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Sequential Art Before you click... is a webcomic drawn by Phillip M. Jackson (a.k.a. Jolly Jack) about a group of unlikely housemates. Art is a chronically frustrated graphic designer (and the only human living in the house); Kat, a cat girl, is a fun-loving photographer; Pip, a penguin, is a stereotypical video-game geek who makes a living buying and selling items online, and Scarlet is a naïve and energetic squirrel girl whose erratic behaviour and short attention span mask her true intellect. Over time the household is expanded with Kat's adoption of a non-anthropomorphic platypus named Leonard, a mysterious infestation of Denizens, and the rescue of Scarlet's sisters(?) Amber, Jade and Violet.

Sequential Art veers between cozy Slice of Life moments and Art's role as a Cosmic Plaything. Sometimes life is fairly ordinary — Christmas shopping, computer problems, and things like that. Sometimes life is a little surreal... Art may end up playing the Realm of Lorecraft boardgame against a squirrel hivemind. And surprisingly frequently, life gets extremely surreal, such as the housemates' brief involvement in the secret global struggle between retardium-harvesting aliens and the merman who engineered the terrible secret behind 3D movies. No, really. Also features occasional appearances by the small, wisecracking hamster who apparently draws the strip.


Sequential Art provides examples of:

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    Tropes A to B 

    Tropes C to D 
  • Call-Back:
    • The very first strip and this strip over five hundred strips later. And then another almost five hundred strips later still...
    • And for a more literal Call-Back, there's Crazy Boris, who may or may not also be Crazy Sven. And possibly the guy on the box of crackers.
    • The spider from all the way back in strip 7 makes a re-appearance during Scarlet's flashback, as well as somewhat justifying how Pip managed to blow up the bathroom with a deodorant flamethrower.
    • Another call back is in strip #765 regarding the Denizens' technology that Pip sold to the two nerds in strip #344. It teleported them to the middle of the Gobi desert in Mongolia, and one apparently had to eat the other.
  • Cassandra Truth:
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: In addition to the usual banter, sometimes somebody just can't work up the energy for panic anymore.
    Pip (face down on the floor in despair): I was going to stop Scarlet and company from inadvertently building another doomsday device[...] Could you go and talk the squirrels down before they wipe us all from existence?
  • Catch-22 Dilemma:
    • When Pip first starts playing Legends of Lorecraft in panel 136, he starts as a Level 1 serf, and needs armor and a sword to go on treasure quests. However, armor and swords cost money, which is earned by obtaining treasures. Pip lampshades his dilemma nicely.
    • And the reason he's even in this mess? When he tried to join a Pick-Up Group upon first spawning, he made the mistake of partying with a Griefer, a thief who stole all the gear that he originally spawned with. Real MMORPGs do not let characters go without weapons or armor, nor allow other players to take their only equipment for precisely this reason.
  • Catfight: Usually involves Kat and Hilary. Latest example here.
  • Catgirl: The appropriately named Kat (short for Kathleen).
  • Cats Are Mean: Generally averted. Sometimes invoked.
  • Cerebus Syndrome:
    • Downplayed. Several times the artist has taken a few months to do long arc stories involving the plucky characters combating dangerously powerful adversaries like the Denizens or Oz, only to have the conflict resolved and go right back to the "Gag-a-Day" format.
    • Played with in the case of the "retardium" arc: increasingly breathless revelations of a secret power struggle led the cast toward what seemed to be a moment of dramatic choice. Instead, Art realized both sides were idiots. So the gang went home and got back to the gag-a-day format.
  • Cheek Copy: It's implied that Pip did this with Art's scanner.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
  • Chew Bubblegum: Pip quotes the famous line before passing out weapons to rescue Kat.
  • The Chew Toy: Poor Leonard. If anything non-lethal, but unpleasant can happen to him, it will. If it cannot, it happens anyway.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The 'anti-tech energy' and the fake chip that counters it.
  • Clothing Damage: It takes a little over 350 strips for Scarlet's only shirt to disintegrate after being caught on a doorknob.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Who says gamers are immature?
  • Colourful Theme Naming: The Squirrel Girls: Ambernote , Scarletnote , Jadenote  and Violetnote . Which were derived from their Subject Numbers4M83R, 5C4RL37, J4D3 and V10L37.
  • Comically Missing the Point: in 1223, Scarlet, while looking at a bag of mixed nuts, is told by "the internet" that she can't have nuts in November. Kat takes a beat to consider whether or not to correct her, and realises it's best left unsaid.
  • Companion Cube: The Buddy Brick, as seen here.
  • Contempt Crossfire: Art is told to redo a drawing by both the marketing and censorship departments: one wanting more cleavage or the ad won't sell, one wanting less cleavage or the ad won't air.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment
    Jack: Dance, tubby! Dance or ISSUE ONE GETS CREASED!
  • Cooldown Hug: Art gets one from Kat, when's he's understandably upset with Scarlet after she THREW HIM IN FRONT OF A DEATH RAY!
  • Cosmic Plaything: Art's skill of collecting troubles and dangerous adventures is only outmatched by the Universe's eagerness to provide them.
  • Covers Always Lie: Mr. Jackson really gets on his soapbox about this one.
  • Covert Pervert:
    • Kat. This particular example is made extra funny by the fact that she wanted Art to draw a high fantasy version of her. Meaning she wanted to see how he was fantasizing about her. Another instance in which she goads Art into drawing a sexy elf for his Christmas cards. She gets REALLY into it.
    • Scarlet and possibly her sisters seem to really enjoy the view here. He's still there, cleaning, for three years In-Universe. And sporting the French Maid Outfit for good measure.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Pip's ready for the Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Crossover: Leonard gets zapped into sibling Dada Comics strip Spider and Scorpion during the Jack and the Denizens arc.
  • Curse Cut Short: "YOU UTTER B--" BING-BONG!
  • The Cutie: Scarlet (and her sisters, by association).
  • Cutting the Knot: Pip once inherited a puzzle box from a dead relative who had been a jewel thief. The box contained a priceless diamond, but to get it, he had to solve the puzzle. Pip just dropped the box on the floor, smashing it open.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The Denizens are pretty sinister looking things but they're pretty much harmless... except for Jack
  • Dark Secret: While in strip 398, it looks like Art and Pip may have killed someone, it's later revealed that they instead buried a dressmaker's dummy. To be fair, this was covering up the fact that when they took the dummy, it accidentally kicked off a series of feminist riots that burned their college to the ground.
  • Deep-Immersion Gaming: Often when the gang plays games (digital or otherwise), the strips show them being dressed in whatever gears their characters would have been wearing. How they appear during the short arc of Realm of Lorecraft tabletop session is one example, including Scarlet who imagines herself as the "battle cube".
    Pip: You can't play as the dice, you dink!
  • Defiant Strip: Pip has promised to sell a squirrel girl (namely Scarlet) to an online buyer named Eyurin for four thousand British pounds. When Pip can't locate Scarlet, and can't refund the money, Eyurin protests by stripping naked on the front lawn in strip #165. Even Pip's flatmates, Art and Kat, are horrified and squicked at this sight.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Hilary, as of this strip, which also marks the first time she's seen with a smile of contentment rather than out of pleasure at someone's suffering. Subverted later. HARD
  • Delayed Reaction: Here.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: "Prepare for deadly laser death time... with LASERS!"
  • Detail-Hogging Cover: See Covers Always Lie
  • Disaster Dominoes: From a drunken prank to feminist protests to riots and fires. So far so good.
  • Disembodied Eyebrows: Pretty much everyone who has eyebrows has had them floating off their head at one point or another.
  • Distanced from Current Events: Invoked in comic 1209 as Art and Pip want to play a game to take their minds off of the news (specifically the 2022 invasion of Russia into Ukraine). The board game they pick up is called Supremacy, all about nuking countries to win, and both agree, in clear discomfort, to find another game.
  • Distracted by the Sexy:
    • A drugged Kat trying on a borrowed swimsuit that's way too big for her: it's threatening to fall off if she doesn't keep holding onto the garment. This distracts Art from thinking about how to escape a Reality Show also serving as a prison for those threatening to reveal a covert Alien Invasion.
      Art: Yeah. That's helping my focus.
    • Very surprising, but it would seem even Scarlet can be affected by this. However it's more likely that she wants the Handsome Prince to stay longer, and to do so she increases the chores which he must do before leaving.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The root cause of the 20+ year grudge between Kat and Hilary seems to have come from Hilary feeling less special because Kat also had a "Pink Pony" lunchbox.
  • Door Dumb: Art tries to unjam a door to rescue Scarlet, only to find out Scarlet herself is accidentally jamming the door by pushing instead of pulling.
  • Double-Edged Answer: A psychotic AI gasses all personnel in a government facility. As Art, Pip, and Scarlet are sneaking in, Pip uses a small mirror to see around a corner.
    Art: Well? Any security guards?
    Pip: Uh, yes and no.
  • Double Entendre: Kat claims that there's pee in her bag in this strip. Turns out to be the Wintendo Pee.
  • Double Take: Art, when he hears that Kat killed her former teacher.
  • The Dreaded: Several, and they are quite understandable.
    • Jack is one for the entire cast; diminutive he may be, but his control over the denizens and the fact that he's taken out a country with them certainly makes him a force to be reckoned with. Despite his small stature, he can wield a chainsaw very menacingly.
    • Mrs. Strinpit for Kat; she was Kat's old bullying teacher from Middleschool, who'd give Kat detention for everything and continued to speak down to her even as an adult.
    • Rebecca Mace for Pip and Art; Rebecca is a mentally disturbed woman that Art and Pip pulled a prank on, she then found out who pranked her, found where they lived and hammered on their door and screamed for an entire night.
    • Pickles for Pip; an Animalistic Abomination in the shape of a chihuahua from the game World of Lorecraft, which turns its own insides out on a whim. It is specifically stated to be a "Hellhound".
  • Dream Sequence: 622 to 634
  • Droste Image: Pip meets the Author Avatar hamster in the strip itself. He gives Pip a copy of his latest strip (which at the time was that very strip). Pip looks at the strip, which is about Pip looking at the strip, looking at the strip, looking at the strip and so on.
    Pip: Woah. Trippy.
  • Dynamic Entry: Kat slams Hilary with a flying kick to the face for the above-mentioned lies she spread about Kat.

    Tropes E to F 

    Tropes G to H 
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Scarlet. Managed to use household tools to build a working Wave-Motion Gun. Also her sisters managed to make a lawnmower escape the earth's atmosphere.
  • Genius Ditz: Scarlet and her sisters. Scarlet can be inventing an actual laser gun in one comic, and be completely hypnotized by a spinning washing machine in another.
  • G.I.R.L.: Invoked and averted here.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: Pip certainly seems to think so.
    • Then there's this non-canon fanservice-y accident. There was plenty of times it could've happened during DeCerto storyline. A pity it didn't.
  • Glasgow Grin: A variation. It's stated in Jack's official bio that his "mouth" is actually a crack in his face, meaning he's broken. This pretty much explains why he was the only Denizen who turned out to be evil.
  • Going Commando: Strip 34
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: Art and Pip steal a dressmaker's dummy (one belonging to an objectophile who thought of it as a sentient being), sending photos of postcards as if the dummy were on vacation, culminating in sticking breasts on it. This infuriates the local Straw Feminist to the point of causing riots on campus, and then the dummy's owner recognizes them...
  • Groin Attack: Pip receives one here due to a significant difference in size.
  • Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Kat stays sober all year... until New Year's Eve, when she gets totally smashed. Her "New Year's Resolution" for several years now has been to "stop drinking so much alcohol during the holiday season".
  • Hive Mind:
    • Again, Scarlet and her sisters. The reason they're such ditzes most of the time is that each is one part out of a 4-part superintelligence. As seen when everyone plays the board version of Land of Lorecraft: everyone against Pip, the squirrel sisters manage to pull off a spectacular plan on Pip to allow Kat and Art to beat him unhindered. Which just goes to show, never challenge a bio-supercomputer to a strategy game.
      Scarlet & her sisters: ...we are legion!
    • The Denizens also seem to need a truly evil member of their species — such as Jack — to behave in any way malevolent.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Jack.
    • Uwe'Boll... immensely.
  • Homage: The "Quinten R&D" arc.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Pip and Fern in this "Victory Pose"
  • Human Resources: It turns out that the aliens are on earth to harvest Retardium, an ambient energy naturally given off by the 'willfully ignorant'.note .
    • James Cameron wants to stop them... because they are hogging all the people dumb enough to pay to see his movies.
  • Hurl It into the Sun: This is how the Eldak wants to kill Art, whom they believe is a Man of Kryptonite for them, after all their other methods fail to crack the Think Tank's safety bubble which is encasing Art at the time.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Art of all people cannot take characters with crazy eyebrows seriously.
    • Also, Kat gets her hands on the Attacknoid's remote here.
    • Scarlet may be one of fiction's quintessential Genki Girls, but she can't stand it when a drugged up Kat starts talking a million words a minute.

    Tropes I to J 

    Tropes K to L 

    Tropes M to N 

    Tropes O to P 

    Tropes Q to S 

    Tropes T to V 

    Tropes W to Z 

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