Webcomic / Monster Soup

''Monster Soup'' is a webcomic about a group of monster people sentenced to serve time in a creepy factory/castle, with a backup hosted on The Duck.

The five main characters are:

• Luke: A murderous vampire and possible hit man. Though his appearance might suggest otherwise, Word of God is that he is not Dracula.
• Jacklyn: A ghost recently removed from her haunting place.
• Amanita: Human mystic, loves to talk.
• Pepper: Reluctant werewolf and tomboy.
• Bo: Zombie and activist with a deteriorating memory.

Tropes present in this webcomic include

• Break the Cutie: Bo, the most sympathetic character is attacked and has his hand cut off.
• Bag of Holding: Amanita's 'Swag Bag'. Its introduction is a Shout-Out to Mary Poppins. It also looks like it is a Matter Replicator, going so far as to require you to "measure for the same weight" as Amanita puts it.
• Big Brother Is Watching:
  • Somewhat subverted. The main characters are in what is meant to be a prison after all and should expect to be under constant surveillance. But the one time Vengari/Big Red acts on what he sees in the hidden camera it really is to help people who have been hurt.
  • Both subverted and played straight. Subverted in that after bringing Bo, Pepper, Amanita, Noni, and Momo in to a medical area to treat them, Vengari, himself a Big Brother, removes a Tracking Device left by some other, unknown group in Bo and played straight in so far as the Tracking Device was put in Bo without his knowledge by some unknown group.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Jacklyn, though her acceptance by the rest of the cast is not so amazing given their own monstrous/unusual backgrounds.
• Disposable Vagrants: In giving the tour of Oubliette Castle, Noni talks about its history, which includes Prisoner's that disappeared but didn't escape when the castle served as a prison for Muggles and a few students that went missing, but weren't missed because they were orphans when it served as a college with a dorm.
• Exactly What I Meant to Say: According to the Ferryman, "Why would I worry about losing a tentacle? Those things grow back." Jacklyn played the Straight Woman here.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Oubliette Castle and Oubliette Island. This is the prison of the main cast. It was also a prison for presumably normal people in the past. Admittedly, the casts' accommodations are nice and there are no bars, but call it Close Enough to What It Says on the Tin.
• Eye Pop: A more realistic version with a physical cause here.
• Extranormal Prison: Not much about the facility itself has been shown to be particularly designed to keep the cast from leaving, but then the warden himself seems enough to make this place qualify.
• Fantastic Drug: Bo's blood causes very strong hallucinations, and gives a hangover that's not worth the fun time. This is not normal for zombie blood. See Our Zombies Are Different, below.
• Ghost Amnesia: Jacklyn doesn't remember much about her life before death. In fact, her lack of memory about when she was alive rises to the level of Identity Amnesia about her living days, though she's clearly developed her own identity since her death
• Heinz Hybrid: Noni is part rat, goat, pig and human. She is also hermaphrodite but portrays herself as female.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Oubliette Castle/Island. Though the accomodations of the main characters aren't so bad, its history is worrisome.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: I'm a zombie. I'm not deaf.
• Improvised Weapon: Noni names her kitchen knife at hand Mr. Stabby when Bo enters her kitchen.
• Kraken and Leviathan: Pepe. The proportions are hard to tell, but the diameter of his eye seems to be longer than the large gandola like craft.
• Living on Borrowed Time: Noni says this about Bo, though it seems to apply to the Monster Soup's universe's zombies in general. Bo seems and it may not apply to him at all, or he may at least have a longer clock.
• Luxury Prison Suite: The actual rooms each of the cast are given are quite spacious and, though antique, the furniture looks nice. The backgrounds show large hanging pictures throughout the castle and in the rooms.
• Mad Scientist: Vengari, he created Noni and is doing sinister experiments in the castle, tacking the 'endless possibilities of animals'. Then there's the lady in the glass tank...
• Masquerade: Some form exists and is involved in covering up werewolf problems and has a strict set of rules for haunting.
• Monster Mash is essentially another name for Monster Soup. We may be lucky that the creator didn't go for Monster Mush.
• Motor Mouth: Amanita, at least on this occassion.
• Occult Law Firm: Comes across as a Public Defender type. He represents all of the main cast in the Courtroom Episode that is the first chapter of the series.
• Our Gargoyles Rock: Solanum, the warden. Little is known about him so far, so he may not match some the specifics in those trope, but so far he has come off as quite the badass of the Implacable Man sort.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Though one is only briefly seen, she is scaly on the bottom half, has blue (possibly rubbery) skin, and a serrated fin going from the back of her head down her back. She does have hair and uncovered (no seashell bra/bikini top) breasts. Oh yeah, she also can apparently mesmerize people to keep them close as she opens her mouth of many thin, pointy teeth.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Peppers werewolf side indulges in things like wearing make up, dressing up and getting her ears pieced, something she wouldn't do in human form. This is apparently due to her 'lack of femininity' in human form. She appears to heal quickly, have high resistance to toxins and enhanced strength.
• Our Zombies Are Different: From comments by other characters, it appears Bo himself is different from other zombies in this universe as most eventually stop working where Bo seems to be going past the normal expiration date. Also, his blood seems to have something extra that makes it a Fantastic Drug.
• Perky Goth: Rose, the vampire that befriends Bo when he's taken in by the Zombie Army.
• Stunned Silence: Rather appropriate, given the vicious muzzling Luke gives Pepper.
• The Alcatraz: The island that Oubliette Castle rests on. The ancient Gargoyle slash sole Warden, Solanum, has one rule, none of the main characters may leave the island. If they do, he will kill them.
• The Ferry Man: No Name Given likely because of Nominal Importance beyond the role as a ferry man itself.
• Tracking Device: On Bo.
• Unsound Effect: THONK!
• Vegetarian Vampire:
  • With regard to zombies, Bo only eats animal flesh and brains.
  • Inverted as to the literal subject. Vampires can drink from animals, but Luke still feeds from humans unnecessarily and harms humans not only unnecessarily, but also after having been busted by supernatural court before. See Your Vampires Suck, below, for his likely motivation.
• Luke is a Walking Arsenal, though Downplayed and Justified. He doesn't normally carry the weapons on his person, but keeps a number of bladed weapons in the large coffin he carries. Of course, he is a vampire, so it's not so inexplicable that he can carry the loaded coffin.
• Your Vampires Suck: Luke is unhappy with the modern depictions of vampires and reacts with murder.
• You All Meet in a Cell: A variation of this is played out in the first half of chapter 2. It starts with Bo sitting alone with Chickpea the (zombie) squirrel near a pier. Eventually, Amanita, Jacklynn, Luke, and Pepper show up. They actually meet where they will embark on the boat that will take them to the prison, not a cell, but they are clearly not really free to leave.

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