The End of Bob and George is Nigh

[Nate the Great]

In today's newspost Dave Anez announced that the end of the "grandaddy of all sprite comics," the ever-impressive, the well-contained, and never duplicated Bob and George has entered the final stretch. He admits that I'll be several months and storylines into the future, but I still found it to be a shock.

This is a thread to reminise about BnG. This is a thread to share quotes, stories, our first memories, etc.

I know how I found Bob and George. I was led there through a chain. I stumbled across either Kid Radd or A Modest Destiny first. No idea which one. Probably AMD led me to KR, which led me to BnG. It was like no webcomic before or since. I wasn't that much of a MegaMan fan back then, but I am now. I especially liked NT Warrior, but that's another story. Anyway, there I was, and here I am years later, depressed that The Big One is ending. Sure hope Dave finishes the commentary and Cataclysm movies first, though, maybe set up a Radd-type offline archive.

Shadow Man: I am Shadow Man. I can exist in the shadows.
Mega Man: But the lights are on! There aren’t any shadows!
Shadow Man: A true ninja can hide in the shadows of bright light.
Mega Man: What? Now you’re not making any sense!
Shadow Man: That is what you get for playing Monopoly with an Eskimo of the night.

"That is what you get for playing Monopoly with an Eskimo of the night," is a personal favorite, as is Shadow Man in general. He's so cool.

Gemini Man 1: Resistance is futile. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will—
Gemini Man 2: You idiot! That’s the Borg, not us!
Gemini Man 1: Oh, sorry, I always get those confused.

Plus Dave's a Trekkie, so we enjoy plenty of these jokes.

Mega Man: I’m the hero! I don’t have to make sense!

Truly a motto most heroes can and do ascribe to.

[PointyHairedJedi]

I must confess, this is the first I've ever heard of it. When it comes to webcomics I can only manage to read one at a time, and at the moment it's Cyanide & Happiness.

[MaverickZer0]

I've kind of noticed the idea that they were winding down a while ago--the sixth game had to be either the last or second-last one, after all, due to the sprite styles. I've been wondering when Dave would finally say it outright.

I'm not sure I can really pick favorite comics, but I have to say my favorite characters (outside of ProtoMan/Prometheus) were the Bobs, both him and Alternate Bob.

Purple scarf, woo!

[GreenFire1]

Hm. It was fun while it lasted, but really, Dave is following an existing storyline. As a result, the end of the comic is, bluntly, an obvious eventuality.

In fairness, Dave does do things that aren't the Megaman games. Indeed, this makes up probably the better part of the comic. This will ideally continue, simply with the Megaman element extracted. After all, the aspects of Dave's comic which are not Megaman games are simply general jokes about archetypes with Megaman sprites filling in the roles. In other words, Megaman isn't actually needed for the better part of Dave's work.

The hope we should have, then, is that Dave teams up with a good artist and applies his humor to a different comic with a (hopefully) nonderivative plot. He has the framework all set up. He has original characters to do it with. In fact, as we should all remember, Megaman is the "afterthought that took over."

In summary, then: Here's hoping that Bob and George don't disappear simply because Megaman does.

EDIT: Didn't he actually say he was going to work with Liss on a new Blitz and Napalm themed comic after BnG? In any case, he seems to be setting it up with the AGT storyline.

[Nate the Great]

I would never think that the game parodies are absolutely critical to the comic. Hey, there are already umteen other dimensions in the comic, connected by the White Space, you could have Mega Man jump to an alternate universe and live out the Gameboy games, or something. Plus, is everyone going to tell me what happened to Helmut, not to mention limbless Mynd down there in the dungeon. Or whether Mike and Roll will end up together. Oh, and that whole "Vic's in control of Mega Man" thing, what happened there?

[MaverickZer0]

I think this is the best time to summon the Helmeted Author to thwap you over the head and yell 'There are no plot holes, dammit!' but I figure that everything will be wrapped up to satisfaction soon enough.
As for Mynd, they probably threw him in the fire like all those 'unconscious' ninjas when no one was looking.

And yes, I believe Napalm and Blitz was going to continue. Which will be interesting, from the spoiler art, as well as what we know of the premise.

[Nate the Great]

It occurs to me that the Helmut neckchop was nothing more than the more violent, evil version of Dave's old standard "There are no plot holes" Jedi wave. Can't believe it took so long to figure that out.

[Nate the Great]

So today is the penultimate comic. I'll restrain my opinions until tomorrow, except to say that the bow Dave's frantically trying to tie will actually take a miracle to hold together.

[Nate the Great]

So, it's officially over. Meh. It wasn't QUITE the catastrophe I was expecting it to be yesterday, but still...meh. I suppose that the largest problem now is that Dave said YEARS ago that the Cataclysm did NOT occur in the main Bob and George universe.