Demon Street
is a comic about some kids who find their way into a strange and magical world, and the things they meet.
An excerpt/teaser scene can be read here.
Tropes:
- Eyes Out of Sight: Kate has bushy bangs that cover her eyes, though later on her eyes start being shown.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Celine's attempt to make an impressive entrance when meeting Sep and Raina is undermined by her sister telling them about it and then yelling at her to hurry up. What's more, when Celine complains at this, Norn points out that they're standing in their line of sight.
- I Know Your True Name: Names have power and can be used for magic, whether it's someone's birth name or not.
- Insect Gender-Bender: Averted, all the giant ants staffing the archives are female.
- Lame Pun Reaction:
- Raina's response to Sep's "ant-ernet" pun is a frustrated cry of "AUGH".
- When Raina realizes Sep's cab/crab pun, she looks at him with narrowed eyes.
- Raina's response to Sep's "ant-ernet
- Last-Second Word Swap: When Norn tells the story of how they met Essie:Norn: I heard her talking to Mo—uh—the Archivist.
- Late to the Punchline: Sep tells Raina that Celine is "hailing a crab" as a play on "hailing a cab". It takes until the next page for Raina to realize the pun.
- Little Miss Badass: Raina is around 12 or so and is introduced using an ax to fight a bunch of spider-like monsters with ease.
- Match Cut: The first panel of this page shows a flashback of Norn holding their hand to their head. The next panel shows present day Norn in the same pose, but elsewhere and with a different expression.
- Medium Blending: When Sep meets the ants, his thought bubble contains one of the giant ants from the live-action movie Them!.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: In a world where names have power, a guy called the Name-Eater is seriously bad news.
- Non-Human Head: A few background characters have screens as heads. Celine's boss has a lantern.
- One-Gender Race: The ants are all female.
- Orwellian Retcon: Essie's speech bubbles initially had music notes in them, as if she were singing her lines. This was soon dropped, and the music notes in the early pages were later edited out for consistency.
- The Place: Demon Street is the entrance to the magical world that appears in Sep's neighborhood.
- Playing with Fire: Celine has the power to create magical fire. Turns out Essie heard her name when she first arrived and gave her that power without Celine's knowledge.
- Pungeon Master: Sep seems to enjoy making little puns such as "ANT-ernet" and "Hailing a crab".
- Scare Quotes: When Essie tells Norn that she's been collecting "physical objects", the speech bubble includes quote marks around her words to emphasize her strangeness and for Rule of Funny.Essie: […] I've been collecting things lately. You know, "physical objects?"
- Ship Tease: Kate and Raina have mutual crushes on each other and get some romantic moments together.
- Shout-Out: The second panel of this page shows Sep using his fingers as binoculars on a small white and yellow beetle with a gem on its back. The same scene has Sep talking like David Attenborough.
- Super-Empowering: Certain beings can unlock the potential magic within people, if they know that person's name.
- Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person: Trans characters' chosen names are the names that are used in magic. When Norn is about to trade their name with the archivist in order to unlock their magic, they ask if it matters that it's not their given name. The archivist responds, "your real name is the name that's you. I don't need to know what you were called before."
- Third Eye: Norn has a third eye in the centre of their forehead.
- Troll Bridge: The chasm beasts ask for riddles (or pose them) in exchange for granting passage.
- Wildlife Commentary Spoof: This page has Sep narrating the scenery like a nature documentary, but sillier. According to The Rant, he's doing a David Attenborough impression.Sep: Taking a look at some truly fascinating creatures, such as this moss... creeping along like gangbusters down there. Towards these—fossil toes stickin' out. What's the point of this? Science doesn't know. But we'll unravel this mystery... someday. But some of the most remarkable things of the forest are yet unrevealed— [His "camera" lands on Raina, who makes a face] And here's some sort of creature.
- You Are Not Alone: After Raina loses hope because of failing to save Sep from being kidnapped, Norn and Kate assure Raina that they would accompany her into the unknown of the forest spiral to help fix the situation, bringing Raina to tears.
