Meta: Alright, I promise... but we're a little old for pinky swears.
Nilla: No such thing.
Nilla: No such thing.
Shades of Green
is a webcomic by Ricky Bieniek. Meta Knoxville, a 17-year-old crime-fighting punk rocker, narrates the story of how, at 14, he came to date Nilla Aferson, and how he came to have green hair. It's every bit as ridiculous as it sounds.
Updates very sporadically.
Includes examples of:
- Anime Hair
- Art Evolution
- Author Appeal: See Anime Hair. Also, Nilla making silly faces.
- Author Avatar: Meta was one, years before the comic even began, but has since evolved into a completely different character.
- Berserk Button: Don't call Meta's friends nerds or losers!
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Meta gets one here.
- Cool Shades
- Cursed with Awesome: Meta and Nick have a unique eye condition that gives them hyper focus, but they'll faint if they use it for too long.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Nilla loves this trope.
- Fainting: Every time Meta faints, take a shot.
- Fiery Redhead: Nilla
- Framing Device
- Gamer Chick: Nilla
- Geeky Turn-On: Meta's initial reason for taking a liking to Nilla, and vice-versa.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Jeremy has a tiny scar below his eye that has yet to be explained.
- Idiot Hero
- Jerkass: Clint and Dirk.
- Jerk Jock: ...Clint and Dirk.
- Limited Wardrobe: Mostly averted, as the characters wear new clothes each day. Played somewhat straight with Nick, who wears the same hat and sweatshirt every day, but changes pants.
- Luminescent Blush: Nilla, mostly, but Meta gets it every so often.
- Medium Awareness: Meta gets impaled by a word balloon in this strip.
- Mood Whiplash: Here
- Nerds Are Sexy: Nilla
- Official Couple: Meta and Nilla.
- Oh, Crap!: Here, and again immediately afterwards.
- Only Six Faces: Averted for the most part. All the female characters even have their own distinctive "blush marks."
- Punny Name: See "Stealth Pun" below.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Seen here.
- Running Gag: Nicole calls Nilla by a different fictional redhead's name each time she addresses her.
-
Schedule Slip - Series Hiatus
- Shirtless Scene: Meta gets a brief one as he prepares for his date.
- Shout-Out: Loads. Meta singing the Pokémon theme, Nilla "saving a lot of data," Phoenix Wright appears on the DS, Meta has a Bowser plush in his closet, and that's not even mentioning that every single shirt Meta wears has some form of shout out on it.
- The Speechless: Missy is one, to everybody except Ken.
- Stealth Pun: Clint and Dirk's names, specifically chosen to resemble "Cunt" and "Dick."
- Nilla's middle name (though not stated in the comic) is Winona, making her "Nilla W. Aferson."
- Take That!: Meta jabs Twilight (and shipping in general) in this strip.
- Token Minority: Soup, primarily, but also Nicole (who is hispanic).
- Tsundere: Nilla. Best illustrated here.
- Unsound Effect
- Webcomic Time
- Write Who You Know: Word of God says that characters without a given last name (so far including Jeremy, Nicole, Julie, Jess, Soup, and TJ) are loosely based on friends of his.
