Gold Digger (Comic Book)



Gold Digger is a long-running US comic from Antarctic Press with manga-inspired art, written and drawn by Fred Perry. The first appearance of the characters was in the anthology title Mangazine Vol. 2 #11 (September, 1991). They then got their own eponymous 4-issue miniseries (September 1992-March 1993). This proved successful enough to make Gold Digger Vol. 2 an ongoing. 50 regular issues were published between July 1993 and June 1999, plus a number of annuals. These issues were mostly in black-and-white. The series was then relaunched as a full-color series. Vol. 3 started in July 1999 and is still ongoing.

The story centers around the adventures of the kind, nerdy, and idealistic Hot Scientist inventor, archaeologist and explorer Gina Diggers; and her Boisterous Bruiser, fashionista, were-cheetah adopted sister/bodyguard, Britanny "Cheetah" Diggers, as they search the world (and others) for relics of the distant past.

The third sister, Brianna, is the goofy mental and physical combination of Gina and Britanny, accidentally created in the process of removing a curse gained during one of their adventures. She combines Gina's thirst for mysteries, scientific acumen, and libido with Britanny's low attention span and thirst for action, fashion, or entertainment (plus a portion of her werebeast strength). Hence, she likes action-technology of any kind, especially if explosions are involved. She is usually accompanied by her trademark childlike little Peebo robots.

If, as the name and the Adventurer Archaeologist trope implies, the sisters seem more intent on digging up valuable treasures to fund their lifestyle than searching for actual knowledge, they invariably make up for it by becoming unwitting heroines in the process, usually with the help of their friends, and with time, Gina evolves into more idealistic Pillars of Moral Character material.

It is popular enough to have several spin-offs, usually four-issue miniseries.

Fred Perry also began working on an independent OVA based on the original "Time Raft" pilot story since 1999. He basically did everything except for the voice acting and music composition, while still producing the main series. The last part of story was finally completed and released in 2010.

Not to be confused with the (completely different) character archetype -- even though that very trope is a derisive (and largely undeserved) In-Series Nickname for Gina.

"Britanny: You've gotta be joking!!! You're gorgeous! Look at you! Look at these! <> Gina: Eek! (Narrating): "I remember thinking: 'Jinkies! Where did those come from'?"
 * Action Duo: Gina and Britanny, Brains and Brawn.
 * Action Mom: Julia; Britanny after Tiffany's birth.
 * Adventurer Archaeologist: Gina, Penny, Lord "Pee-Wee" Talon, and many others.
 * Airborne Aircraft Carrier
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: The Pee-bees: Brianna's AI bullets that only target "bad guys". Too bad they aren't very smart, and see people jaywalking, squirrels taking acorns, and even someone stealing a kiss as "bad guys".
 * Her standard Peebo A Is, on the other hand, avert it and are much more well behaved, even if they do like going "boom" on bad guys. (It's just that they have a much better idea of what a "bad guy" is.
 * Peebri, however, wraps around to this trope again, in much the same way a childish Brianna would act.
 * All Women Are Lustful: Gina and Brittany especially, but females in this series tend to gravitate towards the aggressive side when it comes to guys.
 * Always Someone Better: A Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Lara Croft filled this role from off-screen for Gina for a while.
 * Animation Bump: A couple shots in the first part of the OAV were redone for the final version, and they really stand out against the original footage.
 * Animesque: Among the oldest examples still being produced.
 * Artificial Human: Brianna, Array, Raphiel, the whole Amonian race.
 * Atlanta: Home of the Diggers family.
 * Author Appeal: Fred definitely loves his were-creatures. Ironically, he dislikes certain varieties. A furry/TF fan, he apparently is not.
 * Bald Women: Zelda, one of Talon's employees. In no way detracts from her Amazonian Beauty status.
 * Balloon Belly: Charlotte has had this happen to her at least once, leading to her being Mistaken for Pregnant.
 * Becoming the Mask: Madrid
 * BFG: Brianna's favorite trope.
 * BFS: Shinryuken's Size-Mitar. Remember, there is nothing his Colossal Blade cannot cut!
 * Big Bad: Dreadwing
 * Big Monster Cute Name: "Flakey", the 2-kilometer-long kraken.
 * Bleached Underpants: Fred Perry used to draw more adult material, and in fact still does. Gina has her origins in this material, which explains her proportions (and attidude).
 * Blessed with Suck: Ayane the mixed-martial artist is a true sweetheart...and incredibly lonely due to her cold, cruel eyes that creep out everyone she meets. There's hope; Jotaru the genie has a crush on her. Did we mention that some genies in this series have their eyes in their torso instead of their face?
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Brianna, Xane
 * Boobs of Steel: The stronger females tend to have larger breasts (at least within their respective Cast Herd)—not that this says much.
 * Bottle Fairy: Monty's ghost girlfriend.
 * Brawn Hilda: "Grammy" Brunhildagarde Brigand, Julia's mother and the Diggers sisters' grandmother.
 * Breakout Villain: The dragon Dreadwing was originally just a one-shot villain for the pilot story, which ended with him as a skeleton. Now, he's the Man Behind the Man for many of the plotlines past and present, and is dueling with Ancient Gina across most of time with virtually all the other characters as pawns.
 * Breast Expansion: Britanny, when she goes from human form to hybrid form. This is also a major reason why she prefers to stay in Hybrid form as much as possible. (Well, actually because she's taller, stronger and faster, but this side benefit comes with the rest.)
 * Brooklyn Rage: Roxy Rabinowitz (AKA Dark Bird), leader of the Night Flight airborne mercenaries, has a strong Brooklyn accent and a BIG chip on her shoulder, especially when dealing with Ace. She also, who was a large source of the aforementioned rage.
 * Buffy-Speak
 * Burger Fool: Penny forces Gina to work at one of these before she'll loan her enough money to avoid bankruptcy.
 * Captain Ersatz: The Vaultron force, the Edge Guard, and Dr. Peachbody.
 * Then there's the Teen Titans in Tif' and Char's school adventures.
 * And their teacher, Miss Tickle from Mission Magic—er, we mean Miss Giggle, who has a darker complexion and a pretty funny explanation for her blobby hairdo: Her cat is permanently curled up on top of her head. Kids, be very careful with your teleportation experiments!
 * Fauntleroy's Platinus is like a Gender Flipped Witchblade (A sentient Empathic Weapon that assumes the form of Stripperiffic "Chainmail Bikini" armor for her male host...because she's a pervert.)
 * More recent storylines have included prehistoric Captain Ersatz versions of the Visionaries, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, the Centurions, G.I. Joe's Cobra (Earlier, one of Dark Bird's crew is a former member), and Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Brite as a psi-bard and prism battle priestess, respectively. Fred likes his Captain Ersatzes.
 * The whole series sometimes appears to thrive on this, from species to certain characters.
 * The Chessmaster: Gothwrain; Dreadwing; Ancient Gina
 * Clark Kenting: Agency Zero, especially Agent M, formerly the most recognizable hero on Earth. Pinky & The Cheets.
 * Cloning Blues: Averted. Brianna is a fusion of Brittany and Gina, magically brought to life by a curse, and Charlotte was a bio-engineered "harpy" created as a disposable weapon by a villain. Both have been treated as full characters in their own right from their very first appearances.
 * Brianna still had concerns about this for a long time, though. Charlotte ...not so much.
 * The Commies Made Me Do It: Crush; although somewhat justifiable, she notably refused a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card and chose to do the time for the crimes she committed, proving she did have moral fiber.
 * Creepy Twins: Montara; they are also Half-Identical Twins.
 * Cute Machines: The Peebos
 * Cute Monster Girl: Just about everybody, even the males; Crescens was when she was young, but is now kind of Nightmare Fuel.
 * Dark Action Girl: numerous including Link and Zelda, two of Talon's employees.
 * G'Nolga, Julia Digger's archrival in Jade.
 * Dark-Skinned Redhead: Xane
 * Dark-Skinned Blond: The human forms for both Britanny "Cheetah" 'Gia and her daughter Tifanny.
 * Demon Head: Theodore's "Flaming Skull Bit."
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Pretty much the entire cast is guilty of this one, but Gina takes the cake: in Issue 105, she and a male colleague nearly destroyed the world by daydreaming about each others' naughty bits instead of the Doomsday Device they were supposed to be disarming.
 * Expy: Aljabra Gihom, an expy of Fred's "Level UP!" Mithra character Calcula Mihgo—herself a Captain Ersatz version of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh.
 * Evil Twin: Brianna and Madrid
 * With a shot of Fridge Brilliance: Madrid's current persona allows the author to write either solo "Gina" stories about Madrid the explorer with Dao and Subtracto, or ensemble "Gina" stories about Gina the professor with her students and family.
 * Face Heel Turn: A magical mishap turns Theo's father Jonathan into the evil Lich King.
 * Fake Crossover: The series really skirts the line of this, such as when Gina mentions receiving a computer book from a girl with a weird uncle. Mind you the girl in question eventually became a full-fledged character).
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink
 * Feminist Fantasy: Probably one of the most tolerant and evenhanded comics around. The female characters are smart, capable, funny, goofy, distinctive, well-rounded, and memorable, in a diverse and amusing manner reminiscent of Tenchi Muyo or Urusei Yatsura, and avoid the bland and forced "Strong Female Characters" pitfalls. Fred makes a continuous effort to represent different body types and give female readers evenhanded "beefcake" treatment.
 * Flying Brick: Agent M
 * French Maid: Link is an Amazonian Beauty who wears rather ... undersized french maid outfits on missions.
 * Fun Personified: The series as a whole.
 * Future Badass: "Ancient Gina". Also "Charles" and "Prof. Cee", Charlotte's alterfuture selves.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Gina and many others
 * Gambit Roulette: Gothwrain's plan to break free of his enslavement; Dreadwing's plan to take power from Ancient Gina; and Ancient Gina's plan to save the universe, which includes the other 2 roulettes.
 * Gender Bender: A male character drank a potion specifically designed for women. Guess what happened.
 * Girls Behind Bars: Gold Digger #82
 * God Save Us From the Queen: Natasha, ruler of the undead, who would rather let her kingdom be wiped out than be humiliated by a higher power.
 * Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: A lot of elderly characters certainly age gracefully, despite all the action they go through.
 * Half-Human Hybrid
 * Heel Realization: Madrid has a moment of clarity when she realizes that her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder needlessly ruined a chance to escape capture and imprisonment.
 * Heel Face Turn: Redemption is a major running theme in this comic. Many of Gina and Britanny's enemies become their best friends and allies. Mesha, Tark, Brianna, Penny, Charlotte, Jetta...
 * Hive Mind: Array is a variant; each duplicate of herself she creates has an independent personality which returns to her mind when she reassimilates her body. However, they all share the same general goals.
 * Hot Amazon: many, including actual Amazons.
 * Hot Librarian: Kahn, librarian of the Library of Time.
 * Hot Mom: Julia
 * Hot Scientist: Gina and Penny.
 * Humanity Ensues: Fauntleroy is a dragon cursed to stay in human form. When he finally finds the MacGuffin he needs to return to dragon form, he decides to wait and see if there's more he can learn from being human.
 * I Was Quite a Looker: Grammy Brunhildagarde
 * Infant Immortality: Dr. Diggers tried his best to disarm the werewolf leader, but in the end the only werecheetah left to save was baby Britanny.
 * Innocent Innuendo: Julia Diggers' longtime friend Karia is referred to as the "Queen of Oblivious Innuendo," because she never does figure out that the phrasing she uses when talking about their sparring often sounds like she's describing lesbian sex.
 * Ki Attacks: Several of the martial artists, especially the ninjas, and Ryan Tabbot.
 * Killer Rabbit —er, Wabbit.
 * Kudzu Plot: A pretty bad case, highlighted by the fact that the websites hawking the comic often contain cover previews and summaries for upcoming issues… but then Fred gets an itch to go growing the plot in some other direction entirely, and the previewed issues often have completely different covers and subjects, with the original plots dropped to be completed off-camera, if that.
 * Lately, however, a good portion of those storylines have begun to be tied together to the Myth Arc. (See below.)
 * Lawyer-Friendly Cameo
 * Leeroy Jenkins: Team Noob, ridiculously over-armed leprechauns with no idea where they are, what they are doing, what their mission is, how to operate their equipment, or how to not blow themselves up in 5 seconds, but using binoculars and bazookas backwards hasn't slowed down their enthusiasm yet. The GD Tangent Web Comic has a similar setup as the Trope Namer, with a Shout-Out as well.
 * Leprechauns: WITH TANKS AND MECHA!!
 * Load-Bearing Boss: Invoked after Julia's fight with Serpentus,.
 * Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!: Mostly whenever the story takes place on Jade, as many anthropomorphic characters co-exist with other humans or humanoid species in that dimension. On Earth, they usually work under a masquerade, save for a few special places around the globe.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: …and loads. There's a tie-in comic with one-to-three page write-ups on the characters that have appeared in the series. There have been 23 issues published so far (though only the first 17 are on the characters; the rest focus on locations). The first 17 issues of this Guide to the GD Universe have now been collected into a two-inch-thick tome.
 * Cast Herd: The characters tend to come in sub-groups—the Edge Guard, Lord Talon and minions, Agency Zero—who can hold down arcs or even mini-series by themselves.
 * Array personifies this trope all by herself, and herself, and herself, and herself, and herself, and herself... but they're all on the same side - her side!
 * Lovable Sex Maniac: Britanny (until her marriage), and Gina. Ironically, the latter used to be a Geeky Shrinking Violet, until her more outgoing sister Britanny had enough of her reclusive attitude and, to make a long story short, broke her out of her box. The result? Gina became "boy-crazy" by "boy-crazy extraordinaire" Britanny's personal standards. The latter doesn't know whether or not she should regret "helping" her sister.

Britanny: Do you know how many gals would kill for a nice, firm set like yours??? What man wouldn't fall all over himself just to get to talk to you? From now on, when you think of guys, think of broad, masculine chests...! (Gina looks "bewildered") Strong, handsome buns!! Hard, rugged muscles...! (A small smile graces Gina's lips)And all of the warm, yummy things you can do with them...! (Gina's face breaks into a full-blown, "Uh-oh"-worthy Cheshire Cat Grin.)

Brianna (narrating): I remember a sharp change in Gina's attitude toward men that moment. (And her being boy-crazy ever since.)"

"I guess when I'm all comfy in my nappin' pose, somethin' about me just says to folks, "Oh, look! An end table! How convenient!""
 * Brianna may have gained both of their sex drives combined, as she used to chain her panicked boyfriend to the bed to have her way with him. Xane is the most extreme of all, as she regularly drools while taking concealed clothes-removing x-ray photographs of any attractive male within sight. She is getting some Laser-Guided Karma from Crush, though.
 * Magic From Technology: Gina eventually gains a working knowledge of draconic magic by analyzing extradimensional technology.
 * Meat-O-Vision: Britanny experiences this when Tark's Charm Person spell misfires in the "Time Raft" OVA.
 * Meganekko: Gina, for more than several issues now.
 * Me's a Crowd: Array
 * Military Mashup Machine
 * Missing Mom: several examples, including Gina's Action Mom Julia.
 * Mistaken for Pregnant: Charlotte in one chapter; while riding a plane with Gina, she gorged herself on peanuts and pretzels to the point she got a pregnant-like Balloon Belly. Seeing her come waddling down the aisle, groaning in pain from her stomachache, a doctor actually mistook her for a pregnant woman who had gone into labor.
 * Morality Pet: Ironically, Madrid and Platinus were this to each other.
 * Myth Arc: Numerous plotlines and characters, at first seemingly unrelated, have begun to be revealed to be tied together to an overarching storyline concerning Future Gina trying to save the Universe.
 * Never Mess with Granny: Brunhildegard Brigand, leader of the Barbarian War-Council.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Ninja Pirate Leprechauns. (Correction: Ninja Pirate MECHA Leprechauns.)
 * Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Gina, Penny, Pee-Wee, etc.
 * Our Monsters Are Different, Particularly:
 * All Trolls Are Different
 * Our Dragons Are Different
 * Our Mermaids Are Different
 * Our Werebeasts Are Different: One of the main characters is one of the few remaining were-cheetahs. Other Werecreatures include lions, tigers, rats, and of course, Werewolves. Each subspecies is able to shift between human, animal, and a "Wolf Man"-style hybrid form. All of the weres retain their rationality in each of their forms, although they need to learn to control their instincts during childhood. Although the weres are separate species, they are capable of spreading Therianthropy to humans if they choose. (Doing so requires a bite and an active desire to alter the target's aura.) They were originally created by a wizard as super soldiers before said wizard was betrayed. They have a Healing Factor for everything except attacks by another Were Beast, silver, magic, and Dwarven steel.
 * Out of Focus: Frequently, thanks to the aforementioned Loads and Loads of Characters. At one point in the series, an entire year's worth of comics passed with only brief cameos from Gina and Briana, AKA the main characters.
 * The Password Is Always Swordfish
 * Perky Female Minion: Six, Array, Skippy.
 * The Plan: Gothwrain is all about these; most are part of his Gambit Roulette.
 * Rape as Backstory / Child by Rape:
 * The Real Remington Steele: Word of God states that Perry skipped the middleman on Mistress/Ayane; her first story still has some of the plot points—"back after X years"—to support the original plan that.
 * The Rival: Penny Pincer, though she does a full Heel Face Turn about halfway through.
 * Also Jetta, at first.
 * Rousseau Was Right: The story has a very sympathetic tone; no matter how heinous the acts somebody has done, if they were simply misguided without direction, they are usually afforded compassion and given a new chance to start over and do good.
 * Rule 34: some of it drawn by Perry himself.
 * Sarcastic Clapping: During her trip with Gina to explore Dreadwing's mymior (treasure trove, re: knowledge, spells, etc.), Brianna plays it straight and lampshades Fauntleroy's sarcastic clapping at the same time.
 * Sassy Black Woman: Penny; Britanny's voiced like this in the "Time Raft" OVA.
 * Self-Restraint: (Who? Where?) (Wrong self-restraint) (oh)
 * Shared Universe: (Gold Digger has characters cross over to and from Ben Dunn's Ninja High School frequently, even resulting in several Crisis Crossovers.
 * Shout-Out: To just about every '80s or classic cartoon, many, many Video Games, and Humongous Mecha anime.
 * In fact, the shout-outs have become so common, numerous, and a close to the source material that some critics feel it's led to a bit of Seasonal Rot, that the homages have come a little too close to crossing the line into just yanking whatever he likes from other canon and using it directly. (Example: Gina basically just builds herself an exact copy of the Lagann, complete with similar abilities to hijack whatever it attaches to.)
 * It wouldn't be so bad if these things were just done as gags all the time, but often they're plot relevant in working just like the original reference material. Gina's Lagann knockoff's ability to, well, act just like the Lagann is extremely important in the storyline. Same with the Matrix of Leadership Expy the Edge Guard have (which was transferred in a whole scene reference right down to the use of "'Til all are one") (Granted, the Matrix analogue contained a planetoid-sized spaceship in its own pocket dimension, so it didn't function quite the same. Still, Fred does love to riff blatantly on Transformers: The Movie.)
 * Spot the Impostor: Madrid was Dangerously Genre Savvy about this.
 * Squishy Wizard: Rather averted by, for starters, Gina's father Theodore, an arch-mage with a trim, hard body -- who's been shown looking only a bit irked when she accidentally shot a 10-inch-wide hole completely through his chest. He explains at one point that every molecule of his body is under his conscious control; a werewolf breaking his spine is annoyingly painful, but not incapacitating.
 * Start of Darkness: Tirant, Dreadwing, the Lich King
 * Stealth Hi Bye: One of Gina's students, Aljabra Gihom, has a tendency to take naps while kneeling in the middle of a room -- and when she does, she somehow projects "I'm a piece of furniture." So much so that when she wakes up, people abruptly realize they'd set their paperwork down atop a cute Dark-Skinned Redhead:
 * Stealth Hi Bye: One of Gina's students, Aljabra Gihom, has a tendency to take naps while kneeling in the middle of a room -- and when she does, she somehow projects "I'm a piece of furniture." So much so that when she wakes up, people abruptly realize they'd set their paperwork down atop a cute Dark-Skinned Redhead:

"...those fights always ended with Xercie pulling her victim into a water well, onto the street as a passing cart wheeled by, or off a steep cliff! Being were-cubs equipped with magical regeneration auras meant those "accidents" were never fatal, but man, did they hurt! Still, Xercie always walked away first ... and with a grin.... After a while, bullies stopped picking on the weaker kids. No one wanted to tangle with the "Were-Lemming"!"
 * Stuffed Into the Fridge: Oracle, Azalea
 * Super Mode: Britanny's "Tempest Mode".
 * Super Team: Agency Zero, a JLA-styled team that shifted to The Men in Black paradigm, hoping that keeping up a masquerade about their activities would keep SuperVillains from having a focus to fight against.
 * Taking You With Me: One were-tiger character got the nickname "Were-Lemming" because as a "puny little" cub, her favored technique for intervening against the biggest bullies was to grab them and:

"Gina: Oogh... Mental note: Marathon sessions at "TV Tropes" and "Know Your Meme" are not conducive to proper sleep!"
 * Tempting Fate: Invoked! Brianna was a tad too bored. Be Careful What You Wish For.
 * Terrible Trio: Multiple cases; Erwin "Pee Wee" Talon actually has two sets on his payroll. They're each other's Psycho Rangers.
 * Thanatos Gambit: Gothwrain
 * Time Skip: Between issues #100 and #101 of the color series.
 * Time Travel: Recurs throughout the series.
 * Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Stryyp isn't exactly tiny, being muscular and standing close to six feet tall. However, his were-cheetah wife, Britanny, prefers her hybrid form, which towers over him at 7' tall and weighs in at some 300 pounds.
 * Troperrific: One can argue that all of Gold Digger is Fred Perry's parody/homage to comics, novels, RPGs, video games, tropes, cliches and genres of all stripes.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Britanny loves tuna. Charlotte the harpy, meanwhile, is obsessed with peanuts and pretzels; if enough are available, she'll stuff her face almost to the point of killing herself.
 * Tropes Will Ruin Your Life: Mentioned in the 2010 Halloween special:


 * Valley Girl: Moisha, like, totally!
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Dreadwing and Ancient Gina are playing a rather slow version of this.
 * Web Comics: The "Ayane" and "Northern Edge" Tangent webcomics; both are currently on hiatus. Also, "Level UP!", a Final Fantasy XI webcomic by the same author.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Ancient Gina's "Millenium Pimp Slap", one of a class of spells of legendary power, warps space and time to open a portal behind the target—to let the caster slap him upside the head. It requires such nigh-infinite power to execute that it causes EVERY MAGE IN THE SERIES to sense a disturbance in the Force!
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Frequently averted. For instance, Brianna, the lab accident composite clone trying to kill the Diggers sisters, now their gung-ho sister. Or Charlotte, the instant-grown harpy girl accidentally freed from the control of the time-travelling dog who fired her at our heroes, now co-headliner of a WAFFy spinoff.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
 * The Worf Effect: Stripe. Just...Stripe. Despite a massive-power up halfway through the B&W series making him one of the two most powerful good guys, he is infamous for being hit by surprise, dropping his guard, and so on. Outside his first battles post-power up, it's rare he doesn't end up knocked out at least for a while during a fight. No wonder Agent M thought he needed training despite his skill and strength.
 * Fortunately, now that he's not adventuring in areas where he's forced to team up with everyone else, he can fight a bit more.