< Web Comics

Web Comics/Tear Jerker


Lie Bot, what is the saddest thing?
—Philippe, setting himself, and the reader, up for a doozy.
Tropes used in Web Comics/Tear Jerker include:

"Reasons Hot Dogs Are Amazing:
1. You can eat them almost every day
2. They taste the way they smell
3. They can be fun!
4. Sometimes, it's hard to be alone in the world
5. ..."

Davan: *plays A Boy and His Frog*

    • This comic, where the beleaguered single male callboy at Nerdrotica who finds out that one of his regular callers is an old man who uses the service as a method of recalling memories of his deceased male lover.
    • The whole flashback of Scotty's last day, especially this comic, in which Davan pours his heart out to Scotty over the phone, coupled with Mr. Harris knocking on his son's door, wanting to talk to him, when you know how it's going to end. And at the end, just... Ow, my heartstrings.

Davan: I never knew my half-brother, but I'd like to think you were sort of sent to me in his stead.

  • This Erfworld comic. It's because Grey and Grey Morality of the setting that makes you root for the both sides. And then you realise it's the Pacifist of "Bad" side doing the deed. And all the main protagonist knows about it all is this message from said pacificst: "Im In Ur Dirtz: We broke the leadership.". Baaaw!
  • Nana's Everyday Life. You don't even need to know the series to end up a snivelling wreck by the end of it. Compared to Nana's Everyday Life, Elfen Lied is straight-up comedy. Let that sink in for a while.
  • In Inhuman, Juu's death .
  • Breakfast of the Gods. Just, Breakfast of the Gods. Great writing, but man is it sad.
    • When 1/0 ended. Considering how the comic went, the ending was just perfect.
  • 8-Bit Theater had one, where after Black Mage died Fighter desperately pleads with him to wake up before going into an Unstoppable Rage.
    • Plus, Black Belt's death.
    • The note Black Mage wrote to White Mage. Being out of character for him somehow intensified its touching nature.
    • This strip. Black Mage finally achieves his dreams of becoming the most powerful evil force in the universe...and then the one being he's ever loved shows up out of nowhere, right into his line of fire, and he apparently kills her. And then, to add insult to injury, Fighter finally gets the picture that BM is evil and blames him for the one atrocity he didn't mean to commit.
    • There's another one in a comic hosted at his site, Warbot in Accounting.
      • Another one? Warbot is made to kick you in the gut at least once every comic.
  • The penultimate strip of The Last Days of Foxhound. After 500 strips of watching and getting to know and love them, the final, silent images of the team's dead bodies is heartbreaking (though it does have warning. Being a Foregone Conclusion doesn't make it easier.
    • Sniper Wolf and Berthold
  • Big Boss's explanation of The Boss's death, and Liquid's highly emotional reaction to it.

Big Boss: You understand now? I had to kill the greatest hero of the modern era because the factions of Philosophers were fighting over money.
Liquid Snake: But you burned those sons of bitches right? Tell me you went home and SKULLFUCKED every last one of them!

  • Sabrina Online's 1999 Christmas strip. Being someone who has never had someone for any holiday season...* sniff*
  • This short comic series about the rescue efforts of the May 2008 Sichuan Province Earthquake. (Note: Last two strips are humorous as a change of pace)
    • Link has now been updated to one that works. In case you weren't bawling already, the ones focusing on named people were all true stories - the artist took news stories and put them in comic form. Eyes are moist on the first one, wet on the second, and the waterworks break by the 4th or 5th.
  • Laika: The First Dog in Space will NEVER make the experiment of shooting animals into the space funny ever again.
    • Wrong section, but go on, just try playing this song at the same time.
  • This Animal Crossing comic.
  • This Insecticomics episode. "REPAIR. HER."
  • Jack: "He hurt me, uncle Jack..."; and then later Skye Bluedeer just wiping Fnar's face clean... the whole arc is one big cryfest.
    • "I can't read dis book ..."
  • Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures: Hannah's recent death.
    • Even more painful: Anna collecting the ashes and visibly starting to fall apart emotionally.
    • Also: Hennya's death in Abel's Story.
    • The tragic story of Aniz and Destania after the death of Siar, Aniz's clan leader, and the rest of the clan.
    • When Abel visits his dying mother at the hospital and she stays alive just long enough to tell him that she always loved him before passing away was especially potent for readers who have been in similar situations with their relatives.
  • The ending of Concerned: The Half Life and Death of Gordon Frohman

Daddy? Please wake up. (beat) Daddy?

  • Mew Cai's last words
  • In Goblins when Kore kills Taps and Asks-Nonsense
    • Also when Fumbles is begging the Goblin Slayer to let him go
    • And in this and this strip. Anything with those two is a tearjerker. This will make you cry of relief when they find each other again. Also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
    • ...Chief's death. After being tortured by Kore, Complains struggles to save him while Ears and Thaco try to defeat the Complete Monster. However...he can't stop Chief's bleeding...and...he grasps Complain's face...and dies after getting the -10 thing...you feel like crying as well, just like Complains...
      • The fact that his last act is to weakly and pathetically reach for Complains, as if begging for comfort in his final moments, easily clinches the tragedy of the moment.
    • Dies surrendering his soul to a demon in exchange for (what they believed to be) the Bloodlight Orb. The whole page, but also in particular the panel where he is snatched out of Fox's arms while tears comes down her face.
  • Kid Radd.
    • The death of younger Sheena. As the ROM they were in collapsed, the heroes were stranded in a mess of garbled coding, glitching the game up and costing Sheena's life. Seeing her newfound sister fade away, Sheena dropped to the ground. "She's gone..."
    • Bogey realizing he was useless and in the way on their missions, unable to do anything aside from get himself killed, and becoming an increasingly minor character as he pondered his usefulness. That combined with the fact that he was actually in love with Sheena, but could see she and Radd were meant for each other. ** Sheena realizing she loves Radd and wanting them to be together, but being afraid it was their programming speaking. Afterwards, she realizes that regardless of programming, she'd have fallen for him all along.
    • Back to Bogey, the second one is made even worse by his Heroic Sacrifice. Radd is losing in the final battle against the Seer. One more hit and he's dead, permanently. The Seer is about to use his most powerful move yet, to wipe out Radd and everyone else. Bogey is trapped in there with them, watching unnoticed from the sidelines. He makes his appearance, reminding Radd that he could get a full life meter from killing the most common enemy in his game...a Bogey. At first Radd refuses to do this, but realizes he has to. Despite all his fighting, Bogey dies the hopeless death of an enemy sprite. Or does he?
    • The ending, too. Possibly the best webcomic ending out there.
    • The fact that Bogey nearly forced Radd to kill him. Bogey says something along the lines of, "I understand.", walks away, and suddenly runs back and tries attacking Radd. Radd blocks it... And kills Bogey in the process. *sniff*
  • User Friendly reminds us that Remembrance Day's not just for World Wars any more.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, Galatea finally learns what kindness is, here and here.
  • This Darths and Droids strip. Which is strange, considering a) we knew it was coming, b) the character himself is still alive, because c) it's a comedic rpg. Talented webcomic artists.
  • A Softer World is true art. This is just one reason why. And then there's this...
  • The moment in Megatokyo where Largo and Erika have an argument, and Largo gets depressed enough to actually manage to drink himself into a drunken stupor is strangely heartbreaking.
    • This non-story comic. "A Failure Of Conscience", indeed.
      • The omake chapter "Circuity" . "I said I'd push back the wind for you!"...
        • Made even better by "Circuity: Rewound", a rewrite and update of the omake Fred did for the 4th volume.
  • The Worst Thing I Ever Did; A True Story, from Ricky Garduno's 1930 Nightmare Theatre. Merry Christmas...?
  • Questionable Content does this starting with strip number 500. Faye's Dad's death
    • These two strips. Say what you will about Marten and Dora's relationship, but seeing it come to an end after so long was pretty heartbreaking.
      • That last line before Marten closed the door was just such an awful way to put it, it conveyed how hurt he was and was actually horribly true at the same time. That one line matched the angst of this strip right after it.
  • The death of Thor in Brat-halla. Admittedly, it's in a story set in the future so the character isn't actually dead "yet," and it's really a case of Foregone Conclusion, but the sheer unstoppable inevitability of it.
    • Welcome to Norse Mythology! We're all just killing time until the end of the world!
  • Several in YU+ME: dream, such as how Fiona's mom died and tried to kill her in the process, the big revelation that it's all Just A Dream, and especially when it's revealed that Lia broke all the rules just to be able to truly meet Fiona and is currently being imprisoned/tortured/raped/some other form of horrible treatment because of it.
  • Penny Arcade:
    • The last panel of the conclusion to Armadeaddon.
      • To explain: The guy standing with Gabe and Tycho in the photo is Jim, an old friend of theirs. Jim came back as a zombie in the story arc, so Tycho is remembering all the good times they had with him back when he was alive.
    • The end of the "Seventh Spring" arc.
    • When you realize what happens to the two of them, this strip turns on the waterworks.
    • Some of Tycho's words after the birth of his daughter are tearjerking and heartwarming at the same time.

"I need you to be thus armed because I fear your mother and I have played a trick on you; we have brought you to a place where hidden weaponry is sometimes necessary. In our defense, and I recognize that it may be insufficient, this was the only world available to us."

Tycho: Oh my god. Oh my god. Please don't leave me.

I'm not going to call, e-mail or correspond with you in any way. I'm not going to see you again.
(pause)
But I will miss you.

Lota: King Lota thinks it is a little too big.
Schlock: Brad's best friend thinks it's almost big enough.

  • From Cheer Up Emo Kid: "Dog" (10 pages)
  • Drowtales: Kiel's reaction to Naal being taken over by her demon and sealed up. And as if that weren't gut-wrenching enough, the epilogue implies that Kiel might have been right about some of Naal still being left in the demon
  • This.
    • That series seems tailor made to be as saddening as possible. Quite a feat with only a handful of comics to its name.
  • This entry for an OC tournament left many a person only able to say "...wow" in their comments. The gist of it is both OCs are dying, one a demon that will eventually be reborn, the other a man that will just simply die. As he's dying, he hopes that they'll be something afterwards. "Something above our heads. Or burning like a bloody furnace below our feet. I'd... I'd take either over nothing at all." The part that will really make the tears flow? There is something. "Welcome to Endrealm."
  • Although Errant Story has more of the other moments, the page after this one certainly qualifies as a Tear Jerker.
  • Ace Dick's game of life is an in-story example (with Shout Outs to Batman and Oregon Trail). The reason that the second face of Demonhead Mobster Kingpin could be defeated was because it was so depressing that DMK grew a second emotion meter.
  • The Super Fogeys has one of the most elegantly sorrowful strips ever, all about getting old.
    • And again. Dear lord, this much bittersweet should be illegal. For context, Star Maiden stole Spy Gal's boyfriend when they were young, breaking Spy Gal's heart. This is the first time they've confronted each other since.
  • This collection of minicomics of Pokemon, based on the question of where is Ash's father.
  • Venus Envy, anyone? Despite being a major exporter of Wangst, there are a good deal of legitimately sad bits.
    • Richie's rant about how Alex/Zoe is a freak, after she's blackmailed by Principal Darc
    • The author's personal experience with transphobic violence is easily the worst bit.
    • And Nina STABBING the protagonist (presumably to death, as the strip ends with Nina standing over a collapsed and stabbed Zoe) is a big example of Anyone Can Die, especially in a formerly lighthearted comic. YMMV as to whether this is Wangst, a Tear Jerker, or even Nightmare Fuel.
  • Teddy Bear Anti-Christ is usually darkly and morbidly humorous, but this one is sad. Poor Byron.
  • Joy's miscarriage and Issac's reaction in Namir Deiter are bad enough, but then she begins to obsess over a custom-made doll with her hair and Isaac's fur and ears... that breathes. Blue's Played for Laughs reaction softens it, but it's still paints a very disturbing picture of her psyche.
  • Pauline's death, and Julie's breakdown afterword in Our Little Adventure. It was especially jarring considering how much of a Blithe Spirit Julie normally is.
  • In Dubious Company, after the Sues and Stus capture the pirates, Sal calculates their chance of escape at 0%. Further cemented when she is the first to be hauled off for execution.
  • No Black Plume, with its heavy reliance on black comedy, sometimes skirts with this.
  • Chapter 28 and 29 (the comic has very short chapters) of Orange Marmalade has Ma-ri, a vampire, have to deal and cope with all the racism around her, coming from all the friends she had been trying so hard to make. It's so heart-breaking when she has to make racist jokes about herself and her family to stop her cover from being blown.
  • This might be a small one, but in Tales of the Questor Quen breaks down the night after the first time he kills someone. He's a boy who can barely be considered a man, and gets comforted by his mama.
  • From Plush and Blood, this.
  • This Little Dog Lost Mother's Day comic May 13, 2012.
  • This "Little League" strip. "My parents are dead" indeed...
  • Any Pokemon Nuzlocke comic will have them But this one really sells it
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