Drop Dead Gorgeous
 |
"I'm scared, confused, and think I need to use the bathroom."
—Zip
|
 |
DDG (Drop Dead Gorgeous) was a donation based Web Comic from Sins Venials which updated every 75 dollars (more or less) dealing with the trials and tribulations of the recently deceased Zip.
After having died under mysterious circumstances, Zip finds himself in purgatory having neither been good enough to go to heaven nor bad enough to go to hell. Hindered and occasionally helped by his guide 'Netta, Zip tries to rack up enough karma points to move on while coping with day to day life in the land of the dead. After accidentally donning a magical cloak that gives him minor shapeshifting powers (and turns him into a girl), he becomes Ms. Fanservice on an afterlife Game Show called You Bet, eventually moving on to being a Grim Reaper (in training).
The strip wrapped up on 17th October 2011 after 136 strips.
Tropes used in Drop Dead Gorgeous include:
- Abusive Parents - It is strongly implied Zip's parent's were examples of this trope
- Boot Camp Episode - here
- An entire arc actually, but it gradually has become less like a boot camp.
- Call It Karma
- Children Are Innocent - Played straight, Children (and animal souls) go straight to heaven
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe - Off World seems to live on this trope. One notable incident involved Zip giving himself a sympathetic pregancy.
- Clingy MacGuffin - Literally, the cloak that smothers Zip early on (as well as giving him a Permanent Gender Bender).
- Crossover - With Magical Girl Policy from Taralynn's Desk. (Find it here: https://web.archive.org/web/20210126215857/http://taralynn.sincomics.com/ )
- Dead to Begin With - The first strip
- Don't Fear the Reaper - Reapers and Guides are fairly benign, but somewhat playful
- Executive Meddling - How Zip gains his/her position on You Bet
- Fan Service - And lots of it
- Freaky Is Cool - Much of Off World
- Gender Bender - Caused by a semi-sentient cloak.
- He Went That Way!
- Happiness in Slavery - The Weird (despite Netta's protestations) and to a lesser extent Zip
- I Have Boobs - You Must Obey! - Combined with Different for Girls for added bonus points:
|
|
- Instant Cosplay Surprise - Netta's standard way of outfitting Zip
- Invisible to Normals - When on reaping duties Zip is invisible to normals
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Netta
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall - Offworld needs a montage
- Magic Skirt - Magic Skirt failure in this strip.
- Mandys Law of Anime Gender Bending - Netta seems to enjoy keeping Zip a girl far too much to let him change back
- And after 132 episodes finally averted and Zip was returned to his male state. Not that it seemed to help his romantic aspirations.
- Man, I Feel Like a Woman - Obligatory trope example in a Gender Bender comic
- Mood Whiplash - The comic veers between the wacky afterlife antics and the doom laden Backstory of how Zip got there.
- More Popular Spinoff - In theory DDG is the B-Side Comic from Sins Venials but it has a much stronger (and some might say more coherent) storyline.
- Ms. Fanservice - Zip's role in You Bet
- Mundane Afterlife - Off World contains diners, apartments and movie theatres.
- Our Souls Are Different - as explained by Netta
- Overly Narrow Superlative - Zip is "the nicest dead transvestite not good enough to move past the afterlife".
- Pet the Dog - Netta, usually followed by her finding some fresh torment for Zip
- Playboy Bunny- The first of many Fan Service outfits chosen for Zip
- Punny Name - Netta
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old - Netta as shown in this strip
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock - Zip, and Netta holds the keys.
- Finally unlocked in episode 132 by 'Netta's boss.
- Show Within A Webcomic - The afterlife game show You Bet starring Zip as the You Bet Girl.
- Sinister Scythe - Eventually gained by Zip (then stolen by a reluctant reapee)
- Status Quo Game Show - The afterlife Game Show You Bet.
- Stockholm Syndrome - Zip and Netta have a two way version going on.
- The Chew Toy - Zip
- The Grim Reaper - A not so grim version, Zip Eventually applies to be one.
- Trailers Always Lie - Invoked Trope. When it was running, the bottom of the most recent strip always had a spoof "next time" spiel which told us what wont be happening on the next strip.
- Training Montage -Spoofed with muffins
- Trickster Mentor - Netta veers between this and Cynical Mentor
- Unusual Ears - All the guides have pointy elf ears.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human? - This trope is explored with The Weird.
- Well Done Daughter Girl - Zip, it turns out, feels this way towards 'Netta since she see 'Netta as a surrogate mother and could never get validation from her own mum.
