Cloudscratcher is a webcomic that takes place in a World in the Sky where civilization rests atop the highest mountains and broadest plateaus, which chronicles the adventures of a resistance movement who fly the airship Cloudscratcher in their fight against the serpentine Margoth Empire. The main characters are the easily-excitable cat mechanic Felix O'Connel and the child soldier-turned-defectee snake Ixia, with the rest of the crew consisting of The Captain... The Captain, first mate and "trump card" Alice Harper, pilots Burt Haggerty and Jacques Le Roux, Communications Officer Delia MacNamara, chef and primary muscle Sally-Jean Peterson, priest/doctor and fellow Empire defectee Sogaat and "apprentice mechanic" Scotty.
Up till now their main opponents have the overall ineffectual West Bravo, but when the Empire's so-called "hero" Borzax is placed in charge of West Bravo to whips things into shape and finish off the Cloudscratcher crew once and for all...
Cloudscratcher is written to be a Genre Throwback to the Talking Animal cartoons of the 80s and 90s from the likes of Disney and Don Bluth, with TaleSpin being the clearest influence. Speaking of high-flying Diesel Punk stories, the comic also draws heavily from the Crimson Skies series.
Join the adventure here
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This webcomic provides examples of:
- Ace Pilot: All of the Cloudscratcher crew, though especially Alice. Even the captain, though not a fighter pilot, is one of the few airship pilots who can handle the turbulence below the cloud cover.
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The Cloudscratcher has a hanger bay for their biplanes.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Felix, most of the time. There's a slowly growing list of times he does wear shoes. It still seems odd that he wears shoes about the city, but on the same day, goes barefoot on a mission to sabotage a bomber.
Word of God is that he Prefers Going Barefoot in the same way a human might.- It was also presumably common in the old Avian Empire. Of the three birds whose feet have been in frame, only one was wearing sandals.
- Beware the Nice Ones/Psychopathic Manchild: Agathoth is described like so.
- Bizarrchitecture: New Elysium is a city built inside a giant aircraft, which is pretty tame by these standards, except for the upside-down skyscrapers hanging from the ceiling.
- Bullet Catch: Ixia manages to catch the bullets sprayed by a machine gun.
- The Captain: Take a wild guess.
- Captain Ersatz: Future character Valentine is confirmed to be one of "Smooth Criminal"-era Michael Jackson.
- The Avians are obviously the Chozo; a race of bird-like superscientists driven to extinction by a substance that drove them violently insane.
- Carnivore Confusion: Jacques is a pig, but Ixia eats bacon like it's nothing. It's likely that all meat in this setting comes from the Cartoon Creature wildlife.
- Cartoon Creature: The wildlife. We have Waddling Head things, a creature that looks kinda like an ostritch with a human face, and beakless owls.
- Classy Cat-Burglar: Nina, who is also literally a cat.
- Cool Ship: Borzax's ship, the Berzerk.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Ixia's super strength comes from her Training from Hell.
- Chess Motifs: To a small extent. Alice has a quite a few similarities in role to the Queen, naturally making The Captain the King, Burt and Sally being Rooks and Sogaat a Bishop.
- Child Prodigy: Felix in regards to machines, to the point where Cool Old Guy Scotty is his apprentice.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Umof. His favourite passtime is poking himself in the eye, for one thing. For another, Borzax punches him across the room and he responds with pistol fingers. Lastly, his character page is an ASCII Art picture of an apple.
- Cool Big Sis: Delia is an adoptive one to Felix.
- Cute Little Fangs: Ixia, being a cobra.
- Defector from Decadence: Ixia's defection sparks the plot.
- An unnamed black cobra betrayed the Empire (and Major Noggos personally), and heads a resistance army.
- Sogaat is the ship's chaplain and doctor.
- The Dragon: Narkethoness to Borzax and Agathoth to Emperor Vox, almost literally considering they're serpents.
- Easter Egg: The sheet music that appears when Ixia cranks her music box is for "You Are My Sunshine". This entails some
Fridge Brilliance when one considers how hard her parents took it when she was drafted. "Dont you DARE take my sunshine away!" - Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Captain. The crew don't refer to him by name and the cast page doesn't give him a name, just "The Captain". Though General Leon refers to him as "O'Connell".
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Frogs are Brits, pigs are French, and cows are Texans. Dogs and cats seem to be type 1 Eagle Land. Serpents are Nazi Germany with shades of North Korea.
- Fantastic Racism: The Serpent Empire discriminates heavily against "Furballs", conversely General Leon thinks that "good" serpents like Sogaat are the exception rather than the rule.
- Furry Reminder: Ixia expresses her desire for pancakes by flicking her tongue.
- When Felix fanboy squeals over meeting Veronica Scarlet, only the canines can hear it.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Felix, as stated above.
- Gender Equals Breed: Milla, a bovine/feline hybrid, looks like a cat but also inherited her bull daddy's strength.
- God-Emperor: The Serpent royal family has the surname "Margoth", the name of their deity.
- Hate Plague: The effect of the "Toxic Toast" chemical weapon that wiped out the avians.
- Heel–Face Turn: Ixia at the story's beginning (though this was always her intention) and Sogaat prior to its beginning. Nyx might be headed this way.
- Interspecies Adoption: Felix (cat) was adopted by the Captain (dog).
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: a variant. Any serpent charged with treason has 72 hours to turn themselves in or the government goes after their family.
- Knight of Cerebus: Borzax, though having the courtesy to make his mark relatively early in the story.
- Luminescent Blush: Ixia glows like a traffic light when Delia tells her that Felix plans to take her on a "date" for her birthday.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Major Noggos' character.
- No-Sell: The strong, even by Bovine standards Sally Jean can only manage to briefly knock Caxtur off his feet.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: In-Universe. Serpents name their children with blends of their given names instead of having surnames.
- Preacher Man: Sogaat.
- Precursors: The Avians, wiped out in the 1500's by the Serpents.
- Shout-Out: Two citizens of the once great Avian Empire resemble Jose and Panchito.
- The chapter cards are fanart of album covers.
- Many of Wolfsbane's minions are named after singers. His henchmen, for example, are Simon and Garfunkel.
- When Ixia ditches her military uniform, the first thing she changes into is a pink shirt that says "NYAN", whose previous owner was a cat.
- Punny Name: The feared sky pirate Hev E. Meowtal
- Sky Pirates: Wolfsbane and his crew. As well as The Dreaded Captain Blackheart.
- Species Surname: More of a species-sound surname, Hev E. Meowtal.
- Spiritual Successor: To TaleSpin, and by extension to all the works that inspired that series.
- Super-Soldier: Ixia went through Training from Hell from the age of 10 and was given drugs that allow her accelerate her perception of time at will.
- Super-Strength: Sally, even in comparison to regular bovines.
- Super-Strong Child: Ixia, though mainly as a result of her Child Soldier status.
- Team Dad: The Captain, especially towards his actual adopted son Felix.
- Team Pet: In episode four, Ixia forms a bond with a stray Toosu and names it Pitterpat.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Ixia is deeply into any kind of breakfast food, although she has a special place in her heart for eggs, calling herself a "connoseur." You know, snake and all...
- Sogaat and potato chips.
- Training from Hell: Ixia was exposed to this by Agathoth. He might live to regret it ...
- Ugly Cute: Toosus are like a cross between a spider and a puppy.
- A Villain Named "Z__rg": Serpent names have lots of X's and Z's. Some even have names more suited to Elder Gods than regular people.
- Waddling Head: one Cartoon Creature. They're kept as pets.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Agathoth built a weapon that drains an otherwise inexhaustable energy source to fire a huge beam of energy powerful enough to liquify a mountainside.
- World of Funny Animals: So far we've seen dogs, cats, snakes, cows, and pigs. No humans have appeared so far.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Serpent names have a lot of these.
