The 'Shroom:Issue XLI/Entertainment

Entertainment by Hello, fellow readers! This week we will be looking into a web comic called Neglected Mario Characters, the world’s first sprite comic, as well as its first interactive comic.

Neglected Mario Characters (often shortened to NC), is a series of comics that revolves around various and ridiculous plots. The stories often follow two characters, Bill the Extra Guy, who claims to be the very first Pidgit in Super Mario Bros. 2, and Fred the Spanyard, a Bugzy from the Kirby Series. There are a number of other characters who usually take less important roles, such as Dr. Donez, the second Tweeter of Super Mario Bros. 2 who dreams of world domination. The comic’s creator, Jay Resop, often adds himself into the stories, and is depicted as a crude stick figure with Bob Dole’s head.

The main villains are varied, but the most notable is Prof. Executrain, an evil Hammer Bro who is often competing with Dr. Donez for world domination. As well as Prof. Executrain, there is the threat of a tubby plumber who constantly plays (and fails at) his own video games, Mario. NC Land is where the neglected characters reside, joining together since they all had the spotlight stolen from them by Mario. The series’ definition of “neglected” is basically “everyone other than Mario”, who is portrayed as a simple character who lacks common sense. He tries to make friends with characters in NC Land, but is always rejected, and is usually taken advantage of.

If you thought that the above was strange enough, how about the basic plot of the website’s most prestigious comic, Bill and Fred’s Quasi‐Mediocre Adventure? Bill and Fred, who are annoyed that they were put into the comic, decide to kill the creator of the comic, Jay Respo (a misspelling of the creator’s name). After killing Jay Respo with a “Pokémon Overdose”, Bill and Fred frame Mario by telling him to plead guilty to the crime. He does so, and this infuriates the owner of the comic’s mother site, Kenny, who vows to use the indescribable powers of the worse to kill Mario.

I found most of the comics here to be quite funny. However, this being the first sprite comic, it isn’t really the best quality in the respect of imagery. And a couple of their comics have the songs “Mission Impossible” and “Ghost Busters” looping. You can only listen to Mission Impossible so many times; you’ll probably just mute your computer while reading the comics with audio. And on top of that, the website that contains these comics is rarely updated anymore, so don’t expect to see any new comics soon after the release of one, I’m still waiting after two months for the next issue of “A Story About Something”. Regardless, this website is worth checking out, and can be accessed at http://smbhq.com/nc.