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She's got super-electric dreams.

Band Vs Band is a webcomic by Kathleen Jacques. It follows two bands, The Candy Hearts and The Sourballs, and the mutual rivalry slash attraction between their leaders, cheerful do-gooder Honey Hart and dark troublemaker Turpentine. Currently updates once a week.


This comic provides examples of:

  • Anachronism Stew / Alternate History: The story (intentionally) roughly takes place in the present day, but fashions and music from the 50's to the present day are all present. And there are no cell phones or computers because that would make a lot of the rumors that fuel the plot easier to deal with.
  • B-Side Comics: Ian & Stacey Comix, in which the two friends investigate mysteries and engage in stock Sitcom hijinx. Neither of which has any effect on the main storyline, although both characters do occasionally turn up there.
  • Bold Inflation: Speech bubbles often include varied typefaces and other effects.
  • Battle of the Bands: Turps and Honey will take any excuse to battle it out.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Honey and Turpentine, not that either one would ever admit it.
  • Cast Full of Gay:
    • Of the two main bands members; four are gay, two are bi, one is straight and one is transgender who has not expressed an interest in any gender.
    • Everyone in Venus and the Angels is gay.
  • Butch Lesbian: Turpentine is not feminine and she fancies ladies.
  • Clue from Ed.: In this one...in reference to the page immediately before it.
  • Cute Witch: Honey practices a type of religion that she made up, but seems to be based off of Wicca.
  • Drag Queen: Markus "Venus Destructo" Martinez, fronting one of the secondary bands that sometimes appears.
  • Every One Can See It: Averted with Honey, while the audience is fully aware of her massive crush, only one of her bandmates is even aware she has a crush. Coco is unsure though, if it's Turps or Arsenic that Honey is crushing on.
  • Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Real letters from readers — but the fourth wall part is ambiguous in-universe, since the characters seem to interpret it as mail from fans of the bands.
  • Heart Symbol: Constantly.
  • Gayngst: Thanks to her grandmother, Honey Hart has a stigma that won't allow her to admit, even to herself, that she is gay. It's pretty obvious she is though. However, Honey is the only person who's shown to have this, and she eventually admits to herself that she's gay with little fanfare or worry about it.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Is not something Honey Hart would say, it's way too vulgar.
  • Informed Judaism: Zero, though the informed part mostly comes from him being silent.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold
    • The Sourballs as a whole, although Foxy and Arsenic from the outset have rather less "jerk" in them than the other two band members.
    • When filling in for Coco as the Candy Hearts' bassist for a few weeks, Damian of all people finds the band's kindness and sweetness rubbing off on him. Although he ultimately decides this isn't really who he is and goes back to his old self upon rejoining the Angels, he does send Honey Hart a heartfelt thank-you note and angel wings as a present.
  • Lipstick Lesbian:Honey and Coco.
  • Mixtape of Love: Honey Hart and Turpentine make mixtape cassettes for each other, and even though the songs aren't really to their liking, they appreciate it for capturing the other's personality and feelings.
  • Music Stories
  • No Bisexuals: Discussed and mocked in a Band Mailbag strip. Arsenic responds to the question, "How do you react when people say bisexuality doesn't exist?", by deadpan snarking that the claim is true and that he and Foxy have been ghosts all along.
  • Nobody Loves the Bassist: Honey Hart is thrilled to learn that Cherry, the Candy Hearts' tambourinist, can also play drums and won a local child beauty pageant. Meanwhile, Coco, the bassist, meekly says she also plays the oboe, is bilingual and is on a soccer team... but no one pays attention.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: The comic avoids mention of Real Life musicians, instead substituting expies, often gender-flipped. Thus: Holly Ivey (Buddy Holly), the Myrtles (The Beatles), Mascara Masque (Siouxsie Soux).
  • Odd Name Out: The Candy Hearts: Honey, Coco, Cherry, and ...Zero.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: The Candy Hearts and The Sourballs all have real names, but their stage names are what they go by.
  • Oral Fixation: Arsenic often appears sucking a lollipop or other sort of candy.
  • Opposites Attract:
    • The goody two shoes Honey Hart and the mean angry delinquent Turpentine.
    • Damian and Arsenic count as well since Nic is a nice guy who loves everyone equally, and Damian could never love someone as much as he loves himself, also he kinda hates everyone.
  • The Power of Rock
  • Rainbow Lite: Rainbows appear entirely in shades of blue and pink.
  • Rainbow Speak: The comic uses various shades of red, white and blue for the speech balloons and lettering.
  • The Real Heroes: Parodied. At a concert, Cherry tells the audience, "You're the real band!"
  • Retro Universe: See under Anachronism Stew.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: Honey Hart, she loves almost anyone and hates no one.
  • Saturday-Morning Cartoon: Although the comic doesn't take place within one, it often uses the format's conventions, such as public service announcements and characters abruptly breaking into song complete with instruments that appear out of nowhere.
  • Ship Tease: Honey and Turps, constantly.
  • Stage Name: Almost everyone.
  • Stalker without a Crush: Wild-eyed Soda Sweet (real name Sonya) charms her way into the Candy Hearts and becomes Honey Hart's new best friend. Then she frames Turpentine for the kidnapping of Cherry's puppies, drugs Honey Hart and takes her place on stage.
    Soda Sweet: I didn't wanna kill ya... maybe just make people think you were on drugs and went crazy.
  • Transparent Closet: While never doing anything to indicate she is in the closet, Turps is rather shocked to find out that it is obvious that she's gay.
  • True Companions: Strangely enough the Sourballs fit this dynamic better than any other band, even the Candy Hearts, who while good friends are not as close to one another as the Sourballs are, who come off as more of a misfit family then a band.
  • Unrequited Love
    • Stacey, a reoccurring side character, is in love with her male best friend Ian, but he's gay. Doesn't help that they first met during a threesome.
    • Coco, Candy Heart's bass player, has a crush on Honey, but knows Honey is in love with someone else. Coco takes it in stride although a bit sad that she lost before she got to try.
  • Visible Silence: Frequently used, often (though not always) to depict Unresolved Sexual Tension.
  • The Voiceless: Zero never speaks on panel. His only line in the comic is from an in-universe newspaper interview ("I just dig playing drums"), and Jacques was even open to a fan's suggestion that the reporter merely fabricated that quote for appearance's sake. That Zero can speak is confirmed when Honey Hart, giving a toast at his wedding, says that he "couldn't shut up" about his husband-to-be right from their first date.

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