Lucia is an Ordinary High-School Student that just wants to play volleyball. Too bad she sucks at it. After leaving another failed tryout, she meets up with her brother, Max, who has become attached to a teddy bear he found in a dumpster. Unfortunately, this teddy bear (named Kern) is alive, and is also on the run from the Panty Mafia, due to him possessing a pair of panties that grant the wearer superpowers. Now Lucia and her brother are on the run, too.
Yeah. It's that type of comic.
The Panty Bear is a webcomic created by writer Bryce Beal
and artist Scott Malin. It started in 2019 and officially ended in June of 2021. You can read the comic here, and you can donate to the artists here.
Warning. If you couldn't already tell, this comic is pretty NSFW. You have been warned.
Tropes that apply to this comic:
- 555: Any phone number which is seen begins in this way (in one instance appearing in parentheses, suggesting this is the area code).
- All There in the Manual: Backstories of the characters can be found on the website
. - Alliterative Name: The protagonist, Lucia Lancaster.
- Animesque: The artstyle is very reminiscent of anime.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Though she loves him more than anything, Lucia is regularly annoyed by Max's antics.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Max, who is Out of Focus for most of the series, loses his temper and bites Bon's arm off after being captured.
- Big Sister Instinct: Lucia is very protective of her brother Max. It's later revealed that this is because she found him after running away from home and she doesn't want to be left alone.
- Bounty Hunter: Griswold, an absolute mountain of a man clad in vest and assless chaps, who gents sent after Lucia and Kern.
- Calling Your Attacks: Any character who gets in a fight has a tendency to do this.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Max, Lucia's brother, has a tenuous grasp on reality. Lucia later explains that this is because he was raised by dogs.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Lucia is basically forced into this due to Max's constant naivete.
- Cool Big Sis: Lucia acts as this to Max.
- Crapsack World: Panty's Landing is a terrible, run-down city rife with thieves, burglars, sex-workers and the like. It doesn't help that most things are controlled by the mafia.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: During her first encounter with Griswold, Lucia is nearly killed before she's able to land a single blow onto him.
- Death Seeker: The clown who owns "Lucky's Home of Clownfoolery" straight up goads a patron into killing him, since he's "not really alive."
- Distracted by the Sexy: While Lucia is changing out of the panties in Chapter 5, a driver in the background gets an eyeful (complete with nosebleed) and then gets a faceful (of streetlamp).
- Dream Reality Check: Lucia tries this early on, after things really start getting weird.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Lucia goes through hell, defeats both Griswold and Bon, and becomes a spokeswoman for the reformed Panty Protectors by the end of the story.
- Embarrassing but Empowering Outfit: The outfit which Lucia gains for wearing the panties may be stripperific, but it also makes her incredibly strong and even better at volleyball.
- French Maid Outfit: The super powered panties give Lucia an outfit which looks like one of these.
- Fugitive Arc: Basically the entire story involves Lucia, Kern and Max on the run from the forces of the Panty Mafia.
- Garbage Hideout: Lucia, Max and Bon all hide in a dumpster after first running away from the Panty Mafia. It's later revealed that this is the same dumpster where Lucia lived after running away from home.
- Genial Giraffe: Completely inverted with G. Raffe, a ruthless, rollerskating bounty hunter hated even by his peers.
- Groin Attack: Lucia gives a mean one to Kern during her second battle with him. Later happens to Lucia herself during her fight against Bon.
- The Heavy: Griswold, bounty hunter/cyborg created by the Panty Mafia.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Max. To quote the site:
"He doesn't particularly understand right or wrong. To him, everyone's a good person – unless they hurt someone, then he knows they're an Only Enemy."
- Killer Teddy Bear: Kern and his brother, Bon are both members of the Panty Mafia (though Kern is less evil than his brother).
- Lady Swears-a-Lot: Lucia drops as many curses as any other word (something which is brought up in her description on the site).
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: The world in which this takes place is inhabited by both humans and talking animals (talking stuffed animals at that).
- LOL, 69: Lucia's volleyball uniform has this number.
- Marilyn Maneuver: Done by Lucia in this Twitter post.
- Medium Awareness: Several characters make mention of the fact that they were drawn by an artist, and even lampshade some of the things which happen.
- Ms. Fanservice: Lucia, with many panty shots, emphasis on her long legs, and feisty personality.
- Out-of-universe, Scott posts various pictures of her in a variety of revealing outfits and lewd scenarios (i.e., being used as a plate for sushi) on his Twitter.
- Out-of-universe, Scott posts various pictures of her in a variety of revealing outfits and lewd scenarios (i.e., being used as a plate for sushi
- Never My Fault: Kern blames basically everyone he has ever met after he gets arrested, saying he is "a product of his environment."
- Nipple and Dimed: Happens to Lucia after one of her battles. Thankfully, Kern covers it up and scolds the "weirdos."
- Ordinary High-School Student: Lucia starts off the story as one.
- Panty Fighter: Lucia, quite literally. Since her battle outfit doesn't come with a skirt or pants, there are many panty shots.
- Panty Thief: The MO of the Panty Mafia, stealing whatever panties they can find to turn them into more superpowered panties. They change it under the leadership of Kern to be about protecting panties by the end of the story.
- Playboy Bunny: Lucia dresses up as one in this Twitter post.
- Police Are Useless: Zig-Zagged. When Lucia shows up with Kern and hands him over to Luther (the city's sole prison guard), he actually arrests him. Immediately after, a prisoner escapes, which Luther does nothing about.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: Not always, but Lucia occasionally gets Mystical White Hair after powering up.
- Punny Name: Several characters.
- Shelley, one of Bon's goons, who is a turtle.
- G. Raffe, a bounty hunter sent after Lucia and Kern. Guess what he is.
- Hen-Tie, who is a hen (or a chicken) wearing a tie.
- Raised by Wolves: Max was apparently raised by dogs, but they grew tired of him and abandoned him.
- Shout-Out:
- One to Rihanna playing on the radio in Griswold's car.
- Each chapter (barring 11 and 12) gets its name from a song:
- Chapter 1: "Bad Reputation"
- Chapter 2: "Please Don't Call Me A Koala"
- Chapter 3: "Jailhouse Rock"
- Chapter 4: "Burning Down The House"
- Chapter 5: "Can't Find My Way Home"
- Chapter 6: "Everybody Wants Some!!"
- Chapter 7: "Can You Hear Me Knocking?"
- Chapter 8: "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress"
- Chapter 9: "Free Fallin'"
- Chapter 10: "Bad Man's Song"
- Sincerity Mode: Jerkass though he may be, Kern offers a genuine apology for getting Lucia mixed up with his affairs while they're getting their car refueled.
- Slouch of Villainy: Grisworld is doing this in the cover for Chapter 10.
- Stock Money Bag: Lucia's reward for bringing Kern into custody. She doesn't keep it for long, though.
- Sympathy for the Devil: After Griswold is defeated, his backstory is shown, in which he is shown to have been homeless and forced to fight others in order to get what he needed. Then he befriended Bon and Kern and was turned into their cyborg servant.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Griswold was turned into a cyborg against his will after he pissed off Bon.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The entire plot is kickstarted by Max finding Kern in a dumpster.
- The Wildcats: Subverted. The school volleyball team is known as "The Screaming Eagles," as opposed to just "The Eagles."
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Outright said by Lucia after Kern explains why he left the Panty Mafia.
- Youthful Freckles: Max has them, to further emphasize his childlike innocence.
