Bookends / Webcomics

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• 8-Bit Theater begins with Black Mage and Fighter lost while searching for a MacGuffin in the beginning. In the epilogue, they're once again lost while searching for another quest, and Fighter suggests they continue looking for the very same MacGuffin.
• Aisopos begins with an old man (who the audience assume that is old Aesop) sitting on a table and telling a fable, while a crowd from the outside yells and demand the death of Peisistratus. It ends the exact same way, but with Aesop in Rike's body coming out and trying to defend the poor man by telling them a fable.
• Always Raining Here: At one point, Carter gives a ride to Adrian, in which Adrian makes it abundantly clear that he has no interest in Carter and is actually uncomfortable with their situation, at the end, the two, now in a relationship, get away for a weekend together with their friends and the final page has them giving each other a Held Gaze.
• The first strip of Arthur, King of Time and Space has Arthur draw the sword from the stone at which point he starts shifting through time. Merlin explains the situation to him in the baseline, space and western arcs, but his final message is Lost in Transmission when they become cavemen. The final strip has Arthur being taken to Avalon, still shifting through time. Morgan, Nimue and Elaine explain the further details of the situation in the baseline, western and space arcs, but their final message is Lost in Transmission when they become Energy Beings who speak in the Language of Magic.
• BOO! It's Sex begins and ends with a group of college freshmen moving into an old sorority house and finding a haunted tequila bottle.
• Brawl in the Family: Dedede's first and final lines in the comic are "I'm gonna get you, Kirby."
• The Boxer starts with Yu (as a kid), sitting under a lit streetlamp before being approached by J. The first epilogue shows an unnamed boy sitting under (possibly) the same streetlamp before being approached by the now grown-up Yu. In both scenes, J and Yu said the same line: "All of these stars are shining just for you."
• Check, Please!: Year 2 begins and ends with Jack interrupting Eric singing "Halo" by Beyoncé. At the beginning, Eric's just moved into the hockey team house and is happily Singing in the Shower. At the end, he's crying over Jack moving out for good, before Jack runs back in to deliver The Big Damn Kiss and a Relationship Upgrade.
• City Face #1 begins with City Face despondent over his sub-par female-wooing skills, and another pigeon shows up to offer him some advice. It ends with a similar scene, only this time City Face is the one offering advice.
• Concerned: The Half-life and Death of Gordon Frohman begins and ends with a snide joke about Valve's constant delays in releasing games.
• The first Concession comic is mirrored by the appropriately-titled fifth-to-last comic. The Alt Text confirms that it is indeed the same customer.
• Darken both starts and ends with a character being resurrected to serve a demon lord.
• One Darths & Droids comic, Episode 1257: Loquacious Chum, begins and ends with Chewbacca saying, "I'm going to go insane here."
• Chapter 33 of Drowtales began with the lines. "Nuqrah'Shareh. The Modern, Peaceful and Beautiful jewel of the West!" It ended with " Nuqrah'Sharen; The Great. Modern jewel of the West".
• The "Sister 3" arc of El Goonish Shive opens with the narration, "Several centuries ago there lived an Immortal who would come to be known by many names," as part of a telling of Pandora's backstory. At the end of the story, after Pandora has been forcibly reset, we see her remembering who she was: "Several centuries ago, I was an Immortal who would come to be known by many names..."
• Though not in the chronologically-first strips, Girly created these with the New First Comics and the Grand Finale.
• Hexameron: The summer camp arc begins and ends with the story of the Eldritch Guest told around the campfire.
• Homestuck:
  • There's a variation at the end of the fourth act — the final scene of the end-of-act Animation Bump is of a meteor from the Reckoning passing through one of Skaia's defensive gates and striking John's house, which is exactly what happened in the conclusion of Act 1 and what kickstarted the adventure to begin with.
  • The end-of-Act 5 Animation Bump does the same thing: to represent all of the kids' reality being fundamentally reset by the Scratch, when Jade is enlarging the Fourth Wall for her and John to travel through, it displays a rapidly-reversing slideshow of many of the earliest panels of Homestuck, ending with the very first page of John standing in his room before cutting to white.
  • The first pesterlog of Act 5 Act 2 ends with John telling Karkat "See you soon". The last pesterlog starts with Karkat repeating the same line to Jade.
  • The first song of the first album ("Showtime") is a prominent part of the last song of the last album ("Conclude").
  • As a whole, the story begins and ends on April 13, both in real life and in-universe.
• Irregular Webcomic!: "Hey, there's comics on the Internet!" Keep in mind that 2011 David Morgan-Mar's soul was transported back into his 2002 body and Death made him forget everything that happened over IWC!'s run. Also, #3182 is only the Grand Finale of the main arcs; guest comics and Annotation comics have been posted since.
• Lady of the Shard begins and ends with the Acolyte climbing the temple stairs to bring an offering to the Goddess.
• Little Nuns The August-September 2023 flashback arc on the Hungry Nun's past shows her mother's donut store in shambles with no customers due to the chef falling ill in the second strip. The previous strip had a photo of Hungry Nun's mother and father, the latter in a chef uniform, and nowhere to be seen in the arc. The last strip shows the store has grown into a successful chain called Donut Boy, with Hungry Nun's mother as CEO. The shop is seen with the other nuns visiting, several products sold out, and an announcement of a new location opening at the zoo.
• Manly Guys Doing Manly Things started and ended with Kratos going full-circle on adjustment to society and interaction jokes.
• Maple Sugar and Gosling: Magical Girls:
  • Chapter 1 ends on a page titled "Magical Girls", in which the titular magical girls Maple Sugar and Gosling introduce themselves to the world. Chapter 3, the last chapter of Volume One, ends on a page simply titled "Magical Girl" — now in the singular, as Maple Sugar is no longer a magical girl.
  • The first page of Chapter 2 is titled "Don't Lie to Your Parents, Kids", while the last page is "Don't Lie to Your Partners, Kids".
• Each volume of Ménage à 3 begins and ends with similar, frequently NSFW scenes, usually involving (or at least referencing) some of the same characters. Note that each volume is exactly 150 strips by the comic's own numbering scheme:
  • The first volume opens with Gary coming home early from work, having a soon-to-be ironic thought just before opening the door, and walking in on Matt sodomizing Dillon, which is when he finds out that they're gay. Matt and Dillon move out shortly afterward. It ends with Dillon coming home early from a rehearsal, having a soon-to-be ironic thought just before opening the door, and walking in on Sandra sodomizing Matt. Dillon moves back in with Gary shortly afterward.
  • The second volume opens with Gary having an Erotic Dream about Zii, which turns into an erotic nightmare when it's revealed it's a male version of Zii, because of the influence of Dillon's presence in the bed. It ends with Yuki in bed with Zii and having an erotic dream about a female Gary.
  • The third volume opens with Sandra waking up on DiDi's boobs, and ends with her waking up on Senna's.
  • The fourth volume opens with Yuki surprising Kiley in the shower, and ends with DiDi surprising Yuki in the shower.
  • The fifth volume opens with Dillon stunned to be called into a room where Chanelle is sitting naked and with thighs apart (apparently requesting oral sex), and an also naked Amber is standing around; he then gets kissed on the cheeks by the two women. The penultimate strip of the volume has Erik and Jim walking in on several naked women, notably Peggy with her thighs apart (receiving oral sex from Sonya); the last strip has Gary stunned to be called into a room which contains a naked Senna and clothed Sandra, both standing around, before he gets kissed on the cheeks by the two women. This breaks the pattern a little, in that the echo is arguably spread across two strips, and none of the characters from the first strip recur (although Gary is mentioned in the first strip and appears in the last), but it's close enough.
  • The sixth volume begins with Sonya getting home after an interesting evening and thinking about her situation, then being interrupted on the doorstep by Peggy, who has followed her home looking for a bed for the night. It ends with Gary getting home after an interesting evening and thinking about his situation, then being interrupted on the doorstep by Amber, who has followed him home looking for a bed for the night. The requirement for characters to be repeated has evidently been scrapped (except that both Sonya and Gary are thinking about Zii), but the visual and thematic echoes and contrasts are strong.
  • The seventh volume begins with Zii waking up in bed and finding Sonya sleeping next to her; then, she's shocked to find Yuki there too. It ends with Kiley waking up in bed and finding Yuki sleeping next to her; then, she's shocked to find Sonya there too.
  • The eight volume begins with a wrestling brawl between DiDi and Roxie; it ends with a wrestling ... something ... between Yuki, Sonya, and Gary, with three-quarters of the strip having near-identical pictorial composition.
  • And now the final strip ends with, naturally, somebody walking in on the apartment's occupants having sex (Gary on Matt and Dillon in the first strip, Matt and Dillon on Gary and Peggy in the last).
• Mob Psycho 100:
  • The first scene of the first chapter features Arataka Reigen declaring that he'll take on a customer's case. The last panel of the Reigen spin-off features him answering a call and making the same declaration.
  • The first chapter has Mob using his psychic powers to exorcise a spirit and asking his master not to call him on short notice. In the last chapter of the Reigen spin-off, he shows up to save Reigen from a dangerous curse but firmly reminds him not to call him on short notice.
• Nebula:
  • The first comic both begins and ends with Earth saying "huh" thoughtfully while looking at a rock.
  • #13 begins and ends with Jupiter glaring at Sun's back and saying he hates him, humorously showing that he learned absolutely nothing from his misadventures during the comic.
• Koark enters and leaves the narrative of Order of Tales picking flowers near his ancestral home - in the first chapter as a spoiled, carefree little boy, in the last, as an experienced, heavy-hearted adult.
• The Phoenix Requiem begins with a celebration of "All Souls' Night" (in that setting it has similar importance than our Christmas/New Year's Eve). The comic ends with the same celebration two years later. The first scene begins with Jonas arriving. The last one ends the same way.
• Problem Sleuth begins with a particularly hard-boiled Private Eye Monologue delivered by the titular Problem Sleuth. After Problem Sleuth has performed Sepulchritude and used The Final Flip-Out, he's on the verge of death, where the original monologue's structure is used, except this time, it's talking about how he's in limbo.
• Sandra on the Rocks: Pixietrix comics like this one are often organised in 150-strip volumes, with the last strip in each containing at least a minor echo of the first — see also Ménage à 3 above.
  • In the very first strip, Senna says "When I'm around, everything is glamorous". In the last strip of the first 150-strip volume, Marie says "When Sandra's around, everything is wild... and glamorous!".
  • In strip #151, Domenico claims to have conducted "vigorous negotiations" with Zoé. In strip #300, Eva speaks of her "vigorous interrogation" of Lavali.
• The Secret Knots:
  • "Quinton Page Eats a Sandwich" begins with a tabloid photo showing "A lonely Quinton Page eats his sandwich in the park", and ends with the same thing being shown of his supposed reincarnation, Mikkel Kvint.
  • "11 signs you are not getting enough sleep" begins and ends with the statement "1. Your memory fails" as the protagonist wakes up after a rampage as a werewolf.
• Sleepless Domain: The first and final lines in the first book, The Price of Magic^note which spans the first four chapters of the series, are from the nightly announcement over the city's P.A. system, announcing the beginning of the magical girls' shift.
  "The time is now 10 PM. All citizens should be indoors, and all magical girls transformed."
• Sticky Dilly Buns: As with Ménage à 3 and Sandra on the Rocks above, this Pixietrix comic has minor bookends in the first and last strips of its 150-strip volumes.
  • Amber says to herself, "Dilly... never change" in the first strip, and in the last strip of the first volume, Ruby thinks to herself "Something's gotta change here" (reflecting their different views of Dillon, the character under consideration in both cases).
  • In strip #151, Ruby and Dillon are platonically in bed together, and Ruby grabs Dillon in his sleep, so he complains that he can't breathe. In strip #300, Dillon ends up in bed with Jerzy, and the sex leaves him breathless.
• In Toki No Tanaka, the first and last pages of the first episode end with a panel of Sakura sleeping in exactly the same position.
• The Unsounded short story Vienne of Seferpine begins and ends with an assessment of Vienne's capabilities. But while the beginning is upbeat and confident in tone, the ending is troubled and uncertain.
• In the first season of Vampire Girl, the comic opened and closed with Levana writing about her experiences in her diary, with said diary entries serving as Wall of Text backgrounds.
• David Willis loves this trope.
  • Compare the first and second Roomies! strips with the final Roomies! strip (the rerun commentary even says "I really love my bookend conclusions, don’t I.") and (to a lesser extent) the first two Roomies! with this Joyce and Walky! which debuted two days after the Walkyverse's tenth anniversary.
  • The first strip of Shortpacked! has the megalomaniacal Galasso ranting about how all will bow before him, until Ethan reminds him "This is just a toy store." In the final strip, a different megalomaniac dismisses the staff's resistance by saying "This is just a toy store," and Leslie replies, "THE HELL IT IS."

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