Head Trip
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"We're the good kind of crazy, we swear." |
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Head Trip is a Web Comic by Amanda "Shinga" Bussell. It is largely a Slice of Life comic, focusing on the trials, tribulations and Manatee 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.
Tropes used in Head Trip include:
- 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.
- Blinding Bangs: Emokid.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Apparently, Mal had a very interesting childhood.
- 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."
- Cosplay Fan Art: This picture has the main characters of the B-Side Comic cosplaying as characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- Dead Baby 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.
- 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.
- Discussed Trope:
- Family Values Villain: That would be cool, folks!
- Good Thing You Can Heal: For an Emo?
- Hollywood Homely: In-Universe example: 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.
- Ear Worm: In-Universe example: Thanks.
- 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.
- 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?
- The Hunter: The Furry Slayer, in training.
- I'm Going to Hell For This: Mal really wishes that red 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 and Roll: A public warning about dangers of videogames. Tragic.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: P'ninjamaid (ninja pirate mermaid).
- Noodle Implements: It's a menorah.
- 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.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Mal essentially acts like a bully (often a violent one) towards any Acceptable Targets she comes across (Twilight fans, emos, people who drink bottled water), but will enact violent vengeance on anyone that does even the faintest hint of something similar to her or her friends/family. The closest thing there is to a Hypocrisy Nod is the devil that occasionally notes these actions are wrong, but half the time he says he supports her anyway. Justified since he's a devil.
- Schedule Slip: Shinga hadn't put a new strip up since the third of April of 2009, and fans feared Author Existence Failure. Was a recurrence of a previous shoulder issue, and has recently updated, explaining that life had gotten pretty bad, and she's only recently gotten back on track. The comic resumed on November 23, 2009.
- 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.
- Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: Mal is somewhere between Type III and Type IV, occasionally delving into Type V.
- 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.
- Time Skip: When Shinga returned from hiatus.
- Toad Licking: James Cameron apparently got the inspiration for Avatar from it
- Troll: The cutest troll ever.
- 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 Deviant ART: "And come on. Who HASN'T thought of that?"
- Women's Mysteries: Parodied in this strip.
- World of Snark
- Write Who You Know: Many of the characters are based on people Shinga knows in Real Life.
- 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.