Irregular Webcomic! - Themes

Themes

• Cliffhangers: Dr Montana "Monty" Jones, his father Dr North Dakota Jones, and grandfather Minnesota Jones, together with the ever-useful Sallah, find lost treasures and battle Nazis, primarily Colonel Haken and his loyal assistant Erwin, who are led by Hitler's brain in a jar. The original characters were a parody of Indiana Jones, but later ones like Dr Ginny Smith are Morgan-Mar's own creations. Haken often declares that "Nazi science sneers" at obstacles.

• Death: The basic theory is that there is one grim reaper (called a Death) for every cause of death. For example, if somebody dies by being sat on by a giant frog, in comes 'Death of Being Sat On By a Giant Frog'. The Head Death controls all other Deaths, and promotes and demotes as he sees fit. Various Deaths have appeared to 'collect' in most of the other themes in the Comic at one time or another, but the theme itself tends to center on the troubles of Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs, who is constantly demoted, then promoted back to his position, and his rival Death of Choking on a Giant Frog. At the present time, he has yet to appear in the Supers theme. According to polls on the Irregular Webcomic! homepage, Death is the most popular theme, and Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs is the most popular character. All Deaths TALK IN CAPITAL LETTERS when addressing mortals (but not when addressing each other), as does the Death in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. (One of the Deaths has dialogue paraphrased from Terry Pratchett's biography; yet, in one strip, Morgan-Mar denies ever having read any of Pratchett's work – on one hand, saying "Would I lie to you?", but on the other, saying it in one of Pratchett's trademark footnotes while referencing Interesting Times in the comic itself. Sarcastic denials that a character is based on a source are a running gag.)

• Espionage: A scene-by-scene re-telling of the James Bond films Dr. No and From Russia With Love. James Stud, Secret Agent 0x0A, under the direction of Ñ and equipped by armourer Ü, flirts with Miss Geltschilling.

• Fantasy (role-play theme): Here, miniature figurines embody the players in a role-playing game with Morgan-Mar himself playing the Gamemaster. They were set a quest, but took ages to get started, due to arson (caused by them) and other distractions while getting equipment. One of the characters, Lambert, is a hobbit, used as fodder for hobbit puns approximately every 100 strips. The other characters are Alvissa (an elf maiden bard, and the only character with a sense of responsibility or ethics), Mordekai (a lovable rogue, not a thief), Kyros (a pyromaniac wizard who keeps Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs busy), Draak (Lambert's bodyguard, a monosyllabic lizard man) and Dwalin (a dwarf). These characters are represented by painted miniatures, rather than Lego figures. (See the note below for Space.)

• Harry Potter: This lets Morgan-Mar put words into the mouths of the famous characters, and lets the reader see another side to Harry Potter.

• Imperial Rome: About two Roman senators. The creation of this theme was more or less the result of a poll, where readers voted for what new theme they would like. Imperial Rome beat seven other options, with Steampunk at second place.

• Martians: About three beings from the Red Planet, who regard Earth and mankind's doings with varying degrees of interest. They encountered the Mars Rovers, a Man in Black who doesn't believe in them, and a student called Ishmael whose computer they have taken over. At one point, they waged an information war on Earth and successfully invaded, but gave up after realising the staggering task of actually running the planet.

• Me: Morgan-Mar makes cameo appearances as himself, in amusing little asides and vignettes. The 'Me' theme does not include his appearances as the GM in the role-playing themes, and Mar has stated that the "Me" character and the opinions he represents are not in fact Mar or Mar's opinions .

• Miscellaneous: Strips that don't fit in elsewhere. Lovecraft references and the "Allosaurus" are frequently seen here. In the run up to the November 2004 US election there was a series of strips of "Allosaurus for president". Born in Montana!" (No connection with Montana Jones, main character of the "Cliffhangers" theme.) Some Miscellaneous strips have been parodies of other webcomics, including Dinosaur Comics, A Softer World, Bob the Angry Flower and Megatokyo.

• MythBusters: Based on the popular TV show from the Discovery Channel. Like Casey and Andy, Adam and Jamie frequently die in the course of their explosive experiments, but luckily for them death in the comic as a whole is impermanent.

• Nigerian Finance Minister: Ever wonder who writes those annoying scam e-mails? Well it turns out it really was the Nigerian Finance Minister. How is he supposed to get any work done when nobody answers his e-mails? He has hired both Death and Shakespeare to write emails. This character is male, although from 2003 to 2006 Nigeria’s actual Minister of Finance was a woman, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

• Pirates: Seafaring brigands who talk like stereotypical pirates.

• Scientific Revolution: Follows Isaac Newton while he discovers the laws of motion, gravitation and calculus. Other famous scientists that have been depicted include Alessandro Volta (the battery) and Galileo (the telescope and his discovery of Jupiter's largest moons).

• Shakespeare: What would William Shakespeare do if he were born 400 years later? Work as a technical writer, apparently, with sidelines in Harry Potter fanfics and Nigerian internet moneymaking. He was writing a novelisation of The Lord of the Rings films, until his colleague Ophelia managed to get his files and back-up files deleted, helped by Mercutio, the sysadmin. They work for Mr Marlowe, who doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing, or what his employees do at work, but is impressed that they know.

• Space (role-play theme): Science fiction themed strips. The characters, normally painted figurines, spend some of their time on their cargo ship, Legacy, and some in a CG environment (where they appear as Lego minifigures). The ship's computer steals idle computer power from the past. This gives them massive processor power, but brings a whole new meaning to the blue screen of death when life support is dependent on it. Paris, the ship's human pilot, died and was collected by Death, but her shipmates tried to clone her, using skin fragments and the mind pattern stored in the Legacy's computer. The mind pattern was wiped out by a thoughtlessly-installed software upgrade (made possible by Serron), and now Paris is a ghost. She later returned to life when the universe restarted. Other crew members are Serron (a merchant, not a thief), Iki Piki (a diplomat and demolisher), Spanners (electronics and engineering) and Quercus (big plant assistant engineer). Paris is the only human. The Legacy also appears in a crossover with Starslip Crisis: The Alterverse War.

• Star Wars: Basically allows the author to put words in the mouths of Star Wars characters. This lets him point out some of the problems and idiosyncrasies in the Star Wars universe. The physical impossibilities of the existence of Coruscant using canonical dimensions and thermodynamic laws was one story arc, prompting several emails from Star Wars fans who tried to disprove his points.

• Steve and Terry: An Australian called Steve (who acts somewhat like the late TV presenter Steve Irwin) and his wife Terry make documentaries, wrestle crocodiles, and fight ungodly beasts from the beyond. Jane Goodall has made appearances to try to keep Steve in check. Cthulhu has made several appearances as Steve's (im)mortal enemy. Steve jumped the shark in a crossover with the Mythbusters.
  • Ironically, a comic where Steve woke up after convalescing from injuries sustained from a crocodile appeared on the same day that Steve Irwin died after being stung by a stingray. The comic was assembled a month before it was supposed to appear, according to David Morgan-Mar. The theme of "Steve and Terry" continued despite of this, with Morgan-Mar claiming that Steve and Terry are not the real couple (with the difference in Terry's name, the real one spelled Terri, being the evidence he gives).

• Supers (role-play theme): These specially drawn comics only crop up occasionally, but that doesn't stop them being some of the most detailed, crazy takes on Superhero comics. These are drawn by Dean Stahl of Steelhorse studios.

There were often oddly themed crossovers in the comic, such as Steve being fired by Professor Dumbledore from the position of "Professor of Care of Magical Creatures" at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or the revelation that Hitler's Brain in a Jar from the Cliffhangers theme was actually resurrected by Mythbuster Adam Savage during a Mythbusting contest against Head Death for Adam's life. Generally these crossovers combined only two themes. There have been over ten three-way crossovers and three four-way crossovers. The 1 January 2009 comic (number 2167) contains a fourteen-way crossover; however, the comic panel space is blank to simulate the overlapping "destruction of the universe" scenarios that developed over the crossed-over themes (those IWC! universes were destroyed in the 31 December 2008 comic—the sixth anniversary of the first strip).

The characters in the Fantasy and Space themes are taken from an actual role-playing group, so the same players are behind them. The storylines sometimes reflect that.