Gastrophobia
Q: Isn't your comic, in fact, historically inaccurate?
Anyway, this comic is no less historically accurate than other serious illustrated documentaries like Asterix or Groo.
A: Look, 1400 BC was a really long time ago. Our historical and archaeological records of that time are dodgy at best and laughable at worst. You'll just have to take my word that this comic is the 100% true portrayal of what really happened.
GastroPhobia is a webcomic by David McGuire, about the Amazonian exile and single mom Phobia; her precocious scamp of a son, Gastro; and her recently-acquired, listless slave Klepto. They have adventures in Ancient Greece.
The comic is a series of short stories; while there is continuity, there's little in the way of overarching plot.
Tropes used in Gastrophobia include:
- Action Mom: Phobia
- Alliteration: At the bottom of this strip.
- Aerith and Bob: There's Phobia, Mania, Klepto,... then there's Kelly.
- Ambiguously Brown: The Amazonians.
- Anachronism Stew / Hollywood History: Banks, dining-and-dashing, Eye Beams, and XP in Ancient Greece. Also, the map of Greece is actually a recolored map of Texas.
- Alt Text
- The Aristocrats: Not the best joke to tell in front of your mother.
Klepto: Gastro, look what you've done to your poor mother's spanking hand!
- Book Dumb: What the example under Foreshadowing below was implied to be at the time; Philia gives off a vibe of not being all that bright, at the best of times.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Aunt Pneuma
- But He Sounds Handsome: "That sexy barbarian lady escaped! Not only is she clever, she's a powerhouse!"
- Butterfly of Doom: Filby chastises Nightsorrow for this after he confesses to sleeping with Phobia not long after they ended up in ancient Greece.
Filby: What is wrong with you?! We travel back in time and you step on like a billion butterflies!
Nightsorrow: I did a lot more than step on that butterfly, if you know what I mean.
- Classical Mythology: Phobia is an Amazon (the Greek myth version), with storylines being based off Greek Mythology stories. Her brother Alcides is implied to be Hercules, as Alcides was Hercules' birth name. The first 12 chapters are very loosely based on the 12 Labors of Hercules.
- Cloudcuckoolander: A town that the mockingbirds are trying to take over is called Cloud Cuckoo Land. The cuckoo birds themselves are normal, however.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: Lampshaded in the Alt Text of this comic. (In this case, it was obviously done on purpose to invoke the animated trope.)
- Deliberately Monochrome: One color per chapter.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Mania here.
- Eye Beams: Bambikles
- Fan Disservice: Averted in Chapter 2:
Originally I planned to draw this scene with Gastro wearing a Loin Cloth, but I decided to spare everyone that sight.
- Flat What: Phobia gives one when Philia tells her that she is Kelpto and Phobia's daughter from the future.
- Flip Take: Used straight, invoked, and weaponized.
- Flower in Her Hair: Phobia, sometimes.
- Foreshadowing:
Phobia: Philia, how do you stay so young-looking?
Philia: Well, GEE, maybe it's because I'm 22!
Phobia: Eight years ago, you told me you were 20...?
Philia: Then I'm 28, SHEESH! Why is this so HARD for you?!
- Hartman Hips: Phobia. Don't mock the size of her legs, though...
- He Who Fights Monsters: Invoked -- "To kill a monster, you must become a monster."
- Gosh Dang It to Heck: Well, initially.
- Honest Axe: Referenced when Mim retrieves Phobia's sword from the lake.
- Hot Amazon: Phobia, literally.
- Hot Mom: Phobia
- If You Kill Her You Will Be Just Like Her: Inverted; it ends up saving Phobia's life.
- Infinite Canvas: Commented on and averted in a strip where Phobia falls down a hole.
- Kid From the Future: Philia claims to be the child of Phobia and Klepto from the future.
- Lampshade Hanging: "Check it out, those guys are fortuitously discussing subject matter pertinent to our current task."
- Lethal Chef: Phobia. She's apparently managed to keep herself and Gastro from dying for the last seven years, but Gastro has no idea that the squirrel his mother is using is out of place, and the best the judges can say for Phobia's dish is that she was "generous with the salt".
- Lower Deck Episode: The appropriately-named chapter "Not Everything's About Phobia".
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Phobia, Philia is your daughter.
- Mama Bear: Seen here.
- Meaningful Name
- The thieving slave is named Klepto.
- The ghost Pneuma's name means "spirit" in Greek.
- No Indoor Voice: Philia. "I AM WHISPERING!" [1]
- Not So Different: Parodied; Pneuma tries to invoke this, but can't think of any ways that she and Phobia are alike.
- Oh My Gods: The names of Greek gods are often said in vain. Hell, even the trope name is said in this strip.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The Mockingbird princess' Southern US accent comes and goes.
- Orwellian Retcon: Parts of Chapter 9 were redone because the author was unsatisfied with them. This included renaming the substance that allows time travel from "Samsonite" to "Chronologium".
- Our Hero Is Dead: She got better.
- Precision F-Strike: Implied here.
- Proud Warrior Race Girl: Phobia, naturally. "A warrior does not wash dishes."
- Puns: Many of the chapter titles.
- Purple Eyes: An Amazonian racial trait.
- Riddle of the Sphinx: Parodied. Multiple times.
- Riddling Sphinx: A sphinx is repeatedly humiliated because she only knows the one riddle, and everyone, even the little kid, knows the answer already.
- Really Gets Around: The real reason why Phobia can't tell Gastro who his real father was: she doesn't know herself.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Phobia and Gastro. Sometimes also Phobia and Klepto, when he behaves less obtusely.
- Reused Character Design: Amusingly, the Sphinx is apparently played by an "actress" from the trope namer, namely Saphire from Princess Knight.
- Sarcasm Blind: Klepto in this strip.
- Servile Snarker: Klepto, with far more emphasis on the "snark" than the "serve".
- Shaggy Dog Story
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Seen here, between Phobia and Klepto.
- Ship Tease: Phobia and Klepto get a subtle one in the main storyline. It's telling that they always seem to hit it off in the AU stories here and here.
- As of the latest storyline, they've been dating for months and that's why Phobia wants to set him free.
- Shout-Out
- The artwork contains numerous nods to Osamu Tezuka. Trivia's character design resembles Saphire, Ornitho is Duke Red, the Bambikles story has several panel layouts that reference the original Kimba the White Lion manga and the Dine & Dash story has a gang of bank robbers who combine into a giant centipede, similar to Gadem from Astro Boy.
- The entire Bambikles arc is a direct parody of The Ringing Bell.
- Bluto makes a cameo here, followed a few pages later by "the cow from Steamboat Willie".
- The owl in the Bambikles arc looks like Bubo from Clash of the Titans, and is named Archimedes after the owl in Disney's The Sword in the Stone.
- Katie Beaton's Fat Pony makes a cameo in the background here.
- Some character designs—female ones more often—resemble those of Scott Pilgrim quite a bit.
- "Horsefield" parodies the Garfield strips.
- Spoiler Opening: Appropriately, the "Opening Credits" show Mania a few episodes early.
- Stalker with a Crush: Nightsorrow to Phobia. "But have you seen her ass?"
- Take Off Your Clothes: In this strip, Filby asks Phobia to take off her belt. She doesn't take it well.
- Tell Me About My Father: Parodied, with Phobia telling Gastro she was seduced by Zeus in the form of an animal, but which one changes every time she tells the story. The "Handsome Giraffe" probably being the highlight. Later it's vaguely implied his father is "Lord Nightsorrow".
- The implications are pretty much spelled out during a recent recap and when Phobia slips up and reveals she DOES know who Gastro's father is, the flasback is... her with "Lord Nightsarrow". It's confirmed.
- Theme Naming: Many of the names come from prefixes/suffixes of Greek origin.
- Time Police: Philia. First foreshadowed in these two pages, then shown in the dubiously canonical "badder comics" interlude, before finally showing up in the comic proper.
- Title Drop: Happens twice in "Not Everything's About Phobia", with Lampshades in the Alt Text.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Klepto
Phobia: You know, some people whip their slaves for less than that.
Klepto: Phobia, it has been my goal to be whipped by an Amazon since I was thirteen.
- Title Sequence: You heard right. There are title sequences for a webcomic. One for every season.
[[Theme Tune Apparently, I've worn out my stay
But I don't care what other people say
Everything's gonna be a-okay!
It's a brand new day, and there are monsters to slay
So get outta my way, or you're gonna pay!
Do whatever you may, but there ain't no time to play
Everything's gonna be a-okay]]!
Phobia: (smiling) And if you ever endanger my son again, I'll have to cut out one of your kidneys and force-feed it to you.
- Translation Convention: Lampshaded for a punchline here.
- Undead Author: Played gleefully straight in "The Hole Story".
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The wind knocked Gastro's hat off! Wow!
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