The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob



A serialized, science fiction/humor Web Comic by Jim Cleaveland. It began life as a print comic appearing the newsletter and magazine of PSSFS, the Penn State Science Fiction Society, from 1993-1997, and was revived as a webcomic in May, 2006. It updates Tuesday and Saturday afternoons (California time).

You can read it here.

Bob Smithson was the world's most average man, leading a quietly dull life in the suburb of Generictown and reasonably content that way until the day he inexplicably became a Weirdness Magnet. Strange, paranormal things now happen to him almost daily. Unicorns appear in his yard. Dragons perch near his house. Alien spaceships crash into his roof. Actually, anything and everything likes to crash into his roof.

Bob sees it all through with surprising grace because, despite his seemingly infinite normalcy, he does have a few outstanding qualities. He is very kind and doesn't judge by appearances (such that he will give even a three-legged space jellyfish a chance to be friends with him if it is so willing). He has an uncommon amount of Simpleminded Wisdom. And yet he is generally too thick-skulled to fully grasp the frighteningly awesome implications of most of the stuff he encounters.

For a humor comic, the characters show a considerable amount of depth. As absurd as the situations they encounter are, most of the humor derives from how the different characters react to them, and how they interact with each other.


 * Bob Smithson, the title character, is the world's most average man. He runs a news stand in Generictown.
 * Dr. Jean Poule is Bob's girlfriend, a biologist at the local college.
 * Molly the Peanut Butter Monster is a pink furry monster born when Jean and Bob collided on the sidewalk, accidentally mixing an experiment of Jean's with Bob's jar of peanut butter. Sweet, brilliant, naive.
 * Princess Voluptua is heir to the throne of the Nemesites, the local space empire. She appears to be a beautiful woman, but her real form is a giant butterfly creature.
 * Snookums is a giant alien monster that got shrunk to the size of a basketball but still weighs many tons. Molly keeps him as a pet. Bob calls Snookums a "tentacle bunny."
 * Agent Ben & Agent Jerry are two FBI agents who frequently get stuck with the unenviable task of investigating Bob.
 * Fructose Riboflavin is the greatest criminal in the Nemesite Empire.
 * Galatea (Golly) is another peanut butter creature grown by a rival scientist. Far more angst-ridden and megalomaniacal than Molly.
 * Roofus is a robot Molly built to repair Bob's frequent roof damage, but who unexpectedly turned out sentient.
 * Hibachi is a fire-breathing dragon. His race evolved in the Age of Dinosaurs, and currently lives on the planet Butane in the Kuiper Belt. He frequently acts as Voluptua's flying steed.

Has a character sheet.

Provides examples of:
"Fructose Riboflavin: Bloodless victory'? Where's the fun in that?!"
 * Action Survivor: Bob.
 * Adventure
 * Aliens in Cardiff: Generictown.
 * All Girls Like Ponies: Jean & Molly with the unicorns.
 * Alliterative Name: Floyd Fitznewski.
 * Amusing Alien: Molly.
 * Ancient Astronauts: Inverted with the dragons, who started on Earth and left. Played straighter with their contemporaries, the Nemesites, but humans were apparently unaware of their visits.
 * Apathetic Citizens
 * Arranged Marriage: The first story arc, with Voluptua and Ahem.
 * Baby Planet: Fleen.
 * Beautiful All Along: Princess Voluptua's true form.
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows: Rocko Sasquatch.
 * Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Bigfeet.
 * Brain Bleach: Bob needs some after seeing Rocko's Shirtless Scene.
 * But Your Wings Are Beautiful: Voluptua.
 * Butt Monkey: Bob's roof.
 * Casual Interstellar Travel: Justified. There's no FTL, but the Nemesites are absurdly long-lived, and relativistic-speed travel is ubiquitous.
 * Cast of Snowflakes
 * Catch Phrase: Roofus: "I will fix the roof!" And Jean likes to say "Egad!" a fair bit.
 * Character Development: Molly and Golly are born identical, and we get to see exactly how circumstances mold them into such very different people.
 * Children Raise You: Bob and Jean raising Molly.
 * Christmas Episode: Annually. This is probably the nicest.
 * Cloning Blues: Galatea.
 * Come to Gawk
 * Common Sense: Pretty nearly Bob's defining characteristic.
 * Crossover: There have been brief crossovers with Melonpool, Zortic, and Zeera the Space Pirate. As well as a strip contributed to Dr. McNinja's site.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Several.
 * Cyber Cyclops: Roofus.
 * Dances and Balls: Which turn out badly.
 * Dinosaurs Are Dragons
 * Dirty Old Man: Mr. Dirtygeezer.
 * Doppelganger: Galatea.
 * Dragon Rider: Voluptua and Hibachi.
 * The End of the World as We Know It: Most story arcs involve at least some danger of this.
 * Everything's Better with Bob
 * Everythings Better With Bunnies: Snookums the tentacle bunny.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Voluptua.
 * Everytown, America
 * Evil Twin: Galatea.
 * Fantastic Racism: Many dragons resent the Nemesites; and hardly anyone takes Earthlings seriously.
 * The Federation: The Nemesite Empire.
 * Flowery Elizabethan English: Hibachi and other dragons speak this way.
 * Future Slang: "Frass," used by the insectoid Nemesites. Look it up. It means bug poop.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Molly & Galatea.
 * Generic Name: Generictown.
 * Genius Ditz: Molly.
 * Ghibli Hills: Pitcheresk Forest.
 * Grammar Nazi: The North American Grammar Squirrel.
 * Green Space Babe: Princess Voluptua.
 * Halloween Episode: The annual appearance of the Halloween Monster.
 * Heavyworlder: Inverted, Nemesites are from a low gravity planet so ordinary humans have greater strength and stamina than them.
 * Hello, Nurse!: Princess Voluptua.
 * The High Queen: Princess Voluptua.
 * Higher-Tech Species: The Nemesites.
 * Hologram: Galatea's disguise-projecting beret.
 * Hidden Elf Village: The Bigfeet.
 * Humongous Mecha: Roofus, W2:9000, & Molly's robot lion.
 * Impossible Hourglass Figure: Voluptua has one
 * Incredible Shrinking Man: Snookums.
 * Insignificant Little Blue Planet
 * Instant AI, Just Add Water: Roofus.
 * Instant Expert: Supergeniuses Molly and Golly.
 * Interspecies Romance
 * Kaiju: Snookums's original form, Unigar the Vast Unicorn, The P.E.P.S.I. Monster, Molly's robot lion, Djali the Giantess.
 * King Mook (Literally).
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * Love Dodecahedron: Explained here.
 * Mad Scientist: Dean Martin, though he'd deny it; also Molly & Galatea.
 * The Men in Black: Agent Ben & Agent Jerry.
 * Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Riboflavin wants to conquer the Earth and threatens to destroy it if they don't surrender. Bob lampshades this and makes Riboflavin look pathetic. The strip is here.
 * Monster of the Week: Monsters are fun!
 * Muggle Foster Parents: Bob & Jean to Molly.
 * Multiple Demographic Appeal
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: Galatea does a pretty good nihilistic rant at one point.
 * She did grow up reading Nietzsche, after all
 * No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Lampshaded with Jean's formula that accidentally produced Molly.
 * Non-Fatal Explosions
 * Non-Mammal Mammaries: Voluptua has these... even when she's a butterfly!
 * Occupiers Out of Our Country!: Zippobic's complaint about the Nemesites on Butane.
 * Official Couple: Bob & Jean.
 * Older Than They Look: Voluptua is at least 300.
 * Our Giants Are Bigger: Djali/Jolly.
 * Perfect Pacifist People: The Fleenians. Consequently, they keep getting robbed.
 * Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: The dragons sure learned their lesson after the whole
 * Phlebotinum Rebel: Galatea.
 * Police Are Useless
 * Poster Gallery Bedroom: Molly's room, with posters of Jose Carerras, Gamera, Stephen Hawking, and High School Musical.
 * Powered Armor: Abby Primrose.
 * Punny Name: Almost everyone, Most notably Dr. Jean Poule (Gene pool).
 * Rapunzel Hair: Voluptua
 * Rebellious Princess: Voluptua.
 * Roofless Renovation
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: Voluptua.
 * Running Gag: There are several, but the main one is anything at all crashing into Bob's roof.
 * Shout-Out This page http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20110111.html has one to Everyday Heroes
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: Molly & Galatea.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The strip plants itself firmly on the idealistic side with this encounter between Bob and Galatea.
 * Space Amish: The dragons, to an extent.
 * Space Pirates: The Pirates of Ipecac.
 * Space Police: Officer Zodboink.
 * Squee: Jean has moments of these... ... especially here ...and here!
 * Starfish Aliens: Aliens are never humanoid in their true forms, except for crossover cameos with other webcomics.
 * Suburbia: Generictown.
 * Take Over the World: Galatea, Fructose Riboflavin.
 * Talking the Monster to Death: Bob is good at this.
 * Techno Babble: frequently lampshaded.
 * Terraform: Butane, adopted planet of the dragons.
 * Theme Twin Naming: Molly, Golly, & Jolly.
 * There Are No Global Consequences: Lampshaded.
 * Too Dumb to Fool: Bob.
 * Tsundere: Jean.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Voluptua regularly; Riboflavin and Galatea sometimes.
 * Ubermensch: Galatea.
 * Unfazed Everyman: Bob.
 * Unicorn: They purr!
 * Unobtainium: Borfomite.
 * Unperson: The Nemesites consider Earthlings "wildlife".
 * Unsound Effect
 * Wacky College: Generictown U. is showing some signs of this.
 * Wave Motion Gun: borfomite beams.
 * We Are as Mayflies
 * Weirdness Magnet: Bob.
 * Weird Science
 * Weirdness Censor: Most of the townsfolk, but mainly Mr. Oswald Blivius Bystander, who's either too crazy or too stupid to notice how bizarre his neighbor's life is, much less the surroundings he lives in.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Molly, Galatea, Roofus.
 * Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Generictown.
 * Where's the Fun In That?:


 * Whoopi Epiphany Speech: Bob.
 * Wild Take: Jean. In spades.
 * Wonder Child: Molly.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Galatea.
 * The World Is Always Doomed
 * The World Is Just Awesome: Frequently: here, here, here, here, and here.
 * Younger Than They Look: Molly, Golly, and Jolly.