History ComicBook / Undertown

* BalefulPolymorph: [[spoiler:The bridge beasts are furmen transformed with insect magic.]]
** Bizarrely, [[spoiler:Joey P.P.]] was transformed from a raccoon into a porcupine by the insects, and this is apparently a horrible fate that he needs to be saved from [[spoiler:bad enough that he betrays his friends to help himself turn back.]]

* AdultFear: For Sama's father--being seriously ill and believing you'll die without being able to tell your child (whom you're consistently giving a hard time) how much you love them. [[spoiler:And Sama's only able to see him for a few moments in the human world before he's dragged back to Undertown, so from his perspective his son's vanished into thin air right after he tries to make up for how he's treated him.]]

The story revolves around Sama, a ten year old boy who's a bit of a crybaby and, despite his age, still plays with his beloved teddy bear, "Eddie." One day Sama'a overly-strict father suffers a heart attack and becomes seriously ill; while he waits in the hospital, Sama meets an old man who tells him the legend of a mythical place called "Undertown," the place where teddy bears come from. He describes it as a friendly place where "everyone smiles" and there's an [[MacGuffin object]] called the Sugar Stone that can heal anyone. Following the old man's instructions, Sama enters Undertown, only to find that it's a CrapsackWorld populated by [[PettingZooPeople furmen and insects]] who are at war with one another over [[FantasticDrug sugar]]--and the few people there who have even ''heard'' of the Sugar Stone would stop at nothing to get it.

* FunnyAnimal: Most residents of Undertown are PettingZooPeople, but the teddy bears of Undertown are much more like actual teddy bears in appearance, save for having more dexterous hands and feet, to a point many of them don't even wear clothes.

* PettingZooPeople: Several variants; the Furmen (mammals), the lizard boys (reptiles), an unnamed bird variety, and there's the insects, who look the least human of them all but still are heavily anthropomorphized.
** The second volume introduces "fish" pirates who are similarly anthropomorphized.

** Later on in the book, [[spoiler:There's the shot of when The Cloud's mask is cracked and reveals ''a human girl's face'' underneath it. A following panel is a full-page illustration of the girl pulling the mask apart.]]

* WhamShot: From Volume 1, The Mind in his one on-screen appearance [[spoiler:transforms grotesquely into a creature with multiple eyes and a literal ring of teeth instead of a mouth. Later on the book, the audience is shown that this is what a ''dringling'' looks like.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:The Cloud leaps to his (really her) death after Sama accidentally breaks her costume and reveals she's a human girl, no longer having the loyalty of the insects or the aid of The Mind.]]

* TheReveal: From the first volume, [[spoiler:The Cloud is a little girl who also entered Undertown from the human world, who has been walking around in an insect suit.]]

* Bizarrely, [[spoiler:Joey P.P.]] was transformed from a raccoon into a porcupine by the insects, and this is apparently a horrible fate that he needs to be saved from [[spoiler:bad enough that he betrays his friends to help himself turn back.]]

* AsYouKnow: The second volume does this a 'lot' between multiple different characters, presumably to catch the audience up on what happened in the previous one in light of the long hiatus.

* ArcSymbol: A teardrop; the shape is constantly used on and throughout the book (including to denote a new chapter) and [[spoiler:if Mighty's hallucination is to be believed, the Sugar Stone is shaped like one.]] Tears and crying are a general theme of the story, as Sama's tears are literally stained on his face and he struggles not to cry so often, seeing it as a sign of weakness. A river in Undertown is also called "the crying river".

** Many aspects of The Cloud foreshadow his Reveal. The Cloud is the only insect with just four limbs, [[spoiler:as he's really a normal human girl in an insect suit that presumably wouldn't be able to pilot one with more limbs.]] He also refers to one of his comrades as having a "simple insect brain," which [[spoiler:alludes to the fact that he (as a human) and The Mind (as a dringling) are not actually insects.]] A conversation he has with his insect pet, Flee, has him repeating to himself that he will be "Free" with the Sugar Stone. [[spoiler:He (she) was originally from the surface, and presumably intended to go back.]]

** Raindrop tells Sama that there are new friends he shouldn't trust. [[spoiler:Sure enough, Joey P.P. goes back on their pledge and turns him in to The Cloud.]]

''Undertown'' is an [[OELManga English manga]] series written by Jim Pascoe and illustrated by Jake Myler, with the first volume published by Creator/Tokyopop in 2007. The series consists of two volumes, [[DevelopmentHell and fans are still waiting on the release of a third installment]].