Webcomic / Think Ink

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Think Ink is a 2019 webcomic by Joey Waggoner. The comic is a reboot of his earlier Waggtoons series.Think Ink tells the story of Zally Alley. A young orphan girl who has a strong love for cartoons, and a talent for drawing. Unfortunately, Zally's foster mom Barbra, hates cartoons, and forbids Zally from ever pursuing her dreams of drawing comics. Fed up with Barbra's strict rules, Zally runs away to the city art museum, which is holding an animation exhibit. After gazing upon the exhibit's many artifacts on cartoons, Zally stumbles upon an old animation camera station. Then suddenly, she hears a mysterious voice coming from the camera.

The voice tells Zally that from seeing her amazement from the animation exhibit, it decides to offer her a chance to enter a world of all things toons called the Tooniverse. All Zally has to do is press the red button from the camera station. Once Zally presses the button, she is instantly transported into the world of toons, and is transformed into a toon herself. Upon landing in the Tooniverse city of Toontropolis, Zally bumps into two toons that she created back in the real world. A pair of anthropomorphic dog brothers named Zingo and Boppo Bingo. After befriending the Bingo Brothers, Zally begins her new life in Toontropolis, where she can draw almost anything she wants. However, there is a mysterious, shadowy figure that has his eye on Zally, and has nefarious plans for her.

The comic is currently on hiatus.

You can read the comic here, or here.

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Think Ink provides the following tropes:

• Alternate Tooniverse: The Tooniverse is depicted as a world that runs parallel to the real world. According to the prologue, toons used to live side by side with the real worlders. But, due to incidents with certain toons causing mayhem, the real worlders gathered up all the toons and placed them in a secluded area barricaded by a large wall. Eventually, this wall caused the world to become separated. One for the real worlders, and one for the toons.
• Art Shift: Zally's flashback in the real world is shown with more detailed backgrounds, and the humans are depicted with more realistic features.
• Big Bad: The Ink Splotch. A sentient mass of ink whose goal is to inert every single thing in the Tooniverse. The Ink Splotch also has plans for Zally, as he intends to drain her life force so he'll be strong enough to inert the entire Tooniverse.
• Blob Monster: The Ink Splotch is a giant mass of sentient ink. And with a single touch, he can inert a toon into a non-living object.
• Con Man: Zingo Bingo was first introduced as an amateur con artist planning to sell discarded items as useful products alongside his reluctant brother, Boppo.
• Conveniently an Orphan: According to Zally's backstory, she was abandoned in an alley as a baby. So for all intents and purposes, Zally's parents are not in the picture.
• Down the Rabbit Hole: After pressing a Big Red Button from the animation camera station, Zally is sucked into a swiling vortex. Which transports her into the Tooniverse.
• The Dragon: Sparky Sue. She is the self-proclaimed daughter and right hand of the Ink Splotch. She is given specific orders by her father to bring Zally Alley to him alive.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: When Zingo and Boppo noticed that Zally was talking to a shady character in a trenchcoat, they immediately run in front of Zally, with Zingo growing at the stranger. Little do Zingo and Boppo know, that the stranger was the Ink Splotch in disguise.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: This is the dynamic between Zingo and Boppo. Zingo is shown to be the foolish brother as he tends to come up with crazy schemes that back fire easily. Boppo is the more responsible one as he tends to question his brother Zingo about the scams that he pulls.
• Friendless Background: Since Zally has spent most of her life moving from foster home to foster home, she never truly made a single friend in the real world.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: After Zally overhears that Zingo and Boppo plan to take her to an asylum as the two didn't believe that Zally was from the real world and that she created them, she angrily yells out their full names. Which prompts Zingo and Boppo that Zally was telling the truth.
  Zally: Zingopolis Jingo Bingo and Boppatopolis Socko Bingo you are not putting me in the nut house!!!
  Boppo: Gasp! How did she know our full names?
• Hate Sink: Barbra, Zally's foster mom. Throughout Zally's backstory, Barbra was shown to be a cold, heartless woman who emotionally abused her, and controlled almost every aspect of Zally's life.
• In-Series Nickname: For the most part, "Zally Alley" is actually her nickname. The name that she was given was "Sally". But since she misheard it with a "Z" sound when she was younger, Sally mainly refers to herself as Zally.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Zingo may be a con artist and rather careless, but deep down, he shows genuine care for his brother Boppo and is very protective of Zally.
• Meaningful Name: Zally's last name of Alley came from the fact that she was found in an alleyway when she was just a baby.
• Mysterious Disembodied Voice: During Zally's vist at the art museum's animation exhibit, she hears a strange voice coming from a old animation camera station. It was this voice that tells Zally of the Tooniverse and how to get there.
• Noodle Incident: During the Bingo Brothers' introduction scene, Boppo mentioned that the reason that he and Zingo are in Toontropolis is because it's the one town that they're not wanted from. Zingo quickly stops him from talking so that the citizens won't get suspicious.
• Power of Creation: Whenever a person from the real world enters the Tooniverse, they gain the ability to draw anything they want. Whether it be simple things like cupcakes, or complex things like rockets.
• Precursor Hero: Prior to Zally's arrival in the Tooniverse, there was another young girl who got transported there. Her name was Alice, and she mainly used her drawing skills to help those in need, or stop criminals. But all of a sudden, Alice mysteriously disappeared.
• The Professor: Dr. Dots is one of Toontropolis' most brilliant scientists. He has made several inventions such as an airplane with a giant baseball glove attached to its back, and a magnet that only attracts pens.
• Rapid Hair Growth: After Sparky Sue called Zally a squirt, this caused Zally to get angry. Once Zally unleashed a massive ink whip from her pen to take care of Sparky Sue, Zally's hair somehow magically grew to an incredibly long length.
• Rhyming Names: Two of the main characters' names are Zally Alley and Zingo Bingo.
• The Runaway: After Barbra confiscated all of Zally's drawings from her room, Zally decides to runaway to the city art museum.
• Shout-Out: The panels with the rocket that Zally, Zingo and Boppo were riding on, suddenly going out of control is a direct reference to Toy Story 1.
  Boppo: Um... Guys? Zally just lit a rocket.
  Zingo: Yes. And?
  Boppo: Rockets explo-
  [The rocket then goes out of control.]
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: After Sparky Sue pushes Zally of Dr. Dots' airplane, Zally needed to think of a way to land safely. So, she quickly drew a large hat which acts as a parachute. Zally then decides to make a new outfit to go along with the hat. She even states that she hated her old outfit with a passion.
• Toon Transformation: After Zally gets transported to the Tooniverse, she was immediately turned into a toon. The first thing Zally noticed during her arrival in Toontropolis was that she now has Four-Fingered Hands.
• Wicked Stepmother: Zally's foster mom, Barbra. From what was shown in Zally's flashback, Barbra controlled every aspect of her life. From what Zally wore, to what she could do with her free time. Barbra even forbade Zally from ever pursuing her dreams of drawing. Stating that cartoons are utter garbage that depict unrealistic images of real life.

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