Webcomics United

Webcomics United: It's Awesome

—Actual slogan of the Webcomics United syndicate

A webcomic featuring webcomic characters living their lives and working, you guessed it, in webcomics, focusing on the life of Zip M. Stiff, a young chibi Filler who has no idea how his work works, despite being one of the best qualified fillers in the whole syndicate. Together with a bunch of friends who are also Fillers and some bureaucrats, they poke fun at Webcomic Tropes and have relatively normal lives in the funniest way possible.

The comic started as a gag-a-day comic without many aspirations, and now has a big underlying plot that spans between other smaller plots. Not to mention the author is quite fond of Foreshadowing and Cliffhangers...

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Tropes used in Webcomics United include:

• Art Evolution: Lots of it. Zip, for one, gets eyelids over time, and Theo's hair is always changing.
• Art Shift: Other comic's styles are mimicked as good as can be when featured.
  • In-story: Miss Ribbon undergoes "de-cheesecaking procedure", going from Fauxnime to a more rubbery style.
• Awful Wedded Life: The briefly featured Lockharts, from the Funnies Syndicate.
• Cameo: Lots of extras in the background are actually characters borrowed from other comics.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Known as "The Aardvark Flu". It's a very serious disease.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Flora, Jello's girlfriend, mentioned en passe in a very early strip, then becomes a permanent addition to the cast. The same happens to Ribbon, who starts as a random stall worker, then informercial hostess and, finally, VP of Human Resources and another addition to the regular cast.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Ohm and his "sharky" grin.
• Closer to Earth: Ella to John, but smoothly being subverted.
• Crossover: Part of the premise of the comic.
• Cute Mute: Mim, Zip's current girlfriend.
• Distracted by the Sexy: SEX!
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Zip M. Stiff. The "M" stands for "Maid".
• Fan Service: Elevated to the category of holiday within the Webcomic World.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Ribbon, until she decided to put a stop on that. It's unsure whether this worked or not.
• Gentle Giant: From the looks of it, Theo's father.
• Guest Strip
• Halloween Cosplay: Used once, averted in the next year.
• Hit You So Hard Your X Will Feel It: September threatens to fire Zip so hard even his kids will be born fired. Given the current economy, that's one harsh threat!
• Hot Mom: Ella, given you have a thing for sprites. The fact that she never ages helps a lot(and might make her the first GILF to ever exist).
• Lampshade Hanging: Well, duh. It's a meta webcomic.
• Filler Strip: Sometimes in Incredibly Lame Pun form.
• Only Sane Man: Jello for the fillers, Ribbon for the bureaucrats.
• Meta Guys: Zip sometimes wonders why they make comics, and who reads them, but that questioning is quickly dismissed.
  • Ms. Puchok exhibits some odd Fourth Wall awareness.
• Noodle People: The aptly named Noodle.
• No Fourth Wall: Actually, there is one, and it's called... The Wall. Some people are said to come from beyond it, including Ribbon. The people within don't talk much about it, though.
• The Noseless: Zip takes that after his mother. To avoid the dreaded "snoutface" effect, though, his nose is described as "mostly invisible", appearing in full profiles.
• Painting the Fourth Wall: Puchok gives a course on "Panel Dynamics", which consists in moving in a single panel. It's easier done than said, really.
• Stealth Pun: not wanting to give them away, but there's the one in The Aardvark Flu, and the title of Flora Leaves, which was admittedly unintentional.
• Spinoff Babies: Spoofed.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: John and Ella, a stick figure and a previously starlet and muse of sprite comics. He isn't bothered and loves messing up with her admirers.