The Mansion of E
The Mansion of E is a daily fantasy webcomic created by Robert Cook, AKA Troper Geoduck. The eponymous structure is a large cactus-shaped edifice mysteriously perched on the side of a high cliff overlooking a Specific Ocean, surrounded by a ruin-strewn forest. Underneath is the "Basement", a collection of caverns and tunnels and such, going deep into the earth. The strip painstakingly details the activities of the Mansion/Forest/Basement's many and diverse inhabitants; including a few Humans, who technically own the entire place. The plot is set in motion by the sudden arrival on the scene of the wandering heroine Rosemary Ripley, who sets off a long series of events disrupting the established order.
The strip is currently hosted by Comic Genesis. There's also a fan-run wiki.
- Action Dress Rip
- Action Girl: Rosemary
- Aerith and Bob: Humans have 'normal' names. Everyone else..
- After the End: See below under The Magic Goes Away.
- Apothecary Alligator: Rhid has a crocogator hanging from the ceiling in his chemical workshop.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Sylvester is nice enough. His ancestors, on the other hand..
- Art Evolution: Color is eventually added.
- Art Shift: Silhouettes are used to depict memories/flashbacks/speculations.
- Author Avatar: Sylvester. Sorta.
- Beat Panel
- Berserk Button: Crud the Gnoll has a couple.
- Big Labyrinthine Building / Bizarrchitecture / Building of Adventure: The Mansion and the Basement.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The Motihauls.
- Cephalothorax: The Gobules
- Chekhov's Gun
- Cow Tools
- Crapsack World: The SubShafts
- Crossover: A character from the (now-defunct) webcomic Sandwich World came for a visit.
- Cryptic Background Reference: It's a big world...
- Cryptic Conversation
- Deadpan Snarker: Chunner the Gnoll, among others.
- Double Weapon: Rosemary's new "Can Opener".
- The Dreaded: The Woman of Mystery tends to provoke this reaction, as do the demons Chauncy and Edgar.
- The Faceless: Mr. Hand. Digger Odel wears so much protective gear he is essentially this. The Boogiemen and Ichyoids start out like this.
- Fictional Document: Lots of book titles.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Actually a plot-point.
- Four Lines, All Waiting
- Frogs and Toads: Frowgler the Horned Frog, plus the Motihauls are a race of bipedal amphibians.
- Gambit Pileup
- The Ghost: Skibble, plus the entire race of Sneeches; it eventually turns out the latter have left the Basement entirely.
- Government Agency of Fiction
- Hammerspace / Bag of Holding
- Heli Critter: The Helipaths
- Humans Are Cthulhu: At least as far as the Basement-dwellers are concerned.
- The Jester: This world calls them Weirdos.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
- The Jeeves / Servile Snarker: Hector the robot.
- Kudzu Plot: maybe..
- Lazy Artist
- Lizard Folk: The Troglodytes and the Saurs.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: The cast page features 31 nearly completely major characters.
- Loads and Loads of Races: Humans Gnolls Motihauls Gobules Troglodytes Nomes Pales Wyrms...
- Love At First Sight: Mortimer and Yasmine.
- Mad Bomber: Crazy Rhid, shading into Psycho for Hire.
- Mad Scientist: Sylvester's ancestor Ludwig.
- Meaningful Name: Many character names are actually obscure English words.
- The Magic Goes Away: And not gradually, either.
- Missing Mom: Vezza the Nome's, among others.
- Neck Lift: Happens to various Gnolls; they are small and light enough it's not an automatic sign of super-strengh.
- Nice Hat: Rosemary's helmet.
- The Nameless: The Woman of Mystery AKA the Scary Lady. Eventually revealed to be Myrrh.
- No Guy Wants an Amazon: Rosemary has had this problem.
- Oh Crap: Rhid when Wrawa the Trog calls his bluff.
- Only Six Faces: The Gnolls; they all have different hairstyles.
- People Puppets: Fixits do it by attaching themselves to people's heads. And they look like hats..
- Pettanko: Rosemary, at least by webcomic-heroine standards.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Basement may be this, if the Subshafts do indeed have an important purpose.
- Shout-Out: Infocom, Terry Pratchett, Kim Possible, H.P. Lovecraft, Nethack, PG Wodehouse, Dwarf Fortress..
- The Slow Path: The Woman of Mystery and her interactions with Frowgler the Horned Frog.
- Swiss Army Appendage: Hector the robot has various hands he switches between.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics
- Theme Naming: Most of the Forest Nomes are named after spells from the Zork series. Many of the Motihauls working in Sidestep Hall are named after shopkeepers from Nethack.
- They Called Me Mad: Sylvester's scientist-ancestor Ludwig.
- Time for Plan B: Invoked by Rosemary after meeting some Ghasts.
- Timey-Wimey Ball
- Tunnel King: "Digger" Odel
- Unsound Effect
- Unusual Euphemism: Zark! Fratz!
- Upper Class Twit: Sylvester and Mortimer are both well-meaning variants on this.
- The Voiceless: The Pales, with the exception of Zpeaker.
- Webcomic Time: Eight years. Less than two days.
- Weirdness Magnet: Mortimer. He and his family are well aware of it. It is eventually revealed that he is an unknowing wizard.
- Zeppelins from Another World: If only in flashbacks and memories.