Webcomic / Educomix

Dave: Parental Control, if you need me, I'm just going into the garden to plant some crabs.
Parental Control: Good. Crabs are one of the tastiest vegetables on the worlds.

Educomix is an insane, badly drawn webcomic on ComicFury which has nevertheless developed a coherent plot with its own consistent internal logic. It follows the adventures of a normal guy named Dave, the militant Ecoist Jessica, and many other characters that switch in and out as the plot requires.

The archive is here, and the first strip can be found here.

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This comic provides examples of:

• Accidental Kiss: A strange example - Yuda and Duve were kissing because their non-Asian forms were kissing when they changed back to normal.
• Adam and Eve Plot: When Jessica is in the Garden of Edam, she and Adam are the only humans in existence.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The online teacher and Al.
• All Just a Dream: Dave and Jessica's first kiss was actually dreamed by Jessica.
  • Also, the entire Garden of Edam storyline was dreamed by Jessica.
• Alternate Universe / Another Dimension: Two universes other than the main one have appeared - one where black people are discriminated against (which isn't true in the main universe), and one where Dave and Jessica never met.
• April Fools' Day
  • In the 2011 April Fools' Day strip, Ma'am played a trick on Eyeclops.
  • The 2012 April Fools' Day strip was an edit of the first ever strip that changed the ending.
• A Rare Sentence
  Dave: I had too much coffee so I'm going to be in Asia for a while. OK, bye.
  Jessica: I don't think that made any sense.
• Artistic License – Chemistry: Elements and compounds work in a completely different (yet consistent) way to in real life.
• Artistic License – Geography: Asia is a country, and beneath Ireland. Likewise, Australia is beneath America. And the South Pole is its own country. England is a small, apparently independent island (no other real-life parts of Britain have been mentioned).
  Jessica: With its purple roads and steaming chimneys, Texas is literally the best village in America!
• Artistic License – History: The current president of America is the first male president, and there have not yet been any white or straight presidents!
• Art Shift: Starting from this strip, Dave travels to a universe whose characters are more poorly-drawn than Educomix, seemingly intended to be from a different, non-existent webcomic. The next strip also features a universe that uses photo backgrounds.
• Ascended Extra: Dave, on passing an exam, says that he must be like Stephen the Hawk King, who later appears as an actual character. Jesus is similarly first mentioned here.
  • This strip introduces Jack and Hippie in minor roles - they both reappear later with slightly more importance.
• Big Brother Instinct: Spikeclops is keen to keep Happy away from his sister Eyeclops.
• The Blank: Ma'am, Madam, Lady, etc., and Qstickman.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Ecoism (Jessica and Dave's religion) is portrayed as superior to the other religions in the strip (Euphemism and Ecotology), even though all their rules seem just as arbitrary as each other. Ecoists believe in never using water for anything except drinking to avoid damaging the "ecos", Euphemism appears to be similar to Christianity or Judaism (although they believe that Adam is still somewhere on Earth), and Ecotologists also want to save the ecos, but think that they can accomplish this by populating the country of Asia with clones of everyone from the rest of the world. The main Ecotologist even has blue hair to contrast Jessica's orange hair!
• Built with LEGO: The first panel of this strip has Dave and Ma'am drawn as Lego figures for no apparent reason.
• But I Can't Be Pregnant!: Some time after Drug Abuse is made into toast, Jessica eats him and becomes pregnant with him.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Firefighters are referred to as "fire engines", and police officers are likewise called "crime engines".
• Catchphrase
  • "Good. I'll make toast." Mostly said by Jessica, but also by others.
  • In-Universe, Aussie's catchphrase is apparently "Bingos!"
• Cerebus Syndrome
  • When the comic started, the strips continued from each other, but there was no overall plot. As it continued, there were clearer storylines and references to previous strips that tied the whole thing together more. The characters have become more fleshed out and backstory for several countries was revealed. And, for a while, the comic had the main plot of the war between Ireland and the South Pole continuing in the background of other, smaller plots. However, this hasn't made the comic any less insane...
• Chew Bubblegum: This strip.
  Juice: We're here to chew gum and destroy Ecotologist equipment. And we're not really here to chew gum, we're only here to destroy Ecotologist equipment.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: In-Universe, Dave qualifies. From our point of view, everyone qualifies.
• Computer Virus: Dave gets one from a spam e-mail.
• Crossover: The strip crosses over with the author's game, Eggy.
• Dada Comics
• Death Is Not Permanent / Death Is Cheap: Dead characters can be revived using an Ecoseed of Life...
  • Deader than Dead: However, there are things that cause permanent death, such as dying of old age.
• The Duck: former host before it moved to ComicFury.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The characters speak strangely even now, but it was more over-the-top in early strips.
  Dave: I would like to apply for a job descriptions of the fire engine, ma'am.
• Economy Cast: Each job that Dave works in generally only has one other person seen working there.
• Embarrassing First Name: Headmaster Dooby Poppington. (Also see Unfortunate Names below.)
  • Also, Spikeclops' first name is Spikeclopstopher.
• Enemy Within: Monocle Dave, an evil version of Dave created because Dave became a fire engine.
  • Also, Anti-Jessica, into whom Jessica turns when she gets very angry.
• Evil Counterpart: Monocle Dave to Dave.
• Fantastic Racism: Robots are discriminated against. It's referred to as "robophobia".
• Gender-Blender Name: Ma'am, Madam, Lady, etc. are all men with no face.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Joel. Dave also joins them, as Death.
• Hulking Out: Anti-Jessica, Jessica's Superpowered Evil Side.
• Idiot Ball: Some characters' intelligence levels vary by storyline. Also, there's a literal example - a red ball that makes you stupid while you're touching it.
• It Makes Sense in Context: Once you've begun to understand the series' logic, a lot of parts become this.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Despite the craziness, certain things about the ecos are firmly established, e.g. urine is better than water.
  • Also, the magic system is coincidentally based on letters - the known types of magic are Qmagic (used by Qwizards, and essentially the same as "normal" magic), Wmagic (used by the Whats in the Portal parody), Emagic (there's only one spell, but its effects are programmable by computer), Rmagic (Summon Magic), Tmagic (affects time), and Ymagic (The Power of Love, used by Cupid).
• Makes Just as Much Sense in Context
• Man on Fire: An odd version. Drug Abuse was turned into toast and stayed that way until Jessica ate him. And then later gave birth to him.
• MS Paint
• Mushroom Samba: In this strip, Jessica has too much medication. She hallucinates that her disease has been cured and that Dave is another Jessica.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Used in The Rant of this strip.
• New Year, Same Class: Averted. After the nursery kids leave nursery, Eyeclops and Drug Abuse go to a different school from Happy, Zkt, and Qstickman.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Stephen the Hawk King and Justin Beaver.
  • While President X always appeared to be based on Barack Obama simply due to being a black president of America, it has now been made more explicit by the introduction of his rival Rick Motney.
• No Fourth Wall
  Juice: Did you mistake our house for an airport?
  Dave: No, that was six chapters ago.
• Oblivious to Love: Dave is this with regards to Jessica, and a girl in his own dream.
• Only One Name: Apparently, Dave's entire name is Daveward. Jessica's surname hasn't been mentioned either.
• Pluralses: Very common - see the page quote.
• P.O.V. Sequel: this strip is one to the previous strip.
• The Rant: marionic generally portrays himself as being as odd as the comic characters themselves. Usually, the only time the actual real-life production of the strip is mentioned is when a hiatus is being announced.
• Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: In this strip...
  Dave: I'm not crap at it, explained Dave, I'm just not as good as Spikeclops is at it...
• Ripped from the Headlines: The American government apparently has software to collect information from everyone's computers, like the real-life NSA scandal.
• Sanity Slippage: Apparently, becoming a fire engine makes you insane, even if you don't know you've become one.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: This is how the language of Finnish is portrayed.
• Series Continuity Error: In an early appearance of Spikeclops, he appears to barely recognise Headmaster Poppington. Later events make it clear that Poppington is Spikeclops' uncle, and Spikeclops' surname is in fact Poppington.
• Share Phrase: "Good. I'll make toast."
• Shout-Out: Homestar Runner shows up in one strip as a nursery pupil.
  • This strip is a parody of the Ace Attorney series.
  • The Poke-Man storyline is a reference to Pokémon.
  • Similarly, the Airport storyline is one big shout out to Portal.
  • Joey Jones is based on Harry Potter.
  • These two consecutive strips are full of Video Game references, including Pac-Man, Metal Gear, and The Legend of Zelda.
  • This strip references many things via a costume party.
  • Dave-like versions of the Weeping Angels appear in this strip.
  • Even The Legend Of Zelda C Di Games have been referenced!
  • This strip references "I like turtles".
  • This strip references the "big and heavy" goof from The Transformers.
• Genius Ball: The team ponders creating one by reversing the effects of an Idiot Ball. It works...
• Smurfing: Drug Abuse's adoptive mother Domestic can apparently only say the word "Word." And "Not guilty."
• Split Personality: Dave's arguments with Monocle Dave look like this to everyone else.
  • D. Weacan has four personalities.
• Spoof Aesop
  Dave: You've taught us all a valuable lesson! If we ever see evidence for a different religion, we should still treat the people that believe in it as idiots!
• Starfish Language: Venusians communicate by generating magnetic fields. Even Peggy's dad, who has the power to speak and understand any language, needs a magnet to communicate with them.
• Stick-Figure Comic: Qstickman just looks like a stick figure. Some other characters have stick limbs.
• Stock Scream: In this strip, Qstickman screams "WILHELM!!!"
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: Everyone often adds random Ss to the end of words, and parts of the sentence will somehow be in brackets.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Completely averted for Dave, whose Parental Control, his only parent, appears to be a TV remote.
• Stylistic Suck: Not as extreme as some other comics, but proportions are often warped and the grammar is strange.
  • However, according to this strip, LOLCats speak with perfect grammar in the world of Educomix. "Can I have a cheeseburger?"
• Superpowered Evil Side: Anti-Jessica
• Temporal Paradox: Two objects - Jessica's mask and Dave's fez - literally come from nowhere, having been given to their original owners by people from the future. This causes a "Time Fart", which drains energy from other universes to keep the paradox in place.
• Toilet Humour: Given that, in the universe of the comic, urine is the eco-friendly substitute for water, it's not surprising that this happens every now and then.
  Dave: WEEEEE! Get it? "WEEEEE" sounds like "TOILET"!
• Triple Nipple: Inverted - Adam has one nipple. So does Dave. Played straight for Hippie Johnson.
• Unfortunate Names: Drug Abuse. "Abuse" is apparently his surname.
  • Drug Abuse's adoptive parents are named Child and Domestic.
• Unusual Euphemism: There are a few examples. In particular, "Eco" is used in place of "God" by Ecoists.
  Dave: What the Ludwig van Heck were you even doing in my nearly edible food-based snack?
• Urine Trouble: It's an established rule (from the very first strip) that that urine is better for the "ecos" than water, so naturally, this trope is commonly shown.
• Villain Episode: The villains of the comic got a couple of strips to themselves.
• Wham Line: "Dave, before we go, I just want to say... I love you."
• Wheel o' Feet: Appears several times as Dave's way of running, starting from the fourth strip ever!
• Will They or Won't They?: Dave and Jessica. Jessica clearly likes Dave, but Dave may be Oblivious to Love. In this strip, they kiss for the first time.

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