History TearJerker / DylanDog

* Virgil, inspector Bloch's son from Issue #200 (an OriginEpisode among several). He lost his mother at a young age, he felt like he wasn't as artistic as she was or strong like his father and be good enough to become a cop, and upon Bloch becoming more shut-in from the grief of the loss and constantly talking about Dylan, he became an addicted GreenEyedMonster. Bloch quits his job to help Virgil go through his withdrawal, but Virgil escapes and armed with a gun (which turns out to be empty) he creates a SadisticChoice situation holding Dylan at gunpoint and forcing Bloch to decide whether he cares more about him or his own son. In a moment of self-doubt, Dylan wonders if he ever loved his own father as much as Virgil does and if he really cares for his own life and actually encourages Bloch to shoot him instead, but Virgil gets gunned down by an officer. In light of this tragedy, Dylan promises to stand by Bloch's side and swears to be a non-drinker.

** The polarizing sequel storyline "Johnny's Heart" (#127) turns Johnny's touching request into a cruel NiceJobBreakingItHero because Dougal goes on to become that issue's MonsterOfTheWeek. While killing his own parents [[AssholeVictim isn't too unwarranted]], what makes it tragic is that Dora gets murdered too, making Johnny indirectly responsible for her death due to him allowing Dougal's survival.

** The polarizing sequel storyline "Johnny's Heart" (#127) turns Johnny's touching request into a cruel NiceJobBreakingItHero because Dougal goes on to become that issue's MonsterOfTheWeek. While killing his own parents [[AssholeVictim isn't too unwarranted]], what makes it tragic is that Dora gets murdered too, making Johnny indirectly responsible for her death due to his allowing of Dougal's survival.

** The polarizing sequel storyline "Johnny's Heart" (#127) turns Johnny's touching request into a cruel NiceJobBreakingItHero because Dougal goes on to become that issue's MonsterOfTheWeek. While killing his own parents [[AssholeVictim isn't too unwarranted]], what makes it tragic is that Dora gets murdered too, making Johnny indirectly responsible for her death by allowing Dougal's survival.

** The polarizing sequel storyline "Johnny's Heart" (#127) turns Johnny's touching request into a cruel NiceJobBreakingItHero because Dougal goes on to become that issue's MonsterOfTheWeek. While killing his own parents [[AssholeVictim isn't too unwarranted]], what makes it tragic is that Dora gets murdered too, making Johnny indirectly responsible for her death by allowing Dougal to live.

** The polarizing sequel storyline "Johnny's Heart" (#127) turns Johnny's touching request into a cruel NiceJobBreakingItHero because Dougal goes on to become that issue's MonsterOfTheWeek. While killing his own parents [[AssholeVictim isn't too unwarranted]], what makes it tragic is Dora gets murdered too, making Johnny indirectly responsible for her death by allowing Dougal to live.

** The polarizing sequel storyline "Johnny's Heart" (#127) turns Johnny's touching request into a cruel NiceJobBreakingItHero because Dougal ends up becoming the issue's serial killer, murdering Dora, his parents and targeting Dylan.

** The polarizing sequel storyline "Johnny's Heart" (#127) turns Johnny's touching wish into a cruel NiceJobBreakingItHero because Dougal ends up becoming the issue's serial killer, murdering Dora, his parents and targeting Dylan.

** The polarizing sequel storyline "Johnny's Heart" (#127) turns Johnny's touching sacrifice into an AllForNothing because Dougal ends up becoming the issue's serial killer, murdering Dora, his parents and targeting Dylan.

* "The Long Goodbye" (#74): Marina Kimball, an old flame of Dylan when he went to her town Moonlight for a summer vacation, presents herself at Dylan's doorstep with no memory of how she got there and asks Dylan to take her home. This issue avoids monsters or horror elements and is instead a successfully sentimental story between Dylan and Marina as they travel and talk about the old days and how their lives have turned out. Dylan acridly remembers having left Moonlight after almost killing himself because of Marina preferring a rough guy named Robby (with whom she had a bad marriage that ended with his death) over him despite declaring his love for her. In the end Dylan arrives in Moonlight and, as he suspected, Marina killed herself and before dying made a last wish to see him again. As he returns home, Dylan finally remembers that despite leaving Moonlight angrily back then, Marina did run after him and had a proper TrainStationGoodbye, which remains tragic for Dylan not hearing Marina yelling that she loves him too, screaming back at her "''You'll tell next summer!''", and present day Dylan bitterly wonders "''But how much time separates us from the next summer?''"

* "Johnny Freak" (#81): Johnny is a deaf, abandoned boy without legs, found by Dylan. Johnny displays amazing intelligence (he learned how to read lips and to speak, albeit badly) artistic abilities, and forms a bond with Dylan, [[GirlOfTheWeek nurse Dora]] and Groucho. Then things go downhill as his origins are revealed: he's the illegitimate son of the Arkham family, born deaf but otherwise healthy, while his legitimate brother Dougal was born with a degenerative illness. The Arkhams then used Johnny's organs and limbs to replace his brother's when they started failing, while otherwise keeping Johnny trapped in the basement. For years. How does the story end? Dougal shoots Johnny because he loathes him as a "freak", then has a heart attack after Dylan beats him up. As Dylan is at Johnny's death bed Johnny's last request to him is to give his heart to Dougal in order to save him. Dylan almost refuses to do so, but can't bring himself to betray what is effectively his own son.

* "The Land of Colored Shadows" (#107) has met a rather contested reception for being LighterAndSofter than its classic predecessor "Pink Rabbits Kill" (#24), but it has a few touching moments in this tonal shift, such as Pink Rabbit's PetTheDog moment when helping a terminally ill kid in a hospital who's a huge fan of his cartoons to pass away in peace by reassuring him that they'll meet again in the toon world, Groucho's [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness genuine sadness]] when Dylan is fatally wounded and comatose after Pink Rabbit threw a fridge on him, and the BittersweetEnding: Peter Pencil awakens from his coma despite previously stating that he wanted to stay in the toon world, explaining he changed his mind after his girlfriend Betty Bloom (who had died and became a toon) suddenly began to insult him into leaving. Dylan understands that Betty pulled a BreakHisHeartToSaveHim sacrificing her own happiness so that Peter could move on and enjoy his life to the fullest. Peter even goes as far as deciding to give up his cartoonist and animator career and immediately starts hooking up with a nurse, while Dylan notices Betty crying on TV and tells Bloch "I'll tell you a true story, Bloch... rather absurd and a bit sad." as they leave.

* "Johnny Freak" (#81): Johnny is a deaf, abandoned boy without legs, found by Dylan. Johnny displays amazing intelligence (he learned how to read lips and to speak, albeit badly) artistic abilities, and forms a bond with Dylan, [[GirlOfTheWeek nurse Dora]] and Groucho. Then things go downhill as his origins are revealed: he's the illegitimate son of the Arkham family, born deaf but otherwise healthy, while his legitimate brother Dougal was born with a degenerative illness. The Arkhams then used Johnny's organs and limbs to replace his brother's when they started failing, while otherwise keeping Johnny trapped in the basement. For years. How does the story end? Dougal shoots Johnny because he loathes him as a "freak", then has a heart attack. As Dylan is at Johnny's death bed Johnny's last request to him is to give his heart to Dougal in order to save him. Dylan almost refuses to do so, but can't bring himself to betray what is effectively his own son.

* "The Land of Colored Shadows" (#107) has met a rather contested reception for being LighterAndSofter than its classic predecessor "Pink Rabbits Kill" (#24), but it has a few touching moments in this tonal shift, such as Pink Rabbit's PetTheDog moment when helping a terminally ill kid in a hospital who's a huge fan of his cartoons to pass away in peace by reassuring him that they'll meet again in the toon world, Groucho's [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness genuine sadness]] when Dylan is fatally wounded and comatose after Pink Rabbit threw a fridge on him, and the BittersweetEnding: Peter Pencil awakens from his coma despite previously stating that he wanted to stay in the toon world, explaining he changed his mind after his girlfriend Betty Bloom (who had died and became a toon) suddenly began to insult him into leaving. Dylan understands that Betty pulled a BreakHisHeartToSaveHim sacrificing her own happiness so that Peter could move on end enjoy his life to the fullest. Peter even goes as far as deciding to give up his cartoonist and animator career and immediately starts hooking up with a nurse, while Dylan notices Betty crying on TV and tells Bloch "I'll tell you a true story, Bloch... rather absurd and a bit sad." as they leave.

* "The Land of Colored Shadows" (#107) has met a rather contested reception for being LighterAndSofter than its classic predecessor "Pink Rabbits Kill" (#24), but it has a few touching moments in this tonal shift, such as Pink Rabbit's PetTheDog moment when helping a terminally ill kid in a hospital who's a huge fan of his cartoons to pass away in peace by reassuring him that they'll meet again in the toon world, Groucho's [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness genuine sadness]] when Dylan is fatally wounded and comatose after Pink Rabbit threw a fridge on him, and the BittersweetEnding: Peter Pencil awakens from his coma despite previously stating that he wanted to stay in the toon world, explaining he changed his mind after his girlfriend Betty Bloom (who had died and became a toon) suddenly began to insult him into leaving. Dylan understands that Betty pulled a BreakHisHeartToSaveHim sacrificing her own happiness so that Peter could move on end enjoy his life to the fullest. Peter even goes as far as deciding to give up his cartoonist and animator career and immediately starts hooking up with a nurse, while Dylan notices Betty crying on TV and tells Bloch "I'll tell you a true story, Bloch... rather absurd and a bit sad." as they leave his room.

* "Hells" (#46): The story opens in a rather sorrowful manner when we follow an old man named Steven, who bought a special ring at an auction for [[NumberOfTheBeast six hundred and sixty-six]] pounds as an anniversary gift for his wife Kate who loved that ring upon seeing it decades earlier... but we soon find out Kate is ''DEAD'' and Steven [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable keeps her corpse sitting on the living room's armchair]] out of love and he puts the ring in her hand before breaking down in tears and deciding to read her a poem by Creator/HenryJames. At that point, Kate's corpse suddenly speaks and says that his love for her hasn't died, but instead allowed him to break through every barrier between one life and the other, telling him that finally his time has come to reunite by breaking the final barrier. Steven kills himself by drinking a glass of water where Kate poured a powdered poison hidden within in the ring and moves on to the afterlife with her.

* "The Long Goodbye" (#74): Marina Kimball, an old flame of Dylan when he went to her town Moonlight for a summer vacation, presents herself at Dylan's doorstep with no memory of how she got there and asks Dylan to take her home. This issue avoids monsters or horror elements and is instead a successfully sentimental story between Dylan and Marina as they travel and talk about the old days and how their lives have turned out. Dylan bitterly remembers having left Moonlight after almost killing himself because of Marina preferring a rough guy named Robby (with whom she had a bad marriage that ended with his death) over him despite declaring his love for her. In the end Dylan arrives in Moonlight and, as he suspected, Marina killed herself and before dying made a last wish to see him again. As he returns home, Dylan finally remembers that despite leaving Moonlight angrily back then, Marina did run after him and had a proper TrainStationGoodbye, which remains tragic for Dylan not hearing Marina yelling that she loves him too, screaming back at her "''You'll tell next summer!''", and present day Dylan bitterly wonders "''But how much time separates us from the next summer?''"

* "Witch Hunt" (#69): God, is it heart-wrenching to see all the crap Justin Moss (the author of a horror comic that is being targeted by cesorship fanatics) unfairly goes through. As Dylan notes, people were more quick to blame the violence depicted in his comic that was read by a young man who murdered his grandmother instead of his alcoholic father, or his prostitute mother, or the reformatory where he spent three years or just the system in general that doesn't help poor people in need and instead injects selfish, greedy priorities into young people's heads through other means. It's more infuriating when [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Inspector Bloch]] rejects an investigation because even he says that youth delinquency has always been on the rise and that "''You should instead question their parents, their teachers, the government, question anyone, but you can't question [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]]!''" only for his words to be twisted by the same newspaper outlets that condemn Justin's work. Anyone who's against censorship and MoralGuardians scapegoating fiction can relate to this story.

* "Alpha and Omega" (#9) has a more [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Heartwarming]] type of tear jerker when Alpha, a poor [[ApesInSpace space chimp]] that has become a higher being after returning from deep space, explains to Dylan that it decided to return to Earth because despite all the HumansAreBastards feelings they have towards the men that did this to them, doesn't want to be a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds opting instead to gift humanity with a "crumb of infinity", adding: "Does it surprise you? Is it perhaps easier for you to expect my wrath, my vengeance... But could you imagine my ''kindness?''" and before dying, Alpha quotes the iconic Roy Batty speech from ''Film/BladeRunner''.

* "Alpha and Omega" (#9) has a more [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Heartwarming]] type of tear jerker when Alpha, a poor [[ApesInSpace space chimp]] that has become a higher being after returning from deep space, explains to Dylan that is decided to return to Earth because despite all the HumansAreBastards feelings they have towards the men that did this to them, doesn't want to be a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds opting instead to gift humanity with a "crumb of infinity", adding: "Does it surprise you? Is it perhaps easier for you to expect my wrath, my vengeance... But could you imagine my ''kindness?''" and before dying, Alpha quotes the iconic Roy Batty speech from ''Film/BladeRunner''.

** It appears that Dylan considers Bree's death one of his [[MyGreatestFailure greatest failures]] as in "Deep Space" (#337) a story set in the far future where teams of synthetic Dylan Dog clones are employed to solve paranormal cases on spaceships, follows a Dylan clone named "Number 5" (the most 'faithful' clone in the group, whereas the other Dylans he works with are genetically altered to exceed at specific roles) who is sent on a mission to retrieve a cargo ship infested by ''Film/EventHorizon''-style cosmic ghosts. Said demons can enter your mind and use your biggest traumas against you, and one of them takes the appearance of Bree to torment Number 5.