''Mister Boffo'' is an American

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

created by Joe Martin. The strip has been in syndication since June 9, 1986, originally distributed by Tribune Media Services and now distributed by Martin's own Neatly Chiseled Features. The strip's main character is a balding, big-nosed man named Earl who is usually shown as married to a pretty blonde named Nadine and as the owner of a small white "wonder

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

" named Weederman. However, there is no particular continuity in the strip from day to day; the characters may turn up in

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

times or in a futuristic spaceship, or in

heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

. Even in the strips set in contemporary times, Earl is depicted variously as a corporate executive, a working-class person, a prisoner, or a homeless beggar. Strips often illustrate recurring themes, such as "A Time to Worry" and "People Unclear on the Concept". "Mister Boffo" strips have been collected in the books ''Mister Boffo: Unclear on the Concept'' (1989) (), ''Mister Boffo: Shrink Wrapped'' (1995) (), ''Mister Boffo: The First Decade'' (1996) (), and ''Boffo'' (2008) (). Many of the cartoons have also been reprinted in the newspaper strip ''On The Edge'' which Martin does in partnership with psychologist Dr. Jon Carlson and which uses them as an opening visualization to personal counseling advice. The character's strangest appearance, however, was in the truly bizarre self-published single issue

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

''Boffo In Hell'' (1995). In this issue, co-drawn by the cartoonist's teenage son Jay Martin, lovable loser Earl Boffo is transformed into a realistically drawn

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...

-style scarlet-suited satanic

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

, and his little dog Weederman into a huge humanoid

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

, after a powerful giant alien wedding ring falls to Earth and jams itself onto Earl's skull like a metal headband. The powered-up pair then battle an escaped trio of overly-muscled genetically altered mutant psychopaths who they accidentally dispatch to the title

netherworld Netherworld (''nether'', ″beneath, lower″) may refer to: *Underworld, a region thought to be beneath the surface of the world in many religions and mythologies Film and television * ''Netherworld'' (film), a 1992 American horror film *''Nethe ...

where the dead villains promptly kill all the

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

guards and take over, setting up the storyline for future issues that never saw print.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.mrboffo.com American comic strips 1986 comics debuts Gag-a-day comics

Boffo BOFFO is a nonprofit arts community and organization in Fire Island Pines, New York. Since 2009, BOFFO has presented the work of 700+ artists across a breadth of disciplines to share and perform work during the summer months. The multidisciplinary ...

Comics about time travel Comics characters introduced in 1986