Shortpacked! is a webcomic by David Willis and a part of the Walkyverse.The title refers to the toy store where the main characters work, and the strip starts with Robin — It's Walky's hyperactive speedster — taking a position there as a saleswoman. Mike has already been working there for some time by then, in spite of... certain factors that may render this unlikely. The cast also includes:
Faz, an unctuous Smug Snake who only pauses from climbing the corporate ladder to try and get into Amber's pants. Turns out to be Amber's half-brother (much to her horror).
Leslie Bean, a self-sacrificing romantic young lesbian who falls for Robin. They're currently exes, and now it's Robin who's pining after her.
Jacob, the resident straight man (in both senses), trying to make sense of his coworkers' quirks. He's also a recovering sex addict with an addictive personality.
Galasso, the deranged, tyrannical manager of the Shortpacked Toy Store.
Ultra-Car, a talking car with robotic arms an an arrogant attitude. He works in the stock room and has been described as a "poor man'sMike."
Drew, Ethan's ex-boyfriend.
Roz, Robin's selfish, freeloading sister who runs a porn site.
Ken, hired to fill the Asian quota. His main gag so far is the fact that people keep forgetting he exists. Also the Dogged Nice Guy to...
Jeshua, the historical Jesus Christ, brought back to work in the store by the same means Galasso resurrected Reagan.
The following appear pretty sporadically these days:
Conquest ('Connie'), Galasso's beautiful daughter. Used to really get around to satisfy her father's need for an heir, but has since moved on to be a successful toy-store-chain owner in her own right.
Ninja Rick, who is obsessed with all things ninja and is under the delusion that his life is a manga. He doesn't talk much.
The general tone of the comic is lighter and wackier than its predecessors, and though its characters do indulge in angst from time to time, it's more the result of, say, the moral ramifications of keeping your boss prisoner in a storage closet than any realism in the storylines. It's also more pop-culture oriented — jokes regarding Transformers and Batman abound — and more prone to filler than Willis's previous works. Whether or not this is a bad thing depends on how big a fan you are of Transformers and Batman.
Abusive Parents: Amber suffers from self-esteem issues out the cahoozie due to a rather demanding and unforgiving father who's been shown to be physically violent.
Leslie was also disowned by her parents when she came out of the closet.
Acceptable Hobby Targets: In-Universe. For Malaya, it seems every hobby is something worthy of total derision. Unfortunately, she's putting the moves on Leslie, a die-hard sci-fi fan.
Art Evolution: Willis already had a pretty consistent style by the beginning of the series, but as the series has gone on it's gone from black-and-white to color, changed the color palette, and tended away from the more dynamic art of the initial strips.
Asexual: Ultra-car. The antics of the sexual beings and their drama continue to annoy him.
Possibly Galasso as well. He can't even tell a male and female apart, and Leslie and Ethan have to give him The Talk (it doesn't go too well). No one's really sure where his daughter Conquest came from, in-universe or out.
Ass Shove: Robin uses Faz to give Sarah Palin the Hancock treatment. "Faz is... envy of Fox News..."
As the Good Book Says: When Galasso tries to lecture Jeshua, He responds by quoting the book of Matthew.
Willis occasionally makes a cameo as Ethan's arch-nemesis on the Transformers wiki, most notably in one short storyline where he proposed to his girlfriend.
When Willis isn't around, Ethan frequently acts as an author avatar, making instances of them meeting... interesting.
Author Filibuster: Ethan is frequently used as the author's mouthpiece for ranting about Transformersfandom as well as fandom in general. He goes through a fair amount of Self-Deprecation about this, though.
Subverted - Robin tries to make Ethan jealous by pretending she is a lesbian, but it only irritates him (and of course, since Robin is now in an actual lesbian relationship, one has to wonder how much of her act was genuine pretence...).
Blackmail: This is how Amber gets Mike to date her.
Blush Sticker: At first just Ronnie, but due to Art Evolution they're eventually applied to the entire cast. Some characters, however, eventually lose them, and Mike only ever gets them when he's drunk.
Brick Joke: In the storyline where it's revealed that Faz is Amber's half-brother, we meet Rose and Zaph, two Amber and Faz look-alikes. Much later, Amber attends her father's funeral. Rose and Zaph are both attending.
Caffeine Bullet Time: Robin blacks out for several months, and when she wakes up, she's a member of the House of Representatives. Funny thing is, she's continued serving for the rest of the decade, despite spending most of her time at Shortpacked.
She attempts to do this deliberately in order to legislate World Peace. It technically works, but the resulting utopia only lasts a few weeks. And the effect these events had on Robins personal life was...rather tragic.
Ethan: What else did I miss? Amber: Iowa okayed gay marriage. Ethan: I'm serious. What's new? Amber: The store had a near-orgy. Ethan: You continue to tell me lies.
Mike attempts to give his condolences for the passing of Amber's pet hamster. Her reaction? Rabid, disbelieving laughter. Granted, he may not actually feel sorry for the animal, but is still sincere in wanting her to feel better.
Ceiling Cling: Attempted, but Leslie watches far too much sci-fi to fall for it.
Celebrity Paradox: The strip has done a crossover with Something Positive, with Davan appearing in a strip and delivering one of Chho-Choo's kittens to Roz. However, a Something Positive booth with a full-size banner of Davan was seen in the background of a strip set at a convention, and Randy Milholland was mentioned as existing in-universe.
Similarly, Ethan started out as the Straight Man, with no real defining quirks outside of his being a fan of Batman and Transformers. But both of these elements, in combination with his Fan Hater tendencies towards members of the latter fandom, gradually turned him more self-righteous and more fanatical. While the Straight Man aspect of his character still lingers, the role's now much more likely to be filled by Leslie, Jacob or—as those two also have their fair share of quirks—a random bystander or Bit Character.
There is a whole saga that goes under the name "When Robin Didn't Meet that Other Guy", in which Robin (has the chance to but) doesn't meet Jake Manley. A LOT later, when fans had already forgotten about him, they finally meet.
Death Is Cheap: Not only does Mike come back, somehow Galasso also resurrects Ronald Reagan (and later Jesus) to work in his store. It's never explained how or why he can do this.
Dysfunction Junction: practically all the characters have issues. And let's not even get started on the relationships between them...
Everybody Remembers the Stripper: In-universe. Robin's been a congresswoman key in landmark legislation for two terms with active campaigning for a third term, and before that was a decorated war hero. All anybody remembers is that one sex tape.
By this point, everyone but Galasso and Reagan have had some form of romantic encounter with members of both sexes.
Even Reagan is rather suspect, as he's still at least technically married to Nancy, and admits himself that he knew Rock Hudson. How well did they know one another?
Evil Overlord: Galasso. At least he thinks he is. That his "domain" is just a freakin' toy store doesn't seem to register.
Evil Twin: Inverted; there's another store called McAwesome's Parasailing and Chocolate Bakery, which is basically a much-improved version of Shortpacked!. Ethan juuust avoided going to work there because he happened to see Shortpacked! on the other corner.
Fan Dumb: Ethan's obsessions with Batman and Transformers is an In-Universe example, which mirror David Willis' own. (Specifically, he's a Fan Hater while being a member of the fandoms he hates.) Things get really surreal when Willis cameos...and gets into a brawl with Ethan over the Transformers Wiki.
Foreshadowing: In the strip where Robin persuades Amber to snoop around Mike's room Mike's McAwesome's uniform is somewhat visible in his closet a while before it actually comes up in the story.
Forgot Flanders Could Do That: Fans note Faz's tendency to speak in the Third Person and are thus continually surprised when he says "I" or "Me", which he has in fact done since his introduction.
Fridge Horror: In-universe, Amber seems to suffer from a case of this when she realizes Faz might actually be her half-brother.
The Fun in Funeral: A slightly low-key version at Amber's dad's funeral. Mike attends in party attire, complete with little paper hat, noisemaker, and confetti; Amber freely admits to one of the mourners that her father was an abusive asshole; Faz introduces Amber to his new girlfriend and their...disturbing sex life; finally, Amber berates her father's corpse for dying before she got a chance to stand up to him...and then Mike flips off both middle fingers to the corpse while delivering this line:
Mike: Later, jerkhole. I'm fuckin' your daughter.
Guy on Guy Is Hot: Robin and Amber both think this. Witnessing anything of this assortment makes Amber lose the ability to form coherent sentences.
Last Het Romance: Robin for Ethan. She already suspects that he's gay, but was pursuing him anyway. He's not interested. She gets pissed off when he bangs a chick, and when he asks why she shouts he's supposed to be gay. Confronted with this, something goes click in his mind. Cue gayness.
Late Arrival Spoiler: If you're reading for the first time, avoid the comments section unless you really want to know in the first few strips about every relationship snag and plot twist throughout the whole comic.
Seems confirmed now. Robin secretly had their DNA tested.
Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Well, mad store owner's beautiful daughter, Conquest Galasso. She has a lot of sex, at her father's urging, as he "needs a male heir". What he doesn't know is she's on birth control and has been for quite a while.
He wants an heir, and she's a nymphomaniac. "Lots of sex" is the one thing they agree on.
Of Corsets Sexy: Amber briefly tries this when Robin informs her that it will make her attractive and therefore unapproachable.
Oh Crap: Amber punches Mike hard enough to make him smile. The end times are upon us all.
Only Sane Man: Ethan in early strips, but as he was revealed to be just as screwed up as the rest of the cast, Leslie took over the role. Now she's caught up in craziness too and it's Jacob's turn to be the Straight Man (literally). And then it turned out even he has a quirk.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Robin has no idea who Amazi-Girl actually is. Her confusion lead to her accusing Amber of being Ultra-car for some reason. Fans continue the joke, never recognizing Amazi-Girl.
Omnios was a real user on the Allspark Forums, which David Willis is a member of. Omnios has since been banned, but he's achieved a bit of Memetic Mutation as one who One Who Must Not Be Spoken Of amongst the Allspark users.
A more subtle one is Faz's full name: Faz O. Lee, punning on the Italian restaurant chain Fazoli's, which at one point had an ad campaign featuring a kid with an infuriatingly smug smile on his face.
Also subverted a bit later :
Robin: Hey, it's that guy !
Thad: My name is Thaddeus.
Robin:Thad ? Is your last name "Guy" ?
Thad: No.
Robin: Dang, that would've been convenient.
Malaya means free in the Philippine language. Doubles as Meaningful Name.
Put on a Bus: After the "end of Shortpacked" storyline, Ronnie quietly announced that he was retiring again.
Robin literally put Roz on a bus after her first appearance. It didn't take, apparently.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Amber, when cursing the fact that she can't afford the new 80s Ninja Turtles toys because she's buying stuff for the coming baby instead.
Riddle For The Ages: How did Mike come back to life? Yes, Death Is Cheap, but Mike's resurrection is impossible even by the methods present in the Walkyverse. General consensus among readers is that he came back to life through sheer spite.
Relatedly, how exactly does Galasso manage to bring back dead people? And why does he have trouble with basic concepts like gender?
Refuge in Audacity: Okay, we need to repeat this. Robin shoves Faz up Sarah Palin's ass.
"Faz is the envy of Fox News!"
While not reaching that level of ridiculous, we should also point out that Mike tricked Amber's mom into sleeping with their relapsing sex-addict neighbor, recorded the sounds from said sex, and then spliced several of the sounds together to form the message "Amber, will you marry me?".
Revenge Before Reason: Sydney Yuss makes some odd plans to get revenge for being fired.
Running Gag: Major characters calling minor character Ken by the wrong name: "I knew it was something from Street Fighter!" Picked up quickly by the commenters, where it's become obligatory to call him by a new Street Fighter character name every time he's referred to.
Aslan is always waiting for a bus. The one time it showed up, he'd just been called away.
Sanity Slippage: Anyone who works at Shortpacked (and quite a few of the customers) will inevitably regress/evolve into or reveal themselves to be a tangled, neurotic mess. Or a jerk. Or both.
Shark Pool: Galasso has one installed right under the store.
A very subtle reference to It's Walky! in the title of this strip, "Four Words". For the uninitiated, Head Alien surprised Walky with the knowledge that Sal is his twin sister by saying: "Okay, four words..." This reveal is similarly brain-shattering.
Either a Shout Out or a Take That flavored with some Refuge in Audacity: The banner ads featuring some weird picture of David Willis (say, sitting in a bubble bath, or eating a corn dog on a toilet) with "Please Read: A Personal Appeal From David Willis" in the style of the donation drive ads that appeared on The Other Wiki.
Amber is unimpressed with a plot summary of Roomies.
Shown Their Work: The "Secondish Coming" arc has a realistic-looking portrayal of Jesus as a short, dark-skinned man.
Smug Snake: Faz. He's hilariously bad at it. Roz is a more subtle example, given her efforts to insinuate herself into her sister's life and seduce all of her friends.
Spit Take: Played with. Robin hears something shocking while taking a drink, only to swallow. She then takes another drink just so she can have a proper spit-take, complete with Unsound Effect.
Straight Gay: Ethan was probably the most normal character until Jacob came along. At one point, Amber laments that he is not a Magical Queer.
Straw Fan: Numerous one-shot characters, and a few nameless recurring extras. Oddly enough, most of them are actually members of the Transformers fandom, not the comic's.
Test Kiss: When Ethan turns out to be gay, Robin tries this.
Third-Person Person: Faz slips in and out of this speech pattern. Can be blamed more on his arrogance than on any difficulty speaking English.
The Talk: Leslie and Ethan decide they must give this to Galasso when they discover he not only doesn't understand what sex is, but possibly what gender is.
What Does She See in Him?: Jacob point blank asks Amber why she would possibly want to marry someone like Mike telling her she could do better. It might have worked if he had given her this speech a year or two ago, but by this point she's genuinely in love with him, against all odds.
What the Hell, Hero?: At one point, Ethan gets into an argument with one of the recurring straw fans (Duncan), only to have it pointed out to him that he's in no position to criticize anyone due to letting the others keep Galasso locked up. Cue brief Heroic BSOD, followed by him deciding enough's enough.
Writer Revolt: Malaya was originally created and put up on Twitter as a sarcastic response to a fan that said that you can't create a character specifically to be non-white or female because of 'the dangers of tokenism'.
Yandere: Robin this time, towards Ethan, until she got over him.
is a webcomic by David Willis and a part of the Walkyverse.The title refers to the toy store where the main characters work, and the strip starts with Robin — It's Walky's hyperactive speedster — taking a position there as a saleswoman. Mike has already been working there for some time by then, in spite of... certain factors that may render this unlikely. The cast also includes:
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