WTF Comics

File:Wtfcomics.jpg

The Main Cast of WTF Comics

A now-defunct fantasy web comic, created by Jeremy Waller in 2003 and based on the world of the well-known MMORPG EverQuest. WTF Comics is a shining example of well-delivered Fantasy Story, with a lot of comedy, fun, action, and drama.

The story starts with Annashi, a young druid girl who decides to go on an adventure to find her long lost father with one of her father's old friends, a Grumpy Iksar Warrior, Straha Ironscale. Then, as the number of their friends and enemies gather along the way, and the little 2-man party grows ever larger, the story slowly turns into an Epic Fantasy tale of a group of adventurers, each of them there for different reasons, but fighting together against the forces of the Nebulous Evil Organisation "The Vision".

Contains no little amount of Crowning Moments and Badass.

WTF Comics ran continuously until 2016, when it suddenly stopped updating after 485 installments. Fortunately as of July 2020 the strip and its website still exist, and can be found here.

Tropes used in WTF Comics include:

• Art Evolution or Art Shift: depending on the point of view
• Asskicking Pose: Lots of. Nearly everyone get's one, especially Smoke. Heck, it's even easier to count when he's not in one.
• Badass Longcoat: Straha, and later Smoke too
• Be Careful What You Say: Shade can't break a promise. Literally.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Straha and Maguna, and it never gets old
• Berserk Button: Anna getting hurt can make half the party go Let's Get Dangerous
• The Big Guy: Straha
• Blood From the Mouth: Frequently used
• Brain Food: Played straight and humorously played with/averted by the zombies in Kithicor Forest.
• The Brute: Gorax, though he gets one-hand-smaller for a short time after his battle with Straha
• Bullet Time: And how!
• Cool Shades: Smoke's shades. They can even see the invisible.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Smoke, starting as a little pocket Monk with seemingly no real battle capabilities besides dodging things, until Nikisha stabs Anna in front of him, making him go "all out" in rage and annihilating an entire bridge of Mooks along with the bridge itself under them, nearly killing her too in the process.
  • Oh, and did we mention that he can also teleport, modify his own perception of time, resurrect the dead, and see the very fabric of the Timespace around him?
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Literally. Meldrath's machines are powered by human souls.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Well, Smoke touches it. A lot...
  • Double Entendre ahoy.
• Doom Magnet: Anna, just... Anna
• The Dragon: And how many!
• Dressing as the Enemy: Anna's failed Necromancer make-up
• Dual-Wielding: Straha and Nikisha
• Elaborate Underground Base: Meldrath's Lab
• Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Smoke and Shade
• Face Heel Turn: Kiran starts off simply as the Unlucky Childhood Friend trying to get Anna home. However his complete inability to see her growth alongside his Fantastic Racism against Iksar causes him to refuse to believe Anna wants to continue traveling of her own will, and Straha must be tricking her. This view is furthered by The Vision, who ultimately end up playing on his fear of losing Anna and indoctrinate him. By the Plane of Knowledge arc he's decked out in full Vision gear. though since Shade showed up he's been Out of Focus.
• Fantastic Racism: Wood and High elves are 'good' races. Trolls and Iskar are 'evil' races, (dispite many being rather nice). Obviusly they hate each other.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: The main cast, obviously.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero: Straha
  • The Lancer: Smoke
  • The Chick: Anna
  • The Smart Guy: Maguna
  • The Big Guy: Penny
  • The Sixth Ranger: Khris
• Funetik Aksent: Droodz
• Genki Girl: Xianle, the Ranger. Apperantly, she spent a little too much time in the woods...
• Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: The bartender at the Maiden's Fancy pretty much says this here.
• Give Him a Normal Life: Or "her", in this case, as it refers to Katis.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Straha in "certain conditions"
• Goldfish Poop Gang: All the recurring villains seem to become this.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Lord Haxxor, the main villain of the webcomic
• Hulk Speak: Look no further than Pennywise.
• I Am Your Father: Straha isn't really the 'uncle' of Kaitis
• In the Blood: Straha's Mana Channeling Ability
• Joke Item: Cardboard Box of Leet Ninja Skillz?
• Last of His Kind: Smoke and Straha
  • The former is actually subverted later by the appearance of Shade.
    • Doubly subverted by the introduction of an apparent third.
  • Now the latter too. Kaitis is also an "Ironscale"
• Laughably Evil: Gomphe, and his undead frog, Igor
• Lost Love Montage: Both Maguna and Smoke gets one
• Loveable Rogue: Nikisha, even though she's evil
  • Which is now debatable, after she recently showed hints of an impending Heel Face Turn
• Mad Scientist: Meldrath
• The Mafia: And they are halflings!
• Magic Warrior: Straha's Mana Mode
• The Medic: Pie, Pennywise, and Anna, though the later only got effectively good at it recently
• Mooks: Zombie Mooks, Mecha-Mooks, Giant Mooks, Faceless Mooks...
• Minions With An F In Evil: The Gnome Monks
• My God, What Have I Done?: Smoke, after snapping out of his God Mode asskick-time
• My Greatest Failure: Smoke blames himself for Shade killing the woman he used to love, which is the reason he is so over protective of Anna. Also Maguna to a certain extent, who felt guilty over the death of her husband but has since moved on.
• Nebulous Evil Organisation: The Vision
• Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: Cyborg Skeletons, Cyborg Harpies, Cyborg Minotaurs and everything in Meldrath's lab (including Meldrath himself).
• Not What It Looks Like: Straha accidentally falling into the wrong hot spring at the wrong time, arriving in front of a naked Maguna and labeled as a pervert for all eternity
  • In a subversion, he's a reptile and she's a high elf, so he should have absolutely no motivation for ogling. In a double subversion, it has been hinted that she might be interested in him.
• Nuke'Em: Vision mages can cast a minor local Armageddon
• Oh Crap: Every time Smoke goes serious, most notably in "this" scene
• Our Dragons Are Different: Straha, and the entire Iksar race
  • Technically, Iksar aren't related to dragons at all. They're lizardmen, which is basically like a furry race, but with scales instead.
• Petting Zoo People: Khristalla the Bard
• Picky People Eater: See Brain Food above for the link to this being played straight in two different ways.
• Playing with Fire: Maguna, just.. Maguna.
• Physical God: Both Smoke and Shade are implied to be this. When using his powers, Smoke has been able to: Alter perceptions of time to teleport instantly, destroy objects nobody is capable of destroying, effortlessly beat scores of Vision soldiers, whom even the GMs couldn't hurt, revive the dead, travel to different dimensions and see the very fabric of time and space. Shade later shows that he's just as capable when he murders an entire train effortlessly, and beats Vernil in seconds. When serious, neither can be touched by anything but each other.
• Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: Infinite amounts of
• RPG Mechanics Verse
• Running Gag: "ACK! GET IT OFF!!! GET IT OFF!!! GET IT OFF!!!" or some variation in regards to one of the main characters being grappeled by one of the gnomish monks. Two examples can be seen here and here.
• Schedule Slip: Can go without updates for months.
  • Somewhat averted in that its author has never claimed to keep a schedule, and has stated since early on that he only updates when it is convenient.
• Shout-Out: To Solid Snake.
  • Also to Neon Genesis Evangelion as seen here.
  • Also to Cheech and Chong via the KEI junkies (also a bit of a Running Gag themselves).
  • And to a scene from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. "Think thin, tubby" indeed.
• Standard Female Grab Area: Kiran uses this on Annashi in an attempt to bring her home. More than once. You'd think he'd learn.
• Storming the Castle: Nearly every story arc starts like this.
• Summon Magic: Maguna's pretty good at it.
• Tranquil Fury: Straha lapses into this for one strip after seeing Anna wounded. He walks calmly outside, giving a World of Cardboard Speech almost to himself, before snapping out of it and becoming enraged again. Short lived, but very intimidating.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Dammit...this is gonna hurt.
• Took a Level in Badass: Oh god, Kaitis...
  • Also arguably Anna. For a majority of the series she has been the obviously weakest member of the party, and has been delegated to mostly support. Then during the Secrets of the Kylong arc, she goes toe to toe with Nikisha, a very powerful Rogue who works directly under Haxxor, and manages to push her. Hell she would have won had Shade not interfered at last second. That's some pretty stunning growth from a girl who only an arc ago could barely fight.
    • Considering she's been seen at times being power leveled by her comrades it's not too much of a surprise she's grown so fast.
• Tsundere: Maguna Flamedancer, the living embodiment of this Trope
• Unfamiliar Ceiling: The trope name is dropped in the first panel here in what may be a Shout-Out to the Trope Namer, Neon Genesis Evangelion.
• Unstoppable Rage: Straha, numerous times. And Kaitis later proves it runs in the family.
  • Smoke too, most notably after Anna is wounded
• Villainous Breakdown: Nikisha suffers it a lot
• We Can Rebuild Him: Meldrath seems to live on this rule
  • It's even Lampshaded by the Gnomish Monks.
• We Need a Distraction: "Suuure... Monks pull everything."
• Weirdness Magnet: Annashi. When she's around you run into stuff that totally violates the "Natural Laws" of the world they're in.
• World of Cardboard Speech: After Nikisha attacks Anna in order to distract him, Smoke proceeds to deliver one of these to her. Oh, and keep in mind that while doing so he's also giving Nikisha a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown

Smoke: It's always the same... wherever I go, it's the same. People like you have no problem hurting the innocent to get at others... can't just come after who you really want. NO! You try to kill a kid who's only mistake was being a friend! Just leverage! A tool! Just like before, just like her! Well not again!

• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Nikisha, opposing even Shade by letting Kaitis escape when no one's around