One of the creators of Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon, had already proved his Sci-Fi genius long before the Adult Swim animated series ever aired. Instead of taking the airways by storm, Harmon broke into the science fiction genre through a comic book series after partnering with his college roommate in the development of a character fans of Rick and Morty may find familiar.
Scud the Disposable Assassin was created by Rob Schrab before his fellow college classmate at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design Dan Harmon joined the comic creator on the series, receiving his first writing credit on the series in the fourth issue. Scud the Disposable Assassin follows the adventures of a robot assassin whose purpose is to carry out assassinations and then self-destruct immediately after the job is done. However, the main character of the series is a different kind of Scud, one who rejects the idea that they are forced to die after carrying out assassinations. So, this Scud doesn’t ever kill its target, ensuring its own continued existence and acting more as a likable protagonist that fans can root for.
The idea of an artificial being carrying out a task and then dying once it is complete is eerily similar to the widely popular Rick and Morty character Mr. Meeseeks. In fact, Dan Harmon said on the record that he and fellow Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland straight-up ripped off Scud when developing Mr. Meeseeks. In a panel at Stan Lee’s L.A. Comic Con: Comikaze in 2016, Harmon and Roiland are asked about the origins of Mr. Meeseeks. While the meat of the character came from the creative weirdness of the two creators, Harmon adds at the end of Mr. Meeseeks development explanation, “and then we ripped off Scud the Disposable Assassin”.
While Harmon says Mr. Meeseeks is a rip-off of Scud, Justin Roiland maintained in the same panel that because Mr. Meeseeks wants to die after completing a task and the protagonist Scud wanted to live, the two have enough differences between them to stand alone as separate, original characters. However, Scud is undoubtedly at the very least the heavy inspiration behind Mr. Meeseeks, and even made its debut in a Rick and Morty cartoon before the blue box-dwelling helpers, sort of. In an episode of the web original The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti by Justin Roiland and Kelsy Abbott, long before Rick and Morty, Roiland and Abbott pushed Scud the Disposable Assassin in a promotional episode for the last few issues of the comic series. In the episode, Doc tells Mharti all about the comic before introducing a Scud to his sidekick, saying that it isn’t just a comic book, but that Scud is real.
The inspiration behind Mr. Meeseeks met the inspirations behind Rick and Morty before Rick and Morty even launched, staying true to the history of the series’ origin. Even without the eventual connection to Rick and Morty, Scud the Disposable Assassin stands on its own as an original and wildly entertaining Sci-Fi series. Plus, the series has that indie ‘90s comic style reminiscent of the Mask and Tank Girl in its gritty yet fantastical style unique to the underground comics of the era. Rick and Morty’s creator proved his Sci-Fi genius in a comic series well before the popular animated series was brought into the lives of fans around the world.
Source: Comic Book Speculation