Hetzer and Friends is a Webcomic created by Italian author Angelo. It follows the adventures of Sentient Tanks, mainly focusing on vehicles of World War II.
It can be read on Facebook here, or on the author's blog here.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The author has put a booklet up for sale with a collection of strips, plus a few bonus ones and a few details on the most important characters.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The comic is about sentient tanks. And planes too.
- BFG: Quite a bit of characters. Exaggerated for KV-2 (as a case of Memetic Mutation) and Sturmtiger.
- Berserk Button:
- Don't mess with the Italian tanks and their pasta or pizza.
- Never, never call Don Veloce a tankette.
- Big "WHAT?!": OTOMATIC's first appearance, when she drops this gem:
OTOMATIC: [cheerfully] Nice to meet you! I'm OTOMATIC! SPAAG, wizard and Goddess of Destruction. I'm here to annihilate this universe... Pop corns?
Turan 3: Oh thank... WAIT, WHAT?!!!
Turan 3: Oh thank... WAIT, WHAT?!!!
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Not even the fourth wall can stop OTOMATIC's power.
- Cloak and Dagger: Chaffee tries this very hard. Unfortunately for him, failure is the only option.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: The captured Italian tanks seem to believe that the British cook's way of cooking pasta is this for them, calling it "torture".
- Cultured Badass: Bassotto loves poetry, and kicks ass.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Semovente takes Valentine's attempts to give him a valentine card as an attempt to seduce him, she does not take it well at all.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Pz IV tries to "fuse" with anyone he can. It never works out for him.
- Exact Words: In one strip, P40 is allowed into a heavy tank meeting, as he is formally designated a heavy tank, while the much bigger Panther is not, much to her anger.
- Facepalm: A common occurrence for Semovente, when he slams the upper hull hatch over his "eyes".
- Failure Is the Only Option: See the Dogged Nice Guy entry above.
- Historical In-Joke: Plenty of them.
- Gratuitous Italian: Not only is the author Italian, he also throws around some Italian dialects around.
- I Am Big Boned: Maus insists he's not fat.
- Italians Talk with Hands: Played for Laughs in this strip, when Hetzer comments on Semovente's flags.
- Kill It with Fire: Don Veloce is a flamethrower tank, so you'd better follow his "advice"...
- National Stereotypes: Played With. At least one character from each nation shows a major stereotype commonly attributed to its country.
- Oblivious to Love: Semovente simply doesn't get that Valentine is in love with it.
- Only Sane Man: Semovente is often exasperated or frustrated by the antics of his fellow tanks. Even Hetzer has shades of Not So Above It All.
- Pungeon Master: Toldi can't help himself.
- Set the World on Fire: Invoked by Porsche Tiger.
- Stock Animal Behavior: Invoked for the cat-themed tanks, as shown in this strip.
- The Casanova: Carro Celere Sahariano qualifies.
- The Don: Don Veloce, obviously.
- The End of the World as We Know It: It has been prophesied that the duel between KV-2 and Sturmtiger will bring about the end of the world. Luckily, their guns take a long time to reload...
- The Fashionista: A rare male example, with Semovente da 75/46 saying that making his enemy look "presentable" more important than the "world war thing".
- The Peeping Tom: ARL 44.
- The Jinx: M13/40 is avoided by everyone because he brings bad luck.
- Unusual Euphemism: Often, war-related words replace swear words.
- Yandere: Chi-Ri refuses to let anybody come near her "Tora-kun".