Coga Suro

Large talking slug:Hey, don't glare at me. I'm just a figment of your imagination, sonny.

Coga Suro is a relatively new-to-the-internet webcomic currently hosted on Drunk Duck. Official party line from the artist/writer is that he started drawing it a few years ago, and so has a lot of raw pages to catch up on. The dates on the bottoms of the posted pages seem to confirm this, as does a preview page posted on Deviant ART. Coga Suro has somewhat of a random plot, jumping between different and increasingly strange plot arcs, but generally keeping to a theme of computer games, Ridiculously-Human Robots, or some combination thereof. Starting out as more of a 'gag a day' strip with poor artwork, it eventually metamorphosed into a comic given to longer story arcs and gradually-evolving art. Main characters include:

• Steve: Resident Cloudcuckoolander and wannabe superhero. Occasionally displays The Hero moments, but most of these are taking care of something that's his fault anyway. Wears a costume [later armour] that uses Applied Phlebotinum to give him superhuman attributes.
• Jerry: Steve's friend and owner of a Badass Longcoat that he wears in almost every appearance; he only owns the one coat, and cleans and maintains it religiously. Smarter and more sensible than Steve, and in charge of robot-related plot advancement. The Smart Guy.
• Frank: Final member of the main Power Trio, Frank possesses a pair of Good Angel, Bad Angel consciences, apparently has some form of acrobatic or martial arts skills, and switches to a new job every strip this is bought up. Died in the final chapter.
• Jane: Steve's girlfriend Later, his wife and mother of his children, whom he met on the internet and, uniquely, turned out to be just who she said she was. Some form of Gamer Girl and onetime user of a Super Suit.
• Lincoln: Ridiculously Human Robot, who, due to a recent botched repair, constantly speaks as if she's a one-man Dada Comic. Possessed large breasts. Recently 'died'. She got better.
• Hades: Another Ridiculously Human Robot created by two other robots, one good and one evil, fusing together. [Don't ask.]

It has recently finished (as of August 5th, 2009), and can be read in its entirety here. Followed up by the brilliantly named sequel Coga Suro 2 here.

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Tropes used in Coga Suro include:

* Ambiguous Gender- Primarily Styx, an android that is meant to be explicitly androgynous.

• Animesque- Totally. See also Cross-Popping Veins and Sweat Drop.
• Art Evolution- The express purpose of the comic was that this happen.
• Badass Cape- Steve seems fond of having a cape when making himself a superhero identity.
• Bash Brothers- Steve is delighted both times he gets to invoke this trope- once in the future with his older self [citing the need for a double-Steve combo move] and again in the sequel with his son.
• Blank White Eyes
• Cerebus Syndrome- Coga Suro is pretty much a textbook example of this, gradually losing more of the 'gag a day' material in favour of longer arcs.
• Cloudcuckoolander- Steve, when not otherwise provoked [see Berserk Button]. Also, Lincoln's nonsense speech gives the impression of being a cloudcuckoolander, but this is not entirely true.
• Clothes Make the Superman- The 'Super Suits' Steve makes fluctuate between this and Power Armour. The first is this trope played straight [A Retcon in Coga Suro 2 explains the exact Phlebotinum behind this], the second is Power Armour, and the thrid looks to be a mix between the two.
• Cue the Flying Pigs- Played straight in an early strip.
• FemBot-Lincoln, Persephone, Hades.
• Final Battle- Chapter 15 of the first run.
• First Girl Wins: Yeah, Steve and Jane end up married with kids. Who saw that coming?
• Future Me Scares Me- Steve.

Steve: I don't wanna be scarred and stubbly!

• Girl-On-Girl Is Hot- see also Author Appeal.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel- Frank has a pair of these, though his Bad Angel has been known to wander off and influence others.
• Kid From the Future- How we first meet Steve's son John.
• Mundane Fantastic- It's basically the real world, but with added robots [that it seems anyone can build?] and superheroes. And other odd stuff. So much that the 'mundane' is less visible every day.
• No Name Given- The name of the man in square glasses is never revealed.
• One Steve Limit- Very literally.
• Only Six Faces- Subverted. The author was aware of this from when he started drawing, and took pains to give every character a different nose. More recently, as the art has improved, characters have been exhibiting unique jawlines and physical builds.
• Ridiculously Human Robot
• Right Behind Me
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder
• Shout-Out- references to Neverwinter Nights from the outset, Warhammer, Marvel comics and Trigun.
• Sideways Smile- Styx, in particular, is fond of this, even having a grin so wide that the synthetic skin of its face cracks and splits in a later chapter.
  • The first Styx robot seen has a Sideways Smile as the one expression on its immobile face- thus looking quite odd when the 'wrong' side is facing the viewer.
• Speech Balloons- The usual convention of robots having square speech balloons. Most of them, anyway. Styx, an evil example, has black speech balloons with white text. For a few chapters, each character had a different font, but this was dropped later.
• Strip Buffer- Due to starting drawing the series two years before starting to post it online, Coga Suro has an enormous strip buffer of raw scans.
• Skunk Stripe- For no real reason, black hair with blonde parts seems to be genetic in the Taylor family.
• Theme Naming- Every robot after Lincoln has a name derived from Greek mythology.
• Tron Lines- Color-Coded for Your Convenience on Persephone, Styx and Hades.
• Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born
• Wolverine Claws- The fingernail variety is Hades' weapon of choice.
• You Wanna Get Sued?- Steve is interrupted from introducing Lincoln as The Vision.
  • A later comic has him briefly gain an equivalent of the Black Symbiote, only for the Hulk to appear, promising to 'sue him.

Coga Suro 2 provides examples of:

• Animesque- Again, same style as Coga Suro.
• Art Evolution
• Bash Brothers
• Bonus Material- 'Coga Suro Review' at the end of each chapter, heavily influenced by Lucky Star's 'Lucky Channel'
• Emergency Transformation- John early in Coga Suro 2.
  • Likely what happened to Frank during the timeskip.
• Hair Decorations- Anne. Given that the only time she's ever been seen without a hairband of some colour is when she transforms into a lightning-shooting skeleton thing, she is most definitely cuter with it by default.
• Facial Markings- On most robots.
• Fembot- the second [younger-looking] Persephone.
• Shock and Awe- Anna and later John's powers.
• Skull for a Head- See the spoiler above.
• Skunk Stripe- John and his siblings inherited their blonde streaks from their father somehow.
• Time Skip- Coga Suro 2 is set about 18 years after the end of Coga Suro, and is [eventually] centred more around Steve's grown-up kids.