Bob and George number X: is it a reread if it's your first time?

[keybounce]

I don't know if my search roll was a one, or if this comic actually has no discussion thread here at all. I did not find one.

The author's comment at the end of http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/000515c makes me wonder if this is what actually will happen before the end of the story or not.

[PhantomFox]

It doesn't have a thread because the comic ended over 10 years ago. Not too much to discuss about it now. Was one of the very first sprite comics though. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/000626c

Yes, it would have been funnier if the Yellow Demon couldn't get Mega Man's attention.

[keybounce]

I have finally reached http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/001018c where the story really begins, apparently. I have seen enough to know that the hand-drawn characters will eventually show up again, and have some sort of understanding of what's going on, and why it's going on way it's going on.

So this is going to be a "no forth wall, author inside the story" story.

With time travel. With the real world, and college. Probably with mega man affecting the college world.

And a main character that's super intelligent doing the one thing he's good at, and super dumb at everything else.

[Doorhandle]

It doesn't have a thread because the comic ended over 10 years ago. Not too much to discuss about it now. Was one of the very first sprite comics though. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Probably net-bad, though good things have come out of the genre on occasion. Bob and George is actually one of my favorites.

I have finally reached http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/001018c where the story really begins, apparently. I have seen enough to know that the hand-drawn characters will eventually show up again, and have some sort of understanding of what's going on, and why it's going on way it's going on.

So this is going to be a "no forth wall, author inside the story" story.

With time travel. With the real world, and college. Probably with mega man affecting the college world.

And a main character that's super intelligent doing the one thing he's good at, and super dumb at everything else.

The real world gets way, way less important as the comic goes on (until the very end). The comic tends to cycle from "BBEG attacks the modern Megaman family" to "Relving one of the megaman games."

Way on point with time travel and mega-man only being smart when fighting wilybots though.

[keybounce]

I am now up to the future. I'm certain that I will find out what the cataclysm is eventually. So Proto Man has become Prometheus, partially because the Prometheus sprite was made by putting Proto Man parts on the Zero sprite.

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/010929c

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/011023c

Not just ice cream, but industrial-strength ice cream. Characters that read ahead. A robot that looks like a Garfield ripoff. And all this to distract you from the battle between a superhero and a super villain.

And I started reading this comic because someone said it was a highly complicated time travel plot that was managed with no retcons and no inconsistencies. No accuracy.

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/011101c

I like the missing week. Too bad it was skipped.

[keybounce]

"Jedi Mynd Trick"
http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/011118c

...

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/011208c

He's actually killing off all of his characters?

I'm assuming that there will be some sort of Code Lyoko "return to the past" after this.

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020118c

Is the plot of Mega Man really this ...?

Are the Mega Man games really this repetitive?

I'm sure the answer is actually yes.

[Nova_Eclipse]

It depends on which series you're playing. The classic series is extremely formulaic and follows that pattern mostly to the letter. Dr. Wily is nearly always the man behind the curtain of whichever game you're playing's villain of the week, there are always 8 robot masters to defeat, etc. The X series is where they started shaking things up a bit, adding new abilities that you could aquire, new playable characters, and somewhat less formulaic plots. They also experimented with 3d and RPG games in the X series.

The Zero and ZX series is probably the least formulaic; they did away with the stage select aspect for the most part and decided to go towards a more metroid-style world stage with areas that can't be reached without defeating certain bosses or having certain weapons/abilities. Each game's plot builds on the last, rather than being villain of the week back by main recurring villain, and while they're fairly difficult, they're fun games.

The Legends series is a complete genre shift from 2d sidescroller to 3d action RPG. The games are tied together plot-wise and the world has a lot of character. For PS1 games, they look pretty good, too.

Battle Network/Star Force is set in an alternate timeline, and I find them to be fairly formulaic, and their gameplay gets extremely repetitive after awhile. They don't have much to do with Bob and George, but I thought I would mention them for clarity's sake.

Bob and George tends to exaggerate and satirize events in the MegaMan canon for the sake of entertainment. That said, in the classic series, Dr. Light does tend to carry the idiot ball a lot in regards to Dr. Wily. I think part of that was due to the first 6 games being made in the 80's and early 90's, and the intended audience being fairly young. Take it for what it's worth.

[keybounce]

... "a gigantic peace-keeping robot of mass destruction" ...

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020529c

[keybounce]

"This changed slightly when the comic universe diverged from the universe of the Cataclysm movies," ???

I thought Cataclysm was the in comic explanation for why the second set of Mega Man games differed from the first set of Mega Man games -- key point, "in-comic explanation".

So now the in comic explanation for the X games being different from the normal games is not the Cataclysm, but is something else that was never actually explained?

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020614c

[Anteros]

I used to read this when it was publishing a million years ago. It was alright. The Megaman bits were the most entertaining. Unfortunately the author self-insert character sorta took over the whole comic, and those were the worst bits.

[PhantomFox]

"This changed slightly when the comic universe diverged from the universe of the Cataclysm movies," ???

I thought Cataclysm was the in comic explanation for why the second set of Mega Man games differed from the first set of Mega Man games -- key point, "in-comic explanation".

So now the in comic explanation for the X games being different from the normal games is not the Cataclysm, but is something else that was never actually explained?

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020614c

My memory is rusty, but from what I see here about 2 years or so into the comic, an animated movie was attempted, intending to be an interquel between MM Classic and X, explaining what happened to create the world of X. This was the Cataclysm movies. However, the project stalled, and was never really finished. And when the comic got around to the material, the comic and the half-finished movies weren't compatible with each other. So the Shadowy Author seems to be from an alternate timeline born of an beta version of the fanon explaining the time between the two series. Yes, that sounds convoluted and silly, but that's Bob and George for you.

[Tvtyrant]

Nostalgia.thread

Bob and George was me and my brother's first webcomic, I started reading it during the second Megaman game. It was really big in my school and we all made crappy knockoffs to show each other.

Also MS Paint Masterpieces sometimes still updates. I'm a little sad that he didn't wrap up the series with the second game where he had a chance of being finished, but I understand that as he is following the gameboy games it should end after the fight with the planet robots.

[DeadpanSal]

Oh there is some HEAVY retconning to make things work. I remember a strip where Proto Man and Roll are talking and then several plot holes loudly vacuum themselves shut after having new explanations. Still, it is one of my favorite webcomics and one that does the most to divorce itself from the source material while still living in the source material. It's one of my inspirations for having written a webcomic and has great runners.

"What? I lied. I'm evil."

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020720c

An ordinance technician at a dead run outranks everyone :-).

[Doorhandle]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020720c

An ordinance technician at a dead run outranks everyone :-).

To be fair, considering how often mad scientist labs go horribly wrong, I imagine they should expect to have to run screaming at a moment's notice.

[Anarchic Fox]

I had great fun reading this comic back when it was active, but now the thought of slogging through its dull first year or two keeps me from going back.

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020805c

This is the end of the third Mega Man game.

And poor Roll. She has no idea how stupid the rest of the game storylines are going to get.

okay, how stupid are the game storylines going to get?

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020807c

I had trouble finding him in the archive; what is the story with the dog again?

[PhantomFox]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/020807c

I had trouble finding him in the archive; what is the story with the dog again?

Megaman tinkered with Rush to activate the Rushjet powers and speech when all he had before was just Rushcoil and barking.

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/021114c

So the Japanese original games were really very different? Effectively completely different games? Not just bad translation, but actually competent enemy robots?

Also, I have now reached the point where mega man has his head shot at, and his brain exposed to liquor to get drunk and destroy certain subroutines, all in the name of "turning evil" when in fact it's really going to be Ret-Conned into the helmeted author and another time loop a year and a half to two years from now after the next mega Man game. (And if you understood that paragraph, you've already read this story).

[Anarchic Fox]

Yep! The American games were notoriously hard, and (some of) the Japanese games were... even harder. :P

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/021116c

Erfworld "W" pronunciation!

[keybounce]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/030112c

Chadling + George = Charge ?

The horrible pun of English spelling that won't survive any translation into another language. The wonderful foreshadowing.

Of course, to have foreshadowing, it must be planned. And by now I know that nothing in this comic is planned.

[Anarchic Fox]

http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/030112c

Chadling + George = Charge ?

The horrible pun of English spelling that won't survive any translation into another language. The wonderful foreshadowing.

Of course, to have foreshadowing, it must be planned. And by now I know that nothing in this comic is planned.

Quite a bit of it was planned. *sighs* Yes, I've started reading it again.

Back in the day, the website also hosted a slew of other sprite comics, some of them quite intelligent and funny. My favorite was "Metroid Third Derivative," poking righteous fun at the space pirates and their dubious methodology, not to mention the oddities of Samus' suit.

Edit: holy crap, it's still there. http://bobandgeorge.com/comics/metroid Skip Bob and George for now, read this one instead.