Webcomic / The Monster Under the Bed

Tim is a perfectly ordinary 18-year-old young man, who has nothing special going for him. At least, that's what you would think if you didn't know about his nightly visits from his girlfriend, who happens to be a dark-skinned demon from another dimension, and that the portal she uses to get to Earth just happens to be located right under Tim's bed. What seems like a fun, romantic romp between human and monster turns into a story of drama and intrigue, both in the monster world and human world.

The Monster Under the Bed is a webcomic by Brandon Shane, based on his original story of the same name. This webcomic is NSFW, so there is a link to a safe page provided. Updates Sundays.

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This webcomic provides examples of:

• Absence of Evidence: The monsters can't smell other monsters the way that they can smell humans, so Shadow manages to figure out the Ruth/Ruthless connection partially because Ruth didn't have a scent.
• Adaptation Drift: The first chapter of the Comic-Book Adaptation has more-or-less the same plot as the first chapter of the Web Serial Novel, albeit with some minor changes (such as Tim's two attempts to make a mousetrap in the book being combined into one attempt in the webcomic), but the later chapters go in an entirely different direction with only a few plot elements borrowed from the novel. Whereas the novel did a Time Skip to Tim and Shadow's late teens, the comic stays in their childhood years, with numerous characters getting reworked to fit this new setting (the novel's Big Bad Lord Terminus is reduced to a supporting character while his dragon Nightmare is turned into an Alpha Bitch). Chapter 4 subverts this. The Time Skip finally happens and Terminus usurps his superior to take his throne, setting himself up to be the Big Bad again.
• Adaptation Expansion: The webcomic heavily expands upon Tim and Shadow's childhood years, going from the first chapter and a few passing mentions in the book to three chapters in the comic. To put this into perspective, it took the comic eight years to reach Chapter 2 of the original story.
• Adapted Out:
  • In the original story and early artworks, the monsters are depicted with wings. This was cut in the webcomic.
  • The Sisterhood's Valkyrie-esque elites and their leader Nightfire, the silver star were omitted from the comic.
• Affectionate Nickname: Lady Moonlight refers to Shadow as her "darkest angel".
• All the Other Reindeer: Shadow's love of human culture has caused her to be a bit socially isolated.
• Alpha Bitch: What we have seen of Nightmare so far suggests she is going to be that type of character, being a total jerk to Shadow and apparently quite power hungry. Currently she is teaming up with Terminus for some plot to seize power.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The monsters. Shadow's ashen skin and yellow eyes are tame, but Midnight has blue skin and hair, Lady Moonlight's hair and body are a silvery blue, and Blackheart's skin is dark yellow.
• Animesque: The comic sports a clearly anime-inspired art direction, though it still retains a noticeable Western look in some of the designs.
• Another Dimension: Nox, the place where the monsters exist. The silvery badge-like objects the monsters wear allow them to travel between Nox and the human world.
• Art Evolution: The art direction gets increasingly more detailed in later pages; the character designs are less chibi-looking, the coloring and shading become more polished, the outlines are more smoother, and the backgrounds are less flat.
• Awkward Kiss: Shadow and Tim's first kiss gets derailed when preteens run into the realities of a pretty deep kiss.
  Shadow: Eww! I think I touched your tongue with my tongue! Gross!
  Tim: Yuck! I got your spit in my mouth!
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Implied with Shadow not liking the idea of being called a "good girl" and liking it when Tim calls her a "weirdo".
• The Blind Leading the Blind: A page with Terminus and Nightmare trying to find a specific door is titled this, as Terminus is going from a book, isn't 100% sure the door exists, and they literally only find it because Nightmare stumbles upon it.. Though he did apparently know enough to get Nightmare to come so he could open the door. Then, of course, they get surprised by another door.
• Boy Meets Ghoul: Tim meets Shadow.
• Bring My Brown Pants: According to the caption, Craig after Shadow reverted to her natural form to scare him.
• The Bully: Craig to Tim and Shadow; if Tim's initial reaction to seeing him is anything to go by, it's far from the first time.
• Cassandra Truth: Tim tries to prove that a monster has been stealing his socks. He manages to get a picture, but has bad timing in presenting it to his parents. After getting to know Shadow, he stops trying.
• Casting a Shadow: Shadow's monster faction can travel to Earth via the shadows under beds.
• Clear My Name: Tim's mom blames him for the missing socks, so he sets out to get a picture of the thief. He succeeds, but eventually decides to deflect things away from Shadow to keep her a secret.
• Comic-Book Time: Averted; Tim starts off as an 11-year-old at the beginning of the comic, and ages as the story goes on.
• Cryptic Conversation: Blackheart and Lady Moonlight have one, dropping hints about Shadow, why Moonlight glows, and a book in Blackheart's possession.
• Cute Monster Girl: Shadow has grey skin, fiery red hair, three-fingered claw hands and sharp three-toed feet, yellow cat-like eyes, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and a prehensile tail with a red spade on the end; however she's still recognizably feminine and pretty. Lampshaded by Tim when she asks him why he isn't afraid of her, and he answers you can't possibly be scared of something so adorable. Later posts show the other monster girls are just as cute-looking.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The monsters seem to have noticeably different views on relationships compared to human cultures.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Midnight notices a weird sticky white substance on Shadow's dress immediately after she has just caught her sneaking back from a visit with Tim. It's cake frosting.
• Doorstop Baby: Shadow apparently, as she admitted it herself.
• The Empath: Borderlines with Emotion Eater. The monsters can feel fear, and they gain satisfaction from it. Tim's is especially strong; Shadow almost got drunk.
• Everyone Has Standards: Midnight is not very fond of humans, but she calls Shadow out when she attempted and failed to give Marcy a Traumatic Haircut in her sleep, saying, "they're supposed to scare them, not ugly them up".
• Failed a Spot Check: Timothy somehow didn't notice that his mom looked more like a monster than a human woman. Granted, he was in a rush (as he overslept and was worried about being late for school) and likely half-asleep.
• Expressive Ears: Monsters have long ears shaped vaguely like bat wings that move around quite a bit according to their moods.
• Fantastic Arousal: While not seemingly an actual erogenous zone, the monsters' tails are stated to be quite sensitive. They also happen to be prehensile.
• Foregone Conclusion: Shadow and Tim getting together will happen, given how most of the story is a flashback. So Marcy's attraction to him obviously won't pan out.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Shadow loves human horror flicks.
• Foreshadowing:
  • There are a lot of hints that Ruth, Tim's mother, is actually Lady Blackheart in disguise.
    • She somehow is able to sense that her husband has gotten into her hidden stash of cookies in the kitchen from inside their bedroom, and a Sweet Tooth seems to be common among monsters.
    • Shadow says that Tim's dad smells a lot like him which is what attracted Shadow to Tim in the first place.
    • A series of shadowy flashbacks that Lady Blackheart has show what appears to be Tim's parents in silhouette.
    • Ruth asks Tim if he thinks she's a monster because he thought he wouldn't be getting cake on his birthday.
    • Ruth once walks into Tim's room while he's sleeping to give him a motherly kiss, and he responds by unconsciously saying goodnight to Shadow. At first, she is surprised to hear that but quickly smiles to herself in some sort of satisfaction, heavily implying she knows Shadow herself.
    • Blackheart later shows up and helps Shadow get ready for Halloween, with Shadow obviously having not told her anything of her plans.
    • Tim mentions seeing a "golden lion" costume he vaguely remembers seeing her wear, but she doesn't know what he's talking about for a second and seems to get nervous when she does.
    • Shadow, apparently with Blackheart's help, is able to make herself look like a human girl somehow so she and Tim can spend Halloween together without raising suspicion.
    • Ruth is seemingly not surprised at all to see Shadow show up at the house looking for Tim, exclaims how cute she is loudly, and emphasizes "have fun" when they leave.
    • When Tim asks how Shadow is making herself look human, she mentions the hammock in Tim's backyard.
    • When trick-or-treating, Shadow starts talking about a weird feeling Ruth gives her, but is interrupted, and drops it when she scares the bully into fleeing.
    • After the confirmation that Ruth and Blackheart are one and the same, the author teases the readers about all the foreshadowing.
  • Terminus somehow knows about the practice of human kisses, despite both Shadow's discussions with Tim and Nightmare's reactions to it showing this isn't something monsters usually do. This hints to The Reveal that he is in a relationship with a human girl.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Shadow suggested this upon learning about the holiday, though Tim points out that she looks a bit too real (the alt text points out that her prehensile tail alone would raise some eyebrows). She later gets some help from Blackheart to make a better costume.
• Four-Fingered Hands: The monsters only have four fingers and three toes on each hand or foot with claws on both.
• Freudian Slip: Terminus lets one out when he finds the second door about achieving "his destiny" and not mentioning Nightmare.
• Funbag Airbag: Shadow, happily distracted after departing from Tim, meets Lady Blackheart in this manner.
  It might be wise to play closer attention when you are playing such a dangerous game, young lady.
• Gender Equals Breed: Tim takes after his father in the species department, apparently.
• Generation Xerox: It's revealed that Lady Moonlight knows another monster who had a romantic relationship with a human, who goes by the name Blackheart (though this is apparently not her given name). Same with Lord Mortis and a human girl named Olivia in the original story that predates the webcomic.
• Girls Have Cooties: Young Tim doesn't like girls. It all changed after he met Shadow. Interestingly, his lack of anxiety around her may have been related to the fact that she didn't look human; when she unexpectedly turns up disguised as a human for Halloween, his anxiety rapidly reappears.
• GIS Syndrome: The backgrounds for the outdoor scenes are usually just live-action photographs.
• Going Commando: At the very least Shadow is (to Tim's embarrassment), but given she didn't know what underwear even is, it's pretty likely all the monsters are. Their banter just before having sex for the first time implies that she figured things out quite some time back but chose to not wear underwear so she could continue to flash him.
• Great Big Book of Everything: Blackheart is mentioned to have a book, apparently called an "Encyclopedia", of great renown that she is giving to Shadow.
• Half-Human Hybrid:
  • Timothy Newton, thanks to the official confirmation that his mother, Ruth Newton, is in fact Lady Blackheart. How this affects him, especially due to whatever method his mother used to make herself appear human, remains unseen.
  • Shadow herself is revealed to be also one in the original story. Whether the author wants to change it up like he has been doing to other plot points remains to be seen.
• History Repeats: Lady Blackheart is helping Shadow in an attempt to avert this, and thus prevent the young monster from making the same mistakes she did. The trope shall be played straight, no matter if her actions are successful or not, because as it turns out, she isn't the only case to begin with. The author has requested not to expand the example beyond this - yet.
• Holding Hands: The monsters' tails are like third hands (if a bit more sensitive) meaning Tim holding Shadow's tail in his hand and Terminus and Nightmare intertwining tails hold much of the same meaning.
• Hollow World: Hinted for Nox when Terminus mentions the "Core".
• Hot Witch: Ruth dresses up as one for Halloween.
• How We Got Here: Each chapter has a prologue during Tim's and Shadow's early adult years, while the main story is about Tim and Shadow as kids.
• Humanity Ensues: Shadow somehow takes on the appearance of a human girl in the Halloween arc.
• Hypno Pendulum: Shadow uses her tail for this purpose on Tim, although to lull him to sleep rather than actually hypnotizing him.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Midnight delivers a warning of this kind to Tim after discovering he has become Shadow's friend.
• I Gave My Word: Shadow regarding her promise to not tell Tim about his Half-Human Hybrid status.
• I Got a Rock: Shadow is a little disappointed that the first house she went to only gave her one tiny piece of candy, giving a reaction more fit for this trope.
• In the Hood: Shadow wears one most of the time.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Young Shadow apparently doesn't know the concept of underwear, as she doesn't wear anything else under her clothes, and expresses confusion when Tim points it out.
• Insult Backfire: Shadow insults Tim's trap, calling it "cute", prompting him to ask, "you think I'm cute?"
• Interspecies Romance:
  • In the prologue before the first chapter, Tim and Shadow have established an affectionate and sexual relationship. This is subverted in the most spoilerific way imaginable in the prequel stories.
  • Tim himself comes form a Human-Noxian marriage since his mother Ruth is actually Ruthless Blackheart.
  • One of the differences between the comic and the original story is that in the comic, Terminus also has a secret relationship with a human woman.
  • Deconstructed later on, as it's revealed that despite having long realized Shadow had a crush on him, Tim was unwilling to act on it and pretended to be Oblivious to Love because he was uncomfortable with facing prejudice from both of their worlds. When the human Marcy starts making advances to him, causing Shadow's jealousy, he ends up confessing it felt nice to be "normal" for once, leading to their first argument.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Shadow, even before meeting Tim.
• Jerkass: Terminus. Despite the implications that he's manipulating Nightmare for his own gain, he takes delight at "putting humans in their place", as he puts it. Although with The Reveal that he has a human lover, he was likely only saying that to save face.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Midnight, at least when it comes to her interactions with Tim. She is blatantly disdainful of him and makes no secret that she disapproves of his friendship with Shadow, but she still covers for them and is shown to genuinely care about Shadow as a friend.
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: Shadow absolutely loves A Nightmare on Elm Street when Tim shows it to her.
  Shadow: By the Makers! That was sooo cool! I wish I could do that! I would scare circles around everybody!
• Laser-Guided Karma: Craig was a jerk to Tim and Shadow, and leaves his candy behind when she scares him away.
• Leg Focus: Nearly all of the female monsters wear outfits that show off their legs.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Shadow's reaction to learning that she has a rival for Tim's affections.
• Make a Wish: Tim makes a birthday wish on page 99, though we don't know what it is since he doesn't want to jinx it.
• Marshmallow Hell: Spencer's mom does this to Tim.
• Mugging the Monster: A bully named Craig tries to mess with Shadow and Tim on Halloween night, but gets more than he bargained for when Shadow drops the disguise and confronts him.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Tim is fascinated by Shadow when they first meet.
• Oblivious to Love: Tim seems completely oblivious to how teen Shadow is crushing on him and was surprised when Marcy pretty much threw herself at him during their study session, or how Shadow was jealous when he brought said incident up. Subverted eventually regarding Shadow, as it's revealed he did notice a long while ago; he just wasn't acting on it because he felt an Interspecies Romance would suffer prejudice from their respective worlds. Shadow finding out leads to their first serious argument.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: When the subject of Lady Blackheart is brought up, Lady Moonlight starts to point out that Blackheart was not her name, but stops and continues her story. We later learn her name is Ruthless alias Ruth Newton, Tim's mother.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: As Lady Blackheart lampshades, Shadow needs more than a pair of leggings to go unnoticed, even on Halloween.
• Parental Abandonment: Shadow claims that she doesn't have parents and that she was abandoned on a guild's doorstep. Midnight later makes a reference to "mom", but it refers to the leader of their guild, the High Mother Moonlight.
• Parental Substitute: Moonlight to Shadow.
• Perverted Sniffing: Shadow does this to Tim's socks on page 72, and doing so was apparently her reason for taking them in the first place.
• Power Glows: Lady Moonlight has a faint white glow around her.
• Primal Scene: Tim barges in on his parents to prove that a monster was stealing his socks, only to find them in the middle of some sexy roleplaying. It doesn't really help his case.
• Retcon:
  • During the Halloween arc, Brandon makes it so that Tim and Shadow are both 12 in the flashback scenes, and edits things to support the new age.
  • The webcomic in general is this to the original story. Changes include the monsters not having wings anymore, Shadow getting the human disguise spell much earlier, Ruth revealing her true self to the audience much earlier as well, Mortis and Moonlight's much more intimate relationship, and Terminus having a human lover.
• The Reveal: A shadowy montage, combined with Lady Blackheart's dialogue, pretty strongly hints that she is Tim's mother in disguise, or at the very least Tim's dad was her human lover and the reason for her exile. This is later confirmed.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Shadow figures out that Lady Blackheart and Tim's mother are the same person after meeting both separately. She keeps this secret for seven years.
  • Marcy and Craig become this for Shadow after properly getting to know her.
• Secret Secret-Keeper:
  • Tim's parents knew about him and Shadow from the start.
  • Shadow is sworn to secrecy about Ruth's true identity as Lady Blackheart and Tim's Half-Human Hybrid status when she first figures it out, promising to never tell Tim.
  • The ending of Chapter 4 heavily implies that Nightmare knew about Tim's existence all along, despite Shadow only telling Midnight about him beforehand.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the Newton household's fridge, there is a jar of pickles with the brand name Tommy.
  • Shadow (and Ruth) is a monster whose favorite food is cookies.
• Sleep Cute: Shadow cuddling up with Tim on top of his bed.
• Sleeps in the Nude: Shadow is shown sleeping naked in #156.
• Smells Sexy: Tim to Shadow, which is why she initially stole his socks.
• Speak of the Devil: Blackheart is mentioned, then appears not much later in real time. Lady Midnight even lampshades and quotes the trope when it happens.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Blackheart seems to be as fond of these as Batman himself.
• Sweet Tooth: Shadow seems to like sweets if the way she devours the cake is any indication. This seems to be common to monsters, as Midnight seems to like them just as much when she learns of them.
• The Talk: Tim's dad suggests that they give Tim one, though they decide to wait.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Averted for Terminus, oh so very much, when he pisses off Lord Mortis. He doesn't even get to finish the line before being slammed against the wall by the neck. Hard.
• Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: It's pretty much a given with the title.
• Tickle Torture: When Shadow is grappling with Tim for the photo, he manages to tickle her into submission.
• Time Skip: Chapter 4 is apparently a significant bit later in the timeline than the end of chapter 3, with Tim in high school.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Cookies. Shadow developed her sweet tooth for them after Tim used one to lure her out, and Tim's mom has a secret stash of them probably just for herself.
• Traumatic Haircut: Subverted. Shadow saw Marcy flirting with Tim, and in a fit of jealous anger, she took scissors from Tim's room and snuck into Marcy’s bedroom to cut her hair off while she slept. However, Marcy started to wake up and Shadow fled in panic, leaving the scissors behind...scissors which have Tim's name written on them, and which Marcy finds.
• Unfazed Everyman: When Tim first met Shadow, his complete acceptance of the situation drove her up the wall.
• Unusual Ears: The monsters sport ears that look vaguely like bat wings.

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