Choco

From Plastic Tub

In the Fall of 1979, when America's spirits were in a sad lag, a hero appeared; the nation turned towards this hero with upraised arms and giddy smiles.

He was a short fellow made of chocolate. His name was Choco.

Associational Strips and Related Sequentialism

The origin is simple. A small alien probe descends upon earth, dispensing pancakes and sausages to befuddled farmers, nomads, tribesmen and campers. Eventually it falls into the hands of U.S. government agents, who succeed in discovering the probe's mission. In addition to providing the alien race's favorite foods to the Earth-masses, it contains alien DNA and instructions on how to turn the raw material into an alien capable of sharing its wisdom. The device for making the transformation is built from material found readily in any American kitchen. But there is a problem. An Air Force Colonel attached to the project, a religious fanatic, sabotages the device which he believes to be a Satanic plot.

As the experiment begins, a scientist munching a bar of chocolate is caught in an unfortunate explosion, but instead of dying, begins a slow transformation. After 27 agonizing days, he emerges from his room as a five-foot chocolate bar. He walks, he talks. He is an anthropomorphic chocolate bar. His powers include telepathy, levitation and telekinesis, in addition to an almost inexhaustable range of knowledge and abilities. He is subjected to a barrage of tests and it is determined that Choco's DNA is a mix of human, alien and chocolate bar.

As the strip continues Choco escapes from his government handlers, doing good and spreading his undeniable charm. He sports a large diamond ring and a cane, giving him a pimpish air. Racially ambiguous, smooth with the ladies but clearly asexual, Choco appeals to all. Always a shoulder to cry on, his tender yet tough refrain, dispensed so many times it is practically his motto, is: "Love ain't sweet."

The strip has appeared in dozens of languages and continues to appear in irregular Double Stimes editions and christmas specials. The popular puppet show which appears regularly on Canadian television, DingDing, is a spinoff of the Choco strip. Both were created by Jonathan Trenchwheat.

From 1970 until 1980, Stimso Adid was often on the road lecturing on various arcane subjects germane to anthropology, art history, drugs, Sufism, Guvernor Morris and of course the AA. Trenchwheat based a lot of Choco's traits and adventures on Stimso and his comics were popular among kids in Egypt and the Maghreb. This is virgin territory, academically. Given the Choco graffitti and t-shirts so prominently featured in Arab Spring uprisings, one can only conclude he is indeed an important inspiration. The wide availability of Choco comics from the 50's onward in this part of the world was due to an international rights deal Trenchwheat penned, allowing his strips to reprinted in book form in very cheap Arabic-language editions. These are exceedingly rare today as they were such poor quality they have literally disappeared, the papers simply turning to dust. For a penny one could get a 25-page Choco book which also included a stick of halal chocolate-flavored gum.

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Usage

"Choco barely made it. The move that is. I was riding down US 1 behind the pickup truck carrying my life's belongings, traveling about 65 mph; all of a sudden the lid flies off a storage bin and Choco flies out, but catches on the top bar of the trailer. He rides there for about 20 miles (I didn't know it was Choco, just that it was a large piece of canvas or paper--for all I knew it was trash that got caught on the trailer). Made the turn, and he fell back into the trailer. True story." -- Dr. Kristen Jensen, describing the nearly tragic end of a Choco painting made by Steven Adkins.

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