Rose Is Rose
Rose is Rose is an award winning comic strip (written by Pat Brady since 1984 and drawn by Don Wimmer since 2004) about the life of Rose Gumbo, her husband Jimbo and their family and friends. It takes place in an eternally positive, saccharine setting, where the adult characters are constantly reverting to children (especially when confronted with something that reminds them of childhood, like butterflies or ice cream), and if the the Gumbos fight, they're making up by the third frame of the strip.
While some may want to retch at such sugary stuff, most readers agree that it's a fun, safe, well-written comic strip. Supporting characters like Peekaboo the cat, baby Mimi and her mom, and various neighborhood animals provide a fresh perspective on how we look at our "ordinary" lives.
- Anxiety Dreams: Clem has one, of sharing.
- Badass Adorable: Pasquale's guardian angel.
- Biker Babe: Rose's alter ego, "Vicki". Loves rattlesnake chili, taking risks... all the things Rose couldn't do as a mild-mannered housewife. Might qualify as a Sexier Alter Ego.
- Chubby Chaser: It's been shown several times that Jimbo would prefer if Rose was fat.
- Comic Book Time: Slightly averted. Pasquale couldn't speak for the first seven years, but can now.
- Cool Car: Pasquale's "Dream Ship" isn't exactly a car, but it's very cool... sort of a gentler version of Spaceman Spiff's spaceship.
- Crossover: Implied. Rose is sometimes shown talking on the phone to her (never-actually-seen) friend Juliette. Juliette Burber of 9 Chickweed Lane is sometimes shown talking on the phone to her (never-actually-seen) friend Rose....
- Editorial Synaesthesia: The little skulls that surround anyone with garlic breath, and the flowers, rainbows, and smiling suns for peppermint breath.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Pasquale can actually "catch" rainbows. Also shows up in...
- Everything's Cuter with Lucky Charms: Used quite a bit, usually to indicate childlike pleasure.
- Exiled to the Couch: Jimbo gets this treatment, being sent to the basement when he teases Pasquale too much.
- Fluffy Dry Cat: Peekaboo, who occasionally becomes a huge fluffball.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Pasquale's guardian angel usually looks like a black-and-white copy of Pasquale, with wings, halo, and robe. But his tendency to turn into a giant, sword-wielding heavenly warrior when stressed, and some of the things he's said, indicate that the latter is his real form, or closer to it.
- Funetik Aksent: Mimi.
- Guardian Angel: Pasquale's is a major character.
- Jerkass: Pasquale's cousin Clem.
- Mama Bear: Rose can be this, and was transformed into one at least once when Pasquale was threatened.
- Messy Hair: Clem has a tall head of curls.
- Self-Inflicted Hell: Downplayed. Whenever Rose is angry with Jimbo, she imagines she has locked herself in a Dungeon of Resentment.
- Sleep Mode Size: Pasquale's guardian angel, who looks like him, is usually small and innocuous... until something threatens Pasqaule.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: At the very far end of the idealistic side.
- Snowball Fight: Usually involving Clem, who hogs all the snowballs.
- Sugar Bowl: While technically set in our world, nothing truly bad happens to anyone, and no dark subjects are ever broached.
- Winged Humanoid: The usual form of Pasquale's guardian angel.