History ComicBook / TheEltingvilleClub

* ChildrenAreInnocent: [[spoiler: At the end of "This fan... this monster", Jerry reminises to the times where they started the club and were more innocent.]]

** Joe, the comic store owner who often mistreats his costumers and takes advantage of their fanatism to sell his merch at ridiculous high prices.

* GoodAngelBadAngel: Parodied with Joe in the pilot. Upon witnessing the desesperation of Bill and Josh of owning his Bobba Fett, Joe's demon appears and suggests Joe to scam the Eltingville boys by pricing it for $200. As soon as he's finished, Joe's angel appears and suggests increasing its price to $250, ending up with Joe deciding to sell it for $300.

** [[spoiler: At the end of "Lo, there shall be an epilogue" The Eltingville group fears that they will be banned from every geeky store, con and event in existence when Bill causes havok at Comic Con.]]
* PlayingTheVictimCard: In the pilot. After Josh made a mistake, losing the trivia showdown, he states that it was obvious he knew the correct answers and starts claming everyone is against him for being antisemites.

** What made Bill such a compelling character was the fact that he [[JerkassHasAPoint wasn't outright]] ''wrong'' about franchises sometimes changing for the sake of mainstream appeal, but taking it to the extreme that he did is obviously the wrong move and presented as such within the narrative without making him a full-on strawman. [[VillainHasAPoint The best antagonists are the ones that can be understood or even identified with while still finding their actions abhorrent]], which is what made this series such effective commentary. In an average webcomic today, [[StrawCharacter he'd just be a random caricature who gets kicked in the nuts]]. Here he's our main character.

* MirrorUniverse: One story is about the Club's alternate-universe cultural (but not moral) opposite selves, who are obnoxious, pretentious art-comix fans.

* CerebusSyndrome: An interesting example. While the chaos the club members create never stops being absurd, the repercussions and their actions gradually become less and less funny as the comic continues. By the end, particularly "This fan... this monster," the club members (except Jerry) become more tragic and unsettling than funny.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Pete, who in his adulthood admits to sexually exploit women in his pornographic film movies, is apalled by Bill's mysoginistic tirade against [[spoiler:Mandy, Jerry's girlfriend]].

** [[spoiler:Unsurprisingly, Bill is the member with the worst outcome. Still living with his mother, Bill became a failed independent dealer and expert in comics and collectibles whose collection maintenance business failed due to him losing his customers' trust by slacking on the job and taking advantage of them. By the time the epilogue started, he sunk so low to the point of attempting to steal comics at comic-con by taking advantage of the vendor of a commercial stand being distracted with a client.]]

* ToxicFriendInfluence: The members became the worst versions of themselves each time they were together. [[spoiler: At the end of "This fan... this monster", their parents took notice of this at the end when Bill burned Joe's store and forced them to abandon their friendship.]]

* PlayingTheVictimCard: In the pilot. After Josh made a mistake, losing the trivia showdown, he states that it was obvious he knew the correct answers and starts clamining everyone is against him for being antisemites.

->''"Wow. I mean, I'm someone who thinks women ain't much more than receptacles an' even I'm offended by that shit."''

* PyrrhicVictory: Bill may have resisted the intervention and even convinced his kidnappers to become geeks again, but he still gets all his collection stolen and left tied up alone.

* FutureLoser: Most of the members of the group don't adapt to adulthood too well

** In the GrandFinale TimeSkip, the other members of the club have found fulfilling careers and varying degrees of success in life, while LoserProtagonist Bill has become a BasementDweller and petty thief who's even ''[[TookALevelInJerkass more]]'' unpleasant than he was as a teen. Bill's milder-mannered {{Foil}} Jerry found success as a professional ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' player with an attractive pop-culture correspondent girlfriend, and when Jerry introduces her to his old friends Bill goes on a hateful, misogynistic tirade about "[[CountryMatters cunts]]" and "[[OldGuardVersusNewBlood cultural immigrants]]" [[ItsPopularNowItSucks ruining their fun]].
** What made Bill such a compelling character was the fact that he [[JerkassHasAPoint wasn't outright]] ''wrong'' about franchises sometimes changing [[NewbieBoom for the sake of mainstream appeal]], but taking it to the extreme that he did is obviously the wrong move and presented as such within the narrative without making him a full-on strawman. [[VillainHasAPoint The best antagonists are the ones that can be understood or even identified with while still finding their actions abhorrent]], which is what made this series such effective commentary. In an average webcomic today, [[StrawCharacter he'd just be a random caricature who gets kicked in the nuts]]. Here he's our main character.

* WouldHurtAChild: Joe, the owner of the comic store, not only makes it clear that he will kill Bill if he caughts him stealing, and [[spoiler:fights the eltingville club when he finds them destroying his store merch during a petty fight between each other.]]
* ToxicFriendInfluence: The members became the worst versions of themselves each time they were together. [[spoiler: At the end of "This fan... this monster", their parents took notice of this at the end when Bill burned Joe's store and forced them to abandon their friendship.]]

** [[spoiler:Unsurprisingly, Bill is the member with the worst outcome. still living with his mother, Bill became a failed independent dealer and expert in comics and collectibles whose collection maintenance business
failed due to him losing his customers' trust by slacking on the job and taking advantage of them. By the time the epilogue started, he sunk so low to the point of attempting to steal comics at comic-con by taking advantage of the vendor of a commercial stand being distracted with a client.]]

** [[spoiler:Bill is still living with his parents.]]

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Bill, the self-proclaimed leader of the group, is the most disliked member of the gang, and with good reason

** Downplayed with Joe. He has kicked out the group several times and has openly stated his dislike to the boys, but the only reason he hasn't fully banned them is due to them being his best customers. [[spoiler: That's until Bill gets drunk with power destroying his store and burns it to the ground.]]

* PyrrhicVictory: Bill may have resisted the intervention and even convinced his kidnappers into becoming geeks again, but he still gets all his collection stolen and left tied up alone.

* CardSharp: The dice variant. Is implied Bill's dice is loaded so he always can get a favorable result. Bill gets caught by the rest of the group at the start of "The Intervention"

** [[spoiler:Bill is still living with his parents]]
** [[spoiler:Josh is a failed comic writer working for a comic book news website and whose ideas always end up being rejected by publishers]]
** [[spoiler: Pete ends up balding and working as a film director specialized in creating horror porn, a position that he frequently uses to exploit desperate women.]]
* InternetJerk: [[spoiler: Bill uses his alias Greedo 318 to bully Josh anonymously. Jerry exposes him in retaliation when Bill reveals that he's the one who started rumors in order to destroy Jerry's relationship with his former love Zawatsky]]
* OnlySaneMan: Jerry Stokes Jr is this by comparison of the other members, as he has a more easygoing personality and is calmer than his peers. [[spoiler: He's also the only one who succeeds in love and the only member who permanently decides to cut ties with them upon realizing how toxic his former friends were.]]

** The group gets banned from Toys'R'Us when Pete decides to burn the steel toys and the fire spreads to the store.
** Downplayed with Pete. He has kicked out the group several times and has openly stated his dislike to the boys, but the only reason he hasn't fully banned them is due to them being his best customers. [[spoiler: That's until Bill gets drunk with power destroying his store and burns it to the ground.]]
** [[spoiler: At the end of "Lo, there shall be an epilogue" The Eltingville group fears that they will be banned from every geeky store, con and event in existence when Bill causes havok at Comic Con]]

** Inspired by Josh's commentary that anyone should burn the steel toys, Pete decides to burn them with his lighter, accidentally burning the Toys 'R' us store alongside it and getting the group banned from the store.
** [[spoiler: Upon ruining Joe's store, Bill finishes destroying the place by burning the place to the ground and making it as his resignation.]]

* VitriolicBestBuds: Deconstructed. Despite claiming to be friends, the group is always seen insulting and fighting at each other over petty things. [[spoiler:Mandy, Jerry's girlfriend, directly questions to the group if they were even friends at all]]
* WouldHurtAChild: Joe, the owner of the comic store, not only makes it clear that he will kill Bill if he caughts him stealing, and [[spoiler: fights the eltingville club when he finds them destroying his store merch during a petty fight between each other.]]
* ToxicFriendInfluence: The members became the worst versions of themselves each time they are together. [[spoiler: At the end of "This fan... this monster", their parents took notice of this at the end when Bill burned Joe's store and forced them to abandon their friendship.]]

The comic was adapted into a pilot for an animated series on Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/AdultSwim in 2002, but didn't got pitched.

* BreakingTheFellowship: Played often for laughs at the end of the episode with the tagline "Is this the end of The Eltingville Club". However, this is played straight in the last two episodes, [[spoiler: as the parents forbid them to seeing each other after Bill burns Joe's store, and at the last episode, where Jerry leaves for good.]]

** Inspired with Josh's commentary that anyone should burn the steel toys, Pete decides to burn them with his lighter, accidentally burning the Toys 'R' us store alongside it and getting the group banned from the store.
** [[spoiler: Upon ruining Joe's store, Bill finish destroying the place by burning the place to the ground and making it as his resignation.]]
* ShopliftAndDie: Having caught and fired his former assistant, Joe makes it clear to Bill that he will kill him if he caughts him stealing stuff from his store.
* StagingAnIntervention: Concerned by his son's habits, Bill's mother pays two guys to kidnap the boy, lock him in his basement and force him to into quitting his geeky life.

* ToxicFriendInfluence: The members became the worst versions of themselves each time they are together. [[spoiler: At the end of "This fan... this monster", their parents took notice of this at the end of when Bill burned Joe's store and forced them to abandon their friendship.]]

** Downplayed with Pete. He has kicked out the group several times and has openly stated his dislike to the boys, butthe only reason he hasn't fully banned them is due to them being his best costumers. [[spoiler: That's until Bill gets drunk with power destroying his store and burns it to the ground.]]

* OnlySaneMan: Jerry Stokes Jr is this by comparison of the other members, as he has a more easygoing personality and is calmer than his peers. [spoiler: He's also the only one who succeeds in live and the only member who permanently decides to cut thies with them upon realizing how toxic his former friends were.]

** [[spoiler:Bill is still living with his parents

* VillainProtagonist: William "Bill" Dickey. This trait of him is more prominent on the last two chapters of the comic, fully antagonizing the other members of the group.

* InternetJerk: [[spoiler: Bill ]]

* Pyromaniac:

* VitriolicBestBuds: Deconstructed. Despite claiming to be friends, the group is always seen insulting and fighting at each other over petty things.

* BreakingTheFellowship: Played often for laughs at the end of the episode with the tagline "Is this the end of The Eltingville Club". However, this is played straight in the last two episodes, [[spoilers: as the parents forbid them to seeing each other after Bill burns Joe's store, and at the last episode, where Jerry leaves for good.]]