FAMIB
is a long form webcomic that started in 2001. It takes places in an Alternate Universe where technology is more or less the same as now, but with plenty of odd twists, such as a race of people with animal ears and another with wings coming out of the sides of their heads.
The story mainly follows the boy Sein (aka Tomas Rentier) and his dragon Wollen, who murdered most of Tomas's family and decided to adopt him. The secondary main characters are Narancs (Tomas's brother) and Wrey, two Ei agents, members of an elite special force who work for the government. Later chapters have also woven in some world-building backstory in the form of a biography Sein reads about the historical figure Hairam, who lived and died 200 years ago.
This webcomic provides examples of the following:
- Action Girl: Wrey, being an Ei agent and all.
- All Animals Are Domesticated: Either played straight, averted, or subverted, depending on your definitions of "animal" and "domesticated." Wollen is horribly injured and being kept in an unused subway tunnel by a group of would-be dragon hunters, in the hopes that he'll help them catch their prey. One of the group, Eagle, talks to Wollen a fair bit and even explicitly compares him to a lonely stray dog—even though Wollen is fully intelligent and capable of speech, which is unheard of for a dragon. This comes back to bite her in the ass when Wollen gets free and turns her into hamburger.
- Alternate Universe: the entire setting.
- An Arm and a Leg: Tomas gets a hand chopped off early in the story. He later gets a replacement.
- Art Evolution: Very much so. Compare this sequence from late 2001 to a flashback to that same sequence in 2010.
- Artifact Title: FAMIB isn't the name of anyone or anything in the comic, and has nothing at all to do with the story. Originally it was an acronym (for Fire Always Makes It Better).
- Art Shift: Dream sequences are in full color, as compared to the limited colors used otherwise.
- Back from the Dead: Tomas, revived by an Ei.
- Break the Cutie: Essentially Tomas's backstory in a nutshell. By the time the comic actually starts, he's pretty much totally broken.
- Chained Heat: To an extent, Tomas and Wollen. Tomas suffered from all sorts of diseases and illnesses; when he's with Wollen, he's (physically) much better. For his part, Wollen without Tomas devolves into a mindless beast. Exactly why they have this effect on each other hasn't yet been fully explained.
- Cloudcuckoo Lander: Perk, a blue half-seal from the aborted side comic.
- Covered with Scars: Tomas and later Wollen.
- Deliberately Monochrome / Splash of Color: the comic has a limited color scheme, most the time.
- Dream Sequence: Tomas has these often, in color.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Tomas gets mistaken for a preteen girl more than once, thanks to his skinny physique and long hair.
- Emergency Transformation: After Wrey cuts off Tomas's hand, Wollen heals him by giving him an Ei jewel. Well, not so much "giving" as "slicing open his throat and jamming a centuries-old piece of crystallized soul into the wound."
- Eyeless Face: Mr. Scary/Absalom from Tomas's dreams.
- Fantastic Racism: There are three human subspecies in FAMIB-world. As described on the creator's Tumblr: the Blomqui, with wings on the sides of their heads and uniformly blue hair (in varying shades); the Txbarxk, with darker skin and tufted, squirrel-like ears; and the Dürische, who are "normal" humans. Wrey, as the first Blomqui Ei agent, gets used a lot for propaganda purposes.
- Flat "What": Narancs' reaction to Tomas saying that he wants to be with the murderous dragon that killed their entire family.
- Gratuitous German: Mostly limited to towns, peoples' names, and the occasional historical plaque.Alt-text to page 364: Each time I needlessly insert German into some dialogue I just tell myself with a last name like Hammerberg few will call me out on the abuse.
- Gorn: Tomas's dream sequences. Many sequences starring Wollen.
- Hearing Voices: Wollen doesn't talk, per se.
- Horse of a Different Color: Everybody seems to ride large, chocobo-like flightless birds as mounts. Interestingly, this world still has horses—or at least, it has unicorns, which are completely non-magical and bred to be extremely domesticated pets for rich little girls.
- Implausible Hair Color: Wrey's hair is naturally blue.
According to the author's comments on this page, blue is "the only naturally occurring odd hair color in FAMIB-world." She is definitely not a Shy Blue-Haired Girl, though. - The Lancer: Narancs to Wrey. He tends to forget that she's his superior.
- Living a Double Life: Minor example. Narancs had a secret job at a crappy video store, totally separate from his position as an Ei agent; his coworkers there had no idea he was a government super-soldier. He wanted a life where he wouldn't be reminded of the death of his family and the media frenzy that surrounded it. He eventually gets called out on treating poverty like a vacation.
- Mechanical Animals: Narancs had a seemingly robotic cat-like creature known as Beta. Tomas found it horrible and creepy (and apparently so did the author), so she was returned to the company and we will never speak of her again.
- Mind Rape: How dragons attack things in the wild.
- Mind Screw: What is the Deer Prince?
- Some insight from that being Narancs Rentier's nickname given by the paparazzi.
- Neural Implanting: Wollen seems to have picked up a few things from Tomas, like language. When he's separated from Tomas for a long period, his language and reasoning suffer. Wollen's well aware of this fact, and it's at least part of the reason he keeps Tomas around.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Wollen versus X.
- Oh, Crap!: That intelligent dragon you were worried about? It's back.
- Only One Name: Hairam. Justified as he fought in what was essentially a class-based revolution in which most of the lower classes (including him) had surnames denoting their jobs or what families they belonged to; he, like many others, gave up this name, and didn't bother to take a new one.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Variant: the government picks those who receive an Ei.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Retractable tail spikes and wings, plus psychic attacks. Oh, and those aren't horns on their heads, they're antennae. The government offers bounties for hunting them down. Wollen appears to the be only intelligent dragon in the world.
- Ow, My Body Part!: Wollen's leg gets bitten by another dragon.
- Sanity Slippage: Tomas at times.
- Serial Killer: Wollen.
- Slumming It: As noted on the character page, Narancs lives in a terrible neighborhood, far below his means, due to "an adolescent romanticization of poverty."
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Anyone with an Ei and some practice can essentially generate weapons in their hands. They fade away after a while or if the creator dismisses them.
- The Stoic: Wrey isn't fazed by much. Neither is Tomas, thanks to spending time on the run with a sadistic dragon with a sick sense of humor.
- Surreal Horror: Tomas's nightmares.
- Synchronization: Partial example with Tomas and Wollen. Injuries to one will show up on the other, but only if they're caused by an Ei weapon.
- Unexplained Recovery: Wollen after a long sequence of painful injury. Additionally, Tomas suffered all sorts of illnesses when he was younger, but spending time on the run seems to have mysteriously cleared them up ...
- Webcomic Time: Averted to a degree: several months have passed since the comic began in 2001.
- Winged Humanoid: Partial example. There's a subspecies of humans with wings—on the sides of their heads. They're way too small to be used for flying.
