Rocky (comics): Difference between revisions

'''''Rocky''''' is a Swedish autobiographical [[Underground Comics|underground comic]] created by Martin Kellerman. Mostly autobiographical, it follows [[Author Avatar]] '''Rocky''', a [[Funny Animal]] dog, and his slacker friends, as they deal with relationships and maturity (often the lack therofthere of), hang out at bars and coffee houses and have unusual escapades and often-embarrassing [[Everybody Has Lots of Sex|one-night stands]] at music festivals and [[Hip Hop]] concerts. Artistic influences include Mats Jonsson, [[American Splendor (Comic Book)|Harvey Pekar]], [[Robert Crumb]] and Peter Bagge, and numerous [[Shout -Out|Shout Outs]] to (usually American) rappers, TV shows and movies are sprinkled throughout the comics. As time time passed (and Kellerman got a substantially more stable life situation), the theme of the comic gradually shifted from booze-and-sex-fueled misadventures to [[Better Than It Sounds|coffee-fueled conversations about life, relationships and pop culture]].

Kellerman created the comic after his then-girlfriend broke up with him and he got fired from a pornographic magazine for [[Dude, Not Funny|going too far]]. Initially drawn for the amusement of himself and his fans, he shopped it around publishers who rejected it either because of the sex and language, or because they claimed it was a ripoff of ''[[Fritz the Cat (Comic Bookcomics)|Fritz the Cat]]''. The few papers that did run ''Rocky'' got numerous complaints because of its content, but Kellerman ended up publishing several volumes himself that sold really well; he also publishes a magazine featuring ''Rocky'' comics, album reviews and interviews with popular rappers. The comic was so successful in Sweden that it was eventually translated by Fantagraphics Books, who published two volumes of translated comics, and it was briefly published in the American version of ''Metro'', the Swedish free newspaper that typically published ''Rocky'' in its country of origin. But, as in Sweden, it got canned for [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]. In direct contrast to the controversial reaction ''Rocky'' received from newspaper readers, some underground cartoonists considered ''Rocky'' to be too mainstream.

While barely known in the United States, Rocky is a cult hero in Sweden, and even appeared on a national postage stamp, a rarity for an underground comic. Kellerman directed a play based on his comics, and a series of five-minute CGI-animated shorts were produced for Swedish television, and later released on DVD in that country (but never translated into English or released in the United States). A few translated strips are even available online via [https://web.archive.org/web/20060421071413/http://www.rocky-digital.com/ the American publisher's website].

* [[Cultural Translation]]: Despite Denmark and Sweden being neighboring countries, the Danish translation of the comic have changed quite a few things, starting with moving the setting from Stockholm to the neighborhood Vesterbro in Copenhagen. The Danish translator explained that a direct translation would have been "more anthropologically interesting than actually funny."

** When it was released in English speaking countries, the translator changed some Swede-specific references to make certain jokes more accessible to English speaking audiences (example below), and deleted other comics that English speaking audiences would find incomprehensible. Luckily, since the comic already included references to a number of things English audiences are already familiar with (see [[Shout OutRocky (Comicscomics)/Trivia|ShoutOutthe Trivia sectionpage]]), many of the references made in the English translation were already in the comic to begin with. According to the publisher, the changes were made with Kellerman's approval.

* [[Dogs Are Dumb]]: Rocky falls into this trope a number of times, such as the above incident.

* [[Dude, Not Funny]]: In-universe, Rocky is fired from [[Even Evil Has Standards|a pornographic magazine]] for drawing a gag strip involving incest and pedophilia.

* [[Expy]]: A publisher rejects Rocky's comic claiming that the main character is an expy of [[Fritz the Cat (Comic Bookcomics)|Fritz the Cat]]. In another strip, Rocky says that the main character in [https://web.archive.org/web/20131113095342/http://www.elvisthecomic.com/ ''Elvis''], a Swedish comic which premiered two years after ''Rocky'', is an expy of his own comics character (see below).

* [[Furry Confusion]]: Furry Confusion occurs in instances where Kellerman recounts incidents involving animals, such as a storyline about Rocky being asked to euthanize a friend's pet rabbit, or numerous incidents in other pets can be seen walking around.

* [[Pretty Fly for Aa White Guy]]: Minor characters and even the main cast sometimes fall into this trope.

* [[Roman aà Clef]]

* [[Self -Deprecation]]: Quite a few jokes are based around Rocky getting in trouble for acting inmatureimmature, narcissistic and/or egosticalegoistical.

* [[Shout -Out]]: Many. Examples include:

** Other things appearing on the cover of ''Strictly Business'' include an issue of Peter Bagge's ''Hate'' and tapes of ''[[Office Space]]'', ''[[The Godfather (Film)|The Godfather]]'' series, ''Yo! MTV Raps'', ''[[Scarface]]'' and ''Wild Style''.

** Many rappers, including [[Kool Keith]], [[Jay- Z]], Little Brother, [[Nas]], and [[Wu-Tang Clan]]. Kellerman also got to interview Little Brother for an issue of the ''Rocky'' magazine.

** Rocky becomes friends with an ex-girlfriend, and suggests that their relationship is similar to that of Jerry and Elaine on ''[[Seinfeld]]''; she considers it closer to that of Charlie and Raymond Babbit in ''[[Rain Man (Film)|Rain Man]]''.

** A strip has Rocky talking about trying to become rich and famous. He references [[The Simpsons (animation)|Matt Groening]] and [[Wallace and Gromit|Aardman]].

* [[The Stoner]]: Faced between the choice of talking to an ugly one-night stand or smoking questionable pot with the local Stoners, Rocky takes the later route. He ultimately regrets this decision when his buddies decide to mess with him after he's passed out; he thinks that if Bob Marley's friends were as immature as his, Marley probably wouldn't have been so keen on the 'erb.

[[Category:Rocky (comics)]]

[[Category:Comic BookBooks]]