Erma

Erma is a horror-comedy Web Comic by Brandon Santiago, about a child named Erma (who happens to be half-ghost) and her Genre Savvy classmates. Updates irregularly, but usually one or two strips each week (except that the last 13 days in October get a colour comic each day, followed by the strip going on hiatus in early-to-mid November). Read it at Tapas.


 * As You Know: In this strip, telling the readers how Our Monsters Are Different.
 * Character Title
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: "Silent Night"
 * Literal-Minded and Comically Missing the Point:
 * "Hey, Erma, you mind poking your head in through the wall and... Okay... I didn't mean it like that..."
 * "I feel like going out and painting the town red!"
 * Mugging the Monster: in the strip "Down To Clown", a stock horror-movie Evil Clown tries to capture Erma... Have pity on the Evil Clown, because Erma didn't.
 * Oh Crap: The local boys might have Erma Surrounded and snowballs ready to fly, but that isn't good enough.
 * Paint the Town Red: Discussed after a fashion in this strip, but never actually happens.
 * Poltergeist: Erma, who has poltergeist powers. This makes her regular dentist trips frightening to everyone.
 * Shout-Out: So many that the list is now on the Trivia subpage.
 * Show Within a Show: "Warrior Unicorn Princess", Erma's favorite cartoon. Clearly styled after My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, complete with a nickname for fans ("wupers").  Funnily enough, Erma is exactly the target demographic of the show, but considers it a Guilty Pleasure.
 * To be fair, Amy and Terry react as if they've "outgrown" the show when Sidney mentions liking it.
 * Warrior Unicorn Princess has been defictionalized - a comic book is available at the Erma website.
 * Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: The character designs of Erma and her mother are strongly influenced by this archetype.
 * Summoning Ritual: Amy tries to summon Erma to ask for notes. The summoning worked but we don't see if she actually got the notes.
 * Television Portal: Erma forgot her lunch.
 * Webcomic Time: At the start of 2018, the family left on a trip, and got Erma's babysitter Felicia to look after their pet dog Siris. Nearly three years later in Real Life, but only one week later in story time, we see the aftermath of the walk - combining Brick Joke and Noodle Incident.