The Walkyverse is the setting of four webcomic series by David Willis:
- Roomies!
, It's Walky!, and Joyce and Walky!, which share a page due to the interconnected nature of their narratives, and - Shortpacked! (page here), a spin-off comic from It's Walky! which is largely self-contained.
Outside the Walkyverse is the Dumbiverse, containing Dumbing of Age (page here), and, as of this writing, Dork Tower, an Ultimate Universe Alternate Continuity combining characters and elements from all four (but none of the science fiction elements so far).
The Walkyverse also includes (de facto at any rate) a number of other comics largely written by friends of Willis, including (but not necessarily limited to) Melonpool, Fans!, Something*Positive, Queen of Wands, Girls with Slingshots, All New Issues, Multiplex, Questionable Content, Diesel Sweeties, Penny and Aggie, and Scary Go Round.
The Walkyverse officially ended with the final Shortpacked! strip on January 17, 2015, and the final strips of Joyce and Walky! were uploaded on May 17, 2015. A series about Joyce and Walky's pregnancy, It's Pregnancy!, ran from June to December 2015.
Tropes that apply to the Walkyverse as a whole:
- Author Avatar: Every series has one:
- Danny Wilcox in Roomies! starts the trend, intentionally sharing many traits with Willis. By his own admission, however, Joyce grew into a more fitting avatar.
- Walky from It's Walky! is more overt, again sharing initials with Willis but also a first name and nickname, car, and other traits.
- Shortpacked! took it to the next level, with two avatars: one being a fictionalized version of himself, and the other being Ethan. And in-universe, they're rivals in the Transformers fandom.
- Dumbing of Age, while an AU, has Joyce as his avatar, due to their shared style of religious upbringing, eventual loss of faith, and even becoming a cartoonist.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Each comic got Darker and Edgier after starting off light-hearted and episodic.
- Darker and Edgier: The franchise started tackling darker themes with It's Walky!, especially toward the end. Then, after going Denser and Wackier for Shortpacked! and (mostly) Lighter and Softer for Joyce And Walky!, Willis would go for a more Dysfunction Junction flavor of dark with Dumbing of Age, dealing heavily with various forms of parental abuse.
- The Multiverse: Has several, but most specifically:
- the Dargonverse, where Jason's Father's Organization was before it came to the Walkyverse; the NoWalkyverse, where Walky went to college and never joined SEMME.
- the Dumbiverse, where all of the Walkyverse characters went to the same college and SEMME and aliens don't exist (named for the comic revolving around it, Dumbing of Age).
- And the Fans! universe, which is...well...yeah. There's also one where Sal and Danny ended up together and had a kid, and a few others that have gone unnamed.
