A comic series about three Britons who come to America, and end up regretting it for the rest of their lives.
Since its inception the series has undergone a complete overhaul and given a loose plot. The series likes to avoid Status Quo Is God as much as possible.
The series starts in London, England in 1976. The Browning family, consisting of 12-year-old Shaun and 10-year-old Graeme, as well as their depressed father Francis, lose their home and their matriarch, Maria, to foreclosure and cancer, respectively. After a brief stay in Croydon, they move to the city of South Falls, Florida, and begin a life that's not all that much better.
Then it GETS better.
Fast-forward to 2010. Shaun, now 46, has become a well-respected archaeologist and linguist, and has been married for 26 years to Evelyn Rhodes, a formerly homeless Frenchwoman, and travels the world incessantly. Graeme, 44, has purchased an dingy apartment and has been married for 15 years to Holly Eastings, then divorces her when she turns out to be his long-lost sister. Francis remains a homeless old man who doesn't want to be happy, refusing to let his sons help him.
Eventually, the local police force stages a coup and overhtrows the mayor, effectively putting everyone in town who isn't considered important on lockdown. Chief-of-Police and now King of the newly-renamed "New Tenochtitlan" James Barnaby is quite corrupt, unfortunately for everyone.
So maybe it doesn't get better after all.
This Work Contains Non-Alphabetized Examples of:
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Shaun. Francis used to be one, but now he's a Depressed Homeless Guy, which should be a trope...
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Graeme is worse than an idiot. He's an idiot with his own sense of "logic".
- Dreams recurringly about a nightclub with no doors out, an infinite bar, the same song repeating over and over again ad naseum, dim, red lighting and a population of naked androids armed to the teeth with rocket launchers. But don't worry, they protect you.
- Milkat Jones is EVEN WORSE. He's got all of Graeme's problems, plus he tends to go insane with conspiracy plots from time to time over the stupidest things.
- "The leaves are falling! It must be the machinations of Tree Emperor! Shaun, we need to stop him!"
- Homage: To Inception, when Shaun enters Graeme's dream, though it is purely accidental.
- Gratuitous Italian: A running gag is whenever Shaun and Giovanni meet up, they speak in Italian until Shaun inevitably accidentally starts speaking Latin.
- Dead Pan Snarker: Evelyn.
- Knight Templar: All of the Templarmasons. They routinely travel the world and murder thieves and innocents alike in order to keep artifacts from being stolen, destroyed, lost, or even tampered with.
- Shaun, mostly.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Accidentally between Graeme and Holly.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Amir and Giovanni die whilst murdering all of Barnaby's offcials with knives.
