Górsky & Butch, a pair of policemen looking for the sense of their comic, often use this trope. On one occasion they found the plot of the comic scribbled on the wall of the authors' flat. Later, when asked why he hadn't simply read the ending to solve the case, Gorsky responded that he couldn't see it because his speech bubble was in the way.
A rare in-universe in-universe example: the French absurdist comicbook series Philémon is centered around the idea that labels on maps are actual geographical features, strange lands filled with absurd illogic. The letters that spell out "ATLANTIC OCEAN" are recurring locations in that series, where they're actual islands located in the Atlantic.
Katy Keene covers would do this. One had Sis even trying to draw the rest of Katy's dress.
In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy story "Future Tense," Grim says he can use his scythe to decipher what Nostradamus is talking about, which Mandy considers too convenient.
Mandy: Doesn't this comic have any standards?
In League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, psychogeographer Andrew Norton seems to not only be aware he's in a comic (telling a baffled League that he enjoyed the second volume) but that he's in a comic that mashes up characters from literature, calling Orlando "the new Vita" (Vita Sackville-West was the inspiration for Virginia Woolf's Orlando) and referring sarcastically to Harry Potter fans.
Some characters drop quotes of this kind every now and then:
López: Weird things are starting to happen! It's evident that another Jan comic begins!
In the 25th anniversary special, it is implied that ALL characters know they're in a comic book, as nobody bats an eye when Chico comments "Well, Jan's already been drawing us for 25 years..."
Swerve temporarily gained this in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye when he accidentally activated Brainstorm's Metafictional Bomb, which caused him to start narrating events using the comic book's sales pitch despite not understanding what he was talking about. He was finally saved from the effects when the rest of the cast teamed up to convince him that he was still a main character.
Played with in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Eggman, after recovering from a "I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG"-induced heavy psychotic episode, realize that The Good Guys Always Win and start to theorize why. He doesn't realize he's in a work of fiction, but regardless manage to play around the rules by realizing Sonic has Plot Armor. First with his Operation: Clean Sweep, a Cosmic Retcon to A) bypass the rules by remaking the entire universe, and if it fails B) allowing his favorite Fate Worse than Death, the robotizer, to be used again. During said operation, he even tells his lackeys to not bother firing on Sonic knowing full well they won't get him.
Eggman: That's more like it! Authorize all automated defenses! Don't bother with the hedgehog! Snively: Excuse me, Sir... But... Don't aim at Sonic? Eggman: You heard me! You'd never hit him anyway. Shoot down the rest!
When Axl and Sticks show up in Viewtiful Joe 's world, this gets lampshaded to heck and back.
Joe: Dr. Cracken?! Cameo Leon?! What're they doing in the Real World? Silvia: No...I think we've wandered into some kind of franchise crossover!
As well as...
Sticks: Alright! Mission accomplished! Axl! Go destroy the unity engine while I recruit these two! Axl: Sure, but weren't you with partnered with X?note Earlier in the issue, Sticks had gone with X to the Monster Hunter world. All of a sudden, she showed up with Axl in this world. Sticks: I fell through a plot hole and now I'm here. Axl: Don't you mean "Genesis Portal"? Sticks: Whatever works for you kid, now move it! Axl: (Rolls eyes) Yes ma'am.
And of course this...
Sticks: OhMyGosh! You guys break the fourth wall too?! Joe: Ehh...A little bit. Silvia: Mostly for the self-referential humor.
Schinderwerner (Wer sonst?) who tears up book pages and stains them with ink.
Dex And Dogfort are aware that they're in a comic at the end of "Volle Latte!" when they freeze Werner's dream woman with the frame she's currently in.
The end of "Werner macht die Grünen blau" (Oder was?) tops this even. After seeing the outcome of making Bruno and Helmut drunk, Werner says that he would have loved to see that comic in color. Those early Werner comics weren't even grayscale, and shading had to be done with hatching before Eiskalt!.
Cerebus the Aardvark: Cerebus has this forced upon him by "Dave" in Minds. As a result, in Rick's Story, as he's debating on whether or not to open the package Dave left at the bar, he wonders if his stagnation has pissed off Dave and/or Dave's readers enough to want him dead.
Monica's Gang: An expressive element of the series, with the characters frequently acknowledging their status as comic book characters by interacting with the narrator, referring to themselves as main characters and some of their friends as side characters, mentioning previous editions, complaining about comic book narrative conventions and devices, talking with the writers and drawers and so on.
This is explored even further in Blue's stories, in which he is an actor living in a world of Funny Animals and faces production problems of working as the star of his own comic book stories, and in the Nutty Ned stories, in which he often interacts with metalinguistical and intertextual elements of the narrative.
The characters in the Scott Pilgrim books know that they are in a series of comic books. Scott will often tell another character to read a previous volume when they express confusion about something that happened earlier, and at one point Envy comments that an event has lasted for "a quarter of this book." Scott is also able to read the captions with characters' names and ages, reminding everyone that Ramona's age is "unknown" and reading Knives' caption to learn that she turned 18. When Ramona gets white lines drawn around her head to represent that she's uneasy upon hearing Gideon's name, Scott sees them and asks her what's wrong, while she denies they're there.
In Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt (2019), Baba Yaga describes the powers displayed by Cannon and Thunderbolt (two versions of the same character) as "Formalism", which usually means analyzing an artwork in terms of its medium and format rather than its plot or content — and indeed, both of them do seem to be quite Genre Savvy, at the very least. In fact, while Thunderbolt has effectively absolute power within his personal fortress, because he is a Reality Warper there, Cannon seems to be more medium-aware, transporting himself and five other heroes to Thunderbolt's home by placing them on six panels of the nine-panel page layout that the comic uses by default, and eventually defeating Thunderbolt by manipulating aspects of the medium.
One of Emilka Sza stories has character check are all the elements of the comic book (speach bubbles, panels etc.) start working before they can start the story.
In InvestiGators with characters frequently acknowledging pages as time passes. They often use this to fast forward or get to someplace quickly if the sewers take too long.
A moment in Take the Plunge where Brash proceeds to skip a montage.
Mango: Cue the scientific inventing montage!
Brash: We don't have time for a montage! Let's just turn the page to where it's finished! [flips page]
Head Scientist, holding up an invention: IT'S FINISHED! I think? It's hard to tell, since we skipped all those pages that would've shown me building it.
"We could go on like this all night, but this publisher only allowed us 240 pages."
Zwille - The Law Returns To Kreuzberg is an interesting variant: While the story itself is not perceived as a comic, the protagonists, Zwille and his buddy McÖko, know that they're comic characters. In fact, since they're flat broke, they go and meet the comic artist Seyfretti and ask him if he can make another comic with them. Seyfretti is the Author Avatar of Zwille creator Gerhard Seyfried who, at this point, hadn't made a Zwille issue in two decades. It's kind of implied that a new comic starring them will not only mean a new comic book being released in their world but actually an adventure for them.
