Lego Space: The Comic

Just a sampling of the many, many characters inhabiting the universe of Lego Space.

Lego Space: The Comic is a Photo Comic about LEGO's classic Space line. While mainly a comedic series, it can get surprisingly dramatic depending on the currently-running arc. There are many storylines, all running concurrently, with three identifiable main ones:

The first and most prominent focuses on Space Agency members Schwartz and Galanos in a Slice of Life style, save the occasional 'action sequence'. This is also the section where most of the 'minor character arcs' originate from, generally focusing on those related to the main two in some fashion.

Then you have Lance and Vance Gemini, twin agents on a mission from the president to track down a mysterious ghost ship and learn about the phenomena behind what appears to be an undead version of the Space Agency's founder, Captain Dash Jefferson, haunting the star systems in said ship. Genre-wise, this plays out as a mix between Mystery and Horror with stronger Action elements than Scwartz/Galanos arcs.

The last stars Scouse, leader of the M:Tron scientists with an ever-changing accent, and details his "abduction" by an alien invasion force with mysterious intentions for the Space Agency. This is a little harder to classify than the other two, though 'surrealist' definitely applies.

Each of these ^[1] are intertwined; plot points from all storylines affect each other, making for an elaborately woven plot, yet the presentation of the strips makes it such that the reader never gets confused when this happens. Add the fact that each character is distinct in their characterization and you have a well-written comic that keeps the reader guessing while being fun to read as well.

Tropes used in Lego Space: The Comic include:

Ace Pilot: Schwartz is implied to be this with his craft the Gamma-V.
Action Girl: Valkyrie qualifies, as does Jenny...
A Day in the Limelight: Occasionally there will be a single page that focuses on a minor character and what they do, like Bruce and Cheryl musing, or the Space Policemen and their mishaps with the sniffer frog.
Affectionate Parody: Does these every once in a while: these include Tron, Transformers, Star Trek, and Goodfellas.
Alien Abduction: Scouse is kidnapped in this manner at first, but he doesn't end up staying on the alien's ship for long.
All Myths Are True : So far, UFOs, Jetis, Dragons ( The Jersey Demon), castles in the moon and the Loch Ness Monster have been confirmed.
Alternate Self: Ronald pretends to be this to Galanos in his first appearance.
Alternate Timeline: The future as shown to Ronald in 'House Call'. Also qualifies as a Bad Future.
Alternate Universe: Where the 'clones' of Schwartz and Galanos may come from in 'Bootlegs'.
And I Must Scream: The Crater Crawler pilot in 'Last Face you See'. Technically he does "die", but he's taken by Captain Dash to a mysterious location. His fate is left unknown but implied to be horrifying.
Another Dimension: Scouse seems to be jumping from dimension to dimension. The truth seems to be something more like he's somehow become trapped in Ronald's mind.
An Aesop: Somewhat averted/parodied in 'Hairbrush, Chainsaw, or Popsicle?'.
April Fool's Plot: The 100th episode celebration, with Schwartz pulling a very expansive one on Galanos.
Author Appeal: Harrison Ford clones that show up in many of the storylines. In-universe, Harrison Ford is said to be the reason that the Earth started a cloning program!
Author Avatar: In 'Back Under The Old Management', first with what's assumed to be a fairly-accurate representation, then with various figurines of Lupin III's Fujiko.
Awesome McCoolname: Ralph Gunbar, who renamed himself after his two favorite things: drinking and shooting.
Badass Spaniard: Manuel Rotondo De Beauvis in 'Party Hardy!'.
Backstory: What '200' is all about.
Bad Guy Bar/Good Guy Bar: Depending on who's inside, the Raven's Port Bar can be either. The unnamed cafe in 'Meteor Madness II' is a more straight example of the former.
Bad Boss: The Commodore is implied to be this when he asks Valkyrie to 'bump off' one of his henchmen. This is of course part of a Goodfellas parody...
Batman Can Breathe in Space: Kind of- the Classic Space minifigures have no visors, yet we see them breathing perfectly fine in the vacuum of space. Perhaps justified; the characters are made of Lego, after all.
Bar Brawl: Whenever the M:Tron scientists inhabit the Raven's Port bar, this inevitably happens...at least until Schwartz shows up.
Base on Wheels: The Mega Core Magnetizer.
Beat Panel
Beware the Nice Ones: To get back at Schwartz for his prank in the 100th episode, Galanos engineers a situation where Schwartz is forced to watch his least favorite show, the Lawrence Welk XVI show live ('Revenge is a Dish Best Served with Champagne'). This ends up backfiring on him however, as Schwartz finds himself liking the show instead!
Big Damn Heroes: Officer Freundlich, Masoch, Mr. Marx, Gunbar, and Vanilla Snowball as the cavalry in 'House Call'.
Bigger on the Inside: Mostly averted, as the author uses the interior of the actual set he's using; played straight for whenever The Doctor's TARDIS is shown.
Big No: Used once or twice, as when Schwartz is the unwilling viewer of the Lawernce Welk XVI show.
Biting the Hand Humor: In one comic, Red berates the author for not putting her in more comics despite her (supposedly)

being part of the main cast.

Black Cloak: The alien scientist.
Bunny Ears Lawyer: Masoch's...fetishes are often overlooked for the fact that he does exceptionally well at his job in the Space Agency.
- In the 428-th comic, Weiss admits this is the reason he hasn't fired both Schwartz and Galanos.
Butt Monkey: From Schwartz's alien invasion prank to his relationship with the ice babe Priscilla, and the constant mocking by his younger brother Ronald, poor Galanos definitely qualifies.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Captain Dash is like this, stealing corpses and threatening members of his own Space Agency.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the (aptly-titled) 'Breaking Down the Fourth Wall'.
Brought to You by The Letter "S": Mr. Scouse and the other M:Tron scientists have the letter 'M' on their uniform. Similarly, the Blacktron II members have a 'B on theirs.
Can't Hold His Liquor: Lance and Vance Gemini in 'First Field Assignment'.
Card-Carrying Villain: The alien leader.
Call Back: The Allied Avenger with the Hooting Space Monkey tied to it in 'Bootlegs'.
Cell Phone: An amusing use, for a series that takes place in the future; Schwartz uses a phone built into his helmet to call a character, and that character uses an item treated like a modern cell phone to communicate back. Taken even further in that the piece she's using to do so is based on old 1970's walkie-talkies complete with long antennae.
Chest Insignia: Generally true for most of the uniformed characters.
Chekhov's Gun: Used very frequently. Often details that seemed small or dialogue that was inconsequential in one storyline comes back in a later storyline, making the whole thing seem rather connected and whole.
Civilian Villain: The Commodore, who's seemingly trying to make Blacktron into a legitimate operation. This seems more and more like a ruse the further the comic goes on- while not supportive of Valkyrie's brazenly pirate-ing ways he does allow her to continue if just for the money, and he did order that hit in 'Meteor Madness II'.
Clip Show: Episode 100 starts as this, then quickly subverts it in the manner of 'making stuff up that never happened'. There is however an overall plot to the episode beyond the clip show.
Cloning Blues: Averted for the clones in 'Bootlegs'; the two don't care that they're clones and just go about living their lives without thinking of this fact.
Clones Are People, Too: As discussed above.
Comically Missing the Point: Schwartz in 'Party Hardy!', as pointed out by the author.
Cool Cat: Vanilla Snowball. Flying the Gamma-V in 'House Call' to take out the Commodore definitely qualifies him for this!
Cool Starship: The many Classic Space spaceships.
Counterpart Combat Coordination: In 'Bootlegs', it's this but with a race.
Crossover: With Achievement Wh 0 rz. In a sense, it's something of a guest strip series as well.
Dating Catwoman: Schwartz's relationship with Valkyrie was like this before they started explicitly going out.
Dark and Troubled Past: Schwartz. A mysterious one that apparently involves the death of his parents when he was a child...
Deadpan Snarker: A few characters, including S-Bot, and Red to a smaller degree.
Deleted Scene: in 'Lunch Time'.
Deliberately Distressed Damsel: Masoch isn't exactly a damsel, but his intentionally being captured by the Blacktron I group can be seen as this.
Determinator: Captain Dash Jefferson.
Dominatrix: Valkyrie channels this in 'Meteor Madness II'.
Dramatic Ellipsis: Schwartz in the second comic of the 'Bootlegs' storyline. Or, well kind of anyway; here it's used to indicate confused silence.
Early-Bird Cameo: Walker shows up as early as 'Locked Up', though he isn't named 'til later. In fact, there are a few characters who have exactly this situation applied to them.
Eldritch Abomination: Lt. Coldwell is implied to be worshiping one of these- Lord Xenu.
Ensign Newbie: Lt. Coldwell starting in 'Blank Attack'.
Establishing Shot: One for every location in the comic.
Everything's Deader with Zombies: The Captain Dash Jefferson zombie.
Exactly What I Aimed At: A trick Amarillo uses in 'Fun on the Runway'.
Executive Meddling: For a few strips (445-447), the author appeared to be having troubles with his host site. In reality it's a "meta-storyline" used for framing a guest strip.
Fantastic Racism: Played with with the Martians in 'The Breakup'- Harrison Ford clone #35 and his political followers don't seem to respect the Martians very much, to put it mildly.
Fainting: Mr. Torio, the "emotional" kind.
Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Lance and Vance Gemini, at least most of the time.

* Five-Man Band: Out of the five Classic Space characters:
The Hero	Amarillo
The Lancer	Schwartz
The Smart Guy	Galanos
The Mentor	Weiss
The Sixth Ranger	Red

- Note that this is based more on the character's personality than their role in the story; Schwartz is actually the main character, with Galanos being the main secondary character, and the others, while important, falling somewhere below them.
Flash Back: The 'Retro Red' storyline.
Foreshadowing: Early in the comic's run there was a page featuring a mysterious character; this got its payout in the form of a 22-strip long arc almost a year later.
Fourth Wall Mail Slot: Schwartz stars in one of these in celebration of the comic reaching 400 episodes.
Funetik Aksent: Some of Scouse's accents are portrayed in this manner.
Gender Bender: in 'Back Under The Old Management', as referenced in the tags. No comment on this one.
Happy Flashback: Schwartz's memories of camping in the White Condor with his parents.
Heroes Want Redheads: Galanos (and Ronald) for Priscilla the ice babe.
Hoist by His Own Petard: When Amarillo, Lt. Coldwell, and the M:Tron's scientists attempt to escape the 'Jersey Devil' dragons only to have their magnetic ship become attached to the Mega Core Magnetizer's magnets by mistake in 'Blank Attack'.
Home Base: Every character has one. For the Space Agents, it's mainly the Inter-Galactic Command Base, with the Android Base being secondary; for the Blacktron pirates, the Alpha Centauri Outpost; for the M:Tron scientists, it's officially the Mega Core Magnetizer (though in a sense the Raven's Port Bar could count too); and for the future Space Police it's Space Police Central Precinct 78.
Intellectual Animal: The 'Jersey Devil' dragons.
Isn't It Ironic?: Ronald travels through time to stop the recording of Alanis Morissette's song. This actions has serious consequences in the time continuum.
Jerkass: Ronald falls into this sometimes, as his treatment of his brother and Mr. Wobbly Droid indicates, as well as his view towards the others in the 'House Call' storyline.
Kent Brockman News: Starting with the 'DACTA' storyline.
Latin Lover: Manuel Rotondo De Beauvis in 'Party Hardy!', naturally.
Last-Name Basis: Schwartz and Galanos are both character's surnames; as of the current comic, only Galanos' first name has been revealed (Micheal). Schwartz doesn't seem to like his first name, avoiding questions on what it is ('400'/'Schwartz...On [X]').
Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club: Blacktron trying to go 'legitimate' as a corporation. In reality, the thieving and pirating still goes on, it's just in more of a 'behind-the-scenes' capacity.
Loads and Loads of Characters: At last count, there were around 49 characters each with more than one or two strips to their name.
Loveable Rogue: Valkyrie is played somewhat in this vein, though she's more of an Anti-Hero than a straight hero version.
Meaningful Name: Scwartz, Weiss, Amarillo, and Red all have names that are the color of their uniform. Lance and Vance Gemini are twins, Verwaand is German for 'arrogant', and Conor McNewsbreaker's is...rather obvious.
Melancholy Moon: To both Galanos and Priscilla in 'The Breakup'.
My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Mr. Wobbly Droid in 'House Call'.
New Jersey: Schwartz has a strong connection to this state, and 'Fun on the Runway' takes place here but in the comic's timeline. Notably this is because the author himself lived here when he was younger.
No OSHA Compliance: The M:Tron's mining operations tend not to be too safe, though this is more because of Mr. Marx and his men's carelessness than any equipment failure.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Valkyrie pulls this off in 'Meteor Madness II'. Schwartz invokes it on some occasions as well.
Only Sane Man: Galanos
Only Six Faces: In a sense- the most common face characters have is the classic Lego 'smiley', but the poses and the gear a character has often makes up for any lack of expression this causes. Ronald, the Gemini twins, and Red are prime examples.
Our Zombies Are Different: Captain Dash is currently a Type O, but only due to lack of in-universe information on his zombie status.
Overly Long Name: Once again, Manuel Rotondo De Beauvis in 'Party Hardy!'.
Paranormal Investigation: Lance and Vance Gemini's specialty.
Properly Paranoid: The first page with Carter plays out like this. After that, it's either played with or his paranoia is unfounded.
Psycho for Hire: Valkyrie is a toned-down version of this.
Quintessential British Gentleman: Amarillo's robot Churchill. Seen most strongly in 'Hairbrush, Chainsaw, or Popsicle?'.
Ridiculously-Human Robots: Or rather ridiculously cat-like mecha- there's a giant robot shaped like a cat that also acts like a cat, Played for Laughs.
Robot Buddy: G-Bot, S-Bot, Mr. Wobbly Droid, and M-1 all count, as do minor characters like Churchill, Slave-2, and the Exploriens Droid.
Samus Is a Girl: Commander Valkyrie in the earliest strips of the comic.
Secret Identity: Valkyrie had one at first that was unknown to even the viewers. She still tries to keep hers secret from the general public in-universe, though her cover is almost blown in 'Date Night'.
Shout-Out: Many present; among the most common are Doctor Who, Goodfellas, Batman and fellow sci-fi Lego webcomic Tranquility Base.
Single Biome Planet: Pluto is treated as one of these in a few stories.
Space Pirates: The Blacktron Forces have been called this a few times.
Space Police: Naturally, Lego's own Space Police line (in its various incarnations) shows up frequently, usually trying to stop the Blacktrons. One of them, Officer Freundlich, is a (semi-) recurring character; otherwise the future Space Police do factor into the 'Jenny' storyline.
Space Suits Are Scuba Gear: A side effect of using the original Space minifigures, as their 'space suit' has always been a helmet of some kind and a set of oxygen tanks.
Stalker Without a Crush: Jenny spends most of her time stalking Schwartz. This has not yet been (explicitly) explained, though plenty of material for fan theories is given. Interestingly, she is also seen stalking Valkyrie on occasion...
Sticky Fingers: Valkyrie "suffers" from this, as seen in 'Ketching Up' (though she does rather enjoy it).
Still Wearing the Old Colors: Valkyrie, Walker, and Dr. Doug still wear the uniforms
Stock Footage: Not exactly footage, but the author admits to sometimes using old shots to save time and other economic reasons.
Storming the Castle: Valkyrie and her crew of Blacktron I men failed to do this to the Alpha Centauri Outpost in the alternate reality in 'House Call'.
Suspiciously Specific Denial
Super Prototype: The Gamma-V is said to be one of these, a prototype model never put into production. Naturally due to this it's the fastest ship in the Space Agency's fleet, and only Schwartz, who had to make a special request to get it, knows how to pilot the thing.
The Alcoholic: Ralph Gunbar.
The Big Race: Schwartz initiates one in 'Bootlegs'.
The Cavalry: In 'House Call'. It's even named as such by one of the characters.
The Cameo: In one storyline, famous rock idols like Bruce Springsteen and Freddy Mercury, among others make a guest appearance. Notably Huey Lewis first appears in this storyline but continues to haunt Galanos long after it's finished. Other kinds of cameos include figures from other themes both classic and new, like the Black Falcons and some Collectible Minifigures.
The Dandy: President Weiss really seems to like his various fashions- his page in the 'Advent Calendar' storyline shows this.
The Dragon: Verwaand is this to The Commodore, although he's not quite as threatening as a typical version.
The Faceless: Ronald and Galanos' mother was like the benign version of this at first, before the subversion in 'Party Hardy!'. The author states that originally she was intended to stay as this for the run of the comic, but he found a figure that was just perfect for her portrayal, and thus she was included.
The Password Is Always Swordfish: The password for the computer in the Gamma-V is VanillaSnowball. It's explained in the commentary that Schwartz is actually smart enough to know how to make a good password, it's just that he's too lazy to make one that's hard to remember.
The Peter Principle: Used for Ronald, mentioned in The Rant.
The Smurfette Principle: Averted- the females in the series don't feel like arbitrary inclusions; rather, every character has a naturalistic fit.
Those Two Guys: Lance and Vance Gemini, paranormal investigators.
Title Confusion: A bit; the main URL refers to the title as 'Lego Space', the banner refers to it as just 'Space' (as a One Word Title); the bottom blurb names it as 'Space: The Comic', and it is referred to on other websites as "Lego Space: The Comic' by the author. For the sake of this article, we've gone with the most specific title, as 'Space' is a bit generic and LEGO Space is already taken by the toy line.
- Clarified a bit in the blurb for 'Bootlegs Part 22'; the author prefers to go by the title of 'Space: The Comic' so as to not interfere on Lego's copyright/"Fair Play" policies. Currently this page is still under "Lego Space: The Comic", but if anyone feels this really needs changing, perhaps we can set up a discussion in the appropriate section.
Time Dilation: Possible explanation for Schwartz and Galanos' extended absence in 'Bootlegs'.
Tomato in the Mirror: Happens to clone-Schwartz and Galanos, though they don't much care, so downplayed. The real Schwartz and Galanos discuss this in one comic before deciding it doesn't apply to them.
Too Kinky to Torture: Commander Masoch. He goes out of his way to experience pain, once hunting out the Blacktron I group and taunting them just to make them hurt him! They catch on however and leave him alone- which just makes him search for other places to get his fix of pain.
True Neutral: The Exploriens faction claims to be this.
Turn in Your Badge: This happens (unsuccessfully) to Jenny in her self-titled storyline.
Twin Banter: Lance and Vance Gemini tend to do this in their appearances.
Under New Management: In the strip of the same name, the author is 'fired' and replaced by someone chosen by 'The Management'. This is actually the setup for a guest strip of course.
What the Hell, Hero?: Schwartz seemingly leaving Valkyrie to die in 'Thursday Night at Last', and Valkyrie calls him out on it. Of course, it was all part of a tactic to try to kill the yeti (don't ask)- Valkyrie was being a bit quick to judge.
What the Hell Is That Accent?: This is Scouse's accent perfectly.
Whip It Good: Schwartz's use of the whip in the 'Indiana Jones' storyline; later its use by Valkyrie in 'Meteor Madness II'.
You Gotta Have Purple Hair: Commander Valkyrie.

↑ and mini-arcs focusing on minor characters

[1] -arcs focusing on minor characters

[1]