History Webcomic / Freakwatch

* TheEighties: The story takes place in 1985 in a small town in Ohio, although [[EightiesHair most]] [[HairMetal of]] [[TotallyRadical the]] [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan decade's]] [[UsefulNotes/TheJapaneseInvasion trappings]] have been largely absent so far.

* CorruptHick: So far [[AvertedTrope averted,]] despite appearing to be a TownWithADarkSecret. In fact, the only person who has done anything seemingly corrupt is [[spoiler: the mayor,]] although whether or not he's tied into something bigger has yet to be seen.

* MulticoloredHair: Jessica has dyed a portion of her hair green, to go along with her general {{Goth}} motif.

* HypocriticalHeartwarming: Jessica's big brother, a police officer, greets her at the train station by getting into a verbal sparring match with her and threatening to take her down to the station for her "[[MulticoloredHair suspicious hair.]]" [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther And then they hug.]]

''Freakwatch'' is a horror comic about a young woman named Jessica who is forced to return to her home town after the mysterious death of her uncle. Things are not as they appear in the small town of Anderson, and as Jessica investigates her uncle's death, she may start to uncover more than she bargained for...

''Freakwatch'' is written and drawn by William Short, and updates twice a week. It can be found [[http://freakwatch.net/ here.]]

* CoolOldGuy: Uncle Ted may not have been ''that'' old when he died, but the general consensus is that he was pretty cool.
** He apparently spent all of his money on AV equipment and computers, and preferred to be on the cutting edge of tech.
* ConspiracyTheorist: Jessica believes that her Uncle didn't die a natural death. Her mother thinks [[YouWatchTooMuchX she's been watching too many horror movies.]]
--> '''Jessica:''' Hey, you can't know for sure it wasn't the Mind Melters from Mars!

* TheEighties: The story takes place in 1985 in a small town in Ohio, although [[EightiesHair most]] [[HairMetal of]] [[TotallyRadical the]] [[RonaldReagan decade's]] [[JapaneseInvasion trappings]] have been largely absent so far.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Perhaps it's just the dream logic, but Jessica doesn't seem all that disturbed by the strange monsters she comes across in her dreams.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: One the one hand, there's a perfectly logical explanation for how [[http://freakwatch.net/comic/v01_012/ Uncle Ted's tombstone attracted Jessica's pendant]] (i.e. it's magnetic). But that just raises further questions, like why his tombstone would be magnetic in the first place...

--> ''*holds up a newspaper headline reading "[[NakedPeopleAreFunny Naked Man Causes Disturbance at New Mall Site]]"*''

* TechnicolorHair: Jessica is a college-age {{Goth}} in TheEighties, so ''of course'' she's dyed part of her hair green.

* HypocriticalHeartwarming: Jessica's big brother, a police officer, greets her at the train station by getting into a verbal sparring match with her and threatening to take her down to the station for her "[[TechnicolorHair suspicious hair.]]" [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther And then they hug.]]

* HypocriticalHeartwarming: Jessica's big brother, a police officer, greets her at the train station by getting into a verbal sparring match with her and threatening to take her down to the station for her "suspicious hair." [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther And then they hug.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: [[AvertedTrope Averted.]] The Sheriff's office is ''very'' suspicious about the circumstances around Ted's death, and wants to conduct a full investigation. However, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat the mayor tells him to drop it.]] [[spoiler: Part of the reason they want Jessica to keep Ted's house is so that her brother can investigate without getting blocked by political intervention.]]

** And later, we see that Ted left a cipher for Jessica to decode... in the form of a number of [[spoiler: several of his old taped episodes, as well as ''Film/BrideOfFrankenstein''.]]

** And later, we see that Ted left a cipher for Jessica to decode... in the form of a number of [[spoiler: several of his old taped episodes, as well as ''Film/TheBrideOfFrankenstein''.]]

* RiddleMeThis: A young Jessica is seen with Uncle Ted, learning to solve a Rubik's Cube. This is implied to be a part of a pattern of Ted challenging Jessica with puzzles and ciphers, [[spoiler: perhaps so she can be ready to solve the mystery of his death.]]

* OnOneCondition: In an odd [[SubvertedTrope subversion,]] the "condition" wasn't a result of anything in Ted's will. However, [[spoiler: the only way the police will get to investigate Ted's death]] is if Jessica keeps Ted's house and lives in it, so she winds up with this trope by default.

* TechnoWizard: While not as outlandish as other fictional examples, Uncle Ted had a full suite of AV tech in his house, including ''two hundred pounds'' of coaxial cable and equipment for intercepting radio signals.

* TechnoWizard: While not as outlandish as other fictional examples, Uncle Ted had a full suite of AV tech in his house, along with ''two hundred pounds'' of coaxial cable.

* OnOneCondition: In an odd [[SubvertedTrope subversion,]] the "condition" wasn't a result of anything in Ted's will. However, [[spoiler: the only way the police will get to investigate Ted's death]] is if Jessica keeps Ted's house and lives in it, so she winds up with this condition by default.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: One the one hand, there's a perfectly logical explanation for how [[http://freakwatch.net/comic/v01_012/ Father Ted's tombstone attracted Jessica's pendant]] (i.e. it's magnetic). But that just raises further questions, like why his tombstone would be magnetic in the first place...

* TechnoWizard: While not as outlandish as other fictional examples, Uncle Ted had a full suite of AV tech in his house, along with ''two thousand'' feet of coaxial cable.

* OneOfUs: One of the asides in the first chapter goes to a group of teenagers who are getting ready to play a game of ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}''.

* AlterEgo: Ted Tremaine was the morning newscaster for a local TV station, but also ran a schlocky horror show on Friday nights as "Father Fiore." The show is aptly titled "Friday Night [[TitleDrop Freakwatch]]."

* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: Uncle Ted appears to have died of a heart attack or seizure, although he suspiciously was carrying a revolver when he died. [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident Hmm...]]

* PerkyGoth: Jessica, although she's less "perky" and more "highly sarcastic."

* HypocriticalHeartwarming: Jessica's big brother, a police officer, greets her at the train station by getting into a verbal sparring match with her and threatening to take her down to the station for her "suspicious hair." [[AwwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther And then they hug.]]