Down they descended and created bodies, taking the semblance of women as their own
"Yeah, okay, hold on a second. Don't get your tentacles in a knot."
—David Bartlett, in response to a Cosmic Horror asking him for a dollar.

Ow, my sanity is a webcomic by Adam J. Thaxton. The author has stated his plans include "stabbing the magical girlfriend genre with a rusty chainsaw", which should give you an insight into how a Lovecraftian Romantic Comedy series will be approached in this case.

The main character of our story is an arts student named David Bartlett, who has a life that frankly, sucks. He shows up at his dorm one evening to find his friend's associates performing some sort of cultish ritual. Hilarity Ensues, if you find the cult's hideous demise and getting kissed by an Arabic chick who just appeared out of nowhere to be hilarious.

To put it more simply, Ah! My Goddess meets H.P. Lovecraft. The author's blog.

As of 3/9/11, the comic is on hiatus so the author can work on other projects.

Tropes used in Ow, My Sanity include:
  • Author Tract: The Take That against, or Deconstruction of, the Tsundere archetype. It is given a disproportionate amount of attention, and seems out of place if you don't know the critical intent (see the blog post below).
    • Also, she was faking it to infiltrate his house. David knew she was either tsundere or faking (though he mistook her reason for greed) and didn't want either in his house.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For:
    • ...especially when you're asking an elder god, seeing as how they have very little understanding of humans, let alone human metaphors and euphemisms. See Everybody's Dead, Dave below for just how bad this can get.
    • Narla hires a ride in exchange for "anything you want". The guy wants to never have to worry about bills again, which she considers an easy one. So many lovely interpretations of that...
  • Bedmate Reveal: On the part of the author to the audience, when David casually tells Shubbie that Nancy kisses differently than she does. This is the first hint that David and Nancy's romance has progressed that far.
  • Boy Meets Ghoul: Or herald of an alien god/Kuudere, in this case.
  • Blunt Metaphors Trauma

David: You ate ten dollars.
Nancy: I ate pancakes!

David: That's like kicking a dog. Wow, I feel worse now. I kicked a puppy.
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: While Nancy killed the entire cult when summoned (well, those who didn't kill each other first), most of them had it coming, and it's implied some even wanted it to happen.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Despite having a rather cynical world view, Dave often acts rather altruistically. According to the opening narration for chapter 3, it is quite possible to comprehend life's ultimate lack of meaning and still be perfectly satisfied with it.
  • Living Bodysuit: Inverted. The Delta Green agent wears a female Eldritch Abomination as a disguise, apparently in an attempt to assassinate David.
  • Logic Bomb: Dave makes a Mi-go faint with one of these.
  • Lovecraft Country: The comic seems to take place in one, unsurprisingly.
  • Lovecraft Lite: There are horrible Eldritch Abominations, but so far most of them want to get to know David better or propose in really creepy ways. On the other hand, the author has said on his blog that it's going to have "a Lovecraft ending." If so, the warm-and-fuzzy-ish beginning arguably just makes things worse.
    • Debatable. People around Dave have a tendency to die horribly, and even in human form Nancy offers to kill people for him on occasion. The only "lite" part is the creatures' reactions to Dave, and he seems to be very special somehow.
    • Keep in mind The Dunwich Horror was also a Lovecraft story and the ending was far more optimistic than in most of his tales. It might not necessarily end with the death/insanity/transmorgrification of Dave and/or a bunch of other humans. Considering it's based on Delta Green the Earth is still fucked in the end, but Dave and friends might not be going mad, suicidal or primordial either.
    • Another example, The good ending of Eversion is just as lovecraftian as the bad one, if not more.
      • Besides, did he say WHO gets the Lovecraftian ending?
    • The author has called the webcomic his "thesis statement" on why the Cosmic Horror Story became Lovecraft Lite.
  • A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss: ...and the sacrifice of your dorm mates.
  • Mad Artist: Check out David's rough figure drawings of Nancy here and here.
  • Magnetic Girlfriend: Nancy. Of all the girls after David, there is only one whose proximity to David is not due to her presence: The Sleeper of N'Kai.
  • The Messiah: Despite his various issues, David is astonishingly kind and generous to just about everyone, up to and including the many and varied Eldritch Abominations who want to do unutterably horrible things to him.
    • Which is probably why they have yet to do anything genuinely bad to him (at least directly or intentionally). In fact, one of these creatures basically offered to become his eternal bride and elevate him to godhood in return for his kindness. On the other hand, it may be that they see something special in him...the investigators certainly do.
  • Mistaken for Murderer: The paranormal investigators that deal with eldritch matters believe that David is an evil cult leader who sacrificed his followers to summon and bind an Eldritch Abomination into his service since he was the only survivor of Nancy's summoning. While his wish did get the remaining cultists killed and made Nancy his companion, David was just an ordinary(?) guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong (right?) time. His penchant for drawing Eldritch Abomination sketches just makes him look even more suspicious in their eyes.
  • Monster Roommate
  • Mundane Utility: One of the agents suggests that David might be using Nancy as an infinite soda supply.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Nancy is an advocate of this.
  • Murder Simulators: Made fun of here.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: David's been drawing stuff like this ever since he was a kid. No wonder he's so comfortable around such things.
  • Non-Mammal Mammaries: The Sleeper of N'Kai.
  • Noodle Incident: The grey goose drill.
    • In part. It's also a Shout-Out to a Delta Green scenario involving an old nuclear power plant, a terrorism drill, and a Hound of Tindaolos.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: Shubby uses one. It's as long as her lower arm.
  • Ship Sinking: David/Collette got put down hard.
  • Shout-Out: A ridiculous number of them, many to H.P. Lovecraft and things related to his works.
  • Splash of Color:
    • The Delta Green symbol.
    • Nancy's eyes in her real form.
    • Any time eldritch energy is used, such as here.
    • Narla's tie.
  • Starfish Aliens: Literally, with the two Elder Things.
  • The Stoic: David. His Brown Note reaction to the Eldritch Abominations he's seeing everywhere now is Dissociative disorder -- i.e., he's going to be as stoic as he can be...until his insanity finally catches up with him.
  • Straight Man: The Mi-Go think like computers, and have no capacity for humor, or imagination. They make for the perfect straight man.
  • Take That: Possibly by the author against a character archetype he appears not too fond of. "Go David. Don't take no shit off dat tsundere wannabe." No telling if other tsunderes will appear later in the comic to better treatment, though.
  • Trademark Favourite Food / Sense Freak: Nancy certainly likes pancakes.

David: You didn't have to eat all their jelly, you know.
Nancy: Yes, I did. It was an imperative.

  1. ↑ the "thousand young" part, not the "black goat" part. No malicious intent or insult towards the physique of the average goat is intended.
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