Webcomic / Astray 3

Astray 3 is a webcomic by Eldon Cowgur.

Emily Hargrove hates her purposeless, day-to-day life. Her escape from it are particularly colorful dreams and daydreams, which make her drift off and perpetually late, not endearing authority figures to her at all.When a well-meaning coworker hides her from their Mean Boss in a cupboard, Emily instantly finds herself Trapped in Another World straight out of her imagination.

And it's not half as nice as it should be.

Read it here. Unfortunately, the last strip was posted on September 19th 2011 and we haven't heard from the author since.

There are signs of life on June 11, 2017 the author created a new website and made a post, the comic will be appearing here and you can read all the old strips here. The new strips may be a reboot.

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Contains the following tropes:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: In the middle of Emily's Roofhopping to escape the chase in chapter 9, we get introduced to Umway by means of a scene in which he's enjoying seafood.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Fidolus's first words are this and Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness. Most of his words are Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness.
  Fidolus: Desist you ponderous pile of perfidious filth!
• After-Action Patch-Up: Emily, on herself here. With dental floss. She uses the remains of her hoodie, too.
  Emily: At least watching Brit gangster films is going to pay off.
• The Alcatraz: The Murbin jail might be one. It's filthy enough.
• Alien Sea: Of conveyor belts.
• Alien Sky: "Hey!! Where is the sun!!"
• Aliens Speaking English: Averted Trope ( until halfway through chapter six). Shown with a constructed writing system in their Speech Bubbles. Commented on by Emily.
  Emily: Just great, the one time my imagination chooses not to speak English.
• Alternative Calendar: Emily arrived in Fuungahi on 30th lou of Qual.
• Arm Cannon: Fidolus's legs are replaced by a machine gun.
• Batter Up!: Emily's feeling badass.
• Batman in My Basement: Emily ends up as the Batman in this scenario for Ramon and his family.
• Beast Man: Umway really resembles a killer whale. An Emily-sized, bipedal, snarky, suave killer whale. Hence the nickname, Willy.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Where do we start... There's the whole water-being-way-more-of-an-acid-to-them-than-to-humans thing (see Kill It with Water). Nunagrums (females, at least) can make themselves give off quite strong light. Mr. Featherton has wheels instead of feet.
• Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Nunagrums. Only their females are sentient. Thunga, turns out, is one.
• Blind Without Them: Emily complains about this after losing her glasses.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: An... oddly literal example in Fuungahi. It's stone and marks the city as cursed.
• Burger Fool: Emily's mother considers her job to be this. Not that Emily disagrees.
• Bury Your Disabled: Fidolus buries himself (still living) despite Emily's protests.
• Catapult Nightmare: Emily has these.
• Chariot Pulled by Cats: There is a whirling bug creature that pulls carts.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Speculated on here and here (spoilerrific!)
• Cluster F-Bomb: Wneh all else fails...
• Clothing Damage: Emily's clothes get increasingly torn.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: To be fair, it is Emily's fault partly. But Thunga thinks it's Honour Before Reason. And she definitely Didn't Think This Through.
  Emily: I'm choosing to take responsibility for my actions now.
• The Corruption: The nature of curse on Fuungahi, affects both living inhabitants and buildings replacing parts of them with bits of human world.
• Crazy-Prepared: Emily has all kinds of things in her backpack. And she is creative about using them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Emily's other shield from the world, apart from the fantasising. Umway snarks a lot, too.
• Dismotivation: Emily hates her life, but can't get the courage to do anything about it, so she escapes into fantasies.
• Down the Rabbit Hole: Emily gets locked in the cupboard. She immediately faces weird creatures.
• Dramatic Unmask: Can't go much more dramatic than Emily is here. With a swish of her cape. In front of a Powder Keg Crowd out for her blood.
• Dream Intro: Interrupted by the alarm clock.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Emily remarks on how clishe it is. And that the warden uniform stinks.
• Exposition Diagram: Ramon has a (very alien) projector he uses to give Emily exposition on Fuungahi golden age and what ended it.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Emily's run through upper Fuungahi starts with an umbrella turning to be living and hungry for her. Then it goes downhill.
• Fantastic Racism: Citizens of Fuungahi want no strays in their city as they associate them with humans.
• Fish out of Water
• Follow the Chaos: How the military determines where Emily is.
• Fowl-Mouthed Parrot: "The space parrot ostrich thing", or mr. Featherton as Emily calls him, parrots her speech, especially the cuss words. Also has colourful plumage like a parrot. Crossed with a hen. On wheels. It's that kind of world.
• Friend to All Children: Emily. Even the children of the probably bad guys, as seen here. The person she loves most seems to be her baby brother.
• Gentle Giant: Thunga holds Emily back from her Hot-Blooded tendencies and generally is the silent voice of reason, who also towers over her and many denizens of this world. With the strength to match.
• Hidden Elf Village: New England. Its leader has left a letter with Ramon for all the new arrivals to read and a map enclosed, just in case.
• Horse of a Different Color: Space parrot ostrich mr. Featherton. Also the rolling beetle thing.
• Humans Are Cthulhu: Bit more literal than usually. Very jerkass Reality Warpers. With an actual religion centered on them, which doesn't help the jerkass tendencies.
• Idea Bulb: Emily gets one here.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Emily does it several times when particularly stressed.
• Intoxication Ensues: Soumi has an effect on Emily. Thankfully, it's nothing worse than what a couple of drinks would do.
• Illegal Religion: Cult of Man is currently prosecuted in Fuungahi. Still going on strong with a very crazy group of fanatics.
• It's All About Me: Emily is accused of this by Umway and Fidolus. Whether she's accused rightly... judge for yourself.
• Kids Are Cruel: A human child, on a whim, caused society collapse in Fuungahi. Parents (on purpose) caused a plague, though. See Humans Are Cthulhu.
• Kill It with Water: Everything on the alien world! Water is a dangerous substance there (used for etching), which poses problems to Emily, but also allows her to melt baddies faces with a sneeze.
• Mean Boss: Jerry.
• Mini-Mecha: Umway travels in a nice one.
• Multicultural Alien Planet: Well, it's an entire world. With politics.
• Narrative Filigree: Fuungahi has a rich culture, of which we see a glimpse, mainly through Emily's journal.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: "A true human can't be hurt".
• No Biochemical Barriers: Improbably averted here.
• Oh, Crap!: Finding herself someplace else...
  Emily: [Symbol Swearing] What was that!!!
  • And again

• Powder Keg Crowd: Pretty impressive one in chapter 9.
• Puppeteer Parasite: Used as means of prisoner control in the Murbin jail. Don't work on humans or strays.
• Quit Your Whining: Umway has had enough of Emily's ego...
  Umway: If you are waiting for someone to stroll along and drop perfect answers in your lap, it ain't gonna happen.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Balor, we hope.
• Sabotutor: Ramon's sons dislike Emily, so when she tries to learn the local language, they teach her swear words instead of nouns.
• Save Your Deity: Thunga is a believer in man, so her rescue of Emily is a bit of this.
• Shout-Out: Two for the price of one.
  Emily: Mister Willy, tear down this wall!
• Super-Strength: All humans and strays in the other world. Emily discovers she has it while fighting the wardens.
  Emily: Hehe!! Guess who just became a badass!!
• Surreal Horror: A lot. Upper Fuungahi takes the cake.
  Bizarre oven monster: I want to bake your head!
• Symbol Swearing: Sometimes even by those who don't speak English.
• Terror Hero: Emily's leveling up in badass consists of her learning this.
  Emily: You are right, I'm not a killer. But, who knows, I may accidentally sneeze on you.
• That Was Not a Dream: Emily thinks she's dreaming for a while. No such luck, though.
• Wardens Are Evil: In the Murbin jail where Emily finds herself, they seem pretty mean.
• We Need a Distraction: Thought by Emily during the impromptu Great Escape of hers. One presents itself, but Emily's companion has a Chronic Hero Syndrome and they end up trying to "save the space parrot ostrich thing".
• Your Head A-Splode: Since the guy had a bunch of grenades attached to it.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Umway who, infuriatingly, seems to know what's going on, is a telepath and can't be seen helping Emily. So he guides her telepathically.