Coga Suro

"Large talking slug:Hey, don't glare at me. I'm just a figment of your imagination, sonny."

Coga Suro is a relatively new-to-the-internet webcomic currently hosted on Drunk Duck. Official party line from the artist/writer is that he started drawing it a few years ago, and so has a lot of raw pages to catch up on. The dates on the bottoms of the posted pages seem to confirm this, as does a preview page posted on Deviant ART. Coga Suro has somewhat of a random plot, jumping between different and increasingly strange plot arcs, but generally keeping to a theme of computer games, Ridiculously-Human Robots, or some combination thereof. Starting out as more of a 'gag a day' strip with poor artwork, it eventually metamorphosed into a comic given to longer story arcs and gradually-evolving art. Main characters include:
 * Steve: Resident Cloudcuckoolander and wannabe superhero. Occasionally displays The Hero moments, but most of these are taking care of something that's his fault anyway. Wears a costume [later armour] that uses Applied Phlebotinum to give him superhuman attributes.
 * Jerry: Steve's friend and owner of a Badass Longcoat that he wears in almost every appearance; he only owns the one coat, and cleans and maintains it religiously. Smarter and more sensible than Steve, and in charge of robot-related plot advancement. The Smart Guy.
 * Frank: Final member of the main Power Trio, Frank possesses a pair of Good Angel, Bad Angel consciences, apparently has some form of acrobatic or martial arts skills, and switches to a new job every strip this is bought up.
 * Jane: Steve's girlfriend, whom he met on the internet and, uniquely, turned out to be just who she said she was. Some form of Gamer Girl and onetime user of a Super Suit.
 * Lincoln: Ridiculously Human Robot, who, due to a recent botched repair, constantly speaks as if she's a one-man Dada Comic. Possessed large breasts. Recently 'died'.
 * Hades: Another Ridiculously Human Robot created by two other robots, one good and one evil, fusing together. [Don't ask.]

It has recently finished (as of August 5th, 2009), and can be read in its entirety here. Followed up by the brilliantly named sequel Coga Suro 2 here.

Coga Suro provides examples of: "Steve: I don't wanna be scarred and stubbly!"
 * Ambiguous Gender- Primarily Styx, an android that is meant to be explicitly androgynous.
 * Animesque- Totally. See also Cross-Popping Veins and Sweat Drop.
 * Art Evolution- The express purpose of the comic was that this happen.
 * Badass Cape- Steve seems fond of having a cape when making himself a superhero identity.
 * Bash Brothers- Steve is delighted both times he gets to invoke this trope- once in the future with his older self [citing the need for a double-Steve combo move] and again in the sequel with his son.
 * Blank White Eyes
 * Cerebus Syndrome- Coga Suro is pretty much a textbook example of this, gradually losing more of the 'gag a day' material in favour of longer arcs.
 * Cloudcuckoolander- Steve, when not otherwise provoked [see Berserk Button]. Also, Lincoln's nonsense speech gives the impression of being a cloudcuckoolander, but this is not entirely true.
 * Clothes Make the Superman- The 'Super Suits' Steve makes fluctuate between this and Power Armour. The first is this trope played straight [A Retcon in Coga Suro 2 explains the exact Phlebotinum behind this], the second is Power Armour, and the thrid looks to be a mix between the two.
 * Cue the Flying Pigs- Played straight in an early strip.
 * FemBot-Lincoln, Persephone, Hades.
 * Final Battle- Chapter 15 of the first run.
 * First Girl Wins: Yeah,  Who saw that coming?
 * Future Me Scares Me- Steve.


 * Girl-On-Girl Is Hot- see also Author Appeal.
 * Good Angel, Bad Angel- Frank has a pair of these, though his Bad Angel has been known to wander off and influence others.
 * Kid From the Future-
 * Mundane Fantastic- It's basically the real world, but with added robots [that it seems anyone can build?] and superheroes. And other odd stuff. So much that the 'mundane' is less visible every day.
 * No Name Given- The name of the man in square glasses is never revealed.
 * One Steve Limit- Very literally.
 * Only Six Faces- Subverted. The author was aware of this from when he started drawing, and took pains to give every character a different nose. More recently, as the art has improved, characters have been exhibiting unique jawlines and physical builds.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot
 * Right Behind Me
 * Science-Related Memetic Disorder
 * Shout-Out- references to Neverwinter Nights from the outset, Warhammer, Marvel comics and Trigun.
 * Sideways Smile- Styx, in particular, is fond of this, even having a grin so wide that the synthetic skin of its face cracks and splits in a later chapter.
 * The first Styx robot seen has a Sideways Smile as the one expression on its immobile face- thus looking quite odd when the 'wrong' side is facing the viewer.
 * Speech Balloons- The usual convention of robots having square speech balloons. Most of them, anyway. Styx, an evil example, has black speech balloons with white text. For a few chapters, each character had a different font, but this was dropped later.
 * Strip Buffer- Due to starting drawing the series two years before starting to post it online, Coga Suro has an enormous strip buffer of raw scans.
 * Skunk Stripe- For no real reason, black hair with blonde parts seems to be genetic in the Taylor family.
 * Theme Naming- Every robot after Lincoln has a name derived from Greek mythology.
 * Tron Lines- Color Coded For Your Convinience on Persephone, Styx and Hades.
 * Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born
 * Wolverine Claws- The fingernail variety is Hades' weapon of choice.
 * You Wanna Get Sued?- Steve is interrupted from introducing Lincoln as The Vision.
 * A later comic has him briefly gain an equivalent of the Black Symbiote, only for the Hulk to appear, promising to 'sue him.

Coga Suro 2 provides examples of:


 * Animesque- Again, same style as Coga Suro.
 * Art Evolution
 * Bash Brothers
 * Bonus Material- 'Coga Suro Review' at the end of each chapter, heavily influenced by Lucky Star's 'Lucky Channel'
 * Emergency Transformation-  early in Coga Suro 2.
 * Hair Decorations- Anne. Given that the only time she's ever been seen without a hairband of some colour is she is most definitely cuter with it by default.
 * Facial Markings- On most robots.
 * Fembot-
 * Shock and Awe-
 * Skull for a Head- See the spoiler above.
 * Skunk Stripe- John and his siblings inherited their blonde streaks from their father somehow.
 * Time Skip- Coga Suro 2 is set about 18 years after the end of Coga Suro, and is [eventually] centred more around Steve's grown-up kids.
 * Time Skip- Coga Suro 2 is set about 18 years after the end of Coga Suro, and is [eventually] centred more around Steve's grown-up kids.