"We're the good kind of crazy, we swear."
Head Trip
is a Webcomic by Amanda "Shinga" Bussell. It is largely a Slice of Life comic, focusing on the trials, tribulations and Cutaway Gags of its main character, Fiery Redhead Malory. Mal's two younger sisters Kat and Lilian are featured to a more limited extent, as they (like Shinga's real sisters) live in a different state.
In addition to the regular comic, Head Trip also runs Emokid and Chemokid, a story about two maladjusted superheroes who join a group of other equally maladjusted (and weird) superheroes. They meet Cane and Rider, two disabled superheroes who are the only ones in the group with brains and fight against their archnemesis, Memoman.
The comic was originally hosted on Comic Genesis until it was "promoted" to Keenspot.
Following the author's injury in a car wreck in 2016 that left her unable to draw, the comic has been on hiatus.
A backup can be found here.
Provides examples of:
- Art Evolution: Compare the first strip to one of the later ones.
- Asshole Victim: The whole damn zoo of these.
- Author Avatar: Mal, along with using her as a mouthpiece, and having a similar resemblance to her, she also uses the main character to play out things that seem to have happened to herself now and then. To the point where readers are still confused at times whether they're looking at a drawing of the author or the character today, or if there's still a difference. The fact that Mal has a boyfriend identical in appearance and mannerisms to Shinga's doesn't help. She even hangs out with real life friends of Shinga's.
- Beat Panel:
- Two of them, actually. And again.
- Taken even further later on with three beat panels in a four-panel page.
- Lampshaded here.
- Two of them
- Black Comedy: Number of strips before jokes about selling wire coat hangers to pregnant women? Zero. The best part? Shinga is friends with Something*Positive creator Randy Milholland, who started his comic in a very similar way.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Apparently, Mal had a very interesting childhood.
- Brick Joke: In 2006, Batman proved that Superman isn't as invulnerable as he says he is. Six years and 21 days later, we get this strip.
- Cast from Hit Points: Turns out to be what caused Mal's blackout.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The Emokid and Chemokid stories have gotten strangely serious for a pair of inherently comical superhero characters.
- Child Hater: In this strip.
- Continuity Creep: In both the regular comic and the Emokid and Chemokid storyline.
- Continuity Nod: "And I'm still Sailor Moon."
- Deadpan Snarker: Chemokid (usually regarding Emokid's appropriately thematic antics) and Mal.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Mal summons an Eldritch Abomination just so she can punch it in the gut. If you look closely, she's painted the summoning circle with Nyquil.
- Discussed Trope:
- Family-Values Villain: That would be cool, folks!
- Good Thing You Can Heal: For an Emo?
- Hollywood Homely: Nope, doesn't do it... Okay, maybe Vin Diesel.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: In one comic it's pointed out how ridiculous the villains in Sailor Moon are in letting her transform.
- Family-Values Villain: That
- The Ditz: Emokid gave up writing poetry after being told he sucked at it. And then he wrote a poem about it.
- Ear Worm: Desmond's advice to avoid one is to get a different one stuck in there. Mal is less than pleased with this situation.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The strip starts lampooning reality shows... only to stop halfway through because the author felt dirty to even be associated with them. Similarly, even Mal's devil is disgusted at the depths certain people will sink to.
- Even Nerds Have Standards: Cosplay or LARP? That is the question!
- Executive Meddling: There's a solution.
- Extracurricular Enthusiast: Hot Topic Avenger.
- Eye Beams: Apparently, rabbis have them.
- Filler Strips: A lot of them, due to the frequent
Schedule Slips. - Genki Girl: Mal, when she's not being Ax-Crazy.
- Genre Shift:
- A series of strips presents the answer to "What would Head Trip be like if it were X show?" Examples are Heroes, Smallville, Firefly, Lost and any episode of any Reality TV show.
- As of March 2014, the cast apparently acquired magic powers and took over Disney World.
- Grammar Nazi: Malory in this strip. Even Satan himself thinks it's justified in this case, though.
- He Knows Too Much: Or maybe she's bluffing?
- Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Alluded to when Mal has an Erotic Dream about Goliath.
- Hunter of Monsters: The Furry Slayer, in training.
- I'm Going to Hell for This: Mal really wishes that Devil Guy would stop following her around with that hand basket.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Step 1: spot opportunity. Step 2: drop pun and stand well back. Step 3: smirk.
- Innocent Innuendo:
- Kill It with Fire: When waiting for Darwin Awards is just too exasperating.
- Life Embellished
- The New Rock & Roll: A public warning about dangers of videogames. Tragic.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: P'ninjamaid (ninja pirate mermaid).
- Noodle Implements: It's a menorah.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We do not see exactly what Yvonne can do after she gets magic powers, along with the rest of the cast. All we know is that it's related to her Alice costume and has something to do with hearts. Only Mal ever saw her do it, and it was so disturbing that she made Yvonne agree to never do it again.
- Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: Poor Green Lantern... he's about to get a bunch of "those fans".
- Pet the Dog: After many strips of insulting Twilight and its fans, Mal, in true Christmas spirit, decides to make it up to a Twilight fan by giving her "a beautiful gift with pale skin, cold as ice, dark brooding eyes, and yes, he sparkles in sunlight..." The gift? A snowman.
- Recurring Character: Kara's the only one of Mal's friends who's made more than two or three appearances.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Or rather, Mal in Grammar Nazi mode is in this comic.
- Sex Sells: Are they selling clothes or...?
- Shout-Out:
- To Penny Arcade in an early strip. The Picture of the Girls at the title also resembles Penny Arcade's old site theme.
- And here's a Shout Out to Young Frankenstein.
- To Penny Arcade in an early strip
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: No such thing in this comic!
- Stealth Pun: The punchline.
- Take That!: Numerous.
- Probably the most well-known is the first Twilight strip. Which takes on another layer of potency to those familiar with the characters, as that's Malory cowering in fear and purging the book with flames. Here's another comic that mocks Twilight. And the "Epic Romance" by SparkleFan00295840. Either Shinga really hates Stephenie Meyer (implied by the top left corner of comic) or she really loves Stephenie Meyer. Who else could inspire something like this? Or this?
- Shinga apparently hates network executives, particularly from Fox. Really, who can blame her?
- Emo Potter and the Practical Jokes.
- Cosplay fantasies: just say no. Or else.
- Wookies are suffering!
- Boston chickenscare. Run, run!!1
- ...otherkin.
- Also, Avatar.
- And then The Last Airbender.
- "I've finally found a good use for crappy anime.
- Keesha REALLY doesn't like whiners.
- Probably the most well-known is the first
- Time Skip: When Shinga returned from hiatus.
- Toad Licking: James Cameron apparently got the inspiration for Avatar from it.
- Unfazed Everyman: Mal's shrink takes is pretty well when she hears that Mal literally fed a man his own kidney. She tells Mal that it's because she's heard worse, since one of her other clients is Deadpool.Deadpool: Hey Doc, you won't believe the week I've had! I feel like I've had a real emotional breakthrough!
Therapist: Whose blood is that?
Deadpool: ...No hug first? - What Did I Do Last Night?: On New Year's Eve, Mal drinks enough to black out. By the time she comes back to consciousness, she wakes up to men in Hercules and Aladdin outfits, who are allegedly there to serve her. Yes, apparently she somehow managed to take over Disney World while blacked-out drunk. Over the course of a week. Bonus points: her nightgown is Maleficent's robe. To further add to the confusion, the cast has now got magic powers based on the costumes they were wearing. And all because, to make a long story short, Devil Guy SERIOUSLY screwed up. Each of the girls is now a minor Reality Warper.
- Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: What happens to Sailor Moon in the middle of her transformation. In the artist's comments box on DeviantArt: "And come on. Who HASN'T thought of that?"
- Women's Mysteries: Parodied in this strip.
- World of Snark
- Xanatos Gambit: Taken to its "logical" conclusion. Try not to think too hard about it.
- You Do NOT Want To Know: Don't ask the questions you don't want the answer to.
- You Have Researched Breathing: You did it, Mal.
