Dead Duck
is a webcomic by Jay P Fosgitt (Creator of later mini-series, Bodie Troll. As well as one of the artists for the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic comic).
It's begins when Death a.k.a J.P Yorick finds himself overloaded with work and getting too old to reap souls out in the field like he used to. So he appoints his janitor, Dead Duck, to take over for him. After a somewhat sucessful first stint, Duck is assigned a partner, Zombie Chick, to assist him. What follows is a rather morbid but charming tales of Duck as he tries to do his job though not without meeting difficulty. We also learn of his rather unusual backstory in the process.
At the current, Dead Duck has been put on hiatus for Jay to pursue other projects (In fact the comics posted up to 2013 were actually drawn as early as 2007). Jay has promised he'll return to it someday however. And he made good on that promise as in 2016, Jay revealed that the series will briefly return in comic book form in the aptly named Dead Duck and Zombie Chick Rising From the Grave.
Dead Duck has the following tropes
- Abbey Road Crossing: Done here.
- Adolf Hitler: A young version of him is one of Dracula's flunkies during D.D's time at summer camp.
- Anachronism Stew: A LOT within this series.
- Been There, Shaped History: A lot of jobs involve Duck traveling to the past to "pick up" certain historical figures. He wound up having to kill Lincoln, caused both the crashes of the Titanic and the Hindenburg by crashing them into each other and Zombie Chick inadvertently started World War I.
- Berserk Button: Not many things can get to D.D. but trying to hurt Zombie Chick is certainly one of them.
- Black Comedy: It's a comic about death, pretty much a given.
- Body Horror: Estelle whose brain is exposed, most of her left arm is missing and her whole torso is nothing but her spine.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Duck does it several time to J.P.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Zombie Chick, every word out of her mouth is just something very very random.
- Deadpan Snarker: Duck, he gets it from J.P though.
- Divine–Infernal Family: The devil in this series is revealed as the teenage son of God. Teens being rebellious and all, you can see how that would put them at odds.
- Dracula: A young version of him is a main bully during D.D's time during summer camp.
- Fanservice: Plenty of big breasted females in this comic.
- Golem: One story arc deal with a female one.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Zombie Chick can dig into this from time to time when another girl starts cuddling D.D.
- Groin Attack: Not that you can't blame J.P for doing this.
- Golden rule when shooting a semi immortal: "Heads not nads"
- Duck manages to pull one on JP earlier in his youth.
- Historical In-Joke: Due to dealing with historical figures, Dead Duck sometimes inadvertently causes a few infamous disasters.
- Kick the Dog: It's bad enough Dracula turns Dead Duck's crush into a cupcake, he also put a laxative in her as well.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After the above, Dracula tries to threaten Duck the next day. Duck stabs him with a steak..filled with garlic which burns a hole right through his midsection.
- Like a Son to Me: Though J.P will never admit it outright, he does see Duck as this. Likewise Estelle, J.P secretary. A feeling that is mutual on Dead Duck's end.
- Made of Iron: Being dead, D.D can take a lot of punishment. Not that he enjoys it though, it still hurts.
- Mood Whiplash: Despite being mostly comedic, the comic has some rather tense, dark and heartwarming moments when you least expect it.
- No-Dialogue Episode: "Days End" arc
- No Kill like Overkill: Reason why you never give Zombie Chick a gun.
- Our Vampires Are Different: A young Dead Duck actually comes across a young Dracula during his time at a camp. In this version, he's portrayed as a lizard since Dracula of course means "dragon".
- Our Zombies Are Different: They can be created for one as we see when Estelle created Zombie Chick. Estelle is one herself though being in the land of the dead. It doesn't mean much. In fact even D.D can be considered a zombie considering his origins.
- Shout-Out: The Toy Soldier arc to He-Man with a bit of Garfield thrown in.
- Plenty to to musicians and songs thanks to Zombie Chick.
- Stable Time Loop: Think Time Squad if they were in the death business and had to keep history on track by killing the historical figures at their appointed time. Pretty much Duck's job in a nutshell.
- The Devil Is a Loser: Done with an interesting twist here. He's a teenage son of God.
- The Power of Rock: Zombie Chick manages to get King Arthur and his men to come with them by singing a variation of ABBA's “Dancing Queen".
- Whole Episode Flashback: "Ain't No Cure For Summertime Blues" arc.
- Your Head Asplode: Apparently how Big Man on Campus died.
