History Webcomic / Widdershins

!!This webcomic contains example of

* HeroesWantRedHeads: [[http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-23rd-2012 Wolfe]] has a thing for them, according to Jack.

* TransparentTech: When Alexa exploits a PlaceBeyondTime to send a video message to her 2013-era phone from 2032, her [[https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/april-28th-2017 new phone]] is a piece of folding glass, matching what's seen of that era's aesthetic.

The first story, "Sleight of Hand," follows Sidney Malik, a failed magician ''and'' wizard who is cursed with a kind of magical kleptomania which results in his expulsion from university. While struggling to find a job, he ends up caught up in [[BountyHunter professional artefact-hunter]] Harriet ("Harry") Barber's latest quest: finding the Mark of Thieves.

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Jack/Mal rescues Ben, Wolfe, and Nicola with a gang of buggerups, and gets to look quite justifiably smug for the rest of the story.]] %%when?

* TheNoseKnows: Harriet ha has a magic-detecting dog. %%is it this trope?

* BadassFamily: It seems to run in the Barber family. Grandpa Henry was a famous adventurer, Harry is following in his footsteps, and Harry's sister Nicola is a formidable police officer. Florrie isn't particularly badass but she is quite sharp (though she doesn't much act like it most of the time). [[spoiler:Nora, a maid at the Gula Hotel]], is rather meek in comparison to the rest of the family [[spoiler:but a spirit of Courage conjured from her is mighty enough to stand up to a Deadly]]. A powerful spirit taunts Florrie with a cryptic throwaway reference to their grandmother, which it then [[{{Unreveal}} refuses to explain.]]

* TruthInTelevision: Despite being son of the Baron of Widdershins, Henry speaks with a broad Yorkshire accent. This is historically bang on - at the time, aristocrats tended to speak with the accent of the county they lived in. It wasn't until quite a bit later that they started using Received Pronunciation.

* GlamourFailure: Dogs are sensitive to the presence of magic, and some like Harry's dog Gren can be trained to sniff out and track magic a little like a drug-sniffing dog. Gren didn't much like Sidney at first because of all the magic she can smell on him, as a wizard. She later becomes used to his presence.

* FourthWallMailSlot: A few pages between all of the stories. The author describes the internet as "comfortingly predictable" after Jack/Mal and Wolfe field a question about whether they're a couple, which Wolfe is a touch discomfited by and Jack/Mal (him fo dismissing lust with "not really my kind of sin") finds amusing.

* AuraVision: Jack O'Malley can see "the spirits that form magic and emotion".

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Jack/Mal rescues Ben, Wolfe, and Nicola with a gang of buggerups, and gets to look quite justifiably smug for the rest of the story.]]

* EarlyBirdCameo: Harry and Sid meet Jack/Mal and Wolfe in chapter 1, who take center stage in chapter 2.

----> '''Luxuria''': I don't understand! I don't understand!
----> '''Mal''': Nah... ye couldn't.

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: the ensemble in charge of weakening the deadlies in the chapter "Curtain Call" - Wolfe (phlegmatic), Verity (sanguine), Ben (choleric), Sidney (melancholic).

* FourthWallMailSlot: A few pages between all of the stories. The author describes the internet as "comfortingly predictable" after Jack/Mal and Wolfe field a question about whether they're a couple, which Wolfe is a touch discomfited by and Jack/Mal finds amusing.
* AFriendInNeed: O'Malley rescuing Thackerey
%% Not enough context. Please split both tropes into separate bullet points.
%%* GadgeteerGenius[=/=]WrenchWench: Verity ("Vee") Cunningham and Lei Feng both. Lei's dabbling in {{Magitek}} leans her closer to the "Gadgeteer Genius" end of the spectrum, but Vee is no slouch either.

* GentlemanThief: Thomas Macavity. Sidney plays up the image at one point.

* HeroicSacrifice: Running into a burning building to deal with a summoned spirit?

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Jack/Mal and Wolfe. [[spoiler: Except that Mal is asexual.]]

* ImpossibleThief: Sidney, [[CursedWithAwesome not that he wants to be]].

* InsistentTerminology: Technically they are called 'Malforms,' but most people call them [[http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/april-23rd-2012 Buggerups]]. "Buggerups", because you "buggered up", or more simply, messed up, the spell.

* LethalChef: There's a reason Wolfe does most of the cooking for the pair. Jack/Mal doesn't even understand you're supposed to crack eggs before putting them in the frying pan (and that clouds of black smoke from same are not a good sign).

* MagiciansAreWizards: Sidney Malik fails a job interview because he's both. Otherwise, they are different things.

** One of the meanings of Malik is "king," which is entirely appropriate considering Sidney is saddled with the Mark.

** Possibly Alexa's last name of [[spoiler:King. Her name isn't the spoiler, but the possible connection is - it's not unheard-of for people with "foreign-sounding" names to Anglicize them in English-speaking countries, especially during times of political tension, and so she could be descended from Sidney]].

* NiceGuy: Wolfe. When he [[spoiler:gets kidnapped after nosing around too much]], what does he do? He gives [[spoiler:the kidnapper]] words of encouragement and inspires him to pursue his dreams. As one character puts it, the only good thing that comes along with O'Malley is Wolfe.
* NonActionGuy: Sidney isn't much for a fight.

* TheNoseKnows: Harriet uses a dog.

* OurWitchesAreDifferent: All magic involves RandomlyGifted people working with [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent spirits]]. The vanishingly rare Witches have more intuitive magic, have innate SupernaturalSensitivity, and are linked to one of the world's four magical Anchors. Both are gender-neutral, though [[spoiler:Jack o'Malley]] is the only male Witch in the comic.

-->'''Officer Barber:''' So you cheat at cards for a living.
-->'''Jack:''' S'not cheating, it's using a natural advantage, isn't it?
* PersonalityPowers: Spirits all over, as they are made of a particular emotion and can thus do things conceptually related to that - it's the entire basis of [[MagiTek imbuing]] things to make magic items. Wizards themselves can also lean on this, using the strength of their own emotions (or of someone else to hand) to act as the offering necessary to call a spirit, and thus more readily imbue things with that spirit. This can be extremely dangerous, especially with the Deadlies, as it means you're very wrapped up in a feeling that the spirit would obviously be rather adept at manipulating.
* PickACard: Sidney uses it on the street to make money.
* PlainPalate: O'Malley only eats for sustenance, not enjoyment, as he's colour-blind and food looks bad to him.

** Also Sidney, who cannot turn off his magical ability for acquiring other peoples' property.

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: While working in her shop back to the door, Eliza didn't recognize Vincent (despite hearing his voice) until he corrected her spelling.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ff0eed56_4e1b_411c_88b6_e45c42de03b0.png]]

"''Widdershins'' is an adventure/comedy comic set in 1830s England, with a dash of magic. It’s made up of short stories, some of which will be self-contained, others not so much.."

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Wolfe practically ''bleeds'' serenity, to the extent that [[spoiler:Mal and Ben can draw off him to bind and banish the spirit of Wrath, and he doesn't even notice]]. About his only flaw is that [[spoiler:he’s weak to a pretty face]].

* OverlyLongName: Lancelot Sidney Arthur Oliver Malik. He prefers Sidney. ([[WordOfGod His parents wanted a]] ''[[WordOfGod really]]'' [[WordOfGod English name]].) Macavity later [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it with, "Mr Long-Name-Can’t-Remember-It-All-Doesn’t-Matter."

* BadassBeard: Edmund Barber has a beard worthy of a Civil War general, which some readers (and Florrie in-universe) have jokingly referred to as "Eddie's beard" and a background character in its own right.

* {{Asexuality}}: Jack O'Malley is asexual, though it isn't a word he'd know. As Wolfe put it once, "Mal has never been interested in what that particular sin [Lust] has to offer."

*** Luxuria describes humans as "utterly ridiculous", "a mass of chaotic emotions". It calls human relationships the worst part of that, claims to know nothing about love, and sees it only as a [[LoveIsAWeakness weakness for it to exploit]]. So it becomes a big surprise for it [[spoiler: to be defeated by the Power of Friendship]].

ParanormalAdvantage: Jack O'Malley has the unique power to see [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent spirits]], including people's [[AuraVision emotional auras]], which he [[https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/april-2nd-2012 exploits]] in card games. This starts a BarBrawl in Widdershins, where people are familiar enough with magic to guess that ''something'' is amiss.

** The city of Widdershins. The name is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widdershins direction]] ([[SeparatedByACommonLanguage anti-clockwise]]) which has certain important meanings in various religious and magical rites in the real world (mostly in that different groups assign different meanings to which direction you go in a ritual circle), but it also has a colloquial meaning about things going "backwards" or strangely - and this is the most magically significant city in England, where things often do go rather strangely.

Story nine, "Witch Hunt", is in progress as of January 2020 and returns to the main cast of characters from the first seven stories.