Crossdressing vampires. Sexy witches. Drunk werewolves. You can meet them all in Smoke Fur And Stone.
A bouncy fun reboot of the original comics from 2013, Smoke Fur And Stone
explores the lives and loves of magical misfits in a fantasy world.
This was originally a series of grim fantasy short comics and spin-offs set in the same fictional universe. In 2022, it was rebooted into a Lighter and Softer comedy series focusing on the characters from the original series. The darker themes and stories are explored in its companion series Iron Nail Afternoon.
Smoke Fur and Stone contains examples of the following tropes:
- Beast Man: The entire Skin species falls under this trope. They have slit pupils, digitigrade legs and possess abnormal resilience, strength and agility.
- Berserk Button: Vinnie is very protective of Rabbit.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Gray is definitely one of these.
- Crapsack World: First the world was wrecked by a decades of occult warfare between Oldbloods and humans. Once the war ended, occult technology from the war allowed humans to turn magic into an industry. And the remaining supernatural races are too busy fighting among themselves to put a stop to this.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Coven District is largely occupied by Skins, Smokes and creatures that go bump in the night but at the end of the day, they're just people trying to survive.
- D-Cup Distress: When in female form, Skoll is very buxom, especially considering her height. But she doesn't see this as a blessing because it draws unwanted attention and harassment from some of her male colleagues.
- Gender Bender: Unlike most of their species, Skoll sheds a skin and emerges as a different gender instead of a werewolf. This isn't a source of angst since the character is fluid, identifying as both male and female.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Vinnie is about 7 ft tall and his wife Jordan barely reaches his shoulder. How they have sex is anyone's guess.
- In My Language, That Sounds Like...: Skins have their own language, one that humans find challenging to speak. This is because the human throat can't get the sub-vocalizations right.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: In the comic, they're called Skins and they look less like wolves and more like an mixture of different animals. They also seem to change shape at will (by shedding their skins), not according to the moon. Silver does kill them though.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Unlike traditional vampires, Smokes can walk in sunlight and they feed on the breath of the dying, not blood. Blood is just an aphrodisiac - they drink it during sex. Smokes can also turn to smoke (duh!)
- Pretty Boy: Rabbit and the Jekkel. Of course, they're Smokes and the entire species consists of pretty vampiric albinos.
- The Napoleon: Despite being tiny (and surrounded by werewolves nearly twice her height), Jordan is extremely aggressive. Averted with female Skoll - even though she's smaller than her colleagues, she's also calm and reassuring.
- Tom Boy: With her short hair, boyish dress sense and gutter mouth, Jordan falls under this trope.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Rabbit is an adorable example.
