The Devil's Panties, started in October 8, 2001, is an "autobiographical online daily comic about conventions, comic shops, and pirates." It details the misadventures the webcomic author/artist Jennie Breeden has in her life (because truth is stranger than fiction), occasionally exaggerating or dipping into fiction, such as in her conversations with Jesus and The Devil.
Read it here
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Tropes:
- Author Appeal: Asian guys, men in kilts.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: "I want the plague!" She actually gets mono. At least it's less horrid than the bubonic plague.
- Berserk Button: Pretty much anything stupid, reckless, or illegal happening at a comic-con will press Jennie's rage button.
- B-Side Comics: Geebas On Parade, a comic about LARPing, part Deep-Immersion Gaming, part real-world effects.
- Character Development: Jen develops in tandem with her author, growing up over the comic's run - starting at college and through working assorted jobs before becoming a full-time artist - but has diverged into an exaggerated fantasy version of herself, shorter, angrier, sillier, able to do and say things the real Jennie couldn't.
- Derailed Fairy Tale: Occasionally a strip was replaced with a parody of a fairy tale a few years back.
- Editorial Synaesthesia: Jen visits her boyfriend's mother, who has far more energy than English. "I would only catch one or two Spanish words that I recognized and the rest turned into a hundred mile an hour blurred dialogue." To represent this, her speech bubbles are filled with squiggles and the occasional word.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Plus a Princess and a Cavewoman! The two are Friendly Enemies at worst, and often concur on common issues (like attractive men.)
- Hearing Voices:
- Jennie and other people have a Devil and Angel on their shoulder, though Jennie is the only one with a Pink Princess to add to that.
- The Broad's shoulder demon says, "What Good counterpart?"
- Limited Wardrobe: Unless there's a good reason not to, Jen always wears a t-shirt depicting a labrys (a double-headed axe that looks like the Batman logo), denim shorts (changed to a tartan skirt around 2011) and big stompy boots with flame motifs. The author notes that Jen has solidified this way, while she's changed and become varied.
- Long Runner: Jennie just celebrated the 5000th comic.
- Jesus Is Way Cool: Smokes weed, dares the Devil to steal one of the sheep in a Nativity scene...
- Magical Realism: Jesus, the Devil or both appear now and then. Also one of Jennie's room-mates used to keep Legolas naked and locked in her closet.
- Magnum Opus Dissonance: The work Jennie pours love into isn't always the work people like best, as depicted here.
- Man in a Kilt: She likes them. More than that, she bought a leaf-blower to harass them, and then arranged to photograph willing volunteers for a calendar.
- Never Heard That One Before: When someone asks Obby if anyone's ever told him he looks like Sayid from Lost, he says "No, never" in Sarcasm Mode. He's actually cosplaying Sayid at the time because he looks so much like him.
- Perky Goth: Jennie's long-term friend "Happy Goth". Early on, probably Jennie as well.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Very much so, although exaggerated for comic effect and given an occasional surrealistic twist.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Starting out as a self-admitted "feminazi" (a reaction to her local environment), Jennie mellowed on this over time (and through meeting different people), and allowed her "inner princess" to come out. In the comic, this meant her angel and devil were joined by a pink-tutu-wearing princess in army boots.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Dyslexia-related problems with spelling meant that many of the comics have typos, and making an issue of it was a real Berserk Button for her. (There used to be an angry rant about it on the website, but it was dropped when it was redesigned.) They appear far less often in new comics, though.
- Running Gag: "Things Not To Say In The Bedroom" comics, which are also about giving the artist time off on the weekends. They appear on Saturday or Sunday, and consist only of solid black with a single word balloon with the joke in it, usually a line from an earlier comic taken completely out of its original context.
- Series Mascot: The angel and devil are the face of the comic, and do most of the promotional "See me at this convention" notices.
