Red and Rover is a Slice of Life comic strip written by Brian Bassett that began in May 2000. The comic follows the titular Red and his dog Rover through childhood in the sixties/seventies, showcasing the magic of childhood and the love between a boy and his dog.
Red and Troper:
- A Boy and His X: The entire point of the comic, showing Red and Rover being togegther.
- Adopt the Food: Played with in one Sunday strip. While Red is eating breakfast, Rover asks him if he's going to eat all his "Wally", positing that the owner of the pig must have cared for it like a pet. Too weirded out to eat it, Red gives it to the dog. Then he starts on his eggs and Rover asks him if he's going to eat "Ricky Chicky."
- Balloon Belly: Red is known to binge on Halloween candy every few years. Also, he tried to break his own watermelon-seed-spitting record, and his mom makes great cookies and fudge.
- Big Eater: Rover likes eating food so much that at one point, when he got his head stuck in a tree hollow, the thought of him missing meals caused him to break out on his own.
- Big Friendly Dog: Rover is this to Red, considering his size compared to his kid owner and the many times that he's licked Red's face.
- Comical Nap Drool: In this strip
, Rover is licking Red’s face incessantly, until Red finally tells him to stop, and that his face is plenty wet – in reality, Red has fallen asleep in class, having only dreamt of Rover licking him, and his face is actually wet from lying in a puddle of his own drool. - Counting Sheep: Red, nervous about his upcoming return to school, lies awake. When Rover suggests he count sheep, Red says he tried, and it made things worse. His thought bubble reveals that he imagined drawing sheep on a blackboard, with the teacher telling him he missed one and ordering him to do it over.
- Crash-Into Hello: The two meet one another when Rover tackles Red out of the way of an oncoming truck.
- Danger — Thin Ice: One winter strip has Rover nearly falling afoul of a frozen pond. Red sees the sign in time and tells him that rules like that are never meant to be broken.
- A Dog Ate My Homework: Sometimes Red will coax Rover into eating his homework when he's afraid he'll do badly. One case ended with Red cleaning up the mess after Rover couldn't keep down all the edible bribes.
- Five-Second Rule: Red drops a French fry on the ground but quickly scoops it up, citing the Five Second Rule. His dog Rover replies that he believes in the Five Week Rule.
- Fright-Induced Bunkmate: One strip has Rover claiming to hear thunder and asking if he can sleep with Red. After acquiescing, Red realizes he can't hear any thunder and Rover says it was in his dreams.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Red at one point puts a sweater on Rover, who walks and acts like a regular dog. Rover looks down at his unclothed back half and muses that he feels more naked with the sweater on than with it off.
- Heroic Dog: Not usually, but Rover did meet Red by saving him from an oncoming vehicle.
- Like a Surgeon: This strip has Red playing Operation while wearing a mask and gloves. Unfortunately, performing CPR on the patient doesn't go well...so he switches to being a famous malpractice attorney.
- Limerick: In one strip, Red writes a limerick about a Nantucket dog who loves to dig and gets his coat muddy whenever it rains. He says in satisfaction that that's a dirty limerick.
- Loophole Abuse: Red's mom wordlessly tells Rover to get off the couch. Red (barely visible with the dog on top of him) protests that technically speaking, Rover isn't on the couch.
- Moby Schtick: Parodied with the recurring Moby Tadpole, a giant tadpole that Red and Rover try to catch (but not kill) every summer. Somehow he never turns into a frog, but then this is Comic-Book Time (and it's implied that Moby Tadpole may not even exist).
- Nature Tinkling: In one strip, Red asks Rover to get off his lap so he can go to the bathroom. After a few minutes in the bushes, he's back. He tells Rover that he was trying to avoid his mom giving him chores.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Red's real name is Russell.
- Pinch Me: Red tosses a newspaper and hits the doorbell. Awed, he asks Rover to pinch him so he knows it isn't another dream. Rover asks if a nip will suffice instead.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Red is shown many times to delight in being barefoot in the summer. In one strip, Rover darts up to greet him at the beginning of the summer, knocking Red's shoes and socks off in the process. He then asks Red what he wants to do first. Red's reply is "Trade my shoes and socks for a pair of bare feet." Another time, he strips them off, along with his shirt, to show that "summer is here." He also makes "bare feet" a summer agenda, and in one strip, when he is about to go back to school, he claims in the shoe shop, his new shoes feel odd, which his mum says any shoes would, as he's gone barefoot all summer. The shop worker says he knows a good school in Hawaii, which Red thinks sounds good, but his mum then buys the new shoes.
- Rescue Introduction: Red and Rover met when Rover saved the boy from being hit by a truck. Red took him home, and their friendship began.
- Shout-Out: In one strip, Red comes to check on Rover, who's doing something with a box marked NASA. Rover answers in a Funetik Aksent and Red calls him Mr. Scott.
- Sworn Brothers: Unable to sleep, Rover asks Red if they're as close as Timmy and Lassie. Red says they're even closer, declaring Rover his "cross-species blood brother" because of a time Rover licked his scraped knee.
- Under the Mistletoe: One winter strip features a platonic version; Rover licks Red under the mistletoe.
