The Faceless / Webcomics

---

• Black Mage in 8-Bit Theater always kept his face hidden in the shade beneath his hat: This was because his face didn't conform to euclidian geometry, and therefore looking upon it could drive people insane.
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja has a Cerebus Retcon involving how none of the McNinjas ever take off their masks, even to eat or vomit. As nobody has seen their faces, they can remove the mask to disguise their identity and vanish.
• Galehaut from Arthur, King of Time and Space is only shown from the neck down just because he's so damn tall.

• Greliz from Beyond the Canopy. He always wears a paper bag over his head, even if he's wearing another mask over it.
• In Blip, The Adversary has several layers of this. In his first appearance, in one of K's lucid dreams, K wills herself awake before he can appear on-panel. When he finally shows up on-panel, his face is obscured via in-story pixellation. Then the pixellation is removed, and he's wearing a white mask underneath it.

• The Villain Protagonist of Chopping Block is consistently shown wearing a hockey mask, even in a flashback to when he was in the womb. He's taken it off two times—once with his Face Framed in Shadow, and once to reveal the face of the artist who draws the comic.
• DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything:
  • In the chapters leading up to chapter 109, X can be seen only as a silhouette. In 109, he appears with only his face hidden before showing himself fully.
  • Mooyoung and Dawn appear In the Hood until it's revealed they look too similar to Taebin and Not Quite Dead respectively.
• In Dominic Deegan, in his first few appearances, the King of Callan's face was either just off panel, or in one case behind a voice bubble. He's eventually revealed to have a perfectly normal face, save his Monochromatic Eyes.
• Batdragon, who is a parody of Batman, in Dragon City always wears his cowl when on screen. This is possibly because none of the main characters of the comic knows what he looks like. There was one instance where he wasn't, but his face was shadowed out for comedic effect.
• In El Goonish Shive, Susan's father's face is never fully seen. In Susan's dream he is shown only from the back, standing behind someone, in silhouette or simply with his face blacked out, in her flashback his face is in shadow with only his mouth visible even when he is in the foreground. He apparently resembles Adrian Raven.
• Played with in this Emergency Exit strip. Kyran deliberately uses extremely dim lighting to create a sinister atmosphere for his guest. The guest, however, would really rather just have some lights on.
• In Everyday Heroes, Mr. Mighty rarely takes his mask off, even when relaxing at home. His face is seen during the flashback episodes. (Also, he was once shown getting out of the shower, leading to speculation as to whether he is bald.)
  • The Big Bad Doc Tormentor is only seen in silhouette, or from an angle where his face isn't shown.
• Like in the games, Jeremy Fitzgerald's face in Five Kids at Freddy's is never seen. Though in this case it's because he constantly wears the Freddy mask.

• Clifford Mayers, the main villain and scheming billionaire in Funny Farm has an unexplained shadow covering the upper half of his face apparently caused by his characteristic hair, regardless of where the light is coming from. The shadow disappears later in the story when his evil plans are foiled, and begins to reappear as he gets back into the scheming. Flashbacks from before he turned evil also reveals him as shadow-less.
  • When he wore dark glasses as part of a disguise, he sometimes displayed Scary Shiny Glasses instead (even though you couldn't see his eyes anyway...)
• Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!!), from his very first appearance in Girl Genius, wears a spiffy silver visor over his eyes. Astonishingly, when his eyes are shown, they're the prettiest shade of baby blue imaginable.
• In Girls with Slingshots, there is a minor female character whose eyes are always covered by her own speech bubble or someone else's.
  • Lampshaded by the Alt Text of a later strip.
  I still have no explanation for Miss Conrad's head.
• The black cat from Girly has no face, but still manages to produce a meow that shakes characters to their souls.
• Kore from Goblins. His armor and helm conceal his entire body except for one eye and some beard.
  • He had to take the helmet off once after he got Tele Fragged in the throat with a rope, but the comic switched to back views until he puts it back on.
• In Godslave, Heru's face is kept hidden either by shadows or end of a panel for the first several chapters.
• In The Greenhouse, we never see much of the mage who originally summoned the demon 'Red', and subsequently bound her. She's only visible for a few panels, either from the back or with her eyes shadowed or cut off by the border.
• Anthony Carver in Gunnerkrigg Court, at least as an adult. Fitting, considering that (as of Ch 27) we know less of him and his motivation than any other major character in the comic.
  • He is eventually revealed in Chapter 51
• In Harkovast, the Wizard Quinn-Tain is only seen from behind.
• Homestuck: There has never been a clear, detailed view of a Denizen's face. Most of them are completely unseen, only being portrayed by the (simplistic) browser icons of their respective players and minions that look like those icons. Yaldabaoth's head is obscured by an extremely bright light coming from it at all times, and while the light fades when he's dead, he's only shown from behind after that. Brief glimpses of his face behind the light are visible in Collide, but that's about it. The one time Echidna is shown, her entire upper portion is cut off the top of the panel. By the time he's seen, Typheus' face is heavily obscured by "glitches" that had appeared in the session thanks to the Big Bad messing around with the story's "cartridge" (long story), but he appears to have a smaller version of Yaldabaoth's obscuring light anyway. One character who was telling a story of John and Typheus through artistic depictions would have drawn Typheus herself, but her species found his appearance (a giant green snake-creature) to be dirty, so the other (human) person in that location drew him instead — as a much more simple, crude outline.
• The bounty hunter Maricax in Jix is always shown wearing a mask, except for one time after he had been injured, but his face was wrapped in bandages. All of his other appearances after that showed him wearing a mask.
• In the Mr. & Mrs. Rockhound cartoons of The KA Mics Mr. Rockhound's cousin Lenny is usually off-screen, but on the few occasions that he's 'appeared' the lights were out & we just saw his eyes, another time he wore a penguin costume so we just saw his eyes & tail, another time a rock had fallen on him so we just saw his hand.
• In Kevin & Kell, Kell's boss, R.L., is only shown as a protruding - usually salivating - wolf snout (And occasionally his arms).
• Decoy Octopus from The Last Days of FOXHOUND typically takes on the appearance of one of his coworkers. However, when he appears in a spiritual realm, such as when he is tested by The Sorrow, he appears as only a fedora and a trenchcoat, with no face or body.
• Leif & Thorn: A recurring man-in-black type is always seen in convenient shadow, and other characters experience Laser-Guided Amnesia for her appearance.
• In Life and Death Steve was like this originally, because he didn't want anyone to see his scarred face, but he's gotten that fixed. Bobby's face is, so far, kept secret from the audience, but Brunhilda thought it was very good looking.
• An active parody of this in Looking for Group: Richard's features are never shown clearly. Only his eyes are visible and the rest of his face is covered by a veil at all times. The character is inherently evil, so it's more than likely a parody.
• Mr. Hand in The Mansion of E; his face is always covered or off-panel.
• In Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden, after 17 chapters, we had never seen Augustus Amherst's original, pre-Renoir, face. Even in flashbacks he's NEVER seen.
• In Okashina Okashi, Dahlia, a mysterious female assassin, always hides in the shadows - even in an open battlefield.
• One Girl Guy Army: A villain character named Vonbastion doesn't show a face, or mouth behind the cloak. A very calm and unknowing character. Doesn't even show it's Gender to anyone including the reader.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • The Monster in the Darkness is always hidden within shadows, so that all we see are two glowing eyes. This is because Xykon wants to reveal the monster to the heroes at a suitably dramatic moment, and contrived circumstances keep stopping him from doing so. When he has to travel, he carries an area of darkness around with him by means of a magical Hello Kitty umbrella.
  • Similarly, the three fiends of the Inter-Fiend Cooperation Commission have their faces shrouded in darkness so that only their different colored eyes show—which effectively serves to visually unify them, since they probably have wildly different anatomies under their hoods.
• Pixie and Brutus: Pixie and Brutus' owner appears in one panel, shown from the neck down (probably because the panel is drawn from Pixie's perspective).
• Andrius in The Pocalypse. His face is only seen once◊.
• Precocious: Myra Doyle is only ever seen by the lights of her eyes.
• PVP also has a minor character (Jase's girlfriend, Bonnie) whose face is obscured by her own speech bubbles.
• In Rhapsodies the face of Deidre the psychopomp is never seen. Even when she is facing the camera it is conveniently hidden. (Whether this applies to other psychopomps is yet to be shown.))
• In Rezz & Co Bounty Hunters, Rezz Kara never takes off his armor or helmet, even in his sleep.
• Rosebuds: The parents of Rosa, Maria, and Maricela have appeared in the comic, but their faces never seen due to either them being at an angle where nothing can be seen or their speech bubbles outright completely hiding them.
• In Safe Havens:
  • Dave's teacher Miss Callowood was always shown from behind.
  • Don and Marjorie, two basketball players, used to be shown only from the neck down to emphasize their tallness. Don's face was eventually revealed on the birth of his son, and Marjorie's when scientific experimentation gone awry caused Rosalind to grow over six feet tall: she and Marjorie bonded over being tall ladies.
• Sam & Fuzzy has numerous characters which fall under the masked variety. Though they are primarily mooks or secondary characters (and ALWAYS ninjas), Mr. Blank and Mr. Black served as major characters for one story arc. They were also distinguished by having their masks fully conceal their faces. Most other ninjas have an opening for the eyes, but their eyes are only drawn rarely. Mr. X and Mr. Y are also recurring characters who often cover their entire face, but sometimes reveal their mouths.
• The characters in A Simple Thinking About Blood Type are almost always drawn with a mask with their blood-type written on it.
• Sleepless Domain: The face of the girl who appears in the Dream is almost never shown to the audience, owing to the fact that, with few exceptions, no one can remember seeing her at all after she appears to them. Her face is obscured by a character's speech bubble in her first appearance, and from then on she only appears in characters' dreams, where she takes the form of a washed-out silhouette of white and gold. Her face is finally made visible when the Purple One allows Tessa to remember her Dream.
• In Sluggy Freelance, Hereti Corp's board room is specifically designed to keep everyone's faces hidden in shadows. Since many of these characters are rarely seen outside the board room (including Diabolical Mastermind Daedalus), it takes quite a while before readers get a good look at their faces. Daedalus in particular gets very annoyed if someone turns on the lights inside the board room and will usually cover his face until they're turned off again.
• In Something*Positive, Mike and Tamara's son Shazam Wil-Wheaton was only shown from behind, but other characters' reactions implied he was hideously ugly. After more than six years, he was finally shown here.
• In The Specialists, the Bombardier won't show his face, and won't tell why.
• Mommy and Daddy in Stuffed. Often, their heads are not included in the frame. If their full body is shown, they're either seen from behind or their faces are obscured by text balloons or pieces of scenery.

• The Straw Men "carnists" (non-vegans) of Vegan Artbook usually appear as ordinary or colored silhouettes unless they're Shawn or Cuntons.
• Vampire Girl:
  • Saul and Paul are initially introduced into the story as such, with their fedoras and trench coats darkening and obscuring every inch of their faces, except for their big red eyes, until they revealed their true selves.
  • The Vampiress, meanwhile, remains this way, as she wears a hooded robe that darkens a majority of her face with the exception of her mouth, and her glowing red eyes.
• In Voldemort's Children, both Voldemort and Dumbledore usually appear with the top halves of their heads concealed in shadow, so that only a mouth is visible.
• Slick from Waterworks is dressed in a highly advanced diving suit that hides his face completely. Late in the comic, however, he can be seen without his suit in his flashback.
• Lampshaded in The Wotch. Up until recently, Xaos/the Worlock had always been seen with a helmet that hid the upper half of his face, if not all of it. In this comic, we finally see him without his helmet on (in a flashback), and in the first two panels in which he appears, the upper half of his face is obscured by a tree branch. He then moves it out of the way, muttering, "Stupid tree branch keeps getting in my face".

---