Dylan Dog - Television Tropes & Idioms

The second-best selling Italian comic book, once the first during the "Dylan craze" of the early nineties. Created by Tiziano Sclavi and published by Sergio Bonelli, Dylan Dog is a series focusing on a former Scotland Yard detective now known as the "Nightmares Investigator", who lives in Craven Road 7, London and fights monsters, demons and many more otherworldly creatures for £100 a day plus expenses, or solves cases about horrifying sociopathic criminals. The series (at least during its first years) managed to deconstruct horror clichés and to create an intriguing, flawed and sympathetic Anti-Hero in a morally complex world. Dylan Dog was also known for the surreal, poetic quality of its writing and its black humour.

Because of a generally acknowledged rule, there's going to be a Live-Action Adaptation called 'Dylan Dog: Dead of Night', starring Brandon Routh as the eponymous detective and co-starring Sam Huntington, Anita Briem, Peter Stormare, Taye Diggs and Kurt Angle (yes, that Kurt Angle). The storyline of the movie isn't an Adaptation Distillation of any story arc of the comic, but an entirely independent one instead. Given that this kind of move tends to have very subjective results, as always, time will tell if they've done the right thing.

Dylan Dog provides examples of:

The Alcoholic: Dylan was this before the beginning of the series - he started drowning his sorrows after the death of Lillie.
Anti-Hero: Dylan is lazy, prone to mood swings and depression, anxious, full of phobias (he is afraid of flying, of ships, of heights, of bats, very afraid of closed spaces...) and not particularly brave, strong or sharp. As a bonus, several times he royally screws up his cases.
- Dylan is also this in the film, but in a different way, basically he's more stoic and withdrawn.
Asshole Victim: In most of the stories, the "poor" victims of the Monster of the Week turn to be unlikeable jerks who did something bad enough to deserve the monster's anger. In some cases, they are revealed to be even worse than the monster itself.
Beauty Equals Goodness: The series drops a nuke on this trope.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens in some of Sclavi's surreal stories.
- Groucho does this on occasion.
Broken Aesop: The series insisted that physical beauty does not count, and yet Dylan kept going to bed only with young, gorgeous chicks. Realizing the problem, the writers finally had Dylan sleeping with a much older, ugly, overweight woman.
- If dreams count, there is a good share of female skeletons, rotting women and some monster. Mind, never a male or an underage.
Butt Monkey: Poor Jenkins.
The Casanova: Usually Dylan sleeps with at least one different woman each month.
Chivalrous Pervert: Dylan is this trope.
Comic Book Fantasy Casting: Dylan's appearance was inspired by actor Rupert Everett.
- Also, Kim is... well, Kim Novak. Plus, professor Adam looks like an old Sean Connery.
- Just Kim Novak and Sean Connery? Some of the first stories featured characters that seemed based on Jack Nicholson, Bette Davis, Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins and several others.
Cool Old Guy: Inspector Bloch, recurring character and old friend of Dylan. Also the Good side of Xabaras, an old swordsmaster confined into a mysterious island in another dimension.
Deadpan Snarker: Dylan and Bloch, mainly.
Dark Is Not Evil: Dylan loves this trope.
Death Is Cheap: In Dylan's universe, dying isn't a big problem. Hell, even Dylan has already died several times.
Deconstructor Fleet: The series during its best years.
Deus Exit Machina: Kim, a young Hot Witch who falls in love with Dylan, was Put on a Bus because: 1) Dylan had to remain single and 2) her powers risked to achieve the Story Breaker status.
- To say nothing of her cat Cagliostro, who is even more powerful.
- Lord Wells, Dylan's only wealthy friend, is always travelling around the world whenever Dylan needs money badly.
Deus ex Machina: Often needed to save Dylan's ass.
Diabolus ex Machina: This one is fairly common too.
Does Not Understand Sarcasm: Jenkins.
Dumb Blonde: Anna Never.
Emo: Search your feelings, Dylan... you know it to be true.
Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Many villains end up like that.
Expy: Mana Cerace the boogeyman is a pretty obvious one of Freddy Krueger.
Fiery Red Head: Lillie.
Flat Earth Atheist: Dylan is strangely skeptical for someone who has faced any sort of supernatural occurences.
Freaky Is Cool: Another trope used to nail in the concept that normal humans are the most terrifying creatures.
Girl of the Week: There might not be a better example of this trope.
Green Aesop: Dylan's favourite.
The Grim Reaper: She and Dylan spend a lot of time together.
Heterosexual Life Partners: Dylan and Groucho.
- Dylan and Marcus in the film.
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Bree Daniels.
Hot Witch: Kim.
Humans Are Bastards: Oh, boys...
Impersonating an Officer: This is part of Dylan's shtick as he works on a case. To be fair, he actually was a cop once, and kept his ID card. A running gag is when he uses it and thinks "Hope (s)he doesn't notice it's expired". Often, they do.
Incredibly Lame Pun: Every other sentence said by Groucho.
Killed Off for Real: Lillie and Bree. Possibly Kim too.
Knight in Sour Armor: Inspector Bloch.
Knight Templar: Many of Dylan's enemies embody this trope.
Loners Are Freaks: Utterly subverted, starting with Dylan himself.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Xabaras is Dylan's father.
Mandatory Twist Ending: All the stories written by author Chiaverotti - so much, in fact, that fans now commonly refer to this kind of finales as a "Chiaverotti ending".
Mind Screw: Almost every storyline about Dylan's past. And quite a few of others.
Monster of the Week: What's gonna be this month?
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Dylan either saves the day... or ruins everything.
- One of the best examples happens when Dylan tracks a Serial Killer who is murdering children and stops her. It turns out she was a good fairy and the children were a demonic breed plotting the apocalypse. Whoops.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Groucho, Dylan's sidekick. Quite obviously so.
No Export for You: Averted... sort of. Dark Horse Comics have translated a whopping seven albums, with brand new covers by Mike Mignola.
- And even then, Groucho had to be called Felix, and his moustache was edited out.
Non-Action Guy: Dylan, while not totally incompetent in dangerous situations, isn't definitely an Action Hero and gets his ass handed to himself fairly often.
- Lampshaded in the film:
Dylan: "For someone who thinks he's pretty smart, I sure get the crap kicked out of me alot"
- Groucho and Bloch are even better examples of this trope.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Groucho.
Oedipus Complex: Dylan for Morgana, big time.
Plucky Comic Relief: Groucho!
Pungeon Master: Groucho again.
Serial Killer: An alarming number of them.
Shout Out: Trying to list all of them would be a superhuman task. Stephen King is a favourite target.
- A fairly important recurring character is called professor Wells.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Dylan is a hopeless romantic, while the series itself can be rather bleak and cynical.
Status Quo Is God: A constant. Even if the story ends with Dylan dying or the world ending, next month the Reset Button will be pushed. Seriously.
- Usually is only a dream (Cagliostro's dream in two different episodies). Or some cosmic entity, namely Death, resets everything because "it's more interesting this way". Hell's Burocratic Department is good at hiding things, too.
STD Immunity: Dylan either has this or is very, very lucky.
Tall, Dark and Handsome: Dylan.
Vomiting Cop: Bloch!
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Xabaras.
Who You Gonna Call?: If you have a problem with ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies or anything supernatural, call Dylan. He comes cheap and he is a nice guy. There's a good chance he will fuck things up and will get you killed, though. And if you have a very hot wife, call someone else.
- Stop that noise, man. Dylan Dog will never lay one hand on your wife! Your widow, on the other hand... or your innocent, pretty daughter... nephew... baby sitter... whatever.
Zombie Apocalypse: Xabaras has developed a serum that turns people into zombies. It also happens in the confusing story when Morgana is introduced.
- And the story "Orrore Nero" (Black Horror) features The Mafia using a Zombie-like serum to fake their deaths.

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Dylan Dog provides examples of:

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Dylan Dog provides examples of:

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