Line #32 ComicBook/TheEternalSmile


1	A three-part comic anthology by Creator/GeneLuenYang and Derek Kirk Kim, each of the three stories in ''The Eternal Smile'' deals with crossing the line between fantasy and reality.
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3	In "Duncan's Kingdom", a young knight named Duncan tries to get revenge for the death of his king and win a princess's hand by slaying the evil Frog King. But Duncan is troubled by recurring dreams about a crying woman, and further troubled by a bizarre artifact found in the Frog King's lair: [[spoiler:an empty soda bottle.]]
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5	"Gran'pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile" is framed around the latest get-rich-quick scheme of cartoon amphibian Gran'pa Greenbax: inspired by a mysterious disembodied smile floating in the sky above a nearby desert, he sets up an evangelical "Church of the Eternal Smile" and tries to make a mint off donations. But his scheme falls apart with less-than-hilarious consequences, and Greenbax makes some unpleasant discoveries about his place in the world...
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7	The third and final story, "Urgent Request", features a put-upon office worker named Janet falling for the infamous "Nigerian royalty" scam. But things take a turn for the weird when her correspondence with "Prince Henry" gives her a surprising boost of confidence... and it only gets weirder when she tracks down and confronts the scammer and demands... a date?
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9	!!''The Eternal Smile'' contains examples of the following tropes:
10	* AmusingInjuries: Deconstructed in "Gran'pa Greenbax", [[spoiler:Greenbax is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified]] when he ends up killing his long-suffering sidekick Filbert during a session of inflicting such on him.]]
11	* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Brother Patchwork as the embodiment of Duncan’s desire to stay in his fantasy.]]
12	* ButtMonkey: Filbert in "Gran'pa Greenbax" ([[spoiler:it seems that Norbert, his "real life" inspiration, serves exactly the same purpose]]).
13	* TheCameo: Duncan is visible in a crowd briefly at the end of "Gran'pa Greenbax," with his mother. Also, [[Series/{{Heroes}} Hiro Nakamura]] puts in a surprise appearance too!
14	* CaptainErsatz: Gran'pa Greenbax is so obviously Scrooge [=McDuck=] it's painful, with Polly and Molly serving as the Huey, Dewey, & Louie expies and Filbert a combination of Donald Duck (constantly the focus of Gran'pa's bad temper) and Gyro Gearloose (the temperament, the build, the inventions). Gran'pa Greenbax ends up becoming a {{Deconstruction}} of Uncle Scrooge. His Quest is outright tragic; he says that he's searched high and low for meaning in his life, and the only thing he's ever found that even comes close to meaning is money -- specifically, gold coins, ''specifically,'' enough gold coins that he can leap into a lake of them and never hit bottom. [[spoiler:At the end, it's uncovered that this is really his yearning to return home -- to a real lake, that shines like gold in the sunset, and is deep enough for a normal frog to live very happily. And that's where he returns.]]
15	* CheshireCatGrin: The titular Eternal Smile.
16	* CreepyTwins: Gran'pa Greenbax's granddaughters become this when they get a little too into the Church of the Eternal Smile.
17	%%* DaydreamSurprise: One ''several pages long'' in "Urgent Request".
18	%%* FourOneNineScam
19	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: It would seem that the princess in "Duncan's Kingdom" is sweet and adoring in addition to beautiful -- even if she does laugh at Duncan's terrible poetry.
20	* HappyPlace: Forms the central theme of these three otherwise-unrelated stories: how much, if at all, should we let fantasy substitute reality? Duncan (who [[spoiler:has ''some'' choice in maintaining if not actually creating his fantasy-world]]) and Gran'pa Greenbax ([[spoiler: who didn't]]) ultimately choose [[spoiler:reality]], whereas Janet [[spoiler:takes more of a middle-of-the-road solution, using her fantasy to give her courage in reality]].
21	* LovingAShadow: The [[spoiler:Princess is based on a girl that Duncan had a crush on since the third grade and never had the courage to approach her. Given the girl’s rather vicious expression and the fact that she might be dating a JerkJock it’s heavily implied she’s an AlphaBitch who’s nothing like what Duncan imagines her to be.]]
22	* LightningCanDoAnything: As Duncan finds, it makes a terrific sword!
23	* MindScrew: Most prominently in the first two stories, where nothing is ever as it seems.
24	%%* MrAltDisney: Elias [=McFadden=].
25	%%* MuseAbuse
26	* OminousLatinChanting: Molly and Polly begin doing this once they start becoming obsessed with the Eternal Smile.
27	* PersonalityChip: [[spoiler:Provides the sentience of Gran'pa Greenbax and the other people in his world.]]
28	* RegalRuff: In the story "Duncan's Kingdom", the normally free-spirited princess wears one when she mourns at her father's funeral.
29	* SingleMindedTwins: Polly and Molly. They're basically only distinguishable by the fact that one wears red, and the other yellow.
30	* SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic: The Gran'pa Greenbax story is farthest on the "fantastic" end ([[spoiler:even after the FunnyAnimal trappings are revealed to be something DarkerAndEdgier]]), while "Duncan's Kingdom" and "Urgent Request" are on the realistic end (the latter especially).
31	%%* TrumanShowPlot
32	* TwistEnding: One apiece, mostly relating to the world in which the readers find themselves. Duncan [[spoiler:is in a coma, and hallucinating a fantasy world where his life's failures are easily conquered.]] Gran'pa Greenbax is [[spoiler:a humble pond-hopper that was modified into the star of a wildly popular TV show.]] And Janet is [[spoiler:on to the Nigerian "prince's" scam from the first.]] Though [[spoiler:she already knew that.]]

Context ComicBook / TheEternalSmile