Webcomic / Fanboys

Sylvia consults dark spirits for gaming skills.

F@NB0Y$ is a web comic by Scott Dewitt that ran from 2006-2015. While its website hasn't been online since 2020, Its strips can still be viewed on the Internet Archive or here. The comic is centered on two fanboys and one fangirl, each rooting for their own company.

• Lemmy, the Nintendo fan. The Ditz of the team. Don't call Nintendo kiddy in his vicinity.
• Paul, the Sony fan. Unemployed -for a while- snarker of the team. Previous Sega fanboy and childhood friend of Lemmy.
• Sylvia, the Microsoft/Xbox fan. Never handled a console before the Xbox, came out of nowhere in the second episode but found a place in Lemmy's heart quite soon.

The main characters are supported by their somewhat quirky pets/friends/furniture and run into some well known individuals from time to time.

Aside from the adventures of the cast itself, the comic goes off into game themed episodes from time to time, spoofing the more ridiculous aspects of the games mentioned and heading off into Nightmare Fuel territory more often than not.

The comic is very conscious about itself, regularly smashing through the fourth-wall, especially during the first few dozen of episodes.The comic basically takes the familiar videogame-styled web comic, blatantly ripping off ideas from other comics, comments about the lack of originality and then proceeds to fly off into one situation to another.

The comic is mixed between a soapy overall story arc — sometimes alluded to — and a lot of one off comics commenting about (upcoming) changes in the videogame industry.

Not to be confused with the movie Fanboys. For the similarly named trope, see Fanboy.

Note: most of the links below are broken, as the website has, at some point, changed providers, and eventually was taken offline for reasons unknown. Feel free to link the appropriate strips to archived pages.

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This comic provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: "THEY GOT TO THE BANK; THE END."
  • Under Review abruptly ended soon after the critic arrived at the store.
• Appliance Defenestration: A certain show puts Paul in a fit of rage.
• Art Evolution: Went through a drastic one after the comic was criticized on Something Awful.
• Author Appeal: Scott has made it very clear that he likes his Team Fortress 2.
• Back to Front: See the comic above by Appliance Defenestration.
• Berserk Button: Lemmy goes into "Angry Clown Mode" when someone calls Nintendo "kiddy." Paul uses this to get bounty money.
• Bile Fascination: Conversed In-Universe in this strip.
• Brain Bleach: A running gag involves Paul walking into the house to find Lemmy and Sylvia participating in questionable acts dressed as different fictional characters, usually from videogames.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The author tried this when people on Something Awful mocked his comic for being too generic. The ensuing Wangst that the characters displayed pissed everybody else on the Internet off, and he decided to come to hit a happy medium between the two afterwards. Strip 200 also lampshades this.
• Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: Played for laughs in a WoW joke.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: Sylvia.
  • Inverted in a Banjo-Kazooie strip where Banjo & Kazooie cosplay as Lemmy & Sylvia, with Mumbo Jumbo taking Paul's place.
• Demoted to Extra: Chess and Will. Lampshaded when Will returns and Lemmy doesn't remember him.
• Description Cut: Sylvia tries The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
  Sylvia: This game is going to suck. Hard.
  ...
  Lemmy: Sylvia, it's three in the morning. I think it's time to shut off the Wii and sleep.
  Sylvia: Just one more... dungeon...
• Don't Fear the Reaper: He's actually pretty chill. Apart from having a twisted sense of humor, that is.
• Eye Scream: The perils of ice cream shaped like faces.
• Fan Disservice: Paul challenges Sylvia to Pokémon Black and White, dressed as the female trainer. Hairy legs and Daisy Dukes do not mix.
• Fanservice: Sylvia cosplaying Midna. It looks like she doesn't wear any clothes, just bodypainting. She also wears a skintight Zero Suit Samus-Costume in one Halloween strip and there is a Beach Arc.
• Five-Token Band: Parodied here.
• The Grim Reaper: He enjoys pool and is bribed by Paul.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Paul is not amused.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Paul. More jerk and less gold most of the time, but recently seems to be showing some heart.
• Just One More Level!: In-universe with Sylvia playing The Legend of Zelda games for the first time.
• Lucky Charms Title: F@NB0Y$
• Noodle Incident: Paul shows Lemmy and Sylvia the night of their lives when Lemmy wins ten thousand dollars. This is the aftermath.
• Oral Fixation: Paul is pretty much never seen without a cigarette.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: This Team Fortress 2 parody.
• Pink Means Feminine: Sylvia has several pink items of clothing.
• Power Trio: Lemmy's the id, Paul's the superego, and Sylvia's the ego.
  • Lemmy and Paul often switch back and forth between the id and superego roles depending on which is funnier.
• "Rashomon"-Style: Compare these.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Paul and Lemmy are bronies.
  • When he's not wearing two giant demon's tusks as a shirt, Garrosh Hellscream wears a pink bathrobe and pajamas.
• Recycled In Space, "Freaky Friday" Flip, Spinoff Babies: Parodied in "Popular Trends."
• Running Gag:
  • Lemmy and Sylvia getting caught cosplaying by Paul and his subsequent trauma.
  • Creepy Mario randomly showing up and staring.
• Self-Deprecation: This comic indulges in it quite a bit.
• Shout-Out: Death's cat, Marvin, who was shot in the face.
  • Hell, there are a bunch of little ones you can find if you look real closely, including the hidden Homestar Runner cameos.
  • Look closely in the background, and you'll see someone from another videogame webcomic...
  • From the same webcomic, has a hobo but is not that hobo, instead has an animal from the webcomic.
• Shower of Angst: Which turns quickly into a Shower of Love.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: All the time.
• Smoking Is Cool: Paul.
• Supreme Chef: Turns out Lemmy can cook.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: Lemmy and Sylvia are going through his old Nintendo Power collection, and finds the fold out posters it used to have; Paul walks in and it looks like they're looking at a porn magazine. Lemmy realizes what Paul is thinking and tells him that it's Sonic The Hedgehog. At first Paul thought it was odd, but that creeps him out.
• Take That!: A comic mocking the idea of a "dark, epic" Spyro game segues into a Rugrats joke, but not before taking a shot at an infamous Ctrl+Alt+Del panel.
• Testosterone Poisoning: The TESTOSTER-PHONE. Running on MANDROID.
• Visual Pun: A shameless plug.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: When Paul accidentally steps on a Halloween pumpkin, he sets up a few more pumpkins and creates a scene depicting the aftermath of Mario stomping a goomba.
• Women Are Wiser: Gender-inversion with lampshade:
  Paul: You know, it's usually the girl who proves the guy wrong.
  Sylvia: Bite me, Paul.
• Worth It: The above-mentioned Noodle Incident.

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