Webcomic / GUE

From left to right: Astrid, Mel and Will.

The Island of Grace-Upon-Earth sits upon an intersection of two of the planets magical ley lines. As a result, it boasts an incredible diversity of magical flora and fauna. The island's namesake comes courtesy of an unknown monk. All but forgotten to history, save for his mark on the place, he is believed to be the island's first human inhabitant. He washed ashore on a shipwreck, sometime around the 11th century. And upon witnessing the islands verdant majesty (...) he concluded he'd died in that shipwreck and landed in heaven.

As he ventured deeper into the heart of the island, however, his tune began to change...

— Opening lines of Chapter One

GUE is an Urban Fantasy webcomic by artist Beanytuesday.

Grace-Upon-Earth is an idyllic island filled with magical flora and fauna, making it both a protected national park and a minor tourist hotspot. A decision has been made recently to roll back certain federal regulations in order to expand development on the island and hopefully increase tourism for the local city. To this end, the local mayor has brought on Melrose “Mel” Haligar for development risk consultation. There she meets the local park employees, including…

• Ouranos “Demon Face” Oz: Park Superintendent. A war veteran fanatically opposed to any development plans that could threaten the park’s natural beauty, and an all-around intense guy.

• Zoroasterix “Astrid” McDaniels: Standoffish, sarcastic Ms. Exposition.

• Will Waters: Another employee who works with Astrid. Trail maintenance specialist. Good-natured, slightly slow on the uptake.

• Calbain: Green-skinned immortal guardian spirit of the island.

What follows is a series of wacky misadventures as Mel tries to navigate two clashing visions for the future of the park, while also making friends with her new coworkers. Set in the same universe as Beanytuesday's previous comic, Bad Enders.

Tropes in the work include:

• Aerith and Bob: Zoroasterix and Will.
• Ambiguously Human: A handful of characters have noticeably pointy ears, but there’s no indication they’re anything but human.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Mel never wanted to have children, partially due to fear of being “We Need To Talk About Kevin’d”.
• Bad to the Last Drop: An exchange in chapter 4 implies the coffee in Grace-Upon-Earth isn’t any good.
  Helzer: Now, what’s a guy gotta do to get a decent cup of coffee around here?
  Astrid: A decent cup?
  Will: I dunno, leave?
• Bizarro Elements: Mentioned briefly.
  Astrid's Lore Corner: During his time in the military, Ouranos weathered (…) every kind of elemental attack (Including the wacky ones like “dark” and “gravity”).
• Camp Gay: Hermes Pecheki, former supermodel and half-brother of Mayor Pecheki.
• Cheerful Child: Brock and Caesar are almost never seen not smiling.
• Constructed World: It's clear early on that this is not our world. Weirdly, Earth concepts like Catholicism and Buffalo Wild Wings still exist despite this being an entirely different world with its own nations and history.
• Driven to Suicide: The Mariner Knight from chapter 4 tried to kill himself by drowning after a lifetime of mistreatment, only to be saved by The Lady of The Lake and turned into a water-zombie.
• Embarrassing Last Name: Mary Fuckkill. Apparently it’s an anglicized version of the family name Fukukiru, which is Ioponese for “sexual murderer”.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The United States is replaced with the Unified Central States. UCS territory is sandwiched between the uninhabitable Qanadian Hinterlands (Canada) to the north, and Vandal Texa (Texas) to the south.
• Genius Loci: Calbain is the island, and if it dies so does he. He also can’t leave, which is why he’s so keen to be a tour guide- it’s a job that lets him meet new people.
• Great Offscreen War: Ouranos Oz participated in a war to eliminate monsters from the outer reaches of UCS territory. His guilt over this may be part of the reason he works so hard to protect supernatural life in Grace-Upon-Earth.
• Info Dump: All chapters include “Astrid’s Lore Corner”, a segment where Astrid breaks the fourth wall to tell the audience various fun facts about the setting.
• Initialism Title: GUE is an acronym for “Grace-Upon-Earth”, the island where the series takes place. It’s noted in-universe that “GUE” is only used by tourists, and townies simply call it by the full name.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Mel, who is in her 30s, really hits it off with Brock and Caesar.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Calbain is interested enough to willingly work as an employee for the park.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the start of chapter 4, Helzer says “We’re all just characters in a story” before quickly clarifying that he’s speaking in metaphorical terms. A couple pages later, he says it’s good that there’s no complicated objects in the foreground… because that means they can fight without causing property damage.
• Lovecraft Country: Grace-Upon-Earth is a tiny island off of this setting's equivalent to the east coast that's stuffed full of sinister magical creatures and presided over by a mysterious ancient deity.
• Magical Weapon: Brock and Caesar somehow got their hands on an “heirloom dragonskinner” and a “frostfire blade”.
• Manchild: Downplayed with Garth, an excitable 29-year-old camp counselor.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: In Chapter 2, Brock cheerfully claims that camp counselor Gareth Braeian “touches” him for no real reason.
• Mundane Utility: Caesar uses his enchanted “frostfire blade” to roast ants.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Ouranos “Demon Face” Oz.
• No, You: This exchange from chapter 4:
  Mariner Knight: You're no hero.
  Helzer: Actually, I am.
  Mariner Knight: You defiled my lake.
  Helzer: No I didn't.
  Mariner Knight: And now, you will pay.
  Helzer: You will.
• Our Goblins Are Different: Goblins are a magical species and a major nuisance. Oz shoots down a Buffalo Wild Wings franchise on the grounds that “we can’t introduce our native goblin population to club-shaped foods”.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Chapter 4 establishes that mermaids are an offshoot of the primordial Deep Ones who took the form of attractive women in order to trick humans into giving them free food and protection, an evolutionary path explicitly compared to both predatory mimicry and canine domestication. Mermen don't really exist, because even male mermaids evolved to look like human women.
• Place of Power: The island itself.
• Rogue Protagonist: In Beanytuesday’s now-defunct comic Bad Enders, J. Helzer is pretty unambiguously the hero. When he resurfaces in GUE chapter 4, he’s still nominally a good guy, but his off-screen training has made him kind of a pompous dick. He's eventually put in his place by Oz.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Very downplayed. The setting is mostly based on normal fantasy, but there's occasional mention of things like "elemental attacks" existing.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Deconstructed in a side comic. Calbain explains to Will that he can’t speak to animals, nor can anybody, because animal psychology is just too different from that of a human.
• Those Two Guys: Brock and Caesar, a pair of local children at the park’s summer camp program.
• Took a Level in Badass: J. Helzer, last seen in Bad Enders as an underpowered loser, shows up in Chapter 4 as a high-up curse hunter with complete control over his powers, including a Super Mode simply called "God". Ouranos Oz still hands him his ass, though.
• Undying Loyalty: The Mariner Knight claims that The Lady of The Lake was the first person to ever show him kindness, which is why he serves her unflinchingly.
• Unicorns Prefer Virgins: Mel attracts a unicorn because of this, to her extreme embarrassment.
• Urban Fantasy: Modern things like cell phones and chain restaurants exist in a magical constructed world.
• The 'Verse: With Beanytuesday’s previous work, Bad Enders. Bad Enders characters first appear in chapter 4.
• Work Com: Albeit a very high-concept one.