Darth Wiki / SPUR Comics

ŠPUR Comics is a comic book based on two things; MAD Magazine and the art school based in Rijeka, Croatia; the School for Applied Arts Rijeka (Škola za Primjenjenu Umjetnost u Rijeci) or, its acronym ŠPUR.

It all started in 2009, when in my senior year at ŠPUR I stumbled upon an issue of MAD Magazine (issue #501 to be exact) and it changed my life forever. Dissatisfied with my years at ŠPUR, I decided to project my dissatisfaction with ŠPUR onto a comic book inspired by MAD. Thus ŠPUR Comics came to life, which I've been doing on-again off-again to this day (yes, despite the fact I graduated, I still make fun of my school, you would too if you were me).

The comic has two sections:

• A story following an episodic plot; supernatural happenings in ŠPUR and how the students deal with them (happenings such as killer professors, paintings come to life, students with freaky powers, etc.)
• MAD inspired articles:
  • TV show, movie and even classical literature parodies in the style of MAD's TV show and movie satires.
  • Articles such as "What if Lady Gaga was a student of ŠPUR?", "Overheard in ŠPUR's teacher lounge", "What if Taylor Swift was a student of ŠPUR?", "The ŠPUR nasty file" and so on.

If you're still interested in this hot garbage, here are the tropes:

• A Degree in Useless: The last entry in the article "Similarities between Hogwarts and ŠPUR" says "A degree from both schools is useless in the real world".
• Advice Backfire: One article is a parody of advice columns; every question is met with a response from a different student, and they're all... not that good.
  Question: How do I tell my parents that I'm gay?
  Student who's in the Transparent Closet's advice: How should I know?!
  Question: I'm fat and no matter how much I try, I can't stop eating?
  Overweight studnet's advice: I don't see what's the problem!
• Affectionate Parody: Some parodies are more affectionate towards the source material than others. Take for example, the parody review of Heartstopper, titled Charthopper (a reference to the show - and comic's - popularity):
  Student #1: Older gays think this show is unrealistic. Younger gays think it's heartwarming.
  Student #2: What do you think?
  Student #1: I think it's unrealistically heartwarming!
• Animal Motifs: In "ŠPUR Morphs", inspired by the covers for Animorphs, we see students get morphed into an animal that fits their personality (e.g. a lazy student morphs into a sloth, a fat student into a pig, etc.)
• Artifact Title: In the parody review of The Weirdoes of Valley View, one student notes how the titular villains aren't villainous at all, and the show should be called something else.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Just like MAD, this also has its own "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" section:
  Student #1: Is that a self-portrait?
  Student #2: 1) No, it's a really bad mirror! 2) No, it's a portrait of someone who looks like me! 3) No, it's a picture of my clone!
• Asleep in Class: The parody article The ŠPUR Side has a cartoon with a student sleeping during class, with another student saying "Honestly, i don't blame him".
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In the Courage the Cowardly Dog parody, "Corrigible" says he's afraid of spiders, the dark, ghosts and lawyers. He also says he's afraid of being rebooted and end up like Teen Titans Go! or The Powerpuff Girls (2016).
• Bait-and-Switch: In the parody review of Doctor Strain in the Multiverse of Badness, there's this exchange:
  Student #1: In the beginning we meet America Chappedlips, who has two moms and can travel through dimensions!
  Student #2: That's strange! Two moms, you say?
• Black Humor: In some instances. For example, from the U Registraturi parody:
  Žorž: What a tragedy! The patron's home is in flames!
  Ivica: But, where's the patron?
  Žorž: Crap, I knew i forgot something!
• The Cameo: Much like in MAD's TV/movie satires, some of the TV/movie/literature parodies end with a surprise cameo. F'rinstance, the Malcolm in the Middle parody ends with The Addams Family taking in Malcolm, whom he claims are completely normal compared to his old family.
• Caustic Critic: As seen above, an ongoing feature has two students who do reviews of parody movies and TV shows. Some other examples:
  • BlandaVision:
  Student #1: She did it! Blanda has officially become the Corset Witch!
  Student #2: Now if only she would put a spell on the viewers to forget this lameass show!
  • Hackneyed:
  Student #1: In the beginning we see little Kate Bullshit who, seeing Hawkguy, decides to become just like him!
  Student #2: Good thing she didn't see the Hulk! Otherwise she would bulk up and paint herself green!
  • Midsomer Morons:
  Student #2: Here's our first victim!
  Student #1: She probably died of boredom, watching this show!
  • Woman Wonder 1984:
  Student #1: In the beginning, we see Diana in the holiest place of the USA in the 80s!
  Student #2: A church?
  Student #1: The mall!
  • Bore: Lotta Blunder:
  Student #1: Lame Foster, who is fighting cancer, gets Thor's powers and becomes Missy Bore!
  Student #2: If only she would fight the growing cancer known as future Marvel movies!
• Cliché Storm: The Love, Simon parody, titled Love, Simpleton, accuses the movie to be this, i.e. a bunch of the same old Hollywood cliches where the only difference is that the main character is gay.
• Dirty Old Man: One teacher has this reputation given the way he treats girls. In the article "What If the Characters from Hamster & Gretel were Students of ŠPUR?", one entry says that Gretel would protect the girls of ŠPUR by beating up that particular teacher.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: "ŠPUR-ians' embarrassing tattoos" features these, such as a goth student with a tattoo of the number 999, given to her by a dyslexic Satanist.
• Epic Fail: Prom Night 2011 comes to mind. The article "Similarities between the Spiderman musical and Prom Nght 2011" says that both:
  • Had terrible music
  • Made people drink lots of booze
  • Failed miserably

And so on...

• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: From The Metamorphosis parody:
  Gregor Salsa: Welp, time to go to work! I'll just get up, brush my teeth, striaghten my exoskeleton... wait - EXOSKELETON?!
• Fish out of Temporal Water: In the article "What if the movie Senior Year took place in ŠPUR?", the main character would be shocked by the sexual orientation diversity of ŠPUR, but given that not much has changed in the school except the main door, very little else would shock her.
• Fun T-Shirt: One cover has a student standing next to the principal, while wearing an "I'm With Stupid ->" t-shirt.
• Good News, Bad News: The end of A Doll's House parody ends like this:
  Nora: Family, I have good news and bad news! The good news is I'm no longer mad at you. The bad news is I'm leaving you forever! Goodbye!
• Goth: Half the student body is goth, whether perky or otherwise. Take this entry from the article "Differences between a regular high school and ŠPUR":
  "In a regular high school, goths are low in numbers and move in isolated groups. In ŠPUR, half the school is made of goths."
• Hotter and Sexier: During my 2011-2012 Ecchi phase, the comic featured big boobs, panty shots and all sorts of Fanservice-y material.
• Lighter and Softer: The parody of The Gashlycrumb Tinies, titled The GashlyŠPUR Tinies is this compared to the original poem. It details 26 ŠPUR students, 13 very succesful, 13 not so much.
• Literal Split Personality: One story involves a student who's The Ingenue, and whose secret slutty side becomes its own person.
• No Fourth Wall: Everybody is aware they're in a parody comic book. One shining example is how in The Crap Twins, Mrs. Crap is seen cleaning the fourth wall with a wet cloth.
• Nostalgia Filter: This is how the titular Ecch, Yecch n Yecchy get money in their parody; by cashing in on people's nostalgia for their show with their own merchandise.
• Our Vampires Are Different: One story is about a girl who has vampiric powers that allow her to suck in other people's talents.
• Parenthetical Swearing: One teacher doesn't allow swear words in her class, which is why the students invoke this trope. In the article "Similarities between The Good Place and ŠPUR", one entry says "Swearing is forbidden in both places".
• Parody Name: Students and faculty have their names altered to childish versions. The same also goes for the characters in the TV/movie/literature parodies. F'rinstance:
  • The Catcher in the Rye parody has "Molden Character", "Lame Gala-girl", Molden's sister "Feeble"...
  • The Messrs. Glembay parody turns Sister Angelica into "Sister Angelcake", baroness Castelli into "baroness Crapelli", and so on.
  • "Courage", the Comically Dark has Corrigible the dog, his owner Murky and her husband Useless Baggage.
• Pom-Pom Girl: The story The First Cheerleaders of ŠPUR features these.
• Prehensile Hair: A recurring character is a student who has a beard whose hairs move like tentacles.
• "Rashomon"-Style: Parodied with "Various ŠPUR-ians tell the same story: Goldilocks and the three bears":
  • An overweight student focuses solely on the food Goldilocks ate.
  • A lazy student focuses solely on the three bears' beds.
  • A goth studnet fills her version with blood and gore.
• Really Gets Around: Both Taylor Swift and She-Hulk in their respective articles about what if they were students of ŠPUR are said that they would "hook up with that little hetero male population of the school".
• Recycled Title: "Recycled Goosebumps books... with ŠPUR-ians" uses Goosebumps book titles to make fun of ŠPUR and its students:
  • The Blob That Ate Everyone has an overweight student on the cover.
  • Vampire Breath features a student with poor oral hygiene.
  • One Day At Horrorland features a sign saying "ŠPUR - open door day".
  • My Hairiest Adventure - has a student with terrible-looking facial hair on the cover.
• Rummage Sale Reject: As one would expect from an art school, some of its students have interesting ways of dressing. One line in the article "What if Lady Gaga was a student of ŠPUR?" says: "At the end of the day, not even her craziest outfit could match the unique clothing style of ŠPUR's students".
• Self-Deprecation: I deliver cheap shots to my former colleagues and teachers, as well as myself. F'rinstance, from The Wizard of Oz parody:
  Dorothy: You know, you're the second person I know who is in need of a brain!
  Scarecrow: Really, who's the first?
  Dorothy: Our author, who else?
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Discussed in the parody review of the fifth season of Raven's Home:
  Student #1: In the beginning, Booker is angry 'cause everybody is comparing him to his sister Nia.
  Student #2: Now I know how Eric Roberts feels!
• Sucky School: Both in-universe and the actual school. One ad-parody says "Subscribe to ŠPUR Comics! Artists and painters agree; we need the money more than the Sports School!".
• Trapped in the Past: There's a story Arc where a character is transported to 2008 and has to take The Slow Path.
• Trapped in TV Land: One story has students get sucked into a teacher's project from her senior year back when she was in ŠPUR; a boring board-game about "stranger danger".
• To the Tune of...: There are song parodies about the school's students and teachers, sung to the tune of popular songs and showtunes. Here's a snippet, sung to the tune of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins:
  We're - Supertiredandoverworkedindustrialdesigners
  We draw chairs, sofas, couches and recliners
  Sometimes even stools for bars and diners
  Supertiredandoverworkedindustrialdesigners
• What If?: One recurring feature is a premise called "What if _____ was a student of ŠPUR?". Subjects include:
  • Lady Gaga
  • Taylor Swift
  • Grimes
  • Ms. Marvel (2014)
  • She-Hulk
  • The characters from The Amazing World of Gumball
  • The cast of Victorious
  • In a variation, one article asked "What if the teachers from Abbott Elementary were members of ŠPUR's collective?"
• X Meets Y: MAD Magazine meets some random art school in a country you haven't heard of until now. Then there's also:
  • ŠPUR Trek
  • ŠPURgrassi
  • Sculptors no naku koro ni
  • Indus-Glee- al Design

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