Webcomic / Nightmarish

If People are Monsters, Monsters are People.

Nightmarish is a Gag-per-Day Webcomic by Chrono Silverpen, also known as ILovetheTalkingClock, who also goes by the name Red Berry Blue Cherry. The comic's setting is in the fictional island Nightmaria, which is inhabited by many horror/supernatural/mythological creatures, otherwise known as "Nightmares". The strips take place in the castle of Nightmaria, ruled by The Headless Horseman himself along with Aziza the Mummy, while Dracula has moved in and become royal adviser after his castle in Transylvania was destroyed by an angry mob. The guard of the castle is Frankenstein's Monster, the Only Sane Man who also goes by the name of "Scrap". The musician and butler of the castle is The Phantom of the Opera, known simply as Phantom. Also accompanying them are the castle scientist and medic Dr. Jekyll, the dungeon wardens Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale, Lawrence Lycan the Wolf Man serving as their gardener, and their chef Gill.

Prototype comics were released in 2016, more fleshed-out strips were done in 2018, it was rebooted in 2020.

The Comic can be viewed on Tumblr, DeviantArt, Webtoon (reboot only) or here. (WARNING: SOME OF THE ORIGINAL STRIPS CONTAIN QUITE A BIT OF VIOLENCE AND GORE, SO VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED)

Any ideas for new entries on the webcomic has been halted for an indefinite amount of time, as Silverpen has dedicated any further production of the series into an Animated Adaptation.

Nightmarish contains examples of:

• Adaptational Gender Identity: Each version has had this, all varying one way or another.
  • In the 2017-2019 version, Dracula was a trans woman, while 2023 onwards has them be genderfluid.
  • In the 2023 version, Dracula and Jekyll/Hyde are genderfluid with any pronouns, Lawrence and the Phantom are non-binary with they/them and he/they pronouns respectively.
• All Myths Are True: Gorgons, werewolves, vampires, and the like are all a thing in the world.
• And Show It to You/Beat Still, My Heart: Hyde does this with their own heart, apparently as a gift to Scrap.
• April Fools' Day: Because it was also Easter that year, Silverpen uploaded what she said was a picture of the characters dressed like Playboy Bunnies. The actual picture? Hyde in a cute bunny suit pointing a gun at the viewer.
  "April Fools, BITCH".
• Art Evolution: The designs have changed quite a bit through the months. The 2020 incarnation especially diversifies the designs.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Played with. Bad is good and good is... okay. However, despite bad being considered good, rape and bigotry are still unacceptable.
• Balloon Belly: Hyde gets one in this strip after eating just a little too much ice cream.
• Big Eater: Hyde has a notable appetite, much to Jekyll's dismay.
  • Drac is also one when it comes to the typical vampire diet, with very disastrous results.
• Black Comedy: As per with Silverpen's humor, quite a few of the jokes delve into dark territory at times, whether it be Hyde tearing their heart out as a gift, Gill chopping one of his own arms off to serve fish, or Drac getting To Serve Man (the cookbook) upon confusing it as a book on etiquette.
• Cute Monster Girl: Parodied.
• Four-Fingered Hands: The main style.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: Happens at the last panel of this strip when Scrap tries explaining a color to Lawrence.
• Lighter and Softer: Downplayed. The 2020 incarnation, while still having an edgy style, no longer uses violence or gore as a main punchline.
• Living Shadow: Shadow Spirits, which are shadow-like spirits that are a fine line between Demon of Human Origin and ghost.
• Manchild: Phantom, to an extent.
• Monster Mash: We have radical retellings of The Headless Horseman, the Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Jekyll & Hyde, The Phantom of the Opera, the Wolf Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Medusa living in the same castle. It practically screams this trope.
• The Noseless: None of the characters sans Euryale and Lawrence's wolf form have visible noses/nostrils. This is a common trope in Silverpen's art style.
• Only Sane Man: Scrap in the way of a deadpan "i am so done" mentality and Aziza in the "OH MY GOD WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING" attitude.
• Our Demons Are Different: The undead form of Jekyll/Hyde is a Shadow Spirit, said to be a Demon of Human Origin.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: They're portrayed as the type that are translucent humanoids with Fog Feet and are only manifested if their living form died particularily horribly.
• Our Vampires Are Different: They're immune to sunlight, garlic is merely difficult for them to ingest, and you can either be born one or turned by either a ritual or being fully drained by one (a bite alone won't do).
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: Usually they look like people with a few animal traits, but can take an anthropomorphic form of the animal they represent either at will or under the force of the full moon. Regarding the full moon transformation, they're in a more feral mental state, but it's a case of And I Must Scream rather than Alternate Identity Amnesia.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Zombies are not The Virus, they're just the default monster a human becomes after death. They retain their human intelligence, but not all of them remember their human lives. That being said, zombies do require the consumption of vital organs to help them regenerate severely decomposed parts, human being the most potent.
• "Pop!" Goes the Vampire: Poor Drac. She doesn't seem to mind too much though.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Axel likes unicorns and treats carving his pumpkin heads like putting on makeup.
• Reference Overdosed: A lot of the original comics are based on a scene of something else.
• Screamer Prank: Parodied in this strip.
• Shout-Out: There are 26 monsters that live in the graveyard next to the castle, each one resurrected from the mentioned characters in Creature Feature's "A Gorey Demise".
  • As of 2020, Jekyll and Hyde can communicate with each other while conjoined at the waist a la CatDog.
• The Stoner: Medusa. Pun intended.
• To Serve Man: In Nightmaria, there exists a fast-food joint known as Big Brain, which has food made of real human meat including burgers made of brains (But apparently, they only make the food out of the worst people).
• Vampires Hate Garlic: Well... yes and no. Garlic does not supernaturally repel vampires, but is rather just very difficult to ingest. This does not stop Drac from eating a lot of pizza with the stuff.
• Viral Transformation: Zigzagged with each of the main monsters involved with it.
  • Vampires: A bite by itself won't do, you need to be fully drained.
  • Werecreatures: The werecreature in question has to be either rabid^note Due to their healing factor, werecreatures can naturally recover from rabies. or based on a venomous animal to spread the curse.
  • Zombies: You need to fully die from the wound. This is downplayed as if your death wasn't spectacularily horrible (which would create a ghost) and/or had little-to-no magic involved (which would create a vampire or a mummy), you'll become a zombie anyway after death regardless of cause.