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Cedric the Bastard / Freddie Flop
Charlie's earliest comic characters. Cedric The Bastard was a violent, misanthropic rat. Freddie Flop appeared in Oink comic when Charlie was 15 years old. Sadly, no images from either of these strips were available to the CCB, so we've drafted in our top artist to do his impression of what Cedric the Bastard might have looked like. Ahem.
Another ancient comic is She Left Me For A Cyclops, which looks a novel spin on the 'rejection' theme.
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Here's Toby
Readers of computer magazines will remember this character from the popular Computer Exchange adverts of the late 90s. He was actually concieved long before that, and appeared in a slightly younger and differently-accented form in Acne comic. The CeX ads were unique, as Charlie was given completely free reign of the content. Toby would perv at women in the park, blow up his siblings and occassionally take part in broad parodies of popular TV shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Gamesmaster. Nobody complained, until EDGE magazine suddenly spotted an ad in which Toby blew the face off a cheerful cartoon hound. The shit hit the fan, and they refused to run the strip. But Charlie got his own back with a prank call... |
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Muttworld
Intended as Charlie's big break into the mainstream (he even registered muttworld.com), this pooch-centric comic was supposed to be a long-running series, but only two episodes were ever scrawled in the end. Puppy Love is a bleakly hilarious, dialogue-free adventure with a kicker of an ending. Muttworld Joins the Army is less amusing, as it repeats the joke from the first one with less success. According to Zeppotron, there is a flash animated third episode of Muttworld.. alas, it can't be put up for viewing due to copyright issues regarding the soundtrack. But hang on.. Muttworld has no dialogue, right?
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Late Developers
A resounding turkey in all departments, Late Developers is an interesting idea that never got executed very well. Following the plight of a jaded software developer in an industry full of braying idiots, sex-starved geeks and shark-eyed fascists.. Developers appeared in Pc Zone magazine a couple of times, until it was withdrawn 'to the relief of readership and editorial team alike'. Why didn't it work? Well, turns out Charlie was trying to do a Horny Estelle 'type thing'. Problem is, that comic works so well because the central protaganist's plight is examined over the course of several pages. Each Developers strip was only a page long, and so we barely get to know any of the characters ( a shame, as they are so well-defined ). Charlie once expressed a desire to re-do the comic and make it work. But then again, he also expressed a desire to imprison Shed Seven in an iron ball and fire them into the sun. Both of these things he should definately do, neither he's ever going to bother doing.
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Cybertwats
When this started, it was a biting satire on the coffee-sipping web trendies that harped on about the internet back when it was a relatively new thing. But then it just became the usual kind of Superkaylo mayhem. Who cares? Cybertwats isn't one of Charlie's all-time best comics, but one particular installment, Holiday in Virtualand, is definately worth a look. It's got the Spice Girls, Quake demons, Ricki Lake and washed-up Spectrum characters... plus the standard Brooker jokes about batchelor life, standards in television and people not following his work. Also worth a look is Hammer and Tongs, a foray into the seedy underbelly of the internet, solely for the final frame. Pity that one never got finished. Not worth bothering with is the Christmas Special.
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Horny Estelle
Brilliant. Fantastic. Well-observed. Bitter. Amusing. Excellent. Good. Horny Estelle is all those things, and probably more. The story is thus - Jasper Hutton (the young Charlie Brooker), is in love with the beautiful Estelle. But she's a slut, and whilst she gets it on with strangers at parties, Jasper's left crushed and despairing in the background... his misery occassionally interrupted by a comment from Dale (his laid-back friend). The comic spans over 50 pages as it follows Jasper's life, from age 15 to 18.
The first four episodes (A Walk in the Park, Party From Hell, The Date and Near Miss) are the ones that really pack a punch: here Jasper is a tousle-haired loner, truly tormented and constantly humiliated, over-analysing his friendship with Estelle and picking a fight with her idiot boyfriend.
The fifth episode (Debbiegate) moves us on a couple of years - Jasper's sharing a room with Dale, and he's become a bitter and cynical skinhead. This one allows Charlie to explore the strobe-lit world of clubbing, which Jasper likens to being 'cramped in a cupboard at home with your walkman on really loud'. Crucially, this one sees Jasp losing his virginity ( to Debbie Palmer from Episode 4 ). Estelle figures little in the unfolding story.. by this point, Jasp's drifted away from her - although he still feels like he's cheating on her. With Jasper more confident, we get a chance to see more of Estelle's insecurities. A closing monologue indicates that she is just as unhappy in life as Jasper was at the start of the episode.
Part six moves us on again. Jasper's in the middle of a long-term relationship with Debbie, and things aren't going well; for one thing, she's got herself a haircut that makes her look like a farmer's boy. After an argument, Debbie locks herself in her room and Jasper sits down with Dale, who discovers Estelle modelling on the front of a compilation cd...
Of course, the last episode is just a 'bridge' for the big, final installment of the Estelle saga - where Jasper and Estelle are reunited. Double length! and it's in colour! It sounds almost as good as newly-recorded Blackadder or guilt-free porn! And yet! Charlie never bothered to finish it. That's right, all that we've seen of Snagged is a couple of paltry frames. It said on Superkaylo that the thing was almost finished, yet that was almost three years ago. All that angst, adolescent lust and resentment. No payoff. No finale. Sniff.
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Office Romance
Not so much a remake as a remix of the Horny Estelle comics. Jasper Hutton is now in his mid-thirties and working in an office (obviously). The latest object of obsession is Karen - the silent, friendly beauty sitting opposite him. If only he could pluck up the courage to speak to her!
The whole thing is rendered in Macromedia Flash, with a running monologue possibly recorded by Charlie himself detailing Jasper's though process. Taking several classic scenes from the later episodes of Estelle and upping the desperation, longing and self-hate ante drastically, this series is good. Quite good. Good. But I would swap all sixteen episodes of this thing for one colour sequel to the original Horny Estelle. Any day.
Office Romance can be viewed here. |
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