My Cardboard Life

• Main
• YMMV
• Crowners
  • Awesome
  • Funny
  • Heartwarming
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New

My Cardboard Life is a webcomic by Phillipa Rice that began October 2008. A Slice of Life comic using characters all made of different material, cut and pasted onto more material to add a unique effect. It mainly follows the young cardboard man, Colin and his best friend Pauline, who sometimes doesn't act like it.

The comic updates Monday through Friday. It can be read here.

Tropes used in My Cardboard Life include:

• Alliterative Name: Cardboard Colin, Paper Pauline, Cardboard Carl, Noel News.
• All Love Is Unrequited:
  • Dr. Band-Aid is practically made of this trope. Sort of subverted in that he will have a girlfriend every once in awhile, but it doesn't take long for him to chase her away.
  • This also happens to Colin with his feelings for Pauline.
• Art Evolution: The comic first started off having the characters cut out much more polygonal (the most noticeable example is Pauline), but as time passed, the characters were made much smoother.
• A Worldwide Punomenon: A staple of this comic, and examples are too much too list. Dr. Band-Aid uses puns as pick-up lines (there's a couple of consecutive strips about this).
• Badass: Cardboard Carl, as is demonstrated when he actually appears; he just doesn't appear that often, because it takes three different materials to make Carl, so it's kind of a pain in the twees to have him appear.
• Balloon Belly: Happens after Colin and Pauline eat too much ice cream.
• The Bear: A literal example in this strip.
• Butt Monkey: Definitely Colin.
• Catch Phrase:

The Spoon: Guilty!

• Disappeared Dad: Janet's husband. Makes you wonder about the father of Colin's nieces and nephews...
• Double Entendre: Pauline to Colin, though off-comic. Once she suggested Colin to "grow a pear". A rejected strip with the same concept (albeit less subtle) shows Colin holding a lot of balls. Innocent, Literal-Minded Colin takes it literally.
• Everything's Worse with Bears: Colin's pet polar bear, who's quite grumpy and causes some mess for him.
• Imagine Spot: Colin has these about his dog and how he's going to "grow up".
• It Makes Sense in Context: This strip is a little less weird if you've read the strip before it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Pauline, Polar Bear, and the Spoon have all had their moments.
• Jerkass: Pauline and the polar bear are prime offenders. The Spoon also qualifies.
• Massive-Numbered Siblings: Colin's nieces and nephews.
• Medium Awareness: The characters realize they're made of their respective material, as well as their surroundings.
• Memetic Badass: An In-Universe example: Colin's dad, who has as many rumors going around him as Chuck Norris. Most likely an Affectionate Parody of this trope.
• No Name Given: Colin's many nieces and nephews.
• Off with His Head: Happens a couple of times with Colin, but since it doesn't seem to bother him, it's not too bad.
• Painting the Fourth Wall
• Photo Comic: Of a sort.
• Prehensile Hair: Silvia Foil.
• Pungeon Master: Dr. Band-Aid uses rather horrid puns as pick-up lines.
• Rock-Paper-Scissors: In the first comic, Colin and Pauline play. Scissor beats paper, and since Pauline is made of paper, Hilarity Ensues.
• The Runt At the End: The "St. Colin and the Dragon" storyline gives us Dynamite, Stormcloud, Bully, Captain, and Clopsy.
• Scenery Porn: "St. Colin and the Dragon". And that's just the first page -- the Scenery Porn doesn't end there.
• Secret Diary: Carl has one.
• Stealth Pun: Colin's shapes are mostly consisted of squares. Remember what "square" meant as an old slang word. However, it's sometimes pointed out.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: A one-sided variant of Type 2; Pauline probably gives Colin the most trouble, and she's his best friend.
• With Friends Like These...: Poor Colin usually gets this.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Dragon from "St. Colin and the Dragon".