"Potatoes produce a toxin when they get old, spend time in the light or suffer physical damage. The built-up toxin turns them green. After that they will mess you up. Pain. Diarrhea. Coma. Death. I was already old. Today was the most sunlight I've seen in years. Now this knob is set on beating me? I dunno about the potato... But I'm feelin' green as hell."
— Zukah, Zukahnaut Chapter Three, page 7.
Zukahnaut is a Canadian action/adventure webcomic by Otty Justason and Sonya Somers. It follows an alien recluse who decides to give living out in the open a shot. After over 50 years of skulking out of sight on Earth, Zukah is lonely, rude, out of shape, and out of his mind... but he's working on it.
The world Zukah joins turns out to be more accepting of a huge green alien than he anticipates, thanks to a recent development known as Portals. These Portals are opening, apparently at random, all over the world and spitting out people and things from what appear to be parallel universes. Zukah gets sucked into this mystery alongside the likes of Darius Douglas (a scrubby and good-hearted Action Social Worker) and Darius' sister Daphne (a veterinarian-turned-sawbones) as they face monkey centaurs, goat men, cyclops giants, sea orcs and immortal vikings.
The webcomic is published weekly here
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This webcomic contains examples of:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Zukah, while in the body of the Atlantean King, appears to be enjoying his power a little too much.
- After-Action Patch-Up: One of the comic's protagonists is introduced when Zukah seeks help mending a wound.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Zukah isn't generally that bright to begin with, but once booze is added to the equation there's no telling what kind of bad decisions will be made.
- Atlantis: When Zukah discovers that he's now the ruler of an undersea kingdom, he immediately renames it Atlantis.
- Big Fun: Zukah is big, fat, and quite affable despite everything.
- Car Cushion: After getting punted into the air for an entire scene, Zukah returns to Earth with nothing worse for the wear except for the truck he lands on.
- Classical Anti-Hero: Zukah definitely fits this profile.
- Colossus Climb: Hrothgar tends to climb larger opponents to get his shots in, such as Zukah and the squid-faced giant.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Zukah versus the warring factions of goat-men and monkey-centaurs.
- Curse Cut Short: Zukah has a habit of talking over Darius, sometimes cutting off curses.
- Death by Origin Story: Hrothgar's origin features not just his father's death, but his own as well.
- Dog Pile of Doom: The Gelthir and the Kongohl perform this against Zukah.
- Extreme Omnivore: Zukah manages to eat a phone.
- Fish People : Zwendelaar, Setanta, and their subjects.
- Good Samaritan: Darius just wants to help the Displaced people find their place in the world.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Zukah's fuse is rather short.
- Healing Factor: Hrothgar recovers from any injury as though he is still in Valhalla.
- Heroes Fight Barehanded: Zukah shouts down Darius when he offers to help against Hrothgar. For his part, Hrothgar doesn't use his axe.
- Hollywood Fire: When a bar fight turns conflagratory, the flames hang back from the action to serve as little more than set dressing.
- Hollywood Healing: Once dressed, injuries seem to be given little further acknowledgement.
- Horny Vikings: Hrothgar the Faceless
- Impressive Pyrotechnics: Somehow Zukah seems to have the ability to make vegetables explode in magnificent fireballs.
- Kevlard: In chapter 1, Zukah survives a hail of small arms fire when the bullets simply bounce off his rotund body.
- Large Ham: Zukah, emphasized by the large red letters in his word balloons.
- Mission Briefing: Detective Killigan fills Darius in when they arrive on the scene of their first job.
- Never Mess with Granny: No matter how dangerous the world becomes around her, Darius and Daphne's Nanma lives without fear.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: Hrothgar takes an exploding potato to the face (erm, mask) without anything more serious than singed hair and cloak to show for it.
- Pointy Ears: One of Zukah's features.
- Punched Across the Room: After handily wiping the floor with his opponents early on, Zukah is later tossed around with ease by Hrothgar and the squid-faced giant.
- Soft Glass: The climax of Hrothgar vs. Zukah makes use of this trope.
- Space Marine: Zukah's one-page origin reveals that he was once a space marine.
- There Was a Door: Instead of walking the extra three steps around a corner, Zukah punches a hole in the wall in order to reach his ringing phone.
- This Is My Boomstick: Largely played straight at the true end of the conflict between the goat men and the monkey centaurs when Darius, under threat by the groups he's been trying to talk down, breaks a primitive spear by putting a bullet through it. Though it could be considered inverted in so far as the native, Darius, is the one with the higher technology. Darius then explains the situation completely to make it clear to the two sides. As Darius points out, the trope is justified in so far as many individuals and groups are technologically behind (though they may have magic or other advantages).
- Before giving the speech he actually uses, Darius gives a Shout-Out to Army of Darkness, "Man I wish I knew the boom-stick speech by heart..."
- Three-Point Landing: Hrothgar lands picture-perfectly after Zukah sends them both through a plate glass window.
- Time for Plan B: When Zukah realizes that punches aren't getting him anywhere, his next instinct is to blow stuff up.
- Uncertain Doom: The bar fight between Zukah and Hrothgar ends this way.
- Underwater City: Zukah finds himself first imprisoned in, then ruling over, an entire undersea kingdom after some body-swapping shenanigans with its leader.
