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File:Gold Digger Remix 6626.jpg

Gina Diggers and Dreadwing


Gold Digger is a long-running US comic from Antarctic Press with manga-inspired art, written and drawn by Fred Perry. The first appearance of the characters was in the anthology title Mangazine Vol. 2 #11 (September, 1991). They then got their own eponymous 4-issue miniseries (September 1992-March 1993). This proved successful enough to make Gold Digger Vol. 2 an ongoing. 50 regular issues were published between July 1993 and June 1999, plus a number of annuals. These issues were mostly in black-and-white. The series was then relaunched as a full-color series. Vol. 3 started in July 1999 and is still ongoing.

The story centers around the adventures of the kind, nerdy, and idealistic Hot Scientist inventor, archaeologist and explorer Gina Diggers; and her Boisterous Bruiser, fashionista, were-cheetah adopted sister/bodyguard, Britanny "Cheetah" Diggers, as they search the world (and others) for relics of the distant past.

The third sister, Brianna, is the goofy mental and physical combination of Gina and Britanny, accidentally created in the process of removing a curse gained during one of their adventures. She combines Gina's thirst for mysteries, scientific acumen, and libido with Britanny's low attention span and thirst for action, fashion, or entertainment (plus a portion of her werebeast strength). Hence, she likes action-technology of any kind, especially if explosions are involved. She is usually accompanied by her trademark childlike little Peebo robots.

If, as the name and the Adventurer Archaeologist trope implies, the sisters seem more intent on digging up valuable treasures to fund their lifestyle than searching for actual knowledge, they invariably make up for it by becoming unwitting heroines in the process, usually with the help of their friends, and with time, Gina evolves into more idealistic Pillars of Moral Character material.

It is popular enough to have several spin-offs, usually four-issue miniseries.

Fred Perry also began working on an independent OVA based on the original "Time Raft" pilot story since 1999. He basically did everything except for the voice acting and music composition, while still producing the main series. The last part of story was finally completed and released in 2010.

Not to be confused with the (completely different) character archetype - even though that very trope is a derisive (and largely undeserved) In-Series Nickname for Gina.


This comic includes examples of:[]

  • Action Duo: Gina and Britanny, Brains and Brawn.
  • Action Mom: Julia; Britanny after Tifanny's birth.
  • Adventurer Archaeologist: Gina, Penny, Lord "Pee-Wee" Talon, and many others.
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier
  • AI Is a Crapshoot: The Pee-bees: Brianna's AI bullets that only target "bad guys". Too bad they aren't very smart, and see people jaywalking, squirrels taking acorns, and even someone stealing a kiss as "bad guys".
    • Her standard Peebo A Is, on the other hand, avert it and are much more well behaved, even if they do like going "boom" on bad guys. (It's just that they have a much better idea of what a "bad guy" is.
    • Peebri, however, wraps around to this trope again, in much the same way a childish Brianna would act.
  • All Women Are Lustful: Gina and Brittany especially, but females in this series tend to gravitate towards the aggressive side when it comes to guys.
  • Always Someone Better: A Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Lara Croft filled this role from off-screen for Gina for a while.
  • Animation Bump: A couple shots in the first part of the OAV were redone for the final version, and they really stand out against the original footage.
  • Animesque: Among the oldest examples still being produced.
  • Artificial Human: Brianna, Array, Raphiel, the whole Amonian race.
  • Atlanta: Home of the Diggers family.
  • Author Appeal: Fred definitely loves his were-creatures. Ironically, he dislikes certain varieties. A furry/TF fan, he apparently is not.
  • Bald Women: Zelda, one of Talon's employees. In no way detracts from her Amazonian Beauty status.
  • Balloon Belly: Charlotte has had this happen to her at least once, leading to her being Mistaken for Pregnant.
  • Becoming the Mask: Madrid
  • BFG: Brianna's favorite trope.
  • BFS: Shinryuken's Size-Mitar. Remember, there is nothing his Colossal Blade cannot cut!
  • Big Bad: Dreadwing
  • Big Monster Cute Name: "Flakey", the 2-kilometer-long kraken.
  • Bleached Underpants: Fred Perry used to draw more adult material, and in fact still does. Gina has her origins in this material, which explains her proportions (and attidude).
  • Blessed with Suck: Ayane the mixed-martial artist is a true sweetheart...and incredibly lonely due to her cold, cruel eyes that creep out everyone she meets. There's hope; Jotaru the genie has a crush on her. Did we mention that some genies in this series have their eyes in their torso instead of their face?
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Brianna, Xane
  • Boobs of Steel: The stronger females tend to have larger breasts (at least within their respective Cast Herd)—not that this says much.
  • Bottle Fairy: Monty's ghost girlfriend.
  • Brawn Hilda: "Grammy" Brunhildagarde Brigand, Julia's mother and the Diggers sisters' grandmother.
  • Breakout Villain: The dragon Dreadwing was originally just a one-shot villain for the pilot story, which ended with him as a skeleton. Now, he's the Man Behind the Man for many of the plotlines past and present, and is dueling with Ancient Gina across most of time with virtually all the other characters as pawns.
  • Breast Expansion: Britanny, when she goes from human form to hybrid form. This is also a major reason why she prefers to stay in Hybrid form as much as possible. (Well, actually because she's taller, stronger and faster, but this side benefit comes with the rest.)
  • Brooklyn Rage: Roxy Rabinowitz (AKA Dark Bird), leader of the Night Flight airborne mercenaries, has a strong Brooklyn accent and a BIG chip on her shoulder, especially when dealing with Ace. She also recently took over a country led by her estranged sister, who was a large source of the aforementioned rage.
  • Buffy-Speak
  • Burger Fool: Penny forces Gina to work at one of these before she'll loan her enough money to avoid bankruptcy.
  • Captain Ersatz: The Vaultron force, the Edge Guard, and Dr. Peachbody.
  • The Chessmaster: Gothwrain; Dreadwing; Ancient Gina
  • Clark Kenting: Agency Zero, especially Agent M, formerly the most recognizable hero on Earth. Pinky & The Cheets.
  • Cloning Blues: Averted. Brianna is a fusion of Brittany and Gina, magically brought to life by a curse, and Charlotte was a bio-engineered "harpy" created as a disposable weapon by a villain. Both have been treated as full characters in their own right from their very first appearances.
    • Brianna still had concerns about this for a long time, though. Charlotte ...not so much.
  • The Commies Made Me Do It: Crush; although somewhat justifiable, she notably refused a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card and chose to do the time for the crimes she committed, proving she did have moral fiber.
  • Creepy Twins: Montara; they are also Half-Identical Twins.
  • Cute Machines: The Peebos
  • Cute Monster Girl: Just about everybody, even the males; Crescens was when she was young, but is now kind of Nightmare Fuel.
  • Dark Action Girl: numerous including Link and Zelda, two of Talon's employees.
    • G'Nolga, Julia Digger's archrival in Jade.
  • Dark-Skinned Redhead: Xane
  • Dark-Skinned Blond: The human forms for both Britanny "Cheetah" 'Gia and her daughter Tifanny.
  • Demon Head: Theodore's "Flaming Skull Bit."
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Pretty much the entire cast is guilty of this one, but Gina takes the cake: in Issue 105, she and a male colleague nearly destroyed the world by daydreaming about each others' naughty bits instead of the Doomsday Device they were supposed to be disarming.
  • Expy: Aljabra Gihom, an expy of Fred's "Level UP!" Mithra character Calcula Mihgo—herself a Captain Ersatz version of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh.
  • Evil Twin: Brianna and Madrid
    • With a shot of Fridge Brilliance: Madrid's current persona allows the author to write either solo "Gina" stories about Madrid the explorer with Dao and Subtracto, or ensemble "Gina" stories about Gina the professor with her students and family.
  • Face Heel Turn: A magical mishap turns Theo's father Jonathan into the evil Lich King.
  • Fake Crossover: The series really skirts the line of this, such as when Gina mentions receiving a computer book from a girl with a weird uncle. Mind you the girl in question eventually became a full-fledged character).
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink
  • Feminist Fantasy: Probably one of the most tolerant and evenhanded comics around. The female characters are smart, capable, funny, goofy, distinctive, well-rounded, and memorable, in a diverse and amusing manner reminiscent of Tenchi Muyo or Urusei Yatsura, and avoid the bland and forced "Strong Female Characters" pitfalls. Fred makes a continuous effort to represent different body types and give female readers evenhanded "beefcake" treatment.
  • Flying Brick: Agent M
  • French Maid: Link is an Amazonian Beauty who wears rather ... undersized french maid outfits on missions.
  • Fun Personified: The series as a whole.
  • Future Badass: "Ancient Gina", apparently Madrid-Gina's future self sent back in time to take The Slow Path to the present. Also "Charles" and "Prof. Cee", Charlotte's alterfuture selves.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Gina and many others
  • Gambit Roulette: Gothwrain's plan to break free of his enslavement; Dreadwing's plan to take power from Ancient Gina; and Ancient Gina's plan to save the universe, which includes the other 2 roulettes.
  • Gender Bender: A male character drank a potion specifically designed for women. Guess what happened.
  • Girls Behind Bars: Gold Digger #82
  • God Save Us From the Queen: Natasha, ruler of the undead, who would rather let her kingdom be wiped out than be humiliated by a higher power.
  • Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: A lot of elderly characters certainly age gracefully, despite all the action they go through, including Gina herself.
  • Half-Human Hybrid
  • Heel Realization: Madrid has a moment of clarity when she realizes that her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder needlessly ruined a chance to escape capture and imprisonment.
  • Heel Face Turn: Redemption is a major running theme in this comic. Many of Gina and Britanny's enemies become their best friends and allies. Mesha, Tark, Brianna, Penny, Charlotte, Jetta...Pee Wee, Madrid, Lich King...
  • Hive Mind: Array is a variant; each duplicate of herself she creates has an independent personality which returns to her mind when she reassimilates her body. However, they all share the same general goals.
  • Hot Amazon: many, including actual Amazons.
  • Hot Librarian: Kahn, librarian of the Library of Time.
  • Hot Mom: Julia later Brittany
  • Hot Scientist: Gina and Penny.
  • Humanity Ensues: Fauntleroy is a dragon cursed to stay in human form. When he finally finds the MacGuffin he needs to return to dragon form, he decides to wait and see if there's more he can learn from being human.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Grammy Brunhildagarde
  • Infant Immortality: Dr. Diggers tried his best to disarm the werewolf leader, but in the end the only werecheetah left to save was baby Britanny.
  • Ki Attacks: Several of the martial artists, especially the ninjas, and Ryan Tabbot.
  • Killer Rabbit —er, Wabbit.
  • Kudzu Plot: A pretty bad case, highlighted by the fact that the websites hawking the comic often contain cover previews and summaries for upcoming issues… but then Fred gets an itch to go growing the plot in some other direction entirely, and the previewed issues often have completely different covers and subjects, with the original plots dropped to be completed off-camera, if that.
    • Lately, however, a good portion of those storylines have begun to be tied together to the Myth Arc. (See below.)
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Team Noob, ridiculously over-armed leprechauns with no idea where they are, what they are doing, what their mission is, how to operate their equipment, or how to not blow themselves up in 5 seconds, but using binoculars and bazookas backwards hasn't slowed down their enthusiasm yet. The GD Tangent Web Comic has a similar setup as the Trope Namer, with a Shout-Out as well.
  • Leprechauns: WITH TANKS AND MECHA!!
  • Load-Bearing Boss: Invoked after Julia's fight with Serpentus, in which she uses magic-proof Dwarven chains to tie him to the room in such a way that ten tons of rock will fall on him if he isn't untangled very, very carefully.
  • Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!: Mostly whenever the story takes place on Jade, as many anthropomorphic characters co-exist with other humans or humanoid species in that dimension. On Earth, they usually work under a masquerade, save for a few special places around the globe.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: …and loads. There's a tie-in comic with one-to-three page write-ups on the characters that have appeared in the series. There have been 23 issues published so far (though only the first 17 are on the characters; the rest focus on locations). The first 17 issues of this Guide to the GD Universe have now been collected into a two-inch-thick tome.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Britanny (until her marriage), and Gina. Ironically, the latter used to be a Geeky Shrinking Violet, until her more outgoing sister Britanny had enough of her reclusive attitude and, to make a long story short, broke her out of her box. The result? Gina became "boy-crazy" by "boy-crazy extraordinaire" Britanny's personal standards. The latter doesn't know whether or not she should regret "helping" her sister.
Cquote1

 Britanny: You've gotta be joking!!! You're gorgeous! Look at you! Look at these! <HOIST>

Gina: Eek! (Narrating): "I remember thinking: 'Jinkies! Where did those come from'?"

Britanny: Do you know how many gals would kill for a nice, firm set like yours??? What man wouldn't fall all over himself just to get to talk to you? From now on, when you think of guys, think of broad, masculine chests...! (Gina looks "bewildered") Strong, handsome buns!! Hard, rugged muscles...! (A small smile graces Gina's lips)And all of the warm, yummy things you can do with them...! (Gina's face breaks into a full-blown, "Uh-oh"-worthy Cheshire Cat Grin.)

Brianna (narrating): I remember a sharp change in Gina's attitude toward men that moment. (And her being boy-crazy ever since.)

Cquote2
Cquote1

  Gina: Oogh... Mental note: Marathon sessions at "TV Tropes" and "Know Your Meme" are not conducive to proper sleep!

Cquote2
  • Valley Girl: Moisha, like, totally!
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Dreadwing and Ancient Gina are playing a rather slow version of this via their own competing versions of Infinity.
  • Web Comics: The "Ayane" and "Northern Edge" Tangent webcomics; both are currently on hiatus. Also, "Level UP!", a Final Fantasy XI webcomic by the same author.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Ancient Gina's "Millenium Pimp Slap", one of a class of spells of legendary power, warps space and time to open a portal behind the target—to let the caster slap him upside the head. It requires such nigh-infinite power to execute that it causes EVERY MAGE IN THE SERIES to sense a disturbance in the Force!
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Frequently averted. For instance, Brianna, the lab accident composite clone trying to kill the Diggers sisters, now their gung-ho sister. Or Charlotte, the instant-grown harpy girl accidentally freed from the control of the time-travelling dog who fired her at our heroes, now co-headliner of a WAFFy spinoff.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
  • The Worf Effect: Stripe. Just...Stripe. Despite a massive-power up halfway through the B&W series making him one of the two most powerful good guys, he is infamous for being hit by surprise, dropping his guard, and so on. Outside his first battles post-power up, it's rare he doesn't end up knocked out at least for a while during a fight. No wonder Agent M thought he needed training despite his skill and strength.
    • Fortunately, now that he's not adventuring in areas where he's forced to team up with everyone else, he can fight a bit more.
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