Follow TV Tropes

Following

Webcomic / Shen Comix
aka: Owl Turd Comix

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/owl_9.jpg

Shen Comix (or Owl Turd Comix) is a webcomic by redditor Shenanigansen, aka just "Shen".

He premiered the first installment in early 2013. It's popular for being a simply-drawn comic about relatable common life problems such as anxiety, depression, and the unfairness of life. It has grown famous for its sudden shifts in tone as well as its exaggerated art style.

Subseries include:

A collection, Emotions Explained with Buff Dudes, was published in 2018 by Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Also see Sarah's Scribbles, which can be considered a Distaff Counterpart and Live with Yourself!, another webcomic he made that premiered in 1st January 2017.


Shen Comix contains examples of:

  • Affectionate Parody: Fly to the Heavens on a Bicycle made of Stars is very animesque in style, especially the battle between Shen and Life.
  • Always Someone Better: Even if the protagonist is good at art, it means less when he realizes there are way better artists in view, especially when they are younger than him.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Many characters are physical representations of concepts and things. These include Life, Depression, Anxiety, Emotion, Logic, Type A people, Type B people, the Internet, Night, Day, and the four seasons. And also of the recent years, like 2017 and 2018, shown as action anime villains.
  • Ascended Meme: There was a popular Stylistic Suck comic parody of Shen's comics which caricatured his usual "things are good until faced by personifications of bad things that happen" theme. Shen later redrew this exact same comic in his own style.
  • Author Avatar: The protagonist is basically Shen's avatar.
  • Benevolent Conspiracy: The New World Order of Wholesomeness (NWOW). They use gas to spell "have a nice day" in the sky, put minerals and vitamins in the water supplies, and use mind control radio waves to tell people they are loved and valuable.
  • Berserk Button: Shen doesn't really have any strong opinions on anything... unless you dare say that goth girls suck. Then, he would ready his gun in Tranquil Fury.
  • Big Bad: Life. It is presented as a featureless purple man with the word "life" written on his chest, and is often shown bullying the protagonist out of his dreams and wants. One story arc even has both of them engaging in a Dragon Ball Z-style fight. In later installments, however, Shen has a more balanced relationship with Life, subverting their usual interactions.
  • Bilingual Bonus: In Fly to the Heavens, Life tries to brand Shen with an L (for Loser) on the forehead, but Shen turns it upside down. When Life asks what that's supposed to mean, Shen responds "Hero". How do you write "Hero" in Russian? герой.
  • Break the Cutie: The Superfriends have a member named Incredible Violence who gets darkly played for laughs, but an addendum showed that there used to be another member named Hope who isn't around anymore, and that Incredible Violence used to be known as Peace.
  • Brutal Honesty: A common gag. Of note is this Bluechair comic, where he tells the audience that if you wish reeeaaaallly hard, and you WORK FOR IT UNTIL YOUR BLOOD AND TEARS RUN IN MIGHTY RIVERS, all your dreams can come true.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Type A is often a hyper-focused, overcompetitive individual, to the point where they can't even relax. This bites them in the ass in a relaxing competition between Type B and themselves, where they lose. Type A's response is to break down crying.
  • Easy Road to Hell: In one strip, Shen dies and goes to hell because he didn't like Kirby. Even Satan likes Kirby.
  • Evil Doppelgänger: In Bluechair, Shen goes on a journey to find himself. Instead, he finds a slightly bizarre version of himself from another universe. Behold, Shem.
  • Expo Label: A common source of humor in the comics comes from having characters and objects act as metaphor for various things, along with a convenient label explaining what they represent. See Life in the page image for an example.
  • Expy: Lilith from Public U. Art Club is based on Kobeni from Chainsaw Man, being a nervous Butt-Monkey. In this comic, Shen refers to season 1 of Public U. Art Club as "17 updates of thinly veiled Kobeni shitpost".
  • The Fake Cutie: Emotion. Presented as a yellow person with a pink flower on their head, they usually subvert their name by being utterly ruthless or terrifying.
  • Formula-Breaking Episode: Sometimes, Shen will do a comic that is very different from the "relatable life problem" theme that he is famous for. He doesn't do them too much because he knows they are not as popular.
  • Friendly Enemy: Life eventually becomes this.
  • Gag Nose: Shen's nose is depicted as a ragdoll-like triangular purple block.
  • Mood Whiplash: Many comics start out lighthearted and fun but quickly take a turn towards depression, anxiety, or denial towards the end.
  • Motifs: Most of the human characters in Public U. Art Club have fruit motifs. Apple for Ana, strawberry for Sofia, banana for Beatrix, lemon for Lilith, grape for the art teacher, durian for the engineering student, and lime for Leanne.
  • Names to Run Away From: In a superhero team made up of Friendship, Harmony and Love, perhaps the new member, Incredible Violence, might be one to flee from.
  • Never My Fault: The protagonist never seems to take responsibilities when faced with problems, because it seems he is powerless to either Life being an all-powerful bully to him or motivation running away. Literally.
  • Non-Indicative Name: The original name of the comic is Owl Turd Comix. However, no mention was ever made of droppings by nocturnal birds.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: In a surreal one-off comic, we're introduced to a bunch of friendly cartoon characters at a birthday... including a much more shady-looking one named "Yoyo" who simply stares at them from the corner. And that's it.
  • Pictorial Letter Substitution:
    • In the logo for Little Firefighter, the last "i" is dotted with the Little Firefighter's face.
    • In the logo for My Life as a Skeleton, the "o" is the skeleton's face.
    • In the logo for Catalogue of Increasingly Normal Stories, the "o" in "Normal" is a vertical eye, and the "o" in "Stories" is a door.
  • Plot Armor: Parodied in a one-off comic. Despite being shot at point-blank range, all the bullets curve away from the main character as though they have an invisible force field around them and hit the wall behind them instead. The main character then mocks the person shooting them, explaining that it's impossible for them to be killed because they're the main character.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: The Man-Bomb, a bath bomb for men, produces a bunch of demons, which represent the user's inner demons and which they must fight. The final inner demon is the bath turning pink and girly, "because defying gender expectations is the manliest thing of all."
  • The Rival: Type B is this to Type A, although it's one sided because Type B is always polite and forgiving.
  • Self-Deprecation: Will sometimes make fun of his own stereotypical formula, especially involving his constant conflict against Life.
  • Semantic Superpower: This strip features a wizard who can make a ball disappear under a cup — any ball, including the sun.
  • Serious Business: Type A is so competitive that even when he just has to stop and smell the roses, he has to turn the rose-smelling into a competition and win a trophy.
  • The Stinger: Fly to the Heavens ends with with two black panels reading "Art by Shen" and "Writing by Shen", followed by one additional strip showing a diminished Life getting up and running after Shen.
    Always wait until after the credits.
  • This Loser Is You: One reason for the comic's popularity is for exposing the inner insecurities that is inside all of us, and how we feel victims of unfair common circumstances.
  • Tears of Joy: Emotion has this during "Fly to the Heavens".
  • Uncanny Valley: Shem, the aforementioned "Slightly bizarre version" of Shen, is intentionally drawn to look out of place in the cartoony world of Bluechair. He's also a shapeshifter with abnormally many teeth, that also helps.
  • Villain Team-Up: Shem and Life in Shen & Life vs Shem.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Parodied in this webcomic, where the superhero team of Friendship, Harmony and Love are joined by their new heavy-lifting member: Incredible Violence.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Type B. They always try to stay positive and look on the bright side of life, but Type A usually ruins it for them by being overly competitive.

Alternative Title(s): Owl Turd Comix

Top