Mr. Boop, the psychosexual webcomic that is a scathing critique of copyright

Filed under:It’s also about being married to Betty BoopYou can’t summarize the webcomic Mr. Boop better than its first panel, which emerged out of what felt like the raging id of the internet on February 28, 2020. Over 216 comic strips, several videos, and one alarming free-to-play visual novel, Robbins — a writer and comedian whose credits include stints on I Think You Should Leave and The Eric Andre Show — starts with a goof about a guy who’s married to Betty Boop and steers it into a hilarious, sometimes existentially troubling interrogation of what’s fascinating about fandoms and dumb about copyright law.Though Mr. Boop’s initial appeal was directly tied to the internet — new strips debuted on Robbins’ Twitter feed, where the entire thing can still be read for free — the comic has a different kind of weight in Silver Sprocket’s lavish new hardbound edition, which also collects a series of guest strips and cleverly adapts the original video ending for the written page. Alec Robbins is here to answer a few of them:Of all the fictional characters you could have internet-married, why Betty Boop?It was never anything else. And from that, I was inspired to tweet, every once in a while, something like, “Damn… Betty Boop’s really hot.” I just loved the thought of this character who was so uniquely designed to be a sex symbol but is now especially remembered by, like, grandmothers.So how did that inside joke morph into this psychosexual webcomic?I drew a sketch, once, just to make my friend laugh. It’s a very valid critique of that world.The ending really dips into all-out horror — right down to a video finale that incorporates the End of Evangelion song “Komm, süsser Tod.” How did you decide when and how to wrap the comic up?There were a few drawings that I changed because I was like, “This is making me uncomfortable.” I have the most reservations about Book 4.