''Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!'' is a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

retro-futuristic Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipat ...

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

created by Tim Rickard. It chronicles the misadventures of the dim-witted Brewster Rockit, captain of the space station ''R.U. Sirius'', and his crew. Many of the comic's characters and elements are derived from the ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' franchise, American

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

s of the 1950s, and

science fiction comics Publication of comic strips and comic books focusing on science fiction became increasingly common during the early 1930s in newspapers published in the United States. They have since spread to many countries around the world. History The first ...

of the 1940s and 1950s. It debuted on July 5, 2004, and is nationally syndicated by

Tribune Content Agency Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media ...

. The weekday strips usually feature extended serial storylines, often running several weeks at a time. The Sunday strips are stand-alone, self-contained gags which are often more elaborately illustrated and action-oriented than the dailies, and are sometimes presented

in medias res A narrative work beginning ''in medias res'' (, "into the middle of things") opens in the chronological middle of the plot, rather than at the beginning (cf. '' ab ovo'', '' ab initio''). Often, exposition is initially bypassed, instead filled i ...

style. The comic's humor includes satire, metahumor,

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such as ...

dark humor Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

running gags A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not ...

word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, ph ...

, and

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

Plot

The ''R.U. Sirius'' is a space station orbiting Earth that acts as both an embassy for visiting aliens as well as a first line of defense against hostile aliens. Its mission statement is (probably) "Try not to die a horrible death." The comic's storylines are often obvious parodies of well-known science fiction and fantasy movies, television series, and books, as well as current events and contemporary pop culture, with Brewster and his crew typically coming out victorious over the countless evil villains they face.

Main characters

*Captain Brewster Rockit: The lantern-jawed and squinty-eyed captain of the ''R.U. Sirius''. He is brave, optimistic... and dumb as a rock. His strong leadership skills are complemented by a boyish sense of humor (and childlike mindset). He graduated from the

Air Force Academy An air force academy or air academy is a national institution that provides initial officer training, possibly including undergraduate level education, to air force officer cadets who are preparing to be commissioned officers in a national air forc ...

and then served in

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

as a

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

pilot. However, he failed his intelligence exam because he kept eating the pencils. He originally had the intelligence of an average person, but excessive memory wipes from

alien abduction Alien abduction (also called abduction phenomenon, alien abduction syndrome, or UFO abduction) refers to the phenomenon of people reporting what they assure to be the real experience of being kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings and subje ...

s caused him to lose it. According to Pam, he has an obsession with ham. *Lieutenant Pamela Mae Snap: The tough and pragmatic second-in-command aboard the ''R.U. Sirius'', Pam is usually the one responsible for keeping things running, despite the collective idiocy of her shipmates. She sometimes has a hot temper and an attitude that gets her into trouble. She is also the mother of two young kids from a bad marriage that she doesn't talk about. She has shown to have a "thing" for bad boys, having dated Dirk Raider, Brewster's nemesis, as well as Karnor. She enjoys killing things. *Dr. Mel Practice: The station's conniving science officer (and

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insanity, insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabas ...

, though he prefers the term, "sanity-challenged scientist"). He often creates monsters and machines (killbots), but inevitably fails in his plans to conquer the universe. One of his craziest inventions was a "

Procrastination Procrastination is the act of unnecessarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there could be negative consequences for doing so. It is a common human experience involving delays in everyday chores or even putting off tasks such ...

Ray", which sent troublesome objects into the future, so one would have no choice but to deal with them later. He is bald and wears a white lab coat, black gloves, and spectacles. Dr. Mell is based on Dr. Sivana of the Captain Marvel strips. He also sometimes acts as presenter for factual topics, such as the 2024 solar eclipsebr>
*Cliff Clewless: The station's engineer - a position for which he is completely unqualified. He got his position through his computer-hacking abilities by hacking into

's computer and upgrading himself from "programmer" to "engineer". He believes himself to be popular with the ladies. He is fat and is invariably shown sporting a cap and sunglasses. *Winky: A bright-eyed but hapless child crew member and assistant to Dr. Mel. He is often stuck with the nastiest or most dangerous tasks. His resulting injuries commonly leave him uttering some variation of the phrase, "AHHHH! MY spleen, SPLEEN!" He also is quite often attacked by angry badgers, usually accidentally released by Dr. Mel. Revealed in a series of 2020 strips, Winky is actually a clone of one of the Ensign Kennys.

Other characters

*Agent X: A mysterious government agent from the Department of the Paranormal. His job is to seek out the truth about aliens, then cover it up. The ''R.U. Sirius'' was his idea. *Pal 8000: A

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

creation of Dr. Mel who views him as a father figure. He regulates the station's life-support systems and is a bit immature, throwing juvenile tantrums when he doesn't get his way. He wants to participate in human activities such as

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

biking Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

—despite being a three-

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

computer. A parody of

HAL 9000 HAL 9000 (or simply HAL or Hal) is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in the '' Space Odyssey'' series. First appearing in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', HAL ( Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic C ...

from '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. *Bucky the Robot: A "

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

" who, as is often pointed out by Pam and Dr. Mel in vain, is merely a "''

bucket A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical Cylinder (geometry), cylinder or Truncation (geometry), truncated Cone (geometry), cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom that is attached to a semicircular carrying handle (grip), handle ...

'' on a ''coat rack''!" Built by Cliff at the request of Brewster on the comic's second day, he sports an unvarying smiling face. He is a recipient of a worker of the year award for the R.U. Sirius. He also got the same score on the intelligence exam as Brewster. He once won an election against him to become captain, not to mention when he won the Presidential Galactic Election. *Oldbot: An aging robot with a failing

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

. Originally shaped as the B-9 Robot from ''

Lost in Space ''Lost in Space'' is an American science fiction television series created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. Lightly dramatic, sometimes comedic in tone, the series was inspired by the 1812 J ...

'', its appearance was changed due to legal liabilities. *Dirk Raider: A parody of

Darth Vader Darth Vader () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was first introduced in the original film trilogy as the primary antagonist and one of the leaders of the Galactic Empire. He has become one of the most iconic villain ...

and commander of a planet-destroying "Death-Ship." His armor resembles that of a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

. Once an apprentice of Brewster's in the order of "Goodguy Knights," Dirk is now his arch rival and member of the

evil corporation An evil corporation ignores social responsibility, morality, ethics, and sometimes laws in order to make profit for its shareholders. In rare cases, the corporation may be well intentioned but extremist, engaging in noble cause corruption. In ...

"Microsith," which is currently known as "Numesis". *Stormtroopers: Dirk Raider's army, they are parodies of Star Wars'

stormtroopers Stormtrooper or storm trooper may refer to: Military *Stormtroopers (Imperial Germany), specialist soldier of the German Army in World War I *''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) or Storm Detachment, a paramilitary organization of the German Nazi Party * 8th I ...

. A recurring gag is their tendency to be poor shots; one missed shooting Brewster several times, even though he was trapped in a pit. *Karnor: A visiting alien that has a bad habit of eating people. He is tall, green, and has a crush on Pam. He is king of the Zorgons. *Cosmicus: A character that eats planets. A parody of the colossal entity

Galactus Galactus () is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Formerly a mortal man, he is a cosmic entity who consumes planets to sustain his life force, and serves a functional role in the upkeep of the p ...

, of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. He has also appeared in the comic strip '' Watch Your Head''. He has a cousin named Morty. *Philbert: Cliff's son, the result of Cliff's impregnation of an alien (reminiscent of the space creature in the '' Alien'' series). Philbert now lives somewhere in the air ducts. *Ursula: A hairless female from

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

. She and Pam don't get along. She is a

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

for Dirk Raider. Pam knows this but cannot convince the other crew members. *Enigmo: An all-powerful, but gullible, purple floating head in space. His attempts to enslave Brewster and his crew often end up futile. *Ensign Kenny: A name given to various extremely unlucky human crew members, who are constantly dying on missions. A parody both of the red-shirted security crewmen in the original

and of

Kenny Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names. In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant of Cionnaith". ...

in ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

''. *Mosage: A 'wise alien' philosopher and a member of a race of Chameleons, who are supposed to be able to change their color to match their surroundings. However, they are not able to (which has led to near-extinction on their part). *Toada: A parody of

Yoda Yoda () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is a small, green humanoid alien who is powerful with the Force. He first appeared in the 1980 film '' The Empire Strikes Back'', in which he is voiced and puppeteered by F ...

, this

toad Toad (also known as a hoptoad) is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. In popular culture (folk taxonomy ...

-faced alien dispenses wisdom to the crew of the ''R.U. Sirius'' while adding his own cynical twist to it. He is a master on the Good-guy Knights council. *Ted the Observer: Leader of the Observers. A parody of Uatu the Watcher of Marvel comics. *Marie and Albert: Pam's kids, often referenced but not seen until 2014. They have demonstrated themselves to be geniuses, such as the time when Marie deactivated the R. U. Sirius's self-destruct sequence, but they are irresponsible and often try Pam's nerves. Marie is especially mischievous while Albert is often depressed with how everything will end eventually.

Races

*Humans: Residents of earth, whom Agent X is always trying to keep ignorant of the existence of aliens (despite alien attacks on New York and other major cities). *Zomulans: Oblong-headed abductors from another planet. They once captured Brewster and put him in an arena with a very large crab-creature. They also bought Earth once and tried to repopulate it with giant space bears. *Zorgons: Human-eating aliens of whom Karnor is the king. Agent X introduced 'I Can't Believe It's Not Humans', a non-violent food source to them, so that they would stop their carnivorous ways. *Dorkons: Aliens who say, in reference to their "goofy outfits", "We may be light-years ahead of you in technology, but we're decades behind you in fashion." They tried to sell

cookbooks A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cours ...

recipes A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe. Recip ...

using humans to the Zorgons. *Donut People: A race of aliens shaped like donuts. They are edible. They come from Torus 8 as a reference to their shape. One of them is named "Duncan". *Uranians: A race from

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

who are always the "butt" of jokes (both in the figurative and literal sense, as most of the jokes relate to the butt, a fact that they are not happy about, especially O-Dor of Uranus). *Saturnians: Inhabitants of

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

who once won the moon in a

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

game with Cliff. *Insectoids: Insect-like aliens who consistently rotate between making war and peace on the R.U. Sirius. *Observers: Ancient and wise aliens from Limbo who record all that goes on in the Universe.

First collection

A book of collected ''Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!'' comic strips was released on April 1, 2007 by

Andrews McMeel Publishing Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (formerly Andrews, McMeel and Parker (1975–1986) and Andrews and McMeel (1986–1997)) is a company that publishes books, calendars, and related toys. It is a part of Andrews McMeel Universal, which comprises A ...

, with the subtitle ''Close Encounters of the Worst Kind''. It compiles roughly forty weeks of the strip, with all of them printed in full color. The featured storylines include parodies of the first ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...

'', ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'', and '' Alien'' movies, and a combination of ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'' and ''

The Wizard of Oz ''The Wizard of Oz'' is a 1939 American Musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Based on the 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left pro ...

''. A

foreword A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between th ...

is provided by

Stephan Pastis Stephan Thomas Pastis ( ; born January 16, 1968) is an American cartoonist and former lawyer who is the creator of the comic strip '' Pearls Before Swine''. He also writes children's books, commencing with the release of ''Timmy Failure: Mistake ...

, creator of ''

Pearls Before Swine A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

''. As of 2025 this is the only Brewster Rockit book collection.

Notes

External links

Official Website

Comics Page: Brewster Rockit

About the Author
{{Tribune Content Agency comics 2004 comics debuts Satirical comics Science fiction comic strips Comics set in outer space Gag-a-day comics American black comedy comics Metafictional comics GoComics Retrofuturism Comic strips syndicated by Tribune Content Agency