Serious Business/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

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DC Comics had a Golden Age hero called Manhunter, then bought another Golden Age hero called Manhunter. In a Retcon, the two men had an argument over who got to keep the name, and they settled it by having one of them go to another universe.
- That's a Lampshade Hanging on how writers in comics loved to remove problems by having them turn out to take place in alternate universes.
Knights of the Dinner Table has roleplaying games as serious business.
- "You don't understand man." "He TOUCHED my dice!"
Bookhunter takes place in an alternate-universe 1970s where books and libraries are so important that an entire branch of the police is devoted to investigating library-related crime.

Agent Bay: In many respects the American Library has become the most basic First Amendment institution. We are guards, yet we guard no less than the sum of human knowledge. We are the library police.

In Welcome to Tranquility Captain Cobra and Mongoose Man are not just enemies, but "enemies to the death." Unfortunately, their advancing years are actually bringing them pretty close to that goal line and they have both retired from super-activites, heroic and villainous alike. So, what is left for them to be enemies over? Why, the apple tree that looms over both their properties, of course, and who has proper ownership over the apples that fall down on either side of their fence. Just ask Sheriff Lindo, apples are serious business.
Beef is Serious Business in the Crapsack World of Give Me Liberty. Fast-food restaurants wage wars for farmland, people commit suicide for hamburgers, and there's even a 94th Amendment outlawing red meat.
One Cthulhu Tales comic had an unnamed "Maine Cheetahs" baseball fan (according to Google, no such team exists) for whom baseball was such serious business, he went so far as to invoke Cthulhu in order to win them their first World Series in seventy years. It doesn't appear to end well for anyone concerned.

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-{{work}}
+{{trope}}
-* Bowling is apparently a huge deal in ''[[Bowling King]]''. No, seriously. Professional bowlers are all either incredibly badass or [[Bishounen]] prettyboys. Oh, and then there's how main character Shautieh Ley's ultimate goal seems to involve taking over the world with bowling somehow; while this isn't explicitly stated, chapter opening pages tend to feature things like a [[Rushmore Refacement]] where ''all'' of the faces are Shautieh (and similar ones with the Sphinx, etc.) and Shautieh disrupting other sports events.
 * [[DC Comics]] had a [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] hero called Manhunter, then bought another Golden Age hero called Manhunter. In a [[Retcon]], the two men had an argument over who got to keep the name, and they settled it by having one of them ''go to [[Alternate Universe|another universe]]''.
 ** That's a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on how writers in comics loved to remove problems by having them turn out to take place in alternate universes.
 * ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' has roleplaying games as serious business.
 ** "You don't understand man." "He TOUCHED my dice!"
-* In one ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' strip, Calvin throws an enormous hissy fit after losing a game of checkers to Hobbes. When Hobbes points out that it's just a game, Calvin cheerfully replies: "I know! You should see how I act when I lose in real life!"
-** Chewing gum is Serious Business in the ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' universe. Calvin is an enthusiastic reader of a magazine called "Chewing" which is dedicated to it, and informs an incredulous Hobbes that as many as twelve such publications exist.
-** So is a [[Snowball Fight]].
-** And he treats his snowman creations like modern art. Though he certainly puts more thought into them than most kids.
-*** Considering that they come to life and try to kill him...
-**** This is [[Cloudcuckoolander|Calvin.]] ''Everything'' comes to life, and most of it [[Everything Trying to Kill You|tries to kill him.]]
 * ''[[Bookhunter]]'' takes place in an alternate-universe 1970s where books and libraries are so important that an entire branch of the police is devoted to investigating library-related crime.
 {{quote|'''Agent Bay:''' In many respects the American Library has become the most basic First Amendment institution. We are guards, yet we guard no less than the sum of human knowledge. We are the library police.}}
+* In ''[[Welcome to Tranquility]]'' Captain Cobra and Mongoose Man are not just enemies, but "enemies to the ''death''." Unfortunately, their advancing years are actually bringing them pretty close to that goal line and they have both retired from super-activites, heroic and villainous alike. So, what is left for them to be enemies over? Why, the apple tree that looms over both their properties, of course, and who has proper ownership over the apples that fall down on either side of their fence. Just ask Sheriff Lindo, apples are ''serious business''.
-* ''[[The Far Side]]'' once had a [[Showdown At High Noon]] having ended in defeat for the older cowboy, treating it with all the gravity you'd expect... except it was at ping-pong.
-{{quote|'''Older gunslinger''': Well, you won. Now every player in the world will come after you, looking to make a name for himself... Welcome to Hell, kid.}}
-* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140903180005/http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/00000/7000/100/7165/7165.strip.gif This] ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip illustrates how to apply the principles of [[Serious Business]] in the workplace.
-** This comic was based on one of Scott Adams' coworkers, who actually said "I will fight you to the end of the earth!" To him, it was serious business.
-* In ''[[Welcome to Tranquility]]'' Captain Cobra and Mongoose Man are not just enemies, but "enemies to the DEATH." Unfortunately, their advancing years are actually bringing them pretty close to that goal line and they have both retired from super-activites, heroic and villainous alike. So, what is left for them to be enemies over? Why, the apple tree that looms over both their properties, of course, and who has proper ownership over the apples that fall down on either side of their fence. Just ask Sheriff Lindo, apples are ''serious business''.
 * Beef is Serious Business in the [[Crapsack World]] of ''[[Give Me Liberty]]''. Fast-food restaurants wage wars for farmland, people commit suicide for hamburgers, and there's even a 94th Amendment outlawing red meat.
+* One ''[[Cthulhu Tales]]'' comic had an unnamed "Maine Cheetahs" baseball fan ([[Bland-Name Product|according to Google, no such team exists]]) for whom baseball was ''such'' serious business, he went so far as to ''invoke Cthulhu'' in order to win them their first World Series in seventy years. [[Eldritch Abomination|It doesn't appear to end well for anyone concerned]].
-* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100122131320/http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2010-01-17/ Board games] are apparently serious business to Rat in ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]''.
-* The people of a Hannoverian village who want to celebrate the birthday of their ex-king (Hannover was conquered by Prussia in 1866; some people nursed a grudge because of this, and pro-Prussian [[Wilhelm Busch]] wrote this story as a [[Take That]]).
+<!-- * The people of a Hannoverian village who want to celebrate the birthday of their ex-king (Hannover was conquered by Prussia in 1866; some people nursed a grudge because of this, and pro-Prussian [[Wilhelm Busch]] wrote this story as a [[Take That]]).  MOD NOTE:  What is "this story"?  There's not title or link. -->
-* One ''Cthulhu Tales'' comic had an unnamed "Maine Cheetahs" baseball fan ([[Bland-Name Product|according to Google, no such team exists]]) for whom baseball was ''such'' serious business, he went so far as to ''invoke Cthulhu'' in order to win them their first World Series in seventy years. [[Eldritch Abomination|It doesn't appear to end well for anyone concerned]].
 {{reflist}}