Ginger's Bread
Ginger's Bread is a webcomic by Carl Sjostrand. It follows the exploits and misadventures of Ginger Paulsen, an unemployed young woman who spends her time playing video games, baking cookies, drinking at the bar and annoying her friends. After losing her job in the first episode, she tries to find employment and open her own cookie shop — hence the title — with the help of her friends, Ryan and Kelly, with varying degrees of success.
The comic began in 2008 and has since accumulated a modest but loyal fanbase. It's known for its quirky sense of humour, colourful artwork, endearing characters, pop culture references and simple overarching plot with only small amounts of story in between. Fun, non-threatening and well worth a look.
Tropes used in Ginger's Bread include:
- Art Evolution: Not very noticeable, but there have been subtle changes. Compare Ginger in the first strip to this later one.
- Attempted Rape: Fairly non-threatening and used for comedy in a one-shot comic, much to Ginger's belligerent bewilderment. As the guy puts it, "I'm... I'm not a very good rapist."
- Berserk Button: Any mention of Joséphine sends Kelly into a rage.
- Better as Friends: Ginger and Ryan dated briefly in high school, but realized it wouldn't work and broke it off before things got too heavy.
- Bottle Fairy: The main trio seem partial to a drink, but Ginger far outdoes the guys, to the extent that Ryan refers to her as a lush more than once.
- Butt Monkey: Ginger, though Ryan and Kelly aren't far behind. Art and Hugh also qualify.
- Dirty Old Man: Daniel Diamond.
- Dumb Blonde: Ginger certainly has elements of this.
- Foil: Ryan and Kelly seem to be this to Ginger.
- For the Funnyz: Ginger has a few moments like this, though the aformentioned "Dead Parrot" joke probably take the cake. Kelly and Ryan are not impressed.
- Friend to All Living Things: Kelly, the vet.
- Genki Girl: Ginger.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Ginger yells at people in Swedish a few times.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: Arthur and Hugh. Ginger and Kelly may qualify.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: "Head-hog", which earns Ginger a spell of "Quiet Time".
- Innocent Cohabitation: Ginger and Ryan.
- Jerkass: Subverted. Though Ginger has a habit of saying insulting or nasty things, she doesn't mean it out of malice, but rather she has a tendency to speak before thinking.
- You Fail Logic Forever: Ginger wonders whether "bless this mess" means that the mess in question is deemed sacred, and to clean it would be a sin.
- Luminescent Blush: Ginger, when Ryan discovers her dancing on the couch in her underwear, though Word of God says she's more embarrassed about Ryan discovering this hobby of hers than she is about being pantsless.
- "No. Just... No" Reaction: Ryan and Kelly's response to most of Ginger's ideas and exploits.
- Odd Couple: Ginger and Ryan.
- Peek-a-Bangs: Ginger. No confirmation whether it's a fashion statement or whether it's hiding an injury to the eye. Lampshade Hanging in-universe where a movie theater attendant seeing her come out of a theater with her friends wonders how she managed the 3-D glasses.
- Pet Baby Wild Animal: Kelly's hedgehog, Kilgore, though the "baby" part is negligible.
- Pun-Based Title
- Relationship Upgrade: Kelly and Ryan; though outside of one comic of them hanging out without Ginger, little has changed in the comic.
- Shout-Out: Loads, including Pokémon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ace Attorney, Monkey Island, Naruto, Futurama, Ghostbusters, Jurassic Park and a number of obscure bands of which the author is a fan. The author has also referenced TV Tropes itself in a recent strip.
- Smug Snake: Joséphine.
- Invisible to Gaydar: Steven.
- Straight Man: Ryan and, when he appears, Sean.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Joséphine.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Complete with a cameo from Scruffy.
- Those Two Guys: Arthur and Hugh.
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Jonathan Swift rapping.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ginger is afraid of spiders, and even references the Trope Namer when she brings this up, since she's an archaeology enthusiast. The author himself is much the same.
- Yandere: Ginger can be this.