Webcomic / Sabrina Online

"The World Wide Web is like a spider's web — full of dirt and bugs."

Sabrina Online was a Furry Webcomic created by Eric W. Schwartz, who consistently managed to release the comic's monthly batches of strips on time for twenty years (1996 to 2016).

The comic's story revolves around the Slice of Life tales of Sabrina, a quiet skunk who works as a web designer. Unable to find another job after being replaced by a clip-art library, Sabrina finds work as the webmaster for ZZ Studios, a porn studio run by its star and namesake, Zig Zag. The tone is gently restrained, with an uncomfortable heroine growing used to her new job—and an eventual love interest—while her friends around her (including her living Transformers figures!) have their own personal adventures in life and love.

Schwartz brought the series proper to an end on the 15th of September 2016, twenty years to the day of the first strip's publication. His announcement said the final strip won't be the last, but subsequent stories will be on a "when the mood strikes" basis, rather than monthly updates to the comic. Of course, contributing to the strip's Patreon account can encourage the mood to strike him more often.

The first after-series comics deal with Sabrina's pregnancy and birth of her daughter Danielle.

Not to be confused with Sabrina the Teenage Witch, or the 1954 film Sabrina.

---

Sabrina Online contains the following tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: After Zig Zag glued miniature dildos onto some of Sabrina's Transformers◊, Sabrina eventually admits that it's kinda funny.◊
• All Men Are Perverts: Sabrina made the mistake of announcing she is female in an IRC room, and this was the result.
  "Then I deleted the IRC client and set the original disk on fire."◊
• All There in the Script: Thomas's parents (Roy and Sarah Woolfe) are named in notes in their debut strip, and Amy's father (Carl Squirrel) is named in the title of the debut strip for Amy's parents. Averted with Amy's mother (Carrie), as well as Sabrina and R.C.'s parents: Warren and Endora (last name unknown), and Conrad and Rainflower Conrad, are named in-strip.
• Altar the Speed: Discussed but averted as seeing it on a sitcom doesn't mean it will work. Amy wanted to marry before having the baby out of wedlock, but instead, the marriage happened after the birth, resulting in the baby crying during the ceremony.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: R.C.'s parents are open and accepting parents who are very concerned to find out whether his sex life with Sabrina is as fulfilling as it should be, mortifying the shy man beyond belief. His father pushes it even further by asking "what it's like with a skunk girl" because he'd always fantasized about it.
  • For example, the first time Sabrina met R.C.'s parents, they slipped into his apartment (they have a key) while they were sleeping naked after a night of sex.
  • Apparently R.C.'s dad grabbed Zig Zag's ass at their wedding. Not that she minded, just that she never expected Sabrina's parents-in-law to be so open. He did it again when they were gathering for the birth of Sabrina's child. Richard's mother, Rainy, apparently has no problem with it, claiming they have a deal where he's allowed to grab Zig Zag's ass once for each ass of a James Bond she's grabbed (they're even now apparently).
  • Then there's Amy's dad:◊
    Carl: CARRIE!! Come out and meet your grandchild!!
    Carrie: My WHAT!?
• Animated Outtakes: The Pixar style outtakes included as a bonus print feature in Sabrina Online A Decade in Black and White. Including R.C. being replaced briefly by a sack of Idaho potatoes.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Tabitha to Sabeena.
• Art Evolution: Averted first 20 years, art style or quality have not changed from 1996 to 2016. (With the exception of holiday strips and the final strip.) Starting from 2017 the strips have higher resolution, colour and different panel layout (2x6 instead of 3x1, 4x1 or 5x1). As of 2021 the authour's been gradually changing characters' clothes and hairstyles and aging them up. He also redrew several scenes from the old comic — like Amy meeting Tom — in the new style.
  • Sadly, in the story arc "A Meeting of Moms" the art is less detailed as if done in a rush.
  • Even comparing the characters to their pre-strip appearances has several noticeable changes such as Sabrina's longer tail in Sabrina at See-CAD and Amy Squirrel's lack of a shirt in her appearances in various Amiga magazines.
• Art Shift:
  • Every 100 strips, the comic is in color, such as this one.◊
  • Sabrina's webcomic that is an expy of herself drawn in a grittier style. Lampshaded to no end, of course!
  • One strip◊ is done by Mat Sherer in his style of Badly Drawn Kitties.
• Artifact Title: The comic is called Sabrina Online because it debuted online, but that didn't stop the series from keeping the name when the strips were converted into printed omnibuses with their own exclusive comics that have never been published onto the official site.
• Artistic Licence - Geography: Although the comic is explicitly set in the real-life location of Columbus, Ohio, and adheres to real-life geography on a broader scale (correct interstate numbers and travel times between cities for example), in this strip◊ the given address of Double Z Studios - 632 Industrial Pkwy, Worthington - is fictional, as there is no street with that name in that particular suburb. The closest road with that name is a rural highway well to the west.
  • The studios in the Baby Steps comic are seen to be located in a dense industrial block immediately adjacent to the downtown area and within walking distance of at least 2 restaurants. Real-life Worthington is a mostly residential area 10 miles from downtown Columbus.
• Artistic License – Law: Zig Zag's trial for beating up Sabrina's mugger. Rule of Funny and Rule of Drama (as well as Courtroom Antics cliches) were in full effect.
• Aside Glance: Often enough to smash the fourth wall.
• Author Appeal: Sabrina's Amiga advocacy, the talking Transformers figures, and, by Schwartz's own admission, the inclusion of Zig Zag.
• Back for the Finale: (A very pregnant) Carli and Spike (who had been Out of Focus for a few years) show up in the final strips as virtual guests (via livestreaming) at Sabrina's wedding. Carli goes into labor, but refuses to go to the hospital until she actually sees Sabrina say "I do."
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: The entire cast.
• Berserk Button: Zig Zag has several.
  • Bringing up her past as anything other than a set of facts (and even that chafes).
  • It's also hinted that Zig doesn't take kindly to anyone who tries to hurt her or her friends.◊
  • An arc launched in December 2010 implies she doesn't take kindly to the G.I.F.T in action.
  • In June 2014, a psychiatrist states outright that she has several buttons that can cause her to react adversely.
• Big "NO!": When the Decepticon figures heard that Sabrina was getting a replacement◊ Revenge of the Fallen Optimus Prime... after what went on before Timothy stepped in, you can't blame them in the least!
• Big Sister Instinct: If Zig Zag has anything to do with it, Tabitha will not be acting in adult movies.
• Book Ends: One of the first storylines was of Amy's new boyfriend Thomas, which led to Amy's pregnancy, complete with a comic showing her egg facing down a swarm of sperm. The main comic ended with Sabrina and Richard's wedding, followed by their honeymoon, and a direct Call-Back to that comic to show Sabrina's pregnancy.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Zig Zag complains◊ of her lack of friends to hang out with:
  With the others it's about business, or sex... or sexy business.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Special strips for holidays - most especially April Fools - will be completely and utterly medium-aware. The main storyline has some◊ moments◊ of this as well.
  Amy: Must be tough waiting so long to get a car. [points out to the viewer] To them, too.
  Timothy: [Waves 'Hi']
  • A bonus story for the strip's 400th strip depicts the cast as actors having a wrap party celebrating the occasion. To drive in the meta humor further, the characters admit their "off-camera" lives are very much the same as the ones depicted in the comic strip, with the exception of revealing Dawson Casting going on with Timmy's stunt double.
• Breakout Character: Zig Zag, to the point that the December 2010 and June 2014 groups of strips focus on her—and don't feature Sabrina at all.
• British Brevity: Sabrina Online is sort of a webcomic version of this, since Schwartz produces an average of three or four strips a month. Not much for a webcomic, but usually enough to keep fans happy, as the archive site presents them as one long comic.
• The Bus Came Back: Michael Fox, Sabrina's boyfriend in the non-canon Sabrina at See-CAD appears in the bonus story about Amy and Thomas' wedding where he is Thomas' best man.
• But We Used a Condom!: Discussed and mildly fauxshadowed prior to Sabrina and R.C.'s first time.◊ R.C. mentioned the condom he had was sitting in his wallet for a couple years. Fortunately, nothing goes wrong, and Sabrina doesn't get pregnant until their wedding night at the end of the series.
• Butt-Monkey: R.C. becomes this in "Baby Steps", the first post-series series. He ended up seeing more of the birth than he needed to see (much like Thomas before, with Timmy's birth), and also cracked multiple ribs when Sabrina crushed him during labor pains. And he was knocked around by a rush of family and friends when they went to see Sabrina and Danielle after the birth.
  Richard: Uhh... if not for the baby, this would be the worst day of my life.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Tabitha of all characters is impressed by Zig Zag's assets, and tells her that she hopes to be as well endowed when she grows up to be able to "boss boys around." Cue Tabitha's surprise when Zig Zag points out that she believes Endora actually is a larger cup size than her.
• Canon Discontinuity: The pre-Sabrina Online series Sabrina at See-CAD depicts several characters which got axed from the eventual canon of the later strip such as Sabrina's boyfriend Michael Fox (no, not that Michael J. Fox). The events of See-CAD are completely retconned by the later more famous series per Word of God.
• Call-Back: The strip ends with #815◊, and a direct call back to Strip #14◊.^note Implying the conception of Danielle, their daughter from the Flash Forward strips It's even lampshaded.
  • Amy's father (during the bonus print exclusive story about Amy and Thomas' wedding) mentions a date Amy had when she was 16 where the guy taking her out attempted to take advantage of her, a call back to the various At the Movies shorts staring Amy which Eric had made while in college.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Fairly early on, Sabrina gently but firmly tells her mom to back the hell off.
• Carnivore Confusion: Handwaved, but still happens pretty frequently with characters regularly eating meat (even with McDonald's being mentioned as existing in-universe). Skunks and racoons are both omnivores so its Truth in Television, but where the meat comes from is never explained.
• Cassandra Truth: R.C. at first doesn't believe that Sabrina works at a porn studio, but later he was clarified that she only works on the movie covers and website rather than star in any of them.
• Catharsis Factor: Part of why Zig-Zag having sex with the mother of one of her cyber bullies just so she can say "I fucked your mom" and mean it Crosses the Line Twice the way it does. Who of us hasn't wanted to live out such a hilariously sadistic revenge fantasy?
• Caught with Your Pants Down:
  • In one of the early strips, Sabrina decides to indulge in some one-handed typing with her (then still-unseen) internet boyfriend, Richard. She's just getting into... things... when her roommate, Amy, walks in on her. (This later earns Richard the nickname "Sticky Fingers".)
  GET OUT!!
  • Also in that time-frame Carli the Chinchilla was eavesdropping on Sabrina and Richard during THAT session.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Strip #641◊ begins a near-serious Mood Whiplash arc with Sabrina surviving a deadly encounter with the same mugger from Strip 205◊. While she tries her best to make light of her situation in the hospital, Zig Zag◊ and Amy◊ aren't so forgiving.
• Cheerful Child: Tabitha.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The mugger Sabrina sprays in Strip 205◊? He reappears in 641.◊ And he recognizes Sabrina.
• Cosmic Deadline: Self imposed by the author, who feeling that the strip was beginning to stagnate; recognized the approaching 20th anniversary and chose it as the end date for the series. The result is the last few years of the series rush through plot development that had been previously held back to set up the approaching finale.
• Cool Big Sis: Zig Zag, to Sabrina's younger sister (by 19 years), Tabitha.
• Cool Shades: Tina Lynx is always seen with these.
• Covert Pervert: Sabrina, as shown here.◊
  • In the same strip, we see how her decision to wear skunk-print pants makes her look like she's showing her bare ass to everybody.
• Cursed with Awesome: Doesn't actually happen by trope in the comic, but the phrase itself (word for word) is on one guy's shirt◊ in a recent strip... before he gets curb-stomped by a VERY PISSED-OFF Zig Zag.
• Cutaway Gag: Lampshaded and crossed with a Shout-Out here◊.
  Sabrina: It's tough keeping up with Tabitha, isn't it?
  Zig-Zag: You're telling me! It's harder than picking camera angles for a scene with an elephant!
  [Cutaway to a camera's eye view: only the top of Zig's face is visible, with an elephant looming the background]
  Zig-Zag: Can you see anything?
  Cameraman: Maybe if I backed all the way out of the room...
  [Cut back to Zig and Sabrina, the latter looking very confused]
  Sabrina: What the hell was THAT!?
  Zig-Zag: Hey, we work in media! We should have more power to set up random cutaways than some fat New England guy!
• Dark and Troubled Past: Zig Zag. Most of the May and June 2015 strips go into the details.
• Dark Horse Victory: Grimlock winning the election for leadership of Sabrina's Transformers collection. Sabrina figured Optimus Prime would be the likely winner, but Arcee points out that Sabrina has a dozen versions◊ of Optimus, and split the vote.
• Death Glare: Amy does a truly magnificent one in this strip.◊
• Delayed Reaction:
  Sabrina: "I COULD'VE BEEN KILLED!"◊
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: In this strip◊, Sabrina's mugger blurts out a comment that proves he's Too Dumb to Live.
• Did You Just Have Sex?: Unsurprisingly, Zig Zag has a sixth sense about this sort of thing.
• Disaster Dominoes: A pretty humorous example in "Skunk's Day Out" during the amusement park visit. First its small incidents, Sabrina finds herself getting sick on the roller coasters, Zig Zag is stunned by Tabitha asking her about her job as a porn star, people getting over-charged for various food items, etc. By the end of it all some of Zig's employees had managed to drag almost all of the amusement park's security guards into an orgy in the bushes, Endora has to be physically pried off a roller coaster, and Sheila causes the whole group to be chased out by an angry mob after she is accused of practicing Skunkface.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Say mean things on the internet about Zig Zag and she'll hunt you down to administer beatings◊ and\or psychological◊ torture◊.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": The one time Sabrina calls Zig Zag by her real (last) name, Zig Zag pointedly tells her "my name is Zig Zag."
• Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Averted at the porn convention hotel when Sabrina slaps some sense into Zig. Zig snaps out of it and admits that she went too far and nearly fell into the same patterns that she suffered herself, leading into some Character Development and a closer friendship for the two. Not that Zig stops from teasing the hell out of Sabrina either.
• DVD Bonus Content: Print collections include occasional bits of author commentary, extra art, gag-outtakes, and bonus stories ("A Decade in Black and White" for example contains the entirety of Sabrina at See-CAD, a bonus story detailing Amy and Thomas' wedding, and a spectacularly fourth wall shattering "400th Comic Wrap Party" story, along with art pieces from fans of the series).
• Embarrassing Nickname: In the Flash Forward, Timmy prefers to be called "Tim" at age 16.
• Everyone Has Standards: In the Fast Forward arc, Zig Zag outright refuses to let Tabitha do work in the porn studio, other than the office stuff, citing that she's known the girl since she was five and Tabitha is practically her little sister.
• Exact Words: "I don't know any zebras."◊
• Eye Scream: Zig Zag gets a scare (cue Atomic F-Bomb) when she wakes up and finds she has a subconjunctival hemorrhage of the eye, but her doctor says that it's essentially just a bruise.
  • She then decides to make the temporary protective eyepatch work for her by filming some pirate-themed porn.
• Fantastic Racism: Zig Zag, as a mixed-breed (her grandfather was a Siberian Tiger and her closer ancestry were skunks), was deemed "too exotic" for mainstream TV or movies, so she went into porn instead◊. She got bullied in school, too.
  • When Sabrina and Richard were dating, Endora wasn't too thrilled that she was dating a raccoon. When Danielle was born, Sabrina feared that attitude would be extended to her, expecting Endora to add "...for a raccoon" when she said Danielle was beautiful. But that never came, to Sabrina's relief.
• The Faceless: Both Carli's husband and Thomas' father are wolves who, possibly as a species trait, are much taller than anyone else, thus they are only "shot" from the neck down for long periods to avoid awkward scene angles.
  • Though Spike, Carli's husband, has had his face shown on his first (at the time unnamed) appearance, and several times more since (he was sitting, so his head was level with Carli's).
• Flash Forward: The strips for October 2015 through February 2016 play with this trope; they're set in Next Sunday A.D., but they're written as if the characters had aged in Real Time since the story began (while the rest of the strip uses Comic-Book Time).
  • In the Flash Forward, Sabrina and RC have a 14-year-old child, Amy and Thomas have a second child, Endora has dementia, and Tabitha has a job as Zig Zag's errand girl^note Zig Zag said outright she'd never employ Tabitha herself in porn, as she sees her as a little sister while also lusting over Timmy.
• Four-Fingered Hands: The entire cast has them.
• Frame Break: Sabrina once grabbed the comic frame.◊
• Freudian Excuse (Averted)/Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Zig Zag refuses to blame any of her behavior on her tragic past, and hates it when anyone tries.
• Fridge Horror: Sabrina experiences this In-Universe after she fends off a mugger◊.
• Friends with Benefits: Invoked in this strip◊; Zig Zag is this with just about all her single friends, including (especially?) her best friend and confidant Tina Lynx.
• Funny Background Event:
  • Rocket ship!◊
  • Zig Zag kisses Endora after their first meeting.◊ Cue a cartoonish Eye Take and synchronised faint from both Sabrina and her father Warren.
• Gender Bender: not in the main strip itself but in an associated animated short titled Remote Possibilities where a magic remote turns Sabrina into an Indiana Jones like character... and Sabrina promptly panics once looking down "his" pants.
• Genki Girl: Carli.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Some people watching the studio's webcam show certainly think so.◊
• Girls Behind Bars: While in jail◊ Zig Zag is annoyed that she doesn't have a cellmate to play out any "jailhouse dominance fantasies" on.
• Girl's Night Out Episode: Skunks' Day Out splits the cast by gender with Sabrina, Endora, Tabitha, Zig-Zag and several of the porn movie stars going to a theme park and wreaking havoc in the process. Meanwhile R.C. and Warren have a guy's day together.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: In the flash-forward strips, Danielle wears a pair of smart-glasses which function like a modern day smart-phone. She is able to set up a reservation for her parent's anniversary by blinking with the glasses on. Sabrina later asks her to leave them behind while at the restaurant so Danielle can talk to the other people there and not be distracted by the glasses.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Happens with Thomas◊ when he finds out Amy is pregnant with Timothy.
• Good Bad Girl: Tina Lynx.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The comic dealing with Sabrina's stabbing cuts from the mugger recognizing her to someone finding her and calling 911.
• The Grim Reaper: Comes for Sabrina after her stabbing◊, only to realize he's made "a clerical error" and goes away.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Sabrina looks like one of these, but is actually wearing skunk-print pants. This is repeatedly lampshaded, as all the other characters in the strip wear full outfits (except for shoes).
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: Used frequently, for instance when Sabrina and Richard have their first time together, Sabrina's hands or arms are always over her breasts.^note Played with a bit in the prior See-CAD series though, when Sabrina falls asleep in the shower its her fur that censors out any details.
• Hands-Off Parenting: Richard's hippie parents.
• Harmful to Minors: Upon learning that Sabrina is stuck babysitting her sister Tabitha and her friends son Timothy, Zig Zag invites them all to the studio for some company. Despite Sabrina's worries about the obvious, Zig has everyone baby proof the studio and move their recordings to the back so neither child would find them, thus defying this trope. Tabitha almost opens a "toy room" while there.
  • Tabitha later searches who Zig Zag is on her computer leading to the discovery that "there's lots of photos of her naked and hugging other people!" out there. It forces Sabrina to childproof Zig's website.
• Hated Item Makeover: Sabrina adorns her workspace with some Transformers figures while working as a webmaster at Zig Zag Studios. During Sabrina's day off, Zig Zag gets mischievous, and "embellishes" Sabrina's figures. The next day, Sabrina goes about her business, until she notices something off about her surroundings. She bursts into a studio where filming is underway to roar, "Who put phalluses on my Transformers?!" Zig Zag, in delicto flagrante, starts laughing her tail off.
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Here's an example.◊
  • Or, for a slightly earlier one:
  "I'd pay you fifty bucks to watch you do something suggestive with a banana."◊
  "How did all this porn get on my system?"◊
• Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Sabrina's webcomic.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Admittedly Zig Zag isn't straight... but her relationship with Sabrina ends up like this with time particularly after therapy where Zig Zag finally recognizes her platonic love for Sabrina as the therapist helps her recognize not all forms of friendship or love are the physical sorts.
• He Who Fights Monsters: When Zig Zag discovers her name is a Berserk Button on Image Boards, she goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Richard's first appearances were as "RC", Sabrina's unseen online "friend".
• The Hedonist: Zig Zag. So much.
  • A lot of the staff at the studio could count too, with Sabrina and Darke Katt possibly being the only exceptions.
  • R.C.'s parents also count.
• Heel Realization: In this◊ July 2015 strip, Zig Zag's counseling about her past makes her realize her past antics (like hunting down to attack the people who insulted her online, physically attacking the mugger who almost murdered Sabrina and her sexual harassment of Sabrina to the brink of raping her) is behavior exactly like her abusive father.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Subverted Trope. Sabrina looks like one of these, but she's actually wearing skunk-print pants. Lampshaded in this strip.◊
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Carli, a chinchilla and her husband Spike, a wolf. Also, Thomas' parents, a fox and another wolf, respectively.
• Hulk Speak: Grimlock, one of the Transformers figures who was running for president, delivers a speech using this◊.
  • And when trying to face down◊ a certain Transformer-terrorizing toddler◊... with hilarious results◊!
• Humiliation Conga: What happens to the mugger in the January 2013 strip when not one, but several of Sabrina's friends track him down.
• Hypocrite: The comic had a series of strips in December 2010 which has Zig Zag go on a tirade ala Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (the two heroes in that film go on the road and beat up everyone who ever criticized them on the Internet). Zig Zag gets offended by comments received online about her, and Comic 566◊ involves her beating up a guy who said mean things about her because he thinks he can say anything on the Internet without consequences. The Hypocrisy stems from the fact that Zig Zag is the owner and star of her own porno company, an industry that has historically relied on First Amendment rights to stay in business, the actors of which were constantly under belittlement and lawsuits pertaining for their rights to work in adult films, and sometimes assaulted for doing so. What Zig Zag just did was commit real-world, premeditated, first-degree assault against a random guy who, while they were certainly unpleasant, did not deserve physical violence. Comic 569◊ has Zig Zag mention that, yes, lots of people did press changes against her, and we eventually learn◊ that Zig Zag was convicted and paid a fine.
• Hype Aversion: In-Universe Example. Zig-zagged; when Sheila recommends◊ My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Sabrina reacts by saying that she's "just not caught up in pony hype," but asks to be called if any robots show up. Not long afterwards, Pinkie Pie joins Sabrina's toy collection.◊
• Hypocritical Humor: When Endora objects to Sabrina and Richard getting married, Warren reminds her that her own parents objected to their marriage◊. She can only respond with a Death Glare.
• I Banged Your Mom: Zig-Zag takes this to its logical extreme by tracking down a teenage cyber bully who called her an unattractive slut online and actually having sex with his mom.. Then, after the son comes home to see Zig Zag sitting next to his mother, who's wearing an oversized shirt and panties, Zig Zag twists the knife by coyly whispering "I fucked your mom!" right in his ear.^note Said mom, now named Helen Dish, has since appeared on Schwartz's adult site; her profile states that Zig gave her a job as a porn star, much to her son's dismay.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In a variation, Zig Zag is more infatuated with Sabrina than in love, knows it, and just wants her to loosen up and enjoy life more.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Sabrina 15 years into the future laments having gained weight, though R.C doesn't seem to mind.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Zig Zag to Richard◊... in SCARY detail.
  • When a mugger stabs Sabrina and leaves her for dead (she gets better), Zig tracks him down and beats him to within an inch of his life with her bare hands.
• Informed Ability: Before going into porn, Zig Zag was aiming to be a professional actress. Subverted when said abilities were shown during a visit to Sabrina's family, leading to a subtle funny moment...
  Endora: I don't see how someone can be taken seriously with a name like that.
  Zig Zag: *in cheerful tone* Why? Am I supposed to be taken seriously?
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Subverted and lampshaded; during Amy's pregnancy, she borrows a pair of Sabrina's pants, which gives her skunk colored legs◊. Sabrina breaks the fourth wall to accuse the readers of thinking she was walking around half-naked the entire time. (Of course, since she's drawn before, during, and after that as being essentially pants-less, well...)
• Interspecies Romance: Discussed in strip 68 - the first of Janurary 1999
• In the Style of: 1990s era Warner Bros. cartoons, such as Animaniacs. In fact, some of the character roster might have actually influenced them, such as Amy, who was first drawn in 1988.
  • Arguably, Tabitha looks and acts as a Dot expy.
  • Schwartz used music from these very cartoons in some of his animations from the early '90s.
• Jail Bait Wait: Adult Tabitha seems to be infatuated with the 16-year-old Timmy, who Sabrina remarks won't be legal for a few more years. Tabitha doesn't seem to mind the wait, having already decided that Timmy will be hers.
• Jerkass: Darke Katt. A perpetual grouch who would put even Oscar to shame, she refuses to socialize with the others in the studio, let alone be in their films. She can't stand her job as the janitor and the only reason she hasn't left is that she has nowhere else to go and that the others are polite to her, giving her money and shelter for her work◊.
  • Sabrina's Optimus Prime toy, which went on a rampage◊ beating up the Decepticon figurines until Timothy stepped in and intervened◊!
    Timothy: You really need to calm down.
    • To be precise, it's a Movie Optimus toy, which explains his Ax-craziness. Also:
      Optimus Prime: "Decepticon... GIVE ME YOUR FACE!"
• Karma Houdini: Zig Zag is basically able to do whatever she wants whenever she wants to whoever she wants with little to no consequence, up to and including stalking, sexual harassment, and physical assault.
  • Actually, averted. Sure that having a talented lawyer takes care of the remaining lawsuits, but she still has to pay a lot of money for it◊, and it's also implied that she was banned from Finland as a result of her revenge◊.
  • Swiftly averted for the mugger.
  • Zig Zag ends up in jail and tried for the revenge attack, and the previous episode with the internet trolls got brought up as evidence against her. It gets Double Subverted when the mugger sees a recovered Sabrina and can't believe how good she looks after he messed her up, in the middle of court; it seems to earn Zig enough sympathy points for a reduced sentence.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: The dude who mugged, and later nearly killed, Sabrina got this in spades. Zig Zag beating the shit out of him proved to be the beginning of a very long -— and, arguably, well-deserved -— Humiliation Conga.
• Living Toys: Sabrina's toys have their own little society, complete with a president (a Transformers: Animated Blackarachnia figure). They refer to Sabrina as "The Mistress".
• Longest Pregnancy Ever: Amy was pregnant with Timothy from Feb. 1997 to Jan. 2000.
• Long Pants: Sabrina wears pants that◊ do not look like pants, giving her the appearance of a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal.
• Long Runner: Believe it or not, a subversion; in the traditional sense, yes, the webcomic has been up for twenty years uninterrupted. But it isn't a long runner in the sense of number of strips, as it only got to 815 strips.
  • As TFWiki.net puts it: "Sabrina Online has been regularly updated for 26 years, an eternity in the sad, hellish wasteland that is the webcomic world, where hundreds of strips mercifully die every day."
• Lysistrata Gambit: Inverted◊ and later subverted◊
  • Zig Zag◊ does a variation of this to an internet troll who essentially said she was such a slut that he wouldn't have sex with her even if she walked up to him and asked for it.
• Made of Iron: Sabrina doesn't seem bothered at all at being stabbed several times, including in the head.
• Mary Sue: The In-Universe reaction to Sabrina's web comic◊ is that her Author Avatar is one of these.
• Medium Awareness: Characters are prone to commenting on being in a comic.
  Sabrina, did you notice we're in COLOR now?◊
  So THAT's what color my fur is!
• Mistaken for Pedophile: Nearly averted, but Zig Zag helps Tabitha and poses with her in a "safe for children" photoshoot dressed as Greco-Roman styled goddesses. Zig Zag is so proud of the photos she wants to put them on her website before Sabrina rushes in and explains why having a famous porn star posing with a child even in an innocent way posted on an X-rated website would raise a lot of issues.
  • Zig Zag is absolutely mortified at the implication, and also that for once Sabrina was more Street Smart than her.
• Mix-and-Match Critters:
  • Zig Zag is three-quarters skunk, one-quarter white tiger.
  • Danielle is half-skunk, half-raccoon.
  • Timothy is a quarter fox, a quarter wolf, and half squirrel.
    Thomas: Zoologically speaking, shouldn't this also be impossible?
    Amy: Well, that's why we have comic strips.
• Mood Whiplash: The surprisingly dark story arc from late 2012 to early 2013 ends with one of the living Transformers figures being comedically thrown out the window for an Incredibly Lame Pun.
• Mr. Fanservice: Spike the muscular wolf was obviously made to appeal to female viewers.
  • Thomas Woolfe to a lesser extent.
  • Hoss in universe. When Zig Zag introduces a webcam service to her studio, and tells Hoss to work it. Hoss is a bit surprised though when it turns out the webcam audience is primarily gay men stating "I was told there would be women here..."
    • Played for laughs in a bonus "outtake" strip where Sabrina accidentally walks in on Hoss and Zig Zag filming adult material, with the comicly huge size of the censor box over Hoss.
• Ms. Fanservice: Zig Zag, obviously. Sheila and Amy also qualify.
• My Beloved Smother: Endora, Sabrina's ultra-conservative mom.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Zig Zag finally realizes that past as a victim might have caused her to victimize others◊.
• No Full Name Given: After two decades, we still don't know Sabrina's last (now maiden) name. (Accepted Fanon says it's simply "Skunk")
  • Lampshaded in Comic #809◊:
    Minister: I now present you all, for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Richard and Sabrina Conrad!
    Someone offscreen: Oh so THAT'S her last name!
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After learning the same badger that has harrassed her Z.Z colleagues had almost killed Sabrina, she tracks him down and beats him within an inch of his life. While he was still convicted for that and previous crimes, Zig herself was arrested for assault, but the context allowed her to serve a brief jail sentence and paid a fine, though she needed to attend anger management.
• Not a Morning Person:
  • Sabrina waking up the morning after sleeping with her boyfriend R.C. for the first time◊.
  • Sabrina again, in the opening panels of the first post-series comic, "Baby Steps" (although the latter is implied to be due to her pregnancy). Bonus points for Sabrina whacking her alarm clock hard enough to knock over her Transformers figure collection.
  R.C. I know you're not a morning person, but are you a bit grumpier than usual?
  • A stand-alone artwork◊ by Eric Schwartz features Sabrina, complete with bed-head, holding a cup of coffee.
• Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: What R.C.'s dad said after revealing he was beginning to think R.C. was gay before he met Sabrina.
• Not What It Looks Like: Invoked: Zig Zag deliberately makes a lunchtime invitation to Richard look like a proposition for sex, much to his bewilderment.
  "Play along. Sabrina and I are taking you out to lunch."
• Nude-Colored Clothes: Sabrina's skunk-print pants. Repeatedly lampshaded.
• Obvious Pregnancy: Amy skips from not showing to this.◊
• Odd Friendship: Zig Zag and Endora became◊ friends◊ after Sabrina and R.C.'s wedding.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Sabrina learns that the Z.Z, where she finds a replacement job is a porn studio.
  • When Sabrina goes to a convention with Zig Zag and discovers there is only one room — and one bed.
  • Amy and Thomas's reaction to Sabrina moving out.
  • Zig Zag in this strip's final panel◊
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Zig Zag only uses her real name for legal purposes. Sabrina only knows her name because she saw it on tax records. The audience only knows her last name ("Zumbrowski"◊). Now-defunct old website of Max Black Rabbit called her Zinaida, but that may no longer be canon.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Sabrina says that being considered the best live-action Transformers movie "is kind of like being called the best square dance caller in Hong Kong", mainly for the Autobots' excessive brutality and becoming the Designated Hero.
  • During the 2008 election for president of Sabrina's toy shelves, an ad for Blackarachnia has her describe herself as "the first black-and-purple female Decepticon candidate from the Animated Toyline".
• Otaku: Sabrina and R.C. both with her love of Transformers and his love of anime and Star Trek. Their honeymoon (as seen in the post-series strips) is a trip to Japan.
• Parody Names: Several of the titles of the post-2016 strips such as Toy Stories, Too and Adventures in Horde-Sitting.
• Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Tabitha seems to be at least partially familiar with this trope◊, thanks to a visit to ZZ Studios.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: "Her tongue is surprisingly long."◊
• P.O.V. Cam: The first panel of this◊ comic.
• Precision F-Strike: Sabrina's birth is a bit harder than she anticipated.◊
  Richard: Now you see, she's normally more of a 'fudge' type person.
• Prison Rape: The 676◊th strip implies that Sabrina's attacker is about to get acquainted with his cellmate a lot more than he'd wish. Complete with Oh, Crap! face, of course.
  • Subverted with Zig Zag◊; when she gets arrested for beating up Sabrina's mugger, she's annoyed that she doesn't have a jail mate.
• Troll: A two◊-part◊ discussion.
  • G.I.F.T:Brought up almost by name in the second half.
    • The "anonymity" part has been subverted◊ and Zig got◊ her◊ revenge◊
    • Zig Zag eventually learns to use their own weapons against them.◊
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Endora's dementia in the Flash Forward draws from Schwartz's experience taking care of his aging parents in their latter years.
• Really Gets Around: Zig Zag, though she exaggerates this to get a rise out of Sabrina.
• Red Herring: In the first post-series arc, Sabrina and Richard initially think Sabrina is having a boy instead of the prophesized girl, and choose "Daniel" for the name. She ended up having a girl, and named her Danielle as originally planned.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Arguably Sabrina (blue) and Zig Zag (red), the former being a somewhat reserved computer/Transformers nut and the latter an outgoing porn star legend.
• Resistance Is Futile: Played for laughs here.◊
• The Reveal:
  • Sabrina's online crush, R.C.◊
  • On the day of her wedding, Sabrina's mother Endora makes a last-ditch effort to talk her out of an interspecies marriage to a raccoon. Sabrina retaliates by finally revealing the less-than-wholesome aspects of her career◊ at an internet porn studio, just to put things into perspective.
    Sabrina: "Suddenly marrying a sweet, nerdy raccoon doesn't seem so bad now, does it?"
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Timmy.
• Ripped from the Headlines: In 2008, the Transformers figures held an election with Grimlock defending his presidency against Blackarachnia. The outcome of the election was tied to the result of the 2008 U.S. election, with Grimlock representing McCain and Blackarachnia representing Obama; Obama won, so Blackarachnia takes over.
  • In the 2020 strips the COVID-19 Pandemic occurs and the characters comment on living with quarantine and masking guidelines.◊ An attempt at a home-haircut gone wrong during the pandemic results in Sabrina wearing a short hairstyle by 2021.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Zig Zag goes on one against the chat room people who made fun of her movies and performances. She takes her porn very seriously.
  • This December 2012 strip◊ indicated that Amy would have this response to Sabrina's stabbing.
    • And then the trope was parodied in the January 2013 strips. First, Zig Zag beat the crap out of the mugger. Then Amy found him and gave him a kick just because she wanted to. Then Richard found him... but he doesn't do any attacking.
• Robots Walk In at the Worst Time Sabrina's Transformers toys decide to reveal they are actually alive only to walk in on Sabrina and R.C. in the act.◊ The toys just assume Sabrina and R.C. are engaged in some sort of "network interfacing."
• Screaming Birth: Amy's labor was really difficult and she was hollering like a banshee◊, but she was loudest when she realized just when she was signing into the hospital that she and Thomas hadn't married yet◊.
• Screw Yourself: During the flash-forward, Sabrina briefs Zig Zag on new virtual-reality porn simulations. When told there is a mode to manually take over an avatar, Zig Zag decides to try it out.◊
• Self-Deprecation:
  • Strip 49◊ has Sabrina meet Schwartz's Author Avatar and call him a "loser" behind his back.
  • Strips 602◊ and 603◊ show Sabrina explaining her ideas for a comic project of hers (including a schedule and an art style mirroring those of Sabrina Online itself), only to have Amy criticize her choices as ridiculous.
    Amy: (looks straight at the reader) So, you buying any of this?
    • The "Lena" strips were by Schwartz's own admission his way of trying to work through a writer's block with some "painfully meta" humor. The decision to prepare to end the strip on its 20th anniversary was made shortly after the end of the Lena arc, and Schwartz used the mugger who came back to stab Sabrina as the catalyst of change to get the ball rolling for the planned finale.
  • "A Meeting of Moms" has all the characters pointing out they don't wear wedding rings, and then commenting that its because it saves the artist time while drawing.
• Shareware: How Schwartz got his characters a public following before the launch of the webcomic was mostly via submitting his animation demos as part of CD bundles included with Amiga magazines.
• Shaped Like Itself: Sabrina wears skunk-print pants.
• She Is All Grown Up: Tabitha during the 15-year time skip seems to have grown quite a slender figure, which the pear-shaped Sabrina is envious about.
  • Timmy also grew up to be quite a hunk at the age of 16. One that Tabitha can't wait to get her paws on.
• Shipper on Deck: Carli, to Sabrina and RC.◊
• Shout-Out: So many, they have their own page.
• Shower Scene:
  • "Gratuitious Shower Scene"◊ seems to be a "Psycho" Shower Murder Parody. Sabrina is showering, Amy suddenly enters and tells her she sent a nude photo with shopped Sabrina's head to all her contacts. Sabrina is excited and wants her to explain how to attach files to mail. Amy was just kidding.
  • Narrowly averted later◊, when Sabrina accidentally walked in on showering Thomas, apologized, then returned to get a better look. Thomas stayed offscreen.
• Show Within a Show: Sabrina's own Web Comic, Lena's Net Adventures.
  • Art Shift: Used when showing panels from Lena's.
• Silent Snarker: Timmy does all his snarking with a thought bubble and Aside Glance.
• Sleeps in the Nude: Zig Zag. She puts on some underwear when she shares a hotel room with Sabrina to help make Sabrina more comfortable.
• Skewed Priorities: When Amy jokingly interrupts Sabrina's shower to tell her she copied and pasted a photo of Sabrina's face onto a nude model and sent it out via email, Sabrina's shock is that Amy knows how to use email◊ and she promptly congratulates Amy.
• Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: It slides an awful lot.
• Sliding Time Scale: Though only a couple of years have passed in-comic, since Sept. 1996, the in-comic world has kept pace with real-world events and tech. Which makes early comic gags like Sabrina being impressed that Amy knew how to email files seem odd.
• Smelly Skunk: Not all the time, but Sabrina can make it happen should the need arise.◊
  • Baby Danielle, who can't quite control her scent, which is bad enough to make Richard's eyes water when he changes her diaper.
    "How...how can...DID THE BABY EAT A TIRE FIRE!?"
• Sour Prudes: Zig-Zag sometimes (jokingly, one should hope) calls Sabrina a prude because she refuses to become a porn star and because she can sometimes get embarrassed.
  • Endora was definitely this way, though this began to melt when she became friends with Zig Zag of all people.
• Spit Take: "Are you a virgin?"◊
• Spoiler Cover: The second print collection "The Tail of Two Decades" includes the very last strip of the original run on the back cover. Since the first and second print collections were printed entirely in black & white, including the final strip on the cover was likely the only way to have it show up in full color.
• Stalker with a Crush: The "Funny Bunny Man", as Tabitha called him (actually Max Blackrabbit, the fursona of Malcolm Earle, Zig Zag's creator).
• Summon Bigger Fish: When Optimus Prime goes on a violent rampage, the rest of the Transformers call in Timmy for help.◊
• Sunglasses at Night: Tina Lynx, for Purpose 1 of the trope◊.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Only a surprise to the characters...since Eric was so kind as to show the audience Timmy's conception◊.
• Tears of Joy: Zig Zag starts crying when she holds Sabrina's baby.
  "No, wait, you're right. Huh, that's weird. Wish I knew if this was from joy, or something I've suppressed."
• Terrible Interviewees Montage: Implied to have happened before Sabrina got her first job.
  Secretary: Remember that one guy who looked confused whenever we said "Computer"?◊
• Theme Naming: Sabrina, Tabitha and Endora are all named after famous fictional witches.
• There Are No Girls on the Internet: Discussed and eventually subverted. One strip even is titled almost exactly that.◊
• There Are No Therapists: Averted - Zig Zag had court-ordered therapy, which she continued to attend after her legal obligation had been satisfied. At least until she slept with him◊.
• There Is Only One Bed: Intentionally set up by Zig Zag — who gets clobbered for it.
• The Stoner: Tom Woolfe's new job at a head shop in the later strips depicts his bosses as regularly being too high to nearly function, and Tom as the one sober man in the building. As the flashforward shows this ends up granting him great job stability and he's still working at the head shop running the place while the shop owner is blazed out in the backroom.
• Thought Bubble: Being a baby, most of Timmy's dialogue is shown in one. He even has these before he was born.
• Three-Month-Old Newborn: Danielle◊, who looks appropriately wrinkled and not-quite-fully-formed, is the size of a three-month-old. Which makes everyone calling her "tiny" stand out even more.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: "Skunks Can Blush"◊
  Amy: Yeah, you've been home for a few hours and you're still blushing.
  Sabrina: I think it's burned in.
• Token Wholesome: Sabrina in her workplace.
• Tomato Skunk Stink Cure: R.C. has one after getting caught in the crossfire when Sabrina sprays a mugger.◊
• Two Gamers on a Couch: the trope name◊ is referenced in the April Fools 2009 strip's title, which depicts R.C. and Thomas playing games on couch and discussing the popularity of gamer webcomics at the time.
  • Sabrina & Zig Zag also have a two gamers on a couch moment as well.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Strip 77, "Monologue or Dialogue?" At first it looks like Sabrina regrets what she's done and resolves to confess. Then we see that R.C. is thinking exactly the same words, and 5 out of 7 thought bubbles may as well be his.
  Sabrina: What have I done?
  Sabrina: I lied, that’s what! Just to impress someone I hardly know!
  ?: How can I expect to start a new relationship or even a friendship,
  ?: when I can't even be honest about who I am?
  ?: That's it. I have to tell the truth,
  ?: - let the chips fall where they may,
  ?: and hope I haven't screwed things up too badly, because one thing's for sure.
  Both: This person's out of my league.
• Universal Remote Control: The central plot point of the tie-in animated short "Remote Possibilities", where a remote turns Sabrina into: a Jessica Rabbit-like character, an Indiana Jones type, Simpsons and South Park style characters, the USS Voyager from Star Trek, Zig Zag, Daffy Duck's bizarre form from Duck Amuck and perhaps most shockingly of all a human!.
• Unsound Effect: POW! WHAM! SOCK! INJURE!◊
• Unusual Euphemism:
  • "Holy dammit Christmas!" At least, it's a euphemism compared to what people would normally say. (And a reference to The Venture Brothers.)
  • Also Flash Forward!Tabitha's feelings for Timmy, after seeing him mowing his parents' yard.
    Sabrina: What is WITH you?!
    Tabitha: Just—just LOOK at him! I wish he'd push ME around the yard.
    Sabrina: That doesn't even make sense.
• Van in Black: The Van featured in this comic.◊
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Well, technically she's just a girl who's a friend, but when Sabrina is stabbed by a mugger Zig Zag tracks him down and beats him senseless, followed up by Amy, who gives him a good kick to the ribs.
  • Then R.C. stops by...
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Richard's reaction to Sabrina "swap[ping] out this little strip that drains pus and fluid into the gauze" in this strip◊.
• Webcomics Long-Runners: Along with User Friendly, Sluggy Freelance and Kevin & Kell, the longest of the long. However, since Eric only posted 3-5 strips per month, the main series ended at 815 strips, so there's not as much Archive Panic as the others listed here.
• Webcomic Print Collection: There are currently four volumes collecting the series, two "A Decade in Black & White" and "The Tail of Two Decades" covering the initial 20 year run, and the other two "Baby Steps" and "Homecoming & Skunks Day Out" covering post-series strips. In addition another volume has some of Schwartz's adult material under the Fur After Dark branding, set within the same universe including the expanded encounter between Zig-Zag and Helen Dish.
  • Even before the book volumes, print versions of the strip could be found in calendars and print magazines such as the British Amiga Format, and compilations of single years of the strip were available in print as well.
  • The (now non-canonical) predecessor strip Sabrina at See-CAD was a college newsletter strip. It has been reprinted in some compilations of Sabrina Online as a bonus feature.
• Webcomic Time: The comic ran for twenty years. At the most, around two years passed, storyline-wise.
  • Yet Schwartz keeps mentioning real-life products in the comic... So basically, no more than two years have passed in-universe between Windows 95 being the most recent version of Windows, and Sabrina's toys complaining about the new Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen-based Optimus Prime figure.
    • To reference the figure above, if one were to figure every strip wound up averaging one day of time In-Universe, time for the main cast is somehow being distorted into running at one-tenth the speed of normal time.
    • Subverted several times; Sabrina apparently went to college, and explained that she did this "in the free time between strips" when Amy questions this; another occasion, when Amy wakes up to find her pregnancy greatly developed, and asks "How long was I out?" to which Timmy replies "I don't know. How long is it between strips?"
    • Played Straight, Averted, and Lampshaded simultaneously during the Flash Forward arc.
    • The post-series strips really spoof this, by pointing out somehow Zig-Zag who was older than Sabrina when she hired her is now 29 by the time Sabrina celebrates her 30th birthday. Zig-Zag casually quips about her being younger than Sabrina by responding with "Don't look at me like that. You're the one who decided to age!"◊^note Sabrina's 30th birthday celebration is a nod to her debut as a character in a college newspaper.
  • Timmy, born January 2000, is "almost five" in March 2021.
  • As the author stated in "Tail of Two Decades":
    Schwartz: Conceivably, in Sabrina Online someone could have a new generation of computer or phone appear between the start and the end of the conversation. Still, I think that's become the nature of the comic, and as much fodder for humor as anything else.
• Wham Episode: The last 2/3 of the strips released at the end of September 2012 have Sabrina stabbed by the mugger she sprayed 11 years ago, though she does make a full recovery.
  • In the third strip released in September 2015, R.C. proposes to Sabrina.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Eric came back for Christmas 2016 to show us Sabrina and R.C. showing off a sonogram of their unborn child.◊
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: Richard's parents. They are ultra-liberal flower-child hippies, and extremely open-minded - and he rebelled by becoming a perfectly straight-laced IT graduate, working tech-support for Microsoft.
  • His dad is convinced it's because they named him after Richard Nixon as a gag. It's implied he was conceived when they were celebrating Nixon's resignation.◊
    Conrad: —and Richard was born about a year later. It was the happiest moment in both our lives.
    Sabrina: Sounds like you have a great relationship.
    Conrad: We named him after Nixon as a joke. Little did we know it'd make him into such a square.
• Wish-Fulfillment: In one arc, Zig Zag steals papers detailing information on a group of trolls (courtesy of a well-meaning Sabrina) and abuses them psychologically and, in one case, physically.
• Write Who You Know: In-Universe. Sabrina starts drawing her own webcomic, which is based on events that happened previously in the comic.
• You Are Not Ready: When Tabitha asks Zig Zag what sex is like◊ (causing Zig Zag to do a Spit Take), Zig Zag asks her what she's seen, including porn. Since porn simply weirds the preteen Tabitha out◊, Zig Zag concludes Tabitha's not quite mature enough to have her questions answered.
• You Bastard!: While they don't explicitly say it, this is probably what Sabrina and Tina think of the viewers◊ who want them to joke about Zig Zag's past.
  • Or the author for even bringing it up in the first place.
• You Do Not Want To Know: At a Corporate Party◊ Darke Katt the Janitor of ZZ Studio's, with Richard being slightly confused as to why when she talks about her job, she hates it so much, and quotes the trope in response to him.

---