Professor Hobo

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Professor Hobo
Author(s)	Justin Young and David Rothwell
Website	http://www.professorhobo.com/hobo/
Current status	Sporadic
Launch date	January 2002
Genre(s)	College humor

Professor Hobo is the title of an original comic strip, and its subsequent animated series, created by Justin Young and David Rothwell. The first comic strip was created and issued in January of 2002 in the Murray State News,the school newspaper of Murray State University, where Young and Rothwell were students at the time.

Often dismissed as being too smart for its readers, Hobo nevertheless found an audience on the MSU campus, often satirizing current events or lampooning the goings-on of the college and its faculty. Unlike other comics set in a university environment, Hobo often focused on the faculty and their problems and adventures, though the students and other assorted characters did get their fair share of the spotlight. The titular character himself (only ever referred to as "Professor") is a faculty member, hired off the streets in the first strip, hence the name.

Around the middle of its two year run, the comic strip spawned an animated counterpart. The animated series, also simply titled Professor Hobo, consisted of short episodes ranging anywhere from 5 minutes to 23 minutes in length, and was animated in a simpler style similar to Space Ghost Coast to Coast, or Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The animated series was similar in style to the strip, and since they were being produced congruently, did cross over into each other on more than one occasion.

In November of 2002 the Hobo comic strip won a Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association award for Best Comic Strip, and the third episode of the animated series won an Honorable Mention award at a film festival. Shortly thereafter the animated series was picked up by College Sports TV and two short episodes were commissioned which had the Hobo characters having their misadventures while playing or watching college sporting events. Ultimately these two episodes were severely edited before airing, and only aired once. Young and Rothwell were not commissioned for any further episodes.

Currently all of the strips and animations can be found at the Professor Hobo website, and strips and animations are still being produced there, though on a very sporadic basis.