Webcomic / Tomics

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Tomics (stylized as †omics, alternately called Tomics Comics) is a Gag Per Day Webcomic (although it sometimes has short arcs) by Catholic artist Tom Gould. He describes it as "a series of Bible-based cartoons that aim to be fun for the most devout Christians as well as the most unsalvageable heathens!"

Most strips are set during Bible Times and feature either Jesus and his disciples, or his childhood with his parents, cousin John (the future Baptist) and other friends. Some strips are also set in the present day. Either way, the humor generally revolves around comedic takes on Catholic beliefs and also terrible puns.

Tom updates his comic strips on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram.

This webcomic contains examples of:

• Actually, I Am Him: After he rose from the dead, Jesus noticed people talking about his death without hearing about his resurrection. He takes advantage of it to ask what all the fuss is about.
  Disciple: The news is everywhere. Where have you been? Under a rock?
  Jesus: ... so what if I was?
• Affectionate Parody: Tom is a devout Catholic, so he's clearly doing an affectionate parody of his Catholic upbringing and the stories he grew up with.
• All There in the Script: Some of the characters, particularly in the modern strips, are only named in the tags.
• Anachronism Stew: Don't be surprised if the Holy Family somehow uses hoses, modern-looking high chairs, etc.
• Art Shift: Tom occasionally does this in a few comics, drawing the characters in a somewhat more realistic manner to indicate that the subject is treated solemnly and with gravitas.
  • "Pregnant" features the Blessed Virgin Mary grieving as she sits outside her Son's tomb.
  • Tom has a comic based on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with Jesus praying at the Mount of Olives, a crucified Jesus, and a resurrected Jesus with His sacred heart.
• Black Comedy: Despite the generally lighthearted theme of the comic, Tom sometimes veers into this, particularly with the gruesome deaths of St. Bartholomew or St. Lawrence.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: "Let’s call this an homage to those cartoons, because “rip-off” is such a harsh word."
• Character Exaggeration: By the author's own admission.
  I’ve taken his limited diet to the next level in my comics, making [John the Baptist's] appetite for bugs an incessant running gag so that now “obsessive insectivore” is one of his distinguishing character traits.
• Children Are Innocent: Young Jesus (despite being God in the flesh) doesn't seem to know what a prostitute is, or a virgin.
• Creepy Child / Creepy Good: Young John the Baptist, in contrast to his serene cousin Jesus.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Angels are sometimes drawn wearing robes that resemble a priest's outfit, though the artist cut back eventually, since several fans thought that the black made them look sinister.
• Death of a Child: In this strip for the "May of the Maid" series dedicated to St. Joan of Arc, a lawyer interrogates St. Joan about an incident in which a deceased baby was briefly revived and lived long enough to be baptized before dying again. This in itself is a Tear Jerker; even the judges In-Universe couldn't help but cry, but the lawyer interrogating St. Joan tries to get the others to snap out of it.
• The Devil Is a Loser: Satan is usually shown as an appropriately evil, scheming figure... who looks like a sock puppet of a snake.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Sometimes, the "Joke-ography" section will actually explain subtle references or bits of Catholic theology that may be lost on the casual reader. Most of the time, the fact that Tom is overexplaining an obvious gag becomes part of the gag.
• Friend to All Living Things: St. Francis of Assisi. Some guy thinks it's lame—a wolf disagrees.
• Everyone Went to School Together: When Jesus and John go to school, Tom throws in Lazarus, Martha and Mary of Bethany to round out the class.
  Is it realistic? Did they even know each other as kids? Why did I draw them all in modern clothes?
  grumbles uncertainly* …but it was fun!
• F--: John the Baptist gets a zeta in Greek (and doesn't realize that that's bad). (A bit of a Genius Bonus: zeta correspond to "Z" in English, but it's also the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, making it an equivalent to F.)
• Hollywood Atheist: Someone tries to refute Christianity by citing the first half of Wisdom 12:13 ("There is no God...") while ignoring the rest of the verse.
• Jesus: The Early Years: A lot of the comics are focused on the life of Jesus as a little kid, whether they are about the dynamic of the Holy Family or about his friendship with his cousin John (the future Baptist).
• Just Following Orders: Discussed by Herod's soldiers carrying out the Massacre of the Innocents. One soldier outright says he blames society as a way to escape responsibilility.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: "The short Italian guy is a home-maintenance professional (not simply a plumber) named Murray O. Do not confuse him with any other entirely legally distinct character(s)."
• Magically Regenerating Clothing: Look how much cleaner the Samaritan looks after Jesus heals him.
• New First Comics: "Tomics Resurrection," when Gould redoes an earlier joke in his updated style, sometimes with minor script changes.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Implied For Laughs when a teacher looks at kindergartener Jesus' art of where he sees himself in 25 years.
  Jesus: "I ran out of red crayons halfway through, but I think it came out alright."
• No Navel, Novel Birth: Adam and Eve, since they weren't born. (Though technically, we don't see any other characters with navels, either.)
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Jesus, talking to the Holy Spirit, who is Invisible to Normals.
  • Also, Word of God confirms that the murderous visions Young John the Baptist sees may or may not be demonic forces tempting him toward evil. Either way, he ignores them.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: St. Thomas is so often remembered for the "Doubting Thomas" deal that he's getting tired of it.
• One-Steve Limit: It's based on the New Testament, so obviously there are some violations. John the Baptist and John the Apostle are both recurring characters (though they generally appear in different parts of the timeline), while the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany also appear at various points.
• Pun:
  • At least two-thirds of Tom's comics have some sort of pun as the punchline. It would be a vain effort to count them all. He even makes fun of it himself.
  • Tom's comic for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus features an instance of wordplay which is not played for laughs, but rather reverence. The caption in which Jesus is praying at the Mount of Olives says "Solemn and Scared", that for the crucified Jesus is "Pierced and Scarred", and the resurrected Jesus is "Risen and Sacred".
• Power Incontinence:
  • A Running Gag in the "Young Jesus" strips is him doing miracles by accident; in particular, he can't turn off his "walking on water" ability. He figures it out at the end of the "Swimming Lessons" arc.
  • Exaggerated in one strip when Jesus eats a piece of cooked fish. The final panel has Jesus spitting a whole living fish from his mouth.
• Reformed, but Rejected: When St. Paul converts to Christianity, others are skeptical. But then again, they're also scared of the guy.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Possibly Mary here.
• Rimshot: In the "Teresa of Avila" strip, the eponymous saint is upset because she wanted to use a percussion kit to play music for her sisters, but it is so big that it requires two persons to play. When another sister slyly guesses she has a bit of a "co-nun-drum", St. Teresa responds to that pun by rolling her eyes and doing a "ba-dum-tss!" on her drum.
• Rule of Symbolism: Tom likes to play with the various uses of symbolism in The Bible from time to time.
  • The Three Magi come bearing gifts that prefigure Jesus' ministry; gold for the king and Son of David, frankincense (incense) for the eternal priest, and myrrh (an oil used in burials) for the victim on the cross. The last Magi drew the short straw.
  • The young Mary unknowingly steps on a toy snake. This is a reference to the Protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The Holy Family's Flight to Egypt storyline. Hopefully it's not too big of a spoiler for a 2,000 year old story, but it ends with Herod dying, meaning the Holy Family has to go back to Bethlehem all the way back.
• Sinister Sentient Sun: Played for Laughs in one comic, where the Sun tries to give Jesus a sunburn as part of a plan to usurp God. Or at least, that's what a Sunday School dropout priest thinks.
• Spit Take: A priest is quoting the first beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit" and asks the kids what Jesus means by that. One little girl named Agnes says "My daddy only feels blessed when he's pourin' spirits." Cue the priest, who's drinking water from a water bottle from a straw, spitting his water into a hapless boy's face.
• Strawman: There's a recurring character literally called "Crazy Strawman Antitheist Lady."
• Stylistic Suck: One comic about someone talking Jesus' saying about cutting off hands too far has a much poorer art style - implying Tom (the artist) cut off his right hand.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The life of St. Luke the Evangelist is paralleled to Star Wars (A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back).