Elijah and Azuu
is a webcomic written by and illustrated by Shane "Inkmonkey" Woodis. The leading characters of Elijah and Azuu are, respectively, an angel and a demon. The idea for the comic was that they would duel over souls who had done the same amount of good and evil during their lifetimes.
The series was originally hosted by Keenspace (now Comic Genesis), but is currently exclusively hosted by The Duck.
On June 2, 2008, the comic came to its official conclusion, with over 1300 comics. The final update came after weeks of hiatus, and was a fully animated flash cartoon. A sequel series, Pre-Teen Demon, is currently running on In Genre.com
This webcomic provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: The "Dagiel and the Fish" story arc barely features any of the rest of the cast, instead following relatively new character Dagiel dealing with the appearance of a mysterious ghost fish. This ended up being one of the most popular story arcs in the series. There were also a few story arcs following "Dr. Moriarty Vigo", a self-proclaimed mad scientist that had absolutely no bearing on the main plot.
- Archive Trawl: Not as common as other comics, but the artist did occasionally make references to obscure one-shot characters from earlier in the story that only devout readers would recognize.
- Art Evolution: The artist started the comic in High School and kept drawing it until he graduated from art school, and it shows.
- Badass Longcoat: Father Diego Martin started out as a parody of this type of character, but proved popular enough to continue into a straight example.
- Batman Gambit: An extremely compact version of this trope occurs when Elijah and Michael are looking for a possessed human. Michael simply glares at everyone he sees as though he's figured out that they're really a demon in disguise, trusting that the actual guilty party will react accordingly. It works.
- Big Eater: Azuu and Fraja's son Jasomet can eat an entire adult human while he was still an infant. In the sequel series, he is almost constantly snacking and is shown to have really taken advantage of an All You Can Eat order of pancakes.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Was so prevalent in the early days of the strip that, eventually, there was a story arc where the "Fourth Wall Protection Agency" showed up and declared war on the artist himself. Although they were defeated, by the end of it Fourth Wall humor was very rare in the comic.
- Cerebus Syndrome:
Word of God says that the first strip to lack a punchline came about simply because the author couldn't think of a joke. Since that point character relationships and religious drama became increasingly common. - Characterization Marches On: While initially presented as a chain smoking Jerk Jock, Michael (as in, the arch angel) evolves into a likeable Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Church Militant: Father Martin again. He values souls over lives, and doesn't hesitate to kill a possessed young girl to protect her soul from being taken to Hell.
- Cool Shades: The archangel Michael always wears sunglasses... always. Though it's eventually revealed that this is because his eyes are black with stars.
- Deathbringer the Adorable: Orzo: Devourer of Souls! It's implied that he was originally "Mr. Fuzzikins" before Azuu stole him from a little girl.
- Demon Slaying: Father Martin does this. Apparently he's the Vatican's best hunter (though he needs a serious power boost in order to face the main demons).
- Depraved Bisexual: Fraja's mom who, despite appearing generally cheery and good-natured, happily torments/flirts with (often simultaneously) everyone around her just because she thinks it's funny.
- Eldritch Abomination: More or less describes half of the cast, though even Eldritchier abominations show up occasionally.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: The series plays this very straight.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Plays this as straight as it does Fire and Brimstone Hell.
- For the Evulz: If the demons aren't actually doing something for this reason, they're using it as the excuse for why they're doing something else.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: Angels typically have bird wings with white feathers, while demons have black bat wings. Fallen angels still have bird wings, but with brown feathers and claws. Michael's wings, meanwhile, resemble the night sky, like his eyes. Parodied with Rayoloc, a demon who turns out to have bird wings identical to Elijah's, much to the confusion of the soul they're fighting over.
- Healing Factor: It's common for both angels and demons to recover from grievous injuries. One storyline firmly established that Azuu could easily regrow his arm after having it hacked off by a sword that specifically halts a demon's healing factor. His mom was injured by the same sword in an earlier story arc, and she had to consume several souls in order to recover.
- Immortality Hurts: Azuu says this verbatim after suffering a particularly painful assault from his girlfriend, in a direct reference to Jackie Chan Adventures.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Has crossed over with Charby the Vampirate, where it's revealed that Zeno from Charby is Azuu's cousin.
- Jesus Was Way Cool: He appears rarely, but seems to take on a sort of cool older brother role for the various angels.
- Kick the Dog: All of the demons have moments that remind you that they really are cruel, self-centered beings. This includes moments like revealing that Azuu was feeding human prostitutes to his infant son in an extremely poorly thought out plan to train his son into being essentially a "Hooker Truffle Hound", or the reveal that the waiter Fraja's Mom was playfully teasing throughout one story arc was later chained up in her basement for no real reason.
- Limited Wardrobe: Pretty much all the characters. Though no one is sure if Azuu has several shirts with weird crap written on them, or just one shirt that he writes on himself. Subverted with Fraja's Mom, who has a decidedly Unlimited Wardrobe... which she apparently gets by murdering prostitutes and/or strippers and stealing their clothes (or at least, that's what she claims).
- Literal Genie: Jasomet acts this way in Pre-Teen Demon. For example, one of the three friends gives his soul to get Jasomet to find their lost friend... and he does exactly that. And nothing more.
- Morality Pet: Quite literally with Orzo: Devourer of Souls... which is Azuu's perfectly normal pet kitten. He treats Orzo relatively lovingly, though insists that he's some kind of Eldritch Abomination that just happens to look and act exactly like an adorable white Kitten.
- Our Angels Are Different: Essentially human-personalitied beings with super powers. They are assigned actual jobs, have quotas, etc.
- Our Demons Are Different: The demons have a ridiculous variety, which ranges from demons like Azuu (who appears mostly human, but with wings, a tail, and taloned feet), to Lovecraftian creatures.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Azuu (brash, overconfident) and his twin brother Zock (shy, cowardly).
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Azuu and his family all have red eyes. This is most obvious in his son Jasomet, who has huge, bright red eyes that almost seem to glow in the dark (the rest of the family has more of a dull, maroon shade of red).
- Satan Is Good: Deliberately, whenever Satan appears he comes off as a genuinely clever, fun guy. The fans generally love him... which makes it all the easier for him to confuse and manipulate people.
- Sidekick Ex Machina: Jasomet takes on this role in Pre-Teen Demon. It's only his Literal Genie mindset that prevents him from solving all their problems outright.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Used when an opponent is running away too fast for Elijah to keep up. He tosses his sword hard enough to pin the guy's calf to the ground. Though considering the supernatural nature of the characters, his enemy is only minorly inconvenienced, and now Elijah doesn't have his sword...
- Too Dumb to Fool: Izza, easily the dumbest character in the comic (which is saying a lot), has absolutely no understanding of the concept of lying...which, as it turns out, enables her to see right through Focalor's illusions.
- Too Dumb to Live: While there's no shortage of dumb characters, Azuu's mom Izza probably takes the cake. She will happily spend a whole night sitting on a bed eating the stuffing out of a pillow, pausing only occasionally to comment on how bad it tastes.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Although Elijah and Azuu don't really get along, they still spend all their time together and, more or less, or each others' best friend. One of the tag lines for series was actually "Best Enemies".
- Weirdness Censor: Apparently mankind's natural Weirdness Censor prevents them from noticing that some of the characters have horns, haloes, or tails. If a character is sufficiently weird looking (usually accomplished by letting their wings out) they become completely Invisble To Normals.
