Webcomic / The Schetch Pad

The Schetch Pad is a Webcomic created by Martin Schetselaar (with occasional contributions from his daughter, Sophie). It's a single-panel, skit-style comic, with particular focus on three subjects: Star Trek, Volkswagens, and life with only one arm. Its name is a play on and homophone of the term sketch pad.

The comic updates every Wednesday (with some exceptions).

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The Schetch Pad contains examples of:

• The Alleged Car: A lot of them!
  • "BeelzeBug" gives a guy's reaction to Satan providing him with what he considers to be one of these.^note It was a brand new, modern Volkswagen "New Beetle," which in Finn's view doesn't count as a real Beetle.
  • The wife is not happy about this one...
    • Or this one.
  • Finn's VW is old and neglected, and consequently not in ideal condition, in addition to the quirks that vintage Volkswagens exhibited as a result of unusual decisions made in their design. An early comic had him visiting the doctor due to afflictions caused by it.
  • This bus is lucky to have seatbelts.
• Author Avatar: Finn, all the way down to the stump he has in place of a left forearm. Martin stated it himself so that people didn't get the wrong idea.
• Berserk Button:
  • Do NOT call it a Hippie Van.
  • Martin seems to have a couple of Berserk Buttons himself. In addition to the Take That! entries below:
    • Do not leave trolleys in parking spaces.
    • Never talk about his limb difference in a condescending way. See Disabled Means Helpless below.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Martin is not fluent in Dutch, but knows a little. It's evident in this comic: the speech bubble translates to Happy Sinterklaas Day.
  • He can also speak some German, as given by this comic's title (translation: Excuse Me, Please; fitting since he was apologising for not putting up comics due to his exams).
• Christmas Episode: This and this comic roughly qualify.
• Compensating for Something: Lampshaded here.
• Cool Car:
  • Apparently, Herbie can go to war.
  • If a 1963 ragtop is good enough for God...
  • Thieves aren't prepared to touch the ArachnoGhia.
• Cool Starship:
  • This Beetle-style spacecraft.
  • The space Hippie Vans. See below.
• Crossover: One comic had a mash-up between Spider Man and Harry Potter. You could probably guess the result.
• Disabled Means Helpless: A few comics deal with this trope, with most being aversions. This comic double subverts it, and justifiably: when your driving apparatus is on the right-hand side (like what is the case for Australian cars), reaching the gear stick is a bit more difficult with only half a left arm.
• Disabled Snarker: Finn has his moments. Given that he's also an Author Avatar...
• Hippie Van: Naturally, since the Volkswagen features pretty prominently in the cartoons. There are even space-faring versions of it.
• Ignore the Disability: "Dear DMV"
• Make a Wish: This comic plays it for laughs.
• One True Faith: Played with in the first comic. Note that the religion in question is "VW", with an "orthodox" branch (i.e. classic Beetle-style VWs, as opposed to the modern VWs).
• The Prankster / The Bully: Sophie's first guest contribution seems to paint her father's bus as a combination of the two.
• Priceless Ming Vase: Lampshaded. The hood was original German.
• Red Shirt: Lampshaded here. Note that this is a Lampshading for another series
• Shout-Out: The Star Trek shoutouts aside, there are:
  • Back to the Future, with this humourous take on a familiar scene.
  • Doctor Who is referenced in regards to the Salt Lake Comic Convention.
  • Leonard Nimoy got a fitting tribute.
  • The Love Bug, specifically Herbie, gets a couple: here and here.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus, in a crossover with Star Trek in this comic.
  • Spider-Man gets a couple, both of which are brought up in Cool Car and X Meets Y.
  • Star Wars, especially A New Hope.
• Space Police: Starfleet gets reimagined as this in this panel.
• Take That!: A few pop up, towards Taco Bell, Apple, and especially the DMV.
• Talking Appliance Sidekick: Not so much a sidekick (since it only appeared in one comic), but this bed was definitely a talking appliance, and a creepy one at that.
• We Don't Need Roads: One can only imagine how both the jeep and the VW bus got up there.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Spare a thought for poor Captain Picard...