Dolmistaska
is a webcomic written by Angusburgers, that follows the life of a "desert cat" named PM inside the city-spanning Dolmistaska mall.
Dolmistaska contains examples of:
- The Alleged Car: PM's hovercar - based on the Citroën Karin concept - is referred to as a "piece of shit" by everyone, including PM themself.
- Amazonian Beauty: PM is smitten when first encountering the 8 ft tall, musclebound, boisterous female leader of the hockey guys. Unfortunately she's more brawn than brains.
- Back from the Dead: PM themself is killed during the police raid on the Hockey guys' safe house. Fortunately, Corriveau dabbles in necromancy and could bring them back.
- Badass Driver: PM is an excellent driver and after some thugs witness their skills, they get recruited as The Driver for a heist.
- Berserk Button: PM's parents are a sore subject for them already, but asking them about how they came to be if their parents aren't the same species will make them extremely angry.
- Bilingual Bonus: A lot of the signs in the mall are written in (Canadian) French, and some of the security guards can be seen swearing in that language too. PM has a brief exchange in Spanish with Mateo the janitor before switching back to English – unless it's also Quebec French with Translation Convention in effect.
- Building of Adventure: The entire comic takes place inside the eponymous Dolmistaska mall.
- Canadian Equals Hockey Fan: played with. The main gang in the mall is the "Hockey guys" who dress in hockey protective gear and fight with hockey sticks reinforced with ice skates. They claim they chose hockey as a symbol of past glory.
- Caper Crew:
- Bert is the Mastermind and coordinator who devised the whole plan.
- Guédille is The Leader and on-site supervisor.
- Pogo "does the talking".
- Roteux is The Muscle.
- Galvaude provides reinforcements in case things get heated and is likely The Mole as well.
- PM, nicknamed "Poutine" (like the meal, no relation to a certain president of Russia) rounds out the crew as The New Kid and The Driver.
- Cassette Futurism: The department store where Corriveau works has a video game display set up on a clunky CRT, while hologram projectors can be found at a flea market. Personal phones exist and have an integrated camera, but are still large clunky things with big buttons and liquid crystals screens. Sound recorders can send a signal over long distances but still record on cassette tape.
- Crapsack World: Dolmistaska is a crapsack mall. The older areas are abandoned, overrun with decay, overgrowth, and wildlife, and the more dangerous sections are filled with asbestos and/or "mall elementals". The US military patrols regularly, mall security often picks fights with street gangs, and the mall owner is a real dick about rent.
- Creepy Doll: Corriveau has a collection of dolls that represent her and which she sews herself. PM finds them very unsettling. They're in fact vessels that each allow the person they represent to come back to life once. As soon as PM leaves for the heist, Corri sews a doll of them which very soon proves useful.
- Death Seeker: Rachelle became the leader of the Hockey Guys due to being the biggest and strongest, but she doubts herself as a leader. As a result, she wants to die heroically so that she can be a martyr and someone more capable can take her place
- Destination Defenestration: Subverted. Rachelle sprints and tackles two of her enemies, aiming to send them through the 40th floor window – and not caring if it means she falls to her death too. The window holds, so they're crushed by her enormous mass and turned into Ludicrous Gibs instead ! Also, Rachelle is pretty sure she broke something herself.
- Dumb Muscle: The Hockey guys' leader Rachelle is tall, strong and loud, and exerts a natural authority over her gang. However, she's far from bright and she knows it. She confesses to PM that she took the head of the gang pretty much by default when the previous leader was killed, and only took the head for fear of disappointing everyone.
- Five-Finger Discount: PM steals a bagful of hot dog rolls from a concession stand while the owner is distractedly complaining about the prices of owning such a stand being increased.
- Flying Car: Cars are of the hovering variety, as well as other usual means of road transportation. A lot of people are apparently not used to it yet.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Corriveau upholds a Goth look and is proficient in necromancy, of all things.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Played with. Feral clowns apparently roam the mall and thrive in it. Since they really do behave like animals and not like humans, some people hunt them for their meat. PM doesn't mind eating it, but Corriveau does.Corriveau: You know I hate clown meat.PM: Because it tastes funny ?Corriveau: No, because it's so fucked up!! The concept of it is so uncomfortable!! And it doesn't even taste like anything !!
- Hover Bike: The Mall security has access to hover bikes. There are also hover cars, hover vans, hover trucks…
- Lovecraft Lite: A Mall extends on a surface that covers 3 cities and is somehow relatively sustainable, Feral Clowns and Beholders lurk in it, alongside outright Mall Elementals that spontaneously appear. Everyone treats such things as a threat, but an everyday one.
- The Mall: The entire setting! It helps that it spans three cities. It's so large and sprawling that it mirrors actual cities in multiple ways, with parts of it being modern, lively and crawling with people, while other parts are decaying and abandoned, with nature overtaking it and wild animals (and clowns) roaming freely.
- Meaningful Name: As stated in a Tumblr post by the author, the Dolmistaska mall is named after 3 Quebec cities that were razed to make space for its endless expansions— Dolbeau, Mistassini, and Péribonka— since old portions of it are never renovated.
- Never Learned to Read: PM is in their twenties but can't read, which causes them recurring difficulties.
- Non-Residential Residence: Corriveau and PM live in an abandoned furniture store.
- Parallel Parking: PM does a perfect 180 drift into an open spot between two other cars, to the applause of bystanders.
- Punny Name: You won't like hearing about Slapsyur Kokov's signature move.
- Random Species Offspring: Corriveau's father is apparently a completely normal human being.
- Ray Gun: The Mall security and Military have access to futuristic-looking (by late-80s standards) weapons that go ZAP when they fire. The rest of the people have to make do with standard projectile weapons, however.
- Scenery Porn: The backgrounds in some of the larger panels are incredibly detailed.
- Soul-Sucking Retail Job: The manger of the Yellers where Corriveau works makes her work unreasonable hours, and she's worried that she'll be fired if PM keeps loitering.
- Theme Naming: The heist crew's code names are all based on north american food, but with their Canadian French names :
- A Guédille and a Roteux are hot-dogs.
- A Pogo is a corndog
- Poutine and Galvaude both refer to the iconic Poutine, fries topped with cheese and gravy.
- We Will Use Lasers in the Future: Well, the future is in the nineties, but security and military personnel have access to energy weapons that are apparently just as good, if not superior to kinetic weapons.
