Khatru

These four things make the world go round.

"Move in day at Bosley Hall. Pandemonium reigns."

—A caption from the first comic

Khatru began in April 2008. It is set in an American college administration building that has been converted into student housing. The 16 residents of Bosley Hall House 4 have the dubious honor of living in the building's basement. A lot of strange people live in House 4, or "The Hidden House" as they call it, and this comic is the chronicle of their stories.

The creator posts new comics once a week. Most of the time. It can be seen at its original hosting here or at the new creator-designed site here.

This webcomic has a list of characters. It has nothing to do with the Yes song Siberian Khatru besides the name, which sounded like a good Webcomic Nonsense Title.

Khatru also features occasional B-Side Comics and Filler Strips. These take the form of random Dada Comics (Real and True Adventures of Driving Through Wisconsin One Time) and Cut and Paste Comic (the upcoming Gordon Knot strips).

Tropes used in Khatru include:

• Abandoned Info Page - On the comic's original hosting only.
• Alien Abduction - Ranger believes he was abducted when he was younger. The drive for the truth is what motivates him to this day.
• All Love Is Unrequited - Evidently, Lindsey has a thing for Ross.
• All There in the Manual - Character background information is hidden on the Cast Page of the new site the creator is building.
• Art Evolution - It's getting better. More or less.
• Art Shift - Occasionally used to do visual gags, like stained glass shots.
• Author Guest Spot - On the strip's One Year Anniversary special.
• B-Side Comics - One comic (Khatru Gaiden) and a series of text pages.
• Child Prodigy - Kira was one of these when she was younger. She stabilized into her current status as Omnidisciplinary Scientist.
• Determinator - McKaela in high school, while attempting to become a member of a Nebulous Evil Organization. Unfortunately it ends up with her almost becoming a Stripperiffic Virgin Sacrifice for them, until she mysteriously obtains magic powers, and decapitates them all.
• Disproportionate Retribution - After being slighted, Gwendolyn vows to ruin Ross and Ranger.
• The Fettered - Kira was ok with pure research. When she discovered her think tank was involved with sinister Cloak and Dagger activities, she wanted to blow the whistle. Unfortunately a certain signature granted the them Protection From Editors.
• Filler Strips - The creator doesn't do these as often anymore.
• Five-Man Band
  • The Hero - Flynn
  • The Lancer - Ranger
  • The Smart Guy - Kira
  • The Big Guy - McKaela (nebulous magical powers? Sounds big to me)
  • The Chick - Ross, a minor character that almost made it into the major leagues.
• Life Embellished
• Loads and Loads of Characters - Four main characters, twelve (and counting) minor ones.
• Muggles - Half the cast.
• Ordinary High School Student - Half the cast, except that they're in college.
• Planet Eris - So, magic is real, as is super-science, a guy can't die, and another guy controls fire. Not to mention the mysteriously blocked off room at the end of the hall, and the pirate ghosts.
• Real Place Background - Minneapolis, MN apparently
• Schedule Slip - Something about the summertime makes it worse than usual. And it's usually pretty irregular.
• Shout-Out -
  • Its Walky. A couple times.
  • Kira's three mentors are expies of House, Mc Steamy and Dr. Cox
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Apparently, McKaela was something of a fighter of the good fight in her high school days.
  • Gwendolyn shows a film version of Jack Chick's Dark Dungeons. The cast is suitably horrified at having to watch it.
  • Kira's origin story references all sorts of dirty laundry. Some of them are real CIA programs, and some were made up by the author. Probably...
    • Did Not Do the Research - Kind of. There is a film produced or distributed from Chick's website, but it doesn't really have anything to do with Dungeons and Dragons.
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick - Averted, with the Magical Chicken.
• Social Services Does Not Exist - Averted with Flynn's unpleasant childhood in the foster system.
• Story Arc - Most are divided in half but each leads into the next.
  • 1. Intro - Some characters are introduced, but mostly this was a pitch to the webcomic hosting site.
  • 2. House Meeting/Spooky Room - As college students, the characters have to sit through an abominable meetings where everybody has to introduce themselves. Ranger wanders off and runs into some trouble in the Spooky Room.
  • 3. For Science!/FrankenRanger - Kira talks Ranger into testing a new gizmo, and things go a little bit wrong.
  • 4. Gwendolyn Rising - House 4's resident Obstructive Bureaucrat moves to consolidate her power.
  • 5. Come Clean - Flashbacks tell the story of the Main Four's early lives.
  • 6. Laundry Quest - The B-Team fights Gwendolyn for control of a valuable House 4 resource.
• Strange Girl - Young McKaela was apparently one of these. Or a Perky Goth without the Perky. For a while at least...
• There Are No Adults - In the cast, at least.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness - McKaela dealt with one of these in her high school days, which resulted in her obtaining magic powers.
• Wacky College
• Webcomic Time, Schedule Slip: The Headless Ranger storyline, for example, took from January 9 through December 7, 2009 (real time) to finish producing.
• Youngsters - We've seen the four main character's early lives:
  • Flynn was a Dirty Kid from fighting The Bully (s), and a Foster Kid.
  • Ranger was a Mr. Imagination when it came to astronomy.
  • McKaela was a Cheerful Child until she got to High School and turned into a Goth.
  • Kira was a super smart Child Prodigy.