Hetzer and Friends is a Webcomic created by Italian author Angelo. It follows the adventures of Sentient Tanks, mainly focusing on vehicles of World War II.
It can be read on Facebook here
, or on the author's blog here.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The author has put a booklet up for sale with a collection of strips, plus a few bonus ones and a few details on the most important characters.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The comic is about sentient tanks. And planes too.
- BFG: Quite a bit of characters. Exaggerated for
KV-2 (as a case of Memetic Mutation) and Sturmtiger. - Berserk Button:
- Don't mess with the Italian tanks and their pasta or pizza.
- Never, never call Don Veloce a tankette.
- Don't mess with the Italian tanks and their pasta
- Big "WHAT?!": OTOMATIC's first appearance, when she drops this gem:
OTOMATIC: [cheerfully] Nice to meet you! I'm OTOMATIC! SPAAG, wizard and Goddess of Destruction. I'm here to annihilate this universe... Pop corns?
Turan 3: Oh thank... WAIT, WHAT?!!!
Turan 3: Oh thank... WAIT, WHAT?!!!
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Not even the fourth wall can stop OTOMATIC's power.
- Cloak and Dagger: Chaffee tries this very hard. Unfortunately for him, failure is the only option.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: The captured Italian tanks seem to believe that the British cook's way of cooking pasta is this for them, calling it "torture".
- Cultured Badass: Bassotto loves poetry, and kicks ass.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Semovente takes Valentine's attempts to give him a valentine card as an attempt to seduce him, she does not take it well at all.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Pz IV tries to "fuse" with anyone he can. It never works out for him.
- Exact Words: In one strip, P40 is allowed into a heavy tank meeting, as he is formally designated a heavy tank, while the much bigger Panther is not, much to her anger.
- Facepalm: A common occurrence for Semovente, when he slams the upper hull hatch over his "eyes".
- Failure Is the Only Option: See the Dogged Nice Guy entry above.
- Historical In-Joke: Plenty of them.
- Gratuitous Italian: Not only is the author Italian, he also throws around some Italian dialects around.
- I Am Big Boned: Maus insists he's not fat.
- Italians Talk with Hands: Played for Laughs in this strip, when Hetzer comments on Semovente's flags.
- Kill It with Fire: Don Veloce is a flamethrower tank, so you'd better follow his "advice"...
- National Stereotypes: Played With. At least one character from each nation shows a major stereotype commonly attributed to its country.
- Oblivious to Love: Semovente simply doesn't get that Valentine is in love with it.
- Only Sane Man: Semovente is often exasperated or frustrated by the antics of his fellow tanks. Even Hetzer has shades of Not So Above It All.
- Pungeon Master: Toldi can't help himself.
- Set the World on Fire: Invoked by Porsche Tiger.
- Stock Animal Behavior: Invoked for the cat-themed tanks, as shown in this strip.
- The Casanova: Carro Celere Sahariano qualifies.
- The Don: Don Veloce, obviously.
- The End of the World as We Know It: It has been prophesied that the duel between KV-2 and Sturmtiger will bring about the end of the world. Luckily, their guns take a long time to reload...
- The Fashionista: A rare male example, with Semovente da 75/46 saying that making his enemy look "presentable" more important than the "world war thing".
- The Peeping Tom: ARL 44.
- The Jinx: M13/40 is avoided by everyone because he brings bad luck.
- Unusual Euphemism: Often, war-related words replace swear words.
- Yandere: Chi-Ri refuses to let anybody come near her "Tora-kun".
