Com Media

A work-in-progress webcomic made by Master Jay AM, who happened to be a mass communications major, the series focuses on the Anthropomorphic Personifications of media channels, drawing story lines and gags from the history of the media and the real-life relationships and issues faced by media practitioners today. A series with 28 characters representing a media format or an associated technology or industry. A partial list is available here.

The name is a contraction of Communication Media and a reference to the Commedia Dell'Arte, a type of play during the Renaissance. It may also have something to do with the humorous intention of the comic.

The pitch emerged on mid-2010 as an edutainment series of single-shot cartoons and comics, originally meant for the communication and media studies students at San Beda College Alabang, Philippines. Much of the original sketches were finished between September and October. The comic itself along with a considerable amount of sketches is posted on Deviant ART.

Its premise is loosely inspired by Axis Powers Hetalia and other similar comics. It is heavily influenced by the author's own time spent at TV Tropes. The author wanted to give Anthropomorphic Personifications a shot and looked for one that the people at Deviant ART haven't already tried.

The media formats featured in the comics so far include the following, sorted according to the technologies involved.Such relations are interpreted to mean familial relationships through blood, adoption, or marriage.

The Prints: Literature, Mail, Print Journalism and Periodical Publishing/Journalism, Comics
The Audio-Visuals: Television, Video, Recording Industry, Music Video, Satellite, Cable
The Films: Cinema, Photography, Animation
The Digitals: Internet, Computer Technology, Arpanet, Podcast, Intranet, Video Games, Satellite
The Telegraphs: Telegraphy, Telecommunications, Radio, Internet
The Spatials: Art, Music, Comics, Animation
Theatre
The Motives: Advertising, Propaganda, and Public Relations

As seen previously, there's an overlap with some media formats and technologies that can fit more than two categories.

Many more characters may come as the comic progresses.

It can be found here. The majority of the tropes present are available on the profiles and sketches. Now has a WIP character sheet

Tropes used in Com Media include:

Adorkable: Many of the characters, including Print Journalism, Photography, and Internet.
All Love Is Unrequited: Well, most of it anyways.
Art Evolution
Art Shift: Constantly. The first page and second page have this in spades.
- No Fourth Wall: Internet gives the artist an earful for being a sloppy artist; on the first page, no less.
Always Someone Better: A recurring theme is this, and its occasional subversion.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Duh
Big Brother Mentor: Many of the older media channels tend to be this toward younger media channels, particularly siblings.
Executive Meddling: The source of many gags in this series. TV tends to show this the most.
Generation Xerox: Literature and his son, Comics. Also, Telegraphy and Internet
Hollywood Nerd: Lit and Comics qualify as Type 2. Internet, Computer Technology, Intranet, and arguably Video Games are Type 1.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: All of the characters will end up with jerkass moments. Thus many of them would fit this trope.
No Fourth Wall: Pretty much the point.
Old Media Are Evil: A recurring theme, although they qualify more like "old media are jerkasses" more than anything.
- New Media Are Evil: Ditto, in particular Internet, who is basically acts like a troll.
  - Sadly, there's no trope for "all media are jerks."
Older Than They Look: Most of the media channels invented prior to the 19th Century have this. Comic is an egregious offender; he looks like an Emo Teen, but is physically in his 20s and is older that Television. Averted with Telegraphy.
Sibling Yin-Yang: There are blood siblings in this series of media channels that share a common history or technology. Therefore their differences are Truth in Television:
- The Film Siblings (Cinema and Photography); one likes movement, the other stillness. although they're amicable, they're not close.
- The Prints (Literature and Print Journalism) are a more amiable pair of brothers. One is sedentary, the other adventurous.
- Internet and Intranet. The former is an extroverted Jerkass and the other is a shut-in.
Shout-Out: Given the nature of the series, this will more or less be inevitable.
Take That: Quite a bit really. Mainly toward Executive Meddling and other media pet peeves.
Teens Are Short: Averted with Internet, who is actually taller than his father Computer Tech. His sister Arpanet is even taller.
Visual Pun: This.