DreamCatcher is a webcomic by Hazu (aka Hazumirein/Lunaromon/Skelebun Studios). The cover page was posted in 2006, and the first page was posted in 2007.
Riza Wolfe is a pretty ordinary teen. You know, normal school, normal friends, normal looks, normal family, normal life. And she just so happens to be completely bored out of her mind with it. However, when Riza receives a dream catcher as a gift one day, things get more interesting in a hurry. She's suddenly offered the chance to get away from her ordinary life, and escape to another world full of the sorts of things she dreams about. Like, you know, anthropomorphic wolves with funny bandanas, idiotic spike demons, annoying old men, furry-feather dragons, elven ninjas, sarcastic street kids, rich bratty fire mages...okay, so it's not /exactly/ what she had in mind. But hey, it beats doing homework by a long shot.
And the best part about the whole thing? She's not even human anymore.
The original version can be found here
. A partly redrawn version can be found here or here.
The comic has been discontinued, but is being rebooted as a Kinetic Novel series titled DreamCatcher: Reflections.
Not to be confused with the book and movie by Stephen King, the webcomic The Dreamcatcher by Mary Sigona, or the K-pop group.
Contains examples of:
- Art Evolution: Compare this and this.
- Awesome Backpack: Riza calls it the Monster Bag.
- Bounty Hunter: Lunos' job. Luna also used to work with him, and unfortunately one of his recent jobs was to kidnap Daemian. Luna managed to chase him off, though.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: RIZASMASH!!!
- Cool Gate: Riza both enters and leaves Rokenthia through a cool door. One side of the Earth door is the dream-catcher.
- Filler Strips: Every now and then.
- Heroic BSoD: Lunos causes Riza to have a very brief shutdown of self doubt, so she won't interfere with his getaway.
- Home Base: Originally Luna's shack in the woods, but Xan gets them a place he likes to call "the Base", which was built by his grandfather during a mid-life crisis of some sort.
- Instant Costume Change: When Riza enters the Gate World, otherwise we might have a Pajama-Clad Hero.
- Intellectual Animal: Arashi appears to be significantly smarter than an average horse, though he mostly uses his intelligence to annoy Dae.
- Little Bit Beastly: Half-creatures—humanoids with animal ears, tails, etc.—are a common species in Rokenthia. Riza changes from an ordinary human to a half-wolf when she enters this world. Half-creatures can take on full animal forms as well.
- Magical Land: Rokenthia
- MacGuffin: The titular dream catcher.
- Meaningful Name: Riza Wolfe.
- Morphic Resonance: Seems to be standard for Shapeshifting.
- Mr. Exposition: Ooji, not really, and Mr. Relecross pretty much just sends them out to his private library.
- Luna also seems to count as she gives us the first overview on Rokenthian life forms.
Luna: Geez, I feel like a teacher now. - Odd-Shaped Panel: For fight scenes and the like.
- Our Elves Are Different: The only major physical difference between Rokenthian elves and humans are the pointy ears. They do give the elves better hearing, but not much else. No real social distinctions either.
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons are, essentially, a biological kingdom like animals and plants in Rokenthia. Truthfully they're pretty similar to ordinary animals, but there are a few key differences that set them apart, the main one being an ability called "demonfire". Luna and Lunos use this to fight the spirit demons, as well as in their little grudge match. It's a sort of energy that wraps around their weapons and makes them look flamey.
- Our Dragons Are Different: While there was a wide variety of dragons, most are extinct now. But some are way different, look at this one.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Luna and Lunos are of a race called "Werewolf Demons", but they don't actually transform. They're really just furries.
- Playing with Fire: Xan's specialty.
- Portal Network: The Gateworld, supposedly, serves as a portal to a lot of other dimensions/worlds. Riza, however, can only travel between Earth and Rokenthia.
-
Schedule Slip: Happens way more often than the author cares to admit, but there's always an excuse. Usually it's school-related, or the computer hating her. - Shout Box
- Speech Bubbles: There was a time when everyone spoke in cursive when in the gateworld, but it was dropped due to being hard to read. Now everyone uses a standard font.
- Street Urchin: We meet Daemian as one of these, though we don't know how long he's been one.
- Strip Archive
- Theme Naming: Luna and Lunos, the two werewolf demons we've met so far.
- The Chew Toy: Daemian seems to have been made to suffer. A lot.
- The author has mentioned on several occasions that, "Dae will never win. Ever."
- The Rant: There is a news blog on the main page and a separate one under the comic, though the main page one is unused 90% of the time.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Apparently Raus is fond of apricots, though this fact is only mentioned on the character page and is so far irrelevant to the comic.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Half-creatures and a number of demons have this ability.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Riza can spend a couple of days in Rokenthia while only losing a few hours on Earth.
- Animesque: Clearly the author is a bit of a closet/recovering otaku.
- Write Who You Know: The author is pretty open about the fact that Riza's real-world life and friends are more or less based on her own experiences at the age the characters are. Why? She was thirteen and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
- Symbol Swearing: Happens every now and then. Usually to Daemian.
- Speechbubbles Interruption: This happens to Riza every once in awhile, usually when she's off on some angry rant.
- Curse Cut Short: This occurred once in chapter 3, and then never again.
- Webcomic Time: The story takes place mostly in 2006. That's when it was started (or rather, early 2007, by the time posting began). It's now 2012 out here in the real world, but the comic characters are still stuck in '06.
- Shout-Out: Shows up every once in awhile; often in the form of a song lyric converted to a line(s) of dialogue.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Luna, and when she's not around, everyone else in the comic that's not Riza.
