Fan Dan Go

Our heroine, Ladies and Gentlemen

A webcomic updating Wednesdays and Sundays since September '09. An action comedy with visuals influenced by manga, as well as retro psychedelia, about snarky British magical knights. The tone of the comic is largely tongue-in-cheek, often combining serious ongoing story elements with a Gag A Day style punchline, and revelling in using the characters super powers to do very silly and/or awesome things, such as the car-throwing illustrated at left.

Rekki Lune, a hot-tempered knight with Super Strength and a sword nearly as big as she is and her laid back indestructible hippy partner Subo set out on the trail of a bunch of political extremists armed with Magitech ray guns. The story is set in an alternate universe England called Anglise, where there are magical knights, and the technological level and aesthetic resembles the mid-late 20th century, particularly the 70s.

It's drawn by Kate "Darth Mongoose" Holden, occasional troper and British manga artist from Oop North, and updates on Wednesdays and Sundays. It started off on DrunkDuck; now it has its own site.

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Tropes used in Fan Dan Go include:

• Action Girl: Rekki Lune is certainly this, though bordering on growing into a Lady of War.
• Animesque: The style is clearly influenced by manga and anime, though with other influences mixed in.
• Anime Hair: In abundance. From Rekki's fringe which looks like it could take somebody's eye out, to Juliet's bizarre antennae, not to mention that there isn't a single character with a normal real life hair colour, 'cause You Gotta Have Blue Hair.
• BFS: Rekki hasn't drawn her weapon on-page yet, but as seen in cover and pinup images, and from the size of the scabbard, it's almost as big as she is. Kind of justified through a combination of Rule of Cool and Rekki's Super Strength that enables her to throw a car and toss mooks about like nothing.
• Bifauxnen: Sarin.
• Bishie Sparkle: Parodied. Rekki is not particularly Bishoujo, but sparkles when thinking about kicking open big double doors.
  • Juliet is shown sparkling while playfully ribbing Sarin about her height.
  • Rocket appears to sparkle almost constantly. As Juliet puts it, "You'll either get used to it or have a seizure!"
• British Accents: The setting is an alternate reality England. Everybody is assumed to speak with a British Accent and uses appropriate vocabulary (and spellings).
• British Coppers: The comic opens with them, complete with helmets, truncheons and whistles.
• Chekhov's Skill: Rekki mentions she can throw cars early in chapter one. She then actually does throw a car at the end of the chapter.
• Cool Sword: All the knight characters have their own distinctive swords, some of them quite unusual looking.
• Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age: Ray guns? Cool, but no match for a good BFS!
• Failed a Spot Check: Rekki is aparently so bad at remembering people she didn't recognise the mooks who shot her partner less than an hour previously standing right in front of her.
• Face Palm: Subo when Rekki can't recognise the mook who shot him standing right in front of her.
• Fiery Redhead: Literally scarlet red-haired Rekki is very hot tempered. She's even known by the nickname "the Red Devil" in reference to her hair and twitchy, violent nature.
• Hair Antennae: Juliet Ellis takes this trope and runs a marathon with it. Her hair antennae are huge!
• Healing Factor: It's a good job Subo has one of these, really, since he keeps trying and failing to resolve situations with armed mooks peacefully.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Rekki and Subo.
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople): Lonchester, Anglise = Lancaster, England.
• Magic Knight: Rekki, Subo, Sarin, Zephyr, Fenn... they're whole point of the comic.
• Martial Pacifist: Subo has regenerative abilities and apparently can use magic well enough, but prefers to seek a peaceful solution... even though he's almost never taken up on it by the bad guys.
• Oop North: Northern English vocabulary like 'nowt' and 'radge' is sprinkled liberally throughout.
• Punk Punk: The creator refers to the mixture of 20th Century design and technology with Fantasy as 'Retro-Punk'
• Rule of Cool: This is a comic with magical rayguns, huge swords and a heroine who throws cars. The awesome justifies the means.
• Rule of Funny: Sometimes the characters are very capable, other times they take turns carrying the Idiot Ball for laughs.
• Schedule Slip: Happens from time to time. So far never for more than two consecutive updates (one week).
• Shipper on Deck: Sarin ships Rekki and Subo.
• Stealth Hi Bye: Juliet Ellis in her introductory page.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Rekki, in reaction to Sarin's shipping.

*Luminescent Blush*
"I'm not embarrassed, by the way!"

• Technical Pacifist: Rekki seems to have an aversion to war and to killing rather than knocking out mooks, but also seems to relish a good brawl and carries a reputation from a previous war in which she reportedly killed many people, earning the nickname 'Red Devil'.
• Title Drop: Courtesy of villain Kendrick Fenn in the first chapter. 'Fan Dan Go' is the motto of the Knights of Anglise, three runes representing strength, honour and courage, as seen in the title logo.
• Tsurime Eyes: Rekki Lune, combined with eyebrows that almost always look angry, a twitchy posture and very dangerous looking hair.
• Unsound Effect: Most of the sound effects are rather quirky onomatapeia, but occasionally you get things like "Looooooooom", "Fling!" and "MANLY PUNCH!" for comic effect.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kendrick Fenn wants to bring about equality between noble born and non-noble born knights. But to achieve this has sided with a group of dangerous extremists.