History Webcomic / ALiCE

[[redirect:Webcomic/AliceWebcomic]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aliceandco_9812.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:They just saw the HotterAndSexier version of themselves...]]

''[[http://alice.alicecomics.com/ Alice]]'' tells the story of Alice Dobson who lives with her father in a quiet Canadian town. Alice is a [[MrImagination Miss Imagination]] {{Cloudcuckoolander}} whose fantasies tend to spill into the real world -- much to the annoyance of her more down-to-earth best friend Dot, who nevertheless often finds herself joining in on the various (mis)adventures. Another friend, the boy-crazy and ditzy Joanne, also joins them on occasion, making them form a classic ComicTrio.

Other important characters in the comic are Alice's always-off-screen mother (who lives in Europe and seldom sees Alice but whose absence is heavily felt) and her father's new girlfriend, Joan, with whom Alice has a complicated relationship -- she really ''wants'' to hate Joan and treat her as the classic WickedStepmother, but has problems doing so because Joan is so fundamentally likable.

The comic has a lot in common with ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' (which it occasionally references and gives more or less obvious {{Shout Out}}s to) in its mixing of the mundane with the wildly fantastic and overly-imaginative protagonist, but it's more obviously a fantasy comic; Alice's fantasies aren't only for her but tend to drag other people (most often Dot) along, and as such it's not always easy to know what's real and what's imagined. ''Alice'' is also more inclined towards longer (and often recurring) storylines rather than stand-alone gags.

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!!Contains examples of the following tropes:

* ACupAngst: Played with a little when the girls get their first training bras and neither of them are developed enough to show -- so Joanne stuffs her bra with tissues to make it appear that she's got huge breasts. Nobody's fooled for even a second. [[note]] Interestingly enough, later in the comic, when the girls have started eighth grade and actually dveloped breasts, Joanne is definitely the smallest of the three -- but by now she doesn't seem to view it as a problem.[[/note]]
* AlienAbduction: Happens to Alice. She gets very excited about it, though she has a moment's worry about [[AnalProbing getting anal probed]] -- but [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/abducted-3/ the aliens tell her they don't do that anymore.]]
* AmicableExes: Alice's parents are on good terms with each other despite having been divorced for a good ten years or so.
* AndYouWereThere: The "Dragonslayer" storyarcs take place in a fantasy world where everyone is an alternate version of Alice's friends and family, with {{Sdrawkcab Name}}s.
* ArtShift: The "Little Alice" storyline is drawn by Tariq De Vore, in a very different style than Michael Fleming's artwork.
** Also played with on [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/alice-2012-a-new-alice-for-a-new-generation/ this page]], where Alice, Dot and Joanne are drawn like sexy action-comic women, much to the distaste of Alice and Dot (though Joanne seems to like it).
* AscendedExtra: In the beginning, it was just Alice and Dot hanging around. Then Joanne was introduced, first as an incidental character, but she got increasingly large roles until she was easily the third main character of the comic.
* AstralProjection: Alice has an involuntary out-of-body experience when her father tells her that Joan will be moving in with them.
* BareYourMidriff: Several of Joanne's outfits.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Joanne, Dot and Alice, in that order.
* BrainyBrunette: Dot, who unlike Alice is a good and attentive student who enjoys schoolwork (though she has problems with the creative subjects Alice excels at).
* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/welcome/ The first comic]] does the classic "welcome to the comic" NoFourthWall opening. After that, especially in the strip's early days, there would be the occasional fourth-wall-breaking strips, though they tended to get more subtle and creative as time went on.
* BurpingContest: Alice has one with the three little boys she and Dot are babysitting. [[http://www.alicecomics.com/comic/babysitting-the-sweeney-triplets-4/ Then Dot comes in and beats them all hands down]].
* CanadaEh: A very neutral portrayal of Canada overall. However, invoked with the "Thanksgiving" strip, which was originally put up on American Thanksgiving[[hottip:*:American Thanksgiving is in November - Canadian Thanksgiving is in October.]] and Joanne mentioned how they were pandering to their American readers by having the strip then.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Alice. She is basically an older, female ComicStrip/{{Calvin|AndHobbes}} in personality.
** However it becomes somewhat [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] when one realises that (some of) Alice's tendencies were a coping mechanism for [[spoiler: her birth mother walking out, and her first stepmother dying.]]
* ComicTrio: Alice, Dot and Joanne often form one when they're together. Usually, Alice takes the role of the schemer, with Joanne as the follower and Dot as the powerless sane one, but they'll occasionally swap roles depending on the situation.
* DeadpanSnarker: Several character have traces of this, but none more than Dot.
* DreamWithinADream: The first [[TheChosenOne Dragonslayer]] [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/dragonslayer-1/ arc]] turns out to be a dream within a DreamWithinADream.
* DumbBlonde: Joanne is the [[TheDitz ditziest]] and blondest of the girls. Several comments are made about her looks as well, so she might count as a BrainlessBeauty.
* FailingATaxi: In Chicago, Joan tries to get a taxi but it doesn't work.
* FantasticComedy: At least at first, the argument could be made that the fantastic things are all in Alice's head -- but as the strip goes on, too many of the fantastic story plots get integrated in the real world for this explanation to make complete sense.
* FiremenAreHot: Joanne has a fireman fetish.
* FirstKiss: Alice is simultaneously relieved and disappointed by hers.
* FreudianExcuse: The main reason Alice reacts the way with Joan is because she blurts out in the "Camping with Joan" storyline that she doesn't need another mother to abandon her. [[spoiler: Since it actually happened to Alice ''twice''.]]
* GayParee: One arc takes place in Paris.
* GenkiGirl: Alice is the most clear-cut example, but Joanne has her moments as well.
* GenerationXerox: Alice is implied to be ''just'' like her mother.
* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: Happens to Alice, Dot and Joanne when they go skinny dipping. They put all their clothes in a plastic bag tor safekeeping, only to have a dog carry the bag off in its mouth. They share a large cardboard box in order to get to their respective homes. Dot and Joanne both make it indoors undetected, but Alice doesn't.
* GoodStepmother: Two examples:
** [[spoiler: Miranda - Alice's first stepmother.]] It's one of the reasons she has such a FreudianExcuse.
** Joan actually is trying to be this. She makes mistakes, but she tries her hardest.
* HotterAndSexier: The top image comes from the [[http://www.alicecomics.com/comic/alice-2012-a-new-alice-for-a-new-generation/ Alice 2012 gag]].
* InsultBackfire: Tiffany calls Alice "Four-eyes" when she has glasses. Alice takes this literally and starts looking for her second pair of eyes, and gets mad at Tiffany for lying.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Alice can be this at times.
* KidsShouldntWatchHorrorfilms: Alice and Dot sneak into a movie called "Scream your head off IV" and it naturally gives them a horrible nightmare.
* LongHairIsFeminine: Averted -- when Joanne gets a haircut, one of Dot's brothers [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/beauty-love-and-annoying-friends-6/ suddenly]] realises that [[BeautifulAllAlong she's beautiful]].
* [[MrImagination Miss Imagination]]: Alice.
* MissingMom: Not dead, just living abroad. It's more than hinted that she's very close to Alice in personality, and that this has made her a loving, but often unreliable, irresponsible and absent parent.
** [[spoiler:Also there was Miranda, Eric's new wife after he got the divorce. Alice was two years old and loved Miranda very much, but she died in a car accident. Though Alice in present day doesn't remember Miranda, she still subconsciously knows that she's lost not one but ''two'' mothers -- which is why she has such problems letting Joan get close to her.]]
* NoodleIncident: As one of the more obvious {{Shout Out}}s to ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', Alice and Dot have made references to "the strudel incident."
* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Ultimately averted. even if it doesn't seem like it at first: The girls ''are'' growing older, albeit very slowly ({{Lampshaded}} by Alice when she enters the eighth grade, and comments that it feels like she's been a seventh-grader for five years).
* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Girl]]: Dot.
* RunningGag: The "I've forgotten something" strips. The basic gag is that Alice is off somewhere and enjoying herself, but has a nagging feeling that she's forgotten something important -- and then the scene cuts to the teacher at school asking where she is, indicating that she forgot to go to school. As the strip progresses there are a lot of variants on this (Dot is the one who's absent because she forgot to set her watch, the teacher is the one who forgot to show up at school, Alice is the only one who shows up at school because she forgot it was a holiday, and so on).
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Dot frequently makes comments along this line, though notably it's very rare for her to ''actually'' leave; she usually just makes the threat to.
* SdrawkcabName: The characters in the "Dragonslayer" arcs.
* ShoutOut: [[http://www.alicecomics.com/comic/its-your-kids-alice/ This one]] has a shout-out to ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII''. Lampshaded below by the author.
* SilentConversation: The girls have one of these, plotting what to do to Dot's brothers after they [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/lazy-afternoon-at-the-ol-mill-pond-8/ drench Joanne in pond water]].
* [[SorryImGay Sorry He's Gay]]: One arc features Joanne and Dot thinking Joan is cheating on Eric after seeing her hanging out with another man at the mall. (And the pool.) They try to hide Alice from them, only for her to surprise them when she points out that the man Joan was with was the man who introduced Eric and Joan - and he's gay.
* TalkToTheHand: Dot at times.
* TheUnseen: Alice's mother has yet to appear on-screen. Several storylines center on Alice going to see her or getting a visit from her, but circumstances often hinder them from actually meeting (and when they ''do'' meet, we don't get to see the meeting).
* WebcomicTime:
** Alice and her friends are implied to be in in 6th and 7th grade from 1999-2005. During that time, they celebrated numerous Christmas and Halloween events as well as Dot's mother having a ''fifth'' child.
** Alice [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/grade-eight-2/ here]] - "Grade Seven seemed to last five years."
* WhatTheHellHero: Over the course of the series, all the major characters get at least one scene where they're called out on their behavior. Alice gets the most, usually over her irrational dislike for Joan.
* WickedStepmother: Very much averted with Joan, to Alice's frustration; she's really uncomfortable with her father having a new girlfriend and doesn't want another mother... but it's hard to hate someone so genuinely kind and understanding. (Not that Alice doesn't try her best.)
* YourMindMakesItReal: This is certainly Alice's viewpoint on things. She might even be right.
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* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/welcome/ The first comic]] does the classic "welcome to the comic" NoFourthWall opening. After that, especially in the srtip's early days, there would be the occasional fourth-wall-breaking strips, though they tended to get more subtle and creative as time went on.

* KidsShouldNotWatchHorrorMovies: Alice and Dot sneak into a movie called "Scream your head off IV" and it naturally gives them a horrible nightmare.

* KidsShouldntWatchHorrorMovies: Alice and Dot sneak into a movie called "Scream your head off IV" and it naturally gives them a horrible nightmare.

* [[RedHeadedHero Red-Headed Heroine]]: Alice, though how much of her heroism is real and how much is imagined can be hard to tell sometimes.

Other important characters in the comic are Alice's always-off-screen mother (who lives in Europe and seldom sees Alice but whose absence is heavily felt) and her father's new girlfriend, Joan, with whom Alice has a complicated relationship -- she really ''wants'' to hate Joan and treat her as the classic WickedStepmother, but has problems doing so because Joan is so fundamentally likeable.

Other important characters in the comic are Alice's always-off-screen mother (who lives in Europe and seldom sees Alice but whose absence is heavily felt) and her father's new girlfriend, Joan, with whom Alice has a complicated relationship -- she really ''wants'' to hate Joan and treat her as the classic EvilStepmother, but has problems doing so because Joan is so fundamentally likeable.

* AscendedExtra: In the beginning, it was just Alice and Dot hanging around. Then Joanne was introduced, first as an incidental character, but she got increatingly large roles until she was easily the third main character of the comic.

* CanadaEh: A very neutral portrayal of Canada overall. However, invoked with the "Thanksgiving" strip, which was originally put up on American Thanksgiving[[hottip:*:American Thanksgiving is in November - Canadian Thanksgiving is in October.]] and Joanne mentioned how they were pandering to their American readers by having the strip then
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Alice. She is basically an older, female [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvin]] in personality.

* EvilStepmother: Very much averted with Joan, to Alice's frustration; she's really uncomfortable with her father having a new girlfriend and doesn't want another mother... but it's hard to hate someone so genuinely kind and understanding. (Not that Alice doesn't try her best.)

* RedHeadedHero: Alice, though how much of her heroism is real and how much is imagined can be hard to tell sometimes.

* [[SorryImGay Sorry he's Gay]]: One arc features Joanne and Dot thinking Joan is cheating on Eric after seeing her hanging out with another man at the mall. (And the pool.) They try to hide Alice from them, only for her to surprise them when she points out that the man Joan was with was the man who introduced Eric and Joan - and he's gay.

''[[http://alice.alicecomics.com/ Alice]]'' tells the story of Alice Dobson who lives with her father in a quiet Canadian town. Alice is a [[MrImagination Miss Imagination]] {{Cloudcuckoolander}} whose fantasies tend to spill into the real world -- much to the annoyance of her more down-to-earth best friend Dot, who nevertheless often finds herself joining in on the various (mis)adventures. As the comic goes by they're also joined more and more often by their other friend, the boy-crazy and ditzy Joanne, with whom they form a classic ComicTrio.

''[[http://alice.alicecomics.com/ Alice]]'' tells the story of Alice Dobson who lives with her father in a quiet Canadian town. Alice is a [[MrImagination Miss Imagination]] {{Cloudcuckoolander}} whose fantasies tend to spill into the real world - much to the annoyance of her more down-to-earth best friend Dot, who nevertheless often finds herself joining in on the various (mis)adventures. They're sometimes also joined by their other friend, the boy-crazy and ditzy Joanne, with whom they form a classic ComicTrio.

Other important characters in the comic are Alice's always-off-screen mother (who lives in Europe and seldom sees Alice but whose absence is heavily felt) and her father's new girlfriend, Joan.

* AlienAbduction: Happens to Alice. She gets very excited about it, though she has a moment's worry about [[AnalProbing betting anal porbed]] -- though [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/abducted-3/ the aliens tell her they don't do that anymore.]]

* AlienAbduction: Happens to Alice. She gets very excited about it, though she momentarily references AnalProbing -- though [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/abducted-3/ the aliens tell her they don't do that anymore.]]

* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/welcome/ The first comic]] does the classic "welcome to the comic" NoFourthWall opening. After that, especially in the stip's early days, there would be the occasional fourth-wall-breaking strips, though they tended to get more subtle and creative as time went on.

* LongHairIsFeminine: Averted -- when Joanne gets a haircut, one of Dot's brothers [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/beauty-love-and-annoying-friends-6-2/ suddenly]] realises that [[BeautifulAllAlong she's beautiful]].

* NoodleIncident: As one of the more obvious {{Shout Out}}s to ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', Alice and Dot have made referenced to "the strudel incident."

* HotterAndSexier: The top image comes from the [http://www.alicecomics.com/comic/alice-2012-a-new-alice-for-a-new-generation/ Alice 2012 gag].

* ShoutOut: [[http://www.alicecomics.com/comic/its-your-kids-alice/ This one]] has a shout-out to ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII''.