Beyond the Canopy

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Maybe all I need is one little push...

Life for Glenn in the Canopy Woods is a constant struggle between yearning for adventure and getting away from his insufferable grandpa. One day, however, Glenn sees a hyena, an owl and a nasty-looking gentleman heading into the one place he is forbidden to go: the Forest's Navel. After fighting a skeleton army and accidentally acquiring the Remnant (a stick), Glenn gets dragged along into one heck of a wild ride.

Beginning in early 2009 by Jonathan Griffiths (better known as greliz on Deviant ART), Beyond the Canopy is a web comic can be found here. Needs way more love on here as well.

Tropes used in Beyond the Canopy include:

Greliz: Property damages! Assaulting the clientele! And worst of all, you're scaring the chickens!!

  • Artifact of Death: The Remnant is implied to be this.
  • Author Avatar: Greliz.
  • Bar Brawl: Glenn against Thistle, before Pedro takes over.
  • Big Eater: Stump.
  • Butt Monkey: Glenn. So much.
  • Black Cloak: Both Shambles and The Baron.
  • Dem Bones: The Baron's standard Mooks. They're actually intelligent and have individual personalities.
  • Dramatic Thunder: "Lightning is nature's strobe light!"
  • Dynamic Entry: Glade makes her entrance in a Flash Back via a flying kick to a bully's face.
  • Everything's Better with Chickens: At Chez Cluck-Off, the chickens have full run of the kitchen, and are partners in Greliz's schemes. Also: "Chicken chicken on my dome, how I'd love to take you home..."
  • Exact Eavesdropping
  • Expo Label: Greliz has his name written across the top of the bag he wears over his head. A chicken is seen with a bottle of "It's Wine!"
  • Eye Scream: Shambles, courtesy of Glenn.
  • The Faceless: Greliz.
  • Faking the Dead: Part of a con being run by Greliz.
  • Feed It a Bomb: An unnamed Cascadian soldier kills a bloomgem pod monster this way, using a magic fire fish in place of a conventional bomb.
  • Forbidden Zone: The Forest's Navel.
  • Gambit Pileup: The big tournament is shaping up to be this.
  • Grievous Bottley Harm: How the chickens knock out Glade.
  • Groin Attack: When Thistle mocks his grandfather, young Glenn responds by punching him right in the acorns. Years later, Glenn tries the same move against the same guy, only this time Thistle's wearing an armored codpiece.
  • Head Pet: Glenn acquires a crab on his head during the match against the Caped Crustacean, and hangs onto it for a bit afterwards.
  • Heroic Build: Parodied. Greliz's poster advertising the big fight depicts Glenn with the physique of a comicbook superhero.

Elmsly: Muscles don't work like that.

Pedro: Well, sorry to burst your bag, but I've been busy.
Glenn: You should get busy STUFFING YOUR MOUTH! Full of STRAW! ...c-cuz he's a scarecrow and...um...nevermind.

  • Making a Splash: Shows up in a flashback as a standard attack of Cascadian soldiers.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Spider-crabs.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Elmsly. He's excited about going to visit a swamp full of poisonous wildlife, and he wishes he could have studied the spider crabs that Glenn fought.
    • Recently he called a pack of zombie dogs adorable.
  • One-Way Visor: P-T.U.N.I.A.
  • Perpetual Smiler: The Caped Crustacean. Although it turns out to actually be a mask.
  • Plant Aliens: Not aliens per se, but the Spriggs are implied to be part plant, since they all have some sort of leaf or flower growing from their hair. Young ones are even referred to as sprouts.
  • Raised by Wolves: Elmsly and his sister Parsley were raised by Giant Shrub Sloths.
  • Red Pill, Blue Pill: When Glenn first hears that the villains are going to the Forest's Navel, he has a brief flashback of granpa telling him to never go there.

Granpa: Glenn, someday you'll realize even simple curiosity can have its consequences. It'd do you a world of good to listen more often.
[flashback ends]
Glenn: Listening is overrated.

  • Shout-Out: In this strip, Glenn grabs a chicken and uses it to glide.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Averted. The Baron sends a his elite tracking team after Glenn immediately after learning he has the Remnant.
  • Stating the Simple Solution: While fighting Pedro, a living scarecrow, Glenn uses magic to punch him a lot. Glade points out, "This'd be over a lot quicker if he'd just magic up some fire."
  • Super Powered Robot Meter Maid: Tiny Tin, Pedro's giant battle robot, was originally designed to be his maid.
  • Telescoping Robot: Tiny Tin can fold itself into a sphere small enough to carry in one hand.
  • The Beast Master: Rawhide. But with zombies.
  • Theme Naming: All the Spriggs have some plant-related name (with the exception of Glenn).
    • A "glen" is a deep valley with water running along it, and usually have lush plantlife. Glenn might be a reference to that (like Glade).
      • Glenn is also a kind of mango, so there's that too, although not as likely as coming from glen.
  • There Was a Door: Well, there is a window in the room, it's just not high enough for Chief Redwood. So he makes a new one.
  • Those Two Guys: Hoot and Holler. Elmsly and Stump.
  • The Voiceless: Stump.
  • Tsundere: Glade has shades of it from time to time.

Glenn: A-and I don't remember much after that cuz Glade gave me a concussion. The end.