Tyson Hesse's Diesel is a comic book written and drawn by Tyson Hesse and published by Boom! Studios as a part of their BOOM! Box imprint.
Up in the sky, there is the mobile community of Peacetowne. And in this community resides Dee Diesel, a brash girl who's more than ecstatic because her eighteenth birthday is around the corner, which means that Peacetowne will soon become property of the Diesel family. The only downside is...she's not exactly very responsible. Or good with gadgets. Or anything for that matter. For what it's worth, she can somehow generate a lot of static electricity.
Of course, that can only get her so far in life, especially considering everything changes when Dee starts seeing lightning that explodes, followed by a massive battleship flown by creepy birdmen called the Teppan. Next thing she knows, she finds a weird engine that can fly whenever she interacts with it.
And this is only the beginning of her adventure...
Tropes associated with this series include:
- Agent Scully: Bull believes only stupid people believe in magic and that his fire powers have scientific explanation.
- Alliterative Name: Dee Diesel.
- Alternate History: Pretty sure the 1800's didn't have this much Diesel Punk thrown into it.
- Art Evolution: The characters went from having realistic proportions
◊ to having something with a more cartoon-ish flair.◊ - The Atoner: It's heavily implied that Tungston Diesel is helping Teppans get revenge on Gass out of repentance for helping create the chemical weapon that crippled their race.
- Big Damn Heroes: Captain Friede and Mr. Fancy return to save Dee and her friends from the Teppans attack on the Gass capital.
- Big Fun: Captain Friede and Mr. Fancy.
- Bird People: The Teppans. They're also referred to as "birdmen."
- Break the Cutie: Dee may be cute-looking, but she's not exactly the most humble person around. However, after Peacetowne goes ka-boom and she finds Rickets and herself below the clouds and has a hard time lighting a simple fire, she subtly breaks down.
- Character Development: Dee goes from a brash girl with no real applicable skills to someone with a little more sense of responsibility.
- Cool Hoverbike: Dee's floating engine gets turned into this courtesy of Bull and some of his friends after he and Dee got the Teppan to leave Stableburg.
- The Cynic: Due to the various prejudices, hardships and possible betrayals he has experienced, Bull is a very pessimistic and paranoid person. He is very slow to trust, quick to attack anything he perceives as a threat and has a hard, no nonsense personality.
- Disappeared Dad: Dee's (adoptive) father, Tungston Diesel. But then averted when he appears in the flesh in issue #2...only to blow up Peacetowne, which makes it a case of Archnemesis Dad.
- Dramatic Irony: Peacetowne falls apart in a less than peaceful manner and Stableburg isn't as stable as the name would imply.
- Elemental Powers: Dee and Bull have the ability to create and manipulate electricity and fire respectively.
- Energy Absorption: Dee absorbs a massive lightning bolt shot out by an Teppan ship. The strain of doing so caused her to pass out but it gave her companions and the civilians of Gass enough time to escape the city.
- Face–Heel Turn: Tungston Diesel, although Diesel believes he's with the Teppan against his will. Bull begs to differ.
- Fantastic Racism: Humans of Gass treat the more anthropomorphic species like second class citizens. Steersman are seen as dirty savages and are "encouraged" to live under the clouds, which is used as a dumping ground for garbage. Teppans are treated even worse, not allowed to even live near humans. After the Gassbird War, where Gass's use of chemical weapons stripped the Teppans of their ability to fly, the King of Gass pettily forbade his scientists from helping the race recover.
- Great Offscreen War: The Gassbird War of 1810, of which Tungston Diesel played a huge role in.
- Horned Humanoid: Bull and the other citizens of Stableburg who aren't Teppan.
- In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: The title on the covers is "Tyson Hesse's Diesel".
- Loveable Rogue: Captain Friede and Mr. Fancy are genuinely nice people but they're also smugglers who use their reflective ship to sneak through tolls posts and avoid inspections.
- Magic Versus Science: Mr. Fancy believes in magic and destiny while Bull scoffs at the concepts.
- Misplaced Retribution: While imprisoned in the Gass capital, Cap puts the destruction of Peacetowne directly at Dee's feet. Bull points out that the Teppans would have destroyed Peacetowne no matter what Dee did to ensure their warships stayed secret.
- Mystical White Hair: Dee has white hair with pink highlights.
- Nobody Could Have Survived That: The explosion of Peacetowne. Except Cap and Phillip got out and it's later revealed most of Peacetowne's inhabitants survived, injured but alive, and are trapped in the wreckage of Peacetowne, waiting for Cap and Phillip to bring help.
- Not a Morning Person: Dee. It doesn't exactly help that she woke up in Stableburg."Bughhh, even the mornings here are terrible."
- Properly Paranoid: When Dee wants to leave her and Bull's belongings outside while they shop, she dismisses his remarks that they'll be stolen, which ends up happening. Subverted that Dee didn't leave them unattended, she told Rickets to watch their stuff and it was taken when he was distracted with a cat and a dog.
- Robot Buddy: Rickets is one for Dee.
- Tragic Keepsake: Cap carries around Peacetowne broken steering wheel with her.
- Wham Shot: Dee seeing her adoptive father Tungston among the Teppan, followed by Peacetowne getting violently blown apart.
- Wretched Hive: Stableburg. Subverted when Dee and Bull's attack on the Tower gets the Teppan to go North.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Mostly because it got blown to smithereens by the Teppan.
