Life and Death

Life and Death is a webcomic by Jonathan Oliver about the personifications of Life (Bobby) & Death (Steve). The comic can be found here

Despite the mechanics of this wiki, has nothing to do with the Pantheon.


 * Anthropomorphic Personification: Every major character.
 * Art Evolution: At first. It gets better in the first couple hundred strips, but then the improvement in the quality stops. Which is really too bad.
 * Asshole Victim: here
 * Badass: Steve's grandfather, Azrael. To quote him, "I killed Cthulhu with a gopher and a damp sponge."
 * Steve himself qualifies.
 * Batter Up: One of Steve's favourite weapons is a cricket bat.
 * Black Comedy: It's Steve. What did you expect?
 * Can't Argue with Elves: Torn to shreds by the Boss in the most deadpan manner possible. (But not to Screw You, Elves levels)
 * Characterization Marches On: In comic #313, Steve takes a very blase attitude toward magic. Fast forward a few hundred comics, and you get Steve's fleshed-out backstory, and some very compelling reasons for why he doesn't like using magic.
 * The type of magic he's doing in this strip is way less dangerous than the type of magic that he's scared of. As of comic #1092, he's summoning a black hole on the moon, and he's justifiedly scared...
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Steve takes his job as Death very seriously and a lot of the people he takes die in some pretty weird ways. However, he doesn't usually go out of his way to be a jerk unless his target is stupid, undead, or the Phoenix bird.
 * Cool Mask: Bobby's mask. Arguably Steve's hood as well.
 * Remove His Organs With A Damp Sponge: Steve.
 * Everything's Worse with Bears / Everything's Better with Plushies: Why else would a valkyrie buy one.
 * Everythings Better With Platypus: Chaos.
 * Evil Tastes Good: Apparently the living soul of a mage tastes like strawberries
 * Fantastic Racism: The elves REALLY don't like the dark elves, Steve and his family included. Almost goes to Does This Remind You of Anything? levels.
 * Hurricane of Puns / Incredibly Lame Pun: A lot of Bobby's appearances are to make a pun on sayings involving life, e.g. his custom made spice which he calls Variety.
 * In fact, he and Steve seem to have an ongoing contest based on this and lately, it's become infectious, as the personification of Time is seen riding a magic carpet (Time Flies).
 * There are also stand-alone one-panel comics devoted entirely to these.
 * The Faceless: Steve, at first, Bobby, so far.
 * Gargle Blaster: This comic. And Steve still drinks it. His begging the snowman to do the same on the basis of him not wanting to be the only one in the emergency room is not far-fetched.
 * Giant Enemy Crab: First seen here then It Got Worse.
 * Godly Sidestep: When Death asks which religion is right, God whispers in his ear. Death is surpised, meaning it's something unusual.
 * The Grim Reaper: The entire premise.
 * Jenny Everywhere: Makes a cameo during the Crossover Wars.
 * Kill It with Fire: Generally not Steve's first choice, but can and will if necessary. Or if it would be funny.
 * King of All Cosmos: The Boss, duh.
 * Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Participated in the Crossover Wars as well as several Halloween Cameo Capers.
 * Noodle Incident: Apparently, Chaos isn't very trustworthy in the Boss' eyes, due to "that time in Thailand."
 * Once Killed a Man with A Noodle Implement: Azrael once killed Cthulhu with a gopher and a damp sponge.
 * Running Gag: Several. The "wizard hat" and the pink elephants are used fairly frequently (usually together), Steve's inability to catch the phoenix, and Chaos' obsession with the platypus, or the fact that his shirt changes in every panel.
 * Some Call Me... Tim: Sally's full name is Salyana Elathna'fury
 * This Means War: Chaos pulls a very chilling one, a stark contrast compared to his usual carefree self.
 * Trickster Mentor: Chaos
 * You Are Already Dead: Steve pulls this on Shadowheart being death makes it fairly easy to do
 * You Keep Using That Word: Mentioned by Steve here, where he's called a wizard quite often by everyone on the goblin pirate ship.
 * Your Universe or Mine?: Bobby is dating Brunhilda from The KAMics
 * Zombie Apocalypse: As part of the 2008 Halloween Cameo Caper