From left: The Professor, The College President, Melanie, Beady, Sneaky, Edna - The Librarian, Dave the Liar, Bree Lee, The Bookwyrm
Comic Strip Info:
Hey, Professor features the adventures of a college professor with unconventional ways and a penchant for odd inventions. It appeared weekly from 1999-2001 in The Signal, The College of New Jersey's newspaper. Below is the complete run of the strip, although I've contemplated bringing it to life again in some form. Stay tuned. Feb. 02, 2002 marks the last update of this page, as all of the comic strips are up and a new look is in place. Please enjoy the archive. If you've read through the comics and feel up to giving me your review, I'd love to read it (e-mail above).
Note: To avoid Geocities' annoying bandwith limitations that don't even allow one person to look at all the comic strips here in one sitting, you can check out the mirror of this site over at DetectiveFork.com, the page for my other and current comic strip.
Characters:
THE PROFESSOR:
Although he teaches scattered science courses, The Professor is really at the college to have free reign of the labs. No corner of the school is safe from his experiments, be they people made of lunchmeat or various exploding things. He is not afraid to use peers and students as test subjects, so it's all great fun in you're not involved. The Professor's greatest success thus far is the creation of Melanie, his android niece. He monitors her progress, but is finding that she has a will of her own. Frankenstein had his Igor and The Professor has The College President. While complaining constantly, the President mysteriously (or stupidly) stays around and that's fine with The Prof. If The Professor accomplishes anything else in his lifetime, he would like it to be the deletion of his library fine. The story behind the fine is long and involved, so suffice it to say that he is convinced of its injustice. If the Librarian won't concede, then he'll be happy to continue their feud into oblivion.
THE COLLEGE PRESIDENT:
Although the brochures say that he runs the college, when The President actually does this is a mystery. He is usually found hanging out with and getting annoyed by The Professor. The President sees himself as a classic American, The Cowboy, and dresses the part. This also means that his morals shift to suit himself and that he has a bad temper. The President sees himself riding off into the sunset with Melanie. He quietly neglects, of course, that she's The Professor's niece, an android and a student at his college.
MELANIE:
The Professor's tinkering produced Melanie, a female android of strong body and mind. To keep her mechanical nature a secret, The Professor claims that she's his niece. Melanie doesn't say much and is prone to having parts of her body pop off at inopportune moments. To test his creation, The Professor introduced her to The College President in hopes of her gaining admittance. Despite a traumatizing accident that occurred during this meeting (which really wasn't good for anybody involved), The President accepted Melanie based on her superhuman athletic prowess (and his own greed/lust/what have you).
BEADY & SNEAKY:
Scooting around every campus corridor are adorable mice. Pets and test subjects of The Professor, the mice find their way into every room (and comic strip). Beady & Sneaky are the most prominent duo, being smarter than the average mice and always engaged in some scheme or another. Extra: Mouse Diagram
EDNA - THE LIBRARIAN:
Edna runs the college library like Hoover ran the FBI. She doesn't take any nonsense, such as The Professor's persistent quest to have his 5 cent fine deleted. The Professor intends to prove to his nemesis that he is right. Edna would rather have him fired, forcing him to be a drunken gutter urchin, and retrieve the 5 cents from his unconscious body. A true gem of a lady.
DAVE THE LIAR:
Poor Dave. He always steps blindly into trouble and seems to have a crush on just about every female at The College (Well, except for Edna.). Dave is a chronic liar and wears his Professor-made helmet to counteract that.
BREE LEE:
Bree is Melanie's sensible roommate and one of the primary doves in Dave's gunsight of love.
THE BOOKWYRM:
Ancient legends tell of a carnivorous, evil creature that lives between the pages of old tomes: The Bookwyrm. The poor soul who opens one of these volumes will find him/herself a meaty snack. Hearing of this, The Professor was impressed. He finally had a way to get that Librarian. Extra Bookwyrm Pic
Strips:
These strips are chronological and tell a pretty complete story. When I drew the fist couple of comics in 1999, little did I know that they would go on to be in about 50 weekly issues of my college paper. I've gone on to other comic strips since Hey, Professor ended, but plan on returning to the "home of the Arizona Polar Bears" at some point. Since these comics are scanned from the original art and not photocopies, a stray pencil mark or three might have squeezed by. My scanner isn't the best, so you also might catch some panels that are a tiny bit crooked. One day I might go back and fix all of that; We'll see. You'll witness changes in the art and style as you read through. While I still have improvements to make as a cartoonist, I do believe that the comics became better over time. I hope you won't hold some of the early shenanigans against me. ;-)
Fall 1999
#1- Electric Shocks | #2- Melanie Meets The College President | #3- Rock Concert At Mousee's | #4- Edna Vs. The Bookwyrm | #5- The President's Golf Cart
#6- Melanie's College Progress | #7- Home For The Holidays
Spring 2000
#8- Creationism | #9- Melanie's Car | #10- Mona Ratza - Part 1 | #11- Mona Ratza - Part 2 | #12- Melanie's Cosmetic Surgery
#13- Return Of The Bookwyrm | #14- Screech | #15- The Mascot | #16- Parking Problems, Solved! | #17- Melanie's New Job
#18- Mouse-terpiece Theatre | #19- The Truth-telling Device (a.k.a. TROUBLE) | #20- Suspended
Color Special #1
Perception Vs. Reality
Fall 2000
#21- Trust Your Professor | #22- Melanie, #84, Running Back | #23- Bright Futures | #24- Melanie's Admirer | #25- That Lunchmeat People Episode
#26- Melanie's Courtship | #27- The Costume Ball | #28- The Salesman | #29- Mealnie Meets The Bookwyrm | #30- Subbing For The Journalism Professor
#31- The College President's Recitation | #32- All The President's Mice | #33- Battle Of The 5 Cent Fine
Spring 2001
#34- The Lesson | #35- Melanie's Dorm | #36- Extra Special | #37- Theme Park Hijinks | #38- Mice-ities
#39- The 5 Cent Fine Story | #40- The Professor Vs. The Bookwyrm | #41- Melanie's Evil Twin | #42- Dave's Trip Home | #43- The College President's Announcement
#44- Dramatization | #45- Preparations & Parties | #46- Raised Her Right | #47- Constants
Sketches:
Peacemakers/Refreshments Comic Strip
Our sponsor, Geocities.
"Hey, Professor," including all of its characters and ideas, is the creation and property of Kevin J. Guhl.
