Concession



Concession is a Furry Comic centering on a group of movie theatre concession workers.

The series originally started out as smart remarks the author Immelmann could never make when he worked at a concession stand, but it gradually evolved into a complex story, with a fair amount of Mind Screw. The plot centers on a rather small cast, the main characters eventually being: Joel, the Villain Protagonist; Artie and Matt.

On October 8, 2010, it was announced that the comic was coming to an end. Immelmann cited the often nonsensical and convoluted plot as the main reason. He does have a new stand-alone gag comic called Ballerina Mafia that began about a month before the end was announced. The final comic was posted February 11, 2011.

"Artie: (about to eat fish and crab with Melusine) This feels weird. It's like I'm about to watch cannibalism.
 * All Gays Are Pedophiles: Completely inverted. Of the characters who are confirmed pedophiles, none are gay or bisexual. And the one who appears most often is a woman.
 * All There in the Manual: A lot of the relationships and character development and characters in general were shown in the "concession chronicles" blog. And then brought into the comic later without any warning for people unaware of the blog, which is rather easy since it for the longest time it had no links to it on the official site. Leaving many to wonder "Wait, who is that? Wait, when did they start dating?"
 * Alt Text: Present since #239 (though absent in a few of them even since, probably intentionally)
 * Ambiguous Gender: Frogs, apparently.
 * Anything That Moves: Joel, probably Angie.
 * Art Evolution: The characters have new muzzle shapes.
 * And now the artist has retooled the comic, with much better character design than when it started.
 * Art Shift: When  became spiritually aware, the rough outline sketches are left in the picture.
 * As the Good Book Says...: Concession contained a few religious Strawman debates back when Matt was still in the Transparent Closet and Joel was trying to get him to come out. Other than that it doesn't really get into religion all that much.
 * Bear in mind who's doing the ranting most of the time, though. Joel isn't the nicest (or sanest) of people, after all. And to be fair, the only priest shown so far in the comic seems to be a genuinely good person. He does his best to assuage Matt's gay guilt, and warns him about Joel, though the latter has little effect
 * The Atoner: Valae evidently,.
 * Author Appeal: The plot tends to take a very hard swift turn into whatever fetish Immelmann has gotten into recently. Such as fat fetish, Naughty Tentacles, BDSM, incest and cross dressing.
 * And you can always count on heavy focus being put into a male character's crotch, whenever possible.
 * It seems Matt and Nicole have also taken up wearing diapers. Lovely.
 * Author Avatar: One that affects the plot very little, and indeed appears to be a Cloudcuckoolander, but very obviously Immy.
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind:  inside their minds using his Combat Tentacles.
 * Bedmate Reveal: Artie has a couple of unpleasant ones.
 * First, with.
 * Later, he was pleased to wake up next to, but not so pleased to also find in the bed.
 * Best Served Cold:
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: Joel's, Chelsie's, and Kate and Rick's, plus the Jansen clan in particular.
 * Black Comedy Rape: One of the randomly generated background characters is described as a "very frequent rape victim".
 * Breakout Character: Joel, Nicole, as well as Clarissa and Zoe who were introduced near the end of the comic's run all still make appearances in Immelmann's new comic. Despite the fact that it's his autobiographical Journal Comic.
 * But You Screw One Goat!: Even anthro animals consider sex with non-anthro animals taboo--for instance, Artie strongly remembers an incident involving Joel and a feral dog. The Church of Gaia is frowned upon as it not only condones zoophilia but performs marriages between anthros and ferals.
 * Call Back: Isn't this where we came in? Note the alt text - this is the same customer.
 * Camp Gay: Nicole and Matt, who are now both fluttery cross dressers.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: The comic slips in and out of this, in that it started as a gag-per-day comic and then shifted into something with a (admittedly very weird) story, but it often switches back to its original premise every now and then. Joel and Artie even seem to forget that they're enemies every couple of months.
 * Child by Rape:.
 * Confessional: Multiple characters talk to Father Tim in the confessional.
 * Corrupt the Cutie:
 * Crapsack World
 * Crawl: "Emperor of China to Become Empress", "Obama clone runs rampant, kills twenty".
 * Creepy Child: Chelsie.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Joel, though a lot of the characters get a turn at it.
 * Devil in Plain Sight: Joel. Yep, he's a baddie.
 * Don't Explain the Joke: "See, it's funny because you're a pedophile. Kate's 25, so I'm implying you'd be happier dating a 10-year-old."
 * Joel's sense of humor is not subtle at all: "I'd rather do your mom! See it's implied necrophilia."
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Artie's incident with Chelsie, after which he reveals Chelsie's real gender.
 * Also the appropriately named "It's a Trap!"
 * Dysfunction Junction
 * Erotic Eating: Nicole.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Most of the male characters, many people on the forum claim that Concession has made them gayer (they call it the Concession effect)
 * Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Joel above all.
 * Everyone Is Bi: Well, not everyone, but a lot of characters are, even characters that are supposed to be straight, like Artie, tend to have sex with the same gender.
 * Hey, the first time he was being mind controlled and the second time he was... really drunk.
 * But then there was the time Artie literally Mind Raped Joel. And of course there's Thomas, who is described as heterosexual but is shown flirting with men and having sex with his own son.
 * This may be related to the fact that the author is also bi. Or just an extreme case of coincidence.
 * Evil Gloating: Joel probably shouldn't have told Artie that he had powers while he was killing him.
 * Expressive Ears: Clive's ears hang down, while his alternate personality Ernest's ears stick up.
 * Faceless Masses: Averted. Every background character is generated randomly with a complex formula and given a rather humorous backstory.
 * Fourth Wall Observer: Originally just Joel, though it was
 * Freudian Excuse: Joel was treated harshly as a child by his father and his brother.
 * Unless
 * Furry Confusion: Discussed in this comic:
 * Fourth Wall Observer: Originally just Joel, though it was
 * Freudian Excuse: Joel was treated harshly as a child by his father and his brother.
 * Unless
 * Furry Confusion: Discussed in this comic:

Melusine: Dolphins are mammals, Artie.

Artie: I know! I know. But it's still weird, you know?

Melusine: You know what's weird? Furries that have dogs for pets. I think that's weirder than anything we do."

"Father Tim: Is the webcomic coming to an end?
 * Gambit Roulette: Deconstructed, maybe? Definitely subverted. Joel's plan was complicated and relied on a series of things happening just so but there were so many variables, that it fell apart pretty easily when someone acted differently than what he expected.
 * Ghostly Goals:  has devoted her afterlife to.
 * Good Shepherd: Father Tim.
 * He Who Fights Monsters:
 * Incest Is Relative:
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Rick and Kate. It was just implied for awhile, but it was recently outright confirmed.
 * Incest Subtext: In a halloween special in Immy's other webcomic, Joel has a sudden fantasy of his brother's "shapely ass"
 * And then has a heart attack.
 * Parental Incest: Also Joel's mom won't stop sneaking a peak and taking photos of her son's naked ass, so... Let's just say, if there isn't some kind of incest going on in a character's family, they just haven't been revealed yet.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Lampshaded in this comic.
 * Instant Expert: Lampshaded when
 * Interspecies Romance: Lots. Thonnen specifically chooses to date outside her species to annoy her bloodline-obsessed family.
 * It Got Worse: Happens to Artie a lot.
 * Important Haircut: Artie,, losing the White-Haired Pretty Boy look. It eventually grew back.
 * Infinite Canvas: In At The Heart Of It All, the side-comic.
 * Just Between You and Me: Played entirely straight.
 * Kudzu Plot: The reason Immelmann decided to end the series.
 * Law of Inverse Fertility: Thonnen
 * Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!: Humans exist in the Concession world, but don't interact with furries much: "Yeah, for most humans it's a bit of a culture shock. Not to mention the allergies ..."
 * Mean Boss: Dave, to an extent.
 * Dave? Look at Millicent.
 * Millicent is just there to watch over the strip's pet murderous sociopath. Her mean boss thing was just a cover.
 * Medium Awareness: "...Why are your memories all sketchy?" "I don't know, to show mental unrest? Be quiet and pay attention."
 * Modesty Bedsheet:
 * Morality Pet: Matt for Joel (to a certain extent)
 * My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Angie apparently has a "Yaoi sense".
 * Nice Hat: Roland's ever-present beret.
 * No Fourth Wall: Joel and Artie make sure of this fact.
 * Non-Mammal Mammaries: Averted; Dave protests Angie walking around topless, and she complains "What's there to reveal? I don't have breasts! I don't even have nipples!"
 * Not Making This Up Disclaimer: When Kate takes Artie to a NAMBLA meeting, Immy assures the audience in The Rant that it's a real association (emphasis his) though he tweaked the version in the comic slightly.
 * Noodle People: Everyone is drawn very tall and lanky, unless they are drawn as chibis.
 * Official Couple:
 * One-Shot Character: Immelmann made a "random character generator" in Excel for making these (name, gender, species, sexuality, religion, and a humorous bio he came up with). Oddly a couple randomly generated characters ended up recurring or even major characters, most notable Nicole.
 * Immy's ex-boyfriend Quetzadrake uses the same generator for his own webcomic, Furthia High.
 * Only One Face
 * Only early on, really. Once the big character redesign rolled around, faces and headshapes were much more diversified.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: They're mockeries of the natural order who feed on despair.
 * Out-of-Clothes Experience: Happens when using spiritual energy (except to Joel, who wears a black cloak, ).
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy: Goes even further than usual for dolphins -- their legs also disappear.
 * Plot Tumor: The comic was originally about stupid customers who appeared at a concession stand, then alternating between concession-stand gags and Joel's life in college, a subplot about a dinosaur family, and nowadays is almost the original comic In Name Only with how little the Concession stand has to do with the actual plot. (The author is of course aware of this and states this in the "About" section.)
 * ... as a Concession to new readers.
 * Powers Via Possession:
 * Put on a Bus: Pretty much half the cast of the concession stand. (Again, Immelmann is aware of this, and has even made fun of how some characters will never get any arcs.)
 * Raging Stiffie: There are multiple comics with visibly tented pants, though the only erection-based humor is here.
 * Rape as Drama:
 * Also
 * Then there's . Borderline example, since Artie is clearly traumatised by the incident and it turns out to be related to the Xanatos Gambit, but the deeper implications on his psyche aren't brought up in much detail and it's often brought up again for a gag strip.
 * Redemption Equals Death:
 * Reed Richards Is Useless: Nicole's father invented a mind control ray but would rather use it to be a supervillain (Yes, really). Lampshaded.
 * That said, the debate on whether "converting" criminals with this is unambiguously good is still open, so he still has a point.
 * Remember the New Guy?: Characters just seem to sort of appear out of no where with the comic acting like we should know them, with no proper introduction at all except for them being suddenly added to the cast page. Like Joel's ex girlfriend from France that suddenly exists. Or the purple haired crossdresser. Or the guy with multiple personality disorder. Or Nicole's dad. Or the girl who wants to be a human. Some of them are cases of All There in the Manual; Joel's ex Chloe was introduced in a Concession Chronicles blog entry, Zoe, Clarissa, and Clive had this trope lampshaded in their introduction. The fact that Concession Chronicles is no longer linked to on the site sort of makes this difficult, especially for new readers, who don't exactly expect to go searching off the site to read blog posts to catch up with stuff that isn't properly mentioned.
 * Right Through the Wall: This strip - not work safe.
 * Seldom-Seen Species: Roland may be the only fictional pangolin in any medium.
 * Unless you count Sandshrew and Sandslash, whose origins are debatable, but seem to draw inspiration, at least in part, from a pangolin. Most notably the Japanese name for Sandslash, 'Sandpan'
 * Sociopathic Hero: Joel, for a given value of 'hero'.
 * And now
 * Split Personality: Clive/Ernest. Naturally Clive is straight while Ernest is gay, makes for some rather awkward morning afters.
 * Straight Gay: Cecil.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: Trading blackmail.
 * Title Drop: Comic #200 is titled "Concession".
 * Transparent Closet: Matt. "You've been in denial. Everyone else has figured this out, and has grown to accept it. Everybody but you."
 * He has since accepted it, what with Joel and him being boyfriends and all.
 * Transsexual: Chelsie is one, rather than just a crossdresser.
 * Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Chelsie.
 * The Un-Smile: Joel. Really should have seen it coming.
 * The horror! THE HORROR!
 * Vapor Wear: There are a few cases of miniskirts without underwear (not necessarily worn by females), as well as some evidence that Artie goes commando (#90 and #150, links mildly NSFW).
 * Villain Protagonist: Joel. Artie is just some secondary character that just happens to be in the way of Joel's Gambit Roulettes.
 * After recent events,
 * While Joel seems to be developing into a bit of an Anti-Villain with Matt's influence.
 * Virginity Makes You Stupid: Matt, who is also the target of Break the Cutie.
 * Wham! Line:
 * While Joel seems to be developing into a bit of an Anti-Villain with Matt's influence.
 * Virginity Makes You Stupid: Matt, who is also the target of Break the Cutie.
 * Wham! Line:
 * Wham! Line:
 * Wham! Line:

Joel:...Yes."

"Angie: "Do I hear MANSEX?!""
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Finally delivered to.
 * Where Are They Now:
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: Nicole and Zoe. On occasion, Joel and Matt.
 * Xanatos Gambit: Joel's long-terms plans get very, very complicated -
 * Yaoi Fangirl: Angie.