"Don't forget that Rock needs to have sex every 24 hours or his head explodes! It's the price he has to pay for his amazing powers!"
Rock Manlyfist is a parodic martial arts comic written and drawn by Johan Wanloo. It's an Affectionate Parody of all the 80's action tropes you can think of, much like an other piece of Swedish Media, only Rock Manlyfist did it first. The eponymous character is a badass from the 80's who is awakened from his suspended animation by the US Government in order to combat North Koreans, Shaolin Satanists, Swedish Neo-Viking Terrorists, Laser Beavers, and more Ninjas than you can throw a Shuriken at. How does he accomplish this? Well, Rock Manlyfist is a master of "Space Karate". An immensely powerful fighting style wich allows him to do literally anything as long as he screams "SPACE KARATEEEE!" at the top of his lungs while doing it. The catch? Well, Rock needs to have sex every 24 hours, or else his head will explode. Bummer.
Originating as an English language Web Comic (since taken down) back in 2010, new adventures with Rock Manlyfist can be read in the Herman Hedning magazine every month (if you're Swedish that is.) The Web Comic can still be read using wayback machine.
TROPE KARATEEEE!!:
- Awesome McCoolname: Rock himself of course. There's also a villain called "Skägg Skinnryggsäck" wich literally means "Beard Leather Backpack".
- Almighty Janitor: Agent Wintersmith used to be Rocks Bash Brother in their "ultra super secret black ops strikeforce" during the 80's, but nowadays he works as a White House janitor. He's also the man responsible for bringing Rock back from his meditation.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Rock's usually allergic to shirts, but sometimes he rocks (no pun intended) the Miami Vice look.
- Bloody Hilarious: Rock regurlarly tears out the brains, lungs and heart of his enemies, in cartoony fashion.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The inhabitants of Dröpplinge, in "The Shadow Over Dröpplinge". Averted when it turns out to be a ruse to lure Manlyfist to them. All they really wanted to do was build a killer robot because they were bored and unemployed. Manlyfist was intended as a guinea pig, they could test it's weapons system on.
- Cannibal Clan: The Ekström family.
- Curbstomp Battle: Pretty much every fight, Rock's involved in.
- The only ones he doesn't win are those where he for some reason is physically unable to say "Space Karate".
- Cool Car: Rock has an awesome Ferrari.
- Cool Plane: He has an awesome stealth bomber, too.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Rocks parents were missionaries who got eaten by Zombies for no apparent reason, kicking of his lifelong hatred of everything evil.
- Fantastic Fighting Style: As said before, Space Karate allows Rock to do ANYTHING within and outside the realm of the possible, if it can aid him in his current situation. For example, in addition to beating an army with his bare hands it can make him an expert at operating a ball grill while drunk.
- It's sometimes implied that Space Karate is more of a metaphysical, divine power, like "the Force" in Star Wars, than it is a martial art.
- Rated M for Manly: SWEET JESUS!
- Expy: Because of the kind of comic it is, this trope is omnipresent. One example is when Rock is trying to infiltrate the dangerous world of "Murder Tennis". In order to do so, he first goes through a number of other, increasingly more ridiculous bloodsports, like "alligator jousting", "bareknuckle boxing", and "deathmatch wrestling in a pool of corrossive acid". His three respective opponents in these fights are Bruiser Brody, Mike Conley (the guy from the
"overly manly man" meme) and Terry Funk. The Final Boss of the Murder Tennis tournament is "the Murderizer Mutant" who is a four armed version of Big Van Vader. - Extreme Omnisexual: Rock needs to get laid every 24 hours or he'll die. However he doesn't necessarily need to have sex with a human, just as long as he gets to penetrate something. A select list of thing that Rock Manlyfist has had sex with includes:
- A crack in the wall.
- A Saxophone.
- A mailbox.
- The fucking Midgard Serpent!
- Allowing himself to be raped by a retarded Expy of Scooby-Doo.
- A vacuum flask filled with the guts of an enemy he just killed.
- When visiting North Korea, Manlyfist ended their famine by impregnating the soil with his semen.
- Training from Hell: Among other things, Rocks Sensei would reenact the "take the pebble from my hand" bit from Kung Fu, with Rocks spleen in place of a pebble.
- Tom the Dark Lord: The leader of the Neo-Vikings is called "Kjell-Åke" (a stereotypical "old mans name" in Sweden.)
- Two-Fisted Tales: An Affectionate Parody.
- The Immodest Orgasm: "AROOOGA!"
- Stout Strength: Rock has obvious love-handles sticking out over the side of his pants. Doesn't make him any less of a badass or less irresistible to the opposite sex, though.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Rock's been injured and the blood is spraying like a waterslide, through an open wound in his stomach:Rock: "I suppose i should do something about this".
- Macho Masochism: ...upon which he stabs himself in the eye with a pencil, to cause himself so much pain that he won't think about how much it hurts to sew his belly up with steel wire.Rock: "I'm so smart!".
- Norse by Norsewest: Rock has a steady sexual relationship with the "president" of Sweden, who of course is a big titted blonde with a horned helmet.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: This is Rocks standard mode of dress, all the time, rain or shine.
- Ludicrous Gibs: This comic is violent as hell.
- Stylistic Suck: Wanloo draws everything in a very minimalist way which is meant to invoke comparison with old Arcade Game sprites. The constant use of a Mr. Exposition narrator is this as well, and is meant to resemble the dialogue in Pulp Literature like The Destroyer and The Executioner
