Ardra
is a webcomic created in 2005 by Jason Dunstan, who served as writer through 2012. Fesworks is the current writer, and John Peters (Gypsy!) is the current artist. Past artists are Jason Dunstan (2005), Trevor Adams (2006, 2008-09) and Fesworks (2007-08).
The comic stars Dr. Ardra Renelsior, a brilliant scientist. She decides to raise twin daughters, Eileen and Lenore, as a sort of ongoing behavioral experiment. Eileen is much like her mother (or as the girls call her, "maternal provider"), shy and bookish, although more sarcastic. Lenore is more like Ardra's younger sister, Aldla...outgoing and fun-loving. She's also rather bizarre.
Even though Ardra is almost an agoraphobic, she and the girls somehow manage to awkwardly interact with relatives, friends, and other people in the outside world. But can the world handle them?
Tropes:
- Arch-Enemy: Ardra's French cousin Ardrienne, a sort of rogue Bonapartist hell-bent on world domination. She sees herself as the rightful ruler of the world, due to her outlandishly high I.Q. Ardrienne wants Ardra out of the way, because she feels Ardra is the only one smart enough to foil her plans.
- Beautiful All Along: Ardra thinks she's unattractive but has more than once been shown to be of at least above-average attractiveness.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Otto, who can seemingly hack into any database, yet remains an unemployed slacker.
- Character Development: Ardra changes from hands-off overseer of her "experiments" to a more typical mom figure as time goes on.
- Cheerful Child: Lenore
- Cute Bookworm: Ardra. Also Lenore & Eileen, in the "cute kid" version of the trope.
- Dork Horse Candidate: Ardra, in the "Ardra For Congress" storyline, plays the spoiler role against Smirk.
- Evil Matriarch: Anna.
- Gamer Chick: Otto's girlfriend, Faylin.
- Game Show Appearance: The "Quiz-O-Rama" storyline, wherein slimeball extraordinaire Smirk Barkberkery is introduced.
- LEGO Genetics: Ardra, a whiz at DNA manipulation, designed the girls to be super geniuses.
- Lovable Nerd: Practically the entire cast, except for "villainous" characters Ardrienne, Smirk, and Anna.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Perhaps Faylin, who speaks in internet jargon with Otto, and is a free-spirited geek girl type.
- Nerds Are Sexy: This comic is full of examples of this. Della, Faylin, Ardra herself...
- Nerds Are Virgins: Ardra, who apparently used artificial insemination to conceive the girls.
- Parental Abandonment: Ardra's mother, Anna, rejected her first child, Otto, because he's not a girl.
- Revenge of the Nerd: Eileen, in the "Quiz-O-Rama" storyline. Or Ardra and the girls any time they cross paths with Smirk.
- Sleazy Politician: Smirk (originally a sleazeball game show host, later a sleazeball used car salesman) in the "Ardra For Congress" storyline.
- Speed Dating: The subject of an entire story arc, when the girls convince Ardra to get out of the house and go to a speed-dating event...which, luckily, is being held at a library, one of the few places Ardra ever goes.
- Take Over the World: Ardrienne.
- The Slacker: Otto.
- The Snark Knight: The ever-sarcastic Eileen. Perhaps also Ardra, to a lesser extent.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Eileen and Lenore.
