Prickly City
A comic strip of a conservative/libertarian bent by Scott Stantis set in the eponymous Southwestern town. The main characters(frequently the only characters who appear for weeks at a time) are Carmen, a young Hispanic girl, representing the conservative point of view and Winslow, a coyote pup representing the liberal view.
Tropes used in Prickly City include:
- A Friend in Need: Winslow and Carmen
- Anxiety Dreams: After supporting Kevin's election
- Author Avatar
- Author On Board
- Bad Dreams: After supporting Kevin's election
- Big Red Button: Which disappoints Winslow: no boom.
- Blah Blah Blah
- Blatant Lies: Covering up Kevin's disappearance.
- Breakout Character: Kevin.
- Briar Patching: When Kevin angles for the VP nomination.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Kevin, Lost Bunny of the Apocalypse
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: A large chunk of the cast disappeared in the first couple years.
- Kevin the Lost Bunny of the Apocalypse reappeared after a long absence (with a different design) and has become a regular again since the 2010 election.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Winslow, sometimes.
- Dirty Business: The Blatant Lies, according to Carmen.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: Where you can find a sincere supporter of Kevin
- Follow the Leader: After La Cucaracha and of course Calvin and Hobbes (with switched personalities).
- And Winslow's life-long dream of flying. If that's not blatantly copying Opus, I don't know what it is.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Opie the alien calls off his invasion of Earth because he doesn't want to catch the self-destructive thing we have.
- It's the Journey That Counts: Winslow offers this as an Aesop
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
- Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!
- Loophole Abuse
- Missing White Woman Syndrome: Kevin's disappearance manages to attract attention despite not being blond.
- Moses in the Bulrushes: Winslow claims this is how his story starts, with a basket in the rushes...
- Multiple Choice Past: ...until he starts making contrary claims.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Why, you've gotten the Lost Bunny of the Apocalypse elected to the Senate, what else?
- The Nose Knows: Winslow claims it as a superpower
- Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List
- Only Sane Man: Carmen... usually.
- Only Smart People May Pass
- Paper-Thin Disguise
- Pretty Butterflies: Carmen and Winslow admire one one lazy day.
- Raised by Wolves: Reversed. Winslow is so humanized that an attempt to live with wild coyotes failed miserably.
- Ripped from the Headlines: As with most political comics. For example, in one story Winslow refused to let Carmen buy football cards just because she's a conservative; meanwhile, she pointed out that the football players are far worse ("drug abuser... deadbeat dad... adulterer...!"). This was based on the controversy over Rush Limbaugh wanting to buy a football team.
- Running Gag: Winslow trying to fly, for one.
- Schmuck Bait: Unsatisfactory for Winslow, since it does nothing.
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If you break the rules you deserve a boom. |
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- Screwy Squirrel: Winslow sometimes
- Shout-Out: "Speaking is Action! Spending is Saving! Debt is Stimulus!"
- "Real Reality is for Suckers!"
- Winslow's Multiple Choice Past includes references to Spider-Man and The Godfather.
- Strawman Political
- Talk About the Weather
- Talking Animal: Winslow the coyote and other desert-dwellers.
- Torches and Pitchforks
- Vitriolic Best Buds
- Vote Early, Vote Often: Rejected. The dead voted only once for Kevin.
- Wall of Blather
- Your Head Asplode