Anachronism Stews in webcomics.
- The Paul Reveres takes place during the American Revolution, but features electric guitars, modern drum kits, blue mohawks, and somehow they know who David Bowie is, among other modern music references.
- No Need for Bushido, while technically set in imperial Japan, cheerfully features a hodgepodge of ninjas, Taoist monks, an order of scantily clad female assassins, giant anime-style swords (well, ok, one giant sword), Hong Kong kung-fu action movie fighting styles, and modern-day references. And TWO blind kick-ass fighters. Also, birdfish. (The NNFB fanmixes take this anachronism with modern day references even further, to absurd but often hilarious extremes)
- Arthur, King of Time and Space gleefully throws the anachronisms into the "fairy tale" arc (the standard Arthurian romance with the standard medieval trappings) with two justifications: the author (and to a lesser extent, the characters) knows the sources are flawed and anachronistic in and of themselves, and half the anachronisms are Merlin's fault, since he has the gift of foresight (at one point, for example, using a fly swatter to kill a fairy spy).
- Dinosaur Comics. While inherently unrealistic (talking dinosaurs), they oftentimes reference human events, which obviously would take place many millions of years in the future. This is often lampshaded.
- There's anachronisms in every strip: The third panel has T-Rex about to step on a house that's next to a car, and the fourth panel has T-Rex about to step on a person.
- The Perry Bible Fellowship: this strip
◊ shows a technologically advanced future civilization for whom the history of the second millennium seems to be a big blur. - The Order of the Stick:
- In Azure City, not only are there sewers, but there are three tunnels, clearly labeled "Ocean," "Anachronistic Sewage Plant," and "Obligatory Sewer-Themed Labyrinth." Such things have been lampshaded.
- And in Cliffport, there's a municipal park. Amid high-rise buildings.Vaarsuvius: I'm simply saying that the architectural motifs found here in the city of Cliffport are inconsistent with the presumed medieval time period.
Durkon: It be magic.
Vaarsuvius: Yes, fine, I grasp the premise that any sufficiently advanced - and in particular, reliable - magic would be indistinguishable from technology, I merely find the implementation here haphazard, at best.
Durkon: Meh. It could be worse, ye know.
Vaarsuvius: Oh?
Durkon: They could have magic trains.
Vaarsuvius: Point taken.- And it's then played straighter by Redcloak here.Redcloak: (...) but I'm the one who has to make the magical lightning-powered trains run on time.
- And it's then played straighter by Redcloak here
- The C.C.P.D. are a modern day police force with swords and plate armor, complete with sirens (on the horses), sketch artist and mayor yelling at Da Chief for failing to catch the murderer when elections are coming up, and underlings being yelled at by said cigar-smoking, coffee downing chief.
- It's subtle, but look at this comic. Where did Hayley get a metal detector? And more importantly, where was she keeping it? (Same questions apply to Roy and his sextant...)
- When the High Priest of Hel tries to find a memory of Durkon's about Belkar that isn't related to the latter insulting the former in some way, what shows up is a modern-style search engine result saying the memory he was looking for was unable to be found. Similarly, when Vaarsuvius tries to scry for Haley's location, they instead receive a 404 error.
- In Gunnerkrigg Court, Ms. Jones' students watch a documentary hologram about the founding of the Court. The characters in the hologram include a guy who looks like he stepped out of The Cavalier Years or The American Revolution, and another fellow wearing a modern trench coat, an article of clothing which wasn't introduced until World War I. Shortly afterwards, Jones points out that "this simulation is an artistic representation". Although she said that in regards to an indistinct glow, represented as such because they didn't know what it was. And present was also the man who designed robots. Maybe the others just liked to dress that way.
- The idea of anachronism stew was theorized, later defictionalized, and generally slammed in this xkcd comic.
- Hark! A Vagrant! is all about this.
- Hellbastard Comics starts with an alien war that interrupts Satan's viewing of Bridezillas in what is later revealed to be the pre-Napoleonic era and just gets better from there.
- Blade Bunny takes place in a historical mashup of feudal Japan and ancient China, with robots one of which has futuristic guns and a BunnyGirl in a microskirt. Justified in that it's revealed that the robots and the BunnyGirl come from different dimensions.
- San Three Kingdoms has no problem using modern machine guns.... in 208 AD. Or sniper rifles (Cao Cao is sexy...)
- This Penny Arcade comic has a flashback to 1988 showing characters using a Powerglove (introduced in 1989 and quickly flopped), reading Nintendo Power #31 (December, 1991), talking about Thunder Cats (ran from 1985-89), and drinking a New Coke (introduced in 1985 and quickly flopped). To be fair, the date is only implied, and everybody didn't immediately quit drinking New Coke, playing with Powergloves, or referencing cancelled cartoons. But the overall impression is a mishmash of things associated with the '80s, regardless of which part of the '80s (or early '90s) they actually came from.
- Problem Sleuth is theoretically set in the Prohibition era, but the main characters play board games from the 50s, have 90s murals celebrating ethnic diversity on their walls, and use computers to check GameFAQs to solve the hardest puzzles.
- NIMONA often sees combinations of fantasy-medieval and sci-fi themes. The secondary main character, Ballister Blackheart, is a Black Knight with a robotic arm.
- Knights of Buena Vista is a anachronistic as the Disney Animated Canon films it takes place in. Such as Haagan-Dazs existing in Frozen (2013) despite taking place over a century before that company was founded.
- PepsiaPhobia is set in Ancient Greece and has things like banks, dining-and-dashing, XP points, and quotes of Friedrich Nietzsche. This is lampshaded in a gag strip when Philia calls Klepto's drink, a Beijing Peach, anachronistic. The comic also parodies this trope by having the map of Greece◊ be a recolored map of Texas. Some parts are justified due to the machinations of the cast's Time Travel-capable characters ( Lord Nightsorrow explicitly claims to have brought back Halloween with him).
- Bruno the Bandit is set in a vaguely-medieval fantasy kingdom, yet features television, cell phones, fast-food joints and several other fairly modern inventions, heavily played for Rule of Funny.
- Power Of Ether In what world would genetic manipulation predate ocean travel? One where humanity is too busy fighting wars to bother with ocean travel. The author explains it in more detail in the commentary for this page.
- While Saffron And Sage takes place in a fantasy setting there are still very noticeable non-fantasy elements such as modern looking swimsuits and spas.
- Deliberately invoked in Never Satisfied. Motorboats and polaroid photos exist alongside archaic clothing and pre-industrialization town square marketplaces. To quote the author, "Sometimes they dress like Tudors. Sometimes there's a car."
- Present Lady gives Willa a toy train for Xmas in Latchkey Kingdom, which has a pre-industrial setting. She notices the anachronism and asks Willa to act surprised if a real one is invented.
- Poison Ivy Gulch: Some of the characters, namely Ace and Lorraine (a saloon girl), are shown chewing bubble gum and even blowing bubbles. Bubble gum wasn't invented until 1928; the time period is The Wild West of the 19th century. But this modern inclusion is due to the Rule of Funny.
- Hobbits And Hole Dwellers: #22 parodies this by Bailey using it as an off-the-cuff excuse for Balin being able to find Dwalin so quickly (Dwalin called Balin's cellphone-in a pre-medieval setting). Ted seems to be about to hang a lampshade on this, but he's interrupted.
- The Princess's Jewels supposedly takes place in vaguely medieval fantasy kingdom, but features color-print magazines, polystyrene coffee cup, and mishmash between Victorian era and modern-day clothing.
- In Koan of the Day, it appears to be a peaceful ancient village, but hashtags and cars exist.
