Brogo

Brogo is a webcomic created by Malcolm Wilson with assistance from his family, and is edited and produced under Malcolm Wilson Multimedia. The comic originally drew heavy inspiration from Garfield, but soon began to develop its own style and theme. The setting is left unclear, with urban and rural references appearing in various places. The cartoonist has stated that it is located somewhere in Alberta, Canada.

The comic's main themes are the relationships between its characters, who are often placed in comical and bizarre situations which can often turn into long story arcs. It is updated sporadically, but since 2009 has aimed to do at least one comic per month, and as such new comics tend to come out at the end of the month, or sometimes the beginning of the month.

Brogo also occasionally references certain current events, starting with the 2005 Canadian non-confidence motion and subsequent election, and most recently with Brogo running a robot suffrage movement during the 2011 election (as well as appealing against voter apathy). It also occasionally references to other web comics and popular media, such as Casey and Andy, Red Dwarf, and Irregular Webcomic!

Creation
Brogo is released in two forms: a three panel daily and an extended seven panel Sunday strip with title panel. The conception of each comic typically begins with a brainstorming session between Malcolm Wilson and Laura Warman, though Malcolm notes he has gotten a comic idea from every member of his household. They are created originally in CorelDRAW 5 from Windows 2000, where Malcolm adds in stock graphics or new drawings. It is also not uncommon for him to trace over clipart or other public domain graphics to convert it into Brogo's art style (mostly of simple shapes and lines, with characters of cartoonish and deformed proportions).

The speech and thought bubbles are created in Microsoft PowerPoint XP, as are the word art logos during Sunday comics. Each of those are unique in each Sunday comic. Every panel in a Brogo comic has a different colour gradient background. One of the only known exceptions to this are the October 28th and 29th, 2005 comics where the background for the images in a security panel changed instead. After this, the comic is proof read by Laura Warman.

Once the comic is finished being created, Malcolm saves it and then opens it in Microsoft Paint where he edits it pixel-by-pixel in order to correct any rasterization errors (he has joked that his editing is only second to that of Industrial Light and Magic). When the editing phase is over, he copies it over into Irfan View where he converts it into a GIF file and then uploads it onto the Brogo website. Malcolm has stated that if he were to start a new comic from scratch he would move to Inkscape and Fedora instead, and has already integrated Inkscape partially into his work-flow.

Brogo
The main character of the comic strip. He is a robot from &quot;Advanced Electronics&quot; or &quot;AE&quot; (he was the only survivor of a van explosion, leading to him being being sold cheaply) and he suffers from a &quot;personality disorder&quot; that makes him more independent and disobedient. He has a devilish sense of humour and enjoys playing pranks on people, especially his owner Bob. He was purchased with the intent of being a house hold appliance (with one of the more important tasks being cleaning the dishes) but has since become more of a room-mate or even a nemesis to his owner. Michelle reset his system to run on Mountie Stetson, a Crimson Toque system, with his original AE firmware running under ALE.

Bob Blannick
The next most important character, Bob is often very clueless and tends to only spend on himself. His occupation is a writer, but he seems to spend most of time doing nothing at all including watching television. He has a very high opinion of himself, dreads responsibility and he is also easily angered - particularly by the antics of his purchased robot. His name is derived from a mispronunciation of the freeware adventure game character Rob Blanc.

Goomo
Goomo is Brogo's pet mouse, he was found in a green-feed bale that Brogo brought into the house as a prank on Bob. Goomo got his name because unlike other mice he says &quot;Goomo&quot; instead of &quot;Squeak&quot;. He may engage in conversation with Brogo through a device built into AE robots, as well as with other animals such as the Black Cat. Goomo is very sensitive to the others ignoring him, once leading to him taking up the charade as a rat as &quot;rats are banned in Alberta&quot;. He is also prone to cracking wise cracks, although speaking in mouse language leads to them being unnoticed. He also is very particular about his food and hates soy, leading to conflicts with Bob who wants to buy it as it is cheaper.

Michelle
Michelle is Brogo's mechanic. She has had to make several repairs onto Brogo and Frobo since her introduction, and now appears several times throughout the strip. Bob seems to have a romantic fascination with her much to her dislike (she often shows her disinterest with some aggression, though she was once tricked into a date). She is one of the most reliable and least dysfunctional of the Brogo characters, though one with a somewhat mad engineer streak.

Fred Firebug
This character was originally called &quot;The Man On Fire&quot; or &quot;Spontaneous Human Combustion Guy&quot; by the Brogo staff, although the comic never referred to him as this. This character periodically spontaneously catches on fire (for no apparent reason) and he runs through the strip yelling &quot;Ahhhhhhhh I'm on fire!!!!&quot;, he is often employed as comic relief during a story ark or to continue the plot. He did not get his name until the October 23, 2005 naming comic.

Ed Donut
Ed Donut is Michelle's assistant and he loves donuts. It is unknown why Michelle keeps him around as all he ever does is eat or buy donuts. When Bob was in Hospital and Brogo was being fixed Ed Donut looked after Goomo, leading to the mouse substantively gaining weight due to a diet of donuts. Ed is known to have conflicts with spiders as seen in a story ark and in the computer game Donut Quest. He did not get a name until the October 23, 2005 naming comic.

Dr. Bill
A dim-witted male doctor. He did not get a name until the October 23, 2005 naming comic.

Nurse Samantha
A human nurse and veterinary assistant. She did not get a name until the October 23, 2005 naming comic.

boB
A second Bob, boB appears as an almost exact clone of the original man and his origin are unknown. He currently takes up residence alongside his duplicate and is often Bob's partner during plots and practical jokes against Brogo and others, although they are known to quarrel on occasion. His personality is very similar to that of Bob.

Frobo from Mars
First introduced when Brogo was damaged on September 23, 2005. Frobo from Mars is now a separate character in the form of a another Brogo-like robot and, despite the name, his true origin has never been fully confirmed. He is in many way's Brogo's partner and assists him in his plots and endeavours, though, like Bob and boB, the two occasionally take up arms against each other.

Cats
There is a black cat that first appeared as a setup for the end of a short story line where Brogo blows away in the wind. The cat chases after a bird that Brogo flew into (and later saves) and knocks Brogo's head off. More recently this character has appeared during the Brogo tribute to Casey and Andy and has had sporadic appearances ever since. He is a cat prone to hunting and is often Gomoo's nemesis, although the two are occasionally on speaking terms, much to Bob's confusion. He is based on the cartoonist's cat Slinky. Another cat modelled after Malcolm's own Leo (the first comic a celebration of his return after a rather worrisome disappearance), has appeared in several comics. This cat is very aggressive especially when talked to in &quot;baby talk&quot; due to its cuteness. It was also cloned into a cat army by Brogo. Two other cats, base on Malcolm's Clover and Penny, have also shown up.

The Mailman
A one shot character who Brogo wounded while conducting a gravity experiment in the January 27-28, 2005 comics. The mailman was unseen but you could tell that he was hurt because he shouted &quot;OW!&quot; and some unseen person (presumably Bob) shouts &quot;BROGO!! YOU HIT THE MAILMAN OVER THE HEAD WITH MY HAMMER!&quot;

Alien
A one time use character that responds to Fred Firebugs scream of &quot;noooooo&quot; when he lights on fire, promising to open fire.

Guest

 * Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs - from Irregular Webcomic!
 * Head Death - from Irregular Webcomic!
 * Quantum Crook - from Casey and Andy
 * Jenn Brozek - from Casey and Andy
 * Quantum Cop - from Casey and Andy
 * J.J - from Casey and Andy
 * Casey Grimm - from Casey and Andy
 * Andy Weir - from Casey and Andy
 * Satan - from Casey and Andy
 * Land Pirate - from Casey and Andy
 * Bob (was there too) - from Casey and Andy
 * Martian - from Mars Attacks!
 * Talkie Toaster - from Red Dwarf

Notable Comics

 * January 1 - 7 2005 - this stream of comics introduces Brogo to the world.
 * January 15, 2005 - Bob reveals his name.
 * February 1, 8, and 12, 2005 - introduces Goomo. There are comics in between these dates but they are less important to Goomo's introduction.
 * April 17, 2005 - Bob reveals that he is a writer.
 * June 26, 2005 - Introduction of Michelle the Mechanic.
 * July 7, 2005 - Introduced an unseen man who keeps lighting on fire. He is unnamed in the comic but during production he is referred to as &quot;The man on fire&quot; or &quot;Spontaneous Human Combustion Guy&quot;.
 * July 12, 2005 - Bob calls Michelle by her name.
 * July 31, 2005 - Fred Firebug (still unnamed) is finally seen.
 * September 20, 2005 - Introduces Ed Donut (then unnamed).
 * October 7, 2005 - Introduces Dr. Bill and Nurse Samantha (then unnamed).
 * October 23, 2005 - names several formerly unnamed characters including Fred Firebug.
 * November 29, 2005 - Bob reacts in horror in discovering that Parliament has collapsed and that he will have to vote.
 * November 30, 2005 - Bob reacts in further horror as he learns that election day is in 55 days (January 23).
 * January 8, 2005 - A second Bob arrives home.
 * January 9, 2005 - A second Brogo apears.
 * January 10, 2005 - The second Bob introduces himself as &quot;boB&quot;.
 * January 11, 2005 - The second Brogo introduces himself as &quot;Frobo from Mars&quot;. This is a reference to the September 23, 2005 comic where Brogo in a delusional state shouts &quot;I AM FROBO FROM MARS!&quot;
 * February 20 and 21, 2006 - Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs and Head Death from IWC make guest appearances.
 * May 4, 2006 - June 6, 2006 - Casey and Andy Tribute. This stream of comics included guest appearances by the cast of Casey and Andy in response to Andy Wier's announcement that he was ending the strip. Although there were breaks to regular Brogo comcis the Brogo staff treated it as a C&amp;A tribute. The final comic was on 6,6,06 (666) and had the C&amp;A character Satan as a guest. This comic also assed flashback to the comic with death from IWC and made humor from the closeness of Andy Wier's Casey and Andy and David Morgan Mar's Irregular Webcomic.