History Webcomic / Back

* GassHole: The Tummy Boys, Burpo and Sippus have this down to an art. Bonus points for being absolutely massive tools.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: After the fight with the MonsterCown in Cripes (the first enemy to give her serious trouble), Abigail develops a mild phobia of clowns. This leaves her very uncomfortable in Daggum, which is populated almost entirely by clowns.

* BulletCatch: Abigail can perform these, notably without using any fancy tricks to do so. She just grabbed the bullet between her fingers...
* BulletsDoNotWorkThatWay: ...and then immediately loaded the bullet she caught into her own gun and shot it back.

* ShoutOut: Among Accursed's townfolk, one can be seen dressed as [[SpiderMan Spider-Man]], and Mr. S resembles [[TheSimpsons Ned Flanders]].

** [[spoiler: However, as explored later, Dang's actual hold on the world is pretty feeble, maintained with the aforementioned superpowered individuals in the outer cities, while in the inner ones he has an internal power struggle with Queenie, who in turn is in direct contact with Frick, who is ''supposed'' to be Dang's [[TheDragon dragon]], and ''on top of it all'', the Head Witch is working on covert with King Dang.]]

* CerebusSyndrome: While the series never really looses its comedic side, after arriving to Accursed, the issue at hand is philosophically questioned and the following opponents are more dangerous and visceral (especially Queenie)
* ChainOfDeals: Daniel and Abigail have to go through the whole rigmarole in order to pay the toll to gain passage to Daggum through Shoot. It's as frustrating and annoying to them as one would think.

* LighterAndSofter: Compared to a lot of KC Green's other works, BACK is surprisingly restrained, feeling more PG-13 at most.

* MakeAnExampleOfThem: The Tummy Boys try to make an example of the Bartender for not paying his taxes (the same taxes that had suddenly been due that day) by cutting off an arm. Daniel tries to interviene, but this merely makes ''him'' their new target instead.

* TheMole: Knook, the close friend / lover of a King Dang goon ([[PunnyName Crannie]]), is secretly a member of the Society of Clocks, who are trying to help Abigail get to Goodness without being caught.

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler:Knook, who is secretly a member of the Society of Clocks.]]

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Each of the many princesses [[spoiler:has tried to find out and stop whatever plans King Dang has been up to.]] Zig-zagged with Dang himself, as while he is not exactly doing nothing, he is generally idiotic and his storylines mostly revolves around both Princess Darn and [[spoiler: Queenie]] outmaneuvering him.

** Also: "Daniel... there are clowns." Abigail really dislikes clowns -- to such a degree that, contrary to her usual LiteralMinded understanding, she calls people clowns not because they really are clowns or to insult them, but simply because she [[MonsterClown finds them threatening]] and their dressing funny.

* WeirdWest: And it only gets weirder.
* WhamEpisode: Chapter 8 reveals several things: [[spoiler: Abigail was shipped down to the graveyard near Krud, at the orders of King Dang. The Head Southern Witch also had a hand in matters, and on the way Abigail and Daniel indirectly encountered one another. Also, Abigail ''can'' sleep.]]

* BigBad: King Dang, the despotic ruler of the world. Well, sort of. He's is more of the BiggerBad for the main plot, as the various {{Arc Villain}}s tend to be his subordinates, but he himself doesn't directly interact with Abigail and Daniel.

* BrokenPedestal: Daniel was in a bit of a CrisisOfFaith, lacking a sense of purpose in his daily life. Thus, when Abigail came along and kicked asses all around, he felt inspired, began to hero-worship her, and followed her on her journey. It doesn't take him too long to realize that Abigail often relies more on her instincts and luck than any genius, is a bit of a {{Jerkass}} rather than a hero, and lacks a life purpose herself [[note]]That's why she's willing to end the world, because someone gave her a thing to do[[/note]]. Notably, he sticks with her nonetheless, and because of Daniel, Abigail begins [[CharacterDevelopment questioning herself and her actions and taking more initiative]], which arguably leads to Daniel's repect for her [[RebuiltPedestal returning stronger than before]].

* {{Cult}}: The Society Of Clocks, who claim to feel the "biological urges or the world", and have tasked themselves with stopping any and all threats to the planet. [[spoiler: They're actually the good guys in all of this, and help Abigail along the way, believing she's not going to literally end the world, but "reset" it, and in doing so save [[GeniusLoci the living planet]] from whatever King Darn is doing to it.]]

* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler: Abigail [[AmbiguousSituation probably]] wasn't killed and resurrected by the Witches, she was only made to look dead long enough that King Darn would be convinced and bury her right at the Witches' doorstep. She was actually [[NotQuiteDead half-awake for the entire ride in her casket from Goodness to Krud]].]]

* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Sherlock Holmes is on King Darn's payroll, but he's far from the most competent of his minions, and despite being told to distract Abigail instead himself gets distracted by the enormous amounts of poker chips she had picked up off the ground and tried to eat.

* TheMole: Knook, the close friend / lover of a King Darn goon ([[PunnyName Crannie]]), is secretly a member of the Society of Clocks, who are trying to help Abigail get to Goodness without being caught.

* TheUndead: Abigail was raised from the dead via ambiguous methods by the Witches. This has left her missing a few crucial details such as ''what sleep is''. [[spoiler: Made more ambiguous later on when we see that she was actually [[NotQuiteDead barely conscious all the way through her burial]], meaning that she might not have been killed and resurrected but only [[DeathFakedForYou made to look dead]] so King Darn would take his attention off of her.]]

* BrokenPedestal: Daniel was in a bit of a CrisisOfFaith, lacking a sense of purpose in his daily life. Thus, when Abigail came along and kicked asses all around, he felt inspired, began to hero-worship her, and followed her on her journey. It doesn't take him too long to realize that Abigail often relies more on her instincts and luck than any genius, is a bit of a {{Jerkass}} rather than a hero, and lacks a life purpose herself [[note]]That's why she's willing to end the world, because someone gave her a thing to do.[[/note]]. Notably, he sticks with her nonetheless, and because of Daniel, Abigail begins [[CharacterDevelopment questioning herself and her actions and taking more initiative]], which arguably leads to Daniel's repect for her [[RebuiltPedestal returning stronger than before]].

--> '''Mattie''': [...] and like, we also feel that now, okay get this, we feel that the cowboy lady is actually, like, cool.

* ApocalypseHow: The world of BACK seems to be set in a post apocalyptic wasteland and references to some sort of sanity-eroding 'Crack' are made.

** [[spoiler: However, as explored later, Dang's actual hold on the world is pretty feeble, maintained with the aforementioned superpowered individuals in the outer cities, while in the inner ones he has an internal power struggle with Queenie, who in turn is in direct contact with Frick, who is ''supposed'' to be Dang's [[TheDragon dragon]], and on ''top of it all'', the Head Witch is working on covert with King Dang.]]

* BrokenPedestal: Daniel was in a bit of a CrisisOfFaith, lacking a sense of purpose in his daily life. Thus, when Abigail came along and kicked asses all around, he felt inspired, began to hero-worship her, and followed her on her journey. It doesn't take him too long to realize that Abigail often relies more on her instincts and luck than any genius, is a bit of a {{Jerkass}} rather than a hero, and lacks a life purpose herself [[note]]That's why she's willing to end the world, because someone gave her a thing to do[[/note]]. Notably, he sticks with her nonetheless, and because of Daniel, Abigail begins [[CharacterDevelopment questioning herself and her actions and taking more initiative]], which arguably leads to Daniel's repect for her [[RebuiltPedestal returning stronger than before]].

* BulletsDoNotWorkThatWay: ...And then immediately loaded the bullet she caught into her own gun and shot it back.

* CrapSackWorld: Early on its played for laughs, but as the series advances, the incredibly deplorable state of the outer cities becomes more apparent and is taken seriously. The presence of Dang's downright sadistic enforces makes it more glaring.

* CurbStompBattle: The fight against Crannie is the first one in which Abigail stands no chance at all, what with Crannie being ''[[UpToEleven stronger than]] [[SuperStrength Abigail]]'' and an extremely skilled and experienced arena fighter. Though she only gets warm; what ''really'' gets to Abigail is when Crannie begins to [[BreakThemByTalking take all her achievements, motivations and intentions apart]].

* DeathCourse: The obstacle course on [[ShowWithinAShow Crannie's Challenge]], which seems to be 50% deadly traps, and 50% NoodleImplements. Most telling of all however, is the fact that ''Crannie herself doesn't know where it ends''.

* EnemyCivilWar: Not ''quite'', but [[spoiler: Dang's hold of the inner world politics is surprisingly weak, with Queenie and Crannie each having influence that threatens his rule on certain areas, not to mention that Frick works closely with Queenie behind Dang's back...who himself is covertly working with the Head Witch.]] Worsened as [[spoiler: Queenie]] begins to more openly (and successfully) defy Dang.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Some of Burpo's dialogue seems hint that the current government is a wild west style tyranny is for [[WellIntentionedExtremist a very good reason]].

* GreatDetective: Chapter Seven introduces one. It's [[spoiler:just flat out Sherlock Holmes]].

* HellHotel: The hotel in Blasted. It's abandoned, dusty, and overgrown, with rotten food in the kitchen, and ghostlike figures haunting the place. [[FromBadToWorse And then Abigail disappears...]]. [[spoiler:It turns out to be inhabited by the Society of Clocks, who (once they've stopped seeing Abigail as a threat) are actually quite clement.]]

* MonsterClown: Whilst not quite as monstrous as other examples, the Clown. He's strong enough to both crack rock and punt Abigail halfway across town, and is filled with murderous, unfathomable rage because… [[DisproportionateRetribution Daniel and Abigail stole his clothes]]. [[spoiler:He used to be the postal worker in Accursed, before he snapped and stole the town clown’s clothes.]]
* TheMole: Knook, the close friend of a King Darn Goon ([[PunnyName Crannie]]), is secretly a member of the Society of Clocks, who are trying to help Abigail get to Goodness without being caught.

--> "You'd need to find a '''knife''' to cut off the crusts, to do it right. […] But I did see a punk in the '''abandoned pharmacy''' using a '''knife''' to carve words into the walls of the '''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment abandoned pharmacy]]'''."

* AmbiguouslyHuman: While normal humans are around, most of the world's being are close but not quite, as described above.
** Also applies in-universe to some creatures that are close to the aforementioned beings, are a bit ''off''. Most of King Dang's agents are plain weird, not to mention the clown and [[spoiler: Abigail. She sort of gets more of a pass for being undead though]]

* BrokenPedestal: Daniel was in a bit of a CrisisOfFaith, lacking a sense of purpose in his daily life. Thus, when Abigail came along and kicked asses all around, he felt inspired, began to hero-worship her, and followed her on her journey. It doesn't take him too long to realize that Abigail often relies more on her instincts and luck than any genius, is a bit of a {{Jerkass}} rather than a hero, and lacks a life purpose herself [[note]]That's why she's willing to end the world, because someone gave her a thing to do[[/note]]. Notably, he sticks with her nonetheless, and because of Daniel, Abigail begins questioning herself and her actions and taking more initiative, which arguably leads to Daniel's repect for her [[RebuiltPedestal returning stronger than before]].

* CallBack: When the Clown attacks Abigail in Cripes, she states “Daniel, there is a clown". Upon reaching Daggum, several chapters later...

** With Abigail ''literally'' not knowing right from wrong, that still leaves the Head Witch of South, who works decidedly against the king, but is a cackling, self-serving {{Jerkass}} herself. And she's definitely more keen on the end of the world than Abigail herself is; she initiated the whole matter in the first place.

* PlummetPerspective: Whilst [[spoiler:fighting with Crannie in the rafters,]] a falling sandbag demonstrates just how far up she and Abigail are.

** Also: "Daniel... there are clowns." Abigail really dislikes clowns -- to such a degree that she calls people clowns not because they really are clowns or to insult them, but simply because she [[MonsterClown finds them threatening]] and their dressing funny.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Several spoilerfiifc examples, due to the quirky nature of the comic.

* CrapSackWorld: Early on its played for laughs, but as the series advances, the incredibly deplorable state of the outer cities becomes more apparent and is taken seriously. The presence of Dang's downright sadistic enforces makes it more glaring.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Each of the many princesses [[spoiler:has tried to find out and stop whatever plans King Dang has been up to.]]Zig-zagged with Dang himself, as while he is not exactly doing nothing, he is generally idiotic and his storylines mostly revolves around both Princess Dang and [[spoiler: Queenie]] outmaneuvering him.

* SirSwearsALot: Teenie.

* SuperSerum: The strange chemical that King Dang gives out to his enforcers, which does anything from [[spoiler: turning the clown into a whale, to healing Princess Darn's broken arm]].

* HellHotel: The hotel in Blasted. It's abandoned, dusty, and overgrown, with rotten food in the kitchen, and ghostlike figures haunting the place. [[FromBadToWorse And then Abigail disappears...]]. [[spoiler:It turns out to be inhabited by the Society of Clocks, who (once they've stopped seeing Abigail as a threat), are actually quite clement.]]

** "Damned" Heat as well, who wanted have someone beheaded for no reason whatsoever, just to carry out his idea of a thrilling theater play.

** Cripes has Pee Boy, who has hoarded all the water by himself (literally), with the locals dying of thirst. Additionally, the [[spoiler: Clown is genuine threat to be dealt in between]]
** Accursed has the Dead Man, who is [[KnightOfCerebus far more powerful adversary.]], on top of [[spoiler: being a not particularly vile person, who finally forces Abigail to question herself. While violence is used to deal with him, he turns out to be a fairly reasonable person. The fact that diplomacy is ''not'' used is something that beggins to bug Abigail]]

** Blasted has some sort of zombie like inhabitants who lurk and threaten Abigail and Daniel from the Shadows. [[spoiler: Spectacularly subverted when its revealed that they are [[BigGood The Society of Clocks.]]]]
** Shoot basically has a parody of one. The whole "town" is pretty much a bus stop, and the issue at hand is the obstructive tollman
** Daggum has Crannie, a bombastic presenter who puts Abigail in a series of death traps on top of dueling her by herself. [[spoiler: She continues what the Dead Man on Accursed did, and strongly questions Abigail on her resolve]]
** Odious is seemingly ruled from the shadows by the mysterious Queenie and her mafia-church-gang group. [[spoiler: Unlike most of the previous ArcVillains, Queenie is powerful enough to openly defy Dang]]

* BigBad: King Dang, the despotic ruler of the world. Well, sort of. He's is more of the BiggerBad for the main plot, as the various ArcVillain tend to be his subordinates, but he himself doesn't directly interact with Abigail and Daniel.

* BigGood:[[spoiler: The Society of Clocks, which oversees the wellbeing of the world and has contacted and directed both Princess Darn and Abigail]]

** With Abigail ''literally'' not knowing right from wrong, that still leaves the Head Witch of South, who works decidedly against the king, but is a cackling, self-serving {{Jerkass}} herself.

* LikeIsLikeAComma: Mattie speaks like that.

* CeilingCling: [[spoiler: In order to escape King Dang, Princess Darn does clings to the underside of her bed canopy. ''For five days.'']]