A darkly humorous webcomic
by Lee Adam Herold documenting since 2000 (with a long gap between Dec. 9 2014 to May 4, 2022) the single-panel exploits of Butch R. Mann, a hockey mask-wearing serial killer who is equal parts "Jason Voorhees, Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, and Ziggy." Most of the humor of the strip comes from taking typical horror and slasher tropes, then bringing them to the most ludicrous possible applications. The strip is notable for both its gag skill in Crossing the Line Twice, and its unique gray-toned art style that is both inked and sponged before being scanned into the computer.
Definitely not for kids, as the subject matter swings freely from Black Comedy to Gallows Humor to Black Comedy and all steps in between. However, if you're in the mood for a little walk on the darker side of the mind, this is the panel-strip for you.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc:
Schedule Slip has caused the author's few storylines (delving into Butch's past) to abort without mention. - Abusive Parents: One of Butch's mother's boyfriends was apparently a child molester. He got what was coming to him.
- Acrofatic: Butch veers between being agile in spite of his obesity and just plain fat.
- Aerosol Flamethrower: Butch once lit aerosol spray on fire for an audition in the film St. Elmo's Fire.
- Alone with the Psycho: Many strips are positioned as having Butch corner an innocent victim before he inevitably kills them.
- Ambiguously Christian: Some strips have Butch attending Church or reading The Bible and Comically Missing the Point, in others he's a crazy satanist, and in others he's garden-variety Ax-Crazy. In one strip, he's aggressively Evangelical Bhuddist.
- And Show It to You: Butch tries to show his victims their internal organs after ripping them out, but the victims usually don't live long enough to see it.
- Asshole Victim: Butch likes to kill people who are horrible enough that very few would be upset about their murders, although he'll target anyone who draws his attention. (Among other things, he specifically targets registered sex offenders.)
- Ax-Crazy: There is hardly a limit to who Butch is willing to murder in cold blood.
- Bad Humor Truck: When you're killing the ice cream man, remember to turn off the music.
- Beach Bury: Butch didn't initially bury the guy, but he did finish the job.
- Bed Trick: Butch killed the guy who was supposed to be in the bed. (He really just wanted a hug.)
- Bilingual Bonus: Various strips have been written in several different languages, such as Irish, Spanish, etc.
- Bitter Almonds: Like a lot of creators, Herold screwed this one up, assuming that bitter almonds smell like regular almonds.
- Black Comedy: Butch kills men, women, children, and dogs without pause, sometimes in alarmingly graphic ways.
- Berserk Button: Butch's mother is a sore subject. Another button is hogging the bus seat when a lady wants to sit down.
- The Brute: Butch is early six and a half feet tall, and Super-Strength to match.
- Cannibalism Superpower: Butch once tried to eat the brains of babysitters to obtain their skills, only to find that doing so did not give him any information on how to change a diaper.
- Cheek Copy: Butch once did the prank of photocopying one's behind using someone else's butt, and not much else of them.
- Comically Missing the Point: Butch intermittently forgets that killing people is illegal, instead panicking that a bystander saw him commit a much more minor crime (like shoplifting) in the process of killing someone.
- Companion Cube: Most of the objects in Butch's house have given him suggestions. Terrible, terrible suggestions.
- Couldn't Find a Lighter: Hey pal, you got a light?
- Crime After Crime: Butch is prone to killing one person to help another, killing that second person for panicking at his actions, and then killing whoever saw it happen.
- Crossover A few, starting with Butch making bread with Freddy Krueger, and ending with the devils from Sinfest, Living In Greytown and Hell Sweet Hell using him as a marionette.
- The union meeting of "Psychos Local 616" (March 29, 2001), with Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, Mike Myers, and Butch "talking shop".
- The union meeting of "Psychos Local 616" (March 29, 2001
- Dead Guy Puppet: One strip had Butch give Jim Henson the funeral he would have wanted by puppeteering his corpse.
- Deal with the Devil: Butch has tried it on occasion. It doesn't work out, once because Satan tells him he's already doing his bidding for free, and another because the goat he's bargaining with is just a regular-ass goat.
- Didn't Think This Through: In the "final episode" strip, Butch decides to kill everyone on a plane, but then realizes that with everyone else on the plane dead, presumably including the pilots, he's now doomed to die as the plane crashes.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Infrequently. Once, it's because she hit one of Butch's Berserk Buttons during her "Sales Pitch." Other times, it's because of Mother telling him to "Kill the whores."
- Eats Babies: Butch considers a nursery a "raw bar" and has his fork ready to eat newborns.
- Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas: Where the bathroom is or coded message from Satan? note
- Electrified Bathtub: The text talks of the beauty of the arcing electricity. Butch just likes the smell.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: The R. in Butch R. Mann's name stands for Reginald.
- Enfant Terrible: Butch liked killing animals even as a child.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Butch is a killer, and is terribly embarrassed for something to think he's going to rape them. Notably, this isn't a moral standard, it's pure semantics on Butch's part.
- Butch likes going to the bus station, but is wary of the unsavory elements there.
- The little guy with the funny mustache gives Butch the creeps.
- Butch likes going to the bus station, but is wary of the unsavory elements there
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: It's been mentioned multiple times that Butch had difficulty with math in school.
- Everyone Hates Mimes:
- Butch kills mimes even after meeting his quota.
- Sic semper mimeus shows Butch about to shoot a mime in the back of his head.
- Butch kills mimes even after meeting his quota.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Something told Butch he should kill the next person to pass by."Weird creature sitting on the bench: Psst. Hey, buddy. You should kill the next person to pass by.
- Expressive Mask: The eyeholes in Butch's mask mimic actual eyes, especially when he's happy. There's a row of air holes in his mask that mimic the line of his mouth as well.
- Expy: Depending on the situation, Butch can take the place of any famed serial killed, real or fictional, though his general appearance is a clear riff on Jason Voorhees.
- Expy Coexistence: Butch once performed a Mirror Routine with Jason.
- Extended Disarming: Though the disarmer doesn't live to see it.
- The Faceless: Butch always wears a hockey mask. In one comic, he's shown without the mask (having carved words into his forehead); his face is entirely obscured by shadow.
- Failed a Spot Check: This cop failed to notice that Butch was standing right in front of him disguised as a nun.
- Fetus Terrible: Butch strangled his twin in the womb
- The Friend Nobody Likes: In this strip, Butch is surprised by a lackluster response to one of his murders. As it turns out, nobody really much liked the victim, they just let him hang out with them.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Here we see how Butch attends funerals: like a football game, complete with foam finger and guzzler hat.
- Gallows Humor: S'alright? S'alright.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Used at least twice. The angel never survives.
- Grammar Nazi: Butch doesn't tolerate the use of the "greengrocers' apostrophe".
- Of course, the site itself is rife with intentional punny misspellings, likely to add to the spooky decorum of the site. It is rather jarring, especially when seeing that comic. You'd think Butch would have killed his own creator by now.
- Grandfather Paradox: Butch is willing to try it.
- Groin Attack:
- One strip has Butch work in an adult movie theater, where he raises a pair of shears as he spots Pee-Wee Herman jerking it, the implication being that he's about to punish him for publicly masturbating by cutting his dick off.
- In another, Butch gets a Royal Guard to show emotion by snipping his balls off.
- One strip
- Halloween Episode: Choptoberfest 2013, starting on this page.
- Hearing Voices: The voices in Butch's head are evenly split between Mom and Satan.
- Heroic Fire Rescue: How it looked to the onlookers. They didn't see him carry the old lady out the back door . . .
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Turns out dropping cinderblocks on freeways causes traffic jams.
- Hooks and Crooks: Unfortunately, Butch forgot his hook.
- Hope Spot: This guy had one, as did this one.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Best demonstrated by the fate of an unfortunate mugger.
- But there are limits to what he can hide. Not what he can carry, just what he can hide.
- But there are limits to what he can hide.
- I Am Legion: Well, it explains why his bulk keeps increasing . . .
- I Call It "Vera": Butch's knife is named Mack.
- Ignored Epiphany: The comic plays with the trope in just the second strip.
- I Love the Dead: Butch usually treats killing a woman as equivalent to deflowering her, and doesn't have sex with her body until long after she's dead. (Of course, like a lot of things in the comic, this can vanish for the sake of a joke.)
- I'm a Humanitarian: Eating his victims' remains is one of Butch's most frequent reasons for murder, probably coming in third behind "they were annoying" and "why not?"
- Improvised Weapon: Butch likes his "scythe", but he's also killed people with a crowbar, a screwdriver, a lawnmower, etc.
- Insistent Terminology: "Job Performance Reviews", also known as obituaries.
- Butch prefers "High Yield Afterlife Broker" to "Serial Killer".
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Without Butch . . . the world would be so much better!
- Karma Houdini: At various times, Butch has been imprisoned, put on parole, sentenced to death (with the implication that he killed everyone in the courtroom), and placed at third on the FBI's most wanted list. It has never even been hinted that something other than direct authorial intervention or his own stupidity could put him down for good. (In one version of the future, it's the latter. In another, he grows old in a nursing home, no longer physically fit enough to kill anyone.)
- Kavorka Man: Butch seems to have no problem getting dates, despite always wearing a hockey mask.
- Kilroy Was Here: Not word-for-word, but Butch draws him when he doesn't have any important message to impart because "it's a shame to leave all that blood there to clot."
- Knocking on Heathens' Door: Butch does Jehovah a favor, and gets rid of a witness.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": One of Butch's recurring traits. (Among other things, when he tried to kill the Dixie Chicks, he accidentally killed some "Chix with Dicks.")
- Life Imitates Art: Averted In-Universe, though not for lack of trying.
- Literal-Minded: Butch suffers from this.
- Made from Real Girl Scouts: Recipes for gingerbread men always omit the most important ingredient.
- Meaningful Name: The serial killer protagonist's name is Butch R. Mann ("butcher man").
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Essentially, Butch believes every problem he faces is best solved by killing whoever's causing him trouble.
- My Beloved Smother: Butch's mother was emotionally abusive, and although she's long since dead, he dug up her corpse and still hears it speak to him. At various points, he's carried it around in a backpack, accidentally beheaded it, and
tried to climb back into its uterus.- Notably, when someone asked him to spare her life because she had a little boy, he killed her precisely because of how he might have turned out if his mother hadn't been around.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Butch R. Mann. 'Nuff said.
- Even better: his biological father was Charles Mann. Meaning Butch is Charles Mann's son.
- Even better: his biological father was Charles Mann
- Napoleon Delusion: Why Butch didn't mingle with other inmates at the asylum.
- Neck Snap: On a terrorist. NO ONE blows up Butch's planes.
- Negative Continuity: Butch wears a hockey mask and kills people. Nothing else stays constant from strip to strip, not even his personality—it all depends on the Rule of Funny.
- New Media Are Evil: Butch's take on NFT's (Non-Fungible Tokens) certainly is (Non-Fungal Toes)
- Nightmare Fetishist: Butch looks to Lovecraft for inspiration.
- "No Animals Weren't Harmed in the Making of This Comic": One of the author's comments. (Others include "Now with More Spleens!")
- Not So Stoic: Even Royal Guards aren't immune to reacting to getting their scrotums cut off.
- Off with His Head!: Very often, Butch kills people through decapitation.
- Pet the Dog: Butch feels no compunctions about killing dogs, but he never harms pet fish or allows them to come to harm, and he may have a soft spot for cats as well. May being the keyword...
- Poor Man's Porn: Butch finds alternative uses for the lingerie catalog.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Butch can be as childish as he is insane and murderous, depending on the joke. In particular, his mutilation of corpses has been compared to a child playing with a box.
- Pun:
- On eating a French midget, Butch gets "a little frog in his throat".
- Golf with a dead body is, well...
- On eating a French midget
- Punch-Clock Villain: Though for the most part he really enjoys it, Butch treats his murders like a job, often trying to make a quota or taking days off. Even still, his most common "facial" expression seems to be a look of slight depression.
- Put Them All Out of My Misery: In one version of Butch's insanity, he both sees himself as The Everyman, and hates himself, so he kills one person after another in place of killing himself. He'd kill the entire world this way if he had the chance, but he'd then go even madder with no one left to kill.
- Rage Against the Author: The Halloween arc back in 2001 eventually turned into this—Herold revived the corpses of Butch's victims to punish him, and Butch in turn tried to kill Herold. Strictly speaking, Herold won.
- Rage Against the Reflection: "Goddamn thing was always staring at him."
- Razor Floss: Combined with skiing.
- Schedule Slip: The strip is known to not be updated for months at a time, then a new comic every day for just as long. Its intensive art creation certainly contributes to this.
- His updating schedule fluctuates so wildly that sometimes Keenspot just keeps him in the hiatus section of the site to save time.
- The Schizophrenia Conspiracy: Butch often hears voices that give him commands. (Interestingly, he's said that he'd go even crazier if he tried to disobey the orders.)
- The Scourge of God: Butch is either this, or really, really screwed.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Butch considered being bumped to third to be unacceptable.
- Similarly Named Works: A source of confusion In-Universe. In one strip, Butch reads Hannibal by Pliney the Younger (as in General Hannibal, the guy who attacked Rome), musing that the War Elephants and battles are cool and all, but all the time wondering where the part where Hannibal eats a man's brain is. He was looking for Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, which had come out a couple of years before the strip started.
- Sinister Scythe: Butch's weapon of choice is actually a sickle, but he calls it a scythe. It eventually gets lampshade-hung when a girl at a party tells him the difference; he then kills her with his "fucking doohickey".
- Strong as They Need to Be: Butch is so out-of-shape at one point that an old woman with a walker can outrun him, and he normally relies on stealth, but he becomes absurdly fast and lethal when large groups of people try to kill him.
- Subliminal Seduction: Butch can't detect it in The Beatles, but listening to "Octopus's Garden" does make him want to kill Ringo.
- Stylistic Suck: Butch is not a good cartoonist, although he definitely puts emotion into it.
- Teens Are Monsters: Well, when that teen is Butch, of course he'll be horribly cruel.
- Time Travel: Butch's adventures in such places as revolutionary France, the Hindenburg...
- Title Drop: Within a strip where Butch is trying to decide where to start cleaving a victim all tied up and ready.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Either there are a lot of Hendersons, or Butch has murdered the entire family several times by now.
- The status of his mother often changes as well. Mostly how he killed her or where he hid of the body.
- 30 Minutes, or It's Free!: So how many free pizzas do you get if the pizza guy's never heard from again?
- In a later strip, he makes a "Dead in thirty minutes or you go free!" guarantee.
- Too Dumb to Live: Everyone, including Butch. (Case in point: the "final episode", where he murders everyone on a plane and then realizes too late that he will die as well when the plane crashes.)
- Useless Spleen: The spleen is probably the most frequently-mentioned organ in the comic. Butch doesn't even know what it does, but he describes as having "a certain je ne sais quois."
- Villain Protagonist: Butch is the main character of the webcomic and happens to be an insane serial killer who constantly goes about murdering and dismembering people.
- Vorpal Pillow: An attempt by Butch to be rid of his Beloved Smother.
- Writer on Board: Herold, as with many webcomic artists, will occasionally force his political views into the comic. (The most notable being his response to the Terri Schiavo affair.) Fortunately, this is a very rare occurrence.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Prayer to St. Guillotine.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: By the creator, no less, later reversed.
