Thornsaddle is a now-defunct web comic hosted on Comic Fury about the American School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It takes place within the same universe as Harry Potter. It was created by Michael Belsole (the writer) and Doug MacDonald (the artist). Josh Rubino draws the strip on occasion. The comic is mostly gag-per-day, although there have been some short storylines.
Thornsaddle, the school, is located somewhere in the deserts of Texas. The webcomic mostly focuses on Jack, a first-year muggle-born. His best friend is another student named Tom.
A Wayback Machine archive of the comic can be found here.
Tropes used in Thornsaddle include:
- Alt Text: Most of the strips (especially the earlier ones) have alt text that add another joke.
- Christmas Episode: In December 2011, Thornsaddle ran a twelve-part storyline called "A Thornsaddle Christmas Mystery."
- Fish Out of Water: Jack is a muggle-born and knows nothing of how wizard society works.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Right here. [dead link]
- Meaningful Name
- Butch McMann is named so because of his apparent rustic masculinity.
- Naive Newcomer: Jack had no previous knowledge of the wizarding world before going to Thornsaddle.
- Potter Verse: Thornsaddle takes place in the same universe as Harry Potter.
- Strip Archive
- Wizarding School: Obviously.
- Write Who You Know: A few of Mike's friends have been drawn in as characters. Through winning a contest, one member of Comic Fury became a student in Thornsaddle.
- The "Jedi": There are two characters in Thornsaddle who use magic to become Jedi. Their names are Mike and Doug ; )
- The Combustible Engines: The members of this "muggle rock" band are all people Mike has toured with in wizard rock.
- Josh Rubino [dead link] appears as a pompous character with a stiff upper lip.
- Contest winner Linden has become a recurring character [dead link] in Thornsaddle.