Webcomic / Tales of the Unusual

Tales of the Unusual is a webcomic by Korean artist, Seongdae Oh.

It is an anthology series spanning tales between horror, comedy and, at times, love. Though mostly the former two with the occasional Twist Ending. If it's cruel or not usually varies from story to story. But if you've seen shows like The Twilight Zone (1959), The Outer Limits (1963), and Tales from the Crypt, you'll pretty much know what you're getting into.

Can be found on Webtoons.

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Has the following tropes

• All Just a Dream:
  • "Lucidity Controller": The first half of the story is just a dream of the scientist trying to test the limits of his product.
  • "The Mysterious Potter" is revealed to be a shared nightmare the protagonists had.
  • "Switch": The eponymous switch never came into existence. The protagonist wakes up after passing out on a bench and dreaming the whole scenario.
• Ambiguously Human: Jayce from "To Kill a Magician". His magic is pretty clearly real rather than simple clever tricks, but how he got it and what he actually is is unclear. "The Demon Man" reveals he's in fact a demon.
• Asshole Victim: There are quite a few. The protagonist of "A Man and His Dog" really stands out.
• The Bad Guy Wins: "New Beauty Water" ends with the Villain Protagonist escaping from her misdeeds with a new identity.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: The protagonist of "A Man and His Dog" hurts the titular dog and kills her puppies. His maiming and eventual death are straight-up celebrated in the comics.
• Based on a True Story: "The Painting" is based on "an acquaintance's real experience". A photo of the titular painting is included at the end.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The protagonist of "Switch" draws a switch that can turn his family on and off, and it becomes real. He uses it so much that it breaks, and he regrets making them disappear. Fortunately, it was All Just a Dream, and he treasures his family from then on.
• Black Comedy: Several of the vignettes. "Camping" is one of the best examples.
• Body Horror: Oooh lots.
  • "An African Incident": Two of the protagonists willingly take on a disease from their guide to keep a cannibalistic clan from eating them. Spreading a nasty rash on their bodies.
  • "Beauty Water" has the protagonist use so much of the stuff that when she bathes in it for too long, she nearly reduced to bones. Her parents sacrifice some of their flesh to restore her but only have enough to have for her upper body, leaving her with no legs and deformed.
• Cannibal Clan: "An African Incident" has the protagonists dealing with one after they unwittingly enter into their territory. Turns out they're not, the guide just made up most of the story to get revenge on the asshole customers he was guiding when they keep food from him just to go through a territory faster that he was trying to avoid, having the men willingly take on a skin disease so as not to be "eaten".
• Cassandra Did It: Downplayed in "The Future Spirit". The protagonist once tried to save a woman from her fate and was accused of stalking her. When she died the next day, he was the primary suspect. He was acquitted, but it was such a huge hassle that he gave up on saving people until he met his love interest.
• Continuity Nod: When characters use the internet, titles of other episodes sometimes show up as forum topics. Some of these are the urban legends which cause such trouble for the protagonists of their episodes.
• Crapsack World: Most, if not all, of the stories take place in the same world. The world is thus full of malicious spirits, cursed objects, damaging products, and many, many bad people.
• Creepy Crows: Crows serve as the primary antagonist of "Demonic Bloodweed". They get in the way of the protagonist's hunt and turn into the first monsters.
• Cruel Twist Ending: The hikikomori protagonist of "Delivery" is finally ready to go out and live a decent life when he realizes he is already dead.
• Deadly Gaze: The protagonist of "Devil's Eyes" can weaken things by staring at them with hatred. Staring at a person will make them weak enough to crumble upon being touched.
• Dead to Begin With:
  • "Soul Trapping" begins with the protagonist dying of cancer and trapping his soul in a photo frame so he can watch over his family.
  • The protagonist of "A Boy and a Murderer" realizes he was murdered soon after the story starts and tries to stop the murderer with the limited interactions he's allowed to have.
• Deal with the Devil: In "A Webtoonist's Dream", the titular character gets amazing ideas for his Webtoon in his dreams. Near the end of his Webtoon, the dreams suddenly stop, and he makes a deal with his mystical benefactor to keep them coming at the cost of one finger per dream. Once he's finished, he can tell which other artists have been making those deals.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In the story "An African Incident". A tour guide with Feros disease is mocked and insulted by the two men he drives around, when they are kidnapped by a tribe, he tells them they are cannibals who will not eat sick humans. When they are released by the tribe because the tour guide gives them the disease and are in the hospital later, it turns out the tribe was really friendly. The tour guide did this to get back at them for treating him the way they did.
  • In beauty water, the protagonist goes to see a woman who helps restore her face, while insulting her not knowing she was her, when she at first plays a joke on her before giving her the face she wanted back, her own face, the protagonist attacks and chokes her to death.
• Downer Ending:
  • "Ghost Hunting" ends with the daughter of the family getting possessed by one of the malicious spirits and killing the father and later her mothers. She then proceeds to lure others to the house so his fellow spirits can possess the victims.
  • Downplayed in "The Carbonated Virus" The scientist who made it and likewise had the antidote ends up contracting the virus and kills himself when he bites into his tongue by accident. The following text states without the antidote, humanity succumbed to the virus.
• Fate Worse than Death: "Beauty Water" ends with the protagonist kidnapped by the man, or should we say woman, she was dating who uses the Beauty Water to turn her into his leg. Now stuck to his body and punished whenever she doesn't say something he likes.
• Fingore: It's the Deal with the Devil that helps people complete their stories in "A Webtoonist's Dream". The protagonist is able to hone his own writing skills and only needs to give up three fingers, making him the first recipient to still have fingers on both hands.
• Flock of Wolves: In "Grim Reaper", the protagonist is running out of time to collect souls and turns to a suicide club to finish his quota. Before they do the deed, one person has a change of heart and leaves. The remaining people are all grim reapers who were hoping to take advantage of the suicide pact.
• Force Feeding: Happens to the protagonist of 14k while kidnapped, as her captors figure that if she has more skin, they can scrape gold off faster. She's a lot fatter for the remainder of the episode as a result.
• Forced Transformation: In "The Human Door", people are cursed to turn into doors for a specific period of time as punishment. This can be undone with the passage of time or with the death of the witch who cast the curse.
• Gainax Ending: "Earth Warrior Taletron" ends... very oddly. Just see for yourself, we won't spoil it here.
• Good All Along: The Yaburi tribe in "An African Incident". It turns out that they aren't actually cannibals, and instead are completely normal people who are simply taking advantage of rumors so that outsiders would leave them alone, and a lot of elements of their culture turn out to be completely benign, such as them decorating their homes with skulls isn't some sort of grim trophy reaped from their victims, but a way of warding off evil spirits, with the skulls in question belonging to that of their ancestors, and the worst thing that they do are confiscating the belongings out the outsiders that they capture, then releasing them.
• Gilligan Cut: The protagonist of "In a Rut" refuses to squeeze into a tiny box for the sake of 1.5 million won. One panel later, he is in his underwear and ready to get in the box.
• Grand Theft Me: "Brain" involves brains that grow and force the host's brain out.
• Here We Go Again!:
  • "The Stationary Store" involve a few boys who rob from a store and being cursed by the owner to become whatever they stole (A boy who stole box cutters has his hands turn to box cutters, a boy who stole balloons deflates like one when poked, one who stole a soccer ball becomes one, etc). After experiencing a day with the inconveniences, they go back to the store, return the items, forced to write "I will not steal" 100 times before the owner reverses them back to normal and lets them off with a warning. Unfortunately one of the boys had no recollection of the incident (he stole ice cream and melted, so was unaware what happened) and reveals he nicked some supplies on the way out. Cue the others looking on in horror.
  • "Winning Numbers" starts and ends with random lottery numbers being placed upon a person, with another being informed of them.
• Hikikomori: The protagonist of "Delivery" is outright referred to as such; he has not left his apartment in five years.
• Hope Spot: In "A Man and His Dog", the dogs lead the abusive man into a pit and leave him trapped for days. Fortunately for him, some neighbors noticed his disappearance. They are able to save his life, but he learns nothing from the experience and goes to beat up the dogs again. This gets him brutally killed.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • "Brain Contamination": The story involves a virus which causes people to see food as disgusting while seeing humans as "real food" like pizza or chicken turning people into unwitting cannibals. The protagonists of the story is a detective looking into the matter who ends up infected and has to look normal while suffering the symptoms.
  • "The Mysterious Potter": The titular potter makes enchanted pots that, when touched to a victims head, will cause the head to appear in the pot. He then lets them set for a time till the pots turn into the victim's head and drink from that, essentially taking their life force.
  • "Watermelon": The author the runaways run into is revealed to have cut off the head of their friend and put it in a watermelon shell to eat from.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Zig-Zagged. Some stories usually go easy on younger kid protagonists but there are cases where they do die such as "A Boy and a Murderer" the daughter in "Ghost Hunting", two boys in "Jayce's Pen" and one of the boys in "Watermelon".
• I Will Wait for You: In "Dating a Ghost", the ghost Soeun promises to date Taehun if he's still single when he dies. Taehun is inspired to live every day to the fullest for her sake and ends up living too long, but she's there to greet him when he dies of old age.
• Karmic Death: Generally if the character is utterly unrepentant, chances are they'll end up dead by the end of the story.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Probably the best outcome for most of the more immoral protagonists. They're get punished and likely deformed along the way, but hey, they're still alive.
• Literally Shattered Lives: The curse of breaking the titular "Living Doll" causes the breaker to shatter like pottery on touch.
• Meta Twist: The protagonist of "Ghost Home Care" consults a faceless agent of the titular service and buys the service to clean up his home, only to cancel after a month. The agent, despite its sketchy appearance, is kind and understanding and cancels the services when given a very simple reason. The protagonist faces no repercussions and learns to do his own chores.
• Mushroom Samba: "Camping" has the protagonists go out for camping. Seems normal enough till one of them suddenly sees his friends turn into monsters. Turns out a hobo that came across the camp put mushrooms in their stew and caused them to hallucinate.
• Off with His Head!:
  • "To Kill a Magician" includes this when one of Jayce's magic tricks goes wrong and he is decapitated by a train in the subway. It doesn't kill him.
  • "The Mysterious Potter": Any time one of the pots hits one of the protagonists' heads, it instantly takes off their head and puts it in the pot.
  • "Head": The protagonists are criminals who were drafted into a space program for a reduced service and sent to a meteor to mine for minerals. The caveat being they had their heads chopped off and put in robotic spider-like bodies for more efficiency.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: While most of the tales presented are straight-up horror or at best horror-themed black comedy, some episodes are different.
  • "My Wife's Memories", deals with themes of grief, loss, and romance, and the ghost is completely benign.
  • "Pet Wigs" is a comedic story in which the protagonist gets a living wig to get a date but ultimately loses her. It's equally the humans' and wigs' faults.
• "Pop!" Goes the Human:
  • "Mini-Me" involves the protagonist having to put up with a mini version of himself inside him who tries to get him to lose weight. Ultimately the man can't take it anymore has surgery to get the mini-him out. When he crushes him, the man explodes as well.
  • "The Carbonated Virus" A scientist, angry that he wasn't picked to work at a company, make a virus and throws it into the water of a city. The virus causes the victim blood to swell like carbonated soda before any cut causes them to pop like a blood balloon. Said scientist gets his when he gets infected and, though having the cure, instead tries to wait till he gets to a job interview to show he can make it. He loses said cure in the travel there and, while trying to convince the interviewers he's right for the job, ends up biting and injuring his tongue.
• Raging Stiffie: While the protagonist of "Dating a Ghost" is on a date with the ghost girl, his family finds him in bed ice cold, barely breathing, and with a lump in the sheets. Before they call an ambulance, his father covers up the lump to spare him the embarrassment.
• Ret-Gone: When the protagonist of "Switch" breaks the eponymous switch in the off position, his family ceases to exist and he was never married.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: "Murderous Rage" features a boy who freezes to death because bullies stole his clothes, so his spirit goes on to possess the clothes of the bullies and make them die from violent accidents. The last bully's spirit then goes on to possess a scarf of a kid who didn't help him escape his death.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: "Cafe" involves a mean boss being recommended a coffee cafe which sells some particularly good drinks. The owner claims they just put animal blood in it to make it taste better and offers her a visitation coupon. She manages to fill it and offered to try an exclusive drink. Only to find out that it has an eyeball in it, plus it was likewise poisoned. When her assistant comes for a visit she see the boss' name as one of the new drinks.
• Sequel Episode: Season two of the webcomic kicked off with a sequel to "Beauty Water", promptly titled "New Beauty Water".
• Sleep Paralysis Creature:
  • "The Painting" is a story reminiscent of sleep paralysis. The painter's wife is plagued by demons that seem to come out of the painting in her sleep until she gets him to burn it.
  • "Dating a Ghost" starts off with a forum post about how a man might see a hot female ghost when he gets sleep paralysis and be able to date her. The protagonist tries this out, and it works.
• Stealth Prequel:
  • "The Makeover" involves a plastic surgeon having to deal with the ghost of a girl who pesters him to remake her corpse so she can look beautiful so it'll transfer to her ghostly appearance. He manages but, despite ordering her not to tell any other ghosts, she naturally blabs and other ghost girls start haunting him. Ultimately he manages to make them go away by collecting their corpses and burning them. But the hauntings take a toll on his appearance that he can't get business anymore. So he goes into business by making a new product: Beauty Water.
  • "The Demon Man" focuses on many exorcised demons merging into one giant powerful one that can absorb the abilities of people they kill and take on their characteristics. Eventually, the creature is divided into pieces and destroyed, but one piece manages to escape. The demon, looking to live among humans while not wasting his abilities, kills someone and takes his place. Said person is a magician named Jayce.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending:
  • "The Future Spirit" is about a man who can see how people are going to die (including himself) and falls in love with a woman he saved. They both seek more stable work and have several close calls with death. In the climax, the man gives up his protective charm to save the woman during an earthquake. He wakes up with the charm and worries that she is dead, but it turns out she is alive and understands his situation. They become Happily Married and find good jobs.
  • "Ghost Home Care" is about a man who hires a ghost cleaning service because his apartment is a mess and he's too exhausted to clean it after working at his new job. After a month, he finds the ghosts' help awkward and cancels the service without any repercussions. He finds out that he can handle the house chores by himself.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: A barista in "Brain" puts some gelatinous bits in a customer's drink, making her sick. It turns out to be tiny brains of her deceased daughter that grow and replace the customer's brain. The daughter later slips her husband's brains into an unsuspecting man's drink.
• Together in Death:
  • The protagonist of "My Wife's Memories" and the titular wife at the end. In an unusual example for this series, he dies peacefully of natural causes and it's taken as a happy ending.
  • In "Dating a Ghost", the ghost girl tries to get the protagonist to give up his life so they can date for real. She realizes that his family cares about him very much and tells him she won't visit him again until he dies naturally. He gets the feeling that she's watching and chooses to live a long, meaningful life to make her proud before peacefully joining her in death.
• Too Dumb to Live: The father in "Ghost Hunting", he's told quite clearly his house is haunted by malicious spirits, even shown proof when the special wallpaper given to him shows the imprint of said spirits. While it is justified that he would want to get his money back so the family can move out. You'd think he'd at least have the family stay at a hotel or a fellow relative's place while he tries to sort things out. At the least send his wife and daughter away so as not to put them in danger. But no instead he insists the family stay in the house where the threat of being possessed persists. Eventually one of the spirits manages to get into the dog they had brought to sense the spirits and scratch up the wallpaper enough to let one of the stronger spirits loose. While the father manages to fight it off, it instead takes control of the daughter and kills him and her mother. Pretty much causing the whole family to be killed.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: The reveal that the protagonist's boyfriend was born a woman in Beauty Water. It triggers his… more unpleasant behavior.
• Villain Protagonist: A great many of the protagonists are these.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The protagonist of "Eternal Life Pills" is aware of the problems of living forever. It's implied that he chooses to live anyway. The story closes with the words "But still, I chose to be unhappy. Because I am just a weak human being."