History MindScrew / Webcomics

* ''Grounded Angel'' ([[http://www.drunkduck.com/Grounded_Angel/index.php?p=97579 link]]). Let me save you a couple of hours of mediocre art and predicable plot twists: the main character turns out to be [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic an angel]] who is being chased by demons and a cat-man who leads a cult, they want the power of a book that only she can open. And in the end when she gets to the book? Turns out humanity is not yet ready for the way she wants to use it, and [[GroundhogDayLoop she gets to return to the start and do it all over again]] with her memories of the whole thing erased; oh, and she's been doing this for 176 years. Yeah, everything in the story occurred ''at least'' 64,240 times.

* The ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' guest arc "[[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=050530 The Sluggite Koan]]" does this in a big way. What at first seems like a somewhat straightforward RefugeeFromTVLand and TrappedInTVLand story delves into weird symbolism, philosophy, and loads and loads of [[MetafictionDemandedThisIndex Metafiction]].

*** This goes double for his latest flashback. We know he's having one because we see him start narrating. The story is wild enough, but Sasha's [[SpitTake reactions]] are even more unlikely and surreal. At one point Torg gets killed by a boomerang riding porcupine and it turns out he made up the whole thing while having a flashback about him having a flashback.
** As the matter of fact, Sluggy has been gradually drifting from regular punchlines towards screwing with the minds of the readers. A recent strip featured ... well [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20101027 just see for yourselves]]. Good luck working this out (well, if you're familiar with the events leading up to it).

* ''Webcomic/{{Maliki}}'': Maliki talks about how she won't be drawing a comic today. Then she is seen drawing the comic about not drawing a comic. Then she is told that this could break the "space-blog continuum". ''Then'' she is seen drawing the scene where she is told not to draw a comic about not drawing a comic. [[http://maliki.com/en/strips/the-character-of-blogs/ Then it gets out of hand.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' manages to routinely confuse its readership mostly through unusually high concentration of meta (it's a NoFourthWall MegaCrossover MetaFic with RecursiveReality for starters), but its ''"Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On" arc'' takes the cake. The best description the fans could come up with to date is: ''Film/{{Inception}}'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Theatre/SwanLake'' and also a [[DivorceAssetsConflict custody battle]] over TheFairFolk MonsterRoommate.

* ''Webcomic/FaceAllRed'' derives most of its horror from this.

* The final arc of the fifth book of ''Webcomic/{{Fans}}'', "What Dreams May Come" focuses on a wish-granting artifact granting a kind of (extremely geeky) {{Instrumentality}}, apparently a metaphor for the afterlife. A few of the earlier and later introspective storylines could get a little MindScrew-[[BuffySpeak ey]], but this one (being the intended finale) was just plain ''insane''.

** While not really symbolic, Torg's flashbacks will freeze your brain. Mainly because we see things through his perspective so anything we read has already been warped by his screwy mind. Most of the time we don't even know he's flashbacking until the scene suddenly cuts to him in a completely different scene saying "And that's how..."

* The previous MS Paint Adventure, ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'', is actually a better example, given that it threw logic literally out the window right at the beginning. Over the course of the story, we have an imaginary universe that exists in all the characters' minds simultaneously, but physical objects can pass between the real and imaginary worlds. That's not even getting into things like mental transportation by hitting your head, valves, doors and clothes that change peoples' sizes and shapes, a robot walking through a portal into the building it's carrying on its back, or ''putting a window through itself''. It's mostly played for laughs, but still gets quite mindbending.

** The author admits to having been influenced by ''ALessonIsLearnedButTheDamageIsIrreversible'' which seems to be nothing ''but'' a MindScrew. Have [[http://www.alessonislearned.com/lesson013.html a look]].

* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'', the Entire series was just one big MIND SCREW, unless you pay attention to every detail, you are going to get lost.

* ''Webcomic/GroundedAngel'' ([[http://www.drunkduck.com/Grounded_Angel/index.php?p=97579 link]]). Let me save you a couple of hours of mediocre art and predicable plot twists: the main character turns out to be [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic an angel]] who is being chased by demons and a cat-man who leads a cult, they want the power of a book that only she can open. And in the end when she gets to the book? Turns out humanity is not yet ready for the way she wants to use it, and [[GroundhogDayLoop she gets to return to the start and do it all over again]] with her memories of the whole thing erased; oh, and she's been doing this for 176 years. Yeah, everything in the story occurred ''at least'' 64,240 times.

* Meta-example: anything on the DadaComics page, though its not like they try to make sense.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', there is lots of it. When done intentionally, usually involves [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-02-17 attempts to project the normal family tree]] onto [[OppositeSexClone Ellen]]'s case in several equally disturbing ways.

* ''GroundedAngel'' ([[http://www.drunkduck.com/Grounded_Angel/index.php?p=97579 link]]). Let me save you a couple of hours of mediocre art and predicable plot twists: the main character turns out to be [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic an angel]] who is being chased by demons and a cat-man who leads a cult, they want the power of a book that only she can open. And in the end when she gets to the book? Turns out humanity is not yet ready for the way she wants to use it, and [[GroundhogDayLoop she gets to return to the start and do it all over again]] with her memories of the whole thing erased; oh, and she's been doing this for 176 years. Yeah, everything in the story occurred ''at least'' 64,240 times.

* ''CreativeRelease''. The fact that the author is a troll definitely doesn't help.

* MegaTokyo is pretty hard for most readers to comprehend. It helps to think of each character as experiencing their own version of the world.

* The previous MS Paint Adventure, ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'', is actually a better example, given that it threw logic literally out the window right at the beginning. Over the course of the story, we have an imaginary universe that exists in all the characters' minds simultaneously, but physical objects can pass between the real and imaginary worlds. That's not even getting into things like mental transportation by hitting your head, valves, doors and clothes that change peoples' sizes and shapes, a robot walking through a portal into the building it's carrying on its back, or ''putting a window through itself''
** Of course, none of it is supposed to make sense, it's just supposed to be hilarious and awesome.

** As a general rule: Anything involving alternate universes will make your head hurt. Anything involving time and history will make it hurt worse. And anything based around life and death and specifically who is which at what point in time will make it explode 14 times in a variety of pretty colours.
** Actually, almost everything (even the aforementioned elements) makes perfect sense in the context of the story. However, a lot of the time, you have to think hard about every detail, pour over your extensive notes and reread several earlier portions of the story before figuring it out, and then look it up online to realise you were only scratching the surface. Of course, that's what makes it so fun.
** But, there are still so many unanswered questions, with more being brought up every page, that it still qualifies as a Mind Screw of epic proportions. There's a reason the Wild Mass Guessing page had to be split into a dozen subpages.
* The previous MS Paint Adventure ''Webcomic/{{ProblemSleuth}}'' is actually a better example, given that it threw logic literally out the window right at the beginning. Over the course of the story, we have an imaginary universe that exists in all the characters' minds simultaneously, but physical objects can pass between the real and imaginary worlds. That's not even getting into things like mental transportation by hitting your head, valves, doors and clothes that change peoples' sizes and shapes, a robot walking through a portal into the building it's carrying on its back, or ''putting a window through itself''

* MegaTokyo is pretty hard for most readers to comprehend.

* ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' manages to routinely confuse its readership mostly through unusually high concentration of meta (it's a MediumAware MegaCrossover MetaFic for starters), but its ''"Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On" arc'' takes the cake. The best description the fans could come up with to date is: ''Film/{{Inception}}'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Theatre/SwanLake'' and also a [[DivorceAssetsConflict custody battle]] over TheFairFolk MonsterRoommate.

* ''Webcomic/{{Kagerou}}''. The main character's SplitPersonality is actually pretty realistic (he's unaware of his other personalities, and none of them are really functional human beings), suggesting that the author perhaps has some personal experience.
** Suggesting? He outright declares it on the very first page.

* The previous MS Paint Adventure ''Webcomic/{{ProblemSleuth}}'' is actually a better example, given that it through logic literally out the window right at the beginning. Over the course of the story, we have an imaginary universe that exists in all the characters' minds simultaneously, but physical objects can pass between the real and imaginary worlds. That's not even getting into things like mental transportation by hitting your head, valves, doors and clothes that change peoples' sizes and shapes, a robot walking through a portal into the building it's carrying on its back, or ''putting a window through itself''

* ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' manages to routinely confuse its readership mostly through unusually high concentration of meta (it's a MediumAware MegaCrossover MetaFic for starters), but its ''"Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On" arc'' takes the cake. The best description the fans could come up with to date is: ''Film/{{Inception}}'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Theatre/SwanLake'' and also a custody battle over TheFairFolk MonsterRoommate.

* ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' manages to routinely confuse its readership mostly through unusually high concentration of meta (it's a MediumAware MegaCrossover MetaFic for starters), but it's ''"Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On" arc'' takes the cake. The best description the fans could come up with to date is: ''Film/{{Inception}}'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''Theatre/SwanLake'' and also a custody battle over TheFairFolk MonsterRoommate.

* ''CreativeRelease''. The fact that the author is a troll definitely doesn't help.

* ''Webcomic/YuMeDream'' starts of as a straightforward GirlsLove strip (albeit with an [[EthnicScrappy ebonics-spouting conscience]]), until the last ten pages of issue 9, when [[spoiler:the entire comic up to that point is revealed to be AllJustADream, with a minor character actually being a Morpheus-like being]]... and then it gets ''[[ItGotWorse weird]]''.