History ComicBook / StrayBullets

* ManipulativeBitch: In the proud hardboiled crime fiction tradition, Beth knows how to wrap men around her finger with ease. In addition to the aforementioned story where she nearly drives an unfaithful husband to madness or suicide, [[spoiler: her ability to manipulate Monster is what ultimately saves Virginia and Bobby from Ron]].

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Beth's mother Annie looks almost exactly like her, just shorter and with more wrinkles. Even Nina points out just how uncanny the resemblance is.

* VictimBlaming: Beth was almost raped by her mother's boyfriend when she was nine. Her mother blamed her for the incident and accused her of intentionally trying to seduce him. It's no wonder Beth hates her.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Adam's girlfriend and Virginia's aunt are both named Jane.

* AllJustADream: The ending to [[spoiler: ''Little Love Tragedy'']].

* WholePlotReference: The Amy Racecar story ''Hatukaraki!!!'' is a mixture of ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'' (a samurai tries to help a victimized married couple and ends playing warring criminal factions against each other) and ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'' (a FramingDevice involving multiple conflicting accounts of the same event), with additional {{Shout Out}}s to films like ''Film/SevenSamurai'', ''Film/RedBeard'' and ''Film/ThroneOfBlood''.

* BaitAndSwitch: In an early issue, Virginia runs away from home and gets a ride from an older man who displays a creepy interest in her. The entire story has a foreboding atmosphere that makes it seem like he has sinister intentions, only for the ending to reveal that he's [[spoiler: an aspiring politician who merely wanted to return Virginia to her parents to garner some good publicity for his campaign]].

* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: Ian, a genuinely NiceGuy who wanted to help Beth, gets brutally beaten and killed while trying to rescue Virginia.]]

* CoolBigBro: Orson confides in his younger sister and talks with her, although he's initially more strait-laced than her.

* SelfDeprecatingHumor: Virginia mocks Bobby's aspiration to one day work as an artist for Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}, dismissing comics as a sub literate medium for morons.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px-straybullets-1_5049.jpg]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Ron initially appears to be an affable dude who lends Virginia money when she's broke and offers her a place to stay when she runs away from Beth's apartment. Too bad he turns out to be a batshit insane child predator.]]

* '''Virginia Applejack''': The central character, an imaginative teenage girl who unfortunately receives hostile attention from bullies at school, and her abusive mother and sister. After several traumatic events (resulting in, among other things, a permanent scar on her left cheek), she runs away from home and becomes entangled with the darkest elements of American society. A talented writer, she copes with the hardships of her own life by crafting adventure stories starring Amy Racecar, a [[AuthorAvatar fictionalized version of herself]]. Her defining trait is her [[{{Determinator}} refusal to succumb]] to the [[BreakTheCutie unendi
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ng horror she is exposed to]]. As of the writing of this article, Virginia has yet to lose sight of her courage or beliefs, [[BrokenBird troubled and cynical as they may be]].

* '''Nina''': A Companions of Beth who helps her rob Harry (who she was once the abused mistress of).

** Marisol, who Virginia even calls her soul sister. [[spoiler: Virginia is so badly devastated by Marisol's death that it's implied that she kills a man who Dez claims Kretchmeyer's brother in retaliation, presuming that he was behind it.]]

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: When Jane gets pregnant by [[spoiler:Eli]] she's reluctant to get an abortion when he brings it up.

* NewAgeRetroHippie: Scott has the book (hair well past his shoulders and some t-shirts with flower patterns) but not the manner.

* AndYouWereThere: The Amy Racecar stories usually parallel whatever Virginia is going through at the time, with the supporting cast often consisting of thinly-veiled {{Captain Ersatz}}es of real people she knows. For instance, Amy's hapless sidekick William is Bobby, Gil is Eli, Jack Rum is Spanish Scott, Smiley Robert is Ron, the victimized couple in ''Hatukaraki!!!'' are Tony and Stephanie, Lil' B and Boris are child versions of Beth and Monster, the Cosmic Princess is Nina, Hairy Creepers is Harry, and so on.

* AndYouWereThere: The Amy Racecar stories usually parallel whatever Virginia is going through at the time, with the supporting cast often consisting of thinly-veiled {{Captain Ersatz}}es of real people she knows. For instance, Amy's hapless sidekick William is Bobby, Gil is Eli, Jack Rum is Spanish Scott, Smiley Robert is Ron, the victimized couple in ''Hatukaraki!!!'' are Tony and Stephanie, Lil' B and Boris are child versions of Beth and Monster, and so on.

* AndYouWereThere: The Amy Racecar stories usually parallel whatever Virginia is going through at the time, with the supporting cast often consisting of thinly-veiled {{Expies}} of people she knows. For instance, Amy's hapless sidekick William is Bobby, Gil is Eli, Jack Rum is Spanish Scott, Smiley Robert is Ron, the victimized couple in ''Hatukaraki!!!'' are Tony and Stephanie, Lil' B and Boris are child versions of Beth and Monster, and so on.

* AndYouWereThere: The Amy Racecar stories usually parallel whatever Virginia is going through at the time, with the supporting cast often starring thinly-veiled {{Expies}} of people she knows. For instance, Amy's hapless sidekick William is Bobby, Gil is Eli, Jack Rum is Spanish Scott, Smiley Robert is Ron, the victimized couple in ''Hatukaraki!!!'' are Tony and Stephanie, Lil' B and Boris are child versions of Beth and Monster, and so on.

* '''Virginia Applejack''': The central character, an imaginative teenage girl who unfortunately receives hostile attention from bullies at school, and her abusive mother and sister. After several traumatic events (resulting in, among other things, a permanent scar on her left cheek), she runs away from home and becomes entangled with the darkest elements of American society. A talented writer, she copes with the hardships of her own life by crafting adventure stories starring Amy Racecar, a [[AuthorAvatar fictionalized version of herself]]. Her defining trait is her [[{{Determinator}} refusal to succumb]] to the [[BreakTheCutie unending horror she is exposed to]]. As of the writing of this article, Virginia has yet to lose sight of her courage or beliefs, [[BrokenBird troubled and cynical as they may be]].

* '''Joey''': Spanish Scott's nephew who grows up to be another of Harry's {{Mook}}s in TheNineties.

** Orson tries to sell his dad's car to pay off Beth's debt, only to be told that won't work because he has no paperwork proving it's his.