Kudzu

Kudzu was a comic strip written and illustrated by Doug Marlette, which ran from 1981 to 2007. It focused on the life of a hapless teenager named Kudzu Dubose growing up in the rural town of Bypass, North Carolina. Kudzu is a hopeless romantic, an aspiring author who pines hopelessly after Veranda Tadsworth, a vapid cheerleader who has little room in her heart for anyone but Veranda. Kudzu would like nothing more than to leave his sleepy little town and find fame and fortune in the big city, but he is constantly held back by Mama, his overbearing, hypochondriac mother.

While Kudzu was the main character of the strip, he was largely eclipsed by the popularity of the local pastor, the Reverend Will B. Dunn. Will B. Dunn, based on a real-life cantankerous Southern preacher, was a bumbling schemer constantly looking to make a fast buck and trying to deal with his church's extremely strange congregation.

The strip came to an abrupt end in July 2007, when Doug Marlette was killed in a car accident.

If you're looking for the trope about an overgrown, entangled plot, it's at Kudzu Plot.