Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard-Boiled Shaman
Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard-Boiled Shaman is a Web Comic by Terry LaBan (artist of the newspaper comic, Edge City) that recycles Film Noir tropes in the context of Siberian tribal life. As LaBan puts it, "the realization that shamans were kind of like detectives, in that they brought about change by discovering the source of problems, clicked with that classic hard-boiled voice, and, suddenly, there was an idea for a character."
The title character and provider of the monologue is a jaded shaman who takes on the case of a young boy dying of a mysterious supernatural illness, and realizes that the perpetrator is the same evil colleague who once killed his wife and son.
Tropes used in Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard-Boiled Shaman include:
- Anti-Hero: Muktuk.
- Arch Enemy: Birdbutt.
- Astral Projection
- Bad Dreams: Muktuk has recurring nightmares about his wife and son having their souls eaten by a demon.
- Bittersweet Ending
- Femme Fatale: Niyah.
- Functional Magic: For those who know how to use it, magic is quite functional indeed. Muktuk even has an enchanted cat skull that works like a GPS in the spirit world.
- Grim Up North: The story uses the Siberian taiga as a setting much in the way that Film Noir uses rain-soaked, gritty cities.
- Hardboiled Detective: Hardboiled Shaman.
- Hurting Hero
- Jerkass God: Bai Ulgan.
- Knight in Sour Armor
- Non-Standard Character Design: The demons from the spirit world are intentionally drawn as vague, hastily scribbled shapes.
- Private Shaman
- Private Eye Monologue
- Recycled in Space: Film Noir recycled in tribal Siberia.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: As a shaman, Muktuk is able to communicate verbally with animals.