Things are not always what they seem. This is more true in Autumn Bay than it is in most places.
Take a look into the strange, bizarre, weird and uncanny things and places in the city, and maybe, just maybe, you'll get a glimpse at what's really going on.
Autumn Bay
is an Urban Fantasy webcomic. It was created in August 2014 (then rebooted in October 2015) by Professor Etheric.
Autumn Bay contains examples of:
- Akashic Records: Sorcerers have access to these. In fact, those who are inexperienced or careless can end up trapped in their own memories (as happened to Ghoul when his powers awakened).
- Asleep for Days: Ghoul's awakening to magic, which traps him in his own memories, also puts him into a short coma (until Mercy rescues him).
- Benevolent Conspiracy: The Shadowlight League are dedicated to the protection and training of wizards and sorcerers and protecting the world from esoteric threats.
- Brand X: Stephen, Callie, and Adam chow down on Spiffee Burger while discussing the night's plans.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Ghoul, who wears black t-shirts with skulls and such on them, has multiple piercings, and wears his hair in a devilock, nonetheless urges Stephen, Adam, and Callie to be careful and tells the a safe place to go if they run into trouble.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mercy tends toward this.
- Flashback Cut: We get a bit of Ghoul's history in one of these.
- Functional Magic: There are different styles of magic, most of which are Rule Magic (though sorcerers are the Inherent Gift type, they, too, have rules to follow). We see a sorcerer, a witch, and a bibliomancer perform an information-gathering ritual.
- Gang of Hats: There are various street gangs in Autumn Bay (evidenced by graffiti and dialogue), each of which has a theme, credo, or other distinguishing trait. Specifically, we have heard about the Unwanted (and their motto, "give me your poor, your tired, your broken, beaten, and damned") and the Morlocks (whose turf is the Elysium subway station).
- Gender Bender: Captain Jack Bishop, leader of a team of specialists dedicated to containing supernatural threats, is turned into a teenage girl by one of their targets.
- Greasy Spoon: There is the Fifth Street Diner in Autumn Bay. Stephen, Adam, and Callie go there to discuss what they learned from Benny.
- Hard-Work Montage: Mercy Black has one of these while looking for the person responsible for sending goons after her.
- High School: Stephen meets up with Adam at Jenkins High School and wonders what "weird crap" they could find there.
- Hot Witch: Sarah Marshall is an attractive young woman in her mid 20s who is a practicing (and functional) witch.
- Humanoid Abomination: Dr. Simon Nestor appears human at first glance, but closer inspection reveals his non-human nature.
- Kirby Dots: A feature of the mysterious being following Stephen in the beginning.
- Mad Oracle: Stephen, Adam, and Callie run into Benny, a homeless man who has scribbled the cryptic and prophetic words and phrases onto the walls of the subway tunnels.
- Masquerade: The existence of the paranormal is kept hidden from the populace by a group of The Men in Black known colloquially as "The Shroud".
- The Men in Black: The group responsible for maintaining the Masquerade, known colloquially as "The Shroud", consists largely of mysterious agents in black suits.
- No Communities Were Harmed: The titular city, though not a stand-in for a particular city, is specifically set in upstate New York, and is meant to represent large communities in the northeastern United States in general.
- Paranormal Investigation: Stephen, Callie, and Adam investigate weird stuff around the titular city, which Stephen then blogs about. Mercy Black is an investigator for the Shadowlight League.
- Room Full of Crazy: The abandoned subway tunnels are an example of this
- Sinister Subway: Stephen, Adam, and Callie a section of abandoned subway tunnels.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Most of Ghoul's lines contain at least one f-bomb.
- Spider-Sense: Ghoul gets "this feeling, like... something seriously major is going on", that he has gotten these feelings all his life, and that they are usually "pretty... accurate". He's right. It is at that moment that several parties become aware of the bigger plot, and each other.
- Squee: Sophie emits one of these when she finds out that Mercy is in town.
- Token Trio: Stephen, Adam, and Callie are also very much this.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Ghoul's awakening to magic, which traps him in his own memories and a short coma (until Mercy rescues him).
- Urban Fantasy: The webcomic takes place in the modern world, as though all manner of fantastical beings existed in the shadows.
- Whatevermancy: Eileen Winston is a powerful bibliomancer.