The plot: anthropology professor/adventurer Cliff Carlson had been cursed by a vengeful Witch Doctor named Jumballah, turning Cliff into... a duck.
That's right.
A duck.
Joined by his assistant Raquel deFoyernote and undergraduate intern Mick Moss, Cliff must seek out the legendary Eye of Mongombo while struggling against various antagonists such as his hostile ex-boss Norbert Nuskle (who stole Cliff's map to the Temple of Mongombo) and Hans Weltschmertz Gruber with his minions Boris and Kawliga. Also involved are a woman called Naomi who calls herself Yolanda who seeks to have Nuskle’s prize, drug dealer El Sapo, who joins Gruber, and MI6 agent Montgomery Hill.
Most of the time, it's Played for Laughs.
While the original comic, published by Fantagraphics, wound up being cancelled at issue 7, it has been revived in 2020 as a three-part graphic novel.
The revived series can be found online here
.
Tropes include:
- Action Girl: Raquel is a skilled mercenary whose skills have saved Cliff's ass in the past.
- Bald of Evil: Gruber is a rotten scumbag while Nuskle is just a Jerkass. Neither one of them has any hair.
- Bilingual Bonus: El Sapo translates to "The Toad".
- Butt-Monkey: While many of the characters can be this, poor Mick gets this the most.
- Covers Always Lie:The cover for Issue Two of the original series has Cliff facing a bunch of mimes. Such confrontation does not occur at all inside.
- Delayed Reaction: Boswick, Nuskle's brother-in-law tends to behave this way. See The Ditz below.
- The Ditz: Boswick is, shall we say, slow. It takes him roughly ten seconds to react or answer someone.
- Expy: Cliff is basically Indiana Jones as a duck.
- Agent Montgomery Hill is this to 007 in a rather broad sense.
- Eyes Always Shut: Cliff rarely opens his eyes. Gruber's henchman Kawliga as well.
- The Faceless: We never see Jumballah's face.
- Femme Fatale: Naomi aka Yolanda is stringing Nuskle along while she seeks his stolen map.
- Forced Transformation: Cliff ends up in the form of a duck.
- Henpecked Husband: Nuskle's wife is extremely abusive of him.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Nuskle actually believes the drug plantation he's in is just an ordinary farm. He also believes anything Naomi/Yolanda tells him.
- Jerkass: Nuskle is a spiteful sort who fires Cliff then steals his map in the first issue. Cliff is this as well, sometimes going into
Jerkass Woobie mode. - Lantern Jaw of Justice: Whether as a human or a duck, Cliff always has a strong jawline.
- Macguffin: The titular Eye of Mongombo.
- Maniac Monkeys: Gruber's chimpanzee Boris does Grubber’s bidding for Nutter-Butters.
- Manly Man: Even as a duck, Cliff has a tough attitude.
- Naïve Newcomer: Mick is too wide eyed and disingenuous when dealing with the things Cliff deals with.
- Never Found the Body: Jumballah falls down an elevator shaft in Issue 1. Nobody knows whether he is really IS dead or not.
- Quacking Up: Nothing has been the same for Cliff since he became a duck.
- Shout-Out:
- Two of El Sapo's henchmen are modeled after Charlie Brown and Linus Van Pelt.
- Nuskle's three sons are called Moe, Ollie and Chico.
- Kawliga’s name comes from the title of a song by Hank Williams.
- The Voiceless: Kawliga thus far has not uttered a single word.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Gruber is described as a "Greedy Nazi".
- You No Take Candle: Jumballah talks like this.
