Living with Hipstergirl and Gamergirl is a comic, written in Spanish and English, that puts its own millennial spin on the old Three's Company formula. Written by Colombian artist Jago (possibly NSFW)note , the comic follows Artur and his two incredibly attractive and decidedly strange roommates, snarky hipster Sophie and obsessive gamer Erika.
Strips first used to run irregularly, first in Spanish, then usually a few weeks later in English. (Links should be considered NSFW for occasional toplessness.) Jago also puts strips (and much other material) on his DeviantArt account (guaranteed NSFW). A Russian translation is available here.
Nowaway his strips and NSFW material are published on his Patreon profile. Previews and spanish version of his strip are still published on DeviantArt, while the English version is published one to two days later on Patreon.
Tropes for this work include:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Erika's opinion of this when she's trying to get her Pikachu healed in a Pokemon Center.
- All There in the Manual: Any and all development of the relationship between Artur, Sophie, and Erika, or various backstory factoids (such as Megan's reason for pursuing Arthur) are not located in the main numbered installments, but in the numerous side comics and bonus epilogues to numbered strips, which are not shown on the main gallary page. You have to select the tag "Living With Hipstergirl And Gamergirl" to easily find them.
- All Women Are Lustful:
- Played with for Sophie, who doesn't show much sexual interest in people normally but even she appears to need to cool down at times.
- Additionally, after Sophie accidentally grabbed Arthur’s junk (he was asleep), she spent a while calculating how well-endowed he was◊.
- Allegedly Free Game: Parodied here◊.
- Ascended Extra: Both Elly and Clara were not part of the original group but quickly became recurrent characters with a main quirk of their own much like Sophie and Erika.
- Megan (first seen in strip #176) is becoming a recurring character as well.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Artur is accidentally accurate when Clara yells at him for "manspreading". He basically asks her "What is it that really upsets you, me spreading my legs, or you not having a chance in years to spread yours?" This gives him her wrath.
- Author Appeal: Jago really enjoys putting focus on the bottoms of the ladies.
- Berserk Button:
- One of the reasons why Erika left home was because she had issues with her mother blaming violence on video games. She's also not very fond of facebook games and it's implied that any mentions of the new era of videogames being better than the old one is also a touchy subject for her. And do not tell her that she's bad at a game, or you might find yourself defenestrated.
- As Artur finds out, it is unwise to imply to Clara that her activism is fueled by sexual frustration.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
- Sophie once had to deal with a guy hitting on her who was like this. He acted like a gentleman when offering to buy her a drink, but when she politely refused, he turned into a complete dick.
- A semi-literal example: a politician whose picture Sophie takes looks like a lamb when he works at it, but turns into a wolf the moment he relaxes.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The English translation is frequently... not great.
- Bust-Contrast Duo: The webcomic has the comparision of any of the two female protagonists (Erika and Sophie), who're extroverted and confident Ms. Fanservice girls with big chests, with the petite and flat-chested Elly, who's shy and introverted as Artur.
- But Not Too Foreign: Except for Artur and Clara, the characters mostly have English names, but many of the details of the setting are based on Jago's native Colombia.
- Character Development: Sophie started out as very unromantic and mean-spirited, even warning Artur not to get too frisky with her when he first moved in. Later on, she seems to have developed a soft spot for Artur and acts like the Team Mom when the situation calls for a level head.
- Child Hater: Sophie has zero tolerance for children and considers parenthood to be indistinguishable◊ from death.◊
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Both Erika and Sophie exhibit this when it comes to Arthur initiating romantic relations with other girls, including their common friends. Also with each other to a smaller extent.
- Cool Aunt: Seemingly Sophie’s relationship with her niece Lucy, made apparent as the niece is often shown visiting the trio’s apartment.
- Cosplay: Arthur, Erika and Elly are very fond of this. And sometimes Sophie, too.
- Daddy's Girl: Erika is often spoiled by her father, who would never say no to her, and often secretly buy her video games.
- Discriminate and Switch: Erika is unhappy with a cosplayer's Mileena outfit, and the cosplayer assumes it's because Erika thinks she's not attractive enough to pull it off. Erika is in fact unhappy that the cosplayer is carrying a fan, since it's Kitana and not Mileena who fights with a fan.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Sophie invades her neighbors' home and eats a drumstick and drinks a cup◊ because they are using her Wi-Fi.
- Erica throws Arthur out of a closed window just because he suggested that she might be bad at a certain videogame.
- Dope Slap:
- Erika gives Sophie one in a recent strip, after the two of them (now thoroughly infatuated with Arthur) overhear just how serious he is about keeping his promise not to make a move on them.
- Elly gets one when her version of the Annunciation uses a very different Angel.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Arthur is occasionally mistaken for a woman.
- Dude, He's Like, in a Coma!:
- Sophie once tried this before being caught by Erika, forcing her to pretend to be giving (very forceful) CPR on Artur.
- To a lesser extent, both girls have attempted to sneak into Artur's room to sleep next to him, often catching each other and foiling each other (except one time). Doesn't count as Bedmate Reveal as he's never shown to wake up finding them next to him in bed (or on the couch).
- Erika has snuck into Arturs bedroom several times, which made Artur confused over having a wet spot on his chest in the morning (Erika drooled over him).
- Erika sometimes take advantage of Artur being a heavy sleeper to kiss him, such as one time Sophie had helped her put on makeup. A recent page implies that Erika might’ve done more than kiss him.
- Equal-Opportunity Offender: While the comic does have some biases, it seems to be trying hard to mock everyone who behave badly or stupidly regardless of what "side" they are on. Examples include:
- Unrealistic beauty standards and people who complain about unrealistic beauty standards.
- Men who tell women to smile and women who complain about men telling them to smile.
- Fake geek girls◊ and people complaining about fake geek girls.
- Insensitive chauvinists and over-sensitive feminists.
- Politicians are constantly portrayed as greedy and amoral while consistently having No Party Given.
- That old-time religion gets slammed, and so does those damn kids today.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Sophie may come across as a snobbish Jerkass that doesn't really care about anybody, but even she got freaked out in this strip.◊
- She calls out on her sister for carelessly leaving behind a a bottle of chemicals in the event her daughter Lucy could accidentally swallow its contents.
- Fanservice: Given the nature of the strip, it was inevitable. The versions of the costumes Erika and Sophie are shown reveals a lot of skin. Especially noticed with the RPG version of Erika, who wears usually a Chainmail Bikini.
- Fascist, but Inefficient: Jago's frequent complaint against the Colombian police force is that it's good at hassling innocent people but bad at protecting them. This strip is a good example.
- From Roommates to Romance: In spite of the Unresolved Sexual Tension and Ship Tease, they're still platonic. Erika and Sophie previously had a roommate that tried to get beyond this, and his story told Arthur what would happen if he took too many liberties◊.
- Brought back once more when Artur's friend asks why he hasn't asked any of the girls out yet. Of course, a lot has changed since then. Erika gives a Dope Slap to Sophie for what she said. They have since attempted to defy this by each attempting to sneak into his room to sleep next to him, at the very, often catching and foiling each other's attempts.
- Gag Penis: Artur's dick is large enough for Erika to use it to play ring toss.
- Genki Girl: Erika is this from time to time. Especially when she's around Artur.
- Grammar Nazi: To the point of lampshading.
- Hate Sink: Clara is actually a parody of this. Despite being the resident Social Justice Warrior of the strip, most people actually empathize with the comics featuring her, due to her actions showing how flat out ridiculous people like her can act.
- Hipster: Sophie, as per the title. She goes to great lengths to be different from everyone else and takes her social media updates extremely seriously.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Sophie comments that Artur can pull off looking like Gomez Addams, but not acting like him. He proves her wrong, especially when she unwittingly gives him the bait by using French, and, because she's already smitten with him so hard, it works too well and she's flustered to the point of fainting.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- One comic has Sophie encounter a pair of Femen-like protestors who say she's dressed too slutty... despite them being topless in public at the time.
- In strip 294, Sophie calls some churchgoers "sheep" for letting their money be taken away, as she sees it. Then she runs into an Apple store to buy an iPhone X. For bonus points, she pronounces "buy" as "baahhh-y".
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Erika. Erika.
- Insult to Rocks: The unreadably small text during the news.◊"Congress is a rat's nest says public opinion, offended rats announce lawsuit"
- I Want Grandkids: Artur's mother isn't exactly subtle about it, between cheerfully explaining to women she meets what excellent breeding stock Artur is and submitting Erika and Sophie to bizarre tests to see who would make the best mother to Artur's children. It's even come to the point that she's openly endorsed trial by combat between Erika's and Sophie's mothers when the two blurted out at the same time their desire to have their respective daughter get together with Artur. They even have no problems using their bodies as encouragement for Arthur to pick one of their daughters◊.
- Jerkass:
- Sophie can be extremely selfish and unpleasant◊.
- Megan comes across as this, the reason being that she treated Artur horribly since high school (and even had a very low opinion of him once she sees him again in this strip,) only to do a complete 180 on her viewpoint when she sees how much attention he's getting from Erika and Sophie, hinting at her jealousy.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: That being said, Sophie isn't all bad, and is shown to genuinely care for Arthur and Erika.
- Little Miss Snarker: Sophie’s niece Lucy often makes wisecracks (taking after her aunt no doubt) often at Arthurs’ expense.
- Male Gaze: While the cast is holed up at home during the 2020 COVID-19 Artur's wrist starts hurting for reasons. Trying to determine the cause Sophie leans down while wearing a very loose tank top without a bra and realizes too late that Artur is getting a good, long look at her exposed breasts much to the embarrassment of them both.
- Mistaken for Gay:
- Erika gets a Les Yay scene in the series when she gets hit on by a horny busty Lipstick Lesbian when she made a comment about "playing for both sides".
- Sophie and Arthur were once mistaken for a lesbian couple.
- Moral Guardians: Clara is one of the "hard-left identity politics extremist" type.
- Mister Seahorse: In Sophie's version of the nativity story,◊ Sophie!Mary wants to have a career, so by a divine miracle the unplanned pregnancy is foisted off on Artur!Joseph instead.
- Ms. Fanservice: Both women. They mostly do their household work in bra and panties. However, Erika seems to be falling into this trope a lot more◊ openly than Sophie is nowadays.
- Mum Looks Like a Sister: A New Year's strip shows that Sophie's mother looks more like her twin. Same with Erica and her mom◊. They later try◊ use this trope to entice Arthur to get together with their daughters.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite looking lanky, Artur is capable of lifting tons with his right arm, something he blames on his roommates since they're just roommates.
- Nails on a Blackboard: Sophie does this on a window when a blonde woman asks her if she could play music that's appealing to her (in a rather bitchy way).
- Nerds Are Sexy: Erika thinks she's an aversion. She isn't.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When asked why he won't ask any of the girls out, Artur explains that he was told not to try anything with the girls on pain of death by Sophie. Cue a Dope Slap from Erika, as it's clear that at this point in the comics, both girls actually do have the hots for him, but don't outright say it.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Unimportant background characters are generally drawn in a more cartoony fashion than the rest of the main cast.
- Nosebleed: Based on the tissues stuffed up his nose, Artur is clearly anticipating one when Erika falls out of her shirt after winning a racing game.◊
- Only Six Faces: Almost any male outside of Arthur tend to look the same.
- Pervert Revenge Mode: The girls have made it very clear◊ for Artur that this will be the result if he ever tried to take advantage of them.
- Has now ironically backfired on them. While he doesn't take advantage of them because well, he's a good man, he's also resigned himself to just being friends with them. As he explains to his friend, the girls had made it abundantly clear, and so doesn't want to make the situation uncomfortable. The problem is that by this point, both of the women are thoroughly smitten with him that Erika actually gives a Dope Slap to Sophie for causing their predicament in the first place.
- And, overall, even with just the accidental glances that usually trigger this trope, it's averted. Though Artur has accidentally seen more than their already scantily-clad clothing exposes, the girls have never physically retaliated like they originally threatened, mostly because neither are ultimately not above showing their bodies off to him, and more importantly, he's proved time and again to them that he would never take advantage of them. The only time either of them have actually hurt him was when Erika almost caught Sophie attempting to kiss a sleeping Artur so the latter gave him very forceful CPR chest presses to cover her tracks.
- The Pigpen: Erika wears tattered clothes so she can spend her money on games, seems (for multiple reasons) to rarely if ever wear a bra (unless that's all she's wearing on top), goes without showering for days◊, and seems to deny the fact that she is, in fact, extremely hot.
- Raging Stiffie: Artur gets one in his sleep in in one strip, which Erika uses to play ring toss.
- Race Lift: One strip has Clara suggest they make Sophie dark-skinned for the purposes of racial inclusivity. Sophie "misinterprets" this by giving Clara a black eye.
- Recut: The comics originally shown visible nipples. However, any portion that originally shown them are censored.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Sophie wishes there was a cure for world hunger... it'd stop poor people asking her for food.
- Save the Princess: Clara complains of this trope to Bowser, who points out he isn't doing it because the princess is weak in the slightest - he's effectively kidnapping the political leader of a prosperous kingdom with the aim of spreading chaos to destabilize the region. And remaining calm in a dangerous kidnapping situation isn't weakness either, it's common sense.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Not exactly a surprise, but Erika in a seriously risqué Pokémon dress in this New Year strip.
- Male Example: Artur may come across as a bit of a slacker in his appearance, but when he puts on the ritz....
- Even more so when he cosplays as Gomez Addams for Halloween 2020. Not only does he pull off the look very well according to Sophie, he effortlessly pulls off being The Charmer well enough that it renders Sophie (who said he couldn't pull off his character) catatonic.
- Shipper on Deck: More than one case of this have sprung up over the last year.
- Sophies’ mom is this for her daughter and Arthur. She might be for Erica too, but her daughter takes priority.
- Arthurs’ mom is this to any woman that comes close to her son.
- Elly seems to support Arthur/Erica.
- Erica's mom admits she can't wait for Artur to date her daughter.
- Ship Tease: While initially averted, Artur starts getting heavy amounts of this with Erika and Sophie (and later Elly).
- Sophie gets this in particular and it's becoming increasingly obvious she very much likes him. She's bought a fancy, low-cut dress for the sole purpose of teasing Artur, leaning down very far while doing so. When Erika mistakes lettuce for mistletoe and kisses Artur, Sophie's reaction is to feed him an entire bowl of it knowing he hates it. When he objects she tells him to pretend it's mistletoe and he quickly figures out that she's really mad about the incident and eats with no further objection. Another is when he heads out for a date, only to be distracted by spotting Sophie in the bathroom brushing her teeth with few clothes on and staying in. Erika points out later why Sophie left the door open on purpose. Even more recently was when she spots Artur near-naked (walking on him in the restroom) and is seemingly unflustered though when she tries to downplay it, Erika makes a snarky comment that makes her blush (not to mention how her glasses were fogged up.)
- Erika, by contrast, is prone to less jealousy and more outward displays of affection; more than once she'll tackle Arthur with a hug or even kisses (accompanied by hearts floating all around her, no less). At one point she feigns distress after handily knocking out a man who was creeping on her solely so Arthur would comfort her with a hug afterward. She does have her bits of jealousy though. One infamous moment was when she heard the Arthur will be going out with Megan. She looks upset before she offers to put his hair in a ponytail to help. The punchline? She used her panties to tie his hair back. While Artur remains unaware of it and wondering why Megan is quiet, Megan very much notices it.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The main reason Erika and Sophie have fallen for Artur. A supportive and good friend despite their idiosyncrancies, a guy who's clearly physically attracted to them, but has never even thought of taking advantage of them, and even taken care of them at their worst. Best shown here.
- Something Else Also Rises: One comic has Erika licking a candy cane that's in Artur's mouth with the curly end facing downward. In the next panel, the curly end of the candy cane is suddenly facing upward.
- Straight Man\Supporting Protagonist: Artur has very little real personality as portrayed and exists mostly as a foil to Erika and Sophie's bizarre behavior.
- Straw Feminist:
- These Femen-like topless protesters◊ are probably rather more judgmental than their real life counterparts.
- This also the role of Clara.
- Take That!: The comic has a tendency to fire shots at leftist Moral Guardians such as feminists, vegetarians, SJWs, people who make claims about topics they know nothing off, among many others. (Although there are some detractors who claim that Jago frequently attacks stereotypes rather than reality. Especially Clara.)
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: A nonviolent form — DSLR selfies are one thing, but studio lights?◊
- Too Awesome to Use: This comic illustrates the trope.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: One strip has Sophie come across a girl who looks to be about twelve years old at most smoking a cigarette. When Sophie criticizes her, she says she only does so after sex, which Sophie understandably doesn't find reassuring.
- Tsundere: Sophie eventually becomes this for Artur. She even refers to him as a fool to hide her embarassment.◊
- Underestimating Badassery: For their Halloween 2020 party, Sophie (as Daphne) comments Artur's ability to pull off the look of Gomez Addams, but not his seductive personality. However, she unfortunately gives him the bait to prove her wrong when she teasingly calls him "mon cher" and flawlessly pulls off a typical Gomez reaction to Morticia's French, sweeping Sophie off her feet and leaning so close to her beet-red face. Sophie can barely fight back her embarrassment before she faints.
- Wallet Moths: Here◊
- When She Smiles: Sophie. When she tells Artur about someone who got aggressive about how she should smile more, his response is agree she shouldn't force herself to smile. Because it makes the times she actually does even better. A statement that got her to smile.
- Also, when she does force herself to smile without wanting to, the results aren't pretty.