|
|
Q: Isn't your comic, in fact, historically inaccurate? A: Look, 1400 BC was a really long time ago. Our historical and archaeological records of that time are dodgy at best and laughable at worst. You'll just have to take my word that this comic is the 100% true portrayal of what really happened. Anyway, this comic is no less historically accurate than other serious illustrated documentaries like Astérix or Groo. GastroPhobia is a webcomic by David McGuire, about the Amazonian exile and single mom Phobia; her precocious scamp of a son, Gastro; and her recently-acquired, listless slave Klepto. They have adventures in Ancient Greece. The comic is a series of short stories; while there is continuity, there's little in the way of overarching plot.
GastroPhobia provides examples of the following tropes:- Action Mom: Phobia
- Added Alliterative Appeal: At the bottom of the 2008-09-03 strip.
Phobia: No feeble foe can flee from the fantastic force of the fearless phobia's fusillade! - Aerith and Bob: There's Phobia, Mania, Klepto,... then there's Kelly.
- Alt Text
- Ambiguously Brown: The Amazonians.
- Anachronism Stew: Banks, dining-and-dashing, Eye Beams, and XP in Ancient Greece. Also, the map of Greece◊ is actually a recolored map of Texas.
- Animesque: Slightly.
- The Aristocrats: Not the best joke to tell in front of your mother.
Klepto: Gastro, look what you've done to your poor mother's spanking hand! - Art Shift: The chapter "Kleptomania", which is from Krphxyzwlps' point of view, has all characters drawn as silhouettes with occasional facial features.
- Bare Your Midriff: Philia
- Bedsheet Ghost: Aunt Pneuma
- Big Creepy Crawlies: Krphxyzwlps
- Book Dumb: What the example under Foreshadowing below was implied to be at the time; Philia gives off a vibe of not being all that bright, at the best of times.
- But He Sounds Handsome: "That sexy barbarian lady escaped! Not only is she clever, she's a powerhouse!"
- Butterfly of Doom: Filby chastises Nightsorrow for this after he confesses to sleeping with Phobia not long after they ended up in ancient Greece.
Filby: What is wrong with you?! We travel back in time and you step on like a billion butterflies! Nightsorrow: I did a lot more than step on that butterfly, if you know what I mean. - Classical Mythology: Phobia is an Amazon (the Greek myth version), with storylines being based off Greek Mythology stories. Her brother Alcides is implied to be Hercules, as Alcides was Hercules' birth name. The first 12 chapters are very loosely based on the 12 Labors of Hercules.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: Lampshaded in the Alt Text of the 2011-01-10 comic. (In this case, it was obviously done on purpose to invoke the animated trope.)
- Deliberately Monochrome: One color per chapter.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Mania
- Eye Beams: Bambikles
- Fan Disservice: Averted in Chapter 2:
Originally I planned to draw this scene with Gastro wearing a loin cloth, but I decided to spare everyone that sight. - Flat "What.": Phobia gives one when Philia tells her that she is Klepto and Phobia's daughter from the future.
- Flip Take: Used straight, invoked, and weaponized.
- Flower in Her Hair: Phobia, sometimes.
- Foreshadowing:
Phobia: Philia, how do you stay so young-looking?
Philia: Well, GEE, maybe it's because I'm 22!
Phobia: Eight years ago, you told me you were 20...?
Philia: Then I'm 28, SHEESH! Why is this so HARD for you?! - Gasp: Rather frequent, and usually quite exaggerated. For example, a threefer when the Mockinbirds' source of power gets destroyed.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Again, Krphxyzwlps.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Well, initially.
- Hartman Hips: Phobia. Don't mock the size of her legs, though...
- He Who Fights Monsters: Invoked — "To kill a monster, you must become a monster."
- Honest Axe: Referenced when Mim retrieves Phobia's sword from the lake.
- Hot Mom: Phobia
- Human Sacrifice: Gastro narrowly escape from this at the paws of the cultist bears.
- Hypocritical Humor: Philia is good for this:
Philia: DON'T YELL OR YOU'LL CAUSE A CAVE-IN!! - If You Kill Her You Will Be Just Like Her: Inverted; it ends up saving Phobia's life.
- Infinite Canvas: Commented on and averted in a strip where Phobia falls down a hole.
- Kick the Dog: That's how you know that Hydro the Healer is a "bad dude".
- Kid from the Future: Philia claims to be the child of Phobia and Klepto from the future.
- Lampshade Hanging: "Check it out, those guys are fortuitously discussing subject matter pertinent to our current task."
- Lethal Chef: Phobia. She's apparently managed to keep herself and Gastro from dying for the last seven years, but Gastro has no idea that the squirrel his mother is using is out of place, and the best the judges can say for Phobia's dish is that she was "generous with the salt".
- Lower Deck Episode: The appropriately-named chapter "Not Everything's About Phobia".
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Phobia, Philia is your daughter.
- Mama Bear: Seen toward the end of the Nightsorrow arc.
- Masculine Lines, Feminine Curves: Accentuated in the "How to draw GastroPhobia" filler strips.
- Meaningful Name
- The thieving slave is named Klepto.
- The ghost Pneuma's name means "spirit" in Greek.
- No Indoor Voice: Philia. "I AM WHISPERING!" * not whispering at all
- Not So Different: Parodied; Pneuma tries to invoke this, but can't think of any ways that she and Phobia are alike.
- Oh My Gods!: The names of Greek gods are often said in vain. Hell, even the trope name is said in one strip.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The Mockingbird princess' Southern US accent comes and goes.
- Orwellian Retcon: Parts of Chapter 9 were redone because the author was unsatisfied with them. This included renaming the substance that allows time travel from "Samsonite" to "Chronologium".
- Our Hero Is Dead: She got better.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: Krphxyzwlps, a giant sapient centipede with the ability to shapeshift into anything with the same body mass, including several separate creatures.
- Precision F-Strike: Implied by a "censored" bubble.
- Proud Warrior Race Girl: Phobia, naturally. "A warrior does not wash dishes."
- Puns: Many of the chapter titles.
- Purple Eyes: An Amazonian racial trait.
- Really Gets Around: Phobia claims that she doesn't know who Gastro's real father is because there's too many candidates.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni
- Phobia and Gastro.
- Sometimes also Phobia and Klepto, when he behaves less obtusely.
- Reused Character Design: Amusingly, the Sphinx is apparently played by an "actress", namely Saphire from Princess Knight.
- Riddle of the Sphinx: Parodied. Multiple times.
- Riddling Sphinx: A sphinx is repeatedly humiliated because she only knows the one riddle, and everyone, even the little kid, knows the answer already.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Klepto, sometimes.
- Sdrawkcab Name: The god of the cultist bears is "Tolaerac".
- Security Cling: Though she'd probably deny it, Phobia did jump into Klepto's arms when startled by Princess Mim metamorphosing.
- Servile Snarker: Klepto, with far more emphasis on the "snark" than the "serve".
- Shaggy Dog Story
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Seen between Phobia and Klepto.
- Ship Tease: Phobia and Klepto get a subtle one in the main storyline. It's telling that they always seem to hit it off in the AU stories here and here. Eventually, the comic stops teasing and says outright that they've been dating for months and that's why Phobia wants to set him free.
- Shout Out
- Slipped the Ropes: Well, the handcuffes: Phobia in the Mockinbirds dungeon.
- Spank the Cutie: Gastro receives a few spankings from his mother when he's too much of a brat.
- Speech Bubbles Interruption: Gastro to Phobia:
Phobia: A warrior does not recite po—
Gastro: We accept! - Spoiler Opening: Appropriately, the "Opening Credits" show Mania a few episodes early.
- Stalker with a Crush: Nightsorrow to Phobia. "But have you seen her ass?"
- Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: "None shall pass, for this bridge leads to the Magical Land of the Pretty Ponies."
- Take Off Your Clothes: In the 2009-08-31 strip, Filby asks Phobia to take off her belt. She doesn't take it well.
- Tell Me About My Father: Parodied, with Phobia telling Gastro she was seduced by Zeus in the form of an animal, and the specific animal changes every time she tells the story. The "Handsome Giraffe" probably being the highlight. Later, she claims that she doesn't know who Gastro's father is... and even later, she accidentally lets it slip that she actually does know. It's Lord Nightsorrow. Gastro's not happy to find out he's been lied to all these years.
- Theme Naming: Many of the names come from prefixes/suffixes of Greek origin.
- Time Police: Philia. First foreshadowed on two pages, then shown in the dubiously canonical "badder comics" interlude, before finally showing up in the comic proper.
- Title Drop: Happens twice in "Not Everything's About Phobia", with Lampshades in the Alt Text.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Klepto
Phobia: You know, some people whip their slaves for less than that.
Klepto: Phobia, it has been my goal to be whipped by an Amazon since I was thirteen. - Title Sequence: You heard right. There are title sequences for a webcomic. One for every season.
- Tranquil Fury:
Phobia: (smiling) And if you ever endanger my son again, I'll have to cut out one of your kidneys and force-feed it to you. - Translation Convention: Lampshaded for a punchline in the 2010-08-11 strip.
- Undead Author: Played gleefully straight in "The Hole Story".
- Very Special Episode: Parodied in a filler strip.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting
- The Mockingbirds.
- Krphxyzwlps, who can shapeshift into several separate creatures as long as they add up to her body mass.
|
|
0 reviews 