Erma/Characters

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From left to right: Miko, Amy, Erma, Sylvia, and Sidney

Many of the characters from Erma, currently listed in rough order of first appearance.

Erma Williams

An unusual view - she's walking, not levitating.

Erma is the main character and is what you would get if you combined a demon from a horror movie and a little girl. She takes after her mother. Her birthday is October 13.

Tropes exhibited by Erma include:

• Adorable Abomination
• Berserk Button: Whenever Amy or Connor are threatened, Erma goes Badass Adorable.
• Culture Clash: Erma thinks slasher films are the height of comedy.
• Guilty Pleasures: She's a fan of "Warrior Unicorn Princess", and feels no small amount of shame at the thought of her classmates finding out - until she discovers it's something she has in common with Sidney.
• Hair Tropes: Peek-a-Bangs (verging on Blinding Bangs), Hereditary Hairstyle, Expository Hairstyles, Curtains Match the Window, Magic Hair, Prehensile Hair, Hair Reboot. Her hair usually leaves one eye exposed, but shifts to cover both eyes when she's being particularly eldritch. Occasionally her mouth is visible while neither of her eyes are. Comes with being a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl, so both Erma and her mother have them. And they do their best to stay put - one year while trick-or-treating, Erma needed to use a bear trap to keep them held back. Erma's Prehensile Hair is strong enough to pick up a classmate... or drag a much larger monster back into the trap it tried to set for her.
• Poltergeist: Erma has poltergeist powers, which make her trips to the dentist frightening to everyone involved.
• Power Incontinence: Her hair doesn't always respond to her conscious desires even when she's calm, and when she's frightened, or when her friends are in danger, she tends to cause more collateral damage than she might have intended when she's clear-headed.
• Undeathly Pallor: Even in the colour strips, Erma is drawn in black-and-white. (For an example, see Erma Strip # 20, reproduced above.)
• The Voiceless: Although she can skreetch quite well. The one time Erma gets a speech bubble in the first 250 strips, it has no words in it. It does have pictures, though.

Erma's teacher

Caption

Voiced by Cecilia Negron in the 2017 Halloween special

IMDB says her name is Ms. Bierly.

Tropes exhibited by Erma's teacher include:

• The Chew Toy: She's the only regular character who isn't Genre Savvy. In any other horror story, she'd be one of the earliest victims; in this story, she's the put-upon Everyman who the strip's fans have sympathy for.
• A Day in the Limelight: The 2017 Halloween special.

Amy

Caption

(the one with the pigtail) Erma's closest friend.

Tropes exhibited by Amy include:

Sylvia

(the one with the frizzy bun, oh, and the dark skin)

Tropes exhibited by Sylvia include:

Terry

A classmate of Erma's who is enthusiastic about all things supernatural.

Tropes exhibited by Terry include:

Connor

A classmate of Erma's who has a crush on her (which she might reciprocate).

Tropes exhibited by Connor include:

Emiko Williams

Caption

Erma's mother.

Tropes exhibited by Emiko include:

• All There in the Manual: Her name is revealed in the novel Spirits Bloom, written by the comic's creator. She's finally named in-story in strip #291, The Family Reunion Part 2.
• Blinding Bangs: Comes with being a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl.
• Undeathly Pallor
• Woman in White

Principal Phibes

Caption

(the principal)

Tropes exhibited by Principal Phibes include:

Sidney

(the other girl - you know, the wererat)

Tropes exhibited by Sidney include:

• By-The-Book Hall Monitor: Sidney loves making sure people follow the rules. In her very first appearance, she's the one who complains Erma is cheating at jump rope.

Sam Williams

Voiced by Derek Kolecki in the 2017 Halloween special

Erma's father. Sam is a professional horror writer.

Tropes exhibited by Erma's father include:

• Write What You Know: Discussed in "The Writer"

Felicia

Playing hide-and-seek with Erma takes a special kind of ingenuity.

(the babysitter)

Tropes exhibited by Felicia include:

• Unfazed Everyman: Felicia was the first of Erma's babysitters to not be committed to an asylum at the end of the night.

Miko

Caption

(the girl with the hair ribbon)

Tropes exhibited by Miko include:

Sirius

Caption

(Erma's pet dog)

Tropes exhibited by Sirius include:

Emily

Caption

(Erma's cousin - no, she isn't Elmira Duff, really)

Tropes exhibited by Emily include: