Spelling the Vacuum

""Why would you try to spell a vacuum?""

- What You're Probably Thinking Right Now

Vacuumland, 1996: An inexplicable accident of chance creates a sentient vacuum with an attitude. His name is Spelling.

The first five "chapters" were plotted out as part of a larger arc centered on the prophecy of the Errant One and Bono the Cat's ambition to Take Over the World. The sixth introduced a new old nemesis of Stooge's with a grudge, and the seventh involved Time Travel before the author got sick of that dragging on and swerved abruptly in a different direction.

The site, www.room931.com, was taken down sometime in 2008, about two years after the last strip was posted -- which itself was only posted after a six-month lapse, as lampshaded in said final strip. Once upon a time, it also shared a forum site with Zelda Comic at inksandwich.com.

Spelling the Vacuum is now archived at www.spellingthevacuum.com as of May, 2009.


 * Aborted Arc: Right in the middle of the action.
 * Achilles' Heel: Villain Ray's weakness is the fact that his powers are powered by self-esteem.
 * Action Girl: The Jew.
 * Art Evolution: Lampshaded in a fight during the Time Travel arc... unrelatedly to the Time Travel, though. "Did the author just change the art style again?"
 * Author Appeal: Lampshaded by Stooge during his short Out-of-Clothes Experience: "I dunno, probably just an excuse so the author can draw me naked."
 * Back From the Dead: As well as To Hell and Back.
 * Came Back Wrong: Bono's sexuality switched orientations.
 * Camp Gay: Bono, to his own horror, after his return from the dead.
 * The Chosen One: Spelling is The Errant One.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Played with, somehow, when the characters visit Guam, and immediately determine that the author knows nothing about the real Guam.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Jew doesn't seem to have another name; neither does The Convert (who, incidentally, converted to Judaism.)
 * Evil Overlord: Bono.
 * Freud Was Right: The "resemblance," according to readers, of the antenna-thingy on the author-mouthpiece's head to a penis was used for a joke once.
 * His name is Nub. It was a foregone conclusion.
 * Grammar Nazi: The Fairy of Good Grammar.
 * It's Popular, Now It Sucks: Conversationally described by Stooge in an early strip.
 * Lightning Can Do Anything: Spelling's birth, from the union of the super-intelligence of a Mr. Spell machine, and the body of a vacuum.
 * Literal Genie: The frog statue, in "Look, It's Vaguely Like Ghostbusters." Genie-free, non-wish-granting magical loophole example: Fairy wands can only be wielded by fairies, but the definition of 'fairy' includes the homophobic slur.
 * No Fourth Wall
 * Out-of-Clothes Experience
 * Religion Is Magic: Specifically, Judaism = superpowers.
 * Terminator Twosome: The Aborted Arc.
 * Theme Naming: Three named vacuums are Spelling, Dictionary, and Homework. As in, things that . The author admits he came up with this Incredibly Lame Pun in Junior High.
 * This Is All The Tropes Bitch: On being born, Spelling's first words were "'Sup, bitches?"
 * To Hell and Back
 * The Un-Reveal: Vacuum sex is always just offscreen; Word of God says it's not explicit, just "very hard to draw."