What would Fat Week be without an entry about Herbie Popnecker? Pretty slim, I'd say.

If you haven't read the Darkhorse Herbie Archives that chronicle the meger twenty or so brilliant issues of Herbie—get on it! This comic is phat! Large! A HUGE SUCCESS! Ok, I'm done.

But seriously, Herbie is absurd and surreal, with laugh-out-loud hilarious moments. And the pristine silver age art just adds to the strangeness of it. Such weird and wonderful stuff.

If you're not familiar with Herbie Popnecker, I'm going to provide a pictoral tour through Herbie Archives volume 2 ('cause that's the one I have on hand), so you can get to know him. If you are familiar with Herbie, feel free to post your favourite Herbie memories or your Herbie fanfic.

So, Herbie:

Herbie is more hip than happy. And by, "hip" I mean, "fat."

He speaks in a curt monotone, like he just can't be bothered to use articles when he says anything.

This is one of the reasons why Dave came to the conclusion that Herbie may have been Alan Moore's inspiration for Rorschach. Herbie is a sort of anti-hero, an abrasive, sardonic fat kid, who you eventually can't help but root for.

He's inexplicably famous, he can time travel, and every woman alive is voraciously attracted to him.

His Dad's a total dick, but that don't bother Herbie none.

But the best part is, Herbie is unapologetically fat. He loves his lollies and feels no shame about it.

Herbie's no yo-yo dieting Kirstie Alley.

Dude calls his superhero alter ego THE FAT FURY! That's some serious plump pride.

One time, Herbie went to Canada, and it was possibly less confusing than when the Archies did. It also resulted in this panel:

In honour of Fat Week, I'll leave you with a montage of Herbie getting some serious play.

P.S. Living Between Wednesdays contest: the first person to get this tattoo...

...wins my undying love and respect.

I’ve been reading Dark Horse’s Herbie Archives recently, which collect the exploits of lollipop-sucking, time-traveling weirdo kid Herbie Popnecker. It’s pretty strange stuff—the so-called “Fat Fury” is seemingly omnipotent and indestructible, not to mention irresistible to any number of beautiful ladies. Herbie travels to other planets, rubs elbows with Gregory Peck and Santa Claus, and helps Christopher Columbus discover America. The whole thing is made even more bizarre by Ogden Whitney’s classic illustrative style, which is kind of at odds with how wacky the stories are. Alan Moore is reportedly a huge fan of the series, and much has been made of the fact that both Herbie and Watchmen protagonist Rorschach share a similar speech pattern, a sort of lazy, disaffected monotone where they skip lots of words. However, I submit to you that the two characters have several more traits in common as well. For instance, both subscribe to a similarly unapologetic, uncompromising personal ethic: