Trawn, Shroomy, NJ, and Aerynn will bring peace to Cyberspace...eventually.
Welcome to the internet...of the future! It's evolved beyond its dimensions and become a fully immersive virtual world! Anyone can log onto this world from anywhere and take on any form or shape! Some only come to check their email or bank account...others spend much of their lives here. Some find jobs. Some find love. Some get robbed. Some get scammed. Some get ruined. And some do the ruining. The truth is that, no matter how advanced things get, the same problems of the past exist in the future.
Peter Paltridge, the host of Platypus Comix, created Electric Wonderland in 2007. Unlike the other flagship series, it has a strong reliance on continuity and connecting events. Set in a futuristic*
Word Of God says each comic takes place approximately 100 years after Paltridge wrote it
, Internet-based City of Adventure called "Nettropolis", the comic focuses mainly on the staff of the Nettropolis Free Press, which originally consisted of Intrepid Reporter Eileen "Trawn" Peccadillo, pompous ninja NJ, naive painter Shroomy, and unpredictable Magical Girl Aerynn Arlia. Although Trawn hopes to end corruption with their independent newspaper, the comic spends more time exploring the potential of a community evolved from Cyberspace.
This comic provides examples of:
Accentuate the Negative: "The Nameless Decade," in which Lululu (an outside agent of Trawn's paper) takes a field trip to the Nettropolis Museum and learns about how society had decayed from 2000-2009, features this trope when discussing television, movies, and music.
Action Girl: Trawn's friend Natasha Wing, who overthrows corruption by working for the Nettropolis Police Department.
Affectionate Parody: "The Time That People Forgot" has a three-page opening modeled after Disney's "I'm No Fool" shorts starring Jiminy Cricket.
Alliterative Family: Natasha and her parents, antivirus software developer Nathaniel Wing and his wife Nina Wing (CEO of Wing Antivirus Corporation), all have first names that begin with "N".
Art Evolution: The first issue was illustrated by one of Paltridge's friends, Jesse Barboza. Since he did not sign on to illustrate successive issues, Paltridge had to ease the characters into his usual style without deviating too far from the original designs. Compare this scene◊ from Trawn and NJ's first meeting to the cover◊ Paltridge added to the first issue in 2009, to this promotional drawing◊ added to the Platypus Comix character bio page in 2010, to the last panel◊ of 2011's "Day of Fools".
The Bechdel Test: Currently, the only times the lead females failed the test happened when Aerynn and Shroomy debated over the dependability of Shroomy's boyfriend, Parker, and the Valentine's Day Episode.
Berserk Button: Natasha gets enraged when someone asks to borrow some of the money her parents don't give her.
Bittersweet Ending: By the end of "Wings," Natasha has proven her worth as a crimefighter, escaped her father's shadow, and become a full-time member of the NPD, but her newfound fame starts interfering with Trawn's attempts to spend time with her. (Fortunately, "LuLo" already showed that they eventuallygot back together.)
Brick Joke: In "The New Adventures of the Nettropolis Narvel," Narvel asks Girl Friday, "Will you marry me?" right before entering a world in which he never became a superhero, nor developed superpowers. On the last page of the comic, Friday tells Narvel, "By the way...the answer is yes!" Narvel needs a while to remember why Friday said that.
Cerebus Syndrome: The comic has gradually become more dramatic than comedic. Paltridge acknowledged "Deviantaaargh", the fifth comic, as the start of the shift.
Character Focus: Trawn's founding of the Netropolis Free Press sets the events of Electric Wonderland in motion, but some issues focus more on her allies than on her.
Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of the Oregon Trail test in "The Time That People Forgot", NJ purchases a piano for his group so they could have something to dispose later when the time comes to lighten the load. Later, he accidentally crashes his group's wagon into the river, so they use the piano as a backup vehicle.
Chekhov's Gunman: Before Paltridge revealed Natasha Wing as a friend of Trawn with a detailed backstory, she was introduced in "The Search For Parker" as a random cop NJ unsuccessfully tried to report Aerynn's powers to. (However, she had already been Trawn's friend since high school.)
Originally, Paltridge planned to gradually reveal Natasha's connections to Trawn, and how they got separated. However, he realized that in order to properly resolve "LuLo," he had to reunite Trawn and Natasha sooner. Thus, the readers learned about the connections much earlier than intended, leaving Paltridge to plan a flashback of her backstory for a later issue.
Christmas Episode: "Inevitable Christmas Adventure", which (unlike most of Platypus Comix's "Kristmas Klassics") ties into the series' main continuity; Aerynn reveals NJ's real name (Nate), and some scenes set up a sub-plot regarding the disappearance of Shroomy's boyfriend, Parker.
Circular Reasoning: According to "Day of Fools," 4chan memes get repeated by everyone because they're humorous, are considered humorous because they got repeated by everyone, and got repeated by everyone because they're humorous.
The Dog Is The Mastermind: Contrary to Trawn's and Lululu's initial assumptions, "the guy who yells a lot" did not bomb the Nettropollis Mall in "LuLo". His cat did.
Drugs Are Bad: A subplot of "Shrooming with Shroomy" has Shroomy take some "Harmoxacil", to suppress her seemingly futile dreams of finding love. It causes her to take a level in jerkass.
Eating the Eye Candy: The new NFP cartoonist in "Valentine's Day Massacre" reportedly can't draw, and didn't even want to become their cartoonist (he only entered their domain because he got lost). Despite this, he still got the job, because he caught the eyes of Trawn, Aerynn, and Shroomy.
Failure Is the Only Option: After Lululu helps Trawn find the bomber of the Nettropolis Mall in "LuLo," Trawn and the others publish their discoveries and eagerly await the good publicity this will give their newspaper. Television reporters announce the capturing of the suspect, but only refer to Trawn as "an anonymous informant" who helped find him. He wasn't the real bomber either.
Lululu: Go figure, how could a day that starts with a deadly explosion possibly go wrong?
Trawn: I've always dreamed of being a reporter, but not the kind the few conglomerate-controlled news outlets are currently looking for today! I want to print what they don't let me! I want to dig into the dirt and expose scandals at the highest levels of power! Nettropolis Free Press will launch a new era of hard-hitting journalism, unafraid of offending investors and losing advertisers! Within three years every corrupt member of government will fear us! That's basically it. What do you think?
NJ: I'm just...here to find a job. I think you need someone to talk to!
Follow in My Footsteps: Natasha subverted this by studying about antivirus protection, then entering the police force instead of her parents' business. However, she also served as spokesman for the antivirus software.
Halfway Plot Switch: Seems to have become the norm for comics released in 2010 or later. "Wings," in particular, seems to do this three times: From Aerynn sensing impending doom, to Shroomy's lifelong dream getting shattered, to NJ's optimism getting shattered, to Natasha fulfilling her lifelong dream (that story takes up more than half of the comic).
Hammerspace: Common since Paltridge's interpretation of a Cyberspace community has no physical boundaries:
Hypocritical Humor: Trawn ends up in a domain containing nothing but amalgamations of pop culture references during one part of "Day of the Fools", causing her to complain about Internet comedians who uncleverly acknowledge popular media all the time. Never mind that her own creator made the references she criticized while unknowingly following his script.
I Got a Rock: In "The Time That People Forgot", NJ gets assigned a giant rock as his report subject, and later has to play Iraq in Hetalia class.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Trawn can occasionally seem single-minded and forceful in her movement for her newspaper's success, but she does show sympathy for Aerynn (due to her rejections from society) and Lululu (due to her household's state of poverty).
Keep Circulating the Tapes: "Shrooming With Shroomy" has NJ and Aerynn try this in-universe, after NJ's deceased grandfather passes on some physical copies of movies and shows unavailable for streaming.
Late Arrival Spoiler: Lululu having a mermaid tail came out of left field to people who read "LuLo" when it first came out, but people who read her bio (written about a year after her debut) beforehand won't feel too surprised.
Milestone Celebration: During the 10th anniversary of Platypus Comix's parent site, animation fan community Toon Zone, Paltridge released an Electric Wonderland comic ("In the Zone") in which the NFP staff ends up in Toon Zone's domain while pursuing a thief.
Noodle Incident: NJ describes several when detailing Aerynn's abilities to Natasha at the end of "The Search For Parker".
Odd-Shaped Panel: The taxi ride that Trawn, NJ, and Shroomy take in the first issue is drawn with tilted panels to simulate the bumpiness felt as the driver struggles to make his steering wheel reappear after a glitch occurs.
Only Known by Their Nickname: The characters page includes the real names of Trawn (Eileen), NJ (Nate), and Torro (Trevor), as well as those of five characters who already use their real names in Nettropolis, but lists that Shroomy's real name is unknown.
Put on a Bus: Parker went absent around the time the events of "Inevitable Christmas Adventure" occurred, though Shroomy expected him to return eventually.
The Bus Came Back: As detailed in "The Search For Parker," Parker returned to the Nettropolis Free Press domain after two Comic Book Time months (seven months passed in Real World Time), only to borrow $50 from Shroomy. Aerynn then advised Shroomy to dump him so she could find a worthier boyfriend.
Shroomy's flashback in "Wings" details her forming a life-long dream to work at the Imaginarium, only to find it closing down by the time she becomes old enough to work. Word Of God says this was inspired by Paltridge forming a childhood dream of writing newspaper comics, only to find newspapers going bankrupt by the time he became old enough to work.
It's not hard to draw parallels between the story of Barry Dootmayer, from "Shrooming with Shroomy," and the then-recent shutdown of Megaupload.
Rule of Funny: Personified in Aerynn Arlia, Electric Wonderland's Magical Girl character with no apparent limits. Aerynn can literally do anything at any time, as long as it's amusing — usually with NJ as the victim.
After Shroomy asks Aerynn if hacking into the Nonspecific Supply Co. database in "The Search For Parker" will prove dangerous, she answers, "It'll be Dangeresque..." Some Homestar Runner fans overhear and promptly decide to record this Shout-Out at the Homestar Wiki. (The comic soon did get mentioned there.)
Skintone Sclerae: Comics written from 2009-2010 have the NFP founders rendered with eyes containing off-white portions surrounding the pupils. Peter Paltridge explained that adding a white portion didn't look good to him unless he could shape it into a perfect circle, but it didn't seem fitting to give these characters eyes with shades that matched their skin either.
Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: It scores 6. Currently among the heroes, women outnumber men 5:2, and men always seem to get the worse character types.
Spiritual Successor: One of the Platypus Comix books, containing stories Paltridge deemed too old and/or subpar to keep on his website, reportedly contains an unreleased Cyberspace-themed comic from the short-lived series Cocktails and Dreams.
Tempting Fate: NJ's flashback in "Wings" begins as he boasts that he earned a Master's Degree and can have any job he wants. Cut to three months later: a down-on-his-luck and desperate NJ applies for a janitorial job in a department store.
After NJ's boss accuses him of alcoholism and sexism, NJ mentally wishes he were dead, then catches a virus one second later, that could very well have killed him (and everyone else in Nettropolis) if not for Natasha and Nathaniel Wing sending a cure.
Shroomy gets one in "Deviantaaargh". After she goes from woefully overlooked on deviantART, to receiving two consecutive Daily Deviations, ( both of which came as a result of Aerynn's hacking) to falling from a brief and high jump in fame, Moth-Grrl (one of deviantART's most popular artists of the time) still puts Shroomy on her friend list and congratulates her achievement.
Trawn arguably got one in "LuLo". The Nettropolis Free Press failed to become more famous because of the other reporters referring to her as an "anonymous informant", but she at least reunited with Natasha, and the two of them and Lululu got to capturethe realbomber because of Trawn's Eureka Moment.
Tuckerization: Word Of God says when defining the character of Trawn, Paltridge decided to model her in part after his friend Eileen Cruz, who founded Toon Zone. Cruz and Trawn have the same first name as a result.
Also, Trawn's last name, Pecadillo, rhymes with Eileen Cruz's maiden name, Delgadillo.
Shroomy: Why can't you just make us invisible, create a sound-muting field so no one can hear us, and make us transparent so we could walk through walls?
Aerynn: Yeah! Why don't I?
(Aerynn casts the requested spell on herself and Shroomy, causing both of them to fall out of the building)
Aerynn: ...Right. THAT'S why I don't do that...
We Could Have Avoided All This: After the close call with Nea Politan in "The Search For Parker," Aerynn re-reads the post that caused them to search in her domain, and realizes the author was actually named, "Porker".
Wham Line: What Natasha says in the third-to-last panel of "The Search For Parker", after NJ tries to turn Aerynn in:
You wanna fool someone, call a rookie next time. I'm rank AAA. I've fought at least a hundred magicians and taken a history course on thousands more. And I've never seen the fantasy you just cooked up. Ever. I've also studied the physics code for the Internet and over half the powers you told me are impossible. IM. POSSIBLE.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: During Parker's two month absence, Shroomy continued to deny the possibility that Parker didn't love her, even after he admitted coming back into her life for selfish desires.
Willfully Weak: Aerynn admits at the end of "Day of Fools" that she practices a unique brand of magic, and often feels too scared to use its full potential.
Zeerust: Sometimes, characters use technology dated by 2000s standards (such as Betamax tapes). Paltridge reportedly hopes that this will prevent any references that will date in the future from sticking out.
in 2007. Unlike the other flagship series, it has a strong reliance on continuity and connecting events. Set in a futuristic*, Internet-based City of Adventure called "Nettropolis", the comic focuses mainly on the staff of the Nettropolis Free Press, which originally consisted of Intrepid Reporter Eileen "Trawn" Peccadillo, pompous ninja NJ, naive painter Shroomy, and unpredictable Magical Girl Aerynn Arlia. Although Trawn hopes to end corruption with their independent newspaper, the comic spends more time exploring the potential of a community evolved from Cyberspace.
0 reviews 
