Mockingboid

Mockingboid is a cartoon drawn and written by junior cartoonist Duncan Ogg. Plotlines are centered around Mockingboid, an unorthodox bird with a Brooklyn accent, who is often clueless about the circumstances around him. As the cartoon progressed, more supporting characters were added, including Dr. Owl, Mr. Peacock, and Mrs. Duck.

Mockingboid was created in November 2005, when Duncan doodled a cartoon on the side of his 4th grade math worksheet, starring Mockingboid and his best friend Harry Canary. This cartoon was never published and has long since been recycled. In February 2006, Duncan was forming a new newspaper for his classroom, called The Weekly Messenger. A cartoon was needed for the paper, so Duncan quickly developed a storyline and drew up a full-page comic, which, when published, was a smash hit, along with the rest of the paper.
2 full storylines were developed in print, until the end of the school year, when the paper went on hiatus. Yet in the beginning of 5th grade, the Weekly Messenger went internet- and brought the comic with it, in strip form.
Mockingboid can now be seen at the web address , under “Comics.” One storyline was featured, involving a massive cable dish. Several new plotlines are in development, and according to rumour, Mockingboid will return to full-page format.

Books

No Mockingboid collections have so far been published, but one is supposedly in the works, name unknown. A first draft of the graphic novel “Mockingboid in Time and Space” was featured at the Young Authors Conference 2006 in Ferndale, Washington, and the book is preparing for printing.
Merchandise
No merchandise has been created, but according to rumour, a set of posters may come out soon, along with a stamp series. It s expected that a CD may come out soon as well.

Characters

Mockingboid

All comics are centered around Mockingboid, a moronic bird with a Brooklyn accent. Although he is a mockingbird, he is black, whereas mockingbirds are gray. Why?
“I had no idea what a mockingbird actually looked like,” said Duncan.
Most of the characters in the series hate him- he is annoying, selfish, and plays music by the “Dave Matthews Band” in the middle of the night. But his best friend, Harry Canary, who appears in the book, but has yet to show up in the comic, only thinks he’s annoying some of the time.

Harry Canary

Harry, who only appears in the book but is sure to come up soon in the series, is Mockingboid’s best friend. He only thinks Mockingboid is annoying some of the time, and tries to break Mockingboid of stupid ideas as soon as possible, as it is likely Mockingboid will get hurt in some way or another. Mockingboid is always asking Harry to go to a film with him, usually on Harry’s pocketbook. But in a recent cartoon entirely in French that was never published, Harry drew the line- no films in the middle of the night, much to Mockingboid’s dismay.

Dr. Owl

Dr. Owl is the “brains” of the operation, and always has some type of gizmo, gadget, or machine he is fiddling around with in his underground laboratory, the most famous of which was the Time Machine, which also appears in Mockingboid in Time and Space, along with a spare that looks like a giant statue of a cow. Harry Canary often frowns on Dr. Owl, as it is usually him who enables Mockingboid to embark on his zany schemes and usually does not precaution him with things that could end up spelling d-o-o-m for the world, such as a growth potion in an unpublished cartoon.

Mr. Peacock

Mr. Peacock is Mockingboid’s neighbor and main annoyance target. He’s sick and tired of Mockingboid blasting Dave Matthews Band CDs during the middle of the night, he’s angry that Mockingboid is able to collect huge unemployment cheques for simply writing letters to the editor-in-chief of the Bellingham Herald endorsing the Iraq War, and he hates that Mockingboid is constantly “borrowing” things from him, like his grill and his back patio setup and then claims it is a “weather balloon.” Will he ever escape Mockingboid? Probably not. But he can try like heck.

Mrs. Duck

Mrs. Duck is the spouse of Mr. Duck, who has never been seen in the comics. She lives 2 houses down from Mockingboid, and makes delicious pies, especially cherry, which Mockingboid stole and ate in a storyline. She considers Mockingboid to be a selfish jerk, and tries to stay away from him, but who can stay away from him when he owns an Escalade and a U2 spy plane? Nobody- that’s who. She hasn’t appeared much, but does come up in Mockingboid in Time and Space.

Mr. Chicken

Mr. Chicken lives across the street from Mrs. Duck, and is impartial to Mockingboid on the same level as Harry Canary, but does think he’s a waste of time to talk to (Mockingboid rarely makes any sense, and his heavy accent makes it even more difficult for him to understand him.) Although he hasn’t yet appeared in the comic itself, he does make an appearance in Mockingboid in Time and Space, and in one comic, his house with his name written on the door is clearly visible.

The World of Mockingboid

Mockingboid currently lives (illegally) in the United States, but his homeland is a country called “Birdland,” as everybody in the country is a bird. (No Way!) Birdland is to the left of Brazil, and it volcanic in nature, as in the center is gigantic Mt. Cockatoo. Mockingboid lived in a city on the East Coast called “New Aviary”, the largest city in the country. A map is soon to go into print of Birdland, and it includes several landmarks named after famous cartoon characters, including “Stimpy Road,” referencing Stimpy the Cat from hit animated cartoon “Ren and Stimpy,” “Ignatz Canyon,” after Ignatz Mouse from the 1920’s cartoon “Krazy Kat,” and “Pogo Lake,” after the cartoon character Pogo from “Pogo,” a comic by Walt Kelly. Some other landmarks on the map have unfamiliar names: L.G. Lookout, Moniker Lake, Memo Lake, Dom Peninsula and Walt Du Jeer Forest. These were named after characters from the non-syndicated comic “Memo,” by Duncan’s father, Doug Ogg. Another landmark was named Orson Cliff- named after Orson the Half-Eaten Banana, an invented character, who will soon feature in several books. This could also be why Birdland is to the right of Brazil- Orson has a bad habit of dooming it in one way or another in each chapter of the books.

Adaptations

A Mockingboid movie is in the works, voice talents not yet decided, and production has not yet begun. Comic books are also being developed under the Robo Comics title, which also publishes the series’ Energon, and Captain Bubbles.

Importance

Mockingboid is considered extremely important because it paved the way for many more comics created by children, and even the Weekly Messenger itself fostered many more papers. It is a big influence on all comics drawn by kids.

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