Fiction presenting characters crossing over from preexisting works is a sub-genre in itself. Examples range from Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton 70s books linking Tarzan and Doc Savage, to Warren Ellis and John Cassaday’s Planetary or Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, both coincidentally starting in 1999.

A variant on that idea is the use of analogs of well-known characters or types, sometimes for copyright reasons or simply to be able to broaden the story. A good example of that is The Unwritten, a 2009 series by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, whose protagonist was essentially Harry Potter. The story began as a riff on that character, but quickly morphed into a reflection on the nature of fiction itself.

All of which leads us to The Plot Holes, a 2023 mini-series collected in 2025, written and drawn by Sean Murphy. The main character is Cliff, a struggling comic book creator, whose life is upended when a strange woman named Ed brings him a prop-like fantasy sword… which turns out to be real when appears a technological aggressor out of a sci-fi story.

Ed, short for Editor, proceeds to tell Cliff that he lives in a book and that she’s part of a team of fictional characters who fight to protect unpublished books by editing and then publishing them. The truth, which she conceals at that time, is even stranger, but I won’t spoil it for you.

Her team is mainly composed of Johnny Manga, a young guy from a Mecha series (think Appleseed), Le Rasoir, a female vampire out of an Ann Rice novel, Kevin, a kid who originated in a 30s comic strip, and Röar, a blue, shape-shifting tiger from a fantasy novel (whose author obviously didn’t possess the wildest imagination in naming his creations). Each character is given a background and a reason for having left their reality. Kevin was a kid having a great life with his pet bear, but his reactionary author turned him into a racist, homophobic, sexist Calvin who’d lost his Hobbes. On the other hand, Röar was the son of a king, destined to marry a princess to stabilize their tribes’ relations. But Röar was gay and his father banished him.

Kevin and Röar form an odd couple in their unlikely friendship. The tiger is appalled by the behavior of his diminutive teammate, while the kid – who considers himself an adult, leading to some awkward and funny situations – seems stuck in his backward ways. One of the themes of this story is in fact the ability (or not) of the characters to evolve beyond the way they were written. Free will metaphors in a fantasy story, in a nutshell.

As for Röar, his love life is given a shot in the arm at the end of the story, when new teammates are introduced. Among them is a barbarian named Cromm (another character with an uninspired creator). The blue feline takes a shine to the over-muscled adventurer, which leads to Kevin remarking “Jesus, get a room, you two.” All is well among the Plot Holes, and diversity once again wins the day. Now, for the real world…

Röar first appeared in the crowdfunded The Plot Holes series which was later published as a mini series by Massive.

Created by Sean Gordon Murphy.

All rights reserved Sean Gordon Murphy.

This profile is contributed by François Peneaud. Look for Peneaud’s commentary on queer comics as The Gay Comics List on Bluesky.