History ChuckCunninghamSyndrome / Webcomics

*** In a notable exception of this trend, core cast member Raven Pritchard was last seen 2000 pages ago (and counting) and her absence has gone without comment.

*** Similarly to Raven, Penelope Gaines was last seen or mentioned [[https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3200 almost 1600 pages ago]] (as of the time of this edit), despite this being [[https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3106 less than 100 pages after]] she was promoted to assistant manager of Coffee of Doom.

** The supporting characters who haven't been seen or referenced in the longest time without explanation would probably be Grace's "brothers" who haven't had any canon appearances since [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?date=2005-05-16 this strip]] in 2005 and ''any'' appearances at all since [[http://egscomics.com/sketchbook/2014-12-08-16 this strip]] in 2014.

* Early in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', Lyndesfarne was friends with a turtle and an armadillo, the gag being that they were the only three herbivores who could hang out at the mall food court. Conina the armadillo is also at the school dance, and then we never see either of them again.

* Characters regularly come and go as Agatha the eponymous ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' travels about Europa, but Klaus Wulfenbach's second in command Boris Dolokhov notably has vanished from his position without explanation following Agatha's in-universe two-year time-skip.

* ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=102714 repeatedly]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=110314 lampshaded]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=040615 this trope]] with Roy's mysterious disappearance from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''. Every time a new character was announced for ''Smash Bros. UsefulNotes/WiiU'', the comic would lampshade just how much he was left behind. In [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=062215 this]] comic arc, made after Roy was confirmed for DLC, we realise that he's been gone so long that only Marth and Pit seem to remember him.

** Sara was a barista at the Coffee of Doom who had a crush on Marten for the first few strips. She seemingly disappeared early on, when the focus shifted to Faye and Marten. This has been subject to a LampshadeHanging on more than one occasion. The 'official' explanation for her disappearance is that she was eaten by an allosaurus, but really she was just a boring character.

* ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=102714 repeatedly]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=110314 lampshaded]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=040615 this trope]] with Roy's mysterious disappearance from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.''. Every time a new character was announced for ''Smash Bros. UsefulNotes/WiiU'', the comic would lampshade just how much he was left behind. In [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=062215 this]] comic arc, made after Roy was confirmed for DLC, we realise that he's been gone so long that only Marth and Pit seem to remember him.

* PennyArcade, with its infamous "no continuity" policy, quickly phased out the few non-Gabe-and-Tycho characters it introduced shortly after they appeared, notably Chuck/Charles and Div.

* ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=102714 repeatedly]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=110314 lampshaded]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=040615 this trope]] with Roy's mysterious disappearance from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.''. Every time a new character was announced for ''Smash Bros. WiiU'', the comic would lampshade just how much he was left behind. In [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=062215 this]] comic arc, made after Roy was confirmed for DLC, we realise that he's been gone so long that only Marth and Pit seem to remember him.

* Shauna from ''Webcomic/BadMachinery'' had an older brother; the only explanation of his disappearance is, in an answer from John Allison to a question on Tumblr, "Chuck Cunningham’d"

** Right after that it turned out that Colina now is a [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0711.html soccer mom]], and that Cara is [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0711.html good at hiding]]

* ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=102714 repeatedly]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=110314 lampshaded]] [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=040615 this trope]] with Roy's mysterious disappearance from ''SuperSmashBros.''. Every time a new character was announced for ''Smash Bros. WiiU'', the comic would lampshade just how much he was left behind. In [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=062215 this]] comic arc, made after Roy was confirmed for DLC, we realise that he's been gone so long that only Marth and Pit seem to remember him.

* ''WapsiSquare'' lost a few characters in its CerebusSyndrome, but after a year or two brought back one of them and wrote a concluding plotline for another. Why can't everyone be this diligent?

* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'' occasionally introduces plot elements that just don't come to anything, and in the early days, two such elements were Eulice the terrifying landlady and Rob the agoraphobic neighbor. Presumably the writers couldn't think of much more than one joke each for them. Junghan the comics shop manager (best friend of lead character Gary and boss of other lead character Zii) also seemed to be a Syndrome sufferer, but made at least a brief return after a couple of years' absence from the comic.

* Queen Jane(if that's even her name since the strip itself [[NoNameGiven dosen't give any name]]) from ''[[Webcomic/EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]''. An OnlySaneMan to contrast with her husband King Steve (a combination of CloudCuckooLander, TheCaligula and TheDitz), she was replaced in this role by Princess Sara in Steve's later appearances.

* Euchre from ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'' just seemed to be forgotten about. After Traces battle with a Neutal possessed Flora, he is never mentioned again despite him being a rather important and seemingly powerful character who was in leagues with the Master Spy.
** He might simply Master Strategist in a magical disguise.
*** [[spoiler:In truth, he IS a Keidran that can disguise into a human down to the genes and with what seems to be some kind of double personality syndrome, since he helps Keidran while undisguised while leading the persecution in disguise. He has a half-human/keidran changeling daughter.]]
* Sara from ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'' was a barista at the Coffee of Doom who had a crush on Marten for the first few strips. She seemingly disappeared early on, when the focus shifted to Faye and Marten. This has been subject to a LampshadeHanging on more than one occasion. The 'official' explanation for her disappearance is that she was eaten by an allosaurus, but really she was just a boring character.
** Is often [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and [[SubvertedTrope subverted]]. Members of the supporting cast regularly disappear - often for extended periods of time - without warning and are later given explanations when another character wonders why they are gone. Most (with Sara being one of the only exceptions) will turn up again up to 500 pages later.
*** Even [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=399 Pizza]] [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1932 Girl]] reappears after a long absence.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', some of the side characters have fallen into this. And of course, let's not forget Lord Tedd, hinted in the past to be the BigBad of the entire strip, has not been seen in years real-time.
** Dan Shive said he introduced the character too soon, which is why it vanished. However, it looks like Lord Tedd may be [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-10-07 coming back.]]

* ''Webcomic/PvP'' does it so much it should be called Kurtzing. The entire cast from Samwise except for Skull, Francis' gaming troupe, Skull's gaming persona who later became his own character, Jade's former staff from when she made a feminist magazine, Jade's High School best friend, Robbie's former best friend Jase , Reggie who was Miranda's blind boy-friend, Miranda who was Reggie's hot girl-friend(redacted, though she was brought back by a guest strip so Kurtz wouldn't have brought her back if not for that strip so it doesn't count so HA), Miranda's big dumb boy-friend(whom she presumably left because he wasn't dumb any more), a talking arcade machine, Newt-boy, a funny talking rat, Francis's robot,Skull's cousin Sheckie, Sheckie's girl-friend, a divorced woman who was implied to be a recurring character,Cole's entire family, the game-store witch, and the giant Panda. That's more than 20 characters that fit this trope.
** Gwen almost fit this until she became in expy in Kurtz' other strip "The Trenches".
* ''{{Sonichu}}'' has this all over the place, as new characters were created to be analogues of people who tormented the creator in RealLife. Most characters just disappear, getting squeezed by the KudzuPlot.
* Shauna from ''BadMachinery'' had an older brother, the only explanation of this disappearance is, in answer from John Allison to a question about this on Tumblr, "Chuck Cunningham’d"