Webcomic / Not Quite Daily Comic

NQDC (not always SFW) is an Animesque Meta Life Embellished Webcomic that is also available in print. It focuses heavily on Parody, and Breaking the Fourth Wall. It advertises itself as plotless, but there have been several Story Arcs, interspersed with one-off "Intermezzo" episodes. Despite the presence of aliens, ninjas, sky pirates, zombies, demons, and magic, the Not Quite Daily Comic features very little conflict and instead concentrates on interpersonal relationships and philosophical questions.

NQDC follows an occasionally expanding cast of recurring characters:

• Mr. Artist: The self-explanatory Author Avatar with Nerd Glasses
• Ankhetmaruranetherure (aka Amaranthe): Our Vampires Are Different, Some Call Me "Tim"
• Irene: Lady of War and mother.
• Karl: The Strategist with a Dark and Troubled Past
• Kazuma: A Bokukko Yuri Demon Hunting Samurai
• Kira: Posthumous Character, Dark Magical Girl
• Lea: Irene's Little Miss Badass daughter
• Lulu: A Tortoise Girl
• Malène: A Hot as Hell Succubus and Kazuma's Arch-Enemy
• Myshka: A Cat Girl on the uncanny side of the anthropomorphic spectrum
• S-ko: Cool Big Sis, and literally a Little Green Men
• Tam: Also Little Green Men, with a Dark and Troubled Past

The default setting appears to be Belgium, with occasional travel elsewhere.

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NQDC provides examples of:

• Adventurer Archaeologist: : as a Shout-Out to Tomb Raider here and Indiana Jones, complete with Fedora.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Lea sometimes plays this role to characters like Tam and S-ko, but for the most part she avoids it.
• Art Evolution: One of the most extreme examples in a webcomic. The artwork starts out extremely simplified to the point of crudeness, but quickly grows more elaborate and elegant. As the artwork develops, the comiv more and more begins using grayscale and more elaborate backgrounds, then after a few sporadic color pages it switches to being in color full-time. The latest strips take it even further with a detailed painted look. Of course, as the art grows more elaborate, the schedule also slows down... not to mention, more often a new page is only one or two panels.
• Author Appeal: Girls, cats, swords, armor, goth costumes...
• Badass Longcoat: Irene wears one, as the High Priestess of the Sisterhood of the True Fork.
• Beam of Enlightenment: Lampooned as a Shout-Out to Dragon Ball here.
• Bilingual Bonus: Infrequent, and depending on the context, but extra comments and jokes will occasionally show up in other languages.
• Cat Fight: Irene and S-ko, Kazuma and Malène. Myshka tends to stay out of them, though.
• Cats Are Superior: This is definitely the view held by Myshka, though she completely averts the Cats Are Mean tropes that often goes along with it. She may find cats superior to every other being, but she's cuddly and affectonate with pretty much everyone.
• Character Development: With the possible exception of Mr Artist, most of the characters go through this to some degree. Most notably, S-ko grows more open and emotional, Maléne becomes less selfish and self-centered, and Lea grows more reflective and introspective as she grows older.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Irene's husband Alex never really appeared in the comic to begin with, but after a while the comic has even stopped mentioning him.
• Constantly Curious: Lea
• Convenient Coma
• Cool Airship: Millennium Snowball
• Cross-Popping Veins
• Cut and Paste Comic: There's a lot of recycled art in this comic, though there's less and less of it as time goes by.
• Cute Little Fangs: Both Myshka, Malène and Amaranthe have them.
• Cute Monster Girl: Myshka, Lulu
• Demon Head: Kazuma does this.
• Demonic Possession: S-ko is possessed by Maléne's mother early in the comic. She gets better.
• Disappeared Dad: Lea's father is gone. He doesn't really come up in the comic.
• Dual Wielding: Kazuma
• Everybody Has Lots of Sex: With everyone else, at that. Most of the characters in the comic has had sex with at least three of the other characters, even discounting the orgy scenes. The sole exceptions to this are Karl (who is a confirmed asexual) and Lea (who is too young be interested in sex and instead prefers planning strategies for killing zombies).
• Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting
• Exposition Party: it's worse; Exposition Sex Scene
• Face on a Milk Carton: Kirika from Noir makes an appearance on one in a meta-joke.
• Faceless Masses: like here
• Fan Disservice: unless you're into that sort of thing
• Fanservice: The comic is pretty steeped in it. All the characters are very good-looking, and they're often seen in various states of undress and/or striking sexy poses. The female characters do this the most, but there are plenty of pages where the male characters get in on the act.
• Fiery Redhead: Inverted with Tam. She has red hair, but is overall one of the least confrontational characters in the comic.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Malène and everybody else
• The Four Gods: Malène's mother mistakes Lulu for Genbu
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Every single character is perfectly aware that they are in a comic. Mr Artist can even alter reality just by drawing whatever anyone needs; when Tam and S-ko need passports to travel abroad, he draws them passports... then they convince him to draw them all tickets to Business Class so that they can travel in comfort.
• Framing Device: Used, discussed and Lampshaded in the "Canterbury Tales" arc, where the cast agree to explore alternate takes on the comic, using the framing device of each of them telling a story.
  Mr Artist: I wanted to give everyone the chance to talk about where we'll go next with this comic.
  S-ko: We could each tell a story. That way we could explore various plots while keeping the comic technically plotless.
  Irene: The current situation could be our frame story. A bit like The Canterbury Tales.
  Lea: What's a frame story?
  Maléne: So it's a time-tested literary device!
  Kazuma: Are you being sarcastic?
• Furo Scene here
• Genre Savvy
• Genre Shift
• Gratuitous Japanese: Here.
• The Grim Reaper: Kira has appeared as such
• Handwave: often lampshaded
• Harem Anime: Lampooned in its own story arc
• Harmless Villain: Malène starts as this. She spends some time as a Token Evil Teammate, before softening up further and just being slightly naughty.
• Hellish Pupils: Malène
• Hermetic Magic
• Hot Springs Episode
• Human Aliens: Averted. In their natural form, Bobbles don't look even slightly human. The human-like bodies they're seen with for most of the comic is the result of a using a Transformation Trinket.
• Humans Are Ugly: S-ko regularly refers to humans as "slimy aliens"
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: episode titles go "Not Quite x" or "Intermezzo"
• Indy Escape: averted
• Immortal Immaturity: Malène
• Important Haircut: Irene
• Innocent Fanservice Girl Myshka and Lulu, and to a lesser extent S-ko and Tam, all start out as this. Since they were all originally non-humanoids who didn't wear clothes, after transforming into a humanoid shape they often don't see the big deal about nudity. Tam probably has the most body modesty, and Myshka definitely has the least — true to her cat nature, she never wears clothes unless the absolutely has to.
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: The entire comic, really. Because everyone is already aware that they are in a comic, they often don't bother with technical details.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Averted. Kazuma uses a katana, but it's not portrayed as superior to other swords.
• Lightning Glare
• Love Dodecahedron: Downplayed. There's a lot of affection between the characters, and a little romance as well, and the comic certainly doesn't shy away from making it clear that a number of them are sexually involved (to the point where several pages is devoted to an orgy between the majority of the characters), but the drama and complications usually associated with this trope are completely absent. It's probably helped by monogamy being a foreign concept to Bobbles.
• Magical Girlfriend: Referenced by name and lampooned in its own story arc, making fun of such things as the This Loser Is You nature of the male protagonists of said series.
• Mandy's Law of Anime Gender Bending: It's not really made a big deal out of, but Tam and S-ko were originally male in their true Bobble forms. Post-transformation they identify as female and exclusively use female pronouns, even when talking about their pre-transformation lives. Tam at one point makes an offhanded remark about having been a guy, but that's pretty much it.
• Man in a Kilt: Mr. Artist
• Musical Assassin: Attack by German composer! Probably also a Shout-Out to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
• Mr./Ms. Fanservice: Everyone. Every single character.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: in this strip.
• Naked on Arrival: Played with in the Henshin incident. When Mat the Bobble transforms into Tam the humanoid, she is naked at first. Played with when it comes to Myshka and Lulu, who are also naked after transforming but have Barbie Doll Anatomy. Completely averted with S-ko, who makes it a point to transform behind a modesty screen and emerges fully clothed.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: Averted by Lulu, who post-transformation has a vaguely feminine shape, but still does not have breasts of any kind.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Karl, whose Asexuality makes it impossible for anyone to seduce or distract with sexy poses, flirting or undressing.
• Older Than They Look: Malène, Lulu
• Ominous Latin Chanting: referred to by name.
• One-Hour Work Week
• Our Zombies Are Different: Shout-Out to Silent Hill here
• Pretty Freeloaders
• Pretty in Mink
• Psychic Powers: Kazuma
• Put on a Bus: Karl eventually has to go back home. Though the comic was pretty clear from the get-go that he was only visiting for a while.
• The Quiet One: Myshka. After her transformation, she is able to talk, she just chooses not to "because she finds feline communication superior."
• Quirky Household: One artist who can change the world around him simply because he's the one drawing the comic, two Little Green Men aliens in human guises, one anthropomorphic catgirl who hates clothes, one athropomorphic turtle-girl with a penchant for philosophy, one self-centered but amiable succubus, one sword-wielding demon hunter who doesn't really hunt that many demons, one High Priestess of an unofficial Sisterhood, and her preteen daughter who's obsessed with killing zombies and has the vocabulary of a forty-year-old. Oh, and a revolutionary leader stays with them for a while, and the succubus's scheming mother and the spirit of the priestess's deceased friend sometimes show up for visits. And (with the exception of the preteen daughter and the revolutionary) Everyone Has Lots of Sex. Anything resembling normality is long gone.
• Really 700 Years Old: Malène
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Malène
• Reverse Grip: both Kazuma and Mr. Artist use it occasionally
• Rule 34: explicitly called out
• Samus Is a Girl: Kazuma
• Scenery Censor: Used so inconsistently that it's presumably for laughs, such as with a speech bubble.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Mat's name change to Tam, Cos to S-ko.
• Self-Insert Fic: With predictable Lampshade Hanging.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Maléne is the most obvious example, but S-ko has her moments too.
• She-Fu
• Ship Tease: Between Maléne and S-ko in the comic's early stages, until one page reveals that they've actually been in a relationship for quite some time already.
• Shirtless Scene: lots of them
• Shout-Out: the comic is highly intertextual, and has many references. Like to Revolutionary Girl Utena here
  • Hell, Kira is very obviously Chloe from Noir.
    • Given that Kira means "dark" in Gaelic, also an instance of Meaningful Name
• Show Within a Show: at one point they watch themselves in a movie they made earlier
• Space Opera: The Bobbles' backstory take the form of one. The main comic, not so much.
• Speech Bubbles: There are a few instances of the speech bubbles interacting with characters, being used as convenient Scenery Censor, and so on.
• Spot the Imposter: Malène does Voluntary Shapeshifting, but often has problems getting the details wrong when impersonating one of the others.
• Stripperiffic: Mocked
• Super-Deformed: A few strips present the characters like this. The artist notes that this style is harder to draw than it looks.
• The Sweat Drop
• Sword Fight: A few of them. Ka
• Tarot Motifs here or here
• Temple of Doom: several times, as a Shout-Out to Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider
• Tentacle Rope here
• Tuckerization: several characters are based on real life people, including one who is a troper
• Two Gamers on a Couch: subverted, they sit on the floor
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: particularly in The Canterbury Tales arc
• Unusual Ears: Malène
• Viewers Are Geniuses: The further on the comic goes, the more it goes into existentialism and complex philosophical concepts, often name-dropping various schools of thought and philosophy.
• Write Who You Know
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: lampooned here

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