Meat Shield (webcomic)
Meat Shield is a Sword and Sorcery, Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy comic strip that updates Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MeatShield centers on the adventures (or lack thereof) of Dhur, a mighty half-orc barbarian warrior, Ch'p, halfling monk and pastry chef extraordinaire, and Jaine, half-elven mistress of magic, music and sarcasm as they wander the world of Ardris.
- Agony of the Feet
- Becky Sourbottom, with the Be Quiet Nudge below.
- Dhur, "Boot to the Door!"
- Are We There Yet?: Dhur, of course.
- Ass Shove: "Papillon, I need some money..."
- Awesome McCoolname: Clan Punchintheface
- An Axe to Grind: Dhur
- Back from the Dead: Dhur, thanks to a feud between the celestial tasked to guide him to the afterlife and Borloth the Necromancer.
- Be Quiet Nudge: Dhur to Becky.
- Big Bad: Disparoxus. At least according to the author.
- Berserk Button: Don't ever mention "RULES" around Dhur.
- But for Me It Was Tuesday: From Borloth the Necromancer:
Borloth: You will have to be more specific. I have killed many friends.
- Calling Your Attacks: Lampshaded in this strip.
Ch'p: It's called "respect for the art", Day'l! Something I don't expect you to understand!
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Except Dhur didn't technically promise anything.
- Compensating for Something: Ch'p wonders if the two huge snake statues at the entrance of the port of Vedris means the city is compensating for some shortcoming.
- Deadpan Snarker: Jaine
- Dope Slap: Jaine to Dhur, of course.
- Face Palm
- Fastball Special: Dhur is big and strong, Ch'p is small... It was bound to happen.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Any non-humans or non-elves (or non-hybrids) like dwarves, goblins, halflings, etc. Snake-people have three-fingered hands.
- Half Human Hybrids: Dhur is orc/human and Jaine is elf/human.
- I Call It "Vera": Dhur names his brand-new axe "Grinsplitter".
- Idiot Hero: Dhur, in a standard joke, is exceedingly dim.
- In the Back: Becky has no qualm against backstabbing bad guys.
- I Think You Broke Him: "I think you broke her brain."
- Its Pronounced Tropay: Word of God:
- DHUR: pronounced as "durrr", as in "I don't get it, durrrr...."
- JAINE: pronounced as "jane", such as the name.
- MONA DHOHSWIF (Dhur's mom): Mo-nah Doe-swiff
- CH'P IR'KELL: Ch-IP Ur-UH-kell
- JONUS: Jo-NUSS
- KILANIO: kill-ON-yo
- NITSU'A: nit-SUU-ah
- Killed Mid-Sentence: This bad guy.
Becky: Mister, you talk too much.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Dhur tries one here, but he's not very good at it.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: A textbook example.
- Literal Metaphor: Leonid doing a bit of soul-searching...
- Luke Nounverber: Becky Sourbottom
- Modesty Towel: Well, modesty blankets.
- Naked on Revival: Dhur, after coming Back from the Dead. And he's bald, too.
- Nerd Glasses: Stan the orc
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Done deliberately and lampshaded. Also, provides the page image.
- Our Liches Are Different: Leonid the pseudo-lich
- Pass the Popcorn: The two drow watching the protagonist duo.
- Punctuation Shaker: Ch'p Ir'kell; Day'l Ir'ket; the Nitsu'a monks in general.
- Role Playing Game Verse
- Ship Sinking: Word of God:
No. I don't feel like drawing "D&D meets Moonlighting". Besides, think of what their kid would look like: part half-orc, part half-elf... my friends, that sounds like a one-way ticket to UglyTown.
- Shout-Out
- At least three in one panel.
- And three more in this one. With Call Back to boot.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Dhur and his brother Ghar.
- Smoke Out: Day'l pulls out one.
- Smug Snake: Day'l Ir'ket
- Snake People: The inhabitants of Vedris, the City of Serpents. Extract from the Encyclopedia Ardrisia:
The Church of Vasra, God of Serpents and Secrets, is headquartered here. Long ago, a fundamentalist movement in Vedris prompted the faithful to undergo magical transformations into snake-human hybrids to prove their devotion. This magical alteration has bred true and now nearly 50% of the population are snakepeople.
- Spit Take
- Ungrateful Bastard: Prince Jonus of Westhame
- Wall of Blather: Leonid isn't exactly listening to Disparoxus.
- X on a Stick: Lich-on-a-stick. No, really.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Disparoxus to Leonid.