Pokey the Penguin is a surrealistic online comic strip, which began in 1998 and continues to be updated (albeit sporadically) to this day. The individual strips have little or no apparent logic on first glance, are filled with apparent corrections (crossed-out words, occasionally images scribbled over), and lack of evident punch lines. All the same, they exhibit the glimmerings of plots and strange connections between things. The art has been described as resembling "the drawings of a four-year-old with a short attention span and poor motor control"; the dialogue, by contrast, has a peculiarly knowing and subtle air about it, despite the fact that it is delivered entirely in italicized capitals with multiple exclamation marks. Pokey's fans persistently see it as a work of genius; in any case, "HERE ON RUM ISLAND WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN RUM!" and "IN MEAT-SPACE, EVERYONE IS YOUR FRIEND!!!" are unlikely to be the work of a four-year old. An interesting expression introduced in the comic is "Chicago-style", a term used in the strip meaning to do something without pants. The comic is produced, intermittently, by web developer Steve Havelka of Portland, Oregon who, to this day, is only identified on the page as "THE AUTHORS."

A typical panel in a Pokey strip, featuring the Little Girl and Pokey.

Characters

The characters are as innumerable as the plots are inscrutable. The mainstays are:

• Pokey the Penguin
• Mr. Nutty, a British capitalistic alcoholic snowman
• A young female penguin, variously identified as "Small Child" or "Little Girl," who is apparently Pokey's sister
• Skeptopotamus, a skeptic who is apparently not related to the race "hippopotamus"
• Headcheese, a French-Canadian female penguin, with whom Pokey has some kind of love/hate relationship
• Gustavo, a potato chip-shaped character whose long moustaches, named "Democracy" and "Stalin", can be moved individually like arms
• The devil (who looks like a red, horned penguin)
• A boxing glove (purportedly possessed by the devil)
• The Italians, who are Pokey's enemies because they want to steal his "arctic circle-candy"

Minor characters

Minor characters, who appear in only one or two comics, include:

• Rick Wallace
• Batman (looks exactly like Pokey)
• Superman (looks exactly like Pokey with a cape)
• Stephen Hawking (looks exactly like Pokey with a pointed wizard hat)
• Chicken Delicious
• Chicken Adventurous
• Chicken Reliable
• Yekop and Mr. Yttun, from a parallel universe
• Pokeyzilla
• A Bear
• Old Man Nutty
• General Nutty
• The Nostrapotamus
• Nutty Ray Charles
• The Bobdole
• Rip van Pokey
• Pokey Hood
• Edward the Confessor
• The pope (ostensibly Pope John Paul II)
• The Governor
• William Shakespeare
• Santa Claus
• Robotic Wilford Brimley
• God
• The Wizard Oberon
• Pokey and Little Girl's mother and two brothers (Pesky and Sudsy)
• Def Leppard
• The nun from The Blues Brothers

and many more...

Guest artists

The occasional "guest artists" are:

• The ghost of Claude Monet
• The town council of Hamburg, Germany
• The Communist nation of Laos
• William Gibson
• Mary Lou Retton

External links

• Pokey the Penguin official website
• Pokey the Penguin Information Site
• Pokey The Penguin: A Beginners Guide - Something Awful article on Pokey
• Pokey the Penguin bootlegs by the "FBI" (Andrew Clover)