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The Ongoing Adventures of
Rocket Llama[1] is a webcomic starring "a high-flying llama, a
sword-swinging cat, and a rocket as loyal as a cowboy hero's horse."[2]
Created by Alex Langley while he was a student at Henderson State
University, the comic first appeared in a comic book titled The Workday
Comic. For the Workday comics anthology, a spin-off of Scott McCloud's
24-Hour Comics, comics creators each wrote and drew their own eight-page
stories in eight hours in April, 2007, on Friday the 13th[3], which turned
into an ongoing publication.[4] Co-presenting with comics author and
scholar Danny Fingeroth (Dazzler, Spider-Man, Superman on the Couch), the
creators described the webcomic's evolution as members of a Comics Arts
Conference panel at 2008's Comic-Con International in San Diego,
California.[5][6][7] Contents [hide] 1 Debut 2 Webcomic 3 References 4
External links [edit] Debut The full title of Rocket Llama's debut
story in The Workday Comic #1 (spring, 2007) was "The Ongoing Adventures of
Rocket Llama #112: 'Trouble in Paradise'".[8] The story introduced the
taciturn hero Rocket Llama and his talkative sidekick, an anthropomorphic
cat named Bartholomew Meowsenhausen, who find themselves stranded on an
island after a battle with an enemy called Jetpack Dog. Spherical islanders
capture them and then challenge them to combat. A villain named Böwser vön
Überdog arrives with Jetpack Dog and, in a sudden Star Wars parody, summons
a giant robot known as the Super Robot Dog Walker which blasts a volcano to
bits. Before it can fire a second blast, Rocket Llama destroys it by getting
it to swallow a pot of water and backfire. The story ends with Böwser tied
up and the heroes using the giant robot dog head as a boat to get themselves
home, with the promise of the next story to be titled, "Yuck!
Yukon!"[9][10] Whether despite the original story's childlike art or
because of it, the Rocket Llama story proved to be the most popular in the
2007 anthology collection of the eight-hour comics.[11] After comic artist
Stephen R. Bissette, an instructor at the Center for Cartoon Studies and
comic book artist best known for his work on Swamp Thing with Alan Moore,
read all of the stories in the first volume of The Workday Comic, he
remarked, "That llama's gonna stick with me."[12] [edit] Webcomic Nick
Langley redrew the story with a less childlike drawing style in webcomic
form for online publication[13] as the flagship title for the website
rocketllama.com which grew into an affiliation of websites featuring
webcomics, art, entertainment reviews, and scholarly studies of comics.[14]
The online story featured a new cover[15] and omitted a one-page gag, a
preview for an unrelated Stealth Potato comic, which had appeared as an
intermission in the middle of the original story.[16] The original story
also appeared online as the comic's "ashcan copy."[17] The authors present
the Rocket Llama stories metafictionally as the world's oldest comic book,
established in 1916, which they allegedly rediscovered and are adapting into
webcomics. "Deep underground, in an archaic vault we searched until we found
the fabled tales. As both the current production team behind The Ongoing
Adventures of Rocket Llama and appreciators of such groundbreaking
literature, we have taken it upon ourselves to restore these classic issues
to a glory more befitting a modern, digital age."[18] Although every
"issue" is presented with panels and screens in the correct order for each
story, the issues are presented out of order as if readers were discovering
old issues of a classic comic book in a seemingly haphazard order, however
they come to find them. After the redrawn number 112's online publication
came the serialized time travel story #136-137, "Time Flies When You're on
the Run," appearing one page at a time throughout each week.[19][20] Special
Rocket Llama Says bonus features appear only in "ashcan" form drawn by the
original creator.[21] [edit] References ^ Rocket Llama World Headquarters
^ You are here. ^ Waddles, Joshua. (2007, April 2). Comic book club puts
in a full day's work. The Oracle vol. 99 (25), p. 3. ^ Beard, Sarah. (2008,
August 25). Comic Arts Club offers excitment. The Oracle, vol. 101 (1), p.
5. ^ T. Langley & R. Duncan, panel moderators, with respondent Danny
Fingeroth. (2008, July). "Capes and Tights, Caps and Gowns." Panel presented
at the Comics Arts Conference, Comic-Con International. San Diego,
California. ^ Recent and Upcoming Research Presentations ^ Pannell, E.
(2008, July 27). Comic communication part of professors' classes. The
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, T-1, T-4. ^ Page 1. ^ The Workday Comic #1.
Spring, 2007.[1] ^ The Workday Comic - online edition. ^ Sorrell, M.
(2008, April 14).Club produces second annual workday comic. The Oracle, vol.
100. ^ Quoted in "The Workday Comic: Not Just One Third of a 24-Hour
Comic." Comics Arts Conference, Comic-Con International. San Diego,
California. July 27, 2008. ^ The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama #112:
"Trouble in Paradise." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley. ^ You are
here. ^ #137-Cover. ^ Sneak Peak at Stealth Potato #75. ^ Rocket Llama
Ashcan Copy. ^ Who Is Rocket Llama? ^ "Time Flies When You're on the Run,
Part 1." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley. ^ "Time Flies When You're
on the Run, Part 2." Script: Alex Langley. Art: Nick Langley. ^ e.g.,
"Tanks a Lot." Rocket Llama Says #8. Script and art: Alex Langley. |
