Noah and his son preparing for the storm. Naturally, mainly due to God being a Troll to Noah and his son's ineptitude and stupidity, Hilarity Ensues:
    • The animals that didn't get to board the ark complain to Noah about him choosing to save all the contacts and leave them to drown, while Noah tries to explain he chose them with the Supreme Council for Civil Personnel Selection.
    • Two male lions and two bulls complain about gay couples' rights, seemingly missing the point of the trip.
    • The animals on board ask Noah what'd happen if it didn't rain, claiming it wouldn't be the same since all the other animals would survive.
    • A pair of sauropods misses the ark due to the female one taking too long to get ready.
    • As the unicorns board the ark, the male one is told by his mate that she doesn't want to have offspring, because she fears about her body figure.
    • Two carnivorous dinosaurs realize they hadn't made a reservation for the Ark.
    • Noah's son turns out the mammoths, thinking they were another pair of elephants.
    • As a mule asks Noah to wait for him to find a mate, Noah tells him it'd be easier for him to learn to swim.
    • Two monkeys spit on Noah to trick him into believing the rain's started.
    • God messes with the weather, giving Noah a sunny day on one strip and a snowy day on the next.
    • Noah tells the centaurs he can't let them in because they're neither humans nor animals, and tells them that since they'll stay out, they'll see the manager soon.
    • Noah turns out the pegasi because they're mythological beings, as one of them points out Noah's not historically proven either.
    • King Kong tries to get in the ark, showing Ann Darrow as his mate.
    • Noah's son tries to sell umbrellas, and takes in ten hens instead of one for food.
    • A claustrophobic rhinoceros ends up with his horn poking through the wall.
    • Noah's son is forced to take out the animals' feces out.
    • Noah tries to stop his son from swatting the flies.
    • Noah is forced to separate the panthers from the zebras as the former are trying to eat the others, and has to handle a lion that ate the antelopes.
    • Noah is told there'll be no flood, and God tells him to open a pet shop with all the animals.
    • The Stinger shows Noah's son claim that since the Earth is flat, the water will spill out of the edges.
  • Parental Abandonment: Junior's mother in "Flying Starts" left him and his father for a swallow and went to Africa prior to the comic's events.
  • Political Overcorrectness: The "Rosa" series revolves around Rosa, a girl who's hellbent on imposing rights for minorities while verbally attacking majorities. For example, in one comic she's mad at her father for being white, straight and male.
  • Pushover Parents: Junior's father in "Flying Starts" tries to be assertive to his son, but often gets forced to obey his whims.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Most comics' main characters are a rational, questioning (and often Deadpan Snarker) figure and a Jerkass Ditz.
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Zacharias the dog in "The Peers" is a cranky old dog who thoroughly averts the "Man's best friend" stereotype.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Junior in "Flying Starts" is an arrogant sparrow who refuses to accept he's one, tries to pass himself off as another bird, and generally thinks he's better than he actually is.
  • Soap Punishment: In one "Flying Starts" comic, Junior's father recalls his mother giving him this when she heard him swear. When asked if he knew what happened the second time, Junior guesses that she did this to her ears.
  • Sphere Eyes: Most of the characters are drawn with big, round eyes that are close to each other and have drooping eyelids.
  • Stealth Insult: Most of the time Arkas isn't too subtle, except when he has Rita mock Asomatos. Rita is a snake, which doesn't just show she is a bad role model, but makes her a hypocrite as well, meaning she is one of the targets of her punchlines. This shows Arkas having a low opinion of ableists.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: The Prophet in his own comic is grumpy and snarky because everyone else is a gibbering moron.
  • Take That!: Many comics feature potshots aimed at the Greek government.
  • The Dog Bites Back:
    • While Thanasis often exploits Haris, Haris gets even whenever Sissy is even mentioned in some way.
    • Junior's dad sometimes is the one who insults his son more.
    • Apostolis permanently deals with his bully by siccing Rosa on him.
  • Threatening Shark: The shark in "Dangerous Waters" is even more dangerous than real sharks, being a sadist, and his Beleaguered Assistant and best friend Cornelius lets him know it.
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Most of the main characters are perverts, morons, Jerkasses or a combination of the above, and that's a big contributor to the comics' charm.
  • You Dirty Rat!: Montechristo is a prevert, a jerk and a sadist. Also a rat.
  • Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Junior's dad comes very close to hitting his son a couple of times while telling him it's his fault. Unusually for this trope, it is Junior's fault all of these times.
  • With Friends Like These...: Most times two or more characters are friends in a comic, they'll be this.

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