Breakpoint City
is an effectively ended webcomic by Brian Emling following the (mis)adventures of Benjamin F. Megawatt and Daniel Dog after they travel to The Future. The comic takes place mainly on the titular Breakpoint City, located in scenic Summit County, Ohio. BPC is the nation’s first hovering city, built with a generous donation by the Sploz Corporation. Breakpoint is the home of Sploz Co., which has its name on everything from t-shirts to restaurants.
Updates became very sporadic starting in 2013, and essentially went on hiatus in 2014. Things were silent until June 30th, 2020 provided a one-panel drawing of the main cast in celebration of the strip's 20th anniversary, including a description in which the author stated they would like to return and finish the strip one day.
Breakpoint City provides examples of:
- 90% of Your Brain: Sofia uses 11.
- Alternate Universe: There are a few of these, but they haven't played a major part so far.
- Art Evolution: Lampshades it, combining it with some Self-Deprecation:"God, could you imagine if someone was always changing the look of their comic?" "Eh, they probably wouldn't last very long."
- Bad Santa: There's an arc where Santa does everything in his power to sabotage Christmas and stop the adorable critter from saving it. Mid-way through January, he somehow manages to (unwillingly) make his run on time anyway.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: During a power outage, Sofia's eyes are visible play this trope straight. Ben's glow blue, which he explains is because his glasses have Indiglo lenses. Then Dan comes in, with regular eyes — and glowing green teeth.For the love of God, Dan, brush your teeth.
- Cerebus Syndrome: See below.
- Conjoined Eyes: All the characters have these at first. Characters first appear with separate eyeballs around late 2002. The main characters gradually get them, one by one. Dan is currently the only one of the main and secondary characters to still have conjoined eyes.
- Dynamic Entry: How Sofia makes her first entrance.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The comic has become (mildly) less ridiculous as time passed, going from gag-a-day to story-arc style.
- Enemy Mime: One of the first arcs begins with Ben getting mugged by a "criminally insane mime".
- Floating Continent: Breakpoint City.
- Flying Car: The standard mode of transportation. Ben's doubles as a Time Machine.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Ben is dismayed to find his pop-culture knowledge is horribly out of date, and Scrabble has become essentially unplayable for him because of all the words added to the dictionary.
- The Future: The setting of the story.
- Grand Theft Me: Rival inventor Mizkit switches times and places with Ben in an attempt to tarnish Ben's reputation in one arc.
- Guest Strip: As an April Fools joke for 2013, Breakpoint City and Crunchy Bunches switched artists, with Scott drawing Syrup, Up, and Away, and Brian drawing A Normal April Comic.
- Hand Blast: Ben can do this.
- Hollywood Board Games: Ben cannot play Scrabble in The Future because his vocabulary is outdated. Most words are Scrabble Babble for him due to the many terms added to the dictionary. By contrast, the players on the lead display an ample vocabulary.
- Identical Panel Gag: The fourth comic changes only the speech bubbles.
- Intangibility: Kira has this ability.
- Jedi Mind Trick: Nobody calls me Chicken - "We have no comment. You will forget everything that has happened downtown. You must be leaving now." "You will all have the brain of a chicken!"
- Language Drift: Scrabble is basically unplayable for Ben because of this.
- Mega-Corp: Sploz Co, makers of everything from advanced holography operating systems to fat-free yogurt. They provided the funding to build Breakpoint City, and have their headquarters there.
- Mental Time Travel: Used by Mizkit in one of his attempts to get back at Ben.
- Mind over Matter: This is Sofia's superpower.
- Our Time Machine Is Different: We've seen two cars, a Stargate-esque portal, and a brain swapper, so far.
- Power Incontinence: Ben can't control his lightning blasts without the gloves given to him by the superhero organization.
- Floating Limbs: Kira really doesn't have a neck — a fact that surprises her would-be beheader.
- Product Placement: For about four years, the final strip was just an ad for Plot Twist, a failed Kickstarter for a friend's party game.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Ben wonders if this is possible when he realizes that he just accidentally gave someone the blueprints for his time machine, goes back to their apartment, and finds a construction zone in its place. If she altered the past enough that she no longer lives there, how can he remember meeting her there, since he wouldn't have met her there?
- Rock Bottom: Silent but Deadly — "Well Ben, at least things can't get any worse than this." "AIEEE! A criminally insane street mime!"
- Saving Christmas: Invoked, mocked, and parodied. Two times.
- Shock and Awe: Ben can shoot electricity from his hands.
- Sigil Spam: Sploz Co. puts their name on everything.
- Stable Time Loop: We get one here.
- Temporal Paradox: Zig-zagged.
- Third Line, Some Waiting: There is an occasional detour from "Adventures In The Future with Ben and Dan" to "Adventures In Space with bounty hunters and alien mobsters", and "Waffledog" will occasionally receive a few pages here and there. There are also a few minor characters that get their own sporadic 1- or 2-page mini-arcs.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Routine Check-Up - "This s really going to hurt, isn't it?"
- Time Machine: There are a few.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: How time travel works, and the rules it follows, has changed a few times.
- Translator Collar: Dan wears one made by Ben, but is obsolete because vocal implants are trivial to get for animals. That collar becomes more of a plot point in Episode 502.
- Vampiric Draining: The creatures in the Shocking Horror arc (begins here) do this via spikes through the forehead.
