Pictures Of You
is a Webcomic written and drawn by Gibson Twist.
It tells the tale of farmboy Peter Morris who starts college life and forms a close circle of friends. While he adapts to life in the city, the group struggles with love life, money and the occasional barfight.
Oh, and it is constantly foreshadowed that something will go really, really wrong.
Provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: See Shout-Out below.
- Art Evolution: While the art was good from the beginning, the comic turned from black & white to full color with the beginning of Book Three. And even more notably, when the first draft of the comic was posted.
- Asshole Victim: Peter's brutal beating of Devon was received this way by readers. Readers initially cheered since he had it coming, but it didn't take long for it to turn to squick and
sympathy. - Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Done beautifully with Chisto and Michelle
- Berserk Button: Peter pushes Mulligan's when he calls a gentleman's club a "nudie bar." Those girls are dancers.
- The Casanova: Andy.
- Catchphrase: "I didn't see that coming at all."
- Cerebus Syndrome: It starts out light and comedic (that is, if you ignore the Prologue) but everything seems to point toward a rather dramatic ending. In this case, though, it is planned.
- Cool Big Sis: Michelle tends to act this way towards Wily; she'll even occasionally call him 'Little Brother'.
- Crush Filter: Peter's first sight of Kara leads him directly to envisioning them waltzing together in formal wear.
- Did They or Didn't They?: Patrick and Alexander, though it's somewhat heavily implied that something did in fact happen between them, especially given Patrick's nervous reaction when he sees him again.
- Extreme Doormat: Melanie acts like this toward Devon, and Michelle eventually calls her out on it.
- Filler Strips: Done after every book, in the form of guest artists drawing short scenes about the characters to bridge the hiatus.
- Foreshadowing: Dripping with it. Peter, as the narrator, constantly hints that the group will fall apart.
- From Bad to Worse: If things weren't disintegrating before, they certainly do after Wiley's suicide.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Averted with Alexander, who is an exchange student from Prague and a Strange-Syntax Speaker, and Christo, who is from Spain and speaks perfect English.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: There's no character in the webcomic without some skeletons in the closet, vices, or nasty flaws. However, Domestic Abuser Devon and Phantom Thief Alexander are much more antagonistic and morally black than the rest.
- Informed Judaism: Andy.
- In-Series Nickname: Peter gets known as Slugger early on after taking out a heckler with one punch. It informs the name of the band, too: One Inch Punch.
- Naked People Trapped Outside: Christo does this to Peter, though he's not technically trapped outside; just in the hallway where Michelle and Lauren see him.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Peter unleashes one of these on Devon after he finds out he beat the crap out of Melanie. Peter hasn't been the same since.
- Oblivious to Love: Peter, though he seems to have moved past it.
- Odd Couple: Stoic Patrick and ladies' man Andy
- Oh, Crap!: Peter's reaction when he learns that the woman he slept with is married. This later happens again when Peter, Andy, and Mulligan discover that Michelle works as a stripper at the club they went to, and Peter, along with Michelle, suffer this when they find out that Mulligan told Christo before she had a chance to do so herself.
- Out of Focus: Lauren begins to see plot lines more isolated from the larger ensemble, and less screen time, around when Melanie gets out of her abusive relationship and starts hanging around a lot more in Book Three.
- The Rant:
- A few early strips include Aesopish diatribes, in narration or by characters about Patrick's experience being gay, or how Sam changed Peter's perceptions, etc. They wear away as the out-of-universe real world social climate continued to adjust, and as Twist's writing prowess grew.
- Patrick used to write snarky letters to the government.
- Reading Gibson Twist's tales about college life can be as entertaining as the comic itself. Also even more Foreshadowing.
- The Reveal: After a lot of foreshadowing, it's finally revealed that Michelle is a stripper and gets found out by Peter, Andy, and Mulligan.
- The incident that was the final nail in the coffin for the group, it was Wiley killing himself.
- The Stoner: Pretty much all the guys in the main cast, although they are far from being Buttmonkeys.
- Right Through the Wall: Andy's bedroom isn't exactly soundproof.
- Sanity Slippage: Hinted at during the band's first tour, but comes as kind of a Wham Moment when Wiley shows up for a photo shoot and begins screaming random stuff into the mic. Confirmed when Michelle reads his diary. It ends with the poor guy jumping off a bridge.
- Sassy Black Woman: Kara.
- Scary Black Man: The bouncer at the strip club Peter, Andy, and Mulligan go to.
- Shout-Out:"Scooby dooby doo, I see you, smoking marijuana! You're not foolin' me, so share with me, some of that crazy ganja!
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Sums up most of Christo's and Michelle's relationship.
- Stepford Smiler: Melanie, concerning her relationship with Devon. That is, until she breaks up with him after he brutally beats her.
- Straight Gay: Patrick.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Devon does this after he hits Melanie, saying that it's Peter and company's fault he got so angry at her, as well as her own fault for hanging out with them/having a life outside of her boyfriend.
