Space and monsters?
tinyraygun
is a Sci-Fi Webcomic by Shelbie Copas (A.K.A. Themsjolly), following the adventures of a bright but naive space explorer trying to make her way in the galaxy.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Tork, especially compared to his egomaniac of a sidekick, Vector. He's surprisingly laid back about stealing Nepta's stuff, and isn't even all that interested in Nepta herself.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Common among the Levik species. They come from an icy planet and evolved feet tough enough to never really need shoes.
- BFG: A matter of pride among the Geckoids.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Tork and Vector. Unusually, Vector, the smaller one, only thinks he's in charge, while his larger, smarter partner Tork doesn't take him particularly seriously.
- Big Red Button: Nepta's ship has one that makes her ship go faster. Which is, of course, labeled "Faster".
- Butt-Monkey: Right off the bat, Nepta's being pursued for unknown reasons, crashes her ship trying to escape, and winds up captured by thieves, all in the first few pages.
- Companion Cube: Goes hand in hand with the Geckoid's gun culture. The loss of his only firearm is enough to make Tork shed a tear.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Nepta coming this close to selling Doppler to a shady animal trader with a cheerful "OK!" Thankfully, a look around the shop is all it takes to give her a change of heart.
- Defiant Stone Throw: Done to Valie while she's making a sales pitch. Honestly, she takes it better than one might expect.
- Expressive Ears: Both Nepta and Doppler sport long ears that show their mood.
- Extreme Omnivore: Doppler, who has no trouble eating Tork's raygun.
- Gas Mask Mooks: The Geckoids, thanks to their highly industrialized home planet becoming heavily polluted. They've become so common in their everyday lives they don't even bother to take them off on planets where they don't need them.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: How Nepta talks. Paired with her intelligence, the fact she talks like an old-timey cartoon is adorable.
- Honest John's Dealership: Valie, a shady merchant. Of course, no one believes her sales pitches.
- Faster-Than-Light Travel: Of course, instead of having to punch in any fancy coordinates, all you have to do is press a Big Red Button.
- Humongous Mecha: Valie gives a sales pitch while standing on the severed head of one.
- Imprinting: Nepta's the first thing Doppler sees after hatching and immediately imprints on her.
- Intelligent Gerbil: The different species of the galaxy all tend to bare some resemblance to Earth animals. Leviks from the mountainous regions, for example, resemble long-eared cats with antlers and short tails.
- Made of Iron: Nepta survives being thrown from the cockpit of a ship that crashlanded at light speed without so much as a scratch.
- Multipurpose Tongue: Doppler's tongue can wrap around objects and snatch them from even a fully grown Geckoid.
- Night-Vision Goggles: Nepta's headgear of choice.
- Old-School Dogfight: As per its send-up to pulpy sci-fi, the comic opens with Nepta's ship being pursued by other ships firing at her from incredibly close range (and still mostly missing).
- The Pollyanna: After nearly dying in a space chase, getting robbed by dangerous thieves and left stranded on an unkown, barren planet, Nepta is still amazingly upbeat about it.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Doppler, a small, quadruped creature with long ears and enormous green eyes.
- Skewed Priorities: After the Geckoids take her supplies, Nepta's pleased to find they didn't find her rations, first aid kits...and comic books.
- The Smart Girl: Nepta's brilliant on an intellectual level, but highly naive about the way the world really works.
- Spock Speak: In addition her quirky, old-fashioned way of talking, Nepta never uses contractions.
- Super Spit: Doppler, a little alien creature that's taken to following Nepta, can spit acid.
- War Is Hell: Nepta's backstory. She was a courier on a war-torn planet who finally snapped and stole a spaceship to escape.
- Wretched Hive: The Yard seems a bit friendlier than most, but still really shady.
