Left: Amanda. Right: Trixie. Those claws? The Magpie herself.
"There is no escape from Pinewood, this is the one thing Amanda knows. At least she thought she knew, until Trixie, the new girl came to town. As the rules she once believed fall apart, Amanda soon faces the truth of her town. She isn’t the only one that wants out."
— Description on Tapas.io
The Magpie is a horror webcomic written by Bones McKay and illustrated by Ursula Gray as a prequel to their previous comic Pretty Mouth. It follows Amanda and the new girl Trixie on their quest to uncover whats behind the mystery of Pinewood.
It can be found at its own website
or Tapas.io here.
The Magpie contains examples of:
- The '80s: The comic takes place in the town of Pinewood in the 80s.
- Abhorrent Admirer: The Magpie, towards Amanda.
- Affectionate Nickname: Trixie nicknames Amanda “Mandy” after their Relationship Upgrade.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Amanda has dark hair and at first prefers to keep her distance from others.
- Animal Motifs: The Magpie, obviously. The witch she is bound to also is constantly surrounded by crows.
- Antagonist Title: The Magpie is an elder god and the Big Bad of the comic.
- Big Bad: The Magpie herself, implied to be the reason behind strange happenings in Pinewood.
- Corpse Land: The Magpie's hoard.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Amanda starts out incredibly cold and distant towards Trixie's attempts to befriend her. Soon, she warms up to Trixie and they even become a couple.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The entire comic is in black and white.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Magpie, who breaks the pages every time she appears.
- Eldritch Location: Wherever and whatever the Magpie's hoard is, it's definitely not a normal location of Pinewood.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Trixie is blonde, and she's sweet, kind and cheerful. Unlike the other kids at school, she refuses to ostracise Amanda for being a 'freak' and is consistently sweet and supportive towards her.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Due to being set in the 80s, many of the secondary characters are homophobic.
- Love Triangle: Amanda and Trixie are interested in each other, while the Magpie claims to be in love with Amanda.
- Meaningful Name: Like a real-life magpie, the Magpie in the story is an elder god who collects corpses and imprisons humans in her hoard.
- Missing Mom: Trixie's mother went missing years back and was discovered to be killed.
- Official Couple: Amanda and Trixie become one after spending some time together.
- Psychic Link: Amanda seems to have formed one with the Magpie after entering her hoard.
- Relationship Upgrade: Amanda and Trixie go from strangers, to friends, to lovers.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: We cut away from Amanda and Trixie after they strip down to their underwear. Their next scene together has Trixie declaring she had a lot of fun.
- Yandere: The Magpie kidnaps Amanda's father in order to force Amanda to talk to her. She fails to see that Amanda isn't interested in a murderous elder god.
