Neglected Mario Characters

Neglected Mario Characters (often abbreviated as Neglected Characters or NC) is a webcomic on a Nintendo fansite, arguably the originator of the "sprite comic" style, having started on September 6, 1997. It was created and is primarily written by Jay Resop as a feature for the website Super Mario Brothers Headquarters, a Mario fansite of which he is a co-founder. Frequent contributors to the comic include other site editors, such as Codiekitty and Lord Reid. The site was originally updated frequently albeit irregularly, but has since gone on several haituses, often for months at a time.
Each "episode" typically is a webpage that includes several dozen vertically stacked GIF files serving as panels. The comic serves as an homage to, and is illustrated using graphics ("sprites") from Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, primarily the Super Mario franchise. The minimalist style of the comic predates other video game-themed webcomics such as Bob and George. The humour of the comic is highly absurdist and includes many non sequiturs, such as the running gag of the inclusion of the author, Jay Resop, as a character, represented as an intentionally-crude stick figure with an image of Bob Dole's face as a head.
Characters
In spite of the strip's title, most of the characters were created exclusively for the strip, rather than Mario's underappreciated co-stars. However, their appearances are based on actual game characters, mainly from the Super Mario Bros. NES games or Kirby's Adventure, and on more than one occasion have served as elaborations on individual instances of the generic enemies within Mario games.
Main characters
*Bill The Extra Guy is a Pidgit, a common enemy from Super Mario Bros. 2 which appears to be a small black bird riding a magic carpet. He is specifically based on the first Pidgit that appears in the Super Mario Bros. 2 in world 1-2. As a character, he largely plays the role of the comic foil to the other, less competent characters, usually acting as the most competent role in the story. However, Bill is also notable for several quirks, including a supernatural skill called the "Extra Power", which he claims he learned from the Discovery Channel, and his nonsensical answer of "Al Gore?" in response to most difficult questions. He was born like a normal pidjit, from an egg. While he was in the egg he was assualted by Phone the Clone. Redox the ninja stoppped the attack and fought Phone the clone in a swordfight. He disarmed Phone and asked him who he worked for. When Phone refused, he threatened to use "Mario sweats to old ladies III". Phone admits he works for Silence (but is misunderstood, thinking he is telling him to shut up and says "I have a portable VCR and I'm not afraid to use it!" Another one of his abilities is the extra laser, which he uses to vaporize enemies.
*Fred The Spanyard resembles a Buggzy from the Kirby series of games, a frequent boss character which resembles an anthropomorphic scarab beetle. Within the Kirby homeworld, Popstar, he is said to originate from the Isles of Span, a location invented for the comic to compensate for the corruption of the word "Spaniard" in his name. He is notable for his many idiosyncrasies, including his extremely aggressive behavior and love of tacos, which have a hallucinogenic effect on him when eaten in large amounts. He is notable for having several redundantly named attack abilities, such as his Deathray, Ray of Death, and Deathly Deathray of Deathly Deathness, and (in lord of the wings and/or the reanactment of the christmas carol) the fantasy deathray and the humbug ray of humbugness. . According to the NC chonicles, he was originally on a popstar as an evil character. His tyranny grew so much that the spanyards on the popstar called out to dreamland and formed the "Spanyard Force to Get Rid of Fred and Bring Peace to the Land for All Eternity At Least Until Another Demented Freak Comes To Power In Which Case We Will Dispose Of Him To". Jirby (kirby's father) helped them overthrow Fred and blast him to Earth. His anger at Kirby snoring may be because of his resentment to his father Jirby. In the first NC comic, Darth Butch made Fred the Spanyard. However, in Mushroom Wars, Fred states that Jay Resop took all ownership of Fred the Spanyard and that Luigi cannot use the fact that he created Fred to boss him around.
*Dr. Donez is a Tweeter, another common enemy from Super Mario Bros. 2, which resembles a small, white bird-like creature that wears a red mask with a long bill, and is specifically based on the second tweeter who appears in the game in world 1-1. His character is an evil genius, although his alignment may better be described as lawful evil, as he often plays the role of a protagonist despite his real goal, world domination. Among other characteristics, Dr. Donez is notable for his use of an ice pick as his weapon of choice and receiving an entire panel of the comic devoted to a close-up of himself whenever his name is spoken. He was apparently in Super Mario Bros. 2 when he met Mario. Mario hurled him off the edge of a waterfall and was revived in the same way Mario and Luigi are revived when they die and have a spare life in Super Mario Bros.. Eventually, he broke out and managed to find his way into NC world. He is also featured in a farcical advice column.
*Captain Churro is also a Tweeter, although palette swapped to be blue with an orange mask and wings, and within the comic, author Jay Resop laments that he "dropped him in the paint" when he created him, resulting in Churro's erratic behavior a constant delivery of bizarre statements. Although originally meant to be an amalgam of all the other characters in the comic, Captain Churro's activities are only rarely relevant to the plot at hand. One of his more bizarre idiosyncrasies is his tendency to yell "Fly away!", believing he is a superhero, only to simply hop off-screen and then fall from the sky at some later point in the comic. He was meant to be as powerful and smart as Dr. Donez, but he had paint drop on him, and became the idiot know as Captain Churro. He was created to give a message to Bill, Fred, and Dr. Donez. It is noticeable that he has a close-up like Citrus Man, only the words constanly change as he talks about himself. His power shown to Citrus man was him jumping on his head repeatedly.
*Jill the Extra Gal resembles the common Kirby enemy drone Bronto Burt, and, though alluded to before her first appearance in the comic, serves mostly as a replacement character for Bill the Extra Guy during his captivity in the NC/SSS Crossover Mach II to fill his role as a comic foil. The only real character trait she displays is her constant annoyance at the others for their constant incompetence and potency for trouble. She is usually trying to keep Fred away from her, as shown in the story about something, where he comes to her house, again.
Secondary characters and villains
*Jay Resop The creator of the comic. Jay used to be portrayed as Bob Dole's head on a crude stick figure body. Recently, Jay has been portrayed as a sprite.
*Citrus Man During the 'Mushroom Wars' Lemmy Koopa uses the Crystal of Reststop on Mario to turn him into his mindless slave. Inside Mario's head Reststop fairies think mindless slave means not having a brain, so they blow it up and replace it with an AOL CD. Later Luigi uses it on him so he can help Bowser. The reststop fairies realize they blew up his brain, so they replace it with an orange. This caused Mario to think he is a superhero named Citrus Man. This gag appears in Mushroom Wars, Bill and Fred's Quazi Mediocre Adventure, NC/SSS Crossover, and NC/SSS Crossover Mach 2. He is basically Mario in his raccoon form. He is shown as Citrus Man when he bumps his head. He aparently is powerful as Citrus Man as he actually has more powers than jumping and throwing fireballs. He can fly with lime lift-off, use the "orange of doom" (similar to Darth Butches "Worce charge"), the lemon slice of death, citrus acid blast, C barrier, call on Sunny D to help, and much more.
*Gooba the Goomba - As the names suggests, Gooba is a Goomba. Simply a servant to greater master.
*Lemmy The Lemming - A Lemming. For more information about Lemmy, see Codiekitty.com.
*General Magruder - He is something that is quite lacking in NC Land, a true hero. Magruder's appearance is based on a Hammer Bro from Super Mario Bros. 3. He is shown to be brother to Zadok and Professor Excturcian. He is also shown to be in tanks backed up by other people in tanks.
*Redox - He is shown to be the protector of Bill and member of the Secret Order of Rubisco. For reasons unknown, he protected Bill at birth. Not much is known about him because he doesn't show up in many comics. He is a ninja who has trouble landing and obsessed with protecting Bill from a claimed order of the Secret Order of Rubisco. That's pretty much it.
*Biggs and Wedge - Guardians of the Forest of Illusion who mainly try to do interpretive dances about everything (which always consists of them just jumping up and down). They are two specimens of Ninji from Super Mario Bros. 2. They are of course named after Luke Skywalker's wingmen from A New Hope. Biggs and Wedge also commonly play minor characters in games in the Final Fantasy series.
*Narrative Guy - The aptly-named Narrative Guy (a grey Shy Guy) gives a face to the anonymous voice that narrates the NC Comix. He also speaks in third person and is shown to be a member of the NNC (Neglected Neglected Mario characters).
*Darth Butch - Little is known about Luigi's evil alter ego. Most believe that Luigi became Darth Butch after being "Player 2" for so long. He apparently can use the worce and wields a light-saber. He is one with the slightly black side. He only appears for short periods of time, but is shown to be able to use sith like powers such as the sith lightning and the "Worce" (obviously named after the force).
*Phone The Clone - Phone, an inverted recolor of Toad, is a clone, simply put, and he's not a very nice clone. In the NC Cronicles he was sent by Silence (Steve) to destroy Bill the Extra Guy, but was stopped and defeated by Redox the ninja. He usually attacks by throwing bombs, but is shown to be able to fight with a sword in the NC chronicles.
*Prof. Executrain - Born in the Mushroom Kingdom, Prof. Executrain, who has the appearance of a Boomerang Bro, is the arch-nemesis of Dr. Donez. While Dr. Donez has his good side, Prof. Executrain has no good side. Executrain's main weapon is the powerful Philips Screwdriver. It is believed that he hasn't seen his brothers, Zadok and Magruder, in years. He attacks like Dr. Donez with his philps screwdriver, but is shown to be able to use it as a fencing weapon like a sabre
*Colonel Zadok the Huntmaster - Zadok is a Huntmaster. But not just any old Huntmaster. He's THE Huntmaster. Master of the Hunt. He is not evil at heart, but definitely a dangerous character. He is shown just to like hunting. If Executrain is evil and Margruder is good then he's the half good half evil character. He likes t kill people for sport, but isn't exactly evil and teamed up with the fellowship of the wing to destroy the wing.
Comix
The author Jay Resop has noted that the word 'comics' is spelled as 'comix' "in a lame attempt to be 'cool'".
The EVIL Luigi Story (1998, Completed)
Created by Jay Resop
The First Serial Comic to be put on NC. The story is based on Luigi finally becoming fed up being the secondary role to his brother, Mario, and becoming Darth Butch. The Story introduces Fred the Spanyard, as one of Darth Butch's henchmen, and Bill the Extra Guy, in a parody scene of Super Mario Bros. 4, featuring Bill as one of the four playable characters.
After Butch is defeated, he makes a few cameo roles in other comix, including NC/SSS Crossover Mach 2.
In 2004, Patrick VanDusen made a special edition encompassing all four parts of the story in a more modern NC-esque story.
The Mushroom Wars (1998-1999, Completed)
Created by Jay Resop and Lemmy Koopa
The Second Serial Comic to be brought to NC, and the first series to be written by more than just Resop (A trend that will continue through all of the following series, except the Random Comix and The NC Chronicles). The story is about Bowser's children, the Koopa Kids, being angered by the cutting of their allowance and rebelling, while Bowser and Luigi form the Dual Alliance of Death (DAD). Mario finds his favorite pasta shop closed, so he marshalls up a bunch of toads (after he gives them their own constitution) and tries to attack the koopa clan. Lemmy Koopa then takes control of him by luring him into a fake pasta shop and hypnotizing him with the crytal of restop. The restop faries com in and blow up his brain, replacing it with a AOL disk. Luigi and Phone the Clone find him and break the hypnosis spell with the crystal of restop. The restop faries decide to replace Mario's brain with an orange, making him Citrus Man. The Koopa kids attack Luigi, Phone, Peach, and Citrus Man/Mario. They also attack Fred the Spanyard who is with Bowser. They are defeated and only Morton, Lemmy, and Iggy are left alive after the defeat. They join up and make one last attempt to overthrow DAD. Luigi then turns into his alter Ego darth Butch and fight's Mario's alter ego Citrus Man (who thinks he is Darth Butcher, Lord of the Kold Klutz Klan). After resisting each others attacks, Darth butch uses his sith lightning to try to destroy Citrus man/Mario. Citrus man then says, 'I must unleash the power of the Sun!'. Darth Butch replies 'Sunny D'. Darth Butch is defeated by the fruit juice and is revived by Phone the Clone. Apparently, in Darth Butch's anger, he destroyed his legos. Citrus Man sees Bowser and helps him fight against the Koopalings. Morton is defeated by the lemon slice of death, and Iggy is also defeated. As Lemmy is cornered, toad appears. Then, the running gag of the world blowing up appears, and Bill flies out on his magic carpet. This is the first appearance of Phone the Clone and Citrus Man, the alter-ego of Mario.
Lemmy Koopa wrote the odd parts, and Jay Resop wrote the even parts. Note that the parts written by Lemmy Koopa are text only, while Resop wrote his parts more traditionally with sprite comix. As of March 1st 2009, the odd parts have been entirely converted into Sprite Comix.
Bill and Fred's Quazi-Mediocre Adventure (1999-2001)COMPLETED
Created by Jay Resop and Steve Reich
The Third Serial Comic to be brought to NC, also one of the most popular (being featured on the main page's icon saying NC is "The Home of Bill and Fred's Quazi-Mediocre Adventure"). This is the first appearance of Jay in the story, portrayed by Bob Dole's head and a crude stick figure body, as it will be portrayed in all other stories. It is also the first appearance of Dr. Donez, and the only appearance of the other "Jays". The running gag of Luigi appearing in the story by saying he's not in the story begins in this story.
The Story Begins as Bill and Fred get mad at Jay and decide to kill him, employing Mario to do the dirty work. Jay is killed via Pokémon Overdose. After SMBHQ, the host of NC, hears about this, the webmaster Kyle Orlando (portrayed by Darth Vader's head) attempts to kill Mario. In the mean time, Bill and Fred are summoned by Steve, which they think is named Silence after he yells that at them. They are to fly to Poland to meet him at his base to help in his quest, and are greeted by his servant, Bob Saget. Fred tries over and over to kill him with his deathray, but Bob Saget is immortal in the story. It appears that Steve (portrayed by Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard from The Next Generation Star Trek films) wants to kill Kyle, and Bill and Fred are to serve as his waterboys. After a while, they become tired of working for Steve, and go out to kill Kyle and Steve themselves. Fred then pressures Bill to finally use his secret move, the Extra Move, which freezes Kyle, Steve, and Mario, who was being attacked by Kyle at the time, in time. After realizing they cannot unfreeze them without breaking the "Eco-Centric-Chrono-Time-Vortex", they go to find Fred's old friend and evil-genius, Dr. Donez. After rambling on, Bill is captured by Donez's arch-nemesis, Jay Respo, who takes him to his base, conveniently located right behind them. Jay Respo attempts to use the Extra Power to destroy the 100,000 Dollar Pyramid, which has been plaguing him for years. After a simple rescue plan to get Bill back foils his plans, he escapes through a warp-hole. Once the trio resumes their adventure, they unfreeze everyone but Steve, who was mistaken for Mario (now Citrus Man) by Dr. Donez. On one side, Kyle and his army are coming, and on the other, the Posernator, a gigantic evil creature (really just Jay Resop, Respo, and Reesop combined). After a heroic battle, with a few plot contrives, the story ends up in a scene reminiscent of the beginning, and a brief scene of credits follow.
Retro AOMP's Bill and Fred's Nonexcellent Adventure served as a companion to the Quazi-Mediocre Adventure, taking place between comic #6 and comic #7.
BFQMA is the second longest NC comic, and one of the most popular.
On June 5, 2008 NC began putting the BFQMA episodes on YouTube.
NC/SSS Mach 2 (2001-present)
NC/SSS Mach 2 is a crossover of Neglected Mario Characters and Super Smash Stadium, a fan fiction based on the Super Smash Bros. series also featured on SMBHQ.
It features Lord Reid kidnapping Bill and replacing him with a bag of Funyuns because no one will notice. While in Lord Reid's captivity, he cuts off Bill's hair which makes him angry. Meanwhile, Fred and Dr. Donez meet up with Jill the Extra Gal who was part of the Neglected of the Neglected. She ditches them to go with Dr. Donez, and the two end up in the Minus World. Fred is ashamed because he thought he ate Bill in his taco-crazed state. Bill meets up with Bill of Rights, Bill Clinton, and Bill Nye the Science Guy, which makes the reader assume that Lord Reid has an obsession with the name Bill.
NC Chronicles(2002-2002) COMPLETE
This comix shows the past lives of some NC's such as Bill the Extra Guy, Fred the Spanyard, Dr. Donez, And the 3 triplets, Zadok, Exectrutian, and Magruder. It shows the birth of the triplets, why Dr. Donez despises Mario's stupidity, How Fred the Spanyard got here, and the reason behind Redox the Ninja protecting Bill (although it can be argued that it is only a claimed order of the secret order of Rubisco). It also shows that Phone the CLone was ordered by Silence to destroy Bill, and a theory why Fred the Spanyard in nearly every random comic uses his deathray on Kirby (the theory being that Jirby overthrew his reign on the Popstar).
Lord of the Wings (2004-PRESENT)
The Lord of the Wings is basically the story of Lord of the Rings only in NC form with NC characters playing the characters in the Lord of the rings story (example: Gandalf is replaced by Dr. Donez with his name being Wizard Gandez, or Frodo Baggins being played by Fred the Spanyard as Fredo). It includes the Fellowship of the wing (Similar to the friendship of the ring) traveling to a volcano to destroy the wing.
Running Gags
* Scenes where the Earth spontaneously explodes.
* Mario posing as Citrus Man.
* Close-ups of the Dr. Donez character (or any other character he portrays) whenever his name is spoken (often when he enters a scene). The same is done whenever Prof. Executrain's name is spoken.
* Extensions of the name of Fred the Spanyard's Death Ray; the most elaborate being "Deathly Death Ray of Deathly Deathness."
* Jay's excuses for lack of frequent updates.
* The fact that Luigi is not appearing in the story (although, technically, he is appearing to be pointed out that he's not appearing).
* Bill's catchphrase, "Al Gore?"
* Literal running gags which usually involve Churro just running.
* Breaking the fourth wall.
* The game Mario Is Missing and the Pokémon series are Jay's least favorite games, and thus he makes fun of them quite often in NC Comix.
* Occasional story breaks for "Sven's Commentary" in which Sven (a stick figure with Doc Brown's head) usually complains about how the story doesn't make sense and how sprite comics are terrible in contrast to flash animation.
* Whenever Kirby appears, he is always sleeping. Fred usually complains about his snoring and finally, Kirby annoys Fred so much that he launches a Death Ray at him to stop the snoring. This gag shows up in every one of Jay's random comix except "The 12 Days of NC Christmas" and "The First Annual VGF Telethon".
* Portrayal of human characters not represented by video game sprites (most commonly of people who work at SMBHQ or other affiliates, such as Resop or SMBHQ webmaster Kyle Orland) with the head of a character attached to a stick figure (usually a politician—see "Cultural references")
* Occasionally showing "Silence" (really named Steven Reich, a former SMBHQ staff member played by Jean-Luc Picard) "frozen" after Bill's extra move.
*The writers often ridicules Mario or makes him look like a moron.
*Churro falling from the sky.
*Someone screaming, "Save me Superman!".
*Morton randomly screaming out the name of a food.
*Churro saying "Fly away!", pausing for a second, and then running off screen.
Cultural references
NC, like most parodies, is full of references to popular culture. Some common examples include:
*Star Wars references abound abundantly throughout the website.
*Squaresoft. The company responsible for Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger (Resop's favorite titles) are often referenced.
*Political figures commonly guest star in the series, though not always as themselves. So far, guests have included Bob Dole, Richard Nixon, Al Gore, Ross Perot, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
*Spy vs. Spy, shorts since the 1960s, presented as "Shy vs. Shy" featuring Shy Guys playing the spies.
*Ebert & Roeper. This popular movie review show has been spoofed as " & Doppler"

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See Also

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